Let's Go Thataway!

Chapter Thirty-seven - Some Kind of Action

Enterprise

Late November 2267

Spock

When he looked into his scanner, he immediately became alarmed. There were blips there that should not be there. Instantly, he began to activate other instruments, running scans, comparing data. "Captain, there is something out there. Something very strange."

Kirk was up out of his chair and hovering over Spock's shoulder in an instant. "What do you see?"

Spock pointed to the strange blips. "These do not show up on any other instrument. They do not show on the scanners. There are indications of life, but of what type I am not able to discern."

Kirk turned to Uhura. "Can you find any signals that can be traced to these whatever-they-ares?"

"No, Captain, there is no unusual message traffic at all. I am running additional traces, but so far, I haven't found anything."

Spock turned in her direction. "Try above the normal aural range. Something tells me that these ships are not quite phased in to our normal space-time."

Her eyes widened a bit, but she quickly made the suggested adjustments. Her face took on a strange look, and she fiddled with her controls again. "There, something, yes." And then she switched to audio and everyone on the bridge could hear the strange sounds.

Kirk listened. "Can you translate that noise?"

"It doesn't match anything I've ever heard before."

"A language that stumps Uhura? Now I've heard everything."

She glared at him. "I'm not infallible, Captain. There do exist languages I have not learned."

"Sorry. Just joking. So this is a new race, then isn't it?"

Spock nodded at him. "New and strange. I have adjusted the scanners and will try again." He continued to work, and suddenly, on the small screen above him, there was an image - a very strange image.

"Put that on the main viewscreen." Kirk whirled about and returned to the command chair, throwing himself down with his eyes glued to the image in front of him. "What ARE those things?"

"Unknown. Nor is their origin known. I can detect no ion trails or other disturbance to give me an indication of their direction of travel." Spock was uneasy.

Chekov straightened up in front of his console. "Keptin! Something has detached itself from the main wessel before us. It is headed straight in this direction."

"Shields up! Phasers ready! And just for the heck of it, load the photon torpedoes!"

All eyes were glued to the screen, watching the approaching object. And then Spock's voice rang out. "That is some sort of missile, definitely armed!"

Kirk's orders rang out. "Lock on Phasers and fire at will!"

Chekov's fingers flew over his console and they could see the bright lines of the phasers intersect with the missile. There was a violent explosion, rocking the ship. Thankfully, there was no damage, but there were more of those missiles headed their way.

"Uhura, try hailing those ships!"

"I've been trying, sir, but I get no response at all. I'm rotating through all the languages I think might be possible and all the frequencies close to the one I got the messages in on, but there just isn't anything at all coming out of them now."

Chekov continued to blow up the missiles headed at them, the screen continuing to flare with violent light at irregular intervals, until suddenly there was nothing before them. No more missiles, no ships.

Spock checked all his instruments. "They have disappeared entirely. I do not know what sort of propulsion they have used. This is all very strange."

Kirk relaxed in the command chair, legs sprawled. "Totally weird, guys. What kind of action was that, anyway?"

But no one could answer that question.