Aviophobia (Leonard McCoy)

10. Deep Space Station K7

Out of breath, Kate and Leonard both arrived on the bridge after running nearly the whole way there.  It didn't matter how in shape she actually felt, she never felt good after she finished running across the starship.  She focused on calming her breathing before going up to Jim and saw that Leonard was doing the same beside her.  As soon as both of them had caught their breath, Leonard nodded to her so she nodded in return and the both joined Jim where he was seated in his captain's chair.

He greeted them by asking, "What did you two find out?"

Kate replied, "We were trying to determine why the women had such an impact on the male crew members and came across what we think Mudd has been using."

Leonard added in, "It wasn't possible for them to just be that appealing since Ruth set off the scanner, so we started looking into banned substances and found the Venus drug."

Jim furrowed his brows and asked, "Venus drug?  Isn't that just a myth?"

Kate shook her head, "No, we found it in Starfleet's data base of banned substances.  Use of it is illegal, but it fits.  Everything in the description of the drug matches the effect that Eve, Ruth, and Magda have been having on all you guys."

Leonard chimed in, "And Mudd's not the most trustworthy character.  Makes sense that he'd use trickery to get what he wanted."

Jim crossed an arm across his chest and rested his head on his other hand as he sighed.  He looked up at Leonard and Kate then said, "You're right, Bones.  He already has, too.  Somehow, Mudd got in contact with the miners and made a deal with them.  The miners want to swap crystals for Eve, Ruth, and Magda, and they want charges against Mudd dropped.  If we don't agree to those terms, they've said they'll refuse to give us any crystals."

Kate shook her head and sighed in disbelief.  Mudd, though he didn't really seem like an intelligent or capable man, had managed to outsmart them.  If they didn't think of something soon, the Enterprise would run out of power and then everyone on board would be in trouble.  Before she got a chance to ask Jim what his plan was, Spock joined them and said, "Captain, we are conserving batteries.  The ship is at half power, sir."

Leonard's eyes widened in disbelief and fear as he asked, "Good god, man, how much time do we have left on those batteries?"

Spock, as emotionless as always, replied, "According to my best calculations, as well as the estimations of Mister Scott, we can stay in orbit for a day.  After that point we'll be caught by gravity..."

Before Spock could play out the worst case scenario, Kate exclaimed, "Enough, Spock.  One day was all we really needed to know," then turned to Jim and asked, "What are you going to do?  We can't pardon Mudd, and we have to get the dilithium crystals."

Jim sighed again before he said, "There's a magnetic storm on the surface of the planet right now.  Mudd is still here on ship, but the miners already have Eve, Ruth, and Magda on the surface as an act of faith on our part, but we lost them in the storm.  So we're trying to read through the storm so we can locate them on the planet," then Jim asked aloud to the whole bridge, "How are those scans coming?  Any progress?"

Spock shook his head as he looked up from some scans and said, "The storm is ionising the atmosphere, captain.  It is proving difficult to get the probe through."

Kate heard Leonard mutter under his breath, "Well, that's just great..." just as Jim's comm went off.  Scotty was checking in with bad news, "Captain, this is scan is draining our batteries further.  If we keep up the scans and the storm doesn't abate, we've got at most five hours of power left."

Kate felt her knees weaken, and she felt Leonard slip his hand into hers to give her something to hold onto.  It took everything in her to not jerk her hand away from his, but everything in her was also screaming at her to keep holding it.  Trying to push thoughts of Leonard aside, she really wondered why she had decided to join Starfleet.  Space was far too unknown.  There was always the potential for something to go wrong, and a fear of flying did not mix well with that.  Her fear did not ease any as Jim replied, "We've got to locate them, otherwise we don't have any hope for getting the crystals for our ship.  Do what you can, Scotty."