Heart Of The Sun Star Trek 83

by George Zebrowski

  “You came here to help us,” Myra Coles said. “You succeeded. We are now offering to assist you in turn, and you should know by now that we wouldn’t be making such a request if we didn’t think we could be of help.” Her gray eyes gazed at Kirk steadily.

  So this was also a matter of pride, Kirk thought, an attempt at repayment for the repair of their data base. Or was it? “Exactly whom do you want us to bring along?” he asked.

  “We propose,” Aristocles Marcelli said, “that you take along Myra Coles and Wellesley Warren. Myra’s training as an astrophysicist might be of use, and both she and Wellesley have had experience in exploring the uninhabited and more isolated regions of Tyrtaeus II. In addition, they’ve both worked closely with you and your crew during the past weeks. That should make it easier for them to adapt to life aboard your starship.”

  About Wellesley Warren, the least tiresome of Tyrtaeans, Kirk had few doubts. He was somewhat more dubious about Myra Coles.

  “And precisely what would their function be?” Spock asked.

  “They would be observers,” Aristocles Marcelli replied. “You might find their observations and advice helpful.”

  “We won’t interfere with the mission,” Myra Coles said, “and shall remain under your command at all times. If you feel that either of us is an impediment, impose the same discipline on us as you would on any of your crew.” Her mouth moved, as if she were about to smile and then thought better of it. “I assure you that we won’t be a problem.”

  “Very well,” Kirk said. “You may come aboard the Enterprise. We’ll be leaving orbit at oh-seven-hundred your time, so be prepared to beam up at oh-six-hundred.”

  Myra Coles nodded. “Thank you, James—for that, and for your efforts here.”

  Kirk sighed inwardly. At least he and his people had finally been thanked. “I’ll give you my first order now. I know that your people disdain titles, but I must insist that you follow formal Starfleet protocol while aboard. That will make things easier for all of us.”

  “Of course—Captain,” Wellesley Warren said quickly.

  “Lieutenant Uhura and Ensign Tekakwitha will remain with you until you’re ready to beam aboard, and will answer any questions you may have about how to conduct yourselves aboard the Enterprise.” He pulled out his communicator. “Kirk here—two to beam up. Myself and Mr. Spock.”

  The lobby faded; Kirk found himself in the transporter room. Transporter Chief Kyle was on duty; he looked up from his console. “Welcome aboard, sir.”

  “Prepare to beam Uhura, Tekakwitha, and two Tyrtaean observers aboard from Callinus in four hours,” Kirk said as he stepped down from the transporter.

  “Captain,” Spock said as he reached Kirk’s side, “I think you were wise to avoid a confrontation with the Tyrtaean leaders. However, our two guests will almost certainly be unnecessary.”

  “I know, Spock. But it is politic to consider their pride. And who knows, perhaps they will make themselves useful after all.”

  “Useful, possibly, since their culture places such value on constructive activity, but unnecessary all the same, given that members of the crew could perform any tasks you might assign to them. And this pride of theirs—I take it that you admire it?”

  “I suppose I do. It makes up a little for their shortcomings in other departments.”

  “Admiration is hardly a sufficient reason to bring Myra Coles and Wellesley Warren aboard.”

  Kirk rubbed his tired eyes. It was a good thing that Spock didn’t question his decisions often. Even Vulcans weren’t usually this stubborn.

  “If I hadn’t agreed to take them aboard, Myra Coles and her colleagues might have sent a protest to the Federation Council,” Kirk said patiently. “Chances are that the Council and Starfleet would have taken my side, but they also would have been critical of me for not doing more to ease the hard feelings here, especially with a sizable part of the population wanting to cut themselves off entirely from the Federation. And if Myra somehow persuaded them to take her side, we’d have to bring her and Wellesley aboard anyway. It’s simpler to allow them to come aboard and inform Starfleet of my decision. If they create any problems for us, they’ll be restricted to quarters for the duration of the mission. At worst we can send them back in a shuttlecraft.”

  “And no one would object to such an action at that point,” Spock said. “I cannot fault the logic of your diplomacy, Captain.”

  Kirk offered a wan smile. After all of his dealings with the Tyrtaeans, it was nice to receive a compliment—even a reserved Vulcan compliment.

  “Nevertheless, we must consider the possibility that this is some part of a planned provocation.”

  Kirk sighed. So much for compliments. “Well see,” he said as they entered the turbolift.

  * * *

  Hikaru Sulu brought the Enterprise closer to the mysterious planetoid, then leaned back from his console. The starship was following the object in a parallel orbit as it continued on its long plunge toward the sun. At Sulu’s right, Kevin Riley was gazing intently at the bridge viewscreen.

  Sulu lifted his eyes to the viewscreen. The object appeared to be a common asteroid, but an unusually symmetrical one; most asteroids looked like lumpy gray potatoes. This one was rocky, with some nickel iron, and its surface was pockmarked from eons of collisions with smaller objects.

  “Lieutenant Uhura,” Captain Kirk said behind him, “run through all hailing frequencies.”

  “Now running,” Uhura replied from her station.

  The life-forms that had been detected aboard the object during approach were still failing to respond, or else for some reason had not yet picked up any signals from the Enterprise. The second possibility, Sulu knew, was highly unlikely at this distance; surely they were aware of the starship’s presence by now. Could it be that they were simply choosing to remain silent?

  “Plotting the course of the object,” Riley said. “Here’s something curious, Captain. The object seems to be making course adjustments that will bring it on a collision trajectory with the sun.”

  “Are you sure, Lieutenant Riley?” Kirk asked.

  “Our course is maintaining relative position to the object, and we’re following its lead.”

  “Any clues yet as to what kind of life-forms are aboard it?” Kirk said.

  “Negative,” Commander Spock replied from his station. “We have nothing in our records of alien life-forms with which to compare the data our sensors have picked up from this object.”

  “What kind of propulsion is at work?” Kirk asked.

  “Unknown,” Sulu said, “but it’s obviously some kind of field-effect system, pushing at a low level right now.”

  “And the energy source?”

  “I can’t detect one,” Sulu said, “so it must be completely shielded. But that’s only an assumption, because I can’t detect any shielded areas, either.”

  “Strange,” Riley muttered.

  Sulu heard the lift door open. He looked over his shoulder and saw Yeoman Janice Rand come out on the bridge, followed by Myra Coles and Wellesley Warren, the Tyrtaeans the captain had allowed aboard. Those two didn’t give away much, Sulu thought. They had come to the bridge with Uhura and Tekakwitha just after beaming aboard. Kirk had quickly introduced them before sending them off for a routine medical exam and settling them into their temporary quarters. They had smiled uneasily at everyone on the bridge, keeping their arms stiffly at their sides.

  But Sulu had immediately seen why the captain might want to get to know Myra Coles better. She was, he admitted, a beautiful woman, plainly dressed and unadorned as she was. Still, Captain Kirk would not have brought her aboard only because he found her attractive, and she and her aide had seemed anxious to assure the crew that they would be of use.

  Yeoman Rand led the two Tyrtaeans to the captain’s station and murmured a few words to him. Myra Coles lifted her head and looked toward the screen, clearly intrigued by the unknown object. She wouldn’t have asked to come
aboard only out of curiosity, Sulu thought. He suspected that she was worried, although she was doing a good job of concealing any feelings of fear. Any unknown could be a threat, and this particular unknown was insisting on remaining mysterious.

  * * *

  “Miss Coles and Mister Warren.” Kirk got to his feet. “Perhaps you’d like to see what it feels like to sit at the command point of a starship.”

  Wellesley Warren sat down at the captain’s chair, grinned with pleasure, then looked solemn again. “Thank you, Captain,” he said. “May I join your science officers now?” He glanced up at Spock and Lieutenant Commander Ali Massoud. “I’d like to study the data they’ve already acquired about the object.”

  “Permission granted.”

  Warren got up and walked toward Spock’s station; Myra Coles gazed warily at the captain’s chair.

  “Do sit down, Miss Coles,” Kirk said, waving an arm at his station. “You should feel at ease here, as one of the leaders of a world. After all, I am only captain of this ship.”

  Myra Coles flushed, then sat down.

  “I trust that your quarters are satisfactory,” Kirk continued.

  “More than adequate,” she said, “and your chief physician has pronounced us both in good health.” She paused. “I am sorry that three of the people who gave us so much help are in sickbay now.”

  Kirk smiled. Myra Coles wore her usual serious expression, but at least she was trying to be gracious. “Doctor McCoy and his staff will have them on their feet again soon.”

  “Yeoman Rand was most cordial while showing us around your ship.” The Tyrtaean woman grimaced slightly, as if displaying such courtesy was a continuous effort. “She mentioned in passing that you are a man who appreciates the company of women.”

  “I see,” Kirk said lightly.

  “I am sure that women appreciate your company as well.”

  Kirk tried hard not to smile as he glanced at her. He almost succeeded.

  “You occasionally behave in what I think you would call a ‘courtly’ manner, are obviously quite intelligent, and wouldn’t be a Starfleet officer if you didn’t have exceptional abilities—and your appearance is not displeasing.”

  She was looking straight at him as she spoke, but he couldn’t be sure if she was trying, however awkwardly, to flirt, was stating what she believed to be facts, or was mocking him. “I appreciate the compliments,” Kirk said.

  “I am not given to flattery.” Her mouth curved up, and for a moment he thought that she would smile. “We have a saying on my home world, Captain. “A man alone is self-reliant, and reliable.’ I must conclude, therefore, that your own reliability is questionable.”

  She had spoken the words softly; he did not think that she meant to insult him. “But I am alone,” Kirk said, too quickly.

  “No, you are not. You have your ship.”

  She had seen into him, and her gray eyes were gazing at him more warmly. Maybe she thought more of him than he realized; that might have to do with her seeing that he loved something more than himself, as she probably loved shepherding her people through the mazes of political life.

  Myra Coles stood up. “We have spoken long enough. What can I do now to be of use?”

  “I suggest that you join your aide and my science officers. Maybe you’ll see something in the data we haven’t spotted.”

  He gazed after her as she crossed the bridge, then sat down. The asteroid was still on the viewscreen, still moving toward the sun, its life-forms still refusing to communicate.

  “McCoy to bridge. Jim?”

  “Mind if I come up to the bridge and take a look at that alien object?” McCoy asked.

  “Permission granted,” Kirk said, and turned back to the viewscreen.

  * * *

  McCoy hurried from the lift, nodded at the two Tyrtaeans, and then came toward Kirk’s station, scowling even more than usual.

  “Take a look, Bones.” Kirk gestured toward the viewscreen.

  McCoy stared at the screen for a while in silence. “What in blazes is that thing out there, anyway?” the physician asked.

  “That,” Spock said from his station, “is what we are attempting to find out.”

  “Well, I know that, Spock.” McCoy shook his head. “What I meant was, how do we know it’s worth bothering about?”

  “We do not know that, either,” Spock said. “We will have to go inside it to find out anything more.”

  Kirk had already come to that conclusion. McCoy frowned as he stared at the viewscreen. “That thing worries me. I don’t much care for mysteries, especially ones where you get so few clues.” He was silent for a moment. “You aren’t seriously thinking of going inside it, are you?”

  “That may be necessary,” Kirk said. Myra Coles drew her brows together; he wondered if she would insist on coming along.

  “Let’s just hope you don’t pick up something a lot worse than indigestion, then.” McCoy rubbed his chin. “I don’t like the idea of going inside something we know so little about.”

  “We’ll take the usual precautions.”

  “Our sensor scan indicates that there is breathable air inside the object,” Spock said. “I recommend that we enter it and see if we can contact the life-forms from the inside. There is no obvious sign of danger.”

  “Except that the life-forms are uncommunicative,” McCoy said, turning toward Spock. “Doesn’t that tell you anything?”

  “Only that they are unable or unwilling to respond to our messages,” Spock replied. “It doesn’t necessarily indicate that they are a danger to us. They may be incapacitated.”

  “Occam’s razor,” Kirk said. “In the absence of evidence, don’t conclude anything. Not quite what Occam said, but in the same spirit.”

  “I must advise against entering that asteroid. We should gather as much information as possible before going inside.”

  Kirk paused. First McCoy, now Myra. Who else was going to get into the act? “We may not have time to do that. Let me remind you that there are alien life-forms inside, and that worldlet is still heading sunward. If it doesn’t change course, those life-forms will die. We have to find out more to have any chance of preventing that. We’ve got to find a way to communicate with them.”

  “If you go inside,” she said, “how do you know that those life-forms won’t interpret that as an act of aggression?”

  “We can’t be certain they won’t,” Kirk said, “but we have no evidence that they will. If they were truly fearful of us, they could have hidden in your solar system until we warped out of here. Assuming that they may be incapacitated seems more plausible. Ours may be an errand of mercy.”

  Myra Coles drew herself up. “You may be right. But I still strongly advise against going inside. I want that on the record, Captain.”

  “Noted,” he said.

  “Affirmative,” the computer announced.

  “And if you do go inside,” the Tyrtaean woman continued, “who will you bring along?”

  “Spock, of course. I haven’t decided whether we need a larger party.”

  “A Tyrtaean should be part of the team, too,” she said.

  Politics, Kirk thought. On the one hand, a protest against going inside on the record, but on the other, a Tyrtaean as part of any exploratory team; she wanted to be covered both ways. The woman had a way of becoming especially irritating just as he thought they might be starting to get along.

  Wellesley Warren and Spock were watching them. Ali Massoud frowned as he stroked his beard. Myra Coles glanced around the bridge, then looked back at Kirk. “But you are in command here, Captain,” she continued, “and I leave that decision to you.”

  He was relieved that she was not going to challenge his authority openly, so he held back a sarcastic thank you to Myra for letting him run his own ship.

  “We’re going inside,” he said at last. “I’ll pick the team.”

  * * *

  When Kirk went off duty, he asked Spock to meet with him in the brief
ing room. As the door slid shut behind the science officer, Kirk said, “Now that our Tyrtaean guests have volunteered for this mission, I’m inclined to bring one of them along, for diplomatic reasons, if nothing else. We have little reason to assume that exploring the object’s interior poses any danger, despite what Myra Coles said, but it should be a simple matter to beam anyone out of harm’s way if necessary.”

  “Wellesley Warren would be my choice, Captain,” Spock said. “He is both intelligent and cooperative, so even if he is not of much use to us, he is unlikely to be a hindrance. As an astrophysicist, Myra Coles would be more useful assisting Lieutenant Commander Massoud and the other science officers aboard the Enterprise. Also, since she is one of the leaders of her world’s government, she may be called upon suddenly for consultation on matters there. She should remain available to her people.”

  Kirk had been thinking the same thing, but was glad to hear it from Spock. Myra Coles could not object, given that she prided herself on her practicality.

  “Very well,” he said, surprised at how relieved he felt that Myra Coles would remain safely aboard the Enterprise. Strange, he told himself, that he should feel so relieved. Was it simply knowing that he would not have to contend with her thorny personality while exploring the worldlet’s interior? Either he was more concerned about the woman than he had thought, or his instincts were warning him that a venture inside the object might be more perilous than he expected.

  Expect the unknown, they had taught him at the Academy, until you sense its approach. He had loved the idea of it, but later they had told him how unreliable such feelings might be; that the genuine unknown would be completely unexpected, and that when it came it might remain forever unknowable. And the only advice he got was do the best you can, and break as few rules as possible.

  Somewhere in those words, Kirk could hear, even now, an additional phrase: break as few rules as possible; make it look like you didn’t—but make sure you’re right.

  Chapter Four

  “I STRONGLY ADVISED against going inside the alien artifact,” Myra said. “My objection is on record. I argued that more information should be gathered first, and that the life-forms inside the mobile may regard any intrusion as a provocation.”