by 09(lit)
"... impossible... emergency by-pass circuits but... whenever you... contact..."
Kirk turned the gain up, but the static alone grew loud. Spock had unlimbered his tricorder. Now he called, "Captain! Sensor beams! I believe we're being probed." He bent over his device, concentrated. "Yes. Quite strong. And directed here."
"Block them out!" Kirk cried.
"It's Landru!" Reger yelled.
Spock made an adjustment on his tricorder. Then he shook his head. "They're too strong, Captain. I can't block them." He lifted his head suddenly from his tricorder, then whirled to the wall on his left. A low-pitched humming sound was coming from it. Kirk, in his turn, faced the wall. On it a light had begun to glow, coiling and twisting in swirling patterns. They brightened, and at the same moment started to gather into the outline of a figure. It seemed to be collecting substance, the flesh and bone of a hand-some elderly man. The eyes had kindness in them and the features, benign, composed, radiated wisdom. It appeared to be regarding them with benevolence. But its face and body kept their strange flowing move-ment.
The figure on the wall said, "I am Landru."
Reger fell to his knees, groaning in animal terror. Spock, observant, quite unawed, said, "A projection, Captain. Unreal."
"But beautifully executed, Mr. Spock. With no ap-paratus at this end."
The kindly eyes of the wall man fixed on him. "You have come as destroyers. That is sad. You bring an infection."
"You are holding my ship," Kirk said. "I demand you release it."
The mouth went on talking as though the ears had not heard. "You come to a world without hate, with-out conflict, without fear... no war, no disease, no crime, none of the old evils. I, Landru, seek tranquillity, peace for all... the Universal Good."
This time Kirk shouted. "We come on a mission of peace and goodwill!"
Landru went on, oblivious. "The Good must tran-scend the Evil. It shall be done. So it has been since the beginning."
"He doesn't hear you, Captain," Spock said.
Lindstrom drew his phaser. "Maybe he'll hear this!"
"No!" Kirk's rebuke was sharp. "That'll do no good." He turned back to the lighted figure. "Landru, listen to us."
"You will be absorbed," said the benign voice. "Your individuality will merge with the Unity of Good. In your submergence into the common being of the Body you will find contentment and fulfillment. You will experience the Absolute Good."
The low-pitched hum had grown louder. Landru smiled tenderly upon them. "There will be a moment of pain, but you will not be harmed. Peace and Good place their blessings upon you."
Kirk took a step toward the image. But the humming abruptly rose to a screeching whine that pierced the ears like a sharpened blade. Reger toppled forward. McCoy and Lindstrom, driven to their knees, held their ears, their eyes shut. One after the other the security crewmen crumpled. Spock and Kirk kept their feet for a moment longer. Then, they, too, the spike of the whine, thrusting deeper into their brains, pitched forward into unconsciousness.
Kirk was the first to recover. He found himself lying on a thin pallet pushed against one of the bare stone walls of a cell. Lifting his head, he saw Lindstrom stir. Getting to his knees, he crawled over to Spock. "Mr. Spock! Mr. Spock!"
Slowly Spock's eyes opened. Kirk bent over Lind-strom, shaking him and the security guard beside him. "Wake up, Lindstrom! Mr. Lindstrom, wake up!"
Spock was on his feet. "Captain! Where's the Doctor?"
"I don't know. He was gone when I came to. So was the other guard."
"From the number of pallets on the floor, sir, I should say they have been here and have been removed."
"Just where is here?" Kirk said.
Spock glanced around. "A maximum-security estab-lishment, obviously. Are you armed, sir?"
"No. All our phasers are gone. I checked." He went to the heavy, bolted door. "Locked," he said.
"My head aches," observed Lindstrom.
"The natural result of being subjected to sub-sonic, Mr. Lindstrom," Spock told him. "Sound waves so controlled as to set up insuperable contradictions in audio impulses. Stronger, they could have killed. As it was, they merely rendered us unconscious."
"That's enough analysis," Kirk said. "Let's start thinking of ways out of here. Mr. Spock, how about that inability of those Lawgivers to cope with the un-expected?"
"I wouldn't count on that happening again, Captain. As well organized as this society seems to be, I cannot conceive of such an oversight going uncorrected." He paused. "Interesting, however. Their reaction to your defiance was remarkably similar to the reac-tions of a computer-one that's been fed insufficient or contradictory data."
"Are you suggesting that the Lawgivers are mere computers-not human?"
"Quite human, Captain. It's just that all the facts are not yet in. There are gaps-"
He broke off. A rattle had come from the door. Kirk and the others sprang to the alert-and the door opened. A Lawgiver, his staff aimed at them, entered, followed by McCoy and the missing security man. Both were beaming vacantly, happily. Kirk stared at McCoy, dismay in his face. The Lawgiver left, closing the door behind him. The lock snapped.
"Bones..."
McCoy smiled at Kirk. "Hello, friend. They told us to wait here." He started toward a corner pallet, no sign whatever of recognition in his empty eyes.
"Bones!" Kirk cried. "Don't you know me?"
McCoy stared at him in obvious surprise. "We all know one another in Landru, friend."
Spock said, "Just like Sulu, Captain."
Kirk seized McCoy's arm, shaking it. "Think, man!" he cried. "The Enterprise! The ship! You remember the ship!"
McCoy shook his head bewilderedly. "You speak very strangely, friend. Are you from far away?"
Kirk's voice was fierce. "Bones, try to remember!"
"Landru remembers," McCoy said. "Ask Landru. He watches. He knows." A flicker of suspicion sharp-ened his eyes. "You are strange. Are you not of the Body?"
Kirk released his arm with a groan. McCoy at once lost his suspicious look, and, smiling emptily at noth-ing, moved away to sit down on one of the pallets.
The door opened again to the grinding of freed locks. Two Lawgivers stood in the entrance. One aimed his staff at Kirk. "Come," the cold voice said.
Kirk exchanged a quick glance with Spock. "And what if I don't?" he said.
"Then you will die."
"They have been corrected, Captain," Spock said. "Or reprogrammed. You'd better go with them, sir."
Kirk nodded. "All right. Spock, work on Bones. See if you can-"
"Come!" said the Lawgiver again.
Both staffs were aimed at Kirk as he passed through the cell door. As the heavy door swung to behind him, Spock whirled to McCoy. "Doctor, what will they do to him?"
McCoy smirked at him beatifically. "He goes to Joy. He goes to Peace and Tranquility. He goes to meet Landru. Happiness is to all of us who are blessed by Landru."
The room to which the Lawgivers were escorting Kirk was of stone-a room he was to remember as the "absorption chamber". A niche in a wall was equipped with a control panel. As he was prodded into the room, Kirk saw that another Lawgiver stood at the niche. Against another wall a manacle hung from a chain. Kirk was shoved toward it, one of his captors holding him while the other fastened the gyve about his wrist. Then they turned and left the room. Their footsteps had barely ceased to echo on the stone floor of the corridor outside when a fourth Lawgiver entered. He didn't so much as glance at Kirk but moved to his fellow at the control panel, nodding curtly.
Finally, he turned. "I am Marplon," he said. "It is your hour. Happy communing."
The Lawgiver at the panel bowed. "With thanks," he said. "Happy communing." Then, like the others, he left the absorption room. Alone now, Marplon faced Kirk. It seemed to Kirk that his visage resembled a death mask. But Marplon could move. When he had he placed a headset over his hood, his hands touched the control panel with the authority derived from mu
ch experience. The room flooded with bright, flash-ing colors; a humming sound began. The lights were blinding and the sound seemed to echo itself in Kirk's head. He twisted in his bonds.
At the same moment, back in the detention cell, Lindstrom was pacing it angrily. He halted to confront Spock. "Are we just going to stay here?"
"There seems to be little else we can do," Spock told him mildly. "Unless you can think of a way to get through that locked door."
"This is ridiculous! Prisoners of a bunch of Stone Age characters running around in robes."
"And apparently commanding powers far beyond our comprehension. Not simple, Mr. Lindstrom. Not ridiculous. Very, very dangerous."
On his last word the cell door opened and the two Lawgivers who had apprehended Kirk walked in. This time they aimed their staffs at Spock.
"You," said the spokesman. "Come."
For a fleeting second, Spock hesitated. The tip of one of the staffs quivered. Spock took his place be-tween his guards. They led him out. They led him out and down the corridor to the absorption chamber. Kirk greeted him, an imbecile smile on his face.
"Captain!"
"Joy be with you, friend. Peace and contentment will fill you. You will know the peace of Landru..."
Then unguarded, alone, Kirk moved quietly to the door of the room with the manacle. The Lawgivers gave way as he passed. Spock stared after him, a horror only to be read by the absolute impassivity in his face.
He wasn't left much time to indulge it. Already they were manacling him to the wall. But the Vulcan's inveterate curiosity, not to be subdued, was already subordinating this personal experience to interest in the control panel's mechanism. As with Kirk, the two shackling Lawgivers, as soon as their task was ac-complished, left. Marplon threw a switch on his panel. The colored lights began to swirl. Spock watched their coiling flashes with interest.
"Show no surprise," Marplon said. "The effect is harmless."
Spock looked at Marplon. The Lawgiver spoke in a lowered voice. "My name is Marplon. I was too late to save your first two friends. They have been absorbed. Beware of them."
"And my Captain?"
"He is unharmed," said Marplon. "Unchanged." He moved a finger; the light glowed brighter, and the hum grew more shrill. Marplon left his console to release Spock from his manacle. "I am the third man in Reger's trio," he said. "We have been waiting for your return."
"We are not Archons, Marplon," Spock said.
"Whatever you call yourselves, you are in fulfillment of prophecy. We ask for your help."
Spock said, "Where is Reger?"
"He will join us. He is immune to the absorption. Hurry! Time is short."
"Who is Landru?"
Marplon recoiled. "I cannot answer your questions now."
"Why not?" Spock said.
"Landru! He will hear!" Marplon went swiftly to his console, and reaching down and inward, brought out the ship's company's phasers. Spock, seizing several of them, stowed them away. As the last phaser was secreted, two Lawgivers pushed the door open.
"It is done," Marplon told them.
Spock assumed the idiotically amiable look of the anointed. "Joy be with you," he said.
"Landru is all," said the Lawgivers in unison. Spock moved past them and into the corridor. Making his way back to the cell, he found Kirk there, smiling blankly into space. Two Lawgivers pushed past him to beckon to the security crewman who had not been treated. Ashen with fear, he rose and went with them.
Spock went to Kirk. "Captain..."
"Peace and tranquility to you, friend," Kirk said. Then, in a lowered voice, he added, "Spock, you all right?"
"Quite all right, sir. Be careful of Dr. McCoy."
"I understand. Landru?"
"I am formulating an opinion, Captain."
"And?"
"Not here. The Doctor..."
But McCoy was already rising from his pallet, star-ing at them. His amiable smile faded and the look of curiosity on his face gave it a peculiar threatening aspect. "You speak in whispers," he said. "This is not the way of Landru."
"Joy to you, friend," Kirk said, "Tranquility be yours."
"And peace and harmony," intoned McCoy. "Are you of the Body?"
"The Body is one," Kirk said.
"Blessed be the Body. Health to all its parts." McCoy was smiling again, apparently satisfied. He sank back on the pallet; Kirk and Spock, joining him on theirs, sat on them in such a way as to screen their faces from McCoy. Then, in the same carefully lowered voice, he said, "What's your theory, Mr. Spock?"
"This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All is indeed peace and tranquility, the peace of the factory, the machine's tranquility... all parts working in unison."
"I've noticed that the routine is disturbed if some-thing unexplained happens."
"Until new orders are received. The question is, who gives those orders?"
"Landru," Kirk said.
"There is no Landru," Spock said. "Not in the human sense."
"You're thinking the same way I am, Mr. Spock."
"Yes, Captain. But as to what we must do..."
"We must pull out the plug, Mr. Spock."
"Sir?"
"Landru must die."
Spock's left eyebrow lifted. "Our prime directive of non-interference," he began.
"That refers to a living, growing culture. I'm not convinced that this one can qualify as-" He broke off as the cell door opened. Marplon and Reger, carry-ing the confiscated communicators, entered. "It is the gift of Landru to you," Marplon said. The words were addressed to McCoy and the treated security guard. They smiled vacantly and McCoy said, "Joy to you, friends." He leaned back against the stone wall, his eyes closed. Reger and Marplon hurried past him to Kirk and Spock.
"We brought your signaling devices," Marplon told Kirk. "You may need them."
"What we really need is more information about Landru," Kirk said.
Reger shrank back. "Prophecy says-" Marplon be-gan.
"Never mind what prophecy says! If you want to be liberated from Landru, you have to help us!"
Spock cut in warningly. "Captain..."
McCoy was moving toward them, open and hostile suspicion in his face. "I heard you!" he cried. "You are not of the Body!" He hurled himself on Kirk, reaching for his throat. Spock tried to pry him off only to be taken in the rear by the treated security guard. "Law-givers!" McCoy shouted. "Here are traitors! Traitors!"
With a twist, Kirk freed himself, crying, "Bones! Bones, I don't want to hurt you! Sit down and be still!"
But McCoy was still screaming, "Lawgivers! Hurry!"
Kirk's blow caught him squarely on the chin. As he fell, the door was flung wide and two Lawgivers, staffs ready, rushed in. At once they were jumped by Kirk and Spock. Kirk dropped his man with a hard wallop at the back of the neck while Spock applied the Vulcan neck pinch to his. Reger and Marplon, pressed against the wall, were staring at the fallen Lawgivers in horror.
Hurriedly, Kirk started disrobing the man he had downed. As Spock did the same to his, Kirk, donning the cowled garment, snapped at the others. "Where is Landru?"
"No," Marplon said. "No, no..."
"Where do we find him?" Kirk demanded.
"He will find us!" cried Reger. "He will destroy!"
Kirk whirled on Marplon. "You said you wanted a chance to help. All right, you're getting it! Where is he? You're a Lawgiver! Where do you see him?"
"We never see him. We hear him. In the Hall of Audiences!"
"In this building?"
Marplon nodded, terrified. Kirk let his rage rip. "You're going to take us there! Snap out of it, both of you! Start behaving like men!"
Spock opened a communicator. "Spock to Enterprise. Status report!"
"Mr. Spock!" It was Scott's voice. "I've been trying to reach you!"
"Report, Mr. Scott!"
"Orbit still decaying, sir. Give it six hours, more or less. Heat rays still on us. You've got to cut them o
ff- or we'll cook one way or another."
Nodding at Spock, Kirk took the communicator. "Stand by, Mr. Scott. We're doing what we can. How's Mr. Sulu?"
"Peaceful enough, but he worries me."
"Put a guard on him."
"On Sulu?" Scott was shocked.
"That's an order! Watch him! Captain out!" " Robed now and armed, Kirk and Spock turned to Marplon and Reger. "All right. Now about Landru..."