Allegiance in Exile
Page 22
“The vessels appear to be powering their weapons, though they’re not yet in range to be able to use them,” Rahda reported. “Should I raise the shields?”
“Weapons?” Kirk said. “Spock, I thought the one ship we were able to examine in the first city didn’t have weapons.”
“It possessed only a relatively low-yield laser cannon,” Spock said, “which we counted more as a tool than as a weapon, since it would prove ineffective against the Enterprise if employed as an armament.”
“Those are the types of weapons I’m reading,” Rahda said as she peered into her scanner. “Laser-based.”
“How ineffective, Spock?” Kirk said.
“Without shields, the Enterprise could suffer some minor external damage from the lasers,” the first officer said, “but it would take a prolonged attack from numerous ships to pose a serious risk. The Courageous does have some sensitive scientific equipment on its hull, though, which the lasers could harm or even destroy.”
“Lieutenant Rahda, let’s leave our shields down for the moment, and our own weapons off line,” Kirk said. “The Enterprise doesn’t appear to be in any danger, and I don’t want to appear provocative.” He turned to face the communications station. “Uhura, contact Captain Caulder,” he said. “Have him raise his shields, but for right now, make sure he keeps his weapons powered down.”
“Aye, sir,” Uhura said.
Kirk waited as Enterprise and Courageous approached the planet and the squadron of alien vessels. He heard Uhura speaking with Captain Caulder, but kept his attention focused on the main viewscreen. Suddenly, a vivid blue beam streaked out from one of the ships. Enterprise trembled momentarily.
“Direct hit,” Rahda said. “No damage.”
“Let’s try this again,” Kirk said. “Uhura, hailing frequencies.”
“Hailing frequencies open,” the lieutenant said.
“This is Captain James T. Kirk, commanding the U.S.S. Enterprise and representing the United Federation of Planets,” he said. “We mean you no harm and seek only to open a dialogue.”
Kirk waited. “Still nothing,” Uhura said.
All at once, lasers shot from every vessel on the viewscreen. Enterprise rocked far more dramatically than it had with the first strike. “Multiple direct hits on both the Enterprise and the Courageous,” Rahda said. “I’m reading minor buckling on some of our outer plates. The shields of the Courageous are holding and the ship is unharmed.”
Kirk sighed. “Raise shields,” he said.
“Shields up,” said Rahda. “They’re firing again.”
Kirk continued to watch the futile display of primitive firepower. With Enterprise’s shields raised, it became almost impossible to even perceive that the ship had been struck by weapons. The vessels fired again, and again. He waited, hoping that the aliens would recognize the clear advantage of Enterprise’s defenses and accept his invitation to talk.
“Sir, I have Captain Caulder for you,” Uhura said.
“Put him on audio, Lieutenant,” Kirk said, wanting to keep an eye on the alien vessels.
“Caulder to Enterprise.”
“We read you, Courageous,” Kirk said. “Go ahead.”
“Captain, perhaps we need to demonstrate a show of force,” Caulder said. “Nothing to do any damage, more like a shot across their bow. Maybe a well-placed photon torpedo detonating in front of them would get their attention.”
Kirk glanced over at Spock, who arched an eyebrow in obvious disapproval. Kirk agreed. “Captain, I think that, for now, the relative imperviousness of our defensive screens to their weapons amply establishes our military superiority. Resisting the temptation to display our own weaponry may go a long way in suggesting our moral standards and the benignity of our intentions.”
“I understand what you’re saying, Captain,” Caulder said, “but those crews have opened fire on us unprovoked.”
“I don’t know, Captain,” Kirk said. “Circumstances suggest that these people have recently had two of their cities destroyed, and now two unknown starships have entered the planetary system where they’re building a third. Perhaps that’s provocation enough.”
Caulder did not respond for a few seconds, but then said, “Acknowledged, Captain. Courageous will stand by for your orders.”
“Thank you, Captain. Kirk out.”
On the viewscreen, the alien vessels continued to fire their laser cannons. Kirk crossed the bridge to starboard and mounted the steps to the outer deck, where he approached the main science station. “What do you think, Spock? Does it seem reasonable that they’re attacking us on sight because of the recent destruction of at least two of their cities?”
“Fear can be a strong motivator to action,” Spock said.
Kirk folded his arms across his chest and looked back at the viewscreen. The alien vessels continued to fire on the Enterprise and the Courageous. “At the moment, they seem quite single-minded. How do we get them to talk to us?”
“I believe that your decisions to keep the Enterprise’s shields down until we were fired upon, and to keep our weapons off line, make a compelling argument about our intentions,” Spock said. “However, since the aliens have refused our attempts at communication, perhaps an additional, diplomatic act would be in order.”
Kirk turned back to his first officer, pleased that Spock’s thoughts echoed his own. “Exactly what I was thinking,” he said. “How well would one of our shuttlecraft withstand the aliens’ laser cannons?”
“The defensive screens of the shuttles are obviously smaller than those of the Enterprise, both in terms of size and strength, but they should withstand several such attacks,” Spock asserted. “Having said that, I would not necessarily recommend sending a shuttlecraft into the field of fire. There are simply too many unknowns to be assured of complete safety.”
“We have to do something, Spock,” the captain said. “If I get into trouble out there, I can always return to the ship.”
“Captain,” Spock said, “it would not be appropriate for you to pilot a shuttlecraft in these circumstances. The risk is too great.”
“You just said that the risk is unknown,” Kirk reminded his first officer. “And you said that a shuttle could stand up to these attacks.”
“To a point,” Spock said. “But what if the aliens attempt to take you hostage?”
“I won’t let them get that close,” Kirk said.
“And if the shuttlecraft’s drive should become incapacitated?” the first officer persisted.
“You can always haul me back here with the tractor beam,” Kirk said.
“I must point out that we have only just encountered these aliens and know virtually nothing about them,” Spock said. “We do not know what they are capable of, either technologically or morally.”
“Technologically, Spock?” the captain said. He pointed toward the viewscreen. “They’re firing on us with laser cannons. It’s not as though they’re more advanced than the Federation.”
“The aliens who attacked us in the R-Seven-Seven-Five and R-Eight-Three-Six systems attacked us with missiles, but also possessed warp-powered vessels more agile than the Enterprise. Technology can advance asymmetrically within a civilization.”
“Duly noted,” Kirk said. “But Spock, I’ve been charged by Starfleet Command to make a first contact. It is therefore appropriate that I be on that shuttle.”
“And if something unforeseen happens and you are captured or killed?” Spock asked.
“In that case, I will have failed,” Kirk said. “Take the Enterprise and the Courageous back to Starbase Twenty-Five and make a full report to Starfleet Command.”
“Yes, sir,” Spock said.
“You have the bridge,” Kirk said. He followed the curve of the outer deck around to the turbolift. As the doors parted, Spock called after him.
“Captain,” he said. When Kirk stopped and looked back, Spock said, “Be careful, Jim.”
Kirk entered the lift, and the doors closed
behind him. He noted with mild amusement that Spock had used the same words that Admiral Ciana had when she’d ordered him on the current mission. Kirk thought that he would need to exercise more caution when it came to dealing with Starfleet Command about his career than would be necessary with the aliens firing on Enterprise.
The captain took hold of the lift’s activation wand and stated his destination: “Hangar deck.”
• • •
Zeden Pego felt the icy touch of terror stealing up his spine. When he peered down at the external-sensor readout, that feeling intensified. The panel, one of many set into the surface of the trapezoidal instrument table in the middle of the similarly shaped control center, showed activity he didn’t quite understand.
But then, I don’t understand much these days, do I?
When they’d recently received word that the second colony had been lost—apparently destroyed by the same unknown faction that had destroyed the first—morale had plummeted, both on the support ships and down on the planet’s surface. Governor Velura and the other leaders debated whether or not to abandon their new city—Pillagra—and return home. Emotions ran both ways, with some wanting to choose discretion over their pioneering dreams.
For Zeden, the choice had been based on practical concerns, and had therefore been simple. The three fleets of ships hauling the equipment and other materials to establish the various colonies had all left home around the same time. They each traveled significantly different distances to their colony sites, and thus for significantly different spans of time. Zeden’s convoy arrived at their site last, hundreds of days after the first convoy reached theirs.
The building of Pillagra had begun immediately, with a focus on making provisions for basic needs. Once that had been accomplished, the fleet of personnel transports—already done with their work at the first two colonies—began to appear in orbit, delivering thousands of colonists at a time. Those colonists in turn joined in the continuing construction of the new city. Overall, the relocation of so many citizens would require multiple trips, and though many more colonists were on their way, the effort to that point had already taken half a year; evacuating them from Pillagra would take just as much time, and also demand the turning back of the next transports already en route. Zeden agreed with the community’s decision to remain.
Or at least I did, he thought, not without a note of bitterness. As he looked at the three other crew members in the control center, and as they all faced the possible ends of their lives, he reconsidered. It suddenly seemed foolhardy to have allowed practicality to drive a decision about life and death.
More than the logistics of vacating Pillagra and going back to their homeworld, though, the idea of abandoning the colony offended many. People did not wish to leave a place that they had made together, that so many had struggled to build. When they had chosen to be colonists and to construct something new, they had brought their hearts with them.
Zeden studied the confusing readings on the sensor panel and tried to tamp down his fear. He did not worry about himself—although he had no wish to perish just yet—but about all of the people in his charge. The support vessels that had come to the new planet did not carry soldiers; for the most part, other than their crews, they transported artisans and craftspeople, builders of the physical, guardians of the societal, and supporters of the spiritual. They did not deserve to die simply because they sought to forge a fresh life for themselves.
“What is that?” Zeden asked. His second in command, Viran Stovol, stepped up beside him and looked at the sensor panel.
“I’m not sure,” Viran said, and he turned and paced toward the narrow, front end of the control center, where two wide ports peered out into space ahead of their vessel. Zeden joined him, and together they gazed out at a confused panorama. All about, the thin blue bands of the construction lasers flashed through space, pounding into the two alien ships.
Except pounding might not be the best way to describe it, Zeden thought. Neither ship seemed in the least affected by the impacts of the lasers against their defensive screens.
“There,” Viran said, pointing through one of the ports and out at the larger of the alien vessels. Zeden tried to follow the direction of Viran’s gesture, but at first saw nothing. Then movement beside the lower section of the larger ship caught his attention.
“Is that another ship?” Zeden said.
“It does look like a small craft of some kind,” Viran said. “I think it launched from the aft end of the larger ship.”
“It could be a weapon,” Zeden said. He headed back toward the external-sensor panel and worked its controls to scan the newcomer on the field of battle. Viran walked up beside him.
“Anything?” the second in command asked.
“No,” Zeden said. “Just defensive screens. I’m not detecting any weapons systems.”
The two men watched as the small craft flew slowly into the middle of the battlefield. There, it decelerated and then stopped. Zeden waited, but nothing more happened. He thought about directing the lasers to fire on it, but it occurred to him that perhaps that’s what the aliens wanted him to do, that such an act would trigger some terrible destructive force.
“Are there any life signs?” Viran asked, and Zeden checked.
“There’s one,” he said.
“Just one?” Viran asked.
“Yes,” Zeden said.
On the other side of the instrument table, Gan Delan looked up from the communications panel. “That one life sign on the small vessel is hailing us,” she said. “It seems to be the same person who tried to contact us before.”
Zeden looked at Viran, at a loss for what to do. He hadn’t trained for combat, or to protect thousands of ground-based citizens from a threat in space. “What should we do?” he asked Viran.
“Maybe we should talk to them,” Viran said.
The idea frightened Zeden. He’d trained in diplomacy and alien relations no more than he had in warfare. He worried that anything but a show of strength would invite the destruction of the colony.
What show of strength? he asked himself. He turned and looked out again through the forward ports and saw the most powerful force they could muster essentially bouncing off the screens of the other ships.
“All right,” he said, more to himself than to the others. He looked to Gan. “Tell everybody to stop firing their lasers,” he said. “Then open communications to the aliens.”
• • •
Kirk piloted Columbus away from Enterprise, taking the shuttlecraft into position directly ahead of the alien ships. He flew on instruments, using sensor navigation to ensure that he didn’t steer the shuttle into the path of any of the lasers. Spock had told him that the shields would hold, and he believed his first officer, but Kirk had no particular desire to see his defenses weakened.
Halfway between Enterprise and the closest alien vessel, the captain brought the shuttle to a stop. Touching a control on the main console, he then lowered the panels covering the three ports that lined the bow of Columbus. Peering out into space, he saw the irregular line of alien vessels facing in his direction. The bright blue rays of their lasers shot through the darkness, speeding past the shuttlecraft toward Enterprise and Courageous. Peering out at the scene, Kirk thought it looked as though Columbus had been trapped within a lattice of energy, much like the Tholians employed.
Reaching across the main console to the communications panel, the captain opened a channel. “Kirk to Enterprise,” he said, his voice sounding isolated in the empty cabin.
“Enterprise, Spock here,” came the immediate reply.
“Well, Mister Spock,” the captain said, “as I’m sure you can see, I’ve thrown myself into the middle of the battlefield. So far, I’m being ignored.”
“That is not necessarily a bad thing, Captain,” Spock said.
“Perhaps not,” Kirk said, “but I’m going to try to get the attention of the aliens again. I’ll keep you informed. Kirk out.”
Kirk waited a few moments, then decided to try again. “This is Captain James Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Our mission is one of peace.” He waited again, and while he did, he saw the alien vessels all at once cease firing their laser cannons. A moment later, he actually received a response to his hails.
“This is Zeden Pego,” said a male voice. “You are trespassing in our space and you are requested to leave at once.”
“We do not mean to trespass,” Kirk said. “We do so only because we believed it the only way to attract your attention so that we could speak with you.”
“We do not know your people,” Pego said. “Why would you wish to speak with us? And why should we wish to speak with you?”
“For two reasons,” Kirk said, happy to finally be able to state his case. “First, the mission our people have set ourselves is one of exploration, of seeking out new life and new civilizations in our galaxy. Second—” The captain hesitated, still concerned that if he spoke of the destroyed cities, the aliens might believe him and his crew somehow responsible. “Second,” he finally went on, “we have come into the possession of some information that we believe may be of great import to your people.”
Pego then asked the question that Kirk hoped he wouldn’t. “What is this information?”
Again, the captain hesitated, worried about how Pego would react to news of the lost cities. With other species, Kirk sometimes found it difficult to judge inflection and tone, never more so than when communications involved translators. Still, Pego sounded scared to him, and of more import, he did not sound like a leader. The captain chose to use that judgment to see if he could proceed past him.