in war
except its ending.
[ Sighs ]
And you are fighting
for the lives of your crew.
Your campaign,
Mr. President.
They should be
coming soon.
Zora! Kahless!
No, wait!
- How many did you see?
- Two.
Zora.
Surak.
Surak, the others
have drawn them away.
We will circle around.
It was a worthy effort, Surak.
Worthy.
No need to blame yourself
before its failure.
[ Surak's Voice ]
Help me, Spock. Help me, Spock.
Now can you cry
like Lincoln?
[ Lincoln's Voice ]
Help me, Kirk.
Help me, Kirk!
[Rustling]
Mr. Lincoln!
James, stay back.
[ Grunting ]
You are the survivors.
The others have run off.
It would seem that evil retreats
when forcibly confronted.
However, you have failed
to demonstrate to me...
any other difference
between your philosophies.
Your good and your evil
use the same methods,
achieve the same results.
Do you have an explanation?
You established
the methods and the goals.
For you to use
as you chose.
What did you offer the others
if they won?
What they wanted most-- power.
You offered me
the lives of my crew.
I perceive you have
won their lives.
How many others
have you done this to?
What gives you the right
to hand out life and death?
The same right
that brought you here--
the need to know
new things.
- We came in peace.
- And you may go in peace.
[ Sizzling ]
- [ Communicator Chirps ]
- Kirk to Enterprise. Come in.
[Sulu]Is that you, Captain?
Are you all right?
Yes, Mr. Sulu.
We're all right.
You may
beam us aboard.
Mr. Scott, report.
The ship is functioning
normally again, sir,
and the restart cycle
is in operation.
You'd never know anything
had been out of order.
- I can't fathom it.
- Mr. Sulu.
We should be on warp power
within 30 minutes, sir.
Good.
Mr. Chekov.
The deterioration in the shielding
has stopped and is reversing itself.
- I have no explanation.
- Thank you, Mr. Chekov.
- Mr. Spock, any explanation?
- Conjecture, Captain,
- rather than explanation.
- Well?
It would seem that we were
held in the power of creatures...
able to control matter
and to rearrange molecules...
in whatever fashion was desired.
So they were able to create
images of Surak and Lincoln...
after scanning our minds...
and using their fellow creatures
as source matter.
They seemed so real.
And to me, especially Mr. Lincoln.
I feel I actually met Lincoln.
Yes, and Surak.
Perhaps in a sense
they were real, Captain.
Since they were created
out of our own thoughts,
how could they be anything but
what we expected them to be?
It was so hard for me
to see him die again.
I feel I understand what Earth...
must have gone through
to achieve final peace.
[Uhura] Captain Kirk, the planet
has resumed its normal appearance.
There's still so much of their work
to be done in the galaxy, Spock.
Mr. Sulu, break us
out of orbit...
and continue to our
next assignment.
Aye, aye, sir.Captain's Log :
Star Date 5943. 7.
We have calculated that
Beta Niobe will go nova...
in approximately
three and a half hours.
Its only satellite,
Sarpeidon,
is a Class-M planet,
which at last report...
was inhabited by a civilized
humanoid species.
Now our instruments show...
that no intelligent life
remains on the planet.
The power source we detected is
in this building, Captain.
- Any sign of survivors?
- No signs of sapient life-forms.
How can a planet full of people
Just disappear?
If they knew that
their sun was dying,
it could be anything
up to mass suicide.
Reports deny that they had
any space flight capability.
This appears to be an archive
or library of some kind.
Then we're certainly in the right
place to find out what happened,
where the inhabitants are,
and if there are any left now.
- That's fine. Where do we start?
- [Man]May I help you?
I am the librarian.
May I be of assistance?
Perhaps you can,
Mr.--
Mr. Atoz. I confess that I'm
a little surprised to see you.
I had thought that everyone
had