Star Trek: The Original Series - 147 - Devil’s Bargain (24 page)

All the makings of an angry mob,
Hannah thought.

Meredith flew the sled into their midst, and the crowd parted reluctantly before the big sled shoved them aside with its antigrav pulsars. They landed at the base of the courthouse steps, and Hannah stepped off the sled and walked up to the courthouse door.

Xart, the district’s chief gendarme, stood there. He was a minor party official and had received his appointment as a sinecure after his father’s political group had won the previous election. Xart was a slight man and did not look the part of a policeman. In fact, he appeared to be about to throw up his dinner.

“I don’t know what to do, ma’am,” the man proclaimed upon seeing Hannah. “They started showing up just after the court finished its final session. Most of these are not from around here—seems like they’ve been sledded in.”

“Are they making demands?” asked Hannah.

“Sure they are,” said the gendarme. “They want Bellamy Hox released—that’s what they want. They want him free.”

“Hox?” said Hannah. “On what grounds?”

“The sentence came in today,” said Xart. “He was found guilty of attempted murder, of
you,
ma’am. The judge wasn’t sure what to do with him, since anywhere we put him would be taking up the space for an innocent person. So she decided—”

The judge stepped out of the doorway and Hannah recognized her as Ellen Freitag, an old friend of her mother’s and one of the leaders of the expedition that had originally settled the planet. “I decided that the scumbag could stay on the surface in jail and take his chances. After that, we’ll ship him off planet to a penal colony. He can take his chances with the autoimmune vaccine. Maybe there will be an improved version by then.”

“That seems . . . harsh,” said Hannah.

“A Federation colony will be able to help him much better than we can here, particularly considering our current circumstances. As a matter of fact, I’ve arranged for him to be taken away in the brig of the
Enterprise
.” Freitag chuckled. She was known for her tough sentences and for running a fair courtroom, but she was no politician.

The last thing they needed at the moment, reflected Hannah, was a judge lecturing this group on the fact that they had no right to challenge a ruling that was effectively a death sentence for the convicted.

On the other hand, nearly two thousand innocents were under a death sentence at the moment,
and
they
had not tried to kill fifteen Horta and Hannah herself.

“Give us Hox!” cried someone in the crowd.

“He was trying to save Vesbius!” shouted another.

“Yes, exactly. That is exactly right.” It was a voice Hannah recognized. The front of the crowd parted, and Jasper Torn stepped forward from the mob. “Why don’t you get us off this hellhole permanently? It’s the least you can do after causing such a good man to suffer.”

“Jasper?” gasped Hannah. “You are a Planetary Council member. You have to realize this is madness!”

“What I realize is that the time has come to bring everything out in the open, Hannah Faber,” he said. His constant supercilious smile never left his handsome face. “We demand an end to sham democracy and cowering. Let the strong survive. And if you will not grant it, we will
bring you down
.”

He turned to the crowd and held up a fist in the air, then opened it into five outstretched fingers.

Everyone knew what he was doing. This was the salute of the Exos movement.

“Jasper! You’ve joined the Exos?”

Torn turned and smiled at Hannah. “I
am
the Exos. Don’t you see, Advisor? Do you really think Hox and Merling acted alone? Do you think the shelter bombs planted themselves?”

This was too much for Ferlein and Meredith.
Their hands brought phasers from hidden pockets, and these were pointed at Torn.

“No,” said Hannah to her bodyguards. “Lower your weapons.” She turned back to Torn. “What are you saying, Jasper? What have you done?”

“What needs to be said,” Torn replied. “And now we will again do what needs to be done.”

He turned to the mob. “Are you with me?” he shouted.

“Yes!” a ragged chorus called back.

Hannah had been his political opponent, but she had not suspected Jasper Torn of being a terrorist, much less the mastermind of Exos. But Hannah was not surprised by the mob sentiment. Since she had been back, the call for freeing Hox had grown.

More shouts arose from below the courthouse steps, and a rotten apple flew by, barely missing Hannah’s head. Soon they would be throwing harder material. Hannah knew that she had to do something to oppose these calls for vigilante justice. If Xart wasn’t going to help her—and it was very apparent that he was scared out of his boots—then she would have to do it alone.

Ferlein and Meredith moved to stand on either side of her. “We have to get you out of here, ma’am,” said Ferlein, scowling over the mob.

“No,” Hannah said. “That I will not do.”

But what action
could
she take?

Then the problem was solved for her.

“Statement! A statement for the press!” It was Johnny Sanchez, a reporter for the
Daily Buzz
. Sanchez was a one-time Exos supporter who had supposedly “reformed” and now passed himself off as a serious journalist. Hannah knew he was clever and amusing, and he had developed quite a following. His newsfeed was the third most popular on the planet. Many of the planet’s residents had the
Daily Buzz
set to receive on their portable communicators. Through him, Hannah could talk directly to the people, if she could get past Torn.

He appeared to be primping, attempting to maneuver his way between Hannah and Sanchez. The reporter had himself hardwired with recording devices.

“Yes, Johnny,” Torn said. “Finally, the time has come—”

“The Council member forgets himself,” Hannah said loudly, cutting off Torn’s oration and moving up beside him. “I have a message from the chancellor’s office, and I have a victim’s statement.”

Sanchez immediately turned to face her. Here was better news than some minor Council member’s speechifying.

“The fact that Bellamy Hox almost killed me makes no difference in the larger scheme of things,” said Hannah. “If it had not been for Doctor McCoy, I would be dead. Yet I believe I was only an afterthought for Hox and the Exos terrorist movement.”

Cries of “Lies!” and “Release Hox!” But there were a few in the crowd who had begun to listen. Some even appeared to realize that Hannah was responding intelligently and coherently, and she was not merely shaking a fist at them.

“The target of Hox and his accomplice, Major Johan Merling, was another species, an intelligent, thinking, and
feeling
species. They are called the Horta. They may be utterly different from us, but they are allies, and we will soon owe these creatures our lives. And maybe someday we shall call them friends. They deserve justice, and I believe justice has been served today.”

“Alien scum!” shouted Torn. He moved toward Hannah as if to finish what Hox had started, but Ferlein and Meredith quickly interposed themselves. “Give us Hox!” he contented himself with shouting. “Give us Hox!”

Hannah smiled and continued addressing Sanchez. The newsman stood one step below her and was looking up at her. He appeared mesmerized, whether by her beauty or the scoop he was getting, it was impossible to say. From his position, Hannah figured the vid was showing her at a commanding angle. Good.

“Aliens? Absolutely, the Horta are aliens,” Hannah said. “But the greatest victim of Hox and Merling was not alien at all.” She reached down and put a hand on Sanchez’s shoulder, looked him as deeply
in the eyes as she could, and addressed Sanchez and his audience. “These criminals’ greatest victim was
you,
the citizens of this colony. In attempting to destroy the Horta, they were attempting to murder Vesbius herself—our beloved planet—for all time.”

•   •   •

Lieutenant Uhura was monitoring the
Daily Buzz
feed on the
Enterprise
. She turned to the captain, saying, “There’s an interesting development on the planet, sir.”

“Can it wait?”

“I think you should see this, Captain,” said Uhura. “Shall I pull it up on viewscreen?”

Kirk turned to his communications chief. Uhura understood the demands on his time and she didn’t make such requests without good reason. He nodded his assent, and she keyed the newsfeed to the main viewscreen.

Hannah was on the steps of some government building. The feed vid revealed a crowd surrounding her.

No, not a crowd,
thought Kirk.
A mob.

What was she up to?

Kirk watched as Hannah tried to talk down the mob singlehandedly.

Then a challenger appeared, a man Kirk thought he recognized.

Hannah’s response.

The crowd’s disdain.

They’re not going to kill her. Not on my watch,
Kirk thought.

“Spock, you have the conn,” said Kirk. He turned to Uhura. “Have a ten-member security team meet me in the transporter room on the double, Lieutenant. We’re going down to the planet surface.”

•   •   •

Captain’s log, Stardate 6417.1. Concerned that the Exos terrorist movement is trying to seize control of Vesbius, I have beamed down to the Vesbian colony in order to prevent a mob from freeing would-be assassin Bellamy Hox. He was found to have links to an Exos terrorist organization and, while acting under some personal duress, was found guilty of sixteen counts of attempted murder for the ideological cause of genetic supremacy. The moral dilemma created by the genetic engineering of humans has resulted in political turmoil and factionalism. It seems that in the attempt to create paradise, humanity cannot help but breed toxic weeds as well.

•   •   •

“Listen to me,” said Hannah. “I bear Bellamy Hox no ill will. It is true that he was threatened by the death of his family to do what he did, and I forgive him. But to
forget
what he has done, to let him get away
with doing this, and to open ourselves to the possibility he will do so again—this we cannot permit.”

Hannah looked out over the crowd. Far from being mollified, the mob seemed to surge toward her. They were coming for her. She had failed.

Nearby, Jasper Torn laughed. “Did you really think you could fight those who are your superiors?” he roared.

Hannah ignored him, but she flinched at the mob’s approach.

Ferlein and Meredith placed themselves two steps down from her, ready to defend her with their lives.

There were too many out there, and many of them were just as well armed as her bodyguards. The mob would make short work of them all once it surged.

So this is the end,
she thought.
I don’t even get to find out if the asteroid was diverted. Or to see
him
one last time.

Suddenly, between her and the mob a line of men and women with drawn phasers materialized. It took Hannah a moment to recognize that this was Jim and an
Enterprise
security detail.

“Stand ready,” Kirk ordered as soon as he had fully materialized. The
Enterprise
crew formed a phalanx that looked forbidding. The sight of a row of phasers pointing straight at them caused the crowd to step back. But still they did not disperse.

No, no,
thought Hannah.
This is not the way. This will solve nothing.

•   •   •

“Jim, what are you doing? Firing will only make things worse in the long run.”

Kirk turned away from the mob and looked at Hannah. “I can’t let them storm up here and kill you . . .”

“Yes, please, Captain, shoot them,” said Jasper Torn. “Go ahead and shoot them all. And then watch us rise up and destroy you.” The man laughed. “We
are
the superior beings. You understand this, don’t you, Captain? You know it in your bones.”

Wasn’t this the Council member Torn, who’d spoken to us before? The one who’d reminded me of Khan?

“I made the mistake of indulging an Augment for too long in his fantasies once,” said Kirk. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

Kirk raised his phaser and fired point-blank at Torn with the phaser on stun. The man crumpled onto the courthouse steps, stunned into unconsciousness by the phaser blast.

The mob roared at the sight and surged forward. But the
Enterprise
’s security detail, now joined by Ferlein and Meredith, held their ground and stared resolve straight back at them.

“You have to give me another chance,” Hannah
begged Kirk. “I have to get to them, or this will spiral out of control.”

If anybody had a chance, it would be Hannah Faber. In another universe, Kirk reflected, she might’ve made a hell of a starship captain.

“All right, talk to them,” he said. “Nobody’s taking that prisoner anywhere. I have the ability to beam Hox up at any time and throw him in the brig.”

“Yes, Jim, I know.” Hannah touched his arm. “He’s only a minor matter now, however.”

Hannah walked down the three steps to the officers forming the security detail and put her hand on a leveled phaser. The security officer looked to Kirk, who nodded. The man allowed Hannah to lower his weapon. And then the next allowed her to do the same, and the next, and the next, and the next, and, finally, Hannah’s own bodyguards.

This was not lost on the crowd: Hannah’s actions seemed to have a far greater effect than any of her words. The crowd’s incessant murmur began to moderate to a more conciliatory tone. When she had pushed all the phasers down and they were hanging harmless, Hannah mounted the stairs once more and turned to address those gathered. They had grown respectfully silent, waiting to hear her, a crowd instead of a mob.

Still, much would depend on what Hannah said next.

“Live and let live,” Hannah began. “We are a
world where you can do what you want and make your way as you choose. A world where the bureaucratic rules of the galaxy do not apply. There is only one law we have ever needed here: Live and let live.