Simple tricorder scans had revealed that each of the Vocheron harboured a creature akin to the one that had possessed Hoffman - as did the Sythene Ambassador, Trygian. All had been confined in cells reinforced with Phillips Line domains, and Spock had professed himself certain that they could do no further harm to the Enterprise or her crew. Kirk still found himself shuddering when he stopped in front of the cell that held Tyssin and the ambassador turned towards them. His mouth was open and the feelers that writhed from his throat seemed to all reach hungrily in the direction of the Starfleet officers.

"We have discovered your secret." Kirk said.

"Oh, wwe realisssed that." Tyssin said. "Thiss ... containment ... is quite effective."

'What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Tyssin laughed. "We fffailed. What isss there ffor mee to ssayy?"

'Why did you try to destroy my ship?" Kirk asked. "What harm had we done you?"

"Oh, no hharm, no hharm at all. Pleasse, do not think this was a mmatter of enmity, Captain. It wass a matter of ... polllicy. And nnot to destroy, no."

'What do you call yourselves?" Spock asked politely.

"We call ourselves the Vocheron." Tyssin said. "We arre the Vocheron - or at least, there are no Vocheron where we are not."

"How long have you had this relationship with the Vocheron?"

"Many, many, mannnnny year." Tyssin said. "They need us. They were living in mmud huts and hhhiding from the night when firssst we cammme. We gave them civilissation. We wwould have given them the sstars... it was not alwayss like this..."

Kirk opened his mouth to speak, and then paused. Better, perhaps, for Spock to handle this. He himself was too angry, but Spock's composure was unbroken. Indeed, now the danger was past, Spock's curiosity was no doubt in full flight.
He glanced at the Vulcan, and Spock flickered an eyebrow in acknowledgement.

"Not always like this?" Spock prompted.

'There were mmmany of them, mmmany, and few of us. Only a few were chosen, and wwe lived within themm until it was out time, and we taught themm through our chosssen vessels and all prosspered. It was never ... pleassant ... for them,
to be chossen, but the rest bennefited so greatly, that they camme to us,
singing, prepared to becomme ... more than they wwere."

"What happened to change this state of affairs?" Spock's voice was dry and precise, and his tricorder was recording, as if he were doing some ordinary xenoanthropological interview and not talking to the representative of a species that had tried to kill them all.

"Sssex." Tyssin said baldly. "Or so you could sssay. Before, we werre few,
and space wass far, and we were feww and did not grow in nnnumbers. But when we found thessse people, and joinnned with them, from time to time one of us would becommme two. And it was not mmany, and not oftenn, but over timme there came to be mmore of us, and mmore, until it was not a few Vocheron wwho hosted us, but mmanny, and then most, and then nnearly alll. Somme of us tried to llive as we had before, outsside the bodies of otherss, and they never greww from one to twwo or morre, but it wass not the same, nothing like the sssame,
and sooner or lllater they sought to return, to be withinnn a body that could touch and mmmove and feelll the world of matter. And thennn... some three hundred yearsss ago, as you think of it, we began to nnnotice that there were fewer and fewwwer children born to the Vocheron. We knew that we mmmussst act,
and we sssought out a new sspecies to aid. We found the Sythenes, but they -
were rressistant. And even as we ssent our Vocheron againnst them, to bring themm to submission, still fewer and fewwer children were bornn. And for the last five years, none at alll. And we knew we had nno mmotre timme."

"And so you decided to capture the crew of this ship?"

"Not exactlly." Tyssin said. "Not ... precissely ... that. At first, yess, we needed yourrr ship. We nneeded, more than your ship, yourr crrew. We knnew that with a little time, we could llearn to change you so you wwould endure our presence as eassily as the Vocheron - or morre so. But you arre few, and we are mmany, and we need manny." He was silent along moment, and then lifted up his head towards them, gazing into the distance. "But yourr Federation is larrrge."

Kirk imagined those graceful, deadly, careless creatures swooping along the corridors of a Starbase, civilians scattering before them - or plunging down on a colony settlement - or in the teeming streets of San Francisco, the solemn avenues of Moscow, Shi'Kaar's grave and joyous parks or Marrtoth's glorious caverns -

Spock caught him by the arm before he had gone more than a step towards the force-field. Looking up, Kirk saw his own anger mirrored on the Vulcan's face for an instant before Spock shut it out. He took a deep breath, and pulled away.

"Ambassador," Kirk said. "you have admitted to hostile intent towards the Federation of Planets. Under General Order 15, I am confining you until such time as the Federation Council has made a determination. That is all."

He turned on his heel and strode away, not trusting his temper if Tyssin said anything further. Spock followed him.

"Spock," Kirk said. "Does your research show - the reasons for the fall in the Voucheron birth-rate? Is it a long term effect of the radiation?"

"No, Captain." Spock said. "I can find no physical reasons for the change in demographic patterns."

"Can we assume that he's telling the truth about that?"

"I think it eminently reasonable to do so." Spock said. "Such demographic effects would be predictable in the long term in most populations."

"How? I mean, why?" Kirk asked.

Spock stared straight ahead at the closed turbolift doors, as if hoping the arriving turbolift would pre-empt his answer. When he did speak, his voice was steady and cold.

"It is neither logical, nor ... rewarding, Captain, to reproduce one's species to merely serve the purposes of others. In this case, there would be no hope that the host species would retain any of their own values, would have any chance of even occasional autonomy, would have any hope of survival. The reason for the fall in the birth-rate is not physical, Captain. It is -
despair."

"On some subconscious level beneath the control of the - what is it, a parasite?"

"Yes." Spock said.

"Why have children when all you can give them is hell?"

"Yes." Spock said again.

Kirk was very still for a moment, and then took a measured step towards the wall and laid one hand, very carefully, against it. He wanted, in fact, to punch it - as a substitute for the Voucheron ambassador - but that was not productive, and not permitted of a starship captain in public, even when the public was only Spock.

"You were correct, Captain." Spock said. "The Federation Council is undoubtedly the correct body to determine what action ought to be taken." Spock said.

Kirk looked at him. "You know I'll stand by that decision." he said. "Even though - they killed my crew, Spock." Kirk said. "They killed my crew."

Spock was silent as the turbo lift arrived.

"Bridge." Kirk, and the turbolift accelerated.

"Captain," Spock said. "when the Vocheron first arrived, I advised you not to respond to your instinctive revulsion at their appearance. However, they did indeed turn out to be a threat to the ship. I believe that my advice may have prevented you from listening to the subliminal clues you were receiving-"

"Your advice was perfectly sound, Spock." Kirk said. "We were all so busy overcoming our distaste at their appearance that we nearly let them pull a fast one on us."

"My point exactly, Captain. If I had not -"

"If *we* had not had such a subjective reaction," Kirk said, "we wouldn't have had to put so much effort into suppressing it. There were no subliminal clues to my disgust. It was atavism, pure and simple, and it has no place in Starfleet."

Spock regarded him closely. "But your reaction was *correct*, Captain."

"Only by coincidence," Kirk said. As the turbolift stopped, he straightened his shoulders and stepped out onto the bridge. "Remind me to tell you,
sometime," he said as he strode down to take the centre chair, "about kittens and toads."

Captain's Log, USS Enterprise, Captain James T Kirk, Stardate 2053.6

We have turned over the Vocheron and Sythenes to the USS Inaiue, whose destroyer class facilities are more appropriate for both their detention and the transport of an External Affairs investigation team and a Starfleet quarantine detachment. We are limping back towards Starbase 22 for repairs and advanced medical treatment, and expect to arrive in eleven standard days from now.

In addition to recommendations already recorded, I recommend for commendation:

Commander Spock, for courage in the face of grave danger and risk to his life.

Lieutenant Commander Iyen, for courage in the face of grave danger and risk to his life.

Dr Leonard McCoy, for conduct above and beyond that required by his duties, for courage in the face of grave danger and risk of his life.

Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, for initiative and exemplary conduct.

Nurse Christine Chapel, for exemplary conduct.

Nurse Lia Burke, for exemplary conduct.

Yeoman Janice Rand, for initiative.

Yeoman Michael Brand, for courage in the face of grave danger and risk to his life.

Ensign Regna, for courage in the face of grave danger and risk to hir life.

We will this day also hold the memorial service for our dead. According to their wishes, the three crew who died on this mission will be buried in space;
according to hers, the body of Ann Ridley will be returned to her planet of origin for burial. We bear witness to the bravery of these four beings and commend their spirits to their deities. Their courage is an example to us all.

Three torpedo tubes, still travelling on the last course their launch gave them, drifting in lonely convoy through the deep. With no atmosphere to affect their speed, and no gravity to change their path, they will float on together until a planet, or a sun, or a comet, brings one or all of them to a fiery end.
In the meantime, though, they journey ever onward through the cold, through sectors of space never mapped by starships, past solar systems where species live that are not yet dreamed of in federation space.

Where no one has gone before.