The Fearful Summons

by Denny Martin Flinn

  "We'll take over from here," Kirk shouted as he came alongside the Cleric. The Shrewdest One's eyes blazed as he turned to Kirk. Kirk wondered for a moment whether he saw Kirk, or the Klingon disguise.

  "I think we'll take better care of them than you will," Kirk said. It was unlikely, however, that the Cleric heard Kirk. Halfway through his explanation Kirk fired his phaser directly at the Promethean, who skidded backward and flopped to the ground. McCoy and Chekov fired their phasers within seconds, and the Klingon guards fell almost at once. Only one was quick-witted enough to raise his rifle, but he was standing near McCoy, who quickly slapped it down, and it fired uselessly at his feet. A second later Chekov shot him, and he joined his friends on the ground.

  Suddenly the alley was quiet.

  "Sulu, it's me. It's us. Look." Kirk tore off the carefully applied silicone material Spock had re-created his face with. McCoy and Chekov did the same.

  "Captain Kirk! Dr. McCoy. Mr. Chekov. This is a surprise. But why have you shot my friends?"

  Kirk could do nothing at first but stare at his old shipmate. Chekov frowned. McCoy stepped up beside them.

  "I'll take over, Jim," he said. Then he pulled a medical tricorder out of his bag and quickly ran it over Sulu. "Vital signs are healthy. Tell me, Captain Sulu, do you know who you are?"

  "Why, you know me, Doctor. I'm Sulu."

  "So far, so good. These"—McCoy nodded at the fallen Klingons and the Cleric at their feet—"Klingons are your kidnappers, isn't that right?"

  "Oh, no, Doctor. They've been our hosts. You see, I have renounced the ways of the Federation in favor of the Only Way, which I must tell you is the only path to a better galaxy. Why, did you know that—"

  "Tell you what, Sulu. How about if you come along with us, and tell us more about this? Right now we're a little pressed for time. Do you know where the others are?"

  "I'm afraid not," Sulu responded. "But I'm sure they're in good hands."

  Kirk, McCoy, and Chekov could only look at each other in bewilderment. McCoy turned his back on Mr. Sulu.

  "Brainwashed," he said under his breath. "I can help him, but not until we get back to the ship."

  Kirk touched his communicator. "Scotty, we've got Sulu. But the others have been taken away from the jail. Probably by Maldari and his crew, since they're nowhere around. You'd better transport us—"

  "Wait a minute, Captain," Chekov interrupted. Kirk turned to see that he had his tricorder out and functioning. "I'm getting some signs of human life. Our normal body heat is slightly higher than the normal Beta Promethean's. Here on the ground I think I can register the difference. I think we can follow the Excelsior officers. This way." Chekov started off up the alley.

  Kirk touched his communicator. "Scotty, never mind. Just beam up Captain Sulu. We're going to try and track the others. Stand by." He started off after Chekov as Sulu dematerialized.

  On the other side of the building, several Klingon soldiers had joined their comrades in defensive positions. They knelt, firing at the Starfleet soldiers advancing in a semicircle toward them. One by one the eight men in red tunics went down. Round after round crackled out of the disruptors of the Klingons until all of the Starfleet officers lay on the ground, small sparks and some smoke drifting out from under their tunics.

  The guards fired a few more rounds out of nerves, then stopped. Finally one of them looked around, called out to the others, and began to move cautiously forward, his gun at the ready. He stood over the inert figure, and looked directly down into the crystal eyes of a Starfleet soldier. The other guards crept cautiously forward and examined the downed mechanical robots. The leader bent down and looked closer. Then he rolled the man over roughly, and pulled up his tunic. A red warning light indicating severe malfunction was blinking. He uttered a loud exclamation. Then he looked around at the other defunct soldiers. Only then did he notice a lack of blood anywhere on the battlefield, though perhaps he was one of many Klingons with a severely limited knowledge of alien anatomy, and wasn't aware that humans spilled a good deal of blood when shot.

  During the fierce battle, not one of the robots had fired a lethal shot from the weapons they carried, but it was unlikely that the Klingons were aware of this, given the noise and urgency of the engagement. The noise had come from prerecorded phaser fire and been emitted through speakers that were part of the robots' equipment. If Scotty had been able to see his small army do battle using nothing more dangerous than those sounds he had preprogrammed, he would have been quite proud of them. But he was on the lower deck of the Plush Princess, waiting patiently.

  Chekov jogged through the streets, reading the tricorder. Kirk ran right behind him, his phaser ready. McCoy ran behind them. Once a Beta Promethean turned the corner and stopped to stare as the odd platoon of three humans in Klingon dress ran by, but he was unarmed, and none of the officers shot him.

  "Mr. Chekov," Kirk said in spurts of breath, "are we going the right way?"

  "I believe ve are, Commander," Chekov answered. "Humans have been through here. This vay, I think," Chekov said, and he pointed across a deserted field. They had left the last building behind them and were in the open.

  "We're pretty badly exposed now," McCoy said as he looked around apprehensively. "You sure you know where we're going?"

  "Look. There's some kind of an installation up ahead," Chekov shouted. "If I remember our maps correctly, ve are at the outskirts of the city."

  Kirk slowed down. "It looks like an abandoned installation of some kind," he said. "Probably an old dilithium mine."

  "According to my tricorder, that mine is not deserted," Chekov said.

  The three of them jogged quickly across the flat field.

  "And what are we going to do when we get there? Now that we've run out of robots, I mean," McCoy said as they sprinted along.

  A few hundred yards later they stopped in front of a pair of six-foot-tall steel pyramids that stood on either side of a crumbling road. The objects marked an entrance of some kind. A moon had risen high in the dark sky by the time they arrived, and moonshadows flickered throughout collapsing, rusted structures that were spread over several acres. They clung to the shadows as they approached the entrance. There was no sign of anyone else in the area. They gathered in the shadow of an empty guard booth just outside the perimeter. Chekov aimed his tricorder up the pitted path.

  "Ve are not the only warm-blooded animals on the premises," he said quietly.

  "Where?" Kirk whispered.

  "Inside. That direction," Chekov indicated.

  "Maldari must have brought the hostages here," Kirk said under his breath. "My guess is he's hiding them from the Klingons. We ought to take off this crap now."

  "Now, there's the best idea I've heard so far," McCoy said as he began peeling off the remaining latex attached to his face. Chekov did the same.

  When they were done, they stood in the rough leather of their Klingon tunics and waited for Kirk's instructions. He led them in a wide arc around the principal road. They kept to the shadows, and eventually arrived at a towering gridwork of open-air catwalks that ranged over an acre of scarred ground. There was a hill in the center. Chekov took a look at his tricorder again.

  "We're getting strong readings. They must be just beyond that hill."

  The three of them spread out to arm's length and moved slowly through the steel pilings that supported the gridwork above. As the ground rose in front of them, Kirk got to his hands and knees, then lay prone on his belly. The others copied him, and they crawled forward. At the crest of the hill they stopped. Kirk inched farther forward until he could just see over the hill.

  Amid the scaffolding of the abandoned mine, Kirk saw a knot of humans in Beta Promethean tunics. They were surrounded by more than a dozen Beta Promethean pirates. Other Beta Prometheans were opening the transport containers Kirk had supplied, and passing around the weapons Kirk had traded to them. He thought he could see Maldari giving orders.

  Kirk crawled back d
own.

  "I think everyone's here. They're just opening up the weapons we gave them." Kirk rubbed his hands together in the chilly night. "It must be below freezing," he whispered. Then he smiled. "Perfect."

  They heard the crunch of gravel and turned to look toward the entrance. A shuttle slid by the pyramids guarding the entrance road and shot into the compound. Kirk and company crawled back down the low hill and disappeared into the shadows just as it went by them. They watched it pull up alongside the edge of the structure, and several Prometheans climbed out quickly and hurried in.

  Again Kirk crawled up the hill. He heard the guttural Promethean shouting, and he saw Maldari talking animatedly to the new arrivals. Maldari glanced at his seven remaining prisoners, then spoke again to the messengers. It was clear to Kirk that Maldari wasn't sure what to do. Then Maldari barked out some orders and the additional Prometheans spread out and took up defensive positions around the perimeter of the hostages.

  Kirk touched his communicator. "Kirk to Princess. Mr. Spock, are you still with us?"

  Spock materialized next to him. "Right here, Captain," he said.

  On the bridge, Barbara looked around. She and Uhura were alone.

  "Uhura," Barbara said. "I think we'd better get a bit farther away from Archnos. We don't want to be seen. Can you monitor Kirk from back there?"

  "I think I can keep them in range."

  "All right. Scotty, you there?" she said.

  "Yes, ma'am," came Scotty's smooth burr back over the intercom. "Where would I be, now?" he said with a flicker of amusement.

  "Of course. I'm pulling the ship back to our outer-perimeter orbit. We won't draw any attention to ourselves out there."

  "Very good, ma'am," he said. "I'm sure they'll be all right," he added, sensing her discomfort. "Kirk's been in worse spots, he has. We all have. Try not to worry too much."

  "Thanks, Mr. Scott," Barbara said.

  Of course, we were all on the same side in those days, Scotty thought. I hope we are now.

  Kirk's expression lit up. "Mr. Spock, this is timely. We were just about to surround them. Would you care to join us?" Spock nodded and began to circle around the perimeter of the clearing. Kirk watched him disappear into the spidery catwalks of the ancient installation. When Kirk turned back, he nodded to Chekov, who hurried off in the other direction.

  Kirk stood up. He walked up to the top of the hill. There he paused for a minute, then began walking down the shallow slope directly toward the waiting Beta Prometheans. After half a dozen yards they spotted him. Maldari stepped toward them, and all of their weapons were raised.

  Kirk waved and smiled.

  He crossed the one hundred yards of open space until they arrived at the bottom of the hill. He stood only yards from the Prometheans, and the Excelsior hostages were only yards beyond that. Kirk suppressed the urge to look up at the catwalks.

  "Maldari, you crook. You cheated us. We gave you the weapons you wanted, and we got only robots in return. We've come for the others," Kirk said.

  Maldari's mealy gray skin turned darker.

  "The officers are here. Except for one, who was taken by that damn Cleric. You can have these. He raised his weapon. "For fifty thousand kerns."

  "How much is that, exactly? Never mind, we don't carry that kind of cash on us anyway. Suppose you just hand over the officers on credit, eh?"

  Maldari started to shout, but before he could, Mr. Spock dropped down from the catwalk above and landed at the edge of the group. He reached over and pinched the nearest Promethean at the base of his neck. The Promethean froze and slumped forward. His body fell with a thud, landing, as it happened, directly between Kirk and Maldari, just as their conversation had reached something of a standoff. Maldari looked down at the unconscious pirate at his feet. He immediately fired his weapon at Kirk but nothing happened.

  "Oops," said Kirk.

  At once a firefight broke out. Chekov appeared from the shadows on their right flank. McCoy appeared from the shadows behind Kirk. They all fired their phasers at the stunned Beta Promethean pirates. At least five fell to the ground without getting a shot off. Others were able to shoulder their new weapons and begin firing back.

  But nothing emanated from their weapons. Try as they might, the Prometheans could not coax one bullet, one flicker of laser light, one miniphoton or blast of phaser fire out of the barrels of their shiny new assault weapons. They pulled their triggers, they lined up their sights, they adjusted every dial and studied every gauge on the complicated panels of their guns, but nothing helped. Kirk watched with interest as Maldari attempted again and again to fire his shoulder-mounted assault pistol directly at Kirk. It had no effect.

  "Frozen," Kirk said pleasantly. "The ammunition inside is frozen solid. Sorry we didn't send along the instruction manual. Won't fire a shot in below freezing temperatures. Must be pretty cold out here." Then Kirk raised his phaser and blasted the frustrated Maldari.

  In a few short moments, the Beta Promethean pirates were either all knocked unconscious by the phaser fire that rapidly enveloped them, or they were in speedy retreat. Their ability to run forward at a hare's pace, Kirk noted, was matched by their ability to run backward. In just a few minutes, the area was cleared of standing Prometheans. In the sudden stillness of the cold night, a round, aged but robust-looking man walked over to Kirk.

  "Captain! How good to meet you!" he enthused, pumping Kirk's hand.

  "Dr. Hans, I believe," Kirk said. "Excelsior medical officer. I am James Kirk, and that is Dr. Leonard McCoy, medical officer for the Enterprise. Until last year."

  "Dr. McCoy! Of course. Sulu has spoken of you. Then you are his old crewmates, the officers he served with for over two decades until he was given command of the Excelsior."

  "That's correct, Doctor."

  "This is most extraordinary. How did you get here?"

  "We can tell you all about that in a short time," Kirk said. "Right now why don't we all step out from under these structures into the open over there? There's a number of us to be beamed up, and we have a rather small transporter platform aboard our ship."

  The hostages followed Kirk to the top of the low hill, while Spock, Chekov, and McCoy flanked them, keeping a lookout for more Prometheans. None appeared, and they all arrived on the hill safely.

  Kirk touched his communicator. "Landing party to Princess. We're all accounted for. Beam us up, please."

  Nothing happened. Kirk looked at Dr. Hans. "Got a new helmsperson. You'll like her. She's a bit late. A woman's prerogative I suppose."

  "Captain," Lieutenant Roose said. "I overheard you point out that the Beta Prometheans' weapons were energized by liquid that freezes at thirty-two degrees. What would have happened to you if the temperature hadn't dropped below freezing?"

  "Oh, not much. We would have gotten a bit wet."

  "Wet?" Chekov said. "But wouldn't liquid neutron energy be fatal if fired?"

  "I have no idea. Far as I know, there's no such thing as liquid neutron energy. Might be something to look into, though. That isn't what those weapons are loaded with."

  "What was the ammunition?" Lieutenant Roose said curiously.

  "Water. Pure H-two-O. All of those weapons were carefully synthesized from a catalogue of water guns."

  "Water guns?"

  "Squirt guns featured in a toy catalogue from the late twentieth century. We found it in the historical research library. Amazing-looking things. They make our own phasers look downright harmless."

  Then Kirk called the Princess again. Still there was no response.

  The noise of the shuttle grinding across the rocky landscape attracted their attention. Several of the Prometheans who had escaped had come back when the officers had moved off, and commandeered the shuttle the messengers had come in. It shot off across the splintered landscape and disappeared quickly into the sky.

  "We had better get going," Spock said to Kirk.

  "Any minute now," Kirk said confidently. They stood for agoni
zing minutes in the chilly air. "Probably just getting a fix on us. Scotty, we're ready to be brought aboard."

  Still nothing happened.

  * * *

  "I'm getting a call," Uhura said suddenly in the stillness of the Princess bridge. "We'd better go in closer, don't you think?"

  Barbara turned to look at Uhura. "What kind of call?"

  "From the captain, I think. It's hard to tell, we're so far away, but I believe they're ready for transport."

  Scotty stood still in the engine room. He was listening to the conversation. He held his breath. A beat of silence ticked by, then he heard Barbara's voice.

  "Full ahead, Mr. Scott. We're going in."

  He touched the controls, then took a deep breath. She's a fine girl, he thought to himself, and couldn't wait to say so to Captain Kirk.

  Chekov pointed to the road they had come up to gain the mine. "Something's coming," he said.

  They all looked. A fleet of war tanks was rumbling along the road toward the mine. They could just see a Klingon standing up in each one.

  "Apparently someone has managed to follow you here," Spock hypothesized.

  "Maybe they're not after us," McCoy said cheerfully. "Maybe they've come for Maldari. He can't have made too many reliable friends during all this."