James Kirk looked at the form that he was to fill in. When filled it as per regulations it would be exact, detailed, informative, and have reduced his officer to just another statistic. There was no space on the form to mention what the atmosphere on the ship had been. It did not allow for any mention of the feelings of the crew about the incident. Just the facts of the event and the date of transfer and facility transferred to.

Without hesitation he said, "Enter." as soon has he heard his door chime. He did not care who it was as it would mean not having to deal with the report.

Lieutenant Uhura stood across from him and he could see from her stance she was in total officer mode, "Sir, as per Starfleet regulations I am requesting transfer off the Enterprise should Officer Darren Lane be sent to a Starfleet medical facility on a long-term basis. I request this for both professional and personal reasons. This is the formal verbal indication of my intentions that I am required to give you. I shall send you my written request within the stated twenty-four standard hours."

"Uhura, I," as he looked at her he could tell she had recovered from the shock of the situation and that she was now determined, "I hear you."

Without a word she left. So often he had seen her talking and singing with Officer Lane that it had not surprised him that she would react like this but he was sure there was more. There was obviously more even than could stem from the events on the bridge. There was also more than them just being fellow Communications Officers. Lane had far more skills and experience than Uhura yet always treated her as the senior officer and was content to help out in other areas around the ship when needed.

Again he looked at the form he had to fill in. There was no space for anything about the person. All strictly formula, sameness, soulless. Twice he got up and walked around his quarters trying to put the events into order and removing his own feelings from what had happened. He was trained for this, he had been tested on filling out forms as detailed as this so many times they should be routine, he had been through it before, signing crew off the ship. He had to think of it as just another form in just another test. He had to think of Officer Darren Lane as just another number being deleted. Slowly he felt himself calming and sat down. He just had to think of it as just another member of the crew being transferred.

No, his mind screamed, not transferred, left behind. Abandoned. Made expendable.

No, not like this. Nothing like this. He had never, never before been so helpless, so furious, so afraid, and so totally unsure of what to do about a situation all at the same time. All his training, all his experiences, all the many encounters with other life forms had not prepared him for what took place.

Again his door chime sounded and Chief Engineer Scott walked in which was most unusual, "Scotty?"

"I, I need ta stay at the next medical facility for about a year, Sir. You will find I have more than that amount of leave accumulated and there are things on the facility I can be doing I can nae do on the ship." The Engineer had not looked away from him and had tried to look into him. Kirk could see the determination and he was sure he knew the reasoning.

"May I ask if this has anything to do with Officer Darren Lane?"

"You may ask. As I said, there are things I can be doing there I can nae do on the ship."

"Understood." Without breaking eye contact Kirk added, "I hear you, Scotty."

Once the Chief Engineer left Kirk momentarily wondered if any other of those who had been on the Bridge would find a reason to stay behind. Every one of those on the bridge at the time had seen what happened, had been touched by the entity, had felt just a bit of the pain that the entity could inflict, and had realized how totally powerless and helpless they were. Well, Kirk looked at the form again, at the name, not all of them had been powerless. Touched? Touched, he almost laughed. So many times they had encountered and been touched by different entities but this had been more than just being touched by an unknown entity, this had been an attack. An attack. He let out a long slow breath as he again looked at the report. All those present had to know he had no option. He had to follow procedure.

Procedure? What procedures? Where had those procedures been just twenty hours ago? He paced back and forth around the semi-circle enclosing his desk. There had been nothing in his past experience, in his training, in anything he had read or heard about that had prepared him in any way for what had happened. There were procedures as to what he had to do afterwards in set situations. Where were those procedures for this encounter? When he had first heard that Spock and McCoy were going to be fine but there was a likelihood of having to transfer Lane off the ship he had quickly checked through the regulations regarding medical discharges. Nothing that related to this situation. In his mind he heard that beloved baritone voice whisper, "Nothing that relates to THIS situation."

He stopped pacing and looked at his computer. Slowly he sat down and, this time, carefully read thoroughly through all the regulations regarding medical discharges. Like the first time he had looked at them he saw nothing he could relate to it. Again in the silence that baritone voice seemed to talk to him, "As there are no regulations you must do what you think and feel is right."

His intercom buzzed and he almost welcomed it,"Kirk here."

"Sulu here, Captain." Kirk closed his eyes, waiting for another request to take leave at the next base. "Estimated time of arrival at Starbase Nine is one hundred and seventy-six standard hours."

"Thank you, Sulu. Kirk out."

One hundred and seventy-six standard hours. Kirk shook his head, Sulu had been around Spock too long to say that instead of just over a standard week. Maybe in that time he would have finished the report. He knew he just needed to think more about it. It, the report about Officer Lane as he did not want to think what had happened.

Slowly he walked from his quarters to Sickbay. He knew if there had been any change he would have been contracted but he felt he had to be there. There and away from the damnable report.

As he approached the entry to Sickbay Chekov was leaving and walk over to him, "Mister Spock and Doctor McCoy are both sleeping, Sir."

Kirk nodded, "Officer Lane?"

"There has been no change since it, they left. Uhura says he knows if he is alone but, but Sir, they, they hurt him too much for him to know." It was there, that controlled fury Kirk knew the man had in him. He could almost hear his officer's unsaid "Cossacks!"

All Kirk could do was nod. He had not missed how Chekov indicated that he also believed whatever had invaded the bridge was more than a singular entity, was more of a collective.

Doctor M'Benga stopped him almost as soon as he walked into Sickbay and indicated the small office. Once they were in it and he had sat down M'Benga said, "While Spock is in a Vulcan healing trance I have Leonard in an induced coma to make him sleep. They will both make full recoveries as whatever it was seemed to direct its powers more at Officer Lane as soon as he drew its attention to him. It appears whatever it was just sort of gave you and the others shocks but was trying to find something in their minds but was stopped before it did any real damage. If he had not reacted as he did I think we both know the outcome. I will start a report in a few minutes with my recommendations as to his placement in a full medical facility. Leonard will, of course, be the one with the final say as to which facility but I will make a few inquiries first."

"Can you," Kirk looked for a moment at the floor then back at the man, "Can you leave it for a bit longer?"

"Captain, whatever that thing was it has damaged Officer Lane beyond any known medical treatment currently available. It seems that thing did not like being challenged as what was done to him far outweighs any of the mind-probing we have encountered in the past. He is on full backup support and,"

"Backup support?" Kirk stood and looked into the intensive care unit and at the figure on the bed, noticing a crew member beside the bed as well. It strangely relieved him to see another officer sitting in there with him, it reminded him of how this was more than a crew, it was a family.

"At the moment he is breathing on his own, his heart is beating on its own but he is connected to the backup unit so that should either or both stop there is support immediately there. It is most likely how he will live the rest of his life, Sir unless we find instruction in his records that he does not wish to continue like that."

"Is he in,"

"He is totally unresponsive, Sir. If we were to have the volume notification of the pain register turned on we would all be deaf as his is at the maximum, actually he is fractionally above the known level of sustained tolerance. Something is holding him here. Something is making him fight. Lieutenant Uhura has told me not to tell him that Spock and Leonard are going to be fine, I can say they are in Sickbay but I am not to mention their condition. She seems to think that is what is keeping him here, the not knowing they are both going to be fine. She believes that he is still there and is waiting for something or someone to help him to either come back, which is bordering on delusional thinking, or to let go as they are safe. I tried to explain to her,"

"Do as she says. Please, do as she says. McCoy once told me that nobody knows for sure if patients in conditions similar to the one he is in are aware of anything or not and I believe, like Uhura, that there could be the possibility that if he is aware and thinks there is any risk to either of them he will hold on till he knows they are safe."

"With all due respect, Sir, you must know that he,"

"What I do know, Doctor M'Benga, is that there are many things we mere humans, and many other species, as well as doctors, do not know. I saw what happened to that officer; I watched while it was being done to him, I saw what he did to draw its attention from Spock and McCoy, how he fought for us against something I am sure had never been beaten, saw how it toyed with him, and witnessed how his actions clearly stunned it. If Lieutenant Uhura believes that he knows then he knows until you can prove to me beyond any doubt whatsoever that he does not."

"Understood, Sir." The doctor looked at him for a minute then said, "You can go in and see them. Just be prepared if you go see Officer Lane as the pain he is in is obvious."

For just a few minutes Kirk stood just looking at his two closest friends and tried not to remember how he had seen whatever it was that had invaded the bridge had attacked first Spock and then Bones when McCoy had gone to the Vulcan's aid. He tried not to think of how almost immediately Officer Lane had lunged to cover Spock from the force that the entity used. He knew enough about the registers at the head of the beds to know they were both going to be fine, that they were both resting. As he stood quietly looking at them he half-smiled as he could tell from Spock's relaxed facial features he was in a Vulcan trance and McCoy's deep and steady breathing reassured him that he was in a deep sleep. How easily he could have been looking at two bodies. Slowly he walked into the space between them and took one of their hands in his and just stood thinking how they were a trio, how much they relied one needed each other, and how much they cared about each other.

"They won't be awake for another few hours," M'Benga came behind him. "Soon as they are awake I will let you know and they will be discharged almost immediately as they are not ones to keep in longer than need be."

Kirk had nodded. "They do have their own ways of letting you know they are fine and no longer need to be in Sickbay."

For a moment Kirk just looked at the entrance to the intensive care unit and felt a hand briefly touch his shoulder, "There's been no change of any real significance and I do not expect there to be as whatever it was that attacked those on the bridge took its full vengeance out on him. Some sort of an extremely high energy attack, almost electrical in nature from what I could tell from the damage, that would be like an all-out assault on his entire nervous system. Clearly whatever it was was after Mister Spock and when Lane prevented them from getting to his head there are indications it tried to get him to move by pressure to the various points that should have made him move and when Lane did not move it lashed out trying to move him. You can see his muscular spasms have not lessened and his scans are unlike anything I have ever seen on a patient who has remained alive this long. Officer Keller is with him now."

Slowly Kirk walked over to the bed and signaled for Keller to sit when he started to stand. The quiet moans and twitchy movements of the body reflected the spikes in the pain register. As he watched he remembered McCoy had once commented that he had an extremely high pain threshold level, almost as high as Spock's. The thought of either Spock or Bones being there. He stopped himself and looked at Keller, "You know him well?"

Keller looked up at him and Kirk saw a knowing smile, "Who doesn't know him? Maybe not as well as we may know others but I doubt if there is any of the crew, and I know there are over four hundred of us, who has not had some encounters with him. If ever any department is short an officer for the day or even a few hours and he is off duty he will be there to help. He always seems to have a small gift for any crewmen's birthday. He always brings back, from shore leave, things the whole crew could share. He is one of those people you can go to with a problem and just talk with, or yell at and even strike, and know it will never be talked of again. I guess I know him as well as just about anybody else on the ship, Sir." The man looked back at Lane then back at him, "Permission to ask a question about another officer, Sir."

For a moment Kirk was taken aback as seldom did officers ask first, "Certainly."

"How is Lieutenant Uhura dealing with it? I mean I know they are close friends but the fact that he was not meant to be on the bridge, that it was her shift, must bother her. Is she okay?"

Only then did he remember Uhura asking him if Lane could relieve her for two hours of personal time and him giving her permission. He remembered Lane arriving and Uhura just getting into the turbolift as the thing suddenly appeared on the bridge. Lane saying, "Go!" and pushing her into the lift as the entity touched Scotty, then Chekov, then Sulu, then him, then McCoy, then Spock when he attempted to draw its attention from McCoy, before it concentrated on Lane as he challenged it, as he got it away from them, as he protected Spock. The way it had touched them all on the head indicated it was after their minds and somehow Lane and noticed that in those few seconds and, Kirk briefly closed his eyes and shook his head as in his mind he saw it again, seemed to simply launch over from the Communications Station to tackle Spock, knock him to the ground and huddled over his head blocking any access to his head, his mind.

He remembered how the entity had been when it first arrived on the bridge and how it was when it was attacking Lane, there had been a distinct feeling of intensely concentrated rage, hostility and determination radiating from it and an obvious more aggressive form of energy used with more and more tentacles extending from the form and attacking Lane. The nearest thing that Kirk could equate the next change to was when the entity seemed to realize it could not move Lane and that if they killed him his body would block they access to Spock. There had been a moment when Kirk was sure the entity had experienced a feeling of surprised acquiescence and almost one of deep sadness and regret just before it left. There had been something in the way a tentacle had reached out and lightly and briefly touched Lane's face before it left, almost like an apology.

"She is doing okay. I am watching her and she has the support of the bridge crew as well as the rest of the crew."

"Do, do you want time with him alone, Sir?"

"No, thank you. I, I will come back later."

Briefly he paused to again look in on McCoy and Spock, thanking again all the known deities for them being safe, and then went to the bridge. Before he arrived at the bridge he paused the lift as the word Coward! echoed in his mind. He shook his head, he had his duty. Yeah, hide behind the duty mantra, coward. You would have spent time if it had been Spock or McCoy. No! He took some deep breaths. He had to stop thinking that it could so easily have been Spock on that bed or dead. As he stepped from the turbolift he was aware of the others looking at him, "There is no change to Officer Lane's condition. Both Mister Spock and Doctor McCoy are sleeping and expected to make a full recovery and be able to return to duty shortly."

"There was a message from Starbase Nine, Captain."

Kirk turned and looked at Uhura who looked right back at him and Kirk knew it was not new orders, yet.

"It was to confirm that the entire crew has a four day leave before you are given our next orders." He was about to nod when he saw it in how she was looking at him, there was something else.

"What is it Uhura?"

"I, I took the liberty of acknowledging it, arranging and sending them the rosters of those who would be on leave and of what the new supplies we need. I thought you would be with them longer."

Kirk smiled to himself, Spock often thought of McCoy as a mother-hen but Uhura as the real one. She had done the mundane tasks he tended to put aside. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Officer Keller asked how you were."

She smiled and nodded, "I thought he would be with Darren. It is his break. I have had to roster that as well. So many wanting to help and only one is allowed in at a time at the moment."

Usually he would notify the crew but he just nodded and sat down, relieved Uhura had obviously done it for him. Four days leave. The crew needed it. Even before the encounter they had with that entity they had had a hectic mission out to Outpost Twenty-two with much needed equipment and then helping install it and ensure it was working correctly. Being a diplomatic shuttle to one of the, to Kirk, not vital get-togethers, and a bit of testing some new equipment on the Enterprise. They had had a mild virus spread through the crew that was found to be easily dealt with and caused by a malfunction in the food replication system. And then, eleven days later, that thing had attacked them.

They had encountered life forms that could somehow exist in space and just slip aboard the ship as though it was not a solid object. Most of those encounters had not been as suddenly hostile, not as selective an attack. Yes, it had been selective. All on the bridge had complained just before of slight headaches and then it appeared, a floating ball of webbed energy. A tentacle would flare out from the mesh and momentarily surround the head in a yellow haze for just an instant as thought searching for something. At least it did that to all of them but Spock. It was when a second tentacle had flared out at Spock that Lane had hurled himself to protect Spock. That thing had assaulted him with at least twenty tentacles and possibly more yet he had not yielded. Just those few seconds that he had experienced the power from one tentacle let Kirk know the power behind that thing and left him in the haze of the worst headache he could remember. The thought of all those tentacles attacking Spock. No. That did not happen. The entity left.

From watching his young navigator, the strange alertness about him, Kirk knew the signs. He could remember being the same the first time he was in deep space and the unexpected had suddenly happened. It had not been as traumatic as what had just taken place but he could remember how he felt afterwards.

"It has gone, Chekov."

"But we did not know it was there till it vas here. It just was here then not here. No warning, no indication of anything unusual out there? How do we know it will not be back?"

"Our mission is to explore, discover, befriend, help, and report. I am sure we all signed on knowing the dangers but we wanted to be out here. This is the territory of the unknown. To whatever is out here we are as much an unknown as they are to us. I got the feeling whatever it was that came aboard the ship was testing us, possibly to see how we would react, possibly thinking we were invading its space. Whatever it was it was clearly after knowledge about us. I am not sure what it had encountered before but I believe it attacked each of us to see our reactions, to see if we would retaliate, and to see what knowledge we had. When it sensed we meant it no harm but were willing to die to protect one another it seem subdued, almost surprised."

"I may be wrong, Captain, but I think it was more than just one entity. I felt like I was being attacked by at least ten or more different sensations of pain."

"I noticed how the form was multi-colored and at the start it was ablaze of reds and yellows with what seemed lightening then, after, after Darren drew its attention to him, after it had concentrated on him for a few minutes, it started to wane and went to a pale greenish blue then vanished." Uhura still looked at Kirk. "I think what Darren did surprised it, them. He did not fight them, just blocked them from getting to Mister Spock. It was like it had not encountered one willing to die for another or another who is from a different race."

Kirk nodded more to himself than the others. They had seen it too. The way Darren had kept it from getting to Spock. The way it exhausted its energy on him trying to get to Spock's head. How it had seemed to change color and clearly was using more energy and although Lane twitched in pain he made no audible sound and did not move away from the huddle he was in over Spock's head. He did not want to think of the pain Lane had been in, and obviously still was in, as he remembered, like Sulu, that there had been different levels and types of pain in just that touch. The touch around the head and neck.

Chekov turned and looked at him, "As per regulations is Darren to be taken off the ship and left at Starbase Nine, Captain?"