"Escort of the Epsilon Ceti/Helion II ore shipment having been assigned to other vessels, the Esmeralda has been ordered to survey a new planet recently discovered at the Space Federation/Galactic fringe."568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9rnBtRcoG
Sawyer clicked off and stared at the forward telescreen. The journey out from Tuccides had been peaceful and uneventful. Now an Earth-class world with a normal scattering of clouds, seas and brownish land masses filled up the screen.
He wasn't surprised Fleet Command had diverted the Esmeralda from escort to survey duty. The discovery of a potentially colonizable unclaimed world took precedence over any but the direst emergency. It was interesting and pleasant duty. And if Vice-Admiral Miranda Russo had pulled a few strings to get the Esmeralda the choice assignment, well, it was only a reward for a job well done.
It was imperative to make an official survey and lay claim to the planet quickly---before the Psychlos, say, or the Sebaceans discovered it. Inhabitable planets were not all that common, and competition for expansion was fierce.
Furthermore, the globe seemed to be a real prize to the astronomers using the Epstein predictor. Not only did preliminary orbital scans insist it was habitable, it checked out as downright lush---a garden planet!
Everything seemed to point to a choice discovery, just waiting for her first load of Space Federation settlers---until Ko-Ko's surface probes found the city.
"Inhabitants, Mr. Ko-Ko?" Sawyer hoped not. That would be the end of any colonization.
Ko-Ko's expression was unsure. "No intelligent reading, sir. But it's hard to know for sure. There's such an abundance of lower life---plants and small animals--registering that it will take time to sort out any intelligent forms. One thing's for sure: if it's a major metropolis, it sure isn't overcrowded."
"I'd rather not wait for a secondary analysis, Mr. Ko-Ko." Sawyer rose from the command chair. "Mr. Spock, Dr. Finn. You'll accompany Mr. Ko-Ko and me on the landing party. Mr. Gordon, you have the conn. "
"Aye, sir."
Sawyer headed for the door. "Tony, buzz down to security and have them send along two people to go down with us. This kind of life-form density implies the presence of predators as well as grazers."
"Yes, sir," Gordon acknowledged as he slid into the command chair.
The party of six assembled in the transporter room with admiral speed.
"Put us down near the center of the city, Mr. Santos," Sawyer instructed the transporter chief. "If there are inhabitants I want to meet them right now. It's always best to size up the local populace before the high muckamucks come running with official greetings."
Santos nodded. His hands moved on the controls.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTh7oWaAbj
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The city was magnificent.
Wide green spaces alternated with soaring angular structures that looked more like idealized cathedrals than functional buildings. Spires and glasslike towards were laced together with a network of arching bridges and spunsugar roadways, many fading to near invisibility in the bright sunshine.
The metropolis was constructed along gigantic lines, everything built to proportions four times human scale. Yet it was a place of beauty and grace.
It was also dead.
No policeman panicked at their appearance. No busy citizen halted in his daily stroll to gawk at the alien magicians who had materialized beside him. No curious crowds gathered 'round and nobody notified the local president, chief, or leading hooligan.
Dead.
Weeds, vines, and something like a thick terrestrial seaweed had made the city theirs now. Even the shiniest, newest-looking structure was clothed in a blanket of climbing greenery. Greenery, and less wholesome looking plant life.
They started walking toward what they estimated to be the main square of the city. Ko-Ko and Spock were busy making continual tricorder readings.
"Life wave readings are still confused, sir. I can't sort them out, yet.."
"Keep trying," Sawyer admonished.
"There is something else, Captain," added Spock. "I am getting a sensor reading on some form of generated power..." He looked around and after a moment's search, pointed ahead. "From that building.
"Let's check it out," said Sawyer. He was at once pleased and disappointed. Pleased that there seemed to be no barriers to development of this world, and disappointed at the thought that the architects of this dream city no longer existed. They walked toward the suspect structure.
Ko-Ko paused a moment, trying to recalibrate his tricorder to screen out another identified low-life form. Then he frowned and glanced skyward.
The sun glare blocked out his view of....what? He thought he'd heard a flapping sound, but they'd seen no animals on this world yet. When the dots cleared from his eyes he looked again. The only sky riders were clouds.
Hmph. He took a step after the others, glanced downward as he set his foot--and halted. The tiny plant looked like a sporing dandelion. Moving his tricorder close he took a standard reading. Results were anything but. Unaware of the fuss it was causing, the fuzzy, delicate top of the plant quivered slightly in a gentle breeze.
"Well, now, what's this?"
The building the others were approaching appeared to be well maintained. Surprisingly well, Sawyer thought. Was the city as dead as it looked? Here was one structure that the mosslike growth and other climbing vegetation hadn't encroached. Its front walkway was clean, the window ports all intact and throwing back the morning sunlight.
"Captain, Captain!"
Sawyer and the others whirled. Shostem and Vosk, the two security men, moved their hands toward their service weapons.
"What is it, Mr. Ko-Ko?"
"You're going to have to decide for yourself, sir." He had come up to them. Now he stopped and pointed to the ground near his feet. Everyone looked down.
There was nothing there except some smooth gravel set in a layer of earth---and a single fluffy, fuzzy little growth. Looked like a dandelion, Sawyer mused.
"How long," he asked gently, "has it been since you've had a leave of duty, Lieutenant. I thought Battoo was enough for anyone, but..."
"No, sir, really, look!"
The helmsman took two steps to one side. There was a tiny popping sound like a foot pulling out of mud as the fuzzy raised itself off the ground. It scurried on miniature roots after Ko-Ko.
As soon as it reached his side---how it could tell where it was was another mystery....the root endings promptly made like a corkscrew and burrowed contentedly into the earth.
Sawyer's stare was incredulous. If it wasn't so undeniably alien, the fuzzy would be downright funny.
"What is that thing?"
"It's an ambulatory plant. When it stops, it takes up new residence. The little fellers are all over the place." He moved back to his first position. The little fellas are all over the place." He moved back to his first position. The fuzzy popped, skittered after him, and repeated the rooting operation.
"I think it likes me."
Sawyer shook his head. "We always encourage our officer to make friends with the natives."
"I always did think your personality was kind of wooden, Ko-Ko," said Finn idly.
"That's fighting dirty, old bean," the helmsman countered.
"It's a good thing they're not sentient," Sawyer observed.
"Captain," Spock broke in, looking up from his tricorder, "I dislike interrupting your amusing byplay, but that power reading now gives evidence of being an electronic probe of some sophistication. I believe we are being scanned."
Sawyer's phaser came out, and the others reacted seconds later.
"Phasers on stun---stay alert. Mr. Ko-Ko, Mr. Shostem, stay here. Mr. Vosk, come with me, please."
Sawyer, Finn, Spock, and the second security man moved toward the building. Ko-Ko watched them go anxiously. But when time passed and nothing leaped out to blast the earth from under them, he immediately lost interest. He found his gaze dropping to the friendly fuzzy.
Obeying an impulse, he knelt and picked it up.
"Ouch!"
Well, what---Friendly, indeed! He dropped the plant quickly, shaking his finger to try and relieve the pain. He examined the injured digit with concern. The fuzzy, as if unaware that anything unusual had taken place, burrowed back into the soil.
Ko-Ko mumbled to himself. "Must have been a thorn. Oh, well."
The entrance had no solid door. Instead, the opening doglegged to the left and out of sight. Moving cautiously, they edged around the U-shaped portal. It opened without warning into a gigantic room.
No, the room wasn't gigantic in itself. It was just that it was built to the same four-times-human scale as the city. Like the building's exterior, the room was clean and orderly. Lights on panels and consoles flashed on and off. There was a constant hum from powerful, hidden machinery. It looked very much like a laboratory.
There was no longer a question about the city being dead. Everything about the room suggested constant, everyday use. Spock gestured toward a towering wall panel flecked with odd-shaped switches and knobs.
"The probe originates in this instrument wall," he informed them, checking his tricorder. "As does an incredibly powerful force-field shield. I cannot imagine the purpose of the wall instrumentation, but the presence of the force field indicates that someone does not wish it tampered with."
There were several high shelves in the wall next to the panel. The lower ones held, among other things, a pile of alien yet still recognizable cassettes filled with scrolls of tape. One scroll cassette sat in a playback slot. Spock pulled it out and began examining it closely. Nothing seemed to object to the sudden manipulation of this cassette.
Finn was busy with his medical tricorder. Suddenly he looked up in astonishment.
"Tom! I'm picking up a humanoid life-reading of incredible strength. It's as if it..."
"EEEEYYAAAAAHHHH!'568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSlmnJDmB6M
The agonized scream came from outside the chamber. Readings, tapes, everything were forgotten as they raced for the street. Spock absently slipped the cassette into a pocket.
Ko-Ko was stretched out on the ground. His arms and legs were splayed wide apart and rigid with unnatural stiffness. Nobody had to ask what was wrong with him. He was almost totally paralyzed. Only his eyes made frantic motions.
Ensign Shostem stood alert and gripped his phaser tightly, hunting for some unseen enemy to use it on. Finn swung his medical tricorder around on his shoulder and knelt beside the motionless helmsman.
"What happened?" he asked Shostem.
"I don't know, Doctor!" The guard's voice was wild. "I didn't see a thing. I was standing here, watching the entrance you went into, when Mr. Ko-Ko just---screamed, all of a sudden, and keeled over."
Finn studied the first readings on the tricorder. His words were curt and clipped.
"He's been poisoned. Some kinda neuro-toxin. Composition unknown, naturally.
He nudged the tricorder aside and skillful hands worked at the small containers in his belt medkit. A narrow tube was produced. Finn didn't even bother to roll up the helmsman's shirt sleeve, simply jammed the tube against his upper arm.
Pulling it away, Finn proceeded to check a tiny gauge set into the side of the metal pencil. His frown deepened and he reset an all but invisible dial below the indicator. Again he pressed it to Ko-Ko's arm, paused, then pulled it away. A second check of the gauge and Finn seemed to slump slightly, shaking his head in frustration.
"Can you do anything for him?" Sawyer had to break the choking silence.
"I don't know, Tom. I don't know. Blast! I can't get a correlation with any known venom." He shrugged sadly.
"Either they're too alien to affect your system and they don't bug you at all or else you run up against something like this." His head jerked towards Ko-Ko.
"Antidotes are always found---after the first few autopsies."
Sawyer tried to sound hopeful. "Maybe the ship's medical computer can.....?"
"Forget that thing!" Finn snarled. "He's got two minutes to live, unless I can find the answer." He muttered angrily to himself.
"Nisonazole….symbysol….halorone….maybe halorone." The ineffectual tube was returned to his belt and a slightly larger instrument substituted. A fast adjustment of the hypo setting and then it was applied to Ko-Ko's other arm.
There was a gentle hissing sound. Finn pulled the hypo away and waited. After a few seconds he took another reading with the tricorder, concentrating on the newly treated region.
"No good, it's no good," he husked. "Soon the venom will reach his vital organs. Nisonazole takes too much time to work---assuming it would work."
"Try a stronger dose," Sawyer urged.
"That will not be necessary," came a soft, pleasant voice. A new voice was about the only thing that could have turned their attention from Ko-Ko at that moment. They spun to face the direction the voice had come from---the entrance to the laboratorylike building.
Five beings stood there. Their only similarity to man or Vulcan was in the question of size. Beyond that superficiality, they were utterly alien.
Their heads - if that's what those faintly oval shapes topping the rest of their bodies were---were partly covered with a fine furry bristle. Two waving eyestalks were the only visible projections. There was no sign of a mouth, ears, nose, or any other recognizable sense organ.
The bodies themselves were composed of a tight bunching of slender, ropelike extensions, some of which seemed to hang loosely at their sides like a long fringe. Other extensions grouped tightly together near the bottom before spreading out into a haphazard assortment of bulbous protuberances. Sawyer guessed that these served as motive limbs for the creatures. This was revealed as so when they began to approach the landing party.
Their color was an ocher-yellow-green--not especially a heathy shade, but for all Sawyer knew, the local version of a good suntan. Maybe they regarded Sawyer's own fleshy-pink as a sign that he was nearing the final stages of desiccation.
Despite the complete strangeness of their appearance, Sawyer felt none of the revulsion toward them that some more humanoid aliens could produce. Maybe it was their apparent passivity. They showed no sign of caution or the usual wary belligerence.
If anything, they seemed inherently peaceful.
They got another surprise when the leader of the group spoke. Not only were the words intelligible, they were downright smooth. The tone was quiet, reasoned. Resigned, Sawyer thought idly, wondering at the ability of the human mind to make jokes in the most unfunny situations.
He noticed out of the corner of an eye that Spock was taking a discreet tricorder reading on their visitors. The first officer's diplomacy might be ineffectual. The aliens might be perceptive enough to tell what he was doing. On the other hand, they might ignore Spock if he walked through times around their leader, bumping him with the tricorder.
Still, as with any first contact, it didn't hurt to be as polite as possible. There were other things on Sawyer's mind at that moment, however, which made attention to protocol difficult. All he could blurt out was, "Who are you?"
The being leading the group--who was a little taller than his four companions--replied softly.
"I am called Plendor. I believe we can help."
Sawyer nodded once and turned away from him---if it was a "him." He kept his voice low as he murmured to Spock.
"What are you getting on them? Who are we dealing with here, Spock?"
"A moment, please, Captain. Give me a little time. The information I have thus far obtained does not allow a reasonable answer yet." He made an adjustment to the tricorder.
Meanwhile the five aliens had moved to surround the unmoving Ko-Ko. The leader, Plendor, bent over the unconscious helmsman - a smooth, supple movement, like a reed bending with the wind.
Jointless, that explained it. Plendor and his companions moved without the stiffness of human joints.
Hovering motionless over Ko-Ko, the eyestalks studied the prone form for several seconds. Then one of the free-hanging limblike extensions moved out from Plendor's side to extend over the body. A drop of some viscous liquid was extruded from the green tip.
Finn, who'd kept a watchful eye on the whole sequence, now felt obliged to step in.
"Just a minute! I can let you---whatever you are----inject him with some...." he hesitated, momentarily flustered, "-alien tree sap!"
Plendor's reply took no notice of the implied insult. "To wait is to assure your friend's death." One eyestalk swiveled independently, like a chameleon's to stare at Finn. "I must proceed."
"Huck..." Sawyer put a restraining hand on the doctor's shoulder. "Let them help."
"All right, Tom. But I don't like the whole idea." He turned away and strolled over to where Spock was still working with his tricorder.
"An interesting discovery, Doctor. These beings are of botanical origin."
"Intelligent plants?"
"So it would seem."
The loose tentacle dipped lower. With a gentle touch, Plendor applied the drop of golden liquid to the side of Ko-Ko's neck. Now both eyestalks turned to observe the watching humans.
"It is a powerful antidote, quickly absorbed. he should begin to respond momentarily."
"Of course," suggested Finn, still a little miffed, "it's of a completely alien nature and may not have any effect on him at all."
"True, Doctor," Spock agreed, "yet the same could be said of the poison which has so obviously affected him. I see no reason why the antidote should be rejected."
"Thanks," was all Sawyer could think of to say to the creature. It rose, repeating the same supple movement.
"Welcome to the planet Kritha ."
They certainly seemed friendly enough. A fraternal greeting and a badly needed helping hand, all in the first moments of contact. Still, he wasn't quite ready to fall all over himself in an orgy of backslapping. He'd been on too many planets where the obviously black had turned out at the last moment to be white, to the detriment of the unfortunate caught in the color change.
But until given a reason why, he would treat the Krithans as friends.
"I'm Captain Thomas Sawyer. This is Balus Spock, my first officer; Dr. Finn...." He went on to identify the rest of the landing party, including the motionless Ko-Ko.
"You seem to have been expecting us, Plendor."
A tentacle (limb?) fluttered in the direction of the laboratory building.
"Our instruments have scanned and tracked you since your vessel first entered our space, Captain. We had reasons for not revealing ourselves immediately to you. But the injury to your companion compelled us to shed our hiding.
"We are a peaceful race, and we have a fear of aliens." The Krithan spokesman seemed to hesitate.
"We have had unfortunate meetings with such in the past." Sawyer nodded understandingly, glanced over at Spock.
Role reversal was always hard. They were the aliens, not the Krithans.
There was a movement on the ground, and he found his attention drawn back to Ko-Ko. The helmsman was still prone, but not longer motionless. He was starting to squirm like a man waking from a long sleep.
"What happened to him, anyway?" His touch of professional jealousy now long forgotten, a curious Finn spoke while kneeling near Ko-Ko and running his medical tricorder over the helmsman's chest. Scientific interest had taken over.
"He was bitten by the Tutzir plant. It is deadly only if the wound is left untreated."
"Mobile plants seem to be the rule on this worse, rather than animals," Sawyer observed, hoping he wasn't treading on someone's religion. But Plendor took no offense.
"That is true."
"Your medication worked fast."
Plendor didn't shrug---he couldn't, having no shoulders--but Sawyer felt he could sense the equivalent.
"It is but a minor achievement."
"Minor achievement!" blurted Finn, looking in disbelief from his tricorder readings. "I never saw a counter-toxin work so fast. I don't know anything about your other sciences, but if this is a 'minor' sample of your medical capabilities, I'd like to chat with some of your doctors."
"Doctors?"
"Physicians -healers."
"Ah," Plendor exclaimed. "Yes, Dr. Finn. I understand now. But you must realize that healing is not a specialized function among my people."
"Not special---" Finn looked incredulous. "You mean you're all doctors?"
"Not in the way you mean, Dr. Finn. But each has the ability to---to repair a number of damaged bodily functions. We will talk of this more, later, if you want."
"I want, I want!" Finn looked rather like the little boy about to be let loose in the candy store. A low moan from Ko-Ko precluded further conversation.
The helmsman's eyes were open, and he appeared to be making motions of getting up. Finn made another pass with the tricorder. Then he looked up and nodded. Amazement still tinged his words.
"Something's destroying the poison left in his bloodstream, all right. Body functions are running up to normal. And I mean running." He glanced at the Krithan leader.
"Look, Plendor. Agreed, if the poison affects humans, a local antidote conceivably might. Clearly does, in fact. But how could you be so sure it'd work?"
"We could not be sure," the Krithan replied softly. "But there have been humanoid aliens on Kritha before. Besides, it was the only chance left for your friend."
"Humanoid aliens who spoke our language?" asked Spock.
"Ah, you are curious as to our method of translation and communication. The sensorator, a mechanical translator." He reached into the folds of his central body area. For a fleeting moment Sawyer expected him to remove a mouth.
Instead, Plendor produced a small, round, flat disk of metal. When he "spoke," his voice came from the center of the disk.
"Our natural organs of verbal communication are quite small. They need a great deal of artificial amplification to be effective at any distance. The sensorator is completely self-contained and most efficient for this purpose."
"Most," agreed Spock, hoping for a chance to take one of the unbelievably compact instruments apart.
Such charming exchanges of mutual admiration were fine, Sawyer reflected, but right now other things concerned him more.
"I like puzzles, Plendor, but I also like answers. We were pretty convinced when we first set down in your city that there was nobody here. Then we find you--or rather, you find us. Yet I find it hard to believe that the few of you are the sole inhabitants of this metropolis. We're not exactly standing in the middle of a local desert. Were are the rest of your people?"
"Your curiosity does your profession credit, Captain Sawyer, and it shall be satisfied. Come with us and we shall show you."
Sawyer looked down at Ko-Ko. With Finn's help, he was struggling to his feet.
"How do you feel, Mr. Ko-Ko?"
The helmsman blinked. "I'm---I'm all right now, Captain---I think. One moment I was sucking my finger and the next---zap!" His voice was that of a man waking from a dream and finding it reality. "I felt like an incendiary grenade had gone off inside me."
"Can you walk?"
"Yes. I'm okay, sir." Ko-Ko straightened himself.
"All right, then." Sawyer turned back to Plendor. "Let's go."
The Krithan turned--perhaps pivoted would be more accurate---and ambled off in the direction of the building next to the laboratory. His companions, none of whom had yet ventured a word, turned with him. Sawyer and the other bipeds followed.
"You sure you're all right, Ko-Ko?" pressed Finn.
"Fine, Doctor." The navigation officer even managed a slight smile. "Hard to believe now that there was ever anything wrong with m."
Finn shook his head and muttered to himself. "Remarkable---crazy and remarkable..."
"Yes," added Spock softly. "How fortunate for us that Plendor and his fellows were so close by."
"You said it!" agreed Finn fervently. Something scratched at his mind, and he gave Spock an unsure glance. But the science officer gave no sign that his words meant anything but what they said. He speeded up to come alongside Sawyer.
They entered the building, turning first through another of the unbarred but mazelike entrances. Inside they found themselves in a hall of titanic proportions stretching endlessly into the distance. The metal walls rose to form a domed ceiling high overhead. A skylight running the whole length of the enormous corridor was set into the curving roof.
Plendor stopped. Sawyer slowly turned a full circle before returning his attention to the alien.
"Well, where are your people, Plendor?"
Instead of answering, Plendor went to a panel set in one wall and depressed several hidden switches. There was the slightest hissing sound. One security guard reached instinctively for his phaser and looked properly abashed when no threat materialized.
A tall, high door slid aside in the nearest section of wall. Row upon row of glasslike cases, looking like so many rectangular diamonds, filled the exposed section.
No one noticed Ko-Ko put a hand to his hand, and he covered the gesture of weakness quickly. Finn and Spock moved down the ranked glass caskets while Sawyer followed curiously. Plendor and his four companions remained in place, watching. Presumably this necrophilic display held no surprises for them.
The aliens' leader gestured with a limb. There was a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Behold, our people, Captain Sawyer."
Each individual sarcophagus was nearly 10 meters high. A single gigantic body filled every crystal coffin. And each of the immobile forms was covered from head to root with a covering of thick green bristle.
They had no recognizable heads, not even of the kind Plendor and his friends had. Instead, at the top end of each shape was a mass that looked something like an artichoke. But under the bristle, Sawyer and the other crewmen could see that the true bodies were composed of the same furry ropelike extensions, also bunching up tightly near the base and spreading out into footlike protrusions. In this respect they were identical to Plendor. And there were other resemblances between the living Krithans and these embalmed giants. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKRDCY5SakR
It was an impressive but very frightening sight.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdcZe7K1ou
Eventually Spock looked up from his tricorder. "Nerve tissue mass is exceptionally high. Readings indicate these beings utilized almost 70% of their brain capacity---a very high ratio."568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡar47iyFR4I
Sawyer turned and looked back at Plendor. "Your ancestors?"568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPCTWA4keI1
"No," replied the Krithan, "the generation before us." He bowed slightly.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWRp11VSye
"Then what happened?" Sawyer prodded. "I've never heard of such enormous physiological changes taking place in such a short span of time."
Plendor's voice was matter-of-fact.
"A human came to Kritha."
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