by Lee Correy
"Spock here, Captain."
"Things aren't going as well as expected, Mister Spock."
"Indeed? It appears that the system's star is getting ready to drastically increase its stellar constant."
"Aha! So you found out about that independently?"
"Of course, Captain. The normal monitoring of the stellar wind, the gravitational pulsing, the neutrino flux, and the density of the flocculi are standard measurements of stellar instability. These data plus other factors permit me to estimate that the probability of the star undergoing an unstable phase is almost unity."
"Do you have any estimate of the possible intensity of the flare-up, Spock?"
"Negative, sir. It appears that there will be moderate increases in the emissivity of the star in the infrared, visible light, and ultraviolet wavelengths. I'm not certain of any increase in gamma radiation. However, some of the data are unusual because I've not been able to correlate them with any radiation that is normally produced by a Class G star."
"There may be a lot of things about Mercaniad that are unusual because it got bounced around in that space fold, Spock."
"True, Captain, but I haven't been able to ascertain any increased radiation levels beyond those I mentioned … and they shouldn't be of a level that will cause permanent harm to humanoid life forms, although surface conditions may become uncomfortable from an environmental point of view."
"Well, Spock, let me know, because Scotty and I have been banished from the protective Keeps, although they're going to let McCoy and Yeoman Rand into the Keeps as experimental controls. . . ."
"I take it, sir, that they didn't believe your story and that they've decided to experiment upon you as unusual life forms?"
"As you would say, quite correct. Is there any possibility that this stellar flare-up will damage the Enterprise?"
"I need to confer with Mr. Scott, Captain. I'm not certain that we have enough power in the remaining dilithium crystals."
"Scotty, confer with Mister Spock on your communicator," Kirk remarked. He listened for a moment as the engineer talked with the Science Officer. What he heard was not encouraging.
Finally Scott reported to Kirk, "Spock and I agree, based on the data he's relayed to me. The ship's shields will certainly withstand the increased stellar radiation from the infrared up through the gamma rays, provided the intensity increase in orbit doesn't exceed a five-times increase for more than fifty hours. Beyond that point, we begin to drain the remaining dilithium reserves rapidly."
"Do we have enough reserves to move the Enterprise far enough away from Mercaniad to get it out of danger if Mercaniad's radiation should exceed that level and duration?" Kirk asked.
"Negative, Captain," Spock's voice came back through the communicator. "Such a maneuver would gravely deplete the remaining dilithium crystals that we'll absolutely require to return to the Orion Arm, where we may be able to call for assistance from Star Fleet Command."
"Unless we can find dilithium crystals here on Mercan," Scott added.
The situation was getting more difficult all the time. The Guardians and their Proctors were going to split up his landing party, which would mean that the Guardians would have two hostages—Janice Rand and McCoy. He and Scotty, with Orun's help, could probably manage to survive the Ordeal, even if it meant transporting up to the ship when it got too bad on the surface of Mercan. But not even Spock was certain that the ship would survive the flare-up of Mercaniad if the star became too energetic or if the flare-up lasted too long. And there was no way to know at this time.
Plus there was some strange data that not even Spock could evaluate concerning the forthcoming flare-up, data that could make things worse.
"Spock, can the transporter room lock on this signal? We may have to get Yeoman Rand and Doctor McCoy out of here, regardless of the circumstances with the Guardians. Scotty and I have to stay here, on the assumption that the Technic is going to attempt a rescue during or before the Ordeal." It was a decision that Kirk didn't like to make, but he felt he couldn't afford to have his landing party split up, putting his Medical Officer and a woman member of his crew in the hands of the Guardians and Proctors in an unknown place, the Keeps. . . . At least, not while some of the Guardians believed them to be animals and therefore suitable for vivisection.
"Captain," Spock replied from the Enterprise, "you're surrounded by so much transporter activity on the surface in your present location that Lieutenant Kyle can't hold dematerialization lock on any of you. And this transporter activity appears to be increasing."
"There's going to be a lot of transporter activity down here in the next twenty-four hours, Spock. The powers-that-be are moving the whole population of the planet into the deep Keeps underneath the oceans, using the planetary transporter system."
"I have the transporter room on heel-to-toe watches and Yellow Alert," Spock replied. "We'll attempt to get de-mat locks on you and hold them for as long as we can under the circumstances, Captain. But you must realize that we may not be able to transport immediately at any given time."
"We'll keep that in mind, Mister Spock. But I'm also concerned about some of that unusual data you've picked up coming from Mercaniad. Any further analysis on it?"
"Negative, Captain."
"Very well, speculate. What does it look like?"
"Nothing I have seen from a Class G star," the Science Officer reported. "But it bears some resemblance to some of the rare and little-understood emissions that come from some Class K stars. . . ."
"Jim," Bones McCoy, who had been listening to the conversation next to Kirk, said seriously, "that sounds like Berthold Rays. . . ."
"You may be right, Doctor McCoy," Spock's voice replied.
"But from a Class G star, they may have effects we don't know about. Berthold Rays themselves are bad enough!" McCoy added. "Incapacitation after several hours' exposure, followed by tissue disintegration during the agonal period, followed by death within seventy-two hours."
"If that's true," Scotty put in, "it means that the people aboard the Enterprise are in trouble, because that's hard radiation, and it takes a lot of shield power to stop it. We may not have enough."
The situation was indeed deteriorating. Kirk had a last-ditch course of action, one that he was extremely reluctant to take. He could shift into the "conquistador mode," putting on a show of force with the phasers of the Enterprise and perhaps even bringing down the shuttle craft. He didn't want to do that. He had to work something out because the Mercans could be far too important to the Federation. In addition, the prohibition against a flagrant violation of General Order Number One ran deep within him. The Prime Directive is violated only in the most extreme cases, when all alternatives have failed.
All of the alternatives hadn't failed yet, but they were disappearing rapidly.
Chapter Eight
"Captain Kirk, I am not going to go with those Proctors to some suboceanic cave as an experimental animal unless you give me a direct order to do so," Yeoman Janice Rand said firmly.
"Neither am I, Jim," McCoy added. "What kind of nonsense is this, anyway? As a doctor, I'm the one who's supposed to do the biopsies and autopsies, not the other way around."
"James Kirk, I'm certain the Technic is aware of our predicament," Orun put in. "Delin and Othol have undoubtedly given their full reports by now, and we may even be under surveillance by the Technic. They may be waiting for the proper opportunity to come to us with traveler controls so that we may join them in our own Keeps … which are a great improvement over those of the Guardians and Proctors because of what we've learned about the nature of the Ordeal. . . ."
Kirk made up his mind right then. "We're not going to let Pallar and Lenos split us up," he stated flatly. "In the first place, we're a team, and that's why each of you was selected for this landing. Second, if the Technic does attempt to make contact with us as Orun claims they will, I want all of us to be there … and I do not want to have to search a whole planet to find the oth
er half of my landing party."
It was a direction that Kirk didn't want to take, but the actions of the Guardians in not accepting even part of the truth of his story were forcing him in that direction. However, he began to see new options opening up for him as a result. He would have to walk a fine line between the conquistador and the diplomat, but his new options did permit him to utilize all of the power that he'd reluctantly held in check up to that point.
"Right now," Kirk went on, "we're going to stop being cooperative. We're going to start giving the Guardians some problems … and that means making ourselves very hard to find. The next step in the process is making ourselves very difficult to handle for the Proctors." He pulled his hand phaser from under his tunic. "Everyone, check phasers on stun … and we use them if the Proctors try to stop us."
"Now you're talking!" Scotty put in with a smile.
"I was beginning to wonder what it would take to bring you back to being Captain James T. Kirk," Bones McCoy added. "You certainly waited long enough to take action. I was getting a little bit worried about you, Jim."
Kirk ignored McCoy's comments. "Orun, I take it the Proctors have no real way of locating us if we leave here," Kirk questioned their Mercan companion.
"That's true. They'll have to search for us, but they can do it by traveling to many places quickly, completing a search that would otherwise take a long period if they had to walk."
"We'll still make it as difficult as possible for them. How about the Technic? Will they have the same trouble finding us?"
"I don't think so, but I don't know everything that the Technic possesses in this regard. . . ."
"Which means that they can locate us if they want to," Kirk snapped. "All right, everyone, let's go. Orun, lead the way and take us to a place that they won't think to look for us."
Kirk was back in action, and his landing party was glad of it.
As they left the villa, Kirk flipped open his communicator. "Enterprise, this is Kirk."
"Uhura here, Captain."
"Inform Mister Spock that we're leaving our host's villa. They're threatening to split us up. We're going to make ourselves hard to find, so even Spock may have trouble locating our coordinates."
"He's already having trouble, sir," the Communications Officer's voice reported. "The transporter activity on the planet is increasing rapidly."
"It's going to slack off by sunset, Celerbitan time, Uhura. By that time, the population will be in the Keeps, and Mercaniad will be well along into its current phase of instability. We'll keep in touch. Kirk out."
Captain's Log, supplemental, stardate unknown, inputted on a tricorder somewhere on the Mercan city-island of Celerbitan.
It's not easy to hide from Proctors. They seem to be everywhere in Celerbitan, passing the word to people and urging them to transport into the Keeps. The Keep for Celerbitan appears to be in the depths of a very large ocean called Sel Ethan directly south of this island chain. As a result of our uniforms and our different appearance, we're holed up in what appears to be a large warehouse full of pallets, boxes, and other packed goods in the foothills north of the main city and the Guardian Villa. Orun suggested that we obtain some Mercan clothing, but I vetoed this because there's no way that we can look like Mercans, even in their simple loose-fitting clothing. We're just too short for anyone to mistake us for Mercans. It's time and effort that would have been wasted anyway, because even if we were taken as Mercans, the Proctors would try to herd us into the Keep … and there we'd certainly be discovered. We're well hidden now, and most of the local population of this area has been evacuated already. We have water in a stream that runs past this warehouse and through a semitropical forest outside, so we can hold on for quite some time with our emergency rations. However, Orun fully expects us to be contacted by the Technic before sunset tomorrow. As far as we know, the Proctors haven't followed us here. Our tricorders show no life-form activity within a kilometer or so that would indicate Proctor presence.
Another supplemental report, sundown, one Mercan day before the Guardians predicted the start of the Ordeal. Looking at Mercaniad through the haze of the ocean air on the horizon, it becomes quite apparent that something is happening to the star. It has sun spots large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Even at the bottom of this atmosphere it's possible to see extensive prominences beginning to extend from the photosphere around its disc. I don't think anyone has watched the antics of a Class G irregular variable at this range before. I hope Mister Spock is getting copious data.
Spock was. Kirk's communicator whistled at him about midnight, awakening him from a rather fitful sleep on some fluffy plasticlike bags of fiber product stored in one part of the warehouse. He pulled out his communicator, flipped it open, and told it softly, "Kirk here."
"Spock, Captain. I have some bad news."
"I've been afraid of that, Mister Spock. But give me the specifics."
"The stellar activity is increasing at a much greater rate than I'd anticipated or than the computer had calculated on the basis of available data. We have thirty hours and seventeen-point-five minutes until the stellar activity will theoretically peak, and it may hold that intensity for as long as sixty-two hours, plus or minus forty hours as a three-sigma value. The maximum stellar activity will raise the spectral classification of Mercaniad to Class F1 … far above our original expectations. . . ."
"That's trouble," Scotty's voice came through the gloom of the darkened warehouse near Kirk. He moved over toward Kirk. "That'll drain our power reserves to the critical point. We canna make it through with the Enterprise at this distance from the star."
"Quite correct, Mister Scott," Spock's voice came back, emotionless as usual. "There is only one chance in four thousand nine hundred and eighty-seven-point-nine-five that the shields of the Enterprise will offer sufficient protection for the crew, and we can anticipate at least two-thirds of the crew being overcome. It is not simply a matter of electromagnetic spectrum radiation from the infrared through gamma rays, Captain. The unusual radiation you ordered me to speculate about earlier is now increasing to the point where I can begin to analyze it."
"Berthold Rays, Mister Spock?" Kirk wanted to know.
"Not precisely, since Berthold Rays have been known to emanate only from Class K stars," the Science Officer went on. "It appears to be a far more energetic form of Berthold radiation with a very high energy content."
Kirk discovered that McCoy was also awake now and at his other side. "Which means that the effects will be intensified, and that the agonal period will not only occur sooner but be more traumatic," the doctor put in. "That's enough to fry us for certain, except in a very deep cave, and it certainly isn't going to be healthy for anybody on the ship, Jim."
"And celestial mechanics won't let us just park the ship in orbit in the shadow of the planet for that long. Mercan has no natural satellite and no Lagrangian points." There appeared to be only one option now open to the captain of the star ship Enterprise. "Spock, as quickly as you can get any sort of transporter lock on us, beam us all up. We'll simply have to use the energy to pull us away from Mercaniad until things calm down. When and if they do, we'll have to deal with the Mercans in the best way that we can at that time. But I will not risk the lives of the crew and the safety of the ship. Mister Spock, five to beam up."
He started to get to his feet, and the others followed suit, assuming locations for transporting. Janice Rand awakened Orun and pointed out where he was to stand.
"Captain, I believe there is an alternative," Spock's voice came back. "This star is in a transition state at the moment. There's one chance in seventeen-point-three that we may be able to dampen the intensity of its flare-up, and one chance in three hundred fourteen-point-seven-nine that we may be able to stabilize it permanently as a Class G0 star."
"What do you have in mind, Spock?"
"My analysis indicates that an additional energy input of quite small proportions—a trigger effect, as it were—will dam
p the runaway nuclear and gravitational surges within the star," the Vulcan reported. "Captain, I propose to put two photon torpedoes into Mercaniad, one at each stellar pole simultaneously, with each traveling at Warp Factor Two. Those torpedoes will be deep within the star before the star can react to them. I will fuse the photon torpedoes for delayed detonation so their energy release occurs deep in the stellar core. . . ."
"You spoke of a very long chance that it would dampen the activity, Spock. What are some of the other possibilities?" Kirk queried, because he had detected a note of hesitancy in Spock's voice that only he, the Captain, would have noticed because of years of close association with the half-Vulcan/half-human.
Spock was silent for a moment. "There is one chance in four hundred and ten-point-three that the photon torpedoes will cause Mercaniad to nova. . . ."
"I don't like those odds, Mister Spock. We're almost better off doing nothing at all rather than trying to tickle an irregular variable star."
"Sir, as I stated, there is an excellent chance that this action will dampen this stellar flare-up. The chances of causing the star to either stabilize or nova are of the same order of magnitude, but are far greater than damping it. Your alternative, sir, is to beam aboard so that we can withdraw and return when the flare-up is over. . . ."
Kirk was used to making decisions firmly and expeditiously when necessary. He'd been evaluating the options in his mind even as Spock reported to him and proposed the star-busting operation. In view of what he felt he had to do—get his ship repaired, which would require the assistance of the Mercans, which in turn would mean bringing them into the Federation if they would come—he came to a decision.
"Belay the order to beam up, Spock. You're authorized to attempt to torpedo Mercaniad. However, do it before local sunrise here and be prepared to beam us up on a moment's notice and jump at once to maximum possible Warp Factor if you do succeed in triggering a nova."