"Yes, sir." Talliflores operated instruments. "Relaying, sir."
In the absence of further information, Kirk leaned back in the command chair and pondered what had happened so far. In the following silence he had ample time to consider and abandon at least a dozen theories concerning the Caitians' actions, none of which seemed even marginally probable.
His chair intercom buzzed for attention.
"Jim," the voice from the speaker announced, "McCoy here. I've received two more casualties."
"What?" Kirk sat up straight in the chair.
"That's right, two more. From different decks. One thinks he was attacked by Lieutenant M'ress. The other identifies his attacker as Ensign M'viore."
"M'viore, too." Kirk felt dazed. "Bones, what the hell's going on here?"
"I wish I knew, Jim. Caitians are normally a very controlled people. This is the first incident of its kind that I can recall taking place aboard the Enterprise or for that matter any other ship I know of, in which Caitians were involved. It doesn't make any sense."
"I know that already, Bones. What about temporary insanity?"
"Occurring simultaneously in three different personalities? Highly unlikely, Jim. I've been checking their records in the medical computer. All three crew members have a history of perfectly normal health, both mental and physical. Not one of them has ever shown any tendency toward mental instability, let alone all three of them. Sorry, Jim, but it has to be something else."
"Anything we could have brought on board, Bones?" Kirk wondered. "Maybe something that could have contaminated their food, affecting them and no one else?"
"I'll check their diets as best I can, Jim, but it's impossible to know exactly what they've eaten lately, never mind for the past few weeks or months. If it's something they did eat, the responsible substance might have been ingested long ago and is only now manifesting itself. There's only one way to check that out and that's to submit all three of them to a detailed biochemical body analysis, to find out if there is a foreign substance affecting their stability."
"To do that, Bones, we have to catch them."
"And that's the immediate problem, Jim. In order to cure them, we've first got to find them."
There were three members in the search party. All had their phasers out and set for stun. Ordinarily that would be enough to give them a quiet confidence, but this situation was different from any in recent memory. Even when the quarry was a member of the ship's crew, at least one had some idea what to expect. This time, no one from the captain on down seemed to have any idea what was happening. All they knew was that they were searching for three Caitian crew members who had possibly gone crazy.
Presently they were combing the recreational forest on Deck Eight, having started from the section where the missing officer M'ress had last been seen. Other security parties were performing similar searches both on this deck and elsewhere on the ship.
"Hasmid," whispered one of the security men to his friend on his left, "I understand that Caitians are supposed to be able to move unheard and unseen through this kind of terrain. Just because it's located in the middle of a starship doesn't mean they can't function as efficiently as they can on the surface of a planet."
"Quiet, Kasuki!" the other responded sharply. "You're makin' me nervous. And this isn't any kind of terrain. It's only the recreation area."
"Shut up, you two!" snapped the officer in charge of the little group.
They were traveling in a line through a particularly dense clump of vegetation. In spite of their attentiveness, they hardly had time to react when the three Caitians hit them simultaneously.
Kirk's chair intercom yammered for attention again. Kirk jabbed the acknowledge button almost viciously. "Kirk here."
"Jim, McCoy again," came the concerned response. "One of our patrolling security details got beaten up. It looks like our three fugitives have joined together somewhere down on Deck Eight."
"One minute, Bones." Kirk switched over to shipwide frequency. "Attention, all security personnel. All security personnel, this is the captain speaking. Seal off Deck Eight. Shut down all turbolift service to Deck Eight. Personnel on Deck Eight are instructed to continue with normal duties. The three Caitians are apparently now operating together, but they've shown no tendency to perform wanton attacks on individuals, and react violently only if approached.
"If you see any of the three crew members in question, do not attempt to restrain them yourselves. Contact the nearest security team and give details of your sighting." Kirk thought a second, then added, "Use extreme caution when approaching the three Caitians. They have already overpowered one security unit. Henceforth, all security teams will operate in groups of not less than eight per team."
Kirk switched back to the Sick Bay frequency. "Sorry, Bones, but I had to relay some information to Security right away. Go on."
"Jim, there's something else peculiar about this. None of the three Caitians are especially large or strong. The contrary, if anything. Yet they put a whole security team out of commission, a team of personnel whose business is restraining the unruly. The three are all marked up: bruises, scratches, cuts, the works. Ensign Trancas is one of them."
Kirk knew Trancas, a big, burly wrestler type from a slightly high-gravity world. Hardly the sort one would imagine a trio of sylphlike Caitians could overpower, much less beat up.
"They encountered only the three Caitians?" he asked in disbelief, "and they were unable to subdue them?"
"Subdue them! Jim, you ought to see these three. Trancas was in charge of their group. He told me they never had a chance. They thought they had the three fugitives spotted, and approached them with phasers ready. Trancas says they should have beamed them on sight. Instead, when the Caitians showed no sign of aggressiveness, they tried to move them physically. That's when they were jumped, too fast to use their weapons. We know the Caitians are fast, but this other thing has me confused. Trancas says he tried to wrestle M'ress to the deck and she threw him into a clump of bushes."
"M'ress?" The communications officer had never displayed any unusual strength. "Bones, do the Caitians have some special reserves of energy they can call on at will? Perhaps something we don't know about?"
"I wouldn't think so, Jim. At least, I never heard of any such phenomenon, and the Caitians are a fairly well documented race. They've been members of the Federation long enough for any peculiar abilities to have manifested themselves. I think we're still stuck with our original hypothesis: that something they've eaten has affected their body chemistry. The unusual strength is undoubtedly a byproduct of whatever's affecting them. Whatever they ingested isn't sitting well with them."
"It's not sitting well with me either, Bones. Keep hunting, and let me know the instant you think you might've found the chemical that's causing all the trouble."
"If that's what it is, Jim. Sick Bay out."
"Captain?" Talliflores glanced over from communications. "A new report coming in. From a yeoman Loo. He's certain he spotted Lieutenant M'ress and at least one other Caitian on Deck Six."
"Already? They must have slipped away before we sealed off Deck Eight."
"If anyone could avoid patrols it would be the Caitians, sir." Vedama sounded half apologetic. "With their speed and agility, coupled to a natural talent for self-concealment, they will prove difficult to corner."
"I'm fully aware of the capabilities of Caitian physiology, Mr. Vedama." Kirk's frustration made his reply sound more biting than he intended it to be. "More than I want to be, at the moment." He sighed.
"Mr. Talliflores, redirect security personnel to cover all decks, with particular emphasis on Deck Six."
"Yes, sir." He paused, listening at his headset. "Another report coming in. They didn't slip through unnoticed. They confronted another security patrol under the command of yeoman O'Hyr. They're on their way to Sick Bay now."
Events were becoming more complicated instead of less so, Kirk mused. "All eight of them?"
/> "All but three, Captain," Talliflores reported. "Yeoman O'Hyr is among them. But Ensigns Suarez, Hilambo, and Chevalier were not injured and are presently in pursuit of the fugitives, having delayed only long enough to report in and check the severity of their companions' injuries."
"So three of them weren't hurt, and the Caitians backed off. Whatever's affecting them hasn't made them omnipotent, then. They haven't suddenly become invincible." He hesitated. "Still, five out of eight put out of commission without so much as capturing one fugitive isn't very encouraging either. But at least no one's been seriously hurt or killed yet."
"True, sir," Arex commented from his position at the navigation-helm. "But they will have phasers now, taken from the assaulted security team."
"Mr. Arex, I'm sure they took phasers from the first trio of security personnel they confronted, and yet they haven't so much as fired to stun anyone. That doesn't make any sense either. If nothing else, the Caitians are acting consistent in their inconsistentness." Kirk stared at the vacant viewscreen, which all too soon would be displaying a picture of Starbase 25.
Probably the base had several Caitians in its complement, which meant that M'ress and her companions had to be captured and treated before anyone from the Enterprise could leave the ship. A human might not be affected by whatever had possessed the Caitians, but that didn't rule out the possibility of Kirk or anyone else of another species serving as a carrier. If it was some kind of racial malady the Caitians were suffering from, he couldn't risk infecting the Caitians at the starbase. Besides which, the Caitians had to be caught so they could be kept from harming themselves, not to mention other personnel.
"Whatever's affected them hasn't driven them completely crazy, Mr. Arex, or they wouldn't have a thought about employing weapons, not to mention severely injuring anyone else. They've been very careful about that." A new thought occurred to him.
"In fact, their recent movements are a testament to their continued sanity. Have you noticed, Mr. Arex, Mr. Vedama, that the Caitians aren't just traveling in a random pattern to avoid the security teams? They're moving upward through the ship. Why, I can't imagine. But if they persist in their movements, and there's no reason why they shouldn't—at least, none I can hypothesize—then maybe we can make it work to our advantage. The bridge is the one level on the ship where we can isolate them and eliminate any possible chance of escape."
"True but risky, Captain," Vedama pointed out.
Kirk replied tensely. "I have three valuable members of my crew running amok, Lieutenant, and if we can stop them before they severely injure any of their fellows or irrevocably incriminate themselves, I'm going to take a chance or two."
"Captain," Lieutenant Arex noted, "if we permit them to reach the bridge unopposed and they are, as you state, not insane, then surely they will suspect something."
"Not if we're careful not to give them reason to, Lieutenant. All bridge personnel will continue to perform their usual duties, as if nothing is amiss. Mr. Vedama, signal Starbase Twenty-Five and find out what they know about periodic maladies among the Caitians. Give them a detailed breakdown of their aberrant behavior lately, plus personal resumes. See if the medical computer there has any information we might use that's not in our banks. And if there's a Caitian or two serving at the Base, try and contact them directly and explain our problem. Maybe they'll know exactly what's wrong."
"Yes, sir. We are still a considerable distance from the base and there is no deep-space relay between. There will be time between questions and reply," Vedama declared.
"Sick Bay calling bridge," the speaker at Kirk's elbow announced. "McCoy here. The injuries to the five members of the last security team are—"
"Not now, Bones," Kirk interrupted him. "The Caitians are moving upward through the ship. I have a hunch they're going to try and reach the bridge."
"Why would they do that? Surely they have no illusions about taking over the ship!"
"We don't know what they might want, Bones."
"Well if you're fairly sure they're coming there, then I'm coming also. They've already demonstrated they can exercise much more than their usual strength. Several of the injured ensigns are positive they hit at least two of the Caitians with phaser bursts when it seemed they were going to be overpowered. They're convinced that's what drove their attackers off, but they don't understand why the bursts didn't stun them into immobility. All I can guess is that their increased strength may also be coupled to an ability to at least partially withstand a phaser set to stun."
"I'll believe that, Bones, when I fire point-blank at M'ress and don't see her fall on the deck."
"Maybe so, Jim, but I'm going to bring something of my own along. It's more powerful than a phaser stun burst, but no more lethal. Ke'eloveen. It's a general tranquilizer that can be adjusted specifically for several different kinds of mammalian metabolism. It won't take long to concoct a batch gauged specifically for Caitian physiology."
"Sounds promising, Bones. Be glad to have you."
McCoy arrived on the bridge shortly thereafter. He carried a small plastic pistol with a multiple barrel. Walking over to the command chair, he showed it to Kirk, reached into a waist pouch and brought out a handful of tiny transparent darts filled with a thick golden liquid.
"Each dart holds enough ke'eloveen to put out several Caitians, Jim. The pistol can fire four darts together or individually. I hope I have enough time to fire one dart at a time. I can fire a quadruple spread in an emergency, but three darts or more striking the same person would create the danger of overdose reactions."
"I'm hoping—unreasonably—that you won't have to use them, Bones." Kirk found the prospect of facing an attack by three of his crew sobering, where others might have found it ludicrous.
McCoy placed the pistol in a ready position at his waist. "Any indication of where the three are now?"
"No. We haven't had any reports on their whereabouts for some time, Bones. Hopefully a patrol will capture them before they can reach the bridge. If not, we have one advantage: They don't know that we're expecting them here."
"How can you be so sure, Jim? They probably know that you've been receiving reports on their movements. They might assume that you do know they're heading here and change their direction accordingly."
"I don't think so, Bones." Kirk leaned forward earnestly. "Everything they've done so far has been with a singlemindedness of purpose."
"So you think there's a method in their madness? That they have some definite goal in mind?" McCoy seemed skeptical. "That doesn't sound like any kind of disease function I ever heard of."
"Bones, they've got to be working toward some end. I admit I don't have much grounds for believing that, but their actions almost hint that they're being controlled by something they're unable to resist, some compulsion they can't fight. I don't think they'll consider that we might be waiting for them, because I don't think that whatever's driving them leaves them much room for that kind of abstract speculation. I just wish I knew what they wanted, and why."
"We'll find out soon enough, Jim." And he added, so softly no one else could hear, "Provided we don't have to kill all three of them." McCoy moved away, leaving Kirk to his own thoughts. He took up a stance near the communications console, checking to make certain the tranquilizer pistol was still in place, ready to be pressed into hurried service.
"Remember," Kirk informed the rest of the bridge personnel, "no one is to make a hostile move or indicate that anything out of the ordinary is taking place unless the Caitians provoke us. If that happens, use your phasers on stun."
A chorus of "ayes" sounded in varying degrees of assurance from around the bridge.
"Anything from Starbase Twenty-Five, Lieutenant Vedama?"
"No, sir. They should have received our communication by now. No doubt they are trying to find something to report to us."
Kirk turned to communications once more. "Talliflores, any new word on the present location of the Caitians?"
&nb
sp; "No, sir, nothing. None of the patrolling security teams reports a sighting since the last one identifying them from Deck Six—and no word from any other personnel, although everyone on the ship must be looking out for them."
"They're probably not even halfway to the bridge yet," McCoy commented. "Maybe they changed their minds or their imaginary unknown purpose, and are heading in a different direction."
"Maybe, Bones," Kirk conceded, "but I still—"
The turbolift doors opened abruptly. Everyone on the bridge tensed, then relaxed. It was only a couple of ensigns wearing science department insignia. And also wearing, Kirk noted curiously after starting to turn away, oddly matched blank expressions.
"Bridge—!" he started to shout.
Both technicians fell forward, unconscious. Two Caitians emerged from the lift behind them, moving low and incredibly fast and firing phasers of their own.
"—alert!" Kirk finished, even as he was ducking down in the command chair and reaching for his own sidearm.
The order was hardly necessary, since everyone had heard or seen the two bodies of the technicians falling to the deck in front of the lift. Moving forms and flashing beams of phaser power set for stun filled the bridge. That included the phasers of the Caitians, who still displayed a caution entirely out of keeping with their actions. Several members of the bridge complement were quickly immobilized by the Caitians' surprise attack.
Shielded by the command chair's bulk, Kirk was able to aim a touch better than some of his crew. One blast from his phaser struck Ensign R'leez square in the left side, under her arm. She stumbled—but didn't go down. They had been correct in assuming that whatever was affecting the Caitians had also given their bodies the ability to withstand a low-power phaser burst.
But Kirk couldn't consider increasing the power of any weapons to killing intensity. No one had been killed or seriously hurt by the rampaging Caitians. Of course, if it appeared that it was going to be a choice between hurting one of the Caitians and letting them take over the bridge . . .
Arex was crouched behind the navigation-helm console firing regularly. Holding a paralyzed left forearm tight against his side, Lieutenant Vedama provided a crossfire from the region of the science station.