Chapter 4

this is fanfic only. No copyright violation intended

"I understand why you're frightened of us." Desperately Uhura tried to calm the creature who was now emerging again, anger flashing in its blazing eyes. "The Captain doesn't mean any harm-give him a chance and he can understand, too. You have nothing to fear from either of us. We can make it right with the council-we can get you medical help, psychiatry, anything it takes. I admit, though, that...that I don't know what to make of it. Please, try to explain it to me."

She trailed off, uncertain what to say next. Suddenly, the creature gave a terrific scream, raced toward her, and picked her up in its strong arms. She didn't dare struggle as he went running off with her in the direction of the waterfall. Kirk burst from the leaves that separated them, phaser drawn, and at once saw the creature and his burden disappearing around the other way. He raced after the two figures, his phaser at arm's length, waiting to fire.

Uhura saw him from her position over the creature's shoulder, and cried out in protest. "Captain, don't! It's the Ambassador-"

Kirk's face fell, and so did his phaser arm. All at once he understood her meaning. When the shock was gone, he started after the elusive creature at a dead run, ignoring the sting of bushes and sharp leaves that battered his face and eyes.

It wasn't until they were directly in front of the clearing that surrounded the waterfall that he saw the creature in full view. Uhura was still over his shoulder.

When the creature had gained a good distance on him, it set Uhura carefully on the grass, and whirled around to face the Captain. He saw murder in its eyes.

"Ambassador! I'm not I going to hurt you! Listen to me!"

Then it grabbed him, and Kirk grabbed back, pushing its growling, rabid face away from his throat as best he could. Then it turned its head, Kirk barely jerked his hand clear of the sharp, wolfish teeth that snapped at him.

With a cry, Kirk pulled back just as both strong arms knocked him off his feet and directly into the pulsing stream above the waterfall. The frothy water pulled and tore incessantly at his legs as he struggled to his feet. Just as quickly, he went under. The creature jumped in after him, determined to pursue him until the very end.

As Kirk struggled with it, their faces only inches apart, he got the strange sense that it was changing-becoming more like Veland every minute

The creature was aware of what was happening, too, on some level that showed in its eyes. It was changing back quickly now. Confused and suddenly horrified, the thing went limp and lost its footing without warning. Strong currents pulled it out of Kirk's desperate grip. The creature's head went under momentarily, and then it surfaced-wearing Veland's face. Froth engulfed the ambassador as he was swiftly carried over rocks and through them, downward, closer to the fall, his screams lost among the bubbles.

Kirk recovered his senses to the tune of Uhura's cries from the shore. Stepping onto a rock and out of the rush of the killer current, he looked around frantically for Veland, and saw him at once-as well as the source of Uhura's fright.

He had to stop himself from falling off the rock as he stared in shock at the giant, groping arms of the river creature that was quickly approaching Veland. There was a cry, and all six of the tentacles locked grotesquely around the Ambassador's body and neck. Kirk hurriedly began skipping over the nearest rocks, moving towards the horror, then turned and looked back at Uhura, who was frantically scrambling for the phaser Kirk had lost hold of when Veland had attacked him.

"Fire, Uhura-now!" He ordered. She did not. Grimacing, Kirk jumped back into the current, struggling unarmed toward the creature. Veland's eyes, wide with terror, flashed up at Kirk with an undisguised plea for aid. The tentacled limbs were tightening, crushing him slowly, agonizingly. Powerful muscles drew his flailing legs closer to its pointed, mouth that stretched open to reveal row upon row of razor-like teeth. It probably waited here, all day, nabbing fish and other small creatures as they were drawn towards the crushing falls-and today it had been rewarded with something extra.

The Ambassador-and he was, finally, fully, the Ambassador again-screamed for help. His mouth instantly filled with water, his words immediately choked off. Kirk couldn't have heard what he said anyway, over the rush and hiss of the current.

Then came the flash of light as Uhura let loose with the phaser, though it would have been more effective had she been as close as Kirk. The three long blasts she delivered set the river-monster howling in pain, and at once it released Veland and scuttled further down the stream. After a pause, it shuddered and then started for him again. She fired once more. The animal was too heavily armored for the phaser to have any damaging effect on it at that range, but Kirk took the moment to grab Veland by the arms and yank him onto the rocks. The monster started toward them one last time-but one more stinging round from the phaser, and it finally thought better about attacking.

Abruptly it drew in its long legs and allowed itself to drift along with the current, finally disappearing over the top of the falls. Kirk watched it a moment, and saw it uncoil below and slide off to other hunting grounds. It reminded him of a gigantic, bony octopus-only far more deadly than any of those outside of an antique monster movie.

In the moment after the attack, the clearing became deadly quiet. Veland precariously stood up, leaning on a nearby rock for support.

"Captain," he said quietly, avoiding Kirk's eyes, "I must. ..thank you."

"What was that all about?" Kirk demanded. "What are you, Veland?"

"I am two men in one-or should I say, two beings in one. It was not always this way. My youthful compassion for others doomed me to a lifetime in hell."

"Explain yourself."

"Very well." Veland sighed. "It was many years ago. I was on the way to my first diplomatic posting, traveling on a small Federation passenger ship. On the way, we called at a port I had never heard of before, and like a fool I decided to disembark and wander about on my own. Somehow, I blundered into a less-than-desirable section of the docking area. I was trying to find my way out when I heard someone crying for help-it was a language I did not understand, but all the same I knew my help was needed." He shook his head, rubbed his eyes. Neither Kirk nor Uhura could tell if the trickles on his face was from the river. "I came upon a man being mauled by a terrifying beast, the likes of which I had never seen in thirty-five years of interplanetary wandering. It was enormous, and strong, and merciless. The being he was tearing limb from limb had no chance of escape without my intervention. So that was what I did-I offered myself as an alternative target."

"And you were attacked instead," Uhura finished for him. "Somehow, you became what that creature was."

Veland nodded. "To this day, I do not know if I was infected with a virus, a curse, or something else entirely. Decades of consultation with everyone from medical geniuses to voodoo doctors has turned up no answers. The tests have been painful, the attempted cures fruitless. And so I live as I must-sometimes as one man, sometimes as a raging beast. I cannot control it. It seems to read my subconscious mind. Not even studying Vulcan self-control has helped me."

"But why didn't you tell them about your affliction? You killed Tom Calvin in that state, didn't you? You can be cleared."

Veland looked up, the sunlight glinting strangely off his eyes. "Cleared, Captain? You think it will be advisable for me to stand trial-and become an animal in front of everyone? I may avoid prison, but I will turned over to the scientists, with their droll observations and relentless poking, prying tests. You would have been better to leave me to that creature, Captain," he said tightly, gesturing toward the nearby fall.

"But maybe we can help you," Uhura said. "You're not an animal, and we'll-I'll-make sure that-"

"Your compassion is just as I expected of you, dearest one. Perhaps we could have been so much more than friends. I beg of you two things. First, forgive me for the fact that I have no future to give you, and for what I have forced you to watch! And second, know that there will be no cure for me other than death. I ask you now-kill me from where you stand, and at least give me the dignity in death that I deserve. Would you do that for me? It is the only way."

"Tocz, no! Please, promise me that you'll never give up, never stop until you do find a cure. We'll help you. Please!"

Tocz looked briefly at the Captain, then nodded his quiet assent. "Very well, my dear-I will do what is best for you." He watched as Uhura started to return the phaser to Kirk. Just as it left her fingers, though, Veland's fist flashed out and caught Kirk directly under the chin. As Kirk fell back, Veland seized the phaser and leaped into the water, struggling against the current until he reached the clump of rocks in the middle of the liquid vortex.

His sad eyes were focused on both Uhura's expression of shock and at Kirk, who was staggering to his feet and clambering onto the rocks, rubbing his jaw and staring at Veland with as much anxiety as Uhura.

"Veland-don't!" he shouted, then took a step backward when Veland turned the phaser onto himself.

"I must, Captain--don't you see? The thing killed Tom Calvin, and it

nearly killed you. I've done many things I'm ashamed of, but until now murder has never been one of them. In a way, I showed mercy on Calvin by making sure he could never become what I did. You were lucky enough not to fall prey to my other self's violence, Captain, or you might the way it lurks in these silent shadows of a self that is not strong enough to survive on its own."

Uhura started to call to him one last time, but he held up a hand. "I will remember you in the next place, Uhura-perhaps you, too, will dream of the future we never shared."

"I'd wait-" she started, and then there was a blinding flash of light and the Ambassador was gone. A long moment of dumbfounded silence followed. Uhura started toward the water as if she could somehow close her hands around what had ceased to exist and bring it-and him-back.

Kirk caught her arm and spun her around to face him. "Lieutenant, no. It's too late now-it's what he wanted. What he felt had to be."

She looked up at him with eyes that no longer sparkled. "And do you believe that, too, Captain-that it's what had to be?"

He shook his head gently. "That's something none of us can-or should-wonder about now. He's been cleared of the murder, at least. On some level. We can do that much for him, at least."

She pressed her head into his shoulder for a moment, and allowed the sobs to escape. Kirk stared out at the water as the sunlight played happily across the froth, giving no hint of two deadly struggles that had recently passed there.

When she lifted her head, she frowned. "Look, Captain," she said, pointing back at the rock he'd clung to only moments before. "It's as if his shadow is still there, somehow."

Kirk's eyes followed hers. It did seem as though someone standing there really were casting a shadow over the eddying current. His rational mind told him it was a trick of the light coming through the overhanging branches and hitting the rocks. Still...the effect was peculiar.

"Let's get back to the shuttle," he said. "You and I can work on the communications console. Someone's bound to pick up our beacon if we can keep it transmitting for a few more hours."

"It can't be too soon as far as I'm concerned," she said, shaken.

They started back to the shuttle. Before he slipped into the brush, Kirk glanced back, looking one last time for the strange shadow they'd spotted. This time, he didn't see it.

Absently, his fingers went to the spot on his wrist where Veland had almost bitten through his sleeve. He pulled back the fabric and saw that the attack had left no mark on the tender flesh there.

-end-