STAR TREK: The Original Series - Garth of Izar Page 5

  “A very small group of Federation and Starfleet officials are aware of what has happened. Admiral Mendez has also, with my help, exchanged messages with the leaders of the peaceful Antosian majority. They need us now as much as we will need them.” Garth sat back in his chair. “At this point, Captain Kirk, you will undoubtedly wish to consult with the admiral. He asked me to recommend that you contact him, so that he can confirm what I’ve said.”

  Kirk tensed. “I’ll do so at once. This is terrible news.”

  “Yes, it is.” A look of sadness passed over Garth’s face. “I am very unhappy at being the cause of these developments, however unwittingly. But the problem now before us only illustrates how the violent shadows of the evolutionary past of intelligent species wait to spill into their futures. I’m grateful that we’ve had the chance to glimpse what may be coming and to try to prevent it.”

  Kirk stood up. “Mr. Spock,” he said, “I suggest that you show Captain Garth to his quarters while I contact the admiral.”

  Garth rose and left the room with Spock. As the door slid shut behind them, Kirk wondered if somehow he had been drawn into a subtle delusion of Garth’s. Could he be misinterpreting the Antosians again? Was it even possible that Garth had somehow deceived a small group of Starfleet officers and Federation officials?

  [53] It was highly unlikely, but either way, the situation was a dangerous one.

  “What Garth told you is true,” Admiral Mendez said, “and the mission he wishes to undertake is necessary. Garth has argued that, through his actions, he violated the Prime Directive by interfering with and altering the culture of Antos IV, and that the only way he can redeem himself is to repair the damage. But this mission isn’t just a matter of Garth’s personal redemption. Imagine the use the Klingons or the Romulans might make of any shape-changing Antosian allies who dream of conquest.”

  Kirk glared at the image of Mendez on the three-screen viewer in the center of the briefing-room table. “Admiral, I would’ve appreciated being briefed on the entire mission before taking the captain on board.”

  “I’m sorry for leaving you partly in the dark, Jim, but I wanted you to hear about the Antosians straight from Garth without any presuppositions coloring your feelings on the matter. And I wanted your impressions of Garth’s telling of the story.”

  “Fair enough,” Kirk said, though he remained unhappy about the admiral’s deception. “I hope we can trust Garth.”

  “What he’s told us has checked out, and the peaceful Antosian majority would much rather deal with him than with anyone else. I suppose that’s even more evidence of their peacefulness, that they’re willing to forgive and welcome a man who tried to give an order [54] to destroy them. Garth’s presence is also needed to convince the fearful Antosians that we mean them no harm. And I can’t think of anyone better qualified to oversee his mission than you, Jim, and not just because you were able to deal with him on Elba II. You’ve bent the rules when you thought it was necessary, and you’ve turned out to be right. Starfleet has too often benefited by your willingness to flout orders when you believed we were wrong. You have a creative bent that sometimes, but only sometimes, exceeds Commander Spock’s analytic abilities.”

  “You’re saying that there’s a bit of Garth in me.”

  Mendez smiled. “I suppose I am. Keep a watchful eye on him, and don’t hesitate to take over the mission if you find he can’t handle it properly. With any luck, Garth will find a way to resolve the problem by himself, but as I told you before—”

  “—you want to be covered,” Kirk finished. “Sad that our contact with the Antosians has planted the rotten fruit that now exists there.”

  “It was waiting to happen,” Mendez said. “If Garth hadn’t contacted this civilization, others would have done so, and perhaps created a similar paranoia among groups of Antosians. And keep in mind that this particular violent group is still a very small minority.”

  “Any more advice?” Kirk asked.

  “Let Garth take the lead, but watch him carefully. Good luck, Jim.” Mendez’s smile seemed uncertain just before his image went dark.

  [55] Kirk stood up, wondering whether anyone really knew as much as he needed to know about what the mission to Antos IV might reveal. Garth, who had initiated this mission, probably had the best view of the matter, but his was a very personal view, linked as it was to his own recovery. Yet Garth was in command of this mission; he would either prove himself, or Kirk would have to do his best to prevent the situation from becoming even more threatening than it already was.

  Chapter Four

  ANTOS IV CIRCLED a G2 yellow-white star at a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty million kilometers. As the Enterprise entered standard orbit around the Class-M planet, Spock looked up at the bridge viewscreen and thought about how it was with intelligent beings when they began to look beyond their own worlds. Beings that looked beyond their own skies, and who happened to be in sectors of the galaxy that already had worlds with interstellar capacity, faced an immediate problem: how to get along with their neighbors.

  This was not a problem with worlds in distant parts of the galaxy, where civilizations might be sparse, and a culture might emerge to find no one nearby—at least not in their immediate future. Nor was getting along with others a problem for the inhabitants of [57] Talos IV, whose mental powers and virtual reality choices were so advanced that they could conjure up whatever experiences they wished without ever posing a problem to their neighbors. In fact, had that planet not been placed off-limits by the Federation, other civilizations might have posed a problem to Talos IV. The prospect of a world where one could have whatever one wished was so seductive and potentially addictive that landing on Talos IV was punishable by the death penalty; it was the only offense within the Federation for which capital punishment was meted out. But Spock sometimes wondered how long such a ban could be enforced.

  Had Garth of Izar suffered his transporter accident while beaming down to Talos IV, the Talosians would not have been able to heal his body, but they could have given him the mental illusion of health and strength, as they had with the human woman Vina. He might have lived out his life unaware of any deformities, as Spock’s former commanding officer, Captain Christopher Pike, the only man allowed to violate the order forbidding contact with the Talosians, was now doing on Talos IV. Instead, Garth had acquired the physical ability to heal and transform his own body but had paid the price with temporary derangement.

  “Standard orbit achieved,” Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu said from his helmsman’s station.

  The planet below, except for six uninhabited and volcanically active islands known as the Tiresians, had only one land mass, a continent even larger than [58] Eurasia of Earth. The vast continent, according to records, was called Anatossia, with roughly half its land above the equator of Antos IV and half below. Anatossia’s eastern coastline was dominated by high, sheer cliffs; in the west, the Illesa Mountains, a range of Himalayan height, ran from north to south, dividing the continent in two and indicating that Anatossia had been formed from two smaller continents that had drifted together. The regions closest to the equator were tropical, and there was an expanse of desert in northeastern Anatossia, but a moderate climate prevailed elsewhere, which made Spock wonder why, with so much habitable terrain available, all of the Antosians chose to live in or near one large inland city in the northeast, Pynesses, and its suburbs. Captain Garth had not been able to answer that question, not having spent enough time among the Antosians to find out.

  Spock’s opinion of the matter at hand was that shape-shifting, as demonstrated by Garth on Elba II, would require free circulation of Antosians throughout the Federation before the skill became a danger on either the criminal or the military scale. The best use of cellular metamorphosis might be as a secret weapon on the political level, wherein influential and powerful Federation functionaries and Starfleet officers might be covertly replaced. Still, once it was known that such a weapon existed, wie
lding it would become much more difficult.

  The greatest danger, it seemed to Spock, lay in [59] close and continuous contact by others with the Antosian culture. The comings and goings of Federation citizens might in fact help to further the very kind of infection that Garth’s presence and emotive threats had helped to create in the rebel Antosian faction. If so, Antos IV might join Talos IV as a planet under quarantine.

  Spock did not care for such a solution. He did not care for anything that impeded the free flow of ideas among intelligent beings unless there was no alternative. Fortunately, the Antosian majority and its ruling body were apparently sane and also skeptical of military ambitions.

  Captain Kirk, Spock noted, was being unusually silent. Captain Garth stood at his left, wearing the standard uniform of a starship captain on active duty.

  “Captain Garth, Captain Kirk,” Uhura said from her station, “we are being hailed from the city of Pynesses.”

  Garth nodded. “That will be the representatives we wish to contact—the First Minister and his Chief Adviser. Open a channel, Lieutenant Uhura.”

  The forward viewscreen flashed on. The two figures on the screen were humanoid adults of an age difficult for Spock to estimate, unfamiliar as he was with this culture and its biology, but they seemed almost assuredly to be male. Had they been Vulcans, he would have placed the pair in their middle years. Of course, he reminded himself, it was possible for [60] shape-changers to present themselves in the appearance of any stage of life.

  “We greet you, Captain Garth,” the taller of the two Antosians said in a deep baritone with extremely precise pronunciation. The shorter humanoid only nodded. “And welcome also to you, Captain James Tiberius Kirk.”

  Kirk got to his feet. Garth made a motion with one hand that looked to Spock like a signal; the two Antosians made similar gestures.

  “One club,” Garth said.

  “One heart,” the tall Antosian responded.

  “Two no trump,” the shorter humanoid said in a tenor voice. Spock assumed that the subtle hand movements were signals, and that the contract bridge bids were passwords.

  Garth smiled. “Time to play out our hands.” He took a step forward. “How glad I am to see you, Empynes.” He nodded in the direction of the taller dark-haired humanoid. “And also you, Gyneeses.”

  “Garth,” Empynes said, “we are prepared to welcome you back. There is much to tell you, so I hope you can get here as soon as possible.”

  “I shall beam down right away,” Garth said, obviously surprising Kirk. “It’s time that I set that particular fear aside, and what better place to start? Ferrying me back and forth by shuttlecraft would be too cumbersome, and overcoming this last phobia of mine will be therapeutic.”

  “You will come alone, of course.” Empynes looked [61] down for a moment. “Forgive me, Captain Kirk, but we would rather explain how matters now stand to Captain Garth before you and any others of your crew beam down. He is, after all, the originator of this mission and your Federation’s representative.”

  Kirk nodded. “I understand.”

  “It’s also a precaution,” Garth said. “Empynes and Gyneeses will give me their report, and then I’ll see a little more of their city. I want to make certain that being on Antos IV doesn’t adversely affect my mental balance before you and your landing party join me.”

  Such a plan seemed reasonable to Spock, yet it would have been equally reasonable for all of the landing party to beam down together, in case Garth quickly began to show signs of instability and needed to be restrained. But the Antosians wanted this arrangement, and presumably they would be capable of keeping Garth under control should that prove necessary.

  “We look forward to seeing you again,” Empynes said, “and to greeting you, Captain Kirk, and your party later on.”

  Captain Kirk nodded. “We are at your disposal.”

  Gyneeses seemed to tense at those words, but Spock had no way to know what this might mean.

  “I’ll prepare to beam down,” Garth said, “and be with you within the hour.”

  Empynes bowed his head slightly. “And when we have concluded our discussion, I will ask your fellow captain to join us.”

  “Farewell, Empynes and Gyneeses.”

  [62] The screen went dark.

  “Captain Garth,” Kirk asked in what sounded like a hesitant voice, “how can we be sure that those two Antosians haven’t already been replaced by rebel shape-shifters?”

  Garth turned toward the captain. “But you saw our hand signals, and heard our passwords—they were all previously arranged. You can be sure that Gyneeses and Empynes are indeed themselves.”

  “I see,” Kirk said. “And these signals and passwords could not have been obtained from them by their enemies?”

  Garth smiled. “I admire your caution, Captain Kirk, but I think it’s misplaced. You’re granting the leaders of the dissident faction much too much credit.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “In any case, I know those two leaders fairly well by now, so my confidence in them isn’t based solely on our prearranged signals. And my beaming down ahead of you is an extra measure of security.”

  As he listened to this exchange, Spock concluded that it proved nothing one way or the other. Only a person with an unreasoned suspicion, with no basis in fact, would refuse to accept Garth’s statements.

  Captain Kirk sat down at his station and thumbed the intercom. “Mr. Kyle, Captain Garth is on his way to the transporter room. Issue him a tricorder and communicator and beam him down to Antos IV.” Kirk looked up at the other captain. “I don’t think we should meet the Antosians with phasers, even hand [63] phasers, given that we’re here to further the cause of peace.”

  “I was just about to make the same suggestion,” Garth replied quickly. “The Antosians do not need to be exposed to such advanced weapons, especially now, and you shouldn’t need them for self-defense on a world that lacks such devices.” He turned and strode aft toward the lift.

  It was five days later that McCoy stood in the sickbay and announced, “I’ve been ordered to beam down with the landing party.”

  Nurse Christine Chapel and Dr. Ilsa Soong both nodded their heads in acknowledgment. McCoy glanced around the sickbay; except for two crew members recovering from minor but unpleasant viral infections, the medical facility was free of patients. “I’m actually looking forward to spending some time on Antos IV. Just think of what Antosian shape-changing techniques might mean for medicine.”

  “What they did for Captain Garth was little short of a miracle,” Christine Chapel said.

  McCoy smiled. “Repairing diseased organs and cells through cellular metamorphosis, reconstructing damaged limbs, ridding ourselves of deformities—it could be the end of another dark age of medicine.”

  “Maybe after Captain Garth completes his mission,” Soong said, “Christine and I can beam down and see what we might learn about Antosian medical techniques. If Garth was able to master cellular [64] metamorphosis, that may indicate that such an ability is latent in other human beings, even in all humanoids.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing,” McCoy said, “but don’t forget that Garth paid a heavy price for his cure with mental illness. The physical changes that shape-changing produces may lead to such derangement in other humanoids. Remember, Garth hasn’t tried to change his shape since he was cured. The two might be linked. In any case, there’s probably a lot we could learn from the Antosians.”

  “Good luck, Doctor,” Christine said.

  McCoy adjusted the strap of the tricorder hanging from his shoulder, then left the sickbay, hurrying toward the nearest lift. Giving him an opportunity to find out about Antosian medical techniques was not the only reason to include him in the landing party; Jim would want him there to keep an eye on Garth.

  McCoy had no doubt that Garth was sane. Whether or not he still harbored his fear of transporters, Garth had managed to go to the transporter room and beam down to Antos IV. H
e had been down there for days, reporting regularly about the details of the arrangements for their arrival, and if that was taking longer than Jim had expected, that was only because Garth wanted to be certain that their diplomatic moves succeeded. McCoy had been observing the man during their short journey to this system. He had seen Garth practicing his fencing with Sulu, playing games of chess with Chekov, being voluble and at ease while dining with other crew members in the mess hall; he [65] had noted the subtle way in which Garth had seemed to be in command of this mission while at the same time not usurping any of Jim’s authority over the Enterprise’s standard operations. McCoy had done his best not to be too obvious, but he was certain that Garth knew he was being observed.

  Garth’s own behavior underlined the truth of the reports about him, that he was both physically and mentally sound. McCoy was well aware that it was only a legacy of medicine’s dark ages that brought him a few passing doubts about Garth, doubts that he easily dismissed.

  In the transporter room, Kirk had a moment of anxiety before he found himself with the other three members of his landing party in an open sunlit area that appeared to be a solarium. His anxiety was not for himself, but on Captain Garth’s behalf; he was thinking of what it must have cost the other man to resume using the transporter. Garth had shown courage in allowing himself to beam down right at the onset of his mission to help prepare for the arrival of the Enterprise team.

  Kirk’s landing team included Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Yeoman Wodehouse; Kirk had left Mr. Scott in charge of the Enterprise. All of them carried tricorders and communicators, but Kirk had also brought a hand phaser, which was concealed inside his boot. With any luck, he would never have to use the weapon. The Antosians they were to meet now might be peaceful, but the rebel faction was not, and [66] Kirk did not want to leave his team without any protection. As it was, he hoped that he hadn’t made a mistake by not bringing down anyone from security.