Star Trek - TOS - 79 - Invasion 1 - First Strike

by Diane Carey

  instance, just today we were engaged in a land skirmish

  between an aggressive Klingon commander and my

  crew. We had to hold them back from innocent people

  they would've annihilated, all because those people

  refused to do business with them."

  "You were on a planet?"

  "Yes."

  "Could the Klingon not simply lay waste to the planet

  with those long-necked vessels?"

  "Yes, but they wouldn't. That would be an act of war.

  136

  FIRST STRIKE

  In a skirmish, they can always claim they were ambushed."

  "I do not understand this." Zennor's voice was heavy,

  deep, as if speaking through a long tube.

  Kirk couldn't quite read the ferocious bony mask of

  the other captain's face, or the smoky reddish orbs of

  eyes. Klingon command is set u, in cell .... hs

  t-'

  , lie explained

  . "The area commanders have a great deal of

  autonomy in their areas, but aren't allowed to commit

  the Empire to interstellar war. Each is responsible for a

  specific area, and can conquer it if it's within his skills to

  do so, but if he fails in his aspiration, then all the Empire

  doesn't suffer for it. The commanders aren't allowed to

  drag the Empire into a war. That's for the High Council

  to decide. If the local commander oversteps his authority

  in the course of his ambitions, he can be demoted rather

  than promoted. They could have reduced the planet to a

  blackened char, but they know the Federation would

  never put up with that. As it turned out, General Kellen

  overruled the local commander because he was more

  worried about you."

  "About us..."

  "You saw how emotionally you affect him. And he is a

  particularly cool customer among his kind. His restraint

  is famous."

  "He claims we are... trouble?"

  "Havoc. It's a Klingon myth about an apocalypse. A

  final reckoning."

  "Myths can be powerful. Given enough time, myth

  becomes religion. Mysterious legend becomes immutable

  fact. My culture moves on this kind of sea also. That

  is why he hates us so."

  "He fears you." Kirk offered a cushioning grin. "He

  doesn't know you well enough to hate you."

  "If it comes to be proven that we are not in our space,

  we will destroy the Klingons for you."

  The grin fell off Kirk's face and he almost heard the

  crunch. "I can't sanction that."

  137

  Diane Carey

  "But if they are conquering, they must be stopped.

  Why would you allow them to continue?"

  Oh, tempting, tempting...

  "We prefer other pressures. A war brings a high death

  toll. People can and do change, given time. We're working

  on them in other ways."

  "I do not understand that," Zennor admitted. "Perhaps

  I will eradicate them anyway."

  Despite the words, there was something sincerely well-meaning

  in the way the alien leader said what he said.

  Enjoying the whole idea for a raucous instant in the

  privacy of his own heart, Kirk nodded in some kind of

  arm's-length comprehension, then got control of himself

  and calmly pointed out, "We protected you from the

  Klingons. We'll protect them from you for the same

  reasons, if you force us to."

  Zennor's heavy head lay slightly to one side. "You are

  ... spirited," he said admiringly. His almond-shaped

  eyes flickered and actually changed color, like camp

  matches flaring briefly in the woods. "When my ship's

  power is fully restored, you will not be able to stop me."

  That grin came sneaking back to Kirk's lips, and he

  felt his own eyes flare a little. Undercurrents of mutuality

  ran between them. Dare though this might be, still

  there was something about Zennor's convictions that ran

  close to Kirk's heart, and he understood what Zennor

  meant and wanted, the intense sense of right and wrong

  that might have been a bit skewed but still smacked of

  strong decency.

  And underlying all this, a spicy challenge, as when

  Spock asked him to play chess.

  "Let's hope we don't have to find out," he deferred

  gently. "Vergo, I'm curious about where you came from.

  You say it's a great distance. Can you tell me the area?"

  The twisted horns tipped forward and cast a shadow

  as Zennor's triangular face pivoted downward. "On the

  opposite side of the mean center of the galaxy from this

  place."

  "And yet you said it wasn't a transporter that brought

  138

  FIRST STRIKE

  you here. Not a mechanism of the sort that we use to

  move from ship to ship."

  "We have no such instrument. We came here from the

  far distant side of the galaxy, using a device that causes

  space to wrinkle, thus offering passage of large distance

  in a short time."

  Kirk waved his hands in casual beckoning. "Explain

  the technology,"

  "We do not understan d the technology. We only know

  that it works."

  Kirk felt his brow pucker. He had always assumed that

  people using a science at least understood the science.

  When he didn't offer much sympathy for that, Zennor

  picked up on it and evidently decided he wanted to say

  more.

  "For many centuries this thing hovered in space above

  my people's central planet. It passed between us and our sun, regularly throwing its elongated black shadow upon

  our planet. Because it was known to be the machine that

  delivered us to our banishment, it became a symbol of

  evil and doom, a god that glowered upon us and kept us

  in misery. Anything bad was credited to it, this great

  black shape dooming our sky to ugliness. Our women

  conjured spells against it, Young men dreamed of flying

  up to destroy it. We said it was of the conquerors."

  "The conquerors--you said that before. Who do you

  think the conquerors were?"

  "Those who cast us out. To my people they are the

  highest evil. My people are from many tribes and groups

  and clans--"

  "I noticed that."

  "We warred for eons with each other, blaming each

  other for our conditions, claiming collusion with the

  conquerors, until finally we realized we were all cast out

  together and it was no one's fault but those who exiled

  us. Worse than killing us, they took the place where we

  were born. Took it. If we fail to take it back, then justice

  has not been served. Gradually this became the driving

  force of our unity. Century upon untold century, the

  139

  Diane Carey

  shadow of the conquerors' machine passed over us,

  forging our unity stronger and stronger with every pass.

  Ultimately our scientists figured out what it was. Only a

  ball of mechanics. What for eons we had dreamed of

  destroying turned out to be the tool of our future.

  Fortunately we came to our senses before we could react

  emotionally and destroy this valuable
piece of lost

  technology. We found out it uses time as a dimension,

  and thus allows interdimensional travel. And we figured

  out how to activate it."

  "Your entire culture turns on this one cog? Don't you

  find that a little... obsessive?"

  "Yes, I do. But a culture must have a common

  purpose. We spend generations storing enough energy to

  push this ship through, packed with sensory equipment.

  We have no idea what powered the machine originally,

  and have been centuries developing enough power to

  pass through to where we believe we came from. We do

  not know why it goes, but we know how to make it go."

  "That much energy must be a powerful space distorter," Kirk said. "It explains the mass-drop effect."

  "Which was not our intention."

  "That doesn't repeal your responsibility for it. Every

  ship's master is responsible for his own wake."

  "I do not understand that reference."

  "According to our laws of space travel, it befalls you to

  anticipate the effects of your ship's passage."

  "These are insignificant things you speak of. We have

  spent a hundred generations preparing for this. The

  Danai and the Bardoi of our cultures have spent uncounted

  years, centuries, on the direction and purpose of

  my mission. I must keep perspective."

  "What if they're wrong?"

  "Then I will go against them myself. I am willing to

  cast away the work of a hundred generations if we are

  wrong."

  "You must suspect they could be," Kirk said, "or you

  wouldn't be here, talking to me." He paused, using his

  140

  FIRST STRIKE

  senses to decide how hard he could push. "Am I right?

  Do you have doubts?"

  Turning away from him, Zennor's long hands coiled

  the chain of his medallion as he scanned the simple

  decor, the military trim of the bunk and desk, the lack of

  carvings or haze, and his strange orange eyes narrowed.

  "If the belief in the giant shadow god was silly," he

  said, "what about the rest of our legends? If that was

  wrong, what else is wrong? Shall I kill everyone on this

  side of the galaxy based on myth? Was that the only part

  of our mythology that we misinterpreted?"

  Probing like a sea lawyer, Kirk asked, "Is there something

  specific you're suspicious about, Vergo?"

  As he swung around, Zennor's dangerous eyes scoped

  him and for a moment Kirk thought the amicability

  might be over. Then Zennor admitted, "I am not entirely

  sure we were thrown across the galaxy. It appears we did not evolve together, but who knows? We could

  have been moved to save our lives and grew the opposite

  belief out of fear and superstition. The Danai seem to

  me to have made many leaps. I would not wish to see my

  civilization expending all its wealth and energy to make

  war on strangers based on legends."

  "But you do believe your civilization was wronged and

  unnecessarily barnshed.

  "We certmnly were banished, most coldly and without

  resource. Many millions died, including some whole

  races, because they could not survive the changeover."

  "What must be proven to you?" Kirk asked carefully.

  "That we were cast out... that this is the space we

  were cast out from... that these are the descendants of

  those who cast us out. Unlike Garamanus, I am unwilling

  to assume. I think we are in the wrong place. I hope

  to prove that. Then my people can begin to live a future,

  rather than endlessly hunt for the past."

  Seizing his chance, Kirk offered, "You can do that

  now. Give up the idea of conquering the conquerors and

  embrace the idea of cooperation. You can settle here,

  141

  Diane Carey

  start a whole new civilization. There are many planets

  crying for colonization and development. We'll help

  you."

  Zennor's great horns scuffed the ceiling as he nodded

  slowly. "For myself, that would serve. For my people,

  certain steps must be taken first. If I can prove the Danai

  wrong, the crew will not attack anyone who is not the

  conqueror. They will not become what they hate. Then

  the Danai will be obsolete."

  "How do you know your people won't just try again?"

  "The Danai insist this is the right place. How can they

  insist again about somewhere else?"

  "It's that simple?"

  "Yes. But how do I disprove a thing? The Danai say

  this is the place. How can I say it is not?"

  "One step at a time." Kirk watched Zennor for a

  moment, then asked, "What's the first step?"

  Zenmor kept to the shadows of the captain's quarters,

  perhaps seeking instinctively the shrouding veil that

  twisted in his own ship, but moved toward Kirk and

  deposited on the desk his crescent brooch. When he had

  taken it off Kirk had no idea, but now it was in his long-boned

  hand, and now it was on the desk.

  With one pale fingernail, Zennor flipped the crescent

  over. Etched on the inside of the curve were dots and a

  series of curved lines. Kirk recognized it instantly.

  "Star chart?"

  Zennor nodded once. "We can tell from a few preserved

  etchings how the stars looked at differing periods

  five thousand of your years ago. The Danai have based

  their decision on these pieces. The surviving originals

  are very old, but there is a definite arrangement of stars.

  What you see here is an extrapolation of stellar motion

  over the generations, and how those stars should be

  arranged now. These are regarded as absolute. This one

  is the most certain, and it shows what the Danai believe

  is the home system of the creatures like Manann."

  "Manann... the ones with the wings?"

  142

  FIRST STRIKE

  "Wings? Those membranes are for temperature adjustment."

  "Yes, of course .... General Kellen told me those

  creatures are called 'Shushara' in the Klingon legend of

  Havoc. Does that word sound familiar to you?"

  "No."

  "Perhaps that's good."

  "Perhaps it is. This is the strongest piece of solid

  evidence we possess. If this is disproven, then the

  Danai's theory will collapse. If there is no planet there

  which has had life in the past five thousand years,

  Garamanus will have to back down."

  "If those creatures lived on that planet only five

  thousand years ago," Kirk said, "there's got to be

  evidence of it. Let's overlay this and see if there's a

  correlation."

  Without waiting for Zennor to comment, Kirk

  scanned the piece of jewelry into the computer access,

  then said, "Computer."

  "Working," the flat female voice replied back.

  "Identify this star system."

  The machine paused as if shut down, but he knew it

  was searching, and in moments a star system appeared

  on the desk access screen. The arrangement of stars

  wasn't exact, but this was evidently the closest the computer

  could find. Abruptly t
he odds struck himw

  anything could look like anything, given enough monkeys

  and enough years.

  "We must go there," Zennor said. His maize eyes

  remained unchanged, unimpressed.

  "Computer," Kirk continued, "specify location of this

  star system."

  "It is the Kgha'lugh star system, located in sector nine-

  three-seven, Province Ruchma, Klingon Star Empire." A low protest rose in Kirk's throat.

  Deep into Klingon space. Deep, deep.

  Zennor read his expression and evidently understood.

  "For me to balk would be suicidal. It is not what

  143

  Diane Carey we spent so many generations to do. If I do not go

  there, Garamanus will take over, and our people will go

  there."

  "You're talking about violating entrenched Klingon

  space, Captain," Kirk told him. "You'll be beaten back

  before you make it halfway there."

  "We will get there. My Wrath can broach any challenge."

  "You're underestimating. All you've seen is a few

  midweight border cruisers. You don't realize what a fleet

  of heavy cruisers can do to your ship."

  "I can destroy their fleet," Zennor assured, not seeming

  to intend the bravado with which Kirk read the

  claim. "When we came through the wrinkle, our power

  slackened somewhat and the Klingon s inflicted some

  minor damage, but that is no longer a problem. My ship

  is no longer in any peril from you, but you, Vergokirk,

  are in grave peril from us, and that is my concern. If I fail

  to do this, or if the Klingons push an attack too much on

  me, I will have to destroy them. If I do not destroy them,

  Garamanus will take over and destroy all of you. And

  that is my concern."

  Kirk shoved off the desk and stood straight. "Vergo

  Zennor, you're either a very skilled liar or you're putting

  a great deal of trust in me."

  The fiery eyes looked down at him. "I have made a

  decision to trust you. And you must honor that trust,

  Vergokirk, and help me keep control," Zennor finished

  with slow impact, "or you will be dealing directly with

  Garamanus."

  Yes, well, Kirk said with a guttural response to what

  he read as a dare. "You have Garamanus and I have