RESOLUTION TO A CLIFFHANGER-
Hiren awoke and with an overwhelming sense of despair, immediately realized where he was. He didn't even need his knowledge of the Enterprise deck plans that he had studied for weeks before the mission. It was a cell in the ship's brig. A force-field door was at one end, with two burly Starfleet Security officers standing outside it. From a glance he saw his men in the other cells.
Meanwhile, Captain Kirk walked down the corridor of Deck 5 and entered Sickbay. Spock and the Robinsons and their Robot were all waiting beside a medical bed, where McCoy was leaning over young Will Robinson. As Kirk entered, he heard the Medical Officer say "And…that's it." He pulled a cylindrical object away from the boy's head and went over to a large clear plastic tub, where he injected something into a liquid inside it. Kirk saw several swimming life-forms, looking like Earth tadpoles, but slightly smaller. "Am I okay, Dr. McCoy?" Will asked. "You'll do, " McCoy answered with a grin.
"Bones," Kirk began, pointing to the creatures, "What's the story?" "Pulled those out of the Robinsons and Smith." Kirk bent down and looked at them. Spock continued "It solves the final piece of the puzzle, Captain." McCoy nodded. "Exactly. See, Jim, these parasites wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. They live off of epinephrine and endorphins. And therefore they stimulate the higher brain functions with hallucinations to create the effect. Also, they are linked telepathically, so the experience was the same for all of you." He turned his head to the Robinsons, "The up-side was, that it immunized them from the effects of the Romulan gas."
Professor Robinson spoke up. "Doctor, are you saying that we've been in a constant state of hallucination?" McCoy nodded. "Essentially, yes. My scans reveal it going back almost three years, likely you picked them up on the first planet you landed on." Robinson continued. "And what form would these hallucinations take?" McCoy thought for a moment. "Practically, anything. Anything to induce fear or excitement. Giant monsters….aliens….hell, a seven foot tall tomato man. The hallucinations would become increasingly bizarre to maintain the same levels of epinephrine and endorphin."
The entire Robinson group pondered this for several minutes, each looking to the other, as "memories" of some of their "encounters" came back to them. West asked an obvious question, "Why was the Robot effected, if it was some 'brain parasite'?"
Spock spoke up. "I was curious about that too, until I examined the Robot's programming. Apparently, the machine had been sabotaged by Dr. Smith before your launch and experienced some 'short circuit' in its processor due to contradictory orders. When it obtained sentience, it apparently believed that your hallucinations were real, given it had no experience with nor any concept of 'illusion'. Therefore, it acted and responded to your hallucinations as if they were real, just as you did." The Robot spoke for itself. "Having now been familiarized with the situation, I have rectified my programming." Everybody but Spock was slightly confused, but satisfied with the response.
Kirk turned to Spock, "What's our status, Mr. Spock?" The Vulcan quickly answered, "All ship's crew and function normal sir. We are proceeding at Warp Five to Starbase Ten. The plan worked perfectly." It was McCoy's turn to ask for an explanation. "What exactly was that plan, Spock?"
"Quite simple, Doctor, " he began, "After Hiren's last threat, I contacted the Robinson's Robot via an old-style radio broadcast. I had hoped that the Romulans were not monitoring such primitive communications and they weren't. I gave the Robot the command codes for the ship's computer and on a signal from me, it was to flood the entire ship with neurozine gas." He paused and looked to the Robinsons. "It is a standard anti-intruder anesthetic on Federation vessels, puts to sleep almost all humanoids." "Including yourself," McCoy added. Spock nodded, "Yes."
"But, it was a simple matter to order the Robot to come to Sickbay, where I had laid out a group of hypo-sprays with the antidote" the Vulcan explained. Kirk interrupted. "It then returned to the Rec Hall, awoke Spock, who then was able to disarm the Romulans and devise a cure for their nerve gas. I was awake before the Sub-Commander." Spock nodded again. "By the time they regained consciousness, we had control of the ship and took over their ship with a contingent of Security personnel."
Kirk looked at the Robinsons. "And that about wraps it up," he said. John Robinson shook his head. "Not quite, Captain. There is one more matter to be resolved."