Chapter 4 - It's a Miracle!

"Where am I?"

"Glad to see you wake up, doctor. Let me give you a briefing. You are awakening from an opium-induced stupor that has lasted eight hours, twenty-four minutes and ten seconds. We are at the moment in the dungeon of a courthouse, awaiting trial. The place is the hanseatic town of Visby, in the Baltic region of earth, at some point between 1125-1345 a.d., based on the information at hand."

"I'm the one that needs a re-briefing! Bones, I know you are injured, but is there any possibility that you can get up and help me with my pants?"

"Well, I'll give it a try . . . ow!" McCoy rolled over on his side and tried to get up on all fours. It took some time and grunting, but he did it. Eventually he was standing on his own two feet, a bit pale in the face but looking a lot better than yesterday. He tried lifting his arms and bending his back. Painful but possible. "So what happened to your pants?"

"Will you postpone the gymnastics and please just pull them up."

"There, better?"

"Thank you."

"So what else happened while I was out?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Not the . . . guards . . . was it?" McCoy looked concerned.

"What, no! Just Lily-Lee and her strange sense of humor."

"That I can believe. She did an adequate job of the bandages, though, considering the circumstances. She hasn't been back? No? That is a very lumpy pillow she got for me."

"Make no complaints about the quality of your pillow, Bones. Spock and I have been standing against this wall since we got here."

"Oh-ho, I take it back. It's not a lumpy pillow, it's a remarkably soft packed lunch."

The mood of the prisoners improved even more when a jovial-looking guard came down and unlocked their shackles so that they could sit on the floor. He also talked a lot but without a universal translator available, it was impossible to say exactly what he meant.

"I can not be certain, but my temporary conclusion is that we are allowed to rest for a while before we are taken up to the court room." Spock was looking closely at the door and the hole in the ceiling, which turned out to be the drain from the room above, placed right above the drain in their own floor.

"I thought for certain there was going to be torture involved. I guess we were just chained to keep us from escaping."

"Yes, and after inspecting our surroundings, this place appears to be not so much a dungeon as a cellar, albeit with chains."

–***–

The courtroom was small and crowded. It was summer, and there were no glass in the open windows. A breeze with a hint of sea passed through the room and set the hat feathers of the more affluent citizens waving. Kirk had rather expected them to be the main attraction, and was surprised to find that their case was just one in a line of several to be decided this afternoon. People came up to stand in front of the judge (or mayor?), stated their case and was given a verdict, and went off. It was pretty calm and not very dramatic. Kirk mentioned it to McCoy.

"Yes, it struck me the same way. Their statements are pretty short, too, but I guess the magistrate there is informed of the cases beforehand. Looks like we're next."

The three of them were urged to stand up and walk forward, and a man in a green tunic made a long and perhaps eloquent statement that resulted in oohs and aahs from the crowd.

"Spock, do you have any idea what he said?"

"Only a vague impression. I think that even though we caused a large traffic accident, causing the death of two of our own men and one salt merchant, the first accusation point is that we have tried to avoid paying import tax."

"Tax evasion? Are you kidding?"

"No, they insist that every merchant that enters a hanseatic town must go through customs, and we did not do so."

"But we are not merchants!"

"They are of a different opinion and have placed all our untaxed merchandise in that box."

All of their equipment; phasers, communicators, tricorder, medikit, translators, were neatly placed in a crate on a bed of curly wood shavings. It looked like a shop display.

"So now what, we plead guilty and try to pay, or . . ." Kirk was interrupted by the sight of three dead men being carried in on stretchers and propped up against the wall. The bodies were in pretty bad shape after having been run over by two carts. McCoy learned over to whisper at Kirk.

"Could've been me up there, too. Guess I got lucky. I don't think this is going to be so easy after all."

Suddenly there were shouts coming from outside, the door was thrown open and a monk in a gray habit came in, saying something. Everybody in the room ran out after him.

"I don't suppose you can tell me what he said, either, Spock?"

Spock walked over to the crate and picked up his equipment. He turned on the translator.

"They are yelling about a miracle. An ape is standing in the main square reading the lord's mass in perfect latin. I think that we have been provided with a diversion."

–***–