This is bad. Fuck, this is bad. If Freedom of Thought has the Ambassador, if they've got all of the elder Spock's knowledge from his universe, then… Jim can hardly imagine what sort of chaos that could lead to. What sort of ransoms these thieves could demand, with the futures of whole worlds able to be sold or changed at their will. He vaguely considers throwing the communicator at something, but instead replies, "Got it. We're coming over. Ask what else they know," as he and Spock start heading for the bridge.

"Shit. I knew this would happen. What are we going to do? They could be planning anything!" Jim tries not to snap at Spock, or at any inanimate objects, but there's nothing he hates like a crisis that he can't do anything about.

"I would remind you that the Ambassador is fully capable of defending his own mind, if indeed this organization has captured him."

He tries to remind himself that Spock's cool response doesn't mean he isn't just as alarmed by this turn of events as Jim is.

"We've still got to get him back."

By the time they get to the bridge, there's already a connection open to the Vulcan colony. A harried-looking Andorian who introduces shenself as a secretary is standing in the middle of a ransacked office that Jim recognizes from previous calls with the old Ambassador. There's glass on the floor, books, dust, broken items that must once have been beautiful, and it hurts to think that the old man has had his one home in this universe ruined, but that's something to think about later. Right now… they have to find Spock.

The secretary's antennae are flicking in agitated patterns, punctuating shens nervous speech. "They entered by force. Two figures with white eyes, and an Andorian. They would have attacked me too, but that one told them to spare me." Shen wrings shens hands and shens antennae move faster. "I couldn't move to defend the Ambassador. I tried to move, but they were holding me down. I couldn't do anything against it. It was something telepathic, something strong, but I couldn't recognize what it was."

So whatever they do, however they work, it's nothing standard to Vulcan or Andorian telepathy. Jim nods. "They did that to me," he says, hoping to calm the secretary enough that shen can continue. Something doesn't seem quite right about this, but then, nothing's right at the moment.

"He was able to fight them for a while, and keep them away, but then the two with white eyes did something together that knocked him unconscious. After that, they did it to me too. I didn't see what happened. When I woke up all of them were gone."

"Did they leave any message?" Jim hopes for a ransom, a boast, a clue. Anything to help them find Freedom of Thought, find these criminals and free the older Spock before they could hurt him or use what they learned from him to hurt anybody else.

"No. They said they would do that themselves." Shit. That means nothing, no leads, no clues, no traces… Wait. Something's not right.

"When did they say that? Were they talking to you before they knocked you out?"

The secretary hesitates. "I don't… they were… " and then the connection breaks, and when the screen clears the office on New Vulcan is replaced by the victorious face of Mela Keset.

"So you have heard of our success, then, Captain? You were of great use to us," he sneers, and the expression in his blank eyes is clearly one of cruel triumph.

"What do you want?" Maybe they can make a trade, maybe they can lure them out and capture them. Something tells him that the Ambassador would protest him coming to rescue him, but Jim will never leave someone when he can save them. Those creeps got the information from his head, after all, so in some way he must be to blame for this disaster. And he will set it right.

"We want what you know," Mela Keset says.

"What do you mean?" Jim narrows his eyes- wasn't it the older Spock they had been after? Wasn't that the reason they'd attacked him on Treyessa?

"We're working on the old man," Keset continues, and then the sneer takes on a new character. "He's near to breaking, and his pain is delicious, so enjoyable."

Jim clenches his fist, tries to think through the rage. No. They can't be torturing Spock. But if they are- he'd never give anything up. He'd die before letting them learn anything.

"But he isn't enough." Mela Keset says, bringing Jim back to the present. "We need more. Even so, we do have some things. For instance, we know all of the colony's weaknesses. He was so instrumental in building it, and now he will help us destroy it."

"You're lying." Jim accuses. The Ambassador couldn't have told them that. That can't even be true. The colony wouldn't be so vulnerable. It has to be a ruse, a trap… but those white eyes reveal nothing.

"Of course, we don't have to do anything to the colony. There's nothing we need there. We could instead, maybe, destroy that ship of yours. Your researchers and doctors, now, they might have something useful in their heads."

"No. You will never hurt them. My crew are under my protection," Jim declares, nearly shaking, eyes blazing. There's no way Keset's people will ever get his hands on Jim's people.

"So you say. If you were to go in their place, though, that would serve us very well indeed."

"Captain," Sulu announces suddenly, "I'm reading weapons traces in the vicinity. They're approaching us. Fast."

"These are wery bad. I have not seen anything like these before," Chekov adds.

"Do you still doubt we have the power to enforce our threats?" Keset taunts.

"He's not bluffing, sir," Sulu says after another few moments. "He can do everything he says."

Damn. There must be some way to stop this, some way to fight them…

"What is your decision, Captain?" Keset asks, too soon, "Shall we scavenge from your people, or will you take their place?"

"I'll do it," Jim says, and braces himself for the inevitable argument.

"I protest this, Captain," Spock says, as Jim knew he would. The rest of the bridge fills with loud agreement.

"I'll get out of it. I always do."

"You cannot, Jim. They will destroy you." The intensity is frightening, but Jim can't listen to it now.

"I have to. Or they're going to attack everybody down there, and everybody up here." He gives a bitter smile. "Needs of the many, Spock. I can't let them get hurt. And maybe I'll fight my way out."

~o~

He counters every one of Spock's protests, and everybody else's even when the pain he feels through their new bond is so strong he has to turn away. This is his job- to protect the people under his command. And if this is the only way to do it, this is what has to be done. Maybe some other answer will come to light soon, maybe he'll find a way to escape. He has to. Even if it means saving them, he doesn't plan to die here. There will be a way.

The arrangements don't take long. Freedom of Thought's ship is already drawing up close, and Mela Keset demands he beam onboard alone.

He emerges into the transport bay of a too-bright ship, with guards all around him. Some are species he recognizes, some are not. And once again he finds he cannot move from where he stands.

A man with white eyes- not Mela Keset, but possessing the same cold and cruel stare- does something Jim can't see, but can sense even so. Pain explodes in his head, and then the world goes dark around him.

~o~

Jim has left them, given himself up to Freedom of Thought as a hostage in exchange for the lives of the Ambassador and those of the crew of the Enterprise. Some might call it a favorable exchange, Spock thinks, but he cannot see losing someone so dear as in any way favorable. That is before he considers what Freedom of Thought might do with the information they extract from his captain, the other people they will menace and threaten for more knowledge to sell.

He has command now, and he has commanded they wait. Wait for news, or wait for Freedom of Thought to put down their guard enough so that a rescue operation can be mounted. They must not be allowed to keep Jim any longer than necessary.

An alert sounds. "Another call from the Vulcan colony," Nyota announces. "Maybe they're found more information."

Spock orders the message displayed, and the Ambassador's ruined office comes into view. And standing in the middle of the frame is the old Vulcan himself.

Not kidnapped by criminals, not imprisoned or injured or anything of the sort. How? How can this be? Spock is trying to think through his surprise, take in and process the new information, run the possibilities, when his alternate self speaks.

"Enterprise, what are you doing? I am unharmed. My assistant is… distressed, to say the least, but we are safe, as is the colony."

"What? You haven't been kidnapped by terrorists?" Doctor McCoy interjects, not the most intelligent of questions but likely the only thing on his his mind at the moment.

"Evidently not. I assure you, If I were to be attacked, I can defend myself."

"So what happened?" Nyota demands. The Ambassador looks to his secretary.

"They contacted me," shen says, looking away. "Freedom of Thought. They told me that I had to call the Enterprise and tell you that they had captured the Ambassador. I had to be convincing, or they would kill both of us, and you, and everybody else they could." Shen looks close to tears, and Spock reflects on the inefficiency of such emotional reactions when it comes to communicating needed information.

"I tore down the books, the files, to make it look like somebody had broken in. And then I called. I tried to tell you, but you didn't know the signing language!"

And this time when Spock watches shens antennae move, he understands. A sign language that the Freedom of Thought agents didn't know, but that the Enterprise was supposed to understand, supposed to interpret and see through the lies shen had been forced to tell.

"You were signaling the truth the entire time."

It is a deception. They have captured Jim and they will hurt him, if not kill him, in their search for information. And Spock's bond with him is not yet strong enough that he can tell where Jim is, or his condition.

"But where were you during all this?" Nyota asks the Ambassador.

"I was in a diplomatic meeting. I knew nothing of this. Did you not think to check?"

They had not. And because of that oversight, Freedom of Thought's plan has succeeded. And Jim is in danger.

"What have you done since you received the message?" the Ambassador asks. And so Spock tells him.