Stardate 1873.6. USS Enterprise, in orbit around Upothas II

Acting captain log, supplemental. We have received no words from the planet despite our repeated hails. As far as we know, only the members of the second landing party have been able to find refuge inside the large underground complex. Mr Spock and Br'Tar have spent the last hour mapping the passageways, hoping to find a way to reunite the landing party. In doing so, they have uncovered further evidence of some planet-scale catastrophe that hit the inhabitants some 400 years ago…

Una's logging was interrupted by the ready room's door chime.

"Come in!" She said as she tapped a few commands on the desk display to stop the door whooshed open to let a very haggard Dr. Boyce in. "Phil, how is Chris?"

Boyce took a seat opposite Una. "Alive," was his only terse response.

"Surgery?" Una did her best to keep the anticipation out of her voice. Boyce was definitely in shock and she didn't want to put him on the defensive. She knew he blamed himself as much as she held herself responsible for the situation on the planet. Boyce should have relieved Chris from duty but it had been her responsibility to prevent him from beaming down.

"As well as could be expected." Boyce unsuccessfully tried to hide the shakiness from his voice. "Mayweather managed to remove the fragments and close. But…" The doctor took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "He is in an unbearable amount of pain."

Una closed her eyes and fought a wave of nausea. She had witnessed Pike stay on the bridge with late-stage Rigelian fever to fight off the Klingons. She had spent five days with him in a dank prison cell after his shoulder had been dislocated. She knew first hand that Pike had a high tolerance for pain and that he often hid it very well.

"He had two seizures following the surgery triggered by the pain. There is nothing Mayweather can do down there. We need to get to them or at the very least, send them pain medication and antibiotics."

"Phil, the storm is making it impossible for us to get a lock on their position. Whatever was blocking our scans of the village is now being spread everywhere by the wind." Una keyed a few commands to display the latest weather report from science. "The storm is covering half of the western continent. We might have a short window of time to extract them in a shuttle when the eye will be directly overhead in five days."

"Chris won't last that long." Boyce stood up abruptly and started pacing the length of the small ready room. Constitution-class starships weren't designed with a captain's ready-room in mind but Pike had insisted on transforming the conference room during their last refit. After all, the conference room was never used without the captain present so it could serve both functions easily. "He will either die from shock or sepsis before then. The bullet shattered his femur. Thea needs to stabilize the fracture but when she attempted it, he went into convulsions before she could even get to apply pressure on the wound. And without stabilization, the pain will just intensify. It's a vicious circle." Phil stopped and looked directly at Una. "He's also running a fever. That's probably from shock but I wouldn't rule out infection. He needs painkillers and antibiotics now or we're going to lose him."

Una tapped on the monitor and flicked her hand to display the holographic rendition of the mountain in-between her and Phil. "Spock, Landais, and Johnson are here." She pointed at the red dot at the base of the mountain, directly located across from the village. The infamous field that had started the dispute was stretching between the two. "As far as Spock can tell, this seems to be the command center of the underground base. He's managed to access the database but the Enterprise's computer is having trouble interpreting the language. From the logs they've recovered, we think some kind of plague caused the original inhabitants to take refuge in the mountains." Una tapped on the desk to show the muted video of a feverish alien. The alien bear a resemblance to humans, except for the ridges on their ears and forehead.

"How is any of this helping the captain?" Boyce asked angrily. At any other time, he would have been fascinated by the mystery in front of him but his friend's life was on the line.

"I'm getting to it, doctor," Una replied tersely. She pointed to the blue lines criss-crossing the mountain. "It seems that the base was constructed to separate the inhabitants into pods. Probably as a means for quarantine. Each pod is composed of two subpods linked together by a large chamber with a dedicated entrance from the outside."

"You think that Pike and the others are in one of these pods."

Una keyed another sequence and another red dot appeared on the holographic simulation on the furthest corner of the underground complex from what they assumed to be the control center. "Here to be precise. This is our best guess based on some tricorder triangulation on the ground, Br'tar's memories of their journey from the village, and the description of the main chamber entrance on the mountain side." Une highlighted one of the subpods in green. " The infirmary is here. The other subpod is a lot more damaged but also the only one that can be accessed internally. Br'tar is currently taking readings on their side. Hopefully, we can reunite the away team. Spock is carrying the secondary medical kit. Won't be enough to fully relieve Chris' pain but enough so we can stabilize and move him."

Phil exhaled in relief. "How long?"

"Hopefully by morning. But if these aliens suffered from some sort of plague..."

"You're afraid that the away team could also be infected and contaminate each other," Boyce finished. "I doubt what caused the plague is still around. This place looks like it has been abandoned for several decades."

"Four hundred years. Give or take."

"If you need my medical opinion, Number One, the miniscule risk of the away team to be infected doesn't outweigh the certainty of the captain's dying unless we can provide him with painkillers and antibiotics."

"Understood."

"The secondary kit may buy us a few days but we need to get him back onboard ASAP."

"We're working on it." Una rotated the display and overlaid the terrain layer on top of the tunnels. "There is a small clearing here. Big enough for a shuttle. It's about 20 minutes from this entrance." She pointed to a pod somewhat adjacent to the one currently occupied by the second half of the away team.

"How long of a window do we have?"

"About an hour."

"Which means the away team needs to relocate to the secondary pod before we even leave the ship." Phil wiped his face with his palm. Even with some pain relief, moving Chris without a gurney would be excruciating. "I'll let Mayweather know."

Phil motioned to leave but Una called him back. "Phil, what are his chances?"

"Not good." The doctor shook his head. "Assuming no infection and that Spock can make it to them by morning, I'd say 50%. And that's taking into account that we're talking about Chris."

"And with an infection? Can Mayweather…" Una swallowed hard. "If we amputate the leg…"

"It won't change the outcome. The bullet was lodged all the way to the marrow. It's already spread. Besides, Chris wouldn't survive that surgery. Not with the kind of anesthetics in the secondary kit and the state he's already in. Not to mention that they have nothing to cut through the strongest bone in the human's body. At this point, all we can do is provide him with some supportive care and try to get him to rest."

"Let me know if there is anything I can do."

"Get me to that planet as soon as possible even if it means staying down there while the storm passes," Boyce grumbled. "I'll work with engineering to get a shuttle retrofitted as a medical pod. That will give Chris more of a fighting chance."

Una nodded. "I can't stop you from preparing a shuttle. But I can't ask anyone to fly it through that storm nor condemn themselves on that planet."

"I think you'll find more than one volunteer for this mission."

"I know. But whatever my feelings for Chris might be, I cannot let two officers sacrifice themselves for the one."

Boyce chuckled. "Sometimes the need of the many is better served by saving the one at the expense of the few. The universe is a better place because Chris is in it. And I will happily give my life for his if it means that he can continue to make a difference."

"I hope it won't come to this, doctor," Number One responded sincerely.

"Bridge to Number One." Garison's voice resonated through the comm. "The computer managed to translate the logs Mr. Spock recovered on the planet. You'll want to see this."

"On my way, Mr. Garison! Excellent job!"

STSTST

"Cold," Pike whispered. Despite his best effort, he couldn't control the shaking nor the tears streaming down his face. He had experienced pain in his life but this was excruciating.

Alathea placed another blanket over him, tucking him as snuggly as possible without moving his leg. "Better?" She asked, soothingly caressing his forehead. She was powerless to help him. Starfleet Academy had taught her to deal with most situations on the ground but none of her classes had covered performing surgery without anesthesia while trapped in an alien bunker with primitive medical technology.

Pike shook his head. He sobbed as another wave of pain emanating from his leg spread through his entire body. "I can't do this."

"You're doing great, Chris." Chris' conditions ran deeper than the physical injury. Since her arrival on Enterprise, Pike had kept her at arm's length but from what she had gathered from her conversations with Boyce, he definitely suffered from PTSD. He had refused to talk to the ship's surgeon, citing the classified nature of his mission. Only Number One had an inkling of what had transpired while the Enterprise had been in spacedock and she was as tight-lipped as her captain. "You need to try to get some rest."

"Sleep?" Chris chuckled. "Have you ever tried to sleep while feeling like your leg is being torn apart on every breath?" He added sarcastically.

Alathea sighed. "If you close your eyes, you'll fall asleep. Trust me." She cupped his cheek and caressed him softly. "Please."

Pike turned his face away from her and shook his head to dislodge her hand. "I can't," he said between clenched teeth.

"When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"

"You're out of line, doctor," Pike answered angrily. "Maybe I should break your leg and see if you can sleep," he snapped at her.

Alathea took a step back. In all of their years together, she had seen Chris angry. But he had never been mean. Nor had he ever threatened harm on anyone. Pike might be one of the most decorated combat officers in Starfleet but he never engaged unless he was forced to do so. What had happened to him? "Fine," she answered before placing his communicator next to him. "I'm going to check on Br'tar. Call if you need anything."

Alathea stormed out of the infirmary, barely containing her tears. Her own fatigue was catching up with her ability to perform her job and she had to remind herself that Chris may not be her friend anymore but he was still her captain and she had a duty to help him. As she entered the kitchen area, Alathea removed her uniform jacket and pulled her shirt up. She grimaced as she let her fingers graze over her ribcage, where a large bruise had already turned a shade of purple. She ran her tricorder over the area and breathed a sigh of relief when it informed her that she had sustained only minor injuries.

"Doctor?" Br'tar rushed towards the woman standing in the kitchen. "Are you hurt?"

Alathea jumped at the intrusion and pulled her shirt down. "It's nothing," she assured him.

Br'tar nodded, unconvinced by her assertion. "How is the captain?"

"No change." Her tone was more exasperated than she had intended but Br'tar didn't comment on it. "I need warm water to clean the wound," she added as she zipped her jacket back on. "And I'm probably going to need you to hold him still."

"Aye." Br'tar started with the task of warming the needed water. As he did so, he updated the doctor on their situation.

"How long before Spock gets here?" She asked hopefully, the first sliver she had felt since they had beamed on the planet.

"Morning at the earliest. The tunnels are badly damaged but our scans don't reveal complete collapse. As far as the secondary chamber is concerned, it is completely out of power. I'm not sure this section of the bunker was ever powered on or inhabited in the first place." Alathea nodded. Br'tar interpreted this as a sign to continue with his briefing. "According to Enterprise, they won't be able to send a shuttle for us in the next five days. We have plenty of food in our emergency packs to last this long and water is not a problem."

"Medical supplies are," Alathea reminded him.

"Yes," Br'tar conceded. "According to Boyce, the secondary medical kit should tie us until we're rescued."

"It might be enough to take the edge off but it won't stop the pain," Alathea thought aloud. "Enough to help him through the worst of it. Not enough to provide any real relief."

"He will need his doctor… and his friend." Alathea bit her lower lip hard to prevent the tears from falling. I don't know the man in the infirmary at all. When the silence between them became uncomfortable, Br'tar continued with his briefing. "We will need to relocate to a pod closest to the landing site."

"Move Chris? It will be torture!" Alathea chastised herself for the outburst.

"Dr. Boyce suggested we wait until the last minute…" Br'tar started.

"Because Chris will most likely be unconscious in five days," Alathea finished for him. She hugged herself tightly. It was Elena all over again. She had been unable to help her wife then, resulting in Elena's untimely death. She couldn't help Chris now. But she refused to acknowledge his fate. As a doctor, she knew his chances to survive were slim to none. But as the person closest to him, she refused to face the grim reality of their current situation. "I should get back to him." Alathea grabbed the bucket of warm water Br'tar was handed her. "Thank you, lieutenant. For everything."

"Nobody will be left behind." He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Spock and the rest of the away team will be here in the morning. We'll have four days to move the captain as comfortably as possible. Enterprise won't let us down."

Alathea smiled at his somewhat naive faith. She had felt this way once before the events on Iggisia. Chris had felt the same way too until the burden of command had snapped him back to reality. "I know."

"Do you need my help?" Br'tar asked as he let the doctor go. He had served on Enterprise long enough to know how much of a private person his captain was. Pike's open-door policy to his crew was a one-way street: he always provided a sounding board or a shoulder to cry on but he never unburdened himself to his crew, with the exception of perhaps Boyce, Number One, and, hopefully, Alathea Mayweather.

Alathea shook her head. "I'll be ok." She forced a smile before excusing herself to make her way towards the main infirmary.

As she entered the room, she caught the sadness and pain reflected in Pike's eyes. But as soon as he felt her presence, his captain's mask slipped back on. "It's just me." Pike's stoic expression remained. "I need to clean your wound," she informed him as she settled the water on the ground below his leg. "I'll be gentle. I promise." Pike jerked away as she reached out to caress his cheek. Alathea suppressed a sigh and maintained the professional distance Chris was asking for. She carefully pulled back the blankets and removed the blood-soaked bandage. Chris fisted the sheets and clenched his jaw as soon as Alathea touched the very sensitive area. Alathea proceeded to clean the wound and rebandaged his leg before running a quick scan. She then manually checked for his tibial pulse before squeezing his swollen foot slightly. "Can you feel that?" Chris nodded. "Can you try to move your toes?" The captain complied with a hiss.

Satisfied that he was healing as well as could be under the circumstances, Alathea placed the covers back and washed her hands in the still warm water. As she did so, she updated her captain on their situation.

"Any news from the original landing party?" Pike asked. "If they managed to escape, they could be in this underground bunker. Tell Spock to search the other pods before coming here."

"No." Alathea answered firmly, exasperated by Pike's sometimes misplaced sense of self-sacrifice. "Spock is coming here with the antibiotics and painkillers first. We'll assess after that."

"I can order him to start the search."

"And as the senior medical officer on this mission, I'll override that order. And I have a feeling that Number One will concur with my assessment. We don't know if any members of the away team survived or made it here. What we do know is that you're not going to make it unless I can start giving you antibiotics and enough painkillers to try to stabilize the bone without you seizing," she said firmly. "I'm not out of line here, Captain." She stressed his title. "And you know that," she challenged. When Pike remained silent, she continued. "I'm not asking you to try to sleep. I'm ordering you to do so. Now, close your eyes."

Pike locked eyes with Mayweather and started a battle of wills he was sure to lose. Deep down, he knew Alathea was right. He was exhausted and had just been fighting off sleep for the better part of the afternoon. If he closed his eyes…

Pike felt himself floating over the dark sea. As the corridor materialized around him, he already knew where he was. A few seconds later, he saw the reflection of a mechanized chair slowly moving towards him. Pike screamed…

… and jolted himself awake. He gasped in pain and cried out.

"You're ok," Alathea reassured. "It's ok. Shhh… you're ok." She soothed him, keeping a firm hand on his hip to prevent Pike from moving his injured leg. "You're with me." She ran her fingers through his hair, waiting for Chris to catch his breath.

"I can't sleep," he sobbed out. "I haven't been able to since… since the incident."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Chris shook his head. "I can't."

Alathea didn't pressure him further. Chris definitely needed counseling but this was neither the time nor the place. "Can you take deep breaths for me? Like we did earlier?"

Pike nodded and reached out for the hand over his hip. He squeezed it hard, anchoring himself into the present. His friend was here. Would she be here when they put him in the chair? Would she stay with him after he'd become a lump of flesh? Or would he have to bear that pain alone? He had accepted a long time ago that the life of a starship captain was a lonely one. But he had never expected to finish his life imprisoned in his own body.

"Chris, take deep, slow breaths. Just concentrate on breathing," Alathea reminded them as she watched his inner struggle play out of his face. She gently massaged his skull and rubbed her thumb over his temple. "Do you remember the first time Phil snuck you into my hospital room?"

"After he gave me a lecture on teenage hormones and a stern warning not to sleep with you?"

Alathea laughed at the memory. "I don't know who turned the brightest shade of red that day. But yes, I mean after that. I just had my second therapy and they lowered the sensitivity on my harness. The pull from Earth's gravity felt like all my bones were being shattered. There wasn't much anyone could do about the pain but you did. You brought me holos from home. From all the places we loved to ride to and hide from the world. Do you remember the first time you took me to your secret place?"

Chris nodded, slightly relaxing on the bed. "The summer after we met. I taught you how to ride. Once you were more comfortable, we went to the mountains."

Alathea smiled at him. The trembling had diminished and his grip on her hand wasn't as strong. "You took me on a picnic there. The view was incredible." Chris closed his eyes. "We stayed until nightfall when you told me about all the stars and the worlds you wanted to visit." Alathea kept talking to Chris until his breathing evened out. She kissed his forehead and murmured "sweet dreams".

STSTST

"What have you got?" Number One addressed Garison as soon as she entered the bridge closely followed by Boyce. The two officers came to stand behind the communication specialist.

"As we suspected, most entries are personal logs. Some of them are more relevant than others. I'll get to that in a minute," Garison started agitatedly. "But first, you should see this." He keyed a few commands and a text appeared on his screen. "It contains much of their recorded history. It's fascinating. Dr. Lee in sociology summarized the relevant portions. Their evolution mirrored that of humans, including a period of time where the entirety of the universe was explained by a deity named Vorachi."

Number One frowned. "Vorachi as in V'r'ch? From the villagers' sacred texts?"

Garrison nodded. "This is the theory."

"So they believe in a god, like most species we have encountered."

"Yes, but there is an important difference. In most of the cultures we have encountered, religion and science often conflicted for a time. On Earth, this led to the Dark Ages. Today, there are very few humans on Earth who still believe in the ancient religions although they are still actively studied. The captain's father was a foremost expert in Christianity and a prominent scientist at the Daystrom's Institute. Religion as seen through the scientific lens." The look on Number One's face told Garison that he needed to speed the lecture along. "Anyhow, the people on Upothas believed in Vorachi but not as the way we understand our gods. Vorachi was also their word for science."

"They worshiped science?" Boyce asked. Number One felt an instant connection to this new species. Any beings who embraced logic and the rigors of scientific principles ought to be enlightened enough for a proper first contact without conflicting with the Prime Directive.

"To a fault," Garrison answered Boyce in a somber tone. "About six centuries ago, they discovered genetics. And much like 20th century Earth, certain people in power believed that it was the key to absolute power."

"So they started their own Eugenics Wars?" Number One was getting impatient.

"Not quite. See, they literally worshiped science. For them, power wasn't about conquering land. It was about piercing the mysteries of the universe. And they thought that the only way they could achieve it was by speeding up their evolution."

"So they started a selective breeding program," Boyce supplied.

"Yes. They called it the Great Experiment. And this led to the creation of three castes in their society: the breeders, geneticists responsible for keeping the breeding line as pure as possible, the elites, who were thought to be the purest of them to continue the line, and the rest of their people, responsible for catering to the other two groups. The elites and breeders called them the children and felt responsible for them in a somewhat parental fashion."

"I'm assuming this led to a revolution." Number One asked. "And that the breeders and elites lost."

"That's where treating science as a deity came to play in the upper castes' favor. The elites were also considered priests, the only vessels to Vorachi. The Great Experiment was a way for a few to achieve the next stage of evolution and understand all the knowledge that Vorachi possessed. Then, the elites would be able to help everyone attain their full potential. Most of the people saw it as a privilege to serve in the Great Experiment."

Number One frowned. "Obviously something went wrong."

"Very wrong." Garrison swept through various entries before settling on a picture of an alien resembling the one Number One had seen on the logs. But this being looked different. Their forehead ridges were far more pronounced, their eyes were bigger, their skin darker, and their head much larger than their body. "According to the breeders' projections, this is what their last form should have looked like. So they concentrated on a program highlighting these traits. All their efforts were concentrated on the Great Experiment and within a matter of years, they managed to fully map their genome and started genetic manipulation."

Boyce whistled. "That's impressive. It took humans decades to get to that point. And according to the Vulcan high council, we're one of the fastest species to have evolved technologically."

"As I said, ALL of their effort went into the Great Experiment. The breeders were selected based on their aptitude in medicine, genetics, and biology. All other branches of science were disregarded. Although their knowledge of genetics is far superior to ours, everything else should be at about 20th century Earth level of development."

"They started selective breeding before a full understanding of genetic diseases," Boyce noted.

Garison nodded. "Within a century, they achieved more prominent forehead ridges and larger skulls but they also bred more genetic diseases. They were dying."

"Why didn't they try to breed with the third caste?" Boyce wondered aloud.

"Because it would have caused a revolution. The Great Experiment was a failure but their entire society revolved around it, doctor," Number One supplied. "The curse of religion."

"So they decided to exile themselves," Garison confirmed. "The breeders and the elites announced that they needed to enter the last phase of the Great Experiment in the mountains. They went there to die. The breeders tried to fix the elites' DNA and start a breeding program to slow the degradation process but they ultimately failed."

"So it wasn't a plague," Boyce affirmed. "They died of genetic degradation."

"How about the rest of the people?" Number One asked.

"Unknown from the logs. The breeders and elites told their children that they should under no circumstances enter the caves or they would be struck by Vorachi. So the people declared the zone between the village and the caves a no man's land. Violating this order is punishable by death."

Number One pinched the bridge of her nose, attempting to ward off the oncoming headache. "Which our first away team violated. And if they learn that our second away team is in the caves, they will be put to death immediately as well." She shook her head. "You said that their technological advancement wouldn't be much beyond 20th century Earth?"

"Correct."

"Which means their world falls under the Prime Directive. We have to limit contact with them and if we do establish any, we need to be as conspicuous as possible. What about the signal that got us here in the first place?"

"Let me introduce you to Orinch, a breeder." Garison pressed a few commands on his console and the face of an alien with a smooth forehead filled the small screen. "Day 54765 of the Great Experiment. Only a few of the elites remain. After several unsuccessful attempts at repairing their damaged DNA, we have stopped allowing breeding among them. We expect that our Great Leaders will go extinct in the next decade. As for the breeders, several suggestions have been made: remain here and die by attrition, leave the cave and return to the village, or leave the cave and settle somewhere else on the planet. The first option hasn't been very popular. The second is highly unethical. How would we explain our failure to our children who have served the Great Experiment for generations? As for the third… well, let's just say that none of us have the skills required to start anew. But we are scientists and today, I will present a fourth option to the council. If the Great Experiment has told us one thing is that we are not alone in the universe. We can transmit a distress signal and hope that a civilization more advanced than our own can help us solve our current medical crisis. Even if they can't arrive on time, they can help our children." Garison cut the rest of the rest of the message.

"We need to tell these people what happened with their Great Experiment!" Boyce exclaimed.

"No, doctor. The Prime Directive applies here. Garison, get me Starfleet Command."

"Aye, sir."