Jassat noticed pressure building up inside of him. It was a strange sensation that he couldn’t compare with anything he had ever experienced. It had nothing in common with the pressure of headaches or an upset stomach. It seemed as if his body had suddenly become fuller and heavier, and that the muscles were bulging under every square centimeter of his skin.
Panic began to spread within him, and he looked down at himself. But his body looked perfectly normal. His hands weren’t swollen at all, and the arms and legs still featured their usual proportions. Only a weak light aura formed around Jassat’s skin, like the sheen of phosphorescent oil.
The pressure increased while the six Old Ones silently pumped their white energy into Jassat. The strange feeling turned into nausea, and finally pain. Jassat gasped, his heart rate increased, and sweat broke on his forehead. A weak mist that slowly thickened veiled the beach and the ocean. Jassat needed a moment to realize that it was his own light aura limiting his sight.
“How much longer?” He had the feeling that his body was about to explode. Nothing could withstand such pressure for long.
“IT IS ALMOST DONE,” the Old One replied. “WE MUST NOT BE HESITANT. IF YOU WANT TO ELIMINATE THE BOY, YOU NEED TO TAKE IN AS MUCH ENERGY AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.”
“I understand.” Jassat breathed hectically in and out.
The humming increased, as did the light and the pressure. The world around Jassat ak Namur blanked out.
* * *
The door to the holodeck hissed open, and ak Namur stumbled out into the corridor, shaking with apparent exhaustion. His entire body was suffused with a white aura, and his eyes were like tiny suns, they glowed so bright.
“Doctor!” shouted Adams, rushing to the lieutenant’s aid. Kirk also moved to help him.
Calloway pulled out her tricorder, pointing it at the young Renao. “His readings are extreme. Heart rate has increased considerably, brainwaves show hyperactivity.” Closing her tricorder, she knelt on the floor, opening her medkit in order to prepare a hypospray.
“No,” ak Namur gasped. “No… medication. We don’t know what that would do… to the energy.”
“He is correct,” Spock said. He had been waiting alongside Adams, Calloway, and Kirk outside the holodeck. “We must not take any risks.”
“But he could die if this condition persists too long.” The doctor looked at ak Namur. “Your heart will fail eventually.”
To Adams’s surprise the young Renao actually managed a smile. “Eventually doesn’t… bother me. The main thing is that we reach Iad beforehand.”
Adams acted without hesitation. Leaving ak Namur to Kirk, he tapped his combadge. “Adams to bridge.”
“Go ahead,” Roaas said.
“Commander, set course for the Lembatta Cluster, system LC-13. We’re flying straight to our destination in slipstream.”
“Captain,” Massimo Ciarese, who had taken over Jassat’s post, said. “That’s awfully dangerous. The stars there are extremely close together. We would be speeding through an obstacle course with no margin for even the tiniest of errors.”
“Then make sure, Mr. Ciarese, that you don’t make any errors.”
He heard the young Italian officer gulp. “Understood, Captain.”
While the background noise of the Prometheus’s engines changed, Adams glanced one final time through the open door into the holodeck. The ten energy beings stood on the beach of Jassat’s homeworld, staring back at him.
“Thank you,” he said.
“MAY YOUR JOURNEY BE A SUCCESSFUL ONE.” The light aura around their photonic bodies, the holodeck itself, and the corridor of the Prometheus became darker as the beings withdrew.
“Computer, end program,” said Adams. The beach, the ocean, and the nocturnal starlit sky flickered and disappeared, returning to the gold-and-black grid pattern.
The captain turned to Calloway. “Take the lieutenant to sickbay for observation.”
The doctor nodded. “Come on, Jassat,” she said, taking over from Kirk.
“With your permission, Doctor, I would like to accompany you,” said Spock. “I believe I might be able to aid the lieutenant with his burden.”
“Sure, Ambassador.”
“I’ll be on the bridge,” said Adams. “Kirk, you go back to the engine room and put in a good word with the slipstream drive. We need every ounce of speed we can get.”
“I’ll make sure we’re just as fast if not faster than the Aventine,” the engineer said with a cheeky grin.
They went their separate ways, and the captain walked to the nearest turbolift. Several seconds later he reached the command center. On the bridge viewscreen he saw that the Prometheus had just left the outer regions of the chaos zone behind.
“The course to the Lembatta Cluster has been set, sir,” Ciarese said.
“We’re awaiting your orders, Captain,” Roaas added, getting up from the command chair.
Adams nodded as confirmation. “Give me a rear view of the ship.”
He just wanted one last glance at these strange beings who had helped them so selflessly and without asking for any kind of reward.
The screen’s perspective changed, and there they were. Ten vast energy clouds—six white, four red—hung at the periphery of the chaos zone in space. They had escorted the Prometheus there and had made sure that she steered safely through the radiation inferno that was their home. Now, they stayed behind. Their bodies of light glittered and glistened, while they looked on, watching the small starship fly away. Maybe they were the only ones of their kind, and without a doubt they, and their habitat that defied all known laws of nature, were the most alien that Adams had ever seen in his life.
“I hope we will meet again one day,” he said quietly, “and preferably under better circumstances. There’s so much we could learn from each other.”
As if they were responding, the flickering in the bodies of the Old Ones and the Young increased briefly, before they darted away. They shrank with unbelievable speed before disappearing in the raging chaos.
Adams nodded. “Return to forward view.” It was time to look ahead. He walked to his command chair and sat down.
“Mr. Ciarese, take us to Iad. Maximum speed.”
26
DECEMBER 2, 2385
I.K.S. Bortas, on the periphery of the Souhla system Lembatta Cluster
“We’re arriving at the Souhla system. Dropping from warp.” Mobok’s fingers danced across the instruments before his eyes.
The shuddering and vibrating of the Bortas, which had been pushed to the limits of her performance, stopped, and the tunnel of red swirls collapsed along with the warp bubble. Dense stardust became visible outside.
“Position?” Kromm asked.
“We have reached the coordinates that Samooh entered into the holographic shuttle controls,” Raspin said. “In front of us lies the asteroid belt on the periphery of the Souhla system.”
“Begin scanning. Somewhere around here must be this wretched shipyard of the Purifying Flame.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kromm turned to his communications officer. “Lieutenant Klarn, any news from the fleets?”
“Yes, Captain. General Akbas’s flagship, the K’mpec, is closest to us. She will be here in half an hour. All other ships will follow within minutes. General Klag’s fleet will need another hour. Oh, and, Captain…” Klarn turned to face Kromm, grimacing. “The Federation found out about our discovery. According to a message from General Klag almost a dozen Starfleet ships are en route to this position. They will arrive at the same time as our armada.”
“Captain,” L’emka said, “we should wait for reinforcements to arrive. You’ve seen the multitude of attack fighters waiting for us in the shipyard. The Bortas will not be able to defeat them singlehandedly. So far, it would seem that we haven’t been noticed yet.”
Kromm’s fingers clawed into the armrests of his command chair, while he glared at his first officer. “Spoken like a true coward, Comm
ander. Oh no, we haven’t come this far to have the glory for the victory over the Purifying Flame taken away from us. The Bortas will fire the first shot in this battle—and the last, so help me Kahless. Chumarr, engage the cloak! Raspin, find this shipyard—and by Kahless’s hand, I’ll make sure that you will have your own verse in the song they’re going to sing about us!”
Base of the Purifying Flame
The wailing of the proximity alert startled Koubla ak Yafor so much that he almost fell out of his chair. For nearly sixty days he had been aboard the NA-2812, serving as sensor guard of the night shift in the command center. Not once had any of the alerts signaled.
Right now, though, the most feared alert sounded. Proximity alert meant that a ship was heading toward their shipyard without sending the valid identification code. That had to mean trouble.
Koubla leaned forward, checking his sensors. He felt queasy when he spotted a blinking dot almost above them in space. Within the next second it had disappeared, and the proximity alert stopped.
He blinked in confusion, staring at his instruments.
Mesood ak Aneez, his friend and fellow soldier, came running from the adjacent room where he had just brewed a Lamat tea in order to stay awake during the late hours. A wet spot on his dark green jacket bore witness to the fact that the alert had startled him considerably as well. “Koubla, what’s the matter?”
“I don’t know,” Koubla replied. “There was a ship right above us. Now it’s gone. Could it have been a sensor malfunction?”
“Open the event log and we’ll have a closer look.” Mesood had been working twice as long in the asteroid station as Koubla.
Koubla typed in the commands, and the dot reappeared on the sensor screen.
Mesood joined Koubla, propping himself up on the console. “Try to run an identification. Start with the sphere defiler ships that we know to be in the cluster and the neighboring systems.”
“Good idea.” Koubla’s fingers danced across the keys. With a signal the computer confirmed a match. “By the spheres! It’s the Klingons. But why have they disappeared so abruptly?”
“Maybe they were able to jam our sensors. It doesn’t matter.” Mesood turned around to the comm systems. “If the Klingons are that close, they will discover us. We need to inform the Honorable Commander and raise the alarm.”
* * *
Hamash ak Bhedal was jerked from a bizarre dream by a humming noise. He hadn’t slept properly for weeks, and his mood was accordingly bad.
“What?” he yelled into the communication module after pressing the button.
“This is ak Aneez at the base, Honorable,” a panicky voice said.
“Why are you disturbing me?”
“The proximity alert has announced a Klingon ship, Honorable, that dropped from warp in the immediate vicinity.”
“What?” Ak Bhedal was instantly wide awake. He jumped to his feet, grabbing his pants and boots. “Have we been discovered?”
“We don’t know, Honorable. The ship disappeared again. We’re worried that it might be interfering with our sensors.”
Ak Bhedal cursed openly. “They cloaked. The Klingons are capable of masking their ships from sensors, just like we do with our attack fighters.” There it was—the beginning of the end. Where one cloaked Klingon ship skulked around, there would surely be more. Now he had to act swiftly, because their holy mission was in grave danger. “Sound the alarm. Everyone report to their ships and attack fighters. I want the Inner Circle to convene in the command center. I’m on my way there.”
Without waiting for confirmation, he put on his black tunic and buckled his weapon belt up while crossing his private quarters. He opened the door and made his way double quick down the corridor.
The sirens inside the asteroid base began to wail.
* * *
“It’s too early. They’re coming a day too early.” Golaah ak Partam threw his hands up in desperation, while glaring at ak Bhedal reproachfully, as if it was his fault that the sphere defilers had found them.
“Our opponent doesn’t adhere to a schedule,” the commander said. He could relate to the frustration of the starship engineer from Xhehenem. Just yesterday they had finished the latest batch of attack fighters they had been working on. Fifty Scorpion fighters waited for their deployment. But they hadn’t uploaded all programs for flight control, weapon control, or propulsion yet, so the ships were useless at the moment.
“How many vessels are ready for deployment?” he asked.
“Twenty-two attack fighters,” ak Partam replied. “Plus four shuttles capable of warp flight, one transport ship, and our third refurbished solar-jumper.”
“Have your technicians speed up the program transfer, Golaah,” ak Bhedal said. “Omit everything that we don’t necessarily need. We need those attack fighters in the nebula. Everything has to leave base as quickly as possible.”
“Are we going to fight?”
The commander shook his head. “No. A few attack fighters will keep the Klingons busy and buy us some time. The rest will spread out in space. The loss of this base is a setback for our holy mission to reestablish the Harmony of Spheres. But even if this base falls, the Purifying Flame will carry on!”
I.K.S. Bortas
“Fighters are launching from the large asteroid at starboard!” Lieutenant Chumarr shouted from the gunnery station. On the bridge’s viewscreen, one of the thousands of rocks that made up the asteroid belt on the periphery of the Souhla system turned red when the gunner marked it.
“We’ve found our shipyard,” Kromm said. “Can you confirm that, Raspin?”
“Not yet, Captain,” the Rantal replied. “The asteroid is rich in metals, and they block our sensors out. I’ll check visually.” He fell silent for a few seconds. “Confirmed, Captain. Look.”
The asteroid went into the center of the main viewscreen and Raspin enlarged the image. Artificial structures on the jagged surface became visible. Apparently the Purifying Flame had hollowed the enormous piece of rock, or they used natural cavities for their base inside the asteroid. Only a handful of structures on the surface gave their presence away. It was a good hideout, Kromm had to give them credit for that.
“Battle stations!” the captain said. “Decloak and attack. Fire at will. And don’t hold back, Chumarr. We’re here to wipe the threat that the Purifying Flame poses from the face of the galaxy once and for all.”
27
DECEMBER 2, 2385
U.S.S. Prometheus, approaching Iad Lembatta Cluster
The slipstream tunnel disgorged the Prometheus with screaming drive and shuddering hull out into space. Captain Adams had pushed his ship far past its specified limits in order to return from the Taurus Dark Cloud to the Lembatta Cluster as quickly as possible. Every minute counted, because nobody knew how long Jassat ak Namur would survive as a vessel for the white energy—not Doctor Calloway, not Spock, not even the young Renao himself.
Straight in front of them, a cloud of swirling chaos seethed. At first sight it seemed as if the Prometheus hadn’t moved at all during the past few hours, as their destination looked very much like their starting point.
“We have reached the Souhla system,” Carson reported. Relief was audible in her voice. The last part of the way across the cluster had been like a charge through a minefield—but the mines here were super-hot enormous gas globes.
“Shields up,” said Adams. “Yellow alert. All stations, report.”
“The engine room reports minor damage to the EPS conduits,” Chell said at the engineering station, while the signal stripes that were embedded in the bridge walls began to glow yellow. “Additionally, a bank of bio-neural gel packs has burnt through. The ship’s readiness for action is not affected.”
“Understood. Roaas?”
“I’m picking up ships on the periphery of the system,” the Caitian replied. “One of them is the Bortas. She’s engaged in a skirmish.”
Surprised, Adams turned to face him. “A skirm
ish? Who is Kromm fighting?”
“Apparently, Scorpion replicas. I’m also picking up several shuttles and a transport, all taking off from a large asteroid within the Kuiper belt.”
“Mr. Winter, hail the Bortas.”
“Aye, sir.”
The chaos zone and the nebula on the viewscreen disappeared and were replaced by the bridge of the Vor’cha-class attack cruiser. The ship shuddered; sparks flew from overloaded energy conduits at the ceiling. Still, Kromm—sitting on his command chair—hadn’t looked this happy since the beginning of their mission.
“ Prometheus, you’re late.”
“What’s going on, Kromm?” Adams asked.
“What do you think, Adams? We found the Flame’s shipyard. A handful of fighters are breathing down our neck, while the rest of these nuchpu’ try to escape. We could do with some help to stop them before they’re gone.”
“We still have another mission to complete above Iad. But we’ll be by your side as soon as possible.”
“More glory for us, then,” Kromm said with a nasty grin. He terminated the link.
Adams focused his attention on the matter at hand. “All right, let’s take Mr. ak Namur to Iad. Computer, call for battle bridges to be staffed. Mr. Mendon, upload the adaptive radiation filter into the deflector array. Ensign Ciarese, synchronize the flight controls of all three ship segments.”
A frenzy of activity broke out on the bridge when the officers hurried to put the orders into action. At the same time, the computer’s voice called personnel aboard the ship to battle stations.
“Battle bridges report ready for duty,” said Paul Winter.
Star Trek Prometheus - in the Heart of Chaos Page 27