A/N: I'm back! I've been getting a lot of lovely reviews on my other stories (thank you all so much, by the way!). I've decided to take an Other Star Trek story I'd started (my own ship and crew) and make it TOS. I do not own Star Trek (so sad). Enjoy!

The ship lurched again. Sulu fought for control of the helm, struggling against the powerful forces outside the Enterprise.

"Steady, lieutenant," Captain Kirk maintained.

"Aye, sir," Sulu grunted. Another blast struck them and the ship shuddered. Sparks flew from among the numerous consoles on the bridge.

"Report, Mr. Spock."

The science officer scrunched his eyes against the viewfinder. "It's a massive ion storm, Captain. Unusually turbulent; there's massive interference with the scanners."

As if in response the ship rocked again. The intercom whistled and Lieutenant Uhura answered. "Bridge."

"Is the captain still up thair?" came a Scottish voice.

Kirk swiveled in his chair. "What is it?"

"Ion interference has been messing wi' the warp engines," continued Scotty. "The readings have gone absolutely wild. We maintain only minimum control on stabilizing the antimatter reactions, but we could lose it at any moment. It's almost like they've got minds of their own. I've never seen the readings jump so wildly. I wouldn'ta recommend sticking around much longer."

Kirk narrowed his eyes. "Understood. Chekov, prepare a course for the nearest exit out of this storm."

Chekov pounded exasperatedly at the controls. "I'm trying sair, but the readings are jumping everywhere here, too. Complete scatterbrains. I don't know vhen I can determine up from down, much less a quick way out of here."

Kirk furrowed his brow. This was turning out to be an unusual storm. The space anomaly had developed quickly, almost literally springing up around them. The size of the storm was staggering; even more so were its origins. According to Spock, they were practically nonexistent. The ion storm simply came out of nothing.

"Get a message to Starfleet," Kirk ordered.

"Yes, captain," Uhura hesitated. "Sir, there is also heavy residual tachyonic interference."

Kirk muttered quietly to himself. He may not know as much about tachyons as his communications officer, but he knew enough. Puncturing through that mess was a task he did not envy.

To make things worse, Uhura gave a cry and jerked her hands away as the communications board erupted in sparks.

"Sickbay to bridge," Kirk ordered on his way to her. The woman was sitting back in her seat, trying to resist balling her injured hands into fists.

Kirk knelt beside her. The palms were a bright red and clearly burned- but not too badly. The turbolift opened and Kirk motioned for the orderly McCoy had sent up.

"Captain," Spock spoke from the science station. "There are some higher-space disruption readings from this storm."

"Explain," Kirk snapped. Another blow rocked the ship.

"I can't," Spock said simply.

Kirk felt cold inside. Spock could always find an answer for something, no matter how improbable or illogical. The fact that he stated so plainly that the storm was behaving irregularly in an unknown factor implied a lot.

The ship wrenched around again. "Get her to Sickbay," Kirk told the orderly. As if on cue, the intercom to the command chair buzzed from Sickbay. "Kirk here."

"Captain, get us out of this storm," Dr. McCoy's urgency surprised him. He was always one to speak his mind but this was almost like an order "I don't care how you do it- by the book or by taking a wild guess- but get gone. Not only is it racking up my patient number, but it's having weird effects on them. And I can't diagnose it fast enough because most of the equipment has become unreliable."

"Understood, Kirk out. Sulu," he said all in one move. "Pick a heading and follow it, warp 7."

"Yes, captain!" Sulu gasped, still struggling with the helm. He had resorted to manual control as the readings collapsed into uselessness. He didn't dare do a 180- the ship and been tossed around so much that they might already be facing the outer edge. With nothing else to lose, Sulu selected an upward bearing and said a short prayer.

The ship engaged in warp drive.

McCoy was running back and forth across Sickbay. Most of the injuries were caused from the violent beating the ship had taken. What caused the convulsions was beyond him.

It had started with Tilaran. The Deltan female had been dutifully at her post when she had suddenly collapsed, clutching her head. Now, she and close to ten others were strapped down onto bio-beds as they squirmed under some unseen torment. Yet nothing registered.

McCoy was on his way back to them when the ship lurched, and he heard the hum of the warp engines. "Thank the Lord," he murmured blessedly. He crossed over to where Uhura had just arrived.

But then there was a light. It was just suddenly everywhere, but with no source. Everyone froze; openmouthed. To McCoy it seemed to be all-encompasing; enveloping, reaching out-

Then darkness replaced the light. A nearby nurse, a girl by the name of Radner, pitched forward into McCoy, who stumbled.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Radner gulped. "Yeah; now. What was that?"

The backup power systems came on and the lights revealed people stumbling about, trying to shake off the effects of the ordeal.

"See to Tilaran and the others," McCoy instructed Radner. He quickly treated Uhura's burns, then made his way to the wall comm and requested the bridge.

"Kirk here."

"Jim, what exactly did we pass through?" he asked.

"We don't know yet," he said shortly. "What's it looking like in Sickbay?"

McCoy looked around. The patients with the physical bumps were still healing but the ones who had been convulsing looked fine. "No more weird effects. At least, not since the light came and went."

Kirk paused. "Thank you, Kirk out."

McCoy stood there for just a lingering moment. Then he turned. He had patients to attend to.

The ship was finally out of the storm. Repair crews were swiftly fixing any damages and power was constantly being restored. A report had gone out to Starfleet detailing the storm. Operations were returning to normal smoothness. Kirk, however, didn't relax. He had Spock constantly analyzing what could've caused the… the light.

Only it had been more than a light. Light couldn't reach beyond the spectrum, beyond its physical boundaries. Yet it had… somehow. It was like having a door to his mind opened, with a light pouring in. Kirk had felt everywhere at once… and at the same time nowhere. Hearing the whispers among the crew, he knew everyone else had felt the same thing, too.

Except for Spock. He'd merely seen a light. The first officer had described a sort of pressure around his head during the oddity, but nothing so incredible as the light-that-was-something-more. Kirk debated over holding a staff meeting. On the one hand, he didn't like mysteries; he preferred answers. On the other, since leaving the storm, which was already strange, there had been nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, that was only some 5 hours ago. The two were definitely linked, and the mind-opening light could just be part of unusual scientific phenomenon they had come across. For the time being, he settled for just filling out his report for Starfleet.

"Anything, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked, wandering over by the science station.

Spock switched off the scanner. "There is very little data concerning the experience. The storm rendered the scanners mostly inoperable the entire time, and there is no previous account of anything like this. We have, of course, the eyewitness accounts of over 400 crewmembers, and the odd afflictions of 11 just prior to the light."

"Yes, well maybe they might be able to provide some more answers. Shall we pay Dr. McCoy a visit?"

"There is nothing else to be done here," Spock replied. They walked to the turbolift, leaving Sulu the conn.

Sickbay was winding down. The last of the patients were being discharged except for two who took some pretty bad head injuries and would be staying overnight.

They found Dr. McCoy in his office, staring at a computer terminal. He looked up as they walked in. "Oh, Jim, Spock, I was just about to call you."

"You have an update on those eleven crewmembers?" Kirk asked.

McCoy shrugged. "If you can call it that. I still don't know what made them convulse like that, they can only describe it as something afflicting their heads. However, I ran their medical histories up together and got one correlation that you might be interested in."

He swung the computer around and they looked at the results. "Tilaran, Deltan, ESP 93; Brooks, human, ESP 88…" Kirk read.

"All of the crewmembers have high telepathic abilities," Spock noted.

"Yup. Humans average around 40 to 50, except in rare cases. But that still doesn't explain why you weren't affected," McCoy jabbed a finger at Spock.

"On the contrary, I think it does," he said. "As a Vulcan, I maintain strong mental shields and tight telepathic practices. Deltans, for instance, are rather free in their mental abilities, and likewise humans have no prior restraining practices."

"So you didn't get the full- feel –of the light because you were blocking it?" the doctor clarified.

"I believe that is the case."

"So it's something," Kirk rubbed his eyes. "Something mental. Alright, we'll go on that." He stifled a yawn.

McCoy frowned at him. "Jim, when did you last get some sleep?"

"When did you?" he countered, but McCoy was having none of it. "That storm lasted who knows how long and did nothing for nerves, and I'll bet you've been on shift since then."

He could not have looked more guilty.

"Go to bed, Captain," McCoy said sternly, guiding him to the door. "That's a medical order. We've barely got anything and if it happens again, well, you'll know right away."

"Fine," Kirk said. "But buzz me the moment you find something new."

"Of course," Spock said.

Kirk ambled down to his quarters, for once, not arguing. He slid onto the bed and sighed. It had been a crazy day. Day? It seemed longer. Before long he fell asleep and dreamed he was in a long desert. There was sand everywhere and a hot sun was glaring down on him. He was unbearably thirsty, but no water was in sight.

When he awoke, his throat was as parched as that desert.

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! I'm excited! Are you? Since school's in session I don't know how often I'll be able to update, but I'm going to try to at least write a little more every weekend. Don't worry; I've got an outline and this is gonna get finished! Please review, reviews are my life source.