Star Trek: TNG: Enterprises of Great Pitch and Moment

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  “Channel open,” the ensign said.

  “I.K.S. Kring, this the U.S.S. Enterprise. We are responding to the distress call being transmitted from the planet below. May we be of assistance?”

  At first, Hawk thought that was an odd approach for Data to take, but then he realized that the Klingons would be expecting a Federation ship to talk first, even though they were running weapons hot. Sometimes there was a benefit in acting the way your enemies expected you to.

  Ryerson shook her head. “No response.”

  “Approaching the planet,” Hawk said.

  Data sat back down. “Standard orbit, Lieutenant.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Picking up bioreadings on the planet now,” Kadohata said. “Can’t make out numbers, but there are Klingon and human life signs.” She whirled around to look at Data. “Also picking up refined metal and disruptor fire, all in the same vicinity.”

  Data nodded. “Bridge to transporter room. Can you detect the combadge of Captain Picard or Sisko?”

  Chief Mun Ying’s voice sounded over the intercom. “Scanning now—yes, sir, I’ve got them.”

  “Beam them directly to the bridge.”

  Hawk turned around and saw the transporter effect start to glow in the bridge, which coalesced into two human figures wearing Starfleet-issue thermal suits and carrying phaser rifles.

  “Excellent timing, Mr. Data,” Picard said.

  “Thank you, sir,” the android said with a happy smile. Then he grew serious. “I take it that the meeting was a ruse.”

  “And then some,” Sisko said.

  Ryerson said, “Captain, the Kring is transporting their away team back to the ship and powering their engines.”

  Turning toward the view screen, Picard said, “Open a channel, Ensign.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Klingon vessel, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise. You have committed an act of aggression against the United Federation of Planets. What’s more, you have engaged in a cowardly attack by not showing your faces and claiming to carry the bat’leth of the chancellor. You will surrender your vessel or we will open fire.”

  The face of a Klingon commander appeared on the screen. “You have fought well today, Picard. But Klingon warriors do not surrender.”

  “Yes, but cowards do—and you have proved yourself to deserve that appellation far more than you do that of warrior, Commander.” He took a breath. “Be reasonable, Ngabwi. You have no chance against the Enterprise.”

  “Then we will die well. Screen off.”

  Data had relieved Kadohata at ops. “The Kring is now powering weapons.”

  “Target the Kring’s engineering section,” Picard said as he moved to sit in the command chair.

  “Aye, sir,” Ryerson said.

  Picard then looked up at Sisko, who hadn’t moved, and looked to Hawk as if he were unsure where to go.

  Indicating the first officer’s chair to his right, Picard said, “Have a seat, Captain.”

  Sisko inclined his head and sat next to Picard.

  “Fire,” Picard said to Ryerson.

  Hawk looked at the view screen and saw phaser fire arc toward the Kring, striking it right at the engineering section.

  The Kring returned with fire of its own.

  “Evasive maneuvers, Mr. Hawk,” Picard said, but Hawk had already input the course change and executed it before Picard finished saying those four words.

  The Kring’s disruptor fire brushed across the Enterprise’s shields. You’re gonna have to do better than that, fellas, Hawk thought with pride.

  An alarm on the secondary conn console got his attention, and he looked to his left to see that a plasma storm was moving in. “Captain, we’ve got a plasma storm bearing down on us.”

  “Here we go again,” Sisko said from behind him.

  “Priority is to avoid the storm, Mr. Hawk.”

  “Understood, sir.” Running courses through his head, Hawk quickly tried to work out a solution that would keep them away from the storm, the Kring, and B’Leva’s atmosphere. When that proved impossible, he settled for the first two—the Enterprise could handle a brush with B’Leva’s stratosphere.

  Then something else caught Hawk’s eye. “Sir, the Kring, it’s—”

  He was cut off by the blinding explosion that followed shortly thereafter.

  Sisko muttered, “So much for dying well.”

  Picard shook his head. “A waste. Lower shields. Bridge to transporter room.”

  “Mun Ying here, sir.”

  “Lock on to the crashed shuttlepod and everything inside it and beam it to Cargo Bay 4.” Picard turned to Sisko. “I believe we have some evidence to show the High Council.”

  “Assuming they’ll listen.”

  “Then let’s find out. Lieutenant Hawk, set course for the Klingon border. Engage at full impulse as soon as the pod is on board, then proceed at warp eight once we’re clear of the Badlands.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Ensign Ryerson, have a security team secure the pod in the cargo bay.”

  Hawk engaged at full impulse, being careful to work around the plasma storm. The captain sounds pretty pissed. But then, if I went to a peace conference and got shot at, I might be a little put out, too.

  CHAPTER

  11

  U.S.S. Enterprise-E

  Federation-Klingon border

  A Klingon Defense Force vessel was waiting for the Enterprise at the border. This rather surprised Picard, since all the hails he’d had Ryerson send to Qo’noS had gone unanswered.

  Or perhaps, given recent events, not terribly surprising at all, in light of the conversation they’d had with Worf and Dax back on DS9. Especially since the ship was a Vor’cha-class cruiser, which was the top of the Defense Force’s line.

  He and Sisko had both reported to sickbay, where Dr. Crusher had healed their wounds from the runabout crash. Now they were back on the bridge, Sisko again by his side.

  Ryerson said, “We’re being hailed, Captain—and sir? The message is tagged as coming from the High Council.”

  Picard exchanged a glance with Sisko, then said, “On screen.”

  The familiar face of K’Tal appeared. “Greetings, Captain.”

  “I assume, Councillor, that you are truly K’Tal?”

  “Yes—and the petaQ who assumed my face has been bound by law and is awaiting the judgment of the High Council. However, certain evidence is required for the meqba’—evidence that my ship’s scanners say is in your cargo bay.”

  “You mean the shuttlepod that someone claiming to be you said would carry Gowron, but instead sent two assassins to kill Captain Sisko and myself.”

  “That would have been a bad death, Picard. You comported yourself well as K’mpec’s Arbiter—and Sisko, you revealed the wam serpent in our midst on Ty’Gokor. You both deserve finer.”

  Sisko said, “If that’s the case, Councillor, then why didn’t you move to stop the assassins before they came after us in the Badlands? We have it on good authority that I.I. let you know about the plan before it happened.”

  “Because now we have proof, not insinuations. Or, at least, we will once you beam the pod over. Commander Ngabwi’s testimony would be of value also, but I assume you defeated him in battle?”

  For all that it would improve his profile with the Klingons, Picard saw no reason to make false claims. “The Kring was overtaken by a plasma storm.”

  “That is always a risk when traversing the Badlands. The conspirators should have realized that.”

  “Who are the conspirators?” Sisko asked.

  “Former members of the High Council who believe that being allied with the Federation is a mistake. By killing the pair of you in Gowron’s name they would force the empire to stand alone, as they believe we are meant to.”

  Picard asked, “And you believe otherwise?”

  “Normally? Yes. We are Klingons, and we need no aid from outsiders. But these are not norma
l times, Picard. The threat we face from the Dominion requires different thinking, not nostalgic attempts to return to the days before Praxis. Now then—the pod?”

  “Ensign Ryerson,” Picard said, “have the pod remains transported to the councillor’s ship immediately.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Thank you, Picard, Sisko—you have done a great service to the empire today. Oh, and one more thing—I bear a message from Chancellor Gowron. He has nothing to say to either of you. Screen off.”

  Picard glanced at Sisko. “That would seem to be that.”

  “Azernal will be disappointed.” Sisko sounded like he didn’t truly care all that much about the chief of staff’s feelings.

  Neither did Picard. “He shall have to live with it. At the very least, it would seem that K’Tal is working to remove anit-Federation advocates from the High Council’s ranks.”

  Sisko nodded. “I can’t help noticing that his plan would’ve worked whether or not you and I survived on B’Leva.”

  “Believe me, Captain, I noticed that as well,” Picard said tightly. “Mr. Hawk, once the pod is beamed to K’Tal, set course for DS9.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  EPILOGUE

  Federation Starbase Deep Space 9

  Bajoran system

  Sisko was on his way to Quark’s to join Bashir for a drink when Kira called him from ops. “Sorry to interrupt your drink, Captain, but you’ve got a priority-one message from Admiral Hayes.”

  Tapping his combadge and reversing course toward a turbolift, Sisko said, “You haven’t interrupted my drink, Major. I was on my way to my drink, but that doesn’t quite count. Julian will have to survive without me for a bit.”

  “I’m sure he’ll get over it.”

  Sisko entered the turbolift and said, “Ops.”

  Upon arrival at the station’s nerve center, he saw Hayes’s haggard face on the oval screen. “Captain, we have a situation. The entire quadrant is now at red alert. The colony on Ivor Prime has been destroyed by the Borg.”

  The deck felt like it was tilting under Sisko’s feet. He could feel the eyes of the entire ops crew burning into him. They all knew his history with the Borg.

  The one exception was Worf—but he had his own history with the cyborgs. “The Defiant can be ready to go in minutes.”

  “That’s what I want, Commander—but only you are to be on board. Choose a crew of personnel who have served on the station for less than a year.”

  Sisko’s shock and anger subsided, replaced with rage. “Admiral, for what reason—”

  “This is an order, Captain, and I’m under no obligation to explain myself to you,” Hayes snapped. Then his face softened. “But you deserve an explanation, so I’ll take time away from defending Earth to give you one. You have history with the Borg. You also have one of the greatest weapons in the Federation at your disposal, and I’d rather not have the finger of a man who lost his wife to the Borg on the firing button. The rest of your senior staff will also stay put—they’ve proved in the past that they’ll disobey orders out of loyalty to you, and I can’t afford that right now. The only exception is Worf—and that only because of his experiences with the Borg. Now, if you’re done questioning orders, Captain, I’ve got an invasion to fight. Hayes out.”

  Sisko stared at the blank screen. At first, the only thing he could see was Jennifer lying dead in their quarters while the Saratoga fell apart all around them, Hranok Zar grabbing Jake and forcing Sisko to go to the escape pods.

  Then he saw something else—his crew on the Defiant bridge, disobeying Admiral Toddman’s orders and traveling to the Gamma Quadrant.

  Part of him was furious, livid at being denied an opportunity to take revenge for the murder of Jennifer, not to mention so many of his crewmates on the Saratoga.

  But that part was tamped down in short order by the realization that Hayes was right.

  He looked around. The crew was staring at him, almost as if they were expecting him to tell them to disobey orders.

  They’re going to be disappointed. “You heard the man, Mr. Worf. Get the ship ready. And Godspeed.”

  “Aye, sir,” Worf said, heading for the turbolift.

  “That’s it?” Dax said. “Benjamin, this is the Borg we’re talking about.”

  “Which is why it’s best that I remain here.”

  “The Defiant’s your ship, Benjamin.”

  “Worf’s capable of handling command just fine—and he knows the Borg better than any of us. He’ll be a valuable asset.” Before Dax could raise another objection, Sisko held up a hand. “Enough, old man. We have our orders.”

  With that, Sisko went into his office.

  Immediately, he had the computer call up the list of ships that were being detached to Admiral Hayes’s fleet. As he was reading it, the Defiant was added to the list, complete with an ETA that Worf had no doubt already reported in with.

  Conspicuous by its absence was that of the U.S.S. Enterprise. He checked and saw that the flagship was being assigned to patrol the Romulan border.

  Looks like I’m not the only one Hayes doesn’t trust, Sisko thought. Sorry about that, Jean-Luc.

  He grabbed the baseball and started tossing it thoughtfully. He actually thought of Picard by his first name. For all that the captain gave him permission, this was the first time he’d been able to call him that without thinking about it.

  Maybe because we’ve both been benched when the Borg came to town.

  But Hayes was right. This way was best. Four years ago, of course, Sisko would have ignored Hayes and done everything he could to get in the fight. And he probably would’ve been killed. And where would that leave Jake? Or Bajor? Or the station?

  No, Benjamin Sisko had responsibilities, and petty revenge fantasies weren’t among them. He’d successfully worked with Jean-Luc Picard; he could sit back and let someone else take care of the Borg.

  “Computer,” he said suddenly, “locate Jake Sisko.”

  “Jake Sisko is in the Replimat.”

  Sisko got up, placing the baseball back on its pedestal. He had a sudden and urgent need to hug his son.

  AFTERWORD

  The notion for Slings and Arrows has been puttering around in my head since 2000 or so. I originally pitched it to WildStorm as a twelve-issue comic book called Enterprise: Year One. Intended to celebrate Star Trek’s thirty-fifth anniversary in 2001, the pitch included versions of most of what’s in Slings and Arrows, plus a few things that didn’t make it into this final version: appearances by Spock, McCoy, and Scotty, and a tie-in to Voyager. (That Voyager portion was repurposed for my short story “Letting Go” in the Distant Shores anthology.)

  WildStorm didn’t renew their comics license, however, and the notion staggered about for a while. I pitched it as an anthology, but it never went anywhere.

  And then I found myself in a position to expand out the eBook line for which I’m editorially responsible. I had already put together Mere Anarchy, a Star Trek fortieth anniversary celebration that covered the breadth of original series history. For The Next Generation’s twentieth, I decided to dust off my Year One notion, retitle it to something less comic-booky (when in doubt, go for Shakespeare—the series and individual eBook titles all come from the “To be or not to be” speech in Hamlet), and bring in some other authors (some of whom I’d had in mind for that anthology idea) to help me make it a reality.

  The concept of Slings and Arrows is quite simple: In Star Trek: First Contact, La Forge said the Enterprise-E had been in service for a year. Yet very few stories had been told in that year. There was the TNG Section 31 novel Rogue in 2001, and there was the Ship of the Line novel in 1997 that told of the Big E’s maiden voyage, but that was it, aside from a short story here and there. (See the timeline at the end of this eBook.)

  And that year was wracked with storm and tempest, as we saw on the late fourth and early fifth seasons of the spin off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: paranoia over changeling infiltration, mart
ial law being declared on Earth, continued aggression by the Klingons and the Maquis. Plus, on a more microcosmic level, we saw in First Contact that Data learned how to switch off his emotion chip and La Forge swapped out his VISOR for cybernetic implants, and we saw on DS9 that Troi’s mother gave birth and Riker’s “transporter twin” joined the Maquis.

  All in all, an eventful year. What Slings and Arrows did was tell everyone what the Enterprise was doing.

  I’d like to thank Bob Greenberger, Bill Leisner, Terri Osborne, Phae Weldon, and Chris and Steve York, who have done superlative work in taking this many-year-old vision of mine and making it even better than I could possibly have imagined. Each of the main characters got his or her moment in the sun, and we also got to play around with newcomers Hawk and Daniels.

  Editing the Star Trek eBook line has been one of the great joys of my career, and one of the reasons is being able to put together something like this that celebrates an aspect of Star Trek in what I hope is a new and unique way.

  Thanks for coming along for the ride.

  —Keith R.A. DeCandido

  somewhere in New York City

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  This is KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO’s third fictional contribution to the celebration of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s twentieth anniversary, following the novel Q & A and the short story “Four Lights” in The Sky’s the Limit. He has written a ridiculous amount of Star Trek fiction in several different media: fifteen novels (most recently Klingon Empire: A Burning House and a short novel in Myriad Universes: Echoes and Refractions), seven short stories (most recently “Family Matters” in Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows), eleven eBooks (prior to this, the most recent being the final installment in the Star Trek: S.C.E. series Many Splendors), two novellas (the acclaimed “Horn and Ivory” in Gateways: What Lay Beyond), and a mess of comic books (the upcoming Alien Spotlight II: Klingons issue and the Redshirts miniseries).

  As an editor, he’s been responsible for the Star Trek eBook line since 2001—co-conceiving and directing the ongoing Starfleet Corps of Enginners series, and also conceiving and executing the anniversary miniseries Mere Anarchy and Slings and Arrows. He has also edited dozens of anthologies, such as the Doctor Who: Short Trips anthology The Quality of Leadership and the Star Trek anthologies No Limits, Tales of the Dominion War, and Tales from the Captain’s Table.