STAR TREK: The Original Series - Garth of Izar

by Pamela Sargent

  “So this is to be my new home,” she said.

  Garth nodded. Kirk moved down the slope, with Garth and Hala-Jyusa following him, until he came to a place where he could see what lay below.

  The hill overlooked a horseshoe-shaped bay covered with white sand. The ocean to the west was a bright turquoise expanse with waves that gently lapped the shore below. Groups of rebels sat on the [161] sand gazing out at the ocean, their coats lying beside them, while others wandered along the shoreline. Large birds with gray and white feathers and long broad wings swooped gracefully over the beach, alighted on the sand, then rose into the sky, gliding on the currents of the warm breezes. The Antosian dissidents would have a paradise for their prison, Kirk thought, and wondered if that would ease the anger inside them enough to allow them to give up their dreams of conquest and power.

  “And what am I to do now?” Hala-Jyusa asked.

  “The others will want to know you’re safe,” Garth said. “They’ll know by now that they were tricked, and they’ll be worrying about what’s going to happen to them.”

  “They may think that I conspired with you,” she said, “to bring them here.”

  Garth shook his head. “You were their leader. They will look to you. They’ll listen to you. Reassure them.”

  “Reassure them about what?” Anger was in her eyes again. “What can I tell them?”

  “That you’ll be provided with ample provisions from our synthesizers,” Kirk said, “and also with tools for building shelters and other structures, along with tents to use in the meantime. The Enterprise won’t leave this system until you’re all settled here, with everything you need to make a new life for yourselves.”

  “How magnanimous of you.” Hala-Jyusa looked away from him. “I curse you, Captain Kirk. I curse [162] you, Garth, my false friend.” She spat at Garth’s feet; he bowed his head. “May you someday suffer the pain I am feeling now.” She gazed out at the beach, where a few of the rebels were now wandering toward the hill. “They will be cursing you now for what you did to us, but I must go to them. Perhaps they will lash out at me and vent their anger on me for what you’ve done, but I no longer care about myself.”

  She began to descend the hill. Kirk waited with Garth, wanting to make sure that she would be safe among them. More warriors were gathering at the bottom of the hill, but they had left their weapons on the beach. Kirk heard their voices.

  “Hala-Jyusa! Hala-Jyusa!” People waved their arms and stamped their feet. “Hala-Jyusa!”

  “We’ve been betrayed!” she cried out. “Lord Garth has plotted with First Minister Empynes and the offworlders to exile us to this island! And I am exiled here on Acra with you!”

  A few Antosians climbed the hill toward her. She stopped and waited for them to reach her, and suddenly their arms were around her, embracing her. A man linked his arm through hers; she grasped the arm of another woman as they made their way down the slope.

  “She’ll be safe,” Garth said, sounding relieved. “Perhaps this place will heal the madness inside her.” He looked at Kirk, his blue eyes radiating sadness. “What would we have done if they had tried to harm her?”

  Kirk gripped Garth by the shoulder for a moment, [163] wishing that there was something he could say that might console him, then pulled out his communicator. “Kirk to Enterprise.”

  “Scott here.”

  “Beam us to the site where you sent Empynes and the others.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “We freed ourselves from our bonds and waited,” Empynes said, “and then we made a meal for ourselves of the fruits and berries that grow here in such profusion, and then we slept after I assured everyone that you would arrive here soon. I hoped for that, at any rate, not knowing for certain if you would.”

  Kirk had come with Garth to a grassy inland area, about one hundred and fifty kilometers southeast of the beach to which Hala-Jyusa and her rebels had been transported. Heje-Illuss and his followers were sitting along the western bank of a stream that ran through this region. They had shed their capes and coats, and seemed to be deep in conversation. The air was as warm and pleasant here as it had been on the beach, although it lacked the slight scent of salt. Shrubs with purple and orange berries dotted the flat, grassy land. Empynes had come away from the group to greet Kirk and Garth.

  “The rebels,” Kirk said to him, “those who follow Hala-Jyusa, were set down near a beach to the west of this group. I am sorry to tell you that ...” Kirk paused. “Gyneeses is dead. After Hala-Jyusa ran him [164] through with her sword, we tried but were unable to save him.”

  “There is no need for apologies,” Empynes murmured. “He was clearly planning to turn against me all along. I trusted Gyneeses, I made him my Chief Adviser, and yet he would have happily watched me die at the hands of those rebels if you had not beamed down in time to save me.”

  “He was plotting against me, too,” Garth said, “perhaps not to do me harm, but to use me and the rebellion for his own ends. I don’t think that my presence here, and my earlier madness, infected him as it did Hala-Jyusa and others, but I was the example that distorted his mind and brought him to act.”

  “You mustn’t blame yourself too much for that,” Empynes said. “After all, you came back here to help us. Now I am beginning to wonder if I should have listened to Gyneeses when he so vigorously argued in favor of isolating the rebel factions here on Acra, but it seemed we had no other choice then, and perhaps we still don’t.” The First Minister turned toward Kirk. “It would have been much more difficult to bring the rebels here without the help of your starship’s technology. There is no region on the eastern shore of our continent of Anatossia suitable for a port—almost the entire shoreline is dominated by high rocky cliffs. We would have had to sail with our prisoners across Greblendon Lake, the lake you saw near Pynesses, east to a river that flows toward the ocean and then make the voyage east to Acra. Of [165] course it is also the difficulties of such a voyage that make it nearly impossible for the rebels to escape. Even if they somehow managed to build a craft, they would have to sail far to the south to avoid the cliffs, or go north and risk icebergs and frigid air, in order to land far enough away from Pynesses, and I do not think they could carry enough food to survive such long journeys. This way, we can at least isolate them without subjecting them to mistreatment.”

  “We’ll beam down food and other supplies,” Kirk said, “enough to last them until they can take care of themselves. From what little I’ve seen of this island, they should be able to survive without difficulty.”

  Empynes made a motion with his hand, showing one palm to Kirk, that seemed to be a gesture of assent. “That’s true. There are many varieties of fruit, land suitable for farming, and abundant fish in the streams and the ocean.”

  “And now that your people will have some contact with the Federation,” Kirk went on, “we can arrange for a Starfleet vessel to come to your world every so often, to check on the Antosians here and beam down any other supplies they might need.”

  “Yes.” Empynes was silent for a moment. “They can live here, as comfortably as we can make it for them, until our world changes, away from the ambitions that have grown in these hearts. It may be a long time.” He gazed steadily at Kirk. “But from now on, this will have to be our problem. There should be no more help from your starship once you have finished [166] beaming down the necessary supplies, and as little interference as possible after that.”

  “There may be other pockets of resistance,” Garth said softly as he looked up at the vast blue sky, in which the Antosian sun burned like a hot jewel set in the gauzy cotton of a few clouds. “I only hope that their numbers do not increase.”

  “We’ll have to talk to them,” Empynes said, “and explain what we have done, and what’s at stake.”

  Kirk, as he heard Empynes’s words, was beginning to see this problem as akin to a series of boxes with weak bottoms. Each solution led to a breakthrough and a fall into the next box o
f problems. He suddenly doubted if bringing the rebels here would restore peace to this world and remedy the damage Garth had inadvertently caused. Others might rise up to fight against the somatic and genetic changes Empynes sought. Perhaps the infection, as Garth called it, had already spread too far to be contained by isolating the dissidents.

  Heje-Illuss now stood up and walked toward them, trailed by another of his followers, a woman with hair nearly as white as his. They halted in front of Garth; Heje-Illuss seemed about to speak, then bowed his head.

  “What is it?” Garth asked. “Say what you have to say.”

  “The First Minister told us,” the white-haired man replied, “that all of the dissidents were to be imprisoned—kept here.”

  [167] Empynes said, “That is so. I’d prefer that you call it exile, rather than imprisonment.”

  “It’s a distinction without a difference to me,” Heje-Illuss said. “Trialla and I”—he motioned at his companion—“were talking about that before, with the others. You must have been planning this even before you rode to our meeting.”

  “Yes, we were,” Empynes said. “I’ll admit that. But we did not come to the meeting to deceive you. We meant to give all of you, your group and Hala-Jyusa’s, a chance to give up your rebellion, to agree to rejoin the rest of us. Had all of you done so, I would have agreed to allow you to resume your lives in Pynesses.”

  “So you knew what Garth was plotting,” Trialla said.

  Empynes waved a hand. “Only that he had a plan, not the details. As far as Captain Kirk and I knew, the man who rode with us to your camp was Captain Garth. I didn’t know that Garth had infiltrated your movement, and when he came to the camp with Hala-Jyusa and her followers, I too believed that he had plotted against us.”

  “I had no choice,” Garth said in a low voice. “It was the only way I could truly learn what was going on, find out which rebels might change and turn away from violence and which would never give up the cause. And when I realized that Hala-Jyusa and her group were set on fighting and gathering more adherents, I knew that I would have to find a way to disarm them and end their rebellion.” He glanced at Empynes. “I am sorry that I had to deceive you as [168] well, but I felt safer acting alone. Even Captain Kirk knew nothing of my intentions until later.”

  Empynes frowned. “You may have been wise, Captain Garth. Antosians are not used to rebellions and fighting. And had I known that Gyneeses believed he was working with you against me, I might have done something that would have upset your plans.”

  “Is that wretch going to be exiled here with the others?” Heje-Illuss asked.

  “Gyneeses is dead,” Kirk said. “Hala-Jyusa killed him.”

  “I’m not sorry.” Heje-Illuss spat into the grass. “What’s going to happen to us? The people with me, I mean.”

  Empynes sighed. “You were willing to give up your fight. All of you held firmly to that position even after Hala-Jyusa and her band made prisoners of you and threatened you. I think that you should be allowed to leave here and return to your homes and families in Pynesses.”

  “Some of us would want that,” Heje-Illuss said, “maybe most of us. I’d want that myself, but I wonder if it’s what we should do. We could go among the others here, talk to them. It’s worth a try, anyway. Maybe we shouldn’t give up on them yet if there’s any hope at all.”

  Kirk was moved by the man’s words. Heje-Illuss was now showing some of the patience, benevolence, and compassion for which the Antosians were known.

  “I changed, didn’t I?” the white-haired Antosian [169] continued. “I was so convinced that we had to fight, that we would be losing our chance for greatness if we didn’t seize power over the rest of our people and then go on to other conquests. Something inside me seemed to come alive after Garth first came here, after we healed him and heard him rant about the power we could have and also the danger we posed to the universe, about how other worlds would be safe only if they acted against us before we could rise to glory. Even after he was gone, I dreamed of conquests, of the worlds that might be ours. It was such a new joy. And when Garth returned, I became convinced, with no help from him, that only through battle and conquest could we protect our own world from offworlders.” Heje-Illuss wiped his forehead with one hand. “Now all of that seems a fevered delusion, a kind of madness.” He glanced from Kirk to Garth and Empynes. “We’ll have to give up our shape-changing abilities. I see that now—it’ll remove that temptation. I’m not happy about that, but I can live with it if that will keep the peace. All of us can, and we’re willing to stay here and see what we can do for the others.”

  “I only hope that we can convince Hala-Jyusa and her followers to make their peace with that choice,” Trialla murmured.

  “It may take years,” Garth said, “maybe generations.” He spoke with a heavy voice, and Kirk knew that his burden had not grown lighter.

  “But better to isolate the dissidents than to allow [170] their ambitions to take root in other minds,” Empynes added.

  Kirk wondered about the isolation of groups, then of cultures, and the usefulness of a growing Federation, knowing that its ideal would have to be questioned and renewed repeatedly to succeed. Without a series of first contacts, one culture would remain ignorant of another’s rise, and of the dangerous or constructive opportunities that might present themselves. The Klingons and the Romulans, he was convinced, despite their aggressiveness, were not as hostile as they might have been because they knew that they had neighbors. Isolation might be more dangerous than any other long-term condition of intelligent life, both to the isolate and to any being coming into a first contact with an isolated individual or group. “Better to have neighbors one does not like,” a man named Clarke had written three hundred years ago, “than to be alone.” First contact with Spock’s homeworld of Vulcan had been a model of transitions, setting the stage for the formation of the Federation in the twenty-second century; first contact with the Klingons had been somewhat less so, fueling the distrust and suspicion that existed to this day between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

  What else waited out there that might be beyond peaceful contact? Kirk asked himself, and almost shuddered at the possibility of alienness that might live beyond all hope of conversation, beyond all understanding.

  [171] That was why he was here, Kirk reminded himself: to seek the unknown, to make contacts in a universe that was becoming aware of itself through intelligent life, that would benefit from learning that it was not alone in the great darkness. Suns lit the galaxies; intelligent life grew from the energy of these suns as they warmed planets and brought forth life upon them. These intelligences deserved to know other intelligences. That was why he was here with Garth, who had overcome so much within himself and was now trying to help the Antosians tame their own demons.

  I should never have doubted him, Kirk thought.

  “What are you going to do now?” Garth asked Empynes.

  “I must return to Pynesses,” the First Minister replied. “I am thinking that perhaps you should come there with me for a short time, Heje-Illuss. There will be people who will be wondering about the rebels. Relatives and family members of the rebels will want to know that their exile is necessary but won’t be unduly harsh. You may be able to help in reassuring them.”

  “If you think that would do any good,” Heje-Illuss said.

  “It may. I have no Chief Adviser at the moment, and my other advisers don’t know as much about the rebellion as you do. It may help if you meet with them, too.”

  Heje-Illuss turned to Trialla. “You’ll have to take my place as leader until I return.”

  “Hala-Jyusa and her group don’t know where you [172] are,” Garth said, “or even that you’re here. They are some one hundred and fifty kilometers northwest of you. So you should be safe until you’re ready to contact them.”

  Perhaps by then the extremists would be ready to listen to this group, Kirk thought; or, maybe this was just another in the seri
es of boxes with weak bottoms that would break and drop them all into the next set of problems.

  He took out his communicator and flipped it open. “Kirk to Enterprise,” he said.

  “Kyle here.”

  “Two Antosians, Empynes and Heje-Illuss, ready to be beamed to Pynesses. They’re standing next to Garth. Set them down inside the First Minister’s compound, and then we’ll start beaming supplies down here.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Kirk stood on the hillside, looking down at the beach. McCoy and Uhura were walking toward the hill and being pointedly ignored by the Antosians they passed. In the wooded land bordering the sandy beach, under the trees, Hala-Jyusa’s rebels had pitched the tents that would shelter them while they constructed more permanent dwellings with the tools beamed down to them from the Enterprise. They were still unloading the crates of food that would sustain them until they could grow and gather their own. There was enough food to last them for almost two of [173] their years, which were nearly the same length as Earth’s, and by then a Federation starship would have returned to Antos IV to see how well they were getting along.

  Two of the large gray and white birds flew past Kirk. Earlier, he had seen others swooping down over the ocean and carrying off fish in their bills. The birds circled McCoy and Uhura as the two officers climbed toward Kirk, then flew on. Three days had passed, and whatever the rebels were thinking, they were going about the daily tasks of life, organizing their temporary dwellings and exploring their immediate surroundings. It was the same among the group of Antosians with Trialla. By the time the Enterprise left this system, the smaller group of rebels should have established some sort of peaceful contact with Hala-Jyusa’s group, but if not, Kirk and Garth would have no choice but to beam them back to Pynesses. They could not leave Heje-Illuss’s followers here, open to possible attack from those who had once been their comrades.

  Hala-Jyusa’s rebels would then be completely isolated. It was small comfort to know that a few communicators would be left with them. Their channels would be limited, and they would not be able to send messages to anyone except Empynes or a few of his closest advisers, but they would not be completely cut off, with no way to speak to the outside world. Kirk was sure that his crew had accounted for every necessity in the arrangements for the rebels, but he [174] still worried about the wisdom of leaving them here on Acra.