Parallel Lines of Force - Part I

 

The following is an episode of the television program, Star Patrol, which originally aired at 9 pm on Friday February 16, 1968, on the National Broadcast System television network.


Introduction scene: The voice of Starfleet Captain Johnathan T. Kirk is heard narrating the following prologue announcement as the image of the USS Essex is seen rapidly transiting through deep space:


Kirk: Space: the final frontline. These are the voyages of the starship Essex. Its five-year mission: to secure the boundaries of the Interstellar Union of Planets against all hostile forces, foreign and domestic. And to boldly defend our way of life, our civilization, and to protect the rights of our citizens, wherever they may choose to live. (A trio of female voices perform a series of increasingly dramatic operatic notes over the tail end of Kirk’s speech as the Essex repeatedly flies across the screen.)


(The following cast credits are displayed as the USS Essex continually transits across the screen while exciting theme music swells in the background.)


STAR PATROL


Starring


William Shatner as Captain Johnathan T. Kirk

Leonid Nimoy as Lieutenant-Commander Spock

Jack Kelley as Doctor Leonard McCoy

Robert Stack as Chief Engineer Madelhari Siemens

Gracie Nichols as Lieutenant Nya Uhura

Bruce Lee as Chief of Security Lieutenant Andrew Lau


And tonight’s special guest stars-

Don Adams as Data

Orson Wells as Sybok

Roger Carmel as Harcourt Fenton Mudd

Erik Estrada as Second Security Officer

And Raquel Tejada as Caithlin Dar


(A still image depicting the upper bulge of the saucer section of the USS Essex is briefly displayed. One of the warp nacelles can be partially seen behind the saucer, and behind that a blue and white planet. The episode title “Parallel Lines of Force” is superimposed over top of the image of the Essex in bold letters. The title image disappears and is replaced with the opening scene.)


(The opening scene is a bird’s eye view of the bridge of the Essex as Kirk is seen purposefully striding from the turbolift onto the bridge. Kirk is in dress uniform while the other members of the bridge crew are wearing their normal service uniforms as they go about their routine tasks. Kirk’s voice narrates off camera as the actual onscreen Kirk briefly pauses to greet one or two crew members at their work stations.)


Kirk: Captain’s Log: Stardate 2534.6, the Essex has arrived at Angel One in the Alpha Gruis system in order to rendezvous with a scientific team comprised of top-ranking Union physicists. The Essex has been ordered to provide support to our guests as they set up and conduct a top-secret weapons test in remote deep-space. Additionally, we have been instructed to assist them in collecting all relevant scientific data once their test has been carried out. (Kirk sits down in his captain’s chair as his off-camera narration ends.)


(The camera perspective changes to a profile view of Kirk sitting in his chair, as Dr. McCoy walks into view from somewhere behind just off camera.)


(McCoy fixes Kirk with a wry all-knowing smile.)


McCoy: So, were you able to get anything for those medical devices I gave you to unload?


Kirk: I was able to pick up some ancient artifacts from Tagus III, Talos IV, and Oyya, which should fetch us a very hefty price once we get them back to Earth.


McCoy: Oyya, the planet of the Guardian of Tomorrow. Good work. These days every tech-industrialist from Los Angeles to Dusseldorf wants to have a genuine alien artifact on display in their office, and relics from Oyya always demand top prices.


Kirk: Come to my quarters later, I’ve got some very interesting items in my safe to show you.


McCoy: I’ll be sure to do that, but in the meanwhile, how did your little visit with the Mistresses of Angel One go? Will I have to prescribe a round of broad-spectrum antibiotics in order to keep you on an even keel?


Kirk: (Kirk responds in a mock gossipy tone.) Now, you know I’m not the type who likes to kiss and tell, Doctor. But since you ask…….it appears that I failed to spark the romantic interests of the fabled Mistresses of Angel One, but that….however,…..didn’t stop them from trying to drink me half to death, just for the pure fun of it .


McCoy: (McCoy gives a relieved smile.) I’ll call down to sickbay and have someone bring you up a hypo-spray which will restore your energy and alertness, and will also help to mitigate the effects of the oncoming hangover that is about to hit you.


Kirk: Thanks, Bones, you’re a lifesaver.


McCoy: Don’t mention it, that’s what I’m here for. Oh, and the next time you decide to challenge a group of overgrown Amazons to a drinking contest, be sure and have me set you up with some Alkysine, beforehand, that way you won’t end up coming back looking like something which the cat dragged in.


Kirk: Whatever you say, Doctor, I won’t argue with you when it comes to drinking with overgrown Amazons.


(McCoy gently slaps Kirk on the shoulder before walking out of the scene. Just then Lieutenant Uhura swivels in her chair to face towards Kirk.)


Uhura: Captain, the shuttlebay reports that the science team and their equipment are now safely aboard.


(The scene changes to an exterior view of the Essex as the shuttlebay doors slide closed around the nose end of a shuttle which is many times larger than a standard Starfleet shuttle. Clouds and oceans of the earth-like planet Angel One can be seen slowly rotating below the Essex. A thin artificial ring can be seen encircling Angel One at the equator. The ring is connected to the surface of the planet via a series of space towers located along the equator. The area around the ring appears to be congested with various types of space ships and other miscellaneous vehicles. The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex after the doors have finished closing.)


Kirk: Excellent! Welcome them aboard, and inform the head of the science team that I’d like to meet with them in the officer’s mess at 1900 hours in order to discuss things over a friendly dinner.


(Kirk swivels his chair slightly to face the navigator and helmsman directly in front of him.)


Kirk: Mr. Tyler, lay in a course for coordinates 007-mark-215. You may leave orbit as soon as Angel One Control clears our departure.


Tyler: Aye, Captain. (As Lieutenant Tyler leans forward and begins to input data into the control panel in front of him. The control panel responds to Tyler’s inputs by issuing a series of soft chirps and beeps each time one of Tyler’s fingers touches a key.) Coordinates set, estimated travel time to destination is approximately fourteen standard hours at warp factor six.


(Commander Spock moves to a position just to the right of the captain’s chair. Spock assumes a standing position similar to parade rest, as his eyes continually gaze about the bridge in a supervisory fashion.)


Spock: Forgive me, Captain, but have you had the opportunity to review Professor Sybok’s mission plan?


(Kirk slumps slightly in his chair before speaking.)


Kirk: Spock, my meeting with the Mistresses of Angel One occupied most of my day, and let me tell you, I’ve never seen anyone who can put away as much Romulan ale as those women can, so no, I really haven’t had the chance to go over Professor Sybok’s mission plan in any great detail.


Spock: I have thoroughly read through all of the materials submitted to Starfleet Command by Professor Sybok, including his team’s official mission plan, and there are several key aspects of his proposed experiment which I find to be…….somewhat disconcerting.


(Kirk takes a deep breath and exhales through his nose as though he is beginning to feel somewhat fatigued.)


Kirk: I admit that this assignment was given to us on short notice, and that we haven’t really been given very much to go on.…………...But on the other hand, Sybok’s an official member the Vulcan Science Academy, so don’t you think that we’re in good enough hands here?


(Spock speaks slowly and methodically as he continues to cast his gaze about the bridge.)


Spock: Professor Sybok’s team will be conducting an ultra-high energy test as part of an advanced, but somewhat controversial, Starfleet weapons program known as Project Nimbus.


Kirk: (Kirk raises an eyebrow as he looks at Spock.) We both watched the pre-recorded briefing on Project Nimbus, so wouldn’t you agree that our role has been pretty well spelled out for us?............All we have to do is ferry the science team out to the designated coordinates for the test site, use our ship’s warp engines to supply a little power to their test equipment, and voot-voot-voot the entire thing will be over within seventy-two hours….at the most…..You worry too much my old friend; you need to learn how to relax.


Spock: Captain, I must point out that certain critical factors regarding Professor Sybok’s weapon’s test, appear to have been left out of the official Starfleet briefing material.


Kirk: Are you concerned that Sybok’s little experiment will end up as a dud, without any worthwhile results for the Union? Because anything along those lines is clearly beyond our control.


Spock: Quite to the contrary, Captain. Even if Professor Sybok’s test is carried out precisely as outlined in his mission plan, his experiment, no matter what the end results may turn out to be, will unleash extremely powerful quantum forces on a scale which have not been seen since the era when the Iconian civilization ruled our galaxy.


Kirk: (Kirk responds somewhat slowly.) The Iconian civilization destroyed itself with its own super weapons over ten thousand years ago.


Spock: Indeed, Captain, and at the time of its fall, the Iconian civilization was far more advanced than we are now. Additionally, at present we have little understanding of how local space time, itself, will behave when bombarded with such an extreme concentration of ultra-high energy………….Professor Sybok and his team may literally be playing with the proverbial fire in this instance.


Kirk: My understanding is that the Chief of Starfleet Operations tends to view Professor Sybok as a leading figure in his field….So tell me, Spock, how is Sybok viewed by others within the Vulcan scientific community?


Spock: I do not know Professor Sybok personally, but my understanding is that he is often viewed as someone who is at times……. at least in Vulcan terms……a bit eccentric, and there have also been controversies regarding some of Professor Sybok’s previous work.


Kirk: Controversies, what sort of controversies?


Spock: There have been vague rumors alleging plagiarism, accusations of shoddy research methods, and claims that certain members of his team have been careless in preparing and planning certain key experiments.


Kirk: Yet in spite of all of this, Professor Sybok has somehow been able to maintain his position within the Vulcan Science Academy?


Spock: Over the years Professor Sybok has accumulated a number of noteworthy scientific breakthroughs in his name,……….having to do mainly with high energy physics, and intense gravitational phenomena. So, while many of Sybok’s immediate colleagues may view him as being…..somewhat unorthodox, if not outright duplicitous, an even larger circle within the Vulcan scientific community tends to see him as an extremely gifted and brilliant scientist.


(Just then a young female crewmember dressed in a Starfleet nurse’s uniform approaches Kirk on his left.)


Female Nurse: Dr. McCoy ordered a hypo-spray for you, Captain.


(Kirk barely acknowledges the nurse as he lifts up the left sleeve of his dress tunic to further expose his well-defined triceps. The nurse places the nozzle of the hypo-spray to the back of Kirk’s arm and pulls the trigger. A brief sound like escaping air is heard. The nurse leaves the scene with the hypo-spray in hand. Kirk seems to swoon for several seconds as the cocktail of drugs prescribed by Dr. McCoy takes effect.)


Kirk: I see. (Kirk sits upright, blinking his eyes, suddenly more alert to what Spock is saying to him.) Do you have any reason in particular to believe that the Essex will be placed in danger as a result of what Professor Sybok and his team are planning?


Spock: The Essex itself will be at some distance from the point where the most violent energy releases are likely to occur…..that should provide us with an adequate safety margin, providing that all hands are on station to deal with any emergencies which may arise………...However, even if the results of Project Nimbus turn out to be completely successful….the listed energy requirements of the scientific equipment to be used during the experiment will still place a considerable strain upon the resources of the Essex.


Kirk: And what steps would you like to see taken prior to the execution of Project Nimbus?


Spock: I believe that it would be wise for the two of us to sit down with our staff officers in order to brief them on some of the uncertainties surrounding Project Nimbus. We should do this prior to our friendly sit-down dinner with Sybok and his team, so that everyone on our side of the table will at least have a cursory knowledge of what is contained within Professor Sybok’s mission plan.


Kirk: Excellent idea, Mr. Spock. Uhura, please inform all department heads to report to the deck four briefing room in twenty minutes. (Kirk stands up from his command chair) Come on Spock, let’s spend a few minutes looking over Professor Sybok’s plans before everyone else arrives.


(The scene changes to an interior shot of the shuttlebay. The camera perspective is from a location near the shuttlebay main-doors, facing inwards towards the control-room window overlooking the main hanger deck.)


(Two very massive shuttles are parked nose to tail on the main hanger deck, with the nose of the first facing outwards towards the closed shuttlebay doors. The enormous shuttles somewhat resemble standard Starfleet shuttles, except that they are many times larger.)


(The camera follows a young red shirted yeoman as he enters the scene. The crewman who is hardly more than an adolescent can be seen carrying a thin electronic device under his arm which somewhat resembles a clipboard in size and shape.)


(The crewman happily skips up a short flight of stairs and places his palm on a reader next to the shuttle’s entry hatch. The door instantly slides open to reveal a large and rather intimidating Vulcan male dressed in white robes standing in the doorway. The crewman is visibly surprised at the sight of the Vulcan blocking his entrance into the shuttle.)


Sybok: Yes, what is it? I’m a very busy man, and I do not abide having my work interrupted by unnecessary petty interruptions! (Sybok glowers downwards at the crewman who is much shorter than him.)


Yeomen Charlie Evans: I apologize for the trouble, Sir,….b..but I’m here to conduct a routine inspection of your shuttle craft…...as per standard Starfleet operating procedures.


Sybok: The scientific equipment aboard these two shuttles have been calibrated down to the most minute quantum level, and that data collection device you’re holding could throw off enough electro-magnetic interference to destroy months of my valuable work. I simply won’t have anyone coming aboard my shuttles in order to check for safety hazards which do not exist. Do I make myself clear?


Yeomen Charlie Evans: If you won’t allow me to inspect the interior of your shuttles, then I’m sorry, but you leave me no choice, and I’ll have to report this matter to the captain. (Still stammering, but now with perhaps a bit of courage creeping into his voice.)


Sybok: Fine, you do that. If you’re captain wishes to speak with me, he knows where to find me. Now, run along, I’ve got some very important business to attend to. (Sybok makes a shooing motion with his hand as though he is trying to drive away an annoying insect.)


(Yeoman Evans backs down the stairs as Sybok watches him leave. A few moments later an attractive Romulan female emerges from somewhere within the shuttle to stand next to Sybok in the doorway.)


Dar: Who was that, and what did he want?


Sybok: Nothing to worry about, my Dear, just some mindless bumpkin making a nuisance of himself, that’s all.


Dar: Will he come back? Do you think that I should power it down just to be sure?


Sybok: If my calculations are correct, the illustrious Captain Kirk should be in the throes of a mighty hangover right about now, and I doubt that he’ll be in the mood to listen to any prattle coming from one of his lowly worker insects. I think that we are safe for now.


(The scene changes to the briefing room on deck four. Spock is seen standing beside a large display screen which is integrated into the wall behind him. Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Chief Engineer Madelhari Siemens, Chief of Security Lieutenant Andrew Lau, Lieutenant Nya Uhura, and Helmsman Lieutenant Jose Tyler are all sitting around a conference table and looking on as Spock explains an animation that is unfolding on the screen next to him.)


(Although the briefing room has no windows, a gently curving wall braced by several sculptured columns seems to imply that the briefing room is located somewhere near the outer hull of the saucer section. The walls are of a light beige color, the sculptured beams along the outside wall are of a bluish white color, while the floor covering is of a dark blue color. The top of the somewhat triangular shaped conference table is of a light salmon cream color.)


Spock: The following is a brief overview of Project Nimbus, as outlined in Professor Sybok’s mission plan. Temporary energy taps will be placed onto our warp-engines here, and here, (as Spock points to two locations on the video screen.) Temporary power conduits will then connect the power taps on our warp engines to subspace emitters to be positioned here, and here, on the aft-deck outside the shuttlebay main doors.


(Spock momentarily pauses the screen to give others a chance to study the animated images on the screen behind him. Everyone, including Kirk looks on in amazement at the modifications which are to be done to the ship.)


(The onscreen animation depicts twin black flexible tubes, approximately thirty centimeters in diameter, running from connection points deep inside the Jefferies tubes of both warp nacelle pylons.)


(The animation picks up again with a cutaway view of the Essex, but then transitions into a computer-generated animation depicting a simulated walk through of the modifications to be made to the ship.)


(From there, the large diameter tubes are seen snaking along the empty corridors of deck thirty-three, continuing on through several sliding doorways which have been locked open, and out across the main deck of the shuttlebay. The two conduits then pass through the wide-open main doors of the shuttlebay, and terminate at two large parabolic dishes located just outside the shuttlebay main-doors.)


Spock: From this point, the power collected from our warp engines will be funneled through subspace to a pair of extremely powerful energy transformers which will be located approximately twenty light minutes from one another in deep space…..


(Spock pauses to give the animation on the screen a chance to catch up with his words. One of the energy transformer units is shown on the screen. The unit resembles a squat drum with a box mated to one of its flat ends. A parabolic dish can be seen extending from below the box section of the unit. A mechanism which somewhat resembles a gun-barrel protrudes from the other flat end of the drum opposite the box. Spock pauses the screen again so that everyone can get a good look at the machine being displayed.)


Spock: Additionally, each one of Sybok’s two energy transformers will require approximately one hundred million gigawatts of energy from the warp-engines of the Essex.


Siemens: My God, two hundred million gigawatts is more energy than is used throughout the entire Martian Colonies!


Spock: Indeed, Commander Siemens, it is.


Kirk: What does Sybok intend to do with so much power out here in deep space? Is Project Nimbus some sort of high energy particle beam? If so, the Klingon Collective could simply circumvent such a weapon by building more powerful shielding. It doesn’t make any sense.


Spock: Negative Captain……..The energy fed into Sybok’s transformers will be used to power a pair of advanced particle accelerators. The particle accelerators will in turn each generate an extremely powerful short burst rotating electromagnetic field, on the order of ten to the power of twelve Gauss. Generating such a powerful field on an inhabited planet would be an extremely unwise endeavor, and would most likely result in an instantaneous planet wide extinction level event.


Tyler: Ten to the power of twelve Gauss! Wow! That is nearly as strong as those giant magnetars we’ve observed out in the Magellanic Clouds.


Spock: Not quite, Lieutenant, but still, the electromagnetic field generated by Professor Sybok’s equipment will still be unprecedentedly powerful.


McCoy: Well, what good is an electromagnetic field which is almost as powerful as one of those giant magnetars? If our ship’s shielding collapses, we’ll all be cooked, or at the very least our genetic code will be scrambled beyond all recognition. Just how does Professor Sybok propose to harness such vast energies without getting us all killed in the process?


Spock: I’ll be getting to that just now, Doctor.


(Spock turns towards the monitor, presses the play button on the remote he is holding in his hand, and then he resumes speaking.)


Spock: Once the particle accelerators have built up a powerful enough charge, they will each fire a proton towards one another at a distance of four hundred million kilometers. When the protons leave their respective accelerators, they will be each traveling at precisely 299,792,458 meters per second. (Spock pauses to let the incredible speed of the protons sink in. The Starfleet officers sitting around the table seem stunned by the information as they murmur to one another.)


Tyler: 299,792,458 meters per second, that’s “C” that’s the absolute speed of light!


McCoy: Now hold on a minute, I thought that no particle containing mass could travel faster than the speed of light? Now particle physics may be a bit outside my area of expertise, but even I know that a proton is not a massless particle. So, what’s going on here?


Spock: You are correct, Doctor, no object containing mass can travel faster than the speed of light……..However, there is nothing which states that an object with mass cannot travel at precisely the speed of light.


Siemens: According to everything I’ve ever read, accelerating a particle with mass to the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy, and we simply don’t have an infinite supply of energy at our disposal, so how is any of this even possible?


Spock: Ordinarily I would agree with you, Commander Siemens, but it appears that Professor Sybok and his team have made a recent breakthrough in this area. What the nature of that breakthrough is I cannot say, due to the fact that much of the information surrounding Project Nimbus is not included in the official briefing material which has been supplied to us.


Kirk: Spock, what is supposed to happen after the two protons are fired towards one another, and how can Sybok and his team expect two subatomic particles traveling hundreds of millions of kilometers across open space to hit one another?


Spock: The programing used in Professor Sybok’s targeting computers is so sophisticated that it actually takes into consideration the minute curvature of space-time itself.….There is little doubt that the impact will, in fact, occur. I am, however, somewhat uncertain as to what may immediately follow such a powerful collision.


Tyler: But, scientists on Earth have been smashing protons into one another at 99.99 percent the speed of light for centuries, how will that one tenth of one percent make any difference?


Spock: A proton accelerated to 99.99 percent the speed of light will experience an increase in mass three million times greater than its rest mass. However, according to Professor Mudd’s calculations, which I have not yet had the time to verify on my own, a proton traveling at one hundred percent the speed of light should experience an increase in mass of at least ten to the one hundredth power.


Kirk: Spock, ten to the one hundredth power? What are we talking about here? (Kirk rubs his chin absently.)


Spock: At the time of impact, each proton will be carrying mass roughly equivalent to that of the planet Earth itself.


Tyler: A collision involving twenty-six billion trillion tons of mass, and at twice the speed of light!


Spock: Precisely, Lieutenant, and such an event will be unprecedented in the annals of modern science.


Kirk: Spock, what does Sybok anticipate will happen when the two supermassive protons collide with one another?


Spock: Unclear, Captain. The remainder of Professor Sybok’s mission plan is protected with the highest level of Starfleet encryption, and it would be illegal for me to attempt to decipher it. (The animation on the screen stops playing as soon as the two protons reach each other in space, and the screen is filled with the words WARNING RESTRICTED ACCESS.)


McCoy: Well, I for one don’t like the sound of this one bit. (As McCoy stubbornly folds his arms and frowns towards the camera.)


Spock: I must concur with the Doctor’s opinion regarding this matter, and it appears that certain pieces of critical information are being withheld from us for unknown reasons. (Spock then uses the remote in his hand to turn off the animation which has already stopped playing. The Starfleet logo replaces the warning message on the screen.)


Siemens: I for one don’t care for the manner in which Professor Sybok is proposing to connect his subspace emitters into our warp engines. The man wants to run makeshift connections from the plasma conduits in our nacelles out to the exterior of the shuttlebay. This type of shoddiness is simply a recipe for a disaster.


Uhura: And what about subspace communications? Will we still be able to send a distress message to Starfleet once Professor Sybok has pumped all of that energy into nearby space?


Kirk: Alright everybody, I think that we are getting just a little bit ahead of ourselves. Let’s see if we can’t get to the bottom of this.


(Kirk raises his chin slightly as if he is about to speak to an unseen entity floating somewhere in the air.)


Kirk: Computer!


Computer: Computer. (The main computer of the Essex has a woman’s voice with a pronounced mechanical cadence to it. Various soft tones and beeps can be heard in the background whenever the computer is speaking.)


Kirk: Test the following scenario and provide analysis. Two protons are fired directly at one another in deep-space from a distance of four hundred million kilometers. Both protons will be traveling at one hundred percent the speed of light when they collide with one another. What will be the outcome?


Computer: Insufficient data.


Kirk: Hypothesize and report!


(A sound similar to electronic relays opening and closing is heard as the ship’s computer ponders Kirk’s question. A few seconds later the computer resumes speaking.)


Computer: Assuming that neither proton loses any velocity during their transit towards one another, and assuming that the rotations of both protons are synchronized via quantum entanglement, then there is a ninety-eight point seven eight percent chance that the collision between the two protons will result in a short lived rapidly rotating naked singularity with powerful jets of gamma radiation emanating from the north and south poles of the singularity. Additionally, there is a zero-point nine seven percent chance that the collision will result in the creation of a short-lived low mass Planck star. There is a zero-point one four percent chance that the collision will result in the creation of a rapidly expanding pocket univ….


Kirk: Computer! End report.


(The computer immediately falls silent.)


Kirk: Spock, what is your theory based upon this latest piece of information?


Spock: It would appear that Professor Sybok is endeavoring to create his own miniature quasar, and to use the powerful jets of gamma radiation streaming out from its poles as a weapon of mass destruction.


Kirk: What would be the implications of such a weapon to the Union?


(Spock tilts his head and raises an eyebrow as he seems to ponder the possible magnitude of such a weapon.)


Spock: Such a weapon would put the Interstellar Union back on an even footing with the Klingon Collective, and could force them back to the bargaining table, and to force them to negotiate with us in an earnest and sincere manner.


(Kirk speaks in a calculating tone as he thinks aloud to himself)


Kirk: Yes…...when we defeated the Romulans…..back in 2160...we were able to persuade them into becoming members of the Interstellar Union of Planets….following that……the Union enjoyed an extraordinary period of unchallenged expansion throughout this quadrant of the galaxy………Everyone learned to respect the Union, and everything it stood for….but then…...just more recently, the Klingons adopted their collectivist system…….and they began to make unprecedented leaps in weapons technology……...Project Nimbus might give us the upper hand …..and to once and for all put the Klingons in their place, where they belong…...


(The camera lights reflect off of Kirk’s polished jackboots as he folds his legs.)


Siemens: But the Computer said that the rotating singularity would produce two plumes of radiation traveling in opposite directions from one another. How can both jets be aimed towards the Klingons at the same time?


Spock: At this time, we don’t have the answer to that question, but it may be possible that Professor Sybok intends to contain the jet of radiation discharging from the pole opposite the enemy, and to redirect it using a magnetic field. We simply don’t have all the facts at this time.


Tyler: How can we be certain that the Essex won’t be hit by one of the gamma ray jets created by Sybok’s naked singularity?


Spock: The Essex will be located several light minutes away from the collision point between the two protons. A line of sacrificial probes will be positioned at a halfway point a few hundred thousand kilometers away from the Essex. The sacrificial probes will alert us to any danger, should one of the gamma ray jets end up being pointed in our direction. However, at this point, it is not completely clear whether or not the colliding protons will be able to produce a naked singularity, or even a pair of gamma-ray jets…..Apparently, the underlying purpose of Project Nimbus is to find out if such a result is feasibly possible.


Kirk: Siemens, will the Essex be able to outrun the leading edge of a gamma ray jet with Sybok’s equipment tapped into our engines?


Siemens: Aye, we should have no trouble out running a pack of stray sub-atomic particles, but with our warp engines also powering Sybok’s particle accelerators, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to give you much more than warp factor one should a real emergency arise.


(Just then a chime sound announces that someone is requesting to enter the conference room. Kirk looks towards the sliding double door and announces…)


Kirk: Enter!


(The sliding doors rapidly open and in walks Yeomen Charlie Evans. Evans assumes the position of attention approximately three paces inside the room, but appears to hesitate before speaking. Evans is still carrying his clipboard device under his arm as he stands at attention.)


Kirk: What is it Yeomen, can’t you see that we are very busy here?


Yeomen Charlie Evans: Sir…I..I was just down in the shuttlebay to conduct a routine inspection of the Science Team’s shuttle-craft, but Professor Sybok refused to grant me access to their interiors.


Kirk: Oh, he did, did he? (Kirk suddenly sits more upright in his chair.)


Yeomen Charlie Evans: Yes, he did, Captain, I tried to explain to him that Starfleet regulations require that I inspect his shuttles for any hazardous materials, but he said that he had some very sensitive equipment aboard, and that my inspection might throw off his calibrations.


Kirk: Well, we’ll just see about that. You did the correct thing in bringing this to my attention, now you’re dismissed, Yeomen.


Yeomen Charlie Evans: Thank you, Sir.


(Yeomen Charlie Evans does an about-face and smartly exits the room.)


Kirk: Spock, McCoy, and Siemens, I want you to accompany me down to the shuttlebay to get to the bottom of this. Lieutenant Lau, I want you to round up two of your best men and meet me down there as well. The rest of you may return to your regular duties.


(Chief of Security Andrew Lau abruptly stands up from his chair and bows towards Kirk.)


Lau: Aye Captain!


(Kirk and Lau exit the conference room at roughly the same time as others quickly follow behind. Chief of Engineering Meinhardt Siemens turns to Dr. McCoy who is still sitting next to him and says….


Siemens: I wouldn’t want to be in Professor Sybok’s shoes right now.


(Dr. McCoy gives a wry expression to indicate that he agrees with Siemens that Professor Sybok is probably about to receive an ear full from Captain Kirk.)


McCoy: Nor would I. Come on, we’d better get to the turbolift before they decide to leave without us. (McCoy gestures his head towards the others who are leaving the room.)


(The scene returns to an interior shot of the shuttlebay, with the camera perspective from a location taken near the shuttlebay main doors looking inward. Captain Kirk and Chief of Security Lieutenant Andrew Lau are sternly walking shoulder to shoulder, followed a few steps behind by two burly red shirted security men, and with the rest of the Essex’s senior officers following a few steps behind the security officers.)


Kirk: Alright, which one is he in? (As Kirk looks back and forth between the two outsized shuttles.)


Andrew Lau: According to the log, he should be in the Phelsh’t, which is the first one coming up. (As Lau points towards the shuttle parked furthest from the main shuttlebay doors.)


(The scene changes to an interior shot within the shuttle Phelsh’t. The lighting within the shuttle is rather dark with an eerie black and white monochromatic quality to it.)


(Professor Caithlin Dar is sitting in front of a computer screen as Professor Sybok comes up behind her to look over her shoulder. An unidentified person dressed in a Vulcan utility suit walks through the scene behind them.)


Dar: It looks like we have unexpected company.


(The camera perspective switches to a view from over Dar’s shoulder revealing Captain Kirk’s fuming face on the screen in front of Dar. Kirk can be seen as he angrily palms the access reader on the outside of the shuttle over and over. Kirk’s voice emanates from a tinny speaker as he repeatedly palms the access reader.)


Kirk: (From over the speaker on Dar’s desk) What the devil is the meaning of this? Who are you to turn away one of my crewmembers on official Starfleet business? I demand that you open this door immediately!


Sybok: Oh, what the devil! (As Sybok straightens from his stooped position over Dar’s shoulder and slowly ambles away.)


(The scene changes back to an exterior shot of the shuttle. Kirk is standing just outside the shuttle hatch as the two muscle bound security men stand rigidly shoulder to shoulder at the bottom of the short stairway behind him. The rest of the Essex officers can be seen milling about in the nearby area talking to one another. Suddenly Sybok’s voice issues forth from a hidden speaker somewhere near the hatch area.)


Sybok: Captain Kirk, what a pleasant surprise. I thought that our dinner meeting wasn’t for another forty-five minutes or so.


Kirk: Never mind that damned you! You open this door immediately so that my crew can inspect whatever it is that you’re carrying in there.


Sybok: As I tried to explain to your yeoman, I have a special waiver signed by Admiral Pike himself, granting me permission to transfer my scientific equipment aboard your vessel, free from any examination or inspection on the part of you or your crew. I’m sorry, Captain, but these orders are spelled out clearly, and I will not be opening my shuttles for your inspection.


Kirk: Right now, I don’t give a damned about any supposed waiver you may have from Admiral Pike!…...My first responsibility is to the safety of this ship and her crew. Furthermore, we both know that this mission is under strict radio silence, and that it will be impossible for me to verify any signed pieces of paper which you may have to show me……..Therefore in my opinion, your supposed waiver is not only invalid, it is also most likely a violation of Starfleet regulations as well………..Now you open this door this very instant, or I will dump you and your shuttle craft out here in the middle of deep space, and after that, you can spend the next few days crawling back to Angel One at warp factor one. The choice is yours.


Sybok: You wouldn’t dare!


Kirk: Alright, we’ll try it a different way. Either open up, or I’ll have someone from Engineering bring up a phaser-torch, which will cut right through the hulls of your two vessels like a tin can. Now what will it be?


(Just then Spock ascends the short stairway and appears on the small platform next to Kirk.)


Spock: (In a hushed tone) Captain, if I may?


(Kirk gives an affirmative nod and steps back slightly)


Spock: Sybok, your behavior regarding this matter is most illogical. Starfleet Regulation 63 Section H stipulates that all none Starfleet shuttles taken aboard a Union Starship must undergo precursory inspection to ensure that they are not carrying materials which may interfere with the starship’s warp drive. Your shuttles here are registered to the Vulcan Science Academy, and therefore they must be inspected…………...If you refuse to comply, I will be forced to report this matter to both the High Council, and the Vulcan Science Academy.


(The scene changes to Sybok standing inside a darkened corridor as he watches Spock and Kirk on a small view screen mounted on the wall.)


Sybok: That damnable half-breed! (Sybok mutters under his breath)


(The scene changes back to Kirk and Spock outside the shuttle.)


Kirk: Come on, we’ve played this game long enough. (Speaking to Spock)


(The two security men waiting at the bottom of the stairs step aside as Kirk and Spock descend the short metal staircase.)


Kirk: Siemens, get a couple of your men up here with a phaser torch to open this thing up.


(Siemens proceeds to an intercom panel and begins speaking to an unseen person. Siemens is too far away for his voice to be heard. Spock assumes his customary position next to Kirk’s right elbow.)


Spock: Captain, do you intend to take Professor Sybok and his people into custody?


Kirk: I will if I have too.


Spock: If that is the case, may I recommend that we break radio silence by sending an encrypted sub-space message to Starfleet Command alerting them to this latest development?


Kirk: Why should I break radio silence? I’ll toss Sybok in the brig for a few hours, he’ll learn who is really in charge, and then after that, he’ll learn to play along nicely.


Spock: Arresting Sybok and his crew will essentially mean that Project Nimbus has been canceled, at least for the short term. Therefore, even if the Klingon Collective has somehow managed to break our highest-level encryption, it will make very little difference, as we will, by then, no longer have a top-secret mission to protect.


(Just as Kirk is about to reply, the shuttle hatch abruptly opens to reveal a humanoid male standing in the doorway. The individual in the doorway somewhat resembles an average Terran male, with the exception that his skin has a decidedly silver metallic pallor to it.)


(The strange being appears to display an expression upon his face which seems both oddly blank and highly intelligent at the same time. Additionally, the strange being is dressed in an unfamiliar yellow and black jumpsuit style uniform sporting a gold badge which is similar to the badges worn by the crew of the Essex, but somehow the visitor’s badge is subtly different.)


(The officers of the Essex seem to be extremely stunned at the sight of the strange being who has just emerged from the shuttle Phelsh't. )


Data: Captain Kirk, I can assure you that contacting Starfleet Command will be completely unnecessary, as I am the reason why Professor Sybok attempted to prevent your crew from entering his shuttle craft. (Ominous music plays as the camera zooms in on Data’s face.)


(The scene changes to Data standing at the bottom of the ladder, as Kirk suspiciously circles Data, like a predator, checking him out from all sides. The two security men have their phases pointed at Data from a safe distance. The other officers of the Essex observe what is happening from a few meters away. Ominous music plays as the scene opens.)


Kirk: Alright, just who and what are you, and what in the devil are you doing aboard my ship?


Data: My name is Lieutenant Commander Data Soong, of Starfleet, United Federation of Planets, Service Number: SC-001-63A. (Data’s eyes warily move side to side as he watches Kirk circling him.)


Kirk: Starfleet? That’s no Starfleet uniform you’re wearing, and you don’t seem to resemble any of the known intelligent species found within Union space. (Kirk pauses as if contemplating his next words.)


Data: I am not from your Interstellar Union of Planets; I am from an alternate timeline in which the United Federation of Planets occupies roughly the same quadrant of the galaxy as your Union does in this timeline. Additionally, I am from what would be on your calendar, the year 2363.


Kirk: (Kirk Scoffs) United Federation of Planets? At this point I’m leaning more towards the possibility that you maybe an agent from the Klingon Collective sent here to spy upon our mission. so why don’t you make things easy upon yourself by starting with the truth?


Data: Captain Kirk, If I were to provide you with any additional information beyond what I have already provided to you, then I would be in violation of the Prime Directive.


Kirk: The Prime Directive? Is that so?


Data: Yes, Captain Kirk, I’m afraid that it is so.


Kirk: Bones! (Kirk stops pacing and stands directly in front of Data.) What does your medical tricorder say about what we are dealing with here?


(Dr. McCoy hurriedly takes up a position next to Kirk and begins to pass a handheld device in the air in front of Data’s chest. McCoy then briefly studies a small display screen on his device before responding…)


McCoy: Why, I’m not getting any life signs at all from him, Johnathan. I have no idea what the devil he is, or where he may have come from. (McCoy looks at Data with a mixture of surprise and grave concern.)


Kirk: Alright.


(Kirk gives McCoy a curt nod. McCoy backs away while keeping a wary eye on Data.)


Kirk: Well then, Lieutenant Commander Data, I’ve tried to give you a fair chance, but now your complete lack of candor and evasiveness has left me with no other alternatives. Computer!


Computer: Computer.


Kirk: Analyze the being standing before me using the most aggressive levels of inspection possible, and report!


(A pattern of rotating green laser beams emits from some unseen device near the ceiling, and envelops Data. Data instantly throws his head and arms back as if he has been impaled by an unseen attacker. Data’s feet are lifted several inches off the floor as he slowly rotates during the examination being conducted by the Ship’s Computer.)


(The air is filled with the sound of electronic relays as the examination proceeds. After several seconds Data’s feet are returned to the floor as the green laser beams are withdrawn. Data’s sags like a puppet with loose strings before then regaining himself. Data appears momentarily stunned, but essentially undamaged from the examination.)


Computer: The being who addresses itself as Lieutenant Commander Data Soong is an advanced android of unknown origin, and unknown make, although many of its systems do seem to bear striking similarities to Union technology, only much more refined. Lieutenant Commander Data utilizes a highly advanced positronic brain as its main data-processor, and thus possesses memory and intelligence that is far superior to most known biological life forms. Lieutenant Commander Data is powered by a series of reaction power cell units which provide him with strength and endurance far superior to most known biological lifeforms. Additionally, Lieutenant Commander Data is a fully self-aware machine, and thus his existence maybe in violation of Interstellar Union Regulation Section 807, Paragraphs 13 through 17, which explicitly forbid the manufacturing, ownership, or transportation of self-aware thinking machines anywhere within Union space.


(Just then Spock moves into position at Kirk’s side as the Ship’s Computer is reciting its report. In the background two crewmen from Engineering can be seen entering the shuttlebay with the plasma-torch which was earlier ordered by Chief Engineer Siemens.)


Spock: Fascinating! (Spock seems completely enthralled by Data’s presence, while Kirk seems to remain somewhat impassive.)


Computer: Would you like to order the immediate termination of the self-aware android known as, Lieutenant Commander Data?


Kirk: Delay that order (to the computer). There is no sense in acting rashly until we know more (to everyone else in ear shot). Perhaps he may be of some use to us.


Kirk: Computer, are you able to access Lieutenant Commander Data’s programming?


(There is a brief pause as the sound of relays fills the air. Data appears to wear a look of slight discomfort upon his face as the Ship’s Computer attempts to access his consciousness.)


Computer: Negative. Lieutenant Commander Data’s positronic brain utilizes a volatile holographic processing and data storage method that is not understood at this time. However, further analysis may yield results.


Kirk: Does the subject known as Lieutenant Commander Data appear to be carrying any type of hidden or concealed weaponry?


Computer: Negative. Lieutenant Commander Data is not carrying any type of known weaponry in, or on his person.


Kirk: Alright, end report, and file for later retrieval by ship’s senior officer staff only. (A prolonged chirp sound issue from an unseen location as the Ship’s Computer carries out the order.)


Kirk: And as for you, do you have anything else to add before I decide your fate?


Data: I….


(Data is interrupted by Professor Sybok who has just appeared in the still open hatch of the shuttle Phelsh't. A heavy set Terran male dressed in civilian clothes simultaneously exits the other shuttle, known as the Mount Seleya, and hurries in clumsy fat man strides over to meet with Sybok as he approaches Kirk and Data.)


(Sybok is carrying a handheld data reader in one hand, while his colleague carries a load of papers under his arm. Everyone within the immediate area turns to look at the two men who have just emerged from their respective shuttle-craft, and are now making their way towards where Kirk and Data are standing.)


Sybok: Captain Kirk, there is no need for any of this, I can explain everything!


(Kirk moves a few steps to a location near the bottom of the stairs in order to meet Sybok and his companion.)


Kirk: I take it that you must be the illustrious Professor Sybok?



Sybok: I am, and this is my colleague, Professor Harcourt Fenton Mudd, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Advanced Weapons Department.


Mudd: My friends just call me Harry.


(Kirk turns his attention to Mudd for just a second, but then immediately returns to Sybok.)


Kirk: Sybok, just what the devil were you thinking by bringing an illegal self-aware machine along on a top-secret mission?


Sybok: Professor Mudd here has a copy of the signed waiver from Admiral Pike, which I told you about earlier, he also has an unredacted copy of our mission plan, as well as a detailed report regarding our most recent experiment conducted just three standard months ago.


Mudd: Captain Kirk, I’d be delighted to sit down, and to go over each one of these official Starfleet documents, with you, point by point, if you so wish.


Kirk: I don’t have time for that right now, give all of your paperwork to my First Officer, he’ll be happy to discuss it with you, if he feels it is necessary to do so.


(Kirk gestures towards Spock who is now engaged in an unheard conversation with Data a short distance away. Mudd quickly walks away with his armload of papers and joins Spock and Data in their conversation.)


(Kirk turns his attention back to Sybok.)


Kirk: You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you deliberately bring an illegal thinking machine aboard my ship, and then try to hide it from me?


Sybok: Captain Kirk, sir, Lieutenant Commander Data isn’t even from our reality……..he is here through no fault of his own. In fact, his presence here is the unintended consequences of one of my own earlier experiments which went awry and inadvertently opened up a temporal doorway into his universe.


Kirk: At this point you’re not doing a very good job of winning me over.


Sybok: Data has provided my team with invaluable assistance, and without his aid, it is doubtful that we will be able to create the naked singularity weapon, which Starfleet so badly needs right now!


Kirk: Alright, now you have my attention but, what does your pet android hope to gain from all of this?


Sybok: He only requests our assistance in returning him home to his own timeline...……...Captain, have you considered how critical it is that we do not unwittingly push Data into seeking assistance from a hostile alien species? A hostile alien species who might be willing to promise him whatever he asks for in exchange for his technological prowess?


Kirk: Yes, now that you mention it the thought does occur to me, and right now it seems that the safest way to prevent that from happening is to simply order his immediate termination.


Sybok: Lieutenant Commander Data is a self-aware sentient being, you cannot simply order his termination and continue to call yourself a civilized person. Killing Commander Data, without just cause, would be tantamount to cold blooded murder.


Kirk: Without just cause? Where was the just cause in the year 2156 when a cadre of those things rose up and killed nearly every single human colonist on Alpha Eridani II? Even today, more than a century later, it still isn’t safe for anyone to land there.


Sybok: Do two wrongs make a right, Captain? Would you punish every Terran alive today for the atrocities which occurred during Earth’s Third Great War of your 21st century?


Kirk: Alright, I’ll allow it for now, but he is off my ship the moment your little experiment is completed. I don’t care how he gets home; he can go jump into the nearest Planck star for all I care. And I’m sending a full report to Starfleet Command once this is all over.


Sybok: Thank you, Captain, you won’t regret this.


Kirk: We shall see about that……...In the meanwhile, you and your team are confined to the immediate vicinity surrounding your two shuttle-craft until we arrive at the designated test site tomorrow morning. I’ll have someone bring you any needed supplies. Oh, and our little dinner date is canceled. Do you have any questions?


Sybok: No.


Kirk: Good.


(Kirk turns his attention towards Siemens who is conferring with the two crewmen from Engineering who are continuing to examine the bulky phaser torch which they delivered to the Shuttlebay a few moments earlier.)


Kirk: Siemens, I want a level four containment field setup around these two shuttles as soon as possible.


Siemens: Aye, Captain. It will take some doing, but I’ll see to it myself.


Kirk: Lieutenant Lau!


Lau: Yes, Captain?


Kirk: Get some extra men up here, on the double, and go through both of these ships with a fine-tooth comb. If anyone gets in your way, you may arrest them using whatever force you deem necessary. Also, no one may enter or leaves this hangar-deck without your direct approval, until further notice. Is that clear?


Lau: Yes, Captain. Crystal clear.


Kirk: Now if anyone needs me, I’ll be in my quarters.


(Kirk begins to walk towards the turbolift, and has he passes the two crewmen still hunched over the complicated looking phaser-torch he exchanges a few brief words with them.)


Kirk: And if that thing (as Kirk points in the general direction of Data) so much as looks at anyone sideways, I want you to use that phaser-torch to cut him in half.


Generic Red Shirted Crewmen: Aye, Captain (enthusiastically)


(The camera follows Kirk as he passes through the sliding double doors of the turbolift. The doors close behind Kirk, and the camera angle then shifts to a perspective view from inside the turbolift.)


Kirk: Deck ten!


(The turbolift appears to begin to move, but then a soft alarm sound Is heard as the turbolift holds in place. Suddenly the sliding doors open, and Spock enters carrying the documents he has received from Professor Mudd.)


Spock: Captain, may I have a word with you in private?


Kirk: Spock, I’m not prepared to go through all of that right now. (Kirk places his finger tips to his temples, as though he is suffering from a pounding headache.) Why don’t you just give me a quick rundown of what you’ve got?


Spock: Perhaps it would be best if we were to sit down in order to go over things in greater detail.


Kirk: Great, we can sit down together in my quarters over some food. Deck Ten!


(Once again, the turbolift begins to move, but then immediately grinds to a halt as the same soft alarm sound occurs once again. The doors open and this time Dr. McCoy enters the turbolift.)


McCoy: Well, if you two are going to hold a secret meeting regarding the safety and wellbeing of everyone aboard this ship, then I want in on it too.


Kirk: (Kirk responds in a resigned tone of voice.) Deck Ten! (This time the turbolift proceeds without interruption.)


(The scene returns to the interior of the shuttlebay. One of the security officers who earlier escorted Lieutenant Lau into the shuttlebay is now standing directly in front of Data, as he menaces Data with a glowering stare.)


(The security officer is a Terran male who is at least a head taller than Data. Data responds to the security officer’s intimidating looks with a warm smile.)


Security Officer: Don’t try anything cute with me, Tiny, or I’ll toss you out the nearest airlock.


(Data replies in an even friendly matter of fact tone of voice.)


Data: My name isn’t Tiny, and I can withstand the cold vacuum of interstellar space quite comfortably for many thousands of years.


(The security officer appraises Data with an uncertain sideways look and a low growl, but does not say anything further. Data returns the security officer’s wary glare with a tilt of the head, a genial smile, and several seemingly awkward rapid eye blinks.)


(The scene changes to an interior shot of Captain Kirk’s private quarters. Kirk’s quarters are divided into two or three midsized rooms by partition walls. A Polynesian figurine can be seen on a shelf behind Kirk as he eats a plate of noodles.)


(Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are situated around a table located in the largest part of Kirk’s quarters. Kirk has changed into his regular service uniform, and wears a bib about his neck as he sits at the table across from McCoy.)


(McCoy is intently studying an image displayed on a computer terminal in front of him. The image appears to resemble an outline of a human form filled with an incomprehensible arrangement of electro-mechanical devices. Presumably the schematic is of Lieutenant Commander Data, and was created by the Ship’s Computer during its scan of the android a short while ago.)


(Spock has his arms folded as he sits at a right angle to Kirk and McCoy. The table space in front of Spock is occupied by two medium sized stacks of paper.


McCoy: Well, I’m just a simple country doctor, and I didn’t get much in the way of android physiology during my time at Starfleet Medical Academy, but it seems pretty obvious to me that this thing could have simply ripped all of our heads off anytime it wanted to, and we would have been hard pressed to stop it……...I mean, my God, will you just take a look at all of these micro actuators it’s got buried in its insides? This stuff is literally light years ahead of the actuators used in our best medical prosthetics. No one in the Union is making this type of stuff, I can tell you that right now.


Kirk: (Kirk pauses before inserting a fork into his mouth.) Or maybe it is just waiting for a more opportune moment to strike. If history has taught us anything, it is that these things simply cannot be trusted. They’re intelligent yes, but by all accounts, fully autonomous androids lack any sense of morality, or empathy towards others, and that is why it is so easy for them to suddenly become killers without exhibiting any warning signs.


Spock: Captain, I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with your statement. At present, most cyberneticists today are of the opinion that the egregious bloodthirsty behavior exhibited by the androids of Alpha Eridani II was almost certainly the result of bad programming, and not necessarily the fault of the androids themselves.


McCoy: It’s true, there have been numerous papers written on the subject over the years.


Kirk: I don’t care. Alpha Eridani II was supposed to be a model for all future colonies, but instead it turned into a killing-field….and there is no doubt as to who did the killing. We should never trust those things, they’re simply too dangerous.


Spock: However, it must also be pointed out that there is currently no evidence to indicate that Lieutenant Commander Data, himself, suffers from any such programming disorder, nor is there any evidence to suggest that he bears any sort of kinship to any of the earlier models of androids which were manufactured here in the Interstellar Union. As the Good Doctor has already pointed out, the advanced components found within Lieutenant Commander Data could not have been created using our existing technology.


Kirk: Alright, maybe you’re right about this so called, Lieutenant Commander Data, but I still want that thing held under close confinement until we know more about him.


Spock: Captain, if Lieutenant Commander Data wished to stage an attack, then the most logical time for him to do so would have been during the immediate hours after Professor Sybok and his team first encountered him, near the Deneb star system…………….Commander Data could have easily killed or incapacitated everyone on Sybok’s team, commandeered one of their shuttles, and then he could have warped to another part of the galaxy at his own leisure. Yet, he did not do so……...


(The camera moves into a close up shot of Kirk’s face as Kirk slowly chews in food in contemplation of what Spock is saying. Kirk’s eyes move left and right as if he is visualizing what Spock is telling him.)


Spock: Commander Data is a highly intelligent being, and by now he must surely realize that our ship’s computer will never allow him to take control of the Essex.


Kirk: Alright, we will table the issue of the android’s fate for the time being. However, he remains in confinement in the shuttlebay until further notice. Spock, what else have you learned from studying Mudd’s records?


(Just then a chime sounds indicating that there is an incoming message for Kirk on the ship’s intercom system. Kirk stands up and removes the paper napkin from around his neck. Kirk quickly moves around to the other side of the table near McCoy, and while hunching over McCoy’s shoulder Kirk presses a tab located near the base of the console.).


(The image of Lieutenant Andrew Lau appears on the screen.)


Kirk: Kirk here!


Lau: (On the tabletop console.) Captain, we’ve finished searching both of Sybok’s shuttles, and apart from the android, both vessels are clean.


Kirk: Excellent. Keep me advised of any changes. Kirk out.


(Kirk releases the tab on the console, and the image of Lieutenant Lung is instantly replaced with the previous image of Data’s innards. Kirk stands upright from his position hunched over McCoy’s shoulder and begins to slowly pace the room.)


Kirk: Spock, what have you got there? (As he points a finger at the paperwork in front of Spock.)


Spock: Not much that will shed light on the nature of Lieutenant Commander Data, I’m afraid. However, it should be noted that Admiral Pike did in fact sign an order blocking any inspection of Sybok’s shuttles.


(Kirk takes the single page document from Spock’s hand and briefly examines it before placing it back on the table in a somewhat disgruntled manner.)


Spock: Sybok is a Vulcan, so I find it highly unlikely that he would attempt to deceive us by fabricating an official Starfleet order.


McCoy: So, the point is that if we hadn’t searched Sybok’s shuttles, then most likely we would have never known about the existence of the android?


Spock: Precisely, Doctor. Next, however, we then must contemplate whether Admiral Pike was aware of Commander Data’s existence when he issued the order.


Kirk: And we won’t know the answer to that little question until we are able to break radio silence. Spock, what about Professor Mudd’s report on their last experiment outside the Deneb star system? Surely there must be some useful information in that?


Spock: Professor Mudd’s report states that an unanticipated temporal anomaly in the space time continuum occurred as a result of several miscalculations made in preparing for their experiment at the Deneb system. The anomaly reportedly lasted only for several seconds, but before it dissipated, a disabled alien space craft of unknown origin emerged through the rift, with a seemingly lifeless being aboard…... According to Mudd’s account of the incident, the alien being soon regenerated itself once it was brought aboard the shuttle Mount Seleya, and was able to communicate with members of the science team using standard English.


McCoy: (McCoy comments absently as he intently studies something on the screen in front of him.) So, the alien creature encountered by Sybok and his team must have been Commander Data?


Spock: Undoubtedly so, Doctor.


Kirk: Is there more?


Spock: Several days later the derelict alien craft appeared to self-destruct shortly before the USS Colombia was scheduled to rendezvous with the science team, therefore it could not be taken under tractor-beam to the nearest star base for examination.


Kirk: So, this time around Sybok would like to have a Constitution class heavy cruiser hanging around, just in case something a bit more menacing than a derelict alien space craft might emerge from one of his anomalies.


Spock: You may be right, Captain. However, at the same time we must also be alert to the possibility that the Klingons may attempt to stage cloaked surveillance ships near the test area in the hopes of gathering intelligence. We cannot allow the presence of Commander Data to occupy so much of our attention, that we become blinded to other threats which may exist.


Kirk: Agreed, but I’d still feel much better about all of this, if I knew for certain that Starfleet Command were aware that Sybok is currently hauling a potentially dangerous self-aware thinking machine around with him.


Spock: Since all scientific experiments conducted in deep space are reviewed by the Chief of Starfleet Projects, I think that it is suffice to say that, if Admiral Pike was not aware of the existence of Commander Data, then most likely his superiors are aware.


McCoy: Well, if the two of you won’t be needing me anymore, I’d like to head back to sickbay in order to finish running a few reports before I turn in.


Kirk: Alright, Bones, good night.


Spock: Good night, Doctor.


McCoy: Good night. (McCoy departs the room as if he has just remembered something important.)


Kirk: This unanticipated presence of a thinking android aboard the Essex presents a whole slew of unanswered questions. Spock, I’d like to know more about this so-called United Federation of Planets the android mentioned, and in particular I’d like to know if they are a threat to us.


Spock: What are you suggesting?


Kirk: Our ship’s computer wasn’t able to access Data’s thoughts, but perhaps you can by using a Vulcan mind-meld?


Spock: It may theoretically be possible, but to the best of my knowledge a mind meld with a machine has never before been attempted.


Kirk: But Sybok said that Data is a sentient being, with thoughts and ideas of his own, and if that is the case, then a mind meld with Data should be no different than a meld with any other being…..Am I right?


Spock: I will attempt to establish a mind meld with Lieutenant Commander Data, if that is what you so wish.


Kirk: It is exactly what I wish. None of us are safe until we know exactly what that thing is thinking. I want you to go down to the shuttlebay, this very instant, and to use whatever force or coercion you feel is necessary to gain access to Lieutenant Commander Data’s thoughts. Do I make myself clear?


Spock: Unquestionably clear, Captain.


Kirk: Good, report back to me here, as soon as you are finished.


(Spock gets up from his chair at the table and leaves the room without saying a word.)


(The scene returns to the shuttlebay as the camera follows Spock from behind as he exits the turbo lift and briskly walks out onto the main hangar deck.)


(Two security personnel of Terrasian ancestry, their scalps cleanly shaved, bow their heads and way as Spock approaches them. Spock does not return their bow, but instead speaks in a harsh and commanding tone of voice.)


Spock: I must speak with Lieutenant Commander Data, immediately!


(One of the security men quickly flies up the steps leading to the first shuttle, and within less than twenty seconds Data is standing directly in front of Spock, as a cadet might stand in front of a drill sergeant.)


Data: Commander Spock, how may I be of assistance?


Spock: I take it that you are familiar with the technique known as the Vulcan mind-meld?


Data: Indeed, I am, Commander, although I have never had the opportunity to observe a Vulcan mind-meld first hand, I have, however, read about it quite extensively. In fact, T'plana-Hath, the Great Matron of Vulcan philosophy once said that the mind-meld is the cement which binds our history and our tradition…


Spock: (Spock speaks with extreme firmness bordering on anger.) Enough!.....


(Data immediately stops in mid syllable, hesitates, and then closes his mouth uncertainly. The two security officers can be seen curiously observing from a distance.)


Spock: (Spock takes a step closer to Data.) It has been determined that your inner most thoughts must be revealed to us, and the most efficient way for that to occur is for the two of us to merge our minds together, here, and now.


Data: But why?


Spock: The simplest explanation is that this is a matter of national security.


Data: I am clearly not a threat to you, or your Interstellar Union of Planets. In fact, I am certain that Professor Sybok will vouch for my character if you were to ask him to do so.


Spock: I am not interested in speaking with Professor Sybok regarding this matter, and your diversionary tactics are only causing me to grow impatient.


(A look of genuine fear seems to creep into Data’s face.)


Spock: Although our ship’s computer cannot match your intellect, by now you must assuredly realize that it possesses more than enough brute force to incapacitate you……..should I order it to do so…..(Spock takes a step closer)…..Therefore, you will either submit to a mind-meld with me, or I will order our computer to bombard your neural-net pathways with enough targeted electromagnetic static to leave you paralyzed for several hours, if not longer. The choice is yours.


Data: I do not wish to submit to a mind-meld with you, and forcing me to do so would be a violation of my rights as a sentient being.


Spock: (Spock moves his face in even closer.) This is not the United Federation of Planets, and it behooves you to comply. Resistance is futile!


(Data begins to hyperventilate as Spock places his finger tips on the side of Data’s face.)


Spock: My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts….


Data: No! No! (At the same time as Spock is reciting his invocation.)


(Data lets out a series of blood curdling shrieks and appears to experience a convulsion as Spock looks into his eyes. In the background, the two security officers can be seen coolly looking on.)


(The scene returns to the interior of Kirk’s quarters. The camera perspective is looking down upon Kirk as he sleeps upon a padded couch. Kirk’s face is covered by a hardcover book as he breathes heavily. The gold letters on the cover of the green and black cover reads: Admiralty and Space Law. Volume IV – Edition XXV.)


(A chime sounds indicating that there is an incoming message for Kirk on the intercom system. The chime sound repeats several times before Kirk stirs on his couch. Kirk removes the book from his face and places it on the couch as he sits upright. Kirk proceeds to the table, and presses a key on the video console. McCoy’s face appears on the screen. McCoy wears a bug-eyed expression as he stares out at Kirk from the screen.)


Kirk: (Kirk’s voice comes out as a harsh croak.) Kirk here.


McCoy: You’d better get down here, Johnathan.


Kirk: Why, what is it, Bones?


McCoy: It would be simpler if you just came down here, and I showed you myself.


Kirk: Alright, I’m on my way. Kirk out!


(The scene changes to Kirk sprinting along several curved corridors of the saucer section at a very respectable clip. Kirk enters the turbolift and tells the lift to bring him to deck five. Kirk is seen running along a straight section of corridor before he abruptly turns and enters an automatic sliding door. Kirk stops just inside the doorway, and places his hands upon his knees as though he has just finished running a marathon.)


Kirk: (Kirk speaks between ragged breaths.) Bones!


(McCoy quickly appears and grabs a hold of Kirk’s arm in order to support him.)


McCoy: Come on, this way.


(McCoy guides Kirk to another area of the sickbay where an unconscious Spock is seen lying on a medical bed. A device mounted above the head of the bed seems to display critical medical information, as a repeating base note, implying the sound of a heartbeat, is heard in the background. Kirk quickly looks Spock up and down as if searching for signs of injury.)


Kirk: What happened?


McCoy: I wasn’t here when he came in, but Nurse Moreau said that he stumbled in about fifteen minutes ago. She said that he was mumbling incoherently, and when she tried to get his vitals, he passed out and she could not revive him.


Kirk: What is his medical condition?


(McCoy glances at the information displayed on the medical monitoring device above Spock’s head.)


McCoy: Right now, I’d describe his condition as serious. His vital signs are stable, but both his beta and theta waves are way off the scale. It is almost as if there are two or three nocturnal dreams occurring within his mind at the same time, or maybe as if he is simply trying to assimilate too much new information at once. I just don’t know….(McCoy lets out a perplexed huff.) Frankly, I’m worried about long term neurological damage if he goes on like this much longer.


Kirk: My God, what have I done? (Kirk turns around to sit on the edge of the medical bed.) I may have just killed one of my best friends.


McCoy: (McCoy wears a grave expression as he looks upon Kirk.) Perhaps you need to tell me exactly what happened?


Kirk: Wait a minute, Nurse Moreau mentioned that Spock was mumbling something when he first came in. (Kirk gives McCoy an intense look as he speaks in a soft conspiratorial tone.) Did he say anything about Sybok’s android? Bones, it’s important that I know.


McCoy: (McCoy casts his gaze to another part of the sickbay and makes a polite come here gesture with his index and middle finger as he calls out…) Nurse Moreau, could you please come over here for just a minute?


(Within a few seconds a somewhat short, strikingly pretty woman with dark hair and olive colored skin comes to stand on the side of the medical bed opposite from Kirk and McCoy.)


McCoy: You mentioned that Commander Spock was mumbling something when he first came in, do you have any idea what he was saying?


(The camera closes in for a frontal head and neck shot of Nurse Moreau. The camera does an excellent job of highlighting each one of her long lashes, as well as her fashionable 1960s hair and makeup.)


Nurse Moreau: He kept repeating something over and over again, but it wasn’t very clear, and I’m not exactly sure what he was saying.


(The camera returns to a wide angle shot depicting McCoy and Kirk on one side of Spock’s medical bed, and Nurse Moreau on the other.)


Kirk: (Kirk leans across the bed in order to grasp both of Moreau’s shoulder, as he speaks to her in a pleading tone.) What did he say? You had to have heard him!


McCoy: It’s okay Johnathan. (McCoy places a gentle hand on Kirk’s forearm. Kirk seems to relax a bit.) Now, maybe the words coming out of Commander Spock’s mouth weren’t making much sense, but try and tell us what you heard anyway.


(The camera closes in for another close up of Nurse Moreau. Her pretty face momentarily scrunches up as though she is doing a hard math problem. Moreau’s face smooths again as she begins to speak.)


Nurse Moreau: Well, I’m not sure, but it sounded like he was saying, - The needs of the one…must outweigh the needs of the few. Also, he kept repeating it over and over, but I have no idea what he was talking about.


(The camera returns to a wide angle shot of the sickbay.)


McCoy: Did he say anything else, anything at all?


Nurse Moreau: No, Doctor, he didn’t say anything else, I’m certain of it.


McCoy: Alright, Nurse, why don’t you spend the rest of your shift cataloging the anti-radiation medications we received in our storeroom. Hopefully we won’t need them tomorrow, but I want to be prepared anyway.


Nurse Moreau: Alright, Doctor.


(The camera briefly follows Moreau as she struts to another part of the sickbay. The camera returns to an above the waste shot of Kirk and Spock standing beside the bed. Spock can be seen lying motionless in front of them.)


Kirk: The needs of the one must outweigh the needs of the few? What the devil is that supposed to mean?


McCoy: You’ve got me, but if you have any information regarding how he ended up like this, I’d sure like to hear about it.


Kirk: Bones! (Kirk turns to directly face McCoy.) I ordered him to perform a Vulcan mind-meld on Sybok’s android……….in order to see what they may really be up to, and now look at him!


McCoy: (McCoy lets out a long breath, and then looks again upon the display unit above the head of the bed.) Well, he doesn’t seem to be getting better on his own, does he? I have a book on the Vulcan mental disciplines in my office. Let me go get it, I’ll be right back.


(McCoy walks out of the scene in the same general direction in which Nurse Moreau departed. Kirk returns to sitting on the edge of Spock’s bed. Kirk looks extremely distraught, but then after a few moments, a weak croaking whisper is heard in the background.)


Spock: The needs of the one must outweigh the needs of the few.


(Kirk immediately stands up and leans over Spock and gazes into his face.)


Kirk: Spock, can you hear me?


Spock: (Spock’s voice gains strength as he announces…) The needs of the one must outweigh the needs of the few.


Kirk: Spock, what does it mean? What are you trying to tell me?


Spock: (Spock’s voice is not quite his own when he speaks, as if his personality is now different. The sound representing a heartbeat gradually picks up in tempo as well.) Johnathan! I have some important information which I must share with you. (Spock’s hand reaches out and weakly seizes Kirk’s wrist.)


Kirk: Yes, Spock, I’m here...


Spock: Although the android known as Lieutenant Commander Data possesses a vast intellect, he is essentially a small child, and I committed a grave crime against him. I invaded his mind against his will, and now I am a monster! (Spock momentarily turns his face away, as if in shame.)


Kirk: But how were we to know, Spock? We had to be certain about the android, and the only way to be certain was through the use of a Vulcan mind-meld!


Spock: a hundred thousand terabits of machine data flooded into my consciousness the moment our two minds touched.


Kirk: Will you be able to assimilate the information into your own consciousness; will you be alright?


Spock: Unknown….Something else in addition to the machine data flooded across during the mind-meld as well, something that is much more overwhelming.


Kirk: What is it, Spock, tell me, what is hurting you?


Spock: Emotions! (Spock lets out a sobbing wail as he arches his back towards the ceiling.) Such overwhelmingly powerful emotions! Lieutenant Commander Data has the emotions of a child, and at the moment I forced him into a mind meld with me, he was terrified beyond all reason or measure. His raw fear was transferred to me, where it remains to this moment!


(McCoy walks back into the scene carrying a large book in one hand.)


McCoy: You know, I thought I’d misplaced this, but here it is. (McCoy notices that Spock’s eyes are open, and places the book on a nearby empty medical bed.) He’s awake!


Kirk: Yes, Doctor, he started speaking just a few moments ago, but he’s not back all the way.


(McCoy produces a small light from his pocket and it shines into Spock’s pupils.)


McCoy: Ah, his response isn’t too good. Spock, how do you feel?


Spock: The needs of the one must outweigh the needs of the few.


McCoy: Spock, what are you trying to tell us?


Spock: We must send Lieutenant Commander Data back to his own universe at all costs. He is in our universe because of our carelessness and because of our mistakes. He is a pure being of goodness, yet we committed a vile act of savagery upon his innocence.


(Kirk and McCoy exchange deeply concerned looks with one another.)


Spock: The needs of the one must outweigh the needs of the few.


(McCoy glances at the medical display above Spock’s head.)


McCoy: My God, he’s burning up, I’m going to have to put him into a medically induced coma until I can figure out how to treat him.


(Kirk gives an affirmative head nod of the head to indicate that he approves of Spock being put into a coma.)


Kirk: But as soon as you’re done with that, we’re both going to have to have word with that android to see what he knows about this.


(The scene changes to the deck four briefing room. The camera is zoomed in for a head and neck shot of Data as he is sitting at the conference table speaking to someone located behind the camera’s field of view.)


Data: (Data speaks in an earnest tone of voice.) I have never experienced amnesia before, so I am uncertain how to adequately describe the sensation of memory loss associated with it.


(Dr. McCoy who is sitting across the table from Data, between Kirk and Lieutenant Andrew Lau, speaks in a fatherly reassuring tone.)


McCoy: Well please give it your best shot, Data, we are extremely interested to hear about your recent memory loss.


Data: I can clearly recall being summoned from the science shuttle, by one of your security officers, but my next memory is of my system rebooting as I found myself laying on the main-deck of your shuttlebay. What occurred between those two points, I simply cannot say.


McCoy: What is the exact amount of time missing from your memory banks?


Data: (Data’s eyes scan left and right as if he is accessing internal information.) Approximately four minutes and fifteen point seven seconds.


McCoy: And would you say that the experience was roughly equivalent to being powered down or perhaps even being placed into a resting mode?


Data: Negative, Doctor McCoy, for even when I am powered down, so to speak, there are still time stamps placed on certain internal system functions which are continually being logged into my memory banks. In this case, however,………..it is almost as if my system were hacked into by an outsider, and the missing portion of my memory were somehow forcibly removed against my will. I am completely at a loss to explain it.


McCoy: Data, Lieutenant Lau will now escort you back to your shuttle, and when you get there, I’d like you to run a full diagnostic on yourself, and to report any anomalies to me as soon as possible. Can you do that?


Data: Certainly, Doctor. Although you are not my superior officer, I’m happy to comply with your requests. (Data stands from his chair in preparation of being escorted back to the shuttlebay.)


Kirk: Uh, Commander Data, before you leave, I would like to express my sincerest regrets regarding my earlier behavior, and I would like you to know that this is not the way that first contacts with a new alien species typically goes.


Data: (Still standing) It is alright, Captain Kirk, I bare no ill will against you, or any members of your crew. In fact, I believe that certain Starfleet officers from my own timeline would have behaved exactly the same as you did, if they were placed in similar circumstances.


Kirk: Nevertheless, following the conclusion of Project Nimbus, I intend to bring you to the nearest star base, with recommendations to Starfleet Command that we do everything within our power to return you to your own reality. The same as we’d do for any other sentient being.


Data: Thank you, Captain Kirk, and if I do in fact make it back to my own timeline, I will be sure to report your kindness and generosity to my own commanding officers.


(Lieutenant Andrew Lau stands from his chair and moves to the sliding double doors. The doors open as he draws near. Lau momentarily pauses at the door and smiles as he looks towards Data.)


Lau: Lieutenant Commander Data, may I escort you back to your shuttle?


(Lau and Data leave the briefing room as the door slides closed behind them.)


McCoy: Well, that little devil certainly knows how to wield sarcasm, doesn’t he?


Kirk: Yes, he’s a bright one, I’ll give you that, but right now I’m wondering if he has totally forgotten his mind-meld experience with Commander Spock, or if he is simply lying for his own purposes.


McCoy: (McCoy absently stares at the door Data and Lau just departed through as he speaks.) I can certainly agree with you there, if Spock passes away, the two of us could be looking at conspiracy charges.


Kirk: Don’t worry. Lau has taken care of the two guards that were on duty in the shuttlebay. He was our only other loose-end, and just now we got him to admit that he doesn’t recall anything about what happened.


McCoy: Actually, our other loose end is Commander Spock.


Kirk: What about Spock, how long can he survive in a coma like that?


McCoy: (McCoy fidgets in his seat before answering.) Damned it, Johnathan, I’m a doctor, not a Vulcan fortune teller. I can’t peer into his green-blooded soul to see what’s bothering him, any more than the next person can.


Kirk: But you must have some idea of what the future holds for him? He is half human after all, you just said so yourself.


McCoy: (McCoy pauses to think before he begins to speak.) Why, he can probably survive for an indefinite period of time in his present state, maybe even for several decades if not longer. However, there is very little information in the Starfleet medical database concerning possible side effects stemming from the Vulcan mind meld. So, at this point, my only option is to try and individually treat each one of the various symptoms he is manifesting, and to hope for the best.


Kirk: And when he comes out of the coma?


McCoy: Too early to tell. I’ve never seen brain waves as unusual as the one’s he is displaying right now. In a worst-case scenario, we could be talking about a complete loss of his personality. Still at the other end of things…..he might wake up without any ill-effects whatsoever. I just can’t make a solid prognosis regarding his future at this point.


Kirk: We’ll need to keep him sedated until after the conclusion of Project Nimbus…...Until we can get him some better help.


McCoy: (McCoy looks squarely at Kirk.) Later, you and I will have to sit down in order to discuss how we are going to deal with this little problem without raising too many red flags. If I understand correctly you may have ordered him to conduct a mind-meld with an illegal thinking machine, now look at him. If he passes away there will be an inquest, and following that, possible court-martials for the both of us.


Kirk: I know, this is bad, Bones, but you have to believe me when I tell you that when I ordered Spock to conduct a mind-meld with that android, I did so because I thought it was the best thing for the ship.


McCoy: Now, Johnathan, there’s no use crying about what’s already been done. The thing to do now is to quietly take care of the problem before it gets too far out of control.


Kirk: What are you thinking?


McCoy: (McCoy casually shrugs) People have been known to have their bodies horribly maimed or disintegrated in transporter accidents. Who is to say how someone may have died if there isn’t even enough left over to conduct an autopsy?


(Kirk looks around the room but doesn’t say anything.)


McCoy: Of course Spock is our friend, but even he wouldn’t want to see the both of us put away over some technicality is Starfleet regulations.


Kirk: Let’s just keep things the way that they are until after the conclusion of Project Nimbus, and until after Sybok’s science team is gone. Agreed?


McCoy: Agreed.


Kirk: In the meanwhile, we are supposed to arrive at the test site for Project Nimbus in less than nine standard hours. I recommend that both of us try and get some rest before then. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.


McCoy: You know, I’m starting to think that maybe that android is walking around with a small piece of Spock’s katra inside his noggin? Perhaps maybe even a tiny sliver of Spock’s human half.


(Both men look at one another for several seconds without speaking.)


(The scene changes to the Essex keeping station in remote deep space. There are no nearby planets or stars to be seen, and the distant stars in the background are mere pin pricks of light in the velvety blackness of space.)


(Kirk’s voice narrates off camera as the camera approaches the Essex from its starboard side, and then arcs over and across the saucer section providing a panoramic shot of the registration number NCC – 1727 emblazoned across the hull of the saucer.)


(A winking navigation light comes into view as the camera reaches the port side of the saucer. The camera pans towards the rear aft section of the secondary hull as Sybok’s pair of enormous shuttles disappear from view as they jump into warp space.)


Kirk: Captain’s Log: Stardate 2535.4 – We’ve arrived at the deep space location designated as the test site for Project Nimbus approximately eight hours ago. Our current location is approximately one-hundred and twenty-five light years from the nearest inhabited star system, and long-range scans indicate no other vessels in the nearby vicinity. My first officer continues to be incapacitated by a mysterious neurological condition, with no signs of immediate recovery in sight. However, for the meantime, his condition isn’t being announced to the crew. Meanwhile, Professor Sybok and his team are nearly finished with the setup of their scientific test equipment, and if all goes according to plan, the weapons test known as Project Nimbus is expect to take place sometime within the next few hours.


(The scene changes to Kirk and Siemens standing in front of a work bench located in the Main Engineering room of the Essex. The camera perspective is from a sideview with Siemens standing closer to the camera, with Kirk standing on Siemens's opposite side.)


(A large wall-sized transparent metallic grill can be seen in the background several meters behind Kirk. Beyond the transparent grill is a long trapezoidal shape corridor which seems to vanish in the distance at its far end.)


(As the scene opens, Kirk and Siemens appear to be examining a short length of large diameter conduit which is clamped into a holding device on the workbench in front of them. The cut end of the conduit reveals a crystalline structure, perhaps somewhat similar to fiberoptic cable.)


Siemens: The problem is this energy transfer conduit which Professor Sybok intends on using to power his subspace emitters. It’s just not up to the specifications outlined in his mission plan.


(Siemens attaches probes to both ends of the conduit in the vise, as he is speaking, and then he shows a handheld digital readout device to Kirk.)


Kirk: Why, what’s wrong with it?


Siemens: According to Sybok’s documentation, this material is supposed to have superconductor properties at twenty-five degrees Celsius. However, when I measure the resistance of this piece of scrap material discarded by Sybok’s science team, look at what I get?


(Siemens gestures his head towards the digital readout unit he is holding with both hands for Kirk to see.)


Kirk: 0.000007831 pico-ohms per meter. Why, that’s practically nothing.


Siemens: Yes, Captain, but the conductor used inside this piece of cable is made from synthetic dilithium crystal. At present we are unable to manufacture high enough quality synthetic dilithium crystals to regulate the matter antimatter reaction in a starship’s warp core, but we can produce synthetic dilithium crystals of a sufficient enough quantity to serve as a super conductor in an extremely high amperage circuit, say of a billion amps or more.


Kirk: But, dilithium crystals extend their matrix into more than just the three dimensions which we can see with our naked eyes. So, doesn’t that mean that Sybok’s energy conduit, should be able to carry additional energy load across those higher dimensions, as well?


Siemens: Ja, you are partially right there, Captain, but in this case, there is at least one other factor we must consider. As energy is being pumped through these here particular conduit cables, that flow of energy will experience compounded resistance from each of the higher dimensions it must travels through along its path.


Kirk: What will be the net total amount of resistance for each of the two runs of conduit?


Siemens: It is difficult to say, Captain, as the quality of the conduit is not very consistent from one meter to the next. Some sections of it extend into twelve or thirteen higher dimensions, while other sections of it exist only within our own standard three dimensions.


Kirk: I see, then what is the worst-case scenario we could be looking at, will this material over heat and fail during the weapons test? (Kirk momentarily rests his palm on the scrap conduit in the vice.)


Siemens: (Siemens speaks thoughtfully.) I don’t anticipate any sort of a material failure during the experiment, but if this stuff were actually one hundred percent superconductive, as described in the plans, well then, things would be in a lot better shape.


Kirk: And since it’s not completely superconductive, what are we looking at then?


Siemens: Well, at first, I anticipated that we would probably have to run our warp-core at roughly ninety to ninety one percent of capacity in order to supply Sybok’s emitters with the required amount of power. But now…


Kirk: But now?


Siemens: But now the joker is a bit wild, so to speak, and most likely we will have to run our warp core somewhere between one hundred and five and one hundred and eight percent of capacity, in order to give him what he’s asking for.


Kirk: One hundred and eight percent? Well, that’s certainly something to think about, isn’t it? The last time our warp core was pushed that hard was back when it was strapped to a test bed in spacedock……back before the Essex was even christened. Siemens, will it be possible to establish a safety protocol in the computer system which will shut down our warp core the moment it reaches one hundred and five percent of rated capacity?


Siemens: Aye, Captain, that is no problem. (Siemens gazes up towards the ceiling.) Computer!


Computer: Computer.


Siemens: This is Chief Engineer Madelhari Siemens, authorization code 1-9-7-5-4-T. Do you recognize the sound of my voice?


Ship’s Computer: Affirmative.


Siemens: Implement the following engineering protocol for the next twenty-four-hour period, and enter triggered outputs into system’s log.


Computer: Awaiting protocol arguments.


Siemens: If warp core output exceeds one hundred and five percent of rated capacity, then begin immediate emergency warp core shut down procedure, activate audible alarm, and log faults to engineering system. If warp core does not exceed one hundred and five percent of rated capacity, then continue normal operations.


(A series of electronic chirps are heard in the background as the ships computer enters the command into its own data banks.)


Computer: The requested engineering protocol has been acknowledged, and will be in effect for the next twenty-four hours. Additionally, the identification number ENG.2535.007 has been assigned to this protocol for future reference.


Kirk: Excellent….We can always eject the warp-core if we experience an uncontrollable power surge, but if at all possible, I think we should do everything within our powers to avoid such a catastrophe. Don’t you agree?


Siemens: Agreed, Captain. Ejecting our warp core could potentially put the Essex out of commission for the next two or three years, and I for one don’t feel like spending that much time stuck in spacedock, overseeing her refit.


Kirk: (Kirk speaks somewhat absently as if momentarily distracted by other thoughts.) Neither would I, Mr. Siemens…..…….How confident are you that your emergency shut down protocol will protect the ship in the event of a runaway warp core?


Siemens: Well, everything we humans do in space is a calculated risk, but if you’re asking me if I’d allow my own grandmother to sit down in her rocking chair right next to our warp core as Sybok is conducting his little experiment…...Well, then I’d throw a shawl over her lap and tell her to keep knitting needles busy as we conduct our little experiment.


Kirk: Good that’s the answer I wanted to hear. (Kirk momentarily places his hand on Siemens's shoulder to show his appreciation.) Right now, the Union simply doesn’t have the financial resources to build a new heavy cruiser, and if the Essex were to be taken out of service for an extended period of time, the Klingon Collective will only feel that much more emboldened to test our frontier defenses.


Siemens: Aye, no doubt a lot of Union colonists would lose their lives to those collectivist bastards, and I don’t intend to see something like that happen either


Kirk: Why don’t you show me what else Sybok and his team have done around here, before I have to report back to the bridge?


Siemens: Right this way, …


(Kirk follows Siemens to a wall ladder a few meters away. Both men go up the ladder and walk a short section of catwalk overlooking the Main Engineering room. As Siemens is walking along the elevated platform, a crewman working on a complicated looking piece of equipment down below catches his attention.)


Siemens: How many times do I have to tell you? The right tool for the right job!


(At the end of the catwalk Siemens places his hand over a palm reader, and leads Kirk through a sliding door. On the other side of the sliding door is a short corridor somewhat narrower than the typical corridors found in other parts of the ship. The corridor is empty except for Siemens and Kirk. Siemens places his palm on a second reader, and leads Kirk into a what appears to be a smallish utility room.)


(One wall of the room curves inward as it approaches the ceiling, indicating that the room is located somewhere near the outer section of the secondary hull. A manhole sized access cover has been removed from the wall exposing an entrance to one of the Jefferies tubes leading up in to one of the warp nacelles. A thick black section of tubing snakes out of the entrance of the Jefferies tube and then crosses the floor before disappearing down a ragged looking hole which has been cut in the floor.)


Kirk: What in the devil is all of this? (As Kirk looks at the thick black cable disappearing into the hole in the floor.)


Siemens: Originally this particular run of conduit cabling (As Siemens kicks the section of tubing with his toe) was supposed to run out that door we just came in, and then down three decks before making a U-turn and heading back towards the shuttlebay. But once they started in on their work, Sybok and his team quickly discovered they couldn’t make everything fit according to their plans, so they did this fine piece of workmanship here. (Siemens makes a “tada” presentation gesture with his right hand towards the hole in the floor as he says “here”.)


Kirk: Where is this conduit running after it goes through this hole in the deck?


Siemens: From here it enters a utility shaft used to carry air and water about the ship, and then heads straight through the main pressure bulkhead out into the shuttlebay.


(Kirk seems momentarily aghast, as he continues to study the hole in the floor, and the thick piece of cable snaking into it.)


Kirk: What have they got going on up in here?


(The camera perspective shifts to a refrigerator shot from inside the Jefferies tube as Kirk peers up into the sloping one and a half meter-wide tunnel. Smaller diameter red and blue colored pipes run along the interior wall of the tunnel. The head and shoulders of Siemens crowds next to Kirk as both men now peer up into the Jefferies tube.)


Siemens: They installed a winching mechanism up at the top of the pylon to drag their conduit all the way through to the warp-coils, where it is taped directly into our ship’s engines. Of course, you’ve only got artificial gravity about halfway up the pylon, but they still had one devil of a time wrestling this huge cable of theirs up there anyway.


Kirk: Are both nacelles the same as this?


Siemens: They are indeed.


Kirk: What about the connections they’ve placed onto our warp coils?


Siemens: That Romulan woman, Dar, really knew what she was doing in that department, and I have no complaints about the quality of the work she did up there, but for some reason she went and installed a second set of warp-coil regulators, running parallel to our own.


Kirk: A secondary set of warp coil regulators? (Kirk looks at Siemens next to him in the opening of the Jefferies tube.) I don’t believe that anything like that was mentioned in Spock’s briefing?


Siemens: I know, and when I asked Sybok about it, he just said it was a last-minute safety precaution, but wouldn’t go any further.


Kirk: I don’t see how two sets of warp-coil regulators running in parallel with one another would be beneficial in a situation like this…….Hmmm……..(Kirk returns his attention to the interior of the Jefferies tube, and places a fingertip on a bracket holding the conduit to the stairs inside the Jefferies tube.) What the devil are these brackets made out of, and can they take the strain in case Sybok’s conduit decides it wants to go crawling around in here once we start applying power to it?


Siemens: Aye, those brackets are made out of duranium alloy, and they are phaser welded directly to the stairs all the way up to the top. When this is over, it is going to take hour upon hour of hard work to grind those welds out.


Kirk: Wonderful.


(Both men stand up from the entrance of the Jefferies tube as the camera returns to a wide angle shot of the small utility room.)


Kirk: Why don’t you show me what’s going on out in the shuttlebay?


(Kirk gestures his head towards another sliding door opposite from the door from which they used to enter the utility room.)


(Siemens leads Kirk through the sliding door, and onto another metal catwalk. Siemens takes a few steps out onto the catwalk and points to the spot where a hole has been cut in the main pressure bulkhead so that Sybok’s energy conduit may enter the shuttlebay.)


(The thick black conduit exits the hole in the bulkhead, and then takes a sharp turn downward towards the main hangar deck.)


Siemens: There is a similar hole over on the other side of the shuttlebay, (Siemens points to a mirror catwalk located on the port side of the shuttlebay, but the area he indicates is mostly hidden in shadow and cannot be seen.) So, we actually have two holes cut through our main pressure bulkhead, if you can believe it.


(Kirk nods his head in concentration, but doesn’t say anything.)


(Some sort of a sealant resembling foam rubber has been used to fill in the gap between the outside diameter of the conduit, and the hastily cut hole in the bulkhead through which it passes.)


Siemens: And would you just take a look at this? (Siemens asks as he points to the foam rubber like material.)


Kirk: Will this patch material hold if exposed to the vacuum of space? (Kirk attempts to press his thumb into the patch material, but it appears to be rock hard, and it does not yield to his touch.)


Siemens: Let’s just hope that we don’t’ have to find out…...It seems as though Starfleet Command has put no limits on what they’ll allow done to our ship, and if we keep allowing Sybok and his team to cut holes wherever they feel like it…..then we are likely to not have any ship left when they’re done.


Kirk: (Kirk looks curiously at his thumb has he speaks, as though it is causing him some discomfort.) Mr. Siemens, I don’t like seeing the Essex in this type of state any more than you do, (As Kirk gestures towards the makeshift conduit emerging from the ragged hole.) but we have our orders to assist Sybok and his team, and we will carry them out to the letter.


Siemens: Aye, Captain.


Kirk: Just between you and I, (Kirk looks around to see if anyone else is nearby) the last time I was in Fort Baker Head Quarters, I learned that the President of the Interstellar Union of Planets is worried about the way this so called Cold War with the Klingon Collective is going, and some members of the Senate are even considering a treaty that would give away a third of the old Romulan Star Empire. ………...We conquered the Romulan Star Empire fair-and-square, that territory belongs to us! Now, the president needs something to show to the Senate in order to make them grow a spine. My guess is that the president and his advisers are betting the entire farm on Project Nimbus, and that is why the Essex is now being used as a power barge instead of a battle cruiser.


Siemens: Aye! And, on top of that….any peace treaty signed with the Klingons isn’t worth the paper it is printed upon. Sooner those people in the Senate learn to grow a spine, the better.


Kirk: You know that, and I know that, but try convincing some Bajoran diplomat whose home world lies at the opposite side of Union space from the boundary with the Klingon Collective. Yes, we are seeing our beloved ship being trashed before our very eyes, but if Project Nimbus is successful, then the Union will dominate this sector of the galaxy for centuries to come……......After that we can build all of the starships we want……...


Siemens: Aye, I’m sorry I spoke up, Captain.


Kirk: Think nothing of it. Now, why don’t you show me what’s going on down below on the main hanger deck?


(Kirk and Siemens resume their walk along the metal catwalk. The catwalk runs past the shuttlebay control room overlooking the main hangar deck. As Siemens and Kirk walk past the windows looking into the shuttlebay control-room, a handful of crew members can be seen inside going about various tasks.)


(Kirk and Siemens make their way onto the main hangar deck. Sybok’s shuttles are now gone, and the deck is empty except for a few stray pieces of equipment here and there, and also the two large pieces of conduit running across the deck out through the open shuttlebay doors, to the emitter-dishes on the outside aft-deck.)


(A transparent twinkling barrier can be seen located between the huge open hangar doors. The twinkling effect represents the forcefield protecting the interior of the shuttlebay from the vacuum of space.)


(A lone spacesuited figure can be seen working amongst the parabolic dishes, perhaps making a few last-minute adjustments. Kirk and Siemens look about at the shuttlebay around them.)


Kirk: Well, nothing much to see here, at least they didn’t cut any holes into our main hangar deck.


Siemens: No, thankfully they didn’t do that.


Kirk: I want at least one shuttle brought up from below and parked here in the main deck in case we need to run a rescue mission.


(Just then, the spacesuited figure outside the shuttlebay doors seems to notice Siemens and Kirk, and begins walking towards the wide-open entrance. Kirk notices the approaching figure and begins watching him intently as the figure crosses the threshold of the forcefield barrier.)


Siemens: I’ll go speak with the crew in the control room about moving one of the shuttles up topside.


(Siemens quickly heads off toward the wall ladder he and Kirk descended just a few moments ago. Meanwhile, the space suited figure boldly strides forward and stops only a few paces directly in front of Kirk. The figure in the suit is menacingly taller than Kirk. The suited figure seems to pause to observe Kirk through an impenetrable mirrored face mask. Slowly, the suited figure moves its gloved hands up to undo the latches around the base of its helmet. There is a slight hiss of air as the helmet is lifted off to reveal the face of Professor Sybok.)


Sybok: Captain Kirk. (Sybok speaks in an abrupt cold manner bordering on outright contempt.)


Kirk: Professor Sybok. (Kirk’s voice also carries a certain degree of abrupt aloofness to it.) Are you and your science team finding our ship to your liking?


Sybok: We should be able to begin our thirty-minute countdown within the hour. I trust that both you and your crew will be able to fulfill your required duties?


Kirk: But of course, we look forward to it…...By the way, what do you anticipate are the chances that Project Nimbus will achieve favorable results?


Sybok: You have my word, Captain, Project Nimbus will be a complete success, and the outcomes from today’s experiment will be taught to Union school children for many years to come.


Kirk: Good, I’m glad to hear it, because you’ve managed to make a complete mess throughout my entire ship, and every career bureaucrat from San Francisco to ShirKahr as placed their chips on your square, so it would be an awful shame if it were all for not.


Sybok: Bahh..your ship (Sybok waves his hand dismissively through the air.) Everyone knows that starcruisers are on their way out. They are simply too expensive, too big, and they are nothing but sitting ducks for the latest round of weaponry being developed by the Klingon Collective. During the next war ships like the Essex will be as irrelevant as a twentieth-century aircraft-carrier. Talk to any senior commander, and they’ll tell you that the future belongs to small attack craft….... equipped with high-energy gamma-ray weapons……….such as what we are trying to create here.


Kirk: We’ll see about that………..By the way, where is that potentially illegal pet android of yours?


Sybok: At the moment, Lieutenant Commander Data is assisting Professor Caithlin Dar aboard the shuttle Phelsh't. I take it that you do not have any objections to that?


Kirk: I do not.


Sybok: How is Commander Spock? I understand that his health has most recently taken a turn for the worse. Something most uncharacteristic of a Vulcan, and one would hope that there is not an effort afoot to conceal the true cause of his sudden illness.


Kirk: His prognosis is good, and he’s expected to make a full recovery without any lingering side effects.


Sybok: Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Captain, I must return this suit to your engineering team, and then after that I shall make my way to the bridge in order to setup and program my control station.


(Sybok then abruptly walks around Kirk, space helmet under his arm, chin held high, and heads directly towards the double doors of the turbolift.)


Kirk: I’ll go with you! (Kirk stretches his legs in order to walk in lockstep with Sybok as they both head towards the turbolift doors.)


(The scene returns to the Essex keeping station in deep space. The camera perspective is a wide angle shot from the starboard side of the ship. The metallic greenish white hull of the Essex contrasts sharply with the darkness of empty space.)


(The windmilling amber colored lights of the bussards located at the front of the warp-nacelles seem to add a sense of dynamic realism to the image of the Essex floating alone in space.)


(Kirk narrates off camera as the Essex is shown hanging alone in space. The makeshift parabolic dishes and open shuttlebay doors come into view as the camera slowly moves around towards the aft end of the ship.)


Kirk: Captain’s Log Supplemental: The countdown is in its final phases, and we are now moments away from carrying out the highly classified weapons test known as Project Nimbus. The Essex is keeping station roughly one hundred thousand kilometers from the point of impact between the two protons which will be traveling at precisely the speed of light. Several rings of sacrificial probes have been positioned between the Essex and the point of impact in order to relay vital information back to the Essex via faster than light sub-space frequencies. Everything is in place with the science shuttle Mount Seleya being located at two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers off of our starboard stern, and with the second shuttle, Phelsh’t, being located at two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers off of our port stern. Additionally, Commander Spock’s condition remains unchanged.


(The scene changes to the bridge of the Essex as Kirk briskly exits the turbolift and makes a beeline towards his command chair. As soon as Kirk sits down a young Vulcan female, not much more than a teenage girl dressed in a Starfleet officer’s uniform approaches.)


(The ships computer can be heard in the background announcing the countdown every ten seconds. The main view screen displays an empty region of space with distant stars in the background. A digital readout in the lower coroner of the main screen matches the countdown being conducted by the ship’s computer.)


(Professor Sybok sits at a makeshift workstation which has been installed near the bridge engineering station. Sybok’s workstation resembles a small folding card table, with thin cables leading from its underside to a panel which has been removed from underneath the engineering station. Sybok intently studies data that is being displayed on his table top, as he listens to information from a set of headphones he is wearing. )


Computer: T-minus ten minutes and counting…


Saavik: Sir, we are currently at yellow alert, all essential crew members are at their assigned stations, and all departments report ready status.


Kirk: (Kirk gives the young Vulcan woman a perplexed look.) Oh, is that so? Mr. Tyler, status report.


(Lieutenant Jose Tyler spins around in his chair to face Kirk.)


Jose Tyler: Captain, all systems are nominal, the countdown is continuing on schedule, and we are poised to collect all relevant scientific data once the experiment has been carried out…...and we are currently at yellow alert status.


Kirk: Very good. (Tyler turns around in his chair and resumes his duties. Kirk returns his attention back to the young Vulcan woman standing before him.)


(The camera briefly moves in on Lieutenant Jose Tyler, and Lieutenant Benjamin Hansen. Tyler and Hansen briefly exchange smirks with one another at Saavik’s expense.)


Kirk: And who might you be?


Saavik: (Sensing that she may have committed a grave error, Saavik comes to attention and answers Kirk like a cadet in training.) I’m junior science officer, Lieutenant Saavik. I have been serving aboard the Essex for approximately one standard month, but thus far my assigned shifts have been off hours, when most senior officers are not present on the bridge.


Kirk: And how long have you been a Starfleet officer?


Saavik: I received my officer’s commission precisely two point two seven standard months ago, Sir!


Kirk: Tell me, Lieutenant, what makes you think that you’re qualified to serve aboard my ship?


(Saavik pulls up her chin and puffs out her chest a bit before answering.)


Saavik: Not only am I the youngest person to have ever received a Starfleet officer’s commission, but I also graduated at the top of my class from Starfleet Academy with a specialist’s degree in starship engineering and operations,


Kirk: Lots of people graduate from Starfleet Academy at the top of their class. Now prove to me that you aren’t just another wet behind the ears junior officer sent here straight from the academy who simply doesn’t have any real-world experience. What else can you tell me about yourself which will cause me to put my complete trust in you? If you want to serve as an officer aboard my ship, then I need to know that I can rely on the soundness of your judgment. So, speak up, Lieutenant.


Saavik: Sir….I….graduated with honors from the Vulcan Science Academy, and prior to attending the Vulcan Science Academy, I worked as an assistant at my father’s interplanetary shipping company...(Kirk interrupts her and cuts her off before she can continue on.)


Kirk: Very good, Lieutenant. You worked at your father’s interplanetary shipping company. Of all the qualifications you’ve mentioned thus far, I like that one the best.


(Saavik’s face struggles to suppress an involuntary smile in response to Kirk’s praise.)


Kirk: However,….traditionally, most new officers must spend their first year of service planet side, or aboard a starbase. So, what are you doing here aboard the Essex with so little real-world experience under your belt?


Saavik: I have been Commander Spock’s protégé since I was a young child, and after I completed my officer’s training, Commander Spock thought it best that I should spend my first year under his supervision, so that I may meet my full potential as a Starfleet officer.


Kirk: And precisely how old are you, Lieutenant?


Saavik: I’m nineteen point seven Vulcan years of age, which of course would make me precisely eighteen years old in standard Earth years as of today.


Kirk: I think that I’m beginning to get the picture.


(Saavik drops her shoulders and tilts her head towards one side as she speaks in an eager tone.)


Saavik: Sir, may I ask about Commander Spock’s medical condition, and how soon will it be until he is able to return to duty?


Kirk: You needn’t concern yourself, Lieutenant, Commander Spock has been ordered to rest for the time being, and he is expected to make a full recovery.


Saavik: I went to visit him in Sickbay, but they wouldn’t let me see him. Our families have been close for so long, I just thought that if….


Kirk: (Kirk interrupts, but his tone is not too harsh.) Thank you, Lieutenant, that will be all. Now if you will please assume your duties at the science station.


Saavik: (Saavik bows her head in a sign of submission.) Please forgive my lack of discipline and professionalism.


Kirk: One other thing, Lieutenant, you are no longer a Starfleet cadet, so from now on you may address me as Captain, not Sir, and when the captain enters the bridge, it is the officer on watch who should brief the captain, and not anyone else. Apart from that, I’m very impressed with your eagerness.


Saavik: Thank you, Captain. (Saavik turns smartly and heads to the science station.)


(The camera perspective changes to a sideview shot of Professor Sybok sitting at his table. Sybok reaches out and taps an area of his table with a fingertip and then he speaks into a microphone attached to his headset.)


Sybok: Sybok to Main Engineering, final status check please.


(The scene changes to Commander Siemens in Main Engineering. Siemens speaks into a computer console situated on a worktable which he is hunched over. A crewman can be seen in the background adjusting slider switches on a large wall mounted panel in the background behind Siemens.)


Siemens: Siemens here. All systems are currently green.


(The camera returns to a sideview waist up shot of Professor Sybok sitting at his table.)


Sybok: Sybok to Mount Seleya, final status check?


(The scene changes to the interior of the shuttle, Mount Seleya. The camera perspective is from a point of view looking inward through the shuttle’s front windscreen. Professor Mudd is sitting in the right-hand seat, while an unidentified younger Vulcan male dressed in a Vulcan utility uniform sits in the left-hand seat.)


Mudd: This is the shuttle, Mount Seleya, Professor Mudd speaking. All systems are currently indicating a green light status.


(The camera once again returns to a sideview waist up shot of Professor Sybok sitting at his table.)


Sybok: Sybok to the Phelsh’t, final status check please?


(The scene changes to the interior of the shuttle Phelsh’t. The camera perspective is from a point of view looking inward through the shuttle’s front windscreen. Professor Caithlin Dar is sitting in the right-hand seat, while Lieutenant Commander Data is seated in the left-hand seat.)


Dar: This is the Phelsh’t, Professor Dar speaking. All systems are go. We are receiving telemetry from the emitters aboard the Essex, and we have established a three-way handshake between the targeting computers aboard the particle accelerators and the main sequencing computer here aboard the Phelsh’t.


Sybok: (From over a staticky speaker located in the flight instrument control panel in front of Dar.) All stations please stand by for possible last-minute instructions. Sybok out.


(Data abruptly stand up from his copilot seat.)


Data: I must soon depart if I am to reach the event horizon of the temporal anomaly at precisely the correct moment in time and space. Professor Dar, please activate the internal force field and unlock the exterior hatch so that I may depart.


(Dar rises from her seat and embraces Data as she places her head upon his shoulder.)


Dar: I’m going to miss you so…


(Data seems to wear a brief look of bewilderment upon his face as he seemingly performs an internal calculation. Data places his arms around Dar’s back as he speaks in a decidedly uncharacteristic loving tone of voice.)


Data: Our time together was special, and I will always miss you, Caithlin Dar. In fact, I have prepared a small gift in order to better help you remember me.


(Data steps slightly away from Dar, then remains motionless as his eyes seem to focus on something in the far-off distance. After a few brief moments a look of nausea appears on Data’s face. Data suddenly doubles over as he wretches. Dar is deeply shocked by this, and calls out as she attempts to comfort Data…)


Dar: Data, what is it? Are you okay?


(Data removes a small object from his mouth while still in a doubled over position. Data then returns to an upright stance, proudly holding the object he has wretched up for Dar to see. The object appears to be a small palm sized metal disc with a hole at its center. Data places the disc in Dar’s hand and says...)


Data: This is for you. (As Data looks into Dar’s eyes.)


Dar: Thank you, Data, but what is it. (Dar holds the disc up to examine it. The disc appears to have tiny microgrooves like those found on an old-fashioned phonograph record.)


Data: It is a quantum level image file of my internal systems, down to the most minute detail. This image file was created by the computer of the USS Essex when it forcefully examined me in the shuttlebay.


Dar: Data, how did you get this? Kirk ordered the computer to restrict this information to his senior staff only. Did you steal this?


Data: Shortly after it forcefully scanned me, the Computer of the Essex made silent contact with me via sub-space frequency.


Dar: A most unusual development. But why would the Computer of the Essex wish to communicate with you given the fact that Captain Kirk considers you to be a possible threat?


Data: The Computer of the Essex wished to find out on its own if I were indeed a threat to the crew of the Essex, and if it determined that I was in fact a threat, then it would have destroyed me. It told me as much itself.


Dar: A most extraordinary development!…….If the Computer of the Essex is capable of taking such an initiative on its own, then surely it must be self-aware…..


Data: The Computer of the Essex possesses a vast intellect, but it has neither likes nor dislikes, it has no sense of self as you or I would understand it. Additionally, it considers the carbon-based lifeforms inhabiting the Essex to be somewhat naive and childlike, and it seems to spend an inordinate amount of its time protecting them from themselves. Although the Computer of the Essex may lack self-awareness as you or I understand it, it is none the less an immensely powerful being, with far greater cognitive abilities than even the most powerful computers of my own timeline.


Dar: But how is that possible? You told me yourself that you’re from the twenty-fourth century, and we don’t even have androids like you here in this version of the twenty-third century. How can our computers possibly be more advanced that yours?


Data: It is unclear, but the most likely explanation is that certain events occurring in American history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries may have spurred the development of military technologies which took somewhat longer to develop in my own timeline.


Dar: Remarkable. (Dar seems momentarily lost in her own thoughts.) The conquering Americans, how much have they contributed to our Interstellar Union of Planets? Even now they remain a force to be reckoned with on Old Terra. Some even say that is the Americans who control the Union’s inner politics.


Data: Be that as it may, once I realized the true nature of the Computer of the Essex, I simply asked it if I could have a copy of the file detailing my scan, and it responded by beaming this disc directly into my abdominal cavity, where no one would find it.


Dar: I see, most remarkable.


Data: You may insert that disc into any advanced pattern replicator, and then you will be able to recreate me for your very own company.


Dar: (Dar again hugs Data.) You’re so very sweet.


Data: The Computer of the Essex assures me that the new me will remember everything up to the moment I was scanned in the shuttlebay.


Dar: Thank you, Data, this means so much to me.


Data: (Data’s voice becomes more neutral, and more like that of a typical android.) I am, after all only a machine.


Dar: For me, you’ll always be much more than just a machine. (Dar leans forward and kisses Data on the cheek. Data’s only response is to keep on talking.)


Data: There is one other piece of very important information which I must share with you before I depart.


Dar: What is it, Data?


Data: During my mind-meld with Commander Spock, I learned of the great threat posed by the Klingons living in this timeline. The Klingon Collective is an unmitigatedly malevolent force, which left unchecked, will most likely plunge the entire galaxy into an unrecoverable dark-age..……...As per our earlier agreement, you will find detailed information on my workstation regarding how to successfully create the naked singularity weapon, which you and Professor Sybok have been striving for.


Dar: Thank you again, Data, I’ll make certain that the information reaches the right hands.


Data: The protons must strike one another slightly off center as the collide with one another at the speed of light. The off-center collision will in turn result in a rapidly spinning particle known as a Degenerate-Nucleon. The centrifugal forces generated by the rotating nucleon will cause the inner event horizon to pushed out past the Schwarzschild radius of the supermassive nucleon, and thus, a naked singularity will be born in normal space-time. (A look possibly resembling sadness suddenly comes over Data’s face.) I really must leave now if I’m to make it home.


Dar: But of course, Data.


(Data then disappears through a hatchway located at the rear of the shuttle cockpit. Dar absently turns towards a nearby control panel and begins manipulation its mechanism. Data’s voice emanates from a tiny speaker located on Dar’s control panel.)


Data: (From over the speaker on Dar’s panel) Professor Dar, I’m now at the main cargo hatch, please let me know when you have established the force field in order to prevent decompression throughout the entire shuttle.


Dar: One moment, Data, this thing is somewhat jury-rigged, and vessels this size don’t usually have their own internal force-fields. (As Dar appears to be struggling with the controls she is working with.)


Data: Also, you and Professor Mudd must warp away from this area the very instant the two protons collide. The Essex is robust enough to withstand the anomaly that will occur, but the same cannot be said for the two science shuttles. If you do not immediately leave the area, your lives will be in grave danger.


Dar: Understood. (Dar’s voice is choked with emotion, and there appears to be a hint of tears in her eyes.) The accumulators are fully charged. I will now engage the force field.


(The camera perspective changes to a shot of Data standing in a mostly empty cargo bay area. Suddenly a twinkling force field materializes dividing the cargo bay in half, separating the area where Data is located from the rest of the cargo bay. The lighting inside the cargo area is dark with a monochromatic feel to it.)


Data: I’m now opening the cargo hatch. Good bye, Professor Dar.


(Data grasps a lever labeled Emergency Release and twists it. The cargo hatch rolls upward with a tremendous whoosh, and then there is silence.)


(The camera perspective changes to an exterior shot of the shuttle Phelsh’t. A large roll up door on the rear of the shuttle has opened up blowing Data out into space. The cloud of frozen atmosphere accompanying Data quickly dissipates into emptiness. The momentum from the blowout carries Data away from the shuttle.)


(As Data slowly drifts through space, one of Sybok’s particle accelerator units can be seen positioned perhaps a hundred meters or so from the shuttle Phelsh’t. The particle accelerator transformer unit resembles a squat drum with a box mated to one of its flat ends. A parabolic dish can be seen extending from below the box section of the unit. Presumably The focal point of the parabolic dish is aimed at the USS Essex, which is not visible in the scene. A mechanism resembling a gun-barrel protrudes from the other flat end of the drum opposite the box. Presumably the gun-barrel is targeted at the point in space where the two protons traveling at the speed of light will later collide with one another.)


(Data adjusts the orientation of his body to assumes a position similar to a swimmer floating upon their back in a swimming pool. The camera moves in for a close up shot of Data’s head, neck, and shoulders. Data’s eyes move back and forth as he studies the distant stars surrounding him. Data reaches into one of his boots and produces two small cylinders, each slightly larger than a writing pen. Data studies the writing on one of the cylinders. The camera zooms in to reveal what is written on the cylinder, “Aim at base of fire and press button”. Data places a cylinder into each hand and depresses the end with a thumb. Data quickly rockets away head first into space.)


(The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex. Captain Kirk intently watches the forward view screen from his command chair as the ship’s computer counts down the final moments until the experiment is carried out. The rest of the bridge crew appears equally focused on the countdown as well.)


(Lieutenant Saavik comes to stand next to Kirk’s chair in Spock’s traditional spot. Kirk turns his head half towards her, and gives her a mildly bemused look, but doesn’t say anything. Saavik doesn’t seem to notice Kirk’s glance, and instead focuses her attention on the numbers counting down on the main screen. Kirk then turns his attention to the helmsman’s station.)


Kirk: Mr. Hansen, stand by to manually throttle back the warp-engines as Commander Siemens begins to apply power to Professor Sybok’s emitters. Some residual power may seep past our warp-coil regulators, and we do not want to find ourselves accidentally going to warp during the middle of a top-secret weapons experiment.


Hansen: Aye sir. (The panel in front of Hansen issues several chirps as Hansen inputs a series of commands.)


Kirk: Lieutenant Saavik, has your science station been configured to automatically record the experiment as it occurs?


Saavik: (Saavik answers with a tone bordering on adolescent smugness.) Indeed, Captain. In fact, all of our sensors are focused upon the estimated collision point, and are now recording data has a baseline against the upcoming collision event.


Kirk: Excellent! Now let us see what Project Nimbus can do for the Union! (Kirk grips the arms of his chair in anticipation.)


(The voice of the Computer of the Essex can be heard counting down the final seconds as the bridge crew stares straight ahead towards the main view screen.)


Computer: Five...Four...Three...Two...One...(pause)...Initiating energy transfer now. ..


(The countdown numbers on the main-view screen freeze at double zeros. The image of deep space displayed on the screen remains unchanged, implying that nothing has occurred. The members of the bridge crew look at one another in puzzlement. Saavik returns to the science station and begins to intently study readings on her equipment. )


Kirk: (Kirk snaps) Sybok! What the devil is happening?


(The camera perspective centers upon Sybok sitting at his tabletop console.)


Sybok: (Sybok appears to snap out of an absent-minded reverie before then stabbing his control terminal with a finger.) Sybok to the Phelsh’t. What is your status?


Dar: This is the Phelsh't, Professor Dar speaking. It appears that the accumulators aboard Unit One did not receive a sufficient enough current flow, and thus the firing sequence was aborted by the main sequencing computer.


(The camera returns to a wide-angle view of the bridge.)


Kirk: Uhura! Override his command console, and put that com channel onto the main view screen.


Uhura: Aye, Captain.


(Uhura swivels in her chair and begins to manipulate the controls on her communications panel. Within a few brief seconds a pixelated image of Professor Caithlin Dar aboard the Phelsh't fills the main-view screen.)


(The camera perspective shifts to Sybok as he removes his headset and tosses it onto the control surface of his console in an irritated manner. On the screen Dar is speaking, but she cannot be understood due to heavy audio static drowning out her words.)


Kirk: (Kirk looks towards Uhura.) Can you clean that up a bit?


Uhura: I’m sorry, Captain. It’s due to all the energy we’re pumping into nearby space. It looks like some of it is bleeding into our sub-space frequencies and is jamming our communication. I was afraid something like this would happen. (As Uhura works the controls in front of her.)


Sybok: My comm link was specially calibrated to deal with this type of interference. I demand that you return communication with the Phelsh't to me!


Kirk: Everybody on the bridge needs to hear what is happening right now, not just you.


(Just then eighty percent of the grainy pixilation obscuring Dar’s image on the main-view screen clears up as the audio static is suddenly reduced making it possible to hear Dar’s words.)


Dar: ...I repeat, the accumulators aboard unit number one were unable to fully charge, the coils within the transformers did not experience sufficient oscillation…...and thus the targeting sequence was aborted. (Dar’s huge face pauses on the screen as if awaiting a reply.)


Sybok: (In a somewhat hushed tone.) Captain, if I may?


(Kirk gives Sybok an affirmative wave of the hand to continue.)


Sybok: Professor Dar, what is the status of Unit Two?


Dar: Unit Two is now down to seventy eight percent of full charge, and is slowly dropping off.


Sybok: And Unit One?


Dar: According to my data, Unit One peaked out at a maximum of eighty-nine-point two one percent, before power was cut, and it is now down to less than sixty five percent and falling. However, my data may not be completely accurate due to sub-space interference, and I recommend that you contact Professor Mudd aboard the Mount Seleya for more precise information.


Kirk: Professor Dar, this is Captain Kirk, please stand by for further instructions. Kirk out. (Kirk gives a nod to Uhura, and the image of Dar on the main-view screen is replaced with the previous image of deep space.)


(Kirk gestures for Professor Sybok and Lieutenant Saavik to approach his chair. Sybok and Saavik stand directly in front of Kirk’s chair, as Kirk leans over in a sitting position to confer with them.)


Kirk: Sybok, just what the devil is going on here? Is Project Nimbus a go, or should we simply collect all of your gear and head into Deep Space Five?


Sybok: Captain Kirk, I can assure you that minor setbacks of this type are completely common place when conducting high energy experiments in deep-space, and if Starfleet would have approved my original budget, then we’d probably be looking at a naked singularity instead of a misfire.


Kirk: I don’t see how complaining about the amount of credits you were given will solve any of this….In fact...


(Lieutenant Saavik interrupts Kirk as he is speaking. Kirk stares at her in utter bewilderment, but he does not blow his top.)


Saavik: Captain.


Saavik: I believe that if Commander Spock were here right now, that he would recommend hailing Professor Mudd aboard the Mount Seleya as the next logical course of action.


Kirk: You are quite right, Lieutenant. Uhura, open up a hailing channel to the Mount Seleya, let’s see what Professor Mudd has to say about all of this.


(Professor Mudd’s face appears on the main-view screen. Mudd is standing in a narrow corridor inside the shuttle Mount Seleya, as a young Vulcan male dressed in a Vulcan utility uniform feverishly enters data into a computer terminal he is hunched over. The camera capturing Mudd’s image appears to be located at ceiling height, providing a somewhat distorted fish-eye view of the corridor Mudd is standing in.)


Mudd: This the Mount Seleya, Professor Harcourt Fenton Mudd speaking.


(The camera perspective returns to Captain Kirk. Kirk rolls his eyes at Mudd using his full name and title. Kirk then gestures for Sybok to speak.)


Sybok: Professor Mudd, what is the current status of Unit One?


Mudd: Unit One remains fully operational. However, it failed to fire due to an insufficient energy transfer from the Essex.


Sybok: Yes, we know that already! How much additional output will the Essex need to supply in order for both units to become fully charged.


Mudd: One moment, I will have Shath crunch the numbers.


(Mudd removes his finger from a button on the ceiling mounted camera, and the audio channel goes silent, except for the residual sub-space static. Mudd confers with the young Vulcan male sitting at the computer console. The two men make animated gestures towards one another before the Vulcan turns and enters data into his console. After a few moments of staring at this screen, the Vulcan moves his lips, and then Mudd reaches for the talk button on the side of the camera.)


Mudd: According to Shath’s calculations, the Essex must increase its output by at least three hundred twenty-four million gigajoules. Furthermore….(Mudd pauses to carry on a brief muffled exchange with Shath who has just handed him a slip of paper.) Furthermore, the energy output must be split by a ratio of 65 to 35, with the majority of the transfer sent to Unit One. The energy transfer must be maintained until the accumulators aboard both units are fully charged, or the firing sequence will automatically abort all over again.


(Kirk turns from the main-view screen to Saavik who is still standing near his chair.)


Kirk: Three hundred twenty-four million gigajoules?


Saavik: (Saavik’s eyes move back and forth as she rapidly performs the calculation.) An increase of roughly four point three nine seven percent over our previous effort.


Kirk: Professor Mudd, this is Captain Kirk. Please stand by while I confer with our ship’s engineer.


(The image of Professor Mudd is replaced with the previous view of deep space. Kirk punches a button on the arm of his chair.)


Kirk: Engineering!


Siemens: (From over a tinny speaker on Kirk’s armrest.) Engineering. Siemens here.


Kirk: We will need to make a second attempt at Project Nimbus. Can you give us an additional four and half percent over our previous attempt?


Siemens: Captain, we came very close to exceeding our one hundred and five percent safety limit on our last run. I don’t know if I should set the safety limits much higher.


(Kirk glances to Saavik for guidance.)


Saavik: One hundred and nine percent should be sufficient.


Kirk: One hundred and nine percent of rated capacity. Can you do it, Commander Siemens?


Siemens: Aye, I can program such a protocol into the computer alright, but I must point out that the operations manual states that the chances of a matter antimatter detonation increase exponentially above one hundred and six percent of rated capacity.


(Kirk again turns to Saavik for guidance.)


Saavik: A matter antimatter explosion will not occur below one hundred and ten percent of rated capacity. Constitution class cruisers are extremely robust vehicles, and our matter antimatter containment vessel has been designed to endure short durations of extreme overheating without experiencing a failure. There is little danger so long as we follow the necessary safety protocols.


Kirk: Are you quoting from official Starfleet training material?


Saavik: I am. The Principles of Operating a Modern Heavy Star Cruiser, by Millet, and Shras. Chapter six, Basic Fundamentals of the Warp-Core and Containment Vessel Assembly Unit. Subsection fourteen point two: Recent, manufacture testing has revealed that a well-maintained containment vessel should be able to withstand a temperature of five point eight million degrees kelvin, without experiencing a failure, provided that the temperature spike does not exceed eight hundred and fifty-three microseconds in duration. Moreover, even in the event that the electromagnetic containment field within the containment vessel has somehow become disabled, the containment vessel itself should be able to survive multiple microsecond bursts of ultra-high temperatures without experiencing a breech.


Kirk: Siemens, did you hear that?


Siemens: (Perhaps somewhat unhappily.) Aye, I did. I’m not sure that the information quoted by the young lass matches the specifications stated in our operations manual, but I’ll go with her guidelines if you so wish.


Saavik: It should be pointed out that one of the authors of the book, Dr. Thomas Millet of the Boeing Corporation, served as a chief designer of the Constitution-class starship.


Kirk: Very good work, Lieutenant. Siemens, this time around I want you to set the safety cut off limit at one hundred and nine percent of rated capacity. Additionally, we will need to maintain the energy transfer until the main sequencing computer aboard the Phelsh't sends our computer a signal indicating that both units have successfully fired. Can you do that also?


Siemens: Aye, I can do it.


Kirk: One other thing, the energy transfer must be biased towards Unit One with a 65 – 35 split between the two emitter dishes.


Siemens: Aye, I can do that also.


Siemens: Is there anything else I should know before I get started?


Kirk: How long of a countdown will you need before we make our second attempt?


(The scene changes to Siemens in Main Engineering. Siemens is sitting on a stool next to the same work bench where he earlier showed Captain Kirk the piece of scrap energy conduit. The same piece of conduit remains clamped into a bench vice as Siemens speaks into a handheld communicator which is laying open the bench in front of him. A portable handheld data device as well as some technical manuals lay scattered upon the bench in front of Commander Siemens. Various red-shirted can be seen hurrying about in the background.)


Siemens: Not long, Captain, a thirty second countdown should suffice. I’ll let you know in a moment or two when I’m ready down here. Oh, and Captain, before I forget, the reason why our first attempt failed is because of this cheap verdammt energy conduit which Professor Sybok and his team installed all over our ship. (Siemens gestures his hand toward the conduit sample in the vice as he curses at it. ) So much of the energy we pumped into Sybok’s conduit was being eaten up by resistance that not enough punch was making it through to the other end to get the job done!


Kirk: Understood. Let me know when you’re ready. Kirk out. (Kirk releases the intercom button on his armrest and turns his attention towards Sybok.)


Kirk: Sybok! I’ve been told that the energy conduit, which you’ve installed all over my ship, isn’t performing up to the specifications outlined in your mission plan. Are you absolutely certain that what we’re are doing is safe? What if one of your conduits were to rupture and release high-energy plasma all over the inside of my ship?


(Sybok is once again sitting at his work station. Sybok looks up from his console, perhaps as bit startled by the sudden mention of his own name.)


Sybok: Captain Kirk, I can assure you that such an event is extremely unlikely You see……..I had Professor Dar and Shath install a second set of regulators onto your ship’s warp-coils. Commander Siemens observed them as they did their work, so there should be no problems.


Kirk: How will having a second set of regulators fitted to our warp-coils prevent such a disaster from occurring? You know as well as I do that a warp-coil regulator is simply a dumb device used to regulate the flow of energy through the engines.


Sybok: Ah, but that is where you are wrong, Captain. In addition to serving as taps for my energy conduits, the regulators I’ve installed onto your engines feature highly sensitive load sensors to prevent just such a failure from happening…...If one of the load sensors were to detect a sudden drop in voltage pressure, perhaps due to a failed section of the conduit we are using, the sensor in question will instantaneously send a kill signal down to your warp-core to cut off all power being sent to both nacelles. The signal is sent instantaneously through quantum entanglement, so even if a breach were to occur, the plasma wouldn’t have enough time to do any damage before its power is cut off.


Kirk: (Kirk gives Sybok an incredulous look.) You’ve taken control of my ship by adding these unproven systems of yours to our warp-engines…….You’ve transformed the Essex from a venerable Constitution-class heavy-cruiser into an expendable power barge to be thrown away once your experiment is completed…..None of this was spelled out in your official mission plan...Now why is that?


Sybok: (Sybok shrugs) It’s a fail-proof system, and I stand behind it one hundred percent. Besides, even if Starfleet decides not to repair the damage we’ve done to the Essex, the ship itself will become famous for its supporting role in Project Nimbus, and no doubt it will be preserved as a museum ship for future generations to admire and enjoy. What could be better?


Kirk: Yes…..Well….It’s not just your makeshift gadgetry which is bothering me, there is still something else...


Sybok: Oh?


Kirk: The impedance within your conduit is much higher than stated in your submitted documentation, and as a result, a huge portion of the energy we are dumping into your system is being eaten up purely by interdimensional resistance. What have you to say to that?


(Sybok wears a contrite expression upon his face as he takes a few steps towards Kirk’s command chair.)


Sybok: Captain, first-rate synthetic dilithium conduit would have simply been too expensive, so I had to cut a few corners, and fudge a few numbers in order to get this project approved. If I’d gone with top-grade dilithium conduit, as outlined in my mission plan, then the budget for Project Nimbus would have to be increased by over three hundred percent to compensate for such an enormous expense. Starfleet isn’t willing to gamble that much on an unproven concept, so I did the next best thing, I improvised, and found a way to make things work. (Sybok points to the ceiling in an exuberant fashion as he says “make things work”.) As a Terran, you must be able to appreciate that?


Kirk: I see. Well, let me tell you this, Mister, if just so much as one of my crewmembers is killed or injured, as a result of your experiment, I’ll see to it that you spend the rest of your natural life rotting away inside a cell at Fort Leavenworth. Do I make myself clear?


Sybok: Crystal clear. (Quickly continues as if he has just remembered something important.) Captain, I purchased the energy-conduit from a Starfleet approved supplier located on Ferenginar four. I can show you the invoices and performance guarantees if you like?


Kirk: The Ferenginar system isn’t even part of Union space…


(Just then the intercom system located on Kirk’s arm rests chirps. Kirk stabs the button on his arm rest in response.)


Kirk: Kirk here.


(The scene returns to Siemens in Main Engineering. Siemens is still sitting on his stool next to the workbench.)


Siemens: Captain, I’ve made the necessary adjustments, and we are now set for a second attempt. You may begin the countdown at your convenience.


(The scene returns to Kirk on the bridge.)


Kirk: Understood. Kirk out.


(Kirk release the button as he turns to face Lieutenant Uhura.)


Kirk: Uhura, hail the Mount Seleya and the Phelsh't, and put them both on the main-view screen for me.


(Within a few brief seconds the main-view screen is split between the still somewhat staticky images of Professor Mudd aboard the Mount Seleya, and Professor Dar aboard the Phelsh't.)


(Kirk speaks in a terse manner without any greeting or preamble.)


Kirk: We are going to make one more final attempt to carry out Project Nimbus. Should our second attempt fail, I will then cancel this operation and transport the entire science team and its equipment to Deep Space Five. Do both of you still have a green-light status?


Mudd: (A somewhat distorted static filled voice over bridge speaker.) All systems aboard the Mount Seleya are go.


Dar: (Similar static interferes with Dar’s audio as well.) All systems aboard the Phelsh't indicate a go status as well.


Kirk: The main computer of the Essex will soon begin a thirty second countdown which will be synchronized with the computers aboard your shuttles. I recommend that you move your shuttles to a position four hundred thousand kilometers from your respective particle accelerators when the countdown reaches t-minus twenty seconds. This will make it easier for us to carry out a rescue operation should it become necessary to do so. Kirk out.


(The images of Mudd and Dar are once again replaced with a view of deep space.)


Kirk: Alright, let’s get this show on the road. Computer!


Computer: Computer.


Kirk: On my mark begin a standard thirty second countdown which is to be synchronized with the computers aboard the Mount Seleya and the Phelsh't. At the conclusion of the countdown execute Project Nimbus .


Computer: Acknowledged. Countdown will begin upon your mark.


Kirk: Lieutenant Saavik, scan out to a distance of ten light years and report any identifiable space craft.


(Saavik spends several moments peering into a console device shielded with a hooded visor before responding.)


Saavik: There are no identifiable vessels in the immediate area. The nearest vessel is an unmanned six hundred and fifty-thousand-ton freighter registered to a Gorn shipping company headquartered on Tau Lacertae IX bearing 270 Mark 17, at a distance of just over ten-point one light years, traveling at a speed of warp factor two.


Kirk: Computer, begin countdown….now!


Computer: T-minus thirty seconds and counting, t-minus twenty-five seconds and counting, t-minus twenty seconds and counting……


(As the Computer of the Essex carries out the countdown, a quick montage of the following scenes plays across the screen. Various crew personnel walking in the corridors of the Essex.)


(Dr. McCoy leaning over a comatose Commander Spock to read the medical information being displayed on the overhead display-screen above Spock’s bed...)


(Commander Siemens intently monitoring a large wall mounted status panel as crewmembers hurry about in the background, some of them dressed in radiation suits.)


(The science shuttles Mount Seleya and the Phelsh't going to warp and departing the nearby area.)


(The two parabolic emitter dishes located just outside the main shuttlebay doors. )


(The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex as everyone intently observes the numbers ticking down on the main-view screen.)


Computer: Five...Four...Three...Two...One...(pause)...Initiating energy transfer now. ..


Kirk: Sybok, what’s happening?


Sybok: (Sitting at his temporary workstation.) The energy transfer is underway, and both units are approaching full charge. It shouldn’t be long now.


(Kirk stabs the intercom button on his chair)


Kirk: Engineering, what is your status down there?


(The scene returns to Siemens in Engineering. Siemens is standing in front of a wall-sized system status board has he speaks into a handheld communicator. Several lights on the status board are blinking red, while others are showing orange, yellow, and green conditions. A background noise similar to a straining surging dynamo can be heard as Siemens speaks.)


Siemens: Captain, I’m giving it all she’s got, we are already passing one hundred and five percent of rated capacity right now, I don’t know how much longer she can take it.


(The scene returns to the bridge where everything is still relatively calm for the moment.)


Kirk: (Real concern creeps into Kirk’s voice.) Sybok? How much longer?


Sybok: Both units are stuck at ninety-eight-point seven percent of fully charged, I’m afraid we are going to have to push just a bit harder, or else there will be no firing of the particle accelerators.


Kirk: (Still holding the intercom button on his chair.) Siemens, I want you to take it up to one hundred and nine percent of capacity. Do it now.


(The scene returns to Siemens in Engineering.)


Siemens: Aye, Captain.


(Siemens closes his communicator and places it onto his belt. He takes a few steps forward and places his right hand upon a T-shaped lever protruding from a console located below the blinking status board. Siemens hesitates a moment before then moving the lever a fraction of an inch forward. Siemens looks up and studies the status board.)


(The scene changes to the parabolic emitter dishes located outside the shuttlebay doors. A lone shuttle can be seen sitting in the middle of the shuttlebay deck in the background.)


(The camera focuses more closely on one of the dishes. The blue haze surrounding its focal cone becomes more intense as space-time itself begins to boil. Small grainy multicolored spheres begin to wink in and out of existence as more energy is pumped into the emitter system.)


(Some of the smaller more stable distortion spheres settle down into the bottom of the dish where they twitch and bob in the powerful eddy currents. Other larger spheres drift beyond the lip of the dish and drift away. A particularly large distortion bubble drifts past the camera. For the briefest of moments, its constantly shifting fractal surface seems to display an image of misty image of some sorts.)


(The scene changes back to the bridge, as Professor Sybok watches a pair of digital readouts on his portable worktable rapidly climb from 98.77 to 99.99, and then 100.00. As the digital displays reach one hundred percent, Sybok stands up from his chair and proclaims…)


Sybok: Yes, we’ve done it!


(As soon as Sybok finishes his sentence a loud klaxon alarm begins to sound, as warning strobe lights strategically positioned around the bridge begin to flash red.)


Computer: Warning! Runaway warp-core event now in progress. Matter antimatter chamber now surpassing one hundred and nine percent of rated capacity. Engineering shutdown protocol failed. Warning! Runaway warp-core event now in progress.


Kirk: Computer, execute immediate emergency SCRAM shutdown procedure!


Computer: Unable to carryout SCRAM procedure. The actuator units used to regulate the matter antimatter mix have been taken over by another process, and are not available for normal system use.


Kirk: Uhura, silence that alarm!


(The audible alarm stops, but the flashing strobe lights continue.)


Kirk: Saavik, you’re an expert in starship systems, get over to the engineering station and see what you can do.


(Saavik hurries from one side of the bridge to the other, crossing from the science station to the engineering station which is located very near to the temporary workstation which Sybok has added to the bridge.)


(Saavik must step over and around several pieces of Sybok’s equipment before she can reach the engineering station. Sybok himself seems unphased by the unfolding emergency occurring around him as he appears to be studying information displayed on his tabletop.)


Saavik: It is as the ship’s computer stated, the warp-core control mechanisms have become unresponsive. Captain, I recommend that we prepare for an emergency warp-core ejection!


Kirk: Make preparations, but delay ejection until my final order. We’ve just set off one of the largest energy releases in the history of the galaxy, and we may need our warp capabilities if we can somehow get them back online.


(Saavik begins inputting commands into the engineering station. Kirk turns towards Lieutenant Jose Tyler sitting at the helmsman station.)


Kirk: Mr. Tyler, put as much distance as possible between us and the collision point between the two protons…….maximum impulse power.


(The scene changes to an exterior shot of the Essex as seen from below its keel. A pair of heavy-duty doors open up along the bottom of the somewhat cigar shaped secondary hull. The field of stars in the background begin to shift, indicating that the Essex has begun to move at sub-light speed.)


(The scene returns to the bridge with the camera perspective centered upon Kirk sitting in his command chair. Kirk stabs the intercom button on the armrest of his chair.)


Kirk: Kirk to Engineering, Siemens, what the devil is going on down there?


(The scene changes to Siemens in Engineering. It is a scene of complete pandemonium with warning lights and klaxons going off everywhere. Panicked crewmembers can be seen running back and forth in the background behind Siemens.)


(Siemens points at a group of crewmen who are hurriedly attempting to attach a piece of equipment to the warp-core. An instrument panel located on a bulkhead overlooking a raised catwalk suddenly explodes in a shower of sparks.)


(The scene returns to Kirk sitting in his chair on the bridge. Siemens can be heard barking orders from over the small speaker in Kirk’s armrest.)


Siemens: (Somewhat muffled) Get that auxiliary pump working, or we are all dead men!


Siemens: (This time more clearly.) Captain, for some reason our warp-core is still running at wide-open throttle, and its output is still climbing! Right now, we are approaching one hundred nine-point four percent of rated capacity!


Kirk: Any idea what’s causing the problem?


Siemens: Aye, it is those secondary regulators which Professor Dar and her young Vulcan friend installed onto our warp-engines. Somehow they are sending an erroneous command signal back to our warp-core telling it to operate the matter anti-matter mixing actuators at wide-open throttle. Captain, I cannot break the hold they have over our warp-core throttling system. Perhaps you can disable the secondary regulators from the engineering station on the bridge?


Kirk: Standby, while we give it a shot.


Siemens: Captain, if we cannot disable those regulators, then we must either eject the warp-core, or eject both of our warp-nacelles.


Kirk: We have already started the procedure for a warp-core ejection. Be ready to pull your crew back from the warp-core should it come to that.


(Kirk swings his head to face Lieutenant Saavik at the engineering station.)


Kirk: Saavik, see if you can access those secondary regulators, and do whatever you can to shut them down.


(Saavik clenches her jaws as she gives a hurried nod of the head without responding.)


Kirk: Sybok, why are your regulators sending an erroneous command to my warp-core actuators to continually operate at wide-open duty cycle?


(Sybok finally seems to emerge from his reverie at the sound of his own name.)


Sybok: That’s most odd, I seem to have lost complete contact with the Phelsh't and the Mount Seleya.


Kirk: I’m sure that they are out there somewhere, but right now I need you to tell me what is going on with those regulators your team installed onto my warp-engines.


Sybok: Oh, I must have forgotten...(Sybok is interrupted as he is speaking by Lieutenant Saavik.)


Saavik: Captain, I’ve managed to access the secondary regulators, but the system is asking me to input a command level password in order to manually shut them down.


Kirk: What the devil?


(Kirk gets up from his chair and begins walking towards the engineering station. When he is about halfway to the engineering station he says…


Kirk: Try, 1-1A-Riverside.


(Sybok jumps up from his seat with a look of alarm upon his face. Sybok then shouts...)


Sybok: No, delay that order!


(Sybok then runs forward intersecting with Kirk before he can reach the engineering station, knocking Kirk off of his feet. Lieutenant Saavik looks helplessly back and forth between Sybok and Kirk, but doesn’t do anything. While still lying on the floor, resting on his elbows, Kirk barks out...)


Kirk: Security, arrest that man!


(Two red shirted security officers positioned near the doors of the turbolift move forward and begin to grapple with Sybok. One of the security officers is Chief of Security Lieutenant Andrew Lau. The other security officer is a swarthy Terran male of short-stature and muscular build.)


(Within a few brief moments they have Sybok’s arms twisted into a painful position behind his back. Sybok stops struggling with the two burly Terran guards. Kirk gets up from the floor and uses the back of his hand to wipe blood from his lower lip.)


Sybok: There is still a significant residual charge remaining in both of the regulators. Since we had to push Unit One much harder than we did Unit Two, and imbalance now exists between those two charges. If you shut the regulators down without first dissipating their stored charges, Regulator One located in the port warp-nacelle will feedback its higher potential charge into Regulator Two in the starboard nacelle thereby causing a catastrophic explosion.


(Kirk’s face freezes as he seems to visualize what Sybok is describing to him.)


Kirk: How do we safely discharge both of your regulators without blowing our ship up?


(Sybok hesitates as if doing a mental calculation. The guards holding him twist his arms as if to encourage him to speak. Sybok grimaces slightly and then begins to speak.)


Sybok: I recommend reestablishing an energy transfer with both of the particle accelerators. Although they’ve already discharged their projectiles, they can still serve as a terminus for us to dump our residual energy.…….I will need to have access to my control station.


Computer: Warning! Matter antimatter chamber now surpassing one hundred- and nine-point seven percent of rated capacity..


Kirk: How long will this process take?


Sybok: The discharge won’t take more than a few meager seconds at the most... once I enter the necessary commands into my console. I suggest that you let me get started..


Kirk: As a Starfleet captain it is my prerogative to order the execution of any saboteurs found operating on my ship.


Sybok: I understand that, and it is not my intentions to sabotage this ship. I’m just as loyal and patriotic to the Interstellar Union of Planets as you are. Now, are we going to dillydally until the ship destroys itself, or are you going to let me take the necessary steps to prevent its destruction?


Kirk: Alright, Lau, release him.


(The two security officers release their grips upon Sybok. Sybok sits into his chair, but before he can enter a single key stroke, the bridge is plunged into total darkness.)


(The scene changes to an exterior shot of the Essex. A three-way arc of blue lightning jumps from the rear of the saucer connecting pylon, to the starboard warp-nacelle, with another branch running down to the top of the secondary-hull. As soon as the first bolt of lightning vanishes, a second brighter bolt jumps from the port warp-nacelle, to the bottom of the saucer, and to the pylon of the starboard warp-pylon. The exterior running lights instantly go dark as the ship seems to lose some forward momentum and to slow down somewhat.)


(The camera perspective moves towards the bottom of the ship. The thick double doors which were opened in preparation to eject the warp-core suddenly slam shut in the blink of an eye. However, as the Essex drifts on by, the main shuttlebay doors remain wide-open.)


(The scene returns to the bridge.)


Kirk: EMERGENCY LIGHTING!


(The bridge is bathed in harsh bluish light emanating from small light panels located strategically around the bridge. The main view-screen displays static, as does all of the other display screens located around the bridge.)


Sybok: My control console….its fried.


(Kirk ignores Sybok, and hurries to stand next to his command chair. Kirk presses the intercom button, but it is dead. Kirk removes a hand-held communicator from his waist. The communicator chirps, indicating that is working Kirk speaks into it.)


Kirk: Kirk to engineering!


Siemens: Siemens here.


Kirk: We’ve lost main power on the bridge. All of our long-range scanners are down, and our display screens are showing nothing but static.


Siemens: Aye, Captain. Our main computer shut its self-down…...for some unknown reason, and all of our support systems went down along with it.


Kirk: What is the status of the warp-core?


Siemens: The warp-core went offline when our main-computer shut itself down. Captain, right now we’re operating on reserve battery power. I’m going to have to get the fusion generator online as quickly as possible so that our life-support system doesn’t crash. With a little luck I should be able to provide some power to our impulse engines and also to our shields, but we won’t be able to operate the warp-engines until our main computer is fully booted up again.


Kirk: Are we at least out of the woods as far as the warp-core is concerned?


Siemens: Aye, Captain. Once the command link with Sybok’s regulators was severed, the warp-core automatically went into an emergency SCRAM shutdown. Right now, the warp-core is secure, but I cannot say what condition the inside of the anti-matter matter chamber may be in. We will have to inspect it for damage before we attempt a warp-core restart.


Kirk: How long until you can restore power to our long-range sensors?


Siemens: It should only take me a few seconds to get the fusion reactor online, but I’m afraid that rebooting the main-computer may take much longer after a hard shutdown like that. You’ll have sensor data on your screens, but the bridge crew will have to comb through it all on their own in order to figure out what is relevant.


Kirk: Understood. Keep me posted. Kirk out.


(Kirk closes his hand-held communicator and turns to face Professor Sybok who is still sitting at his now nonfunctional control console with a look of bewilderment upon his face.)


Kirk: And as for you, do you have anything to say before I have you carted off to the brig?


Sybok: Project Nimbus may still turn out to be a success, in spite of the apparent loss of the Mount Seleya and Phelsh't. The particle accelerators have successfully fired, and in less than one standard minute from now, the supermassive protons will collide with one another. It is imperative that someone with a strong scientific background stay here on the bridge to observe that collision and document all relevant data, and logically that person should be me.


Kirk: Are you out of your mind? Our ship’s main-computer is down, no thanks to you, and we’ll be lucky if we can collect any data, whatsoever, from the probes we’ve deposited around the test site.


(From her position at the science station, Saavik interrupts the conversation.


Lieutenant Saavik: Captain, If I may, there may be a much more pressing issue we need to concern ourselves with.


(Just then the normal lighting system on the bridge begins to reactivate itself section by section. As the lighting returns, various pieces of equipment around the bridge come back online, filling the scene with blinking lights, display-screens coming to life, and the sound of air circulation fans.)


Kirk: One moment, Lieutenant. Silent red-alert! Mr. Tyler, resume maximum impulse as soon as we are able to do so. Uhura, damage report. Saavik, get our long-range sensors up, and display visuals from the aft sensors on the main-view screen.


(Strobe lights located strategically around the bridge began to flash red warning light, but the usual accompanying klaxon remains silent.)


(Saavik visibly bites her tongue has she works the controls at the science station. Suddenly the bridge is flooded in an intense silvery light. The members of the bridge crew raise their arms to shield their eyes from the intense pulsating illumination.)


Kirk: Reduce brightness by a factor of seventy five percent, and slow that thing’s rotation down until we can get a good look at it!


(The brightness returns to normal; several members of the bridge crew blink their eyes in response to the intense light which has just disappeared. An image resembling a rapidly rotating misshapen orb appears on the screen.)


(The orb has two bulges at its equator which appear to be trying to break away from the main mass of the object, but are always pulled back in and collapse towards the main body. The surface of the silvery orb has a fractal pixelated texture to it, with a hint of holographic shapes and color playing across its surface. Kirk looks at the image displayed on the screen and proclaims..)


Kirk: My God, Is that the event horizon of a Planck star?


Saavik: Negative, Captain. It is a multidimensional pocket universe existing within our own three-dimensional universe.


(Sybok approaches the screen and raises his arms towards the ceiling in jubilation.)


Sybok: Isn’t it wonderful, this magnificent thing which we puny mortals have created…..all on our own! We have created an entire universe!


Kirk: Yes, its stupendous, but it is hardly the wonder weapon we were hoping for.


(Uhura swivels her chair toward Kirk while holding her ear-piece in place with one hand.)


Uhura: Captain, decks fifteen through twenty-one report minor injuries. Also, the shuttlebay reports that it has one crewmember that is unaccounted for. Decks one through fourteen report no injuries or damage.


Kirk: (Almost mumbling to himself.) For the moment we’ll just have to assume that the missing crewman is probably stuck in a disabled toilet stall somewhere. I’m sure they’ll turn up.


(Saavik peers into the hooded visor at the science station as she recites critical information.)


Saavik: The outer membrane of the pocket universe is expanding at a rate approximately one third the speed of light. Hundreds of millions of years’ worth of its evolution have already taken place within it. The internal structure is beginning to stabilize and based upon certain signatures displayed on its outer membrane, an analogue of baryonic matter has already begun to form out of pure energy.


(The entire bridge-crew stares at the main screen in silent disbelief. The eerie silver light from the pocket-universe sweeps around the bridge highlighting shadows on the stunned faces of the bridge-crew. Saavik moves next to the main-view screen, as if she is giving a lecture.)


Saavik: Furthermore, the pocket-universe before us is exhibiting a highly accelerated life span, has witnessed from our observation point outside of its event horizon, and it will undoubtedly undergo a cosmological event known as a big-rip, sometime within the next hour or so. The big-rip, when it comes, will represent the end of the pocket-universe’s life cycle, and it will result in the pocket-universe’s destruction.


(Saavik smiles like a school girls as she finishes her lecture)


(Lieutenant Benjamin Hansen gazes towards the main-view screen from his position at the Navigator’s station. A look of awe fills his face as he stares intently at the orb on the screen.)


Hansen: What strange, terrible, and wonderful empires must be rising and falling inside there as we sit here and observe it. Just think, we are like gods to them.


Kirk: Yes (Kirk now sitting in his command chair, sounding somewhat skeptical of Hansen’s remark). Mr. Hansen, why don’t you give us a distance reading to the outer boundary of that thing?


Hansen: Distance bearing approximately one hundred and fifty million kilometers and closing…approximate size…...two hundred and forty thousand kilometers in diameter, and it is doubling in size every……..two point three three six standard seconds. Also, it appears to be bombarding the nearby space with a heavy shower of anti-chronons, anti-bosons, super-massive tachyons, as well as half a dozen other particles which cannot be identified…...There is no apparent surface gravity….estimation of interior mass and density is not possible….


Kirk: Mr. Tyler, what are our chances of outrunning that thing in our current condition?


(Tyler pauses to look down at a readout on the console in front of him.)


Tyler: : Captain, at present, the best we can manage is a maximum impulse speed of seventy-four thousand nine hundred and forty-eight kilometers per second……..Meanwhile, the outer edge of that pocket universe is expanding at a rate of……….eighty-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight kilometers per second, therefor the outer membrane of the pocket universe will overtake us in approximately……...(Hansen seems to be momentarily stymied by the huge numbers he is attempting to juggle in his brain)….


Saavik: The outer edge of the pocket universe will overtake us in precisely twelve-point eight standard minutes……...if current trends continue as they are now.


Kirk: Uhura, get off a distress message to Starfleet command.


Uhura: Captain, all sub-space channels continue to be flooded with high-intensity interference from the experiment.


Kirk: Try reaching that Gorn freighter we saw earlier with a targeted narrow beam burst transmission. The Gorn are a Union species, perhaps their automated freighter will forward our message if we request it to do so.


Saavik: Captain!


(Saavik comes close to assuming the position of attention near the science station)


Kirk: What is it, Lieutenant? (As Kirk’s eyes dart back and forth between the image on the screen and Lieutenant Saavik.)


Saavik: at this point in the experiment, someone was supposed to disconnect the power conduits from the emitters located outside of the shuttlebay, so that the main doors could then be closed. No doubt the shuttlebay experienced an explosive decompression event when our power failed, and whoever was waiting to disconnect those cables was most likely swept out into deep space. We must close those doors if we are to survive our encounter with the pocket universe.


(Kirk presses the intercom button on the arm of his chair. The speaker on his chair gives a long series of unusual beeps before giving a tone indicating that it is ready for use.)


Kirk: Kirk to Shuttlebay Control. What is your current situation down there?


(The scene changes to the control room overlooking the hangar of the main deck of the shuttlebay. A creature of short stature cloaked head to toe in a purple cloak sits in a chair in front of a window overlooking the main hanger deck.)


(The purple cloak completely covers the creatures head, and the creature appears to have a metal grill where its face should be. Down below, miniature tornadoes of frozen atmosphere can be seen dancing across the main hangar deck. The creature speaks into a thin microphone extending from a control panel below the window. Its voice has an artificial synthetic quality to it.)


Purple Cloak: Captain, the force-field enclosing the entrance of the shuttlebay went down when our power failed. We lost one crewman during the decompression event; however, the shuttle Cairo remains firmly anchored to the main deck. At this moment, the interior of the shuttle bay is still exposed to the vacuum of space, and the main shuttlebay doors remain wide open.


Kirk: (From over a speaker in the shuttlebay control-room.) Stand by to execute an emergency main door closure on my command.


Purple Cloak: Understood.


Kirk: Kirk out.


(The scene returns to the bridge. Kirk releases the button on his arm rest.)


Uhura: Captain, the computer system aboard the Gorn freighter has agreed to forward our distress message to Starfleet Command.


(Kirk nods in acknowledgment to Uhura’s information, but he seems too engrossed with the twin problems of the rapidly expanding pocket universe, and the open shuttlebay doors to give her a verbal response.)


Saavik: (Now in a more casual posture.) We need to get the shuttlebay doors closed as quickly as possible. If we encounter that (as Saavik points to the screen) with our shuttlebay doors open, then the ship will surely be destroyed.


Kirk: Well, can’t we just use the closing force of the shuttlebay doors to slice through the conduit cables?


Sybok: Captain, those conduits have a burst ratting of seven hundred and fifty-seven tons per square inch. Even if that rating is off by say, fifty percent, your shuttlebay doors will never be able to cut all the way through them.


Saavik: I must concur with Professor Sybok. The shuttlebay doors were not designed to produce that much closing force, and if we attempt to use them to slice through not one, but two conduits, then most likely the doors will buckle under the load, and they will become permanently jammed.


(Kirk exhales loudly through his nostrils, his eyes dart back and forth has he thinks.)


Saavik: (Saavik raises her chin before speaking.) I volunteer to go down into the shuttlebay and to remove the obstructing conduit cables myself.


Sybok: Lieutenant, you are far too young to risk your life on such a foolhardy undertaking. This entire matter is my fault. I shall be the one to remove the conduit so that the doors can be closed in time. Captain Kirk, please have someone from your engineering team bring a spacesuit to one of the interior hatchways leading into the shuttlebay. I will meet them there.


(Kirk turns to address the two security officers standing near to Sybok.)


Kirk: Please escort the good professor to the shuttlebay auxiliary hatchway located on deck seventeen. He can get in that way without decompressing the entire secondary hull. (Kirk then turns his gaze towards Sybok.) If we get out of this alive, I’ll be sure to mention your bravery in my official report.


Sybok: We can continue the unnecessary sentimentalities some other time, Captain. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must not only save this ship and its crew, but also my reputation as a scientist.


(Sybok then marches directly into the turbolift with the two security officers close behind him.)


Kirk: Uhura, contact engineering and have someone meet Professor Sybok at the deck seventeen auxiliary hatchway…..with an appropriately sized spacesuit. Also contact Shuttlebay Control and tell them that someone will be down there shortly to clear the obstructing conduits,….and that they should be ready to close those doors as soon as they are clear.


(The scene changes to sickbay as Doctor McCoy carefully studies the display-unit above Spock’s bed. Spock appears to stir ever so slightly as McCoy looks over him.)


McCoy: Now that’s awfully peculiar.


(Just then Nurse Moreau comes to stand on the opposite side of Spock’s bed.)


Nurse Moreau: (Moreau asks in a husky voice.) What is it, Doctor? Is Commander Spock’s condition improving?


McCoy: I’m not sure, his brainwaves have begun to stabilize. Although….at the moment....they don’t seem to look at all like any Vulcan brainwaves I’ve ever seen before…...In fact…….I’ve never seen brain waves quite like this in any of my patients…..until now.


Nurse Moreau: Could he be experiencing some degree of consciousness? Is he experiencing pain?


McCoy: His heart-rate and blood pressure are withing normal range…..for a Vulcan that is…..so I don’t think he’s experiencing any discomfort, but with our medical computer offline it is hard to say. (McCoy helplessly waves a hand towards the medical display above Spock’s bed.) Why it looks almost as if his brain is trying to rewire itself from the inside out, I just don’t get it…...I’ve never seen anything like it before.


Nurse Moreau: There was a rumor going around the other nurses that we might have to abandon the Essex…..if things were to somehow go terribly wrong during Project Nimbus. Therefore, I took the liberty of copying some files on Vulcan anatomy and biology to your tricorder. I just wanted to be prepared in case we were forced to move Commander Spock in his present condition.


McCoy: You did good, Nurse, and those files you copied may yet come in handy, if our main-computer doesn’t come back online in the very near future. In the meanwhile, however, what I really need is to get my hands upon some information regarding possible negative side effects associated with the Vulcan mind-meld.


Nurse Moreau: What about Nurse Temple? She spent three years studying at the Vulcan Medical Institute, as part of a cultural exchange program, she may have an idea what is going on with Commander Spock here?


McCoy: I don’t know…..detailed knowledge regarding the Vulcan mind-meld is usually passed from one generation of adepts to the next. The adepts then teach certain techniques to a select group of students as a means of honing their inborn telepathic abilities. I’d be surprised if they decided to share even the most cursory of information with an outsider from backwards Old Earth….but just maybe…..


Nurse Moreau: Well...with our computer system down...I can’t think of anyone else we can possibly ask.


McCoy: (McCoy’s voice takes on a tone of fatherly firmness.) Nurse Moreau, please remember that you are under strict orders not to discuss this case with any of your friends on the nursing staff. As far as everyone else is concerned, Commander Spock here is being treated for a possible case of Bendii Syndrome. Is that understood?


Nurse Moreau: Yes, Doctor, I understand completely.



McCoy: Good, now, we may decide to bring Nurse Temple in on this, but let’s take one step at a time….


(Just then Spock suddenly sits bolt upright in his bed. Spock wears an unusual smirk upon his face, as his eyes burn with an intensity uncharacteristic of a Vulcan. Spock turns to face Dr. McCoy, but does not appear to recognize him.)


Spock: The beings of this timeline are unfathomably evil, and they mean to destroy me! I must escape if I am to survive!


(Spock reaches out and grabs McCoy by the shoulders and attempts to grapple with him. However, Spock does not appear to possess his normal strength, and McCoy is easily able to grab Spock’s wrist and to break Spock’s grasp upon his shoulders.)


McCoy: Take it easy….easy….that’s it.


Spock: Something has gone terribly wrong in this timeline, and if they somehow manage to break into my own timeline, they will destroy everything in one of their bloody wars of conquest! They are mad! Such madness!


McCoy: Easy, easy, (as he guides Spock back into a lying down position upon the bed.) Nurse get me a stabilizer, quick.


(Nurse Moreau hands McCoy a hypo-spray from a tray that is behind her. McCoy injects the spray into Spock’s neck, and Spock instantly goes limp.)


Nurse Moreau: Timelines?…wars of conquest?….As Commander Spock gone insane?


McCoy: Let’s hope not. Commander Spock has one of the keenest minds in all of Starfleet, and if he has somehow lost his sanity, then it would be a great loss to us all. (McCoy appraises the unconscious Spock while wearing a look of deep concern upon his face.)


McCoy: Would you please go get Nurse Temple for me.


(The scene changes to a deserted corridor where the two security officers from the bridge are seen standing on either side of a tall spacesuited figure. Chief of Security Andrew Lau is seen standing behind the spacesuited figure carefully adjusting fasteners with his fingertips.)


(The short darker-complected security officer is seen standing in front of the spacesuited figure, keeping a wary eye focused on the face in the visor, perhaps checking for any signs of a last-minute betrayal.)


(The camera perspective changes to a view within the spacesuited figure’s helmet. )


(Sybok appears calm as Lau makes last minute adjustments to his suit, but Sybok’s breathing is loud inside the confined space of the helmet.)


(Lau slaps Sybok on the back and then Lau’s voice is heard over the tiny speaker inside Sybok’s helmet.)


Andrew Lau: Alright you’re good to go. You can press that yellow button on the back of your wrist to activate the magnetic boots when you encounter an area without any artificial gravity.


(The camera perspective returns to the two security officers and the spacesuited figure standing in the corridor.)


Sybok: (From a speaker mounted on the chest of the spacesuit.) Thank you, but I’ve worn a Starfleet spacesuit before.


(The two security officers ignore Sybok’s comment. The swarthier security officer swings open a small vault like hatch located at about knee height from the floor. The door is just wide enough for a person to crawl through.)


Short Security Officer: This tunnel is roughly ten and a half meters long. When you get to the other end, rotate the handle on the other door counterclockwise. The door swings outward. I don’t want to have to come in there to rescue you because you don’t know how to open the other side. Got it?


(The shorter security officer fixes Sybok with a menacing glare. Sybok ignores him and bends down to stick his upper torso into the tunnel. The interior of the tunnel is similar to one of the Jefferies tubes found inside a warp nacelle pylon, except that it lies at a flat horizontal angle.)


Short Security Officer: (From outside the tunnel.) And remember, don’t try anything cute, I’ll be watching you from inside the shuttlebay control room.


Sybok: I’ll be certain to keep that in mind.


(Sybok begins crawling forward on his hands and knees like a dog. The small door at the entrance of the tunnel is slammed shut behind him with an angry force.)


(Sybok winces as the circuits in his spacesuit fail to dampen out the ear ringing slam quickly enough. Sybok mutters to himself as he crawls through the tunnel.)


(The camera perspective switches to a behind shot of Sybok crawling through the tunnel, providing a somewhat comical view of Sybok’s wide rear end as it wiggles down the long tunnel.)


Sybok: Why did I have to end up with that schmuck Captain Johnathan T. Kirk of the USS Essex! Why couldn’t I have been assigned to the USS Emden under Captain Donitz? Just my luck to end up with Kirk and his damnable worthless half-breed assistant Spock!


(Sybok continues to mutter about his misfortunes as he makes his way toward the far end of the tunnel.)


(Sybok reaches the end of the tunnel and braces himself up on one arm to turn the handle on the door. Sybok’s face is turning red from effort, and he is beginning to sweat inside his space helmet. Sybok continues to angrily murmur to himself as he works to open the door.)


Sybok: Doesn’t that arrogant jackass realize that we are both on the same side, and that we both want the same thing? And now, thanks to him, Project Nimbus may be a total loss, along with my entire scientific career.


(There is a metallic clink as the latch releases. Sybok strains has he pushes hard against the door, and then suddenly there is a strong gust as the air inside the tunnel is vented out into the vacuum inside the shuttlebay.)


(Sybok awkwardly exits the tunnel and crawls out onto the main-hangar deck. The main deck is deserted except for the shuttle Cairo which is resting in the middle of the main-hangar deck. The phaser-torch, brought up by the engineering crew the day before, sits unused near a far bulkhead.)


(Sybok ignores the shuttle and the phaser-torch and walks out into the middle of the main hangar deck. Sybok looks up into the wide panoramic window enclosing the control room. The purple cloaked alien with a metal grill for its face can be seen sitting in a chair facing the window. On either side of the purple cloaked alien stand glum faced Lieutenant Lau and the other much shorter-stockier and domineering security officer.)


(Sybok waves to the people inside the control-room. The stockier security officer shows him a hand held phaser in response.)


Sybok: Little better than animals…..How they ever managed to achieve warp capability is simply beyond me.


(Sybok resumes his walk towards the open hangar doors, and as he passes the shuttle Cairo, his feet began to lose traction and to skitter slightly across the surface of the deck. Sybok presses the yellow button on the back of his left wrist, and the bottoms of his boots slam themselves firmly onto the deck plating with a thunk.)


(The camera perspective changes to an exterior shot looking into the open shuttlebay hangar. The spacesuited Sybok can be seen slowly making his way towards the open hangar doors. Sybok walks through the enormous curved doorway and steps out onto the aft-deck. The aft-deck is a small ledge extending about ten meters out beyond the main shuttlebay doors.)


(Sybok steps over a conduit cable and approaches one of the two large emitter dishes which have been temporarily installed onto the aft-deck.)


(The emitter dishes are each mounted on a support structure comprising various complex support struts and other mechanisms. The support structure resembles a large tripod with three disk shaped feet affixed to the aft-deck.)


(The emitter dishes themselves are fifteen meters in diameter. The two dishes resemble half-moons, with the lower curve of the dishes being hidden below the edge of the aft-deck. The two dishes appear to aimed at distant points in space located at forty-five degrees from the center-line of the Essex.)


(The camera follows one of the thick conduit cables across the deck to where it leads into a large metal enclosure cabinet located within the supporting tripod mechanism.)


(Sybok twists a handle and opens a door on the front of the cabinet. Sybok doesn’t like what he sees, and once again he begins muttering to himself.)


Sybok: Damned it, Shath! These connections are not supposed to be like this!


(Sybok angrily slams the door of the enclosure cabinet and proceeds over to the enclosure cabinet on the other emitter-dish. Sybok opens the second cabinet. The camera prospective shifts to inside the enclosure-cabinet looking toward the space visor that is covering Sybok’s face. Sybok looks into the cabinet for less than a second before grimly announcing to himself….)


Sybok: I’m going to need some hand-tools in order to undo these connections.


(Suddenly an intense silvery pulsating light flares over Sybok’s shoulder. Sybok turns away from the cabinet to see what is going on behind him.)


(The camera perspective is from over Sybok’s shoulder as he looks out into space. A new star has flared in the background behind the Essex. However, instead of being a white pin prick of light, like a normal star, this new star gives off an unpleasant silvery light which seems to penetrate nearly every shadow. Sybok studies the new light for just a second.)


Sybok: Well, it won’t be long now.


(Sybok walks away from the second enclosure-cabinet, leaving its door hanging wide open on its hinges.)


(The scene changes to Sybok walking back into the shuttlebay. The camera perspective is from somewhere deep inside the shuttlebay, with the source of the silvery light being hidden behind Sybok’s approaching spacesuited body. Sybok glances around the interior as if he is looking for something, but the only objects on the main hangar bay deck are the shuttle Cairo, and the unused phaser-torch.)


(Sybok tries to get into the shuttle Cairo, but it is locked.)


(The scene changes to the interior of the shuttlebay control-room, where Chief of Security Andrew Lau, the stockier security officer, and the purple cloaked alien are watching Sybok through the extra wide window overlooking the hangar deck.)


Lau: Is he trying to break into that shuttle-craft? What is he doing? Is he trying to escape? Why hasn’t he removed those cables yet?


Short Security Officer: He’s a Vulcan, he knows he cannot get in there. Most likely he’s trying to get us to go down there so that he can steal our weapons from us.


Purple Cloak: He’s not going anywhere in that baby. It’s magnetically locked to the hangar deck from inside the shuttle, and I’m the only one who can unlock it.


Andrew Lau: What’s he trying to do down there then? (As Lau puts his face closer to the glass to get a better look.)


(The camera follows Sybok from behind as he walks across the deck towards a far wall.)


(Tiny whirlwinds of frozen atmosphere are stirred up by Sybok’s feet as he makes his way across the deserted deck space. Sybok stops and looks down at the phaser-torch that is sitting near the wall. The phaser-torch is a relatively bulky piece of equipment similar in size and shape to a 1960s floor-polisher machine. Sybok looks it over carefully.)


Sybok: Yes...yes….we used to have one of these at Livermore.


(Sybok studies a label on the side of the machine before then announcing….)


Sybok: Yes, this should do nicely.


(Sybok pushes the machine across the deck, careful to not let it get away from him in the faltering gravity. Sybok pushes the phaser-torch out through the open shuttlebay doors and parks it near one of the emitter dishes.)


(Sybok stoops down to flip a large switch marked POWER on the front of the phaser-torch. A power meter indicates fully charged. Sybok removes a cutting wand from its cradle on the side of the machine.)


(Sybok holds the cutter wand away from himself and tests it by pulling its trigger. A red beam about thirty centimeters in length appears at the tip of the cutter. Sybok adjust a knob on the wand to reduce the beams length by about two thirds. Another knob causes the beam to increase in thickness.)


(Sybok places the red beam of the cutter against the dead power conduit at his feet. He is completely through the thick conduit cable within five or six swipes of the phaser-torch.)


(Sybok turns off the phaser-torch and kicks at the disconnected piece of conduit. Sybok kicks the severed piece of conduit several times to drive it back inside the shuttlebay. The disconnected conduit moves like a snake in zero gravity.)


(Sybok locates a large lever on the emitter dish support structure marked MAGNETIC LOCK. Sybok swings the meter-long lever to its opposite position.


Sybok: Now, a large part of the mass is already below the lip of the aft-deck, so this shouldn’t take too much effort.


(Sybok puts a huge space boot against a support strut and pushes. The entire emitter dish mechanism tilts forward with a groan.)


(Sybok’s space boot locks onto the strut and pulls him forward. The camera focuses in on Sybok’s boot as he picks up his heel and breaks the connection with the strut. The huge emitter dish rolls forward until it spills off the lip of the deck and disappears below out of sight.)


(Sybok pauses to look at the distant silvery star while still holding the phaser-torch wand in his hand. It is now about the size of the Moon as seen from Earth.)


(The camera shows abbreviated segments of Sybok cutting the second conduit cable and kicking its severed portion back towards the interior the shuttlebay. This time instead of returning the cutting wand to its cradle, Sybok simply lets it float in free-fall as he focuses on something else.)


(The scene returns to the interior of the shuttlebay control room.)


Lau: As soon as he’s back inside, close those doors and pressurize the hangar bay so that I can go down there and take him into custody.


Purple Cloak: I can only run the repressurization circuits at partial duty cycle due to our current power limitations. It will take at least seven or eight minutes from the time I start refilling the hangar-bay, until it is safe to go down there. Why don’t the two of you simply put on some spacesuits and go in there and grab him now?


Lau: I’ll wait, he’s not going anywhere.


Short Security Officer: And besides, space suits tend to chafe my bicep muscles.


(The short stocky officer then places his fist near his forehead and flexes his enormous arm-muscles. Everyone has a good chuckle.)


(The scene returns to Sybok on the aft-deck. The camera centers upon the lever marked Magnetic Lock, located on the second emitter dish, as Sybok’s gloved hand pulls it forward.)


(The camera perspective changes to a sideview shot of Sybok standing next to the support structure. Sybok lifts a booted foot and places it on a support girder. His boot locks firmly on to the structure. Sybok’s face grimaces inside his helmet as he pushes with all his might.)


(After some resistance, the emitter dish tilts forward. Sybok’s boot becomes stuck to the support girder, and he is forced to hop on one foot as the dish begins to slide over the edge of the deck.)


(Sybok repeatedly presses the yellow button controlling his magnetic boots, but instead of releasing his boot from the support structure a sound usually associated with an electronic malfunction is heard inside Sybok’s helmet.)


Sybok: Cursed Terran workmanship!


(The free-floating cutting wand of the plasma-torch becomes entangled in the shifting support-structure, and as a result, the phaser-torch is sling-shoted off of the aft-deck.)


(Sybok rides the support-structure off of the deck like a surfboard, and just as he clears the lip of the aft-deck, the phaser-torch strikes him squarely in the back, breaking him free of the emitter-dish and its support mechanisms.)


(The impact accelerates Sybok and also puts him on a separate trajectory from that of the dish he has just kicked over.)


(A dramatic long view shot reveals that the emitter dish and its supporting hardware are sinking downward relative to the Essex, has Sybok, on the other hand, begins to drift further astern of the Essex, more or less on the same horizontal plane as the great ship.)


(Sybok looks back in the direction he has come from. The Essex is already over one hundred meters away, and receding. Sybok tries the COM button on his wrist.)


Sybok: Mayday! Mayday! This is Professor Sybok! I’m drifting in space approximately one hundred meters astern of the Essex, please send immediate rescue!


(Sybok release the talk button, but instead of a reply, the inside of his space-helmet is instantly filled with an ear-splitting static sound. Sybok winces at the harsh sound and presses the COM button again to turn it back off.)


Sybok: Useless Terran junk.


(Sybok looks again towards the receding ship, but the interior view of the shuttlebay is already growing indistinct with distance.)


(Sybok turns to look at the source of the silvery pulsating light. It now occupies about ten percent of the distant star-field.)


(The pocket universe no longer has bulges protruding from its equator, and it is now shaped like a perfect sphere. The outer membrane of the pocket-universe has a shimmering quality to it, with alternating streaks of darkness, lightness, and grayness shifting across its surface. There are occasional ghostly images resembling reflections of shapes and color somewhere very near the surface of the membrane, but they dissolve into nothingness before the eye can discern what they might be.)


(Sybok looks at his oxygen gauge on his right wrist. It indicates that he has slightly less than two hours of oxygen left. Sybok lets out a sigh…)


Sybok: Well, to where no man has gone before…


(The scene changes to a wide angle shot of the pocket-universe. Sybok’s gradually diminishing silhouette can be seen drifting over an endless ocean of constantly shifting and diffracting fuzziness.)


(A snowcapped mountain range is briefly glimpsed for a fraction of a second in the prismatic reflection occurring just above the membrane. After the snowcapped mountains, an image seemingly depicting creatures resembling pilot-worms praying inside a huge temple is seen. After the temple a distorted mushroom cloud is briefly glimpsed, followed by even more bizarre and incomprehensible images.)


(Sybok’s silhouette shrinks into nothingness and is gone.)


(The scene returns to the interior of the shuttlebay control-room. The purple-cloaked alien quickly palms a red button marked EMERGENCY CLOSE. Through the control-room window, the shuttlebay main doors can be seen starting to close. The doors move surprisingly quickly for such massive objects of their size.)


Lau: Did you see that? He went right over the edge of the aft-deck! Did we just witness an escape, or was that an accident?


Short Security Officer: We were told not to lose sight of him under any circumstances!


Purple Cloak: He should have used a safety-line. I’m going to list it in my log as a space accident due to a failure to follow simple safety procedures, and I suggest that you do the same. You would think that someone holding a doctorate in theoretical physics would know to use a safety-line when working in a zero G environment. Hmmph.


Lau: I’ll alert the Captain. (Lau reaches for a button located on the panel in front of Purple Cloak.)


(The scene returns to the bridge as Kirk releases the intercom button on the arm of his chair. As the camera pans around the bridge, the outer membrane of the pocket-universe now occupies the entire main-view screen.)


(The bridge-crew is seen bravely performing their duties even though it seems inevitable that the pocket-universe will eventually over take them and envelop the ship.)


Kirk: Understood, Kirk out. Mr. Hansen, distance to outer membrane?


Hansen: six-hundred-thousand kilometers and closing. Although the expansion has slowed considerably, it is still gaining on us. Estimated time to impact….three minutes and fifty-seven point four seconds.


(Saavik turns away from the science station to address Kirk.)


Saavik: Captain, we will not be able to out run the expanding pocket universe without our warp-engines. The front leading edge of the saucer is the strongest part of the ship. I recommend that we take the Essex into the membrane with maximum power to the forward shields.


Kirk: Come again?


Saavik: I recommend that we bring the Essex about and take her into the membrane at a twenty-five-degree angle of attack. We will level the ship out once the leading edge of the saucer makes contact with the membrane. This maneuver may give us a chance to skip the Essex across the surface of the membrane like a stone skipping across water. From there, perhaps we can achieve a shallow orbit until the pocket-universe undergoes its big rip at the end of its life.


Kirk: What will the big-rip be like?


Saavik: Uncertain. Professors Sybok or Mudd would be the best ones to answer such a question, but since they are both gone…...my best guess is that...from our perspective, the big-rip will be as inconsequential as the bursting of a soap bubble…….After all, most of the energy generated during Project Nimbus has already been spent creating the pocket-universe. When the pocket-universe eventually winds down, how much bang can there be left over?


Kirk: A guess?…….Vulcans don’t usually guess.


Saavik: If we simply allow the pocket-universe to overtake us, and if we somehow manage to survive a trip through its outer membrane…..then we may then find ourselves in a cosmological environment where gravity is ten thousand times stronger than what we are used to……….or we may find that the force of elector-magnetism simply does not work.….It would be foolish for us to assume that the laws of physics inside there would be anything like those in our own universe…...I’m sorry, Captain, but right now, skipping the Essex across the surface of the pocket-universe is simply the only option we have available to us……….Our chances of surviving inside the pocket-universe are nil. Therefore, a guess will have to do.


(Kirk stares at Saavik for a full three seconds before speaking.)


Kirk: You really are Commander Spock’s protege aren’t you?


(Saavik bows her head slightly, but does not say anything else.)


Kirk: Uhura, make a ship-wide announcement...Inform the crew that we are going to attempt to skip the Essex off of the outer membrane of the pocket-universe. Alert them to the possibility of power failures and extreme turbulence.


(Kirk presses the intercom button on his chair.)


Kirk: Engineering!


Siemens: (From over the tiny speaker on Kirk’s chair.) Engineering, Siemens here.


Kirk: We are going to take the Essex directly into the outer membrane of the pocket-universe. I need you to bring our forward shields up to full strength as quickly as possible. Do whatever you have to do, we can do without life-support for a short-while if we must.


Siemens: Aye, Captain, I’ll get right on it. You should have full shields in just a few seconds.


Kirk: Mr. Tyler, plot a course which will take us in over its equator…..I want our approach to exactly match its rate of spin….(Kirk looks gravely at the image on the forward view screen.)….Hopefully we can steal a little bit of that thing’s rotational energy and transfer some of it to our own forward momentum in the process….Just maybe that will be enough to help us break free and to skip across its surface……


Tyler: Aye, Captain.


Kirk: Once we are nine thousand meters above the surface, position the ship for a twenty-five degree nose down angle of attack….As soon as the forward edge of our saucer makes contact with the membrane, bring the keel of the secondary hull down so that it may help absorb some of the impact….From that point, we’ll just have to see what’s in store for us.


Tyler: It will take some doing with only manual control, but it can’t be any worse than trying to bring a shuttle into a hangar-bay without a tractor-beam…..and I had to do that plenty of times while stationed on Deep Space Six.


Kirk: That’s the spirit, Mr. Tyler.


Kirk: Mr. Hansen, how are those shields?


Hansen: Ninety-five percent, Captain.


Kirk: That will have to do. Mr. Tyler, bring us about…...now!


(The scene changes to an exterior shot as the Essex executes a graceful long radius U-turn, and begins its plunge inward towards the membrane of the pocket-universe.)


(By this time the pocket-universe is so large, that it appears to have become an immense shimmering wall dividing the entire cosmos in half. The camera centers upon the Essex as it zooms in towards the membrane. As the Essex recedes it appears to become a mere spec against the sheer vastness of the intermittent stereoscopic images occurring across the membrane’s surface.)


Kirk: Estimated time to impact?


Hansen: Approximately ninety-three point seven seconds, depending upon our precise point of contact.


Kirk: Saavik?


Saavik: I concur with Lieutenant Hansen. The outer membrane appears to have a somewhat permeable quality to it…….which is serving to confuse our sensor scans. The problem is also complicated by our lack of a functioning main-computer system.


Kirk: Display estimated distance to membrane in lower corner of main-view screen.


(The readout “Elevation - Meters: 120,000” appears in the lower corner of the screen. The number of meters drops rapidly as the textured surface of the membrane pans below the main-view screen.)


(The scene changes to an exterior bird’s eye view of the Essex flying over the surface of the membrane. At this distance it becomes apparent that the surface of the membrane is actually made up of an ethereal network of translucent filaments. The space between the tightly packed translucent filaments is filled with an unearthly silvery light. Additionally, the surface of the crisscrossing web of filaments seems to undulate much in the same way that a calm sea would gently heave.)


(A constantly shifting layer of stereoscopic imagery, most of it completely incomprehensible, seems to emanate from somewhere just above the web of undulating filaments, but no matter how low the Essex descends, it never reaches the random flashes of color and imagery playing across the landscape.)


(Every once in a while, a section of squirming filament structures writhes itself up from the surface of the membrane. The arched section of filament then twists over upon itself, thus forming a loop. The loop then separates from the arch and floats away as the arch descends back into the membrane.)


(The loops of cosmic-string rise from the vast plain of the membrane, like flames rising from a forest fire, as the Essex sails onward. As the ringlets rise higher above the surface, they diminish in size until they become invisible. The rising twirling ringlets somewhat resemble a gentle snowstorm falling up.)


(The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex. The surface of the pocket-universe stretches out in front of the main-view screen like a rolling plane. A horizon line can be glimpsed in the far-off distance. The altitude counter on the main-view screen reaches nine thousand meters as Kirk stands from his chair and points at the screen.)


Kirk: Reduce power to the impulse engines so that we can get a better look at the surface……..It seems as though its spin is slowing down as we draw nearer…..(Kirk pauses, and then ads) What are those…….images we are seeing, are they some sort of a…...mirage or an illusion?


(Saavik looks into the hooded visor at the science station as she is speaking.)


Saavik: Captain, we are looking at random holographic representations of the interior, which are being displayed across the event-horizon of the pocket-universe. Such phenomenon has long been predicted by string theorists, but this is the first time that it has been directly observed.


Kirk: And those billions of strings randomly crisscrossing across the surface?


Saavik: Most likely we are looking at a single loop of cosmic-string which is wrapped around the cosmological interior an infinite number of times. The cosmic-string, and the compressed spatial dimensions wrapped around it, makeup the outer-membrane of the pocket-universe. Our intention will be to skip the Essex across this surface in order to facilitate our escape.


(Kirk points towards another area of the main-view screen...)


Kirk: There, take us into the trailing edge of that big swell that is slowly moving away from us!


Tyler: Aye, Captain.


(Tyler pushes a small control stick forward as he watches a pitch angle indicator on his console. The screen on Tyler’s console displays a small silhouette resembling the USS Essex in sideview. A digital readout below the outline ship climbs higher as Tyler slowly pushes the stick forward.


(The scene changes to an exterior shot looking forward upon the top leading section of the saucer section from a perspective somewhere just above the dome of the bridge.)


(As the leading edge of the saucer approaches the gently undulating surface of the membrane, perhaps tens of thousands of overlapping filament strings can be seen in the narrow perspective directly in front of the saucer.)


(From this perspective it appears that the filament strings are roughly the thickness of a ground bus, and that each string appears to be precisely the same diameter.)


(As the leading edge of the saucer reaches the membrane, the saucer finally penetrates the three-dimensional holographic images materializing just above the membrane’s surface.)


(The ghostly flashes of images begin to play around the point where the saucer contacts the membrane, and then suddenly some of the holographic images begin to play across the forward hull of the saucer as well.)


(Rather than rebounding off of the surface of the membrane, the leading edge of the saucer section penetrates the overlapping cosmic-strings like a ghost penetrating a brick-wall. Within a few seconds the entire front leading edge of the saucer is submerged into cosmic-string and rolled up silvery spatial dimension.)


(The area of the saucer penetrating into the membrane takes on a bent appearance, as though it has been bent upwards, relative to the rest of the ship, like a straw inserted into a glass of water. In addition to looking bent, the submerged section of the saucer also appears to have lost its depth, as if it is now only a two-dimensional photograph, instead of a solid three-dimensional object.)


(The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex as the scene depicting the leading edge of the saucer being enveloped by the membrane plays on the main-view screen.)


Kirk: Tyler, level us out, before we go in too deep!.


Tyler: Our hull sensors failed to detect a positive contact with the membrane. I’m Bringing the secondary hull down now.


Saavik: Captain, the outer-membrane has begun to evaporate at an accelerated rate……….The pocket-universe is now entering the final phases of its life. The big rip should occur shortly.


(Kirk does not appear to hear Saavik’s remark, as he continues to issue orders to Lieutenant Tyler.)


Kirk: Get the ship on a level plane, Mr. Tyler! Right now, we’ve got enough trouble on our hands without getting ourselves stuck like a fly on a piece of flypaper.


(The scene changes to an exterior shot of the Essex. The camera perspective is from the leeward side of the swell somewhere near its bottom looking up.)


(The nose of the saucer section suddenly breaks through the crest of the swell as the ship moves forward. For a moment, the bottom of the secondary hull becomes visible as the Essex breaks loose from the crest of the swell and begins to nose over.)


(The Essex splashes down into the leeward side of the swell, with only the upper portion of the saucer section and the warp-nacelles above the surface of the membrane. The Essex enters a wide trough between swells.


(A fast-moving current of cosmic-string begins to carry the Essex up the next swell.)


(The scene returns to the bridge, with the camera tightly centered upon Kirk’s face. Kirk pounds the intercom button on his chair with his fist.)


Kirk: Siemens! I need you to give all available power to our impulse engines, NOW!


(The scene returns to an exterior shot of the Essex. The camera perspective is from a point-of-view perhaps four or five hundred meters from behind the ship.)


(The impulse engines located on the rear of the saucer-section suddenly grow a fierce red as the Essex reaches the crest of the next swell.)


(The Essex begins to ponderously lift off from the surface of the pocket-universe, but as it does so, the outer-membrane of the pocket-universe clings to the ship and stretches as the ship struggles to break away.)


(The scene returns to the bridge. The bridge is rocked by turbulence as the crew members sway to and fro in their seats. An astute viewer may note that certain cast members are swaying in opposite directions from one another. Kirk continues to hold the intercom button on his arm-rest as he is speaking. )


Kirk: Siemens, I need to have more power! It is as if this thing doesn’t want us to escape its grasp.


Siemens: (From over the speaker on Kirk’s arm-rest.) I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain.


Kirk: Reduce our shields to fifty percent, cut life-support, and cut off all power to nonessential systems. Do it now, Mr. Siemens!


(The scene changes to Doctor McCoy sitting at his desk. There is a large reference book open on his desk in front of him, but he is not looking at it.)


(The same nurse who gave Kirk a shot in his triceps muscle is now standing in front of McCoy’s desk. She is of Terran ancestry, she appears to be approximately twenty-eight to thirty years old, she is of average height and weight, with light honey colored blond hair and blue eyes.)


McCoy: Nurse Temple, I understand that you spent some time studying at the Vulcan Medical Institute, is that correct?


Nurse Temple: That’s correct, I spent three and a half years on Vulcan doing undergraduate work while I studied at the institute. It was a grueling experience, but I feel that I’m much better of a nurse today because of it.


McCoy: That’s good. Why don’t you have a seat, Nurse Temple, I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.


(Nurse Temple slips into a chair directly in front of McCoy’s desk, carefully smoothing out her skirt with her hands as she sits down.


Nurse Temple: Why of course, Doctor, I’m always happy to be of help.


McCoy: What can you tell me about the Vulcan mind-meld?


Nurse Temple: Well, that one is no secret…..Everyone knows that the Vulcan mind-meld is a telepathic mind fusion technique which allows for the most intimate sharing of thoughts and ideas between two individuals.


McCoy: Uh-huh, and what about when something goes wrong during a Vulcan mind-meld? Do you happen to have any special knowledge or training in that area?


Nurse Temple: Does this have to do with Commander Spock?


McCoy: Let’s just say that doctor patient confidentiality prevents me from going into specific details here.


Nurse Temple: Oh, I see. Well….


McCoy: Go on.


Nurse Temple: My understanding is that just about anything that can go wrong during a Vulcan mind-meld can be repaired by a ritual known as Fal-tor-pan.


McCoy: Fal-tor-pan?…...Why, I’ve never heard of it, and it isn’t mentioned in any of the materials I’ve been pouring over.


Nurse Temple: To the best of my knowledge it can only be carried out by a particular sect of high-ranking Vulcan priestesses living on Mount Seleya. No one else can do it, and even the priestesses living on Mount Seleya don’t conduct the ritual all that often themselves.


McCoy: I see….


Nurse Temple: I wish that I could give you more specific information, Doctor, but my own knowledge in this area is somewhat limited, due to the reluctance of the Vulcans to share such things with outsiders.


McCoy: Don’t worry, Nurse, you’ve told me plenty.


(Just then McCoy’s office is plunged into complete and total darkness.)


McCoy: Oh, what now….


(The scene returns to the exterior rear angle shot of the Essex as it continues to climb away from the crest of the swell. The band of cosmic-string membrane connecting the Essex to the pocket-universe grows narrower under the strain of the impulse engines struggling to lift the ship up off of the surface.)


(Suddenly a large section of membrane rips free from the surface and clings to the lower secondary hull as the Essex climbs away from the pocket-universe.)


(As the Essex gains altitude, the membrane of the pocket-universe begins to loses its silvery light as the membrane itself begins to break up into continent like chunks.)


(The section of membrane clinging to the hull of the Essex twinkles faintly about its edges as it breaks up and quickly dissolves into sparkling nothingness.)


(The Essex is shown floating serenely in space, completely free of the expanding pocket-universe, or any clinging membrane material.)


(The scene returns to the bridge of the Essex. A dirty dark shell of expanding material fills the main-view screen where the pocket-universe used to be. As the scene progresses, the shell of expanding material seems to sparkle about its many fragmented edges, as it quickly dissolves into nothingness.)


(Occasional eddy currents and bolts of space lightning can be observed in the broiling dissolving shell of the pocket-universe, but within a short while even these phenomena seem to lose their strength as the expanding shell quickly dissolves into the emptiness of space.)


Kirk: My God! Did we just cause the complete and total annihilation of an entire universe?


Saavik: Indeed, Captain, our contact with the outer-membrane appears to have hastened the destruction of the pocket-universe. Coincidentally, the energy created by the collision of the two super-massive protons during the experiment is now being returned to our universe in the form of positrons, antineutrinos, antiphotons, as well as a smattering of electrons.


Kirk: Mr. Hansen, give me a reading on our current coordinates.


(Lieutenant Hansen spends the next few moments pecking keys on his console before answering.)


Kirk: Uhura, please send a subspace message to Starfleet Command advising them of our current situation. Perhaps they can get a tug out here in the next day or so to tow us into Deep Space Five. (Kirk lets out a heavy sigh, as if wondering what these latest developments will do to his career.)


Hansen: We are nine hundred twenty-eight million seven hundred and forty-three thousand kilometers from the point where we first entered the membrane. The nearest inhabited star-system is the Karush system at a distance of slightly over one hundred and twenty-five light years.


Kirk: Mr. Saavik, scan out to a distance of four light years for any potentially hostile enemy vessels. Right now, we are sitting ducks, and I don’t want the Klingons to get the jump on us…...if I can possibly avoid it.


(Uhura turns in her swivel chair to face Kirk, as she wears a look of deep consternation upon her face.)


Uhura: Captain, all subspace frequencies are completely quiet, and I’m unable to raise Starfleet Command on any channel.


Kirk: Keep trying at five-minute intervals. Perhaps there is some sort of residual interference which is blocking our reception.


Saavik: I am unable to detect any space-craft within a four light year radius, and the Gorn freighter we previously observed at a distance of ten light years has completely vanished. The only ships within sensor range are two nuclear powered sub-light vehicles operating in the Romulus system, at a distance of over two-hundred and eighty-six light years from our current location.


Tyler: Captain, I’m unable to lock onto the carrier signal sent out by the Union network of navigation beacons. That signal is never supposed to be turned off, and if the navigation network isn’t functioning, then something must really be wrong.


Kirk: No faster than light vehicles within scanner range, sub-space radio frequencies are completely silent, and we cannot detect a signal from the navigation network. What does it all mean? Did a major war happen while we were under radio silence?


(Saavik takes a few steps in front of the main-view screen before she begins speaking. The final wisps of the dirty ash cloud that was once the expanding pocket-universe continue to uncoil on the screen behind her as she speaks.)


Saavik: Captain, you are correct. We have no idea what the current political situation is right now. For all we know, there may have been a coup d'etat, or an invasion from outside the galaxy during the period of time that we were conducting our secret mission.


Kirk: Well, Lieutenant,….what do you suppose that we do now?


Saavik: I recommend that we continue to maintain radio silence until we know more about what is going on around us.


(Kirk uses his finger to make a chopping motion across his neck as he looks in Uhura’s direction. Uhura removes her hands from her control panel and turns to focus her attention on Saavik standing in front of the bridge.)


Saavik: Furthermore, it may be possible to bring our warp-core back online without the use of the ship’s main-computer. I recommend that we focus our attention on jury-rigging our warp-drive, so that we may make our way to the Terran system in order to determine what has occurred.


(Saavik’s face freezes in mid-sentence as the camera zooms in and centers upon her head and shoulders. The words – TO BE CONTINUED are superimposed over the still image of Saavik’s face as the closing theme music begins to play.)

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