Worlds in Collision (52 page)

McCoy stood up and put his hand on Kirk's shoulder. “I know it doesn't happen very often, Jim, but you have been known to be wrong before. And I hope this is one of those times when you're wrong again.”

“So do I,” Kirk said. But he knew he wasn't, and from the guarded look in Spock's eyes, his friend and science officer knew it, too.

For the first time in almost five years, Kirk was preparing to take his ship and his crew into a mission he knew he could not possibly complete with success. But to fulfill his duty to Starfleet, to defend the Articles of Federation, and to uphold the Prime Directive, he had no choice but to seek out and accept defeat.

It was the one thing he had never been taught at Starfleet Academy—and the one thing he had never learned to do on his own.

No matter what Kirk thought he might face in the next forty-eight hours, he had no doubt that the best place to face it would be the bridge of the
Enterprise.
Returning there, as always, he felt renewed.

The instant the turbolift door opened onto the somehow soothing noise and activity of the bridge, Kirk saw Scotty step out of the central chair.

“It's good to have ye back, Captain,” Scott said.

“Good to be back, Mr. Scott.” Kirk stood by his chair, one hand on the arm, surveying his domain. Behind him, Uhura and Spock took up their stations. In front of him, Chekov and Sulu took up theirs.

“Satellite status, Mr. Scott?” Kirk asked.

“All eight ready to go when ye give the word, sir.”

Kirk turned to Uhura. “Has the hangar bay reported yet?”

Uhura wheeled in her chair, one hand to her earpiece. “Three Wraiths have landed and are being stowed, Captain. All assigned FCO personnel are onboard.”

“Status of Talin lunar craft, Mr. Spock?”

“Approaching farside cut-off in seven minutes, Captain.”

“ETA on intercept orbit, Mr. Sulu?”

“Seven minutes, ten seconds to arrival, sir.”

“Talin warhead status, Mr. Chekov?”

“No change, Keptin. Two armed, four on standby.”

Kirk paused in silence. Each person on the bridge was poised, waiting for his words, his commands.

He took his chair.

“Helm, take us to Talin vessel intercept.”

“Aye-aye, sir.”

The
Enterprise
effortlessly slipped from her station-keeping orbit, dropping lower and faster to the moon of Talin, heading for the primitive vessel thousands of kilometers ahead. The mission had begun.

Seven minutes later, the Talin lunar vessel filled the main screen. It consisted of a main eight-meter metallic sphere ringed by six bell-shaped thruster skirts. The main sphere was connected by a ten-meter-long open grillwork tube to two six-meter spheres, one of which had folded-up landing legs. The overall structure was heavily textured with wiring conduits, three small antenna dishes, and a variety of asymmetrical bulges which could be anything from attitude thrusters to instrument bays.

“What are they throwing at us, Mr. Chekov?” Kirk asked.

“Sweeping with standard radar signals only, Keptin. Our sensors are creating perfect inwerse phase delays to show there is nothing in the immediate wicinity.”

“Orbit intercept,” Sulu announced. “Holding back ten kilometers, running lights out.” At their angle to the Talin craft, the
Enterprise
was safely hidden within the glare from the lunar surface.

Scott stood beside the captain's chair and made soft tsk tsk noises.

Kirk smiled. “What do you make of her, Scotty?”

The chief engineer cocked his head skeptically. “They deserve an A for effort, but I don't know how they're managing to keep an atmosphere in her. My preliminary scans showed absolutely no magnatomic adhesion bonds in the whole craft.”

Spock stepped up to the railing by his station. “I believe you'll find the entire pressurized crew compartment is sealed by welding and rivets.”

Scott shook his head. “Och, then she might just as well be carved of wood for all the structural strength she'll be having.”

Chekov turned away from the screen for a moment. “Is it supposed to be a one-way trip for them, Mr. Spock? I don't see any part of the craft which could surwive an atmospheric re-entry.”

“The Talin strategy at this time is to leave their re-entry vehicle in orbit around their homeworld rather than expend the extra fuel required to send it to their moon and back,” Spock explained.

“But they'll be using up far more fuel trying to slow down enough to dock with it on the return,” Scott said.

“The Talin have a great deal of patience, Mr. Scott. In the past, their lunar mission profiles included a week's worth of high-orbit deceleration loops to match orbits with their reentry vessel.”

Scott frowned. “Then they'll be spending extra fuel for carrying their increased life-support consumables. I don't understand their reasoning.”

“Life-support consumables are minimal owing to their ability to cocoon themselves when conditions are less than optimal. There is a complete report—”

Kirk interrupted. “We are due in Talin orbit within the hour, gentlemen. Perhaps we might proceed to the next phase?”

“Aye, Captain,” Scott said, going to join Spock at the science station. “The sensors are all set for ye, Mr. Spock.”

But Spock stayed at the railing. “I believe you are more qualified than I at what must be done, Mr. Scott. I do not claim to have your level of engineering expertise.”

Scott appeared to be surprised by Spock's compliment, and pleased by it as well. “I'd be happy to handle the procedure.”

“Then please do,” Spock said, offering Scott his station.

Scott peered into the hooded science scope and blue light flooded his face. “Mr. Chekov, would ye please transfer tractor beam controls to the science station.”

“Transferring now, Mr. Scott.”

“That's a fine lad…now…now…scanning for the detonators…easy…easy…” Scott kept a quiet conversation going with himself as he simultaneously manipulated controls for the ship's finest resolution sensor probes, as well as for the tractor beams. But Kirk tuned him out. It was just a sign that Scott was completely absorbed in what he was doing. And what he was doing demanded no less than total concentration.

Earlier, as Scott had followed Kirk's tightbeamed orders from the FCO outpost, the initial quarter-second sensor pulse had revealed that the Talin lunar craft was not carrying rubindium or dilithium. That meant its crew would be completely oblivious to further sensor scans, provided they were done on the side of the moon opposite any detectors on Talin. Subspace radiation from the ship's sensors could easily travel through the moon's solid matter. But with the sensor's focus controls tuned to line-of-sight nearspace, the radiation that emerged would be virtually undetectable by any but the most sophisticated sensing systems. And no matter how unusually advanced the Talin might be with their discovery of second-stage matter's subspace resonance effects, they were still decades away from building the transtator technology that could fully exploit that class of natural phenomena.

Scott's subsequent sensor study of the Talin vessel had confirmed Kirk's suspicions: It carried six fusion warheads mounted on missiles capable of independent launch. That information, combined with a series of methodical orbit changes that eventually would bring most of the moon's surface within scanning range of the vessel, confirmed beyond a doubt that the two Talin onboard the ship had been sent on a mission to locate and destroy what their commanders must have assumed was a hostile lunar base.

Scott's sensor study had also shown that the lunar vessel was equipped with simple mass-detector instruments sensitive enough to reveal the presence of the FCO outpost's machinery and extensive metal shielding. Judging from the way the vessel shifted orbits, those detectors would be in position to locate the outpost within two days. Kirk could no more allow the outpost to come to harm from nuclear bombardment than he could blow the Talin vessel out of space. But fortunately, in this situation at least, there had been a middle ground which even Spock admitted would not conflict with the Prime Directive. Provided Scotty's hands were steady for the next few minutes.

As Scott continued talking softly to himself, Kirk heard the lift doors slide open, followed by a familiar, shuffling walk.

“Dr. Richter,” Kirk said, leaving his chair to greet the man, “welcome aboard…”

Accompanying the old scientist were Director Wilforth and his two managers, Mallett and Cardinali.

“…everyone,” Kirk concluded.

Richter gestured aimlessly with his cane. “Is that it?”

“The Talin vessel?” Kirk asked.

Richter sneered. “No, a
razfelsin
white whale.” He stepped slowly down to the central level of the bridge, eyes fixed on the viewscreen. His almost permanent sour expression softened as did his tone of voice. “Odd that there are no markings. And how fragile it is.”

“And how lethal,” Spock amended.

Zalan Wilforth clasped his hands together. “Does that mean the procedure did not work?”

Kirk pointed to Scott. “My chief engineer is taking care of the warheads now. How's it going, Mr. Scott?”

Scott didn't look away from the science scope. “ 'Tis delicate work…delicate…” His hands moved almost imperceptibly over the station's controls.

Carole Mallett stood beside Spock. “What exactly is he doing?”

Spock watched Scott's actions carefully. “He is attempting to link our sensors with our tractor beam in order to physically alter the circuitry of the warhead detonators.”

“From here?” Mallett asked in astonishment.

“It is an exceedingly sensitive operation.”

Scott abruptly stood up from the scope and took a deep breath. Sweat beaded his forehead.

“Scotty…?” Kirk began.

“That's the four on standby, Captain,” Scott said. “They'll still be able to respond properly when they're armed, but the detonators will misfire for certain.”

“And the other two that are already armed?” Kirk asked.

“Aye, I'm coming to those. But they are the trickier ones. Full of malfunction alarms and failsafe backups. Och, but the Talin are clever beasties.” He bent back to the scope.

Mallett's face filled with concern. “When the Talin launch the warheads and see they don't go off, won't they know they've been interfered with?” she asked.

Spock shook his head. “Dr. Richter informs us that Talin nuclear weaponry has an accurate function rate of approximately sixty percent. The Talin who launch the warheads—if they do—should be expecting at least two to three of them to malfunction in any event. And if all six warheads are launched and fail, at least the Talin will not have any evidence of tampering remaining onboard.”

Cardinali joined Mallett and Spock. “If you're rearranging electronic circuitry by tractor beam and sensors, isn't there a chance you could trigger one of the detonators?”

Scott spoke to the science scope. “Triggering them is the easy part. If it weren't for the two Talin on board, we could set the whole contraption off from half a million kilometers. But the detonators are well protected, so there's little chance of them going off on their own, even with us fiddling near them. The trick, mind you, is not to fiddle with them directly.” He sighed. “There's one. Any response from the ship, Mr. Chekov?”

“Nothing showing, Mr. Scott. No alarms, no sudden computer use.”

“Here goes for armed warhead number two, then,” Scott said.

“I didn't think tractor beams could be so finely controlled,” Cardinali said.

“Mr. Scott has made extensive modifications in virtually all systems of this ship,” Spock explained. “He has—”

“Increased computer activity on the Talin wessel,” Chekov announced.

“A weapons system alert?” Kirk asked.

“Can't be sure, Keptin.” Chekov's hands flew over his controls. “Mechanical systems coming on line. Fuel pumps opera—”

Kirk spun.
“Scotty! Cut the tractor beam now!”

On the screen, the Talin vessel rushed toward the
Enterprise
as four thrusters vented shimmering exhaust. Suddenly the craft could be seen to shudder violently.

“Beam off!” Scott cried, jumping back from the scope. But he was too late. An arc of transtator current crackled from the control panels as the tractor beam circuits fed back into the sensor system.

“They felt that, Keptin,” Chekov announced. “The tractor beam was engaged when they changed orbit.”

“How badly?” Kirk asked.

“Thrusters firing again,” Chekov said, reading his board. “Their reserve fuel is adequate for orbital correction. Pressure holding.”

Kirk saw that Scott was uninjured and that the fire-abatement systems had extinguished all sparks from the overloaded equipment. He turned back to the viewscreen. The Talin ship was gone.

“Where'd she go?” Kirk asked.

“Astern,” Sulu said grimly. “Shot right past us. We're forty kilometers ahead of her now, leaving her orbit.”

Kirk slumped back in his chair. “Did they get within visual range?”

“If they were looking through the portals, they might have seen us for a second,” Sulu said.

Wilforth came forward. “Don't worry, Captain Kirk. These things happen in first contact situations.”

“What things?”

“Mistakes.”