Post by magicmuggle01 on Oct 3, 2018 10:22:37 GMT
The Enterprise rescues a con man named Harry Mudd who is trafficking in mail-order brides.
Summary
The USS Enterprise chases an unregistered starship, a small class J cargo vessel. Fleeing, the ship approaches an asteroid belt with a Shiller rating of three-five. The small ship's peril increases further when its desperate speed causes its engines to overheat.
Act One
Harry Mudd's "cargo"
As the cargo ship drifts into the asteroid belt, the Enterprise is forced to extend its shields around the ship, and this extreme power expenditure destroys three of the ship's crucial lithium crystal circuits. Montgomery Scott manages to beam the ship's master and three lovely women off just before an asteroid destroys the vessel with a dead-center hit.
"Amen to that, Scotty."
The ship's master, speaking with a broad Irish brogue, identifies himself as Leo Francis Walsh. He claims he avoided the Enterprise out of fear that it was a hostile vessel. In the transporter room, Scott and McCoy are immediately transfixed by the three women, as are all the male crew members, as the women saunter through the ship's corridors. Walsh, a charismatic figure but clearly a con man, plays up the women's effect in a manner suggestive of a pimp, but notes that Spock, being half-Vulcan, is immune to their charms. Walsh and his women are led by Spock to Captain Kirk's quarters after the captain demands that Walsh be there whether he can walk or not. Kirk is enraged by the irresponsible actions of Walsh, who explains that the women, Eve McHuron, Magda Kovacs, and Ruth Bonaventure, are not so much crew as cargo.
Act Two
Still insisting his name is Walsh, the cargo ship captain tries to blame Kirk for the accident. Kirk has him confined to quarters pending a hearing. Meanwhile, all ship's power is being channeled through a single lithium crystal circuit and the crystal has a hairline fracture at its base. The bypass circuits were also burned out in the rescue attempt. Repairs are needed, and that means a visit to the nearest source of crystals, the mining colony on Rigel XII.
Mudd's inquiry
Before the ship's hearing, Walsh meets with the women and coaches them on their testimony, advising them not to lie, but mysteriously ordering them not to submit to a medical exam. At the inquiry, Kirk learns that the women are to be wives for settlers on Ophiucus III; each voluntarily left a situation in which her marriage prospects were slim or non-existent. Leo Walsh's real identity, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, also comes out, and his Irish brogue promptly disappears. He has a long history of convictions for smuggling, transport of stolen goods, and purchasing of a space vessel with counterfeit currency, and has been sentenced to psychiatric treatment, the effectiveness of which is in dispute. His ship's master's license has also been revoked. Kirk decides to hand Harry Mudd over to legal authorities as soon as possible. Toward the end of the hearing, the final lithium crystal fails and when Mudd overhears Kirk's orders to contact the miners on Rigel XII, he begins to plan how the situation can work to his advantage: the women can work their charms on the "lonely, isolated, overworked, rich lithium miners," and get a much better deal for themselves. Mudd himself dreams of taking over the Enterprise with all his new fortune and loudly announces that the next orders Kirk will be taking will be from Mudd himself. Strangely, he delivers this whole speech in front of Vinci and another security guard.
Act Three
USS Enterprise entering orbit of Rigel XII
Using their allure, the women learn about the miners; there are three of them, one for each woman. The mystery of the women deepens when Ruth sets off an alert on McCoy's medical scanner in sickbay. McCoy wonders whether they're actually as beautiful as they seem, or whether there's something else responsible for their allure. Eve visits Kirk's quarters, whom Kirk views lying on his bed. Eve claims she's feeling harassed by the men on board, but is unable to go through with her flirtation, blurting out that Mudd put her up to it. She flees to Mudd's quarters and tells him she's feeling ill, saying "It's time." Magda manages to obtain a communicator from Lieutenant Farrell; Mudd uses it to contact the miners before Kirk, and hammers out a deal. But back in Mudd's quarters, the women begin physically breaking down, turning terribly old and haggard. Just in time, Mudd finds a pillbox he had hidden in his mattress, and gives one pill to each of them, immediately restoring their good looks.
As Eve is turning the crystalline "Venus pill" over in her hand, Spock is examining a burned out lithium crystal. The miners come on board the Enterprise, but when Kirk offers them an equitable price he learns they really want to barter. They want to look at Mudd's women, and maybe trade for them. On top of which, they want Mudd released and the charges dropped. Shocked and annoyed, Kirk refuses the offer, but Mudd figures Kirk will have no choice soon enough, as the ship's functions are starting to shut down without the crystals and the Enterprise will begin to spiral down toward Rigel XII. As Mudd notes to Kirk, he has no choice; he must acquiesce to the miners' demands.
Act Four.
The inhospitable surface of Rigel XII
Kirk, Spock, and Mudd beam down to the forbidding surface of Rigel XII, where the women are now living it up with Ben Childress and the other miners, Herm Gossett and Benton. Childress keeps Kirk waiting for the crystals, and the miners start fighting over Ruth and Magda. Eve, already conscience-stricken about the deception, runs out into a storm. Childress goes out to find her, and the two go missing as the Enterprise, still without the crystals, begins to run out of energy. Back aboard ship, Kirk snaps at Scotty, but apologizes, and Scotty tells him the ship has approximately five hours of power left.
Childress finds Eve and brings her back to his quarters, and the Enterprise locates them through the heat of a cook stove in his hut; Eve is cooking for Childress. Kirk and Mudd prepare to beam down. Childress and Eve, both prickly characters, begin to warm up to each other as Eve proves more resourceful than Childress expected. But soon Eve's looks begin to fade again and Childress comments on this. As they start fighting, Kirk and Mudd arrive, and explain about the Venus drug, which Childress had heard of but thought was only a legend. He and the other miners are dismayed to learn that Mudd has sold them a bill of goods: the women's natural beauty and allure has been enhanced by the Venus drug. Two of the miners have already married Mudd's women, the ceremonies having been performed through subspace radio. The chief miner is angry, and Eve berates him for being more interested in the pill than in a real woman. She takes the pill and turns beautiful again. Childress isn't happy because her beauty is a fake, but Kirk reveals that he switched the pill with a placebo, colored gelatin. Eve's beauty is the result of her own self-confidence. Childress is happy about this, and asks her to stay and talk. Kirk and Mudd beam back up, and Kirk turns down Mudd's request to let him go.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 1328.8. The USS Enterprise is in pursuit of an unidentified vessel."
"Captain's log, stardate 1329.1. We've taken aboard from unregistered transport vessel its captain and... and three unusual females. These women have a mysterious magnetic effect on the male members of my crew including myself. Explanation unknown at present!"
"Captain's log, stardate 1329.2. On board the USS Enterprise, a ship's hearing is being convened against the transport vessel's captain. I'm becoming concerned about the almost hypnotic effect produced by the women."
"Captain's log, stardate 1330.1. Position 14 hours out of Rigel XII. We're on auxiliary impulse engines, fuel low, barely sufficient to achieve orbit over the planet. Lithium replacements are now imperative! The effect of Mudd's women on my crew continues to grow, still totally unexplained. Harry Mudd is confined to his quarters under guard."
"Captain's log, transporting down to surface of planet Rigel XII to acquire replacement lithium crystals; expect further difficulty from miners."
"Captain's log, have transported aboard the Enterprise to implement search with infrared scanners and sensing system. Magnetic storms on the planet's surface are cutting down speed and efficiency of our equipment. Search now in progress for three hours eighteen minutes."
"Captain's log, I've expended all but 43 minutes of power; ship's condition critical. Search now in progress seven hours thirty one minutes. Magnetic storms are easing."
Memorable quotes
"Aye."
"Amen to that, Scotty."
- Scott and McCoy, after Mudd's women walk out of the transporter room
"But men will always be men no matter where they are."
- Mudd, to his ladies
"Is this your crew, captain?"
"Well, no, captain. This is me cargo."
- Kirk and Mudd, on the ladies
Ruth Bonaventure in sickbay
"I wonder what makes it do that!"
- McCoy, after Ruth sets off some unusual readings on the biofunction monitor
"Captain James Kirk, the next orders you're taking will be given by Harcourt Fenton Mudd!"
- Mudd
"Blast that tin-plated pot!"
- Mudd, after the computer contradicts him during the interrogation
"I read once that a commander has to act like a paragon of virtue. I never met a paragon."
"Neither have I."
- Eve and Kirk, in his quarters
"You'll find out that ship's captains are already married, girl, to their vessels."
- Mudd to Eve, on Kirk
"Take it. It's not a cheat. It's a miracle for some man who can appreciate it and who needs it."
- Mudd to Eve, on the Venus drug
"Oh! The sound of male ego. You travel halfway across the galaxy, and it's still the same song."
- Eve, to Childress
"Is this the kind of wife you want, Ben? Not someone to help you, not a wife to cook and sew and cry and need, but this kind. Selfish, vain, useless. Is this what you really want?"
- Eve to Childress, after taking the pill
"There's only one kind of woman."
"Or man, for that matter."
"You either believe in yourself, or you don't."
- Kirk and Mudd, after revealing Eve swallowed a fake pill
"Don't you think you could possibly by accident arrange to leave me behind here, on this planet? That would be punishment enough..."
"I can't do that, Harry. But I will appear as a character witness at your trial... if you think that'll help."
"They'll throw away the key..."
- Mudd and Kirk
"Ever try considering the patent medicine business?"
"Why should I work your side of the street?"
- McCoy and Kirk
"The fact that my internal arrangement differs from yours, doctor, pleases me no end."
- Spock to McCoy, on the location of the Vulcan heart
Summary
The USS Enterprise chases an unregistered starship, a small class J cargo vessel. Fleeing, the ship approaches an asteroid belt with a Shiller rating of three-five. The small ship's peril increases further when its desperate speed causes its engines to overheat.
Act One
Harry Mudd's "cargo"
As the cargo ship drifts into the asteroid belt, the Enterprise is forced to extend its shields around the ship, and this extreme power expenditure destroys three of the ship's crucial lithium crystal circuits. Montgomery Scott manages to beam the ship's master and three lovely women off just before an asteroid destroys the vessel with a dead-center hit.
"Amen to that, Scotty."
The ship's master, speaking with a broad Irish brogue, identifies himself as Leo Francis Walsh. He claims he avoided the Enterprise out of fear that it was a hostile vessel. In the transporter room, Scott and McCoy are immediately transfixed by the three women, as are all the male crew members, as the women saunter through the ship's corridors. Walsh, a charismatic figure but clearly a con man, plays up the women's effect in a manner suggestive of a pimp, but notes that Spock, being half-Vulcan, is immune to their charms. Walsh and his women are led by Spock to Captain Kirk's quarters after the captain demands that Walsh be there whether he can walk or not. Kirk is enraged by the irresponsible actions of Walsh, who explains that the women, Eve McHuron, Magda Kovacs, and Ruth Bonaventure, are not so much crew as cargo.
Act Two
Still insisting his name is Walsh, the cargo ship captain tries to blame Kirk for the accident. Kirk has him confined to quarters pending a hearing. Meanwhile, all ship's power is being channeled through a single lithium crystal circuit and the crystal has a hairline fracture at its base. The bypass circuits were also burned out in the rescue attempt. Repairs are needed, and that means a visit to the nearest source of crystals, the mining colony on Rigel XII.
Mudd's inquiry
Before the ship's hearing, Walsh meets with the women and coaches them on their testimony, advising them not to lie, but mysteriously ordering them not to submit to a medical exam. At the inquiry, Kirk learns that the women are to be wives for settlers on Ophiucus III; each voluntarily left a situation in which her marriage prospects were slim or non-existent. Leo Walsh's real identity, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, also comes out, and his Irish brogue promptly disappears. He has a long history of convictions for smuggling, transport of stolen goods, and purchasing of a space vessel with counterfeit currency, and has been sentenced to psychiatric treatment, the effectiveness of which is in dispute. His ship's master's license has also been revoked. Kirk decides to hand Harry Mudd over to legal authorities as soon as possible. Toward the end of the hearing, the final lithium crystal fails and when Mudd overhears Kirk's orders to contact the miners on Rigel XII, he begins to plan how the situation can work to his advantage: the women can work their charms on the "lonely, isolated, overworked, rich lithium miners," and get a much better deal for themselves. Mudd himself dreams of taking over the Enterprise with all his new fortune and loudly announces that the next orders Kirk will be taking will be from Mudd himself. Strangely, he delivers this whole speech in front of Vinci and another security guard.
Act Three
USS Enterprise entering orbit of Rigel XII
Using their allure, the women learn about the miners; there are three of them, one for each woman. The mystery of the women deepens when Ruth sets off an alert on McCoy's medical scanner in sickbay. McCoy wonders whether they're actually as beautiful as they seem, or whether there's something else responsible for their allure. Eve visits Kirk's quarters, whom Kirk views lying on his bed. Eve claims she's feeling harassed by the men on board, but is unable to go through with her flirtation, blurting out that Mudd put her up to it. She flees to Mudd's quarters and tells him she's feeling ill, saying "It's time." Magda manages to obtain a communicator from Lieutenant Farrell; Mudd uses it to contact the miners before Kirk, and hammers out a deal. But back in Mudd's quarters, the women begin physically breaking down, turning terribly old and haggard. Just in time, Mudd finds a pillbox he had hidden in his mattress, and gives one pill to each of them, immediately restoring their good looks.
As Eve is turning the crystalline "Venus pill" over in her hand, Spock is examining a burned out lithium crystal. The miners come on board the Enterprise, but when Kirk offers them an equitable price he learns they really want to barter. They want to look at Mudd's women, and maybe trade for them. On top of which, they want Mudd released and the charges dropped. Shocked and annoyed, Kirk refuses the offer, but Mudd figures Kirk will have no choice soon enough, as the ship's functions are starting to shut down without the crystals and the Enterprise will begin to spiral down toward Rigel XII. As Mudd notes to Kirk, he has no choice; he must acquiesce to the miners' demands.
Act Four.
The inhospitable surface of Rigel XII
Kirk, Spock, and Mudd beam down to the forbidding surface of Rigel XII, where the women are now living it up with Ben Childress and the other miners, Herm Gossett and Benton. Childress keeps Kirk waiting for the crystals, and the miners start fighting over Ruth and Magda. Eve, already conscience-stricken about the deception, runs out into a storm. Childress goes out to find her, and the two go missing as the Enterprise, still without the crystals, begins to run out of energy. Back aboard ship, Kirk snaps at Scotty, but apologizes, and Scotty tells him the ship has approximately five hours of power left.
Childress finds Eve and brings her back to his quarters, and the Enterprise locates them through the heat of a cook stove in his hut; Eve is cooking for Childress. Kirk and Mudd prepare to beam down. Childress and Eve, both prickly characters, begin to warm up to each other as Eve proves more resourceful than Childress expected. But soon Eve's looks begin to fade again and Childress comments on this. As they start fighting, Kirk and Mudd arrive, and explain about the Venus drug, which Childress had heard of but thought was only a legend. He and the other miners are dismayed to learn that Mudd has sold them a bill of goods: the women's natural beauty and allure has been enhanced by the Venus drug. Two of the miners have already married Mudd's women, the ceremonies having been performed through subspace radio. The chief miner is angry, and Eve berates him for being more interested in the pill than in a real woman. She takes the pill and turns beautiful again. Childress isn't happy because her beauty is a fake, but Kirk reveals that he switched the pill with a placebo, colored gelatin. Eve's beauty is the result of her own self-confidence. Childress is happy about this, and asks her to stay and talk. Kirk and Mudd beam back up, and Kirk turns down Mudd's request to let him go.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 1328.8. The USS Enterprise is in pursuit of an unidentified vessel."
"Captain's log, stardate 1329.1. We've taken aboard from unregistered transport vessel its captain and... and three unusual females. These women have a mysterious magnetic effect on the male members of my crew including myself. Explanation unknown at present!"
"Captain's log, stardate 1329.2. On board the USS Enterprise, a ship's hearing is being convened against the transport vessel's captain. I'm becoming concerned about the almost hypnotic effect produced by the women."
"Captain's log, stardate 1330.1. Position 14 hours out of Rigel XII. We're on auxiliary impulse engines, fuel low, barely sufficient to achieve orbit over the planet. Lithium replacements are now imperative! The effect of Mudd's women on my crew continues to grow, still totally unexplained. Harry Mudd is confined to his quarters under guard."
"Captain's log, transporting down to surface of planet Rigel XII to acquire replacement lithium crystals; expect further difficulty from miners."
"Captain's log, have transported aboard the Enterprise to implement search with infrared scanners and sensing system. Magnetic storms on the planet's surface are cutting down speed and efficiency of our equipment. Search now in progress for three hours eighteen minutes."
"Captain's log, I've expended all but 43 minutes of power; ship's condition critical. Search now in progress seven hours thirty one minutes. Magnetic storms are easing."
Memorable quotes
"Aye."
"Amen to that, Scotty."
- Scott and McCoy, after Mudd's women walk out of the transporter room
"But men will always be men no matter where they are."
- Mudd, to his ladies
"Is this your crew, captain?"
"Well, no, captain. This is me cargo."
- Kirk and Mudd, on the ladies
Ruth Bonaventure in sickbay
"I wonder what makes it do that!"
- McCoy, after Ruth sets off some unusual readings on the biofunction monitor
"Captain James Kirk, the next orders you're taking will be given by Harcourt Fenton Mudd!"
- Mudd
"Blast that tin-plated pot!"
- Mudd, after the computer contradicts him during the interrogation
"I read once that a commander has to act like a paragon of virtue. I never met a paragon."
"Neither have I."
- Eve and Kirk, in his quarters
"You'll find out that ship's captains are already married, girl, to their vessels."
- Mudd to Eve, on Kirk
"Take it. It's not a cheat. It's a miracle for some man who can appreciate it and who needs it."
- Mudd to Eve, on the Venus drug
"Oh! The sound of male ego. You travel halfway across the galaxy, and it's still the same song."
- Eve, to Childress
"Is this the kind of wife you want, Ben? Not someone to help you, not a wife to cook and sew and cry and need, but this kind. Selfish, vain, useless. Is this what you really want?"
- Eve to Childress, after taking the pill
"There's only one kind of woman."
"Or man, for that matter."
"You either believe in yourself, or you don't."
- Kirk and Mudd, after revealing Eve swallowed a fake pill
"Don't you think you could possibly by accident arrange to leave me behind here, on this planet? That would be punishment enough..."
"I can't do that, Harry. But I will appear as a character witness at your trial... if you think that'll help."
"They'll throw away the key..."
- Mudd and Kirk
"Ever try considering the patent medicine business?"
"Why should I work your side of the street?"
- McCoy and Kirk
"The fact that my internal arrangement differs from yours, doctor, pleases me no end."
- Spock to McCoy, on the location of the Vulcan heart
