Author's Note: Sorry for waiting so long to update! Life got in the way. I just graduated, so hopefully now I'll have more free time. As an apology for keeping you waiting, I'm posting two chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: The Crescendo

Jim yelped as he was thrown to the floor. Black spots popped and fizzled in front of his eyes. The guards who had dragged him back into the lab slammed the door behind them, leaving Jim alone with Olin. The small doctor was by his side in a second.

"What was it this time?"

"Taser."

Olin tsked and began looking over the burn marks on Jim's neck. This wasn't the first time they'd gone through this routine.

After weeks of slow progress, their captors had grown bored. During this time, they also seemed to realize that they had a Starfleet captain in their possession. They figured he might know something important. So, naturally, they'd taken to torturing Jim. Today, they'd repeatedly stuck him with some kind of taser. On other days, he'd been water boarded, or strangled, or just straight up had the shit beaten out of him.

"What are the codes?" they would ask, repeatedly. Jim wasn't really sure what codes they were talking about. He didn't think they knew either. They were just digging until they found gold, he guessed. Either way, he'd been electrocuted so many times that, eventually, he couldn't feel his feet. Or his hands. Or much of anything, for that matter.

"Kirk! Come on, Kirk!"

Jim opened his eyes- wait, he'd closed them?

"Mmm? What happened?"

"You passed out. Try to stay awake, hmm? We have work to do. We are nearly finished, if you recall."

The captain groaned and slowly pushed himself off of the ground, using the cart carrying his heart battery for stabilization. His leg hadn't healed yet, and the bandage covering the spot where the bone had torn through the flesh in his thigh was black with soot. He was grateful that the area hadn't become infected, what with the dirty bandages that'd been covering it since the incident.

Jim put a hand to the contraption in his chest, letting the heat of it travel through his numb fingers. He still wasn't used to the foreign object, but he was grateful for anything keeping him alive at this point.

"Alright. Let's work."

The two men turned to the small disk waiting on their workbench.

"Any signs of him yet?" Bones asked, glancing down at the Vulcan sitting quietly in the command chair.

"Negative, Doctor. But we've only just commenced the search. There is time yet."

Bones groaned and crossed his arms. "Of course this isn't going to be easy. It'd be too much to ask that we just find him in a bar somewhere, chugging something hard and laughing at the worried looks on all our faces."

The silence on the bridge was harrowing.

Each day they didn't find Jim was worse than the one before it. Hope was swiftly dwindling, and the crew of The Enterprise was becoming increasingly desperate. No one had slept in days, and would only eat when the concerned Doctor McCoy forced food in front of them.

Bones sighed, and was about to mention the broth he'd brought up when-

"I'm detecting life signals!"

The bridge seemed to draw a collective breath.

"There's something down there," whispered Uhura.

"Someone," corrected Spock. "There's someone down there."

Jim leaned over his creation, blinking through the sweat dripping into his eyes. The tiny screwdriver in his fingers kept slipping out of place, which was slowly sending the captain over the edge.

Olin stood nearby, periodically wiping Jim's brow with an oily cloth. He hadn't spoken in a while, as he could feel the man's irritation radiating from him.

After another failed attempt, Jim growling and slammed the screwdriver onto the table. He covered his face with his hands and tried to take calming breaths.

"Allow me, Captain."

The doctor gently elbowed Kirk out of the way, pushed up his glasses, and went to work with the screwdriver. Without looking up, he addressed his companion.

"Your hands are shaking. That is why you must take a break."

"My hands haven't stopped shaking since I woke up in this godforsaken cave, Olin."

"You're incorrect, Captain. This is new, since your encounter with the taser. You must rest, for I fear you have suffered overexposure."

"No shit. The guy was a little trigger-happy."

An aching pain erupted in Jim's chest, and he grimaced.

"I don't think being electrocuted with this thing in my chest was a good idea." Jim grunted, suddenly finding the air in the cave too heavy.

"I can assure you that it was not."

The young captain sighed and sat in a nearby chair, allowing his head to fall back and his eyes to close. He felt more exhausted than he had during his experience with Khan and the warp core. That felt easy compared to his current situation. At least then he'd had his crew and his ship. It had been his decision to give his life. Here, in enemy hands on a hostile desert planet, he had nothing. He had no choices and no friends aside from his fellow prisoner. Jim began to question if he even had hope left.

Surely his crew would be looking for him by now, right?

If he could hold out for just a bit longer, maybe he could survive this whole ordeal.

"Captain, take a look. I believe our task to be complete."

Jim's head shot up, and with wide eyes he appraised the contraption in Olin's hands.

"Holy shit, we've done it."

There, in the doctor's small palms, rested a warp core the size of Jim's hand. Despite having been built in a cave, it had the elegance of a Starfleet model. Jim whistled and gently took it from the doctor, admiring their work from all angles.

"Okay, let's do this," Jim breathed, placing the core onto the table and making his way over to his bed.

"Are you sure? This may be painful." Olin looked honestly concerned. He had never performed such a procedure before and was uncertain about how he should proceed.

"I have no choice but to be sure."

Jim hastily removed the worn sweater he was wearing, ignoring the flares of pain that came with the action. He laid down flat on his back on the bed, closing his eyes as he waiting for Olin. Eventually, the small doctor made his way over to Jim. He carried the warp core and a small screwdriver.

"Very well. Let us begin."