Star Trek: The Original Series: The Shocks of Adversity
Page 23
“It’s Chekov,” he corrected him, holding himself steady.
The guard shrugged, as if the distinction was unimportant, but then surprised Chekov by saying, “I hoped to find you here. I wanted to offer an apology to you.”
“You do?” Chekov asked in disbelief.
“You humans are strange, but you’re not as dangerous as Second Commander Satrav said you were. We should not have beaten you.”
Chekov’s hand subconsciously moved up to touch his nose, and he willed it to fall back to his side as he told the soldier, “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“And even though there was no one left alive on that transport,” the Rokean continued, “it was good that you saw that it wasn’t just an accident.” From the darkening of his expression, Chekov guessed that word was getting out about the Domain’s culpability for the loss of the transport. It had occurred to him earlier that, had he not found a reason for the 814 to divert from their original course, he could have spared himself a good deal of pain. Knowing his actions had helped to uncover an atrocity made him feel a little better about it.
The Rokean then gave Chekov a big, stubby-toothed smile, and squeezed both of his shoulders in his large hands. “You are a credit to your race, Chekov.”
“Thank you.” Chekov winced. “You too.”
* * *
With the press of a single button, the low steady thrum of the giant matter/antimatter reactor was joined by two higher alternating notes, creating a steady rhythm that, judging from the smile Scotty wore as he turned from the situation console, was music to his ears. “Isn’t that the most beautiful sound ye ever heard, sir?”
Kirk shared the engineer’s smile. “Definitely among the top three,” he agreed. The warp plasma relays had been restored and realigned, and the mellifluous sounds emitting from the engines confirmed this. “Anything else left outstanding, Scotty?”
“Only a few minor touch-up repairs,” he answered. “Considering the fact that the Nalaingers have never seen anything like the Enterprise before, they did a hell of a job. There are some things only we can do, but nothing that should prove any trouble.”
Kirk crossed his arms and tilted his head at the engineer. “If I’m hearing you right, Scotty . . . there’s really no reason for us to head straight back to Starbase 43. Is that right?”
Scotty’s smile slipped slightly, but he answered, “Aye.” Then the engineer shrugged his shoulders and added, “She’s spent enough time in dock; I suppose it’s high time she got back to doing what she was meant to do.”
Kirk gave the chief engineer a broad smile and clapped him on the shoulder. “Plan to get under way as soon as possible.”
“Ready anytime you are, sir.”
The captain headed to the closest turbolift, and minutes later, the doors opened onto the bridge. Stepping off, he saw the image on the main viewscreen of the repair station, along with the planet Nalaing slowly rotating behind it. “Why, Mister Spock,” Kirk said as he moved down into the command well, where his first officer was in conversation with Doctor McCoy. “I hadn’t realized that hanging upside down from their repair dock bothered you as much as it did me.”
Spock stood up from the command chair. “Even if I were capable of such a trivial emotional reaction, Captain,” he said, “there would have been nothing to prompt it since we were never upside down.”
“Funny,” McCoy interjected, “once we were clear of the station, you wasted no time in giving the order to reorient the ship to match the station.”
The first officer raised an eyebrow at him. “I was following standard procedure, Doctor.”
McCoy scoffed, and Kirk watched for any slight reaction from Spock. When he decided none was forthcoming, he broke eye contact and settled into his chair. “Mister Chekov, we should still be within twenty light-years of the Frattare 85 quasar?” That stellar phenomenon had been their next mission objective.
“Eighteen point three, to be precise,” Chekov answered. “Shall I lay in a course?”
Before Kirk could answer in the affirmative, Uhura interrupted. “Captain? I’m picking up a general hail from an incoming Domain vessel.”
The captain went into full alert mode, and he noticed like reactions from Sulu and Chekov, seated at their stations in front of him. “Let’s hear it, Lieutenant,” he told Uhura.
“Starvessel Class III/814, code 8-22 from Short-Range Enforcement Vessel Class I/7704. Codes 8-0, 7-87, and 7-89.”
Kirk recognized the voice of Fallag, and the call number of the vessel that had been docked in their hangar bay days earlier, but beyond that, he understood none of the rest of the message. “Uhura?” he asked, turning to the communications officer.
“He’s saying the 814 hasn’t reported back,” she translated, “and is asking for an explanation and status update.”
Spock stepped up to his station and reviewed his readouts. “Long-range sensors are showing four enforcement vessels, including Fallag’s ship, escorting a Goeg Domain Class I starvessel, approaching Nalaing at warp four. Estimated arrival in sixteen minutes, eleven seconds.”
“A Class I,” Kirk echoed. Those were the Goeg Domain Defense Corps’s largest and most powerful ships, he recalled. That the Domain was sending one to check up on the 814 was not good news.
“Jim . . .” McCoy said, recognizing the conflict now playing across his friend’s face. “We can’t stay here. These people aren’t our responsibility.” Kirk knew he was right, of course, but the idea of leaving now . . .
Kirk’s thoughts were interrupted by another, familiar voice. “This is Commander Laspas responding. The orders which had been issued to this vessel were both illegal and immoral. This officer and his crew have declined to follow.”
Kirk wanted to cheer out loud. The 814 had broken orbit a day earlier, without any notice to the Enterprise or to the authorities on Nalaing. He had regretted not knowing what decision the commander had come to. He was heartened to know that decision now.
“Laspas, code 9-109,” said a third unseen party.
“That was from the Class I vessel,” Uhura said. “They just demanded Laspas’s surrender.”
“This officer and his crew also decline to face a tribunal run by those who issued the illegal and immoral orders. This officer has evidence that his superiors have acted to intimidate our allies in the Urpire Curia, have violated the sovereign rights of an alien government, the United Federation of Planets—”
Fallag’s voice cut in, trying to drown out Laspas’s. “Code 9-109! Code 9-109!”
But the Goeg commander, refusing to be cowed, raised his own voice. “—and have committed numerous other crimes against citizens of the Goeg Domain. This evidence is currently being transmitted.”
“Code 8-59!” Fallag shouted, and the transmission from his ship cut off with an audible pop.
“Comm silence,” Chekov interpreted, turning around in his seat and flashing an amused smile. “They’re trying to shut him up.”
Kirk nodded. “Afraid to hear the truth.” He wondered if any of Laspas’s data transmission had gotten through before the code 8-59 was issued.
That unvoiced question was answered moments later, when Spock reported, “It appears that the Class I starvessel has dropped out of warp, beyond this system.”
“Engine problems?” Kirk inquired.
“Negative,” Spock said, lifting his face from his viewer. “They’ve just stopped.”
“I’ll be damned,” McCoy said. “He got through to them.”
Kirk shared the doctor’s incredulity. “Uhura, can you raise the 814?” The lieutenant acknowledged affirmatively, and a moment later, Laspas appeared on the main viewscreen, no longer wearing his Corps uniform. Behind him, Kirk saw N’Mi pacing the foredeck of the command center, issuing orders. “Laspas, that was quite a speech you gave,” Kirk told him. “It seems to have stopped your fellow starvessel commander dead in his tracks.”
“Yes, it would seem so,” Laspas said, the corners of
his mouth stretched as far back as they could go. “Though I think they were probably more shocked by my refusal of the 9-109. That’s the sort of thing that only happens in bad military fiction.”
Kirk returned the Goeg’s smile. “But it seems, at least, they are willing to listen to you.”
“Well, if they are,” Laspas said, “I’m willing to talk.”
“But if not,” N’Mi interjected, moving forward to the commander’s side, “we should avoid letting Nalaing become a target.”
“Yes.” Laspas nodded, and then turned to his crew and ordered, “Standby code 2-43.” He then turned back and said, “I suspect our paths will not cross again, James.”
“Never say never,” Kirk told him. “I wish you luck.”
Laspas dipped his head low and said, “Thank you, my friend. Windracer out.”
“Windracer?” McCoy repeated. “What’s Windracer?”
Kirk looked to McCoy and told him, with a glint of amusement in his eye, “Windracer, Doctor, is a good name for a starship. Chekov,” he then called to the navigator, “course laid in?”
“Laid in, sir,” the ensign answered.
“Then let’s be on our way.”
The Enterprise broke free of the station, and the planet fell away behind them.
“Godspeed, Kawhye,” Kirk offered quietly, as the Enterprise jumped to warp.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My thanks go out to the following:
To the folks at Pocket Books and CBS for giving me the opportunity to tell this story.
To the fans who create invaluable online resources, particularly those behind Memory Alpha (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/) and The Star Trek LCARS Blueprint Database (http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints-main2.php).
To the numerous local coffee shops where I camped out over the course of writing this book, for use of the space and for free refills.
To A.M., D.B., and M.R., for their friendship and encouragements.
To fellow Trek authors and friends Kevin Dilmore, David R. George III, Robert Greenberger, David Mack, and Dayton Ward for their camaraderie, and especially to Scott Pearson, for allowing me to occasionally be a terrible person.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM LEISNER began his professional writing career with three winning stories in the late, lamented Star Trek: Strange New Worlds competition. His Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Losing the Peace was chosen as one of the top media tie-in novels of 2009 by Unreality-SF.net and by SciFiChick.com. He has also written for the shared-world fantasy series ReDeus. His original fiction has appeared in Lissette’s Tales of Imagination and the 2013 anthology A Quiet Shelter There. He is currently at work on a historical fantasy novel set in the American West, and maybe a few other ideas. A native of Rochester, New York, he currently lives in Minneapolis.
We hope you enjoyed reading this Gallery Books eBook.
* * *
Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com
Pocket Books
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
™, ®, and © 2013 by CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This book is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., under exclusive license from CBS Studios Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Pocket Books paperback edition June 2013
POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
ISBN 978-1-4767-2240-5
ISBN 978-1-4767-2242-9 (ebook)
Cover design by Alan Dingman
Cover art by Michael Stetson