“Wipe that order, and see that it stays wiped. Mr. Sulu, put us back on warp drive on the double.”
“Already on, Captain.”
“Mr. Spock, is the computer malfunctioning?”
“No, Captain, it is in perfect order. There is no doubt that one of us did so instruct it. But since such a course clearly involves grave risks of detection by the Klingons, and has no compensatory advantages, it can only have been given because detection was exactly what was hoped for. That is why I conclude that my counterpart will also deny having given it.”
“The argument applies with equal force to you,” Kirk pointed out.
“I am thoroughly aware of that. Unfortunately, however, there is no other reasonable explanation.”
“No time is recorded for the issuance of the order, I suppose.”
“No, which further argues that the issuer wished to remain unknown.”
Kirk thought a moment. “Lieutenant Uhura, any sign that we have in fact been detected?”
“I think so, Captain. If the object has laid any sensors on us, they’re too feeble to register on my board — but it dropped into subspace just after we did, so it can’t be a natural object and may well be following us — though at a very respectful distance.”
“Mr. Sulu, execute some simple, showy evasive maneuvers and see if it follows those. If it does, lose it — or if you can’t lose it, outrun it. It can’t pack enough power to pace us.”
“I’ll lose it,” Sulu promised cheerfully.
“Mr. Spock, you are relieved of all duties. Mr. Sulu is designated first officer pro tern. Lieutenant Uhura, notify all concerned that henceforth and until further notice, orders from either Spock are without authority aboard this ship. We are proceeding to Organia as before, and until I say otherwise; the benchmarking program is cancelled. Any questions?”
There were none.
“Mr. Spock, call your counterpart in your quarters and notify him that we’re both coming to visit him. In the interest of ship’s harmony I’ve been trying to avoid such confrontations, but one of you has driven me to the wall — me, and himself.”
Kirk had not been in the first officer’s quarters since the incident of Spock’s near-marriage on Vulcan itself — the painful episode Kirk had obliquely referred to in his first interview with Spock One, the episode during which an amok Spock had quite seriously tried to kill him. These quarters were very like his own in general plan, but considerably more austere. What little decoration they sported consisted chiefly of a few pieces of cutlery, vaguely and misleadingly Oriental in design, which reminded Kirk that Spock’s parental culture — on his father’s side though now fiercely rationalistic in its biases — had once been almost equally fiercely military.
Kirk was not surprised to notice that the quarters showed not the slightest sign that they were being occupied by two people instead of one. There were two Spocks here now, however, and they were staring at each other with cold but undisguised hostility. The battle had been joined, overtly, at last. Perhaps that was just as well.
“One of you two gentlemen has been uncharacteristically stupid,” Kirk said, “and if I could detect which one it was, I’d fire him out the emergency airlock in his underwear. Wantonly endangering the Enterprise is as serious a crime as violating General Order Number One, as far as I’m concerned — and as you both know very well. So I’m at open war with one of you, and both of you are going to have to suffer for it. Spock One, did you countermand a course order that I’d logged in the computer?”
“No, Captain, certainly not.”
“A routine question. Very well. You are relieved of duty, both of you, and I wish you joy in trying to stay out of each other’s hair in the same quarters with nothing to do. In the meantime, I’ve got no grounds to want to cause either of you selective discomfort, if you know what I mean, and I’ll try to see that I don’t. In return, I want your advice. Spock One, do you agree that whoever had the computer take us off warp drive wanted the Enterprise detected by the Klingons?”
“It seems to be the only possible conclusion,” Spock One said.
“Why did he do it?”
“I can only guess, Captain. It is conceivable that the original Spock did after all reach Organia and found it occupied by the Klingons — or was intercepted by the Klingons in some other way — and that a double who was actually a Klingon agent was sent back along with the original. The fact that no memory of this exists in the original’s mind, nor any evidence of mental tampering, is not diagnostic; we are dealing with totally new and unknown forces here, as Mr. Scott’s bafflement makes very evident.”’
“The possibility certainly can’t be discounted,” Kirk agreed. “And it does offer a motive for what happened with the computer. Spock Two, any comments?”
“One word, if I may, Captain,” Spock Two said. “The word is: nonsense.”
“Again, why?”
“Because it involves too many ad hoc assumptions. William of Occam, one of Earth’s pioneers in scientific method, established that one must not multiply logical entities without sufficient reason. The principle is now called the Law of Parsimony.”
“Currently rephrased to read, the simplest explanation that fits all the facts is the preferable one,” Kirk said. “Have you got a simpler?”
“I think so,” said Spock Two. “There is no evidence that the original Spock was ever transported anywhere. It is far simpler to suppose that what we see is in fact the case: that something went wrong with the new process and materialized a mirror image. If this is what happened, it would involve the deepest levels of the replicate’s nervous system, producing a reversal of personality as well — and there would be the source of your motive for sympathy with the Klingons.”
“Spock One, what do you say to that notion?”
“It has the virtue of simplicity,” Spock One said coldly, “and as such is clearly to be preferred. But Occam’s Razor is only a human preference, not a natural law. And this mirror hypothesis is also an assumption for which no hard evidence exists.”
“Granted,” said Spock Two. “But may I point out, Captain, that though each of these assumptions excludes the other, both nevertheless argue toward the same course of action: the immediate destruction of the replicate.”
“Provided both assumptions are not equally wrong,” Spock One said.
“Or providing one of them is right,” Kirk said, “Either leaves me with the same question I had before: Which is the replicate?”
Neither Spock answered him — and he would not have believed them if they had.
Chapter Five — ON THE OTHER HAND…
From the Captain’s Log, Star Date 4020.8:
I have interdicted further orders from either Spock until the identity question can be resolved — if it can be — although it effectively deprives me of my first officer. This is a long way from being even a satisfactory interim move, however, since even without authority an alienated Spock could work all kinds of mischief. But there is no way of preventing this short of throwing both of them in the brig, a step for which I have no present grounds.
Operating without a first officer was exhausting work despite Sulu’s best efforts, especially under the added strain of Klingon surveillance — Sulu had indeed managed to shake the scout ship that had been trailing the Enterprise, but there could be no doubt that the Klingons now knew she was somewhere in the area, and would be searching for her grimly, tenaciously and efficiently. Nevertheless, when Kirk came off watch he went to the sick bay before turning in.