"Captain!" Spock's deep, slightly harsh voice carried
down the corridor and Kirk spun around. "Captain!"
Taking Drysden's arm, Kirk dragged the yeoman up the
corridor to his first officer. The Vulcan's face was
expressionless and austere, an effect slightly ruined by the
graze on one cheek, the tear in his uniform, and a semi-
conscious crew member slumped against him.
"Spock!" Kirk said. "You are a sight for sore eyes!"
"Indeed, Captain, I could say the same of you. We have
encountered some disturbing phenomena."
"So have I." Kirk said, shuddering at the recollection.
"Have you had any contact with the other teams?"
"Regrettably, no. When we first encountered ...
difficulties ... I determined that our best course of action
was to turn back. Since then, we have been attempting to
return to the shuttlebay." Spock looked at the section
markings on the wall, which showed that they were
somewhere in the science section of the Starbase, near the
core and a very long way firm the shuttle bay. He raised
his eyebrow in what was, for Spock, an unusually
expressive manner. "We have not yet been successful."
Kirk managed to smother a laugh. "More to the point,
there are the rest of the crew to worry about. Even if we
fall back to the shuttle-bay, I doubt there's much we can do
except call for reinforcements, and I don't think more
people are going to make the difference. And that still
leaves eighty crew in here somewhere."
"Indeed, Captain, after discharging my responsibility to
the crew under my command I intended to return -"
"I know, Spock.' Kirk said. "I'm not criticising your
decision - it was the right one. But the circumstances have
changed, somewhat. I'm going to assign Yeoman Drysden
to your team, to go back to the shuttlebay with the rest of
your people. I'll see who else I can round up and what sort
of shape they're in. The origin of all this has to be
somewhere around here."
"Illogical, sir. Your chances of confronting and defeating
the source of these phenomena are hardly improved by
attempting to do so alone. And I very much doubt any
attempt to retreat to the shuttle-bay would be successful,
under the circumstances."
Kirk looked around at the battered crew. He raised his
voice. "We are faced with a choice, people." he said.
"Whether to attempt a return to shuttle-bay and transport
out, or to seek out whatever's causing all this and put an
end to it. In this situation, I don't feel I can order you to
try to go on. I'm calling for volunteers."
"Me, sir." Tomlinson said.
"And me." said someone else.
"And me."
"Me, too."
"Volunteer, affirmative, sir."
"All right." Kirk said. "Spock, bring up the rear and make
sure no-one falls behind. I'll take point."
Some staggering and many shaking with fear, they
followed him.
Uhura clamped her teeth shut on a scream of horror and
fired point blank at the man whose arms reached out to
her. Normally, she could have dealt with an unwelcome
embrace with a sharp word, perhaps a slap if the
offerer was too persistent. Certainly, a phaser set
to incinerate was well beyond the high range of her
usual repertoire of put downs. Given the slight odour
of decomposition that hung around her would be suitor
and the axe in his head, however, she felt that this
time it was justified.
~And how am I going to explain *this* when Scotty asks
me how the away mission went?~ she wondered. ~Oh,
fine, the ops centre had a half-a-dozen dead bodies
missing various bits nailed to the ceiling and
*bleeding* and then a dead man came on to me so I
vaporised him. Sure. You know, when I joined
Starfleet and the promised me an interesting career
this wasn't quite what I had in mind.~
"Stay with me, Eclson." she said. "Stay with me,
girl."
"Yes'm." Eclson said. Her voice was shaking but the
hand that held her phaser was steady.
'We'll find the others." Uhura promised. "Can't be far
now.
Just stay with me."
"Yes'm."