Title: Dependency: Missive

Summary: Fourth and final part in the Dependency Series. McCoy contemplates love, war, and unspoken messages... while trying not to get anyone killed. Spones.

Rating: T

Warnings: Nongraphic depictions of homosexual behavior. A dash of swearing. Discussions of past (mind) rape. Violence.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. I'm just playing with it.

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Recap:

In 'Dependency,' Spock and McCoy are captured in order to help Emperor Ninyal's sick daughter. Spock links his mind with McCoy's in the Vulcan equivalent of a marriage in order to protect the doctor from losing his memories for good. In return, McCoy overcomes his temporary memory loss to break Spock out of jail. The reemergence of the good doctor's memories bring forward a repressed memory involving a forced mind meld. They escape back to the Enterprise where they inform Kirk that Ninyal was responsible for the kidnapping of a Starfleet officer, and relations with the planet are called into question. Meanwhile, McCoy's presence on the planet sparks a movement against slavery, and they leave the planet in the midst of a Civil War. McCoy convinces Spock not to tell the captain about their new link.

In 'Secrets', the secretive behavior between McCoy and Spock combine with rumors of a relationship between the two to cause tensions to arise between them and their captain. The crew faces a murderer loose on the Enterprise and strange aliens that feed off emotions who have already taken the crew of another starship. When Spock is teleported onto a planet with a unique atmospheric interference which makes their technology useless, McCoy uses their link to locate the Vulcan and attempts to use his training to sneak past the aliens. This attempt ultimately fails, but the doctor is able to wake Spock who discovers that the aliens were actually sent by a peaceful, albeit confused, creature. On the Enterprise, the murderer is discovered to be the victim's girlfriend, Nurse Sagumpta. Kirk, having finally been informed of the link, hurries them back to Vulcan so that the link can be removed. While on Vulcan, Kirk reveals that he'd found a warning note from himself involving Klingons, and McCoy admits that he doesn't know what happened during his forced meld.

In 'Honor', the attempt at severing the link between Spock and McCoy fails and everyone has to deal with the fallout. Spock, fearing the consequences of his upcoming Pon Farr, attempts to begin a relationship with McCoy but McCoy hears about it from his mother and is confused about Spock's intentions. Meanwhile, the Enterprise saves the crew of a Klingon ship, and then the crew of Starfleet's Pioneer, and it becomes clear that these malfunctions are all the result of a Romulan plot to weaken their enemies through telepathic plants made in the minds of people who were stationed on the planet Capella IV. McCoy, after at first being suspicious of another saboteur on the Enterprise, turns out to be one of the plants himself, which causes Spock to have to enter his mind to stop the Romulan influence. The Enterprise is sent on a mission to Organia to protect the border from Klingons where they are able to use their own Klingon passengers to avoid being destroyed by the Klingon fleet. 'Honor' ends with the Organians stopping the conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire and Captain Baker from the Pioneer taking over the Enterprise.

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Captain Kirk was a man of action, who was used to being in the right morally, if not legally, and he did not appreciate his new-found position that took him out of action because of arguably questionable decisions. Normally, he'd talk to Spock in these sorts of situations to give himself some perspective on things, but he wasn't sure he'd like an objective analysis. He was reasonably sure that Baker's analysis had been objective enough.

He'd always relied on Spock's sound logical arguments and McCoy's fervent emotional appeals, but neither of them had been themselves as of late and, he had to admit, it was affecting his judgment. Yet, even being fully aware of that, he couldn't imagine having made any other decisions than the ones he did. And he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about this whole situation.

"I haven't seen co-captaining in... twenty-five years, at least." It was the first thing Archer had said to them when he messaged in to give them their orders. "And I certainly didn't expect it from you, Jim."

"It'd be a waste not to utilize Baker's expertise while she's onboard." Kirk supplied, allowing Archer to continue in his assumption that they were sharing the authority over the ship. In many ways, they were. Baker had yet to do anything that undermined his authority, nor had she appeared to have told the crew that she'd insisted he not take command right away. She'd even invited him onto the bridge at any time. It was most obnoxious because she was doing everything he imagined himself doing if their roles were reversed. Thus far, he couldn't find fault in her decisions.

"I'm inclined to agree. It's good that you two are getting along so well as I'm afraid you won't be parting company any time soon. There have been reports of two attacks on outer settlements already which we believe to have been perpetrated by Romulans. It seems that they are making their move. They may be under the impression that we are still fighting the Klingons."

"The Enterprise cannot take on a Romulan fleet, even if it weren't damaged." Baker barked. "We still haven't been able to make repairs from the Klingon attack."

"And we will be sending supplies to help you make those repairs on our fastest scout ship." Archer was rubbing his forehead like he had a headache. He probably did. Kirk imagined that this was only one of hundreds of problems the Admiralty was facing right then. "They've already crossed the border, already attacked our people, already disabled half our fleet. I'm pulling three ships to back you up, but we need you to slow them down before anyone else gets hurt. We're simply out of time."

There would be no arguing with him then. Kirk frowned, but nodded. This was going to be one hell of a dangerous mission. "Yes, sir."

"Aye, sir." Baker chorused. The screen flickered out and Baker turned and preempted any complaints. "No. Don't even ask. It hasn't even been six hours since you got back."

Spock met Kirk outside the briefing room and walked with him down the hallway. He hadn't been called and didn't have anything to say, simply appeared like a super hero sensing trouble. When they were far enough away that Kirk was sure they wouldn't be overheard by the spies he felt sure were around every corner, he spoke. "My gut tells me there's something up with this hostile take-over. What about you?"

Spock folded his hands behind his back. "None of my internal organs have been speaking to me. Furthermore, I do not believe hostile take-over would be the accurate terminology for such an occurrence."

Kirk stopped quickly and turned to face his First Officer. "So you think she was right to take over my ship?" Kirk knew his tone was overly aggressive, but he couldn't help it.

"I do not believe it was a necessary precaution; however, her judgment was logical. Given that she has relieved you for a few days, I would advise you make use of that time in a relaxing manner to be best prepared for when you resume command."

"You know I'm no good at relaxing, especially not when someone else is running my ship." Kirk ran a hand through his hair.

Spock raised an eyebrow. "It was my understanding that you have been present for nearly every decision. Do you not believe she is doing an adequate job?"

"As far as I've seen."

"And do you not have continued access to all parts of the ship?"

"Yes."

"Captain, have you considered that your concern may be unduly influenced by your personal emotions in this matter?"

"Of course I considered it." Kirk started walking again. "She replaced Bones because of the Romulan incident. She replaced me because of my defending him. And she replaced you so that she might have her own advisor. Each action, each decision, has certainly made sense on its own, but look at the big picture for a moment. Sure, she only replaced three people, but she now has control over the three most powerful positions on the Enterprise. She could very effectively, very easily do whatever she wanted now."

"What would you have me do?"

"Find out who is running my Sickbay. I'm going to contact Vulcan and get a Healer on the supply ship they're sending."

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A/N: Thanks for all the support with 'Honor.' My goal is to get 'Missive' finished pronto since it'll be quite a bit shorter than the others. Hope you're enjoying the story thus far.