‘Tis Charity
to Show
Chapter VII
Part 4
The landing
party stood in a half-circle in the meeting room. The weakened state of their bodies, the deathly white of the
their skins, and the ash color under their eyes made one think of photographs
of POWs from places like Korea, Vietnam, or the death march of Bataan. Though it had taken some time, Rand was
diligent in rousing the rest of the crewmembers from their parasitic
slumber. Everyone stood, their
faces haggard and shoulders slumped with the weight of both fatigue and
uncertain fate. It was only the
skittering of their wild eyes that kept the landing party from looking like the
walking dead. Riley was not in the
circle, but was propped up on a stretcher just a couple of feet behind Begay,
who stood with the rest of the crew.
Rand was the
first to speak. She began,
haltingly, to talk about her argument with Khobran and how that argument
manifested itself on Tijus in obsessive playbacks of their fight, intense
guilt, distracting loneliness, and consuming hunger for her lover. She went on to talk about how these all
tied to the contents of Dr. Ellis’ tapes, the physical deterioration of the
crew, the light, and the monster outside.
Dr. Begay
took his cue and talked about the tragedy he experienced back on the miner’s
colony, and how that guilt came to haunt him, in the forms of crippling
depression and grotesque hallucinations that would bring him back to the day of
the child’s gory death.
The rest of
the crew had a grim moment of recognition that expressed itself in various ways
on their faces; a painful, almost degrading kind of making sense of it all.
“I was an
overweight child,” began Rose tearfully.
“I also had a huge appetite.
I was pretty ostracized in middle school, so I changed my eating habits
and developed better discipline, and overcame my weight problem. But the way I consumed food on this
mission was so unreal! I couldn’t
understand why I didn’t gain all that weight back and then some, but I guess I
was being fed on, just like you said, Janice.”
Scotty said
nothing, but looked on with eyes brimming with sadness. He nodded silently as he listened to
Rose and the others.
Spock stood
silently as well, his arms folded and head bowed solemnly. After Rose was
finished, he raised his head and sighed, his eyes seemingly far away.
“I must add
my own account to everyone else’s experiences on Tijus.” He stopped, and then hesitated before
continuing. “I have always had
a…shall we say, a somewhat shaky sympathy for humans. This ‘sympathy’ would, at times, veer into confusion, and
even astonishment. It is quite
clear that this confusion and astonishment magnified itself to the point where
it became pure, unbridled racism…if you will. It appears as if all of our
fears, regrets, past poor habits or ailments, annoyances and prejudges, all
seem to return to us far more pronounced.
This entity knows all of these regrettable aspects of ourselves, and is
therefore able to show us these emotion albatrosses that we have not been able
to get over, or to move on from in our lives.”
“’Tis
charity to show,” snorted Begay in disgust.
Spock nodded
thoughtfully. “Ah, yes. Shakespeare. I do understand the sarcasm behind the quote that you have
made, for indeed, there was nothing charitable about this entity showing us
these grievances that hold us. The
object was to ensnare us before the kill.”
“It was like
I said before, this is exactly what happened to the expedition party! Dr. Ellis’ early accounts of their
mission started out normal enough, but by the end of the mission all she talked
about was her childhood eczema and that light! And it was that light that lured her and the rest of the
archeologists to their deaths!” said Rand.
Spock looked
around him, and around the room.
“The light
is not here at the present time.
We all seem to be of sound mind at the moment, but I don’t how much time
we have before circumstances turn against us. Therefore, it is imperative that we act as swiftly as
possible.” He hesitated for an
uncomfortable moment before turning to Begay. “Doctor, please give me a report on Mr. Riley.”
“Well, his
condition is stable. I was able to
clean and seal his injuries so that infection wouldn’t start, but he’s in great
need of reconstructive surgery.”
Spock looked
over Begay’s shoulder to see Riley propped up on an upright stretcher, his body
strapped securely by his shoulders, waist, and ankles, his wounds covered in a
thin, glistening transparent film.
He was sedated, his eyes closed and expression blank in a kind of
artificial peace.
For a
moment, Rand thought she saw something in Spock’s eyes that looked like sorrow,
but it quickly disappeared and was replaced by the familiar pragmatic,
emotionless template. He nodded
his head and then returned his focus back into the circle, back to Dr. Begay.
“In the
event that we are able to return to the ship, I will have to surrender to the
authorities for my assault on the lieutenant. I expect…”
“Spock! Be real! It wasn’t you that assaulted Riley! It was that thing out there! We were all in its grip—you were not
immune,” said the doctor incredulously.
“You know
that the captain would never allow you to do that under the
circumstances!” said Rand.
Rose and
Scotty chimed in their objections and Spock raised his hand up in order to
quiet them down.
“I have to
say that I am grateful for your protestations, and will consider your
concerns. But, right now, we must
act as quickly as possible. With
the light not present at this time, I must assume that we have a window of
opportunity to make our escape.”
“Do you
think we’ll be able to contact the ship now? That entity must have been blocking our means to reach the
ship!”
“I will
attempt to do just that, Yeoman.
Meanwhile, you all should start preparing for immediate evacuation.”
