by 09(lit)
McCoy shook his head. "It's beyond me."
Spock was shouldering back into his shirt. "I have noticed this insensitivity among wholly human beings. It is easier for you to feel the death of one fellow-creature than to feel the deaths of millions."
"Suffer the deaths of thy neighbors, eh, Spock? Is that what you want to wish on us?"
"It might have rendered your history a bit less bloody."
The intercom beeped. "Kirk here. Bones, is Spock all right? If he is, I need him on the bridge."
"Coming, Captain." Kirk met him at the elevator. "You may have been right. Contact with the Intrepid has been lost. It has also been lost with an entire solar system. Our scans show that Gamma Seven A is a dead star system."
"That is considerable news." Spock hurried over to his station and Kirk spoke to Uhura. "Any update from Starfleet?"
"I can't filter out the distortions. They're getting worse, sir."
A red light flashed on Sulu's panel. "Captain, the deflector shields just snapped on!"
"Slow down to warp three!" Kirk walked back to Spock. The Vulcan straightened from his stoop over his computer. "Indications of energy turbulence ahead, sir. Unable to analyze. I have never en-countered such readings before."
The drama latent in the statement was so un-characteristic of Spock that Kirk whirled to the main viewing screen. "Magnification factor three on screen!" he ordered.
Star-filled space-the usual vista. "Scan sector," he said. The starfield merely revealed itself from another angle and Sulu said, "Just what are we looking for, Captain?"
"I would assume," Spock said, "that."
A black shadow, roughly circular, had appeared on the screen.
"An interstellar dust cloud," Chekov suggested.
Kirk shook his head. "The stars have disappeared. They could be seen through a dust cloud, Mr. Chekov. How do you read it, Mr. Spock?"
"Analysis still eludes me, Captain. Sensors are feed-ing data to computers now. But whatever that dark zone is, my calculations place it directly on the course that would have brought it into contact with the Intrepid and the Gamma Seven A system."
"Are you saying it caused their deaths, Mr. Spock?"
"A possibility, Captain."
After a moment, Kirk nodded. "Hold present course but slow to warp factor one," he told Sulu. "Mr. Chekov, prepare to launch telemetry probe into that zone."
"Aye, sir." Chekov moved controls on his console. "Probe ready. Switching data feed to library-com-puter."
"Launch probe," Kirk said.
Chekov shoved a stud. "Probe launched."
An ear-shattering blast of static burst from the communications station. Its noise swelled into a crackling roar so fierce that it seemed to possess a physical substance-the substance and force of a giant's slap. It ended as abruptly as it had come. Uhura, dizzy, disoriented, was clinging to her chair.
"And what channel did that come in on?" Kirk said.
She had to make a visible effort to answer. "Tele-metry... the channel from the probe, sir. There's no signal... at all now..."
"Mr. Spock, speculations?"
"I have none, Captain." Then Spock had leaped from his chair. Uhura, her arms dropped, limp, was slumped over her console. "Lieutenant!" He reached an arm around her, steadying her. "Dizzy," she whispered. "I'll... be all right in a minute."
The intercom beeped to McCoy's voice. "Jim, half the women on this ship have fainted. Reports in from all decks."
Kirk glanced at Uhura. "Maybe you'd better check Lieutenant Uhura. She just pulled out of a faint."
"Unless she's out now, keep her up there. I've got an emergency here."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing organic. Just weakness, nervousness."
"Can you handle it?"
"I can give them stimulants to keep them on their feet."
A tired crew-and now this. Kirk looked at the screen. It offered no cheer. The black shadow now owned almost all of the screen. Hold position here, Mr. Sulu." He got up from his chair-and was hit by an attack of vertigo. He fought it down. "Mr. Spock, I want an update on that shadow ahead of us."
"No analysis, sir. Insufficient information."
Kirk smacked the computer console. "Mr. Spock. I have asked you three times for data on that thing and you have been unable to supply it. 'Insufficient information' won't do. It is your responsibility to deliver sufficient information at all times."
"I am aware of that, sir. But there is nothing in the computer banks on this phenomenon. It is beyond all previous experience."
Kirk looked at the hand that had struck Spock's console. "Weakness, nervousness." He was guilty on both counts. Even Spock couldn't elicit data from the computer banks that hadn't been put into them. "Sorry, Mr. Spock. Something seems to be infecting the entire ship. Let's go for reverse logic. If you can't tell me what that zone of darkness is, tell me what it isn't."
"It is not gaseous, liquid nor solid, despite the fact we can't see through it. It is not a galactic nebula like the Coal Sack. As it has activated our deflector shields, it seems to consist of some energy form-but none that the sensors can identify."
"And you said it is possible it killed the Intrepid and that solar system?"
"Yes, Captain."
Kirk turned to Uhura. "Lieutenant, inform Starfleet of our position and situation. Relay all relative infor-mation from computer banks." He paused. "Tell them we intend to probe further into the zone of darkness to gain further information."
"Yes, sir."
As he started back to his chair, he swayed under another wash of dizziness. Spock moved to him quick-ly and he clung for a moment to the muscular arm. "Thank you, Mr. Spock," he said. "I can make it now." He reached his chair. "Distance to the zone of dark-ness, Mr. Sulu?"
"One hundred thousand kilometers."
"Slow ahead, Mr. Sulu. Impulse power."
His head was still whirling. "Distance now, Mr. Sulu?"
"We penetrate the zone in one minute seven sec-onds, sir."
"Mr. Chekov, red alert. Stand by, phasers. Full power to deflector shields."
"Phasers standing by-deflectors at full power, sir."
Sound was emitted. It came slowly at first-and not from the communications station. It came from everywhere; and as it built, its mounting tides of invisible shock waves reached everywhere. Their re-verberations struck through the metal walls of the engineering section, rushing Scott to check his equip-ment. Horrified by his readings, he ran to his power levers to test them. Then, mercifully, the all-pervading racket subsided. Up on the bridge, bis hands still pressed to his ears, Sulu cried, "Captain-the screen!"
Blackness, total, had claimed it.
"Malfunction, Mr. Spock?"
"No, Captain. All systems working."
Kirk shook his head, trying to clear it. Around him people were still clutching at console rails for support. Kirk struck the intercom button. "Bones, things any better in Sickbay?"
"Worse. They're backed up into the corridor."
"Got anything that will help up here? I don't want anyone on the bridge folding at a critical moment."
"On my way. McCoy out."
Kirk pushed the intercom button again. "Kirk to Engineering. The power's dropped, Mr. Scott! What's happened?"
"We've lost five points of our energy reserve. The deflector shields have been weakened."
"Can you compensate, Scotty?"
"Yes, if we don't lose any more. Don't ask me how it happened."
Kirk spoke sharply. "I am asking you, mister. I need answers!"
McCoy's answer was an air-hypo. He hurried into the bridge with a nurse. As Kirk accepted the hissing injection, McCoy said, "It's a stimulant, Jim." As he adjusted the hypo for Sulu's shot, Kirk said, "Just how bad is it, Bones?"
"Two thirds of personnel are affected."
"This is a sick ship, Bones. We're picking up prob-lems faster than we can solve them. It's as though we were in the middle of some creeping paralysis."
"Maybe w
e are," McCoy said. He left the command chair to continue his round with the hypo. Kirk got up to go to the computer station. "Mr. Spock, any analysis of that last noise outburst-the one that started to lose us power?"
Spock nodded. "The sound was the turbulence caused by our penetration of a boundary layer."
"What sort of boundary layer?"
"I don't know, Captain."
"Boundary between what and what?"
"Between where we were and where we are." At Kirk's stare, he went on. "I still have no specifics, sir. But we seem to have entered an area of energy that is not compatible with life or mechanical processes. As we move on, the source of it will grow stronger- and we will grow weaker."
"Recommendations?"
McCoy spoke. "I recommend survival, Jim. Let's get out of here." He turned and walked to the elevator, the nurse behind him.
Kirk faced around to the questioning faces. And Starbase had demanded a "progress" report. Progress to what? The fate of the Intrepid-the billions of lives that had once breathed on Gamma Seven A? Bureau-cracy... evasion by comfortable chairs.
He walked slowly back to his uncomfortable chair. The intercom button-yes. "This is the Captain speak-ing," he said. "We have entered an area that is un-familiar to us. All hands were tired to begin with and we've all sustained something of a shock. But we've had stimulants. Our deflectors are holding. We've got a good ship. And we know what our mission is. Let's get on with the job. Kirk out."
His own intercom button beeped. "Sickbay to Cap-tain."
"Kirk. Go ahead, Bones."
Before he went ahead, McCoy glanced at the semi-conscious Yeoman lying on his diagnostic couch. "Jim, one after another... life energy levels... my indi-cators..."
Kirk spoke quietly. "Say it, Bones."
"We are dying," McCoy said. "My life monitors show that we are all, each one of us, dying."
The sweat of his own weakness broke from Kirk's pores. He could feel it run cold down his chest.
But the ordeal of the Enterprise had just begun. Kirk, down in Engineering, was flung against a mounded dynamo at a sudden lurch of the ship. "And that? What was that, Mr. Scott?"
"An accident, sir. We went into reverse."
"Reverse? That was a forward lurch! How could that occur in reverse thrust?"
"I don't know, sir. All I know is that our power levels are draining steadily. They're down to twelve percent. I've never experienced anything like it be-fore."
Spock came in on the intercom. "Captain, we are accelerating. The zone of darkness is pulling us to-ward it."
"Pulling us? How, Mr. Spock?"
"I don't know. However, I suggest that Mr. Scott give us reverse power."
"Mr. Spock, he just gave us reverse power!"
"Then I reverse my suggestion, sir. Ask him to apply a forward thrust."
"Mr. Scott, you heard that. Let's try the forward thrust."
The Engineering Chief shook his head. "I don't know, sir. It contradicts all the rules of logic."
"Logic is Mr. Spock's specialty."
"Yes, sir, but-"
"Nudge it slowly into forward thrust, Mr. Scott."
Scott carefully advanced three controls. Eyeing his instruments anxiously, he relaxed. "That did it, Cap-tain. We're slowing now. But the forward movement hasn't stopped. We're still being pulled ahead."
"Keep applying the forward thrust against the pull. Have one of your men monitor these instruments."
Instruments in Sickbay were being monitored, too. Nurse Chapel, watching her life function indicators, called, "Doctor, they're showing another sharp fall." McCoy, whirling to look, muttered, "Stimulants. How long can we keep them up?" He was checking the panel when Kirk's voice came from the intercom. "This is the Captain speaking. All department heads will report to the Briefing Room in ten minutes. They will come with whatever information gathered on this zone of darkness we are in."
McCoy took his gloom with him to the Briefing Room. Slamming some tape cartridges down on the table, he said, "My sole contribution is the fact that the further we move into this zone of darkness, the weaker our life functions get. I have no idea why." Reaching for a chair, he staggered slightly.
"Bones..."
He waved the solicitude aside. "I'm all right. All those stimulants-they catch up with you."
Scott spoke. "As far as the power levels are con-cerned, everything's acting backwards. But the drain is continuing. And we're still being dragged forward."
"Mr. Spock?" Kirk said.
"I am assuming that something within the zone absorbs both biological and mechanical energy. It would appear to be the same thing that sucked energy from an entire solar system-and the Starship In-trepid."
"Some thing, Mr. Spock? Not the zone itself?"
"I would say not, Captain. Analysis of the zone suggests it is a negative energy field, however il-logical that may sound. But it is not the source of the power drains."
"A shield, then," Kirk said. "An outer layer of pro-tection for something else."
"But what?" Scott said.
"It's pulling the life out of us, whatever it is," Mc-Coy grunted.
"We'll find out what it is," Kirk said. "But first we have to get out of here ourselves." He leaned across the table. "Mr. Scott, forward thrust slowed down our advance before. If you channel all warp and impulse power into one massive forward thrust, it might snap us out of the zone."
Scott's face lightened. "Aye, Captain. I'll reserve enough for the shields in case we don't get out."
Spock's voice was as expressionless as his face. "I submit, Mr. Scott, that if we do not get out, the shields would merely prolong our wait for death."
Kirk regarded him somberly. "Yes. You will apply all power as needed to get us out of here, Mr. Scott. Report to your stations, everybody, and continue your research. Dismissed."
As they left, he remained seated, head bowed on his hand. At the door Spock stopped, and came back to stand, waiting, at the table. Kirk looked up at him. "The Intrepid's crew would have done all these things, Captain," Spock said. "They were destroyed." Kirk drummed his fingers on the table. "They may not have done all these things. You've just told us what an illogical situation this is."
"True, sir. It is also true that they never discovered what killed them."
"How can you know that?"
"Vulcan has not been conquered within its collective memory. It is a memory that goes so far back no Vulcan can any longer conceive of a conqueror. I know the ship was defeated because I sensed its death."
"What was it exactly you felt, Mr. Spock?" "Astonishment. Profound astonishment."
"My Vulcan friend," Kirk said. He got up. "Let's get back to the bridge."
Engineering was calling him as they came out of the elevator. Hurrying to his chair, Kirk pushed the intercom stud. "Kirk here, Scotty."
"We've completed arrangements, sir. I'm ready to try it when you are."
"We've got the power to pull it off?"
The voice was glum. "I hope so, Captain."
"Stand by, Scotty." He pushed another button. "All hands, this is the Captain speaking. An unknown force is pulling us deeper into the zone of darkness. We will apply all available power in one giant forward thrust in the hope it will yank us out of the zone. Prepare yourselves for a big jolt." He buzzed Engineering. "Ready, Mr. Scott. Let's get on with it. Now!"
They were prepared for the jolt. And it was big. But what they weren't prepared for was the violently accelerating lunge that followed the jolt. Scott and a crewman crashed against a rear wall. McCoy and Christine Chapel were sent reeling back through two sections of Sickbay. In the bridge an African plant nurtured by Uhura flew through the air to smash against the elevator door. People were hurled bodily over the backs of their chairs. There was another fierce lurch of acceleration. The ship tossed like a rearing horse. Metal screamed. Lights faded. Finally, the Enterprise steadied.
From the floor where he'd been tumbled, Kirk looked at the screen.
/> Failure. The starless black still possessed it.
Weary, bruised, Kirk hauled himself back into his chair. The question had to be asked. He asked it. "Mr. Scott, are we still losing power?"
"Aye, sir. All we did was to pull away a bit. The best we can do now is maintain thrust against the pull to hold our distance."
"How long do we have?"
