Star Trek: The Lost Condor

Race against Time

featuring

Michael Douglass as Gordon West

Tony Todd as Parker Downs

and

Christine Perri as Sajah

Out Post E10

Near the launch controls of the Condor torpedo, Jim Kirk was on the ground, cradled in the lap of the Vulcan female; Sajah. The fingers of her left hand were spread across the left side of Kirk's head as she invoked a Vulcan mind-meld. She steadied her fingers, trying to be as precise as she could be.

Gordon West and his assistant, Parker Downs, looked up at the digital chronometer on the wall as it counted down. There was impatience in their eyes as they knew time was running out. Their plan was now balancing on the ability of Sajah to recover a secret code from Kirk's mind. But, it was taking longer than expected; time was running out.

"Gordon; she has to hurry and find that code inside of Kirk's mind," Parker told Gordon, "the Enterprise will arrive in the vicinity of the Klingon ship in mere minutes and its escort armada. In order for this to work, this torpedo must be fired so that it can destroy the Klingon ship and kill everyone aboard so that we can frame the Enterprise after she is destroyed as well by the armada."

Gordon nodded his head, and looked down at Sajah.

"You have to hurry, Sajah," Gordon said to her. "Tell me you can do this. Tell me that you can find that code in time."

Sajah looked up at Gordon.

"This man, Jim Kirk," she replied with respect in her voice, "has a very powerful mind, where it comes to humans," she said, as she looked back down at Kirk. "If I press to hard…he…"


At that moment, inside the mind-meld, Jim Kirk was still with the younger version of Sajah. Sajah finally understood the importance of the kite, and she knew what had to be done. So she did something that normally Vulcans didn't do; she smiled and looked at Kirk, knowing that humans were easily disarmed by smiles.

"You are smiling," young Jim Kirk told her, as he smiled back at her; "why?"

She reached out her hand.

"Can I hold the string; can I control the kite?" Sajah asked Kirk.

Kirk nodded his head, and then he handed her the ball of string, which was itself attached to a stick in the center of the ball. She began to run across the field, holding the kite string, just as she had seen Kirk doing moments ago. Kirk watched as Sajah ran faster. He looked up at the kite, as it streamed through the sky.

"Perfect," Jim Kirk called out, "you're doing perfect."

Sajah knew what she was doing, as she ran and ran and ran from Kirk, with the kite at her control. She surmised that the kite held the answer; not the ball of string, not the string itself, but the kite. She looked back at Kirk, who was now a hundred yards or so from her. It was time to prove her theory correct; it was time to crash the kite!

Jim Kirk was watching Sajah run, when he saw her suddenly stop. And then he watched as the kite began to dive down from the sky and toward the ground. The kite he had nursed though repairs for all these years was heading directly toward the hard dirt ground! And then…the kite smashed into the ground. Kirk was not happy!

Instantly, Jim Kirk, from where he stood, and Sajah from where she stood, fan toward the kite; unknown to Jim Kirk, it was now a race against time!

Sajah made her way toward the kite. She knew she had to get there before Jim Kirk did. If Jim Kirk arrived first, the elder Jim Kirk would realize what was happening in his mind and could possibly disrupt the memory. She could always start over, and find another hiding place for the memory; but there wasn't enough time for another attempt. She had to find the code and she had to find it now.

Sajah could estimate her speed and Jim Kirk's speed, and she deduced she would arrive 8.1 seconds ahead of him. The code that was needed to launch the torpedo, the lost Condor, had to be on the kite or all this was for naught.

The kite was just feet ahead of Sajah, when she slid down to the ground. She looked at the kite, and there was nothing on it. She looked up at Jim Kirk, he was mere seconds away. And then she saw something; on the other side of the kite! She flipped the kite over…


As Gordon West and Parker Downs looked down at Sajah, as she cradled Kirk in her lap, something quite unexpected happen; Kirk shimmered away…and was gone; transported away!

"Someone transported him away," Parker said with an angry voice. "We have to find..."

Sajah stood up.

"Do not concern yourself with finding Kirk," Sajah said to Parker. She then looked over at Gordon West and said; "I have the code."

Gordon Smiled...

Continued…