Captain's Log - Stardate 2261.022

Another section of this underground complex opened to us and we discovered the contorted bodies of both of the station researchers as well as our two security men. All were inside of tubes, labeled with their names. There were also three additional tubes labeled for myself, Spock and Bones.

Immediately after spotting those tubes, we finally got a look at our captors. They call themselves Vians - never heard of them. They're keeping quiet about why they've brought us here, not that their reasons matter. We need to get back aboard the Enterprise.

To his annoyance, Kirk slept deeper and longer than he had intended. Sitting up, he glared at McCoy.

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

Unfazed by Kirk's tone as he sat nearby with Gem perched by his side, McCoy gestured with his left hand.

"For what purpose? Spock and I were perfectly capable of staring at the dark without your help."

"You mean you haven't located anything?"

Spock made an adjustment to his tricorder.

"We hadn't, Captain, however now I am picking up a reading that was not there previously. A rather large grouping of an unknown set of sophisticated devices."

"You mean they suddenly appeared out of nowhere?"

"By my readings, either that is the case or there was some sort of cloaking device blocking the area that was deactivated."

"And it waits for you to wake back up to happen? Sounds like we're being lured somewhere, Jim."

Nodding in agreement, Kirk got to his feet.

"Yes, it does. But we need to find a way out and sitting here isn't going to accomplish that. Besides, if whoever has us decides to move us, they can repeat what they did tp bring us here in the first place. We may as well go have a look at whatever cheese they've laid out for us."

Seeing the puzzled look forming on Spock's face, McCoy supplied the answer before Spock had finished forming the question.

"Cheese - used to bait mousetraps."

"I see. The analogy seems uncomfortably accurate. Shall I lead the way, Captain?"

"Please do, Mister Spock."

As they started to move off, McCoy extended one hand to Gem. He had no intention of leaving her by herself. For her part, by her expressions, she was both pleased and surprised to be invited to go with them and took his hand eagerly.

Spock halted briefly as another pool of light came to life in front of them - this one filled with a variety of unknown equipment. Looking over a piece of machinery that could have either been a computer or an alien sound system, McCoy chuckled.

"Looks like a collection of junk more than anything."

Kirk snorted his agreement as he moved around a piece that he wasn't sure was a support or what used to be referred to as modern art. Looking up, he froze, staring at what that structure had been hiding.

"Bones! Spock!"

The two men stopped their examination of the other items and hurried over. Gem was right behind McCoy and, as they all took in the sight in front of them, she pressed her head against McCoy's back to avoid seeing any more.

In a series of large, clear tubes were the two missing researchers as well as their two missing Security men. All were contorted in positions that suggested they were in agony when they died - and McCoy quickly confirmed that all were dead.

"What killed them?"

McCoy looked back down at his tricorder and shook his head.

"Each of them have at least half a dozen injuries and any one of those would have been fatal eventually. I'm seeing congestive heart failure, intracranial bleeding, collapsed lungs, ruptured spleens, enlarged livers, pneumonia - I'd have a harder time finding something still right in these bodies, Jim."

Spock had continued to move, but came to a stop in front of a set of empty tubes.

"It seems whoever our captors are have similar plans for us. Three empty tubes, each labeled with our names."

Kirk scowled and took a closer look.

"All labeled in Terran Common, so they intend for us to know that much of their plans at least."

McCoy was still studying the readings on the corpses when a light flash nearby had them turning. Two aliens with oversized heads and metallic robes had appeared and, when she saw them, Gem fled in fear. Before McCoy could follow after her, he found himself encased in a force field along with Kirk and Spock. Movement was difficult, but since his tricorder was already in his hands, McCoy managed to adjust it to get a new reading.

"What the hell is this thing, Bones?"

"Try not to fight it, Jim. Something about it is disrupting our bodies."

For the first time, one of the aliens spoke as they cornered Gem, who had dropped to the ground and assumed a fetal position to try and protect herself when her escape was cut off.

"In a manner of speaking, Doctor. Actually, the field is feeding off of you. The more you resist, the more it removes from your bodies to maintain itself."

Both aliens were making use of some odd handheld device and the girl was contorting in pain. Spock immediately saw what the alien meant as McCoy's anger over their treatment of Gem caused the field to glow brightly. Kirk yelled at them.

"What are you?"

As if they were doing nothing else of importance, the first one spoke again.

"We are Vians. You will not be permitted to interfere."

After several long minutes, the other Vian spoke.

"Sufficient for now."

They backed away from the silently sobbing girl, then disappeared and the force field vanished along with them. All three felt slightly ill from their bodies having been used to feed the field, but McCoy ignored that and rushed to Gem's side, gathering the still weeping girl to him.

"Easy, sweetheart. They're gone. And if they come back here within my reach, I'll kill those SOBs for what they did to you."

Watching the girl carefully, Spock noticed that she seemed startled for a moment by the sheer intensity of McCoy's emotions - a feeling he could well sympathize with. But after only a few moments, she held onto him tighter and buried her face against his chest.

Standing by Spock's side, Kirk watched as McCoy gently rocked Gem. The doctor most definitely had a weakness where children or child-like beings were concerned, but Kirk didn't currently see the need to correct that flaw.

"Spock, they said they wouldn't allow us to interfere. Interfere with what?"

His eyes also on the doctor and Gem, Spock clasped his hands behind his back.

"That, Captain, is a very good question for which I currently do not have an equally good answer beyond to state the obvious observation that it involves the girl."