Star Trek - Blish, James - 10
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He reverently restored the parchment to the box. "Those words," he said, "and the words that follow were not meant only for Yangs. They were for Kohms also."
"For Kohms?" repeated Cloud William, shocked.
"They must apply to everyone-or they mean noth-ing. Do you understand?"
"I do not fully understand, one named Kirk. But the Holy words will be obeyed. I swear it."
Kirk left him to address Sulu. "You and your men will have to stay a few days until your bodies pick up immunization and adjust."
Sulu grinned. "Looks like an interesting place, Cap-tain. You don't suppose there's a Shanghai or Tokyo down here, too?"
"There might be at that," Kirk told him. He clicked open the communicator Spock handed him. "Kirk to Enterprise, four to Transport."
"We're locking in on you, Captain," Uhura said.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy, Tracy between them, moved together for upbeam.
As they broke into dazzle, Kirk turned for a last look at the old flag upright in its standard, its stars and its stripes still bright.
* * *
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JAMES BLISH, author of Bantam's popular Star Trek series, once won the coveted Hugo Award for his novel, A Case of Conscience. He has written many other Science Fiction novels and short stories as well. Mr. Blish, who is trained as a biologist and was formerly employed by sev-eral large pharmaceutical companies, is an American citizen presently making his home near Oxford, England. He was one of three persons who jointly founded the famous Milford Science Fiction Writers' Conference in the early 1950's, and, under the name of William Atheling, has written some of the most informed criticism of Sci-ence Fiction.
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