by Peter David
Sulu stared at her for a long moment … and then began to laugh. He had a very odd sort of laugh when he really cut loose. It sounded like an engine trying to rev up … a repeated "Uh! Uh! Uh!" On the rare occasions when he allowed himself to laugh like that, Demora would invariably imitate it … making him laugh all the more. Which was exactly what happened.
As barely human creatures scavenged the city, looking for something to kill, their intended prey sat hundreds of feet above and laughed.
Chapter Thirty
"BELAY THAT."
Chaput's hand froze over the phaser control as her captain's voice stopped her a moment before she could open fire on the Excelsior.
Admiral Harriman turned and looked at his son. "What did you say?"
"Belay that order, Chaput," the captain said again. "Stand down from battle stations."
Blackjack advanced on his son. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Taking back command of my vessel."
"The hell you are." He turned back to Chaput. "I order you to carry out my last order!"
"Don't do it, Chaput," Harriman said. And the tone of his voice was so firm that she tucked her hands under her legs and sat on them. "Admiral, I say again, I am taking back command of my vessel. You are relieved of duty."
Slowly Blackjack Harriman's face purpled. He stepped in close to Harriman. "There are specific regulations under which a subordinate officer can relieve a superior officer. Do you feel that any of them apply to this?"
"Yes, sir."
His voice became deep and dangerous as he said, "Which ones?"
"All of them. And one more." Harriman leaned in close said, "You've really pissed me off. Now get off my bridge." Blackjack's fists clenched and unclenched. "This is mutiny. This is nothing less than mutiny."
"Call it what you will. I say again, however … get off my bridge, or—"
"Or what? Or you'll order security officers to commit mutiny as well as remove me?"
And Harriman shook his head. "No. I'll do it myself."
Blackjack blew his stack. "You little ingrate! Do you have any idea the number of times I've interceded for you! The times I've protected you! You owe your command to me! And this is the treatment you feel is due me?" His voice grew louder, more outraged, and the captain simply stood there, arms folded, and took it without flinching.
The admiral turned away and sat in the command chair. Icily, he said, "Even Kirk never did something like this. Not even he treated a superior officer in such a high-handed fashion. You're worse than he ever was."
"We all have to aspire to something, Admiral. Will you leave the bridge quietly?"
The admiral leaned back in the command chair and cracked his knuckles. "Nothing is getting me out of this chair. Now advise your helmswoman to obey my orders. Either that or try to remove me … if you think you've got the stones."
"Very well," said Harriman, unperturbed.
The bridge crew held its collective breath.
And Harriman, calmly, touched the comm switch on the helm console and said, "Bridge to transporter room. Lock onto the command chair and beam the occupant, into the brig."
The admiral's jaw dropped and he tried to leap from the command chair, but it was too late. The admiral, vanished in a twinkling of light and hum of molecular displacement.
No one on the bridge could quite believe it. And then, after a moment of dead silence:
"Sir," said Dane finally, "that was utterly inappropriate. In all my years of discipline and background, in all my upbringing … I have never seen a display such as that."
"Your point being, Dane?"
"The point being, I thought it was a hell of a display. Because I wasn't sanguine about firing on Excelsior."
"Neither was I. I trust you'll testify to that effect at my court-martial?"
"Absolutely, sir."
"Thank you, Dane. I knew I could count on you. Now … Z'on, raise the Excelsior, pronto. Let's find out what the hell is going on down there."
Chapter Thirty-one
THEY WERE COMING. Five hundred they numbered … beasts with nothing but instinct and a need to destroy. Failed experiments that bore the shells of human beings but the minds of wild animals. Naked and deranged, looking like three men who were dead, or one young woman who was crouched next to her father and shuddering as she looked down upon them. It was like watching ghosts, or one's worst nightmare heading one's way.
She watched the clones of herself rampaging through the streets.
"We're not going to die."
The bottom of the tower shuddered, and they heard triumphant howling from the horde below. Sulu and Demora had bolted the door below, but it had held only a brief time. They heard it crashing in.
Sulu and Demora looked bleakly at each other, Sulu no longer having empty promises of salvation to toss around.
"I don't want to die like that," Demora whispered. "Torn apart by them … I don't want to die like that."
He said nothing, but looked at her in a way that had no despair, no hopelessness … but instead pride, even defiance.
"There is a way out, isn't there," she said, knowing the answer.
And knowing that she knew, he simply nodded.
She looked down at the drop. She could see, far below her, the bloodthirsty mob pushing its way in. The tower continued to shudder beneath the pounding of their feet.
"It's not dishonorable, is it?" she asked.
"No."
"Because I know that's important. And I'd want you to be proud of me."
He smiled, keeping back the tears, to be strong for her. "I wouldn't mind having you proud of me, either."
The tower trembled, the shouts getting louder. A few feet away from them was the opening to the stairway that led down. A door was closed over it, but it wouldn't last more than a second.
"Dad … I never knew before that you had tests done to make sure I was your daughter. If … if they'd come back as negative … would you still have taken care of me?" She paused. "Feel free to lie in order to spare my feelings. I promise I won't hold it against you."
"Yes. I would have made you my daughter anyway. And I'd have loved you as much, and I couldn't possibly have been more proud of you than I am right now."
The horde grew closer and closer. Only seconds remained before they would burst out onto the uppermost portion of the tower, and that would be the end.
"Demora," said Sulu, "I am … honored … to die with you."
"To die would be a great adventure."
Sulu frowned. "I've heard that. Who said that? Ch'en Tu-hsui, wasn't it?"
"No. Peter Pan."
"Oh. Well then," and he rose to his feet, taking her by the hand. "Let's fly."
They stepped to the edge of the tower. The drop yawned beneath them. Beyond them was the horizon, the purple skies seemingly ready to welcome their soon-to-be-freed souls.
"Dad … I'm scared."
"So am I."
"Do you believe in life after death?"
"I believe in life before death."
"In that case … good job." "Same to you."
She took a deep breath and said, "I love you, Daddy."
"I love you, Demora." And he did … perhaps, for the first time, with all his heart.
They braced themselves, took one last look at each other.
And Demora leaped.
And Sulu didn't.
He did not let go of her hand, however. Instead he clutched on desperately as Demora swung down like a pendulum, slamming into the great stone tower. Sulu held on for all he was worth, still in the tower.
Demora screeched in terror, confusion, anger, dangling with only her father's frantic grip preventing her from plunging to her death. It took a few moments for her father's shouts of "Look! Look!" to penetrate, and then—even as she hung there—she twisted her head around to look where he was indicating.
A shuttlecraft was hurtling through the sky, glinting in the purple light, approaching them at h
igh speed. At the pace it was going, it would be there in ten seconds.
Three seconds later, the first of the berserker clones smashed through the door. It was a clone of Taine, followed by several more of exactly the same vintage.
Both hands occupied with preventing Demora from falling, Sulu kicked out frantically. The kick knocked the clone back, sending him crashing into others coming in behind him. They were shrieking, howling, and they converged on Sulu from all sides.
Sulu kicked out again, knocking one off his feet. Another grabbed at Sulu's face and Sulu bit him, sinking his teeth in and drawing blood. But more were coming and Sulu was out of time …
And the shuttlecraft was directly beneath them.
Breathing a prayer, Sulu let go. Demora dropped five feet and slammed into the roof of the shuttle. She came near to skidding off, but then she managed to clamber back up. "Dad!" she screamed, "Dad!"
They were all over him now. Sulu couldn't pull free of them. His hand was outstretched to Demora, but they seemed separated by a distance of miles.
The door of the shuttlecraft suddenly slid open, and Captain John Harriman was hanging half out of the doorway. He was holding a phaser and, angling it upward, fired. He nailed one of the clones, blasting him backward, and then another, and for a moment Sulu was free.
Sulu tore clear and leaped over the edge of the tower. He thudded onto the roof a few feet from Demora and she reached out, grabbing him by the wrist to hold him in place.
Harriman was shouting into the interior of the cabin, "Gently, Anik! Keep 'er steady! We got 'em! Let's get down and get 'em inside."
The shuttlecraft began to descend gently to the ground, a safe distance from the city. As it went, Demora and Sulu lay flat on their stomachs, clutching each other's hands, gasping, looking at each other and hardly believing what had just happened.
Finally Demora managed to get a sentence out.
"Couldn't have spotted them two seconds earlier, could you."
Chapter Thirty-two
"ARE YOU PLANNING to release me anytime soon, Captain," said Admiral Harriman in an icy tone.
John Harriman stood outside the brig, arms folded, leaning against the wall. "That depends. I think I'll debrief you first."
"Debrief me. There is nothing you could say, Captain, that could possibly serve as any sort of mitigating circumstance in your upcoming court-martial."
Harriman proceeded to tell him everything. The admiral's eyes became wider and wider the further along Harriman got.
When the captain was finished, there was a long moment of silence.
"So feel free to court-martial me, Father," said Harriman. "Bring everyone on the Excelsior up on charges too, if you wish. Of course, full testimony will be offered. As it stands, a rescue mission overseen by one Admiral Harriman, aided and abetted by a captain of some renown who is credited with, among other things, saving the Khitomer conference, not to mention the entire Earth … this rescue mission not only recovered a crew woman believed dead—said captain's daughter—but uncovered the illegal use of forbidden alien cloning technology which the Tholian faction was planning to put to use in schemes of conquest. If, on the other hand, you wish the record to show that said admiral was ready to fire on the famed captain's unprotected ship and abandon both captain and daughter, allowing the clone technology to continue unabated … well, sir … that is your choice to make."
Blackjack frowned. "Think you've got me boxed in, don't you, Captain."
Harriman nodded. "Yes, sir, I do."
"And you expect me to knuckle under."
"No, sir. Merely my fervent hope."
"Hunh." The admiral scratched his chin. "If I go along with this … I do not want you to think for one moment I approve of your actions."
"Understood."
"It's for the good of the fleet, you understand. And to make you look good."
"Yes, sir. I very much appreciate that."
Anik and Harriman walked toward the Enterprise transporter room. "So he went along with it," she asked.
"Of course he did. My father may be many things, but stupid he is not. Although I tend to think relations will be fairly … strained … between us for a while. But I can live with that. More importantly, Demora can live with that."
They walked into the transporter room. Anik turned and shook his hand briskly. "Captain … it's been an honor."
"The same to you, Commander. I believe Captain Sulu will be along with you shortly; he's just spending a few more moments with Demora."
"He's certainly entitled." She stepped up onto the platform.
"Uhm, Commander … one thing," he said.
"Yes?"
"That conversation you eavesdropped on. The one about my talking about honor and tradition and what I wanted from life. I remember having a conversation like that … but how in the world did you recognize or even remember my voice from that one fleeting moment ten years ago?"
"Oh, that." Anik laughed. "I made that up."
"What?" He gaped at her. "What?"
"I made it up. I never overheard you. I'm not even absolutely sure we went to the Academy at the same time."
"Then how did you know—?!"
She shrugged. "I guessed. Because everyone at some point in their fourth year sits around and talks about what they want out of life. So I figured it was worth a shot." She winked. "See you around, Captain."
Grinning and shaking his head in amazement, Captain John Harriman said, "Energize." Anik of Matern vanished and Harriman walked out of the transporter room, still chuckling.
Hikaru and Demora stood on the observation deck, staring out at the stars.
"You know," Demora said after a while, "most people can sit down and clear the air without having to face an impending death by rampaging clones."
"We're not most people," said Sulu. "For instance … why didn't you tell me you were upset about my going with Chekov up to our new assignment at the time it was happening?"
"Well … because you'd just saved the Earth by going back in time to get two humpback whales …" Her voice trailed off and she sighed. "All right. I see your point."
"Demora." He turned to her. "Have you considered requesting a transfer to the Excelsior? I happen to know you'd be favorably received by the captain."
"And I'd be worrying the entire time he'd be treating me with favoritism. Either that or he'd be overprotective of me. It doesn't sound like a good idea."
"It did for a moment," he sighed.
"Dad …" She hesitated. "Did you lie to me? About …"
"About that I would have taken you in even if I hadn't been your father? No. No, I wasn't. Because even if you weren't mine … you still would have been hers. And that would have been enough." He smiled. "But I'm still glad nonetheless."
He looked back out at the stars. "And I'm also relieved … that you weren't taken from me senselessly. I've spent my life trying to steer my way through the galaxy … to understand it. I'd like to think there's some order to it, some reason that things happen. That would give it a sort of elegance. That it is … at its core … a positive force. After all, Einstein said, 'God may be sophisticated, but He is not malicious.' I've always believed very strongly in the truth of that."
"Einstein. Hmmm," mused Demora.
"What's wrong."
"Well, didn't he also say that it was impossible to exceed the speed of light?"
This stopped Sulu for a moment. Then he shrugged. "Well … even Einstein had his off days."
He turned to her once more and hugged her tightly. "I love you, Demora."
"I love you too, Dad. Don't be a stranger."
"I won't. Not anymore."
He released her, reluctantly, and started to head for the door when Demora said, "Oh, and Dad?"
"Yes?"
"I stopped by my quarters earlier … and there was mail from you. Just … a chatty letter. You don't usually send chatty letters. What prompted that?"
He smiled. "Just thinking of you, s
weetheart. Just thinking of you."
"Well it was nice. Keep doing it."
"Same to you, sweetheart. Same to you."
He walked out of the observation deck, leaving Demora to gaze at the stars.
Look for STAR TREK fiction from Pocket Books
Star Trek®: The Original Series
Enterprise: The First Adventure • Vonda N. McIntyre
Final Frontier • Diane Carey
Strangers From the Sky • Margaret Wander Bonanno
Spock's World • Diane Duane
The Lost Years • J.M. Dillard
Probe • Margaret Wander Bonanno
Prime Directive • Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Best Destiny • Diane Carey
Shadows on the Sun • Michael Jan Friedman
Sarek • A.C. Crispin
Federation • Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Vulcan's Forge • Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
Mission to Horatius • Mack Reynolds
Vulcan's Heart • Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
Novelizations
Star Trek: The Motion Picture • Gene Roddenberry
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan • Vonda N. McIntyre
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock • Vonda N. McIntyre
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home • Vonda N. McIntyre
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier • J.M. Dillard
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country • J.M. Dillard
Star Trek Generations • J.M. Dillard
Starfleet Academy • Diane Carey
Star Trek books by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
The Ashes of Eden
The Return
Avenger
Star Trek: Odyssey (contains The Ashes of Eden, The Return, and Avenger)
Spectre
Dark Victory
Preserver
#1 • Star Trek: The Motion Picture • Gene Roddenberry
