Star Trek - Blish, James - 10

by 10(lit)

  McCoy's voice roused Kirk from his daze. Bones was calling, "Jim! Spock!"

  They crossed to him at a run. Wordless, he was point-ing to three empty test tubes. The labels they bore read: "McCOY-SPOCK-KIRK."

  The chord sounded hollowly in the big room. The En-terprise men wheeled. T-bar in hand, Lal was facing them. He eyed their shocked faces disinterestedly. "We are on schedule," he said. "But some further simple tests are necessary."

  "We've just seen the results of some of your... tests!" McCoy shouted.

  "And I have found our missing men dead." Kirk's voice shook. "Another of your experiments?"

  "You are wrong," Lal said. "Their own imperfections killed them. They were not fit subjects. Come, time is short."

  "Your time has just about run out!" Kirk cried. "This planet is about to nova. When it does, it will finish itself, you and your whole insane torture chamber along with it! As for your experiments..."

  The three exchanged a fast glance. Kirk and McCoy strode toward the Vian. He backed away. As the two cir-cled him, Spock closed in with his Vulcan "neck pinch." Lal collapsed. Spock removed his T-bar control. As he rose from his stoop, the bar in his hand, his tricorder beeped. Lifting it, he said, "Readings indicate passage to the surface lies in that direction, Captain." He gestured to their right.

  When the party had left the lab, Lal got to his feet. Thann appeared beside him. They stood silent, their cold eyes fixed on the passageway where the group had vanished.

  Spock had found his exit to the surface. Twenty minutes of clambering over rocks had brought them into the open. The red sky was overcast and the stiff wind was blowing harder. Kirk took out his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise!" There was no answer. The Starship was still out of range. Belting the communicator, Kirk saw that Spock was pouring over his tricorder.

  "Report, Mr. Spock?"

  Spock looked up. "The research station is six kilometers from here, Captain. Straight ahead."

  "Let's get there as fast as we can. If the ship has a search party looking for us, it will be there." He took Gem's hand; but a blast of wind struck her and she halted, blinded by the whip of sand in her eyes. He made to pick her up in his arms. She shook her head, smiling; and hooking her arm under his, struggled for-ward again. Fiercely blowing sand became a hazard to them all. Its hard grit hit McCoy's eyes so that he stumbled over a rock that tumbled him head over heels. Spock was hauling him to his feet when Gem rushed from Kirk to help McCoy. He grinned at her re assuringly. "I'm all right," he told her. "Don't worry about me, Gem."

  Kirk, shading his eyes, peered ahead through the driv-ing sand. "How much farther?" he asked Spock.

  "Just ahead, sir."

  McCoy gave a shout. "Jim! Look... Scotty and a search party!"

  Before the metal hut, Scott and two Security guards were waving to them. The howl of wind drowned their voices.

  "Scotty! Scotty!" Kirk yelled.

  He was racing forward when he suddenly realized that Gem had fallen behind. He turned to help-and saw the Vians standing on a rock observing them.

  Gem was down, her white face wet with sweat and ef-fort. He picked her up, pushing her after Spock and Mc-Coy. "Keep going!" he cried.

  He watched her stumble on. Then, to cover the others' retreat, he ran toward the Vians.

  Lal spoke to Thann. "Their will to survive is great."

  "They love life greatly to struggle so."

  Lal nodded. "The prime ingredient." He pointed a T-bar at the onrushing Kirk; and at once the Enterprise Captain felt his strength begin to ebb. Gravity became the enemy-a monstrous leech sucking, sucking at his vitality. Weaving, he reached the foot of the rock where the Vians waited-and fell.

  He opened his eyes to see Spock bending over him. Fighting the fatigue that still drained his power, he sat up, crying, "What are you doing here? What happened to Scotty?"

  "Mr. Scott and the guards were a mirage, Captain."

  The Vians' resources seemed as infinite as their will was inexorable. He heard Thann speak his name. He looked up.

  "We have decided that one specimen will be sufficient. You will come with us, Captain Kirk."

  Kirk got to his feet. "And the others?"

  "We have no interest in them," Lal said. "They may go."

  McCoy had joined Spock. At the look of relief in Kirk's face, he burst into protest. "You can't go back there! You'll end up like the other two!"

  Spock spoke. "Captain, I request permission to be al-lowed to remain...."

  "Denied," Kirk said.

  "But, Jim..."

  "You have your orders!"

  Without a backward look, Kirk started to climb the hillock topped by the rock. Spock, McCoy and Gem moved after him.

  The rock was flat as a table. As Kirk walked up to the Vians, Lal said, "You are prepared?"

  "Let's get on with it!" Kirk looked into the frigid Vian eyes-and a suspicion chilled him. He turned to check on the others' whereabouts. Spock and McCoy had disap-peared. For a moment a hot rage choked him so that he was unable to speak. Then he said, "Where are my friends?"

  "They are safe."

  "Where are they? You said they'd be released! You said you needed one specimen! One specimen! You have it-me! Let the others go!"

  Thann nodded to Lal. "Indeed the prime ingredient."

  Kirk was shaking. "Never mind the ingredients! Where are my men? Tell me!" The rage broke free. He leaped at Thann. The control bar was lifted. In mid-leap Kirk winked out.

  The Enterprise was having its troubles. The solar flares had not diminished. A worried Sulu, turning to Scott in Kirk's command chair, said, "Cosmic ray concentration is still above acceptable levels for orbiting the planet, sir."

  Scott went to him. "I don't like it, Mr. Sulu. Constant exposure to this much radiation could raise the hob with Life Support and our other vital systems."

  "Shall I change course to compensate, sir?"

  "Not yet." Scott punched the intercom. "Bridge to all sections. We will continue to maintain our present position outside the Minarian star system. Report any sudden in-crease in radiation levels to the bridge immediately. Medi-cal sections and Life Support will remain on standby alert." Swinging his chair to the helm station, he said,"Mr. Sulu, estimate how much longer we have until those solar flares subside."

  Eyeing his viewer, Sulu moved buttons on his con-sole. "Readings now indicate 2.721 on the Van Allen scale, sir. At the present rate of decrease, we'll have to wait at least seventeen more hours before we can even attempt entering orbit."

  Scott nodded glumly. "Aye. Well, as long as we're stuck out here, we might just as well relax and wait till the storm has passed."

  "It has already lasted four more hours than we antici-pated, sir. Do you think our landing party could be in any danger?"

  "Not likely, Mr. Sulu. The planet's atmosphere will give them ample protection. If I know Captain Kirk, he's more worried about us than we are about him...."

  Kirk had been stripped to the waist. His arms were stretched wide, held in their spread-eagled position by two shackles. He was drenched with sweat. Gem, clinging to a laboratory table, was trembling, her eyes closed.

  "All right," he said wearily. "What is it you want to know?"

  "We seek no 'information,' as you understand the word. Your civilization is yet too immature to possess knowl-edge of value to us," Lal said.

  Kirk raised his heavy head. "Our knowledge has no value but you're willing to kill to get it! Is that what hap-pened to Linke and Ozaba?"

  Thann took a step toward him. "We did not kill them! Their own fears did it!"

  "Just exactly what did you expect from them? What is it you want from me?"

  "We have already observed the intensity of your pas-sions, Captain. We have gauged your capacity to love others. Now we want you to reveal your courage and strength of will."

  Kirk's shoulders were going numb. "Why?" he said, his head drooping. He forced it up. "Why, Lal? What do you hope to prove?"
The shackles were too tight. It was their bite into the flesh of his arms that was keeping him con-scious. He was glad of the shackles-but tired. Very tired. "If... if my death is going to have any meaning, at least tell me what I am dying for."

  Lal lifted his control bar. A flicker of light played over Kirk's swaying body. At the table Gem staggered.

  The Vians' transporter had conveyed Spock and Mc-Coy back to the arena. McCoy followed Spock as the Vulcan used his tricorder. "The passage out was there be-fore, Spock! It's got to be there now!"

  "I am unable to lock in on the previous readings, Doc-tor. I can find no exit from here."

  A circle of light flared before the couch. It widened, materializing into the forms of Kirk and Gem. His wrists were torn and bleeding; and the swollen veins on his neck were blue. When Spock and McCoy rushed to him, the force field flung them back.

  "Jim! What have they done to you?"

  Inside the field, Gem had taken Kirk's bleeding hands in hers. Her face and body writhed with his agony. Then red stigmata, identical to his wounds, appeared on her wrists. She backed away and the marks faded. She hesitated, looking at Spock and McCoy.

  McCoy stopped straining to reach Kirk. "Help him, Gem. Don't be afraid to help him."

  She kept her eyes on them as though the sight of them gave her strength. Again she took Kirk's bleeding wrists --and again her own began to bleed. But this time she ig-nored both her pain and her wounds. She knelt down on the floor and, cradling Kirk's head on her lap, began to massage his neck and shoulders. Once more there was the strange effect of her touch. His pain visibly eased. Their injuries vanished at the same moment. Gently she laid his head on the floor. Then she slid away from him, too weakened to get to her feet. Kirk reached out a hand to her.

  The force field dissolved. Spock and McCoy hurried to them. Still dazed, Kirk struggled to rise. "Gem?" he whispered.

  "Lie still!" McCoy said. "I'll check her out right now."

  He had to carry her to her couch. Her eyes were closed. McCoy was staring at his medical tricorder, incredulous. The body he'd laid on the couch had been almost transparent, as though entirely drained of life. Now, before his eyes, it was recovering its solidity. Smiling, Gem looked up at McCoy. He smoothed the soft hair back from her forehead and left her to go to Kirk.

  He was sitting up. "Is she all right?"

  "She seems fine again."

  "Bones, can you explain what happened?"

  McCoy spoke excitedly. "Complete empathy-that's what it was! She must be a totally functional Empath! Her nervous system actually connected to yours to counter-act the worst of your symptoms. With her strength she virtually sustained your physiological reactions."

  "It weakened her," Kirk said. "I could feel it. Does this ability endanger her life?"

  "It's impossible to say yet. Supplying life support to you did drain her." Spock said, "She was afraid to approach the Captain after the first sharp impact of his pain. It was only your urgent plea, Doctor, that caused her to continue."

  "Fear would naturally be the first reaction, Spock." McCoy went to the couch and took Gem's hands. Smiling at her, he said, "She doesn't know our Captain well enough-not yet-to offer up her life for him."

  "Could the strain really have killed her?" Kirk per-sisted.

  "I would assume that her instinct for self-preservation would take over to prevent that, Jim." He returned to Kirk. "How do you feel?"

  "Tired... just tired."

  "Captain, can you recall what happened?"

  Kirk spoke slowly. "I'm not sure. I remember the laboratory... there was something they wanted to know. What it was I can't remember." His voice rose. "I wish I could! I can't!"

  "Easy does it, Jim. Take it easy."

  "What's wrong with me, Bones?"

  McCoy studied his tricorder, frowning. "You have all the symptoms of the 'bends.' Nitrogen bubbles in your blood caused the pain. But how did you get the bends down here?"

  "You'll have to ask the Vians." Vigor was returning to his voice. "Will I live?"

  "You could still use some time in a decompression chamber. Otherwise your recovery is just about miraculous. I wish that I could take the credit for it, but Gem did most of the work."

  Spock was examining the control bar he'd taken from Thann. "Captain," he said, "I noted that a circle of light preceded you at the moment you were returned here from the Vians' laboratory."

  "Spock, do you have to get so analytical? At a time like this?"

  "Bones, Spock is right. Continue, Mr. Spock."

  "I conclude that such a light is an energy transfer point linking this device to the power source."

  "Can you tap into it?"

  "If I can determine the frequency at which this device operates I could cause it to function for us."

  "And get us out of here the same way they brought us here."

  "I would say so, Captain."

  "Then get started, Mr. Spock."

  But the organ chord that invariably heralded some new Vian mischief sounded once more. The two long-robed creatures stood just outside the circle of light that still shone down before Gem's couch.

  Lal addressed Kirk. "You are called 'Captain.' You are responsible for the lives of your crew. Is this correct?"

  "It is correct," Kirk said.

  Thann stepped forward. "We find it necessary to have the cooperation of one of your men in our efforts."

  "We will not cooperate," Kirk said.

  Lal continued as though he hadn't spoken. "When we resume our interrogations, you will decide which of your men we shall use. There is an 87 percent possibility that the Doctor will die. And though Commander Spock's life is in no danger, the large probability is that he will suffer brain damage resulting in permanent insanity."

  They vanished.

  Still weakened by his ordeals, Kirk had centered his hopes on Thann's T-bar. He crossed to where Spock was working on it to discover its operating frequency. "How's it coming, Spock?"

  "I do not know, Captain. I begin to understand the principles by which it functions-but that is all."

  Responsible for the lives of his crew. Lai's definition of his function. How to fulfill it? For Bones--probable death in that laboratory. For Spock-derangement of that ex-quisitely precise organ of his: his mind.

  McCoy joined them. "Spock, it won't be too long before those Vians come back. You'd better find out how that thing works-and soon!"

  Kirk gave his own words back to him. "Easy does it, Bones. Take it easy."

  "Men weren't intended to be this far underground! It's not natural!"

  "And space travel is?" Kirk asked.

  Without looking up from his task, Spock said, "I must disagree, Doctor. Witness the men who pass a majority of their lives in mines beneath the surface."

  "I'm a doctor, not a coalminer!"

  Now Spock looked up from the T-bar. "Doctor, I have recorded my theories and procedures on the tricord-er. Should the Vians return, there is sufficient data for you and the Captain to complete the adjustments."

  McCoy's anxiety, exploded in irritation. "I'm no me-chanic! I couldn't get that thing to work no matter how many notes you left!"

  "Possibly not. But you and the Captain together are capable of doing so."

  "In any case, you, Spock, are the logical choice to leave with the Captain. I am the man who should go with the Vians."

  Kirk intervened. "The decision is mine! If there are any decisions to be made, I'll make them!" He paused. "If and when it becomes necessary."

  Gem had been listening intently. Wearily Kirk sat down on the couch beside her. The combinations of men-tal and physical strains had exhausted his last reserves of strength. He rested his head in his hands, shutting his eyes. A hypo hissed against his shoulder. He didn't move. "What is it, Bones? I don't need any-"

  "I'm still Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise. Would you rather have the bends?... Still dizzy?"

  "A little."

  "Lie down until the hypo takes effe
ct. Gem, sit beside him. Watch him."

  Kirk lay down, too tired to argue. As his breathing as-sumed the quiet regularity of sleep, McCoy nodded his satisfaction and Spock, looking up again from the control bar, said, "How long will he be asleep?"

  "Between the emotional drains and that attack of the bends, he's in pretty bad shape, Spock."