Crossover - Michael Jan Friedman [7]
Her expression changed. “I have some bad news,” she told him. “It relates to Federation security, but it’s of direct interest to you personally.” A pause. “It appears your former colleague and friend, Ambassador Spock—”
“Has been killed,” McCoy finished for her, realizing he’d been right all along. Ice water trickled down his spine. “How?” he asked.
The admiral shot him a quizzical look before she spoke again. “No, Admiral McCoy. You misunderstand. To the best of our knowledge, Ambassador Spock is still alive. That is why we have a security problem.”
Keaton gave him a second, even more quizzical look.
“Why did you think he was dead?” she asked.
McCoy could feel the tightness in his chest release a notch. He took a breath, let it out.
“Doctor’s intuition,” he replied. “So … what’s Spock done to make himself a security problem?”
She frowned. “What I’m about to tell you is highly classified, Admiral. Only people with Priority One clearance are privy to this information, and even then it’s released strictly on a need-to-know basis.”
“I understand,” McCoy replied.
But he was thinking: I was wrong about “the call.” That had never happened before.
It figured that Spock would give him a scare like that over nothing. Despite his annoyance with his old comrade, he couldn’t help but feel a tide of relief wash over him.
Apparently, that pig-headed Vulcan had gotten himself into some kind of hot water. That was all right. McCoy had seen Spock overcome the odds before.
Too stubborn to die, the admiral thought. Like me.
“Ambassador Spock,” Keaton explained, “has been involved in a private, covert operation on the planet Romulus for the last few years. He’s working with a small group of Romulan insurgents called unificationists, who—”
“—are seeking a reconciliation and reunification with the planet Vulcan,” McCoy remarked. “I’ve heard of them. But I’m surprised that Spock would get himself mixed up with a bunch of pie-in-the-sky idealists.”
McCoy made a note to put that question to Spock when next he saw the Vulcan.
“I will assume he had a logical reason,” Keaton responded. “In any case, Spock was among a group of unificationists who were recently taken prisoner on one of the Romulan Empire’s outer worlds. A place called Constanthus.”
McCoy leaned forward. “Taken prisoner?”
Damn that Spock. His feeling of relief died aborning.
“Do the Romulans know who they’ve got?” he asked.
Keaton shook her head. “No. The communications we’ve been able to intercept show they’re so far unaware of it. However, if and when they do find out, we’re facing a security breach that could be a most serious threat to the Federation.”
The implications of Spock’s capture were very clear to McCoy. As an admiral, he had learned more about Federation security than he had wanted to know.
He knew that if the wrong person fell into hostile hands it could be disastrous. Unfortunately, Spock was very much the wrong person. His Vulcan mind was like a steel trap, full of secrets the Federation couldn’t afford to see exposed.
“What’s the plan to get him out?” McCoy asked.
Though he would later decide that he must have been mistaken, for a moment McCoy was sure that Keaton had squirmed at the question. And he had never seen her squirm before.
“We’re dispatching a Galaxy-class vessel to the Romulan neutral zone,” she told him. “We would like you to join them, as an expert on Ambassador Spock. No one alive knows him better than you do.”
McCoy was surprised. But the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. After all, he did know Spock better than anyone.
“Of course,” he responded. “I’ll be glad to help however I can.”
She nodded. “Good. The coordinates have already been forwarded to Captain Drake. You will rendezvous with the Galaxy-class ship I spoke of. Only you and the senior officers on board will know that Spock is in the custody of the Romulan Empire. This briefing and the one being given to those officers are being sent with the most sophisticated coding available to Starfleet today. I expect everyone involved to take all possible precautions.