TOS - Bantam 06 - The New Voyages 2 by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek [Star Trek]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-02T14:40:24.753000+00:00

Kang shrugged. Not until we had exhausted every possibility. When did you, Vulcan?

Belatedly, Spock said. He turned to Kirk. You mentioned a siren song. I should have recognized also the other Greek legend: the Procrustean Bed. He turned to Kang. Do Klingons have a Procrustes? He was a mythical Greek giant who stretched travelers to fit his bed -- or cut off their legs.

Greek? McCoy grumbled. He probably was a Klingon.

Why, thank you, Doctor, Kang said. We do not claim the distinction, but it seems a forthright solution.

Spock said, The machines here did not have to be for the Procrusteans' own use. Nor reversible. This was strictly a starship trap. Travelers could be chopped to fit -- as slaves, as pets, as amusement.

My God, McCoy swore.

Then the same thing happened to your crew, Kirk said. A trap.

Kang nodded. Our landing party and I were grabbed by automatic machines, then beamed to the ship. When the transporter started taking the crew, I brought the first landing party back in a shuttlecraft, but the turbulence broke it up as we landed. The machines didn't take us again, but they took everyone off the ship. You would have destroyed a ghost ship.

So, Kirk said, your whole story was a song and dance. You didn't want blackmail. You didn't even want war. But why didn't you just ask for peace?

Kang shrugged. Peace is not my way. You were more inventive in war. He gestured toward the shuttlecraft. You brought me a way back to my ship, he spread his hands. The story was the simple truth -- and my first thought here before I discovered the Procrustean Bed aspects.

You wanted to turn it loose on us, Kirk said, and you wound up hoist by your own petard.

Kirk caught himself. He could hardly expect the forthright Klingon to be scholar enough to know that metaphor.

But Kang smiled. It has never been quite clear to me what a petard is, but the mere phrase seems self-explanatory and exceedingly eloquent. He nodded, Yes, Miss Kirk, we are all hoist -- by a Procrustean Petard.

Kirk shook his head. Wrong, Kang. It is your petard, not ours. We haven't been doing any hoisting.

Kang looked rather grim. My petard, then, he growled. What of it?

Spock stepped in. Let us not discuss petards except for clarification. We require peace. I believe that our two ships might combine with a certain interaction effect we have discovered to break out of the force-field. Otherwise we will, in all probability, die here. We need to confer with your Science Officer --

That will be impossible, Kang said flatly, almost uneasily.

Spock raised an eyebrow. You have some objection to our seeing your wife, Mara?

Every objection, Kang said. First among them that you turned her into a peace-monger -- in the Klingon Empire. And -- she left me.

Spock inclined his head. She was a most exceptional woman. I should have liked to consult her. However, her replacement will do.

No, Kang said. Do not play with me, Vulcan. I am obliged to listen to you, talk to you.

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