STAR TREK - TOS - Trek 1 - James Blish

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ADAPTED By JAMES BLISH

BASED ON THE EXCITING NEW NBC-TV SERIES

CREATED BY GENE RODDENBERRY

STAR TREK

A Bantam Book / published January 1967

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,

by mimeograph or any other means,

without permission in writing.

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc., a subsidiaryof Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. Its

trade-mark, consisting of the words"Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a bantam, is registered in the

United States Patent Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada.Bantam Books, Inc., 271 Madison

Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

to Harlan Ellison

who was right all the time

Contents

Author's Note.4

Charlie's Law..5

Dagger of the Mind.12

The Unreal McCoy.18

Balance of Terror23

The Naked Time.31

Miri36

The Conscience of the King.45

Author's Note

The plots and the characters in these stories areadapted from individual scripts for the televisionseries

Star Trek. Hence, although I am the only authorof record for this book, each story in it is in effect a

collaboration with a different script-writer.

JAMES BLISH

Alexandria, Va.

1966

Charlie's Law

Though as Captain of the starshipEnterprise James Kirkhad the final authority over four hundred

officers andcrewmen, plus a small and constantly shifting popula- tion of passengers, and though in well

more than twentyyears in space he had had his share of narrow squeaks, he was firmly of the opinion that

no single person evergave him more trouble than one seventeen-year-old boy.

Charles Evans had been picked up from a planetcalled Thasus after having been marooned there for

fourteen years, the sole survivor of the crash of hisparents' research vessel. He was rescued by the

surveyshipAntares, a transport about a tenth of the size oftheEnterprise, and subsequently transferred to

Kirk'sship, wearing hand-me-down clothes and carrying all the rest of his possessions in a dufflebag.

The officers of theAntares who brought him aboardtheEnterprise spoke highly of Charlie's intelligence,

eagerness to learn, intuitive grasp of engineering mat-ters—"He could run theAntares himself if he had

to"—and his sweetness of character; but it struck Kirkthat they were almost elbowing each other aside to

praisehim, and that they were in an unprecedented hurry toget back to their own cramped ship, without

even somuch as begging a bottle of brandy.

Charlie's curiosity had certainly been obvious fromthose first moments, though he showed some trepida

tion, too—which was not surprising, considering his longand lonely exile. Kirk assigned Yeoman Rand to

takehim to his quarters. It was at this point that Charliestunned her and everyone else present by asking

Kirkhonestly:

"Is that a girl?"

Leonard McCoy, the ship's surgeon, checked Charliefrom top to toe and found him in excellent physical

condition: no traces of malnutrition, of exposure, of hard-ship of any sort; truly remarkable for a boy

who'd hadto fend for himself on a strange world from the age ofthree. On the other hand, it was

reasonable to supposethat fourteen years later, Charlie would either be ingood shape, or dead; he would

have had to come toterms with his environment within the first few years.

Charlie was not very communicative about this puz-zle, though he asked plenty of questions himself—he

seemed earnestly to want to know all the right thingsto do, and even more urgently, to be liked, but the

purport of some of McCoy's questions apparently baffledhim.

No, nobody had survived the crash. He had learnedEnglish by talking to the memory banks on the ship;

they still worked. No, the Thasians hadn't helped him;there were no Thasians. At first he had eaten stores

from the wreck; then he had found some other... things,growing around.

Charlie then asked to see the ship's rule book. On theAntares,he said, he hadn't done or said all the right

things. When that happened, people got angry; he gotangry, too. He didn't like making the same mistake

twice.

"I feel the same way," McCoy told him. "But youcan't rush such matters. Just keep your eyes open, and

when in doubt, smile and say nothing. It works verynicely."

Charlie returned McCoy's grin, and McCoy dismissed him with a swat on the rump, to Charlie's obvious

aston-ishment.

McCoy brought the problem up again on the bridgewith Kirk and his second-in-command, Mr. Spock.

Yeoman Rand was there working on a duty roster, and atonce volunteered to leave; but since she had

seen asmuch of Charlie as anyone had, Kirk asked her to stay.Besides, Kirk was fond of her, though he

fondly imagined that to be a secret even from her.

"Earth history is full of cases where a small childmanaged to survive in a wilderness," McCoy went on.

"I've read some of your legends," said Spock, who wasnative to a nonsolar planet confusingly called

Vulcan."They all seem to require a wolf to look after theinfants."

"What reason would the boy have to lie, if therewere Thasians?"

"Nevertheless there's some evidence that there were,at least millennia ago," Spock said. "The first survey

reported some highly sophisticated artifacts. And condi-tions haven't changed on Thasus for at least three

millionyears. There might well besome survivors."

"Charlie says there aren't," Kirk said.

"His very survival argues that there are. I've checkedthe library computer record on Thasus. There isn't

much,but one thing it does say: 'No edible plant life.' Hesimply had to have had some kind of help."

"I think you're giving him less credit than he de-serves," McCoy said.

"For the moment let's go on that assumption," Kirksaid. "Mr. Spock, work out a briefing program for

youngCharlie. Give him things to do—places to be. If we keep him busy until we get to Colony Five,

experienced educators will take him over, and in the meantime, heshould leave us with relative calm

aboard... YeomanRand, what do you think of our problem child?"

"Wellll," she said. "Maybe I'm prejudiced. I wasn'tgoing to mention this, but... he followed me down the

corridor yesterday and offered me a vial of perfume.My favorite, too; I don't know how he knew it.

There'snone in the ship's stores, I'm sure of that."

"Hmm," McCoy said.

"I was just going to ask him where he got it, whenhe swatted me on the rump. After that I made it my

business to be someplace else."

There was an outburst of surprised laughter, quicklysuppressed.

"Anything else?" Kirk said.

"Nothing important. Did you know that he can docard tricks?"

"Now, where would he have learned that?" Spock de-manded.

"I don't know, but he's very good. I was playing soli-taire in the rec room when he came in. Lieutenant

Uhurawas playing 'Charlie is my darling' and singing, and atfirst he seemed to think she was mocking him.

When hesaw she didn't mean it personally, he came over to watchme, and he seemed to be puzzled that I

couldn't makethe game come out. So he made it come out for me—without even touching the cards, I'd

swear to that. WhenI showed I was surprised, he picked up the cards anddid a whole series of tricks

with them, good ones. Thebest sleight-of-hand I've ever seen. He said one of themen on theAntares

taught him how. He was enjoyingall the attention, I could tell that, but I didn't want toencourage him too

much myself. Not after the swattingincident."

"He gotthat trick from me, I'm afraid," McCoy said.

"No doubt he did," Kirk said. "But I think I'd better talk to him, anyhow."

"Fatherhood becomes you, Jim," McCoy said, grinning.

"Dry up, Bones. I just don't want him getting out ofhand, that's all."

Charlie shot to his feet the moment Kirk entered his cabin; all his fingers, elbows, and knees seemed to

bendthe wrong way. Kirk had barely managed to nod whenhe burst out: "I didn't do anything!"

"Relax, Charlie. Just wanted to find out how you'regetting along."

"Fine. I...I'm supposed to ask you why I shouldn't—I don't know how to explain it."

"Try saying it straight out, Charlie," Kirk said. "Thatusually works."

"Well, in the corridor...I talked to... when Janice... when Yeoman Rand was..." Abruptly, setting hisface,

he took a quick step forward and slapped Kirk onthe seat. "I did that and she didn't like it. She saidyou'd

explain it to me."

"Well," Kirk said, trying hard not to smile, "it's thatthere are things you can do with a lady, and thingsyou

can't. Uh, the fact is, there's no right way to hit alady. Man to man is one thing, man to woman is some-

thing else. Do you understand?"

"I don't know. I guess so."

"If you don't, you'll just have to take my word for itfor the time being. In the meantime, I'm having a

sched-ule worked out for you, Charlie. Things to do, to helpyou learn all the things you missed while you

were ma-rooned on Thasus."

"That's very nice, for you to do that for me," Charliesaid. He seemed genuinely pleased. "Do you like

me?"

That flat question took Kirk off guard. "I don't know,"he said equally flatly. "Learning to like people

takestime. You have to watch what they do, try to under-stand them. It doesn't happen all at once."

"Oh," Charlie said.

"Captain Kirk," Lieutenant Uhura's voice broke inover the intercom.

"Excuse me, Charlie... Kirk here."

"Captain Ramart of theAntares is on D channel. Mustspeak to you directly."

"Right. I'll come up to the bridge."

"Can I come too?" Charlie said as Kirk switched out.

"I'm afraid not, Charlie. This is strictly ship's busi-ness."

"I won't disturb anybody," Charlie said. "I'll stay out of the way."

The boy's need for human company was touching,no matter how awkwardly he went about it. There

were,many years of solitude to be made up for. "Well, allright," Kirk said. "But only when you have my

permis-sion. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Charlie said eagerly. He followed Kirk outlike a puppy.

On the bridge, Lieutenant Uhura, her Bantu faceintent as a tribal statue's, was asking the microphone:

"Can you boost your power,Antares? We are barelyreading your transmission."

"We are at full output,Enterprise" Ramart's voicesaid, very distant and hashy. "I must speak with Cap

tain Kirk at once."

Kirk stepped up to the station and picked up themike. "Kirk here, Captain Ramart."

"Captain, thank goodness. We're just barely in range.I've got to warn—"

His voice stopped. There was nothing to be heard from the speaker now but stellar static—not even a

carrier wave.

"See if you can get them back," Kirk said.

"There's nothing to get, Captain," Lieutenant Uhurasaid, baffled. "They aren't transmitting any more."

"Keep the channel open."

Behind Kirk, Charlie said quietly: "That was an oldship. It wasn't very well constructed."

Kirk stared at him, and then swung toward Spock'sstation.

"Mr. Spock, sweep the transmission area with probesensors."

"I've got it," Spock said promptly. "But it's fuzzy.Unusually so even for this distance."

Kirk turned back to the boy. "What happened, Char-lie? Do you know?"

Charlie stared back at him, with what seemed to be uneasy defiance. "I don't know," he said.

"The fuzzy area is spreading out," Spock reported."I'm getting some distinct pips now along the edges.

Debris, undoubtedly."

"But noAntares?"

"Captain Kirk, thatis theAntares," Spock saidquietly. "No other interpretation is possible. Clearly, she

blew up."

Kirk continued to hold Charlie's eye. The boy lookedback.

"I'm sorry it blew up," Charlie said. He seemeduneasy, but nothing more than that. "But I won't miss

them. They weren't very nice. They didn't like me. Icould tell."

There was a long, terribly tense silence. At last Kirkcarefully unclenched his fists.

"Charlie," he said, "one of the first things you're goingto have to get rid of is that damned

cold-bloodedness.Or self-centeredness, or whatever it is. Until that gets under control, you're going to be

less than half human."

And then, he stopped. To his embarrassed amazement,Charlie was crying.

"He what?" Kirk said, looking up from his office chairat Yeoman Rand. She was vastly uncomfortable,

butshe stuck to her guns.

"He made a pass at me," she repeated. "Not in somany words, no. But he made me a long, stumbling

speech. He wants me."

"Yeoman, he's a seventeen-year-old boy."

"Exactly," the girl said.

"All this because of a swat?"

"No, sir," she said. "Because of the speech. Captain, I've seen that look before;I'm not seventeen. And if

something isn't done, sooner or later I'm going to have to hold Charlie off, maybe even swat him myself,

andnot on the fanny, either. That wouldn't be good forhim. I'm his first love and his first crush and the first

woman he ever saw and..." She caught her breath."Captain, that's a great deal for anyone to have to

handle, even one item at a time. All at once, it's murder.And he doesn't understand the usual put-offs. If I

haveto push him off in a way he does understand, there maybe trouble. Do you follow me?"

"I think so, Yeoman," Kirk said. He still could notquite take the situation seriously. "Though I never

thought I'd wind up explaining the birds and the beesto anybody, not at my age. But I'll send for him right

now."

"Thank you, sir." She went out. Kirk buzzed forCharlie. He appeared almost at once, as though he had

been expecting something of the sort.

"Come in, Charlie, sit down."

The boy moved to the chair opposite Kirk's desk andsat down, as if settling into a bear trap. As before,

hebeat Kirk to the opening line.

"Janice," he said. "Yeoman Rand. It's about her,isn't it?"

Damn the kid's quickness! "More or less. Though it'smore about you."

"I won't hit her like that any more. I promised."

"There's more to it than that," Kirk said. "You'vegot some things to learn."

"Everything I do or say is wrong," Charlie said des-perately. "I'm in the way. Dr. McCoy won't show me

therules. I don't know what I am or what I'm supposedto be, or evenwho. And I don't know why I hurt

somuch inside all the time—"

"I do, and you'll live," Kirk said. "There's nothingwrong with you that hasn't gone haywire inside every

human male since the model came out. There's no wayto get over it, around it, or under it; you just have

tolive through it, Charlie."

"But, it's like I'm wearing my insides outside. I goaround bent over all the tune. Janice—Yeoman

Rand— she wants to give me away to someone else. YeomanLawton. But she's just a, just a, well, she

doesn't even smell like a girl. Nobody else on the ship is like Janice.I don't want anybody else."

"It's normal," Kirk said gently. "Charlie, there are amillion things in the universe you can have. There are

also about a hundred million that you can't. There'sno fun in learning to face that, but you've got to do it.

That's how things are."

"I don't like it," Charlie said, as if that explainedeverything.

"I don't blame you. But you have to hang on tightand survive. Which reminds me: the next thing on your

schedule is unarmed defense. Come along to the gymwith me and we'll try a few falls. Way back in Vic

torian England, centuries ago, they had a legend thatviolent exercise helped keep one's mind off women.

I'venever known it to work, myself, but anyhow let's giveit a try."

Charlie was incredibly clumsy, but perhaps no moreso than any other beginner. Ship's Officer Sam Ellis,

amember of McCoy's staff, clad like Kirk and Charliein work-out clothes, was patient with him.

"That's better. Slap the mat when you go down,Charlie. It absorbs the shock. Now, again."

Ellis dropped of his own initiative to the mat, slappedit, and rolled gracefully up onto his feet. "Like that."

"I'll never learn," Charlie said.

"Sure you will," Kirk said. "Go ahead."

Charlie managed an awkward drop. He forgot to slapuntil almost the last minute, so that quite a thud

accompanied the slap.

"Well, that's an improvement," Kirk said. "Like every-thing else, it takes practice. Once more."

This time was better. Kirk said, "That's it. Okay, Sam,show him a shoulder roll."

Ellis hit the mat, and was at once on his feet again, cleanly and easily.

"I don't want to do that," Charlie said.

"It's part of the course," Kirk said. "It's not hard.Look." He did a roll himself. "Try it."

"No. You were going to teach me to fight, not rollaround on the floor."

"You have to learn to take falls without hurting your-self before we can do that. Sam, maybe we'd better

demonstrate. A couple of easy throws."

"Sure," Ellis said. The two officers grappled, andEllis, who was in much better shape than the Captain,let

Kirk throw him. Then, as Kirk got to his feet, Ellis flipped him like a poker chip. Kirk rolled and

bounced,glad of the exercise.

"See what I mean?" Kirk said.

"I guess so," Charlie said. "It doesn't look hard."

He moved in and grappled with Kirk, trying for thehold he had seen Ellis use. He was strong, but he had

no leverage. Kirk took a counter-hold and threw him.It was not a hard throw, but Charlie again forgot to

slap the mat. He jumped to his feet flaming mad, glar-ing at Kirk.

"Thatwon't do," Ellis said, grinning. "You need alot more falls, Charlie."

Charlie whirled toward him. In a low, intense voice, he said: "Don't laugh at me."

"Cool off, Charlie," Ellis said, chuckling openly now."Half the trick is in not losing your temper."

"Don't laugh at me!"Charlie said. Ellis spread out hishands, but his grin did not quite go away.

Exactly one second later, there was a pop like thebreaking of the world's largest light bulb. Ellis

vanished.

Kirk stared stupefied at the spot where Ellis had been.Charlie, too, stood frozen for a moment. Then he

beganto move tentatively toward the door.

"Hold it," Kirk said. Charlie stopped, but he did notturn to face Kirk.

"He shouldn't have laughed at me," Charlie said."That's not nice, to laugh at somebody. I was trying."

"Not very hard. Never mind that. What happened?What did you do to my officer?"

"He's gone," Charlie said sullenly.

"That's no answer."

"He's gone," Charlie said. "That's all I know. I didn'twant to do it. He made me. He laughed at me."

And suppose Janice has to slap him? And... therewas the explosion of theAntares... Kirk stepped

quicklyto the nearest wall intercom and flicked it on. Charlieturned at last to watch him. "Captain Kirk in

the gym," Kirk said. "Two men from security here, on the double."

"What are you going to do with me?" Charlie said.

"I'm sending you to your quarters. And I want youto stay there."

"I won't let them touch me," Charlie said in a low voice. "I'll make them go away too."

"They won't hurt you."

Charlie did not answer, but he had the look of acaged animal just before it turns at last upon its trainer.

The door opened and two security guards came in,phaser pistols holstered. They stopped and looked to

Kirk.

"Go with them, Charlie. We'll talk about this later,when we've both cooled off. You owe me a long

explana-tion." Kirk jerked his head toward Charlie. The guardsstepped to him and took him by the arms.

Or, tried to. Actually, Kirk was sure that they nevertouched him. One of them simply staggered back,

butthe other was thrown violently against the wall, asthough he had been caught in a sudden hurricane.

Hemanaged to hold his footing, however, and clawed forhis sidearm.

"No!" Kirk shouted.

But the order was way too late. By the time theguard had his hand levelled at the boy, he no longerhad a

weapon to hold. It had vanished, just like SamEllis. Charlie stared at Kirk, his eyes narrowed and chal-

lenging.

"Charlie," Kirk said, "you're showing off. Go to yourquarters."

"No."

"Go with the guards, or I'll pick you up and carryyou there myself." He began to walk steadily forward.

"That's your only choice, Charlie. Either do as I tellyou, or send me away to wherever you sent the

phaser, and Sam Ellis."

"Oh, all right," Charlie said, wilting. Kirk drew adeep breath. "But tell them to keep their hands to them

selves."

"They won't hurt you. Not if you do as I say."

Kirk called a general council on the bridge at once,but Charlie moved faster: by the time Kirk's officers

were all present, there wasn't a phaser to be found any-where aboard ship. Charlie had made them all

"goaway." Kirk explained what had happened, briefly andgrimly.

"Given this development," McCoy said, "it's clear Charlie wouldn't have needed any help from any puta

tive Thasians. He could have magicked up all his needsby himself."

"Not necessarily," Spock said. "All we know is thathe can make things vanish—not make them appear. I

admit that that alone would have been a big help tohim."

"What are the chances," Kirk said, "that he's a Tha-sianhimself? Or at least, something really

unprecedentedin the way of an alien?"

"The chance is there," McCoy said, "but I'd be in-clined to rule it out. Remember I checked him over.

He's ostensibly human, down to his last blood type. Of course,I could have missed something, but he

was hooked tothe body-function panel, too; the machine would haverung sixteen different kinds of alarms

at the slightestdiscrepancy."

"Well, he's inhumanly powerful, in any event," Spocksaid. "The probability is that he was responsible for

the destruction of theAntares, too. Over an enormousdistance—well beyond phaser range."

"Great," McCoy said. "Under the circumstances, howcan we hope to keep him caged up?"

"It goes further than that, Bones," Kirk said. "Wecan't take him to Colony Five, either. Can you imagine

what he'd do in an open, normal environment—in an undisciplined environment?"

Clearly, McCoy hadn't. Kirk got up and began to pace.

"Charlie is an adolescent boy—probably human, buttotally inexperienced with other human beings. He's

short-tempered because he wants so much and it can'tcome fast enough for him. He's full of adolescent

aches.He wants to be one of us, to be loved, to be useful. But...I remember when I was seventeen that I

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ADAPTEDByJAMESBLISHBASEDONTHEEXCITINGNEWNBC-TVSERIESCREATEDBYGENERODDENBERRY STARTREKABantamBook/publishedJanuary1967Allrightsreserved.Copyright©1967byBantamBooks,Inc.Copyright©1967byDesiluProductionsInc.Thisbookmaynotbereproducedinwholeorinpart,bymimeographoranyothermeans,withoutpermissioninwriting...

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