FLINT – UR, 2288 A.D.
In the medical facility in Flint's citadel, McCoy checks over Bard. While he examines him, McCoy says he noticed some tension between him and his father. Bard says the two of them have never gotten along well. Flint, always busy with some world-changing scheme or great accomplishment, never had much time for him. Not only that, but Flint was responsible for Bard's mother's suffering. (Bard says this while looking at Rayna, the android recreation of his mother.)
McCoy tries to exploit the rift between Bard and Flint by nudging Bard toward helping him do something to help Kirk and the Enterprise. Bard won't take the bait.
Meanwhile, Spock finds Flint at the piano, playing furiously. Spock says his playing in unusually emphatic, as if something were eliciting a strong emotional response from him. Flint confesses he has a terrible decision to make. He has just learned he might have the key to defeating Redjac, but to use it, he must sacrifice an innocent life.
"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," says Spock. "Or the one. However, Captain Kirk has said he believes the converse is true."
"He would, wouldn't he?" Flint says sarcastically.
Pacing the room, Flint says he doesn't know if he can bring himself to do what must be done...but he has no choice. There is too much blood on Redjac's hands...and therefore, his own.
Spock asks him what he means by that. "You see, Mr. Spock," says Flint, "Redjac is my responsibility. My fault. Like Bard, Redjac is my son."
With that, Flint remembers Redjac's origins in ancient Greece...
PERICLES/PERSEUS – GREECE, 460 B.C.
Living in Greece as famed orator/leader Pericles, Flint is unable to stop a rash of murders of Athenian women. He actually witnesses a young woman being fried by a lightning bolt.
Pericles is contacted by the god Apollo, who wants his help. According to Apollo, Zeus, the mightiest of the gods, is out of control, attacking and terrorizing human females and goddesses alike.
Pericles once lived as Perseus, a great hero who defeated the Gorgon Medusa. According to Apollo, Zeus is threatening to destroy Athens unless Perseus appears before him.
In mythology, Perseus was a son of Zeus...but Flint's Perseus was more like an apprentice god whom Zeus took under his wing. Perseus sought immortal companionship among the gods and was adopted as an honorary member of their pantheon. He knows that the gods are beings from the stars.
Pericles comes out of retirement as Perseus and returns to Mount Olympus with Apollo. Pericles/Perseus arms himself with weapons from his days as a hero, including the helmet of Hades and the aegis, a protective breastplate on which Medusa's head has been emblazoned. (It's the same breastplate Flint still wears thousands of years later.)
On Olympus, Perseus discovers Zeus has been possessed, and his actions are being directed by someone else: Perseus' "secret" son, Phobos. Phobos, god of terror, was raised as the son of Ares and Aphrodite...but was actually fathered by Perseus. Phobos' power of possession is the product of the interaction of Perseus' unique human physiology and that of a goddess.
Though the aegis breastplate protects Perseus from being possessed, Zeus/Phobos tortures him, basking in his fear, and promises to kill him. He hates Perseus for abandoning him as a child; he learned that Perseus was his father from the Delphic Oracle.
Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Hercules come to Perseus' rescue. Perseus escapes, using Hades' helmet to turn invisible. He finds Phobos' body, fights the Gorgons protecting it (Euryale & Sthenno), and kills it, thinking this will destroy Phobos.
Phobos is enraged and vacates Zeus, freeing him from his control. Perseus thinks the danger is over...but Phobos' disembodied consciousness is intact. He takes over Hercules and tells Perseus that he has set him free...and he will have his revenge on him. The world will be his playground, and Perseus will never know where the next attack will come from...or which loved one will deliver it.
With that, Hercules/Phobos leaps from Olympus toward the mortal world below. Perseus pledges to pursue him and destroy him at any cost, no matter how long it takes.
REDJAC – TYREE, 2288 A.D.
Tyree continues to reel under Redjac/Trelane's onslaught. The god of terror heaps one horror on top of another, spreading mayhem to every corner of the globe. He slaughters more of the population with each passing moment, but he doesn't care that soon there won't be inhabitants left to terrorize. His goal is to suck Tyree dry, boosting his power to its peak so he can soar off to engulf the Federation.
As the devastation mounts, Scotty sits on the bridge of the Enterprise, listening to his tormentor's predictions of galaxy-wide suffering...and wondering if this just might be the end of the road for him and every other living being in the Milky Way.
FLINT – UR, 2288 A.D.
Flint stands outside the mysterious door in his citadel and stares at it. Maeve has returned and stands beside him. "She won't suffer, you know," she tells him. "She was made for this."
"Created to serve as an instrument of your will?" says Flint. "If I had known, I never would have taken part in her conception."
"Are you sure of that?" says Maeve. "If you had known that she would be the salvation of the galaxy, are you quite certain you would not have helped bring her into being?"
Flint has no answer for that. "I promise you," says Maeve. "In fulfilling her destiny, she will know a life far better than this. Far better than being locked away here, empty and alone, for centuries."
"How do I know that?" says Flint. "How do I even know you are who you appear to be?"
"What choice do you have," says Maeve, "but to trust me?"
Flint opens the door and gazes into the room. "Just one more thing," says Maeve. "She must bring the artifact with her to Tyree."
That isn't a problem, because Shell never lets go of the artifact...but Flint is angered by Maeve's demand. "So you do have an ulterior motive in all this," he says. "What is the artifact's purpose? It certainly did no good the last time I tried to use it."
"Go to her now," says Maeve, and then she disappears. Flint hesitates, staring into the room...and then steps inside.
Later, in Flint's parlor, McCoy is trying to talk Spock into doing something to get off the planet and find a way to help Kirk and the others. McCoy becomes increasingly annoyed at Spock's refusal to take action...and then, Flint enters the room. A woman walks alongside him; he leads her by the arm. She has red hair and appears to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She is dressed simply, wears no makeup or jewelry, and has a blank stare and expressionless features. In her arms, she carries a boxy object with pyramidal sides, a flat top, and scrollwork around the edges.
"Gentlemen," says Flint. "This is Shell. My daughter."
"Brother," says McCoy. "How many kids do you have, anyway?"
"One of the privileges of being immortal," says Flint. "Now, gentlemen, if you'll come with me, it's time to save the galaxy."
Looking over, he sees Maeve standing beside Shell, touching her shoulder. No one else can see her. He wonders who or what she really is and why she didn't tell him the truth about their daughter from the beginning.
*******
MR. GRAY – LONDON, 1888 A.D.
Prologue: Flint remembers an affair he had in London with a mysterious red-haired Irishwoman named Maeve. She disappeared from his life after a few days...but ten months later, a baby girl and a mysterious artifact were delivered to his home with a note from Maeve. The note read "A gift to help you end the threat of your murderous son."
Two months later, in December 1888, at the height of the Ripper murders, Flint – now living as Mr. Gray – is trying to lure Redjac out of hiding by inducing fear in a captive crowd of college students.
Samuel Janeway, a professor of history at King's College, has made it possible to assemble the students (who think the gathering is some kind of experiment and don't know the real reason they've been brought together). Janeway (Kathryn's ancestor) is a friend of Gray's who has made a study of hi
s insights into historical events (drawn, of course, from personal experience).
Captain Lewis "Barbarian" Reed is another friend of Gray's (and an ancestor of Malcolm Reed). Reed, a disgraced navy man, is along to help stage the fear-inducing event and minimize the loss of life that could result when Redjac is drawn to the outpouring of terror.
Gray takes no pleasure in jeopardizing so many innocent lives, but is determined to eliminate Redjac once and for all. Gray's other associate, famed psychic (or hoaxer) Madame Blavatsky, has confirmed that the artifact left behind by Maeve is an object of great power. Blavatsky is certain it can be used against Redjac...and Gray, who has seen demonstrations of her abilities in the past, believes her. (Janeway also believes she's for real, but Reed thinks she's a charlatan and can't stand her.)
Gray and his team lock themselves in an auditorium with the students, leaving a helper, Liam O'Brien, on the outside with instructions not to let anyone out until a signal is given. (Liam is an ancestor of Miles O'Brien.)
When the doors are locked, Gray plunges the students into darkness. His team then pretends to kill some of the students and drag their bodies away. The remaining students panic, their fear quickly building to a fever pitch.
Drawn by the concentrated terror, Redjac enters the auditorium. The disembodied entity leaps from one student to another, possessing them to kill each other with their bare hands.
Blavatsky is able to see Redjac, both in his energy form and when he is in possession of a physical body. When he gets close, she and Gray throw open the artifact, and she tries to use her psychic powers to activate it.
The artifact has no effect on Redjac. Possessing Reed, he taunts Gray, telling him he's become the very thing he's fought for so many centuries, willing to sacrifice human lives for his own ends.
As Gray and Redjac/Reed struggle, Janeway triggers the failsafe system: knockout gas floods the auditorium, rendering everyone unconscious...and useless as hosts for Redjac.
The next morning, before the police arrive, O'Brien opens the auditorium and wakes the team. At Janeway's urging, Gray decides to leave rather than risk exposure of his secrets. He apologizes for leaving his friends holding the bag, but Janeway says he'll handle it. Gray says he thinks Redjac was right, that he's become as bad as his enemy for sacrificing the students...and now running off instead of facing the consequences. He has become his enemy, and now he must find a way to regain his humanity or he'll lose the conflict in more ways than one.
Blavatsky wakes and says goodbye to Mr. Gray. "Call me Dorian," he tells her, and then he departs. Janeway explains that Mr. Gray was a friend of Oscar Wilde's...and the inspiration for a novel that was more than a work of fiction.
FLINT – TYREE, 2288 A.D.
Flint, Spock, McCoy, Rayna, Bard, and Shell arrive in orbit around Tyree onboard the Gilgamesh. The ship's sensors reveal that the planet is a deserted wasteland. Spock says Tyree should be a verdant world with a population of nearly three billion people.
McCoy asks Flint how he knew to come to Tyree, and Flint just says he has his sources.
Not far away, the Enterprise drifts in orbit. Sensors reveal most of its systems are offline or operating erratically...and the number of lifeforms aboard is less than it should be by a fifth. McCoy is aghast; nearly a fifth of the crew is either dead or has been taken from the ship.
Suddenly, the Gilgamesh's sensors detect two lifeforms on the planet's surface, both human. Flint orders the ship to beam everyone except Bard to the lifeforms' coordinates.
When they materialize on the surface, the group from the Gilgamesh sees that the lifeforms are Montgomery Scott and James Kirk. Scotty appears to be alert and coherent, but Kirk seems to be in a trance.
McCoy says they both look pretty rough, and Scotty says it's been a rough couple days. He explains that Redjac's merged with Trelane, and all hell has broken loose. "I can see that," says McCoy, looking around at the desert wasteland. "This used to be a tropical paradise."
Scotty says that Redjac's forcing him to act as his spokesperson. He apologizes for being the bearer of bad news and tells them Redjac's about to pay them a visit.
Just then, a wall of flame surrounds the landing party from the Gilgamesh. Redjac's voice echoes all around them like crashing thunder, and the ground quakes. He promises to torture the landing party until they've all been broken and driven to their knees, begging for his mercy...at which point, he will remake them as angels of terror who will prepare the galaxy for his coming.
Redjac/Trelane torments each member of the group with manifestations of what they fear most. Spock faces his father, Sarek, who has been refashioned as a demonic monstrosity bent on stamping him out. To torment McCoy, Redjac/Trelane recreates the men and women who have died on his watch (cameos by dead crewmen from TOS); they blame him for his failures, transform into grotesque creatures, and try to tear him apart.
When he gets to Flint, Redjac/Trelane taps into Flint's fear that Kirk will take away Rayna and again cause her destruction. Redjac/Trelane makes Kirk kiss and rough up Rayna...but Flint holds himself in check (barely). Using mental disciplines suggested by Spock, he focuses on the thought that his greatest fear is that Redjac will do something to Shell.
Redjac picks up on Flint's thought and is intrigued. Assuming physical form, Redjac/Trelane makes a grab for Shell (who is still carrying the artifact). Flint makes a good show of trying to fend him off, but Redjac/Trelane flicks him aside and takes hold of the woman. The instant he does so, Redjac/Trelane screams and convulses.
Power crackles all around Redjac/Trelane and Shell. Fire, hail, ash, wind, and lightning blast the landscape. Another earthquake rocks the area.
Finally, Trelane collapses on the ground, and all the phenomena manifested by Redjac disappear. Shell remains standing, and everyone runs to her.
McCoy asks what happened, and Flint says Shell has absorbed Redjac. He says she's a perfect receptor, able to draw in and hold noncorporeal consciousnesses and vast amounts of energy.
McCoy says Flint's a cold-hearted bastard for letting the monster occupy his daughter's body, whatever her mental state. Flint explains that until now, her mind has been completely empty, and she has had no consciousness; because Shell is immortal, she has lived centuries like that, without a thought in her head...so no one can say she's any worse off than before.
Shell wavers then and drops the artifact she's been holding, letting it fall in the sand. When she opens her mouth, Redjac speaks in her voice. He tells Flint he's fighting his way free, and he'll soon pick up where he left off.
As Shell shivers and twitches, Maeve appears to Flint. She tells him she is a celestial being called a Prophet; Shell, born of an immortal human and a Prophet, is powerful and unique...but Redjac is still strong enough to break free. Flint must add something to the mix to balance out Redjac's rage; he must make a sacrifice.
She tells him how.
At Flint's urging, Spock establishes a mind meld between Flint and Redjac/Shell. Spock has to employ every mental resource at his command to keep Redjac from jumping into his own mind...but his defenses hold.
Once the link is in place, Spock removes all the happiest memories from Flint's mind and pours them into Redjac/Shell. Flint catches fleeting glimpses of the memories as they rush out of him. Too late, he realizes that the happiest moments of his life weren't related to his many accomplishments...but to the moments he spent with friends and loved ones, especially his children. He glimpses births and birthdays, milestones and simple moments he thought he'd forgotten, and he reaches for them...and they're gone.
The transference works, dousing the worst of Redjac's rage and enabling Shell to integrate him with her own being. Unfortunately, though, Flint had to give up his happy memories permanently; Spock had to transplant them in their entirety, leaving nothing behind, to ensure they would be potent enough to defuse Redjac.
When Spock breaks the mind meld link, Flint feels dazed, incomplete, and depressed. Something irreplaceable
has been taken from him.
He has been given something in return, however. The strange fusion of Redjac, Shell, and Flint's memories has brought a new intelligence into being in Shell's body. No longer is Shell an empty, mindless husk; now, she speaks and acts with purpose.
Flint and the others soon realize that though she's centuries old and her body approximates that of a young woman, Shell has the mind of a child...but that doesn't bother Flint. He's pleased to have a second chance, in a way, to raise both children – Phobos and Shell – and the opportunity to make new happy memories to replace the ones he's given up.
FLINT – U.S.S. ENTERPRISE-A, 2288 A.D.
Two days after the carnage, Kirk presides over a funeral service onboard the Enterprise for the members of his crew lost during Redjac's rampage. Flint and Rayna are in attendance, but the rest of Flint's group have remained onboard the Gilgamesh.
At the end of the service, Kirk asks everyone to share a moment of silence for the billions of lives lost on Tyree. (Trelane, once he regained consciousness on the planet's surface, took off in a hurry, claiming he didn't have the power to undo such extensive death and devastation...and looking like a teenager who's just wrecked the family car and is afraid of getting in big trouble with his parents.)
After the ceremony, Flint and Rayna talk with Kirk and Spock. Flint tells them he'll be leaving, and he asks if they would be willing to keep references to his involvement out of the ship's logs. He says he's starting a new life, and he would prefer if the galaxy thought "Flint" was dead or wasting away on his private planetoid.
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