Strangers from the Sky

by Margaret Wander Bonanno

  The comm screen crackled ominously.

  "Message incoming, Captain," Spock

  reported unnecessarily. The import of the

  message did not disturb him as much as the

  fact that: "They are three minutes, fourteen

  seconds late."

  Nyere opened his mouth to say something he didn't

  know what but Jim Kirk had turned from the helm

  to cut him off.

  "Don't mind him, Captain; he does that all

  the time."

  "Understood, Captain," Nyere said

  conspiratorially. "Transfer to my screen,

  please, Mr. Spock."

  Only the brief flick of his tongue over parched

  lips 375

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  indicated Nyere's nervousness as he prepared

  to lay his personal future on the line for the sake

  of a larger one.

  "'The whole world is watching,"" he murmured

  softly.

  It got Kirk's attention. "That's from something,

  isn't it?"

  "Ancient history," was all Jason would say

  as the bland face of Norfolk Command appeared on his

  screen.

  "Prepare to receive your final orders per disposition

  of your detainees, Captain."

  "Command, stand by, please." Unseen, Nyere

  motioned to Spock, then leaned into the screen. "Command,

  we have reason to believe we are under frequency

  tampering. Repeat: someone is tapping us,

  Commodore . . ."

  Slowly, methodically, Spock began to

  manipulate a series of dials in the order

  Nyere had shown him. The commodore's face began

  to jiggle and blur on the screen.

  "We have been under siege by the media since 0830

  hours," Nyere continued. "Suggest they may be

  responsible . . ."

  Spock manipulated more dials. The commodore

  was fairly dancing on the screen now, as well as

  fluttering in and out. Onscreen at Norfolk Command

  HQ, Jason Nyere was doing the same thing.

  "dis . . also a storm front moving in,

  contributing to his

  "Say again, Captain. was The commodore seemed

  to be having difficulty with his voice. Spock's

  fingers continued to work their magic. "Not you clearly.

  Repeat his

  "Sorry, Command, unable to comply," Jason

  Nyere said in all innocence, and Jim Kirk

  wondered silently if all ships'

  captains were blessed with glibness. "Message is

  breaking up. Repeat his

  At the unseen downsweep of Nyere's hand,

  Spock broke the connection. T'Lera watching,

  might have had 376

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  second thoughts about a future that taught a

  Vulcan such duplicity.

  "Bridge to engine room!" Nyere opened the

  intership, nodded to Kirk and Mitchell. "Open her

  up!"

  The diving klaxon whooped in time with Jim

  Kirk's heart as the great ship surged under him,

  never as smoothly as Enterpnse, but with a kindred

  pent-up majesty. The ice surrounding them groaned

  in protest, as probably did whoever at Byrd

  could see through the blizzard, as the great ship shrugged

  them both off simultaneously and lowered away,

  sounding the depths like some massive version of the

  creature it was named for.

  Jason stepped down from the center seat.

  "Commander?" he addressed T'Lera formally. "While

  I ride herd on the sonar, would you care to take the

  con?"

  T'Lera's eyebrows expressed what

  she could not. "I would be honored, Captain."

  Even at this depth, they had to watch out for ice.

  "Just treat "em like asteroids, kid,"

  Mitchell advised Kirk, plotting a course

  around yet another ominous chunk.

  "Give me phaser power and I will!" Kirk

  retorted, though he was having the time of his life.

  Once past the ice and the three-mile limit, they

  made top speed.

  "Captain," Spock announced when they dared

  break radio silence, "I have reached the mobile

  transmitter at the coordinates Mr. Mitchell

  has provided."

  "Parneb," Jim Kirk explained from the

  command chair; it was his turn to play captain.

  "Gary said to expect a one-word message. Either

  we're all clear to come ashore where he is, or

  we'll have to await a new rendezvous."

  Spock listened. "The answer is in the

  affirmative, Captain."

  Jim Kirk stopped holding his breath. "Good.

  Cam 377

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  lain Nyere, how much of a safety margin would you

  say we had?"

  "Figure it took them an hour or two

  to guess we'd bollaxed our own communications,"

  Jason said. "By now they know we've cut and run,

  but they have no idea where. They'll have deployed

  whatever they can spare, but they'll be bumping heads in

  the dark if they're not careful. As long as we stay

  under, we're maybe an hour ahead of them."

  Jim Kirk relaxed in the center seat; it was about

  what he'd calculated himself.

  Bridge personnel had altered somewhat.

  Sorahl had replaced Mitchell at navigation;

  beside him, T'Lera had the helm. Spock, of

  course, remained at communications. The sight of

  three Vulcans running the ship had given

  Melody Sawyer a turn.

  "What the hell, Captain sub?" she greeted

  Nyere after her nap. She'd been updated on the

  situation, not that she believed any of it. She

  gave the new communications officer a good hard

  look. "Mr. Spock, is it?"

  "Affirmative,?"' he said, returning the look

  in kind.

  Melody sighed. "Well, there goes the

  neighbor- hood!"

  "Consider the future, Sorahl-kam,"

  his mother said so softly human ears could not hear, her

  eyes upon the hybrid Spock and his human

  companions.

  The young Vulcan had been doing precisely that.

  "Are we instrumental in this, Mother? Is it because of

  us?"

  "In spite of us, my son . . ."

  "Captain sub, are you mad at me?"

  "Why? Just because you shot up the chandeliers and damn

  near busted all my ribs? Why, Melody, think

  nothing of it . . ."

  "Earth will never know!" Jim Kirk mused aloud.

  "They'll never know what they had in their hands.

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  What they came so close to missing, what they

  almost destroyed!"

  "Indeed, Captain. But in the fullness of time .

  . ."

  "When they've learned," Jim Kirk said.

  "Matured, as I had to. Spock, I his

  "Captain, centuries of peace preceded

  Vulcan's sending T'Lera to Earth. Humans had

  less time in which to mature. Yet, on the whole,

  each of us has done remarkably well

  together."

  The farewells were necessarily brief.

  ""Sail forth, steer for the deep waters only .

  . ."" Jason Nyere rumbled, unsuccessfully

  banking down his too-human emotions.

  ""For we are bound
where mariner has not yet dared

  to go. . ."" T'Lera added. Earth's poetry had

  been among her many studies.

  ""And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.""

  Jason kissed her hand. "I'm going to miss you,

  lady."

  "Live long and prosper, Jason Nyere,"

  T'Lera replied. "I will hold you in my thoughts."

  Only she would know for how long.

  Yoshi and Sorahl had no words. A simple

  handshake joined them for the last time.

  "So long, Junior," Melody Sawyer

  blustered. God, but her daughter would hate her for

  letting this one get away! "Tell your mom I

  tell her I'm sorry. Tell her maybe I'll

  mellow out in about twenty years."

  "I shall tell her," Sorahl promised, his

  velvet-dark eyes betraying some appreciation of

  Terran humor. "Though I do not believe it."

  "Good-bye, Lieutenant Kije!"

  Tatya whispered through her tears.

  Once upon a time, vast pods of dolphins had

  frolicked along these shores. Indigenous

  fishermen had noted their migrations and

  prepared their nets, know

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  ing the fish would come in ahead of them, herded closer

  to the shore by the playful predators. Man and

  dolphin had worked in harmony for

  generations, sharing the largess.

  Now the dolphins were gone, the fishermen turned

  to other trades, and this particular stretch of beach lay

  dormant in the moonlit night. The conning tower

  of a great ship breached the surface some kilometers

  offshore, looking lost and alone, as if seeking its

  brethren who were no more.

  Beside the tower bobbed the small skiff that had in

  Jason Nyere's capable hands first brought two

  exiled Vulcans to his ship. A different

  captain, the one named Kirk, held the tiller now

  as three Vulcans left Delphinus for their

  journeys home.

  "Beautiful night," Gary Mitchell said

  quietly, scanning the beachfront. "Wish

  there was a little less moon, though. I read some kind

  of vehicle up the beach a-ways."

  "Just one?" Kirk asked. Mitchell nodded.

  "We're almost in the clear, then."

  Elizabeth Dehner was the last to leave the great

  ship. She had seen to the "reeducating" of each of the

  four to be left behind. The experience had drained her.

  She looked pale, drawn, desperately tired.

  "Are you all right?" Jim Kirk asked as

  Spock helped her into the small boat.

  "No, I'm not," she said frankly, pale

  hair falling over her paler face as she stumbled and

  Spock caught her, seated her in the last available

  space beside him in the bow. "I'd like to rest now."

  The night was chill. There were blankets in the

  emergency kit. Spock wrapped one around

  Dehner's shoulders. Half drugged with weariness,

  she leaned against him and tumbled into sleep. Spock

  held her, perhaps only to steady her in the bobbing

  boat. She woke when they touched

  ashore.

  "I'm sorry!" she murmured, coming to herself with

  - STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  her head against Spock's chest, knowing how

  Vulcans, and he especially, were disquieted

  by human touch.

  Silently Spock helped her out of the boat.

  Sorahl stepped agilely over the gunwale and

  knelt at the tide line, scooping up two handfuls

  of sand one sea-wet, the other dry. His face wore

  wonderment beneath an alien moon.

  "It is this moment, Mother," he said.

  T'Lera knew what he meant. They had at

  last set foot on Earth.

  Chapter Eleven

  A FAMILIAR ROBED figure stepped out of the

  overland vehicle parked where moonlit beach met

  shadowed rain forest.

  "All are here and all is well!" Parneb

  rejoiced as the little entourage straggled up the beach. "I

  have prepared for all contingencies. The

  vehicle is she not a beauty?. will seat you all

  quite comfortably. I have provided suitable disguises for

  our guests turbans and djellabas for the

  gentEemen, a lobe and veil for the lady. Ah, if

  only you had not been born Vulcans, you could have

  been Egyptians! Oh, and, Captain Kirk,"

  he called to the last member up the beach,

  busy set- ting the homing device that would drift the

  little skiff out to sea and then scuttle her. "I have a

  small surprise. his

  Kirk, made melancholy at the thought of

  sacrificing any ship, no matter how small,

  to any cause, no matter how large, turned in the

  direction of the overlander as the "small surprise"

  uncoiled himself from the driver's side, grinning like a

  mischievous small boy.

  "Lee?" Jim Kirk couldn't believe it. He

  cleared his throat. "Mr. Kelso, where the devil

  have you his

  "I got sidetracked for a while," K*lso

  admitted.

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  "Little difference of opinion with the authorities about

  borrowing computer time. They tried to keep me

  overnight but, a little improv here, a door jimmied

  there I've been around."

  "I'll just bet he has!" Mitchell remarked.

  "Bet you he's been Iying around in the sun while the

  rest of us have been where the shooting was. Time we got

  you to do an honest day's work, Lee."

  "On the contrary," Parneb pattered

  away as they settled themselves into the overlander for the long

  drive to the Western Desert. "Lee has been a

  very sorcerer! Wait until he tells you what he

  has accomplished! Captain Kirk, if you could

  see your way clear to spare him, what magic I

  could work with such an apprentice...."

  There were indeed two sleeper ships suspended in

  horizontal berths in the man-made cavern beneath the

  desert. Beside them, an empty gantry had

  evidently once held a third.

  "Burn marks on the floor," Jim Kirk

  observed, his voice bouncing off the walls. "Then

  they can be launched from here, if we're lucky. Go

  over the two remaining ones carefully," he

  instructed his augmented crew. "We'll use the one

  that needs the least refurbishing and strip the other for

  parts. Let's see how much we can boost these old

  nuclear engines. I wish Mr. Scott was with us!"

  "We'll cope, Jim," Mitchell assured

  him, tossing a spanner up to Sorahl on the

  exterior catwalk, boosting Kelso into a crawl

  space bristling with wires and old-style

  transistor units.

  Spock and T'Lera had already brought up the

  onboard computer and had their heads together

  conferring over exterior hull readouts. Kirk

  rolled up his sleeves and was soon sneezing in the

  fifty-year-old dust of the reactor room.

  * * *

  STRANGERS FROM THE SKY

  "So you've been censoring the people's right to know, have you,

  Lee?"

  "Well, I wouldn't go that far, Mitch. A little

  judi
cious cut-and-paste here, an occasional bit of

  editing there his

  "A little tinfoil here, a couple of tapeworms

  there his

  Jim Kirk cleared his throat impatiently.

  The three of them were wedged cheek-to-jowl inside an

  environmental control conduit; he could live with a little

  less hot air.

  "Mr. Mitchell, get your elbow out of my

  ribs!" he grunted. "Would one of you mind telling

  me what you're talking about?"

  "You mean Lee hasn't told you what happened

  after he skipped on the CommPolice?" Mitchell

  backed out of the conduit to get a spare part for the

  humidity sensor, called over his shoulder. "Tell

  him, Lee!"

  "Well?" Kirk asked tightly. Kelso's

  elbow was in his ribs now.

  Kelso managed to look sheepish even from this

  angle. "Well, Ji tilde ap I, um well,

  I guess you had to be there. Had to hear the hysteria

  every time you turned on the vidscreen. You guys were

  protected from a lot of that. But I couldn't sit there

  and do nothing, let it get all blown out of

  proportion."

  "I can appreciate that," Kirk conceded, sliding

  further up the conduit to adjust an oxygen converter

  valve. "So what did you do?"

  "Well, I was afraid someone would get hurt

  or killed," Kelso went on. "Panic in the

  streets, riots, mass hysteria. So I his

  "You what?" Kirk growled. "Come on, Lee,

  spit it out!"

  "I got into the Globalationews computers and

  planted some virus programs," Kelso said all

  in a rush. "Tapeworms to eat up the

  inflammatory news stories, new programs

  to replace them with "unconfirmed and con

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  flicting reports." Left them tied

  up in knots!" he finished, beaming, pleased with

  himself.

  Kirk collapsed against the wall of the conduit.

  "Lee, you amaze me!"

  "I know," Kelso said modestly, not for the first

  time.

  "Maybe I should leave you behind with Parneb,"

  Kirk threatened, easing himself out the way Gary had

  gone. "You still haven't told me how you got away

  from the CommPolice."

  "Maybe that one should wait," Kelso said

  uneasily. "Remind me to tell you later."

  But he never did.

  "Logically," Spock explained to Kirk and

  T'Lera, "Planetary defense systems will be

  directed outward, in search of incoming hostile

  vessels. The last Earth system directed against the

  planet itself, and in essence against its own citizens,