Star Trek: The Original Series: Seasons of Light and Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

prankster had lashed it to a centrifuge. Groaning loudly, McCoy collapsed back onto the brocaded shambles that surrounded him. He closed his eyes in a vain attempt to shut out this newest spike of pain.
    Furs rustled against one of the tent walls. McCoy shut his eyes reflexively when a shaft of sunlight from outside struck his face. He heard movement and conversations nearby but couldn’t make out any of the words.
    Until he heard an energetic, childlike voice speaking Federation Standard with great urgency. “Come quickly, Ay-El Zurth! Mak-Koy awakens at last.”
    Ay-El Zurth. McCoy pondered the strange yet somehow familiar name. Ay-El Zurth.
    Aylesworth?
    He opened his eyes again and noticed almost immediately that he was no longer alone in the tent. He saw a young humanoid male, hooded and dressed in a cloak. Despite his obvious youth, this was probably the biggest, most robust humanoid child McCoy had ever encountered, given that the timbre of the boy’s voice pegged him as about ten years old.
    A three-meter-high canvas flap behind the boy opened long enough to admit another shaft of light, along with more unintelligible gabble from outside. A relieved-looking Aylesworth stepped into the tent, followed by a smiling Doctor Wieland.
    â€œOur thanks, Naheer. Good afternoon, Leonard,” the older man said with a gentle smile.
    â€œThe room keeps spinning,” McCoy said. He clutched at the furs around him, like a mountain climber grasping at a handhold.
    â€œThe disorientation is to be expected,” Wieland said. “But it’ll pass soon. You’re bouncing back faster than I expected.”
    â€œBouncing back? From what?”
    â€œDoctor Wieland gave you something to put you out,” Aylesworth said. “I was starting to think you were never going to wake up.”
    McCoy wrestled against a surge of panic. Focusing on Wieland, he said, “You sedated me?”
    â€œNot precisely. I induced a temporary coma. I had no better choice, since we lack access to the Yegorov ’s sickbay. You took a pretty hard blow to the head.”
    McCoy realized he might have had to do exactly the same thing had their positions been reversed. “What happened?”
    â€œIt seems we blundered into the path of a party of hunters headed back to this camp with their latest kill.”
    â€œWhat was it they killed?” McCoy asked.
    â€œThe locals call it a lightningbeast because of the nasty electrical discharge it can deliver. The creature the hunters took down appears to have been the mate of the beast that attacked you .”
    McCoy nodded. “That would certainly explain its unfriendly attitude. How long was I out?”
    â€œTwo days, give or take an hour or so.”
    Two days! McCoy thought, his head throbbing. Noticing for the first time since awakening that he was shirtless, he tried and failed to recall the journey from the canyon to this tent. But the incoherence of his memory didn’t surprise him, given the trauma he’d obviously experienced.
    â€œWhat about the rest of the landing party?” McCoy asked. “Plait, Girard, and Shellenbarger. Are they all right?”
    â€œPerfectly,” Aylesworth said. “Shellenbarger and I took the thing down with our lasers.”
    McCoy certainly hoped nobody other than his landing party colleagues had witnessed that. Firing modern weapons in front of the locals remained verboten under the Prime Directive, this planet’s topaline notwithstanding.
    â€œThe others have been worrying about you,” Wieland said. “Whenever they’re not engrossed in sampling the biota or picking up rocks, that is.”
    McCoy was relieved to hear that nobody else had been hurt. “Please tell ’em they can stop. Worrying, I mean.” His head throbbed again, making him wince.
    Naheer seemed to have taken notice of McCoy’s poorly concealed distress. “Be of good cheer, one named Mak-Koy,”