Scotty cracked his head on an open panel when the Bridge called to the Transporter Room.

“Me poor noggin’,” he groaned as he backed out of the machine’s innards. He sat up on his knees and slapped a hand to the top of the control station. “Scott here.”

“Transferring Dr. McCoy to you, Mr. Scott.“

“Aye,” he acknowledged.

A harried drawl filled the line. “Scotty, is that damn contraption up and running yet?“

McCoy was as bad as Kirk, decided the engineer. “Another twenty minutes ‘n she’ll be ready, Doctor.”

“Can you make it ten?“

Scotty sighed. Yes, just like Kirk, always demanding the near-impossible in half the time he can feasibly get it done. Did no one realize that he was only human? “I’ll give her all I’ve got.”

“Thanks. The package for pickup needs to go straight to Decontamination.”

He had anticipated that, which was why he was installing a bit of code that bypassed the normal routing of the molecules. The last thing anyone of them wanted was to infect the ship with whatever nastiness had taken hold of the landing party.

That brought his thoughts circling to another crisis. “Dr. McCoy, the Capt’n…?”

McCoy’s drawl thickened. “Hanging in there.“

Which meant the doctor didn’t have a good grasp of Kirk’s prognosis. No wonder he was demanding a quicker turnaround on the transporter job.

“Everyone’s on standby,” Scotty said, offering what comfort he could. “As soon as the materials come through, your staff will jump on ’em.”

“Thank you, Mr. Scott.” A short pause ensued. “Sorry for snapping at you.“

“Dinnae worry, I’ll nae take it to heart. Scott out.”

Shaking his head, Montgomery went back to work.

“You,” claimed the woman who entered the small office in her most menacing tone, “are an ass.”

“Karen, dear. How lovely to see you.” Tappan smiled at her from the chair where he was bound.

Karen Leta walked up to her lover and slapped him across the face. The action was so satisfying that she did it a second time.

Augustus gave her a wry look. “Angry about something?”

“How dare you lock up my son!” she spat.

“Our son,” the man corrected her. He leaned back in his chair. “I feel uncomfortable having this conversation with you while I’m tied up, love. Could you help me out?”

She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “I think you’re exactly where you deserve to be.”

“I wanted to protect Ramses. Have you not noticed how… dangerous our situation has become?”

Her gaze narrowed. “Danger which you invited, Augustus. Don’t take me for a fool. I know very well why you’re so smug. You think you’ve done something clever that Kirk and his crew won’t figure out. Well, you stupid man, you’re wrong. They have you by the balls. Or haven’t you noticed?”

“Mm,” said Tappan. “I suppose I can concede that my current predicament is not ideal.”

Leta bit her tongue for a moment but couldn’t help asking, “Why place Ramses with Kirk?”

“You’re aware of what our son thinks of us.”

That wasn’t a question. Karen frowned. “He’s young. The young are rebellious. Weren’t we the same at his age?”

“Darling, you were frightfully so. Why else would you have left behind a luxurious existence on Earth for an uncertain future with a penniless drifter?”

Because she had fallen in love with him. He knew that, the bastard. She looked away, not wanting to think of the past, her estranged family or her disinheritance.

“Karen,” Tappan called her name softly.

“What?”

“It’s not over yet for us.”

She turned back to him. “What do you mean?”

He smiled again, this time genuinely. The smile lent some youth to his face. “I have had years to develop the perfect plan. How could this possibly be the end? Let me loose, love, and I will show you what comes next.”

She took a step forward, almost did his bidding without taking a moment to think of the consequences. Then she remembered what she wanted from him.

“Tell me now,” she said. “I’ll trust your words more if I have something you want.”

“Such as?”

She lifted her chin. “Freedom.”

“Touché,” murmured the man. He looked past her. “Where is my faithful guard? I wouldn’t want him to hear of my nefarious plans.”

Leta waved a hand dismissively. Augustus could be so dramatic at times. “Taken care of, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he repeated as he considered her. “In this facility, there is a hidden packet containing a very useful drug. I intend to finish what I started with Kirk.”

She asked with interest, “Will it kill him?”

Tappan shook his head. “We don’t want him to die, Karen. No, the drug will simply nudge him towards an appropriate decision.”

“I don’t understand. What is this about? Do you want to ruin his career?”

Tappan’s eyes shone behind his glasses. “I want to begin mine.”

She couldn’t see it, his vision, but then again he had always been more imaginative than her.

“This colony must have its independence,” Tappan went on to say. “Only once we have the proper leverage, an indisputable case, will the ones who hold us captive be forced to set us free.”

“Through Kirk?” she surmised.

“Because of Kirk.”

Karen studied the man she had clung to for more than half her life. “Tell me one thing, Augustus.”

He waited.

“What did you do to the people of Tassos III?” To Ram, the Ambassador didn’t add. That bit of information, she planned to keep close until she could use it against him.

“I set the stage,” was all her lover would admit to. “Now. Will you help me finish it?”

Karen untied the straps around the chair.

Tappan shucked them off and stood up. Then he enclosed her in his arms and kissed her.

When he pulled back, he said, “I hope you don’t intend to betray me.”

“That depends,” she answered, “on whether you succeed or fail.”

Grinning, Tappan let her go. “Come along. There are some loose ends which require tending.”

Leonard rubbed his thumb across the top of his communicator but eventually set it aside. Scotty had to be tired of his requests for status updates, and pestering never made the process go quicker. His anxiety put him on edge but that didn’t give him the right to spread the misery. He sighed and stretched his neck side to side. The movements didn’t lessen his headache. The doctor grimaced.

The room had grown hotter in the last thirty minutes, to the point that his undershirt was sticking to him. He knew it wasn’t the temperature control to blame, and that just made his anxiety grow. He couldn’t afford to succumb to the infection spreading through their team.

And spreading it was. In the time he had been focused on treating the unconscious Olivares, two of Giotto’s men had been carried into the ward, having collapsed while on duty. The officer who brought them looked nervous; he had already begun to show symptoms himself. Before long, McCoy knew, this facility would be inundated with patients.

Leonard pushed that thought aside and did the best he could. As the only trained medical personnel, he couldn’t delegate certain tasks as he normally did in Sickbay so he worked as quickly as he could, moving from patient to patient, setting them up on the basic treatment for a flu-like illness.

There hadn’t been time to return to his captain, who was by far the sickest of everyone. Leonard suspected Kirk’s immune system played a major role in that. From what he could tell, Jim had had an allergic reaction to the unprocessed grain, which aggravated the bacteria already infiltrating his system and amplified the symptoms. Though most of the inflammation was now under control, Leonard knew it would be a matter of time before the true onslaught began. Normally he felt prepared to meet that battle, and did so with calm; but with the current lack of technology at his fingertips and Kirk’s needs always requiring careful handling, he admitted to himself that he was scared. Old-fashioned doctoring could only work so well in treating a particular virulent case.

What if he lost Jim this time?

He knew what would happen then. He would give up. He didn’t realize it until now but his love for Kirk was the one thing which could break him.

Did that mean he cared for Jim too much? Another thought for another time, he decided.

“Doctor.”

“Not now, Spock. Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“The Enterprise is ready to receive the package.”

Leonard paused in what he was doing. “Can you take care of that?”

“I am here to inform you that I would.”

He should have known. “Thank you.”

“Thanks is unnecessary.” Spock indicated the sweating, shivering man on the bed. “As you pointed out, you are otherwise occupied. Proceed.”

Leonard nodded, redialed the dosage on his hypospray, and delivered a shot to the patient’s neck. The fellow groaned.

Sandeep slipped up to his side. “We have another case.”

“Damn,” Leonard muttered. The incubation period was shorter than he had hoped for. “Sandeep, could you—” The doctor bit off his request as he looked up.

The man gave him a small smile, placing a hand to his cheek. “Not too ugly, is it?”

“You should find a bed for yourself,” Leonard said sharply, turning Sandeep’s head to the side for a better look at the rash.

“Negative, sir,” his helper said politely, “I’m not dead yet. I can help.”

Leonard’s mouth thinned. “That’s not funny, Lieutenant.”

Sandeep apologized.

Pain stabbed behind Leonard’s eyes. He closed them briefly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Dr. McCoy?”

“I’m all right,” he lied. “Guess you are too, since you’re still nattering at me. Make our new patient comfortable. I’ll be with him in a minute.”

The man nodded and left. Leonard finished up what he was doing and went towards the lab, only to go past it when he saw Giotto standing further along the hallway.

Giotto greeted him with a raised hand.

“Olivares will recover,” he told the man, knowing that’s the news Giotto wanted first. “She was slipped a dose of sedative, but thankfully it wasn’t too much. In an hour or so she’ll come around, probably with a bad headache. What I can’t tell you is how the Ambassador got her hands on that vial.”

“Security isn’t at its strongest here,” Giotto replied.

Leonard knew how much it probably stung the man’s pride to admit that. “We can only try our best when our resources are limited.” He sighed through his nose. “Speaking of, how many are left?”

Giotto’s expression turned grimmer. “Five, including myself.”

“Does that count also include Olivares and Sandeep?”

“Yes it does.”

Olivares was out for at least an hour, and Sandeep wouldn’t be on his feet much longer unless he resorted to taking a stimulant as Leonard had secretly done when Spock’s back was turned.

Not good. Not good at all.

He knew they had an officer—the young engineer, Kolarski—still stationed at the central dome, Giotto was here, and there was one officer guarding Tappan.

“Tappan,” Leonard sucked in a breath at the reminder and turned.

Giotto reached out to stall him. “That was the first place I looked for Leta. Lt. Danson knows to remain on alert.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before now. If she gets to Tappan…”

“We’ve been in worse situations.” Giotto gently turned McCoy in the direction from which he had come. “Focus on those who need your help the most, Dr. McCoy, and let the rest of us do what we do best.”

Leonard nodded wearily. He started to walk away but thought of something and had to say it. “John…” Giotto’s first name felt strange on his tongue. “I hope you haven’t forgotten Captain Kirk’s philosophy.”

Giotto didn’t smile but his voice warmed. “‘No member of this crew is expendable.’ Hard to forget it when Kirk takes it so seriously.”

“Just because the captain isn’t here to say it doesn’t make it less true. Take care of yourself,” Leonard warned him, “or you’ll answer to Jim—and me.”

“Acknowledged, sir,” Giotto replied very formally.

Leonard harrumphed and hurried back to the ward. He would swing by Kirk’s room on the way to the new patient. Spock, who was tasked with watching over Jim, would have let him know if something was amiss or urgent, but Leonard could use the reassurance.

He didn’t expect to have the lab door slide open as he passed it by and an arm latch onto him.

“Hey!” he cried before he was dragged inside.

“Looking for me?” Karen Leta asked him.

Leonard swung around to face her. “What are you doing in here? What have you been up to?” he demanded.

“Oh, this and that,” the woman teased him.

The lab door slid open again and Giotto barreled in.

Karen took advantage of Leonard’s distraction to jerk him back against her, twisting his arm in the process so he couldn’t escape without hurting himself.

Giotto jerked to a stop.

Leonard heard the triumph in Leta’s voice. “I wouldn’t come closer, Mr. Giotto, unless you want me to shoot Dr. McCoy.”

That’s when Leonard realized Leta had a phaser in her opposite hand. He cursed loudly. “Stun her!” he told Giotto. “She’s bluffing!”

Giotto didn’t react.

“Drop the phaser,” Leta ordered.

Giotto dropped it.

“Back up.”

Giotto backed up, through the door and into the corridor.

Leta marched Leonard forward, all the while using Leonard as her shield. She began to back them down the corridor.

“I have a complaint,” the woman announced breezily.

“Me too,” retorted Leonard. “Mine is that you’ve apparently lost your mind!”

“I think you don’t plan to help my son. Let’s fix that, shall we?”

What in blazes was she going on about? Maybe she was crazy.

When they passed through the archway leading to the ward, from the corner of his eye Leonard watched Spock exit Kirk’s room and freeze when he saw them.

“Ambassador,” the Vulcan said at length, “if you will release Dr. McCoy…”

“Give me a reason to,” Leta challenged.

There came the clatter of a tray hitting the floor behind them. When a startled Leta looked on instinct for the source of the sound, Leonard reacted quickly. He drove his shoulder back, throwing them both off balance, then hooked his ankle around hers and dropped them to the floor. Leta shoved him off of her and rolled one way. Leonard rolled the other. He saw her get up to run or attack, but Sandeep crashed into her from the side. The pair landed on the legs of one of Leonard’s patients, before they fell off to the side of the biobed in a tangle of limbs.

Giotto rushed past him to aid Sandeep. Leonard witnessed nothing after that, for someone grabbed the back of his tunic and shoved him into the private exam room containing Kirk.

Leonard rounded on Spock once he was set free but had no chance to say anything.

“Stay,” commanded the Vulcan, who then slapped the isolation lock on the inner wall of the room to engage it before he darted back into the ward.

Leonard sputtered for a few seconds, then had to yell at the infernal lock for almost a minute before the facility’s computer decided to let him out.

Damn Vulcan and his damned tricky security protocols! fumed the doctor as he stalked back into the ward.

Neither Spock, Giotto, nor Sandeep were anywhere to be seen; Leta, either. They must have taken off in pursuit of her.

Leonard checked on Ramses to be certain he was still under sedation. Then, out of caution, checked on the sleeping Walken. Afterwards, he went about collecting the tools that had rolled away from the tray Sandeep had dropped in order to gain Leta’s attention.

At first, he thought the soft scuff of boots against the floor belonged to Spock. No one else walked that quietly.

“Dr. McCoy.”

But the amused voice calling him was not Spock.

When Leonard stilled, when he looked up, his face lost color. Later, he would come to realize how easily all of them had been fooled.

Tappan stepped away from a wall partition, pointed Giotto’s phaser at the Chief Medical Officer, and fired.

“Doctor! Dr. McCoy!” came the cry ahead of the man who pelted into the ward, breathing in loud gasps. “Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock said—”

He stopped talking when he saw the crumpled figure on the floor.

In horrified silence, he crossed the ward, dropped to his knees beside the body. Sandeep’s hands shook as he rolled the blue-shirted man over onto his back.

Check for a pulse.

He checked. His unsteady fingers found nothing.

When he tried harder, out of mounting fear, he realized he hadn’t positioned his fingers correctly across the neck. McCoy’s pulse had a strong rhythm.

The lieutenant sat back with a thump onto the floor and choked on a scared laugh. After he dragged an arm across his eyes, he flipped open his communicator and called for help.

Leonard found it strange that his eyes were closed. It was even stranger, when he opened them, to discover a Vulcan leaning over him.

“…Dr. McCoy?”

Spock’s normal monotone was noticeably tense.

Leonard quelled his disorientation. “What happened?” He became aware of what was wrong with his view of the world. “Why am I lying down?”

“Lt. Balasubramaniam discovered you in an unconscious state.” The skin around Spock’s eyes was stretched taut with worry. “Readings indicated heavy stun.”

Tappan.

Leonard paled and tried to sit up, which turned out to be impossible with Spock pinning one of his shoulders to the biobed. “Let me up.” He struggled harder. “I said let me up! I saw Tappan.”

Spock’s voice took on a flat quality. “Then it is as suspected. We discovered his escape too late. Lt. Danson had also been stunned. He is recovering.” The Vulcan pressed for information. “What did he say to you? What did he do before stunning you?”

Leonard swallowed. “Not a thing. Spock, they played us, Tappan and Leta.”

Spock eased back, saying nothing.

Leonard started to close his eyes in exhaustion, then snapped them open again and promptly renewed his struggles to sit up. “My god, Jim!”

“The Captain is unharmed.”

But Spock sounded strange to McCoy’s ears. He grabbed the Vulcan’s collar. “Don’t lie to me, Spock! What happened to Jim?”

“Nothing that I can discern. However… Mr. Greene is dead.”

The news shouldn’t have impacted the doctor so hard, but it did. It took him a moment to work through his shock. “…Let me up.”

This time, Spock wordlessly helped Leonard to his feet.

Leonard started in one direction before changing his mind. The living first, he had to remind himself. He went to Kirk’s bedside instead of Greene’s.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Jim’s face was slack in repose. Ignoring Giotto’s presence, Leonard sank to the edge of the bed and placed a hand against Jim’s face. The skin was cool to the touch; the fever had broken in the interim.

Spock handed him a tricorder.

Leonard scanned Kirk and consulted the results. Then he picked up Jim’s index finger and let the tricorder collect a drop of blood to analyze. He stood up, saying, “He’s stable for now.” Then he asked more hollowly, “Where did you put the body?”

“We have not moved him yet.”

Spock nodded to Giotto before following Leonard to his next destination.

The doctor drew back the sheet stretched over Greene and stared at his face, composed in a way that was far different than Kirk’s. He touched the man’s neck out of habit, his shoulders rounding down in defeat when he couldn’t find a pulse.

Swallowing down guilt, he said, “If I had been paying better attention, I could have prevented this.”

Spock covered Greene again. “You were merely an obstacle in Tappan’s way, one which he would have dealt with more harshly had you attempted to come between him and his target.”

“Greene was recovering.”

“That may be the precise reason why Tappan killed him, Doctor. Dead men cannot speak.”

Leonard swayed on his feet. Hands steady him. “Tappan would have been smarter to kill me when he had the chance.”

“Let us be thankful that he did not.”

Leonard looked up at Spock. “I don’t want to be grateful to a murderer.”

Spock’s hands rose from McCoy’s shoulders to his face, which the Vulcan cupped gently. “I never expected to say this to you, Doctor, but you must know. If you die, I will be inconsolable.”

At first, Leonard thought Spock had made a tactless joke but as Leonard studied his companion’s face he realized Spock was serious—as serious as his delivery had been. The doctor didn’t know what to say.

Spock released him. “You are confused.”

“I… suppose I am.”

“How is my affection for you confusing?”

“I didn’t know you felt affection, Spock.”

Spock reminded him, “You are the one who insists I feel, Doctor.”

“Yes but—” Damn, why did Vulcans have to be so literal? Leonard flushed. “We should table this discussion for later.”

“When?”

Did Spock really want to have this awkward conversation? Why? “Until we have less pressing matters,” he insisted.

The Vulcan looked like he would have negotiated with that, except in that moment the tricorder in McCoy’s hand beeped and Leonard hurriedly backed away, feigning the need to read the results in private.

“Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy,” interrupted Sandeep, the man’s voice soft in a way that meant he thought they might be having a private moment between them.

“Yes, Lt. Balasubramaniam?”

“I found something when I was—”

The conversation faded to background noise as Leonard’s gaze stuck on a single line of his tricorder report and his stomach turned.

Some seconds passed before Spock noticed the doctor was truly distracted. “Dr. McCoy?”

Leonard snapped out of it and, saying nothing, pushed past Spock and Sandeep. He ran back to Kirk’s room.

Giotto met him at the doorway with a disturbed expression. “The Captain woke up.”

Jim was indeed awake. He was sitting up in bed and diligently pulling off the various monitor pads attached to his left arm.

“Jim,” Leonard called his name, clutching his tricorder tightly.

“Bones,” Kirk replied in kind without looking at his friend. “Apparently Mr. Giotto only had silence to report. I expect you will do better.”

Leonard came forward when Jim threw his legs over the edge of the bed. “No, don’t get up just yet.”

Kirk gave him a quizzical look.

Falling back on formality that came with acknowledging rank, he explained, “Captain, we’re under medical quarantine. I recommend that you allow me to examine you before you decide what happens next.”

“I feel fine, McCoy.”

He held up his tricorder. “My device says otherwise.”

Kirk’s eyes narrowed to slits, and the man came to his feet. Then the mood in the room changed again as Kirk suddenly relaxed and plucked at his grey jumpsuit.

“What is this?” he laughed. “Where’s my uniform?”

Spock came forward, stopping at McCoy’s side. “It was necessary to remove it, Captain. I second Dr. McCoy’s concern.”

Kirk approached them, saying, “Your concerns are unwarranted, gentlemen. I want answers. Mr. Spock, report.”

Leonard wasn’t surprised when Spock remained silent, nor was he surprised when the Vulcan turned to him in question.

Kirk didn’t like that. He snapped more angrily, “Report!”

Leonard met Spock’s gaze. “There’s a toxin in his blood, similar to what I told you about—a lot of it.”

Kirk’s hands curled into fists. “Commander! Lieutenant-Commander! I want a status report!”

A muscle jumped in Spock’s cheek. He returned his attention to Kirk.

“Jim, calm down,” Leonard said. “I need to take a look at you. It’ll be quick, I promise.”

Jim’s face hardened. The man pivoted on his heel and marched towards the biobed—only to grab a rolling cart at the last second and send it flying at them. Then he charged.

Spock fended him off easily, but Leonard didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t hit Jim. In the end, he managed to grab Kirk from behind, to tether one of the arms beating at Spock and press against Jim’s back.

Pinned between Spock and McCoy, Kirk tried unsuccessfully to throw them off several times. His struggling eventually subsided into winded pants and then charged silence. Neither Spock nor McCoy dared let go of him.

“Spock,” Leonard pleaded, his voice muffled against Kirk, “just do it.”

Jim went limp in his arms a moment later, and together the two officers lowered the man to the ground.

Staying in a crouch, Leonard ran a hand down his face. “Tappan got to him.”

Spock laid a hand against Kirk’s neck. “What must be done?”

“I don’t know,” answered the doctor solemnly. “I truly don’t know.”

Tappan caught up to Karen on a side path leading from the medical facility to the rest of the colony.

“You made it,” she said approvingly.

Augustus swept an imaginary hat off his head and offered her a gentleman’s bow. “And how does the lady fare?”

She patted her messy hair. “I believe one might call me victorious.” Then she sobered. “Did you see Ramses? How did he look?”

“I have no doubt he will be feeling like himself soon.” Tappan offered her his arm.

She glanced back in the direction of the facility as she took it. “Are you certain the disorder won’t leave him permanently damaged?”

“Not if treated quickly—and I assure you, Karen, Kirk’s doctor will soon have a pressing need for the cure.” Having said that, he gently tugged on her arm. “Truly, our boy couldn’t be in better hands. Now come. I have something to show you.”

And so, arm-in-arm, they went back to the central dome to free the people of Tassos III.