Star Trek - TOS 38 Idic Epidemic (4 page)

“Enough!” the Vulcan said with an imperious wave
of dismissal. “Continue the combat.” He turned and
strode back to his front-row seat in the bleachers.

Even though Kirk still stood in the center of the
mat, the two fighters hefted their weapons again—it
appeared that if he did not get out of their way, they
might go right through him.

But he would not ignominiously scuttle out of their
reach!

Where was security?

Kirk stood between the fighters, watching their
faces. These Vulcans did not believe in Surak’s philos
ophy. They wanted to live like the ancient Vulcan
warrior clans had before they were converted to peace and emotional control. Their eyes showed anger—but
also uncertainty. The two fighters were young. It was
hard to judge a Vulcan’s age accurately, but both faces
had the unmarked quality of youth on the brink of
maturity. The look typical of Academy cadets, physically mature, but still growing mentally and emotion
ally.

Deliberately, Kirk stepped directly between them,
closer to the smaller one, who was wearing a blue
loincloth and an amulet of green stones. As he ex
pected, the boy made a lunge toward him, obviously
expecting to sweep Kirk aside with the stem of the
lirpa
and continue his charge against his opponent.

Instead, Kirk grabbed the
lirpa,
swung under it, and
fell onto his back on the mat. He tossed the boy
backward over his head in one smooth motion, deal
ing a strong kick to his midsection.

The Vulcan landed hard, the breath knocked out of
him.

Kirk sprang to his feet and faced the other fighter.
The second boy, who wore a black loincloth and a
headband with a pattern of silver embroidery, did not
make his opponent’s mistake. He charged, swinging the blade end of the
lirpa
toward Kirk—

“Hold it!”

When the commanding tones did not stop the lethal
charge, the air sizzled with a phaser bolt, and the boy
flopped to the mat at Kirk’s feet, stunned.

Lieutenant Nelson and six other security personnel
entered the gymnasium, phasers drawn.

“Well, you certainly took your time!” Kirk com
mented.

“You seemed to have everything under control,
Captain,” Nelson replied in his usual laconic style.
“What do you want us to do with our misbehaving
guests?”

“That,” Kirk replied, “is up to them. Walenski,
come down from there.”

“Yes, sir.” The young woman picked her way down
to the mat in obvious relief.

“Now.” Kirk faced the assembled Vulcans, hands
on hips. “Who among you can give a promise that all will adhere to?”

The older man in ceremonial robes rose again. “I
can. I am Satat, war chief of the Clan T’Vin. All other
clans represented here have sworn allegiance to mine.”

“Very well, Satat,” said Kirk, “I will give you one more chance—and if you break your word this time, you will spend the rest of the journey in the
brig.”

“We have not broken our word,” Satat replied with
unruffled dignity. “We made no interference with your ship or your personnel. Your personnel inter
fered with
us.”

Damn. Satat was right. That was the agreement, according to Kirk’s orders from Starfleet: at the captain’s discretion, the Followers of T’Vet could
travel as guests so long as they did not interfere with
the ship or its personnel. Commodore Bright, who
had made the agreement, was a desk jockey who had
never commanded a starship. Otherwise he would
have added what Kirk had to add now.

“Your breaking the rules of Starfleet or this particu
lar ship interferes with our personnel.”

“This combat was scheduled when none of your ship’s crew had booked this arena,” Satat replied.
“All your crewperson had to do,” he added with a nod
at Walenski, “was to stay out of our way.”

“Not when she saw you bringing in deadly weap
ons,” Kirk explained. “The use of such weapons is forbidden in the gymnasium. By restraining Miss Walenski when she tried to stop you, you interfered
with her performance of her duty. Now, if you will
give me your word that you will abide by all Starfleet
and
Enterprise
regulations, you may continue your
journey as our guests.”

Annoyingly refusing to lose his dignity, Satat re
plied, “We agree.”

The intercom beeped.

Kirk went to the wall unit. “Kirk here.”

“Spock here, Captain. Can you come to the bridge
to accept new orders from Starfleet Command, or
shall I record them?”

“I’ll be right there,” Kirk replied, and left the gym
with a word to Nelson to finish up. If it was Commo
dore Bright with these new orders, this time he
wanted to talk to the man!

Chapter Three

Commander Spock
turned to Lieutenant Uhura, re
laying the captain’s message. She spoke quietly into
her microphone as the bridge crew waited expec
tantly.

The
Enterprise
was under Starfleet orders to trans
port the Followers of T’Vet to Vulcan Colony Nine,
making two stops along the way. At Coriolanus
Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda, would leave the
ship for a diplomatic conference. They would be
replaced by the Serbanian ambassador and her party,
who were returning home, and at Serbania they would
pick up Nurse Christine Chapel, who had spent the
time the
Enterprise
had been under repair in a semi
nar on the latest advances in emergency nursing.
Vulcan Colony Nine was only six days at normal warp
speed from Serbania.

It was unusual for a starship to know such a
detailed itinerary in advance. It was
not
unusual to
have plans change at a moment’s notice.

Captain Kirk swept out of the turbolift, took the
command chair from Spock, and said to Uhura,
“Lieutenant, open channel to Starfleet Command.”

Captain Henson of Starbase MI-17, a strictly mili
tary installation, appeared on the screen. She was a
woman of perhaps fifty, with graying hair in a short no-nonsense style. “Captain Kirk,” she said, “I have
new orders for you from Commodore Bright. An epidemic has struck the scientific colony of Nisus. The
Enterprise
is to return to Vulcan, emergency priority. There you will take on board the healer
Sorel, Dr. Daniel Corrigan, Dr. Geoffrey M’Benga,
and the xenobiologist T’Mir, along with several assis
tants and two residents of Nisus.

“From Vulcan you will transport the experts in
interspecies medicine directly to the science colony
Nisus. You will leave them, along with Dr. Leonard McCoy from your own staff, at Nisus, and then proceed with the rest of your orders. This is an
emergency-priority mission. I have transmitted de
tails directly to your chief medical officer.”

She attempted a smile, but Spock recognized worry
and fatigue behind her brusque facade. “I have other
ships to contact, Captain. The
Enterprise
is the closest
starship in the fleet to Nisus, and is fortunately also
close to Vulcan, where so many medical experts can
be found. Your chief medical officer will brief you on
the nature of the emergency. Time is of the essence
—there are many lives at stake. Henson out.”

The screen blanked before Kirk could say a word.
But he would not question a medical emergency.
“Ensign Chekov, lock in a course for Vulcan.”

“Aye, Keptin.”

Kirk punched one of the buttons on his intraship
console. “Bones, did you—?”

Leonard McCoy’s voice responded immediately. “Yeah, Jim, I got my walking papers, along with a
report on the epidemic on Nisus. If the best collection
of scientists in the galaxy can’t stop it, they’ve got
some wild bug on the loose. It’s gonna take a while to
study this report.”

“One hour,” Kirk replied. “Then you meet Spock
and me in the briefing room.” The captain swung his
chair around to face Spock’s station. “You know
anything about this, Spock?”

“Only what we have just heard,” he replied.

“Well, then, please go tell your parents that our
arrival at Coriolanus will be delayed. They may want
to arrange other transport.”

“There is no other ship available,” Spock replied,
having scanned the schedules of warp-speed vessels to
and from Vulcan in their preparations for departure.
“However, my father will want to send a message to
Coriolanus, explaining the delay.”

As Spock entered the turbolift, Kirk instructed Chekov to take the science station. The doors were closing. As he rose, Chekov leaned over and mur
mured to Lieutenant Sulu, too softly for Kirk to hear,
“Last time ve couldn’t get
to
Wulcan. This time ve
cannot get
avay
from it!”

Spock, of course, was not meant to hear the com
ment. Humans always forgot the acuity of Vulcan
hearing.

His parents were not in their cabin, nor were they in
the ship’s library or on the observation deck. Having
tried the most likely places by intercom, he decided to
call the rec room before putting out a page.

Yeoman Kasita answered the rec-room intercom. “They were here earlier,” he told Spock, “but then Ambassador Sarek offered to tutor Miss Chong in
astrophysics, and the Lady Amanda went down to the
gymnasium.”

“Thank you, Yeoman,” Spock said automatically, but his mind was elsewhere. There had just been a disturbance in the gymnasium—but Captain Kirk
had not mentioned Amanda.

Instead of calling, he went down to the recreation
level and asked Ensign Walenski if his mother were
there.

“Yes, she’s in room six. Don’t worry, Mr. Spock
—she didn’t even know about the excitement in gym
A.”

Room six was a private exercise chamber. Spock
pressed the door buzzer. “Mother? It’s Spock. May I
come in?”

“Yes—of course.” Her voice sounded more muffled
than it should just from filtering through the door. Nor did the door open until he pressed the plate
beside it.

Amanda was in the middle of the room, upside
down.