[Act 3. Same as before].
GORGON: Friends we have reached a moment of crisis. The enemy have discovered our operation, but they are too late. They no longer control the ship. We do. We shall prevail. They will take us any place we desire. Go back to your stations. Maintain your controls. If resistance mounts, call upon their beast. Their beast will serve us well. The fear in each one of them is the beast which will consume him. Remember how it was on Triacus. If they resist, so shall it be on the Enterprise. If you need me, call and I will appear. Our new goal is Marcos Twelve. It is our new beginning. We must not falter.
(The appararition vanishes.)
TOMMY: Go to your stations.
KIRK: You’re not going anywhere. Security, confine these children to quarters. They are not to leave under any circumstances.
(Tommy shakes his fist. The security guards are overcome with panic and flee. Tommy advances on Kirk, shaking his fist. Kirk stands his ground despite the terror clearly overcoming him. Finally, as the other children advance, also shaking their fists, he steps aside and huddles against the wall, shaking. The children split up and run in different directions. Again, we see one in Engineering, one in Auxiliary Control, etc. shaking their fists and terrifying the crew into submission).
[The bridge. Tommy and Mary there together with the usual crew].
KIRK: (Walking in) Helmsman, disregard what you see on the screen, what you think you see on the screen. Set a course for Starbase Four.
SULU: Helm not responding, sir. The controls seem fused, unable to go anywhere but Marcus XII and back.
KIRK: Institute repairs.
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
(Starts to make repairs. Tommy shakes his fist. Sulu is overcome with terror and unable to proceed).
KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, how are your repairs coming along on communications?
UHURA: Should be complete in about an hour, sir.
(Tommy shakes his fist. She, too, is overcome with terror).
KIRK: Lieutenant, what are you staring at?
(Kirk goes to the security guard.)
KIRK: Take Mister Sulu to his quarters. He is relieved of duty.
(Tommy shakes his fist and they are overcome with fear as well).
KIRK: Spock, I could use your lack of emotions now. Start the repairs.
(Tommy advances on Kirk again, shaking his fist and the terror overwhelms him more and more).
(Spock throws Sulu aside and begins repairs on his console. Tommy shakes his fist and all the others rise up against him. A struggle as Spock’s superior strength prevails for a time, but he is hopelessly outnumbered. At last he seizes Kirk and makes his escape).
[The briefing room. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Security Chief Giotto (remember him from Devil in the Dark?) are sitting around the table].
KIRK: Status report. Mr. Scott?
SCOTTY: Children have taken over every part of the ship that steers it. They’re controlling my lads. The least resistance is met with uncontrollable terror.
GIOTTO: Security has tried to remove the children, but everytime they approach, the children inflict an overwhelming panic.
KIRK: Bones, what about the crew outside the children’s presence?
McCOY: I’m getting growing reports of ever worsening anxiety, but nothing like the terror the crew feels in the children’s presence.
KIRK: Yes. I’ve felt that terror myself. I can understand why the scientists on Triacus were ready to kill themselves to escape it. Mr. Giotto, give your phaser to Spock. Then lock away every phaser, poison, and everything else the crew could use to commit suicide.
GIOTTO: Aye, aye, sir. (Leaves).
SPOCK: Captain, this can only be a temporary measure. The fear is spreading beyond the children’s presence. Eventually it will become equally severe throughout the ship.
KIRK: Spock you’re a Vulcan. Can you institute a mind meld to allow us to resist this?
SPOCK: With 430 separate individuals?
KIRK: Enough to start repairs would be a good start.
SPOCK: Such a meld could never be more than a temporary measure. And it will be weakened the more people it attempts to include.
McCOY: You’re forgetting something else, Jim. Spock is half human.
SPOCK: For once I am forced to agree with the doctor. I have felt the early stages of the terror the rest of the crew is experiencing. As Vulcan I can resist it, but eventually my human half will succumb. I see only one logical option.
KIRK: What’s that.
SPOCK: This children, Jim. This alien force is exercising its power through them. If the children are destroyed the force will lose its power.
[End of Act 3].
[Act 4. Same scene as before].
McCOY: Spock, you can’t be serious! These are children!
SPOCK: Nonetheless, they pose an intolerable threat, to the lives of the crew, the people of Marcus XII, and countless worlds beyond.
KIRK: That’s what I don’t understand. None of this makes any sense. The directional controls are sabotages so the Enterprise can only fly between Triacus and Marcus XII. Right now the children need the crew to pilot the ship. I suppose 500 children might be able to pilot the ship under control of the energy being I saw, but they could hardly make repairs. The only place we could go is back to Triacus.
SPOCK: (Brings up an image of the mysterious device from the cave on screen). I believe this may contain the answer. After an extended computer analysis of the device in the cave, I believe this part is a highly sophisticated transporter device. This part appears to be a containment device. Contained within it are life form readings, but pure energy, no material form.
KIRK: Disassembled beings in the transporter beam. Stored indefinitely.
SPOCK: So it would appear.
KIRK: Spock! That last survivor who escaped into the cave wasn’t the last survivor. He escaped the losing battle and activated their transporter device. That’s why all resistance ceased.
SPOCK: Indeed.
KIRK: Then the legend was true. The Gorgan were – are – stored in the containment field, waiting to be restored to matter. But why didn’t they make the scientists do that?
SCOTTY: Not possible! It would take an incredible quantity of applied phlebotinum to restore so many beings to matter, especially after being contained all those years.
KIRK: That would explain why they wanted to go to a phlebotinum mining colony.
McCOY: Could that be the catalyst the marauders were awaiting? Phelbotinum?
SPOCK: It seems unlikely. Phlebotinum would be useless without someone to operate the controls to restore them?
KIRK: Spock, what’s that part of the device over there?
SPOCK: Uncertain, Captain, but it appears to be some sort of device for projecting telepathic powers.
SCOTTY: These Gorgan have no power in the world of matter. They can only drive this ship by controlling other people.
KIRK: And they seem to be projecting their power through the children. Spock! The legend says that the Gorgan always kept children with them. Is it possible that they weren’t being held hostage? That they were actually being used to project their telepathic powers to control subject worlds?
SPOCK: It would seem likely. Especially since as soon as the children in the legend escaped, the Gorgan lost their power over their conquered people
KIRK: And the catalyst they awaited was – children! But how complete is the control? The legend says that the children were able to revolt.
McCOY: When I’ve examined the children, they don’t appear to be under alien control, certainly not in the way the crew is. More like they were manipulated into turning against their parents and later against us by the adults’ irritable, erratic behavior. And I have to admit, this anxiety hasn’t made us into model parent substitutes.
KIRK: Bones, it that’s true, then the Gorgan has managed to turn these children against their parents by reminding them of behavior he himself was creating. But what about Tommy?
McCOY: I’ve never seen this Gorgan of yours. Tommy seemed to be the one instigating it.
SPOCK: It would appear that Tommy is at a most dangerous age – old enough to be controlled by the Gorgan, but too young to fight it.
KIRK: Gorgan can’t control children, but projects power through them to control adults. Without the children, their power would be gone.
SPOCK: (Raising the phaser). Indeed.
KIRK: (Toys with tapes on the table). If only there was some way to reach them, show them what is going on. (Suddenly inspired). Spock! Have your phaser ready. Meld with me. I need enough stability to confront them.
McCOY: Jim, what are you doing?
KIRK: I’m going to make one last effort to get through to the children. And if it doesn’t work, Spock is going to have to kill them.
[Bridge]
(Tommy is in the Captain’s chair, grinning. Kirk comes in and throws him out).
KIRK: The Enterprise will never reach Marcos Twelve.
TOMMY: The crew will take us. The crew believes. We are going to Marcos! We are going to follow our friend!
KIRK: Your friend? Where is your friend? Where is that stowaway? Why does he hide?
MARY: He will come if we call him.
TOMMY: But we won’t. We don’t need him. We’re not afraid of you.
KIRK: Good. I’m glad you’re not afraid of me. (Takes his seat) But your leader is afraid. What’s he afraid of?
MARY: He’s not afraid of anybody.
TOMMY: He’s not afraid of anything.
KIRK: He’s afraid to be seen.
TOMMY: He is our friend.
KIRK: Then let him show himself. Bring him out! Let him prove to me that he is my friend and I’ll follow him to Marcos Twelve and to the ends of the universe!
TOMMY: No!
(Spock enters the bridge.)
KIRK: Mister Spock, playback the chant the children sang to summon up the Gorgan.
ALL [OC]: Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly Angel come to me. Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. (The other children enter the bridge.)
KIRK: Good! I see the others can sense his presence. The time has come to see the world as it is. Come on.
(Gorgan appears.)
GORGAN: Who has summoned me?
KIRK: I did, Gorgan. I intend to unmask you to your followers here. Children, I have pictures of some of you on Triacus. I’d like to show them to you. Would you like to see them? Mister Spock, the pictures.
GORGAN: I forbid it.
SPOCK: Why should you fear it?
GORGAN: I fear nothing.
KIRK: So we were told. Mister Spock, the pictures. The children are waiting.
(Film of the children playing with their parents appears on Spock’s overhead monitor. They smile as they watch themselves having fun).
TOMMY: Don’t let him fool you. Remember what they were like. Nothing but rules, don’t do this, don’t do that. Never had time for us.
GORGAN: Remember how they yelled at you for no reason. Chased you away. Lashed out at you.
KIRK: Your parents were like that because he made them like that. Remember before you came to Triacus, before you met the Gorgan? This is what your parents were really like, people who loves and protected you. People who you had fun with.
(More scenes of them playing and having fun together. The children smile at the memory. Even Tommy is melting. Then they see their parents lying dead, and the smiles are gone.)
GORGAN: They would not help transport us. They were against us. They had to be eliminated.
SPOCK: Tommy’s father would have destroyed you, but he recognized you too late.
GORGAN: You are also too late. The kind ones always are.
KIRK: Not always, Gorgan. Not this time. You can’t hide from them. They see you as we see you. They know what you are. Even the children learn.
GORGAN: You are my future generals. Together we can raise armies of followers. Go to your posts! The first great victories are upon us. You will see. We have millions of friends on Marcos Twelve. We shall exterminate all who oppose us! Our purity of purpose cannot be contaminated by those who disagree, who will not co-operate, who do not understand. They must be annihilated.
(But now the children are crying.)
KIRK: Don’t be afraid. Look at him. Without you children, he’s nothing. The evil remains within him.
(Gorgan becomes ugly.)
GORGAN: I command you! I command you! To your posts! Carry out your duties, or I will destroy you! You will be swept aside to make way for the strong.
KIRK: Look how ugly he really is. Look at him and don’t be afraid.
GORGAN: Death. Death to you all. Death to you all. Death to you all. Death to you all.
(Gorgan fades. The others recover from their panic).
KIRK: It’s all right.
MCCOY: They’re crying, Jim. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s good to see.
KIRK: It’s all right, Mary. It’s all right. It’s all right, isn’t it, Doctor?
MCCOY: Yes. It’s all right. We can help them now.
SULU: Marcos Twelve dead ahead, sir.
KIRK: Reverse course, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Aye, sir.
(McCoy leads the children off the bridge.)
SULU: Course reversed, Captain.
KIRK: Set course for Starbase Four, Mister Sulu. Once we’ve dropped the children off, we can go back to Triacus and lay this legend to rest once and for all.
SULU: Yes, sir.
SULU: Helm not responding, sir. The controls seem fused, unable to go anywhere but Marcus XII and back.
KIRK: Institute repairs.
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
(Starts to make repairs. Tommy shakes his fist. Sulu is overcome with terror and unable to proceed).
KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, how are your repairs coming along on communications?
UHURA: Should be complete in about an hour, sir.
(Tommy shakes his fist. She, too, is overcome with terror).
KIRK: Lieutenant, what are you staring at?
(Kirk goes to the security guard.)
KIRK: Take Mister Sulu to his quarters. He is relieved of duty.
(Tommy shakes his fist and they are overcome with fear as well).
KIRK: Spock, I could use your lack of emotions now. Start the repairs.
(Tommy advances on Kirk again, shaking his fist and the terror overwhelms him more and more).
(Spock throws Sulu aside and begins repairs on his console. Tommy shakes his fist and all the others rise up against him. A struggle as Spock’s superior strength prevails for a time, but he is hopelessly outnumbered. At last he seizes Kirk and makes his escape).
[The briefing room. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Security Chief Giotto (remember him from Devil in the Dark?) are sitting around the table].
KIRK: Status report. Mr. Scott?
SCOTTY: Children have taken over every part of the ship that steers it. They’re controlling my lads. The least resistance is met with uncontrollable terror.
GIOTTO: Security has tried to remove the children, but everytime they approach, the children inflict an overwhelming panic.
KIRK: Bones, what about the crew outside the children’s presence?
McCOY: I’m getting growing reports of ever worsening anxiety, but nothing like the terror the crew feels in the children’s presence.
KIRK: Yes. I’ve felt that terror myself. I can understand why the scientists on Triacus were ready to kill themselves to escape it. Mr. Giotto, give your phaser to Spock. Then lock away every phaser, poison, and everything else the crew could use to commit suicide.
GIOTTO: Aye, aye, sir. (Leaves).
SPOCK: Captain, this can only be a temporary measure. The fear is spreading beyond the children’s presence. Eventually it will become equally severe throughout the ship.
KIRK: Spock you’re a Vulcan. Can you institute a mind meld to allow us to resist this?
SPOCK: With 430 separate individuals?
KIRK: Enough to start repairs would be a good start.
SPOCK: Such a meld could never be more than a temporary measure. And it will be weakened the more people it attempts to include.
McCOY: You’re forgetting something else, Jim. Spock is half human.
SPOCK: For once I am forced to agree with the doctor. I have felt the early stages of the terror the rest of the crew is experiencing. As Vulcan I can resist it, but eventually my human half will succumb. I see only one logical option.
KIRK: What’s that.
SPOCK: This children, Jim. This alien force is exercising its power through them. If the children are destroyed the force will lose its power.
[End of Act 3].
[Act 4. Same scene as before].
McCOY: Spock, you can’t be serious! These are children!
SPOCK: Nonetheless, they pose an intolerable threat, to the lives of the crew, the people of Marcus XII, and countless worlds beyond.
KIRK: That’s what I don’t understand. None of this makes any sense. The directional controls are sabotages so the Enterprise can only fly between Triacus and Marcus XII. Right now the children need the crew to pilot the ship. I suppose 500 children might be able to pilot the ship under control of the energy being I saw, but they could hardly make repairs. The only place we could go is back to Triacus.
SPOCK: (Brings up an image of the mysterious device from the cave on screen). I believe this may contain the answer. After an extended computer analysis of the device in the cave, I believe this part is a highly sophisticated transporter device. This part appears to be a containment device. Contained within it are life form readings, but pure energy, no material form.
KIRK: Disassembled beings in the transporter beam. Stored indefinitely.
SPOCK: So it would appear.
KIRK: Spock! That last survivor who escaped into the cave wasn’t the last survivor. He escaped the losing battle and activated their transporter device. That’s why all resistance ceased.
SPOCK: Indeed.
KIRK: Then the legend was true. The Gorgan were – are – stored in the containment field, waiting to be restored to matter. But why didn’t they make the scientists do that?
SCOTTY: Not possible! It would take an incredible quantity of applied phlebotinum to restore so many beings to matter, especially after being contained all those years.
KIRK: That would explain why they wanted to go to a phlebotinum mining colony.
McCOY: Could that be the catalyst the marauders were awaiting? Phelbotinum?
SPOCK: It seems unlikely. Phlebotinum would be useless without someone to operate the controls to restore them?
KIRK: Spock, what’s that part of the device over there?
SPOCK: Uncertain, Captain, but it appears to be some sort of device for projecting telepathic powers.
SCOTTY: These Gorgan have no power in the world of matter. They can only drive this ship by controlling other people.
KIRK: And they seem to be projecting their power through the children. Spock! The legend says that the Gorgan always kept children with them. Is it possible that they weren’t being held hostage? That they were actually being used to project their telepathic powers to control subject worlds?
SPOCK: It would seem likely. Especially since as soon as the children in the legend escaped, the Gorgan lost their power over their conquered people
KIRK: And the catalyst they awaited was – children! But how complete is the control? The legend says that the children were able to revolt.
McCOY: When I’ve examined the children, they don’t appear to be under alien control, certainly not in the way the crew is. More like they were manipulated into turning against their parents and later against us by the adults’ irritable, erratic behavior. And I have to admit, this anxiety hasn’t made us into model parent substitutes.
KIRK: Bones, it that’s true, then the Gorgan has managed to turn these children against their parents by reminding them of behavior he himself was creating. But what about Tommy?
McCOY: I’ve never seen this Gorgan of yours. Tommy seemed to be the one instigating it.
SPOCK: It would appear that Tommy is at a most dangerous age – old enough to be controlled by the Gorgan, but too young to fight it.
KIRK: Gorgan can’t control children, but projects power through them to control adults. Without the children, their power would be gone.
SPOCK: (Raising the phaser). Indeed.
KIRK: (Toys with tapes on the table). If only there was some way to reach them, show them what is going on. (Suddenly inspired). Spock! Have your phaser ready. Meld with me. I need enough stability to confront them.
McCOY: Jim, what are you doing?
KIRK: I’m going to make one last effort to get through to the children. And if it doesn’t work, Spock is going to have to kill them.
[Bridge]
(Tommy is in the Captain’s chair, grinning. Kirk comes in and throws him out).
KIRK: The Enterprise will never reach Marcos Twelve.
TOMMY: The crew will take us. The crew believes. We are going to Marcos! We are going to follow our friend!
KIRK: Your friend? Where is your friend? Where is that stowaway? Why does he hide?
MARY: He will come if we call him.
TOMMY: But we won’t. We don’t need him. We’re not afraid of you.
KIRK: Good. I’m glad you’re not afraid of me. (Takes his seat) But your leader is afraid. What’s he afraid of?
MARY: He’s not afraid of anybody.
TOMMY: He’s not afraid of anything.
KIRK: He’s afraid to be seen.
TOMMY: He is our friend.
KIRK: Then let him show himself. Bring him out! Let him prove to me that he is my friend and I’ll follow him to Marcos Twelve and to the ends of the universe!
TOMMY: No!
(Spock enters the bridge.)
KIRK: Mister Spock, playback the chant the children sang to summon up the Gorgan.
ALL [OC]: Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. Far away, for to see, friendly Angel come to me. Hail, hail, fire and snow. Call the angel, we will go. (The other children enter the bridge.)
KIRK: Good! I see the others can sense his presence. The time has come to see the world as it is. Come on.
(Gorgan appears.)
GORGAN: Who has summoned me?
KIRK: I did, Gorgan. I intend to unmask you to your followers here. Children, I have pictures of some of you on Triacus. I’d like to show them to you. Would you like to see them? Mister Spock, the pictures.
GORGAN: I forbid it.
SPOCK: Why should you fear it?
GORGAN: I fear nothing.
KIRK: So we were told. Mister Spock, the pictures. The children are waiting.
(Film of the children playing with their parents appears on Spock’s overhead monitor. They smile as they watch themselves having fun).
TOMMY: Don’t let him fool you. Remember what they were like. Nothing but rules, don’t do this, don’t do that. Never had time for us.
GORGAN: Remember how they yelled at you for no reason. Chased you away. Lashed out at you.
KIRK: Your parents were like that because he made them like that. Remember before you came to Triacus, before you met the Gorgan? This is what your parents were really like, people who loves and protected you. People who you had fun with.
(More scenes of them playing and having fun together. The children smile at the memory. Even Tommy is melting. Then they see their parents lying dead, and the smiles are gone.)
GORGAN: They would not help transport us. They were against us. They had to be eliminated.
SPOCK: Tommy’s father would have destroyed you, but he recognized you too late.
GORGAN: You are also too late. The kind ones always are.
KIRK: Not always, Gorgan. Not this time. You can’t hide from them. They see you as we see you. They know what you are. Even the children learn.
GORGAN: You are my future generals. Together we can raise armies of followers. Go to your posts! The first great victories are upon us. You will see. We have millions of friends on Marcos Twelve. We shall exterminate all who oppose us! Our purity of purpose cannot be contaminated by those who disagree, who will not co-operate, who do not understand. They must be annihilated.
(But now the children are crying.)
KIRK: Don’t be afraid. Look at him. Without you children, he’s nothing. The evil remains within him.
(Gorgan becomes ugly.)
GORGAN: I command you! I command you! To your posts! Carry out your duties, or I will destroy you! You will be swept aside to make way for the strong.
KIRK: Look how ugly he really is. Look at him and don’t be afraid.
GORGAN: Death. Death to you all. Death to you all. Death to you all. Death to you all.
(Gorgan fades. The others recover from their panic).
KIRK: It’s all right.
MCCOY: They’re crying, Jim. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s good to see.
KIRK: It’s all right, Mary. It’s all right. It’s all right, isn’t it, Doctor?
MCCOY: Yes. It’s all right. We can help them now.
SULU: Marcos Twelve dead ahead, sir.
KIRK: Reverse course, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Aye, sir.
(McCoy leads the children off the bridge.)
SULU: Course reversed, Captain.
KIRK: Set course for Starbase Four, Mister Sulu. Once we’ve dropped the children off, we can go back to Triacus and lay this legend to rest once and for all.
SULU: Yes, sir.
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