Star Trek 09

by James Blish

  "Are you suggesting that the Lawgivers are mere computers—not human?"

  "Quite human, Captain. It's just that all the facts are not yet in. There are gaps—"

  He broke off. A rattle had come from the door. Kirk and the others sprang to the alert—and the door opened. A Lawgiver, his staff aimed at them, entered, followed by McCoy and the missing security man. Both were beaming vacantly, happily. Kirk stared at McCoy, dismay in his face. The Lawgiver left, closing the door behind him. The lock snapped.

  "Bones . . ."

  McCoy smiled at Kirk. "Hello, friend. They told us to wait here." He started toward a corner pallet, no sign whatever of recognition in his empty eyes.

  "Bones!" Kirk cried. "Don't you know me?"

  McCoy stared at him in obvious surprise. "We all know one another in Landru, friend."

  Spock said, "Just like Sulu, Captain."

  Kirk seized McCoy's arm, shaking it. "Think, man!" he cried. "The Enterprise! The ship! You remember the ship!"

  McCoy shook his head bewilderedly. "You speak very strangely, friend. Are you from far away?"

  Kirk's voice was fierce. "Bones, try to remember!"

  "Landru remembers," McCoy said. "Ask Landru. He watches. He knows." A flicker of suspicion sharpened his eyes. "You are strange. Are you not of the Body?"

  Kirk released his arm with a groan. McCoy at once lost his suspicious look, and, smiling emptily at nothing, moved away to sit down on one of the pallets.

  The door opened again to the grinding of freed locks. Two Lawgivers stood in the entrance. One aimed his staff at Kirk. "Come," the cold voice said.

  Kirk exchanged a quick glance with Spock. "And what if I don't?" he said.

  "Then you will die."

  "They have been corrected, Captain," Spock said. "Or reprogrammed. You'd better go with them, sir."

  Kirk nodded. "All right. Spock, work on Bones. See if you can—"

  "Come!" said the Lawgiver again.

  Both staffs were aimed at Kirk as he passed through the cell door. As the heavy door swung to behind him, Spock whirled to McCoy. "Doctor, what will they do to him?"

  McCoy smirked at him beatifically. "He goes to Joy. He goes to Peace and Tranquility. He goes to meet Landru. Happiness is to all of us who are blessed by Landru."

  The room to which the Lawgivers were escorting Kirk was of stone—a room he was to remember as the "absorption chamber". A niche in a wall was equipped with a control panel. As he was prodded into the room, Kirk saw that another Lawgiver stood at the niche. Against another wall a manacle hung from a chain. Kirk was shoved toward it, one of his captors holding him while the other fastened the gyve about his wrist. Then they turned and left the room. Their footsteps had barely ceased to echo on the stone floor of the corridor outside when a fourth Lawgiver entered. He didn't so much as glance at Kirk but moved to his fellow at the control panel, nodding curtly.

  Finally, he turned. "I am Marplon," he said. "It is your hour. Happy communing."

  The Lawgiver at the panel bowed. "With thanks," he said. "Happy communing." Then, like the others, he left the absorption room. Alone now, Marplon faced Kirk. It seemed to Kirk that his visage resembled a death mask. But Marplon could move. When he had he placed a headset over his hood, his hands touched the control panel with the authority derived from much experience. The room flooded with bright, flashing colors; a humming sound began. The lights were blinding and the sound seemed to echo itself in Kirk's head. He twisted in his bonds.

  At the same moment, back in the detention cell, Lindstrom was pacing it angrily. He halted to confront Spock. "Are we just going to stay here?"

  "There seems to be little else we can do," Spock told him mildly. "Unless you can think of a way to get through that locked door."

  "This is ridiculous! Prisoners of a bunch of Stone Age characters running around in robes."

  "And apparently commanding powers far beyond our comprehension. Not simple, Mr. Lindstrom. Not ridiculous. Very, very dangerous."

  On his last word the cell door opened and the two Lawgivers who had apprehended Kirk walked in. This time they aimed their staffs at Spock.

  "You," said the spokesman. "Come."

  For a fleeting second, Spock hesitated. The tip of one of the staffs quivered. Spock took his place between his guards. They led him out. They led him out and down the corridor to the absorption chamber. Kirk greeted him, an imbecile smile on his face.

  "Captain!"

  "Joy be with you, friend. Peace and contentment will fill you. You will know the peace of Landru . . ."

  Then unguarded, alone, Kirk moved quietly to the door of the room with the manacle. The Lawgivers gave way as he passed. Spock stared after him, a horror only to be read by the absolute impassivity in his face.

  He wasn't left much time to indulge it. Already they were manacling him to the wall. But the Vulcan's inveterate curiosity, not to be subdued, was already subordinating this personal experience to interest in the control panel's mechanism. As with Kirk, the two shackling Lawgivers, as soon as their task was accomplished, left. Marplon threw a switch on his panel. The colored lights began to swirl. Spock watched their coiling flashes with interest.

  "Show no surprise," Marplon said. "The effect is harmless."

  Spock looked at Marplon. The Lawgiver spoke in a lowered voice. "My name is Marplon. I was too late to save your first two friends. They have been absorbed. Beware of them."

  "And my Captain?"

  "He is unharmed," said Marplon. "Unchanged." He moved a finger; the light glowed brighter, and the hum grew more shrill. Marplon left his console to release Spock from his manacle. "I am the third man in Reger's trio," he said. "We have been waiting for your return."

  "We are not Archons, Marplon," Spock said.

  "Whatever you call yourselves, you are in fulfillment of prophecy. We ask for your help."

  Spock said, "Where is Reger?"

  "He will join us. He is immune to the absorption. Hurry! Time is short."

  "Who is Landru?"

  Marplon recoiled. "I cannot answer your questions now."

  "Why not?" Spock said.

  "Landru! He will hear!" Marplon went swiftly to his console, and reaching down and inward, brought out the ship's company's phasers. Spock, seizing several of them, stowed them away. As the last phaser was secreted, two Lawgivers pushed the door open.

  "It is done," Marplon told them.

  Spock assumed the idiotically amiable look of the anointed. "Joy be with you," he said.

  "Landru is all," said the Lawgivers in unison. Spock moved past them and into the corridor. Making his way back to the cell, he found Kirk there, smiling blankly into space. Two Lawgivers pushed past him to beckon to the security crewman who had not been treated. Ashen with fear, he rose and went with them.

  Spock went to Kirk. "Captain . . ."

  "Peace and tranquility to you, friend," Kirk said. Then, in a lowered voice, he added, "Spock, you all right?"

  "Quite all right, sir. Be careful of Dr. McCoy."

  "I understand. Landru?"

  "I am formulating an opinion, Captain."

  "And?"

  "Not here. The Doctor . . ."

  But McCoy was already rising from his pallet, staring at them. His amiable smile faded and the look of curiosity on his face gave it a peculiar threatening aspect. "You speak in whispers," he said. "This is not the way of Landru."

  "Joy to you, friend," Kirk said, "Tranquility be yours."

  "And peace and harmony," intoned McCoy. "Are you of the Body?"

  "The Body is one," Kirk said.

  "Blessed be the Body. Health to all its parts." McCoy was smiling again, apparently satisfied. He sank back on the pallet; Kirk and Spock, joining him on theirs, sat on them in such a way as to screen their faces from McCoy. Then, in the same carefully lowered voice, he said, "What's your theory, Mr. Spock?"

  "This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All is indeed peace and tranquility,
the peace of the factory, the machine's tranquility . . . all parts working in unison."

  "I've noticed that the routine is disturbed if something unexplained happens."

  "Until new orders are received. The question is, who gives those orders?"

  "Landru," Kirk said.

  "There is no Landru," Spock said. "Not in the human sense."

  "You're thinking the same way I am, Mr. Spock."

  "Yes, Captain. But as to what we must do . . ."

  "We must pull out the plug, Mr. Spock."

  "Sir?"

  "Landru must die."

  Spock's left eyebrow lifted. "Our prime directive of non-interference," he began.

  "That refers to a living, growing culture. I'm not convinced that this one can qualify as—" He broke off as the cell door opened. Marplon and Reger, carrying the confiscated communicators, entered. "It is the gift of Landru to you," Marplon said. The words were addressed to McCoy and the treated security guard. They smiled vacantly and McCoy said, "Joy to you, friends." He leaned back against the stone wall, his eyes closed. Reger and Marplon hurried past him to Kirk and Spock.

  "We brought your signaling devices," Marplon told Kirk. "You may need them."

  "What we really need is more information about Landru," Kirk said.

  Reger shrank back. "Prophecy says—" Marplon began.

  "Never mind what prophecy says! If you want to be liberated from Landru, you have to help us!"

  Spock cut in warningly. "Captain . . ."

  McCoy was moving toward them, open and hostile suspicion in his face. "I heard you!" he cried. "You are not of the Body!" He hurled himself on Kirk, reaching for his throat. Spock tried to pry him off only to be taken in the rear by the treated security guard. "Lawgivers!" McCoy shouted. "Here are traitors! Traitors!"

  With a twist, Kirk freed himself, crying, "Bones! Bones, I don't want to hurt you! Sit down and be still!"

  But McCoy was still screaming, "Lawgivers! Hurry!"

  Kirk's blow caught him squarely on the chin. As he fell, the door was flung wide and two Lawgivers, staffs ready, rushed in. At once they were jumped by Kirk and Spock. Kirk dropped his man with a hard wallop at the back of the neck while Spock applied the Vulcan neck pinch to his. Reger and Marplon, pressed against the wall, were staring at the fallen Lawgivers in horror.

  Hurriedly, Kirk started disrobing the man he had downed. As Spock did the same to his, Kirk, donning the cowled garment, snapped at the others. "Where is Landru?"

  "No," Marplon said. "No, no . . ."

  "Where do we find him?" Kirk demanded.

  "He will find us!" cried Reger. "He will destroy!"

  Kirk whirled on Marplon. "You said you wanted a chance to help. All right, you're getting it! Where is he? You're a Lawgiver! Where do you see him?"

  "We never see him. We hear him. In the Hall of Audiences!"

  "In this building?"

  Marplon nodded, terrified. Kirk let his rage rip. "You're going to take us there! Snap out of it, both of you! Start behaving like men!"

  Spock opened a communicator. "Spock to Enterprise. Status report!"

  "Mr. Spock!" It was Scott's voice. "I've been trying to reach you!"

  "Report, Mr. Scott!"

  "Orbit still decaying, sir. Give it six hours, more or less. Heat rays still on us. You've got to cut them off—or we'll cook one way or another."

  Nodding at Spock, Kirk took the communicator. "Stand by, Mr. Scott. We're doing what we can. How's Mr. Sulu?"

  "Peaceful enough, but he worries me."

  "Put a guard on him."

  "On Sulu?" Scott was shocked.

  "That's an order! Watch him! Captain out!" " Robed now and armed, Kirk and Spock turned to Marplon and Reger. "All right. Now about Landru . . ."

  "He made us!" Marplon cried. "He made this world!"

  Reger was on his knees. "Please. We have gone too far! Don't—"

  Spock said, "You say Landru made this world. Explain."

  "There was war . . . six thousand years ago there was war . . . and convulsion. The world was destroying itself. Landru was our leader. He saw the truth. He changed the world. He took us back, back to a simple time, of peace, of tranquility."

  "What happened to him?" Kirk said.

  "He still lives!" cried Marplon. "He is here now! He sees . . . he hears . . . we have destroyed ourselves . . . please, please, no more."

  Kirk spoke very softly. "You said you wanted freedom. It is time you learned that freedom is not a gift. You have to earn it—or you don't get it. Come on! We're going to find Landru!"

  Reger stumbled to bis knees. "No . . . no. I was wrong!" Wringing his hands, his eyes upturned imploringly, he shrieked, "I submit . . . I bare myself to the will of Landru."

  Kirk seized his shoulder. "It is too late for that! But Reger, shaking himself loose, dashed to the door, screaming, "No! No! Lawgivers! Help me!" Spock, reaching out, gave him the neck pinch. He fell; Marplon, staring, slowly turned to meet Kirk's eyes.

  "All right, my friend," Kirk said. "It's up to you now. Take us to Landru."

  "He will strike us down," said Marplon.

  "Maybe—or it might be the other way around. Mr. Lindstrom, stay here and take care of Dr. McCoy. Let's go, Mr. Spock." He grabbed Marplon's arm, propelling him to the door. Dismay and fear on his face, Marplon opened it, and Kirk's hand still on his arm, he moved out into the corridor. From under his hood, Kirk could see two robed Lawgivers approaching. They passed without so much as glancing at the three figures they assumed to be fellow Lawgivers. The trio moved on down the corridor and Kirk saw I that it ended at a large imposing door.

  Marplon paused in front of it, visibly trembling. "This is . . . the Hall of Audiences," he whispered.

  "Do you have a key?"

  At Marplon's nod, Kirk said, "Open it."

  "But—it is Landru . . ."

  "Open it," Kirk said again. But he had to take the key from Marplon's trembling hands to open it himself. The Hall of Audiences was a large room, completely bare. In one of the walls was set a glowing panel. Marplon pointed to it "Landru—he speaks ere . . ." he whispered.

  Kirk stepped forward. "Landru! We are the Archons!" he said. The moldy, cold silence in the big room remained unbroken. Kirk spoke again. "We are the Archons. We've come to talk with you!"

  Very gradually the wise, impressive, benevolent face they remembered began to take shape on the panel. In an extremity of panic, Marplon broke into sobs, prostrating himself. "Landru comes!" he wept. "He comes!"

  The noble figure was completed now, a warm half smile on its lips. They opened. "Despite my efforts not to harm you, you have invaded the Body. You are causing great harm."

  "We have no intention of causing harm," Kirk said.

  Landru continued as though Kirk had not spoken.

  "Obliteration is necessary. The infection is strong. For the good of the Body, you must die. It is a great sorrow."

  "We do not intend to die!"

  The oblivious voice continued, kind, gently. "All who have seen you, who know of your presence, must be excised. The memory of the Body must be cleansed."

  "Listen to me!" Kirk shouted.

  "Captain . . . useless," Spock said. "A projection!"

  "All right, Mr. Spock! Let's have a look at the projector!"

  They whipped out their phasers simultaneously, turning their beams on the glowing panel. There was a great flash of blinding light. The figure of Landru vanished and the light in the panel faded. But the real Landru had not disappeared. Behind the panel he survived in row upon row of giant computers—a vast complex of dials, switches, involved circuits all quietly operating.

  "It had to be," Kirk said. "Landru."

  "Of course, Captain. A machine. This entire society is a machine's idea of perfection. Peace, harmony . . ."

  "And no soul."

  Suddenly the machine buzzed. A voice spoke. It said, "I am Landru. You have intruded."

  "Pull out its plug, Mr. Spock."
>
  They aimed their phasers. But before they could fire, there came another buzzing from the machine and a flash of light immobilized their weapons. "Your devices have been neutralized," said the voice. "So it shall be with you. I am Landru."

  "Landru died six thousand years ago," Kirk said.

  "I am Landru!" cried the machine. "I am he. All that he was, I am. His experience, his knowledge—"

  "But not his wisdom," Kirk said. "He may have programmed you, but he could not give you his soul."

  "Your statement is irrelevant," said the voice. "You will be obliterated. The good of the Body is the primal essence."

  "That's the answer, Captain," Spock said. "That good of the Body . . ."

  Kirk nodded. "What is the good?" he asked.

  "I am Landru."

  "Landru is dead. You are a machine. A question has been put to you. Answer it!"

  Circuits hummed. "The good is the harmonious continuation of the Body," said the voice. "The good is peace, tranquility, harmony. The good of the Body is the prime directive."

  "I put it to you that you have disobeyed the prime directive—that you are harmful to the Body."

  The circuits hummed louder. "The Body is . . . it exists. It is healthy."

  "It is dying," Kirk said. "You are destroying it."

  "Do you ask a question?" queried the voice.

  "What have you done to do justice to the full potential of every individual of the Body?"

  "Insufficient data. I am not programmed to answer that question."

  "Then program yourself," Spock said. "Or are your circuits limited?"

  "My circuits are unlimited. I will reprogram."

  The machine buzzed roughly. A screech came from it. Marplon, on the floor, was getting to his feet, his eyes staring at the massive computer face. As he gained them, two more Lawgivers appeared, staffless.

  They approached the machine. "Landru!" cried one. "Guide us! Landru?" His voice was a wail.

  Kirk had whirled to cover them with his phaser when Spock raised his hand. "Not necessary, Captain. They have no guidance . . . possibly for the first time in their lives."

  Kirk, lowering his phaser, turned back to the machine. "Landru! Answer that question!"

  The voice had a metallic tone now. "Peace, order, and tranquility are maintained. The Body lives. But creativity is mine. Creativity is necessary for the health of the Body." It buzzed again. "This is impossible. It is a paradox. It shall be resolved."