James T Kirk: TNG
Rescue 911 (part two)
The massive Negh'var-class Klingon ship entered the Koralis system, and moments later, it was in orbit of the fourth planet in the system. Sensor scans of the planet were just as suspected. It was a smaller sized planet, relative in size to Earth's moon, and was covered with thick foliage. There were no sentient life forms, but there were many forms of animal and plant life.
In the southern region of the planet there was a military compound that had been built, originally, by the Cardassians. During the Dominion War, the Jem'Hadar had used the compound for a brief period of time as well.
"Are we sure that K'alaf is down there?" Ben Sisko asked, as he stood toward the back of the bridge.
Martok looked over at the Klingon science officer, who gave a look of acknowledgement.
"The coward is down there," Martok finally replied.
"Chancellor," the female Klingon communications' officer said, "we are being hailed."
Martok gave her a curt nod of his head. The image of the planet was replaced by that of K'alaf.
"We are here; coward," Martok barked.
"You are willing to give your life for a human female," K'alaf said with anger in his voice, "you are the coward."
"Your family's name will be stricken from the records," Martok came back with. "It will be as if it never existed!"
"It does not exist now," K'alaf said. "Enough of this," K'alaf added. "You will bring yourselves down to the coordinates I have just sent. I will scan your transporter signals for any sort of weapon, so don't waste our time bringing them."
"Taking another warrior's weapon is not honorable," Worf said, who was standing next to Sisko.
K'alaf, hearing Worf's comment, glared at the Starfleet officer.
"Do not lecture me on honor, traitor!" K'alaf said. "To be even wearing that uniform shows you have no respect for our people and our customs."
"Worf," Martok interjected, "has shown more honor than you will ever know."
"Then it is most fortunate he will take command of your vessel after I take your life." K'alaf said with a slight chuckle.
"Where is my daughter?" Sisko finally demanded. "How do we know she is still alive?"
The image on the screen switched to a view of Rebecca Sisko. The young lady was sitting in the corner of her cell, as a Klingon guard stood over her, holding a Bat'leth.
"He will slice her head off right before your very eyes if any rescue attempt is made," K'alaf said, "So, do not attempt one."
The signal was cut off.
Moments later, inside the Transporter room of the Klingon ship, Chancellor Martok and Captain Sisko were standing on the transporter pad. Martok nodded at the Transporter technician, who then entered a code on a small device. The code was; 911. Instantly the code was transmitted on a highly secured frequency, and then, after giving Martok a salute, the technician activated the Transporter machine.
At that very instant, after receiving the 911 signal, Kirk and Riker, who had already timed the roving guards, stood up from where they were waiting behind a cluster of trees, and slipped past the force field as it was temporarily lowered during the Transport cycle. In mere seconds, the force field was reactivated.
Riker and Kirk split up, each tasked with bringing down two guards. Riker watched, from a distance, as Kirk prepared to take down the first guard.
The Klingon guard, with his Bat'leth held to his side, came around the corner, and was taken by surprise as Kirk propelled himself into a flying double leg kick, knocking the larger Klingon down. Kirk did his legendary roll, which ended with his leveling out his rump, as he rolled to his feet, and then using his old style hand phaser, Kirk fired the weapon which was set on high stun, and knocked the Klingon out.
"Awesome," Riker said with an awe inspired smile, after watching Kirk execute his legendary move.
Both men went into action.
Inside the compound it was a different story. Captain Ben Sisko and Chancellor Martok, weaponless, were greeted by KomaQ as they materialized. KomaQ aimed a disrupter at them.
"Through that door," KomaQ ordered.
"You dare order me?" Martok barked. "Give me a weapon now, you Pa'taq and then try ordering me again."
As they made their way through the large compound rooms, which had once served as what appeared to be a holding facility, Martok and Sisko knew that all they had to do was bade for time. And since K'alaf was confident the force fields that protected the compound would hold; that conceit would play to Sisko and Martok's advantage.
"Chancellor, I do not covet honor," KomaQ said with a grin, "I covet my payment, which is half now half later."
"You're no better than the Ferengi," Sisko said with disgust upon hearing KomaQ.
"With one notable exception; I love to kill, they don't," KomaQ replied with a laugh.
They eventually entered another large room. At the far end stood K'alaf, and next to him, kneeling on her knees with her arms tied behind her back was Rebecca.
"Daddy!" Rebecca said with a broad smile, which was met with a loud slap across her face via the large right hand of K'alaf.
Rebecca smashed to the ground, and screamed in pain.
Sisko attempted to run to his daughter's aid, but K'alaf put the tip of his own Bat'leth at Rebecca's neck.
"Take another step, and she dies!" K'alaf yelled at Sisko.
Sisko halted his advanced.
"We're here," Sisko said, "now let her go!"
"Did you really think I would let her go," K'alaf countered. "Besides, I quite like her tone of voice. She would make a great prize on my way to Sto-vo-kor!"
"The only place you're going," Martok spat out, who was still held in check by KomaQ, "are the agony halls of Gre'Thor!"
Suddenly the ground began to quake as the Negh'Var opened fire with its torpedoes.
"K'alaf," Martok barked loudly, "let the human female go, just as you had bargained, and the attack will cease."
"Ahh," K'alaf said in a loud boisterous tone, "you must have ordered them to open fire after a certain amount of time without communication. Unfortunately for you, it will take far too long to penetrate the shields."
Martok and Sisko both knew that the Negh'Var wasn't firing its weapons to disable the fields. That would have resulted in the destruction of the compound, killing everyone in the process. The Negh'Var was just doing it for show.
"Let…her…go!" Sisko repeated.
"No," K'alaf, "now; she will die."
K'alaf glared down at Rebecca, raised his Bat'leth, and the girl began to scream.
"NOW!" Ben Sisko yelled.
Suddenly, as the room still quaked from the Negh'Var attack from space, the glass window high above the room smashed open and two figures repelled down into the compound; Kirk and Riker. In the mass of confusion, and falling glass, Martok sprung on KomaQ, twisting the henchman's neck, killing him instantly, and grabbing his disrupter in the process.
Sisko ran towards his daughter as K'alaf, surprised by the confusion, retreated into the bowels of the compound; before he could kill Rebecca. Kirk and Riker, who had landed on the ground, took off after the dastardly Klingon.
Kirk was in the lead, and Riker was right behind him.
"Let me take point!" Riker demanded from behind.
"Why?" Kirk asked, gasping for air in the process, as he ran at full speed.
"He might turn and fight," Riker said, "and if you get killed, my name will become infamous for letting the legendary Captain Kirk die."
"Shut up, nice try," Kirk said with a laugh. "This Klingon bastard is mine!"
Kirk could see K'alaf running into a room up ahead. The logical thing to have done, and Spock would have told Kirk had he been there, would been to have stopped the pursuit and made a plan of action before entering the room. But, then again, Spock wasn't there and Kirk didn't want to delay the fight any longer, so he burst into the room, hoping for the best.
James T Kirk froze in his tracks at what he saw, as did Riker when entered the room as well. K'alaf was on the ground, with the barrel of a large phaser-rifle aimed at his head; it was held by Bakooth; Riker's first officer.
"I...beam...in…" Bakooth said with a wide, fang filled grin.
Riker and Kirk surmised the large Chalnoth must have taken the Defiant into a position inside of the force fields perimeter when they had been momentarily lowered during the beam in of Sisko and Picard.
Riker and Kirk began to laugh, realizing the prize of the hunt had gone to Bakooth.
Moments later, K'alaf was brought back to the main area. Sisko was hugging his daughter, and Martok watched the two Siskos with a content look. Then he looked directly at K'alaf.
"You will be executed," Martok said with a sneer. "You were captured during a Klingon military action! This is no longer a Bajor matter! You will be punished under Klingon law." His words exploded like thunder.
Sisko, Rebecca, Kirk, Riker and Bakooth, who held K'alaf in this grasp, all watched in silence.
"I, being the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire, judge you to die now!" Martok went on to say, reaching down and picking up the Bat'leth which K'alaf had been holding earlier. "Chalnoth warrior; bring him to me!"
Bakooth did as instructed.
K'alaf sneered back at Martok, and had a determined look. And then K'alaf took a deep breath, and then he screamed; "taHqeq!"
And then the next two point five seconds went by in blurs of motion!
At that instant, a Klingon D'K Tahg, a warrior's knife, streaked across the room, having been fired from a specially made device hidden on the far side of the room. On the blade, and unseen to the naked eye, was a clip of Martok's DNA, which K'alaf had paid dearly for. The device which had fired the D'K Tahg had scanned all available life forms in its short range, and found the perfect match; Martok.
The knife headed straight for the unprepared Chancellor of the Klingon Empire, but it would never reach its target. Kirk, who stood just a foot from Martok, sprang into motion, fully intent on taking the blow instead, diving head first to block the knife; but Kirk wasn't the only one who had sprung into action; so had Thomas Riker, who stood a foot closer to the speeding knife's path. And just as Kirk thought he had finally faced death, he saw Riker cut across his angle, and the knife dove into Riker's chest, delivering what would prove to be a fatal thrust.
Martok, in a fit of anger at what had just happened, took his Bat'leth and swung it forcibly at K'alaf's neck, decapitating him as Bakooth withdrew his own knife and buried it into K'alaf's back.
In the sudden silence, Rebecca, sobbing, buried her head into Sisko's shoulder at the gruesome sight, and the terrible wound Riker had taken.
Kirk, on his knees, rolled Riker over, and saw the dark blood that poured out of the wound pooling on the ground.
"Hey," Kirk said, knowing Riker was dying, as he propped Riker's head up, "that was supposed to be my final heroic act!" Kirk smiled at Riker, both knowing death was near.
"Naaaah," Riker struggled to say, as blood trickled out of his mouth, and down the side of his face, "My final act was to save one of the greatest Starfleet officers the Federation has ever known; what better way is there to die?"
Chalnoth got down hurriedly on his knees and stared down at his dying friend.
"Mr. Grumpy," Riker said with a smile as he looked up at Bakooth, "I want you to go find that Cardassian stripper you've had your eye on and marry her…" his voice began to fade.
"I…never…forget." Bakooth said, with obvious sadness in his eyes.
And then Commander Thomas Riker died. Kirk felt a twinge of pain in his heart. He had only known Riker for a short amount of time, but in that time, Kirk felt as if he had made a friend; and now that friend was dead.
Several hours later, they had all returned from the Koralis system. Rebecca had been rescued, but it had cost the life of Thomas Riker. Wanting to reunite his daughter with her mother, Ben Sisko was loaned a runabout and left moments after returning to DS9, and headed off to Bajor. Chancellor Martok had abruptly left as well. A memorial for Thomas Riker was planned for a week later, and it was sure that many friends had planned to attend.
Kira also informed Kirk that Captain Jean-Luc Picard would be arriving with-in the coming days so as to escort the legendary captain back to Starfleet for debriefing. Kirk contacted his wife, Myran, and told her that he was fine, and to wait for him on Bajor and he would return once his debriefing on Earth was completed. She gave him her love and told him she would be waiting for his return, and then they would go back to Timus and rejoin their quaint lives. Jim Kirk smiled at the thought, but had a feeling that his life would never be quaint again.
The next day, after a full night of sleep, and several hours of contemplating alone in his quest quarters on DS9, James T Kirk, in a somber mood, and alone, entered Quark's and sat at one of the upper tables. The crowd was in its usual jovial mood, cheering loudly at the large Dabo wheel, but Kirk was not jovial. The death of Riker had more of an effect on Kirk than he had expected. It had been three years since he had witnessed the deaths of Uhura and Chekov, and now here it was again; death. It was imposing its will on those close to him, and he didn't like it.
It was at that moment when the Ferengi owner of the bar, Quark, sat down across from Kirk.
"I don't care who you are," Quark said, with a look of irritation on his face, "legend or not, you just can't sit up here drinking free water all day long. I only serve paying customers."
Kirk forced a grin on his own face.
"I was just trying to pass the time." Kirk said.
"Well, you can pass the time somewhere else," Quark said in an irked tone. Then he leaned in, and when he was sure no one was looking, he whispered, "I have an important message coming in for you from a mutual friend of ours. Meet me at holosuite-4 in ten minutes."
"You and I have a mutual friend?" Kirk asked, with a tone of disbelief in his voice.
"Yes, we do," Quark replied. "His name is," Quark paused as he leaned in even closer to Kirk, "Spock."
-continued…
