Star Trek - Blish, James - 06

by 06(lit)

  The bell rang again, louder, longer, more insistent-ly. After checking to see that Chekov and McCoy had the People under control, Kirk and Spock went to the edge of the village. Spock pointed his tricorder toward the cliff.

  "Interesting, Captain. The center of the emanations- Vaal-is somewhat weaker than the readings I've been getting. There are wide variations in energy transmission, as though it is drawing from other sour-ces."

  "Tapping its energy cells?"

  "I would assume so."

  "Right. I think the ship's attempts to pull away must have weakened it considerably. It needs to be fed, but the reserve capacity could hold out for days."

  "If it has to reinforce its energy field to ward off a phaser attack, it will have to draw more heavily on its reserves."

  "My plan exactly, Mr. Spock... Kirk to Enterprise. Open fire as ordered and maintain."

  The phaser beams came down, in long sustained bursts. They were stopped short of the head of Vaal by the force field, but they continued to come down. Sparks flew at the point of contact. A hum rose from Vaal. loud and piercing.

  "Tremendous upsurge in generated power, sir. Ob-viously Vaal is trying to reinforce its energy field."

  "Good. Let's see how long it can do it!"

  The sky darkened. A strong wind began to blow. Strong flashes of lights lit up Vaal's maw, and some smoke began to appear. The hum was now intoler-ably loud, and the wind was howling. Lightning flashed overhead, followed by thunder. The din was terrific.

  Then, almost all at once, the storm clouds dissi-pated, the flashes inside Vaal's mouth stopped, and its eyes went out. The hum too was gone.

  "Kirk to Enterprise. Cease firing."

  "No power generation at all," Spock said. "Vaal is dead."

  "Mr. Scott, status report."

  "Tractor beam gone. Potency returning to antimat-ter banks. I'll put all engineering sections on repairing the circuits immediately. Well have the Transporter working in an hour."

  Kirk felt as though a great weight had slid off his shoulders. "You're rehired, Mr. Scott. When the Transporter's fixed, form an engineering detail with full analytical equipment and beam them down. I think they'll find some interesting things inside that cave. Kirk out... Bones, Chekov. Let them out."

  The People emerged, huddled, frightened, still sob-bing. McCoy came over to Kirk and Spock.

  "Allow me to point out, Captain," Spock said, "that by destroying Vaal, you have also destroyed the Peo-ple of Vaal."

  "Nonsense, Spock!" McCoy said. "It will be the making of these people. Make them stand on their own feet, do things for themselves. They have a right to live like men."

  "You mean they have a right to pain, worry, insecu-rity, tension... and eventually death and taxes."

  "That's all part of it. Yes! Those too!"

  "I hope you will be able to find a way to explain it to them." He nodded toward Akuta, who had moved out of the group toward them, tears streaming down his face.

  "Vaal is dead. You have killed him. We cannot live."

  "You'll live, Akuta," Kirk said gently. "I'll assign some of my people here to help you."

  The girl Sayana was crying quietly. One of the young men, standing by her, obviously wanted to comfort her, but did not know how to start. He made several ineffectual gestures; and then, as if by instinct, his arms went around her waist. She moved closer to him, and her head went onto his shoulder.

  "But," Akuta said, "it was Vaal who put the fruit on the trees, who caused the rain to fall. Vaal cared for us."

  "You'll find that putting fruit on the trees is a relatively simple matter. Our agronomist will help you with that. As for Vaal taking care of you, you'll have to learn to take care of yourselves. You might even like it.

  "Listen to me, all of you. From this day on, you will not depend on Vaal. You are your own masters. You will be able to think what you wish, say what you wish, do what you wish. You will learn many things that are strange, but they will be good. You will discover love; there will be children."

  "What are children?" Sayana said.

  As the young man's arm tightened around her waist, Kirk grinned. "You just go on the way you're going, and you'll find out."

  As Kirk, McCoy and Spock were going toward the bridge, McCoy said: "Spock has an interesting analo-gy, Captain."

  "Yes, Mr. Spock?"

  "I am not at all certain that we have done exactly the right thing on Gamma Trianguli VI, Captain."

  "We put those people back on a normal course of social evolution. I see nothing wrong with that. It's a good object lesson, Spock, in what can happen when your machines become too efficient, do too much of your work for you. Judging by their language, those people must have been among the very first interstel-lar colonists-good hardy stock. They tamed the plan-et, instituted weather control, and turned all jobs of that sort over to a master computer, powered by the plentiful local ore. I suppose the fatal mistake was in giving the computer the power to program itself- and the end product was Vaal... Bones said some-thing about an analogy."

  "Perhaps you will recall the biblical story of Genesis, sir?"

  "I recall it very well, Spock."

  "We found a race of people living in Paradise, much as Adam and Eve did. They were obeying every word of Vaal. We taught them, in effect, to disobey that word. In a manner of speaking we have given Adam and Eve the apple... the awareness of good and evil, if you will... and because of this they have been driven out of Paradise."

  Kirk stopped and swung around on Spock suspi-ciously. "Mr. Spock, you seem to be casting me in the role of Satan. Do I look like Satan?"

  "No, sir. But---"

  "Is there anyone on this ship who looks even remote-ly like Satan?"

  McCoy was grinning broadly. "I am not aware," Spock said stiffly, "of anyone in that category, Cap-tain."

  "No, Mr. Spock. I didn't think you would be."

  BY ANY OTHER NAME

  (D. C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby)

  The landing party answering the distress call con-sisted of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, the security officer Lt. Shea, and Yeoman Leslie Thompson. At first there seemed to be no source at all on the planet for the call-no wrecked spaceship, no debris. Had the ship been destroyed in space and the survivors proceeded here in a shuttle?

  Then two people appeared from the nearby trees, a man and a woman, dressed in outfits rather like Merchant Marine jumpsuits. The woman was lovely, but it was the man who dominated their attention. He looked fortyish, with enormous power in his sturdy frame, great authority and competence in his bearing. Neither of the strangers seemed armed, but Kirk no-ticed that they wore small unobtrusive boxes on their belts. Their hands rested on the belts near the boxes in an attitude so casually assumed that it seemed to be only a part of their stance, but Kirk was wary.

  "I'm Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise. We came in answer to your distress call."

  "It was very kind of you to respond so quickly, Captain. But now you will surrender your ship to me."

  Kirk stared. "You have an odd sense of humor."

  The strangers touched buttons on the boxes. Instantly, Kirk found himself paralyzed- and so, evi-dently, was the rest of the "rescue" party.

  "I am Rojan, of Kelva," the strange man said. "I am your Commander, from this moment on. Efforts to resist us, or to escape, will be severely punished. Soon we, and you, will leave this galaxy forever. You hu-mans must face the end of your existence as you have known it."

  The woman moved forward to relieve the people of the Enterprise of their phasers and communicators. Rojan went on: "You are paralyzed by a selective field that neutralizes impulses to the voluntary mus-cles. I will now release you all, Captain Kirk."

  He touched the belt device. Kirk tensed to jump him, then thought better of it. "A neural field?"

  "Radiated from a central projector, directed at whomever we wish."

  "What do you want?"

  "Your ship, Captain. We have monitored many. The Enterprise- a s
tarship- is the best of its kind in your galaxy. It will serve us well in the long voyage that is to come."

  "Voyage to where?"

  "To your neighboring galaxy, in the constellation you call Andromeda."

  "Why"

  "The Andromeda galaxy is our home," Rojan said in a remote voice.

  "What brought you here?" Spock said.

  "Within ten millennia, high radiation levels will make life in our galaxy impossible; it is reaching the stage in its evolution which will make it what you call a quasar. The Kelvan Empire sent forth ships to explore other galaxies- to search for one which our race could conquer and colonize."

  "Sorry," Kirk said. "This galaxy is occupied."

  "Captain, you think you are unconquerable- your ship impregnable. While we have talked, three of my people have boarded it, and the capture has begun.", He took one of the confiscated communicators from the Kelvan woman and clicked it open. "Subcom-mander Hanar, report."

  "This ship is ours," a strange voice said from the communicator. "We control the bridge, engineering and life support."

  Rojan folded the communicator shut, and stowed it on his own belt.

  "What good is capturing my ship?" Kirk said. "Even at maximum warp, the Enterprise couldn't get to the Andromeda galaxy for thousands of years. It's two million light-years away!"

  "We will modify its engines to produce velocities far beyond the reach of your science. The journey between galaxies will take less than three hundred of your years."

  "Fascinating,'' Spock said, "Intergalactic travel re-quiring 'only' three hundred years is a leap beyond anything man has yet accomplished."

  Yeoman Thompson asked the Kelvan woman: "Did you make a voyage of three hundred years?"

  "Our ships were of multigeneration design," the woman said. "I was born in the intergalactic void. I shall die there, during the return journey."

  "Our mission," Rojan added, "will be completed by a Captain who will be my descendant."

  "What happened to your ship?" Kirk said.

  "There is an energy barrier at the rim of your galaxy-"

  "I know. We've been there."

  "We broke through it with great difficulty. Our ship was destroyed. We barely escaped in a life craft. Our time here has been spent scanning your systems, study-ing you. And now we have the means to begin our journey again."

  "Why use our vessel?" Spock said. "Why not trans-mit a message back to your galaxy?"

  "No form of transmission can penetrate the bar-rier."

  "Rojan," Kirk said, "we could take your problem to our Federation. Research expeditions have catalogued hundreds of uninhabited planets in this galaxy. Surely some of them would be suitable for your colonization."

  "We do not colonize, Captain," Rojan said sharply. "We conquer. We rule. There is no other way for us."

  "In other words," McCoy said, 'this galaxy isn't big enough for both of us'?"

  "What will happen to the intelligent races here?" Kirk said.

  "They will not be mistreated. Merely subordinated." Rojan shrugged. "The fate of the inferior... in any galaxy. Ah, Hanar!"

  While he had been speaking, another Kelvan had popped into being beside him, a younger man, with a hard intelligent face. There was no shimmer or any other such effect comparable to the workings of the Transporter; he just appeared.

  "Tomar has examined the ship," Hanar said. "The modifications are under way."

  "Space again!" said Rojan. "I don't think we could have kept our sanity, living so long on this accursed planet."

  It did not seem to be so accursed to Kirk; in fact it was quite a pleasant, Earthlike place. But Hanar said: "It is an undisciplined environment; one cannot con-trol it Yet there are things of interest."

  "Yes. But-disturbing. These ugly shells in which we have encased ourselves... they have such height-ened senses. How do humans manage to exist in such fragile casings?"

  They did not seem to care at all whether they were overheard, an obvious expression of supreme confi-dence. Kirk listened intently to every word; he had known such self-confidence to be misplaced before.

  "Since the ship is designed to sustain this form," Hanar said, "we have little choice."

  Rojan turned to the woman. "Kelinda, take them to the holding area. We will be keeping you and your party here, Captain. Your crew will undoubtedly prefer to cooperate with us if they understand you are hostages."

  "Move that way," said Kelinda. "Keep together."

  Their jail proved to be a cave, with a door con-structed of some odd-looking transparent material, which Spock and Kirk were examining. Shea was also at the door, looking out, ostensibly watching Kelinda.

  "I'm unable to determine the nature of the materi-al, Captain," Spock said. "But I do not believe even phaser fire could disturb its molecular structure."

  "All right, we can't break out. Maybe we can find another way."

  "Captain," said Yeoman Thompson, "what do they want from us? What land of people are they?"

  "A good question, Yeoman."

  They registered as human," McCoy said.

  "No, more than that, Doctor," Spock said, frowning. "They registered as perfect human life forms. I recall noting that the readings were almost textbook re-sponses. Most curious."

  "Spock," Kirk said, "what are the odds on such a parallel in life forms in another galaxy?"

  "Based on those we have encountered in our own galaxy, the probability of humanoid development is high. But I would say the chances were very much against such an absolute duplication."

  Shea turned slightly from the door. "Well, however perfect they are, sir, there don't seem to be very many of them."

  "But they've got the paralysis field," Kirk said. "Ro-jan mentioned a central projector."

  "If we can put it out of operation," McCoy said, "we've got a chance!"

  "I am constrained to point out," said Spock, "that we do not even know what this projector looks like."

  "No," Kirk said, "but those devices on their belts might indicate the position of the source."

  "I would like to have one to examine."

  "You'll have one, sir," Shea said. "If I have to rip one of the Kelvans apart to get it for you."

  "Lieutenant Shea," Kirk said firmly, "you'll have your chance-but I'll tell you when."

  "Yes, sir."

  Kirk eyed him narrowly; but he could understand the younger officer's defiant attitude toward their captors. "Spock, do you remember how you tricked that guard on Eminiar? The empathic mind touch-ing-"

  "Quite well, Captain. I made him think we had escaped."

  "Can you do it again?"

  "I will attempt it"

  He checked Kelinda, who was standing fairly close to the bars, and then put his hands on the cave wall approximately behind her. Then he began to concen-trate.

  At first the Kelvan woman did not respond. Then she twitched a little, nervously, as though aware that something was wrong, but unable to imagine what. She glanced around, then straightened again.

  Kirk signaled his people to position themselves along the wall, so that from outside the cave would appear to be empty. Then he bent and scooped some dirt from the loose, sandy floor.

  Suddenly Spock broke out of his intense concentra-tion, as though wrenched from it by something be-yond him. He gasped and staggered back against the wall. At the same moment, Kelinda came to the door, opened it quickly and started in.

  Kirk hurled his handful of dirt into her face. She cried out and clawed at her eyes. While she was half blinded, Kirk delivered a karate chop. It sent her sprawling, and, surprisingly, out. Kirk and McCoy dragged her the rest of the way inside.

  "Mr. Spock--?"

  "I... will be... quite all right, Captain. We must hurry."

  "Bones, keep an eye on him. Let's go." He took the belt device from Kelinda and led the way out. He had hardly taken two steps before he was paralyzed again, the device dropping from his limp hands.

  "I am sorry, Captain," said Rojan's vo
ice. He came into view with Hanar, who went into the cave. "The escape attempt was futile. You cannot stop us and you cannot escape us."

  Hanar reappeared. "Kelinda is somewhat bruised, Rojan, but otherwise unhurt."

  Rojan nodded, and turning back to Kirk, released the party from the freeze. "I cannot let this go unpun-ished. This will serve as an example." He pointed to Yeoman Thompson and security chief Shea. "Hanar, take these two aside."