- Capt. Kirk: [surprised to see Spock alive after an attack by a non-corporeal entity] Don't misunderstand my next question. Mr. Spock - why aren't you dead?
- Nurse Chapel: Hi. Everyone else is at alert station, so I brought you some dinner.
- Ensign Garrovick: I'm not hungry.
- Nurse Chapel: Doctor's orders.
- Ensign Garrovick: [confined to his quarters] What's happening?
- Nurse Chapel: Are we still chasing that thing halfway across the galaxy? Yes. Has the captain lost his sense of balance? Maybe. Is the entire crew about ready to explode? Positively. You're lucky you're out of it.
- Ensign Garrovick: What do mean "out of it?" I caused it. You know that, too, don't you? If I'd fired my phaser quickly enough on Argus 10, this wouldn't have happened.
- Nurse Chapel: Your self-pity's a terrible first course. Why don't you try the soup instead?
- Ensign Garrovick: I told you, Christine, I'm not hungry.
- Nurse Chapel: Dr. McCoy thought you might say something like that. This is his officially logged prescription for you. It has one word on it: eat. Now, if you don't follow his orders, Dr. McCoy could and possibly would have you hauled down to Sickbay and fed intravenously.
- Capt. Kirk: Report.
- Scott: When it entered impulse engine number two's vent, it attacked two crewmen then got into the ventilating system, and now we have air for only two hours.
- Capt. Kirk: Bones?
- Dr. McCoy: One man has a chance for survival; the other is dead. You can add that little price tag to your monster hunt.
- Capt. Kirk: That's enough, Bones.
- Dr. McCoy: It's NOT enough! You didn't care what happened as long as you could hang your trophy on the wall. Well, it's not on it, Captain, it's in it!
- Mr. Spock: Gentlemen, may I suggest we no longer belabor the question of whether or not we should have gone after the creature. The matter has been rendered academic. The creature is now after us.
- Mr. Spock: To hide from a sensor scan, it would have to be able to change its molecular structure, like gold changing itself to lead or wood changing itself to ivory.
- Capt. Kirk: You've just suggested something that never occurred to me.
- Capt. Kirk: I'm aware of the situation, engineer, and I'm getting a little tired of my senior officers conspiring against me. Forgive me. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "conspire."
- Scott: Agreed, sir.
- Capt. Kirk: Do I take it, Doctor, Commander, that both of you or either of you consider me unfit or incapacitated?
- Mr. Spock: Correctly phrased, Captain, as recommended in the manual; our reply, also as recommended, is: "Sir, we have noted in your recent behavior certain items which, on the surface, seem unusual. We respectfully ask permission to inquire further and..."
- Capt. Kirk: Blast it! Forget the manual! Ask your questions.
- Ensign Garrovick: He saved my life, captain; I should be lying dead in there, not him.
- Spock: Fortunately, neither of us is dead, ensign; the reverse pressure worked, the vent is closed.
- Capt. Kirk: Don't misunderstand my, uh, next question, Mr. Spock. Why aren't you dead?
- Dr. McCoy: It's that green blood of his.
- Spock: My hemoglobin is based on copper, not iron.
- Dr. McCoy: I'll bet he left a bad taste in the creature's mouth, too.
- Spock: Colloquially expressed... but essentially correct.
- Capt. Kirk: Yes...
- [sniffs the air]
- Capt. Kirk: ... the scent is different. I think I understand something, now.
- Spock: Do you believe you're in communication with the creature, captain?
- Capt. Kirk: I don't know what it is, Mr. Spock, but you remember... I said... the thing was alive. It may not be communication as we know it, but I did know it was alive and intelligent, and I think I know something else, now.
- Dr. McCoy: What's that?
- Nurse Chapel: Hmm? This?
- Dr. McCoy: A survey on Cyngian respiratory diseases? I thought you took Garrovick some food. What were you doing with this?
- Nurse Chapel: [shrugs, smiles] Applying psychology.
- Dr. McCoy: To be so obsessed...
- Capt. Kirk: [angrily] Obsessed?
- Dr. McCoy: That you could destroy yourself, uh... your career... a young boy who reminds you of yourself eleven years ago!
- Nurse Chapel: Your self-pity's a terrible first course. Why don't you try the soup instead?
- Ensign Garrovick: I told you, Christine, I'm not hungry.
- Nurse Chapel: Dr. McCoy thought you might say something like that. This is his officially logged prescription for you. It has one word on it: eat. Now if you don't follow his orders, Dr. McCoy could and possibly would have you hauled down to Sickbay and fed intravenously.
- Mr. Spock: I hope I'm not disturbing you, doctor.
- Dr. McCoy: Interrupting another autopsy report is no disturbance, Mr. Spock, it's a relief.
- Mr. Spock: I need your advice.
- Dr. McCoy: Then, I need a drink.
- Mr. Spock: I do not understand your reasoning.
- Dr. McCoy: You need advice from me? You must be kidding.
- Mr. Spock: I do not joke, doctor. Perhaps I should rephrase my statement. I require an opinion. There are many aspects of human irrationality I do not yet comprehend. Obsession, for one: the persistent, single-minded fixation on one idea.
- Dr. McCoy: Jim and his creature?
- Mr. Spock: Precisely, have you studied the incident involving the U.S.S Farragut?
- Dr. McCoy: No, with all these deaths and injuries I've only had a chance to scan the tapes. There are 8 or 10 hours of record tapes there.
- Mr. Spock: [They're standing before a big lump of rock on some planet's surface] Our scanner survey was correct, Captain. There it is: pure tritantium.
- Capt. Kirk: Fantastic. Twenty times as hard as diamonds.
- Mr. Spock: Twenty-one point four times, to be exact, Captain.
- Spock: It has changed course before to mislead us, Captain. Logic would dictate...
- Capt. Kirk: [interrupting] No, I'm playing intuition.
- Capt. Kirk: [to Garrovick] Consider yourself on report. This is no time for heroics. I have no intention of sacrificing myself, at least not yet.
- Mr. Spock: You think you know what it was, Captain?
- Capt. Kirk: Something that can't possibly exist, but it does.
- Capt. Kirk: Did you smell it?
- Rizzo: Yes. Yes. A... a smell. A strange smell. It was like... it was like... like being smothered in honey.
- Mr. Spock: There are many aspects of human irrationality I do not yet comprehend. Obsession, for one - the persistent, single-minded fixation on one idea.
- Spock: Do you know what it is, Captain?
- Capt. Kirk: [referring to the lethal gaseous entity] Something that can't possibly exist... but it does.
- [looks on to dead crewmen sprawled on the ground]
- Capt. Kirk: [they're discussing Kirk's encounter, 11 years ago, with the same entity that's now threatening them] If I hadn't delayed... it would've been killed.
- Dr. McCoy: Well, the ship's Exec. didn't seem to think so. His log entry was quite clear on the subject: "Lt. Kirk is a fine young officer who performed with uncommon bravery."
- Capt. Kirk: [angrily] Don't you understand? It killed 200 crewmen!
- Dr. McCoy: Captain Garrovick was very important to you, wasn't he, Jim?
- Capt. Kirk: Yes. He was my commanding officer from the day I left the Academy. One of the finest men I ever knew.
- Capt. Kirk: What if it is the same creature that attacked 11 years ago, from a planet over a thousand light years from here?
- Mr. Spock: Obviously, Captain, if it is an intelligent creature, if it is the same one, if it is therefore capable of space travel, it could pose a grave threat to inhabited planets.
- Capt. Kirk: A lot of "ifs," I agree. But in my command judgment, they outweigh other factors. Intuition - however illogical, Mr. Spock - is recognized as a command prerogative.
- Capt. Kirk: [as the "Enterprise" is chasing the gaseous entity, now visible in front of them on the forward monitor] Spock... How do you read that?
- Mr. Spock: Conflicting data, Captain. It seems to be in a borderline state between matter and energy - elements of both. It could possibly use gravitational fields for propulsion.
- Capt. Kirk: And you don't find that sophisticated, Mr. Spock?
- Mr. Spock: Extremely efficient, Captain. Whether that indicates intelligence is another matter.
- Mr. Spock: Gentlemen, may I suggest we no longer belabor the question of whether or not we should've gone after the creature. The matter has been rendered academic. The creature is now after us.
- Dr. McCoy: [slightly incredulous] "Creature," Mr. Spock?
- Mr. Spock: It turned, and attacked, Doctor. Its method was well-considered... and intelligent.
- Mr. Spock: Captain, the creature's ability to throw itself out of time sync makes it possible for it to be elsewhere the instant the phaser hits. There is therefore no basis for your self-recrimination. If you had fired - on time, and on target, 11 years ago - it would've made no more difference than it did an hour ago. Captain Garrovick would still be dead. The fault was not yours, Jim. In fact... there *was* no fault.
- Capt. Kirk: If you want to play analyst, Spock, use someone else, not me. My concern is with the ship, and the crew.
- Capt. Kirk: Don't misunderstand my next question. Mr. Spock - why aren't you dead?
- Dr. McCoy: It's that green blood of his.
- Spock: My hemoglobin is based on copper, not iron.
- Dr. McCoy: I'll bet he left a bad taste in the creature's mouth, too.
- Spock: Colloquially expressed - but essentially correct.
- Capt. Kirk: Scotty, try flushing the radioactive waste into the ventilation system.
- Scott: [after a moment] Aye.