by 05(lit)
Still odder. How could one ship be moving relative to the other when neither was under power? "Keep us within beaming range, but not too close."
"Chekov reporting, Captain. All dead in Life Support and in Engineering as well."
"Right. Get back up here. Bones?"
"More bodies, Jim. Proximate cause of deaths, various forms of violence. In short, I'd say they killed each other."
"Could a mental disease possibly have inflicted all of the crew at once?"
"It may still be here, sir," Chekov said, reappearing. "I feel pretty funny myself-headachy, dizzy."
"I can't answer the question," McCoy's voice said. "Ac-cording to the medical log, even the ship's surgeon here didn't really know what was going on. The best I can do for you is take all the readings I can get and analyze them later. Now what the devil... ?"
"Bones! What's happening?"
There was a brief silence. Then: "Jim, this ship's be-ginning to dissolve! I just put my hand right through a corpse-and then through the wall next to him."
"Get back up here on the double. Kirk to Enterprise. Mr. Scott, stand by to beam us back."
"Captain, I can't. Not all at once, at least."
"What do you mean? What's going on over there?"
"Nothing we can understand," Scott's voice said grimly. "The Defiant is fading out, and it's-well, something is ripping the innards out of our own ship. It's jamming our Transporter frequencies. We've got only three working, and I can't be sure about those. One of you has got to wait."
"Request permission to remain," Spock said. "I could be completing the data."
"It's more important to get what you already have into analysis on the Enterprise. Don't argue. I'll probably be right after you."
But he was not. Within moments after Spock, Chekov and McCoy materialized aboard the Enterprise, the Defiant had vanished.
Scott was at the consoles with the Transporter officer. Spock joined them, removing his helmet, and scanned the board.
"See anything I don't?" Scott said.
"Apparently not. Everything is negative."
McCoy took off his own helmet. "But he's got to be out there somewhere. If the Transporter won't grab him, what about the shuttlecraft? There must be some way to pick him up."
"There is no present trace of the Captain, Doctor," Spock said evenly. "The only next possible action is to feed the computer our data and see what conclusions can be drawn."
The computer was the fastest of its kind, but the wait seemed frustratingly long all the same. At last its pleas-antly feminine voice said: "Integrated."
"Compute the next period of spatial interphase," Spock told it.
"Two hours, twelve minutes."
Spock shut the machine off. Scott was staring at him, aghast. "Is that how long we have to wait before we can pick up the Captain? But, Spock, I don't think I can hold the ship in place that long. The power leak is un-balanced and I haven't been able to trace it, let alone stop it."
"You will have to keep trying," Spock said. "The fabric of space is very weak here. If we disturb it, there will be no chance of retrieving the Captain alive."
Chekov was looking baffled; worse, he was looking positively ill. "I don't understand," he said. "What's so special about this region of space?"
"I can only speculate," Spock said. "We exist in a universe which coexists with a multitude of others in the same physical space, but displaced in time. For certain brief periods, one area of such a space overlaps an area of ours. That is the time of interphase when we connect with the Defiant's universe."
"And retrieve the Captain," Uhura added.
"Perhaps. But the dimensional structure of each universe is totally dissimilar to the others. Any use of power would disturb what can at best be only a tenuous and brief connection. It might also result in our being trapped ourselves..."
"And die like them?" Chekov said raggedly. Suddenly his voice rose to a yell. "Damn you, Spock..."
He sprang. Spock, surprised, was knocked backward, Chekov's hands around his neck. Sulu attempted to drag Chekov off; the enraged man struck out at him. Scott promptly grabbed him by that arm. It was all that they could do to handle him, but the distraction enabled Spock to get in a neck pinch.
"Security guards to the bridge," Spock said to the intercom. "Dr. McCoy, will you also please report?"
McCoy appeared almost at once, taking in the scene at a glance. "He jumped you? My fault, I should have checked him the minute he said he was feeling funny, but there was so much else going on. Anybody notice any spasms of pain? Ah. What about his behavior? Hys-terical? Frightened?"
"He looked more angry than frightened to me," Uhura said. "But there was nothing to be angry about."
"Nevertheless," Spock said, "there were all the signs of a murderous fury. After what we have seen aboard the Defiant, the episode is doubly disturbing."
"I'll say it is," McCoy said. "Guards, take him to sickbay. I'll see what I can find out from seeing the thing in its first stages. Spock, on the other subject, what makes you think Captain Kirk is still alive?"
"The Captain was locked in the Transporter beam when the Defiant phased out, Doctor. It is possible that he was saved the shock of transition. If we do not catch him again at the precise corresponding instant in the next interphase, he will die. There is no margin for error; his environmental unit can supply breathable air for no more than another three point twenty-six hours."
"Mr. Spock," Sulu called from the helm. "A vessel is approaching on an intercept vector."
Spock walked quickly to the command chair, and Scott went back to his post. "Status, Mr. Sulu," Spock said.
"Range, two hundred thousand kilometers and closing. Relative velocity, zero point five one C."
"Red alert," Spock said. The klaxon began to sound throughout the ship. At the same instant, Uhura captured the intruder on the main viewing screen.
The stranger was crystalline in appearance, blue-green in coloration, and shaped like a tetrahedron within which a soft light seemed to pulsate. As the scene materialized, Sulu gasped.
"Stopped dead, Mr. Spock. Now, how do they do that? Range, ninety thousand kilometers and holding."
"Mr. Spock," Uhura said. "I'm getting a visual signal from them."
"Transfer it to die main viewer."
The scene dissolved into what might have been the command bridge of the alien vessel. Most of the frame, however, was occupied by the upper half of an unknown creature. Like its vessel, the alien was almost jewel-like in appearance, multifaceted, crystalline, though it was humanoid in build. A light pulsated rapidly but irregularly inside what seemed to be its head.
"I am Commander Loskene," the creature said at once in good Federation Interlingua. "You are trespassing in a territorial annex of the Tholian Assembly. You must leave this area immediately."
Spock studied Loskene. The pulsating light did not seem to be in synch with the voice. He said formally, "Spock, in command of the Federation Starship Enter-prise. Commander, the Federation regards this area as free space."
"We have claimed it. And we are prepared to use force, if necessary, to hold it."
"We are not interested in a show of force. The Enter-prise has responded to a distress call from one of our ships and is currently engaged in rescue operations. Do you wish to assist us?"
"I find no evidence of a disabled ship. My instruments indicate that ours are the only two vessels in this area."
"The other ship is trapped in an interspatial sink. It should reappear in one hour and fifty minutes. We request that you stand by until then."
"Very well, Enterprise. In the interest of interstellar amity, we will wait. But we will not tolerate deceit."
The view wavered, and then the screen once more showed the Tholian ship. Now there was nothing to do but wait-and hope.
The moment of interphase approached at last. As before, Scott personally took over the Transporter console. In the command chair, Spock watched the clock intentl
y.
"Transporter Room."
"Aye, Mr. Spock. I'm locked onto the Captain's coor-dinates."
"Interphase in twenty seconds... ten seconds... five, four, three, two, one, energize!"
There was a tense silence. Then Scott's voice said, "The platform's empty, Mr. Spock. There's naught at all at those coordinates.'
"Any abnormality to report, Mr. Sulu?"
"The sensor readings don't correspond to those we received the last time we saw the Defiant. Insofar as I can tell, the Tholian entry into the area has disturbed the interphase."
"McCoy to bridge," said the intercom. "Has the Captain been beamed aboard, Mr. Spock?"
"No, Doctor. And the interphase period has been passed. We will have to wait for the next one."
"But he hasn't got enough air for that! And there's been another case like Chekov's. I have had to confine my orderly to sickbay."
"Have you still no clues as to the cause, Doctor?"
"I know exactly what the cause is," McCoy's voice said grimly. "And there's nothing I can do to stop it. The molecular structure of the central nervous system, in-cluding the brain, is being distorted by the space we are in. Sooner or later the whole crew will be affected- unless you get the Enterprise out of here."
"Mr. Spock!" Sulu broke in. "We're being fired upon!"
The announcement came only seconds before the bolt itself struck. The Enterprise lurched, but did not roll.
"Damage control, report," Spock said.
"Minor structural damage to sections A-4 and C-13."
"Engineering, hold power steady. Mr. Sulu, divert all but emergency maintenance power into the shields."
"Sir," Sulu said, "that will reduce phaser power by fifty percent."
Almost as if it had heard him, the Tholian ship darted forward. It seemed to be almost within touching distance before it fired again. This time, the shock threw every-body who was not seated to the floor.
"Engineering to bridge. Mr. Spock, we can't take another like that. Well either have to fight or run."
"Mr. Sulu, lock in phaser tracking controls. Divert power to the phaser banks and fire at the next close approach. Lieutenant Uhura, open a channel to the Tholians."
McCoy came onto the bridge, his face masklike. On the main viewing screen, the pyramidal ship looped around and began another run.
"Spock, what's the use of this battle?" McCoy de-manded. "You've already lost the Captain. Take the ship out of here."
Spock, intent upon the screen, did not answer. The pyramid zigzagged in. Then both vessels fired at once.
The Enterprise rang like a gong and the lights flickered, but the screen showed that the Tholian, too, had sustained a direct hit. There was no visible damage, but the pyramid had again stopped dead, and then began to retreat.
"A standoff," Spock said. "Mr. Scott, status?"
"Converters burned out," Scott's voice said. "We've lost drive and hence the ability to correct drift. I estimate four hours in replacement time."
"By that time," Sulu said, "well have drifted right through that-that gateway out there."
"Are you satisfied?" McCoy said, picking himself up off the deck. "Spock, why did you do it?"
"To stay in the area for the next interphase," Spock said, "required for disabling the Tholian ship."
"But you're ignoring the mental effects! How can you risk your whole crew on the dim chance of rescuing one officer-one presumed dead, at that? The Captain wouldn't have done that!"
"Doctor, I hardly believe that now is the time for such comparisons. Get down to your laboratory at once and search for an antidote to the mental effects. Since we must remain here, that is your immediate task. Mine is to command the Enterprise."
McCoy left, though not without an angry glare.
"Mr. Spock, something has just entered sensor range,"
Sulu said. "Yes, it's another Tholian ship. Loskene must have contacted them at the same time they intercepted us. Loskene is moving back out of phaser range."
"Lieutenant, attempt contact again."
"No response, sir."
On the screen, the two Tholian ships joined-literally joined, base to base, making what seemed to be a single vessel like a six-sided diamond. Then they began to separate again. Between their previously common bases a multicolored strand stretched out across space.
Spock rose and went to the library computer station. The Tholians met again, separated, spinning another thread. Then another. Gradually, a latticework of energy seemed to be growing.
"Switch scanners, Mr. Sulu."
The screen angle changed. The tempo of the Tholian activity was speeding up rapidly. From this point of view, it seemed that the Enterprise was already almost a third surrounded by the web and it kept on growing.
Spock pulled his head out of the hooded viewer. "Fascinating," he said.. "And very efficient. If they succeed in completing that structure before we are repaired, we shall not be able to run even if we wished to."
Nobody replied. There seemed to be nothing to say.
There was a service for Kirk. It was brief and military. Spock, as the next in command, spoke the eulogy. The speech was not long, but it was interrupted all the same, by another seizure of madness striking down a crewman in the congregation. Afterward, the tension seemed much greater.
As the rest filed out, McCoy stopped Spock at the doorway. "There is a duty to be performed in the Captain's cabin," he said. "It requires both of us."
"Then it will have to wait. My duties require my immediate return to the bridge."
"The Captain left a message tape," the surgeon said. "It was his order that it be reviewed by both of us should he ever be declared dead-as you have just done."
"It will have to wait for a more suitable moment," Spock said, putting his hand on the corridor rail.
"Why? Are you afraid it will change your present status?"
Spock turned sharply. "The mental and physical state of this crew are your responsibility, Doctor. As I have observed before, command is mine."
"Not while a last order remains to be obeyed."
For a moment Spock did not reply. Then he said, "Very well. To the Captain's quarters, then."
McCoy had evidently visited Kirk's quarters before the service, for laid out on a table was the black velvet case which contained Kirk's medals, and it was open. The surgeon looked down at them for a long moment.
"He was a hero in every sense of the word," he said. "Yet his life was sacrificed for nothing. The one thing that would have given his death meaning is the survival of the Enterprise. You have made that impossible."
Spock said glacially, "We came here for a specific purpose."
"Maybe not the same one. I came to find out, among other things, really why you stayed and fought."
Spock closed the box. "The Captain would have re-mained to recover a man at the risk of his own life, other things being equal. I do not consider the question closed."
"He wouldn't have risked the ship. And what do you mean, the question isn't closed? Do you think he may be still alive after all? Then why did you declare him dead-to assure your own captaincy?"
"Unnecessary. I am already in command of the Enter-prise."
"It's a situation I wish I could remedy."
"If you believe," Spock said, "that I remained just to fire that phaser and kill James Kirk or this crew, it is your prerogative as Medical Officer of this ship to relieve me or duty. In the meantime, I suggest that we play the tape you referred to, so I can get back to the bridge and you can resume looking for an antidote for the madness."
"All right." McCoy turned to Kirk's viewer and flipped a switch. The screen lit; in it, Kirk was seated at his desk.
"Spock. Bones," Kirk's voice said. "Since you are play-ing this tape, we will assume that I am dead, the tactical situation is critical and you two are locked in mortal combat.
"It means also, Spock, that you have control of my ship and are probably making the most difficult decisions of y
our career. I can offer only one small piece of advice, for what it's worth. Use every scrap of knowledge and logic you've got to save the ship, but temper your judg-ment with intuitive insight. I believe you have that quality. But if you can't find it in yourself, then seek out McCoy. Ask his advice. And if you find it sound, take it.
"Bones, you heard what I just told Spock. Help him if you can, but remember that he is the Captain. His decisions, when he reaches them, are to be obeyed with-out further question. You might find that he is capable of both human insight and human error, and they are the most difficult to defend. But you will find that Spock is deserving of the same loyalty and confidence that you all have given me.