Malkus was able to use his pawns’natural abilities for himself, so the Klingons he had enthralled all did what came naturally—they unholstered their weapons as they moved through the tree-lined route between the hill where Malkus had been uncovered and the shuttle. They all had at least one bladed weapon, and some had energy weapons as well.
The six continued onward to the shuttle, while J’lang and the other three held back. Spock and Worf were nearby, Malkus knew that much. But he could not pinpoint where. They were not in sight, but the trees and bushes provided plenty of cover. It had been a long time since Malkus had coordinated a ground campaign—before his rise to power, in fact, since after that, he had generals to do the work for him—but he remembered enough to know that the two ambassadors were probably hiding behind one of the larger trees or one of the bushes. It was only a matter of flushing them out.
He split the foursome up, each taking a compass point for direction. At a certain distance beyond the field in which Malkus knew Spock and Worf had to be, they would turn back.
J’lang was carrying a weapon that was apparently used for the sculpting of rock into artwork, but it would work just as well to rend flesh. He also had a dagger of some kind—apparently, most Klingons carried one; they called it a d’k tahg. Both were one-handed weapons, so Malkus had J’lang have both at the ready.
Unfortunately, a search through the bushes and trees to the west revealed nothing. He turned J’lang back. When he arrived at the starting point, he saw two of his other pawns. Making contact with them, he learned that they had found nothing, either.
So where can they—?
Before Malkus could complete the thought, a bottle of some sort flew through the air and broke apart upon impact with the ground. When it did so, it burst into flames—and the fire quickly spread around the clearing.
Spock swung down from one of the branches in a kicking motion, his feet colliding with the back of one of the other Klingons’ heads. As he fell, the other Klingon turned to fire his disruptor on the ambassador.
Before he could take the shot, however, a dark hand gripped his right shoulder. The Klingon convulsed and fell to the ground. Only then did Malkus see that the other ambassador had used the flames as cover to sneak up behind him and apply the same maneuver to the Klingon that Spock had used on Worf earlier.
I had thought that to be a Vulcan technique.
Then the fourth Klingon, who was named Roka, returned, and immediately charged Spock. He had instinctively attacked with his bat’leth—an edged weapon, but one favored by some Klingons over energy weapons. With astonishing speed, Spock grabbed one of the branches that had caught fire, and used it to hold Roka off.
Meanwhile, Malkus instructed J’lang to charge Worf. The sculpting tool could indeed be deadly, but it was not a distance weapon.
The Klingon that Spock had downed also had a bat’leth, and the half-breed was able to keep Roka at bay with his torch long enough to grab the weapon and use it to parry.
Malkus noted that Spock was using a fighting style that he recognized from the other Klingons he’d possessed—it was based on their form of combat called mok’bara. Malkus also knew that Spock had never studied the mok’bara.
Then again, he thought as Worf calmly dodged and weaved out of the way of J’lang’s two-pronged d’k tahg and sculpting-tool attack, this Klingon ambassador had likely never learned the nerve pinch.
Malkus enjoyed a worthy foe as much as the next tyrant, but enough was enough. He needed to end this and get back to the business of rebuilding his empire.
It was then that he discovered that two ships were approaching Narendra III: a Starfleet vessel and a Klingon Defense Force vessel. Both were large—considerably more powerful than any of the eight ships Malkus had in his power. He reached out to the two new ships’ captains—while he could not enslave the entire complements of the vessels, if he could at least take over their leaders….
But he could not. Somehow, the minds of all the people on both ships were unavailable to him. That had never happened before.
So he sent his ships off to attack and destroy the vessels, then turned his attention back to J’lang—
—just as Worf knocked the sculpting tool out of J’lang’s right hand with a chopping motion. He then converted that motion into a jab with his elbow to J’lang’s face. As J’lang stumbled backward, Worf grabbed J’lang’s left wrist, effectively neutralizing the d’k tahg, then yanked J’lang forward. J’lang stumbled toward Worf; Malkus tried to put up some kind of defense, but Worf then stopped J’lang’s forward motion by grabbing J’lang’s right shoulder with his left hand.
Malkus retreated from J’lang’s mind as the sculptor lost consciousness, another victim of that be-damned Vulcan attack. He transferred his active control to Roka.
Spock and Roka seemed to be evenly matched with the bat’leth, at least. Roka had mostly been on the offensive, but Spock had parried each blow with the ease of the expert that Malkus knew full well he wasn’t.
With a downward slash, Roka managed to entangle Spock’s bat’leth and drive it to the grassy ground. He used his left elbow to jab Spock in the jaw, then disentangled his weapon from Spock’s and swung upward.
However, Spock was able to duck backward and not be struck. Then he raised his own bat’leth in defense of Roka’s next thrust.
They sparred for a moment, neither side gaining the offensive. Roka used Kilog’s gambit against Spock, followed up by B’Arq’s defense. According to Roka’s memories, B’Arq’s defense was impenetrable.
With an underhanded swing, Spock penetrated Roka’s use of B’Arq’s defense, knocking the bat’leth out of Roka’s hands. Spock then slammed the leading edge of the bat’leth into Roka’s side.
Malkus cursed as Roka fell to the ground, unable to move. He gazed upon the two ambassadors with fury as they stared at each other.
Worf raised an eyebrow. “Fascinating. Your penetration of B’Arq’s defense was—familiar.”
Spock half-smiled. “It should be, since I learned it from you. An excellent technique, if I may say so.”
“Thank you. We should continue. Malkus may send more of his thralls against us.”
You don’t know the half of it, Klingon, Malkus thought angrily. He reached out to the pawns that had gone to the shuttle—
—only to find that five of the six were still engaged with the quintet from the shuttle. The sixth was dead, a d’k tahg having slit his throat. If the remainder broke off their attack to go after Spock and Worf, they too would be cut down.
Then Malkus laughed to himself. The solution was simple: the four Klingons who had been defeated here and the one dead at the shuttle were of no use. So Malkus sent those shards of his consciousness to B’Oraq, Davok, G’joth, Matthew Falce, and Hilary McKenna.
That gave him a full ten pawns to send after Spock and Worf.
Soon they’ll all be dead….
“New course, 287 mark 9—execute!”
“Train disruptors on the Rikmok.”
“Weapons locked.”
“Vralk, execute course now!”
“Prepare to fire on my mark.”
Kira heard the voices in the background, but barely focused on who was talking. Her primary concern was the field of range belonging to the fore port disruptor array. There were three of them, each had four viewscreens, one large and three small. Each screen showed a ninety-degree field, with the large one showing the ninety-degree area that the disruptor was currently trained in, the other three showing the remaining two hundred and seventy degrees. Her job was a simple one—identify any targets that came in range of any of the three disruptors under her purview, train the weapon on that target, and fire. Of course, with the speed at which ships moved and the comparatively limited range of the disruptors, that didn’t leave her—or her three counterparts—many opportunities to fire, but they were only a small part of the Gorkon’ s arsenal.
She tried not to think about what the Bajoran Resis
tance could have done with a ship like this against the Cardassians. Hell, this thing even puts the Defiant to shame.
Klag’s deep voice penetrated the wall of sound that the bridge had become. “Remember, shoot to disable, not destroy. There is no glory in defeating mind-controlled warriors, nor any honor in dying in such a state.” A pause. “But don’t be fools, either. No matter what, we shall be victorious!”
Tereth said, “Captain Huss’s ships are entering range. I suggest waiting—train weapons at 185 mark 9. She’s likely to attempt a bIng manuever—it was a favorite of hers when I served with her.”
Kira realized that one of her disruptors fell into that range. She immediately trained her number-three disruptor on that area—currently bereft of any ships.
Toq said, “Nukmay, Khich, and Jor changing course!” A pause. “A perfect bIng maneuver.”
All three ships came right into Kira’s sights, just as predicted.
“Fire!” Klag bellowed.
Kira trained her array on the wing of the Nukmay, the lead ship. It, combined with the disruptors fired by Rodek, slammed through the bird-of-prey’s shields and tore a hole through the wing. That sent the ship into a spin that caused it to collide with the Khich. The latter ship’s shields were disrupted into oblivion, though there was no hull damage.
A cheer went up from around the bridge, and the gunner closest to Kira—a bekk named Klorga—said, “Well done for a first shot, Bajoran.”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” Kira muttered. There was still the Jor, which fired its dirsuptors at the Gorkon. Looks like they’re aiming for the engines, Kira thought.
“Shields down to eighty percent,” Toq said.
Kira fired on the Jor, taking the ship’s shields out with three shots before it left the range of her disruptors.
“We’re being hailed by the Enterprise,” said the ensign at the communications console.
“On audio,” Klag said.
“Klag, we need you to draw off some of these ships,” Picard said. “We can’t use the deflector modification without lowering shields.”
Kira stole a glance at the tactical display on the main viewer. The Enterprise was more than holding its own against the other four ships—the Sovereign-class vessel had only suffered minor shield damage, whereas two of the Klingon ships were in pretty bad shape and the other two were on their way to more of the same. But that wouldn’t last forever, especially since the Enterprise and Gorkon were doing their best to minimize casualties and their foes were working under no such constraint.
“Vralk, change course toward the Enterprise,” Klag said.
Tereth added, “Rodek, give us covering fire on the birds-of-prey.”
That instruction, Kira knew, would be passed on to the two at the aft disruptor arrays.
A part of Kira liked the simplicity of it—all she was responsible for was three small three-hundred-and-sixty-degree fields of fire. No more, no less. Given the awesome responsibilities she had as the commanding officer of one of the more strategically important starbases in the quadrant, accountability for so little came as a relief.
But a part of her hated it for the same reason she hated what Malkus did to her. It was Klag who directed the battle, Tereth who commanded the troops, Rodek who carried out those commands, and only then did Kira get involved if those commands happened to relate to her tiny area of control.
And Kira Nerys never liked having limited control.
It had taken Aidulac two days to work her way across Narendra III.
With the aid of the component she’d found from the third Instrument, she had been able to trace the final Instrument to this planet, but frustratingly, not to where on this planet. She had to wait until someone unearthed the Instrument before she would be able to locate it more precisely.
So she settled on a remote island, converted the Sun to a shelter, and used its resources to survive. Her ability to influence men’s minds was sufficient to keep prying eyes away from her—especially given the location she’d chosen in the middle of Narendra III’s largest ocean—and she waited.
She’d waited ninety thousand years. She was prepared to wait another ninety thousand.
As it happened, she only had to wait for five years. A major war was fought in the interim, though the fighting never actually reached Narendra despite its position near both the Romulan and Federation borders.
Aidulac continued to wait.
Then, finally, the Instrument was exposed.
Naturally, it was on the other side of the planet.
From here on, Aidulac had to be careful. She could not afford to use the Sun, as it would be detected. Besides, Malkus’s consciousness had, as she had feared, been imprisoned within the Instrument. Now he planned to rebuild his empire.
The fools. The unmitigated fools. The thought was directed at the well-meaning rebels who had overthrown Malkus. They should have just killed him and had done with it. But no, they had to teach him a lesson, to imprison him, to make him suffer.
They don’t understand him. No one ever did. Not even me.
Especially not me. If I had, I would have just killed myself when he came to me.
First she took a boat to the mainland. Then she needed to find a groundcar to take her to where the memorial was being built. That had proven difficult, but not impossible. Her own immunity and invisibility to Malkus’s telepathic control enabled her to move freely, but avoiding visual detection was a lot harder. Her own talents for persuasion were helpful, but not always reliable.
Now, though, she was less than an hour away on foot from the memorial site where he’d been uncovered.
Then, she thought, this will all finally be over.
Vralk maneuvered the Gorkon into position, hoping to draw fire away from the Enterprise so they could use their device to neutralize Malkus.
It doesn’t surprise me, Vralk thought with disdain. Klag would leave the glory to the weaklings of the Federation, even though it was we who learned the secret for defeating this Malkus thing. He turned to glance at the secondary gunner positions, specifically the one where the Bajoran woman sat. He even lets inferiors serve on his bridge. He is so unworthy of this vessel, it makes me ill.
“Bring us around,” Tereth shouted, “187 mark 9. Now, Lieutenant!”
Vralk changed course to 187 mark 9 and restrained himself from telling Commander Tereth to stop blathering at him. As Rodek had said, she was the first officer, even if she didn’t deserve it—after all, as Lokor had said, he would find no allies for his cause on this ship.
“Hard to port,” Tereth said. “Try to get the Rikmok off the Enterprise’ s saucer.”
“Shields failing,” Toq said. “The birds-of-prey are continuing to fire!”
“Covering fire,” Klag said. “Drive them off with the rear weapons, but try not to destroy them.”
Vralk could not help himself. “We show weakness before the enemy?”
Klag turned angrily on Vralk. “They are not our enemy. When a Klingon truly takes up arms against me, then I will kill him or die without hesitation, but I will not destroy mind-controlled slaves unless I have to. And I do not have to—yet.”
Disruptor blasts and torpedoes continued to slam into the Gorkon’ s shields. Vralk found he could not avoid all of them, especially now that they were close to the Enterprise—some of the Defense Force ships simply fired on both targets. While the Enterprise and Gorkon were far more powerful, they were also larger and less maneuverable than their eight foes.
“The QaS DevwI’ have all reported in,” the ensign at communications said. “All ground troops are standing by.”
“Good,” Tereth said.
Again, Vralk found he could not help himself. He turned to Tereth, who was standing between the com console and Vralk’s own helm control. “The QaS DevwI’ will not be able to lead the troops into battle if we are blown up before they can be deployed!”
Another impact. Several consoles went down.
“
Shields have failed!” Toq cried.
“You are a fool to continue this!” Vralk said, getting up and walking toward Tereth. “We must—”
Tereth suddenly leapt at Vralk, tackling him.
As Vralk fell to the deck his heart sang out with joy. At last, the fool woman has tipped her hand! She feels the need to silence me in public! Now I can truly challenge her and show everyone that she is unworthy!
He clambered to an upright position, unsheathing his d’k tahg.
Tereth remained on the deck, with a very large chunk of what was once a piece of the ceiling bulkhead now embedded in her back.
She had not been challenging him, she had saved his life at the cost of her own.
He dropped his d’k tahg to the deck.
Had he remained at his post, the shrapnel would not have hit him or Tereth. But because he abandoned his post in a conflict, a superior was dead.
What have I done?
“Vralk, you’re relieved,” Klag said. “I will kill you later. Koxx, take the helm! Bring us around, 241 mark 6. Rodek—full weapons!”
Turning toward the turbolift, his d’k tahg still on the deck, Vralk thought, I suppose now he has to use deadly force. If he had done it sooner, Tereth might not be dead now.
And if I had not been such a fool, she would not be dead, either.
Aidulac checked the readings on her scanner. She had less than an hour’s walk to where Malkus was keeping himself. And then—one way or another—it would all be over.
This was parkland now. Aidulac had never been to this world when it was part of the Zalkat Union, nor in the millennia since, so she had no idea what it might have been like then. Probably some backwater—otherwise, why hide the Instrument away here?
She hadn’t expected to be tackled by a crazed Klingon in military garb.
The Klingon knocked her to the ground, knelt down on her chest, then swiped at her face with some kind of edged weapon. Aidulac raised her arm to defend herself, and the blade sank into her forearm. She cried out in pain as the Klingon yanked the blade out and started to take another swipe.
The Brave and the Bold Book Two Page 22
