Star Trek: Mandala Maligned

Okay, some background. In Vonda N. McIntyre's superb The Entropy Effect, the Enterprise is studying a naked singularity, despite the wearing effect this has on the engines. She's called abruptly to Aleph Prime, a space colony - just as Spock discovers certain entropic emissions from the singularity...which promise to lead to the end of the Universe in less than 100 years. At Aleph Prime the prosecutor, Ian Braithewaite, expects the Enterprise to transport Dr. Georges Mordreaux, a former teacher of Spock's and a brilliant physicist, to Rehab Colony Seven - in the same system.

Allegedly he's convicted of proscribed weapons manufacture and unethical experimentation on self-aware subjects. In truth the Federation is scared to death because he's developed a theory of time travel - and used it to send his friends back in time. They're having him rehabilitated, i.e. rendered dumb and happy, to keep him quiet.

Apparently he escapes confinement and shoots Lieutenant Commander Mandala Flynn and Captain Kirk with spiderweb bullets. This web grows within the body, an organo-metallic neurophilic substance. It grows along nerve fibres, gradually killing the person as it goes, until it reaches the brain; it has such an affinity for the optic nerve that it grows all around the eyeball. It is 100% lethal. There is no cure.

Kirk is lethally shot in one lung, Flynn winged in the shoulder - in horror she discovers the web growing out of her shoulder wound and knows she's dying.

In truth, this was not done by Mordreaux...at least, not the one in confinement. Instead he's from a parallel future in which, after he goes mad, he decides he would've been better off if he had been rehabilitated, and travels back in time to kill Kirk. He was also responsible for the 'ultimate priority' recall to Aleph.

Unfortunately the singularity is the direct physical manifestation of the one-way trip Mordreaux's friends took. His action has so distorted reality that the increase of entropy has started to accelerate. Within 20 years, unstable stars will start to go nova, and precarious ecosystems will fail. The Universe will simply...wind down.

Unless Spock can somehow stop it.

Braithewaite sees Spock and McCoy arguing over Kirk, who's on life support, until the Vulcan persuades McCoy that the captain's cerebrum has been crushed and there is no chance of recovery. Braithewaite misinterprets this as them letting Kirk die, when in fact he is already dead - McCoy was vainly clinging to a last hope by keeping Kirk's body alive. Adding to this absurd theory, Braithewaite picks up on the fact that when she came aboard and Kirk asked her about her plans, Mandala looked him in the eye and said, "I want your job", i.e. she wanted to command Enterprise or similar.

She was stateless; she was born in space, between two out-of-the-way systems, and neither parent was from either. Braithewaite, with a typical civilian bias, sees this as a major obstacle to her advancement, to say nothing of the fact that she was a mustang and never attended the Academy. Despite this, she's made it to Lieutenant Commander and is Kirk's chief of security.

Captain Hunter of the fighter Aerfen arrives and investigates - Mandala was a member of her crew, and she and Kirk were old friends.

It's often been said that Mandala is a Mary Sue, because Vonda was also petite and redheaded, i.e. a self-insertion. But frankly, my muse and I don't care. In the novel, Hunter never corrected Braithewaite.

Here, she does.

U.S.S. Enterprise

As Spock uses Mordreaux's time-changer to escape to the past

"What the hell did he do?" Hunter asked.

"He made a fine botch o' my repairs, for one thing," Scott said from the darkness, his old self for a moment.

"Emergency power should come online in a minute or so," McCoy said. "Like I told you, we've been having some problems -"

"You've got more than problems," Hunter said, in a tone that silenced him.

The quiet movement of the air returned, and the lights glowed dimly back to life around them. The voices of frightened crew members jumbled together in an erratic crescendo (Author's Note: I've always thought the Enterprise crew to be made of sterner stuff than to be scared by the lights going out...then again, the crux of the novel is that everything is going wrong owing to the Entropy Effect). The computer began to babble, then lapsed into fuzzy white noise.

Mr. Scott helped Ian Braithewaite to his feet. Dazed, the prosecutor almost fell again. McCoy hurried forward, but Braithewaite jerked away from his help. "Keep your hands off me."

"All right, Ian," McCoy said mildly. He turned to the security officers. "Is anyone guarding Dr. Mordreaux?"

"I - I guess not, Doctor."

"You better get back there then, both of you. Everything's under control here."

They looked sceptical. McCoy did not blame them.

"Out!" he yelled.

They left, reluctantly, to return to their post. McCoy folded his arms and regarded Braithewaite. "You're supposed to be in your quarters, Ian," he said (Author's Note: When Braithewaite's suspicions became too much, McCoy had the man confined to quarters - Spock has placed McCoy in command and is temporarily off-duty...ostensibly to sleep after six weeks studying the singularity 24/7, but in fact he's trying to stop what's happening). "What are you doing out?"

"I freed him, Dr. McCoy," Scott said. "I dinna ken what's happened to this ship. I dinna ken what's happened t'ye and Mr. Spock since all this started. But Mr. Braithewaite has asked questions that need answering, and ye willna answer them."

"Scotty, you disobeyed my direct orders -"

"Your orders! Ye are nae a command officer! What business had he leavin' ye in command?"

"Spock left the doctor in command because it was the only way he could carry out his plans," Braithewaite said. "He had to keep you out of the way."

"Now just a minute," McCoy said.

"Stop it, all of you."

The three men fell silent, recognising the tone of someone who had earned obedience and respect.

(She certainly did. Her very first assignment was to deal with pirates and Klingons at Ganjitsu, Sulu's home colony in this tale. But she didn't just deal with them - she smashed them, with Aerfen living up to her name (In such likeness Pallas Athene swept flashing earthward, to quote Homer), and earned the eternal gratitude and awe of the Ganjitsujin.)

"I outrank all of you, including Spock," Hunter said, "and if I have to pull rank to find out what's going on, then consider it pulled. Dr. McCoy, do you have anything to say now?"

He started to answer her - but Spock had got away, and perhaps he only needed a few minutes to put everything right, but if he failed again (he did...and had to watch Kirk die again) and returned, he would be stopped if his plans were known. McCoy could not take the chance of revealing what they were trying to do (otherwise they would also be shipped off to Rehab Seven - Federation paranoia in this going-wrong continuum). He shook his head in defeat.

"Mr. Scott?" Hunter asked.

"I dinna ken what has happened. Dr. McCoy said Spock was deep asleep. He isna asleep, ye saw that for yourself. That didna look like any transporter beam I ever saw before, either - and where could he go? I canna make his actions come out to make any sense in my mind. Unless Mr. Braithewaite's suspicions are correct. I dinna want to believe them - but if they're no' true, why does Dr. McCoy want to go to Arcturus?"

"Arcturus!" Hunter said.

"Where'd you get the idea I wanted to go to Arcturus?" McCoy asked, baffled.

"Ye told me ye did," Scott said, and then, when McCoy shook his head, "Ye said, if ye asked for warp four toward Arcturus, would ye get it."

"I didn't mean it," McCoy said. "I just picked the first example I could think of. But so what if I did want to go to Arcturus? What possible difference could that make?"

"Leonard," Hunter said, "Arcturus is almost exactly equidistant from Federation, Romulan and Klingon space. It's neutral - most of the time, anyway. People go to Arcturus to make deals."

"I don't want to go to Arcturus," McCoy said again. "I only wanted to know if the warp drive was online." (So Spock could use the time-changer; it uses a lot of power)

"He doesn't even make up decent excuses!" Braithewaite said.

"No, Mr. Braithewaite," Hunter said, and she looked as if she were about to burst into laughter. "You're right about that, Dr. McCoy doesn't make up good excuses. But what do you have to say?"

"Spock's been trying to free Mordreaux," Braithewaite told her. "He was on Aleph right after the trial, I saw him. (He was; he's travelled back to Aleph...where he will/did meet Braithewaite in passing, and stop the wrong Mordreaux, one from still further into the future - the mad one will still summon the Enterprise ) And he was monkeying around with the transporter (no, he wasn't - well, he was, but it was in fact the version of Spock who failed to save Kirk) just before Kirk was murdered. But Spock couldn't get Mordreaux away, so he settled for escaping himself once things began to fall apart on him. He'd already drawn Dr. McCoy into his scheme. The security commander was involved, but they got rid of her -"

"The security commander? You can't mean Mandala Flynn!"

"Yes - she wanted to command a ship like this so badly she could taste it. It was no secret, she even told Kirk. But he laughed at her (He did at first, until he joked about it to Hunter and she told him he'd better recommend her for a better one if he wanted to keep the Enterprise ). He must have known that a stateless person had no chance of advancing that far in Starfleet."

(Until now it's been novel-faithful. From here, my muse takes over)

Hunter stared at him grimly. "You, Mr. Braithewaite, have some very strange ideas about Starfleet. A person being stateless might matter in civilian life. But to Starfleet, it was the least important thing about her. She made security chief - replacing an incompetent officer, I might add - because Kirk knew she could do the job. She did do it. I talked with her exec, al Auriga - and he told me that she wasn't just a commander, but a leader. Her officers have all said the same. For her to conspire to take over this ship…" she shook her head. "I'd sooner believe the Klingon Emperor had a tribble for a pet."

"But that's what happened! Spock probably offered her the Enterprise in return for her help -"

"Stop. Right. There."

Now Hunter looked as she had when facing the pirates at Ganjitsu.

"Again, you are applying civilian mores and attitudes to Starfleet officers. You are completely off base and out of line. For a start, the Enterprise does not belong to Spock, and did not belong to Jim Kirk. A captain commands a starship but he does not own her. In fact, you do - you and every other Federation citizen," she told him coldly. "No Starfleet officer could just 'offer' the ship to any other - it wasn't Spock's to offer. You can own a civilian ship. You cannot own a Starfleet vessel, Mr. Braithewaite.

"The commanding officer doesn't decide who's in command. Starfleet Command does. They would offer the command to Spock, who I doubt would accept it. Not the Spock I know. Not Jim Kirk's friend. Actually the Vulcans have a word for what they were to each other: t'hy'la. Possibly, possibly Mandala might've been in the running. It's true, she did want to command. I encouraged her - because I knew she could do it. She would've made one hell of a starship captain," she added sadly, glancing at Sulu, her lover and friend.

"But -"

Hunter was in no mood for Braithewaite's outlandish notions - especially not about Mandala. "Mandala Flynn was utterly loyal to Starfleet, and I was only happy to let her go because I knew she was going to bigger and better things by transferring to the Enterprise. She didn't just wear the uniform, she lived it. Even if there were such a conspiracy, she would never be a part of it. Not a chance in hell. You're barking up the wrong tree."

Braithewaite frowned. "What's a tree?"

"Doesn't know what a bee is, either," McCoy jibed. "Or a bonnet."

"Typical colonist," Hunter sighed. She shook herself. "For a Vulcan to act in the way you suggest would mean he'd gone mad. Spock was one of the sanest men I ever knew. Vulcans - even half-Vulcans, as he is - simply don't behave the way humans do. They don't let ambition consume them. And Spock was always too interested in the sciences to want command - anyway, if he had, likely he'd have been given command of the new Intrepid, which is due to be commissioned.

"This was Jim's ship. Spock would never want her." Again she shook her head. "I admit I have no idea why Spock placed the ship's doctor in command, it should've been Mr. Scott by the formal hierarchy -"

"Aye!"

"- but he must've had a, forgive me," a slight smile, "a logical reason."

He did, McCoy thought in despair. He's trying to repair the damage Mordreaux did, and save Jim and Mandala.

But where the hell is he?!

"They had to get rid of Kirk first," Braithewaite persisted, "Dr. Mordreaux tried to kill him and failed, so Spock pressured McCoy into letting him die."

"No!" McCoy cried in anguish and anger. "Dammit, Braithewaite, he was dead! He was already dead!" McCoy's voice broke and he turned away. In the following silence he managed to collect himself again. "I succumbed to a very human failing: I was hoping against hope that Jim could recover somehow. I could keep his body alive indefinitely, but…" he sighed and admitted the truth - to himself as much as to them. "I did switch life support off. Spock begged me to let him go.

"So I did. I didn't want to admit it, but he was brain-dead from the moment I took him off the Bridge. He was only alive physically, Ian. His brain was dead. That's what spiderweb does, you know. Its fibres coil around nerve cells and they cut them by tightening."

Hunter nodded. "I saw it at Ganjitsu. It's a horrible, vicious weapon. So, Doctor, there was no hope for Jim?"

McCoy sighed again. "No. I followed the terms of his will, which specifically said not to keep him alive if there was no hope of recovery. He never believed in divine intervention. You can look at it if you want."

"I intend to," Hunter noted. She looked brisk. "I also intend to get to the bottom of this. I'm discounting your absurd theories, Braithewaite - anyway, you have no authority or jurisdiction on this ship, whereas I do. Doctor, where is Dr. Mordreaux right now?"

"He's in his quarters, under guard," McCoy answered.

"Are you sure?" Braithwaite inquired cynically.

"Why, you -"

"As you were, Doctor!" Hunter snapped, though she was equally pissed at the prosecutor. "Mr. Braithewaite, Mordreaux might be your prisoner, but he is being handled by the Enterprise security crew - and if Mandala trained them as thoroughly as she did everything else, they are entirely capable of coping with a single elderly scientist! And despite his evasiveness, Dr. McCoy seems a competent officer." She turned to the chief engineer. "Mr. Scott, do you concur? You've known him for several years."

"Aye, I have," Scott sighed, "an' he's said any number o' times that he canna go any higher an' still practice medicine. But...I still dinna ken what's happening on this ship. Doctor," he appealed to McCoy, "will ye no' explain?"

McCoy sighed. "I can't, Scotty."

Braithewaite unwisely leapt on this. "So there is an explanation?!"

The doctor nearly bridled at this, but Hunter had already pointed out the flaws in Braithewaite's thesis, so he just said, "Not one I'll share with you, but yes."

"Leonard," Hunter said gently.

He almost gave in. He wanted to.

But...the Federation would cashier him if he did. They'd already erased Mordreaux's work via the virus they'd loosed - Spock's computer was protected against such, which was why he still had copies.

If they knew...he couldn't take the chance that Hunter wouldn't side with Braithewaite. Besides, if Spock succeeded then, in theory, none of this would occur or have occurred anyway.

Better to stay silent.

"I...I can't," McCoy groaned.

Later, though, he did.

THE END

"The Bridge really can get along without you for a few more hours."

"I realise that, sir. However, when I began my experiment I psychophysiologically altered my metabolism

to permit me to remain alert during the course of my observations. I could return my

circadian rhythm to normal now, but it does not seem sensible, to me, to prepare myself for rest

when my presence may be required when we reach our destination."

Kirk sorted through the technicalities of his Science Officer's statement. "Spock," he said,

"you aren't saying you haven't had any sleep in six weeks, are you?"

"No, Captain."

"Good," Kirk said, relieved; and, after a pause, "Then what are you saying?"

"It will not be six standard weeks until the day after tomorrow."

- Star Trek, "The Entropy Effect"