Who Goes There Part 2

Who Goes There? Or The Mind of Garth of Izar
A re-envisioning of Whom Gods Destroy?
By Gale Force
CHAPTER Three
Part One

While Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock made their way to the bridge, Lt. Parker activated the com-link to the surface and requested that the force field be lowered.

In Dr. Cory's command center, Dr. Evangeline bit her lip. This wasn't supposed to happen. Garth…or Dr. Cory!…he was the only one who should be requesting that the force field be lowered…and that only so that he could have her beamed up to the Enterprise!

Should she refuse? No, that would only create suspicion. If Garth had been captured…but he couldn't have been…but…but…if he had been captured….then she had to insure that she appeared innocent…so she'd be free to provide help if needed in future…no one on the planet suspected her, or even knew what was going on, for that matter…she had nothing to fear if she just kept calm.

"Lowering the force field now," she said, and pressed the appropriate buttons.

The six red-shirted security guards shimmered into life in front of her. One of them, a woman wearing more hash marks on her sleeves than the others, stepped forward. "I'm Lt. Agatha Parker," she said. "May I ask who you are?"

"Dr. Evangeline," she replied. "What's the matter? What's happening?" she didn't try to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

"We have reason to believe that the inmates have taken over the asylum," said Lt. Parker. Behind her she heard a snigger. She coughed. "I mean to say, we need to inspect the facility. Do you know where the inmate Garth of Izar is being kept?"

Evangeline's heart sank. So, something had gone wrong.

"I can show you, certainly. But you're quite wrong. Look, I can show you from here."

She indicated a rack of monitor screens, and pressed button after button. "Here are all our patients." She stressed the word, patients. "As you can see they're all…they're all…"

"What's the matter?" demanded Parker sharply.

"That man in Garth of Izar's cubicle…" Evangeline said… "that's not…that's Dr. Cory."

Parker peered at the screen. There was indeed a man in the cubicle, who matched the photo her Captain had shown her. Of Asian descent, in his sixties, he stood with arms folded, gazing out into the corridor.

"There's a man on the bed, too," commented Parker.

Evangeline squinted. "Yes, I see him. That's one of our security guards. That's Al."

"What about the rest of the in..I mean…the patients?"

Evangeline made a show of looking carefully at each monitor. "The rest are where they should be. And you can see from these buttons," she indicated, "they're locked in. It's only…but I don't understand. I saw Dr. Cory just a few minutes ago! He beamed up to the Enterprise with the Captain and a … a Mr. Spock I think his name was."

"Everything will be made clear in due time," said the lieutenant. "Captain Kirk would like to have a little chat with you in a few minutes. For now…Tyler, Logan, you remain here with Dr. Evangeline. The rest of us will go get Dr. Cory and bring him here. And Al."

She turned to Evangeline. "Can you give me a key to the cell?"

"The cubicle," Evangeline corrected automatically. "I, yes, here." She handed over a little black device, about the size of a communicator. "It opens everything. Just point and press."

"Right. Thanks."

In a very few moments, she and the rest of her team had returned to the control center with Dr. Cory and the security guard. Parker opened her communicator.

"Parker to Captain Kirk."

"Kirk here."

" The facility is secure, sir. Only Garth of Izar is missing. Dr. Cory and Dr. Evangeline are with me now."

"Donald," came Kirk's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, Jim," Cory said, though his voice was tired. "I must speak with your urgently."

"Right. Prepare to beam up."

"But what about the force field?" demanded Evangeline…. "what about…"

"Lieutenant Parker, choose someone to remain behind with you. You'll have to get in touch with the medical staff there shortly, in any event," Kirk spoke briskly. "The rest of you beam up. Then, Parker, activate that force field again."

"Yes, sir."

She flipped closed her communicator. "Wade, you're with me. The rest of you, prepare to beam up." She flipped open her communicator again, this time for the transporter room. "Beam 'em up, O'Dell," she said.

And within seconds, she and ensign Ben Wade were alone in the command center.

Part Two

Every starship captain has a ready room just off the bridge, where he or she can meet with his officers and crew in a more private atmosphere than the bridge itself, while still remaining close to that heart of the starship.

Kirk, Spock and Dr. Cory were in the ready room. They had already interviewed the security guard, Al, who had explained that he'd been making his rounds as usual when he saw Dr. Cory in the cubicle of Garth of Izar, looking beaten and bloody. He'd rushed in, and that Dr. Cory had risen up and struck him. And that's all he knew.

Cory had then given his story. He'd been in the command center, the door had slid open, and he came face to face with himself. And then he, too, remembered nothing more. Garth must have equipped himself with Al's phaser. The next thing he remembered, he had waked in the cubicle, with Al lying unconscious on the bed.

Dr. Evangeline gave her story next. Dr. Cory had approached her, and told her that the starship Enterprise was nearly there. He was going to give her in charge of the medicine she was inspecting. That Cory had acted completely normal, completely sane…she had no reason to suspect…

Al and Evangeline had then both taken their leave, escorted by security guards. Al to sickbay, to have a thorough check-up to ensure there were no lingering after-effects from being knocked unconscious, and Dr. Evangeline to guest quarters where she would remain until they found Garth of Izar.

When they were alone, Kirk looked at Cory.

"Tell me abut Garth, Donald. How can he change his form at will?"

"You know what happened to him, don't you?"

"Pretend I don't," said Kirk. "Tell me the whole story."

Cory shrugged. "He was taking his ship to Vomisa IV for a refit, when he received a distress call from a mining colony. His was the only ship in range, so of course he went to their rescue. It was a rogue mining colony. People had come across an asteroid full of …" Cory gestured… "some valuable metal….I forget now what and it's not the point. They'd settled there and began mining, and it was an unstable asteroid. It started to disintegrate, and the lives of a hundred people were at stake."

Kirk nodded, grimly.

"The metal was such that it was impenetrable to the transporter. The only way to rescue those miners was to go in physically and drag them out…the asteroid disintegrating around them all the time. Garth would never ask a crewman to do what he himself would not do…" Kirk nodded, approvingly…. "and so he led the rescue party, along with a group of volunteers."

Cory spread his hands. "The rest you know. Garth and his men saved most of the miners. Garth was still in one of the tunnels, trying to get out the last of them, when it collapsed, crushing him. The men he'd been trying to save abandoned him, rushing to the surface and safety. A few of his own people went back into the tunnel and dragged him out, but he was near death.

Garth's crew loved him, as I'm sure you can appreciate. They knew the only way to save him was to break protocol, to take him to the forbidden planet, Antos VII, where the Antosians could save his life. And they did so, by teaching him cellular metamorphosis…. which enabled him to restore the destroyed parts of his body..including his face."

"Yes….I saw his face…"

Cory nodded. "From there….it must have been a natural progression for him to realize that he use that knowledge to recreate himself as anyone he wanted to be."

"Re-create himself," murmured Kirk.

Cory nodded. "They saved his life, but they drove him mad."

"Perhaps," said Spock, "that is part of the cause of his insanity. Anyone who can change themselves to look like anyone else they please…it would be difficult not to become a megalomaniac."

"And that's the form Garth's madness takes, eh?" asked Kirk.

Cory steepled his fingers. "It's true. Garth's goal is to take over the entire universe. He styles himself, "Lord Garth" now."

Kirk blinked at him. "The entire universe?"

"It could be done," said Spock judiciously. "If he could have taken the Enterprise to Earth, sought out the President of the Federation, and replaced him….he would effectively be in control of much of the known universe."

Cory smiled wanly. "That's your Vulcan logic coming to the fore, Mr. Spock. But unfortunately you are wrong. Garth doesn't want to assume control of the universe, he wants to take control of it. By violence. He wishes to assemble a fleet of starships and destroy everyone who stands in his way. Conquest by war…that's what he intends."

"Destruction for the sake of it," murmured Kirk.

"Exactly. Some burgeoning hatred…something…is driving him to destroy …I could never get him to speak to me of anything…personal…it was only his goals of conquest he would freely discuss. Drugs, medication, nothing could break the block into his unconscious mind…I failed him…"

"Only up until now, Donald," said Kirk. "We'll find him, we'll give him that new drug, and he'll be on the way to being himself again."

"I hope so, Jim. But that doesn't change the fact that right now, you've got a megalomaniacal madman running around the Enterprise, with only one goal in mind. Destruction. No one on board this ship is safe."

Kirk nodded, face grim. "I know, Donald. I know."

Part Three

Garth of Izar walked into the Observation Room, stopped just inside the door, and assessed possibilities.

There were a handful of people in the room. A man and woman were sharing drinks at a corner table, another couple were gazing into each other's eyes in a different corner table…. And a woman sat alone at the observation portals in the rear of the room, gazing out into infinite space.

Garth walked over to the drinks dispenser and checked the choices. A variety of soft drinks…no alcohol. Did Kirk run a dry ship, then? Or did he just not allow it in the Observation rooms?

Garth chose two Pepsis… a favorite tipple of his since his Academy days, and then carried the small cups back toward the rear of the room, which was one vast expanse of glass and darkness beyond.

He stopped beside the woman. "May I join you?" he asked.

She looked up at him, and smiled sweetly. "Sure."

Garth sat down next to her, and held up a glass to her. "I hope you like Pepsi."

She smiled again, and took it. "Thank you."

Garth leaned back into the softness of the chair and stared out into the darkness…and at his face, reflected in the glass…it seemed as if his entire face were spread out over the universe…like that of a god.

Who Goes There? Or The Mind of Garth of Izar
A re-envisioning of Whom Gods Destroy
By Gale Force
CHAPTER FOUR

Part One

The woman – she was a Lieutenant, Garth noted – sipped her Pepsi. Then she held out her hand to him. "I'm Katya. Katya Landau."

He smiled. "I'm G…us. Keller. Gus Keller."

"Hullo, Gus," she said, and then turned her attention back to the stars.

Garth noted that she looked rather sad. Was she one of those people who liked to look at the stars because it made them feel in their place, with regards to the universe? Small and infinitesimal?

"What are you thinking?" he asked her, gently.

She grinned. "I was thinking of a poem.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

Garth stared at her, shocked.

She looked at him curiously. "What's the matter? Don't you like poetry?"

"Yes," he said quickly. "It's just…I had been thinking of something similar, only a few seconds ago." But he knew that she had not been thinking what he was thinking…that he'd like her to be touching his face. So odd, that she had been thinking of that…

"The stars make you think of god," he said, carefully.

She grinned. "Oh, no. Not at all. It's just that I've become addicted to jet aerobatics. Every time we're in orbit around a planet, a group of us put on our spacesuits and jetpacks and go out and just soar among the stars. There is nothing quite like it. But we're not allowed to do that here, and it's just so disappointing."

Garth threw back his head and laughed.

"What's so funny?" she asked, prepared to enjoy the joke.

"I was amused, because I had completely misinterpreted your expression, that's all. As I said, some people look at the stars and think they are god, some look at them and think of how small they are…and you look at them and wish you could go out and play among them."

Katya laughed, but inwardly she felt a bit puzzled. Why would looking at stars ever make someone think they were God? She didn't bother to ask, though. This man was fascinating her. Handsome, self-confident…but something curiously vulnerable about him…

She nodded at the stars outside the glass. "Do they inspire you to poetry?" she asked.

Garth turned to look out at the stars once more. He'd long been an aficionado of the Earth poet, Shakespeare…. Very slowly he said, "I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

Katya's face sobered, and here eyes looked at his face searchingly. "Yes," she said, quietly. "You don't sleep very well, do you?"

Garth stared at her again. One hand went to his face. How could she know that?

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I just… are you okay?"

Garth brought his hand away and smiled a brilliant smile. "I'm bored with the subject," he said. "Let's talk about something else."

Part Two

Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Security Chief Clay Barker were in Kirk's ready room, and Kirk had just finished laying out the situation to them.

"We've got a man on board who can assume any form he wishes. Me, Spock, one of you…presumably even a woman. He could be anyone. Now, how do we find him? Bearing in mind that I want as few people as possible to know this. If the crew thought that I or Spock could be an impostor at any time… morale aboard this ship would break down in a heart beat."

Barker nodded. "What steps have you taken so far?

"Since Garth escaped the transporter room, neither Spock nor I have been out of each other's sight. So I know that we two are who we say we are. I want you to assign a security guard to each of us. We will go nowhere alone. If we are ever found alone, we get clapped in irons, no exceptions."

Barker nodded again. "You think he'll come after you or Mr. Spock?"

"Yes. Either me, Spock, or any of the command crew. I'll want a security guard assigned to each of them as well. No exceptions."

"Would it do any good to distribute a photo of him as he looks now?" asked Barker. "I mean, as he normally looked, when he was in custody here?"

Cory shook his head. "I doubt it, Chief Barker. For example…" he punched up, on screen, the same photo that the false Doctor Cory had shown Kirk and Spock on their initial visit to the command center. "That, for example, isn't Garth of Izar at all – his bodily shape, let alone his face…and yet that is the only photo in our databanks now. Garth must have substituted it when he took over my office. As for the face he had before the accident…he looked nothing like that when he came to us, so that won't help, either."

"Pity," said Kirk. "All the more reason why none of the command crew is to be left alone. Ever. He may come after any of us and there's no way of knowing what shape he'll assume. Even if he uses his…let's just call it his "real face", for the sake of argument, there's no way to recognize him."

"There is one thing," mused Donald Cory. "Garth…has a temper… which he is quite unable to control. Any slight, real or imagined, anyone who does not pay due deference to him as lord of the universe…and he is quite likely to go berserk."

Kirk leaned forward with a concerned expression on his face, as his heart sank. He didn't like the thought of a madman running loose on the Enterprise, but he had believed that however mad he was, he would not make the mistake of attacking the general crew…that only the command crew would be his target.

"Do you think that's likely, Donald? That he'd attack and harm an anonymous crewmember? When he must know how important it is for him to stay…well…invisible?"

"There is that," Cory nodded. "He is able to control his mania for periods of time. If he is pretending to be a …well, an anonymous crewmember…he likely will not become offended if someone treats as an anonymous crewmember."

Kirk breathed a sigh of relief. "That's what I'd thought."

"Why does this madman have to go after anyone at all?" asked Scotty. "All he has to do is pretend to be a crewman. The next planet we reach that has passenger freighters, he jumps ship and away he goes."

Kirk shook his head. "No one is getting off this ship until we find Garth, Scotty. And he must know that. He's trapped on board the Enterprise as surely as he was trapped on Elba II."

"Unless he finds a way…initiates a way…for it to be necessary to evacuate the ship," mused Spock.

"Thank you for that cheerful thought, Spock," commented Kirk.

Spock gave one of his patented shrugs. "We are dealing with Garth of Izar, one of the most…if not the most, brilliant starship officers the Federation has ever had. We must be prepared for anything."

Barker cleared his throat. "How about this?" he said. "We beam every crewmember down to the planet. You said yourself that his disguise can't withstand the transporter. Once they've beamed down successfully, they're paired with another, real crew member. Eventually, everyone has beamed down. Sooner or later, one of them will be Garth, and I'll have a security team on the surface, waiting for him."

"There are over a thousand people on board this starship," Spock commented. "The buildings in the colony below can house….perhaps….three hundred. No more."

"As we clear the crewmembers, we beam them back on board using one of the auxiliary transporters," Barker said. "Then we quarantine them, in pairs, in their quarters. Easy."

Kirk grinned wryly. "Easy," he said. He got to his feet. "Barker…it's a good plan. Time consuming, and with so many steps involved that errors can creep in. But I think, if implemented properly, it is the most proactive thing we can do."

Barker smiled. "Thank you, sir."

"Opinions, Mr. Spock?"

Spock steepled his fingers. "As you say, Captain, it will be time consuming, and with so many steps…it is indeed prone to error. Between the transporter room here, and the transporter room on the planet, and the auxiliary transporter rooms…and think of this…it may not work. What occurred earlier, when Garth was revealed to us. It may just have been that he had not realized that the transporter would rearrange his molecules as it did… but what if, now that he knows that, he can counteract it in future?"

Kirk grimaced. "Another cheerful thought, Spock. Thank you."

"My pleasure, Captain."

"Let's take a break for one hour," Kirk said. "When we reassemble, I want solutions that will actually work. Barker, call in a couple of guards for Spock and myself, please. We are in an urgent situation, but we can spare an hour to do some thinking. In that period of time, Garth isn't going to be harming anyone. He has no reason to, and every reason not to."

"Unless he feels himself trapped already," pointed out Spock, "and begins to assemble hostages immediately. Collecting bargaining chips to be used later, if the need arises."

Kirk gritted his teeth. The thought of his crew in danger…. And them not knowing they were in danger…

"The situation just keeps getting better and better," he said grimly.