Chapter Eight
THE ATTACK on the colony lastedj ust under two hours . Twenty-four passes of the attack fleet, never varying their direction or the intensity of their fire.
Kirk had never seen anything like it. It was as if the colony was nothing more than a spot they wanted removed from the surface ofthe planet, and they were going to keep wiping and wiping at it until it was gone.
After the tenth attack, Kirk had contacted Spock and asked him if he could get sensor readings on the five main ships to let him know when the smaller ships returned. Spock said he could.
Fourteen intense heat waves later, Spock informed him that the smaller craft had returned to the mother ships.
Kirk managed to drag himself out of the bunker and stand up. He was light-headed and enormously thirsty. The skin on his arms felt like leather and was very sensitive to his touch.
Dr. McCoy climbed out the other side and stood beside Sulu. "Jim," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "we need water. Quickly. "
Kirk nodded, too tired and dry to talk. He helped Rathbone to stand. Then the four of them staggered toward what was left of the colony.
Kirk could barely force his legs to move one in front of the other, and from the way the others beside him were staggering, he knew he wasn't the only one having problems. If that attack had lasted much longer, they might never have climbed out of that bunker.
He had never felt so useless. The plans they had made before the attack hadn't worked. Neither he nor Kor had expected such a sustained assault. Nor had he expected to have the Enterprise rendered useless overhead.
The enemy they were facing was greater than he expected.
Over a third ofthe colony buildings were in piles of burning rubble. Not once during the attack had Kirk heard any fire from the disrupter cannons, so there was no telling what had happened to Kor and his men and to Ensigns Chop and Adaro. The chances were good that they were all dead.
They passed the bodies of two Klingons, one a woman, one a young boy, as they moved around a pile of rubble. Both bodies were burned beyond recognition. The woman's clothes and most of her flesh were gone, leaving only blackened bones and a charred black pile of what had been her interior organs. All her blood and other fluids had boiled away hours before.
"We were lucky, " Sulu said.
"Very," Bones said, taking Rathbone by the arm and pulling her forward away from the bodies.
"This way," Kirk said, indicating that they should move toward the colony's center courtyard. A dozen wells were scattered through the colony, but Kirk figured the one in the center courtyard was the most protected and therefore the most likely to have survived.
He was half right. The pump and structure around the well were gone, but the pressure in the well had kept the water bubbling into a wide concrete-type pool, then running off through the dry earth toward the fields beyond. They were the first to find the well, and all four of them splashed water on their faces and arms before drinking.
Kirk couldn't remember cold water ever feeling so good. It soothed and cooled his skin like nothing he'd ever felt before.
"Drink as much as you can," McCoy said after a few large swallows of his own. "Our bodies need every bit they can get to replace what they've lost. And keep our kidneys from shutting down. "
This was one doctor's order that Kirk had no trouble obeying. He let the cold water flow down his throat, almost without swallowing.
After washing as much dirt and grime as he could off his face, head, and arms, and drinking until his stomach rebelled, he straightened up and looked around.
None of the colonists had yet appeared. The ones left alive obviously thought another attack was coming. And they were probably right. But for the moment they had time to prepare for it.
"All clear," he shouted, his sour, dry throat screaming in pain at the effort.
He took another long drink of cold water, then flipped open his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise. "
"Enterprise here, Captain," Mr. Spock's voice came back strong.
"What's your status, Mr. Spock?" He could barely croak out the words. The water had helped, but not entirely.
"All systems operational," he said. "We are standing at red alert."
"Keep an eye on those transports, Mr. Spock. Give us as much warning as you can if there's any movement toward the surface ."
"Understood, Captain. "
"And, Mr. Spock," Kirk said, "how long until the Farragut arrives?"
"Three hours, fifty-two minutes," Spock said.
"Let's hope we can last that long. Kirk out. "
He flipped the communicator closed and turned to McCoy, Sulu, and Rathbone. "Enjoying landing party duty, Doctor?" Kirk asked the dirt-caked, heat-baked woman as Dr. McCoy spread burn lotion on her arms and face.
She snorted, then said, "Can't wait until my next one, sir."
Kirk studied her for a moment. He could tell she was half in shock. This experience had been doubly hard on her, since this was her first time in combat.
"Good," Kirk said, smiling at her. "We'll try to make the next one as fun. "
McCoy shook his head as he turned to Sulu and began to apply the burn medication'
"We need to signal the all clear to these colonists," Kirk said, "And, Bones, don't let the Klingon doctor stop you from helping this time. "
McCoy looked around. "I doubt if he's still alive. But I'll find out. Now stand still so I can apply this."
Kirk did as he was told as McCoy put cool, soothing lotion on his arms and then dabbed at his face and neck. "Rub that around," he said.
Again Kirk did as he was told, letting the lotion cut the sharp sting of the burns. Then he took another long drink and faced his landing party.
"When you hear my call, I want you heading back to the bunker at a full run. Understood? And next time we all take water with us. All right?"
Kirk waited until each nodded their agreement.
"Good," Kirk said. "Let's spread the word. Doctor, you find the Klingon doctor. Rathbone, head north, giving the all clear. Sulu, you go south. I'll see what happened to the disrupter cannons and our men. I want to figure out a way to take some action against these ships. "
"And everyone keep drinking," McCoy said.
"So we can boil in our own gravy during the next attack?" Sulu asked.
"Nope," McCoy said, turning and heading off. "So you'll live long enough to see that next attack. "
With that sentence hanging in the hot air, Kirk took another long drink from the bubbling well before he headed toward the cannon.
Kerdoch fought to wake from the nightmare.
Heat. Searing heat.
Fever dream...
Flames surrounding him... Trapping him
Roaring monsters... tamping the ground, shaking him.
Flames... Heat... Roaring monsters...
Over and over.
A nightmare... A nightmare he'd never had before...
Kerdoch knew it was a nightmare , but he couldn't awake, couldn't fight his way through the flames to get away from the deep blackness crawling at him from all sides... Cool, alluring blackness that he knew was not the right path...
He must fight to wake up... He knew there were important things to be done... He could not think of them, but the feeling of important things to finish edged him forward...
He must fight...
Fight to beat the flames...
Fight to see his family again...
He was a Klingon... Klingons never gave up... Klingons fought... He had important things to do... The blackness must not touch him...
He turned and snarled at the creeping blackness, warning it away.
Again the roaring. Again the ground shook, as if to answer his challenge...
Again the heat...
In his dream he stepped forward, stared at the flames, then ran and dived over them...
He felt as if he were flying in slow motion, his dive taking a lifetime.
He though
t of his wife ... His children...
He thought of the welcoming coolness of the blackness behind him. Of how ersy it would be to give in to it.
But he was a Klingon. Klingons did not surrender.
Heran.
He dived.
Then he passed beyond the flames.
The rumbling of the ground stopped, the heat seemed to ease, and his eyes snapped open.
Again he was awake. And alive.
He could feel his body covered with the salt of his sweat. His throat and nose were parched from the heat, his back and arms seared by the flames.
But he was awake. The darkness had not gotten him this time.
A light weight pushed down on his body and something flat and gray hung just above his face. He moved his arms and pain shot through his shoulders as he broke the burned skin, but he ignored it, pushing himself up.
Suddenly the light of day blinded him. Two prefabricated panels had toppled over and hung above him. Around him were the remains of a colony home and a few feet away was the charred body of a colonist. It was burned so badly he couldn't tell who it was.
He shoved the life-saving panels off and pushed himself to his feet. The world spun for a moment, then slowed as he stood, taking deep, painful breaths of fresh air.
All he could remember was running for the disrupter cannons when the attacks began. He hadn't made it.
He took another deep, scratchy breath, then looked around slowly, letting the pain in his head and back sharpen his focus. The attacks were slowly leveling the colony. More buildings were down now. Clearly there would be more dead.
He was very, very lucky to be alive. He hoped his family had fared as well.
He glanced in the direction of his home , then in the direction of the cannons. His wife knew of his duty to fight. She would either be alive or dead. There would be nothing he could do there . His duty was to the fight.
He picked his way carefully out of the rubble, then staggered toward the disrupter cannon, doing his best to keep his spinning head from knocking him to his knees.
He would fight until they killed him.
McCoy had hoped his caustic statement about the Klingon doctor would turn out to be wrong. But he quickly discovered it wasn't.
The Klingon doctor's makeshift medical building was nothing more than ashes, fireproof panels, and charred bodies. The doctor had been trapped under a panel. The lower half of his body had been cooked in the plasma attacks, boiling and draining away the fluids in the upper half. It had clearly not been a pleasant death. McCoy would have wished it on no one, even an arrogant Klingon.
He did a quick check through the building, looking for survlvors. He found none. A Klingon or human would have to have been in good health to survive two hours of firebombing. The inj ured had no chance, especlally when the building came apart.
McCoy moved back into the area between the domes and took a hard look around. A surprising number of domes still stood, charred and black, with nothing left to burn off the outside. Those families inside most likely were alive if they were drinking enough fluids. He didn't know exactly the fluid needs of a Klingon compared to a human, but he doubted it was slgnificant enough to make a difference in these conditions.
"It's all clear for now," he shouted, his voice harsh and dry.
He moved toward another dome and shouted again. Near him he could hear rustling as a Klingon colonist stuck his head out of a door. In his hand was a weapon of some sort.
"The attack has stopped for the moment," McCoy said. "Get water for yourself and your famlly and drink it."
The Klingon stared at him for a moment, then nodded.
McCoy turned and moved back in the direction Jim had gone. He would be needed more at the point of fighting. And he felt better keeping watch over the captain. Sometimes the captain just didn't know when to take care of himself.
On either side of the colony he could hear Sulu and Rathbone giving the all clear.
He went back to the center area and took another long drink of water. In all his years he had never remembered water simply tasting so good.
He made sure his canteen was brimming full, and then, after one more large drink, headed toward the cannon on the western corner.
On the way he met Sulu and Rathbone headed for exactly the same place.
Chapter Nine
KIRK SHOUTED "All clear ! " as he passed two domes that looked mostly intact, then worked his way around others that were nothing more than piles of prefabricated panels. The heat had been so intense and so long-lasting that nothing was left to burn. It was as if the attackers were trying to sterillze this area ofthe planet. And if the Klingon colony domes hadn't been fireproof, they would already have succeeded.
Kirk wondered what they were going to do next. Whatever it was, he planned on at least having something here to fight back with. Hiding in a hole just wasn't his style, even though it had saved his life and the lives of part of his land party.
Two Klingon colonists slowly climbed out of a shallow bunker near the disrupter cannon. They looked dazed and badly burned, but at least they were alive. Better than the two piles of charred bones ten paces from the guns.
The colonists watched him approach, saylng nothing. Kirk doubted they could speak.
"It's clear for now," he said. "The well in the center court is working. You need water. "
They nodded and shuffled in that direction. Kirk had never seen Klingons shuffle , only swagger. It was an odd sight.
Behind them Kirk saw one of Kor's men stand up from the bunker and stare down at something at his feet.
Kirk jumped up on the gun and looked down.
Kor! And sitting next to him, looking shocked, was Ensign Adaro.
"Are you all right?" Kirk asked,j umping down into the bunker beside the Klingon commander.
The warrior managed a hoarse yes.
Adaro just nodded.
It was clear to Kirk, without being a doctor, that Kor wasn't alive by much. Kirk flipped open his communication handset. "Dr. McCoy, I need you at the western disrupter cannon. "
"I'm already on my way," McCoy sald.
Kirk stood up and glanced around. McCoy, Sulu, and Dr. Rathbone were no more than twenty paces away. McCoy ran when he saw the captain and a moment later was kneeling beside Kor.
"The other doctor?" Kirk asked.
"Dead," McCoy said as he scanned Kor. He quickly dug into his medical kit, gave the Klingon a quick injection, then he scanned him again.
"How is he?" Kirk asked.
"Badly burned, and, like all of us, dehydrated. He's also got a number of broken bones. " McCoy uncapped his canteen and forced a salid flow of water into Kor's mouth. The commander swallowed some, then choked.
McCoy shrugged and let some more water dribble into Kor's mouth.
Kirk turned to Sulu and Dr. Rathbone, who were watching from the cannon platform. "Sulu, take Ensign Adaro and this man to the well. " He pointed to the warrior who still stood above Kor, looking dazed.
"Force them to drink, if you have to. "
Sulu nodded.
Kirk turned to Dr. Rathbone. "I need you to head for the other disrupter cannon to look for Ensign Chop."
"On my way, sir," she said, and quickly hurried off.
"Sulu," Kirk said, "after you get them to drink, I want you and Adaro to carry water back here, as much as you can. We're going to need it. "
For an instant he didn't think the warrior would go with Sulu. Kirk looked him right in the eye. "I want you back here beside Kor, refreshed and ready to fight in ten minutes . Understood?"
The warrior nodded and turned to accept Sulu's helping hand. Ensign Adaro stood, his hand on the cannon platform beside him. For a moment Kirk didn't think the young man would be able to walk, but he seemed to gather his strength as he climbed from the bunker.
Behind Sulu, Kirk saw Kerdoch stagger into the open, then fall to his knees in the dirt. The man staggered to his feet and came forward some more.
"He's as stable as I can get him," McCoy said. "Damned Klingon blood systems, anyhow. "
"Then I've got another patient for you," Kirk said.
McCoy took one look at the staggering Kerdoch and grabbed his canteen. A moment later at the foot ofthe disrupter cannon platform, Kerdoch was drinking while McCoy applied burn cream to his arms and back.
While McCoy worked, Kirk looked around at what they were facing. From what he could tell, the disrupter cannon was still armed and ready to fire. The two piles of burned bones must have been the poor souls who tried to man the gun in the first attack. One of them must have been one of Kor's warriors.
The cannon was anchored to the top of a square concrete-type platform sitting out in the open.
"We need more protection," Kirk said to himself.
The bunker where Kor lay had been dug on the western edge of the platform. The alien craft had come on too fast to be fired upon directly and to have allowed the operator to get to safety, but the alien attack craft could have been hit while they were moving away from the colony after they'd made a run.
They needed a fireproof shelter around the cannon on three sides. Something to protect the gun operators until the craft moved past.
Kirk looked around. Somehow they had to build something out of fireproof panels that would withstand an attack.
Sulu and Ensign Adaro appeared from behind a dome carrying three pans ofwater each. Kirk watched as the young ensign stopped at McCoy and Kerdoch and handed the Klingon colonist a pan. Kerdoch drank almost all of the water before stopping, and McCoy patted his shoulder.
Sulu climbed up beside Kirk, set down two pans, and handed one to him without a word. Kirk drank the cold water with relish, wondering if there would ever be a time again when he wouldn't be thirsty.
"Kirk," a faint voice came from behind them.
Kirk turned as Kor tried to sit up and failed.
"Bones !" Kirk yelled andj umped down beside Kor.
"Drink this," he said, holding the water to Kor's mouth and pouring, not giving the Klingon a choice. This time Kor managed three good swallows before he choked and coughed.
Day of Honor - Treaty's Law Page 7
