sealed off the second I'm finished. We can't risk someone figuring out
what we're doing and beating me back here."
She nodded reluctantly, unable to let go of the feeling that she was
somehow failing in her responsibilities by staying behind. She found
it infinitely harder to handle the technical details and wait--but Kirk
had insisted that she not risk herself, and she could not disobey a
direct order. "Yes, sir," she said with a sigh. "I'll be standing by
for your signal."
They crammed the last of the bodies onto the lift. Before it closed,
Kirk gave her the thumbs-up signal.
She smiled and returned it.
McCoy had, for the time being at least, won the argument. Spock had
continued rather grudgingly to search for a nonpoisonous derivative to
test on Sarek, as had McCoy, but both of them knew Sarek was slipping
away. McCoy slowly realized that, as much as he hated the thought,
Spock was probably right. Even so, he could not knowingly permit the
use of a poison on any patient--even one that would jump at the chance
to brain him--especially when it was Spock's father or, God forbid,
Anitra. And he was hoping that Spock would ultimately be unable to go
through with it.
Within the chambers, Sarek and Anitra, pale and scarcely breathing,
seemed something less than alive. Not dead, exactly; but they reminded
McCoy of some pictures he had seen of museums where life-size images of
real people were cast in wax. He felt the same eerie effect looking at
Sarek and Anitra now--waxen effigies of what had once been real, living
people.. ..
Up to now, Spock had scrupulously kept his eyes off the chambers and
did not look when McCoy checked the monitors. It was extreme
concentration on a task, McCoy decided, or an exercise in denial. He
looked down at Anitra's monitor and wished he hadn't--her condition
paralleled Sarek's. Soon she, too, would be in a coma, that gray
nether world between life and death. It took him a while to get up the
nerve to check Sarek's monitor; behind the glass, Sarek's lungs no
longer seemed to expand with air. McCoy closed his eyes at the thought
that Sarek had been dead these past few minutes, and he, McCoy, would
have to tell Spock that he had not known.. .. McCoy opened his eyes
and forced himself to look down.
He gasped audibly. Spock's perfect concentration was broken; he
glanced over at McCoy, his expression unconvincingly calm, clearly
expecting the worst.
"I don't understand it," McCoy said. His eyes were still glued to the
monitor on the console. "By all rights, this man should be dead--"
Spock stood up.
"Come take a look, Spock." Without taking his eyes from the monitor,
McCoy motioned him over and cracked a wide grin. "His life
processes--they're getting stronger."
Spock walked over behind the doctor and read the monitor. Sarek was
indeed stronger and no longer in a coma. Spock looked up; behind the
glass, Sarek opened his eyes and frowned.
"Father," Spock whispered and walked to the edge of the chamber. He
rested a hand lightly upon the glass.
All sound within the chamber was absorbed, but Sarek's lips moved
clearly. "Spock?" they said.
Kirk had dumped the sedated officers off on C deck, and Tomson had
flooded decks D and F. Then, once Kirk had removed the few unconscious
personnel, she sealed off the corridors between the lift and the
transporter on D and the lift and auxiliary control on F. With the ship
in chaos, there were relatively few personnel on those levels, since
these areas were generally frequented by those on duty.
Kirk called her from the lift. "That's it, Tomson. Go ahead and
program the lift."
"And seal off the emergency shafts," she reminded him.
"There must be a commendation in there for you somewhere,
Lieutenant."
Tomson bent over Spock's station (even in Spock's chair, she was too
tall to read the viewer and had to hunch her shoulders) and programmed
the lift. It would go now only to the transporter room, auxiliary
control and the bridge. No matter how often others might try to signal
it, it woul d ignore their requests, unless they somehow managed to get
onto one of the three key floors.
And there was no way they could. Tomson settled back in Spock's chair,
feeling quite pleased with herself.
Kirk came off the lift, his filter dangling from a strap around his
neck; Tomson had already ventilated the bridge and removed her own
mask.
He went directly to the navigational console, sat
down and manipulated a few controls. When he finally turned to speak
to her, he was beaming. "On route to Vulcan. Congratulations,
Lieutenant."
She walked over to him. "You mean we did it, sir?" She broke into a
silly grin--so utterly silly that Kirk grabbed her arms and shook her
enthusiastically, quite unaware of what he was doing. She grabbed his
arms firmly and shook back.
"We did it!"
"We did it!"
It took them both a moment to realize that they were hugging; Tomson's
ridiculous smile faded and she stiffened. Kirk, embarrassed, loosened
his grip and took a step backward. But neither one of them could quite
completely stop smiling.
Spock moved toward the isolation chamber, but McCoy put a hand on his
arm. "Sorry, Spock, but I think we'd better test him out first."
Spock stopped. "I suppose you're right, Doctor." He stepped back
while McCoy studied the monitor.
"His brain chemistry is back to normal," the doctor announced
cheerfully. "He's all right."
Spock opened the door to the chamber and loosened Sarek's restraints.
Sarek sat forward, still weak but growing in strength, and rubbed his
wrists. "What place is this?"
"One of the medical laboratories at the academy," Spock said. "We
brought you here."
"Have I been ill?"
Spock carefully avoided his father's gaze. "You .. . have not been
yourself."
He led Sarek out of the chamber and sat him at one
of the chairs at the console; McCoy used the handheld scanner and did
a full physical on him, just to be sure.
"My wife and my brother," Sarek said. His face was still austere and
stern, but now inspired respect rather than fear in McCoy. "Are they
also here? Or are they in ShiKahr?"
Spock met McCoy's eyes for a moment before he made himself look
directly into his father's. His voice was controlled, completely
Vulcan, yet there was a strange softness in it that McCoy had not heard
before.
"Mother is on the Enterprise. I do not know her status. Silek--" and
he paused here, his voice becoming even softer, "--is dead."
Sarek sighed and directed his gaze toward Anitra; he seemed to be
concentrating on her features. "How?" he asked.
McCoy watched Spock closely, unsure of what the Vulcan might say.
"Murdered," Spock said, "by alien entities. He and Starnn both."
"Amanda," Sarek whispered. "Does she know?"
"She knows." Spock paused for a m
oment. "She is afflicted by them
herself. The evil that destroyed Hydrilla has overtaken Vulcan. It
spread from Starnn to you, and then Amanda; it has even taken over the
crew of the Enterprise. They are entities that bond with the chemicals
of the brain and thus control their host, causing him to commit
violent, sadistic actions. The fact that you are now free of them
means that there is hope that Amanda, and many on Vulcan, can also be
free."
"How can they be freed?" Sarek asked. He was still watching Anitra
and seemed to understand.
"I am not positive of the circumstances that brought about your
freedom."
"Do you think it was the sedative I used?" McCoy asked.
Spock shook his head. "Negative--it was one of the first compounds we
tested." He glanced at the chronometer on the console. "Do you have
any idea, Doctor, when you first sedated them?"
"Not really," McCoy admitted. "I know it's been at least one standard
solar day. Why would you ask?"
"You told me earlier that Anitra and Sarek spoke to you of 'feeding," "
Spock said slowly. "Apparently, they indicated that they regularly
needed to feed off another's terror, or find a new host. They used the
plural pronoun 'we." It might be that the entities kept multiplying
and either had to be fed or transferred to another host. If the energy
supply were cut off--"
"That would explain the odd change in Sarek's brain chemicals," McCoy
said excitedly. "Don't you realize what this means? We've beaten the
damn things!"
Spock seemed unmoved. "Not necessarily, Doctor. Unless you have a
simple suggestion for isolating all those on Vulcan."
Sarek emerged suddenly from his reverie. "Sedation was obviously quite
effective. If the host was incapacitated, it would keep them from
spreading or feeding, would it not?"
"Yes," said Spock. "But logistically, how do we sedate an entire
planet for more than a solar day?"
"I'm afraid you have a point there," said McCoy.
"Once an appropriately long-lasting sedative is found," Sarek
responded, "it might conceivably be introduced into the water
supply--"
"But exposure to the sedative would then vary, depending on the amount
of water drunk. And there might be those who would not drink from the
main reserves at all. Then there exists the problem of getting a
sufficient quantity of the sedative into all of the main reserves."
"Perhaps a gaseous form," Sarek mused.
"Those locked inside would not be affected," said Spock.
"Only humans, most likely," Sarek pointed out. "Vulcans usually
ventilate their buildings using air from outside. And as for those who
might be sealed inside, you indicated yourself that they must go in
search of new victims on a regular basis."
"It might be possible. We would need a gas which has a long-lasting,
sedative effect, works on- humans and Vulcans and stays in the
atmosphere for at least several hours." Spock ticked them off on his
fingers. "Now the only problems that exist are to isolate such a gas,
manufacture sufficient quantities of it and find a way to disperse it
into Vulcan's atmosphere."
"Simple," McCoy said ironically.
"The box." There was an urgent note in Sarek's voice. "There are
several of them at the academy and one at the house. My last memory is
that of looking into the open box.. .."
"It would be interesting to study one," Spock suggested.
"No. That is how the Hydrillan expedition was first affected. Then
they brought the boxes with them in order to spread it further."
"Interesting," Spock mused. "Then the box serves to house the
particles. But why would such constructs
be required if they spread so easily from host to host?"
"Hydrilla has been dead some twenty thousand years, and yet the
particles survived. Perhaps they had hosts design the container for
just such an occurrence."
"It is an effective means of storage," Spock replied, "but the
Hydrillans were not even capable of space flight beyond their own solar
system. How could they have designed such a sophisticated device?"
Sarek paused for a moment. "They could not. But it might have been
designed earlier by a more technologically advanced culture, the one
that originally spread the particles to Hydrilla--"
McCoy interrupted. "It hardly matters. What we need to do is get rid
of the things."
Spock frowned at him. "If their contents have not already been
exhausted."
"A very likely possibility," Sarek said.
"I'm not so sure it can be repaired," Tomson said. She sat
cross-legged on the deck. The panel beneath the communications board
had been pulled away, and she gazed up uncertainly into a maze of
microcircuitry. She leaned back and, without having to stand up, could
just see over the edge enough to access the computer. Even with the
computer's help, the condition in which Anitra had left communications
was intimidating.
"It can be repaired," Kirk said firmly from the navigational console.
"We don't have a choice. We're entering orbit now."
"Already?" Tomson asked in dismay. She turned around to see the red
giant spinning leisurely in its orbit, then hastened back to her work
on the board; she was nowhere near patching external communications
together.
Kirk's answer was interrupted by a thunderous roar. The ship pitched
to the left and sent Tomson rolling along the deck with a yelp. She
stopped directly in front of the turbolift; the doors opened in
response, waiting. Kirk held onto the navigational console and waited
for the ship to slowly right itself.
"What the--" Tomson said.
Kirk already had the deflectors up. "We've been fired on. Activate
starboard view screen, Lieutenant."
Tomson raised herself and studied Uhura's console helplessly. "On this
panel, sir?"
"To your left, Lieutenant," he barked.
Tomson found it; the screen filled with the image of a sleekly designed
starship.
Kirk swore under his breath. "That looks like one of ours. See if you
can raise--" he began, then corrected himself. "Magnify that image."
Tomson forced herself to react faster than the last time. She chose a
button on the panel; the image shimmered and enlarged.
"The Surak," Kirk said. "What the hell is a Federation starship full
of Vulcans doing firing on us?"
Tomson was miserable. "I'm sorry, sir--it's my fault we can't contact
them."
"I don't need apologies, Lieutenant. I need a damage report--you can
get that from the main terminal." He was readying the photon torpedoes
as another blast shook the bridge.
"No casualties reported--" Tomson began."I wouldn't have expected them
to," he said tautly. "What about the ship?"
"Minor structural damage to the jettison pods. Nothing significant,
sir."
"I never thought I'd be doing this." Kirk fired the photon torpedoes
in a barrage of three.
The Surak backed off.
"Looks l
ike you hit them, sir," Tomson said excitedly.
"Looks like it." Kirk sighed. "Even after that board is fixed,
Tomson, I want to maintain radio silence. Don't respond to anyone--not
even Vulcan Space Central. I'm not so sure we're going to get a warm
reception."
Anitra smiled faintly in response to the broad grin on McCoy's face;
slowly, her expression faded to one of uncertainty. "Sarek," she said,
frowning. She leaned forward in her chair and looked out of the
chamber; when she saw him on the other side of the glass, she nearly
bolted. "Oh, my God .. ."
McCoy held her back with a reassuring arm on her shoulder. "It's all
right. He's all right now."
"Spock--is he--"
"He's fine. You can't hurt someone with a head as thick as his."
She smiled again weakly. "Don't let him hear you say that. We're in
the lab again, aren't we? How'd we get here?"
"I brought you."
She closed her eyes. "I'm so sorry. I was so certain I could handle
Sarek without any problem.... It must have been horrible for you."
"The worst part was bringing Spock back to consciousness."
Star Trek - TOS - 30 - DEMONS Page 22
