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Crandall's shell of seeming calm wouldn't last. "We appear," he said, "to be farther from the Federation than we at first thought."
    Crandall's smile faded. His brow wrinkled in the beginnings of a frown, and his eyes darted from Kirk to McCoy and back. "And?" he prompted. "Just how far is farther than we thought? A hundred parsecs? Five hundred? What?"
    "A minimum of several million, Doctor. The Enterprise has been transported several million parsecs."
    The color literally drained from Crandall's previously ruddy face. McCoy stepped forward to support him in case he started to fall, but Crandall caught himself and leaned back against the desk.
    "Several million? Surely that's impossible!"
    "I wish it were, Doctor, I truly wish it were. But it obviously isn't, because that's precisely what happened." He nodded at the intercom on the stateroom wall. "Mr. Scott will be giving everyone the details in a few seconds."
    "But how—what happened? I thought you said these—these anomalies could only throw us a few hundred parsecs!" He blinked. "And the detectors my labs built—why in God's name weren't you using them? Why did you blunder into—"
    "We were using them, Doctor. The anomaly that took us here apparently had no attendant turbulence."
    "But—"
    "It's a long story, Doctor," Kirk cut in. "I suggest you listen to Mr. Scott, and if you have any questions when he's finished, we'll answer them as best we can."
    Crandall looked as if he were going to continue protesting, but then the chief engineer's voice, the tension of the situation accentuating its Scottish burr, crackled over the intercom. Still pale, Crandall dropped into the chair behind the stateroom's trapezoidal desk and listened.
    When Scott had finished, Crandall was even paler. "He's saying we're trapped here! Isn't he? Isn't that what he's saying?"
    "We appear to be, at least for the moment," Kirk said, adding, after another glance at McCoy, "but we've been in what appeared to be worse situations than this before, and we've always managed to come out of them all right."
    "But there's always a first time, isn't there, Kirk? Isn't there? " For a moment, it looked as if Crandall were going to rise and grasp at Kirk's throat, but then he slumped back. He waved a hand in a limply dismissive gesture.
    "Go on, get out of here, you incompetent fools!" His voice was as weak as the gesture, but still it was filled with anger. "Just get out and leave me alone!"
    McCoy stiffened and started to speak, but Kirk put a restraining hand on his arm. "Very well, Dr. Crandall," he said quietly. "If there's anything you need…"
    Crandall only snorted derisively and slumped lower in his chair.
    Kirk, his hand still on McCoy's arm, turned and stepped into the corridor. As the door hissed shut behind them, he said, "Stick around here a few minutes, Bones, just in case. If he goes off the deep end, I'd sooner one of your sedatives calmed him down than a phaser on stun."
    "After the way he talked, I'm not so sure," McCoy snapped. "He had no right—"
    "You know better than that, Bones. Look at it from his viewpoint. He's a lot worse off then we are."
    McCoy frowned, shaking his head. "Come on, Jim! What's that supposed to mean? We're all in the same boat, literally."
    "No, Bones, we're not. Many of our friends are here on the Enterprise with us. Virtually the entire four hundred and thirty men and women aboard are, in some ways, an extended family, even the dozen or so new ensigns on their first mission. But Crandall's family and friends, his entire world, is millions of lightyears away. A lifetime away, Bones. A large part of ours is right here with us."
    McCoy's scowl faded. "All right, Jim. I understand. I'll—"
    "Captain Kirk, ta the bridge!" Scott's voice crackled over the intercom.
    Kirk slapped the button on the nearest corridor intercom. "On my way, Scotty. Kirk out," he snapped, then turned back to McCoy for an instant. "Remember, Bones, whether we like