Star Trek 06 Read online

  "What is it, Doctor?"

  "A comparison of our Steinman with Starfleet records shows that Lt. Romaine's fingerprints, voice analysis, retinal patterns, all external factors are the same as before. But according to the two encephalograms, her brain wave pattern has been altered."

  "Isn't that impossible?" Kirk asked.

  "That's what I was taught. The BCP is as consistent as fingerprints."

  "Let's see it."

  McCoy put the tape deck into the slot on the desk, and the tri-screen lit up. They all looked at it for a moment. Then Spock said, "Doctor, I believe that's the wrong slide."

  "No it isn't, Spock. It's from tape deck D—brain circuitry pattern of Lt. Mira Romaine."

  "No, Doctor. It happens to be tape deck H—the impulse tracking we obtained on the alien life units."

  "Nurse Chapel followed this every step of the way. There can't be an error."

  Mira was staring in tense horror at the screen.

  "According to your records, Dr. McCoy," Spock said, "Lt. Romaine did not show abnormal telepathatic abil-ity."

  "That's right, Spock. Exceptional pliancy was indicated. It might be a factor."

  "It must be. There is an identity of pattern between these alien life forms and the mind of Lt. Romaine. Their thoughts are becoming her thoughts."

  Scott said: "Mira's tried to tell me all along that she was seeing things happen in advance—"

  "Why didn't you report it?" Kirk said.

  "You don't report space sickness. That's all I ever thought it was."

  "What else did she see?"

  Scott thought a moment. "The first attack on the ship . . . the attack on Memory Alpha . . . and—the time we almost lost her."

  "Those were all acts carried out by our attacker. Anything else?"

  Scott got up and went over to Mira, who was still staring at the screen. "I thought there was another time. I guess I was wrong."

  "Was he wrong, Lieutenant?" Kirk said.

  Mira finally looked up at Scotty, who sank to one knee beside her. In a trancelike voice, she said, "Yes. There was one other time."

  "What did you see?"

  "I saw Scotty," she said, still looking at him intently,

  "Where?"

  "I don't know."

  "What was he doing?"

  "He was dying." Her hand went to Scott's face. "Now I understand what's been happening. I've been seeing through another mind. I have been flooded by thoughts that are not my own . . . by desires and drives that control me—" Suddenly she broke completely and was in Scott's arms. "Scotty—I would rather die than hurt you. I would rather die!"

  "What's all this talk of dying?" Scott demanded. "They've called the turn on us three out of four times. That's a better average than anybody deserves. It's our turn now. Well fight them. So let's not hear anything more about dying."

  It was a bold speech, but Kirk could think of no way that the Enterprise could back it up. He punched the intercom. "Ensign Chekov, what success have you had with the evasive tactics?"

  "Useless, sir. They'll probably be through the shields again in a minute or so."

  Kirk turned to Mira. "They may destroy you and us as they did Memory Alpha. You are especially susceptible to their will. There is one way we might survive. Do not resist. Let them begin to function through you. If we can control that moment, we have a chance. Will you try?"

  "Tell me what to do," she said, her voice shaky.

  "Everybody down to the antigrav test unit. Follow me."

  "Attention all personnel!" Sulu's voice barked from the intercom. "Clear all decks! Alien being has penetrated ship!"

  The door to the gravity chamber opened off the interior of the medical lab. As the group from the Briefing Room entered at a run, Kirk said, "As soon as she enters the chamber, secure all ports."

  But as Mira started for the chamber, the swirling colors of the life force pervaded the lab. She stopped and spun around, her hand going to her brow, her eyes blazing, her face contorted with struggle. Scott started toward her.

  "Don't touch me!" It was a piercing scream. "Scotty—stay away—"

  The multicolored flashes slowly and finally were gone, leaving Mira standing as if frozen. Then her lips parted, and from them came once more the sound of the unknown language.

  "We've lost her to them," Scott said desperately, starting toward her once more.

  "Stay where you are!" Kirk said.

  McCoy added, "She could kill us all in this state."

  "She will," Spock said, "unless we are able to complete what the Captain is planning."

  Scott was looking at Mira in agony. "Stay with us, Mira. Stay with us, Mira Romaine!"

  "I am trying," she said. It was her own voice, but coming out in smothered gasps. "I want to be . . . with you . . . They are too strong."

  "Fight them now, Mira," Kirk said. "Don't lose yourself to them. Hold on."

  The girl sank against the door to the gravity chamber. Her eyes closed, her body became taut with the effort at control.

  "I am Mira Romaine," she said, and this time her voice was angry. "I will be who I choose to be. Let me go!"

  But the struggle was too much for her. Her body went limp, and her eyes opened, inexpressibly sad. In a voice like a lost soul, utterly unlike anything she had ever sounded before, she said:

  "She cannot prevent us. You cannot stop us."

  Scott lunged forward, but Kirk grabbed him. "Mira! Mira!"

  "That's not Mira talking," McCoy said.

  "Captain, we must deal with them directly," Spock said. "Now, while she retains partial identity, we can speak to them. Her voice will answer for them."

  "I am the commander of this vessel," Kirk said to the entranced girl. "Do you understand me?"

  "We understand you. We have searched for a millennium to find the One through whom we can see and hear and speak and live out our lives."

  "Who are you?"

  "We are of Zetar."

  "All humanoid life on Zetar," Spock said, "was destroyed long ago."

  "Yes. All corporeal life was destroyed."

  "Then what are you?" Kirk demanded.

  "The desires, the hopes, the thoughts and the will" of the last hundred from Zetar. The force of life in us could not be wiped out."

  "All things die."

  "At the proper time. Our planet was dying. We were determined to live on. At the peak of our plans to go elsewhere, a sudden final disaster struck us down. But the force of our lives survived. And now at last we have found the One through whom we can live it out."

  "The body you inhabit has its own life to lead."

  "She will accept ours."

  "She does not wish it. She is fighting to retain her own identity."

  "Her mind will accept our thoughts. Our lives will be fulfilled."

  "Will she learn like the people on Memory Alpha learned?"

  "We did not wish to kill."

  "You did kill!"

  "No! Resisting us killed those on Memory Alpha. We did not kill. We wanted only the technician, but she fought back."

  "The price of your survival is too high."

  "We wish only the girl."

  "You cannot have her," Kirk said fiercely. "You are entitled to your own lives. But you cannot have another's!"

  Mira herself seemed to hear this, and her eyes to respond. When she spoke again, the voice was her own. "Life was given to me. It is mine. I will live it out . . . I will . . ."

  Her voice weakened, and she sank back. McCoy took a tricorder reading. "The girl's life reading is becoming a match to the—Zetarians," he said. "She is losing."

  "Do not fight us."

  "They will not accept their own deaths," Spock said.

  "They will be forced to accept it," Kirk said.

  "You will all die," said the Mira/Zetar voice.

  "Captain," Spock said, "unless we can complete the plan at once, they will carry out their threat."

  McCoy said, "Jim, you realize that the
pressure you need to kill the Zetarians might kill her, too?"

  "At least, our way she has a chance. We must get her into the antigrav chamber."

  They all moved in about her, in a close circle. Scott forced himself to the front and said, "Mira will not kill me."

  He stooped and quickly picked her up in his arms. He faced the opening to the gravity chamber, and his head snapped back, his face contorted in agony. Nevertheless he got her into the chamber, and the doors closed behind her. Then he crumpled to the floor. His face now, however, was relaxed. As McCoy bent over him, his eyes opened.

  "I knew she wouldn't kill me," he said, with a faint smile.

  Kirk and Spock went to the chamber's console, joined after a moment by McCoy. After a sweeping glance, Kirk then crossed to the bull's-eye port which gave visual access to the chamber.

  "Neutralize gravity, Mr. Spock."

  Mira's body lay on the floor of the chamber where Scott had put it for what seemed to be a long time. Then she moved feebly, and the motion set her to drifting weightlessly.

  "The Zetarians are growing stronger," McCoy said. "The weightless state is their natural condition, after all."

  "Begin pressurizing," Kirk said. "Bring it up to two atmospheres."

  Spock turned a rheostat slowly. There seemed to be no change in Mira. Theoretically, there should begin to be some sort of feedback system going into operation between Mira's nervous system, as it responded to pressures on her body not natural to her, and the occupying wave patterns of the Zetarian brain; but no such effect was evident yet.

  "Two atmospheres, Captain."

  "Increase at the rate of one atmosphere a minute."

  "Wait a minute, Jim," McCoy said. "Not even a deep-sea diver experiences pressure increases at that rate. They take it slowly, a few atmospheres at a time."

  "That's just what I'm counting on, Bones. If it's something Mira can adapt to, there'll be no adverse effect on her, and hence none on them. Run it up as ordered, Mr. Spock."

  His hands darting, Spock tied the pressure rheostat into circuit with a timer. "Rising now as ordered, Captain."

  A quick glance at the big bourdon gauge showed this. Kirk glued his face back to the glass.

  Still nothing seemed to be happening, except that Mira's head was now lolling from side to side.

  "Jim, you're going to kill her at this rate!"

  Kirk did not respond. The chamber was beginning to look hazy, as though water were beginning to condense out of the atmosphere inside it—but that couldn't be, because water vapor didn't condense except to a decrease in pressure—

  The fogginess increased, and became luminescent. In a moment more, the chamber was pulsating with the multiple lights of the Zetar life force. It grew brighter and brighter for several seconds.

  "Jim, you can't—"

  Kirk silenced the surgeon with a savage gesture. Almost at the same moment, the lights vanished, and with them the fog.

  "Cut, Spock!"

  There was the snap of a toggle. Mira's eyes were now open. She looked entirely normal, though a little bewildered at finding herself floating in midair. Scott snatched up the microphone which fed the intercom in the tank.

  "Don't move, Mira! It's going to be all right! They're gone—they're gone!"

  Kirk turned away and gestured to McCoy to take over.

  "Reduce pressure very very gradually, Mr. Spock," the surgeon said.

  "It will tax Mr. Scott's patience, Doctor."

  "We have all the time in the world, now," Scott said, his eyes glowing.

  "Precisely," McCoy said. "And after all this, we don't want to lose the subject to a simple case of the bends. Lieutenant, lie perfectly still; you're in free fall and the slightest movement may bounce you off the chamber walls—and I don't want even the slightest bruise. Don't move at all, just take deep regular breaths . . . that's it . . . Mr. Spock, restore gravity very gradually. I want her to ground without even a jar . . . Mira, don't hold your breath. Breathe deeply and continuously . . . That's it—in, out, in, out, keep it steady . . . Fine. You won't be out of there for another two hours, so you might as well relax. The battle's over, anyhow."

  There was a deep sigh all around. Perhaps Mira had given up holding her breath, but it was evident that she had not been alone.

  "Spock," Kirk said, "is it possible for you to judge the long-range mental effects on the Lieutenant?"

  "I am not an expert, Captain, and bear in mind that Lt. Romaine's mind was invaded by something quite inhuman. However, despite Starfleet's judgment of her pliancy, she put up a valiant struggle to retain her identity. I would propose that that augurs well."

  "Spock is right, Jim," McCoy said, to Kirk's surprise. "While the truth was hard for her to take, when it was brought out, the girl reacted well. The struggle she put up in this experience, I would say, will strengthen her whole ego structure."

  "Would either of you credit Scotty's steadfast belief in her as a factor?"

  Spock's eyebrow arched suspiciously. "You mean 'love' as a motivation? Humans claim a great deal for that particular emotion. It is possible, but—"

  "No 'buts' at all," McCoy said. "It was a deciding factor—and will be, in the girl's recovery."

  "Then, do I understand you both agree that Lt. Romaine need not return to Starbase for further treatment?"

  "I would say," Spock said, "that work is the better therapy."

  "Absolutely, Jim."

  "Scotty, unsmash your nose from that port and give us a sober opinion. How is Lt. Romaine now?"

  "Beautiful, Captain."

  "Ready to return to work?"

  "Positively, Captain."

  There was an exchange of grins all around. Then Kirk turned to the intercom. "Kirk to bridge."

  "Sulu here, Captain."

  "Set course for Memory Alpha. Lt. Romaine has lots of work to do there."

  THE APPLE

  (Max Ehrlich and Gene L Coon)

  * * *

  Even from orbit, Gamma Trianguli VI seemed both beautiful and harmless, as close to an earthly paradise as the Enterprise had ever encountered. Such planets were more than rare, and Kirk thought for a few moments that he might have happened upon a colonizable world—until the sensors indicated that there was already native humanoid life there.

  He duly reported the facts to Starfleet Command, who seemed to be as impressed as he was. Their orders were to investigate the planet and its culture. Under the circumstances, Kirk ordered a landing party of six: himself, Spock, Chekov, Yeoman Martha Landon, and two security guards, Marple and Kaplan.

  Carrying tricorders and specimen bags, the party materialized in what might almost have been a garden. Large exotic flowers grew in profusion, and there were heavily laden fruit trees. Here and there, outcroppings of rainbow-colored rock competed with the floral hues, and over it all stretched a brilliant, cloudless day. Feeling a sudden impulse to share all this beauty as widely as possible, Kirk called down McCoy and two more security guards—Mallory and Hendorf, as it turned out.

  McCoy looked around appreciatively. "I might just put in a claim for all this and settle down."

  "I doubt that the natives would approve, Bones," Kirk said. "But it is pretty spectacular."

  "A shame we have to intrude."

  "We do what Starfleet tells us."

  Spock, who had knelt to inspect the soil, arose. "Remarkably rich and fertile, Captain. Husbandry would be quite efficacious here."

  "You're sure about that?" Kirk said, amused without quite knowing why.

  "Quite sure. Our preliminary readings indicate the entire planet is covered by growth like this. Quite curious. Even at the poles there is only a slight variation in temperature, which maintains a planet-wide average of seventy-six degrees."

  "I know," Kirk said. "Meteorologically, that's almost impossible."

  "It makes me homesick, Captain," Chekov said. "Just like Russia."

  "It's a lot more like the Garden of Eden, Ensign," McCoy said.


  "Of course, Doctor. The Garden of Eden was just outside Moscow. A very nice place. It must have made Adam and Eve very sad to leave."

  Kirk stared at him; Chekov seemed completely straight-faced and earnest. Was this just another of his outbreaks of Russian patriotism, or some side effect of his developing romance with Yeoman Landon? "All right. There's a village about seventeen kilometers away on bearing two thirty-two. We'll head that way."

  "Captain!" The call had come from Hendorf, who was examining one of the plants: a small bush with large pods, at the center of each of which was a cluster of sharp, thick thorns. "Take a look at—"

  With only a slight puff of noise, one of the pods exploded. Hendorf staggered and looked down at his chest. Perhaps a dozen thorns were sticking in a neat group near his heart. He opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, and then collapsed.

  McCoy was there first, but only a quick examination was needed. "He's dead."

  "What was all that about Paradise?" Kirk said grimly. He took out his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise . . . Mr. Scott, we've already had a casualty. Hendorf has been killed by a poisonous plant at these coordinates. As soon as we've moved out of the way, beam up his body."

  "Aye, Captain. That's a shame about Hendorf." Scott paused a moment. "We seem to have a little problem up here, too. We're losing potency in the antimatter banks. I don't think it's serious, but we're looking into it."

  "What's causing it?"

  "We're not sure. We've run measurements of the electromagnetic field of the planet, and they're a wee bit abnormal. Could have something to do with it."

  "Well, stay on top of it. Kirk out."

  "I find that odd, Captain," Spock said.

  "So do I. But Scotty'll find the problem. Turn up anything with your tricorder?"

  "Indeed, sir. Most puzzling. There are strong vibrations under the surface, for miles in every direction."

  "Subsurface water?"

  "I don't believe so. They are quite strong and reasonably regular. Though I have no evidence to support it, I feel that they are artificially produced. I will, of course, continue to investigate."

  "Of course. It may tie in with Scotty's trouble. Ensign Mallory, we'll be heading for the village. Go ahead and scout it out. Avoid contact with the humanoids, but get us a complete picture. And be careful. There may be other dangers besides poisonous plants. Keep in constant communicator touch."