Copyright Marketa J. Zvelebil
In K'L'trok's office McCoy was having difficulty keeping his temper down. Lieutenant Offer was doing most of the talking now, after McCoy's last outburst. McCoy was very glad that Lieutenant Offer was present. He seemed a born diplomat and looked as calm as Spock, any time
"Please, K'L'trok, your explanations are not conclusive as to why the council has rejected Human genetic material." Offer calmly and patiently repeated his argument.
K'L'trok looked somewhat petulantly at the Lieutenant who insisted that a full explanation would be forthcoming. He had been advised by the council not to alienate the Federation people but to insist on a couple of humans for the breeding program. He gave a loud sight. "Although we have the best genetic technology in the whole galaxy, " he began, looking defensive, " if we only use genetic material we do not get the desired results as often as when we let nature take its course for most of the process." He hoped that would be enough.
"What are the undesirable results?" asked McCoy, suspicion gnawing at him.
Again K'L'trok gave a sigh, then tried to look properly saddened, his customarily bright orange eyes dimmed as he explained: "Sometimes, very rarely, the combination of two different species gives either un-viable offspring or a disabled child. But this is very rare and we are perfecting our techniques continuously."
'Best genetic engineering in the galaxy! Ha!', McCoy thought to himself; aloud he asked: "What happens to the disabled K'S'vaits? We have not seen any."
"There are very few, and those are taken care of outside the city in specially adapted environments that suite them best." K'L'trok glibly gave the same answer he gave respective parents when they enquired about their child.
McCoy and Offer looked at each other. Both felt unease, both thought that K'L'trok was not telling them the whole truth, and both knew that they were at an impasse.
"K'L'trok, you must understand, we do not deal in live beings. Our Captain cannot order us to stay here in exchange for dilithuim crystals. The Federation would hardly look kindly on that." Lieutenant Offer tried again.
K'L'trok regarded Offer shrewdly, the colour of his eyes rapidly alternating between bright orange, yellow and red. McCoy wandered what kind of particular gene was responsible for these remarkable eyes and whished he could discern the meaning behind the colour changes. He pulled his thoughts back from genetics to the present situation and heard K'L'trok addressing Offer. "Lieutenant, can you tell me honestly, that you would not stay here if your gentle-Captain asked you? That you might not even enjoy the diversity found here? Don't forget, I heard what you said yesterday."
Lieutenant Offer looked uncomfortable. He knew that he would stay if Captain Kirk asked him. He also knew that he would not want to spend the rest of his life here or on any one planet for that matter. Not even on Earth where all his family were. He needed to be in space. He took a long breath and prepared to explain some of this to K'L'trok as well as intending to ask him if he would accept that he would stay for a certain period of time, when K'L'trok's aide rushed in, and without any preliminaries started to speak with K'L'trok in an agitated manner. The foreign words rushed out in a rapid staccato fashion. K'L'trok may have had Vulcan genes, but that definitely did not include controlling emotions or even hiding them as his facial expressions changed from surprise, through anger to something between anger and fear. His remarkable eyes were blazing a fierce dark red.
'Hmmm...that colour must mean anger, fear or both.' McCoy forgot to be worried in his fascination with K'L'troks eyes.
After a short silence, when his aide had finished speaking, K'L'trok turned to the two now somewhat apprehensive Starfleet officers.
"There is some unrest in the city," he said while pushing a semi-hidden button on his desk. "You will be taken to a safe place, while we deal with it," he continued.
"We would rather beam back to the ship," McCoy stated as calmly as he could.
Four armed K'S'vaits entered the room, K'L'trok said something to them in K'S'vaitan. As two of them came close to McCoy and Offer, he said: "I am sorry but that will not be possible, our defence systems will not allow that." Although this was a lie, he continued: "We also require your communication devices and any weapons you may have."
"Are we being held captive?" asked McCoy angrily unaware that his own eyes were changing hue to a darker blue.
"Of course not, but the situation demands that you cooperate."
"We have no weapons and we will not give you our communicators. We have to notify the Captain," said McCoy firmly.
"We will notify your Captain of the situation. I am sorry you will not cooperate willingly." K'L'trok said and gestured to the two K'S'vait guards. They then moved in, and grabbed the communicators from McCoy and Lieutenant Offer. When Lieutenant Offer attempted to resist, he was roughly pinned down by the other two guards. Then with no further words exchanged between K'L'trok and them, they were led out of the domed office into a waiting lift by the guards. The lift took them downward, and soon they found themselves being led to what could not be mistaken for anything else but a prison cell. Nothing but bare walls, made of solid crystalline rock, jutting out round the room so that it was possible to sit. McCoy and Offer were pushed, none too gently, into the round cell and with a flick of one of his hands the guard turned on a dangerously pulsating field that cut them effectively off from the outside world.