A/N: This chapter turned out wayyy longer than the previous two. Enjoy! And I love hearing from my readers, please review!


"Scotty, I don't understand it! Jim couldn't have just…" McCoy gestured wildly with one arm. "…vanished into thin air!"

Scott and Chekov were bent over the Science station, which was normally occupied by Spock. "I know that, Doctor – but it makes no sense! I've done a sensor sweep of the entire ship, and the Captain is not on the Enterprise, or outside it!" Scott's eyes were wide, unmasked distress all over his usually cheerful countenance.

McCoy and Scott had been holding Kirk between them, in the process of lowering him to the floor, when without warning, he had – disappeared. They had been left clutching empty air, and had stared at each other for a long time, attempting to work out what had just happened. The rest of the Bridge crew had not witnessed Kirk disappear, and were almost as perplexed as the engineer and the doctor, surrounding the pair and asking them what had happened. Then Sulu had asked the question which was at the forefront of all their minds.

"What do we do now?"

Everyone on the bridge automatically looked at the senior officer – Mr Scott. The Chief Engineer had ordered a shipwide search for Captain Kirk, moving quickly to the sensors himself.

"Doctor… shouldn't we get Mr Spock up here?" Scott asked worriedly. "He'll be able to search for the Captain better than I can."

Frustrated and anxious, McCoy bounced on his heels. "Look, I don't dare risk waking Spock… I don't know much about those weird Vulcan rituals of his, and the shock could kill him if we bring him out of it. We need to find Jim ourselves, and quickly."

Hours passed: the ship was combed, both by the computer, and by Security teams. While Scott knew with sick certainty that Kirk couldn't be alive if he had been transported out into space, he still had the computers scan the area of space they were in, as far as the scanners would reach. Of course, no life signs showed.

Suggestions were made, queries were raised, but still Captain Kirk was nowhere to be seen.

"I bet it's that energy field we went through," Chekov muttered. "It took the asteroid belt, and it took the Captain."

Scott's head jerked up from the console, and he fixed Chekov with a delighted gaze. "Mr Chekov – I think you're right!" He turned to McCoy. "Doctor, that was no strangely shaped rock we flew through! It must have been an enemy ship!"

McCoy's eyes lit up. "And they've taken Jim! All we need to do is board their vessel, and get him back!" He looked down suddenly, raising an eyebrow in consternation. "But where is he? That didn't look like a ship that humans can transport to – for all we know, we could be transporting into solid rock. And where's the ship? There's nothing but space around us now."

"Aye, and we couldn't transport into that energy field either – there's nothing there." Scott shook his head in dismay.

The captain's chair, which was unoccupied, began to glow suddenly with a bright white light. Everyone on the Bridge stopped what they were doing, and watched.

Abruptly, Kirk appeared, in a standing position slightly in front of his chair. He was very pale, and his eyes were unfocused, staring at a point to the left of the viewscreen.

"Jim!" McCoy leaped over the red handrail, and grabbed Kirk's arm.

Or intended to.

The doctor's hand passed straight through Kirk's arm as if he were a ghost. It smashed into the arm of the chair with considerable force, but McCoy didn't notice. He was too busy staring in horror at his friend.

"Captain?" Scott's voice was barely a whisper.

Kirk appeared not to have heard either of them. His eyes roved, not focusing on anything in particular. "I won't let them…" Abruptly, he turned, and walked straight through the captain's chair like it didn't exist. Or like he didn't exist.

"Do you hear me?" he bellowed. "You'll never take the Enterprise! You'll never take command! If you so much as touch my crew…" A look of utter rage twisted his features. McCoy had never seen him look so angry, in all the years he'd known Kirk. It was almost frightening.

"I'll kill you!" Kirk screamed at the ceiling, continuing his tirade and pacing furiously.

What happened next shocked every person on the Bridge. The captain jerked suddenly, his arms trembling. Every ounce of anger dissolved from his expression, replaced instantly by one of pleading. He fell to his knees, and to McCoy's horror, tears began coursing down Kirk's cheeks. "Stop this… please, stop…" Kirk's voice was a low moan. "Let my crew go. Take me, do whatever you want with me, but let them go. They've done nothing – I ordered the Enterprise to fly through the energy field. Let them go… don't hurt my crew…"

There was total silence on the Bridge, broken only by their captain's aching sobs.

Just as suddenly as before, Kirk's entire body jerked. He stood up, his expression dazed. There was no trace of the previous emotions, apart from the tears that stained his face. He made no effort to wipe them away.


Kirk stood there for a while, unmoving. He blinked a few times, and turned his head, seeing the faces of his stunned Bridge crew. Without warning, he began to shake violently. His mouth opened to form words, but no sound emerged. He collapsed to the floor of the Bridge with a crash, his entire body shaking.

McCoy was the first one to react. He ran to Kirk's side, and cautiously put a hand on his friend's shoulder. His solid, real shoulder. "Jim, thank God."

Kirk reached a shaking hand up, in an unsuccessful attempt to clutch at McCoy's blue tunic. "Bones…"

Kirk's face paled suddenly. He curled on his side, and vomited a bright orange liquid all over the deck.

The doctor's eyes widened in horror at the colour, and immediately began waving his medical scanner over Kirk. "Entire metabolic rate doubled… heartbeat two hundred and forty-eight… brain activity off the charts…"

Kirk had drawn his arms up to cover his face, his body still shuddering. McCoy looked up, and saw the Bridge crew standing around them, with horrified looks on their faces. "Stand back, all of you!" McCoy growled. "Give us some space, dammit! And someone call Medical, now!"

Alarmed, the crew resumed their positions around the Bridge, casting concerned glances in Kirk's direction.

Scott pressed the intercom button. "Bridge to Sickbay – we have a medical emergency. Captain Kirk is injured." He struggled to keep his voice calm.

"Acknowledged, sir. Medical team on their way."

Scott turned to face the helm. "Mr Sulu, warp six. Get us away from here."

McCoy put his scanner down, and gently took hold of Kirk's trembling arms, which were shielding his face. Kirk flinched at the touch.

"Jim, it's okay. You're back on the Enterprise." He managed to pull his friend's arms away from his face and roll him onto his back. In doing so, he noticed a series of small puncture marks that covered both of Kirk's wrists. A terrible thought occurred to him, and he swore as he realised its implications. "I need you to look at me, Jim. Can you do that?" Kirk nodded, and tilted his head to look at McCoy. The doctor inhaled sharply as he saw the hazel eyes, which usually burned with an unrivalled intensity, unfocused and dull. Kirk's pupils were dilated to such an extent that his eyes looked almost black. "You've been drugged. I need you to tell me exactly what happened."

Kirk closed his eyes. "I… I don't know… I was in a metal room with a pink floor – I was walking, but I couldn't go anywhere… There was so much emotion – it was like they were drowning me in emotion, controlling me…" He swallowed. "I don't feel so good… can't move properly."

"I'm not surprised," McCoy answered. "Jim, it's critical you tell me what you know about your captors. From what I can tell, you've been pumped full of a metabolic stimulant, and I can't give you anything yet – it may react with this stimulant. My scanner's not giving any reading as to what it is – it's a completely alien drug."

Kirk frowned slowly. His mind felt heavy, like he'd been hit over the head in a drunken bar-fight. "But that's… impossible. I was alone the entire time – I didn't see a single living thing. I… I couldn't have been drugged."

"What?" McCoy stared at him, incredulous. "I mean, they could have been in another room, or something. Observing you through a one-way wall?" He examined Kirk's wrists. "Look, you've been injected by needles – and you've got absolutely no recollection of it?"

Kirk shook his head, then grimaced as a bolt of agony ripped through it, protesting against the sudden movement. "No… the entire time I was in that prison, I… I just knew that I was the only living thing. Nothing touched me... no needles, no life forms. It's just not possible -" His stomach did a slow somersault, and liquid suddenly filled his mouth, preventing further speech.

McCoy quickly placed a reassuring hand on his friend's arm, stilling his movement. "It's alright, Jim. Don't move, just let me work out what I can give you to make you feel better." His other hand held a tricorder, which he hovered over Kirk's head and abdomen.

Confusion and unease flitted openly across Kirk's face. "I was the only living creature, Bones. It was like - being trapped inside a machine - a sentient machine. Whoever… whatever those things are, they aren't life as we know it." He attempted to sit up. Something was wrong with his ship. Something felt very, very wrong. "Spock… where's Spock?"

Around him, the walls began to sway, rushing towards him then receding sickeningly fast. The Bridge lights which had at first seemed too bright, seemed to have dimmed, and were pulsing in time with the movement of the walls. He was aware that McCoy was still talking to him, but couldn't quite make out the words. The pounding of his heart drowned out everything, and made it hard to think. Something didn't seem quite right; was it supposed to be going that fast?

"Jim!" Hands, shaking his shoulders. There was a sudden sting in his arm, and Kirk blinked, and found himself lying on the floor looking into worried blue eyes for the second time in six hours. "Wha-? Ah, Bones, that hurts…" He did his best to convey a sense of annoyance, but realised it didn't have much effect.

"Well, good!" McCoy snarled, injecting him succinctly with another hypo. "Christ, Jim, you scared the hell out of me! You were this close to a heart attack, or seizure, or both!" Even in his semiconscious state, Kirk didn't miss the tremor in his friend's voice.

Kirk reached up a hand and gripped the soft blue fabric that covered McCoy's arm. "I'm okay, Bones. Really, I'm feeling better." He was, too – the doctor's wonder drugs had made everything go all soft-edged, and his heart rate was slowing to normal.

McCoy snorted, his face losing some of its tension. "You are not okay. You are anything but okay. Don't move a muscle until I can work out what else to give you, that won't react with the alien stimulant in your system, or make your damn idiot brain bleed even more." He rummaged in his medkit, loading hypos and muttering dangerously.

"The Enterprise... Bones, what's wrong with my ship?" Kirk reached a hand up and felt the side of his face, which had gone all tingly and warm. His fingers came away red. Detachedly, he recalled his earlier head injury.

The doctor slapped his hand down. "Jim, I swear to God! Don't move! There's nothing wrong with the Enterprise." He brought a loaded hypo up to Kirk's shoulder and injected it.

Kirk recoiled from the sudden sting, but McCoy's firm grip kept him from rolling onto his side. "Aw, no more hypos... hurts..." Kirk's speech had become slurred, and he could feel unconsciousness pulling at him. He attempted to fight it, but he was warm, and in control of his own mind, and the deck was so solid and real. And Bones was next to him, gently holding his arm and holding a whirring medscanner over his head.

"It's okay, that last hypo I gave you was a sedative. You're safe now, Jim - you don't need to fight it."

Kirk's eyes closed, and the blackness rushed up to meet him.