Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or its characters.

"So Spock, what's the mission?"

Spock glanced at Jim. He was lounging in the Captain's chair, eating an apple. It was a slow day on the bridge, as they had been awaiting orders from Starfleet Command that were now over 49 hours late. Spock was suddenly reminded of the Captain's demeanor during the Kobayashi Maru simulation during his time at the Academy. As confounded as Spock had been on that day, he was now grateful to see the Captain looking so relaxed.

"Our orders are to meet with diplomatic representatives of the Tonetta Star System. We are to remind them of the official Federation regulations prohibiting the trade of intelligent beings and gather evidence if we find that they are acting in violation of Federation laws."

"Species trafficking. Lovely," Jim said sarcastically.

Spock continued with his briefings. "Tonetta is a relatively isolated star system located at the far edge of this galaxy. Its main planet, also named Tonetta, is a largely agricultural planet, with the exception of a large bazaar in its main city, also called Tonetta - "

"Creative bunch, aren't they?" Jim interjected.

"– that specializes in the trade of intelligent life forms, despite the Federation's oft-repeated orders to desist. The atmosphere is similar to Earth, so no environmental protective gear will be necessary..."

Jim listened attentively as his First Officer briefed him on local customs, foods, and attitudes toward the Federation. Jim smiled to himself. He was lucky to have a First Officer like Spock. Jim was a cocky son of a bitch, but even he knew he'd be in over his head without such a talented crew. Spock balanced Jim, and boy, did he prepare thorough reports. By the time the men were done speaking, Jim felt he had a grasp of the situation and had even prepared some official statements should the Tonettans be resistant to their presence. According to Sulu, the Enterprise would reach Tonetta in 21 hours.

Jim took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep, get in a workout, and make sure his formal-dress uniform was cleaned and pressed. This was a diplomatic mission, so he would be required to dress appropriately. With these minor tasks done, Jim decided to check in on the bridge with Lieutenant Sulu.

"How are we doing?"

Sulu looked up at Jim. "Right on course, Captain. We are entering the planet's orbit as we speak, and will remain here throughout the diplomatic conference."

Jim clapped Sulu on the shoulder. "Sounds good." He turned to Uhura. "Lt. Uhura?"

"Captain?" she responded.

"Please let the Tonettan Senator, Evrin-Gar, know that we are in position above the planet and looking forward to meeting him in two hours."

Uhura nodded. "Aye, Captain."

Jim smiled to himself. He and Uhura had been at odds in the past, but any tensions had smoothed over in the intervening months. Sure, they still teased each other, but it was all good-natured, and there was no one Jim trusted more with communications.

Seeing that everything was in order on the bridge, Jim strode down to meet Scotty in the transporter room. The Scot noticed Jim immediately. "Hello there Captain!"

Jim grinned, "Hello to you, Lieutenant Commander Scott. Everything look good with the transporters? We'll be beaming down in about an hour and a half to go to our meeting with Senator Evrin-Gar."

Scotty's smile slipped a bit. "Well, Captain, there is one thing. We noticed a hairline crack in one of the transporters."

"Oh? What happened?"

Scotty gestured to the transporter pad. "See for yourself, Captain."

Jim made his way up to the transporter pad. "Which one, Mr. Scott?"

"Third one from the right, Captain." He watched as Kirk got down on his hands and knees to inspect the surface of the transporter. The boy was thorough, he'd give him that. "We just won't use that one, Jim, we'll just -"

Scotty was interrupted by Jim's fading form. "What in the bloody hell is going on?!" he yelled, startled. Scotty whirled around to face the control area, where one of the engineers, Gratton, was casually leaning up against the control panel, blowing on a cup of hot coffee to cool it down. Mr. Scott threw his communicator at the man, getting his attention.

"What's going on?" Gratton asked.

Scott shoved him from the station. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?"

The man looked quickly down at his coffee. "Sir, I'm so sorry. I forgot that we couldn't have liquids in the transporter room. I'll get rid of it, sir."

Scotty was quickly manipulating dozens of controls. "No, you fool, you just beamed the Captain down to the surface of Tonetta."

The man gaped at Scotty. "What?"

Mr. Scott nodded impatiently. "You were carelessly leaning on the control panel. Did you not see the Captain up on the pad? No, don't suppose you did. Too busy with your damn coffee…" he mumbled.

The engineer immediately sat down next to Mr. Scott, trying to figure out what he had done. Scotty knew he had come down hard on the kid but, dammit, they'd just lost Jim. It had been an uncontrolled beam, and with the crack on the transporter, Scotty couldn't trace the destination. He struggled to get his breathing under control before calling up to the bridge. "Lieutenant Commander Scott to bridge, Scott to bridge."

Sulu answered. "This is Lt. Sulu. Go ahead, Scott."

"We've just lost the Captain!"

Jim, without warning, found himself materializing mid-air, still unfortunately on all fours. One instant, he had been inspecting a crack in the transporter room and now, all too quickly, he was approaching a… tractor?

"Agh!" The impact was hard, and in Jim's ungainly position he fell head-first onto the metallic surface of the tractor-looking vehicle. His body bounced off the tractor and he fell to the ground. He looked down, and all he could see was red. His first reaction was that he was bleeding badly, but then he realized that he was surrounded by grass. Red grass. The red quickly faded to black as Jim felt his consciousness slipping away.

Spock was standing in the transporter room, looking dispassionately down at the control panel. "Your analysis appears to be correct, Mr. Scott. The Captain has been beamed to an unknown location on the surface of Tonetta." He turned to the engineer, Gratton. Gratton had never been comfortable in Spock's presence, but this was a whole other level of unease. "Ensign Gratton," Spock addressed him, "You are confined to quarters until further notice." The young engineer nodded and hurried away, ashamed to have caused the situation.

Spock stood quietly in front of the transporter. "I am concerned for the safety of the Captain, Mr. Scott."

"Aye," Scotty said quietly. He watched as Spock took a deep breath. If Scotty didn't know better, he would say that Spock looked… upset.

Spock removed his communicator. "Starfleet command, come in."

"Commander Spock, this is Starfleet Command, proceed."

"I wish to speak with Admiral Pike immediately." Spock waited as he was patched through. Pike's voice addressed him. "Yes, Commander Spock?"

"Admiral Pike, there has been a transporter accident, resulting in Captain Kirk being beamed to the surface of Tonetta prematurely. His location is currently unknown." Pike groaned. "Request permission to postpone the meeting with the Tonettan diplomats and locate the Captain."

Pike sounded weary. "Permission denied, Spock."

"But Admiral-"

"Spock, the Federation has given this meeting with the Tonettans high priority. They're easily offended, and we've been putting them off for a while now. It would be a gesture of goodwill to involve the Tonettan government in your search for the Captain."

"Admiral, Tonetta is quite hostile to the Federation. It seems likely that the Captain could be facing multiple dangers if left alone for too long."

Pike's voice lowered in volume. "Listen, Spock, I'm going to speak freely. I don't like this situation any more than you do."

Spock cleared his throat. "I do not have feelings on the matter, Captain."

"Feelings or not, I can tell that you don't like it, Spock. Beam down as soon as you can assemble a team. Ask the Senator for help immediately; he'll like feeling important, and he's more familiar with the planet – he'll be able to help you locate Jim safely. Tonetta's a big place, and most of it's farmland. Jim's probably wandering around a cornfield somewhere."

"But the bazaar, Admiral."

"That damn bazaar…" Pike's voice trailed off. "I hope he's not there, Mr. Spock, but with Jim's luck… Just get the Senator to help you with the search. That's first order of business, okay?"

"Yes, Admiral. Spock out."

"Oh god…" Jim moaned. He was in considerable pain. Slowly, he forced himself to open his eyes. "Holy shit!" Jim gripped the metal surface of the vehicle he was currently, crudely strapped to. Without warning, the craft suddenly came to a halt. Jim felt rustling near his back and tensed.

"Whoa, you speak Standard?"

Jim swallowed. "Uh, yes. Yes I do."

"No way…" the voice said, its tone one of awe. "That is SO cool."

Cool? Jim tried to turn around to view who was speaking. He found that his bonds didn't allow for much movement. "Why am I tied up?"

"I didn't want you falling off the tractor. If you think you'll be okay sitting up in the front next to me, I can untie you."

"That would be good," Jim said, confused as hell. Where was he, and what was going on? He could feel the tractor move as his captor disembarked. As he walked into Jim's line of vision, Jim was surprised at the creature's appearance.

It was a Tonettan. Thank god for Spock's briefing, or Jim would be seriously alarmed. The Tonettan was tall, at least 8 feet, and very muscular. Its skin was a light blue color and covered with fine, shimmery scales, but the being was humanoid in appearance. It had dark purple eyes that were currently focusing intently on the ropes that were binding Jim.

"I'm sorry about this… I tied these things pretty tight. Didn't want to jostle you too much – looks like you've had a rough day already." Jim let out a chuckle, despite himself. "You just fell out of the sky, and you look like you're hurt pretty bad."

Jim inspected himself. He'd seen much worse. Still, his ankle was likely broken, and he knew he had a pretty nice concussion. Definitely some bruising on his side where he'd hit the damn hover tractor. All told, though, not bad. Most transporter accidents were a lot worse. At least all his parts were in the right place. The worst thing, really, was that his communicator hadn't made it through, or was lying in a clump of red grass somewhere. Jim focused his attention on the Tonettan. "Listen, uh…"

The creature grinned. Jim's eyes widened as he took in the double row of teeth. "My name's Caldo-gar."

Jim nodded. "Good to meet you, Caldo-gar. I'm Jim. This is kind of embarrassing for me, but your craft is pretty high off the ground, and my ankle isn't doing so well. I think you're going to have to lift me up into the front seat." Caldo-gar immediately complied. Jim was relieved to be untied, but part of him was still uneasy. According to Spock, most Tonettans weren't wild about the Federation, or humans in general. This Tonettan, however, had been nothing but kind. Even so, Jim was glad that he hadn't had time to change into his formal dress uniform. Better not to call attention to the fact that he was a Federation Starship Captain until he knew more about the situation.

"Where are we going?" asked Jim as Caldo-gar started up the hover tractor.

"My mom's place. She's going to freak out when she sees you."

Mom's place? "How old are you, Caldo-gar?"

"Thirty-eight years old." Jim quickly made the calculation in his head. Roughly equivalent to fifteen Earth-years. The Tonettan was just a kid. "Caldo-gar? I was wondering, does this vehicle have a communication device?"

Caldo-gar shook his head. "Nah… I mean, it did, but it's been broken for a while. Mom and I haven't really been able to afford to fix it. I'm sure mom will let you use her communicator though."

Jim relaxed a bit. "That would be really great. I kind of got separated from the rest of my group."

Caldo-gar made an odd, snorting noise. "I'll say." He eyed Jim. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

Shit, was the kid asking him his rank? Jim wasn't quite prepared to give out that information yet. "What do you mean, what am I?"

"What species are you? I've never seen anyone like you before."

Jim knew it was isolated out here, but wow. "I'm a human."

Caldo-gar's eyes widened. "Bad ass! Wait till I tell my uncle – he sees humans at the bazaar sometimes. What planet are you from?"

Screw it; this kid didn't seem like much of a threat. "Earth," Jim responded.

"I've read about Earth in school," Caldo-gar babbled excitedly. "They say there's water all over it."

Jim smiled. "Well, not all over it. But there's a lot of water. The place I come from, though, actually looks kind of like here."

Caldo-gar looked disappointed. "That's too bad." He looked at Jim. "I hate it here."

Jim stared at him. "You know," he slowly responded, "I kind of get where you're coming from." He noticed a building in the distance. "Is that where we're going?"

"Yup. Mom and I live there. Her name is Kir-gara." The boy studied Jim seriously. "I meant what I said about my mom freaking out. Just let me do the talking."

"Gladly," Jim responded.

Thanks for reading my first Star Trek story! I hope you like it. There is more to come. ----- AE