Post by magicmuggle01 on Dec 31, 2018 9:59:29 GMT
The Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where an unknown monster is destroying machinery and killing the miners, threatening the entire mining operation.
Summary
Kirk and Spock fire phasers at
the Horta.
On Janus VI, a miner named Schmitter replaces Sam at his guard post. Schmitter is extremely nervous about doing guard detail, but Chief Vanderberg reassures him by recommending that he have his phaser on him at all times and if he hears or sees anything, help can arrive in three minutes. Moments after Chief Vanderberg and the other guards move on, they hear a scream and return to find Schmitter reduced to a pile of ashes.
Act One
Two days later, the USS Enterprise arrives at Janus VI in response to the distress call. For the past three months, a creature has been terrorizing the mining colony, killing more than fifty people, sabotaging machinery on the lower levels, and bringing the pergium production to a halt.
Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy analyze the situation in Vanderberg's office. Only one man saw the creature and lived: Chief Engineer Ed Appel, who shot it with his phaser type-1 with no effect. He doubts that the power of a starship will do any good "down in the tunnels." McCoy analyzes Schmitter's remains; they are not burned but corroded, as if he had been immersed in a vat of extremely corrosive acid. Spock is fascinated by a silicon sphere on Vanderburg's desk; Vanderburg says there are millions of them underground but they have no value.
Their conversation is interrupted by an alarm at the colony's nuclear reactor. The creature has killed the guard outside, burned its way in, and taken the reactor's main circulating pump, without which the reactor will go super-critical and irradiate half the planet.
Act Two
Scott reports from the Enterprise that he can rig up a replacement with "some odds and ends" that might last 48 hours. Kirk orders him to beam down with it and hopes that, within that time, the original pump can be retrieved.
Spock, still contemplating Vanderburg's sphere, speculates that they may be dealing with a silicon-based lifeform rather than carbon-based life. This would explain why the creature does not show up on sensors and why it was impervious to Appel's phaser. Kirk summons Lieutenant Commander Giotto and a security team, and Spock adjusts their type 2 phasers to be more effective against silicon. The security team is dispatched to level 23, which was opened just before the attacks began. Kirk orders them to set their phasers to maximum, and to fire whether or not attacked.
Spock, Kirk, and Giotto examine
a piece of the Horta.
A security officer is killed by the creature, bringing Kirk and Spock to the scene. They see the creature, and fire on it, damaging it, but it gets away, tunneling through the rock with its acid. They examine a piece of the creature, which seems to prove Spock's theory of silicon-based life. Spock detects only one such creature within a hundred miles, and suggests that to kill it would result in the extinction of the species, "a crime against science," he states. Kirk says there is no alternative.
Act Three
The search teams focus on where the creature was seen. Spock gives them orders to "surround it, and possibly capture it" but Kirk countermands him, stressing that the goal is to "shoot to kill." Kirk orders Spock away to assist Scott with the reactor, but Spock counters with logic and Kirk relents. Spock states that the probability of he and Kirk both getting killed by the creature is approximately "2,228.7 to 1," to which Kirk ultimately allows Spock to stay with him. Scott's improvised pump fails and Kirk prepares to beam the miners up to the ship. But Vanderburg and his men refuse to be chased from the planet; they vow to fight the creature – "with clubs" if there are not enough phasers.
Kirk and Spock separate and Kirk finds a chamber with hundreds of the silicon spheres. Spock warns Kirk not to damage them but is still not ready to state his theory about them.
A roof near Kirk collapses, which Spock finds much too odd to be a coincidence. The only way out for Kirk is to continue forward – to a face-to-face encounter with the creature.
Act Four
Spock establishes a mind meld
with the Horta.
Kirk senses the creature's intelligence, as it backs off when Kirk raises and lowers his phaser and it displays its wound from the previous encounter, and Kirk's determination to kill the creature softens. Spock arrives and initiates a Vulcan mind meld to communicate with the creature. He learns that it is a sentient being of a race called the Horta and is in extreme pain, and the Horta learns enough to etch the ambiguous "NO KILL I" into the rock floor. Kirk summons McCoy, though Spock thinks his medical training will be useless on the Horta.
Another mind meld reveals that the Horta is preparing for the extinction of its race. It directs the Humans to find their pump in the "Chamber of the Ages." Kirk tells Spock to communicate to the creature that they are trying to help. He goes to the Chamber and finds about a million silicon spheres, which Kirk and Spock now understand are Horta eggs, ready to hatch.
The miners attack the security
team.
But several miners, held apart from the confrontation by the Enterprise security team, overpower it and stream into the confrontation. Kirk vows to kill the first man who fires and explains that the Horta is a mother reacting naturally to the destruction of thousands of her children. Spock adds that the Horta "harbor ill will towards no one." Kirk envisages a collaboration between the miners and a new generation of Horta who can tunnel through rock with as much ease as they do walking through air. McCoy repairs the Horta's wound by troweling thermal concrete, used mostly for the construction of emergency shelters, onto it.
The crew returns to the Enterprise and Vanderberg radios in that the Horta have started hatching and have already found new mineral deposits. He even mentions that one can get used to their appearance. Spock says the Horta told him the same thing about Humans. He counters some teasing from McCoy by replying that the Horta especially admired Vulcan ears.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 3196.1. A distress call from the pergium production station on Janus Six has brought the Enterprise to that long-established colony. Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy, and I have beamed down to meet with Chief Engineer Vanderberg, administrative head of Janus Six."
Memorable quotes
"When that creature appears, men die."
- Vanderberg, on the Horta
"Kiss it! Baby it! Flatter it if you have to! But keep it going."
- Kirk to Scott, on fixing the circulating pump
"Mr. Spock, we seem to have been given a choice: death by asphyxiation or death by radiation poisoning."
- Kirk
"There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal."
- Kirk to Giotto, after the Horta flees
"Either one of us by himself is expendable. Both of us are not."
- Kirk, to Spock
"Pain! Pain!"
- Spock, sensing the Horta's agony
"No kill I. What is that? A plea for us not to kill it? Or a promise that it won't kill us?"
- Kirk, reading the Horta's message
"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"
"You're a healer. There's a patient. That's an order."
- McCoy and Kirk, on treating the Horta
"By golly, Jim! I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!"
- McCoy, after healing the Horta
"The Horta has a very logical mind. And after close association with Humans, I find that curiously refreshing."
- Spock, to Kirk
"I suspect you're becoming more and more Human all the time."
"Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."
- Kirk and Spock
Summary
Kirk and Spock fire phasers at
the Horta.
On Janus VI, a miner named Schmitter replaces Sam at his guard post. Schmitter is extremely nervous about doing guard detail, but Chief Vanderberg reassures him by recommending that he have his phaser on him at all times and if he hears or sees anything, help can arrive in three minutes. Moments after Chief Vanderberg and the other guards move on, they hear a scream and return to find Schmitter reduced to a pile of ashes.
Act One
Two days later, the USS Enterprise arrives at Janus VI in response to the distress call. For the past three months, a creature has been terrorizing the mining colony, killing more than fifty people, sabotaging machinery on the lower levels, and bringing the pergium production to a halt.
Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy analyze the situation in Vanderberg's office. Only one man saw the creature and lived: Chief Engineer Ed Appel, who shot it with his phaser type-1 with no effect. He doubts that the power of a starship will do any good "down in the tunnels." McCoy analyzes Schmitter's remains; they are not burned but corroded, as if he had been immersed in a vat of extremely corrosive acid. Spock is fascinated by a silicon sphere on Vanderburg's desk; Vanderburg says there are millions of them underground but they have no value.
Their conversation is interrupted by an alarm at the colony's nuclear reactor. The creature has killed the guard outside, burned its way in, and taken the reactor's main circulating pump, without which the reactor will go super-critical and irradiate half the planet.
Act Two
Scott reports from the Enterprise that he can rig up a replacement with "some odds and ends" that might last 48 hours. Kirk orders him to beam down with it and hopes that, within that time, the original pump can be retrieved.
Spock, still contemplating Vanderburg's sphere, speculates that they may be dealing with a silicon-based lifeform rather than carbon-based life. This would explain why the creature does not show up on sensors and why it was impervious to Appel's phaser. Kirk summons Lieutenant Commander Giotto and a security team, and Spock adjusts their type 2 phasers to be more effective against silicon. The security team is dispatched to level 23, which was opened just before the attacks began. Kirk orders them to set their phasers to maximum, and to fire whether or not attacked.
Spock, Kirk, and Giotto examine
a piece of the Horta.
A security officer is killed by the creature, bringing Kirk and Spock to the scene. They see the creature, and fire on it, damaging it, but it gets away, tunneling through the rock with its acid. They examine a piece of the creature, which seems to prove Spock's theory of silicon-based life. Spock detects only one such creature within a hundred miles, and suggests that to kill it would result in the extinction of the species, "a crime against science," he states. Kirk says there is no alternative.
Act Three
The search teams focus on where the creature was seen. Spock gives them orders to "surround it, and possibly capture it" but Kirk countermands him, stressing that the goal is to "shoot to kill." Kirk orders Spock away to assist Scott with the reactor, but Spock counters with logic and Kirk relents. Spock states that the probability of he and Kirk both getting killed by the creature is approximately "2,228.7 to 1," to which Kirk ultimately allows Spock to stay with him. Scott's improvised pump fails and Kirk prepares to beam the miners up to the ship. But Vanderburg and his men refuse to be chased from the planet; they vow to fight the creature – "with clubs" if there are not enough phasers.
Kirk and Spock separate and Kirk finds a chamber with hundreds of the silicon spheres. Spock warns Kirk not to damage them but is still not ready to state his theory about them.
A roof near Kirk collapses, which Spock finds much too odd to be a coincidence. The only way out for Kirk is to continue forward – to a face-to-face encounter with the creature.
Act Four
Spock establishes a mind meld
with the Horta.
Kirk senses the creature's intelligence, as it backs off when Kirk raises and lowers his phaser and it displays its wound from the previous encounter, and Kirk's determination to kill the creature softens. Spock arrives and initiates a Vulcan mind meld to communicate with the creature. He learns that it is a sentient being of a race called the Horta and is in extreme pain, and the Horta learns enough to etch the ambiguous "NO KILL I" into the rock floor. Kirk summons McCoy, though Spock thinks his medical training will be useless on the Horta.
Another mind meld reveals that the Horta is preparing for the extinction of its race. It directs the Humans to find their pump in the "Chamber of the Ages." Kirk tells Spock to communicate to the creature that they are trying to help. He goes to the Chamber and finds about a million silicon spheres, which Kirk and Spock now understand are Horta eggs, ready to hatch.
The miners attack the security
team.
But several miners, held apart from the confrontation by the Enterprise security team, overpower it and stream into the confrontation. Kirk vows to kill the first man who fires and explains that the Horta is a mother reacting naturally to the destruction of thousands of her children. Spock adds that the Horta "harbor ill will towards no one." Kirk envisages a collaboration between the miners and a new generation of Horta who can tunnel through rock with as much ease as they do walking through air. McCoy repairs the Horta's wound by troweling thermal concrete, used mostly for the construction of emergency shelters, onto it.
The crew returns to the Enterprise and Vanderberg radios in that the Horta have started hatching and have already found new mineral deposits. He even mentions that one can get used to their appearance. Spock says the Horta told him the same thing about Humans. He counters some teasing from McCoy by replying that the Horta especially admired Vulcan ears.
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 3196.1. A distress call from the pergium production station on Janus Six has brought the Enterprise to that long-established colony. Mister Spock, Doctor McCoy, and I have beamed down to meet with Chief Engineer Vanderberg, administrative head of Janus Six."
Memorable quotes
"When that creature appears, men die."
- Vanderberg, on the Horta
"Kiss it! Baby it! Flatter it if you have to! But keep it going."
- Kirk to Scott, on fixing the circulating pump
"Mr. Spock, we seem to have been given a choice: death by asphyxiation or death by radiation poisoning."
- Kirk
"There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal."
- Kirk to Giotto, after the Horta flees
"Either one of us by himself is expendable. Both of us are not."
- Kirk, to Spock
"Pain! Pain!"
- Spock, sensing the Horta's agony
"No kill I. What is that? A plea for us not to kill it? Or a promise that it won't kill us?"
- Kirk, reading the Horta's message
"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"
"You're a healer. There's a patient. That's an order."
- McCoy and Kirk, on treating the Horta
"By golly, Jim! I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!"
- McCoy, after healing the Horta
"The Horta has a very logical mind. And after close association with Humans, I find that curiously refreshing."
- Spock, to Kirk
"I suspect you're becoming more and more Human all the time."
"Captain, I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."
- Kirk and Spock
