Stunts Biography - Vince Deadrick

The Constellation's logs reveal that Decker had investigated the break up of a planet only to be attacked by some sort of alien device, a massive roughly conical spacecraft of immense power. The ship attacked but was crippled and Decker beamed his crew down to a habitable planet to save them, remaining behind as the last man aboard. Unfortunately the alien machine disabled the transporters and then attacked the planet, destroying it and the crew completely. Spock theorizes the device smashes planets into rubble which it then consumes to fuel itself, leaving a trail of utter destruction behind it as it moves through the galaxy. Back projection of its course shows that it probably originated from beyond our own galaxy, whilst it is shortly to arrive in one of the most densely populated regions where it will cause an unimaginable holocaust.

Kirk theorizes that the device is a weapon, a "doomsday machine" which was deliberately built to be so powerful that if it was ever used in a war it would destroy both sides completely - something like the old hydrogen bomb on Earth was intended to be. Probably intended to ensure that a war would not happen, in reality the doomsday machine was unleashed, annihilating both it's creators and their enemies and then continuing on its way to destroy everything else in it's path. The hull of the device is composed of neutronium, making it invulnerable to Federation weapons, whilst its own weapon is a pure antiproton beam which can penetrate Federation shielding systems with ease.

Kirk sends McCoy back to the Enterprise with Decker whilst he and Scotty remain on the Constellation with an engineering party to try and get the ship in condition to move. However the doomsday machine arrives, blocking communications via an interference effect. Decker comes to the Enterprise bridge and, as the ranking officer present, forces Spock to relinquish command of the ship to him. He proceeds to attack the doomsday device, determined to destroy it despite the fact that their weapons are completely ineffective.

The Enterprise is quickly damaged and caught in a tractor beam, dragged towards the machine's massive mouth. On the Constellation Kirk and Scotty manage to get a degree of maneuvering power and a phaser bank working, and attack the device to draw it away from the Enterprise. The two ships between them manage to beat a retreat, each luring it away from the other in turn.

Clear of the interference, Kirk calls the Enterprise and orders Spock to relieve Decker of command regardless of regulations. Spock complies, sending Decker to sickbay for a medical examination so that McCoy can determine whether he is officially fit for command or not. However on the way down Decker overpowers his escort and steals a shuttlecraft, escaping the ship. Desolate with guilt over his failures, he commits suicide by piloting the shuttle directly down the throat of the doomsday machine.

Sulu's sensors detect a tiny drop in power in the machine afterwards, and Kirk wonders if perhaps the explosion of the shuttle had caused some minor damage since it had bypassed the invulnerable hull by being swallowed up. He suggests repeating the trick with the Constellation itself, sending it directly into the machine and detonating the impulse engines within the device. Scotty rigs up a simple self destruct and beams back to the Enterprise as they fly the ship towards the machine - unfortunately the transporter malfunctions due to battle damage, leaving Kirk stranded. With the machine approaching Kirk calmly awaits his fate, and at the very last moment Scotty manages to beam him off the ship. The Constellation explodes inside the doomsday device, leaving it as an inert hulk.

Back on the ship, Kirk notes the irony that Earth nations once used the same kind of doomsday philosophy in an attempt to stave off war, using hydrogen bombs to threaten mass destruction - ironic because here they used a similar hydrogen explosion within the impulse engines to disable the doomsday machine. Kirk wonders if this may be the first time such a weapon has been used for constructive purpose.

Norman goes to the auxiliary control center, overpowering the personnel there and taking control of the ship to lock it onto a new course. He rapidly goes to the emergency manual monitor and engineering, effortlessly defeating multiple crewmembers and resetting the ship's systems to lock out any change in the course he has laid in. Finally he proceeds to the bridge where he points out that his alterations have connected the matter-antimatter pods to the main navigational bank with a trigger relay, meaning any attempt to change course will destroy the ship. He also opens a panel in his stomach, revealing that he is an android.

The ship spends four days at Warp 7 heading for an unexplored Class K planet. Norman remains dormant throughout, standing motionless on the bridge. On arrival he demands that Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura and Chekov to beam down, threatening to destroy the engines if they refuse. They beam to a facility on the surface where None other than Harry Mudd reveals himself to have been behind their kidnapping. Mudd declares that he is now Emperor Mudd the First, and that the crew of the Enterprise will remain on his planet for the rest of their lives and there is nothing they can do about it. Mudd is accompanied by multiple robots, many of them identical to one another. He reveals that after his last encounter with the Enterprise he managed to escape from prison and engaged in further petty crime, including reselling patents. He was caught on Deneb V and sentenced to death, but again managed to steal a ship and escape. After wandering for a while he chanced on this planet and explored it, finding the facility there along with androids running it. The facility is equipped with fantastically advanced technology, capable of building massive numbers of androids to any specification, along with almost anything else one could want. Mudd, of course, stocked the place almost entirely with hundreds of female androids.

Although it seemed like a paradise at first, Mudd soon grew bored with the planet. He decided to leave, but the androids are so determined to serve him that they refuse to allow him to leave the planet. Mudd eventually told the androids about the Enterprise and asked them to capture the crew so they would have other Humans to serve, and so allow him to leave. He tries to convince Kirk that it won't be so bad, demonstrating some of the pleasant aspects of the place - including an android replica of his own wife who nags him specifically so that he can have the pleasure of yelling at her to shut up. The androids reveal that they were built by a species from the Andromeda galaxy which is now long gone.

Spock conjectures that the androids do not operate independently, but must function via some kind of control control system which guides them all. He tries to quiz them on the subject but they politely decline to answer his queries.

The androids begin trying to tempt the officers to remain. They tell Uhura that an android body will last for some half a million years. Since a human brain can be installed in one, this would give the person almost perpetual youth and beauty. Chekov finds himself enjoying the prospect of being surrounded by beautiful female androids, whilst Scotty is intrigued by their incredibly advanced engineering technology. Meanwhile the androids have forcibly removed the crew from the Enterprise, putting an android crew aboard to run the ship. There seems to be no way to stop them.

Kirk is increasingly annoyed by the situation, and when an Alice series android promises him that they will do anything to make him happy he states that he cannot be happy without his ship. Alice seems confused by this and asks Norman to "coordinate" a response, before leaving.

Mudd prepares to depart, but the androids refuse to let him leave despite their earlier deal. They reveal that they plan to export vast numbers of androids to all Human worlds, giving them the same life of complete luxury as exists on their planet - along with the same lack of freedom.

Spock notes that there are hundreds of each model of android on the planet, with the exception of Norman. There is only a single Norman as far as anybody knows. This, combined with the way the Alice asked Norman to coordinate a response when she was confused, makes Spock speculate that Norman may be the control system he spoke of earlier. Since illogic seemed to confuse the Alice, they wonder if they might not be able to overload Norman's ability to command the androids if enough strange and inexplicable behaviour is presented to the androids.

Reasoning that the androids will expect an escape attempt the crew stage a mock one, with Uhura turning traitor and telling the Androids about it so that they can foil the plan. Now hoping to have them at their ease, the crew begin their real campaign. They each challenge the androids with surreal behaviour, spreading confusion and illogic amongst them. Spock informs two of the Alice series that although he loves one of them, he hates the other - stating that he responds to them so differently because they are identical to one another. The illogic of the statement causes both androids to shut down.

The crew begin to target Norman directly, making him more and more confused until Kirk finally informs him that Harry Mudd is a liar, and everything he says is a lie. Harry then informs Norman that he is indeed lying - prompting Norman to realise that if that is a lie then Mudd must be telling the truth, but that if he is telling the truth then he must be lying. Finally overwhelmed, Norman shuts down and all of the other androids shut down with him.

With the crew back aboard the ship and control restored, Kirk decides what to do with Mudd. He will be left on the planet, stranded with the androids to look after him. Mudd is pleased that his imprisonment will at least be pleasant - until he finds that Kirk has had at least 500 copies of his nagging wife constructed, all of them designed so that they will ignore any order to shut up. Harry is thus left to indefinite imprisonment under the eternal nagging of the woman he most hates.