- Spock contracts a fatal disease, and the medicine required for his cure is stolen by Orion pirates.
- An illness sweeps the Enterprise, easily treatable for all except Spock, for whom it is fatal. Kirk arranges a tight rendezvous to get strobolin, the cure, in time to save Spock, but Orion pirates raid the cargo ship en route. Finding the Orions hiding within an explosive asteroid belt, Kirk means to strike a deal, unaware that all unsuccessful Orion missions end in suicide, with intent this time to take the Enterprise and crew along in an explosive finish.—statmanjeff
- An illness (Choriocytosis) sweeps the Enterprise, easily treatable for all except Spock, for whom it is fatal. The Enterprise is on a mission to represent the Federation at the inauguration of the new Academy of Science on Deneb V. Spock's blood is copper based and the infection enters the bloodstream and encases the cells. So that they cannot carry any oxygen. The patient suffocates to death. Strobolin is the only known cure, and a naturally occurring drug available on very few planets in the galaxy. The nearest one is Beta Canopus. 4 days away at max warp. Spock only has 3 days to live. They reckon there must be a cargo ship carrying the drug away from the planet, which is closer to them.
Kirk arranges a tight rendezvous with a cargo ship SS Huron, to get Strobolin, the cure, in time to save Spock, but Orion pirates raid the cargo ship en route. The Huron was carrying a regular shipment of Dilithium and had picked up the Strobolin from star-ship Potemkin to pass it on to the Enterprise, as that was the fastest way.
The enterprise rushes to help and figures out the situation from Captain O'Shea, who is beamed back to the Enterprise. The Huron's engines are dead and the ship is barely running its life support systems on emergency battery power. The cargo hold of the Huron is empty. Kirk brings O'Shea on board and learns that a mysterious entity attacked them and seized their shipment (including the drug). Using the Huron's tapes, Kirk figures that the entity had a new ship design (never before encountered by a Federation space ship) and leaves a unique trail of radioactive waste, through which it is possible to track them. Kirk follows the trail .. Spock has less than 20 hrs left
Finding the thieves hiding within an explosive asteroid belt (Kirk recognizes them as Orion Pirates), Kirk means to strike a deal (Kirk offers that the Orions can keep the entire shipment of Dilithium they have stolen, in exchange for the medicines) (Spock now has less than an hour left).
The Orions are considered to be neutral in the galaxy (even though Kirk has doubts about the Orion neutrality due to their involvement in the affair of the Coridan planets and the Babel conference of star-date 3850.3), and Kirk also promises that he wont report this theft to the Federation. Its now less than hour for Spock. To the Orions, the neutrality is critical. They don't trust Kirk (to not report this incident to Starfleet) and decide that they cant outrun the Enterprise or even shoot it out. Thus they decide to rig the Asteroids with explosives, which will create a large explosion to blow up both the Enterprise, along with Orions themselves.
The Orion captain invites Kirk to an Asteroid surface to hand over the drugs. On the asteroid the Orion captain reveals to Kirk that he plans to detonate a pack of Dilithium crystals on the asteroid to start a chain reaction. Kirk attacks him to stop him. Meanwhile Scott locks on the crystals (Kirk had left the communicator open so that the Enterprise could hear everything that went on between him and the Orions) and beams them up, thereby preventing the explosion. Kirk gets the Strobolin and beams back with the Orion Captain. Kirk tells the Orions that their captain will stand trial whether they commit suicide or not. The Orions decide to surrender to the enterprise. The Orion game of neutrality and piracy is over. Enterprise heads to Deneb V.
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