Author's Note:
Sorry about the delay! I wasn't crazy about my final chapters, so I rewrote them. Then I second-guessed myself, and rewrote them again. I'm still second-guessing and could still be rewriting, but screw it! Here's a chapter anyway. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy.
I still don't own Star Trek, although that would've been a fabulous Christmas present!
Katie could hear Governor Rawles' booming voice on the far side of the abandoned colony. The man could shout it out with the best of them—a useful trait, she mused, for dealing with red-tape-wielding bureaucrats. It was helpful now, too. Rawles was calling out, trying to find two small children who'd bolted when the Enterprise evacuation teams showed up. While Charleston searched the northern edge of the colony, Katie searched to the west. A few older kids, including Patik, insisted on staying behind with the adults to help and, to Katie's dismay, missed the last shuttle off-planet. All together, two adults and six children were left stranded on Kamali, waiting for hell to break loose in the skies above them.
Katie walked with an old phaser in her too-tight grip. Rawles had a weapon, too, as shoddy and unreliable as hers. "Useless," she muttered aloud to the phaser. "If Klingons show up, maybe we can use these to shoot ourselves."
"What you said?" Patik looked at her expectantly.
She shook her head. "Just talking to inanimate objects, Patik. No worries."
The boy looked lost. Katie smiled and gestured to her right. "Let's check over there where the trees get thicker."
Suddenly they heard shouts of excitement coming from Rawles' direction. They turned to see Charleston hauling his substantial girth up a rock face as one of the older kids led two little ones down.
Katie smiled. Maybe they were all in grave danger, but at least they'd be in grave danger together.
"Captain!" It was Sulu's voice. "The warbird has appeared in orbit over the Kamali colony, Sir!"
"Chase it down, Sulu!"
After playing dead in space, the Enterprise took agonizing seconds to reawaken. Finally, the ship came alive and sped toward the warbird, catching up just as the Klingons fired on the colony.
Spock called out from the science station. "Captain, they've activated transporters."
Christ.
"Fire! Disable that ship, Lieutenant!"
The words had barely left Jim's mouth before the back of the warbird erupted in flames…
"Direct hit to the engines," Spock reported.
… but Jim knew the battle had already moved to the planet's surface. Moments later, the Klingon ship, along with whatever crew remained onboard, exploded in a burst of angry light.
"Spock, any idea of how many Klingons beamed down to Kamali?"
"Given the amount of time their transporters were active, I would estimate no more than eight, Captain."
Jim nodded. "Sulu, establish orbit. Spock, get a combat-ready security team together. Carol work with Scotty to find a place to put a landing party where we won't materialize in the middle of disruptor fire." He paused, then asked in a raspy voice, "Damage to the colony?"
In answer, the bridge screen switched to a view of the planet surface. Kamali's colony—its rundown buildings, overgrown courtyard, its magnificent skyscape of beams of ropes… were blackened and smoking. For a moment, no one said a word.
"Keptin," Chekov broke the stunned silence. "Ven ve coordinated with the colonists, ve suggested anyvun who did not ewacuate take shelter in ze rocks north of town. Ze remaining colonists may be zare, Sir."
Jim gave Chekov a hopeful half smile, "Good work, Mr. Chekov. Can you scan those rocks for signs of life, Commander?"
Spock shook his head in what looked suspiciously like human frustration. "I cannot. The pulse is generating too much interference."
Jim sighed. "Well, hopefully the Klingons are having the same problem."
It had taken awhile, but Katie and Charleston Rawles had six Plutusian kids hunkered down inside a circle of large boulders to the north of the colony. A narrow cut in the rock allowed a lookout to peek toward the town surreptitiously. For now, they were safe.
Katie plastered on her best devil-may-care smile. "Hey, I know a game."
The children looked up at her.
"It's called, 'Have You Ever…?' Wanna play?"
The children nodded and twittered.
"We still have to whisper. No louder than my voice right now, deal?"
"Deal!" All six were full-on smiling.
"All right. If you've ever done what the person in the middle asks about, then stand up. The last person to stand becomes the new person in the middle. I'll start. Ready?"
The children nodded eagerly.
"Have you ever… talked back to an adult?"
Katie, Charleston, and the children laughed quietly and stood, one by one, except for the littlest boy who watched his friends with eyes wide. Katie gave him a teasing look. "You've never sassed a grownup, Chaco?"
Patik spoke up on Chaco's behalf. "He perfect, like me!"
The group laughed quietly and another boy took the center.
"Have you ever… bit your brother?"
A few other children giggled and stood, and the game continued until Patik found himself in the middle.
"Have you ever…" he paused and looked at Katie, "… kissed a Captain of the Starfleet?"
Katie coughed while Charleston Rawles lit up with glee. "Great question, Patik! I've been wondering the same thing!"
Katie recovered her voice quickly, although she her furious blush betrayed her. She swallowed and, without rising, quietly answered, "Nope. But I kinda wish I had."
Just then, what could only be described as Kamali's own apocalypse began. The screech of weapons fire sent the small group to the ground, children and adults covering their ears and each other. Explosions tore through the colony and shook the earth below them. Black smoke flew up in great plumes to the south.
Katie hugged two children tightly beneath her, shielding them as best she could from embers, fumes, and flying debris. They were shaking violently... or is it me who's shaking?
Then, just as suddenly as it started, the tirade stopped. Katie raised her head slowly to take stock of the people around her. They were huddled together in terror. The children were sobbing... but they were alive.
Could it be over?
Within minutes, the group heard the unmistakable sound of a transporter beam. Katie jumped up to peer through the small opening, daring to hope for rescue, but as the shimmer of light became solid, she backed away and brought up a hand to cover her open mouth.
Katie and Charleston motioned for the children to sit low and tight against the perimeter of rock. The adults grabbed their phasers and whispered together.
"Are they coming this way?" Charleston asked.
Katie shook her head. "They're combing through the rubble. Five or six of them that I can see. There may be more."
"If they turn toward us, you take the kids and head north. You can scramble through there…" he pointed toward a low passageway between boulders. "I'll follow."
"Patik can lead the kids," Katie argued. "You and I will fend them off here."
Charleston grumbled. "We're not leaving a 13-year-old in charge of our refugees when Klingon soldiers are hunting for them. Think, Dr. Tallis!"
Through the thin gap, Charleston and Katie watched a Klingon examine the ground and then look up in their direction.
"I'm not leaving you here, Charles," Katie whispered.
"Those kids are your responsibility, Katie," Charleston said. "And you're mine."
Katie looked back at the kids. The little ones were shivering, clustered together, terrified. Patik wore a brave face, but his expression flickered with fear.
"Besides," the governor added with a sad smile, "I've seen you handle a phaser before. I'll be safer if you go."
Katie's eyes filled. She looked down at the phaser in her fist and back up at Charleston Rawles. Then she handed the worn-out weapon to the governor. "One of the two should work," she said quietly. She gave Charleston a fierce hug, then gathered the children at the back of their circle of rocks.
The Enterprise landing party materialized to the screaming sounds of disruptor and phaser fire.
"Mr. Giotto, you and your men take the high ground over there. Make sure you split up and come at it from both sides." As his crew took off for the hill, Jim started moving straight for the source of the sounds—a circle of boulders about a hundred yards ahead—with Spock at his side.
As the two closed in the sounds of weapons died away, leaving only Klingon voices.
Jim's breath hitched and he doubled his pace.
A helmeted head lifted above the crown of the rocks. Jim took aim and fired; the Klingon went down. Of course, the Klingon's fall served to enrage his shipmates, not to mention give away Jim and Spock's position. As disruptor fire turned toward them, Captain and First Officer ducked behind a pile of stones.
"I believe there are seven, Captain," Spock said evenly. "If we wait for security to get into position, we will have the Klingons outgunned and outnumbered."
But Jim was just as enraged as any of the Klingons. "There are colonists out there, Spock."
"If they are within that rock circle, Jim, it is unlikely they have survived."
Jim's nostrils flared. "Cover me."
"Captain, we…"
Jim surged forward, firing as he ran, diving from boulder to boulder. He stopped behind a tall formation that looked like granite, just long enough to assess the moving Klingons' positions. Suddenly disruptor fire tore away the top of the formation and shards of rock flew toward his face. In the moment it took to throw up an arm to shield his eyes, he was a clean target.
Luckily, Spock was faster and sharper than the Klingon taking aim and shot the disruptor out of the alien's hands. A second shot knocked the Klingon out cold. Spock ran up alongside his captain. "Are you hurt?"
Jim dabbed at a cut above his eye and shook his head. "You do that very well, you know," he said flatly.
"I agree," replied the Vulcan matter-of-factly.
The two looked out toward the circle of rocks. The remaining enemy was nowhere to be seen, no doubt lurking somewhere in the rocky terrain.
Still looking for signs of Klingons, Spock said, "You think too little of your own well-being. You have much to lose and little to gain by attacking now."
Like Spock, Jim kept his eyes on the field of battle. "I have to get there, Spock. I can't explain it."
Spock turned to his commanding officer, then back to the eerily silent field. With a voice holding more compassion than Vulcans supposedly possessed, he said, "You do not have to explain it, Jim."
Jim's eyes flicked toward his friend, then back to where the Klingons were surely waiting. Moments later, the two spied a trio of Klingons stealing steadily upward, darting from rock to rock, in an effort to claim the high ground first.
"Go!" Jim ran toward them with Spock at his heels. Two of the Klingons were down before they even knew they were in trouble. With steady bursts of fire, Spock pinned the third behind a sharp spire.
As Jim and Spock found new cover, their security team appeared above and behind the third Klingon. With an expansive view of the terrain below, Giotto and his men quickly finished what their commanding officers had started. Two crewmen jumped down to cuff the pinned Klingon, while the rest of the security team dealt with stragglers, easily stunning enemy soldiers who found themselves facing the wrong way in a fight. In the end, seven Klingons—most of whom were unconscious—were beamed up to the Enterprise brig.
Jim ran to the circle of rocks as fast as his feet would carry him.