STAR TREK: The Original Series - Garth of Izar

by Pamela Sargent

  “Only because they might be useful as hostages,” Kirk said, “and of course there is always the chance that they might give up their futile resistance to us. We should allow them the opportunity to do so.”

  “Captain Kirk is right,” Garth said. “It would be foolish to harm people who might have their uses later on.”

  “They have not been harmed,” Hala-Jyusa said, sounding angry. “My word on that should be enough for you, Lord Garth.”

  “Of course it is, my dear.” Garth nodded his head in her direction. “But in order for the next stage of [134] my plan—our plan—to succeed, we must all be gathered together. We must all take final control of the Enterprise, and quickly. Only three of our Antosian fighters are aboard at the moment, and most of Captain Kirk’s crew is still unaware of our intentions. We mustn’t give them time to entertain doubts about what we’re up to and then to move against us out of fear, or perhaps to further their own interests.” He took a breath. “We’ll beam aboard in small groups. There will be no one in the transporter rooms except for one or two transporter officers, who can be easily overcome. Once we have control of those facilities, the rest of us will come aboard in a steady stream, but we have to move fast.”

  Garth was right about having to move fast, Kirk thought. The longer they talked and the more convoluted their tales became to cover any objections that were raised, the more chance that their subterfuge would unravel, that someone here, most likely Hala-Jyusa, would seize on some inconsistency in their improvised speeches.

  “The power of a starship will be at our command!” Garth rose to his feet and thrust his arms upward. “We can secure the planet in a matter of hours!” He turned to Hala-Jyusa. “And you will be a co-commander of the Enterprise with us, my dear, fully equal in rank to Captain Kirk and myself.” He bowed toward her. “You must beam up with the first group, my co-commander. We will have great need of your leadership aboard ship.”

  [135] Hala-Jyusa smiled; her golden eyes filled with admiration as she looked up at Garth, but then her smile faded. “Lord Garth, you are moving too fast,” she murmured as suspicion fired her eyes.

  “But we must be quick if we are to succeed, my dear. Bring the prisoners you are holding to this site, in case we need them as hostages, and then we will begin beaming aboard the Enterprise.”

  Hala-Jyusa stood up to face him. “I said that they were not far from here,” she murmured. “When I saw you appear, and knew you had returned to us safely, I sent a man to them, to order that they be brought here. They’ll be on their way to us now—they haven’t far to ride.” She glanced toward the forest to the east. “I see someone coming now.”

  The sky was light; morning had come to the clearing. Kirk saw the shadowy forms of people on foot and ellei riders amid the trees. As they emerged into the clearing, he saw that Gyneeses was among them. The Chief Adviser seemed unharmed. He felt relief and then noticed that Gyneeses was unbound and riding an ellei, while other Antosian captives were on foot with their arms tied behind them, being herded along by riders carrying spears.

  “Victory will be ours!” Garth shouted to the newcomers as they dismounted and prodded their captives with their spears, forcing them forward. “The Enterprise will soon be in our hands!”

  Another cheer went up from the assembled rebels. The prisoners sat down. Empynes was not among [136] them, or Heje-Illuss, but only a dozen of the captives were present. Kirk hoped that the others would arrive soon, that Empynes had not been harmed.

  “Lord Garth! Lord Garth! Lord Garth!” the rebels cried, shaking their weapons.

  “And all hail our co-commander, Hala-Jyusa!” Garth responded, taking the Antosian woman’s arm and holding it high in the air. “Hala-Jyusa will also lead us, along with our new brother, Captain James Kirk!” Hala-Jyusa lifted her head, accepting the homage, clearly proud of the power and position Garth was offering to her. Power, Kirk thought, was the greatest aphrodisiac, the greatest of temptations, and probably the greatest enemy of intelligent judgment.

  Then Hala-Jyusa looked at Kirk, and he saw suspicion cloud her eyes once more. Gyneeses was walking toward them, looking as if he belonged at Garth’s side. He’s turned on Empynes, Kirk thought, realizing that Gyneeses was the traitor Garth had alluded to earlier.

  “Greetings, Lord Garth,” Gyneeses said as he came up to them. Hala-Jyusa’s lip curled as she gave the Chief Adviser a look of contempt. “I am pleased to see that you are unharmed.” He frowned at Kirk. “An excellent impersonation—I would never—”

  “He is not an Antosian shape-changer,” Garth said, “but Captain Kirk himself, who has decided to join our cause.”

  Gyneeses’s frown became a scowl. Kirk stared back at the Chief Adviser, wondering if he could [137] believe the story. Hala-Jyusa had fallen out with Heje-Illuss, and clearly bore Gyneeses ill will, while the Chief Adviser, according to Garth, was playing his own game. Garth would have to start beaming rebels aboard right away, before the whole complicated plot fell apart.

  “Now we must seize the moment, my comrades,” Garth continued. “The sooner we are aboard, the sooner our cause will triumph. With control of the starship, we can secure the planet in a matter of hours. We’ll beam Hala-Jyusa aboard the Enterprise first, along with a few of her close comrades.”

  “Our transporter technicians are waiting,” Kirk added, “and they will follow our orders.”

  “Then there is no reason to wait,” Gyneeses said. “We—”

  “We’re moving too fast,” Hala-Jyusa repeated. She turned to Garth. “Not that I object to your plan, Lord Garth, only the speed at which you wish to implement it.”

  “If we wait, we may lose, my co-commander and comrade,” Garth said. “The Enterprise could be turned against us.”

  Gyneeses said, “I agree with Garth. We must—”

  “Be silent,” Hala-Jyusa said in a low voice. “You may be Chief Adviser, but your ancestors were still rounding up wild elleis while mine were masters of the healing arts.” She turned her head toward Garth. “And I have no need of a title from an offworlder to tell me who I am. I am the true leader of this rebellion [138] now, and however much I may honor you, Lord Garth, you would be wise not to overreach yourself. I will accept whatever aid we require from Gyneeses and this offworlder starship captain, but I do not yet completely trust them.”

  This was the moment, Kirk thought, at which the mad Lord Garth would throw a tantrum, if he was the insane Garth. But Garth’s face was composed as he regarded the two Antosians.

  “Time is of the essence, Hala-Jyusa,” Garth said calmly. “We must, all of us, occupy the starship at once. Without it, we are nothing. The force that might be brought against us is beyond imagining, unless we move quickly!”

  Gyneeses nodded eagerly. “Lord Garth is correct,” he said. “We must act quickly.”

  “Captain Kirk will go with you,” Garth said, “to aid you in securing command.”

  “No!” Hala-Jyusa shook her head. “You dare to order me in this way? My family is one of the oldest continuous lines on this planet, and one of the most skilled at shape-shifting, while you, great as you may be, are an offworlder. You may make a request of me, but you will not order me!”

  “Of course, my dear lady.” Garth tilted his head. “Forgive me. I respectfully request that you prepare to be beamed aboard the Enterprise, where you will command among equals.”

  But Garth’s measured tones only seemed to anger the Antosian woman further. “First we were to beam [139] aboard ourselves,” she muttered, “take over the forms of members of the crew, then arrange to beam others aboard until the ship was ours and the offworlders under our control. Then Heje-Illuss weakened in his resolve, and broke with us, and now we have this Captain Kirk as an ally advising us, while Gyneeses grows ever more presumptuous.”

  The Antosian rebels near Kirk looked bewildered; he saw them murmuring among themselves, obviously dismayed by the bickering among their leaders. Garth was losing control of the situ
ation.

  “Now I find myself wondering,” Hala-Jyusa continued, “who you are to involve yourself in our struggle, Lord Garth. I was one of those who helped you back to health, and taught you the art of shape-shifting, but why should you be here? Maybe you’re here for some purpose of your own that is hidden from us.” She paused and stepped back. “What is it? Does your Federation so fear us that they have some secret plan to disable us? Is our coming greatness a threat to them?” Her voice rose until she was shouting. “Why should we listen to offworlders? And where did this idea of altering our bodies and changing our genetic heritage come from?” She glowered at Garth, and for a moment Kirk imagined that the Klingon and Romulan empires might have begun in this way, from the realization that power could be wielded to fill a hunger without end.

  “Calm yourself, Hala-Jyusa,” Gyneeses said. “You are not speaking to enemies.” His voice dropped to a [140] whisper. “It would be better for us not to show our disagreements so visibly.”

  “Upstart!” the Antosian woman screamed. “Dung sweeper!” She seemed about to strike him, then let her arm fall. “I am only saying that whatever these offworlders promise, it is we who must be masters of this fight for our heritage.” She was speaking softly again, but in an ominous way that made Kirk extremely uneasy. “And I must have time to consider this new plan for seizing the starship.”

  He had heard that voice before, Kirk realized, on Elba II, in the mad rantings of the insane Lord Garth. Hala-Jyusa had not only been attracted by the mad Garth’s visions of glory, but had also been infected with his lusts.

  She strode away from them toward the eastern edge of the clearing; a few of her followers trailed after her. Most of the rebels remained near the fire or outside the shelters, watching Garth and Gyneeses, clearly uncertain about what they should do, if anything.

  And Kirk felt a sudden cold yet familiar calm. It came into him in moments of great danger, or when he couldn’t see what was going to happen next.

  Garth moved among the rebels, patting a few of the men on the back or gripping their shoulders for a moment, stopping occasionally to speak with a small group before going to the next.

  Gyneeses watched Garth with narrowed eyes. [141] “He’s telling them we have to board the starship now,” Gyneeses muttered.

  “Yes,” Kirk said, wary of getting into any prolonged discussion with the Chief Adviser.

  “Hala-Jyusa is too stubborn. She ought to listen to him.” Gyneeses snorted. “But he’ll bring her around.”

  Kirk nodded. Of course Gyneeses would want everyone beamed aboard as soon as possible. If what Garth had said was true, the Chief Adviser had plotted with him to have the rebels beamed to Acra, in accordance with his own plans to seize control of the rebellion later on. Perhaps he also planned to get rid of Hala-Jyusa.

  If what Garth had told him was true ... Kirk’s doubts assailed him again.

  Garth came back to Kirk and Gyneeses, then turned to face the Antosian rebels. “Have no fear, my brethren,” Garth called out. “Better for us to bring up our small disagreements now, so that we can settle them before embarking on our next battle. I have only the greatest respect for Hala-Jyusa, my co-commander. Rest assured that when we board the Enterprise, we shall be united in our purpose—I, Hala-Jyusa, Gyneeses, and of course our new ally, Captain Kirk.”

  The rebels cheered, but not quite as loudly or as enthusiastically as they had earlier. They were losing them, Kirk thought.

  Garth turned around quickly and walked toward Hala-Jyusa.

  [142] Kirk followed, trailed by Gyneeses. Hala-Jyusa folded her arms as they came up to her, still looking angry; her comrades hovered near her protectively. Garth suddenly held out his hands to her.

  Garth was only stalling for time. In any case, Kirk had a sudden idea.

  “Lady Hala-Jyusa,” Kirk said, “please accept this tricorder as a pledge of our new comradeship.” He held up his own tricorder. “With this instrument, you will be able to gather any information you require about your surroundings.”

  He scanned the clearing and the nearby forest quickly. The readings indicated that another group of Antosians on foot and on elleis was approaching the clearing. That was good to know, for it meant that Hala-Jyusa had not lied when she had said that the rest of the captives were on their way there.

  Kirk slipped his communicator from his belt. “And with this communicator, you can speak to the Enterprise. But we must beam aboard quickly. My officers may already be worrying about me, and you do not want men in control of the power of a starship to wonder if ill fortune might have befallen their captain and to act precipitously against you. For another thing, your people are running short of provisions and must be fed—they should not have to wait here, growing weaker while we debate at length about our course of action.”

  “Which we should now settle among ourselves,” Garth said softly.

  [143] The Antosian woman turned toward her close comrades. “Off with you!” she said. They hurried away to join the people around the fire.

  “I should let my officers know that Garth and I are well,” Kirk went on, “and that they must prepare themselves to greet you as our co-commander when we beam aboard.”

  Hala-Jyusa peered at the communicator in Kirk’s hand. “Show me how you use this device,” she said.

  Kirk flipped his communicator open. “Kirk to Enterprise.”

  Garth reached over and handed Hala-Jyusa his communicator. She flipped it open.

  “Scott here,” Scotty’s voice said from her hand.

  “Kirk here, reporting that Lord Garth and I are now in consultation with our allies Hala-Jyusa and Gyneeses. When we come aboard, you will treat Hala-Jyusa as if she were also a starship captain.”

  Hala-Jyusa allowed herself a smile.

  “Aye, Captain,” Scotty said.

  “Stand by for further orders. Kirk out.” He let his arm fall, but did not close the communicator. He wanted the channel open, so that Scotty and Spock would hear what was going on.

  “It is not that I disagree with you,” Hala-Jyusa said in a gentle voice to Garth, “it is only that I questioned the need for such haste.” She gave him back his communicator.

  “Of course, my dear,” Garth said. “I understand.”

  Her smile widened. Kirk saw that she was ready to [144] go along with them now, and once she was out of the way, the rest of the rebels could be handled.

  “We’re wasting time,” Gyneeses said. “We might have all been aboard the starship by now except for this bickering.”

  Hala-Jyusa stepped toward him, her face dark with fury. “I have heard enough from you—you, who were with Empynes, our weak First Minister. You went along with him and convinced him that we should give up our arts, and then you changed sides.” Her voice was rising. “How can you be trusted? You turned on him too easily. What are you after? When will you turn on us?”

  Her attention was fully on Gyneeses, her back to Kirk. He drew his communicator to his face and whispered, “Scotty, beam us up—me and the three with me.”

  And then he saw her hand reach over her shoulder and close around the hilt of her sword. Before he could move to stop her, she pulled it from the scabbard, pointed, and thrust.

  The scene died in Kirk’s eyes—

  —and then he was suddenly in the transporter room, watching as Gyneeses took the blade in his chest.

  Hala-Jyusa drew the blood-covered blade from him as he toppled forward. Scotty came toward them, phaser drawn, followed by two of the security guards.

  “Get a medical team here from sickbay!” Kirk shouted at Ensign Somerville, the transporter officer on duty.

  Somerville was already calling for help over the [145] ship’s comm. “Dr. McCoy, we have a wounded man, sword through the chest,” she said. Kirk knelt next to Gyneeses as Garth stepped toward them and took the sword from Hala-Jyusa’s hand. She did not resist, but stared at him with confusion in her yellow-gold eyes. A look of compassion crossed Garth’s face,
and Kirk knew that he was blaming himself for the violence he had roused in her.

  “Don’t move, lassie,” Scotty said, keeping his phaser pistol aimed at the Antosian woman. Gyneeses stared up at Kirk, his eyes wide with surprise. Blood was seeping through his tunic, but he did not seem to be bleeding as heavily as he should have been after such a wound. Kirk tried to block the flow with the flap of Gyneeses’s coat; he remembered that Antosians could use their shape-changing skills to heal themselves, and wondered if Gyneeses had the strength left to do so.

  The door to the transporter room opened; McCoy hurried through the entrance, followed by two men carrying a stretcher. He knelt next to Gyneeses, pulled the coat aside, tore the Antosian’s tunic open to cover the wound with a bandage, made a quick scan of the injured man with his tricorder, then motioned to the two medical technicians with him. “He’s failing fast,” McCoy said. “Get him to sickbay.”

  “You cannot heal him. I cannot heal him. He cannot heal himself.” Hala-Jyusa spoke in a toneless voice as the men laid the now unconscious Gyneeses [146] on the stretcher and carried him from the transporter room; McCoy hurried after them.

  Kirk motioned to the two security guards. “Keep her under guard.”

  The look of confusion on Hala-Jyusa’s face turned to panic. “What is happening?” she shouted, her hand opening and closing as if grasping for her sword, “What does this mean? I am co-commander here!”

  “Keep this woman under guard,” Kirk repeated, “and don’t let her out of sight for a moment. Don’t forget—she’s a shape-changer.”

  The guards took her by the arms. Hala-Jyusa suddenly became a twin of Ensign Somerville, then flowed into the form of an Antosian male Kirk had seen in the rebel camp, and then turned into a tall furred biped with long claws. She opened her jaws to show sharp pointed teeth and let out a long piercing screech, the sound of a cornered wild beast. Somehow the men holding her managed to keep a grip on her arms throughout all of her changes. At last she reverted to her own form and stood still, exhausted, fists clenched as the security men put wide cuffs around her wrists to restrain her, and Kirk saw that she finally understood.