It was only a few minutes before others came to the train, but before they ever arrived, Bones arrived in a dead run. He came barging through the door to see Jim lying in the floor. He ran to him and fell beside him. "Jim!" He looked at the wound on his back. "What happened?"

"He was protecting me," Carol lied, as others were coming into the train.

Bones looked at her. He knew her well enough to know when she was lying. Jim West went outside with the Marshal to tell him what happened. Bones leaned over Jim as the town doctor arrived. "He's shot in the back?" the doctor asked.

"Yes!" Bones replied.

"We have to get him up to the office."

"No! We'll do what we have to do right here. We're not moving him."

"You can't operate on him on this train!"

"This train isn't moving! We can!"

Bones looked at Jim who was still awake. "Right?" he asked.

Jim nodded. "You know I trust you, Bones," he said.

Bones wiped sweat off his forehead. Spock was in the next room, but he could not resist looking to see what Bones would do. It was not the first time Jim had risked his life to save one of theirs.

Bones wished he had medical equipment from the Enterprise but that was not going to happen today. He had to take that bullet out the old fashioned way and Jim would have to heal that way too. "Why couldn't I have had a medical kit in my hand?" he murmured to himself as he picked up a scalpel. He looked at Carol who was looking plenty worried, but they were certainly glad the doctor at least had chloroform to put Jim to sleep rather than have him go through this awake.

Bones sat on the steps of the train after that surgery. "How is he?" West asked as he came over to him.

"Well, the bullet's out," Bones replied. "We just have to wait to see when he wakes up. Wait to see if he has fever." He looked at West. "If that scientist wants to work on something, he should be working on ways to help people who are sick instead of trying to create some super villain!"

"I'm sure that's not his intention. His intention is to help people not be sick."

"Sickness is part of life. What he needs to do is create more successful remedies."

Bones rubbed his face. "I'm sorry, but Jim is my friend, and I don't like seeing his insides like that."

West sat down beside Bones. "Artie is checking out the location of the lab," he said. "Once he has an idea of how it's situated and how we can get in, maybe we can convince the scientist that it's a bad idea without having to destroy the lab. We'll just have to keep an eye on him."

Bones nodded. "I suppose you can't do more than that." He sighed. "I kinda like being here like this. It's quiet. Everything is so much simpler, but people are more likely to die."

"People always die when there's something worth fighting for. Are you telling me no one ever dies on your ship?"

"No." Bones shook his head. "They only die in different ways. I guess it's just more personal this time."

"I'd probably feel the same way if it were Artie lying in there. You spend a lot of time with people on a team, and you're like family."

"That's true. Jim, Spock, and I are like brothers. We argue, we talk things out. We don't have to be afraid to disagree with him. He jumps right into situations, and we jump in with him."

"I think he and I are a lot alike."

"I can see that. He always seems to know the way out of a situation."

"I'm sure he relies on all of you."

Bones stood up. "I better get in there and check on him," he said. He went into the train where Carol was sitting beside Jim putting a cold cloth on his forehead.

Bones touched Jim's face. "Too bad I don't have any other way to measure his temperature besides touching him," he grumbled.

"Do you think he will be okay?" Carol asked.

"It's too early to tell. I don't have the technology to fix everything."

Spock came from the other train car. "Doctor, perhaps we can employ the help of this scientist in order to obtain the technology to create a medical device," he said.

"How?" Bones asked. "Oh, wait. Never mind. I forget you're a brainiac genius. So how do we do that without divulging too much information?"

"We must figure that out. I believe we can leave Jim in the care of the town doctor while we accompany Mister West and Mister Gordon to see this scientist. The doctor will most likely know more about treating his wound than you do."

"I resent that."

"He is more familiar with the medicines of today."

"I can't argue with you there."

"Doctor Marcus can remain here with him."

"What do you need me with you for to go after some mad scientist?"

"Because we are familiar with each other and can work together even without speaking."

"She can too."

"That is true. However, I do not believe her current wardrobe will allow her the maneuverability that she needs."

"Jim intended for us to get some different clothes for me, but we didn't have the time," Carol said. "And we did not have the money." Carol looked at Jim West with a frown.

"I am sorry," West said. "I should have known you would need more than what we got for you. Why don't we go and get you a more suitable wardrobe now? Maybe Artie will return by the time we do."

Carol looked at Bones. "You'll stay with him, won't you?" she asked.

"You know I will," Bones replied.

Carol and West left the train. Spock and Bones sat down. "When this wound occurred, Jim said that he could not move his legs," Spock said. "Do you believe he will recover fully?"

"I don't know, Spock. There was definitely some swelling."

"But there was no damage to the spinal cord?"

"The bullet didn't penetrate the spinal column. I think the swelling was what caused him to be unable to move."

"I am glad that the Marshal believed our friends. However, I do not like the deception that we used to stay out of the public eye."

"Spock, we didn't do anything wrong. I don't like lying either, but we didn't attack them. They attacked us. Would you have rather told the Marshal that you shot them?"

"I do not see the difference it would have made. I shot them in defense of Jim. I have been seen in the town anyway."

"Well, it was Jim's idea…and you went along with it."

"Mister West did not like the deception either. I believe everything would have been settled if we had simply told the truth."

"We can't do anything about it now. Jim thought that Marshal might have been more suspicious than other people."

Spock took off his hat and tied a black bandana around his head to hide his ears and eyebrows and then put his hat back on. "I fear this hat does not hide my ears well enough," Spock said.

"Well, that definitely takes care of it," Bones replied. "That way you don't have to look like you've got your hat pulled down over your ears, and if the hat gets knocked off, you're covered."

"Do you believe Jim will wake up soon?"

"Yeah, and I believe he's going to be in a lot of pain too."

"The laboratory is our only hope of helping him recover quicker."

Carol returned a while later and changed into some different clothes, which was pants this time, a blue shirt and a fringed leather jacket. "How's this?" she asked as she put on a hat.

"You might grab a lot of attention," Bones said.

Jim started to wake up. He grimaced and groaned. "Jim, lie still," Bones said.

Jim opened his eyes. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You're on the train."

"What train?" Jim groaned louder. "What happened?"

"Don't you remember? You saved Spock from being shot?"

Jim thought a moment. "Oh yeah. I thought I had been having a nightmare. We're really in the nineteenth century."

"I'm afraid so, Jim."

"What's going on?"

"We're waiting for Gordon to get back from the laboratory, and then we're going there to try and find a way to make some medical equipment for you."

Jim shook his head. "Bones, you have to stop that guy."

"We have to save you, Jim."

Suddenly, Q appeared beside Bones as though he were looking in on Jim as well. Jim West was startled and almost fell backward. The others were slightly startled as well. "Feeling some pain, Captain?" Q asked. "Such a shame you don't have a way of fixing it." Q snapped his finger and gasped as though he had an idea. "Wait! I could fix it. Oh, but if I did that, you wouldn't want to keep playing my game, would you?"

"Game!?" Bones exploded as he stood up. "You call this a game!?" He knew this had to be Q from Jim's description. "If you can fix him, you best do it!"

"Or what, Doctor McCoy?" Q asked as he moved closer to Bones. "You are quite a spitfire."

Bones glared at him. "How can you stand there and not help someone when you have the ability?"

"I'm not a doctor." Q paced a moment. "I'll do this!" he said as though it were a great revelation. He snapped his fingers. "You'll find that he's out of danger, but I won't take his pain away. If he is to live in this century, he must learn to deal with…pain. We wouldn't want him to die here, would we?"

Q vanished again. Bones looked at Spock and then they both looked at Jim. Bones looked at the wound which was closed up. "Jim, how do you feel?" he asked.

Jim moved a little and then grimaced. "It still hurts," he said.

"Who is that guy and how does he know us?"

"I don't know but I want to get up if I can."

"Jim, I'm not sure I trust him."

"I don't think he brought us here to lie to us or kill us, Bones."

"Jim, how can you be sure of that?" Carol asked.

Jim noticed that she was wearing different clothes now. "Nice outfit," he said.

"Jim!"

"Okay. I don't know, but I don't think he brought us here to kill us."

"Then why did he bring us here?"

"Help me up."

They helped Jim get up, not without a loud groan from him. "At least I can move my legs now," he said gasping a little. He looked at Jim West who was looking very confused…and maybe, a little frightened.

West was not sure what to think about this whole situation. "Are you guys used to people just popping in and stuff like this?" he asked.

"Well, not this guy," Jim replied. "We've never met him before we got here."

"So what were you about to tell us?"

Jim considered that while he tried to walk around a little. "Well, one of the first things he told me was that he was bored in the…whatever he called it," he said. "Continuum? I think that was it. I don't know what that is, but he thinks he's playing a game with us to see what we'll do to change history."

"To change things that affected us in a negative way," Carol said.

Jim nodded. "I think so."

"But why?"

"I wish I knew."

"Perhaps it is to test the selfishness or selflessness," Spock suggested. "I believe he wants to see how far we will go to change the future. That must be why he brought us to this time and this area, and acquainted us with our new friends. He knew what was happening."

"Why would he care about us changing the future?" Bones asked. "What matters to him in the future?"

"Since we know very little of this being, there is no possible way that we can know the answer to that. However, we may have found a way to trick him into taking us back to our time."

They all looked at Spock. "How?" Jim asked.

"Since this is a game to him, he would most likely get bored if we no longer played it, and perhaps he would send us back."

Jim considered that. "Are you saying we just sit here and do nothing while someone starts the process of creating Khan?" he asked. "I don't think I can do that."

"How do we know that he won't undo anything that we do to change history?"

"Undo it?"

"Yes. It is logical that a being who can bring us back in time can also undo anything that we do while here."

"Why would he?"

"It is a game."

Jim realized what Spock meant. "So you're saying that the fun to him is watching us trying to change something that he's going to return to normal."

"Precisely. I do not believe this being intends to let us change anything for our betterment."

"You're forgetting one thing," Jim West said. "Artie and me. We know about it now. Do you think he's going to erase your memories of being here and ours of you being here?"

Spock considered that. "I am uncertain. However, I do believe that it would give him greater pleasure to see us knowing that we could have changed it but that he had control the entire time. He may return us to the precise moment that we traveled through time as though it never happened."

"And the crew would never know we disappeared," Jim said thoughtfully.

"That is, if this being thinks logically," Bones said. "You can't compare his thinking to yours, Spock. I don't think he has the same dignity and respect for life that you have."

"He's right. We certainly aren't going to let this opportunity go by."

"There's one thing for certain, I'll be working against this for as long as I can," West said. "You can count on that. Let's just not give up. Let's wait until Artie gets back and find out what he discovered."

"He's right," Jim agreed. "We can't just give up because things look hopeless or impossible. We never have."

"I cannot argue with you on that account, Captain," Spock replied.

"Let's just wait, like he said.

Artemus Gordon had gotten into the laboratory because he was pretending to be a scientist…which he was, to a certain degree with his inventions and formulas. He was a master of disguise as well, and right now, he was wearing a mustache and beard and round spectacles which he thought made him look more like a scientist, and he had decided to use a German accent as he did not want to be recognized.

"I am Agustine Bauer, from back East," he said to Donald Ranson, the scientist they were there to investigate. "I am very interested in your research."

"Why?" Ranson asked.

"News of it has traveled all the way across this great country, and I am here to see if it is news worthy, and maybe I can help you get funding."

Ranson's eyes lit up with interest with that remark. "Come then," he said. "I will show you how far I've come."

Gordon followed Ranson into the laboratory. It looked like any other research laboratory with beakers, test tubes and all other sorts of research equipment. "What sort of experiments will you do?" Gordon asked.

"Well, there's no other way than choosing the perfect specimens," Ranson replied. "Do you realize that animals have been bred to bring out their best features and traits into a new breed?"

"Yes, but can that be done with humans?"

"In theory, yes. I am simply taking the knowledge of Robert Bakewell, and applying it to humans. We select traits that we desire in our breed, and we only select those which show those traits in order to create the perfect specimen. Don't you see?"

Gordon scowled slightly. "I see," he said.

"We study the ancestors of the selected ones for things such as inherited diseases, eyesight, and every trait until we find those with no defective genes. Do you know what genes are?"

"Of course."

"Genetics is a fascinating science! There's so much more to learn."

"But do you consider the consequences of your actions?"

"Consequences? What consequences could there possibly be?"

"There could be many. When one starts playing God, they find trouble."

"I thought you were curious about this research."

"I am. I am also curious about how you're taking responsibility for your actions. Have you forgotten that for every action, there is a definite reaction? Or that wherever one may enter, they leave something behind?"

"Yes, and I intend to leave behind a legacy that will make this world a better place without disease and sickness."

"By selective breeding? How do you intend to do that? You're forgetting things like love and freedom."

"Then there will be those who are superior."

"To do what? Have you considered those who believe they are superior to others and the arrogance it breeds?"

Ranson was silent a moment. "You sound as though you know something I do not know," he said. "Why did you really come here?"

"Like I said, I came here to find out about your research," Gordon replied.

"And you do not like what you are finding out?"

"I'm not certain. How do you intend to convince these test subjects to go along with your research? By force?"

"Of course not. They will be well compensated."

"And if they decided they do not want to cooperate any longer?"

"Why would they not want to be a part of history?"

"I am only trying to find out how far you have thought into this."

"You know that it will take more than one generation to breed the perfect specimen."

"Oh yes. I know this."

Gordon knew it all too well after their new friends had informed him. He was certain that this experiment would be highly unethical. Breeding animals was one thing, but humans was another. With humans, emotions were involved. "Well," he said. "I must speak with my associates, and I will be in touch soon."

"As you say, Mister Bauer," Ranson replied. He watched Gordon walk out. He was very suspicious about that guy. He did not think he had been very curious about how the research was started, nor how it was being conducted.

Gordon got on his horse and headed away from the lab. He had to get back to West and the others. He knew now that Jim Kirk and his friends were right. They would have to stop this research some way.