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Chapter Three:

Stardate: 2258.136

Captain's log:

Our encounter with the force field at the galaxies edge, has all but crippled the ship. We're lost warp capabilities and we've been reduced to impulse power only. Most of the damage to the bridge has been repaired and functionality has been restored, but only just. Full repairs won't be able to a take place until we reach the closest star base… Nine crew members were lost. All died from sudden seizures, the causes of which are still unknown. It's my belief that the force field we encountered somehow caused it, but why did it only affect ten members of the crew? Lieutenant Mitchell was almost the tenth victim, but he somehow recovered. Dr McCoy currently has him under observation. I can't help but wonder why Mitchell survived, when all other crew members died. What's different about Gary?

)o(

Jim stands leaning against his chair in the Captain's ready room. On either side of him and slightly forward, stood Commander Spock and Doctor McCoy. Spock as always stood ramrod straight, with his shoulders back and his hands clasped against the small of his back. McCoy on the other hand stood in a slightly slouched posture with his shoulders slumped forward and one arm folded across his chest, while the other was held up slightly in front as he waves his hand around as he spoke.

"It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen, Jim," McCoy explains, with a note of frustration in his voice. "Gary's vitals are perfect. Completely flawless. He's awake and alert… He's been reading nonstop for the last twelve hours and he just keep asking for 'more'."

Jim frowns slightly. "More what?"

"Information. Data. Anything and everything," McCoy answers, resting a hand against his chin and tapping in lightly. "I finally gave him a book of old earth poetry just to shut him up for more than a couple of minutes!"

"Minutes?" Jim questions. "Actually I don't want to know. Do you have any idea on what caused their deaths yet, Bones?"

"Preliminary reports from autopsy indicate that in each case damage had been done to the body's neural circuit. Which seems to have caused entire areas of the brain to be burned out."

"Burned out?" Jim questions.

McCoy nodes. "Whole hemispheres of the brain fried like an overheated computer circuit board. There are also signs of damage to the motor neurons throughout the bodies of the deceased, which most likely caused the seizures that occurred before death."

Jim sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "What hit my crew, Mr Spock?"

"I have studied the deceased crew members' medical files for any commonalities," Spock answers. "In hopes of ascertaining the reason why they were the only crew members affected. All those who were affected had extraordinary results in for the same barrage of tests: Esper, apperception and Duke/Heidelberg quotient."

"Those are all tests for psychic abilities," Jim mutters. "ESP, Clairvoyance and Psychometry are the most common found in the few humans who have such abilities. Are you saying that all the crew members who died, had such abilities?"

It wasn't uncommon for humans who took the test to get minor results, after all it wasn't much different to ones 'gut instinct' and feelings humans often got sometimes which warned them of danger.

Even animals had such instincts. In many respects, ESP, Clairvoyance and Psychometry were just stronger versions of it. So 'extraordinary' could be anything from just above the 'minor results' to full blown psychic powers.

"Precisely." Spock replies. "And Lieutenant Mitchell scored highest of them all."

)o(

Jim walked through the halls of the Enterprise as he headed towards the medical bay. McCoy and Spock walked with him. McCoy was on his way back to the medical bay to start his shift and Jim and Spock were going to question Gary. Who knew, maybe he'd be able to tell them something.

"Bones, where's the psychologist who joined us at Aldeberan?" Jim asks, as they turn down another hallway. "Doctor Dehner, was it? Her assignment was to study the crew's reaction in emergency conditions. She might be able to help. I'm sure when I read her file, it showed her ESP rated quite high."

"Uh," McCoy hesitates. "She withdrew her transfer. I guess she had a change of heart."

Jim stares at McCoy for a moment. "Don't tell me Doctor Dehner, is that Dehner."

"It was a long time ago," McCoy defended himself. "I thought she'd forgiven me."

Jim smiles slightly and shakes his head. During their first year at the academy McCoy had attempted to get over his ex-wife and had let Jim set him up with a date. Elizabeth Dehner had been a friend of a friend of Jim's and so McCoy had found himself on a date with her.

At first it had been fine, great even, but then McCoy made a mistake and obviously Dehner wasn't ready to forgive him for it and things hadn't ended on the best terms. After that, McCoy had just given up and refused to let Jim set him up with anyone else.

"Captain, I'm concerned about the reference to extra-sensory perception in the data logs recovered from the USS Valiant's distress beacon. I believe there may be a connection between what happened to their crew and what has happened to our crew."

Jim nodes. "Check with Uhura, Mr Spock, see if anything else has been recovered from the beacon. If there truly is a connection, we need to know as much about as we can. Let's just be grateful that Gary seems to be-" A sudden noise from the medical bay cuts Jim off midsentence and Jim turns to face the direction of the medical bay. "… Okay?"

Jim shared a worried glance with McCoy before quickly hurrying towards the medical bay with both McCoy and Spock on his heels. Jim only stopped moving long enough for the doors to the medical bay to slide open. He hurried into the room and stopped short at the sight which greeted him.

Gary stood in the middle of the room, with his arms spread wide and a manic grin on his face. All objects which occupied the medical bay which weren't stuck to the floor were floating in the air around him, circling him like planets in orbit of a star.

Jim meet Gary's gaze and he had to supress a shudder at the sight of glowing silver eyes. There was something about them which made him uneasy and Jim always trusted his gut instinct, as it had never proved him wrong before.

"Jim!" Gary greets, in an overly cheerful voice, waving to the objects in the air around him. "What do you think?"

)o(

"Gary, what-" Jim began to ask.

"God, I am thirsty." Gary cut across Jim, turning away from him and floating a cup of water to his lips and taking a sip. "You look worried, Jim."

Jim tensed slightly, as Gary hadn't looked back at him and a far as Jim knew Gary didn't have eyes in the back of his head.

"I've been worried about you ever since that night on Deneb IV." Jim finally answers, with a slightly forced smile.

Gary smiles too and turns back to face Jim, as McCoy edges round them and reaches for a floating medical scanner and PADD. "Yeah, she was nova, that one. Not nearly as many after-effects this time, except for the eyes. They kind of stare back at me when I'm shaving."

"Do you feel any different?" Jim asks, curiously as he pushes past his feeling of unease.

"In a way, I feel better than I've ever felt before in my life." Gary answers, a smirk appearing on his lips. "Even better than that time you set me up with that little minx from Risa. It actually seems to have done me some good."

Jim lips twitch slightly as he tries to supress a grin. That was the Gary he knew. If it wasn't for the glowing silver eyes and the floating objects, Jim could have believed his friend and partner in crime on more than one occasion at the academy, was completely fine.

"How are you doing that?" Jim asks, nodding towards the cup floating above Gary's hand and spinning in small circles.

"I'm not sure." Gary answers. "I just… Think of making it happen… And it does."

McCoy quickly walks back round Gary and stops at Jim's side. "Scans are completely normal. There's nothing out of the ordinary."

"You mean aside from the floating objects!" Jim answers.

"Oh, Jim," Gary speaks up before McCoy has a chance to answer. "I've been meaning to tell you, there's something wrong with the impulse power. Mr Scott will probably tell you all about it, before dragging you down to engineering to help him and Keenser fix it."

"How do you know?" Jim questions.

"It's amazing Jim," Gary answers, turning away from once more. "It's like I can hear the ship. It's like she's talking to me… And I can talk back to her."

"Gary," McCoy approaches him and rests a hand on his shoulder. "How about you rest for a little while-"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Gary bellows and spins round, throwing out his hands and shoving McCoy back.

Jim quickly steadies McCoy as he stumbles backwards, before jumping between the two of them and holding up a hand towards Gary, whilst glancing back to double check McCoy was definitely okay.

"Enough, Gary!" Jim exclaims turning back to face him. "I want you on bed rest and you are not to leave this room until we know what's happened to you. That's an order."

"Aye, aye Captain." Gary answers, a dark look passing over his face, causing a shudder to run down Jim's spine.

Jim was getting an incredibly bad feeling about this. A feeling of evil and hatred seemed to be rolling off Gary in waves now and the look he had just given Jim seemed almost predatory. Every muscle in Jim's body tenses subconsciously, as it gets itself ready for a fight or flight response.

Jim straighten up and nodes to Gary. "Good. Dr McCoy keep him under observation. If he shows any intension of further violence, have security stand guard at the door."

)o(

Hey, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Until next time,

Blessed be,

TreeOfLife1997.