Captain James T. Kirk thought back on all that had happened as he tried to figure out where he was and which way he should go. They had been on so many hostile planets that later became a part of the Federation and had encountered some very aggressive and punishing ways of proving their character and worthiness to the citizens and Bohana One had seemed like the others until the hunt started. He had been told that, as the leader, he was to be hunted and if he made it to the safe house at the end of the hunt they would more than allow a base to be build, they would supply all the materials and workers needed to construct it. The four security officers who had beamed down with them had been taken away and hunted. They had not been shown and given the four torn and bloodied shirts the men had worn and told that they had failed the hunt. When he had looked at both the Ambassador and the Admiral he could see they were also surprised and shocked although Kirk knew he McCoy and Spock had encountered other bloodthirsty ways He did not want to think what the damage to the shirts revealed about the injuries that would have killed his officers.

He had seen how it was taking everything in McCoy not to protest and there had been that worried look about Spock when he had turned to follow the two men taking him to where the hunt was to start. Somehow he had managed to grin and say what he had said so many times, "Look after the ship and the crew." and seen the nod even though that worried look remained. The Ambassador was there as was Admiral Tayler but all he saw were his two friend. Silently he hoped they would hopefully not get into one of their debates till they were back on the ship and alone.

Briefly he closed his eyes and shook his head. He was pleased his two friends had no idea how difficult this hunt was. He was being hunted but he was also hunting for a way to the safe house. While he had often gone hunting when he was younger this hunt had been and was unlike anything he had ever experienced. They had shown him a map, let him see the start and finish point, the safe house, but there had been no indication of the terrain, the hazards, the scale, nor the compass directions. He had little time to study the map before they made sure he had no concealed way of getting help or of being tracked and had taken him through a maze of tunnels then released him into a wilderness unlike any he had encountered before and telling him the hunters would be after him in thirty standard minutes.

There had been so many tracks to chose from and no indication of what direction he was facing. He had been at the junction of five tracks, each appeared to be equally overgrown. It was only the awareness that he was going to be hunted and what Star Fleet and the Federation stood to gain that made him keep running. Time had no meaning and he had lost track of how many times he had fallen because of gravel or roots, been startled by the calls of different indigenous animals, slipped on moss or mud, stumbled down steep slopes, dragged himself up almost vertical cliffs, crossed so many streams but it seemed that he was making no progress and all too soon he heard the voices of the hunters. There were, as he thought of the voices individually, six of them. They had made no effort to sneak up on him. They had spoken of their other hunts and at first he had not paid too much attention until he realized, from how they talked about who was to have this kill, and how it would be different from the others, that the hunt ended when they killed him if he did not reach the finishing point. He heard how none of the other thirty-nine off-worlders they had hunted had lived and how they wondered if he would cry out as so many had as they were killed and how long it would take him to die. They had laughed about how they could keep him aware of how they were killing him, how they had done it to others.

It had been difficult but he had managed to concentrate so much on what he was doing that he had kept his fear from consuming him or getting into the link he had with Spock. It was bad enough that he was doing this, he did not want Spock to know as he knew how it would be torment for his Vulcan friend. For just a moment, as he thought of how Spock would take his death, he lost his concentration and fell into a snare trap. As the voices got louder he struggled only to realize that the more he struggled the more ensnared he became. He had felt a hand grip his and then there had been a sensation of falling and as the panic of what was to come filled his mind he instinctively mentally cried out to the one who meant more than life to him then nothingness.

He did not know how long he had been unconscious but his first awareness was a hand over his mouth and a whispered, "Captain, do not move . . . nor make a sound." A part of his mind told him he had heard the voice before but could not place it apart from aboard the ship. He started to chide himself when, in that same part of his mind, he heard a faint, "Jim, you are the Captain to over four hundred crew and you cannot logically be expected to know each of them with any great depth of familiarity."

"You've been . . . out of it . . . all night. I've done . . . all I can to get . . . you so you can . . . follow a track I . . . have made to a hut. You should . . . be able to . . . contact the ship . . . from there, Sir."

Slowly what had happened and where he was came back to him but he was sure he was hallucinating as he had seen the security guards who came down with them slaughtered in a hunt. No, he had seen them actually killed but had seen their bloodied shirts waved high by the warrior hunters who had chased after the four officers in a hunt. The hunters had come back to the square where they had beamed down to waving the bloodied shirts high and saying they died well after a good but all too short hunt. There was no way anybody could have survived the blood loss the shirts showed and they heard the graphic details.

No, he shook his head. He would not think of that. Think only of the hut. The hut, the safe house. He had to get to it. Spock and McCoy would be there. They would know what to do. Almost as though he was in a daze he felt two hands pull him up, hold him steady for a moment while he regained his balance, turn him in a direction, and that voice he had heard before said, "At a steady . . . pace go one eighty-seven . . . paces straight . . .ahead. Bent branches . . . weeds point way. Clear. Go now, Sir." Then a slight push and he had mentally counted each step. One, two, three, four . . . .

He had started to question his sanity as he walked and yet saw bent branches and twisted weeds pointing in the direction he was going. In his mind he heard that beloved voice saying "Trust what you see and feel, Jim." as he reached out and touched the branches and weeds. They were real. See and feel. He had felt hands on him but he had not seen anybody. The thought made him pause for a moment as he thought back on how he knew where he was going. What if none of it was real and he was nowhere near the end? What if he had hit his head harder than he thought and was hallucinating? He remembered the bloodied shirts. They had been real. The hunt was real.

He hesitated as he saw the hut at step one seventy and realized there was nobody around it. Nobody guarding it as he walked closer, one seventy-five, one seventy-six. What if it was not the safe house mentioned? What if it was a trap? Was he going to walk in only to be killed?

In the middle of the clearing between where he was and the hut. Clearly what he saw before him had to be a hallucination as he was at the door to the hut at step one eighty-three step and he had been told one eighty-seven. But he could see it and, as he reached out, feel it. It was real. He had made it.

Two men were inside the small room and they looked surprised. "Captain Kirk, you, you were not expected to achieve what neither the Klingons nor the Romulans had. We must advise the Council of this."

While the obviously more senior man went to a rather older communications system the younger man handed him a damp cloth that he wiped his face with. This clearly was not a hallucination.

"This is Ry'Daylin at the post. Captain James Kirk has arrived. Time of hunt twenty-seven point one nine standard hours. He appears to have only minor injuries and walked in on his own." There was surprise in the man's voice.

"Captain Kirk?"

He walked over the the unit, "Kirk here."

"You have done what no other off-worlder has done and we will gladly talk with your Ambassador. While it is most unfortunate that four of your officers were killed we have been told they also most difficult to hunt. We look forward to meeting you when me meet with your Ambassador. We will make contact as to the time and place. You may contact your ship for your return. "

"Thank you, sir." It seemed to surprise the two men with him and from the delay it had clearly surprised those at the Council that he thanked them, or it could have, on reflection, have puzzled them.

After the man had turned a few dials and flicked a few switches he nodded at Kirk, "I believe you would say the hailing frequencies are open, Captain."

"Enterprise, come in Enterprise."

There was a veiled surprise with some great relief that Kirk knew he was one of only a very few who would hear it in the, "This is the Enterprise. Nine zero one seven six."

Kirk nodded, a confirmation code only they would know, "Cee Eee Cee X-ray."

"May we beam you aboard, Captain Kirk?"

Kirk looked at the two men and they indicated they would ask. "I am just looking to find that out at the moment." He was sure that Spock would understand and do a scan of the area although he would not know what to look for or why he had asked for it.

The two men in the hut with him looked a one another in surprise and said, "The Council advised you that you could return and are to await them informing you as to when the official meeting with the Ambassador will be held. We are honored to meet one such as you as off-worlders do not survive the hunt. You must be a great hunter to know how to survive a hunt."

Kirk smiled, "I have had experience as both, perhaps too much experience. We will await future contact." He picked up the small microphone, "Enterprise, beam me up."

So many people had said that Vulcans had no emotions but when Kirk materialized aboard the Enterprise he knew how wrong those people were as for the briefest of moments there was a look of love and relief on the face of his First Officer. "If I am correct, Captain, you requested that we scan the area you were in."

"Yes, what did you find?"

"There were two groups of life-forms, there was a group of three in your location and a group of nine approximately one point three eight kilometers south west of your location."

"No, no individual readings not far from where I was?"

"No, Captain, only the three at your location and the nine in the other."

For a moment he was going to protest that something was wrong as it had been, had seemed so real but if there were no other life-forms showing it had to be a hallucination. A hallucination. No. As calmly as he could he looked from Spock to McCoy then back to Spock, "I'll be in my quarters reviewing the events as I am sure we will have to go back down with the officials if need be. I will be ready for a debrief in thirty minutes."

Without waiting for the standard acknowledgment he walked out and went to his quarters. He did not see how Spock looked at McCoy with a raised eyebrow nor how McCoy gave a slight nod. He did not see the look of concern his friends shared. He did not want them to know he had been hallucinating. To admit that would cost him the ship, would put him either in a special care facility or keep him behind a desk after years of being psych tested. He needed to think this whole thing through. He needed to shut out of his mind what he had heard and know about the fate of those who talked of such things as he was sure had happened during the hunt. He was sure they had happened but there was no way they could have.

Once in his quarters he had taken a longer than usual shower then stretched out on his bed while he tried to decide just what had happened. It had been so real and yet Spock had said there were only the three of them and then a group of nine but not a single, isolated, life-form reading as that one would have to have been. He could not, would not, admit to a hallucination as that would get him off the ship and yet it had to have been a hallucination as there was no proof, no readings showing a singular life-form. He just needed time alone to think, to remember. Bones would be able to tell him if he had hit his head hard enough to cause serious temporary confusion when he regained consciousness. That would be it. He had fallen. He had fallen but had no memory of strapping his legs so he could walk without too much pain nor of how he would have known the direction and distance from where he was to the hut. It had to be a hallucination as nobody could have known to call him Captain or Sir. Nobody could have moved so quickly to be so far from where the hut was.

Once Kirk had gone Spock looked at McCoy, "If I may, Doctor, I would like to talk with you, in private."

"Oh course, Spock." they went into a briefing room and McCoy looked at the Vulcan, "What is it?"

A/N Just like airline pilots, starship captains cannot admit to having hallusincations. Thanks for reading - hope you enjoyed it. Be a bit of a break as got a medical caper to deal with. Stay safe all and HAVE FUN.