CHAPTER SIX
The YT-1300 stood on the tarmac in the dark shadows of the Locmor trees. Worf studied the large ship with interest. Its design was unusual and not too flattering. The round flat shape of the hull did not speak of speed or maneuverability. Worf walked up to the lowered landing ramp of the Millennium Falcon and set his bag on the ground. He walked under the ship and looked at the armament that hung from the dull white belly of the vessel. He could tell, after walking around the engines that not much on this ship was stock. Modifications were obvious everywhere he looked. Maybe it was faster than it looked.
A footstep and a soft grunt behind him made him turn in time to see Chewbacca striding down the ramp with a box of tools in his hand. He touched the universal translator in his outer ear and hoped they had gotten enough of the Wookies language to establish a translation matrix that would allow him to understand the Wookie.
"You may take your bag up, we will be leaving momentarily." Chewbacca said pointing up the ramp of the Falcon.
"Thank you." Worf replied as he picked up the bag.
"Your translation device works? You understand me?" Chewie asked.
"Yes. It seems to be working fine." Worf replied.
"Good. That will make our mission much easier." He said setting the tool box on the ground.
"You have made many modifications to this vessel." Worf said as he surveyed the many patches and welds that dotted the hull and the weapons that hung beneath.
"Over the years Han and I have made many changes." Chewie began. "Starting with of all things a non-spec Imperial power plant and hyperdrive system. Over here" He pointed to the Keel. "Are upper and lower quad laser cannons. An underside sweep gun, forward laser gun pods and a pair of concussion missile tubes. And it also has a much higher than normal lift to mass ratio. Sensors, shield generators, and communications have all been upgraded. Even the life support has been modified. There's back up systems all over this ship. It was standard practice after every run to go back over the logs and identify any weak points and eliminate them." Chewie said with obvious pride, then added; "We will need every advantage we have if we expect to get past the Imperial blockades."
Worf stared at the missile tubes and said; " It is nothing two warriors cannot accomplish." And turned and walked up the ramp with Chewie staring after.
In the co-pilots seat, normally occupied by Chewie, Worf studied the control panels while Chewie pointed out the various functions each performed. The controls of the Falcon were simple and straight forward and it did not take Worf long to get comfortable in the co-pilots seat. Chewie fired the fore and aft thrusters and the Falcon lifted of the tarmac and ascended thru the thick cover until it cleared some two hundred feet above the surface of the small moon. The twin engines fired and the falcon shot forward leaving the pale blue sky and the waving grass behind for the vast darkness of the Yaesue system. On the port bow sat the Enterprise in orbit. Worf took a last look before Chewie fired the hyperdrive and wondered if he would make it back. He was not scared to die, but if he did he wanted his brother to know he entered Sto-vo-kor with honor. And who would perform the Klingon death ritual? Who would howl the warning to the dead that a Klingon warrior was on his way?
"You are from a race of warriors?" Chewie asked after they had made the jump to lightspeed.
"Yes. In my culture a boy is considered a man when he can first hold a blade." I was born on the Klingon home world and was taken when I was young to the outpost on Khitomer. We were attacked by Romulans and in the ensuing battle my parents were killed. I was taken in by a Starfleet officer and raised as his own son. There is more glory and honor for a Klingon warrior to die in battle than to grow old and live his last days sitting before the fire weak and unable to wield the bat' lath blade."
"I too come from a race of warriors. I was born on Kashyyyk, raised with not much outside intervention. I was restless. I left home to explore the stars. And I did just that until Wookies were declared a slave commodity. I was captured and spent thirty years hard labor in the Empires prison camps. That was where I met Han. He was an Imperial navy trainee. at the time. He saved my life. I owed him a life debt. "You are an outlaw?" Worf asked. "I am an outlaw not because I escaped from the Empires prison camps, but because of what I am. Thirty years they took from me! Now they have taken my friend. Yes, I am a warrior and my blood screams for those who have acted cruelly and unjustly!" Chewie slammed a big fist on the console.
"At Khitomer they said my father helped the Romulans, by giving them secret defense codes. They said he was a traitor. My family was dishonored. I accepted a discommendation to keep the truth from tearing apart the High Council. It would result in civil war if the truth were known."
"So your father is not guilty of the treason?"
"No. It was the father of Duras, who sits on the council."
"I see, so to protect the council they must protect the traitor."
"Yes. Some day my brother and I will restore our family honor to its rightful place."
"We share many things, you and I. Lets hope someday the two of us will be able to return to our home worlds with our honor and live in peace among our brothers." Chewie said
The first obstacle appeared in the form of an Imperial blockade patrol ship. The trade corridor between Coruscant and the Almakar system was heavily patrolled by the Imperial guard. The Falcon was hailed as they came out of lightspeed.
"Vessel! What is your destination and the nature of your cargo?" The voice demanded.
Chewie muted the com.
"You must answer their hails, I am an outlaw known to them and cannot. Tell them we are on are way to Coruscant "
"Our destination is Coruscant." Worf replied.
"And your cargo?" The voice responded shrilly.
Worf keyed the com. "We are empty. We will be picking up mining supplies."
"What is their destination?" The voice asked impatiently.
"Tell them they are for the Sarra mining colony in the Numidia system." Chewie whispered.
"They are bound for the Sarra mining colony in the Numidia system."
"Stand by." The voice commanded.
"What are they doing?" Worf asked.
"Scanning us."
"Is this ship known to them?"
"Han and I change the ID numbers frequently and this model is not uncommon in the shipping lanes."
"Vessel, you are free to go." The voice from the com said suddenly.
Wasting no time, Chewie eased the Falcon forward and left the patrol ship behind.
The Corridor was busy. Worf looked at the endless streams of strange vessels going by, and felt a bit lonely, he wouldn't even mind it if they came across a Romulan right about now. Worf shook his head and grunted, he had been around humans too long. Worf had listened for almost an hour to Chewie as he spoke a dozen different languages to the passing merchants. Worf turned his mind to the task at hand. The crystal must be retrieved, failure was not an alternative his mind would entertain. The crystal lie beneath a frozen wasteland, and from the information Worf had read, was in a cave of visions. He wondered if it worked only for those trained the way Luke had been trained. Thinking back to his vision of Kahless he remembered the prophecy; that he would do what no other Klingon would do. Was this it? In the back of his mind he wondered if he would see Kahless again.
"We are leaving the trade corridor now." Chewie said interrupting Worf's thoughts.
"We will be arriving at Iium in two hours." He added.
The consol beeped and Chewie studied the display in front of him.
"We may be being followed." Chewie reported as he made a course adjustment.
Chewie ran a series of scans and suddenly let out a deafening howl!
"Its a firespray class cargo ship! Only one man I know uses that for his own personal use! Boba Fett!"
"Who?" Worf asked, bewildered.
"He's a bounty hunter. He is the one took Han to the Hutts, frozen in Carbonite. He knows there is a price on my head also, he must have recognized the ship! He is following at a distance, he doesn't know we have spotted him. We must stay on course. We can't let him know he's been discovered."
Chewie put the Falcon on auto pilot and motioned Worf to follow him. Leaving the cockpit they passed the entry to the cargo hold and stopped in front of the quad laser cannons.
"I will show you how these operate. They are simple in there design." Chewie said pointing to the operators seat. "These cannons are controlled from the command chair here. The chair is free moving, it follows the barrels of the cannons as you swing them around. there are four cannons, when you engage the trigger, two at a time fire."
Worf climbed into the seat and buckled in. He grasped the controls and swung the pod around to the right and then back to the left, getting the feel of the weapon.
"I want you to stay here. I don't think Boba Fett is going to stay in the shadows to much longer." Chewie said
"We should not fire unless fired upon." Worf said sternly. "We cannot jeopardize the mission."
"I understand that, but Boba Fett does not care about you or the crystal you need. All he cares about is the money to be made if I am captured, and you can bet the Empire would find you a little interesting." Chewie replied.
Chewie returned to the cockpit of the Falcon. His voice came over the com;
"The Altec asteroid fields are our best chance to lose him. I will need you to cover us as we navigate the field. He will probably try and disable the ship, if he doesn't succeed he will try and destroy us, hoping their will be enough left to take back and claim the reward."
Chewie turned the Falcon towards the asteroid field in the distance. As the moon sized asteroids loomed closer, Chewie gunned the impulse engines and disappeared behind a rough, black, outcropping of rock that jutted out from the nearest asteroid. Boba Fett's Slave one followed closely, but had yet to open fire. The Falcon easily threaded its way through the asteroid field at impulse. Boba Fett kept his distance but stayed close enough to keep his pray in sight. Suddenly the ships warning system blared and Chewie engaged the shields.
"He has locked his forward missile tubes on our drive system! I will take evasive maneuvers, when you have a shot, fire!" Chewie yelled over the com.
The Falcon shuddered and rocked as the aft thrusters roared to life. Chewie flew directly into the path of an oncoming asteroid and banked hard as the rock came within meters of smashing the hull. Flames shot from the thrusters as the two ships bobbed and weaved among the black shadows of the asteroids. Worf swung the pod into position and fired the cannons, spraying rock into the path of the fast approaching ship. Boba Fett darted through and fired his missiles at the fleeing vessel ahead!
"Their locked on! You have to shoot them down!" Chewie's voice roared over the com.
Worf swung the guns into position. He had target practiced with a Phaser on the hollow deck many times. No one had ever beat him. He brought the guns to bare and waited as they came around the graying hulk of a derelict freighter that had some how drifted into the field, or had been sent here for disposal. The missiles gained as the ship rocked, he could see the flare of their jets as he lined up the scope on the first one. He fired the guns, once, twice, the faintly red bolts darted into the darkness, two, four, six. He fired again as the first missile exploded, leaving the second one only thirty meters behind the pounding engines of the Millennium falcon. The cannons bucked under his hands over and over streaking the blackness with its rain of fire. As the final missile approached he fired once more and instantly the pod was showered with flame and sparks from the destroyed rocket.
Chewie throttled the engines and the falcon swept passed a tower of rock, narrowly missing the jagged edge of the fast moving asteroid. Boba Fett's Slave One remained close behind. Worf held his fire waiting for a good shot. Suddenly the pursuing ship opened fire, bolts whizzed by the Falcon at dizzying speeds. Worf took aim at a small rock about 20 meters across and fired. the rock split and caught Boba Fett's ship on the starboard engine sending him into the path of two asteroids on a collision course. Worf watched the smaller vessel as it throttled its way out of the giant rocks as they slammed together, and limped it's way out of the asteroid field. The fire in the engine on Fett's ship extinguished itself and the ship slowly got under way as the falcon exited on the far side of the Altec asteroid belt.
Two hours later the Falcon touched down on the frozen, wind swept surface of Iium. The snow and ice took but a few seconds to cover the windows and completely obscure the view of the planet from inside the ship. Worf's tricorder scanned the surface as he stood at the bottom of the Falcon's landing ramp.
"The entrance to the cave is just over that rise about a half kilometer." He yelled over the howling of the now strengthening wind. Worf walked to the top of the ramp and closed it behind him as he shook off the ice sickles that hung from his beard. Chewie handed him a white parka and a small pack that bulged at the seems. Worf checked his Phaser and nodded at Chewie who had just strapped on his blaster. The landing ramp dropped and the two warriors descended into the raging storm. Ice gathered quickly in the hair and the wind drove the cold thru the parkas worn by the both of them. The ice under foot proved treacherous causing both of them to slip despite the spikes in the soles of the boots they wore. Neither spoke. The screaming of the wind was constant as they climbed the rise and topped out over a horizonless valley that stretched out before them in blaring white sheets of misery. Worf removed a glove and pulled the tricorder from inside the ice covered parka. "Over there!" He pointed and vainly screamed into the deafening roar. Trudging on for another twenty meters they stopped at a gaping black hole that contrasted violently with the white world in which they were about to leave behind.
In the darkness of the cavern the silence was almost deafening after the roar of the surface. The lights they removed from their packs showed walls worn smooth by the passage of time. The ground was slightly rippled and the air somewhat stale. Worf closely inspected the emerald green walls and suspected that people had been coming here since long before those that were referred to as ancient were in existence. Walking further into the cavern their lights carved a tunnel of reality through the darkness. An uneasy feeling began to creep up on them as they made their way deeper into the cave.
"How much farther?" Chewie's question echoed into the blackness.
"Its hard to tell, I am getting conflicting readings. There must be something in these walls that is interfering with the scan." Worf replied.
The lights crept ahead only a few meters leaving them with an almost claustrophobic bubble of light that closed in around them in the ever narrowing corridor. Farther and farther they made their way into the cavern, the echoes of long dead voices now keeping them company. Worf shook his head at the voices who he could hear but not understand, he said nothing. Chewie looked over his shoulder at the wall of darkness that followed them. Nothing. Still the voices remained. Suddenly the tunnel opened into an enormous room! The emerald walls held an eerie iridescent glow that filled the room with a soft light. On the far end of the room two more tunnels opened up, dark circles of unreality from which the voices emanated.
"I am getting readings from the direction of the tunnel mouths, but I cannot tell if the reading is coming from one or both of them." Worf said.
"We may have to split up." Chewie replied.
"Yes, it would save time."
Worf reached into his pack and placed a communicator in Chewie's out stretched hand.
"Just in case."
Worf's light filled the tunnel mouth as he entered the corridor that slopped slightly and turned downward to the left and disappeared. The readings strengthened as he walked slowly through the winding channel. The echoing voices came and went, but the languages were still incomprehensible. Suddenly the tricorder hummed shrilly! A life form! Borg! That cannot be, Worf thought. There had been no sign of the Borg on the surface. How could they know they were coming here? How could they be here waiting for them? The thought angered Worf. He pulled the Phaser from its holster and moved forward. Only a few meters ahead. Worf crouched low with the Phaser held low. Suddenly a voice came from the darkness! A Klingon voice he had heard only once before. Kahless! Worf's heart hammered inside him. "Kahless?" Worf whispered in the darkness. "Worf! Son of Mohg!" The voice seemed to came from everywhere.
Worf crept forward. The passage made an abrupt turn and Worf came face to face with a Borg drone! Worf lifted the Phaser and as his fingers tightened on the trigger a voice boomed from the drone that froze Worf in his tracks.
"Worf! Son of Mohg! Will you murder your visionary?" Kahless asked.
Worf hesitated. This was deception!
"You are not Kahless!" Worf yelled.
"I am indeed Kahless!" The voice shook the room. Then softer; "Worf, search your heart. You know it to be true. You are the one who would do what no other Klingon would. That prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. You must be careful Worf, They are waiting for you."
"Who?" Worf asked.
"The soulless ones."
Captain Picard paced the bridge of the Enterprise like a caged lion. He had asked the question of Data a dozen times and a dozen times the answer was the same; No communication from the Falcon. Reports had been coming in from all over the sector of Borg activity. Imperial and Rebel casualties were climbing. It was only a matter of time now.
"These people don't know what they are dealing with, Number One." Picard said as took the command chair for the first time in over an hour.
Riker nodded his agreement.
"Captain. The patrol ships on the outer rim are reporting the approach of an unknown vessel." Data watched the screen behind tactical a moment more.
"It is the Borg sir. They have just entered the Yaesue system." Data reported.
Picard stood and walked to the view screen.
"Where are you Worf? We are running out of time." he whispered
.