Star Trek - TOS 38 Idic Epidemic (40 page)

He recognized T’Pina, although they had never formally met, and he was acquainted with Beau Deaver, a mathematical genius who frustrated the engineer by not giving a care whether there was any practical application for his brilliant discoveries.
They were the last people he expected.

T’Pina approached Korsal hesitantly. “Thought
Master Korsal. I ask a favor.”

“Anything within my power, T’Pina,” he replied. “I
know what you’ve been going through. And please, don’t be so formal. No titles here. What can I do for
you?”

She looked toward Deaver, and said, “Beau—Mr.
Deaver—said you might know how I can find out …
how I can be Romulan. That Klingons have diplomat
ic relations with the Romulans, so—”

Captain Kirk turned sharply at that. “That’s classi
fied information, Deaver. The Klingons aren’t sup
posed to know we know they’ve got an alliance with the Romulans. How do
you
come to know it?”

“From the Orions,” Deaver replied, “when I was a
kid driftin’ around on the edges of the Federation. Ever’body knew it in the circles me family run in.”

“Do not be concerned, Captain,” said Korsal. “I am in no position to inform on you. T’Pina,” he added, “I’m afraid all channels to Klingon High
Command are closed to me. However, I can tell you
what Romulan custom could lead to an infant being abandoned on an enemy planet.”

“Please tell me.” The girl’s eyes widened, pleading,
although otherwise she maintained Vulcan control.

“Both Klingons and Romulans care greatly about
family lines,” Korsal told her, “but the Romulans have a tradition of avenging themselves in feuds
between families by stealing an infant—an important
infant, the heir to a great dynasty, or a child whose marriage could one day cement an alliance between powerful families. The crude method is to
kill
the child and send the body to the parents. But the child
may be abandoned among criminals. If it grows up an
outlaw, eventually it is identified to the family, to
cause them shame.

“The least practiced but most devastating form of
this practice is for your enemy to steal your child and
place him somehow with an even greater and stronger
enemy—where you cannot possibly steal
him
back
again, but must watch
him
grow up among people you
hate, being taught to hate you.

“T’Pina,” Korsal continued, “I believe you are a victim of that practice. We’ve heard all about your
origins for the past few days, how you were discovered
after the destruction of Vulcan Colony Five. That
planet is well away from the Neutral Zone; the raid
would not have been a warning to the Federation to
stay out of disputed territory.

“I can only speculate, but that was a small colony. The raid could have been by members of a Romulan
dynasty who had stolen you from their enemies. By
killing all but the children, they guaranteed that those
surviving children would all be taken to Vulcan, far inside the Federation. Knowing that Vulcans would
adopt you, they thus placed you where your real
parents would have no chance of getting you back. If they ever knew what happened to you.”

T’Pina sat in silence, as if trying to assimilate what
he had told her. “Then I can never find out who my
biological parents were.”

“I’m afraid not,” said Korsal. “This is not something the Klingons can investigate for you, even if
they were willing. And to my knowledge the Federa
tion has no dealings at all with the Romulans.”

Kirk was staring at him. “But the Klingons have
had for a very long time, haven’t they? It’s not a new
alliance.”

“New? Oh, no—Klingons met up with Romulans
not long after they first perfected star travel!”

“Captain Kirk!” Korsal had come to recognize
Communications Officer Uhura’s voice on the inter
com.

“Kirk here,” the captain replied, punching up a
view of the bridge on Kevin’s terminal. Uhura looked
quite distressed.

“Captain, we are being hailed by Klingon imperial cruiser
Star Blaster.”

“Put them through,” Kirk instructed, his own anxi
ety showing.

The screen wavered, and the bridge scene was
replaced with a head-and-shoulders shot of a Klingon
captain. “Kirk,” he said, “I am Kef, commander of the
Star Blaster.
We come seeking—” Suddenly the dark eyes on the screen looked past Kirk, to Korsal.
“Ah—Korsal. It is you we seek. Are you ill? Why have
we had no reports from you in so long?” Kef leaned
closer. “Why must we learn of events on Nisus from
the Orions?”

Chapter Forty-four

James T. Kirk stared at the Klingon captain on the
viewscreen.

“I
…
am not ill,” Korsal was saying to Kef.

“Then why are you in the sickbay of a Federation
starship?”

Korsal remained silent.

Kef asked, “Why do you refuse to speak, Korsal?”

“I cannot,” Korsal replied.

The Klingon captain frowned. His eyes went to
Kirk, then back to Korsal. “Speak. I command you.”

“I cannot,” Korsal repeated. He squared his shoul
ders. “To do so might embroil the Federation and the
Klingon Empire in a war of such dishonor and
desperation that when our children’s children meet us
in the Black Fleet, they will not fight our enemies but seek revenge on
us.”

Kef searched Korsal’s face. When it was obvious Korsal was not going to talk, Kef exclaimed, “You fool! You and that
khesting
Orion think you have
some new, unknown disease on Nisus. We know what
it is, and that we are immune to it.”

“Do you also know,” Korsal asked flatly, “that
Klingon blood can be used to immunize members of
other races?”

Kef studied him. “You were … protecting us? Is
that it, Korsal?”

“Yes. We have controlled the epidemic on Nisus.
No one who has been exposed will leave Nisus with
out being immunized. There will not be a Federation-
wide epidemic. There will be no
…
demand for
Klingon blood.”

Kirk cut in, “Kef, how do you know so much about the plague? If Borth wanted to sell it to you, he would
not have given you enough information to locate his
source.”

The Klingon smiled, showing just the tips of his
teeth. “That is why I wanted Korsal to tell me. Now
you know we have broken Starfleet’s latest code, and
since you will report the fact to Starfleet Command,
we will have the nuisance of breaking a new one.”

Kirk had to smile in response. “Point counter
point.” Then he sobered. “Since you know about this
disease, may we ask for your help? As Korsal said, the
epidemic is controlled. It is not over. We can treat
only critical cases with the supply of serum we have.
And before anyone can leave Nisus, they must be
immunized.”

To Kirk’s surprise, Kef replied at once, “Yes, my
crew will donate the blood you need.”

“Why?” asked Kirk, suspicious of too easy a vic
tory.

“Perhaps we would rather give our blood than have
you take it,” Kef replied.

“We wouldn’t—”

“Captain,” said Kef, “to save Federation lives? If
our situation were reversed, if you would not help us,
would you not expect me to
take
your blood to save
Klingon lives? You would volunteer, would you not?”

“I hope,” Kirk replied, “that my reasons would be
less cynical. I believe, Captain, that yours are, as
well.”

“The donations are already being taken,” Kef said,
ignoring Kirk’s attempt at amity. “We also have the
formula for synthesizing the immunity factor, but the
process takes twenty days. In the meantime you can
stop the plague with serum. The first blood is ready to
transport.”

Kirk let Uhura transfer the communications link to
McCoy while Kef put his chief medical officer on to the Federation doctor.

While that was going on, Kirk turned to Korsal.
“What do you think?”

Korsal smiled, no teeth showing. “I think perhaps
Klingons and Humans are not so different.”

“Then why were you afraid to report the disease?”

“Because
we are not so different. Among both our
peoples are those who would use even this disease as a
weapon. If I had known that my people already had
the means to defuse it, I would have sent for help
immediately.”

But Kirk was still unsatisfied. When Kef came back
on screen, he asked, “Did you come to Nisus now
because of the message Borth sent you?”

“No. If we had known about the plague, we would have come sooner, and brought a supply of synthetic
serum. We are here because Korsal’s transmissions stopped abruptly thirty days ago. The technological advances made on Nisus, even though nonmilitary,
have been invaluable to the Klingon Empire. We do not want scientific cooperation between the Federa
tion and the empire to cease.

“When the empire could not raise Korsal, we were
sent to find out why. On the way, we received Borth’s
communication—but when we came in subspace
radio range we decoded your transmissions and dis
covered that your plague was what we suspected.”

“And you just happened to have in your computer
the formula for synthesizing the serum?” Kirk asked.

“Our chief medical officer knew it, of course.”

“Of course?” asked Kirk. “Why of course? Kef, you
are
immune
to this thing! Why would your CMO
know the formula for the cure?”

“Captain—” Korsal protested.

Kef was grinning. “You deserve your reputation,
Kirk. You’re right; this mutating virus is well known
in the Klingon Empire, even though most of us are
immune to it. Ask Korsal. He might not recognize its genetic structure, but every Klingon knows about the Imperial plague.” The screen blanked.

Kirk turned to Korsal. “All right—talk. What’s this
Imperial plague?”