I'll Save You - Spirk

Chapter Fifty Five

*Jim's POV*

I hummed quietly to myself as I made my way towards medical.

This is what I did most of the time when I was bored and couldn't find Spock, I went and annoyed Bones instead.

I stuck my head through the doorway and looked around to make sure the coast was clear before strolling in.

The room was empty except for Bones hovering over an unconscious security officer. He was waving a tricorder around and didn't see me come in, but the serious frown on his face was enough to make the joke die in my throat.

"What happened?"

He didn't look remotely surprised to see me, in fact he almost looked glad for the company.

"Well they didn't tell me anything when they brought him in, so I can only speculate. It looks like an overdose on a prescribed sleeping medication, but it doesn't make any sense. There is way too much in his system for it to be an accident and he was on duty, so why would he take something to make him sleep?"

I frowned, "Suicide attempt?"

"Unlikely," Bone shook his head and sat down, the worry lines on his face making him look at least ten years older.

"It would have taken a lot more to kill him and he minored in medicine when he was at the academy, he would have easily been able to calculate the lethal dose. Besides, like I said, this stuff is prescribed - it's not exactly easy to get your hands on. No, I think it was used in an attempt to poison him and make it look like a mistake."

"You seem certain of your diagnoses, doctor."

Our heads whipped to the door to see Pike standing there with a grim look on his face.

Bones scowled. "Well what are your thoughts, Captain? You can't just dump this kind of shit on us and expect us to be able to treat them without any explanation!"

His voice rose to almost a shout by the time he had finished and Pike and I both winced as he turned away again.

"McCoy, I think you are overly stressed and in desperate need of some sleep. Go, I'll find someone to take over."

Bones looked like he wanted to argue, but apparently thought better of it. He checked the security officers vitals again, punched something into a nearby PADD and scowled at us one last time before stalking out of the room.

The silence was heavy after he left and I looked around the empty room awkwardly as Pike considered the unconscious man.

"He's not wrong you know, your friend." Pike interrupted the silence suddenly, his eyes locking with mine seriously.

"Sir?" I asked, startled.

"This was no accident. Mister Gregory here was guarding a certain computer terminal. The access to it is incredibly limited, but it controls practically everything on campus. Security, power, communication you name it. It also happens to have a lot of intel, and some of that stuff...... Well lets just say it would not be good if a hostile got their hands on it. Someone was walking past and saw that the door was open so they went in and found him out cold."

I processed this for a moment. "Have they done anything?" Pike was shaking his head before I had even finished.

"That's the strangest part, as far as we can tell nothing was touched. So either they are just trying to show us that nothing's safe, or......"

"They're just really good at covering up," I finished for him and he nodded grimly.

"That's what worries me."

I sighed and buried my head in my hands. "Is there nothing we can do to stop them?" I asked in a quiet voice and Pike put a hand on my shoulder.

"We're doing everything that we can, son. Normally there wouldn't even need to be a guard there, it's kept locked almost all the time. They'll make a mistake eventually, people like this always do. That's when we'll get them."

I quickly pulled myself together and nodded. "What can I do?" I asked and Pike looked thoughtful.

"Nothing right now, but soon. We are just waiting on a few more people before we make our next move. For now, you look like you could use some rest too. Go, I'll contact you if anything changes."

I nodded at the clear dismissal and headed for the door, looking back only once to see Pike staring down at the security guard, his shouldered slumped with defeat.

The sight of the confidant Captain looking as if he was struggling to find hope was a sobering one, and it wasn't something I wanted to dwell on.

So instead I took off in the direction of the gym, wanting to get as far away as I could.

...............

I reached the gym and paused just outside, unsure as to what my next move was.

That is the biggest problem about there not being any classes, nobody had anything to do and I for one was usually bored.

After another seconds thought I pulled my headphones out and plugged them into my communicator, putting some music on and walking into the gym.

I haven't been keeping in shape like I should be and it was starting to show, might as well do something while I was here.