Star Trek: That Which Divides (28 page)

“They’re right behin—” was all Kirk had time to say before a fresh volley of disruptor file exploded in the tunnel. Ducking into a crouch as something punched the rock wall behind him, Kirk gritted his teeth at the sting of stone shrapnel pelting his back. He put his hand between Sortino’s shoulder blades and shoved the ambassador through the open portal leading to the control room at the same time that he felt a hand on his arm. In his peripheral vision he saw Spock standing to his left, the Vulcan’s attention focused somewhere up the passageway.

“Get everybody in here and shut the door!” Kirk shouted, taking up a defensive position just inside the threshold and aiming his phaser up the corridor. He waited as a shadow played across the rock face at the rear of a turn in the tunnel, which was followed by a figure lurching around the corner. The Romulan soldier, his round gold helmet obscuring most of his features, halted his advance as he saw the reception waiting for him. It was all he could do before Kirk adjusted the aim on his phaser and fired. The weapon’s blue beam caught the Romulan in the chest, and the centurion collapsed to the floor of the tunnel.

“Johnson! Minecci!” Kirk said, keeping his gaze directed ahead of him and waiting for the next intruder to show himself. “Get inside!” The security officers were moving past him and into the control room when the next Romulan appeared in the tunnel. Perhaps having learned from the mistakes of his companion, the soldier did not step into the line of fire, but instead hugged the corridor wall as he aimed his disruptor pistol toward Kirk. When the Romulan fired, Kirk ducked just long enough to avoid the attack before leaning once more into the passage and seeking a target with his phaser. Behind him, he heard the sound of something exploding, and he glanced back to see one of the consoles erupting in a shower of sparks and fire. The entire bank of monitors and interface panels went dark, after which a low, rumbling klaxon began wailing throughout the room and the corridor.

A sharp hum accompanied a vibration in the door frame he was gripping for support. Something made him look up, and it took him an extra instant to realize that the heavy, reinforced metal hatch was sliding down toward him.

Move!

He felt hands on him, pulling him to his feet and dragging him into the control room faster than he could have done on his own. Looking up, he saw Spock leaning over him, his stoic features betraying just the slightest hint of concern. The door finished closing, followed by the sound of metal locking into position with a loud, imposing snap. Though he had to strain to hear them, he still picked up the sounds of disruptor bolts striking the other side of the door.

Spock, talking loud enough to be heard over the alarm, said, “It would appear the Romulans are discovering for
themselves the quality of Kalandan construction techniques.”

“You okay, Jim?” McCoy shouted, moving forward and extending a hand to Kirk.

Nodding as he allowed the doctor to pull him to his feet, Kirk tried to ignore the klaxon as he eyed his first officer. “You could’ve warned me before you did that, Spock.”

The Vulcan replied, “This was not our doing, Captain.” Turning, he indicated where Uhura and Boma stood before the banks of Kalandan control consoles, several more of which were active and appeared to be operating at a more furious pace than when he was last in the room. As they watched, Boma ran his hand across one of the panels, and the annoying siren ceased.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Kirk said, relieved to be free of the irritating sound as he turned back to Spock. “You were saying?”

“As I indicated,” the Vulcan replied, “new systems have come on line. We are still working to ascertain their functions, but I believe at least some of them are dedicated to overseeing the complex’s internal security protocols.”

“And what might those be?” Sortino asked.

His expression never wavering, Spock said, “I cannot yet answer that question, Ambassador, but I would expect that the protection of key systems and other areas of the installation would be a high priority.”

“Which would include intruder control?” Kirk asked.

Spock nodded. “That is a logical assumption.”

“So,” McCoy said, “what you’re saying is, if the Romulans don’t kill us, this place might do it all by itself?”

Turning to regard the doctor, Spock replied, “Colloquially expressed, yet essentially correct.”

McCoy rolled his eyes. “I think I’m going to have that engraved on my tombstone.”

Holding up his hand to put a stop to the banter, Kirk said, “Spock, can you do anything from here to override those systems, and maybe give us more control?”

Spock nodded before moving toward the nearest row of consoles. “We are endeavoring to do just that, Captain.”

“Wait,” Sortino said, and when Kirk looked at her he saw that she was frowning. “Does anybody hear anything?”

When Kirk realized what she meant, he said, “The Romulans. They’ve stopped firing.”

“I doubt they’re just giving up,” McCoy said.

Now standing at one of the control consoles, Spock turned and called out. “They did not, Doctor. They were forced to retreat.” He waited until Kirk and the others moved to stand next to him before he pointed to one of the console’s display monitors. Kirk realized the image was that of the corridor outside the control room.

“A surveillance feed?” Sortino asked.

Spock replied, “Yes, Ambassador. It activated as part of the security subprocesses.” He touched one of the circular clusters of colored lights on the flat black panel, and the image shifted to show the Romulans outside the room, firing at the door. “This is from a few moments ago.” As they watched, new beams of energy rained down from a point beyond the image’s borders, striking one of the Romulans. As he fell, his companions retreated out of the frame, somehow managing to avoid being struck by any of the beams.

“What the hell are those?” Sortino asked. “They weren’t there before.”

Spock answered. “No, Ambassador. They appear to be concealed weapons turrets—part of the complex’s intruder
control system, which is now quite active. From what I am able to determine, there are similar weapons deployed throughout the facility. We can only assume that the system will view us as a threat, as well.”

“That can’t be good,” Kirk said, allowing a bit of sarcasm to lace his words as he watched the display’s restored live feed. On the screen, two of the Romulans had returned, crouching as they pulled their fellow centurion out of sight around the bend in the corridor. “Is he dead, or just stunned?”

Boma replied, “Can’t say for sure, Captain. According to this readout, the weapons can be set to incapacitate or kill, depending on the situation.” He paused, clearing his throat before adding, “I’d rather not be the one to test the thing’s limits.”

Standing next to him, Uhura said, “There’s something else, sir. It looks like the security system’s not limited to just this planetoid.”

It took Kirk an extra second to process the communications officer’s statement before realization dawned. “The rift?”

Nodding, Uhura replied. “Yes, sir. It’s closing.”

“Spock,” Kirk snapped, “can we stop it, or open it again?”

The Vulcan shook his head. “Not at present, Captain.”

“Uhura, can you contact the
Enterprise
?” Kirk asked. “They need to know what’s going on down here.” The Dolysians doubtless would be alarmed at the rift’s sudden closure and the effects it would have on their efforts to resupply the Havreltipa mining colony on Gralafi as well as transporting the erinadium ore from the planetoid to where it was needed on the homeworld.

“No, sir,” the lieutenant said. “All frequencies are blocked, and our own communicators are being jammed, but I don’t think it’s coming from inside the complex.”

“The Romulans?” Kirk asked, already knowing the answer.

Uhura nodded. “It looks that way, sir.”

Damn it!
Kirk thought. They were trapped down here, with no way to call for help even from the landing parties at the
Huang Zhong
wreck, much less anyone on the
Enterprise.
And if the Romulans were behind the jamming, then the team that had made it into the complex could call for help. “If the jamming were removed, could we use the Kalandan technology to contact the ship?”

Spock replied, “Possibly, Captain, but that would take time.”

“Then we need a way to reach Kyle at the crash site,” Kirk said. “I don’t care how, just find something.” Maybe his crewmen working the salvage operation might be able to help him.

Boma, still working at the adjacent console, turned and said, “I think we may have an even bigger problem.”

“Of course we do,” McCoy said, falling in behind Kirk as the captain and Spock moved to where the lieutenant pointed to one status display.

“What is that?” Kirk asked.

Before Boma could answer, Spock said, “A countdown, Captain. The security system has issued an emergency containment protocol, designed to go into effect when it believes it is under attack.”

“The Romulans destroying that row of equipment over there?” Boma said, pointing to the ruined consoles along the wall near the door. “Those controlled access to the
environmental control systems. An attack on that is like an attack on the entire complex.”

Before Kirk could ask his next questions, a low whine cut him off, and he turned to see a beam of light cascading down from the control cube hanging at the room’s center. Inside the beam, the indistinct form of Meyeliri took shape. She wore a dark blue robe and stood with her hands clasped before her as she seemed to fix her gaze on Kirk.

“
My fellow Kalandans, our defense system has detected a threat against this facility. In order to prevent the accumulated knowledge of our people from falling into the wrong hands, the system has initiated our final containment protocol
.”

“She’s sure being nice about it,” Sortino said.

Meyeliri continued, “
As caretakers of this repository, you undertook a pledge to protect it at any cost. Though it was hoped that such drastic steps would never be needed, no other choice remains. The sacrifice you are about to make on behalf of all the Kalandan people will always be remembered and honored. Thank you
.” She bowed her head as the projection faded before disappearing along with the cube’s light beam.

McCoy asked, “Any more good news?”

“The explosion will consume this entire facility,” the science officer replied. “The resulting shock waves could cause severe damage to the Dolysian mining settlement, and perhaps cause irreparable damage to the planetoid itself.”

Releasing a snort of derision, McCoy said, “Does anybody besides me think that’s more than a bit of an overreaction on the computer’s part?”

“It might be that some key circuits related to decision support and response escalation were damaged by the
Romulans,” Boma said. “We won’t know until we start digging around.”

Kirk felt his heart sink even as his mind raced to consider the safety of not just his people but also the Dolysians at the mining colony as well as the transport ships moving to and from the planetoid. “How much time do we have?”

“Two hours, twenty-six minutes, eleven seconds,” Spock said, “converting from Kalandan time measurements, of course.”

“What about the Dolysian miners?” Uhura asked. “Can they evacuate?”

Spock shook his head. “Even if we could warn them, there is insufficient time to effect an evacuation, Lieutenant. As it stands, the complex itself has been sealed, and each of the five clusters within the facility has also been locked down. We cannot get to the surface, though we can move to an adjacent cluster.”

“We can’t leave, even if we wanted to,” Kirk snapped. “This planetoid is vital to the Dolysian people. Losing it or letting it suffer catastrophic damage would cause immeasurable harm to their society.”

“Although not as important as protecting the Dolysians,” Spock said, “there is also the Kalandan knowledge repository to consider. Given what we know of the Kalandan civilization’s ultimate fate, it’s very possible that the data stored here is irreplaceable. It should be preserved if at all possible.”

McCoy said, “There’s probably another planet like this one out there somewhere, Spock. Hell, there might be dozens of them, for all we know.”

“If it comes down to the Kalandans or the Dolysians,” Kirk said, “we’re backing the Dolysians, not that it matters.”
So far as he was concerned, there was only one course of action. “We have to stop the destruct sequence, no matter what.”

“Or die trying,” Sortino added. When Kirk turned to look at her, he saw the resolve in the ambassador’s face, and nodded in agreement.

“Right,” he said. “Or die trying.”

Pavel Chekov frowned at the data being fed to him by the
Enterprise
sensors, not knowing what to make of the readings he was observing. “Mister Scott,” he said, pulling his face away from the science station’s hooded viewer, “I’m picking up a fluctuation from within the rift. Something’s happening.” Turning from his station, he looked to where Commander Scott sat in the captain’s chair at the center of the bridge, an expression of concern clouding his features.

“Any idea what it might mean?” the engineer asked.

Chekov shook his head. “The readings aren’t like anything we’ve observed since our arrival sir, and there’s nothing comparable in any of the sensor data collected by the
Huang Zhong
.”

Gesturing toward the main viewscreen, which now depicted an image of the energy field as well as a Dolysian freighter on a course to enter the rift, Scott asked, “Could it be reacting to us, or even that ship?”

“I don’t think so, sir,” Chekov replied, returning his attention to the sensor viewer. Without looking, he reached to the rows of controls that allowed him to adjust the display of the data being routed to the viewer, switching between different displays that offered him all manner of information about the rift. Among the measurements and
other statistical and tactical information was one figure that he now noticed was shifting. The number was decreasing, and beginning to do so at an accelerated rate.