"Whittaker! Thou bastard!" Pateman roared and charged
directly across the shuttle-bay, bowling over the
rioters in his way.
Madison tried to follow the fat man but there were
too many crazed civilians in between them. He
knocked down the closest and when she tried to grab
his ankles he crushed her fingers beneath his boots,
backhanding another attacker and ducking a third.
Around him, Pateman's people were also trying to
break through the mob. Madison's world narrowed to
the people trying to kill him, to his own fury. The
wrench rose and fell and rose again, smashing faces,
breaking skulls.
"You bastards!" he roared. "You fucking, murdering,
stupid fucking bastards! Take over my ship, will you,
fuckers! Set a fucking fire on my fucking ship? Fuck
you! *Fuck* you! FUCK YOU!" He struck again and
again, relishing the dull crunch as metal crushed bone, the
blood the sprayed his face, the screams and moans.
"Watch it!" The voice hardly registered, unable to
penetrate the humming fury that filled his brain. "Watch
it!" Hands seized him and dragged him off balance and
Madison turned with one arm raised to realise he was
about to hit a woman in a Starfleet uniform. "WATCH
IT!" she screamed, and pulled him aside as a phaser blast
screamed past them and vaporised a stack of cans.
Madison dived behind a stack of cargo pallets for cover
and grunted as the woman who'd warned him landed on
him.
"Sorry." She checked her phaser and grimaced. "No
charge. You carrying?"
"They took my toys away when I came on board."
Madison said. "Is a wrench any good to you?"
"Only if it's accurate at 50 paces. I don't think we've met.
I'm Mentsomo, Janet."
"Madison." Madison said. "Please to meet you, what, do
we have tea and cucumber sandwiches now?"
Mentsomo grinned. "Under the circumstances I think we
might skip the rest of the social pleasantries."
"Well, you know, Starfleet, nothing would fuckin' surprise
me." They both flinched and tucked further behind the
pallets as another shot came past them.
"What were you doing back there, trying for the Viking-
Of-The-Year Award? You were as bad as they were."
"Yeah. I dunno." He wiped a hand over his face and
stared at the blood on his palm. "Seemed like - they were
- hell, I dunno. I've been edgy all day, love, must be that
time of the month." He peered around the edge of the
pallet. "There's only one sniper. Over by the shuttle near
the orange thing. Some of your people are returning fire."
"What orange thing?"
"The big orange thing over there on the wall, whatever the
fuck it is."
"Oh." Mentsomo said. "You mean the bay door."
"Your people are shooting to kill. " Madison said. "Is that
standard Starfleet policy or a recent innovation?"
"Neither." she said grimly. "Hold your fire! Starfleet,
hold your fire!" Mentsomo yelled as Madison launched
himself to his feet and across the five yards to the next piece
of cover. "That's the bay doors you're shooting at! Hold your
fire!"
The shooting petered out, but Madison could see that
several blasts from phasers on high beam had struck the
bay doors and left deep burn scars. Pateman came in
view, right at the ramp of the shuttle nearest the bay doors.
He was grappling with someone, but Madison could see he
was losing. The other figure scrambled up the ramp,
Pateman right behind, and the door hissed shut on both of
them.
"Mentsomo!" Madison yelled. "The shuttle's powering
up! Clear the fucking bay! Clear the bay!"
The shuttle's jets engaged and it lurched this way and that,
scattering the rioters near it. Someone fired at the shuttle
and as if that were the signal half a dozen Starfleet figures
joined in. A beam went too close to Madison's head for
comfort and he dived for the ground again as the shuttle
drifted half way across the bay and then turned.
"Out! Out!" Mentsomo shouted. "Get the civs and get
out!"
The shuttle engine purred and then growled. It was aimed
nose-on at the bay doors now and Madison stopped caring
about phaser fire. He got to his feet and ran for the exit.
He was half way there when the shuttle hammered its way
though the bay doors. The concussion knocked him off
his feet and a spacer's instinctive grip on the nearest brace
was all that kept him from being blown backward as the bay's
atmosphere rushed out the resulting hole.
"Hull breach. Decompression alert. Hull breach.
Decompression alert." The computer's voice was calm as
the warning lights dyed the whole shuttle bay red and orange.
"Oh fuck me." Madison said He looked around wildly and
saw Starfleet officers huddled at the exit. Nearer to him was
a man in civilian clothes, clinging desperately to the edge of a
mechanical loader as the wind tore at him. As Madison
watched he lost his grip and skidded a few feet further
towards the hole in the bay doors before he managed to seize
on to something else.
It was fifteen yards to the exit, fifteen yards with plenty
of handholds and emergency braces. Madison looked at
the first of these, close enough for him to reach out and
touch.
"Oh, fuck me." he said again, let go of the brace and let
the wind roll him across the floor until he slammed against
the mechanical loader. One arm around the machine's leg
and blinded by the wind, he reached out his other hand and
felt it taken in a desperate grasp. Slowly he hauled the other
man up until they were both huddled against the loader.
That was as far as they could go, with no other handholds
in reach and the wind screaming past them. Not that it
mattered, anyway. The exit door was still sealed shut -
decompress a section of a star ship and that tended to happen
in Madison's experience, no damn fun if you were on the
wrong side of the door but a life-saver for the rest of the ship.
With the air rushing out the hole in the bay doors and the
atmospheric pressure falling they were going to die whether
they reached the exit or not.
Madison turned to the man he'd just saved. "You know,"
he said conversationally, "this is the second time this week
I'm facing certain death from decompression and once again
it's *your* *fucking* *fault*! Who *are* you people? Ship-
wreckers R Us?" He put his head down on the deck.
"I'm sorry." It was a very small, very scared voice, and
Madison could hardly hear it over the wind. "It just
seemed - I don't know. I'm sorry."
Suddenly the wind stopped. ~That's it,~ Madison thought,
~atmosphere gone, we're dead ~- and then realised he was
still breathing. Cautiously he let go of the loader and rolled
over. A containment field sparkled over the hole in the bay
door. A low hissing signalled air being pumped back into the
bay.
"We're not dead." he told the man next to him, and got to
his feet.
"Madison!" Mentsomo trotted over. "Madison, have you
seen Harry?"
"Yeah, he was on the shuttle."
"What?" she asked.
"He was on the fucking shuttle, he chased someone up the
ramp and that's all I saw."
"Oh, Jesus." Mentsomo said. She pulled out her
communicator. "Stop that shuttle, stop it! Pateman's on
board!"
Madison looked around at the dazed, compliant, and non-
rioting civilians. "I guess it got what it wanted." he said.
"What?" Mentsomo asked.
"Just something Fat Harry said." He found his wrench on
the floor and tucked it into his belt.
He had the feeling he'd be needing it again before all this
was over.
"What the hell is that?" Kirk asked.
"Singing, Captain." Spock said. His voice was level, and
Kirk wondered if it was his own imagination that drew
lines of strain around those dark eyes.
"I mean - is it us, or them? Or it?"
Spock tilted his head. "I recognise Ms Uhura's voice, sir."
he said.
" - burning ... of desire ... "
"Stand ready, all." Kirk said. Around him crew fell into
security formation, preparing to fire on their own crew
mates if they should prove a threat. If they had been - Kirk
shuddered internally - *taken over* by whatever it was
that toyed with them here.
"... unfold, bring me my chariot of fire. I shall not cease,
from mental strife -"
Uhura rounded the corner in front of them and her voice
faltered. Behind her came a ragged group of Enterprise
personnel. Kirk saw Sulu and some of his team among
them. There were pitifully few of them, all together.
"Captain." Uhura said. "I regret to report we were unable
to restore the Starbase communications array."
"That's at least an eight on the understatement scale." Kirk
said. "Bucking for the title, are you?"
She snorted with laughter, caught herself on the edge of
hysteria. "We tried to get back to shuttle-bay, but it was
no go. We were - herded is the only word for it - down
here, although it's been easier the last little while."
"Yes, we've found the same thing. Has it communicated
with any of you?"
"Several crew have said they hear 'voices in their head' -
but it doesn't seem to be an attempt to communicate, just
to disturb. We had an outbreak of nursery rhymes."
"Do you think -" Kirk stopped, looked at the crew still
obediently chorusing their way through building Jerusalem
in England's green and pleasant land. "I think we can stop
the singing for the moment." he said.
"Yes, sir." Uhura said, and motioned to the others. They
fell silent. "Fire with fire, sort of, sir."
"Good thinking." Kirk said. "All crew, if you hear voices
in your head or feel the urge to start reciting nursery
rhymes, please report it immediately. Sulu, Uhura, Spock,
with me."
He drew them aside. "Speculation." he said. "We've all
noticed a difference in the phenomenon. Telekinetic
effects have been dramatically reduced, although they still
manifest when we attempt to return to shuttle-bay. Mr Spock
has reported that the life-form causing this is attempting a
form of communication with him, but that it is - entirely one
way, is that the way to put it, Spock?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Atmospheric controls seem to have begun to
malfunction in the last little while." Kirk wiped
sweat from his face. "And, although this life-form
has recently *begun* to try to reach Mr Spock, it has
also recently *ceased* to interfere with other crew
members. I've noticed, too, that some of the
additional manifestations - screaming, walls weeping
blood, so forth and so on - have stopped. Did any of
you notice anything - experience anything - that
might have triggered this change?"
"No, sir." Uhura said. "But a number of the crew
were alone and hooked up with us later. They might
have seen something."
"All right, I'll make an announcement, let's see what
they - no." Kirk said. He wouldn't have relished
standing up and reciting some of the events he'd been
through on Starbase 34 in front of the assembled
multitudes. "Let's split up, and ask them one to
one."
Larssen was the third person Sulu talked to. She was
leaning back again the wall, her expression blank.
"Lieutenant." he said. "Standard question. When you
were separated from the rest of the crew, did you see
anything - experience anything - that you think might
give us a clue about the reason the phenomenon have
changed?"
Larssen kept on leaning on the wall.
"Lieutenant." he said again, and put his hand on her
arm. "Did you see anything - did anything *happen*
that might -"
"There was a girl." she said. She cleared her
throat. "There was a little girl, and had a little
curl, right in - no. There was a little girl, and
her name was Loretta, and I killed her." She turned
her level gaze on Sulu. "Is that what you mean?"
"How did this happen?"
"There was a little girl, and she had - I don't think
she was a little girl, though. I think she was the
devil."
"Larssen," Sulu said, "Come with me and talk to the
captain and Commander Spock."
"There was a little girl, and she -" Larssen stopped
again. "There was a little girl."
Sulu beckoned to Kirk, and the captain came over.
"Lieutenant." Kirk said. "Have you seen something?"
"Yes, sir." she said. "There was a door, and the
door opened, and there was a little girl, and she was
inside my head, and she wasn't a little girl. She
knew - she knew *everything*, and she wanted to get
me to unlock the Starbase phasers so I killed her,
sir."
"When was this?" Kirk asked gently.
"I don't know." Larssen said. "I don't remember a
lot after that."
Spock had come up behind her is his usual silent
Vulcan manner. "Do you know why the phaser controls
were important to this creature?"
Larssen jumped slightly when he spoke. "No sir." she
said.
"It must be to fire on the Enterprise." Sulu said.
"That would be my hypothesis." Spock said. "It
sought to suborn Ms Larssen, and when she deprived it
of its corporeal form it was weakened. Now it seeks
a further - host. The higher psi indexes of Vulcans
would make me suitable for its purposes."
"If it wants to destroy the Enterprise," Kirk said,
"then the ship must be capable of menacing it."
"How?" Sulu asked. "It's some kind of non-corporeal
entity that talks in people's heads and moves across
space, if it's the same thing that destroyed those
other ships. What threat can the Enterprise possibly
pose?"
"I do not know." Spock said. "More information about
this creature might enable me to discover some way to
incapacitate it." He paused. "I am currently unable
to gain information from the mental contact it has
initiated. Since it wishes us to move towards the
core, I believe that the mental contact will be
stronger there. I may be able to form a two way
communication with the creature then."
"Spock, what if it - " Kirk leaned close to the
science officer and lowered his voice. "If it takes
you over?"
"Then I suspect you will have to shoot me, Captain."
Spock said calmly. "The creatures abilities
amplified by my own latent and inherent psionic
abilities would be a considerable threat to the crew,
the Enterprise, and to this sector of space." He
laid his hand on Kirk's arm. "Jim. We are here to
seek out new lifeforms, new civilisations. This,
most indubitably, is one. Its actions may be due to
ignorance, not malice."
"I find that extremely optimistic." Kirk said.
"Perhaps." Spock said. "However, Captain, it is also
certain that we will not be able to leave the
Starbase under the current circumstances.
Communicating with the entity may provide us with the
opportunity to return to the ship."
"It's a risk I don't like." Kirk said. "But it's a
risk we have to take." He turned to the others.
"All right, people, let's keep moving."
They had walked on for less than an hour when Kirk
saw the door. It was just an ordinary door ,
nothing unusual, nothing special about the door.
Just a door.
"This is it." he said.
