"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.