Mission to Horatius

by Mack Reynolds

  Dr. McCoy snorted his opinion of that and turned back to Captain Kirk. "I would have to analyze it further in my laboratory on the ship; however, this drink contains a very effective hallucinogen, related, I suspect, to what was once called lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-twenty-five, on Earth. Its use in the Federation has long been discontinued, even by medical authorities."

  Captain Kirk said to the Supreme Exarch, "Is this the cooperation you referred to? I note, by the way, that although your so-called churls and some of your younger temple monks seem to be under the influence of this hallucinogen, you, yourself, and your senior priests obviously don't take it."

  The other's eyes narrowed. "I did not mention cooperation, Captain Kirk. I said that I have decided to accept your assistance. For your information, when our ancestors first arrived here on Mythra they brought few weapons, and, over the years, even many of these have fallen into disuse."

  Spock said, "Evidently a good many scientific discoveries have fallen into disuse on this planet. On the face of it, your culture is going backward, rather than advancing. Your priesthood, which abstains from this anodyne, is not great enough to maintain a high level of scien ce, and your drug-bemused churls haven't the intelligence."

  The Supreme Exarch's eyes hardened at that, but he shook his head in rejection and turned back to Captain Kirk. "Now we require some of the weapons which you evidently have on your ship, to repulse the space pirates whose raids come ever more often. So I demand that you release such weapons to us."

  Kirk shook his head. "I wouldn't do that, even if Federation law allowed me to. Your government is obviously incapable of intelligent use of advanced tools of destruction. We would have no guarantee that you wouldn't use them against your own people or against any future starships that might visit here."

  The Supreme Exarch turned his eyes to Ensign Chekov. "My son," he said, "give me whatever weapons you bear on your person."

  And Chekov stepped forward and put his phaser in the outstretched hand of the Mythran.

  On his face was the happy bemusement of those who had taken anodyne.

  6. RATNAPPED

  The other five of the group from the Enterprise stared at Chekov in utter disbelief.

  McCoy blurted, "He took it. Before I had time to warn you all and before I analyzed the evil stuff, he must have taken a sip."

  Captain Kirk darted a look from the Mythran to Ensign Chekov and back again. "And now I suppose you consider that this junior officer of mine is in your power."

  The Supreme Exarch was examining the phaser. "Its workings seem simple enough," he mused. "More advanced than our own side arms. Undoubtedly you can supply us with an ample number, along with other weapons." He turned his eyes to Ensign Chekov, who was staring happily at him. "You answer the captain's question, my son. Are you in my power?"

  Chekov said blissfully, "All power is in the hands of Your Extreme Holy. Command me; I obey."

  The Mythrans who were gathered about the throne chuckled. Their leader, also amused, turned back to Captain Kirk. "And you will feel the same when you have taken your anodyne, Captain."

  James Kirk looked at his officers. "Comments, gentlemen?"

  Dr. McCoy blurted out, "They'll have their work cut out getting me to take any of that poison."

  "Or me," Scotty snapped.

  The Supreme Exarch said with deceptive mildness, "I suggest to you, Captain Kirk, that the life of your young officer is in my hands. I have only to request it and he will gladly commit suicide. Does this affect your opinions?"

  Captain Kirk opened his mouth to bark a reply, but Spock spoke up.

  "Ah, Captain. I suggest that we are in an untenable position, and hence that you demonstrate to His Extreme Holy the other device that you carry."

  Kirk stared at him, and for a moment the Vulcan was afraid that his superior had failed to get his message. But then the captain's eyes widened ever so slightly, and he put his hand in his tunic and drew out his communicator.

  The Mythrans stared at it suspiciously.

  Captain Kirk said, "Its workings are simple." He lifted the antenna grill.

  "Cover him," the Supreme Exarch snapped, and a dozen of the primitive phasers that were the side arms of the Mythrans were immediately trained on Kirk and the others.

  Captain Kirk made a shrug of deprecation. "By Federation law my hands are largely tied, so far as doing harm to you is concerned. However, if there were any possible way for us to escape, we would."

  Warren, ruler of all Mythra, chuckled. "There is none," he said. "Your junior officer is under my domination. And the rest of you are covered by my priests. Tell me what this new device does."

  But at that moment the group from the Enterprise, including Ensign Chekov, turned misty and disappeared, leaving a collection of gaping pseudopriests behind them.

  Back in the transporter room the group materialized on the circular platform from which they had been beamed down to the surface of Mythra less than an hour earlier.

  Ensign Chekov, his face still smiling, but a worried strangeness in his eyes, protested, "But I do not want to leave Mythra."

  Captain Kirk didn't even bother to look at him, but strode down the steps from the light panel upon which he had materialized and confronted the intercom viewing screen.

  He barked into it, "Security Lieutenants Kellum and Masaryk, report to the transporter room immediately, if you please."

  The others were following him down into the room. Captain Kirk looked at Dr. McCoy. "Your opinion about the condition of this young fool, Bones?"

  The doctor shrugged and looked at the younger man, thinly veiling his disgust "I'll have to look him over in the sick bay. However, in view of the fact that that phony priesthood evidently makes each citizen take anodyne every day, it obviously wears off in a twenty-four-hour period."

  Masaryk and Kellum hurried into the transporter room, mystified.

  Kirk said, "You will escort Ensign Chekov to the sick bay and keep close watch over him until further orders. I said close watch. Mr. Chekov is a very sick man, and for the moment I'm afraid that he cannot be trusted."

  "But I don't want to leave Mythra," Chekov wailed. However, he submitted amiably enough to the two security men and marched obediently from the compartment.

  Kirk said to the transporter officer, "A bit of delicate thievery is in order. Down below, in the temple, in the same room from which you just rescued us, is Ensign Chekov's phaser, probably still in the hands of the so-called Supreme Exarch. I would think that with a bit of fine work with tractor beam and transporter you could recover it"

  "Aye, aye, sir." The transporter officer turned to his controls, frowning in concentration.

  "And, mister, let me congratulate you on your prompt cooperation in that ridiculous situation."

  The transporter officer grinned at him. "Your message couldn't have been clearer, Captain. When you said into your communicator that if there were any possible way for you to escape, you would, I just beamed you up."

  The captain looked around at the rest. "Let's adjourn to the briefing room and go over this."

  A short time later, still disgusted, James Kirk took the end chair at the large _table in the briefing room and motioned the others to be seated.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "let us have comments on this fouled-up situation."

  "Comments?" said Dr. McCoy. "I'll make a comment. This silly mission is a wild-goose chase. I suggest we make our way back to the nearest Starfleet Command Center."

  "I might have known better than to ask your opinion, Bones. Your feelings are already on record. What about you, Scotty?"

  Montgomery Scott said slowly, "One thing seems fairly obvious, Captain. Mythra was not the source of the distress call, nor is it the base of the beastie raiders of Neolithia."

  The captain frowned thoughtfully. "From what you saw, you don't think they have the technology either to send such a call nor to cross space to Neolithia?"

  Scott shook his head decisive
ly.

  Spock added, "Besides, what technology they have is in the hands of the so-called priests. They would hardly issue a call for help-when they were so anxious to keep from us the manner in which they have dominated their people."

  "I think you're correct. The question now becomes this What are we to do about Mythra and our friend the Supreme Exarch?"

  Scott snapped, "What can we do? General Order Number One prevents us from interfering with the internal affairs of that beastie planet and particularly any institutions such as religion."

  Spock said thoughtfully, "Whatever the original colonists might have believed in, certainly today the United Temple is made up of a small group of corrupt men who have, through drugs, seized control of the whole planet and enslaved the people."

  "Unfortunately," Kirk mused, "we are too far from the nearest star base to get instructions within any reasonable time, even utilizing subspace and space warp communications. However, they would hardly authorize a deliberate military attack upon Mythra's government. We are far, far away from Federation jurisdiction."

  Dr. McCoy said slowly, "Perhaps an attack on our part wouldn't be required, Jim."

  They all looked at him.

  "I'd have to put it on my laboratory computers, of course, but as I recall the hallucinogens, a very minute amount of the drugs is usually required to cause the effect they have upon the brain."

  Kirk said, "What's that got to do with it, Bones?"

  "Also, a very small amount of antidote would be required to counteract the effect"

  "Very interesting indeed," Spock said, "but I fail to see the connection with our problem, Doctor."

  But McCoy was continuing to muse. "I wonder just how long it would take for the people of Mythra to revolt against their pseudopriest masters if they were freed of the effects of the anodyne."

  Scott said impatiently, "How could you free them from its effects, mon? The confounded religion calls for every citizen on the planet-save the head laddies themselves-to take the stuff daily. They're under its beastie effects twenty-four hours a day."

  The doctor was continuing to think his way along, even as he talked. "As I remember, when we first scanned the capital of Mythra on the bridge viewing screen, it was notable that the city's water supply consisted of but one reservoir."

  Light was beginning to come through to both Spock and Captain Kirk.

  Spock said thoughtfully, "Just how minute a quantity of antidote would be required?"

  "As I say, I'll have to put it on the computers. In fact, I'll have to analyze this anodyne drug. Happily, we have poor Chekov all dosed up with it, and I can use him for my analysis."

  Kirk came to a quick decision. "Very well, Bones. Go to work on it immediately. Turn out an antidote for the anodyne. We'll manufacture a sufficient quantity to dose the whole reservoir. Your point is obvious. Everybody has to drink water every day. We'll free the capital city of Mythra, at least, from the anodyne before the Supreme Exarch and his gang know what's happened. Then it will be up to the Mythrans themselves to throw off their yoke, first in their cap ital city, and then, town by town, over the rest of the planet The senior priesthood is a mere handful. It would seem that freedom, once given a start, would avalanche from town to town."

  He stood, preparatory to leaving for the bridge. "If all goes well, we can beam your antidote down to the reservoir at night, and not a soul on Mythra will be the wiser."

  Dr. Leonard McCoy looked up from the screen of his medical computer at his head nurse. There was a spark of humor in his eye and jubilation in his voice.

  "Why, this is considerably simpler than I had even hoped for. Whoever, among those pseudopriests, first concocted this psychedelic tranquilizer was obviously unacquainted with other than the primitive research in the field."

  Christine Chapel said, "As you know, Dr. McCoy, I have several degrees in research medicine, but I must admit my studies of the hallucinogens have been neglected. The universities in which I worked seemed to have reached the conclusion that they were old hat"

  The doctor was still chortling happily, even as he made a few notes. "One fascinating aspect of working on a starship such as the Enterprise, nurse. Somewhere in the reaches of the galaxy you will find just about anything-in medicine, or otherwise. On one planet the inhabitants will still be utilizing boomerangs in warfare; on another, aspirin is still used as a cure for headache."

  "Aspirin?" She frowned. "It seems to me as though I may have read something about that as a student of medical history."

  "A white crystalline derivative of salicylic acid," he said absently. He stared at the notes he had taken. "I think I'll take this down to Scotty. We could probably make it ourselves right here, but I hate to use up so much of our remaining supplies. And he should have most of this in basic chemical stores."

  "We are running terribly short," she agreed.

  Dr. McCoy left the sick bay, still highly pleased with himself, went out into the corridor, and took the first turbo-lift. He requested the senior engineering officer's office and within minutes was in Scotty's presence.

  The Scotsman, seated behind his desk, a welter of reports before him, looked up. "Well, Bones, is it important? I'm in a wee bit of a dither here."

  McCoy said happily, "Can you do me up about ten pounds of this, Scotty? If you can, we're in the anti-phony-priesthood business."

  "Already?" Scotty said. He frowned down at the notes. "Is this all? You mean if we drop only ten pounds of this in that wee loch they have in the hills above their town, the beastie effects of that anodyne will be ended?"

  "For at least a week"

  Scott threw a switch, then read from the reports into a desk mike.

  He came to his feet. "Let's go, mon. We can pick it up on our way to the transporter room."

  It was McCoy's turn to be taken aback. "It will be ready so soon?"

  The engineer looked at him loftily. "It took the medical department less than an hour to concoct it Why do you think it should take my chemical engineers more than ten minutes to manufacture it?"

  "Pardon me," Dr. McCoy said dryly.

  In the transporter room they found the transporter officer to whom the captain had given the job of retrieving Ensign Chekov's phaser. He was chuckling. The phaser in question was sitting on the console.

  He said, without need of further explanation, "You should have seen the look on his face."

  Dr. McCoy held up his ten-pound package of antidote. "And here is our return present to our friend the Supreme Exarch."

  The other frowned, not understanding.

  The doctor said, "This is your department, not mine. All we want you to do is transport this down to their reservoir."

  Scott said, "Aye, and I think possibly it had better materialize about twenty feet under the surface. Give it plenty of time to dissolve before there is any chance of anybody spotting it Whoosh, that bunch are going to have the surprise of their lives."

  The transporter officer shrugged his lack of comprehension, but took the packet and carried it toward the circular platform and one of its six light panels.

  In a matter of minutes the antidote had been transported to the Mythran reservoir. It was all that the crew of the Enterprise could do. The Supreme Exarch's subjects would have their chance at freedom.

  Sulu entered the wardroom, put his hands on his hips, and looked about accusingly. Only a dozen or so were present, and most of them were obviously burdened with the depressing air of boredom which was now suffusing the whole ship.

  Someone called, "Are we on the new course to ... what's the name of this final planet?"

  "Bavarya, wasn't it?" someone else said listlessly.

  Sulu nodded. "We're on the new course," he said, still eyeing them suspiciously.

  Someone else called, "How's Chekov?"

  "He's completely recovered," Sulu replied. "And the Mythran operation came off like a dream.... I'd like to know if it was one of you jokers."

  Uhura, who had been fiddlin
g with her guitar while scowling at its missing two strings, looked up to say, "What are you talking about, Sulu?"

  "Somebody ratnapped Mickey while I was busy with Grang."

  Now everyone looked at him as though he had suddenly gone off his rocker.

  "Did what?" Lieutenant Chang said.

  "Mickey's been stolen."

  "Oh, don't be ridiculous," Freeman said, an edge of irritation in his voice. "Who'd steal a rat? Besides, how could anyone hide him? I'll bet you left the door to your quarters open and he got away. Have you had the doc check you for cafard?"

  "I'm sure he'll turn up, Sulu," Uhura said. "He's probably running up and down the corridors this very minute looking for something to eat He'll be happy when he's caught"

  Sulu said darkly, "The door to my quarters was closed, and, what's more, I had him in a cage which the boys in the metals workshop did up for me. He couldn't have gotten away on his own."

  He sat down abruptly and glared around at them.

  However, if facial expression meant anything, all present were innocent of the crime of ratnapping.

  Freeman repeated, "But who'd want to steal a rat?"

  Lieutenant Chang said, "He'll turn up." She looked over at the communications officer. "Uhura, what kind of a tune can you coax out of that box with only three strings left?"

  Uhura looked wry. "Not much, I'm afraid. But how's this?"

  She began to strum, then hum, preparing to sing.

  A string went ping.

  It was on the following watch that Communications Officer Uhura looked up suddenly.

  "Captain!"

  "Yes, Lieutenant?" Captain James Kirk had been sitting quietly in his command chair, brooding. An hour earlier he had had another session with Dr. McCoy, who had reported twenty crewmen now in stasis. Kirk was beginning to suspect that the doctor might be correct, that this whole assignment was meaningless. Except for the fact that raiders from space were hitting both Neolithia and Mythra, he would have been tempted to admit defeat and return to the nearest star base for the rest and refitting which he, as well as McCoy, was fully aware the Enterprise needed.