The inner panels of the crossover device were glowing, casting eerie green light on the great ship.
"Do we have any idea what that is?" Kirk asked.
He heard Picard and Scott close behind him. Teilani came to his side, reached down for his hand, still enshrouded in its bulky bandages. She looked at him for the explanation there had been no time to give while they'd been on the run. He shook his head at her, letting her know this still wasn't the time.
"It is a transporter," Spock said. He was at the security/ tactical station, looking somber.
"Och, you're mad," Scott said. "No one can build a transporter that big."
"More to the point, Mr. Scott, it makes no sense for anyone to build a transporter that big. Why transport a starship which is itself a method of transportation? Unless the point of the exercise is not to move a ship from one place to another . . ."
"But from one universe to another," Kirk said. As threatening as that device was, the solution for dealing with it was elegantly simple to him. "Blow it up, Spock."
Janeway came up to Kirk, and he could see her face already showed the stress of command. "No use. We've already run the numbers. The device is drawing power from the Enterprise now, and is completely shielded by her. This ship doesn't have the firepower to make a dent in it. We can't even ram it and be sure we'd take it out."
"We can't just stand here and watch them steal it," Kirk countered.
"But we have run out of options," Spock said.
Kirk looked at Picard. "If we can get you on board, could you trigger the self-destruct?"
Picard looked to Spock. "How much time do we have?"
"Ten minutes at most."
Picard looked back to Kirk. "How do I get on board?"
Kirk's mind raced. "First, we focus all our firepower on one key spot on the shields. If we can concentrate enough energy on an area of overlap, we can make the shield reset itself and—"
"Captain Kirk," Scott said gently. "That particular design flaw was corrected thirty years ago. It can't be done any longer."
"Oh," Kirk said. He rocked back on his heels, forced once more to remember he was a man out of time.
"What if we go with it?" Janeway suddenly asked. "After the Enterprise goes through, could we go through as well?"
"We have no idea how the device operates," Spock said. "And at the rate the asteroids are closing, we will have no time to learn."
They stood in silence on the bridge as the green light bathing the Enterprise intensified.
Then Kirk realized what was wrong. "Where's the Sovereign?"
T'Val looked back at him from the helm. "We have her stationkeeping at one hundred thousand kilometers. She's not approaching."
Kirk's grin was triumphant. "Because that ship is powerful enough to get through the Enterprise's shields and stop that thing."
Scott almost jumped up and down in his excitement. "Of course. That's it. All we need to do is t' get her here."
The engineer's enthusiasm was contagious. Kirk went to his friend, eager to know the next step. "And then what, Scotty?"
Scott beamed. "Well, sir, I was her chief engineer. And I've got a few more tricks that Admiral Nechayev won't know anything about."
Spock stepped forward. "Whatever you plan to do, gentlemen, I remind you that time is of the essence."
"When is it not?" Kirk said. He looked at Janeway. "Start your attack run on the Enterprise."
Janeway widened her eyes. "Kirk, this ship is no match for the Sovereign. If your plan doesn't work, we're finished."
"In this universe—and I doubt that this has changed— that's what we call an all-or-nothing scenario," Kirk told her.
Teilani had been right all along. Challenge would always be a part of his life. Wherever he was in the universe.
His challenge was not clearing fields and pulling stumps.
But making a difference when no one else could.
And if he didn't make a difference this time, he knew he would have no chance to ever try again.
THIRTY-ONE
The Voyager rushed past the Enterprise at one-quarter impulse, throwing all her firepower on the one section above the aft hull that Scott had identified as a potential weak point in her forcefield pattern—one that Starfleet had recently identified and was quickly redesigning.
On the Voyager's main screen, the phaser fire smeared into a sphere of scintillation around the Enterprise, marking the perimeter of her shields, and clearly having no effect.
Except for the one Kirk had planned.
"The Sovereign is powering up her engines," T'Val announced. "They know about the weak spot."
Kirk glanced at Scott. The engineer was at the communications post. "You're sure you can get this to work, Scotty?"
"D'ye really think this is the time to be asking me that?"
Janeway had T'Val bring the Voyager around for another pass. Spock calculated that the Enterprise would be completely within the crossover device—the immense transporter—within three minutes. Picard was at weapons control. La Forge and Data were in engineering, in case a hasty retreat was required. And McCoy, Beverly Crusher, and Deanna, as well as the two Spocks, remained on the bridge. Waiting.
Picard fired the phasers at will, concentrating everything the small ship had on Scotty's coordinates.
"The Sovereign is accelerating. Phasers coming online," T'Val said.
"Full power to shields," Janeway ordered. "Let's keep the Enterprise between us."
The bridge pitched as T'Val brought the ship into a tight turn around the crossover device, just escaping the first blast of phasers from the Sovereign.
"Clean miss," Picard said.
"They're following," T'Val reported.
"Here we go," Kirk said. "Open a channel."
Spock sent the hailing frequency from an auxiliary control panel and the Sovereign's response was immediate.
The Voyager's main screen suddenly showed the mirror counterpart who had replaced Fleet Admiral Alynna Nechayev. She sat in the command chair of the Sovereign, fully recovered from her last encounter with Kirk. Beside her, the Cardassian, Glinn Arkat, stood with folded arms and murderous rage in his eyes.
"Aren't you dead yet?" Nechayev said.
Kirk knew all he had to do for the moment was to keep the admiral distracted. He could see Scott working frantically at communications. Thirty seconds, the engineer had promised. Kirk took that to mean it would take him all of fifteen. It had taken many years, but he had finally figured out why Scotty always managed to complete his work ahead of schedule—he always doubled his time estimate.
"I'd like to propose a deal," Kirk said.
Nechayev exchanged a look of astonishment with Arkat. "Your ship can't stand up to mine. It can't even outrun mine. Why don't I just blow you out of space now and save us both a lot of time?"
"You want our advanced technology," Kirk said.
"I've already got your advanced technology. Two ships' worth."
Kirk settled back in the executive officer's chair and looked skeptical. "The Sovereign class is obsolete," he said. "None of those ships can withstand Starfleet's newest weapon."
Kirk leaned forward, resisting the impulse to look at Scotty. "Corbomite," he said. Then he resisted the impulse to look back at McCoy as McCoy groaned.
Arkat leaned down and whispered something in Nechayev's ear.
"Corbomite?" Nechayev mused. "Let me see ... would this be something required for the construction of polyphasic disrupters?"
"Never heard of them," Kirk said.
"Target the Voyager," Nechayev said.
"They're locked on us," T'Val announced.
Kirk looked quickly to the side. "Scotty . . . ?"
Scott shook his head in frustration. "This isn't like the old days. Ships today . . . they're . . . too damn complicated."
Kirk had one last option. "Admiral, surrender now and I will be able to put in a good word for you during your trial."
The admiral's e
yes actually bulged as she burst into disbelieving laughter. Even Arkat smiled beside her. "You want me to surrender?"
"Otherwise," Kirk said with a straight face, "you might get hurt."
The admiral laughed so hard she appeared to be having difficulty breathing.
"Kirk, I will actually miss you . . ." she finally gasped. And then she said, "Fire."
Kirk felt Teilani's hand squeeze his shoulder.
"Got 'er!" Scott said.
The Voyager hung in space, no phaser fire directed at her at all.
Kirk watched the look of disbelief grow on Admiral Nechayev's face as she realized that the Voyager continued to exist in defiance of her orders.
"Now we do this . . ." Scott said happily.
On the screen, the admiral's disbelief turned to panic as the Sovereign's computer announced that a warp-core breach was in progress.
Picard looked back in Scott's direction. "Mr. Scott, are you able to do this to any Sovereign-class vessel?"
"Only the ones I've rigged for remote-control," Scott said modestly. "Now we change her orientation."
"Forward view," Janeway said.
The commotion on Nechayev's bridge was replaced by an exterior image of the admiral's ship as all the port-side maneuvering thrusters fired in a balanced burst, spinning the ship on her axis. A second series of firings stopped her so her ventral surface was parallel to the second asteroid.
"And now . . ." Scott said. "We let the safety systems take over and . . ."
On the screen, there was a small puff of white smoke as explosive bolts blew off a hull plate on the ship's belly. Then, in a streak of flashing blue light, the Sovereign's long, slender warp core self-ejected.
"Mr. Scott," Kirk said, "that is a work of sheer beauty."
"Aye," Scott said as the glowing cylinder of the warp core tumbled toward the second asteroid. "That's one way to look at it." He jabbed another control at his station and the Sovereign suddenly pulled away at half-impulse.
"She'll be halfway to Vulcan before they get past my lockouts," Scott said in satisfaction.
But Kirk's sense of victory was short-lived. "The Enterprise is now completely within the crossover device," Spock announced. "I am detecting a power-up sequence consistent with transporter-beam generation."
"Time to warp-core impact?" Janeway asked.
"Fifteen seconds," Scott said.
"Unfortunately," Spock said, "transport will begin in ten seconds."
Kirk turned to Janeway. "We just need to delay the process. Fire phasers. See if we can get the transport sequence to interrupt itself."
Janeway stood up. "Let's do it," she said to T'Val.
The Voyager's bridge thrummed with the discharge of the ship's phasers.
"Transport in five seconds," Spock said.
"Impact in ten," Scott added.
The glowing shell of energy that protected the Enterprise and the crossover device flickered and flashed with the power the Voyager poured into it.
"I am detecting a transport anomaly," Spock reported. "The device is attempting to compensate. Transport in three. . . ."
"Impact in eight . . . seven . . ."
". . . two . . . one . . . Transport sequence has initiated and—"
There was a flash of green light, almost blinding.
Kirk threw his arm in front of his eyes, seething with the knowledge that he had lost.
But when he removed his arm, the Enterprise was still there.
"Transport has failed," Spock said.
Everyone but Kirk cheered. He waited to be sure.
Then there was a flash of blue light from another section of the screen.
"The warp core has just exploded on the second asteroid's surface," Scott said. "Shock wave in three seconds."
Janeway wasted no time. "Get us out of here, T'Val."
For a second, the plasma storms of the Goldin Discontinuity smeared across the screen; then the angle of the forward sensors changed so Kirk could see the two asteroids—with one beginning to spin because of the enormous blue explosion that had obscured one side of it.
"The asteroid is being diverted," Spock announced. " Extrapolating new trajectory. . . ." Spock turned to Kirk. They might as well have been on the bridge of the old Enterprise. The first Enterprise. "Captain, the second asteroid will clear the first by two hundred meters. The next chance for impact will be in seventeen days. More than enough time to complete the evacuation of the camp survivors."
Kirk allowed himself the luxury of a deep breath. It had all come together—the crew, the technology, the will to win.
He felt the touch of Teilani's hand on his shoulder.
But then Kirk saw Picard staring up at the screen, and knew there was still one last mission to complete.
"We have to go back," he said to Janeway, "and see what shape the Enterprise is in."
Janeway nodded. "Let's do it," she said.
THIRTY-TWO
The Enterprise hung dead in space, surrounded by the floating ruin of the crossover device, like an ancient sunken vessel shrouded in kelp and debris.
The mighty ship's running lights were out. Her nacelles were dark. But she was intact, and her batteries were keeping life-support at minimal levels.
Kirk and Picard stood together before the Voyager's main screen. Spock and Teilani were with them.
"Jean-Luc, I'm sorry," Kirk said. And he meant it. Among a handful of beings, he truly knew the force that bound a captain to his ship. He knew what must be in his friend's heart as Picard gazed upon the battered hulk before them.
"Don't be," Picard said. He flashed a smile at Kirk. A small one, but one that said he could see light shining through this dark hour. "I still have her. We saved her."
Kirk went to give Picard his hand, but both men stared awkwardly at the bandages that protected Kirk's damaged flesh. Picard put his own hands on Kirk's shoulders instead. "You saved her," he said. "And I thank you."
Then La Forge spoke up from an aft sensor station. "Captain?"
Both Kirk and Picard turned as one and said, "Yes?"
La Forge smiled. "Captain Picard. Scotty and I have completed our structural analysis. She's not showing any sign of transporter misalignment."
"That's a relief," Picard said. Kirk understood why. The subspace shock wave generated by the Sovereign's warp-core explosion had shut down the transporter effect intended to beam the Enterprise to the mirror universe. If the shock wave had hit too late, while transport was already in progress, the huge ship might not have been properly reassembled when she had rematerialized. But all was well. Another victory to add to all the others.
But Spock, apparently, did not think so. "Curious," he said. "I was certain I detected a full transporter-field effect before the warp-core detonation."
Kirk smiled at his old friend. "We've never seen a transporter this big before, Spock. There're bound to be engineering differences we know nothing about."
"Perhaps," Spock said, but he didn't sound convinced.
Picard looked down at his Klingon armor, as if suddenly realizing he still had it on. "I suppose I should clean up. The relief vessels will be here in two hours and . . . I imagine there's a great deal of work to be done over there."
Picard walked back to the turbolift, that small smile still on his face.
Kirk watched him go, pleased his friend still had his starship, but glad that he, himself, had other missions to attend to now.
Then Teilani hugged him. "And I want to get you down to Dr. McCoy to get those dressings changed."
Kirk looked at his bandages. Still the least of his concerns. "I'll be fine," he said.
"You'd better be," Teilani told him. "I'm not going to change all the diapers by myself."
Kirk grinned at the thought of that one new mission in particular. He couldn't wait for it to begin. Then he saw Spock look back at T'Val, and knew his friend was also distracted by thoughts of children and parents. Of paths not taken. It pained him to think that Spock mig
ht be in distress. Kirk changed the subject.
"Spock, just when the Voyager came in on the attack, you said you and your counterpart had worked out what made the two universes diverge."
Spock returned his attention to the here-and-now. "Not the event," he clarified. "The time period. Approximately three hundred years ago. About the time of First Contact between humans and Vulcans. Kate Janeway gave us a clue when she referred to Lake Sloane on Alpha Centauri IV being called Lake Riker in her universe."
"One name made the difference?" Kirk asked.
"No, but it is one of the earliest signs of divergence my counterpart and I could identify. The fact that the lake was named by Zefram Cochrane, following his move from Earth to the colony he founded on that world, made us focus on the time of First Contact."
"There was First Contact in both universes, though?" Kirk asked.
"Yes. And to the best of our abilities to recall history, that event in both universes was the same. Cochrane's first warp flight attracted the attention of a Vulcan ship and the next day, contact was made." Spock's long face took on a thoughtful expression.
"But . . . ?" Kirk prompted.
"It is the events after First Contact that somehow seem to be at odds in the two universes. There is nothing conclusive. No key document or incident we can point to. But in one universe, our universe, humans and Vulcans shared an optimistic dream of combining their resources to seek out new life. In the mirror universe, the same cooperation followed, the same early expeditions took place, but there was a decidedly military aspect to their nature. Almost as if, somehow, those responsible for First Contact believed some grave threat was waiting for them among the stars. As if they had secret knowledge of the future and the conflicts to come."
"What kind of conflicts?" Kirk asked.
Spock folded his hands behind his back. "Again, the differences could merely be an artifact of how history is recorded. None of this might be true. But . . . in the mirror universe . . . when the Borg were first detected, far earlier than they were in our history . . . it was almost as if the Terran Empire had been expecting to find them. The Borg did not remain a threat there."
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