0Title: Difficulty Engaged (1/?)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Summary: During leave, trouble thwarts a good plan and causes Kirk and Spock to accelerate the timeline of their McCoy-centric agenda. But true to form, McCoy is already playing by a set of rules they don’t understand.
When the crowd lessens the first time, McCoy hopes he has found his way from this maze-like waystation. But to his dismay, he quickly discovers he has instead reached one of the night-zone areas, a row of clubs and bars meant to entice shop-weary travelers to indulge in refreshments and a different kind of entertainment. The gangways ahead are a ghost town during day hours, the establishments lining the walls unmistakably closed. So, with reluctance, he turns back and finds himself once more rejoining the blend of local residents, tourists, and shoppers of the main thoroughfare.
“Should of stayed on the ship,” he mutters to himself.
He jerks to a stop when the press of beings turns suddenly to a confused cluster. Lifting up slightly, he spies the problem: no one can pass a gigantic hovercart stalled across the path. Alongside many others, Leonard eventually elbows his way to freedom, darting into another stream of traffic that forms a braid steadily between the tables and fountains in the central plaza. By the time the stream ferries him into the next section of the station, he feels so thoroughly turned around, he takes a seat on the nearest bench.
As much as Leonard hates to admit it, he’s lost.
He had only wanted to explore a little on his own, the purpose being there wouldn’t be any noses but his own poking in his business. Who knew a Vulcan could be so interested every artifact or trinket McCoy gave a passing glance? It’s as if Spock had been trying to analyze Leonard’s tastes, which of course is complete and utter nonsense. Why would Spock—a sometimes-friend and a more frequent irritation—want to know his likes and dislikes? Surely the Vulcan criticizes him plenty already!
A secret little part of McCoy is pleased; mostly that part of him which he often tries to keep quiet because it also tends to acknowledge when he crosses the line from arguing to flirting (although it’s doubtful to Leonard that Spock with his literal-mindedness has picked up on this change).
McCoy harrumphs, then, grudgingly also admitting to himself in that moment a pair of pointed ears would be a welcome sight. There are so many varied and colorful individuals milling about, Starfleet uniforms are simply another splotch in the melee. But those ears! Leonard could pick them out of a crowd for certain.
For the umpteenth time, Leonard gropes for the communicator he had forgotten to bring along. At this rate, he will have to ask a patrolman for help, who will probably herd him to Lost & Found like a wayward child and call up the Enterprise to come and get him. Good grief, if Jim hears about it—or worse yet ends up being the one to retrieve him!—Leonard won’t be able to look the man in the eyes for at least a month.
Not an option, he decides.
Leonard is an intelligent adult who generally has a decent sense of direction. By god, he will find the way back himself even if it takes all blasted day!
A shadow falls across him, then, of a delicate, humanoid shape. A female, McCoy sees when he looks up, standing only a couple arm lengths away.
She smiles sweetly at him. “Could you help me?”
He jumps to his feet. “Ma’am?”
“I think I’m lost!”
Leonard flushes. “Well, I—I’m not the best fellow to assist you,” he explains with regret. “Frankly I’m not sure of where I am, either.”
“Oh,” she says before adding kindly, “I understand… but perhaps two may discover a solution where one cannot?”
He dips his head slightly. “Where are you trying to get to?”
“My cousin’s ship.” She lifts a small fabric bag for him to see. “I came to shop and soon found myself carried away. The time to return is past.” As she says this, she seems to shrink with helplessness while looking around. “Except I cannot determine which direction I must go! This station is so big.”
“And crowded to the point of confusion,” he adds, rueful.
She steps toward him, echoing a similar sentiment.
It’s his natural inclination to help, and so he offers a hand. “I’m Leonard.”
She appears to know the Terran custom of shaking hands. “Your outfit is a uniform, correct? But it is not familiar to me.”
He taps the insignia on his tunic. “I serve in Starfleet. I’m a doctor.”
“Starfleet,” she repeats with a lilt. “Then it is my good fortune to have met you, Leonard of Starfleet. I am Ruti.”
“Nice to meet you too, Ruti. Shall we see if we can’t find a map or a directory?”
In charity together, Leonard and his new companion leave the bench in their wake.
~~~
“Not precisely, Captain.”
Jim waves away the formality—and Spock’s disinclination to own any fault for their current situation. “Spock,” he says with a sigh, proceeding to choose his words with care, “can you guess where he could have gone?”
“Remarkably few opportunities were available to observe which items held the Doctor’s interest, therefore I highly doubt any guess would be sufficiently accurate.”
Jim almost retorts, “Guesses don’t need to be precise,” but knows the futility of saying so to a Vulcan.
Spock goes on, “I suspect he was aware of my scrutiny.”
Kirk pinches the bridge of his nose, then. He should have gone with the pair; would have, in fact, if it hadn’t been for that last-minute conference Komack had all but ordered him to attend.
After a moment of silence, he decides, “All right, here’s what we are going to do. First thing, forget the mission.”
Spock’s brows pinch together. “Jim.”
Kirk refuses to be swayed. “There’ll be another opportunity—unless we don’t recover Bones at all, which is why finding him takes priority.” Spock doesn’t argue that point, but then again Jim does not expect him to when the logical approach is so obvious. He steps off the gangplank that connects his ship to the port and passes Spock. “Second, I’m not taking the chance we lose each other. No splitting up under any circumstances.”
“Acknowledged.” Spock pivots around, falling into step with him. “Although clearly it would be more befitting for Dr. McCoy to be made aware of this directive.”
He slants a look at the Vulcan. “Don’t get cute with me. I was looking forward to the next few days—and now we’re out the main attraction!”
“That is not a statement I would repeat to our ‘attraction’.”
Jim snorts as they cross the invisible border between the docking sector and the main station. “If only Bones knew how smitten you are. Lucky for you, mister, I’m a brilliant tactician.”
“Also a single one.”
Kirk draws up short to spin around. “Spock!” His mock affront dissolves almost instantly into delighted laughter. He admits between laughs, “You’re right. I’ve tried for years to catch McCoy’s interest and have nothing to show for it!” He sobers slightly. “But I know this time will be different.”
Spock arches an eyebrow.
“Because we’re a great team,” he answers the unspoken question.
“I am flattered, Jim, but more so curious that you intend to resolve a failed courtship by leveraging a potential rival as a partner.”
“Should we fight over him instead?” Jim not-quite-demands.
“I would not recommend it,” comes the dry response. “You are familiar with the kal-if-fee.”
At Jim’s arrested expression, Spock adds, “But consider evolution is in your favor. Were my mannerisms more in keeping with those of my territorial ancestors, there would be nothing so coordinated or civilized. I would simply tear off your arms—” here, the Vulcan’s gaze flicks lower, “—among other appendages—for coveting my chosen.”
Jim wets his bottom lip, eyes wide. “That’s a remarkably violent statement for a pacifist.”
“I do not always think like a pacifist.”
He suppresses a shudder, muttering, “And that’s why we’re sharing.”
Better not to follow that train of thought either, Kirk chastises himself. He takes a step back, then another, before turning around and heading off again.
However, Spock doesn’t appear to think their little chat is concluded, remarking with unusual casualness, “I imagine the reasoning behind your proposition is more complex than the mere desire to share.”
Kirk’s stride falters just briefly, allowing his Vulcan officer to smoothly catch up to him.
“What is your secondary motive?”
Jim keeps his gaze firmly fixed on the path ahead. “No secondary motive.”
“Then, your secondary plan?”
Jim clears his throat to force a tiny bubble of hysteria to subside. “No secondary plan, Spock.”
“I see.”
A phrase which sounds very much like Spock, in fact, sees and accurately guesses at too much, thinks his captain.
“Bones,” Jim reminds Spock kind of helplessly when they reach the first security zone. “There’s no plan without Bones.”
Spock inclines his head ever-so-slightly. “Affirmative.”
Then, without warning, Spock decides to take the lead of their two-person party, expertly maneuvering them through Security without much of an acknowledgment from the port authority, who seem to recognize a man not to be trifled with. Outside the zone, Spock immediately doubles their pace, plowing straight into the dense foot traffic. The Vulcan doesn’t wait to see if Jim is following but Jim does, helpless not to.
Though he had hedged in his answers to Spock, he does have a deeply personal stake in the success of their mission. Because without Spock there is no McCoy and vice versa. For Jim, this bet is all or nothing, and his heart knows it.
~~~
“I know that restaurant’s around here somewhere,” he mutters as he turns in a circle, rubbing his fingers across his forehead in contemplation. “Spock and I had lunch there.” Since the restaurant staff was friendly enough serving two Starfleet officers, Leonard figures they would also be willing to give directions.
Ruti simply stares up at him with wide gold-flecked eyes, clearly willing to let him take charge. Not that he blames the poor thing, because he doesn’t want to make the decisions either, especially given that his being-in-charge so far has only brought them more confusion.
Luck must be with them, though, for at last he spies the sign belonging to the restaurant. “There it is!” he declares, and they quickly cut across the plaza toward it. “Thank goodness. I was this close to flagging down a patrol officer.”
“How embarrassing,” Ruti teases.
“You bet!” he laughs. A formal escort back to the ship is exactly what he wants to avoid, or otherwise everyone will certainly know he couldn’t find the way back by himself. That would only lend fuel to the fire, meaning that he’s already had plenty of Spock and Jim dogging his steps as of late.
And the two boneheads refuse to explain why, sliding around his questions like slick politicians under interrogation.
The smell of spices simmering reaches Leonard’s nose. An opaque door slides back as a large group exits the restaurant just as they arrive, forcing Leonard and Ruti to press back against the building wall to avoid becoming entangled in the party. Leonard hurries forward to catch the door after the last man but to his surprise Ruti sails past him, bypassing the main entrance in favor of a smaller door set inconspicuously at the juncture between the restaurant and the upscale hostel beside it.
“I know someone here!” she calls over to him, seeming excited. She keys a code into the doorlock, and after a few seconds of waiting, darts into the building when the door unlocks.
Leonard has a moment of apprehension, eyeing the distance the restaurant he knows and then the entranceway, left partially open, which he does not. He steps out of the restaurant’s doorway with reluctance and slowly approaches the other door.
Until to that point, he and Ruti had wandered the complex much like curious tourists, laughing at their own inability to distinguish one direction from another. It wasn’t until he had taken note of the late hour from a nearby newsfeed that urgency finally pressed upon him, prompting him to seriously consider asking for assistance. Someone would soon be ordered to search for him, for the final check-in deadline has almost passed and he never requested an overnight stay on the station.
He takes a few steps toward the entranceway, hesitates, and glances at the crowded gangway behind him. No uniforms in those crowds that he can see, no familiar face he can readily identify.
Ruti’s head and shoulders appear around the door. “Oh, but this is a good turn of fortune indeed! The owner has recognized me. I shall contact my cousin. Would you like to wait out here, Leonard, or come inside?”
He hesitates again. “I really need to be gettin’ back.”
She seems accepting of this answer, sticking her head back inside a moment before reappearing. “There is a map he says you can use—or should we call for a patrol officer?”
“Map,” Leonard chooses quickly.
“A moment,” Ruti says. “I will fetch it.”
He shuffles closer to the building. When more time passes than should be necessary for Ruti to return, he finally steps up to the door, peeking inside. An arm whips out of the dark hall and snags the front of his tunic, jerking him over the threshold. In that moment, as McCoy cries out in alarm, he is struck by two things: the force of the sudden assault and his own stupidity in failing to recognize an obvious trap.
But then there’s no more time for thinking with a huge alien looming over him rumbles the warning, “Do not try to run,” as it snicks its claws together with menace. From the back of the hallway, Ruti looks on, her expression suitably grim.
“What the hell are you doing!” Leonard snaps, his efforts to twist free make his captor let go of his uniform and grab his throat inside. He gasps as the alien effortlessly lifts him up until the toes of his boots barely brush the ground.
“Requesting your help,” Ruti replies. “Chee, bring him.”
Somehow, McCoy very much doubts Ruti and her brutish companion understand the concept of a request. He’s dragged the rest of the way inside, too preoccupied with the grip crushing his airway to fight back. The door to the outside slams shut with a resounding echo.
Oh hell, Leonard thinks, part in consternation, part in fear, I should have stuck with the nosy Vulcan.
TBC
Related Posts:
- Difficulty Engaged (11/11) – from June 29, 2020
- Difficulty Engaged (10/11) – from June 28, 2020
- Difficulty Engaged (9/10) – from June 21, 2020
- Difficulty Engaged (8/10) – from June 12, 2020
- Difficulty Engaged (7/10) – from November 29, 2019
