by Kevin Ryan
There was no return fire, but when Karel’s Klingons approached, he saw the largest container yet shoot out from against the bulkhead.
Karel’s blaster immediately sought out the space where the cargo container had begun moving. To his surprise, there was no one there.
Just as the realization hit him of where the Earthers had gone, phaser fire blasted the two Klingons next to him.
Aiming carefully, Karel blasted the single antigrav unit that was attached to the container’s side. The massive object immediately slammed into the ground and a single Earther went flying forward from the top of the container.
The Earther hit the ground hard on one shoulder. Amazingly, he twisted his damaged body quickly and managed to fire at and hit another warrior before half a dozen blaster bolts struck him squarely.
In a flash of light, the Earther was gone.
Still alert, Karel scanned the cargo bay for any more, but his blood told him there were no Earthers there.
It was unbelievable but true. A single, cornered Earther had dealt them a serious blow. Seven Klingon warriors were dead or injured.
His blood rebelled against the idea. It was impossible for the weakling cowards.
[146] His communicator sounded. “What do you want?” he barked into it.
“Make your way to the control room,” Koloth’s voice said. “The Earthers are resisting strongly. We need to get the crystals and end this now. I will feel better when this station and the Enterprise are space debris.”
Karel acknowledged the order and ordered his Klingons out of the cargo bay.
Transport seemed instantaneous and smooth to Kyle, but by the look on the transporter operator’s face, he could tell that their rematerialization on the Enterprise transporter pad had been anything but smooth.
As soon as the transport was complete, Mr. Scott was barreling for the door and Kyle was right on his heels. As they headed for the turbolift, Kyle realized he was still carrying his phaser.
He quickly attached the weapon to his belt and decided that if he never had to fire one again, it would be soon enough.
Moments later they were exiting the turbolift at a run.
The engineering section of the Enterprise had never looked so good as far as Lieutenant Kyle was concerned. He had been convinced they weren’t going to make it. Surprisingly, his biggest concern had been that Briggs’s sacrifice would have been in vain.
And Brantley’s.
Though the section chief seemed confident, Kyle knew the chances of a single person against a large Klingon attack force were not good. Nevertheless, he was certain that Brantley had given them a surprise or two.
[147] Now came the really tricky part. They had to cold-start a starship warp core.
But Mr. Scott had done it once and Spock had refined the formula since then. It would be difficult, but Kyle was relieved to have a task in front of him that he had confidence he could do. He would be able to make a contribution.
Kyle remembered what had happened the last time the Enterprise had done this. It wasn’t something he wanted to go through again. Yet Mr. Scott had assured him the new formula didn’t have the same problems.
“It’ll work, laddie,” Mr. Scott had said.
The statement hadn’t reassured him much. But he did believe completely in Mr. Scott and his ability to work miracles. Kyle just hoped this wasn’t going to be the time Mr. Scott couldn’t pull that rabbit out of the engineering hat
Mr. Scott fired orders as he strode into the engine room. Men scrambled to stations, following his commands instantly.
“We’re goin’ to cold-start this darlin’,” he said to everyone in the control room. “Stand ready now.”
Scott took up his post at the main engineering control board. “And we’re goin’ to do it in record time.”
Kyle marveled at the speed of Mr. Scott’s fingers as they danced over the controls. Every so often he’d shout an order, but most of the time he worked the board like a master artist, never seeming to hesitate, never missing a beat.
Kyle knew that even under the best of conditions, cold-starting a warp core would take some time. Not as [148] much as a slow warm-up did—not nearly. But it still took time. And with the Klingons overrunning the station, time was in short supply.
After the first minute of watching Mr. Scott, Kyle started to actually believe Scott might pull this off, if the Klingons gave them enough time.
After two minutes of watching, Kyle was convinced.
“Mr. Kyle,” Scott said as he worked the control board. “I want you to wait for my signal and download the new intermix data to the dilithium chamber. I have rerouted to use all available backup circuits. Make sure they hold.”
“Yes, sir,” Kyle said as he took the board. He spared a glance at the chief engineer as he headed out toward the Jefferies tube.
“Mr. Scott and Lieutenant Kyle are on board, sir,” acting Communications Officer Perez said.
“Good,” Uhura said. She wouldn’t bother Mr. Scott just yet. He would have his hands full with the engines.
“Status of the Klingon ship?” she said. “Did they react to the transport?”
“No,” the acting science officer said. “They are maintaining a weapons lock on us, but have not moved their position.”
Good, Uhura thought. Maybe Scotty will have the time he needs to make a difference.
Around her the crew sat silent, watching the screen, waiting for something to happen. There wasn’t a thing they could do, and that felt odd to her. It felt wrong.
This was a crew that was used to action, yet right now all the action was taking place on the starbase. The [149] Enterprise was—for the moment—nearly powerless and playing dead so that the Klingons wouldn’t move against her.
Uhura hated the feeling of nothing to do. She always had. And now she resisted trying to come up with something to help. The captain’s plan was a good one, and her job was to wait until the engines were powered so that the Enterprise could strike when the Klingons weren’t expecting it.
So she had to sit, wait, and just watch.
Kirk knew his enemy well enough to know they wouldn’t bother firing on the Enterprise if the Enterprise appeared dead in space.
“The fighting near the station’s control area has intensified,” the acting science officer said. “And also near the engineering decks.”
Uhura nodded. “Stay ready, Mr. Sulu. I want to be able to move the minute Mr. Scott gets the engines powered back up.”
“Understood,” Sulu said, nodding.
Around her the bridge went back to deep, uncomfortable silence. The silence of watching and waiting and worrying, with nothing to do.
Chapter Fourteen
KELL AND THE REST of the squad met no resistance down the long corridor as they raced toward the center of the station.
Finally, they crossed the last blast-door frame, which separated the central hub from the perpendicular spoke they had been traversing.
Kell could see that the fighting in the hub had been intense. There was angry scoring everywhere and a lot of blasted equipment and walls that had obviously taken direct disruptor and phaser fire.
As they crossed the threshold to the central hub, they could hear both phaser and disruptor fire. Remaining on their course to the center of the station, they passed circular corridor after corridor that ringed the central hub.
At what Kell estimated must be the midway point, [151] Kell and the others saw a Starfleet security force come running down one of the curved corridors.
There were four security officers, and another officer, a lieutenant, that was wearing command gold.
They stopped when they saw Kell’s team, and the lieutenant conferred with Fuller.
“Heavy fighting, the Klingons have control of that sector,” he said, pointing behind him.
“We’re pulling back to the outer sector,” he said. “I suggest you do the same.”
Then the lieutenant and his team were running
down the corridor that Kell and his group had just come down.
“We have no choice,” Fuller said. “We have to get to the warp core.”
Fuller led the charge and the squad followed. They passed corridor after corridor, and the sounds of fighting became louder and more intense.
The station was fighting for its life. And from the ratio of disrupter to phaser blasts that he heard, Kell could see the station was losing.
Finally, they came to a central bank of turbolifts. Fuller and Spock tried one after the other and found that none of the turbolift doors would open.
Finally, Jawer called out, “I found the emergency turbolift, sir.”
Kell ran up behind him and could see that the turbolift was marked in red, ENGINEERING, FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY.
The doors were closed, but Jawer had the control panel open and was doing something inside.
There was a flash of sparks and Jawer pulled his hand back. Then he looked expectantly at the turbolift doors.
[152] Obediently, they opened, and Jawer started inside. Kell sensed the danger before he saw it. His hand reached out automatically and grabbed Jawer by the uniform, pulling him back.
Then he looked into the shaft and saw that there was no car there, just the shaft. Kell peered over the edge and saw that it was a long way down.
Jawer gave him an embarrassed grin and said, “Um, thanks.”
Fuller surveyed the lift and cursed under his breath. “Okay, it looks like we do this the hard way. Head for the stairs.”
Before he was finished issuing the order, Fuller was heading for the door about twenty meters away that read, EMERGENCY STAIRS.
When the Klingons came through the breach in the door, they came through as a wall of bodies, firing their deadly disruptors in all directions as they shouted out some sort of battle cry.
Kirk and the others returned fire.
From their covered positions, the Starfleet officers were able to strike with deadly accuracy. The captain picked one target, then another. He did not wait to see if his beams struck. He simply moved to another target in the mass of Klingon bodies that were charging them.
Whatever deficiencies the Klingons might have, Kirk realized, courage was not one of them. Their losses were astonishingly high.
In the first minute of the battle, the Klingons lost at least four times the number of the four Starfleet defenders.
[153] And the charge was remarkably effective, with the lead Klingons reaching less than two meters from their position before they fell.
Finally, the advance stopped and there were more than a dozen Klingon bodies in the few meters in front of the Starfleet men.
Then new fire erupted from a covered position that was just outside the frame of the ruined outer door.
As a beam tore incredibly close to him, Kirk realized that a few of the warriors had found positions inside the outer door. Kirk shook his head in amazement.
The Klingons had sacrificed a large number of their group to get better firing positions on the Starfleet people.
We don’t have long, Kirk realized.
Even if the disrupter blasts didn’t find them soon, Kirk did not doubt that the main Klingon force would make another charge to get more Klingons into position.
“Pull back, Captain,” Justman’s voice called out. “We’ll cover you.”
“Let’s go,” Kirk said to the base security guard next to him. “I’ll head for the control panel, you get inside and provide cover as quickly as you can.”
Then Kirk was up and running, firing the phaser behind him as he moved.
Staying the phaser, he hit the control panel, which opened the door. Turning around again, he fired his phaser as disrupter bolts tore around him. Kirk saw the base security officer dash for the door ... and catch a disrupter bolt directly in the back.
He went flying into the control room and Kirk did not have to check to see that the man was dead.
[154] Twisting his body, Kirk was inside the door and firing from the cover of the doorframe. “Now, Admiral!” he shouted.
Justman and West moved together, sprinting out from their cover and straight into the open door.
As soon as they were inside, Kirk hit the switch and the heavy door slammed down from above, cutting off the stray disrupter fire that was shooting into the control room.
He looked at the ensign’s body on the floor. The wound was terrible, so wide that you could see the deck through it. Kirk held his gaze on the young man for a moment and realized that he had never even learned the security officer’s name.
Looking up, he took in the rest of the room. Ensign Marsilii had opened one of the control panels and was furiously working inside. The four base lieutenants were at their stations looking to Admiral Justman and to him for an answer.
They all knew how long it had taken for the Klingons to penetrate the outer door, and, thus, how long they had before the control room became a battleground.
Kirk knew they would all fight and fight well, but he also knew they would not last long against the kind of force they had faced outside.
His communicator beeped and he flipped it open. “Kirk here,” he said.
“Captain,” Uhura’s voice said. “Mr. Scott is on board the Enterprise.”
Relief washed over him. It was small progress, but it was progress and they had suffered nothing but setbacks [155] so far. And Kirk had not yet heard from Mr. Spock, and that worried him.
“Let me know when the engines are starting up. Kirk out,” he said.
A look at the door told Kirk that whatever miracle Scotty worked on the Enterprise, it would not happen in time to help them here.
“The Enterprise will be back online in just a few minutes,” Kirk said to the admiral.
“We don’t have that long,” Justman said.
Kirk knew it was true. They had minutes before the Klingons came through the door.
“Should we destroy the crystals, then?” Kirk said, pointing to the two cargo containers.
The admiral shook his head decisively. “Not yet, Captain. I propose something else. We just need to slow them down to give Mr. Spock some time to get to the station’s warp core.”
Kirk glanced at the admiral as a loud explosion rattled the control room and shook the door. Obviously, the Klingons had found something else to throw against the door.
And by the gleam in the admiral’s eye and the slight grin on his face, it was clear the admiral had a plan.
He turned to one of the control-room crew, a young lieutenant manning the science station. “Ensign, will that door lead us out of the control-room area?” he said, pointing to the access door that they had taken to get inside after docking the travel pod to the station.
“Yes, sir,” the young man said. “There is a small airlock that leads to a small access corridor that follows the main corridor.”
[156] Kirk followed the lieutenant’s pointing finger with his eyes. The door that had led them into the control room was to the right of the main viewscreen; a team would have to make their way in the small space between the inner and outer shells of the control room, then to the access corridor. Presumably, there would be access to the main corridor a short distance away.
Kirk could see what the admiral was planning. “A small team could lead some or all of the Klingon force away,” he said,
“Exactly,” Justman replied. Then the admiral turned to West and said, “How would the Klingons likely respond to a hard hit to their flank?”
Without blinking, West said, “Strongly. They would regard the attack as an insult and pursue.”
Kirk was impressed. “Request permission to lead the team,” he said.
“No, Captain. I will do that,” Justman replied.
“But, Admiral—” Kirk began.
“You will stay here and guard the crystals,” Justman said. Then, before Kirk could voice his protest, he said, “That’s an order, Captain.”
“I would like to come with you, Admiral,”
West said.
Justman nodded and said, “The two of us should be sufficient for the task. Our goal is not to defeat them, just to lead them away and give you more time in here.”
Then he gave Kirk a smile. “I know what you can do, Captain. That’s why I want you in here. Starfleet needs those crystals.”
“The chance you’ll be taking,” Kirk said, “is getting [157] trapped between two groups of Klingons in the main corridor.”
“Perhaps, but I still have a few maneuvers left in me,” Justman said.
“Which direction will you go?”
“Anywhere away from this area,” the admiral said. “Even if I draw away just half of the ones out there, it will give you a better chance of holding out in here.”
With a nod, Admiral Justman nodded and ducked through the door, his weapon ready, followed quickly by Lieutenant West.
A few moments later the sound of disrupter fire intensified against the door, which was glowing red in a number of places.
Kirk turned to the control-center crew, who were now all looking to him. He gave them a grim smile. He was not out of maneuvers either.
“Mr. Marsilii,” he said. “Are you ready?”
“Just about,” the young man replied, closing up the control panel.
After he ran his hands over the panel to test the circuits, Marsilii pointed to a green switch on the console.
“That will initiate an emergency plasma venting from all of the shield emitters.” Marsilii shrugged apologetically. “I couldn’t restrict the venting to the emitter nearest the Klingon ship.”
“That’s fine, Ensign. You’ve given us the first real weapon of this fight.”
Lieutenant West and Admiral Justman made their way around the narrow walkway that circled the control [158] room. At the point nearly opposite the door they had used to access this area, they found a small airlock door.
The admiral used his command codes and the airlock swung open. Then they spent a few meters in the airlock’s even smaller corridor, finally coming to another airlock door.
The admiral used his command codes again and then they were inside yet another service corridor, one that his internal compass told him ran parallel to the main corridor.
