And as always im late… -_- still don't own star trek.
Episode 1-25 The Devil in the Dark
They had gotten a distress call from the pergium production station on Janus Six. As they discussed who would be on the away team Saya asked "May i join? I'd really like to see a mining station."
Kirk looked at her a moment and told her it could be very dangerous and she grinned "well, I'm sure I have encountered that a couple of times. Besides I've lived more than I ever thought I could. I'm happy with my life and if I die it won't be the end of the world. I'd rather take calculated risks and see more of the galaxy than to stay cooped up in my room hiding from every danger."
Spock raised an eyebrow when Kirk chuckled and consented. "We will see about beginning phaser training for you once we get back from this mission. You will join us for the initial contact and be able to see what is there. If it is a dangerous situation you are to beam back to the ship. Understood?" Saya nodded and grinned as Kirk told Spock to arrange phaser training in Saya's schedule when they returned.
Kirk, McCoy, Spock and Saya were the only to beam down. They were lead to the office of Chief Engineer Vanderberg. Saya payed little attention to the conversation going on around her because she was not on assignment. She looked at everything in the room slowly and zeroed in on a strange purple sphere about the size of a basketball on the desk.
Spock noticed Saya's interest and picked the sphere up asking what it was. "It's a silicon nodule. There are a millions of them are down there. No commercial value." Vanderberg answered. Spock commented that it was a geological oddity then asked if it was pure silicon. "A few trace elements. Look, we didn't call you here so you could collect rocks."
Spock moved to put it down and Saya silently asked to see it. Handing it to her, he concentrated back on the subject and Saya sat on the floor to examine the sphere closer. It reminded her of a turtle's egg only massive. Like comparing a quail egg to an ostrich egg only more so. The surface was far too smooth to occur naturally, well at least that is what she thought.
Kirk commented on the vast number of tunnels making the job harder. McCoy returned giving the information about the body he examined. Saya listened as McCoy said "Well, there are only fragments of bone and teeth left, but the plant's physician agrees with me. A chemical corrosion. Almost as if he'd been thrown into a vat of extremely corrosive acid."
Kirk turned to Spock who said "I've charted the positions of the deaths and acts of sabotage. Here, here, and here. If the times of these incidents are to be accepted as accurate, the creature would have to have moved at an incredible rate of speed." Saya got up and quietly put the sphere back and watched the going ons.
Kirk then asked if the maps were accurate and Vanderberg told him they were made last year. Kirk asked Spock to report on life beneath the surface and he answered "Within range of our sensors, there is no life, other than the accountable human residents of this colony beneath the surface. At least, no life as we know it."
Kirk thought about the problem aloud saying "Too many tunnels. We couldn't possibly. Mister Spock, our sensors can pick up normal life functions at a considerable distance, but what about abnormal life functions?" Before he could say more an alarm went off and the lights flashed. Vanderberg said something happened in the reactor room.
They quickly went to check it out and Saya quietly shadowed. They came to a door with a circular hole still smoking and Spock warned Kirk against touching it. Vanderberg said the main circulating pump for the entire reactor was gone and it showed the same corrosive problem as the door. Kirk started to try and figure out how to replace the part so they could keep from poisoning the planet and the life support would stay active as well.
Scotty beamed down to rig up a short term answer and they returned to Vanderberg's office. "The missing pump wasn't taken by accident. It was the one piece of equipment absolutely essential for the operation of the reactor." Spock said and Kirk asked if the creature was trying to push the colonists off the planet. Spock thought so. Kirk asked why then even though the facility had been open for over 50 years.
Spock did not know but speculated as he picked up the silicon sphere again. "Life as we know it is universally based on some combination of carbon compounds, but what if life exists based on another element? For instance, silicon."
McCoy accused Spock of creating fantasies and Kirk stopped him saying "Not necessarily, Bones. I've heard of the theoretical possibility of life based on silicon. A silicon-based life would be of an entirely different order. It's possible that our phasers might not affect it."
Spock added "Certainly not phaser one, which is far less powerful than phaser two."
Kirk replied "All right, how about this? A creature that lives deep in the planet below us, at home in solid rock. It seems to me that in order to survive, it would have to have some form of natural armour plating. It could explain much, especially since the colonists are armed only with phaser one."
After a short discussion about the phasers McCoy said that silicon based life would be impossible. "It may be, Doctor, that the creature can exist for brief periods in such an atmosphere before returning to its own environment."
Kirk considered the thought and had Spock arrange Giotto to assemble the security troops and arm them. He left Spock to arrange things because. Spock continued to stare at the sphere and Kirk asked him about it. "Yes, Captain. You recall that Vanderberg commented there were thousands of these at a lower level, the level which the machinery opened just prior to the first appearance of the creature."
Kirk asked if it tied in and Spock didn't know so Kirk had him speculate. "I have already given Doctor McCoy sufficient cause for amusement. I'd prefer to cogitate the possibilities for a time." Saya didn't understand why McCoy found it amusing because if there was one thing she understood in this strange time, it was that nothing was really impossible. With a small smile she reminded herself, except her and Spock becoming anything more.
Kirk checked on Scotty and Saya followed him as Spock went to handle the troops. Spock informed them that the security officers had gathered in Vanderberg's office. They went back and Kirk gave instructions. "You will proceed from level to level, checking out every foot, every opening. You are searching for some sort of creature which is highly resistant to phaser fire. Phasers will be set on maximum, and remember this. Fifty people have died. I want no more deaths."
Spock asked what level the they discovered the nodules on and Vanderberg told them the 23rd. Kirk told Commander Giotto to take his detail directly to the 23 level and told Vanderberg to keep his people on the top level and told them that there was no safe place and they headed out. Saya kept silently following Kirk. She probably should have been sent back but Kirk said nothing and she didn't want to remind him. She was quite curious about the outcome.
Spock reminded Kirk and Saya resigned to being sent back. When they called up though it was found out that the transporter couldn't at that time transport her so she had to stay for a bit. "Well, Vanderberg said that there was no safe place and that thing came really close. I can't imagine I would be in more danger with you both and I'd likely be in far more danger here alone and weaponless." Saya pointed out.
"She has you there Captain." Spock said and so she was allowed to stay with Kirk and Spock but was instructed to stay close and not wander at all. Saya agreed and made sure to not cause any problems as they quietly went through the tunnels. At the point in the tunnels where Spock and Kirk split Saya followed Kirk for once. She figured he was the one she was supposed to stick with this time.
Spock found readings of the silicon creature before hearing a scream from one of the security personnel. They ran towards the noise and found what was left of him and his phaser. Spock picked up the phaser and handed it to Saya who stared at it then shrugged. After taking some tricorder readings Spock pointed out a tunnel that had been made within the hour.
They heard a rumbling behind them as Spock talked and turned around to see what Saya called a "cute lava monster." Quietly. Both men fired on it and the creature ran away. Spock raised an eyebrow at Saya's comment but nothing was mentioned on it. As Kirk and Spock examined the tunnel it escaped through Saya looked at the piece that had been cut off it.
Saya touched it and Spock turned to see her still examining it. Picking it up he said "The closest approximation I could come to would be fibrous asbestos. A mineral, Captain." Kirk told him that his guess was right then and it was a silicon based life. Kirk asked for Spock to put it all together and Spock answered "We are dealing with a silicon creature of the deep rocks, capable of moving through solid rock as easily as we move through the air. This creature's body secretes an extremely powerful corrosive."
Kirk said it was phaser resistant and then had the Commander pass on to his men "We knew it was a killer. Now it's wounded, probably in pain somewhere back there. There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. Commander Giotto, instruct your men to concentrate the search in this sector. Remind them the creature is wounded."
As the commander left Saya asked "does the corrosive mean that the creature can't be petted?" Kirk looked at her like she was crazy and Spock's eyebrows hit his hairline. Looking between them she said defensively "What, it seems sweet and I think it's cute. There has to be a reason for it to be killing and if it's been here a while and hasn't, something recent has to have triggered it. It's not just a blind killer. Maybe if someone was to try and be nice instead of killing it, it may be nice back."
Kirk contemplated her words, Spock was about to say something and she added "and before you tell me I have no proof or that it's illogical, I know. It really does have logic to it but half my brain is hiding the information from the half that can talk so I'm kinda in the dark as to what the proof and logic for it is."
Spock calculated her for a bit and choose not to say anything. Instead he ran a tricorder check. "I've run a complete spherical check on all life forms, radius one hundred miles. I've located our men, all of them, and I've located one creature moving rapidly through native rock, bearing two hundred and one. And that is all. Captain, there are literally thousands of these tunnels in this general area alone, far too many to be cut by the one creature in an ordinary lifetime."
Kirk surmised that they were dealing with more than one creature or it had an extremely long lifespan. "Or it is the last of a race of creatures which made these tunnels. If so, if it is the only survivor of a dead race, to kill it would be a crime against science." Spock added.
Kirk reminded him " , our mission is to protect this colony, to get the pergium moving again. This is not a zoological expedition. Maintain a constant reading on the creature. If we have to, we'll use phasers to cut our own tunnels. We'll try to surround it. I'm sorry, , but I'm afraid the creature must die." Saya could see the genuine sadness he felt about it and wondered if there could be another way.
They gathered the security force and Kirk updated the commands. "So it is wounded, and therefore twice as dangerous. Stay in pairs. If you see it, concentrate your phaser fire at what appears to be its head. Concentrate it. Maintain it. It is definitely resistant, but it can be hurt. And if it can be hurt, it can be killed. ."
Spock took up relaying the information. "Gentlemen, if you'll examine your charts, please. I last located the creature in the area marked adit 26 moving in bearing two zero one. This particular group will move out beyond that area in all directions in an effort to surround it, and possibly capture it."
Kirk ordered them to shoot to kill then after the men left, asked about the capture it order and Spock said that he thought if the opportunity arose and Kirk cut him off saying "I will lose no more men. The creature will be killed on sight and that's the end of it." Spock reluctantly agreed and Kirk ordered " . I want you to assist Scotty in maintaining that makeshift circulating pump."
"I… I beg your pardon, sir?" Spock said taken back. Kirk told him that he heard correctly. "Is not needed there, sir. Mister Scott has far more knowledge of nuclear reactors than I do. You're aware of that." Kirk changed tactics and said that the hunt was dangerous and Either one of them by himself was expendable but both weren't. "Captain, there are approximately one hundred of us engaged in this search, against one creature. The odds against you and I both being killed are 2,228.7 to 1." Spock replied.
Saya was impressed with his capability to calculate that and so quickly. Kirk told him "Of course. Well, I hate to use the word, but logically, with those kind of odds, you might as well stay. But please stay out of trouble, ." Spock replied that it was always his intention.
Scotty then called to tell them that the improvisation died and couldn't be fixed. Kirk ordered the colonists to be evacuated and Saya figured she would be with them. Some of the men offered to stay and come after the creature. Scotty warned them that the reactor would go supercritical in 10 hours and Kirk requested constant status reports.
Kirk turned to Saya who grinned "Yes, I know, I should go back. However I couldn't get back on my own and it would likely not be safe. Why not just let me stay? Unlike you and , I am not critical for anything." Kirk studied her for a moment and she added "I will keep being good and staying out of trouble."
Kirk said "very well" and they continued on.
They met Vanderberg's men and Kirk gave them their orders. "Team up with the Enterprise security personnel. They're better armed than you. Keep someone in sight at all times. Vanderberg, take two men. Go through that tunnel there. Rendezvous with Commander Giotto. Appel and the rest of the men, go through there and tie up with Lieutenant Osborne's detail. and I will control the operation from a central point. That's all."
Spock informed Kirk that they were being watched and Saya wondered how he knew that. After a bit more walking they found fresh readings in 2 tunnels. Kirk told Spock to take the left and he would take the right. Spock asked if they should separate and Kir said they should. Saya followed Kirk again figuring that would be correct.
They came to a room filled with the silicon spheres and Kirk called Spock on the com "I've found a whole layer of these silicon nodules of yours, hundreds of them."
Spock replied "Indeed? I find that most illuminating, Captain. Be absolutely certain you do not damage any of them." Saya grinned and Kirk asked for an explanation.
"They are eggs! I was wondering and they made me think of turtles." Saya quietly exclaimed. Spock replied that he only had a theory. Kirk looked at her but was quickly distracted by a large amount of rock falling. Kirk quickly covered Saya and his head as Spock came over the com asking if they were all right quite concernedly.
"Yes, Mister Spock, We're all right. We seem to have had a cave-in." Kirk answered and Spock offered to phaser him out. "No. No, you'd better not. Any disturbance might bring down the rest of the wall. Besides, it isn't necessary. The chart said the tunnels meet further on." Kirk replied.
Spock acknowledged "Very well, but I find it extremely disquieting that your roof chose that particular moment to collapse. Please proceed with extreme caution. I shall quicken my pace." Saya could tell he wasn't particularly happy with it.
As they continued walking Saya quietly told Kirk "I know you are the gentleman and whatnot and the soldier of sorts but don't risk yourself to protect me. I'm down here of my own choice. If i get killed only I am to blame. Besides that you are needed."
Kirk was about to say something when the wall in front of them suddenly disappeared and the creature was before them. Kirk trained his phaser on it and Saya just stared at it as she backed against the wall to be out of the way. Kirk lowered his phaser and the creature came closer. When he raised it again it backed off.
Spock came over the com saying "Captain, I just read some fresh signs. The creature is in this area. I'll take a lifeform reading."
Kirk told him "It's not necessary, Mister Spock. I know exactly where the creature is. Ten feet away from us." Spock told him to kill it quickly and Kirk replied "It's not making any threatening moves, Spock." Spock told him he couldn't dare to take the chance and Kirk answered back "I thought you were the one who wanted it kept alive, captured if possible."
"Jim, your lives are in danger. You can't take the risk." Spock told him and Kirk told Spock that it seemed to be waiting. "I remind you it's a proven killer. I'm on my way. Spock out." Spock said and Saya thought it was amazing how devoted Spock was to Kirk.
Kirk walked against the wall keeping his phaser on the creature at all times before choosing a spot to squat. Saya sat carefully on a bit of rock behind him and out of the way as he started talking to the creature. "Well, what do we do, just talk it over?" The creature showed the wound in it's back from the last time and Kirk replied "Well, you can be hurt, can't you? We just sit here? It's your move."
Spock sprinted around the bend and quickly trained his phaser on the creature. "No, no! Don't shoot. Come on over, ." Kirk said. Spock slowly moved next to the captain and in front of Saya and squated down.
Spock and Kirk discussed that it seemed to be waiting and was not making threatening moves. They also discussed that there were silicon spheres everywhere and Kirk asked if it meant something to Spock. Spock said that it possibly was the answer and then offered to mind meld with it. " , I know it's a terrible personal lowering of mental barriers but if there's a chance." Kirk told him and Spock said he would try.
Saya wondered if that meant that Vulcans really detested doing mind melds and what it meant since he willingly did them to help her with her fear and her nightmares. Spock put his phaser on his belt approached the creature that seemed to be shaking. Saya watched as he concentrated then cried out "Pain! Pain! Pain!" Staggering back Kirk caught him and he said "That's all I got, Captain. Waves and waves of searing pain. It's in agony."
The creature climbed onto a rock and when it moved away 'no kill i' was etched into the rock. "No kill I. What is that, a plea for us not to kill it, or a promise that it won't kill us?" Kirk asked.
Spock answered "I don't know, Captain. Evidently, it gained an immediate knowledge of us from its empathy with me. In my brief contact with the creature's mind, I discovered it is a highly intelligent, extremely sophisticated animal. In great pain, of course, because of its wound, but not reacting at all like a wounded creature. It calls itself a Horta."
Kirk almost excitedly said "A Horta. A Horta! , we need that retardation mechanism. You must re-establish communications with it." Spock told him that it had no reason to give them the device and every reason to try and get them off the planet. "Yes, I'm aware of that. If we could only win its confidence." Kirk suddenly got an idea and used the communicator "Doctor McCoy, this is Captain Kirk."
Spock reminded Kirk "Jim, I remind you that this is a silicon-based form of life. Doctor McCoy's medical knowledge will be totally useless." Kirk shrugged it off saying McCoy was a healer and to let him heal. He then told Spock that he must re-establish communications to find out why it suddenly took to murder. "To obtain that kind of communication, Captain, it will be necessary to touch it."
Saya's heart started racing and she hoped the creature wouldn't harm Spock. Spock again slowly approached it and this time put it's hands on it. Spock's face scrunched up in pain and Saya wanted to hug both him and the hurting Horta. Kirk called to Commander Giotto and told him "Under no circumstances allow them in here yet. The minute Doc McCoy gets there, send him through."
"Murder. Of thousands. Devils! Eternity ends. The chamber of the ages. The altar of tomorrow! Murderers! Stop them. Kill! Strike back! Monsters!" Spock started saying painfully.
McCoy came around the corner and stopped upon seeing Spock. "What in the name of?" He stared and Kirk motioned him over and he asked "What is Spock doing?" Kirk told McCoy that the creature was wounded badly and Bones needed to help it. McCoy looked hesitant but at Kirk's urging went as told.
Spock cried out again and McCoy told Kirk that the thing was virtually made out of stone and he was a doctor not a bricklayer. Kirk told him he was a healer and it was a patient, then told Spock to let it know they were trying to help and ask about the mechanism.
"Understood. It is the end of life. Eternity stops. Go out into the tunnel. To the chamber of the ages. Cry for the children. Walk carefully in the vault of tomorrow. Sorrow for the murdered children. The thing you search for is there. Go. Go. Sadness. Sadness for the end of things. Go into the tunnel. There is a passageway. Quickly, quickly." Spock answered.
A crewman delivered some thermo concrete to the edge of the tunnel and Saya went to get it bringing it to McCoy who started treating the Horta. Kirk went down the tunnel and came back after a while. Pulling Spock out of his connection with the Horta he told Spock that he had found a million of the silicon nodules and asked if they were eggs. Spock answered that they were and about to hatch. "The miners must have broken into the hatchery. Their operations destroyed thousands of them. No wonder." Kirk answered.
McCoy was still working on the Horta when Vanderberg and his men came around the bend with a killing intent. Saya quickly taped both Kirk and Spock to make sure they noticed and Kirk said "Don't fire. First man that fires is dead." Vanderberg replied that the Horta had killed 50 of his men. "You've killed thousands of her children." Kirk answered. "Those round silicon nodules that you've been collecting and destroying? They're her eggs. Tell them, ." Kirk replied.
Spock gave the requested facts "There have been many generations of Horta on this planet. Every fifty thousand years, the entire race dies, all but one, like this one, but the eggs live. She cares for them, protects them. And when they hatch, she is the mother to them, thousands of them. This creature here is the mother of her race."
Kirk started again "The Horta is intelligent, peaceful, mild. She had no objection to sharing this planet with you, till you broke into her nursery and started destroying her eggs. Then she fought back in the only way she knew how, as any mother would fight when her children are in danger."
Vanderberg seemed almost ashamed as he replied "We didn't know. How could we? You mean if these eggs hatch, there'll be thousands of those things crawling around down here?"
Kirk told him that it was where they lived as they digested rock. "And they are the most inoffensive of creatures. They harbour ill will towards no one." Spock added. Saya smiled and wondered if that meant she could pet it.
Another of the men reminded them that they had to deliver pergium and Kirk addressed it. "Yes, I know. Here's your circulating pump. You've complained this planet is a mineralogical treasure house if you had the equipment to get at it. Gentlemen, the Horta moves through rock the way we move through air, and it leaves tunnels. The greatest natural miners in the universe. It seems to me we could make an agreement, reach a modus vivendi. They tunnel. You collect and process, and your process operation would be a thousand times more profitable."
Vanderberg agreed. Spock mentioned that the Horta may die and McCoy spoke up saying that he cured it. "Well, Spock, I'm going to have to ask you to get in touch with the Horta again. Tell her our proposition. She and her children can do all the tunnelling they want. Our people will remove the minerals, and each side will leave the other alone. Think she'll go for it?" Kirk asked.
Spock replied "It seems logical, Captain. The Horta has a very logical mind. And after close association with humans, I find that curiously refreshing." Kirk and McCoy shared a humored look and Saya almost giggled. She was glad it worked out.
Once everything was done and before the men started back out of the tunnel she spoke up. " , if you don't mind, may I touch you?"
Kirk, McCoy and Spock all watched her with mixed emotions. She had remained on the rock she had sat on and the Horta tentatively approached her. Holding out her hand slowly she placed it on the Horta and grinned. "You madam are quite beautiful." Saya commented as she brushed the fascinating creature. As they left McCoy asked why she was still planetside. "I made a good enough logical argument to get to stay and meet that cute little creature."
Moving to be beamed up Kirk told Saya "You have quite interesting tastes to find the Horta cute."
Saya looked at him in surprise and asked "was she not?" Both Kirk and McCoy chuckled and they were beamed up. Returning to the bridge they got ready to leave orbit. Vanderberg notified them that the Horta had started to hatch and the first thing they did was tunnel. Vanderberg ended saying "You know, the Horta aren't so bad once you're used to their appearance."
Saya commented that she wished she could have seen a baby Horta. Spock did a few things at his station before approaching Kirk in the Captain's chair and saying "Curious. What Chief Vanderberg said about the Horta is exactly what the Mother Horta said to me. She found humanoid appearance revolting, but she thought she could get used to it."
McCoy asked "Oh, she did, did she? Now tell me, did she happen to make any comment about those ears?"
Spock replied "Not specifically, but I did get the distinct impression she found them the most attractive human characteristic of all. I didn't have the heart to tell her that only I have..." Kirk cut him off asking if she really liked the ears and Spock finished "Captain, the Horta is a remarkably intelligent and sensitive creature, with impeccable taste." Saya thought 'I'd have to agree with that Horta. Those ears are quite attractive.' With a smile.
Kirk asked "Because she approved of you?" And Spock mentioned his modesty. Kirk replied "Does not bear close examination, Mister Spock. I suspect you're becoming more and more human all the time." Saya snickered at the play.
Spock paused a moment before saying "Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted." Bones and Kirk shared a humored look and Spock returned to his station. After their shift ended, as they walked to get dinner, one of the transporter crewmen handed Spock a folder. They finished dinner and Spock asked "May i show you what I have?"
Saya invited him into her quarters and he placed the file on her desk facing her. Looking at him a moment she confirmed he wanted her to open it and did. It revealed pictures of the baby Hortas with some of the miners and even a few pictures with many babies and the mother Horta. Saya's eyes lit up as she looked at them and she excitedly studied each picture.
Once she finished she thanked Spock. "I didn't realize you had heard my comment. I tend to talk to myself quietly a lot and forget how amazing those ears really are! Thank you!" She started flipping through the photos again and Spock just watched her. After some time she put the photos in one of her desk drawers saying "I will have to make an album for them. It will be fun."
Spock informed her he would start her phaser training the next day then wished her goodnight and she got ready for the night. Going to bed she smiled as she thought of the sweet gesture from Spock and was glad to have a friend like him. She reminded herself firmly that he was just a friend. Spock returned to his room and meditated. As he changed for bed he decided he would try to get her more photos and an album to keep them in. As he laid in bed he put his hand against the wall to find Saya's mind content and asleep.
*END*