Star Trek-TOS-027-Mindshadow

by Kevin Underwood

  Spock read the inscription on the bulkhead above

  the force field. "This is designated as a

  weapons

  area."

  "But Varth said that the Romulans hadn't completed

  the base--that they didn't have attack capacity

  yet."

  Spock's tone was grim. "Apparently Varth's

  information

  is somewhat outdated. If it is true that the

  Romulans have completed construction of their

  weapons,"

  Kirk finished for him. "Then we'll have to find a

  way to stop them down here. The

  Enterprise can't

  obliterate the planet surface with photon

  torpedoes in

  an attempt to destroy an underground base."

  "Agreed, sir. Therefore, it is logical that I

  remain

  behind and--"

  Kirk held up his hand. "We'll discuss it when

  it

  happens, Spock. In any case you won't be

  staying

  behind."

  "Sir--"

  "End of discussion, Mister." Kirk looked down

  the

  seemingly endless row of doors. "I'll take the

  ones on

  the left, you take the ones on the right, and whoever

  locates the cloaking device or the main

  weapons room,

  contacts the other."

  "Yes, sir."

  Kirk could not find the cloaking device, but he

  located the weapons room on the third try.

  Clearly,

  Varth was right: the Romulans wanted far more than

  Aritani. One wall was lined with defense

  computers;

  the console was manned for what Kirk assumed were

  photon torpedoes and phasers capable of blowing

  a

  starship from its orbit.

  He was reaching for his communicator when the

  door slid open. He dropped his hand quickly.

  Kirk recognized the ,uniform of a Romulan

  subcommander

  and saluted quickly, but the small female did

  not return the courtesy. Next to her stood a

  discouraging-looking

  centurion who held a phaser that was not

  quite pointed at Kirk; but it was neither the phaser

  nor

  the subcommander's failure to salute that made

  Kirk

  distinctly uncomfortable.

  "Subcommander Tanirius," she said, with a

  voice as

  cold as her opaque black eyes.

  The upswept eyebrows and delicately pointed

  ears

  added an exotic beauty to features Kirk had

  once

  thought of as almost plain. They suited her, as

  nature

  MINDSHADOW

  had intended, but the cloaked eyes and cold manner

  hid what had been most beautiful about her--her

  openness, her warmth.

  Emma, Kirk mouthed, but he did not say it

  aloud.

  She appeared not to notice. "A centurion was

  injured

  outside the high security area. I would like to see

  your clearance."

  "I don't have it with me."

  She motioned to the centurion, who directed the

  phaser at Kirk's head. "Then you will come with me

  for questioning."

  "It doesn't look as though I have a choice."

  She did not smile. "You don't."

  Chapter Twelve

  TANIR-IUS ENTERED THE detention cell

  alone, holding a

  phaser tightly at chest level. When

  the door closed

  behind her, she lowered her arm and hung the phaser

  on her belt. She looked up at Kirk again,

  and face,

  voice, and posture underwent a subtle

  transformation

  from cool to warm, from Romulan to human.

  She gestured at Kirk's ears.

  "Dr. McCoy's work?"

  Kirk did not try to disguise the hatred in his

  voice.

  "And yours, Subcommander?"

  He half expected her to tell him to call her

  Emma,

  but she did not. Her eyes smiled with controlled

  amusement. "These are mine. Tell Leonard he

  did a

  good job."

  "I don't see how I can do that,

  Subcommander."

  The muscle in Kirk's jaw twitched. "It's

  my understanding

  that I will shortly be executed for espionage.

  That is what you Romulans do to spies, isn't

  it?"

  She answered by holding something out to him--his

  communicator, but he stood back from her, stiff

  with

  MINDSHADOW

  anger, and would not touch it. "Things are not always

  as they appear, Captain. I told you that I was

  on your

  side."

  "You'd like me to open up a channel to the

  Enterprise here, wouldn't you?" He smiled

  bitterly. "So

  you could trace the transmission and destroy her with

  your new weapons. I was gullible to fall for your

  charms the first time, but you can't expect me to do it,

  again."

  She moved toward him, her face taut and

  desperate,

  Emma and not-Emma. "They are not monitoring us

  now. I will try to explain, but there is not much time.

  I

  ask only that you listen."

  Kirk leaned against the bare wall and folded his

  arms. "Go ahead. The longer you talk, the longer

  I

  live. But don't expect me to believe anything

  you

  say."

  "Very well." She lifted her head proudly.

  "I am a

  Romulan, Captain Kirk, but I do not serve

  the Praetor."

  "A pirate, then--"

  "Let me speak!" Her urgency forced him

  to silence;

  he closed his mouth and listened. "Not a pirate.

  I will

  not tell you by what name we call ourselves, lest the

  secret somehow reach the Praetor's ears. We

  are a

  group more than two hundred years old, who

  despise

  the atrocities of both the pirates and our

  Praetor. Our

  hope is to throw off the yoke of our military

  government

  and coexist peacefully with the Federation. Like

  our Vulcan brothers, we are weary of constant

  warring

  and its toll upon our population. We

  seek peace.

  "Many of us have risen to high positions within the

  military. We profess allegiance to the

  Praetor, but

  serve our group as best we can within our position.

  I

  was chosen as a young girl to serve in Intelligence.

  They sent me away to Earth, to receive medical

  training and to infiltrate Star Fleet

  Intelligence. Their plan worked so well that, as you

  saw, I was trusted by and

  took my orders directly from Admiral

  Komack. And

  the Praetor, of course.

  "But my true aim was to serve my brothers and

  sisters in the underground . . . by destroying this

  military outpost. The government has been working

  on this project for years, Captain, and now it

  has the

  capability to dissolve the Enterprise and any

  other
/>
  Federation vessel to atoms and spread the

  Praetor's

  tyranny to every populated planet in this sector.

  That

  has always been its purpose."

  "You speak of peace," Kirk said hotly, "but you

  tried to kill Spock--not once, but several

  times, just as

  you killed the Cygnusian and the pirate, and tried

  to

  kill the Saurian ambassador. What kind of

  people talk

  of peace while using murder to achieve their

  goals?"

  He stopped at the sight of the pain on her face.

  "An unhappy people, Captain," Tanirius

  answered.

  "Do you think I welcome the Praetor's

  assignments?

  But if I do not carry any of them out, I

  endanger my

  position and the help I can give my people. I am

  forced

  to do what I despise."

  "You gave Spock the neodopazine--you lied to

  McCoy, convinced him it would help--"

  "It did. It bought Spock time. The Empire

  wanted

  him killed immediately. I was here, at the

  base, when

  they sent me to the Enterprise. I wanted

  to remain, to

  find a way to stop construction of the base, but I

  had

  the medical credentials, the appropriate

  cover. When I

  realized what Spock meant to Leonard... and

  to you

  ..." she lowered her eyes, "I did what I

  could. The

  medication was the only way to appease the Empire.

  If

  Spock were incapacitated, could not remember what

  he had seen, then that was as good as death." She

  MINDSHADOW

  looked up again. "Do you think I enjoyed what I

  had

  to do?"

  "Enlisting the forces of evil," Kirk said

  slowly,

  remembering, "... in order to do good." He shook

  his

  head. "If it is true, then why

  didn't you stay on the Enterprise... explain who

  and what you are"

  "No, No one could know. The Romulans had to

  believe I came back because I had been

  uncovered,

  not because I feared they had completed their base and

  would soon make their move. If they had thought

  otherwise--"

  "Then it was you." Kirk understood suddenly.

  "You were the one who gave Varth the beamdown

  code--"

  "And the description of the fighter controls and the

  layout of the base. I left the scrambling

  device in his

  cabin so that I could tell the Romulans I

  framed a Star

  Fleet Intelligence officer. Once the vote

  on Vulcan had

  been taken, Varth would have told you of the military

  base, but Spock recovered his memory sooner

  than we

  anticipated--"

  "But Varth didn't tell us you would be here."

  "The arm of the Romulans is very long," she said,

  and Kirk started. She smiled, but her

  expression darkened

  as she continued. "If you had known, and been

  caught and questioned--if there had been any hint of

  complicity with Star Fleet on my part, I would have

  been killed immediately. We couldn't risk it."

  "What of McCoy?" Kirk asked softly.

  "Were you

  merely following orders with him?"

  She winced visibly and turned away. "Would you

  believe me, Captain, if I said I was not?

  And that I was

  not following orders when I tried to seduce you, as

  well?"

  Kirk remained silent.

  Tanirius reached for her phaser and motioned with it

  toward the door. "Enough. Whether you believe me

  or

  not doesn't matter. I'm still going to help you."

  "Where are you taking me?"

  "To the cloaking device."

  "It doesn't look like I have a choice."

  qanirius grinned, and looked so much like Emma

  that Kirk drew in his breath. "You don't."

  Spock stood next to the cloaking device and was

  preparing to signal the Enterprise when the

  door

  opened; he froze at the sight of the phaser

  Tanirius

  held at the captain's back. Kirk could not

  see Tanurius's

  face, but the look on the Vulcan's was one of

  cold recognition.

  Tanirius put the phaser on the console and

  moved to

  Kirk's side. Spock still did not move.

  "She tells an interesting story, Mr.

  Spock. She

  keeps insisting she's on our side."

  Spock was unconvinced. "Captain, I

  respectfully

  submit that the subcommander not be trusted, considering

  her actions..."

  "Gentlemen," Tanirius said, "the time for

  explanations

  has passed. I would like to warn Mr. Spock that

  the instant he removes the cloaking device from the

  console, an alarm will sound."

  "I see. And what do you propose we do?"

  Spock

  asked with as much sarcasm as Kirk had

  ever heard

  him muster.

  Kirk made a sudden move to grab

  Tanirius; surprised,

  she moved instinctively to defend herself. The

  phaser was already in Spock's hand when she turned

  toward him.

  "Then shoot me, Spock," she said quietly.

  "But

  then one of you will have to stay behind to see the base

  destroyed. Which one of you knows how to do it?"

  MINDSHADOW

  Spock was silent.

  "Your cloaking device is inferior to ours,"

  Tanirius

  said. "You'll have to lower it in order to beam up. And

  when you do, the sensors on this base will locate your

  ship and lock in the automatic phasers.

  Blanket

  beams, wide range--and they won't stop firing

  until

  they're manually overridden or the sensors pick

  up

  debris."

  She handed Kirk his communicator. "G."

  He caught her arm. "You could come with us."

  She shook her head. "Someone has to stay and stop

  the phasers before the Enterprise is destroyed--and

  it's time I completed my mission and destroyed this

  base."

  Kirk fought to keep the concern from showing in his

  voice. "With you on it?"

  She almost smiled. "That is most certainly not my

  intention." She went to the door and paused. "One

  thingm"

  Kirk looked at her.

  She bit her lip. "Tell Leonard I love

  him."

  And she was gone.

  "Captain," Spock said as Kirk flipped

  open his

  communicator, "I am not at all sure it's

  wise to trust

  her."

  Kirk looked pointedly at the cloaking device

  and

  back at his first officer. "Would you prefer I go

  back to

  the detention cell, Mr. Spock?"

  They materialized on the transporter platform

  just

  in time for the first blast, which swept them off the

&nbs
p; platform and against the console. Tanirius had been

  telling the truth about the phasers, at least.

  Kirk dragged himself to the nearest intercom and

  called Engineering. "Scotty, get the

  deflector shields

  up!"

  "I'll do what I can, Captain, but they won't

  hold

  long," Scott lamented. "That bleedin' cloakin'

  device

  has just about taken all our power. There's barely

  anythin' left for the shields."

  "Any chance you could get us out of here?"

  "A wee bit of impulse power is all we've

  got left, sir,

  but nothin' fast enough to pull us out of range of those

  phasers before the shields buckle."

  "Sorry, Scotty. I guess I was wrong

  when I said we

  wouldn't be needing the warp drive--or divine

  intervention.

  Just get those deflectors up. Kirk

  out."

  The fact that Kirk and Spock appeared on the

  bridge

  in full pirate regalia, including Kirk's

  new ears, failed

  to produce even mildly curious stares from the

  bridge

  crew; under conditions other than red alert, there

  might have been more time for double takes. McCoy

  moved to the side of Kirk's chair.

  "I take it the ears fooled "em."

  Kirk knew there was no time for polite

  exchanges.

  "Bones, I saw her."

  "WhO?"

  "Emma. She helped us escape. She might be

  on our

  side--comMr. Varth!"

  Varth had already vacated the con to assist Spock

  in

  scanning the newly revealed Romulan base.

  "Sir," the

  Radun said excitedly, "beside the network of mining

  tunnels beneath the main continent, the military base

  itself houses more than five hundred

  personnel."

  "There isn't time, Varth. I have to know about

  her--"

  Varth straightened from the scanner abruptly.

  "Tanirius."

  "Then what she said was true?"

  "I'm fairly sure we can trust her to help

  us, sir."

  "Fairly sure?"

  MINDSHADOW

  "Nothing's sure, Captain, until those phaser

  blasts

  stop."

  As if on cue, there was the rumbling thunder of an

  explosion as the bridge pitched forward and crewmen

  went flying. Kirk slid from the con and bounced

  off the back of Sulu's chair; the helmsman's

  forehead

  struck the navigation console with a resounding

  thud.

  The room slowly righted itself to the background

  chatter of damage reports coming from Uhura's

  station.

  Scott's voice came from the arm of

  Kirk's chair;

  it had taken on the darkness of a Gaelic

  prophet of

  doom.