- Capt. Kirk obsessively hunts for a mysterious cloud creature he encountered in his youth.
- Captain Kirk is haunted by a creature from his past when conducting a mining survey on a planet. He first encountered it as a lieutenant aboard the U.S.S. Farragut and blames himself for freezing in a moment of crisis, causing the death of many crewmen. The creature is a cloud-like, gaseous being that lives on the red blood cells found in humans. Obsessed by his desire for revenge and to erase the memory of 11 years ago, he pursues the creature relentlessly, putting in jeopardy an assignment to collect essential medical supplies.—garykmcd
- Kirk is obsessed with a mistake he made many years earlier which was not his fault. When he was a young ensign, he hesitated while firing at dangerous cloud creature, and he feels his hesitation cost 200 men their lives on board the USS Farragut..
Now the cloud creature is back in the Universe, and one of the Enterpise's young Ensigns is named Garrovick (Stephen Brooks), the son of Kirk's former captain on that fateful day. Kirk was leading a team to search for new mineral deposits. And when Kirk & Ensign Rizzo (Jerry Ayres) beams down with some red-shirts, the cloud creature appears. Kirk had smelled the appearance of the cloud creature and had asked his men to set their phasers on a high setting. Rizzo hesitates to shoot when the cloud reappears, and 2 of the men are killed. Now Rizzo is in sickbay and dies due to lack of blood. The cloud attack drains every red blood cell of the victim. The cloud creature is characterized by the sweet smell of honey. Kirk thinks it is composed to Dikironium.
Kirk's obsession is insane. He must kill this creature, in his mind, even at the expense of lives. Enterprise is carrying a load of vaccines for planet Theta VII and the vaccines are perishable. But Kirk refuses to leave orbit until the cloud creature is neutralized. In a way he is right, because the creature is on a course for Earth, but Kirk does not think rationally when it comes to this creature.
Kirk takes Garrovick and 4 more men to the surface. They split into 2 teams. The cloud re-appears and Garrovick hesitates to fire, causing the death of 2 men. Garrovick is eating himself alive because of his own hesitation. Kirk refuses to leave orbit despite all his officers imploring him to. Then the cloud creature leaves the planet and Kirk pursues it at warp 8 speeds, despite objections from Scott. Kirk is forced to reduce speed as engines overheat. The cloud is much further ahead of the Enterprise. But it slows down and Kirk attacks it with phasers. The attack fails as the cloud engulfs the Enterprise and enters the ship through the vents of the impulse engines. It enters the ventilation system, which SCott has to shut down to contain the creature. But Now Enterprise has only 2 hrs of air left. Spock now agrees with Kirk that the creature is intelligent since it turned back and attacked the ship. Kirk floods the ventilation system with radioactive waste, which seems to work against the creature, who exits the Enterprise and shoots forward at Warp speed. Kirk also talks to Garrovick and assures him that his delay to shoot would not have made any difference and he should not blame himself.
Kirk figures that the creature is heading home (the location of its first attack on the Farragut) to spawn. Kirk pursues it. Kirk and Garrovick have a plan to destroy the creature by baiting a trap with blood (the creature eats red blood cells) and setting off an anti-matter bomb on the surface of the planet. But the chance is that the person setting the bait may not be able to return to the Enterprise.
Kirk and Garrovick beam down to bait the trap, but within seconds the blood is gone (while the guys set up the bomb, the creature swoops in and drains the blood from the bottle). Garrovick decides to bait the trap with his own body, and the blood inside. He and Kirk fight to be the bait, but Kirk is not thinking of suicide, he plans to beam them out at the last second. The plan works, and the creature is destroyed.
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