Ajah was just coming out the back of a shop when he saw Lieutenant Stow being transported along with Jim. "Admiral!" he yelled. He ran and tried to reach them before they were gone, but he only grabbed air. "NO!" Ajah stood up with his eyes glowing as he could see the small ship that was now turning toward space. He aimed at the nacelle and hit his mark. The ship shuddered but did not land. He knew they could not go to warp now even if they did get out into space.

Ajah grabbed his communicator and called Spock and told him what was happening. "They may go into space anyway!" Ajah said, his voice sounding electronic, plus he was creating static with his "electrifying personality".

Spock stood up from his captain's chair. "Lieutenant Jarvis, scan for any ships leaving the planet in this vicinity," he said.

Jarvis was already doing the scan. "Nothing, Sir," she replied.

"Keep scanning."

Ajah was angry, and when Bones and Helek arrived, they could see it clearly. "What happened?" Bones asked.

"They escaped with Admiral Kirk!" Ajah said. "I couldn't get to them in time!"

"No time for that! Come on!"

They ran around to the street where the transport was and got aboard. "The pilot recognized them," Bones said. "He knows where they live." He went up to the pilot. "We have to get to that farm. This is an emergency. How fast can you get there?"

"About thirty minutes," the pilot said.

"Thirty minutes?"

"Yes."

"Go! Is there any way it can be faster?" Bones asked. "How fast can they get there in a ship?"

"Well, I could go faster, I suppose but it would be dangerous."

"Then I'll do it," someone said.

They looked around to see that Solan had come aboard. "They're not taking Jim off this planet!" he declared.

"Get everyone off this transport but us," Bones said.

When everyone was off, Solan sat down and buckled his seatbelt. The pilot had put the coordinates in already. "Buckle up," Solan said. "This is going to be some ride."

"You ever piloted one of these things?" Bones asked as he was securing his own belt.

"No."

Before Bones could reply, they were zooming away. He did not think he had ever traveled so fast on land, but Solan was looking confident. "I hope this is where they're going," Solan said.

"So do I," Bones replied. "I hope we're not risking our lives for nothing."

"We should have just transported there. Can the Enterprise detect that ship?"

"NO. And if we transported there, they would just run to somewhere else."

"Maybe they have another ship there."

"Maybe."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why did you have to bring him along?" Sophie Brand asked.

"Because they're not going to shoot this ship down with him aboard," Will replied.

"So, what do we do with him?"

"We can give him back to Garath."

"OH, no. I'm not going back to that crazy planet. We can leave him somewhere else and escape while they search for him. Garath can do nothing about it. He's the one who let him escape."

Stow stared at Jim Kirk who lay on the floor unconscious with a slight phaser burn on his face. He had fired the stun bolt right into his face. He was not sure what that did to a person, but Kirk was definitely out cold, and that was what he had wanted. "Are you sure the ship can't go to warp?" Stow asked,

"No it can't," Sophie replied. "He took out one of the nacelles! We might never be able to get off this planet if we can't defeat those…freaks!"

"I remember how Kirk defeated one aboard the Enterprise."

"How?"

"Water. If they're at full power, water will kill them."

"Why haven't you said that before?"

"It wasn't relevant before."

"So how do we use water to our advantage?"

"Well, we're living close to a big water source, so we'll use it."

"Now you're thinking. Without them, the others won't have so much advantage."

"Right."

Sophie did not make a smooth landing when they arrived at their destination, and Jim Kirk was starting to stir. He grimaced at the pain in his face, and when he opened his eyes, all he saw was spots for a moment. He looked around him trying to figure out where he was and what had happened. It did not take him long to remember what happened. He tried to sit up but he was facing a blaster which was held by William Stow. "Don't move, Admiral," he said.

Jim's eyes were starting to clear up now. "You are never going to get away with this," he declared.

"We'll see. After all, I have you on this ship."

"Where are we?"

"We're about to transfer to another ship. Now, get up."

Jim just sat there a moment, but then he got up slowly feeling rather woozy after that stun bolt to the face. "It would be better if you gave up now rather than making this worse," Jim said.

"Why would I give up when I have the advantage right now?" Stow asked. "Come on, Admiral."

Jim had no choice but to go along. When they got outside, there were others waiting for them. Jim assumed these people were Sophie Brand's family. "Let us keep him here until you're away," the older man said. "Just take the other ship and go. We won't let him go until you're too far away for them to find you."

"The Enterprise is out there," Sophie replied. "If he's with us, they won't fire on us."

"You can get around the Enterprise. Your ship is a lot more maneuverable. You don't have to go up from here either."

Sophie frowned as she considered that. "I only wanted to get Will off that planet," she said. "I never wanted all this."

"You can stop it now," Jim declared. "Let me go and surrender. Don't go along with him anymore."

Sophie glared at Jim. "I won't betray him. You're just trying to save yourself. You don't care about me."

"As long as you keep going with this, no one can help you."

"I don't want your help."

They got Jim off the ship and cuffed his hands behind him to make sure he could not escape. "Take him into the house," Sophie said.

"You're making a big mistake," Jim said. "You're getting your family involved in this."

Sophie's parents took Jim into the house and made him sit in a chair. "You should try to get her to stop now," Jim declared.

"Be quiet," the man said. He grabbed a sash and tied it around Jim's mouth and then cuffed him to the chair.

Jim knew he was stuck now, but at least maybe they were not going to take him with them.

Solan and the others were coming up on the farm and they could see that the ship had already arrived. "They do have another small ship!" Solan said. He guided the transport vehicle into the yard and stopped.

Bones, Helek, and Ajah disembarked, and Solan soon followed. They all had their weapons ready this time. "Stow!" Bones yelled. "You might as well give up!"

There was no reply, and everything on the farm was quiet except a few animal noises. Jim heard Bones, but Sophie's mother was sitting and aiming a blaster at him. "Don't make a sound," she said.

Helek went over to the side of the ship where Ajah had took out the nacelle, and there were power conduits showing so he drew power from them. Ajah did the same thing. "You do like a display, don't you?" Ajah asked.

Helek smiled with electricity dancing across his teeth. "Hey, what's the good of all this if you can't show off a little?"

They moved on with Doctor McCoy after that. "Let us go first," Helek whispered. "If they shoot at us, we can absorb the energy."

"Go ahead," Bones replied.

They could see the ocean in the distance. "Come on and get me!" Stow yelled. "If you think you can!"

Bones and the others stopped. "Does he think this is some sort of game?" he asked.

"Sounds like it," Solan replied. "This is going to be dangerous from here on."

"They have to be planning to take that ship, but where's Jim?"

"Out here!" Stow yelled.

Helek looked around the side of the ship and could see Stow out almost to the beach. "What's he doing?" he asked.

"He's luring us for some reason," Bones replied.

"But to what?"

"He must have some sort of plan."

Sophie Brand's father came out of the barn, and they all turned their weapons on him. "Where's Jim Kirk?" Bones demanded.

"Why don't you just let them go?" the man asked.

"We're not letting them go anywhere with Jim! Now, where is he? Tell them to surrender."

"Stow won't do that. I talked to my daughter. Even your admiral talked to her."

"Where is Jim?"

"I can't tell you."

"Then you're becoming part of this."

"We'll go after Stow," Helek said.

"We're all going," Bones informed him. "We're not splitting up again."

They hurried around the barn which was not far from the beach. When they came around the barn, they could see Stow running down the beach, and he was definitely carrying some sort of weapon. They went after him, being careful to watch for some sort of trap.

When Stow got about a hundred yards down the beach, he stopped. He could see that Helek and Ajah were ready to take him out, but he would take them out first. Helek fired the first blast of electrical energy at Stow, who dodged and ran back toward the farm area. As they were pursuing him further, blaster bolts came from behind them. They realized Sophie was coming from that way. They split up and Bones and Solan got into cover to try and get Sophie while Helek and Ajah went on after Stow.

Helek squatted on one knee to fire a blast at Stow while Ajah moved further toward his left. Stow fired his weapon at Helek, who dodged, but he stopped to look at the sand, and he realized Stow was shooting water at them. He could see Ajah running toward Stow.

"Ajah!" Helek yelled. He hurried that way because Ajah did not hear him. He could see that Stow was getting that weapon ready again. "Ajah!"

Ajah was getting ready to fire a big blast of energy at Stow, and Helek knew if he was hit with that water while doing that…he would be a goner. From where he was, Solan could hear Helek yelling at Ajah, and he looked to see what was happening. However, he could not see what Helek was seeing.

Helek could not reach Ajah so, he got a big blast ready and shot it at Ajah to knock him out of the way, but Stow realized it before he fired and he turned his weapon on Helek. Ajah fell to the ground and shook his head. Of course he was not hurt, but he looked toward Helek just in time to see him reining in his energy. The water hit Helek and he fell to the ground. Ajah just stared at him a moment. "Helek!" he yelled.

Ajah ran out onto the beach where Helek lay convulsing with the electrical energy now that he was wet. "Don't touch me!" Helek said as he could see that Ajah still had electrical energy on his hands. "He was going to kill you."

"You are not going to die!" Ajah exclaimed. "You are my only brother!"

Bones and Solan were running that way now, and Bones realized what had happened. He threw his pack down onto the ground and got the medical kit out as he fell beside Helek. "Don't touch me," Helek said. "You'll get the shock of your life." He looked up at the sky. "This sure does hurt."

"You can't let him die!" Ajah said to Bones.

"I'm gonna do the best I can," Bones replied.

Ajah stood up and his eyes were glowing brighter than they had ever seen. He looked toward Stow, who was not trying to refill his weapon. Ajah stepped away from the others and closed his eyes.

Solan stood up and watched as Ajah started to glow all over like Helek usually did when he was drawing power from somewhere. "Ajah!" Solan said.

Bones looked to see what was going on, and he realized Ajah was about to kill Stow. "Ajah, no!" he yelled.

Ajah looked at them with his eyes glowing like two suns and his hair in a fiber optic display. "He's not going to hurt anyone else!" he declared with his voice sounding electronic.

"You can't!" Solan replied.

"Watch me." Ajah turned back toward Stow and started walking down the beach seeming to glow more as he went.

"Ajah!" Solan yelled. "You can't do that!" He grabbed his own weapon and thought maybe he could get down there and stun Stow before Ajah took out all his fury on him. He started running and passed Ajah, who simply kept on walking at the same pace. Solan thought he looked a lot like that Jerah had when he was walking toward them on Argus 10.

As he was running, Stow got up with his weapon ready. Solan aimed his blaster at him, but Stow dodged around it. The weapon he had now had the ability to shoot water and the ability to fire laser bolts. He fired at Solan. "Don't come any closer, Solan!" Stow yelled.

"You best give up," Solan replied. "Or you're going to be deep fried!"

"Not if I get him first!"

"You won't! Give it up!"

Solan looked back at Ajah who was glowing in a display of electrical energy like Solan had never seen. He fired at Stow again, but Stow was good at avoiding fire. Ajah let go a huge ball of electrical energy, but Stow managed to get out of the way, although Solan thought his own hair was standing on end. "Ajah, please!" Solan said. "You'll regret it."

Ajah looked at him. "I'm going to stop him, Solan," he replied.

"You don't have to do it this way."

Ajah looked back toward Stow and shot another bolt of energy, which knocked Stow down this time and caused his weapon to short circuit. He threw it down, and for the first time he looked toward Ajah with fear. "Wait!" he yelled. "I give up!"

"It's too late for that!" Ajah replied. "If my brother dies, I will not let you live!"

"Ajah! You can't murder him!" Solan yelled.

"Where is Admiral Kirk?" Ajah asked.

"He's back at the farmhouse!" Stow said. "We were going to leave him here and escape!"

"Once you got done with your murder!"

Stow was backing away from Ajah now, and Solan ran up in front of Ajah. "You can't do that," Solan said. "You are not a murderer."

Ajah glared at him. "You may save him now, but if Helek dies, I'm going to make sure he dies the same way," he said.

Solan could see the anger in Ajah's eyes even with all the electricity. "We got him," he said.

Ajah did not look happy, but he turned around and sprinted back down the beach. Solan sighed with relief, but then he glared at Stow and grabbed him by the arm. "Get back down that beach," he said. He set his blaster to kill. "And don't try anything with me, cause I'm through playing."

Stow glared at Solan but he had no choice now. They walked back down the beach, but Solan thought he wanted to avoid Ajah right now, so he turned to go around the others and go and find Admiral Kirk.

Helek had never hurt so bad in his life even when he was going through all those experiments. "Just lie still," Bones said as he opened his communicator. "Enterprise, come in."

"Enterprise here," Spock replied.

"We got Stow, but Helek is hurt bad. I need you to beam him and me back to the ship. Can you get a lock on him?"

There was silence a moment. "We cannot detect his signal," Spock said.

Bones was not sure what to do. "Then we need a shuttle down here," he replied. "We have to get him dry."

Helek groaned as he could do nothing but lie there. "I guess sometimes I should not make such a big display," he said trying to forget some of the pain he was in.

Ajah leaned over him. "You cannot die," he said. "I don't want to be in this galaxy alone!"

"You'll never be alone, Ajah. You have friends all around you."

"But they're not like us."

"They love you anyway."

Bones' tricorder beeped. Ajah looked at him. "What was that?" he asked.

For once, Bones did not want to say that someone might die. "Nothing," he lied.

"Doctor, you can't let him die."

"He might be okay if we can get him back to the ship. He was not at full power when that water hit him."

"It's funny," Helek said. "We can absorb electricity and blaster bolts…but something as simple as water…"

Solan made it back to the farmhouse with Stow. He met Sophie's father in the yard. "Don't give me any problems," Solan said. "Now, where is Admiral Kirk?"

"He's in the house," the man said.

Solan followed him to the farmhouse, but when he got inside, he found Jim tied to a chair with Sophie guarding him with a blaster, along with her mother. "Untie him," Solan demanded.

"I'm not letting him go," Sophie said. "You let Will go or I'll shoot Kirk."

Solan glared at her. "You wouldn't dare."

"Don't tempt me."

Solan flicked the button on his blaster that put it on stun. He had learned to do it without anyone seeing it. "I'm not letting him go," he said.

Sophie looked surprised. "You're what?" she asked.

"I said, I'm not letting this criminal go."

"You think I won't kill him?"

"No, I don't." Solan suddenly swung his blaster around and fired it into Sophie, and then he stunned Stow as well.

Jim had seen all that happen but he could hardly believe it. Solan got over to him and found that he was cuffed to the chair. He took the tie from around his mouth though. "You alright, Jim?" he asked.

"Yeah," Jim replied. "Where's everyone else?"

"Outside." Solan found the cuff key in Sophie's pocket. He got over to Jim to take the cuffs loose. "Jim, Helek isn't doing too well."

"What?" Jim asked.

"Stow blasted him with water."

Jim's mouth dropped open. "Is he…"

"No."

Jim stood up when he was loose. He grabbed his communicator. "Spock," he said.

"Yes, Admiral," Spock answered.

"I need you to beam all of us back to the ship."

"A shuttle is on the way down to pick up Helek. We are not able to get a lock on him."

"Have they got him yet?"

"No, but they are landing now."

Jim hurried to the door of the house and looked out toward the beach. He could see the shuttle settling down onto the sand. He looked back at Solan. "I guess we'll have to be beamed back with the prisoners," he said.

"Ajah is taking that very hard," Solan replied. "If Helek doesn't make it…you better make sure those prisoners are kept away from him."

Jim scowled at that. "We'll talk later." He turned back to his communicator. "Spock, six to beam up."

They were soon beamed aboard the ship and turned the prisoners, including Sophie's parents over to security. "Put them all in the Brig," Jim said. "No one can visit them."

"Yes, Sir," one of the officer's replied.

Jim just stood there a moment in the transporter room. Solan came over to him. "You alright, Jim?" he asked.

Jim nodded. "I'm a little sore, but other than that, I'm fine. I wanta know how Helek is."

Soon, the shuttle docked in the shuttle bay, and Helek was taken to the medical bay. Jim caught up with Bones on the way. "How is he?" Jim asked.

"He's as well as he can be," Bones replied. "I'll let you know later."

Jim stopped in the corridor as Bones went on into the medical bay. Then he wondered where Ajah was. He walked back to the shuttle bay. "Did Ajah leave the shuttle bay?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir," the deck commander answered.

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know, Sir. Is something wrong?"

"No. I was just looking for him."

Jim left the shuttle bay. He knew Ajah liked hanging out on the observation deck, so he went there. Ajah was there, alright, but he was definitely not looking normal. He had electrical pulses circling all around him as he was sitting on the deck. "Ajah?" Jim said.

Ajah was startled and stood up. "Admiral," he said. He looked at Jim with his eyes glowing like suns.

"Ajah, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

Jim walked closer. "Why are you powered up like this?" he asked.

Ajah took a deep breath and he seemed to glow even brighter. "Because I don't know if Helek will die," he said.

"You're like this because you're upset?"

Ajah looked at Jim. "I'm more than upset!"

Jim frowned. "You're still blaming yourself. I told you none of this is your fault!"

"Don't lecture me, Admiral," Ajah said with his voice sounding unlike his own.

"Ajah, you have to get this under control."

"I can't! I don't know how! I've never had this happen before!"

"You gotta calm down," Jim said. "Let's sit here and look out into space." He sat down on the floor facing the portals.

Ajah just looked at him a moment and then sat down. "Let's just think of something good," Jim said. He found it hard to think of anything but Helek too. "I remembered the horse you guys told me about. I remembered his name was Renegade."

"Renegade?" Ajah asked. "Where did they come up with that?"

Jim scowled at that question. "I don't know. I guess maybe they have renegades there just like anywhere."

"He was a really big horse. I wrote a description about everything…I drew him too."

"I'd like to see it. Maybe it would help me remember more."

"It was a beautiful planet. Too bad its inhabitants aren't good."

Jim realized Ajah's voice was starting to sound normal again. "It was so quiet there."

"Yes, it was. I'd never heard such silence. The planet had a lot of magnetism, and Helek and I could draw power from it. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced. Of course, Helek discovered it first."

Jim looked at Ajah who was no longer glowing with electricity. He opened his eyes and they still glowed slightly. "I guess that planet wasn't all bad," Jim said. "Thinking of the silence and peacefulness there helped you."

"Thank you, Admiral," Ajah replied. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

"It's alright. We have to go down there and be with him."

"I want to be. I'll be alone if he dies. I've always just kinda followed his lead. I'm not one of those outgoing people."

"But, Ajah, you're not alone. You're a very good assistant. You have friends who care about you."

"I know but you don't understand me. He's from where I'm from. We're the same. I recruited him into this."

Jim was silent a moment. "I know you were in charge of that investigation and you brought people in to help you. That's the hardest part of being a leader: when someone gets hurt or killed on your mission. It's hard to take, but you have to get that mission done and you can't do it without people. Being able to accept the responsibility is what makes a good leader."

"I'm not a leader."

"Your remorse and compassion says otherwise." Jim looked out the portal. "You think I never sat here and asked myself why I was doing this? When I had to send a message to someone…"

Ajah was just listening. He had certainly never thought of that. "I'm sorry for my reaction," he said.

"Sometimes you just have to react. When Solan was injured protecting me, I was ready to throw away everything, but I couldn't. I was being selfish and shutting out others who cared about Solan too. And I couldn't give up what I had worked for and enjoyed doing. You can't either."

Ajah sighed. "I guess I should get down there," he said and stood up.

"I'm going with you."