Post by magicmuggle01 on Dec 29, 2018 11:43:00 GMT
On an isolated asteroid, Kirk finds Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive, who has been missing for 150 years.
Summary
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are ferrying Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford back to the USS Enterprise. The commissioner, who has been called upon by the Federation to prevent a war on Epsilon Canaris III, has developed Sakuro's Disease, an extremely rare life-threatening illness, and must be removed to a medical facility for treatment. The commissioner is bitter at what she regards as incompetence in the Federation Medical Department, which she believes should have properly prepared her.
En route (shortly past point 3, on course 201 Mark 15), the shuttlecraft Galileo encounters a phenomenon that Spock describes as "vaguely like a cloud of ionized hydrogen, but with strong erratic electrical impulses". Moving at warp speed, it quickly envelops the shuttlecraft and disables its systems. The craft is pulled to course 98 Mark 12, towards the Gamma Canaris region.
Act One
McCoy, Kirk, and Spock on
Gamma Canaris N
There, it is soft-landed on an iron-nickel planetoid with a standard oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and standard gravity – a place entirely suited for Human life. Examining the shuttlecraft, Spock discovers something that should be impossible: nothing is damaged and yet nothing works. McCoy notes that the gaseous cloud they encountered in space seems to be here, on the surface. Then a loud "hallooooooo" breaks the stillness. Someone else is here – a young man who quickly joins the stranded group. He introduces himself simply as Cochrane. He tells the officers that a damping field prevents some technology here from working. But he denies knowledge of the force that brought the shuttlecraft here.
Kirk and McCoy find this man familiar, somehow, but cannot quite place him. Cochrane shows his visitors to his home, decorated with instruments Kirk regards as antiques. Ominously, Commissioner Hedford has developed a fever, the first symptom of her illness.
Finally, Kirk presses Cochrane, and learns about the Companion. This is what he calls the strange creature that brought the Galileo here. Kirk asks him his first name, and then realizes why Cochrane seems so familiar: he is Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri, inventor of space warp drive. Cochrane was old, and knew he wanted to die in space. So he took a spacecraft and left his home on Alpha Centauri for parts unknown. The Companion found him, reversed his aging process, and has maintained him here ever since. Cochrane is responsible for the abduction of Kirk and his party via communicating his loneliness to the Companion; he had thought that the Companion would simply release him. During the discussion Hedford suddenly starts crying and yelling incoherently, forcing McCoy to sedate her with a hypospray and place her in Cochrane's bed.
Act Two
Kirk asks Spock to attempt to repair the Galileo. While doing so, with a trident scanner, the Companion appears there, directly behind him. Curious, he touches it, and receives an electrical shock that destroys the scanner and knocks him out cold. The circuitry of the Galileo bursts into flame; the Companion is taking no chances.
Cochrane agrees to summon the Companion, to see if it can help the commissioner, but learns that it cannot. While observing the Companion with Cochrane, McCoy and Kirk notice the apparent communion, and find it cannot be minimized to anything less than love, perhaps equating it in their minds with a sexual joining, something Cochrane alludes to later.
McCoy discovers Spock; the encounter has left Spock with a new insight: the Companion is largely made of electricity. McCoy asks Spock if he is correct in surmising that something made up of electricity can be shorted out. Spock confirms this and later constructs a mechanism to scramble electrical impulses; with this, Kirk intends to disable or destroy the creature, so that the Humans may depart. Cochrane now has reservations; he doesn't want the creature killed, saying "we've been close in a way that's hard to describe". Kirk overwhelms him with the force of his personality, though Cochrane understands their perspective. Unhappy at being forced into the role of a Judas goat, Cochrane nevertheless agrees to summon the creature. Spock throws the switch, and discovers that his mechanism is sufficient only to irritate the creature. It attacks Kirk and Spock, choking them. McCoy yells at it to stop before it kills his friends.
Act Three
"It's a big galaxy, Mr. Scott."
"Aye."
Despite McCoy's pleas, the Companion continues to attack Kirk and Spock. Cochrane eventually comes to and calls off the Companion. McCoy suggests to Kirk he is thinking too much like a soldier, not a diplomat. Trying the carrot instead of the stick approach, Kirk decides that they will communicate with the creature instead using the universal translator.
Nearby, the Enterprise searches for the now long overdue shuttlecraft. Finally, at 210 Mark 40, the sensors detect a strong antimatter particle concentration. Lacking evidence that the shuttlecraft has been destroyed, Scott elects to follow this tenuous course.
On Gamma Canaris, Spock has completed modifying the universal translator from the Galileo so Kirk can communicate with the Companion. Among the first things they discover is that the Companion is female, casting her relationship with Cochrane in an entirely new light. Kirk implores the Companion to permit their departure, but she is adamant; to her, the safety and health of Cochrane is the only important goal. And to ensure that, she intends to keep the shuttlecraft crew here, forever.
Cochrane is dismayed to discover the apparent sexual dynamic between himself and the Companion. He finds it repulsive, disgusting even, and feels used. Kirk, Spock and McCoy do not understand his parochial attitude. For her part, the Commissioner – who is now barely conscious and close to death, but has regained some level of lucidity – is baffled by someone who, offered love, rejects it. The great regret of her life, as it draws near its end, is that she has never been loved.
The Enterprise continues its search. Sulu has discovered an asteroid field containing 7,000 bodies in sizes ranging from A to M. Thirty percent of them have atmospheres in types ranging from H to M. The search will be a long one, but Scott remains convinced by the lack of evidence that the shuttlecraft landed safely somewhere, and he is prepared to search every asteroid if necessary.
Kirk tries new tactics. First, he tries to convince the Companion that without obstacles to overcome, the Humans will weaken and die. When that fails, he tries to convince the Companion that there can never be real love, because it and Cochrane are too different. The Companion considers this, and then disappears. Kirk's hope is that the Companion will release Cochrane and his party – love expressing itself as sacrifice – but this is not her choice. Instead, moments later, an apparently healthy Nancy Hedford appears in the door of Cochrane's small home, her voice now gently echoing.
Act Four
The Companion has joined with Hedford, sacrificing her powers and immortality to become Human, and experience life with Zefram Cochrane as a Human woman would. Cochrane is reluctant, but becomes enthusiastic, promising to show her the galaxy now that he can. Sadly, she tells him that she cannot leave; her life emanates from this small planetoid. Just as he must eat, so she must remain here or perish in a short march of days. Cochrane cannot bring himself to leave her, and elects to remain behind. He asks Kirk to keep his existence a secret, a request Kirk grants. Spock observes that Cochrane and Hedford will now live out a normal life span without immortality – a condition that both of them accept as inevitable and uniquely Human. McCoy fears that they have failed to stop the war on Epsilon Canaris III, but Kirk gives him relief that the Federation can surely find “another woman, somewhere, who will stop that war.”
Log entries
"Ship's log, stardate 3219.8. Lieutenant Commander Scott recording in the absence of Captain Kirk. A shuttlecraft bearing the captain, the first officer, Chief Surgeon McCoy, and Assistant Federation Commissioner Hedford is now definitely overdue for a rendezvous with the Enterprise. We are attempting to backtrack it."
"Ship's log, stardate 3220.3. Lieutenant Commander Scott reporting in lieu of the captain and the first officer. We are continuing our search for the missing shuttlecraft."
Memorable quotes
"You're food to a starving man."
- Cochrane to Hedford, as they are formally introduced
"I could even offer you a hot bath."
"How perceptive of you to notice that I needed one."
- Cochrane and Hedford, as she ridicules his hospitality
"You wear your age very well."
- Spock, complimenting Cochrane after realizing he is Zefram Cochrane
"Immortality consists largely of boredom."
- Cochrane, after Kirk asks him if he wants to leave the planet
"What was it they used to call it? The Judas goat?"
- Cochrane, before he baits the Companion
"Maybe you're a soldier so often that you forget you're also trained to be a diplomat. Why not try a carrot instead of a stick?"
- McCoy to Kirk, on how to handle the Companion
"It's a big galaxy, Mister Scott."
- Uhura, as the Enterprise searches for the missing shuttlecraft
"The idea of male and female are universal constants."
- Kirk, explaining to Cochrane that the Companion is female
"You're not a pet. You're not a specimen kept in a cage. You're a lover."
- McCoy, explaining to Cochrane his relationship with the Companion
"But I've never been loved. Never. What kind of life is that? Not to be loved, never to have shown love? And he runs away from love."
- Hedford, on Cochrane's resentment toward the Companion
"This is loneliness. Oh, what a bitter thing."
- The Companion as Hedford, after Cochrane recoils from her advance
"I can't leave her. I love her. Is that surprising?"
"Not coming from a Human being. You are, after all, essentially irrational."
- Cochrane and Spock, on Cochrane's decision to stay with the Companion
Summary
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are ferrying Federation Commissioner Nancy Hedford back to the USS Enterprise. The commissioner, who has been called upon by the Federation to prevent a war on Epsilon Canaris III, has developed Sakuro's Disease, an extremely rare life-threatening illness, and must be removed to a medical facility for treatment. The commissioner is bitter at what she regards as incompetence in the Federation Medical Department, which she believes should have properly prepared her.
En route (shortly past point 3, on course 201 Mark 15), the shuttlecraft Galileo encounters a phenomenon that Spock describes as "vaguely like a cloud of ionized hydrogen, but with strong erratic electrical impulses". Moving at warp speed, it quickly envelops the shuttlecraft and disables its systems. The craft is pulled to course 98 Mark 12, towards the Gamma Canaris region.
Act One
McCoy, Kirk, and Spock on
Gamma Canaris N
There, it is soft-landed on an iron-nickel planetoid with a standard oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and standard gravity – a place entirely suited for Human life. Examining the shuttlecraft, Spock discovers something that should be impossible: nothing is damaged and yet nothing works. McCoy notes that the gaseous cloud they encountered in space seems to be here, on the surface. Then a loud "hallooooooo" breaks the stillness. Someone else is here – a young man who quickly joins the stranded group. He introduces himself simply as Cochrane. He tells the officers that a damping field prevents some technology here from working. But he denies knowledge of the force that brought the shuttlecraft here.
Kirk and McCoy find this man familiar, somehow, but cannot quite place him. Cochrane shows his visitors to his home, decorated with instruments Kirk regards as antiques. Ominously, Commissioner Hedford has developed a fever, the first symptom of her illness.
Finally, Kirk presses Cochrane, and learns about the Companion. This is what he calls the strange creature that brought the Galileo here. Kirk asks him his first name, and then realizes why Cochrane seems so familiar: he is Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri, inventor of space warp drive. Cochrane was old, and knew he wanted to die in space. So he took a spacecraft and left his home on Alpha Centauri for parts unknown. The Companion found him, reversed his aging process, and has maintained him here ever since. Cochrane is responsible for the abduction of Kirk and his party via communicating his loneliness to the Companion; he had thought that the Companion would simply release him. During the discussion Hedford suddenly starts crying and yelling incoherently, forcing McCoy to sedate her with a hypospray and place her in Cochrane's bed.
Act Two
Kirk asks Spock to attempt to repair the Galileo. While doing so, with a trident scanner, the Companion appears there, directly behind him. Curious, he touches it, and receives an electrical shock that destroys the scanner and knocks him out cold. The circuitry of the Galileo bursts into flame; the Companion is taking no chances.
Cochrane agrees to summon the Companion, to see if it can help the commissioner, but learns that it cannot. While observing the Companion with Cochrane, McCoy and Kirk notice the apparent communion, and find it cannot be minimized to anything less than love, perhaps equating it in their minds with a sexual joining, something Cochrane alludes to later.
McCoy discovers Spock; the encounter has left Spock with a new insight: the Companion is largely made of electricity. McCoy asks Spock if he is correct in surmising that something made up of electricity can be shorted out. Spock confirms this and later constructs a mechanism to scramble electrical impulses; with this, Kirk intends to disable or destroy the creature, so that the Humans may depart. Cochrane now has reservations; he doesn't want the creature killed, saying "we've been close in a way that's hard to describe". Kirk overwhelms him with the force of his personality, though Cochrane understands their perspective. Unhappy at being forced into the role of a Judas goat, Cochrane nevertheless agrees to summon the creature. Spock throws the switch, and discovers that his mechanism is sufficient only to irritate the creature. It attacks Kirk and Spock, choking them. McCoy yells at it to stop before it kills his friends.
Act Three
"It's a big galaxy, Mr. Scott."
"Aye."
Despite McCoy's pleas, the Companion continues to attack Kirk and Spock. Cochrane eventually comes to and calls off the Companion. McCoy suggests to Kirk he is thinking too much like a soldier, not a diplomat. Trying the carrot instead of the stick approach, Kirk decides that they will communicate with the creature instead using the universal translator.
Nearby, the Enterprise searches for the now long overdue shuttlecraft. Finally, at 210 Mark 40, the sensors detect a strong antimatter particle concentration. Lacking evidence that the shuttlecraft has been destroyed, Scott elects to follow this tenuous course.
On Gamma Canaris, Spock has completed modifying the universal translator from the Galileo so Kirk can communicate with the Companion. Among the first things they discover is that the Companion is female, casting her relationship with Cochrane in an entirely new light. Kirk implores the Companion to permit their departure, but she is adamant; to her, the safety and health of Cochrane is the only important goal. And to ensure that, she intends to keep the shuttlecraft crew here, forever.
Cochrane is dismayed to discover the apparent sexual dynamic between himself and the Companion. He finds it repulsive, disgusting even, and feels used. Kirk, Spock and McCoy do not understand his parochial attitude. For her part, the Commissioner – who is now barely conscious and close to death, but has regained some level of lucidity – is baffled by someone who, offered love, rejects it. The great regret of her life, as it draws near its end, is that she has never been loved.
The Enterprise continues its search. Sulu has discovered an asteroid field containing 7,000 bodies in sizes ranging from A to M. Thirty percent of them have atmospheres in types ranging from H to M. The search will be a long one, but Scott remains convinced by the lack of evidence that the shuttlecraft landed safely somewhere, and he is prepared to search every asteroid if necessary.
Kirk tries new tactics. First, he tries to convince the Companion that without obstacles to overcome, the Humans will weaken and die. When that fails, he tries to convince the Companion that there can never be real love, because it and Cochrane are too different. The Companion considers this, and then disappears. Kirk's hope is that the Companion will release Cochrane and his party – love expressing itself as sacrifice – but this is not her choice. Instead, moments later, an apparently healthy Nancy Hedford appears in the door of Cochrane's small home, her voice now gently echoing.
Act Four
The Companion has joined with Hedford, sacrificing her powers and immortality to become Human, and experience life with Zefram Cochrane as a Human woman would. Cochrane is reluctant, but becomes enthusiastic, promising to show her the galaxy now that he can. Sadly, she tells him that she cannot leave; her life emanates from this small planetoid. Just as he must eat, so she must remain here or perish in a short march of days. Cochrane cannot bring himself to leave her, and elects to remain behind. He asks Kirk to keep his existence a secret, a request Kirk grants. Spock observes that Cochrane and Hedford will now live out a normal life span without immortality – a condition that both of them accept as inevitable and uniquely Human. McCoy fears that they have failed to stop the war on Epsilon Canaris III, but Kirk gives him relief that the Federation can surely find “another woman, somewhere, who will stop that war.”
Log entries
"Ship's log, stardate 3219.8. Lieutenant Commander Scott recording in the absence of Captain Kirk. A shuttlecraft bearing the captain, the first officer, Chief Surgeon McCoy, and Assistant Federation Commissioner Hedford is now definitely overdue for a rendezvous with the Enterprise. We are attempting to backtrack it."
"Ship's log, stardate 3220.3. Lieutenant Commander Scott reporting in lieu of the captain and the first officer. We are continuing our search for the missing shuttlecraft."
Memorable quotes
"You're food to a starving man."
- Cochrane to Hedford, as they are formally introduced
"I could even offer you a hot bath."
"How perceptive of you to notice that I needed one."
- Cochrane and Hedford, as she ridicules his hospitality
"You wear your age very well."
- Spock, complimenting Cochrane after realizing he is Zefram Cochrane
"Immortality consists largely of boredom."
- Cochrane, after Kirk asks him if he wants to leave the planet
"What was it they used to call it? The Judas goat?"
- Cochrane, before he baits the Companion
"Maybe you're a soldier so often that you forget you're also trained to be a diplomat. Why not try a carrot instead of a stick?"
- McCoy to Kirk, on how to handle the Companion
"It's a big galaxy, Mister Scott."
- Uhura, as the Enterprise searches for the missing shuttlecraft
"The idea of male and female are universal constants."
- Kirk, explaining to Cochrane that the Companion is female
"You're not a pet. You're not a specimen kept in a cage. You're a lover."
- McCoy, explaining to Cochrane his relationship with the Companion
"But I've never been loved. Never. What kind of life is that? Not to be loved, never to have shown love? And he runs away from love."
- Hedford, on Cochrane's resentment toward the Companion
"This is loneliness. Oh, what a bitter thing."
- The Companion as Hedford, after Cochrane recoils from her advance
"I can't leave her. I love her. Is that surprising?"
"Not coming from a Human being. You are, after all, essentially irrational."
- Cochrane and Spock, on Cochrane's decision to stay with the Companion
