From rob4654@webtv.net Sat Mar 20 00:09:10 1999
Premise : Its the end of 'Plato's StepChildren', and the amoral
telekinetics have been defeated. So everything's both hunkey and
dorey....isn't it?
Plato's Wild StepChildren
by Rob Morris
Parmen's sudden cross to the side of the angels was suspect, to say
the very least.
"You are right, Captain. It--it is high time that my people shook off
their moribund nature. You have my word that we will work toward this
goal."
"See that you do, Parmen, because we will be watching, and we will be
ready, if your high-sounding words prove to be just that."
Alexander smiled at Kirk's words, and again glared at Parmen. Where
such glares had been met before with arrogant indifference, Jim now saw
more than a little fear in the Platonian Leader's eyes. Something was
wrong, he knew. The Captain knew rapid turnaround meant trouble, and he
was not to be proven wrong. Alexander looked at McCoy.
"Doctor, I--changed my mind. Since your transporter won't be back
online for another half an hour, give me an extra-strong dosage of the
fruit derivative. I'll leave this bunch alone, but I'd liketo move those
dumb chess pieces around with my mind, for once."
McCoy's brow furrowed.
"Sure, Alexander. But after all that talk of how power corrupts, it
just seems odd that you would want any part of it. I have a dosage I set
up for you earlier."
Spock raised a trademark eyebrow.
"Alexander, I must concur. Besides this power's morally corrosive
effects, it will not stay with you when we leave this planet in a very
short time."
Alexander waved his hands.
"Gentleman, trust me. If there's one thing I know about, its power, and
its effects. And who knows? I just might find a way to duplicate its
effects. For now, though---Just give me the shot."
Their friend's tone was now that of Parmen, only an hour back. So it
was that Doctor McCoy asked Alexander the same question he asked Parmen.
"Suppose I refuse to do so?"
Alexander, now looking quite sinister, pulled out a small device. As
he pressed it, spikes came out of the ground in the Platonian galleries.
They all stopped a mere inch from the necks of the extremely nervous
telekinetics.
"I would call that a mistake then, Doctor. I believe you are familiar
with the effects of even a small cut on the skin of these albino
cadavers. Now, if you would be so kind, the shot. My method of transport
can survive such a cataclysm. Can yours?"
Now, Parmen pleaded, all arrogance a dim memory.
"Mercy, sir,, we gave you what you wanted! Now, please, just don't
hurt us."
"Oh, do shut up, Parmen. You whine like my children. Doctor? I'm
waiting. Oh, and I have an itchy trigger finger. Sedatives and the like
could turn our amoral Platonian friends into Holey Folk."
The doctor was clearly frustrated by this turn of events, and
continued his work, never looking at Alexander.
"Just a minute, Alexander, if that is your name. As I recall, you
wanted the strongest dose possible, and without causing you discomfort.
You'll have your power, and I hope you choke on it!"
"Oh, I won't, Doctor. And you are correct. Alexander is a hero of
mine, along with Caesar, Napoleon, all that, but my real name is...."
A portal then appeared, and two human males, both wearing garb
conistent with Earth's late Nineteenth Century, came through it. Looking
as ready and as able as any StarFleet officers, they produced old-style
revolvers, and shot the remote control for the floor spikes from
'Alexander's' hand. The glare he gave these two exceeded all bounds of
hatred.
"Ill met again, Mr. Gordon, Mister West. But you've not foiled me. No,
not at all."
The one called West kept the weapon trained on 'Alexander', as though
he were the single most dangerous man in the entire world.
"Say what you like, Loveless. But it seems as though you made two
fundamental errors. One was thinking that Artemus and I couldn't rebuild
your time platform. The second is, you don't have that power you came
for, after all."
Loveless kicked McCoy, and grabbed the hypo he had been holding.
Immediately, he injected himself.
"Wrong as always, Mister West. I've become acclimated to this
substance, and so my power level should...."
He lifted Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into the air.
"Gentleman! Permit me to introduce myself. I am the greatest genius of
any era, Doctor Miguelito Loveless. I am a unique creature. In your
disgustingly egalitarian era, the taunts that drove me to better myself
would not have been there. But don't worry, for as I return to my
century, I will enact changes that will ensure much more striving. The
world you know will be a casualty, but judging by how easily you were
fooled, it will be no great loss."
Kirk was defiant, as he looked down at his deciever.
"We never thought you weren't intelligent, Loveless. Far from it. As
to the taunts you say forged you, think how far people get nowadays
without that garbage to work against them. Go back to your time, but
please don't destroy what we've built here."
James West shook his head.
"That's a good speech, friend, and I can already see this future is
everything a lot of people in my time dreamed of and died for. But all
that talk is lost on a man like Doctor Loveless."
Artemus Gordon, full of rage, rushed his diminutive arch-foe, to no
avail.
"Not only are we going to throw away the key this time, maniac,
but...Whoooaa!!!"
As he floated in the air next to the StarFleet officers, Gordon was
berated by Loveless.
"Sigh. Mister Gordon, there is a reason you are called a sidekick. Not
that the main players are that much brighter. Two heroes, both named
James, neither one able to stop me. Its comical, is what it is."
As Loveless continued his monologue, James West picked up a jagged
piece of earthenware off the floor. With Loveless back turned, he
motioned with it at James T. Kirk, who blinked both eyes, as if in
agreement. West threw the piece, and it bounced along the floor.
Loveless noticed it, but not before it scraped his ankle.
"Interesting, eh Loveless? Two men, both named James, confirm a plan
with only a look between them."
"A useless plan, Mister West. I do not possess the weakened immune
systems of the Platonians. As The Doctor can surely attest."
Still up in the air, McCoy smiled.
"Oh, can I?"
Loveless shook with fury.
"What is the meaning of this? Their healing was fatally compromised by
inaction!"
Kirk answered.
"Well, Doctor Loveless, it seems that Misters Gordon and West, using
your own time scanner, saw the conversation that you didn't bother to
stick around for. Most 'villains' make the same mistake, so don't
feel--too bad."
"What conversation?"
Spock now.
"We discovered that, while it is true that the Platonians inactivity
led to their troubles, the substances unique to this planet will
eventually lower immune response in virtually anyone-particularly if the
doses involved were of an overly high
concentration. Yours was, owing to the fact that you wished to overpower
the Captain and myself, as you have done."
Artemus Gordon was the soul of cockiness.
"What this alien fella's trying to say, Doctor, is that you've
outsmarted yourself--again!"
Loveless shook his head in angry denial.
"Gentlemen, this is no victory. In my death throes, I will tear you all
apart. My planning, which involved bringing these Starship people here,
travelling many centuries forward, will not be for naught, I assure you.
If I die, I'm surely taking...all..of..you.."
Loveless collapsed, but Kirk and Spock's still-active PK brought
McCoy and Gordon down. McCoy quickly injected Loveless with a purgative,
one that would wipe the planet's food from his system.
"After this, his immune response will kick back in like it had never
been supressed. Good thing he didn't know that the Platonian reaction to
infection was unique to them. Too bad, though, about his deception.
False persona or no, I rather liked Alexander."
"Logically, there is no need for ill feelings on that subject, Doctor.
Being a psychotic, Doctor Loveless had even one with my mental faculties
believing he was exactly as he appeared."
"Gee, Spock. You make a poor dumb human feel SO much better."
"Really, Doctor. That is, after all, a goal of mine, particularly as
regards yourself."
Artemus Gordon looked at the two.
"Is it me, or do you fellas like to argue?"
The two James shook hands.
"Mister West, will you need a ride back, as it were?"
"No, Captain Kirk. Loveless's soon-to-be blown up time platform has a
retrieval timer, to take us back in about an hour. You might want your
sawbones to give him something to induce amnesia, though. We didn't see
much of your time, but he might have seen quite a bit, and, like you
said, this is a good future."
"Doubtless Doctor McCoy has included that in his restorative cocktail.
Is there anything else we can do to thank you?"
"You can answer a question."
"So long as its not time-related, sure."
"Before Artie and I jumped, we saw those Platonians force you to kiss
your Lieutanant Uhura. Now, forgive my bluntness, Captain, but that just
brings a big question to my mind."
Kirk girded himself. He had encountered prejudice in his time, but he
had a feeling he was about to recieve a lot more. Hero or no, James West
would be a product of his time, after all.
"Ask your question, Mister West."
"How was she?"
Captain James T. Kirk chuckled, having encountered the prejudice
within his own heart. A heart not so unlike that of Secret Service Agent
James West, it seemed.
"Mister West, I'm shocked that you would ask such a thing. After all, a
gentleman never, ever kisses and tells."
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