No, Kirk stopped himself, not unbalanced for Commodore Halls had obviously had this planned well in advance. He would have known of the civil war, would have known leaders, would have been able to set everything in place. He had even come aboard the Enterprise to assess its operation. Several times on the bridge Halls had commented on the unlimited power of the ship, of how nobody would defy it, not with its reputation and its abilities.

Just as the sky was showing a clear dawn the healer walked in and Kirk saw how he immediately felt Ty's forehead, ran his hand down to the chest where he lightly pressed the sternum, nodding when Ty gave a slight moan, "The poison is still deep within him, still trying to claim him but he is fighting. You go now. I will sit with him."

"Will he,"

The healer looked at him, "He may know you have gone and stop fighting or he may not know. You must go talk with your ship, he wants you to. He will be alive when you return or he will be dead."

Reluctantly Kirk released the hand in his and looked steadily at the healer, "I will want to know of any change, anything he might say."

"On your return I will tell you of what I noticed and heard. Go now. We must be on time."

It had been a long walk to the communication centre and he was aware of the others around him when he sat down and spoke, "Enterprise this is," he paused and thought frantically what Uhura would recognize but not any others who might be monitoring for Halls, "Tymanda, Enterprise, this is Tymanda."

"Tymanda, this is the Enterprise. You are not a recognized official." that calm and controlled voice. "I regret we are all unable to communicate or talk further to you on this call but we are directed to only communicate with the recognized central officials. You should not be on this frequency. You are aware of this?"

There was no mistaking that she knew it was him, there was so much she had told him yet was still sounding like the thorough professional she was. Halls had told them they could only talk with his people, that Halls was on the bridge and was obviously watching her closely. "Enterprise, this is Tymanda. I understand the need to communicate only with recognized officials. We apologise for our error. Tymanda out."

"I must logically log your broadcast but no official action will be taken as it was an error and no harm was done. It is not like reddened marks identified us. It is the circle of life with one watching all. A search for reality. Enterprise out."

For a moment he sat and looked at the speaker as though willing more of that voice to fill the room. She knew what he meant and had let him know that she would tell Spock. Also he now knew that Halls was not totally familiar with the ship and had done nothing to it, in fact they were heading back. Why would Halls head back to the scene of a crime?

"We must go now. It is good that you spoke with her." a youth handed him a jacket, "It is cold now."

The walk back to the village seemed to take longer but that was, Kirk knew, due to the cold weather and the thoughts that kept tumbling in his mind were of what Uhura had said.

At the entrance door to the hut they had been in the healer met him and blocked his view of the interior. "We need to talk."

"Is he,"

"We need to talk." the healer put a hand on his arm and led him to another hut, handed him a mug of hot liquid not unlike coffee, waited till he had sipped some of it, "He is still alive but the poison has full possession of his body and mind. I have seen others as he is and they have died in agony. To be humane you would have us place him outside for the night. In the cold he would go into a deeper sleep and die. It would be best to do so and for you not to see him again."

"Why? What," he started to stand but sat as two hands pushed him back into the chair and he again was looking at the healer.

"It is best you not see how he suffers. He is one of your people and it would upset you to see him as he is. To ensure he does not hurt others we have had to bind him as we were unable to restrain him when the fever took possession of him."

"I," slowly but very deliberately he stood up, forcing the hands to let go of his shoulders, "I am his commanding officer and I need to see him."

The healer nodded, "It is good that you want to see him, even if you say it is for duty." the old man looked at him, "Do not feel the guilt of not doing your duty, for not protecting him. He did it for you as you, not as duty. He also did it for us who had treated you both badly. We will live with that shame." slowly the man moved so he could walk, "You may see him. Remember your options. It is your decision. You must think for him. As his commanding officer you must know an easy death is better than what he is going through." The healer looked steadily at him. No, not at him but into him, "As a friend you must know what he would want to do."

When he had gone into the hut he saw Ty was laying on a mat on the floor, now they had him on the mat but with his ankles bound together and staked to the floor, his wrists bound together with his arms stretched above his head and also staked to the floor. As Kirk watched he saw how unrelenting waves of pain wracked the body before him, heard the low moan each time his officer exhaled. The woman who had been wiping his face and shoulders stood, briefly put her hand on Ty's forehead, then left. Looking at his officer alone on the floor he heard part of his mind treacherously say the healer was right, it would be the most humane thing to do, to let him die at night in the cold while he slept, he would just drift into a coma and then die, he would not know. As he had stood looking down at Ty he knew Ty could be like that, in that much pure agony, for another three weeks and still die and to just place him outside the hut for the night would spare him all..

There had been a series of severe convulsive shaking then a clear, "Kirk!" that was beseeching yet terror-filled, like one calling out in desperation and fear.

Only for a heartbeat did he hesitate as the shock of the pain and fear in the voice subsided in him. Without thinking what could happen he grabbed a knife, rushed to Ty, cut the tightly bound wrists and hugged the trembling body to him.

An anger had momentarily filled him as questions collided in his mind. Had Ty called out before for him? What had happened then? Had they ignored his fear and left him secured? "I'm here, Ty. I'm here. It's going to be all right. Spock will know by now. They will come back and Bones can take care of you. You just have to fight this a bit longer. You just have to hold on. Just hold on." Two arms wrapped around him and he felt the slight power that was still there, and the trembling in them. Slowly he started to rub the officer's back and looked over at the healer, "That's right, you hold onto me. You just hold on."

The healer walked over and indicated the secured ankles, cutting them free when he nodded. "He clearly said, fifteen times, something about having to protect Kirk for Spock and called out Kirk fifty-one times despite the pain. People with the poison possessing them often say things that mean nothing."

"How, how long has he been tied down? What, what did you do when he called out for me? You told me you would not leave him."

"Shortly after you left he started to fight us to find you as poison's fever grew. I was with him but we had to secure him, he seemed to know you had gone, the fever gave him more strength. He seemed to believe they had you. We did for him what we could to calm him but the poison has control of him. He did not know,"

"He knows. He knows I'm here. He would have known I was not here and would have thought either they or," suddenly he stopped as the arms around him hugged him tighter. Taking a deep breath he realized that he had made the choice to leave his officer and instinctively hugged him tighter, "I'm sorry. I know you did your best for him. Thank you."

"You talked with your people?"

"Yes. Thank you for that."

"It is what we told him we would do for you." the healer looked levelly at Kirk, "You must now decide what you will do for him."

"I'm going to stay right here with him till my ship and crew return."

"That will take time."

He felt the spasms of pain shaking his officer despite how tightly he held him, "I know how long it will take. I will stay with him." He met the gaze of the healer and slowly rubbed the officer's back, "I will wait with him. I will sit and hold him. Can you get me something to wipe him with?"

The healer did not move, "So you will not let him die in the night?"

"He may die during the night, but he will die in here, with me. I will not kill him with the cold. If he is to die he will not die alone."

A smile momentarily flickered across the healer's face, one of satisfaction, "Good. You do not do this out of duty alone. You are worthy of one such as this. You will be brought food for yourself and cloths soaked in herbal teas to wipe him with to help him fight the poisons."

"Can I also have some water for him? He needs to take some fluids." Kirk was appalled at how easy it was to feel the bones of his officer when he knew the man had been muscular and solid only two weeks before.

"No, liquids feed the poison otherwise we would have given him some. You must keep his body cool and wet his mouth with some hot herbal tea but do not give him any to drink. Tomorrow you may take him to the pool if his body remains too hot."

Throughout the night he was brought herbal teas for himself along with a variety of light meals as well as cool damp cloths he used to wipe his officer with. He had laid his officer back down to be able to easier care for him and had sat holding his hand in one hand with his other hand slowly wiping the fevered face and upper body with the cool cloths. He was the senior officer, it was his responsibility to care for and protect his officers: he had failed this officer badly. He had the training and should have known how to act and react the two times this officer had in his place. Even in his pain this officer had thought of him.

As he had been rinsing one of the cloths he had been using he paused as he saw Ty's blood. What Uhura had said about reddened marks. Blood. The bloodied uniforms. Halls needed the proof the bloodied uniforms would give him to convince the crew and Starfleet. That would be the reality the crew would accept. They would be able to verify that it was his and Ty's blood on the uniforms.

Although he had not been aware of doing it as he wiped the body with the odorous cloths he stopped when he felt himself momentarily shake. He had thought he was merely cleaning the wounds and had not been conscious of counting them. Thirty-eight. The healer had said that before and he had not accepted it but now he had seen them, had counted them, had seen how inflamed they were with infection. He had sat carefully wiping the wounds and slowly accepted that they were wounds he should have had. They were the wounds of a frenzied attack. some of them deep and the rest superficial. They both had seen what was going to happen. He should have acted. yet he had not acted. He had told himself that he had upheld the Prime Directive. Ty had clearly reacted instinctively. Ty had done what he should have done.

There had been so many times he had helped Bones with emergency medical treatments. He had helped Bones many times, had done on field medical work with him, yet this was so different, so very different. Not only did this involve Ty's entire body but he had none of the equipment, instruments, nor medicines at hand that he had had those times. This was a planet centuries behind them in development. This was basic almost primitive relying on what Spock would call rattles and bearskins. Simple hot water potions and tactile presence. He had shaken his head. He knew that he would have to tell Bones how great a modern Sickbay is. How could he ever again complain about the treatments he received in Sickbay after this? He had not allowed himself to ask how he would have survived for he knew it would make him think of the pain Ty was enduring.

Early the next morning, before the dawn sky was fully lit, Ty had still been very hot and the healer had walked with him carrying Ty to where there was a rock pool by the river. "It will cool him but you must not become too cold." the healer had looked at him. "The water is coolest now and would be best for him but you would get too cold too fast. Perhaps you should wait."

Wait. It was the word his mind had whispered two times before when he should have acted as Ty had. He had waited when he saw what happened at the river and he had waited when he saw the marauders, both times he should have been the one to act. He could not and would not wait this time. He could feel the tremors Ty was having, he could feel the infection, the inflammation, raising his body temperature far too much. Ty's body felt like there was a bed of embers in him just waiting to burst into flame and consume the body. He was not going to let that happen.

Cool was not the word for the water, it was frigid. He felt his body take a moment to adjust to the chill as he had first lain down in it and started to hold Ty. He still could feel how hot Ty's body had seemed across his chest even through the clothes he was wearing separated him from Ty's infected flesh. Once the healer had positioned Ty in the pool he had only felt the warmth of Ty's body along his side and where his right arm cradled Tys head above the water with his hand resting on Ty's chest. His own head resting on his left arm to keep his head out of the water.

Time had had no meaning. There had been so much to plan for but he was so cold it seemed best just to watch changing colors of sky as the sun rose. He was only aware when the healer called out to him that the sun was high in the sky and the water was slightly warmer. "That is enough for today. Now you must get warm."

If ever a fire's warmth had felt better Kirk could not remember and he was annoyed that the healer had made him sit by the fire to get warm while he sat with Ty. When he looked over at the healer he had seen the same look about the healer as he worked on Ty as he had seen so many times on the face of his Chief Medical Officer and knew there had been a change but not a significant one. The time in the water had clearly cooled him down but the poison still coursed through his body. Ty was still obviously only just holding onto life.

"My ship is on its way back. They are after the uniforms."

"I know," the healer looked at him, "Our young spoke last night with the one called Halls. They return in six days."

"Did, was he able to say anything to Uhura?" he had struggled to stay calm as Halls had no right to be at the Communications station and had moved over and placed a hand on Ty's shoulder not knowing if it was to reassure Ty or ground himself.