by James Blish
"Space again!" said Rojan. "I don't think we could have kept our sanity, living so long on this accursed planet."
It did not seem to be so accursed to Kirk; in fact it was quite a pleasant, Earthlike place. But Hanar said: "It is an undisciplined environment; one cannot control it Yet there are things of interest."
"Yes. But—disturbing. These ugly shells in which we have encased ourselves . . . they have such heightened senses. How do humans manage to exist in such fragile casings?"
They did not seem to care at all whether they were overheard, an obvious expression of supreme confidence. Kirk listened intently to every word; he had known such self-confidence to be misplaced before.
"Since the ship is designed to sustain this form," Hanar said, "we have little choice."
Rojan turned to the woman. "Kelinda, take them to the holding area. We will be keeping you and your party here, Captain. Your crew will undoubtedly prefer to cooperate with us if they understand you are hostages."
"Move that way," said Kelinda. "Keep together."
Their jail proved to be a cave, with a door constructed of some odd-looking transparent material, which Spock and Kirk were examining. Shea was also at the door, looking out, ostensibly watching Kelinda.
"I'm unable to determine the nature of the material, Captain," Spock said. "But I do not believe even phaser fire could disturb its molecular structure."
"All right, we can't break out. Maybe we can find another way."
"Captain," said Yeoman Thompson, "what do they want from us? What land of people are they?"
"A good question, Yeoman."
They registered as human," McCoy said.
"No, more than that, Doctor," Spock said, frowning. "They registered as perfect human life forms. I recall noting that the readings were almost textbook responses. Most curious."
"Spock," Kirk said, "what are the odds on such a parallel in life forms in another galaxy?"
"Based on those we have encountered in our own galaxy, the probability of humanoid development is high. But I would say the chances were very much against such an absolute duplication."
Shea turned slightly from the door. "Well, however perfect they are, sir, there don't seem to be very many of them."
"But they've got the paralysis field," Kirk said. "Rojan mentioned a central projector."
"If we can put it out of operation," McCoy said, "we've got a chance!"
"I am constrained to point out," said Spock, "that we do not even know what this projector looks like."
"No," Kirk said, "but those devices on their belts might indicate the position of the source."
"I would like to have one to examine."
"You'll have one, sir," Shea said. "If I have to rip one of the Kelvans apart to get it for you."
"Lieutenant Shea," Kirk said firmly, "you'll have your chance—but I'll tell you when."
"Yes, sir."
Kirk eyed him narrowly; but he could understand the younger officer's defiant attitude toward their captors. "Spock, do you remember how you tricked that guard on Eminiar? The empathic mind touching-"
"Quite well, Captain. I made him think we had escaped."
"Can you do it again?"
"I will attempt it"
He checked Kelinda, who was standing fairly close to the bars, and then put his hands on the cave wall approximately behind her. Then he began to concentrate.
At first the Kelvan woman did not respond. Then she twitched a little, nervously, as though aware that something was wrong, but unable to imagine what. She glanced around, then straightened again.
Kirk signaled his people to position themselves along the wall, so that from outside the cave would appear to be empty. Then he bent and scooped some dirt from the loose, sandy floor.
Suddenly Spock broke out of his intense concentration, as though wrenched from it by something beyond him. He gasped and staggered back against the wall. At the same moment, Kelinda came to the door, opened it quickly and started in.
Kirk hurled his handful of dirt into her face. She cried out and clawed at her eyes. While she was half blinded, Kirk delivered a karate chop. It sent her sprawling, and, surprisingly, out. Kirk and McCoy dragged her the rest of the way inside.
"Mr. Spock—?"
"I . . . will be . . . quite all right, Captain. We must hurry."
"Bones, keep an eye on him. Let's go." He took the belt device from Kelinda and led the way out. He had hardly taken two steps before he was paralyzed again, the device dropping from his limp hands.
"I am sorry, Captain," said Rojan's voice. He came into view with Hanar, who went into the cave. "The escape attempt was futile. You cannot stop us and you cannot escape us."
Hanar reappeared. "Kelinda is somewhat bruised, Rojan, but otherwise unhurt."
Rojan nodded, and turning back to Kirk, released the party from the freeze. "I cannot let this go unpunished. This will serve as an example." He pointed to Yeoman Thompson and security chief Shea. "Hanar, take these two aside."
"What are you going to do?" McCoy said.
"This is not your affair, Doctor. Captain, as a leader, you realize the importance of discipline. I need you and these other specialists. But those two are unnecessary to me."
"You can't just kill them!" Kirk said.
Rojan did not respond. Thompson turned, looking pleadingly at Kirk. "Captain . . ."
"Rojan, let them go. I'm responsible for them."
"I think we are somewhat alike, Captain. Each of us cares less for his own safety than for the lives of his command. We feel pain when others suffer for our mistakes. Your punishment shall be to watch your people die."
Rojan touched his belt device. Shea and the girl seemed to vanish instantly. Where each of them had been standing was an odd geometrically shaped block, about the size of a fist.
Hanar picked them up and brought them to Rojan, who held them up to Kirk. "This is the essence of what those people were . . . The flesh and brain, and also what you call the personality, distilled down to these compact shapes. Once crushed—" He closed his hand over one, crushing it in his grip, letting the fragments sift through his fingers, "—they are no more. This person is dead. However—" He flipped the second block away. It bounced to a halt on the grass. Rojan again touched a button, and Shea was standing there, bewildered, "—this person can be restored. As I said, Captain—very practical."
They were herded back into the cave, leaving behind the fragments which were all that were left of a pretty girl.
Shocked and dispirited, they all sat down on the cave floor but Shea. Spock's manner seemed more than usually distant.
"Mr. Spock," Kirk said, "are you sure you're all right?"
"Yes, quite all right, Captain."
McCoy said, "You looked very sick a while back, when you broke the mind lock."
"I did not break it," Spock said slowly. "I was . . . shoved away by . . . something I have never experienced before."
"What was it?" said Kirk.
"Images . . . bursting in my mind and consciousness. Colors . . . shapes . . . mathematical equations . . . fused and blurred. I have been attempting to isolate them. So far, I have been able to recall clearly only one. Immense beings . . . a hundred limbs that resemble tentacles, but are not . . . minds of such control and capacity that each limb could do a different job."
"You mean," McCoy said, "that's what the Kelvans really are?"
"I do not know. It seemed the central image, but whether it was a source or a memory, I cannot tell."
"If they do normally look like that," Kirk said, "why did they adapt to bodies like ours?"
"For the sake of deception, what else?" McCoy said.
Kirk remembered the conversation they had overheard. "No, practicality. They chose the Enterprise as the best kind of vessel for the trip, and they need us to run her. We have to stay in our gravity and atmosphere, and they had to adapt to it . . . We have to find a way to beat them. We outnumber them. Their only hold on us is the para
lysis field."
"That's enough," said McCoy. "One wrong move and they jam all our neural circuits."
"Jamming," said Kirk. "That's it. Tricorders could analyze the frequency of the paralysis field. Spock, if you reverse the circuits on McCoy's neuroanalyzer, would it serve as a counterfield to jam the paralysis projector?"
"I am dubious about the possibility of success, Captain. The medical equipment is not built to put out any great amount of power. It would probably burn out."
"Is there any chance at all?"
"A small one."
"We'll take it. You and Bones have to get up to the ship"
"How?" said McCoy.
Kirk looked at his First Officer. "Spock, you're sick."
Spock's eyebrows went up. "Captain, I assure you that I am in excellent health."
"No, you're not. Dr. McCoy has examined you, and you're seriously ill. In fact, if he doesn't get you up to Sickbay you may die. And Rojan won't let that happen because he needs you to get through the barrier."
"It's a good idea," McCoy said, "but anybody looking at him can tell he's healthy."
"Vulcans have the ability to put themselves into a land of trance . . . an enforced relaxation of every part of the mind and body. Right, Mr. Spock?"
"We find it more useful for resting the body than the so-called vacation."
"Can you do it now, and come out of it when you're in Sickbay? Say in half an hour?"
"It will take me a moment to prepare."
Shea walked to where he could watch for guards, then turned to nod and wave an all clear. Spock, remaining seated, composed himself very carefully. He seemed to be directing his attention inward upon himself. Then, almost as if someone had snapped off his switch, he flopped limply to one side.
McCoy rose to examine him, and at once looked a little alarmed. "Jim, his heartbeat really is way down-respiration almost nonexistent—"
Kirk turned to the door quickly and shouted "Guard! Guard!"
Hanar appeared. "What do you want, human?"
"Mr. Spock is ill. The doctor thinks he's dying."
"This illness came on him very suddenly," Hanar said. "Is it not unusual?"
"He's a Vulcan. They don't react like humans."
"Look, he may die," McCoy said as Hanar hesitated. "If I can get him up to Sickbay, there's a chance I can save him."
"Stand away from the door."
The others pulled away. Hanar came in, hand on his belt device, and bent to study the motionless Science Officer. He frowned. "I will have you beamed aboard, but you will be met by Tomar and watched."
As Hanar turned away, opening a communicator, Kirk and McCoy glanced toward each other.
"Do the best you can with him, Bones," Kirk said. McCoy nodded quickly, significantly.
The Kelvan Tomar and McCoy entered the Enterprise's examination room, supporting the limp Spock between them. Nurse Christine Chapel followed. "Doctor, what happened?"
McCoy ignored her. He said to Tomar, "Here. Put him down."
They eased Spock onto the table. Tomar peered curiously at the Vulcan, who was breathing only shallowly, and with alarmingly long pauses between breaths.
"Shall I summon more of your underlings?"
"I'll call my own underlings," McCoy said snappishly. "You stay out of the way. Miss Chapel, prepare two cc's of stokaline."
"Stokaline? But, Doctor—"
"Don't argue with me, Nurse. Get it."
Christine turned and went to get the required air hypo. McCoy activated the body function panel over the table and began to take readings, which were obviously low. Tomar hesitated, then moved away to where he could watch from a discreet distance.
Christine came back with the hypo, and at McCoy's nod, administered it, looking at her chief in puzzlement. There was no response from Spock for a moment. Then his eyes snapped open. McCoy shook his head very slightly and the eyes closed again. Over their heads, the readings began to pick up, some of them quickening, others returning to their Vulcan norms, which were almost surely strange to Tomar.
"This may be the turning point, Nurse. Prepare another shot."
"Doctor—"
"Miss Chapel, please follow orders."
She did so, though McCoy was well aware of her mounting puzzlement. He continued to study the panel. Finally he nodded. "That does it. He'll be all right now. Let him rest." He turned to Tomar. "It was a flare-up of Rigelian Kassaba fever. He suffered from it ten years ago, and it recurs now and then. There's no danger if he receives medication in time. He'll be up again in an hour or so."
"Very well. I will inform Rojan. You will stay here."
The Kelvan went out and McCoy went back to the table, grinning at Spock, who was now propped up on his elbows.
"I said I would awaken myself, Doctor. What was that shot you gave me?"
"It wasn't a shot. It was two."
"I am not interested in quantity, but in content."
"It was stokaline."
"I am not familiar with that drug. Are there any after effects?"
"Yes. You'll feel much better."
"It's a multiple vitamin compound," Christine said, beginning to look less confused.
McCoy patted Spock's shoulder. "Stop worrying. It'll put a little green in your cheeks. Let's get at the neuroanalyzer."
Spock grimaced and rolled off the table to his feet. "It would be helpful to have Mr. Scott here."
"Agreed. Miss Chapel, it is time for Mr. Scott's medical exam."
"I'll see that he reports immediately," Christine said demurely.
Hanar summoned Kirk out of the cave and brought him to Rojan, who was lounging comfortably by a lakeside, with Kelinda close by. Rojan waved Hanar away. "Proceed to the ship, Hanar. Rest yourself, Captain."
"What do you want with me now, Rojan?" Kirk said angrily.
"We will beam aboard the vessel shortly. I wish you to understand your duties."
"My duty is to stop you in any way I can."
"You will obey."
"Or you'll kill more of my people?"
"Captain, I cannot believe that you do not understand the importance of my mission," Rojan said slowly, as if trying to explain to an equal. "We Kelvans have a code of honor—harsh, demanding. It calls for much from us, and much from those we conquer. You have been conquered. I respect your devotion to your duty. But I cannot permit it to interfere with mine."
Kirk remained silent, thinking. It was impossible not to be impressed by what seemed to be so much straightforward honesty. It was apparent that that "code" was what Rojan lived by, and that he believed in it unshakably.
It was also impossible to forget the crumbled shards of what had been Yeoman Leslie Thompson, scattered in the grass not far from here.
Kelinda had moved away to a nearby burst of flowers. Rojan watched her, but not, Kirk thought, with any sign of ordinary male interest.
"I hunger to be in space again, Rojan," she said. "But these—these are lovely. Captain Kirk, what is it you call them?"
"Flowers," he said, moving closer to her, cautiously. "I don't know the variety."
"Our memory tapes tell us of such things on Kelva," Rojan said. "Crystals which form with such rapidity that they seem to grow. They look like these; fragile things, somewhat. We call them 'sahsheer.'"
"The rose," Kirk said, "by any other name . . ."
"Captain?" Rojan said.
"A quotation, from a great human poet, Shakespeare. 'That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' "
Kelinda bent to smell the flowers, while Kirk studied her. Did this woman in reality have a hundred tentacles, all adapted to different uses? It was hard to imagine.
"Kelinda, Captain, come away," Rojan said. "We must leave now."
Directly they were beamed up, Rojan directed Kirk to take him and Kelinda to the bridge. There, Uhura was at her station, and Chekov at his, but a Kelvan woman was in the Helmsman's seat, and Hanar was standing nearby.
"Drea has com
puted and laid a course for Kelva, Rojan," Hanar said.
"Sir," said Chekov, "we've jumped to warp eight."
"And we'll go faster yet," Rojan said. Increase speed to warp eleven."
Chekov looked around sharply at Kirk, who could only shrug his helplessness and nod.
"On course and proceeding as planned," said the Kelvan woman at the helm, who was evidently Drea.
"Very well," said Rojan. "Hanar, proceed with the neutralizing operation."
Hanar nodded and went to the elevator. Kirk said quickly: "What neutralizing operation?"
"You humans are troublesome for us, Captain. There are not enough of us to effectively guard all of you all the time. Further, the food synthesizers cannot continue to manufacture food for all of you for our entire journey. We are therefore neutralizing all nonessential personnel."
"No!"
"Captain, you can do nothing to stop it. The procedure is already under way. Now, as to bridge personnel . . ." He moved toward Uhura. "We have no need of communications for some centuries."
Uhura sat frozen in her chair, staring at Rojan in horror. He touched his belt device—and there was nothing left in her seat but a geometrical solid.
"And since Drea is now capable of doing our navigating—" Chekov too vanished. Drea had already neutralized two crewmen beyond Scott's station. Kirk stood frozen.
"They are not dead, Captain," Rojan reminded him. "They are merely reduced to the sum total of what they are."
"That's very comforting," Kirk said sarcastically. "But not pleasant to watch. I'm going to Sickbay. My First Officer was taken ill."
"Yes, I was informed. Go ahead."
Sickbay was deserted. Kirk found Scott, McCoy and Spock picking at food at a table in the recreation room. Getting himself a tray, he joined them. "Reports, gentlemen?"
"I'm a little sick," McCoy said. "We burned out my neuroanalyzer, to no effect. I saw one of the Kelvans, the one they call Tomar, reduce four of my doctors and nurses to those . . . little blocks."
"I've seen them do that too. Remember, the process is reversible. I only wonder how far it's going to go."
"I have been checking our table of organization against their apparent capabilities," Spock said. "It appears that we will have very few 'survivors.' They will need none of the security men, for example. And once we cross the energy barrier, Engineering can be reduced to a skeleton crew. Beyond that point lies some three hundred years of straight cruising—at an astonishing velocity, to be sure, but still cruising. And of the officers, it would seem that only we four could be regarded as 'essential.' I am not even sure of your status, Captain, or mine."