Strangers from the Sky

  telepath, it was one thing the active seeking and

  conjoining of mind to mind.

  For Spock, half-Vulcan, sojourner among

  telepath and nontelepath alike, conjoiner with

  Horta and Medusan and every manner of

  human, it was something other. And with this mind most of all

  a human mind at first unskilled, wary,

  resistant, but long since nurtured in the

  recognition and acceptance of at least one other min

  tilde the Touch was unique unto itself.

  When had Spock first touched Kirk's mind with his

  own? Had it been as late as the Melkot, as the

  spurious gunfight that his captain had known,

  objectively, was unreal and yet had needed

  Spock's unflagging conviction to enforce? Reaching his

  mind, disciplined from infancy, into that untried

  territory, Spock had first

  encountered, of all things, a joke. A feeble one

  at that.

  "I think therefore l am. I think!" was how

  Kirk greeted him, able to laugh from the edge of the

  precipice, wanting the meld as a weapon against the

  Melkot but fearing it at the same time. The poor

  taste of the joke might have caused another Vulcan

  mind to withdraw, to leave so frivolous a mind to its

  own devices almost.

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  But it was that very humor-in-crisis that had

  fascinated Spock, made him hold on

  for weal or for woe, as McCoy would say for as long

  as they both should live.

  A wisdom older than Surak decreed: nothing

  that is is unimportant. Two minds met as one

  would find the answer, no matter how seemingly

  insignificant.

  It might be nothing greater than a ship's log

  entry.

  Book Two

  Chapter One

  CAPTAIN S LOG, STARVATE 1305.4 .

  . .

  Captain James T. Kirk kept one finger

  on the log recorder button while with his other hand

  he set his knight in a direct offensive against

  Gary Mitchell's king.

  "Check!" he mouthed silently so the recorder

  wouldn't pick it up. Pleased with himself. What

  Mitchell mimed back was also best kept off the

  record. Kirk tried to keep any trace of

  smugness out of his voice as he resumed the log

  entry.

  "We are continuing our mapping of Sector

  Epsilon Z3, scanning and cataloging

  individual planets in previously charted solar

  systems and seeking out possible additional

  undiscovered star systems...."

  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Gary

  making tentative passes at the board, mentally

  trying moves and taking them back. Kirk's grin

  widened, turned into a yawn as he returned to the

  log entry.

  "To date we have cataloged some seventeen

  planets and four planetoids in a total of

  thirteen star systems. Planets scanned have

  proved to be Class D or lower. Following

  standard procedure, we have not found it necessary to send a

  landing party to a single one of

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  these barren rocks. Needless to say the crew, and

  I, will be grateful when this aspect of our mission

  is complete. Estimate another three weeks, at

  this rate, before that occurs."

  Kirk yawned again, missed the furtive flick

  of M tilde tchell's hand toward his queen and an

  improbable kamikaze ploy.

  "Final note: in view of the meticulous

  scientific nature of stannapping, I have

  placed Science Officer Spock in temporary

  command for the duration.

  "Besides," he said strictly for Gary's ears,

  shutting off the recorder, "in view of Mr.

  Spock's seemingly unlimited capacity for

  detail"tilde ary laughed with him "it gives me more

  time to polish my game. Problem, Mr.

  Mitchell?"

  "Not hardly, Captain."" Mitchell couldn't

  give him the title without a touch of sarcasm. In a

  flash his bishop had leaped up two levels,

  capturing Kirk's queen and leaving him wide open.

  "Check."

  Kirk's jaw dropped.

  "You son-of-a . . . How'd you do that?"

  "Piece of cake, kid." It was Mitchell's

  turn to grin, loll back in his chair with his hands

  clasped behind his head. "I only have to do one thing at

  a time."

  Kirk scanned the board, saw no way out,

  decided to make one final log entry before he conceded

  defeat.

  "Addition to bi-weekly log RE: personnel

  changes. Yeoman Rand, please note and append

  to respective personnel files:

  McCoy, Leonard H.:

  away on leave, Starbase 6 until further

  notice. Piper, Mark: returned from leave pending

  retirement approximately Stardate 1401.

  Additions to crew effective immediately: Bailey,

  David: navigational trainee, assigned

  Engineering pending possible bridge assignment, and

  Dehner, Eliz- abeth: psychiatrist, assigned

  Sickbay. Ou."

  "Met her yet?" Mitchell wanted to know,

  watching Kirk stare at the board and sweat.

  "You have, I suppose?" Kirk shot back.

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  Mitchell feigned a shiver.

  "Never did care much for cold climates."

  "Meaning there's at least one female in the

  quadrant who can resist you," Kirk muttered,

  pondering a counteroffensive as suicidal as Gary's

  offensive.

  "Why be greedy?" Mitchell asked. "I was

  thinking of doing the charitable thing. Giving the lady a

  chance to practice some of those healing instincts on one

  of those grim, serious types who can't score for

  himself."

  "I can't imagine who you're talking about."

  Kirk extricated himself from check, but less

  flamboyantly than he'd hoped. He was only

  postponing the inevitable. "The last time you tried

  to fix me up his

  "Oh, I wasn't thinking of you, son,"

  Mitchell said laconically, clinching the game.

  "Don't you think Spock would be more her type?"

  Kirk didn't answer right away, wasn't at

  all sure it was dignified for a captain to make

  fun of his crew, even in the privacy of his own

  quarters.

  "Kind of makes you wonder what happens when

  two immovable collide," Gary persisted, until

  even Kirk had to laugh.

  "Probably "The End of Everything,"" he

  intoned, imitating one of their Academy

  professors.

  Their laughter was all out of proportion to the real

  humor of what either had said. Why was it so easy

  to make fun of Spock with Gary? And, more to the

  point, Kirk wondered, why was it

  necessary?

  He'd been warned it was impossible to warm up to a

  Vulcan, but that hadn't bothered him. He

  didn't expect his officers to be his friends; the fact

  that some like Gary and Bones McCoy

  incidentally happened to be friends first and fellow

  officers second was an unlookedfor bonus
. All

  Kirk expected demanded from his crew

  was efficiency, loyalty, and compliance to orders.

  Spock possessed all of these to the nth degree.

  Why did he still feel uncomfortable with him?

  Was it the Vulcan's absolute humorlessness,

  demon

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  strafed to him all too frequently in the earliest

  weeks of the voyage? Was it something as

  immature as jealousy, envy of the Vulcan's

  effortless brilliance, his ability to do six things at

  once without looking as if he were half trying, his

  absolute accuracy in the most minute detail?

  Was it the fact that it was impossible to know what he was

  thinking, what went on behind that

  impenetrable gaze, and in not knowing, one concluded that

  he was looking right through this all-too-human captain

  and finding him inadequate to the job?

  Truth to tell, the captaincy still rested

  uneasily on Kirk's shoulders; he

  wondered if it would prove to be more of a burden, more

  of a

  straitjacket than he'd bargained for. Maybe

  that was why he let himself get so silly when Gary was

  around. To everyone else on board he was The

  Captain if not infallible, then expected to give the

  impression of being so. To Gary he was just a friend; there

  was something about that too precious to lose

  Odd how the thing you spent your life pursuing could

  turn on you once you got it. Kirk had wanted

  command. Wanted it? His entire life had been spent

  in preparation for it. He'd eaten, slept, lusted

  after it. A ship of his own. And now . . .

  "Bridge to Captain Kirk. Spock here."

  "Kirk here," he managed, with a warning look at

  Gary. "What is it?"

  "You asked to be notified should we encounter an

  uncharted body of planetoid size or larger,"

  Spock reported solemnly. "I believe we have

  done so, sir."

  "On my way." Kirk snapped the screen off.

  "Coming, Mr. Mitchell?"

  "After you, Captain.""

  Spock stepped down from the command chair with a bit

  too much alacrity, Kirk thought, as if

  he could barely wait to return to his science station.

  STRANGERS FROM THE-SKY

  "Report," Kirk said over his shoulder,

  settling into the centerseat.

  "We are on elliptical approach to the

  unrecorded planetoid, Captain," Spock

  said, his concentration on the hooded viewer of the library

  computer. "Passing over its compamon star now,

  sir."

  "Main screen," Kirk ordered, and squinted

  into its brightness as Lee Kelso punched it up from the

  helm. A too-bright sun dominated the screen,

  obscuring the starfield and everything else in its

  vicinity. "Mag pointfive on that screen, Mr.

  Kelso. And give us some red dampers."

  "Aye, sir," Kelso replied.

  Reduced by half, its radiance considerably

  lessened, the star became more comprehensible, but it was still

  impossible to see past it.

  "The star on the screen," Spock reported,

  "was designated as Kapeshet by previous

  expeditions. It was not previously known to have any

  orbital bodies, however. Kapeshet is a

  variable star with an outsize corona, which

  may explain why the dependent planetoid has

  thus far gone unnoticed."

  "All right," Kirk said, rubbing his hands together

  to contain his excitement. He was aware of Gary,

  stepping down to relieve Farrell at navigation,

  eager to be in on the discovery of a new planet, no

  matter how ordinary. "Size and location of your

  discovery, Mr. Spock?"

  There was a silence, prolonged enough to make Kirk

  wonder if Spock had heard him. He swung his

  chair around to find Spock standing at attention in that

  waiting posture of his, hands clasped behind his

  back, an immovable object.

  "I asked you a question, Mr. Spock," Kirk

  said tightly.

  - "Yes, sir. It was the nature of the question which

  puzzled me. The planetoid is not "my"

  discovery, sir. Ship's sensors were responsible for

  its initial detection, consequently his

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  There was muffled laughter Mom somewhere nearby, a

  waiting silence around the bridge. Kirk swung his

  chair slowly in a 180-degree arc, assessing the

  situation. It was common enough for an established

  crew to give a new captain a certain amount of

  ragging in the early weeks, but they'd survived a

  crisis or two together and should be over all that by now.

  Besides, most of this crew had signed on when he

  did; only a few were remnants of Pike's

  administration.

  How many of them were in Spock's camp? Kirk

  wondered, failing to understand this early that Spock had

  no camp, and never would.

  All right! Kirk thought, swinging the chair back in

  Spock's direction.

  "Very well, Mr. Spock," he said slowly, his

  tone calculated to remind everyone on the bridge,

  but particularly kits science officer, exactly who

  was in charge here. "We've had our moment of levity.

  Our comic relief, if you will. Now kindly answer

  my question. Size and location of the object under

  investigation"...'7

  Spock's gaze did not falter under Kirk's

  glare; it was almost as if he had no idea why

  Kirk was annoyed. He did not refer to his

  viewer, but recited his data from memory.

  "Planetoid designated M-lSS, per

  standard Murasaki Index annotation.

  Circumference: 16,583 miles.

  Mass: four times ten to the twenty-first power metric

  tons. Mean density: 3.702.

  Quantitatively about tw tilde thirds the

  size of Earth. Present location: in elliptical

  orbit around Kapeshet at 131 Mark 4,

  sir."

  Kirk made an effort not to be impressed.

  "Very well. Schematic, Mr. Mitchell.

  Let's have a look at it."

  Mitchell plotted a schematic several

  degrees ahead and put it on the screen. The ship

  was almost through Kapeshet's corona; the planetoid

  should become visible momentarily. The entire bridge

  crew watched the

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  screen. The sight of the due -- t chunk of

  rock would offer them some relief from fix previous

  weelt's monotony.

  "I don't see anything," Kirk said, voicing

  everyone's impatience. Everyone but Spock, who

  didn't seem capable of impatience. "Helm, are

  you sure we're on course?"

  "Affirmative," Kelso replied; "131

  Mark 4, sir."

  "Navigation?"

  "Course confirmed," Mitchell said

  laconically, checking his instruments with a tilt of his

  head. "Except there's nothing out there."

  Kirk frowned. Mitchell could be enviably

  relaxed, but he was seldom careless.

  "Are you sure?"

  "No orbital body at 131 Mark 4,

  Ca
ptain," Mitchell said, for once giving Kirk

  the title without irony.

  "Confirmed, sir." Kelso turned to look at

  Kirk. "No planetoid at that location."

  Kirk sat forward in the chair.

  "Scan the area. Full sweep fifteen

  degrees about. Maybe it's in a rapid orbit

  or a retrograde. Maybe it's not in a fixed

  orbit at all. A rogue or an asteroid."

  "Unlikely, Captain," the Vulcan said behind

  him without waiting to be consulted. "Planetoid was

  monitored on its present course for one Standard

  hour before verification."

  It was precise standard procedure for the mapping Of

  newly discovered planet). If Outlying eke,

  Kirk had to concede, Spock was precise.

  "All right," Kirk said with exaggerated

  patience. "Then kindly tell me where it is now."

  "Unknown, sir."

  Kirk rose deliberately from the center seat,

  walked slowly, stiffly to the rail before Spock's

  station.

  "Uhoh!" murmured Lee Kelso, who knew

  that walk. He nudged Gary Mitchell in the

  ribs. "Duck, Mitch! It's about to hit the

  fan."

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  "Mr. Spock," Kirk said, carefully

  enunciating each syllable. "What is today's

  date?"

  "Stardate 1305.4, Captain," Spock

  answered immediately.

  "You're certain it's not April Fool's

  Day?"

  "I beg your pardon, sir? I am not familiar

  with the reference."

  "No, Mr. Spock, I don't suppose you

  would be," Kirk said long-sufferingly. "But tell

  me, has anyone else on the bridge seen this

  elusive planet of yours?"

  "No, sir," Spock said quietly,

  aware that he had somehow displeased this volatile new

  commanding officer, though he was at a loss to explain

  how this had happened. Nevertheless he must give an

  answer that would only increase his captain's

  displeasure. "Due to the interference from Kapeshet's

  corona, I was monitoring on a

  frequency few humanoids can see. Further,

  I assumed that as commanding of fleer you wished to be the

  first informed."

  "I see," Kirk said slowly. That last sentence

  was the tip-off, as he saw it. He had as good a

  sense of humor as the next man, but. . . "Mr.

  Spock, we're all a little fatigued with this

  starmapping, and I can appreciate an attempt at

  lightening the mood, when it's done well. But even the

  best practical joke can be taken too far!"

  Spock stood on his dignity. "Vulcans,