Star Trek 04 Read Free Page A

years. Aha . . ."
    McCoy groaned, stirred and his breathing harshened, as though he were fighting for air. Spock leaned over him.
    "Dr. Leonard McCoy, wake up," he said formally but urgently. Then, "Bones!"
    McCoy's breathing quieted gradually and Spock stepped back. The surgeon's eyes opened, and slowly came to focus on the woman.
    "Who are you?" he asked fuzzily.
    "My name is Zarabeth."
    Somehow, Spock had never thought to ask that.
    "Where's Spock?"
    "I'm here, Doctor."
    "Are we back in the library?"
    "We are still in the ice age," Spock said. "But safe, for the moment."
    McCoy tried to sit up, though it was obvious that he was still groggy. "Jim! Where's Jim? We've got to find Jim!"
    "You are in no condition to get up. Rest now, and I will attempt to find the Captain."
    McCoy allowed Spock to settle him back in bed. "Find him, Spock. Don't worry about me. Find him!"
    He closed his eyes, and after a moment, Spock nodded silently toward the door. Zarabeth led the way back into the underground living room, then asked, "Who is this Jim?"
    "Our Commanding Officer. Our friend."
    "I saw only the two of you. I did not know that there was another."
    "There—is not. He did not come with us. The time-portal sent him to another historical period, much later than this one. If I am to find him, there is only one avenue. Will you show me where the time-portal is?"
    "But your friend—in the other room," Zarabeth said. "He is ill."
    "It is true that if I leave him, there is the danger that he may never regain the ship." Spock thought it over. It proved to be peculiarly difficult. "He would then be marooned in this time-period. But he is no longer in danger of death, so my primary duty to him has been discharged . . . If I remain here, no one of our party can aid Captain Kirk . . ."
    "You make it sound like an equation."
    "It should be an equation," Spock said, frowning. "I should be able to resolve the problem logically. My impulse is to try to find the Captain, and yet—" he found that he was pacing, although it didn't seem to help much. "I have already made one error of judgment that nearly cost McCoy's life. I must not make another now. Perhaps it has to do with the Atavachron. If I knew more about how it works . . . Zarabeth, you say that you are a prisoner here. May I ask . . ."
    ". . . why? My crime was in choosing my kinsmen unwisely. Two of them were involved in a conspiracy to kill Zor Khan. It wasn't enough to execute my kinsmen. Zor Khan determined to destroy our entire family. He used the Atavachron to send us to places where no one could ever find us."
    "Ah. Then the solution is simple. Zor Khan exists no more. You and I can carry McCoy back to the library. I'll send you and McCoy to the ship, and have Mr. Atoz send me to wherever Jim . . ."
    "No!" Zarabeth cried, in obvious terror. "I can't go back through the portal now! I will be dead!"
    "You cannot go back?"
    "None of us can go back," she said, a little more calmly. "When we come through the portal, we are changed by the Atavachron. That is its function. Our basic metabolic structure is adjusted to the time we enter. You can't go back; if you pass through the portal again, you will be dead when you reach the other side."
    And there it was. He and McCoy were trapped here, for the rest of their lives. And so was Jim, wherever he was.

    When Kirk came to, he found himself all too obviously in jail, and a pretty primitive jail at that, lying on a rough pallet which squeaked of straw. Fingering his head and wincing, he got up and went to the barred door. There was nothing to be seen but a gloomy corridor and the cell opposite his. The gypsy was in it.
    She seemed to be about to speak to him, but at that moment there were voices in the near distance and, instead , she shrank into a far corner of her cell. In another moment the constable hove into view, leading a man whose demeanor was all too obviously that of a public prosecutor.
    "That's the man," the constable said,