STAR TREK: TOS - Errand of Vengeance, Book Three - River of Blood

by Kevin Ryan

  “I know, Ensign,” the Vulcan said.

  The readouts in front of him detailed the problem.

  “What can I do?” the human asked.

  “Nothing at the moment,” Spock said as he adjusted the control. He tried to slow down the reaction, since stopping it was impossible.

  “What’s wrong?” Jawer said from beside him.

  “The dilithium chamber is too cold,” Spock said.

  “I thought this was a cold-start procedure?” the human asked.

  “It is,” Spock said, “Relatively speaking. Unfortunately, it requires a minimum temperature that the system’s plasma injectors do not seem able to provide in the time we have.”

  “How unfortunately, sir?” Jawer asked.

  “The reactor will go critical if the reaction continues for another two minutes and forty-one seconds,” Spock said.

  “So what can we do?” Jawer said.

  “At the moment nothing,” Spock said. “The plasma injectors are not operating according to specifications. The reaction will result in a cascade failure that will lead to the release of extreme radiation and the inevitable violent explosion of the warp core. Of course, fail-safe systems will no doubt eject the warp core before that happens.”

  “That is a worst-case scenario, right sir?” Jawer asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. That is what will happen in the next two minutes and seven seconds.”

  “Unless ... ?” the human said expectantly.

  [199] “I am afraid that there is little we can do to stop it. An upgrade or repair of the plasma injectors would take substantially more time than we have,” Spock said.

  “So that’s it?” Jawer said. “No power to the weapons? A huge explosion right here?”

  “I am afraid so, Ensign,” Spock said. “It is unfortunate.”

  Then Jawer was on the move, racing for the dilithium chamber. “I have an idea,” he said, taking out his phaser.

  “That is unlikely to work, Mr. Jawer,” Spock said.

  “But it would be illogical not to try—under the circumstances,” Jawer said, as he pulled open the outer panel of one of the plasma injectors.

  “True,” Spock said. He checked his readouts and then said, “Use no higher than a heavy stun setting.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jawer said as he adjusted his phaser.

  Though the odds were against it, Spock did see that there was a possibility it would work. He shunted power to the power-transfer conduits and tried to slow the reaction.

  “On my mark,” Spock said.

  “Yes, sir,” the human replied.

  The Vulcan watched the readouts carefully. It was impossible to compute all of the variables, so he simply said, “Fire phaser.”

  He heard the whine of a hand phaser and saw the immediate effect on the temperature of the plasma stream.

  It was rising. Spock shunted more power to the transfer conduits.

  The temperature rose again.

  His ears told him that the ensign was maintaining consistent fire. Spock could see that the reaction was [200] slowing slightly and the temperature was rising steadily inside the chamber.

  Spock disabled the fail-safe systems. If he did not, then the warp core would eject automatically.

  Then the reaction became self-sustaining. In a moment he would see if it remained within operational parameters or if it would become a runaway reaction.

  If that happened, the warp core would go critical while it was still inside the station. All the antimatter in the large reactor would immediately be freed from its magnetic containment and would then react with the surrounding matter of the station.

  The starbase would see a matter-antimatter reaction that was many orders of magnitude higher than that in a photon torpedo. The Vulcan regretted that he would not see it. To his knowledge, such a large explosive reaction had never occurred. It would no doubt be a fascinating sight.

  The reaction spiked for a moment, and then came under control. The immediate danger was past. Then he saw the feedback wave beginning in the plasma injectors. Though the injectors were no longer necessary to sustain the reaction, there was another danger.

  “Ensign!” Spock called out. The Vulcan turned his head to see the blast take Ensign Jawer full in the chest and throw him several meters backward.

  Spock could not leave his control panel at the moment. He still had to manage the reaction manually to insure that there was no further danger. In any case, a quick calculation told him there was a very small chance that the human had survived.

  [201] Ensign Jawer had taken a very logical risk. He had traded his own life for the lives of the people on the station, and the larger number of people in the Federation that might suffer if they failed.

  It was logical, yet unfortunate, the Vulcan thought.

  A few moments later, Spock saw the reaction level out. He reinstated the fail-safe systems, and then turned his attention to the door, which was beginning to show signs of buckling under the strain of constant disrupter fire.

  A single switch on his control panel turned on the forcefield that protected the outer door. Immediately, the sound of disrupter fire was dulled. The Klingons would now need days to break through the shield with hand disrupters.

  Spock immediately routed power to the station’s shields and weapons systems. The station defenses would be back online shortly.

  Then he turned his attention to Ensign Jawer. As Spock approached him more closely, he saw that the human had indeed taken the force of the blast to the chest.

  Spock could see burns radiating from the central wound in his sternum. Remarkably, the Vulcan could also see that the human was breathing.

  Kneeling down, he saw that Jawer was unconscious. To Spock’s surprise, his pulse was strong.

  Remarkable, the Vulcan thought.

  He made the human as comfortable as he could and then returned to his console to call the Enterprise.

  Kirk did not hesitate. He stepped in front of the door to the corridor with his phaser ready. When the door [202] opened automatically, he stepped through it. There were no Klingons to be seen in the corridor.

  They had gotten away clean.

  The captain refused to congratulate himself, however. He had seen the tide working against them too many times in the last few hours to think that their recent successes guaranteed anything. And he would not underestimate the Klingons.

  There were still a dozen things that could go wrong. He would not allow overconfidence to add to their possible handicaps.

  He motioned Marsilii to follow him, and the two men moved quickly through the corridor. The ensign had indicated that there was an emergency turbolift that went directly to the auxiliary control deck just a few hundred meters down the corridor and around the corner.

  Kirk held out little hope that the turbolift would be functioning. However, it would have an emergency stairwell nearby. The stairs would take precious time, but they would get there.

  At the intersection of the corridors, Kirk stopped and carefully peeked his head around the corner.

  There was a squad of at least seven Klingons waiting there. For what Kirk did not know. They had the look of officers waiting for orders.

  He slowly pulled his head back. The fact that he was in motion already was the only thing that saved him.

  One of the Klingons saw him, raised his disrupter with incredible speed, and fired in one very quick and very smooth motion. Kirk got his head out of the line of [203] fire a fraction of a second before it sent metal from the corridor flying.

  He heard the unmistakable sound of Klingon boots running on the corridor floor.

  “Pull back and find cover,” Kirk said, turning to run.

  Less then twenty meters away, they found station support pylons for cover. Splitting up, they took positions on either side of the corridor, with Marsilii on Kirk’s right side.

  Spinning around, Kirk started firing down the corridor before he could even see where he was aiming. Not surpri
singly, when he was able to get a look, he saw that he had not hit anything.

  Marsilii, apparently, did not have any luck either.

  From what Kirk could see, the Klingons had found cover behind pylons as well—about sixty yards down the corridor. They began firing immediately.

  Kirk couldn’t wait for a lull in the enemy fire, because there was none. Every few seconds, he had to lean away from his cover and fire on the Klingons and quickly duck back.

  A quick glance told him that Marsilii was doing the same with the same result.

  Kirk knew that this kind of fighting could continue indefinitely. The chance of hitting someone in a covered position was slim. It would take many shots and some luck to catch someone when they leaned out to fire.

  Of course, the Klingons outnumbered them eight to one, so they would win a fight if it became a battle of attrition. On the other hand, if they had called for [204] reinforcements, the fight would end even more quickly if Klingons rushed Kirk and Marsilii from behind.

  In either case, Kirk could not afford to wait. He and Marsilii were the only ones who knew that Spock was getting the station’s power online and they were likely the only ones in a position to get to the auxiliary control room.

  Kirk knew what he had to do.

  He quickly adjusted his phaser to overload. According to the Starfleet Survival Manual he was supposed to throw the weapon clear immediately. However, he did not want to risk giving the Klingons time to run for cover. He needed to get them all in one blast or they might never get to the auxiliary control room.

  So Kirk listened to the pitch of the overload and waited until the last possible second. Leaning into the corridor, he pitched the phaser forward. He immediately pulled back and heard the explosion as he did so.

  There was a brief pressure as the concussion wave passed his position as it traveled down the corridor.

  Kirk glanced across the corridor to see that Marsilii was unhurt. The ensign nodded and Kirk leaned to the side to see if any of the Klingons were still there.

  A quick count told him that there were eight motionless bodies on the floor, and Kirk motioned Marsilii to move out.

  Kirk headed down the corridor at a run. He stopped only for a moment to pick up a fallen Klingon disruptor.

  Then he and Marsilii were dashing down the corridor and made a quick turn, barreling for the turbolift and emergency stairs.

  [205] Kirk stopped in front of the lift, and to his surprise it opened.

  Marsilii was right behind him and Kirk turned to see the ensign enter the lift. He said, “Auxiliary control,” but before he had finished the command a disrupter bolt flashed from somewhere and tore into Marsilii from the back while he was in the middle of turning around.

  Reflexively, Kirk leaned forward and caught the young man, who had been propelled into the turbolift wall and was slowly sliding down.

  In an instant Kirk could see that the wound in the dead center of the young man’s back was fatal.

  Yet Marsilii sputtered for a moment and Kirk lowered him slowly to the floor.

  Kirk could see that the ensign was fading fast. Looking him in the eye, Kirk said, “You did very well, Ensign. The station is going to make it.”

  For a moment, Marsilii looked completely lucid and said, “Thank you, sir,” and died.

  Closing the security officer’s eyes, the captain leaned him carefully against the wall.

  A moment later, the turbolift came to a stop and Kirk was on his feet and out the door. He could see the auxiliary control room doors. He did not bother with caution and raced for them.

  There were no Klingons in sight and the doors opened automatically. Auxiliary control was empty. Kirk guessed that officers who had been there had tried to defend the station against the Klingons.

  He headed immediately to the weapons console. Both shields and weapons showed full power. He allowed [206] himself a small smile and remembered the price that others had paid for this success. Ensign Marsilii and both Admiral Justman and Lieutenant West—and many more, he had no doubt.

  Kirk hit the button to turn the shields on and opened his communicator.

  “Kirk to Enterprise,” he said as he called up a view of the Klingon ship on the screen in front of him.

  Chapter Nineteen

  WHEN THE KLINGONS CAME, they did not just come through the door, they came through the wall. They must have brought or improvised some sort of explosives, Kell realized.

  The door exploded inward, as did another four or five meters of wall on either side of it.

  That complicated things. Now, instead of picking off the attackers as they came through the door, Kell and the others were faced with a row of perhaps a dozen Klingon warriors, who charged through the smoke.

  Kell’s phaser was firing before he was consciously aware of it. Fuller’s was as well. Both men found targets quickly. He also saw phaser blasts come from Parrish and Clancy’s direction.

  For a moment, the Klingons were caught unaware by the fire from above. Kell and the others kept their fire in [208] short bursts as they had been trained to do. This made it harder for the Klingons to trace the origin points of the blasts.

  The advantage allowed the Starfleet officers to strike target after target. Perhaps a dozen of the Klingons fell in short order, but more warriors rushed to replace them.

  More fell and the smoke near the entrance grew thicker.

  Suddenly a Klingon voice called for the warriors to cease fire. Kell stayed his own hand. Fuller and the others—who did not understand the command—kept up their blasts, giving away their position.

  More Klingons fell, but a shouting Klingon voice, which Kell realized must belong to their commander, gave the Klingon warriors fairly accurate coordinates.

  Only a few warriors made it through to covered positions, but those warriors aimed a barrage of disrupter fire at the console that Kell and Fuller fired down from. The two men had to cease fire, and pull back for a moment.

  Turning his head, Kell saw that Parrish and Clancy were facing a similar barrage from another group of Klingons firing from a second position.

  “They have us,” Fuller called out loud enough for Parrish and Clancy to hear. “Pull back.”

  Then there was another order shouted in Klingon and the disrupter bolts changed their angle and started striking the ceiling and support beams above the two Starfleet positions.

  Sparks and debris began to rain down on Fuller and Kell as they crawled backward. Whoever their commander was, Kell realized, he was no Orion fool.

  At the back of the console, Fuller and Kell wasted no [209] time. They leapt to the floor. “There,” Fuller said, pointing to a tall and wide synthesizer unit. It was about three meters across, and the two men took positions on either side.

  Kell fired and he could hear Fuller’s beams as well as other phaser fire that he knew belonged to Parrish and Clancy. Once again, he was reminded of Kahless and his Lady Lukura fighting side by side, withstanding the attack of five hundred warriors.

  He thought Parrish might understand that story, and he found that he hoped they would both live long enough that he could tell it to her.

  Disrupter fire tore into the synthesizer that shielded them, but Kell immediately saw why the chief had chosen it as cover. The synthesizer seemed nearly indestructible, which made sense since it needed to withstand the incredible heat and energies inside.

  Kell’s ears told him that one of the phasers from Parrish’s position had gone silent. Turning his head to see if Parrish had been hit, he saw her maintaining her fire. At first, he thought that Clancy must have been hit; then he saw the ensign working feverishly at a console.

  She called to Parrish, who stopped firing and turned to Clancy, who gave Fuller and Kell a hand signal telling them that she had rigged the equipment somehow.

  “Chief!” Kell called out.

  “I saw it,” Fuller replied. “We’ll wait for their signal.”

  Kell maintained his fire, noting tha
t the Klingons were advancing on Parrish and Clancy’s former position. By now, the two females had disappeared from his view.

  Finally, they heard Clancy shout, “Get down!”

  [210] Kell automatically dropped to the floor and covered his head with his hands, as he heard Fuller doing the same.

  There was a large explosion that made the deck under him shudder and sent a blast of heat over his head. Kell held his breath for as long as he could to make sure that he did not take in the superheated air.

  Finally judging it safe, Kell took a breath and saw that the exploding heavy equipment had cleared the immediate area of Klingons ... and pretty much everything else for a twenty-meter radius.

  He suspected that any Klingons within an even greater circle were now dead or injured.

  Kell’s suspicions were confirmed when he noted that there was no more disrupter fire coming from that side of the manufacturing plant.

  The Klingons who remained concentrated their fire on Kell and the chief’s position. The two men returned fire, but Kell could see the Klingons were beginning to advance.

  “Pull back,” Fuller said.

  Turning, Kell followed the chief, who ran toward a new position behind a less than two-meter-high console, the function of which Kell could only guess.

  They were getting closer to the back wall of the large plant. Scanning quickly, he saw that Parrish and Clancy were even closer to the wall. Neither team would have long before they had no remaining fallback positions.

  Kell found that the prospect did not trouble him. He had seen Fuller, other security officers, and even himself succeed in more difficult circumstances.

  Klingons were taught that the only victory was [211] victory. But he had seen humans win impossible victories simply by not conceding defeat, by buying time—sometimes minutes, sometimes seconds—time to think of something, time for help to arrive. They preserved life for the last possible microsecond and maintained their belief that while there was life there was hope.

  Kell had found that human beliefs were strong, and apparently contagious.

  “Hold your fire,” Fuller said. “Let’s not announce ourselves until they are closer.”