“I’m not ready to accept that,” Kirk told him. “Tirak may hate outsiders, but Balok is one of his own. Hopefully that still matters to him. And once we get back to the Enterprise, we can try to find out where—”
But then another lightning bolt struck, and another. Sulu put the plane into a dive, instinctively trying to get away from the source of the bolts. But he still wasn’t reading the clouds well, and he realized too late that he was heading straight toward another charge concentration. And the shield was still running at high power, bleeding off residual charge from the strike. If it was leaving a trail of ionized air behind the craft, then—
The previous lightning bolts had been mere sparks in comparison to what struck the vehicle now, using its ionized wake as a conduction path. Sulu wrenched his eyes shut against the blistering light from outside, but it dazzled him even through closed eyelids. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the controls had gone dark. The throttle wouldn’t respond. And the plane was in a dive, spiraling out of control.
“Sulu!” Kirk cried, pulling himself forward. “Get those engines going again!”
Sulu jabbed at the reboot control, but only a few status lights came on. He used what he could, trying to get into the system and reroute control to backup circuits. But nothing happened. “There’s too much damage!” He ducked under the console and pulled open the maintenance cover. “If I can reroute manually . . .”
It was a desperation move. It might take minutes to identify the intact systems and cross-connect the circuits. And every second, the aircraft fell deeper into the atmosphere. There was nowhere to crash, but before long the pressure would crush the fuselage like a discarded drinking cup. Sulu’s ears were already popping.
He struggled to get some power to the engines, but soon enough it became clear that there was no time. “I’m sorry, Captain,” he said. “There’s just no way—”
The plane lurched. Sulu flew forward, banging his forehead on the console. He cursed and rubbed his head, but through the substantial pain, he gradually came to realize that they’d stopped falling. What did we land on? he thought woozily.
Noticing that the others were staring out the ports in amazement, Sulu pushed through the fog in his head, staggered to his feet, and followed their gaze out and upward.
There, hanging a few dozen meters above them, were four enormous balloons. He followed their tethers downward and saw that they emerged from hatches in the nose, the wings, and presumably the tail of the aircraft. Sulu chuckled. “Sorry, Koust. You haven’t won the bet yet.”
“We’re not out of this alive yet either,” Koust pointed out.
“Fascinating,” Spock said a bit breathlessly. “Presumably helium-filled. A last-ditch emergency measure.”
“Great,” McCoy said. “Finally they do something sensible! Why couldn’t they put those on the habitats too? Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“The sheer amount of helium required in that case would be prohibitive, Doctor,” Spock replied.
“Speaking of being in a mess,” Uhura said, “any chance of restarting the engines now that we have a breather?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Sulu said.
But before he could get anywhere, the craft shuddered again and started to move. The magnetic sensor screen was barely working, but he got enough to know what was happening. “Damn. The tractor field’s got us, sir. Countermeasures are down.”
“Those balloons saved our lives,” Kirk said, “but made us an easier target. Any chance we can fix the shields and slip free?”
“No way, sir. The power’s too depleted. Sorry.”
Kirk set his jaw. “Then we’d better get ready for a fight.”
The balloons soon snapped free from the force of the wind as the tractor field pulled them at high speed toward whatever their destination was. Sulu had brought spare weapons for Kirk and Spock, and then some; he believed in being prepared. But he glanced uncertainly at their Dassik guest. “Captain?”
After trading a look with Koust, Kirk nodded. “Give him a phaser. But lock it on stun.”
As Sulu complied, Koust asked, “What’s wrong, Kirk? Don’t you trust me?”
“I trust you not to kill us,” Kirk replied. “I don’t want you killing any of them. Whatever the Linnik’s ancestors may have done to your people, the individuals out there aren’t responsible for it. Our mission’s to save their lives, whether they want it or not.”
Koust grumbled, then gave Kirk a sullen look. “Very well. I’m a soldier. I follow orders. I will stun.” He grimaced as though the word left a foul aftertaste.
The captain turned his attention to McCoy, seeing that the doctor was prepared to fight. Kirk knew that McCoy’s code would not allow him to take a life even to save his own—but a doctor understood that sometimes one had to inflict some degree of pain or damage to a body in order to heal it. He stood ready to do what needed to be done. But Kirk hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “Bones, it’s best if you stay back. We may need a doctor before this is done.”
The doctor’s eyes met the captain’s. “Understood.”
Kirk turned to the communications officer. “Uhura, you might want to stay back too. Leave it to the fighters.”
“With all due respect, sir . . .” Uhura deftly, pointedly locked and charged her phaser rifle. “I’ve had my fill of being frightened.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Kirk said, respect in his eyes. “I’m glad to have you at my side.”
Once armed, there was little they could do to get ready short of breathing deeply, keeping their muscles loose, and trying to stay calm. It was some distance to their destination, though, and the long wait made that last part the hardest of all.
Finally, a shape came into view ahead of them. “It’s another hangar module,” Sulu said. “Not the same one the Enterprise’s in; that’s too far away. But basically the same design.”
Kirk leaned forward, studying the approaching module. “So the inside should be in free fall but have a breathable atmosphere.”
“Probably, sir.”
The captain turned to address the crew. “Then we have a chance to break free before the plane docks. As soon as we’re inside, we blow the hatch and bail out.”
“What?!” McCoy cried. “And flail around in zero gravity?”
“No. Push off as hard as you can when you bail out. Our momentum should carry us to the hangar wall. From there we can try to make our way to a working vehicle. Just angle yourself to minimize air resistance. Like skydiving.”
“Blast it, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a paratrooper!”
“Just follow my lead. Now, everyone, get ready.”
Sulu moved toward the hatch and waved his team forward. “Prescott, Zhang, take point. Mister Koust, go with them.”
“Yes!” Sulu wasn’t surprised that the Dassik was pleased to be leading the charge, but he hadn’t done it for Koust. Bottom line, however charming the young hunter may have been in his rough way, Sulu considered him the least trustworthy and most expendable member of the team. And from what Sulu had seen of the Dassik, he’d probably make quite a lot of noise and be a good distraction from the rest.
“Nored,” Sulu went on, “you and I will cover the rear.” That would be a vital position, since by that point the Web forces would have caught on and begun responding. He wanted his best person there with him, and after his experience in the Fiilestii module, he was convinced that was Anne.
As the plane passed through the hangar door’s containment field into the breathable atmosphere within, Sulu nodded at Lou Prescott. The burly guard opened the hatch and leaped out, with the lanky Zhang Xiaolu and the eager Koust following close behind. Kirk and Spock went next, then Uhura and McCoy, with Anne Nored and Sulu being the last to leave the aircraft—aside from the Balok dummy, of course. Sulu wondered if it would be needed as evidence later, but it
would be an impediment to take with them. Hopefully it would be safe where it was.
No sooner had Sulu pushed off the lip of the hatch than he felt himself being yanked sideways. He saw the others heading for the far wall as planned, but by a stroke of bad luck, the plane must have shifted in the tractor beams and he’d been caught in one of them. The focused gravity beam was pulling him toward it, and he soon fell ahead of the aircraft. There were multiple beams focused on it, balancing one another, but he was caught in the gravity of just one, literally falling toward it—which meant he was moving faster by the second. If he didn’t act fast, he’d splatter into the hangar wall just as if he’d fallen off a cliff.
Even as the thought formed, Sulu swung the phaser rifle up and blasted in the direction he was falling, continuing to fire until he blew out the tractor emitter. But it was too late. He was going too fast. And his phaser could do no more good, since its beam had no significant recoil. Instinctively, he spread-eagled himself to maximize air resistance, wishing he still had on that wingsuit from the Fiilestii module. The move slowed him a little, but he was drawing too close. He could tell he wouldn’t decelerate enough in time. All he could do was thrust his legs forward and attempt a parachute landing fall, hoping to absorb enough of the impact force that it would merely put him in sickbay for a few weeks rather than killing him outright.
But then he saw a shape soaring toward him. It was a Fiilestii, wearing the colors of a protector. The winged alien was matching his speed and course, and the pilot in Sulu was intrigued to watch how she angled her wings and body to compensate for the lack of gravity to counteract lift. (He was pleased with himself that he could recognize Fiilestii sexes from a distance. The difference in plumage patterns was subtle.)
Sulu offered no resistance as the Fiilestii protector caught him, tossed his phaser rifle aside, and flapped her wings fiercely to veer them sideways and reduce speed. But he was just playing possum until the right moment. When it came, he pulled his phaser pistol from his belt and stunned the protector at point-blank range. They were still heading toward the hangar wall at an angle, but at a slow, easily survivable speed. Sulu pushed off the protector’s body, sending himself toward the wall and the Fiilestii back out into the open air, where she tumbled lazily. He flipped, bent his knees as his momentum carried him into the wall, then launched back toward the others.
The rest of the team had reached a vacant docking structure, which they were using for cover as the protector team flew toward them in an inspection pod, two of them leaning out the side hatches to fire their stun weapons. Three more protectors were riding some kind of maintenance sleds, basically open platforms with clear cowlings at the front and waldoes extending forward, ridden in a motorcycle-style crouch with the arms in the waldo sleeves. The waldoes were designed for fine manipulation, able to handle the protectors’ stun rifles as well, allowing the sled riders to pin the Enterprise team down in a crossfire. Zhang had already been stunned, her second time this mission, and McCoy was futilely trying to get out in the open long enough to get a tricorder scan of her vitals before she drifted too far from the docking structure. Kirk pulled the doctor back behind a strut just before a stun bolt would have taken him down.
But Sulu realized his mishap could be a lucky break. The nearest sled rider had turned his back to Sulu, apparently discounting him as a threat. If he struck fast, he could make the most of it. Luckily he was heading in the right direction to intercept the sled—if he timed it right.
He stayed in a headfirst, arms-back dive posture as long as possible for maximum airspeed, drawing closer. Seeing what he was doing, Koust let out a fearsome battle cry and fired wildly at the sled rider to distract him. When the time came to swing his own phaser forward, Sulu made the shot count; as the protector’s body fell limp, the sled stopped thrusting, letting it stay on course long enough for Sulu to intercept it. Well, almost. He lunged out for it and barely managed to snag the protector’s foot, his momentum almost pulling the humanoid off the sled. Luckily, the protector’s arm snagged in the waldo sleeve. Sulu was able to clamber over his body and reach the sled before the protector slipped free completely.
The controls were intuitive for anyone of humanoid build, so Sulu was quickly in motion, though he almost lost the waldo’s grip on the protector’s firearm. He saw that the others were still keeping the inspection pod and other two sleds occupied with a steady phaser barrage. Spock fired fewer shots than the others, but they counted more; as Sulu watched, the Vulcan’s precision aim picked off one of the protectors leaning out of the pod. But another one caught her stunned colleague, pulled him back into the pod, and took his place. Prescott came out from cover, taking advantage of the brief lull, and opened fire on the pod. But the new protector was a Tessegri, her quick reflexes letting her hit him with a grazing blow to the arm before he could hit her. Prescott’s phaser rifle floated free from his limp right arm, and he weakly strained for it with his left, making himself a more exposed target in his dazed condition. Before the Tessegri could take Prescott out completely, Sulu stunned her, then played the rifle’s beam into the pod’s cockpit through the open door while Uhura pulled Prescott to safety. The pod swerved toward Sulu, its windshield blocking his fire. He applied maximum thrust on a collision course, pushing himself back and out of the sled at the last second. The impact smashed the sled and cracked the pod’s windshield, but the larger vehicle held.
Sulu was still traveling toward it at a fair clip, though, and as it twisted sideways from the impact, he snagged the door frame and fired a few more shots into the cockpit with his phaser. He scored one more sure hit and a glancing blow, but then had to duck as another protector opened fire on him. Pushing free, Sulu twisted around, dialing his phaser up to high power at the same time. He fired freely at the inspection pod’s thrusters, causing what damage he could as he drifted clear.
A stun beam shot by his head from behind, close enough to make his scalp tingle. Tipping his head back, he saw that one of the two remaining sleds was arcing toward him, its rider trying to get a bead. Adrift and ballistic, there was no way Sulu could dodge. But then a phaser bolt struck the protector, who convulsed, sending his next shot flying wild. Sulu looked left and saw Uhura lowering her phaser rifle and giving him a blinding grin. Talk about stunning, Sulu thought, grinning back.
A moment later, once he’d snagged the approaching sled and dislodged its unconscious operator, Sulu saw that Kirk and Nored had the third sled rider pinned down, while the remaining conscious protectors in the pod were trapped there by fire from Koust and Spock. A shot from Nored took the sled rider in the leg, convulsing her and putting her sled in a spin that allowed Kirk to get a decisive stun shot off. Settling himself into the second sled’s control seat, Sulu went after the pod again.
They were ready for him this time, though. The pod still had enough maneuvering control to rotate toward him, and stun beams lanced out through a small hole they’d burned into the damaged windshield. His own stun beams bounced off the windshield, having no effect. But he was able to keep them distracted long enough for Kirk to kick off from the docking frame, grab on to the pod, force the hatch, and take out the rest of its occupants with a spinning dive-and-fire maneuver that would only be possible in freefall.
Sulu picked up Kirk and took him back to the others, snagging Zhang along the way. “Victory!” Koust was crying at the top of his lungs.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Kirk called back.
Even as he spoke, a transporter chime sounded. All around them, new protectors beamed in—dozens of them, all armed and armored. Sulu recognized Nisu and her elite team at the head of the group. No sooner had they materialized than shots rang out, stunning Prescott, Nored, and Koust. A different kind of beam lashed against Sulu’s sled, sending St. Elmo’s fire across its surface. He instinctively pushed free before receiving a full shock, but he was left adrift. He saw that Kirk had leaped free just in time and taken Z
hang with him. Sulu heaved a sigh of relief, not wanting to know what that beam would’ve done to her on top of two stun shots.
“Have them stand down, Kirk!” Nisu cried. “We outnumber you by millions. You can’t escape.”
With a heavy sigh, Kirk let go of his weapon and let it drift away. “Stand down,” he ordered. Sulu chafed at the command, but knew it was pointless to keep fighting. He let his phaser go as well. One of Nisu’s protectors jetted over, using thrusters in his suit, to secure it and him.
In moments, the whole team, conscious and otherwise, had been rounded up and placed in handcuffs, floating before Nisu. Her huge eyes focused on Spock, and even just getting the peripheral effect of her gaze held Sulu enraptured. “This was foolhardy,” she said. “The Web is something greater than you can understand. You cannot bring it down.”
“We . . . do not wish to,” Spock said, struggling against the hypnotic effect of her stare. “Whatever Tirak has claimed . . . we are not your enemies.”
“And that makes your folly all the more dangerous.” She broke her gaze on Spock to look around at the group. “Where is Balok?”
“We don’t know,” Kirk told her while Spock caught his breath. “If you check inside the aircraft, you’ll see that the Balok we thought we liberated is a fake.”
“What? That makes no—”
She was cut off as the hangar module heaved and tolled like a bell. Floating in midair, the protectors and their captives were spared from the former, but the acoustic shock was like a physical blow.
As the echoes died away, Sulu heard Kirk’s voice through the ringing in his ears. “Nisu, what’s happening?”
She looked away, heeding an inner voice while new, more distant thunder boomed from outside. Whatever it was, it was no storm. “Explosions in the atmosphere. Near our modules, though none has been hit.”
The Face of the Unknown Page 22