Star Trek 9 by James Blish

Author:James Blish [Blish, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction; American, Spock (Fictitious Character), Kirk; James T. (Fictitious character), McCoy; Leonard (Fictitious Character), Fiction, Science Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780553121117
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1973-06-15T07:52:50+00:00

OBSESSION

(Art Wallace)

The ore was peculiar-looking, a harsh purple-black. Kirk struck it with a rock; but apart from its responsive clanging sound, it showed no trace of the blow. As he tossed the rock aside, he said, “Fantastic! It must be twenty times as hard as steel even in its raw state!”

Spock, his tricorder focused on the ore, said, “To be exact, Captain, 21.4 times as hard as the finest manga-nese steel.”

Kirk opened his communicator. “Scotty? You can mark this vein of ore as confirmed. Inform Starfleet I recommend they dispatch a survey vessel to this planet immediately.” As he spoke, a puff of white vapor drifted up over the rock matrix of the ore—a whisp of vapor hidden from the Enterprise men both by the rock’s jutting and obscuring vegetation.

Scott said, “Acknowledged, Captain. They’ll send a vessel fast enough for this rich a find.”

Spock had pulled his phaser. “We won’t be able to break it. I’ll shoot off a sample.”

Kirk didn’t answer. He had stiffened abruptly, frowning, sniffing the air around him, his face strained like that of a man whose past had suddenly shouldered out his present. A shard of rock, grape-purple with the ore, had broken off; and the white vapor, as though guided by some protective intelligence, swiftly withdrew behind the big rock’s shelter. As Spock rose from retrieving the ore sample, Kirk spoke. “Notice it?” he said. “A sweetish odor—a smell like honey? I wonder. It was years ago on a different planet… a ‘thing’ with an odor like that.”

Some indefinable appeal in his voice moved Spock to say reassuringly, “This is the growing season in the hemisphere of this planet. There are doubtless many forms of pollen aromas around, Captain.”

But Kirk was not soothed. He didn’t seem to even have heard. Beckoning to the landing party’s security officer, he said, “Lieutenant Rizzo, take two men and make a swing around our perimeter. Scan for any gaseous di-kironium in the atmosphere.”

“Di-kironium,” Spock observed, “does not exist ex-cept in laboratory experiments.”

Kirk ignored the comment. “Set phasers on Disruptor-B. If you see any gaseous cloud, fire into it instantly. Make your sweep, Lieutenant.”

A beep beeped from the open communicator in his hand; and Scott’s voice said, “Ready to beam back aboard, sir?”

“Stand by, Scotty. We’re checking something out.”

“Sir, the U.S.S. Yorktown is expecting to rendezvous with us in less than eight hours. Doesn’t leave us much time.”

“Acknowledged. Continue standing by. Kirk out.”

Spock, scanning the ore sample, spoke, his voice flat with awe. “Purity about eighty-five percent, Captain. With enough of this, they’ll be building Starships with twice our warp capacity.”

But Kirk was sniffing the air again. “Gone,” he said. “It’s gone now. I could have been wrong. The last time I caught that odor was about twelve years ago.” He looked away to where the security officer and his men were quartering the area. Rizzo, standing near a small hillock, was bent over his tricorder. It had suddenly registered di-kironium on the air. Puzzling over it, he didn’t see the cloud of white vapor encroaching on them from behind the hillock.

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