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"The Youth Trap"
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Cover Blurb:
The Enterprise is under full power in “Galaxy Zekbran” to
investigate the sighting of an uncharted planet. “Well, Mr. Spock”
asks the Captain, “What does our scanner have to tell us - any signs of
life on that mysterious sphere?”. “Negative, Captain!” Spock
replies, “However, I have not completed the scan! There is still the
telescopic viewing stage I must perform!”. At that moment a shrieking
noise fills the air, and a strange group of lights attacks the Enterprise,
nearly destroying one of her engine nacelles. “Cut number two engine!”
shouts Kirk. “She’s taking a battering, may explode!”.The mysterious attack ends abruptly, and Scotty (who has blonde hair!) dons a space suit to examine the damage first hand. “Trouble, Captain!” the Engineer reports when he returns. “We can repair the engine, but whatever hit us burned out every filament part!”. “We’ve got an ample supply of filaments in storage” Kirk says. “Break them out”. “But that’s just it, Sir” Scotty replies. “I went to storage and found every last one of them disintegrated!”. Spock suggests that the ship must find a deposit of the rare Zutotanium metal from which the components are made, in order to replace them. Kirk orders space-ore experts Burns and Lane to beam down to the uncharted planet and search for the rare metal. “Well, there go our engineers” he tells Spock as the landing party beams away. “This is one whale of a long shot, Spock”. “And one that had better pay off, Captain” the Vulcan replies, “or we may be stranded here forever!”.
As the pair races from rock to rock, Kirk is hit with an energy beam! The Captain becomes light headed, but does not experience any age reversal. The men find the two aliens fighting each other on a cliff high above them. One alien tosses the other from the cliff, and the unfortunate being slides down the mountain to Kirk and Spock’s location. As the other alien begins firing the energy cannon at them again, the two men drag the unconscious alien to the safety of a nearby cave to question him. The alien (a very human-like being with a bald head, wearing a purple jumpsuit) tells them that he is a scientist named Laiko from the Galaxy Trann. “We were on an exploration mission to this galaxy when engine trouble forced us to crash land” Laiko tells them. While trying to build a machine that would restore power to their damaged engines, Laiko accidentally invented a device that would reverse the aging process. He hoped to use it to “freeze” their bodies in an ageless state until the ship was repaired or they were rescued, but had no way to test the device. “Things are beginning to add up” Kirk says. “When you spotted our spaceship you crippled it with the idea of using us as guinea pigs for your age-ray machine”. “Our engineers Burns and Lane were hit with an over-charge” adds Spock, “which reduced them to children. A lesser charge hit McCoy transforming him into a teen-ager. But you wanted your machine to freeze you in the exact age you were in!”. Laiko confirms this, but offers no apology for his actions. The Captain asks Laiko why his companion attacked him on the mountain. “I cannot say” Laiko replies, “but he is moving in the direction of our encampment”. Kirk, Spock and Laiko follow the other alien back to his space ship, to find out what is going on. When the alien arrives at the crashed ship, he tries to take control of the other aliens by force. “The Scientist Laiko is no more!” he says. “And I now place myself in absolute command of this expedition! You will do my bidding or else!”. “I challenge your right to such a claim, Kooba!” says another alien. Kooba turns the age ray on the humanoid, and reduces him to a small child as an example. “And that will be the fate of all of you if you do not heed my demands!” he says. As they watch from high above, the ledge that Kirk, Spock and Laiko are standing on gives way, and slides down the mountain into the middle of the alien encampment. Fearing the Enterprise men more than their newly appointed dictator, the aliens capture them and bring them before Kooba for sentencing.
Kooba orders Kirk and Laiko thrown into the spaceship brig, and he takes Mr. Spock and one of his guards to the landing party’s beam up point. Spock makes contact with the ship, and the three are beamed up. “Mr. Spock” Scotty asks, “who are your two companions?”. “I can assure you they are not friends!” Spock replies, “But do not make any hostile moves, it will cost the life of Captain Kirk! He is being held hostage by this criminal alien! We must do just as he demands!”. (Why Spock would immediately surrender the Enterprise, after Kirk had just made it clear that he should not, is not explained) Kooba orders the entire crew to stand in front of viewing screens, and then triggers the age-ray machine, blasting the entire ship! The crew becomes younger, but not very much so.
“Your little experiment worked to a degree, Kooba” Spock says, “but you hardly transformed us into helpless babies!”. “The original blast de-aged
you all some five or so years” Kooba replies. “Now you will all
slowly grow younger. In a matter of hours you will all be babies, unable to
comprehend your dire situation!”. Having set his plans in motion, Kooba
has his guard beam him back down to the surface so that he can prepare to move
his crew aboard the Enterprise, and also “take care” of Captain Kirk.Kooba enters the brig and begins firing the age-ray at Kirk, trying to reduce him to a child. The Captain manages to rip a reflective plate from the wall, and bounce the beam back - hitting Kooba! The alien is immediately reduced to a young, bald child. Kirk then frees Laiko as well. Kirk dresses up in Kooba’s clothing, and the two men trick Kooba’s guard aboard the Enterprise into beaming them up to the ship. Once aboard, Kirk quickly takes out the guard with a gut punch, followed by a right cross. He and Laiko go to the “control room” to find the entire crew has begun de-aging! Laiko changes the settings on the age-ray, and blasts the entire ship again through the viewing screens. The crew members are reverted to their normal ages. Kirk beams back down to the planet with Laiko and also restores the alien that Kooba had de-aged. “What of Kooba?” Laiko asks, “will you return him to normal also?”. “No” Kirk replies. “I think it’s only just he remains as he is, a fitting fate for such an evil being!”. Kirk then shatters the machine on a rock. “It is better for you all if this age-ray machine didn’t exist” he says. “And I’m sure that after Laiko’s experience with it he’d hardly construct another!”. “No truer words have been spoken, Captain!” Laiko says.
 Email: curtdan@ridgecrest.ca.us |
