by Lee Correy
"We have a stable situation," Guardian Jona remarked.
"Not any longer," Kirk pointed out.
"Guardian Pallar, this is one of the most elaborate and insane plots I have ever encountered," Noal complained. "These Technic constructs are not sane."
"I presume that you're a medical expert, Guardian Noal?" Kirk asked.
"I am."
"Permit me to introduce my medical expert, Doctor Leonard McCoy." Kirk indicated the ship's doctor.
"If you're wondering whether or not we're Technic constructs," McCoy said slowly, "I can easily show you data on blood chemistry alone that proves beyond a doubt that the Technic couldn't possibly possess the technology to create us. You're familiar with blood-chemistry technology?"
"Of course. That's one of the most primitive of medical technologies," Noal replied in an insulted tone.
"Of course. No insult intended, Guardian, so please stay away from your sidearm," McCoy went on. "I'm a medical man, not a warrior. You may kill according to your Code when you have to, but I don't follow that sort of a code. But let me give you some basic data. Your blood chemistry is based on a hemoglobin molecule arranged around an atom of copper. Well, the hemoglobin of Mister Spock here from the abode called Vulcan is also based on copper. But the rest of us have a hemoglobin molecule based on iron. There're other differences in the blood groups, but the hemoglobin fraction is the easiest to check if you have any question about it."
There was a moment of hesitation on Noal's part before he replied, "I would like to look at your data, Doctor McCoy … and perhaps I might want to take some blood samples myself. Technic biological know-how may be more highly advanced than we know."
"It isn't," McCoy added with finality. "But mine is. Come see for yourself."
"And we're ready to prove to the rest of you that we are who we say we are," Kirk broke in, moving quickly into the sudden opening in the Guardians' stubborn beliefs created by their medical expert's condescension. "We have the power to simply step in here and take over by force, but that's not our code. We want to repair our abode and return to our people in the Ribbon of Night. But you are the ones who are going to have to continue to live on the Abode, and you are the ones who are going to have to solve your own problems your own way. We are here to help you if you want help. Or you can try to solve your problems without what help we're permitted to give you. But you must solve those problems or your civilization is going to come apart very quickly without the unifying factor of the Ordeal. Since our arrival here by accident started this whole affair, and since we had to stabilize Mercaniad to save ourselves, we want to see to it that our actions do not totally destroy your civilization. Therefore, we want you to meet on the Enterprise to work out the details of the transition to your new state of affairs … which is now quite different than you have ever dreamed possible. . . ."
"You want us to confer in your Keep in the sky? Ridiculous!" Tombah laughed.
"Spock, how's our timing?" Kirk wanted to know.
"Overhead in two minutes thirty-four seconds, Captain."
"Have them stand by the phasers," Kirk ordered, then turned back to Pallar. "Come with us out into the open. We'll show you our Keep in the sky as it passes overhead."
The Guardian group looked at one another.
"Well, come along," Kirk urged. "Or are you afraid I might be right? Are you afraid to face the reality of the Universe? Or do you intend to continue living in a fantasy? You don't have to leave the Guardian Villa to see for yourselves. Come anywhere outside where you can see the sky."
"This is most unusual," Guardian Parna objected. "I know what's in the sky. It's now after sunset, and we'll see nothing but the Ribbon of Night."
"I can promise you more," Kirk put in. "Come along and see for yourself."
Some of the Guardians came with more reluctance than others. But Pallar led the way at Kirk's side.
The high hill of the Guardian Villa overlooked the island of Celerbitan and the western skies of Mercan. Mercaniad had just set, and there was a glow across the entire western horizon.
"Enterprise, this is Kirk," the star-ship Captain spoke into the communicator he flipped up in front of his face.
There was a look of astonishment on Pallar's face as Scotty's voice came back, "Scott here, Captain. We're comin' over your horizon now."
"Okay, Scotty, light her up," Kirk ordered, and turned to Sulu. "Mister Sulu, take over."
Sulu flipped out his communicator. "Enterprise, this is Sulu. Chekov, are you standing by?"
"Affirmative, Sulu," Chekov's voice replied. "We are tracking the targets that you defined."
"Continue tracking. Stand by for further commands," Sulu told him, but did not close his communicator.
Kirk was looking at the western sky and finally saw it.
It was a brilliant, coruscating point of light. Scotty was illuminating the lower surface of the primary hull with laser light at various frequencies, bouncing the laser illumination off the ship's lower shields to prevent loss of coherency. It made the Enterprise shine and coruscate with the characteristic corpuscular appearance of laser illumination and with the brilliance of a minus-five-magnitude star. It changed colors as Scotty changed the frequency of the laser illumination.
"There's our sky Keep, Guardians," Kirk pointed out.
It was impossible not to see it.
There were gasps from some of the Guardians. The sight was totally new to all of them. Some of them obviously grasped and accepted it. Others were obviously having trouble doing so.
"We have power aboard our Keep, the Enterprise, that's greater than anything you have known," Kirk said almost pontifically to the Guardian group. "And we'll now prove it to you. Mister Sulu, you may proceed with the demonstration."
As the colored light that was the Enterprise rose toward the zenith, Sulu softly gave an order into his communicator. "Chekov, this is Sulu. Set both forward laser banks at broad dispersion, phase lock, and fire a ten-second burst at the ionosphere."
A glow emanated from the spot of light in the sky. Then the whole evening sky lit up as the phasers of the Enterprise excited the ionosphere over Celerbitan, producing a brilliant aurora that laced the blackness with streamers of orange and yellow light, spreading from the point of light of the Enterprise poleward in both directions.
It was a brilliant display of scientific fireworks. It had been used before to impress more primitive peoples than the Mercans. Kirk was counting on it to impress the Guardians in a different way, since they were considerably above the primitive level in intelligence and civilization.
Then came the pièce de résistance. "Port and starboard phaser banks, tight beam, phase lock, target the ocean five kilometers west of Celerbitan, two-second burst. Fire at will," Sulu ordered.
Twin beams of incredibly white light emanated from the Enterprise and speared through the Mercan atmosphere, ionizing a pathway as they penetrated. They focused and struck the Sel Ethan ocean five kilometers off the west shore of Celerbitan, where the water suddenly boiled. It didn't last long—only two seconds—but it was enough to boil a square kilometer of ocean and leave a rising cloud of steam.
As the Guardians gaped at this obvious and blatant display of star-ship weapon power, Kirk said to Pallar, "That's the Enterprise, our Keep in the sky. Prime Proctor Lenos is there. So are Thallan, Orun, Delin, and Othol. We invite you to select three of your Guardians and travel with us to the Enterprise for discussions."
"How do I know that this isn't a trick to eliminate us?" Pallar asked. "You've demonstrated weaponry that could conquer the Abode, causing a conflict and conquest like those in the old legends."
"Conquest is not part of our code," Kirk explained, then pointed out, "And if we'd wanted to destroy you rather than to talk, we could have done so at any time since we arrived here … and with great ease, as you just saw." He displayed his communicator. "You originally believed this to be a sigil of rank. It's more than that. It permits us to talk with those o
n the Enterprise." He spoke into it. "Enterprise, this is Kirk. Lieutenant Uhura, please put Prime Proctor Lenos on."
"Uh … Captain Kirk, this is the Prime Proctor," came back a voice that was unquestionably that of Lenos. It was also obvious that he was unused to any remote-communication device.
Kirk handed the communicator to Pallar. "Speak to your Prime Proctor, Guardian One. But be advised that Thallan is also there and listening."
"Uh … Lenos, are you all right?"
"Yes, Guardian One. Will you be traveling here for meetings?"
"Lenos, is it true?"
"It's true, Guardian One. I'm in the Enterprise and watching the lights of Celerbitan pass below me. I've already spoken with Captain Kirk privately. So has Thallan. Both of us urge you to travel here with a Guardian delegation for conferences. I'm convinced that our future on the Abode is at stake."
"You cannot speak for Thallan. Can he speak for himself?"
"Yes, Guardian One, this is Thallan," the voice of the Technic leader came back. "I confirm everything that Prime Proctor Lenos has just told you. We of the Technic are willing to meet with the Proctorate and the Guardians, because a great change is upon us. There will be no more Ordeals. But we must speak together of this and work out a peaceful solution. Otherwise, I fear there will be conflict, because your prime Guardian Purpose no longer exists to hold Mercan civilization together."
Pallar dropped the communicator to the floor. "I refuse to permit any discussions in which the Technic participates on an equal footing with the ancient and respected Guardians of the Code," he growled. "The Technic was the cause of this, and the Technic must suffer the consequences of overthrowing the established ways of the Code. . . ."
Keeping his eyes on Pallar, Kirk bent down and picked up the communicator. Then he stood up and stared directly up at the Guardian One. "Pallar, I've tried to act with diplomacy and decorum. You've replied time after time with bigoted, biased replies and reactions. I'm willing to forgive those because I understand your background. But since you will not cooperate willingly, I regret to inform you that you have no choice but to meet with us and with the Proctorate and the Technic on the Enterprise. Will you choose the three Guardians who will accompany you? Or shall I do it?"
The reaction from Pallar was instinctual. He shouted, "Proctors! Help!"
"Landing force, Plan B," Kirk snapped.
The Enterprise landing force moved more quickly than the Mercans because the chosen members of the force had been thoroughly briefed on what to do when that order was given.
Kirk had preselected the Guardian conference group that would accompany him back to the Enterprise should Plan B need to be implemented. With his phaser on stun and accompanied by Spock and Sulu, he dropped all the Guardian group save Pallar, Tombah, Noal, and Parna.
As he was doing this, the rest of the landing force formed a precise encompassing grid around the Guardians, phasers at the ready for the Proctors who did indeed show up in the corridors leading to this outside balcony as well as on the parapets above it.
The Proctors got off a few shots. The slugs whistled past, slammed into the floor, and spalled chips and shards before ricocheting off into the darkness. But the Proctors' weapons were charged with black powder; they hadn't progressed to smokeless, flashless gun propellants. As Lenos himself had pointed out, it had been a long time since there'd been any real fighting on Mercan. The flash of the Proctors' guns provided immediate target information to Sulu's security men … who didn't miss with their phaser bolts.
"Enterprise, Kirk here. Plan B. Beam us up now." Nothing happened. The communicator had obviously been damaged when Pallar had dropped it.
Spock reacted at once, flipping out his own communicator … only to have a stray bullet from a Proctor gun slam it out of his hands. The bullet went through Spock's hand as well.
Even the stoic Spock could not suppress a cry of anguish.
McCoy was at Spock's side immediately. Spock was in obvious pain from the slug that had literally shattered his right hand. But the First Officer didn't fall or faint; he tried to get his hand phaser into his left hand to use it. "Spock, stop that," McCoy snapped at him. "You're wounded and out of action. Shut up and quiet down so that I can get to work on your hand."
It was Sulu who, in the midst of the fire fight, got his communicator out and transmitted the beam-up order.
To the utter amazement of the Proctors who had the group under attack and who were valiantly trying not to hit the Guardians, the twelve from the Enterprise and four Guardians dematerialized before their eyes, leaving nothing to shoot at.
Chapter Fourteen
"I'm sorry, Pallar," Kirk apologized as their materialization in the transporter room of the Enterprise was completed. "You wouldn't come willingly, so we had to bring you anyway. Whether you know it or not, the entire future of the Abode's at stake … and the Guardians were the only group standing in the way of resolving the problem. I'm not going to let you stand in the way of getting a stable culture reestablished on the Abode."
Pallar looked around at the strange surroundings. "This is your Keep in the sky?"
"It is. And you're my guests," Kirk told the four Guardians that had been transported up.
"Spock, can you walk to the Sick Bay?" McCoy said as he stepped off the transporter locus with Spock.
Some of the yellowish color had drained from Spock's face. It was obvious he was in severe pain, but his stoic nature wouldn't let him exhibit the agony he felt in his right hand, from which green blood dripped to the transporter locus. "Yes, Doctor, I believe I can. Captain, please carry on without me until Doctor McCoy has repaired the damage of this wound. Then I will join you."
"We'll both join them as soon as I say you're fit to do so, Spock. You're my patient now," McCoy said as he escorted the First Officer from the transporter room.
Kirk turned back to the Guardians. "Please follow me, Guardians. We have much to show you. . . ."
Pallar shook his head. "You can't keep us here against our will. And I refuse to surrender my traveler control to you, because a Guardian never surrenders his traveler control, even to a Proctor. We will all travel out of here back to Celerbitan at once."
Kirk held up his hand. "I wouldn't advise it, Pallar. Do your transporter relays extend their capabilities into the skies? You know that they don't, and so do I." Kirk was frankly bluffing on this one, but he based his bluff on the fact that the Mercans had never considered traveling or transporting off the surface of Mercan. Therefore, he surmised, their transporter system probably couldn't reach out into standard orbit. "Do you want to take the chance of materializing high in the sky over the Abode? If you do, you won't have another chance; you'll die immediately."
"I don't believe you." It was Guardian Tombah.
"You don't have to. I can show you," Kirk replied. "I'll simply advise you not to try it until you have a chance to see for yourself what's involved. If you decide to try, and if we can't rescue you with our traveling device, I'll get another Guardian from the Abode to replace you in the meetings."
Tombah had his traveler control out, but he hesitated before passing his hand over it to activate it. Pallar remarked to him, "James Kirk may be correct, Tombah. Do you wish to risk your life, knowing what happens to one who attempts to use the traveler without full coordinate information? Please, Tombah, I don't wish to lose you."
It was obvious to Kirk that Pallar was slowly beginning to open his mind. One thing for certain: Pallar was as basically intelligent as Prime Proctor Lenos. Leaders don't rise to the top without a considerable amount of intelligence and wisdom, regardless of the culture in which they live.
Kirk stepped down from the transporter platform. "Please follow me, Guardians. You'll not be asked to meet with the Proctorate or the Technic until you've had the chance to see what they've seen and until you've also had the chance to discuss its meaning and implications among yourselves."
As the Guardians followed Kirk, accompanied by Sulu
, it was Guardian Tombah who remarked, "This Keep doesn't look like anything that I know the Technic has been able to accomplish."
Stepping into the turbolift, Kirk told him, "I told you we were not of the Technic. And if you'll continue to look and evaluate what you see, you'll understand that this is the abode in which we've come from the Ribbon of Night."
"That remains to be seen," Guardian Parna remarked with some hostility in her voice.
"You'll see it," Sulu added.
They did. The turbolift stopped at Deck 11 in the Dorsal Connector, and the group stepped out into the conference room set up in the former crew lounge.
The reaction of the Guardian group to the view through the ports was totally different from that of the Technic or the Proctors.
Pallar and Noal went to the ports facing Mercan, while Parna and Tombah stood looking out through the dimmed polarized ports toward Mercaniad. They said nothing for several long minutes while they watched their home planet pass beneath the star ship and the brilliant white disc of Mercaniad march across the sky, finally dipping below the planet's limb. When the Ribbon of Night became visible, Pallar turned to his colleagues and remarked in a quiet voice, "Fellow Guardians, we can no longer refuse to face the facts that are being presented to us. If we persist in our old beliefs, we will go down before the Technic's onslaught upon the old ideas because they now have the new information."
"I agree," Guardian Noal added. "It's very difficult to accept the reality of what we see … but we must do so in the face of the possibility of losing our own sanity … and whatever control we may have left over the peace and tranquillity of living on the Abode. . . ."
"If I know Prime Proctor Lenos," Tombah put in, "I predict that he's already accepted the new reality. He will not side with us in any conflict with the Technic. . . ."
"But how do we maintain and consolidate our position in the face of this new information?" Parna wanted to know.
"We accept it as an extension of the Code," Pallar tried to explain his jumbled thoughts. He turned to Kirk. "James Kirk, I apologize for our actions."
