Chapter 1
The buzz and murmur of the recreation room seemed to ebb and flow like a gentle tide lapping at a beach. Occasionally a brighter ripple of laughter would bubble up from one of the many groups of crew members sitting or standing about the room. The captain of the ship let the sounds of happiness fill him with a sense of contentment and relaxation. It seemed like there was nothing in all the known galaxies that could bother him today.
The Enterprise's recreation facilities were the envy of Starfleet. Lieutenant Harb Tanzer had made sure the ship's officers and crew wanted for nothing in the way of recreation since his rotation onto the famous starship. Scattered around the room in a calculatedly casual way were a variety of tables and seating arrangements. Entertainment equipment included a variety of electronic games, holographic games and simulators, as well as more old-fashioned board games and card games. Tanzer made sure every card game known to the Federation—not to mention some of the bigger alien empires like the Klingons and the Romulans—was available to any of the crew who wanted them. Food and beverage synthesizers were located in several key positions in the walls of the room. As always, the room's most popular feature was the large, transparent aluminum windows that gave an unobstructed view of space outside the Enterprise. Lieutenant Tanzer worked very hard to make sure the Enterprise crew could play as hard as they worked.
Lieutenant Tanzer also served another important—albeit less publicized—role; he was a vital component of the ship's medical staff. Tanzer was vital to the morale and healthy functioning of the crew and when morale levels began to drop, he and Doctor McCoy took steps to get it under control. At the moment Harb was engaged in the very important role of observing the captain's morale.
"Checkmate, Captain," said the Vulcan sitting across from him. His dark eyes seemed to have an extra sparkle in them at this announcement. His gracefully angled eyebrow lifted just a scant millimeter toward the oh-so-perfectly sculpted hairline.
"Is that satisfaction in your tone, Mr. Spock?" Not even the end of his winning streak could bother him today.
"Captain? Satisfaction is an emotion and, as you should be aware by this time, I do not suffer from that particular malady," the first officer replied calmly.
"No, Mr. Spock, I'm sure you would never feel so crass an emotion as that. Especially not after beating the man who is responsible for your annual fitness report," and there was the smallest hint of a chuckle in his voice as he teased his first officer.
The eyebrow increased in altitude and concealed itself behind the shelter of the precisely trimmed hairline. "Really, Captain Kirk, I completely fail to understand the relationship, either positive or negative, between our recently completed chess game and my fitness report," Spock replied.
"What's this?" a voice drawled out behind the science officer. "There's something you don't understand, Mr. Spock? Why, this is a first! I may have to mark this day down on my calendar!"
"Doctor McCoy, I was unaware you had found a container of polychromatic pigmented alkanes with which to annotate your calendar," replied Spock with perfect composure and without turning around.
"What?" McCoy looked completely puzzled by the comment.
"I believe he's talking about crayons, Doc," Tanzer filled in between snorts of laughter.
"Crayons?" McCoy spluttered with indignation. "Why you green-blooded, pointy…"
The doctor's impending rant was interrupted by the sound of the ship's klaxon blasting the good humor in the room into silence. Virtually simultaneously, the ship's intercom whistle sounded throughout the rec room. "Red Alert! Red Alert! This is not a drill! All hands to battle stations! Captain Kirk to the bridge! Captain Kirk to the bridge!"
The room burst into activity as the Enterprise's crew members ran for their battle stations. Captain Kirk made his way to the closest intercom unit and hit the activation button with the side of his fist. "Kirk here! Status Commander Uhura?"
"Sir, sensors are picking up three unidentified ships firing on what looks like a 'flying saucer'. Mr. Chekov is running sensor sweeps now to try to determine the identity of the attacking ships. Our shields are up and our weapons systems are charged and holding on standby." The young Bantu woman's voice had a controlled urgency in the tone. Nyota Uhura was a calm and capable officer and one day she would make an excellent starship captain.
"Very well, commander, I'm on the way." Turning from the wall to leave the rec room Kirk found Spock waiting on him near the door. "Well, Spock, are you ready to save the galaxy again?"
"I am unsure the 'galaxy' requires saving, Captain," replied the best science officer in Starfleet.
"The day is young, Spock. The day is young," prophesied the captain as he and the first officer left the rec room.
Turning left into the corridor, the pair raced for the closest turbolift. Alert status lights flashed red on the corridor walls while the klaxon continued to sound. As the captain and first officer approached the lift doors, the system recognized the captain's bio-readings and quickly shunted lift traffic away from this location while it delivered an empty lift car to the captain. Entering the lift car, Kirk said, "Bridge," before the lift doors had even began to close. The turbolift system gave the captain's lift car top priority as it rocketed toward the bridge seven decks up and at the center of the ship's saucer-like primary hull. The ride was smooth and gave no sign of the terrific speed at which the lift car traveled through the Enterprise. The only way to tell it was moving was to watch the movement status indicator panel located near the doors. The doors parted as the turbolift reached the bridge level; Kirk entered the bridge and moved to the command seat located at the center of the lower level of the circular control center. Spock followed the captain and moved to his science station in the upper level of the bridge behind, and to the right, of the ship's captain. As the two men moved to their stations, Uhura moved from the command chair and returned to her usual station at the communications panel.
"Status, Commander Uhura," queried the captain as he took his seat, "and kill the sound effects, please."
The red alert klaxon fell silent at the touch of a slender, dark finger as the lovely Bantu woman began her report to the captain, "Deflector shields up and all structural integrity fields enhanced to 150 percent. Phasers and photon torpedoes are on-line and ready. All crew members report at stations and ready. Engineering reports warp and impulse engines at 115 percent. Emergency power and backup power cells on-line and ready. Sickbay reports ready with no casualties and security reports all available security guards armed and at their stations," the communications officer reported crisply. "Three unknown vessels are at heading 280 mark 7. The unknown 'saucer' ship is located at heading 35 mark 3. All attempts at communications have, so far, been negative, sir."
"Thank you, lieutenant. Mr. Spock? What have you got," asked the captain as he turned from the communications officer to the science officer station.
"One moment, Captain," responded Spock, with a distracted tone as he consulted his instruments and scanners. The ultimate in multi-tasking, he was watching and reading data on two screens, absorbing information displayed in his hooded scanner, and pressing keys and buttons with both hands without looking.
While Spock studied his scanners, Kirk watched the ships on the view screen. As he watched their movements a constant stream of courses, tactics, and "what-if's" ran through his mind. The biggest of the three attacking ships was Tee-shaped with a large engine nacelle on each end of the "tee's" cross bar, and there appeared to be a command module on the end of the stem coming from the cross bar shape. Energy beams came from the unknown "tee" ship and connected it to the unknown flying saucer. Another smoky, dark spot appeared where the beams touched the saucer. Kirk could clearly see holes in the hull of the flying saucer and some of the holes were trailing clouds of something. Atmosphere? Coolant? Fuel? There just wasn't any way to tell what the clouds were just by looking at them. One thing he knew for certain was that ship wasn't going to last much longer. The unknown ship's energy beams didn't seem to be as bright as the phasers of the Enterprise. Could that mean they were weaker? Or were they merely different?
In addition to the tee-shaped ship, there was another ship adding its energy beams to the attack. Smaller than the first attacking ship, this one was wedge shaped with an engine nacelle above the ship and below the ship. It looked like the splitting wedges he used in his youth to split wood to feed into the wood-burning stove in the main living room of his mother's house. Even though that house had modern conveniences and utilities, his mother liked to burn wood during the winters. Especially at Christmas. At any rate, the beam weapons being employed by this ship were dimmer than those of the first ship. It really did look like it was less powerful than the first attacking ship, but Kirk well knew how appearances could be deceiving.
The third ship didn't seem to be taking part in the attack. Smaller than the other two ships, it looked like it would be a slow maneuvering and pondering ship. It was differently shaped than the two attacking ships and reminded him of some of the experimental Romulan ships he had seen in his last Starfleet Intelligence briefing. The front of the ship curved lower than the top of the ship and resembled the beak of a bird. At the very front of the beak was what appeared to be a large wrap-around window. The ship had two engine nacelles underneath of it and tucked close to the underside of the hull. It really looked like an eagle, or perhaps a hawk, flying off with prey clutched in his talons. When Kirk looked at this ship, he had the impression it was a cargo ship or freighter of some type. He automatically moved this ship to third place on his list of dangerous ships in this situation.
"Captain? I have reached some preliminary conclusions from the data provided by the sensors," said the Enterprise's science officer.
"Go ahead, Spock. What are we seeing here," Kirk asked his first officer.
"All three ships produce power and emission patterns typical of the Orion Cartels. The first ship is a Guardian class destroyer with Orion Type 11 and Type 4 beam weapons. Additionally, it is capable of firing Orion Type 1 torpedoes. The Guardian class is 187 meters long and has a mass of 7,500 metric tons. The second ship is a Freelancer class blockade runner. Approximately equivalent to a Federation frigate, it has Type 5 beam weapons and no torpedoes. It is 200 meters long and masses 4,600 metric tons. This class of ship has been known to utilize a cloaking device, although our sensors cannot detect such a device if it is not operational. The third ship is an Industrious class 5 freighter. It is 78 meters long with an unloaded mass of 43,570 metric tons. It is equipped with Type 4 and Type 11 beam weapons but it does not have torpedo weapons. Sensors read no cargo in the freighter and I surmise it is here to take possession of the ship they are attacking.
"Individually, these ships pose no threat to Enterprise; however, all three ships pose a significant threat to us," the science officer concluded his briefing.
"Do sensors indicate any cloaked ships in our vicinity?"
"No, captain," responded the science officer. "None of our cloak detection sensors show any other ships in our area. I do recommend caution however; if there is a cloaked ship in the area, it is operating in what you have previously referred to as 'silent running'. We may not be able to detect any such ship until such time as it moves or drops its cloak for an attack."
"What about that saucer ship? What do you know about that one," Kirk questioned.
Spock immediately answered, "I have no data regarding this ship whatsoever. It does not appear in the ship's library computer banks and is of a type never before encountered by any Federation ship. Nor does it appear in any ship recognition database belonging to any of the other known races including the Romulan and Klingon Empires. The ship also doesn't appear in any of our historical ship recognition databases. The ship appears to be a dead ship. Power production is very minimal and insufficient to provide life support for any beings inside. However, sensors do pick up very low levels of life signs, but very much below that required by any known life forms. Sensors show the inside of the strange craft has no atmosphere and is exposed to vacuum due to the Orion phaser beams. The unknown ship does not appear to have any weapons capability and only has very minimal defensive shielding. That shielding is not now in operation. Furthermore, the ship appears to be powered by an antique and obsolete nuclear reactor similar to that used by early Earth space explorers 200 years ago. Speculating from readings of several large empty areas in the saucer ship, I believe it uses a deutronium fuel supply. That fuel supply appears to be exhausted. The ship is 25.6032 meters in diameter and 9.562643 meters tall. Internal scans indicate the presence of what appears to be some type of landing legs in a stored, or in-flight, position. That landing gear system would add another 1.542347 meters to the height of the ship."
"Hmm," mused Captain Kirk. "Too big to bring inside the hangar deck; we'll have to take it in tow with the tractor beam. You say your sensors have detected life signs on the strange saucer ship?"
"Yes, sir. Very low levels and unlike any readings I have encountered before," the science officer replied.
"All right, then. Let's go see what there is to see. Commander Sulu! Take us in and set course to intercept the Guardian class destroyer. Put our shields between it and the saucer. Lieutenant Commander Chekov? Lock phasers on the Guardian and fire one photon torpedo across its bow on my command. Commander Uhura! Open a channel to the Guardian class destroyer. I want to speak to them." Kirk's orders flashed out across the bridge. The Enterprise seemed to gather herself for a moment and then leap into the combat area. Kirk knew that idea was an illusion and only happened in his imagination, but he'd always considered the Enterprise to be more than just a very complicated piece of machinery. He always felt as if the ship had a life of her own and was eager to respond to his commands and show off a bit.
As the Enterprise accelerated into the area between the Orion destroyer and the unknown saucer ship, Uhura replied to the captain's command, "Sir, they continue to ignore our hails. No response on any frequency."
"Very well, commander. Mr. Chekov. Fire that torpedo," commanded Kirk.
There was an almost imperceptible shiver as the magnatomic launch system ejected the photon torpedo and sent it on its way to the pirate ship. The torpedo left a trail of glowing light as it traveled the distance to the Orion destroyer. The glowing, winking spot of light shot past the front of the enemy ship, missing it by less than 10 meters, and disappeared into space beyond the ships.
"Captain! The destroyer is hailing us now," called out the communications officer.
"On screen, Commander Uhura," Kirk directed.
"Federation thief! Stealer of honest labor! Devourer of children! You un-named son of a Arcturian slime slug! What do you mean by firing on honest salvage merchants of the great Orion Trader Consortium? Explain yourself!" The challenge by the Orion commander blasted through the communication channels.
Kirk took a moment to observe the ranting commander on the screen before him. The veins standing out on his forehead and from the side of his throat throbbed as the alien shouted out his rage. His skin was so dark a green as to appear almost black. His hair hung off his head in long, greasy chains and clumps. Brilliant and multifaceted jewelry was draped around his neck and hung from bangles on his wrists. A vicious scar—tribute to some long ago fight—traversed a diagonal line from just above his left eye to just below the right side of his nose. The Orion commander was hugely muscled and broad of shoulder. He looked every bit as mean and ugly as the words he shouted. A dangerous man, but one quick to anger; a quick temper meant the possibility of mistakes and careless actions. Kirk took all this in—and more—in less time that it takes to blink.
"This is Captain James T. Kirk, commanding the Federation starship Enterprise. We've been hailing you and your ships since our arrival and received no response. I suspected a photon torpedo might get your attention. Now that I do have your attention, would you care to explain to me why you are firing on an unarmed ship?" Kirk's tone and body language clearly communicated his intention to put up with no further nonsense.
"What! I am Consortium Colonel General Mombrak! I do not recognize your authority in this region of space! You will cease your pitiful attempts to steal our salvage prize and depart the area at once! I will destroy you and then I will locate your bloated corpse in the wreckage of your puny excuse for a ship. When I have your stinking corpse beamed aboard my ship, I will mount your head on a pike to be displayed publicly. I will have your worthless and fetid remains thrown to my targs for them to eat! Leave! Now! Or be prepared to lose everything you hold dear!" The Orion commander's face got even darker than it was before as his rage and vitriol spewed forth.
"Colonel General Mombrak, your ships are no match for Enterprise. If you insist in behaving so foolishly and childishly, we will destroy your fleet. Interstellar salvage laws do not apply when the salvage target is inhabited. Since that spacecraft has life signs in it, that means it is not eligible for salvage. It belongs to the inhabitants." Kirk was in no mood to tolerate pirates and slavers. Nor did he feel especially inclined toward being polite to them. The best he could muster was a direct explanation of the facts. If blows were to follow the harsh words of the pirate, then Enterprise would not be the first to throw them.
Suddenly, the picture on the view screen went blank. Commander Uhura said, "Captain, they've broken off communications."
With the end of the transmission, the Guardian class destroyer accelerated quickly and began to turn toward the Enterprise. As the destroyer's forward weapons came in line with the Enterprise a pale, green beam lanced into the Enterprise's left forward deflector shield. At the same time, but from the opposite heading, the Freelancer class ship directed its fire into the Enterprise's right rear shield. However, thanks to the shielding, there was no discernible effect from the enemy beams on the Enterprise.
"Shields down 2.3875 percent captain," reported Commander Spock from the science station.
"Very well, Mister Spock. Mister Sulu, plot an evasive intercept course for the destroyer. Mister Chekov, I want you to target the blockade runner's warp engines as the rear weapons come to bear. Put one torpedo and all rear phasers on the same spot. Break through its shields and disable their warp power. At the same time you fire the rear weapons, I want all available forward weapons to target the warp engines on the destroyer. I want it disabled, also. Mister Spock, keep an eye out for that freighter and for any signs of a cloaked vessel in the area. Mr. Chekov? Have you got your firing solution? Very well; give me tactical on the view screen." Kirk's orders rang out in a crisp, firm, confident voice. He did not intend for this to go on for one minute longer than necessary. The real-time image of Orion ships changed to the information-rich tactical display. Each ship, including the Enterprise, was represented by an icon. Critical information concerning each ship's power, heading, shielding, and damage was listed next to each ship icon. A confusing display to the untrained, it provided Kirk with valuable information as he plotted maneuvers and tactics in his mind.
The Enterprise shivered again as the Orion weapons impacted the shields. This time, however, the weapons fire came from all three enemy vessels. Every beam, every missile, and every other offensive weapon in the Orion's inventory hit the Enterprise. To little effect, though; the powerful and graceful starship's shields flared and flashed under the violence of the enemy attack, but they held. In reply the Enterprise's photon torpedo launcher spat one sparkling point of light toward the Orion destroyer. A mere instant before the torpedo made contact with the Orion ship, two pale blue beams erupted from the bow of the Enterprise and connected to the Orion destroyer's left rear shield. The photon torpedo exploded against the same shield, at the same point of contact as the Enterprise's phaser beams, and that shield failed. In a time so fast as to be virtually incalculable, that shield ran the gamut of colors from red, to blue, to white, and into the ultraviolet, and then black. The Enterprise's phaser beams cut through the failed shield and made contact with the superstructure supporting the destroyer's warp engine. That arm, strong though it was, simply couldn't stand under the onslaught of those phaser beams; it simply ceased to exist. The warp engine, now freed from its connection to the Orion destroyer, spun away from the remainder of the destroyer and disappeared into the endless night of interstellar space. A trail of glowing, sparkling bits of hull material and unchanneled energy marked the passing of the engine.
As for the destroyer itself, it twisted and spun away from the indescribable ferocity of the Enterprise's phasers almost as if it were a live animal twisting and spinning away from its attacker. Lights all over the destroyer winked and flashed and went dark. Energy surged wildly throughout the interior of the Orion destroyer as circuits overloaded and melted. Fires broke out and burst through panels and control surfaces in a hundred places. Orion damage control teams rushed to save their stricken ship.
At the same time as the Enterprise's forward weapons struck the destroyer, her rear weapons lashed out at the blockade runner. Those shields failed even more quickly than did the shields on the destroyer. However, the damage inflicted on the blockade runner differed from that of the destroyer. Instead of hitting the supporting structure of the warp engine nacelle, the Enterprise's phasers struck the engine itself and bored completely through the structure of the engine. Delicate circuitry, reinforced piping and wiring instantly vaporized at the touch of those ravening beams. Power normally meant to operate and control that massive warp engine was suddenly freed from its constraints and shorted to the closest ground point it could find. That power also contributed to the destruction of the engine structure and melted and vaporized more components. Where the unrestrained power could not find a ground path, it ran back through any circuitry it could find and laid waste to control panels and other circuits elsewhere in the blockade runner.
"Shields down 20 percent, Captain," Mr. Spock reported calmly. "No damage to the ship. No injuries to the crew."
"Status of the destroyer, Mr. Spock," Kirk questioned without turning away from the main view screen at the front of the bridge.
"It has lost all warp speed capability. Its weapons and shields are off-line, and due to the power surges which registered on our sensors, they won't be able to bring them back on-line without major starbase maintenance facilities. The destroyer's life support systems are at minimal levels. They have suffered hull breaches in several areas and 18.24365 percent of the destroyer's living areas are exposed to space. I also calculate the Orion's have only 31.64398 percent of impulse power available; it will take them 6.64923 standard days to affect the necessary repairs to return to their nearest repair facility." Spock's report was concise.
"Status of the other two Orion ships?" Kirk could see them on the main view screen, to all outward appearances the enemy ships were sitting motionless and quiet. Kirk knew how quick that could change, though, and he had no intention of being taken by surprise.
"Minor damage to the Industrious class freighter, Keptin," Lt Commander Chekov replied in his unique Russian accent. "They were struck by debris from the destroyer's engine nacelle and support pylon. It's not enough to effect the freighter's ability to fire its phasers."
"The blockade runner is also severely damaged, Captain," reported Spock. "They have completely lost their ventral warp engine and have suffered massive power feedback damage and outages throughout the ship. According to sensors, the blockade runner is in danger of a warp core breach, but I estimate their engineering crew will be able to eject the core in 2.3497 standard minutes. No physical damage to the hull or internal superstructure of the ship. They also maintain full impulse power capability, although that will not be enough to power their weapons and shields. Short of a ramming attempt, or the failure of the crew to eject the warp core, they are no longer a threat to the Enterprise."
A moment after Spock gave his report, a viciously bright star sped away from the wounded blockade runner. The warp core trailed streamers of energy as the uncontrolled merger of matter and antimatter ran unchecked inside the core's magnetic containment fields. The core had traveled a thousand kilometers away from the scene of the battle when its magnetic containment system finally failed. The brightness of the explosion momentarily blotted out the stars and would have blinded any person looking at it if the viewscreen had not automatically stepped down that brightness.
"Uhura. Signal the destroyer's commander, please," Kirk requested of his communications officer.
"Yes, sir," Uhura replied. Always outwardly calm, cool, and collected—no matter the circumstances—her voice betrayed not the smallest clue to the inner turmoil she felt. Going into battle always made her anxious—not fearful, for she had absolute confidence in Kirk's abilities as well as for the capabilities of the Enterprise—no, she dreaded the casualty reports that would come in to her station to be reported to the captain. With a total crew load of slightly less than 500 people, she knew them all. It was always a sad and tragic shock when one of her crewmates was injured—or killed!—in a battle. She was grateful beyond words that had not happened during the brief engagement.
The image on the main view screen changed from the sight of the three enemy ships and the one unidentified one. That deceptively calm and peaceful view of space was replaced by the image of the destroyer's captain. His face was covered in soot and grime and tracks of sweat running from his forehead had cut furrows into the grime. Thick, dark clouds of smoke and coolant and fire extinguishing media hung in the air of the Orion bridge. Kirk could see small fingers of flame licking up through the control panels of various control stations.
"Captain," Kirk stated. "Your ships are damaged beyond your ability to repair without major shipyard facilities. Your slave freighter is the only one of your ships that retains warp speed capability. I suggest you transfer all personnel to that ship and go home. If you attempt any further aggression against the Enterprise, or the unknown saucer ship, I will destroy you. Do you understand me?"
The Orion commander raged into the screen at Kirk. "I understand this, Federation scum! I understand you have damaged my ships and killed many, many members of my crews for no reason! You are NOTHING more than a thief and a murderer and I will see you rot in the deepest, most miserable, tortured corner of you favorite hell for your crimes! This is NOT over, Federation slime! I will make you pay! I will make you suffer for your crimes to the Orion people!"
The Orion commander abruptly disappeared from the viewscreen and the view of space returned. Energy surges still spilled out of the damaged parts of the Orion ships as they began moving away from the area. Kirk could see streamers of something still coming from the openings in the mysterious saucer ship. Calm had returned to the bridge for the moment with an almost audible sigh of relief from all present.
"Chekov, take us to yellow alert," Kirk ordered. "Keep our shields up and put the weapons on standby. Let's go see if our 'prize' is worth the trouble we've had."
Thank you for reading my first story. I hope you've enjoyed what you've read and I hope you will continue to enjoy the coming chapters. I write in my spare time—What? Spare time? What the heck is that?—so be patient and trust that I'm getting this story out there as fast as I can. Please let me know what you think about it.