Renegade [042-ecomj]

By Gene Deweese

Synopsis

Captain Kirk and the Enterprise are sent

to mediate a dispute between a non-federation world and its

colony, which is trying to break away and become

independent. When Spock and McCoy are

kidnapped and the Enterprise itself starts to experience very

serious malfunctions, Kirk finds himself in a real

pickle. And then there is the Prime Directive

which doesn't help matters any.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

places and incidents are either the product of the

author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events or locales

or persons, living or dead, is entirely

coincidental.

An Original Publication of POCKET

BOOKS

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Copyright [*copy] 1991 by Paramount

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trademarks of Simon and Schuster Inc.

Printed in the U.s.a.

In memory of Fahf 1974-1991 As

conscientious a cat as you'd ever want

Historian's Note

The events of Renegade take place during the

last year of the Enterprise's original five-year

mission.

Prologue

Hargemon--he'd used the name so long, that was how

he now thought of hmfulooked up at his commander and

laughed, the sound reverberating harshly in the cramped

and spartan computer lab.

"So, it will be Enterprise after all, With the great

Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the hot

seat!" The adjective dripped With sarcasm.

The commander smiled. "The luck of the draw. I

thought you might be pleased."

"It couldn't happen to a better starship captain.

He does so enjoy setting himself up as an

example for others."

"You will, of course, need to alter your appearance,

just in case."

"That would be necessary no matter what ship it was.

All Starfleet officers pride themselves on their

memories--among other less useful

traits. But under the circumstances, it will require

little more than what nature has already done." He

grinned, brushing his fingers across his full, but neatly

trimmed, reddish-gray beard.

"I will decide what is required and what is

not," the commander said, his smile abruptly disappearing.

"I will not allow half measures, not in this. There is

far too much at stake. Far too many people have worked far

too hard to allow one individual to jeopardize that

work because of carelessness. Or," he added, eyes

narrowing in warning, "because of ego or because of any

personal agenda that individual might consider

pursuing."

"Don't worry," Hargemon snapped. "I

am as aware of the importance of our objective as

you!" He waved his hands at the racks of equipment

that crammed the tiny lab. "Don't forget, I'm the

one who's put in thousands of hours on these

primitive devices you call computers! I am

also aware that without me--"

"Without you, my objective cannot be accomplished.

Yes, I am well aware of how important

your talents are. I found and recruited you, after

all. But in the event of failure, I will be forced

to reconsider my initial judgment. Just

remember I will have a second chance. You will not.

Now go, prepare. I will inspect the results when

you have finished."

"I do not need--"

"I will inspect the results when you have finished,"

the commander repeated, his voice icy as he turned his

back on Hargemon and pushed out through the plain

metal door that was the room's only exit.

The selfrighteous bastard! Hargemon seethed.

He's

getting to be as much of a tyrant as Kirk! But

he said nothing, only glowered at the door as it

clicked shut.

Turning back to the control console, he sucked in

a deep, calming breath. Once Kirk was taken

care of, there would be plenty of time for the "commander" and the

rest--plenty of time and opportunity.

Chapter One.

Captain's Log, Supplemental We are en

route to the planet Chyrellka to do--as Dr.

MaCoy might put it--a little fire-fighting.

We first made contact With the Chyrellkans ten

years ago.

They declined membership in the Federation, but at the

time of that initial encounter, Captain

Brittany Mendez of the Exeter noted that the

,Chyrellkans and their colony on Vancadia

provided a textbook example of how

to peacefully establish and administer a colony.

Unlike most emerging technological

civilizations, the Chyrellkans had established a

working world government before leaving their own

atmosphere.and once their probes showed them that

Vancadia's biosphere was almost identical to their

own--except for the absence of any lifeforms higher

than tree-dwelling primates--they went about

establishing a colony With Vulcan-like logic and

determination.

Without impulse drive technology, all early

trips to Vancadia were one-way.shuttles lifted

them into orbit around Chyrellka, where they transformd

to orbital-built interplanetary ships.at

vancadia, then, they descended from orbit in

one-way launches.it was nearly forty years before the

colonials reached the stage at which they could

manufacture the boosters that allowed them to return.

From the beginning, the Chyrellkans had planned for the

Vancadian colonists to be given their independence

once they'd achieved total self-sufficiency.a

decade ago, Captain Mendez noted that

With Vancadia's population close to eight

million, the goal of self-sufficiency seemed

only a few years away.

And yet now the Federation has received an urgent

request for help in mediating what the Chyrellkan

message describes as "an increasingly vicious

dispute between Chyrellka and her rebelling colony."

HIS PALE SKIN accentuated by a jet-black

helmet of tightly curling hair and an equally

dark, carefully sculpted beard, the Chyrellkan

leader's face loomed large on the Enterprise

viewscreen.other faces, out of focus, were dimly

visible in the background.

"Welcome to Chyrellkan space," the leader

said."...I am Kaulidren.my people and I

appreciate the promptness With which your Federation has

responded to our request."

"Thank you, Kaulidren," Kirk

said."...Premier Kaulidren, is it?"

The head inclined in an almost imperceptible nod of

acknowledgment. "And you are Captain James

Kirk, commanding the U.s.s.enterprise.am I

right?"

"You are, Premier.we will be entering orbit in a

few minutes and will be ready to beam you and your

party aboard as soon as the Enterprise matches

orbits With your ship."

"That is most kind of you, Captain,"

Kaulidren said, holding up one hand, palm out, "but

no, thank y.ccsider it superstition if you wish, but

it is

disquieting to me, this prospect of having my

component atoms disassembled and transmitted

unprotected through space in the hope that they can be

fitted back together in your transporter room."

"I wouldn't consider it superstition at all,

Premier," Kirk said, suppressing a smile as

he saw Dr.mcCoy, safely off screen,

give a quick grimace of agreement With

Kaulidren."...I assure you, however, that the

transporter is perfectly safe.but if you

prefer--"

"I do prefer, Captain, particularly since it

is my understanding that your vessel is easily capable

of receiving my entire ship.i trust I have not been

misled."

"Not at all, Premier.your ship is somewhat

larger than our own shuttlecraft, but the hangar

deck will accommodate it easily.our landing

tractor beams can handle--"

"I would prefer to bring my ship in under its own

power, if that is possible."

Kirk suppressed a frown."...It's possible,

yes, but I understand that your ship is powered by conventional

rocket engines.it would be dangerous to use them in

any enclosed area, even one as large as the hangar

deck."

"My ship is equipped With maneuvering jets--

which would surely pose no threat--and are fully

adequate for docking maneuvers in space."

"In zero gravity, yes, Premier, but in the

hangar deck, as in all parts of the Enterprise, a

constant one-g is maintained."

Premier Kaulidren was silent a

moment."...Artificial gravity," he said finally."...I

had forgotten.but is it not possible to temporarily

remove the gravity from individual areas?"

"It would be easier to use the landing tractor

beams." Or the transporter system, Kirk added

silently.

"But it is possible"...Without causing major

disruptions to your ship?"

"It's possible, yes." No point in arguing,

Kirk thought.save it for things that count, like getting the

Premier and his opposite number among the

colonists to start talking to each other."...I will make

the necessary arrangements."

"Thank you, Captain.i look forward to our

meeting face to face and to a discussion of our

problems."

abruptly, the screen went blank.

"They've ceased transmission, sir,"

Lieutenant Uhura volunteered. "Shall I try

to get them back?"

"Not for now, Lieutenant.mr.sulu, how long

till rendezvous?"

"Just under five minutes, Captain."

Kirk tapped a button on the arm of the command

chair."...Mr.scott"...ally heard?"

"Aye, Captain, I heard.i canna' say

I approve, but I heard."

"I'm on your side, Scotty, but let's go

along With the Premier on the small things.unless I

miss my guess, there'll be more than enough bigger ones

coming along."

"Aye, Captain, I know what ye're

saying.the hangar deck will be zero gravity when the

doors open.

I trust ye'll warn any affected

personn el.two o' my lads are in the

shuttlecraft bay, checking--"

"I'll leave that honor to you, Mr.scott,"

Kirk said, standing up from the command chair and heading for the

turbolift."...Mr.spock, Dr. McCoy"...From the

sound of the Premier, he will expect to be met

by nothing less than our most senior officers."

Ten minutes later the three stood looking down

on the hangar deck from the rear observation gallery--

Scotty had been able to retain normal gravity in

the rear third of the deck--as the Chyrellkan ship

slowly drifted in through the open hangar

doors.guided by minute pulses from its maneuvering

jets, the incoming ship reminded Kirk of nothing more

than a small, sleek version of the original

United States space shuttles, still kept clean

and glistening in the Space-flight Museum. Even

the insignia--seven 7-pointed stars on a

diagonally striped red-and-green back-ground--was

not all that different.

As the ship cleared the faintly shimmering

atmospheric containment field, the doors began

to clamshell shut.

But the ship continued to drift forward, its pilot

either missing or ignoring the landing target painted on

the deck.

"What the blazes is he up to?" McCoy

muttered as the ship drifted between the deck operations

control towers, toward the shuttle elevator. "If

he gets back here where the gravity is still "Don't

worry, Bones," Kirk said, glancing up at the

two ensigns standing by the controls of the landing tractor

beams."...We're ready, if it comes to that."

But it didn't.seconds before Kirk decided it

was time to signal the ensigns to take over the landing, the

forward maneuvering jets finally came to life and

cancelled the forward motion.

However, the ship was still moving, Kirk realized a

moment later, but now it was going sideways.frowning,

he again started to signal the ensigns, but before he could

complete the motion, a final series of puffs brought

the ship to a stop, one sharp-pointed wing almost touching the

wall beneath the forward observation gallery walkway.with

only the faintest of thumps and creaks, it settled

to the deck on its extended landing gear, its tires

bulging slightly as Scotty restored gravity a

moment after touchdown.

Even as Kirk and the others started down the steps from

the walkway to the hangar floor, one of the ship's

doors retracted inward and slid smoothly to one

side.

A set of steps descended from the opening, and

Kaulidren stepped out of the shadowy interior.clad

in a dark gray, not-quite-military uniform, he stood

watching silently as the three officers approached.

When they were in position, he quickly moved down the

steps, pointedly avoiding touching the handrails

to steady himself, as if to prove that he had taken the

abrupt transition from zero to one-g in stride.the

clean-shaven four who emerged after him, wearing

similar but lighter uniforms, were less quick to adapt,

gripping the metal handrails With each step.one,

carrying a metallic, briefcase-like container With

what looked like an old-fashioned keypad lock,

almost lost his footing on the first step.

"Welcome aboard the Enterprise, Premier

Kaulidren," Kirk said, momentarily lowering his

head in the fractional bow that his briefing had

indicated was the proper form of greeting.kaulidren,

however, instead of returning the bow, stepped forward and

extended his hand.

"We are on a Federation ship," he said

flatly."...We will observe Federation customs."

Its Federation custom to use transporters,

Kirk thought, but kept a smile on his face as he

took the Premier's hand.the grip, he

discovered, was as firm and practiced as any

admiral's.the other four dutifully offered their

hands as Kaulidren introduced them collectively

and anonymously as his "advisors," but their grips

were tentative, even uneasy.

"My first officer, Commander Spock," Kirk said

when the last of the four had shuttled backward to flank

Kaulidren, "and my chief medical officer,

Lieutenant Commander Leonard McCoy."

Kaulidren extended his hand to each in turn but then

turned back to Spock."...Vulcan, if I am not

mistaken, Commander."

"That is correct, Premier," Spock

acknowledged.

"That is good," Kaulidren said, nodding."...I

understand Vulcans are known for their logic and

impartiality."

"They are," Kirk agreed, ignoring the beginnings

of a puzzled frown on McCoy's face."...ally are

remarkably well informed, Premier."

"Even though we have chosen to remain independent of

your Federation, we have tried to absorb whatever information

you have offered to share With u.in any event, I am

encouraged by Commander Spock's presence.those

qualities of logic and impartiality will be

much in need if we are to resolve our current

difficulties."

"I will, of course, assist in any way I can,

Premier," Spock said.

"That goes without saying," Kaulidren said,

turning back to Kirk."...ationow, I have been told that

your computers--Duotronic, I believe they are

called--are capable of accepting information generated

by our own comparatively primitive systems."

"In all probability, yes," Kirk

said."...Duotronics, as I'm sure you know, are

remarkably versatile."

"Yes," Kaulidren said, looking around the

hangar deck, "it is my understanding that they

practicly run the entire ship."

"Supervised by the crew," McCoy put in.

"Of course.after all, computers are mere

machines, no matter how complex.they require

constant human supervision.at least, that is the

case With our own, and I assume it is still the case

even With yours."

"Absolutely," McCoy said emphatically enough

to minutely arch Spock's eyebrow and draw a

flickering sideways glance from Kirk.

"Very well." Kaulidren gestured at the

briefcase-like box still held by one of his

advisors."...I have With me records documenting a

small portion of the atrocities the rebel

terrorists have committed.i trust your computer will be

able to verify their authenticity."

"'It will be able to verify that the events recorded

were actual events, not computer-generated images,"

Spock said, "but that is all.as for the identities

and affiliations of the individuals involved, no such

authentication is possible.in such matters we must

rely solely on your words, Premier."

"Are you suggesting--" Kaulidren began,

scowling.

"I was suggesting nothing, Premier.i was simply

stating a fact."

The scowl was gone as quickly as it had come."...Of

course.my apologies, Commander Spock.i'm

afraid my dealings With the rebels--some of whom I

once considered my friends--have made me quick

to mistrust.

I ask only that you look at what I have to show

you, and listen to what I have to say."

Pulling in a breath, Kaulidren turned to look

over his shoulder at the ship.a sixth man--this one

inches taller than Kaulidren or any of the

others, and wearing a darker shade of uniform With a

sidearm of some kind strapped to its belt--had

emerged from the ship and was standing stiffly at the top of the

steps just outside the door, which now eased itself shut.

"I hope you will not be offended, Captain, if one

of my men remains on post while we are away from

our ship."

"Of course not," Kirk said, suppressing a

frown, "but I assure you it isn't necessary."

"I understand.however, irrational as it may be, I

would feel more comfortable With him there."

"As you wish, Premier.now, if you will come With

us, we can get down to business." For all the good it

will do, Kirk added skeptically to himself as he led the

way to the elevators, if you don't trust us any

more than that.

Minutes later they were settling into chairs around the

briefing room table while Spock inserted

Kaulidren's data tapes into the computer. The

control panel lights flickered as the computer began

to analyze the Chyrellkan devices and adapt its

own input circuitry to read the data.

"As I understand it, Premier," Kirk said as they

waited for the still-blank computer screen to light up,

"Vancadia was scheduled to be given its

independence only two years from now, on the

one-hundredth anniversary of Chyrellka's first

landing there."

Kaulidren snorted."...Perfectly true.but

they weren't content to wait."

"But according to Starfleet records, there was no sign

of trouble when your worlds were first contacted.

None that our representatives could detect, at

any rate."

"There was no trouble--then."

"But now there obviously is.what happened in the

meantime, Premier? How did the relationship between your

worlds deteriorate so rapidly?"

Kaulidren gestured sharply at the slot into which

Spock had inserted the data."...It's all there--the

terrorism, the killings, the destruction."

"I understand," Kirk persisted, "but does it

explain how it started? Why it started"...There have to be

reasons, and if we're to be of any help, we have

to find them."

Kaulidren frowned, then shrugged."...If you speak

With the 'rebels," perhaps they will be able to explain.

It is a total mystery to me.as you say,

Vancadia was scheduled to be given its independence

only two years from now.but three years

ago they apparently decided they needed it

immediately.the spokesman was a fire-breather named

Delkondros."

"Did they give any reasons for their sudden...

impatience?"

Kaulidren shrugged."...I can only assume that they

grew tired of waiting. Or that Delkondros

convinced them there was no need to wait.he was only one

of twenty Council members at the time, but very

ambitious," he added With a grimace."...Or,

to give him the benefit of the doubt, very

opportunistic.in either case, within weeks after he

became President of the Council he began beating

the drums for instant independence and making outrageous

accusations about our colonial administrators.but

then he turned openly to violence, although several of the

more rational members of the Council repu diated

hm.there was no reasoning With him, and in the end, we

had no choice but to declare him and the Council members

who remained With him outlaws.they went into hiding

and have conducted a terrorist campaign against us ever

since."

Kaulidren broke off, looking impatiently

toward Spock and the computer.

"The data is being processed,

Captain," Spock volunteered."...It does

appear to be genuine."

Kaulidren snorted."...Of course it is

genuineffDo you think we are such fools that we would

try to trick a Starfleet computer"...ationow, can the

data be displayed?"

Spock swiveled the screen so it faced the others

at the table.a frozen image appeared the interior

of a small room With one cluttered desk, a pair

of wooden chairs, and several old-fashioned file

cabinets.the camera had apparently been mounted

high on one of the walls.a graying man in a dark,

loose-cut tunic and trousers sat behind the desk,

his back to a large window.a younger man in a lighter

tunic stood facing him, leaning forward, both hands

on the desktop.

Both were studying some papers atop the clutter of

other papers.for the first few seconds the image was

grainy and ill-defined, but the focus sharpened instant

by instant.

"Is something wrong?" Kaulidren asked sharply.

"Why is nothing moving?"

"More processing," Kirk explained."...The computer

is staying With the first frame while it cleans up the

images.as soon The image began moving

and speaking.

"I see," Kaulidren said, motioning for the sound

to be turned down. "This is the first "incident" we

have a

direct record of.a half-dozen attacks were

made before we put all our offices under constant

camera surveillance.the man behind the desk is--

was--our chief administrator for the northwest

colonial district.

The other was his assistant, a colonial himself, but

apparently he was considered an enemy for associating

With u.or simply expendable."

Swallowing, Kaulidren averted his eyes."...I have

seen this "incident" all too often already,

Captain Kirk.your computer's "cleaning up"

can only make it all the more disquieting."

On the screen, the two men continued to talk

silently.suddenly, the window behind the desk

shattered.

Before either man could react, shards of glass

sprayed the room, and a package the size and shape

of a large brick thudded against the back of the man behind

the desk.for a split second both men started

to look toward the object, the man behind the desk

simultaneously grimacing in pain.

But then, With neither of them having actually seen the

object, both jerked about and started to flee.

But only started.the man in front of the desk

completed his turn and took a single, lurching stride

toward the door.simultaneously, the one behind the

desk jerked erect, slamming the chair backward,

and began a leap that would have taken him to the top of the

desk.

Then the explosion came.

It was over in an instant, the body of the man behind

the desk barely beginning a head-over-heels arc

upward, when the lens of the camera was shattered

as something--a piece of the chair from behind the desk?--

smashed into x.moments later a new picture

appeared, this one taken from the hall outside the

shattered room as a half dozen would-be rescue

workers uncovered the bodies in the rubble of the shattered

desk and the partially collapsed walls and ceiling.

"You see," Kaulidren said, returning his eyes

briefly to the screen, "that is typical of the rebel

butchery.

There were no warnings--unless you consider their earlier

murders to be warnings of all the subsequent

murders.those two men--both friends of mine, I

might add--were given no chance

to escape.they were simply executed."

"Is the rest of the "information" you've brought us

similar to this?" Kirk asked flatly.

"It is documentation of the brutality of the rebels,

yes."

"And nothing else?"

"If you doubt the authenticity--"

"There is no doubt of the authenticity of the events

themselves," Kirk said, "but as Mr.spock has already

pointed out, there is no way to verify who the

victims were or who their killers were.and even if

there were, that would not change the basic fact that such

happenings, no matter how barbaric, will do nothing

to help us accomplish our objective.what we

need are--"

"But this shows you what kind of people we are dealing

WithffCertainly you can see that!"

Kirk suppressed a sigh that was a mixture of

sympathy and irritation. "Premier Kaulidren,"

he

said, "we are here, at your government's request,

to attempt to mediate a peace between yourself and the

rebels.the first step toward that goal is for us to find

the underlying cause of the conflict."

"But we thought, once you were aware of the

facts--"

"That the Federation would take your side in the

dispute?"

Kaulidren blinked, apparently taken aback

at Kirk's directness.he pulled in a

breath."...Surely you would not take the side of

murderers and terrorists!"

"Premier Kaulidren--" Kirk spread his

hands before him on the table in a gesture of

supplication.

"Please understand--we are not here to take sides

at all.our prime directive does not allow us

to take sides.we are here to learn as much of the truth

as we can, and to use that knowledge in an effort to end the

hostilities."

"But Captain Kirk--"

"Captain," Uhura's voice broke in on the

intercom, "incoming transmission from Vancadia."

Kirk glanced at Kaulidren, who was frowning

at the interruption."...Patch it through, Lieutenant,"

he said.

"Right away, sir."

A moment later her voice was replaced by an

angry male voice. "--Kaulidren's

self-serving lies!" it began, obviously

in the middle of a sentence.

"I am not lying!" Kaulidren exploded,

drowning out the next few words before Kirk waved him

to silence.

"--bbf it is too late!" The voice finished and

then paused.

"It's a recording, sir," Uhura said

quickly."...Stand by for repeat."

"You must not listen to Kaulidren!" the voice

began without preamble. "No matter what lies he

has told you about our so-called terrorism, I

represent the colonists, and if your Federation is

truly committed to justice, you must speak With us before

you take any action.you must come to Vancadia and

learn the truth about Kaulidren's self-serving

liesffally must hear us, before it is too late!"

"have you located the source, Lieutenant?"

Kirk asked.

"Lieutenant Pritchard is doing a sensor

scan, Captain."

"Lieutenant Pritchard?" Kirk addressed the

young officer manning the science station while Spock was

off the bridge.

"Yes, sir, I have x.the message is coming from

a small ship launched from the surface of

Vancadia a few minutes ago.it is still under

power and is about to enter orbit."

"Lieutenant Uhura, try to establish

communication."

"Already trying, sir, but it is not a subspace

message.

At this distance, it will be at least three minutes

before any response is possible."

"Understood, Lieutenant.keep trying.we'll

move closer." Kirk turned to Kaulidren."...If

you wish, we will delay our departure until you and

your men can return to your ship."

"What?" Kaulidren exploded."...ally are leaving?

Captain, surely you are not going to meet With those

butchers!"

Kirk nodded crisply."...We will indeed be

proceeding to Vancadia, Premier.if you wish

to remain aboard, you are welcome.if not--"

"Of course I will remainffThere's no telling

what new lies they have concocted!"

"Very well, Premier." Speaking again to the

intercom, Kirk stood up. "We're on our way

to the bridge.

Lieutenant Sulu, lay in a course

to Vancadia."

"But there is more data--" Kaulidren began,

gesturing angrily at the computer screen, now

blank.

"It will still be there when we reach Vancadia,

Premier."

"As you wish, Captain, but--"

"Captain!" Lieutenant Pritchard

interrupted."...The ship transmitting that message--

it's been destroyed!"

Chapter Two.

"DETAILS, MR.PRITCHARD," Kirk

snapped, pausing over the intercom while glancing

sharply at Kaulidren and his retinue.the faces,

however, were unreadable.

"There were a dozen much larger ships already in orbit

around Vancadia," Pritchard reported."...Two of

them fired almost simultaneously on the message

ship just as it was entering orbit.it had been

transmitting continuously from the moment it left the

planet's atmosphere."

"Survivors?"

"It was too distant for the sensors to detect

survivors, sir, or how many, if any,

lifeforms were on board before the attack.tentative

mass readings indicated a craft too

small to accommodate more than two individuals."

"Very well.mr.sulu, get us under way, full

impulse power."

"Aye-aye, sir."

Kirk shut off the intercom."...Gentlemen, if

you'll come With me to the bridge..." He led the way

to the nearest turbolift, Kaulidren and his retinue

directly behind, With Spock and McCoy to the rear.

"What do you know about what happened, Premier?"

he asked as the door hissed shut behind them.

"You don't seem all that surprised."

"I am not, Captain.i assume that one of our

surveillance ships was responsible."

"Surveillance ships?"

"We maintain a constant watch on

Vancadia.the attempts to bring their terrorist

activities to Chyrellka itself have made it

essential."

"Shooting down an unarmed ship does not

constitute surveillance, Premier," Spock

pointed out.

Before Kaulidren could answer, the doors opened

on the bridge.vancadia already filled the forward

screen.

"Reducing to quarter impulse power,

Captain," Sulu reported."...Entering standard

orbit about Van-cadia."

Kaulidren's eyes widened as he followed

Kirk onto the bridge."...We have reached

Vancadia so soon?"

"For an interstellar ship, Premier,

interplanetary distances are short. Mr.pritchard,

any indication of survivors, now that we're w ithin

sensor range?"

"None, sir." Looking up, Pritchard saw

Spock and stepped back, relinquishing his position

at the science station as he completed his report."...But

neither is there any indication that the ship contained any

lifeforms before the attack.analysis of the debris

mass lowers our previous estimates of vessel

size.

It could have contained no more than a single

individual and was more likely unmanned and

remote-controlled."

"If anyone was aboard, Captain," Uhura

volunteered, "there was time for them to have received our

reply before the destruction, but there was no

acknowledgment.

The same signal kept repeating until the

end."

"You're positive there was enough time,

Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir.the destruction was approximately

one minute after our signals would have reached them."

Which doesn't prove anything, Kirk thought

grimly.

With the surveillance ships attacking, a lone

pilot would have had other things on his mind.

Turning his attention to the forward viewing screen,

he saw that a ship, presumably a Chyrellkan

surveillance ship, was hovering in the distance.

Hundreds of times the size of the sleek ship on the

hangar deck, its blocky form was obviously

designed never to descend into a planet's

atmosphere.laser ports dotted its

rectangular prow like deadly, geometrically

perfect freckles.

"That's a formidable ship, Premier," Kirk

observed, turning to Kaulidren."...Will we need our

shields?"

Kaulidren looked shocked."...I would not want this

to be divulged to the Vancadians," he said,

stepping down into the command area of the bridge to stand next

to Kirk, "but all but three of the laser ports are

dummies, and much of the bulk is empty

space.we have learned that the more formidable a weapon

appears to be, the less chance there is that it will ever have

to be used."

"But this one has obviously been used,

Premier," Kirk persisted."...We just saw it being

used.and lasers of that power--even if there are only

three, rather than twenty-three--can still be deadly to an

unprotected ship.i ask you again, will we need our

shields?"

"Not for protection against us, certainly,"

Kaulidren said indignantly.

"But for protection against the rebels"...Is that what

you're implying?"

"They would try anything."

"The ship you just shot down--what was it

"trying"?"

McCoy broke in.

"Gentlemen, you have to understand the situation we are

confronted With," Kaulidren said earnestly."...If

we were to allow them unhindered access to space--"

"Captain," Uhura said, "electromagnetic

signal from the planet's surface coming in.no

visual."

"On speakers, Lieutenant, and patch it through

to engineering.mr. Scott, are you there?"

"Aye, Captain," Scotty's voice came

over the intercom.

A moment later another voice filled the

bridge, the same voice they had heard from the downed

ship.

"Calling Federation starship," it began, more

anxious than angry this time, and apparently not a

recording, "can you hear me?"

"We can hear you," Kirk replied."...This is

Captain James Kirk, commanding the

U.s.s.enterprise.identify yourself."

A jumble of other voices erupted briefly from

the radio, but then the original one returned, now

speaking calmly, even deliberately."...I am

Delkondros, President of the Vancadian

Independence Council.in the wanton and

unprovoked destruction of our ship, you have seen the

true face of the Chyrellkan tyrants!

You knew it would be shot down!" Kaulidren

broke in angrily."...ally sent it up to be shot

down!"

"Kaulidren?" The stilted formality vanished from

Delkondros' voice, replaced by a cold

fury."...What lies did you tell to be allowed

aboard a Federation ship?"

"Ask him!" Kaulidren demanded."...Ask him why

he sent up a ship he knew would be shot down!"

"And ask him," Delkondros shot back, "why

it was shot downffThere was no warning, simply a

vicious, unprovoked attack.your robot

killers did not know if there was a crew on board

or nffThey never know!

And you do not care!"

"And who made the first attack?" Kaulidren was

shouting now."...Who would have killed thousands if they

hadn't been stopped"...Do not blame Chyrellka for the

results of your madness, Delkondros!"

"Gentlemen!" Kirk broke in sharply."...We

are here to mediate, not to referee."

"But you saw what Kaulidren's forces did to our

ship!" the voice protested.

"We saw," Kirk said."...We have also seen

records of what the Premier claims the

Vancadians have done."

"LiesffAll liesffIf you want the truth, you

must come here, to VancadiaffWe have true evidence--

the bodies of our assassinated leadersffIf your

medical science is as great as we are led

to believe, you will find the Chyrellkan poisons still

in their tissues!"

"Don't listen to him!" Kaulidren broke

in."...Even if such poisons exist, they are his

doing, not oursffAsk him how he came to be elected

to the Council in the first place, how his opponent

conveniently died the very week before the election!"

"My opponent "died," Premier

Kaulidren, because you thought I would be easier

to control, easier to make a fool of But you were

wrongffAnd when you realized your mistake, you had your

puppets in the Colonial Administration try

to kill me, and when that didn't work, you tried to kill

our entire government!"

"You killed your government when you became

terrorists, when you began killing us."

"Gentlemen, please!" Kirk snapped,

suddenly impatient.

He had briefly hoped that by simply letting the

two go at each other, he could listen and gain some

insight into the situation, but that was obviously not going

to happen."...Screaming accusations at each other is not

going to help.now unless either of you has something more than

a recitation of atrocities' allegedly committed

by the other side"

"Very well, Captain Kirk!" Delkondros

broke in harshly."...If you doubt my word,

send someone down!

Send a physician downffLet him look at the

evidence, let him examine those of us who have

survived the slaughterffLet him decide who is

telling the truth!

Perhaps he could even find the source of the poisons!

Or provide the antidote that Kaulidren

refuses to share With us!"

Kirk cast a questioning glance toward

McCoy."...Bones?"

"You think you have to ask, Jim?" McCoy said,

heading for the turbolift. "I'll be ready as soon

as I get my tricorder and medikit."

Kirk smiled faintly."...If you wish,

President Delkondros, our ship's

physician can beam down and...evaluate your

evidence.he can also determine if an antidote

to the poison exists or can be synthesized. Will that be

satisfactory?"

"Of course it wffAll we want is an honest

investigation that will lead to the truthffAnd save lives!"

"And the Vulcan!" Kaulidren

interjected."...Ask Delkondros if he will accept

an observer who will be influenced only by logic, not

by cheap emotional theatrics."

"There is a Vulcan on board?"

Delkondros's voice crackled back, not quite

drowning out the amused snort that came from the

turbolift as the doors closed behind McCoy.

"My first officer, Mr.spock, is half

Vulcan," Kirk said mildly.

"Then of course we would welcome him,"

Delkondros said."...We have nothing to fear from logic

or impartiality.on the contrary, we have great need

of those qualities!"

Kaulidren scowled but said nothing.

"Mr.spock?" Kirk turned toward the science

station."...Would you care to join the doctor and me?"

"Of course, Captain."

"Captain!" Kaulidren frowned."...Surely you

are not going With them!"

Unable to suppress his own frown this time, Kirk

turned to Kaulidren. "I thought I might go along

for the ride, Premier.is there some reason I

shouldn't?"

"Undoubtedly he fears for your safety,

Captain," Delkondros' voice cut in, now

edged With sarcasm rather than anger."...But to tell the

truth, I, too, would prefer you remain aboard your

ship where you can keep an eye on the

Premier.i would certainly not trust him--"

"As you wish, gentlemen," Kirk said, his own

voice reflecting some of the President's

sarcasm."...Far be it from me to deny the two of you

virtually the first thing you've agreed on since our

arrival.president Delkondros, I'll have you

connected directly to the transporter room. You can

give the officer in charge the coordinates for

beam-down." Kirk nodded to Uhura, who toggled a

switch on her console."...ationow, Premier

Kaulidren "Captain Kirk," Kaulidren said,

"I strongly advise against sending your men down

there."

Frowning, Kirk turned back to the

Chyrellkan.

"And why is that, Premier"...A few moments ago

you seemed willing--even eager--for Spock, at

least, to

"I never thought for a second Delkondros would

acceptffBut now that he has, I realize it must be a

trap.

You have not dealt With these people, Captain.you do not

know them, don't know what they're capable of.

Please you must view the remainder of the data I

brought aboard before you decide to deliver your

men into Delkondros's hands."

Kirk shook his head."...The rebels have to realize

that any action they might take against my men would be

totally counterproductive."

"They are completely irrational!" Kaulidren

sputtered.

Kirk caught Spock's eye and could tell his

first officer's thoughts echoed his own Now there's the

pot calling the kettle black.he would have laughed

if the situation wasn't so clearly

desperate."...Premier," Kirk began--but before he

could continue, the computer's feminine voice cut him

off.

"Intruder alert," it said, emotionless as always.

"Unauthorized personnel have been detected in

the main computer room on deck eight."

Chapter Three.

Turning from the main viewscreen, Kirk flicked

his eyes across Kaulidren's men.none were missing.

"Computer," he snapped, stabbing a button on

the arm of the command chai r, "seal access doors to main

computer room.security, send a detail to the main

computer room, deck eight.intruder alert."

"Security, aye, sir," Lieutenant

Shanti's slightly accented contralto

voice acknowledged almost instantly.

"Mr.spock, get the computer room on the

screen."

"Trying, Captain," Spock said, not looking

up.

"Control circuits are not responding."

"Computer," Kirk said, a sense of unease

gnawing at him, "identify intruder."

"Unknown humanoid," it began, then fell

silent.

"Computer?"

The machine remained silent.

Kirk darted a glance at Spock, still working at

the science station controls."...Are the access doors

sealed?"

"Indications are contradictory, Captain."

Kirk crossed the bridge quickly to stand next

to his first officer. "Override, Mr.spock!"

The Vulcan shook his head."...ation possible under these

conditions, Captain.none of the controls are--"

Spock broke off.a moment later the cramped

aisles of the main computer room appeared on the

viewscreen. They were empty.the access doors,

sealed as the image appeared, slid quietly open

a moment later.

"The monitor circuit malfunction," the

computer's monotone announced, "has been

isolated and corrected."

"Monitor circuit malfunction?" Kirk

asked sharply.

He turned to Spock.

"I believe, Captain, that the computer is saying

that the alert was the result of a malfunction."

"Affirmative," the computer replied instantly.

"There was no one in the main computer room?"

Kirk asked.

"Affirmative."

Kirk frowned."...Lieutenant Shanti, status

report."

"Exiting turbolift on deck eight,

Captain, proceeding to main computer room."

"The alert may have been a false alarm,

Lieutenant, but be careful anyway.report

anything the least bit unusual."

"Yes, sir."

"Mr.spock, any indication of the cause of the

malfunction?"

"None, Captain.readings indicate only that

there was a conflict between two different sets of

sensors within the room.the computer's efforts

to reconcile the conflict appears to have resulted in

the temporary lockup of the control circuits and at

least the partial erasure of the conflicting readings."

Dr.mcCoy would say that sounded like a nervous

breakdown, Kirk thought."...What, specifically, was

the conflict, Mr.spock?"

"Unknown, Captain.given time, a complete

diagnostic program could be run, but because of the

apparent erasures there is less than a

ten-point-seven percent chance that a specific

cause could be isolated.

There is also a special program I have been

devising that could increase those odds an indeterminate

amount, but it is as yet untested."

Kirk nodded, turning back to the main

viewscreen.

"Do what you can, Mr.spock."

"Of course, Captain."

"Captain," Lieutenant Shanti's voice

came over the intercom, "the computer room is

empty and all appears in order.however, one of my

men reports having heard the turbolift

operate."

"Computer," Kirk snapped, "image of

turbolift interior."

The viewscreen shimmered uncharacteristically for a moment

as the computer room vanished and was replaced by the

interior of the turbolift.it was empty, its

doors just closing, giving the bridge crew a

brief glimpse of the hangar deck, With the

Chyrellkan shuttle in the distance.

"Computer," Kirk ordered, "show the hangar

deck.

Lieutenant Shanti, proceed to hangar deck

immediately."

"Yes, sir."

On the forward viewscreen, the hangar deck

appeared.

Kaulidren's ship looked the same as it had in

the glimpse through the turbolift door.the massive

guard still stood impassively at the top of the

steps, his eyes calmly and deliberately scanning

the deserted expanse of the deck.to one side were the

parked shuttlecraft, except for the one Scott's

men were working on in the deck twenty maintenance

shop.the tractor beam control room high along

one wall was empty, the two ensigns Kirk had

placed there temporarily having returned to their

regular duties.

From somewhere came a sound, a faint

scrape of metal on metal, but it was immediately

obscured by the hiss of the turbolift

doors.lieutenant Shanti stepped out, her

diminutive frame dwarfed by the two husky

six-footers comprising her security detail.her

size was deceptive, however Kirk knew that, With

her martial arts skills, she could hold her own

With either of them.

"Lieutenant Shanti," he began but was

interrupted by Kaulidren, who had remained

uncharacteristically quiet during the alert.

"What is happening, Captain Kirk"...Why have you

sent these people to my ship?"

"Lieutenant Shanti," Kirk repeated over

Kaulidren's words, "there was a metallic sound

somewhere in the hangar deck just as you arrived.can you

see anything that might account for it?"

"We heard it too, Captain," she said, "just as

the doors were opening. It seemed to come from the vicinity

of the alien ship."

"I see." Kirk darted another glance at

Kaulidren as he turned toward the science

station."...Mr.spock, scan the hangar deck for

lifeforms."

Spock concentrated on the station readouts

for a moment."...Only the security detail and the

Premier's sentry register, Captain."

Kirk turned back to the image of the hangar

deck, watching it silently for several

seconds."...Lieutenant Shanti," he said finally,

"return to the main computer room.check it out

thoroughly for any indication that the malfunction

wasn't a malfunction."

"Yes, sir," Shanti acknowledged."...For

evidence of a real intruder, you mean, sir?"

"Correct, Lieutenant."

"Captain Kirk," Kaulidren spoke up

abruptly, "are you saying there might actually have

been someone in your computer room?"

"I can't overlook any possibility,

Premier."

"Someone in the computer room--would such a person have

had access to computers everywhere in your ship from that one

room?"

"Of course.why?"

"The data I brought aboard, which your first officer

placed in the briefing room computer--could that have

been...affected by this hypothetical intruder?"

Kirk suppressed a frown and an impulse

to point out to the Premier that if there really had

been an intruder, all indications were that he had come

aboard in the Premier's own shuttle.

"If an intruder existed," he said evenly,

"if he knew precisely what he was looking for,

and if he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the computer as

well as an extraordinary skill in making use of

that knowledge, then it would be remotely possible.at a

conservative estimate, however, there are no more than

two or three dozen people With that kind of computer

expertise in all of Starfleet."

"And none are aboard the Enterprise?"

"Only one, Premier, and I assure you he was

nowhere near the computer room at the time of the

malfunction."

"How can you be so positive, Captain?"

"For the same reason you can be, Premier.mr.

Spock hasn't been out of sight of either of us since

you came aboard."

Kaulidren darted a glance toward Spock, then

seemed to relax."...Of course, Captain, my

apologies.

These last few months it's hard not to become at

least a little paranoid.but for me to entertain even

for a moment the thought that my enemies could have gained such knowledge

and then found their way aboard a Federation

starship just so they could tamper With my data is beyond

even my worst paranoid fantasies.ag, my

apologies.however, regarding the decision to allow

your people to beam down to--"

As if on cue, the turbolift door hissed

open and Dr. McCoy emerged and glanced around."...I

see you and my Vulcan logical half are still

loitering up here.does this mean you've been talked

out of it and I'll be going down by myself?."

"We had a false alarm in the computer room,"

Kirk explained, "but it's under control

now.correct, Mr. Spock?"

"All readings now appear normal, Captain,

but..." a crease furrowed Spock's brow, "I have

not been able to determine the precise cause or

nature of the malfunction."

There was a snort of laughter from the

doctor."...Did I hear you right, Spock"...Did you

just admit there was something you couldn't d"...And With the

computer, no less"...Sorry I missed x.now, are

you ready to go, or do I beam down by myself?."

"Spock is ready, Bones," Kirk said,

grimacing faintly as he gestured for Lieutenant

Pritchard to return to the science station, "but I'll

be staying on board, at the request of our

guest and his counterpart on Vancadia."

"Captain Kirk!" Kaulidren had been

looking more and more tense from the moment McCoy had

returned to the bridge."...Once again I feel it my

duty to warn you--these people, these rebel terrorists, cannot

be trusted! Bring Delkondros aboard your ship

if you must, but don't"

"Your warning is noted," Kirk

said."...Mr.spock, Dr.mcCoy, if either of you

has any reservations"

"Not after that ship was shot down, I don't,"

McCoy broke in."...ationow, are you coming, Spock,

or not?"

"I am, Doctor," Spock said, slipping the

strap of his tricorder over his shoulder and striding to the

turbolift to join McCoy.

As the door hissed shut, Kirk turned toward

the communications station. "Lieutenant Uhura, can you

get Delkondros again?"

"Yes, sir." Her fingers darted across the

panels."...Go ahead, Captain."

"President Delkondros," Kirk said,

"two of my men--Lieutenant Commander McCoy,

our chief medical officer, and Commander Spock, our

science officer--are ready to beam down to the

coordinates you gave the transporter room."

"I am most gratified," Delkondros's

voice came back."...I am sure that once they have

seen our evidence-was

"I'm sure they will evaluate it impartially,"

Kirk said.

"Of course.that is all we ask."

Kaulidren grimaced but stayed silent.

A minute later the link to the transporter room

opened.kirk suppressed a smile as he heard

McCoy's voice in the background,

unintelligible but o bviously disgruntled, lecturing

Spock about something.

abruptly it was cut off.

"Ready, Captain," the transporter chief

announced after a couple seconds' hesitation.

"Proceed, Mr.kyle," Kirk said, sitting

back down in his chair."...But be ready to beam them up

at the first sign of trouble.keep a lock on their

communicators."

"Yes, sir." A pause, and then, "Energizing

now."

The bridge fell silent, Kirk once again

glancing at Kaulidren, trying to fathom the

expression on the Premier's bearded

face.fear"...Anger?

"They're down, sir," Lieutenant Pritchard

at the science station announced, "at the prescribed

coordinates."

"Lieutenant Uhura, are you still in contact With

Delkondros?"

"No, sir.he ceased transmission when

Mr.spock and Dr.mcCoy were being beamed down."

Kirk frowned."...Get him back."

"Yes, sir," Uhura replied, her fingers

darting across the controls.

"I warned you, Captain," Kaulidren began,

but Kirk cut him off With a gesture, swiveling

around to face Pritchard at the science station.

"Lieutenant--"

"Some kind of shield, Captain.it's blocking

the sensors."

"Radio transmissions being blocked too,

sir," Uhura said, concern evident in her voice.

"Transporter room," Kirk snapped, "bring

them back, now!"

Impossible.the thought flashed uselessly through

Kirk's mind even as he spoke.^the worlds are at

least fifty yearsddaway from any type of

shield.ac to the initial survey-"Trying,

sir, but we've lost the lock on their

communicators andBut"

"The shield, yes.be ready the instant it goes

down.

Mr.pritchard, analysis of the shield.can it

be neutra-lized?

Or penetrated?"

"Penetrated, yes, by our weaponry.it

appears intended primarily to block

electromagnetically based communications in

normal space.it would offer some resistance

to material objects such as photon torpedoes and

to phaser fire, but not enough to block either.

Even a low-power phaser burst would be able to--"

"And the transporters?"

"If the power could be stepped upw"

"I wouldna' chance it," Scotty interrupted,

crossing the upper deck of the bridge to stand next

to Uhura, "except as a last resort.a wee

bit o' scramblin' is all it would take."

"Understood, Mr.scott.lieutenant

Pritchard, you said the sensors were blocked as

well.that would mean the shield has a subspace

component as well."

"It does, Captain, but the subspace

component seemswwell, "accidental," I

suppose you could say.

Just a side effect of the shield itself."

"Then it doesn't actually block the sensors?"

"Not completely, sir.it's more likelike

static.a lot of detail is lost, and what

detail there is, is probably not reliable."

"How much of the planet is affected?"

"Approximately ten thousand square

kilometers, sir."

"It's visible on the screen, Captain,"

Sulu volunteered.

Kirk abruptly turned back to the forward

view-screen.

They were passing over the night side of the planet,

but that had little effect on the sensors.for the most part,

the world looked like any other class-M planet With

its oceans and land masses and clouds except for a

single circular area along the jagged coastline of a

roughly diamond-shaped continent that filled half the

southern hemisphere. There, despite an almost

total lack of clouds, the surface looked

indistinct, almost fuzzy, and for over a hundred

kilometers the line between water and land, sharply

delineated at all other points, was not only

blurred but appeared to waver, as if seen through a

distorting lens that was constantly being shifted.

"Would a world at this technological level have the

power necessary to produce a shield like that?" Kirk

asked, already knowing the answer.

"I wouldna' think so, Captain," Scott

responded.

"For a shield o' that size, only antimatter

would do the job."

"Which, according to the Federation survey less than ten

years ago, would not be technically achievable by either world

for another century."

"Aye, Captain, and even With the power, there's the

wee matter o' knowing how to generate a shield in the

first place.i dinna see how they could manage, at

least wi'out outside help."

"My thoughts exactly, Mr.scott," Kirk

said, grimacing as an image of his old friend

Tyree, the leader of the hill people on a primitive

world, forced its way into his mind.there, too, the

natives had appeared to make a sudden

technological leap in little more than a

decade.there the new technology had consisted of

gunpowder and flintlock rifles, not a

ten-thousand-square-kilometer energy shield,

but the unexpectedness, the unlikelihood of the two

advances were comparable.

And there, on Tyree's world, the "advance" had

been the work of a small band of Klingons, secretly

doling out "inventions," subverting the natives and

stirring up war.

"Maximum range sensor scan,

Mr.pritchard," Kirk ordered as he stood up

abruptly from the command chair and strode to the science

station."...If there's any ship in this solar system

capable of warp drive, I want to know about xffOr

any other shielded areas, on or off the planet."

"Maximum range scan, yes, sir,"

Pritchard acknowledged, managing a quick glance over

his shoulder at the Captain.kirk sensed the young

officer's nervousness and knew his presence was only

adding to it, but that couldn't be helped.spock and

McCoy's lives were on the line down there, and he

couldn't afford to waste time or energy on

Pritchard's feelings.

After a few minutes Pritchard looked up

apologetically.

"Sorry, sir, but there's just nothing there.only a

Romulan cloaking device could--" Kirk shook

his head."...I doubt that the Romulans are behind

whatever is going on here, Mr.pritchard.

Unless they've changed radically, they're far more

likely to challenge the Federation openly than to use

underhanded tactics like th.keep scanning,

Lieutenant.

Look for anything out of the ordinary.anything."

Kirk straightened and turned away from the science

station to face Kaulidren."...What do you know of this

shield, Premier?"

"What should I know of x"...I am no

scientist.but I warned you of Delkondros'

treachery.

"But not of this shield.is it new?"

"I did not know of its existence, if that is what

you mean.as far as I know, they have never used it before.

But I can't say that it surprises me."

"Why n"...h they done this sort of thing before?"

Kaulidren nodded vehemently."...Why else would

we need to keep the world under constant surveillance?

Their ships, even the small ones no larger than

the one I came aboard in, are now capable of not just

achieving orbit around Vancadia but of making the

trip to Chyrellka--and returningffTheir source of

power--"

"Captain!" Pritchard interrupted

sharply."...Shield strength is decreasing rapidly!"

Whirling back toward the science station, Kirk

scanned the main viewscreen.the image of

Vancadia was shimmering.

And then the distortion vanished, leaving the planet's

surface crystal-clear.in virtually the same

instant, the link to the surface was

reestablished.delkondros's voice erupted

onto the bridge, the words rushed but ominously

clear.

"Any attempt to transport your men will

result in their immediate deaths."

Kirk's eyes widened in disbelief.choking down

an impulse to ask the man if he were insane,

Kirk signalled Uhura to suppress the

transmission from the Enterprise.

"Transporter room," Kirk snapped,

"lock on to those communicators, but energize only

on my order."

"Locked on, sir.ready for your command."

"Lieutenant Pritchard, maximum resolution

sensor scan of area."

"Eleven humanoids in the immediate area of the

communicators. Impossible to determine

identities at this range.no indication of

advanced energy weapons."

"Captain Kirk," Delkondros's voice

came again, "I know you heard me. Did you understand

me?"

"Transporter room, stand by," Kirk said as

he signalled to Uhura to reopen the link.

"I heard you, Delkondros," he went on,

"but I hope I didn't understand you

correctly.are you saying my men are now your

hostages?"

"Essentially, yes.it is the only way--"

"It is the fastest way," Kirk interrupted

sharply, "to prove that Kaulidren has been telling

the truth about yffDo you understand that?"

"In the short term, that may be true, Captain

Kirk, but we feel we have no choice,

particularly since you

have taken Kaulidren aboard your ship.he is the

madmanffally have to believe that!"

"I'd be more inclined to believe you,

Delkondros, if you weren't threatening the lives of

two of my officers!

Release them and we can talk.we can beam you

aboard if that's what you want.we are ready

to listen to whatever you have to say, to look at

whatever evidence you hffThat's why my men beamed down

to your planet, to look at your evidenceffSo if you

really have that evidence, release my men and let them

evaluate it!"

"That is precisely what I plan to do!"

Delkondros retorted."...But not in that order!"

"Let me speak With them," Kirk said tightly.

"I'm sorry, but that is impossible.but I have

no wish to harm them, believe me.only if you force

"Mad!" Kaulidren broke in."...I warned you,

the man is totally mad!"

"Security!" Kirk snapped."...Be ready

to escort Kaulidren and his men off the bridge, on

my command!"

The two officers flanking the turbolift moved

forward.

"I am not mad, Captain, just desperate!"

Delkondros shouted."...With him on board your

ship, how could I be otherwiseffHis lies--"

Suddenly, a bedlam of other voices erupted from the

speakers, all shouting at once, drowning each other

out.

"What's happening?" Kirk snapped into the

uproar.

But there was no intelligible answer--only

continued shouting, and then the sounds of things being knocked

over, being broken.

And then, suddenly, the communicator channel was

open again, carrying the same sounds, like a muffled echo

from another part of the room.for a moment it faded in and

out, like an antenna searching for a direction, but then it

steadied.and a new sound came through, one not coming through

on the other channel --something scraping directly

against the communicator, as if it were being dragged across

a rough surface.

And then, Spock's voice.it was barely more

than a whisper, but the precise diction and total

control were unmistakable."...Transporter room," it

said, "beam us up--now."

"Do it!" Kirk confirmed instantly as he

turned toward the science station."...Lieutenant

Pritchard, monitor the operation With the sensors."

"Yes, sir.transporters energizing--" Over

the jumble of voices coming from Delkondros's

headquarters there was the sizzling sound of an energy

weapon.for an instant it was louder on the

communicator channel than on the other, but then,

abruptly, the communicator went dead.

"Laser fire!" Pritchard snapped, and then

gasped.

"Both men--both lifeform readings are goneffThey

must've been hit!"

"Transporter, beam them directly

to sickbay!

Sickbay, incoming wounded, McCoy and

Spock, injuries unknown!"

"Lost the lock, Captain!" the transporter

chief broke in.

"The communicators," Pritchard said, "they were

destroyed by the blast, whatever it was!"

"Transporter, wide field," Kirk

snapped."...Bring them up!"

"Trying, but something--"

"The shield is back, Captain!" Pritchard

announced.

"Increase power to transporters!"

"No good, Captain," the transporter chief's

voice responded."...The wide field isn't

concentrated enough to alloww"

"Shield strength increasing!" Pritchard said."...The

transporters no longer have enough power to punch through,

even With communicators to lock ontoffUnless the

shield can be deactivated--"

"The antimatter the shield needs for its power,"

Kirk snapped, "can you locate it?"

Pritchard rapidly punched a half-dozen

buttons, scanned the readouts. "Negative,

Captain.the subspace component of the shield has

increased even more than the rest.sensor readings now

appear to be completely unreliable."

"Your scans while the shield was down--did they

show anything?"

"Negative, Captain.if the power source

does make use of antimatter, it must have its own

shield."

Kirk slammed his hands down on the arms of the command

chair in frustration."...Uhura--"

"All contact was lost when the communicators were

destroyed, Captain.i have been unable

to reestablish.

No response on any subspace or standard

frequency."

For a long moment there was only silence as Kirk

turned back to the forward viewscreen and the

hundred-kilometer circle of wavering distortion that

marked the area covered by the shield.it was more

pronounced now, With the distortion in some spots so

strong it seemed translucent.

His throat was aching, and his stomach felt

hollow.helpless, he thought, his fingers

clenching into fists, completely helpless despite

everything.shield or no shield, we could have wiped the

planet out. But we couldn't save Bones and

Spock.

We can't even bring their bodies back on

board...

Chapter Four.

"Do YOU believe that?" MaCoy muttered,

shaking his head as the turbolift doors hissed

shut, blotting out the sight of Kaulidren and his

somber retinue clustered on the bridge.

"If you mean, Doctor, did I believe

Premier Kaulidren's statements to be completely

truthful, no I did n.at this point, however, we

have no practical way of conclusively establishing

their worth."

McCoy snorted."...So?"

"I am merely suggesting, Doctor, that it would be

illogical to totally disregard them."

"For you, maybe.me, I'd be more worried about

beaming down to his planet, especially if he were

going With u.the Premier scares me a lot more than

those so-called terrorists of his."

"I cannot disagree, Doctor.premier

Kaulidren's objectivity does appear

to be seriously impaired by a tendency toward

emotionalism. Nonetheless, his warnings cannot be

entirely discounted.as you yourself have often claimed, the

presence of emotion does not necessarily

invalidate the--"

"If you're that worried, Spock, you don't have

to come alongffI can still beam down by myself!"

"I am not "worried," Doctor.i am, as

I stated before, simply not dismissing Kaulidren's

statements out of hand, and I would advise you to retain

a similarly open mind on the subject."

"Anything to satisfy your "open-minded"

Vulcan logic," McCoy muttered as the doors

opened, and they stepped out into the corridor leading to the

transporter room."...But he's just trying to stir things

up.surely you could see that, Spock.and we both

saw what his "surveillance ships" did to that ship

that was trying to get through to uffEven if Delkondros

did send it up just to prove that Kaulidren's bunch

would fire on it--well, they did fire on it, and

Delkondros was right. Whoever shot it down couldn't

have known whether there were people on board, not without

sensors.that should be concrete enough for your logic

to get a grip on."

"Of course, Doctor," Spock

agreed as they entered the transporter room, "but the

Premier's evidence regarding the colonists'

actions was--"

"Evidence we had to take his word forffEven you said

there was no way of telling who the people were in those

scenes.who's to say those atrocities he was trying

to show us weren't things his bunch had done to the

colonists, not the other way around?"

"Nothing, Doctor.however, when two

possibilities exist, logic dictates that one

be prepared for the consequences of either being proven

true."

"Logic be damned, Spock!" McCoy

stopped at the base of the transporter platform

to scowl up at the Vulcan, already on one of the

circles."...All it takes is a little

old-fashioned horse sense to see through

Kaulidren. In case you hadn't noticed, he

has a pretty warped idea of how the Federation

worksffHe thinks we're the same kind of bully he

is, and he wants us to do the same thing to the

colonists that he claims the colonists have been

doing to him, only in spades.he certainly wouldn't

let a little thing like the truth stand in the way of getting

what he wants!"

"I do not disagree With the substance of anything you have

said, Doctor," Spock said patiently.

"You sure have a funny way of agreeing With people,

SpockffIf--" He broke off as he heard the

sound of someone clearing his throat behind hm.it was

Kyle, the transporter chief.

"Ready, gentlemen?"

With a last scowl at Spock, McCoy stepped

up, turned, and centered himself on the circle next

to Spock's, then nodded at Kyle.

"Ready, Captain," the transporter chief

reported.

"Proceed, Mr.kyle," Kirk's voice

came back."...But be ready to beam them up at the first

sign of trouble.

Keep a lock on their communicators."

"Yes, sir," Kyle replied."...Energizing

now."

McCoy glanced at Spock, shaking his head and

sighing as he saw that the Vulcan was looking

downward, his eyes directed inconspicuously at

his tricorder, ready to scan its readout the instant

they materialized on the planet below.

"Just a logical precaution, Spock?" he

asked, but the words were barely out, when the

familiar tingle of the transporter field snatched

his attention and focussed it on himself.

Truth be known, he thought With a controlled shiver,

being squirted through space by that blasted machine

worries me more than the possibility of danger from

the colonists, or even from Kaulidren.it was the

one thing he could agree With the Premier ab.he would

never get used to the transporter, no matter how

many times he went through x.just the idea that even for a

few seconds he didn't exist, except as a

pattern of energy, had always given him

a--help-less feeling.and helplessness was one

feeling he thoroughly disliked, particularly when it

involved a machine.

He was just starting to grit his teeth, when the

transporter energies solidified their grip on

him and the room faded from view.

When they released him and he was able to move again, his

jaw muscles relaxed and he released his breath in

an inaudible sigh of relief.he stood next

to Spock on a bare concrete floor near one end

of what appeared to be a large, makeshift conference

room, two battered metal tables butted against

each other to make one long table.the chairs, no

two alike, looked like discards from waiting

rooms and assembly lines.

Roughly a dozen men stood beyond the table at the far

left side of the room, as if to keep as much distance

as possible between themselves and the area in which Spock and

McCoy had materialized.behind the men, in a

plain, concrete block wall, was a massive

metal fire door, its hinges the only part not

spotted With rust.in the wall a dozen yards

directly in front of McCoy and Spock was a

half-open sliding metal door, while behind them,

half as distant, was a fully closed wooden

door, its paint peeling.

For a moment there was only silence.out of the corner

of his eye McCoy saw Spock look up

abruptly from his tricorder and dart glances toward

all of the doors.

"I am Delkondros," the tallest and

obviously most muscular of the men said as he began

to lead them around the far end of the table toward the new

arrivals.a full beard concealed the lower half of

his face, and bushy eyebrows shadowed his eyes, but his

scalp was bare.all the men wore dark,

nondescript tunics and trousers, but

Delkondros and one other, almost as powerful-looking

as Delkondros, also had what looked like

old-fashioned projectile sidearms fastened at

their waists."...These men are all members of the

Independence Council."

McCoy started forward to greet the man, but

Spock's hand darted out to restrain him.

"The formalities of our meeting must be delayed

for a moment, President Delkondros," Spock

said, ignoring McCoy 's scowl."...We were instructed

to remain in constant contact With the Enterprise."

"You could at least wait until--" McCoy

began, but Spock cut him off With uncharacteristic

brusqueness.

"I would suggest you not question our orders,

Doctor," Spock said, his communicator already in

his hand."...As you may recall from our misadventures

on Neural, the Captain does not issue orders

without' good and sufficient reason."

McCoy frowned."...ationeural"...What the blazes

are you talking about, Spock?"

"Spock to Enterprise," the Vulcan spoke

into his communicator, ignoring McCoy.

"There will be no response, Commander Spock,"

Delkondros said With a sigh as he and the others

stopped a dozen feet away."...The area is now

shielded against all communications." His hand

moved to touch his weapon but he didn't draw x.the

other armed council member did the same.

Less surreptitiously, Spock glanced down

at his tricorder, then looked quickly around the room

again.

"Don't do anything foolish, either of you,"

Delkondros warned.

"What do you think you're doing?" McCoy

snapped, scowling at their hands hovering near their

weapons."...We're down here to help you!"

"We realize that is what your captain said,

Dr. McCoy, but--"

"It's also the truth!"

"Perhaps it is," Delkondros admitted, "but

With Kaulidren aboard your ship to influence him, we

do not feel we dare take any chances.now, place

your communicators on the table."

"What for?" McCoy protested."...I thought you said

they wouldn't work anyway."

"As long as the shield is active, they will not,"

Delkondros said, apparently trying to sound

apologetic.

"But the power required to maintain that shield is more

than we can afford for any length of time.now,

please, gentlemen, you are wasting time.your

communicators will be returned when your mission is

completed."

McCoy continued to scowl at the President for

another second, then shook his head With an

irritated sigh.delkondros' suspicions about

the captain were idiotic, but Kaulidren was another

kettle of fish altogether.

The Premier was obviously the sort who'd try

anything.he wouldn't succeed, of course, not With

Jim Kirk, probably not With any Starfleet

captain, but Delkondros had no way of knowing

t.and he obviously wasn't about to take anyone's

word for it, least of all theirs.no, if he and

Spock were going to accomplish anything at all down

here, they would simply have to go along With

Delkondros' paranoid demands.

"Come on, Spock," he said, laying his own

communicator on the table, "let's get this

foolishness over WithffMaybe then we can get on With

what we came down here to do!"

Spock hesitated a moment, then laid his

communicator on the table next to McCoy's.the

doctor looked up at Delkondros."...ationow, what

is it you want to show US?"

Before the President could respond, one

of the council members, a small wiry man With

hair and beard just beginning to go gray, stepped forward

sharply to face Delkondros.

"This is madness!" the man burst out."...I can't

let this go onffSurely even you can now see you are

only making Vancadia's plight worse!"

The President turned a frown on the new

speaker.

"We've been through this a hundred times,

Tyl-maurek.

I was under the impression you had finally come to agree

With my decision."

Tylmaurek shook his head violently."...Can't you

see what you're doing, Delkondros"...ally're

destroying our only chanceffThese people want to help us,

but if you keep up this insanity, you'll turn them

against us!

You'll make it so the Federation will never listen

to US!"

"He's right," McCoy broke in, suddenly

heartened by the appearance of someone who seemed to have a

little common sense."...Look, I know how you feel about

Kaulidren, but kidnapping us isn't going to help,

you must know t.it just makes you look bad too."

"That's what I told them!"

Tylmaurek almost shouted as he spun toward

Spock and McCoy."...Right from the start, I told

them they had to trust y.it was the only way.the

Federation can't be blackmailed, not by the likes of

us!"

He paused, glaring around at the uneasy council

members."...Can't you people see th"...Didn't you hear what

they sd"...And even if they're lying, do you think this will

make them change their minds"...And once we force them

to look at our evidence and we release them--how do

you plan to control them then"...Or do you plan to hold

them hostage forever?"

As Tylmaurek spoke, McCoy noticed

two council members--a young, beardless man in his

twenties and a tall, bulky man in his fifties--

were moving away from the group, around the table toward the

fire door.

But it was a thin, dark-haired man in the main

group who spoke. "Tylmaurek is right," he said

nervously, his eyes not meeting Delkondros'

eyes."...These people did transport down of their own

free w.you told us they would never even come near us

unless we tricked them.but they did, and now it

seems to me we should take them at their word."

"Besides," someone at the back of the group

said, "like Tylmaurek says, if they're lying,

there's nothing we can do about x.we have to take their word

for things.we don't have any choice.^the aren't just

another pair of Chyrellkan bullies."

Delkondros scowled silently for a moment, his

eyes darting from face to face."...Does Tylmaurek

speak for the rest of you too"...Do you all feel this

way?"

At first there was only motionless silence, but then,

one by one, the council members muttered their

agreement.except for the one member who, like

Delkondros, was armed.that one cast a

sideways glance at Delkondros but remained

silent.

"Very well," Delkondros said finally, "if that

is your wish, so be it. Let the results be on your

heads, not mine."

"You will lower the shield, then?" Spock said."...And

allow us to contact the Enterprise?"

"If that is your wish."

"It is."

"Very well." Delkondros nodded

resignedly."...I will have the shield lowered." Taking his

hand from where it had been hovering near his weapon, he

took a communicator-sized device from a

pocket and tapped one of the buttons on its face.

"It's about time!" McCoy muttered, starting

toward the table and the communicators, but before he had

taken more than a single step, the door directly

behind him and Spock burst open.

"What the blazes--" he began, but the words were

cut off as, without warning, Spock turned and lunged

at him, grasping his shoulders and literally diving to the

floor With him, leaving him gasping for breath as a

pulsed laser beam sizzled through the open door,

stabbing a half-dozen times through the space he and

Spock had occupied a split second bef.one

of the pulses caught the armed council member in one

shoulder.his weapon, now drawn, dropped from

nerveless fingers. Before he could fall, a second

pulse hit his chest.

The room erupted into chaos, most of the council

members shouting or screaming at once.some followed

Spock's example and threw themselves to the floor,

while others turned and raced for the door, and still others

remained frozen in shock.delkondros, snatching

his own weapon from its holster, leaped to

one side, away from the wounded man.for an instant

he pointed his weapon directly at the two

Enterprise crewmen, but before he could fire,

a man staggered through the door, a laser pistol in one

hand.

Delkondros jerked the muzzle of his own weapon

upward and fired at the intruder, the sound thunderous in

the enclosed space.the slug--it was a projectile

weapon--struck the man solidly, sending him

sprawling backward, his weapon flying from his hand and

through the door behind him, before it clattered to the floor.

Suddenly, there was only silence, and for a moment

everyone was motionless, even those who had started to race

toward the opposite door. Unlike the others,

Delkondros was expressionless, and he was looking not

at the man he had just shot, nor even at the wounded

council member, but was scowling intently at Spock

and McCoy.

McCoy, ignoring the scowl, scrambled to his

feet.

"Get that blasted shield down!" he snapped,

hurrying toward the wounded council member."...We have

to beam this man up to sickbay--immediately! Otherwise

he doesn't have a chance!"

Kneeling next to the fallen man, he brought the

sensor of his medical tricorder to the vicinity of the

wounds."...Still breathing," he muttered, "but just barely,

and if he goes into shock before we can--"

McCoy broke off, his frown deepening into a

puzzled scowl as he moved the sensor back and forth

and watched the tricorder readouts.the readings were all

wrong, even for a man as seriously wounded as this!

The heart rate, even the basic metabolic

indicationsAbruptly, he looked up at the

President."...Del-kondros, who is this man?"

"Does it matter, Doctor?" Spock broke

in, moving to the table and snatching up the

communicators as he spoke, his eyes never leaving

Delkondros."...What is important now is to have

the shield lowered."

"Darned right it matters, Spock!" McCoy

shot back."...Unless my instruments have gone

completely haywire, he isn't a man at

allffHe's a Klingon!"

"Do not be foolish, Doctor," Spock said,

again speaking With uncharacteristic force."...He is

obviously-was

"That's enough, both of you!" Delkondros said

With a heavy sigh."...I should have realized.you already

knew, didn't you, Spock"...And don't bother

to deny it.

I saw you checking your tricorder readings from the

moment you arrived. And the way you got yourself and

Dr.mcCoy out of the line of fire, you must have seen

it coming."

Suddenly, Spock's earlier actions, his

puzzling references to Neural, made sense

to McCoy.the Vulcan had been trying to warn him,

and he'd been too blasted dense to catch on, and

now-"But it doesn't matter," Delkondros said,

shak ing his head in mock sadness."...ally do know now. You

all know." His eyes darted briefly toward the other

council members. With one hand he tapped another

button on the signalling device he still held.with

the

other he raised his weapon, bringing it toward

Spock.

McCoy, even as he leaped to his feet, could

see Delkondros' finger tightening on the trigger.

But in the same instant, Tylmaurek, less

than a meter from the President's side, lashed out

and smashed his hand against Delkondros' wrist.

The gun fired, the bullet gouging a crater in the

wall behind Spock, missing him by inches as he

lunged forward.

Still gripping the gun, Delkondros backhanded

Tylmaurek in the chest, the force of the blow lifting the

small man from the floor and sending him

reeling backward, gasping for breath.half stunned,

he slammed into McCoy, sending them both to the

floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

Before Delkondros could level the gun again,

Spock grasped his wrist and struggled to keep the

muzzle away from his chest.two more thunderous

explosions sent slugs smashing into the floor,

scattering deadly fragments of concrete in all

directions, but then Delkondros abruptly

shifted position and snaked his other arm around

Spock's neck from behind, the forearm snapping up against

the Vulcan's chin, then pressing crushingly against the

tensed muscles of his throat.

Good Lord, he's a Klingon, too, McCoy

realized belatedly as he scrambled to get out from under

Tylmaurek's limp weight.

As Spock's feet were lifted from the floor,

leaving the Vulcan seemingly helpless in

Delkondros' iron grip, McCoy managed

to get to his own feet and get

his medikit open.finding the hypospray unit,

he searched out a vial and snapped it in as he

circled behind Delkondros.

Darting forward, McCoy depressed the

hypospray against Delkondros' muscular

neck, automatically activating it, The hypo

gave a telltale hiss, and Delkondros' head

jerked around as he tried to turn and face

McCoy.but the motion let Spock's feet

touch the floor again, giving him back the leverage he

had lost, and the two lurched suddenly sideways.

A guttural sound, almost a growl, welled up

in the President's throat, and for just an instant, he

stiffened, his arm jerking upward, snapping Spock's

head sharply backward.

An instant later the arm went limp and fell

away.

Delkondros' weapon hit the floor, followed

a moment later by Delkondros himself as he toppled

backwards, landing at McCoy's feet With a dull

thud.

"Thank you, Doctor," Spock acknowledged as

he turned and raced to the door through which the man With the

laser had come.

Slamming and bolting it, he turned back to the

crowd of milling council members while McCoy

hurried to the man Delkondros had shot."...Is

anyone able to shut off the shield Delkondros

spoke of?." Spock asked, his raised voice

noticeably hoarse from the pressure

Delkondros had applied to his throat.

"He's never even told us where the generators

are," one of them said, followed by a chorus of

affirmations.

"We didn't even know a shield existed until

he hatched this plan of his!"

"Then we had all best leave the vicinity as

quickly as possible."

"This man is dead," McCoy said, standing up from

his hasty examination of the man by the door, "and

human.but I can't leave this other one, even if

he is a Klingon!"

"We have no choice in the matter, Doctor,"

Spock said quickly, "if we are to have a chance

to survive ourvs.the two who actually fired the

laser before propelling this man through the door are also

Klingons, and they will be returning.delkondros

himself is a Klingon, and he summoned them.it is

a logical assumption that their next course of

action will be to kill everyone here, in order to keep their

presence on this world a secret."

Taking his communicator, McCoy

reluctantly followed Spock as he started toward

the door on the opposite side of the room.

"No, this wayffEveryone!"

Tylmaurek, though still out of breath from

Del-kondros' backhanded blow, was back on his

feet on the far side of the table, gesturing toward the

fire door.one of the two men who had earlier edged

away from the other council members was working With the

lock.

Glancing at his tricorder, Spock changed

direction and hurried toward the indicated door as it

came open With a loud scraping sound."...Come,

Doctor.we have only a few seconds."

Grimacing, McCoy fastened the communicator

to his belt and raced through the door after

Spock."...If we

get out of this, Spock, maybe someone'll tell

me what the blazes is going on!"

When the rest of the council members only continued

to mill around, Tylmaurek raised his voice to a

near shout."...Everyone, listen to me! Vulcans do not

lieffally've all read the information Captain Mendez

brought to us about the FederationffIf Mr.spock says

Delkondros is an alien, a Klingon, then he

is.and if he says that other Klingons are coming

to kill us all, then they areffIf you want to save

your lives, follow me, now!"

As if to emphasize his words, something

thudded against the door Spock had bolted.a moment

later the deadly sizzle of a laser galvanized

even the most skeptical of the council members

into motion.despite another call from Tylmaurek,

however, they all bolted through the door on the far

side of the room, one of them pausing long enough to snatch

up Delkondros' weapon and throw a look of dark

suspicion over his shoulder at Tylmaurek.

"No!" Tylmaurek screamed, but he could only

watch them gddabruptly, angrily, as the last man

disappeared into the hall, Tylmaurek turned and

followed Spock and McCoy and the other two

council members through the fire door.turning, he

grasped the door, struggling to close it.

But it was jammed.the hinges, despite their lack

of rust, had let the massive metal door sag

until it dragged on the cracked and uneven concrete

floor.

Spock, seeing the door was caught, jammed his

communicator onto his belt and gripped the door and

lifted.from the conference room the sounds of the

lasers working on the other door grew louder and less

muffled.a moment later one of the beams forced its way

through and began to burn a jagged furrow in the floor,

only inches from the unconscious

Delkondros.

As the remains of the door splintered and crashed

open, the fire door clanked shut and Tylmaurek

rammed home the bolt, sealing the door behind them.

They were in a huge, dimly lit warehouse,

crates of all sizes lining the walls and forming

shadowy corridors.

Tylmaurek immediately started down one of the

aisles."...This way," he said, breaking into a trot and

waving for them to follow."...We can talk once we're

safely out of here.maybe even make a plan of

some sort."

The others took off after hm.they continued through the

building for perhaps a minute, then Tylmaurek

stopped next to a low-lying wooden platform--a

loading dock of some sort, McCoy realized.

The Vancadian pressed an electronic key

against the lockpad of a small door next to the

dock, opened it, and stepped through.he darted quick

looks up and down the darkened, deserted street, then

motioned the others to follow.

"Over there," he said, pointing across the pot-holed

street at a densely wooded, park-like area.

As he was locking the door behind them, a faint

scream came from somewhere on the far side of the

building, then the muffled explosion of a projectile

weapon, and the barely audible, but unmistakable,

sizzle of lasers.tylmaurek winced, almost

dropping

the electronic key as he slipped it into his

pocket.

When he turned to race after the others, his face was

grim.

"What does your machine tell you now?" He

scowled at Spock's tricorder as they ran across

the street."...Does it know which of my friends was killed?"

Entering the wooded area, Spock paused and

looked down at his tricorder, then back up at

Tylmaurek and McCoy, who was also watching him

grimly.

"I am sorry," he said."...The only lifeforms

that register in that area now are Klingon."

Chapter Five.

I SHOULD have BEEN With THEM, Kirk thought

harshly, his eyes still fastened on the ten thousand square

kilometers of shimmering distortion that blurred

Vancadia's image on the viewscreen.

I shouldn't have given in to those two squabbling

egomaniacsffWith the three of us down there instead of just

the two-"I warned you!" Kaulidren's

grating voice penetrated the numbing shell that had

sprung up around Kirk's mind."...I told you they

were not to be trustedffationow do you understand what kind of

creatures they are"...ationow will you listen to me?"

Kirk, his teeth gritting in sudden anger, spun

to face the Premier."...I have been listening,

Premier, but in all your warnings, I heard nothing

about the existence of that shield they put up!"

Kaulidren shook his head sharply, his own anger

seeming to match Kirk's. "How could we warn you of

something we knew nothing ab"...We learned of the

shield's existence at the same time you didffBut

surely

it is not so powerful--I heard your Lieutenant

Pritchard say that it could be easily breached by your

weapons."

"Premier Kaulidren..." Kirk drew a

deep, calming breath.when he spoke again, his

voice was calmer, his tone more controlled."...We are not

here to take sides.and certainly not to kill thousands

of innocent people, which is precisely what firing our

weapons blindly through that shield would do!"

"But now that your own men have been murdered, are you

telling me, Captain, that this so-called Prime

Directive your Federation makes so much of

does not allow you even to defend yourself?."

"Of course nffBut firing a photon torpedo at

a helpless city is hardly what I'd call

defenseffThat would be the same kind of genocidal

revenge the Klingons engage in!"

"Is it revenge to exact justice wh en your own

men are killed, Captain?" Kaulidren

asked."...I tell you now that force is the only

language Delkondros and his kind understand."

"Then we'll have to teach them another," Kirk

replied simply.

"Captain, Captain..." Kaulidren shook his

head.

"I suppose I should have known better than

to hope for decisive, straightforward action--not that

I can entirely blame y.i have read the

historical accounts the El Dorado provided us

and seen examples of how your superiors treat

anyone who displays a little steel in his spine, a little

initiativeffGelken, Wenzler, Carmody..."

Kirk blinked, startled by the Premier's

words.if the names he had thrown out were truly his

idea of heroes, particularly Jason Carmody,

then the chances for a peaceful resolution between

Chyrellka and Vancadia were remote,

indeed.

Carmody, Kirk remembered With a mental

grimace, had been in command of the Chafee, a small

explorer scout in the days before the establishment of the

Neutral Zone.ignoring his subordinates'

urgings of caution, he beamed down to the surface of

Delar Seven a primitive world only parsecs from

an area of known Klingon activity.in a hurry

to check out what proved later to be false readings

indicating the presence of dilithium. He and his

crew found themselves in the middle of a pitched battle

between Klingon-sponsored forces and another native

faction, and instead of beaming out immediately, as the Prime

Directive--and just plain common sense demanded,

Carmody, when one of his party was wounded, took out his

phaser and began firing.he killed or wounded

dozens before his men could overpower him and get the entire

party beamed back to their ship.the entire crew of the

Chafee had later gone missing in space.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Premier

Kaulidren," Kirk said, "but it doesn't alter

the facts."

"Facts"...The facts are that Delkondros has

just murdered two of your men, and you propose to do

nothing about it!"

"No, Premier," Kirk snapped harshly, "the

fact is that we don't know who killed them!"

"But you heard DelkondrosffHe told you he was

holding them hostageffHe even threatened to do

exactly what he did--kill them the moment you

tried to transport them out of thereffSurely you--"

"All of that may be true," Kirk cut him

off, "but it sounded to me as if a fight of some kind was

going on when the killings occurred.what if some other

group --some of your own people, even--attacked

Delkondros? My men could have simply been

caught in the crossfire, Or, for that matter,"

Kirk added, scowling directly at Kaulidren as

a new possibility flashed into his mind, "we have

no way of knowing that it was Delkondros who took

my men captive.for all I know, it could have been

one of your own colonial officials saying he was

DelkondrosffThis whole affair could be nothing more

than a bloodthirsty charade, designed to trick us

into siding openly With you, even getting us

to retaliate against the colonists."

"You certainly can't believe something as outlandish as

that, Captain!"

If your heroes are people like Carmody, I could,

Kirk thought, but he shook his head

reluctantly."...ation at the moment, although the more you

urge us to retaliate, the more plausible the idea

becomes.so please try to understand, Premier.no

matter what you may have thought when you requested our

help, the Federation does not take sides in

non-Federation disputes, not under any

circumstances.we are not judge and jury, tempting

as the prospect might be in the present

circumstances.we are, here and now, mediators, and

that is all we are, all we can be!"

abruptly, Kirk turned toward the science

station.

"Mr.pritchard, set up a program

to monitor that shield constantly, something that will alert

both the bridge and the transporter room--and

engineering--the moment there's the slightest sign of

weakening, the slightest sign of any change at

all."

"Aye-aye, Captain."

"And as soon as you have that running, get back on

that sensor scan.i want to know every ship and every power

source in the Chyrellkan system."

"Right away, sir."

"Lieutenant Uhura, open a channel

to Starfleet.

This has to be reported, not only the deaths but the

existence of the shield and all it implies."

Acknowledging the order in a subdued voice,

Uhura worked the controls while Kirk settled

back in the command chair, bracing himself for what was

to come.

Spock's announcement that only Klingons were

alive in the area where there should have been more than a

half-dozen council members brought a stunned

silence from Tylmaurek and the others, then an angry

grimace from Tylmaurekddabruptly, he turned

and started into the heavily wooded park at a fast

jog.the others followed without objection.

As they ran, McCoy took his communicator from

his belt.the presence of Klingons made it all the

more imperative that they reach the Enterprise, even if

they themselves couldn't make it back.klingons

certainly explained why the situation between

Chyrellka and Vancadia had gone to the devil

in less than ten years, but it didn't explain why

they were here or what they hoped to accomplish. But

whatever it was, unless he or Spock could get word

back to the Enterprise and the Federation, chances were good that

they'd succeed. And having the Klingons succeed at

anything was bad news.the last time they'd

gone to the trouble of passing one of themselves off as

human, it had been in order to poison a shipload

of quadrotriticale on its way to a starving

planet they had designs on.no one knew how

many would have died if they'd succeeded in that little scheme,

McCoy thought angrily.

"McCoy to Enterprise," the doctor shouted,

flipping his communicator open as he

ran."...McCoy to Enterprise--come in,

Enterprise!"

Spock, a few paces ahead, turned his head

briefly, then called back, "Doctor, the

shield is obviously still up--and just as obviously,

it covers a far bigger area than just the building we

were in.i suggest we concentrate our efforts on

escaping, rather than" McCoy shut his communicator

in disgust and shoved it back in his belt, almost

dropping it in the process."...Dammit, Spock,

I am trying to escapeffI'm a doctor, not a

long-distance runner!"

They were still deep inside the wooded area, With no

lights ahead or beh.and he was running out of breath.

"Where are we going?" he called out."...And how much

farther is it?"

"Another hundred yards or so,"

Tylmaurek called back, sounding almost as out of

breath as McCoy, "and we'll be out of here, back

to where we left our Vehicles." There was a bitter

laugh between breaths.

"We started taking precautions so we'd have an

escape route in case the Chyrellkans found out

where we were meeting and raided us, but when

Delkondros--or whatever his Klingon name is--

hatched this hostage plot, and I couldn't talk him

out of it, the three of us--" He glanced around at the

other two fleeing council members."...The three of

us, we hatched our own little plot.^the two were going

to try to distract Delkondros while I slipped

you ou.i thought that once we were out of the building, we

would be out from under the shield and you could contact your ship,

but from what I've heard, I gather I was wrong about

that too."

"Looks like it," McCoy managed as

Tylmaurek lapsed back into heavy-breathing

silence.a few seconds later he brought them to a

stop just short of a line of evergreen-like

bushes.beyond was what could have been, except for the

softly rounded contours of the houses and the lack of

curbs, a somewhat run-down residential street

from twenty-first-century Earth.

Even the streetlights, circular glowing tubes,

were not all that different.there were, however, no people out

for evening strolls, though the weather, clear and dry, was

inviting.a single vehicle, a dark gray, almost

silent hovercraft, hissed by, and when it was gone,

Tylmaurek gestured them forward through an opening in the

line of bushes.

"The Chyrellkan curfew isn't for another

hour," Tylmaurek said, beginning to get his breath

back, "but no need to take chances."

"But what are we going to do?" the younger of the other

two surviving council members finally asked, almost

plaintively."...Delkondros and the Chyrellkans

I can deal With, but these aliens--"

"There is a house," Tylmaurek said, giving

them an address."...It's another precaution I was

taking, like the escape route.no one else knows about

it, not Delkondros or any of the other council

members, so it should be safe--unless the aliens have

machines like these tricorders," he added, glancing

questioningly at Spock.

"I have no way of being positive,

Councilman, but I do not believe they would have

anything comparable.

Even if they did, they would almost

certainly not be able to use them to locate and identify

specific individuals."

"That's a relief," Tylmaurek said."...From the

way you and Delkondros were talking back there, I

was beginning to think they were pure magic, and we have enough

trouble without worrying about t.for one thing,

Delkondros knows the names we've been using since

we were forced underground, even knows where we've been

living." He paused, grimacing. "I should have

killed him, I can see that now, but it's too late.

Dr.mcCoy, how long before he wakes up from

whatever you did to him?"

"I never used that on a Klingon before, so it's

hard to tell.he could be awake already, or it could be

another hour."

"Then we'd better hurry.we will be safest at

that house until we can decide what to do, make some

kind of plans.however," he went on to the other two

council members, "the two of you have families to be

concerned about." He paused and turned again to the two from

the Enterprise.

"You know more about these Klingons than I d.i read

about them in the Federation histories you'v e given us, but

that's all.what will they d"...Will they try to track us

down?"

"What they will do depends on their numbers and their

resources," Spock said, "as well as on their

reasons for being here.once they realize you have

escaped, however, I would not discount the possibility

that they would indeed go to your homes and wait for you

to return.nor would it be at all out of character for them

to take your families hostage in an attempt

to force you to give yourselves up."

"And if you did give yourself up," McCoy added

darkly, "they'd most likely kill you and your

families.

I wouldn't put anything past them.life, even

Klingon life, doesn't mean much to them, unless

it's their own.

Winning, that's all that matters to them.and to a

Klingon, the winner is the one who's still alive at the

end."

The two men paled."...They would do such things?

Threaten our families?" the younger man gasped.

"It is entirely possible," Spock said.

More than just possible, McCoy thought, suddenly

realizing that Klingons were even more alien to these people than

to himself or Spock.the history of

Chyrellka wasn't filled With the kind of

villains, the Hitlers and the Genghis

Khans, that would prepare them for the Klingons.they had

been at peace for at least two centuries, so even

for these men, who had just seen several of their friends

killed, it was hard to believe just how far the Klingons

would go, that they would go after totally innocent bystanders

if it suited their purpose.

"If I were you," McCoy said, his voice soft

but intense, "I'd get home as quickly as possible

and get your families to that safe house of

Tylmaurek's--before Delkondros wakes up and

tells his assassination squad where you live."

"He's right," Tylmaurek said when the two still

hesitated, turning their shocked, questioning faces toward

him."...Go while you still have the chance."

abruptly, the two men turned and raced down the

street in opposite directions.

"Let's go," Tylmaurek said, starting across the

street."...My own vehicle is just around the corner."

He shivered."...The sooner I get out of sight, the

better I'll feel."

As Spock and McCoy followed Tylmaurek

along the sidewalkless street, the whine of a

hovercraft starting up came from a block behind them,

then the hiss as it moved away.a moment later the

same sounds came from the other

direction.then Tylmaurek was punching the combination

on the keypad lock of a dark green hovercraft and

motioning them inside.

He was silent as the vehicle, which was even

quieter inside than out, lifted on its cushion of

air and

darted off down the street.after several

seconds Tylmaurek glanced toward them, and

McCoy could see the pain and confusion in the man's

eyes."...I guess I have to accept the fact that

Klingons are here," he said, shaking his head, "but

why"...What are they doing here?"

"Causing trouble, obviously!" McCoy

snapped.

"But what could they possibly want from u"...We're

nowhere near their technological level, so they can't

be after our k.and if they wanted to steal our raw

material-- We don't even have outposts in three

quarters of the land on Vancadia.they could land almost

anywhere out there, and we'd never even know they existed,

let alone be able to figure out a way to stop them."

He shook his head again."...To g to this much trouble, they have

to have a reason.don't they?"

"You'd think so," McCoy said With a grimace,

"but I wouldn't bet my life on x.at

least, not any reason any of us would

recognize.i've said it before, and I'll say it

again, Klingons do things for no more reason than sheer

Klingon cussedness.hell, I've always thought that was

the only reason that other bunch had for stirring up

trouble on Neural. After all, what did they

really get out of x"...Even if they'd been left

alone, what would they have gotten out of it--besides the

pleasure of watching a couple of once-peaceful

tribes slaughter each other!"

"It is difficult to say, Doctor," Spock

said when McCoy subsided into a gloomy

silence."...However, whatever their purpose on

Neural may have been, it

would appear at first glance that their pattern of

behavior here in the Chyrellkan system is generally

similar." Briefly, Spock went on to explain

for Tylmaurek's benefit how the Klingons had

given advanced weapons to one tribe and then

encouraged it to make war on another.

"The shield," McCoy muttered when Spock

paused, "the Klingons gave them the shield."

"Precisely, Doctor.tylmaurek, what do

you know of this shield"...Did Delkondros claim to have

invented it?"

Tylmaurek glanced over his shoulder at the

Vulcan, then shook his head. "He never said

specifically.he didn't tell anyone about

it--didn't tell me, at least--until he came

up With this harebrained scheme of his.

And he said virtually nothing about it even then,

except that it would be ready to operate "when it was

needed.""

"He gave you no specific information at all,

Councilman?

Not its size"...Its range"...Who was constructing the

generator"...How much power it required"...ationothing at

all?"

"Not a thing.but since I told him what I

thought of his plan and started trying to do something

to counteract it, we haven't confided in each other

all that much.i didn't tell him about the

precautions I was taking, and he didn't tell me

much of anything except how his plan was supposed

to work."

"What about what he said when he took our

communicators?"

McCoy asked."...About how the shield

took more power than you could afford, so it would have to be

shut down before long?"

"I know nothing about that, either."

"Looks like he was lying, in any event,"

McCoy commented, "which shouldn't be that surprising."

During McCoy's last question and answer, Spock

had taken out his communicator and tried again to raise

the Enterprise.once again he failed, but this time,

instead of returning the device to his belt, he

turned it over, removed the back, and studied it

briefly.finally, he closed it and returned it

to his belt and transferred his attention to his

tricorder.

"If I am not mistaken, Councilman," the

Vulcan said after a moment of studying the readouts,

"the source of power for this city is nuclear fusion.the

generating plant is located approximately

fifteen kilometers due north, is that

correct?"

Tylmaurek frowned but didn't take his eyes

from the street."...That's right.how did you know?"

"It registers quite clearly on the tricorder,"

Spock explained."...What is puzzling is the fact

that I can find no indication of the existence of an energy

shield of any kind."

A sudden burst of hope surged through McCoy.

"Maybe they finally shut it down!" he

muttered as he snatched his communicator from his belt

and snapped it open."...Or it blew a fuse.

McCoy to Enterprise.mcCoy

to Enterprise.-every in."

But there was no answer.

The momentary elation was gone as quickly as it had

come."...Maybe my communicator is damaged," he

said, still not ready to give up entirely."...Spock,

what about--"

"No, Doctor, according to the tricorder, it is

functioning precisely as it was designed to d.the

problem is obviously elsewhere, perhaps even on the

Enterprise."

"The Enterprise"...What could be wrong there?"

"Since I am not there, I could not say."

Suddenly McCoy's mind was racing."...If the

Klingons are involved--look, Spock, what if

the Klingons have come up With some new type of

shield, something that doesn't show up on the

tricorder?"

"That, too, is of course a possibility.it

does not, however, suggest a solution to our current

problem."

"It would at least mean that the problem was down here,

not on the Enterprise.and we could try

driving like the devil away from here. Maybe we could

get out of the shield's range."

"Which would have to wait until tomorrow in any case,"

Tylmaurek said, "unless you want to be stopped for

curfew violation."

Spock's reply was cut off by a beeping sound

and a small flashing light on the control panel of the

hovercraft.

Tylmaurek frowned and reached for a switch next

to the light.

"What now?" he muttered and then went on

to explain."...That means the government--the Chyrellkan

colonial government has taken over all

broadcasts, and they have a message for us."

By the time Tylmaurek had finished speaking, a

pair of tiny screens--one in the front next to the

still-blinking light, one embedded in the back of the

front seat--lit up.

"Must be really urgent," Tylmaurek said,

frowning.

"They usually don't put video on signals

going to vehicles in motion."

A sharp-faced man in a dark uniform With small

patches of the green-and-red Chyrellkan colors on

the sleeves appeared.

"The planetary governor," Tylmaurek said

disgustedly.

"His name is Ulmar."

"Citizens of Vancadia," the governor

began, bringing an even more pained expression

to Tylmaurek's face, "I come to you today With

information that could mean life or death for.both of our

worlds.

However, because I am not unaware of the ill feeling

that many of you harbor toward the Chyrellkan

colonial administration, I will not deliver this

information myfffThere must be no possibility that the

message will be dismissed because of your mistrust of the

messenger.it is too vital for t.therefore, I

will allow the man who brought the information to my attention

to present it."

The governor paused, glancing to one side, and for the

first time his facade of official calmness slipped,

letting a flash of jangling nervousness show in his

eyes and in a momentary twitch of his lips.

Then he was facing the camera again."...Citizens of

Vancadia, the President of the Vancadian

Independence Council."

The screen flared into blankness for a moment, then

steadied as the governor's face was

replaced by that of Delkondros.

"I urge every one of you to listen to me, to believe

me," Delkondros" image on the tiny

hovercraft screens began without preamble."...I have

given up my freedom to bring this message to y.it

is that important. To get Governor Ulmar

to listen to me, to get him to allow me to make this

broadcast, I had to give myself up.what I have

to say is that important, that vital!"

He paused, swallowing in a fair approximation

of a nervous human."...As you all know," he resumed,

"the Chyrellkans some time ago requested the help

of the Federation in resolving the disputes that have recently

developed between our worlds.at one time, I had hoped

that once here, the Federation representatives might

actually listen not only to the Chyrellkans who had

summoned them, but to u.now, however, it has become

obvious that that hope was impossibly naive, even

more naive than many of your own hopes that Chyrellka

would one day treat Vancadia fairly.but we

are not the only victims of that naivete."

He paused again, as if to get his thoughts back on

track from his brief digression."...The Federation's

help has arrived.a Federation vessel took up

orbit around Chyrellka only hours

ago.we have no way of knowing what it is doing

there.all communications With Chyrellka were cut off

within minutes of its arrival, and neither I nor the

governor has been able to reestablish contact.we

do, however, know that a Federation vessel is now

orbiting Vancadia.it may be the same

vessel, or it may be a second one.but that is

not important.what is important is that we do

know what the personnel of that vessel have done.we have

seen the kind of "help" the Federation has sent

us."

abruptly, Delkondros' face vanished,

replaced by a view of the room .spock and

McCoy had escaped f.the body of the other

Klingon council member lay where it had fallen, but

the body of the man who had been thrust into the room

With the laser pistol in his hand was gone.

But that was only the beginning.seven more council

members lay scattered about the floor, along With

three other men that neither Spock nor McCoy

recognized.

All were obviously victims of laser fire.

"How did they get there?" Tylmaurek almost

gasped.

"Who are they?" Spock asked as the

camera lingered on the bodies.

"Chyrellkans," Tylmaurek said

disbelievingly.

"Chyrellkan colonial supervisors, two of

them from the governor's personal staff "This is the

"help" the Federation has given Vancadia,"

Delkondros resumed."...I am sure you will

recognize members of both the Independence

Council and the governor's staff.a meeting was being

held, on neutral ground, between some of our council

members and people from the governor's staff, people With whom

we have been keeping in secret contact since we were

declared criminals.it was the first meeting, however, the

first real truce between us in more than a year, and it was

held because of the arrival of the Federation vessel.we

hoped, all of Delkondros broke off, shaking his

head in another good approximation of how a human

behaves under stress."...I can't remember what we

hoped for," he said, his voice suddenly intense, "but

what the Federation sent was an assassination team

responsible for the slaughter you have just seenffThese men,

mark their faces well!"

For another instant Delkondros' face

remained on the screen, but then it was replaced by a

pair of obviously computer-generated

images, side by side.

Presumably based on Delkondros'

memory, they were not quite perfect in a dozen tiny

ways.coloring was just a shade off.shapes of

noses, chins and ears were subtly distorted, their

expressions coldly menacing.

But there was no mistaking the faces of Spock and

McCoy.

Chapter Six.

"PERHAPS ANOTHER SHIP should take over the

mission, Jim." Admiral Brady's weathered

face filled the screen."...We could have a replacement

under way within twenty-four hours."

"No, thank you, Admiral.i prefer to see it

through myself."

"I know you do, Jim, but under the circumstances-was

"Under the circumstances, Admiral," Kirk

said, his voice tight, "it is my responsibility

and no one else's.

If you doubt my ability to remain objective,

you can order me to leave, but that is the only way I

will go."

Brady's image studied Kirk silently for

several seconds.finally he nodded."...There was a time

when I might have," he said quietly, "but

not anymore.keep us informed.i will notify Sarek

and Amanda.and Commander McCoy's daughter.what

is her name, Jim?"

"Joanna.but don't do it yet,

Admiral."

"Why n"...Do you wish to do it yourself?."

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do." Truth

be told, he couldn't bear the thought of anyone else

delivering the news.but it wasn't only that.

"Admiral..."

"What is it, Jim?" Brady asked when

Kirk didn't continue."...Is there any doubt that they

were killed?"

Kirk swallowed."...ation really, sir, but--"

"I understand.until you actually see the bodies,

there is always room for doubt.very well.when you are

satisfied, you will notify the survivors.in the

meantime I will order a review of the records of

all contacts With non-Federation worlds for other

evidence of external influence, Klingon or

otherwise."

"There is other evidence here, Admiral," said

Kaulidren, unwillingly silent until now."...ationow

that I have heard you and Captain Kirk speak of these

Klingons and their disruptive ways, I can

see it."

Kirk turned sharply to the Chyrellkan."...What

evidence, Kaulidren? Something other than the

shield?"

Kaulidren nodded emphatically."...ally were interested

in causes of the current state of affairs between our

worlds, Captain.well, I will now tell you one of the

chief things that drove us apart--the Vancadians'

apparent invention of an improved interplanetary

drive."

"But wouldn't a better drive have just the opposite

effect?" Kirk asked, frowning."...It should make it

easier to travel between the planets, easier to keep

in touch."

"If we had discovered it," he said, "that is what

would have happened. But we didn't.the Vancadians

did.or were given it by these Klingons of yours.in

any event, this discovery is what made it necessary for us

to place surveillance ships in orbit around

Vancadia."

"Explain, Premier," Kirk said With a frown

as Kaulidren paused.

"It's quite simple.as I'm sure you know, we

use shuttles to get into and out of orbit.all

interplanetary flights are made in ships

built in Chyrellka's orbital factory.or

they were until four years ago, when someone on

Vancadia developed an improved drive of some

kind.it enabled them to reach Chyrellka in a single

ship, little larger than our own shuttles.and they could

make the trip in a matter of hours, not the days that

it took--still takes--our own ships."

"And why did this make the surveillance ships

necessary?" Brady asked impatiently when

Kaulidren paused again.

"Because the Vancadians used their ships to try

to destroy our capability to reach Vancadia at

all," Kaulidren said angrily."...This was when

Delkondros was agitating for instant independence,

so I can only assume he decided to make sure

they achieved x.if we were physically cut off from

Vancadia, he assumed we would have to let them go,

so that is precisely what he tried to d.first he

attacked and destroyed a fleet of our own

interplanetary vessels.until that happened, we

hadn't even known that these improved ships existed.and

at almost the same time, a second of his ships

attacked our factory satellite.by sheer

luck

something went wrong With the new drive, and the

Vancadian ship destroyed itself before it could do more

than minor damage to our factory."

"And since then?" Kirk prompted.

"Since then we have managed to regain control of the

situation.we haven't been able, obviously, to rid

ourselves of Delkondros, but we have at least driven

him and his terrorists underground.but we were

lucky.if Delkondros hadn't been overeager

to use his first two ships, I don't know what would have

happened.but he did use them.he was too

impatient to wait ten years for the promised

independence, and he was too impatient to wait for the

new drive to be perfected.he attacked, and lost

his only two fully operational ships.and before he

could launch more, we were able to arm several of our own

ships and put them in orbit about Vancadia.in

effect, we put a lid on hm.even so, he

attempted three more launches in the following months

--and not just remote-controlled ships like the one today--but

we were able to shoot them down before they achieved

orbit.and then even he realized he was beaten, and

he quit."

"And you're sure the ships you shot down were

equipped With the improved drive"...And were armed?"

"We couldn't be positive, of course,

not without sensors such as yours." Kaulidren glanced

toward the science station."...But we couldn't take

chances.surely you can see t.if those ships had

been allowed to escape Vancadia's gravity

well, their power and maneuverability would have made

them exceedingly

dangerous.that first one destroyed a half dozen

of our own ships before we were able to down x.we

obviously can't allow that to happen again."

"And who was responsible for developing this

improved drive?" Kirk asked.

Kaulidren shook his head With a scowl."...They, of

course, have never told u.delkondros has even

denied its existence, not only to us, but to the

Vancadians themvs.he tells them we made it

all up so we would have a reason for keeping tighter

control on their shuttle flights.and for denying them

their independence.we have, however, been able to ferret out

some rumors regarding the drive's origin."

"And those rumors...?"

"That one of their scientists, one trained on

Chyrellka more than a decade ago, developed the

theory behind the improvement.but this so-called

inventor was co nveniently killed in an early test

flight.

His notes were said to have survived, and others were able

to complete his work.all this, of course, happened long

before we put our surveillance ships in orbit, so

we have no way of knowing what part, if any, is

true."

"This scientist was someone known to you?"

"Not personally, of course.at the moment I

don't even remember his name, but I do remember that

we checked his academic record at the

Chyrellkan university where he studied.he was

near the bottom of his class in almost everything.it was

definitely not the record you would expect of someone

who was going to make a major scientific

discovery."

"But he did," Kirk said when Kaulidren

fell silent, "and you therefore assume he had

help."

"Now that I know that such help may have been

available to him, yes.it would appear to be the only

reasonable explanation."

"Does a sensor scan of the system show anything,

Jim?" Brady broke in from Starfleet

Headquarters.

"Nothing, Admiral.other than the Enterprise,

there are no ships within sensor range

capable of warp drive, nor are there any

antimatter power sources."

"And none could be concealed by the shield itself?."

"No, Admiral.the shield would prevent us from

precisely locating such things, even from getting

reliable technical data about them, but I'm

confident it isn't blocking our sensors completely

enough to conceal the very existence of an antimatter power

generator or a warp drive engine. We are able,

for example, to detect a nuclear fusion power

generator somewhere under the shield.all we do not know

are its precise size and location."

"I see." Brady was silent a moment, then

nodded almost imperceptibly. "It is your

evaluation, then, that while Klingons may have intervened

on these worlds in the recent past, they have since

withdrawn?"

"Or are lying low while we're in the vicinity,"

Kirk acknowledged."...We have no way of knowing if

individual Klingons--or other aliens, for that

matter--are still present and active."

"But I trust your first priority will be to find out,

one way or the other."

"Of course, Admiral."

"Very well, Jim.carry on.and

remember--help is available if you decide it

is needed."

"I understand, Admiral.thank you."

"Keep us informed," Brady said brusquely,

and a moment later the screen went blank.

Kirk turned to Kaulidren."...Premier

Kaulidren," he said quietly, "if Klingons

gave the Vancadians the shield and the improved

drive, they may have given them m.they may be giving

them more even now, including something that would allow them

to knock out your so-called surveillance ships from the

ground.

So I would advise you, Premier, to tell us

everything, not just the alleged terrorist activities the

Vancadians have been engaging in.if there really

is Klingon involvement here, what's happened so far

could be only the opening act."

"These are the ones responsible for the slaughter you have

just seen," Delkondros repeated harshly as

Spock's and McCoy's features continued to be

displayed on the tiny screens."...They appeared in our

midst and began shooting, without warning, without

reason.i somehow managed to escape, I still don't

know how."

Delkondros paused, as if needing

to calm himself and collect his thoughts before going on, but

during the silence, three new faces appeared.this

time they were photographs, not computer-generated

images.

Tylmaurek, still at the controls of the

hovercraft, gasped as he recognized his own

face and those of the other two surviving council

members.

"And these are their collaborators,"

Delkondros' voice continued, "the traitors who

led them to uffWe don't know how long those three have

been in communication With the Federation.nor can we be

certain what the Federation promised them for their help,

nor even what the Federation hopes to gain by this

bloodthirsty behavior.the fact that they have

slaughtered half the council--as well as members

of the governor's staffmhowever, suggests very strongly that

they plan to murder all leaders on both sides and

put Federation puppets in their places."

The words stopped.delkondros' face

reappeared on the screen.

"Obviously, their work is not done," he resumed

grimly."...I can only assume there are more killings

planned, many more, including my own and the

governor's.that is why I am telling

you th.^the killers are still hereffThe Federation's

assassination squad and their collaborators are still

on Vancadia, very likely here in our capital

city, going calmly about their business.they must be

stopped!"

Again the five faces appeared."...These are the

ones," Delkondros repeated."...Watch for them but do

not approach them, not under any circumstances, not if

you value your lifeffContact the authorities, and

they will handle them."

Delkondros fell silent, but the faces

remained on the screen.after a few seconds their

names appeared beneath their faces, and then, in a narrow

band across the top of the screen, appeared a condensed

version of

the warning Delkondros had just given, telling

anyone who saw any of these people to notify the

governor's office.after another minute the

governor reappeared, and the whole process began

again, apparently the beginning of an endless loop that would

continue until Spock and McCoy and their

"collaborators" were captured or, more likely,

shot on sight.

"This changes everything," Tylmaurek said

weakly.

"The house I was taking you to won't be safe, not

after that mass of lies.someone's sure to have seen me

there, and they don't have any reason not to believe-was

He shook his head, his expression one of disbelief.

"It's like Valdreson said--the Chyrellkans

I can deal With, but this--look, Spock,

Dr.mcCoy, you've dealt With these Klingons before,

haven't y"...Do you have any ideas?"

"If you mean, Councilman," Spock said, "do

I have any suggestions as to a specific course of

action that would extricate us from our current

situation, I do n.you would yourself appear to be in a

better position than I to analyze the situation,

since a thorough knowledge of the local people is likely to be

more useful toward that end than would be a similar knowledge of

Klingons.however, I would point out that, based on the

story Delkondros concocted and on his strident

warnings that the five of us are to be avoided at all

costs, it is logical to assume that one of his

goals, in addition to capturing or killing us, is

to keep us from talking to anyone in the meantime.that, in

turn, suggests that he fears we would reveal the

truth of the situation and that there is at least a chance we

would be believed."

McCoy brightened, then nodded as he

turned back to Tylmaurek."...I hadn't thought of it

quite like that, but Spock's right.but right now the first

order of business is to get out of sight and stay

alive until we can figure out a way to either

contact the Enterprise or talk to someone down here

without getting shot full of holes." He glanced

around at the street, which was deserted except for an

occasional parked vehicle.he had seen only four

moving vehicles since they had emerged from the park.

"And if we're the only car on the road, staying out

of sight won't be easy.is it like this everywhere?"

"Probably," Tylmaurek acknowledged With a

shudder.

"And if it isn't, it will be in a few

minutes.the governor's curfew--it's been in

effect for more than a month, ever since his oldest

son was killed by a bomb probably meant for

hm.very few people even dare to leave their homes after

dark.no, we have to get off the streets or we

won't have to be turned in.the governor's nightly

sweeps will get us."

McCoy groaned and gave his communicator one

more try."...ally'd better find us a bolt hole

pretty soon, Councilman," he said as he

flipped it shut."...There must be someone you can

trust."

Tylmaurek shook his head bleakly."...At this

point I have no idea whether there is or n.ten

minutes ago I could have named a hundred people, but after

that broadcast...ally could be right about Delkondros

being afraid we'll talk to someone, but that doesn't

help me figure out who we'd have the best chance

approaching."

"As a starting point, Councilman," Spock

said, "who in authority do you know who is definitely

not a Klingon?"

"How should I know"...I didn't even suspect

Delkondros, and I've known him for years, ever

since he was elected to the Council!"

"There are a number of logical criteria you could

apply," Spock went on. "First, is the person

someone who has a family that is still living? Does

the governor, for example, have more family beyond the

son you said was killed?"

"Two other sons and a daughter.and a

wife.but does that mean he's definitely not a

Klingon?"

"Nothing is one hundred percent certain,

Councilman, but it is an indication.another

indication would be the manner in which he was

elected."

"He wasn't elected, he was appointed--almost

fifteen years ago.but what does the way someone

is elected have to do With whether or not he could be a

Klingon?"

"Based on what both Delkondros and

Kaulidren said to the captain, it is my understanding that

Delkondros was first elected to the Council

following the murder of his chief opponent."

"But that was done by the Chyrellkans,"

Tylmaurek objected."...They've been conducting a

campaign of--" Tylmaurek broke off, his mouth

dropping open.

"So that how they did it!" he said harshly."...They

put Delkondros up and killed the only other

candidate who had a chance of beating him!"

"Their operations are probably more sophisticated

than that," Spock said, "but I suspect that in

essence, that is precisely what they did. May

I assume there are a number of other similar

instances?"

"At least a hundred in the last five years!"

Tylmaurek shook his head."... In fact, all

those deaths, the poisonings--they were one of the reasons

we wanted you to come down here.we had always

thought--had always been told--that the Chyrellkans were

responsible, that it was their way of making sure that people

they didn't approve of didn't get elected!

But it must have been the Klingons who were doing all the

killing! Unless--Could these Klingons have formed an

alliance With the Chyrellkans"...Could they be working

together"...Could that whole story about Delkondros giving

himself up to the governor be a sham?"

"It is a possibility to be considered,"

Spock admitted, "particularly in light of the

remarkable speed With which Delkondros' supposed

surrender was accomplished."

Tylmaurek blinked."...ally're right.i would've

seen it myself if I--if I'd been thinking instead of

going into a panic over the lies he was telling about

u.there wouldn't have been time for--" Tylmaurek

broke off, his eyes widening."...Could Governor

Ulmar himself be a Klingon after all?"

"Anything is possible, Councilman," Spock

said, "but it is more likely, considering other

factors, that he, like yourself, has simply been

taken in by them."

"What about the Chyrellkan government?"

McCoy asked abruptly."...What about

Kaulidren?"

"It is, of course, possible he is a

Klingon, Doctor, but highly unlikely.it would

be foolhardy for even the most human-appearing

Klingon to willingly board the Enterprise.it would

take only the most rudimentary of sensor scans

to reveal his true nature, just as Delkondros'

true nature was instantly apparent to a simple

tricorder scan."

"What's foolhardy for a Vulcan might make

perfect sense to a Klingon, Spock," McCoy

retorted."...Any race that considers assassination

to be an acceptable --an admired method of career

advancement is a race that has its bolts snugged

down a little too tight for its own good!"

"I cannot disagree With your colorful metaphor,

Doctor," Spock said, glancing once again at the

deserted streets the hovercraft was speeding through.

"However, it does nothing toward finding a solution

to our current predicament.councilman, have you yet

been able to think of someone who would trust you enough to give

you a hearing?"

"There are Several I'm almost certain aren't

Klingons, but after that broadcast--" He broke

off, shaking his head."...After that broadcast, if I

didn't know the truth, I wouldn't trust

even me."

Chapter Seven.

AFTER TWO HOURS in the briefing room With

Kaulidren, Kirk was convinced that Klingons were

indeed involved in events on Vancadia.

But belief was one thing, proof another.the mere

existence of anomalous technological advances,

even major ones, did not prove that those advances were

the result of off-world interference, let alone the

result specifically of Klingon interference.there

were such things as home-grown geniuses.and the sudden

eruption of hostilities between previously friendly

factions certainly wasn't evidence of off-world

interference.

Several millennia of history on Earth and

dozens of other class-M planets had proven--

a thousand times over--that seemingly intelligent beings

were quite capable of getting into fights at all levels,

from interpersonal to interplanetary, With no outside

help whatsoever.

And even if there were proof-With a grimace, Kirk

remembered the thoroughly

unsatisfactory conclusion to the Neural

affair.regardless of their good intentions, the Federation

had, of necessity, descended to the

Klingons' level and given the same kinds of

weapons to the Hill People as the Klingons had given

to their enemies.

Nothing remotely similar could be allowed

to happen here, not at these technological levels,

no matter how happy it would make Kaulidren

to get his hands on something that would match or surpass

what the Vancadians had probably--already been

given.

"You don't have to give us the actual weapons,"

Kaulidren persisted, "only the information.we can do

the rest for ourselves."

"Impossible," Kirk said flatly."...The

result would be the same, in any event."

"The result would be," Kaulidren said

angrily, "we would at least have a chance

to surviveffIf you won't protect us even now--"

He paused, shaking his head.

"Since these Klingons of yours have given the

Vancadians the shield and the improved drive,"

he went on, "what's to stop them from giving them

phasers"...Or photon torpedoes?"

"Probably very little," Kirk admitted, "as

long as the Vancadians are willing to accept and

use such things."

Kaulidren snorted."...And why shouldn't they be?

Who in their right mind would turn down power like that if

it was offered to them?"

"Someone who didn't need it!" Kirk snapped.

"Are you suggesting, Captain, that the current

situation is our fault"...I would remind you that the first

thing the Vancadians did With their improved drive

was attack uffFor no reason whatsoever!"

"I understand t.however, they must have thought they had a

reason."

"Of course they didffInstant independenceffI

told you that virtually the moment I came on board!

Delkondros had just been elected to the

Council, and this was his way of moving upffTo bbcoming

President!

These Klingons of yours must have worked through hm.he was

obviously willing to do virtually anything to winffIt

would not surprise me the least bit to learn that he was

responsible for the death of his major opponent in the

election, the one he accused us of murderingffThe one

whose death he used in his campaign to stir up

sentiment against us!"

Breathing heavily, Kaulidren paused to calm

himself before going on. "If your Klingons were lurking

about, monitoring our communications and

broadcasts, that is all they would need to know.they would

know Delkondros was a perfect target for

them.all they would have to do is offer him the drive.and

once he had his hands on that, all he would have to do--

all he did do was manufacture some lies about

u.he blamed us for a half-dozen riots that he

probably started hmf.he blamed us for one death

after another, most of which were either accidental or his own

doing.then he started rumors about how we had changed

our minds and were going to go back on our word about

granting their independence on schedule!

And then he produced this improved drive you say

the Klingons gave him and said, "HereffThis will get us

our independence, not ten years from now or a hundred

years from now, but now!""

"Assuming that's what happened, Premier,"

Kirk said, "it's all the more reason not to give you and

your world the same weapons the Vancadians h.we

have to stop this--this escalation, not light the fuse that

makes it explode into an all-out war!"

"After what that madman did to your men, you can still

talk like that?"

Kirk swallowed away the ache that momentarily

gripped his throat at the reminder."...In the first

place," he explained deliberately,

"we still don't know what really happened down

there.even without the probability that Klingons are

involved, anything is possible.

And With Klingons--possibly With one or more of

them down there right now--whatever happened to my men

was, directly or indirectly, the doing of those

Klingons.even granting that Delkondros was ripe

to be corrupted by them, or that he was already corrupt

and was only made more powerful by the Klingons, what about

everyone else"...ally're surely not saying that all

Vancadians--all the Vancadians who would be

killed if we gave you the weapons you want--

deserve to die?"

"Of course nffBut if it comes to a choice between their

deaths and our own, I'm certainly not going to choose

oursffAnd it will come to that, if Delkondros gets more

help, if he gets phasers and photon

torppedoes.

to mount on the ships the Klingons have already given

hmffWith phasers, he could bring down our

surveillance ships, the only things that are keeping

him in checkffWith one photon torpedo, he could

destroy our orbital manufacturing stationffWith a

few more, he could destroy our world!"

Kirk shook his head sadly."...ationei world

has to be destroyed, Premier. Instead of trying

to counteract the Klingon weapons With Federation

weapons, we have to counteract them With the truth."

"And how do you propose to get that truth to anyone

on Vancadia"...Their shield is still up, and they have

refused to communicate With you since they murdered your

men!" abruptly, Kaulidren stood up from the

briefing room table."...Further discussion is

obviously pointless, Captain.i therefore insist that

I be allowed to return to Chyrellka.i have been out

of touch With my government for too long already."

Kirk scowled."...Are you so eager to throw away

lives, that you won't make the least effort to save

them?"

"I have made an effort.you have made an effort,

an effort that has already cost two lives.cctinue

to make efforts and lose lives as long as you wish,

but do so without me.i demand you return me to my

world!"

Kirk's scowl darkened for a moment, but then he

sighed."...Very well, Premier.we will continue our

mediation as best we can without y.a shuttlecraft will

be available to transport you and your advisors

whenever you're ready."

"A shuttlecraft"...But my own ship--"

"--Is incapable of covering the distance between here and

Chyrellka unaided, and I am not prepared at this

time to take the Enterprise out of orbit around

Vancadia in order to transport x.it will be

delivered to you later, once the situation here is

resolved.

Meanwhile, you can collect whatever you will need from

your ship."

"CaptainffThat is unacceptableffI demand--"

"I'm sorry, Premier, but for the time being, the

Enterprise remains in orbit around Vancadia."

"And how long do you intend to keep up this useless

observation, Captain"...If you refuse to use your

weapons, I fail to see what purpos e you hope

to serve."

"For the time being, we will continue to try to open

communications With Delkondros or anyone else

we can reach on Vancadia.and we will hope that either

the shield comes down or we find a way

to neutralize it so we can do a reliable sensor

scan of the planet."

For a long moment Kaulidren stood facing

Kirk, his fists clenching. Then, abruptly, he

turned and stalked toward the briefing room door, his

silent entourage of advisors

following.kirk gestured at the security ensign

by the door."...Ensign Carlucci will escort you."

"We can find our way to the hangar deck without your

assistance!" Kaulidren snapped.

"As you wish, Premier."

A moment later the door hissed shut behind them.

"Hangar deck security," Kirk said into the

intercom.

"Yes, Captain," Lieutenant Shanti's

voice came back instantly.

"The Premier and his people are on their way down.they

will be collecting whatever they need from their ship and

transferring it to a shuttlecraft, which will

transport them to Chyrellka.give them whatever

help they need."

"Of course, Captain."

"Assign two of your people to the shuttlecraft,

Lieutenant, one to pilot it, one to...observe

them."

"Yes, sir.brickston and Spencer."

Kirk nodded to himself in agreement.brickston had

a near-photographic memory, and Spencer would

easily outbulk Kaulidren's massive guard,

still standing statue-like at the head of the Chyrellkan

shuttle's steps."...Keep me informed,

Lieutenant.i'm on my way to the bridge."

"Aye-aye, sir."

The turbolift doors had barely hissed open

on the bridge, when Lieutenant Pritchard's

excited voice announced "CaptainffThe shield

is down!

"Transporter room!" Kirk snapped

instantly, but before he had completed the words, Kyle

was on the intercom.

"Ready, Captain, but--" A brief pause,

then an audible exhalation."...But there's nothing to lock

on

"Lieutenant Pritchard!" Kirk snapped,

hurrying to the command chair. "The sensors--"

"Scanning, sir, but there's nothing at the

original beam-down coordinates, no lifeform

readings at all.

And no communicators anywhere."

Kirk nodded, and sank slowly back into the command

chair, his eyes sweeping across the suddenly hostile

image of the planet on the viewscreen.

No matter what logic told him, he

realized, he had not totally given up hope--

until that moment.he had admitted as much when he

had asked Admiral Brady to delay

notification of survivors.as long as the shield

had been up, there had been a possibility, no

matter how small, that Spock and Bones were on the

other side, undetected, and still alive.

But no more.

"Sir..." That was Uhura behind him, and he heard

the catch in her voice before he turned and saw the

mist in her eyes."...ationo activity on normal

subspace frequencies."

Kirk nodded, struggling to maintain his own

composure.

This was not the time.spock would have been offended by any

lapse in efficiency due to human emotion, even

when that emotion was the result of his own death, and

McCoy...

"Any indication of a shield generator,

Lieutenant Pritchard?" Kirk asked, clearing

his throat.his voice sounded strained to his ears.

"Nothing detectable, sir."

"No smaller areas still shielded"...Particularly at

a point near the center of the shielded area?"

"No, sir, nothing.not even any residual

indications of massive power usage.and no

indications of the presence of antimatter.the only

major power sources within the shielded area

are a pair of stations receiving broadcast power from

orbital solar power satellites and a nuclear

fusion plant several kilometers north of the

beam-down coordinates, nowhere near the center of the

area."

"Could these have generated the power for the shield we've

seen?"

"Not for the length of time the shield was in existence,

sir."

"Lieutenant, are you telling me that the shield

that's been covering ten thousand square kilometers

can't have existed, that it was an illusion?"

"I--" Pritchard looked momentarily flustered,

then collected himself. He shrugged

helplessly."...ationo, sir.it's just that--that our

sensors don't provide an explanation for it."

Don't take it out on the kid, Jim.kirk

could almost hear McCoy chiding hm.he managed a

wan smile and nodded at Pritchard."...Keep

looking anyway." He swiveled again in the command

chair."...Lieutenant Uhura, any local

broadcasts, communications among the Vancadians

themselves?"

"None, sir.i have a continuous monitor out for

them, but the entire planet appears to be

observing radio silence."

Spock and Bones fell into a hole, Kirk

thought, and now the hole has been pulled in after

them.he toggled a switch on the command chair.

"Lieutenant Shanti, is Kaulidren on the

hangar deck yet?"

"Yes, sir.he and his people are boarding the

shuttlecraft."

"Stop hm.i want to talk to him."

"Yes, sir."

After a brief silence Kaulidren's irritated

voice crackled over the intercom."...What is it

now, Captain?

Are we being denied the right to return to our world?"

"The shield is down," Kirk said, ignoring

Kaulidren's angry questions, "a shield which, according

to our sensor readings, Vancadia should not have been able

to produce, With or without Klingon help.

Also, the entire planet's broadcast

communication system seems to have been shut down.do

you have any explanations"...Any speculations?"

"None that we haven't already discussed at

interminable length, Captain. If the presence of

Klingons can't account for your observations, I have no

other ideas.now--am I to be allowed

to return to Chyrellka or not?"

"In a minute, Premier." Kirk silenced the

channel to the shuttlebay. "Lieutenant Uhura,

get Starfleet again."

"Yes, sir."

"Engineering--Scotty, you heard?"

"The shield that canna' exist"...Aye, Captain,

I heard."

"Any theories"...Any more data on the

shield"...Its power requirements?"

"At least ten times what their nuclear power station

could supply, even for a short period.as ye' said,

it canna' exist, but it did."

Kirk squeezed his eyes shut in

frustration."...What does that leave us, Scotty"...The

real power source exists but is hidden by another

shield? A more sophisticated shield than even the

Klingons possess"...A shield which our sensors can't

even detect?"

Kirk stopped.the thought of erroneous sensor

readings reminded him of the unexplained computer

malfunction that had produced the spurious intruder

alert shortly after Kaulidren and his group had come

aboard. According to Spock, it had been the result of

mutually contradictory readings from two

separate sets of sensors.

"Run a complete check on the sensors,

Mr.scott," he said.

"Sir?" Scotty's voice came back."...Are

ye' sure?

That'll take close ta "Do it, Scotty,"

Kirk snapped."...Make it a priority."

"Aye, Captain.i'll get back to ye'."

"Lieutenant Uhura, do you have Starfleet

yet?"

"No, Captain," she said, a puzzled frown in

her tone."...ationo reply on any standard

frequency.shd I try the emergency band?"

"Run a check on the equipment first," Kirk

said, his uneasiness escalating another notch.

"Already run, Captain.no malfunctions

indicated."

"I see." He glanced toward Pritchard at the

science station, then turned back to Uhura."...Very

well, Lieutenant, try the emergency band."

"Yes, sir."

"And Lieutenant Pritchard, Spock said he

had a special program that could be run, something that

had a better chance than the ten percent the standard

diagnostic programs would have of pinning

down the cause of the apparent computer

malfunction.find it and run it."

"Mr.spock had already initiated the program

before he beamed down, Captain." Pritchard

paused, leaning over the readouts."...ationo conclusive

results.it only confirms the original general

diagnosis, that the problem originated as a result

of a conflict between two sensor readings.there is no

indication what those readings were or why they conflicted."

"Are there any other tests that could be run,

Lieutenant?"

"No standard ones, sir." Pritchard

hesitated, his eyes meeting Kirk's for a moment,

then lowering."...I understand Mr.spock had some ideas for

special modifications to his own program that

might enhance its ability to diagnose problems such

as this, in which some or all of the records of the readings that

caused the conflict are erased, but so far as I know,

those modifications were never made."

And never will be, now, Kirk couldn't help but

think, unless we get another science officer the

equal of Spock.not a very likely prospect.

"No Starfleet response to emergency hail,

Captain," Uhura reported. "Still trying."

"Try for other ships within range.the

admiral said there was at least one less than a day

away."

"Yes, Captain." Deftly, her fingers darted

across the panels before her. "No response," she

said after a moment.

Kirk's frown deepened, the feeling of unease

again notching higher. "Keep trying,

Lieutenant.and Lieutenant Pritchard--"

"Captain," Uhura interrupted, her voice a

mixture of surprise and relief, "Starfleet

is hailing us."

"On screen!"

"Yes, sir."

Vancadia vanished from the screen, replaced a

moment later by an abstract, chaotic swirl.for

several seconds it remained, until, finally, it

resolved itself into a wavering, fuzzy image of

Admiral Brady.

"Enterprise," the image began without preamble,

"this is Admiral Brady at Starfleet

Headquarters.we know you have been attempting

to contact us, but something has been interfering With your

subspace signal and apparently With our

responses.we are using emergency power

to temporarily boost our own signal in the

hope that it reaches y.we have not yet been able

to determine whether the interference is a natural

phenomenon or artificial.however, a preliminary

review of the records of our c ontacts With

non-Federation worlds in the Chyrellkan sector has

revealed other indications of possible external

influence.

Nothing is conclusive, but based on past

experience, the Klingons are the most likely to be

involved."

The image wavered and almost broke up.when it

firmed again, Brady was still speaking.?--an

organized campaign, we have been unable

to determine."

There was a pause."...If such a campaign

exists, however, it would seem probable that the

Chyrellkan system is involved.but you're the

man on the scene, Jim.you can judge better

than I, and your interpretation of the Prime

Directive as it applies to possible Klingon

interference is at least as valid as mine.what

I'm trying to say, Jim, is, we have total

confidence in your decisions, no matter what they

might have to be.you know t.we won't

second-guess you in a matter of this

importance, where there's a possibility that the

security of the Federation is involved."

The image began to waver again."...The subspace

interference appears to be getting even worse.good

luck, Jim."

And it was gone in a colorful burst of static.

"The signal is gone, Captain," Uhura

confirmed.

"Try to get it back," Kirk snapped, "and

keep trying."

"Aye-aye, sir."

Kirk was silent a moment as the static vanished

and Vancadia reappeared on the viewscreen.there

was still no sign of the shield returning.

"Mr.pritchard," he said, "do another sensor

scan for the shield--but outward."

"Outward, sir?"

"Something is interfering With signals to and from

Starfleet.i want to know if the shield was really

shut

off--or if it could have been expanded, expanded

to enclose the entire planet, and the Enterprise as

well.i know it may sound impossible," he went

on, thinking aloud, "but according to your sensor readings, the

shield on the planet's surface was itself

impossible.

As long as we already have one confirmed

impossibility, we might as well check for the

existence of a second."

"Aye-aye, Captain."

Briskly, Pritchard entered the necessary commands as

he watched the readouts.

"Nothing within sensor range, Captain," he said

after a few seconds. "No energy fields of any

kind, other than those normally associated With

planets and stars."

"And there's nothing unusual about those readings?"

"No, sir, all well within normal ranges,"

"Captain Kirk!" Kaulidren's voice

rasped from the intercom."...My associates and I are

still waiting!"

"I assume you have been listening as well?"

"We have, and what we have heard only makes us more

anxious to be allowed to return to Chyrellka before the

malfunctions--or sabotage!--extends to your

drive system and we are stranded in orbit around

VancadiaffThat may be where you wish to spend the rest

of your days, but be assured that I do not!"

Not quite gritting his teeth, Kirk reined in his

anger.

"Very well, Premier," he said tersely.the

increasingly unpredictable situation made him

reluctant to send

any of his people across the system in shuttlecraft.

"Board your ship.we will return you to orbit about

Chyrellka."

Cutting off the intercom to the hangar deck, he

turned sharply to the helm."...Take us to Chyrellka,

Mr. Sulu, full impulse, and then get us

back here."

When the hovercraft finally left the city streets

and began to make its way across the equally deserted

university campus, Dr.leonard McCoy

began to have some slight hope they would reach the destination

Tylmaurek had finally selected.

"Only day classes allowed for the duration of the

emergency," Tylmaurek explained nervously as the

hovercraft skimmed quietly along the smoothly

landscaped grounds among the multi-storied

buildings.

Except for a single hard-surfaced street that

ended at the Vancadian equivalent of the

Administration Building, there were no provisions for

wheeled surface vehicles, only shrubbery-lined

lanes through which hovercraft could pass.

McCoy glanced at Spock as the Vulcan

made one last unsuccessful attempt With his

communicator.

McCoy had tried a half-dozen times himself With

equal lack of results. As Tylmaurek

guided the vehicle through an entrance to the underground

parking area that apparently underlay most of the campus,

Spock fell silent and replaced the communicator

on his belt.

"Still no luck, Spock?"

"None, Doctor," Spock said, an arched

eyebrow the only indication that he found McCoy's

question not so much rhetorical as illogical and

unnecessary.

"We had best take the stairs," Tylmaurek

said as he settled the hovercraft into the first open

slot he came to."...There will be less chance of

encountering someone, and it will be easier to hide if we

do."

"Just a moment, Councilman," Spock cautioned

as Tylmaurek started to open the hovercraft door.

"What is it?"

"Two humanoid lifeforms are approaching from

our left," he said, looking up from his tricorder.

Tylmaurek ducked down and peered

nervously in the indicated direction. "Probably

just some students leaving," he said softly after a

moment. "Half of the faculty live in this building,

and since the shutdown of formal evening classes, some

of the professors have been conducting informal ones in

their living quarters.

It's the only time many of the working students have

free."

In the next aisle over, a hovercraft whined

to life and departed, not nearly as quietly as the other

vehicles they had heard.after a minute there was

only silence.

"Is anyone else coming?" Tylmaurek asked,

his voice unsteady."...It's already past curfew, so

there shouldn't be, but--"

"No one, Councilman.nor," Spock added,

"can I detect any Klingons within the building."

"After that broadcast," McCoy said With a

grimace, "it's not just Klingons we have to worry

about.

Tylmaurek, are you sure this Professor

Rohgan is the only person you can trust"...There

isn't someone else, someone who lives in a

slightly less populated area?

These uniforms and those ears don't

exactly blend into the background."

"I'm sorry," Tylmaurek said, swallowing,

"but he still strikes me as our best bet.in a way,

I'm in the same position now that he was in five

years ago," he went on, and as the councilman

talked, MaCoy began to wonder uneasily if

he was as uncertain as he sounded, if maybe he was

talking simply to convince himself that he'd made the right

decision.

"He was a member of the Council when it was a

legitimately elected body, before we were

outlawed," Tylmaurek continued."...When

Delkondros decided to try to get us our

independence by attacking the Chyrellkan orbital

factory, Rohgan and a half-dozen others

resigned." He frowned."...They may even have told

the Chyrellkans about Delkondros' planned

attack, I don't know.that might be why it

didn't succeed.but the point is, Rohgan saw

through Delkondros five years ago and

disassociated himself from the Council.i haven't

talked to him since the Council was outlawed, but now

--" He paused, shaking his head again."...It's just a

feeling, but he's the only person I can think of who

might hear me out before shooting me or

turning me in.and who might be able to get through

to someone in authority With the truth about Delkondros.

Assuming there is anyone in authority who isn't a

Klingon."

He paused, frowning."...ationow that I think about it,

I'm surprised Delkondros didn't include

Rohgan in his list of collaborators.when the

Council was first outlawed, after our ships were

destroyed, Delkondros wanted to have him killed,

but the rest of us were able to convince him it would be

counterproductive at best."

"He does sound like our best bet," McCoy

said, trying to sound encouraging when Tylmaurek fell

silent."...ationow, let's get going before Spock

tries to change our minds.or we get caught."

"Why should I attempt to change your minds,

Doctor"...I agree that contacting Professor

Rohgan does offer us the best odds for survival,

under the circumstances."

McCoy widened his eyes."...Based on

Tylmaurek's "feeling," Spock?"

"Of course not, Doctor.my agreement is

based on the logic of the rest of what he

sd.however, I must point out that in this instance, the best

odds are not good odds at all."

"And they're getting worse every second we sit

around here discussing them!" abruptly, McCoy

pushed open the door and climbed out.

After another quick check of the tricorder, Spock

and Tylmaurek followed, and seconds later the

three were entering an enclosed stairwell a dozen

yards from the parked hovercraft.

"The hallway is clear," Spock said when they

reached the fourth floor, and then they were all

standing in the spartan corridor in front of a plain

brown door.

"Is Rowgan alone, Mr.spock?"

Tylmaurek asked.

"If you mean, Councilman, is there only a

single individual in the room beyond this door,"

Spock said, looking up from the tricorder, "there

is. Whether that individual is the one you call

Rohgan, I have no way of knowing.readings do

indicate the individual is not a Klingon, that he

weighs approximately ninety kilograms, has

a physiological profile that corresponds

to an Earth human age of approximately

sixty, and is currently extremely agitated."

Tylmaurek blinked, then glanced at the

tricorder."...I don't suppose that thing can

tell you why he's agitated?"

"No, Councilman, but logic would suggest that his

emotional state is related to Delkondros'

broadcast assertions that his world is, in effect, under

attack' by the Federation.you yourself are in a similar

state."

"If you two are finished discussing your emotional

states," McCoy broke in, gesturing at the

door.

Tylmaurek nodded and rapped sharply.

The door opened almost immediately, revealing a tall,

slender man With white, thinning hair.he wore the

same kind of loose-fitting tunic that

Tylmaurek wore, but With an outer covering,

possi bly the Vancadian equivalent of a

sweater.his eyes widened as he saw

Tylmaurek.a moment later, when he darted a

glance to the side and saw Spock and McCoy, he

involuntarily jerked backward.

McCoy tensed, ready to run, but then,

abruptly, a small smile appeared on the older

man's face."...Ah," he said softly, "the Federation

assassination squad and one of their traitorous

collaborators.do come in, quickly, before some

loyal citizen sees you."

Chapter Eight.

"Ai SeNSORS ChECK Out one hundred

percent, Captain," Scott's voice came over

the intercom from Engineering as Sulu brought the

Enterprise about, aiming it at Vancadia and

reapplying full impulse power.

"Communication equipment likewise, Captain,"

Uhura said a moment later. "But there has been no

further response from Starfleet, either to a standard

channel hail or emergency."

Kirk let his breath out in a frustrated sigh.the

impossibilities continued to pile up.ac to all

tests, every system on the Enterprise was operating

at, or near, peak efficiency, and yet in many

ways it was as if the ship had dropped out of the known

universe.

They couldn't get in touch With Starfleet

Headquarters or With any ship in space.the

thousands of electromagnetic signals that had

earlier been evident on both Chyrellka and

Vancadia were silent.even the sensors picked up

only the radiation from power lines and the like--no

modulated signals, no radio, no television,

nothing.

It was becoming more and more as if a shield

had been placed not around Vancadia or around the

entire Chyrellkan system, but around the

Enterprise itself.

Except, the sensors were detecting the magnetic

fields of both planets and of the sun itself and were not

detecting a shield.perhaps if he sent a

shuttle out and compared the readings of its sensors With

those of the Enterprise itself "CaptainffThe shield is

back up."

Lieutenant Pritchard's voice broke

into Kirk's speculations on the impossible, but as his

eyes darted to the forward viewscreen, he saw that he

had yet another impossibility to throw into the

equation.the shield was indeed back, but where before its

elusive shimmer had covered a circle roughly a

hundred kilometers across, it now covered at least

double that area.

And now, instead of a faint, ill-defined shimmer,

it glittered With a hard-edged translucence.

McCoy realized he had been holding his breath

only when Professor Rohgan hastily closed

the door behind the three men and turned to face them, the

smile gone, leaving only tension behind.

"I assume, Tylmaurek," Rohgan said,

"there is a rational explanation for what

I've just heard Delkondros claim."

"Lies, every bit of it!" Tylmaurek blurted.

"Our friends were not killed?" Hope flared in

Rohgan's eyes.

For a moment there was total silence.mcCoy could

see Tylmaurek's jaw tremble at the returning

pain as he shook his head."...ationo," he said, his

voice cracking, "the killings were real." Swallowing

away the unsteadiness, he went on."...I wasn't a

witness, but I'm almost certain they were real.i did

see Delkondros kill another man, but not one

of the councilre"

"You're saying Delkondros is the killer?"

Rohgan broke in."...Are you positive"...I

didn't think even he could be that mad!"

Tylmaurek snorted, a sharp, bitter

sound."...He did it, or ordered it to be done, but it

wasn't madness." He glanced at McCoy and

Spock."...At least, not any normal kind of

madness."

Then he began to explain.as Tylmaurek

spoke, Rohgan's eyes widened at first, then

narrowed.from time to time he glanced toward Spock

and McCoy, as if he could verify in their faces the

truth of what Tylmaurek was saying.

When Tylmaurek finished, Rohgan let his

breath out in an explosive sigh. "It is your

belief, then, that Delkondros is not the

overambitious paranoid I have always assumed, but a

murderous alien?"

"I know it sounds insane, Professor,"

McCoy began when Tylmaurek seemed lost for a

reply, "b"

"On the contrary, Doctor--McCoy, was

x"...On the contrary, it is the first rational explanation

I have heard for Delkondros' behavior these last

few years.

And something of a relief to my own conscience.since

I left the Council, I have had ample time

to wonder if, had I stayed, I might not have been

able to influence him toward a less-disastrous course of

action.based on what you say, however, no one could

have done that. His words and actions have all been

purposely designed to drive our worlds apart,

to cause as much discord as possible.but why"...What

reason could these aliens have for wanting to disrupt our little

worlds?"

McCoy gave a restrained snort."...It's part

of their job description. It's what they do."

"Even so--" Rohgan broke off."...But

I am wasting valuable time," he said, turning

sharply toward Spock, his eyes taking in once again

the Vulcan's ears, the faint coppery green tinge

to his skin, then lowering to the tricorder, still suspended

by its strap from Spock's shoulder. "With this device

you can detect these aliens, regardless of their outward

appearance?

And at a reasonable distance"...Is that what I am

to understand?"

"These particular aliens, Professor,"

Spock acknowledged, "but not all."

"Are there yet other types involved?"

"Not to my knowledge, Professor."

Rohgan drew in a deep breath."...Then,

assuming everything Tylmaurek has told me is the

truth, I may be able to get you in contact With your

ship.i may even be able to arrange for you to be taken

to the ship itself."

Hope flooded through McCoy, sending his heart

racing, but an instant later a wave of suspicion

struck

him like a physical blow as he realized the man

must be setting them up one way or another.it was

simply too good to be true that the first person

Tylmaurek took them to not only didn't

try to shoot them or even turn them in but had a way

of contacting the Enterprise.

"How?" McCoy asked sharply."...We've got

Starfleet communicators, and we can't get in touch

With them."

"It's a long story, and we don't have time,"

Rohgan said."...Suffice it to say, a group of us have

been working on a plan of our own.now--" Rohgan

broke off, gasping, as a siren-like beeping filled

the room. "Another bulletin," he said, his voice

trembling from the shock of the sudden sound.

Turning, he activated a screen mounted flush

With the wall.as it flared into life, the Chyrellkan

flag filled the screen, but after only a few

moments it was replaced by the governor's face.

But not his living face.it was obviously a still

image, a photograph.

Then a voice began speaking, neither the

governor's nor Delkondros' voice.

"The Vancadian colonial office regrets

to announce that Governor Ulmar and Council

President Delkondros have both been murdered

by the Federation assassination team."

With the words, the governor's picture vanished,

replaced a split second later by the

same images of Spock , McCoy, and

Tylmaurek that had been broadcast before.

"Only minutes ago," the voice went on,

"using unknown Federation technology, these three were

able to pass undetected through the governor's

security, kill both Governor Ulmar and

Council President Delkondros, and

escape.if anyone sees--" Rohgan tapped the

screen into blank silence.

McCoy saw that his face was chalk white and

wondered if the man was about to faint.instead, he

turned and darted to the door and jerked it open.

"Come With me, quicklyffI'll explain as we go."

"Wait, Professor."

It was Spock.looking around, McCoy saw that

he was once again intent on his tricorder.the

Vulcan had been glancing down at it every few

seconds since the moment they had entered the room, but

now he was continuously studying the readings, moving the

instrument slightly as he did.

"Three lifeforms have just entered the building,"

Spock went on, "on the underground parking level.

The readings indicate two are human, but the

third is Klingon.and the Klingon is carrying an

energy weapon similar to the laser that was used

in the earlier attempt on our lives."

McCoy threw an accusing glance at

Rohgan.it was a setupff"...What did you do,

Professor," he snapped, "trip an alarm when

we first came in?"

"No, Doctor," Spock said, keeping his

eyes on the tricorder."...According to Professor

Rohgan's physiological reactions, he is as

startled as you are, perhaps m.but if we are going

to leave, gentlemen, I would suggest we do so now.the

new arrivals are about to enter the elevator."

Rohgan, who had frozen at Spock's warning,

now lurched into motion, racing down the hall."...We can

go down the stairs.

"Only the Klingon and one of the humans are entering

the elevator," Spock cautioned."...The second

human appears to be returning to the vicinity of their

vehicle, which I believe has a clear view of the

stairwell door."

Rohgan shuddered to a halt at the stairwell

door and leaned against it, shaking his head."...We're

trapped, then?"

"Not necessarily," McCoy snapped,

remembering how they had gotten away from

Kaulidren.he still didn't fully trust

Rohgan, but the man was definitely preferable

to what was coming up in the elevator.

"Spock," he said, hastily digging into his

medikit, "I still have a couple loads in my

hypospray."

"Understood, Doctor," Spock said, his eyes

still focussed on the tricorder."...Professor, I

believe we will have the best chance of success if you will

stand directly in front of the elevator door, on

the far side of the hall.attract their attention as the

door opens."

"Whatre"

"Councilman, stay back, out of sight,"

Spock said, gesturing With his free hand."...Doctor,

the Klingon is on the left."

Hypospray in hand, McCoy darted to the left

side of the elevator and flattened his back against the

wall.

Spock, shifting his tricorder to his left hand,

pressed himse lf against the wall on the right.

"Second floor," Spock said, quietly

counting down, "third, and..."

The humming of the elevator stopped.spock

closed and released the tricorder, letting it hang

from its shoulder strap.for a moment there was

only silence, except for Rohgan's nervous

swallow.

The door slid open.

The human looked startled as he saw Rohgan

standing barely six feet in front of hm.he reached

for the projectile weapon on his belt, the same

kind Delkondros had used.

The Klingon, who looked just as human as

Delkondros had, already had the laser in his hand,

hanging loosely at his side.he stiffened, then

smiled, and started to bring the weapon up as disthe two

stepped out of the elevator.

His arm outstretched, Spock stepped away from the

wall.as the human and the Klingon both started

to turn toward the motion registering in the corners of

their eyes, Spock's fingers closed on the nerves

in the man's neck.simultaneously, McCoy

stabbed out With the hypospray, bringing it into solid

contact With the back of the Klingon's neck.

The nerve pinch felled the human instantly, but the

Klingon had time to recognize the Vulcan and would have

had time to raise the laser the rest of the way and fire,

had Spock not reached past the falling human and

grasped the Klingon's arm, forcing it down and sending the

laser pulse harmlessly into the floor.

Before the startled Klingon could bring his strength

into play and raise his arm against Spock's restraining

hand, the injection, made within inches of the brain,

took hold.his face just beginning to register

rage, the Klingon fell.

As the Clingon hit the floor, Tylmaurek

lunged forward and snatched the laser from his fingers."...If

I'd done this to Delkondros--" he began, but

Spock gripped his wrist and easily turned the

muzzle away from the unconscious

Klingon.tylmaurek struggled for a moment but then

went limp, letting the laser dangle from his

fingers.despite his angry words, he looked almost

relieved that Spock had stopped him.

"If we are to be returned to the Enterprise,

"Spock said, "this individual will be valuable

evidence." He turned to Rohgan."...Will we have far

to go, Professor?"

Approximately two hundred kilometers,"

he said, swallowing nervously as he tore his eyes

from the fallen Klingon and the laser burn a few inches

from his feet."...But I don't see how we can make it

now.the curfew, the bulletin showing the three of

you--"

"Would we have a better chance if we were

to use the vehicle these two came in?"

"Probably, but--"

"Then we will attempt to avail ourselves of it."

Spock turned to McCoy."...Doctor,

Delkondros apparently awakened rather quickly earlier

td.do you have something that will keep this one unconscious

for a longer period?"

McCoy no.ed.he had already changed the load in

his hypospray."...This wouldn't have worked fast enough," he

said as he pressed it to the fallen

Klingon's neck, "but it will keep him out at least

ten times as long."

Spock leaned down, picked the Klingon up,

easily slung him over one shoulder, and headed

back toward the apartment."...Do the same for the human,"

he said, "and bring him along."

Deftly, McCoy again switched hypospray

loads--this time to something more suitable to a human

metabolism--triggered it against the man's neck, and

watched as Tylmaurek and Rohgan lifted the

unconscious man and followed Spock and his

Klingon burden into Rohgan's apartment.

Less than two minutes later they were headed

back down in the elevator, the Klingon on the

floor, Tylmaurek dressed in the

human's gray, loose-fitting uniform.stopping

at the ground level, McCoy and Robgan got out

while Spock picked the Klingon up and lowered him

into Tylmaurek's outstretched arms.

Tylmaurek grunted at the weight as Spock

released it and backed quickly out of the elevator to join

the others.before the elevator doors had closed

on the straining Tylmaurek, the other three were on

their way down the stairwell.at the parking level,

Spock opened the door a tiny crack and stood

watching and waiting.

Within seconds the sound of the elevator doors

grating open announced Tylmaurek's

arrival.careful to keep his face averted from the car

where he knew the second man was waiting,

Tylmaurek lurched out of the elevator, the

unconscious Klingon still cradled in his

arms.barely able to support the weight, he

didn't have to pretend his unsteadiness as he staggered

out and let his knees buckle as he attempted

to lower the Klingon to the floor.with his face still

averted, he waved urgently for the one in the car to come

help him.

After a tense moment the hovercraft door opened

and the second man leaped out and came

running.

"What the hell--" he began, but at that point

he passed the stairwell door, and Spock's hand

darted through the suddenly widened crack.the man fell

as quickly as had his partner four floors

above.maCoy scrambled past Spock and applied

another hypospray while the two Vancadians

deposited the man in Tylmaurek's vehicle.

"If someone finds him there," Tylmaurek said

With a sudden tired grin, "I don't suppose it

could get me in any more trouble than I'm already in."

A minute later the Klingon was stowed in his own

hovercraft's storage compartment, and Rohgan, forcing

himself to be calm, was familiarizing himself With the

vehicle's controls.another minute and he was

maneuvering it out of the underground parking area and onto the

deserted campus.

"Now

that that's safely out of the way," McCoy said as

they headed back the way Tylmaurek had brought them

in earlier, "would you mind explaining how you're going

to get us to the Enterprise"...The last time I looked,

hovercraft couldn't quite make it into orbit."

"They still can't, Doctor," Rohgan said With a

nervous smile, "although after what you have told

me

this evening about your aliens and their machinations, it

wouldn't surprise me if they could.no, we have a

ship that will, I hope, do the job."

McCoy frowned skeptically in the faint glow from

the passing streetlights."...What about Kaulidren and

his surveillance ships?"

"Our ship can get past them," Robgan sd.he

swallowed audibly, as if in a continuing effort

to hold on to his hard-won calmness."...Or so

I've been assured.

However, it's becoming obvious to me that there are no

guarantees.and there are any number of

uncertainties, not the least of which is the fact that the very

device that allows the ship to elude Kaulidren's

guard ships may very well be another "gift" from

these Klingons of yours."

McCoy rolled his eyes and glanced toward

Spock, who seemed to be taking the information in With his

usual stoic passivity."...That's what I'd call

one whale of an uncertainty, Professor."

"Obviously.however, under the circumstances, I

don't see that we have any choice but to make the

attempt, do y"...To the best of my knowledge, it is your

only chance to get beyond this shield--if that is

indeed what is blocking your communicators--and

contact your ship."

"Maybe so," McCoy said, "but you said we have a

couple hundred kilometers to g.why don't you

explain the whole thing to us--including just how you, of

all people, happen to have access to the one and only ship

on Vancadia that has a chance of getting past

Kaulidren's surveillance ships."

"Yes, Professor Rohgan," Tylmaurek

added, a note of suspicion suddenly apparent in

his own voice, "I'd like to hear about it too."

Rohgan blinked, darting a startled glance at

Tylmaurek.either he was genuinely surprised

at the suspicion he had suddenly been confronted

With, McCoy thought, or he was an excellent

actor.

Finally Rohgan nodded."...Very well, gentlemen,"

he said, "but it's a long story."

After his resignation from the Council, Rohgan had

secretly kept in contact With the engineers who had

worked on the improved drive, most of whom had

agreed With Rohgan and had not wanted to use it

to attack the Chyrellkan orbital factory.within

weeks of that fiasco Delkondros had them working from

a new set of "notes" supposedly

made by the same mysterious deceased genius whose

earlier notes had led to the drive. These notes

described a form of shield that would allow whatever

ship it enclosed to slip past Tylmaurek's guard

ships undetected.

And Delkondros, to the engineers' horror, was not

only keeping the shield a secret from the remaining

members of the Council but was planning to use it

to finish the job he had failed at the first time. He

had managed to keep a ship hidden from the

Chyrellkans when the other three had been

destroyed, and he was planning to use that ship, With the

shield, to destroy the orbital factory.

Rather than go to the Chyrellkans With this information, as

he had done when the first attack was

planned, Rohgan and the engineers and several of the

former council members who had resigned With him

came up With their own plan.the engineers began

giving Delkondros fake reports, indicating

much slower progress than they were actually

making.as far as Delkondros knew, it would be

another year or more before the first prototype shield

could be built and installed.in reality, it had already

been built, installed, and tested.

"Our original plan," Rohgan said,

"was for a group of us to take the ship out, past the

guard ships, all the way to orbit around

Chyrellka. Once there, we would let down the

shield, let the Chyrellkans see us. And we would

announce our peaceful intentions, to prove to the

Chyrellkans once and for all that we did not want

war, that we could be trusted."

Rohgan paused, shaking his head."...I know it

sounds naive, but to us it was infinitely better than

attempting to kill those thousands of Chyrellkans in

their orbital factory the way Delkondros

wanted to do. And if the Chyrellkans agreed, we

h oped they would respond in a like way."

McCoy shook his head.he was inclined to believe

the man."...More people should be naive like that," he said,

"except maybe when they're dealing With

Klingons.but this ship you say it's ready to go?"

Robgan nodded."...We were almost ready to launch when

we learned your ship was on its way here.t changed

our plans.we knew that the Chyrellkans would be

filling your ears With lies, so we decided to go

ahead With the launch as soon as possible after your

actual arrival.we would do basically what we had

already planned, except we would tell the Federation

what we had planned to tell the

Chyrellkans."

"Then Delkondros made his broadcast this

evening," McCoy said.

"Precisely," Rohgan agreed."...We had no

reason to disbelieve x.so when Delkondros

told us what you had done, even showed us the bodies

of people we all knew, we could only assume that either

the Federation was as evil as these Klingons you speak of

or that Kaulidren had convinced it to take

Chyrellka's side.

And that if we approached your ship, we would

simply be destroyed.

"But everyone who was to go on the mission had already

gathered at the ship.the launch was to be tn.so those

of us who were remaining behind have been trying to get in touch

With those at the ship to stop the launch.but

communications have been cut off; we don't know why.

Some of us started to the ship earlier this evening in hopes

of getting there in time to stop them.that is where the two

you saw leaving when you arrived at my building were

going, in fact.

But now that we know the truth, we can still make the

launch.and the three of you can be aboard.the ship will

take you beyond the shield, where you can use your

communicators to contact your ship and inform it

of the situation here."

McCoy grimaced when Rohgan fell silent

and the hovercraft continued along the deserted

streets.he was finally convinced that Rohgan believed

every word he had said and wasn't purposely setting

them up, but even so, the chances of his actually getting

them out in space where they could contact the Enterprise

were slim at best.chances were much better that

Delkondros and the rest of the Klingons had known from the

start about the little conspiracy between him and the engineers. Which

meant that, if he and Spock went With Rohgan to the

ship, chances were excellent that they would be delivering

themselves right into the enemy's hands.

And yet, no matter how he wracked his brain,

he couldn't think of a blasted thing to do that would give them

a better chance of ever seeing the Enterprise again.

Chapter Nine.

KIRK SCOWLED at the viewscreen and the

now-almopaque shield that spread over more than

twenty thousand square kilometers of Vancadia's

surface.

"Can physical objects still penetrate it,

Lieutenant Pritchard?" Kirk asked.

"I can't be positive, Captain, since it now

blocks our sensors almost entirely, but

all indications are that they could."

Kirk punched a button on the arm of the command

chair."...Mr.scott," he said when the chief engineer

responded, "I'm sending a shuttle down. Pick

the most reliable one you've got, then you and

Lieutenant Pritchard set up an automated

program to take it just below the level of the

shield.let's see if we can't determine the

nature of the shield, its source, and a way to either

bypass it or shut it down."

"Aye, Captain, I'll meet the lieutenant

in the shuttlebay."

"Two minutes, Scotty.the lieutenant is

on his Still scowling, Kirk turned back to the main

viewscreen.it looked as if the shield's strength

had increased in the seconds he had looked away.

Hargemon smiled With infinite satisfaction as

he watched the Enterprise, helpless on the

viewscreen before hm.the little relay station, firmly

anchored to the starship by its kilometer-long tractor

beam, was working perfectly.if he wished, he could

set the Enterprise on an irreversible slide

toward destruction right this minute in any of a hundred

ways. Kirk wouldn't be able to stop x.scott

wouldn't be able to stop it. Certainly whoever

was now manning the science station wouldn't be able to stop

x.only Spock, if he were still on board, might

have had a chance of finding the problem and halting the

destruction.

And perhaps not even Spock, he thought With a faint

tinge of regret.it was unfortunate the Vulcan

would not have the chance to try.he had been tempted

to give him that chance, but the commander had overruled

hm.and for once the commander had been right, he had

to admit.

But Hargemon's turn would come soon enough.

A test run, the commander had called this project,

and he had been correct there as well, though perhaps not

in quite the way he had intended.

Smiling, Hargemon thought of the Klingon

battlecruiser that would be darting in to pick them up

when he and the commander and the others had completed their

business in the Chyrellkan system.it would be a

good subject for his own "test run." Its computer

would be child's play compared to the one on the

Enterprise.he could have it doing the computer

equivalent of handstands in a matter of weeks.

Even that fool Kelgar, whom the commander had

saddled him With, would be capable of tricking that

primitive collection of micro

circuits, now that he'd been watching--and

presumably learning from--Hargemon.

His attention snapped back to the viewscreen.the

Enterprise shuttlebay was openingffWhat the devil

did Kirk think he could accomplish by sending a

shuttlecraft out?

For a moment a sinking feeling gripped his stomach.

Had Kirk realized the truth"...Hadn't getting

Spock out of the way been enough?

But no, it didn't matter.even if Kirk

did realize in general what the problem was, even

if he was sending a shuttlecraft out to check his

theory, he would never be able to figure out the

specifics.only Spock, who sometimes seemed

to live in virtual symbiosis With the computer, could

do that--at least, in the time the Enterprise had left.

Even so, there was no point in taking even that much

of a chance.

His fingers playing over the keyboard he himself had

designed, Hargemon entered a series of commands and

watched as one by one they scrolled across the bottom

of the screen and were confirmed.voice commands would have been

more efficient, but the Klingon system he had had

to adapt to his own

purposes did not have that capability,

at least not With the degree of precision and

reliability he required.

As the last of the commands echoed across the screen, the

shuttlebay doors began to close.he laughed as

he imagined the face of the shuttle pilot, and then

Kirk's as the report reached the bridge.the

captain would be beside hmf.he lived for control

--over men and machines alike--and it was slipping

away from him, heading for anarchy.

A blip on the screen indicated someone had

tried to manually override the doors, and he laughed

ag.it was almost too bad that Kirk would have to die

along With the others.it would be so much more satisfying

to be able to face him, to tell him precisely what

had been happening to him--and why.

Another blip, another attempt at manual

override.

This time it was from Engineering, probably Scott.

For several seconds nothing happened.then a

whole series of coded commands and responses, each

easily recognizable to his practiced eye, sped

across the screen.

More tests, not of the sensors this time, but of the control

circuits, the bypasses, even parts of the computer.

But not, of course, the parts that

counted.those were-Frowning, he followed one of the

data strings across the screen.he didn't

recognize x.was Spock's replacement

better than he gave him credit for"...Had he

inherited one of the troubleshooting programs Spock

had been working on and decided to try it himself?.

But no, it wasn't a string indicating a

test.it was a response--a response the computer

had produced.

A response that the computer shouldn't have produced,

he realized uneasily.

His frown deepening, he waited until the series

ended.the tests were over, at least for the moment.

To make sure they didn't start up again while

he was doing his own, he tapped in a single command, then

proceeded, sending messages flashing across the

screen.

For five minutes they continued, his eyes scanning

the patterns, recognizing and disregarding,

recognizing and disregarding.

Until-What was th"...A chill swept over

hm.had he made a mistake? After all those

months of work, could he have overlooked something this

obvious"...He scowled at the keyboard.with voice

control, something like this could never have

happened.was the whole project about to come down

around his head because of this primitive Klingon

technology?

But noffLooking it over again, he saw that it

wasn't a mistake, couldn't be a mistake.it

was far too complex for a simple keyboard error in

entering the program.

But if it wasn't a mistake, what was x"...And

how had it gotten in?

The chill of apprehension faded, replaced by an

angry determination to get to the bottom of the

mystery.had Kelgar been changing things without

authorization"...If he had-This might be the chance he

had been looking for, Hargemon thought abruptly, a

chance to get Kelgar out of his hair.if Kelgar,

mistakenly thinking he understood the intricacies of the

programs, had decided to change them, chances were

excellent he had messed something up.and if there was

one thing the commander wouldn't tolerate, it was someone

messing up.like Kirk, the commander came down

hard when things didn't go right.

A faint smile flickered across his face.the

commander had been absolutely livid when the

message outlining the escape of Spock and

McCoy had come in from Vancadia.someone

had made a mistake, and someone would pay.

And Kelgar had made a mistake here, in the

computer, and With any luck, he would pay.at the very

least, he would no longer be the incompetent

assistant and meddlesome watchdog he had been for the

past six months. Another might take his place,

but not immediately, not until Hargemon's own plans were

well under way.

So, what exactly had Kelgar done"...Or, more

likely, what had he tried to d"...Smiling faintly,

Hargemon began methodically entering commands and questions.

Slowly, as the responses began to flow, the

smile faded.whatever Kelgar had done, it was far

more complex than Hargemon had expected. This

change had been embedded in the very heart of his own

program, affecting every aspect of it.

And it was well hidden, he realized With a

start.if he hadn't spotted that one anomalous

response as it

raced across the screen, he never would have found it.

Grudgingly, he upped his estimate of

Kelgar's competence a notch.this was not the job of the

bungler he had taken the Klingon to be.this was the

work of someone who, Klingon or not, knew

precisely what he was doing.

Someone who, Hargemon realized With a new

chill, knew almost as much as he himself did about

computers--or at least about this particular computer.

But still, what did these changes do?

More questions, more commands, more responses Streaming across

the screen.until-"So that's it!" The words forced

themselves past his lips.

The changes did nothing--as long as the

Enterprise computer was fully powered and being

operated.

But when it was shut down due to complete loss of

power--as it soon would be--and its contents were read out

by another computer-"I see you've found it."

Kelgar's grating voice came from somewhere, and a

moment later his face replaced the data on the

screen.

At the same moment, Hargemon heard something behind

him--a hiss and then a click.jerking around, he

saw that the only door to the room had slid shut--

effectively locking him in.

"What the hell do you think--"

"To tell the truth, Hargemon," Kelgar said,

ignoring the other's attempt to speak, "I'm not

surprised.

And certainly not disappointed.i told the

commander that you would very likely find it."

"The commander knows about this?"

"Of course.it was his idea.as was the alarm, so

we would be alerted when you discovered the changes."

abruptly, Hargemon stood up, turned, and

pushed at the door.it didn't move.

"You will be unable to open it," Kelgar's image

said.

"Why?"

"Because we couldn't be certain how you would

react.after all, the destruction of one ship,

commanded by a man you hate, is one thing.the destruction

of all of Starfleet is another.even a traitor

like yourself might not be willing to go quite that far."

Suddenly, as he looked again at the Klingon's

smiling--smirking--face, the situation came clear

to Hargemon.kelgar, in good Klingon tradition, was

about to assassinate his immediate superior.he would put

a different face on it for the commander, of course.but

the commander would accept it and And the commander himself would soon

be assassinated, and the credit for bringing the Federation

to its knees would go to a true Klingon.

"You fool!" Hargemon snapped."...There is more

to what I've done than you could even imagineffIf you

think that simply having my program

infect the computers that will be trying to reconstruct the

Enterprise computer's memory is all it takes,

you are even more of a bungler than I imagined!"

"We shall see, Hargemon, we shall see.or rather,

I shall see.but I will give you a moment

to appreciate

my handiwork and perhaps revise your estimate of my

capabilities."

In that moment, Hargemon's world, already listing

badly, was turned the rest of the way upside-down.

Suddenly, he realized that, whether Kelgar could

succeed in his long-range plan or not, he could

certainly succeed in carrying out its first step--the

assassination of his immediate superior, Hargemon

hmf.he also realized that his only hope for

survival, slim as it was, lay With the very ship and

crew he had spent all these months plotting

to destroy.

His fingers darted across the keys, racing through the

coded commands before Kelgar could realize what he was

doing and stop him.

But nothing happened.where streams of data should have

been racing across the screen, there was only Kelgar's

image.

"You see?" Kelgar said."...The commander and

I were right in not trusting y.if I hadn't set up

those blocks to keep you from sending the reset code to the

Enterprise, you would have destroyed our entire

project before it had even gotten a good start."

abruptly, Kelgar's image was gone.the

Enterprise was back, its hangar doors once again

tightly shut.

Hargemon's mind raced.kelgar would be coming through

the door behind him in a minute, possibly less.

Visualizing the screen the moment before the door had

shut, Hargemon began entering commands.for once he

was glad it was a keyboard input. If it were

voice activated, he would have no chance at all.

Everything now would be keyed to either Kelgar's or the

commander's voice, and nothing he could do would open the

door.but With the keyboard and his memory of the

screen in the moments before the door closed, there was at

least a chance.

Commands and responses streamed across the screen,

until A There it was, the exact configuration,

including the command that had sealed the door!

He punched in another command.

The door opened.he wasn't dead quite yet.

Hargemon turned to the door--and stopped.he

might be able to reach the remaining shuttle before

Kelgar caught up to hm.he might even be able

to launch the shuttle.

But then all Kelgar had to do was return to the

control room, set the ship on his trail, and shoot

him down.he would never reach the surface of

Vancadia except as dissociated atoms.

Unless comSpinning back to the computer, he entered

another series of commands, lightning fast.his heart

leaped as he saw there had been no blocks set up

here.the ship's navigation system was wide open.

Another series of commands, a half-dozen

keystrokes, and Hargemon spun away, not waiting

for confirmation on the screen.

Ten seconds later he was through the door to the

ship's tiny shuttlebay. Punching the emergency

door-open sequence into the keypad on the control

panel

next to the remaining shuttle, he leaped inside and

pulled the shuttle hatch closed.

The hangar door swung up and the air rushed out.

He was safe, at least for the moment.luckily there

was no convenient atmospheric containment field here like

the one on the Enterprise. Kelgar couldn't get

into the shuttlebay until the shuttle was out and the door

closed behind it.

But Kelgar wouldn't waste time waiting for t.he

would have heard or seen the inner door to the shuttlebay

opening and closing, and he would already be on his way

back to the control room, probably looking forward

to the prospect of shooting the shuttle down almost as

much as he had doubtless been looking forward to shooting

Hargemon himself down in the computer room.

Taking the controls, he launched the shuttle through

the outer doors the moment there was room, seconds before

they were fully open.

Without looking back to see if his last-minute

commands to the computer had done their job, he applied

full power and accelerated toward the planet's

nightside surface.there would be time enough later

to worry about a specific destination and about how to find

Spock and McCoy.

First he had to get out of Kelgar's range--and

quickly.

Chapter Ten.

"THERE HA-DO TO BE an explanation!"

Kirk paced the bridge in frustration.on the

viewscreen, as it had been for the last half hour, was

the surface of Vancadia, the shield still covering more

than twenty thousand square kilometers and growing

steadily more opaque.on the hangar deck,

the doors stubbornly ignored all computer commands and

all attempts at manual override, including

those that Commander Scott had personally attempted on

the hangar deck xf.at the communications station,

Lieutenant Uhura had reperformed every check of her

equipment known to Starfleet and a number that she had

devised on the spot, and yet no response had

come from either Starfleet Headquarters or any

Federation starship since that one abortive communication

from Admiral Brady.

"Aye, Captain, there's always an explanation

o' some kind," Scott said, stepping back from the

science station where he and Lieutenant Pritchard had

together been trying to unravel one of Spock's

special test programs, "but if ye' ask me--

was

"I am asking you, Scotty, so if you have any

ideas at all, please, let's hear them!"

"Aye, Captain, I was only going to say, I

canna' help but wonder if we ha' not come up

against another Organia."

Kirk grimaced mentally but gave no external

indication.

The same possibility had darted through his own mind

With each new and inexplicable occurrence, but

he had refused to dwell on x.it would have been

pointless.if they had indeed encountered another group

or entity With mental or technological powers

even remotely approaching those possessed by the

Organians, the Enterprise was in all

likelihood helpless.

The first--and so far, only--time they had encountered the

Organians had been during another conflict With the

Klingons, he remembered uneasily, a conflict

that without the Organians' interference could have

developed into a full-scale human-Klingon

war.the Organians, however, when they finally lost

patience With both sides, had simply and

simultaneously disabled all Federation and Klingon

weapons throughout the galaxy. Disrupting subspace

links to Starfleet Headquarters would be comparative

child's play for someone like that.

The similarities to the present situation were

obvious, but it was equally obvious that until they

knew for sure, they had to assume just the

opposite.assuming some benevolent superpower like the

Organians was in control could be fatal if that

assumption was mistaken.they had to assume, until

and unless it was proven otherwise, that the

responsibility for the current situation

lay either in some so-far unexplained natural

phenomenon or in something the Klingons themselves--or some

new ally of the Klingons--had managed

to accomplish. To insure their own survival, they had

to assume that whatever was happening, it was something which, if

they could only dig out the truth, they could combat or

counteract.

"Anything's possible, Scotty," Kirk said

abruptly, "but let's not roll over and play dead

yet, just in case it's something else, something we have the

power to deal With.now, how are you and Mr.pritchard

coming With your analysis of Spock's program?"

He wasn't going to make it.

The last-second sabotage of the navigation

system hadn't bought him enough time.once again he had

underestimated Kelgar.the Klingon must have realized

almost instantly that the system was not working the way it

should.it had probably taken him only another

instant to realize the reason last-minute

sabotage by Hargemon.

In all, little more than a minute had passed before

Kelgar had righted the ship, set it to relocating the

proper coordinate system, and zoomed after the

fleeing shuttle.

The first shot missed by nearly a

kilometer, harmlessly converting its energy into heat and

light when it struck the fringes of the atmosphere far

ahead, but

Hargemon knew that the misses would not continue.

The ship's navigation system, which he'd briefly

locked on to a spurious coordinate system

ninety degrees away from the proper one, had not

yet completed its realignment.once it did,

once the lock-on was complete--in another thirty

seconds at most--its radius of error would be

down to little more than the diameter of the fleeing

shuttle.and even if it weren't, another minute--

or two, if he was extremely lucky--would bring

the pursuing ship so close that Kelgar could make the

kill manually.

Which, Hargemon thought grimly, the Klingon would

probably prefer to do anyway.

Another bolt of energy seared the atmosphere

almost dead ahead.the miss this time had been a few

dozen meters at the most.the realignment was almost

complete.

abruptly, Hargemon nosed the shuttle over,

sending it diving straight down.he wouldn't come down

within a hundred kilometers of where he had hoped, but

it didn't matter.this was his only chance

for survival, to get inside the atmosphere before

Kelgar closed in.kelgar's ship couldn't enter the

atmosphere, at least not very far, and the beams from its

energy weapons, designed for the vacuum of space,

would be blunted and scattered.

But then, just as he realized that even this maneuver

wasn't going to save him, one of the massive

surveillance ships appeared high up on his

screen.hope flared through him as his mind raced

to recall the codes that gave access to the ship

controls.but even as the first of the sequences began

to form, as his fingers darted toward the first of the keys, the

hope vanished.

The codes could be issued only by the computer in the

main ship, the one in which Kelgar was closing in on

hm.given enough time, he might be able to find a way

to circumvent the safeguards that blocked signals

from all but that one source and take control of the lasers

and turn them on Kelgar, but the one thing he didn't

have was time.

No, the only direct link between the shuttle and the

surveillance ships was the one that could be used

to detonate the antimatter charges planted in all

of them.

"Just to play it safe," the commander had

said."...I don't want one of those killers trying

to shoot me down if something goes wrong and it

decides not to recognize my safe-passage

code."

It had been obvious that Kelgar had only

scorn for such "human" precautions, but he had said

nothing.

And now-Another blast of energy skimmed by the

shuttle.

Without hesitation, Hargemon jerked the shuttle

to one side and then upward, its engines straining, the

force of the maneuver driving him down into the barely

cushioned pilot's chair.he could hear the shuttle

itself protesting With metallic creaks and pops.

The edges of his vision clouded for a moment as he

notched the force upward still further--and released it.

Suddenly, he was again in free fall.and on the

screen directly ahead was the monolithic prow of the

surveillance ship, its operating lasers

presumably

trained directly on hm.but they wouldn't

fire, he knew, not as long as the shuttle was

putting out its safe-passage code.for an instant

the thought of turning it off crossed his mind.if

Kelgar was directly behind him-But no,

what he wanted was a chance to survive and strike

back, not just a chance to take Kelgar With him.

And his position, directly between Kelgar and the

surveillance ship, gave him a moment to breathe.

Kelgar wouldn't fire until he was clear of the

lasers.

With or without a safe-passage code, the

surveillance ship would return fire if it thought it

was being fired upon.

At the last second Hargemon jetted

sideways, shooting past the surveillance ship at

a distance of less than a hundred meters, then

darting back in line With it, directly behind the

massive rocket unit at its rear.if he was not

completely hidden from Kelgar's

Klingon-manufactured sensors, his image would at

least be blended With that of the surveillance ship.

He sent the detonation code.

Behind him the antimatter pellet's containment

field collapsed.within milliseconds the

surrounding normal matter closed in, and both

matter and anti-matter were converted into raw

energy.like a miniature photon torpedo, the

explosion took the surveillance ship out in a flare

of heat and light thousands of times more powerful

than anything the ship's lasers were capable

of.hargemon's rear-pointing sensors flared and

failed, and the shuttle itself bucked, threatening to tumble.

Regaining control, he turned the shuttle's

nose down again, heading straight into the atmosphere.

Now at least he had a chance--several chances.if

the explosion had come just as Kelgar's ship was

passing, that would be best.kelgar and his ship would be

gone, vaporized in the multi-million-degree

fireball. A little earlier, and the explosion would have

burned out Kelgar's forward sensors, just as it had

burned out his own rear ones.a little earlier yet, and

even though Kelgar's ship might not have been damaged

at all, there was still a chance that Kelgar had lost him

in the explosion, possibly assuming he had been

destroyed in it.

He would know within the next minute, when his shuttle

penetrated the atmosphere--if his shuttle

penetrated the atmosphere.

Chapter Eleven.

THEY HAD SEEN only three moving

vehicles within the city, and all were official

government hovercraft such as the one they had commandeered

themvs.one contained a complement of three, including a

Klingon, but the others held only beings that

Spock's tricorder registered as fully

human.none paid the slightest attention to the stolen

vehicle, but the one With the Klingon aboard,

Rohgan noted uneasily, was just pulling away from

the home of one of his fellow conspirators, another

whose name Tylmaurek remembered from the

pre-Delkondros Council.

"They must know something," Rohgan said With a nervous

frown, "but obviously not everything, if they're

checking up on people who've been at the ship for more than

a day."

"Perhaps," Tylmaurek said, trying to sound more

optimistic than he was, "they're just checking up

on people I knew, people they thought I might go to for

help.perhaps that is why they came to your

quarters."

Rohgan nodded."...We can only hope."

Then they had left the city behind them, and they all,

except for Spock, breathed a sigh of

relief.even McCoy, though not letting his guard

down, allowed himself to think that, just maybe, they would not

be greeted by an army of Klingons at the ship.

Now the highway stretched ahead of them, even more

deserted than the city streets.the only light was the

faint glow from the smaller of Vancadia's

two moons, shrouded occasionally by high, thin clouds.

Not a single manmade light could be seen anywhere.

It was as if the entire world had been shut down for the

night.

"It wasn't always like this," Rohgan said as the

last of the city's sparse lights vanished behind

them."...I only hope, when your Klingons go on their

way, the life will return."

For the next hundred kilometers--rolling hills

and agricultural land that reminded McCoy of his

boyhood GeorgiaBthe two Vancadians tried

to determine when the Klingons had first arrived in the

Chyrellkan system. Within months of the Federation's

initial contact seemed most likely, they finally

decided, and neither Spock nor McCoy disagreed.

The first rumors of Chyrellka's change of

heart about granting Vancadian independence on

schedule had started about then, and the first "timely" death

of a political candidate had been only months

later.the first time anyone heard of Delkondros was

another year after that, and by that time Chyrellka had a

new and almost hysterically anti-Vancadian

Premier named Kaulidren.he promptly

tightened Chyrellka's grip on the colony,

taking power away from the Vancadians'

elected government and giving it to the Chyrellkan

overseers such as Governor Ulmar.

Then the deaths had started-- the obviously violent

deaths such as the ones documented in the tape that

Kaulidren had brought to the Enterprise.chyrellka

had responded With massive numbers of arrests.

"Sometimes they took the time to manufacture

evidence," Tylmaurek said bitterly, "sometimes

not."

The final straw had been Delkondros'

ill-timed attempt to destroy not only the

Chyrellkan space fleet but their ability

to build a new one. From that point on, the

Chyrellkans had become an occupying army

despite the fact that the vast majority of

individual Vancadians, like Rohgan, were

appalled by both Delkondros' attack and the

killings of resident Chyrellkans.

"In hindsight," Rohgan said at one point,

"it's obvious that most of the trouble was purposely being

stirred up by a relatively small group.a very

ruthless group, willing to kill indiscriminately

to achieve its goals.we--and I mean both

Chyrellkans and Vancadians--aren't like

t.chyrellka had its wars long ago, but

the planet had been at peace for two hundred

years, had a working worldwide government long before

establishing settlements on Vancadia.but those

years made us naive. We believed what

Delkondros and others like him sd.we simply

never thought" He broke off, sighing, and they continued

in silence for several kilometers.

Soon the road swung sharply to the left, and the

scent of salt air--sharper, cleaner than that of

Earth but not all that different--touched their nostrils.

Minutes later there appeared ahead the first

artificial lights, aside from a few dozen

isolated houses, they had seen since leaving the

city. Skeletal towers, looking like miniature

versions of the half-dozen launch complexes still

preserved in the Kennedy Space Park, poked into the

night sky above everything else.

Spock's tricorder showed a concentration of

lifeforms spread over several square kilometers,

With perhaps a hundred in the immediate vicinity of one of the

towers.

"Our only spaceport, now," Tylmaurek

offered.

"It's heavily guarded and, if rumors can be

trusted, is being used primarily

to evacuate Chyrellkan civilians and replace

them With military." He shook his head."...Ten years

ago the military barely existed.

There were a half-dozen spaceports like this, bringing

in hundreds of new settlers, even a few

tourists, every day.delkondros and the Klingons

destroyed all that."

"Is your ship in there somewhere?" McCoy asked

uneasily.

Rohgan shook his head."...Those are for the standard

shuttle launches. Luckily our ship doesn't

require all that support.with its drive, it can

lift off from almost anywhere."

Slowing, Rohgan veered to the right, aiming the

hovercraft at a break in the shrub-like growth that here

lined both sides of the road. Simultaneously he

boosted the power to the engines, and McCoy heard

their muffled hiss increase as the machine went into its

off-road mode and lifted itself inches higher off the

ground.for minutes, then, that hiss was the only sound

as Rohgan took them through a park-like wilderness of

trees and grass and occasional footpaths,

obviously little used in recent weeks. They were

nearing the top of a hill, Rohgan maneuvering

cautiously among the trees, when

Spock, who had been studying his tricorder

intently, looked up.

"I assume, Professor," Spock said, "the

ship of which you speak is on a bearing of

approximately fifty-seven degrees to the right of

our present heading."

Rohgan shot a glance toward the Vulcan."...How

did you know that?"

"There is a concentration of antimatter on that

bearing.i assume it is your ship's power

source.all the shuttles, now to our rear, appear

to possess low-level nuclear drives."

"Antimatter?" McCoy sighed."...There goes the

last hope that this drive--or anything else--was a

legitimate invention.that antimatter had to come from

the Klingons." He looked at Rohgan and

Tylmaurek.

"Unless Vancadia is capable of producing

large quantities of antimatter..."

Rohgan shook his head."...ation that I am aware

of.i know it is being created in laboratories on

Chyrellka in minute amounts, for scientific

experiments, but I have never been privy to the

details of any of Delkondros' so-called

inventions."

"Nor I," Tylmaurek added."...Whenever I

asked anything--"

"Unit Seventeen," a static-shrouded voice

called from a speaker somewhere in the vehicle, "please

respond."

Spock immediately consulted his tricorder."...The

signal is coming from the direction of the city," he said.

"I assume this thing we're in is Unit

Seventeen," McCoy said, looking at the two

Vancadians as the call was repeated."...Can either of you

fake an answer?"

"I would not suggest it, gentlemen," Spock said,

"unless you at least know the names of the occupants the

caller expects to respond."

"But if we don't answer--" McCoy began.

"If we do not answer, Doctor, their

suspicions will be aroused.if we answer

incorrectly, they will be confirmed."

For more than a minute the requests for a response

continued.when they finally stopped, Spock continued

to study his tricorder.

After a few seconds he looked up."...Stop the

vehicle, Professor."

"What"...Why should I--"

"Our attempted subterfuge has been

unsuccessful.

Approximately five seconds after the caller

ceased attempting to elicit a response from this

unit, an electronic device began

broadcasting a homing signal.i can assume only

that its purpose is to guide the authorities to this

vehicle."

McCoy grimaced as the hovercraft slowed and

settled to the ground.they were near the top of the hill,

the trees thinning out."...Can't you find the thing, Spock,

and remove it?" he asked.

"I have already located it, Doctor," Spock

said."...I doubt, however, that it can be removed without

adequate tools.it is approximately

twenty-five centimeters directly behind the

communication unit itself, and the tricorder reveals no

way of gaining access.a most efficient design--

most likely engineered to prevent hijackings such as

this one."

"Blasted paranoid Klingons," McCoy

muttered, "they think of everything."

"We're almost to the ship," Rohgan said."...If

we move quickly, we can be there before they can send

anyone after u.after all, we're nearly two

hundred kilometers from the city."

Spock studied his tricorder for several

seconds, scanning the area ahead."...That might be

possible, Professor," he said finally, "but I

suspect we will have some difficulty reaching the ship

itself."

"What"...Why should we have trouble--"

"We are now close enough to what I assume is the

location of your ship for individual lifeforms

to register, Professor, and two of the lifeforms in

the immediate vicinity of the antimatter register as

Klingon."

He had made xffHe was going to survive after

all!

The atmosphere, entered at a steeper angle

than the shuttle had ever been designed to handle, had

closed around him in a blanket of friction-generated

flame, taking out his forward sensors and leaving him

totally blind until the cocoon of superheated air

cooled to transparency, and even then he would be

limited strictly to what his own, low-tech but

so-far-reliable eyes could see through the emergency

viewport.

But he was still aliveffIt was, he thought With a

sudden, silent laugh, at least a start.

The viewport finally lost its shroud of

flame, and a patch of the planet's surface

appeared in the narrow opening, barely visible in the

pale light of the single moon.still going down too

steeply, he realized abruptly.bringing the nose

of the shuttle up another degree, then two, he

leaned forward, closer to the port, in an attempt

to get a wider view.

His heart leaped as he spotted, several

kilometers off to the right, the lights of the shuttle

launch complex.his luck was holding.the other

ship, the one he had to reach if he was going to have a

chance to ever get back off this world, if he was ever going

to have a chance to get his revenge on the commander, was only

a dozen kilometers inland and another dozen to the

south.he was at least in the right area--a miracle,

considering his method of descent.

But he was also a long way from being home

free.that other ship wouldn't be so conveniently lit

up, and With the shuttle's sensors dead, he would no

longer be able to home in on its antimatter.

But even if he could, he wouldn't be able to land

there.he wouldn't dare use the decaying remnants

of the nearly hundred-year-old landing strip.the

Klingons the commander almost certainly still had on

duty there might not yet have been told what

had happened between him and Kelgar, but even so, their

inborn suspicion and paranoia would be more than enough

to prompt them to notify the commander if an unscheduled

and unexpected shuttle came careening in and the

commander's right-hand man, who was supposed to be thousands

of kilometers out in space tending to the Enterprise,

came staggering out, suicidally insisting on getting on

board.

And then there was the very real possibility that he was

too late, that the ship had already been launched.

But there was no point in even considering such dire

possibilities.if the ship had been launched,

he would be stranded forever on this-The shuttle lurched,

almost dislodging him from his seatddabruptly, his mind was

again centered only on survival.what the devil

had gone wrong now?

Jabbing at the controls an instant later, he

saw what had happened. More than the sensors had

been damaged during his fiery entry into the

atmosphere.the tiny computer that operated them--and the

shuttle's controls--was gone as well, some of its

key circuits probably overloaded by feedback

before the sensors themselves had given up the ghost.damn

Klingon design anyway!

Gripping the manual controls, he

realized that Klingon design was still not through With hm.the

manual controls were designed for Klingon strength,

not for that of mere humans.he could move them, but not

With the speed or dexterity he would need in a situation

like this, where split seconds could mean the difference between

life and death.

Swearing silently, his eyes straining to spot

familiar landmarks in the dim moonlight, he fought

the controls.

He was still fighting them a minute later, when the

landscape seemed to suddenly leap upward into his

path, and a huge tree--looking remarkably like a

massive willow tree, a corner of his mind

insisted on pointing out--thrust its drooping branches

into his path and slammed the shuttle to the ground.

Chapter Twelve.

With SPOCK'S anouncement there were Klingons at

the launch site, all of McCoy's misgivings

came flooding back.robgan, if not in league

With Delkondros and the Klingons, must at the very least

be their dupe. Either way, the activities of

Rohgan's "secret" group of engineers and

ex-councilmen must have been an open book

to Delkondros, and he and Spock had never had a

chance.

"It doesn't look as if you were very good at

keeping a secret after all, Professor

Rohgan," he said With a scowl.

"Considering the conditions we have uncovered,

Doctor," Spock interjected quietly, "that

failure is neither surprising nor

blameworthy.in any event, it would be more profitable

for conu to expend our energies in an effort to plan our

future course of action rather than in expressing

recriminations regarding past courses."

McCoy turned his scowl on Spock for a

moment, then shook his head. "Logically, I

suppose you're right," he said, "but I'm afraid

I'm fresh out of ideas.

And almost out of Klingon knockout shots," he

added, tapping his medikit.

"If we could find another vehicle, one without a

beacon--" Rohgan began.

"You're the one who said we'd have a better chance in

this one!" Tylmaurek snapped."...If we'd taken

mine--"

"Professor Rohgan," Spock interrupted,

"are you knowledgeable regarding the physical layout

of the launch site area?"

After a brief silence Rohgan turned

in his seat toward Spock."...To some extent, yes."

"Then, if I were to pinpoint the locations of the two

Klingons, you would be able to route us around them on

foot and still get us to the immediate vicinity of the ship?"

"I would think so, yes."

"And are there any among those at the ship that you could

trust not to raise an alarm the moment we approached

them?"

"Several, I'm sure, although it would probably

be better if there was some way I could have a minute

or two alone With them before you showed your faces."

"Of course, Professor.however, we may not

have that luxury.

Something flashed in the night sky, a brilliant

pinpoint that momentarily hid the single moon behind a

light that rivalled a small sun.

"The ship!" Rohgan gasped, jerking around to stare

out at the fading light."...They've destroyed the ship!"

"No, Professor," Spock said almost

instantly, "your ship's antimatter fuel is still

on the ground, intact.

The source of that discharge was..." He paused,

studying the tricorder. "...bby the range of this

instrument to locate precisely, but the radiation is

of a nature that could be created only by an

antimatter explosion."

"Photon torpedo?" McCoy asked, his

voice suddenly unsteady.

"No, Doctor.this was far smaller than any

such device the Enterprise carries."

"But a Klingon vessel might--"

"That is a possibility, Doctor." Spock

continued to study the tricorder. "And a small

vessel has just come into range, descending along a

trajectory that would be consistent With its having

originated in the vicinity of the energy release."

"Klingon?"

"The readings do indicate Klingon technology,

Doctor.the sole occupant of the vessel, however,

registers as fully human."

McCoy shook his head."...What the blazes is

going on"...Tylmaurek? Professor Rohgan?"

"If it has to do With these Klingons of yours,"

Rohgan said, "you should be in a far better position

to know than either of us!"

"If it continues on its present

trajectory," Spock announced, looking up from

the tricorder, "it will come down only a short distance

from here."

"Land?" McCoy looked at

Spock."...Or crash?"

"That is impossible to determine at this point.the

pilot appears to have some control, but whether he has

enough to land safely is uncertain.in either case,

however, I suggest we investigate before making our

attempt to reach the launch site."

"Spock, are you out of your pointy-eared mind!

What we should do is make a run for the ship--now!

If this thing comes down anywhere near, it'll

provide a distraction! For that matter, that explosion

has already provided one, and we should be taking

advantage of it!"

"That does not logically follow,

Doctor.first, it is possible that rather than

distracting the Klingons and their possible allies in the

vicinity of the ship, it has made them more

alert.second, it is also possible that they either know

what the energy release was or were even responsible for

it and have therefore not been distracted in the least. Finally,

talking to the pilot, or failing that, simply

inspecting the vessel or its wreckage, could

contribute vital information."

McCoy rolled his eyes."...ally can never have enough

information, Spock, I know, I know.but there are

times when you have to stop gathering information and

act."

"Of course, Doctor, and we will, as soon as

we avail ourselves of this seemingly serendipitous

opportunity."

He returned his attention to the tricorder.

"Professor Rohgan," he said after a moment,

"you may begin With a heading approximately ten

degrees to the right of the launch site heading."

"That's where it's coming down?" Tylmaurek asked.

"That is where the vessel's present and somewhat

erratic course indicates it will touch down.i would

suggest, Professor, that we not waste any more time

in discussion."

"Something we can finally agree on," McCoy

muttered as Rohgan took the hovercraft out of

idle and aimed it generally in the direction Spock

had indicated.

Five minutes later, as they were topping another

hill, a line of small flashes appeared low in the

sky less than a kilometer ahead, apparently

confirming the tricorder readings.

"That's not heading for what I'd exactly call a

perfect landing," McCoy said With a wince as the

flashes disappeared beyond the next hill.

"Perhaps not, Doctor," Spock said a

few seconds later, "but the pilot has

survived, though not without injury."

The vessel, they saw less than five minutes

later, was small and utilitarian, obviously

meant for a single occupant.it had plowed through the

branches of the largest tree on the hillside.that

was, in fact, what had saved it from even worse

damage when it struck the ground halfway up the

slope.its single door had popped open and hung

askew.

"The pilot is unconscious," Spock said as

Rohgan lowered the hovercraft to the ground a dozen

yards away.

McCoy cast a nervous glance in the direction

of the launch site as they climbed out."...What about those

Klingons you spotted"...Are they coming to look this thing

over too?"

"It would not appear so, Doctor.within the limits

of the readings, they have not moved since they were first

detected."

McCoy in the lead, Spock continually

monitoring his tricorder for any indication that the

vessel's drive or power source was edging toward

an explosion, they hurried to the downed

vessel.mcCoy, his hand on his medical

tricorder, reached it first and peered inside.

And froze.

"What the blazes--" He reached inside the

cramped quarters With his medical tricorder but

couldn't crane his neck enough to make out the readings.

"SpockffGive me a handffThis man is

Starfleet!"

"Starfleet, Doctor?"

"He's wearing an ensign's uniformffationow, give

me a handffLet's get him out of here so I can do

something for him."

As Spock paused to force the door open wider,

McCoy continued to try to get some readings.finally,

the door was as open as it was possible to get it.

Motioning McCoy aside, Spock reached in and

managed to extricate the pilot from the seat, which had

tilted forward but had not quite come loose from its

fastenings.blood covered half the pilot's face

where it had struck the viewport.

As Spock lifted him out, the pilot groaned

slightly.

"Looks kind of old to be an ensign,"

McCoy muttered, eyeing the short-cropped graying

beard as Spock lowered the man to the uneven ground a

few yards from the crashed vessel.hunkering

down, he began running the medical tricorder

sensor over the man.

"That is because, Doctor," Spock said

quietly, "he was once a lieutenant commander."

"What?" McCoy looked up, frowning."...What

the devil are you talking about, Spock?"

"It is a long story, Doctor.what is

important now is his condition. Is he seriously

injured?"

Still frowning, McCoy turned back to the man on

the ground."...ationothing broken," he said after a few more

seconds With the medical tricorder,

"miraculously.

Lots of bruises, obviously some cuts on his

head, and a minor concussion."

"How soon can he be returned to consciousness,

Doctor?"

"Fairly quickly, Spock--if I had him

back in sickbay on the Enterprise. But here, With

no more than I have in my medikit, it would be a lot

safer to let him come out of it on his own.mixing

concussions and drugs and very limited medical

equipment isn't--"

"I realize that, Doctor, but I suspect this

man may have the answers to a number of

important questions, answers which conceivably could

measurably enhance the probability of our safe

return to the Enterprise."

McCoy was silent a moment, glancing from his

medical tricorder to Spock and back.despite

his and

Spock's seemingly perpetual disagreements,

McCoy could never bring himself, even in their most

heated arguments, to doubt the Vulcan's knowledge or

intelligence or even his intentions.

"All right, Spock," he said finally, "I know

you're never inscrutable without a reason.give me a

minute and I'll see what I can do."

Taking a hyper-absorbent swab from the medikit,

he hurriedly wiped away the drying blood from around

the head wounds.he was coating the areas With the

germicidal combination sealant and coagulant from the

spray applicator when Spock looked up from his

tricorder and briefly surveyed the surrounding

landscape.

"Can he be safely moved, Doctor?"

"As long as we don't bang his head.but I

thought you wanted me to wake him up."

"A matter of more urgency has arisen,

Doctor.the Klingons I detected near

the launch site are coming this way, apparently in a

pair of hovercraft.each also has an energy

weapon and is accompanied by three other lifeforms that

register as human."

McCoy grimaced but was not surprised.it was just

one more indication that the Klingons were far better informed,

far better coordinated, than Rohgan had

thought.once the beacon on the hijacked hovercraft

had gone off and the Klingons back in the city had

realized it was close to the launch site, they had

probably contacted their launch-site counterparts and

sent them out to collect the hijackers.

Or, more likely, kill them.

"How long do we have?" McCoy asked sharply.

"At their current rate of progress,

approximately three-point-five minutes."

McCoy grimaced as he finished applying the

sealant-coagulant and replaced the applicator

in the medikit.as the doctor stood up, Spock

slipped the tricorder strap off his shoulder and handed

the machine to McCoy.

"I will transport him to the vehicle," Spock

said as he hunkered down and slid his arms under the

man's back and legs.

With seeming effortlessness, the Vulcan

stood up, carefully cradling the man's head against

his shoulder.

Placing him in the middle of the back seat of the

hovercraft in a sitting position, he climbed in

himself and motioned McCoy to get in on the other side

so they could together support the unconscious man.

Rohgan and Tylmaurek were already in the front

seat, watching Spock apprehensively.

McCoy, still tracking the Klingons on

Spock's tricorder, climbed in. "It looks

like they're trying to sneak up on us," he said, handing

the tricorder back to Spock."...They've split up

and are coming at us from both sides."

Spock studied the tricorder only a

second."...Professor Rohgan," he said, "how

much time is required to activate the ship and take

off?."

"Running through the normal checklist would take--"

"Limit your estimate to only those essentials

required for an emergency liftoff,

Professor."

Rohgan's eyes widened in the near darkness."...I

would think a minute, perhaps less."

Spock glanced again at the tricorder and then to the

left and right. "The two hovercraft will be

coming over that rise, Professor," he said,

pointing, "and around that grove of trees in

approximately one minute. I suggest you take

the most direct route to the ship--if you feel

confident that you can trust the majority of your

co-conspirators to take you at your word, quickly, and

help us."

"I don't know what to think anymore,"

Rohgan said, licking his lips nervously.his

eyes darted from side to side, toward the spots where

Spock had said the Klingons would appear at any

moment.he let his breath out in a whooshing sigh."...But

I don't see what other choice we have at the

moment."

The soft idling hiss of the hovercraft increased

sharply in volume. McCoy steadied the

unconscious man as the vehicle went immediately

into off-road mode, rocking for a moment before it

stabilized and began to move up the hill.

"Both Klingons have changed course to take

into account our own motion, Professor," Spock

said a moment later."...They apparently are able

to track our vehicle directly by means of the

electronic beacon."

"I can't say that comes as a total

surprise, Spock," McCoy muttered, but the

Vulcan seemed oblivious to the words as he shifted

the tricorder to scan ahead.

"How large is your ship, Professor?"

Spock asked a moment later, his eyebrows arching

minutely."...How many passengers will it hold?"

"I don't know precisely.it was made from one

of the original landing shuttles, which had seats for forty.

But the cushions had deteriorated so badly that

we had to simply take the seats out and cushion the

floor and walls.or so I was told.i was also

told that no more than twenty of us would be aboard when

it took off."

A moment later they topped the hill and started

down.mcCoy's eyes widened at the scene spread

out before them.even in the dim light from the single moon,

he could see the entire kilometer-wide valley,

its bottom almost perfectly flat, its length--at

least ten kilometers--almost perfectly

straight.down the center ran a long-abandoned landing

strip, not unlike the ones the first Earth shuttles

had used.on each side were hundreds of decaying

buildings, all With a prefab look about them,

ranging from massive hangars and factories to what

must have once been houses.on a hill on

the far side of the valley was a complex of dozens of

power accumulator antennas, each tens of meters

acr.at one time they almost certainly would have all

been aimed at a solar power satellite high above

the planet's equator, but now only a few still

looked in that direction.most were sagging, all were

rusted, and some had collapsed entirely.

And at one end of the strip, almost directly

ahead, stood the ship, looking for all the world like a

large, blocky version of the old Earth shuttles,

except that the rocket nozzles had been replaced

by impulse engines.

And the door on one side was open, a makeshift

ramp leading up to x.a line of men and women were

climbing the ramp.

"My GodffRohgan breathed."...Talk about

timing!

They must be just getting ready to take off!" He

shook his head."...But they shouldn't be.if the people we

sent to warn them after Delkondros' broadcast--"

"There are fifty lifeforms, all registering

human, either inside the craft or about to enter,"

Spock said, looking up from his tricorder.

"That's virtually everyone here, including those who

came to warn the ones who came earlier,"

Rohgan said."...What the devil is happening?"

"That's what I'd like to know," McCoy grated.

Glancing backward, he saw the two pursuing

hovercraft appear at the top of the hill and start

down the slope of the valley after them."...But whatever it

is, it doesn't look good."

McCoy grimaced as Rohgan pushed the

hovercraft to its limit racing down the

slope.whatever the Klingons knew or were planning,

getting to that ship still represented the only real hope

he and Spock had.

The beacon made fleeing in the hovercraft

impossible.

And if they abandoned it, the Klingons in the

pursuing hovercraft would be on them within seconds,

and they didn't have even a phaser With which to defend

themselves.

Suddenly, they were among the buildings.mcCoy

winced as Rohgan snaked the hovercraft between two

hangars, their decay even more evident at this

range.

Ahead, the last of the passengers had reached the top

of the ramp. Stopping in the door, he looked back,

apparently hearing the hovercraft's

approach.behind them the two Klingon

hovercraft seemed to have slowed, making their way

along other, wider avenues than the

paint-scrapingly narrow one Rohgan had chosen.

The hovercraft lurched to a stop and settled to the

ground only yards from the foot of the ramp.rohgan

and Tylmaurek were out instantly, Rohgan waving

to the man at the top of the steps."...It's Jarlok!"

he said over his shoulder to McCoy and the

others."...He's one of the ones we sent to warn them!"

"Rohgan!" the man at the top of the ramp shouted

down."...What are you doing here"...The last message you

sent--"

"Was a lie!" Rohgan shouted back."...I have

sent no messages since you yourself left my

apartment!"

"Then why did--"

"I'll explain laterffFor now, please, you must

trust meffWe have to get on board and start the launch

immediately!"

"But the governor's broadcast said that

Tylmaurek--" Jarlok began, but broke off, his

eyes widening as he saw Spock and McCoy

climbing out of the hovercraft, Spock cradling the

injured man in his arms, McCoy again carrying the

tricorder."...Are you their prisoner?"

"It's nothing like that!" Rohgan and Tylmaurek

were at the foot of the ramp now, starting up."...The

broadcast was a lieffVirtually everything you've

heard tonight--and a lot of what we've been told the

last several years--has been lies!"

At the top of the steps now, Rohgan gripped the

other man's arm, while Tylmaurek remained a

step down, looking even more uneasy than Jarlok.

"There is an explanation," Rohgan said

urgently, "but unless we lift off immediately, I

won't live long enough to give xffWhatever you've

heard tonight about the Federation, Jarlok, it's

probably a lieffWhat is important now--

life and death important to all of us!--is that we

all get on this ship and get it up before those--" A

gesture back at the two approaching

hovercraft.?--can stop us!"

"But the startup procedure alone--"

"Can be shortcut!" Rohgan snapped."...Must be

shortcut!" For a long moment Jarlok's eyes

seemed to search Rohgan's.then, abruptly, as

Spock reached the foot of the ramp, the man backed

away, turned, and was gone.

Rohgan quickly stood aside, motioning the others

inside.spock, despite his burden,

took the steps two at a time.mcCoy, only a

second behind him, jerked to a stop, suddenly

remembering the Klingon--Spock's "evidence"--still

stashed in the hovercraft storage compartment.but there

was no time to get him, and besides, the way things were going,

they would have all the evidence they needed.with a last

glance at the hovercraft, McCoy darted inside

the ship.

The interior was a barren, quonset hut-like cabin

With some kind of thin cushioning on the floor and

walls.many of the people were already on the floor, gripping

makeshift handholds, while others were lowering

themvs.at the front was a bulkhead With an open

door, beyond which was the pilot's area.the one to whom

Rohgan had been talking was just inside the door,

talking earnestly to the man in the pilot's chair.

As Spock lowered the unconscious man to the

thinly cushioned floor, Rohgan closed and

latched the outer door.most of the people were watching

Spock and McCoy With open curiosity, three

or four With what looked like fear.

McCoy grimaced as he looked once again at

the tricorder before handing it back to Spock.the

Klingons were no longer coming after them.they had stopped

their hovercraft a good hundred meters from

the shuttle and were remaining in them, presumably

watching and reporting and asking for new instructions.

"Rohgan!" one of the passengers spoke up, his

eyes darting nervously back and forth between

Tylmaurek and the three men in Starfleet uniforms

and Rohgan.

"Why have you brought these--these assassins here?"

Robgan turned sharply from the door, now

solidly closed."...The broadcast was a lie!" he

said loudly.

"Delkondros himself killed those men, not

Tylmaurek or any so-called Federation

assassination squad!"

A dozen voices erupted at once, drowning

each other ou.rohgan quickly raised both hands above

his head."...for right this minute," he said, shouting above

the other voices, repeating the words three or four

times until the others fell silent, "for right this

minute, you will have to trust me.i know that some of you will

find it hard to believe that Delkondros is a

killer, but it's true, and there's worse to come, far

worse.but right now, all that is important is

that we and these men from the Federation, from the starship

Enterprise, get into space.if we succeed, there

will be time to explain and--"

"No, Professor Rohgan, that isn't

enough!" a new voice broke in.the pilot, an

almost skeletally thin blond man, had gotten up from

his seat and was standing in the bulkhead door, scowling at

Rohgan.

"We have been getting one different order after

another the last few hours--from you yourself, among others

--and now you come dashing in at the last minute With

three people your messengers told us only minutes

ago were cold-blooded killersffI am not--"

"They are not killers!" Rohgan almost shouted.

"They barely escaped With their lives themvsffThe

government broadcasts were liesffPlease, you must--"

The ship shuddered, shaking everyone into a sudden

silence.the pilot spun around toward the controls.

The seat he had just left was empty, but a

sequence of lights on the control panel was flashing.

Charts and calculations were scrolling across the

display screen.

Wordlessly, the pilot leaped back to his seat and

began jabbing at the controls.

The lights continued to flash, the messages continued

to scroll.

The ship continued to shudder--and then began to move.

The pilot jerked around to scowl angrily

at Rohgan.

"Another of your surprises, Professor?"

he almost snarled.

Rohgan darted suddenly fearful glances at

Spock and McCoy."...What is happening"...Were you

lying to me?"

Spock, the moment the ship's engines had shuddered

into life, had returned to his tricorder.now he

looked up."...allyr ship is being controlled by signals

being beamed to it from somewhere in space, beyond the range of

my instrument."

Rohgan and the pilot both stared at the

Vulcan.the ship was now accelerating sharply, forcing

everyone not on the floor to grip the handholds along

the walls.

"That's impossible!" the pilot

protested."...Remote control capability was not

built into this ship."

"Nonetheless, gentlemen, that is what is

happening."

"This ship of yours--this Enterprise is doing it!"

"No, gentlemen, the Enterprise has no such

capability."

"But don't you sometimes wish it did,

Mr.spock?"

A new voice jolted everyone into looking around

for the speaker until someone realized it was coming from the

vicinity of the control panel.

The pilot spun back to the control panel,

jabbing at the controls, trying to shut the voice

off.as he tried, the ship left the ground and veered

sharply upward.

"Who are you?" he asked, slumping back."...What

are you doing to us?"

Spock looked up again from his tricorder."...The

voice is coming from the same source as the signal that

is controlling the ship," he said.

"Very good, Mr.spock," the voice said

mockingly.

"May I assume you have logically deduced my

own identity as well?"

"In your current incarnation, yes, Premier

Kaulidren." A new outburst greeted

Spock's words, but almost everyone fell silent as the

Vulcan continued.

"However, I have not yet determined your true

identity."

"I wouldn't want you to die without knowing that,

Mr.spock.it's Carmody, Jason

Carmody."

Spock was silent a moment."...Certain aspects

of the situation are becoming clear, Lieutenant

Commander Carmody.starfleet has always assumed you

were either killed or taken prisoner by the Klingons."

"I thought that information would be available in your data

banks, Mr. Spock.and it's correct.i was

taken prisoner by the Klingons after Delar Seven,

along With most of the Chafee's personnel, but since

I was already a prisoner in a Federation starship

brig, the Klingons were naturally curious.in the end

we reached a meeting of minds, you might say.i have

been progressing quite well ever since, far better

than I would have fared in the Federation, don't you

think?"

"It is understandable that you would find Klingon

philosophy more compatible With your own than the

Federation's had been.as I recall, the

evidence that would have been presented at your

court-martial, all given by eyewitnesses from your

own crew, would almost certainly have resulted in your

conviction on charges of willful violation of the

Prime Directive."

"It no doubt would have." Carmody's voice

grew harsher."...Starfleet would never understand, never

accept my reasons for doing what I did

on Delar--but what I did was right.in some ways

I was sorry not to have the chance to officially present my

side of the case, my reasons." There was a mock

sigh."...It's too bad that my timid friends back in

Starfleet will never know the truth about this episode,

ei.but that would defeat the whole purpose, then,

wouldn't it, Mr.spock"...But the fact that you know that

I am responsible for your coming deaths, not to mention the

imminent death and disgrace of Captain Kirk and the

destruction of the Enterprise--and, eventually, the

entire Federation--will help alleviate the pain of

my disappointment."

A dozen other voices erupted around Spock--

questioning, frightened voices.

"You will explain to the others, won't you, Mr.

Spock?" Carmody went on. "As much as you are

able to logically deduce, that is.i would do the

honors myself, but I do have other matters to attend

to, particularly now that my assistant in all

this--Lieutenant Commander Finney--had to be disposed

of."

FinneyffInstinctively, McCoy started to turn

toward the injured man, but in almost the same instant,

he

felt Spock's iron grip on his

arm, keeping him from moving.

"SpockffWhat the devil!"

"What did Mr.finney do to earn your

disfavor?"

Spock asked With uncharacteristic loudness at the

same moment, drowning out McCoy's splutters.

"I don't have all the details,

Mr.spock," the voice said With a smile.

"Suffice it to say that, like Starfleet itself, he

didn't have the stomach for the hard decisions when the time

came.if I have the opportunity to speak to you again,

as I hope I will, perhaps I will tell you more, but

truthfully, I doubt that I sh.and if I don't

--I won't lie and say "Live long and

prosper." I will merely say goodbye. Goodbye,

Mr.spock, Dr. McCoy.you will never know

what a pleasure it has been doing business With you

and your self-righteous captain, about whom Mr.

Finney has told me so much."

abruptly, the voice fell silent, the connection

apparently broken."...It would appear to be safe

to speak now," Spock said after a brief check of the

tricorder.

"So that's what you meant, Spock!" McCoy

exclaimed as he turned and, steadying himself

With one of the floor-mounted handholds, knelt over the

man they had brought aboard."...'Once a lieutenant

commander." This is Finneyffally recognized him at the

crash!" Of course, he must have escaped before

completing psychological treatment."...But what did

Kaulidren--Carmody--mean about disposing..."

McCoy's words were cut off by a gasp from a

score of throats.

Alarmed, he looked up, his mouth still half open

as his eyes followed the gaze of the others to the

pilot's display screen.the scrolling messages

were gone.

In their place McCoy saw the menacing bulk of

an approaching surveillance ship, its banks of

laser cannon trained directly on them.

Chapter Thirteen.

"SAME RESULTS, CAPTAIN."

Lieutenant Pritchard looked up from the science

station readouts."...The program confirms the existence of

anomalous sensor readings, but it cannot pinpoint them

or determine their nature. I know it sounds

crazy, sir, but it's almost as if the computer were

deliberately hiding information from the program.if

Mr.spock were here, he could--"

"But he isn't here, Mr.pritchard!"

Kirk snapped.

"Is there anything more that those of us who are here can

do?"

Pritchard flushed at the rebuke but didn't

protest.

Of everyone on board, he knew, the captain must

feel Spock's loss the most--and dared show it the

least."...I can attempt to modify the program now that

the analysis is complete," he said, "but I can't

guarantee what the results would be without information

regarding the program designer's intentions.it

doesn't tell us why the designer wanted those

specific things done, or what he hoped to learn from

the results.or even if

the program in its present form really does what

the designer intended. He was still wor king on it when..."

Pritchard's voice trailed off uncomfortably.

Kirk was silent a moment, his features softening

as the frown faded. "Understood, Mr.pritchard,"

he said."...Do the best you can." Turning away from the

science station, he punched up Engineering.

"Mr.scott, any luck With the sensors from your

end?"

"Not a bit, Captain.the units we pulled and

replaced ha" been disassembled near down

ta the molecular level, and everything checks out

perfectly.

Whatever the trouble, it's not in the sensors--not these

sensors, at least."

"And the shuttlebay doors?"

"Two o' my men are working to rig them so we can

open them purely by hand, without even the hydraulics.

It will not be easy, Captain.the size o' those

doors--they were just not designed for anything like this."

"Understood, Scotty.keep at

x.lieutenant Uhura, have you--"

"Nothing, Captain.all circuits still check out

one hundred percent, no matter what conditions I

subject them to.we just aren't receiving any

signals, standard or subspace."

"Captain," Lieutenant Sulu broke in,

"a ship has just cleared the shield."

Kirk spun toward the science station."...Details,

Mr. PritchardffPower, lifeforms, everything!"

"It looks like a rudimentary form of impulse

drive, Captain, but that shouldn't be possible!"

"This must be the improved drive Kaulidren

told us about," Kirk said, his frown

returning.even the most basic impulse engine was

an order of magnitude more powerful--and more

technologically advanced--than nuclear-powered

drives."...How is this one powered, Lieutenant?"

"A small antimatter unit, sir."

"Antimatter"...Didn't your sensor scan

earlier show no evidence of antimatter?"

Pritchard blinked, as if just remembering."...It

did.

And this amount should have been enough to register."

Kirk grimaced."...Another impossibility, one

that even off-world interference wouldn't explain.where is

the ship headed, Lieutenant?"

"Its current trajectory will take it into an

orbit just above the orbits of the surveillance ships,

but With impulse drive, it can go anywhere it wants

within the solar system."

"Lifeforms?"

"Approximatelye" Pritchard began but

broke off as his eyes darted to the appropriate

readouts.

"Something wrong, Lieutenant?"

"I don't know, sir," Pritchard said after a

moment.

Swiftly, he called back a series of

earlier readings from the computer. "No lifeforms," he

said, and then, frowning "But I was certain,

when the ship first cleared the shield, that there were

lifeforms aboard, several lifeforms."

Kirk had come to stand behind the lieutenant.

"And now nothing?"

"That's right, sir.and when I called back the

initial readings, the ones I thought had showed

lifeforms--there," he said, gesturing at the screen,

"you can see for yourself.nothing."

"Just the opposite of the antimatter that wasn't

there but now is."

Pritchard swallowed."...allyes, sir."

"The lifeforms you thought you saw--human?

Klingon?"

"I--I don't know.human, I think, but I

only saw them for an instant out of the corner of my

eye, so maybe I just assumed--But if they weren't

really there anyway, it doesn't matter."

"Perhaps, perhaps n.is Mr.spock's

diagnostic program still running?"

"Yes, sir.i modified it to constantly

monitor computer activity." As Pritchard

spoke, he tapped in the code that brought up the

diagnostic displays."...It shows basically the same

as it has from the start, Captain.it insists there are

anomalous sensor readings, but it still cannot

identify or locate them."

"As if the computer were purposely hiding something from

the programs isn't that what you said before,

Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir, but--"

"If that were true, then it could also be hiding the

fact that there are lifeforms on board that ship."

"I suppose so, sir, but it doesn't make

sense."

"Virtually nothing that's happened since we

arrived in the Chyrellkan system has made

sense, Lieutenant, so that's not a valid

criterion.for the moment assume it's possible.then

try to figure out how something like that could be done."

"Basically, sir, the entire computer would

probably have to be reprogrammed."

"And anything that major would have to leave traces--

huge muddy footprints, I would think."

"Normally, yes, sir, but someone who was really

good--"

"Could clean up his footprints almost perfectly.

Someone like Mr.spock.understood,

Mr.pritchard.

And it would take someone like Mr.spock to find the

few traces that were missed."

"Yes, sir."

"Do the best you can in his absence.in the meantime, how

is this ship being guided if there isn't a pilot on

board"...Remote control?"

"No, sir, there is no indication of external

control signals.it must be following a

preprogrammed path."

"Weapons?"

"No, sir."

"Then the surveillance ships will almost certainly

destroy it."

"If they operate as Premier Kaulidren said,

yes."

As Pritchard spoke, he had continued to scan the

readouts.now his eyes widened."...CaptainffThere are

weaponsffI could have sworn--"

"What kind of weapons?"

"Five laser cannon, sir.but they weren't

there before!"

"Like the antimatter and the lifeforms?"

"Yes, sir, but I could have been mistaken about the

lifeform readings, and the amount of antimatter was

small enough that it could conceivably have been missed by the

sensors in the earlier scan.but these weapons would

have registered so plainly, I couldn't

possibly have missed them!"

"The result of another "anomalous" sensor

reading, Lieutenant"...h you checked the record of the

original readings?"

"Doing it now, sir." His fingers darted across the

keys.as the readouts changed, he shook his head.

"They were there, sir, right from the start."

"According to the computer records, Mr.pritchard,

according to the computer records." The faintest glimmer of

an idea began to form in his mind."...For the moment

concentrate all your efforts on working With the

diagnostic program.get whatever help you

need." Kirk turned toward the communications station.

"Lieutenant Uhura, can I assume this new

ship isn't talking to us?"

"Nothing being broadcast, sir, and no response

to our hails."

"Captain," Sulu broke in, "two of the

Chyrellkan surveillance ships appear to have

spotted the ship.

They're on an intercept course."

"Mr.pritchard, the laser cannon on the

surveillance ships and the ones that may or may not

exist on the new ship--assuming both do exist, would

our shields hold up against them?"

"Indefinitely, sir.if the power the sensors

now show the weapons as having is accurate."

Kirk grimaced."...We have to take something for

granted.shields up, Mr. Sulu, and put us

directly between the ascending ship and those so-called

surveillance ships.i'd like a closer look before it

gets blown away."

"Aye-aye, sir, shields up, impulse

power."

The Enterprise surged ahead, sweeping down

toward the fringes of the atmosphere, the ascending ship

growing on the screen.then, as they passed directly

over it, they pulled up in a sweeping arc and

leveled off in front of it, pacing it as it continued

to drive into orbit.

Moments later the nearest surveillance ship

swept onto the screen, bearing directly down on

them.

"Sensors indicate laser cannon primed and

ready to fire," Pritchard reported, but even as

he spoke, two beams lashed out from the approaching

ship, their power dissipating against the Enterprise

shields in a coruscating band of fire.

"Shields holding, Captain," Sulu

reported, "but the second surveillance

ship is closing in from the opposite direction.we

may have to pull back and enclose the--" Sulu

broke off abruptly.alm simultaneously, the

laser fire stopped, and the surveillance ship coasted

for a moment, then pointed its rectangular prow

upward, apparently heading back toward its normal

orbit.

"Captain!" Sulu said, his voice filled With

surprise.

"The ship is gone!"

"What happened?" Kirk snapped."...Was it

shot down by the other surveillance ship?"

"No, sir, it wasn't shot down.it's

just...gone.vanished."

"It has its own shield"...Like the one on the

planet?"

"No, sir.it just vanished.as if--" Sulu

paused, casting a quick glance over his shoulder at

Kirk."...The only time I've seen anything quite like it,

sir, was when I saw a Romulan vessel as it

cloaked."

McCoy's heart sank as he watched the

massive surveillance ship grow ever larger on the

screen.

Rohgan was standing next to the pilot, who

was back in his seat, trying to get the controls

to respond.

Except for Spock, who still kept a constant

watch on the tricorder, all eyes were on the

surveillance ship.

"Has the device that's supposed to protect us

been activated?" Rohgan asked sharply.

The pilot shook his head as he continued to work.

"I don't knowffationothing responds to the controls

here, so if it has been, it's the doing of whoever is

controlling us." He turned angrily to Spock and

McCoy."...Are you in league With Kaulidren"...Is

that why you are here?"

"Yes, I would also like to know!" Rohgan had also

turned to face them. "I took your word for these things,

you and Tylmaurek, but now--" He shot an

apprehensive glance at the surveillance ship

on the screen."...Are we about to be blown out of

existence"...Is that what Kaulidren meant about being

responsible for our deaths?"

"I do not believe so," Spock said

quietly."...I assume, however, that we soon will be

destroyed, one way or another, unless we are able

to learn precisely what the one you know as

Kaulidren is planning."

"Whoever he is," Rohgan said, "he seemed

to think you already knew, Mr. Spock.and he seemed

pleased, not worried."

"I know a little and suspect more," Spock

admitted, "but not enough to save u.our only realistic

chance of survival..."

He broke off abruptly, looking up from the

tricorder to the screen."...A ship, possibly a

Federation starship, possibly the Enterprise, has

just come within tricorder range," he said, retrieving

his communicator from his belt.

As he snapped it open, the Enterprise itself

appeared on the screen, half blocking the oncoming

surveillance ship.mcCoy had his communicator out

an instant later, but neither he nor Spock got

any response.

"What the blazes is going on?" McCoy

grated, shaking his communicator as if to jar it

into cooperation.

"That shield can't be blocking us now!"

"It isn't, Doctor," Spock said,

returning to his tricorder."...The Enterprise

shields are up, but they would not--" He broke off

again as the Enterprise shields flared

under the surveillance ship's sudden laser

fire, but within seconds the firing stopped.

Seconds later the surveillance ship quickly

reori-ented itself and began a rapid climb back

toward higher orbit.

"Maybe if they come close enough," McCoy

muttered, returning his attention to his

communicator.

"I do not think we can count on that, Doctor,"

Spock said, his eyes still on the screen, where the

Enterprise, too, was rapidly shrinking. "They

appear to be returning to standard orbit themselves."

"That's crazyffThey just saved our skins when that thing

tried to blast uffally saw it as well as I."

"I saw the surveillance ship fire,

Doctor, and I saw the Enterprise shields

deflect that fire.there is no indication they knew

we were on board.in fact, their current behavior

appears to indicate they are not aware of our

presence."

"That's even crazier, Spock.they have to know

we're hereffEven if our communicators are

blocked somehow, their sensors would pick us upffAt

this range, they'd even be able to see that a Vulcan

was aboard, so why--" The screen flared brightly, far

more brightly than the wash of lasers over the

Enterprise shields.most gasped, and everyone's

eyes snapped back to the screen."...It's firing at

us again!" someone almost screamed, and suddenly there was a

hushed silence.

"It is not firing," Spock said, looking up

once again from his tricorder."...The nearest

surveillance ship has just been destroyed in an

antimatter explosion."

McCoy, abruptly giving up on making sense

of anything that was happening, shook his head.then his

eyes fell on the injured and still unconscious man

they had brought aboard.

"Like the explosion that went off just before our friend here

came down?" McCoy asked, frowning in new

puzzlement."...Is something shooting them down, Spock,

or what?"

"The explosions were quite similar, Doctor,"

Spock said, returning once again to the tricorder,

"but I suspect that they were not shot down. Another

such ship has just come within range, and it, too,

contains a small amount of antimatter.the ship's

power, however, is derived from nuclear fusion.the

antimatter is not part of a power-generating device but

is isolated in a simple containment field.it

is logical to assume that the first ship was

similarly equipped and that its containment field was

ruptured in some way."

"Why the blazes would a ship carry a chunk of

antimatter around if it wasn't using it for power--

or as a weapon?"

"I do not have enough data to form a logical conclusion,

Doctor. However--" Spock broke off again, his

eyebrows arching slightly as something new came up

on his tricorder."...I now have new data,

Doctor. The surveillance ship to our rear has just

been destroyed in an identical explosion.this

one was preceded by a signal similar to the signals

that are controlling the ship we are on."

"Which means what, Spock?" McCoy prompted

when Spock fell silent for a moment.

"It would appear, Doctor, that the antimatter was

intended as a self-destruct mechanism that could be

triggered from a distance."

"Does this mean," Rohgan broke in, "that the

antimatter in this ship can be set off the same

way?"

"That is doubtful, Professor, although not

impossible.

The antimatter here is part of the drive, not a

separate item With no discernible

function.the person to ask is ex-Commander

Finney, here. Doctor," he continued, turning

to McCoy, "the sooner you can revive him, the

better our chances."

"Reviving him and having him die on us won't do

us any good," McCoy snapped.

"Then be careful to see that he does not die,

Doctor.

I have the utmost confidence in your skills."

In the next five minutes Spock's

tricorder picked up the energy flares from two more

antimatter explosions, but McCoy barely

noticed them as he worked With the injured man.

Finney, Kaulidren--Carmody--had said, and

now that he looked at him more closely, McCoy

could see that it was true.he could even see how

Spock had recognized the man immediately despite

the superficial differences. All but a faint touch

of the red in his hair had been replaced by gray. The

entire lower half of his face was covered With a

close-cropped salt-and-pepper beard.

But the eyes had not changed.they had had a

tortured look in them when he had been found hiding

in the Enterprise after the failure of his plot

to fake his own death and manipulate the

ship's computer so that its record would falsely show

the captain issuing the emergency order that had

supposedly led to that death.and now, even With his eyes

closed in unconsciousness, his face held that same

tortured look, as if his reaction to the injustices

he had always seen as being heaped upon him by his

superiors, even as far back as Starfleet

Academy, had finally become a permanent part of his

features.

The man who even now thought of himself as Hargemon

was suddenly awake. Instinctively, he flinched as

the last images of the crash of the shuttle flashed before

his eyes.a gasp escaped his lips as even that

slight motion sent a pulse of pain through his head.

Where the devil-His vision cleared, and he

gasped again as he saw the face of Dr.leonard

McCoy, looking down at him With its usual

frown. And behind him was Commander Spock .

And Rohgan and a half-dozen of the group the commander

had been manipulating.

And overhead-With a start, he finally recognized his

surroundings --the shuttleffAnd from the feel and sound of

it, it was already on its way! If they had gone too

far-abruptly, he turned his eyes to the two men from

the Enterprise."...How far out from Vancadia

are we?"

"We appear to have achieved orbit,

Mr.finney," Spock said quietly, "but we are

still accelerating."

Finney let his breath out in a whoosh and relaxed,

letting his body go limp on the thinly cushioned

floor.

"Then we have plenty of time." His eyes went

back to Spock and McCoy. "You may not believe

me right this minute, but I'm very glad to see you

two."

"At this point, Finney," McCoy said, "why

should I believe anything you say"...How the devil did

you--"

"We'll have the chance to catch up on old times

later," he said, the old bitterness surfacing in his

voice.wincing, he struggled into a sitting position,

then swayed to his feet."...That is, there will be, once

I make a certain transmission.doctor, if you

would lend me your communicator?"

McCoy's frown deepened."...Why the blazes should

I do t"...What--" Finney held out his hand."...Because

if you don't, I will be forced to use this ship's

communication system, which has no doubt been

booby-trapped.and if I do not make this

call--and soon--this ship and everyone on it will be

vaporized."

Chapter Fourteen.

KIRK SPUN TOWARD the science

station."...Report, Mr. Pritchard."

"The vessel no longer registers on any

sensor, Captain."

"Was the pattern the same as that of a vessel being

cloaked"...Or is this something different"...And

Mr.sulu, take us back to standard orbit.i

don't want an accidental collision With that, no

matter what it is."

"Aye, sir."

As the Enterprise swooped back toward orbit,

Pritchard recalled the series of readings to the

display, studied them briefly, started to speak, then

called up another series from the computer."...Computer,

perform a detailed comparison of these two sets of

readings," he ordered.

"The two sets of readings are identical," the

computer's feminine monotone reported moments

later.

Pritchard darted a glance at the captain, then

returned to the display. "Repeat comparison," he

said after a moment."...Since the ships in the

two incidents

differ greatly in mass and volume, it seems

unlikely the readings could be identical."

"The two sets of readings are identical," the

computer repeated.

Pritchard turned to Kirk."...ally heard,

Captain," he said uneasily."...The comparison was

between the sensor readings taken during the moments it

took the ship to vanish and similar readings taken

during the cloaking of a Romulan warship.there should

have been some differences."

"Agreed, Lieutenant," Kirk said, frowning

thoughtfully.

"No two events of any kind should produce

totally identical sets of readings.but considering

the problems we've been having With the sensors, can we

trust the present set of readings?"

Pritchard swallowed."...I don't know,

Captain." He glanced nervously at the readouts

and back to Kirk.

"Commander Spock's program indicates only

that anomalous readings do exist.it has not confirmed

that any specific readings--or any readings at

all--are actually in error."

"Understood,

Mr.pritchard.mr.scott--"

"Captain!" Sulu broke in."...A

surveillance ship has been fired upon!"

Kirk turned sharply to the main

viewscreen."...Maximum magnification!"

"Aye-aye."

For an instant the screen was filled With the image

of one of the menacing-looking surveillance ships, a

molten-ringed hole where one of the dummy laser ports

had been.then it was gone, the screen momentarily

flaring in overload, then backing off the

magnification until there was a sma ll, fading sun

in its center.

"Source of the fire," Kirk snapped.

"Unable to locate a source, Captain,"

Sulu reported.

"But it would be consistent With laser fire from the ship

that apparently just cloaked."

"It fired without uncloaking"...That's impossible!"

"For a ship using a Romulan device,

Captain," Sulu acknowledged, "but we don't know

that this is a Romulan device."

"Captain," Pritchard announced, "the sensors

have picked up the ship again."

"It's not on the screen,

Lieutenant," Kirk shot back.

"Mr.sulu, check your coordinates."

"Aye-aye, Captain." A pause of no more

than a second."...Coordinates checked.still no

sign--" abruptly, the missing ship reappeared,

not wavering into view the way the Romulan ship had

when it had uncloaked, but snapping into existence, as

if a curtain had been suddenly raised.

"It's back," Sulu said, a frown plain in his

voice."...It appears to be on an intercept course

With the second surveillance ship in the area."

Even as Sulu spoke, the ship vanished from the

screen once ag.a minute later it reappeared,

above and behind the surveillance ship.the surveillance

ship had barely begun its turn to bring its own

laser cannon to bear on the attacker when it flared

and vanished.moments later the attacking ship

vanished a second time.

One by one, the remaining surveillance ships

followed the first two. One got offa single shot, but

it was more than a kilometer off its intended mark.at

least, Kirk observed With a scowl, the attacking

ship now uncloaked each time it fired.that first

time, when it had appeared to fire while still cloaked,

was certainly the result of the

still-unspecified aberration of their own sensors, which was

almost as disturbing a thought as the possibility that the

ship really could fire its weapons while remaining

cloaked.

"Captain," Uhura reported, "incoming

signalddaudio only, standard electromagnetic,

not subspace."

"On speakers, Lieutenant."

Her fingers darted across the controls, and an instant

later Premier Kaulidren's voice, thin and

plagued With background noise, filled the

bridge.

"--is happening"...I repeat, Captain Kirk,

what is happening"...The data we are receiving

indicates that our surveillance ships are being

attacked and destroyed by a ship or ships that they cannot

detect!

Is this your doing, Captain"...h you gone over to the

terrorists"...I demand to be told what is

happening!"

Kirk suppressed a groan."...The Premier is

not my first choice of people to communicate With, but at

least he's outside the Enterprise.mr. Sulu,

take us to a standard orbit around Chyrellka, so we

can make this a two-way conversation and see

if the Premier has any new ideas."

Half the people on the shuttle were talking at once,

reacting to Finney's sudden announcement that they would

soon be vaporized.while Robgan tried

to restore some semblance of quiet, Spock tried

once again to contact the Enterprise With his

communicator.

"There is still no response, Mr.finney," he

said.

"Of course not!" Finney said angrily."...ally

need the right code--my code." Just like the Vulcan,

he thought, to keep butting his head against an obvious

stone wall rather than ask for help.

"A code to do what, Mr.finney?"

"Give me a communicator, and I'll show you!"

Spock studied him silently for several

seconds."...Mr. Carmody," he said finally,

"believes you to have been--"disposed of" were his words,

I believe."

Finney tensed.if the commander knew that he was

alive--"When did you talk to--to the commander?"

"Shortly before you regained consciousness."

"You didn't tell him I was alive, did you?"

"No, it seemed best not to offer him any more

information than he already had."

Finney let his breath out in a whoosh of relief,

then smiled faintly, bitterly."...But I should have known

you didn't.we would probably already have been

vaporized if you had.the commander doesn't like to take

unnecessary chances.now please, a communicator.

Or if you still don't trust me, I could give you

the code and you could try to use x.the timing, however,

is an

important part of the code, as is the quality of the

voice that speaks it."

Spock was silent another few seconds, still

studying Finney.then he handed over his

communicator.

"Spock!" McCoy scowled at hm.finney's

eyes widened in surprise.

"Proceed, Mr.finney, Spock said.

Finney nodded."...ally always did know when to put your

trust in something," he said reluctantly, "whether

it's a person or a computer." Flipping open the

communicator, he began to speak, slowly and

deliberately, uttering a series of seemingly

random numbers and letters.

After more than twenty, he stopped.

And waited.

Suddenly, a sinking feeling gripped

Finney's stomach.

Had Kelgar changed the code"...But why"...Hadn't

all the other booby traps been enough"...Why change

the code itself when he had already cut off all means of

sending that code?

Unless-A dozen scenarios flashed through

Finney's mind.

Kelgar had planned to cut him out all along and

had changed the codes early on.

Or the commander had intended to betray him from the start,

as soon as Finney had designed the program and

installed x.and was no longer needed.

Or during the escape, Kelgar had not been

fooled by the surveillance ship explosion but had not

wanted the commander to know he had allowed Finney to get

away, so he had told the commander he had been

"disposed of" and then changed the code just to play it

safe.

But no matter what the reason-Swallowing away

the tremors that were threatening to overcome him, he

began the sequence again.

Chapter Fifteen.

FINALLY, THE PREMIER appeared on the

viewscreen.

His usual retinue, Kirk noted, was

nowhere to be seen.

"Do you have any idea, Premier," Kirk began

before Kaulidren had a chance to speak, "why we have

been unable to contact anyone, either through standard radio

or subspace, since you left the Enterprise?"

Kaulidren blinked."...Considering the rate at which

your equipment was failing before you allowed me to leave,

this does not surprise me. However, your minor

difficulties do not concern me at the moment,

Captain Kirk To all indications, our

surveillance ships have all been destroyed or

disabled.if this destruction isn't your doing, I can

only assume that Delkondros has gotten new

help from your Klingons and is even now on his way

here to complete the destruction he began four years

agoffI demand to know what you are going to do about it!"

"What would you have us do?"

"My God, Captain, isn't it

obvious"...What more do you need"...Surely this so-called

Prime Directive does

not require you to stand by while thousands of helpless people

are slaughteredffParticularly when these Klingons of

yours are obviously involved, perhaps even directly

responsibleffI heard your Admiral Brady say

you had authority to--to do whatever you felt

was requiredffWell, what is required is that that

ship be stoppedffIt is almost certainly on its way

toward Chyrellka right now.if its drive is

similar to that of the ones that were destroyed during the

initial attack on us, it could be here within

hoursffIts target--itsfirst targetationwill

undoubtedly be the same now as it was then the

orbital factory that manufactures our

interplanetary ships.there are thousands of

Chyrellkans there, both the workers and their families

and more--thousands that will die unless you do something!"

"I suggest you begin evacuation without wasting any more

time, then, Premier."

"Evacuation"...ImpossibleffWith our shuttles, it

would take days, not hours!"

"We will help.if you will have everyone on the

satellite gather in groups and provide us With their

coordinates and With coordinates of locations to which

they can be beamed, the Enterprise transporters can do

the job in the remaining time."

"Transporters"...Those machines that tear you apart and

put you back together"...I don't think--"

"Would you rather they die?"

"I would rather you removed the threat to them!"

"If all else fails--"

"If this is an example of how the Federation

helps its members, Captain, I can see why so

few have decided to joinffEven if the evacuation is a

success, the satellite will be destroyed!"

"Premier, the coordinates--"

"As you wish!" Kaulidren's face twisted in

angry scorn as it abruptly vanished from the

screen.a moment later one of his normally silent

retinue replaced him.

"I will put you in touch With Bardak," the man said

stiffly."...He is the manager of the satellite.you

can discuss your requirements With him."

And he, too, vanished almost as abruptly as

Kaulidren had.

After the third try With the communicator, Finney

swallowed nervously and looked up at Spock and the

others."...It's not working."

"Perhaps, Mr.finney," Spock said, ignoring

McCoy's derisive snort, "you should take the

time to explain the situation to u.once we know

precisely what you and ex-Commander Carmody and

an unknown number of Klingons have been trying

to accomplish here in the Chyrelkan system, we would

be able to find a solution to our current problem that is

not obvious to yourself."

There is no solution if the code has been

changed," Finney said, shaking his head, the familiar

look of tortured hopelessness returning to his

eyes."...There is simply no way of finding the new

one.and without the code, there's no way to stop what's

going to happen."

"And what the blazes is going to happen,

Finney?"

McCoy asked harshly."...And how soon"...For that

matter, I wouldn't mind knowing whyffWe all wouldn't

mind knowing why we're about to die!"

Finney winced at McCoy's words.under lowered

lids, he saw the others, dozens of them, all

watching him, fear and anger in their eyes.for a long

moment the faces swam before him, ano nymous and

distant, strangers all, even the dozen whose names he

had known for the last three years.

Until-Without warning, one of the faces, one of the

half-dozen young women in the group, leaped out at

him.

It was impossible, but- harsh Jamie.his

daughter's name escaped in a whisper from his suddenly

constricted throat.for a blurred instant the shuttle

vanished from around him, and he was back on the

Enterprise all those years ago, his

sabotage complete, his revenge about to be completed

as Kirk's ship began its catastrophic fall from

orbit.

Then he discovered Jamie was on board, brought

there by Kirk to be destroyed.and now, somehow, he had

brought her here, on this--this-Violently, he shook his

head, sending her imagined face and the dozens of others

spinning away.he clamped his eyes shut against the

sudden vertigo.

Hands were gripping his shoulders, keeping him from

falling as the deck seemed to sway beneath his

feet.

"Finney Are you all right?" It was McCoy's

harsh voice, grating on his ears.

Fearfully, he opened his eyes.the doctor's

face was inches in front of his own, scowling.the

others were once again in the distance, steady, not shifting and

wavering as if in a waking nightmare.

The face he had thought for an instant was his

daughter's was nothing like Jamie's.that had been

delusion, he told himself, dredged up from those other

nightmares that had never completely gone away.

But she was someone's daughter, he suddenly

realized, and that thought brought a sense of reality washing

over him, enveloping him more tightly than the

momentary delusion had, more completely than anything in

his life had done for years.everyone here, everyone whose

imminent death he was responsible for, was someone's

daughter, or son or sister or brother!

All these faces belonged to real p.they were no

longer just names and numbers in the plan- the game of

revenge--he and the commander had worked ou.except for

Kirk and his other enemies on the Enterprise, he

had never had to face any of the anonymous people trapped

by his plans, had never had to look them in the eyes

and-Swallowing, he looked up but still avoided

McCoy's eyes."...One way or another," he

said, "sometime in the next few hours, the Enterprise

is going to destroy this ship, probably With its

phaser banks, possibly With a photon

torpedo."

"That's crazy!" McCoy snapped."...Jim would

never fire on an unarmed ship full of people!"

"He won't know it's unarmed.and he won't know

that anyone is on board."

"That's even crazierffThe Enterprise sensors can

pick up the bugs that digest your food.how could they

possibly miss--" He broke off, remembering

how, only minutes before, the Enterprise had come within

kilometers of them and had acted as if they

hadn't existed.

"The sensors won't miss anything," Finney

said.

"But the computer won't pass the information along to the

crew."

"How the blazes could--" McCoy broke off

again, this time in sudden comprehension as he remembered,

once again, that other time when Finney and the captain had

faced each other.

"You jiggered the computerffJust like you did when you set

Jim up for a court-martialffBut when-- how--"

Finney took a coin-sized object from where it had

been fastened tightly to his belt.he held it out

toward Spock."...Let your tricorder take a

look at this, Commander Spock."

"It emits a code that can be picked up by the

computer," Spock said after a few seconds."...I

assume that the computer's programming has been

modified to recognize this code."

"I did it just a few hours ago, when

Kaulidren--Carmody, I mean--I suppose

I should get used to calling him that, though it won't be

for long--when

Carmody was on the Enterprise.i was on the

shuttle that brought him on board, in this

uniform.that's why he refused to use the

transporter, why he insisted on bringing the shuttle

in himself, so he could park it next to a hangar wall

to give me a better chance of getting out and back in

without being seen.once the guard Carmody left With the

shuttle signalled me that the coast was clear, I

slipped out and went directly to the main computer

room.i knew the way well.i had the program

on a data cartridge, so it only took a few

seconds to enter x.part of the program, of course,

was the instruction to ignore the existence of anyone

carrying one of these devices.the sensors would pick

up my presence, but the computer, the split second

it received the code this device broadcasts, would

ignore it, would not even record the information in its

data banks."

"And that's why the computer won't tell anyone that

we're on this ship?" McCoy asked.

"No, this was only for my own use while I was

within the Enterprise, subject to its internal

sensors.

My program has no control over ^th.this

merely enabled me to get out of the computer room and

back to the shuttle.it is the information from the

external sensors, from the weapons

systems, from all the systems that let the crew

interact With the universe outside the Enterprise, that

is controlled by the main program I put in.and that

program is in turn controlled--monitored and

controlled--by the computer in Kaulidren's--in

Carmody's ship.and by the person operating that

computer.we left a small

monitor anchored to the Enterprise by a tractor

beam.

It acts as a relay station between the Enterprise and

Carmody's ship. In effect, what the Enterprise

computer shows the crew is what that other computer and its

operator want it to show them.and all the while, the

Enterprise computer will be recording, as it always

does, everything that really happens, like the shooting down

of this shuttle we're all on.there won't be any

record of the relay station, of course, and once this

is over, we'll be able--Carmody will be able to tidy

up the records to his heart's content, until it's

obvious to anyone With half a brain that the murders

of Kirk's two close friends and fellow officers

drove him over the edge, made him play fast and

loose With the Prime Directive in his thirst for

revenge."

"Dr.mcCoy was right, then,

Mr.finney," Spock observed, "when he

suggested that you have been manipulating the Enterprise

computer in a manner similar to the manner in which you

manipulated it when you staged your own death and

attempted to have the captain blamed for x.was that

another reason for removing Dr.mcCoy and me from

the ship, to keep us from recognizing the pattern?"

Finney almost smiled."...ally, Mr.spock, yes.

Carmody was afraid history might repeat itself,

and he was probably right.you are the only one on that

barge that had even a chance of figuring out what was going

on."

"Do not underestimate the captain, Mr.finney,"

Spock said.

Finney shook his head."...Oh, he may realize

something is wrong, particularly now that I'm no

longer the one in control, but he won't be able to do

anything about x.kelgar--" Finney paused,

grimacing."...Kelgar is probably the one controlling

the computer now.i underestimated him in the past,

simply because he's a Klingon, but now I don't

know.he tripped me up easily enough, stabbed me

in the back.in any event, even if Kirk

realizes what is happening, there isn't anything he

can do about it, not without virtually

reprogramming the entire computer.or stumbling across

the exact code that will initiate the program that will

return the computer to normal operation.no, this time

there's nothing he can d.this isn't a simple little

program like the one I used bef.this one I worked

on for almost two years.i'm not sure I could even

find it myself if I didn't know precisely where and

how to look.and even if I found it, I certainly

couldn't undo its effects in the time that's left, not

without the code."

"But why, Finney?" McCoy burst out."...What

the blazes were you trying to accomplish, for God's

sake!"

Finney winced ag.it seemed like a good idea

at the time, the old clichd darted through his mind.but

now that he was forced to think about it, surrounded by his

would-be victims, he was no longer so sure. The

commander--Carmody--had been convincing and, he now

knew, more than a little disingenuous.

"Kirk's the one who had you put away,"

Carmody had said, "the one who would have killed your

daughter without batting an eye, just to save his

precious Enterprise.and Starfleet backed him

up, patted him on the back for betraying you, then and

in the past.just think of my little plan as a

way of getting back at both of them, Kirk and his

precious Starfleet.

And we'll do it by using the very thing they try to live

by, their precious Prime Directive."

The fact that he would be working With Klingons, that

Carmody himself had essentially become a Klingon,

in command of a Klingon team of soldiers and

scientists, had not even been enough to dissuade him, not in

the state he had been in then.

"Ability is what counts With us," Carmody had

said, "ability and loyalty, not being slaves to a

million petty rules--or to the so-called

Prime Directive--that tie a starship

captain's hands and keep the Federation from ever getting

off its knees and becoming a force to truly be

reckoned With--like the Klingon Empire."

And finally "What do you owe the Federation or

Starfleet, Mr.finney? You were a better officer

than any of them, and you ended up on the scrap heap!

With me, With the Klingons, you will get credit for your

contributions, not a psychiatric discharge and the

humiliation of mandatory therapy, all for doing what

any honorable Klingon would do, for seeking justice

on your own terms."

And then, once he had been taken to the

Chyrellkan system and given the Hargemon

identity, he had simply been working on the

program, out of contact With everyone but Carmody and

Kelgar and a few of the Klingons. His mind had been

totally occupied

With th e program, devising, refining, testing, over

and over, until-"The original plan," Finney

said abruptly, "was to get Kirk--or the

captain of whatever starship answered the Chyrellkan

request for help in mediating --to fire on an

unarmed ship, to fire on this ship that we are on.and

that is what the Enterprise computer records will show

that Kirk did.starfleet will be humiliated, but more

importantly, they will in the future bend over

backward even farther to make sure they don't

violate the Prime Directive ag.ac

to Carmody, that will give the Klingons an edge.it

will make the Federation even more cautious, more afraid

to take chances than they already were, ripe for a

Klingon challenge--a challenge that Carmody was

planning to lead."

"So why did you bail out?" McCoy asked

contemptuously.

"Did you have a sudden change of heart?"

Finney shook his head."...I wish I could

say I did, but--" Grimacing, he went on

to explain how he had discovered the changes Kelgar

--or Kelgar and Carmody together--had made to the

program he had designed.

"They didn't think they needed me anymore, so

I was expendable.the moment I discovered what had

been done, I was as good as dead.but I also

realized."

he hastened to add, "that With those changes to the

program, when another starship came to investigate

and tried to salvage the Enterprise computer

records, my program would be picked up along

With the other information.and it would spread, to whatever

computer the information was dumped into.in a few years,

it could be in every computer in Starfleet."

"At which time," Spock picked up when Finney

fell silent, "Klingon ships could enter the Federation

at will, controlling what the Federation ships see,

destroying them at their leisure."

Head down, Finney nodded."...I don't see

what can stop them now."

Chapter Sixteen.

Looking very much like a huge Oneill colony, the

Chyrellkan manufacturing satellite filled the

Enterprise screen.

"How many, Mr.pritchard?" Kirk asked.

"Approximately nine thousand, Captain.all

but a handful have assembled at the specified

coordinates."

"We'll have to ferry them down to the surface as

fast as we can bring them aboard--the ship can't hold

that many p.start transporting, Chief," Kirk

ordered.

"I'll see what can be done about the stragglers."

"Aye-aye, Captain," the voice from the cargo

transporter control room came over the intercom.

"Captain," Uhura called, "Manager

Bardak "On screen, Lieutenant."

An instant later the balding official replaced

the satellite on the screen."...What is it,

Mr.bardak?"

The manager swallowed nervously."...I'm sorry,

Captain, but there are still a few who refuse

to cooperate.they--they say they would sooner take

their chances With the terrorists than With your

transporters."

Kirk suppressed a grimace."...We were aware

there were stragglers.i hadn't realized they were staying

away deliberately.keep after them."

"I will, but--isn't there some way you could

pick them up anyway?"

"We need their precise coordinates in order

to get a solid lock on them. Without those--there is

one possibility, Bardak.if we have sufficient

time, we could beam some of our own people to the

approximate coordinates With extra

communicators.wd your people physically resist

ours?"

"I don't know, Captain, but I suspect at

least some of them would.even the ones who have assembled as

requested are nervous.we have all heard of the

malfunctions or sabotage your ship has been

experiencing, so that even those of us who would normally not

worry in the least about being transported--"

"I understand, Mr.manager.but if Premier

Kaulidren is right, the alternative is almost

certain death."

"I know.i've explained that to them all, but it

isn't enough."

Kirk sighed."...What about your own

shuttles"...Once we've beamed everyone else off,

could your own shuttles transport these stragglers?"

"Of course, Captain, but there's no need

to wait.

Our shuttles--"

"No," Kirk broke in."...From what you and

Kaulidren say, if your shuttles start taking people

off, everyone will want to go that way and we'll have to start

all over ag.keep your shuttles standing by, but--"

"Captain!" the transporter chief's voice

broke in sharply."...Are you positive we were given

the right coordinates for the people we're to beam over?"

"They match our sensor readings perfectly--

don't they, Mr.pritchard?"

"They do, Captain."

"Then something's wrong With the transporter, sir.

I can't lock on to anyone.at those

coordinates, my instruments show only empty

space."

"have you checked--"

"Everything has been checked that can be checked without

tearing the transporter system apart, Captain!"

"Mr.scott--"

"Aye, Captain," the chief engineer's

harassed-sounding voice responded instantly, "two

o' my men are on their way."

"Thank you, Mr.scott, but I also wanted a

status report on our shield generators."

"All operating at one hundred percent,

Captain.ta the best o' my knowledge."

"You don't sound all that confident, Scotty."

"Aye, Captain, I don't.wd y"...Ten

hours ago, I wouldna' have believed any o' this was

possible, let alone all of it!"

"Understood.i know you'll keep on top of the

situation." Kirk turned back to the screen, where

Bardak's face still loomed large.

"What's happening, Captain?" the manager

asked abruptly as Kirk's eyes met his."...I

heard something about the coordinates beingm"

"Is it possible you gave us the wrong

coordinates for the assembly points?"

"I don't see how.i double-checked them just now,

andt"

"Notify your people we apparently won't be able

to transport them.tell them to stand by, to remain at

the same coordinates in case we get the problem

worked ou.meanwhile, the Enterprise will move closer

and extend its shields to enclose the entire

satellite."

Provided the guidance system doesn't fail,

too, Kirk couldn't help but think, and we crash

into the satellite instead.

Everyone was silent for several seconds after

Finney completed his account of his escape from

Carmody's ship.

"How detailed was the analysis you performed that led

you to discover Kelgar's changes to your program,

Mr.finney?" Spock asked finally.

"Very detailed.otherwise I wouldn't have noticed

anything wrong."

"If your code had been changed prior to that time,

that change would have been included in your analysis,

would it not?"

"Yes, I suppose so, but what could--"

"And the code itself could be determined from that

analysis."

"Maybe if we had a complete record of the

analysis ." Finney shook his head, a grim

smile twitching at his lips."...I didn't have quite enough

time to print out a hard copy to take With me."

"Perhaps not, Mr.finney, but according to your account, you

were observing the screen closely throughout the entire

analysis."

"Of courseffOtherwise..."

"Then all that is required is that we gain

access to your memory of what you observed."

Finney blinked, then shook his head again."...My

memory is good, but not that good.you're the one With the

photographic memory, not me."

"You were able to reconstruct the data display that

allowed you to find the command that opened the door for your

escape."

"That was only seconds after I had seen it, not

hoursffAnd I had the computer to work With,

to reconstruct the display and change it until I

got it right!"

"Which you stated you accomplished in a matter of

seconds."

A harsh, humorless laugh."...I didn't really have

any choice in the matter, Mr.spock."

"And you have none now, Mr.finney, if you wish

to survive.if you wish the Federation to survive."

"If you wish to survive the next thirty

seconds, Mr. Finney, or whatever the hell your

name is, never mind for the next few hours," a

burly, middle-aged man said, stepping menacingly

close, "you will do whatever you're toldffationow!

For the next ten minutes Finney wracked his

memory , but to no avail.the harder he tried

to concentrate, the harder he tried to build up the

fleeting images of the computer screen in his mind, the

farther the images seemed to retreat.

"It won't work," he said, slumping."...I can't

remember."

"I warned you--" the same burly man said, but

before he could say more, Spock had stepped between them,

easily restraining the man.

"There is another possibility," Spock said,

turning to Finney."...Mr. Finney, you are familiar

With Vulcan mental disciplines."

"I know they exist, but I don't know what they

are, exactly.i certainly couldn't learn them in the

next two hours, even if they could conceivably

help my memory."

"I am not suggesting that you do, Mr.finney.i

am suggesting that With your cooperation, your memories

could be made available directly to me.tgr, we

might succeed."

McCoy turned on Spock With a

scowl."...ally're talking about a mind meld--With him?"

"Would you refuse him medical treatment,

Doctor?"

"Of course not, no matter how tempting it might

be, but--"

"Do not concern yourself, Doctor.the experience is

never pleasant, so the nature of my partner is of

little importance and could not, in any event, be allowed

to inhibit my efforts in a matter of such urgency and

import."

Spock turned to Finney."...Mr.finney, I will

ask you to not resist."

Finney shrank back."...I've heard about this

telepathic trick of yours. You want to--to get

inside my mind?"

"It is more complex than that, Mr.finney, but you

can think of it in those terms if you wish.our minds will,

if I am successful, blend into each other.our

thoughts will, under ideal conditions, become

indistinguishable, as if our minds were one."

Spock's voice was as calmly rational as always, his

features as reserved, but as McCoy watched the

Vulcan's face, he could see in the eyes-- thought

he could see in the eyes--a hi nt of the coming pain.the

mind meld involved a total fusion of psyche, of

self between two people, a breakdown of barriers erected

over a lifetime.

Finney swallowed audibly."...Isn't there

anything else you could try?"

"If there were, we would've tried it!" McCoy

grated, then motioned to the burly man who had

threatened Finney.the two of them took positions

on either side of Finney, who darted looks at

both men and then, pulling in a deep breath, closed

his eyes and waited, his sweat-dampened skin

suddenly tingling With an aching hypersensitivity that

made the material of his uniform feel like sandpaper.

Unable to completely keep his rebelling body from

trembling, Finney waited helplessly for his mind

to be invaded.all sounds seemed to fade out of

existence, except for the rustle of Spock's boots

on the floor as he stepped forward, the sound of the

Vulcan's breathing as he stood only inches

away, and the pounding of his own heart as it forced his chest

to pulse against the front of his tunic.

The sound of Spock's breathing stopped for a moment,

followed by a deeply indrawn breath--and the touch of a

palm on his forehead, the grip of the Vulcan's

fingers on each temple and the crown of his head.

At first there was nothing but the physical touch, and

Finney thought It isn't working.i'm safe.we will

all die, but I'm safe.

For what seemed like minutes, the same thought kept

repeating itself like a litany while his heart continued

to pound, his skin continued to ache beneath the sandpaper touch of

his uniform.

But then, without warning, a wave of sadness swept

over him, so intense that tears welled out from beneath his

closed lids.

Not mineffhis mind shouted.not mine!

But at the same moment, he knew that it was

his.now it was his, something he had lived Withand

controlled and contained for most of his adult life, and

he wondered how he had been able to do this without his mind

shattering into a thousand aching fragments.but his mind

had shattered, when his daughter-NoffThat was another

mind, another anguish, one that he had not been able

to contain or control, even though he could see now that it

was trivial compared to this other sadness that had come out of

nowhere to drench him in its pain, but now they were becoming

indistinguishable as Kirk's treachery became

lifelong friendship and loyalty and then, a split

second later, a new betrayal as the

traitorstfriend's face--the one image common to both

pains--swirled before him, driving his thoughts into a

kaleidoscopic mix of hatred and loyalty,

unable to focus on anything else, until it was as

if Kirk were physically there before him, about

to betraystbbfriend him once again.

Jerking back, he felt Spock's fingers

press into his temples.unable to pull free, he

could only stand and endure and wonder at the intensity

until, finally--A voice.

Out of that double pain came a voice, speaking

slowly, precisely, somehow resisting that

pain, rising above it even as he was drowning in x.with

infinite stoicism and patience, it began guiding him

backward from the present moment, back through his sudden

awakening, the crash, the destruction of the surveillance

ship, his escape from the commander's ship, his discovery

Thereffthe voice said silently as the image of the

computer screen wavered in the sea of pain behind his

still-closed lids.there is what we seek.

Chapter Seventeen.

STEPPING INTO SPOCK'S QUARTERS was like

emerging from the transporter into an alien world.the

sudden desert-like heat pulled an involuntary gasp

from Kirk's throat, and the somber, red-hued lighting

made it seem for a moment as if a translucent

film of blood were blurring his vision. Normally,

Spock kept conditions in his quarters more Earth-like

for the convenience of visitors, but for the last few days,

while he had been trying to coax the seeds of a

cactus-like Vulcan plant to germinate, In this

"Vulcan-normal" state, Kirk realized as the

door hissed shut behind him, the room gave a truer

insight into Spock than anything else he had ever

seen.

More than the Vulcan's logic, more than his

habit of sleeping With his eyes wide

open, more even than his pointed ears and green-tinged

blood, this room brought home to Kirk his first

officer's non-human origins, his true alienness.

But it also brought home the Vulcan's strength and

dedication, not just to Jim Kirk but to Starfleet and the

Federation. To Spock, the bridge--the entire

Enterprise, except for this rarely used sanctuary

--had been an alien world, its lighting harsh and

overbright, its temperature chilling, its

inhabitants illogical and often pointlessly

savage.

And yet, knowing full well the physical and

psychological environment he would have to endure, he

had chosen x.and he had remained true, both to that

choice and to himself, despite the pressures, both

internal and external, to do otherwise.the constant

pressure to "be more human," a pressure to which

Kirk himself had often contributed.the neverending

pressure, though unspoken for years, to follow the

Vulcan way, the way Sarek had laid out for his and

Amanda's only son.it would have been so much

easier, so much less painful, both emotionally and

physically, to have submitted to Sarek's wishes.

But he hadn't.he had chosen Starfleet, and he

had risked his life in its service countless

times.he had even risked his honor, something more

important to him than his life, but less

important than loyalty to those who had been

loyal to him, all of which he had proven beyond any

doubt more than once, but never more clearly than on that

final journey to Talos IV With his friend and

mentor, Christopher Pike.

Grimacing, Kirk wiped the sweat from his face and

eyes.why the devil had he come here"...There could be

nothing here that would help in their current predicament.

Whatever diagnostic programs Spock might

have been experimenting With on the terminal here would be

as easily available on the bridge or at any

of the hundreds of other terminals throughout the ship.

And Spock's special knowledge, his almost symbiotic

rapport With the computer--that would certainly not be

here.t was gone, gone With Spock.it was not something

that could be left behind to be "absorbed" from his one-time

surroundings, no matter how much Kirk wished it were

possible.it was something that Spock had spent

decades developing, decades of Vulcan

discipline and self-denial.it was not something he could

"w" to someone else, not even something that could be taught,

except in its most rudimentary form.

No, he should be back on the bridge,

where the current situation was displayed on the screens,

constantly being analyzed in countless readouts.there was

no reason to be here, sweating out his regret--

guilt?--that he hadn't dug more deeply before allowing

Spock and Bones to beam down.all it would have

taken, he realized now, were a few of the right

questions.he might not have been able to learn of the existence

of the shield, but he would have at least learned of the other

inventions and been aware of the possibility of off-world

intervention.

"Captain!" The single word burst from the intercom,

shattering his thoughts.

"Kirk here," he snapped."...What is it?"

"The rebel ship has just uncloaked,

Captain," Sulu's voice crackled over the

intercom, "and it's on an intercept heading With the

satelliteffationo more than

thirty minutes until the satellite is within

range of the ship's laser cannons!"

"Keep our shields at maximum,

Mr.sulu.and Mr. Pritchard, get another

reading on the weapons while we have the chance.see if

there're been any changes since last time."

"Already done, sir," Pritchard's voice

responded instantly."...All weapons

readings remain the same.

And still no indication of lifeforms."

"The missing lifeforms.keep checking,

Lieutenant.

And keep Spock's diagnostic program

running."

"Aye-aye, sir."

"Captain," Uhura's voice broke in, "the

premier-was

"Wants to tell me again to blast that ship

to bits," he snapped."...Tell him, unless he has

some new information, I'll talk to him when I have the

time."

Releasing the intercom button halfway through

Uhura's acknowledgment, he blinked as the door

hissed open, and the corridor lights, overwhelming

after his minutes in Spock's quarters, almost blinded

hm.as he raced toward the elevator, the ghostly

chill of moments before was suddenly and uncomfortably

real as the twenty-degree-cooler air of the

corridor evaporated the moisture from his

saturated skin.

"What's happening, Doctor?" Rohgan

asked.the Vancadian stood next to--

practically right on top of--Spock and

Finney, who sat slumped facing each other in two

of the pilots' seats, silent and unresponsive.

They'd been that way for close to an hour now, the

Vulcan's hands cradled around Finney's head.

"When will we know if it's going to work?"

Though Rohgan was trying to hide it, there was a

note of anxiety in the scientist's voice

McCoy didn't l.if Rohgan slipped over

the edge and started to panic, he'd take the whole

crew of the shuttle With him. That was the last thing they

needed now.

"Now, Professor," McCoy said, taking his

arm and leading him away from the two seated

figures.spockk will get us the information we need--

it takes time to get that deep inside a man's

mind, that's all.the main thing we have to do?--he

raised a finger to his lips and simultaneously

made a show of lowering his voice--"is make sure

we don't break the meld."

Of course, McCoy thought, how loud we are

probably has no effect on the meld at all,

but at least it'll help Rohgan stay calm.

Rohgan nodded."...I understand, Doctor

McCoy.it's just frustrating to sit here,

helpless, With nothing to do."

McCoy sympathized With the man.he'd been

forced to wait through the same t hing more than once in his

career--and to tell the truth, in this instance he was counting

on Jim to come up With something almost as much as he was

on Spock.he'd never heard of the Vulcan's being

able to extract such a specific piece of information

from a meld before.

"Then let's not sit around, helpless, and wait

to die!" one of the shuttle passengers--a short,

intense-looking woman--shouted suddenly. "Let's

try and get control of the ship ourselves, turn it around

--"

"With all the booby traps the Klingons have

probably rigged?" McCoy interrupted, shaking his

head.

"No way.we'll just die quicker."

"There must be something we can do!" another passenger

said in frustration.

"You heard Doctor McCoy," Rohgan

said."...Our best chance--our only chance--is to wait for

Mr.spock to come up With the information we need."

"I say we take our chances on trying to gain

control of the ship!" the woman said."...How do we know

we can trust these Federation people anyway?"

"What choice do we have?" the

professor asked, moving forward until he stood

almost toe-to-toe With the rebellious

passengers."...Listen to yourselvesffh you forgotten that we are

scientists, that the very reason for this ship's existence

is to prevent the kind of squabbling you're engaging in

now?"

The woman stood silently for a moment, glaring first

at Rohgan, then at McCoy.finally, nodding her

head, she and the group who'd gathered behind her retreated

to the crew area.

McCoy glanced gratefully at

Rohgan."...Thanks.i think you might have just saved

my life again."

"You're welcome, Doctor," Rohgan said,

nodding his head in the direction of Spock and

Finney.this time, he didn't try to disguise the

worry in his voice.

"I only hope your friends can return the

disfavor."

For what seemed to Finney like hours, the image

of the computer screen in the commander's ship swam before

him, too blurred by his newfound pain to be

seen clearly, but held there by that other mind that, when

he tried to examine it, was somehow also his own.lines

of code danced and pirouetted at the edges

of his brain, too memories of similar

projects, his work of a lifetime ago..andmiddot; And

all the while, a voice kept silently after him,

urging him to ignore the worst of the pain, to look more

closely at the image, to remember what he had

seen.relentlessly, logically, it continued to hammer

at him again and again, never stopping, never so much as

pausing.

Until..andmiddot; abruptly, the image

cleared.a part of his mind-- their mind--was able,

finally, to focus on it, to remember that if he

didn't concentrate, didn't extract meaning from the

shimmering screen of symbols, he--and all those

aboard the ship With him--would die.

But this was an image of the screen from near the end of the

analysis, he realized.if the information necessary

to reconstruct the changed access code was anywhere in

the analysis, it would be at the beginning, not the end,

he thought and then felt himself agree.

The previous screen, that was the one in which he had

finally discovered the nature of the changes Kelgar had

inserted into the program, and he felt that other part of

himself agree again, as if it were reading over his shoulder,

not through his own eyes.

Slowly, an image at a time, hestthey

worked backward, each image seemingly sharper than

the one bef.a fragment here, a line there Kelgar had

hidden the changes well, had kept the code as

simple as possible, so that a casual glance at the

program would not reveal any alterations. Finally,

they had all the necessary information.

But it had to be extracted, interpreted, and

reconstructed.

It would be like retrieving a handful of words from a

sheet of paper, using an analysis in which the words were

only one of a hundred elements being analyzed the

way the shapes of the letters were complexly intertwined With the

chemical content of the ink in each letter, the way in which that

ink reacted With the paper, the thickness and surface

texture of the paper, and countless other details.

But the information was there, had to be there.

Slowly, meticulously, he--they--began the

process of extracting it.

Chapter Eighteen.

With everything checked that could be checked, Kirk

gestured to Uhura to put Kaulidren on the

screen.

"What in God's name are you waiting for,

Captain?"

the image almost screamed the moment it

appeared.

"We have your satellite within our deflector

shields, Premier.they will withstand the lasers of the

approaching ship indefinitely."

"But what if they fail"...allyr so-called

transporters have already failedffallyr subspace

radio has failed!

God knows what else has failed that you haven't

bothered to tell me abffIf you want to risk your own

lives by relying on your obviously unreliable

Federation gimmickry, that is your concern, but you are

now risking our lives.captain, there are more than

nine thousand men, women, and children on that satellite!

And you yourself said there was nothing on that rebel ship but

weapons--weapons that will wipe out those lives unless

you stop it, now!"

"We will keep that in mind, Premier."

"Do more than keep it in mind, CaptainffDo

something about xffBefore it's too late!"

"I will do what I can, Premier," Kirk said as

he gestured silently to Uhura to cut the

signal.when the Premier's face vanished from the

screen, Kirk punched up Engineering.

"Mr.scott, any progress--on anything?"

"Not that ye'd notice, Captain,"

Commander Scott's voice came back, sounding

decidedly ragged.

"We've torn apart another dozen o' the

sensors, but there's no' a blasted thing wrong With

any o' them!

And my men have checked the cargo transporter as

far as they can without tearing it apart, and it checks out just

as perfectly as the sensors. The only wee

difficulty is, it won't transport anything!"

Kirk was silent a moment."...Don't start tearing

the transporters apart, Scotty, not just yet.and

don't replace any more sensors."

"Aye, Captain, but what--"

"We're obviously not getting anywhere checking

systems after they fail, so let's start checking them

before they fail.monitor everything you can, as thoroughly

as you can--shields, impulse engines, warp drive,

everything.if something else does fail, and if you're

watching it while it fails, perhaps you'll learn

something."

"Aye, Captain, perhaps, but I wouldna' bet on

it." He still thinks it could be Organians, Kirk

thought, but all he said was, "If there's anything there

to be learnedea.scotty, you're the one who can learn

it."

Turning back to the main viewscreen, Kirk

saw that the approaching ship was now visible in its

center.

"Any indication why it decided to uncloak now,

Mr. Pritchard, instead of waiting until it was within

laser range of the satellite"...Power

overload"...Failure of some kind?"

"Nothing, Captain.but the sensor readings when

it uncloaked were identical to the earlier ones--and

identical to the readings from the Romulan ship years

ago."

"And Mr.spock's diagnostic program"...Is

it still reporting undefined and unlocatable

anomalies?"

"Yes, sir." Pritchard leaned forward to study

the ever-changing readouts."...It never stops.i've

made a couple of minor modifications to the

program, but--" Pritchard stiffened

abruptly."...CaptainffA whole new series--

they're everywhere!"

"Anomalous sensor readings?"

"Yes, sir, dozens of themffBut the program still

can't--"

"Captain!" Sulu broke in sharply."...The

shields are failing!"

Kirk spun toward the viewscreen."...What

happened, Mr.sulu"...Is it being caused by something that

ship is doing?"

"There's no obvious relationship, sir."

Sulu's fingers stabbed at a series of controls, his

eyes taking in the results."...They're

just--failingffationo matter how much power I divert

to them, they keep decaying!"

"ScottyffThe shields--"

"Aye, Captain, I know.the power is still going

to the generators, and I canna' see a thing wrong

wi' them, but the shields are decaying!"

"How long till they're gone entirely?"

"At this rate, no' more than five minutes."

"Do what you can, Mr.scott.mr.pritchard,

those anomalous readings--they coincided With the beginning

of the failure of the shields, is that right?"

"It looks that way, but they've settled down

now, to--well, to what I've started thinking of as a

"normal background level.""

"Could you see any pattern"...Anything at all?"

"Just that there was a flood of them all at once,

sir.

And when the program went back to look at them--

was Pritchard shook his head in

frustration."...It's like we talked about before, sir.the

only pattern is that it's as if the computer itself were

deliberately hiding information from the program.and just

now--well, I know it's probably a misleading

analogy, but it's almost as if the program saw this

new string of anomalies out of the corner of its eye,

when it had its attention somewhere else, and when it

looked directly at the sensors involved, the

anomalies were gone.

Everything checked out perfectly."

"Except that the shields are now dying on us."

"Right, sir, the shields are dying."

"It can't be a coincidence," Kirk

snapped."...Mr. Scott, did you see anything down

in Engineering, anything at all, when this started?"

"No" a thing, Captain.none o' the

monitors so much as flickered.they still haven't.for

all I can see

from here, the generators are producing the same

energy as before. More, now that Mr.sulu is tryin'

to compensate."

Kirk shook his head in frustration."...What you're

saying, Mr.scott, is the same as

Mr.pritchard--it's impossible, but it's happening

anyway."

"Aye, Captain, I could no' ha' said it

better myself."

Impossible, the thought played itself back in

Kirk's mind, but it's happening anyway.

And then, see mingly from nowhere, came a second

thought Just as impossible as that other time, when the

computer log showed that I had jettisoned Finney's

pod while under yellow alert, when I knew I had

done it only when we went to red alert.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place.

"Captain?" At the helm, Sulu turned and

stared quizzically at Kirk. "Did you say

something?"

Kirk stared at the viewscreen, at the countless

computer-driven displays everywhere on the bridge that

flashed and flickered their messages on the status of

every system on the Enterprise.

Messages he suddenly realized he could no

longer trust.

"You're damn right I did, Mr.sulu," he

said, pushing himself out of the command chair.it was the only

explanation--other than Scotty's Organians--

that made sense.the planetary shield, the repeated

equipment failures, the "anomalous" sensor

readings Spock's diagnostic program

reported but could not pin down--these were all

"hallucinations" caused by

something that had been done to the computer.

Something that was still being done to the computer.

The sensor readings when that ship had "cloaked"

--they were identical to those taken during the Romulan

incident because they were almost certainly the same readings,

pulled out of the computer's memory and replayed back

through the sensor circuits.

The sensor readings that first said there were lifeforms on

the ship and then said there were none, that there weren't

weapons and then there were--they had been nothing more than

"slips" that Pritchard had been alert enough to catch

before they could be corrected.

Even that last, peculiar, interference-plagued

communication from Admiral Brady could have been

manufactured by the computer.

And the inability to open the shuttlebay doors, that

made the most sense of all.the shuttlecraft

sensors, unaffected by the main computer, would see

things as they were, and that was something that whoever was behind this

couldn't allow.but who...

It had all started With the supposedly false

alarm in the main computer room, only minutes after

Kaulidren and his retinue had come aboard

in their shuttle.but it hadn't been a false

alarm.there had been an intruder, almost certainly

brought on board by Kaulidren, and that intruder had

almost certainly sabotaged the computer.

Which meant that Kaulidren and the Chyrellkans were

involved, not just the Vancadians.or possibly the

Vancadians weren't involved.those messages

from Delkondros, Kaulidren's inflammatory

evidence, none of it could be trusted, not now.

"Lieutenant Uhura," Kirk said, heading for the

turbolift, "you have the conn.mr.sulu, come With

me."

Finally, the last fragment of code emerged from the

shimmering mass of symbols coaxed from Finney's

memory, and Spock added it to the others. Spock was

impressed by the sophistication of the Klingon

programmer's changes--under different

circumstances, he would have enjoyed speaking to Kelgar

about them.at the moment, however, he had far more

pressing concerns.for the entire time he had had

to shield Finney, keeping hisstthe mind from being

consumed not only by Finney's own shattered emotions

but those that Spock himself had controlled and suppressed

for decades.and those, unavoidably freed

by Finney's invasion, experienced by their

temporarily composite mind, had been even worse

for the Finney portion of that mind than Finney's own.

Cautiously, Spock began to withdraw, but even

as he did, he felt new shudders rippling through that

other mind.when Spock's support was removed,

its normal defenses, barely adequate to handle

its own burdens without the aid of delusions, could

crumble like an eggshell under the weight of what it had

absorbed not only from Spock's memories, but from

the objective look it had been forced to take at

Finney's own long history of irrational and

hurtful behavior.

He would have to withdraw slowly, ever so slowly,

trying to take as much of the memory as possible With him

and giving the Finney part of the mind time to-But he

didn't have the time.no matter what happened

to Finney as a result, he didn't have the time.

Bracing himself, trying to shore up Finney's own

defenses as best he could, he prepared to withdraw.

Chapter Nineteen.

Beneath the hanger DECK, in the midst of the machinery

that operated the doors, a dozen men strained at the

jury-rigged levers that Scott had come up With.

With every connection to the computer broken, muscle power

and leverage was all they had.

From the rear observation gallery immediately in front

of a wedged-open exit door, Kirk and Commander

Scott watched silently as, no more than an inch

at a time, the hangar bay doors crept

apart.sulu sat poised at the controls of one

shuttlecraft, ready to exit the moment the opening was

wide enough.lieu-tenant Shanti sat in a

second shuttlecraft immediately behind the first.once

Sulu was out, the Lieutenant would move her own

shuttlecraft forward, anchor it just inside the

atmospheric containment field, and wait, her

radio tuned to the same rarely used frequency that

Sulu's was set to.whoever was in control of the

computer presumably could listen in on any normal

transmissions from the external shuttlecraft to

the Enterprise but not, they hoped, on communications

between shuttlecraft.even so, Sulu had been

instructed to use the link only for routine

communications.

A set of signals had been arranged for

specific findings--if the shields were indeed still up

and operating, if there were or were not lifeforms and

weapons aboard the approaching ship, if there were any

ships present that didn't show up on the

Enterprise sensors.beyond that, if he

discovered anything that might have a direct bearing on the

state of the computer, he was to return to the Enterprise

and deliver it in person.

"We don't know who or what we're dealing With

here," Kirk had said as he had briefed Sulu and

Shanti and the others in an isolated section of

Engineering that Scotty had guaranteed was cleared of

anything that could serve as a listening or observation post

for whoever might be in control of the computer, "so we

take only those chances that are absolutely necessary.

And if you find something out there that will give us an

advantage, don't take a chance of broadcasting

it.

If they know that we're on to them, if they know what

our next move is, they might be able to counter it."

"Another ten centimeters, Lieutenant,"

Scott informed Sulu through his communicator, which was

tuned to another frequency they hoped would be The

only acknowledgment was the shuttlecraft lifting

clear of the deck and maneuvering to center itself even more

precisely in front of the opening.

Suddenly, the air in the opening shimmered.

"it's happening, Mr.sulu!" Kirk snapped,

though he knew Sulu had seen the shimmering himself.

"Good luck."

Scott's eyes widened slightly.he glanced

toward Kirk but said nothing. Until now he hadn't

fully accepted the fact that someone was causing the

malfunctions, but the failure of the atmospheric

containment field at precisely this moment,

apparently a last-ditch effort to prevent the launch

of the shuttlecraft, could not possibly be

coincidence.both men took a step backward toward

the door behind them.the shimmer increased, momentarily

taking on an iridescent sheen, like oil on water.

Then, abruptly, it was gone.at the same

moment, the air began to rush from the hangar deck

into space, tearing at the shuttlecraft, threatening

to slew it sideways and slam it into the too-narrow

opening.

From everywhere around the hangar deck came the sound of

exits closing and sealing, an automatic

response to the failure of the containment

field.kirk and Scott spun and, facing

directly into the out-rushing air, Struggled through the

door directly behind them, the only one not already

sealed.as they cleared the opening, Kirk kicked

free the wedge that had held it open while Scott

hit the override and sealed the door manually,

insuring that Sulu and Shanti could unseal the

door from the hangar deck side if it came

to t.at all the other exits a dozen of his men were

doing the same.

"He made it, sir," Lieutenant Shanti's

faintly accented voice came from the

communicator."...He lost a little paint, but he made

it."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Kirk acknowledged

as he and Scott headed for the turbolift.

"Captain Kirk," Uhura's voice came

over the intercom, "Premier Kaulidren wants a

word With you."

Kirk and Scott exchanged glances."...What a

pleasant surprise," Kirk murmured."...Tell

him I'm on my way to the bridge,

Lieutenant," he said more loudly.

As Scott exited at Engineering, Kirk

simply nodded, silently mouthing, "Stand by,

Scotty."

On the bridge, Kaulidren's image filled

the screen.

He was even more upset, and Uhura looked

relieved to be handing the con back to Kirk and

returning to the communications station.

"Where have you been, Captain?"

Kaulidren began the moment Kirk came within

range of the screen.

"That terrorist ship will be within range of our

satellite in a matter of minutes!"

"There's nothing to worry about, Premier," Kirk

said sharply."...Our shields will keep your satellite

safe."

Kaulidren's face froze for a moment."...They are

still functioning, then?"

"Of course."

The Premier was silent for several seconds, his

anger seemingly on hold. "Then I take it,"

he said finally, "that you absolutely refuse to fire

on the approaching terrorist ship?"

"Until we get certain....crepancies

cleared up, Premier, yes."

"Discrepancies"...What is that supposed to mean,

Captain"...Or is that Starfleet terminology for

"malfunctions"?"

"In this case, it might be," Kirk said,

putting a tone of reluctance into his

voice."...However, as I said, there is no reason for

you to worry as long "What discrepancies,

Captain"...What malfunctions?

I demand to knowffThis is not some

gameffationine thousand lives are at stake hereffationow,

what is it that you're hiding?"

Kirk glanced toward Pritchard who, along With

Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and a dozen others, had

been at one or the other of the hurried briefing

sessions With Kirk and Scott."...Anything new on

the anomalous readings, Lieutenant?"

"Nothing, sir."

"And you're still positive about what you saw

initially?"

"Positive, sir."

Kirk turned back to Kaulidren and the

screen."...We have reason to believe, Premier," he

said slowly, putting even more reluctance into his

tone, "that there may be several passengers on the

approaching ship."

"You said your sensors showed it to be unmanned!

Or is that the malfunction you might be suffering

from?"

"All I know, Premier, is that the initial

sensor readings indicated there were lifeforms aboard,

several dozen of them.subsequent readings indicated

none, but"

"CaptainffThere are thousands of lifeforms on the

satellite this ship is going

to destroyffEven if there are a few people on the

approaching ship, they are obviously

terroristsffThey could even be those Klingons of yours,

hiding behind some shield you know nothing abffally saw what

they did to our surveillance ships--every one totally

destroyedffAnd your own men--Captain, they killed

your own men!"

"I understand all that, Premier, but until these

discrepancies can be cleared up--"

"You're simply going to let my people be

killedffIs that what you're saying, Kirk?"

"Of course n.we will keep the satellite

safe inside our own shields for as long as it

takes."

There was another long silence."...ally are saying,

Kirk," Kaulidren finally said, "that your shields

are in full operation"...Right this instant?"

"I already told you that, Premier," Kirk said

stiffly.

Yet another silence.then, suddenly,

Kaulidren's furious scowl vanished.he

laughed.

"So, Kirk," he said, "you know more than you're

admitting."

"I beg your pardon, Premier?"

"Let's cut out the games, Kirk."

"You're the one who just now said--rather emphatically,

as I recall wthat this was not a game, that the lives

of thousands of your people were at stake."

"True enough.let me rephrase that."

Kaulidren's eyes narrowed in a patronizing

smile."...allyr shields are not working, Captain

Kirk.they have not been working for some time now.you know

x.i know it.

But here is something you don't know.they will not

suddenly start working again, no matter what your chief

engineer and his ham-handed subordinates do."

Kirk affected a deep scowl."...What the devil

are you talking about, Premier"...And where did you get this

supposed knowledge about the state of our shields?"

"Please, Kirk, don't continue to play the

fool.we both know it doesn't suit y.i

don't know how much you've guessed, but it's a great

deal more than you're pretending.but not nearly enough

to save you."

"Save u"...From what?"

"Disgrace, to mention one.and death, of course."

"Are you threatening us, Premier"...I don't have

to remind you, you're dealing With a Federation starship."

"I'm quite aware of what--and who--I'm

dealing With, Kirk.you, on the other hand--but just so

we'll be on an even footing, conversationally speaking,

let me introduce myself Carmody, Commander

Jason Carmody, late of Starfleet,

currently serving With a more congenial organization.

"Those Klingons of yours," to be precise."

Carmody!

Somehow Kirk kept from reacting outwardly to the

name.until that moment he had been assuming the

Premier was a native Chyrellkan working With the

Klingons, but the sudden admission that he was instead a

renegade Starfleet officer sent Kirk's mind

racing.that Klingons on their own could have learned how

to sabotage the Enterprise's computer had not been

easy to believe.but for Carmody to have learned the

same thing-But most of all, the purpose of this

incredibly elaborate charade suddenly made a

perverted sort of sense.carmody, With the help of the

Klingons, was getting back at the Federation for his own

arrest, for the planned court-martial.he was getting

back by trying to force a starship captain to violate

the Prime Directive, just as Carmody himself had

done, only on a more massive scale.

Hoping his face had not betrayed the thoughts racing

behind it, Kirk widened his eyes in seeming

puzzlement."...ally're not a Chyrellkan?"

"You continue to play the fool, Kirk.i'm

disappointed.

Your Mr.spock warned me I should not

underestimate you, but these silly pretenses of yours

make it increasingly difficult."

This time Kirk didn't bother to hide his genuine

reaction."...Spock? When did you see Spock?"

"I didn't see him, I merely spoke With

him."

Carmody paused deliberately."...It was shortly

after he and your Dr. McCoy boarded the ship I have

been urging you to shoot down--the ship you will shoot down

in a few minutes."

Swallowing away the mixture of emotions that were

suddenly churning within him, Kirk scowled."...ationow I

know you're insane, Kaulidren or whatever your real

name isffCommander Spock and Lieutenant Commander

McCoy were both killed--"

"That was the plan," Carmody cut him off, "but

they were apparently a little too alert for their would-be

executioners.not that it will save them for long.

But to tell the truth, I'm almost glad they

managed to escape, particularly since they ended up

where they did--With a little help from me.i rather

enjoy the thought that it will be you--or at least your

Enterprise--that will actually do the deed."

Spock and McCoy were aliveffKirk could

barely keep the smile off his face--but he had

to, for the moment at least, in order to have a chance

to save them.he snorted derisively."...Let me

get this straight, Premier.you think that after what

you've admitted, you'll still be able to talk me

into firing on that ship?"

"Of course not, Kirk, and you know x.really, your

intentional obtuseness is getting tiresome."

No more to you than to me, Kirk thought, but until

I've given Sulu as much time as possible and

learned as much as possible from you-"Then enlighten me,"

Kirk said, his tone still derisive and

skeptical."...If you're going to force me to kill my

best friends, I'd very much like to know how."

Carmody smiled in mock pity."...So that's your

game, is x"...ally think that if I tell you what

I'm planning, you'll be able to pull a rabbit out

of the hat and stop me.very well, I'll tell you,

not that you haven't already guessed.i will do it the same

way I shut down your shields, the same way I

kept you from transporting everyone off the

satellite.to put it in its simplest,

most easily understood form, Captain Kirk, I

control your computer and therefore your ship, and there is

absolutely nothing you can do about it."

"Don't bet on xffMr.scottffShut it

down!"

"Aye, Captain," Scotty's voice

acknowledged instantly, and at the same moment, all

the screens, all the readouts on the bridge

flickered.

And came back on.

Carmody's laugh filled the bridge.

After the jarring exit from the shuttlebay,

Lieutenant Sulu quickly and efficiently checked

the shuttlecraft's systems even as he scanned the

immediate vicinity of the Enterprise.

The shields were down, the scanners showed.

And there-In the shadow of the massive Chyrellkan

manufacturing satellite, itself dwarfing the

Enterprise, an object smaller than a one-man

shuttle hovered, linked to the Enterprise by a narrow

tractor beam.was that what had its hooks in the

computer?

YesffEven With the shuttlecraft scanners,

Sulu could detect a steady stream of data going

both ways between the object and the

Enterprise. For an instant he thought of simply

ramming the object, even if the impact would wreck

the shuttlecraft as well.his emergency field

effect suit would keep him alive and well until

the Enterprise, With its computer restored, could bring

him in.and even if it couldn't, one life was a

small price to pay for-But there was more, he suddenly

realized.a second stream of data was flowing between the

object and something else, something beyond the range of the

shuttlecraft's scanners.this tiny object was

obviously a relay station.possibly it was a

vital link, but just as

possibly it was a mere convenience.and even if he

were able to totally destroy it, whoever was at the other end

of that second stream of data would know about x.and would,

in all probability, simply move closer and

take over directly, bypassing the relay.and

Sulu would be of no use to the Enterprise in a

disabled shuttlecraft.

No, as a last resort he might attempt

to ram the object, but for now, gathering information was more

important.the ship Kaulidren wanted destroyed

was still more than twenty minutes away, and learning its

true nature was another of his top

priorities.kirk would already know that the

Enterprise shields were down, since the absence of a

specific signal to Lieutenant Shanti would have

told him that.

First, a run to the approaching ship, and then,

depending on what he found there, either back to the

Enterprise With the information or out along that second

data stream to see whatever there was to see.

Sulu applied full impulse power.

Chapter Twenty.

"Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve,

Captain?"

Carmody asked, an arrogant smile frozen

on his face.

"I assure you," Kirk snapped, "you'll be the

first to know!"

"I have no doubt of t.but under the

circumstances, isn't there something you would like to know?

You were full of questions just a moment ago.don't

tell me your curiosity has been so easily

satisfied."

"You obviously enjoy gloating, whoever you are, so

go ahead while you have the chance."

Carmody shrugged."...As a matter of fact, I do

enjoy x.but , then, who wouldn't, given such a

perfect opportunity"...My only

regret, now that I've come to know you so well these

last few hours, is that you will have such a short time

to appreciate the situation.but the rest of

Starfleet will have more, I assure you, perhaps as much as

two years.i estimate it will take about that long

to infect all your Starfleet computers.

During that time you will be remembered as the captain

who disgraced the Federation by violating the Prime

Directive even more grossly than I. You will have

fired on and destroyed an unarmed ship full of

emissaries of peace."

Kirk interrupted."...ally're planning to take on

all of Starfleet"...Surely you can't imagine this

'bug" of yours will go undetected--and uncorrected

--for that long, in that many ships!"

"But of course it will, Captain.this was merely

a test run, and despite some minor problems--which will

of course be corrected--it has been a resounding

success.in the future, even a program like your

Mr. Spock's won't notice anything

amiss.and once everything is in place--"

Carmody paused, his smile broadening even more."...As

an old Earth saying has it, Captain, it will be like

shooting fish in a barrel."

"If you think you're going to get away

With this--"

"I know I am, Captain.and you will know it in

roughly three minutes, when your phasers begin

firing.

Now if you will excuse me, I have things to attend

to."

abruptly, Carmody's image vanished from the

screen, replaced by that of the approaching ship, the

ports for its laser cannon clear on its prow.

But a moment later the ports were gone, the prow

smooth and unbroken. Another moment, and the ship

melted into a totally different shape, a quarter of

its original size.even though Kirk had been

expecting it, it was still unsettling.he tensed,

waiting for the next sign.he didn't dare rush it,

didn't dare play his one remaining card too

soon.

"Captain!" Ensign Sparer, Sulu's

replacement at the helm, called."...All phaser

banks are locking on to the approaching shipffationothing

I do has any effect!"

"All right, then," Kirk said, the beginnings of a

smile forming on his lips."...ationow, Mr.scott!"

There was no acknowledgment, but an instant later, as

Scotty and a dozen of his men at key

points around the ship acted, the screens and readouts

went out.

And this time they didn't come back on.

Spock staggered for an instant as he completed the

mental withdrawal, pulling his hand back from

Finney's forehead.finney gasped and would have

fallen, were it not for McCoy's hands on his

shoulders.

"The information, Spock--did you get it?"

McCoy asked, his eyes still on Finney.

"I believe I did, Doctor." Quickly he

took his communicator from his belt and flipped it

open as he eyed McCoy easing Finney to the

floor. "Fortunately, the altered code does not

appear to be keyed to any specific voice."

Slowly, then, he pulled the numbers from his

memory and spoke them into the communicator while

McCoy and the others watched and waited tensely.

On the screen above the pilot's chair, the dot

in its center had finally resolved itself into a tiny

cylinder, a toy-like vision of the Chyrellkan

satellite.a nearby dot was still just that--a dot, not

identifiable as a starship, though everyone assumed it

was the Enterprise.

Finally, after more than two dozen

numbers, Spock fell silent.

For at least a half minute there was total

silence, except for fifty people's breathing and the creaks

and groans of the ship as it continued to be subjected

to the unaccustomed stress of its recently installed

impulse engines.

"Something wrong, Spock?" McCoy finally

asked.

"The Enterprise computer is not responding."

"I guessed that much, SpockffDo you have any

idea why it isn't responding"...Could you have gotten a

number wrong"...Out of sequence? Are we out of

communicator range?"

Spock was silent a moment, looking at the

gradually expanding images on the pilot's

screen."...It is possible we are out of range.i will

repeat the sequence."

And he did, not once but a half-dozen times as

the images continued to grow, though not as rapidly as

bef.the ship was obviously slowing for its rendezvous

With the satellite.

By that time McCoy had Finney back, if not

to normal, at least to a functional state."...Do you have

any ideas?" McCoy asked With a scowl as the

ex-Starfleet officer lurched unsteadily

to his feet.

Finney shook his head, not in a negative

response but as if to clear it. "About what"...What

happened?"

"That new code that Spock extracted from your

mind," McCoy said, "it doesn't work."

Finney looked blank for a second, as if the

words took that much time to get through whatever barriers his

assaulted mind had set up.then he

grimaced."...I was afraid of that," he said.

"Of what?" McCoy grated. "Come on,

Finney, if you knew that code was no good--"

"I didn't know anything, "he said

defensively."...It's just that if Kelgar knew--or

even suspected--that I survived that surveillance

ship blast, he may've changed it ag.or if one

of you," he went on, his voice suddenly

accusatory, "said something to the commander that let him know

I was here--"

"We didn't!" McCoy snapped.

"Attempting to assign blame is pointless,

Doctor.

For the moment I suggest that one of us continue

to transmit the code in the hope that there is some other

explanation for its lack of success thus

far."

McCoy turned his scowl on Spock."...Maybe

you should go back in there and check ag.isn't it

possible your imperfect human half missed

something?"

"Anything is possible, Doctor.however--"

"What's that?" The burly man who had helped

McCoy restrain Finney was pointing at the

pilot's viewscreen.

McCoy looked sharply toward the screen, his

scowl changing to a sudden grin as his eyes focussed

on the image.

"A shuttlecraft!" he exulted, throwing a

scornful glance at Finney as he flipped open his

own communicator.

"Shuttlecraft, this is Dr.mcCoyffWhat the

devil is going on"...And can you get a message through

to the Enterprise?"

There was a long silence as the shuttlecraft

coasted to a stop in the viewscreen, its bulk

entirely blocking the distant satellite and

starship.

"Shuttlecraft!" McCoy repeated."...Answer

me, blast it!"

He jerked around to face Finney."...ally

don't need that code to get through to a shuttlecraft,

do you?"

Finney shook his head."...ationo, only the

Enterprise's computer is affected. The

shuttlecraft are--"

"Dr.mcCoy?" Sulu's startled voice

came over the communicator."...Is that really you?"

"Of course it's meffSulu, is that you?"

"Yes, Doctor, but--is Spock With you?"

"Yes, LieutenantffLook, Sulu, can you

get word--"

"If you really are Dr.mcCoy, what is your

daughter's name?" Sulu asked.

"Blast it, Sulu, don't waste time--"

"For various reasons, Doctor, I must verify

your identity.please, your daughter's name."

"Joannaffationow what--"

"But that information would be available in the ship's

computer," Sulu said, as if just realizing it

himself."...I'm sorry, something else--Dr.

McCoy, the time you and Scotty and I dragged

Mr.spock to those old-time bowling lanes at

Starbase Two--do you remember what you accused him

of doing?"

"How the devil should I remember t"...That

was years ago, and I've accused him of everything in the

book!"

"If it will facilitate matters,

Mr.sulu," Spock said into his own

communicator, "the incident occurred at Starbase

One, not Two, and Dr. McCoy accused me of

deliberately setting up a seven-ten split in

order to make the game more challenging.for some reason

you found his accusation most amusing. Now, if you are

satisfied With our identities, we have an urgent

message that must be communicated to the Enterprise

computer.we have been unable to make contact through our

communicators."

"That's probably because the computer is shut

down.at least, I assume it is by now." All

suspicion was gone from Sulu's voice, replaced

by a mixture of relief and urgency."...The captain

suspects the entire system has been

sabotaged."

"The captain is correct, Mr.sulu,"

Spock interrupted.

"But we now have a code that may allow us

to reverse the effects of the sabotage if the computer

can be turned back on.however, we must be able

to contact the Enterprise before the code can be

entered into the computer."

There was a startled silence, and then Sulu said

"Give me the code, Mr. Spock, and I'll

return to the Enterprise With it and give it to the

captain.we have a special communications link set

up."

"Could you not broadcast it from here?"

"I could, but we're afraid that whoever is in

control of the computer will be listening in despite our

precautions.if they heard me giving the captain the

code, they might be able to do something else to stop

him."

"Mr.finney," Spock said, turning toward the

man, "is that possible?"

Finney swallowed nervously."...It's possible,

yes.if the commander or Kelgar knows the computer is

about to be turned on and that the access code will be

entered immediately, there's an abort sequence that he could

enter any time before the code has been completely

entered.there's no way of blocking x.it wouldn't

give him control of the computer again, but it would make it

essentially useless, wiping out all memory and

programs.unless," he added, averting his eyes,

"Kelgar has changed that too."

"Thank you, Mr.finney.mr.sulu,

are you prepared to receive the access code?"

"Ready, Mr.spock," Sulu said With a

nervous chuckle."...Maybe between us, we can make this

seven-ten split too."

Chapter Twenty-one.

COMMANDER MONTGOMERY SCOTT straightened up

from the tangle of wires spilling out of the back of the

communications console and wiped the sweat from his forehead

With the back of one hand while he tapped on the

console frame With the other.with life support

systems on non-computerized backup,

temperatures everywhere were up three or four

degrees, while here, in the service corridor that

circled the bridge behind the consoles, it was up at

least fifteen.

"That should do it, lass," he said."...allye'll at

least have power, even if ye' dinna' have the computer

to sort through a few thousand frequencies."

"Thank you, Mr.scott," Uhura's voice,

muffled by the intervening mass of the console, came

back.

"Good work, Scotty," Kirk said, peering in through

the opening where the kickplate next to the turbolift

had been removed."...Sanderson just reported in on the

intercom, and he's making good progress

on the impulse drive connections."

"Aye, Captain, but it's the warp drive that's

goin' ta take the time." He shook his head as he

made his way along the access corridor and stepped

out onto the oddly quiet bridge.all the sounds

normally associated With the computer's neverending

monitoring of virtually everything on the ship had been

silent since Scott and a dozen of his men had

simultaneously yanked its every primary and backup

power cable.

"Without the computer to balance the antimatter--"

Suddenly, a hundred lights and displays came

to life.uhura's hand jerked back as if burned

by the controls she had been using to manually make the

settings that would eventually get her in touch With

Starfleet Headquarters.the others tensed, their

eyes darting from display to display, hoping to find some

indication of what was happening.

Scott snatched his communicator from his belt as

he darted back into the access corridor."...All

posts, report in!"

By the time he had half circled the bridge and

started down the gangway to the lower decks, the

responses had told him where the trouble was.

"Lieutenant Diaz," he said to one of the

men he and the captain had standing by on every deck, "Mr.

Claybourne on deck nineteen doesn't report

in."

"On my way, Commander," a deep voice came

back as Scott reached deck three and continued

to race downward.

On the bridge Kirk could only watch

helplessly as the displays continued to come to life.his

earnest attempts to manually shut the computer off were

meeting With no more success than his and Scotty's

sham attempt earlier.the only hope now was that

Scott and his men could pinpoint the power connection that

Carmody had obviously reestablished--and take it

out a second time.

"Captain!" Ensign Sparer's voice from the

helm rose above the rest. "The navigation system

is coming back on line.three minutes until it

completes orientation and alignment.phaser banks

heading for full charge.no response to any

controls."

"Keep trying, Ensign, everyone.try anything

and everything.if we don't find something that works,

Spock and McCoy really will be dead!"

"Captain," Scott's voice, out of breath and

half-obscured by the echoing clang of his

boots on gangway steps, burst from Kirk's

communicator, "Diaz reports Claybourne's

area sealed off.he's taking his phaser ta the

door.how much time do we have?"

"Two and a half minutes, Scotty, if

we're lucky."

Without acknowledgment, the communicator went dead.

An instant later it crackled back

into life."...Shanti, Captain. Communication from

Lieutenant Sulu.i'm patching him through

directly."

Static drowned out everything for a moment, and then

Shanti's voice came in again."...Go ahead,

Lieutenant."

"Captain!" Sulu's wire-taut voice

came through instantly."...ationo time for explanations, do

precisely as I say and--damnffStand by, I'll

be back if I can!"

And he was gone.

"SuluffShantiffWhat--"

The sound of grating metal spilled out of the

communicator, and a moment later the Enterprise

shuddered as something crashed against it, though without the

sensors under their control, no one could know whether it was

matter or energy.

Finney had guessed right, Sulu realized as the

shuttlecraft came within range of the

Enterprise.a second ship, filled With Klingon

technology, hovered less than a kilometer below

the starship.a limited-range transporter was just

winding down, its destination somewhere inside the

Enterprise secondary hull.

Someone, either Carmody or the Klingon Kelgar,

would be in there, trying to restore power to the computer so

whoever stayed behind in the other ship could retake

control.

His frustration mounted as he watched.he would never

have time to get inside the Enterprise and deliver the

access code to the captain.the shuttle-craft was

already being pushed to its limits, not another iota of

impulse power was available.he had no choice but

to take a chance on the radio link With Shanti.

"Lieutenant Shanti," he said, activating the

shuttlecraft transmitter, "put me through to the

captain.no time to explain."

"Lieutenant Sulu?"

"Yesffationow put me through!"

"Yes, sir."

Decelerating at full power, Sulu watched the

Enterprise grow to fill the shuttlecraft

screen.

A burst of static came from the radio, and then

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"Captainffationo time for explanations, do

precisely as I say and--" Sulu broke off

sharply as on the shuttlecraft screen, he saw the

Klingon ship begin to quickly reorient xf.within

seconds it would have its weapons bearing directly

on him."...DamnffStand by, I'll be back if I

can!"

He obviously wouldn't have time to send the full

access code, might not even have time to reach the

Enterprise, definitely would not if he approached

it With any semblance of caution.swerving sharply

upward and to the right, Sulu accelerated rather than

decelerated.the other ship was below and ahead of the

Enterprise.if he could go high enough, he might be

able to make his final approach on a line that was

hidden from the other ship by the secondary hull, but even

that would give him only a few extra seconds.

Now if Scotty's men had managed to get the

doors even a little wider-But they hadn't, Sulu

could see on the screen.

Shanti's shuttlecraft still sat anchored to the

deck just inside the opening, an opening

obviously no more than a few inches wider than the

shuttlecraft.

Swerving again, Sulu was aimed directly at the

opening.no time to warn Shanti to move.he would have

to come in high, above the parked shuttlecraft.

The flash of phaser fire distracted him for an

instant, but the beam was wide of the mark, the attacking

ship just then being eclipsed by the Enterprise's

secondary hull and apparently making no move

to get the shuttlecraft back in its sights.but

if it was trying to keep a lock on whoever had been

transported to the Enterprise, Sulu realized

With a surge of hope, it couldn't move, not without

risking losing the lock and having to reacquire it, and

if they were on as tight a schedule as he

was-Focussing entirely on the increasingly

narrow-looking opening rushing toward him, Sulu

reversed the impulse engine on full power as he

nudged the shuttlecraft nose to the right a hair,

then to the left and comWith a horrendous screech of

metal on metal, far louder than when he had

exited barely fifteen minutes earlier, he was

through, the impulse engine throbbing as it did its best

to stop what was in effect a shuttlecraft-sized

missile.there was a bone-jarring thud as the

runners hit the deck and bounced, another as they

hit again and the shuttlecraft seemed, in this confined

space, to be going even faster than outside.

A final grating crash came as the nose

slammed into the rear wall of the hangar deck, throwing

Sulu bruisingly against the controls.he could immediately

hear air hissing out through a break somewhere in the

shuttlecraft hull, but he didn't bother to search

for it, barely even noted its existence.

Pulling in a deep breath, Sulu activated the

emergency field effect suit at his belt as he

got to his feet and punched the door release.the

suit's faintly luminous halo cast a softening

haze over everything, but it would give him the seconds

he needed.

But the door-He hit the release again, but it

didn't move.

JammedffThe whole frame of the shuttlecraft must

have been warped by the impact!

Hitting the release a third time, he

simultaneously slammed his shoulder against the door,

putting all of his wiry strength into the effort.

And again.

This time the door gave With a scraping sound, and an

instant later the pressure of the

atmosphere inside the shuttlecraft took over the

rest of the job, as the door literally popped

halfway open and the rush of air almost knocked

Sulu off his feet.

Catching himself, he hastily slid through the narrow

opening and raced for the nearest door in the back wall

of the hangar.if Scotty had been successful in

sealing the doors manually instead of letting the computer

do it, he would be able to override the seal from this airless

side.if not-Hitting the emergency override

switch, he gripped the lever that popped out of the wall

flush With the edge of the door.pumping at the lever

only until a narrow crack appeared, he

released the lever and jammed his fingers into the narrow

crack, now filled With a torrent of outrushing air.

But it wouldn't moveffEven With all his strength,

augmented by the adrenaline he could feel surging through

him, it wouldn't moveffHe was going to have

to-Suddenly, a second pair of hands, also sheathed

in the faint glow of a field effect suit, joined

his-Lieutenant ShantiffHe hadn't heard her

race across the hangar deck, but she was there, the

tendons of her hands standing out as she joined her strength

With his and With a metallic grating, the door lurched

open another precious few inches.

While Shanti continued to strain at the door,

Sulu, his uniform scraping and almost tearing, forced his

way through.

Inside, leaving the air rushing through the opening, he

raced to t he nearest intercom.

Chapter Twenty-two.

"ONE minute until alignment is complete,

Captain," Sparer reported from the helm."...Still no

response to any control."

His mind racing, Kirk nodded his acknowledgment.

A thousand solutions must have shot through his thoughts in the

last two minutes, but every one depended on at least

some part of the computer being under his control.the only

remotely realistic chance was if Scotty or

Lieutenant Diaz could break into the sealed-off

portion of deck nineteen and tear loose the power

connection that someone had obviously restored.

Was it someone who had been on the ship all

along"...Or someone who had come on With Carmody but

had stayed on board, biding his time until the

critical moment?

"Through the first door," Diaz's rumble filtered

through the communicators, "but there's at least one more before

--"

"Captain!" Sulu's voice erupted

onto the bridge, not from Kirk's communicator, but

from the intercom

system, one of the few systems that operated almost as

well without the computer as With.

"Sulu?" Kirk shot back."...What--"

"No time, Captain," he interrupted, his

voice knife-edge sharp, "no timeffEnter the

following sequence directly into the computer, no

mistakes, no interruptions.are you ready?"

Hesitating only a fraction of a second,

Kirk spun toward the science station."...Do it,

Mr.pritchard.go ahead, Mr.sulu."

Instantly Sulu began, pausing only once

when Pritchard fell momentarily behind his steady but

rapid-fire delivery.on the viewscreen the

approaching ship seemed more obviously defenseless

With each passing second.sparer continued to monitor

the realignment of the navigation system, counting down

silently, mouthing the numbers to Kirk.other

readouts showed that the phaser banks were fully charged

and directed toward the oncoming ship, lacking only

the lock-on and the order to fire that would come when the

realignment was complete.

Kirk's communicator started to crackle

to life, another message from either Diaz

or Scott, but he hastily squelched the sound and

turned away from the science station.he was about to whisper

a delaying message into the communicator, when

Sulu ended the transmission.

"That's it," he said, and then, the tension in his

voice notching even higher, "Is anything

happening?"

Without waiting for an answer, Sulu raced on

"Get the shields up, on minimum rangeffThere's

a Klingon

ship only a few hundred meters below, or it was

when I came in.it could be closer by now.it had

just beamed someone into the Enterprise secondary hull

and"

"Captain!" Sparers voice broke in sharply,

even as her fingers darted across the helm

controls."...We've got controlffFiring command

cancelled, shields coming--shields up, minimum

extension!"

"ScottyffMr.diaz!" Kirk snapped

into his communicator.

"Don't disconnectffWe're back in

business!"

A whoosh of relief came back through the tiny

speaker."...Aye, Captain, the doors just

unsealed."

"Stay out for the moment, both of y.whoever

reconnected the computer may still be in there, and

probably is dangerous."

"No, Captain," Pritchard broke

in."...Sensors show a lifeform--a Klingon lifeform

--just completing transport to the ship Mr.sulu

told us about."

"All right, Scotty, take a look, but be

careful anyway."

"Aye, Captain."

"Klingon ship departing, Captain," Sparer

reported, "full impulse power."

"Don't lose it, EnsignffCarmody has a

lot of questions to answer."

"Aye-aye, Captain.readying tractor

beam."

"Does it have warp capability,

Mr.pritchard?"

"Unknown, Captain, but--" Pritchard broke

off as new readings appeared. "Warp drive ship just

leaving sensor range beyond Vancadia, making at

least warp eight."

"Heading?"

"Toward the nearest border With the Klingon

Empire."

"Raise any ships you can, Lieutenant

Uhura," Kirk snapped."...If it can be

intercepted in Federation territory--"

"Subspace signal being transmitted from

vicinity of Klingon ship," Pritchard began, but

broke off sharply, his fingers darting across the controls

almost as proficiently as Spock's."...Antimatter

generator in Carmody's ship being purposely

overloaded, Captain.

Going critical any moment."

Pritchard had barely finished the warning, when the

fleeing ship vanished in a brilliant flare that

sent the viewscreen into a total whiteout.

On the bridge, there was silence as the screen

recovered and, finally, showed the dissipating cloud of

particles that had been Carmody and his

Klingon-manufactured ship.

"At a guess," Kirk said grimly, "I'd

say they didn't want us to get our hands on

Mr.carmody."

At the hiss of the turbolift door, Kirk

turned sharply from the viewscreen and Admiral

Brady's weathered face.he couldn't keep a grin

from erupting momentarily across his own face as

Spock stepped smartly onto the bridge,

followed by a scowling Dr. McCoy.

"It took you long enough to decide to let them beam us

over from that--" McCoy broke off as he saw

Brady's face on the screen.

"And I'm glad to see you too, Bones,"

Kirk said, getting control of the grin."...ally know the

admiral."

"Welcome back, Dr.mcCoy, Commander

Spock," Brady said and then went on hastily, a

touch of apology in his voice, "I'm sure you

realize the delay was nec.captain Kirk wanted

to be absolutely certain that the computer was clean, that

there were no surprises left in the circuits that

monitor transporter operation."

"A logical precaution, Captain," Spock

acknowledged when McCoy seemed at a loss for

words."...But do not allow our arrival to interrupt the

proceedings."

"Of course," Brady said, seeming momentarily

disconcerted by the exchange."...As I was saying, we have

found no trace of the Klingon ship. We assume it

altered its course as soon as it was out of sensor

range and managed to evade our search." He shook

his head."...With only two ships in the area,

it wouldn't have been hard to do."

"They undoubtedly had their escape well

planned," Kirk sd.glancing at Spock and

McCoy, he went on.

"It looks as if they delayed their departure

only until they were absolutely certain Carmody

had failed.

Delkondros and at least a dozen others who

may or may not have been Klingons masquerading as

humans vanished shortly after the surveillance

ships were destroyed.we assume it was an

evacuation.in any event, it's obvious the

Klingons weren't planning to give Carmody a

second chance any more than Carmody was going to give

Finney one."

Brady nodded."...Even if he'd succeeded, I'd

wager they would have found a way to get rid of

hm.since he was so ready to betray the Federation, how

could they trust him not to betray the Empire?"

"You can say that again," McCoy spoke up."...According

to Finney, Carmody was out for himself and no one

else." The doctor snorted."...He fit right in

With the Klingons.thought their

"advancement-by-assassination" way of doing things was

just dandy and wouldn't have hesitated a second

to use it himself."

"Will we ever be able to understand the Klingons?"

Brady asked rhetorically, shaking his

head."...Or humans like Carmody, for that matter"...But

Jim, what are the chances that the Klingons took a

copy of Finney's program With them?"

"I'd say it's virtually a certainty,

Admiral, but I doubt that they'll ever try to use

x.for one thing, they were undoubtedly listening in on

everything that happened right up to the second they took

off, so they know that we'll have protection against that or

any similar program.but even if they do,

we'll be ready for them, now that Finney's seen the

error of his ways and will be giving Starfleet all the

help he can in providing that protection, even while

he's getting the therapy he needs."

Brady nodded heavily."...Security at our

psychiatric facilities will be a bit tighter this

time.one more thing, Jim, before you leave the

Chyrellkan system--be sure that the truth of the

situation gets thoroughly circulated on both

worlds."

"That will not be a problem, Admiral," Spock

volunteered."...While we were on the Vancadian

ship

waiting to be beamed aboard the Enterprise,

Professor Rohgan and Councilman

Tylmaurek offered to work With u.they are convinced that

the people of both planets will be most susceptible

to reason now that the Klingon involvement is ended."

"I'm sure they will be," McCoy put

in."...Once they knew what was going on, everyone on

that shuttle was ready to forgive and forget.and

Professor Rohgan sounded like he was ready to start

pushing for Federation membership the second he got

back to Vancadia."

"Excellent, Dr.mcCoy.excellent work

all around, Captain, Commander Spock.keep us

informed."

As Brady's image faded from the screen,

Kirk turned again toward Spock and McCoy."...ally

two scared the hell out of me," he said With a faint

approximation of the grin he had first greeted them

With."...I would really appreciate it if you didn't

do it again."

"We will endeavor to avoid a repetition of the

incident," Spock said solemnly.

"I can't say I'd enjoy repeating it either,"

McCoy said, and then added With a shake of his head,

"But you want to know what's really scary,

Jim"...That bunch had a good chance of pulling their little

stunt off. They probably would have if they'd just

trusted each other instead of stabbing each other in the

back every chance they got."

"That is most unlikely, Doctor," Spock

said, not looking up from the science station readouts he

had turned to as the admiral had signed off.

"Oh, and what crystal ball tells you that,

Spock?"

"It does not require a crystal ball,

Doctor, or any of the other devices charlatans

employ.it is simple logic.

I am surprised you cannot see that."

"To you, solving a six-dimensional equation in your

head is an exercise in simple logic,

Spoc k.how about explaining for us mere humans who

have trouble keeping just three dimensions straight?"

"As you wish, Doctor," Spock said, turning

toward him."...It is merely that if people are inclined

to trust other people, they generally have neither the desire nor

the reason to develop such schemes in the first

place."

McCoy snorted."...And if pigs had wings,

they'd fly."

Spock minutely arched one

eyebrow."...I assume that is one of your human

aphorisms, Doctor, implying that humans as a

species are not trustworthy?"

McCoy shrugged, his eyes flickering around at

Kirk and Spock and the rest of the bridge crew."...I

guess we're improving, Mr.spock--at least

here and there." His expression brightened."...Under your

expert guidance, of course."

"It is gratifying to know that you finally acknowledge

my contribution, Doctor," Spock said,

returning his attention to the science station instruments.

Kirk laughed as he momentarily and

unsuccessfully searched the Vulcan's face for a

hint of a smile.

"Ahead warp factor three, Mr.sulu," he

said."...Take us out of here."