Constellations (19 page)

“Souls.” McCoy, who had been silent up to this point, suddenly seemed to surprise even himself by speaking. “You're talking about
souls,
Spock.”

“In the case of the Tholians, a scientific reality,” Spock said. “The magnetic and gravitational forces present here have created an environment in which these entities can still survive even after the destruction of their physical bodies.”

Merrill stared at the viewscreen and the crimson haze of the Veil just past the space station. “And we were going to drain that cloud…kill them all a second time.”

“Merrill, can we deactivate those satellites from here?” Kirk said urgently. “Get them away from the Veil somehow?”

“I can deactivate them for sure; maneuvering all of them away from the cloud would take time.”

“Have your people deactivate them at least!” Kirk said. “The Outsiders must see the station as a threat to their dead.” Merrill pulled out his communicator and began talking to his first officer. On the viewscreen the Tholian web had all but sealed off the station; Kirk saw lights winking out on the external structure of M-33 as the station began to collapse under the strain.

“Captain, Assembly forces on intercept course. They'll be here in seconds,” Sulu reported.

Attack beams and plasma volleys began to erupt on both sides of the station now, and glancing blows hammered the hull of the
Enterprise.
In the space around the starship and the helpless space station, two forces of delta-shaped, glinting vessels converged, and Kirk had to shield his eyes for a moment from the glare of weapons fire and detonations flashing on the forward viewscreen. The civil war had begun.

“Several Tholian vessels of unknown design are flanking the Assembly attack group,” Spock said, “on course for the Veil.”

“They're webships too,” Sulu said as he sighted five of the new ships. They looked like a cluster of Tholian spearhead-type webships fused together around a diamond-shaped core, and each vessel was larger than the
Enterprise.
As the starship drifted, the five vessels and their escort ships brushed past the
Enterprise
and the M-33 station almost as if the two Federation constructs were beneath notice. Between them a blazing web of energy filaments stretched out to form a web that grew in size by the second as the vessels fanned out. The web stretched until it was a hundred kilometers wide, then five hundred, finally a thousand and more.

“They're going to snare the Veil,” Merrill said, shaking his head. “They probably want to drag the thing out of here once and for all.”

“Or destroy it,” Spock said. “The Assembly is likely to repeat the same mistake it made millennia ago.”

“Uhura, hail the Assembly attack force commander again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Kirk stood behind Sulu and Chekov and watched as Outsider ships broke away from their concentration on M-33 to go after the giant Assembly webships. Shields flared on the massive vessels as the smaller Outsider ships fired on them, but their trajectory toward the Veil was unaffected.

“The satellites are all shut down, Kirk,” Merrill said, closing his communicator.

“The Assembly ships are closing on the Veil,” Chekov announced. “Contact in six seconds.”

On the screen the yawning web, stretched so thin it was now almost invisible, maneuvered to ensnare the crimson swath of ionized gas. Kirk frowned as something changed; he blinked, not quite certain he was seeing right.

“Extreme activity inside the cloud,” Spock said, looking up from his viewer.

“It's moving!” Sulu exclaimed. Kirk had seen the shift, too, as tendrils seemed to snake out from some of the edges of the cloud while its center compacted. The red glow of the Veil seemed to intensify into some color Kirk couldn't describe. An arc of energy flickered out from one wispy tendril and licked the hull of one of the Tholian Assembly ships, and for a moment the energy filaments snaking out from the ship's body flickered and faded before flaring back to life.

The Veil was defending itself. Kirk held his breath for a moment, stunned by the enormity of what he was seeing. Were those ten billion souls inside the Veil awakening now, lashing out in anger at their murderers' descendants?

“Sir, the Assembly ships are slowing,” Sulu said, turning back to look at Kirk. “I don't think they expected that either.”

“What's happening, Spock?” Kirk asked.

“Unknown, Captain,” the Vulcan replied. “But clearly some kind of mass consciousness is retained by the surviving energy signatures within the cloud.”

“One of the Assembly vessels is answering our hail, Captain,” Uhura announced. “And I'm picking up another broadcast—from the Outsider pilot the station captured. It's escaped the station and appears to be communicating with the Outsider forces.”

“Can you translate what it's saying?”

“No, sir,” Uhura said, nodding toward the viewscreen. “But I'm guessing it's a request for their forces to stand down, too.”

“Patch me through to the Assembly ship,” Kirk said. If there was a time to talk, it was now. “This is Captain Kirk of the
Enterprise,
” he began. “We request negotiation and the cessation of hostilities, between all vessels in this star system.”

The triple-toned voice of the Tholian Assembly commander came after a moment's pause. “
The Assembly's agreement was not with you,
Enterprise.”

Merrill added his voice. “That's right. It was with me. I'm commander of the Federation station here.”

“You were informed of the consequences of refusing transport of your prisoner to us. Now your interference has exacted its cost.”

“Your agreement with Commodore Merrill was to keep your people away from this system?” Kirk asked. “Why? Why not claim this space for yourselves?”

“We reject this area,”
the Tholian voice said.
“We reject the Outsiders who keep its memory within themselves. We were content that your people eradicate it for your own uses.”

Kirk glanced at Merrill for a second. “We will not take part in the eradication of your history…or in the suppression of a part of your population.”

“Your principles are unimportant,
Enterprise.
Our survival is paramount. All in our society have their place and their function. The memory of this place endangers that. Those who remember forget their function and soon they join with the Outsiders. Their numbers grow, and they serve no purpose but disruption.”

“Then what will you do here? What will your ships do with the cloud?”

The pause this time was long.
“It was thought that we would remove the dead from this system and dispose of it in our own way. We have avoided this necessity for thousands of life spans, but you have made the choice for us.”

“Yet you've hesitated,” Kirk said. “Why? Because you see that something still survives inside that cloud?”

“We know the dead exist there. The dead have no meaning to us, only to the Outsiders.”

“Yet this cloud moves…it shows life. Understanding,” Kirk argued.

This time it was Spock who raised his voice. “What you describe as ‘dead' is in fact billions of Tholian consciousnesses…perhaps even a mass consciousness that mirrors your own society. Would that not be worthy of preservation…even study?”

“
There is no such function in our society,
Enterprise.”

A sudden thought struck Kirk. “But there could be,” he said. “What about the Outsiders?”

“The Outsiders disrupt society—”

“But what if they could be made to
serve
society?” Kirk demanded. “The Tholian pilot you pursued here is one who alters the functions of your people from caste to caste so that they may serve the Assembly better, correct? Couldn't individuals like him do the same with the Outsiders? Modify them to do what they seek to do—study, perhaps even merge with this…well of souls, and bring its knowledge, the knowledge of your own past, perhaps many things you do not yet understand, to be shared by the Assembly for its greater good?”

“Our society is defined. There is no role for Outsiders. They disrupt—”

“But they disrupt because they
have
no role!” Kirk argued. “And as long as the Outsiders have no role, as long as racial memory stretches back to this tragedy, the ranks of the Outsiders will grow and Tholian society will continue to fracture.”

“Even a logically ordered society must grow and evolve,” Spock said simply. “Tholians are among the most complex and unique life-forms in the galaxy. They should be capable of adapting to the inevitability of change as well as or better than other species.”

Kirk looked at Spock and raised his eyebrows appreciatively. A little flattery couldn't hurt, and the Tholians seemed to have a formidable streak of arrogance in them.

“The Mage Naskeel is an Outsider, a fugitive. Why should Naskeel agree to serve the Assembly?”
the Tholian commander asked after another long pause.

“I still have a transponder lock on Naskeel's ship, Captain,” Uhura announced.

“We have established communication with Naskeel, Commander,” Kirk said. “We would be happy to assist you as a mediator to help you reach an agreement with the Outsiders if you desire it.” Kirk glanced at the crumpled remains of M-33 still visible on the main screen. He looked back to where Merrill stood at the back of the bridge, diminished and disassociated from what was happening. The next steps would be even more painful.

“Under the circumstances, Commander,” Kirk began, “we would be willing to discuss relinquishing our claim on this area of space. Clearly the history of this region is Tholian, and perhaps it's a history better explored and understood than buried.”

Silence.

“Quite generous,
Enterprise,” the Tholian voice came after a long moment.
“We will take your proposal under advisement and begin discussion with Mage Naskeel.”

 

Kirk stepped up to the rear level of the bridge where Merrill stood next to a watchful McCoy. “Commodore, I can't think of anyone more suited to negotiate between these two sides than you.”

Merrill stared at Kirk numbly. “You mean someone suited to sell out the Federation? Is that what you mean?”

“You wanted an alliance with the Tholians. Rather than precipitating a civil war by helping the Assembly crush dissent, why not forge one by knitting their society back together?”

“There's something I still don't understand,” McCoy said. “How do these Tholian ‘Outsiders' relate to this cloud? What are they getting out of contact with it?”

“Perhaps a communion of sorts with their ancestors,” Spock said. “Perhaps something more. It is clear that Tholians have a rigid internal life clock that allows them a relatively brief and explicitly defined life span.”

“You mean they know the time of their own deaths,” McCoy said.

“Precisely, Doctor. Clearly the Veil offers Tholians direct evidence that their lives, their ‘souls' if you will, can potentially survive beyond their deaths. By entering into the cloud before their prescribed death time they may be able to merge with the ionized mass around them and achieve a kind of afterlife.”

“We do the same thing, Commodore.” Kirk smiled, putting his hand briefly on Merrill's shoulder. “But human beings really only do it by switching careers. You've reinvented yourself more times than I can count.”

“Damned if I haven't,” Merrill said wryly. “I was wrong, son.” He stared ahead at the viewscreen, the remains of his station, and the stationary mass of Tholian ships. “I guess the sentimental approach has its advantages.”

“I'll assign one of our shuttles to take you back to the station; we'll need to share resources if we're going to get M-33 and the
Enterprise
up and running again.” Kirk extended his hand as Merrill and Glasser stepped toward the opening bridge elevator doors. “And I've got a bottle of Altairian rice wine for you somewhere around here.”

“I could use one,” Merrill said. “We'll be in contact soon.”

Kirk nodded, smiling reassuringly as the doors closed behind the Commodore. The knot in his gut was finally beginning to unwind. “Lieutenant Uhura, continue to facilitate communications between the Mage ship and the Assembly Commander.”

“Aye, sir,” Uhura replied.

“All this talk about souls and the afterlife,” McCoy said, staring accusingly at Spock. “I thought Vulcans only believed in science.”

“The concept of a Tholian soul is a scientific one, Dr. McCoy,” Spock replied.