A/N: Thank you all who are still following this story and those of you who took the time to leave a comment. It's heartwarming to receive feed backs and it will encourage me to continue this story. So keep sharing your ideas.

Chapter 7

He didn't know how much time had passed. Maybe he had drifted off to blackness at some point, He didn't know. All he could tell with certainty was that nothing felt different. Everything still hurt. Maybe less than it should. He wasn't even fully conscious to feel the pains. A good thing, though. He didn't want to suffer these last minutes.

He was closing his eyes again, when suddenly, there was another sound, other than the klaxon wailing above him. Kirk opened his eyes and tried to pull himself upright a little more. Nothing. His oxygen starved brain was playing tricks on him.

But there it was. Something was forcing its way on to the bridge. Something was behind that dented doors of the turbo-lift. He couldn't move, couldn't shout. He couldn't even see through the thick smoke. 'Everyone has left. I saw to it myself. No life signs had been remained on board.' He had told himself these words over and over since he had opened his eyes near the navigation station. And yet, in front of him was the silhouette form of someone forcing the doors open. He blinked to clear his eyes and when he looked again, someone was kneeling beside him. Shaking his shoulders gently.

He looked at him with effort. His lips were moving but he didn't hear his voice, couldn't make his numb brain to understand them. He was staring at him wide-eyed. Couldn't believe it. His lips formed his name,

'Spock!'

But it didn't made sound. His throat was parched with hot smoke. Spock was looking at him with alarm. Concern was evident on his bruised and bloody face. His eyes searching his captain's, looking for any sign of lucidity.

"Captain, can you hear me? Jim! I am going to move you out. There is no time." He looked at Spock, dazed. 'He had died… the blast had...if he had survived…. . No … why did you come back ...'

A wave of pain cut through his hazy mind. He looked down to find its source. Where the crumpled chair was a second ago, he now could see his leg.

Blood had pooled beneath the disgustingly malformed knee. He saw swift hands warp some blue fabric around his broken knee. He almost blacked out from the pain but those steady hands were fast and as much as possible, gentle. He looked up again. Spock was now inspecting his broken ribs and collar bone.

He wanted to yell 'don't waste time… leave me and go', but he couldn't. His pain was eclipsed by his rage. He was madly angry. 'He shouldn't put his life in danger for me… he should save himself…'

He tried to push him away, to warn him of the danger, but he was deathly weak. Now Spock had put Kirk's left hand around his own shoulder and was pulling him gently to an upright position. His breath caught as the pressure on his broken ribs intensified. He moaned involuntarily, his vision blackened and he swayed. Spock seemed to have noticed for he immediately supported Kirk's weight with the other hand. "I'm deeply regretful about the pain I'm causing, captain. However, we have to leave at once." Kirk nodded and tried to steady himself on his good leg. They moved across the bridge. Spock half carried half dragged him through the dismantled equipment.

"The ship …warp core …." he gasped out with his husky voice. Every step was a new experience of pain. Spock tried to shift more of his weight on his own shoulders. "The chances of me getting there in time was slim. The logical choice was to come for you."

"Where … are we …?" a fit of coughing didn't let him finish his question, but apparently, Spock understood. "As you know, Statder, which is capable of transportation is coming in this direction. It would be in transporting rang shortly. Though, the electromagnetic field of the imbalanced warp core on the ship is interfering with their apparently weak signals." So, they would have to come a lot closer to get an accurate reading, Kirk groaned mentally. He wanted to shout, 'no! Tell them to veer off!' but he could hardly breathe as it was.

Spock noticed his agitation. He could understand its reason and hurriedly tried to come up with something to say with which he could ease his friend's deep turmoil. "Captain, I can assure you that the incoming vessel is well equipped for the situation. Otherwise it wouldn't have entered this sector. "

Kirk was listening with one ear only. He was concentrating on other things, like his next step. He couldn't deny the logic, though.

Now they were standing just a meter from the lift doors. He looked at the slightly parted and badly dented doors that Spock had opened with great force. As if he knew he would find what he was looking for just behind it. 'He had tried so hard to reach me!' Kirk mused with astonishment.

At the door, Spock produced a rope and fixed it around Kirk's thighs and waist. Kirk tried to stay as steady as he could through it all. With the lifts out, they had to take the emergency ladders inside the elevator shaft. He knew what Spock was planning, and he didn't think he could manage it in his present state. He tried to tell Spock not to waste his time but he knew he couldn't persuade him to turn around and leave after what he had gone through to find him. Kirk just couldn't find it in himself to look Spock in the eye and admit that didn't think he could make it out alive. He didn't want to cause any more pain. Even if in the end, Spock would just have to accept the logic…

Spock locked the other end of the rope to the hold-fast that had been secured around his own waist. The captain closed his eyes and tried to calm his labored breathing. He couldn't fill his lungs in this thin and smoky air when every inhale was a fight against coughing. He was doing everything he could just staying upright. He was so-o tired …If he could lie down for one second…

The lift canal was empty. Its chamber stuck somewhere through the ship. "I can carry you on my back, captain, but you have to hold me with your hands." "Spock ..." but before he could protest further, he was positioned on Spock's back. He tried to protect his aching chest against sudden contacts. His injured foot dangling limply. The harness holding his thighs did the rest of the job. A few seconds later, Spock was on the ladder and sliding down.

He tried to hold on a little tighter, Careful not to chock Spock. The slide down took no more than 10 seconds but for Kirk, it was ten seconds from hell. It didn't seem to want to finish. Then suddenly they stopped. The force pulled at his injuries. He winced and tried not to moan. The canal was horizontal now. They had to walk the length of the canal to reach the vertical ladders that went across the neck of the ship. Spock was again helping him to limp to the end of the lift canal. Breathing was becoming impossible, and soon he closed his eyes tight from the sheer agony of it and let Spock steer him.

Spock looked at his captain with concern. Kirk was half dead with pain. His lips were a sick shade of blue. His temperature was alarmingly low, Spock noted. He was almost a dead weight, not even trying to hold onto Spock. His ruined leg was dragging limply on the unforgiving floor and leaving a dark red trace in its wake.

Spock considered carrying him, but with his kind of injury, any extra pressure could worsen his would have to stay for the last resort.

Kirk opened his eyes when they stopped and looked at the hole in front of him with dismay. He was exhausted. He just wanted to lie down and sleep for a month. But he couldn't let Spock down. Not right now. Not after all the trouble he had gone through to find him. 'I have to hold on. For Spock. Don't let all his efforts to be in vain, dammit.'

Spock felt Kirk's deteriorating mental state. Unconsciously, he held his friend a little tighter to his side, as if to comfort him by his closeness. "We will reach our destination shortly, captain." Kirk nodded with effort. But didn't mention the fact that he had no idea where he was, let alone where the destination would be. Or how he wished Spock would just call him by his name, for one last time, now that everything seemed so final.

Spock had noticed his captain's increasing weakness and was trying to keep him focused. 'We won't stand a chance if I collapse right now.' Kirk told himself and forcefully, tried to straighten his aching body a little more. His leg was killing him. He didn't think he could tolerate another near free-fall drop in that dreadful canal, even in this lower gravity.

This slid down was almost like torture, longer than the last one, and required him more effort to maintain his balance on the ropes that supported his thighs and waist. He was clutching Spock's shirt and forcing himself to breathe against the pain. His vision of rapid passing steps was blackening. 'Hold on dammit… hold on …' but he couldn't take much more. His grip was slackening… he was falling … falling…