Star Trek 10 Read online

  As the Enterprise hurtles through space, the crew must destroy a ravening, murderous monster aboard the Starship; Kirk discovers an incredibly beautiful creature with strange powers of healing; Spock views the forbidden Kollos and goes insane; and more!

  BASED ON THE EXCITING

  NEW NBC-TV SERIES CREATED

  BY GENE RODENBERRY

  A NATIONAL GENERAL COMPANY

  STAR TREK 10

  A Bantam Book / published Febuary 1974

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1974 by Bantam Books, Inc.

  Copyright © 1974 by Paramount Pictues Corporation.

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,

  by mimeograph or any other means,

  without permission in writing.

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

  ISBN-13: 978-0553138696

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc., a subsidiary of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. Its trade-mark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the United States Patent Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, Inc., 271 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  CONTENTS

  * * *

  PREFACE

  THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR

  THE EMPATH

  THE GALILEO SEVEN

  IS THERE IN TRUTH NO BEAUTY?

  A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR

  THE OMEGA GLORY

  PREFACE

  * * *

  You've given me a surprise. I put no prefaces to Star Trek 7 and 8, simply because I had no news to report, no questions I hadn't answered before, and nothing that I felt needed further explanation. As the mail response to those books came in, I found quite a few of you asking to have the prefaces back, because they contributed an added "personal touch." I didn't have those letters when I wrote the preface to Star Trek 9, where in fact I did simply have a few new things to say. Up to that point, I'd regarded my role as nothing but that of a pipeline between the scripts and all the rest of you who can't forget the series. After all, neither the main concept of Star Trek nor a single one of its episodes came from me—instead, I was doing the equivalent of transposing some works of other composers to a different key, or at best making a piano version of works originally written for orchestra. I've written other books which were—and are—wholly mine, and where I haven't hesitated to inflict my own feelings on the readers, but in this series it was obviously my duty to the originals to keep myself out of them as much as possible.

  Well, I really have nothing to report again this time, but I do want to thank you for asking me to go back to peeking around the corner, as it were. I'm still keeping myself out of the Star Trek stories as much as I can—in fact, more and more as I've gained practice at it—but it is nice to know that you also like my cameo bits at the front. Vanity is one of the main drives of every author except the greatest, as I've seen not only in myself but in the fifty or more I've talked to and/or had as friends over more decades than I care to count. For those of you who want more than a peek back, and in answer to another question which pops up often in your letters, there are those other books, a couple of dozen, which you could find rather easily; they're almost all still in print. That's an order, Mr. Spock.

  James Blish

  July, 1973

  THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR

  (Don Ingalls)

  * * *

  The planet offered such routine readings to the Enterprise sensors that Kirk ordered a course laid in for the nearest Star Base. "We can be on our way," he was telling the helmsman when Spock lifted his head from his computer. He said, "Captain, there is—"

  He never completed his sentence. The Enterprise heaved in a gigantic lurch. A deafening grinding sound hammered at its hull—and the ship went transparent. From where he'd been flung, Kirk could see the stars shining through it. Then static crashed insanely as though the universe itself were wrenching in torment. Abruptly, stillness came. The ship steadied. The vast convulsion was over.

  Bruised people, sprawled on the deck, began to edge cautiously back to their bridge stations. Kirk hauled himself back to his feet. "What in the name of—Mr. Spock!"

  Spock was already back at his computer. "Captain, this is incredible! I read—"

  Again the mighty paroxysm interrupted him. There came the ship's headlong plunge, the grinding roar, it’s appalling transparency. Kirk struggled once more to his feet and ran, ashen-faced, to Spock's station. "What is it?" he shouted.

  "What my readings say is totally unbelievable, sir. Twice—for a split second each time—everything within range of our instruments seemed on the verge of winking out!"

  Still shaken, Kirk said, "Mr. Spock! I want facts! Not poetry!"

  "I have given you facts, Captain. The entire magnetic field in this solar system simply blinked. That planet below us, whose mass I was measuring, attained zero gravity."

  Kirk stared at him. "But that's impossible! What you are describing is . . . why, it's—"

  "Nonexistence, Captain," Spock said.

  Mingled horror and awe chilled Kirk. He heard Uhura speak. "There's a standard general-alert signal from Star Fleet Command, Captain!"

  He raced for his mike. "This is the Captain speaking. All stations to immediate alert status. Stand by . . ."

  Spock looked over at him. "Scanners now report a life object on the planet surface, sir."

  "But only five minutes ago you made a complete life survey of it! What's changed?"

  "This life reading only began to appear at approximately the same moment that the shock phenomena subsided."

  And this was the routine planet that concealed no surprises! Kirk drew a deep breath. "What is its physical make-up?"

  "A living being. Body temperature, 98.1 Fahrenheit. Mass . . . electrical impulses . . . it is apparently human, Captain."

  "And its appearance coincided with your cosmic 'wink-out'?"

  "Almost to the second."

  "Explanation?"

  "None, Captain."

  "Could this being present a danger to the ship?"

  "Possible . . . quite possible, sir."

  Kirk was at the elevator. "Lieutenant Uhura, notify Security to have a detachment, armed and ready, to beam down with us. Stay hooked on to us. Let's go, Mr. Spock. If any word from Star Fleet Command comes through, pipe it down at once. Communications priority one."

  "Aye, sir."

  For a planet capable of such violent mood changes, it was extraordinarily Earth-like. It was arid, hot and dry, the terrain where the landing group materialized resembling one of Earth's desert expanses. When Spock, studying his tricorder, pointed to the left, they moved off. Almost at once they met up with huge, tumbled boulders of granite, the passageways among then littered with rocky debris. They were edging through one of the defiles when they saw it.

  At the base of a cliff lay a cone-shaped craft. It was like no spaceship any of them had ever seen. Its hull was studded with buttons connected to a mesh of coiling electronic circuits. Nothing moved around it. Its wedge-like door was open. Spock stood to one side as Kirk peered inside it. Its interior was a mass of complex instrumentation, shining wirings, tubes of unrecognizable purple metal, parabolic reflectors. There was what appeared to be a control panel. A chair.

  Kirk emerged, his face puzzled. "I've never seen anything like it. Have a look, Mr. Spock . . ."

  Spock was stepping through the door when the voice spoke. "You came! Thank God! There's still time!"

  Everyone whirled, phasers out. Kirk looked up. On the cliff above them stood a man. He wore a ripped and disheveled jumper suit. He was a big man, but his face had been badly battered. A dark bru
ise had swollen his jaw. A husky man, but his broad shoulders sagged with an unutterable weariness. "It's not too late!" he cried down to them. "We can still stop him!" He extended his hands in appeal. "But I . . . I need your help . . . please . . . help me . . ."

  He reeled, clutching at his throat. Then his knees buckled—and he tumbled, headlong, from the cliff.

  Kirk and Spock ran to him. His body lay unmoving but massive physical power was still latent in it. Who was he? What were he and his spacecraft doing on this "routine" planet?

  But McCoy would permit no questions. He shook his head over the bed in Sickbay, where the injured castaway had been placed. "It's going to be touch and go, Jim. Heartbeat practically nonexistent. What happened down there?"

  "I don't know. He fell from a cliff. He'd been saying something about needing our help . . . and he just crumpled."

  McCoy looked up from his diagnostic tricorder. "No wonder. After the beating he's taken."

  "He was beaten?"

  "I don't know what else could have caused his injuries."

  "Bones," Kirk said, "that is a dead, lifeless, arid planet down there . . . no sign of living beings. Who could have attacked him?"

  McCoy was frowning at his tricorder. "He's the only one who can answer that—if he lives . . ."

  They both turned at the sound of Uhura's voice on the intercom. "Captain. Standby notice just in from Star Fleet Command. Red Two message about to come in."

  "I'm on my way." At the door he said, "Keep me posted, Bones."

  Chemist Charlene Masters met him at the bridge elevator door. "Here's my report on the dilithium crystals, sir. Whatever that phenomenon was, it drained almost all of our crystals' power. It could mean trouble."

  "You have a talent for understatement, Lieutenant. Without full crystal power, our orbit will begin to decay in ten hours. Reamplify immediately."

  "Aye, sir."

  He handed the report back to her and crossed to Spock's station. "Any further magnetic disturbance, Mr. Spock?”

  "Negative, Captain. Scanners indicate situation normal."

  "Nothing?"

  "Nothing, sir. And most illogical . . . an effect of that proportion incapable of explanation by any established physical laws I'm aware of." He paused. "I have ascertained one fact. Though the effect, whatever it was, was unquestionably widespread, it was strongest on the planet below us."

  "Keep checking."

  "Yes, Captain."

  Uhura spoke. "Captain. Message coming in from Star Fleet Command. And the code, sir, it's Code Factor One."

  The anxiety in her face reflected Kirk's sense of personal shock. Very seldom indeed did Star Fleet resort to Code Factor One to transmit a message. "Repeat," he told Uhura.

  She said heavily, "It is Code Factor One, sir."

  "Combat status!" Kirk shouted to Spock. He hit his communicator button. "All hands! This is the Captain. Battle stations! This is not a drill! Lieutenant Uhura, the main screen!"

  "Aye, sir."

  Sirens were shrieking as Kirk rushed to his command position. Over the noise his communicator beeped. It was McCoy. "About our patient, Jim—"

  "Quickly, Bones!"

  "He'll make it. He'll be flat on his back for at least a month. He's weak as a kitten but he'll pull through."

  "Thank you, Bones. I'll be down to talk to him later. The message, Lieutenant Uhura . . ."

  The strong face of Commodore Barstow came into focus on the screen.

  "Kirk here, sir. Enterprise standing by."

  The official voice spoke. "You're aware, Captain, of that effect that occurred an hour ago?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "You may not be aware of its scope. It was felt in every quadrant of the galaxy . . . and far beyond. Complete disruption of normal magnetic and gravimetric fields. Time warp distortion. Impossible radiation variations—and all of them centering in the area you are now patrolling. The question is . . . are they natural phenomena—or are they mechanically created? And if they are . . . by whom? For what purpose? Your guess, Captain . . ."

  "My best guess, sir, is . . . because of the severity of the phenomena . . . they could be a prelude to an extra-universe invasion."

  "Exactly our consensus. It's your job to make the finding specific."

  "Aye, sir. Can you assign me other Starships as a reserve force?"

  "Negative. I am evacuating all Star Fleet units and personnel within a hundred parsecs of your position. It's tough on you and the Enterprise—but that's the card you've drawn. You're on your own, Captain."

  Kirk spoke slowly. "I see. You mean . . . we're the bait."

  "Yes."

  "I understand, sir. Received and recorded."

  "Remember, you're the eyes and ears and muscle of the entire Federation. Good luck, Captain."

  "Thank you, sir."

  The screen's image faded. Kirk looked at the blankness for a long moment. Then he rose and crossed to Spock. "From the top, Mr. Spock. First, we know that the phenomena came from the planet below us. Second, that the danger is real and imminent."

  "A closer examination of the surface would seem to be in order," Spock said. "My job, Captain?"

  "Yes. And in the meantime I'll have a talk with our unexpected guest. Maybe he can provide some answers."

  He certainly seemed able to provide them. In Sickbay, Kirk found McCoy staring dazedly at his patient. The man who'd been nearly pushed through the door of death was out of bed, doing deep knee bends while he inhaled great hearty gulps of air. Kirk stopped in midstride. "Bones! I thought you said—"

  McCoy struggled to come out of his daze. "I know what I said and I was going to call you back . . . but Lazarus—"

  "Aye!" shouted the patient. "Lazarus! Up and out of the grave! Hale, hearty and drunk with the wine of victory!"

  If the man was mentally sick, he was surely in great physical shape. He had swiftly noted the dubious look on Kirk's face. "You want to know how I came to be down there, Captain? I'll tell you! I was pursuing the devil's own spawn—the thing I have chased across the universe! Oh, he's a humanoid, all right, outside—but on the inside, he's a ravening, murderous monster! But I'll get him yet! I've sworn it!"

  "Why?" Kirk said.

  The eyes under the heavy brows flamed. "The beast destroyed my entire civilization! To the last man, woman and child! Builders, educators, scientists—all my people! But he missed me. And I will bring him down! Yes, despite his weapons!"

  Kirk said, "How did you escape?"

  "I was inspecting our magnetic communication satellites, a thousand miles out."

  "And he destroyed your whole civilization?" Kirk was openly incredulous.

  "Oh, he's capable of it!" Lazarus assured him. "He's intelligent—I give him his due! But he is death! Antilife! He lives to destroy! You believe me, don't you, Captain?"

  "Just before we found you," Kirk said, "this ship sustained a number of dangerous and incredible effects. Could this humanoid of yours have been responsible?"

  "Of course! It's what I've been telling you!"

  He'd wanted an answer. Now he'd gotten one. If it wasn't too satisfying, it was the only one yet available. Lazarus seized on his hesitation. "Then you're with me!" he cried triumphantly, "You'll join my holy cause! You'll help me visit justice upon him—vengeance!"

  "My sole cause is the security of my ship," Kirk said. "That and the mission it has undertaken. Bloodshed is not our cause. Remember that." He paused. "Now I want you to beam down to the surface with me. We shall check out your story."

  They found Spock examining the conical craft's interior. Two crewmen were busy surveying its hull with tricorders.

  "Find anything, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked.

  "Negative, Captain." Spock gestured toward Lazarus. "Did you?"

  "According to our unexpected guest there's a creature of some sort down here—a humanoid."

  Spock nodded. "Lieutenant Uhura communicated that information. I ordered reconfirmation on our sensors. They indicate no
living creature on this planet. I suggest, Captain, that you have been lied to."

  Kirk shot a hard look at Lazarus. Then he said, "Let's hear the rest of it, Mr. Spock."

  "Lieutenant Uhura added his statement about some unusual weapon system at the humanoid's disposal."

  "Aye!" yelled Lazarus. "He has that—and more! Enough to destroy a vessel as great as your Enterprise!

  "Does he?" Spock said mildly.

  Lazarus was visibly irritated. "Yes," he said shortly.

  Spock spoke to Kirk. "There are no weapons of any kind on the planet, Captain. Not in his craft. Nor on the surface. They do not exist."

  "You must not believe him, Captain! This one of the pointed ears is just trying to disguise his own incompetence!"

  Spock raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand your indignation, sir. I merely made the logical deduction that you are a liar."

  Kirk wheeled sharply on Lazarus. "All right, let's have it! The truth this time. I—" He stopped. The air around them suddenly broke into shimmering sparkle. There came a sound like the buzzing of an angry bee. As though to ward it off, Lazarus lifted a hand. Then he fisted it, shaking it wildly at the sky. "You've come back then, is that it?" he shouted.’“Well, don't stop! Here I am! Come at me again! We'll finish it!"

  Ignoring him, Kirk spoke to Spock. "Can your tricorder identify that atmospheric effect?"

  "It's—" Spock was saying when Lazarus bolted off to where the glitter sparkled most strongly. "Run! Run!" he screamed. "It will do you no good! I'll chase you into the very jaws of hell!"

  "Lazarus!" Kirk cried. He raced after the man, calling back over his shoulder, "Remain there! All personnel on Security Red!"

  He brought up in a rock-walled gully. Ahead of him Lazarus was clambering over its jagged debris. He was moving slowly when the shimmering sparkle engulfed him. At the same moment, Kirk saw that the sky, the rocks and the gully itself were trembling, shifting into indistinctness, their colors, their shapes, their masses liquefying and interflowing. They came into focus again. But Lazarus had staggered backward—and once more the liquefying shimmer had swallowed up the sight of him.