The Unsettling Stars

by Alan Dean Foster

  Kirk stiffened. “I’ll assume that’s a rhetorical question—sir.”

  Yamashiro looked to his right. “The Enterprise is to proceed immediately to the SiBor system and to the SiBoronaan capital of EmouValk. They are expecting a response from us. The fact that you are already familiar with their civilization and procedures should speed understanding of the problem and point to a resolution that is satisfactory to all parties. Or…”

  “Or—sir?” Kirk kept his voice perfectly neutral.

  “Or when they learn that it’s the Enterprise that’s been sent to sort out the problem, they may decide to kill you on sight. When you beam down you’ll need to be prepared for anything. Just because the SiBoronaans have a reputation for pacifism doesn’t mean you can rely on it.”

  “We’ll take all necessary precautions, sir.”

  “Your pardon, Admiral. Commander Spock speaking.”

  Yamashiro’s gaze shifted slightly to one side. “What is it, Commander Spock?”

  “Is Starfleet certain that the distress communication from SiBor was not more specific? Merely informing us that they are being ‘taken over’ and that the Enterprise is somehow responsible gives us very little to go on, and nothing with which to prepare a response.”

  “I realize that.” The admiral finally seemed to soften a little. “You’ll just have to improvise. That’s part of your mission anyway.”

  “Sir, if I may,” Spock continued, “if the SiBoronaans are agreeable, we could suggest that they send a delegation directly to the Enterprise. That would greatly improve our ability to safely manage both our security and theirs while also allowing us to get a preliminary handle on the problem. Having already met and dealt with individuals of their species, I suspect they would be flattered by the offer and eager to take advantage of it.”

  “An excellent suggestion, Commander. Captain Kirk, upon your arrival at SiBor, you may act on Commander Spock’s suggestion. Proceed as you see fit—although permitting you that sort of leeway doesn’t seem to have worked well in this particular situation.” He sighed heavily. “At the risk of making things worse, and given the level of anxiety expressed by the SiBoronaans in regards to finding a solution to this situation quickly, I’m afraid I’m going to have to allow you to”—he winced visibly—“use your own judgment.”

  “Thank you, sir. We’ll be careful, and whatever the problem is that has arisen, we’ll put it right.”

  “I hope so, Captain. Diplomatic Corps hopes so. We all hope so. Yamashiro out.”

  The admiral had hit Kirk with a challenge and an accusation. The first had piqued his curiosity. The second had made him mad as hell. As McCoy would have been the first to point out, the combination often saw the captain perform at his best. Kirk hoped it would be good enough.

  * * *

  Prepared to send down a landing party, Kirk was greatly relieved when the clearly distressed SiBoronaan delegation agreed to beam aboard the Enterprise to explain the state of affairs that now afflicted their society. Meanwhile, Kirk put the ship on alert status—just in case.

  Kirk, Spock, Scott, and Uhura did not carry phasers to the meeting. In addition to making a bad impression, it was unnecessary. Unless all the delegates were bent on premeditated suicide, they could not get home unless the Enterprise beamed them back. No matter how upset they might be, they were unlikely to cause trouble. At least, not of the physical kind.

  While there was no equivalent on the Enterprise of the SiBoronaans’ formal, decorated meeting hall, the ship’s shuttlebay offered a suitably spacious venue. An honor guard stood at attention off to one side while the Enterprise officers awaited the arrival of the native delegation from the transporter room. When the slow-moving SiBoronaans arrived, Kirk was pleased to see that it was headed by Four Amek and Six Jol.

  “The Federation once again extends its manipulative digits and reminds the great SiBoronaans of its eternal friendship.” He waggled the fingers of his right hand in imitation of the corresponding SiBoronaan gesture for formal/polite greeting. “It’s good to see you again, Four Amek, even though I and my colleagues are informed there is some difficulty on SiBor that we might be able to help you with.”

  “There is difficulty, and it is not small.” The slender SiBoronaan did not mince words, and his eye flaps worked themselves back and forth rapidly enough to risk a sprain. As near as Kirk could tell based on what little he knew of SiBoronaan biology, the delegate standing before him was both angry and exhausted. In fact, he thought to himself, the entire delegation looked beat. The single SiBoronaan limb with its multiple branchings and grasping digits rose to flail wildly in the captain’s direction. “And it is your fault! All your fault. You deceived us!”

  Taken aback by the straightforward accusation, Kirk struggled to come up with a reply that would be formal and friendly. “We did nothing secretly, Amek. Everything we did from the moment we contacted you, everything that followed, was done openly and in full consultation with your people. There was no attempt to deceive.” Peering past the fuming speaker Kirk tried and failed to interpret the agitated gestures that were being executed by the rest of the delegation. Given their evident rage, perhaps his continuing incomprehension was just as well.

  Spock took a step forward. “What, precisely, is the nature of your difficulty?”

  “Precisely? Specifically?” Turning, Four Amek consulted with his colleagues. Their conversation was as animated as any Kirk could remember seeing among the SiBoronaans. While they conversed, he leaned over and whispered to Uhura.

  “My translator’s not getting any of this, Lieutenant. Can you understand anything they’re saying?”

  Straining to pick up as much of the alien conversation as she could, the communications officer looked hesitant.

  “There are a lot of untranslatable exclamations, Captain. Some of them are accompanied by fore and aft adjectives that—let’s just say it’s better if they don’t go into the official log. As to the rest”—she frowned—“they seem to be arguing over which offense is the most heinous.”

  “ ‘Which’?” Kirk gaped at her. “You mean there’s more than one?”

  She nodded gravely. “Many more, Captain. I believe they are preparing a list.”

  How long a list? he found himself wondering. And what could possibly be on it? Maybe an interruption would be in order.

  “Please, could you give us, uh, an example of what’s troubling you,” Kirk prompted Four Amek. “So that we can get an idea of what’s going on here, and what has you so upset.”

  Pivoting on his central axis, the SiBoronaan delegate turned around to face Kirk instead of merely shifting his eye flaps.

  “For one thing, Captain Kirk, SiBor’s largest and most settled continent of MaFir now has a swiftly expanding new rapid transit system for delivering goods and travelers. This highly efficient scheme is already being extended to Second and Fourth MaFir.”

  Kirk succeeded in looking thoroughly confused. The SiBoronaan’s words seemed totally at odds with his irate tone. “I don’t understand, Amek. This new system doesn’t work properly? It pollutes the atmosphere or the ground? It’s too costly for your people to use?”

  “No!” Even though Kirk’s translator automatically lowered the volume of the exclamation, the SiBoronaan’s vehemence still came through. “It works perfectly! Not only does it not pollute the sky or the earth, its mechanism actually takes pollutants from the air and renders them harmless.” His gurgling voice rose to a shout. “It is cheap to operate and everyone can afford to make use of it!” His digits retracted. “We are outraged.”

  If possible, Scott was even more bemused than his befuddled captain. “Sounds like an engineer’s dream. I confess I cannot see the problem.”

  “The problem?” Four Amek turned on his supportive pseudopods to face the Enterprise’s chief engineer. “The problem is that the entire system was envisioned, devised, and designed by Perenoreans! They also had to supervise the construction—because we were incapab
le of doing so with sufficient efficiency. The SiBoronaans supplied the labor and the raw materials and the manufacturing facilities, but that was all. Everything else was done for us by the new colonists.”

  Scott was shaking his head in disbelief. “I still don’t see the difficulty.”

  Six Jol scuttled forward. The smaller delegate’s voice was notably higher than that of Four Amek. “The difficulty is that only the Perenoreans understand the system. Therefore only they can run it. Some of our own engineers have tried, but the complexity and subtleties of the computational mechanics and the devices that keep them operating at peak efficiency defeated them. Without Perenorean supervision, the entire system would quickly collapse.”

  “What you’re saying,” Kirk replied slowly, “is that the Perenoreans have helped you to build a better ground transportation system, but that they control it.”

  “Exactly.” Four Amek sounded relieved that the message had made it across the language barrier.

  “If the situation bothers you, why not,” Scott wondered, “go back to the old one?”

  “Because,” Six Jol explained, “the new transportation system is better. For all the reasons Four Amek has given you, it is as if they knew! If the government were to try and go back, even if we declared that it was for the ultimate good of the Numbered, there would be great anger. And commerce would surely suffer. Having wholeheartedly adopted the system offered to us by the Perenoreans, we now find ourselves prisoners of it.”

  Spock was nodding understandingly. “It would appear that the Perenoreans are, quite openly and obligingly, making themselves, their knowledge, and their abilities invaluable to their hosts.”

  Uhura had come to the same conclusion. “I get it. It’s like a big company that has only one person who really understands the corporate finances. She’s the one person the company can’t fire.”

  Scott grinned. “Or like the chief engineer on a starship bein’ the only officer who truly understands all the workings of the ship.”

  “You said there’s more.” Kirk waited expectantly for either of the two delegates to continue. Both responded.

  “We have a much more sophisticated orbital staging system for our spacecraft,” Six Jol aggrievedly told him.

  “Five new varieties of genetically engineered food plants have been developed and planted. Each shows more promise than the last.” The tips of Four Amek’s digits were quivering with agitation.

  “A new device for extracting valuable minerals from seawater is now in operation at five sites in the western ocean,” delegate Jol bitterly informed the Starfleet officers.

  Four Amek was running out of steam, perhaps from waving his digits so often and so vigorously. “Our capital EmouValk has been gifted with new forms of art, music, and literature.”

  “And these are insulting to your SiBoronaan culture?” Kirk ventured hesitantly.

  “No!” Four Amek shouted. “They are all each and every number of them honorable and worthwhile. The art dazzles the eye, the music thrills the heartpipes, and the literature is of the most compulsive kind.” A deep earnestness had crept into the delegate’s voice. Earnestness, and desperation.

  “I think I understand.” Spock was taking notes on a data slate.

  “Well then, maybe you’ll be so kind as to share your revelation with the rest of us, Mister Spock.” A plainly baffled Scott stared hard at the science officer. “From where I stand, it sounds to me as if the Perenoreans have done nothing wrong except bequeath one gift after another to their hosts.”

  “That is quite correct, Mister Scott,” Spock agreed. “Just as they promised to do for us prior to our departure. They have given freely and expansively of their knowledge and abilities to their new hosts.” He turned his attention back to the delegation. “This realization is critical to understanding why the SiBoronaans are so upset, why they sent a distress call to Starfleet, and why they feel they have been deceived.”

  Scott’s expression twisted. “Mister Spock, can you unravel it any better than that?”

  The science officer drew himself up. “I shall endeavor to do precisely that, Mister Scott. Using you as an example.” For a change it was Scott’s eyebrows that rose.

  “Suppose,” Spock began, “that a newly arrived ensign knew how to maintain full warp engine power while cutting dilithium drain in half?”

  The chief engineer glanced around at his companions before turning back to the science officer. “Why, I’d offer him me heartiest congratulations, adopt his methodology, and recommend him for a commendation!”

  Spock continued: “Suppose that despite your best efforts you proved incapable of understanding the new process? Suppose that other ensigns, his friends, were assigned to the ship to oversee the necessary conversions? What if this ensign and his friends kept suggesting improvements—improvements that worked, and none of which you could comprehend despite your extensive experience? Might you not soon find yourself eased out of your position in favor of one of the newcomers who did understand all the changes?”

  The chief engineer digested this, looked slightly stunned at the conclusion he arrived at, and stammered a response. “Why, I dinna think that would… it couldn’t happen because… it isn’t likely that…” He broke off, stared at the science officer, looked dazedly at Kirk, and finally turned back to once again face the muttering delegation from SiBor.

  “Help ma boab! Now I get it.” He looked back at Spock. “Na wonder the SiBoronaans think they’ve been deceived. The bloody Perenoreans are helpin’ them so much that they’re takin’ over! ’Tis conquest by gift giving!”

  Spock gestured affirmatively. “Albeit without such intent in mind. Plainly the difference in knowledge not only of technology but of aesthetics as well as other fields is so great that the SiBoronaans cannot compete. Yet everything the Perenoreans have done and continue to do for their hosts arises out of a feeling of gratitude and a desire to be of help.”

  “Och, aye,” commented the chief engineer, “they’re helpin’ themselves to control of the SiBor system, they are.”

  “By making themselves and their gifts irreplaceable.” Kirk understood the science officer’s point. “The SiBoronaans now find themselves trapped in a deepening spiral of free help and good neighborliness. If they refuse gifts that improve life on SiBor, whatever segment of the SiBoronaan population that stands to benefit is bound to raise a stink. And if they accept them and only the Perenoreans can make the gifts work, then that leaves the colonists in control of one more aspect of SiBoronaan society. Brilliant!”

  “A caution, Captain.” Spock eyed his friend intently. “I am not at all certain that this represents some carefully thought-out devious plan on the part of the Perenoreans. It may be nothing more than what it appears to be: a general and generous outreach on their part to be of assistance to their benefactors.” He turned his attention back to the delegation. “That does not, of course, obviate the attendant consequences that have so upset the SiBoronaans.”

  “And as you point out, Spock,” Uhura added, “they’re trapped. Turn down future presents and some segment of their society will protest. Continue to accept them and take the damning consequences along with them.”

  “There is one possible solution.”

  Kirk sighed as he waited on his science officer. “All right, Spock: let’s have it.”

  “It is very simple, Captain. If they wish to continue to dwell on DiBor, the Perenoreans must be persuaded to stop assisting the SiBoronaans. Furthermore, the SiBoronaans must be educated to master the Perenorean gifts.”

  “And the alternative?” Kirk asked him.

  The science officer eyed the waiting delegation as its members continued to argue among themselves.

  “Unless this is done, I fear that, quite unintentionally, the SiBoronaans will become second-class citizens if not outright slaves in their own planetary system.”

  11

  While the members of the SiBoronaan delegation continued to debate furiously
among themselves, the Starfleet officers turned introspective as they pondered the ramifications of Spock’s solution. Captain Kirk finally broke the silence.

  “So then. We’ve just been told that the SiBoronaans have become reliant on the Perenorean contributions. How are we going to slow that down?”

  “I’ve got it!” Scott’s expression brightened. “If you’ll permit me an engineerin’ analogy, it strikes me that these Perenoreans are like a runaway nuclear reaction. They’re so full of ideas and concepts and obligin’ hints that they need an outlet for their energy or they’ll just explode. What they need are the social equivalent of carbon rods to soak up all their excess neutrons—excuse me, excess energies.” Having caught the attention of his colleagues, he swiftly continued. “In this case ’tis the SiBoronaans who are both the beneficiaries and victims of all that energy. Now, if we can substitute a more effective system of control for all this Perenorean ‘helpfulness’ and find them a locale better suited to soakin’ up all their surplus energy…”

  Kirk eyed his chief engineer with admiration. “That sounds like a fine idea, Mister Scott. A fine idea.” He looked to his right. “Mister Spock?”

  The science officer’s reaction was considerably more restrained. “I am not sure, Captain. It sounds plausible. Time should be taken to study all the possible ramifications.” He looked at Scott. “I presume you have some suitable source in mind for the ‘soakin’ up’ of the Perenoreans’ excess energy?”