by James Blish
"Spock, what are the readings?"
"Heart, severely damaged; signs of congestion in both lungs; evidence of massive circulatory collapse."
From the corner where she huddled, Gem was watching their every move. In the harsh lab light McCoy's face was colorless, his lips faintly blue. His eyes shuddered open, stared blankly, then focused.
Kirk found water. Raising McCoy's head, he poured some into the smashed lips. "Don't try to talk, Bones." He laid the head back on the table. "Don't try to speak. Don't think. Just take it easy until we can get back to the ship. Don't—"
"Captain . . ."
Something in Spock's tone caught Kirk's alarmed attention. "What is it? What's the matter?"
With a visible effort Spock looked up from the tricorder. "Captain, I . . . he's dying. We can make him comfortable but that is all."
"No! You can't be sure, Spock! You're not a doctor."
McCoy whispered, "But . . . I am. Go on, Spock . . ."
Spock moved the tricorder over the entire body. "Internal injuries; bleeding in chest and abdomen; hemorrhages of the spleen and liver; 70 percent kidney failure . . ."
"He's right, Jim." McCoy grinned weakly. "Being a doctor has its drawbacks . . . I've always wondered—" A bout of coughing silenced him. Kirk supported his head until it passed. Then he tore a piece from McCoy's mangled shirt. Dipping it in the water, he dampened the hot forehead.
"Thanks . . . Jim . . ."
Kirk, his face suddenly appearing ten years older, looked at Spock. "How long?"
Spock hesitated; but at McCoy's faint nod, he said, "It could happen at any time, Captain."
The broken mouth moved in a smile. "The correct medical phrase, eh, Spock?" Coughing assailed him again, this time so violently that he seemed unable to breathe. It ceased abruptly, leaving him motionless.
"Doctor!" Spock felt for the neck pulse. He found it. Straightening, he rested his hand briefly on McCoy's head. McCoy opened his eyes, met Spock's—and their unspoken loyalty was wordlessly spoken. Then a spasm of pain twisted McCoy's face. He writhed on the table, coughing. The fit lasted so long that it suffocated him.
"Can't we do something?" Kirk said.
"I'm afraid not, Captain." As Spock spoke, McCoy lost consciousness.
Kirk said, "Gem!" They both turned toward her. "Gem could help him!" Kirk cried. "As she helped me!"
She was cowering in her corner. At the sight of her overwhelming fear, Kirk hesitated. "Could his nearness to death also kill her?"
"The Doctor's analysis of her life-support reactions assumed that the instinct for self-preservation would prevent that. However, he could not be positive."
"If she could just strengthen him to keep him from sinking further into death, we could take over, Spock, with Bones directing us."
They had started toward her when the chord suddenly reverberated at full power. The force field encircled them.
The Vians' arms were lifted in nameless threat. Lai's T-bar was extended downward. "No interference will be permitted!" he said.
Imprisoned, Kirk spoke from within the field. He was openly pleading. "She can save his life! Let us help her go to him!"
"She must neither be forced nor urged to take action."
"All must proceed without interference," Thann added.
"The purpose that brought us together—" Lal began.
"What purpose?" Kirk shouted. "What purpose can any of this serve except the satisfaction of some sick need of yours?"
"We have but one need left in life," Lai said. "It is to see the completion of the final moment of our test."
"Be patient," Thann urged.
"Patient!" Kirk's scorn was fierce with fury. "Our friend is dying!"
"Perhaps," Thann said.
"What purpose will our friend's death serve other than your pleasure in it?" Spock's voice had never been so toneless. "Surely beings as advanced as you know that your solar system will soon be extinct. This star of yours will nova."
"We know," Thann said.
"Then you know that the many millions of inhabitants on its planets are doomed."
The chill voice of Lal said, "That's why we are here."
Kirk swept the laboratory with a gesture. "This place of death you have devised for your pleasure—will it prevent that catastrophe?"
"No, it will not. That is true. But it may save Gem's planet. Of all the planets of Minara, we are empowered to transport to safety only the inhabitants of one." Thann's eyes fixed on Kirk's. "If Gem's planet is the sole one to be saved, we must make certain beyond all doubt that its people are worthy of survival."
"And how will that be served by the death of our friend?"
Lal answered. "His death will not serve it. Only Gem's willingness to give her life for him will. You were her teachers."
"Her teachers? What did she learn from us?"
"Your will to survive; your love of life; your passion to know. These qualities are recorded in her being." He paused. "Each one of you has been ready to give his life for the others. We must now find out whether that instinct has been transmitted to Gem."
The laboratory equipment rattled. The earth rumbled under the pressures of another quake. Thann spoke to Lal. "Time is growing short."
Spock looked down at McCoy's ravaged face. "You were correct, Captain. Everything that has occurred here has been caused to happen by them. This place has been a great laboratory and we have been the subjects of a test."
"No!" Thann said. "Only the circumstances were created by us. They were necessary."
Lal stepped toward Kirk. "Your actions have been spontaneous. What is truest and best in any species of beings has been revealed by you. Yours are the qualities that make a civilization worthy to survive. We are grateful to you."
"Look!" Thann cried.
Gem had left her corner. She moved to McCoy, passing through the force field as though it didn't exist. She passed her hands gently over the wounds on his face and body. Staring at her, hope returned to the Enterprise men.
Thann turned to Lal. "This is most significant. An instinct new to the essence of her being is generating. We are seeing it come to birth . . ."
Lal nodded. "Compassion for another is becoming part of her functioning life system."
The fearful injuries on McCoy's face were transferring themselves to Gem's. His eyes fluttered open, their pupils still glazed. Tensely, Kirk watched for some body movement. It didn't come. But the wounds on his face had begun to heal; and those on Gem's were disappearing. McCoy moved his head. Looking at Gem, recognition replaced the glaze in his eyes.
She was growing weak. Fear came into her great eyes. She withdrew from the table and staggered back toward her corner. McCoy's wounds began to bleed again.
"She is saving herself," Lal said. "She does not yet possess the instinct to save her people."
"We have failed," Thann said.
Spock spoke to Kirk. "Captain, the Doctor's life is not solely dependent on Gem. The Vians also must have the power to give him back his life."
Lal addressed Spock directly. "Your friend's death is not important. We must wait to see whether her instinct for self-sacrifice has become stronger than her instinct for self-preservation."
Watching, Kirk could see signs of the anguished internal struggle in the girl. Then her white face cleared with decision. She returned to McCoy, her step firm and determined. Kneeling beside the table, she took his limp hands in hers. Again, his wrists' gashes transferred to hers. McCoy's body moved—but life once again seemed to be draining from her.
McCoy lifted his head. "Don't touch me," he told her. "Stay away."
He tried to look around. "Jim . . . Spock . . . are you here?"
"Yes, Bones."
"Don't let her touch me. She will die."
He hauled himself to his knees, struggling to pull his hands from Gem's. The effort exhausted him. He fell back, looking pleadingly at Kirk. "Make her leave me . . . Jim . . . Spock . . . I will not destroy life. Not
even to save my own. You know that. Please . . . make her leave me."
Gem placed her hand on his heart. Color, faint but visible, came into McCoy's face.
"Captain!"
"Yes, Spock."
"The intensity of emotion that is exhausting us is building up the force field around us!"
"I know. It draws its energy from us."
"In spite of what we see, sir, all emotions must be eliminated. This may weaken the field."
"I'll try, Spock."
Both closed their eyes. A complete calm was in Spock's face. Even concentration was absorbed by his serenity. His hand went through the force field. He moved through it and quietly approached the Vians. Still held by the field, Kirk tried to still his tumult of anxieties. He looked at the Vians. They were so tense with their will to power that they failed to note Spock's position behind them. The Vulcan's arm rose; and lashed down in a judo chop that sent Lai's T-bar flying. The force field broke. As Kirk raced out of it, Spock retrieved the T-bar. Physically helpless now, the Vians hesitated, their essential test threatened with final disaster.
Gem was swaying with increasing weakness. McCoy dragged himself to his knees, crying, "No! No! I won't let you do it!" He shoved her away in a momentary influx of strength. Frightened by his sudden violence, she shrank from the table. As McCoy tried to move further away from her, his wounds reopened. He fell back, lying still. Gem stumbled back to her corner.
Kirk took the T-bar from Spock. He was rushing to McCoy with it when Lal spoke. "You cannot use our powers to change what is happening."
Kirk looked at the deathly white face on the table. Then he went to the Vians. "You must save the life of our friend."
"No. We will not," Lal said. "Her instinct must develop to the full. The test must be complete."
"It is complete." Spock joined Kirk. "Gem has already earned the right of survival for her planet. She has offered her life."
"To offer is insufficient proof," Lal said.
"If death is the only proof you can understand, then here are four lives for you." Kirk proffered the T-bar to Lal.
The Vian stared at him. "We will not leave our friend," Kirk said.
Lal took the bar. Turning, the two Enterprise officers strode back to McCoy.
At the table, Kirk faced around. "You are frauds," he said. "You have lost the capacity to feel the very emotions you brought Gem here to experience! You don't know the meaning of life. Compassionate love is dead in you! All you are is arid intellect!"
Lal's face went rigid with shock. Thann began to tremble. Their very bodies seemed to dwindle as Kirk's words struck home. They looked at each other, lost, the values of their lifetime dissolving. Lal was the first to move. Thann followed him to the table. They stood there a long moment, looking down at McCoy. Then Lal passed the T-bar over him. McCoy sat up, whole.
Nobody spoke. The Vians went to Gem. They lifted her in their arms. With her head on his shoulder, Lal turned, the first glint of warmth in his aged face. "The one emotion left to us is gratitude," he said. "We are thankful that we can express it to you. Farewell."
They chose to vanish slowly, changing into mist. Gem, looking back at the Enterprise trio, was the last to disappear.
The bridge viewing screen held the images of the immortal stars. Kirk turned away from it. Among them was a mortal star about to die.
"Strange . . ." he said.
Beside him, Spock said, "What puzzles you, Captain?"
"Puzzled isn't the word, Mr. Spock. I think I am awed."
"I'm with you, Jim," McCoy said. "She awed me."
"I wasn't thinking of Gem," Kirk said. He looked back at the viewing screen. "I was thinking of the fantastic element of chance that out in limitless space we should have come together with the savior of a planet."
Spock said, "The element of chance, Captain, can virtually be eliminated by a civilization as advanced as the Vians'."
Scott spoke from his station. "Not to dispute your computer, Mr. Spock—but from the little you have told me, I would say she was a pearl of great price."
"What, Scotty?"
"You know the story of the merchant . . . that merchant 'who when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it.’“
"She was that all right, Scotty," Kirk said. "And whether the Vians bought her or found her, I am glad for her and the planet she will save."
"Personally," McCoy said, "I find it fascinating that with all their scientific knowledge and advances, it was good old-fashioned human emotion they valued the most."
"Perhaps the Vulcans should hear about this," said Scott.
"Mr. Spock, could you be prevailed upon to give them the news?"
Spock looked at them blandly. "Possibly, Captain. I shall certainly give the thought its due consideration."
"I am sure you will, Mr. Spock." Kirk turned to Sulu. "Helmsman, take us out of orbit. Warp factor two."
At high speed the Enterprise left the area of the dying star.
THE GALILEO SEVEN
(Simon Wincelberg and Oliver Crawford)
* * *
The USS Enterprise operated under a standing order to investigate all quasar and quasar-like phenomena wherever and whenever it encountered them. To Kirk, it seemed to have met up with one. A sinister formation had appeared on the bridge's main viewing screen—a bluish mass, threaded, with red streaks of radiant energy. It dominated the sky ahead.
Kirk, eyeing the screen, pushed a button, only too conscious of the critical presence of his passenger, High Commissioner Ferris. "Captain to shuttlecraft Galileo," he said. "Stand by, Mr. Spock."
Ferris voiced his disapproval. "I remind you, Captain, that I am entirely opposed to this delay. Your mission is to get those medical supplies to Makus III in time for their transfer to the New Paris colonies."
"And I must remind you of our standing order, sir. There will be no problem. It's only three days to Makus III. And the transfer doesn't take place for five."
Ferris was fretful. "I don't like to take chances. With the plague out of control on New Paris, we must get those drugs there in time."
"We will." Kirk turned back to his console. "Captain to Galileo. All systems clear for your take-off."
"Power up, Captain. All instruments activated. All readings normal. All go."
Spock's voice . . . reassuring. As Science Officer, he was commanding the investigating team selected from the Enterprise crew for research into the space curiosity charted under the name of Murasaki 312. Now he sat, strapped, in the shuttlecraft's pilot seat, the others behind him—McCoy, Scott, Yeoman Mears, a fresh-faced girl, Boma, the Negro astrophysicist, radiation specialist Gaetano, navigator Latimer. All together, seven: the Galileo's seven.
"Launch shuttlecraft," Kirk said.
On the huge flight deck the heavy hangar doors swung open. The shuttlecraft taxied toward them and moved out into the emptiness of space.
Spock spoke over his shoulder. "Position."
"Three point seven . . . no, no, sir," Latimer said. "Four point—"
"Make up your mind," Spock said.
"My indicator's gone crazy," Latimer said.
Boma spoke quickly. "To be expected, Mr. Spock. Quasars are extremely disruptive. Just how much, we don't know . . ."
Spock, eyes on his panel, said dryly, "Considerably, Mr. Boma."
Gaetano made his discouraging contribution. "My radiation reading is increasing rapidly, Mr. Spock!"
"Stop forward momentum!"
Latimer pushed switches. "I can't stop it, sir! Nothing happens!" McCoy leaned over to glance at his instruments. "Spock, we're being drawn right into the thing!"
Struggling with his own controls, Spock said, "Full power astern!"
But there was no power to reverse the onward plunge of the Galileo. "What's happening?" McCoy cried.
Boma said, "We underestimated the strength of the nucleonic attraction."
Spock reached for his speaker. "Galileo to Enterprise. "We
're out of control, Captain! Being pulled directly into the heart of Murasaki 312. Receiving violent radiation on outer . . ."
A blast of static drowned Spock's voice. Kirk rushed over to Uhura's station. "Can't you get anything at all, Lieutenant?"
"Nothing clear, sir. Not on any frequency. Just those couple of words about being pulled off course."
Kirk wheeled. "Mr. Sulu, get me a fix on the Galileo!"
Sulu turned a bewildered face. "Our scanners are blocked, Captain. We're getting a mess of readings I've never seen before. Nothing makes sense!"
Kirk strode to the library computer. He got a hum, a click—and the flat, metallic computer voice. "Negative ionic concentration 1.64 by 102 meter. Radiation wavelength 370 angstroms, harmonics upwards along entire spectrum."
Kirk turned, appalled. Staring at him, Ferris said, "What is it, Captain?"
"That thing out there has completely ionized this entire sector!"
He glared at the screen. "At least four complete solar systems in this vicinity—and somewhere out there is a twenty-four-foot shuttlecraft out of control, off its course. Finding a needle in a haystack would be child's play compared to finding . . ."
Coiling, hungry, the bluish mass on the screen glared back at him, a blight on the face of space.
But the controls of the shuttlecraft weren't the only victims of Murasaki 312. It had rendered useless the normal searching systems of the Enterprise. Without them, the Starship was drifting, blind, almost as helpless as the Galileo,
Ferris could not resist his I-told-you-so compulsion. "I was opposed to this from the beginning," he said to Kirk. "Our flight to Makus III had the very highest priority."
Kirk, his mind straining to contingencies that confronted the Galileo's crew of seven, said, "I am aware of that, Commissioner. At the same time I have certain scientific duties—and exploring the Murasaki Effect is one of them."
"But you have lost your crew," Ferris said.
If there were people who couldn't resist an "I told you so," there were just as many who enjoyed making the painfully obvious more painful. Kirk held on to his temper. "We have two days to find them," he said.
