Spock now sat in his living room, cat on his lap, trying to wrap his logical mind as to why Commander James T. Kirk would be the cat that Spock had rescued and was now fostering.

A line from an old Earth’s scribe came to mind.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

From all accounts and Starfleet records, James Kirk was an ordinary Human. A brilliant, high-achieving one, notwithstanding. However, if the cat now staring at him with striking blue eyes was indeed Kirk than accounts were not accurate.

Now there was a chance that something on the planet the shuttlecraft had crashed on had somehow turned Kirk into the creature now in Spock’s apartment, but Spock didn’t think so.

He recalled after speaking with George Samuel Kirk that he read that the hole in the door of the shuttle had been too small for a Human to escape through, which was one of the reasons the authorities had decided that Kirk perished along with the others in the crash, even after not finding evidential remains. And that had been a logical conclusion if they did not have all the information needed to determine that.

But George Samuel Kirk had declared to Spock without hesitation that the hole in the door had been big enough for Jim. And if Kirk was in the form of this feline on his lap, that would make him fit through that hole.

Yet Kirk, if this was indeed somehow him, had not changed back to Human form.

“What are your secrets?” Spock asked Bombay.

Bombay made the tiniest of meow sounds, more like a kitten than a full-grown cat and then put his paw on Spock’s face.

Spock blinked at the cat. “You want me to meld with you?”

****

Spock had never taken the step to meld with an animal before. There’d been no reason, And yet if his theory was correct and this was somehow James Kirk, the cat was no ordinary animal.

Bombay’s paw had slipped off of Spock’s cheek but the feline remained staring fixedly at Spock.

Spock guessed given the appearance of the strange fedora man, someone wanted to find this cat whether or not he was Jim and the fact the man called the cat Kirk seemed to lend credence to his theory.

And that meant time was likely of the essence.

With a nod, Spock raised his hand toward Bombay’s had, being careful not to spook him in case he didn’t get what Spock was about to do. Bombay did not move as Spock gently probed his mind.

The Kirks were shapeshifters, animal shifters, cats to be exact. George Kirk’s father, Tiberius, had long ago made the decision to keep the family secret to avoid the possibility of captivity and experimentation they’d likely be subjected to. It came to the Kirks through a spousal connection. Some Kirk offspring had more abilities than others, George Samuel and James T. being among them.

Since his service with Starfleet, Jim had hidden this side of himself from everyone, even those he had trusted like his friend and colleague, Helen Moore. It hadn’t been easy since she was a physician and had noticed certain peculiarities about him. But Jim was certain she had never suspected the truth.

That was until the crash happened.

Jim had been forced to change in order to escape the wreckage of the shuttlecraft but upon exiting through the hole, he had been unable to change back to his human form as someone was waiting for him and had trapped him in an animal carrier.

Shortly after he was abducted, Jim learned that he had been set up by the now deceased Helen Moore who had somehow discovered what he was and had intended on turning him over to those waiting on the planet. But the shuttle had crash and she and several of her conspirators had perished there.

The original plan had been to claim to Jim’s captain that he had been killed in an accident on the planet, but everything had changed because of the crash.

His captors had managed to escape the Federation authorities and had take Jim in his feline form with them.

Over the course of the last years since Jim “disappeared” they had been experimenting on him and doing tests, basically torturing him, according to Jim.

More recently they had injected him with something that caused him to remain in cat form and that was when he escaped. Spock found him.

Spock lowered his hand from Bombay’s…Jim’s face.

“And now they have found you again.”