Trek It!

by Robert T. Jeschonek

  When Bard notices the blood on his hands and clothing and sees the pile of Betazoid bodies, he gets rattled. Realizing something terrible has happened, and he was in the middle of it, he asks Flint what's going on. Flint helps him to his feet and leads him out of the room, trying to calm him down. On their way out, Flint retrieves his protective breastplate from the floor.

  When Flint and Bard emerge from the hospital, Rayna, Spock, and McCoy rush up to them. Spock asks Flint where Kirk is, and Flint says Kirk beamed up to the Enterprise.

  McCoy quickly scans Bard with his medical tricorder and says Bard's in shock and needs treatment in sickbay immediately. McCoy snaps out his communicator and calls the Enterprise...but no one answers. Spock does the same, with the same result.

  Flint says it's no surprise the Enterprise isn't responding, because Kirk was possessed by Redjac before beaming up to the ship.

  Before Spock and McCoy can ask for details on what happened, Betazoid police converge on the group with weapons drawn. They see Bard, matching the description of the killer, covered in blood, and they want to take him into custody.

  "I suggest we get out of here," Flint says. "Will you join me, gentlemen?" he asks Spock and McCoy...and Spock answers "yes" without hesitation. Before the police can lay hands on them, Flint activates a transporter device that whisks him, Spock, McCoy, Rayna, Bard, and M-12 away from the hospital.

  The group materializes onboard Flint's ship, the Gilgamesh. McCoy complains about being transported without his consent and berates Spock for answering for both of them. Flint tells McCoy he'll take him up on his offer to treat Bard and tells Rayna to take Bard and the doctor to the ship's sickbay. McCoy grouses about being ordered around, but Flint ignores him and rushes to the bridge, taking Spock with him.

  The interior of the ship looks like something out of a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells novel, with Victorian décor and elaborately impractical-looking instrumentation...but it's actually more advanced than the Enterprise. On the bridge, Flint consults the computer for the Enterprise's location and informs Spock that Kirk has taken the ship out of orbit. Flint orders the Gilgamesh to follow the same heading and asks the computer to determine the Enterprise's probable destination.

  While the computer works on mapping the Enterprise's course, Spock asks to contact Starfleet. If the Enterprise is in the hands of a homicidal entity in possession of Captain Kirk's body, Starfleet might have to take drastic steps to avert a catastrophe. Flint refuses his request, telling him the situation wouldn't have become so potentially disastrous if Starfleet hadn't gotten involved in the first place.

  Before Spock can press the matter further, McCoy enters the bridge, reporting that Bard has been sedated and is resting peacefully. Then, McCoy says he discovered something interesting while examining his patient: Bard's physiology has the same unique regenerative capabilities as Flint's. "He should," says Flint. "He's my son."

  Flint then tells McCoy and Spock that Bard is an immortal like himself, born in 1351. Just as Flint has lived many lives through history, Bard has been known by many names: William Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, Amadeus Mozart, Charles Darwin, and Harry Houdini, among others.

  The computer interrupts, informing Flint that the Enterprise's most probable destination, given its current heading, is a planet named Gothos.

  Spock and McCoy summarize the events of their last visit to Gothos and their encounter with the powerful being Trelane. Flint says it seems Redjac has set his sights higher this time than in the past; the entity seems to have more in mind than killing a few people and soaking up a little fear.

  McCoy asks Flint how long it will take the Gilgamesh to catch up with the Enterprise at Gothos. Flint says the Gilgamesh will be just two hours behind...and then, he falls silent, staring into space at something Spock and McCoy can't see.

  Flint sees a vision of a beautiful woman with long, red hair, dressed in clothing appropriate to Victorian-era London. He recognizes her and whispers her name: "Maeve."

  "Ur," she says. "Not Gothos." Then, she fades from sight.

  When he snaps out of it, Flint announces that the Gilgamesh won't be going to Gothos. He orders the ship to change course and head for Holberg 917G, the planetoid where he originally encountered Kirk and the Enterprise crew...a place he calls Ur (named for the ancient Sumerian city where he once lived).

  McCoy and Spock both protest, but Flint tells them to save their breath. They can't reach Gothos in time to stop Redjac. They have to consider the consequences of Redjac's visit to Gothos and resort to desperate measures.

  REDJAC – GOTHOS, 2288 A.D.

  Redjac/Kirk beams down alone to the surface of Gothos and tries to call out Trelane. Redjac learned of Trelane's existence from the Enterprise's memory banks when he took over the ship's computer during "Wolf in the Fold."

  At first, though Redjac/Kirk is on the site of Trelane's castle, all he sees is a barren wasteland. No one answers his taunting shouts...until finally, he hears a voice.

  Without assuming human form, Trelane speaks to him, telling him to go away. Trelane says he's become more evolved now and doesn't want anything to do with inferior species. As Redjac/Kirk continues insulting him, though, he becomes increasingly hostile.

  Finally, Trelane bowls over Redjac/Kirk with a wind...and the castle materializes around him. Trelane appears in human form, enraged, with sword in hand. A sword pops into Redjac/Kirk's hand, as well, and Trelane advances on him, telling him to fight for his life.

  Trelane and Redjac/Kirk fight...and eventually, end up with swords crossed in a clinch. Redjac makes the leap into Trelane, leaving Kirk's body to crumple to the floor.

  Trelane struggles at first, and it seems Redjac might not be able to dominate him...but Redjac wins in the end. Crackling with power, he laughs and shakes his fists at the sky, proclaiming that he has the might of a god, and the universe will tremble before him.

  FLINT – THE GILGAMESH, 2288 A.D.

  Back on the Gilgamesh, Flint enters sickbay to check on his son...and sees Rayna standing over him. When he sees her touch Bard's shoulder, it affects him deeply.

  "This is all my fault," Flint tells her, walking over to stand on the other side of the bed. "I've never been a good father." Rayna says she doesn't believe it, but he assures her it's true. Over the centuries, he explains, he's had so many children, they became faceless and nameless to him...even moreso than his many wives and lovers.

  It wasn't just the number of children that led to his neglect, though, he says. For all the extended lifespan he's had, he's always been too busy making his mark on the world to spend any time with his kids. He's an immortal who has never had time for his own children.

  "I have made the same mistake over and over again," says Flint, "and now I am paying for it." Rayna says he's so wise, she can't believe he'd ever make a mistake.

  Suddenly, Flint is overwhelmed with sadness. "My mistakes far outweigh my successes," he says, gazing at her sadly. "If you knew what I have done, I fear you could not bear to look upon me ever again." And as he looks at her, he remembers something that happened a long time ago...

  RAYNA KAPEC – STRASBOURG, ALSACE-LORRAINE, 1349 A.D.

  During the time of the Black Death, Rayna Kapec and her guardian, Michel Picard (Jean-Luc's ancestor) examine a woman's corpse in Strasbourg. Picard is a routier, or mercenary soldier roaming the countryside. He rescued Rayna from a gang of thugs along the road, and she offered to pay him for his continued assistance.

  The dead woman was found apart from the piles of plague-infested corpses in the streets of the town. The body has been dissected with surgical precision, the organs laid out around it in a strange pattern.

  This is just the latest in a series of murders of Jewish women that Rayna has come to Strasbourg to investigate. Rayna, a Bohemian countess, is on a mission to carry on the work of her husband, who died of the plague in Germany while trying to rescue persecuted Jews. (Jews are being blamed for causing the plague by poisoning wells.) The
murdered women were all moving through the area via the voie invisible, or "invisible road" (like the "underground railroad" in the U.S.) to safe haven in Poland.

  Six Jewish women have been slashed to death in Strasbourg, their bodies found by Rayna's associates. Though violence against Jews is commonplace, these murders are especially gruesome...and especially tragic, since all the victims were plague-free.

  The crimes are personalized for Rayna because she is a Jew herself. Also, the latest victim--Isabelle Abrogast--was her primary local connection and aide.

  While Rayna and Picard examine the body, people celebrate in a nearby tavern like it's the last day of their lives. Passing sextons offer to bury the corpse of the dead woman, but they demand a high fee. Rayna refuses to pay the gougers and have her friend thrown into the pits of the plague victims. The sextons threaten her, but Picard drives them off with his sword.

  A priest, identifying himself as Father Roch, offers to help bury Isabelle in a churchyard. Rayna agrees, though Picard doesn't like Roch a bit.

  Roch is actually Flint, who is possessed by Redjac. (According to legend, Saint Roch was immune to the plague and had the power to cure its victims.) Somehow, Redjac caught Flint when he wasn't wearing his protective breastplate, the aegis. (This is the one section of the novel in which Flint doesn't wear the aegis in some form.)

  After Isabelle's burial, Roch comes up with the idea of questioning the local barber-surgeon, LeFleur, who would have the experience and tools for the murder and dissection and was a leading anti-Semite. Roch persuades Rayna and Picard to pay a visit to the barber-surgeon with him the next day. Until then, he will give them shelter at his church.

  That night, the three of them eat a simple meal of bread and wine--the best Roch can provide in such apocalyptic times. Rayna is charmed by Roch, but Picard persists in asking him probing questions. The meal is interrupted when a plague-infected family pounds on the church doors, demanding shelter. Roch says he'll pray for them, but nothing more. The husband tries to break the doors down and smashes windows, forcing Roch and Picard to work together to keep him out.

  By morning, the pounding has ceased. Looking outside, Roch and Picard see that the man and his wife lie dead on the church steps. Lying between them, their infant child wails, but because he might be infected, Roch refuses to take him in.

  "What kind of priest refuses to help those in dire need?" Picard says to Rayna...but he won't go to the child or let Rayna do so, either. Roch leads them outside through a secret passage, and they go in search of LeFleur.

  Roch, Rayna, and Picard find the barber-surgeon sealed in a plague house with his family. A plank pops off a window, and LeFleur thrusts out an arm to work free another plank. His captors arrive to reinforce the barricades, pushing him back inside with prods.

  Rayna and her companions learn he's been sealed inside for two days, ever since a patient noticed the marks of the plague on him. He could not have killed Isabelle.

  When a procession of flagellants (men who whip themselves to invoke a cure for the plague) approaches, Roch encourages Rayna to investigate them next. Since they hate and murder Jews, he says, one of them could be Isabelle's killer.

  Rayna questions the master of the flagellants, who flogs himself as he talks to her. A woman soaks up the blood from his wounds with a cloth and presses it to her eyes, claiming it is miraculous. The flagellant master denies that he or any of his people had anything to do with the killings, though he doesn't disapprove of them.

  Then, the flagellant master joins the head of the new town council in announcing to the assembled crowd that the old council has been ousted...and the plague-bringers will soon be stopped. The councilman and flagellant call on the citizens of Strasbourg to round up the town's Jews and bring them to a killing ground outside town.

  Chaos erupts; the streets are filled with laughter and screams and the pealing of church bells. As Rayna, Picard, and Roch fight their way through the mayhem, Rayna sees a group of five Jewish women being led away, and she runs to try to rescue them. Picard and Roch follow.

  Picard, Roch, and Rayna battle the townspeople and free the five women. (Picard says it's unusual for a priest to fight so well.) Just as Rayna is about to lead the women to safety, however, she spots a young girl being taken away. She orders Picard to get the women out of town and make sure they reach the next stop on the voie invisible. He refuses to leave her, but she won't be talked out of it. Roch pledges to stay by her side...and as much as Picard distrusts him, he obeys Rayna's instructions.

  When Picard is gone, before Rayna can get to the girl, Roch turns on her. He drags her into a nearby deserted plague house.

  In the deserted house, Roch and Rayna struggle. He draws a knife, and she fights him off with a fire poker. Enraged, he hurls her against the stove, and she hits her head.

  P.O.V. Roch: At that moment, Picard bursts in and attacks Roch. The fight spills into the street, and Picard shouts to the townspeople that Roch is a Jew disguised as a priest. That's all the encouragement the townspeople need to drag Roch off to the killing ground.

  At the killing ground, Roch is tied to a stake and set afire alongside the Jews. He manages to tear his way free but is badly burned; the pain is so excruciating, it causes Redjac to leave his body. Confused and in agony, Roch runs off into the woods, escaping the murderous townspeople.

  Months later, Roch has finally recovered from his terrible burns. In a new guise, he finds Rayna in Bohemia, at her estate. She is permanently blind as a result of his attack back in Strasbourg.

  Freed of Redjac's influence and consumed with guilt for his role in causing Rayna's blindness, Flint resolves to make up for what he has done by caring for Rayna. He ends up falling deeply in love with her and stays with her for the rest of her life...though he never forgives himself for what happened in Strasbourg. Eventually, they marry and have a child...a son named Bard.

  REDJAC – TYREE, 2288 A.D.

  On the surface of the lush garden planet Tyree, two young Tyreeans are getting married. The day is perfect, the ceremony tasteful and romantic, the happy couple glowing (literally). Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge, horrifying demon appears in place of the clergyman. The bride and groom scream in terror before the demon shreds them to bits with its claws. The demon laughs, reveling in the terror of the fleeing audience. In reality, the demon is Redjac/Trelane, who has begun a reign of terror on Tyree made possible by his godlike powers.

  "I am your new god!" he howls, wreaking havoc on the wedding party with lightning bolts and fiery knives and all manner of phantasmagoria. "The god of death! The god of fear! The god of the future!"

  FLINT – UR, 2288 A.D.

  Flint, Rayna, Spock, McCoy, Bard, and M-12 debark from the Gilgamesh on Flint's personal planetoid, Ur. McCoy demands to know why they've come there instead of going to Gothos, where Redjac took the Enterprise. Flint says that all will soon be made clear (though, in truth, he doesn't have any answers himself).

  Leaving Rayna in charge of making their guests comfortable, Flint wanders off into his sanctuary. McCoy takes Spock aside and says they've got to get away, but Spock says they should wait and see what Flint has in mind. If Redjac has merged with Trelane, Spock isn't sure there's anything they can do to neutralize him, anyway.

  McCoy says he'll take Flint's ship to Gothos whether Spock comes along or not. He marches out to the landing pad...but M-12 blocks his path. Realizing he can't get to the ship, he curses out the robot and whirls around to head back into Flint's citadel.

  Meanwhile, Flint walks through the corridors of his home, wondering why he's been directed to come here...or if the vision he had was even real and not a hallucination in the first place.

  As he walks past artwork and mementos of his terribly long life, he wonders if there's anything at all that he can do to stop Redjac. Flint has tried so many times throughout history to defeat him...but perhaps, in the end, with the power of a godlike being at his disposal, Redjac is destined to triumph.

&
nbsp; Lost in thought, Flint turns a corner...and sees the red-haired woman standing there, smiling at him. She gestures for him to follow her as she walks down the corridor, and he does.

  Maeve leads him deep inside his citadel, through a maze of winding corridors. Finally, she stops in front of a sealed door and points at it. "Use the other gift," she tells him. "I gave you two."

  For some reason, Flint is uncomfortable being there. "I don't understand," he says.

  "She is empty," says Maeve. "A perfect vessel. I made her for this day only. For this purpose only."

  "I don't understand," insists Flint.

  "Don't lie to me," says Maeve. "She was born of a celestial being. She can contain a god."

  Flint doesn't want to hear another word. Shaken, he turns and storms off the way he came, away from the mysterious door.

  REDJAC/TRELANE – TYREE, 2288 A.D.

  Back at Tyree, Redjac/Trelane continues to use his power to terrorize the world. He splits himself into thousands of duplicates, each striking fear into the inhabitants with murder, destruction, and chaos. He rains fire and blood upon the planet, sends forth legions of horrific monstrosities, mutates and mutilates people with a thought. With each surge of terror, his power grows.

  Onboard the Enterprise, in orbit around Tyree, the crew is likewise subjected to his depredations. Everyone is in a state of panic...except Scotty, whom Redjac/Trelane keeps calm to serve as his witness. (Redjac has a special affinity for Scotty after possessing him in "Wolf in the Fold.") Retaining possession of Kirk's body, Redjac stands beside him on the bridge; he whispers in Scotty's ear and shows him scenes on the viewscreen of the madness below. "This is just the beginning," he tells Scotty. "This is what will become of the entire galaxy. And I have chosen you to be my witness and my prophet. Bask in my glory, anointed one."