The enemy ship had landed. Just before the sun K'Tuj touched the lower edge of the sky.
Along the rims of the colony his neighbors lined up, weapons at the ready. Today they would all die defending their homes. It was an honorable way to die.
Beside him in the shelter the human Kirk stood, one hand on the disrupter cannon, also ready to fight and die for this planet, this colony. Kerdoch had spent the night wondering about such actions. Humans had always been described as cowards, butchers, animals with no honor. Yet here was a captain who had honor. He and his people could have hidden in the distant hills. He did not have to stay to defend Klingon homes. Yet he did. Without complaint. And with great courage.
This human captain had honor.
In the distance Kerdoch could see the cowards' ship standing tall and bright on the natural vegetation beyond the black crops. A line of forms had stretched out from the ship, facing the colony. Soldiers, lining up for the attack.
They stood upright on two limbs, as Klingons did.
"How many would you estimate?" the human captain asked.
'Three hundred, " Kerdoch said. "They wear armor. "
As Kerdoch spoke, the line started moving toward the colony.
The human captain flipped open his communicator device. "Spock, they're coming. Anything you can do?"
Kerdoch clearly heard the reply from the human ship. "No, Captain. They are holding us out of range. "
"Understood. Kirk out. "
The human captain flipped his communicator closed and grasped the two handles of the disrupter cannon firmly with both hands.
"The cannon fire will extend to the edge of the fields," Kerdoch told the human captain. "It was a consideration on shaping our fields. "
"Good thinking," the human said. "I'll wait until they cross over the line before opening fire."
Kerdoch said nothing. He slowly drew his disrupter and checked it one more time . It was charged and ready. He would take many of the enemy with him. The cowards approaching him deserved to die for attacking his home and his family. Revenge would be sweet this day.
He glanced down the line of defenders. His wife and eldest son were tucked behind a sheet of dome paneling. Both had weapons in their hands and were staring at the coming enemy. He could feel pride filling his chest.
The line ofenemy forms crossed into the blackened fields, their shining blue armor reflecting the early rays of the sun.
The human captain waited.
Kerdoch turned to him. Had he frozen from fear? No, he seemed to be studying the entire scene, his look cold and intent. This human was not one to freeze in battle.
"Okay," the human said. Then he shouted, "Now!"
With that, Kirk fired the disrupter cannon, the sound deafening inside the shelter.
Then he fired again.
And again.
And again.
Kerdoch stood, ignoring the pain in his ears as the human's first shot cut out two soldiers in the center of the line. The force of the blast also knocked others backward.
His second shot had moved to the right ten figures. Again his shot was accurate.
His third shot moved ten more to the right and did not miss.
The enemy troops continued forward.
Kirk continued firing, knocking large holes in the enemy lines to both the left and the right.
Suddenly, before the enemy soldiers could get within phaser range of the colony, the line stopped. As a unit they turned and, at the same trudging pace, moved back toward their ship.
Instantly the human captain stopped firing, even though he could have shot many of them in the back as they retreated.
Kerdoch nodded his agreement. It took no honor to shoot an enemy in the back. Humans truly did have honor in battle. It was something he would always remember.
"You fire a disrupter cannon well," Kerdoch said.
The human captain nodded as he rubbed his ears. "Thanks. But you folks really should put mufflers on these things ."
"Mufflers? " Kerdoch asked. He had never heard such a term.
"Never mind," Kirk said as the line of enemy crossed back into the natural vegetation, leaving many shining armored bodies laying in the blackened fields.
Kerdoch felt the surge of revenge coursing through his blood as he stared at those bodies. It was good the enemy died in the fields they had destroyed. It felt right. Only their death at his bare hands would have felt better.
Rathbone lay face down in a deep ditch, trying her best to press her body even farther into the hard dirt.
A fine black ash covered everything in the ditch, including her. Her blackened hands held her phaser in front of her. They shook, and she tried to tell herselfit was from the cold. But there was no kidding herself.
She was afraid. Very afraid.
During all the practice on the firing ranges in her youth, she had always wondered what being in a real fight would be like. It looked as if she would soon find out.
Facing her, Lieutenant Sulu also lay flat in the ditch, his tricorder tucked under his chin. He had been studying it for the last five minutes, but to her it had seemed like at least an hour.
"They're moving," Sulu whispered. "They should pass to our right in about sixty seconds. "
She only nodded, far too afraid to trust her voice to speak. How the captain, Sulu, the other members of landing parties ever got used to this kind of danger was beyond her. It had her stomach clamped down into a knot and she had no idea how she was going to move if she had to fight.
She took a deep, shuddering breath and grasped the solid, reassuring feel of the phaser. Even being able to hit a pinpoint from fifty paces didn't comfort her at the moment. She had heard that some people froze in life-and-death situations while others managed to overcome their fear and fight. She hoped she was the type who overcame, but she feared even more than dying that she was the type who froze.
Now it looked as if she might find out very soon.
Suddenly the ground shook from an explosion.
She j umped, but Sulu put his hand on her arm.
"Disrupter cannon fire," he said as another explosion shook the ground under her stomach, seeming much closer.
"The captain?" she whispered.
He nodded, not taking his gaze from his tricorder.
A third explosion, then a fourth, rocked the ground under her. Then more and more, one right after another.
The ground seemed to shake continuously under her, as if the explosions were linked.
Then, just as suddenly, it was silent.
Unnaturally silent.
Had the captain been killed?
Had the troops already reached the colony? She wanted to j ump up and look, but she remained in the dirt, almost too afraid to breathe.
"They're retreating," Sulu whispered. He looked up at her, smiling through the black soot that covered his face. "The captain turned them with the cannon."
Suddenly she felt heavier, as if the weight of her body would punch a hole through the dirt under her.
"Thank heavens," she managed to say. Then she took the first true breath in what seemed like an eternity, let it out slowly, then took another.
It pleased her to see that Sulu was doing the exact same thing.
Kirk stood beside Kerdoch on the edge of the cannon platform, staring out at the bodies of the attackers littering the blackened fields. There must have been at least fifty of them, and he doubted that all of them were dead; many of them were probably only inj ured.
What would the attackers do now? Would they return for their inj ured? Would they attack again?
And why had they retreated? If they wanted to overrun the colony, why hadn't they simply continued forward? They were taking casualties, but nowhere near enough to prevent the success of their mission.
Yet under the type of fire he had been hitting them with, he would have pulled back too, if they had been his troops. Maybe that was the key to all this. He had guessed correctly about the ground a
ttack. And their retreat was what he would have done. Maybe their thinking wasn't that far from human military thinking.
He flipped open his communicator. "Mr. Sulu, where are you?"
"In a ditch j ust to the right of where their line stopped advancing. "
Kirk looked in that direction. One of his shots had knocked down four of the enemy right near Sulu's position. Maybe he could exchange their wounded for an opportunity to talk.
"Mr. Sulu, you and Rathbone check out the enemy casualties near your position. If you find a wounded soldier, bring him to me. "
"Understood," Sulu said.
Kirk punched his communicator. "McCoy, I need you at the cannon at once."
"On my way," McCoy said.
Out in the blackened field two forms rose from a ditch and moved in a crouch toward a fallen enemy soldier.
"Why do you worry over the dead?" Kerdoch said.
"They fell in battle. They have their honor. "
"Because, like your commander in the dome there, they may not be dead. "
"But they are the enemy," Kerdoch said, as if that were enough for Kirk to understand his meaning.
"Yes, they are," Kirk said. And he added silently, So areyou.
At the captain's order, Rathbone had managed to push herself to her feet and climb out of the ditch beside Lieutenant Sulu. The second sun was starting to break above the horizon, and she could already feel the heat of the day coming, knocking back the cold that had filled her body.
Twenty paces in front of her, lying face down in the black soot, was a blue-armored soldier, the light reflecting off his armor like it was a mirror.
She glanced around. To her right were the enemy troops and the enemy ship; to her left was the colony. She felt as if she were walking naked onto a stage in front of the entire world. Even with Sulu beside her, she had never felt so exposed and vulnerable.
They both moved in a crouch, not really sneaking, but making sure they both stayed low until they reached the fallen alien who lay on his side, his back to them. Slowly, without touching the armor, they moved around in front of him.
The face inside the helmet was humanoid, with long black hair framing its face. It also had thick black eyebrows and ridges of thick hair running across its forehead. The nose lay flat against his face, giving him the look of a lion.
The soldier was also clearly dead.
Sulu picked up the enemy's rifle-looking weapon and moved to the next body. This soldier had less hair on his face, and was clearly younger. He was also very much alive, his eyes glowing green as he looked at them.
Those eyes startled her. For some reason she had not put real live creatures behind the thought of the enemy. Before now the enemy had only been fast moving ships spraying waves of deadly heat. But now the enemy had eyes and a face.
When Sulu pulled the weapon from his hand, the soldier didn't move an inch to stop him.
Then Sulu studied the alien with his tricorder. "It looks as if he's broken both legs," Sulu said to her.
She could have guessed as much. The soldier's legs were twisted underneath him at very odd angles.
"Can he be moved?"
"I don't know," Sulu said. He glanced around, then leaned over the soldier. "Can you hear me?"
Behind the face plate of his helmet the alien nodded yes. His gaze darted from Sulu to Vivian, then back again.
"Are you in pain?" she asked. "Bleeding?"
He shook his head. "The medical function of my suit has stopped the bleeding, killed my pain. "
She was amazed at the richness of the alien's voice. Likely it was only the suit's speakers that made it sound like that.
"Good," she said. "What race are you?"
"We are Narr," he said.
"We're going to get you help," Sulu said.
The Narr soldier shook his head. "You will not move me," he said, his voice coming through the faceplate clearly.
"Why not?" she asked. "You need medical help. "
"My suit cannot be moved by you."
"Will it destruct?" Sulu asked.
Once again the alien shook his head. "It is heavy. The gravity units were damaged in the battle."
Sulu sat back, looking at the fallen soldier, nodding his head. "Your legs were broken when the anrigravity units in your suit failed and the suit crushed your legs."
"That is correct," the soldier said.
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You mean," she said, "that these soldiers wear suits so heavy that if the suit fails they can't stand up?"
Sulu nodded. "We've seen it before. "
She stared down into the green eyes of the wounded soldier, then gently touched the sleeve of his suit near his wrist. It felt solid.
Carefully she tried to pick up the arm. It was like pulling on a solid steel wall-not even a fraction of an inch of movement. "Unbelievable," she said.
"Standard for some cultures," Sulu said. "It also stops their enemies from taking prisoners."
The alien nodded behind his faceplate. "I will be rescued after the battle has been won. Until then I wait. "
"Let's hope there is no more battle," Sulu said. He snapped open his communicator. "Captain?"
"Kirk here."
For some reason being reminded that the captain was so close made Vivian relax a little.
"Captain, we have a live casualty inside damaged mobile armor. It's far too heavy for us to move. "
"I was afraid of that," Kirk said.
She glanced around at the open field and the other very still armored figures littering the blackness. How many of them were alive inside those heavy shells?
"Return to the colony. Kirk out. "
"But what about this soldier?" she asked, shocked. How could Captain Kirk simply ignore an injured person, enemy or not?
Sulu stood. "There's nothing we can do for him at the moment. Come on." He turned and started toward the colony.
She remained beside the Narr, staring at his green eyes. Finally he smiled at her. "Follow your orders, soldier," he said. "You can do nothing to help me. "
She nodded slowly.
"Rathbone ," Sulu called to her.
She looked one more time into the deep green eyes of the Narr soldier. "Good luck. "
"And to you," the soldier said.
Feeling as if her entire body was numb, she pushed herself to her feet and, without looking bacK, stumbled after Sulu toward the colony.
Chapter Seventeen
SCOTTY LOOKED AT the young ensign. She was slender, her dark hair falling out of its neat bun. She had been working non-stop in engineering since they left Starbase Eleven, probably the longest shift she had ever pulled.
"What I meant," she stammered, "is that I doubt we could improve them. "
She was referring to the shields. Scotty's modification had worked, but not as well as he would have liked. Shield strength had still gone down, but not as rapidly as before. There was an element to the enemies' weapons that he had not yet discovered-and he had told Mr. Spock that in their brief meeting on thebridge.
"You doubt, lass?" Scotty said softly. The more established members of Engineering stepped back. They knew what was coming. They had worked with Scotty long enough to know that when he spoke softly, they had best watch out.
"Yes, sir," she said. "I have double-checked your calculations. "
"You double-checked my calculations?" His voice got even softer.
"You asked me to, sir," she said, oblivious of his tone, "and I found nothing wrong."
"You found nothing wrong, " he said.
"No," she said.
"Did you expect to, lass?"
Someone guffawed behind him. Scotty turned and, with a look, silenced the laugher.
The ensign finally got the idea that something might be wrong. She flushed. "Well, sir, you did ask me to check your figures, and I assumed that meant you thought there might be errors. "
"You assumed," Scotty said.
"Yes, sir," she said.
"Sir?"
"Did you not know, lass, that engineering is not a science of mathematics?"
She blinked those extraordinary eyes at him. "But of course it involves math," she said. "The calculations-"
"Mean nothing without creativity behind them," Scotty said, his voice rising. "Lass, the engineers on this ship are second only to the captain in their creative abilities. In fact, the ability to think on your feet and to come up with solutions not in the guidebooks is the hallmark of a ckief engineer."
"But I'm not a chief engineer," she said quietly.
"Aye, you're not, and you're not likely to be, either." He picked up the small padd she had used and slammed it on the console. Then he raised his voice even more. "The computer can check my math. It cannot check my creative thinking, now, can it?"
"No, sir. " She glanced at the others for help, but they didn't look at her. They had all been in this situation before . It was one way that Scotty trained his assistants. He had to work the rigidity out of their systems-the rigidity drilled into them by well-meaning Academy instructors. "B-b-but I'm j ust an ensign, sir. "
"And do you think I magically became chief engineer? Do you think I was not once an ensign?" Scotty asked.
"Ah, I, ah, had not given it any thought," she said, then added, "sir."
He was about to show her how to approach the new problem when Uhura hailed him. "What is it, Lieutenant?" he snapped, forgetting for a moment that he wasn't training her.
"Projeff of the Farragut, " she said. "Shall I tell him you're busy?"
"No, put him through. " Scotty pointed at the ensign. "Be creative," he said, handing her the padd. "And try again. "
She nodded, obviously relieved to no longer be the center of attention.
Scotty looked at the screen. Projeff was grinning at him.
"Picking on children again?" Projeff asked.
" Tis the reason I get more work from my staff than you get from yours," Scotty said.
Day of Honor - Treaty's Law Page 14