Miri

Jim sat in his Command chair as Farrell responded to his comment about the strange distress signal they had heard. It was an Earth-style distress signal – an SOS in morse code of all the odd things. "I've answered it on all frequencies, sir. They don't reply."

Spock added in his two cents with a wry tone, "That would be because it is not a vessel, but a ground source. The third planet in this solar system, according to my instruments."

Farrell turned back to his station, looking over the data before excitedly agreeing, "That's why! Yeah, Captain, it's directly ahead. Definitely an Earth-style signal."

That was… strange, to say the least. "We're hundreds of light years away from Earth though! There are no colonies or vessels out in this sector."

Spock was intently manning his station, observing what was going on and reporting back to Jim in a steady, calm voice, but as he spoke, Jim moved closer, intrigued both by his words and the feeling of muted shock humming about in the back of their new bond. "Measuring the planet now, Captain. It's spheroid-shaped, and has a circumference of twenty four thousand, eight hundred and seventy four miles. The mass is six times ten to the twenty first power tons. Its mean density is five point five one seven."

Jim was leaning against the railing directly behind his t'hy'la now, and caught that Spock tilted his head back towards him with a smirk in his eyes, playfully challenging him as he ended with, "Atmosphere: oxygen, nitrogen."

Yeoman Janice Rand was on the Bridge, and let out an exclamation at that, "Earth!"

Jim shook his head in wonderment, responding with, "Not the Earth, another Earth. Another Earth?"

What the ever-loving fuck was going on here?!

Jim was back in the Command chair when he finally came to a decision. "Hold us in a fixed orbit, Spock."

"Affirmative, Captain."

Not that he was going to be leaving Spock behind; not by any means. But he trusted Spock to set things up to cause the stablest orbit for their crew members.

He already knew the answer, but he asked anyway, "Still no response, Communications?"

"None, Captain."

That decided him on his course of action. This had to be investigated. "We'll beam down. Alert Security. Prepare to transport a landing party to the surface. We'll land in the vicinity of the distress signals now being received."

Jim decided that Spock, Bones (because they didn't know the nature of the distress on this identical-to-Earth planet, and with their luck he'd be needed), Janice (because she was highly capable – as a matter of fact, for as demure as she liked to act, Janice was one of the most badass women he had ever met – and if the planet was Earth-identical, it almost certainly had humanoid inhabitants; females usually were more likely to trust another female than a male. Especially one like Jim who clearly acted like an alpha male in his Captain persona, despite how laid-back he could be about many things), and however many Security crewmen Commander Giotto decided were necessary would make up the away team.

Not to mention Jim himself, of course. It was hardly protocol, but he didn't trust the lives of his crew with just anybody and so most of the time, he would be on the away team, and the Admiralty could just go screw themselves.

That was how it'd been on their first spate of missions together for the past year and more, and it would continue being that way.

Needless to say, even though they didn't like it, the Admiralty couldn't deny that his chosen course was effective as all hell.

In the end, it was decided to only bring two Security crewmen; Jim didn't mind – he'd fought with both of them and they could take care of themselves. Training the Security was going exceedingly well at this point.

When they beamed down, they found themselves surrounded by dilapidated brick and stone buildings, broken down cars he recognized as being from the mid to early 1900's, and a completely deserted city around them. It was definitely… not really what he'd been expecting, despite the morse-coded distress signal.

He spoke once everybody was there, and took note of the Security crewmen going off in their own directions to explore and report back to him, good on them for showing such initiative. "Huh, it's practically identical. Earth, as it was in the early 1900s."

Spock shook his head, commenting, "More the mid-1900s I would say, Captain, It looks to be around, approximately 1960."

Jim nodded as Janice looked around and asked softly, "But where is everybody?"

Spock kind-of answered that for all of them, "Readings indicate that natural deterioration has been taking place on this planet for at least several centuries."

Still gazing around at the deserted area they were in, Janice asked, "You mean there's no one alive?"

Yet again, Spock was the one to answer her, "Not conclusive, Yeoman. The evidence would, however, suggest that the distress signal is automated."

Then Bones spoke up, lightening the mood slightly as he said, "Now, this is marvelous. The most horrible conglomeration of antique architecture I've ever seen."

"Spock."

Jim had found a rusted out red tricycle, broken and discarded, and he handed it to his t'hy'la to observe. Spock inspected it for a few moments, before handing it to Bones, who understandably had mixed feelings about the item because of Joanna, playing with one of the wheels before gently setting it down. Just as he had done so, however, a mutated, humanoid looking life-form rushed him, tackling him to the ground.

"Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Jim dragged the obviously child-in-mutated-form off of Bones and Spock helped him, Jim punching the thing with several accurate hits to the face until it fell to the ground – which Bones had vacated with alacrity – and tenderly stroked the broken tricycle. "It's, it's broke. Somebody broke it. Fix. Somebody, please fix."

It made complete sense that Bones was the one to respond, scanning the thing all the while, "Of course somebody will fix it."

Spock commented about the life-form as they observed it and Bones scanned the poor thing, "Definitely humanoid, in spite of the distortion."

Jim added his two cents, "But with the mind of a child."

The not-child suddenly stiffened and then obviously began to seize up, but Jim needed clarification that he was right about what was happening to the strange being, "Bones, what is it?"

Bones was still scanning as he worriedly said, "A seizure of some type."

Jim bent down to the thing that had recently attacked them and firmly stated, "We want to help you."

Despite the seizures, it had enough left of its mind not to believe them (which Jim hated, gods), crying out, "Liar! Never, never, never, never, never, never, never!"

Then the seizures stopped, and Bones gasped, "It's dead. It's incredible. Awful, absolutely, but still incredible."

Jim looked over at him sharply, wondering what his tricorder was telling him, "What is?"

"Its metabolic rate. It was impossibly high – as if it was burning itself up, almost as if it aged a century in just the past few minutes."

Jim heard running and stood up, heading towards it and calling back to the three crew members still with him, "Come on!"

They stopped by a tree and Jim heard a sound again, coming from the house across the way. Their Security guards had followed when they ran – smart fellows, he would definitely request this pair again at this rate – and as they entered the house, one of them went to explore upstairs while Jim examined the dark piano that was in surprisingly fantastic condition in what was clearly the living room. Jim was curious, so he asked Spock, "How old is this thing?"

Spock answered immediately, "About three hundred years old, Jim."

Jim heard a sound in the closet, and they surrounded it, him and Bones to one side and Spock and the remaining guard to the other side, while Janice stayed out in front of the door, "Come out. We mean you no harm."

No response. He cautiously opened the door, only to be faced with a very pretty – if grubby and tear-stained – girl in a floral patterned dress and dark leggings. The first words out of her mouth were distressing, as he battled his inner demons, recognizing that she felt threatened by him. Jim hated scaring children, he just wanted to protect all of them. "Don't hurt me, please!"

Jim tried to soothe the girl, "I'm not going to hurt you."

The girl wasn't content with his response, however, repeating, "No, please, don't! I didn't do anything!"

Jim repeated himself as well, gently maneuvering her out of the closet and into the upholstered chair in the room, then backing out of her personal space, sadly familiar with dealing with traumatized children, "I won't hurt you."

The girl was clearly completely terrified, and Janice crouched next to her beside the chair, actually close, which he allowed, ready to assist if necessary, "No, please don't!"

He softly stated, "I only want to talk to you."

It was completely heartbreaking to have this young girl (he had to clarify that she was clearly still mentally a child to him, just to avoid attachment of an inappropriate manner on her part, if she ever began to trust him) simply saying yet again, "No, don't! Don't hurt!"

This went on a few times, the girl continuing to tell them not to hurt her and Jim trying to reassure her before he finally looked to Janice, who rested her hand on the arm of the chair and said, "We won't hurt you, sweetheart. We're your friends. No, shh!"

Thank fuck. Even with Spock radiating comfort and reassurance into his head, this whole mess was still difficult for him. He had a weakness for children – understandably so. But as much as he wanted to keep Spock by his side, he needed more information on whatever calamity had happened, so he said, "Take the guards, have a look outside. Radioactive readings, chemical pollutions, any further signs of life."

Spock caressed his fingers in a swift kiss before leaving, "Right, Captain."

Bones spoke quietly when he left, asking Jim, "I wonder what happened to her, that she should be so terrified of us."

That was what Jim wanted to know.

The guards and Spock were all looking around when he caught a movement from the corner of his eye. There – what was that? A clear spot in a window filled with grime. He peered in, wondering if there were perhaps more children on this ruined planet.

The girl was speaking again, and Jim had to admire her courage – despite clearly being terrified of all of them, including Janice, her body was steady and holding up; no trembling or shaking going on. "But I remember the things you Grups did, burning, yelling, hurting people."

Jim had to correct her, "We didn't do anything like that. We only just got here, and have never been here before, so we didn't – and won't – do anything like that, sweetheart."

The girl thought for a moment, before asking – this time hopefully with the intent to actually listen to what they were saying, "You're not going to hurt?"

Jim shook his head, his golden hair falling slightly into his face as he did so. "Well, of course not. We're here to help. Not to hurt."

Even though she was listening, she still didn't believe them, scoffing as she said, "Grups don't help."

Janice was the one to respond to that, "But we will, sweetheart."

Then his curiosity finally could not be held back any longer, and Jim asked, "What happened here? Where is everybody?"

The girl almost scoffed, and glared at him lightly, "You know."

Jim shook his head, "No, I don't. Like I said, we only just got here. I don't know anything about what happened here. Won't you tell me?"

The girl stubbornly kept not believing him and even though it hurt, he was impressed with her strength and caution, "You got a foolie, is that it, and you want me to play, but I can't. I don't know the rules. I've got to know the rules."

Bones spoke up at that, clearly confused, "Foolie? What's a foolie?"

She stared at them as if they were idiots – it was good to see that she wasn't as terrified any more. "A game; you know. You can't play a game without rules. Even Grups ought to know that."

That word again. This time Jim was the one to ask, "What are Grups?"

She looked at him, a "duh" clear in her voice and her eyes as she responded with, "You are. They will be, when Onlies get old."

Janice's eyes widened and she said, "Oh. Grownups. Grups. Of course."

Jim had to admit to kind of feeling like an idiot over missing that, but ignored the feeling to return to something she commented offhandedly earlier, "You said something about the Grups doing bad things; yelling, hurting, burning?"

The girl nodded, "That was when they started to get sick in the before time. We hid, then they were all gone. Am I doing all right?"

Jim nodded and smiled softly at her, "You're doing fine."

Bones asked, "You said the Grups got sick. Is that why there aren't any of them around?"

She nodded again, "Yes. They died, but that was after the awful things."

Bones looked over and caught his eye, "A plague, Jim. That could explain a lot of it. Like that thing earlier."

Jim nodded in acceptance, and then asked the girl in the yellow chair, "But what about the children, the Onlies? Didn't the awful things affect them?"

She shrugged and rolled her eyes, "Of course not. We're here, aren't we?"

That gave Jim pause, as he realized that they had probably been lucky to catch a single child, instead of encountering – and probably being attacked by – a large group of them. "There are more of you? How many more?"

She didn't give him a number, simply stating, "All that there are."

Jim finally felt it was safe to ask now, and sat on the arm of the dandelion colored chair, "What's your name?"

Her response was soft; quiet and shy. "Miri."

Jim smiled, "Miri. A pretty name for a pretty girl."

He couldn't let her see him as a potential crush, so he had to make sure to call her a girl, even though she was almost a young woman, physically at least.

Miri shyly asked, "Pretty?"

Jim smiled again with a nod, "Very pretty. If I ever have a daughter I might just name her after you, Miri."

Jim and Spock hadn't gotten into talking about children, but if they ever wanted any, Jim was fine with IVF and using a surrogate so that they could raise a family together, or even adopting, whatever Spock ended up preferring.

Spock continued to explore the city, before he felt turbulent emotions coming from a dilapidated alleyway (as if this whole planet wasn't entirely dilapidated) and headed into it, the two Security guards following behind him. They went around the corner before he heard a noise from above him, recognizing a drop-down fire escape ladder. Intending to go up and examine the situation, he called out, "Guards! Cover me."

As soon as they were waiting beside the ladder, he moved towards it, before something dropped down from above and he instinctively pulled the guards against the wall beside him, shielding his head with his forearm. Objects (large stones, he filed away for later) were thrown into the alleyway from above, accompanied by a very vocal and almost chorus-like chanting of what was clearly many children. "Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah!"

The objects stopped falling and he ran back towards the house with the other child in it. Jim needed to know about this.

Spock entered the house and confirmed what Miri had said to them not too long ago with a statement of, "Children, Jim. Lots of them. They threw stones at us but we are all uninjured."

That would explain the spike of unease he had felt from his k'diwa. Spock continued on, trailing his fingers over the back of Jim's hand intimately in reassurance. Jim kissed their fingers together when he reached them, "We couldn't even begin to get close to them. They just seemed to scurry away, like animals. Only children."

Jim nodded, "Miri here said all the adults died. Bones speculates of a plague of some sorts."

Bones spoke up at that, "That creature which attacked us was certainly no child. Perhaps it died of the disease the girl's talking about."

He nodded and walked over to Miri, who was standing amongst them far more comfortably now, "There must be records somewhere and answers to some of our questions. Miri, do you know any buildings where the doctors used to work?"

She nodded in return but unease filled her eyes, blooming slowly. "Yes, I know that. Them and their pills and things."

Here it was, the first test in how much she trusted them. "Will you take us there, Miri?"

She hesitated, before quietly saying, "That's a bad place."

It probably was, considering that whatever caused the plague that had wiped out all the adults had almost definitely come from there. He gripped her hand reassuringly, firm but not tight."It's important. Please."

Miri nodded more firmly, still uneasy but understanding that to these people she was coming to trust, it was needed. "All right. Do you have a name, too?"

He smiled slightly at her, "Yes. It's Jim."

She stood up more firmly at that and Jim decided that whatever her response was, he had to make sure she didn't develop a crush on him – or at least, he had to make sure she knew he didn't, wouldn't see her that way. That would only make things worse down the line. "I like that name."

Jim smiled a bit wider, "Good. I like yours, too, like I said earlier. I like you, Miri. If I have a daughter I hope she is as brave as you are."

He felt a thrill of a mixture of excitement and worry flow into his mind and shot a warm smile to Spock before returning to look at the brunette in front of him.

She seemed to sag a bit at that, before bravely stiffening her shoulders, and then shyly asking – apparently accepting that he wouldn't return her already-developing crush, "Do you really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you."

Miri looked down, and he tilted her head up, "I wouldn't lie to you, either, Jim. I remember the Grups, but you're nice. You're different."

He grinned softly, happy that she was no longer quite so traumatized by his presence, "Why, thank you."

Then he pulled his hand away as he noticed a strange blue mark along the inside of his hand, where his thumb met his palm. Uh oh. This could not possibly be good. This shit was airborne?! That meant they were all contaminated by now. Yet again, more proof that their scanners weren't adequate enough. It also meant that they were stuck down here until Bones found a cure.

Miri, however, completely freaked upon seeing the blemish. "It's already starting! I knew it would! Just like it did with the Grups. It'll spread all over you, and you'll yell, and you'll try to hurt everybody and then you'll die. I knew it would! I knew it would!"

Jim used his clean hand to squeeze her shoulder and turn her so that she could see Bones. "He's a doctor, Miri, and one of the best doctors in the entire universe. If you can take us to that building, he can find a cure for all of us."

She set her shoulders and nodded, leading the way out of the house they were in, clearly determined to make sure they could be cured if at all possible.

The building Miri led them to also housed an automatic transmission station, which was what had sent out the morse-coded SOS signal that drew them to this planet. They also discovered something else: that the blue blotches, characteristic of the unknown disease, had appeared on each and every person in the landing party, with the exception of Spock. There was a well-equipped laboratory in the building, however, and Bones took tissue samples of each of them in an attempt to isolate the organism responsible for the plague.

After examining the lesions under the more primitive microscopes they had on this planet, Bones huffed aggravatedly. "It's a damned veritable zoo of bacteria."

Then he activated his comm unit and got in touch with Farrell, who was manning Communications right now as it was Uhura's day off. "Beam down a biocomputer and a portable electronic microscope. If I'm dealing with viruses, I'll need better equipment than I have here."

Farrell responded promptly, "Yes, Doctor. Captain Kirk?"

Jim answered the comment, "Yes, Lieutenant?"

"I've got volunteers standing by ready to help you, sir."

Even though Farrell couldn't see him, he shook his head in negation and commanded, "Under no circumstances do I want anyone to beam down from the ship. We can't take any chances with further contamination. It's bad enough as it is, that those of us here are already infected, and I'm not risking making it any worse."

There was an electric pause, and then Farrell rushed out, "But Captain, if you become too ill to-"

Jim, however, was not backing down on this. "My orders still stand, Lieutenant. You can help us best by clearing the computer banks and standing by. Kirk out."

Then he looked to their resident doctor, and Jim was beyond glad that he had brought him with them on the away team, "Bones, why do you think the symptoms haven't appeared in Spock?"

Bones shrugged and smirked over at Spock, teasing him slightly – they still didn't exactly get along, but they were definitely growing into frenemies, "I don't know. Probably the little bugs or whatever they are have no appetite for green blood."

Spock returned the sally, knowing that nobody would take offense because he was clearly teasing them all, "Being a red-blooded human obviously has its disadvantages. Now there you have a museum piece, Doctor."

He was referring to the microscope, "Lens type, manually operated, light-activated-"

Bones shot him a glare, "Spare me the analysis, Spock, please. It's enough that it works."

Miri was watching them all with a kind of dreadful fascination and when Bones spotted another lesion on his hand, she grabbed it gently and said, "It spreads real fast. I know. When you're old, it covers you like anything."

Jim, meanwhile, had been reading the files in the lab and finally stumbled on how this plague began, "I found it! "Intermediate experimentation report: project on life prolongation"."

Spock had another report in his hand and stated, "Progress report, genetics section, Life Prolongation Project."

Both Bones and Janice moved closer, and Janice commented, "So that's what it was."

Bones' comment was much more sobering, "Life prolongation. Didn't have much luck, did they?"

Just then, Bones' biocomputer and a portable electronic microscope were beamed down from the Enterprise. They would be used in conjunction with computer banks on-board the ship, in order to take advantage of all of the resources that they had.

Now it was just a waiting game.

Miri was wandering around touching various things while Bones spoke both to them and to his crew onboard the Enterprise. "Tubular with extreme multiplicability. It appears to have an affinity for nucleic acids. Give me what you have."

Meanwhile, Spock was by Jim, sitting on a desk while Jim himself stood, resting a foot on the seat of a chair as he used his multitasking abilities to listen to Bones while he read – he knew some medical stuff and needed to learn more, so it was always a good idea to listen to Bones' observations. (Not that Jim would stop resisting medical attention, partly because he hated hospitals and thus Sickbay, and partly because him resisting treatment allowed Bones to vent about shit, which he had learned very early on was necessary to his oldest friend's mental health.) "This was three hundred years ago, Captain."

Jim nodded, musing softly. "And all the adults are dead. Only the children are left alive."

Spock pointed out something that Jim had overlooked, and which immediately made him worry about their guide. "But children become adults."

He grimaced, "At least, they have up until now."

Spock moved to stand and head over to Bones, giving Jim a Vulcan kiss as he left to stand on the other side, resting his arm against one of Bones' instruments; Jim was on the right and Spock was on the left. Vulcan kisses might not be inherently demonstrative amongst humans, but Spock's emotions – and Jim's – were always possessive regarding their kisses, not to mention it was nice being able to actually kiss without people staring since nobody on the ship except for Uhura knew what they meant, and so far they had avoided her seeing their new form of affection. By next week they would stop "hiding" it from her, but they both wanted to tell their other best friends before they realized for themselves; assuming they didn't already realize. "Doctor, there are certain glandular changes which take place upon entering puberty, are there not?"

The emotions were fond as they flowed into his mind; Spock was asking an obvious question to lead Bones into the realization that he had already had. Which was why, in all that time, there were still no adults, even though there must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of children at one point. "Of course. It changes the entire body system. You know that. Of course you know that. Why?"

He responded calmly, as usual. "Is it not possible that these children here, as they enter puberty, contract the disease?"

Jim added in his comment when Spock mentally prodded him; apparently he wanted this realization to be between the three of them. He was generous with not leaving Jim out. "That would explain why there are no adults."

Bones looked at the two of them, muttering to himself, "Glandular, post-pubescent. Could be."

Spock was slightly agitated at this, but Jim could understand why. It just did not make any sense that there was any life left on this planet. "It's illogical. It does not follow. All the adults on this planet died three hundred years ago, but there are children in the streets."

He was the one muttering this time, "Children, all of whom die when they enter adolescence."

Bones asked them the million dollar question, "But how do they keep the line going?"

They mulled this over for a bit before Janice said, "One thing, Captain. If she were a wild animal ever since she's been a little girl, how do you explain that she wants to stay with us?"

Jim knew why but he would pretend not to; just in case Miri, who was exploring the laboratory, was listening in. "Loneliness? I don't know, curiosity? I think children have an instinctive need for adults. They want guidance in their lives."

Damn. His t'hy'la wasn't going to let him get away with it. "There may be other emotions at work in this case, Captain."

Bones rolled his eyes and said bluntly, "She likes you, Jim."

Before anybody could say anything else Jim said, "Look. I know. I have already made it clear how I feel about her. I can't change her feelings but I refuse to encourage them in that manner. The problem is this: if she's already attached to me like that, and looking at her body… She can't have very long. Maybe a few years, maybe a few days. She's already entering puberty which means once she finishes growing up; goodbye Miri."

They sat in silence for a few moments, thinking over his words as their mouths firmed in determination. It wasn't just them, now – Bones, Jim, and Spock tended to value their own lives less than the lives of others. They had to save Miri – and the other children, wherever they were – just as badly.

After a while, Farrell got back to Spock. "Mister Spock."

"Spock here."

"Here are those figures you asked for. Twelve to the tenth power. Metabolic rate seventy two percent. Production of nucleic acids reduced to thirty three percent of normal. Conventional chronological progression one hundred by three point six."

Spock nodded, "Acknowledged, Lieutenant. I have their calculations now."

Jim stopped by the Security guards and asked them, "Try again. See if you can find anything outside."

Then he walked over to Miri and asked her, "Hey, Miri, would you mind cleaning up that desk for me?"

She sent him a shy smile and accepted the cloth he handed to her. He didn't really need the desk to be clean, but it would give her something to do when he left to go converse with the rest of them. "All right, Jim."

Jim smiled and rested his hand atop her head in a paternal fashion, "Thank you very much, Miri. I appreciate it."

Then he headed back over to Spock, Bones, and Janice. After just a very short time, the calculations were done, "According to their life prolongation plan, what they thought they were accomplishing, a person would age only one month for every one hundred years of real time."

Janice's eyes widened, "One hundred years and only one month of aging? That's, just… Surreal!"

Spock nodded to her as they encircled the equipment more closely to keep Miri from listening in. "Exactly, Yeoman. Evidently through some miscalculation, this virus annihilated the entire adult population in a very short period, leaving only the children."

A swift intake of breath from Janice meant she immediately realized what he did, "But that means these children-"

His t'hy'la nodded again, chocolate brown eyes narrowing some in anger at what these children had gone through. It wasn't even just the slow aging: it was the lack of any structure, it was the surviving on food that would doubtlessly be running out soon, it was watching their friends age and then get overtaken by the disease. "Could very well be immensely old."

Jim ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, "That would certainly answer the question of what happened to their parents."

Bones nodded, "Yeah, answers it very well."

His Yeoman, however, was not thinking clearly, stuck in a dream of "what could be" and not seeing the downsides. To be fair, most people would react like she was right now. "Children who never age. Eternal childhood, filled with play, no responsibilities. It's almost like a dream."

Pipe dreams were useless and unhelpful, so Jim simply said, "I wouldn't examine that dream too closely, Yeoman. It might not turn out to be very pretty."

Bones, on the other hand, was seeing things clearly, "A few days ago or a week ago that creature that attacked us could have been just like Miri. A child entering puberty on this planet means a death sentence."

That caused Janice to glance over at Miri and wince; Jim knew she had realized how foolish her thinking had been, "Do you suppose she knows?"

His best friend shook his head, saying, "Nah, I don't think so. If she did she would be acting much differently."

Janice stubbornly shook her head in negation, "If they're as old as Spock claims, they must have some idea of what's happening."

Jim clarified it for her, running a hand through his blonde hair and wishing he were nearer to Spock; he could use some physical comfort right now, and kissing or holding hands would be perfect for Jim. "There's no adult interpretation. I think we're dealing with children. Immensely old perhaps, but nonetheless children. We've got to do something about the others."

Spock spoke up then, "That will be difficult, if we can't even get a glimpse of them."

He turned to face Spock, "You couldn't get close to the other kids?"

"It is impossible. They know the area too well, like mice."

Jim firmed up a plan. If the kids saw that he was not dangerous, maybe they would come out of hiding. "I'm going to try to find them."

He left them there, getting close enough to Spock to brush their fingers together, and headed over to Miri, "Hey, Miri? Come here. You wanna go someplace with me?"

Miri smiled brightly at him, clearly willing to get anything from him that she could take, and grabbed his outstretched hand. Man, he hated breaking hearts. It was why he'd slept around so much at the Academy. One night stands don't usually end in disaster and Jim had known he was not ready to settle down for something serious yet at that time. "Sure."

Meanwhile, he heard Janice behind him as he left. "That little girl…"

Spock's reply left him with a sick feeling in his stomach, "Is at least three hundred years older than you are, Yeoman. Think about it."

Jahn was angry. Scratch that, he was furious. Miri was outside with that stupid Grup, even though she knew Grups were bad news, and showing him around the city, holding his hand, as if he wasn't dangerous! He pulled his hair and spun around in the middle of the rest of the Onlies. "Miri is with them! Why? Why?!"

Kyle asked, "What's she going to do, Jahn?"

He began pacing circles through and around the Onlies, "I don't, I don't know. I know what we've got to do, though. There are more of them than we see. Somewhere, up in the sky, maybe, somewhere. They talk to each other all the time. You know Grups. You know what they do, the hurting, the killing."

Kyle nodded, agreeing with him, "I remember, Jahn, the way it was."

He encouraged their anger, being the leader as was his right, "That's right, the way it was in the before time. They talk to the other Grups with these little boxes. Now, if they didn't have those little boxes, they'd be all alone, huh?"

Kyle grinned and began running around the room, goading the other Onlies on. "But they don't see us. We hide. Olly olly oxen free!"

They joined in gleefully, "Olly olly oxen free! Olly olly oxen free! Olly olly oxen free!"

No, he had to get this straight! He grabbed Kyle's arm and jerked the other boy to a stop, "No! It's not a game, it's real. They're dangerous, they're Grups. Don't you understand?"

Markl in his lookout spot called out just then, "Jahn!"

That made him and the other Onlies go to the window and look, and he saw the nasty Grup and Miri heading towards them; probably they heard Kyle and the others before he calmed them down. "All right, let's hide!"

Jim walked into the dilapidated building with Miri, and suddenly the place was a madhouse as a scream rang out, causing the children that had been hiding to scatter in several different directions. He saw the changing girl and she jumped on his back. Jim tried unsuccessfully to get her off gently, but eventually he flipped her over his head and she writhed around on the ground. He stunned her – but it was too late. "Dead. I don't understand it. My phaser was only set to stun. Surely she had longer to live than that?"

If she didn't, they were thoroughly screwed – as was Miri, most importantly.

Miri was distraught and scared, so he turned his attention to her, "Her name was Louise. She was just a little bit older than I am when it happened. Oh, Jim!"

Jim allowed her the hug – feeling miserable because if they didn't manage to cure this, that would be poor Miri's fate.

Farrell's voice came in through Spock's comm unit, "Data has been fed into the computers, Mister Spock. Stand by."

Jim heard Spock respond, "Acknowledged."

Right now he was watching Miri; he had sent her to sharpening pencils – which had faded into nonexistence in their time, being a complete waste of wood – and when she turned to him, asking, "Are these enough, Jim?" He shook his head.

"We could use some more, if you don't mind."

Miri clearly did mind a little bit, but was willing to do as he asked anyway, and smiled a bit, "No, I don't mind."

Jim sighed and paced around behind Bones and Janice to stand beside Spock, holding the notes that Spock had been reading through in his hand and handing them back to Spock so he could run a hand through his hair, "There couldn't be any doubt about what you found here?"

He got a shake of the head and a sigh – Spock was clearly disturbed by the situation, although most of his worry was centered on Jim and Miri (and the other children on the planet), with Bones being a close second and Janice a distant third. Janice and Spock had a carefully calculated distance between them, as Janice had feelings for Jim and had not gotten over them yet. Spock wasn't jealous in any way, shape, or form, but he was careful not to be cruel, and so despite how much contact they had with each other, he was only ever professional towards her, and had not begun developing a friendship with her yet.

Jim thought that whenever she found out that he and Spock were together, her feelings would finally be able to be put to rest, although it would take time, and then – only then, would Spock try to initiate a friendship with Janice. Spock was worried about the Security guards as well, but knew very few of them personally so they rated below everybody else – not low enough to be considered expendable, but not high enough to be considered worth wasting necessary energy worrying uselessly about.

"This fellow made these notes in the last weeks after the disaster began. I disregard these last entries. He said himself he was too sick, too far gone to be sure he wasn't already mad, and I agree, but based on the entries he made before that, I know how much time we have. The ship's computers will verify my figures."

Bones spoke up then, "Shit. If that's the case it's only a matter of time before we all go mad, then destroy each other, till the last of us finally destroys himself."

Jim walked around the table after caressing the back of Spock's hand and then sat on the desk to the right of Spock, asking softly, "What about Miri?"

The worry he felt in the back of his head strengthened, as Spock responded, "Our guess was correct. They contract the disease as they enter puberty and their metabolism changes. The notes would indicate it doesn't become acute for a month or so. I estimate she has perhaps five or six weeks left. If she is lucky."

Then Bones asked the million credit question, "What about us?"

Spock looked seriously at each of them around him, his statement visibly showing his worry as his eyes lingered on the oldest person in the landing party. Jim had read the notes – he knew what was coming, and hated it. They couldn't lose Bones. "The older the victim, the more rapid the progress of the disease."

Bones gripped the table tightly and gave off a terse – but determined – nod.

After a moment, Jim asked another question which he knew the answer to but which needed to be stated for the benefit of everyone else, "And you? The disease doesn't seem to be interested in you."

Spock sent love through the bond, reassurance, but Jim didn't really believe that Spock could handle losing him. However, that was a good thing – it meant he would work harder on finding the cure. Not that he wouldn't have put in his best effort to begin with, but he would go above and beyond anything if it meant not losing Jim. "I am a carrier, despite not being actively infected. Whatever happens, I can't go back to the ship, and I do want to go back to the ship, Captain."

Jim had to smile at the slight tease, "Of course you do, Spock. We still don't know what we're fighting, though."

Bones spoke, and Jim turned to listen to him, "No, but we know what it does and how fast it does it. It's progressing. We'll begin to feel it inside soon. Intense fever, great pain in the extremities, fuzziness of vision. Of course, those are the early symptoms. There'll be more."

Damn. He turned to Spock, asking a rather futile question because fucking seriously, how often was Spock ever wrong about this kind of thing? "Are you certain about the time we have left?

Spock reached out and briefly curled their fingers together where Jim's were hanging over the edge of the desk – he'd been gripping it earlier, but he didn't know if even Bones could manage a cure while infected in the time they had left, and so until the coolness of Spock's own fingers leeched into his, he'd just been letting them hang down – defeated. "I presume my calculations are correct."

"Fuck! This is beyond not good."

Spock's comm unit went off and he tangled their fingers more tightly together as Spock answered it with his free hand, "Landing party, this is the Enterprise."

"Spock here."

Farrell just confirmed Spock's calculations and Jim closed his eyes, running his left hand through his hair, "Computer indicates one hundred seventy hours, Mister Spock."

Spock pulled his hand completely off the desk and held it tightly, sending reassurance to Jim through their light – but strengthening – bond, "Verified, Captain. We have seven days."

Two days later they were standing around the cluttered desk, covered in all of the research about the Life Prolongation Program that they could find. Jim was getting frustrated and could already feel the disease beginning to affect him very slightly. Spock was an immense help, sending reassurance to Jim on a constant basis and helping to keep his temper from fraying too badly. "There's no data, no starting point."

Bones spoke up just then, "I think I've found it!"

Jim looked at him, then over at Janice, who was handling this worse than anybody else, and over at Miri, who was listening in some. "Janice, take Miri for a walk, please?"

His Yeoman nodded and left the group around the table, "Yes, sir."

He sighed and listened to Bones clarifying, "It's only one half intact."

"But do you know what they were up to?"

Bones nodded, "More or less. The idea was to create a new series of diseases, a chain reaction of viruses meant essentially to extend the life of the human cell immeasurably."

Spock shook his head slightly, "Unfortunately, they weren't successful. We've seen the results."

He sighed and moved from beside Bones to lean against the table stacked with folders and papers. "You two will have to recreate their thinking. If you can isolate that virus, we'll be able to develop a vaccine."

His weary comment made Bones grumble and snark at him, "Is that all, Captain? We have five days, you know."

Jim sighed and turned to glare at Bones, "I know."

Suddenly voices were coming from somewhere, immature tones chanting, "Nyah na nyah! Nyah na nyah!"

He cried out, "The children!"

That made them all scatter to look for the kids.

It seemed to be a fruitless endeavor, however, as they gathered in the corridor outside the laboratory. "Anything?"

Spock shook his head, "No, nothing."

Jim sighed, "Damn."

They walked back into the laboratory as he asked Bones, "And you? I assume nothing as well?"

But before Bones could answer, Spock hissed out a frustrated breath and said, "Communicators, Captain, they're gone."

Bones growled lowly, "Jim, We've absolutely got to have those communicators. Without them, we don't have the computers, and without the computers, we don't have a chance."

Janice sighed as she obeyed her Captain's obvious ploy to try and de-stress her, jealously looking down at Miri as she walked outside. Miri looked up at her and said softly, "You know, it's not me you should be jealous of."

The platinum blonde stopped in her tracks and stared at the young woman beside her. Then she bit the inside of her lower lip. She knew that, logically. She didn't know who it was, but the Captain clearly had someone else, as he never, ever acknowledged her flirtations, regardless of how subtle or blatant she was being with them. "I know. That doesn't make it any easier though, watching him dote on someone else."

Miri giggled and shook her head, "You're not seeing it then! It's Spock. We never had a chance, Janice. I've been watching, you know. I know something bad is happening. But Jim and Spock… They support each other, and reassure each other. Their hands. It's always in their hands. Holding, touching, caressing. It's actually kinda sweet."

Spock? Oh! Suddenly, a dozen things clicked in her mind, countless little clues, little signs that she had not been willing to see deeper into, that she had purposely overlooked, and she laughed in relief; if it was Spock that Jim was attracted to, then she'd never had a chance, and somehow that made it so much easier to bear. Nobody could measure up to Spock, so it wasn't any failing of her own that made the Captain overlook her. It was simply that his attention had been caught by somebody that nobody else could hold a candle to.

Janice laughed in relief and hugged Miri impulsively. "Thank you, Miri! I feel much better about the situation now! Not being sick, but Jim not caring for me like that."

Miri smiled and they continued their walk.

Miri frowned as she looked at the little devices that Jahn had stolen, and then down at her arm. Nobody else had seen it yet, but she closed her eyes and tried not to cry as she thought that that had to change. Jim and the others needed to get their communicator-thingies back. That left it up to Miri to do. Taking a deep breath, she screamed, causing the other Onlies to look at her.

"My arm! It's happening, my arm!"

They hissed and fell back and she remembered what she overheard a few days ago. "It's gonna happen to all of us, don't you see?! Lilly, Ken, Jessie, Lido, and how many others?! How many of us have we lost because of the disease?! It'll happen to me next, and then you Jahn because when Onlies get old, we DIE! Please! Don't let this kill you! If Jim and the others have their talky thingies back they can fix it so that none of us will die like that again!"

Jahn stared at her and inhaled softly. "You're not just saying that because you don't want this stupid Jim of yours to die?"

Miri shook her head, "Jim isn't mine. Jim is with Spock. Jahn, please…"

Miri sobbed softly as fear overcame her, "I… I don't wanna die, Jahn! I don't want you to die either and you will! Everyone will!"

Jahn looked uncomfortable but he patted her head and handed the small, sleek white devices back to her. All six of them. "Here. Go… Go help them save us."

She could have laughed if she wasn't so scared, and she did give Jahn a massive hug. "Thank you!"

Then Miri ran off to the bad place again to give the communicators back to Jim and the others.

"Jim?"

A small voice caught his attention, and Jim looked around only to find Miri there, with her hands behind her back. He bit back a nasty comment; the disease was getting to him and he'd already gotten into it with a Security guard and Janice before now. He understood that it was the disease hiking up her fear, but she still wasn't being the badass woman he knew she was, she was letting her fear get ahold of her and it was turning her into a wreck; he hated seeing competent people turned into incompetence.

Patient and forcing a smile, he said, "Yes, Miri? What is it?"

They had two days left. Two days and no sign of the communicators. "I did it. Like you asked me if I could try and it worked. Because of my arm."

Because of her – oh. Oh no! There was a blemish on Miri's arm and Jim looked at the girl who was already close to being like a daughter to him. "Oh, Miri…"

She smiled brightly and pulled her arms in front of her, displaying their communicators, all six of them. "It's okay Jim. Spock and Leonard will fix it! You know they will! Especially because I got your devices back."

He impulsively hugged the girl and stroked her hair. "Thank you, Miri."

Then he grabbed her other arm and walked with her to the table, where she dumped their comm units out onto it. "Miri worked a miracle, guys. We're set to go! Let's do this bitch!"

Leonard injected himself with the vaccine, and collapsed to the floor, biting back a scream of agony as the antivirus spread through him and changed his biology back to what it had been before the disease. When he finished, he was surrounded by the worried crew and the ever-sweet Miri, who had wormed her way into his heart – he hoped his beloved Joanna turned out like Miri.

Galloway was peering at him and he asked the hobgoblin, "Is he dead, Mister Spock?"

Jim was the one to answer however, "The blemishes are fading. They – they're gone! Yes! Thank you Miri, thank you Bones," he'd never live that name down, dammitall, "thank you Spock!"

They were back on the Bridge of the ship as it orbited the planet again, and Jim sighed, looking at Janice as she watched the viewscreen mournfully, "They were just children. Simply to leave them there with a medical team…"

Jim smiled at her, "Just children, three hundred years old and more. Don't worry though, Yeoman. I've already contacted Space Central. They'll send teachers, advisors, and guardians for the kids."

Bones added in, "And truant officers, I presume."

Jim grinned, "Yep! They'll be all right."

Janice looked askance at him, "Miri. She really loved you, you know."

Jim rolled his eyes with a slight smile, "I know. However, I never get involved with older women, Yeoman."

Then he turned away from her and towards Spock, "Spock?"

Spock asked him, "Yes, Captain?"

He smiled, eyes twinkling as he said, "Full speed ahead. Warp factor one."

Spock almost-smiled back, "Aye. Warp factor one, Captain."

It was time to hare off into another part of space.