The Galactic Whirlpool — David Gerrold

FROM THE LOG OF CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER LEONARD McCOY

The young woman brought back aboard the Enterprise by Lieutenant Reilly's contact team is responding well to treatment: physically, there's no question she's going to be fine. I'm more worried about the culture shock, the mental strain imposed by the sudden discovery that the world she's grown up thinking of as the be-all and end-all of the universe is nothing more than a spaceship -a ship we need her help to gain control of before it and her entire world are destroyed. So far, her response has been to regard everything that's happened as a "demon trick": this could be masking some deeper strain, but we don't have the time right now for a gradual indoctrination. The captain has to convince her--and soon--that the crew of the Enterprise is not composed of "demons" -- And he'd better do it before she gets a good look at Spock...