Oh, Spock ... you understood then/ Why can't you understand now?
Don't hate your father.
Love him, as I do. Understand him, as I do.
Sarek ... you are reading this, I know you are. Show
Spock this entry, even if you don't choose to let him see the others.
Show him. Perhaps it will help ...
So much still to do, to say. Wish I could visit my garden again. My
favorite place ...
Sarek, remember that, afterward. My garden. I want to be in my garden,
afterward.
More to write, but tired ... so tired.
Sarek ... I can still sense you ... in the back of my mind If only I
could touch you, see your face ... just once more ...
Peter Kirk stood before the closed bridge dooms and found himself
clenching his fists. Relax, he ordered himself, but his body refused to
listen. Whatg the big deal?It's only your first command/He took a deep
breath, let it out slowly, and moved forward just far enough to activate
the doors. They opened with a familiar whoosh.
The minute he stepped onto the bridge, the crew came to attention, but
Peter barely noticed them as more than shadowy shapes, he was so keyed
up. This was it. The moment of truth. He walked forward, trying to
conceal his tension.
The bridge seemed dimmer than he was used to. "As you were," he ordered
the crew, trying to sound normal, even cavalier as he approached the
captain's chair. The captain chair. Your chair Even now he was still
amazed that he was here. That he was finally in command of the
Enterprise.
He'd thought the commandant was joking when he'd told him. His first
command. The Enterprise. He eased himself in the command seat, and
touched the armrest console almost reverently.
"Present location, navigator?" he asked.
"Sector 3414, approaching the Loop Nebula, Captain," a familiar voice
replied.
Peter's head snapped up. For the first time, he really looked at the
crew. He'd known he'd be working with senior officers, of course, but
... "Commander Chekov," he said quietly. "I didn't expect to see you
here."
"Well, sir," Chekov replied with a saucy grin, "ve vere just in the
neighborhood ... " Peter blinked, and looked around him. Lieutenant
s'bysh sat at the helm, by Chekov's side. A glance to his left showed
Commander Uhura fussing with her communications board. She nodded at him
when she noticed him watching her.
He stiffened in surprise when the seat before the Life Sciences and
Support station revolved, revealing Dr. McCoy. The doctor's expression
was one of sheer delight, as he reported, "Life-support operating at
peak efficiency, sir, and sickbay's fully staffed and ready for action."
"Thank you, Doctor," Peter said blandly, in spite of the bead of sweat
he suddenly felt tracking down his face. He didn't want to look over at
the science station, but he had to.
"First Officer, anything to report?"
"Not at this time, sir," Spock's familiar, placid baritone replied.
So, it was old home week, huh? He shook his head. Either that or it was
a dream he'd wake up from ... but that wasn't bloody likely.
Most of the cadets "fortunate" enough to make it to the Kobayashi Maru
had to contend with a bridge crew of half cadets and half experienced
officers. It wasn't unusual for a well-known visiting ship's crew to
offer to man the simulator, but Peter had never heard of anyone taking
the test with the entire bridge crew from a Constellation-class
starship!
Usually, there were other cadets being tested, not just the command
officer, but Peter was so late taking his test, there were no longer any
cadets left to be part of his crew. The experienced bridge crew's job
was to "push" the captain, see if he or she had the confidence to
override their experience and advice. But to have this crew ... ?
Maybe he could lodge a protest with the exam board. Yeah. After Ifinish
the test! There was no getting out of it.
He glanced around the bridge once more. Uncle Jim was nowhere to be
found--at least he could be thankful for that.
He licked his lips.
Hell, it's just a test. It can't be half as bad as flying through the
ring around Qo 'nos, or escaping from Kamarag's prison! Then why was he
so nervous? He could feel Spock's unwavering gaze searing the back of
his head.
Suddenly, Uhura sat up straight. "Incoming transmission, sir. It's ...
garbled ... "
"Put it on speakers, Lieutenant," he ordered, swiveling his chair.
"Enterprise, can you hear me? This is the Kobayashi Maru," a heavily
accented Slavic voice reported. Peter strained to hear the woman, but
the broadcast was dim and full of stat ic.
"Can't you boost that, Commander?" he asked.
Uhura shook her head. "That is boosted, sir. That transmission is coming
straight through the Loop Nebula, sir. It's a miracle we can hear it at
all." She frowned, concentrating intensely, and manipulated her board.
"We have suffered a rupture in our matter-antimatter containment field,"
the woman on the Kobayashi Maru continued. "We have had severe damage to
our life-support system. We've ejected our fuel to keep the ship intact,
but we're down to batteries now."
"Kobayashi Maru, "Uhura shouted, "what are your coordinates?" The
transmission grew even fainter, and Peter strained to hear it.
"Coordinates 3417, mark 6. We are five hundred thousand kilometers away
from the Cygnus Loop Nebula, and drifting. Battery power can maintain
life-support for one hour ... repeat ... one hour. If we don't get
help soon, three hundred sixty-two lives will be lost. Enterprise, can
you hear me? We have one hour or less ..." The voice broke up into
garbled static.
"Mr. Chekov, can you bring up schematics on the location of Kobayashi
Maru?" Peter asked.
"Aye, sir," Chekov replied, and within seconds a graphic image appeared
on the big viewscreen.
The viewscreen before him showed Enterprise currently moving toward a
huge nebula, a massive cloud of gas and
dust, in colors of hazy blue, white, and pink. On the other side of the
nebula, if the coordinates they had given were correct, the dying
freighter, Kobayashi Maru, was drifting.
Peter frowned. So far, the rumors had been correct. This was a new
scenario. With the exception of the familiar, damaged vessel, most of
what was happening had been changed. For example, he now had to rescue
the people on the ship, not simply the ship itself. Once they were
aboard assuming he got that far, which was highly unlikely-- then he'd
worry about how to put a tractor beam on the vessel herself. Could he
tow her?
Peter forced himself to consider the big picture. "Mr. Chekov," Peter
said crisply, "where are we in relation to the Klingon Neutral Zone?"
Chekov's hands moved over his board, and the viewscreen presented an
image of the Neutral Zone in relation to the injured ship. "Three
parsees," Chekov reported,
"sir."
If they didn't have to go into the Neutral Z
one, then what ... ? Never
mind, the Maru didn't have much time.
"Mr. Chekov, plot us fastest optimal course, skirting the nebula as
closely as we can without encountering interference.
ETA to intercept?"
Chekov acknowledged the order, did some quick calculations, then finally
reported. "We can circle the nebula around its smallest side, and arrive
at Kobayashi Maru in fifteen minutes, sir. Optimal speed this close to
the nebula ... warp two."
"If I might suggest, Captain," Spock interjected, "we could reduce that
time by ten point eighteen minutes by going through the nebula at warp
one."
Peter looked back at the colorful schematic. That was true, but why did
that make him uneasy?
"We are the only ship in this quadrant, sir," Spock continued. "And, as
you yourself confirmed, we are a safe distance from the Klingon Neutral
Zone. Going through the nebula would seem to be the most efficient
course of action."
Peter set his jaw. "All of that is true, Mr. Spock, but going through
the nebula leaves us blind, deaf, dumb, and helpless.
We can't even engage our shields in there. When we come out the other
side there would be several seconds before we became reoriented." He
smiled at the Vulcan.
"For some reason, that makes me uneasy," he added, dryly.
"Lieutenant s'bysh." He swung his chair back around.
"Take us around the nebula using Mr. Chekov's suggested course. Warp
two."
He turned to address his first officer. "Mr. Spock, I want you to send a
buoy with a long-range sensor scan in it through the nebula, that can
send us back information on the conditions on the other side of the
nebula, before we arrive there. It'll stay ahead of us and help us
pinpoint the Maru, or warn us of any other possible problems before we
stumble into them."
Spock reported the firing of the sensor buoy. Then, Peter slapped the
console. "Engineering!"
"Aye, sir!" a thick Scottish burr responded.
Why am I not surprised to hear you? "Scotty, we're going to need to beam
over more than three hundred people in less than thirty minutes ... "
"It isna possible, Captain! If we used every transporter in the bloody
ship it wouldn't ..."
"The cargo transporters, Mr. Scott. Can't they be adjusted to transport
people?"
"Aye, sir, but--" Scott began hesitantly.
"Use all the cargo bays, and get everyone you've got on this. We need to
be able to get those people on board fast, and from long range. There's
a cranky matter-antimatter pod floating somewhere around this area, so
we're not going to be able to get too close. We'll be on site in ten
minutes."
"Ten minutes!" the Scotsman protested. "But, Captain "
"You're running out of time, Mr. Scott!"
"Halfway around the rim of the nebula, sir," Chekov reported dutifully.
"Anything new from the Maru, Uhura?" Peter asked.
"I can't raise them, sir," she informed him.
"Long-range scanning, Mr. Chekov. Any signs of enemy ships out there?"
Peter found himself twitching in the chair.
Chekov shrugged, totally unconcerned. "Nothing, sir. But there have been
no reports of hostile activity in this region."
"Is that right?" he murmured. This was wrong, all wrong.
Where were the damned Klingons? Where was the enemy?
This was too easy. He realized his mouth was dry. "Mr. Spock, are we
getting any reports from that buoy?"
"Yes, sir, data coming in now."
"Put it on the screen." A new image came up, one that did not have the
nebula. The nebula would be behind the buoy, so it would be offscreen.
Before the buoy hung nothing but the blackness of space, and the
twinkling of far distant stars.
And in the foreground, but still at a distance, the crew could see a
damaged ship, drifting aimlessly. Dangerously close to it remained the
matter-antimatter pod. He'd have to make Scotty transport those people
from the farthest reach of transporter range. Oh, damn, damn, damn ...
this is too easy.
He blinked, staring at the viewscreen so hard his eyes burned.
"Approaching the other side of the nebula, sir," Chekov said quietly.
"Course and speed, Captain?" s'bysh asked.
Peter's head jerked up, and he stared at the innocent-looking
viewscreen. "Lieutenant Uhura, any word from the Kobayashi Maru?"
"Nothing, sir," she reported. "I keep hailing, but ..."
"We're past the nebula, they should be able to respond," Peter said to
himself.
"Unless their accident has destroyed their communications abilities,"
Spock suggested. "Shall we increase speed, Captain? We are still only
traveling at warp two ... "
Peter cut him off with a quick chop of his hand. "Helm, full stop."
s'bysh hesitated, and Peter shot her a look.
"Full stop, aye," she repeated, and obeyed.
"Captain!" McCoy snapped. "We're runnin' out of time!
Those people are breathin' away the last of their air!"
"Those people," Peter informed his crew tightly, "are sitting in the
middle of a trap. Mr. Chekov, what is our position relative to the
Romulan Neutral Zone?"
"Ve are just outside it, sir."
Oho/They almost got me there. If I'd gone straight in, I'd have been
over the Neutral Zone before I knew it. Nudging Chekov over, Peter
tapped in a sequence on his board. A scrolling line of data ran down the
side of the viewscreen for the crew to see. "Check out those readings.
There are five anomalies surrounding the Maru, and each of those
anomalies possesses a specific energy signature--a sure sign of cloaked
vessels."
The cadet took a deep breath. "The Kobayashi Maru is being used as the
bait in an elaborate trap. Yellow alert, everyone." He turned to Spock.
The Vulcan was clearly surprised by Peter's announcement and was
double-checking the readings. "They're there, aren't they, Mr. Spock?"
Amazingly, Spock hesitated. "Data does seem to show certain anomalies
"He trailed off, and continued to his viewscreen.
came barreling out of his chair. "Well, what are we gonna do about those
people? You can't just leave 'em there, Captain!"
"I have no intention of abandoning those people, Dr. McCoy," Peter
assured him, even as he began to unbutton his uniform jacket.
"Captain, what is it that makes you think these anomalies are the
readings of cloaked Romulan vessels?" Spock asked.
finished removing his jacket and draped it over the command chair.
"Well, since we're on the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone, and we're
currently waging peace with the Klingons, my guess is those cloaked
vessels are Romulan cruisers ... from the size of them. Call it a 'gut
feeling," Spock, but we're about to test it out." He pressed the
intercom. "Mr. Scott, have one of your staff program the synthesizer to
manufacture two Vulcan lirpas." He turned to McCoy. "Doctor, please
bring those lirpas back to me as soon as they are ready."
"Lirpas?" McCoy drew himself up. "Me? What are you talking about,
lirpas?"
At the
same moment, Scotty was saying, "Lirpas? Sir?"
Peter's voice took on an edge. "That was an order, Doctor! That was an
order, Engineer!"
McCoy cleared his throat, grunted, and left the bridge without further
comment.
"Lirpas?" Spock said, incredulously.
"Mr. Scott!" Peter called, slapping the console hurriedly.
"What's happening with those transporters?"
"We're almost ready, sir," Scott reported.
"Power it up, Mr. Scott. Two minutes. On my signal." He slapped off the
con before Scott could protest again.
"Excuse me, Captain," said Mr. Spock in his driest tone.
"If you believe we are confronting Romulan vessels, shouldn't we engage
our shields?"
"No," Peter countermanded, shaking his head. "We're not in firing range,
and we're not going to be for three minutes. However, Mr. Spock, if any
of those 'anomalies' move within the next several minutes, indicating
that one or more of those vessels is approaching, you are to raise
Star Trek - Sarek Page 49