Star Trek XIII – Welcome to Tomorrow

Chapter Three

Klingons.

The word sent an uncomfortably cold shiver down Kirk's back, making him recall the first and only time he'd been in contact with one of the most violent races in the entire universe. He tried not to think that Khan's prompt intervention had been the only reason they had survived that experience.

'Scotty,' Kirk said speaking into his communicator, 'I take you've got those shields up.'

It wasn't a question but Scott replied nonetheless:

'Of course, all hands are ready for battle, sir.'

'Good,' Kirk said, 'give us a minute and stand by to beam us up, Mr Scott.'

'Aye, Captain.'

'Also,' he said as an afterthought, 'get in touch with the nearest Starfleet post, ask them to send whatever they've got to help us protect New Vulcan.'

'Yes, sir,' Mr Scott replied.

'Thanks,' he said, 'Kirk out.'

He glanced over to the Vulcan who looked like he had not moved an inch. In fact, the Captain was ready to bet a month's wages that the guy hadn't even blinked in the whole time he'd been there.

'Excuse me,' Kirk said talking to him, 'do you speak Standard?'

'I am fluent in several languages,' the Vulcan replied, his voice immaculately neutral.

'Alright, we have a squadron of Klingon warbirds coming our way,' Kirk said trying to convey the urgency of the situation, 'please inform your High Council and ask them to get ready. I have already requested Starfleet to send reinforcements and they will be here soon but you need to prepare whatever defence systems you've got.'

'Understood,' the Vulcan said with not even a teensy hint of panic.

'Do you really understand what's happening?' Kirk asked feeling a tad frustrated.

'Of course,' he replied using an imperturbable tone of voice, 'like I already mentioned, I am fluent in several languages, including the Federation Standard vernacular. I shall now proceed to rely the information you have just supplied.'

With this, he left walking with the calm and aplomb of a Tibetan monk.

'I swear,' Kirk whispered to Uhura, 'compared to that, Spock is made of sunshine.'

Uhura made a visible effort not to smile but her eyes brightened up a little.

'Uhura,' Kirk said, 'you could stay here.'

'No,' she replied, 'I think now I'll be of more use to you than I am to him.'

'Are you sure?' Kirk asked.

'I am,' she confirmed.

'Okay,' Kirk said, he flipped the communicator back open and said, 'beam us up, Scotty.'

'Stand by,' Scott replied.

The usual twirl of golden energy engulfed them both and soon their decomposed atoms were carried over space to be reassembled in the Enterprise's transporter room where a very anxious looking Dr McCoy was waiting for them, he didn't even wait for Kirk to step out from his pad.

'How's Spock?' he asked.

'No idea,' Kirk replied honestly as all three of them made their way to the bridge, 'but he's in the best possible hands. I trust you and your team are ready to deal with any potential injuries.'

'We are,' McCoy assured him sounding oddly professional, 'I just hope it won't be necessary.'

'So do I,' Kirk replied sombrely.

A moment later, the three of them arrived at destination where Chekov announced his presence:

'Captain on the bridge!'

'Sir,' Scotty said freeing up the Captain's chair, 'I've received news from Starfleet, they're sending the USS Bradbury and the USS Missouri, their ETA is approximately an hour.'

'Thank you, Mr Scott,' Kirk said sitting down.

'With your permission, I'd like to return to Engineering now,' Scotty requested.

'Granted,' Kirk said.

The Chief Engineer left the bridge almost immediately. Meanwhile Uhura took her seat next to Dr Marcus who was currently manning the primary Science Station, thus sitting on Spock's usual chair.

'Captain,' she said, 'should I arm the photon torpedoes?'

'Yes,' Kirk replied taking a moment to exchange a glance with his girlfriend trying to reassure her. He found however that she was looking quite calm and it made him feel a surge of affection for her, 'Carol,' he then said deliberately using her first name, 'as soon as they show up, try to get a scan on their weapons systems.'

'Yes, sir,' she said nodding once.

He didn't have time for anything else because, right at that moment, Sulu announced the Klingon had entered New Vulcan space and a moment after that, they saw them: ten Klingon Bird-of-Prey showed up on the Enterprise's viewscreen flying in a perfectly shaped V formation.

Nine of them were older D6-class cruisers but their leader was a much more advanced D7-class dreadnaught which looked just as menacing as its designers had intended it to be, Kirk forced himself to calm down so that the terror he was starting to feel would not take control of him.

'Keep all weapons on standby,' he ordered Dr Marcus, 'Mr Sulu, shield status.'

'All shields are at one hundred per cent, Captain,' the helmsman confirmed.

'I detect a flight of Vulcan Fighters incoming from mark 2,' Chekov reported.

'How many?' Kirk enquired.

'Twelve, sir,' the navigator replied.

'That's not enough,' Kirk commented, he turned to Uhura and said, 'I need to know what they're doing. Why aren't they attacking?'

'I have nothing, Captain,' she told him, 'it's like they're keeping radio silence.'

'Wonderful,' he couldn't help but to say.

Just as the Vulcan fighters appeared within their vision range, the D6 warbird on the leftmost tip of the V turned its firing turret and, before any of them could do anything to prevent it, it shot several photon torpedoes, destroying four of the Vulcan crafts and damaging at least two more, causing the rest to flee .

'NO!' Kirk heard himself shouting.

'We're being hailed!' a distressed Uhura announced.

'On screen!' Kirk exclaimed.

An instant later, the terribly scarred face of a Klingon warrior appeared in front of them. Not that it was easy to tell but, judging by his tired expression, the Klingon had to be fairly old. He was dressed in what Kirk assumed was a Klingon dress uniform, including a heavy looking metallic band which was laid across the warrior's chest. This had a couple of plates of metal, each carrying something which resembled a crest. The warrior looked at Kirk for a moment, his eyes full of undiluted hatred.

'Captain Kirk,' he drawled.

'To whom am I speaking?' Kirk managed to ask, feeling very proud of his commanding tone of voice.

'I am Captain Kalan of the IKS Terror, father of Kre'in,' the Klingon replied.

Kirk turned briefly to Uhura to check if the Universal Translator was working properly. She nodded once and that made him turn his attention to the warrior.

'That name means nothing to me,' Kirk said and before the Klingon could speak, he hardened his tone of voice and said, 'you have invaded the Federation territory and you have fired and destroyed Vulcan crafts in violation with any existing rules of engagement…'

He stopped speaking when he realised the Klingon was laughing at him.

'You've committed an act of war!' Kirk exclaimed.

'Good,' Captain Kalan said with such viciousness that it sent a ripple of shock throughout the bridge.

'Is that why you're here?' Kirk asked.

'No,' the Klingon replied, 'I'm here because of you. Provoking a war would just be an added bonus.'

This time, even Kirk was left speechless.

'I find your indifference towards my son's name deeply offensive,' the warrior told him. Taking a moment to observe him, Kirk noticed that beneath the hatred, one could see just a hint of sorrow. This told him that whoever Kre'in had been, he was probably dead, 'he was my heir,' Kalan explained, 'and he was brutally murdered along his brothers-in-arms by one of you filthy humans.'

Kirk simply had no idea of what was going on anymore.

'A year ago,' Kalan was grateful enough to elaborate, 'my son was leading his squadron for a routine patrol on the Ketha province. He never came back.'

'You've gotta be kidding me,' Kirk muttered under his breath. Now all it made sense.

'I spent months searching for clues that would lead me to him,' the warrior continued, 'finally, I found the piece I needed,' he said producing a scrap of metal, 'this pointed me in the right direction and, at great cost, one of our agents found that your ship had been around during the attack.'

'Captain Kalan…'

'You will come now aboard my ship,' the Klingon continued, 'and I will personally interrogate you.'

'No,' Kirk said.

'If you fail to comply,' he grunted, 'I will obliterate your ship and that puny colony down below.'

'If you do that you will have to face the full retaliation from the Federation,' Kirk said.

'Am I supposed to be afraid by your so-called Federation?' Kalan asked him, without letting him answer, he added, 'the Klingon Empire and its allies are eager for the chance to erase you from existence. I will be welcomed as a hero by the Chancellor himself!'

It was quickly becoming clear to them that they were dealing with someone who, not only was borderline deranged but who probably wasn't bluffing when he said he would destroy the Enterprise as well as New Vulcan. For this reason, Kirk decided the only thing to do was to buy enough time for the Bradbury and the Missouri to show up and level the terms of the engagement.

'I will submit to your interrogation,' Kirk finally announced provoking a gasp from several of his bridge officers, the loudest came from the Science Station at his back. Making an effort to ignore Carol's shock, he carried on, 'however, you will give me your honour-bound word that none of your ships will attack mine, nor the New Vulcan colony.'

'That sounds reasonable,' the Klingon surprisingly said.

'I want your word,' Kirk demanded, 'none of your Birds-of-Prey will strike or in any other way harm the USS Enterprise, her crew or the entire population from the New Vulcan colony.'

'I give you my honour-bound word that we will not attack your ship or the colony,' the warrior said.

Kirk turned quickly to Uhura posing a silent question with his eyes: can we trust him?

Uhura nodded and allowed herself to speak:

'Klingon traditions are clear: he's given you his word and if he breaks it, he will lose his honour.'

Kirk went back to staring at Captain Kalan and, trying not to think about what he was doing, he said:

'Alright, you will need to allow me some time to prepare.'

'You have ten minutes,' the Klingon replied, 'if you fail to comply, our agreement will become void.'

'Understood,' Kirk said.

With this, the communication was terminated leaving Kirk with a whole list of things to do before he would be forced to beam himself to the IKS Terror. What an appropriate name, he thought miserably.

'Jim,' he heard Dr McCoy say, 'you can't possibly think of…'

'Not now,' he stopped him, 'Kirk to Engineering, Mr Scott come back to the bridge immediately.'

'Aye, Captain,' he heard the Scotsman say.

Doing his best to ignore every pair of eyes that were boring into him, Kirk opened up his captain log and hurried to make a written supplementary entry. Once this was done, he got up from the chair.

'Jim,' this time it was Carol's soft voice.

'Give me a minute,' he almost begged her, 'Mr Sulu, what's the current ETA for the reinforcements?'

'About forty minutes, sir,' the helmsman replied.

'Okay,' he said. Just then, he saw Scotty exiting the turbolift and before he could ask for permission to come onto the bridge, Kirk told him, 'Mr Scott, I'm once again leaving you in command. Whatever happens out there, your number one priority is to protect New Vulcan. They've already lost their planet, don't let them lose anything else.'

'Yes, sir,' Scott replied solemnly.

'Bones,' he finally said, 'go and get your medical kit and meet me at the transporter room.'

'Okay,' the doctor replied, for once, he was wise enough not to argue and complied with the order.

'I will come back as soon as I can,' he tried reassuring everyone, 'till then, I trust you all know what's expected of you, just do your jobs and everything will be fine. Mr Scott, you've got the conn.'

'Aye, Captain,' he said.

With that and just sparing a moment to exchange a quick glance with a very worried looking Carol, he stepped onto the turbolift. Just as it was beginning to shut, he saw her jumping up from her seat and rushing to join him in it, surprising everyone, probably including herself.

'Sorry,' she wheezed as soon as they started moving down, 'I just…'

'Carol…' he started to say but was interrupted when she just hugged him so tight he thought he would suffocate. Forgetting about that, he returned the embrace and, for a couple of seconds, neither spoke, then, he pushed her away gently and said, 'listen, there's something I need to…'

'Shush,' she begged him, 'don't say anything now, save it for when you come back.'

'Carol, I…'

Rising herself on her tiptoes, she silenced him once again by pressing her lips against his.

'Please come back,' she desperately whispered against them, 'promise me,' she added.

'I promise,' he said meaning it.

The turbolift stopped and, as the doors opened, he stepped out of it while she remained inside.

'I'll see you soon,' he told her.

'Yes,' she replied.

While Carol returned to the bridge, Kirk walked purposely to the transporter room. There, as agreed, he found his best friend armed with a huge hypo-spray and the mother of all disapproving scowls.

'Just so you know,' he said, 'I sure hope you have a fool-proof plan because handing yourself to the Klingons is like showing a quarter-pounder to a bunch of hungry dogs.'

'Again with the metaphors,' Kirk said trying to smile, 'I take that's for me?'

'It sure isn't for me,' Dr McCoy sneered, 'when you asked me to bring my kit I assumed you'd want something for the pain those bastards are going to cause you.'

'And that's why I like you so much,' Kirk said.

'You won't like me so much now,' the doctor replied and, without giving him time to prepare himself, he jabbed him with the hypo-spray right on the most tender spot on his neck.

'OUCH!' Kirk complained.

'Make sure you come back,' Dr McCoy said obviously ignoring him.

This time, Kirk only nodded. He then stepped onto the pad and an instant later, he was gone.

On the Enterprise's bridge, they all saw the IKS Terror going into warp. Taking Captain Kirk with it.

To be continued…