STAR TREK: TOS - Errand of Vengeance, Book Two - Killing Blow

by Kevin Ryan

  The Vulcan understood the meaning of the metaphor, if not its origin. “I quite agree,” he said. “Unfortunately, there is little we can do but follow. We cannot allow a Klingon battleship free reign within Federation space and our orders prevent us from firing directly on the Klingon vessel unless we are fired upon.”

  “Meanwhile, Jim is on his own down there,” McCoy said.

  “Once again, Doctor, you demonstrate a very firm grip on the obvious,” Spock replied.

  [224] “Approaching the system. We will reach its limits in four minutes, seventeen seconds,” Lieutenant Stern said.

  “Location of the Klingon vessel?” Spock asked.

  “They are entering orbit around the star,” the acting science officer said.

  “If they get too close, perhaps that star will take care of our problem for us,” McCoy said.

  “Unlikely, Doctor. The red supergiant is among the coolest of the stars,” Spock said. “The Klingons will likely be in no danger from it for the next one hundred million years.”

  Spock calculated the time until the very edge of the system.

  “Mr. Sulu, drop out of warp on my mark,” Spock said.

  The Vulcan waited until he calculated that the Enterprise had reached the system’s boundary. He waited a few more seconds, until they were inside the system limits. It added risk, because the ship could overshoot and collide with the star. Yet time was important now and he had great faith in Lieutenant Sulu’s abilities.

  “Mark,” Spock said.

  Sulu executed the maneuver immediately and flawlessly.

  “We are point three five astronomical units from the star,” Acting Science Officer Stern said.

  “Excellent. Mr. Sulu, interception course with Klingon vessel. Full impulse,” Spock said.

  “Full impulse, aye,” Sulu said.

  After a few minutes, Lieutenant Stern said, “Interception in two minutes.”

  [225] “Lieutenant Uhura, hail the vessel,” Spock said.

  “No response,” Uhura said a few seconds later.

  “Mr. Sulu, put us on a parallel course, two kilometers from the Klingon vessel,” Spock said.

  After less than a minute, Sulu reported, “We have established parallel course.”

  The viewscreen now showed the red star on the left-hand side and, above it, the Klingon ship.

  “Still no response from the Klingons,” Uhura said.

  Spock saw that this situation could continue indefinitely. Logically speaking, only decisive action could speed its outcome.

  The Vulcan stood. He had noted in the past that when Captain Kirk stood up in moments of stress, it seemed to increase the crew’s confidence.

  That confidence would be an asset now.

  “Mr. Sulu, shield status?” he asked.

  “Shields at maximum,” Sulu replied.

  “Arm a photon torpedo,” Spock said.

  He heard the doctor’s sharp intake of breath.

  “What about your orders, Spock?” the doctor said.

  “I intend to follow them to the letter,” Spock said. “Sulu, target the space three kilometers in front of the Klingon ship and fire at will.”

  There was a momentary hesitation as Sulu made the calculations and said, “Firing now.”

  Spock could see the torpedo’s arc taking it in front of the Klingon ship and then the flash of the explosion.

  “Status of Klingon ship?” Spock asked.

  Lieutenant Stern studied the science-station viewer for a moment and then said, “They seem to be undamaged.”

  [226] Spock turned to the doctor. “My orders were not to fire directly on the Klingon ship unless provoked. Consider that torpedo a communication of our seriousness.”

  “But the Klingons will see that as a challenge, Spock,” McCoy said.

  “Yes,” Spock said. Now they would see how the Klingons responded. “Given what we know of Klingons, the commander will logically either answer the challenge or withdraw. Either way, we will see a timely conclusion to this situation.”

  All eyes were on the viewscreen. The Klingon ship stayed its course.

  “The Klingons have their weapons powered, but they have not targeted us,” Lieutenant Stern announced.

  Good, Spock thought. Perhaps the Klingon vessel was not prepared to fight. Spock quickly calculated how long it would take to escort the vessel back to Klingon space at high warp and return to System 7348 to assist the captain.

  “The Klingon is executing a maneuver,” Stern said.

  Spock watched as the Klingon vessel shifted its orbit. Oddly, however, it did not break away from the red supergiant it was orbiting. Instead, it was in a rapid descent toward the surface of the star.

  “What’s he doing, Spock?” McCoy said. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t look logical.”

  Then Spock saw the logic of the maneuver.

  “Pursue and match speed,” he said as he strode over to the science station. Stern stepped aside and the Vulcan quickly recalibrated the shields for heat and a few narrow bands of radiation.

  [227] “Klingon vessel entering the outer layer of the star,” Sulu said.

  “Continue pursuit,” the Vulcan said, his voice calm.

  Nevertheless, he could see the bridge crew was concerned. After a slight hesitation, Mr. Sulu said, “Laying in an interception course now.”

  As the landing party stepped around the low-slung Orion building, Kell looked out and for a moment thought he was looking down into a great pit in Gre’thor, where the Klingon dishonored dead went.

  This pit was enormous, no less than five kilometers across. It was also deep—how deep Kell could not yet tell from this distance.

  Kirk led the landing party to some sort of loading platform that sat on the edge of the near side of the vast pit. When they reached the edge, Kell was able to look down and see into the depths; he was even more convinced that he was looking at a pit in Gre’thor.

  The sides of the roughly circular pit showed rock that had been cut away. Because it was so wide and the planet’s sun was nearly overhead, Kell could see very far down. Yet, he could not see the bottom, which disappeared into darkness.

  The scout spoke to Kell and he said, “Captain, he says the entrance is down there.”

  Parrish stepped forward with her tricorder. “About five kilometers down, sir,” she said. “That is where the large equipment and the warp reactor are.”

  She studied the tricorder for another moment. “It does not seem to be guarded, however. I’m not getting a concentration of life signs near the entrance.”

  [228] Kirk nodded and was already moving, studying a large open-top platform. Kell immediately recognized the design as Orion. It looked like their weapons platforms except it was much larger—a rectangle of perhaps fifty meters in length—and it had no visible weapons. Just a pilot’s console and a large, flat open space behind it.

  “It is not armed, Captain,” Parrish said, as if she were reading Kell’s thoughts. “It’s for hauling ore and minerals up from the mine. It will get us down to the Orions.”

  “Then let’s go,” Kirk said, stepping aboard. He was already studying the controls.

  Parrish and the others quickly followed. “I can pilot it, Captain,” she said.

  With a nod from Kirk, Parrish took the controls. She turned back to the rest of the team and said, “Hold on to the railing—tight—and put your feet in the restraints. The ride can feel a bit rough if you aren’t used to it.”

  Their Klingon scout told them he had to go. Kell understood. His people were fighting for their lives and he wanted to stand with them.

  “Tell him thank you,” Kirk said.

  The Klingon nodded and quickly disappeared. The rest of the landing party quickly boarded the vehicle.

  As Parrish piloted the large craft off the ground, Kell grabbed the railing with one hand and slipped the front of his boots into two metal cylinders bolted to the floor.

  For such a heavy piece of equipment, Kell no
ted, the ride was smooth. It floated up a few meters and then slid over the edge of the pit.

  [229] Looking over the side, Kell felt a touch of vertigo. It seemed they were hanging over a bottomless abyss, which—he realized—for all intents and purposes, they were.

  When the platform was in position, fully over the pit, Parrish turned back to smile at him and hit one of the controls.

  And then the world dropped out from under him.

  The platform immediately went into free fall. At first he thought something had gone wrong, but he saw Parrish calmly monitoring the readouts in front of her.

  The fall seemed endless, and then they started to slow. Unlike the sudden fall, the deceleration was smooth, and then they were lined up with another platform.

  Above and around the platform, Kell could see a huge opening—hundreds of meters across. There was also a huge amount of heavy equipment on the platform, ore haulers and others vehicles that he did not recognize.

  Like the rest of the squad, Kell had his phaser rifle out and was scanning for Orions or automated defenses. He saw neither. Apparently, the Orions were elsewhere, and there were no other defenses, because it was inconceivable to them that the primitive people would ever reach this point.

  For a moment, that struck his Klingon pride. Primitive or not, the people on this planet were Klingons, and the Orions knew that. Nothing should have been inconceivable.

  Whatever happened, he would make sure the Empire learned of the Orion treachery. What sort of honorless [230] monsters would tear an inhabited planet to pieces for the stones under its soil?

  Battles were not fought and wars not powered by stones, even ones with the special properties of dilithium crystals. Wars were won with the strength of a warrior’s blood, the courage in his heart, and the depth of his honor.

  Parrish placed the vehicle down on the ground, and Kell found that he was relieved.

  “Excellent work, Ensign,” Kirk said to Parrish. “Very ... fast.”

  “Thank you, sir,” she said.

  Kirk stepped off first and the others followed. Kell found himself next to Parrish.

  “I thought you said growing up on a mining world was boring,” he said to her.

  She turned to him and said, “Even that trip gets old when you’ve done it enough.”

  Then she smiled and he returned it. Something passed between them, and Kell found himself thinking that a future might be somehow possible for him. As the thought took shape in his mind, he realized that it was extremely unlikely but not impossible. And he realized that in the image of himself in that nearly impossible future, he did not stand alone.

  And then the moment had passed and the landing party was headed for the large opening to the Orion mining installation.

  Spock watched as the Klingon battle cruiser skimmed the surface of the red star. Then the ship dipped lower and was swallowed up inside.

  [231] “That’s impossible,” McCoy said.

  “Status of Klingon ship, Mr. Stern?” Spock said.

  “I’m getting some readings,” the junior science officer said. “But I can’t be sure if it’s them ... there’s a lot of interference.”

  “They must have been destroyed,” McCoy said.

  “Unlikely, Doctor. I suspect we are looking at a Klingon tactic with some history. Red supergiants are the least dense and among the coolest of all stellar formations, particularly in the surface areas. Theoretically, it is possible for a ship with adequate shielding to navigate within.”

  “Then they might slip around and escape from the other side. We’d never know,” McCoy said.

  “Precisely, Doctor,” Spock said. “Mr. Sulu, pursuit course. Take us into the star, thruster speed only.”

  “Aye, sir,” Sulu said as he executed the maneuver.

  “Spock, you can’t,” McCoy said. “You said it was only theoretically possible for a starship to navigate inside one of those. Even if the Klingons have done this before, we haven’t.”

  “You are quite right, Doctor. This will be a fascinating experiment,” Spock said.

  “Spock—” McCoy began, but then became absorbed by the surface of the red star that was rapidly filling the viewscreen.

  The screen showed nothing but the star. A few seconds later, Spock felt a small tremor through the deck.

  “We are inside the star,” Lieutenant Stern said. “Temperature and radiation within shield limits.”

  Spock glanced at the doctor and saw that the human’s [232] mouth was open as he stared at the screen in frank astonishment.

  “Any sign of the Klingon ship?” Spock said.

  “There’s some interference, but ... yes, I have him on scanners,” Stern said.

  “Continue pursuit course, Mr. Sulu,” Spock said.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  KAREL SAW THE ORIONS on the catwalk above them first and fired his phaser rifle. He hit one, and then a second beam hit the other.

  He turned to see that it was Parrish who had fired the second beam.

  “Is that all the resistance?” Benitez said. “They know we’re here.”

  “But they also know that the warp core is going to detonate in forty minutes,” Kirk said. “I suspect they are preparing for their pickup.”

  The captain gestured to a nearby computer terminal. “Mr. Jawer, see if you can find out the quickest route to the warp core, and where the Orions are hiding.”

  Ensign Jawer was at the controls of the computer, his hands moving quickly and confidently over the console.

  “I’ve got it, sir. The warp core is six hundred meters [234] in that direction,” he said, pointing toward the main corridor leading away from the pit and deeper into the planet.

  “What about the Orions?” Kirk said.

  Jawer studied the readout for a moment. “They are in a protected transporter chamber. It’s completely sealed off. They must have transported in. I think they are waiting for their pickup inside.”

  “Can you turn off the internal transporters? Seal them in?” Kirk asked.

  “Done, sir,” Jawer said.

  “Let’s move then, we don’t have much time,” Kirk said.

  “Wait, Captain,” Jawer said, running his hands over the controls again. “There is another designated beam-out site. There might be more there. I think this one is where they are storing the crystals.”

  “I’ll go, sir,” Kell found himself saying. Whatever happened, he would see that the Orions and their honorless masters never got their hands on the dilithium they wanted to trade an entire world of Klingons to possess.

  “I’ll go too,” Benitez offered. Kell was pleased.

  He was glad that he had resisted his initial urges to kill the human, who had turned out to be a good companion and brave.

  Kell found he could even forgive Benitez’s tendency to speak too much.

  Kirk nodded, and Jawer quickly showed them the route to the second pickup site. It was fairly straightforward, and since it was near the edge of the pit they would not likely get lost.

  “Let’s move, we don’t have a lot of time,” Kirk said, leading the way.

  [235] Before they turned to go, Kell and Parrish caught each other’s eyes. Parrish held her gaze on his and Kell saw something take shape in her eyes: it was his future.

  “I don’t think she’s finished with you,” Benitez said.

  Kell didn’t respond, though he knew it was true. He also knew that he was not finished with her.

  Then he and Benitez were headed out at a run, keeping the abyss to their left for reference.

  “Now we will slip away while the Federation ship spends the next month searching and waiting for us to emerge,” Klak said, his voice full of self-satisfaction.

  Karel still felt his blood burning. The red-giant maneuver had been used before to great effect, allowing a Klingon ship to hide and surprise an enemy.

  This, however, was no doubt the first time in Klingon history that the maneuver had been used to cover an escape ... wors
e, a retreat.

  It was intolerable.

  “The Enterprise is pursuing. They are inside the stellar mass,” the sensor officer announced.

  “What?” Klak said. “They cannot. No cowardly Earther commander would ...”

  “The commander is not an Earther,” Koloth said, speaking Karel’s own thoughts for him.

  Klak brought his fist down on the command chair.

  “Full thruster speed,” Klak called out.

  “At full speed now,” the helmsman said.

  “Prepare to engage impulse engines,” Klak said.

  Karel was shocked. Even given the relatively low density of the outer skin of the star, impulse speeds would be very dangerous.

  [236] Yet Klak was prepared to risk the ship ... simply to run away faster.

  “But—” the helmsman began.

  “Do it!” Klak ordered.

  Koloth’s voice rang out, “Torpedo away,” he said.

  “What?” Klak said.

  “I have fired a torpedo at the Federation ship, as you ordered,” Koloth said.

  “I did not order that!” Klak countered.

  Koloth was calm. “Nevertheless, I have fired.”

  Klak looked ready to burst, as if he wanted to kill Koloth right now for the insubordination. Yet, even Klak knew that he did not have time. When the torpedo exploded, the chain reaction would be much more destructive than the torpedo itself. Already, he had lost precious seconds scowling at his weapons officer.

  “Helm, full thruster speed for the surface of the star! Get us into space!”

  Karel felt the movement of the ship with his feet. He saw the red haze of the interior of the star dominating the viewer. Then it began to lighten.

  “Torpedo detonating,” Koloth said.

  An instant later, Karel felt the ship rock violently, then saw the familiar stars of open space.

  “Damage report,” Klak called out.

  “Damage to sensors and secondary systems. Primary systems intact,” came the report.

  They had survived unharmed, Karel noted, because they had been very near the surface of the star and had been spared the full force of the stellar flare.

  The Earthers, however, were still inside.