Im not sure i like that, jim. Why, bones . Scottys a good man. And he thinks hes the right man for her, but im not sure she thinks hes the right man. On the other hand, shes a woman all woman. Mmhmm. One day shell find the right man, and off shell go, out of the service. Mmhmm. Id like to think of it not so much losing an officer as gaining come along. Actually, im losing an officer. Entering standard orbit around polex 4, sir. Cartographic detail, stand by. Standing by, sir. Preliminary reports, mr. Spock. Polex 4 class m type planet, oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere. Sensors indicate no life forms. Approximate age 4 billion years. Judge no reason for contact. All cartographic standards full automatic. Captain . What in the name of. Analysis, mr. Spock. Momentarily. Am i. Seeing things . Not unless i am, too. Captain, that things a giant hand. What is it, mr. Spock . Is it a. A hand . Negative, captain. Not living tissue. A trick, then . A projection . Not a projection, sir. Hard about. Hard about. We cant seem to get away from it. Its almost as if it means to grab us. Reverse all engines. All engines reversed. Were dead still, captain. We cant move. Space the final frontier. Its fiveyear mission to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. Captains log stardate 3468. 1. While approaching polex 4, the enterprise has been stopped in space by an unknown force of some kind. Lieutenant, relay our position and circumstances to starbase 12 immediately. Aye, aye, sir. Mr. Sulu. Try rocking the ship. Full impulse Power Forward and back. Aye, aye, sir. Damage report coming in, captain. Situation under control. Minor damage stations 3, 7, and 19. Thank you. Mr. Sulu . Applying thrust, sir. No results, captain. Were stuck tight. Mr. Spock. Status. The ship is almost completely encircled by the field. It resembles a conventional force field but on unusual wavelengths. Despite its appearance it is definitely not living tissue. It is energy. Thank you. Mr. Sulu. Our forward tractor beams adjust to repel. Aye, aye, sir. [beep] standing by. Activate. Ineffective, captain. There doesnt seem to be anything Curious Development on scanner 57. Lets all take a look at it, mr. Spock. Screen on, captain. Activity on hailing channel 3, sir. Put it on audio, lieutenant. And what has been written has come about. You are most welcome, my beloved children. Your places await you. Response frequencies, lieutenant. Calculated. Channel open, sir. You have left your plains and valleys and made this bold venture. So it was in the beginning. Now you can rest. This is captain james t. Kirk, commanding the u. S. S. Enterprise. Please identify yourself. We shall remember together. We shall drink the sacramental wine. There shall be the music of the pipes. The long wait has ended. Are you responsible for stopping the ship . Yes. I caused the wind to withdraw from your sails. Give it back, then well talk. It has been 5,000 years. Have you learned no patience in that time . I dont know who or what you are, but i must warn you, we have the power to defend ourselves. If you value your safety, release this ship. You have the same fire. How like your fathers you are agamemnon, hector, odysseus. Never mind the history lesson. Release the ship you will obey me, external pressure building up, captain. 800 gsc and climbing. Compensate. 1,000 gsc and climbing. Aah its becoming critical, captain. We cant handle it. All right whatever youre doing, turn it off you win pressure is gone, captain. Space normal on hull. That was your first lesson. Remember it. Captain kirk, i invite you and your officers to join me. But do not bring that one, he is much like pan, and pan always bored me. No sad faces. This is a time to rejoice, not to fear. You are returning home. Let your hearts prepare to sing. Lets go, bones. You in good voice . Sure its wise, jim . If we dont accept his invitation, crushed eggshell where this ship used to be. Verbose, isnt he . Insulted, spock . Insults are effective only where emotion is present. Good. Well tackle him together. We already know the questions. Tricorders. What am i doing down here, doctor . Well, youre the a a officer, arent you . Archaeology, anthropology, ancient civilizations. Correct. Well, were going to need help in all those areas. Come on. My children, long have i waited for this moment. The memories you bring of your lush and beautiful earth, the green fields and blue skies, the simple shepherds and their flocks. You know of earth . Youve been there . And i breathed upon it, and spring returned. You mentioned agamemnon, hector, odysseus. How do you know about them . Search your most distant memories, those of the thousands of years past, and i am there. Your fathers knew me, and your fathers fathers. I am apollo. And i am the tsar of all the russias. Mr. Chekov. Im sorry. I never met a god before. And you havent yet. Readings, doctor. Simple humanoid, captain. Evidently not so simple. Earth. Mother of the most beautiful of women in the universe. That at least has not changed. I am pleased. Us, athena, aphrodite, artemis a gallant band of travelers. We knew your earth well 5,000 of your years ago. All right. Were here at your invitation. Would you mind telling us what you want without all the olympian generalities . You will not leave this place. Transporter room. Your transportation device no longer functions. Enterprise, come in. I will not permit that device to work, either, captain. What is it you want . You will worship me, as your fathers did before you. If you want to play god and call yourself apollo, thats your business. Youre no god to us, mister i said you will worship me. Let the lesson begin mr. Spock, i cant contact the landing party. All frequencies are jammed. Try to break through it, lieutenant. Transporter and communications . Inefficient. Mr. Sulu, rig all transmission circuits the field around the ship. Working, sir. Lieutenant kyle, i want a complete sensor scan of the planet. Locate all life forms. I want to know whats going on down there. To coin a phrase. Fascinating. Analysis. Lieutenant palamis, what do you know about apollo . Apollotwin brother of artemis, son of the god zeus and leto, a mortal. He was the god of light and purity. He was skilled in the bow and the lyre. And. This thing . Obviously, he has some knowledge of earth his classical references and the appearance of all this. Well, i cant say much till i check out these readings. He looks human, but of course, that doesnt mean a thing. Whatever he is, sir, he seems to control a remarkable technology. Power is what he controls. You cant do tricks like that without energy. Fine, but what power and where is it . Scout around with your tricorders. Find the source of that power. Bones. Yes . Bones, i wonder if 5,000 years ago. You have a theory . I have an idea. What . Captain. I want from you that which is rightfully mine your loyalty, your tribute, and your worship. May i ask what you offer in exchange for this worship . Life in paradise. As it was those thousands of years ago on that beautiful planet so far away. Apollo. Were willing to talk, but youll find we dont bow to every creature who happens to have a bag of tricks. Agamemnon was one such as you, and hercules. Pride and arrogance. Me, until they felt my wrath. I would like to point out that we are quite capable of some wrath ourselves. I have 430 people on that ship up there. No, you do not, captain. They are mine to save, to cherish, or to destroy at my will. But why . What youve said so far how like aphrodite and athena. The beauty, grace. And you seem wise for a woman. What is your name . Lieutenant palamis. I mean your name. Carolyn. Carolyn. Yes. You are beautiful. You would do aphrodite credit. I will tell you a thousand tales, stories of courage and love. You will know what it is to be a goddess. Leave her alone. You protest . You risk much. And so do you. Very impressive. Howd you do it . Ive grown weary of discussion and argument. Captain, the phasers. All the working parts are fused. None of your toys will function. Yes. You are a beauty. But like artemis, the bow arm should be bare. Oh. Oh, its beautiful. Yes. Come. Shes not going with you. [thunder] so shall you all. Come. Its all right, captain. Ill go. Without fear. She is fit, indeed. Bones, how is he . Im not sure its wise to let her go off like that. He would have been rather difficult to stop. You saw how capricious he is benevolent one minute, angry the next. One wrong move from her and he could kill her. Mr. Chekov, i think youd better continue your investigation. Aye, aye, sir. How do you feel, scotty . Im tingling all over. Did he take her with him . It seems so. Captain, weve got to stop him. He wants her, the way he looks at her but she volunteered to go with him, hopefully to find out more about him. Shes doing her job. I think its about time you started doing yours. Weve got to find out the source of his power. Youve got a tricorder. Use it if youre able to. Im able, sir. And one more thing i want no more unauthorized action against apollo or whatever he is. Thats an order aye, aye, sir. Besides, you stiffnecked thistle head, you could have gotten yourself killed. Aye. Scotty doesnt believe in gods. Apollos no god. But. He could have been taken for one, though, once. Say, 5,000 years ago, a highly Sophisticated Group of space travelers to the simple shepherds and tribesmen of early greece, creatures like that would have been gods. Especially if they had the power to alter their form at will and command great energy. In fact, they couldnt have been taken for anything else. Ready to reverse polarity, mr. Sulu . Computed and standing by to generate, sir. Activate all units. [crash] no good, mr. Spock. We didnt even faze it. Were still locked tight. Cut power, mr. Sulu. Lieutenant, we must restore communications with the landing party. Well, im working, sir, but i cant do anything with this. Oh . Well, i might be able to rig up a subspace bypass circuit. Located the landing party, sir, but one of them seems separated from the other four. And apollo . Ive just picked up readings for our own people, sir. Mr. Spock, heres something. There seems to be a radiated energy pulsation coming from the planet. I dont know what it is, sir. Origin . I cant seem to pinpoint it, sir. I would suggest, mr. Sulu, that if you cannot find out where the power source is, you should find out where it is not. A simple process of elimination. The whole planet, sir . Oh, its lovely. Ive known other women daphne, cassandra. But none more beautiful than you. Are you frightened of me . Frightened . No, i dont think so. Of course, a girl doesnt go walking with a a god . All right. A god. Every day. Happened to the others . Artemis, hera . They returned to the cosmos. On the wings of the wind. You mean they died . No. Not as you understand it. Were immortal, we gods. But the earth changed. Your fathers changed. We need love, admiration, worship, as you need food. You really think youre a god . In a real sense, we were gods. We had the power of life and death. We could have struck out from olympus and destroyed. We have no wish to destroy, so we came home again. It was an empty place without worshipers, but we had no strength to leave, and we waited, all of us, through the long years. But you said the others didnt die. Even for a god, theres a point of no return. Hera was first. She stood in front of the temple and spread herself upon the wind until only the wind remained. But i knew you would come. You striving, bickering, foolishly brave humans. I knew you would come to the stars one day. Of all the gods, i knew, and i waited waited for you to come sit by my side. I dont understand. Even 5,000 years ago, to love, to care for, like zeus took leto, my mother. We were gods of passion. Of love. There is a repeated occurrence of registrations, a regular pulsating pattern of radiated energy. Unquestionably, an immensely powerful field of energy is being generated around here somewhere. But were just having difficulty focusing on it. He taps that energy, mr. Scott. Sir, some creatures can generate and control energy with no harm to themselves the electric eel on earth, the giant dry worm of antos 4, the fluffy not the whole encyclopedia, chekov. The captain requires complete information. Spocks contaminating this boy, jim. Are you suggesting that heapollo taps a flow of energy and channels it through his body . Mr. Chekov, i think youve earned your pay for the week. But where is the source of that power . Number one on our list of things to do. Is that all you have to offer . Yes, except my estimation for his physical condition. In spite of apollos bag of tricks, he comes up essentially normal with just a few variations. However, theres an extra organ in his chest that i cant even make a guess about