[Bridge]
PAINTER: Approaching Omicron Ceti Three, sir.
KIRK: Standard orbit, Mister Painter.
PAINTER: Yes, sir.
UHURA: Captain.
KIRK: Yes, Lieutenant.
UHURA: I've been transmitting a contact signal every five minutes. All
I get is dead air. Shall I continue?
KIRK: Maintain transmission pattern until we've established orbit.
UHURA: Aye, aye, sir.
KIRK: Mister Spock, there were one hundred and fifty men, women, and
children in that colony. What are the chances of survivors?
SPOCK: Absolutely none, Captain. Berthold rays are such a recent
discovery. We do not yet have full knowledge of their nature. It is
known, however, that living animal tissue disintegrates under exposure.
Sandoval's group could not have survived after three years.
KIRK: Are you saying that those people built a future in a place
knowing they might not survive?
SPOCK: I am saying they knew there was a risk.
KIRK: And what about us? Can we afford to send people to the planet's
surface?
SPOCK: The breakdown of tissue does not develop immediately. We can
risk a limited exposure.
PAINTER: We've established orbit, sir, and I've pinpointed a
settlement.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Painter. Mister Spock, equip a landing party of
five to accompany me to the planet's surface. Include Doctor McCoy and
a biologist. I'll want them in ten minutes.
[Farm yard]
(The group beam down into a farm, complete with
wooden fence and a tarmacadamed paths. There are clap-board buildings
and even a stable block.)
KIRK: Another dream that failed. There's nothing sadder. It took these
people a year to make the trip from Earth. They came all that way and
died.
ELIAS: Hardly that, sir. Welcome to Omicron Ceti Three. I'm Elias
Sandoval.
Captain's log, stardate 3417.3. We thought our
mission to Omicron Ceti Three would be an unhappy one. We had expected
to find no survivors of the agricultural colony there. Apparently, our
information was incorrect.
[Farm yard]
ELIAS: We haven't seen anyone outside our group for
four years since we left Earth. We've been expecting someone for some
time. Our subspace radio didn't work properly, and I'm afraid we didn't
have anyone who could master its intricacies.
KIRK: Actually, Mister Sandoval, we didn't come here because of your
silent radio.
ELIAS: It makes little difference, Captain. You're here. We're happy to
see you. Come, let me show you our settlement.
MCCOY: On pure speculation, just an educated guess, I'd say that man is
alive.
SPOCK: Captain, this planet is being bombarded by Berthold rays, as our
reports indicated. At this intensity, we'll be safe for a week if
necessary. But
KIRK: But these people shouldn't be alive.
SULU: Is it possible that they're not?
MCCOY: You shook hands with him, Jim. His flesh was warm. He's alive.
There's no doubt about that.
SPOCK: There's also no question of the fact that Berthold rays are
incontrovertibly deadly. There's no miracle connected with it, Doctor,
you know that. No cures, no serums, no antidotes. If a man is exposed
long enough, he dies.
KIRK: Gentlemen, we're debating in a vacuum. Let's go get some answers.
[Farmhouse]
(Elias leads the way into a comfortable room with
wooden furniture and gingham curtains.)
ELIAS: There are two other settlements, but we have forty five
colonists here.
KIRK: What was the reason for the dispersal?
ELIAS: We felt three groups would have better potential. If disease
were to strike one group, the others would be less likely to be
affected. You see, Omicron is an ideal agricultural planet. We
determined not to suffer the fate of expeditions that went before us.
LEILA: Elias.
ELIAS: Leila, come meet our guests. This is Leila Kalomi, our botanist.
This is Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, Mister Spock.
LEILA: Mister Spock and I have met before. It's been a long time.
KIRK: Mister Sandoval, we do have a mission here. Examinations, tests.
ELIAS: By all means, make them. I think you'll find our settlement an
interesting one. Our philosophy is a simple one, that men should return
to a less complicated life. We have few mechanical things here. No
vehicles, no weapons. We have harmony here. Complete peace.
KIRK: We'll try not to interfere with your work.
ELIAS: Make yourselves at home, gentlemen.
[Outside, by the barn]
KELOWITZ: What exactly are we looking for anyway,
sir?
SULU: Whatever doesn't look right, whatever that is. When it comes to
farms, I wouldn't know what looked right or wrong if it were two feet
from me.
(You mean like that weird alien plant right next to you?)
KELOWITZ: (opening up the barn door) Hey.
SULU: What is it?
KELOWITZ: No cows. This barn isn't even built for them, Just for
storage.
SULU: Come to think of it, we haven't seen any animals. No horses, no
pigs, not even a dog. Nothing.
[Farmhouse]
ELIAS: You've known the Vulcanian?
LEILA: On Earth, six years ago.
ELIAS: Did you love him?
LEILA: If I did, it was important only to myself.
ELIAS: How did he feel?
LEILA: Mister Spock's feelings were never expressed to me. It is said
he has none to give.
ELIAS: Would you like him to stay with us now, to be as one of us?
LEILA: There is no choice, Elias. He will stay.
[Drawing room]
(In another part of the farmhouse, McCoy is
conducting medical examinations.)
MCCOY: That'll be all. Thank you very much.
(The man leaves, Kirk enters.)
KIRK: Anything?
MCCOY: I've examined nine men so far, varying in ages from twenty three
to fifty nine. They're all in perfect condition. Text book responses.
Heart, lungs, excellent. Co-ordination, excellent. Reflexes, excellent.
If there are many more of them, I could throw away my shingle.
(Communicator beeps)
KIRK: Kirk here.
[Pasture]
SPOCK: Spock here, Captain. There seems to be a
total absence of life on the planet, with the exception of the
colonists and various types of flora.
KIRK [OC]: Sulu had the same observation. Any explanations?
SPOCK: Not at the moment, sir. I am conducting various tests with the
tricorder, but results are inconclusive.
[Drawing room]
KIRK: Very well. Continue investigations. Kirk out.
MCCOY: No animals. That's peculiar.
KIRK: Yes, especially in view of the fact that the records for this
expedition indicate that they did have some for breeding and food
purposes. Apparently, none of them survived.
MCCOY: I'd like to see the medical records on the expedition.
KIRK: Yes, I thought you might.
(Hands over a computer disc)
ELIAS: Captain, I've been looking for you. You haven't seen our fields
and crops. I'd like to show you and the Doctor what we've accomplished
here.
MCCOY: I'm afraid I'll have to bow out. I have to continue with these
medical examinations. However, if I find everyone else's health to be
as perfect as yours, I
KIRK: He promised to throw away his shingle.
ELIAS: You'll find no weaklings here. Captain.
[Field]
ELIAS: This is the reason, Captain. This soil will
grow anything we plant in it. It's a perfect world.
We have a moderate climate, moderate rains all year round. It gives us
all we need. It is perfect.
DESALLE: Pardon me, Captain. Biology report ready, sir.
ELIAS: I have work to attend to myself, Captain.
(He leaves them.)
KIRK: Go ahead, Lieutenant.
DESALLE: I heard Sandoval saying they could grow anything here. That's
true, sir. They've got a variety of crops in. Grains, potatoes, beans.
KIRK: Make your point.
DESALLE: Well, sir, for an agricultural colony, they have actually very
little acreage planted. There's enough to sustain the colony, but very
little more.
KIRK: It's like a jigsaw puzzle all one colour. No key to where the
pieces fit in. Why?
(Communicator beeps)
KIRK: Kirk here.
MCCOY: This is McCoy, Jim. I think you'd better get back here.
KIRK: Trouble?
MCCOY: No, but I'd like you to see this for yourself.
KIRK: On my way.
[Farmhouse]
MCCOY: Sandoval's medical record, four years ago
when the expedition left Earth. He registered scar tissue on his lungs
from lobar pneumonia suffered when he was a child. No major operations,
but there was an appendectomy. Received all required inoculations, et
cetera.
KIRK: What's so strange about that?
MCCOY: Nothing, but I examined that man no more than two hours ago. You
know what his readings were? Perfect, perfect, and perfect. Just like
everyone else I've examined here.
KIRK: Instrument malfunction?
MCCOY: No. I thought of that and tested it on myself. It accurately
recorded my lack of tonsils and those two broken ribs I had once. It
did not record the scar tissue on Sandoval's lungs, but it did record a
healthy appendix where one was supposedly removed.
[Field]
(Spock is scanning amongst the rows of dry-looking
somethings.)
SPOCK: Nothing. Not even insects. Yet your plants grow, and you've
survived exposure to Berthold rays.
LEILA: That can be explained.
SPOCK: Please do.
LEILA: Later.
SPOCK: I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct
answer to any question.
LEILA: And I never understood you. Until now. There was always a place
in here where no one could come. There was only the face you allow
people to see. Only one side you'd allow them to know.
SPOCK: I would like to know how your people have managed to survive
here.
LEILA: I missed you.
SPOCK: Logically, you should all be dead.
LEILA: If I tell you how we survived, will you try to understand how we
feel about our life here? About each other?
SPOCK: Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist.
LEILA: Someone else might believe that. Your shipmates, your Captain,
but not me. Come.
[Drawing Room]
KIRK: Mister Sandoval, within the hour I've
received orders from Starfleet Command to evacuate all personnel from
this colony. Naturally, you'll inform your people to begin
preparations. We will have accommodations for you aboard the
Enterprise.
ELIAS: No.
KIRK: It's not an arbitrary decision on my part. I have my orders.
ELIAS: Captain, it's entirely unnecessary. We're in no danger here.
MCCOY: We've explained the Berthold rays to you and their effect. Can't
you understand?
ELIAS: Doctor, how can I make you understand? Your own instruments have
shown that we're all in perfect health. We've had no deaths here.
KIRK: What about your animals?
ELIAS: We're vegetarians.
KIRK: That doesn't answer my question, sir. Why did all your animals
die?
ELIAS: Captain, you stress very unimportant matters. We will not leave.
[Pasture]
(The grass is brown and dry, but the pink flowers
are growing.)
LEILA: It's not much further.
SPOCK: You've not yet explained the nature of this thing.
LEILA: Its basic properties and elements are not important. What is
important is it gives life, peace, love.
SPOCK: What you're describing was once known in the vernacular as a
happiness pill. And you, as a scientist, should know that that's not
possible.
LEILA: Come. I was one of the first to find them. The spores.
SPOCK: Spores?
(One of the pink flowers shoots things at him. Spock clutches his head
and falls to the ground in pain.)
SPOCK: No.
LEILA: It shouldn't hurt.
SPOCK: No, I can't. Please, don't!
LEILA: Not like this. It didn't hurt us.
SPOCK: I am not like you.
(Suddenly the pain is gone.)
LEILA: Now. Now, you belong to all of us and we to you. There's no need
to hide your inner face any longer. We understand.
SPOCK: I love you. I can love you.
(They kiss.)
Captain's log, supplemental. We have been ordered
by Starfleet Command to evacuate the colony on Omicron Three. However,
the colony leader, Elias Sandoval, has refused all co-operation and
will not listen to any arguments.
[Farmyard]
KIRK: Sandoval.
ELIAS: Captain, your arguments are very valid, but they do not apply to
us.
KIRK: You're being unreasonable.
ELIAS: Well, nevertheless. Excuse me.
KIRK: Excuse me. My orders are to remove all the colonists. That's
exactly what I intend to do, with or without your help.
ELIAS; Without, I should think.
MCCOY: Would you like to use a butterfly net on him, Captain?
KIRK: No, I think we'll use a
SULU: Captain, we've checked out everything. It all seems normal,
except for the absence of any animals.
KIRK: We have orders to evacuate all colonists to Starbase Twenty
Seven.
I want landing parties to co-ordinate the colonists and prepare them
for transport up to the ship. We'll need extra accommodations aboard.
Where's Mister Spock and Mister DeSalle?
SULU: We haven't seen them since we began our check.
MCCOY: DeSalle said he was going to examine some native plants he
found. Did Spock call in at all?
KIRK: No, he didn't. (gets out communicator) Spock? See to the landing
parties, would you, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Spock?
[Pasture]
(Spock's communicator is beeping to itself while he
is lying in Leila's lap, looking at the clouds. He has changed out of
his uniform into an overall.)
SPOCK: That one looks like a dragon. You see the tail and the dorsal
spines?
LEILA: I've never seen a dragon.
SPOCK: I have. On Berengaria Seven. But I've never stopped to look at
clouds before. Or rainbows. You know, I can tell you exactly why one
appears in the sky, but considering its beauty has always been out of
the question.
LEILA: Not here.
(She picks up the communicator and it opens.)
KIRK [OC]: Spock!
SPOCK: Yes, what did you want?
[Farmyard]
KIRK: Spock, is that you?
[Pasture]
SPOCK: Yes, Captain. What did you want?
KIRK [OC]: Where are you?
SPOCK: I don't believe I want to tell you.
[Farmyard]
KIRK: Spock, I don't know what you think you're
doing, but this is an order. Report back to me at the settlement in ten
minutes. We're evacuating all colonists to Starbase Twenty Seven.
[Pasture]
SPOCK: No, I don't think so.
[Farmyard]
KIRK: You don't think so, what?
[Pasture]
SPOCK: I don't think so, sir.
[Farmyard]
KIRK: Spock, report to me immediately.
[Pasture]
(But the communicator drops to the ground during
another kiss)
KIRK [OC]: Spock? Acknowledge.
[Farmyard]
KIRK: Spock. The frequency is open, but he doesn't
answer.
MCCOY: That didn't sound at all like Spock, Jim.
KIRK: No. I thought you said you might like him if he mellowed a
little.
MCCOY: I didn't say that.
KIRK: You said that.
MCCOY: Not exactly. He might be in trouble.
KIRK: Yes, take over the landing party detail and start getting those
colonists aboard.
MCCOY: How will you find Spock?
KIRK: The frequency is open. It'll act as a homing device. Contact
DeSalle. Have him meet you here. Make sure the landing party work in
teams of two. I don't want anybody left alone down here.
[Pasture]
(They find the communicator, and hear laughter.
Spock is hanging upside down from a branch of a nearby tree.)
KIRK: Spock. (clears throat) Mister Spock.
[Beam-down point]
(Items are being collected to be taken up to the
ship. DeSalle has brought some of the pink plants.)
MCCOY: What are you doing with those things, DeSalle?
DESALLE: I want you to take a close look at these, Doc. They're very
interesting.
[Pasture]
KIRK: Mister Spock. Are you out of your mind? You
were told to report to me at once.
SPOCK: I didn't want to, Jim.
KIRK: You? Yes, I can see that. Miss Kalomi, you'll have to come back
to the settlement and prepare to transport up to the ship.
SPOCK: There'll be no evacuation, Jim, but perhaps we should go back
and get you straightened out.
KIRK: Mister Sulu, Mister Spock is under arrest, and he's in your
custody until we get back to the Enterprise.
SPOCK: Very well. Come with me.
(He takes Leila's hand and leads the group to a clump of the plants,
where they all get sprayed with spores.)
KIRK: What's?
SPOCK: Mister Sulu understands, don't you, Mister Sulu?
SULU: Yes, I see now. Of course we can't remove the colony. It'd be
wrong.
KIRK: I don't know what these plants are or how they work, but you're
all going back to the settlement with me, and those colonists are going
aboard the ship.
(Kirk leaves them.)
SPOCK: I can see the Captain is going to be difficult.
[Another pasture]
(No equipment or colonists now, just plants going
up to the ship.)
MCCOY: (with an extreme southern drawl) Ready to beam up. Hiya, Jimmy
boy! Hey, I've taken care of everything. All y'all gotta do is relax.
Doctor's orders.
KIRK: How many of those did you beam up?
MCCOY: Oh, must be nigh onto a hundred by now.
CHIEF [OC]: Hey, Doc, I'm ready to energise. Everything okay with those
plants?
KIRK: This is the Captain. Beam me up.
CHIEF [OC]: Well, sure, if you want.
KIRK: I most certainly do. Energise.
[Bridge]
KIRK: Lieutenant, put me through to Admiral Komack
at Starfleet.
UHURA: Oh, I'm sorry, Captain. I can't do that.
KIRK: What do you mean, you can't do that. Follow standard procedure.
That's an order.
UHURA: Oh, I know it is, Captain, but you see, all communications are
out.
KIRK: Out?
UHURA: I short-circuited them, except ship to surface. We'll need that
for a while. It's really for the best, Captain.
(She leaves the Bridge. Kirk finds a plant and throws it angrily across
the helm console before storming out himself.)
[Corridor]
(There's a long queue of crewmembers lounging
against the wall outside the transporter room.)
KIRK: Get back to your stations. Get back to your stations.
LESLIE: I'm sorry, sir. We're all transporting down to join the
colony.
KIRK: I said get back to your station.
LESLIE: No, sir.
KIRK: This is mutiny, mister.
LESLIE: Yes, sir. It is.
Captain's log, stardate 3417.5. The pod plants have
spread spores throughout the ship, carried by the ventilation system.
Under their influence, my crew is deserting to join the Omicron colony,
and I can't stop them. I don't know why I have not been infected, nor
can I get Doctor McCoy to explain the physical-psychological aspects of
the infection.
[Pasture]
MCCOY: I'm not interested in any
physical-psychological aspects, Jim boy. We all perfectly healthy down
here.
[Bridge]
KIRK: I've heard that word a lot lately. Perfect.
Everything's perfect.
MCCOY [OC]: Yeah. That's right. That's just what it is.
KIRK: I'll bet you've even grown your tonsils back.
[Pasture]
MCCOY: Sho'nuf. Hey, Jim boy, y'all ever have a
real cold Georgia-style mint julep, huh?
[Bridge]
KIRK: Look, Bones, I need your help. Can you run
tests, blood samples, anything at all to give us a lead on what these
things are, how to counteract them?
[Pasture]
MCCOY: Who wants to counteract paradise, Jim boy?
[Bridge]
MCCOY [OC]: McCoy out.
KIRK: Bones. Bones.
[Farmhouse]
(Spock is pouring tea.)
SPOCK: Almost the entire ship's complement has beamed down.
ELIAS: I'm very pleased. The entire landing operation is proceeding
quite well.
(Kirk enters)
KIRK: Where's McCoy?
SPOCK: He went off to create something called a mint julep. That's a
drink, Jim.
ELIAS: Captain, why don't you join us?
KIRK: In your own private paradise.
ELIAS: The spores have made it that.
KIRK: Where did they originate?
SPOCK: It's impossible to say. They drifted through space until they
finally landed here. You see, they actually thrive on Berthold rays.
The plants act as a repository for thousands of microscopic spores
until they find a human body to inhabit.
ELIAS: In return, they give you complete health and peace of mind.
KIRK: That's paradise?
ELIAS: We have no need or want, Captain.
SPOCK: It's a true Eden, Jim. There's belonging and love.
KIRK: No wants. No needs. We weren't meant for that. None of us. Man
stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.
ELIAS: We have what we need.
KIRK: Except a challenge.
SPOCK: You don't understand, Jim, but you'll come around sooner or
later. Join us. Please.
KIRK: I'm going back to the ship.
[Bridge]
(All the panels are lit, the lights are on, but
nobody is home except one.)
KIRK: Engineering? Scotty? Biochemistry lab? Security? Is there anyone
on board? This is the Captain.
(He sits in his chair.)
KIRK: Captain's log, stardate 3417.7. Except for myself, all crew
personnel have transported to the surface of the planet. Mutinied.
Lieutenant Uhura has effectively sabotaged the communications station.
I can only contact the surface of the planet. The ship can be
maintained in orbit for several months, but even with automatic
controls, I cannot pilot her alone. In effect, I am marooned here. I'm
beginning to realise just how big this ship really is, how quiet. I
don't know how to get my crew back, how to counteract the effect of the
spores. I don't know what I can offer against paradise.
(The plant that he had thrown earlier, now sprays him with spores.)
KIRK: Enterprise to Mister Spock.
[Pasture]
SPOCK: Yes, Jim. What is it now?
[Bridge]
KIRK: I've joined you. I understand now.
[Field]
SPOCK: Wonderful, Jim. When will you beam down?
[Bridge]
KIRK: There are some things in my quarters I want
to pack.
[Field]
SPOCK: Good. Leila and I will meet you at the beam
down point.
KIRK [OC]: Kirk out.
[Kirk's quarters]
(He packs a suitcase with a smile on his face, then
goes to the safe and gets out his medals. He loses the smile.)
[Transporter room]
(Kirk puts his suitcase on the transporter pad and
goes over to the controls.)
KIRK: No. No! I can't leave! (he's very relieved) Emotions. Violent
emotions. Needs. Anger. Captain's log, supplemental. I think I've
discovered the answer, but to carry out my plan entails considerable
risk. Mister Spock is much stronger than the ordinary human being.
Aroused, his great physical strength could kill. But it's a risk I'll
have to take.
[Field]
KIRK [OC]: Enterprise to Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Spock here.
KIRK [OC]: It's Jim.
SPOCK: What's keeping you, Jim? We've been waiting.
[Transporter room]
KIRK: I've been packing some things, and I realise
there's some equipment here that we should have down at the settlement.
[Field]
KIRK [OC]: You know we can't come back on board
once the last of us has left.
SPOCK: Do you want me to beam up a party?
[Transporter room]
KIRK: No, I think you and I can handle it. Why
don't you beam up now?
[Field]
SPOCK: Just a moment. It won't take long. Do you
mind?
LEILA: I'll wait.
SPOCK: Ready to beam up, Jim.
[Transporter room]
KIRK: (with a large metal bar in his hand)
Energising.
(Spock materialises.)
KIRK: All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerised, half-breed,
we'll see about you deserting my ship.
SPOCK: The term half-breed is somewhat applicable, but computerised is
inaccurate. A machine can be computerised, not a man.
KIRK: What makes you think you're a man? You're an overgrown
jackrabbit, an elf with a hyperactive thyroid.
SPOCK: Jim, I don't understand.
KIRK: Of course you don't understand. You don't have the brains to
understand. All you have is printed circuits.
SPOCK: Captain, if you'll excuse me.
KIRK: What can you expect from a simpering, devil-eared freak whose
father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia?
SPOCK: My mother was a teacher. My father an ambassador.
KIRK: Your father was a computer, like his son. An ambassador from a
planet of traitors. A Vulcan never lived who had an ounce of integrity.
SPOCK: Captain, please don't
KIRK: You're a traitor from a race of traitors. Disloyal to the core,
rotten like the rest of your subhuman race, and you've got the gall to
make love to that girl.
SPOCK: That's enough.
KIRK: Does she know what she's getting, Spock? A carcass full of memory
banks who should be squatting in a mushroom, instead of passing himself
off as a man? You belong in a circus, Spock, not a starship. Right next
to the dog-faced boy.
(Spock bends the metal bar with one blow, and throws Kirk around the
transporter
room with ease. Fortunately, Kirk is able to dodge the blows that
damage the walls and equipment until finally...)
KIRK: Had enough? I didn't realise what it took to get under that thick
hide of yours. Anyhow, I don't know what you're so mad about. It isn't
every first officer who gets to belt his Captain several times.
SPOCK: You did that to me deliberately.
KIRK: Believe me, Mister Spock, it was painful in more ways than one.
SPOCK: The spores. They're gone. I don't belong anymore.
KIRK: You said they were benevolent and peaceful. Violent emotions
overwhelm them, destroy them. I had to make you angry enough
to shake off their influence. That's the answer, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: That may be correct, Captain, but trying to initiate a brawl
with over five hundred crewmen and colonists is hardly logical.
KIRK: I had something else in mind. Can you put together a subsonic
transmitter. Something we can hook into the communications station and
broadcast over the communicator?
SPOCK: It can be done.
KIRK: Good. Let's get to work.
SPOCK: Captain. Striking a fellow officer is a court martial offence.
KIRK: Well, if we're both in the Brig, who's going to build the
subsonic transmitter?
SPOCK: That is quite logical, Captain.
[Field]
MCCOY: Well now, it's a little early to be counting
stars, Miss Leila.
LEILA: I'm waiting for Mister Spock and the Captain to transport down.
They had some equipment to be moved. But it's been so long. I wish he'd
come back.
MCCOY: Well, now, I think I can fix that for you. Enterprise?
[Bridge]
(Spock is back in uniform and under the console
when it beeps.)
SPOCK: Enterprise. Spock here.
[Field]
LEILA: This is Leila. I borrowed the doctor's
communicator. I was worried something might have happened to you.
[Bridge]
LEILA [OC]: You are all right, aren't you?
SPOCK: Yes. Yes. I'm quite well.
[Field]
LEILA: Can I come aboard? I've never seen a
starship before
[Bridge]
LEILA [OC]: and I want to talk to you.
SPOCK: Are you still at the beam down point, and is the doctor there?
[Field]
LEILA: Yes to both questions.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Give your communicator back to Doctor McCoy.
You won't need it to beam up. It'll take a few moments. Just wait
there. Out.
KIRK: Mister Spock, Miss Kalomi is strictly your concern, but should
you talk to her while she's still under the influence of the spores?
SPOCK: I'll be back shortly, Captain.
[Transporter room]
(Once she's materialised she rushes to put her arms
around him, but he doesn't respond.)
LEILA: You're no longer with us, are you? I felt something was wrong.
SPOCK: It was necessary.
LEILA: Come back to the planet with me. You can belong again. Come back
with me, please.
SPOCK: I can't.
LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop
repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You
couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything
together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. We're
happy here. (crying) I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.
SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge.
I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we
all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.
LEILA: I have lost you, haven't I? And not only you, I've lost all of
it. The spores. I've lost them, too.
KIRK: The Captain discovered that strong emotions and needs destroy the
spore influence.
LEILA: And this is for my good? Do you mind if I say I still love you?
You never told me if you had another name, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: (wiping away her tears) You couldn't pronounce it.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: They'll not hear this, of course. It'll be
more a sensation of feeling it.
KIRK: As though somebody had put itching powder on their skin.
SPOCK: Precisely. It should begin to work on their nerves in a few
minutes.
[Field]
SULU: Sorry, DeSalle.
DESALLE: What do you think you're doing?
SULU: I said I was sorry.
DESALLE: More like you're clumsy.
SULU: If you hadn't gotten in my way
(They fight with their spades.)
(Elsewhere around the settlement, fights are breaking out.)
KELOWITZ: Come on. Break it up. Break it up.
[Pasture]
(McCoy is resting under a tree, with a tall glass
of mint julep in his hand.)
ELIAS: Well, Doctor, I've been thinking about what sort of work I could
assign you to.
MCCOY: What do you mean, what sort of work? I'm a doctor.
ELIAS: Not any more, of course. We don't need you. Not as a doctor.
MCCOY: Oh, no? Would you like to see how fast I can put you in a
hospital?
ELIAS: I am the leader of this colony. I'll assign you whatever work I
think suitable.
MCCOY: Just a minute. You'd better make me a mechanic. Then I can treat
little tin gods like you. (He punches Elias) Sorry, Sandoval. I don't
know what made me do that.
ELIAS: We've done nothing here. No accomplishments, no progress. Three
years wasted. We wanted to make this planet a garden.
MCCOY: You can't stay here. You can't survive without the spores. After
you've cleared at the Starbase, you could be relocated. It depends upon
what you want.
ELIAS: I think I'd, I think we'd like to get some work done. The work
we started out to do.
MCCOY: Enterprise.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Enterprise. Spock here.
[Pasture]
MCCOY: This is McCoy. Sandoval would like to talk
to the Captain.
[Bridge]
SPOCK: Just a moment. They're all beginning to call
in, Captain. Rather contritely, I should say. Sandoval wishes to speak
to you.
KIRK: Put him on the speaker. Kirk here.
[Pasture]
ELIAS: Oh, Captain, as I understood it, you were to
transport us to Starbase Twenty Seven. We'll give you every
co-operation.
[Bridge]
KIRK: Start making preparations, Mister Sandoval.
We'll begin transporting your people aboard as soon as more of our crew
checks in.
[Bridge]
(Later, when everyone is back on duty.)
MCCOY: Well, Jim, I've just examined the last of the colonists, and
they're all in absolutely perfect, perfect health. A fringe benefit
left over by the spores.
KIRK: Good.
MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.
KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we
weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way
through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way.
Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the
sound of drums. SPOCK: Poetry, Captain. Non-regulation.
KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti Three, Mister
Spock.
SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the
first time in my life I was happy.
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