Star Trek - TOS 38 Idic Epidemic (22 page)

McCoy watched as the impersonal patterns on the
screen shifted and changed. “There it is again!” said
Sorel. McCoy thought he detected actual excitement
in the Vulcan healer’s voice. “Daniel, it appears we
have identified the factor that prevents this virus from growing in Klingons.”

“What is it?” asked McCoy.

“Here.” Corrigan pointed to a location on the
screen where the now-familiar schematic of the virus
had attached itself to an unfamiliar organic molecular
structure. “This blood factor binds with the virus and
prevents it from multiplying. It just shrivels up and
dies!”

“I’ve seen a structure like that somewhere before,”
McCoy said, “but I can’t think where. Wasn’t exactly the same but—” He frowned. “I dunno. I’ve analyzed
Klingon blood before. That must be where I saw it, but didn’t know what it was for.”

“It’s a hemoglobin factor,” said Sorel. “It is similar
to something I have seen before too—but not identi
cal. If we can isolate that factor, we may be able to
produce a vaccine for iron-based blood.”

“What about a cure for someone who already has
the disease?” McCoy asked.

“It should work,” said Corrigan. “We’ll certainly try it.”

“Let me transmit this to the
Enterprise,”
said
McCoy. “Spock can work on it there—maybe we can
develop a serum in time to help Amanda.”

Suddenly both the healer and the doctor were staring at him. “Amanda?” asked Corrigan. “The
plague is aboard ship?”

McCoy told them about his message from Kirk. “So
it won’t hurt to beam some serum aboard now, if we can make it.”

“We should beam up and work on it in the
Enter
prise
laboratory,” said Sorel. “You’ve got two of the three available suppliers of the blood we need
aboard.”

“Huh?” Weariness was catching up with McCoy
again.

“The other two Klingons,” Corrigan explained. “Karl’s father and brother—they’re in the
Enterprise
sickbay.”

“Klingons in my sickbay?” McCoy roared.

“Leonard,” Daniel said reasonably, “Captain Kirk
would not have beamed them aboard if they were a
danger to the
Enterprise.
As it turns out, if we are correct about being able to make a serum from Klingon blood, our only problem will be supply. It
simply will not be possible to make
enough.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Captain James T. Kirk walked the corridors of his
ship, silently cursing the virus attacking his crew and
his friends. The closed system that ordinarily pro
tected them was now providing a perfect environment
for the virus to spread. Short of redesigning the ship,
there was not a thing to do about it.

He longed for an enemy he could face man-to-man,
outfight, or outwit. How was a starship captain supposed to combat the unseen menace of a virus?

“Captain Kirk,” came Uhura’s voice.

Kirk walked over to a wall unit and punched the
button savagely. “Kirk here.”

“Message from Dr. McCoy.”

“Put him through.”

“Jim, we think we’ve found—” McCoy began.

The red-alert claxon drowned out whatever the
doctor was going to say. “Bones, we’ve got an emer
gency. Contact you later. Kirk out.”

He punched intraship. “What the hell’s going on?”

“Intruders in engineering!” came a voice he didn’t
recognize. “Captain, they’re—” A yelp, a muffled
thud.

Kirk punched the button. “Engineering! Status!”

There was no answer.

“Computer! Give me engineering status!” he de
manded.

“All systems operational,” the calm mechanical
voice informed him. “Alarm manually operated. Access to engineering closed.”

“Get those doors open!” Kirk demanded, starting to turn away and head for the turbolift.

“Access to engineering locked and both computer and manual override disengaged,” the computer in
formed him.

“Damn!” He punched the intercom again. “Scotty—”

But his chief engineer was isolated in sickbay.

So was Spock.

The captain of the
Enterprise
remembered to turn off the intercom before he swore vehemently, then turned and ran to the turbolift. “Engineering deck!”

The doors opened into a locked room. In all three directions, the emergency doors were closed across
the corridors. Kirk could not go farther than ten meters from the turbolift in any direction.

Two men and a woman from security were slumped
on the floor. Kirk quickly checked that all were
breathing.

The engineering intercom came to life, Scotty’s voice demanding, “What’s goin’ on doon there?
Who’s muckin’ about with my engines?”

“I don’t know yet, Scotty,” Kirk told him. “Whoev
er it is has secured the emergency doors. Stay put. I’ll let you know what we find out.”

The turbolift doors opened. Lieutenant Nelson and
three more security personnel hurried out, armed
with phasers.

“They’re all alive,” Kirk quickly assured them as
they glimpsed their fallen comrades. “Must’ve been
stunned.”

“No,” said Nelson, pulling open one man’s shirt to
show the bruises. “Nerve-pinched. It’s those Vulcan
rebels. Shoulda carried ‘em in the brig from the start.”

“That’s where they’ll make the rest of the trip!”
Kirk vowed. “Get them out of there!”

“Aye, Captain,” Nelson said calmly. “Olag, sche
matics for these doors. Corcoran, find all engineering
personnel not trapped in there and put them to work
on—”

Just then one of the emergency doors slid open.

They all turned—to see the limp bodies of the
engineering crew lying in the corridor, and behind
them the next emergency door, securely shut.

All of these people were also alive, also uncon
scious.

Kirk left Nelson there and went to the bridge.

Soon the rebels were ready to communicate.

Sendet appeared on the screen. “Captain Kirk, we
have control of your engineering section. As you
know, the entire ship can be operated from here. We
will leave orbit in two hours. Have crew and passengers beam down to Nisus before that time. When we
leave orbit, we will expose all areas of the ship outside
engineering to lethal doses of radiation.”

“Why would you do that?” Kirk asked.

“You have brought aboard the
Enterprise
two peo
ple contaminated with the IDIC plague, and it has
spread to one of your passengers. The radiation will
kill the virus, but it will also kill anyone on board
outside the area we have secured. The Followers of
T’Vet intended to go peacefully into exile. But you
have acted irresponsibly and failed to provide safe
conduct. Your ship stands forfeit. We have the right to
preserve our lives, and the
Enterprise—
”

“Wrong, Sendet,” Kirk interrupted. He could see Satat out of focus behind Sendet and was sure the older Vulcan did not know the true story.
“You
brought the plague aboard.
You
were the only person
in contact with the Lady Amanda who—” It suddenly
dawned on him why Sendet had not appeared to be
lying when he claimed he had beamed nothing up
from Nisus.

“You didn’t beam
something
up!” Kirk exclaimed. “You beamed yourself down to the planet—and then
back up again! How many people did you contact? What did you touch? The transporter controls at Nisus Central, certainly! And you breathed the air; you brought it back here in your own lungs, and breathed it on Sarek and Amanda.”

Rebel Sendet might be, but he had been raised in the normal Vulcan culture, which made him a poor
liar. As Kirk deduced what had happened, Sendet’s
face froze with the effort to control.

Satat came forward, took one look at Sendet, and
demanded, “Why? Why would you do something so
illogical?”

“I had to try once more to persuade T’Pina,”
Sendet admitted. “Satat, you know we need females. I
thought there was no danger of exposure to the disease in the small area where I meant to go.”

Sendet’s voice became perfectly flat, the way
Spock’s did when he spoke of something that would
have had a Human racked with emotion. “I beamed
down outside the terminal. Inside, I would certainly have faced the transporter operator; outside I risked being seen materializing, but I succeeded as I in
tended in beaming into the freight storage area.

“I walked out into the street and found everything deserted. In the distance, the group from the
Enter
prise
were walking toward the hospital. They were the
only people moving on the streets.

“I realized then that I would not be able to get to T’Pina as I had hoped. I had thought she would go home first, and that I would follow and speak to her
alone. Instead, she went with the others directly to the hospital.

“As I was considering my course of action, a Human male came out of one of the buildings,
screaming. An Andorian ran after him, but he turned
and began to attack the one trying to help him. Two
Vulcans came out, subdued the Human, and began to
carry him toward the hospital. I heard one say to the other, ‘There are no more beds. They are treating patients in the corridors and sending home anyone
recovered enough to be moved.’ The Andorian fol
lowed them, saying, ‘Few recover. We can only hope
these new doctors can help.’

“I heard something inside the transporter terminal
—I thought it was something else being beamed down
from the
Enterprise,
so I went in, thinking to hide
until all the transporter operations were finished and
then beam back aboard. But only one platform was in
operation, with no one to run it. I found the operator behind the console … dead. It appeared that the sound I had heard—she … had turned a phaser on
herself. I had no desire to see more. I set the controls
and beamed back up to the
Enterprise.”

“Oh, my God,” Kirk whispered. “You touched those controls that the dead woman had just been
handling—”

“She was a suicide, not a plague victim!” said
Sendet.

Kirk winced. “Violence is the first symptom of the
worst strain; that’s what you saw on the street. That
woman was alone when it struck her, and she turned
the violence on herself. Sendet, you exposed yourself,
and then you beamed back and gave the disease to Lady Amanda. Probably to Sarek too—the incubation period appears to be longer in Vulcans than in
Humans.”