by 06(lit)
Then, just as abruptly, it was over. "Mr. Sulu, full scan on that turbulence or whatever it was!" Kirk noticed Scott staring uncertainly over Kirk's own shoulder. Turning to see what he was looking at, he was just in time to see Mira crumple out of sight behind the command chair.
"Mira!" Scott leapt from his post, knelt beside her and lifted her head off the floor. "Mira!"
She murmured unintelligibly. It was not that the sounds were indistinct, but as though they were in an unknown language.
"What's that you're saying?" Scott said. Kirk and Spock were now also bending close. The strange murmuring went on.
McCoy came onto the bridge and crossed at once to the group, his tricorder already out and in use. He said, "Was she hurt by the fall or by the action of that... disturbance?"
"I don't know," Kirk said. "You were closest, Scotty. Did you notice?"
"She collapsed when it was over."
McCoy gave her a shot. The murmuring died away. Her expression changed from a curiously rapt look to one of relaxation. Then her eyes opened and she looked around in confusion.
"Easy now," Scott said. "You took quite a fall."
"I'm fine now," she said.
"Let me be the judge," McCoy said. "Can you walk to Sickbay?"
"Doctor, I'm fine, really I am." Again she looked around the bridge, obviously still puzzled. "Is every-one else-all right?"
"Aye, they are," Scott said. "You do just as Dr. McCoy says."
"Why? I never felt better in my----"
"Lieutenant, report to Sickbay," Kirk said. "That's an order."
"Yes, sir." She followed McCoy resignedly toward the elevator.
Scott said, "Would it be all right for me to go to Sickbay?"
"You will stay at your post, Mr. Scott. Lt. Uhura, damage report, all stations."
"All stations are operative."
"Mr. Spock?"
"Some equipment was temporarily out of order. My sensors were inoperative.''
"Any damage to the warp engines?"
"None, Captain."
"Good. From the action of that-that storm, we may need all the speed we can get."
"It was not a storm, Captain," Spock said.
"Mr. Chekov, get a fix on whatever it was and try to project its path... That was a novel experience for the Enterprise. Would you agree, Mr. Spock?"
"Unforgettable, Captain."
"Yes? I was hoping you had an explanation."
"None at the moment, Captain. Only a sharply etched memory of what I felt during the onslaught."
"Memory Alpha was hailing us a moment before," Uhura said. "I wanted to respond, but I couldn't make my hand move."
"It was not hands that were paralyzed, it was eyes," Chekov said. "I couldn't force my eyes to look down to set a new course."
"No," Sulu said, "speech was affected. I couldn't utter a sound."
"Nor could I," Kirk said. "You seemed to be having the same trouble, Mr. Spock."
"Yes, Captain, I was."
"Any explanation yet?"
"Only of the result," Spock said, "none of the cause. In each case, different areas of the brain were affect-ed. Our voluntary nerve functions were under some form of pressure."
"Or of attack?"
"Attack might be a more precise formulation, Cap-tain."
"Lt. Romaine seems most susceptible. Mr. Scott, perhaps you'd better go down to Sickbay after all. If she was the only one of four hundred and thirty people who passed out, we'd better find out why."
"Aye, sir," Scott said, heading for the elevators with alacrity.
"I have plotted the storm's path, Captain," Chekov said. "On its present course it will hit the Memory Alpha planetoid as it did us."
"Uhura, warn them of the proximity of the phenom-enon. Can you give us an ETA for it, Chekov?"
"It's impossible, Captain. It has the ability to change speed."
"Sorry, Captain," Uhura said, "But I'm unable to establish contact with the planetoid. Am hailing on all frequencies. No response."
"It does not matter, Captain," Spock said. "Memory Alpha has no protective shields. When the library complex was assembled, shielding was regarded as inappropriate to its totally academic purpose. Since the information on the memory planet is freely avail-able to everyone, special protection was deemed un-necessary."
"Wonderful," Kirk said sarcastically. "I hope the 'storm' is aware of that rationale."
"We're completing approach to the planetoid," Sulu said. "But the storm's gotten there first."
"Uhura, get through to-"
"I cannot," Uhura said. "I cannot get past the inter-ference, sir."
"Mr. Spock, how many people are there on Memo-ry Alpha?"
"It varies with the number of scholars, researchers, scientists, from various Federation planets who are using the computer complex."
"Mr. Chekov, maintain standard orbit."
"The storm is now leaving Memory Alpha," Sulu reported.
"And," Spock added, "the sensors give no readings of energy being generated on the planetoid."
"Any life readings?"
"None, sir."
"Check for malfunction."
Spock did so. "Sensors inoperative again."
"We'd better find out what's going on down there." Kirk turned to the intercom. "Kirk to Sickbay. Is Mr. Scott there?"
"Scott here. I was checking on the lass. She's going to be fine, though. Nothing wrong with her."
"I'm relieved to hear your prognosis. Is the doctor there with you?"
"McCoy here, Jim."
"How's the girl?"
"I think she's in good shape."
"Apparently Scotty thinks so, too. Both of you, meet me in the Transporter Room, on the double. Mr. Spock, come with me. The con is yours, Mr. Sulu."
The four materialized in a computer room on Mem-ory Alpha. The room was utterly silent, and there was no light at all.
"Somehow," McCoy grumbled, "I find transporting into the darkness unnerving."
"Scotty," Kirk said, "can you give us some light in here?"
Scott checked the boards nearby; they could hear him fumbling. Then a small glow appeared, a safe-light of some sort. "This will have to do. The genera-tor is inoperative. The alternative is to go back to the ship for hand torches."
Spock moved to the face of the largest computer cabinet with his tricorder, but for several moments simply stood there, doing nothing. Kirk guessed he was waiting for his eyes to become dark-adapted, a gift far better developed in Vulcans than in hu-mans. Then he lifted the tricorder.
"Damage report, Mr. Spock?"
"It's a disaster for the galaxy, Captain. The central brain damaged-all memory cores burned out. The loss might be irretrievable."
Kirk took a step and stumbled over something large and soft. He put a hand down to it, but he too could see better now.
"Mr. Spock. I've just encountered a body. Look around the floor."
There was a long silence. Then Spock said: "There are dead men and creatures from other planets sprawled all around us. Move very carefully until you can see better. I'm scanning for a life reading... Yes, I have one, very faint."
"Location, Mr. Spock?"
"It is too weak to get an exact bearing, but..." He moved away.
"We'd better find him while he's still alive. We have to get more knowledge of this... enemy."
"Over here, Captain," Spock's voice called.
The other three carefully moved toward the sound of his voice. At his feet a girl, evidently a technician, was on her knees, struggling to get up. An already dead man nearby had evidently tried to help her. She was murmuring.
Spock listened intently. "The same garbled sounds," he said, "that Lt. Romaine was making when she fainted after the disturbance."
"Are you sure, Spock?"
"Absolutely sure."
Kirk flipped open his communicator. "Kirk to En-terprise... Mr. Sulu. Beam down Lt. Romaine imme-diately-and have her bring five hand torches."
&
nbsp; "Yes, sir."
The technician's voice murmured on, but it was becoming steadily weaker. Then she pitched forward on her face.
McCoy took a reading, and then silently shook his head. Kirk said: "Can you tell what she died of?"
"Severe brain hemorrhaging due to distortion of all neural centers. Dissolution of all basic personality pat-terns. Even the autonomic nervous system."
"The attack, Captain, was thorough," Spock said.
"What did the others die of?"
"Each had a different brain center destroyed," McCoy said. "Just how, I can't tell you. Maybe when I get back to the ship's computer-"
The shimmer of the Transporter effect briefly il-lumated the charnel chamber and Mira materialized. The beam of a flashlight leapt from her hand, but Scott moved swiftly to step into it, blocking her view of the bodies.
"Mira-the Captain has some questions. Give me the rest of the torches."
"Here you are... Yes, Captain?"
Kirk said gently: "Mira, while you were uncon-scious you were, uh, speaking."
"What did I say?" She seemed genuinely surprised.
"We don't know. You talked in a strange language we didn't understand. We found one person barely alive in here, and she was speaking in the same way-"
"Was speaking?" Before anyone could move to pre-vent her, she darted around the central computer and swept the beam of her flash over the floor. When she spoke again, it was in a frightened whisper. "All dead... just like I saw them. Captain, we must get back to the ship."
"Why?"
Her hands went to her brow. She seemed unable to answer.
"Tell me why!"
"Captain--that... that... it's returning!"
"How do you know?"
"I know. You'll be killed if we stay."
"I assure you, lieutenant," Spock said, "that unex-plained phenomenon was headed away from the planetoid before we came here. It is probably seeking other victims."
"I tell you, it will kill us!" Her panic was genuine, that was clear.
Kirk's communicator beeped. "Bridge to Captain Kirk. The storm has reappeared on the long-range scanner."
"I told him it is not a storm," Spock said.
"Course, Mr. Sulu?"
"Coming back in this direction, and closing fast."
"Beam us up."
The minute he saw the Transporter Room coming into being around him, Kirk headed for the intercom, but Scott's voice stopped him.
"Captain, wait! We've lost Mira."
Kirk turned and saw that Lt. Romaine was indeed not there. Lt. Kyle was at the Transporter controls. Scott leaped to his side.
"Where is she? Stabilize her!"
"Something's interfering with the transporter sig-nal," Kyle said. "I have her coordinates, but she's suspended in transit."
"Let me." Together the two men struggled with the controls. Suddenly, Kyle said, "Aha, it's cleared," and at the same moment Mira materialized on the Trans-porter platform. She stepped off, dazed but smiling.
"Mr. Scott, Lt. Romaine, you'd best go to the emer-gency manual monitor and see if enough new equip-ment is in inventory to repair at least some of Memo-ry Alpha." Kirk hit the intercom. "Mr. Sulu, get us out of here. Mr. Spock, to the bridge, please."
In the emergency manual monitor, Mira and Scott were working side by side. The inventory had pro-ceeded for some time in silence. Then Scott said:
"When I-thought we lost you, back there in the Transporter Room-well, you're not to do that again."
"It was so frightening," she said. "I felt pulled apart."
"You almost were. There was interference with the Transporter mechanism."
"And that's more than you can say about me," she said. What she meant by this, Scott had no idea.
"I'll tell you something. You are the sanest-the smartest-the nicest-and the most beautiful woman that has ever been aboard this ship."
"And what else?"
"Anything else, I'm keeping to myself for the mo-ment."
"But I'm so much trouble to you."
Trouble? What trouble? Of course, you could drive a man daft, but that's not what I call trouble."
She smiled. "Do I drive you daft, Scotty?"
"Well now-if it was me, you might have to work at it."
"I'd be willing-" Then, as if embarrassed, she turned away and resumed being busy.
The Enterprise has been my life," Scott said. "I love this ship, and I love every day I've spent on it. But, until you came aboard, I didn't know how lonely it is to be free in the galaxy... So, don't you talk of trouble." He took her in his arms. "Now I want to forget about Memory Alpha."
It was the wrong thing to say. She pushed against his chest, her hands trembling. "Scotty... before that... I saw it-exactly as it happened."
"What of it? That happens to lots of people. There's a French term for it. They think they're seeing some-thing before it actually occurs. But actually one eye picked it up without realizing-"
"My eyes weren't playing tricks!"
He smoothed her brow. "Then I'm sure there is some other perfectly reasonable explanation that will erase that worried frown."
"But Scotty, I saw the men dead in their exact positions-before I ever left the ship."
He put his hands on her shoulders. "Listen to me. I told you in Sickbay what strange tricks a first trip in space can play on your mind. That's all it is."
"No, Scotty."
"Have you ever had visions of future events before this?"
"Never."
"And, if you ask me, nobody ever has," Scott said firmly. "That seeing the future is pure bunk. You know that, don't you?"
"I always believed it."
"And you're absolutely right."
"But what is it, Scotty? What is frightening me? Ever since we've been near that-that storm, I've had such strange thoughts... feelings of such terror."
"Space, space, space, that's all it is."
"Then I don't have to report it?"
"If you want to spend the trip in Sickbay," Scott said. "But what good would it do? McCoy can no more cure it than he can cure a cold. It'll pass."
"When I get my permanent assignment... I hope it will be to the Enterprise"
"You just better make sure of it."
"Captain," Sulu said. "It's changing course."
"Plot it, Mr. Chekov."
"Present course will bring it across our starboard bow."
"Mr. Spock, you made a statement that that phenom-enon was not a storm."
"Yes, Captain. No known conditions in space would support it as a natural phenomenon. But the sensors seem to be in working order at the moment. Perhaps this time the elusive creature will reveal something about itself." He bent into his hooded viewer. "It seems to be maintaining its distance, but matching course with us. I am receiving increasing magnitudes of energy. Yes-undoubtedly a life form. Fascinat-ing!"
"Control your fascination, Mr. Spock. Pragmatical-ly, what are the implications?"
"We saw the results of full contact in the deaths on Memory Alpha. The humanoid neurological system is destroyed when fully exposed to these peculiar wave patterns."
"But what is it, Spock?"
"Not what is it, sir. What are they. There are ten distinct life units within it, Captain. They are power-fully alive and vital."
"Who are they? Where are they from?"
"Impossible to determine without programming for computer analysis."
"Not now." Kirk shot a glance at the main viewer. "It's clear we can't outrun them. Can we shield against them?"
"I do not think so, sir."
"There must be some defensive action we can take."
"Captain, it is a community of life units. Their attack is in the form of brain waves directed against the brain that is most compatible."
"A living brain!" Kirk said. "Perhaps we can avoid a next time. Lt. Uhura, open all channels and tie in the universal translator. Maybe I can talk to them."