THE RIGHT DECISION

JM Lane

TOS/AU

McCoy and company

Rating: No more than PG-13 at most

Disclaimer: Everything is Paramount's except my story and my imagination.

The Right Decision
by JM Lane

"Oh, my God. Please, God, no." Nurse Christine Chapel's face was a mixture of shock and disbelief.

"What's wrong, Chris?" Chief Surgeon Leonard McCoy asked conversationally. He switched off his tricorder, where he had been recording his Medical Log, and went to join her.

"Look for yourself." McCoy was surprised to see tears in his chief nurse's eyes before he looked into the holo-microscope but dismissed it for the moment.

"Oh, my God." The Doctor's voice was barely audible as he echoed Christine's earlier statement. "Xenopolycethemia. Incurable and terminal. Whose test is this?"

"Yours." Christine's eyes brimmed with tears. "I ran an analysis of your blood and tissue a few minutes ago."

McCoy turned pale. He had been feeling weak and dizzy lately and his blood pressure had been up, but he had attributed it to too much work and too little food or rest. Now this...

"Leonard, I don't want you to die."

"Don't worry, Chris. I don't intend to go without a fight." He gave her a reassuring hug; the nurse gave her superior a wan smile.

"But how can we beat an incurable disease?"

"I don't know, but if there's a way, I'll find it."

Christine looked thoughtful. "Shouldn't the Captain be told about this? After all, he would need to know in order to...obtain a replace- ment CMO. You know, just in case we *can't* find a cure."

McCoy wasn't fond of the idea, but knew she was right. Jim would have to know--but not right this second. After the crew physicals would be soon enough.

Christine went into the next room; moments later McCoy heard the following: "...to Captain Kirk. Please come to Sickbay. There's an emergency. I can't discuss it over the intercom."

McCoy caught the gist of what had been said and was furious, intending to give Christine hell for taking it upon herself to contact the Captain.

Dammit, he wasn't ready yet! Of course, McCoy doubted he ever would be ready, no matter when Kirk was told.

How did you tell your friends you were going to die? And even worse, that there was nothing you could do to change matters? Even so, Jim would expect him to do all he could to effect a cure. After all, one could replace a starship CMO, but not a friend of all one's adult life.
He entered the adjoining room, eyes flashing blue fire. "Christine, what the hell do you think you're doing? The Captain doesn't need to know right away!"

"Yes, he does," she threw back. "You know how long it takes for Starfleet to replace starship personnel."

"Even so, you're overstepping your authority," he sternly informed her. "I think you'd better go to your quarters. Your shift's over anyway."

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm a nurse first and a member of the crew of the *Enterprise* second," she declared. "I've called the Captain and I'll wait until he comes!"

Just then the Sickbay doors swished open and Kirk stepped in, eyes widening upon seeing his Chief Surgeon and Head Nurse arguing, unaware of his presence.

"I *said*, you're excused, Nurse! You may return to your quarters."

Christine's jaw stiffened, her lips followed suit.

McCoy's tone softened. "Please, Christine. I promise you I'll give the Captain a full report."

Christine turned on her heel and marched out, looking straight ahead.

McCoy watched her go, then turned to face a surprised but expectant Kirk.

"That was quite a scene," the latter observed.

"I've completed the standard physicals for the entire crew." McCoy's voice had an edge that the Captain didn't miss.

"Fine. What's the emergency?" Kirk's voice was laced with impatience, on the edge of anger.

"The crew is fit; I found nothing unusual--with one exception." The Doctor's voice lowered on the last three words, as though he didn't want Kirk to hear them.

"Serious?"

"Terminal."

"What is it?"

"Xenopolycethemia. It has no cure."

"Who?"

McCoy went on as though the Captain hadn't spoken. "He has one year to live at the most."

"*Who*?" Kirk repeated, angry now.

"The ship's Chief Medical Officer."

The Captain's face went white. "You?"

"I'll be most effective in the time left if you'll keep this to yourself."

Kirk closed his eyes in pain, tears stinging his eyelids. It couldn't be true. There must be a mistake. His oldest friend, dying? Never! He couldn't lose Bones like this. There *must* be a way to save him! Outwardly, however, the Captain only nodded. "Thank you for your report, Doctor. I must return to the Bridge now."

He turned and left Sickbay as Christine had, finding it difficult to breathe--or even keep moving. The thought of losing Bones was too painful to contemplate, making Kirk feel as though a giant hand was squeezing the breath out of him.

How would he ever hide this from Spock? And Starfleet had to know, so a replacement could be sent. Even so, how could he live without Bones? However close he and Spock were, neither were complete without the Doctor and his peculiar but irreplaceable brand of friendship.

Despite their almost constant bickering--good-natured and otherwise-- Kirk was sure that Spock cared McCoy in his own way as much as he him- self did.

Fortunately the more immediate problem of the origin of the missile they had destroyed occupied Kirk for the rest of his shift. They had found that what seemed to be an asteroid was the point of origin for the missile--an asteroid that was in reality a spaceship on a collision course with Daran V.

Daran V was a populated world of three billion, seven hundred twenty-four million, according to Spock, and impact was in 394 days...13 months.

*

It hit Kirk all the harder to find Bones waiting in the Transporter Room when he and Spock arrived. Nothing he said could change the Doc- tor's mind; Christine was even there to see them off. How often did that happen? The next thing they knew, they were on what seemed to be a planet's surface.

However, they could find no trace of life--or at least none their tricorders could detect. McCoy was well aware that the tricorders could only pick up things they were designed to pick up. There was also the possibility of the material used in construction of the asteroid ship being something that their sensors couldn't read through.

In the next moment, they found themselves fighting with people who seemed to come out of nowhere. McCoy found himself distracted by an extraordinarily beautiful woman who called herself "Natira, High Priestess of the People." It was long enough for one of her guards to take advantage of it and knock him out with the butt of his sword.

His next memory was of Jim helping him up. He looked weakly up into the Captain's concerned face. "Are you all right?"

"I think so," the Doctor assured his friend.

"Welcome to the world of Yonada," the beautiful woman dressed in green said, her voice holding a trace of accent which would have been British back on Earth.

McCoy had a better view now that he was on his feet. The woman's eyebrows slanted upward almost as much as Spock's, but were gently arched in the center and there was a downward curve at the ends. Her hair was chestnut-brown, a long ponytail hanging down her back and large curls framing her oval face.

Her outfit was made of some shiny green fabric, two triangular places on her slender body exposed, as was one creamy shoulder and arm. The other shoulder was covered, as was her left arm to her wrist. He didn't learn until later that yet more hair was wrapped around the long
ponytail, and that the back of her dress was virtually nonexistent except for narrow strips of fabric criss-crossing her back.

"I can't say I think much of your welcome," Kirk retorted.

"Take them," she bit out. The Doctor noted that she moved toward the opening in one of the cylinders they had discovered upon arrival, having handed their confiscated equipment to two of her underlings.

The seven of them made their way down a winding metal staircase; Natira came last.

She led the way down a hallway filled with attractive, simply dressed people. The women wore long, colorful dresses, each with one shoulder bare.

The men wore colorful knee-length tunics with dark leggings and shoes.

The group stopped in front of a set of double doors; Spock's eyebrow raised as she waved a hand in front of one set of strange symbols, then the other hand in front of another. The doors parted and the group entered what Natira referred to as the "Oracle Room".

"You will kneel," she ordered before kneeling on a low platform in the center of the room, holding some of their equipment in one out-stretched hand. "Oh, Oracle of the People, most perfect and wise. Strangers have come to our world. They bring us instruments we do not
understand."

McCoy stage-whispered to Kirk. "She called this 'the world'. These people don't know they're on a spaceship."

Kirk whispered back, "Well, they've been in flight ten thousand years. It's possible they don't realize it." At this point one of the guards shushed him.

Natira turned to face them after standing up. "Who are you?"

Kirk introduced himself and his friends.

"For what reason do you visit this world?"

"We come in friendship," the Captain said.

Suddenly a booming voice reverberated through the room. "Then learn what it means to be our enemy before you learn what it means to be our friend."

Bolts of electricity struck the three *Enterprise* men; they collapsed to the floor unconscious.

*two*

Kirk awakened first, then Spock. "Are you all right?" the Captain asked his Vulcan friend as the latter approached him where he sat beside a still-unconscious McCoy.

"Yes, Captain."

"Bones," Kirk called. No response. He shook the Doctor and called again; finally he lightly slapped McCoy’s face. "Bones!"

"The Doctor must have received an excessively large electrical shock," the Vulcan commented.

"No," Kirk contradicted.

"Nothing could have caused this, Captain...at least nothing that has happened here." Spock was bewildered. What could be wrong with the Doctor?

"It was serious because of McCoy’s weakened condition."

"May I ask precisely what is troubling the Doctor?" The Vulcan noted the Captain’s tightly controlled voice and allowed himself a moment of concern for the Chief Surgeon. He had wondered what was going on since the strange conversation between Jim and the Doctor in the Transporter Room. The Vulcan had remained silent, figuring there must be some logical reason for it--and hopefully he would now learn what that reason was.

"I don’t think he’d have told you himself. It’s xenopolycythe- mia."

Spock’s face was touched by sadness. "Yes. I know of it, Captain."

"Then you know that nothing can be done." Both looked upon their unconscious friend, asking themselves why it had to be McCoy afflicted with such a disease, hating their inability to help him. At that moment, McCoy’s eyelids fluttered, then opened. The first thing he saw was Kirk’s face.

"Bones?" the Captain asked.

"I’m all right," McCoy said. "Are you all right, Mr. Spock?" He looked up at the Vulcan.

"Yes, Doctor. The Captain and I have suffered no ill effects."

McCoy sat up carefully, then stood, wobbly once on his feet, then steadying himself...looking surprised when Spock reached to help him, a look of controlled concern on his sculptured face. The Doctor looked at Kirk in bewilderment.

"Spock knows," the Captain said by way of explanation, giving McCoy a concerned look. "Are you sure you should get up?"

"Don’t worry; I can handle it, Jim." McCoy politely refused his friends’ offered hands. "We’d better get to the Control Room." At this point an old man with long grey hair and careworn face topping a color- ful knee-length tunic with black leggings and shoes entered. "Gentle- men, I believe we have a visitor."

The old man bowed as the three from the *Enterprise* turned to face him.

They each received a pill after he reached them.

"Many of us have felt the power of our Oracle. This has been of benefit."

The Doctor was the first to try it. "Tastes like an ancient herb derivative," he observed, not waiting to see whether his friends took it or not. All he knew was that *he* needed it.

"You are--not of Yonada," the old man said carefully, as if afraid of something.

"No," Kirk confirmed. "We’re from outside your world."

"Where is outside?" their visitor wondered.

"Outside. Up there, everywhere," Kirk told him.

"So *they* say, also." The old man winced as though in pain before continuing. "Many years ago, I climbed the mountains--even though it is forbidden."

"Why is it forbidden?" Kirk asked.

"I’m not sure." The old man winced once again and put a hand to his temple. "But things are not as they teach us. For the world is hollow...and I have touched the sky!"

With that, both hands went to his temples and he cried out before collapsing. McCoy eased him to the floor, then checked for a pulse before looking up at his two companions. "He’s dead."

Kirk looked down at the dead man lying at their feet. "‘For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky!’" he repeated, voice low and respectful.

"He said it was forbidden to climb the mountains," Spock recalled.

"Yes, of course it is--because if you did, you’d touch the sky and find you were inside a hollow ball. Not a planet, but a spaceship...and that knowledge seems to be forbidden."

Just then Natira entered with two female attendants bearing trays of food and drink, their eyes widening at the sight of the body on the floor...but it was Natira who spoke. "What has happened?"

"We don’t know," Kirk said. "He was talking to us, then screamed in pain and collapsed."

Natira knelt beside the body and bowed her head. "Forgive him, for he was an old man, and old men are sometimes foolish." McCoy had a fleeting thought that men didn’t have to be old to be foolish--women either, for that matter--before the priestess rose. "But it is written that those of the People who sin or speak evil shall be punished."

Her face became sad as she summoned two guards, who arrived moments later. She gestured toward the body. "Take him away...gently." To the three *Enterprise* men she said, "He served well for many years." As the other two women offered them food and drink, she told them, "It is time to refresh yourselves."

Kirk took some, but Spock declined. McCoy declined food but took a drink. Natira gestured to a nearby table; the women placed the trays there and waited. "It is the will of the Oracle that you now be treated as honored guests." She ostensibly addressed all three, but her gaze lingered on McCoy before she turned and rejoined her attendants, speaking softly with them.

McCoy seated himself again as Kirk and Spock positioned themselves in front of him. "You seem to be the special favorite," Kirk observed with a smile.

"Indeed, Doctor," the Vulcan concurred. "The lady did show a marked preference for your company."

McCoy smiled. "Well, nobody can blame her for that, can they?"

Kirk looked at the three women, then back at McCoy. "Personally I find the lady’s taste questionable, but she obviously prefers you, and you don’t seem to mind."

The Doctor couldn’t help thinking, ‘What man worthy of the name would mind?’, though he didn’t voice his opinion. After all, it wasn’t every day that a woman gravitated to him instead of Jim or Spock--and he was determined to enjoy every moment of it. Not to mention the surprise and jealousy he had detected in Jim’s voice...

"In which case, you may keep the lady occupied while Spock and I are left alone to find the power controls for this--world."

Natira left the other women to return to the three men, standing in front of McCoy, noting how strangely he was acting. "You do not seem well. It distresses me."

"Oh no, I’m quite all right, thank you," he assured her.

"We are most interested in your world," Spock said.

Natira smiled. "That pleases us."

Kirk returned it. "Then you won’t mind if we look around."

"Not at all," the priestess replied. "The People know of you now." She smiled again. "You are free to go about and meet our people."

Kirk smiled again. "Thank you...and thanks again for taking care of Dr. McCoy."

"Not at all," she replied absently, her eyes on the Doctor. "Are you strong enough to move about?" she asked when he quietly coughed.

He looked up at her and smiled, finding it difficult not to lose himself in the fathomless depths of her eyes. "Perhaps not."

"Then remain here. Rest. We will talk." She smiled down at him.

"You are very kind." The couple hardly noticed when Kirk and Spock departed.

The other women followed suit when Natira jerked her head toward the door. "Leave us."

McCoy turned toward her when she joined him on the couch. "I’m curious. Why did the Oracle punish the old man?"

Her head bowed. "I--cannot tell you now."

"There’s some way by which the Oracle knows what you say," McCoy observed.

"What we say, what we think. The Oracle knows the minds and hearts of all the People."

The Doctor bowed his head, as if too weak to hold it up any longer.

Natira touched his nearest hand. "I did not know you would be hurt so badly."

"It's all right. We had to learn the power of the Oracle."

Her reply held a strange urgency, even longing. "McCoy, there is something I must say. Since the moment I..." Words failed her when their eyes met. "It is not the custom of the People to hide our feelings."

McCoy was certain he had never seen a more beautiful, desirable woman anywhere in the galaxy--and she wanted *him*. Even so, he had to take things slow and easy, in spite of the difficulty that presented with her nearness and intoxicating perfume. But he only said, "Honesty is usually wise." His head rose so their eyes met again.

Her heart seemed written all over her face. "Is there a woman for you?"

He was startled by her blunt question, but at the same time admired her courage in asking it. She was obviously one who believed in going after whatever--and whoever--she wanted, and devil take the hindmost.

"No," he confessed. "There’s no one."

She smiled happily. "Does McCoy find me attractive?"

He returned her smile. "Yes, I do. Very much."

She took his hands in hers. "I hope you men of space--of other worlds--hold truth as dear as we do."

"We do." As he squeezed her hands, he no longer wanted to play the gentleman. He didn’t have time to be timid. After all, he had only a year to live; Natira and her love could make it a happy one. He would miss his friends, but was sure they would understand. He had had pre0 cious little happiness in his life and wasn’t about to turn down the only chance he had left for it. Even the thought of dying seemed more palatable if she was with him, even though he hardly knew her or any- thing about her. She was so beautiful, so tempting...

Her voice brought him back to reality. "McCoy, I wish for you to remain here on Yonada--as my mate." Her eyes and face were radiant with love.

*three*

McCoy felt as though he’d been hit with the proverbial ton of bricks. He was of the old school, where men did the proposing of mar- riage. It wasn’t every day a woman proposed to *him*. Sure, he found her attractive, but one didn’t marry everyone they found attractive.

"But we’re strangers to each other," he pointed out.

Once again she turned on her delicious smile. "But is that not the nature of men and women--that the pleasure is in the learning of each other?"

She sounded so logical, like Spock, that he found himself agreeing.

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"Then let the thought rest in your heart, McCoy." She reached a hand to stroke his cheek. "In the fullness of time, the People will reach a new world...rich, green, lovely to the eye. So much so that it will fill their hearts with tears of joy. You can share that world with me--rule it by my
side."

"When will you reach this new world?"

"Soon. The Oracle will only say ‘soon’."

"If you only knew how much I need some kind of future, Natira," McCoy found himself confessing, her open and unashamed love for him inspiring the beginning of the same inside of him and warming his lonely heart for the first time in years.

"You have lived a lonely life?" Her eyes darkened with concern.

"Yes. Very lonely."

"No more, McCoy. There will be no more loneliness for you. I will see to that."

He knew he had to tell her of his illness, that their love could not last. He owed her that much for opening her heart to him. "Natira, there is something I must tell you."

She put a finger to his lips. "There is nothing you need to say."

"But there is," he insisted.

"Then tell me, if the telling is such a need."

"I have an illness for which there is no cure. I have one year to live."

Her eyes widened in shock and pain, but the love remained. "Until I saw you, there was nothing in my heart. It sustained my life, but nothing more. Now it sings." She smiled. "I could be happy to have that feeling for a day...a week...a month..." Her voice lowered. "A year. Or whatever the Creators hold in store for us."

She held out her arms to him; he followed suit, drawing her warm sweetness close to him and finding her lips with his.

*

Kirk and Spock received curious looks as they walked down a corridor in the asteroid ship; some people even followed them for a time.

"These people have no idea they are living on a spaceship," Spock observed. "Most curious."

"I wonder how many generations have lived and been buried here without ever knowing that their world is hollow," the Captain replied as they turned down the corridor toward the Oracle Room.

The Vulcan studied the strange symbols in the walls once they arrived.

"The writing is Fabrini, Captain. I recognize it."

"Fabrini? Didn't their sun go nova and destroy its planets?"

"Indeed, Captain. Toward the end, the Fabrini lived underground, as these people do, to protect themselves."

"Then that means that some were put aboard this ship and sent to another planet." Kirk looked around at the nearly empty corridor. "And these are their descendants."

After making sure they were alone, Spock opened the door and the two slipped inside the Oracle Room. They were surprised but pleased when nothing happened to them. "The Oracle doesn't seem to know we're here," Kirk remarked. "I wonder what alerted it the first time."

The Vulcan stopped Kirk before he stepped onto the low platform in the center of the large but mostly empty room. "I believe its reprehensible conduct was initiated when Natira knelt on that platform."

The two moved away from the platform, scanning the rest of the room.

More strange symbols lined the walls; an altarlike structure with a sunlike symbol in its center was at the far end. A monolith with a crude carving of a sun and its solar system on its top third was at the left side of the room near the door. Spock noted how many planets there were, his upswept brows rising when he digested this information, though he said nothing for the moment.

"Look further, Spock. A clue to the location of the Control Room must be here somewhere."

"Even so, there is nothing to suggest that this is anything but a planet...nor is there any question that the 'Creators' are considered gods."

Kirk discovered the monolith at this point; the Vulcan was one step behind. "Eight planets," the latter said. "That was the number in the Fabrina solar system."

"Then there is no doubt that these people are descendants of the Fabrini," Kirk observed.

"None," Spock confirmed. "Just as there is no doubt that they have been in flight on this asteroid ship for ten thousand years." As Spock finished speaking, the door opened and Natira entered.

They ducked behind the monolith as she crossed to the low platform and knelt upon it again. The Oracle's booming voice reverberated all through the room and the sun-symbol glowed.

"Speak," the voice said.

"It is I, Natira."

"Yes, Natira."

"It is written that only the High Priestess may select her mate."

"It is so written," came the agreement.

"The strangers among us--the three visitors--there is one called McCoy.

I wish him to remain here...as my mate."

Kirk and Spock looked at each other; the Captain whistled under his breath as Spock raised an eyebrow. Bones had certainly lost no time!

"Does he agree to this?" the Oracle asked.

"I have asked him," Natira said. "He has not yet given me his answer."

"He must become one of the People; worship the Creators and agree to the insertion of the Instrument of Obedience."

"He will be told what must be done."

"If he agrees to all things, it is permitted. Teach him our laws carefully, see that he commits no sacrilege--no offense against the People."

"I shall do so, most wise." Natira bowed her head, then got up and stepped off the platform to head for the door. When she swung her arms to open it, all hell broke loose. Natira whirled to find Kirk and Spock enveloped in a white glow, unable to move.

"Who are the intruders?" the Oracle demanded.

"Two of the strangers, Kirk and Spock," Natira said.

"McCoy is not with them?"

"No."

"Kirk and Spock have committed sacrilege. You know what must be done."

Guards rushed into the room. Natira gestured toward the monolith and its captives, her beautiful face a mask of anger. "When the Oracle releases them, take them," she said. "Fools," she addressed the two prisoners. "Do you think we are children, that you can do as you please, commit any offense that amuses you?"

**********

Natira was standing before a makeshift altar in her quarters when McCoy entered. "What are you going to do to my friends?" he demanded.

"They entered the Oracle Room." She kept her head bowed and back to him.

"And the penalty is death."

"Yes," she admitted. "We gave them our trust; they betrayed us. I can make no other decision."

"They acted out of ignorance, Natira."

"They said they came in friendship," she retorted.

"Let them return to the ship," McCoy entreated.

She shook her head. "I cannot."

"Not even for me?" He turned her around and held her at arm's length.

"I've made my decision. I'm staying here on Yonada." She rushed into his arms and held him tightly. Her hair was soft and fragrant against his cheek. A moment later he moved her away to face him.

"Natira, whaty they did, they did because they felt they had to. How do you think I'd feel if I stayed here with the chance to be happy for one of the few times in my life, knowing my friends had died? Let them return to the ship. You won't regret it."

Love shone from her eyes as they looked up into his. "Very well, McCoy.

You have won their lives. I will spare them--for the sake of our happiness and future." As the two came together in a lingering kiss, it was then that McCoy knew he had made the right decision.

*four*

Kirk and Spock were waiting at the beamup site when McCoy joined them.

He handed over their communicators and weapons; Spock gave the Doctor a strange look when he didn't take his place with them.

"You aren't coming with us?" Kirk was shocked.

"No." McCoy's tone was quiet but firm.

"Bones, this isn't a planet, it's a spaceship on a collision course with Daran V!"

"I'm on something of a collision course myself, Jim." The Doctor didn't change expression.

Kirk's face hardened. "Doctor, I order you to return with us!"

"And I refuse," McCoy replied evenly. "Natira has asked me to stay, and I'm staying."

"As her husband?" Kirk prompted.

"Yes," came the reply. "I've only one year to live, Jim. Are you going to begrudge me my last chance for happiness?"

The Doctor's eyes pleaded with his friend not to deny him, and of course the Captain couldn't. Even so, Bones' staying here meant losing him--in more ways than one--and Kirk didn't think he could live with that.

"Is that so much to ask, that I spend the last year of my life happy?"

"No, of course not," Kirk admitted. "Does she know about your illness?"

McCoy nodded. "She does."

"Bones, if we can't correct the course of this...ship, we'll have to blast it out of space."

McCoy's face hardened. "I intend to stay on this ship with these people--whatever happens."

"Your decision is illogical, Doctor," Spock said.

"Is it, Spock? Is it really?" The Vulcan kept his body straight and stiff, hands in tight fists behind his back and eyes staring straight ahead as he swallowed hard, unable to answer.

Before anyone could say another word, Kirk's communicator beeped. He flipped it open. "Kirk to *Enterprise*."

"Scott here," came the voice of the Chief Engineer.

"Lock in on us, Scotty. Transport Mr. Spock and myself immediately."

Scott was bewildered. "But sir, what about Dr. McCoy?"

Kirk literally forced out his next words. He had never done or said anything so difficult in his life. "He's staying, Scotty. Kirk out." His pain was eased by the look of gratitude on McCoy's face--but how could he possibly leave him, even if it was what Bones wanted?

A lump the size of Iowa formed in Kirk's throat and tears burned his eyelids even as he and Spock began to dematerialize. The Captain had a terrible feeling that if he did as McCoy asked, he would never see him again..at least not alive.

Only Spock saw the pain in the Captain's eyes when they rematerialized in the *Enterprise*'s Transporter Room. The Vulcan's voice was infinitely gentle as he attempted to comfort his Human friend. "I can understand how you must feel, Jim, but it is what the Doctor wants. We must honor his wishes."

The two were quiet under Scott's scrutiny, but once outside the door, Kirk's voice was filled with anguish. Spock was thankful that the corridor was deserted. "How can I possibly leave him, Spock? If I do, I feel sure that I'll never see him alive again, no matter what happens with Yonada."

There was nothing Spock could reply to this, so he simply laid a hand on his Human friend's shoulder. "What am I going to say to Chris- tine?" Kirk lamented. "How can I make her understand what's happened--or why?"

Spock heard the pain behind Kirk's statement and decided that it would be best for him to be the one to tell Christine about McCoy. He felt uncomfortable around her because of her feelings for him, but he could deal with it now...at least as long as he wasn't around her any more than
necessary. Particularly considering the feelings her confes- sion and actions over Psi 2000 had brought out in him...

"Jim, I believe that I would be better suited to explain the situation to Christine. You had best return to the Bridge."

Kirk's hazel eyes held both gratitude and concern. "I appreciate the gesture, Spock, but are you sure you can handle it? After all, you know how she feels about you--and then to tell her about Bones on top of that..." The Captain's voice trailed off.

"I will be all right, Captain. Please go now."

"If you say so. Come see me when you're done, wherever I am."

Spock nodded, and Kirk walked on ahead to a 'lift which would take him back to the Bridge, while Spock turned and headed in the opposite direction, to one which would take him to Sickbay and Christine. He wasn't looking forward to it, particularly the possibility of her becoming emotional and crying or something--but what mattered was that he was making Jim's job easier. That was only logical.

**********

At this point McCoy and Natira were in the Oracle Room on Yonada preparing for their marriage. With a part of him, the Doctor wished that Jim, Spock and Christine could have been with him to share his happiness at this new marriage. It hurt to think that he would never see them again. How could he be truly happy without them, even with the love of a wonderful woman like Natira? However, McCoy suspected that he was going to have to learn...and learn fast.

The Oracle's booming voice brought him back to reality. "To become one of the People of Yonada, the Instrument of Obedience must be made part of your flesh. Do you now give your consent?"

"I do," McCoy said.

"Proceed."

Natira stepped up to him, a small device in her left hand and her eyes meeting his with pure love. "Be certain, McCoy," she advised.

"Once it is done, it cannot be undone."

"Let it be done."

She placed her hands on his temples, pressing gently to activate the device. "You are now one with my people," she said happily. He took her hand and they knelt together. "May I give you the love you want and make the time you have beautiful." Her smile was tender.

"We are now of one mind, one heart, one life." She moved into his arms and they kissed.

"Teach him what he must know as one of the People," the Oracle said. She led McCoy to the monolith, pressing the lower three planets on the carving.

The top third slid up to reveal a large, thick hardcover book.

"This it the Book of the People, to be opened and read when we reach the new world of the Promise. It was given by the Creators."

"Do the People know the contents of their book?" McCoy wondered.

"Only that it tells of our world here, and why we must leave it one day for the new world."

McCoy couldn't understand that. If the People considered this ship their world, why would there be a need to leave it--and why hadn't someone figured that the so-called world was really a spaceship long before the old man had?

How could he have been the only one? Or had the Oracle killed off any non-believers before their skepticism could spread? A frightening thought... Of course, it would do no good to mention this, so he put it out of his mind before the Oracle punished him as well.

"Has the reason the People must leave here been revealed to you?"

Natira shook her head. "No, it has not."

"Don't you long to know its secrets?"

She frowned at him. "No. It is enough for me to know that we shall understand all when we reach our home." Natira's beautiful face hardened, as if telling McCoy not to bother asking any further questions. No matter how much she loved him, there was only so much he was entit- led to know.

END PART 5
NEXT: Spock tells Christine about McCoy...among other things.