Torch at the Crossroads: Act III

Turned to stone.

Bones had said it was scientifically impossible. It had to be.

Yet, Jim found himself staring at Crewman Harper's prone body, still locked into the sitting position, now in a chair in the back of sickbay. If it hadn't been for the monitors showing her heart rate, Jim would've thought he was staring at a granite statue.

A hand was at his chin as he looked the young woman over, trying to make sense of what seemed unreal. He hadn't checked on her after the away mission. He always made a point to do so, even with the most junior members of the crew. Would checking on her last night have stopped this? He shouldn't have put it off until morning.

Sighing, he rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to clear his head. He could blame himself later.

As his chief medical officer rounded the corner, he focused on what he could do. Find a way to fix it.

"Bones, how is it she still has vitals?" Jim's question seemed as loud and startling as a photon torpedo in the quiet sickbay. If it bothered the doctor, though, he didn't let on.

"I have no damn idea, Jim." McCoy's expression was severe simply because of the predicament Harper was in. He checked over a few monitors that still beeped. "Doesn't make a lick of sense. She's stone. If I run a scan, it tells me I'm looking at a human. Nervous system, cardiovascular system, it's all still there. But…." He just motioned to the physical condition of the crewman to finish his sentence. "I took a sample from what should be her uniform and it matches the chemical composition for granite."

"Okay, we have no idea what caused it, but how do we fix it?" Jim asked, trying not to dwell on how utterly bizarre this was. It was always his gut reaction when faced with a mystery. If he couldn't use his phaser or his wits, he'd rely on the expertise of the others on his staff.

"When I figure that out, you'll be the first to know." Bones scowled. "Without a cause, Jim, I'm back in the Dark Ages. I might as well go get a bucket of leeches for all the good this'll do me." He motioned to the hypospray in his hand before setting it down on one of his medical trays.

Jim's expression remained neutral. "You said Diana was with you?"

"She helped me get Harper back here, then took off. She said she needed to do some research."

That didn't sound good. Jim considered grabbing his communicator, but the doors to sickbay whooshed open and the rest of his senior staff filed in - sans Sulu. He had the conn.

Spock entered first, but no sooner than he'd cleared the doorway, Uhura had stepped past him and made her way over to the crewman.

"Rose…" She breathed, brow knit with concern. "Any idea what happened to her?"

Bones shrugged, resigned. "Your guess is good as mine." He nodded to Spock and Scotty as they came around to see for themselves. "I've started a full panel of what tests I can run on the granite, but we're looking at something scientifically impossible."

"Is it possible that this is a more nuanced issue, Doctor?" Spock ignored the exasperated look that Bones threw his way. Just as well. Jim wasn't sure a sparring match with the two of them would improve matters. Most of the time, it was a pleasant distraction. But not now.

"What are you suggesting?" Uhura finally tore her gaze to look over at the first officer. Her friend, her lover, and the only person she probably trusted above everyone else.

"Perhaps Crewman Harper has not been… stricken with this condition, but rather we are perceiving it as such."

"A mass hallucination?" Bones asked, skeptical.

"Yes. It's possible she is comatose and still made of flesh and bone."

Bones shook his head, motioning back to his office absently. "Doesn't track. A spectrometer doesn't hallucinate, and it says it's granite. It's logged in the computer banks that way, too. Hallucinations aren't typically that consistent if they're caused by a psychotropic."

"I think we can assume that this situation is anything but 'typical', Doctor." Spock rebuked, earning a grimace from McCoy.

Oh, boy.

"Bones, I think it's reasonable to assume that Uhura could be susceptible to whatever this is," Jim said evenly, forcing everyone's attention back to him and away from the impending snit. "Check her out, rule anything out that you can. I'm going to find Diana and send her here for the same. Immortal or no, we don't know how her physiology works."

"You don't need to do that." Bones cleared his throat. For a second, Jim almost thought he seemed guilty about something. But, whatever it was flickered away before he could call him out on it. "I was taking her vitals when I got the call about Harper. So, with nothing else to compare her physiology to, I have to assume that she's immune or my baseline has already been compromised. I've got a number of tests still running, so there is a chance it will help." Bones sounded a little less convinced that Jim would have liked.

The group fell silent for a moment. Scotty broke the tension, naturally voicing what everyone else was probably thinking. "Here's what I dinnae understand. Harper came back to Engineering after the away mission and seemed fine. No complaints, nothin' out of the ordinary."

"That's a good point," Jim said, considering the events of the last 24 hours. He motioned to his communications officer. "Did Harper do anything differently than you and the Ambassador while you were on Althea?"

Uhura fell silent, thoughtful. She was clearly replaying the entire series of events back before she replied. "Maybe, but not for very long. We met the Althean delegation, went to their banquet and ate. The Ambassador was with the highest ranking officials, I was seated near their clergy, and Rose was with some of their chief scientists. About two or three seats between us."

"So, you were at the same event, but it's reasonable to assume you didn't eat or drink from the same source." He reasoned. When she nodded, he turned his attention back to Bones for confirmation of his theory. "So, she could have been poisoned."

"I don't know how a poison could do this, unless…" Bones trailed off. He looked as if he'd been struck by lightning by whatever theory had suddenly revealed itself. "Unless that explains the scans."

"How so, doctor?" Spock asked.

Bones snapped his fingers and grabbed for his tricorder again. "Could be that I'm reading vitals because she's still in there. A number of compounds on other planets have been found to be benign in the bloodstream or in water, but the moment they reach air, the oxygen forces a chemical reaction."

"You are suggesting this is rust." Spock quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm saying it might be like rust." The doctor ran another scan over the crewman. "Still have no idea how something could look like granite, have the composition of granite, but be able to change from a liquid to a solid, but it gives me somewhere to start. It's a long shot, but it's the only one we've got."

"Then, we'll leave you to it - " Jim began, only to be cut off by the ship's comm chime.

"Engineering to Sickbay."

Bones scowled. "McCoy here."

Jim's stomach turned to ice at the security chief's words. "We need a medical team to the lower decks, doctor. Two of the crew just turned into… into stone."

The records had been highly classified, by both pre-Starfleet definitions and current security levels. While the senior staff had been busy mulling over the situation with Harper, Diana had followed her gut. She knew the situation, all too well. But, she also knew that upon a ship full of rational, scientifically-minded individuals, it would take more than her word to make them consider what she knew to be truth. It was no scientific affliction. Crewman Harper was stricken with the magic of Medusa's curse.

Somehow, light-years across the galaxy, Diana had been faced with coincidence after coincidence. Only now… now, she was sure they had never been coincidence at all.

She'd had to fight the urge to beat herself up over the misstep the entire time she'd hunted for the A.R.G.U.S. records. If there was any chance of saving Crewman Harper, it started with Diana's past. With Circe.

Obtaining the footage from the attack on Paris had been easy once she determined how to search for such a deeply hidden piece of history. But, that had only given her visual proof of both Medusa and Circe. The significant amount of intelligence she had placed on Watchtower's database… that had been more difficult. It wasn't surprising that during Conner's tenure as Superman, along with the impending war, most of Watchtower's data had been lost when the satellite was destroyed.

But, she had enough to feel certain that somehow, Hecate's greatest acolyte was at work.

Diana had been about to pull her communicator from her clothes strewn on the couch when her door chimed. Moving to stand, she kept her eyes on the computer monitor as she queued up footage. "Come in."

The doors opened. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the gold uniform and all too familiar gait. "Diana, when the chief medical officer tells you to go to Sickbay, he typically means it." Jim was clearly annoyed. She could hear it in his voice with no hint of amusement. To be fair, she had been ignoring the occasional chirp from the device. In fact, she had absently hoped it would sink between the couch cushions.

"I had to be sure of what I saw." Diana muttered, as if that explained it all.

"No one's sure what happened to Harper, not even Bones." She glanced up just in time to see him rapidly closing the distance between them, but kept at it. "He's been running tests for hours and - why are you wearing your armor?"

"Because this is not a scientific malady." She stood to face him and turned her monitor towards him. "It is a magical one."

Jim gaped at her, mouth working for a moment without any clear goal in mind. It wasn't until he tore his gaze away from her and looked down at the monitor that his countenance shifted to more muted confusion. The image was one of the only few that Amanda Waller's team had caught on camera. Diana had given strict instructions to the leader of A.R.G.U.S. that Medusa's face could never be on camera, else her cursed gaze afflict anyone else who viewed the footage. As a result, the only footage to make it to the records were of the cursed woman from behind. Jim could see the snakes, emerald green and frozen in time, as they writhed wildly. The gorgon herself, cursed for her beauty, bore the golden armor that Circe had gifted her as a tool against Diana.

She could see Jim's brow furrow more when he caught sight of the younger version of the the woman before him now. Diana remembered the white cloth she had bound around her eyes. She had thought she could fight Medusa blind. She could. But, fighting Medusa while Circe interfered… that had proven more difficult.

"What is this?" He finally asked before looking back at her.

"That is the only surviving account of my encounter with the monster Medusa. Her accursed gaze turned any living creature to stone if they looked directly upon her." She knew it would be difficult to make him believe, but Diana had never let doubt stand in the way of truth. "When I lived in Paris, I faced her."

"You killed her." Jim finished, although he sounded distracted. "Right, you mentioned after you got back from Althea."

"Yes, because the Altheans share the same coloring as Medusa. They even style their green hair in braids that mimic the snakes." Diana shifted so that she could switch to another part of the footage as she kept talking. "I thought it was an unlikely coincidence. I do not believe that to be the case now."

"Why?"

"The ritual we witnessed on Althea is identical to the Ritual of Hecate performed by the Amazons - and by extension the Greeks." She kept scrolling, hunched over the desk. "It was very specific and rarely used. We only used it ourselves when a great many Amazons were sent across the River Styx to the Underworld, or when we required great magic." She paused as she found the next timestamp. "Hecate was never one for worshippers, but she was honored as Persephone's handmaiden and the great keeper of magic. Her primary symbols were the torch and key, just like the Althean government uses. I thought it a case of pollution from Earth, but could not determine why. Then, I remembered. They only started practicing this ritual about two hundred years ago. And two hundred years ago…" Diana stood straight and turned on the footage. "I banished Hecate's chief acolyte from the Earth. The witch, Circe."

The image flared to life. The witch goddess Circe in her long black gown. Her hair, lavender and down to her waist, billowed around her as her hands glowed with the magical energy that she had been blessed with by Hecate herself. She cried in an ancient form of Greek - even more obscure than Themysciran - and the bolt of energy blew apart a fountain. Diana had watched the footage several times, but she didn't need to look. She could remember the concrete showering down onto her, bouncing off her shield.

The cameraman shifted perspective to reveal Diana. At the time, she had already killed Medusa. "I could not look directly at Medusa. I tried to use a blindfold, but when it was taken from me, I did the only thing I could: I blinded myself and kept fighting. Even after I killed Medusa, Circe would not rest. She fled this battle in Paris, but I found her in Greece a week later." The image froze, then went dark. "I invoked the gods to banish her, and she disappeared. I thought she was gone, but now to find Medusa's curse visited upon Crewman Harper and Circe's goddess worshipped here?"

"I thought you said the Amazons worshipped this Hecate. Why would she help Circe hurt you?"

"The gods are fickle. And for a time, they were dead. I helped resurrect them in my youth." Diana recalled her folly, the years spent in the 1940s facing the Nazis undercover, only to find that the they had found a vessel to resurrect the gods. All they had needed was Diana's naive and divine touch. "But, as I found out, they are quite adept at speaking out both sides of their mouths. Hecate was not malicious. Circe merely asked for power with no rules and it was granted, in exchange for her soul. It is not a covenant I can break."

With the image gone, Kirk finally turned his attention back to her. "Diana, this is…. This is a lot to take in, and you don't have all the facts - "

She reached out, taking him by the shoulders. "I have all I need, Jim. I am telling you that I can feel the magic on the Enterprise. It's been too long, I've been lax in training my senses, but I told you: I am not something your science can explain. Neither is this. Crewman Harper is - "

"Harper is not the only one, Diana!" Jim blurted out.

She froze, shock plain on her features. "What?"

"In the last hour, I've lost 20 crewmembers to whatever this is. It started in Engineering, but it's happening all over the ship with no rhyme or reason."

She released her grip on his shoulders and backpedalled. "It's happening so quickly?" She muttered, more to herself than the captain. "But, Medusa is dead. I killed her myself, so then she must have found the spell Athena used for the curse…" Diana considered how long the Enterprise had been in orbit around Althea before taking off at warp again. "Perhaps she has come aboard already."

"You're not suggesting that some woman you faced down a couple of centuries ago somehow snuck aboard my ship without my systems detecting her, are you?" Jim seemed incredulous, but not nearly as skeptical as she expected.

"If Hecate has blessed her with immortality, then believe me, she likely has a few more 'blessings' that can hide from your sensors." She replied. "And we must return to Althea as fast as possible. I must speak to their Torch and determine if they even know what Circe has done. They may be enthralled. You don't know what she can do, but I have seen it all." Diana tried to ignore the way her heart was racing as she considered the depth of Circe's influence. She had been so sure the witch couldn't hurt or manipulate anyone else. But, they had such history… it had been naive.

"Diana, it's not that I don't want to believe you, but Bones does have a theory…" He stopped as she crossed her arms over her chest, daring him to finish whatever feeble excuse he had. "I mean…. I've seen what you can do. I know who you were to history, I know you who you are now, but this?" He shrugged. "It's out of my wheelhouse." There was a strange resignation in his voice. Almost as if he'd known the moment she started speaking that he wouldn't win an argument. Was that because he believed? Or because he knew there was no point in arguing?

"There are some things that cannot be explained by your science. And perhaps, one day, you will unravel the mystery of magic, but that day is not today." She said, hoping to ease the sting that his doctor might not be able to save them. "For a man who has seen such great things in this universe, how can you not believe me?"

Jim looked at her for a long moment before he finally chuckled. He seemed surprised with himself. "I do. I believe you. I just… this is definitely the furthest I've gone on suspending my disbelief, let's put it that way."

"Good. Then, let's return to Althea - "

He put his hand up to stop her for the moment, shaking his head. "Hang on. I believe that Circe is real, that this may all be related, but we don't know that for sure. Let's go talk to Bones, see if he's made any progress. Even if it's what you consider magic, if we can figure out the science behind it, then that's worth it." He was trying to reason the impossible.

Diana chuckled in spite of herself. Even in spite of the seriousness of the situation.

"If he's still stuck, then we'll go right back to Althea and I'll defer to you and your… extensive knowledge of the arcane." He bent his head a bit to catch her eye and draw her attention back to him. "Deal?"

"Deal." She said, motioning for the door.

As he turned to go, Jim paused as something caught his eye. He was looking at her desk. More importantly…

"Have I seen that watch before?" He asked.

Diana's eyes widened as he reached over, picking up Steve's watch carefully, reverently. Her heart clenched, then began to quicken as he looked it over. For a brief moment, she had the profound sense that the gods were torturing her. Again, she had lulled herself into accepting that his resemblance to Steve was a throw of the genetic dice.

But, now there was magic, and if Circe was turning people to stone…

What if McCoy was wrong? What if there was more to the man before her than she wanted - needed to believe.

Jim was still looking at the watch as an archeologist gently rotating a piece of ancient pottery. She tried not to think of the way his care and curiosity had become endearing to her.

Diana swallowed down her heart from its new location in her throat. "No, I don't believe so."

"That's odd…" He turned it over in his hand one more time. "I just, I dunno, I feel like I've seen it before."

"Maybe you owned a watch like it?" She didn't know why she was asking. She knew it was only going to lead to more inner turmoil.

"No, I've never really taken an interest in antiques." He seemed to be drinking in every millimeter of detail on the timepiece. Yet, Diana couldn't shake the sensation that the watch was precisely where it needed to be. "I take it you've had this for a while?"

Diana was careful to keep her voice neutral. "Yes. It was given to me by… by someone close to me. He died during the first World War."

He set the watch down abruptly, as if he felt like he'd been intruding, but still with all the care a relic such as the watch deserved. "You have my sympathy. Must have been important to keep it with you all these years."

"He is." She corrected herself. "Was." For a brief moment, she considered telling him everything. It was easy to forget the crisis outside those doors. But, she couldn't guarantee that it would do any good. In fact, it would only complicate matters. Afterwards. She would tell him after she found Circe. "I'm sure Dr. McCoy will have found something by now."

The subtle shift from friend to captain wasn't missed. In the blink of an eye, he nodded and turned to the door. The two of them were quiet as they made it to the turbolift, as short as the trip was. But, while Diana was no stranger to companionable silence, there was something off about the lack of noise once they stepped off the lift.

The same deck that held Sickbay also had two science labs and one of the transporter rooms. There had never been a time when Diana didn't see or hear someone in the halls.

Until now.

"It's too quiet," Kirk muttered, concerned. He picked up his pace and gently nudged her to do the same with a hand to her elbow. "Come on, I don't like this."

As their footsteps fell in sync and quickly crossed the corridor to the central hub of the deck, Diana felt that now-familiar itch begin again. It rattled in her bones, it slid down her spine. "Jim…" She breathed as they made it to the doors. She reached for him, a feeble warning for what she knew would be on the other side. "Jim, we're too late - "

He was already inside.

As she passed over the threshold of the door, she felt a sudden wave of heat that gripped her senses. It was as if she had walked into a burning building. It was suffocating and dry. And then it was gone as quickly as it had struck her.

And so was the sensation of lingering sorcery. The sickbay held no arcane residue now. The magic was done. Whether Diana had sensed it leaving, or whether she had simply been out of practice in detecting such things, she wasn't sure. Again, she felt as though she was treading water in the absence of that magical aura as she approached the captain.

She expected to hear Kirk already questioning for a progress report, but he was silent. In fact, he was standing still across from the doctor's desk.

Diana's heart sank. She knew before she drew closer.

Doctor McCoy was still prone over his desk, lips pursed and a granite hand gripping his monitor as he reviewed fruitless test results. The padd and screen had long since gone dark, perceiving no organic lifesign to present the information.

She turned to face the man beside her. His eyes were locked on his friend's face. McCoy was tranquil, but made of stone. Kirk's nostrils flared. There was a brief flash of lingering worry and grief, then it was gone as he blinked and his jaw set.

How many more had been afflicted since Kirk had come to find her?

She gently extended a hand to touch his shoulder, wishing to offer him comfort and to assure him that she would see Circe brought to heel. It wasn't entirely surprising that he turned away before she could touch him.

"We need to get back to Althea." He ordered, marching back out the door.

With a last lingering glance at the doctor, Diana swallowed and followed after him.

It would take another four hours to return back to Althea at their top warp speed. While the ship had been at low warp speeds to leave, the journey back still would take more time than Diana feared they had.

By the end of the first hour, two hundred members of the crew had turned to stone. The reports came in from every deck, every crew position. No one was safe. People were changed as they ate in the mess hall. Diana had taken a security team - at Jim's insistence - and swept each deck.

When she returned to the bridge an hour and fifteen minutes later, she returned alone.

It never seemed to happen when someone could see them. There was no way to catch the change in action. At an hour and thirty minutes, Uhura had turned to her console after giving her report to the captain. When everyone looked back in her direction, the communications officer had been stricken. Spock had shown as much concern as she expected he could, but there was little to be done.

At an hour and forty-five minutes, Diana herself had to speed across the bridge to catch Spock as he took a step while no one was looking. She barely caught his prone figure before he crashed into the floor.

At the two hour mark, Scotty failed to make his report. Nor did he answer to anyone's attempts to raise him.

Systems began to go down sporadically without individuals to man stations. Even with such advanced technology, automation has not replaced the living component, Diana thought ruefully. After the second time the ship nearly lost life support and Diana reminded Jim she was on the bridge, he steered her to the ops console and quickly taught her the basic functions of the station.

Sulu had to call her over to help with the engineering console as he lost his navigator.

It had now been two hours and fifteen minutes since the Enterprise had made their course back to the planet.

The captain was now at the helm, having slaved engineering to the navigation console.

Diana was attempting to manage life support and the tactical systems - as much as she could understand - from the standing science console near the captain's chair.

The last crewmember to report in had been Crewman Oviedo in the shuttle bay. He was attempting to reroute more power directly from the shuttle bay to keep the essential systems as optimal as possible.

The power never stabilized as hoped, and he stopped answering hails.

For a place so full of light and bright white lacquer… it was more eerie now than it had ever been.

The lights dimmed, not for the first time. Ahead of them both, the viewport gave them a very stark view of their progress. The warp bubble rippled around them as they nearly dropped out of it, then stabilized.

"We're losing speed." She said, hoping he could elaborate on what she'd seen. Or, perhaps tell her she was wrong.

"I know, I know," Kirk's response was hardly the one she wanted, but he stretched over to the navigator position and depressed a few more buttons on the console. "I could try to go down to Engineering, see if we could draw power to stabilize the warp bubble, but without Scotty, I don't know where those overrides are."

"How far is it to Althea if we lose the warp field?" She truly did not think the answer would soothe the sting of knowing that the ship was even dying around them. She only hoped the knowledge would fuel her determination.

"A lot longer. A day or two, easily. And that's providing we don't lose any other systems or get off-course." He remarked, heads down and focused. "How much power is left to the deflector dish? We might be able to sacrifice some of the range if it means we get there."

Diana furrowed her brow and put her new skill to use, toggling through the systems she had access to before she found deflector control. The text that came across the screen didn't help. "The computer is already reporting we are close to the minimum power level and it's still dropping." She rested her hands on the console and leaned forward. "Jim, can the shuttles go to warp? Maybe I can -"

Jim shook his head. "No. I mean, yes, the shuttles can go to warp, but one person can't run a ship."

"If the solution - if Circe is on Althea, then if we never reach the destination, I may be the only one of us left! And I certainly cannot do all of this." She motioned to the bridge around them, then crossed down to the helm. "Jim, unless you can think of something, we may have to come back - "

"No." He stood, giving her suggestion his full attention. Those eyes, hawk-like in their determination and stubbornness, bore down on her. "I am not abandoning my crew, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not giving up on the Enterprise, so don't you count her out, either."

"I'm not giving up, but I cannot fight Circe if I cannot find her!" Diana urged.

"I don't believe in no-win scenarios, and neither do you." He reminded her, pointedly using their off-duty conversations against her. "We will find her." Jim turned to pace the bridge for a moment, then spun to face her. "You'll find her."

Diana furrowed her brow. "What?"

"You said you know magic, that you're magic. Maybe we're looking at this all wrong. You don't need to go back to Althea. You need to bring her here."

She'd considered the same thing earlier, but she could see no way to summon the witch without old scrolls that were on Themyscira. Diana wasn't a sorceress. "Magic is more than intent, I'm not sure if I could - "

"Diana, we don't have any other options." He said quickly, reaching out to her. "Faith is all about what you believe, and I believe in you. So, do something miraculous. Please."

In that moment, she realized that he truly meant what he said. It had been a long time since anyone had ever said as much. And if they had, it had been in her role as the queen or as Wonder Woman. But this was something... else. Something more.

She nodded and pulled away from him, making her way over to Sulu's frozen figure in one of the jump seats. "He was the last her magic took. I will use that against her." Unfurling her lasso, Diana wrapped it around Sulu's shoulders and held tightly.

Closing her eyes, she let the world around her fall away for the moment. She let herself be consumed by the silence, used it to focus.

She thought of the witch. Her lavender hair, her violet eyes, and her dark soul. I am here. She said to the lingering sorcery in the helmsman's transformed figure. Find me, witch woman. Find me. I am the God-killer, and I am the one who slew your lover the God of War. I am here.

Someone was clapping. Slowly. Languidly.

"Oh, very good, Diana, I am impressed. Well, marginally."

One goddess turned to face the other. Jim Kirk pulled his phaser and trained it on the new arrival.

Circe had sprawled herself across the captain's chair. Her purple hair cascaded in waves down her chest. She wore the same golden chiton as the Altheans had, but where they had worn simple sandals, the witch goddess bore buskins. While the tops were certainly laced and black leather, the soles bore spiked heels. It was a distinct influence from the woman's time in Man's World. She had not changed at all.

"Did you miss me, God-killer?" The witch purred, her voice husky and full of the natural seduction that once kept Odysseus on her shores and tied Ares to her forever. "Because I certainly missed you."