Jim Kirk clicked off his video screen and commed the bridge. "Uhura here, sir."

"Set course for Malocious IX, maximum warp. Have department heads meet me in the briefing room. Also make sure Lt Cmdrs Stewart and Lee are there."

"Aye, sir," Uhura replied crisply. A few moments later, she was summoning the officers to the briefing room. Kirk began to head that way, then remembered Spock was probably out of earshot. He decided to find Spock himself, so he hailed a passing crewman to deliver a stack of data tapes to the briefing room along with the instructions that the officers shouldn't wait for him to begin perusing the data.

That done, Kirk made his way to Cargo Bay D. Once he arrived, he glanced around trying to find anything that resembled a ship before he remembered it had been described as a blue wooden box. He finally spotted it and as he approached, he frowned. Both the size and construction of it made the idea of using it as transportation ludicrous. He tried the door but found it would not open. He tried again, pulling this time, but to no avail. He opened the small door on the outside and found an old-style communication device. He tried speaking into it, but there was no response. Finally, he gave up and knocked.

The door swung open and Jamie greeted him. "Oh, decided to come have a look for yourself, did ya?"

Kirk shook his head. "We have an emergency. I need my first officer out here now."

"Aye," Jamie replied. "Do you want to come in and wait while I call them?"

Kirk hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Might as well." He walked up the ramp and found himself in a large coppery chamber facing a control console that made his ship appear simple. He quickly scanned the interior but did not see Spock or the Doctor. "Where are they?"

Jamie laughed. "Och, it's a big ship. I haven't any idea where they've got to. I'm just going to use the intercom." He approached the console and pulled a microphone down from an overhead jumble. "Doctor, the captain's here. He wants Mr. Spock back. It's an emergency." Jamie replaced the microphone and looked over at Kirk. "They should be back in a minute or two."

"How is this possible?" Kirk asked, gesturing to indicate the large space inside the small box.

Jamie laughed again. "I've never understood how any o' these gadgets work. I can operate some of 'em, but I couldna tell ya anything beyond that."

Kirk smiled. "I bet my chief engineer would love to have a look around in here."

"Maybe later, eh?" Jamie asked.

The Doctor and Spock entered before Kirk could reply. "This is a most extraordinary vessel, Captain," Spock began.

"I'm sorry, Spock, it'll have to wait. We've been ordered to Malocious IX to investigate a phenomenon that has just wiped out the entire planet. We're meeting in the briefing room to review the data a science team managed to transmit before they were killed."

The Doctor leaned out from where he'd been standing behind Spock. "Unexplained phenomenon that's wiped out an entire planet you say? It sounds like you might need my help."

Kirk was unconvinced. "Are you a scientist, Doctor?"

The Doctor tilted his head to the side as he replied, "I am when I need to be, and I'm always clever."

"All right, then, come on."


Jamie and the Doctor remained standing as Kirk and Spock sat down. "Ladies and gentlemen, our job is to find out what this phenomenon is. What do we know?" He looked to Lt Cmdr Stewart to begin.

The young man described the chemical makeup and unusual behavior of the cloud. "In fact, sir, I don't think it's a naturally occurring event. I think it's alive."

The Doctor leaned over Spock's shoulder and studied the data presented on the computer screen. "Do you mind?" he asked as he flipped through page after page at inhuman speeds, not waiting for Spock's answer.

Several people had briefed the captain on their findings and observations when the Doctor interrupted. "The Brigadier's right."

He was met with at least ten surprised faces. "Brigadier?" Kirk asked. The man's insane.

"Sorry, it's just...you, Lt Cmdr Stewart. You look just him. Sound like him too. Don't you think, Jamie?"

Jamie, who'd kept quiet and let the information wash over his head, started. "Wha—? Oh. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart ya mean? Aye, the spitting image."

The lieutenant commander squirmed uneasily as everyone in the room turned to look at him as if he could explain.

"He was obviously an ancestor of yours," the Doctor said. "Back in London in the late 1900s. Wonderful man. We'll have to pop back and see him sometime. But what I was saying—he was right about this...thing...being alive. It's a jecocyte conglomeration."

"Jecocyte?" Jamie repeated. "What's that?"

"A jecocyte is a microscopic life-form. By itself, pretty harmless. It hangs about in space getting nourishment from the random litter that's floating around up there. But when you get a quindecillion group together like that..." he trailed off, letting the silence speak for him.

"How do they...work?" Stewart asked.

"A jecocyte on its own has one purpose, survive. Two or more have the purpose to reproduce, but that many, in one place...destroy. They were engineered to go unnoticed until their numbers reach a certain point, at which time they attack the nearest planet and leave it devoid of all life."

"Engineered?" Kirk asked.

"Yes. They're a weapon."

"Who would design a weapon that attacks planets at random?" Doctor McCoy demanded.

The Doctor sighed. "A people at war. Lines are drawn and crossed in war. After the war's over, the weapons linger on. It's not the first time I've encountered something like this."

"How do we stop them?" Kirk demanded.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied sadly.