THE ASTEROID SWELLED as the shuttleeraft approached. Inside the craft, Spock noted the position of the entrance on his display panel. The lock was midway on the long axis of the artifact, in agreement with Lieutenant Commander Scott’s coordinates, set down after a complete scan of the alien.
As the shuttlecraft came in on automatic, Spock prepared himself anew to enter the alien. He had restrained his inner turmoil well during the first exploration of the mobile’s interior. The lurid green and black environment with its eerily designed walkways had affected the mental states of his companions, but had left his Vulcan mind relatively untouched. His Vulcan physique had also been resistant to the dizziness and disorientation that had so disturbed his fellow officers. But he knew that part of him—his human half, presumably—had been affected by the alien artifact, perhaps deeply. His imaginative capacities, with which his reason had always struggled, had been stimulated and brought to greater wakefulness. The black pathways that seemed to have been designed for insects of some kind had set his suggestible inner vision to conjuring up images of loathsome insectlike creatures, even in the absence of evidence that insectoid beings had constructed the mobile.
Yes, it was logical for him to return to the mobile alone. It was also reasonable to do whatever possible to save the mobile from destruction. Still, his most private self had been unwilling to speak to his compatriots about why he felt such a strong impulse to return alone.
He had wanted to confront it privately, without the distraction presented by companions. Now, alone in the shuttlecraft, he again faced his need for an exclusive audience with the alien, and once more found it surprising that he should have such an impulse and be so willing to obey it. He again put it down to his human half.
His desires were irrelevant, Spock told himself as the shuttlecraft attached itself to the place that seemed to mark an entrance. The need to divert the mobile from collision with the sun was paramount, outweighing any of his inner motivations.
The helmet of his protective suit was equipped with both a display readout from his emergency subspace transmitter backpack and a tricorder readout from the portable case hanging on his shoulder. As he rose from his seat, determined to find the mobile’s control center, he again considered the plan that he and Lieutenant Commander Scott had devised. Once the shuttle was attached, and waiting as a means of ultimate retreat, he would search the alien interior in sections, dividing it into six roughly equal parts. As he completed a search of each section, Scott, now stationed in the transporter room with Lieutenant Kyle, would lock on and bring him to another section. This would save some time; there was no way he could search the vast interior on foot.
As his shuttlecraft lock opened, Spock found himself facing an indented, flat, rocky surface that had all the appearance of an air lock. Scott had not had an easy time finding it; the task had taken three scans and some analysis of the data. The possible entryway was closed.
Spock reached for the tricorder that hung from his shoulder. “Mr. Scott,” he said.
“Scott here.”
“I may not be able to get inside from here. I am scanning the mechanism right now, and there seems to be no obvious way to trigger it to open. It may be that it will open only to identification patterns of some sort, ones that I am not equipped to provide.”
“Try a series of different frequencies,” Scott said. “That might do it.”
Spock thumbed the tricorder, running from low pitches to high frequencies even his Vulcan ears could not hear. “I have done so, but they are ineffective.”
“Spock,” Captain Kirk’s voice broke in, “we don’t have time to try cracking an alien safe combination. Have Scotty beam you inside from your position.”
“Captain,” Spock said, “I remind you that I may not be able to beam out if the mobile’s field comes on.”
“I’m well aware of that,” Kirk said, and Spock heard the concern in the captain’s voice.
“If it becomes necessary for me to make a hasty exit from the mobile, I would then have to try to open this lock from the inside, with my phaser, if need be.”
The captain was silent for a moment. “You could use your phaser now, and leave yourself with a ready-made way out—but we don’t know what such an action might trigger. Don’t do it.”
“I agree that it is unwise to do damage to the mobile now, Captain. It is possible that its systems may interpret such an action as an attack. We would be wise to wait until there is no other choice. Beam me inside, Mr. Scott.”
“Do it, Scotty,” Kirk added.
The flat, metallic surface of the mobile’s air lock faded from Spock’s eyes for a moment, and was replaced by the green and black alien interior. He scanned the area with his tricorder, and again his scan suggested life-forms somewhere nearby. It seemed to him suddenly that there were a great many of them, whispering in an incomprehensibly alien language, preparing to hunt his thoughts.
“I am here,” he said aloud. If they could not understand his words, perhaps they could somehow sense the warning in his mind. “There is an approaching danger from which you must save yourselves. Your vessel is traveling rapidly toward this system’s sun, and we have been unable to alter its course. You must act very soon, or you will perish.”
The whispering grew louder in his mind, as if insects were invading his brain. He felt almost as if tiny creatures were crawling around the inside of his skull.
Then, suddenly, the whispering stopped, as if a great wave had broken on some inward shore and slipped back into the deep. His tricorder readings still indicated that there were life-forms nearby.
Spock moved forward through a jagged passageway, wondering what waited for him.
* * *
“Spock,” Kirk said at his station, “report.”
“Still no sign of any kind of control center, Captain,” the Vulcan’s voice replied. “I am beginning to think that it may not have one, as we understand it.”
Myra Coles and Wellesley Warren had come back on the bridge shortly after Sulu and Riley had returned to duty at their stations. The Tyrtaeans might have rested in their quarters for a longer time, since they weren’t really needed here; but they would be thinking of their world’s safety.
“Speculations, Mr. Spock?” Kirk said.
“I surmise that control may be exerted over this vessel by mental means, perhaps originating in various centers of mentality, possibly a mixture of both artificial and biologically rooted intelligences, linking to power capacitors.”
“Interesting,” Cathe Tekakwitha said. She sat at the library and computer station, where she was now on duty with Ali Massoud.
“That might explain,” Spock’s voice continued, “why I’m picking up life-forms, always nearby but never seen. Perhaps they are everywhere, extended throughout the structure. It might also explain why we experienced so much psychological unease.”
“Do you mean that they might have been trying to contact us?” Tekakwitha asked.
“Quite possibly.”
“Or that they were deliberately trying to scare us off?” Kirk said.
“That is another possibility,” Spock replied.
Myra Coles sighed. “But then our only hope for diverting their mobile is to get them to do it. And if they fail …”
“Yes,” Kirk said, accepting the conclusion. “Then we may have to destroy it.”
“Mister Scott,” Spock said, “transport me to the coordinates for the second sector.”
“Aye,” Scott’s voice replied from the transporter room. “Here you go!”
“He must not give up too soon,” Wellesley Warren was murmuring to Myra Coles. “Spock still has five sectors to search.”
“Mr. Spock,” Kirk said, “what do you see now?”
“More erratic passageways and the same green and black color configuration.”
Kirk frowned at the sound of his first officer’s voice. Maybe he was imagining it, but was it possible that Spock’s voice sounded awed, even humbled? Perhaps the artifact was slowing the Vulcan’s mind.
“Captain,” Myra Coles said, “this is getting us nowhere. You should get him out of there and decide if this thing is going to be destroyed.”
He turned toward her. “As a last resort, Miss Coles, as a last resort. We’ll continue to keep pace with it as it moves toward the sun, and destroy it only when we have to.”
She pressed her lips together. “Do you think this is easy for me, insisting on its destruction? Destruction is waste, and we Tyrtaeans hate waste.”
Kirk stood up slowly. “I said that I would act when necessary.”
“The time is now, Captain Kirk. Take no chance at all. Bring Commander Spock back and destroy it now while you still can.”
“Miss Coles has a point, Captain,” Spock said. “Only our scientific curiosity prevents action. But I still concur with you that curiosity must override caution for now.”
“We may be destroying intelligent life,” Kirk said as he sat down again. “More to the point, if you insist on being practical, we may destroy something that could retaliate for our action. That could mean a much worse problem than a possible climatic change for the people of your world.”
“I did say earlier,” Spock murmured, “that we might set in motion an unforeseen chain of events, but I am somewhat doubtful that one such event would be retaliation. The life aboard this mobile has taken what seem to be defensive measures, but has not moved aggressively against us. This may be an egoless artificial intelligence, standing outside ethical judgments.”
“I appreciate your dispassionate observations, Commander Spock,” Myra Coles said. She turned to Kirk. “With something that alien, you may be taking more risks than you realize by waiting. Bring him back now and destroy the thing.”
“Mr. Spock still has time to search more of the interior,” Kirk said as calmly as he could. “I prefer to stick with that plan for now.”
“I am in agreement with you, Captain,” Spock said, “but in the meantime, you might try the impulse booster again.”
Myra Coles’s gray eyes narrowed, and her thoughts were clear: You Starfleet officers all stick together.
“Mr. Scott,” Kirk said, “try the booster again.”
“Aye, Captain. Scott to engineering—fire booster.”
“Activating now,” said the voice of Lieutenant Lund.
It might work this time, Kirk told himself. Maybe they just hadn’t been persistent enough, and this time there would be no resistance from the alien mobile; in which case, the problem would be solved in the simplest way: the asteroid would continue in a sun orbit and could be explored at leisure.
Myra Coles was gazing at the viewscreen, and he saw his own look of hope in her eyes.
“Course corrected,” Lund said from engineering. “Projection shows a free and clear sun orbit, cometary.”
“Confirmed,” Massoud said from his station on the bridge.
“Now let’s see if it sticks,” Sulu said softly.
Kirk waited; everyone on the bridge was silent.
“No luck,” Lund said over the communicator. “It’s corrected its course toward the sun again.”
“Confirmed,” the computer said.
“That thing wants the fire!” Scotty’s voice shouted. “I can feel it.”
“Did you hear all of that, Spock?” Kirk asked.
“Yes, Captain.”
“I propose to leave after six more hours. That should give me at least enough time to explore the remaining sectors in a cursory manner. I do not wish to fail without at least trying to collect as much data as possible. Is that satisfactory, Captain?”
“Proceed, Mr. Spock,” Kirk said softly.
Myra Coles shook her head. “Captain,” she said, “please consider that something could happen within the next six hours that could keep you from doing anything with the mobile. It may be able to defend itself. It’s my world we’re talking about, and your first officer’s safety.”
“Miss Coles, my first officer is capable of assessing risks, and I trust his judgment.” In spite of his words, Kirk’s reason was telling him that Myra Coles was right, that destroying the object would be the safest course. Starfleet would no doubt commend him for putting the welfare of the Tyrtaeus II colony ahead of other considerations; Myra Coles would be able to send a message to the Federation Council saying that she and Kirk had been entirely in agreement. Maybe the Tyrtaeans would even feel some gratitude to Starfleet for protecting them from possible danger, and there would be less talk of a new colony and breaking away from the Federation. Apart from all of that, Spock would be safely back aboard ship.
But, without saying it, Spock was telling him to wait; he seemed determined to explore the mobile for as long as possible. Thoughts teased him: the mobile had been hiding in the cometary ring of this solar system; perhaps it was not the only such mobile; there might be others. He shook off his suspicions—no point in making matters worse by inventing more threats.
Kirk stood up. Myra Coles was watching him intently. “I think we may have given this thing all we can,” he said.
Wellesley Warren looked dubious. “So you are going to destroy it?” Kirk could hear the disapproval in his voice.
“One step at a time,” Kirk said, “but it looks as though we may have to.” I’ll know when the time comes to destroy it, he told himself, because all his instincts insisted that it wasn’t time yet. There will be time, he told himself, to do what has to be done.