Authors: Alan Dean Foster
Nothing of the irritability mentioned in the Lactrans' old records was evident in the manner of Hivar the Toq as it greeted them warmly. The Lactrans studied the instrumentation and the layout of the circular laboratory with admiration.
The Boquian scientist had been taking McCoy's radiation treatments, and the change in its appearance was dramatic. The gold ribbing on its central trunk shone as if polished, Kirk observed immediately.
Even more striking was the difference in Hivar's upper region, the part that Kirk had come to think of as a head. Except for a few isolated patches of color, the opaque milkiness which had characterized that hemispheric crystalline structure on their first meeting was gone. Now the dark internal striations and peculiar clumps and nodes of denser material showed clearly, reminding Kirk of ferns and flies frozen in Earth's ancient amber.
It was a measure of this creature's personal strength, Kirk realized suddenly, that in all this time since their initial meeting Hivar had never once indicated that it was too severely stricken with radiation deficiency. Kirk wondered if he could have remained as personally unconcerned if their positions had been reversed—if he had been the one dying of a disease thought incurable and Hivar the possible savior.
"Greetings, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Doctor Bones McCoy." Kirk had the impression the Boqus was glancing behind them, though, try as he might, he could not identify Hivar's organs of sight. "And anxious visitors from our far past." Something scratched at Kirk's mind as the Lactrans and the Boqus exchanged silent mental hellos.
When it continued, he wondered for a nervous moment if something had gone wrong, if the Lactrans had touched some ancient trouble. Spock reassured him.
"According to the youngster, its parents and Hivar are engaged in parallel telepathic conversation of an advanced mode. I can believe that, as I have tried to listen in and have experienced only a mild mental concussion as a result. While the Lactrans must turn their thoughts to baby talk and slow their conceptualizations to a crawl in order for us to comprehend, no such restriction exists between them and the Boqus."
Whether Hivar the Toq sensed Kirk's uneasiness at being so completely left out of what was obviously a critical discussion or was just being polite, Kirk would never know. In any case, he appreciated it with loud thoughts of thanks when the Boqus slowed its own river of conversation enough for the humans to make some sense of it.
"A jawanda you want to capture and take back with you to your home world? A jawanda!"
The Boqus' expression of surprise, coming when they had expected a more casual acknowledgment, left the humans startled.
"Now listen," McCoy began, "we've been put off about this jawanda long enough. I think it's about time we—"
Hivar the Toq pivoted on centilegs, the gesture of turning away from them more significant than anything else. "I promised you our aid, it is true, but . . . I do not know." It was muttering mentally. "Long ago we had a device for manipulating the jawandas. But this was used only to protect Boqu, to drive the creatures away from our world. Never to capture one!"
"Just a second, Hivar," McCoy interrupted, waving his hands. "Let's back up a minute. You said drive them
away
from
Boqu
?" The doctor eyed Kirk uncertainly, and was rewarded by a cautioning look of equal puzzlement. "Aren't the jawandas native to Boqu? Are you trying to tell us they originate on still another world?"
"None of the other planets of the system appeared capable of supporting even rudimentary life," Spock commented, without committing himself utterly. Perhaps some minor error in their initial hurried observations, some small factor of atmosphere overlooked . . .
"Do not tax yourself, friend Spock," came the answering thought from Hivar the Toq—accompanied, Kirk sensed with surprise, by a twinge of amusement. "It would appear that your friends the Lactrans have been less than informative, Captain Kirk."
Kirk turned his gaze on the always silent aliens. The answer to his unvoiced question came, as usual, from Spock.
"No, Captain, they have told us no untruths, they have not lied to us. They have simply neglected to mention certain details concerning the jawandas."
"I can imagine!" exclaimed McCoy feelingly.
"It is these details which they have not supplied which should be of particular interest to you, Captain," Hivar added helpfully. "I have said that we manipulated the jawandas out of necessity, to keep them clear of our world. This does not mean they come from another. We have never been able to determine the origin of the jawandas—if, indeed, such a term has application in their case. We know only where the jawandas exist . . . out there." Half a dozen reticulate upper tentacles pointed jerkily skyward.
"The jawanda is truly a creature of the universe," Hivar explained to a rapt audience of bipeds. "They live only in intergalactic space, drifting for unknowable eons in the gulf between galaxies. We know very little of their life, save that they are simple yet marvelously efficient energy-mass converters, feeding on the faint radiations extant in the vast Out There."
"If these creatures exist on radiation," Spock inquired, "why remain in the comparative barrens of intergalactic territory? Why do they not come nearer the galaxies themselves, and the suns which produce the radiations on which they feed?"
"Gravity," was the terse explanation. "Should a jawanda come within the influence of a modest sun, it could easily be trapped forever in orbit about it. While there is no reason for assuming that a jawanda could not live, even thrive, in such a confined existence, it seems that they prefer freedom to satiety. It may be a survival instinct or an actual mental preference—we likely shall never know. For whatever reason, they avoid the gravitational density of galaxies and star clusters. Only the isolation and weak pull of our star made them bold enough to come near Boqu."
"Why Boqu, though?" asked McCoy.
"Remember our measurements on approach, Doctor," Spock reminded him. "Boqu puts out more radiation than it absorbs, qualifying it in certain astronomical lexicons as a protostar itself."
"Correct, Mr. Spock," the Boquian scientist concurred. "Jawandas used to frolic freely about our world, successfully defying our sun's poor gravity. Normally, this troubled Boqu not at all. The jawandas' absorption of radiation lost freely to space did not affect us.
"Occasionally, however, it did, according to the old records. No, Dr. McCoy, the question I see framed in your mind is reasonable but not relevant. The jawandas did not screen out any particular radiation from our sun—such as the vital one you isolated as the cause of our epidemic. Instead, they blocked out a majority of radiation, that wavelength included. More important than any disease, this unpredictable screening caused slight but disconcerting shifts in the surface temperature of Boqu, lowering the warmth in the regions affected by substantial amounts."
"I can see where it could be uncomfortable to be enjoying warm weather one minute and having it turn to winter in a few seconds," Kirk admitted readily.
"This situation persisted for thousands of our years," Hivar continued, "until we found a way to drag the jawandas away. While doubtless they are dull, thoughtless creatures, they do seem capable of learning through repetition. They learned long ago not to approach Boqu."
Hivar abruptly went silent, and Kirk and McCoy looked to the attentive Spock. "The Lactrans wonder what has become of the mechanism for manipulating the jawandas and whether it can be adapted to serve their needs. Hivar has replied that it can conceive of no reason why the device should not be so utilized, though it has never been done before. The Boqus wished to drive the jawandas away, not capture them."
"I do not even know if the mechanism still exists, and, if so, whether it remains operative," Hivar broadcast mentally, slowed now so that the intensely curious humans could also listen in. "Should it prove so, you may employ it, though this must be done with care. Certain of the extended components of the mechanism hold a historical attraction for us. We would not wish to see them lost."
"What components?" Kirk wanted to know.
That great crystalline head turned toward him. "Boqu is circled by nine moons, Captain Kirk. For manipulating the jawandas properly it is necessary to make use of six of them."
"Six . . . moons." McCoy gulped, turning to the
Enterprise
's first officer. "How big did they say one of these creatures is?"
"It has not been stated, Doctor. All references to size have been of an indeterminate nature."
"Big enough to live in intergalactic space, Bones," Kirk commented slowly. "Big enough to pass between sun and planet and cause climatic changes on the surface. Big enough to . . ." His voice trailed off, and he turned to face the Lactrans. "We gave our word to help. That agreement stands." He directed his final statement to Hivar. "Find the device. Can it be mounted on the
Enterprise
, or does it have to exist in free space?"
"No, Captain Kirk," the Boqus replied, bowing with surprising grace for so nearly inflexible a creature. "The actual console for controlling the confining elements of the mechanism is quite small. It will fit easily on board your vessel. As will I."
"You?" McCoy gaped at the scientist. "You're coming along?" Impressions of a mental nod of assent. "But why? You don't owe the Lactrans anything."
"Your guests, no . . . but you, Doctor McCoy, are owed a great deal. In any case, it is necessary, since only a Boqus could properly operate the mechanism."
The mysterious control console of the capture device turned out to be something of an anticlimax. Kirk had been prepared to have technicians cut out bulkheads and even cabins surrounding the Shuttlecraft Bay in order to provide a space large enough to accommodate a monstrous construction. As it turned out, the actual instrumentation bulked only about three times the size of the
Enterprise
's navigation console. Hivar had found it in the nearby city housed in a huge old scientific warehouse that looked brand new, a testament to the foresight and talent of Boqu's pioneering engineers.
Hivar activated the ancient machine and spent several days replacing certain components and realigning internal components while Kirk fidgeted nervously on board the
Enterprise
, his sleep troubled by snaggle-toothed apparitions bigger than starships.
When, before long, the renovation was complete, Kirk inspected the incredibly dense machine and ordered the bracing beneath a bulk-cargo transporter reinforced before beaming the device aboard. He was trying to imagine where they could conveniently place the machine—and how—when Spock proposed a solution so simple that Kirk had overlooked it.
"Why trouble to move it anywhere, Captain? Leave it where it is, on the transporter platform. If the Boqus can operate it from here, there's really no reason to shove it around the ship."
"How about communication?" Kirk mused, studying the distance between the transporter platform and the nearest intercom unit.
His first officer considered. "We will request that the young Lactran remain here with Hivar," he finally suggested. "The youngster will be in constant communication with its parents and with myself, on the bridge, as well as with Hivar."
"Boqus to Lactran to Vulcan," Kirk concluded, adding with firmness, "We'll keep all intercoms activated and open anyway."
When finally beamed aboard with the mechanism, Hivar reactivated it and pronounced itself satisfied with the arrangements. Pressed for a more precise translation than "mechanism" or "device," the Boqus scientist confessed it was unable to name it any better for his human hosts.
"At least that's in keeping with its appearance," Kirk murmured, staring at the object in question. It looked like a large blob of free-form slag composed of half a hundred materials, metallic and otherwise.
He studied the bumps and spikes and wires sticking out of the amorphous mass, trying to rationalize the haphazard appearance of the thing with the knowledge that it was an intricate, complex feat of alien engineering. There was slight consolation in the fact that it looked as absurd to the lumpish Lactrans as it did to him.
Duplicating the outward form of the thing would be no trouble, Kirk thought. Simply take a room full of engineering components and turn a low-power construction phaser on it. Several hours later you would have produced a close approximation of the object now squatting on the cargo-transporter platform.
As Hivar the Toq moved reflecting limbs across the mound's surface, however, it generated lights and hums and whines no half-welded dollop of metal could ever produce.
"The mechanism," the Boqus told them, "contains its own power source, which in turn links it with the much more powerful old engines locked into the crusts of the moons Drasid, Mett One and Mett Two, Lethiq, Lathoq, and Oj." It completed a few final adjustments, turned with a crystalline flourish to face them.
"All is in readiness, Captain Kirk."
An awkward moment of uncertainty followed, before Kirk finally replied, "You'll have to tell us how to begin." He glanced at the young Lactran, who showed no sign of providing instructions or suggestions. "No one else on board has any idea where to start looking for a jawanda."
"I expect your vessel possesses adequate equipment for the transmission of sound waves, since this is the method you use for personal communication," Hivar ventured. "Do you also have the ability to detect other types of electromagnetic radiation?"
"With considerable accuracy," Kirk informed it.
"Then there is no difficulty. Instruct your monitors of the appropriate instrumentation to listen for"—and Hivar provided a figure Spock understood—"which is the range of the jawandas' cry."
"Interesting," the first officer commented. "They communicate among themselves, then?"
"So it is believed by many," the Boqus acknowledged, "yet these sounds may be produced for a variety of reasons having little or nothing to do with communication. Should we continue outward from Boqu, away from the galaxy, we will eventually encounter one." A pause; then: "I see your confusion, Captain Kirk. Given the density of our atmosphere, how is it our knowledge of astronomy is so advanced? Let me say simply that our progress in what you might call radio astronomy and related areas which do not require visual observation has been substantial."