Captain's Log - Stardate 2261.028

Listening to Spock as he works on adapting one of the odd hand devices that the Vians use. With his hearing, Spock was able to eavesdrop on the Vians. They are expecting Gem to learn something from being around us and seem to have concluded that McCoy is the most likely to teach her.

Spock is of the opinion that, since they did not remove the device from him, they mean for us to make use of it to escape, leaving Bones behind. Like Hell. They aren't going to keep what's mine.

When he came to hanging from the shackles, it only took McCoy a second to figure out these were the same ones that Kirk had been suspended from. The Vians hadn't bothered to clean the old blood from them. His surgeon's soul grimaced at both the unsanitary nature of the shackles and the potential damages the shackles could cause to his wrists and, in turn, the nerves to his hands. The sensitivity and steadiness of his hands were part of what made him the surgeon he was.

For the moment, the only ones there were himself and Gem, who was already weeping. He shushed her and called her over.

"Listen. I don't know how much of what I say you can understand, but whatever is about to happen? Don't look and stay as far away from me as possible. I can't stop them from hurting me, but you don't need to go through it with me."

The light told him that the Vians had arrived an instant before one of them spoke.

"Actually, she does need to go through it with you, Doctor. It is the only way."

"Only way for what? You feel bad about hitting a woman directly, so you do it by proxy?"

The Vian stiffened as if insulted. McCoy counted that as a win. They were already going to torture and maybe kill him. Why worry about pissing them off?

"You do not understand."

"So explain it."

The two aliens exchanged a glance before the first shook his head.

"As we informed your Captain, should you live, you might find the answer you seek."

The second stepped forward.

"Were there another way to accomplish this . . . "

"Unless you're planning to accomplish this by talking me to death, at least spare my ears and get on with it."

Neither Vian spoke again, but the pain began almost immediately. Worse, he recognized the sensations as being very reminiscent to when he was nearly beaten to death back at the Academy. At least that time, he'd had the satisfaction of killing some of the ones attacking him. He was managing to keep from crying out, but in doing so, bit through his lower lip. The blood flowed down his chin, then began to fall, one thick drop at a time.

He was no longer able to keep track of where anyone was in the room, so McCoy was unaware that Gem had maneuvered herself below him and was curled in a tight ball of misery. She didn't react when the first drop of his blood hit her hand, but after the second drop, she lifted her head and stared at the spreading red blotch on her skin. She was facing away from the Vians, so they didn't notice when her expression began to shift from sorrow to a cold anger.

Gem moved, shifting her body to hide what she was doing from the Vians' watchful gaze. She had been around them long enough to know that they would not be able to stand not knowing everything that was going on for long. She simply had to wait.

As Kirk continued his drugged sleep, Spock found the key to his problem with the Vian device. He had ben approaching it from the wrong angle, It wasn't, as he had original theorized, a control mechanism. It wasn't a mechanism at all. The control unit was designed to respond to one, and only one, unique brain wave pattern.

Spock glanced toward the Captain. Attuning the device to himself rather than to Kirk could invoke a range of reactions with everything from being pleased that Spock took the initiative to claims of treason for making it so that Kirk couldn't use the only useful weapon himself. Deciding that it should be easy enough to redirect the Captain's wrath toward the Vians, Spock began to set the device to work to his mental commands.

By Spock's calculations, it was 1.376 hours before the Captain showed signs of waking and another .16 before Kirk fully woke. As he moved, Kirk was still showing signs that he was I pain, but whatever the doctor had injected into him had lessened the symptoms enough for him to think clearly again.

Seeing the device in Spock's hands, Kirk didn't question it, but instead looked around intently.

"They still have Bones and the girl."

It was phrased as a statement, but for safety's sake, Spock opted to treat it as a question.

"They do, sir. I have not seen sign of any activity since the doctor was taken away."

The growl coming from deep in Kirk's throat was not unexpected. However, the Captain sitting close beside Spock was. Ignoring the Vulcan's dislike of having his personal space invaded, Kirk gestured to the Vian device.

"Making any headway on that thing?"

Deciding to leave what exactly he was doing to the device unsaid, Spock nodded.

"If my calculations are correct, I should be able to have it operation within the next hour."

Kirk was silent which bothered Spock more than if the Captain had been ranting. When he did speak again, his tones were slow and measured.

"The Vians could have retaken that if they'd really wanted to, correct?"

"Correct, sir."

"So we have it because they want us to have it. And they also must know we are capable of adapting the device to our use, so they must also intend for us to use it."

"A logical conclusion. I believe they mean for us to make use of the device to leave."

"We leave - they keep Bones?"

"That would seem to be their intent."

"Screw that. Can you get that thing to take us to them?"

"If that is what you want. However, I must warn you that my tampering with the device may have made it a one-use only proposition."

Kirk waved off that concern.

"We'll worry about that later. Right now, get that thing working. I don't want to leave him with those sadists a second longer than we have to."

"Yes, Captain."

There were disadvantages to being a doctor. If it weren't for his training, McCoy might be blissfully ignorant of how much damage had been done to him, but no, McCoy was fully aware that he was dying and this time, there would be no Doctor Puri to come to his aid.

Someone - he assumed it must be Gem - moved the torn material of his now tattered uniform pants and laid a hand directly on the flesh of his left leg. He didn't have enough strength remaining to do much more than twitch at the ends of the chains still suspending him over the floor, so dislodging her was not even a consideration. A flush of sudden heat flowed through him, overloading his already overtaxed body, but as he lost consciousness, McCoy could have sworn he heard a masculine scream and he was relatively certain that it hadn't come from him.

Gem waited patiently with one of her delicate hands resting on McCoy's leg until the Vians stepped closer. They weren't expecting anything - she had never voluntarily touched either of them. Once she could sense they were close enough, she pulled some of McCoy's injuries into herself, but before they could manifest as injuries to her own body, she spun and grabbed both Vians - one with each of her hands - and poured the injuries and pain she had taken from McCoy into them.

The Vians were good at observing and causing pain, but had precious little experience or tolerance in dealing with it themselves. Their remaining control unit clattered to the floor as the two aliens screamed and dropped to their knees before the silent woman looking at them without the slightest trace of pity in her eyes.