Free Star Trek: The Original Series - 147 - Devil’s Bargain by Tony Daniel Page B

something different. The captain realized he was falling in love. The impossibility of the situation only made the feeling stronger. He had always had an ability to live in the moment. He did not forget the past, nor stop caring about the future, but both became integrated into his subconscious mind and did not weigh upon him. In fact, he felt sorry for Spock, for the Vulcan could never know what it was like to experience a moment unconnected from reason, and yet not illogical or irrational. Such was Kirk’s feeling for Hannah. When he was with her, he truly did not think about the future. If this waswhat love meant, Kirk was glad that he was open to it, even if it would mean heartbreak in the end.
    Kirk turned his attention back to the Council, and to Chancellor Faber, who was speaking. “Now I would like to introduce our esteemed visitor from the Federation, Captain James T. Kirk, along with his first officer, Commander Spock, and the chief medical officer, Doctor Leonard McCoy, of the Starship Enterprise . They’ve come to offer their assistance to us, and they have been of great help. Only yesterday, with the aid of an alert Enterprise crew, a bomb plot was discovered and eliminated. Many lives were saved.”
    For some in the Council, the new bomb plot was news, and assorted gasps and other signs of surprise and alarm arose from the chamber. The Council members—there were fifteen of them—sat in a semicircle on a raised dais across from Kirk. He and the chancellor and the chancellor’s staff were sitting at a long table that faced the Council dais and was slightly below it. The Council members were, in effect, looking down upon him and he up at them, although the effect was subtle. Also at the table sat Spock and Doctor McCoy on either side of Kirk.
    “It is for this reason that I have approved Captain Kirk’s request to speak to this chamber,” said Chancellor Faber. “He has a plan he wishes us to consider, and while I remain unconvinced as to its efficacy, I believe we owe him our every attention,and we ought to hear him out. He has earned the right to be heard on Vesbius.” The chancellor motioned for Kirk to begin, and the captain stood up.
    “Ladies and gentlemen of the Planetary Council,” Kirk began. “I wish to express to you my great admiration for your accomplishments in surviving and prospering on this world. I am also very much impressed by the preparations you have begun in order to survive the oncoming asteroid strike. When I first arrived, I did not understand why you would not have already evacuated the planet surface, perhaps relocating to a moon or even to another planet where you could start again. But now that I understand more about Vesbian physiology, it is clear to me why you made the decision you made. But I must say, you are relying upon a very distant hope. Your underground shelters are masterfully built chambers, but you saw from the bomb blasts of yesterday that they might not withstand the kind of devastation that is coming upon you. And even if they do, even if your engineering holds, you will emerge upon a destroyed world.
    “And yet I understand why you cannot leave. At least, I understand why you cannot leave and remain in your present form. It may seem that people as clever as you have been in adapting to this planet may be able to come up with a solution to adapt to another. Some would say that, barring a miracle, this is the only rational course you could take. Youwill not survive the coming storm, but some will say that you may, possibly, find a way to adapt yet again. I know this is a delicate matter, but it is time to speak frankly if ever there was such a time. I have no doubt you also are aware of the dangers of genetic manipulation. Perhaps what has been done, can somehow be undone.”
    “What makes you think we have not tried to do this before?” A voice creaking with age rose up from the chamber, a woman’s voice. Kirk located the source in a silver-haired