Star Trek - Blish, James - 08 Read online

  "You're in no shape to be up," Kirk said.

  "Ridiculous!" McCoy said. "I'm up!"

  Kirk saw one of the alcove's curtains sway. He strode. to it, jerking it aside. A shabby old man, fear in his face, was huddled against the wall. He peered into Kirk's face. What he saw in it must have reassured him. He moved away from the wall, hesitated, took some powder from a pouch hung over his shoulder. "For strength," he said. He held out the pouch to them. "Many of us have felt the power of our Oracle. This powder will be of benefit. You are not of Yonada."

  "No," Kirk said gently. "We come from outside your world."

  The old hand reached out to touch Kirk's arm. "You are as we are?"

  "The same," Kirk said.

  "You are the first to come here. I am ignorant. Tell me of the outside."

  "What do you wish to know?"

  "Where is outside?"

  Kirk pointed skyward. "It's up there."

  The filmed eyes glanced up at the ceiling. Like a child put off by an adult lie, the old man looked back at Kirk in mixed disbelief and disappointment. Kirk smiled at him. "The outside is up there and all around."

  "So they say, also," the old man said sadly. "Years ago, I climbed the mountains, even though it is forbidden."

  "Why is it forbidden?" Kirk asked.

  "I am not sure. But things are not as they teach us- for the world is hollow and I have touched the sky."

  The voice had sunk into a terrified whisper. As he uttered the last words, the old man screamed in sudden agony, clutching at his temples. He collapsed in a sprawl-ed heap on the floor. Horrified, Kirk saw a spot on one temple flash into a pulsating glow. Then the flare died.

  McCoy examined the spot. "Something under the skin." He moved the shabby homespun to check the heart. "Jim, he's dead."

  Kirk looked down at the heap. " 'For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky.' What an epitaph for a human life!"

  Spock said, "He said it was forbidden to climb the mountains."

  "Of course it's forbidden," Kirk said. "If you climbed the mountains, you might discover you were living in an asteroid spaceship, not in the world at all. That I'll bet is the forbidden knowledge."

  "What happened?"

  It was Natira. She had entered their quarters with two women bearing platters of fruit and wine. At the sight of the crumpled body, their faces convulsed with terror. But Natira knelt down beside it.

  "We don't know what happened," Kirk told her. "He suddenly screamed in pain-and died."

  She bent her head in prayer. "Forgive him, O Oracle, most wise and most perfect. He was an old man-and old men are sometimes foolish." She rose to her feet. "But it is written that those of the People who sin or speak evil will be punished."

  The severity in her face softened into sadness. She touched a wall button. To the guards who entered she said, "Take him away-gently. He served well and for many years." Then she spoke to the women. "Place the food on the table and go."

  As the door closed behind them, she crossed to McCoy. "You do not seem well. It is distressing to me."

  "No," he said. "I am all right."

  "It is the wish of the Oracle that you now be treated as honored guests. I will serve you with my own hands." But the tray she arranged with fruit and wine was taken to McCoy. When she left them to prepare the other trays, Kirk said, "You seem favored, Bones."

  "Indeed, Doctor," Spock said, "the lady has shown a preference for you from the beginning."

  "Nobody can blame her for that," McCoy retorted.

  "Personally," Kirk said, "I find her taste question-able." McCoy, sipping wine, said, "My charm has al-ways been fatal," but Kirk noted that his eyes were nevertheless fixed on the graceful bend of the woman at the table. "If it's so fatal," he said, "why don't you arrange to spend some time alone with the lady? Then Spock and I might find a chance to locate the power controls of this place."

  Natira was back, holding two goblets of wine. "It is time that our other guests refresh themselves."

  Kirk lifted his goblet. "To our good friends of Yonada."

  "We are most interested in your world," Spock said.

  "That pleases us."

  "Then perhaps you wouldn't mind if we looked around a bit," Kirk ventured.

  "You will be safe," she said. "The People know of you now."

  McCoy coughed uncomfortably. She went to him swiftly. "I do not think you are yet strong enough to look around with your friends."

  "Perhaps not," he smiled.

  "Then why not remain here? Rest-and we will talk."

  She was beautiful. "I should like that," McCoy said.

  She turned to Kirk. "But you-you and Mr. Spock- you are free to go about and meet our People."

  "Thank you," he said. "We appreciate your looking after Dr. McCoy."

  "Not at all," she inclined her head. "We shall make him well." She saw them to the door. Then she has-tened back to McCoy. As she sat down on the couch beside him, he said, "I am curious. How did the Oracle punish the old man?"

  The dark lashes lowered. "I-cannot tell you now."

  "There's some way by which the Oracle knows what you say, isn't there?"

  "What we say-what we think. The Oracle knows the minds and hearts of all the People."

  McCoy's forehead creased with a worried frown.

  Concerned, Natira extended a white hand that tried to stroke the frown away. "I did not know you would be hurt so badly."

  "Perhaps we had to learn the power of the Oracle."

  "McCoy. There is something I must say. Since the moment I saw you-" She took a deep breath. "It is not the custom of the People to hide their feelings."

  McCoy said to himself, Watch your step, boy. But to her, he said, "Honesty is usually wisdom."

  "Is there a woman for you?" she asked.

  He could smell the fragrance of the lustrous black hair near his shoulder. This woman was truthful as well as beautiful. So he gave her the truth. "No," he said. "No, there isn't."

  The lashes lifted-and he got the full impact of her open femininity. "Does McCoy find me attractive?"

  "Yes," he said. "I do. I do indeed."

  She took his face between her hands, looking deep into his eyes. "I hope you men of space-of other worlds, hold truth as dear as we do."

  Watching his step was becoming difficult. "We do," he said.

  "It is dear to me," she said. "So I wish you to stay here on Yonada. I want you for my mate."

  McCoy took one of the hands from his face and kissed it. The Eagle Scout in him whispered, Brother, douse this campfire. But in him was also a man under sentence of death; a man with one year to live-one with a new, very intense desire to make that last year count. He turned the hand over to kiss its palm. "But we are strangers to each other," he said.

  "Is it not the nature of men and women-that plea-sure lies in learning about each other?"

  "Yes."

  "Then let the thought rest in your heart, McCoy, while I tell you about the Promise. In the fullness of tune, the People will reach a new world, rich, green, so lovely to the eyes it will fill them with tears of joy. You can share that new world with me. You shall be its master because you'll be my master."

  "When will you reach this new world?"

  "Soon. The Oracle will only say-soon."

  There was an innocence about her that opened his heart. Incredibly, he heard himself cry out, "Natira, Na-tira, if you only knew how much I've needed a future!"

  "You have been lonely," she said. She picked up the wine glass and held it to his lips. "It is all over, the loneliness. There shall be no more loneliness for you."

  He drank and set the glass aside. "Natira-there's something I must tell you..."

  "Sssh," she said. "There is nothing you need to say."

  "But there is."

  She removed the hand she had placed over his mouth. "Then tell me, if the telling is such a need."

  "I am ill," he said. "I have an illness for which there is no cure. I have
one year to live, Natira."

  The dark eyes did not flinch. "A year can be a lifetime, McCoy."

  "It is my entire lifetime."

  "Until I saw you my heart was empty. It sustained my life-and nothing more. Now it sings. I am grateful for the feeling that you have made it feel whether it lasts for a day-a month-a year-whatever time the Creators give to us."

  He took her in his arms.

  Kirk and Spock were meeting curious looks as they walked down a corridor of the asteroid ship. The more people they encountered, the clearer it became they had no inkling of the real nature of their world. Spock said, "Whoever built this ship must have given them a reli-gion that would control their curiosity."

  "Judging by the old man, suppressing curiosity is handled very directly," Kirk said. They had reached the portal of the Oracle Room. Pretending to a casual interest in its carved stone pillars, Spock eyed them keenly. "Yes," he said, "the writing is that of the Fabrini. I can read it."

  "Fabrina?" Kirk said. "Didn't the sun of the Fabrina system go nova and destroy its planets?"

  "It did, Captain. Toward the end, the Fabrini lived underground as the people do here."

  "Perhaps some of them were put aboard this ship to be sent to another planet." Kirk glanced up and down the corridor. It was almost empty. "And these are their descendants."

  They were alone now in the corridor. Kirk tried and, failed to open the Oracle Room's door. Spock touched the secret opening device set into one of the pillars. Inside, they flattened themselves against a wall. The door closed behind them. Nothing happened. Kirk, his voice low, said, "The Oracle doesn't seem to know we are here. What alerted it the first time?"

  Spock moved a few steps toward the central dais. "Captain, the Oracle's misbehavior occurred when Na-tira knelt on that platform." Kirk stepped onto the platform. He walked carefully around it. Again, noth-ing happened. "Mr. Spock, continue investigating. The clue to the control place must be here somewhere." But carvings on a wall had caught Spock's attention. "More writing," he said. "It says nothing to suggest this is anything but a planet. Nor is there any question that the builders of the ship are to be considered gods."

  Kirk had found a stone monolith set in a niche. It bore a carved design of a sun and planets. Spock joined him. "Eight planets, Captain. Eight. That was the num-ber in the solar system of Fabrina."

  "Then there's no doubt that these People are the Fabrini's descendants?"

  "None, sir. And no doubt they have been in flight on this asteroid ship for ten thousand years." As Spock spoke, there was the sound of the door opening. They hastily slid behind the monolith. Kirk cautiously peered around it to see Natira, alone, crossing the room to the platform. She knelt. As before, hot light flared from the altar.

  "Speak," said the Oracle.

  "It is I, Natira."

  "Speak."

  "It is written that only the High Priestess of the People may select her mate."

  "It is so written."

  "For the rest of the People-mating and bearing is only permitted by the will of the Creators."

  "Of necessity. Our world is small."

  "The three strangers among us-there is one among them called McCoy. I wish him to remain with the People-as my mate."

  Kirk gave a soundless whistle. Bones certainly had lost no time. Spock cocked an eyebrow, looking at Kirk.

  "Does the stranger agree to this?" queried the Oracle.

  "I have asked him. He has not yet given me his answer."

  "He must become one of the People. He must wor-ship the Creators and agree to the insertion of the obedience instrument."

  "He will be told what must be done."

  "If he agrees to all things, it is permitted. Teach him our laws so that he commits no sacrilege, no offense against the People-or the Creators."

  "It shall be as you say, O most wise."

  Natira rose, bowed twice, backed away from the altar and walked toward the door. As Kirk watched her go, his sleeve brushed against the monolith's carved design. The Oracle Room reverberated with a high-pitched, ululating whine. Natira wheeled from the door. The whine turned to a blazing white light. It turned to focus on Kirk and Spock. They went rigid, unable to move.

  Natira rushed to the altar.

  "Who are the intruders?" demanded the booming voice.

  "Two of the strangers."

  "McCoy is one of them?"

  "No."

  "These two have committed sacrilege. You know what must be done."

  "I know."

  Guards rushed into the room. The light that held Kirk and Spock died, leaving them dazed. Natira point-ed to them. "Take them," she told the guards.

  As they were seized, she walked up to them. "You have been most foolish," she said. "You have misused our hospitality. And you have more seriously sinned-a sin for which death is the punishment!"

  Natira withstood the storm of McCoy's wrath quiet-ly. As he paused in his furious pacing of her quarters, she said-and for the third time-"They entered the Oracle Room."

  "And why is death the penalty for that?" he shouted, "They acted out of ignorance!"

  "They said they came in friendship. They betrayed our trust. I can make no other decision." He wheeled to face her. "Natira, you must let them return to their ship!"

  "I cannot."

  "For me," he said. He pulled her from her couch and into his arms. "I have made my decision. I'm staying with you-here on Yonada."

  She swayed with the relief of her love. Into the ear against his cheek, McCoy said, "What they did, they did because they thought they had to. You will not regret letting them go. I am happy for the first time in my life. How can I remain happy, knowing you com-manded the death of my friends?"

  She lifted her mouth for his kiss. "So be it," she said. "I will give you their lives to show you my love."

  "My heart sings now," McCoy said. "Let me tell them. They will need their communications units to return to their ship."

  "Very well, McCoy. All shall be as you wish."

  He left her for the corridor where Kirk and Spock were waiting under guard. He nodded to the guards. When they disappeared down the corridor, he handed the communicators to Kirk. Kirk passed one to Spock. "Where's yours?" he asked. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"

  "No, I'm not," McCoy said.

  "But this isn't a planet, Bones! It's a spaceship on a collision course with Daran V!"

  "Jim, I'm on something of a collision course myself."

  "I order you to return to the ship, Dr. McCoy!"

  "And I refuse! I intend to stay right here-on this ship. Natira has asked me to stay. So I shall stay."

  "As her husband?"

  "Yes. I love her." There were tears in his eyes. "Is it so much to ask, Jim, to let me love?"

  "No." Kirk straightened his shoulders. "But does she know-how much of a future you'll have together?"

  "Yes. I have told her."

  "Bones, if the course of this ship isn't corrected, we'll have to blow it out of space."

  "I'll find a way-or you will. You won't destroy Yonada and the people."

  Kirk shook his head. "This isn't like you-suddenly giving up-quitting-not fighting any more. You're sick-and you're hiding behind a woman's skirts!"

  McCoy swung a fist and Kirk took it square on the chin. He staggered. Spock steadied him. McCoy was yelling, "Sick? Not fighting? Come on, Captain! Try me again!"

  Very grave, Spock said, "This conduct is very unlike you, Doctor."

  Kirk fumbled for his communicator. "Kirk calling Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise."

  "Scott here, Captain."

  "Lock in on our signals. Transport Mr. Spock and me aboard at once."

  "What about Dr. McCoy?"

  Yes, indeed. What about Doctor McCoy? He looked at his friend. "He is staying here, Mr. Scott. Kirk out."

  Spock moved to Kirk, flipping open his own commu-nicator. McCoy backed away. They broke into sparkle -and were gone. Savagely, McCoy dragged a sleeve over
his tear-blinded eyes.

  Custom required him to stand alone before the Oracle.

  It spoke.

  "To become one of the People of Yonada, the instru-ment of obedience must be made part of your flesh. Do you now give your consent?"