The door to sickbay hissed open and a massive figure

charged through. M'Benga flung one arm protectively

over his patient and grabbed a laser scalpel in his other

hand.

~ Never underestimate the 'combat' in 'combat medicine', he

thought wryly.~

"Man, put tha' down before thou puts someone's eye out

with it." the hulking figure said, and M'Benga registered

the insignia on the torn collar. The figure stopped being a

dangerous threat and became Lieutenant Commander

Harry Pateman, closely followed by a civilian wielding a

wrench.

M'Benga released the laser scalpel and rephrased that last

thought. The figure stopped being an unidentified

dangerous threat and became the fully identified and

equally dangerous threat of Lieutenant Commander Harry

Pateman, closely followed by a mad-eyed maniac in

civilian clothing armed with a wrench.

"I need to talk to thy conn officer." Pateman said. "Is there

a working comm. in here?"

"Over there." M'Benga said, indicating the wall. He kept

his body between his patient and Pateman as the fat man

strode to the comm., rattling the instruments on their trays.

The civilian watched M'Benga warily for a moment, and

then, apparently deciding the doctor was no threat,

lowered the wrench and nodded.

"Madison." he said.

"Dr M'Benga." M'Benga replied. "What's going on out

there?"

"You know as much as me, mate." Madison said. "People

going crazy and climbing the walls, random nutters

wandering the corridors, just a usual day in Starfleet I

expect."

"Anyone who can hear me," Pateman said into the comm,

"this is Pateman."

"This is Mr Athende." came the reply. "Sir, we have an

emergency -"

"I know tha', lad, tha's why I'm calling. You have an

emergency an' I'm in the middle of it. Now, let me speak

to thy command officer."

"Commander Scott is - occupied, sir."

"I'll occupy thee, lad, if thou doan' put me through to him

THIS INSTANT!" Pateman bellowed.

A pause. "Sir, I'm putting you on to bridge broadcast, sir."

"Aye, thankee, lad. Scotty, dost thou hear me?

Montgomery Scott?"

Through the comm, M'Benga could hear a low humming,

a soft melody that seemed to speak of misty valleys and

dawn ambushes, of brave dead and battles lost.

"Scotty, man, listen to me." Pateman said. "We're all

goin' funny in the head. Understand? If we let it get

to us we'll be as mad as Merengovian mudworms in no

time at all. Dost hear me?"

Only the quiet, sad humming.

"Scotty, it's talkin' to thee." Pateman tried again. "Canst

thou tell? Damn, man, thou hast a mass of crazed

civilians runnin' about thy ship and tha' cunt Jack

Whittaker leadin' 'em on to hell knows what mischief and

thou sits on thy arse and mourns for Glencoe? Is this

normal for thee? Cos if it is, man, I'll be makin' some

suggestions to your captain about his chain of command!"

"There-" Scotty said, and cleared his throat. "There

isnae anything we can do."

"There's always something we can do!" Pateman said.

"Man, it's in thy *head*! We had it up cloase and

personal, like, and I can tell the smell of it, and the smell

is all over this ship. People are losin' their heads, thou

amongst them, for the purpose or pleasure or amusement

of whatever devil is let loose from hell to prance about

on yon Starbase, and I am tellin' thee if thou doanst pull

thyself together I will pull thee apart!"

"Fricatives." Madison said, nodding at M'Benga. "It's

a Starfleet thing."

~I don't know about Scotty,~ M'Benga thought, ~but I am

definitely close to losing *my* head.~

"Now, laddie, thou hast a serious problem on thy ship."

"It had occurred to me." Scotty said.

"Man - thou hast to take ahold of thyself. Th'art not

feelin' thyself, I guarantee it. This - thing - it'll play

with thy mind, man. We're none of us thinkin' clearly.

Step aside from it, man. Put it to one side. Dost hear

me?"

"Aye." Scotty's said, and then the comm was silent for a

long moment. "Aye." he said again, more clearly.

"Athende, report."

In sickbay, they could not hear the Sulamid's report over

the comm although Scotty had left the channel open.

Pateman waited with what looked to McCoy like a heroic

effort at patience until Scotty spoke again.

There was a barely audible click as the comm went to

direct channel. "What's the situation down there,

Pateman?" Scotty asked.

"I've got near on twenty of my people down here near

sick bay - the rest of 'em are shaken too bad to be

any use. We were comin' back from the transporter

room when we ran into a bunch of civilians actin'

like a mob. They seemed to be headin' for the

shuttlebay."

"Aye, that fits with the reports I've got here. You

say it has something to do with the Starbase?"

"I'm no great believer in coincidences, man." Pateman

said. "And here's another for you - what's so all-

fired attractive about the shuttlebay, eh, except for

the shuttles?"

"We're having some on-going problems with the

computer." Scotty said.

"Well, it wouldn't be a proper emergency without a

computer malfunction, would it?" Pateman asked.

"I've just keyed through a seal on the shuttlebay

docking doors, but Commodore Whittaker's codes have

been accepted above mine for the weapons lockers. The

main lot o' them hae broken into shuttlebay." Scotty

said. "They're powerin' up shuttles now - Whittaker's

with them. His codes are active, I cannae get them

revoked. If they're lookin' to get off my ship I've

nae objection to that."

Pateman hit the wall with one bloodied fist. "I do."

he said. "He's headed for the Starbase, with the lot

of them. It wants them."

"What is *it*, Pateman?" Scotty asked. "Will ye tell

me what in hell happened over there? Where is the

captain?"

"I dunno what *it* is." Pateman said, "All I can tell

thee is that it's truly bad over there. Things

happen that no good man or woman should have to see,

and there's something - at the heart of it all.

Something that means us all no good. Is there no way

thou canst keep them from using those shuttles?"

"Nay." Scotty said. "I hae security concentrated

around the engine room, sickbay, the bridge and

secondary bridge."

"As thou wouldst." Pateman said. "Aye, as thou

wouldst. I'll take my people down that'a'way to see

if we can head them off. No promises, though, man,

they outnumber us. Watch thyself." he added. "There

may well be hard decisions for thee. I know thy

captain is the child o' light and the invincible

incarnation of Starfleet itself but things are very

bad indeed over there an' he may not be coming

back."

"Aye." Scotty said. "Watch yourself, laddie. Bridge

out."

Pateman heaved a breath and then turned towards the

door.

"Hold it there." Madison said. "Hold it there.

What the fuck is going on?"

"If Jerkoff Jack has taken an idea in his head I

guarantee thee it isn't his. An' I am not sure what

is going on, but I am sure that if it's something

tha' Jerkoff wants, or something tha' the *thing*

over there wants, it's something I doan' want. I

have no desire to go within forty light years of tha'

Starbase, but I have a nasty little feelin' that I'll

like wha' happens when Jerkoff gets there even less.

So I'm off to break Jack Whittaker's head. Who's with

me?"

"Tempting though that proposition is," M'Benga said,

"My place is here."

"Well, so long as if we send Whittaker up here, thou

treats him without anaesthetic." Pateman said.

"Chief?"

"Kirk's over there? In some kind of danger?" Madison

said.

"Aye."

Madison worked his mouth, flexed the hand that

gripped his wrench. "Then I'm with you." he said.

"Which way is this shuttle bay ?"

M'Benga waited a few seconds until he was sure they

were gone, and then turned back to his patient. His

hand was very steady as he picked up the laser

scalpel and shut off all speculation about the events

aboard the Enterprise and on Starbase 34.

~You have one job here, doctor,~ he told himself.

~Do it, and let the others get on with theirs.~

"I - give - up!" Sulu said. He slammed his hand

against the wall. "I give UP!"

Coming to his side, Uhura could see on the wall the

mark she had made to show that they had already been

down that corridor - crossed through twice, making it

the

third time they had come this way.

She wiped sweat from her face. "Oh, shit, Hikaru,

what do we do now?"

"Find a cold drink." he grumbled, and then gave her

his brilliant smile. "Find the captain, Nyota. Same

as always."

He turned back to the crew following them. Their

singing had died away, and Uhura hadn't bothered to

encourage them to keep going. Whatever had been

nagging and plaguing them with wicked little rhymes

had apparently lost interest, and the singing seemed

less important now. The barriers that prevented them

going towards the shuttle-bay or the transporter

rooms had a sense of routine about them now, even the

crewmembers who had been near catatonic were

beginning to perk up, and besides, the air was hot

and dry, the sheer weight of it pressing into the

lungs like a furnace, and hardly conducive to

singing.

Sulu counted heads. Thirty two. Plus him and Nyota

- that left sixty eight crew somewhere in here, two

of them being the captain and Commander Spock. Some

of those in the little group, like Larssen, had heard

the singing and followed the sound to rejoin their

crewmates.

"People," he said, "I know you're tired, but we need

to try and get the attention of any of our people

still in here. We'll move on again, and keep up

the singing."

"Yeah, raise up your voices and make a joyful noise

unto the Lord," someone muttered.

"Exactly." Uhura snapped. "Raise up your goddamn

voices and make a joyful noise. Whatever we're

dealing with here doesn't much like joyful noises,

and whatever it hates, we do. With gusto."

Abashed, the crewmember lowered his head, and joined

in with the others. Falling into formation, they

stumbled onwards, the archaic words of the ancient

song drifting through the corridors. Over and over

again, they pledged themselves to battle, to undying

struggle for a better world. Sulu dropped back to

bring up the rear, singing with the rest.

~If only I had a bow of burning gold,~ he thought.

~I'd ram it right up the ass of whatever is doing

this to us.~

The idea made him chuckle, and he looked up to see

Larssen watching at him.

"Cheer up, Lieutenant." he told her. "At least today

can't get any worse."

Larssen said nothing, as she had said nothing since

stumbling along the corridor towards them. She

merely squared her shoulders and went on.