"Them? No, they won't help me or you. They could have teleported me to a world full of people but no matter how many times I have asked them to do that as recently as a few days ago they have always refused to help me like that. There's definitely no point in asking the Thasians to help me fight somebody with powers like mine and theirs because I know they will only refuse. If they find out I want to use my powers to fight they will probably take my powers away.

“Let me ask you this, Captain. Will you and Janice agree to take me with you even if I don't agree to fight Gary Mitchell?"

Kirk replied:

"Yes, Charlie we'll take you with us anyway."

                                                 

Charlie continued:

"If I don't feel like fighting with my powers will you leave me alone about it?"

Kirk replied:

"You will be free to make up your own mind what to do about that when the time comes, Charlie."

Charlie smiled:

"Okay Sir, I will think about helping you as soon as you and Janice take me with you."

Janice cut in:

"Do you have things you wish to bring along?"

Charlie laughed:

"Anything I have that I value I can create again on the ship. Can we leave here right now? I can't wait to see all the people! I want to make friends with them!"

Kirk flipped open his communicator:

"Scotty, three to beam up!" 

CHAPTER 6

Once aboard, Captain Kirk left Janice to show Charlie to his quarters and to see to it he would settle in. Kirk could only imagine what the attention starved man in his early forties would do aboard a starship with over 550 crewman. It could be overwhelming. Kirk was happy for Charlie that he was finally able to escape what must have been a tragically lonely exile. Now Kirk had called Mr. Spock, Chief Engineer Scott, Dr. McCoy, and Captain Sulu into his briefing room:

"Alright gentlemen, we had no trouble finding Charlie and he is in good spirits and was overly eager to come aboard. He seems to have matured a great deal and he doesn't appear to have harbored any grudges so hopefully he will behave himself, and we can be assured Charlie is enjoying himself right now being surrounded by so many people after his long exile on Thasus. Whether or not Charlie will behave or begin to abuse his godlike powers is an unknown at this time. So there may still be a good deal of risk involved by having Charlie aboard. In the mean time, we will all give Charlie the benefit of the doubt.

"Charlie Evans has been fully briefed on the ongoing galactic crisis. I have asked Charlie to use his powers for a good and just cause to help us fight Gary Marshall, but Charlie said he doesn't know how to fight with his powers. He also made me promise not to bug him about joining our cause, so for the time being let's all leave him alone about that and we'll wait and see if Charlie changes his mind on his own as things begin to develop if and when we are forced to confront Gary Mitchell and his rogue strike force.

“In the interim I want all of you to begin to use your imaginations as to exactly what someone like Charlie Evans could do with his powers in a fight with Gary Mitchell, and I need all of you to document your ideas about that and forward them to my console. The time may soon arrive when the situation becomes dire and dangerous for all of us including Charlie Evans, and he may change his mind and decide to try and fight Gary Mitchell in a clash of the gods. At that juncture, Charlie may seek out advice from me and the senior staff as to how to go about using his powers in a fight of the mind and will. We need to have answers ready for Charlie if that happens.

"At any rate, given that Gary Mitchell has conquered both the Earth and Starfleet command, and we can assume he has shaped the minds of all concerned to obey his will, Gary has the entire Federation fleet at his disposal, while the Enterprise represents only one starship that is defenseless for practical reasons because we are hopelessly outnumbered. The only ace we have in our deck is that Gary Mitchell has yet to find us and he doesn't know anything at all about us having someone like Charlie Evans on board as our secret weapon. Your orders are to develop strategies for psychic warfare that Charlie might benefit from when the time comes if he elects to join our cause.  Hopefully he will before we get into a confrontation with Gary Mitchell and his rogue strike forces. For now, we will run and hide for as long as it takes Charlie Evans to come around. I am counting on Charlie to bond with the crew and for him to develop fondness for other human beings, who he may seek to protect and defend as soon as they are in peril. We think Charlie will have such feelings when we need him to fight for us. But don't pressure him. I promised him we wouldn't pester him about it, and we definitely don't want Charlie to begin to resent us, right? One living god is bad enough. Let's not make an enemy with another one. Dismissed!"

****

After traveling by stealth for a week with the cloaking device operating, Kirk elected to hide the Enterprise inside the Zebulon Nebula which consisted of dense cascading energy fields that rendered ships sensors totally useless. Kirk fully intended to buy Charlie Evans as much time as he needed to bond with members of the crew.  Kirk hoped Charlie would willingly wish to utilize his godlike powers to defend the Enterprise in a confrontation with Gary Mitchell whose tentacles of rogue Federation starships would find them eventually.

Charlie was in fact quick to make new friends among the crew who liked Charlie, and he was hungry for the attention. Kirk had told Charlie ahead of time that the bulk of the crew wouldn't know he possessed powers like his, and Kirk advised Charlie to be sure to keep that a secret otherwise some of the crew he met would be fearful of him as a matter of course. Charlie understood why Kirk wanted him to keep his powers a secret so he did that.

On to Next Page>