Shuttlebay 3 was neither the smallest nor the largest of the bays, but definitely the most protected – when the Enterprise had been re-built, all four shuttlebays had been renovated, although only one had been outfitted with three different kinds of radiation protection, a hull twice as thick as necessary and a walkway around the room near the top, where security personnel could oversee landing of what the engineers had assumed would be a hostile craft.
In this case, the shuttle most likely wasn't hostile; it probably wasn't anything, but considering they couldn't scan the inside of the thing, Jim wanted to err on the side of caution. Despite his reputation as a hot-headed daredevil, the Khan accident had opened his eyes somewhat to the consequences of spontaneous decisions.
This didn't mean he was emptying half the ship's security into this project. He wasn't that paranoid. No, the party that greeted the shuttle as it was pulled backwards into the Enterprise by its tractor beam comprised of Jim, Dr Marcus, Scotty, Bones and a medical ensign who was holding the med-kit. Two security officers stood at the back, but Jim had a gut-feeling they wouldn't be seeing much action that day.
A dull thud echoed through the bay, followed by the loud screeching of the bay doors closing, before silence finally settled in its wake. Carol immediately whipped out a tricorder, trying to get a more accurate reading from where they were standing. They were all keeping an initial safe distance-
Well, apparently all except for Scotty, who was rubbing his hands in glee as he practically skipped to the shuttle. He walked around it until he ended up on the opposite side. He suddenly stuck up his hand, waving at the party.
"Hey cap'n! Ah found something. It says the name o' the ship righ' 'ere, sair. Gimme a moment- uuh, she's pretty dinged up 'ere, hmm – ah! We got our 'ands on the Inheritance. 'S the name o' this beaut."
"Spare me the sonnet, Scotty." Jim said dryly. So they knew the name of the shuttle now – this helped them nothing. Or actually…
He flipped open his communicator.
"Kirk to Bridge – Mister Gatt?"
/GATT HERE./ Came the mechanical voice.
"Mister Gatt, could you run a general search for Human-type long range shuttles under the name 'Inheritance'?"
/WILL DO. I WILL REPORT THE RESULTS. GATT OUT./
Oh you are a sweet talker, Mister Gatt, Jim thought sarcastically. Ah well, at least he actually did his job properly. He snapped closed his communicator.
"Dr Marcus, are you reading anything?"
She shook her blonde bob, futilely shaking the tricorder.
"I'm afraid not, Captain. The shuttle is completely impenetrable by our scanners."
Jim sighed.
"Okay, well, I guess there's nothing for it. Security, stand by. Let's pop this baby open."
"Oh finally! I thought the tension was going to kill me."
Jim groaned out loud when he heard who'd spoken.
"Uuurgh, I wish it had." He turned to the suddenly very familiar medical ensign.
"Look Kyw, can't you just…go away? Just- go."
Bones looked from Jim to the ensign and back.
"What-"
"Aww, but I want to see what's in the shuttle, Jim!"
"I have a feeling you already know what's in the shuttle." He said flatly.
"Hang on-"
"Maybe-"
Bones blew up.
"Now hang on a thrice damned second. Who the hell're you? You ain't a member of my medical team that's fer sure!" He ranted.
Jim took a deep breath, trying to keep his tenuous hold on the conversation.
"Look, Bones, just- ok, ok, you know that stowaway we talked about? Kyw's it. Kyw, Bones, Bones, Kyw. That's done with, can we just open the shuttle please?"
He barely finished the sentence before Bones had grabbed his arm in a tight grip and pulled Jim off to the side, putting his face close to his and whispering furiously.
"Are you outta your star-spangled mind, Jim? That's an unknown lifeform right there! It doesn't have the right to be wearing a Starfleet uniform, walking around the ship willy-nilly, and definitely not to be here, now! The hell's got int'a ya, kid?"
"Bones, it's…complicated, I-"
"Right, the last time you started an excuse off like that, I had to pull you out of an alien orgy before they bit your lower thrusters off-"
"No, really, Bones. Just this time, trust me. There is…nothing, nothing we can do about Kyw, not right now. So far, it hasn't done anything to hinder us. If, if it does turn out to be hostile, we'll have to deal with it then and there, because Kyw certainly isn't going to leave just because I ask it nicely, or even if I ask it not-nicely. Alright? Good, so let's open that shuttle before the tension does me in."
He left Bones fuming and grumbling under his breath as he gestured to Scotty to open the shuttle doors, placed on both sides of the craft.
Scotty juggled some kind of engineering device for a second before a small 'beep' rang out and the shuttle doors lifted up near-silently. Immediately, a whole multitude of small items fell out, rolling across the shuttlebay. Jim thought he could spot a few cups, chess-pieces, a boot, some kind of screw – miscellaneous knick-knacks really.
He wearily approached, although careful to keep Kyw in sight out of the corner of his eye. Scotty was already peering into the ship when he swore and recoiled.
"Scotty?"
"S-sair, there's bodies. Two ah 'em." That explains that; for all his technological genius, Scotty really wasn't one who could handle death well. Machines didn't die after all – humans did it far too often. Kirk waved Scotty away.
"Step back, Mister Scott. Your expertise can wait for a while." The engineer shot him a grateful look before fleeing, immediately being replaced by Bones on the other side of the ship. Finally Kirk too peered into the interior.
The shuttle was relatively small – long-range ships usually got pared down to the minimum inside to make space for the machines that were needed to power these ships at minimal waste for a long period of time. The Inheritance doors opened up halfway between the front and back of the ship – to the front was a series of displays and controls, used to navigate and display ship schematics. A red warning light was blinking, next to a small lit up screen displaying the word 'SOS'. But Jim wasn't focussing on that.
His attention was drawn to the body of the man slumped in the pilot seat – his eyes were bulging out, and the nose and lips blue as if exposed to frost-bite. A thick, blackened tongue was lolling out of the mouth. All the veins in the man's face seemed to stand out against the surface. The corpse was still strapped into the flight harness. No wonder the ghastly sight had sent Scotty running for the exit. Kirk bowed his head in respect for a moment before looking up to see Bones scanning the body with his tricorder. Their eyes met and he could see the pain in Bones' eyes.
"Explosive decompression. There must've been a hull-breach or some'in' – sucked the artificial air right outta the craft; 'e would've suffocated within a minute. Some'in' must've clogged the breach righ' afterwards; 'is body's been preserved by the life support. Could only 've kicked in if the breach were stoppered." He explained.
Jim was abruptly reminded of Bones' fear of flying, and as he looked at the body he suddenly completely understood. Of course, the Enterprise had a far more advanced fail-safe; if a breach occurred, the system could re-institute life-support and re-pressurize within half a second. But the cheaper shuttle…
Jim shuddered. He caught sight of the random items dotting the shuttlebay floor.
"All this stuff must have been loose. When the cabin got exposed to the vacuum, the items probably got sucked towards the de-pressured location, filling in the hole. Must have been a very small breach." He pondered.
"'s all it needs, Jim." Bones said seriously. "Where's the other one?"
Oh right, Jim thought, Scotty mentioned two. He looked to the empty co-pilot's seat, then turned his head to look at the back. One of the passenger seats was empty, and the other one-
A figure, restrained by its harness, was slumped over in the chair, dark hair falling over its face. It was dressed in a blue and red ensemble, some kind of dress. The hands that peeked out from the long sleeves were deathly pale. The medical tricorder whirred.
"No life signs." Bones said regretfully. Jim sighed, and climbed into the cabin. He didn't exactly want to see the horrible symptoms of ED stamped across another face, but he felt like he owed it to this stranger to at least look them in the face. He navigated the seats before placed a hand on a cold, clammy jaw. He lifted the head.
Jim reared back.
"What the hell?"