particles biased in the wrong direction. How could such a thing possibly happen?
“I could see only one answer which made any sense in physics. Our signal was sent out as a set of tachyons; and somewhere along the line, it bumped up against something which was a perfect, coherant reflector of tachyons. The signal came back to us as directly and in as good physical order as a radar beam would have — a completely ideal reflection — and we reconstituted it into ordinary nuclear particles, as our new transporter system had been set up to do, faithfully in reverse.
“But what could this mirror be? Obviously, it had to be something to do with Organia. And we have now observed that Organia is surrounded, or has been replaced by, something very like a deflector screen or some other sort of force field. If yen’s nae our mirror, where else should we begin to seek it the noo?”
That was clearly the most rhetorical of rhetorical questions.
“Carry on, Scotty, the floor’s still yours,” Kirk said.
“But I dinna want it any more, Captain, because now I’m in trouble. What I canna figure out is what the Organians — or for that matter the Klingons — might hope to gain by investing the planet with a tachyon reflector. So I passed that leetle nugget on to Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock, and with your permission, Captain or Sir, I’ll let them pick up the tale at this point.”
“Who’s on first?” Kirk said. Despite the desperate seriousness of the problem, he could not help being amused.
“I think I am, Jim,” McCoy said. “Bear in mind, I know less about tachyons than Scotty knows about polymorphonuclear leukocytes. But I am a psychologist. And one thing we all noticed about the present condition of Organia is that it has a unique and severe mental effect upon every man and woman on board the Enterprise. It repels us emotionally, as sentient creatures, just as surely and as markedly as it reflects Scotty’s insensate elementary particles.”
“Dinna be sae sure,” Scott said darkly, “that electrons don’t think.”
“Dammit, Scotty, I’m coming to that too, if you’ll give me the time. But first: we assumed almost from the beginning that the emotional repulsion was intentional — in other words, that the Organians didn’t want visitors, for some reason, and were letting everybody who came near know their preference, in no uncertain terms. So let’s continue to suppose that. If that’s the case, which comes first, chicken or egg? That is, what is the primary psychological reason for the screen? If it is to repel tachyons, then the emotional effect might have been an accident. If it is to repel people, then the tachyon reflection might have been an accident — or anyhow, a secondary effect.
“All this reminded me that though we — humanity, that is — know the elementary particles of matter and energy, know the unit of gravity, have even (so Scotty tells me) identified something called the chronon which is the smallest possible bit into which time can be divided, we do not know the elementary unit of consciousness. We do not even know the speed of thought.”
“We don’t?” Kirk said, startled.
“No, Jim. The speed of nerve impulses in the body is known, and it’s quite slow, but thought is another matter. Consider, if you will, how any one of us can call back to mind a childhood memory, across many years, within an instant, or think if we so choose of an exploding galaxy at the very limits of the known universe. And those are very crude examples. If there is an elementary particle, or wavicle, of thought, a faster-than-light one like the tachyon might be a good candidate for the honor.
“And of course, it was my puzzling about the problem of consciousness in relation to the way the transporter works that really created almost all of this mess, right from the outset. I began to feel that it was all fitting into place. But there was still a logical problem that baffled me, and I finally had to turn that over to Mr. Spock Two.”
“You all make me feel as though I might as well have no head on my shoulders at all,” Kirk said ruefully. “And not for the first time, either. Mr. Spock Two, pray proceed.”
“Sir,” Spock Two said with great formality, “I was not able to approach this complex as a pure problem in formal logic, or even as a problem in set theory or in the calculus of statement, because too many of its elements are still conjectural — despite the very consistent theoretical model Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott have constructed. Nevertheless, given the model, there is a central logical problem: who benefits from a thought-shield around Organia? None of us can begin to guess why the Organians would have wanted such a shield, nor would guessing be a useful exercise here in any case. But the advantages to the Klingons are evident and considerable. Primarily, of course, the screen confines the Organians — who are nothing but thought-fields — to their own planet, and prevents them either from knowing what is going on outside, or acting upon it. And secondarily, it removes the planet from sight and contact from the outside. The field as we experienced it is emotionally repulsive…”
“Damn-all terrifying, I’d call it,” McCoy said.
“…and at close ranges tends to prevent the mind from even thinking about Organia except as an extinct planet,” Spock Two continued smoothly. “It follows, then, that there is a high probability that the shield was erected by Klingon action. It would further seem likely, though not immediately provable, that the shield is the Klingons’ one and only new weapon, the discovery of which encouraged them to start the forbidden war. This would explain why we found a Klingon garrison of some size posted nearby; they do not want anyone else investigating the situation or even understanding why it is important to them. As a further derivative, this weapon is apparently not very manageable yet except as a gross effect — that is, on a very large scale — or they would be using it in battle, against our ships, and to great tactical advantage.
“But it does appear to be quite manageable enough to permit the throwing of a similar screen around the Earth, if the Klingons can get close enough — or around Vulcan, or both. We do not know what it is like to have to live under such a shield, but the inverse square law suggests that the effects would be more severe than those we have experienced outside it. Such an action, should the Klingons be able to complete it, would win them the war… and very possibly reduce humanity and/or Vulcankind to tiny remnants, living in exile on sufferance — or in slavery.”
The sudden Miltonic turn in Spock Two’s precise phrasing made the awful vision all too vivid.
Kirk said grimly, “I don’t think Starfleet will let them get that close to Earth, but Vulcan may not be so well defended. Well, we’ve knocked out five Klingon warships, one of them a cruiser, and as we were hoping from the beginning, there’s still a lot of damage that we can do in their rear echelons — especially if we get away from the Organian quadrant before their reinforcements arrive. But I don’t especially want to get away. It would be far better to get to the heart of the matter, since we’re in its immediate vicinity anyhow, and rectify that. Can we?”
“Captain, I think we can,” Scott said. “That shield reflects tachyons, and, insofar as any theory I can construct predicts, it reflects tachyons only. And we are now within normal transporter range of Organia, so we don’t need my tachyon conversion system any more. It never did us any favors anyhow. We could verra well beam down there and find oursel’s some Organians, and let them know what’s been going on since the Klingons caught them napping.”
“What good would that do, if they’re still confined under the screen?” McCoy said. “They can’t move about by transporter — to their great good luck, I’d say.”
“Aha, Doc, but there now is one of the few benefits of bein’ poor weak critters made out of base matter, like me and the Captain and just possibly yourself. We need machines to help us manipulate matter, and we know how to make and use ‘em. If I were under yon shield, and had proper help, I might locate the Klingon device that’s generating it, and put the device out of commission. Or if I couldna, I might build a generator of my own to nullify the shield. That’s one thing the Organians for all their might canna do, or they’d have done it long ere this.”
“Are you sure you could, Scotty?”
“Noooo, Captain, I’m nae sure, but I’d be sair wilin’ t’ take the risk.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Kirk said. “We’ll assume orbit around Organia promptly, and handle the mental effects as best we can; I’ll have Uhura warn the crew, and Dr. McCoy will stand by to administer psychological help to anyone who needs it. Mr. Spock Two, you’ll beam down with me and with Mr. Scott — no, wait a minute. We still have no assurance that Spock One isn’t still aboard the Enterprise, and I’m not about to abandon it to his good offices.”
“I can give you such an assurance, Captain,” Spock Two said. “I do not know where he is, but he is a considerable distance away from the Enterprise — a minimum of two astronomical units, certainly.”
“How do you know?”
“I am sorry, Captain, but the very nature of the knowledge precludes my telling you that, at the present time.
