Star Trek - Blish, James - 08 Read online

  Natira came forward. She crossed to another side of the altar and opened a small casket.

  "I give my consent," McCoy said. As she removed a small device from the casket, her dark eyes met his with a look of pure love. "Say now, McCoy," she said. "For once it is done, it is done."

  "Let it be done," he said.

  She came to him. Placing the device against his temple, she activated it. He heard a hissing sound. There was a thudding in his head. Instinctively his hand went to the place of insertion. "You are now one with my People," she said. "Kneel with me."

  He reached for her hand. She said, "I here pledge you the love you want and will make beautiful your time."

  "We are now of one mind," he said.

  "One heart."

  "One life," he said.

  "We shall build the new world of the Promise togeth-er, O most wise and most perfect." They rose. She moved into his arms and he kissed her.

  The Oracle said, "Teach him what he must know as one of the people."

  Natira bowed. Obediently, she led McCoy to the stone monolith. She touched a button-and the carved inset depicting a sun and eight planets slid aside to reveal a large book. "This is the Book of the People," she said. "It is to be opened and read when we reach the world of the Promise. It was given by the Creators."

  "Do the People know the contents of the book?"

  "Only that it tells of our world here. And why we must one day leave it for the new one."

  "Has the reason for leaving been revealed to the People?"

  "No! It has not."

  Then they'd been right, McCoy realized. Yonada's inhabitants were unaware they lived on a spaceship. "Has it been revealed to you, Natira? As the Priestess of the People?"

  She shook her head. "I know only of the new world promised to us, much greater than this little one- verdant and fruitful but empty of living beings. It waits for us."

  "Don't you long to know the book's secrets?"

  "It is enough for me to know that we shall under-stand all that now is hidden when we reach our home." She touched the button in the monolith. Its carved inset slid back.

  "What is the law concerning the book?"

  "To touch it-to allow it to be seen by a nonbeliever is blasphemy to be punished by death."

  On the Enterprise Kirk had made his first act a report to Starfleet Command. It had to be told, not only of McCoy's critical illness, but of their failure to correct the collision course of the asteroid ship. Its Chief of Operations, Admiral Westervliet himself, appeared on the screen in Kirk's quarters to respond to the news.

  "Medical Headquarters will supply you with a list of space physicians and their biographies, Captain. You will find a replacement for Dr. McCoy among them."

  Kirk addressed the stiffly mustached face on the screen. "Yes, Admiral. However, Starfleet's orders to continue our mission is creating difficulties."

  "Difficulties? Perhaps I've failed to make myself clear, Captain. You have been relieved of all responsi-bility for alteration of the course of the asteroid ship Yonada. Starfleet Command will take care of the situa-tion."

  "That is the problem, sir," Kirk said.

  "A problem? For whom?"

  "My crew, sir. Dr. McCoy's illness has become gen-erally known. His condition forced us to leave him on Yonada. His safety depends on the safety of Yonada. To leave this area before Yonada's safety is certain would create a morale problem for the crew. It's a purely human one, of course."

  Westervliet had a habit of attacking his mustache when human problems were mentioned. Now it was taking a beating.

  "Yes," he said. "Well, Captain Kirk, I certainly sym-pathize with your wish to remain in Dr. McCoy's vicin-ity. But the general mission of the Enterprise is galactic investigation. You will continue with it."

  "Yes, Admiral," Kirk said. "One request, however. Should a cure for Doctor McCoy's disease be discov-ered, will you advise the Enterprise?"

  "That is not a request, Captain. Between you and me, it's an order, isn't it?"

  "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

  Kirk, switching off the screen, sat still in his chair. McCoy had made his choice. No appeal had been able to change it. And who was to say it wasn't the right one? A year of life with a woman's love against a year of life without it. Bones. He was going to miss him. The intercom squeaked. He rose to hit the button. "Kirk here."

  "Dr. McCoy for you, Captain," Uhura said. "He has an urgent message."

  "Put him on!"

  "Jim?"

  "Yes, Bones."

  "We may be able to get these people back on course!"

  Kirk's pulse raced. "Have you located the controls?"

  "No-but I've seen a book that contains all the knowledge of Yonada's builders. If you can get to it, Spock can dig out the information."

  "Where is it?" Kirk asked.

  A scream of agony burst from the intercom. "Bones! What's happening? Bones!"

  Silence. Frantic, Kirk tried again. "McCoy, what is it? What has been done to you? Bones, come in..."

  But he knew what had happened. Torture, death.

  The Oracle had taken McCoy's life in exchange for his forbidden revelation.

  Kirk's jaw muscles set hard. "Transporter Room," he told the intercom.

  He and Spock materialized in Natira's quarters. She was cradling McCoy's head in her arms. But his face was contorted with pain. Kirk saw him struggle to lift his head. It sank back into Natira's lap.

  She looked at them. Dully, her voice toneless, she said, "You have killed your friend. I will have you put to death."

  "Let me help you," Kirk said.

  "Until you are dead, he will think of you and dis-obey. While you live, my beloved cannot forget you. So I shall see you die."

  She made a move to get up and Kirk grabbed her, clapping his hand over her mouth. "Spock," he said, "help McCoy."

  "Yes, Captain." Spock unslung his tricorder. From it he removed a tiny electronic device. Bending over McCoy's motionless body, he pressed the device on the spot where the instrument of obedience had been in-serted. When he withdrew it, the insert was clinging to it. He jerked it clear. Then he handed it to Natira. She stared at him, unbelieving. A little moan broke from her. Kirk released her. She sank to the floor. After a moment, she pulled herself up to her hands and knees and crawled over to McCoy. She touched his temple. "My beloved is again a stranger. We are no longer one life." She burst into passionate weeping. "Why have you done this to us? Why?"

  "He is still yours," Kirk said gently.

  The tears choked her. "It is-forbidden. He is not of our people-now. You have released him-from his vow of obedience."

  "We have released him from the cruelty of your Oracle," Kirk said.

  She closed her eyes, unhearing, her body racked with sobs. Beside her, Kirk saw McCoy's eyelids flicker open. He went to him quickly, bending over him. "You spoke of a book," he said. "Where is it, Bones?"

  Natira leaped to her feet with a shriek. "You must not know! You must not know that!"

  McCoy looked up into Kirk's eyes. "The Oracle Room," he whispered.

  "You will never see the Book!" cried Natira. "It is blasphemy!" She ran to the door, calling, "Guards! Guards!"

  Kirk caught her, closing his hand over her mouth again. "You must listen to me, Natira!" She pulled away from him and he jerked her back. "Listen to me! If you do not understand what I tell you, you may call the guards. And we will accept whatever punishment is decreed. But now you must listen!"

  She slowly lifted the tear-wet lashes. "What is it you wish to say?"

  "I shall tell you the truth, Natira-the truth about your world of Yonada. And you will trust it as true as a child trusts what is true. Years ago, ten thousand years ago, a sun died and the sun's worlds died with it.

  Its worlds were the eight ones you see pictured on the stone pillar in the Oracle Room."

  "Yonada is one of those worlds," she said.

  "No. It was the world of your ancestors-your creators.
" He paused to give her time. After a moment, he quietly added, "It no longer exists, Natira."

  "You are mad," she whispered. "You are mad."

  "Hear me out, Natira! Your ancestors knew their world was about to die. They wanted their race to live. So they built a great ship. On it they placed their best people. Then they sent them and the ship into space."

  "You wish me to believe that Yonada is a ship?"

  "Yes," Kirk said.

  "But we have a sun! It did not die. And at night I see the stars!"

  "No. You have never seen the sun. You have never seen the stars. You live inside a hollow ball. Your fathers created the ball to protect you-to take you on the great journey to the new safe world of the Prom-ise."

  In her face he could see half-thought thoughts reviv-ing, completing themselves. But the growing perception was painful. Yet it had come. She spoke very slowly. "The truth-why do you bring it to Yonada?"

  "We had to. Your ship has done well-but its ma-chinery is tired. It must be mended. If we don't mend it, Yonada will strike and kill another great world it knows nothing about."

  Belief flooded into her. With it came the realization of betrayal.

  "Why has this truth not been told us? Why have we been kept in darkness?"

  Kirk went to her. But she pushed him away, over-whelmed by the sense of an incredible treachery. "No! You have lied! I believe only the Oracle! I must be-lieve!"

  Kirk said, "Let us remove the instrument of obedi-ence. Let us remove it for the truth's sake."

  She was gone, fled out the door. Kirk turned to Spock. "Do you think she understood me?" he said. But Spock was at the open door. Kirk saw him nod pleasantly to a passing guard before he quietly closed the door. "She hasn't sent the guards to detain us, Captain. It is my supposition that she understood a great deal."

  Behind them, McCoy had struggled shakily to Ms feet. Now he pushed past them. "Natira! I have to go to her. I must go to her in the Oracle Room."

  She was on her knees before the altar, her eyes shut in rapt devotion.

  The thunder voice spoke. "You have listened to the words of the nonbelievers."

  "I have listened."

  "You felt the pain of warning."

  "I felt the pain of warning."

  "Why did you listen further?"

  "They said they spoke the truth."

  "Their truth is not your truth."

  She opened her eyes. "Is truth not truth for all?"

  "There is only one for you. Repent your disobedi-ence."

  "I must know the truth of the world!" she cried.

  At the sound of her scream, Kirk rushed into the Oracle Room. He lifted Natira from the dais, but McCoy, reaching for her, took her in his arms, holding her close. Her body was stiff under spasms of pain. As one passed, she reached out a hand to caress his face. "Your friends have told me-much."

  "They spoke the truth," McCoy said.

  "I believe you. I believe..."

  Agony convulsed her again. She fought it bravely. "I believe with you, my husband. We have been kept in darkness."

  McCoy extended a hand to Spock. The tiny electron-ic device performed its function once more. When McCoy lifted it from Natira's temple, it held the obedi-ence insert. He held it up for her to see. The grief of a great loss shadowed her dark eyes as she lapsed into unconsciousness.

  "Is she all right?" Kirk asked.

  "She will be. I'll stay with her."

  Kirk said, "Mr. Spock-the Fabrina inset."

  They were crossing to the monolith when the Oracle spoke, a fierce anger in its voice. "You blaspheme the temple!"

  Kirk turned. "We do this for the survival of Yona-da's people."

  "You are forbidden to gaze at the Book!"

  "We must consult it to help the people!"

  "The punishment is death."

  Kirk looked back at McCoy. "Bones?"

  "Depress the side section," McCoy said.

  A blast of heat struck them. Around them the walls had turned a radiant red. Even as he pressed the side of the monolith, the air he breathed was scorching Kirk's lungs. But the inset had slid open. He seized the book and passed it to Spock. "It must contain the plan. Is it indexed?"

  "Yes, Captain. Here's the page..."

  Yellow, brittle with age, the page's parchment showed the same idealized sun, the same planet place-ments as the altar design and the inset. Arrows pointed to three of the planets. Spock translated the Fabrini writing at the top of the page. "Apply pressure simul-taneously to the planets indicated."

  The walls were glowing hotter. Spock tossed the book aside and they raced for the altar plaque. As Kirk pushed at the three planets, the altar moved forward. Then it stopped. Spock slid into the space behind it Before he followed him, Kirk turned back to McCoy and Natira. "Let's get out of this heat," he called.

  Spock had found a short passageway. As he ap-proached its end wall, it lifted. At once he heard the hum of electronic power. A light shone on a button-crowded console. Spock studied it for a moment. Then he pressed a button. The light went out. "I've neutral-ized that heating element!" he called back to the others.

  The heat in the Oracle Room rapidly cooled. Kirk and McCoy sat Natira down against an altar wall. "You'll be all right here now," Kirk said. "The Oracle can no longer punish."

  He saw her rest her glossy head against McCoy's shoulder. Looking up at him, she said, "Your friends have ended the punishments?" He nodded. "And will they send this-this ship on to the place of the Prom-ise?"

  "Yes," he said. "That is their promise. Now I must help them. Come with me."

  "No," she said.

  "There is nothing to fear now, Natira. So come. We must hurry to join them."

  "No. I cannot go with you." She paused. "It is not fear that holds me. I now understand the great purpose of our fathers. I must honor it, McCoy."

  He stared at her in unbelief. "You mean to stay here-on Yonada?"

  "I must remain with my people throughout our great journey."

  "Natira, trust me! The Oracle will not harm us!"

  "I stay because it is what I must do," she said.

  "I will not leave you," McCoy said.

  "Will McCoy stay here to die?"

  The question shocked him into silence. He fell to his knees beside her. "Natira, you have given me reason to wish to live. But wishing is not enough. I must search through the universe to cure myself-and all those like me. I wanted you with me-with me..."

  "This is my universe," she said. "You came here to save my people. Shall I abandon them?"

  "I love you," McCoy said.

  She kissed him. "If it is permitted, perhaps one day you, too, will see the land of our Promise...."

  It was good-bye. And he knew it. He reached for her blindly through a mist of tears.

  In the asteroid ship's control room, Spock had lo-cated a weakness in one of its consoles' eight tubes.

  "Enough to turn it off course?" Kirk asked.

  "Yes, Captain. The engine can take a check." Kirk, studying control panels, was reminded of those of the Enterprise. "A very simple problem," Spock called from the engine room. "And comparatively easy to repair."

  He came back, holding one hand out stiffly. "I think we can now attempt the course correction, sir."

  "What was wrong?"

  "In creating a completely natural environment for the people on this ship, its builders included many life forms-including insects. A control jet in there was blocked by a hornets' nest."

  "You're not serious, Mr. Spock?"

  Spock held up a forefinger. It was swollen to twice its normal size. "I destroyed the nest," he said. "In doing so, I was stung." He sat down, resuming his watch of the console instruments. "The guidance system is taking over, sir. I think we can revert to automatic controls."

  "She's steady on course now," Kirk said.

  They released the manual controls and were heading back to the Oracle Room when Spock stopped at a screened console of complex design. "Knowle
dge files," he said. "Those banks are filled with the total knowl-edge of the Fabrini. I presume they were prepared for the people to consult when they reach their destina-tion." He left Kirk to examine the console more closely. "They seem to have amassed a great deal of medical knowledge."