Star Trek: The Original Series - 147 - Devil’s Bargain by Tony Daniel Page A

which is a very big ‘if’—then they’ll all die.”
    McCoy sat down next to Kirk and looked him in the eye. “So what do we do, Captain?”
    Kirk shook his head. “I’m . . . open to suggestions,” he replied. “But we have to come up with something.” Kirk drained the rest of his coffee. It, as all things Vesbian were beginning to do, reminded him of her.
    “I will give the matter some consideration, Captain,” said Spock. “I—
    BWAAA AAAH!
    The unmistakable sound of an alarm klaxon cut through the air.
    “What the devil—” said McCoy.
    The ground began to tremble under their feet, as if an earthquake were hitting the complex. The walls shook, and a nearby tapestry fell, exposing a bare section of wall.
    As quickly as it had come, the rumbling subsided.
    “Earthquake?” said Kirk.
    “Doubtful,” Spock replied. He checked his tricorder readings, rechecked them for certainty, and then said, “I believe the origin of the disturbance was technologically created. The shock waves the tricorder is displaying in feedback have a familiar signature—that of high-yield explosives.” Spock looked up from his tricorder display and caught both Kirk and McCoy in his cold Vulcan gaze. “That, gentlemen, was a bomb going off.”
    “A bomb? Purpose?” asked Kirk.
    “Unknown.”
    “Let’s go find out, then.” Kirk got up grabbing his phaser and communicator, as the others did the same.
    They followed Kirk out the door and into chaos.
    Bureaucrats darted hither and yon, attempting to find out what had happened and what to do about it. Kirk found the chancellor in his office, monitoring vid feeds.
    Kirk noticed that the electronic equipment in the office was not up to date but was at least twentyyears behind the times. The Vesbians may be some of the best biologists in the sector, but they had not kept up on the technological front. Data was flooding in from all sectors. Beside the chancellor was Hannah, looking as if she’d slept the sleep of the absolutely innocent—although Kirk knew better.
    The chancellor turned to Kirk. “It appears to be a terrorist attack, Captain,” he said. “It seems to have been a coordinated attack across the settlement. We’re just awaiting word on—”
    An intercom whistled and the chancellor keyed it on. He listened carefully to what the voice on the other end said, then leaned back, shook his head, and sighed.
    “Tunnels five and seven are lost,” he said, to no one in particular. “That’s one third of our capacity.”
    “How many were killed?” Kirk asked.
    The chancellor looked shell-shocked. He answered without outward emotion: “Hundreds, I’m told.”
    “I’m sorry, sir.”
    “Yes,” said the chancellor.
    Hannah moved to stand beside him. She put a comforting hand on her father’s shoulder. “It was the Exos, Father. You know it was.”
    Suddenly Major Merling burst into the room. “I came as soon as I heard, Mister Chancellor. This is deplorable, but as I’ve repeatedly warned you, the Exos will stop at nothing—” He cut himself offwhen he saw that the Enterprise landing party was on hand.
    Too late to put that cat back in the bag, Kirk thought. “The Exos, what’s that?” he asked.
    “You may think we are simple brewers and fermenters of beverages, Captain, and in most ways we are,” said Chancellor Faber. He seemed on the verge of tears and averted his eyes downward. Kirk had seen this before. Shame. “I am sorry to say that we also seem to have grown our own version of a terrorist supremacist movement.”
    “What are its demands?” asked Kirk.
    “Immediate evacuation of the planet in response to the asteroid, absolute separation from the Federation . . . and other items having to do with our peculiar genetics here on Vesbius.”
    “Evacuation and separation would seem to be incompatible goals at the moment. The Federation is your best hope,” Spock offered.
    “Not in the mind of your typical Exos member, I’m