"Suggestions." said Kirk. Not that there were going to be
any surprises, there. There was the blindingly obvious -
that the mysterious ship disappearances, the eerie and
nonsensical transmissions, ran in a pattern from off the
edge of maps to Starbase 34, hunted forward a little and then
came to a stop. Something that killed ships - or silenced them,
somehow - and drove experienced spacers stammering
mad had come into their area of space, reached Starbase 34 and
stopped there. That was clear. Once Spock laid out the pattern,
explained the similarities, showed them the similarities in
transmission traces and voice stress patterns, it was undeniable.
And there was the totally mysterious. Not even Spock had
any explanation beyond that, although speculation had been
flying thick and fast around the briefing room since they'd
reconvened. Some kind of new disease that was space-
borne, rays that affected mental stability, a disturbance in the
space-time continuum that had allowed - something - to do -
something.
"Invocation of a deity." McCoy said.
"Noted and logged." Kirk said. "Anything else?"
"Sir," Spock said, "it is imperative that any landing party
at Starbase 34 be composed of the most psychically stable
and resilient members of the crew. It is apparent from the
transmissions that Starfleet personnel have been least -
susceptible - to this threat. Logically, therefore, the most
resistant Starfleet personnel should be the ones to confront
it - whatever it may be."
"With the exception of the USS Gallant." Kirk said.
"Which boarded fifty seven civilians at Starbase 18." Spock
countered.
"Noted," Kirk said. "I would be happier without four
hundred or so notably *un*stable civilians aboard."
"That is indubitably a consideration." Spock said. "It may
be wise to abort this mission until the refugees can be
disembarked. In addition, this would allow Commodore
Whittaker to leave the Enterprise as well."
Kirk winced. He had had to quote Starfleet regulations,
chapter and verse, to keep Whittaker out of this meeting,
and that had been the best he could do. Whittaker had heard
through the ship's grapevine - eavesdropping in the mess,
most likely - about the debacle on the Lady Grace. He had
announced his intention to investigate the matter
personally, and Kirk had been unable to persuade him against it.
Unable, too, to find regulations that would allow him to keep
Jerkoff Jack separate from the refugees or the Starfleet crew who
had been aboard the Lady Grace. At this very moment,
somewhere in the ship, Whittaker was stirring up who knew what
hornet's nest that would ultimately tie up Kirk, his ship, and his
crew, in competency hearings for months.
"We can't do it, Mr Spock." Kirk said with regret. 'There
may be people alive on Starbase 34 - under what conditions, we
can't know. We have to get there as quickly as possible."
"Sair," Chekov said, "I suggest that the refugees be locked
down as soon as is possible."
"Noted," Mr Chekov. I require emergency procedures in
place that will permit access to the civilian passengers if
necessary and a final failsafe that will permit them to leave
their assigned areas in case of the death or disability of
the crew."
"Yes, sair. I have those here."
"I'll review them before implementation." Kirk said.
"Based on the information we currently have, I will require a
landing party of one hundred. Dr McCoy, draw up a
roster based on psychological soundness for that number."
"Is that your main criteria?" McCoy said. "Because that'll
take the entire top ranks off the ship, if so."
Kirk didn't hesitate. "That's my main criteria, Doctor. If
the landing party can't handle what we find, then the rest
of the crew is to take the ship and run like hell with whatever
information we've been able to send back."
Spock raised an eyebrow. "Captain, your assumption that
*you* will be-"
"Save it, Mr Spock. I'm not sending my people into
something I won't face myself."
"Sir," Uhura said, "if the transmission interference is
consistent with what we find at Starbase 34, I can't
guarantee that the landing party will be able to send *any*
information back. I've hyped the ship's array to ride the
frequencies of most distortion and I think I can say that
any transmission from the *ship* will get through, whether to
the landing party or to Starfleet - but there's no way to load
that kind of equipment on comms."
"Your first priority," Kirk said, and met Uhura's
smile at his assumption that *she* would be among
those considered the most psychologically stable on
the ship with one of his own, "will be to reach
command and perform the same modifications to the
Starbase internal communication system. Will it be
possible to piggyback the comm. carrier waves onto the
Starbase system?"
"Yes, sir. In addition, I recommend that the stand-
alones be taken along by the landing party. We have
five, and although they're heavy to carry I may be
able to boost their signal enough to break through to
the ship."
"That gives us teams of twenty, by default." Kirk
said. "Noted, logged. I'll take one team, Mr Spock,
you take another. Mr Chekov, you'll have the third, Ms
Uhura you'll take a team into Command. You'll also
have most of the techs to strip out the Starbase
computer for any relevant information. And Mr Sulu,
you'll take the fifth team. The four teams not bound
for Command will set a standard search pattern
starting at the shuttle docks and moving on from
there."
"Aye, sir." Sulu said, closely followed by the others.
"There's not a great deal else I can say." Kirk said.
'Those transmissions are disturbing, granted, but we
have no cause to assume that we're moving into a
situation we can't handle. We have more experience,
more training, and more personnel than any of the
ships that met this, and ran into trouble. On the
other hand, under the circumstances, it would be
reckless to assume that we can deal with this without
raising a sweat. I don't need to make any speeches
here about staying alert, about staying calm, about
how good you are. You all know all of that. Let's
deal with this, let's make sure that there's no
further threat to this sector of space, and then let's
get Scotty his refit and our passengers somewhere more
comfortable."
"Aye, sir." they said.
"Dismissed."