Star Trek - Pandora Principle

by Pandora Principle

  Spock. Stranded on a rocky pinnacle, a dreadful silhouette against the rising suns-but that was wrong! Why? Why?. He saw her then, held out his hands-empty hands-and Saavik understood. She dug her communicator from her belt, wiped her bloody fingers.

  "Enterprise!" she shouted. "Enterprise!" The communicator might as well have been a stone. "ENTERPRISE!"No one answered. No one would-something about this mountain.

  "Spock!" she screamed, struggling for a foothold as pieces of the mountain fell around her. Boulders crashed into the canyon from above; the ground was sliding out from under her. She fought for balance, judged the distance and the wind, felt the communicator's shape and weight in fingers slippery with blood. She wanted to wipe her hand again. No time. Her vision narrowed to the point in space between Spock's empty hands. In all the Universe nothing else mattered, nothing else existed but a piece of metal, 150 meters, and Spock.

  Saavik threw.

  It sailed, tumbling through the air, flashing in the suns.

  She never saw what happened. The mountainside came down on top of her, sealing up the cave again. Light disappeared. Rocks pressed down, cut deep into her flesh. Dirt forced its way inside her mouth and nose, ground into her eyes. The weight grew, smothering, crushing. then stopped.

  . and began to fall away. There was someone shouting-

  "Got her! An' half a mountain, too! Stand back-back!."

  -and a deafening noise as the wide column of earth and rock was released by the transporter and collapsed to the platform in a roiling cloud of dust. Saavik stood in the middle of it, coughing, somehow standing on her feet. The doctor was saying something, trying to help her down, and a tall, familiar figure stood frozen in her path. His anger hit her like a wave.

  "Where, Saavik? How long ago?"

  "Deep. shaft. Don't. know." she gasped between breaths.

  "And you are alone." He radiated disapproval.

  She wanted to explain, but it wouldn't matter. She wanted to hold on to something, but there was only her tricorder, still about her neck-incredibly, still running. The food machine, she remembered vaguely, forgot to turn it off. it would tell him-and he would never speak to her again. She held it out.

  He took it, shut it off. "Cadet, report to the bridge."

  "Over my dead body!" McCoy shouted, waving at the dust with the scanner in his hand. "You're both a mess! I want her in-"

  "Out of the way, Doctor!" Spock brushed him aside to reach the comm. "Shields up, Mr. Sulu! Take us out of orbit, warp-"

  "Impulse, sir," Scott intervened, "the drive's down."

  "Best speed, Mr. Sulu. I am on my way. Scott, come with me!"

  And then she was in the lift, with Mr. Scott talking about sensors and explosions and ships, and the doctor arguing that someone was in shock. Saavik leaned against the wall and wondered who, wondered why she was here at all-unless for some public proclamation of her guilt. Yes, she thought, that must be it.

  On the bridge the lights were bright. Instrument boards and circuitry lay exposed at every station. Faces lit with relief changing to alarm. Spock was coated with dust, his clothing stained and torn. Saavik saw there was no skin on her hands, and blood welled green through layers of dirt, dripped on the tatters of her Starfleet uniform. It was of no importance. She looked to the screen, where Hellguard's image dwindled.

  "View aft, Mr. Chekov. Magnify and enhance." Spock took the command seat, and the screen leapt into close-up. Dust clouds from the quake were visible, drifting over shadows of the mountains cast by rising suns. Nothing happened for a moment.

  Then the mountains trembled. A dull-red spot began to glow and brighten, expanding underground in waves of concentric rings.

  "Bull's-eye!" Scott crowed. "I'll be seein' to the engines-"

  "Alacrity would be advisable, Mr. Scott."

  McCoy snorted irritably at the screen. "Well, that's dandy! Now if you two are finished, can I just-"

  "No, Doctor. The cadet made a bargain. She may keep it."

  Then Saavik understood: I've sold my soul to see you die. So he heard her after all. And he was permitting her this.

  At the instant of detonation, the cave and colony and all she knew of Hellguard vaporized. Land mass began collapsing inward, forming a giant crater on the surface. Mountains toppled, melting into a vast neutronium sea. As the wave front spread, the second charge penetrated the planet's mantle all the way to its unstable molten core. The added depth of the explosion multiplied its force exponentially, exceeding Spock's predictions. Continental plates tore and shifted. Magma came spewing to the surface as the crust fractured into veined networks and bled in rivers of fire. Deposits of gases trapped far below the ground ignited in chain reactions, opening volcanic rifts and sending firestorms sweeping across the land. Hellguard was burning. Its rocks, its dust, its secrets and its dead-even its air would be consumed before the holocaust was done. No life could exist there for millennia to come, only a blackened cinder, welded shut, orbiting 872 Trianguli in a cold and empty night. And what Saavik felt as she watched the dying of her world was the closest thing to joy she had ever known.

  Enterprise drew away, impulse engines straining. At last the screen switched to the view ahead, but a fiery afterimage hung before her sight. A sudden stillness came into her mind, a huge descending silence she'd never heard before. Someone's hand was on her shoulder, a quiet voice speaking in her ear.

  "Come on, honey, you're losing blood. It's all over now."

  The bridge's lights seemed very close, and colors burnt her eyes. Shapes, textures, faces stood out in sharp relief-edges of existence that were beautiful and clear. Everything was clear.

  ". sickbay, Spock! And don't try to-"

  "Yes, Doctor. Dismissed."

  All over. She had been a visitor here, and it was time to go. But Spock lived, and she lived, and Hellguard lived no more.

  And the screaming had finally stopped.

  "Mr. Spock-" Sulu was pointing at the starfield, areas that distorted, wavered. Even without sensors, the aberration was familiar. "We've got a problem!" The distortions took on color, then form. Two garish, painted battlecruisers materialized out of rippling space, maneuvering into positions around Enterprise. then a third, larger ship dead ahead and coming at them. Sulu didn't need sensors to know their torpedoes would be loaded, their phasers targeted and locked.

  "Go to Red Alert-and full stop, Mr. Sulu. Weapons' status?"

  "Red Alert!" Uhura was saying over the comm. The klaxon began to blare. "Red Alert! Battle stations! This is not a drill."

  "Not good, sir. Shields, but no phasers, no photon torpedoes."

  "Come on, Saavik," McCoy said, hustling her into the lift.

  ". controls frozen and overrides won't work. The tractor-"

  "Yes, core damage. It renders all systems unreliable. Repairs will take some time. Mr. Scott," said Spock into the comm, which still sputtered, "we have company. Estimate on warp drive?"

  "At least an hour, sir. Give us time to-Bloody hell!" he swore as Spock keyed the screen's image to his comm.

  "As you see, it is not mine to give."

  "But they're not firin' on us!"

  "I suspect they want this ship. Do your best, Mr. Scott."

  "Sir," Uhura turned, "they're hailing us."

  Spock sat down in the captain's chair.

  "On-screen, Commander."

  Praetor Tahn stood on the bridge of his flagship, staring aghast at the Federation behemoth on the screen, trying not to let his officers see that he was quaking in his boots. This was not part of his plan, which had gone so well up to now. Exactly as his old friend said to do, he'd arrived on station-ostensibly to inspect his ships-surrounded by his loyal guards and feeling the eyes of the First's assassins everywhere on the docks. They would wait until the time was right, when ships were gone and guards relaxed and no witnesses remained. And then some regrettable "accident" would befall him as he was returning home.

  So he didn't. That was the genius of it. He s
imply stayed on board-to lead his troops on this mission of utmost importance. Ah, such devotion to duty. Such bravery. Such a beautiful plan.

  But he'd heard the whisperings on subspace channels: secret meetings in the Empire, rumors from the outposts, coded data dumps from probes seeded in the Zone. Federation ships were massing beyond the Line, causing consternation in high places and carefully worded queries about what such activity might mean.

  Tahn knew. Gods, he knew. And then that ominous sensor flare sent them rushing headlong to their destination, only to find the enemy already here and planet Thieurrull burning in the night beyond, blazing like a torch. One, just one of their ships could do this to a world? O Gods.

  "They do not fire!" he said to his commander. "Why?"

  "Scanners show power in their weapons, Lord. It could be some kind of trick. But we are three, and they are one. We can destroy them-if that is what you wish, Lord."

  And bring a thousand ships across the Zone and down around their ears? Gods, no. "I will hear your strategy," Tahn said, thinking himself adroit. "What else might I wish?"

  "To capture them, my Lord. To take the ship for yourself, and prisoners for the Empire, and to come home victorious. Bring these criminals to justice, and the Empire will be forever in your debt. With such a deed and such a ship, you would rule the fleet. There is much glory here. And honor, Lord."

  And such a ship would need such a commander, would it not? thought Tahn, who was not a total fool. But things had changed since he set out; one plan failed, so he must have another. And this might work, it just might. "Speak to these invaders," he said, and saw his ambitious commander swell with pride. "We will take their ship and spare their lives. Tell them so."

  Long moments passed. Then a face came on the screen that set Tahn's stomach churning.

  "Federation Invaders," barked his young commander, "you trespass in sovereign space! You destroy an Imperial vessel! You lay waste to a world! You mock your treaty with the Empire-but you will never escape! My Lord is prepared to be merciful. Lower your shields, surrender your ship, and we will spare your lives."

  "I shall consider it," said the Vulcan.

  The screen went blank. Tahn's mouth was dry.

  "He is arrogant, Lord. And indecisive. We must persuade him."

  "What do you propose?"

  "We fire-not to destroy, but to break their shields. Then we send our troops aboard to conquer the invaders. We must not show weakness. Shall I give the order, Lord?"

  Tahn's stomach heaved; his hands were trembling, so he hid them beneath his robe. This glory business was not easy on one's nerves. "Commence fire," he said.

  * * *

  "-playing with us, sir," said Sulu, as the bridge rocked under bombardment from three sides. "Those phasers are only half power, but our shields won't take it for long."

  "That is the object of the exercise, Mr. Sulu. How long?"

  "Maybe twenty minutes, sir. Without instruments it's hard-"

  "Understood." Spock touched the comm. "Mr. Scott, report."

  "On the drive, sir?" Scott shook his head at another failed attempt by his crew. "We'll not align new crystals with all this knockin' about! Forty, fifty minutes of peace-and maybe we could-"

  "Our shields will not hold that long. Delegate the tasks, Mr. Scott. Your presence will be needed on the bridge."

  There was a moment's silence, then a heavy sigh. "Aye, that it will. On my way. Keep at it, lads. McInnis, ye're in charge."

  "Sir?" Fear showed in his eyes. "Do we have a chance?"

  "What kind of talk is that? Get on with it, man!" Scott stepped through the revolving door and its decontam field. He went to the monitoring board where Obo sat with all its fingers and toes buried in the circuitry. Readouts were finally beginning to appear on the screens. "Leave it, laddie," he said, "an' come with me."

  "Didn't fffinish!" Obo protested.

  "Aye. But ye'll want to be with Mr. Harper now. And I'm thinkin' he'll want to be with you." He took a last look at his engines, and headed for the lift. Obo trailed close behind.

  "Dammit!" McCoy swore and steadied the patch of syntheskin he was applying to Saavik's hand. Cleaning open wounds, sealing ragged tears, grafting skin cloned from her own cells (a routine culture begun days ago)-all this was tricky enough without the pounding they'd been taking. It was incessant and getting on his nerves. With single-minded annoyance, he shut danger out of his thoughts by blaming the whole thing on Spock.

  "Keep talking to me, Saavik. What happened then?"

  Her emotionless, factual account of being trapped underground in an earthquake was hair-raising, but talking was better for her than that glazed, isolated silence. and what the hell was wrong with that damn Vulcan anyway? McCoy was in the transporter room when the signal came, Spock's voice shouting coordinates not his own. Then he came back alone, naked grief and fear on his face as that column of rock six beams wide began materializing on the pads. But no "glad to see you, kid"-not one kind word. And hauling her up to the bridge like that-an injured cadet, for God's sake! Never would've happened if Jim-

  "-hold it!" he said suddenly, his attention caught by her words. "What was that?" But she'd stopped talking, retreating again into some reality of her own. "The cave," he prompted, "you were trying to get out-and what? Say again!"

  But the comm interrupted, and Spock's voice filled the room.

  "Bridge to all decks. This is Spock. As you are no doubt aware, we are under fire from three Romulan ships-without warp drive or weapons' capability to resist them. Enterprise would be destroyed by now, if that were their intent. It is not. Listen:"

  ". grow tired of these games!" The foreign speech echoed in English through the translator. "Your shields are buckling! You cannot escape! Prepare to be boarded, and surrender your ship to the person of Tahn, noble Praetor of the Romulan Empire-"

  "Less than fifteen minutes of power remain in our shields," Spock went on. "It will then be my duty to commit this vessel to Starfleet General Order Six, paragraph fifteen. I shall do so. with the utmost regret. Remain at your posts. Spock out."

  "Dammit!" McCoy swore at the comm. "Now Saavik, this is real important! What did you see down there? Tell me again!"

  Slowly, mechanically, she did.

  "You're sure?" he nearly shouted. She nodded, puzzled. "You stay right there!" He was already out the door. "I'll be back!" echoed from the corridor, but Saavik knew otherwise.

  As his footsteps died away, she gazed around the sickbay and saw that she was not alone.

  On the far side of the examining room, a black-cloaked figure opened his eyes and stirred, testing the table's restraining bands. They held him fast. He met Saavik's eyes and smiled.

  "Hello, Little Cat," he said softly. "Tell me something now. What is the meaning of this General Order Six?"

  Saavik regarded him coldly, no longer caring what he called her. It never crossed her mind to summon the guard standing watch outside the door. "It means," she said, "among other things, that enemies do not capture Federation starships. Ever."

  "Then Spock will destroy us first?"

  "Of course." She watched him tug at his restraints.

  "And what if I told you that no one needs to die? Listen to me, Little Cat-I can solve this! Let me go, and I will."

  She turned away. His words were treacherous, false.

  "Ah, friend Saavik, I sense that you do not believe me."

  "You are no friend of mine, Mr. Achernar." She slid off the table and came closer to confront him. "I dislike you. You smile, you lie, you watch us-and you are hiding something. Perhaps you planned against us all along. Oh, I believe you want your ship-so you can save your neck. No life concerns you but your own."

  "So," he nodded, resigned, "you do not like me, and I want to save my neck. Is that such a crime? This is not my fight, Little Cat. Would it matter so much if I got away? No, but I remind you of what you are. That is what you do not like. And for that I am to die. My life is in your hands-but what if
you are wrong?"

  He kept twisting at his bonds, and Saavik felt a foolish rush of pity. To die helpless, trapped. his smile is just a smile. His cloak is just a-What am I thinking! I have made enough mistakes today to last a lifetime! But there would be no lifetime.

  "I know what I am," she said, "and I am not wrong. No, I do not like you. But-". so much blood is on my hands, so much hatred in my heart. And how could he harm us now?. "-but I do not cause your death." She reached the lever, unlocked his restraints. "Save your neck, then, Mr. Achernar-if you can."

  "Come with me!" He sprang to the floor, grasped her by the shoulders. She froze at his touch, wondering why she didn't kill him. "The Universe is wide," he whispered, "and you were meant for better things. Come with me, Little Cat-you do not have to like me. I can show worlds you never dreamed of. I can give you anything-a ship, a home, a fortune-whatever you desire." His face was close, his hands were gentle, and his smile was real.