AN: Sorry for the long wait! Busy with school and stuff. I will try to be more consistent from now on. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Seven

Jim awoke in a medical bed with a start.

He immediately bolted up in bed and took in his surroundings. How had he gotten here? Checkov and Scotty must have taken him. He breathed for a minute, allowing his mind to catch up with his racing heart.

Sick Bay was full, and the sight in front of him was chilling. People occupied all the beds, and in fact there were not enough. They were lining the walls, sprawled on the floor. Everyone was convulsing and unconscious. What a nightmare. Jim reminded himself why he hadn't pursued a medical degree.

McCoy and Chapel clearly had their hands full. The two were flitting around the room, jamming hypos into people's arms by an unspoken agreement.

"God damn it," McCoy was saying to the nurse. "What's up with all these fucking seizures?!"

Jim threw the covers off of him and rolled to the floor.

The doctor immediately whipped around. "Jim!" he said. "The hell are you doing? Lie back down!"

Reluctantly, he conceded, crawling back into the bed. "Bones, what's going on?" he asked once he was on his back.

"What does it look like? We've got a widespread case of seizures on the ship. I don't know why. I've never seen anything like it."

Sounded weird, but he was overcome by a sudden calmness. He closed his eyes and rested his head on his arms.

Then, like a wave, the memories came back. Not entirely, and vague, like far away photographs, but there. They hit him, but not hard.

They'd come across a planet. It had somehow screwed with their navigation…They'd been here before, but this time it was different.

A thought occurred to him. He opened his eyes and shot back up.

"Jim, can't you do what I tell you to do? Even for a second?"

His feet were already back on the floor. The blankets slid off one side of the bed and landed in a heap. "I've got an idea."

"Pray tell. What is it?"

"Wait a second…" he paused. "What time is it?"

"22:00 hours," McCoy answered.

"Shit," he cursed. He strode over to the door, making a detour to squeeze the doctor's shoulder. "Come on," he called over his shoulder. "I need you with me."

"Wait!" McCoy said, jumping a little. "How can you expect me to…"

"Doctor," Chapel interjected. The two shared a glance. She nodded, very slightly. "I've got it handled."

He looked worried for a moment. He hesitantly glanced to him, then her. "Chapel…you're in charge," he said, then hurried to join his captain at the door.

Sulu rushed up to him as soon as he entered the Bridge.

"Captain!" he said, "I'm so glad you're back. Checkov hasn't come back yet and…"

"Sulu, you're a pilot, right?"

This gave him pause. "Uh…I mean, yes sir."

He gestured. "Come with me."

Uhura whipped around. "What the hell?"

He pointed past her, to Stinson. "Stinson, you have con."

Stinson, having been occupied by the computer in front of him, whipped around. "Captain," he cried, "I don't think I can!"

"Sure you can!" he said. "You're the acting acting first officer."

Suddenly Checkov scrambled through the sliding doors onto the Bridge, hair tousled by worry. "Keptin! Keptin!"

"Never mind," Jim said, quite calmly. "Checkov, you're in charge."

"Would you please tell us what's going on?!"

Everyone turned towards Uhura. She threw up her hands. The Bridge fell silent.

Jim glanced to everyone, considering. He realized that not even Bones knew. The man appeared quite anxious, his arms crossed over his chest. He stared and waited.

"Well, ya see…" he scratched at the nape of his neck. All those expectant eyes! "We're…taking a shuttlecraft to the planet."

She obviously could not believe it. "A shuttlecraft?! How is that going to help us any?"

"I get the feeling that…since this planet is the factor behind all of our technical problems, we should go. Now."

Uhura sighed heavily. "That makes no sense. Does that make sense to anyone else?"

There was a silence. Everyone exchanged looks. McCoy dropped his arms to his hips, set his jaw, and adjusted his stance toward Jim.

"Makes sense to me," Checkov said, tentatively.

"Yeah," Sulu said, shrugging nonchalantly. "What else could we do?"

"Uhm, contact Star Fleet?" Uhura suggested, flicking a manicured hand outward.

Jim disagreed. "Star Fleet won't help us get the engine started again. All they're going to do is carp at us. This is quite possibly the only option we have. So." He made eye contact with McCoy, Checkov, and Sulu. "We should leave now."

"Aye!" Sulu said. He smiled. "Finally some excitement around here!"

They had now exactly seven and a half hours before the rendezvous. Jim, McCoy, and Sulu were met by a disgruntled Scotty in the shuttlecraft bay. The capacious room was empty save for the four of them. Checkov had been left behind and in charge back on the Bridge.

"I cannae believe you want me to leave my ship at the very moment she needs me most!" Scotty was saying.

"All we need you to do is open the Bay for us," Jim said. "Then you can get back to her."

The group moved toward a shuttlecraft. They were decked out all in their life support suits, excluding headgear. Before they left the Bridge, Checkov unsuccessfully tried to scan the planet's surface. It was taking too long, and Checkov wasn't very good at planetary scans anyway; he certainly wasn't a science officer. Spock probably could've told them something, but Spock was gone. So they left, with hopes that they could get a reading from the shuttle.

The trio clambered inside. They took their seats. Sulu sat down, turned the shuttlecraft on, and pressed a button to close the door. It shut with a metallic CLANG! It was, admittedly, kind of dark until Sulu turned on the lights.

Jim pulled his communicator out of his pocket and flipped it open, listening to it chirp. "We're ready, Scotty." He said.

"I sure hope so," the chief engineer grudgingly replied.

The hangar doors slowly opened.