Working together, it took Spock and Scotty fourteen hours to break the encryption. Impressive, but for fourteen hours we were beaming energy into space, depleting our power reserves, and pretty much defenseless.
"I want to open by commending Mr Spock and Mr Scott for finally shutting off the beam from our deflector. Sterling work, gentleman."
In the conference room were Kirk, Spock, Scott, McCoy and myself.
"I guess we have to chalk this test up as a failure," I said.
"We did succeed in opening a portal to another universe," observed McCoy.
"Aye, just not the one we wanted," added Scotty.
"We should've expected that," I said. "There are an infinite number of parallel universes out there. What are the chances we'd find one particular universe?"
"The scientists who created the device believed the prior contact between our universe and that of the Empire at this location might have created a weak spot between the two that we could exploit," said Mr Spock, "evidently, that belief was erroneous."
"We cast our energy beam out there like we would a fishing line," I said, "and what we hooked was the zombiverse's own fishing line. Even after we'd cut them loose, our 'fishing line' was out there for another fourteen hours. We got lucky and didn't make another contact, but who knows what else we might have hooked? We could've opened up a portal to a universe even worse than the one we did. I'm sorry, but absent a means of knowing exactly where the portal you're opening leads to, the device strikes me as unbelievably dangerous and further use of it would be foolhardy in the extreme."
"I'd have to agree," said Scotty.
"Me, too," said McCoy.
"I'm minded to agree with you, but what if the Empire finds a way to cross over into our universe?"
"Based on your reports on what you saw of their technology, it seems unlikely they would be any more successful than we've been," I said.
"I concur," said Mr Spock.
Kirk looked around the table at each of us then nodded.
"Then that will be my recommendation to Starfleet. Right, what do we know about the zombies? Mr Spock, what did their files reveal?"
"The contagion encompasses most of that other Federation. Which has become in effect an organisation devoted to spreading it."
"How long ago did they become infected?"
"Five years."
"Five years!" said Scotty, sounding appalled. "It took over their Federation that fast?"
"So it would appear."
"I've never seen anything like it," said McCoy. "We have tissue exemplars on board from a dozen different races including Human, Andorian, Vulcan, even Klingon, and this thing rampaged through all of them. Usually the species barrier offers some protection, but this acts like it doesn't even exist."
"Och, we've encountered some strange and terrible things in our travels, but what hellhole of a planet could produce such an abomination? Do we know?"
"Oh yes," said McCoy, "it came from Earth."
I think I was as stunned as Kirk and Scotty were by that news.
"That can't be!" said Scotty, shaking his head.
"DNA doesn't lie," said McCoy.
"The parasite appears to be a bioweapon developed during Earth's third world war," added Spock, "but never deployed. It was only rediscovered five years ago on both Earths, in a buried facility, during excavations in northern France. The team leader, Dr Christiane Deschanel, recognized how dangerous the dormant cultures were and recommended they be destroyed immediately. Her superiors over-ruled her, and instructed her to secure them. On our Earth, she disobeyed, destroyed them, and was fired. On their Earth, she obeyed her orders. Subsequent careless handling in an orbital lab staffed by scientists from across the Federation led to the parasite infecting those working there and escaping into the galaxy."
"So that other Enterprise crew could've been us?" said Kirk.
"I can find no difference between their history and ours until five years ago and the discovery of the bioweapon."
"Then they were us!"
It was a sobering realisation.
"Who in his right mind would ever create something like that?" said Scotty.
"World War III was a dark time in your world's history," said Spock.
"It certainly was," said McCoy, "and when I next get back to Earth I'm going be doing is looking up our Dr Deschanel and getting her a drink."
"Aye, an' I'll be getting her the next one," said Scotty.
"Given the danger they represent," I said, "I'd like permission to vaporize the zombie corpses and their effects."
"Permission granted," said Kirk. "Dr McCoy has his tissue samples and we have a living zombie in Crewman Wilson so we don't need them."
"Aren't we taking a risk keeping him around?" I said.
"'Keeping him around'?" said McCoy, giving me a look like thunder. "Good God, woman! Wilson is a member of this crew, one currently afflicted with an illness, and he should be treated as such."
"But it's not as simple as treating him just like any other patient, is it? Does he have any immediate prospect of recovery?"
"Not immediate, no."
"Then in the meantime, how are you going to feed him?"
"I don't..."
"He eats flesh, Doctor," I said, cutting him off, "living human flesh. Do we find him some, or do we starve him?"
"Let's table that discussion for now," said Kirk, "and get back to Halka. How do we contain and push back the outbreak down there?"
"I've been studying the tape of the zombie bridge crew eating that Halkan," said McCoy, "and a question occurred to me: why don't they eat each other? Their captain said he was abducting Halkans because he had a crew to feed, so clearly they need fresh meat. It was seeing the speed with which they ate, the frenzy of it that gave me my answer. They don't each other because they won't or can't eat the infected. Given how quickly a bite will infect and 'turn' a victim they have to eat him as quickly as they can before he becomes inedible to them."
"Very interesting, if you're right," said Kirk, "but what are the implications for Halka?"
"Well, if you infect everyone you leave yourself with nothing to eat, so my guess is when the infection reaches a certain point it levels off and the zombies don't deliberately create any more of their kind. From then on everyone else is food. Of course, what that means is..."
McCoy was interrupted by Uhura appearing on the screens on the three faces of the conference table computer terminal with an impeccably timed announcement.
"We've received a message from the leader of the Halkan Council," she said, "he wants to speak to the captain."
"Put him on, Lieutenant," said Kirk.
The face of Tharn, leader of the Halkan Council, appeared on the screens. Despite myself, I gasped. I recognized him, but he was not the same man. His skin was grey and deathly, his eyes bone-white orbs, his pupils shrunk to small black dots.
"Ah, Captain Kirk," he said, "I'm speaking to you on behalf of the council to tell you that you are now forbidden to send down landing parties and we require you to depart from our planet's orbit immediately."
"I don't believe that's you speaking," said Kirk, "not really. You're under the influence of an alien parasite."
"I don't care what you believe," said Tharn. "I am the duly elected spokesman for my people, leader of the governing authority, and under the rules of your own Federation, you are required to defer to my wishes in these matters."
"Technically, that's true," said Kirk, "but I'm also charged with acting in the best interests of the galaxy, interests that won't be served if I do what you ask. For now, we will respect your authority when it comes to the surface of your planet and won't attempt to send people down, but know this: we will also not allow anyone to leave your planet. You may only have sub-light craft and the ability to travel no further than your own star system, but any ship attempting to leave your world will be destroyed. As of now Halka is under quarantine, and that quarantine will be enforced - with firepower if necessary. Kirk out."
With that he cut the transmission. On the one hand, I was impressed by his firmness in regard to imposing a quarantine that would be backed up by force, but on the other I couldn't believe he wasn't already firing on their cities. Halka was now beyond saving and harbored an infection that threatened the galaxy. The only sensible thing to do with such an infection was to burn it out.
"As I was saying..." said McCoy, "when the infection reaches a certain point it levels off and the zombies don't deliberately create any more of their kind. From then on everyone else is food. Of course, what this means - and as we've just seen - is they're most likely to want to 'turn' those in positions of power since that will make it easier to control a population that has essentially then become a food herd."
"The designated authority on the planet has forbidden us from doing anything more," said Kirk. He looked tired. "When Starfleet diplomats get here they will have to make the determination as to whether or not the affliction the ruling council is suffering from permits us to override their wishes. That aside, when more ships arrive we'll have to destroy the Halkan's space travel capabilities, of course."
"Naturally," said Mr Spock. "It is logical to assume the teams beamed down from the other Enterprise included engineers with the knowledge required to make Halkan space craft warp-capable. That cannot be permitted to occur."
"I'm sure we can confine the infection to this world," said Kirk, "but let's face it: we lost Halka. This is a dark day for the Federation."