A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews and follows/favourites :D

I'm just gonna warn you now this chapter has some swearing and disturbing scenes. It does set a baseline for the aftermath of the traumatic event though.

All in all, it looked like an experimental clinic used on animals back in the early twenty-first century. But for humans.

Jim swallowed hard.

"I…believe I misinterpreted when you said you were going to find information about humans using any means necessary."

"Y'know, it sounds cliché as hell but if you wanted to know something, you could've just asked."

Cadel looked up from his desk, at a computer screen looking like that on early PC's on Earth, which looked strange in contrast to the highly technological devices scattered around the room.

"Well, humans are quite privy to lying, don't you think so?" he seemed generally unphased with how ludicrous the whole room looked.

Jim remained standing in front of the table, already having flashbacks from similar looking exam tables on the Enterprise and having allergic reactions to every single vaccine he ever received.

The white one in front of him looked exactly the same, barring the fact it was ultra-thin instead of clunky. He could practically smell the sterile aroma coming off of it.

Something told him he was never gonna go near Bones ever again after this.

Ruri nonchalantly gestured to the table and raised an eyebrow of impatience at Jim:

"Well, you gonna lie down or not?"

Jim held himself back for snorting, in fear of his supposed captives losing whatever patience they had left.

"It doesn't exactly look very welcoming in here," Jim offered, his heart thudding in his chest, "But the table looks comfy, I'll give you that."

It looked even more padded than the ones they had in sickbay.

Ruri glanced over to Cadel, expecting a reaction from Jim's retort, but apparently the other man was too busy with whatever he was doing on the computer.

She looked back at Jim and pointed to the table again.

"I'm trying to be easy-going with you, Kirk, but you're trying my patience."

Jim froze, unsure of what to do for once.

On one hand, they could be dangerous and had led him into a trap, and he would be screwed either way.

But if he refused, they would likely either force him to lie on it out of frustration and get rough, when in reality, perhaps they would be careful with him? The alliance agreement would likely also be revoked.

Sighing, Jim slumped into a sitting position on the padded white table, a stark unexpected difference from the tables on the Enterprise. It was so damn comfy.

"Is this table a trap to get me to sleep on it?" he joked, using his humour to hide his anxiety.

"I presume you find it comfortable," Ruri replied, stepping beside the table and pulling up some very clean looking armrests.

In Jim's head, he assumed in his situation he would be strapped down to a dirty worn table and left there much to the disappointment of his back.

But right now, it looked like he was being held hostage by a small outta space private hospital room.

God these people are so confusing.

He continued with his endeavour in finding what he had got himself into, "So? You gonna tell me your evil plan, or are you just gonna keep it a secret? I'm on the edge of my seat here!"

Literally. He was on the edge of the table, ready to jump up and defend himself.

Cadel stopped typing on his computer and swivelled to face Kirk, "Evil plan?"

Or I'm just gonna offend them so much they kill me anyway.

"Yeah. Y'know, whatcha plan on doing with me. Here. On this table."

Cadel raised an eyebrow and stood up from his wheelie-chair, "Oh, right," he looked generally surprised, "We're not…you think we're gonna hurt you, aren't you?"

Bingo.

He nodded feebly.

His ego was usually too immense to allow weakness, but right now, anxiety had powered over his self-control.

"Uh, I guess so. Two strange aliens lead me, alone, into an unlit, sterile smelling room, bright up the room so much that my exploding eyes give you time to deadlock the door, then you tell me to lie down on a table surrounded with ridiculously superior equipment, and then not telling me just what the hell you plan on doing."

He took a breath from his speech, but regardless of what his words said, their questioning expressions to one another led him to cautiously lie back on the table, as if to say hey look, I'm lying down without asking, so don't kill me.

Ruri was first to speak, "James…perhaps we as a culture are much different than we originally anticipated," she sat on the chair Cadel just abandoned and wheeled over to Jim.
She began to explain further.

"Upon receiving newcomers, we investigate every aspect of their species. How they think, their requirements to survive, their desires, how the body works. Extrapolating their memories and biology findings into a data bank to be processed by our superiors enables us to decide candidates worthy for an alliance."

Jim nodded, processing the information himself, beginning to understand everything…until one particular aspect of the explanation finally reached his brain.

"Uh, extrapolating memories?"

Ruri nodded.

"Biology findings? What the hell? I could give you a damn diagram."

Ruri shook her head, "That's not necessary, we need to make the discoveries for ourselves. Again, you are known to lie, we know that at least."

Jim squinted at the urge to make another joke during this dire situation, "So you're telling me you can't lie?"

Jim watched Cadel's relaxing expression when he seemed satisfied by Ruri answering all the questions, then moved his head to follow the man, as he walked behind the bed and disappeared from his line of sight.

Ruri paused. Then shrugged, "No. Not really."

Jim turned back to Ruri and grinned at the opportunity, "You really do sound like my first officer."

At that, the Bovis creature looked interested, but stood up from her chair and began placing Jim's arms on the armrests.

"What species is your first officer?" she asked, probably out of curtesy rather than interest.

"Vulcan," he replied, staring intently at his arms, wondering why the hell he was allowing them to do this. Perhaps they had some strange airborne compliance-drug or something.

"I see," Ruri seemed distinctly uninterested now, standing back to look at her work of art, aka placing arms on armrests, then nodded in satisfaction.

"You're ready. I want to thank you for your obedience. It is a rare occurrence."

Not a drug then.

"Believe me, if I didn't feel so threatened by my superior I would not be so easy to sway."

He was doing this for Pike. No matter what would happen, if there was a chance the Federation would praise him even a little for getting an alliance with the Bovis people…even pain was worth it.

But this didn't look so bad anyway.

Jim was thrown out of his thoughts when Cadel had resurfaced into his line-of-sight, staring intently at Jim's face to the point where it unnerved him, then the tall man nodded to Ruri.

"Fetch me when you are finished," he announced in a tone of such authority that he could probably pose as a Starfleet admiral, "Your medication is next to the fabrica device."

It took all Jim's willpower not to comment on the name of this device. He knew Latin, fabrica was Latin for device. So technically, it was called the device device.

As Cadel left the room, Ruri patted Jim's hand as the door hissed shut, a comforting smile upon her face. She grasped the medbracelet around Jim's wrist and easily broke the lock open.

"Try not to feel alarmed, my husband is quite abrupt and takes this seriously," she reassured him, tucking the bracelet into her pocket.

Jim nodded slowly, turning his head to follow her as she walked around the bed and off behind, where he couldn't see.

"Why the medication?" he asked, as she suddenly reappeared again seconds later with a small vial of red liquid, "Are you ill?"

Ruri chuckled without making eye-contact, reaching out and grabbing a trolley with her free hand and wheeling it to the foot of the table.

"No. Sorry, as I said, Cadel is in a mind of his own. He wasn't talking to me."

Jim frowned, his eyes bulging in intensity when the short female pick up a sharp looking object attached to a thin red tube from the trolley, matching the colour of the vial.

"Then who was he talking—!" he winced when Ruri stuck the sharp end in his wrist, leaving the flimsy tube hanging loosely off to the side. He was beginning to loathe the idea of letting her poke and prod at him. "Ugh…talking to?"

Ruri concentrated on pouring the vial into the tube, much to Jim's already thudding heart's dismay.

She placed the vial back on the tray and smiled at him sweetly, "You!"

All the breath left his lungs at once.

Shit. What the hell did she put in me?

Not to mention I'm allergic to everything…

"I-I'm—" Jim wasn't sure what to say or how to feel. The stubborn part of his mind was telling him to flat out be cocky to present a false charade of confidence, but his gut was failing him and making him stutter, his heart racing.

"It might take a few minutes to work, so don't worry if you're slow to lose feeling. It won't happen all at once," she explained casually, moving the tray to the other side of the table, then leaning over him to watch closely.

"Lose feeling? In what? What won't happen?" he stuttered out, "I'm allergic to a lot of stuff, I have to go back to the ship, I have severe allergic reactions to a lot of alien-y stuff and I know we're trying to come to an agreement so if I leave it'll forfeit it but just listen—"

"Relax, James," Ruri soothed him, which was not helping as Jim was beginning to feel his extremities tingle, "Our technology is vastly superior to yours. If your body rejects the medication, I can cure the reaction with one quick injection, just like the one I gave you now."

That doesn't help!

"Why am I…" he tried to move his arms away from the armrests but found he couldn't make them move.

Jim practically felt bile rise to his throat.

"Wha…th' ell…av you…done…?"

Ruri placed a gentle hand over Jim's cheek, thumbing his cheekbones as what he assumed was supposed to comfort him.

"It's a paralysis drug which does not affect your nervous system. It is quite experimental, but it's cross-compatible. I use it on all species we come across."

Now unable to command any of his muscles to move, Jim's heart was thumping so hard it was beginning to hurt.

At least he could still feel.

"If you have an adverse reaction, I will help you. For now, just try to relax through the entire procedure," her thumb still thumbing Jim's cheek.

What procedure? He wanted to yell at her, but his muscles were not obeying him, leaving his terrified and trapped alone in his body, at the mercy of…whoever this female was.

Thoughts of pampering his ego were long since forgotten.

"It might make you feel a bit better if I explained what's gonna happen," Ruri offered, removing her hand from Jim's face and reaching from behind the table, which Jim couldn't see.

He wished sincerely that Bones had done a better job at hiding the med-bracelet, perhaps on his ankle. This extended period of terror was bound to set off alarms, but having it removed meant that it wasn't transmitting anything. Perhaps eventually Bones would think something was up.

"Like I said earlier, we extrapolate memories and process them. Forgive me if I don't understand your uncertainty, it's standard procedure here on Bovis," her face tensed up as she hauled a heavy device over Jim's forehead and clamped it under his jaw, forcing his chin up in an uncomfortable position.

His breathing was rapid and wheezing, the metal frame tucked around his face caused problems, as the clamp on the bottom of it was tucked tightly under Jim's jaw, forcing his mouth shut. The restricted movement was causing him to hyperventilate through his nose. Soon enough he wasn't going to get enough air.

"Now, this frame is just to keep your head nice and still, as we've had problems in the past of the drug wearing off early and causing permanent memory loss," she explained, then strode to the other side of the room, bending over to the computer to read something.

Jim on the other hand was seeing stars. His vision was flooded with black spots from lack of oxygen, feeling every rise and fall of his chest. His wrists were slack and splayed out on the arm rests.

What made it worse was the fact he could see no way out of this. He couldn't move. He was powerless.

Ruri soon returned, wheeling over on a chair, hoisting along large overhead monitor with her.

Aside the table, Ruri manoeuvred the blank overhead monitor on its front so that Jim could see it from his flat position directly above him. He presumed the flexible cables it was connected to made it possible.

"These are some memories from other candidates," she explained, fiddling with something in her pocket; then the monitor flashed and came to life.

Playing back was some vivid imagery and videos of random life events.

Even something as mundane as eating, walking, gardening, talking, and yes, unfortunately toileting.

But then more captivating imagery came to light; beautiful landscapes and different worlds, witnessing deaths of loved ones, marriage, watching children grow up – it was all within the eyes of a person as if seeing it for himself.

Then it went blank.

"You see? That's all it is, nothing too scary," she comforted him, wheeling behind him again. This time, Jim was unable to move his head to watch her moving away.

"I didn't show you…ugh…the memories over here…cos' they consist of prisoners most of the time…and it's pretty disturbing stuff…bovisiah this is heavy!"

Jim assumed bovisiah was the Bovis alternative of Earth language cussing.

There were gentle fingers on his forehead, soft sounds of the titanium being touched.

A low humming sound filled the air before he felt a firm pressure connect against the base of his scalp. Fingers danced around his head, until two more objects were pushed against the left and right of his scalp. The humming came to an abrupt halt.

Ruri's face then reappeared over Jim, making eye contact and offering a gentle smile.

"This should take about ten minutes," she confirmed, "Once it's done, I'm gonna give you a visual implant inside the side of your left eye."

Jim felt mortified as the burn of tears pooled in his eyes, both from fear and the pain his chest was radiating. The fact that his arms and legs had begun trembling involuntarily didn't not go unnoticed to him.

Ruri, however, seemed sympathetic for him, going by the worry etched on her face.

"Don't be nervous, James! It will do you no good. Perhaps it will make you feel better if I explained the implant?"

Jim's eyes were begging, and somehow, he had managed to portray that desperation across as Ruri looked into his eyes and smiled.

"It will display an image of everything you're seeing on my monitor, but it will cause blindness in the affected eye unfortunately."

Before Jim could start choking on his hyperventilating, Ruri noticed his panic and continued:

"It will be processed and sent to our superiors, and we will see how you interact on a daily basis on your ship. When we have come to our decision, either me or Cadel will host a meeting with you to explain and will then remove the implant and restore your left eye."

At least it's not forever, he tried to comfort himself.

"There's a reason why we don't have an alliance with many people, mostly being that they retract their offer immediately after being sent away to their lives again. But I have a good feeling about you, James."

You kidding, psychotic woman? I'm getting this planet closed off to the Federation.

Ruri stood with her arms around her chest for a few seconds before her eyes widened in realisation:

"Oh, yes! The biology part of it. You'll be asleep for that, don't worry. As soon as you wake up you're good to go, and we'll have your anatomy detailed," she smiled and placed her hand over Jim's sweaty trembling one, "No panicking there."

After a light squeeze on his hand, Ruri released his limp hand back on the armrest and returned to the computer, typing in what he presumed were commands for whatever machine was pressed against his head.

If Jim could have screamed, the walls would fall down.

His whole body arched involuntarily on the table before being released with a slam, every muscle tense and on fire.

He knew he didn't have long until he passed out with the gurgling sound his throat was making, along with the fact his vision was clouding over again.

If he tried really hard, Jim could see the overhead monitor dangling above his face light up again, images flashing up that he couldn't see because of how distorted the world was.

The machine hooked up to his head was playing back the data captured from his memories on the screen.

Ten minutes passed, and he was still shaking and tensing up on the table.

"What is that?"

"James, what is that?"

He didn't know, he couldn't see.

"I must see more. James, is that Kodos? From the famed Tarsus IV?"

No…

Please, no…

"I must see more—"

Jim's vision flashed white as excruciating pain filled his body, he couldn't breathe, let alone move.

The agony was constant, on-going and torturous.

He had no idea how long he had been in this world of distress.

Seconds later, something slammed into the side of his eye, and suddenly the world shifted, like looking out of one eye, before the pain slowly began to ebb away.

Mercifully, the white void of agony faded away, and the world came back into view.

Jim was positively exhausted, his vision blurring, the whole ordeal leaving him with a pounding headache.

Ruri stepped into his sight, her hands on her hips, as if in disappointment.

"Well, James. I can see why you were so worried about me seeing your memories. It looks like you have some valuable information regarding Tarsus. I'd like to see more about that, but I'll do it during your exam later when you're asleep."

Thank god…

Thank you…

At least I won't be able to see it…at least I won't be able to…feel it…

"The implant is now in your eye, so your vision might look a little funny for a while, until it clears up. You'll find you're blind in your left eye, but like I said, we'll take it out once we reach a decision."

Jim blinked twice, his breath still caught in his throat, finding it hard to calm himself after the ordeal.

Deep breath in…

…Hold it…

Breathe out…

"You did well, James."

Breathe in…

I don't care…let me go…I want to go…

"I know you want out of here, so I will get Cadel to quickly do your biological exam and you'll be free to go back to your ship."

Ruri turned around and began fiddling with items on her tray.

Jim blinked rapidly, relishing in the hot tears trailing down his cheekbones.

This is weakness that he never wanted to show.

Ruri soon spun on her heel back to Jim, holding what appeared to be a hypospray. Or something remarkably similar to it.

With an innocent smile, she bent over and pressed it to Jim's neck, whispering a quiet "Hmm…" when the medication hissed as it was released.

The effect was instant. His already exhausted body became desperate for rest, his vision swimming and spinning again.

Only seconds later, the world didn't feel real anymore.

It felt so…surreal, as if he was in a dream.

Ruri was walking up and down the room, her figure flying around him as if she was leaving blurry after images. He knew his clothes were being removed when his hairs began to stand on end from the breeze.

He distantly heard echoed clank sounds at the foot of his bed, black spots once again covering his vision, a veil covering him in darkness.

In…out…in…out…

Vaguely he felt not-quite-real motions of his ankles being raised high up, drawn apart and placed into something cold.

Breathing softly and calmly through his lips, Jim distantly felt something cold clamp around his ankles. He knew at the back of his mind the raised, drawn apart position his legs were in exposed his genitalia, but for some reason he was unable to care.

As the sounds from the outside world began to fade into a low buzz, the arm rests were pulled out flat to his sides, a tightness in his shoulders from his arm muscles stretched to their limits.

A hand landed on his face again, a familiar feeling stroking his cheekbones gently, before he finally let out a final wavering breath and succumbed to the drug.

If falling asleep was a gentle calm breeze, waking up was absolutely the opposite.

Every single limb was on fire.

His fingers had felt like someone had broken them and put them back together again, his arms burning from how long they had been stretched out. His chest was aching, leading him to think they had done something to his ribs too, and not to mention his thighs had gone numb.

Opening his eyes, the first thing Jim noticed was the fact there was a ridiculously colossal energy bill on the way for this place.

There was a huge circular light dangling above him, covering half the distance of the room, as if he was some zoo exhibition on display.

And then he remembered…

They'd taken him into this room.

Extracted all of his memories.

The last thing he remembers…is being told someone was going to do a biological exam on him.

Oh god.

Oh no.

Heart in his throat, Jim shot upright, vaguely registering the fact he could now actually move, noticing he was still completely naked, but his clothes had been tossed on top of the trolley.

His arms had stitches all over them, his legs even worse, small scars ridden all over his thighs and disappearing around his back.

Inhaling shakily and looking down, he noticed his genitalia was red, and that too, had small scars all over it.

Pushing the images of how that happened to the back of his mind, Jim sluggishly twisted his legs around the table, wincing from the pain of his protesting muscles.

As he gathered a few seconds to reassert himself, Jim shut his eyes momentarily and took a deep breath, wincing again as the air caused a sharp pain in his mouth.

What the hell have they done to me?

Deciding to move before they get back, he finally slid off the table and let his feet touch the floor, gasping and nearly doubling over when his ankles protested taking the weight of his body.

Gotta move now. Just get out of here, Jim.

His feet barely leaving the floor, Jim shuffled his way over to the abandoned clothes on the trolley, slowly picking them up and trying to think of the best way to dress himself without pain.

A few winces and hisses later, Jim was now fully clothed again, a relief that took the edge off of everything.

Get to the ship…get to the bloody ship…

Jim slid his hand into his pocket, fumbling for the communicator and pulling it out.

Ruri and Cadel were smart to have kept his arms on the armrests or he easily would have managed to call for beam out at the first sign of trouble.

Speaking of…

"Hey! James! What are you doing? You shouldn't be awake yet!" Ruri had overalls wrapped around her neck with blood stains all over it.

Jim nearly vomited at the sight of her, almost dropping his communicator as he frantically flipped open the device.

"James! Sit down, now!" Ruri stormed towards him, hypospray in hand.

Cadel came in afterwards, looking around agitatedly for the source of trouble and darting over to Jim.

"Enterprise! Emergency beam out! Now!" he shouted into the communicator backing against the wall of the room.

The room itself was very small, there was nowhere he could run.

Cadel stepped in front of him, and just then Jim realised he was standing in front of the computer monitor, each filled with at least thirty images of his body parts in different positions and covered in blood. At the corner of the screen he saw an image of his legs hoisted in the air and drawn apart, a tube lodged into his…

Jim turned away and threw up on the table, his legs giving out sending him crashing to the floor.

Just then, his communicator beeped, followed by the blessed voice of a scotsman, "Cap'n! There's some interference wherever you are, but I've got through! Did you say beam up?"

A pair of hands grabbed his arms, causing him to drop the communicator as he was straddled onto the table.

"Beam me up! Fucking beam me up! Now, Scotty, please!" he practically screamed as he tried to fight off the offending hands that were grabbing and trying to control him.

As a flurry of light began to surface, Jim hurdled himself across the other side of the table, sending him landing with a BANG as his ankle smashed into the table while he flew, before everything he saw became white and hazy.

When the decoration of the Enterprise transporter room came into view, Jim nearly cried, swallowing another ball of bile and looking at the redshirted transporter chief as if he was his pride and glory.

As members of staff became pouring in, likely from hearing Jim's desperate screaming over the communicator, his mind began to kick itself back into its default gear again.

"Thanks, Mister Scott," he said with as much strength as he could muster, nodding towards the concerned looking man.

In all fairness he did probably look like shit.

He glanced over to the crowd of crewmembers who had entered the room, and smiled, "Back to work guys, just some really strong alien dudes back there," he jested, his legs screaming at him to stop pacing around.

Sliding past his crew members and out the door, he thought he had escaped the crowd before he turned a corner and he nearly crashed into a running blue-shirted man.

His hazy mind took a moment to adjust and realise the man shouting at him was Bones.

He decided to tune in.

"…dammit! Your med sensor went offline, we'd been trying to comm you but your reckless backside just ignored me!"

Jim sighed, "Not now, Bones—" he nearly groaned at speaking did something to his mouth again. It was hurting somewhere, he couldn't pinpoint where.

"Good god man. You look like crap, what happened to your clothes? Did you go dumpster diving?"

Jim shook his head in dismissal, continuing the walk to his quarters, Bones of course following close behind.

"Don't you shake your head at me, I told you that I should've gone down there, and look what happened!"

He walked on for five more seconds before Bones grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn round; Jim bit his cheek to hold back a yelp.

"You can't go in there looking like that. Pike's in there, he's a damn admiral, you show up looking like that he'll think you're takin' the piss!"

Pursing his lips, Jim ignored him once again and turned back around, storming up to his quarters in silence and pressing the access code.

Before he pressed the final key, he slowly maneuverered himself to face Bones behind him.

The man looked like he could kill.

"Bones…I want to be alone, please. I need to talk to Pike about what happened down there and it's confidential. He's my friend and mentor, not just an admiral, he'll understand why I look like…" he gestured to himself, "…this."

I'm not telling Pike anything.

Just get out of my way.

Bones seemed to consider this for a second, before grumbling something under his breath and folding his arms over his chest.

"You're damn lucky I was in too much of a damn rush to bring my medkit," Bones growled, then offered a snarky half-smile, "But you're coming straight down to medbay after your talk with Pike, alright?"

Jim rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Go away.

Bones gave him a warning glare, before shaking his head and turning back around.

Quickly, Jim tapped in the rest of the key code and slipped into his quarters, waiting for the door to finally slide shut before collapsing on his hands and knees.

TBC...

Did you enjoy this piece of textual work? Do you desire it's continuation? It is only logical therefore to leave a kudos or comment. (please)