Star Trek - Blish, James - 10

by 10(lit)

  "I am not criticizing your action, Doctor. On the con-trary, I am grateful for it. The Captain will not be additionally strained by making so difficult a decision. You have simplified the situation considerably."

  McCoy looked at him warily. "How?"

  "While the Captain is asleep, it is I who am in com-mand. When the Vians return, I shall go with them."

  The appalled McCoy looked down at his hypo. "You mean if I hadn't given him that shot... ?"

  "Precisely. The choice would have been the Captain's. Now it is mine." He bent over the control bar, bis face expressionless as ever. McCoy stared at him a moment. Then, returning to Kirk, he checked him over. Satisfied, he replaced the hypo in his medikit. Cursing under his breath, he gave Spock a savage glance. It was noted by Gem, who'd been taking in the argument. She rose now to move noiselessly until she was standing between Kirk and Spock. Kirk stirred restlessly, fighting the unconscious-ness of the drug. Spock looked over at him, hesitated, then resumed his work. Gem went to him, touching his shoulder. He didn't look up. She withdrew the hand, looking at it. Then the shining eyes returned to Spock. In her face was a look of wondering love. She had seen past the coldly logical front Spock presented to the world to what the Vulcan officer kept carefully hidden-his love for his Captain and McCoy.

  McCoy had seen the look on her face. His own changed abruptly as he came to a decision of his own. Apology in his eyes, he glanced at the impassive Spock, took out his hypo; and crossing to Kirk as though to check him, suddenly whirled-and injected Spock.

  Spock stared at him in angry comprehension. "Your actions are highly unethical! My decision stands! I am in command and...." He slumped forward.

  McCoy put a hand on his shoulder. "Not this time, Spock," he said softly.

  The organ notes sounded. The Vians had returned.

  McCoy spoke quickly. "The choice has been made." He extended his hand back to Gem. "You stay with my friends. They will take care of you." He turned. "Do you understand, Gem?"

  She looked at him. Thann, exchanging a glance with Lal, said, "Come, then."

  McCoy started toward them. Then he looked back to-ward the sleeping Kirk and Spock. The look was a silent farewell. Tears filled Gem's eyes. They were merciful tears. They dimmed the sight of McCoy as he followed the Vians.

  The shackles were stained with Kirk's blood. The Vians had not been content with McCoy's outstretched arms or the threat of his imminent death. They had placed him so as to force his eyes to the empty test tube with his name on it.

  A master of the art of suspense, Lal made a speech. "Doctor, please understand that if there were any other way to accomplish our purpose, we should employ it."

  McCoy could feel the veins in his neck swelling. "Get on with it!" he told them.

  They advanced on him. Thann raised a control bar.

  A white-faced Kirk was prowling the arena. "Spock, why... why did you let him do it?"

  The composed voice said, "I was convinced in the same way you were, Captain-by the good Doctor's hypo." Spock looked up, meeting Kirk's eyes. A message flashed between them. Kirk nodded slightly to their mutual recog-nition of McCoy's devotion. Then a dissonant chord rang from Spock's control bar. Kirk hurried to him, asking, "Anything, Spock?"

  Spock leaned back, regarding the bar with admira-tion. Extending it to Kirk, he said, "A most unusual de-vice. It is a control unit but not a control mechanism. It is, in fact, a mechanical device."

  "What exactly is it?"

  "The control is attuned to only one pattern of electrical energy-the pattern produced by the mental impulses of the person who possesses it. It is activated solely through mental commands."

  "Can it be adapted or... or reattuned to our brain patterns?"

  "I am attempting to do so." Spock paused. "However, it is not possible to adjust the control for more than one pattern at a time. As I am most familiar with my own pattern, with your permission, Captain..."

  "Do whatever you think best to get it working. What disturbs me is why the Vians have allowed it to remain in our possession."

  Spock bent again over the bar. "Understandable, sir. They must know that we are capable of comprehending the control and of making use of it."

  "They must know we will use it to escape."

  Spock nodded. "The only logical assumption is that they wish to let us go."

  "While they still have McCoy?"

  "It is evidently their intention, Captain."

  Kirk paced the length of the arena. Turning, he looked at Gem. Then slowly he went to her. "Somehow you are the crux... the focal point of all this." He wheeled to Spock. "Even before we got here, she was a prisoner. Yet they haven't hurt her. They haven't even made threats."

  "Indeed, Captain, the facts indicate that she is essen-tial to their purpose."

  "Yes... there is purpose. But what is it?"

  Kirk, taking Gem's hands in his, looked intently into the sensitive face, as though it held his answer. "Gem, did those who preceded us die... for you? Has all this... this pain and terror... happened-or been made to hap-pen-for you?"

  Spock broke into his concentration. "Completed, Cap-tain. The adjustments are delicate. They may not survive more than one use. Even so, there should be sufficient power to return us to the Enterprise."

  "Will it take us to McCoy?"

  "If you so desire, sir."

  Kirk spoke briskly. "The best defense is a strong of-fense. And I intend to start offending!"

  The circle of light still lay before Gem's couch. Kirk stepped into it. Spock followed him. Silently, Gem joined them, McCoy's medikit in her hand. She passed it to Kirk.

  He looked at her, his face drawn with anxiety. "Aim for the lab," he said to Spock.

  Spock stared down at the bar he held, eyes fixed in con-centration. The arena vanished. They were in the lab. Kirk looked around it. Then, stunned, he saw what he had to see.

  McCoy hung limply from ropes attached to the ceiling. His features were battered to a pulp. Blood dripped from his open wounds and through the remnants of his uniform.

  Kirk broke out of his shocked horror. He ran to the tortured body, supporting its weight in his arms. When Spock had removed the shackles, they carried it to a table, easing it down gently. Kirk reached for a torn wrist. "The pulse is almost gone." Spock, at the head of the table, was busy with a medical tricorder.

  "Spock, what are the readings?"

  "Heart, severely damaged; signs of congestion in both lungs; evidence of massive circulatory collapse."

  From the corner where she huddled, Gem was watch-ing their every move. In the harsh lab light McCoy's face was colorless, his lips faintly blue. His eyes shuddered open, stared blankly, then focused.

  Kirk found water. Raising McCoy's head, he poured some into the smashed lips. "Don't try to talk, Bones." He laid the head back on the table. "Don't try to speak. Don't think. Just take it easy until we can get back to the ship. Don't-"

  "Captain..."

  Something in Spock's tone caught Kirk's alarmed atten-tion. "What is it? What's the matter?"

  With a visible effort Spock looked up from the tricord-er. "Captain, I... he's dying. We can make him comfortable but that is all."

  "No! You can't be sure, Spock! You're not a doctor."

  McCoy whispered, "But... I am. Go on, Spock... "

  Spock moved the tricorder over the entire body. "Internal injuries; bleeding in chest and abdomen; hemorrhages of the spleen and liver; 70 percent kidney failure..."

  "He's right, Jim." McCoy grinned weakly. "Being a doc-tor has its drawbacks.... I've always wondered-" A bout of coughing silenced him. Kirk supported his head until it passed. Then he tore a piece from McCoy's man-gled shirt. Dipping it in the water, he dampened the hot forehead.

  "Thanks... Jim..."

  Kirk, his face suddenly appearing ten years older, looked at Spock. "How long?"

  Spock hesitated; but at McCoy's faint nod, he said, "It could happen at any time, Captain."

  The
broken mouth moved in a smile. "The correct medical phrase, eh, Spock?" Coughing assailed him again, this time so violently that he seemed unable to breathe. It ceased abruptly, leaving him motionless.

  "Doctor!" Spock felt for the neck pulse. He found it. Straightening, he rested his hand briefly on McCoy's head. McCoy opened his eyes, met Spock's-and their unspoken loyalty was wordlessly spoken. Then a spasm of pain twisted McCoy's face. He writhed on the table, coughing. The fit lasted so long that it suffocated him.

  "Can't we do something?" Kirk said.

  "I'm afraid not, Captain." As Spock spoke, McCoy lost consciousness.

  Kirk said, "Gem!" They both turned toward her. "Gem could help him!" Kirk cried. "As she helped me!"

  She was cowering in her corner. At the sight of her overwhelming fear, Kirk hesitated. "Could his nearness to death also kill her?"

  "The Doctor's analysis of her life-support reactions as-sumed that the instinct for self-preservation would prevent that. However, he could not be positive."

  "If she could just strengthen him to keep him from sinking further into death, we could take over, Spock, with Bones directing us."

  They had started toward her when the chord suddenly reverberated at full power. The force field encircled them.

  The Vians' arms were lifted in nameless threat. Lai's T-bar was extended downward. "No interference will be permitted!" he said.

  Imprisoned, Kirk spoke from within the field. He was openly pleading. "She can save his life! Let us help her go to him!"

  "She must neither be forced nor urged to take action."

  "All must proceed without interference," Thann added.

  "The purpose that brought us together-" Lal began.

  "What purpose?" Kirk shouted. "What purpose can any of this serve except the satisfaction of some sick need of yours?"

  "We have but one need left in life," Lai said. "It is to see the completion of the final moment of our test."

  "Be patient," Thann urged.

  "Patient!" Kirk's scorn was fierce with fury. "Our friend is dying!"

  "Perhaps," Thann said.

  "What purpose will our friend's death serve other than your pleasure in it?" Spock's voice had never been so tone-less. "Surely beings as advanced as you know that your solar system will soon be extinct. This star of yours will nova."

  "We know," Thann said.

  "Then you know that the many millions of inhabitants on its planets are doomed."

  The chill voice of Lal said, "That's why we are here."

  Kirk swept the laboratory with a gesture. "This place of death you have devised for your pleasure-will it pre-vent that catastrophe?"

  "No, it will not. That is true. But it may save Gem's planet. Of all the planets of Minara, we are empowered to transport to safety only the inhabitants of one." Thann's eyes fixed on Kirk's. "If Gem's planet is the sole one to be saved, we must make certain beyond all doubt that its people are worthy of survival."

  "And how will that be served by the death of our friend?"

  Lal answered. "His death will not serve it. Only Gem's willingness to give her life for him will. You were her teachers."

  "Her teachers? What did she learn from us?"

  "Your will to survive; your love of life; your passion to know. These qualities are recorded in her being." He paused. "Each one of you has been ready to give bis life for the others. We must now find out whether that in-stinct has been transmitted to Gem."

  The laboratory equipment rattled. The earth rumbled under the pressures of another quake. Thann spoke to Lal. "Time is growing short."

  Spock looked down at McCoy's ravaged face. "You were correct, Captain. Everything that has occurred here has been caused to happen by them. This place has been a great laboratory and we have been the subjects of a test."

  "No!" Thann said. "Only the circumstances were created by us. They were necessary."

  Lal stepped toward Kirk. "Your actions have been spontaneous. What is truest and best in any species of beings has been revealed by you. Yours are the qualities that make a civilization worthy to survive. We are grate-ful to you."

  "Look!" Thann cried.

  Gem had left her corner. She moved to McCoy, passing through the force field as though it didn't exist. She passed her hands gently over the wounds on his face and body. Staring at her, hope returned to the Enterprise men.

  Thann turned to Lal. "This is most significant. An in-stinct new to the essence of her being is generating. We are seeing it come to birth...."

  Lal nodded. "Compassion for another is becoming part of her functioning life system."

  The fearful injuries on McCoy's face were transferring themselves to Gem's. His eyes fluttered open, their pupils still glazed. Tensely, Kirk watched for some body move-ment. It didn't come. But the wounds on his face had be-gun to heal; and those on Gem's were disappearing. McCoy moved his head. Looking at Gem, recognition replaced the glaze in his eyes.

  She was growing weak. Fear came into her great eyes. She withdrew from the table and staggered back toward her corner. McCoy's wounds began to bleed again.

  "She is saving herself," Lal said. "She does not yet possess the instinct to save her people."

  "We have failed," Thann said.

  Spock spoke to Kirk. "Captain, the Doctor's life is not solely dependent on Gem. The Vians also must have the power to give him back his life."

  Lal addressed Spock directly. "Your friend's death is not important. We must wait to see whether her instinct for self-sacrifice has become stronger than her instinct for self-preservation."

  Watching, Kirk could see signs of the anguished internal struggle in the girl. Then her white face cleared with decision. She returned to McCoy, her step firm and deter-mined. Kneeling beside the table, she took his limp hands in hers. Again, his wrists' gashes transferred to hers. Mc-Coy's body moved-but life once again seemed to be draining from her.

  McCoy lifted his head. "Don't touch me," he told her. "Stay away."

  He tried to look around. "Jim... Spock... are you here?"

  "Yes, Bones."

  "Don't let her touch me. She will die."

  He hauled himself to his knees, struggling to pull his hands from Gem's. The effort exhausted him. He fell back, looking pleadingly at Kirk. "Make her leave me... Jim... Spock.... I will not destroy life. Not even to save my own. You know that. Please... make her leave me."

  Gem placed her hand on his heart. Color, faint but visible, came into McCoy's face.

  "Captain!"

  "Yes, Spock."

  "The intensity of emotion that is exhausting us is build-ing up the force field around us!"

  "I know. It draws its energy from us."

  "In spite of what we see, sir, all emotions must be elimi-nated. This may weaken the field."

  "I'll try, Spock."

  Both closed their eyes. A complete calm was in Spock's face. Even concentration was absorbed by his serenity. His hand went through the force field. He moved through it and quietly approached the Vians. Still held by the field, Kirk tried to still his tumult of anxieties. He looked at the Vians. They were so tense with their will to power that they failed to note Spock's position behind them. The Vulcan's arm rose; and lashed down in a judo chop that sent Lai's T-bar flying. The force field broke. As Kirk raced out of it, Spock retrieved the T-bar. Physically helpless now, the Vians hesitated, their essential test threatened with final disaster.

  Gem was swaying with increasing weakness. McCoy dragged himself to his knees, crying, "No! No! I won't let you do it!" He shoved her away in a momentary influx of strength. Frightened by his sudden violence, she shrank from the table. As McCoy tried to move further away from her, his wounds reopened. He fell back, lying still. Gem stumbled back to her corner.

  Kirk took the T-bar from Spock. He was rushing to McCoy with it when Lal spoke. "You cannot use our powers to change what is happening."

  Kirk looked at the deathly white face on the table Then he went to the Vians. "You must save the
life of our friend."

  "No. We will not," Lal said. "Her instinct must devel-op to the full. The test must be complete."

  "It is complete." Spock joined Kirk. "Gem has already earned the right of survival for her planet. She has offered her life."

  "To offer is insufficient proof," Lal said.

  "If death is the only proof you can understand, then here are four lives for you." Kirk proffered the T-bar to Lal.