IDIC-PLANET

CHAPTER 12

Six shimmering figures materialised on the surface of the planet Kavayak.

As the world returned after the transporter's sparkling ceased, Spock saw in the distance the reinforced building which, according to his readings, housed one of the menacing weapons. Spock had calculated their transporter co-ordinates such that they materialised within the defensive energy field but far enough from the building so as not to be observed. He motioned for the others to crouch down as he himself did, approaching Mr. Scott.

"Readings, Mr. Scott?"

Scotty adjusted a number of controls on the specially adapted tricorder and scanned the area ahead of them before answering.

"These Þ/ß-units indicate a high concentration of the anti-gluon energy localised deep underground that construction. The ordnance computers seem to be in the centre of the building, Mr. Spock."

Spock nodded and added looking at his own tricorder.

"There is also a large concentration of beings who are armed with small phaser weapons. The phasers are in use."

"Aye. Do you think that it's the rebels fightin' with the planet's leadership?"

"It would be in agreement with the situation as we know it. We will take advantage of the consequent confusion," Spock said and with a wave of his hand indicated that the security squad should follow him.

"Is this where the crystals are kept?" queried ensign Chatham with a bewildered look on his face. An uncomfortable silence ensued. Only Scott knew that Spock had disobeyed the Captains order, and by agreeing with Spock he himself was in infringement thereof. By keeping the security personnel in ignorance Spock and Scotty had taken full responsibility.

"Ensign, you will follow my orders without further questions. Is that clear?" Spock said coldly.

The ensign wanted to say more but the look his direct superior gave him silenced any further protests.

They made their way slowly and carefully closer to the building. They could hear shouts, yells and an occasional scream that followed the sound of a phaser. When they approached more closely, the fighting became all too conspicuous. Uniformed guards were trying to keep at bay the frenzied attacks from a large number of enraged K'S'vaits. It seemed as though the guards were losing.

Spock attracted Scott's attention. "There," he whispered, although he could have probably shouted and not have been heard above the dim of the battle. He pointed to a semi-hidden side-entrance, guarded by only two guards.

"Aye."

Spock took two security men and crept up to the guards, whose attention was occupied by the encroaching battle. When Spock and the two security people were about two hundred meters from the entrance, they stood up and quickly fired their phasers, stunning the unsuspecting guards. Spock stood still for a few seconds, waiting to see if their attack had been observed. Then he indicated for Scotty and the other two to join him. They arrived, unhindered, at the door. Locked. Scotty reset his phaser and was about to fire when Spock held him back.

"The entrance may be fitted with an alarm," he said and set his tricorder to search for possible alarm circuits. A few moments later he shook his head and Scotty, using his phaser set on a narrow high-energy beam, cut a neat round hole in the door.

"They have poor security , Spock," he commented appalled.

"It is as we surmised, Mr. Scott, and in our favour," Spock agreed dryly and continued while dragging the stunned K'S'vait guards inside. "Logically, in a rigid society, such as the K'S'vaits seem to have, they never expect an attack from within their world and any attacks from without are dealt with the fascinating crystal-disruption technique."

"It was a good idea after all to disable tha weapon first, while the fightin' is still goin' on. And then goin' after tha crystals," Scotty added half to himself.

"Which way, Mr. Scott?" Spock asked Scotty who was studying the specially adapted tricorder.

"Straight down this corridor."

They followed Mr. Scott who heeded the tricorder readings. Initially they went along a straight corridor that first dipped down and then proceeded to climb steeply. There were a few side-doors, which the Enterprise team passed by silently. There were no windows. The lighting in the corridor was dim. The only light came from sparsely spread light-globes. Suddenly the corridor veered sharply to the left. Spock tried to prevent Scotty, who was engrossed in his tricorder readings, from heedlessly turning into the bend. Before he could seize Mr. Scott's arm, however, Scotty had turned. Instantly a phaser beam hit Mr.Scott, who fell to the ground, the tricorder clattering loudly as it bounced on the crystal floor, coming to a stop at Spock's feet. Mr Spock picked up the tricorder and handed it back to ensign Kaku from security. He then carefully peered round the corner. To his surprise there was no one in sight. After a quick scan, he noticed two electronic devices mounted in the corners alongside a reinforced door. Spock crept along the floor until he reached Mr. Scott. He pulled Scotty back round the corner to relative safety. The engineer was starting to come round. Spock had a medical scanner, which he had appropriated from sick bay, in his hand and moved it over Scott's body. It seemed that the phaser beam had not hit any vital body parts. But it had made contact with Scott's left arm. There was an ugly deep burn in his left biceps. Scotty groaned and tried to sit up.

"Keep still, Mr. Scott," Spock said pushing him back down.

"Wha' happened?"

"You were hit by an automatic phaser-beam. Fortunately, it was set for the generally taller K'S'vait population," Spock told him while he sprayed an antiseptic and antibiotic sealer onto the wound. "Otherwise the Captain might be minus his Chief engineer. Now try and sit," he said and helped Scotty up.

"It smarts a wee bit, but I'll be fine."

"You should return to the ship, Mr Scott."

"Och, nay! You need me to disable that wee beastie. And anyway, I canna beam from within this contraption, can I now?" Scotty protested. He wanted to see that weapon-control far too much to allow a little phaser burn to prevent him.

"Very well, Mr. Scott." Spock capitulated, understanding Scott's curiosity all too well. He helped him to stand.

"Sir, shall I blast those phasers out?" asked lieutenant T''la'ct, a large Wantabian whose name was pronounced as T followed by two throaty clicks, "la" - click - "t". Most other species called him "Teelaat or sometimes "Toolate".

"Negative, Mr. T'la'ct (except Vulcans!). We do not want to set off any alarms."

"Then how are we going to approach the door?"

"We will have to slide along the floor, as I did to retrieve Mr. Scott." Spock answered firmly, then without wasting any further time on debates he lowered himself and cautiously made his way round the bend.

The others waited, with abated breath, for the sound of a phaser. Silence. Slowly they all rounded the corner and followed Mr. Spock who was already by the door, studying this new obstacle with his tricorder. Scotty sat next to him, warily regarding the scanning automatic phasers above him. Spock put a finger to his lips warning him to be silent.

"The door is made of simple aluminium-radanium alloy. It will pose no problems for our phasers. But I read four life-forms within," Spock said quietly.

"That's a wee problem, but not unexpected," whispered Mr. Scott.

"No, not unexpected," agreed Spock.

He indicated for Lieutenant T''la'ct to come closer.

"The Loceryl-gas canister, please," he requested.

Lieutenant T''la'ct extracted a tiny capsule-like canister from his side-bag and gingerly presented it to the waiting Spock. Then, with a surgeon's precision, Spock made a tiny hole in the door near the floor with his phaser, while the rest of the team stood by with their phasers drawn, ready for action should the K'S"vaiths notice anything and make an appearance. Within a minute a hole only half a centimeter in size appeared in the door. Spock dropped the Loceryl-gas canister through the hole. As the canister hit the ground, it exploded with a small "Plop" and released an odourless gas. Spock sealed the tiny hole with a piece of medical tape.

"Well, Mr. Scott, now we will find out how good the doctor is at weapons design ," commented Spock as he leaned against the door, to wait patiently for the required time for the gas to take effect. He had calculated that for the size of that room it would be approximately 10.35 earth minutes. Mr. Scott managed a wicked grin, when he remembered the discussion which ensued after Captain Kirk had asked the good doctor to design a small sleeping-bomb. Dr. McCoy had answered that he was a doctor not "a damned weapons-engineer". He had argued that ethically he could not contribute to such designs. He said that he would not be another doctor Guillot. Scotty also recalled Mr.Spock's imperturbable answer: "Dr. McCoy, the Captain is not precisely asking you to design the guillotine. As for your arguments based on ethical grounds, is it not better to put a few beings to sleep than to have an ensuing battle where far more may be harmed or even killed?" Eventually McCoy had capitulated and along with Scott they had designed this canister-capsule.

He was pulled out of his reverie by a light tap on his good shoulder. Spock indicated to him to have a look through the tiny hole. Scott obliged. He saw that all four K'S'vaits were sprawled on the floor, fast asleep.

"We go in," he said, half questioning, half stating.

"Affirmative, Mr. Scott, move back,"

Spock first blasted the two overhead automatic weapons. As they glowed and disappeared, an alarm sounded within the other room. Spock and Scotty looked at each other.

"Lieutenant, please," said Spock and indicated, for lieutenant T''la'ct to blast the door open. A few moments passed while the door, under the barrage of two phasers set on full, glowed first dark red, subsequently changing from white to blue, then it suddenly disappeared. The sides where the door stood, once protecting the chamber containing the weapon-controls, were still glowing hot. Carefully Spock stepped through followed by Scotty and the security detail. In the middle of the room stood an impressive computer console. Its large screen displayed graphically each orbiting ship that was a target for the weapons. Ships that were just coming in or going out of range were blinking. Scotty looked aghast at the tiny but recognisable image of the Enterprise, while Spock removed the protective covering of the computer system.

"Fascinating," commented Spock.

Scotty convinced himself that the guards were tying up the unconscious K'S'vaits and then joined Spock underneath the console.

"Can we sabotage it, Mr Spock?" he queried.

"It is quite simple, Mr Scott. Just change this wafer to that memory board, then remove this circuit pathway, demodulating the power..."

Scotty ceased to listen and watched as Spock quickly changed the minuscule components of the precision mechanism. He knew that the K'S'vaits would have trouble locating all these changes and then repairing the extensive but microscopic damage that Spock was inflicting upon the unfortunate computer. In considerable pain he hoisted himself up but his pain was diverted by examining the actual ballistics system. He scanned everything he could into the tricorder, concentrating on the production of the anti-gluon energy. At last Spock withdrew from the computer's recesses and came to stand next to Scott.

"I have finished. Have you satisfied your curiosity, Mr. Scott?" enquired Spock.

"Aye. As much as I can at such a short notice," sighed Scott.

"Then I propose that we leave here and you beam back aboard the Enterprise. Beam lieutenant T''la'ct, ensign Kaku and myself to the coordinates of the small crystal factory we found. Then notify the Captain of our alternative plan and the results thereof," Spock said gravely while leaving the room.

"Mr Spock, I'd rather accompany you...," Scott trailed off when Spock shook his head.

"Mr. Scott, your courage is admirable, however, you are wounded. I also need your expertise in beaming me from this set of co-ordinates to the other set without first beaming me to the ship."

"Very well, I'll go and face the Captain. And the subsequent firing squad," sighed a downhearted Scott.

"Mr. Scott, you exaggerate," Spock stated seriously.

"I am nat too sure about that, Mr. Spock."

"If anyone will face the so-called firing squad, I will be the one. You followed my orders, Mr. Scott."

"Aye, but willingly and would do tha same again," Scotty said and grinned. He knew that Kirk would be thoroughly annoyed but he believed that the Captain would not court martial either him or Spock. At least he hoped that the Captain would not go as far as a court martial. Then again...

They arrived outside the building, cautiously leaving the entrance. The battle was still in process, but it seemed that there were less rebel K'S'vaits and more of the security troops. The Enterprise crew were not noticed.

Scotty switched his communicator on; as he did so it beeped at him incessantly. He looked at Spock, who gave a small nod with his head. Upon flicking the communicator open, Uhura's voice came clearly across.

"Enterprise to landing party, come in please."

"Scott here."

"Where is Mr. Spock?" came the peremptory voice of the Captain.

Spock shook his head at Scott.

"Mr. Spock is about to obtain the crystals, sir." Scotty answered truthfully, knowing how Spock hated equivocating.

"What's taking so long, and why were you incommunicado?" the Captain's voice sounded exasperated, and Spock felt unusually uneasy.

"Sir, if I beam back aboard, I can explain everything. Mr. Spock has everything under control," said Scotty sounding a little worried, imagining his decommission to an ensign at best.

"Very well, Mr. Scott. Report to the bridge as soon as possible. That explanation better be good. Captain out."

"Thank you Mr. Scott," said Spock, sotto voce.

"Good luck, sir," Scotty said and called the Enterprise transporter room to beam him and two of the security guards aboard.

Soon after they disappeared Spock, T''la'ct, and Kaku shimmered out of existence only to be rematerialised elsewhere on the planet. An elsewhere, where desolation penetrated to the core of the three new arrivals. Mr. Spock felt a cold forlorn aura surround him.

Footnotes and explanations

Next chapter.