Ninety-Eight Point Four.

Series: TOS.

Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy and others.

Rating: G - Suitable for all.

Author: KarraCaz

Disclaimer: Paramount/Viacom copyrights Star Trek. I do not own any of these characters. I write about them for pleasure and not profit.
o0o

Aboard the battle cruiser KyakH'ta, Commander Kor hollow-eyed and hungrily alert, viewed the overhead screen that dominated the cramped bridge. Abruptly he tensed, and sat forward in the command chair, his impatience dissipating as a new star winked around the curve of the isolated world. Slowly, the intruder blossomed into a shape he recognised.

As cold starlight glittered on worked metal, he casually transferred his attention to the deck officer standing deferentially beside him. "So," he murmured gently. "A fish has come to explore our bait."

"HISlaH, joH." True, Lord, the deck officer replied in a sibilant hiss. "And a Federazhon Duj as we hoped."

Kor's mouth twisted into a brooding smile of contentment, "More than I had hoped, Qurosh."

"JoH?" Kurosh questioned dutifully.

"It is the 'entepray'." Kor replied with evident satisfaction. "And this time she will be mine, Qurosh. She will not slip through my fingers again."

A Klingon crewmember, one wary eye on Kor, hurried forward to whisper in Kurosh's ear.

"Lord," The deck officer said, waving the subordinate away, "we are picking up a broadcast from the Federazhon Duj. They are trying to contact their observation station on the planet."

"Then it has begun." Kor's eyes hooded with pleasure. "How was the jo', mIqta' set?"

"For a radius of five-thousand paces from the Federazhon base. It will respond only to Hu'Man body heat as programmed, JoH. There can be no escape."

"Maj' QaH," Kor did not hide his sudden jubilance. "The wheel has turned for us, Qurosh. I feel it in my blood."

Excitement flared in Kurosh's eyes. They burned yellow, irises slitted like those of a goat. He answered in a whisper. "Qapla' Daq mirqH, joH'a. Qapla'. Success at last, my Lord. Success."

O0o

The transporter set them down in a wide, bowl-shaped valley, ringed by a circle of low scrubby hills beneath a shimmering golden sky; the ruins of a past civilisation lay all about in massive tumbled blocks of masonry. Already perspiring heavily in the fierce heat, Kirk wiped at his forehead and temples, his mouth creasing into a lazy smile as he saw his First Officer instantly sweep the area, searching for readings.

"Found anything yet, Spock?"

The Vulcan looked up from his tricorder unperturbed by the blistering heat, oblivious to Kirk's gentle irony.

"There is a life form registering at bearing one three five, Captain. Just over that rise…"

Kirk nodded and mopped again at the fresh beads of perspiration that broke out on his face. A horde of tiny insects that had descended upon the human members of the landing party, no doubt stirred up by their sudden arrival on the usually empty world, irritated him even more.

"Damn crazy insects." Doctor McCoy grumbled. He panted in the furnace- like temperature, swatting frantically at the air around his face and head as the flies persisted in seeking out the moist places of mouth, eyes and nostrils.

"You okay, Bones?"

McCoy slapped at his face and neck, grimacing through clenched teeth. "This is worse than Vulcan, Jim. Let's get out of here before these bugs eat us alive."

"Indeed, Captain," Spock interjected quietly, although the tiny flies seemed to prefer honest red blood instead of Vulcan green and he remained unaffected by the insect attack. "The life signs are very weak. I suggest we hurry."

Kirk gestured to the two security officers, "Keep in direct sight. Report anything even remotely suspicious."

"Aye, sir." The men reached for the phasers hanging at their belts, still slapping vehemently at the swarm around their heads as they moved off to follow his orders.

The weakening life signs picked up by Spock's tricorder, led them to what was left of the Federation Research base on Hietala's World. The camp looked as if a tsuni had struck it, walls stove in, windows broken, roofs askew. A loose tarpaulin flapped with monotonous regularity in the playful breeze, accentuating the desolation.

McCoy stared uneasily around at the destroyed and lifeless base camp, his gaze straying to the flat, white ruins beyond. "This could be the reason we didn't get any response to our calls, Jim. Looks like one hell of a storm hit this place."

"There's not much left, I agree. What about those life signs, Spock?"

"Captain! Over here." The yell of alarm brought the three Enterprise officers hurriedly around the flank of the derelict laboratory. Navarin, along with Eluard, the two security personnel, stood over a row of six neatly aligned human bodies laid out among a scatter of debris and battered artefacts.

As McCoy knelt down beside the first prone figure, his medical tricorder held out before him, a huge cloud of the miniscule flies took to the air. With sweat prickling his forehead and cheeks, trying to make a diagnosis Bones swatted with demented abandon as they headed straight for him. "They're in some sort of weird stasis."

"You mean they aren't dead." Dismayed Kirk shivered despite the heat that burned down upon his uncovered head. Eyes half closed against the dazzle of harsh sunlight he peered closer at one blackened, unrecognisable face, his gorge rising. "Bones, this can't have been the result of storm damage. Is it a disease, some kind of virus?"

McCoy moved onto the next stiff-limbed, twisted form. "I can't say for certain until I get these poor devils up to the ship and run some tests. But if it is an infection, it's one I've never come across before."

Kirk reached for his communicator and flipped the case open. Immediately, Scotty's soft burr came over the speaker. "Scott here, Skipper. Is everything all right, sir?"

"We're all fine, Scotty, but the research team are in a bad way. Have the transporter standing by. And Scotty, I want full decontamination procedures."

"Aye, understood, sir. Scott out."

However, when Kirk turned back to his small landing party a fresh development had occurred. Spock, exploring curiously among the wreckage of the camp, had found something more.

The First Officer pointed out the deep drag marks in the dust with a non-committal expression. They led from the shattered buildings straight to where the six scientists lay.

"But what would do such a thing? And why? It makes no sense." McCoy commented tersely, before an idea suddenly occurred to him. He glanced up and down the broad sweep of ancient roadway with evident misgivings, bathed in perspiration, his uniform shirt stuck to his backbone. The ruins shimmered in the heat haze. The smell of old dust hung in the air.

The same thought had also struck Spock. "They could have been taken as prey, Doctor. The giant arachnids of Gaea III, for example, use venom to incapacitate their victims before consuming them alive."

McCoy shuddered, his imagination working overtime, before he remembered the specifics. His eyes narrowed as he glared at the Vulcan. "Ship's sensors didn't report any animal life down here. This planet is supposed to be as dead as the proverbial dodo."

Spock, head tilted to one side his face unreadable, regarded McCoy. "I was merely stating a 'for instance', Doctor. I did not mean to imply ---."

"Well the devil with your 'for instances', you pointy-eared ---"

"That's enough, Gentlemen." Kirk cut in, forestalling the preliminaries of battle. He resisted the urge to look at his First Officer, speculating on whether or not the Vulcan had deliberately intended to unnerve McCoy. "Gaen arachnids or not, something is going on here --- and I mean to find out what."

"Before it finds us, Jim?"

Spock's eyebrow rose, "Forewarned is forearmed, Doctor."

"Spock's right, Bones." Kirk murmured. "However, your first priority is a medical one. Those research scientists could do with you on board."

Despite McCoy's desire to quit the planet, he still put up a fight. "M'Benga and Christine can cover for awhile. You might need me here ---"

"I'm not open to argument on this, Doctor McCoy." Kirk's tone was absolute, but to stall further argument he added conciliatorily, "I need answers, Bones. You're the only one who can provide them."

Mollified but still reluctant to show his relief, McCoy nodded, "I'll start round the clock research. There'll be a cool drink waiting when you beam back up. Take care, Jim. You too, Spock."

"Doctor."

As the pink sparkle of the transporter enveloped McCoy and the injured research team, Kirk glanced up at the unremitting golden eye of the sun overhead. He ran his tongue over dry lips, reminded of his growing thirst by mention of that cool drink. Abruptly, his head started to whirl and he rocked unsteadily back onto his heels. A strong, firm grip closed instantly around his upper arm.

"Captain, are you unwell?"

"I guess I'm not used to this sort of heat, Mr. Spock."

The First Officer inclined his head, impervious to the sweltering temperature or the strong dazzle. "Perhaps if you were to rest in the shade for a moment, sir--"

"I -- don't think that will be necessary, Spock. It was only a momentary dizziness." He withdrew his arm pointedly from the First Officer's light hold, swatting uselessly at the kamikaze flies that continued to whirr about his face and neck. "We're wasting time---"

"Perhaps, Captain." Spock agreed, unruffled by Kirk's machismo. "However, it will help no-one by collapsing with sunstroke."

Kirk frowned from under lowering brows before the ridiculousness of his behaviour struck him. He relaxed, smiled slowly, embarrassed at his own reaction,

"Okay, Mom. I'll be a good boy and go sit in the shade --" He turned away laughing at Spock's elevated eyebrow, and froze ---

From behind a low screen of fallen stone came what could only have been a robot, quasi-spherical, gleaming with a dull sheen that emphasized the warty looking protuberances on its outer skin. It spotted Navarin and flowed toward him in a rolling motion that resembled a leather ball half-filled with some heavy liquid. As it got nearer, it sprouted a number of gleaming claw-like hooks and an ominous hollow probe that dripped green fluid.

"Look out ---." Both Eluard and Kirk shouted at once, but Navarin was already on his back, the hooks ensnared in his clothing, while the robot dragged him towards it at an alarmingly fast rate. Fine strands of some silky filament whipped out and wrapped themselves around the security guards throat, wrists, and ankles contracting rapidly dragging Navarin with them.

Eluard wrenched his phaser from his belt and fired. A burst of searing red light flared around the machine but left it untouched. With a yell, he threw the phaser aside and jumped for Navarin. Fresh strands of the silky material bloomed from the lumpy protrusions and lashed around Eluard binding him to Navarin.

Immediately Kirk leapt forward but Spock quickly held him back, lean fingers tightening almost painfully around his arm. "I believe that would not be wise, Captain."

Kirk thrust him off, his mouth twisting into a snarl. "Those are my men. I'm not going to leave them to that … thing."

However, he was already too late. The robot extended the hollow tube and injected both security guards with the green fluid. They went limp. The machine lost interest. It withdrew the filaments and the tube back within itself before swivelling toward Kirk and Spock. It disgorged a succession of rods, one with a bulbous eye-like structure on its tip, which studied them as it flowed nearer.

"Perhaps if we fired phasers simultaneously, sir?"

Kirk nodded, his eyes fixed on the robot as it inexorably moved in on them. "Set it on destruct. We can't take any chances, Spock."

They both fired, letting the phasers' energy beams play over and around the robot but even with the force doubled, the weapons had little effect on the alien machine. It surged towards them as they continued to watch.

"I believe it is time we exercised our discretionary faculties, Captain."

Kirk threw the First Officer a penetrating look. "You mean cut and run."

"Quite so, sir."

"If I may say so, that is a most… logical suggestion, Mr. Spock."

"Thank you, Captain. I endeavour to be so at all times." Together they turned and fled.

O0o

It was simple to put a good distance between themselves and the alien robot, which travelled at a constant speed, neither slowing nor speeding up. Spock, with calm deliberation, estimated it as a stable six kilometres an hour and although that knowledge comforted Kirk, he realised that if the hunt went on for more than an hour or two he, at least, would be in deep trouble. Despite efforts to double back and check on the two security personnel, the robot had somehow kept tracks on them. With single-minded determination, it followed their every move. Eventually, Kirk knew the machine had to catch up. When that happened and without some way to disable it, he and Spock would end trussed up like chickens exactly like Navarin and Eluard. The thought depressed him.

While Spock's superior Vulcan stamina and familiarization with the temperature allowed him to continue the chase without ill effect, the enervating heat had already taken its toll on Kirk. He gestured for Spock to slow down and sank wearily against an ancient stone pedestal that crumbled at his touch. His lungs laboured for breath. He sucked in the burning air and watched Spock through a red haze of pounding blood. The hard thump, thump of his heart knocked against his ribs.

The Vulcan, intent on their back trail, withdrew his communicator as Kirk watched and started to call the Enterprise.

"Spock ---?"

"There is no response, Captain. Our transmissions are being intercepted."

"Intercepted? You mean the robot is ---"

"Undoubtedly." The communicator closed with a dull snap. "It seems to possess sensors equal to, or even more sophisticated than those aboard the ship. We may only have a short time in which to rest."

Kirk sighed and took the opportunity to stretch out in the meagre shade of the pedestal. Spock hunkered down on his heels nearby, a wary eye on the path they had just travelled.

With his eyes closed against the fiery blaze of the sun, absently slapping at the midges that plagued him, Kirk asked, "Any idea what it's after, Spock?"

There was a brief pause, "Even speculation needs adequate data, Captain. However, I do have a preliminary hypothesis."

"Explain."

"Very well. This city is quite certainly very ancient and of a high order of workmanship. It also appears to have been destroyed rather than left to decay."

"Agreed. The expedition reports indicated there was a nuclear holocaust in the far past Mr. Spock…"

Spock turned his attention to the vast ruins all around them. "Suppose that the robot was a mechanical guard, one of many that patrolled the city…"

7