(Enterprise is in orbit of a planet)
KIRK: You'll enjoy Commodore Travers. He sets a good table.
MCCOY: I wonder if he brought his personal chef along with him to Cestus Three.
KIRK: Probably. Rank hath its privileges.
MCCOY: How well we both know that.
(Intercom whistles)
KIRK: Scotty. Kirk here.
TRAVERS [OC]: Travers, Jim. We're waiting.
KIRK: Good, Commodore. We're on our way.
TRAVERS [OC]: Be sure to bring along your tactical people. I've got an interesting problem for them.
KIRK: We'll beam down immediately, Commodore. Kirk out.
SPOCK: Captain. I wonder why he's insistent that our tactical aides come down.
KIRK: This colony is isolated, exposed, out on the edge of now here. He probably wants additional advice.
SPOCK: Perhaps, Captain, but nevertheless
MCCOY: Spock, isn't it enough the commodore is famous for his hospitality? I, for one, could use a good non-reconstituted meal.
SPOCK: Doctor, you are a sensualist.
MCCOY: You bet your pointed ears I am. Ready whenever you are, Captain.
(Six men, including one red shirt, get on the transporter platform)
KIRK: Energise.

[Planet surface]

(There is no one waiting to meet them. Instead, just razed ground and the smoke of a few fires)
KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise. Red alert.
SULU [OC]: What is it, Captain?
KIRK: Cestus Three has been destroyed.
(They take cover)
KIRK: Full alert. Tricorder readings, Mister Spock. Life detection.
SPOCK: Those messages we got, Captain, the one directing us here yesterday.
KIRK: Faked. All this happened several days ago. (to a man in a yellow shirt) Lang, over there. Look for survivors. Kelowitz, (blue shirt) that way. (to the red shirt) O'Herlihy, stick with me.
SPOCK: Captain, impulses that direction. Very weak, possibly a survivor.
KIRK: Come on, Bones.

Captain's log, Stardate 3045.6 The Enterprise has responded to a call from Earth observation outpost on Cestus Three. On landing, we have discovered that the outpost has been destroyed.

[Ruins]

MCCOY: Captain, over there.
(They run to a lone survivor amongst a tangle of wreckage)
Careful, careful. Shock, radiation burns, internal injuries for certain.
MCCOY: Careful, careful. Shock, radiation burns, internal injuries for certain. He's in a bad way, Captain.
KIRK: Keep him alive, Bones. I want to know what's been happening here.
SPOCK: Getting another life reading, Captain.
KIRK: Survivors?
SPOCK: Not survivors. Not warm-blooded. Living creatures, but not human.
KIRK: Where?
SPOCK: Azimuth ninety three degrees, range one five seven zero yards.
KIRK: O'Herlihy.
(Kirk sends his security guard off to look, but he hasn't gone far before he stands up and says)
O'HERLIHY: Captain, I see something.
(And promptly gets hit by a beam and vanishes. There's also an incoming whistle and an explosion.)
KIRK: Cover! Kirk to Enterprise, lock on transporters. Beam us up.

[Bridge]

SULU: Captain, we're coming under attack. Unidentified ship quartering in.

[Ruins]

SULU [OC]: We can't beam you up. I've just rigged up defensive screens.
KIRK: Keep those screens up. Fire all phasers.

[Bridge]

SULU: Firing phasers, Captain. The alien has screens up, too.

[Ruins]

KIRK: Take all action necessary to protect the ship. We'll hold out here.

[Bridge]

SULU: Are you under attack, Captain?

[Ruins]

SULU [OC]: We could drop screens.
KIRK: Keep those screens up. Worry about us when the ship is safe.

[Bridge]

KIRK [OC]: Kirk out.

[Ruins]

(More bombs rain down around them)
KIRK: If they lower those screens to beam us up, they'll be open to phaser attack.
SPOCK: We're hopelessly outnumbered here, Captain. It's those disruptors versus our hand phasers.
KIRK: We're stuck with it, Mister Spock. We'll have to make do with what we've got.
(Carrying the survivor, the away team heads into better shelter - Life Support Ramp 3 Level K according to the sign)
KIRK: Kelowitz, Lang, flank out. Lay down fire on co-ordinates Mister Spock gave you. Even if you don't see them. Keep your heads down.
(Lang and Kelowitz leave)
KIRK: We're helpless down here. And the Enterprise
SPOCK: Sulu is an experienced combat officer.
KIRK: It's my ship, Mister Spock. I should be there. We can't even get at them.
SPOCK: Nor can they at us at the moment. Not unless they moved their original position. That intervening high ground.
KIRK: Can you remember the layout of this place? The arsenal?
SPOCK: About one hundred yards in that direction. But after an attack as thorough as this one
KIRK: I'll risk it.
(He does an heroic zigzag run amongst the incoming explosions, takes shelter behind an oil drum and calls Enterprise)
KIRK: Kirk here. Report.

[Bridge]

SULU: Captain, are you all right?

[Ruins]

KIRK: Never mind about me. What about the ship?

[Bridge]

SULU: We returned fire with all phaser banks. Negative against its deflector screen.

[Ruins]

KIRK: Arm your photon torpedoes.

[Bridge]

SULU: Aye, aye, sir. Arm photon torpedoes. Stand by.

[Ruins]

KIRK: Any identification on the attacking vessel?
SULU [OC]: No, sir. Doesn't correspond with any configuration we're familiar with.

[Bridge]

SULU: We can't get visual contact. She's too far away.
DEPAUL: Mister Sulu, photon torpedoes locked on.
SULU: Photon torpedoes locked on, Captain.

[Ruins]

KIRK; Fire all banks.

[Bridge]

SULU: All banks fired, sir.

[Ruins]

KIRK: Sulu. Sulu, our communications are being interfered with. (An explosion makes him run further on into an old bomb crater) Now get this straight.

[Bridge]

KIRK [OC]: You do anything you think necessary to protect the ship. Leave orbit, maximum warp, anything. Clear?
SULU: Clear, Captain, but you

[Ruins]

KIRK: Never mind about me. Protect my ship!

[Bridge]

SULU: Yes, sir. Photon torpedoes negative, Captain. I'm warping out of orbit.

[Ruins]

KIRK: Good. Contact me when you can. Kirk out.
(Kirk ducks into a building. Meanwhile, back over at Ramp 3)
SPOCK: How is he, Doctor?
MCCOY: He'll be dead in half an hour if we don't get him some decent care.
SPOCK: They're moving. I've got to get to the Captain.
(He joins Kirk in the bomb crater, where a grenade launcher is being set up)
SPOCK: Locked on to the enemy, Captain. They're moving toward the high ground. (fizzing sound and smoke) They've locked on to my tricorder.
(He throws it away and it goes bang)
SPOCK: Very ingenious. They fed back my own impulses and built up an overload.
KIRK: We'll see how ingenious they are. Here, give me a hand with this grenade launcher. Lang!
SPOCK: Any word from the Enterprise?
KIRK: Sulu's taken her out of orbit.
KELOWITZ: They got Lang, sir.
KIRK: Did you see them?
KELOWITZ: No, sir.
KIRK: An evaluation, Mister Kelowitz. Where do you think they are?
KELOWITZ: If I were them, I'd go to the high ground on the right. I make it twelve hundred yards, azimuth eighty seven. It's pretty close for one of these little jewels, Captain.
KIRK: It'll be a lot closer to them. Stand clear.
(He drops a blue ball into the launcher, it zooms off and there is a blinding flash and bang. Silence reigns until Kirk's communicator beeps.)
KIRK: Kirk here.
SULU [OC]: Captain, the alien's withdrawing. She's at extreme range, but our sensors indicate she just activated her transporters.
KIRK: Lock on to the alien, Mister Sulu. I don't want to lose her.

[Bridge]

SULU: Aye, aye, sir. Our screens are down. We can beam you up now, sir.

[Ruins]

KIRK: I want a search party of thirty medical personnel beamed down immediately to search for survivors. Notify the transporter room. Lock onto us. We're beaming up.

[Bridge]

SULU: Aye, aye, sir.

Captain's log, supplement. We have beamed back to the Enterprise and immediately set out in pursuit of the alien vessel. It appears to be headed toward a largely unexplored section of the galaxy.

[Sickbay]

KIRK: Can you tell me what happened?
MAN: Scanners reported a ship approaching. We get them now and then. They're all welcome to use our facilities. You know that.
KIRK: Yes, I know.
MAN: They came in space normal speed, using our regular approach route, but they knocked out our phaser batteries with their first salvo. From then on we were helpless. We weren't expecting anything! Why should we? We didn't have anything anyone would want.
KIRK: Easy. Easy.
MAN: They poured it on, like, like phasers, only worse, whatever they were using. I tried to signal them. We called up. Tried to surrender. We had women and children. I told them that! I begged them! They wouldn't listen. They didn't let up for a moment.
KIRK: Lieutenant, the Enterprise received two messages, ostensibly from Cestus Three. One for the Enterprise to go there, and the other for myself and my tactical crew to beam down to the surface.
MAN: They hit us a full day before you got there, Captain. No messages came from us, Captain. Why did they do it? Why? Why did they do it? There has to be a reason. There has to be a reason!

[Captain's quarters]

KIRK: It was a trap. Getting the Enterprise to come to Cestus Three, getting us and our whole crew to come ashore.
SPOCK: Very clever. As to the reason?
KIRK: The reason is crystal clear. The Enterprise is the only protection in this section of the Federation. Destroy the Enterprise, and everything is wide open.
SPOCK: You allude to invasion, Captain, yet positive proof
KIRK: I have all the proof I need on Cestus Three.
SPOCK: Not necessarily, sir. Several possible explanations
KIRK: How can you explain a massacre like that? No, Mister Spock. The threat is clear and immediate. Invasion.
SPOCK: Very well, then. If that's the case, you must make certain that the alien vessel never reaches its home base.
KIRK: I intend to. If we can keep them in the dark as to our strength, they'll never dare move against us. Captain to helmsman.
SULU [OC]: Sulu here, sir.
KIRK: Is the alien still making warp five?
SULU [OC]: Affirmative, sir.
KIRK: Initiate warp six.
SULU [OC]: Affirmative, sir.
KIRK: Overtake. Phaser banks, lock on to the enemy vessel. Stand by for firing orders. All hands, this is the Captain. We are going into battle. All hands, battle stations. Red alert. I repeat, red alert. This is no drill. This is no drill.

Captain's log, Stardate 3046.2. We are in hot pursuit of the alien vessel which destroyed the Earth outpost on Cestus Three.

[Bridge]

KIRK: Mister DePaul.
DEPAUL: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Position.
DEPAUL: Twenty two point three parsecs beyond latest chart limit, sir.
KIRK: All scanners lock into computer banks. I want a complete record of this. Mister Spock, what do we have on this general area?
SPOCK: Virtually nothing, Captain. No records of any explorations. There are rumours of certain strange signals on subspace channels. However, none has ever been recorded.
KIRK: Anything on intelligent life forms?
SPOCK: Nothing specific, Captain. Unscientific rumours only. More like space legends.
KIRK: Mister Sulu, status, alien vessel.
SULU: They must be aware we're after them, sir. They've gone to warp six also.
KIRK: Warp factor seven.
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
KIRK: Something the matter, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: A sustained warp seven speed will be dangerous, Captain.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock. I mean to catch them.
SCOTT: We'll either catch them or blow up, Captain. They may be faster than we are.
KIRK: They'll have to prove it. Yes, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: You mean to destroy the alien ship, Captain?
KIRK: Of course.
SPOCK: I thought perhaps the hot pursuit alone might be sufficient. Destruction might be unnecessary.
KIRK: Colony Cestus Three has been obliterated, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: The destruction of the alien vessel will not help that colony, Jim.
KIRK: If the aliens go unpunished, they'll be back, attacking other Federation installations.
SPOCK: I merely suggested that a regard for sentient life
KIRK: There's no time for that. It's a matter of policy. Out here, we're the only policemen around. And a crime has been committed. Do I make myself clear?
SPOCK: Very clear, Captain.
KIRK: I'm delighted, Mister Spock. Report, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Alien ship maintaining interval, Captain. Now at warp seven.
KIRK: Warp factor eight.
(Everyone looks surprised. Scotty is aghast.)
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
KIRK: Captain to phaser banks. All components at battle ready. All banks primed.
CREWMAN [OC]: Aft phaser to Bridge. Alert status. All weapons at operational ready.
(Later, the ship has not blown up, and Sulu has a grin on his face)
SULU: Captain.
KIRK: Yes, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Closing on target, sir.
KIRK: Good. Mister DePaul.
DEPAUL: Yes, sir.
KIRK: Our position.
DEPAUL: Two two seven nine pl, sir. Uncharted solar system at two four six six pm.
KIRK: Is it on the alien's course?
DEPAUL: No, sir. He's headed away from it.
UHURA: Captain, sensors report we're being scanned.
KIRK: By the alien ship?
UHURA: No, sir. It's from that solar system ahead.
KIRK: Any interference? Resistance?
UHURA: No, sir, Just scanning beams. It's on an unusual wave length.
KIRK: Mister Spock?
SPOCK: It would appear someone is curious about us.
KIRK: Mister Sulu, is the alien still heading away from that solar system?
SULU: Yes, sir. We're closing, sir.
KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, anything further on those scanning beams?
UHURA: There's no hostility, sir. They're not tractors or weapons of any sort, Just increasing in intensity. Steady. Regular. It's growing stronger, sir.
SULU: Captain!
KIRK: Yes, what is it?
SULU: The alien. It's slowing down. Warp five, four, two. It's going sublight, sir. Sir? It's stopped dead in space.
KIRK: He may be turning to fight.
SULU: No, sir. They're just dead out there.
KIRK: Are you sure?
SULU: Yes, sir. Unmoving.
KIRK: Then we've got them. Go to Red Alert. Prepare to fire phaser banks. Sensors, lock on. Mister Sulu, continue closing. Mister Spock, lock phasers into computer. Computers will control attack.
SPOCK: Computer lock ready, Captain. All systems standing by.
SULU: Range is one eight one zero. One seven six zero. Range is one seven zero zero. One six four zero. Range is one five nine zero. One five five zero and closing, sir.
(Suddenly, the ship decelerates, and everyone hangs on to something as the lights dim.) SULU: Warp six, warp five, four, warp three, warp one. Sublight, Captain. We're stuck, Captain. It's impossible, but. It's impossible.
KIRK: From warp eight? Have you lost your mind?
SPOCK: Same as the alien, Captain.
KIRK: Mister Scott, report.
SCOTT: We're dead, Captain. Locked up. Frozen tight. All propulsion systems read zero.
KIRK; Life systems?
SCOTT: They're all normal, sir. Atmosphere, heat, light. No variance.
KIRK: Phaser banks. Report.
CREWMAN [OC]: We're all inoperative here, Captain. No power at all. No faulty circuits I can find. Just no power.
KIRK: Damage Control, report.
SPOCK: All systems report normal, Captain. No ascertainable damage.
KIRK; Then what is it?
SCOTT: I don't know, sir, but whatever it is, we canna move.
SPOCK: We're being held in place, Captain, apparently from that solar system.
KIRK; This far out? That's impossible.
SPOCK: We are being held.
KIRK: Tractor beam?
SPOCK: No, sir. An unidentifiable power.
(The lights flicker and the viewscreen goes psychedelic.)
METRON [OC]: We are the Metrons. You are one of two crafts which have come into our space on a mission of violence. This is not permissible. Yet we have analysed you and have learned that your violent tendencies are inherent. So be it. We will control them. We will resolve your conflict in the way most suited to your limited mentalities. Captain James Kirk.
KIRK: This is Kirk.
METRON [OC]: We have prepared a planet with a suitable atmosphere. You will be taken there, as will the Captain of the Gorn ship which you have been pursuing. There you will settle your dispute.
KIRK: I don't understand.
METRON [OC]:You will be provided with a recording-translating device, in hopes that a chronicle of this contest will serve to dissuade others of your kind from entering our system, but you will not be permitted to communicate with your ship. You will each be totally alone.
KIRK: What makes you think you can interfere with
METRON [OC]: It is you who are interfering. We are simply putting a stop to it. The place we have prepared for you contains sufficient elements for either of you to construct weapons lethal enough to destroy the other, which seems to be your intention. The winner of the contest will be permitted to go his way unharmed. The loser, along with his ship, shall be destroyed in the interests of peace. The contest will be one of ingenuity against ingenuity, brute strength against brute strength. The results will be final.
KIRK: Just a minute
METRON [OC]: There will be no discussion. It is done.
(Kirk vanishes, and Uhura screams)
SULU: He's gone.

[Planet surface]

(A dinosaur- like being with multifaceted eyes and a multicoloured tunic greets us with a roar. Kirk is now wearing a belt with the recorder/translator on it)
KIRK [OC]: The Enterprise is dead in space, stopped cold during her pursuit of an alien raider by mysterious forces, and I have been somehow whisked off the bridge and placed on the surface of an asteroid, facing the Captain of the alien ship. Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn. Large, reptilian. Like most humans, I seem to have an instinctive revulsion to reptiles. I must fight to remember that this is an intelligent, highly advanced individual, the Captain of a starship, like myself, undoubtedly a dangerously clever opponent.
(The Gorn breaks a branch of a tree with great ease. Kirk struggles to break off a twig. Their first physical engagement is uneven. Kirk is more agile than the reptile but nowhere near as strong. He boxes the Gorn's ears to get out of a bear-hug and runs up into the rocks looking for weapons. He throws a heavy rock at the Gorn, but it just bounces off his chest. When a boulder gets flung at him in return, Kirk retreats. Quickly.)

[Bridge]

(Spock goes over to the Engineering Station)
SPOCK: Have you tried overload?
SCOTT: Aye, sir. It does no good.
SPOCK: How about bypassing the transformer banks? Feed the impulse engines directly.
SCOTT: I tried that, sir. Nothing.
SPOCK: Lieutenant Uhura, have sensors learned anything about the nature of the force which holds us here?
UHURA: No, sir. They report they definitely emanate from that solar system ahead.
SPOCK: No indication of its composition? Gravimetric? Magnetic? Electronic?
UHURA: Nothing, sir.

[Planet surface]

(Standing on rocks, silhouetted against a clear blue sky, Kirk makes an entry on his recorder for posterity.)
KIRK: This is Captain James Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Who ever finds this please get it to Starfleet Command. I'm engaged in personal combat with a creature apparently called a Gorn.
(We see that the recording is also being transmitted and translated by the Gorn's device too)
KIRK [OC]: He's immensely strong. Already he has withstood attacks from me that would have killed a human being. Fortunately, though strong, he is not agile. The agility and, I hope, the cleverness, is mine.
(Back on the rock)
KIRK: The Metrons, the creatures that sent us both here, said that the surface of the planet provides the raw material to construct weapons. There's very little here. Scrub brush, rocks, an abundance of mineral deposits, but no weapons in the conventional sense. Still, I need to find one. Bare-handed against the Gorn, I have no chance.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: Leave channel one open, Lieutenant, just in case.
UHURA: Aye, aye, sir.
MCCOY: What are you going to do, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: I'm going to wait, Doctor. There's little else I can do.
MCCOY: What about the Captain?
SPOCK: If I could help him, I would. I cannot.
MCCOY: Now, you're the one that's always talking about logic. What about some logic now? Where's the Captain, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: He's out there, Doctor. Out there somewhere in a thousand cubic parsecs of space, and there's absolutely nothing we can do to help him.

[Planet surface]

(Running up a slope, Kirk comes across a clump of mature bamboo. Good, solid, hollow stems, but he doesn't regard them as suitable clubs. He carries on gaining height. Meanwhile, the Gorn is using trailing vines to construct something. Kirk comes across an outcrop of minerals, and decides to tell us what they are.)
KIRK: A large deposit of diamonds on the surface. Perhaps the hardest substance known in the universe. Beautifully crystallized and pointed, but too small to be useful as a weapon. An incredible fortune in stones yet I would trade them all for a hand phaser, or a good solid club. Yet the Metrons said there would be weapons, if I could find them. Where? What kind?
(From his vantage point on the ridge, Kirk watches the Gorn at work, then spots a lone rock neatly balanced on a pinnacle above his adversary. He pushes it over, the Gorn looks up, then we get the cloud of dust and a view of the reptile under the rock, lying still. Confident, Kirk comes down to check on his kill, just in time to see the Gorn move, grasp his stone dagger, and get up again. The rock continues on its way down the slope. The mammal runs away, straight into reptiles trap of vines and rocks. Now Kirk is pinned under a boulder, and at his enemy's mercy.
But the Gorn has to move the boulder to be able to stab him, so once again Kirk is able to dodge away, albeit with a limp.

[Bridge]

SPOCK: This is the U.S.S. Enterprise calling the Metrons. Our channels are open. Come in, please. We urgently desire a conference. Please answer.

[Planet surface]

(Kirk hobbles up to a rock face with bright yellow powder spread across it, and takes a rest. We keep cutting to the Gorn, who can hear everything he says, remember.)
KIRK: This may be my last entry. I am almost exhausted. Unless I find the weapon the Metron mentioned I have very little time left. Native sulphur, diamonds. This place is a mineralogist's dream. Yet there is something about sulphur. Something very old. Something? If only I could remember.
(The Gorn's roar comes closer, and he moves on)

[Bridge]

MCCOY: The ship, our engines, our weapons. It's just inconceivable that we are immobilised.
SPOCK: But it has happened, Doctor.
(Dimmed lights and swirly viewscreen again)
METRON [OC]: We are the Metrons. Your Captain is losing his battle. We would suggest you make whatever memorial arrangements, if any, which are customary in your culture. We believe you have very little time left.
MCCOY: We appeal to you in the name of civilisation. Put a stop to this.
METRON [OC]: Your violent intent and actions demonstrate that you are not civilised. However, we are not without compassion. It is possible you may have feelings toward your Captain. So that you will be able to prepare yourself, we will allow you to see and hear what is now transpiring.
(There on the viewscreen is their first sight of a Gorn, then Kirk and yet another mineral deposit.)
MCCOY: If there were only some way we could contact him.
SPOCK: Yes, indeed, Doctor, if only there were. Notice the substance encrusting that rock. Yes. Unless I'm mistaken, it's potassium nitrate.
MCCOY: So?
SPOCK: Perhaps nothing, Doctor. (Kirk tastes the mineral and spits it out) Perhaps everything.
(The bridge crew watch as enlightenment dawns and Kirk goes off in search of his other mineral discoveries.) GORN [OC]: Earthling! Captain!
KIRK [on viewscreen]: Who is this, the Metron?
GORN [OC]: This is your opponent, Earthling. I have heard every word you have said.
KIRK [on viewscreen]: All right. What do you want?
GORN [on viewscreen]: I'm weary of the chase. Wait for me. I shall be merciful and quick.
KIRK [on viewscreen]: Like you were at Cestus Three?
GORN [OC]: You were intruding! You established an outpost in our space.
KIRK [on viewscreen]: You butchered helpless human beings
GORN [OC]: We destroyed invaders, as I shall destroy you!
MCCOY: Can that be true? Was Cestus Three an intrusion on their space?
SPOCK: It may well be possible, Doctor. We know very little about that section of the galaxy.
MCCOY: Then we could be in the wrong.
SPOCK: Perhaps. That is something best decided by diplomats.
MCCOY: The Gorn simply might have been trying to protect themselves.
SPOCK: Yes.
(They watch as Kirk returns to the bamboo clump and picks out a short, wide stem.)
SPOCK: Fascinating. Good. Good. (Kirk cuts vines to length against a rock) He knows, Doctor. He has reasoned it out.
(Potassium nitrate gets shoveled into the bamboo)
SPOCK: Yes. Yes.
MCCOY: What is it, Spock?
SPOCK; An invention, Doctor. First potassium nitrate, and now if he can find some sulphur and a charcoal deposit or ordinary coal.
(Kirk is at the outcrop of sharp diamonds, and putting them into the bamboo too.)
MCCOY: What's he doing?
SPOCK; Diamonds. The hardest known substance. Impelled by sufficient force, they would make formidable projectiles.
MCCOY: What force?
SPOCK: Recall your basic chemistry, Doctor. Gunpowder.
GORN [OC]: Captain, let us be reasonable.
GORN [on viewscreen]: You have lost. Admit it to yourself. Stop running.
(Now the sulphur goes into the cannon, and finally he finds a vein on coal.)
SPOCK; Coal.
(Now Kirk settles down to empty the bamboo, crush the coal, make a hole in the bamboo for a fuse and then mix his ingredients a little more precisely.)
MCCOY: Can he do it?
SPOCK: If he has the time, Doctor. If he has the time.
(The cannon is strengthened with the vine tied around it, and the gunpowder gets rammed home with a small branch. Finally the diamonds go in, and a piece of torn trouser will serve as a fuse, once he can raise a spark from a stone and the translating device. Fire is created as the Gorn approaches him from behind. Seeing the danger, he braces the cannon and fires it. The explosion blows the bamboo apart, and also incapacitates his opponent. Kirk picks up his fallen stone dagger and puts the point to the Gorn's windpipe, but cannot administer the coup de grace.)
KIRK: No. No, I won't kill you. Maybe you thought you were protecting yourself when you attacked the outpost.
(He throws the dagger away, stands up and shouts to the sky)
KIRK: No, I won't kill him! Do you hear? You'll have to get your entertainment someplace else!
(The Gorn disappears, and a young blond boy in a white shift appears instead.)
KIRK: You're a Metron?
METRON: Does my appearance surprise you, Captain?
KIRK: You seem more like a boy.
METRON: I am approximately fifteen hundred of your Earth years old. You surprise me, Captain.
KIRK: How?
METRON: By sparing your helpless enemy who surely would have destroyed you, you demonstrated the advanced trait of mercy, something we hardly expected. We feel there may be hope for your kind. Therefore, you will not be destroyed. It would not be civilised.
KIRK: What happened to the Gorn?
GORN: I sent him back to his ship. If you like, I shall destroy him for you.
KIRK: No. That won't be necessary. We can talk. Maybe reach an agreement.
METRON: Very good, Captain. There is hope for you. Perhaps in several thousand years, your people and mine shall meet to reach an agreement. You are still half savage, but there is hope. We will contact you when we are ready.

[Bridge]

(Kirk suddenly appears in front of the crew, who all leap to their feet.)
UHURA: Captain! Are you all right?
KIRK: I don't know. I don't know. All right, everybody. Back to your posts. Let's get out of here.
(He takes his seat.)
SULU: Captain.
KIRK: Mister Sulu.
SULU: It's impossible, but there's Sirius over there when it should be here. And Canopus. And Arcanis. We're. All of a sudden, we're clear across the galaxy, five hundred parsecs from where we are I mean, were. I mean
KIRK: Don't try and figure it out, Mister Sulu. Just plot a course for us back to Cestus Three.
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
(McCoy leaves)
SPOCK: After you touched off your primitive cannon, Captain, we lost the picture the Metron was sending us.
KIRK; You saw what happened down there?
SPOCK: Most of it. I would be interested in knowing what finally happened.
KIRK: We're a most promising species, Mister Spock, as predators go. Did you know that?
SPOCK: I've frequently had my doubts.
KIRK: I don't. Not anymore. And maybe in a thousand years or so, we'll be able to prove it. Never mind, Mister Spock. It doesn't make much sense to me either. Take us back to where we're supposed to be, Mister Sulu. Warp factor one.
SULU: Warp factor one.
SPOCK: A thousand years, Captain?
Well, that gives us a little time.