"This planet's ecosystem is precise. The scavengers—and that is what those beasts must be—found those we disabled. When those we rendered unconscious didn't stir or respond in an approved fashion, they began their function."
"They were eating them!"
"The creatures were removing potentially rotting meat. None of those we disabled reported in to the master life form; therefore it became obvious that function had terminated."
Kirk restrained McCoy again as the doctor raised a phaser.
"Let me stop them, Jim. If we don't do something, those men will die. Whether or not they're bewitched by Lorelei, they're still crewmen from the Enterprise. Your ship."
"Bones." James T. Kirk felt the dilemma pulling him apart. If they acted swiftly, they might prevent the deaths of the other two men. But if Kirk or either of the others with him did act, it would not only alert and alarm the planetary life form, it would reveal their presence to Scotty—and Lorelei. Escape would never be possible.
If they did nothing, two of his crew died. His crew.
"Jim, what are you going to do?" demanded McCoy. "They can't hold off the creatures much longer."
"They do not use their phasers. Lorelei's pacifistic philosophy has been too deeply ingrained for them to even defend their own lives. Fascinating, if evolutionally maladaptive."
"Scott, help!" Kirk bellowed. He pulled his two friends aside, away from the path, into shadows too deep for anyone to see them.
Seconds later, Montgomery Scott lumbered down the trail.
"Saints preserve us, they're bein' eaten alive!" He spoke directly into the communicator.
"Peace!" came Lorelei's voice. The word rolled out, soothed, diminished the feverish snapping activity of the animals—the multiple extensions of the planetary life. "These men meant no harm. They live. They react. Do not harm them. They are one with the others."
Kirk held his hands firmly over his ears to block out Lorelei's words. Even that did not prevent the full impact of her sonic suasions. But enough filtered out so that he maintained his own ideals, his own philosophies. Lorelei spoke for fifteen minutes, coaxing, cajoling, soothing. The end result was all that Kirk might have hoped.
The pack of scavenger animals snuffled about, reluctant, then left to pursue their function elsewhere. The two rescued men clung to each other for support. Shock and their wounds prevented them from doing much more than shaking. The sight of their three friends, all bloody and dead, unnerved them even more. Scotty motioned for them to return to the shuttle. Kirk watched and waited, wondering what opportunity this might provide. His crew was being decimated; every loss for those obeying Lorelei wasn't a victory. Those were his men dying.
When Scotty finished his report and closed the communicator lid, he shook his head and moved to put the bodies onto one of the antigrav sleds Spock had left at the edge of the path. Mumbling to himself, the engineer pushed the grisly load back to the shuttle.
"He'll call it quits," warned McCoy. "With so many men dead, he'll want to return to the Enterprise. There can't be any further need for shielding. They've got enough."
"You're right, Bones. This is the flare-off. Go get Neal and the others. Approach slowly. Spock and I will try to take out Scotty. This is our best chance."
"It's our only chance."
Kirk didn't answer the doctor. He waited until McCoy had slipped off into the night, carefully walking to avoid any chance of disturbing the touchy organism forming the ecosphere around them. Kirk took a deep breath, then set off for the shuttle. The time had come to act. If they didn't get into the shuttle soon, it'd leave and strand them forever on the planet. He doubted if Lorelei or any of the others aboard the Enterprise wanted to return after this bloody disaster.
"There, Jim. He is closing the cargo hatch."
Kirk nodded, waited for Spock to move quietly toward Scotty, then stood and walked into an area illuminated by a small hand torch placed near the hatch of the shuttle. He stopped, hands on hips, and stood watching Scotty.
The engineer did a double take.
"Captain, 'tis you!" Then his expression shifted from joy to outrage. "Ye shouldn't hae come like this. Lorelei says ye are exiled. Ye are a disruptive influence."
"I need to return to my ship, Scotty. Let me return on the shuttle." Kirk turned and patted the cold metal hull. "The old Galileo Seven has had a checkered career, hasn't it?"
"Captain, I canna make ye leave, but Lorelei is a persuasive lass." Scotty reached for the communicator. He froze, muscles tensed, as Spock used the Vulcan nerve pinch to stop him.
"I wondered if you'd forgotten what you were supposed to do."
One eyebrow arched. "Captain," said Spock, "I did not forget. There are beasts afoot in the dark. I did not wish to disturb them."
"Get on with it, Spock," Kirk said, a feeling of unease growing. "Have you ever heard the expression, 'Someone is walking on my grave'? I'm getting that sensation now." He looked out into the dark. Seeing nothing, he hefted the hand torch and flashed it around. Bootheels crunching against gravel sounded. McCoy, Neal and the others entered the yellow cone of light. Ambassador Zarv and Donald Lorritson trailed behind, still cowed from their experiences.
"We've got to work on Scotty before getting back to the Enterprise," he explained. "There are still a couple inside who haven't, uh, seen the error of their ways."
"Here's one who is still pretty mad about it all, Captain." Neal dumped down the guard he'd slugged. The man struggled in the tight bonds fastening wrists and ankles. A thick section of tunic muffled his protests.
"Keep it all quiet. Spock, what do you think?"
"Mr. Scott is not likely to throw off the effects of Lorelei's sonic brainwashing easily if this man is any example of her effectiveness." He pointed to the struggling security guard. "He has been removed from her sonic persuasions for some twenty minutes and still persists."
"Does it have to be?" asked McCoy. "Do you have to do it to Scotty?"
"I see no alternative."
Kirk nodded brusquely. "Do it, Spock. Use the Vulcan mind fusion. Try to convince him that he must aid us."
"Even if Spock succeeds, we're all still vulnerable if we come within her hearing," protested Neal.
"Doctor, do you think you can work up a suitable replacement for ear wax?"
McCoy smiled and said, "It worked just fine for Odysseus. No Siren is going to bother us when I'm finished. Neal, help me search through the cargo hold. I'm needing a ball of jeweler's wax kept back there for taking impressions." McCoy and the security guard hurried off.
Jim Kirk turned and watched Spock reaching out, fingers caressing Scotty's face. The fingers stiffened, probing firmly. Both Spock and Scott jerked, the Vulcan's face turning flaccid.
"He is…his mind is awash with conflict," came a voice subtly different from Spock's, yet one obviously belonging to the Vulcan. "I cannot order it all. The words—her words—confuse and addle and create turmoil. So close. So close to finding the equation to free myself. Himself." Spock pulled away as if his hands had been burned by the engineer's flesh.
"Spock, are you all right?"
"Eminently so, Captain. I believe I have succeeded, at least in part."
"Captain Kirk, I remember it now. I tried to stop ye. Gods, how can I hold my head up after this?" The man put his head down into his cupped hands and shook all over. "Never have I disgraced myself like this. 'Tis a tragedy."
"It'll be a tragedy if we don't get out of here. You're able to help us, Scotty?"
"Aye, Captain. Anything. To…the Enterprise. She has control of the Enterprise. Lorelei!"
"It will come back slowly. I neurologically rearranged certain pathways. He will not be harmed, but his memory will be chaotic for some days."
"Mr. Spock, it was you who was a-foolin' about in my head!"
Kirk looked up to see McCoy and Neal returning. McCoy smiled, holding aloft a large ball of the soft, pliant wax.
"Here's our ticket back to Mount Olympus."
"Please, Doctor, your classical allusions fall on deaf ears."
Leonard McCoy stopped and stared, mouth open. "If I didn't know better, I'd think Spock had made a joke."
"Later, Bones. Will this really work?"
"It'll have to. It's all I could find. Cram it in good. There. I'll irrigate your aural channels later and clean out the mess." He went from one to another in the group until all ears were plugged. Satisfied, he helped Neal get their prisoner into the shuttle hold. It took even less time to capture the two who had been beset by the scavengers. They put up no fight, their spirits already low. With some satisfaction, McCoy oversaw them being tied and gagged. With no further influence of Lorelei over the men, the security guards would return to normal in a few hours—or days. Till then they had to remain tied. Spock's services couldn't be spared for each in the party. Not at this crucial moment.
"Into the shuttle. I want off this planet as soon as possible. There's a feeling of impending disaster I can't shake."
"Captain Kirk," said Lorritson, "I have misjudged you. This has been a trying time for all of us. You handled yourself admirably."
"Inside. We can pat each other on the back later. When we've retaken the Enterprise from Lorelei." Kirk waved Ambassador Zarv in, then noticed the Tellarite standing frozen in place just outside the shuttle hatch. "Ambassador!" he shouted, wanting to penetrate the veil dropped by the wax in their ears.
"Zarv! No, you can't!" screamed Lorritson. Before anyone could stop him, Donald Lorritson rocketed from the shuttle and rushed to his superior's side. The Tellarite's leg had become wrapped in a strong vine. Others sprouted out of the soil and worked forward, groping blindly for the ambassador.
"Spock, hold off," he ordered. "Zarv's caught by vines."
"The planetary life form is now aware of our escape, Jim. The shuttle sensors report accelerated activity throughout the immediate area. Fliers are aloft and armies of humanoids approach from the direction of the city. We have no time left. None!"
"I've got to save him. Without them, there won't be an Ammdon peace mission."
Kirk hurled out the open hatchway, crushed down viciously on a vine working its way through the dirt and kicked free to stand beside Lorritson. The man shook as if he had a palsy. It took only a glance to see what produced this reaction. A vine had circled Zarv's throat and choked the Tellarite to death. His tongue hung from his piglike snout, purple and bloated. His beady eyes had bulged to the point where the grotesque sight turned Kirk's stomach.
"Donald, back. You can't help him now. You're the ambassador. You'll have to stop the Ammdon-Jurnamoria war."
"Zarv," he sobbed. "He was more than my superior. He…he was my friend. It's so hard to believe. We complemented each other so well. We were invincible as a negotiating team. And with Mek Jokkor—"
"Lorritson! Snap to it!" Kirk lashed out with his boots, trying to clear a path to the shuttle. There wasn't any chance. He whipped out his phaser. Two quick ratings produced results, but not what Kirk had expected.
The vines recoiled and shriveled, sinking back into the soil. But response came from all other quarters. A furred leg batted the weapon from his grip. Tendrils snaked up to grip his legs. Lorritson already flopped about on hands and knees, unable to stand. Kirk fought, but to no avail. The force of an entire planet weighed against him.
"Spock!" he screamed. "Take off. Leave me. Get the Enterprise back. Stop Lorelei!"
His stoppered ears did not permit him to hear the exchange between Spock and McCoy. He saw his science officer shove McCoy back, then slam down the hatch. An odd combination of pride and fear racked him. Spock had sense enough to obey. The Enterprise would be retaken. But abandonment now meant death.
The shuttle engines flared into life. Hot exhaust gases lashed his face, his hands, his entire body.
But the Galileo Seven did not blastoff. Spock turned the shuttle so that the engine-igniter flames continued to spew backward. Kirk fought even harder when he realized what Spock was doing. He still had a chance to escape. The heat caused the life form assailing him to wither, to loosen its grip. He kicked away vines, shoved off groping hands, struggled forward into the teeth of the blast.
"Hurry, Captain. I cannot hold this much longer." The words came muffled and indistinct, but he knew. He jerked free of the last vine holding him and rushed for the shuttle hatch. Strong hands pulled him inside.
"Zarv, Lorritson, both died," he managed to say.
"You're alive," he heard someone shout.
Then, as the shuttle engines flared to full-throated life and the pressure of intense acceleration slammed him into steel deck plates, Jim Kirk passed out. His last thoughts were of death and…Lorelei.
Chapter Ten
Captain's Log, Stardate 4908.0
It is hard to believe that escape from the uni-life planetary system might be the easiest part of regaining control of the Enterprise. Lorelei's hold on the crew is as sure as if she had them chained—surer. The silver curtain of her words has woven them into a bind that will take time and effort to correct. We have no time left.
"Be careful, Spock. You're getting too close."
"Doctor, I am a qualified pilot. I need not be warned of such elementary concerns. Please tend to your patients. I can only hope that your medical skills surpass your piloting abilities."
"As you were," snapped Kirk, forcing himself to sit upright. He remembered passing out on the steel deck plates. He now rested in one of the padded acceleration couches. He had no memory of being lifted and strapped in. "Report."
"Sir, we are less than a thousand meters from the Enterprise. Mr. Scott has contacted those in the landing bay. The bay doors are opening in response. We will soon be berthed."
"Aye, Captain. Look. The repairs are goin' accordin' to plan." Scotty pushed past his captain to point through the tiny windows. "The shieldin's in place and they canna work faster. Bonny lads and lasses." He beamed in pleasure at the sight of the matter-antimatter pods being reconstructed so expertly. One entire warp engine had been stripped and repaired. The shielding hovered just millimeters from the deadly antimatter, held in place by invisible force fields. When finished, the magnetic bottles would be re-formed and the potent power source for the starship reignited.
"We've got seven men able to withstand Lorelei's voice. Will it be enough?" Kirk wondered out loud.
"I have considered this point, Captain. If we stun those in the landing bay, we can gain immediate entry to the engineering levels. From there, it is simple enough to trigger the sleep-gas canisters. While it is an inconvenience to allow four hundred and twenty-three of the crew to so abandon their duties simultaneously, it is better than attempting a piecemeal conquest."
"As usual, Spock, your analysis is masterful." Kirk sighed. "I wish it were possible to do it that way. Lorelei has had free run of the ship. She's probably disconnected the sleep-gas canisters."
"It is a peaceful device, Captain. Is that not the basis for her philosophy?"
"It can be turned against her. Her takeover wasn't immediate. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that most of the internal defense devices have been deactivated."
"Even if they were workin'," said Scotty, "many of the crew are outside. The least squawk, and an entire engineerin' team will be down on you."
"They can't physically oppose us if they believe in pacifism." burst in Mr. Neal. "That's something we have over them. We can fight and they can't."
"They're still friends and crewmates, mister," Kirk said sharply. "And pacifism doesn't mean they can't imprison us for our own good. They outnumber us sixty to one. Our only advantage is surprise."
"And speed. We can move quick if we have to."
"Aye, speed. Surprise," agreed Scotty. "But if you're thinkin' the sleepy gas is nae gonna work, what are we to do?"
"We take Lorelei prisoner. Hold her in an isolation detention cell and prevent her from contacting any of the others. If the sleep gas works, fine. If not, her sonic
influence will decrease."
"It will be an exponential decrease," said Spock. "The first few days will show the most rapid decline in influence; then it will tail off. When we return to starbase, it might be required that a full psychological profile be worked for each crew member."
"Except yourself, of course," said McCoy. "You Vulcans are impervious to her charms, I take it?"
"I detect only small influences on my own behavior. Unlike humans, we are able to logically cross-check our actions. Now, Doctor, if you will excuse me for a moment, I must dock this craft."
Ahead, bay doors yawned wide. Spock expertly guided them through and touched down with the slightest of shocks. He glanced at Kirk, who stood shakily, regaining his equilibrium after the blow to his head. In his hand he clutched a phaser, set on stun.
"Let's go. Lorelei will probably be on the bridge. Phaser-stun as many as you can, don't allow anyone to escape and spread the alarm, and I'll see you when we're in charge again."
"Good luck, Captain." Spock solemnly nodded, then clutched Kirk's shoulder.
James T. Kirk turned and signaled Neal to open the hatch. Even before the hatch had risen all the way, Kirk sent a flashing red beam of phaser fire through the opening. Two landing-bay technicians slumped, unconscious. The marauders piled out, firing quickly at unsuspecting targets.
Finally Scotty said, "There's the lot, Captain. Let me report in to the wee lass on the bridge." He flipped open his communicator and said, "Lorelei, this is Scott reportin' a successful return. The last of the shieldin' is bein' unloaded now."
"Very good, Mr. Scott. You have done well." Kirk watched as the expression on Scotty's face altered slightly. Even with the wax plugging his ears, he heard enough of the alien woman's beguiling words to feel the tug back toward servitude. Kirk reached out and shook his engineer. Scotty blinked and quickly nodded. He wouldn't succumb easily. Not again.
At a dead run, they reached the turboelevator and crowded within. The wax robbed them of the usual sounds, the whishing past floors, the electronic hums, the soft grating of metal on metal as the door opened onto the bridge. Kirk took two quick steps forward.
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