Collision Course

by William Shatner

  Spock rose to his feet and stood as if at parade rest, hands behind his back.

  Kirk got up slowly, dragging out the moment to show his disrespect for Mallory. Spock did not approve.

  “We’re in a bit of a bind, boys,” Mallory continued. “Because of the override, we know that one or the other of you was involved in the staff car theft. What we don’t know is which one of you it was.”

  Kirk gave Spock a sideways glance, and when Spock met it, Kirk winked.

  Mallory gave no sign of having noticed the exchange. “Therefore, it seems the only plausible assumption is that you were working together, so Starfleet will be prosecuting you both for…” He checked his padd for the terminology, as if he had never had to say the words before. “Grand larceny. How archaic.”

  Spock kept his expression neutral, telling himself that there was nothing humans could do that could surprise him.

  Kirk’s eyes flashed. “C’mon! I told you I never met this guy before last night!”

  Mallory wasn’t swayed. “It’s not up to me anymore. You’ll be talking to a judge. Hearing’s set for next Thursday.”

  “Five days?” Kirk protested. “You can’t keep us here five days.”

  “We can, but your records are more or less clean, so we won’t.” Mallory gestured to the security officer, and the man opened his case to reveal two gray metal bracelets.

  “You’re both free to leave,” Mallory explained, “as long as you consent to wear these tracking modules. They’ll transmit an alarm to Starfleet Security if you venture more than five kilometers outside the city limits. They’re also linked together through a subspace transponder, and an alarm will be sent if you get within twenty meters of each other. Understand? One of the conditions of your release is that you have no contact with each other.”

  Spock dutifully held out his right hand.

  Kirk grudgingly did the same. “Never saw you before,” he said to Spock between clenched teeth. “Don’t care if I ever do again.”

  Spock was curious about Mallory’s evident self-control. He seemed to be unresponsive to Kirk’s defiant attitude and statements.

  The security officer snapped a tracking module around Spock’s wrist, then Kirk’s with a solid snap, the sound immediately followed by the sizzle of molecular bonding.

  Spock studied the bracelet-shaped device with interest. “An efficient design,” he said.

  Kirk glared at him.

  Mallory added another caveat to their instructions. “I’m sure I don’t have to add that if either of you even attempt to remove the tracker, security officers will beam to your location and immediately return you to custody until the hearing. Any questions?”

  Spock wanted to ask what powered the subspace transmitter and how the five-kilometer limit was determined: by following the city limits proper or by a radius measured from a central point to provide an average distance. It was an intriguing problem.

  But Kirk said, “No. Can we go now?”

  Mallory gestured to the open door. “Your father’s waiting for you outside Processing.”

  Spock saw Kirk frown. “Great,” the human said.

  Mallory turned to Spock. “The embassy sent an attaché to escort you back to the compound.”

  “Of course,” Spock said. “My parents have other business to attend to.”

  “Lucky you,” Kirk said as he started toward the door.

  Spock considered that puzzling statement during the short drive back to the Vulcan Embassy. He did not think of himself as lucky. Indeed, if he were not Vulcan, he decided he might envy Kirk for having the interest and attention of his father.

  If he were not Vulcan.

  16

  Thirty-three years earlier, the shuttlecraft Helen Hogg had served with distinction on the U.S.S. Endurance. Among its most notable historic missions, the small, warp-three vehicle had carried delegates to the Babel Conference that had ratified the independence of Earth’s oldest extrasolar colony world, New Montana, where Zefrem Cochrane himself had settled.

  But, inevitably obsolete and outmoded, the venerable spacecraft had long since taken its last voyage. In the company of a dozen other fleet vehicles of various classes, it now spent its days in the vast hangar of the Tucker Systematics Center, being respectfully taken apart and reassembled by eager young Academy midshipmen.

  The two mids who worked on the H.H. today were Elissa Corso and Zee Bayloff, gaining extra credits before the first semester of their second year began. Three days earlier, a fiendishly clever third-year lab instructor had set up a fault in the shuttle’s impulse-power system that, bafflingly, also created an offset in the navigation system and made life support erratic. Now, even with most of the shuttle’s hull plates removed and half the spacecraft’s transmission network disassembled on the spotless gray plating of the hangar floor, the two young mids were no closer to resolving the issue than they were when they opened their first access panel.

  So, for the moment, they did what any engineer would do: stood back and surveyed the chaos they had created from the once sleek vehicle, oblivious to the noisy tools and equipment of the other teams working on the other sacrificial shuttles and spacecraft scattered throughout the hangar, focusing only on the problem before them.

  “This is what I’m thinking,” Zee finally said. “What if there are three separate faults?”

  Elissa wore her ball cap backward to keep the bill from hitting the circuits she’d been testing up close. She pushed it back even farther to scratch her hat-flattened hair. “Except Carmichael told us there was one underlying root cause.”

  Zee’s blond hair was short enough that she didn’t wear a cap, and somehow, on her, even the shapeless, pale-blue mechanic’s overalls she wore seemed fashionable. “Maybe that’s part of the test. The initial report was flawed, but since we didn’t question it, we’ve just wasted three days on a false assumption.”

  Elissa tried to grapple with the part of that conclusion that troubled her the most. “You’re saying Carmichael deliberately misled us?”

  “Welcome to the real world,” Zee laughed, and Elissa was surprised at her scornful tone. “If you were on the engineering staff of a starship and the chief told you to perform a specific repair, maybe the first step is to confirm the chief’s diagnosis of the fault.”

  Put that way, Elissa saw the solution was obvious. “Carmichael’s a hard case, isn’t he.”

  “Yeah, but that’s probably what makes him a good instructor.” Zee gave Elissa a cynical smile. “People lie, fact of life.”

  Elissa sighed. “So…you deconstruct the nav components and I’ll tackle life support?”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  The two slapped hands and went off in search of the new tools they’d need. That was when Elissa saw her company commander approach with an older civilian she didn’t recognize.

  “Ms. Corso,” the CC barked. “Front and center.”

  Elissa instantly double-timed it to the two men. Her company commander was a fourth-class mid, rigid but fair, who kept his head as closely shaved as if he were still a plebe. The man with him was older, his hair white, his suit badly in need of a sonic wash to eliminate its wrinkles.

  “Midshipman Corso reporting, sir.” Elissa stood at attention.

  Her CC referred to the visitor. “This is Mr. Mallory from Command. You’re going to talk to him.”

  “Yes, sir.” Elissa could guess what the topic of the conversation was going to be.

  The company commander looked over at the disassembled shuttlecraft where Zee was already removing a square of inertial-damping mesh from the forward hull—part of the navigational positioning subsystem. “What’s your status on that?”

  “We’ve developed a new approach to solving the problem, sir.”

  “New approach. Good. I want a full written report by 0700 tomorrow.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Carry on.”

  Elissa and Mallory watched the fourth-year mid march off.r />
  “Will that be a lot of work?” Mallory asked. “The report?”

  Elissa remained at attention. “No, sir.”

  “At ease, Midshipman. This isn’t an official visit.”

  That statement confused Elissa, but she relaxed. “Yes, sir.”

  “And I’m not an officer, so call me Mallory, and I’ll call you Elissa, if that’s all right.”

  “Yes, s—” She caught herself. “Mallory.”

  “So, I’ve just been reviewing your file, and I see you’re facing an honor board hearing over the dilithium theft.”

  Elissa felt even more confused. This man worked at Starfleet Command, but dressed like someone who had never seen a proper uniform. And he was talking about her honor board as if it were something of passing interest, and not the reason for his visit. “That’s correct.” She managed to cut off the “sir” before she began to say it that time.

  “For what it’s worth, and I don’t really know if I should be telling you this, but there’s no evidence to suggest you actually took the dilithium yourself.”

  Elissa almost rocked back on her heels, so great was her relief. “Really?”

  “You’re not off the hook, though.”

  Elissa felt the weight of injustice descend on her again. “Permission to ask why.”

  “Your ID codes were definitely used by the actual thieves to gain access to the warp lab and to open the storage vault. So, at worst, you might be a knowing accomplice—which the investigators appear to doubt. But, at best, you were negligent in protecting your codes.”

  Elissa was back where she had started. “I can still be separated for that.”

  “You can.”

  Elissa still didn’t know what Mallory wanted from her, unless it was to make her feel more miserable than she already did. She looked back at Zee, who was taking field readings off the damping mesh she had wired to a test bench. “May I ask if there is something else you wanted to talk to me about?”

  When she turned back to Mallory, she saw that he did have another topic of conversation in mind. In his hand, he held Jim’s override.

  “Is this yours?” Mallory asked.

  There were many ways Mallory might have asked that question, but he had fortunately chosen one that Elissa could answer honestly, without getting Jim in trouble.

  “No, sir.”

  “I ask because it’s programmed with your codes. This isn’t the transmitter the dilithium thieves used, but it can do exactly the same thing.” Elissa didn’t risk opening her mouth, and Mallory stopped waiting for her to say something.

  “Starfleet found this device in the possession of a young man: James Kirk.”

  Up to that point, Elissa had felt justified in not volunteering any new information that might hurt others, but she wasn’t about to play games with someone from Command. If Mallory knew about her relationship with Jim, then there was no reason to remain silent.

  “He’s my boyfriend.”

  “Oh, I know. That’s why I’m here. He was taken into custody last night on suspicion of stealing a Starfleet flyer.”

  “Jim would never do anything like that, sir—Mallory.”

  “Even so, it turns out that this device does have the capability of defeating the basic security lockouts on noncritical Starfleet equipment. It’s very clever.”

  Mallory looked from the override to Elissa.

  “Did you give him your codes so he could use them in this?”

  Elissa could not lie to this man. Not just because she was a midshipman at Starfleet Academy, but because she was not the kind of person who would lie in any event. Which is why she was a midshipman.

  So, even though she knew what she was about to say could lead to her immediate separation from the Academy, Elissa squared her shoulders and answered Mallory’s question as befit a Starfleet officer candidate.

  “I did give him my codes. But only after the dilithium went missing.” Mallory didn’t interrupt, so she continued. “Jim is convinced that the lab security isn’t as foolproof as the investigators claim it is, and he basically built that override in a day to prove to me how easy it is to circumvent Starfleet security safeguards.”

  “And he demonstrated it by overriding the staff car’s controls.”

  Elissa took another deep breath, knowing she was digging herself in deeper. “He did some research and figured out that the car and the lab had the same level of built-in security.”

  “Your boyfriend was right.”

  Elissa was surprised to catch a hint of what might have been admiration in Mallory’s statement.

  “Was there a Vulcan with you last night?”

  “No, sir—Mallory.” Elissa was surprised by the question. What did that have to do with anything? “I’ve never met a Vulcan on Earth, I mean, other than Ambassador T’Pol when she lectured here last year. But that was just a receiving line.”

  “Does your boyfriend know any Vulcans?”

  “Jim’s never mentioned knowing any.” Elissa thought carefully. “I’d be surprised if he did. He’s not the adventurous type. I mean, not when it comes to space and aliens and…”

  “Starfleet?” Mallory suggested.

  “He’s not what you would call a supporter.”

  “But you are.”

  Elissa smiled. “I grew up on Risa. Half the population is alien.”

  Mallory slipped the override into his pocket. “Any idea what happened to the car?”

  Elissa didn’t know why this civilian hadn’t mentioned Jim’s brother yet, so she decided it would be all right if she didn’t, either—unless specifically asked.

  “Uh, when Jim tested the override, we were pretty much outflanked by the parking lot guards, so Jim decided we should get away in the car. Just far enough to give us a head start. We had no intention of stealing it. We parked it on a sidestreet by the waterfront, and that’s the last I saw of it.”

  “You both left the car together?”

  “Yes, sir.” She caught herself again. “Mallory.”

  Mallory smiled. “I understand. It’s a hard habit to break. I’m a graduate. Class of ’22.”

  Elissa’s attitude toward her questioner changed the instant she realized he’d experienced the same challenges she was in the midst of, and had succeeded. “Outstanding.”

  Mallory looked up, past the dazzling bright lights and structural braces of the arching hangar ceiling to what lay beyond. “When you get out there, serve on a Starfleet vessel, you’ll find it’s a bit less formal.”

  “If I get out there.”

  Mallory gave her a smile of commiseration. “Your honor board could break a lot of different ways. If you gave your codes to your boyfriend after the theft, the worst the board could rule is that you exercised poor judgment in not keeping your conduct adviser informed of what you were doing. That would mean demerits, maybe no liberty for a semester, but if Starfleet separated all the mids who committed minor infractions, I don’t think there’d be much of an officer corps left. We tend to select for ‘original’ thinkers, and that does result in the rules being pushed to their limits on a regular basis.”

  “I would never knowingly violate the Academy’s Honor Concept, and I would never break the rules, sir.” Elissa didn’t try to censor herself that time. If this man was an Academy graduate, then “sir” was what he deserved to be called.

  Mallory paused, gave her a sharp look. “Again, when you get out there, on the frontier, sometimes you’ll find that the people and conditions you encounter don’t play by the same rules we do. That’s when we need those original thinkers who understand our rules, but aren’t afraid to make new ones.”

  Elissa sensed he was referring to something that had great personal significance to him, but it was not her place to ask for more details.

  “Understood, sir.” It was all she could say.

  “By the way, I’d be happy to appear at your board as a character witness.”

  Elissa frowned, surprised. “Sir, you don’t know me
.”

  “Oh, I’m sure if we have further conversations—say if you happen to think of anything more that might help me understand the connection between you and your boyfriend and the override and the missing car—that would change. And I’d be able to appear on your behalf.”

  He’s offering me a deal, Elissa thought indignantly. Sell out Jim and Sam and get off with a few demerits and a slap on the wrist. There was only one way she could respond.

  “Thank you for your offer, sir. But this is my problem and I will deal with it.”

  “If you don’t, you might lose your whole career.”

  But Elissa was an Academy mid, and she knew how a problem like hers could be solved every time. “All I have to do is tell the truth, sir. I have faith in the system.”

  Mallory nodded. “So do I.” He held out his hand to shake hers. “A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Corso. But if I could offer a bit of advice?”

  “Of course, sir.”

  “It’s not enough to tell the truth. You have to tell the whole truth.”

  It was all Elissa could do to look him in the eyes, knowing how thoroughly he had seen through her.

  “I understand, sir.”

  Mallory gave her a smile. “Well, if you don’t now, you will soon enough. Good luck with the shuttle, Midshipman.” Then he left.

  Zee was beside her almost at once, using a towel to wipe an oily film of tetralubisol from her work gloves. “Who was he?”

  “Some guy from Command.”

  “Trying to get you to confess?”

  Elissa shook her head. “Thanks, but it’s my problem.”

  “The more you tell me, Corso, the better chance there is I can help.”

  Elissa appreciated her dormmate’s support but sometimes felt as if Zee were a bit too eager to learn bad news about anyone in their class.

  “I’ll be okay. The last thing you need is more trouble.”

  Zee gave up for the moment and they started back for the old H.H., so many of its interior struts and spars revealed by missing hull plates that it resembled the half-decayed corpse of a mechanistic dinosaur.