"I thought I heard sounds of fighting, and voices!"411Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVAVeRjK6G
The words that penetrated to the startled listeners were clear and strong, ringing loud in the cave.
"You're wrong, whoever you are," it continued. "There was at least one survivor."
An unusually tall, unmasked Dorian was walking toward them, climbing over a rocky hillock formed by part of the fallen ceiling. His clothes were ragged, his countenance worn, but unlike Koldar, he had an oval face with a pointed chin, a small nose, large ears and full lips. His brown eyes are large, and he had neat eyebrows. His dark brown hair was elbow-length and curly, and is curly permed---not anything that could be easily stuffed into the traditional Dorian mask and cowl.
"I was not found by any of the observation parties, nor by the crews of those ships which came to leave the mourners here. But I did not kill myself. You'll notice that I'm taller than Koldar, whereas all Dorians are the same height. I do not know how this could be. I'd given up hope of ever being rescued."
"You must remember what it was like, then," Sawyer began excitedly. "During the mutation---you can tell us."
"I remember," the newcomer nodded, oblivious to Koldar's unbelieving stare. "I remember the people around me, even the doctors, turning dark green, then light pink, and finally a light brown, collapsing, losing height, then...."
He stopped, his strong voice fading, the last softly whispered words echoing down hidden pathways in the cave.
"The cellular changes associated with the mutation, as mentioned in the records, Captain," Spock commented.
Sawyer nodded fast, keeping his attention focused on the survivor. "You must remember," he asked anxiously, "before the mutation occurred, there was a visiting mission here from the Space Federation, a medical mission that included humans among its personnel.
"They were led by a man named Finn---Dr. Huckleberry Finn. He was responsible for seeing to the treatment of the entire colony. He must have treated you too...or at least overseen your treatment. Do you remember him?!"
Sawyer had no idea what to expect from the long-isolated alien, surviving amidst the ruins of a forgotten colony and its unstable inhabitants. Some hesitation, surely---a first imperfect attempt at resurrecting a faint memory of an ugly past.
Instead the survivor brightened immediately and spoke as if he were talking about yesterday.
"A Terran physician, young---of course, I remember Dr. Finn. How could I forget the being who saved my life?"
Despite social and physical interspecies differences, the glances that passed then among Sawyer, Koldar and Spock needed no interpretation.
"Then that is also the man," Koldar finally declared, "who is responsible for the death and destruction of this colony." And he waved at the surrounding desolation.
The survivor was neither intimidated nor impressed---as one might expect of a being who had successfully survived among the corpses of thousands, living and dead. He stared evenly back at the Commander of Dorian security.
"We knew little of the Space Federation and its various races, those many years ago," he began slowly. "It has been a long time. Perhaps we know more of them now. But I think that even those many triads ago we knew that the differences between us were not great.
"Although I knew this Dr. Finn very briefly, I think I came to know him well. I cannot believe you are speaking of the same person who saved my life." The survivor looked thoughtful, reminiscing.
"At times he seemed less than positive, yes, and sometimes gave the impression of hesitation. But he did everything with a kindness and concern for the mutated that was honest. You, Commander whoever-you-are..."
"Koldar, of Dorian Internal Security."
"Well, Koldar, Commander of Dorian Security, I, Marcam, think you have the wrong man," he concluded firmly. "One who saves does not also murder."
Koldar threw Marcam a stare of frustration and anger; but the survivor had seen far worse things these past years than the gaze of the overbearing security chief. He gave no sign of altering his story or his regard for Dr. Finn.
A smile had replaced Sawyer's concerned stare. Spock's eyebrows ascended as the captain inquired, "So you're sure it was this Dr. Finn who saved you?"
"Indeed, this is so."
"It's been several lifetimes for you, Marcam," Sawyer observed, eyeing the tall Dorian appraisingly, "and I know you're anxious to be home."
"I've outgrown impatience," Marcam told them softly.
"You look like the kind of intelligent being who would place certain things above personal comfort. You've heard what your security chief says. Dr. Finn saved your life. Not many have an opportunity to repay such a debt. You do.
"Will you delay your return to friends and family long enough to help clear his name and prevent a permanent stain from entering the annals of Dorian justice?"
"I would not be here to be offered the choice were it not for your Dr. Finn. I will do whatever you wish of me."
Sawyer nodded. He had his proof....committed proof, from a source that could neither be argued with nor intimidated. He pulled out the communicator.
"Mr. Gordon---beam us aboard, all four of us. And fast---we may have spent too much time here already."
"Aye, aye, sir," came the chief engineer's enthusiastic response.
Near the back of the cavern, by broken shards of limestone and shale, a rocking, moaning figure suddenly rolled upright and ceased its whimpers as the miracle took place before its eyes. Fragments of the sun appeared and swallowed up the four figures.
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Sawyer was stepping down from the alcove and speaking as soon as full reintegration finished.
"Get me to the bridge, Mr. Gordon." Gordon activated the transporter console intercom, stepped aside a station behind it.
"Ko-Ko, Zaith, get under way immediately. Back to Cygneus IV, at top intersystem speed."
Acknowledgment came back over the speaker, and Sawyer signed off, then saw Gordon staring at the ragged, unmasked and unbent Marcam.
"I know you told me to beam up four, and I did, Captain. But who is that?"
"A Dorian friend of Dr. Finn's."
"A Dorian friend....?"
Gordon broke off in astonishment but continued to gaze open-mouthed at Marcam. The survivor stepped gingerly from the transporter alcove and stared in amazement around him. Gordon walked around the console and extended a hand to the bemused alien.
"I don't know where you've been hiding yourself, sir, but somehow I get the felling you're an Englishman in disguise. How do you take your tea?"
"Englishman....tea?" Marcam wondered out loud as Sawyer and Spock conducted him toward the turbolift, with Koldar trailing along.
"Merely Mr. Gordon's way of saying that we find in you a kindred spirit which heretofore has seemed to be lacking in your people." Spock turned pensive. "We may still be too late to save Dr. Finn. Even if we are not, your testimony may not be sufficient to shift the tide of feeling which has been raised against him. But there is historical precedent---instances where the courage of one has been enough to overcome the reckless emotionalism of many."
"What Spock's trying to say," Sawyer explained tautly, "is that we think you've got the guts to go through with this." He waved off Marcam's reply. "Be modest later, after we've saved Finn. For now, Mr. Spock, conduct Marcam to Life Station. Have Nurse Thatcher check him out totally. Pull everything we've got on Dorian medicine. And see that he has anything he wants."
"I would settle, Captain Sawyer," Marcam murmured, "for some food and a clean bed."
Sawyer nodded, turned back to Gordon. "I want you to push the navigation computer, Tony. Get us to Cygneus IV as fast as possible---overshoot, if necessary. Minutes may count. The Dorians," he finished, glancing up at Koldar, "are impatient for their revenge."
"Most assuredly," the security chief confirmed.
"I'll pour on the coal, Captain," Gordon grinned.
They were ten minutes out from Lavernus and nearing Cygneus IV when Sawyer finally relaxed from the hysteria of last-minute emergency preparations long enough to check with Life Station.
"Mr. Spock, are you still with our patient?"
"Affirmative, Captain," the calm voice returned.
"How's he doing?"
"A moment, Captain---" Spock glanced back to where Marcam was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted in the infirmary bed behind him.
Only Spock had noticed how utterly tired their passenger was. He had gone along with the other's pose, admiring the silent fortitude as he had answered questions for both Sawyer and then Thatcher. As was the case with most sophists, his expression was far more truthful in sleep.
Thatcher hurried past him, to adjust the makeshift instrumentation rigged over the sleeper's bed.
"He seems to be in reasonably good health though terribly debilitated and worn out. At the moment he is resting quietly. A brave man, Captain."
"Brave enough to be the unimpeachable witness we need, I hope," Sawyer replied. He glanced up at the main viewscreen. Their truncated course was taking them through the body of one of the magnificent intersystem auroras. "Let's hope the trial hasn't already begun."
Ko-Ko spoke to him. "Approaching Cygneus IV orbit, sir."
"You heard, Spock? I think we can get Koldar to beam down to put a hold on the proceedings long enough until our witness is fit to appear before a legal assemblage and answer questions."
"The trial may not be fair, Captain."
Sawyer sat straighter in his chair. Bal Spock's voice had abruptly taken on a new tone, even as always but touched now with a faint tinge of---worry?
"What's the trouble, Mr. Spock?"
At the other end of the comm, the Esmeralda's first officer was once more studying the sleeping Marcam. The survivor of Lavernus still rested quietly---but the expression on his face was no longer content. Nor was the most noticeable change in his features.
"Captain, Marcam is turning dark green."
Very dark green. Normally pinkish in color; the alien's skin had shifted to a pale shade of Hooker's Green. The color shift might have seemed amusing to some, at worst worrying. But the implications were neither of a humorous nor of a mildly upsetting nature. The implications were deadly!
Especially for one Huckleberry Finn, M.D., USSIT411Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhS0s9Yvfyn
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Sawyer touched the switch and the door dilated, admitting him to Life Station. Followed closely by Spock and Koldar, he rushed to the quarantine chamber where Marcam had been isolated hurriedly. Thatcher was at the Dorian's bedside, taking readings with a modified medical tricorder.
"I'm sorry, Captain," she finally said. "Everything correlates with the readings the built-ins give. I have no idea what..."
"Mutation!" Koldar gasped after only one fast glance at the prone Dorian.
Sawyer spun on the security chief. If there was any foul play at work here, any attempt to offer up Finn as scapegoat by eliminating his only convincing witness---His suspicions were dulled by two things---the fear in the commander's voice and the expression on his face. Not even a master Dorian thespian, he suspected, could have managed to conjure up a look of such pure terror.
"Seal off this entire infirmary, Lieutenant Thatcher. Nobody is to be admitted, nobody is to leave." Thatcher darted to the nearest intercom to issue the requisite order, all the while working with the recalibrated tricorder.
Spock was bent over the motionless form of Marcam. "I know little Dorian physiology, Captain, and even less of their reactions to specific diseases. But consider that Marcam has been through nearly twenty of our years of extreme privation. When brought aboard he was weak, undernourished and on the verge of physical collapse.
"Now---this. Mutation or not, he is no longer in a condition to submit testimony at any kind of trial."
"We have to save him," Sawyer added quietly.
Not even Koldar's multicolored mask could hide the sardonic smirk that formed on his face. "For Finn's sake," he said.
"Yes, for Finn's sake!" Sawyer shot back angrily. "And for Marcam's sake, too." He stood close to the Dorian officer and stared up into the eye slits of the latter's mask, for all the world like a terrier challenging a mastiff.
"You see, Commander, we place considerable value on lives other than our own. Do I shock you?"
Koldar was suddenly tongue-tied. Sawyer's reaction had been unexpectedly violent. Or maybe it was the Terran's equal height and controlled politeness that had fooled him until now. He could only begin to stammer. "You could not be..."
Had it not been for the chinstraps of Koldar's mask, his jaw would have dropped and his eyes bulged out of the eyeholes of his mask frighteningly.
Sawyer studied him curiously. Surely the brief outburst couldn't have stunned him this much.
"Captain....!" There was something in Spock's voice.
Sawyer wasn't sure where the impulse originated, but he had a sudden urge to look down at himself. He held up his hands, then slowly turned them over. The palms were dark green. Recently examined records welled up in his mind.
Certain species such as Throians and Vulcans, are immune. Others....The thought died away as he finished, to himself," "....such as human, are----not."
"Thatcher---Lieutenant Thatcher..." He was walking with increasingly rapid steps towards the door leading to the head nurse's office.
She was there----sprawled across her desk and turning a rich shade of green even as he stared.
"Mr. Gordon, Chief Russell, others exposed---quarantine too late," he called back to Spock---even his lower leg muscles turned to water and he slumped to his knees, feeling as if he had shrunk from 5'5 to 4'5 tall.
Koldar weakly reached out a hand to catch him. Behind his mask, he turned dark green, though no one noticed it. Sawyer muttered, his head swimming.
"Vulcan immunity! Mr. Spock you---you have the conn." He tried to add something else; but though his mouth moved, no words came out.
Spock caught him before he collapsed completely. He carried Sawyer to an empty bed, then went back and transferred Thatcher. He tried to do likewise for the bulky Koldar; but the Dorian commander's bulk defeated him, and he had no time to wrestle with the burly form. He settled for making Koldar as comfortable as possible on the infirmary floor.
Two things must be done immediately---depending on the crew's condition. It was not good. As Spock made his way toward the bridge, he saw other crewmembers clutching at their faces, some sprawled where they had fallen, with still healthy comrades trying to aid them. Quarantine was now out of the question. This mysterious affliction was spreading too fast.
It took hold with alarming speed, the effects irreversible and overwhelming. He ordered the healthy crew members to make the ill as comfortable as possible right where they were found, and then to return to their own posts to continue functioning as long as they were able. It was a brutal, unavoidable order to have to give.
Nobody objected or argued. After all, this was the Esmeralda.
The situation was no better on the bridge. Only Ko-Ko still retained anything like his normal facial features and skin color. But even he was showing signs of initial greenness. He did, however, manage to help Spock place the ship in orbit around Cygnea IV.
Posterity came next, before survival. He assumed Sawyer's seat and switched on the recorder.
"Captain's Log, supplemental. First Officer Balus Spock in command, recording.
We are in orbit around the planet Cygnea IV under conditions of general quarantine. The situation: critical. We have apparently brought aboard the mutation that caused the mass suicide on Lavernus. Nearly the entire ship's complement has already been affected, some seriously.
"A few have shown stronger resistance than others, but this seems transitory. As Acting Captain, I have ordered the activation of General Order Six." Spock paused, looked over to where Ko-Ko was turning a dark green color.
"Has the General Order been engaged, Lieutennat?"
"Yes...sir," the helmsman replied, painfully, slowly.
"If everyone on board has perished or been rendered incapable of action at the end of a 24-hour period," Spock went on, "and the computer has not been contacted with proper authority to cancel, the ship will self-destruct in order to protect other beings from a virus or mutagen."
As he finished the entry (the final entry?) he reflected on the irony of the situation. It seemed that Dr. Finn might outlive all of them.
"Fascinating," he whispered.
"What, sir?" asked Ko-Ko.
"Report to Life Station, lieutenant."
Ko-Ko's voice was growing thick, unintelligible. His felt like it was on fire. "but sir---you need someone---to monitor---to...."
"I gave you an order, Mr. Ko-Ko. I will---manage the needed instrumentation."
Too weak to reply, Ko-Ko got shakily to his feet and started for the turbolift. The doors hissed apart before he could reach the switch.
Sawyer stood there, swaying slightly, but apparently alert and in control of himself. Every step as he moved forward was painful, every shift of an eye felt like the blow of a hammer on his orbicular nerves.
"Spock..." he succeeded in whispering.
The first officer whirled, showing as close to an expression of alarm as he was capable of. "Captain, how...? In your condition, it shouldn't be..."
"Stimulants," Sawyer muttered. "Pumped full....temporary...." Spock was at his side, helping him to his command chair. Sawyer brushed aside his objections. "Have to find an antidote--fast. Only one man---maybe. Finn."
"Captain," Spock countered gently, "the entire medical community of an advanced world like Cygnea IV could not find a way to reverse this mutation in many years of research."
"We don't know that they applied themselves directly to the problem, Spock. Koldar told us how fearful of contamination their observer teams were." His expression twisted. "Whereas Huck always liked to dive right into a problem.
"I'd guess the Dorians' quarantine extended to medical personnel too, as soon as they found the mutation was 100% irreversible. Maybe a few doctors sacrificed themselves trying to find an answer. At the beginning. But even then, they didn't have the advantage of a Space Federation medical library computer, or a researcher with Huck's skill and experience in dealing with complex maladies.
"We've got to get him back here...back here..."
"The Dorians will not allow..." Spock started to say. He stopped.
Sawyer had lapsed into semiconsciousness.
Spock sat thoughtfully, weighing this possibility against that solution, juxtaposing alternatives with probabilities, before eventually making his way to Neytiri's vacated communications station.
"Cygnea Port," the masked face that appeared on the main screen announced.
"This is the Space Federation starship Esmeralda, First Officer Balus Spock," Spock informed the other. "I predict with 97.8% surety the advancement of your status is in a backward direction. This matter concerns the Lavernus mutation."
Eyes rolled behind a multicolored facemask and the communicator began shouting off-screen demands, as the Dorian worked his hands in a series of furious gestures.
The screen flickered. For a moment abstract electronic images danced across the face, and then the static cleared and the face of the Supreme Leader hastily appeared. He was wrestling with his tunic and his dignity as the focus sharpened.
"What is the meaning of this, Spock? What is this about the mutation....and why do you speak and not your captain?"
"Captain Sawyer and the majority of the ship's company are presently incapacitated," Spock answered calmly. "The Lavernus mutation has struck the ship."
"What?!" The Leader assumed a look of panic. "Surely, Mr. Spock, you must not..."
"The mutation will not be brought to the surface a second time. I am not here to threaten, but to seek help. In the event no antidote for the mutation is found, the Esmeralda will destroy itself before the next ship-day is over."
The Leader had been absorbing all of this stolidly. Now he suddenly looked suspicious as Spock went on.
"Commander Koldar will be killed with the rest of us. I regret this. There is only one way to save him and to save the survivor we found on Lavernus, who can attest to the innocence of your prisoner. A great many lives and truths are at stake here, and only one man can find the solution to them all: Dr. Finn. You must release him now. Temporarily, if you will---but no one else has the skill to find a possible antidote in the time that remains."
The Leader considered for long seconds---understandable, in the light of the barrage of information Spock had just tossed at him. His decision was obviously agonized, but firm.
"No," he announced finally.
"The survivor, Marcam, is a witness for Dr. Finn. He can testify for him. There are many others, of different races, on board the Esmeralda who will be permanently disfigured and possibly driven mad if he is not released. We may all die anyway, Dr. Finn among us. If you have so little confidence in his medical ability, at least release him to join his friends in the suicide they are forced to commit."
"You argue plausibly, Vulcan, but without facts."
"You must trust me. I have no other assurances to give."
The Leader seemed to be a reasonable man. Though Spock could not determine the alien's expression due to his facemask, he surmised that the Dorian leader was going through some tortuous mental gymnastics.
His voice turned crafty. "There is another who might persuade me. Let this witness, this alleged survivor, speak."
"Impossible. He, too, is seriously stricken."
Frustration all too suddenly replaced deliberation at the other end of the transmission. "Koldar cannot speak, the witness cannot speak, even Captain Sawyer cannot speak---but you wish us to release the accused Finn. On faith. Do you think you can secure the freedom of such a criminal so simply? Did you not think I would see through your desperate ploy?"
The screen blacked out.
"Finn," Sawyer mumbled from behind Spock. "Must get to Finn."
The first officer tried to re-establish the contact, but this time the ground station on Cygnea IV refused to acknowledge his signals. He finally quit trying, turned and walked over to Sawyer.
"Captain, are you....?"
"One minute I'm fine, the next I can taste oblivion---it's the stimulants, Mr. Spock. Uneven effect on the system, guesswork dosage---my body will pay for it in the end, I suppose. What about....?"
Spock shook his head. "The Dorians refuse to release him. Unfortunately, they have no reason to trust us. They have a right to be cautious, but at the same time they are not reacting logically in this."
"No, Spock," Sawyer breathed heavily, "they're reacting emotionally. I'm sorry so much of the universe turns out to be more unreasonable than Vulcan."
"It is distressing sometimes," Spock admitted, missing Sawyer's sarcasm entirely. "But if you'll grant me the freedom to improvise in the face of adversity, I believe I can secure Dr. Finn's release anyway."
Sawyer stared painfully up at him. "That would mean contravening the official warrant, Mr. Spock."
"Only the letter, Captain. Dr. Finn could be returned to stand trial afterward. I hardly need point out this is a desperation measure I am proposing. We will borrow Dr. Finn for a little while. If we die, I do not thing he will care what the Dorians do to him anyway."
"You're sure you can pull this off, Bal?"
"I intend to..."
"No, don't tell me." Sawyer didn't have time to think. He put the palms on the arm of the chair and shoved. Spock hurried to get a supportive arm under one shoulder.
"I think I can handle the transporter for you, Spock...."
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"Be careful, Captain," the first officer admonished. They had staggered down to the transporter room. Spock waited within the alcove while Sawyer adjusted the settings. "I would dislike materializing several kilometers above the streets of the capital city."
Sawyer nodded, managed a grin, and engaged the instrumentation. There was something on his fevered mind, something else he had to ask Spock....
He hadn't thought of it by the time the first officer was gone.
It was dark where Spock rematerialized on the street parallel to the justice building. Dark and late.
He still felt exposed, but fortunately there seemed to be no strolling Dorians about to observe his arrival. Not that the average Dorian would pay much attention to him.
Unless, he mused distastefully, the Dorians had better control of their emotions than their leaders had displayed thus far, the word of Finn's arrest must have been kept secret. Otherwise a mob surely would have overrun the building by now. Hence he could expect to be regarded by the average citizen with curiosity rather than animosity.
This time he would turn the government's secrecy to his own advantage.
Spock made his way skillfully through the labyrinth of corridors in the building, dodging the night staff. The latter were too engrossed in their own drudgery to peer hard at places where Dorians would not fit.
But the two guards standing watch outside the chamber housing Finn's force-cell were a different lot. They appeared fit, alert, and fully capable of rapid deployment of the primitive yet lethal-looking apparatus strapped at their waists.
For a moment Spock hesitated uncertainly, wondering at the presence of only two guards for so great a suspected criminal as Finn. Then he realized that the doctor had been handed over freely. The Dorians had no reason to suppose the Esmeralda would relinquish him only to take him back suddenly.
Hence the reason for Spock's haste---for if the Leader had a little time to reflect on his recent conversation with him....
Of one thing he was sure....this was not the time to debate the ethics of the situation with Finn's guards. Such individuals were rarely selected for their receptiveness to logical persuasion or, for that matter, to original thought. He did not think they would react politely if he announced his intentions.
He slid a stylus from his waist, tossed it across the corridor. It clattered loudly in the quiet. Both guards were immediately alert. Hands on sidearms, they moved to investigate the source of the noise.411Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGv458JMaA8
An unexpected bonus---Spock hadn't expected both of them to leave their station. The unbarred portal to Finn lay open.
But the guards hadn't looked incompetent. Therefore, they weren't. Therefore, there was something unseen here to be wary of. Slipping noiselessly across the hallway and into the chamber beyond, he quickly discovered what. A quick block knocked the hand weapon from the third guard waiting at the far wall. But a muscular arm closed around Spock's waist, squeezing, impairing his breath.
With no time to experiment on an intractable subject, Spock reached around and back as the Dorian's arm muscles tightened. Finding the spot he wanted, he moved his fingers a certain way....
The guard collapsed with satisfying speed. When he crumpled to the parquet floor, the sound was loud enough to awaken the drowsing Finn.
He rolled over on his bunk and stared. As soon as he recognized Spock he was on his feet and over by the inner wall of the cell.
"Spock---what in the world....?"
Spock ignored the questions as he glanced back at the open doorway. Apparently the two guards outside were still searching for the source of the clattering. The little control box slid clear of the guard's hip. Spock studied it, touched the remembered sequence of switches.411Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo6zSolwU33
"Input later, Doctor---no time now. And keep your voice down."
The first glowing nimbus that enclosed Finn vanished. Another touch and the inner force field disappeared. Finn was trying to talk and wake up at the same time. The resulting combination of questions and accusations was understandably garbled.
"Have you and Tom lost your minds, Spock?" he finished confusedly. "Why---this is a jailbreak!"
"If you'll just step out of the force-field area and come with me, Doctor...."
Finn took a step---backwards. "Spock, I can't. It's illegal. You saw the warrant. I've got to stand trial. I want to stand trial." His face was agonized. "I have to find out if...."
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Finn started. "Mutation....?"
"We found a survivor, too, on Lavernus. A potential witness on your behalf. I do not know whether the mutation lay dormant in him until he came aboard, or what. That is what you must discover. Humans are as susceptible to the disease as Dorians. Nearly everyone aboard is seriously ill."
"Spock--you don't tell me the important things first."
"You never ask me the important things first, Doctor.
Finn moved quickly clear of the force-field boundary, outside the final bar to the ship's transporter beam.
"You realize, Doctor, the Dorians could still acquit you. But if you stay aboard, you will be exposed to the mutation. You will probably be driven insane by whatever happens to you."
Fully awake now, Finn brushed hair down from his eyes and glanced at him. "I'm aware of that---who's the doctor here? What surprises me is that you'd even think of mentioning it."
"I apologize, Doctor, but," Spock stared at the door; "I have been operating under stress lately." Out came the communicator. "We are clear of the force cell, Captain, beam us aboard."411Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAu1AtcZnq
A startled, angry voice sounded. Not from the communicator but from the doorway. The other two guards had returned. It took barely a second for them to take in the new alien, the fact that the prisoner stood alongside him instead of behind a glowing shield, and their unconscious companion on the floor.
A pair of tiny, explosive shells passed right through the place where Finn and Spock had stood second-fractions before. They made a mess of the far wall.
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