Chapter 45: Mutara Nebula
"Energize," Spock said to Transporter Chief. She focused the beam on the party in the middle of Regulus I, increased the power to compensate for several kilometers of solid rock, and energized.
Spock had deduced Kirk's assumptions and intentions. The science officer was curious to know the results of the second stage of Genesis. He suspected that parts of what had been created within the planetoid would be most interesting, considering the odd sense of humor of the team of Madison and March.
He hoped to be able to see it himself and, seeing it, honor the memory of their lives and their work.
Kirk and McCoy materialized on the transporter platform, and behind him Dr. Marcus, senior, and Dr. Marcus, junior, then Lieutenant Saavik and Buffy, supporting Dawn between them.
Saavik finished saying something interrupted by the beaming process. "- the damage report. The Enterprise was immobilized."
"Come, now, Lieutenant," Kirk said kindly. "You're the one who keeps telling me to go by the book." He turned to Spock. "Hello, Mr. Spock. You remember Dr. Marcus-" he presented Carol Marcus, "- and I believe you met David before he also became Dr. Marcus."
David Marcus nodded to Spock as Saavik helped Buffy carry Dawn down.
"Certainly," Spock said. "Welcome to the Enterprise. I was most impressed by your presentation."
"Thank you, Mr. Spock," Carol Marcus said. "I wish it were turning out better."
Dr. McCoy went immediately to the intercom and ordered a medical team and stretcher from sick bay.
"By the book-?" Saavik said.
"Regulation forty-six-A: 'During battle...' "
" '... no uncoded messages on an open channel,' " Saavik said; and then, to Spock, "It seems very near a lie..."
"It was a code, Lieutenant," he said. "Unfortunately, the code required some exaggeration of the truth. We only needed hours, Saavik, not days. But now we have minutes instead of hours. We'd better make use of them."
"Yes, sir," she said, unconvinced.
The medical team arrived, and Buffy and Saavik eased Dawn to the stretcher.
"Jim, I'm taking Dawn to sick bay," McCoy said.
"Take good care of her, Bones," Jim said. "Buffy, do you feel up to…?"
Buffy looked at Dawn and kissed her wife on the forehead. She looked at McCoy. "You will let me know when she's awake?"
"I will," said McCoy.
Buffy nodded as she turned to follow Jim, Spock and Savvik.
"What can we do?" Carol Marcus asked.
"Carol, it's going to be chaos on the bridge in a few minutes," Kirk said apologetically. "I've got to get up there."
"Drs. Marcus," McCoy said, "I can put you both to work. Come with me."
Buffy, Kirk, Spock, and Saavik hurried toward the bridge. Kirk stopped at the first turbolift, but Spock kept going.
"The lifts are inoperative below C-deck," Spock said, and opened the door to the emergency stairs. He climbed them three at a time.
"What is working around here?" Buffy asked.
"Very little. Main power is partially restored..."
"Is that all?" Kirk asked.
"We could do no more in two hours. Mr. Scott's crew is trying to complete repairs."
They reached C-deck. Buffy, Spock and Saavik entered the lift. Kirk was breathing hard. He paused a moment in the corridor, wiped his face on his sleeve, and got into the cage.
"Damned desk job," he said softly. "Bridge."
The lift accelerated upward.
Kirk stepped out onto the bridge of his ship. It still showed the effects of the earlier skirmish, but he could see immediately that most functions had been restored.
Mr. Sulu, at his old place at the helm, glanced over his shoulder when the lift doors opened. "Admiral on the bridge!" he said immediately.
"Battle stations," Kirk said.
The Klaxon sounded; the lights dimmed down to deep red.
"Tactical, Mr. Sulu, if you please."
"Aye, sir."
The viewscreen flipped over into a polar view of Regulus I, showing the orbits of Spacelab, Reliant, and the Enterprise. The two starships were in opposition, one on either side of the planetoid. Reliant's delta-vee coordinates changed as they watched, revealing that Khan's ship had begun a search.
"Our scanners are undependable at best," Spock said. "Spacelab's scanners, however, are fully operational; they are transmitting the position of Reliant."
"Very good, Mr. Spock."
Reliant suddenly accelerated at full impulse power.
"Uh-oh," Kirk said.
It would slingshot itself around Regulus I; unless the Enterprise accelerated, too, and continued to chase and flee the other ship, around and around the planetoid, his ship would soon be a target again. And with the engines in the shape they were in, they could not stay hidden for long.
"Reliant can both outrun and outgun us," Spock said calmly. "There is, however, the Mutara Nebula..."
Kirk took out his glasses and put them on to study the displays. He opened a channel to the engine room.
"Mr. Scott- the Mutara Nebula. Can you get us inside?"
"Sir, the overload warnings are lit up like a Christmas tree; the main energizer bypasses willna take much strain. Dinna gi' us too many bumps."
"No promises, Mr. Scott. Give me all you've got."
"Admiral," Saavik said, "within the nebula, the gas clouds will interfere with our tacticals. Visuals will not function. In addition, ionization will disrupt our shields."
Kirk glanced over the rim of his spectacles at Saavik, then at Spock. Spock raised one eyebrow.
"Precisely, Lieutenant: the odds will then be even," the Vulcan said.
The crew had taken their battle stations, pushing the bridge into controlled pandemonium. The dimmed lights cast strange shadows; computer screens glowed in eerie colors. Kirk watched the tactical display. Reliant was moving so fast it would round the planet's horizon in a few minutes and have the Enterprise in line-of-sight. Kirk wanted to be out of phaser and torpedo range yet remain a tempting target.
"Admiral," Saavik asked, "what happens if Reliant fails to follow us into the nebula?"
Kirk laughed, though with very little humor. "That's the least of our worries. Khan will follow us."
"Remind me, Lieutenant," Spock said, "to discuss with you the human ego."
"Mr. Scott," Kirk said into the intercom, "are you ready?"
"As ready as I can be, Admiral."
"Mr. Sulu."
"Course plotted, sir: Mutara Nebula."
"Accelerate at full impulse power-" he hesitated until only a few degrees of arc remained before Reliant's orbit would carry it within sight of the Enterprise, "- now!"
On the viewscreen, the coordinates defining his ship's linear acceleration increased instantaneously by orders of magnitude. The Enterprise sped out of orbit.
A moment later, Reliant rounded the limb of Regulus, and its course and speed altered radically.
"They've spotted us," Mr. Sulu said.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
McCoy had nearly finished the workup on Dawn when the battle stations alarm sounded. He experienced an all too familiar tightening in his stomach. For a long time, he had believed his reaction was as simple as fear, but eventually, the better he knew himself, he realized that it was at least as much the loathing he felt for having to patch up- sometimes to lose- young people who should never have been injured in the first place. Usually they were not as young as Peter Preston... but they were seldom very much older.
McCoy turned and looked at Dawn whose Millennial enhanced body was healing. He wondered if Dawn had truly fought the eel creature's control over her body as Buffy suggested. Or if being Millennial had somehow come with the extra benefit of evicting anything that would not let her finish her thousand years as the most powerful empath. Either way he knew Dawn was very fortunate because if what Fate had alluded to became reality, Dawn would have been driven mad.
The ship shuddered around him.
"What was that?" David Marcus had been pacing back and forth through sick bay, nervous as a cat, haunted. Just now there was very little to do. If they were lucky, things would continue that way.
"Impulse engines," McCoy said.
"What does that mean?"
"Well, son, I expect it means the chase is on."
"I'm going up there."
"To the bridge? No, you're not. You'd just be in the way. Best stay here, David."
"Dammit- there must be something I can do."
"There isn't," McCoy said. "Nor anything I can do. All we can do is wait for them to start shooting at each other, and wish we could keep them from doing it. That's the trouble with this job."
The Enterprise lurched; its artificial gravity flexed, trembled, and finally steadied. McCoy closed his eyes a moment, till he regained his balance.
Dawn gave an inarticulate cry and sat up abruptly, her eyes wild.
"Take it easy," McCoy said.
"Buffy?" she said. "She's letting her new abilities control her. She's not used to it."
"Dawn," said McCoy. "You've been through a hell of a lot. Your body is still working its repairs, you haven't any strength, and you haven't any equilibrium."
"But-"
"The best thing you can do for Buffy right now is rest, or you can be sedated. Which will it be?"
Dawn tried again to get up. She nearly passed out. McCoy caught her and eased her back on the bed.
"Now will you stay put?"
Dawn nodded slightly.
The ship shuddered again. Coming out of the instrument room where she had been helping Chris Chapel, Carol Marcus staggered, then recovered her balance.
"Dr. McCoy, I can't just sit here. I keep thinking about- Please, give me something to do."
"Like I was tellin' David," McCoy said grimly, "there isn't much to do..." He realized how desperate she was to stay occupied. "But you can help me get the surgery ready. I'm expecting customers."
Marcus paled, but she did not back off. She glanced around sick bay. "Where is David?" she said.
"I don't know- he was here a minute ago."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Ion concentration increasing," Mr. Spock said. "Approximately two minutes to sensory overload and shield shutdown."
The ship plowed on. Encountering great quantities of ionized dust and gases, the shields began to re-radiate energy in the visual spectrum. The viewscreen picked it up, sparkling and shimmering. The crisp rustle of static rose over the low hum of conversation and information on the bridge. A tang of ozone filled the air.
Reliant fired again. The Enterprise shuddered. If the shields were not quite steady, at least they held.
"Reliant is closing fast," Saavik said.
Directly ahead, the nebula's core raged.
"They just don't want us going in there," Kirk said, nodding toward the viewscreen.
"One minute," Spock said.
The turbo-lift doors slipped open and David Marcus came onto the bridge.
"Admiral, Reliant is decelerating."
"Uhura, patch me in."
"Aye, sir."
"Khan, this is James Kirk. We tried it your way, Khan. Are you game for a rematch?" Kirk began to laugh. "Superior intellect!" he said with contempt. "You're a fool, Khan. A brutal, murderous, ridiculous fool."
Spock watched the tactical display. Reliant stopped decelerating and plunged forward at full impulse power. "Khan does have at least one admirable quality," the Vulcan said.
"Oh?" said Kirk. "And what's that?"
"He is extremely consistent." Spock glanced at the ionization readings. The ship had technically been within the nebula for some time. Now it approached a thick band of dust where pressure waves from the original exploding star met and interfered. The energy flux and mass concentration must disrupt the Enterprise's operation.
"They're following us," said Mr. Sulu.
"Sensory overload... mark." Almost immediately, the image on the viewscreen broke up and shattered.
Sulu piloted the ship blind through the cloud of gas and dust and energy.
The Enterprise broke through the worst of the dust; visuals and tacticals returned, but the shields were out completely. Sulu changed course, creeping through the nebula's diffuse mass just outside the irregular boundary which would both hide the Enterprise, and blind it.
The Enterprise hovered outside the cloud, and waited.
"Here it comes," Saavik said.
Reliant plowed slowly through the dust. It would be blind for another few moments.
"Phaser lock just blew, Admiral," Chekov said.
"Do your best, Mr. Chekov. Fire when ready." Chekov believed he could hit the opposing ship, even at this range. Precisely, carefully, he aimed. A moment's pause:
Fire-
The magnetic bearings of a stabilizing gyro exploded, and the Enterprise lurched. The phasers beam went wide.
Sulu muttered a curse and plunged the Enterprise back into the nebula as Reliant spotted them and fired. The photon torpedo just missed, but it expended its energy in the cloud, and a mass of charged particles and radiation slammed into them. He struggled to steady the ship.
"Hold your course," Kirk said. "Look sharp..."
"At what?" Lieutenant Saavik murmured. She drew more power to the sensors, tightened the angle, and ran the input through enhancement.
For an instant, the viewscreen cleared. Sulu started involuntarily-Reliant loomed on the screen: collision course!
"Evasive starboard!" Kirk yelled.
Too late.
Reliant's phaser blast hit the unshielded Enterprise dead-on. The power-surge baffles on the primary helm console failed completely. It carried a jolt of electricity straight through the controls. Half the instruments blew out. Sulu felt the voltage arc across his hands. It flung him back, arching his spine and shaking him like a great ferocious animal, and slammed him to the deck.
Every muscle in Sulu's body cramped into knots. He lurched over onto his face and tried to rise. He could not breathe. The pain from his seared hands shot through him, cold and hot and overwhelming.
He lost consciousness.
When Mr. Sulu fell, Buffy leaped to the helm, seeking out which operations still functioned and which had crashed.
"Phaser bank one!" Kirk said. "Fire!"
Chekov's hands were an extension of the controls, his body was part of the ship itself. He fired.
After taking the Enterprise's phaser burst, Reliant shot away dead straight, without a maneuver. David Marcus thought the Enterprise had won. Yet there was no elation from the bridge crew, only concentration on the scattery viewscreen, murmured interchanges of essential information, and tension over all, like a sound pitched just above the range of hearing.
Kirk spoke into the intercom. "Get a medic up here! Stat!"
David pulled himself out of his observer's detachment and hurried to the side of the injured helm officer.
Sulu was not breathing. His hands were badly burned, and his skin was clammy. David felt his throat for a pulse and got absolutely nothing.
David Marcus was not a medical doctor. He knew some first aid, which he had never had to use. He took a deep breath. The air was heavy with the smell of burned plastic and vaporized metal.
He tilted Sulu's head back, opened his mouth, breathed four breaths into him, pressed the heels of his hands over the helm officer's sternum, and compressed his chest rapidly fifteen times in a row. A breath, fifteen compressions. Sulu did not react, but David kept going. A breath, fifteen compressions.
"What's the damage, Scotty?" he heard Kirk say.
For David, everything was peripheral except the life in his hands. The first rule of manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation was and always had been: Don't stop. No matter what, don't stop.
A breath, fifteen compressions.
"Admiral," the engineer said, "I canna put the mains back on-line! The energizer's burst; if I try to gi' it to ye, 'twill go critical!"
"Scotty, we've got to have main power! Get in there and fix it!"
A breath, fifteen compressions. David's shoulders and arms were beginning to ache.
"It isna possible, sir!" Mr. Scott cried. "The radiation level is far too high; i' ha' already burned out the electronics o' the repair robot, and if ye went in in a suit 'twould freeze for the same reason! The only people that could survive in there are Buffy and Dawn!"
"Currently neither are available," said Kirk, "Sulu was injured, Buffy has the helm and Dawn is in sickbay, recovering from her ordeal with Khan."
A breath, fifteen compressions. The ache in David's shoulders crept slowly into pain. Sweat rolled down his forehead and stung in his eyes. He could not stop to wipe it away.
"How long, Scotty?"
"I canna say, sir. Decontamination is begun, but 'twill be a while-"
A breath, fifteen compressions. David was breathing heavily himself now. He had not realized what lousy condition he was in. He had worked long hours on Spacelab, but it was essentially a sedentary job; the only exercise he had ever got was playing zero-gee handball with Zinaida, whom he had sometimes accused of using him as a moving wall to bounce the ball off of.
Come on, Sulu, he thought, give me a little help, man, please.
A breath, fifteen compressions.
The turbolift doors slid open, and a medical team hurried onto the bridge.
"Hurry- up- you- guys-" David said.
A medic vaulted down the stairs and knelt beside him.
"Any reaction?"
David shook his head. His sweat-damp hair plastered itself against his forehead.
"Keep going," the medic said. She drew a pressure-injector out of her bag, dialed it, and fitted a long, heavy needle to it. "I'm going to try epinephrine straight to the heart. When I tell you, get out of my way but keep breathing for him. Okay?"
David could hardly see because of the sweat sparkling in his eyes. He nodded. The medic ripped Sulu's shirt open, baring his chest. The fabric parted beneath David's hands.
"Okay. Now!"
He moved quickly, sliding aside but continuing to breathe for the helm officer. What was the count for artificial respiration? Fifteen per minute? He held Sulu's head just beneath his jaw but still could feel no pulse.
The medic plunged the needle down.
The reaction was almost instantaneous. Sulu shuddered, and his clammy skin flushed. David felt a pulse, thready and fast. Sulu gasped. David did not know what to do, whether to stop or keep going.
The medic took his shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "You can stop now."
David stopped. He could barely raise his head. He was dripping with sweat and panting. But Sulu was breathing on his own.
"Good work," the medic said.
"How is he?" Kirk said without taking his gaze off the viewscreen.
"Can't tell yet," the medic said. "He's alive, thanks to his friend here."
She flung out a stretcher. It rippled, straightened, solidified. David staggered to his feet and tried to help her get Sulu onto it. He was not a great deal of use in lifting, because his arms were so tired, they had gone numb. But once Sulu was on the stretcher, David at least could guide it. While the medic started working on Sulu's burns, David pushed the stretcher to the turbolift and down to sick bay.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn felt and heard the battle begin; she watched the flow of casualties start and increase. She considered herself responsible for everything that had happened. She tried to sit up, but McCoy had strapped her down- it was a safety precaution, not restraint, and as the ship rocked and shuddered around her, she freed her arms and fumbled for the fastenings. Sick bay spun around her; she had to close her eyes again to get her balance.
For a moment, she lay back. She wasn't going to be able to help Buffy, not on the bridge. ~ Buffy? ~
~ Dawn? ~
~ You need to control what your feeling. I can feel the anger that you are feeling. Don't let the emotions control you. ~
~ I have to, Dawn. Not for revenge, not anymore anyways. Hearing your voice, even if it's in my head, has helped. But I can't relinquish my position at the moment as Hikaru was injured, he should be on his way down there. ~
~ Good luck, then. ~
~ Thanks, Dawn. I love you; I will always love you. ~
A tear escaped Dawn's eye as she remembered the first time Buffy had said those words to her. ~ Ditto. ~
Just then they brought Sulu in. Dr. Chapel read his life signs grimly, looked at his hands, and cursed under her breath.
"Christine," said Dawn as Dr. Chapel looked at her. "Let me help? I may not be able to stand without getting dizzy and falling over. But I am still a doctor."
Dr. Chapel looked at Dawn for a long moment and then motioned for a nurse to get a hover chair for Dawn. "Let's get Dr. Summers a way to help us here," she said.
Seconds later Dawn sat in the hover chair and moved it beside Dr. Chapel and Sulu. "What's his condition?" she asked.
"Electrical burns and he's alive barely," answered Dr. Chapel.