by Kevin Ryan
“The targ is an animal from the Klingon homeworld,” West said. “It is a pet as well as a source of food. And wild targs are hunted. Apparently, when targs attack, they charge and nothing except death or incapacitation can deter them from reaching the object of their charge.”
“The Federation,” Kirk supplied.
“Exactly,” Justman said. “We think the Klingon Empire is absolutely committed now. They have recalled their ambassador and have outright refused to engage in talks of any kind. And what our sensors are seeing looks less and less like war games and more and more like a mobilization of the Klingon fleet. We thought we had more time, and we thought you had bought us some in System 7348 when you prevented them from recovering the bulk of the starship-grade dilithium they clearly need.”
Justman paused for a moment before continuing. The silence in the room weighed heavily on all of them.
[39] “And, Captain, the real problem is that we have run the simulations over and over and have come up with the same result: If they attack tomorrow, we will not be ready.”
“Simulations can only show what they have been programmed to show,” Kirk said. A simulation could never have predicted what Justman had accomplished at the early stages of the Battle of Donatu V.
Justman nodded. “I know that, but I don’t want to bet the future of the Federation on miracles.”
“What can the Enterprise do to help, sir?” Kirk asked after another long moment of silence.
“I’m going to set up a remote command post,” Justman said. “On Starbase 43.”
“Isn’t that base decommissioned?” Kirk asked, shocked at even the mention of Starbase 42. The last time he’d been there it was old and falling apart, and that had been years ago. It orbited an agricultural planet of some sort with little interest to either Starfleet or the Klingons as far as Kirk knew.
“It was going to be until now,” Justman said. “The place was scheduled to be turned over to the civilian population of the planet next month to be used as some science research station. Now it’s going to be my new command post. And, Captain, we might very well have to begin and conduct the first actions of the war with the Klingons from right there.”
“Why Starbase 42?” Kirk asked.
“All that in a minute,” Admiral Justman said. “But first we need to be headed there, at best possible speed.”
“Sir?” Kirk said. “The Enterprise took some heavy [40] damage. Starbase 42 may not even be equipped to handle the kind of repairs we’re going to need.”
“It’s going to have to do,” Justman said. “We don’t have the time or the luxury to wait on repairs.”
Kirk punched the communications panel. “Kirk to bridge.”
“Go ahead, Captain,” Mr. Spock said.
“Set a course for Starbase 42 at best possible speed.”
“May I remind you, Captain, that Starbase 42 does not have the working capability to make repairs to a starship.”
“Yes, Mr. Spock,” Kirk said. “Just set course and get us there.”
“Understood, Captain,” Spock said, and cut the connection.
“Okay, Captain,” Admiral Justman said. “The explanation.”
“Wait just a moment, Admiral,” Kirk said, holding up his hand and pointing at the communications unit. Kirk sat back, smiling at the puzzled frown of the admiral.
Five, Kirk thought, giving the admiral a tight smile. Four, three, two, one. Now.
“Scott to Captain Kirk.”
As expected and right on schedule.
“Kirk here.”
“Captain—”
“Yes, I know, Scotty,” Kirk said, cutting off his engineer. “But we’re going to have to make do with the facilities on Starbase 42. At the moment we have no choice.”
[41] “We may as well be using stone hammers for all the good that place is goin’ to be.”
“I know, Mr. Scott,” Kirk said. “You’re going to have to find a way. I want the Enterprise back to full capability as soon as you can get her there.”
“I don’t have enough rubber bands and tape to be doin’ that, sir.”
“There’s one more thing,” Kirk said. “I also need you to get us some more speed. We need to get to the starbase immediately.”
“That I can do, Captain,” Scotty said.
Kirk was surprised to hear it.
“If,” the chief engineer said, “I can cannibalize some parts and equipment from the high-speed shuttle in the hangar bay.”
Kirk shot the admiral a look. Justman nodded.
“Take whatever you need, Mr. Scott,” Kirk said. “Kirk out.”
“You know your crew, Captain,” Justman said, smiling.
“I do,” Kirk said. “And if there’s anyone who can repair a starship without a decent starbase to work with, it’s Montgomery Scott. He just had to make sure I heard his complaint first.”
Justman laughed. “I don’t blame him.”
“Neither do I,” Kirk said. “But he’s going to push himself and his people harder than you would think possible to make it happen. So tell me why all of Mr. Scott’s work is necessary.”
“A number of reasons,” Admiral Justman said. “First off, the planet that Starbase 42 orbits has become more than just an agricultural center.”
[42] “It’s close to the Klingon border,” Kirk said. “Is that part of it?”
“Very much so,” Justman said. “A geological survey turned up starship-grade dilithium crystals there.”
“You’re kidding,” Kirk said, again shocked.
“I wish I were,” Justman said. “We need those crystals for the Federation’s defense plans, but more importantly, they can’t fall into the hands of the Klingons.”
Kirk nodded, slowly starting to understand. “You think that because the Klingons lost a significant supply of their own crystals, they might try to raid the Federation mine?”
“If they discover it’s there, I’m sure they will,” Justman said.
“And considering the security leaks you mentioned,” Kirk said.
“They are going to try, soon, we think.” Justman said. “Just a few months ago. this wouldn’t have been a question. The knowledge of the crystals near Starbase 42 has been kept very quiet. But even the best secrets of Starfleet have been lately turning up in the Klingon Empire.”
“So the Enterprise is going to protect the mine?” Kirk said.
“Exactly,” Justman said. “And for the moment the diplomats are out of the equation. This is Starfleet’s situation now.”
Kirk nodded.
“Until this crisis passes and we get control of our own information again, I’m going to set up a command post on Starbase 42 with the Enterprise there as our only [43] defense. In the very near future, Captain Kirk, I will have to ask you to be a soldier and not a diplomat or an explorer.”
“I understand, Admiral,” Kirk said. “The Enterprise and I will both be ready.”
“If I didn’t have complete faith in that fact,” Justman said, smiling, “I wouldn’t be here.”
Chapter Three
KAREL WAS SURPRISED to see Captain Koloth when he left his room to report for bridge duty.
“Bridge Officer Karel,” Koloth said, “Walk with me.” And the two Klingons began heading for the bridge.
In Karel’s experience, it was unheard of for a commanding officer to seek out a subordinate in his quarters. Most commanders summoned officers to them to point up the superiority of their position.
But Koloth was not most commanders. In fact, he was like no commander that Karel had ever seen. As captain, he did not waste time on games designed to keep his officers loyal to him or at least to make sure they feared him.
Koloth valued efficiency, expediency, and honor.
He was certainly nothing like the brute, Gash, who had been Karel’s commanding officer in the port disruptor room—before Karel had challenged Gash’s [45] leadership and taken both the Klingon’s position and his right eye in single combat.
Gash had cared more about protecting his position than making certain that the weapons room was always ready to crush the Empire’s enemies.
Koloth completely lacked the scheming and duplicity that Karel had found so unpleasant in former Second Officer Klak, who had made Karel one of his personal bridge guards. When Karel murdered Captain Kran and took over the ship, he had made Karel complicit in the crime.
After that moment, Karel had known it was just a matter of time before Koloth challenged Klak. As Klak’s personal guard, Karel had not been able to intervene on Koloth’s behalf. Yet he had been able to make sure that Klak’s second guard did not assist the honorless Klingon. Thus, Koloth had beaten Klak in single and honorable combat, taking the Klingon’s life and control of the ship.
Koloth had also made Karel senior bridge weapons officer, and while Karel had resisted the honor because he did not feel ready, Koloth had insisted. He had pointed out that there was no more qualified weapons officer on the ship, and Karel had been forced to agree.
“I have some news for you,” Koloth said.
Karel was immediately interested. His blood began to warm with hope.
“We have a mission that will interest you,” Koloth continued. “We will be taking the D’k tahg into Federation space.”
“Will this be another mission of stealth?” Karel asked, making no attempt to hide his distaste. For his only mission as captain, Klak had taken the D’k tahg [46] into Federation space and had spent all his time and energy running and then hiding from a Starfleet ship, the Enterprise.
In fact, Klak had nearly destroyed the D’k tahg in his efforts to run from the Enterprise,
The experience still made Karel shudder at Klak’s cowardice. If he had not been honor-bound to protect the bloodless Klingon, he might have challenged Klak himself.
“No stealth and no hiding,” Koloth said, “We have to go to a Federation starbase, overpower it, and take the dilithium crystals it is guarding.”
“A starbase will be a worthy challenge for the D’k tahg and its crew” Karel said.
For the first time since Karel had known him, Captain Koloth seemed uncomfortable. “High Command has informed me that Klingon operatives on the station will arrange to incapacitate it before we arrive.” Koloth seemed as disappointed as Karel felt.
“Yet,” Koloth offered. “Perhaps the humans will surprise us before they fall. Remember, no enemy is boring,” Koloth said, quoting Kahless. The captain was the only Klingon Karel had known outside of his family and a few close friends at home who knew Kahless’s teachings so well.
“And there is one more thing,” Koloth added. “The starbase will have a starship in drydock undergoing repairs. It is the Enterprise. Apparently, it survived its last encounter with the D’k tahg.”
That surprised Karel, because Koloth has struck the Earther ship what had seemed like a death blow.
[47] “It will not survive its next encounter,” Karel said, his blood burning for him to get to his weapons station on the bridge.
“However, High Command does not want us to destroy the ship or the starbase. We are to just take the crystals and go. They do not think the Earthers will want to go to war immediately over the incident.”
Koloth must have read the outrage in Karel’s face. He said, “However, I believe that those who pass up a victory invite a defeat. I will allow no victory to pass.”
“The High Command?” Karel asked.
“They may lack the strength of blood to seek them, but they do not question two such great victories as the destruction of one of Starfleet’s twelve prized starships, or one of its bases.”
In that moment, Karel knew that he had found a leader he would follow all the way to the River of Blood.
“You will have your vengeance against the Earthers,” Koloth said. “But do not seek revenge unless you are prepared to dig more than one grave. One for the object of your vengeance.”
“And many more for those who would stand in my way,” Karel said, finishing the piece of Klingon wisdom.
“Let this be our first great victory together,” Koloth said as they entered the bridge.
Karel went immediately to his weapons console, relieving the junior Klingon who was there.
“Navigator, set course for Federation Starbase 42,” Koloth said.
The bridge officers reacted with surprise, then grunts of pleasure.
[48] “Course plotted,” the navigator replied.
“Helm, emergency speed,” Koloth said.
“Done,” came the immediate reply, and Karel could feel the slight tremor in the deck as the ship diverted power for high warp acceleration.
“Many Earthers will die today,” Koloth said.
Karel thought the bridge crew might shout their pleasure. If they did, he knew his voice would be the loudest.
Koloth stood, staring at the viewscreen.
He was the first captain that Karel had known who had refused to use personal guards on the bridge. It showed that Koloth welcomed worthy challenges, but Karel knew that not a single Klingon on the bridge wished to do anything else at that moment than follow their new leader into battle.
Lieutenant West used his bed like a chair in the quarters he had been assigned on the Enterprise. The single room was larger than he would have expected, and he had it to himself, another surprise. It showed that Captain Kirk had great respect for the admiral.
That was something that West understood.
He looked around the quarters, memorizing every detail.
Just a few weeks ago, his greatest dream had been to serve on a starship. It was an honor reserved for just over five thousand active officers spread out over twelve ships.
As a cadet, he had believed that he could use his xenoanthropology studies to promote real understanding of other races and cultures, to make the Federation stronger and safer.
[49] He had wanted to make the kind of warfare that Starfleet had known in the past obsolete, a relic of a different age—a relic of his father’s age.
But he had seen too much in too short a time to believe peace would be that easy. Now he felt he understood Klingons as well as he might ever understand them. Yet that understanding brought him no hope.
He had watched Admiral Justman work, and had worked alongside him. He had seen Starfleet’s top admirals doing their best, making vital, life-and-death decisions with little or no information.
It was what his father had done at the Battle of Axanar and other places.
As a cadet, West had done nothing but scorn the efforts of his father and men like him. West had been convinced that had he been in their position, he would have done better, somehow avoided the conflicts that they fought at great price and won.
Lieutenant West found that he had a great deal to say to his father, things that he could never say at their last meeting, when their voices had been raised.
For the first time, West wondered if he would ever be able to say them. There was a communications blackout for nonessential communication. And darkness was falling over the Federation.
West was convinced that he might live to see its last days.
He also had a bad feeling about this mission. He and the admiral had not discussed it, but he sensed that Justman had the same feeling.
If he had been able to somehow wrangle a short visit [50] to a starship, he would have spent the entire time exploring every crevice of the ship. Now his mind was on perhaps the most important work he ever had done, or ever might do.
He had to use all of his training, study, and ability to find a solution to the Klingon problem. And now the problem was not how to make peace with them, but how to wage a terrible war and win it.
After the suicide assassination attempt against the admiral, West had time in the hospital and on the shuttle flight out here to think about a lot of things. He was becoming more and more convinced that only a full-scale war with the Klingons would settle anything.
And at the moment, he doubted Starfleet and the
Federation would win that war. So the war had to be delayed while Starfleet got ready.
He knew he should be getting some rest, but his racing mind would not quiet.
He called up the layout of Starbase 42 on his data padd and the list of equipment still left there. It wasn’t much. The place had been slowly taken apart and was about to be given away to the locals on the planet below. He had no idea how they were going to turn it into a working defense of the planet in any kind of time. But it had to be done, somehow. West knew that if anyone could do it, it was Admiral Justman and Captain Kirk.
He was supposed to be getting some rest. At least, that was what the admiral had told him to do. But at the speed West’s mind was working, rest wasn’t going to come easily, if at all.
West grabbed his data tapes and headed out the door. [51] By following the schematic on the padd he carried he was able to find the library computer room easily. It was impressive, the rival of any computer system he had ever seen—save for the one at Starfleet Command headquarters.
He set down to work. He had spent weeks learning everything he could about the Klingons from the Starfleet cultural database, which had entries dating back to the original Vulcan database.
Now he sat down in front of one of the terminals and began a new research project. The Klingons had a long military history, and there was no shortage of entries in the military database.
He started at the beginning.
Chapter Four
WHEN KELL ENTERED the dining room, Ensign Parrish, Ensign Clark, and Ensign Jawer were eating at a table. Besides Chief Fuller, Chief Brantley, and Kell himself, they were the only survivors of the incidents on systems 1324 and 7348. They were the only survivors of a force that had originally been twenty-one officers.
Kell wondered if even the Klingon Defense Force’s high-risk shock-troop units knew losses like that in such a short time.
The group’s heads turned and Parrish stood up immediately. “Jon, come here,” she said.
He could read the concern on her face, on all of their faces. It was wise to come, he realized, not because he needed the company, but because to continue avoiding them might cause Dr. McCoy to show further interest in his situation.