Trapped forever with a raging madman at your throat until time itself came to a stop.
LAZARUS:
It's done, it's done!
Finished, finished.
It's done. It's done.
It's done, it's done.
KIRK:
Lazarus.
LAZARUS:
Done. No!
Don't! Not you!
(Kirk leans into the saucer - and vanishes.)
LAZARUS:
No!
(Kirk goes into that negative space and finds that there is nowhere to run to. Then suddenly he's on the ground on the planet again. Or is he? He walks over to the saucer and is greeted by uninjured Lazarus -- QWA-Lazarus.)
QWA-LAZARUS :
Welcome, Captain.
I wasn't expecting you.
KIRK:
No, Him.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Yes, Him. You understand.
KIRK:
Not completely.
This is a parallel universe?
QWA-LAZARUS :
Of course.
KIRK:
Antimatter?
QWA-LAZARUS :
Here, yes.
KIRK:
And if identical particles meet —
QWA-LAZARUS :
The End of Everything.
Civilisation, Existence, all gone.
I tried to stop him, Captain.
That's why I took your dilithium crystals.
KIRK:
He has two more.
QWA-LAZARUS :
That's very bad, Captain.
If he comes through at a time of his own choosing.
But I think if we hurry and you will help me, he can yet still be stopped.
There's little time left.
He meant to come through.
When you accidentally passed through, it drained his crystals.
It'll take him about ten minutes to re-energise with the equipment aboard his ship.
That should give us enough time.
KIRK:
Exactly what did I pass through?
QWA-LAZARUS :
That's hard to explain, Captain.
I call it an alternative warp.
It's sort of a negative-magnetic corridor
where the two parallel universes meet.
It's sort of a safety valve.
It keeps eternity from blowing up.
KIRK:
This corridor, is it what caused the magnetic effect,
the winking out phenomenon?
QWA-LAZARUS :
Precisely, Captain, but not because of its existence.
Because, because my foe entered.
The corridor is like a prison,
with explosives at the door.
Open the door,
and the explosives might go off.
Stay inside --
KIRK:
And The Universe is safe.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Both universes, Captain.
Yours and mine.
KIRK:
Surely Lazarus must realise what would happen if you should meet face to face outside the corridor.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Of course he knows, Captain, but he's mad.
You heard him. He's lost his mind.
When our people found a way to slip through the warp and prove another universe, an identical one, existed, it was too much for him.
He could not live knowing that I lived.
He became obsessed with the idea of destroying me.
The fact that it meant his own destruction, and everything else, meant nothing to him.
KIRK:
So you're the terrible thing,
the murdering monster. The creature.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Yes, Captain. Or he is.
It depends on your point of view, doesn't it?
It's ready, Captain.
If we can force him into the corridor while I'm waiting for him, we can put an end to this.
But if he comes through at a time of his own choosing and breaks into this universe to find me —
KIRK:
I understand.
What do you want me to do?
QWA-LAZARUS :
Find him. Force him through his threshold,
while I'm waiting for him, into the corridor,
and I'll hold him there.
KIRK:
You can't hold him forever.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Can't I, Captain?
You destroy his ship.
KIRK:
If I destroy his ship,
won't yours also be destroyed?
QWA-LAZARUS :
It will.
KIRK:
And your door will be closed.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Yes, and so will his.
KIRK:
You'll be trapped inside that corridor with him forever.
At each other's throats throughout time.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Is it such a large price to pay
for the safety of two universes?
KIRK:
I'm ready.
QWA-LAZARUS :
Send him to me. I'll be waiting.
(Lazarus activates his crystals manually, and Kirk vanishes, then reappears on 'our' planet and gestures to Spock who has come down with two guards.)
SPOCK:
Lazarus.
(Kirk jumps him while he is distracted and knocks him down.)
KIRK:
Stand back.
(But Lazarus has him in a bear hug, and they struggle together for a while until Kirk finally gets the upper-hand again.)
LAZARUS:
No! No! No, I'm not ready! I'm not ready!
(Kirk throws him through the threshold.)
SPOCK:
Take these crystals to the Enterprise.
KIRK:
I must destroy that ship completely.
SPOCK:
What of Lazarus?
KIRK:
And what of Lazarus?
[Bridge]
KIRK:
Activate phaser banks.
LESLEY:
Phaser banks activated.
KIRK:
Stand by to fire.
(The bright dot appears on the planet surface.)
LESLEY:
Phasers standing by, sir.
KIRK:
Fire phasers.
(A sustained burst hits the little saucer, while the two Lazarus' wrestle in non-space. Finally it disappears.)
KIRK:
All right, Mister Lesley, let's get out of here.
Ahead warp factor one.
LESLEY:
Warp one, sir.
KIRK:
Everything's all right, Mister Spock, for us.
SPOCK:
There is, of course, no escape for them, sir.
KIRK:
There is, of course, no escape. How would it be?
Trapped forever with a raging madman at your throat until time itself came to a stop?
For Eternity.
How would it be?
SPOCK:
Captain, The Universe is safe.
KIRK:
For you and me.
But what of Lazarus?
What of Lazarus?
