Eighteenth Story Arc This summary is of a story arc from the newspaper comic strip " Star Trek " . Summary . After this log entry Kirk , unable to enter McCoy ' s quarters or contact him , blasts the door open . The room is empty , but a sealed message disk is there for the Admiral ' s eyes only . In the conference room , Kirk plays the message for the command crew . McCoy has contracted a contagious disease , and with no hope of cure and only six weeks to live has left the ship to totally isolate himself . McCoy blamed himself for what happened , which he summarizes in his recording . The ship had responded to an extraordinarily virulent epidemic of unknown origin on Circe VI twelve days prior . Almost every colony member was dead by they time they arrived : thirty thousand colonists wiped out in less than two months . The landing party wore environmental suit s to prevent contamination . In examining the bodies , McCoy tore his suit and cut his hand on a sharp decoration on the clothing of one of the dead colonists . He tried to believe it was nothing , but it quickly became clear that he had contracted the disease . The message ends with McCoy saying he sterilized his lab and quarters , donned an environmental suit , and left in a shuttle . Spock quickly concludes that McCoy must be suffering early effects of the contagion . " " Quarantine could have been effected aboard the " Enterprise " without difficulty . McCoy had no reason to leave the ship . " " Kirk then decides the sole course of action is to find McCoy and bring him home . Spock disagrees ; he thinks that a cure must be found as well and he volunteers to find it . After reviewing McCoy ' s notes , Spock requests permission to return to in a shuttle because he believes that it is the same killing virus that struck Vulcan two hundred years ago and almost wiped out his entire race . Kirk allows it . What Spock does not reveal is that there is a 0 . 57808 chance that he will die obtaining the cure . He arrives on Vulcan , in the desolate out - region known as Kendha - Ya , " The Dead Ocean " . It was there that the " Red Plague " killed over a million Vulcan s . The only thing that saved them was the nectar of a flowering vegetation called Shin - Ka - Ti , " The Flower of Mercy " . Spock finds and collects one , but is attacked by a giant , worm - like creature that he stuns quickly with his phaser . The worm falls on him , but he blasts his way out . Kirk tries to figure out where McCoy would go , and decides that it would be Circe II , since the infection is already there . Scotty points out it is a big planet , though . Wearing environment suits , Kirk , Scott and Dr . Chapel beam down and start the search . Spock then arrives in his shuttle with what he believes is a cure . The landing party has in the meantime found McCoy , but can ' t get to him ; he is shooting at them from inside a building when they approach . Spock decides to lie to McCoy , to take off his helmet and tell McCoy he is immune to the disease . McCoy , confused by Spock ' s actions , stops firing and is subdued . Chapel then injects both men with the cure , as Spock is already suffering the effects of the plague . Both recuperate in sickbay , with Kirk calling them heroic for the risks they took to help their friends . Spock demurs , stating he was simply trying to save Starfleet ' s investment in McCoy . Memorable quotes . " " Most illogical , even for Dr . McCoy . " " Background information . The strip begins in an unusual way , with a series of flashbacks before the story itself begins . It is refreshing for the comic to have characters actually comment on illogical actions like McCoy not having to leave the ship to be in quarantine ; all too often the plot elements do not address such matters and simply " happen " . This is Conway ' s third story for the strip , and like his first two is centered around friendship . It also shares with the first story a climax where crewmates fight each other because of mental incapacitation . But unlike the first , this one has the characters acting out of a genuine concern for each other rather than circumstances simply forcing unmotivated actions . This arc also marks the first contribution by Dick Kulpa as artist , and in some ways his work most closely resembles Warkentin ' s . Kulpa follows Colón ' s original design contribution from the previous arc for a new Starfleet shuttle , which Kulpa refines to resemble the aircar from " The Jetsons " more than anything else . This is the shortest of the story arcs for the comic strip . This story was given the title " Terminally Yours " in " " .