Intersection Point

The Enterprise collides with, apparently, nothing--in fact an intersection of dimensions. A crucial part is lost in the other dimension, and an engineering crewman is lost--driven insane--trying to retrieve it. Spock goes after it, on the theory that his mind will be more resilient, and he, too, is nearly lost. Happily, whatever creatures are on the other side of the intersection point push the missing component into Spock's arms and send him back through, and the Enterprise escapes further damage.

Notes

Quite a brief story. Not too bad, but not especially engaging, either. It doesn't meditate enough on the other dimension's strangeness to suit as a cosmic horror story, and there's not enough going on for an action or mystery or suspense story, nor enough focus on the characters for it to get by on that. It's no worse than the average SF short story, but also no better.

First appeared in T-Negative #10 (1971-04).

Scotty, upon being told Spock's theory that they have encountered an interdimensional intersection point, exclaims, "Y'mean like that world we stumbled into where everybody had a double?" Likely a reference to Visit to a Weird Planet.