Star Trek - Log 8 by Alan Dean Foster Read Free Book Online

above abruptly winked off as the nearest of the three Lactrans reached in with its manipulative tail member to neatly lift the startled doctor from between his companions.

III
    "Wait a minute," McCoy yelled. "Do you—"
    His world suddenly turned upside down, and he caught his breath. The slug was turning him slowly in its grip and he found himself facing the floor.
    "Hey!" Not caring one bit for the position he found himself in, McCoy struggled violently, beating with both arms at the encircling coil of rubbery flesh. The Lactran took no notice of either the doctor's physical or verbal barrage and continued to examine him as unaffectedly as McCoy would an experimental animal in his lab.
    "We've got to communicate with them!" Kirk said tightly.
    "By all means, communicate," McCoy mumbled, in no mood for diplomacy. His resistance had faded to an occasional weak blow directed at the clasping coil. "Tell it I'm getting dizzy."
    "Try, Spock," urged Kirk. "If we concentrate on the same thought, try to pool our effort . . . Try to think at it, tell it to release McCoy and put him—"
    They never got the opportunity to try. Kirk's voice and concurrent thoughts were interrupted as the other two Lactrans reached into the alcove, one lifting Kirk and the other Spock. They started toward the far end of the vast chamber.
    A large section of the far wall appeared to be constructed of the same silvery material as the transportation cylinder. They paused before it and waited while it slid upward. That action Kirk was prepared for.
    What he was not prepared for was the sight on the other side.
    He had expected to enter another chamber. Now he blinked as he found himself out in open air and bright sunlight once again, moving rapidly forward.
    He glanced down. They were traveling on a moving road or sidewalk of some kind. At the moment it was devoid of any other travelers.
    Immense buildings slid past on either side of the roadway. All were constructed of simple gently curved squares and rectangles. There wasn't a single straight line to be seen. Perhaps the Lactrans attached no importance to architecture on merely efficient principles.
    Kirk realized that the buildings were constructed with the same simpleness and lack of external ornamentation as their hosts.
    Despite the oversized proportions of the structures they moved through and the smoothness of the moving roadway, Kirk estimated they had traveled a respectable distance when they finally emerged from the intensively developed area into a vast open plain.
    The abruptness of the shift was startling. One minute they were passing through the depths of the monstrous city and the next found themselves in open country.
    At least, it looked like open country.
    Their speed increased. Kirk saw that the broad countryside was actually compartmentalized, divided into sometimes radically varying ecologies. For kilometers it seemed they passed nothing but arboreal creatures—some of the fliers were recognizable, some less so, and a few that utilized exotic methods to defy gravity teased Kirk's curiosity in passing.
    Moving beyond, they entered a region of broad fields dotted with trees and flowering shrubs. One such section of grassland proved to be inhabited by a small herd of unicorns, as neat and appealing as if they had just stepped from the pages of an illustrated fairy tale.
    "So much for mythology," McCoy commented sadly, as they passed a horned stallion nuzzling its mate.
    "Using a nonspecies standard of appreciation, I confess I find them strangely attractive" was Spock's only comment.
    "Something even more intriguing coming up, gentlemen," Kirk called to them.
    They turned their attention forward, to where the moving roadway executed a sharp turn. At the end of the bend was a new habitat at once more familiar and at the same time more alien than anything they had yet encountered. Three small cottages, as perfect as if they had just been transported whole from Earth to Vulcan, were grouped