This story takes place shortly after the events of the movie. This is my first Fan Fic attempt, so please R&R. I have absolutely no medical expertise, so please excuse any inaccuracies.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Star Trek.

To Kill a Captain

Lacy lay tangled up in the sheets, watching James Kirk breathe. He was definitely a hottie, she thought, and the rumors she had heard about his talents in bed were not exaggerated. What he lacked in tenderness and romance, he certainly made up for in experience. She knew it was not a good idea to get involved with a man while she was working, but she had made an exception this time. Why shouldn't she have a little fun every now and then? It had been an embarrassingly long time since she'd seen any action, and she felt she was due.

She lay there for a while longer, just watching him sleep. His chest rose and fell evenly, and when she whispered his name she got no response. Finally convinced that he was sleeping soundly, she disentangled herself from the crumpled bedclothes, and from his left arm, which was flung across her chest, and got out of the bed. He stirred slightly as she climbed over him, and she stood very still until his breathing became even again. As she watched his face intently, she thought again what a very sexy man he was. Even the partly healed cut on his face, and bruises on his body somehow added to his manly mystique. It was a shame she was going to have to kill him.

Still listening intently for any sound of movement, Lacy set to work. She found her rumpled dress on the floor at the bottom of the bed, her bra hanging from a chair across the room, and her panties hanging from a light fixture. She dressed silently, and then opened her evening bag, found the small slit in the lining, and tore it. From underneath the lining she removed a hypospray and what looked like a particularly evil hypodermic needle, and set them on the desk.

She found the instrument of death she was using for this job to be rather distasteful, partly because she had never used it before, and couldn't be assured of the results, and partly because she had been told the death would be particularly painful. But the customer is always right, she reminded herself, and she was getting paid plenty to do it his way.

She had originally argued for the painless and simple phaser set to kill, but her customer had felt it would be too risky. Kirk's body might be found before she could get off the ship, and as she was the last person to have been with him, she would be a suspect. This method would give her plenty of time to get off the ship without arousing suspicion, before anyone realized there was anything wrong with the captain.

Jim was lying on his side with his back turned to her, in the perfect position for Lacy to carry out her plan. She pressed the hypo spray to his neck, giving him a dose of a strong sedative. She had tried to get him drunk at the party so that he would blame any grogginess he felt the next morning on the alcohol, but he had told her that he couldn't drink too much because of his duties. Based on the research she had done on him, this had surprised her, but fortunately, seducing him had been even easier than she'd anticipated.

She gave the sedative a few minutes to take effect, and then peeled his eyelid back to look at his eye. She wasn't a doctor, and didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but she figured he must be sedated or forcing his eye open would have woken him up.

Satisfied that he was unconscious, Lacy grabbed the hypodermic needle on the desk. She pushed a tiny button on the end, and it emitted a faint whirring sound. This was the only part of the plan that had her a little nervous. She'd never used this stuff before, had never even heard of it before she got this job, and was not entirely convinced of her ability to administer it correctly.

She held the syringe up to her face and stared at the substance inside, which was now spinning and glowing. She knew it contained an alien metal, almost completely unknown within the Federation, which was highly toxic to humans. She had been told that the metal was in its liquid form within the syringe, but when injected would slowly form a ball the size of a pea inside the body. Because of its properties, it was nearly impossible to detect with a tricorder, and it would travel away from the injection site, toward the vital organs, and poison the unfortunate host in just a few days. Though she hated not being able to confirm that her target was dead before leaving, she had to admit that it was an excellent means of killing someone, if you wanted to be far away when they actually died.

Lacy had been instructed to inject the substance anywhere on the captain's lower back, and she chose a spot which was already darkened by a bruise. Judging from the rather thick liquid and large needle, she was pretty sure Kirk would feel it the next morning, and she hoped he would blame the pain on the earlier injury. Even if he didn't, she was fairly certain he would not seek medical attention until it was too late. Her research had revealed his mistrust of doctors.

She poked the needle into Jim's back, and slowly pushed the plunger, watching as the metallic liquid traveled from the syringe into his body. She was only half way through when she heard him moan in pain. His eyes were still closed, but the pain was obviously enough to pierce through his unconsciousness. As she attempted to quickly empty the syringe into him, he began to thrash, moving his arms and legs, and calling for "Bones." With her free hand, Lacy managed to grab the hypospray, and she jammed it into his neck again. He whimpered once more and then was silent. She emptied the syringe into his back and removed the needle. "You're gonna have a hell of a hangover from that sedative tomorrow," she told him. "I should know." Of course the after effects of the sedative were the least of his worries.

Reaching back into her bag, Lacy removed a small packet that contained an antiseptic wipe, and swabbed the area with it. It wouldn't do to call attention to the injection site by having it get infected. She then shoved the instruments and the wipe wrapper into her evening bag, grabbed her shoes and left his room. If anyone saw her coming from the captain's quarters at this late hour they would assume that she was making the walk of shame from his room to hers. By the time her true purpose was discovered, if it ever was, she would be long gone. She had made enough money by killing Captain James T. Kirk to ensure that she could disappear forever.