Star Trek - Blish, James - 04 Read online

  The enemy flashed by. The torpedoes bloomed harm-lessly on the viewscreen. Another slam. Kirk's head reeled.

  "Number four shield has buckled."

  "Auxiliary power."

  "Sir, Mr. Scott reports auxiliary power is being called upon by Sickbay."

  "Divert."

  "Switching over-shields finning up. Number four still weak, sir. If they hit us there again, it'll go altogether."

  "Set computer to drop to number three and switch auxiliary back to Sickbay if it goes."

  "Aye, sir."

  Kirk heard the elevator doors open behind him, and then Lt. Josephs and another security guard were hustling Thelev before him, without ceremony. It took Kirk a mo-ment to remember that he had ordered exactly this in-terruption. He stared harshly at the prisoner.

  "Your friends out there are good," he said. "But they'll have to blast this ship to dust to win."

  "That was intended from the beginning, Captain," Thelev said. He was, Kirk noted with a certain satisfaction, still rather lumpy from his attempt at killing, an impres-sion heightened by the missing antenna. The small wound there had healed, but it looked more as though it had been a deep cut than the loss of a major organ.

  "You're not an Andorian. What did it take to make you over?"

  The Enterprise rocked again. Chekov said, "Shield four down."

  "Damage control procedures, all decks," Kirk said. Then, to Thelev; "That ship out there carries phasers. It's faster than we are, but weapon for weapon, we have it outgunned."

  Thelev only smiled. "Have you hit it yet, Captain?"

  Another shock, and a heavier one. Chekov said, "Shield three weakening. Shall I redivert auxiliary power, sir?"

  This was getting them nowhere; if it continued sheerly as a battle of attrition, the Enterprise would lose. And there was the operation to consider.

  "Engineering, this is the Captain. Blank out all power on the port side of the ship except for phaser banks. On my signal, cut starboard power. Kirk out." He turned back to Thelev. "Who are you?"

  "Find your own answers, Captain. You haven't long to live."

  "You're a spy, surgically altered to pass an an Andorian. You were planted in the Ambassador's party to use terror and murder to disrupt us and prepare for this attack."

  "Speculation, Captain."

  The ship shook again. Chekov said, "Shield three is gone, sir."

  "Engineering, blank out starboard power, all decks. Maintain until further orders."

  The lights on the bridge went out, except for gleams from the telltales on the panels, and the glow of stars from the viewscreen. In the dimness, Thelev at last looked slightly alarmed. "What are you doing?" he said.

  "You speculate."

  "We're starting to drift, Captain," Chekov said. "Shall I hold her on course?"

  "No. Stand by your phasers, Mr. Chekov."

  "Aye, sir. Phasers standing by."

  A blip of pulsing light again appeared in the screen, slowed down, held steady. Kirk leaned forward intently.

  "He's just hovering out there, sir."

  "Looking us over," Kirk said. "We're dead-as far as he knows. No starship commander would deliberately ex-pose his ship like this, especially one stuffed with notables -or that's what I hope he thinks."

  "Range decreasing. Sublight speed."

  "Hold your fire."

  "Still closing-range one hundred thousand kilometers -phasers locked on target..."

  "Fire."

  The blip flared brightly on the screen. A jubilant shout went up from Chekov. "Got him!"

  "Lt. Uhura, open a hailing frequency. If they wish to surrender..."

  He was interrupted by a glaring burst of light from the viewscreen. Everyone instinctively ducked; the light was blinding. When Kirk could see the screen again, there was nothing on it but stars.

  "They could not surrender, Captain," Thelev said. "The ship had orders to self-destruct."

  "Lt. Uhura, relay to Starfleet Command. Tell them we have a prisoner."

  "Only temporarily, Captain," Thelev said. "You see, I had self-destruct orders, too. Slow poison-quite painless, actually, but there is no known antidote. I anticipate an-other ten minutes of life."

  Kirk turned to the security guards. "Take him to Sick-bay," he said harshly.

  Josephs and the guard came down to flank Thelev, and began to shepherd him toward the elevator. As they reached the door, the spy crumpled, sagged, fell to his knees. He said tonelessly, "I seem to-have-mis-calculated..."

  He fell face down and was still. Kirk rose wearily.

  "So did they," he said. "Put him in cold storage for an autopsy. Secure for General Quarters. Mr. Chekov, take over."

  He went down to the operating room. It was empty, the operating table clear, the instruments mutely inactive. After a moment, McCoy came in from the Sickbay area. He looked as drawn and tired as Kirk felt.

  "Bones?"

  "Are you quite through shaking this ship around?" the surgeon asked.

  "Sarek-Spock-how are they?"

  "I don't mind telling you, you make things difficult for a surgeon conducting a delicate operation which..."

  "Bones!"

  The Sickbay doors opened again and Amanda ap-peared. "Captain, come in," she said. Kirk shoved past McCoy eagerly.

  Inside, Sarek and Spock occupied two of the three beds, side by side. Both looked pale and exhausted, but rea-sonably chipper. Amanda sat down happily beside Sarek.

  "That pigheaded Vulcan stamina," McCoy's voice said behind him. "I couldn't have pulled them through with-out it."

  "Some doctors have all the luck."

  "Captain," Spock said. "I believe the alien..."

  "We damaged their ship," Kirk said. "They destroyed it to avoid capture. Bones, Thelev's body is being brought to your lab. I want an autopsy as soon as you feel up to it."

  "I believe you'll find he's what's usually called an Orion, Doctor," Spock said. "There are intelligence reports that Orion smugglers have been raiding the Coridian sys-tem."

  "But what could they gain by an attack on us?" Kirk asked.

  "Mutual suspicion," Sarek suggested, "and perhaps in-terplanetary war."

  Kirk nodded. "With Orion carefully neutral. She'd clean up by supplying dilithium to both sides-and continue to raid Coridan."

  "It was the power utilization curve that confused me," Spock said. "I did not realize that until I was just going under the anesthetic. The curve made it appear more pow-erful than a starship-than anything known to us. That ship was constructed for a suicide mission. Since they never intended to return to base, they could utilize one hundred per cent power in their attacks. I cannot under-stand why I didn't realize that earlier."

  Kirk looked at Sarek. "You might have had a few other things on your mind."

  "That does not seem likely."

  "No," Kirk said wryly. "But thank you anyway."

  "And you, Sarek," Amanda said. "Would you also say thank you to your son?"

  "I do not understand."

  "For saving your life."

  "Spock behaved in the only logical manner open to him," Sarek said. "One does not thank logic, Amanda."

  Amanda stiffened and exploded. "Logic! Logic! I am sick to death of logic. Do you want to know how I feel about your logic?"

  The two Vulcans studied the angry woman as though she were some sort of exhibit. Spock glanced at his father and said, quite conversationally, "Emotional, isn't she?"

  "She has always been that way."

  "Indeed? Why did you marry her?"

  "At the time," Sarek said solemnly, "it seemed the logical thing to do."

  Amanda stared at them, stunned. Kirk could not help grinning, and McCoy was grinning, too. Amanda, turning to them in appeal, was startled; and then, obviously, suddenly realized that her leg was being pulled. A smile broke over her face.

  Equally suddenly, the room reeled. Kirk grabbed the edge of the table. Instantly, McCoy was beside him, guiding him toward the third bed.


  "Bones-really-I'm all right."

  "If you keep arguing with your kindly family doctor, you'll spend the next ten days right here. Cooperate and you'll get out in two."

  Kirk subsided, but now Spock was sitting up. "If you don't mind, Doctor, I'll report to my own station now."

  McCoy pointed firmly at the bed. "You're at your sta-tion, Spock."

  The First Officer shrugged and settled back. McCoy surveyed his three restive patients with an implacable expression.

  "Bones," Kirk said, "I think you're enjoying this."

  "Indeed, Captain," Spock agreed. "I've never seen him look so happy."

  "Shut up," McCoy commanded. There was a long silence. McCoy's expression gradually changed to one of incredulity.

  "Well, what do you know?" he said to Amanda. "I finally got the last word!"

  THE MENAGERIE*

  (Gene Roddenberry)

  *As originally produced, this story ran in two parts. The main story, which takes place so far back in the history of the Enterprise that the only familiar face aboard her then was Spock, appeared surrounded by and intercut with an elaborate "framing" story, in which Spock is up for court-martial on charges of mutiny and offers the main story as an explanation of his inarguably mutinous behavior. Dramatically, this was highly effective-indeed, as I've already noted, it won a "Hugo" award in this category for that year-but told as fiction, it involves so many changes of viewpoint, as well as so many switches from present to past, that it becomes impossibly confusing. (I know-I've tried!) Hence the present version adapts only the main story, incidentally restoring to it the ending it had-never shown on television-before the frame was grafted onto it. I think the producers also came to feel that the double-plotted version had been a mistake; at least, "The Menagerie" turned out to be the only two-part episode in the entire history of the series. -J.B.

  When the distress signal from Talos IV came through, via old-fashioned radio, Captain Christopher Pike was of two minds about doing anything about it. The message said it was from survivors of the SS Columbia, and a library search by Spock showed that a survey ship of that name had indeed disappeared in that area-eighteen years ago. It had taken all of those years for the message, limited to the speed of light, to reach the Enterprise, which passed through its wave-front just slightly eighteen light-years from the Talos system. A long time ago, that had been.

  In addition, Pike had his own crew to consider. Though the Enterprise had come out of the fighting around Rigel VIII-her maiden battle-unscarred, the ground skir-mishing had not been as kind to her personnel. Spock, for example, was limping, though he was trying to minimize it, and Navigator Jose Tyler's left forearm was bandaged down to his palm. Pike himself was unhurt, but he felt desperately tired.

  Nevertheless, the library also reported Talos IV to be habitable, so survivors from the Columbia might still be alive; and since the Enterprise would be passing within visual scanning distance anyhow, it wouldn't hurt to take a look. The chances of finding anything at this late date...

  But almost at once, Tyler picked up reflections from the planet's surface whose polarization and scatter pattern indicated large, rounded chunks of metal, which might easily have been parts of a spaceship's hull. Pike ordered the Enterprise into orbit.

  "I'll want a landing party of six, counting myself. Mr. Tyler, you'll be second in command, and we'll need Mr. Spock too; both of you, see that there's a fresh dressing on your wounds. Also, Dr. Boyce, Chief Garrison and ship's geologist. Number One, you're in command of the Enterprise in our absence. Who seconds you now?"

  "Yeoman Colt, sir."

  Pike hesitated. That this left the bridge dominated by women didn't bother him; female competence to be in Star Fleet had been tested and proven before he had been born. And Pike had the utmost confidence in Number One, ordinarily the ship's helmsman and, after the Rigel affair, the most experienced surviving officer. Slim and dark in a Nile Valley sort of way, she was one of those women who always look the same between the ages of twenty and fifty, but she had a mind like the proverbial steel trap and Pike had never seen her shaken in any situation. Yeoman Colt, however, was a recent replace-ment, and an unknown quantity. Well, the assignment was likely to prove a routine one, anyhow.

  "Very well. We'll beam down to the spot where Mr. Tyler picked up those reflections."

  This proved to be on a rocky plateau, not far from an ob-vious encampment-a rude collection of huts, constructed out of slabs of rock, debris from a spaceship hull, scraps of canvas and other odds and ends. Several fairly old men were visible, all bearded, all wearing stained and tattered garments. One was carrying water; the others were cultivating a plot of orange vegetation. The ingenuity and re-solute will which had enabled them to exist for nearly two decades on this forbidding alien world were everywhere evident.

  One of them looked up in the direction of the landing party and froze, clearly unable to believe his eyes. At last he called hoarsely, "Winter! Look!"

  A second man looked up, and reacted almost as the first had. Then he shouted; "They're men! Human!"

  The sound of their voices brought other survivors out of their huts and sheds. The youngest looked to be nearly fifty, but they were tanned, hardened, in extraordinarily good health. The two groups approached each other slowly, solemnly; Pike could almost feel the intensity of emo-tion. He stepped forward and extended a hand.

  "Captain Christopher Pike, United Spaceship Enter-prise."

  The first survivor to speak mutely accepted Pike's hand, tears on his face. At last he said, with obvious effort, "Dr. Theodore Haskins, American Continent Institute."

  "They're men! Here to take us back!" the man called Winter said, laughing with sudden relief. "You are, aren't you? Is Earth all right?"

  "Same old Earth," Pike said, smiling. "You'll see it before long."

  "And you won't believe how fast you can get back," Tyler added. "The time barrier's been broken! Our new ships can..."

  He broke off, mouth open, staring past Haskins' shoul-der. Following the direction of the navigator's gaze, Pike saw standing in a hut doorway a remarkably beautiful young woman. Although her hair was uncombed and awry, her makeshift dress tattered, she looked more like a woodland nymph than the survivor of a harrowing ordeal. Motioning her forward, Haskins said, "This is Vina. Her parents are dead; she was born almost as we crashed."

  There were more introductions all around, but Pike found himself almost unable to take his eyes off the girl. Perhaps it was only the contrast she made with the older men, but her young, animal grace was striking. No wonder Tyler had stared.

  "No need to prolong this," Pike said. "Collect what personal effects you want to keep and we'll be off. I sug-gest you concentrate on whatever records you have; the Enterprise is amply stocked with necessities, and even some luxuries."

  "Extraordinary," Haskins said. "She must be a very big vessel."

  "Our largest and most modern type; the crew num-bers four hundred and thirty."

  Haskins shook his head in amazement and bustled off. Amidst all the activity, Vina approached Pike and drew him a little to one side.

  "Captain, may I have a word?"

  "Of course, Vina."

  "Before we go, there is something you should see. Some-thing of importance."

  "Very well. What is it?"

  "It's much easier to show than to explain. If you'll come this way..."

  She led him to a rocky knoll some distance from the encampment, and pointed to the ground at its base. "There it is."

  Pike did not know what he had expected-anything from a grave to some sort of alien artifact-but in fact he saw nothing of interest at all, and said so. Vina looked disappointed.

  "The angle of the light is probably wrong," she said. "Come around to this side."

  They changed places, so that his back was to the knoll, hers to the encampment. As far as Pike could tell, this made no difference.

  "I don't understand," he said.

  "You wil
l," Vina said, the tone of her voice changing suddenly. "You're a perfect choice."

  Pike looked up sharply. As he did so, the girl vanished.. It was not the fading dematerialization of the Transporter effect; she simply blinked out as though someone had snapped off a light. With her went all the survivors and their entire encampment, leaving nothing behind but the bare plateau and the stunned men from the Enterprise.