by 09(lit)
Chekov looked up. "Speed increasing to Warp 3, Captain!"
Something suddenly broke in Kirk. Suddenly, he seemed to be breaking out of a shell which had con-fined him. "Lieutenant Uhura, get Daystrom up here!" As she turned to her board, he pushed a control button on the M-5 panel at his side. He pushed it hard. "Discouraging M-5 unit," he said. "Cut speed back to Warp 1. Navigator, go to course 113 mark 7-I want a wide berth around that ship!"
Sulu worked controls. "She won't respond, sir! She's maintaining course!'
"Going to Warp 4 now, sir!" cried Chekov.
On the screen the bulky old freighter was looming larger. Kirk, shoving buttons on his left-hand panel, tried to regain control of his ship. Over his shoulder, he shouted, "Mr. Scott! Slow us down! Reverse engines!"
Scott looked up from his board. "Reverse thrust will not engage, sir! The manual override isn't working, either!"
Daystrom hurried in from the elevator. "What is it now, Captain?"
"The control systems seem to be locked. We can't disengage the computer."
Spock cried, "Captain! Photon torpedoes are locking on the Woden!"
Kirk rushed to Sulu's station; and leaning over his shoulder, pushed torpedo button controls. Sulu shook his head. "I already tried, sir. Photon torpedo cutoffs don't respond!"
Kirk strode to Daystrom. "Release that computer's control of my ship before those torpedoes fire!"
The man stooped to the panel affixed to Kirk's chair; but even as he bent, there came a flash from the screen-and the Woden disappeared.
The red-alert sirens stilled. The Enterprise swerved back to its original course. Its speed reduced; and Spock, checking his instruments, said, "All systems report normal, Captain."
"Normal!" snorted McCoy. "Is that thing trying to tell us nothing happened?"
Kirk nodded. "Dr. Daystrom, you will disengage that computer now!"
The man looked up at him from the control panel where he had been working. "There appears to be some defect here..."
"Defect!" McCoy shouted. "Your bright young com-puter just destroyed an ore freighter! It went out of its way to destroy that freighter!"
"Fortunately," Daystrom said, "it was only a robot ship."
Kirk interposed before McCoy blew up. "It wasn't supposed to destroy anything, Daystrom. There might easily have been a crew aboard."
"In which case," yelled McCoy, "you'd be guilty of murder and-!"
"Hold it, Bones," Kirk said. He turned to Daystrom. "Disengage that computer." He went over to Uhura. "Lieutenant, contact Starfleet Command. Inform them we are breaking off the M-5 tests and are returning to the space station."
"Aye, sir."
"Let's get down to Engineering, Daystrom. Your M-5 is out of a job."
The computer's hum seemed louder in the echoing cavern of the Engineering Section. Kirk stood at its door as Daystrom and Spock entered. "All right, Doctor," he said. "Turn that thing off."
But Daystrom hung back. Kirk, his jaw set, strode toward the M-5. Suddenly, he staggered and was slammed back against the screening. Recovering his balance, he stared incredulously at the computer. "A force field! Daystrom?"
Daystrom's face had paled. "No, Kirk. I didn't do it."
"I would say, Captain, that M-5 is not only capable of taking care of this ship; but is also capable of taking care of itself."
"What are you saying, Spock? Are you telling me it's not going to let any of us turn it off?"
"Yes, Captain."
Scott and an assistant had joined them. Kirk made no attempt to keep his conversation with Daystrom private. "You built this thing," he was saying. "You must know how to turn it off."
Daystrom's hands were writhing nervously. "We must expect a few minor difficulties, Captain. I assure you, they can be corrected."
"Corrected after you release control of my ship," Kirk said.
"I-I can't," Daystrom said.
Scott spoke. "Captain"-he nodded toward the main junction with the power banks-"I suggest we dis-connect it at the source."
"Disconnect it, Scotty."
Scott turned to pick up a tool as his assistant, Harper, crossed to the main junction. Suddenly the computer's hum was a piercing whine; and a beam of light, white-hot, arched from the console across to the junction. For a moment Harper flamed like a torch. There was a vivid flash and he vanished without a sound.
Kirk stared, aghast. Then, as full realization hit him, his fists clenched. "That-wasn't a minor diffi-culty," he said silkily. "It wasn't a robot, Daystrom." Then he was shouting, his voice hoarse. "That thing's murdered one of my crewmen!"
Vaguely, he noted the look of horror on Daystrom's face. It didn't seem to matter. The man appeared to be chattering. "... not a deliberate act... M-5's analysis... a new power source... Ensign Harper... got in the way."
Kirk said, "We may all soon get in its way."
Spock said, "The M-5 appears to be drawing power from the warp engines. It is therefore tapped directly into the matter-anti-matter reserves."
"So now it's got virtually unlimited power," Scott said. "Captain, what do we do?"
"In other circumstances," Kirk said, "I would suggest asking the M-5. The situation being what it is, I ask you, Spock and Scotty, to join me in the Briefing Room."
They followed him out, leaving Daystrom to make what he could of his Frankenstein's monster.
It was in the Briefing Room that Kirk learned Uhura couldn't raise Starfleet Command. Though the M-5 unit permitted the Enterprise to receive messages, it had blocked its transmitting frequencies. Kirk, at the intercom, said, "Keep trying to break through, Lieu-tenant."
"Aye, sir."
Kirk sat down at the table. "Reports. Mr. Spock?"
"The multitronic unit is drawing more and more power from the warp engines, sir. It is controlling all navigation, all helm and engineering functions."
"And communications," said McCoy. "And fire con-trol."
Kirk nodded. "We'll reach rendezvous point for the war games within an hour. We must regain control of the ship before then. Scotty, is there any way to get at the M-5?"
"Use a phaser!" said McCoy.
Scott said, "We can't crack the force field it's put up around itself. It's got the power of the warp engines to sustain it. No matter what we throw against it, it can reinforce itself by simply pulling more power."
"All right," Kirk said. "The computer controls helm, navigation, and engineering. Is there anywhere we can get at them and take control away?"
Scott's brow furrowed thoughtfully. "One possibility. The automatic helm-navigation circuit relays might be disrupted from Engineering Level 3."
Spock said, "You could take them out and cut into the manual override from there."
"How long?" Kirk said.
"If Mr. Spock will help me... maybe an hour."
"Make it less," Kirk said.
McCoy leaned toward him. "Why don't you tackle the real responsibility for this? Where is Daystrom?"
"With the M-5... just watching it. I think it sur-prised even him."
"Then he is an illogical man," Spock said. "Of all people, he should have known how the unit would perform. However, the M-5 itself does not behave logically."
McCoy spoke feelingly. "Spock, do me a favor. Please don't say it's 'fascinating'."
"No, Doctor," Spock said. "But it is quite interest-ing."
On Engineering Level 3, the Jeffries tube that held the helm-navigation circuit relays was dark and nar-row. Two panels opened into each side of it; and Spock and Scott, making themselves as small as pos-sible, had squeezed into the outlets, miniature dis-ruptors in their hands. Outside the tube, Daystrom, oblivious of all but his computer, was maintaining a cautious distance from the force field. But he could not control his satisfaction at the glow and pulsation that emanated from the M-5. McCoy, entering silently, studied the man. Becoming aware of the scrutiny, Daystrom turned.
McCoy said, "Have you found a way to turn that thing off?"
Daystrom's eyes
blazed. "You don't turn a child off when it makes a mistake."
"Are you comparing that murderous hunk of metal to a child?"
"You are very emotional, Dr. McCoy. M-5 is grow-ing, learning."
"Learning to kill."
"To defend itself-an entirely different thing. It is learning. That force field, spontaneously created, ex-ceeds my parental programming."
"You mean it's out of control," McCoy said.
"A child, sir, is taught-programmed, so to speak- with simple instructions. As its mind develops, it ex-ceeds its instructions and begins to think independently."
"Have you ever fathered a child?"
"I've never had the time," Daystrom said.
"You should have taken it. Daystrom, your offspring is a danger to all of us. It is a delinquent. You've got to shut it off."
Daystrom stared at him. "You simply do not under-stand. You're frightened because you can't understand. I'm going to show you-all of you. It takes 430 people to run a Starship. This-child of mine can run one alone!" He glowed with pride. "It can do everything they must now send men out to do! No man need die out in space again! No man need feel himself alone again in an alien world!"
"Do you feel alone in an alien world?" McCoy asked.
But Daystrom was transported into some ideal realm of paradisical revelation. "One machine-one machine!" he cried. "And able to conquer research and contact missions far more efficiently than a Starship's human crew... to fight a war, if necessary. Don't you see what freedom it gives to men? They can get on with more magnificent achievements than fact-gathering, exploring a space that doesn't care whether they live or die!"
He looked away from McCoy to speak directly to the M-5.
"They can't understand us," he said gently. "They think we want to destroy whereas we came to save, didn't we?"
McCoy made a quick call in Sickbay before he returned to the Briefing Room. There, he tossed a tape cartridge on the table before Kirk. "Biographical in-formation on John Daystrom," he said.
"What are you looking for?"
"A clue, Jim, any clue. What do you know about him-aside from the fact he's a genius?"
"Genius is an understatement, Bones. When he was twenty-four, he made the duotronic breakthrough that won the Nobel and Z-Magnees Prizes."
"In his early twenties, Jim. Over a quarter of a century ago."
"Hasn't he done enough for a lifetime?"
"Maybe that's the trouble. Where do you go from up? You lecture, you publish-and spend the rest of your life trying to recapture the past glory."
"All right, it's difficult. But what's your point?"
"Models M-l through M-4, remember? 'Not entirely successful' was how Daystrom put it."
"Genius doesn't work on an assembly-line basis. You don't evoke a unique and revolutionary theory by schedule. You can't say, 'I will be brilliant today.' However long it took, Daystrom came up with multi-tronics... the M-5."
"Right. And the government bought it. Then Day-strom had to make it work. And he did... but in Spock's words, it works 'illogically'. It is an erratic."
"Yes," Kirk mused. "And Daystrom wouldn't let Spock near the M-5. Are you suggesting he's tamper-ing with it... making it do all this? Why?"
"If a man has a child who's gone anti-social, he still tends to protect the child."
"Now he's got you thinking of that machine as a personality."
"It's how he thinks of it," McCoy said.
The intercom beeped and Spock said, "Spock to Captain Kirk."
"Kirk here."
"We're ready, Captain."
"On my way. Get Daystrom. Kirk out."
Spock was shinnying down out of the Jeffries tube as they approached. He nodded up at the dark narrow-ness. "Mr. Scott is ready to apply the circuit disrupter. As he does so, I shall trip the manual override into control."
Kirk nodded. Spock began his crawl back into the tube. Daystrom's face had congested with blood. "You can't take control from the M-5!"
Kirk said, "We are going to try very hard, Day-strom.
"No! No, you can't! You must not! Give me time, please! Let me work with it!" He leaped at the tube, trying to scramble into it, pulling at Spock's long legs. Kirk and McCoy seized him. His muscle was all in his head. It wasn't hard to subdue him. "Daystrom! Behave yourself!" Kirk cried. "Go ahead, Spock!"
In the tube Scott was sweating as he struggled with his tool. His voice came down to them, muffled but distinct. "There it goes!"
Spock, making some hasty adjustments, looked around and down at Kirk's anxious face-and came closer to smiling than anyone had ever seen him come. He slid down and out of the tube. "Manual override is in effect again, Captain."
Daystrom had furiously pulled away from Kirk's grasp. He released him and, crossing to an intercom, activated it. "Kirk to bridge. Helm."
"Lieutenant Sulu here, sir."
"Mr. Sulu, we have recovered helm and navigation control. Turn us about. Have Mr. Chekov plot a course back to the space station."
"Right away, sir."
In the bridge, he grinned at Chekov. "You heard him."
"I've had that course plotted for hours."
But when Sulu attempted to work his controls, they were limp in his hands. His smile faded. And in his turn, Chekov shook his head. "Nothing," he said. Sulu hit the intercom button. "Helm to Captain Kirk!"
Kirk swung at the alarm in the voice. "Kirk here."
"Captain, helm does not respond. Navigational con-trols still locked in by M-5."
Daystrom gave a soft chuckle. Spock, hearing it, made a leap back into the tube. Examining the circuits inside it, he shook his head somberly and descended again. Clear of it, he went directly to the intercom.
"Spock to bridge," he said. "Mr. Chekov, go to Engineering station. Examine the H-279 elements... also the G-95 system."
Chekov's filtered voice finally came. "Sir, the G-95 system appears dead. All indicators are dark."
"Thank you, Ensign." He turned to the others. "We were doing what used to be called chasing a wild goose. M-5 rerouted helm and navigational control by bypassing the primary system."
Scott cried. "But it was active! I'd stake my life on it!"
Spock said, "It was when the M-5 detected our efforts that it rerouted the control systems. It kept this one apparently active by a simple electronic impulse sent through at regular intervals."
"Decoyed!" McCoy shouted. "It wanted us to waste our time here!"
"While it was getting ready for what?" Kirk said. "Spock?"
"I do not know, sir. It does not function in a logical manner."
Kirk whirled. "Daystrom, I want an answer and I want it right now! I'm tired of hearing the M-5 called a 'whole new approach'. What is it? Exactly what is it? It's clearly not 'just a computer'!"
"No," Spock said. "It performs with almost human behavior patterns."
"Well, Daystrom?"
Daystrom ignored Kirk. "Quite right, Mr. Spock. You see, one of the arguments against computer con-trol of ships is that they can't think like men. But M-5 can. I hoped... I wasn't sure-but it does work!"
"The 'new approach,' " Kirk said.
"Exactly. I have developed a method of impressing human engrams upon computer circuits. The relays correspond to the synapses of the brain. M-5 thinks, Captain Kirk."
Uhura's voice broke in, urgent, demanding. "Cap-tain Kirk and Mr. Spock to the bridge, please. The bridge, please."
Kirk jumped for the intercom. "Kirk here. What is it, Lieutenant?"
"Sensors are picking up four Federation Starships, sir. M-5 is changing course to intercept."
The red alert flashed into shrieking sirens and crim-son lights. Kirk turned, his face ashen.
"The main attack force... the war games."
"But M-5 doesn't know a game from the reality."
"Correction, Bones," Kirk said. "Those four ships don't know it is M-5's game. So M-5 is going to destroy them."
Uhura's forehead was damp with sweat.
"Enterpise to U.S.S. Lexington. Come in, Lexington! Come in, please."
She waited. And as she waited, she knew she was waiting in vain. It was a good thing a Starship had a man for a Captain-a man like Kirk. Otherwise a girl on her own could get the screaming meemies. She looked at Kirk. "I can't raise them, sir. M-5 is still blocking all frequencies-even automatic dis-tress."