Chapter 7

Spock sat calmly watching his captain pace back and forth. The despondency that he'd had before was all gone and he'd become his usual bundle of tense energy. Spock had been concerned about him before. He'd never seen his friend look so defeated. Now he was almost manic, this was much more like him, at least he was trying to come up with a plan. Spock deduced their plan had only 5.6% chance of success but it was also the only plan they had so he kept the statistics to himself. The plan relied on Kirk's acting ability and the assumption that the pirates cared enough about his wellbeing that they would disable the force field to assist if they thought he was dying. After that they were going to have to fight their way to engineering, have Scotty and Chekov repair the warp core while the rest of them fought of the remaining pirates and warp out of there at the highest warp factor that Scotty could coax out of the engines. Considering their ship was surrounded by other pirate vessels, all likely to be in communication and ready to come to the aid of their current captors then the plan bordered on the absurd. Kirk, Uhura and himself were all capable fighters but Sulu would be unable to join them and he doubted the three of them could take on… he calculated 7 pirate vessels, medium size, approximately ten crew members per vessel… seventy pirates? Upon second thought, his initial estimation of success may have been too high.

It was another example of the illogic of humans that Kirk wholeheartedly believed it would work. The captain wasn't stupid, he was a brilliant tactician and Spock knew that even though the human would not be able to calculate the odds with the accuracy of a Vulcan, he had to know their chances of success were slim. An hour ago, the captain had seen no way out, now it was as though he could see no way for his plan to fail. Realistically, nothing about their situation had changed in that time, except Kirk had seen video footage of their doctor limping away from a dead Klingon. Spock still found that difficult to believe. He had seen the damage done to McCoy, the chances of his survival of such a wound were almost non-existent, the chances of him still having enough strength to take down anyone let alone a Klingon in that state were even less. And besides, Spock knew the doctor well. About a year previously, he, the captain and the doctor had found themselves in the middle of a race war on Yelesea II, the doctor had been chased by a bloodthirsty Yelesean who believed in the extermination of all humans and had ended up being cut off from Kirk and Spock. When they'd found him, he was wrestling the Yelesean on a rooftop after a precarious foot-chase over the city. As they'd approached McCoy had won the upper hand. The logical thing for him to do would have been to throw the Yelesean off the edge of the building but he hadn't, he'd paused and then before they knew it they were watching McCoy fall instead. Kirk had shot the Yelesean dead and Spock had rushed to the doctor's aid. When he'd found him, both legs and a wrist broken from the impact with the street below, Spock had asked him why he'd not thrown the Yelesean off the roof first. McCoy had gazed up at him with a pain-filled expression and said, "I'm a healer Spock, I don't have it in me to kill."

"Spock?" Kirk turned to his second in command, breaking him out of his thoughts. "What do you think?" The captain was waiting for his reply with a self-assured grin on his face. A quick glance around the rest of the room told him that all the crew were waiting in earnest for his opinion on the plan. He was about to answer with his usual honesty when a voice in his head stopped him. The voice had a thick Southern accent and a tone of warning, I've given them hope you idiot! Don't you dare screw this up now. "Considering our current circumstances, I believe this plan gives us the best chance of success." He said instead. It wasn't a lie, like the plan it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

Suddenly the sound of a phaser being fired echoed in the corridor beyond the brig. It caused everyone in the brig to turn their heads. Scotty leapt to his feet and Kirk ran up to the forcefield, trying to see down the corridor. Spock stood, his usual carefully controlled self, and went to stand with Kirk.

"What's happening?" Chekov asked in a whisper.

"I can't see." Kirk answered, leaning so far forward that he was in danger of electrocuting his forehead with the forcefield.

There was a shout and a burst of phaser fire this time. There was the sound of returning fire that Spock identified as a disruptor rifle and another yelp of someone in pain. An Orion pirate appeared from the far end of the brig complex, running towards the commotion. He stopped, staring at something further down the hall that they couldn't see from their position, and opened fire, squeezing off shots as fast as his finger could work the trigger. A returning blast caught him in the middle of the chest and he went down, dead before he even hit the deck, a large hole smoking where his heart had been.

The deck sounded with booted feet running clumsily towards them, the Enterprise crew tensed with what was about to happen next, "Bones!" Kirk exclaimed as their rescuer came into view.

Spock almost couldn't believe his eyes. The doctor looked like a character from one of those action holovids that Chekov liked so much, he was shirtless, ribs wrapped in dirty bandages, blood staining his left side, usually neat hair unkempt and sticking up in all directions, brandishing a disruptor rifle like he was born to do so. He had a look of grim determination on his face that Spock could tell was being used to mask the pain he was in.

"Bones!" Kirk grinned, "I was sure you were dead."

"Guess you'll have to put up with me a while longer." McCoy responded back. His fingers flew over the keypad at the side of the forcefield and suddenly it was deactivated, releasing them. He reached into the satchel he had slung at his waist and produced a phaser which he handed to Kirk. As he did Spock noticed the dried blood staining the doctor's hands. Spock went to the back of the room to help Uhura as she tried to get Sulu to his feet.

"How is he?" McCoy asked, coming up alongside Spock as he slipped Sulu's arm across his shoulders and hauled him to his feet. Spock noticed the almost imperceptible shaking of McCoy's body and recognised the symptom for what it was. He wondered just how many stimulants the doctor had taken.

"Better than you." Sulu shot back with a pained laugh. "It's good to see you Doc."

"Likewise." The doctor smiled. "Come on," he addressed the group. "There's an escape shuttle left on A deck." He began to lead the group out of the brig.

"We're not abandoning the ship." Kirk said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We're going to engineering, Scotty can fix the power core and…"

But no one's tone had ever stopped McCoy from making his opinion heard. "No we're not. We are getting to that escape shuttle and we are getting our asses out of here. And we're going to do it before we get sold to be tortured by Romulan Secret Service. I've alerted the Federation, they know what's happening and where to find the crew, if they want the Enterprise back they can come and get it themselves but we are not going to wait around while they get their act together."

The two of them stared each other down. Kirk was his usual fierce self, jaw set in determination, his muscles tensed, fists clenched. Even though he had been so relieved to find the doctor alive he was still unable to control his anger at being challenged. Normally Spock would estimate Kirk to be the winner in their little showdown. McCoy often riled and raged at decisions their captain made but rarely did it stop him from doing what he wanted anyway. Spock had often watched the emotions blazing in the doctor's eyes during these arguments, but Spock looked for them now and found none. McCoy's eyes were cold and steely. He shouldn't have been able to stand and yet he was daring his captain to take him on with an intensity and strength that Spock had never seen in him before. And then another thing happened that Spock didn't quite believe, Kirk relented.

"Lead the way Doctor." The captain said.

McCoy gave him a curt nod and took off at a jog, disruptor rifle held up ready to fire. Someone rounded the corner up ahead of them. Kirk and McCoy raised their weapons but incredibly McCoy was a fraction faster, felling the man with a single shot. Spock felt Sulu's arm tighten round his shoulders and the pair exchanged a look. Spock had been getting better at reading emotion and nodded his agreement. "I too am worried about him Lieutenant." He said quiet enough that the others wouldn't hear.

The group made it into the elevator and crowded in, Kirk punching the button for Deck A.

"Romulan Secret Service?" The captain asked as the doors closed at the elevator took them up.

McCoy kept his right hand on the rifle while he rummaged in his satchel with his left, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the rest of the crew. "I saw footage of a communication between the pirate and a Romulan commander. We are being sold to her, she's intending to torture the crew to get to you Jim." He said as he pulled out a hypospray and injected it into his bicep, when he returned the empty device to his bag his hands were shaking slightly more although he hid it well. When the elevator came to a stop both hands were back on his weapon and he was ready.

As soon as the doors opened they were met with more phaser-fire coming from round the door to the bridge.

"Escape shuttle Alpha-three." McCoy ordered. "Run, I'll cover you." He peered round the edge of the elevator door and send a burst of rapid fire down the corridor.

"Doctor," Spock implored, "let me take the disruptor rifle."

"No Spock," McCoy caught his eye for a second before returning his concentration to the firefight. "I need you to look after them."

Spock was about to protest when Scotty appeared beside them. He slung Sulu's other arm over his shoulders so that the injured man was supported between them. He didn't say anything to McCoy but placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a quick comforting squeeze. "Come on Spock." He said and turned them away.

Kirk and McCoy stood their ground, firing a barrage at their attackers so that they were unable to leave the safety of their cover long enough to fire back. The others took off for the shuttle at a run. Uhura got their first and opened the airlock doors allowing access to the small shuttle. She and Chekov raced straight in, by the time Spock and Scotty arrived with Sulu only seconds later, Chekov had taken the pilot's chair and was firing the shuttle up and Uhura had torn the under-seating supplies to pieces. She found what she'd been looking for and drew out two phasers handing one to Spock.

Spock released Sulu into Scotty's care and took up the weapon. Together they went back to the airlock and started firing.

"We've got you covered!" Uhura shouted out into the corridor over the phaser-fire and the pair of them took up firing at the bridge doorway.

It took all his self-control to set aside the fear that was threatening to creep into his subconscious as he watched his friends make their mad dash to the shuttle. They both took off at a sprint down the corridor towards them. Kirk in the lead but McCoy not far behind. They tried to keep to the left of the corridor but it wasn't easy for Spock and Uhura to get a clean shot of the bridge doorway without putting the two Starfleet officers in the line of fire. The pirates had emboldened too and they managed to fire off a few shots of their own although they went wide in their frantic attempts not to get killed themselves. The pair were almost at the shuttle when McCoy stumbled and collapsed to his knees with a breathless curse.

Kirk's head whipped round in panic, saw his friend on the floor struggling to rise and he went back for him. Kirk grabbed the older man by his arm and hauled him to his feet. McCoy appeared to be a dead weight hanging on his friends arms, for just a second, too tired to go any further but once he got his feet back under him he seemed to find an extra reserve of strength and together they completed the run.

Kirk shoved McCoy through the shuttle door and barrelled in after him. Uhura slammed her hand on the door control panel and it closed. "Pavel! Go!" she shouted at the young Russian.

"Aye." He responded and there was a shudder as the shuttle disconnected from the docking port and drifted away from the ship. A moment later and they were racing through space as fast as the shuttle would go.

"Everyone okay?" Kirk asked, glancing around at his crew.

McCoy gave him a wan smile but then all the colour drained from his face and he collapsed.

Sorry guys, just can't help myself with these cliffhangers! Please keep the reviews coming, I love hearing what you all think of it and really appreciate the time you take to let me know.