Star Trek - Blish, James - 06

by 06(lit)

  Uhura got to work. Indicators began to light up. "All channels open," she said finally. "Translator tied in."

  Kirk looked up at the form of lights on the viewer. Incongruously, he felt wryly amused at the notion of trying to talk to an electrical cloud. "This is Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise. We wish you no harm. Physical contact between us is fatal to our life form. Please do not come any closer to this ship."

  There was no response; only a faint wash of static. Spock said, "Perhaps it did not understand."

  "Captain, change in velocity recorded," Sulu said. "It has accelerated its approach."

  "Perhaps it will understand another language," Kirk said, beginning to feel angry. "Condition Red Alert. Prepare for phaser firing."

  The Red Alert began flashing, and the distant alarm echoed throughout the ship.

  "Mr. Sulu, lock in phasers for firing across their course. Do not hit them."

  "Locked in, sir."

  "Fire."

  The phaser shot lanced to one side of the lights and on off into deep space.

  "Reaction, Mr. Sulu?"

  "None, sir. They are still approaching."

  Apparently a shot across the bow was insufficiently convincing. "Lock to target."

  "Locked on, sir."

  "Fire."

  The shot seemed to score a direct hit. The commu-nity of life units dispersed in apparent confusion, and then began to reform. So they could be hurt-

  "Captain, Captain," Scott's voice shouted from the intercom, without even waiting for an acknowledg-ment. "Scott here. The phaser shots-they're killing Mira."

  "Killing Lt. Romaine?; How--"

  "When you fired, she was stunned, she crumpled. Another shot and you'll kill her."

  "Get her to Sickbay at once... Mr. Spock, we appear to be at an impasse. Any suggestions?"

  "Only one, Captain," the Science Officer said. "There seems to be only one possible defense. If we can find an environment that is deadly to the life form-and at the same time, isolate the girl from the deadly effects of it---"

  "It sounds like asking the impossible." Kirk turned to the intercom. "Kirk to Dr. McCoy... Bones, is Lt. Romaine well enough to be talked to?"

  "I think so," McCoy's voice said. "I can have her ready in a few minutes."

  "Bring her and Mr. Scott to the Briefing Room as soon as possible. Bring all available biographical data on the lieutenant.... Mr. Spock, come with me."

  In the Briefing Room, Spock went immediately to his slave console; Kirk sat at the center of the table, McCoy next to him.

  "Go easy on her, Jim. She's in a bad state."

  "I'll try. But this can't be postponed."

  "I know. I was pretty hard on her myself the first time this happened. I needn't have been. We might know more."

  "I'll be careful."

  The door opened to admit Scott and Mira. He was holding her by the arm. She seemed pale and dis-traught. After she was seated, Scott went to his chair at the opposite end of the table.

  Kirk leaned toward her and said gently: This is not a trial, Lt. Romaine. You are not being accused of anything."

  "I know," Mira said, almost in a whisper. She glanced toward McCoy. "I didn't mean to be uncoop-erative, Doctor."

  "Of course you didn't," McCoy said. "I told the Captain that."

  "I'll tell you everything I know. I trust all of you implicitly. I want to help."

  "Good," Kirk said. This investigation is prompted by two events that may be connected. The first time was when you passed out on the bridge. The second is when we fired the ship's phasers into the force that is attacking us, and we seriously injured you."

  "It wasn't serious, Captain. You mustn't worry about hurting me."

  "We're glad we didn't. Nevertheless, we won't take that particular defense measure again. Now, this is how we will proceed. Spock will provide everything we know about our attackers. Dr. McCoy has access to Starfleet's exhaustive file on you. A comparison of the two may turn up some unsuspected connection that will protect you-and ourselves. All right, gentle-men? Dr. McCoy, you begin. Does Lt. Romaine have any history of psychosomatic illness?"

  "Occasional and routine teen-age incidence."

  "Any evidence of any involuntary or unconscious telepathatic abilities?"

  "None."

  "Any pathological or unusual empathic responses?"

  "No, Captain. Not empathic. However, an excep-tionally flexible and pliant response to new learning situations."

  At this Spock leaned forward, but made no com-ment.

  "There's one other thing, Captain," McCoy said. "Right after our phasers hit that thing, I gave Lt. Romaine the Steinman Standard Analysis. I don't have the results here but Nurse Chapel is having it sent down. In the meantime, I see nothing else very illuminating in the psychological file. Lt. Romaine has developed strong defenses to guard against her ex-treme competitiveness. Marked scientific and mathe-matical abilities set up an early competition with her distinguished father. It appears that the problem is still not completely resolved."

  "That's not true," Mira said, tears coming to her eyes. "It was over long ago. I'm not like that-not any more."

  "Everybody's record has much worse comments from the psychology majors," Kirk said. "Luckily for us, nobody ever reads ours. Pretend you didn't hear. Mr. Spock, any functional and motivating data on the life force?"

  "I have asked the computer why these beings pur-sue the Enterprise. The first answer was 'Completion.' When I requested an alternate formulation, it gave me 'Fulfillment' instead. I find both responses unclear, but the machine has insufficient data to give us anything better, thus far."

  The door opened and a yeoman entered with a cartridge which he handed to McCoy. The surgeon inserted it into his viewer. Almost at once, he cast a disturbed look at Mira.

  "What is it, Doctor?"

  "A comparison of our Steinman with Starfleet rec-ords shows that Lt. Romaine's fingerprints, voice analysis, retinal patterns, all external factors are the same as before. But according to the two encephalograms, her brain wave pattern has been altered."

  "Isn't that impossible?" Kirk asked.

  "That's what I was taught. The BCP is as consistent as fingerprints."

  "Let's see it."

  McCoy put the tape deck into the slot on the desk, and the tri-screen lit up. They all looked at it for a moment. Then Spock said, "Doctor, I believe that's the wrong slide."

  "No it isn't, Spock. It's from tape deck D-brain circuitry pattern of Lt. Mira Romaine."

  "No, Doctor. It happens to be tape deck H-the impulse tracking we obtained on the alien life units."

  "Nurse Chapel followed this every step of the way. There can't be an error."

  Mira was staring in tense horror at the screen.

  "According to your records, Dr. McCoy," Spock said, "Lt. Romaine did not show abnormal telepathatic abil-ity."

  "That's right, Spock. Exceptional pliancy was indi-cated. It might be a factor."

  "It must be. There is an identity of pattern between these alien life forms and the mind of Lt. Romaine. Their thoughts are becoming her thoughts."

  Scott said: "Mira's tried to tell me all along that she was seeing things happen in advance-"

  "Why didn't you report it?" Kirk said.

  "You don't report space sickness. That's all I ever thought it was."

  "What else did she see?"

  Scott thought a moment. "The first attack on the ship... the attack on Memory Alpha... and-the time we almost lost her."

  "Those were all acts carried out by our attacker. Anything else?"

  Scott got up and went over to Mira, who was still staring at the screen. "I thought there was another time. I guess I was wrong."

  "Was he wrong, Lieutenant?" Kirk said.

  Mira finally looked up at Scotty, who sank to one knee beside her. In a trancelike voice, she said, "Yes. There was one other time."

  "What did you see?"

  "I saw Scotty," she said, still
looking at him in-tently,

  "Where?"

  "I don't know."

  "What was he doing?"

  "He was dying." Her hand went to Scott's face. "Now I understand what's been happening. I've been seeing through another mind. I have been flooded by thoughts that are not my own... by desires and drives that control me-" Suddenly she broke com-pletely and was in Scott's arms. "Scotty-I would rather die than hurt you. I would rather die!"

  "What's all this talk of dying?" Scott demanded. "They've called the turn on us three out of four times. That's a better average than anybody deserves. It's our turn now. Well fight them. So let's not hear anything more about dying."

  It was a bold speech, but Kirk could think of no way that the Enterprise could back it up. He punched the intercom. "Ensign Chekov, what success have you had with the evasive tactics?"

  "Useless, sir. They'll probably be through the shields again in a minute or so."

  Kirk turned to Mira. "They may destroy you and us as they did Memory Alpha. You are especially sus-ceptible to their will. There is one way we might survive. Do not resist. Let them begin to function through you. If we can control that moment, we have a chance. Will you try?"

  "Tell me what to do," she said, her voice shaky.

  "Everybody down to the antigrav test unit. Follow me."

  "Attention all personnel!" Sulu's voice barked from the intercom. "Clear all decks! Alien being has pene-trated ship!"

  The door to the gravity chamber opened off the interior of the medical lab. As the group from the Briefing Room entered at a run, Kirk said, "As soon as she enters the chamber, secure all ports."

  But as Mira started for the chamber, the swirling colors of the life force pervaded the lab. She stopped and spun around, her hand going to her brow, her eyes blazing, her face contorted with struggle. Scott started toward her.

  "Don't touch me!" It was a piercing scream. "Scot-ty-stay away-"

  The multicolored flashes slowly and finally were gone, leaving Mira standing as if frozen. Then her lips parted, and from them came once more the sound of the unknown language.

  "We've lost her to them," Scott said desperately, starting toward her once more.

  "Stay where you are!" Kirk said.

  McCoy added, "She could kill us all in this state."

  "She will," Spock said, "unless we are able to com-plete what the Captain is planning."

  Scott was looking at Mira in agony. "Stay with us, Mira. Stay with us, Mira Romaine!"

  "I am trying," she said. It was her own voice, but coming out in smothered gasps. "I want to be... with you... They are too strong."

  "Fight them now, Mira," Kirk said. "Don't lose yourself to them. Hold on."

  The girl sank against the door to the gravity cham-ber. Her eyes closed, her body became taut with the effort at control.

  "I am Mira Romaine," she said, and this time her voice was angry. "I will be who I choose to be. Let me go!"

  But the struggle was too much for her. Her body went limp, and her eyes opened, inexpressibly sad. In a voice like a lost soul, utterly unlike anything she had ever sounded before, she said:

  "She cannot prevent us. You cannot stop us."

  Scott lunged forward, but Kirk grabbed him. "Mira! Mira!"

  "That's not Mira talking," McCoy said.

  "Captain, we must deal with them directly," Spock said. "Now, while she retains partial identity, we can speak to them. Her voice will answer for them."

  "I am the commander of this vessel," Kirk said to the entranced girl. "Do you understand me?"

  "We understand you. We have searched for a mil-lennium to find the One through whom we can see and hear and speak and live out our lives."

  "Who are you?"

  "We are of Zetar."

  "All humanoid life on Zetar," Spock said, "was de-stroyed long ago."

  "Yes. All corporeal life was destroyed."

  "Then what are you?" Kirk demanded.

  "The desires, the hopes, the thoughts and the will" of the last hundred from Zetar. The force of life in us could not be wiped out."

  "All things die."

  "At the proper time. Our planet was dying. We were determined to live on. At the peak of our plans to go elsewhere, a sudden final disaster struck us down. But the force of our lives survived. And now at last we have found the One through whom we can live it out."

  "The body you inhabit has its own life to lead."

  "She will accept ours."

  "She does not wish it. She is fighting to retain her own identity."

  "Her mind will accept our thoughts. Our lives will be fulfilled."

  "Will she learn like the people on Memory Alpha learned?"

  "We did not wish to kill."

  "You did kill!"

  "No! Resisting us killed those on Memory Alpha. We did not kill. We wanted only the technician, but she fought back."

  "The price of your survival is too high."

  "We wish only the girl."

  "You cannot have her," Kirk said fiercely. "You are entitled to your own lives. But you cannot have another's!"

  Mira herself seemed to hear this, and her eyes to respond. When she spoke again, the voice was her own. "Life was given to me. It is mine. I will live it out---I will..."

  Her voice weakened, and she sank back. McCoy took a tricorder reading. "The girl's life reading is becoming a match to the-Zetarians," he said. "She is losing."

  "Do not fight us."

  "They will not accept their own deaths," Spock said.

  "They will be forced to accept it," Kirk said.

  "You will all die," said the Mira/Zetar voice.

  "Captain," Spock said, "unless we can complete the plan at once, they will carry out their threat."

  McCoy said, "Jim, you realize that the pressure you need to kill the Zetarians might kill her, too?"

  "At least, our way she has a chance. We must get her into the antigrav chamber."

  They all moved in about her, in a close circle. Scott forced himself to the front and said, "Mira will not kill me."

  He stooped and quickly picked her up in his arms. He faced the opening to the gravity chamber, and his head snapped back, his face contorted in agony. Nev-ertheless he got her into the chamber, and the doors closed behind her. Then he crumpled to the floor. His face now, however, was relaxed. As McCoy bent over him, his eyes opened.

  "I knew she wouldn't kill me," he said, with a faint smile.

  Kirk and Spock went to the chamber's console, joined after a moment by McCoy. After a sweeping glance, Kirk then crossed to the bull's-eye port which gave visual access to the chamber.

  "Neutralize gravity, Mr. Spock."

  Mira's body lay on the floor of the chamber where Scott had put it for what seemed to be a long time. Then she moved feebly, and the motion set her to drifting weightlessly.

  "The Zetarians are growing stronger," McCoy said. "The weightless state is their natural condition, after all."

  "Begin pressurizing," Kirk said. "Bring it up to two atmospheres."

  Spock turned a rheostat slowly. There seemed to be no change in Mira. Theoretically, there should begin to be some sort of feedback system going into oper-ation between Mira's nervous system, as it responded to pressures on her body not natural to her, and the occupying wave patterns of the Zetarian brain; but no such effect was evident yet.

  "Two atmospheres, Captain."

  "Increase at the rate of one atmosphere a minute."

  "Wait a minute, Jim," McCoy said. "Not even a deep-sea diver experiences pressure increases at that rate. They take it slowly, a few atmospheres at a time."

  "That's just what I'm counting on, Bones. If it's something Mira can adapt to, there'll be no adverse effect on her, and hence none on them. Run it up as ordered, Mr. Spock."

  His hands darting, Spock tied the pressure rheostat into circuit with a timer. "Rising now as ordered, Captain."

  A quick glance at the big bourdon gauge showed this. Kirk glued his face back to the
glass.

  Still nothing seemed to be happening, except that Mira's head was now lolling from side to side.

  "Jim, you're going to kill her at this rate!"