Star Trek - Blish, James - 06

by 06(lit)

  Kirk did not respond. The chamber was beginning to look hazy, as though water were beginning to condense out of the atmosphere inside it-but that couldn't be, because water vapor didn't condense ex-cept to a decrease in pressure-

  The fogginess increased, and became luminescent. In a moment more, the chamber was pulsating with the multiple lights of the Zetar life force. It grew brighter and brighter for several seconds.

  "Jim, you can't-"

  Kirk silenced the surgeon with a savage gesture. Almost at the same moment, the lights vanished, and with them the fog.

  "Cut, Spock!"

  There was the snap of a toggle. Mira's eyes were now open. She looked entirely normal, though a little bewildered at finding herself floating in midair. Scott snatched up the microphone which fed the intercom in the tank.

  "Don't move, Mira! It's going to be all right! They're gone-they're gone!"

  Kirk turned away and gestured to McCoy to take over.

  "Reduce pressure very very gradually, Mr. Spock," the surgeon said.

  "It will tax Mr. Scott's patience, Doctor."

  "We have all the time in the world, now," Scott said, his eyes glowing.

  "Precisely," McCoy said. "And after all this, we don't want to lose the subject to a simple case of the bends. Lieutenant, lie perfectly still; you're in free fall and the slightest movement may bounce you off the chamber walls-and I don't want even the slightest bruise. Don't move at all, just take deep regular breaths... that's it... Mr. Spock, restore gravity very gradually. I want her to ground without even a jar... Mira, don't hold your breath. Breathe deeply and continuously... That's it-in, out, in, out, keep it steady... Fine. You won't be out of there for another two hours, so you might as well relax. The battle's over, anyhow."

  There was a deep sigh all around. Perhaps Mira had given up holding her breath, but it was evident that she had not been alone.

  "Spock," Kirk said, "is it possible for you to judge the long-range mental effects on the Lieutenant?"

  "I am not an expert, Captain, and bear in mind that Lt. Romaine's mind was invaded by something quite inhuman. However, despite Starfleet's judgment of her pliancy, she put up a valiant struggle to retain her identity. I would propose that that augurs well."

  "Spock is right, Jim," McCoy said, to Kirk's sur-prise. "While the truth was hard for her to take, when it was brought out, the girl reacted well. The struggle she put up in this experience, I would say, will strengthen her whole ego structure."

  "Would either of you credit Scotty's steadfast belief in her as a factor?"

  Spock's eyebrow arched suspiciously. "You mean 'love' as a motivation? Humans claim a great deal for that particular emotion. It is possible, but-"

  "No 'buts' at all," McCoy said. "It was a deciding factor-and will be, in the girl's recovery."

  "Then, do I understand you both agree that Lt. Romaine need not return to Starbase for further treat-ment?"

  "I would say," Spock said, "that work is the better therapy."

  "Absolutely, Jim."

  "Scotty, unsmash your nose from that port and give us a sober opinion. How is Lt. Romaine now?"

  "Beautiful, Captain."

  "Ready to return to work?"

  "Positively, Captain."

  There was an exchange of grins all around. Then Kirk turned to the intercom. "Kirk to bridge."

  "Sulu here, Captain."

  "Set course for Memory Alpha. Lt. Romaine has lots of work to do there."

  THE APPLE

  (Max Ehrlich and Gene L Coon)

  Even from orbit, Gamma Trianguli VI seemed both beautiful and harmless, as close to an earthly paradise as the Enterprise had ever encountered. Such planets were more than rare, and Kirk thought for a few moments that he might have happened upon a colo-nizable world-until the sensors indicated that there was already native humanoid life there.

  He duly reported the facts to Starfleet Command, who seemed to be as impressed as he was. Their orders were to investigate the planet and its culture. Under the circumstances, Kirk ordered a landing party of six: himself, Spock, Chekov, Yeoman Martha Landon, and two security guards, Marple and Kaplan.

  Carrying tricorders and specimen bags, the party materialized in what might almost have been a gar-den. Large exotic flowers grew in profusion, and there were heavily laden fruit trees. Here and there, out-croppings of rainbow-colored rock competed with the floral hues, and over it all stretched a brilliant, cloudless day. Feeling a sudden impulse to share all this beauty as widely as possible, Kirk called down McCoy and two more security guards-Mallory and Hendorf, as it turned out.

  McCoy looked around appreciatively. "I might just put in a claim for all this and settle down."

  "I doubt that the natives would approve, Bones," Kirk said. "But it is pretty spectacular."

  "A shame we have to intrude."

  "We do what Starfleet tells us."

  Spock, who had knelt to inspect the soil, arose. "Remarkably rich and fertile, Captain. Husbandry would be quite efficacious here."

  "You're sure about that?" Kirk said, amused without quite knowing why.

  "Quite sure. Our preliminary readings indicate the entire planet is covered by growth like this. Quite curious. Even at the poles there is only a slight varia-tion in temperature, which maintains a planet-wide average of seventy-six degrees."

  "I know," Kirk said. "Meteorologically, that's almost impossible."

  "It makes me homesick, Captain," Chekov said. "Just like Russia."

  "It's a lot more like the Garden of Eden, Ensign," McCoy said.

  "Of course, Doctor. The Garden of Eden was just outside Moscow. A very nice place. It must have made Adam and Eve very sad to leave."

  Kirk stared at him; Chekov seemed completely straight-faced and earnest. Was this just another of his outbreaks of Russian patriotism, or some side effect of his developing romance with Yeoman Landon? "All right. There's a village about seventeen ki-lometers away on bearing two thirty-two. We'll head that way."

  "Captain!" The call had come from Hendorf, who was examining one of the plants: a small bush with large pods, at the center of each of which was a cluster of sharp, thick thorns. "Take a look at-"

  With only a slight puff of noise, one of the pods exploded. Hendorf staggered and looked down at his chest. Perhaps a dozen thorns were sticking in a neat group near his heart. He opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, and then collapsed.

  McCoy was there first, but only a quick examina-tion was needed. "He's dead."

  "What was all that about Paradise?" Kirk said grim-ly. He took out his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise.... Mr. Scott, we've already had a casualty. Hendorf has been killed by a poisonous plant at these coordinates. As soon as we've moved out of the way, beam up his body."

  "Aye, Captain. That's a shame about Hendorf." Scott paused a moment. "We seem to have a little problem up here, too. We're losing potency in the antimatter banks. I don't think it's serious, but we're looking into it."

  "What's causing it?"

  "We're not sure. We've run measurements of the electromagnetic field of the planet, and they're a wee bit abnormal. Could have something to do with it."

  "Well, stay on top of it. Kirk out."

  "I find that odd, Captain," Spock said.

  "So do I. But Scotty'll find the problem. Turn up anything with your tricorder?"

  "Indeed, sir. Most puzzling. There are strong vibra-tions under the surface, for miles in every direction."

  "Subsurface water?"

  "I don't believe so. They are quite strong and rea-sonably regular. Though I have no evidence to sup-port it, I feel that they are artificially produced. I will, of course, continue to investigate."

  "Of course. It may tie in with Scotty's trouble. Ensign Mallory, we'll be heading for the village. Go ahead and scout it out. Avoid contact with the hu-manoids, but get us a complete picture. And be care-ful. There may be other dangers besides poisonous plants. Keep in constant communicator touch."

&n
bsp; "Aye aye, sir."

  Spock held up a hand and froze. "Captain," he said, very softly. "I hear something..." He swung his tricorder. "Humanoid... a few feet away... moving with remarkable agility... bearing eighteen."

  Kirk made a quick, surreptitious gesture to the two remaining security guards, who nodded and disappeared in opposite directions in the brush. Kirk moved cautiously forward along the bearing. But there was nobody there. Puzzled, he turned back.

  "What is it?" Chekov said.

  "A visitor," Spock said. "One wanting to retain his anonymity, I would say."

  Martha Landon, who had been sticking close to Chekov throughout, shivered.

  "What's the matter?"

  "Oh, nothing, I suppose," the girl said. "But... all this beauty... and now Mr. Hendorf dead, somebody watching us. It's frightening."

  "If you insist on worrying, worry about me," Chekov said. "I've been wanting to get you in a place like this for a long time."

  She beamed at him; obviously nothing could make her happier. Kirk said sharply: "Mr. Chekov, Yeoman Landon, I know you find each other fascinating, but we did not come here to carry out a field experiment in human biology. If you please-"

  "Of course, Captain," Chekov said, hurriedly break-ing out his tricorder. "I was just about to take some readings."

  Kirk rejoined Spock and McCoy, shaking his head. "Nothing. Whoever it is, it moves like a cat."

  "Jim, I don't like this."

  "Neither do I, Bones, but we have an assignment to carry out. All hands. We've been watched, and we'll probably be watched. Move out-formation D-no stragglers."

  The start of the maneuver brought Spock to an outcropping of the rainbow-colored rock. He picked up a piece, studied it, and applied slight pressure. The lump broke into two unequal parts.

  "Most interesting. Extremely low specific gravity. Some uraninite, hornblende, quartz-but a number of other compounds I cannot immediately identify. An analysis should be interesting."

  He tucked the smaller portion into his specimen bag, and tossed the larger piece away. When it hit the ground, there was a small but violent explosion.

  Kirk, shaken, looked around, but no one had been hurt. "You wouldn't mind being a little more careful where you throw rocks, Mr. Spock?"

  Spock stared at the outcropping. "Fascinating. Ob-viously highly unstable. Captain, if indeed this mate-rial is as abundant elsewhere as it is here, this is a find of some importance. A considerable source of power."

  "Humph. A Garden of Eden-with land mines." His communicator buzzed. "Kirk here. What is it, Scotty?"

  "Our antimatter banks are completely inert. I couldn't stop it. But I found out why. There's a trans-mission of some sort, a beam, from the surface. It affects antimatter like a pail of water on a fire. We're trying to analyze it, but it pinpoints in the area of the village you're approaching, so maybe you could act more effectively from down there."

  "Well try. Kirk out... Mr. Spock, could this corre-late with the vibrations you detected? A generator of some land?"

  "Possibly. If so, an immense one. And undoubtably subterranean-Jim!"

  With a shout, Spock leapt forward and knocked Kirk to the ground. When Kirk got back to his feet, more astonished than angry, Spock was staring at a dozen thorns neatly imbedded in his chest. Then the Vulcan slowly crumpled and fell.

  "Spock! McCoy, do something!"

  McCoy was already there. "Still alive." He dipped into his kit, came up with his air hypo, inserted a cartridge and gave Spock a shot, seemingly all in one smooth motion. Then, after a moment, he looked up at Kirk. "Not responding, Jim. We'll have to get him to the ship."

  "And not just him. We're overextended." Kirk took out his communicator. "Scotty? We're beaming back up, all of us. Notify the Transporter Room. And make arrangements to pick up Ensign Mallory; he's scouting ahead of us."

  "Aye aye, sir... Transporter Room, stand by to beam up landing party... Standing by, Captain."

  "Energize."

  The sparkle of the Transporter effect began around them. The surroundings started to fade out... and then wavered, reappeared, faded, reappeared and stabilized.

  "Mr. Scott! What's wrong?"

  "No Transporter contact, Captain. The entire sys-tem seems to be inhibited. The way it is now, we couldna beam up a fly."

  "Any connection with the warp drive malfunction?"

  "I dinna ken, skipper, but I'll check on it, and get back to you. Scott out."

  Kirk started to turn back to McCoy, then halted with astonishment as he saw Spock stirring. The Vul-can sat up weakly, looking distinctly off his normal complexion.

  "Spock!"

  "I am quite all right, Captain... A trifle dizzy..."

  "Bones?"

  "It must be hard to poison that green Vulcan blood. And then there was the shot. I guess he just took a while bouncing back."

  "Just what did you think you were doing?" Kirk demanded, helping Spock up.

  "I saw that you were unaware of that plant, so I-"

  "So you took the thorns yourself!"

  "I assure you I had no intention of doing so. My own clumsiness prevented me from moving out of the way."

  "I can jump out of the way as well as the next man. Next time you're not to get yourself killed. Do you know how much money Starfleet has invested in you?"

  "Certainly. In training, fifteen thousand, eight hun-dred a year; in pay up to last month-"

  "Never mind, Spock. But... thanks."

  "Jim," McCoy said, "the more I think about this place, the more I get an idea that... Well, it's kind of far out, but..."

  "Go on, Bones."

  "Well, when bacteria invade a human body, the white corpuscles hurry to the invasion point and try to destroy the invader. The mind isn't conscious of it. The body just does it."

  "You might be right, Bones. Not only is something after us, but I think it's also after the ship."

  Spock shook his head. "To affect the ship at this extreme range, Captain, would require something like a highly sophisticated planetary defense system. It would hardly seem possible-"

  He stopped as the group was suddenly enveloped in shadow. They turned as one and stared at the sky. Great towering masses of storm clouds were gathering there. It was impossible; thirty seconds ago the sky had been cloudless. An ominous rumble confirmed that the impossible was indeed happening.

  With a deafening clap of thunder, a jagged, blue-white stab of lightning flashed in their midst, tum-bling them all like ninepins.

  Then the shadow lifted. Kirk got up cautiously. At the spot where the security guard named Kaplan had been standing, there was now only a spot of charred, smoking earth. Helpless, at a loss for words, furious, Kirk stared at it, and then back at the sky as Spock joined him.

  "A beautiful day, Mr. Spock," Kirk said bitterly. "Not a cloud in the sky. Just like Paradise."

  His communicator beeped. "Mallory here, Captain. I'm near the village. Coordinates one-eighteen by two-twenty. The village is-" Mallory's voice was in-terrupted by a blast of static.

  "What was that, Mallory? I don't read you."

  "I'm getting static too. I said it's primitive-strictly tribal from the looks of it. But there's something else-"

  Another tearing squeal of static. Mallory's voice stopped. Kirk could not get him back.

  "Captain," Spock said, "those coordinates were only a few thousand meters off that way."

  "Let's go! On the double!"

  They crashed off. As they broke out of the other side of the undergrowth, Kirk saw Mallory running toward them over a field littered with rainbow-colored rocks.

  "Over there, Captain," the security guard shouted. It's--"

  He had turned his head as he ran, to point. It was impossible to tell exactly what happened next. Per-haps he stubbed his toe. A rock exploded directly under him.

  By the time they reached him, no check by McCoy was needed. His body lay unmoving, bloody, broken.

  Kirk, shaken, closed his eyes for a moment
. First Hendorf, then Kaplan. He had known Kaplan's family. And Mallory... Mallory's father had helped Kirk into the Academy...

  Spock took his arm, waving the others off.

  "Captain... in each case, it was unavoidable."

  "You're wrong, Spock. I should have beamed us all up the minute things started to go wrong."

  "You were under orders. You had no choice."