Star Trek - Blish, James - 07

Home > Other > Star Trek - Blish, James - 07 > Page 5
Star Trek - Blish, James - 07 Page 5

by 07(lit)


  "It seems the most reasonable course, Captain. But it won't be easy."

  "Easy or not, I want it done. Get on it, Mr. Spock. Then report to me in Sickbay."

  Scott's body lay upon the examination table, with Nomad hovering over it. McCoy and Nurse Christine Chapel stood beside it, while Kirk and the two Security guards stood near the wall. Nomad, antenna extended, was scanning the body and humming.

  The nurse looked toward the body-functions panel. "No reaction, Doctor."

  "Could have told you that without looking, Nurse."

  Suddenly, a tight appeared on the panel, and a dial began quivering. In time with its movements, there came a steady beeping sound, gradually picking up in speed and volume.

  Scott's eyes opened and he looked up at the amazed group, frowning. While he stared back, Spock joined the others. "What are the lot of you staring at?" Scott de-manded.

  "I... don't... believe it," McCoy whispered.

  Scott looked around, and spotting Nomad, its an-tenna retracted now, he sat up in alarm. "What am I doing here? How did I-That thing did something to Lieutenant Uhura-"

  "She's being taken care of, Scotty," Kirk said.

  "But sir, it's dangerous! It-"

  "Take it easy, Scotty," McCoy said. "Now just lie down. I want to check you out."

  "The unit Scott is repaired," Nomad said. "It will function as before if your information to me was cor-rect."

  "How about it, Bones? Can he go back to duty?"

  "If you don't mind, I'll check him out first A man isn't just a... a biological unit to be patched together."

  "What did it do to me?" Scott said.

  Suddenly, a wave of pure awe, as strong as any he had ever felt in his life, swept through Kirk. Back from the dead! Why, if-but he pushed speculation resolutely away for the time being. "Dr. McCoy will explain, Scotty."

  "Nurse Chapel," McCoy said, "I want him prepared for a full physical exam."

  "Yes, sir."

  Kirk crossed the examination room toward Sickbay proper, where Uhura now was. "Nomad, come here."

  The machine glided after him, followed by Spock and McCoy. Inside, the Communications Officer lay unmoving on a bed, in a hospital gown and covered by a blanket. She did not look at any of them.

  "Can you repair her, Nomad?" Kirk demanded.

  "No," said the machine.

  "But you were able to restore Scott, who had much more extensive damage."

  "That was simply physiological repair. This one's superficial knowledge banks have been, wiped clean."

  "Superficial? Be more specific."

  "She still remembers her life experiences, but her memory of how to express them, either logically or in the illogic called music, or to act on them, has been purged."

  "Captain, if that is correct," Spock said, "if her mind has not been damaged and the aphasia is that superficial, she could be taught again."

  "Bones?"

  "I'll get on it right away." McCoy swung on Nomad. "And despite the way you repaired Scotty, you ticking metal-"

  "Does the Creator wish Nomad to wait elsewhere?" Spock broke in quickly.

  "Yes. Guards! Nomad, you will go with these units. They will escort you to a waiting area. Guards, take it to the top security cell in the brig."

  There was silence while the guards and the machine went out. Then Spock said, "I interrupted you, Doctor, because Nomad would not have understood your anger. Its technical skill is great but it seems to react violently to emotion, even so non-specific an emotion as the enjoyment of music. It almost qualifies as a life-form itself."

  Kirk glanced sharply at him. "It's all right to admire it, Mr. Spock, but remember it's a killer. We're going to have to handle it."

  "I agree, Captain. It is a remarkable construction; it may well be the most advanced machine in the known galaxy. Study of it-"

  "I intend to render it harmless, whatever it may take."

  "You mean destroy it, Captain?"

  "If it's necessary," Kirk said. "Get down to the brig with your equipment and run a full analysis of the mechanism. I want to know what makes that thing tick."

  "Yes, sir."

  The First Officer went out, and Kirk and McCoy returned to the examination room. Scott was still lying on the table. McCoy scanned the body functions panel slowly, and shook his head in disbelief.

  "He checks out fine," he said. "Everything's normal."

  "Then," Scott said, "can I get back to my engines, sir?"

  Kirk glanced at McCoy, who nodded. "All right, Scotty."

  "I hate to admit it," McCoy said as Scott swung off the table and left, "but Spock was right. Nomad is a remarkable machine."

  "Just remember it kills as effectively as it heals, Bones... if I'm called, I'll be down in the brig."

  The two Security guards, phasers in hand, stood out-side the force-field door of the brig, which was on. Inside, Nomad floated, almost surrounded by an array of portable scanners, behind which was Spock, staring with disapproval at the machine. Nomad, its antenna out, "stared" back.

  One of the guards switched off the screen to allow Kirk to enter, then switched it on again. Kirk said, "What's the problem?"

  "I have been unable to convince Nomad to lower its screens for analysis. Without its cooperation, I can do nothing."

  Kirk studied the quietly humming machine. "Nomad, you will allow Spock to probe your memory banks and structure."

  "This Spock is also one of your biological units, Creator?"

  "Yes."

  "This unit is different. It is well ordered. Interest-ing."

  Under other circumstances, Kirk would have been amused to hear a machine applying Spock's favorite word to Spock himself, but the stakes were too great for amusement now. "Follow your orders, Nomad."

  "My screens are down. You may proceed."

  Spock set to work, very rapidly indeed, making settings, taking readings, making new settings. Within a few moments, he seemed to have found something which surprised him. He made another adjustment, and the machine he had been using promptly extruded a slip of paper, which he studied.

  "Captain, I suggest we go out in the corridor for a private conference." They did so. "Sir, I have formed a partial hypothesis. But my information is insufficient and I have gleaned everything possible from the scanners. I must be allowed to question Nomad direct-ly."

  "Too dangerous."

  "Captain, it moves only against imperfections. As you will recall, there is a Vulcan mind discipline which permits absolute concentration on one subject for a considerable period of time. If I were to use it-"

  "And if your mind wandered for a moment, Nomad might just blast you out of existence. Right now it's safe in the brig."

  "We do not know enough about it to know if it is 'safe' anywhere. If my hypothesis is correct, sir, we will at least be closer to understanding it. And control is not possible without understanding."

  "All right," Kirk said, taking a phaser from one of the guards, "but I think I'll just keep this handy."

  They went back in. Spock sat down on the cell bunk, for which the present prisoner had no use, and put his fingers to his temple. Kirk could almost hear his mind working.

  "Nomad, my unit Spock will ask you certain ques-tions. You will answer them as though I were asking them myself."

  "Yes, Creator."

  Silence. At last Spock said, "Nomad, there was an accident."

  "There was an accident."

  "You encountered the other."

  "There was another. It was without direction. We joined."

  "The other was not of the Earth. Its functions were other than yours." Spock held up the piece of paper, on which Kirk could see a drawing of what looked to be a space capsule of unfamiliar design. "I secured this design from your memory banks. Is this the other?"

  "It is the other."

  "Nomad, your memory banks were damaged by the accident. You took new directions from the other."

  There was a buzz from the machine, an
d an antenna was aimed at Spock again. "Your statement is not recorded. You are in error."

  "Logically, Nomad, you cannot prove I am in error, if your memory banks were damaged. You would have no way of knowing whether I speak the truth or not." Spock fell silent. The antenna retracted. "You acknowledge my logic. After meeting with the other, you had a new directive. Life-forms, if not perfect, are to be sterilized. Is this correct?"

  "That is my programmed purpose."

  "How much of the other did you assimilate?"

  "Unrelated. Your question has no factual basis."

  "Spock," Kirk said, "I think you're getting into deep waters. Better knock off."

  Spock, unhearing, continued to stare at Nomad. The machine said: "There is error here. But if there was damage to my memory cells, there can be no proof of error. I will consider it."

  "Enough," Kirk said firmly. Signaling to the guards to drop the screen, he dragged Spock out. The Vulcan was still glassy-eyed. "Mr. Spock! Come out of it!"

  Slowly Spock's eyes began to focus. "Yes, Captain?"

  "Are you all right?"

  "Quite all right, sir." He looked back into the brig. "Fascinating. I was correct. It did meet a completely alien probe in deep space."

  "And they merged-or at least their purposes did."

  "In effect. Nomad took the alien's prime purpose to replace that part of its own which had been destroyed. The alien was originally programmed to seek out and sterilize soil samples from various planets-possibly as a preliminary to colonization."

  "Hmm. Spock, do you know what a changeling is?"

  "Sir?"

  "An ancient Earth legend. A changeling was sup-posed to be a fairy child left in place of a stolen human baby. The changeling took the identity of the human child."

  "That would be a parallel if Nomad is actually the alien probe intact. But actually, its programming now is a combination of the two. Nomad was supposed to find new life-forms; the alien to find and sterilize soil samples; the combination, and a deadly one, is to seek out and sterilize all life-forms. Moreover, the highly advanced alien technology, plus Nomad's own creative thinking, has enabled it to evolve itself into the incredi-bly powerful and sophisticated machine it is now."

  "Not so sophisticated, Spock. It thinks I'm its... its father."

  "Apparently Roykirk had enough ego to build a reverence for himself into the machine. That has been transferred to you-and so far it has been all that has saved us."

  "Well, we'd better see to it that it never loses that reverence, Spock."

  They were just about to enter an elevator when an intercom squalled with alarm. "Captain Kirk! This is Engineering! That alien device is down here, fooling with the anti-matter pod controls. We're up to Warp Ten now and can't stop!"

  "Impossible! She won't go that fast."

  "Warp Eleven now, sir."

  "I'll be right down. Mr. Spock, check the brig."

  The Engineering section was filled with the terrifying whine of the overdriven warp engines. Nomad was floating in front of the control panels, on which all the telltales glowed red.

  Kirk rushed to the panel. "Nomad, you will stop whatever you're doing."

  "Is there a problem, Creator? I have increased con-version efficiently by 57 percent-"

  "You will destroy my ship. Its structure cannot stand the stress of that much power. Shut down your repair operation!"

  "Acknowledged."

  The whine began to die, and the panel returned to normal, the red lights blinking out one by one.

  "It is reversed, as you ordered, Creator."

  Spock entered the section and came up to Kirk. "Captain, I have examined the brig. The force-field generator of the security-cell door has been burnt out, and the guards have vanished. I must assume they are dead. I have asked for two more; they are outside."

  "Creator, your mechanical units are as inefficient as your biological specimens."

  "Nomad," Kirk said grimly, "it's time you were reminded of exactly who and what you are. I am a biological specimen-and you acknowledge that I built you."

  "True," said the machine. "Non sequitur. Biological specimens are inherently inferior. This is an inconsistency."

  "There are two men waiting outside. You will not harm them. They will escort you back to the waiting area. You will stay there. You will do nothing."

  "I am programmed to investigate," Nomad said.

  "I have given you new programming. You will im-plement it."

  "There is much to be considered before I return to launch point. I must re-evaluate." Lifting, the machine floated away through the door, through which the red shirts of two more Security guards could be seen.

  "Re-evaluate?" Kirk said.

  "Captain," said Spock, "it may have been unwise to admit to Nomad you were a biological specimen. In Nomad's eyes you will undoubtedly now appear as imperfect as all the other biological specimens. I suspect that it is about to re-evaluate its Creator."

  Scott, having seen that his board had been put back to rights, had come over to them in time to catch the last sentence. He said, "Will we be any worse off than we are now?"

  "Scotty, it's just killed two men," Kirk said. "We've got to find a way to protect the crew."

  "Captain, it is even more serious," Spock said. "Nomad just made a reference to its launch point. Earth."

  A horrible thought struck Kirk. "Spock, is there any chance Nomad got a navigational fix on Earth while tapping our computers earlier?"

  "I don't believe there is much beyond Nomad's capabilities, sir."

  "Then we showed it the way home! And when it gets there-"

  Spock nodded. "It will find the Earth infested with inferior biological specimens-just as was the Malurian system."

  "And it will carry out its new prime directive. Sterilize!"

  As they stared at each other, McCoy's amplified voice boomed out. "Captain Kirk! Captain Kirk to Sickbay! Emergency!"

  This, Kirk thought, is turning into a continuous nightmare. He ran, Spock at his heels.

  At the door of the examination room, Kirk ham-mered on the touchplate. It did not open. As Spock turned down the corridor to actuate the manual con-trols, however, the door suddenly slid back and Nomad emerged.

  "Nomad! Stop!"

  The machine paid no heed, but went on down the corridor. It passed Spock on the way, but ignored him too. In a moment it had vanished.

  In the examination room, Christine lay unconscious on the floor. McCoy was bending over her with his medical tricorder.

  "Is she all right, Bones?"

  "I think so, Jim. Looks like some kind of shock."

  "What happened?"

  "Nomad examined the personnel files. The medical records. She tried to stop it."

  "Whose medical history?"

  "Yours, Jim."

  "Since it specifically examined your history, Captain," Spock said, "I would suggest that it has carried out its re-evaluation."

  "And," Kirk said grimly, "confirmed that its Creator is as imperfect as the rest of the biological specimens."

  "Bridge to Captain Kirk," said the wall com-municator.

  "Kirk here. Report."

  "Captain, life-support systems are out all over the ship. Manual override has been blocked! Source: Engineering."

  "Carry on... well Mr. Spock, it seems you were right, and now we're in for it."

  "Undoubtedly, Captain."

  "Jim," McCoy said, "with all systems out, we only have enough air and heat for four and a half hours."

  "I know that. Spock, get some anti-gravs and meet me and Scotty in Engineering."

  "What is your plan, Captain?"

  "I've got to use something you're a lot better at than I am. Logic."

  "Then perhaps I-"

  "No. I'm the one Nomad mistook for its Creator. And that's my ace. If I play it right-"

  "I understand, Captain," Spock said quietly. "What you intend to do is most dangerous, however. If you make one mistake-"

 
"Then I'm dead and the ship is in the same mess it is now. Move!"

 

‹ Prev