Star Trek 10

by James Blish

  The old scholar had pushed the black book before the chief. Cloud William lifted it to kiss it reverently before he opened it. Kirk saw that its worn gold-lettered title was still legible. It read "Holy Bible." A wrinkled hand extended a finger to point to a page.

  Many old Bibles contained illustrations. If this one pictured drawings of Lucifer's aides, one of them might bear some resemblance to Spock. One apparently did. Cloud William looked at Spock. Then he looked back at Kirk.

  "You command the demon," Tracy said to Kirk. "Everyone has seen it." He wheeled to the chief. "You want more proof? The demon has no heart! Put your ear to him!"

  Guards had seized Spock. The chief left the table.

  McCoy cried, "His heart is different! The Vulcan internal organs are—"

  "I have seen his sorcery," said Cloud William. He fingered the back of his neck. "When he touched my woman there, she fell into sleep." He crossed to Spock and solemnly placed his ear against the Science Officer's chest. Listening, a frown began to gather on his forehead. He straightened up. "He has no heart."

  The room burst into terrified yells. They subsided as Cloud William raised his right arm. Then he hurried back to his ancient mentor. "There is a way," he was told. Painfully, the aged scholar moved to a large ornate box at the end of the table. Cloud William nodded in obvious relief.

  "The greatest of holies," he said. "Chiefs and the sons of chiefs may speak the words . . . but the tongue of the Evil One would surely turn to fire." He looked straight at Kirk and Tracy. "I will begin and you will finish." He closed his eyes, chanting, "Ee'd pebnista nordor former fektunun . . ."

  His lids lifted. He waited.

  There was something unplaceable but familiar in the chanted words. As Kirk struggled to identify them, Tracy cried out, "He fears to speak them for indeed his tongue would burn with fire! Kill his servant unless he speaks, so we may see if the words burn him!"

  A Yang knife was poised at Spock's abdomen. The clamor for blood turned the room into bedlam. Cloud William, his face deeply troubled, had given the signal for the knife plunge when Kirk shouted, "No! Wait! There's a better way! Your sacred book, does it not promise good is stronger than evil?"

  "Captain . . ." But over Spock's protest rang out the voice of the young Yang woman of the jail cell. "Yes, it is so written! Good will always destroy evil!"

  "It is written," said the old scholar.

  The guards had bound both Kirk and Tracy. Now a Yang warrior cut their thongs. The room had been cleared of furniture. In its central space Cloud William drove two razor-sharp knives into the floorboards. Kirk tried to rub circulation back into his numbed hands.

  "Careful, Jim," McCoy said. "I've found Evil usually triumphs unless Good is very, very careful."

  Kirk nodded wordlessly. He walked over to where the two knives thrust upward from the flooring.

  "The fight is done when one is dead," Cloud William said. Lifting his arm, he dropped it swiftly, shouting, "Hola!"

  Tracy was the first to reach his knife. He shoulder-butted Kirk aside and kicked his knife away. Then he lunged, knife raised. Kirk met him and, seizing his wrist, immobilized the down-thrust. They locked in a wrestle, straining against each other for an opening.

  McCoy muttered, "We've got to do something, Spock."

  Spock strove with his bound hands. "I am open to suggestions, Doctor."

  Kirk broke free. He got a hammerlock on Tracy; but the Exeter Captain, wriggling himself out of it, was carried away by the momentum of his own move. Kirk stooped and scooped up his knife. The two began a wary circling of each other.

  Spock suddenly became conscious of eyes. They belonged to Cloud William's young woman. He saw a tremor pass over her as their eyes locked. Half-fascinated, half-repelled, she tore her gaze from his. Then she looked at him again. He beckoned her toward him with his head. McCoy saw the gesture. "What are you doing?" he said.

  "Making suggestions," Spock said.

  Tracy had nicked Kirk. As he withdrew his knife, Kirk drove at him with a swift thrust; but Tracy parried the slash and the young woman, unnoticed, began to make her way through the shouting warriors. Edging along the wall, she reached the table that still held the old documents, the books and the communicator. She paused, glancing back at the two fighting men. Tracy's knife flashed out, cutting Kirk's sleeve and arm. Blood dripped to the floor. But the young woman had the communicator. Holding it so that it couldn't be seen, she moved toward Spock and McCoy. Spock looked up at her. "Do as my mind instructs you, woman," he said.

  "I obey," she said.

  Kirk was losing the fight. His shoulder was slashed now and the crowd howled for more blood. Then Tracy finally made his mistake. Caught off guard by a feint from Kirk, he stumbled. Kirk hauled back—and landed a blow that spun Tracy around and down. Kirk was on him, his knife at his throat. He held it there, his left hand reaching for Tracy's weapon. He wrenched it from him and sent it skidding across the floor to Cloud William's feet. A sudden silence fell over the room.

  "Kill him," Cloud William said. "It is written Good must destroy Evil."

  Kirk lifted the knife from Tracy's throat, rose to his feet and was backing away when he heard a familiar hum in the stillness. He whirled. Sulu and two Security guards had sparkled into shape beside him. Around the room Yang warriors were dropping to their knees. At stiff attention Sulu said, "Sir, we picked up a communicator signal but we couldn't raise anyone. Adding that to—"

  "We'll discuss it later, Lieutenant. Put Captain Tracy under arrest. Now, Cloud William . . ."

  The Yang chief had crawled to his feet. "You are a great God servant, and we shall be your slaves."

  Kirk reached down, lifting him to his feet. "Get up! Stand and face me."

  "When you would not say the words of the holy Ee'd Pebnista, I doubted you."

  Kirk said, "I did not recognize the words because you say them badly . . . without meaning."

  The old Yang scholar had lifted the ornate box high in the air. Kirk approached him and gently removed it. He opened it, took out a ragged fragment of ancient parchment. Aghast, the old man cried, "Only the eyes of a chief may see the Ee'd Pebnista!"

  "This was not written for chiefs." Kirk turned. "Hear this, Cloud William. This is your world. But perhaps without violating our laws, we can teach you what your fathers meant by these words."

  He raised the tattered parchment so that all could see it. "Among my people, we carry many such words as this, from many lands, from many worlds. Many are equally good and well respected. But wherever we have gone, there are no words which have ever said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than all the others and with a special pride never written before or since . . . in tall words, proudly saying . . ." He paused.

  "We the people . . ."

  He faced Cloud William. "What you call the Ee'd Pebnista was not for chiefs or kings or warriors or the rich and powerful . . . but for all people. Over the centuries you have slurred the meaning out of the words. They are these . . ."

  Reading from the parchment, he spoke slowly and clearly. "We . . . the . . . people . . . of the United States . . . in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity—do ordain and establish this Constitution."

  He reverently restored the parchment to the box. "Those words," he said, "and the words that follow were not meant only for Yangs. They were for Kohms also."

  "For Kohms?" repeated Cloud William, shocked.

  "They must apply to everyone—or they mean nothing. Do you understand?"

  "I do not fully understand, one named Kirk. But the Holy words will be obeyed. I swear it."

  Kirk left him to address Sulu. "You and your men will have to stay a few days until your bodies pick up immunization and adjust."

  Sulu grinned. "Looks like an interesting place, Captain.
You don't suppose there's a Shanghai or Tokyo down here, too?"

  "There might be at that," Kirk told him. He clicked open the communicator Spock handed him. "Kirk to Enterprise, four to Transport."

  "We're locking in on you, Captain," Uhura said.

  Kirk, Spock and McCoy, Tracy between them, moved together for upbeam.

  As they broke into dazzle, Kirk turned for a last look at the old flag upright in its standard, its stars and its stripes still bright.

  Table of Contents

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE

  THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR

  THE EMPATH

  THE GALILEO SEVEN

  IS THERE IN TRUTH NO BEAUTY?

  A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR

  THE OMEGA GLORY