Author's Note : References the TOS episode 'Wink of an Eye'
"-"
Temptations
Chapter 29 - Buzzing
March, 2269
They got a distress call from a beautiful, apparently uninhabited city on a planet that looked to be completely deserted, with all its buildings in perfect shape. The sensors showed something, but what that something was, they couldn't tell. Kirk lead a landing party to see what they could discover. Once there, he asked Uhura to verify that they were at the exact coordinates. She verified that they were standing in the exact spot the distress call was coming from. She could see the people who were asking for help, but she couldn't see him. He reported that, aside from the landing party, there was no one there. No Scalosians at all. He ordered all circuits checked, and Scotty reported that he was checking sensors as well.
McCoy reported that this was a barren world. There was hardly any vegetation, no animal life. Kirk waved at the insect buzzing about him. "There is insect life."
Bones looked at him, skeptical. "Doesn't register on my tricorder."
"Registers on my ears." The two men looked at each other, puzzled. When Spock walked up and gave his report, they were even more puzzled. Evidence of recent occupation of some buildings, and lifeform readings with lifeforms. Even Spock said his readings would need further analysis.
Kirk was telling Spock to run a complete survey of the planet, using all available ship's instruments, when McCoy gave a loud exclamation. Kirk turned to see what the problem was. The science officer who had been assisting McCoy was no longer there, although the equipment he had been using was. McCoy had seen him vanish before his eyes.
When Kirk returned to the bridge, Scotty informed him that all the senors and circuits checked out fine. Then he asked if Spock was still down on the planet. Kirk informed him that Spock was still in sick bay, where McCoy was running a check on all members of the landing party. Behind him, Nyota heard that, wondering why it was necessary. She was getting nothing disturbing from Spock over their link.
Sulu reported a malfunction on the hanger deck, with controls frozen, but assured Kirk that repair parties had already been assigned.
Uhura told Kirk that the replay of the distress call was ready for him to watch and he told her to put it on the viewscreen. Just as it started, Spock exited from the turbolift, much to Nyota's relief. Spock stepped down beside the command chair, watching with Kirk. After the first part played, Kirk told Uhura to stop the playback. Spock then stated that he suspected that this was a prerecorded message. Uhura supported him, stating that that would explain why they continued to receive it even when the landing party was on the planet.
Kirk was confused and upset. Those people had been there, and now they were not. Moreover, crewman Compton was no longer there, either. Spock felt that some entity only partially discernable may have been responsible. When Kirk told Sulu to put the ship on standby alert until the investigation was complete, Sulu reported that the deflectors were inoperative, the controls frozen. Kirk immediately jumped from his chair and called to Scotty to assist. And then he told Spock that he wanted a complete investigation into the series of strange malfunctions that they had experienced since beaming back up from Scalos. Bones called, telling Kirk that he was the last of the landing party to be examined and needed to come to sick bay right away. When Kirk asked what his findings were so far, McCoy did not want to discuss it over the intercom. Kirk left the bridge quickly, turning the conn over to Spock.
When Kirk reached sick bay, Chapel reported that someone had opened all the medical supply cabinets. Nothing appeared to be missing, only disordered.
When Bones was only partially finished with his exam, Kirk heard that buzzing again, and stood up, off the examining table. He asked Bones if he could be hallucinating. He was told he was perfectly normal, physically. He then told Bones that twice before he had heard the buzzing and felt as though someone had touched him, but there was no one there. And it had just happened again. He asked again if he could be hallucinating. Bones didn't think so. Kirk immediately decided that they had beamed something back aboard with them. And he heard more intensive buzzing. "Something has invaded the ship!"
Spock called him on the intercom, but Kirk had great difficulties in hearing him. There was a lot of static. Uhura broke in to tell him that the intercom system was rapidly breaking down. He ordered the use of communicators instead of the intercom, and that phasers be issued to all crewmembers. And then he asked Spock to repeat his message. He listened with concern as Spock told him that alien substances were being introduced into the life support systems. He ordered Spock to meet him in Life Support on the double.
When they met in the hall, Spock handed him a phaser and a communicator. Two security guards proceeded them, headed straight for Life Support, with their phasers drawn. Just before they reached there, they ran into something that caused bright sparks of energy, and both guards collapsed to the floor. Spock drew out his tricorder and scanned the corridor as the two security guards groggily regained their feet. There was a force field blocking their way, in a configuration that Spock was not familiar with. He also reported an alien presence, similar to those found on the surface, but not with any definite location.
Kirk ordered phasers on stun, and initiated a sweep of the area. Nothing was revealed. Slowly they approached the part of the corridor where the force field had been, and once again the two security guards were knocked down, but neither Kirk or Spock was affected. Spock noted that it seemed that only the two of them would be allowed to enter. He advised caution. Kirk advanced with one hand out before him.
Inside the Environmental Engineering bay, they found a strange apparatus attached to one of the computer consoles, with tubing running from it into the machine. A light on the side blinked constantly. Spock could not identify the device, although he did state that it was of alien origin. After looking at it more closely, he said that he felt that the installation was incomplete. Kirk ordered him to disconnect it. Spock advanced toward the device but when he touched it, he received a severe shock, hurriedly removing his hand from it. At Nyota's urgent query as to what the problem was, he silently assured her that he was fine.
Now Kirk ordered its destruction, and they drew their phasers, changing the setting from stun to kill. But their phasers were violently jerked out of their hands, and disappeared. Then they were shoved back away from the device. Kirk stated the obvious, that that had been no force field. Whatever the aliens were, they were there, in that room. He yelled at the empty air, demanding that they show themselves. The only response was more of that high-pitched buzzing. Spock looked thoughtful. Spock silently warned Nyota that they were going to try to touch the device again, and not to worry. Once more they approached the apparatus, and this time, both of them were shocked when they tried to touch it. "It seems that we may look at it, Captain, but that is all."
They left the Life Support area and returned to the bridge. Spock entered all the known data on a data chip, and fed it to the library computer, while Kirk stood and waited for the results. The computer confirmed their suspicions that they had been invaded. It also stated that the purpose of the invasions was to seize the Enterprise and the crew, but could not identify the beings who had invaded, nor tell how many there were of them. Although the answers to most of the questions Spock asked of the computer were 'insufficient data', it did recommend that they negotiate for terms. Kirk rejected that idea immediately, and Scotty seconded with no further thought. Kirk wanted to wait for 'them' to take the next step.
When a yeoman passed with a tray of coffee cups, Kirk took one and sat in the command chair. He paused, sitting the coffee cup down, and passing his hands about his body, as though he had felt something. He did not see the coffee agitating violently in the cup. When he had satisfied himself that there was no invisible being close to him, he picked up the cup and drank, grimacing at the taste. He looked about him in concern - everything he saw seemed to be moving in slow motion. He rose from his chair, walking past Uhura, who seemed to be frozen in place, and approached Spock. By the time he reached him, Spock was frozen in mid-gesture as well. He called his name, but got no response.
When he heard the word 'captain', he turned about, and there, across the bridge, stood one of the people he had seen in the distress call. He walked across to her, asking for an explanation, but as soon as he reached her, she enveloped him in a full body hug, and fastened her mouth onto his. He was totally unprepared for that, and struggled to put her off, demanding to know who she was. "Deela, the enemy."
When he demanded to know what she had done to his men, she assured him that she had done nothing, they were just as they had always been. It was he who was different. When he continued to check on the people on the bridge, concerned, she told him that she had changed him - accelerated him, and that his people only heard him as the buzzing of an insect. When he asked why, she replied that she liked him. And then she kissed him again, until he was able to pry her off.
She told him that the ship had not been sabotaged, that they had only made a few changes to accommodate themselves. When he questioned the 'we', she said her chief science officer and his staff. She also told him that he could not go back to the way he was, ever. When he pulled his phaser, she laughed at him, and when he fired it, the beam moved so slowly that she simply moved out of the way. And then she pulled her own weapon and knocked the phaser out of his hand.
When he asked her, if he agreed to go with her, if she would set the ship to rights, removed the device in life support. She just laughed, telling him he would feel better about it in a little while. And then she said things that made him realize that they were not the first to have been trapped and set upon. He turned and left the bridge, and she laughed again.
Uhura turned to say something to Kirk and saw the empty chair. She leapt up, calling his name. Spock and Sulu turned and walked to the chair as well. All were astonished. Spock picked up the coffee cup, looking at it.
When Kirk arrived at the life support section, Compton was there, also accelerated. And he would not let Kirk pass. Compton had a device like the one that Deela had used on his phaser. He confessed that one of the females belonging to the party had convinced him to join them. He had brought them aboard, and showed them the operation of the ship. Kirk pretended to turn away, and then lunged back at Compton, knocking the device from his hand. He charged into the life support lab and was met by two men dressed in silver clothing, who fired their devices at him, stopping him in mid-stride. He collapsed slowly onto the floor. Compton came running in, and knocked the men's devices aside. Another man came forward and fired at him. Compton collapsed as well. But his collapse was permanent. One of the men in silver said 'cell damage'.
On the bridge, Spock ran his tricorder over the cup of coffee that had been sitting on the arm of the command chair. When he found readings similar to some he had taken on the planet, he questioned Sulu whether he had drunk his coffee, and whether anyone else had. Scotty stepped forward with his partially empty cup and Spock scanned that, as well as Sulu's. He handed his tricorder to Uhura to hold until he could analyze what was in the cups. She put the strap over her shoulder, and clasped the body of the tricorder against her own body, guarding it.
Spock reminded Scotty and Sulu that the captain had wished for them to wait for the invaders to take the next step, and that it seemed that they had taken it. Now it was time to determine effective countermeasures. He gave the conn to Scotty and headed for the medical lab.
When Kirk regained consciousness, he sprang to his feet, looking around. He demanded to know what the device connected to the life support computer was doing on his ship. The man facing him told him that Deela would explain. She told him that she would explain anything he wanted, and that he would approve of it. "Hardly!" He exclaimed. "We're your prisoners."
She denied this, telling him he was free to go anywhere he wished. He turned and went straight to the alien device. The man standing there told him to study it, but he suggested that he not touch it. So of course Kirk did, and was shocked again. He stood there for a moment, and then gritted his teeth, and put both hands on it. Deela pulled his hands off. The man told him that the unit had its own self defense mechanism, and that Kirk should have heeded him. And then Kirk saw Compton's body on the floor, much aged. The man told him that those newly accelerated were very susceptible to cell damage, it causing them to age very rapidly, and die. He also said that Compton's cells were damaged in his struggle with Kirk, neglecting to mention his own involvement.
In sick bay, Kirk fed all the facts he knew into the computer banks, and then he made a recording for Spock, telling him everything he had learned. Deela walked in before he was finished and gave him further information, which he added to his message. But Deela told Kirk that by the time the others heard his message it would be too late.
Kirk demanded to know why they were acting this way, and Deela told him of her planet's history. How volcanic eruptions and radiation had changed her people. How all the children had died, and they then discovered that all the men were sterile. Over the years since then, the women of her people had been forced to mate outside their species, in order for their people to survive. She repeated that they had tried other ways, with no success, and that some of her people had tried to slow themselves down to the level they had lived at before. All had died.
Kirk offered to put his scientists to work to help her people, if she would only turn off the device. She refused. Her communication device signaled her, and while she was talking to one of her men, Kirk took the recording he had made and inserted it into the computer where Spock was working. And then he headed down the hall. When Deela turned and saw that he was gone, she panicked.
McCoy turned to Spock, holding up a beaker of yellow-orange fluid. He said that this substance was what was found in the captain's coffee, and not in any of the other cups, and that it was also found in the Scalosian water.
Having heard Deela's orders to take him to the transporter room, Kirk had hurried there before her, and quickly removed a component from the console. He was barely on his feet again when she entered the room. Kirk told her he wanted to leave the ship before the suspended animation device came online. Deela moved her hand on the console controls, aiming her weapon at Kirk. She waved Kirk to the transporter pad. She continued to manipulate the controls, but nothing happened. She accused Kirk of doing something, but he insisted that it was working before, and that she should try it again. She contacted Raal, telling him that the transporter was not working, but that Kirk had not had time to do anything to it. She told Raal not to activate the unit yet.
In the sick bay, Spock heard the high pitched buzzing, and left for the bridge. Once there, he told Uhura to replay the Scalosian distress call on his viewer. He switched from the distress call to the recording made of the landing party, which showed Compton's disappearance. Then he switched back to the distress call again, but slowed it down. Then he restarted it, speeding it up again and again until it sounded just like the buzzing he had heard in sick bay. He switched back to the landing party recording, listening as the captain talked about insect life.
In sick bay, McCoy found the data chip that Kirk had recorded. It was a different color from the ones they were using in their research. And it was not labeled. Curious, he replayed it, and heard only high-pitched buzzing. He frowned. And then he called Spock and told him what he had found. Spock told him to bring it to the bridge at once.
On the bridge, Spock adjusted the speed of the data chip until he and McCoy could see and understand the captain. Everyone else on the bridge listened as well. Spock told Uhura to notify the entire crew. Scotty asked whether they could use phasers to cut through the wall and destroy the unit, but Spock told him that they could not cope with the intruders on their level. Scotty then asked if there was any way they could cope with them on their level. Spock thought that that might be a possibility. He told Scotty to stand by in the transporter room.
In the transporter room, Raal was trying to find out why the transporter did not work. He called Deela, but she did not answer. He burst into Kirk's quarters to find him kissing Deela. He immediately attacked. Kirk dodged, and blocked him with the pillow off the bed. Deela tried to stop Raal's attack, but he pushed her away. Kirk picked up a chair to ward Raal off, but he came on. Deela used her weapon to shock him, once, twice, and he finally stopped. When she asked him if the transporter was repaired, he said no, and she sent him back to the transporter room.
After Raal left, Kirk seemed to become docile, accepting his plight, asking Deela if he was behaving incorrectly. She assured him that he was not. And she contacted Raal, telling him not to worry about the captain, that he had made the adjustment.
In the sick bay, McCoy handed Spock a small container of a fine powder, saying that he was finished. Spock tipped the container into a glass of the Scalosian water. He took a reading with his tricorder, saying that the powder counteracted the substance most effectively. McCoy then asked how they were going to get it to the captain, and Spock replied "By drinking the Scalosian water." And then he did just that, while McCoy sputtered at him. And while Spock watched, McCoy and Chapel slowed their movements until they appeared to be standing completely still. He watched, fascinated. And then he turned and left sick bay. He was gratified to realize that his link with Nyota still functioned. It made things much easier not to have to deal with the loss of that link at the same time as he tried to overcome the Scalosians. He needed all his faculties now.
Transporter repairs made, three of the Scalosians beamed back down to the surface. Only Raal and Deela remained. Raal contacted Deela, telling her to beam down at her convenience. He went to life support and activated the device.
Once in the transporter room, Kirk swiftly disarmed Deela, shocking her. He was not as accepting as she had thought. Saying that he was sorry, he backed out of the transporter bay and headed for life support. Quickly Deela contacted Raal, who said he was ready for him.
Spock approached life support, and Kirk came running up behind him, smiling when he realized that Spock was also accelerated. The two men proceeded together, jumping back behind the edges of the doorway when Raal turned and fired. But when Raal turned back to the device's controls, Kirk fired Deela's weapon at him, shocking him. He collapsed onto the floor. And then both of them fired at the device, rendering it a smoldering piece of scrap.
Deela came into the room behind them, telling Kirk that he was very clever to have tricked her. Kirk told her that if he sent her back to Scalos, she would just play the same trick on the next spaceship to pass by. She responded that there would not be any others, that the Federation would quarantine the entire area. Kirk agreed with her.
As Deela prepared to beam back down to Scalos, she reminded Kirk that his life would be just as short on the Enterprise as it would be on Scalos. Kirk looked at Spock, who gave him a very small nod. Kirk knew then that Spock had the antidote. He told Deela that he could think of nothing he would like better than staying with her, except staying alive. She turned and mounted the transporter pad, standing beside Raal. And Kirk ordered Spock to energize the transporter and watched the two Scalosians disappear.
Then Kirk turned to Spock, and asked him what he had. Spock told him that he and McCoy had created an antidote to the Scalosian water, but that unfortunately they had not had time to test it. He offered a small vial to Kirk, who immediately opened it. He poured the contents into his mouth, and swallowed. He looked at Spock, saying that nothing seemed to be happening. Spock looked at him with amusement. "You do seem to be moving very slowly, captain."
And then Scotty was advancing on Kirk, asking where in the blazes he had come from. Kirk clasped Scotty's arms, glad to be himself again. Scotty asked about Spock, but Kirk did not answer him, instead taking off down the hall, calling Scotty to come with him. They returned swiftly to the bridge, startling Uhura. Sulu made the comment that someone was repairing every panel on the ship, and Scotty added that it was being done at incredible speed. Uhura turned in her chair, looking at the two of them, not wanting to say that she knew it was Spock.
Kirk ordered Sulu to cancel the red alert, and told Uhura to open all channels. When she had done so, he addressed the crew, telling them that repairs were underway by Mr Spock and that the ship would resume normal operations almost immediately. As if that were a signal, Spock materialized beside the command chair. Uhura looked at him and smiled. When Kirk addressed him, thanking him for his work, all eyes turned in his direction. "I found it an accelerating experience."
Kirk grimaced at him, and then smiled. When he turned back to the viewscreen, he was shocked to see the images of the Scalosians. At his exclamation, Uhura said that she had accidentally touched the tape button. "It's not a malfunction?"
"No, sir." And she gave a little laugh. "I'll take it off."
Kirk sighed in relief.
That evening, when they were together on the couch in her quarters, she questioned him about how it had felt to be so accelerated. "Actually, it felt quite normal. I could not tell much difference at all, except for all the statues standing about."
She laughed at him, nestling down against his chest. "It felt quite strange when you touched my hair, and kissed my ear."
"But you knew that it was I."
"Oh, yes, I knew that all right. I could feel you quite plainly, all along. That was the only thing that kept me going when I knew what you had done. If our link had vanished, I would have been terrified."
He tucked her head under his chin, and turned his face so that it laid against her hair, breathing in her scent. "I also. I was extremely gratified when I realized that it was still there, and functioning."
They sat there for some time, entwined, content simply to be there, with one another, quiet and still. But later, in the bedroom, they were neither.
