"Four hundred and twenty-nine, what has,"

"There are exactly four hundred and twenty-nine distinct and separate significant injuries to Officer Randell. Each one expertly placed to cause the most pain and clearly done in a planned way over a set period of time as though they wanted to ensure he was aware of and felt every one of them." For just a moment they looked at each other, not, he knew, as Chief Medical Officer and Captain but as two men who realize what another has done for them and their friends.

"They've had us for just over four standard days so that's what," briefly he had closed his eyes then looked back at McCoy, "one injury about every fifteen minutes?"

"Damn them! Damn them they knew. They knew!"

"Knew what, Bones?"

"It was long enough for him. It was long enough between each injury for him to just start to get over the shock of new pain. That's why they did it all over him, so that he did not know where it was going to hurt next, so he could not fully process what was going on and would react to the pain. Somehow, somewhere in that broken body is something holding him here. They were trying to make him yield, make him give up." He had not missed the deep anger in his friend, "They tortured him, they wanted to break him. If they broke him they would be able to just peel the Enterprise apart the way they did that Klingon ship. He," McCoy looked away and closed his eyes and he could tell from his stance he was only just holding onto control. "He is now," blue pain-filled eyes looked at him, "he is now totally unresponsive to all external stimuli."

It felt like an icy hand had gripped him for a moment then he had dragged his fingers through his hair. "Bones, what is the final test they want? What is it they haven't already done? There is no way of knowing how long it will take any ship to find us."

McCoy had looked at him, "They said he had saved us and kept emphasizing should he survive. They obviously expect him to die of his injuries." He shook his head and again briefly closed his eyes before he looked right back at him and he had seen the anger and concern in his friend, "Jim, he still could as it is too much, far too much of a fight. There is just so much that a human body can stand. They systematically tortured him as he named the crew. They attacked every part of his body. There is not an organ in his body that is not damaged almost to the point of failure, some I am uncertain if even regeneration will work on, every bone in his body has been broken or crushed almost beyond fusion, muscles are all,"

He had stood and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "He is a fighter, Bones. We've both seen,"

"That's just it, Jim," McCoy looked at him and he had seen misery in the blue eyes, "This is a fight I do not think he can win. I best get back to him. So many of the crew have been in with ways to help him as well as just wanting to be with him. I have Spock in another room. While I am not sure even Spock could survive what they have done to him I think we both know that that our Vulcan First Officer will find a way to blame this all on himself"

Only for a moment did he want to point out that there were other medical staff would could care of Officer Randell but he knew Spock was not the only one blaming themself for what happened.

Only as they were walking into Sickbay did they speak again McCoy stopped them just inside the door, "Ever find out exactly what they wanted?"

"No but I think whatever they found in him surprised them."

So many times he had heard Spock, Scotty, and McCoy either praise or damn Officer Randell, sometime both at the same time, for his recklessness or his impulsiveness. In his mind he heard them say he would not quit once he had decided on an action, that he had no fear of the result if what he was doing needed doing, that he had a knack of securing items that even the higher echelon said could not be obtained, that he had be able to get from locals material that the governing bodies of the planets had said no to letting them have, and that he put the needs and safety of others before his own.

Quickly he looked in the adjoining room and saw Spock was if not asleep at least resting. Satisfied that his friend was at least abiding in his own way with McCoy's dictates Kirk walked into the intensive care area. McCoy did not have the surgical support unit over Randell so he realized that it was, as McCoy had said, a fight that Randell had to fight. Hesitantly he had stopped and just stared at the unmoving body. In his mind he had kept asking himself if he had the right to approach the bed or not. There were others there and he was aware of them watching him but all he could think of was that that unmoving body should have been him. It would have been him if their opponent had been anything like what they experienced elsewhere but they had insisted on a regular crew member and not a senior officer nor an ensign.

The monitors showed that Randell was breathing, that his heart was beating, but it also showed the amount of pain he was in despite all the medication he was on. While he saw the man there he also remembered what he had seen when the man had been transported back to the ship. So much more like a bloodied and tangled pile of flesh and bone that a human being. On the bridge he had been unable to move, to think, to react as he should. He had been so thankful that it had not been his First Officer and friend or his Chief Engineer.

Slowly he had walked right up to the bed and McCoy had reached out, taken his hand and placed it gently on the shattered hand of the officer. "Just leave it on his, Jim. He will be aware you are there without you having to actually hold it. Just let him know you are here by feeling your hand. He is heavily medicated but I am sure a part of his brain will register somebody is here with him, that somebody cares."

There were intermittent slight movements of the fingers under his hand and he had realized they were just a slight indication of the pain possessing the body. Pain that should have been his. He was the Captain of the ship. He had sworn to protect his crew. He should have been the. N, he had stopped his train of thoughts, of blaming himself. Whoever or whatever had been controlling them had said that even before the conditions of the test were known Randell had volunteered.

As he had stood with his hand resting on his officer's he had tried to think what the three parts of the final test would be. They had enough life support and supplies to keep them till help arrived but when that would be was unknown. They had, after all, been tracking a Klingon vessel further into space than was the official end of the neutral zone.

As he stood looking down at Randell he had heard that beloved voice from the bed closest to him, "He is still alive, Jim."

"But for how long? They said there is a test, we have a final test to do with him before we are free."

"Interesting," slowly Spock had raised himself onto an elbow and looked at him and said, "Captain, did they tell you what the test would be?"

"No. Only that it is in three parts. No indication of what they involve. They said we might not even recognize it."

"As advanced as they are, Captain, I do not see how we would be able to detect what they could test us on. You are aware that they are so much more advanced scientifically to us that we are, to them, at the same evolutionary level as our forefathers just coming out of caves?"

He had walked over to Spock's bed, "I got that feeling while I was alone on the bridge. With the ship dead in space, the crew gone, and knowing that something could stop a starship and a Klingon warbird like that I sort of realized that whatever we are dealing with it advanced way beyond our wildest dreams. What was it like for you?"

Spock had lain back down for a moment with his eyes closed. "They, themselves, were pure energy. Energy we have no real comprehension of. Their craft, if that is what it could be called, was solid yet fluid and gaseous. It defies all our known theories of physics as it seemed capable of changing shape so I was unable to ascertain its size although I would speculate that it is substantially larger than the Enterprise. Although our sensors could not detect it their sensors were able to give them a detailed visual not only of the exterior of the Enterprise but also the interior, they had the ability view actual cross-sections of the ship and view the individual levels of the ship. Where we were first held as a group was a large area, although there were no visible walls nor floor or ceiling you were aware of being in an enclosed space. At the start it was a most unusual experience for you could see neither floor nor walls, only space but they then made walls, a ceiling, and a floor appeared so we knew we were in a large hall. For the first few hours that they had him they had a visual display of the Enterprise on a screen that seemed to fill a wall and we could see that he was doing something was going to allow for the crew to be returned to the ship in equal numbers from each department. When they extracted Mister Scott and myself from the group we were not shown what crew was to be sent back nor what had been done to him. We were taken to a room where were saw a recording of what had been done to him to free the crew. We watched how they systematically tortured him as he named his fellow crewmen. "

With his eyes still closed Spock had steepled his fingers and briefly touched his two index fingers to his lips, "Had our encounter with them been more amicable it would have been fascinating to have been able to learn more about how they developed. They did find us equally as fascinating. There was something about how we related to one another that seemed to surprise them. His ability to care about others more than himself, to remember so many others and refer to them as not expendable."

He had nodded as he remembered what the voice had said, "They did mention that they found Randell's willingness to be used unusual. I do not think we are the first to encounter them. Just the way they mentioned other ships and others."

"It appeared to astound them that such a puny example of this ship's crew, as they often referred to Officer Randell, had such a logical and systematic mind. They," for a moment Spock had been quiet then looked up at Kirk. "For such an advanced race they were bestial in their method of questioning Officer Randell and got easily angered when he asked for verification that Mister Scott and myself were unharmed and that the crew was being returned to the ship. Being senior officers we had to watch what was done to him. He would give a name and two of the beings seemed to check something that highly resembled a displayed compliment of the ship arranged in departments and rankings. They would injure him and ask for another who he considered essential to the ship and why. He would have a different reason for each one; he was in obvious pain yet he worked systematically through all the departments naming one officer from each department so that each department was represented. If he could not name the crewmen he would give a physical description. We could not see exactly what they were using to, to torture him with but they were very systematic and deliberate in what they were doing to him. Has Doctor McCoy given you his prognosis?"

Before he could answer Doctor McCoy walked in, "Well, if you two are going to chat I best let the others in. They've been waiting to chat with the two of you about what just happened as well as wanting to know his prognosis as well. Perhaps the seven of us can figure out what those, those things might mean in the way of a test."

Once Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu had arrived and found a place to sit and each had a cup of coffee, he had looked at them, "Thoughts of what this test is that they have mentioned. A test in three parts that we might not even be aware of?"

Uhura looked from him to Spock then back at Kirk, "I do not understand it, Captain. They said he had named the crew. That was what they said, at the start, they wanted to see, if a crewmember knew all the others in the crew and was willing to take punishment to free them."

"We did not see what the punishment was," Sulu had looked at Spock, "at the start. We did not know what they were doing to him till they put up a cross-section schematic projection of the ship and names he had given. They let us see him briefly in an aerial view of him. It was clear he had been, been," seldom had Kirk ever seen his helmsman so visibly shaken.

"The Cossacks! They made each wound in a different place, caused differently, and made to hurt him. He would ask for one of us to verify that the crew was not being harmed. He was in pain, in pain," the navigator had looked at Spock then at him and he had seen the fury about the eyes, "and asking about us."

"Aye," Scotty had looked at Spock and they had clearly been having a private silent conversation as they looked at one another while the Scotsman spoke to the group, "The lad's like a terrier in a cairn with a rodent. He'd nay give up. Even with all them devils doing what they were doing to him he'd nay give up on his belief he could do it, had to do it to save us and the ship. He'd nay be thinking of the pain only of us."

"Hogwash! He'd damn well would have felt that pain." McCoy flared and Scotty had turned and looked at him.

"I said he'd nay be thinking of the pain, not that he'd nay be feeling it."

"That's just it, Scotty. Each wound would have caused him pain. As I told the Captain they clearly timed each wound so that he had time to get over the shock of one wound before the next one." McCoy had obviously been aware of dark eyes looking up at him as he turned and looked at Spock, "They were not only causing him pain but also confusing him."

Spock had nodded, "Psychological trauma as well as physical pain. I surmised that when Mister Scott and I were allowed to see him."

"There is little that we can do for him although Uhura says she has had requests from all the crew to help with his treatment." Slowly McCoy had shaken his head and looked at him, "Jim, there is nothing our medical system,"

It was as he had thought, they also all had no idea what the test would be.