Fic: Observations, Ch 200
“No.”
“He will be in our custody.”
“They’re screaming for his head down there. I don’t care how good our security forces are, armed people against a mob never leads to anything good. He comes on the Enterprise,” Leonard argued.
“It is clear that the entity that possesses him has some vendetta against the captain. Bringing him back onto the Enterprise could be catastrophic. It indicated that it was determined to kill the crew.”
“And how exactly is it going to do that, when Scotty’s wrapped in security tighter than Fort Knox?”
“We cannot be certain that this entity cannot move between individuals.”
“It hasn’t so far, or it’d have possessed you or me or Chris. Hell, anyone.”
“Redjac is not a fool. It is patient and somehow able to traverse through alternate timelines to find us here. It is toying with us, slowly destroying Scotty psychologically. Its object is torture, not instant death.”
“And it’s a sick bastard at that. You did the right thing, taking Scotty out before he could see.”
Silence.
“Spock? How’d you know? How’d you know it’d attack?”
“I did not. I was not certain, but there was a high probability.”
“Can you,” he hesitated. “Can’t you go in and get that thing out of Scotty’s mind?”
I looked away and closed my eyes. Coming into contact with an entity like Redjac-
“I have considered the possibility.”
Silence.
“And what about Hengist? Why wasn’t he harmed in any of this? Scotty didn’t touch him. And the way the man was going after Scotty. There’s something not right.”
“Agreed. But I do not know if they are related.”
“They’re related. They’ve got to be related.”
“Perhaps.”
“But Scotty. He’s coming on board. We’re not going to have any more Argelians killed because of this.”
“If Sybo’s warnings are true, then this is not the first time Redjac has killed. Argelius has apparently had several murders.”
“Bring Hengist too. Arrest him or something. I want that man in the brig until we get this goddamn nightmare solved.”
“I will issue the order to security.”
--
“I haf got it!” Pavel ran into the conference room. “We are framing the question wrong. It is not possessing people that we must be looking at, but creatures that feed on emotion!”
“Elaborate, lieutenant.”
“There are examples of planets where two species are existing, usually in a symbiotic relationship. The Drella of Alpha Carinae Five feeds off the humanoids that live there, getting food from emotion. It is being reported that they are mostly feeding off of love, but scientists are thinking that some feed off emotions like fear, anger. And then there is cloud creature of Alpha Majoris One, the mellitus. It is gas, naturally, sometimes liquid as it is getting older.”
“How is the relevant to Scotty being possessed?” Sulu asked.
“Nyet, nyet. Scotty is not being possessed exactly in the way we were thinking. This is a complicated monster. I am thinking that it feeds exclusiwly on terror, but terror is hard to find. So it must be creating its own terror, to feed itself.”
“That doesn’t explain why the hell it’s got a vendetta against Jim and the Enterprise. Or why it chose Scotty, of all people, to use as its vehicle.”
“I do not know why the keptan, but this monster is intelligent and sadistic. I am thinking Scotty is ideal candidate because he is always joking. Keptan, Spock, Nyota-they have seen too much terror. They are more numb to it. Scotty is an engineer. He is not seeing Wulcan implode.”
“That... sounds strangely plausible,” Christine said.
“Maybe it’s plausible, but it doesn’t tell us how to get rid of it before it breaks Scotty completely. Or kills us. Whichever comes first,” Sulu replied.
“You should be asking Hengist.”
“Why is that, lieutenant?”
“It is not obwious, Spock? Hengist was a wehicle before. He might be incubating new monster, or old monster is keeping him as backup plan. That is why he is not being killed.”
“How are you so goddamn sure of this?”
“Because. Sulu is looking up Hengist’s record before he is Administrator. On Rigel, he was stand-up comedian from nice middle class family. He is looking much happier than he is now.”
“Wait wait wait. I remember something. Hold on,” Sulu said and punched a search into the terminal. “I was helping Pasha search for similar incidents of possession and Rigel Four-there.”
Sulu pulled up a series of names and dates of murder victims of Rigel Four.
“Filter these results to correspond to the cities he visited while he was touring as a comic, and-”
A series of names came up.
“Holy mother of,” Giotto went up to the screen. “It’s the Quodon serial killer. That’s him.”
“Lieutenant?”
“I had a friend obsessed with this case. Rigelian authorities couldn’t believe that they never solved this case because of the sheer number of murders and the fact that they were so violent. But nothing. No solid leads, except that people in the area always felt clammy right after a murder.”
“I will remind everyone present that this is purely speculation based on Lt. Chekov’s theory. It is possible that Hengist will have no recollection of being host to Redjac at all, if his symptoms follow that of Scotty’s.”
“I don’t know, Spock. He might. All those graphic descriptions of murder?” Leonard shook his head. “He’s got to remember something even if it’s only in his subconscious. That’s a long time to be hosting something as demented as Redjac.”
“Shall I prepare an interrogation room, sir?”
“Yes, Lt. Giotto. Interrogate Hengist and if no answers are forthcoming, I will find the answers myself.”
--
Jim was lying on the biobed, sleeping. Various tubes were ran from his arms, through his nose, out of his stomach.
I am exhausted.
I carefully put my hand to his face, run my fingers through his hair. Through our contact, there is nothing but the deep content of sleep. Underneath it, he feels safe. He feels secure.
I want to climb into the biobed with him.
But I will not.
Giotto is calling on the terminal.
“Spock here.”
“We’ve got ourselves a canary, sir.”
I do not know what that colloquialism means, but I do not bother. The tone of Giotto’s voice is all I need.
“Good. I will join you immediately. Spock out.”
--
“That’s a messed up situation if I’ve ever heard one,” Sulu shook his head.
Apparently, Hengist was aware of being possessed by Redjac. He attempted to combat its campaign of terror, particularly in Argelius, by actively promoting beauty and encouraging the residents to consider themselves ‘innocents’. This had the inadvertent effect of increasing the terror of the victims when they were murdered.
“My head hurts just thinking about it. Did he do all that because he really thought it’d help, or because Redjac was manipulating him?”
“I don’t care what he thought he was doing,” Giotto said. “It didn’t help. You can look at it this way-there’s no doubt he covered up the murder investigations to lull people into a sense of security, then struck out when they felt safest. Their fear was that much more potent.”
“Did he give any indication as to how he was able to remove Redjac?”
“No. He’s still afraid that he’s possessed. He said the trial wasn’t him. The compu-polygraph is on the fence about that statement.”
“Maybe there’s some merit to his original idea, though,” Christine said, voice thoughtful. “I think he executed it poorly, but the concept was that if they were innocent and induced to always be happy, focused on beauty, they might not feel terror. We don’t know how to get Redjac out, but if we sedated people, it would lower the pool of individuals he could draw terror from or use.”
“It does breed and feed off fear and terror, then kills. We are confirming that in the interrogation.”
“Doctor?”
“Hell, it might work. I’ve got some stuff that’d tranquilize an active volcano.”
“After you are done tranquilizing the majority of the crew, I believe we should attempt to tranquilize Scotty.”
“Spock. He’s already sedated. The man’s sleeping.”
“We will wake him. The two states may make a difference.”
“What’re you going to do with it when it’s out? Put it in a jar?” Leonard asked.
“In a manner of speaking. If it is physical, I will use the transporter to rip it apart at the subatomic level and beam those particles directly into the core of this system’s sun. If it is being made of energy, I will force it to a state of matter using the replicator, then rip it apart at the subatomic level and transport it.”
“What if it doesn’t die?” Christine asked quietly. “What if it’s an eternal consciousness?”
“Perhaps it cannot die. However, it needs sustenance. If my solutions do not work, then I will spread Redjac across an inhospitable system lightyears from any civilization. That way, it might at least be weakened.”
“Spock. Your last solution implies a body,” Leonard looked at me.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“I am confident in my telepathic capabilities. Lt. Chekov will man the transporter.”
“Like hell he will, goddamn bastard! I’m not going to sit on the sidelines while you decide to sacrifice yourself to some psychopathic monster!”
“Commander, there’s gotta be another way-” Sulu said.
“Nyet. I will not man the transporter. You can be court martialing me. I will not do it.”
“That is the last option. I do not relish the idea of being scattered across a remote system.”
“We’ll use a cadaver. Anything. Just shut up with your fool idea.”
“No one has successfully established a telepathic connection with the dead, Leonard.”
“I’m not going to let you do this.”
“And I will do my best to ensure it does not happen.”
“What about the captain? Jim?” Christine asked. “You can’t, Spock. Nyota-you can’t. It would destroy Scotty.”
“Stop. I will not do this except as a last resort. But it is a possibility and if it is necessary to execute this, you will follow my orders. It is either that or remain in a perpetually tranquilized state, paralyzed by inaction, trapped by monster bent on destroying every individual on this ship.
“And that is no life at all.”