STAR TREK - TOS - Garth Of Izar

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Star Trek - Garth Of Izar
Pamela Sargent
and
George Zebrowski
"A total of fifteen incurably insane
out of billions is not what I would
call an excessive figure."
-Mr. Spock, commenting on the Elba II asylum,
"Whom Gods Destroy"
Chapter One
AS CAPTAIN GARTH brought the U.S.S. Heisenberg out of warp and prepared to enter standard
orbit around Axanar, the ship's helmsman shouted, "There's a Romulan vessel in orbit around the planet!"
On the bridge viewscreen, the winged shape of a Romulan vessel, a raptor hovering over its prey, was
now clearly visible against the pale blue orb of Axanar.
Garth stood up from his command chair and said calmly, "Prepare to retreat. Go to maximum warp."
"Retreat?" his first officer asked, watching Garth with a look of apprehension in his dark, almond-shaped
eyes.
"Yes, retreat. At once!" There was no doubt in Garth's voice.
The Heisenberg accelerated beyond the orbital [2] velocity toward which it had been slowing, outpaced
the pull of the planet's gravitational well in a wide curve, and shot into warp.
"The Romulan is chasing us," the helmsman said softly, "and we can't outrun it."
Garth glanced back at his communications officer, a green-skinned but nonetheless beautiful woman with
a cap of short dark hair. "Lieutenant," Garth said, "send a subspace message to Starbase at Tau Ceti,
informing them of the Romulan presence."
"Yes, sir," the young woman replied.
As the Heisenberg went to maximum warp, the Romulan vessel kept pace. Ten hours passed while Garth
sat at his station, silent and unmoving, an enigma to his officers and crew, all of whom knew that the
Romulan battle cruiser could not only pace their ship but also match its firepower.
Was their captain simply trying to avoid a battle? From his navigator's station, James Kirk turned in his
seat and looked aft at Garth, but could read nothing in his commanding officer's cold blue eyes and
impassive face.
In the tenth hour, the Klingon vessel, straining at the limits of its warp drive, began to overtake the
Heisenberg.
"Captain Garth," a voice called out. Kirk raised his eyes to the viewscreen as the face of a Romulan
captain appeared, looking very much like Mr. Spock. "I know that you are receiving my message. Drop
out [3] of warp and surrender, or we will destroy your ship."
"I hear you," Garth replied. Kirk turned toward the command station for a moment and saw that Captain
Garth was smiling.
"Drop out of warp and surrender," the Romulan captain repeated, and then the image on the screen
faded out.
"Bridge to engineering," Garth said. "I am ordering a complete and immediate warp shutdown."
"We canna do that, Captain," one of the officers in engineering called out over the intercom. "The engines
canna take it. We'll be at their mercy if we-"
"Those are my orders," Garth said. "Shut it down now."
"Captain-"
"Now!"
The Heisenberg dropped out of warp, and Kirk realized that they were suddenly behind the Romulan
vessel, which had come out of warp well ahead of Garth's ship. The Romulans would be confused now,
seeing the Federation starship disappear without any of the usual deceleration signatures on their scan.
But very soon the enemy would confirm that the Heisenberg was behind them, and the Romulan
commander would open fire.
Garth would not fire upon the Romulans first; Kirk was sure of that. He would honor the book and wait
until he was sure that his vessel was about to be attacked.
[4] On the bridge viewscreen, the Romulan starship appeared.
Kirk noted the readings on his console. "Captain," he said, "enemy screen is down."
"Fire!" Garth shouted, knowing that the Romulan commander was about to do the same.
Kirk and the helmsman opened fire.
The Klingon cruiser blossomed into flame-
-and Kirk awoke from his dream, with the fireball still in his brain...
He lay on his bed in the captain's quarters of the Enterprise, reflecting on the exactitude of his recurring
dream and the meaning of past events.
Some years earlier, Captain Garth, the legendary Starfleet officer, had taken his starship to Axanar to
stop an extremely bloody civil war between the two colonial settlements on that planet. At the heart of
the conflict, Garth had discovered the presence of a Romulan mission. The Romulans had seen an
opportunity to seize control of this star system near Tau Ceti, and thereby to encroach upon Federation
space; the arrival of their battle cruiser had promised victory to one side, which could then hope to rule
Axanar under Romulan patronage.
But inexplicably, Garth had ordered his starship to flee, and the Romulan vessel had given chase, its
commander clearly fearful that the Federation vessel would alert Starfleet. The Romulans could not have
understood or guessed at what Garth was up to, but could only hope to catch and destroy his vessel [5]
before it could send off a subspace alarm to the nearest starbase.
Kirk had studied the entire incident at Starfleet Academy. Garth of Izar had been the kind of officer
destined to become a famed and admired figure, one whose military exploits were required reading and
whose writings were part of the Academy's curriculum. After a ten-hour pursuit at top warp speed, with
the Klingon cruiser gaining on the Federation vessel, Garth had executed what later became famous as
the Cochrane deceleration maneuver. Under certain circumstances, although with a risk of some damage
to the engines, warp drive could be suddenly shut down. A starship being chased by an enemy vessel
would drop back and then abruptly appear behind her pursuers, prepared to fire upon an enemy baffled
by the sudden disappearance of its prey. That was another tricky part of this maneuver, firing before the
enemy ship could put up its shields. The decisive tactical advantage of reappearing without warning
behind the enemy was worth the risk of damage from the sudden shutdown of the drive.
That was all there had ever been to the so-called Battle of Axanar, Kirk thought as he came fully awake.
He often dreamed of Captain Garth's maneuver, and his dream was usually as accurate as the account
that he had studied at the Academy, except in a few particulars. The Klingon captain of the battle cruiser
could not have been Koloth, since he was not yet a captain at the time, and would live to challenge [6]
Kirk on the Enterprise on more than one occasion, most notably on Deep Space Station K-7. The first
officer on the Heisenberg's bridge would also not have been the stocky, dark-haired man Kirk saw in his
dream: Dr. Donald Cory, the governor of the asylum and penal colony on Elba II. And the
communications officer with Garth at Axanar, according to records, had not been a green-skinned Orion,
as was the woman in Kirk's dream; the officer he had dreamed of looked exactly like the ill-fated Marta,
one of the inmates Kirk had encountered during his mission to Elba II a couple of years ago.
He thought of that unfortunate woman for a moment; the serum he had brought to Elba II, that had
promised a cure for the few criminally insane inmates of the asylum, might have helped poor Marta
control and conquer her murderous impulses and heal her tormented mind..
He pushed his memories of Elba II aside.
Garth's deceleration maneuver, Kirk mused, had possessed great tactical beauty, concealing a
completely unexpected action. What a pity that, in all likelihood, it could only be done once. Now no one
in command of a starship-class vessel would be taken in by such a ruse, which amounted to nothing more
than being fooled into outpacing one's prey.
As he lay in bed, with some minutes left before he had to rise and prepare for return to duty, Kirk
wondered again whether there might be some situation in which Garth's inspired move might be made to
work [7] again, if only one more time, before that particular circumstance also became so well known
that it could never be repeated. It was a game that he played with himself, trying to summon a set of
conditions in which the Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver might still succeed. He had once dreamed that
he had found the answer, but could not remember what had seemed so clear in his dream.
As a consequence of Captain Garth's action, the warring colonies on Axanar had finally made peace;
without the Klingon presence to tip the balance of power in favor of one side, the two antagonists had
put aside their differences and signed perpetual accords. Kirk, although still a cadet, had shown enough
promise to be chosen as a member of the Federation's peacemaking delegation to the planet, for which
he had been honored with the Palm Leaf of the Axanar Peace Mission.
Kirk's time on Axanar had marked the beginning of his career as a Starfleet officer. It had also been the
last great accomplishment on record of the supremely gifted Garth. Whom the gods would destroy, they
first make mad; that was part of Garth's story, too.
As he got up and began to dress, Kirk thought of the legends that had later grown up around the Axanar
crisis. Garth's maneuver had been of short duration, but many tales stretched the pursuit of his starship
across the whole quadrant, while the resolution of Axanar's civil war was often described as a [8] major
Federation victory, with Garth leading the victorious Starfleet forces.
Had Garth known that his destruction of the Klingon vessel would also defuse the civil war on Axanar?
Historians liked to debate that one, but the man who might have answered the question directly was
beyond questioning-at least he had been up to now. Kirk suspected that Captain Garth, had he been
able, might have answered modestly by saying that he had not planned for any such result, had perhaps
only guessed at how the struggle on Axanar might end, and had simply hoped for the best. Things might
have turned out differently, with the two factions continuing their struggle even without a Klingon
presence.
Kirk let out his breath as he straightened the sleeves of his uniform. He might soon be able to ask any
questions he liked of the man he had so admired during his Academy days and had then come to fear
during their violent encounter in the asylum on Elba II.
Garth, according to a recent message from Admiral Jos‚ Mendez, was now in full recovery after his
nearly two-year course of treatment. Dr. Cory had released him from the asylum at Elba II; indeed, with
the success of the new serum and other innovative therapies, Cory was certain that the few remaining
inmates of Elba II would soon be capable of leading normal and constructive lives. The governor would
see the time when his asylum for criminally insane humanoids would at last be closed for good. Mendez
was certain that Kirk would welcome the news.
[9] Kirk was grateful for the message, but another question had immediately come to him: What kind of
life could there now be for Garth of Izar, who had already lived one life as one of Starfleet's most brilliant
officers and another as a murderous madman? Had his therapy healed him, or only made him into a man
for whom there was no place, who would have to live on the margins of a society that might forever
distrust him?
The new yeoman, Lesley Wodehouse, was waiting for Kirk when he came to the bridge of the
Enterprise. The young woman had been on duty for only fourteen days, but Kirk had already come to
appreciate her efficiency. Before he could ask for one, she had handed him a cup of coffee; by the time
he was seated at his station, she had asked Lieutenant Uhura to call up a subspace message from
Admiral Mendez, which had come in only a few moments ago.
"Admiral Jos‚ Mendez to Captain James T. Kirk," the voice said over the comm. "Just a message to let
you know that I'm forwarding a petition we received from Captain Garth of Izar to you." Kirk leaned
forward, struck by the coincidence of hearing about the man who had so recently been on his mind. "He's
fully recovered now, and has been meeting with me and with other officers at Starfleet headquarters. As
soon as you've looked over Captain Garth's petition, get back to me-I want to discuss it with you in
more detail. Mendez out."
[10] Garth's petition was marked confidential and attached to the message in text form. Kirk was about
to open the file when Yeoman Wodehouse murmured, "Garth of Izar-I remember reading about his
exploits. There doesn't seem to be much on the record about his later life, only the fact that he was
relieved from his command after a mission to Antos IV and sent to a medical facility for treatment."
"That is so," Commander Spock said from his computer station. "In fact, the captain and I had an
encounter with Captain Garth nearly two years ago, on Elba II."
"Elba II?" The redhaired yeoman frowned. "But isn't that-"
"-the asylum for the criminally insane," Kirk finished. "Garth of Izar was an inmate there at the time I was
ordered to Elba II with a new drug that promised a complete cure, when used with other treatments."
"Obviously the treatment was successful," Ensign Pavel Chekov said from his navigator's station, "since
he has been released."
"So that was where he was sent after being relieved from command?" Yeoman Wodehouse asked.
"I'd better start at the beginning," Kirk said. "A few years ago, Captain Garth and his starship crew were
sent on a mission to Antos IV. When he got there and beamed down to the surface, he was horribly
injured in an accident caused by a transporter malfunction. The Antosians were able to heal Garth, but
along with the cure, they taught him the [11] techniques of cellular metamorphosis. Garth left the surface
of Antos IV able to take on any shape he wished. He then ordered his crew to destroy the Antosians and
their world."
"But why?" the yeoman asked. "We've always assumed that the Antosians are one of the most peaceful
races in the galaxy."
"We do not know why Garth acted as he did," Spock replied, "but his officers refused to obey the order.
By the time they were able to gain control of their ship, Captain Garth had killed his first and second
officers. He called their actions mutiny, but given that his medical officer later claimed that Garth was
mentally ill and had to be removed from command, his officers were considered justified in their actions,
and the charge of mutiny was posthumously erased from their records."
"He was sent to Elba II," Kirk continued, "and it was expected that he would be confined there for the
rest of his life. Fortunately, a new serum was developed that promised to cure even the most seriously ill
and dangerous inmates. I was sent on a mission to deliver that drug to the medical staff. What I didn't
realize until Spock and I had beamed down to the asylum was that Garth had assumed the appearance of
Dr. Cory, the governor, and taken over the place. His objective was to force Spock and me to help him
gain command of the Enterprise."
"We were unarmed," Spock said, "and it was not possible for Lieutenant Commander Scott, who was
left in command of our ship, to beam us up, since he [12] could not penetrate the force field surrounding
the asylum without risking the lives of everyone inside the facility. Captain Garth attempted to bend us to
his will through threats, torture, and deception, and even tried to deceive me at one point by taking on the
shape of Captain Kirk. His impersonation was most convincing."
"But fortunately not convincing enough," Kirk cut in. "We were able to subdue Garth and restore control
of the asylum to Dr. Cory, and when we left, Garth was already beginning to recover thanks to the serum
we brought. He had no memory afterward of anything he'd done to us, and perhaps that was a mercy."
There was no need, Kirk thought, to go into all the details of the encounter, the unsuccessful attempts of
the beautiful Orion inmate Marta to seduce him into giving her the password that would enable Garth to
board the Enterprise, the tortures Garth had inflicted on his captives. Garth, perhaps enraged by Marta's
failure to get the information he wanted from Kirk, had finally had the poor woman dragged outside the
asylum's dome and left there, gasping for breath in the poisonous atmosphere, before killing her with a
powerful explosive he had managed to develop during his imprisonment. That the cruel Marta was herself
a serial murderer with several victims to her credit did not excuse Garth's actions; she had been as insane
and irrational as he.
"A madman and shape-changer in control of a [13] starship," Yeoman Wodehouse murmured. "It's a
good thing you and Mr. Spock were able to prevent that."
Kirk thought of the mystery of what had happened to Garth on Antos IV. Maybe Garth would finally be
able to answer questions about Antos IV and explain why he had tried to destroy the people there who
had saved his life.
Was it something about the techniques of cellular metamorphosis taught to him by the Antosians, so
necessary to mend Garth's broken body, that had driven him insane? What had been the nature of his
original mission to Antos IV? Coincidentally, the transporter accident had left him terribly broken but at
the same time in the hands of the race most able to help him. Why then, upon his return to his ship, had
Garth ordered the destruction of his benefactors' planet?
Donald Cory believed that the morphing abilities taught to Garth in order to save his life had unbalanced
his mind in subtle ways. Others thought that Garth might have become extremely suspicious of the
Antosians after he saw that they possessed the skill of cellular metamorphosis, because he viewed that
talent as too great a temptation to the pursuit of power. Garth's own behavior certainly demonstrated the
power of that temptation; fortunately, his officers and crew had refused to obey him. As he descended
into mental illness, his original fear of the Antosians went with him, blossoming into a lust for power and
glory divorced from all sanity.
Kirk had imagined it often, that scene on the [14] bridge of Garth's starship. Garth would have drawn his
phaser and dissolved his second-in-command, and then the second officer. The horror of the scene so
impressed Kirk that he regarded it almost as a personal memory. He saw himself in the place of one of
the officers on the bridge, watching a respected and legendary officer transformed into a madman and a
murderer, and knew how much courage it must have taken for them to stand against their commander.
"Lord Garth," the man had called himself while tormenting Kirk in the asylum, insisting on the title, his
mood fluctuating wildly between serenity, even gentleness, and violent mania. There had been little
chance of the insane "Lord Garth" escaping from his prison, but he and Spock might well have died
preventing it. The hero of Kirk's cadet days might have killed him on Elba II, but he would not have
escaped to command the Enterprise; there had been too many safeguards in place to defeat Garth's mad
ingenuity and genius, even if stopping him had cost more lives.
Still, the nightmarish possibility, however slight, had existed-that of a starship taken over by a crew of
criminally insane people and commanded by a rogue capable of taking the shape of anyone sent against
him, of disguising himself as anyone who might further his dream of conquest. As was the case with his
Cochrane deceleration maneuver, this might have been a ruse Garth could have used only once; like the
invisible man of H. G. Wells's classic tale, his power would have become useless once others found [15]
out about it. But many might have died in the meantime.
Kirk knew that he might have died at his hero's hands, and yet his original admiration for Captain Garth
had survived the troubling events on Elba II, and had only grown stronger with the possibility that the
great commander might recover. Garth had been insane, unable to control himself, not responsible for his
actions; Kirk had always tried to keep that in mind.
He recalled those last moments on Elba II, when Garth, after his first session of therapy with the new
serum and free of the memory of his violent aberrations, had looked at Kirk and asked, "Should I know
you, sir?" How Kirk had wanted to say "yes" to the hero of his youth, and he had almost said so, for no
reason other than that he had admired Garth, once hoping to emulate him, and might be able to help him.
And earlier in their encounter, when a raging Garth had heard that his works were still studied at Starfleet
Academy and had said, "As well they should be!" Kirk had heard in the man's proud voice something of
the heroic, logical mind whose spirit had been as strong as a sun.
By now, the Garth who had killed his officers, who had threatened a world with destruction, who had
tortured him and Spock and Cory and had killed the madwoman Marta, was no more. He had died
somewhere in the labyrinthine complexities of a powerful, maddened personality.
Chapter Two
"CAPTAIN GARTH'S PETITION," Kirk said, "seems straightforward enough to me." He leaned
forward and rested his arms on the desk. "He is requesting to be assigned to active starship command."
Kirk paused. "Is there a problem?"
Admiral Mendez's face on the small screen in Kirk's quarters showed an instant of surprise, and Kirk
knew what it meant. The admiral had not expected that response from him. He glanced across the desk
at Dr. Leonard McCoy; the chief medical officer lifted a brow, then looked back down at the screen.
Jos‚ Mendez would have expected to have the physician be part of this discussion, and had quickly
assented to McCoy's presence, but Kirk wanted McCoy in the conference room with him for his own
[17] reasons. McCoy had met Garth of Izar only after he was again under treatment and had been given
his first dose of serum, just before Kirk and his officers had left Elba II. The doctor would be able to
view Garth objectively, as a patient fully recovered from a serious illness; he had not known the madman.
"Captain Garth has followed all Starfleet regulations on rehab certification," Mendez said, "and there is no
reason, other than discretion, to deny him a command."
"Discretion?" Kirk asked. "You mean..."
"You know exactly what I mean-endless bureaucratic delay, so that he would never see such a
command. We could find plenty of reasons, all of them by the book. There are some in Starfleet
Command who have floated the idea of dragging out the process of approval in the hope that Garth might
give up after a while and decide to retire. I'm being frank with you, Jim."
"But he is qualified," Kirk said. "In every outward sense. Exceptionally so."
"I've read all the medical and psychiatric reports you sent us, Admiral," McCoy said, "and Captain Garth
gives every sign of being both physically and mentally sound. I've also looked at all of the studies about
the effects of that new serum on the patients in the Elba II asylum, and they're even more remarkable than
I expected. An Andorian and a Tellarite, both of whom were considered incurable for years, have been
leading stable and normal lives on their [18] homeworlds ever since their release, and another former
patient is now a professor of mathematics at one of Earth's finest universities."
"That isn't the same as being a star ship captain," Mendel said. "Look, we do have human suspicions and
instincts to deal with, even in Starfleet. A starship command is a lot to risk..."
"On yesterday's madman?" Kirk asked, almost as if he were speaking with Garth's own voice.
"We can't see into his mind, Jim. There are those who will never trust him with so much power, despite
the success of the new treatments and the low incidence of mental illness throughout the Federation.
There are people who would remain suspicious even if he compels us, by the rules, to give him an
assignment. Plus, there will always be personnel who won't be eager to follow him for fear of what
happened at Antos happening a second time."
"The man has a clean bill of health," McCoy said, "and his Starfleet record, apart from the period of his
mental illness, puts him right up there with the greatest commanders. If he pushes for an assignment, you'd
have to give him one eventually, by your own rules and regulations."
"I know, Doctor," Mendez said. "All our expert legal advisers say that we would have to violate our
charter to deny him a return to active duty, and would then be ordered to assign him to a post."
"There's always a desk assignment," Kirk said, even though he could not imagine Garth contentedly [19]
sitting in an obscure Starfleet office laboring at tedious administrative tasks. That, he thought, would also
be an utter waste of the captain's abilities.
Admiral Mendez shook his head. "I don't think so. You know how brilliant Garth is. He'd find some way
to fight and win this battle just as he always has before, and I'd be on his side. Personally, I hope that he
can return to us as one of our most valuable leaders, not as a desk jockey."
Kirk nodded; they were in agreement on that. Captain Garth, he was sure, could find a way to hold
Starfleet and the Federation to their own regulations on standards of health and fitness, and the right to
serve despite ancient superstitions about mental health.
"And I also don't want a prolonged series of hearings," Mendez went on, "with Garth pleading his case
and other officers looking for even more excuses to deny him a post. Whether he wins out in the end, or
just gives up and settles for an honorable discharge, there'd be so much bad feeling afterwards that
Starfleet morale would be seriously damaged."
"True," Kirk said. "The only way he can prove himself without a doubt is to return to service."
"And the sooner, the better," McCoy added. "Knowing that people are willing to give him a chance will
be especially important to his mental health now."
"We agree, then." Mendez was silent for a bit. "Good, because I'll need you for this. Garth has a
particular project in mind."
[20] "Oh?" Kirk sat back. "So it's not a simple return to service on a starship."
"No," Mendez said. "Garth is facing us with important unfinished business, with a proposal we can't
ignore. It's important by any measure one cares to bring to it-and he's the best man for the job." The
admiral smiled. "He's like you, Jim, most insistent when he's most right."
Kirk folded his arms. "And exactly what do you want of me?"
Mendez hunched forward in his chair. "This is going to sound devious, and I'll deny it officially if you ever
bring it up, but what I want you to do is keep an eye on him and step in at the slightest sign of a
problem."
"I thought he'd made a full recovery," McCoy said.
"By every measure we've applied, he has," Mendez said, "but occasionally even a seemingly
well-balanced officer can have a lapse in judgment."
Remembering his encounter with Captain Ronald Tracey and the Exeter on Omega IV-which began with
Kirk finding the entire crew of the Exeter dead and ended with a crazed Tracey's arrest-Kirk was forced
to silently agree.
Mendez continued, "We're going to grant his request for a return to active duty and also approve his
proposed mission. I'm convinced that he's fit, and nothing will go wrong, but if he runs into trouble, I have
to be able to say that I had it covered. I'll need you to back me up, and you and Commander Spock
[21] are the logical choice to be Garth's watchdogs. After all, you were able to handle him on Elba II."
Kirk was silent for a few moments. "Sir, what do you really think?" he asked at last.
"Exactly what I said. But we have to consider the possibility that Garth might appear to be unwell, or
unbalanced and irrational, when in fact he's perfectly sane. If his mission doesn't go well, or fails
completely, his actions could be misinterpreted, and the state of his mental health may have nothing to do
with it. If enough officers on the general staff disagree with his judgment, a case could probably be made
that Garth suffered a relapse."
"And that," McCoy said, "could open the door to removing him from duty permanently and forcing him to
resign. Maybe there are even enough medieval minds at headquarters to force him back to Elba II for
another stretch, just to be on the safe side."
"Are there that many doubts about Captain Garth?" Kirk asked.
"In certain circles, yes," Mendez replied. "With so little mental illness during the last century, and so much
success in treating it, we've grown too used to its absence. To have even the few cases we've had is like
the return of an ancient infectious disease. Instability of the kind we saw in Garth-insanity on that
scale-has shaken a lot of people in authority."
Kirk recalled a line from Hamlet, "Madness in great ones should not unwatched go," and wondered how
much invisible distress there might be in [22] ordinary people who never sought help, and therefore were
counted as being well. Again, his thoughts returned to Tracey and the crazed look in his eyes when Kirk
had confronted him on Omega IV.
"Well, what is Garth's proposed mission?" Kirk asked. "Why exactly is he the most suitable person to
carry it out?"
Mendez said, "I'm sure you already suspect what this mission involves."
Antos IV, Kirk thought, that had to be it. There had been almost no contact between the Antosians and
the Federation since Garth's sojourn on their world; that much he knew. In spite of the reputation of the
Antosians for being benevolent and peaceful, prudence had dictated avoiding Antos IV until more was
known about what its inhabitants might have done to inadvertently-or deliberately-provoke Garth's
instability.
"I'll be sending you the full description of Garth's proposed mission after we've discussed it," Mendez
continued, "along with transcripts of his debriefings after his discharge from Elba II. After that, I know
you'll want to consult with Commander Spock."
"Of course. So what is Garth's proposed mission?"
"His mission, which even those who worry about his reliability think is essential now, is to learn whether
or not the people of Antos IV might have any dangerous ambitions, given their shape-changing powers,
and whether they are ever likely to have ambitions beyond their own world that might threaten us."
[23] Kirk had already guessed that this might have become a serious concern. If he had considered the
possibility in the past, as he occasionally had, then so had other Starfleet officers and Federation officials.
However peaceful the Antosians seemed, their encounters with other Federation races had been too few
to give a complete picture.
"We have no evidence that the Antosians harbor such ambitions," he said, "at least not yet. Whether that
will always be so is another matter."
Mendez nodded. "They claim to have always been a peaceful race, but at one of our meetings, Garth
asked me whether we could afford not to keep a close watch on the Antosians for any signs of
aggression or instability." He grimaced. "I was about to say that we have the same problem with him, but
he beat me to it."
Kirk chuckled. "That must have been a moment."
"Yes, and Garth savored it. I assured him that he could tell me anything he liked in complete confidence,
but he didn't seem all that upset. He just laughed and said that if I had all those doubts about him, then so
would others, and he was prepared to face them. He emphasized that for others to trust him completely
and without question, given his recent history, would be completely irrational."
"Sounds like a sane man to me," McCoy muttered.
"In any case, he has us pinned by our own regulations and ideals, and also by our concern for the
Federation's welfare and security. So, in short, here's what we want you to do. You will deliver Garth to
[24] Antos IV, on a diplomatic mission, and stand by to bring him home. He'll have the official status of a
diplomat and representative of the Federation, but that won't fool him, since he already expects some
supervision."
Kirk was puzzled. "But then you're not giving him an actual command after all."
"We are, after a fashion." Mendez looked distinctly uneasy. "He will be in full command of this mission.
You will remain in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Enterprise, but for anything
mission-specific, his is the final word. I hope you understand-given his seniority, his experience as a fleet
captain, and his longer record of service, he does outrank you."
Kirk said nothing.
"It's only a technicality," Mendez went on. "Naturally, if he shows signs of instability or of misusing his
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