"Here's the report on pollux v, captain." "This entire system has been almost the same." "A strange lack of intelligent life on the planets." "It bucks the percentages." "Bucks them." "Well, carry out the standard procedures on pollux iv." "Aye, sir." "Mccqyi lieutenant, you look a bit tired this morning." "Well, I was up all night working on this report." "In that case, there's nothing like a wee bit of coffee to get you back in shape." " Join me, Carolyn?" " All right, Scotty." "Just let me give this to Mr. Spock." "Bones, could you get that excited over a cup of coffee?" "Even from here, i can tell his pulse rate's up." "Gentlemen." "Come along, my dear." "I'm not sure I like that, Jim." "Why, bones?" "Scotty's a good man." "And he thinks he's the right man for her, but I'm not sure she thinks he's the right man." "On the other hand, she's a woman." " All woman." " Mm." "One day, she'll find the right man." "Off she'll go," " out of the service." " Mm-hm." "I like to think of it not so much as losing an officer as gaining..." "Come along." "Actually, I'm losing an officer." "Entering standard orbit around pollux iv, sir." " Cartographic details." "Stand by." " Standing by, sir." "Preliminary reports, Mr. Spock." "Pollux iv." "Class-m type planet." "Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere." "Sensors indicate no life forms." "Approximate age:" "Four billion years." "Judged:" "No reason for contact." "In all respects, quite ordinary, captain." "Cartographic sections, implement standard orders." "All cartographic scanners, full automatic." "Captain." "What in the name of...?" " Analysis, Mr. Spock." " Momentarily." "Am I seeing things?" "Not unless I am too." "Captain, that thing's a giant hand." "What is it, Mr. Spock?" "Ls it, uh... a hand?" "Negative, captain." "Not living tissue." "A trick, then." "A projection?" "Not a projection, sir." "A field of energy." " Hard about." " Hard about." "We can't seem to get away from it." "It's almost as if it means to grab us." " Reverse all engines." " All engines, reverse." "We're dead still, captain." "Helm doesn't answer." "We can't move." "Space, the final frontier." "These are the voyages of the starship enterprise." "Its five-year mission:" "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." "Captain's log, stardate 3468.1." "While approaching pollux iv, a planet in the beta geminorum system, the enterprise has been stopped in space by an unknown force of some kind." "Lieutenant, relay our position and circumstances to starbase 12 immediately." " Aye, aye, sir." " Mr. sulu." "Try rocking the ship." "Full impulse power, forward and back." "Aye, aye, sir." "Damage report coming in, captain." "Situation under control." "Minor damage, stations 3, 7 and 19." "Sickbay reports five minor injuries." "All being treated." "Thank you." " Mr. sulu?" " Applying thrust, sir." "No results, captain." "We're stuck tight." "Mr. Spock." "Status?" "The ship is almost completely encircled by the field." "It resembles a conventional force field, but on unusual wavelengths." "Despite its appearance, that of a human appendage, it is definitely not living tissue." "It is energy." "Thank you." "Mr. sulu." "Our forward tractor beams, adjust to repel." "Aye, aye, sir." " Standing by." " Activate." "Ineffective, captain." "There doesn't seem to be anything to push against." "Captain, a most curious development on scanner 57." "Let's all take a look at it, Mr. Spock." "Screen on, captain." "Activity on hailing channel 3, sir." "Put it on audio, lieutenant." "The aeons have passed, and what has been written has come about." "You are most welcome, my beloved children." "Your places await you." "Response frequency, lieutenant." "Calculated." "Channel open, sir." "You have left your plains and valleys and made this bold venture." "So it was in the beginning." "You have made me proud." "Now you can rest." "This is captain James t." "Kirk, commanding the USS enterprise." " Please identify yourself." " We shall remember together." "We shall drink the sacramental wine." "There shall be the music of the pipes." "The long wait has ended." "Are you responsible for stopping the ship?" "Yes," "I caused the wind to withdraw from your sails." "Give it back, then we'll talk." "It has been 5,000 years." "Have you learned no Patience in that time?" "I don't know who or what you are." "But I must warn you, we have the power to defend ourselves." "If you value your safety, release this ship." "You have the same fire." "How like your fathers you are." "Agamemnon, Hector, odysseus..." "Never mind the history lesson, release the ship." "You will obey me, lest I close my hand..." "Thus." "External pressure building up, captain." "External pressure building up, captain." "Eight hundred gsc and climbing." "Compensate." "One thousand gsc and climbing." "It's becoming critical, captain." "We can't handle it." "All right, whatever you're doing, turn it off." "You win." "Pressure's gone, captain." "Space-normal on hull." "That was your first lesson." "Remember it." "Captain kirk, I invite you and your officers to join me." "But do not bring that one, the one with the pointed ears." "He is much like pan, and pan always bored me." "No sad faces." "This is a time to rejoice, not to fear." "You are returning home." "Let your hearts prepare to sing." "Let's go, bones." " You in good voice?" " You sure it's wise, Jim?" "If we don't accept his invitation, we'll have a crushed eggshell where this ship used to be." "Verbose, isn't he?" "Insulted, Spock?" "Insults are effective only where emotion is present." "Good." "We'll tackle him together." "We already know the questions." "You're the best man to find the answers." "Tricorders." " What am I doing down here, doctor?" " You're the aa officer, aren't you?" "Archaeology, anthropology, ancient oivilisations?" "Correct." "Well, we're going to need help in all those areas." "Come on." "My children, long have I waited for this moment." "The memories you bring of your lush and beautiful earth." "Green fields and blue skies, the simple Shepherds and their flocks." "You know of earth?" "You've been there?" "Once I stretched out my hand and earth trembled, and I breathed upon it and spring returned." "You mentioned agamemnon, Hector, odysseus." "How do you know about them?" "Search your most distant memories." "Those of the thousands of years past, and I am there." "Your fathers knew me, and your fathers' fathers." "I am Apollo." " And I am the czar of all the russias." " Mr. Chekov." "I'm sorry, captain." "I never met a god before." " And you haven't yet." "Readings?" "McCoy:" "Simple humanoid, captain." "Evidently not so simple." "Earth... mother of the most beautiful of women in the universe." "That, at least, has not changed." "I am pleased." "Yes, my children." "Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, a gallant band of travelers." "We knew your earth well 5,000 of your years ago." "All right, we're here at your invitation." "Would you mind telling us what you want without all the olympian generalities?" "You will not leave this place." "Transporter room." "Your transportation device no longer functions." "Enterprise, come 'm." "I will not permit that device to work either, captain." "What is it you want?" "You will worship me, as your fathers did before you." "If you wanna play god and call yourself Apollo, that's your business." " But you're no god to us, mister." " I said, you would worship me." " And you've got a lot to learn." " And so have you!" "Let the lesson begin." "Welcome to Olympus, captain kirk." "I can't contact the landing party." "All frequencies are jammed." " Try to break through." " Aye, sir." " Transporter and communications?" " Inefficient." "Mr. sulu, rig all transmission circuits for maximum power generation." "Compute for reversal of polarity of the field around the ship." "Working, sir." "I want a complete sensor scan of the planet." " Aye, sir." " Locate all life forms." "I wanna know what's going on down there." "To coin a phrase, fascinating." "Analysis." "Lieutenant palamas, what do you know about Apollo?" "Apollo, uh, twin brother of Artemis, son of the god Zeus and leto, a mortal." "He was the god of light and purity." "He was skilled in the bow and the lyre." "And this thing?" "Obviously, he has some knowledge of earth." "His classical references and, uh, the appearance of all this." "I think the appearance of all this is for our benefit." "Bones?" "Well, I can't say much until I check out these readings." "He looks human, but of course that doesn't mean a thing." "Whatever he is, sir, he seems to control a remarkable technology." "Power is what he controls." "You can't do tricks like that without energy." "Fine, but what power?" "Where is it?" "Scout around with your tricorders." "Find the source of that power." " Bones." " Yeah?" "Bones, I wonder if 5,000 years ago..." " You have a theory?" " I have an idea." "What if he is really Apollo?" " What?" " Captain?" "I want from you that which is rightfully mine." "Your loyalty, your tribute and your worship." "May I ask what you offer in exchange for this worship?" "Life in paradise, as simple and as pleasureful as it was those thousands of years ago on that beautiful planet so far away." "Apollo... we're willing to talk, but you'll find we don't bow to every creature who happens to have a bag of tricks." "Agamemnon was one such as you." "And Hercules." "Pride and arrogance." "They defied me until they felt my wrath." "I would like to point out that we are quite capable of some wrath ourselves." "I have 430 people on that ship up there." "No, you do not, captain." "They are mine." "To save, to Cherish, or to destroy at my will." "But why?" "What you've said so far makes no sense at all." "How like Aphrodite and Athena." "The beauty, grace." "You seem wise for a woman." " What is your name?" " Lieutenant palamas." "I mean your name." "Carolyn." "Carolyn." "Yes." "You are beautiful." "You would do Aphrodite credit." "I will tell you a thousand tales, stories of courage and love." "You will know what it is to be a goddess." "Leave her alone!" "You protest?" " You risk much." " And so do you." "Scotty." "Very impressive." "How'd you do it?" "I've grown weary of discussion and argument." "Captain, the phasers." "All the working parts are fused." "None of your toys will function." "Yes, you are a beauty." "But like Artemis, the bow arm should be bare." "Oh, it's beautiful." "Yes." " Come." " She's not going with you." "He shall learn the discipline of the temple." "So shall you all." "Come." "It's all right, captain." "I'll go." "Without fear." "She is fit indeed." "Bones, how is he?" "Stunned, but coming around." "I'm not sure it's wise to let her go off like that." "He would have been rather difficult to stop." "You saw how capricious he is." "Benevolent one minute, angry the next." "One wrong move from her and he could kill her." "Mr. Chekov, I think you'd better continue your investigation." "Aye, aye, sir." "Well, how do you feel, Scotty?" "I am tingling all over." " Did he take her with him?" " It would seem so." "Captain, we've got to stop him." "He wants her." " The way he looked at her..." " Mr. Scott!" "I understand your concern over her, but she volunteered to go with him." "Hopefully, to find out more." "She's doing her job." "I think it's about time you started doing yours." "We've got to find out the source of his power." "You've got a tricorder." "Use it, if you're able to." " I'm able, sir." " And one more thing." "I want no more unauthorised action against Apollo or whatever he is." " That's an order." " Aye, aye, sir." "Besides, you stiff-necked thistlehead, you could have gotten yourself killed." "Aye." " Scotty doesn't believe in gods." " Apollo's no god." "But... he could have been taken for one, though, once." "Say 5,000 years ago, a highly sophisticated group of space travelers landed on earth around the mediterranean." "Yes." "To the simple Shepherds and tribesmen of early Greece, creatures like that would have been gods." "Especially if they had the power to alter their form at will and command great energy." "In fact, they couldn't have been taken for anything else." "Ready to reverse polarity, Mr. sulu?" "Computed and standing by to generate, sir." "Activate all units." "No good, Mr. Spock." "We didn't even faze it." " We're still locked tight." " Cut power, Mr. sulu." "Lieutenant, we must restore communications with the landing party." "Well, I'm working, sir, but I can't do anything with this." " Oh?" " Well, I might be able to rig up a subspace bypass circuit." "Good, do so." "Sensor report, Mr. Kyle." "I've located the landing party, sir." "But one of them seems separated from the other four." "And Apollo?" "I've just picked up readings for our own people." "Mr. Spock, here's something." "There seems to be a radiated energy pulsation coming from the planet." " I don't know what it is, sir." " Origin?" "I can't seem to pinpoint it, sir." "I would suggest, Mr. sulu, that if you cannot find out where the power source is, you should find out where it is not." "A simple process of elimination." "The whole planet, sir?" "Yes, sir, the whole planet." "It's lovely." "I've known other women, Daphne, Cassandra." "But none more beautiful than you." " Are you frightened of me?" " Frightened?" "No, I don't think so." "Of course, a girl doesn't go walking with a..." "A 90d?" "All right." "A god every day." "What happened to the others?" "Artemis, hera?" "They returned to the cosmos on the wings of the wind." " You mean they died?" " No." "Not as you understand it." "We're immortal, we gods." "But the earth changed." "Your fathers changed." "They turned away until we were only memories." "A god cannot survive as a memory." "We need love, admiration, worship, as you need food." "You really think you're a god?" "In a real sense, we were gods." "We had the power of life and death." "We could have struck out from Olympus and destroyed." "We have no wish to destroy." "So we came home again." "It was an empty place without worshippers." "But we had no strength to leave." "So we waited, all of us." "Through the long years." "But you said the others didn't die." "Even for a god, there's a point of no return." "Hera was first." "She stood in front of the temple and spread herself upon the wind." "Thinner and thinner, until only the wind remained." "But I knew you would come." "You striving, bickering, foolishly brave humans." "I knew you would come to the stars one day." "Of all the gods, I knew and I waited." "Waited for you to come and sit by my side." "I don't understand." "Even 5,000 years ago, the gods took mortals to them to love, to care for." "Like Zeus took leto, my mother." "We were gods of passion, of love." "There is a repeated occurrence of registrations." "A regular pulsating pattern of radiated energy." "Unquestionably, an immensely powerful field of energy is being generated around here somewhere, but we're having difficulty focusing on it." "Apollo has no difficulty focusing." "He taps that energy, Mr. Scott." "Sir, some creatures can generate and control energy with no harm to themselves." "The electric eel on earth, the giant dry-worm of antos iv." " The fluffy..." " Not the whole encyclopaedia, Chekov." "The captain requires complete information." "Spock's contaminating this boy, Jim." "Are you suggesting that he," "Apollo, taps the flow of energy and channels it through his body?" "That would seem most likely, sir." "Mr. Chekov, I think you've earned your pay for the week." "But where is the source of that power?" "Number one on our list of things to do." "Is that all you have to offer?" "Yes, except my estimation for his physical condition." "In spite of Apollo's bag of tricks, he comes up essentially normal with just a few variations." "However, there's an extra organ in his chest I can't even make a guess about." " Bones, is it possible...?" " Jim." "Where's lieutenant palamas?" "She is no longer of any concern to you." "You bloodthirsty saracen," " what have you done with her?" " Scotty!" "Scotty!" "Not good." "Severe shock." "All right, mister." "You wanted worshippers?" "You've got enemies." "You want us to bow down..." "You will learn discipline." "You will learn..." "Chekov, give me a hand." " Take care of Scotty." " Are you all right, captain?" " Where's Apollo?" " He disappeared again, like the cat in that Russian story." "Don't you mean the English story, the cheshire cat?" " Cheshire?" "No, sir." "Minsk, perhaps..." " All right." "All right." "All right." "Sir, there is something I noticed." "Apollo looked very strange when he disappeared." "Tired or in pain." "I don't know if it means anything." "Very good, Mr. Chekov." "That might very well mean something." " How do you feel?" " I can't get my arm to move." "Some neural damage." " We've got to get out of here." " How?" "How?" "Let's assume that 5,000 years ago, creatures like our friend, Apollo, did indeed visit earth, and formed the basis of the Greek classic myths." " It makes sense." " Most mythology has its basis in fact." "Now, if I remember my ancient legends, the gods, after expending energy, required rest, even as we humans." "And Apollo's gone." "After attacking you and Mr. Scott." "You think maybe he's off somewhere recharging his energy cells?" "Something like that." "Remember, he's keeping a force field on the ship and he's expending energy down here." "You said he looked pained and tired when he disappeared." "If we can wear him out, overwork him, that might do it." "The trouble with overworking him is that it can get us killed." "If we can provoke him so that he strikes one of us again, there's a chance that he'll be drained enough, the rest of us can jump him." " I still say it can get us killed." " Not all of us, bones." "When he comes back, it's a chance we'll have to take." "Progress report." "I'm connecting the bypass circuit now, sir." "It should take another half hour." "Speed is essential, lieutenant." "Mr. Spock, I haven't done anything like this in years." "If it isn't done just right, I could blow the entire communications system." "It's very delicate work, sir." "I can think of no one better equipped to handle it, miss uhura." " Please proceed." " Yes, sir." "Right away." "Progress, Mr. sulu?" "Sectors 1 through 25 charted and examined." "No chance at all of power originating in those areas." " Continue the search." " Aye, sir. 14b by 26 index." " Mr. Kyle?" " Yes, sir." "We're unable to break completely loose from this force field, but we might be able to punch some holes through it." " What for, sir?" " To shoot through." "It might also relieve lieutenant uhura's communications problem." "You'll take these equations to the nuclear electronics lab." "I want them to work on the problem of negating the force field in selected areas." "Now, it might be done by generating a strong pinpoint charge of m-rays on some of these selected wavelengths and tying them in with the combined output of all our engines." "Right away, sir." "Come here." "I know you're trying to escape me." "It's useless." "I know everything you do." "I tried to be compassionate toward your kind." "You know nothing about our kind, you know only our remote ancestors who trembled before your tricks." "Your tricks don't frighten us." "Neither do you." "We've come a long way in 5,000 years." "But you're still of the same nature." "I could sweep you out of existence with a wave of my hand and bring you back again." "I can give life or death." "What else does mankind demand of its gods?" "Mankind has no need for gods." "We find the one quite adequate." "We shall not debate, mortal." "I offer you eternal rest and happiness according to the ancient ways." "I ask little in return." "But what I ask for, I insist upon." "Approach me." "I said approach me!" "We're busy." "Look after the girl." "You will gather Laurel leaves." "Light the ancient fires." "Kill a deer." "Make your sacrifices to me!" " Apollo has spoken!" " Go!" "Gather Laurel leaves, you must be joking." "Mccqyi kill a deer!" "That's the funniest thing I ever heard." "Kill a deer!" "That's the funniest thing i ever heard." "Go ahead!" " Stop." " Lieutenant, get back!" "You shall reap the rewards of your insolence!" " We're tired of your phoney fireworks." " Mortal, you have earned this!" " No, don't." " Lieutenant." "Lieutenant!" "A father doesn't destroy his children." "You said you were gentle and understanding." " Lieutenant!" " How can they worship you" " if you hurt them?" " Lieutenant." "Apollo, please." "You know so much of love." "Please don't hurt them." "Please." "I shall be lenient with you for her sake." "You will make plans to bring the rest of your people down." "Be sure your artisans bring tools." "You will need homes." "And you will supply the herds of sheep and the pipes we will play and the simple skins we'll wear for clothes?" "You will dismantle your ship for the supplies you need." "And I'll crush its empty hull." "I have been too patient." "I shall be patient no longer." "Captain, we've got to do something." "We were doing something until our brave lady stepped in and saved us." " Got any more good ideas, Jim?" " Yes, I have." "One more, and it depends on the lieutenant's loyalty." "If she fails us, we'd better get used to herding goats." "Fools." "I offer them more than they could know." "Not just a world, but all that makes it up." "Man thinks he's progressed." "They're wrong." "He's merely forgotten those things which gave life meaning." "You'll all be provided for, cared for, happy." "There is an order of things in this universe." "Your species has denied it." "I come to restore it." "And for you, because you have the sensitivity to understand," "I offer you more than your wildest dreams have ever imagined." "You'll become the mother of a new race of gods." "You'll inspire the universe." "All men will revere you, almost as a god yourself." "And I shall love you for time without end, worlds without end." "You shall complete me, and I you." "Kirk to enterprise." "Come in." "Enterprise, come in." "Kirk to enterprise, come in." " Kirk to..." " Carolyn!" " What's happened to her?" " Scotty, I'll find out." "Uh, perhaps if I assisted..." " How old are you?" " Twenty-two, sir." "Then I'd better handle it." " You all right?" " Oh, yes, I'm all right." "I have a message for you." "Come over there." "Well?" "He wants us to live in peace." "He wants to provide for us." "He'll give us everything we ever wanted." "And he can do it too." "All right, you can come down from mount Olympus now." "You've got work to do." " I don't understand." " He thrives on love, worship, attention." " Yes." " We can't give him that worship." "None of us can." "Especially you." "What?" "Spurn him." "Reject him." "You must." " You're special to him." " Yes." "I love him." "Lieutenant, all our lives, here and on the ship, depend on you." " No, not on me." " On you, lieutenant." "Reject him and we have a chance to save ourselves." "Accept him and you condemn all of us to slavery, nothing less than slavery." "We might never get help this far out." "Or perhaps the thought of spending an eternity bending knee and tending sheep appeals to you." "Oh, but you don't understand." "He's kind and he wants the best for us." "And he's so lonely." "What you ask would break his heart." "Now, how can I?" "Give me your hand." "Your hand." "Now, feel that." "Human flesh against human flesh." "We're the same." "We share the same history, the same heritage, the same lives." "We're tied together beyond any untying." "Man or woman, it makes no difference." "We're human." "We couldn't escape from each other if we wanted to." "That's how you do it." "By remembering who and what you are." "A bit of flesh and blood afloat in a universe without end." "And the only thing that's truly yours is the rest of humanity." "That's where our duty lies." "Do you understand me?" "Yes." "Yes, I understand." "He's calling me." "Lieutenant, you have your orders and your duty." "Yes, sir, my orders and my duty." "I think we can try it now, sir." "Enterprise to captain kirk." " Enterprise to captain kirk." "Come in." " Kirk here." " Enterprise to captain kirk." "Come in." " Kirk here." "Spock here, captain." "We've pinpointed a power source on the planet's surface which seems to have something to do with the force field." "Ls there a structure of some sort near you?" " There is, indeed, Mr. Spock." " The power emanates from there." "Very good." "How are you doing on the force field?" "We can negate sections of it, creating openings through which we can fire our phaser banks." "Well, that ought to do it." "Have Mr. sulu lock all phaser banks onto the structure." "Fire on my order only and cut it fine." "We'll be standing nearby." "Captain," "I would recommend a discreet distance." "I'd love to oblige you, Mr. Spock, but we're not all together." "Besides we have Apollo to deal with." "If that structure is the source of his power," "I wanna know where he is when we attack it." "Kirk out." "Bones, do you think that mysterious organ in Apollo's chest has something to do with the transmission of energy?" "It doesn't serve any other purpose i know of." "Captain, we've got to wait until Carolyn comes back before we fire on the temple." "We don't know what would happen to her if he was suddenly attacked." " She might get killed." " Yes, I know." "I know, Scotty." "We'll wait." "I must say, Apollo, the way you ape human behaviour is remarkable." "But there are some other things i must know." "Your evolutionary patterns and your social development." "My what?" "I'm sure they're unique." "I've never encountered a specimen like you before." "I am Apollo." "I've chosen you." "But I'm sure that's very flattering, but I must get on with my work now." " Your work?" " I'm a scientist." "My particular speciality is ancient civilisations, relics and myths." "Why, surely you know I've only been studying you." "I don't believe it." "You love me." "Love you?" "Be logical." "I'm not some simple shepherdess you can awe." "Why, I could no more love you than I could love a new species of... bacteria." "Carolyn, I forbid you to go." "I order you to stay." "Is that the secret of your power over women?" "The thunderbolts you throw?" "What the devil is that?" " Kirk here." " Spock, captain." "Sensors are picking up an atmospheric disturbance in your area." "Stand by your phasers, Mr. Spock." "Prepare to fire on my signal." "Kirk out." "We've got to go and find her." "We've gotta be here when he comes back." " But what if he doesn't?" "What if...?" " Scotty, just hold on." " No!" " Captain." "All right." "The temple is his power source." "Let's bring him back to it." "Get to cover." "Mr. Spock, fire those phasers." " Captain, you're too close." " Fire those phasers." "That's an order." "All phaser banks, fire." "No!" "Stop!" "Stop, I say!" " All phaser banks, maintain firing rate." " More power to the shields." "Stop!" "Scotty!" "Stop, I say!" "I command it!" " All banks, maintain firing rate." " Maintaining, sir." "Stop!" "Stop!" "Stop!" "I would have cherished you, cared for you." "I would have loved you as a father loves his children." "Did I ask so much?" "We've outgrown you." "You asked for something we can no longer give." "Carolyn." "I loved you." "I would have made a goddess of you." "I've shown you my open heart." "See what you've done to me." "Zeus, hermes, hera," "Aphrodite, you were right." "Athena, you were right." "The time has passed." "There is no room for gods." "Forgive me, my old friends." "Take me." "Take me." " I wish we hadn't had to do this." " So do I." "They gave us so much." "The Greek civilisation, much of our culture and philosophy, came from the worship of those beings." "In a way, they began the golden age." "Would it have hurt us, I wonder, just to have gathered a few Laurel leaves?" "We believe what you say, captain kirk, but our position has not altered." "The halkan council cannot permit your federation to mine dilithium crystals on our planet." "We have shown the council historical proof that our missions are peaceful." "We accept that your federation is benevolent at present, but the future is always in question." "Our dilithium crystals represent awesome power." "Wrongful use of that power, even to the extent of the taking of one life, would violate our history of total peace." "To prevent that, we would die, captain, as a race, if necessary." "I admire your ethics and hope to prove ours." " Kirk to enterprise." " Spock here." "Report on magnetic storm, Mr. Spock." "Standard ion type, captain, but quite violent... and unpredictable." " Rough ride?" " If we stay." "Stand by to beam up landing party." "Plot an extended orbit to clear disturbance." "Kirk out." " Comply, Mr. sulu." " Aye, sir." "When may we resume discussion?" "The council will meditate further." "But do not be hopeful of any change." "Captain." "You do have the might to force the crystals from us, of course." "But we won't." "Consider that." "Enterprise." "Transporter room, energise." "Trouble, sir." "Spock was right." "It was a rough ri..." "At norm, Mr. Kyle." "Controls at neutral." "Yes, sir." "Status of mission, captain?" " No change." " Standard procedure, captain?" "Mr. sulu, you will program phaser barrage on halkan cities." "Yes, Mr. Spock." " Their military capability, captain?" " None." "Regrettable that this society has chosen suicide." "Mr. Kyle, you were instructed to compensate" " during the ion storm." " But I tried..." "Carelessness with the equipment" " cannot be tolerated." " But, Mr. Spock, I tried..." " Your agoniser." " No, Mr. Spock." " Your agoniser, please." " No, Mr. Spock." "I tried, I really tried." "Aah!" "Space, the final frontier." "These are the voyages of the starship enterprise." "Its five-year mission:" "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." "Captain's log, stardate unknown." "During an ion storm, my landing party has beamed back to the enterprise and found it and the personnel aboard changed." "The ship is subtly altered, physically." "Behaviour and discipline has become brutal, savage." "Mr. Scott, the storm has caused some minor damage in your section." "There are also injuries requiring your attention, doctor." "Well, gentlemen?" " Mr. Spock." " Yes?" "The power beam jumped for a moment, sir, just as the landing party was about to materialise." " I never saw it happen before." " Due to your error, Mr. Kyle?" "No, Mr. Spock." "Before." "Possibly a result of the severe storm." "Captain." " Do you feel any abnormal effects?" " Yes." "Dr. McCoy, you better look us over." "That was a rough beam-up." "Yes, sir." "Mr. Spock, have those transporter circuits checked." " What is all this?" " How did we get in this...?" "Not now." "Not now." "What is this?" "Everything's all messed up, changed around, out of place." "Captain, what's happened?" "Well, not everything." "That spot, i spilled acid there a year ago." " Jim, what in blazes...?" " I don't know." "It's our enterprise... but it isn't." " Maybe..." " Maybe what, captain?" "Any of you feel dizzy when we were in the transporter beam?" " Yes." " When we first materialised?" " I did." " It happened twice." "First, we were in our own transporter chamber, and then we faded." "And then, when we finally materialised, we were here, wherever this is." "Captain, the transporter chief mentioned a surge of power." "The transporter lock might have been affected by the ion storm, and we just materialised somewhere else." "Yes, here." "Not our universe, not our ship." "Something... parallel." "Parallel universe, coexisting with ours on another dimensional plane." "Everything's duplicated." "Almost." "Another enterprise, Spock with a beard..." "Another captain kirk, another Dr. McCoy," " another..." " An exchange." "If we're here..." "Then our counterparts must have been transporting up at the exact same time." "Similar storms on both universes disrupted the circuits." "We're here, and they're... on our enterprise." "Probably asking the same questions:" ""Are we in another universe?" "And if so, how do we get back to our own?"" "They'll use the computer, and we have to." "What about the halkans?" "We can't let them be destroyed." "Scotty, can you buy me some time?" "Get below and short out the main phaser couplings." "They'll think the storm blew the circuits." " Aye, sir." " Then, get on this technology." "It's all we have to work with if we want to get back home." "The intercom may be monitored." "Use your communicators for private messages." " Sub-frequency, and scrambled." " Aye, sir." " Lieutenant." " Yes, sir." "Get up to your post." "Run today's communication from starfleet command." "I want to know my exact orders, and options, if any." " Yes, sir." " Bones." "Captain, I..." "I'm..." "Uhura, you're the only one who can do it." "I'll be right there." "Yes, sir." "Bones." "Let's take a look at the library." "We have a lot to learn." "Mr. Chekov, phaser setting for planetary target a." "Coordinates 712, stroke 4, Mr. sulu." "Port batteries locked." "Still no interest, uhura?" "Mm?" "I could change your mind." "You are away from your post, mister." "Is the captain here?" "Ls Spock here?" "When the cat's away..." " Communication status." " No storm damage, sir." "All stations report normal." "You're ordered to annihilate the halkans unless they comply." "No alternative." "Phasers locked on target a, captain." "Approaching optimum range." "Commence fire, captain?" " Captain?" " Stand by, Mr. sulu." "I, uh..." "I've been ordered to, uh, check phaser couplings for possible damage by the storm." "Do you have authorisation from security, sir?" "Captain's orders." "I'll have to check with security chief sulu, sir." "Never mind, I'll attend to it." " Kirk here." " Phaser report, sir." "No damage." "Very good." "Thank you, Mr. Scott." "Kirk out." "Planet's rotation is carrying primary target beyond arc of phaser lock." "Shall I correct orbit to new firing position?" "No." " Lock on to secondary city." " Aye, sir." "Lieutenant uhura, contact the halkan council." "I wish to talk to them again." " Yes, sir." " Captain?" "This is a new race." "They offer other things of value besides dilithium crystals." "But it is clear that we cannot expect their cooperation." "They have refused the empire." "Command procedure dictates that we provide the customary example." "Secondary target now moving beyond our phaser lock." "Put phasers on standby, Mr. sulu." " A serious breach of orders, captain." " I have my reasons." "And I'll make them clear to you in my own good time." "Captain, I have the leader of the halkan council waiting on channel b." "It is useless to resist us." "We do not resist you." "You have 12 hours to consider your position." "Twelve years, captain kirk, or 12,000." "We are ethically compelled to deny your demand for our dilithium crystals, for you would use their power to destroy." "We will level your planet, and take what we want." "That is destruction." "You will die as a race." "To preserve what we are." "We will not argue." "Twelve hours, no more." "Close communications, turn phasers off." "Aye, sir." "Twelve hours, captain." "That is unprecedented." "I shall be in my quarters." "Lieutenant uhura, have Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott meet me there." "Captain, you've placed yourself in a most grave position." "This conduct must be reported." "You're at Liberty to do so, Mr. Spock." "Deck 5, sir?" "So you die, captain, and we all move up in rank." "No one will question the assassination of a captain who has disobeyed prime orders of the empire." "Captain's log, supplemental." "I command an enterprise where officers apparently employ private henchmen among the crew, where assassination of superiors is a common means of advancing in rank." "Your men, captain." "Easy, Farrell." " I did your job." "Ask the captain." " Sir?" "Yes, he did your job." "Smart boy." "Switching to the top dog." "Get him out of here." "Mr. Chekov was going to make me a chief, sir." "You could make me an officer." " All right, you're working for me." " A commission?" "You're in line." "You might even make captain." "Yes, sir." "Oh!" "Not on my ship." "The booth for this one, sir?" "Yes, the booth." "Carry on." "Here." "Here, what's this?" "It's called blood." "Watch your step." "The officers move up by assassination." "Chekov tried it on me." "Mr. sulu is security chief, like the ancient gestapo." "And my sickbay is a chamber of horrors." "Two of my assistants were betting on the tolerance of an injured man, how long it would take him to pass out from the pain." " Report on technology." " Mostly variations in instrumentation." " Nothing I can't handle." " Star readings?" "Everything's exactly where it should be, except us." "Let's find out where we stand." " Computer." " Ready." "This is the captain." "Record security research to be classified under my voiceprint or Mr. Scott's." "Recording." "Produce all data relevant to the recent ion storm." "Correlate the following hypothesis:" "Could a storm of such magnitude cause a power surge in the transporter circuits, creating a momentary interdimensional contact with a parallel universe?" "Affirmative." "At such a moment, could persons in each universe, in the act of beaming, transpose with their counterparts in the other universe?" "Affirmative." "Could conditions necessary to such an event be created artificially, using the ship's power?" "Affirmative." "Record procedure." "Scotty, can you do it?" "Not by myself." "I'll need help." "You'd be too conspicuous." "I'm a doctor, not an engineer." "Now you're an engineer." "I'll have to tap the power we need from the warp engines and balance it for the four of us." "Jim, the way this ship is run, what kind of people are we in this universe?" "Let's find out." "Computer." "Ready." "Read out official record of current command." "Captain James t." "Kirk." "Succeeded to command iss enterprise through assassination of captain Christopher pike." "First action:" "Suppression of gorlan uprising through destruction of rebel home planet." "Second action:" "Execution of 5,000 colonists on vega ix." "Cancel." " Now we know." " Captain." " We can do it." " Good." "We have to lay in the automatic-transporter setting." "But when we interrupt engine circuits to tie the power increase into the transporter, it'll show up on sulu's security board." "Of course, we'll only need a second." "I'll tell uhura to create a diversion to distract sulu's attention at your signal." "We'd better get back to our posts." "Keep me advised." "Jim." "If we're here, what do you suppose our counterparts are doing back in our universe?" "On our enterprise." "I order you!" "Let me gm!" "Traitors!" "Spock, get these men off me!" "What do you think you're doing, Spock?" "You traitorous pig." "I'll hang you up by your vulcan ears." " I'll have you all executed!" " I think not." "Your authority on this ship is extremely limited, captain." "The four of you will remain here in the brig, and in custody, until I discover how to return you to wherever it is you belong." "Has the whole galaxy gone crazy?" "What kind of a uniform is this?" "Where's your beard?" "What's going on?" "Where's my personal guard?" "I can answer none of your questions at this time." "All right, Spock." "Whatever your game is, I'll play it." "You want credits?" "I'll give them to you." "You'll be a rich man." "A command of your own?" "I can swing that too." "Apparently, some kind of transposition has taken place." "I find it extremely interesting." "Spock, what is it that will buy you?" " Power?" " Fascinating." "Power, Spock?" "I can get that for you!" "Captain." "I am pleased that you frustrated Mr. Chekov's plan." "I should regret your death." " Why?" " I do not desire the captaincy." "I much prefer my scientific duties, and I am, frankly, content to be a lesser target." "Logical, as always, Mr. Spock." "The agony booth is a most effective means of discipline." "I presume you've ordered full duration?" "I haven't decided." "Indeed?" " His act warrants death." " I said, I haven't decided." "That is, of course, your affair." "Captain, may I enquire if you intend to persist in your unusual course of action regarding the halkans?" "You heard my orders." "They are, of course, in contradiction to standard empire procedure." "You cannot ignore the consequences." "Is that a threat?" "I do not threaten, captain." "I merely state facts." "I have found you to be an excellent officer." "Our missions together have been both successful and profitable." "However, I shall not permit your aberrations to jeopardise my position." "Spock... do you think we should destroy the halkans?" "Terror must be maintained, or the empire is doomed." " It is the logic of history." " Conquest is easy." "Control is not." "We may have bitten off more than we can chew." "Captain, I do not wish to find myself opposing you." "But if you continue on your present course, this confusing, inexplicable behaviour..." "Is my concern, not yours." "You would find me a formidable enemy." "I am aware of that, captain." "I trust that you are aware of the reverse." "Orders, sir?" "Release Chekov." "Confine him to quarters." "Yes, sir." "That ought to hold him for about six hours." "I fell asleep." "Mm." "We had quite a time in the chem lab picking up after the storm." "Nothing compared to your day, i gather." "I heard about Chekov." "He gambled." "I won." "Mm-mm." "You got lucky." "I'm surprised that you could be caught off guard that way." "I was preoccupied." "Ah." "You're still in trouble with starfleet command." "What you've got in mind this time is beyond me." "You're scheming, of course." "The halkans have something you want." "Or is it all some clever means to advance you to the admiralty?" "Kirk." " The cabinet itself?" " Further than that, if I'm successful." "Really?" "Well, you must know what you're doing." "You always do." "If I'm to be the woman of a Caesar... can't I know what you're up to?" " Kirk here." " Mr. Spock, captain." "Yes?" "I've received a private communication from starfleet command." "I am committing a breach of regulations by informing you of its contents." "Yes, Mr. Spock?" "I'm instructed to wait until planet dawn over principal target to permit you to carry out our mission." "And if I don't?" "In that event, i am ordered to kill you and to proceed against the halkans as the new captain of the enterprise." "Captain's log, stardate unknown." "We are trapped in a savage parallel universe from which we must escape within four hours or I will face a death sentence at Mr. Spock's hands." "Let's drink a toast to Spock, the only man aboard with the decency to warn you." "And he'll die for it." "You'll never find another man like him." "I don't intend to kill him." "Are you going to act against the halkans before the deadline?" "No." "But I'll avoid killing Spock." "Just get him out of the way?" "He and his men?" "I'll get out of his way." "Shall I activate the tantalus field?" "You'll at least want to monitor him, won't you?" "Yes." "I hate this thing." " It's not that bad." " Of course not." "It made you captain." "How many enemies have you simply wiped out of existence by the touch of a button?" "Fifty?" "A hundred?" "And I always thought that was funny." "The great, powerful captain kirk, who owes everything to some unknown alien scientist and a plundered laboratory." "Well, if you don't take advantage of your opportunities..." "You don't rise to the command of a starship." "Or even higher." "That magnificent mind of his." "But it can't protect him from this." "I press it, and he dies." "Now?" "You really mean it." "It doesn't matter." "If Spock fails his order, he'll be killed anyway." "I'll see to it that the circumstances of his failure will clear him." "You're not even afraid of starfleet command." "Can your scheme bring you that much power so quickly?" "And what about me?" "How does marlena fit in?" "How does marlena want to fit in?" " Scotty." " Scotty here, sir." "We have to get out of here within three hours." "Spock has orders to kill me unless I complete the military mission." " We've got another deadline too, sir." " Explain." "The two-way matter transmission affected the local field density between the universes and it's increasing." "We've got to move fast." " How fast?" " A half hour, at the most." "If we miss?" "Scotty"." "We couldn't get out of here in a century." "Now, we're ready to bridge power from the engines to the transporter." "You've got to get down there and free the board so we can lock in." "Give me about ten minutes." "I've gotta complete a few more computations." "All right, I'll be in the transporter room in ten minutes." " I'll meet you in the sickbay afterward." " Aye, sir." " Computer." " Ready." "Explain computer activity in the engineering section." "A security research is in progress." "Who is conducting the research?" "The captain and Mr. Scott." "What is the nature of the research?" "Computer"." "Program is classified under voice-index lock." "Why are you monitoring my communications, Mr. sulu?" "My security board has detected extensive use of computer, Mr. Spock." "I was about to inform you." "It's not hard to guess the nature of your order from starfleet command." "I suggest a connection, the captain suspects." "He's working on escape or defence." "That is my concern." "Correct, it's your play." "I hope you succeed, because the order would fall on me next." "And you know how captain kirk's enemies have a habit of... disappearing." "If I am successful, you see yourself a step nearer to the captaincy." "I do not want to command the enterprise." "But if it should befall me," "I suggest you remember that my operatives would avenge my death." "And some of them are vulcans." "Oiling my traps, darling." "I'm afraid I'm a little out of practise." "Maybe that's what happened to us, hmm?" "It's very hard for a working officer to shine as a woman every minute." " And you demand perfection." " I've never seen perfection." "But no woman could come closer to it." "I remember when you used to talk that way." " I still do." " Prove it." " I've gotta go." " Ship's business?" "An important task on the crew deck?" "Well, I guess it's over." "Commander kenner will take me temporarily." "He's made that quite clear." "I'll call a yeoman to help me with my things." "You don't have to do that." "Are you feeling sorry for me?" "Do I see hesitation in your eyes, about anything?" "I want one thing, captain:" "Transfer me." "On the enterprise, lam humiliated." "On another ship, i can hunt fresh game." "I've got my rank, and..." "Don't I?" "I've been a captain's woman and I like it." "I'll be one again, if I have to go though every officer in the fleet." "You could." "I simply meant... that you could be anything you want to be." "It's been a long time since you've kissed me like that." "You're a stranger." "Mercy to the halkans, mercy to Spock, to me." "Am I your woman?" "You're the captain's woman until he says you're not." "Uhura." "Yes, captain." "Scotty's signal should be coming through any moment now." " You know what to do." " I've got a pretty good idea, sir." " Keep sulu's attention off that board." " I'll do my best, sir." "Good luck." "Kirk out." "You aren't very persistent, Mr. sulu." "The game has rules." "You're ignoring them." "I protest, and you come back." "You didn't come back." " Now you're making sense." " I was getting bored." "Mm-hm." "Of course, this isn't the time." "Any time's a good time." "I'm afraid i changed my mind again." "You take a lot of chances, lieutenant." "So do you, mister." "So do you." "Take over for me." "Mr. Scott." "All clear." "On my way to sickbay." "Now it's up to the captain." "You will please restrict your movements, captain." "What are you doing?" "Are you gonna shoot me now, Spock?" "I thought I had until dawn." "I shall make that decision." "Since you returned from the planet, you have behaved in a most atypical and illogical manner." " I want to know why." " Shoot." "You're wasting time." "I shall not waste time with you." "You're too inflexible, too disciplined, once you've made up your mind." "But Dr. McCoy has a plenitude of human weaknesses." "Sentimental, soft." "You may not tell me what I want to know, but he will." "You're running a big risk, Spock." "I have the phaser, captain." "And I do not intend to simply disappear as so many of your opponents have in the past." "If you please." "Sickbay." "Yes, of course." "The entire landing party." "Captain, stand over there." "Doctor, it is time for answers." " How much time, Scotty?" " Oh." "Hardly 15 minutes, sir." "The field density between the two universes is starting to close very fast." "Help me get him on the table." "Come on, help me get him on the table!" "He'll die without immediate treatment." "Everything laid in, Scotty?" "The time lag, so the operator can get into the transporter chamber?" "All laid in, sir." "Come on, McCoy, we're taking a chance on not getting back home." "We'll get home." "This won't take long." "Scotty"." "Fourteen minutes." "We've got to go!" "You shut up!" "I can save his life." "Do you want me to stop, Jim?" "It'll only take a minute." "He is very much like our own Mr. Spock, isn't he?" "You've got that minute." "A little time, he'll live." "What is this, Mr. sulu?" "Mr. Spock has orders to kill you, captain." "He will succeed." "Apparently, you will also appear to have killed him... after a fierce battle." "Regrettable, but it will leave me in command." "Captain, we've barely got ten minutes." "Let's go, bones." "I can't let him die, Jim." "You get to the transporter room, make sure it's clear." " I'll be there in five minutes." " No longer." "I guarantee it." "Now, go on, please." "Why did the captain let me live?" "Our minds are merging, doctor." "Our minds are one." "I feel what you feel." "I know what you know." "A friend." "Activate the transporter." "You saved us back in sickbay, with the tantalus field." " Take me with you." " I can't." "I'm sorry." "Our power's balanced for four." "There's no guarantee we'll make it with five." "All could die." " Scotty?" " It's working, sir." " But there are only three of you." " One is coming." "I'd help you if I could, marlena." "Believe that." "If you kill us, you'll still stay." "Where's McCoy?" " Time, Scotty?" " Five minutes, sir." "Do you know what they'll do to me?" "The power is cut, sir." "They're on to us!" " Auxiliary?" " Aye, it's available." " Can you bridge to your setup?" " I can get us the power, but the automatic setting is linked to the transporter main." "If we bypass, it means that someone has got to operate the controls manually." " One of us will have to stay." " I'll stay, captain." "Get to the transporter chamber." "You too, uhura." "Jim." "That's an order, Scotty." "Aye, captain." "What about me?" "McCoy..." "I cut the transporter power." "It was necessary to delay your beam-out until I could arrive." "Engineering, reactivate main transporter circuits." "You're a man of integrity in both universes, Mr. Spock." "You must return to your universe, i must have my captain back." "I'll operate the transporter." "You have two minutes and ten seconds." "For that time, i have something to say." "How long before the halkan prediction of galactic revolt is realised?" " Approximately 240 years." " The inevitable outcome?" "The empire shall be overthrown, of course." "The illogic of waste, Mr. Spock." "The waste of lives, potential resources, time." "I submit to you that your empire is illogical because it cannot endure." "I submit... that you are illogical to be a willing part of it." "You have one minute and 23 seconds." "If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?" "One man cannot summon the future..." "But one man can change the present." "Be the captain of this enterprise, Mr. Spock." "Find a logical reason for sparing the halkans, and make it stick." "Push till it gives." "You can defend yourself better than any man in the fleet." "Captain, get in the chamber!" "What about it, Spock?" "The man must also have the power." "In my cabin is a device that will make you invincible." " Indeed?" " What will it be?" "Past or future?" "Tyranny or freedom?" "It's up to you." "It is time." "In every revolution, there is one man with a vision." "Captain kirk, I shall consider it." " Spock." " Welcome home, captain." "What I don't understand is how you were able to identify our counterparts so quickly." "It was far easier for you, as civilised men, to behave like barbarians than it was for them, as barbarians, to behave like civilised men." "I assume they returned to their enterprise at the same time you appeared here?" "Probably." "However, that Jim kirk will find a few changes, if I read my spooks correctly." "McCoy:" "Jim, I think I liked him with a beard better." "Gave him character." "Of course, almost any change would be a distinct improvement." "What worries me is the easy way his counterpart fitted into that other universe." "I always thought Spock was a bit of a pirate at heart." "Indeed, gentlemen." "May I point out that I had opportunity to observe your counterparts here quite closely." "They were brutal, savage, unprincipled, uncivilised, treacherous." "In every way, splendid examples of homo sapiens, the very flower of humanity." "I found them quite refreshing." "I'm not sure, but I think we've been insulted." "I'm sure." "Captain kirk?" " Lieutenant... uh, lieutenant...?" " Marlena Moreau." "I was just assigned last week." "All right, lieutenant." "Carry on." "Met her before, captain?" "Uh, why do you ask?" "Your reaction." "One of recognition?" "Oh, no." "No, no, we haven't met before... exactly." "She just seemed a nice, likeable girl." "I think we could become friends." "It's possible." "Deep space station k-7 now within sensor range, captain." "Good." "Mr. Chekov, this flight is supposed to provide experience and knowledge." "How close will we come to the klingon outpost if we continue on our present course?" "Ah." "One parsec, sir." "Close enough to smell them." "That is illogical, ensign." "Odours cannot travel through the vacuum of space." " I was making a little joke, sir." " Extremely little, ensign." "Mr. Spock, immediate past history of the quadrant." "Under dispute between the two parties since initial contact." "The battle of donatu v was fought near here 23 solar years ago." "Inconclusive." " Analysis of disputed area." " Undeveloped." "Sherman's planet is claimed by both sides, our federation and the klingon empire." "We do have the better claim." "The area was first mapped by the famous Russian astronomer, Ivan burkoff, almost 200..." " John Burke." " Burke, sir?" "I don't think so." "I'm sure it was..." "John Burke was the chief astronomer at the royal academy in old britain at the time." "Oh, royal academy, oh, well." "Is the rest of your history that faulty, ensign?" "Key points of dispute." "Under the terms of the organian peace treaty, one side or the other must prove it can develop the planet most efficiently." "And unfortunately, though the klingons are brutal and aggressive, they are most efficient." "I remember once Peter the great had a problem like that." "He..." " Captain." " Kirk here." "Captain, I'm picking up a subspace distress call, priority channel." " It's from space station k-7." " Go to warp factor 6." "Code 1 emergency, that's a disaster call." "This is a red alert." "Man your battle stations." "All hands." "Space, the final frontier." "These are the voyages of the starship enterprise." "Its five-year mission:" "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." "Captain's log, stardate 4523.3." "Deep space station k-7 has issued a priority-1 call." "More than an emergency, it signals near or total disaster." "We can only assume the klingons have attacked the station." "We're going in, armed for battle." "Main phasers armed and ready, sir." "But there's nothing there." "Just the station." "Priority-1 distress call." "It's just absolutely peaceful." "Lieutenant uhura, break subspace silence." "Aye, sir." "Channel's open, sir." "Space station k-7, this is captain kirk of the enterprise." "What is your emergency?" "Captain kirk, this is Mr. lurry, manager of k-7." "I must apologise for the distress call." "Mr. lurry, you issued a priority-1 distress call." " State the nature of your emergency." " Uh..." "Well, perhaps you better beam over." "I'll try to explain." "You'll try to explain?" "You'd better be prepared to do more than that." "Kirk out." "Mr. Spock, I'll need your help." "Chekov, maintain battle readiness." "Lieutenant uhura, see that the transporter room is standing by." "Aye, sir." "Transporter room, stand by." "Mr. lurry, if there was no emergency, why did you issue a priority-1 distress call?" "That was my order, captain." "Captain kirk, this is nilz baris." "He's out from earth to take charge of the development for sherman's planet." "And that gives you the authority to put an entire quadrant on defence alert?" "Mr. baris is the federation undersecretary in charge of agricultural affairs in this quadrant." " And that gives him the authority." " Oh." "This is my assistant, arne darvin." " And this is my first officer, Mr. Spock." " Mr. Spock." "And now, captain, i want all available security guards." "I want them posted around the storage compartments." "Storage compartments?" "Storage compartments?" "The storage compartments containing the quadrotriticale." "The what?" "The what?" "What's quadrotriticale?" "Here." "Wheat." "So what?" "Quadrotriticale is not wheat, captain." "Of course, I wouldn't expect you or Mr. Spock to know about such things, but, uh, quadrotriticale is a rather..." "Quadrotriticale is a high-yield grain, a four-lobed hybrid of wheat and rye." "A perennial, also, if I'm not mistaken." "Its root grain, triticale, can trace its ancestry all the way back to 20th-century Canada, where..." "Mr. Spock, you've made your point." "Quadrotriticale is the only earth grain that will grow on sherman's planet." "Now, we have several tons of it here on the station, and it's very important that that grain get to sherman's planet safely." "Mr. baris thinks that klingon agents may try to sabotage it." "You issued a priority-1 distress call for a couple of tons of wheat?" "Quad rotriticale." "Of course, captain, i realise that we..." "Mr. baris, you summoned the enterprise without an emergency." " You'll take full responsibility for it." " What do you mean?" "Misuse of the priority-1 channel is a federation offence." "I did not misuse the priority-1 channel." "I want that grain protected." "Captain, couldn't you at least post a couple of guards?" "We do have a large number of ships passing through." "It would seem a logical precaution, captain." "The sherman's planet affair is of extreme importance to the federation." " Kirk to enterprise." " Enterprise here." "Secure from general quarters... and, uh, beam down two, and only two, security guards." "Have them report to Mr. lurry." "Authorise shore leave for all off-duty personnel." " Yes, captain." " Kirk out." "Captain kirk, how dare you authorise a mere two men for a project of this importance!" "Starfleet command will hear about this..." "I have never questioned the orders or the intelligence of any representative of the federation." "Until now." "Summoning a starship on a priority a-1 channel to guard some storage compartments." "Storage compartments of wheat." "Nevertheless, captain, the klingons would not enjoy seeing us successfully develop sherman's planet." "I guess not." "I see you didn't waste any time taking your shore leave." "And how often do I get shore leave?" "She wants to shop, and I thought I would help her." "Oh." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Mr. Chekov, what do you make of this?" "Oh, quadrotriticale." "I've read about this, but, uh, I've never seen any before." "Does everybody know about this wheat but me'?" "Well, not everyone, captain." "It's a Russian invention." "Oh." "I don't want any, I told you before, and I'm telling you again." "I don't want any more spican flame gems." "Thanks to you, I already have enough spican flame gems" " to last me a lifetime." " How sad for you, my friend." "You won't find a finer stone anywhere." "But I have something better." "Surely you want some... antarian glow water." " Ha-ha-ha." " I use that to Polish the flame gems." "You're a difficult man to reach." "But I have something from the far reaches of the galaxy." " Surely you want..." " Not at your price." "Oh, what is it?" "Ls it alive'?" "May I hold it?" "Oh, it's adorable." " What is it?" " What is it?" "Why, lovely lady, it's a tribble." "A tribble?" "Only the sweetest creature known to man." "Excepting, of course, your lovely self." "Oh, it's purring." "Listen, it's purring." "It's only saying that it likes you." "Are you selling them?" "That's what we're trying to decide right now." "My friend, 10 credits apiece is a very reasonable price." "Now, you can see for yourself how much the lovely little lady appreciates the finer things." " One credit apiece." " He won't bite, will he?" "Sir, transporting harmful animals from one planet to another is against regulations, or weren't you aware of that?" "Besides, tribbles have no teeth." "All right, I'll double my offer." "Two credits." "Twice nothing is still nothing." "Well, if you're not gonna take him, I'm gonna take him." "I think he's cute." " Four credits." " Ls that an offer or a joke?" " That's my offer." " That's a joke." "Five." "I can see you're an honest man." "I'll tell you what I'm going to do." "I'm going to lessen my price to 8 and a half credits." "You're talking yourself out of a deal, friend." " Six credits, not a credit more." " Seven and a half." "Seven?" "All right, you robber, 6 credits." " Done." "When can I have them?" " Right away." "All right, what are you selling them for?" "Well, let me see, little lady." "It's 6 credits." "I figure a reasonable mark-up for a reasonable profit, say, a 10 percent mark-up." "Uh, 10 credits." " Thief." " In fact, I'll sell you this one." "Hey!" "He's eating my grain that'll be 10 credits." "That happens to be my sample, and I'll do with it as I please." "And I please to give it to the lovely little lady here." " Oh, I couldn't, could I?" " I insist." "What are you trying to do, ruin the market?" "Once this lovely little lady starts to show this precious little darling around, you won't be able to keep up with them." "Yes, what is it?" "Message from sta/fleet, captain, priority channel." " Admiral Fitzpatrick speaking." " Put it on visual, lieutenant." " Captain kirk." " Kirk here." "Captain, it is not necessary to remind you of the importance to the federation of sherman's planet." "The key to our winning of this planet is the grain, quadrotriticale." "The shipment of it must be protected." "Effective immediately, you will render any aid and assistance which undersecretary baris may require." "The safety of the grain and the project is your responsibility." "Starfleet out." "Well, that's just lovely." "But not totally unexpected." " Captain kirk." "Captain kirk." " Yes, lieutenant, what is it?" "Sensors are picking up a klingon battle cruiser rapidly closing on the station." "Go to red alert, notify Mr. lurry, we'll be right up." "What is the position of the klingon ship?" "A hundred kilometres off k-7." "It's just sitting there." " Captain, I have Mr. lurry." " Put him on visual." "Aye, sir." "Mr. lurry, there's a klingon warship hanging 100 kilometres off your station." "I don't think the klingons are planning to attack us." "Why not?" "Because at this moment, the captain of the klingon ship is sitting right here in my office." "Cancel red alert." "We'll beam right down." "Security, cancel red alert." "Captain's log, stardate 4524.2." "A klingon warship is hovering only 100 kilometres from deep space station k-7 while its captain waits in the station manager's office." "Their intentions are unknown." " Ah, my dear captain kirk." " My dear captain koloth." "Let me assure you that my intentions are peaceful." "As I've already told Mr. lurry, the purpose of my presence here is to invoke shore-leave rights." "Shore leave?" "Captain, we klingons are not as luxury-minded as you earthers." "We do not equip our ships with, how shall I say it?" "Non-essentials." "We have been in space for five months, and what we choose as recreation is our own business." "I might also add that under the terms of the organian peace treaty, you cannot refuse us." "Yes, well, I don't make those decisions." "Mr. lurry is in charge of those matters." "Captain, may I speak to you a minute?" "Kirk, I don't want them here, but I don't have the authority to refuse." "Hmm." "Well, I have the authority to act, and I'm gonna use it." "My dear captain koloth, you may indeed bring your men down on shore leave." "But only 12 at a time, and I assure you that for every man you bring down here," "I shall have one security guard." "There'll be no trouble." "Captain kirk, there's been no formal declaration of hostilities between our two respective governments." "So naturally, our relationship will be a peaceful one." "Let us both take steps to keep it that way." "Of course." " Another technical journal, Scotty?" " Aye." " Don't you ever relax?" " I am relaxing." "How long have you had that thing, lieutenant?" "Since yesterday, doctor." "This morning I found out that he..." "I mean, she had had babies." "Mccqyi well, I'd say in that case you got a bargain." " You running a nursery, lieutenant?" " Oh, captain." "Well, I hadn't intended to, sir, but the tribble had other plans." " Did you get this at the space station?" " Yes, sir." "A most curious creature, captain." "Its trilling seems to have a tranquillising effect on the human nervous system." "Fortunately, of course, i am immune to its effect." "Do you mind if I take one of these to the lab to see what makes it tick?" "Well, all right, doctor, but if you're gonna dissect it," "I don't want to know about it." "I won't harm a hair on its head, wherever that is." "Say, lieutenant, seeing as you're giving them away, can I have one?" "Sure, why not?" "I think they're old enough." "Go ahead." "Chekov bridge to captain kirk." "Kirk here." "Mr. baris is waiting on channel a to speak to you, sir." "Pipe it down here, will you, Mr. Chekov?" "Aye, sir." "Mr. baris is coming on." "Yes, Mr. baris, what can I do for you?" "Kirk, this station is swarming with klingons." "I was not aware, Mr. baris, that 12 klingons constitutes a swarm." "Captain kirk, there are klingon soldiers on this station." "Now, I want you to keep that grain safe." "Mr. baris, I have guards around the grain," "I have guards around the klingons." "The only reason those guards are there is because starfleet wants them there." "As for what you want... it has been noted and logged." "Kirk out." "Captain, may I ask where you'll be?" "Sickbay, with a headache." "Hi, Jim." "Bones, what have you got for a headache?" "Let me guess, the klingons." "Baris." "Both." "Hey, how many of these did uhura give you?" " Just one." " But you've got, uh, 11." "You noticed that, huh?" "Here, this ought to take care of it." "How do they...?" "How do they...?" "I, uh..." "I haven't figured that out yet." "But I can tell you this much." "Almost 50 percent of the creature's metabolism is geared for reproduction." "Do you know what you get if you feed a tribble too much?" "A fat tribble." "No, you get a whole bunch of hungry little tribbles." "Well, bones, all I can suggest... is you open up a maternity ward." "I want all you men who are going on shore leave to stay in groups." " Avoid trouble with the klingons." " I'll tell them before they go, sir." "Aren't you going on shore leave, Scotty?" " Oh, no, sir." " I want you to go on shore leave." "Make sure that everybody stays out of trouble." "But, captain..." "Aye, sir." "Scotty, enjoy yourself." "Ah, friend, can I offer you a charming little tribble?" " Uh, no, thanks." " Ah." "Perhaps one of you other gents?" "Eh." "Hmm." "Ah." "Friend klingon!" "Can I interest you in a harmless little tribble?" "Get it away from me." "I'm sorry, I can't understand it." "I've never seen them act this way before." "Get out of here with that parasite." " He's only a harmless little..." " Take it away!" "Yes." "Ah, my good friend!" "How would you like to enter another little transaction?" " This time, a tribble for a spot of..." " A tribble?" "Tribble?" "Tribble." "When are you going to get off that milk diet, lad?" "This is vodka." "Where I come from, that's soda pop." "Now, this is a drink for a man." " Scotch?" " Aye." "It was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad." "The earthers like those fuzzy things, don%they?" "Why, yes." "Well, frankly, I never liked earthers." "They remind me of regulan blood worms." " That cossack." " Easy, lad." "You ought to be more forgiving." "Oh." "I just remembered." "There is one earth man who doesn't remind me of a regulan blood worm." "That's kirk." "A regulan blood worm is soft and shapeless." "But kirk isn't soft." "Kirk may be a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood... but he's not soft." "Take it easy, lad." "Everybody's entitled to an opinion." "That's right." "And if I think that kirk is a denebian slime devil, well, that's my opinion too." "Don't do it, mister, and that's an order." "But you heard what he called the captain." "Forget it." "It's not worth fighting for." "We're big enough to take a few insults." "Now drink your drink." "Of course, I'd say that captain kirk deserves his ship." "We like the enterprise." "We really do." "That sagging old rust bucket is designed like a garbage scow." "Half the quadrant knows it." "That's why they're learning to speak klingonee!" "Mr. Scott." "Laddie, don't you think you should rephrase that?" "You're right, I should." "I didn't mean to say that the enterprise should be hauling garbage." "I meant to say that it should be hauled away as garbage." "Captain's log, stardate 4525.6." "A small disturbance between the klingon crew and members of the enterprise crew has broken out aboard space station k-7." "I am forced to cancel shore leave for both ships." "I want to know who started it." "I'm waiting." "Freeman, who started the fight?" " I don't know, sir." " All right." "Chekov." "I know you." "You started it, didn't you?" " No, sir, I didn't." " Well, who did?" " I don't know, sir." " "I don't know, sir."" "I want to know who threw the first punch." "You're all confined to quarters until I find out who started it." "Dismissed." "Scotty, not you." "You were supposed to prevent trouble, Mr. Scott." "Aye, captain." "Who threw the first punch, Scotty?" "Um..." "Scotty?" " I did, captain." " You did, Mr. Scott?" " What caused it, Scotty?" " They insulted us, sir." " Must have been some insult." " Aye, it was." " You threw the first punch." " Aye." "Chekov wanted to, but I held him back." "You held...?" "Why did Chekov want to start a fight?" "Um..." "Well, the klingons..." "Ls this off the record?" "No, this is not off the record." "Well, captain, uh, klingons called you, uh... a tin-plated, overbearing, swaggering dictator" " with delusions of godhood." " Ls that all?" "No, sir, they also compared you with a denebian slime devil." " I see." " And then they said that..." " I get the picture, Scotty." " Yes, sir." "And after they said all this, that's when you hit the klingons?" " No, sir." " No?" "No, I didn't." "You told us to avoid trouble." "Oh, yes." "And I didn't see that it was worth fighting about." "After all, we're big enough to take a few insults." "Aren't we?" "What was it they said that started the fight?" "They called the enterprise a garbage scow!" "Sir." "I see." "And that's when you hit the klingon." "Yes, sir." "You hit the klingons because they insulted the enterprise, not because they...?" "Well, sir, this was a matter of pride." "All right, Scotty." "Dismissed." "Oh." "Scotty, you're restricted to quarters until further notice." "Yes, sir." "Thank you, sir." "That'll give me a chance to catch up on my technical journals." "What's the matter, Spock?" "There's something disquieting about these creatures." " Oh?" "Don't tell me you've got a feeling." " Don't be insulting, doctor." "They remind me of the lilies of the field." ""They toil not, neither do they spin." But they seem to eat a great deal." "I see no practical use for them." "Does everything have to have a practical use for you?" "They're nice, they're soft, and they're furry, and they make a pleasant sound." "So would an ermine violin, doctor, but I see no advantage in having one." "It is a human characteristic to love little animals, especially if they're attractive in some way." "Doctor, I am well aware of human characteristics," "I am frequently inundated by them, but I have trained myself to put up with practically anything." "Spock, I don't know too much about these little tribbles yet, but there is one thing that I have discovered." " What is that, doctor?" " I like them." "Better than I like you." " Doctor." " Yes?" "They do, indeed, have one redeeming characteristic." " What's that?" " They do not talk too much." "If you'll excuse me, sir." "Dr. McCoy, would you mind coming up to the bridge?" "Lieutenant uhura, how did all these tribbles get on the bridge?" "I don't know, sir." "They do seem to be all over the ship." " Dr. McCoy." " Yes?" "Did you want to see me, Jim?" "Well, don't look at me, it's the tribbles who are breeding." "And if we don't get them off this ship, we'll be hip deep in them." "Would you explain that?" "Well, the nearest thing I can figure out is that they're born pregnant." "Which seems to be quite a time saver." "I know, but really..." "And from my observations, it seems they're bisexual, reproducing at will." "And, brother, have they got a lot of will." "Captain, I am forced to agree with the doctor." "I've been running computations on their rate of reproduction." "The figures are taking an alarming direction." "They are consuming our supplies and returning nothing." "But they do give us something, Mr. Spock, they give us love." "Well, cyrano Jones says that a tribble is the only love that money can buy." "Too much of anything, lieutenant, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing." "Yes, captain." "Get a maintenance crew to clean up the entire ship." "And then contact Mr. lurry and tell him I'm beaming down." "Aye, aye, sir." "Have him find cyrano Jones and hold him." "And get these tribbles off the bridge." "Aye, aye, captain." "Captain kirk, I'm mystified at your tone of voice." "I've done nothing to warrant such severe treatment." "Oh, really?" "Surely you must have realised what would happen if you removed the tribbles from their predator-filled environment into an environment where their natural multiplicative proclivities would have no restraining factors." "Well, of cour... what did you say?" "By removing the tribbles from their natural habitat, you have, so to speak, removed the cork from the bottle and allowed the genie to escape." "Well, if by that you mean, do they breed quickly?" "Well, of course, that's how I maintain my stock." "But breeding animals is not against regulations, only breeding dangerous ones." " And tribbles are not dangerous." " Just incredibly prolific." "Precisely." "And at 6 credits a head..." "Uh, well, that is, a body." "It mounts up." "Now, if you'll excuse me." "You ought to sell an instruction and maintenance manual with this thing." "If I did, what would happen to man's search for knowledge?" "Well, I must be tending my ship." "Go ahead, sir, tell him." "Captain kirk, I consider your security measures a disgrace." "In my opinion, you have taken this entire very important project too lightly." "On the contrary, sir, i think of this project as very important." "It is you I take lightly." "I am going to report fully, to the proper authorities, that you have given free and complete access to this station to a man who is quite probably a klingon agent." "That's a very serious charge." "To whom are you referring?" "To that man who just walked out of here." "Cyrano Jones?" "A klingon agent?" "Ha, ha." " You heard me." " I heard you." "He simply could not believe his ears." "What evidence do you have against Mr. Jones?" "My assistant here has kept Mr. Jones under close surveillance for quite some time, and his actions have been most suspicious." "I believe he was involved in that little altercation between your men..." "Yes, yes, go on." "What else do you have?" "Well, captain, i checked his ship's log and it seems that he was within the klingons' sphere of influence less than four months ago." "The man is an independent scout, captain." "It's quite possible that he is also a klingon spy." "We have already checked on the background of Mr. cyrano Jones." "He is a licensed asteroid locator and prospector." "He's never broken the law, at least not severely, and for the past seven years, with his one-man spaceship, he has obtained a marginal living by engaging in the buying and selling of rare merchandise, including, unfortunately, tribbles." " But he is after my grain!" " Do you have any proof of that?" "You can't deny he's disrupted this station." "People have disrupted stations before without being klingon agents." "Sometimes all they need is a title, Mr. baris." "Unfortunately, disrupting a space station is not an offence." "Now, if you'll excuse me, i have a ship to tend to." "My chicken sandwich and coffee." "This is my chicken sandwich and coffee." "Fascinating." "I want these things off the ship." "I don't care if it takes every man, i want them off the ship." "Aye, they're into the machinery, all right." "And they're probably in all the other food processors too." " How?" " Probably through one of the air vents." "Captain, there are vents of that type on the space station." "And in the storage compartments." "This is kirk." "Contact manager lurry and nilz baris." "Have them meet us near the storage compartments." "We're beaming down." "Come on, Spock." "Energize." "What's wrong?" "Plenty, if what I think happened has happened." " Guard, is that door secure?" " Yes, sir, nothing could get in." "Good." "Uh, open it." "It's not working, sir." "It seems to be stuck." "Here, let me try." "They seem to be gorged." "Gorged?" "On my grain?" "Kirk, I am going to hold you responsible." " There must be thousands of them." " Hundreds of thousands." "1,771,561." "That's assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every 12 hours, over a period of three days." "And that's assuming that they got here three days ago." "And allowing for the amount of grain consumed and the volume of the storage compartment." "Kirk, you should have known!" "You are responsible for turning the development project into a total disaster!" " Mr. baris..." " And I am through being intimidated." "Now, you have insulted me, you have ignored me, you've walked all over me!" "You have abused your authority, and you have rejected my requests." "And this!" "This is the result." "I am going to hold you responsible, kirk." "Mr. baris, I'll hold you in irons if you don't shut up." "Jim, I think I've got it." "All we have to do is quit feeding them." "We quit feeding them, they stop breeding." "Now he tells me." "Captain, this tribble is dead." "And so are these." "A lot of them are dead." "A lot of them are alive, but they won't be for long." "A logical assumption is that there is something in the grain." "Yes." "Bones, I want the tribbles, the grain, everything analysed." "I wanna know what killed these tribbles." "I haven't figured out what keeps them alive yet." "All right, if I find out anything, I'll let you know." "That isn't gonna do you any good, kirk." "This project is ruined, and starfleet is gonna hear about it." "And when they do, they will have a board of enquiry and they will roast you alive." "And I am gonna be there, kirk, to enjoy every minute of it." "Until that board of enquiry, I'm still the captain." "And as captain, i want two things done." "First, find cyrano Jones, and second... close that door." "Really, captain kirk, i must protest this treatment!" "Mr. Jones, with an armful." " A few questions." " Captain kirk!" "Yes, what do you want?" "An official apology, addressed to the klingon high command." "I expect you to assume full responsibility for the persecution of klingon nationals in this quadrant." "An apol09y?" "Yes." "You've harassed my men." "You've treated them like criminals." "You've been most uncourteous, captain kirk." "Now, if you wish to avoid a diplomatic incident..." "No, kirk, you can't let him." "That will give them the wedge they need to claim sherman's planet." "I believe that more than the word of an aggrieved klingon commander would be necessary for that, Mr. baris." "Mr. Spock, as far as sherman's planet is concerned, captain kirk has already given it to us." "Well, we'll see about that." "But before I take any official action, I'd like to know just what happened." "Who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale, and what was in the grain that killed them?" "Captain kirk, before you go on, may I make a request?" "Yes." "Can you get those things out of here?" " Remarkable." " Hold on a minute." "I thought you said tribbles liked everybody." "Well, they do." "I can't understand it." "The last time I saw one act this way was at the bar." " What was in the bar?" " Klingons." "Him, for one." "You're right, Mr. Jones." "They don't like klingons." "But they do like vulcans." "Why, Mr. Spock, i didn't know you had it in you." "Obviously, tribbles are very perceptive creatures, captain." "Obviously." "Mr. baris, they like you." "Well, there's no accounting for taste." "They don't like you, Mr. darvin." "I wonder why." "Bones?" "Heartbeat is all wrong." "His body temperature is..." "Jim, this man is a klingon." "A klingon?" "I wonder what starfleet command will say about that." "What about the grain, bones?" " Oh, yes." "It was poisoned." " Poisoned?" "Yes, it's been impregnated with a virus." "The virus turns into an inert material in the bloodstream, and the more the organism eats, the more inert matter is built up." "So after two or three days it would reach a point where they couldn't take in enough nourishment to survive." "They starved to death." "In a storage compartment full of grain, they starved to death." "That is essentially it." " Mr. darvin, you want to talk?" " I have nothing to say." "All right!" "I poisoned the grain, take them away." " The tribbles had nothing to do with it?" " I don't know, I never saw one before, and I hope I never see one of those fuzzy, miserable things again." "I'm certain that can be arranged, darvin." "Guards." "If you'll excuse me, captain." "Captain koloth, about that apology." "Yes?" "You have six hours to get your ship out of federation territory." "Hey, you know, i think I could learn to like tribbles." "Well, captain, i suppose I'm free to go now." "No, you're not." "There's something I want to show you." "Do you know what the penalty is for transporting an animal proven harmful to human life?" "Captain, one little tribble isn't harmful." "Captain, you wouldn't do a thing like that to me, now, would you?" "Would you?" "The penalty is 20 years in a rehabilitation colony." "Captain kirk... friend!" "Friend kirk." "Surely we can come to some sort of mutual understanding." "After all, my tribbles did put you wise to the poisoned grain, and they did help you to find the klingon agent." "We saved a lot of lives that way." "Hmm?" " There is one thing you can do." " Yes." "Pick up every tribble on the space station." "If you do that, I'll speak to Mr. lurry about returning your spaceship." "It would take years." "Seventeen-point-nine, to be exact." "Seventeen-point-nine years?" "Consider it job security." "Captain, you're a hard man." "All right, all right!" " You'll do it?" " He'll do it." "I'll do it." "Captain, starfleet was able to divert that freighter." "Good, that means sherman's planet will get its quadrotriticale only a few weeks late." "I don't see any tribbles around here." "And you won't find a tribble on this entire ship." "Bones, how'd you do that?" "Well, I cannot take credit for another man's work." " Scotty did it." " Scotty!" "Where are the tribbles?" "Oh, uh, captain, it was really Mr. Spock's recommendation." "Of course." "Spock?" "Based on computer analysis, of course, taking into account the possibilities of..." "Gentlemen, I don't want to interrupt this mutual-admiration society, but I'd like to know where the tribbles are." "Tell him, Spock." "Well, it was Mr. Scott who performed the actual engineering." "Mr. Scott." "Where are the tribbles?" "I used the transporter, captain." " You used the transporter?" " Aye." "Well, where did you transport them?" "Scott, you didn't transport them into space, did you?" "Captain kirk, that would be inhuman!" " Well, where are they?" " I gave them a very good home." " Where?" " I gave them to the klingons, sir." " You gave them to the klingons?" " Aye, sir." "Before they went into warp," "I transported the whole kit and caboodle to their engine room, where they'll be no tribble at all." "The reading's growing stronger, captain." "Coming from a star system directly ahead." "It's not a signal, sir." "It does not seem to even exist, and yet it's affecting all my channels." "Well?" "Someone or something is attempting to attract our attention." "Someone or something has succeeded." "Our distress signal relays have been activated." "We've been given a direction to follow, but how?" " What's causing it?" " I do not know." "Not even a vulcan can know the unknown, captain." "We are hundreds of light years past where any earth ship has ever explored." "Planet dead ahead, captain." "Becoming visual." " Class-m planet, captain." " Close to earth conditions." "With two very important exceptions." "It is much older than earth, and about a half million years ago, its atmosphere was totally ripped away by some sort of cataclysm." "The planet has evidently been dead since then." "Sensors detect no life of any kind." "All your questions will be answered in time, captain kirk." " Are your hailing frequencies open?" " No, sir." "I am sargon." "It is the energy of my thoughts which has touched your instruments and directed you here." "Now, at this closer distance, i can speak to you at last." "Who are you, sargon?" "Please assume a standard orbit about our planet, captain." "Ls that a request or demand?" "The choice is yours." "I read what is in your mind." "Words are unnecessary." "The planet is dead." "There's no possibility of life there as we understand life." "And I am as dead as my planet." "Does that frighten you, James kirk?" "For if it does, if you let what is left of me perish, then all of you, my children, all of mankind must perish too." "Space, the final frontier." "These are the voyages of the starship enterprise." "Its five-year mission:" "To explore strange, new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." "Captain's log, stardate 4768.3." "The enterprise is in orbit above a planet whose surface, our sensors tell us, is devoid of all life." "A world destroyed and dead for at least a half a million years, yet from it comes a voice, the energy of pure thought, telling us something has survived here for those thousands of centuries." "Since exploration and contact with alien intelligence is our primary mission," "I've decided to risk the potential dangers and resume contact." "Log entry out." "How long before starfleet receives that?" "Over three weeks at this distance, sir." "Captain." "Got something?" "Sensors registering some form of energy deep inside the planet." "Sargon"." "Your probes have touched me, Mr. Spock." "Reading energy only, captain." "No life forms." "I have locked your transporter device on my coordinates." "Please come to us." "Rescue us from oblivion." "Coming from deep under the planet surface, captain... under at least 100 miles of solid rock." " We can't beam..." " I will make it possible for your transporter to beam you that deep beneath the surface." "Have no fear." "Reading a chamber now." "Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, suitable for human life support." "Lieutenant uhura, have Dr. McCoy report to the transporter room in ten minutes with standard landing-party equipment." "Yes, sir." " Spock." " Captain." "Captain, I do wish to inspect whatever this is that lived that long ago." "And I would like to have my science officer with me on something as unusual as this, but it is full of unknowns, and we can't risk both of us being off the ship." "All power gone, sir." "On the other hand, perhaps this sargon would like you to come with us." " Fascinating." " All normal, sir." "No damage at all." "I see." "Will you transport down with us, Mr. Spock?" " Evidently, captain." " Mr. sulu, you have the conn." "Why no briefing on this?" "I'd at least like to know what we're getting into." "Easy." "As long as you know there's something down there, you know as much as we do." "The rest is only guesses." "I don't like it, sir." "The transporter coordinates preset by an alien of some sort." "You could materialise inside solid rock." " Inside solid rock?" " Unlikely." "These coordinates correspond with the location of the subterranean chamber." "I have a feeling that they, or it, could destroy us just standing here if they, or it, wanted to." "They or it?" " Who are you?" " Dr. Ann mulhall, astrobiology." "Well, I was ordered to report here for landing-party duty." "By whom?" "Strange, I'm not sure." "Well, I'm not a liar, captain." "I did receive an order to report here for duty." "I'm sure she did, captain, just as you received an order to bring me along." "Oh, yes." "Mccqyi let's get back to this solid rock business." "Just how much rock are we going to go through?" "Approximately 112.37 miles, doctor." "Miles?" "Heh." "Are you joking?" "No, we're not." "Let's go." "Please stand ready." "I will operate your controls." "Doctor, if you prefer to stay behind..." "No." "No, if I'd be useful." "As long as you're going down," "I might as well take a medical look at whatever this is." "Captain, the security guards." " Kirk here." " Can you read me, captain?" "Yes, Scotty." "And I shouldn't be able to this deep inside the planet." "But perhaps that's been arranged for us too." "Is the security guard up there?" "They're fine, captain." "They just didn't dematerialise." "Scotty"." "I don't like it, sir." "No problem yet." "Maintain alert." "Kirk out." "Atmosphere report, captain." "A fraction richer in oxygen than usual for us, but otherwise normal." "This vault was constructed about a half million years ago." "About the same time the planet surface was destroyed," " if our sensor readings are accurate." " Composition of walls?" "They're an alloy or substance completely unknown to me, much stronger and harder than anything I've measured before." "All readings are off the scale, captain." "The air seems fresh." "It must be re-circulated somehow." "Is that for us?" "Or does it need fresh air?" "Welcome." "I am sargon." "Sargon, would it harm you if i...?" "You may use yourtricorder, Mr. Spock." "Your readings will show energy, but no substance." "Sealed in this receptacle is the essence of my mind." "Pure energy." "Matter without form." "Impossible." "But you once had a body of some type?" "A body much as yours, my children, although our minds were infinitely greater." "That's twice you've referred to us as "my children."" "Because it is possible you are our descendants, captain kirk." "Six thousand centuries ago, our vessels were colonising this galaxy, just as your own starships have now begun to explore that vastness." "As you now leave your own seed on distant planets, so we left our seed behind us." "Perhaps your own legends of an Adam and an Eve were two of our travellers." "Our beliefs and our studies indicate that life on our planet earth evolved independently." "That would tend, however, to explain certain elements of vulcan pre-history." "Sargon"." "In either case, I do not know." "It was so long ago and the records of our travels were lost in the cataclysm" " which we loosened upon ourselves." " A war?" "A struggle for such goals and the unleashing of such power that you could not comprehend." "Then perhaps your intelligence wasn't so great, sargon." "We faced a similar crisis in our early nuclear age." "We found the wisdom not to destroy ourselves." "Sargon"." "And we survived our primitive nuclear era, my son." "But there comes to all races, an ultimate crisis which you have yet to face." "I don't understand." "One day, our minds became so powerful we dared think of ourselves as gods." "You said you wanted our help." "What is it you wish?" "Just a moment, doctor." "I am sargon." "Where's our captain?" "Where's Jim kirk?" "He is unharmed." "I have taken his body to demonstrate." "I won't go along with this." "Back to where you were, sargon, or whatever you are." "And if he refuses, doctor?" "What do you propose to do with your phaser?" "That is still Jim's body." "Lungs filling with air again... to see again... heart pumping, arteries surging with blood again." "I can feel." "After half a million years... to be again." "Your captain has an excellent body, Dr. McCoy." "I compliment you both on the condition in which you maintained it." "What are your plans for it?" "Can you exchange places again when you wish?" "Have no fear." "Your captain is quite unharmed." "Although his mind generates insufficient energy for him to speak from there as I do." " Doctor." " Yes, I have the same readings." "Are you aware of what's happening to his body?" "Heart action doubled, temperature 104 degrees." "He'll die if you don't leave his body soon." "What is it you want of us?" "In the next room, there are other receptacles." "The other two of us that survived." "You, Dr. Ann mulhall, and you, Mr. Spock... we require your bodies also." "We must have captain kirk and you... so that we may live again." "Even for us, a half a million years was almost too long to wait." "Two others still survive, henoch... and thalassa." "Thalassa, my thalassa... I am pleased you survived." "Forgive me." "It has been so very long." "When the struggle came which devastated your planet..." "Only the best minds were chosen to survive." "Thalassa, my wife, as you may have guessed." "Henoch, from the other side." "Realising our mistake, we attempted to perpetuate both sides." "We built this chamber here in order to preserve our essence in this fashion." "Fascinating." "We knew the seed that we had planted on other planets would take root, that one day you would build vessels as we did." "And one day you would come here." "These others, they were stored differently than you." "But it was your task to remain in the receptacle out there..." "And search the heavens with my mind, probing, waiting, probing." "And then one day, my mind touched your vessel... and brought you here." "So you could steal our bodies from us?" "To steal?" "To take them from you?" "No, my children, you misunderstand." "We mean only that you should lend us your bodies for a short time." "And destroy them." "Just as you're burning that one up now." "Heart beat, 262, Spock, the entire metabolic rate correspondingly high." "I will return your captain to you before the body limit has been reached." "Our bodies, sargon." "For what purpose?" "To build..." "To build humanoid robots." "We must borrow your bodies long enough to have the use of your hands, your fingers." "Then you intend to construct mechanical bodies, move your minds into them, and then return our bodies to us." "We have engineers, technicians." "Why can't they build your robots for you?" "No, our methods... our skills are far beyond your abilities." "It is time." "Is it you, Jim?" "Good." "His metabolic rate is back to normal." "Captain, do you know what happened?" " Do you remember any part of it?" " Yes." "Sargon borrowed my body." "I was floating in time and space." "He doesn't appear to be harmed, physically, anyway." "Spock, I remember." "When sargon and I exchanged, as we passed each other... for an instant we were one." "I know him now." "I know what he is, and what he wants." "And I don't fear him." "That's the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard." "An alien practically hijacks your body and then corks you into a bottle..." "I'm afraid I must agree with Dr. McCoy." "You could be suffering from a form of false euphoria." " Sargon." " I understand, my son." "Go to your vessel." "All who are involved must agree to this." "After all these centuries, we can wait a few more hours." "And what if we should decide against you?" "Then you may go as freely as you came." "You're going to what?" " Are they all right in the head, doctor?" " No comment." "A simple transference, their minds and ours." "Quite simple." "Happens every day." "Scotty, I need your approval too, since you'll be working with them, furnishing them with all they need to make the android robots." "You won't be working with them, you'll be working with us, our bodies." " They'll be inside us, and we'll be..." " It all seems rather indecent to me." "I'm not so certain of that, doctor." "It is scientifically fascinating." "Once inside their mechanical bodies, engineer, they can leave this planet, travel back with us." "With their knowledge, mankind could leap ahead 10,000 years." "Bones, they'll show us medical advances, miracles you never dreamed possible." "Scotty, engineering advances, vessels this size, with engines the size of walnuts." " Ach, you're joking." " No, he's not." "They're giants and we're insects beside them." "They could destroy us without meaning to." "And all he wants is the body of our captain and our second in command too." "Coincidence?" "They selected us as the most compatible bodies." "What's your attitude on that, doctor?" "Well, if we all agree... I'm willing to host thalassa's mind." "I'm a scientist." "The opportunity is an extraordinary one for experimentation, observation." "A starship engine the size of a walnut?" "That's impossible." "But I don't suppose there'd be any harm in looking over diagrams on it." "Bones, you could stop all this by saying no." "That's why I called you all here together." "We'll all be deeply involved." "It must be unanimous." "Then I'll still want one question answered to my satisfaction." "Why?" "Not a list of possible miracles." "But a simple, basic, understandable "why" that overrides all danger." "Let's not kid ourselves that there is no potential danger in this." "They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings." "But he did fly, he discovered he had to." "Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star'?" "That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels, and sewed your patients up with catgut, like your great-great-great- great-grandfather used to." "I'm in command." "I could order this." "But I'm not... because Dr. McCoy is right... in pointing out the enormous danger potential... in any contact with life and intelligence, as fantastically advanced as this." "But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great." "Risk." "Risk is our business." "That's what this starship is all about." "That's why we're aboard her." "You may dissent without prejudice." "Do I hear a negative vote?" "Engineer... stand by to beam aboard three receptacles." "The extreme power of the alien mind will drive the heart action dangerously high and the body functions will race many times their normal metabolism." "So we're going to have to monitor this very carefully." "Yes, sir." "Well, I guess we're about as ready as we'll ever be." " Jim." " Ready, sargon." "The transference is complete." "Mm." "Hmm." "Metabolic rate is double and rising, doctor." "Hello." "Oh, you are a lovely female." "A pleasant sight to wake up to after half a million years." " Thank you." " You're welcome." "I'd forgotten what it felt like... even to breathe again." "Sargon?" "Here." "In this body." "I am not displeased, my husband." "Your body is not unlike that which was your own." "And I, too, am pleased, beloved." "After so long... so very long." "Yes." "This is an excellent body, doctor." "I seemed to have received the best of the three." "Strength, hearing, eyesight, all far above your human norms." "I'm surprised the vulcans never conquered your race." "Vulcans worship peace above all, henoch." "Yes, of course, of course." "Just as we do, doctor." "Nurse." "Doctor." "Henoch, you'd better get back to bed too." "It will be unnecessary, doctor." "This vulcan body is accustomed to the higher metabolism." "Sargon, it won't work." "You've got to get out before you kill them." "We will vacate at once, until you can administer a metabolic reduction injection." " A what?" " I'll prepare the formula, sargon." "Henoch, your condition?" "I can continue in this body for several hours." "Fortunate." "We will vacate at once." "This woman will assist me." "You will take me to your pharmacology laboratory." "Bones, what...?" "It was close, Jim." "You both barely got back alive." "Unless the formula works, we can't risk it again." "Now, this formula will reduce the heart action and the bodily functions to normal." "While the bodies are occupied, you will administer one injection of 1000's each hour." "I understand." "This hypo you will code mark for thalassa." "And this one, you will code mark for me." "Yes, sir." "This one, you will administer to captain kirk... while sargon is in his body." "This hypo does not contain the same formula." "No, that's correct." "But since I will arrange for you to administer each of the injections, no one else will notice." "Without the same formula, captain kirk will die." "What were you saying?" "Iiii" "I was..." "I wanted to say something." "I've forgotten what it was." "Yes." "Well, you were about to say that you watched me prepare the formula and fill each of the hypos." "Yes, that was it." "I will inform Dr. McCoy that each is properly filled for each patient." "Very good." "You see, sargon would not permit me to keep this body." "It is therefore necessary for you to kill your captain so that sargon will die with him." "Mccqyi enterprise medical log, stardate 4769.1." "Three alien minds now inhabit the bodies of captain kirk, science officer Spock, and Dr. Ann mulhall." "As planned, the construction of android robots is underway." "All is proceeding as expected and as promised." "I can find no reason for concern, but yet, i am filled with foreboding." "Sargon, i remember a day long ago." "We sat beside a silver lake." "The air was scented with the flowers of our planet." "I remember." "You held my hand like this." "I think it best not to remember so well." "In two days you'll have hands of your own again, thalassa." "Mechanically efficient and quite human looking." "Android robot hands, of course." "Hands without feeling." "Enjoy the taste of life while you can." "Our minds will have survived." "And as androids... we can move among the people who do live... teaching them, helping them not to make the errors we did." " What is it, sargon?" " Nothing." "Our next injection will renovate me." "Do not be concerned." "Nurse, how are the last metabolic readings on our patients?" "You'll find them excellent, doctor." "Well within normal." "Is something wrong, miss chapel?" "Uh... yes, I, uh..." "I had something to say." " I can't seem to remember." " Regarding our patients?" "Uh..." "Yes." "That must be it." "Um..." "I am so pleased the way they are responding, doctor." "The formula is working perfectly." "You look tired, miss chapel." "Perhaps you'd care for me to administer the last few injections." "Tired?" "Oh." "Not at all, doctor." "Thank you for asking." "Thank you." "Have you prepared the megaton hydra coils for the drawings sargon supplied?" "For all the good it will do you." "It's a fancy name, but how will something that looks like a drop ofjelly make this thing work?" "You'll need micro-gears and some form of pulley that does what a muscle does." "That would be highly inefficient." "I tell you, lady." "This thing won't work." "It will have twice the strength and agility of your body, engineer, and will last a thousand years." "That is, assuming you'll stop wasting your time and allow us to complete it." "A thousand-year prison, thalassa." "When it wears out, we'll build another one, and we'll lock ourselves into it for another thousand years, and then another and another." "Sargon has closed his mind to a better way... with these bodies." "They're not ours, henoch." "When you awoke in this body, thalassa, you said how good it was to breathe again... to have eyes and to see again, to feel... to live and feel again, thalassa." "Just think how much we can do for mankind." "Are these bodies too much to ask for in return?" "Would you prefer this?" "No." "I'm beginning to hate it." "Sickbay." "Sickba y." "McCoy." "Sargon here, McCoy." "I'm in your deck 6 briefing room." "McCoy :" "You sound terrible." "Wait there for me." "Sargon, what is it?" "Nothing of importance." "Fatigue perhaps." "Henoch's formula." "Yes, I wanted to be certain there was no error." "The formula is correct." "Don't be concerned." "It is an excellent body." "There, you see, i feel better already." "In time our host body will become accustomed to us, husband." "Injections will no longer be necessary." "That will take months, perhaps years." "We haven't that choice, thalassa." "Husband." "Feel the touch of my hand, husband." "No, beloved." " If we torment ourselves..." " Beloved." "What will that word mean to a machine?" "Our thoughts will intertwine." "Will they, husband?" "Will they intertwine like this?" "Can two minds press close like this?" "Can robot lips do this?" "Sargon, what is it?" "Hypo." "Doctor, help him." "He's dead." "Medical log, stardate 4770.3." "Do I list one death or two?" "When kirk's body died, sargon was too far distant from his receptacle to transfer back." "Sargon is dead." "But is captain kirk dead?" "His body is, but his consciousness is still in the receptacle, into which it was transferred earlier." "All his vital organs are now working, doctor." "Yes, we can keep them going for a few weeks or a month, for all the good it'll do." "Why pretend to work on that thing, henoch?" "You know you never intended to leave Spock's body." "This is your new home, thalassa." "Once occupied, I'll add female features and some texturing." "You, no doubt, want the mechanism to at least appear to be a woman." " It is ready, thalassa." " No!" "You have no excuse to keep the real body any longer." "Sargon would have required that you enter the mechanism immediately." "I cannot live in that thing." "Doctor?" "Yes?" "Would you like to save your captain kirk?" "But you said that was impossible." "We have many powers sargon did not permit us to use." "He thought them too tempting to us." "This body pleases me." "I intend to keep it." "I see." "And henoch intends to keep Spock's body, of course." "Henoch's plans are his own affair." "I wish only to exist in peace... as a living woman." " If you're asking my approval..." " I require only your silence." "That only you and I will know that Dr. mulhall has not returned to her body." "Isn't that worth your captain's life?" "Doctor... we can take what we wish." "Neither you, this ship, nor all your worlds have the power to stop us." "Neither Jim nor I can trade a body we don't own." " It belongs to a young woman." " Who you hardly know." "Almost a stranger to you." "I will not peddle flesh." "I'm a physician." "A physician?" "In contrast to what we are... you are a prancing... savage medicine man." "You dare defy one you should be on your knees worshiping?" "I could destroy you with a single thought." "Stop!" "Sargon was right." "Temptations within a living body are too great." "Forgive me." "I am pleased, my beloved." "It is good you have found the truth yourself." "Sargon." "Where are you?" "I thought you destroyed by henoch." "I have power even henoch does not suspect, beloved." "Yes." "Yes, I see." "I understand." "Just as we would have placed our consciousness within robots... sargon has placed his into your vessel." "Doctor." "Doctor, leave us." "Sargon has a plan." "We have much work to do." "This is the sickbay." "Get me..." "Nurse chapel, what in the devil...?" "Jim, are you all right?" "Yes, I'm fine, bones." " Thalassa?" " She is now with sargon, doctor." "I'm Ann mulhall, back in my own body." "Jim, the receptacles." "Spock's consciousness was in one of them." " It was necessary." " What are you talking about?" "There is no Spock to return to his body." "You've killed a loyal officer." "Your best friend." "Bones, prepare a hypo." "The fastest, deadliest poison to vulcans." "Spock's consciousness is gone." "We must kill his body... the thing in it." "Must I make an example of you too, helm?" "Pain, captain." "And you, my dear..." "Fortunately, doctor," "I know every thought of every mind around me." "See?" "Take the hypo from him... and inject him with it." "You fools." "I'll simply transfer to another place, another body." "Sargon." "No, sargon, please, let me..." "Let me trans..." "Spock." "My friend, Spock." "If there'd only been another way." "Sargon"." "I could not allow your sacrifice of one so close to you." "Jim." "You're alive." "There was enough poison in that hypo to kill ten vulcans." "No, doctor." "I allowed you to believe that to be true so that henoch would read your thoughts and believe it also." "Sargon." "It seems, doctor, the injection was only enough to cause unconsciousness." "Sargon"." "But henoch believed and fled the body." "He is destroyed." "But your vessel was destroyed too." "Where was your consciousness kept?" "The place henoch would least suspect, captain." "That is why I was summoned into the sickbay, doctor." "Mr. Spock's consciousness was placed in me." "We shared consciousness together." "Sargon"." "We now know we cannot permit ourselves to exist in your world, my children." "Thalassa and I must now also depart into oblivion." "Ls there any way we can help you, sargon?" "Yes, my son." "You can allow thalassa and me to share your bodies again." "A last moment together." "Oblivion together does not frighten me, beloved." "Promise we will be together." "I promise, beloved." "Together forever." "Forever, beloved... forever." "Well, I'm sure that, uh, sargon appreciated your cooperation, Dr. mulhall." "Yes, I was, uh, happy to cooperate, captain." "Mm." "It was beautiful."