Star Trek - TOS - 79 - Invasion 1 - First Strike Read online

  down through the Klingons and drove himself and all of

  them into a tangle, scraping and scratching down the

  slanted shelf. By the time he struck the bottom, he had

  scraped off at least two of the Klingons and landed on

  the rest of them.

  His body screamed for attention. He ignored it and

  tried to get to his feet, but fell twice and shuffled outward

  on one foot, a knee, and the heel of a hand. His left arm

  was numb from the elbow down.

  Slowly he made his way past the stunned Klingons. He

  had to get to Spock. If his first officer somehow survived

  the fall, the other Klingons would rush in and slaughter

  him where he lay. Inhaling dust, Kirk willed himself

  forward.

  "Stop!"

  He looked up. Who was that? No voice he recognized .. one of the Capellans?

  62

  FIRST STRIKE

  Out into the middle of the battling armies, striding as

  deliberately as if on parade, came a thick-bodied Klingon

  officer.

  No, not just an officer... a general!

  But there was no Klingon general in this sector ....

  The wide newcomer strode into the middle of the

  action and held out both his short meaty arms, hands

  upright in a halting gesture.

  "Stop the fighting! Stop! Stop this!"

  The general now turned to the upper rocks and

  shouted--roared--at his own kind.

  "I said stop!"

  63

  Chapter Five

  LEFT ARM NUMB, his chest constricted from the dust, Kirk

  scraped between the stunned combatants as they stood

  heaving and staring, and managed to keep from going

  down on his knees again.

  "Spock!" he called.

  No answer. He didn't really expect one.

  The Klingon general lowered his arms and watched as

  the captain crossed the battleground. The general

  seemed to understand and stood like Henry VIII on a

  jousting field, watching as Kirk came around the gravelly

  talus skirt.

  Kirk first saw Spock as a swatch of blue and black

  quilted against the stones, surrounded by Giotto and his

  men, who ringed the fallen body and stood off several

  Klingons who wanted to deal the death blow if it hadn't

  been dealt already.

  He thought the Vulcan moved, but there was so much

  dust ....

  Everything had stopped, just stopped. Klingons, Star-fleet

  crew, Capellans, all standing still--those who were

  still standing--looking at the Klingon general who

  64

  FIRST STRIKE

  waited like a lone monolith at their center, and at Kirk as

  he moved between the bodies of the fallen.

  Maybe this was some kind of demand for surrender. A

  full general?

  He glanced at the Klingon general in something like

  contempt or dare--even he wasn't sure--but kept to his

  purpose. One thing at a time.

  Giotto's men parted for him, but kept their weapons

  up and didn't slack their stance against the Klingon

  soldiers.

  It felt good to kneel finally. The ground had been

  pulling at him--it felt good to give in.

  Spock was looking up, blinking, dazed but conscious,

  at least. His lips were pressed in frustration and effort,

  pickle-green blood showing in scratches on his forehead

  and the point of his right ear.

  As the gravel cut into his knee, Kirk pressed his good

  hand to Spock's tattered sleeve.

  "You all right?" he asked.

  "Stunned," Spock said with effort, and with pain that

  he was trying to hide. His voice was as gravelly as the

  stuff he was lying on. Cautiously he raised his head,

  brows drawn, then in something like amusement added,

  "And, I believe, grazed here and there "

  "Where?"

  Kirk persisted.

  Suddenly aggravated at not being able to self-diagnose,

  Spock glanced up at him and belittled himself with a bob

  of his angular brows. "I am not certain."

  Glancing up at the needle of rock above them, Kirk

  realized it was about two decks higher than he'd estimated

  from way over there. "How did you survive that?"

  "Starfleet training," Spock said lightly. "I rolled."

  Kirk pressed out a sympathetic grin. "Think you can

  get up? We've got a new development."

  Faced with that, Spock pressed his palms to the stones

  and tried to lift his shoulders. His voice cracked as he

  grunted, "Shall certainly attempt it."

  "Mr. Giotto, give us a hand."

  In the back of his mind he could hear the protests of

  65

  Diane Carey common sense as he and Giotto pulled the injured first

  officer to his feet, but it was important to Kirk that the

  enemies see the Starfleet officers upright and thinking.

  Once they got him up it became clear that Spock

  couldn't stand on his own and Kirk accepted that he

  might be making a mistake.

  He waved in a yeoman to help Giotto, then said,

  "Bring him over here. I want him to hear whatever goes

  on."

  At the center of what was quickly becoming a scraggly

  ring of mixed combatants, the Klingon general turned in

  place. "Who is in command here?" he bellowed, but he

  was looking from Klingon to Klingon, not at the Starfleet

  team.

  Behind the Security detail, Kirk straightened and

  watched. Was this some kind of crank?

  "I am!" A Klingon commander came up over the

  incline and hurried down, clearly infuriated. "Why have

  you stopped our victory?"

  The general's big body turned and he raised his arms

  in contempt. "I see no victory here. What's the matter

  with you? Why are you squabbling over this bit of dirt?

  Wasting men and munitions, and for what? A few

  shipments of toparine? You're a fool."

  The commander waved his hand at Kirk. "They killed

  my representative!"

  One of the big Capellans stepped forward and contradicted,

  "I killed your representative. After he betrayed

  US."

  The blunt honesty silenced the Klingon commander,

  and Kirk took that as a cue to move in. He didn't care

  about their inner quarrels. He forced himself not to limp

  as he put his back to the commander as a kind of insult

  and raised his chin to the general.

  "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

  The high-ranker squared off before him. "I am General

  Kellen."

  Behind Kirk, the other Klingons collectively gasped

  and relaxed their postures in respect.

  66 FIRST STRIKE

  Kellen? Kirk repeated. "Of the Muscari Incident?"

  "Yes."

  The general waited until his identity sank in all

  around. Even if they didn't know what he had done in

  the past, they had heard his name and they knew his

  reputation. So did Kirk. General Kellen... the only

  calm Klingon Kirk knew of.

  That kind of thing gets around.

  The general didn't seem particularly impressed with

  himself, but he was clearly counting on Kirk's being impressed with him.


  And it was close.

  They stood together on the printless stone flat, face-to-face,

  sizing each other up.

  After he'd ticked off a measured pause, the general

  asked, "Your ship is the Enterprise?"

  Narrowing his eyes in the bright sunlight, Kirk felt his

  brow tighten. "Yes..."

  "Then you are Captain James B. Kirk?"

  "James T. So what?"

  "Then I am here to ask for your help on behalf of the Klingon Empire and your own Federation."

  "Help about what?"

  "We need your help, Captain. The demons have

  returned. The Havoc has come."

  "Does this mean you're declaring a cease-fire?"

  The question had already gotten its answer, but Kirk

  wanted his men and the Klingon men to hear it from the

  local top, which at the moment was General Kellen. He

  didn't want anyone ending up with a dagger in the back

  from the overzealous among them.

  Peering over those funny glasses, Kellen nodded hurriedly.

  "Yes. And I should mention that your starship is

  about to punch holes in my cruiser. Instruct them not Perhaps the general was fishing for an act of trust, or at

  least balance, or maybe he just wanted what he said he

  wanted. A chance to talk.

  67

  Diane Carey

  Either way, there would be a chance to pause and

  regroup. Never taking his eyes off Kellen, Kirk snapped

  up his communicator and flipped open the antenna grid.

  "Kirk to Enterprise. Go to defensive posture... cease

  fire and stand by. If you don't hear from me in ten

  minutes, open fire." Without waiting for acknowledgment

  from Scott, he lowered the communicator sharply

  enough to make a point. "I appreciate who you are,

  General, but you can't have this planet."

  Kellen held out both hands in acquiescence. "I do not

  want this planet. I don't know why some elements do. It

  has always been my standing to let the Federation tend

  these backward herds. Then we'll take the planets when

  they're worth something."

  Kirk snorted. "Wanna bet?"

  "It has always been a mystery to me when the Federation

  will fight and why," Kellen said. "That you will fight

  to the last man to defend something you do not care to

  possess. A planet like this is not worth the loss of a ship

  of the line. I give you this planet without contention.

  Congratulations. I have already spoken to your Starfleet

  Command. They have agreed to let me approach you if I

  agreed to stop this battle. It is stopped. Now I must speak

  with you, Captain Kirk."

  His voice, though he was a large man, was high-pitched,

  Kirk noticed now, not low as one might expect a

  large man's to be, yet it had a certain ring of authority--probably

  out of sheer practice.

  "You'll have to wait your turn," Kirk said. 'I'll be

  back in when I've taken care of my men."

  Kellen said nothing, but clasped his hands behind his

  wide back and struck a stance of impatience.

  With a measured glance at Spock, Kirk swung around

  and scanned his surprised crewmen and the disgruntled

  Klingons, all standing among each other, eyeing each

  other's weapons, none of them sure what to do.

  He turned another quarter turn and spotted McCoy,

  kneeling at the body of Ensign Wilson.

  Good a place as any to start.

  68

  FIRST STRIKE

  With a purposeful stride he hurried--but not too

  fast--to the doctor and kept his back to Kellen.

  "Well," he muttered, "how do you like that?"

  "Not much," the doctor muttered back, gazing at poor

  Wilson as he rose to his feet.

  Kirk surveying quickly the surgeon's bruised face.

  "Are you hurt?"

  McCoy blinked, frowned, rubbed his hands together,

  and said, "No, Captain, I'm not hurt."

  "Then get started with your triage."

  "Yes, sir."

  As the party broke up and others gathered around for

  instructions, Kirk dashed off orders to others standing

  around.

  "Log that I gave a field commission to Zdunic. He's

  now a lieutenant."

  "Acknowledged," Spock said from behind him.

  Weakness in the baritone voice registered suddenly.

  Kirk turned to his first oflScer and realized Spock had

  been answering him as if nothing was wrong, but the first

  officer was still leaning heavily on the yeoman, picking at

  his tricorder, valiantly trying to record the details of the

  aftermath and his captain's orders.

  "Mr. Spock McCoy!

  Over here first. Yeoman, set

  him

  down." Kirk moved in as Spock was gingerly

  lowered

  to sit on a handy boulder, and carefully pulled

  the

  tricorder strap up over Spock's head to hand it to the

  yeoman.

  "Spock... sorry."

  There

  was more pain in the Vulcan's face now. He was

  having

  trouble masking it. His lean frame was clenched,

  stomach

  muscles tight, shoulders and arms stiff as he

  pressed

  down on the boulder, though he didn't take his

  eyes

  from the Klingon general. Distrust pulled at him

  through

  his pain.

  unous,

  Captain," he said, watching the Klingon

  general,

  "that he would concern himself with a skirmish."

  "He's

  got me curious," Kirk acknowledged.

  "What

  happened?" McCoy asked as he hurried to

  69

  Diane Carey

  them. If he had seen Spock a moment ago in the

  background, he hadn't noticed that the Vulcan was being

  held up by the yeoman beside him.

  "He fell," Kirk said. "From up there. I can't believe

  didn't see it happen."

  Y'U'I was busy." McCoy ran his medical tricorder from

  Spock's shoulder to his pelvis. "Jim, my God--you

  shouldn't have moved him! He's got spinal injuries."

  Priorities screwed on backward. Kirk knew he'd made

  a mistake. Always thinking of Spock as not just half-human,

  but superhuman.

  Spock was pale as sea wake. Deep-rooted pain etched

  his face. He still watched Kellen.

  "Take him back to the ship, emergency priority," Kirk

  said, letting himself feel guilty.

  Spock looked up. "Captain, I would like to stay."

  There was something behind his eyes. Havoc...

  whatever that was. Spock knew something and he

  wanted to hear what Kellen had to say.

  And I need him here, if he knows something.

  Under his swatch of dusty brown hair, McCoy was

  glaring at Kirk. Pretty clear message there, too.

  "A few minutes," Kirk decided. "McCoy, you take

  care of him here for now. Contact your staff and beam

  down a full medical team to take over triage."

  'captain," the doctor began, protesting with his tone.

  "I said a few minutes. Until we find out what's going

  on."

  Fuming, his blue eyes boiling on Kirk, the doctor

  cracke
d open his communicator. McCoy to Enterprise. Patch me through to sickbay."

  Plagued not by the glare but by the reason for it, Kirk

  was suddenly motivated to pierce the mystery fast and

  get Spock to the ship.

  He swung around and stepped back to Kellen. "All

  right, General, I've taken care of my men. Now let's talk

  about you."

  Kellen nodded. "The Havoc has come and we have to

  deal with it."

  /0

  FIRST STRIKE

  Kirk eyed him. "I don't like the sound of that 'we."

  What's 'havoc'?"

  Spock tipped his head to one side. "In Klingon lore,

  'Havoc' is essentially an apocalypse. The releasing of all

  captive souls to wreak revenge on those who imprisoned

  them."

  "Yes," Kellen confirmed, wagging a finger at the

  Vulcan. "Yes, yes."

  "How do you know it's coming?" Kirk asked.

  "My squadron encountered the beginning of it. The

  coming of the Havoc ship."

  "The apocalypse comes in a ship?" Cynicism blistered the air between them. "General, I'm not in a good

  mood."

  "And I am not here to put you in one." Kellen's

  weathered face didn't change. He utterly believed that he

  was here for the right reasons. He looked like a latter-day

  Ben Franklin waiting to see whether he'd be the father of

  a nation or on the business end of a noose.

  Kirk drilled him with a meaningful glare. "What

  happened to you? Start from the beginning."

  "There was a mass falloff," the general began. "At first

  we thought our instruments were failing, but then the

  sun of a nearby solar system began to expand and the

  planets to disintegrated. This continued until all things

  went to zero--"

  "Nothing could exist in a zero-mass environment,"

  Spock countered, as McCoy worked on him. "Everything

  that moved would accelerate to the speed of light."

  "We came within seconds of that," the Klingon confirmed,