My Enemy My Ally

by Diane Duane

  "Excellent. What is Battlequeen's status?"

  "Gaining on us, madam. Warp six and accelerating rapidly."

  T'Leiar's face, for all its immobility, indicated that she did not consider that excellent. "Evasive."

  "Commencing."

  Ael sat down at a side station. It was good evasive action, but not as inspired as Mr. Sulu's—and Battlequeen was still chasing them. "Mz. T'Leiar, may I suggest something?"

  The Bridge doors hissed open. "You snake," Jim said, "what have you got in mind this time?"

  "Why, only this—" She saw Jim wince, and laughed, considering that they were still living with the results of the last time she had said those words—and might yet die of them. "Jim, there's Battlequeen coming—"

  "So I see," Jim said, annoyed. It was hard to miss that ship. "Even with Intrepid's new engine refit, I don't think we can outrun one of those things. And I know Enterprise can't. So?"

  "Well." Ael reached into her pocket and pulled out a logic solid.

  "You want us to fake a Romulan ID?" Jim said, half teasing, half annoyed. "Ael, this is no time—"

  "Of course it isn't, you fool." Heads turned around the Bridge, and Ael ignored them. "Before Spock started infecting the Levaeri computers, I was looking through the system and stumbled on something interesting." She juggled the solid lightly in one hand. "The Sunseed program."

  He stared at her blankly.

  "Sunseed!" Ael said. "They had to have it to catch all those little Vulcan ships, Jim." She held it up in front of his face. "Wouldn't you like to start your very own ion storm—and leave those three ships to founder in it? Here's the program."

  "Oh my God," Jim said. "Sehlk!"

  The doors hissed open. "Will I do, Captain?" said a mellow voice—and Captain Suvuk walked in. He looked wasted and tired, and the plast that McCoy and Sihek had put on him did little more than cover the worst of his facial wounds; the thought of what injuries lay hidden under the uniform was terrifying. But the man was all power and certainty, though he staggered, and had to support himself on the back of his center seat as he stepped down to them.

  "Sir—" Jim said.

  "I heard," Suvuk said. "I have been listening from Sickbay. Commander," he said to Ael, "there would be a certain irony in turning against our pursuers the weapon they used on us. Am I correct in hypothesizing that we are going to need a star to make this work?"

  "Yes, sir." She and Jim followed Suvuk up to the communications station. "We would be stimulating the star's corona not only with phasers and photon torpedoes, but our own warpfield. I understand that though it works well enough with one ship, it would do better yet with two, or three—"

  "Two, I think, Commander," said Suvuk. "I doubt Bloodwing could match the"—he paused to put the solid down on the comm station's reading plate—"the warp eleven speeds that this requires. And we have little time to implement; the fewer ships we must coordinate in this maneuver, the better. I see that the parameters and frequencies for the phasers are adaptable to our standards. T'Leiar, pass this information on to Enterprise—"

  "Already done, sir."

  Ael blinked. "Intrepid," Scotty's voice said, "this is Enterprise—"

  "I'm here, Scotty," Jim said. "Don't stop for discussion. Do it!"

  "Aye, sir." And Scotty switched off.

  "Timings, sir—"

  "I am adding them now," Suvuk said. The Bridge doors opened and Spock came hurriedly in, followed by Sehlk. "Sir, what are we—" they both said, practically in unison, to Jim and Suvuk respectively.

  "What a fascinating program," Suvuk said mildly. "Mr. Sehlk, pass these phaser settings and photon torpedo dispersal patterns on to the weapons officer at once. Do you see the ingenuity of it, madam, gentlemen? The ionization effect propagates from the star's coronal discharges, but in a spiral pattern like a pulsar's series of 'rotating' wavefronts. Of course we shall have to get quite close to that star, inside the warp boundary in fact; but paradoxically the stimulation of the corona will keep the stellar chromosphere from being overstimulated, a most elegant—"

  "Sir," Sehlk said, in a voice that sounded much more like Jim's than like Spock's; and Suvuk turned, looking calmly at his First Officer with an expression more like Spock's than like Jim's. Ael raised one hand to hide her mouth. "Enterprise reports ready."

  "Mr. Sehlk, a word with my ship, if I may?"

  Sehlk nodded at the 'com console, and the Vulcan communications officer looked up at Jim. "Scott here," said that oddly-accented voice.

  "Just this, Scotty. Be careful not to set up a backlash effect—this is not the time to go back in time twenty-four hours!"

  "Aye, indeed, Captain," Scotty said, as close to laughter as Ael had heard him in some time. "Good luck to you. And to Intrepid."

  "The same from them," Jim said, looking at Suvuk's calm face. "Out."

  "Battlequeen is closing with us, Captain," said Sehlk. "One light-minute and closing."

  "Implement the ion-storm maneuver, then," said Suvuk.

  The ship's great warp engines began to roar. Ael, glancing at Jim, noticed that he had found himself an empty station and had closed the anti-roll arms down over his thighs: Spock was doing so on the other side of the room. Ael sat down at one of the security stations and did the same. Suvuk, hanging on to things all the way down, found his way to the center seat.

  "Computer lock on the star," Suvuk said. "Shut down ship's sensors for the closest part of the pass. Screen off."

  It was just as well, for they were already closer to the Levaeri primary than Ael had ever wanted to be to any star; she could see its corona already beginning to flare and twist wildly at their approach. Unfortunately, there was now no telling except by report how Bloodwing was doing, or how close Battlequeen was getting. . . .

  Ael began to sweat. The thought of Lyillu blowing them all up was bad, but the thought of him getting hold of them and taking them back to ch'Rihan was worse still. O, Elements, she thought, if it has to be one or the other, let him blow us up! Then she rebuked herself; perhaps the Enterprise people would prefer to survive, on the grounds that while there was life there was hope. They may have something there, she thought. I have never seen such a lot of survivors. . . .

  The Bridge doors hissed open again, and there was Doctor McCoy, hobbling in, with his left leg in a light pressure cast. He walked slowly over to where Jim was sitting, braced himself firmly against the rail, and said, "Broken fibula. I told you this'd happen that some day."

  "Doctor," Ael said, laughing at him, "if you have been predicting such an occurrence for so long, why are you surprised that it happened?"

  "As for you," McCoy said, "with this damn fool idea of yours, let me tell you, young lady. . . ."

  Ael said nothing, but the look Jim traded with her told her that she had been admitted to a very exclusive group: those people McCoy would rant at. She let him rant, and nodded contritely in all the right places, and otherwise concentrated on what was going on.

  "One hundred million kilometers from the star," Sehlk said. "Ninety million … sixty … thirty …" At this speed, Ael thought, amazed, if I blink I'll miss it. . . . And indeed, a second later, everything seemed to happen at once. Enterprise and Intrepid dove into the star's corona together; Intrepid shook hugely as she first hit the star's bowshock at multiples of the speed of light, then created another of her own, trailing jointly behind her and Enterprise. The ship lurched again, and again, as photon torpedoes and phasers fired. Then a third terrible lurch of heaviness, and stomach-turning lightness, and normal weight again, as the artificial gravity wavered, the ship malfunctioned in trying to compensate for the star's terrible mass, and slowly went back to normal again.

  "Report," Suvuk said, as calmly as if he did this every day.

  "Enterprise reports intact, Captain," said Sehlk. "Maneuver complete. Helve and Lahai are far behind, not even in the area. Battlequeen is hitting the bowshock of the ion storm now—"

  "Force reading, please."


  "Force twelve and escalating."

  "Evidently you were right, Commander," Suvuk said to Ael. "It is more effective with two starships. They are getting rather worse than they gave us as a distraction."

  "Communication from Bloodwing, Commander t'Rllaillieu," said the comm officer. "They report they are cutting across our hyperbola to meet us, ahead of the ion storm. Rendezvous in approximately four minutes—"

  "Thank you," Ael said.

  "Battlequeen is slowing somewhat, Captain," said Sehlk. "Possibility that her navigations are going out on her due to the extreme intensity of the storm—"

  "Intrepid, this is Enterprise," said Scotty's voice.

  "This is Intrepid," Jim said, at a nod from the Vulcan comm officer. "How's she riding, Scotty?"

  "Smooth enough so far," Scotty said, "but we'd best pour it on a bit. That lad behind us isn't taking no for an answer; he's come through the far side of the bowshock and he's accelerating again. Maintaining warp eleven cruise speed on the eta Trianguli course."

  "Noted, Enterprise, we will match you," Suvuk said. "Screen on, Sehlk. Deflector shields up; phasers ready. Commander, can Bloodwing maintain a warp eleven cruise?"

  "Not for more than a few minutes, Captain," she said. Her hands had been sweating now for several minutes over just that issue.

  "Very well. Enterprise, Bloodwing cannot match warp eleven. I suggest we maneuver close enough together to allow a joint warpfield, and take her into it."

  "Captain Suvuk," Scotty said, sounding very distressed, "wi' all due respects, that's extraordinarily dangerous for two ships of the same model, let alone ones with different engine specs—"

  "—which we now have," Suvuk said. "Granted, Mr. Scott, but we cannot leave Bloodwing behind, either. Do you wish to speak to your Captain?"

  "Not now," Scotty said, "but I will later. . . .Implementing, sir. Scott out."

  Suvuk looked at Jim with calm approval. "Sir, have you ever noticed that while we run our ships, our engineers own them? …"

  Ael watched the slow smile cross Jim's face. He said nothing, only turned back to the screen.

  "Rear view," Sehlk said. And there was Enterprise, great and shining, all white fire and stark black shadows from the Levaeri primary, and growing dimmer as they fled the system. She was getting quite close … pulling up alongside the Intrepid now, the two of them streaking along much closer together than any two ships traveling at warpspeed had any right to be. "Coming up on Bloodwing's position." Sehlk said. "She is accelerating to warp eleven to meet us.—Warpfield match with Enterprise—"

  Intrepid lurched again, a violent motion that made the earlier shaking seem very mild. "Warpfield match with Bloodwing," Sehlk said—and this time even a few of the Vulcans went flying about the Bridge.

  Not Suvuk; he might as well have been glued into his center seat. "Match complete," he said. "Mz. T'Khia, head for the Zone, eta Trianguli course—"

  "Battlequeen gaining on us again, Captain," Sehlk said. "Warp twelve … warp thirteen …"

  "We cannot long maintain our lead," Suvuk said, looking over at Jim and Ael, "not while they pursue at warp thirteen."

  "Fourteen now," said Sehlk. Spock looked across the Bridge at Jim and shook his head, ever so slightly.

  "Recommendations, Captain? Commander?" Suvuk said.

  "Not to be taken, sir," Jim said.

  "Commander?"

  "I agree."

  "My ship has such orders already," Jim said.

  Suvuk nodded.

  "Battlequeen is once more at one light-minute," Sehlk said. "One-half light-minute—"

  "Captain," Suvuk said, "by the way—though thanks are said by some to be illogical—thank you for another three hours of life."

  Jim bowed where he sat, straightened again. "My only regret is that I could not return you to your ship before this," Suvuk said quietly. "Or you to yours, Commander."

  "The fortunes of war, sir," she said.

  "If fortune exists," Suvuk said. "And if this is war. At any rate, I thank you also, Commander. It has been an unexpected—gratification—to discover that our cousins may also be our brothers."

  Ael bowed her head too.

  "One-tenth light-minute," Sehlk said into the great quiet of the Bridge.

  "Enterprise," Jim said.

  "Aye," Scotty's voice came back—and that was all he said.

  "Bloodwing," Ael said.

  "Commander—"

  "Wait for it," Ael said softly. "We shall meet shortly."

  "Four light-seconds," said Sehlk.

  Ael saw Jim look across the Bridge at Spock, a long glance: then another one, up at McCoy. And then at the screen, toward the empty space ahead of them, toward the border of the Zone, that they would never reach.

  "One light-second," Sehlk said. "She's firing—"

  The ship rocked. And rocked again, but not with the same sort of response. Someone was firing phasers near their warpfield, distorting it from the leading side.

  "Contacts—" Sehlk cried. "ID's—"

  But Ael sat up in her seat with a cry. There was no identifying them by shape, those white streaks that fled past them, lancing the starry night with fire; but she knew what they were. "Constellation," Mr. Sehlk said, "and behind it, Inaieu—"

  Ael turned and stared at Jim in astonishment. He was still staring at the screen, as if turning might change what had been. "They're firing," said Sehlk. "Battlequeen is turning to engage Constellation. Firing at her—"

  He flicked a switch, reversed the screen. Behind them a sudden great flare and violence of light appeared, spreading outward and outward. Very slowly, Sehlk sat down at his station.

  "Inaieu fired at Battlequeen point blank en passant," he said. "Battlequeen is destroyed."

  "What about Inaieu?" Jim said, not looking away from the screen.

  "Intrepid," said the 'com. "This is Inaieu. Suvuk, you old villain, where have you been? Shirking again?"

  "Without a doubt, Nhauris," said Suvuk. "Just as at Organia."

  "Nhauris," Jim said, "nice job."

  "I keep my appointments," the Denebian said, and laughed her bubbly laugh. "Let's get across the Zone, gentlemen, before more of the Romulans notice that the silver is missing. Inaieu out."

  "Reduce speed, T'Khia," said Suvuk, "and set a course."

  "Aye, sir."

  Ael got free of her seat and went over to Jim, unable to stand it anymore. He looked away from the screen and regarded her with a truly insufferable smile.

  "How did you do that?" she cried. "You called it to the minute, to the second, in all these light-years of space? How!"

  He did not answer her but McCoy, who was looking at him in an astonishment as great as hers, but quieter. "You did tell me," Jim said mildly, "that I should have more confidence in my game. . . ."

  Nineteen

  "Captain's log, stardate 2816.3:

  "According to our patrol orders, we are continuing Neutral Zone patrol until such time as the starships Potemkin and Hood arrive to relieve the task force.

  "The Zone has been unusually quiet since we left Romulan space. Captain Rihaul has speculated that this has to do with our possession not only of the pirated Vulcan genetic material (which the Romulans may fear we will use against them) but the Sunseed ion-storm generation program, very obviously worked out in their own programming languages and protocols, on their media, and with much documentation concerning the Romulan High Command's complicity with the Senate and Praetorate in the alteration of the weather hereabouts. We suspect we will not be hearing much out of the Zone for a while, as the Empire becomes busy shaking itself up.

  "I am entering requests for special commendations for the following personnel: First Officer Spock, Lt. Cmdr. Harb Tanzer, Lt. Cmdr. Nyota Uhura, Lt. Hikaru Sulu, Lt. Pavel Chekov. There are many, many others on the general commendations list (see attached).

  "Meanwhile, the crew of Bloodwing (formerly ChR Bloodwing) are preparing to depart. If it were possible to request a commendation
for their Commander, Ael t'Rllaillieu, I would do so. She has at all times exhibited an integrity and courage which give the lie to many of our cherished old myths about Romulans."

  … And there he stopped, apparently unsure what to say next, or whether to say anything. He clicked the viewer off. "Ael," Jim said, "where are you headed?"

  She turned to him from studying the medical scanner over one of the beds in Sickbay, where they had been taking care of the worst injured of her people with McCoy. "There is a lot of space," she said, "that neither Federation nor Empire owns; a lot of planets where a trim ship can make its own way, hiring out as a mercenary ship, a free trader … perhaps a pirate. . . ."

  "Ael! …"

  "Oh come," she said. "You know me better than that by now. Or you should."

  He swung back and forth gently in the chair. "Space hereabouts will not be safe for us," Ael said, looking up at the scanner again. "We have exposed the mind-researches and Sunseed, and destroyed a great deal ot supposedly indestructible Romulan material. Very embarrassing. They will not dare to strike at you in revenge—even if they find themselves able to get at you. Rihannsu have no luck with Enterprise, that's certain. . . ."

  "The Vulcans would be glad to have you," Jim said. "If Spock's and Suvuk's word weren't enough—and I assure you they are—you've done more for that species—"

  "I did not do it for them," Ael said. "I did it for my Empire, and my oaths. I will not take coincidental thanks, or gratitude that is offered me for the wrong reasons."

  Her eyes rested on the door to the other room, where McCoy was working. "What about him?" Jim said quietly.

  "He will not live," Ael said, her back turned. "My doing."

  Jim looked at the table. "You can't blame yourself—"

  "It is not a question of blame." Her voice was calm enough, but oh, the bitterness buried in it. "It's merely the way the universe is, the way the Elements are. Become careless with fire, and sure enough, fire will burn you. Do treachery, and treachery will be done you. Kill, and be punished with death. All these I've done. Now I pay the price, in my own flesh and blood. And more: for I'll die far from home, unless I dare the ban in my old age, and walk on ch'Ríhan again, to be killed by the first person who recognizes me. And there will be no child or friend to hang up the name-flag for me before I die; no family, no one but my faithful crew who go into exile with me. Family … but not the same. Never the same." She looked at him, almost in pity now. "And I would do it again, all of it. You still don't understand. . . ."