Prologue
"Captain's Log, StarDate 5784.9. Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy, and myself have beamed up from Platonius with a passenger, Alexander. This up-until-now unlucky Platonian will be traveling with us to a world of his choice. On Platonius, Alexander was badly treated by the other Platonians because of his lack of psycho-kinetic powers. My friends and I were also mistreated for the same reason, until Doctor McCoy injected a concentration of kironide into my blood, as well as Spock's blood. After that, we were able to...convince...the Platonian leader, Parmen, to release us and the Enterprise.
Doctor McCoy tells us that the kironide he injected into us should break down and disappear, along with the psycho-kinetic power, in a few hours. However, he does not know for sure and can only estimate. I am not sure why, but that makes me uneasy..."
Far on the other side of his quarters, Kirk waved a hand and the Log Recorder obediently switched off. Kirk stared across his darkened cabin, wondering when the power would leave him. It was still at the same strength as when he defeated Parmen. If McCoy was right, it should be gone by the time alpha shift began. If he was wrong...
Kirk didn't even want to think about that. He reclined on his bed and listened to the soft humming of the deck plates, and slipped into sleep.
Chapter One
Kirk awoke with a start, and promptly fell off the bed. There was a brief moment of disorientation, then he realized where he was. From across the room, his desk comm unit was beeping; that was what had woke him up.
Grumbling to himself, he carefully untangled himself from the sheets and staggered over to the desk, running a hand through his mussed hair. He hit the 'receive' switch. "Kirk here."
"Well Jim, are you planning on sleeping all day?" McCoy's southern drawl came through the speaker.
Kirk glanced at the chronometer, just then noticing that it was 0945. "Damn. Sorry Bones, I guess I slept in. Shoot, I'm late for my shift..."
"Don't bother going up there," McCoy said. "I've taken both you and Spock off-duty until we get this kironide deal straightened out."
"Straightened out?"
"Well, Spock actually came down here complaining about a headache earlier. And if *he* has a headache, I'm willing to bet *you* do as well."
"Actually, I don't." Kirk was suddenly curious; had his powers finally left him? He concentrated on a padd, and was partially dismayed to see it obediently hover in midair. Sighing, he reached out and grabbed it, then set it down on the desk. "But those psycho-kinetic powers aren't gone yet."
"That's another thing I was worried about. Has your power decreased at all?"
"Not that I can tell."
McCoy was silent for a moment. "That's not good." He sounded fairly worried. "Would you mind coming down to Sickbay? I'd like to run some tests on you and see how long before you're back to normal."
Kirk automatically shied away from the idea. He hated Sickbay. For him, it represented loss of control, inability to command, and pain. But after he reconsidered... "Sure. I'll be down there in about thirty minutes. Kirk out." He snapped off the comm unit and stood up, stretching a little to relieve tension in his muscles.
As he did so, he caught a glimpse of himself in his mirror. An odd flash made him look again, and what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Was there a slight glow to his eyes? Were they a slightly different color than before?
Kirk stared at his reflection for a moment longer, then shrugged it off. **Those powers must be affecting me more than I realized,** he said to himself. **But I could have sworn that for a moment, I looked just like...**
The painful memory came up without warning, and he stopped that train of thought. **No need to think about HIM again, James. He's been dead and buried for three years.**
But as he psychically called a uniform shirt to his hand, he couldn't help but wonder...
~~~~~~~
McCoy was just finishing checking over Spock, who was still suffering from a headache, when Kirk came into Sickbay. "Well Spock, I guess the only thing you can do is go to your quarters and wait for the kironide to break down. There's nothing I can do for your headache, and I can't filter the kironide out of your blood."
"Thank you, Doctor McCoy," Spock said as he stood. He turned and walked out the door, wincing a little.
Kirk turned a puzzled gaze on McCoy. "Why is he in pain and I'm not?"
"It's only a theory, but I think it's because Spock is usually a touch-telepath, and contact with too many minds at once is painful to Vulcans," McCoy said. "With the kironide boost, he could be feeling the emotions of every person on the ship, and it's too much for his mental disciplines to handle. And as for you..." McCoy shrugged. "Maybe you're just not a telepath, even with the kironide."
"Maybe," Kirk said, slightly skeptical.
McCoy began scanning him with a medical tricorder, and neither man spoke for several moments. A few minutes later, McCoy stared at the readout in disbelief. "That can't be right..."
"Bones?"
"The concentration of kironide in your blood hasn't decreased at all. It should have been mostly gone by now..." McCoy frowned at the scanner. "According to this, the concentration has actually *increased*."
"What?" Stunned, Kirk looked at the readout. Sure enough, there was a marked increase in kironide concentration in his bloodstream. "That's impossible..."
"Obviously not," McCoy said. "The evidence is right there. Your power should be gone, but it's not."
"Bones...when will this *go away*? I don't like having this power!" McCoy had never seen him so agitated. He stared in incomprehension as Kirk paced the room, nearby objects trembling in the psycho-kinetic waves as he passed by. "Dammit, I don't like it. It reminds me too much of-" He broke off suddenly, and shut his eyes. "No, no, I'm *not* going to bring that up again," McCoy heard him muttering to himself. "That was years ago...it makes no difference..."
"Jim?" McCoy asked softly. "Are you okay?"
Kirk whirled around and started to say yes, but then he stopped. "No," he said after a moment's thought. "No, I'm *not* okay, and I won't be until this kironide power wears off. Bones...*how long*?"
"I can't be sure until I run some more tests on you," McCoy said, and Kirk flinched. "Come on, it's not *that* bad and you know it. The sooner you cooperate, the sooner you can leave."
Kirk considered for a moment, then sighed in resignation and followed McCoy into the examination room.
~~~~~~~
Kirk stared up at the gray ceiling of Sickbay as McCoy scanned him, and he felt an uncomfortable tingle in his right arm. As McCoy moved the scanner, so did the sensation.
Kirk thought about that for a minute, wondering what was causing it. As the scanner moved upward, it began to get more and more uncomfortable. He wondered if he should tell McCoy.
His dilemma was solved when McCoy moved the scanner over Kirk's head. The instant the discomfort reached the pain threshold, Kirk reflexively sent out a psychic wave, which ripped the scanner from McCoy's hand and turned it to powder against the opposite wall.
Realizing what he'd done, Kirk bolted upright in shock.
McCoy looked at the mangled scanner, then slowly turned to look at Kirk. "I take it that wasn't planned?" Kirk shook his head wordlessly. "Well, I guess I'll have to go get another scanner."
Kirk shook himself out of his temporary shock. "No, it was my fault. I'll do it." He moved his gaze to the equipment cabinet. A door opened, and a scanner floated out and placed itself in McCoy's hand.
McCoy looked at the scanner, then back at Kirk. "You wanna do this yourself?" he asked, only half-sarcastic.
"Not really."
"Then you psycho-kinetic people'd better stop doin' my job for me. Getting on my nerves..."
Two more broken scanners later, McCoy decided to call it quits on getting a readout with one of those. He examined the overhead vital signs indicator, and everything was perfectly normal except for an abnormal concentration of kironide in Kirk's bloodstream.
"As far as I can tell without a scanner," McCoy said, looking purposefully at the twisted metal fragments, "you're in perfect condition. If it weren't for that increased amount of kironide in your blood, I would say you'd actually been listening to me and taking care of yourself for once."
A eyebrow shot up at that. "Well, *thanks*."
McCoy ignored the jibe. "The concentration of kironide in your bloodstream is nearly double of what I put into you. It's increasing exponentially, almost like - Jim? Jim?"
Kirk had gone white, and he no longer seemed to hear McCoy. "Oh my-"
"Jim!" McCoy had him by the shoulders, and a few seconds later Kirk's eyes focused on his friend. He was still horribly pale, and his breathing was rapid.
"Did you say...exponentially? It's increasing exponentially?"
McCoy was confused. "Yes, I did."
Kirk was staring off into empty space again, and McCoy could barely hear what he was saying. "It's like having a penny and doubling it every day...within a few months, you'll be a millionaire."
"Jim!" McCoy shook him by the shoulders. "Come on Jim, snap out of it!"
And Kirk did. One minute he was staring blankly, the next he was forcefully demanding, "Bones! What color are my eyes?"
McCoy blinked in confusion, and when he did not immediately reply, Kirk tightened his grip. "Bones, answer me! What color are my eyes?"
"They're the same color they've always been, Jim. Hazel." Kirk finally relaxed his grip on McCoy's arms, and the doctor winced as new bruises made themselves known.
"Then there's still time," Kirk murmured to himself, barely loud enough for McCoy to hear. He turned his oddly shaken gaze back to McCoy. "Bones...you'll have to kill me. Now, before my power gets any greater."
"WHAT?!" McCoy could not believe his ears. "Jim, what are you saying? Kill you? I'd rather cut off my hands first, than do something atrocious like that! Jim, you're my best friend. I can't kill you."
"Don't you think that's what I said about Gary?" Kirk's voice was rising, and was taking on an odd accent of hysteria. "Don't you think I said that before Gary almost killed us all? Before he became invincible? BEFORE HE BECAME A GOD?!"
McCoy couldn't let his friend stand there and scream insanely for very long. Before Kirk could react, McCoy grabbed a hypospray filled with sedative and jabbed it into the captain's shoulder. Kirk stiffened at the hiss, and McCoy went flying as through a giant hand had grabbed hold of him and thrown him across the room.
He sat crumpled in the corner, unable to move, as Kirk advanced with murder in his eyes. Eyes that were gleaming a metallic silver!
"Captain's Log, StarDate 5784.9. Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy, and myself have beamed up from Platonius with a passenger, Alexander. This up-until-now unlucky Platonian will be traveling with us to a world of his choice. On Platonius, Alexander was badly treated by the other Platonians because of his lack of psycho-kinetic powers. My friends and I were also mistreated for the same reason, until Doctor McCoy injected a concentration of kironide into my blood, as well as Spock's blood. After that, we were able to...convince...the Platonian leader, Parmen, to release us and the Enterprise.
Doctor McCoy tells us that the kironide he injected into us should break down and disappear, along with the psycho-kinetic power, in a few hours. However, he does not know for sure and can only estimate. I am not sure why, but that makes me uneasy..."
Far on the other side of his quarters, Kirk waved a hand and the Log Recorder obediently switched off. Kirk stared across his darkened cabin, wondering when the power would leave him. It was still at the same strength as when he defeated Parmen. If McCoy was right, it should be gone by the time alpha shift began. If he was wrong...
Kirk didn't even want to think about that. He reclined on his bed and listened to the soft humming of the deck plates, and slipped into sleep.
Chapter One
Kirk awoke with a start, and promptly fell off the bed. There was a brief moment of disorientation, then he realized where he was. From across the room, his desk comm unit was beeping; that was what had woke him up.
Grumbling to himself, he carefully untangled himself from the sheets and staggered over to the desk, running a hand through his mussed hair. He hit the 'receive' switch. "Kirk here."
"Well Jim, are you planning on sleeping all day?" McCoy's southern drawl came through the speaker.
Kirk glanced at the chronometer, just then noticing that it was 0945. "Damn. Sorry Bones, I guess I slept in. Shoot, I'm late for my shift..."
"Don't bother going up there," McCoy said. "I've taken both you and Spock off-duty until we get this kironide deal straightened out."
"Straightened out?"
"Well, Spock actually came down here complaining about a headache earlier. And if *he* has a headache, I'm willing to bet *you* do as well."
"Actually, I don't." Kirk was suddenly curious; had his powers finally left him? He concentrated on a padd, and was partially dismayed to see it obediently hover in midair. Sighing, he reached out and grabbed it, then set it down on the desk. "But those psycho-kinetic powers aren't gone yet."
"That's another thing I was worried about. Has your power decreased at all?"
"Not that I can tell."
McCoy was silent for a moment. "That's not good." He sounded fairly worried. "Would you mind coming down to Sickbay? I'd like to run some tests on you and see how long before you're back to normal."
Kirk automatically shied away from the idea. He hated Sickbay. For him, it represented loss of control, inability to command, and pain. But after he reconsidered... "Sure. I'll be down there in about thirty minutes. Kirk out." He snapped off the comm unit and stood up, stretching a little to relieve tension in his muscles.
As he did so, he caught a glimpse of himself in his mirror. An odd flash made him look again, and what he saw made him stop in his tracks. Was there a slight glow to his eyes? Were they a slightly different color than before?
Kirk stared at his reflection for a moment longer, then shrugged it off. **Those powers must be affecting me more than I realized,** he said to himself. **But I could have sworn that for a moment, I looked just like...**
The painful memory came up without warning, and he stopped that train of thought. **No need to think about HIM again, James. He's been dead and buried for three years.**
But as he psychically called a uniform shirt to his hand, he couldn't help but wonder...
~~~~~~~
McCoy was just finishing checking over Spock, who was still suffering from a headache, when Kirk came into Sickbay. "Well Spock, I guess the only thing you can do is go to your quarters and wait for the kironide to break down. There's nothing I can do for your headache, and I can't filter the kironide out of your blood."
"Thank you, Doctor McCoy," Spock said as he stood. He turned and walked out the door, wincing a little.
Kirk turned a puzzled gaze on McCoy. "Why is he in pain and I'm not?"
"It's only a theory, but I think it's because Spock is usually a touch-telepath, and contact with too many minds at once is painful to Vulcans," McCoy said. "With the kironide boost, he could be feeling the emotions of every person on the ship, and it's too much for his mental disciplines to handle. And as for you..." McCoy shrugged. "Maybe you're just not a telepath, even with the kironide."
"Maybe," Kirk said, slightly skeptical.
McCoy began scanning him with a medical tricorder, and neither man spoke for several moments. A few minutes later, McCoy stared at the readout in disbelief. "That can't be right..."
"Bones?"
"The concentration of kironide in your blood hasn't decreased at all. It should have been mostly gone by now..." McCoy frowned at the scanner. "According to this, the concentration has actually *increased*."
"What?" Stunned, Kirk looked at the readout. Sure enough, there was a marked increase in kironide concentration in his bloodstream. "That's impossible..."
"Obviously not," McCoy said. "The evidence is right there. Your power should be gone, but it's not."
"Bones...when will this *go away*? I don't like having this power!" McCoy had never seen him so agitated. He stared in incomprehension as Kirk paced the room, nearby objects trembling in the psycho-kinetic waves as he passed by. "Dammit, I don't like it. It reminds me too much of-" He broke off suddenly, and shut his eyes. "No, no, I'm *not* going to bring that up again," McCoy heard him muttering to himself. "That was years ago...it makes no difference..."
"Jim?" McCoy asked softly. "Are you okay?"
Kirk whirled around and started to say yes, but then he stopped. "No," he said after a moment's thought. "No, I'm *not* okay, and I won't be until this kironide power wears off. Bones...*how long*?"
"I can't be sure until I run some more tests on you," McCoy said, and Kirk flinched. "Come on, it's not *that* bad and you know it. The sooner you cooperate, the sooner you can leave."
Kirk considered for a moment, then sighed in resignation and followed McCoy into the examination room.
~~~~~~~
Kirk stared up at the gray ceiling of Sickbay as McCoy scanned him, and he felt an uncomfortable tingle in his right arm. As McCoy moved the scanner, so did the sensation.
Kirk thought about that for a minute, wondering what was causing it. As the scanner moved upward, it began to get more and more uncomfortable. He wondered if he should tell McCoy.
His dilemma was solved when McCoy moved the scanner over Kirk's head. The instant the discomfort reached the pain threshold, Kirk reflexively sent out a psychic wave, which ripped the scanner from McCoy's hand and turned it to powder against the opposite wall.
Realizing what he'd done, Kirk bolted upright in shock.
McCoy looked at the mangled scanner, then slowly turned to look at Kirk. "I take it that wasn't planned?" Kirk shook his head wordlessly. "Well, I guess I'll have to go get another scanner."
Kirk shook himself out of his temporary shock. "No, it was my fault. I'll do it." He moved his gaze to the equipment cabinet. A door opened, and a scanner floated out and placed itself in McCoy's hand.
McCoy looked at the scanner, then back at Kirk. "You wanna do this yourself?" he asked, only half-sarcastic.
"Not really."
"Then you psycho-kinetic people'd better stop doin' my job for me. Getting on my nerves..."
Two more broken scanners later, McCoy decided to call it quits on getting a readout with one of those. He examined the overhead vital signs indicator, and everything was perfectly normal except for an abnormal concentration of kironide in Kirk's bloodstream.
"As far as I can tell without a scanner," McCoy said, looking purposefully at the twisted metal fragments, "you're in perfect condition. If it weren't for that increased amount of kironide in your blood, I would say you'd actually been listening to me and taking care of yourself for once."
A eyebrow shot up at that. "Well, *thanks*."
McCoy ignored the jibe. "The concentration of kironide in your bloodstream is nearly double of what I put into you. It's increasing exponentially, almost like - Jim? Jim?"
Kirk had gone white, and he no longer seemed to hear McCoy. "Oh my-"
"Jim!" McCoy had him by the shoulders, and a few seconds later Kirk's eyes focused on his friend. He was still horribly pale, and his breathing was rapid.
"Did you say...exponentially? It's increasing exponentially?"
McCoy was confused. "Yes, I did."
Kirk was staring off into empty space again, and McCoy could barely hear what he was saying. "It's like having a penny and doubling it every day...within a few months, you'll be a millionaire."
"Jim!" McCoy shook him by the shoulders. "Come on Jim, snap out of it!"
And Kirk did. One minute he was staring blankly, the next he was forcefully demanding, "Bones! What color are my eyes?"
McCoy blinked in confusion, and when he did not immediately reply, Kirk tightened his grip. "Bones, answer me! What color are my eyes?"
"They're the same color they've always been, Jim. Hazel." Kirk finally relaxed his grip on McCoy's arms, and the doctor winced as new bruises made themselves known.
"Then there's still time," Kirk murmured to himself, barely loud enough for McCoy to hear. He turned his oddly shaken gaze back to McCoy. "Bones...you'll have to kill me. Now, before my power gets any greater."
"WHAT?!" McCoy could not believe his ears. "Jim, what are you saying? Kill you? I'd rather cut off my hands first, than do something atrocious like that! Jim, you're my best friend. I can't kill you."
"Don't you think that's what I said about Gary?" Kirk's voice was rising, and was taking on an odd accent of hysteria. "Don't you think I said that before Gary almost killed us all? Before he became invincible? BEFORE HE BECAME A GOD?!"
McCoy couldn't let his friend stand there and scream insanely for very long. Before Kirk could react, McCoy grabbed a hypospray filled with sedative and jabbed it into the captain's shoulder. Kirk stiffened at the hiss, and McCoy went flying as through a giant hand had grabbed hold of him and thrown him across the room.
He sat crumpled in the corner, unable to move, as Kirk advanced with murder in his eyes. Eyes that were gleaming a metallic silver!