In The Aftermath: A Star Trek Fanfiction

Chapter Four

An hour and a half. That's how long it had taken Starfleet to realize that negotiations were a moot point. 90 minutes. 

Spock could be dead by now. 

Kirk couldn't afford to think like that. Spock was alright. He had to be alright. 
Jim had enough practice lying to himself to convince himself of that. 

"Three to beam down, Mr. Scott" Kirk ordered as he clipped his utility belt around his waist and stepped up onto the transporter pad. Bones did the same to his left, and beyond Bones a security officer that Kirk couldn't remember the name of copied him. 

Bones had a lot more gear of course. A full emergency medkit wasn't qutie as small as a phaser, but Bones managed. 

"Keptin!" Kirk's communicator chirped from his waist. He un-holstered it and flipped it open

"Yes Mr. Chekov?" 

"I Havwe completed zhe tracking software. I am sending it to doctwor McCoy's tricorder as we speak sir" Kirk heard the ping of Bones' tricorder and watched the doctor accept the download. 

"Eet will not work from zhe ship, sir, but once you are underground zhe tracking software should be able to locate Commander Spock and lead you to him!" 

"23rd century marco polo" Kirk said softly under his breath

"I'm sorry Keptin, I didn't quite hear zhat" Chekov said

"Nevermind, wasn't important" Kirk snapped his communicator shut and looked to Scotty, 

"Energize!" 

The golden swirl of the transporter pad surrounded Kirk and company, and when the light cleared, they were in a long corridor. 

It was underground, judging from the lack of windows, or maybe just high security. The running lights were dimmed to a low, eerie red glow

"Bones. Tricor-" 

"I got it, calm down" Bones snarked, maliciously mashing buttons and glaring at the display "this isn't easy and the kid didn't exactly include an instruction manual" 

"Jesus, Bones, for a starfleet officer you sure have a problem with computers-"

"I'm a doctor, dammit, not a science officer!" 

"give it here" Kirk unceremoniously yanked the tricorder out of the doctor's hands and had the tracking software up in seconds. 

"That way" he nodded in front of them, watching the green blip on the display that represented his first officer. 

"Captain, if I may be so direct, I don't believe you should go first" The security officer said from behind. 

"..Huh?" Kirk was staring at the blip like a desperate child "yeah, yeah, good idea-what was your name?" 

"Maridez" 

"Maridez, yeah, take point" 

The security officer stepped around the doctor, in front of the captain, set his phaser to stun and tentatively creeped down the hallway. 

As they came closer to the blip, the tricorder proceeded to beep louder and higher pitched, 

"Is there any way to mute that damn thing, the whole building can hear us!" Bones snapped

"Bones, shush-"

"The damn machine's being louder than me-"

"Bones, seriously shut up this is a stealth mission-" 

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO EXPLAIN JIM GODDAMMIT-" 

Kirk stopped dead in his tracks and put his hand over Bones' mouth. McCoy made an indignant noise and tried to pull him off, but Kirk made the gesture of one's throat being slit, and Bones ceased to put up a fuss. 

There, further down the hall, and around the corner, there was a soft white light and the hiss of pressurized doors. Kirk dropped to the floor and leaned up against the wall, quietly flipping his phaser to stun and preparing to fire. 

Martinez and McCoy followed his example, and they all held their collective breaths as shadows danced across the wall. 

Then, suddenly around the corner, three figures walked out of the lit corridor and quickly continued down the hall, vocalizing to one another in strange, gravelly tones. 

After another minute of silence, Kirk rose silently to his feet and inched closer to the lit intersection of hallways. 

When they were just around the corner, Kirk quickly whipped around the corner, phaser pointing down it. Martinez matched his gesture, darting across the doorway to the opposite wall. After a second of silence, it was apparent the corridor was empty. 

Indeed, it was short, only decorated by a locked door with a medicinal glow coming through the tinted window. As they approached, they noticed a keycard lock on the door. 

The tricorder beeped shriller, and it was obvious that Spock was behind that door. 

"Well, how are we supposed to get in there?" Bones snarked, 

"Tricorder" Kirk said, closing the tracking program and opening the source code. Holding it up to the lock, he worked technical magic and within seconds the door's security light switched from red to green. 

"Be ready to fire" he said to Maridez, Maridez nodded curtly, and with a deep breath, Kirk kicked the door open. 

The room was empty, only decorated by a pair of sterile silver operating tables and a shelved wall of bins. 

"I...DAMMIT" Kirk snapped, fisting his hands in his hair, "Where'd we go wrong?" 

Maridez carefully took the tricorder from the captain, re-opened the tracking software, and scanned the shelved wall with it. 

Hovering over a bin on the left hand side at about shoulder height, the tricorder let out a singular shrill note, and Maridez opened the drawer in question. 

Inside were the Commander's uniforms, torn, seemingly scorched in patches, and crumpled in a heap.