by Daniel Cohen
Unfortunately, there is a problem that the crew of the Enterprise does not know about. The three bodiless survivors are not the best of friends. The three are Sargon, his wife Thalassa, and Henoch, who in the old days was Sargon’s deadliest enemy.
Sargon has had a lot of time to think. There isn’t much else that you can do without a body. He has decided that his old differences with Henoch no longer matter. But Henoch has been thinking, too. Brooding might be a better word. He now hates Sargon more than ever, but he keeps quiet about it. He wants revenge. He also wants Thalassa.
Kirk agrees to loan Sargon his body. Thalassa takes the body of Dr. Ann Mulhall. Henoch takes Spock’s body. The intelligences of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Mulhall now are captured in the globes. Once Henoch gets control of Spock’s body, he decides he doesn’t want to leave. He doesn’t want an android body; he wants Spock. To make matters worse, he tries to persuade Thalassa to keep Dr. Mulhall’s body, and then get rid of Sargon completely.
Since Sargon’s intelligence is now in Kirk’s body, Henoch must get rid of Kirk’s body. He poisons Kirk’s body, but Sargon’s intelligence escapes into the hull of the Enterprise. Kirk’s body is kept alive until his intelligence can be returned to it.
Thalassa is tempted to follow Henoch, but finally decides that she loves Sargon. Together they manage to trick Henoch out of Spock’s body and destroy him.
The two survivors of Arret then decide that they will not even take android bodies. They leave the nearly completed androids behind them, to take up a bodiless existence on some distant planet.
The Companion is also a survivor looking for a body. In the end she finds one. The Companion appears only as a colorful column of cloud. But she possesses tremendous powers. Her origins are not clear, but it seems she is the last survivor of a giant planet that exploded. She now lives on a piece of that planet called Gamma Canaris N.
The Companion
The Companion got her name from Zefrem Cochrane, a space travel pioneer. She found him at the age of 87. She restored his youth, and kept him alive and healthy. Though he is over 200 years old, he looks like a young and vigorous man.
In fact, the Companion seems devoted to keeping Cochrane both healthy and happy. What Cochrane wishes for is some human companionship. The Companion supplies this by capturing the shuttlecraft Galileo. The craft contains Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a very sick woman named Nancy Hedford. She is an important official of the Federation who has contracted a deadly alien disease and is being rushed back to the Enterprise for treatment.
Instead of being happy at seeing other humans for the first time in a century, Cochrane becomes more dissatisfied than ever. He doesn’t want to sit on the little planet any longer. He wants to go back into space and to live among human beings once again. He comes to realize that the Companion is really holding him prisoner.
Not only is the Companion holding Cochrane prisoner, but she will not allow the Galileo to leave. As time passes, Nancy Hedford’s condition grows worse. Cochrane becomes convinced that he must kill the Companion. The plan fails, for no one fully realized how powerful the creature is.
Finally, the men of the Enterprise get in communication with the Companion. They learn that she is holding Cochrane because she is in love with him. Cochrane, however, is not happy at the thought of spending the rest of his life with a cloud of gas, no matter how much the cloud loves him. There is a solution. By this time Nancy Hedford is beyond help. So the Companion enters the body of the dying woman. The cloud creature does not take over or possess the body. What happens is that the two personalities blend.
The result is such a delightful person that Zefrem Cochrane decides that he will spend the rest of his life on Gamma Canaris N with her.
In the episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” there is a group of bodiless survivors called the Providers. The Providers don’t want bodies, or love. All they want is a little fun. Of course, their idea of fun is watching people of various planets fight to the death and betting on the winner.
The Providers are three remnants of an ancient race. They have not been reduced to pure energy, but all that is left of them is their brains. These brains exist in cases in an underground vault. The Providers possess tremendous—almost unlimited—powers. They can pluck people from anyplace in the universe and bring them to their home planet, Triskelion.
One of the Providers
That is exactly what happens to Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov. The Enterprise is on a routine survey mission when suddenly the three disappear. They find themselves on Triskelion, where they are being trained to fight as gladiators. At first they have no idea what is happening. What they do know is that they must obey orders. If they don’t, the metal collars they are wearing can be used to inflict great pain.
All the others Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov see are slaves like themselves or overseers. The real power, the Providers, is heard but not seen. The humans try to escape, and fail. Still, the Providers are well pleased. It is obvious that humans will make good fighters.
By this time Spock has managed to locate the missing crew members, and the Enterprise is nearing Triskelion, not knowing how great a peril they face. The Providers capture the Enterprise and want to bring the entire crew down to fight in their games.
Kirk discovers where the three ancient brains are hidden and confronts them. But he can’t really do anything against their power. So he makes a bet with them. If he defeats three of the best fighters, then the Providers will have to change their ways. Instead of wasting all their great powers on making people fight, they will have to free all of the slaves they have captured. Then they will have to train the newly freed slaves in self-government and civilization. The Providers are really bored by their existence. They agree to Kirk’s proposition because it represents a new challenge. But they don’t think he can win. Naturally, he crosses them up and does win.
The Providers prove to be good losers, for they, like so many other “Star Trek” creatures, are not truly evil. They live up to their part of the bargain, and take up the task of teaching the thralls or slaves how to live as free men and women with great enthusiasm. It is like a new game to them.
The Enterprise is freed for further adventures.
Kirk and the Thrall Shahna from the episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion”
Chapter 5
Energy Creatures
If you had to pick the most evil of all creatures of “Star Trek,” Red Jack would be a pretty good candidate. Red Jack isn’t the thing’s real name. Throughout history it has had many names. It is a nearly immortal and bodiless energy being. In fact, it is more of an energy vampire. It feeds off the energy generated by fear. It preys on women because they are supposed to be more prone to being terrified. Red Jack also appears to have hypnotic powers, so that it can be seen only by its victims. It can hide undetected in the bodies of living people.
Red Jack
No one knows where Red Jack came from, but it first appeared in human history in London in 1888. It was responsible for the killing of many women. No one ever saw the murderer. At the time, the killer was called Jack the Ripper.
As human beings moved out into space, Red Jack followed them. In 2105 it was in the Martian colonies, where it killed more women. By 2156 it had arrived at the planet Heliopolis, which circles the star Alpha Proxima II. It killed only two women there. It also appeared on the planet Deneb II, where it was given the name Kesla, and on Rigel IV, Where it was called Beratis. On Rigel IV the entity took over the body of Hengist, a short and ordinary-looking administrator.
Hengist is sent to help run the government of Argelius II. The Argelians are such fun-loving folk that they can never get down to the serious business of government. Hengist takes the murderous entity Red Jack with him. And it is there that the creature encounters the crew of the Enterprise.
Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty are visiting the lively planet of Argelius II for recreation, mainly Scotty’s recreation. He is recovering from a serious accident, and ne
eds some diversion. In an Argelian nightclub, Scott becomes attracted to a beautiful dancer. They leave the club together. A bit later Kirk and McCoy are wandering about in the fog. They hear screams. Rushing to the scene, they find the girl dead and a dazed Scott standing over her holding a blood-stained knife.
Scott says he doesn’t remember what happened. It looks like an open-and-shut case. Even McCoy begins to doubt his friend’s innocence. He wonders if the accident has not somehow affected Scott’s mind.
The case is thrown into the lap of administrator Hengist. He wants Scott arrested. But Kirk delays the arrest in order to try something else. He contacts Sybo, priestess of an ancient cult. She has the power to read people’s minds. Kirk wants her to testify at Scott’s hearing, to be held aboard the Enterprise.
Before she is allowed to give all of her evidence, Sybo and a woman member of the Enterprise crew are attacked and killed. The dying Sybo senses the presence of something with a murderous hatred for women in the room. Once again Scott seems to be the guilty party. This time, however, Red Jack—the real killer—is detected. The entity flees Hengist’s body, which falls lifeless.
Red Jack now tries to take up residence within the Enterprise itself. But it needs the energy of fear. So it tries to terrify the crew and grow stronger. McCoy gives everyone aboard massive doses of tranquilizers. After that, nothing bothers them. Red Jack is literally being starved out of existence, and must return to Hengist’s body. The body, with the murderous Red Jack inside, is beamed off into space, where it will eventually die and disperse.
A very similar energy being appears in the episode called “Day of the Dove.” This being is only called the Entity. It appears as rotating lights of various colors. It makes a high wailing sound and turns a reddish color when it feeds. What it feeds on are the emotions of hate and aggression. When the Entity cannot find enough hatred on its own, it has the power to stir some up.
The Entity very nearly provokes a war between the Federation and its chief rival, the Klingon Empire. The Federation and the Empire had been clinging to an uneasy peace for some years. The Entity manages to trick both the Enterprise and a Klingon ship into a confrontation. The Klingons come aboard the Enterprise hoping to capture it. Then things go haywire, for the Entity is aboard the Enterprise stirring up confusion and hatred.
An equal number of humans and Klingons are isolated in one part of the ship. Phasers are changed to swords. Practically everyone begins acting with irrational hatred. There are many fights. People seem to be fatally wounded, but miraculously they recover in order to be able to fight again. The Entity is having a feast on all the hatred that it has managed to provoke.
Through it all, Spock, whose emotions cannot be affected by the Entity, remains calm. He figures out a way to defeat the thing. If it needs the energy generated by aggression and hostility to survive, then it must be starved out. The best way to do that is to make peace.
This is no easy task, for Klingons and Terrans really don’t trust one another. But finally both sides are won over to Spock’s logical plan. They stop fighting and begin making fun of the Entity, laughing at it. This is something the creature cannot endure. It flees the Enterprise with the sound of human and Klingon laughter ringing in its ears (or whatever passes for ears in such a being).
Red Jack and the Entity are energy vampires. They feed on emotional energy. But the Vampire Cloud of Argus X is a real vampire. It lives off human blood, or at least it drains red blood cells.
The Vampire Cloud
Kirk had met the Vampire Cloud before. While he was serving on the U.S.S. Farragut, the ship met the monster in the region of Tycho IV. The creature killed Captain Garrovick and half the crew of the Farragut. At that time Kirk had hesitated a moment before firing at it. Even after he did fire, the monster was not harmed, but Kirk has always felt guilty about not acting more quickly.
Eleven years later when he meets the Vampire Cloud again, he takes off after it. He does this in spite of the fact that the Enterprise is on another mission altogether. Kirk tracks the Vampire Cloud to the surface of Argus X, where it lives. A meeting with it there leaves a crew member of the Enterprise dead. Kirk is more determined than ever to get the thing.
When the Vampire Cloud leaves Argus X, the Enterprise follows. The cloud is not frightened and will not run away. It turns on the Enterprise and enters it. But the blood-sucker runs into some bad luck. The first person it encounters is Spock. It needs red blood cells and has no taste at all for the Vulcan’s green blood. It flees the Enterprise and heads for Tycho IV, where Kirk fears it intends to reproduce itself.
Kirk and Ensign Garrovick, son of Kirk’s former commanding officer, decide to kill it with a matter/antimatter bomb. But they must serve as bait. The Vampire Cloud just can’t resist the lure of red blood. Kirk and the young ensign manage to escape only seconds before the Vampire Cloud is destroyed by the powerful bomb.
Several “Star Trek” episodes concern the fight between the United Federation of Planets, which the Enterprise serves, and the Klingon Empire. The Federation and the Empire deeply distrust one another, yet at one point they sign a peace treaty. The treaty is not entirely voluntary. It is forced upon them by the Organians. The Organians are among the most powerful creatures in the entire universe. They are pure energy beings. But they do not choose to show their power.
As far as everyone else is concerned, Organia is a rather primitive planet. Its inhabitants appear to be humanoid and are ruled by a rather fussy and ineffective Council of Elders. This is all just a pose. The Organians just want to be left alone. No one would have bothered about them except that their little planet happens to occupy a strategic position between the Klingon Empire and the Federation.
The Federation is afraid that the Klingons are going to invade Organia. The Enterprise is sent to try and persuade the Organians to accept Federation protection from the Klingons. The Organians are not interested. They like their little world just the way it is. They don’t want anything to do with anyone else’s fights.
To Kirk this attitude seems foolhardy. And while discussions with the Organians are dragging on, the Klingons actually do invade. Kirk and Spock are stranded on Organia by the invasion. Not content to just lie low, Kirk and Spock try to sabotage the Klingons. But they are captured. Somehow—no one seems quite sure how—the Organians free them. Kirk and Spock now turn around and capture Kor, the Klingon commander.
Kor’s men try to get him back, and the Enterprise crew gets ready to prevent them. News of the incident has spread. Both the Federation and the Klingons begin moving other ships into the area. A full-scale war over Organia is shaping up.
The Organians’ patience is finally exhausted. They reveal their true powers as highly advanced energy beings. No weapons will work, all fighting is stopped, and the Empire and Federation are simply forced to make peace.
Trelane is another energy being whose true nature is not revealed until the end of the adventure in which he appears, “The Squire of Gothos.” The Enterprise encounters Trelane in a region of space that is not supposed to have anything in it. Suddenly, the Enterprise finds the planet Gothos. No one can explain what it is doing there. Then there is an even bigger surprise; Kirk and Sulu disappear.
Chief Helmsman Sulu (George Takei)
A search party is beamed down to Gothos to look for them. They are found on the surface of the planet, where they have been brought by Trelane. He wants them for his collection. Trelane appears as a rather handsome man wearing eighteenth-century clothes. He has a great interest in Earth history, particularly eighteenth-century military history. His speech is peppered with expressions like “Tally-ho!” and “Oh, rot!”
On the one hand, Trelane is very elegant and gracious. He pays members of the Enterprise crew extravagant compliments, and invites them all down for a banquet. On the other hand, he is also very willful. Not only does he ask the crew of the Enterprise to attend his banquet, he demands it. When Spock tries to leave, Trelane simply brin
gs him back. He seems to have almost unlimited power.
It appears that the source of Trelane’s power is a mysterious piece of equipment. Kirk manages to destroy the equipment, but Trelane’s power is not broken. He repairs his equipment, and he is now extremely angry. Kirk is forced to offer himself as the object of a hunt in exchange for the Enterprise’s freedom.
Trelane easily catches Kirk and seems about to kill him when two shimmering green translucent shapes appear. They order Trelane to free Kirk and the Enterprise. Trelane sulks but obeys. Then they scold him for playing so roughly.
The shapes, it seems, are Trelane’s parents. Trelane is really a child energy being. He has just taken human shape. The planet Gothos is sort of a playhouse that he has constructed for himself. But, like many children, he has little discipline or self-control. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he becomes angry, and sometimes cruel.
Trelane’s parents apologize for their youngster’s bad behavior, and let the Enterprise go on its way.
Another undisciplined child is Charlie Evans, or Charlie X. Charlie is fully human, but he possesses great powers. At first no one on the Enterprise is sure where he got them.
Charlie was the only survivor of an expedition that crashed on the planet Thasus. He is found by the U.S.S. Antares, then transferred to the Enterprise. While the captain of the Antares is trying to tell Kirk something, his ship is destroyed.
Charlie claims that he grew up alone on Thasus. Spock doesn’t believe that story. It becomes more unbelievable as the extent of Charlie’s powers become known. Charlie falls madly in love with Yeoman Rand, one of the women on the Enterprise. When she rejects him, he makes her disappear. Whenever he is stopped from getting what he wants, he strikes out in all directions, and with great effect. He very nearly wrecks the Enterprise completely. As it turns out, it was Charlie who destroyed the Antares. He didn’t think that the crew had been very nice to him.
