Previously, on A Mind Occasionally Voyaging…
“What’s going on here?” Pike asked. “Go to yellow alert.”
“Energize defensive fields,” Sam ordered. Heavy shutters closed around the dome of the bridge.
“Getting a voice message,” Uhura said. “They say their Chambers coil is overloaded, it’s interfering with communications.”
Pike looked to Xon. He gave a quick shake of his head. “No irregularities detected.”
Khan looked to Una beside him and summoned a schematic view of the Enterprise. He indicated a spot on the secondary hull of the ship. “I mean to strike them here,” he said. “Your thoughts?”
She thought a moment. “That would disable main power. It would take a miracle worker in engineering to recover,” she said, then pointed at a spot a few decks higher, behind the forward torpedo launcher. “But if you strike them here,” she explained, “Main cooling will also be compromised. Even if they are able to repair the core, they wouldn’t be able to operate for more than a few minutes at a time.”
Khan sensed something else. “And?” he asked.
She conceded. “Main engineering is heavily staffed. This section is almost entirely empty. An attack here would disable Enterprise while minimizing casualties.”
A few of Khan’s crew laughed derisively, but she continued. “Pike is an idealist with a martyr complex. The fewer people you kill, the more he’ll believe he can save.” She fixed her eyes on Khan’s. “I assume you’d prefer he surrender himself to you than to kill him unseen from a distance.”
“Time to Salius?” Jim Kirk asked.
“Two hours, seventeen minutes at top speed,” Saavik said.
Kirk grimaced. “We don’t have that kind of time. Why so long? It’s not that far.”
“A direct flight plan on one five three mark four crosses the Mutara Nebula. It would be unsafe to cross in a vessel this size. Time to divert around the nebula is substantial.”
“I can handle it,” Ortegas said, taking the pilot’s seat. She rubbed the side of her head uncomfortably. “Like riding a bike.”
Kirk nodded. “Captain Terrell,” he said, “Can you man communications? We need to raise Enterprise as soon as we’re in range.”
Khan looked back to the viewscreen. “Have they raised shields?”
“No, my lord.”
“Raise ours.” The tactical display emitted audible beeps as Reliant’s image was outlined in white to indicate the defensive barrier.
Aboard the Enterprise, Xon reported, “Reliant raising shields, Admiral.”
Pike’s brow furrowed, but still he hesitated. On Reliant, Khan ordered Joachim to lock phasers.
“They are locking phasers,” Xon observed.
Pike rose from his chair. “Raise shields!”
Too late. Khan had already given the order to fire. Two red flashes lashed out from Reliant’s portside phaser array, slicing into the neck of the Enterprise. Though spared a direct hit, plasma from the severed conduits backwashed into main engineering. The cadets broke ranks, fleeing in terror as walls of ionized gasses swept through the compartment. Fireballs exploded from consoles on the bridge, and Pike was thrown to the floor hard.
Far below, a DOT-9 maintenance robot sensed the change in temperature and broke off from its duties to lock itself down in a protected alcove. Once the danger had passed, it released itself. The charred remains of an animal it had been pursuing twitched in the maintenance tunnel. The DOT’s pest control protocols gave preference to nonlethal catch-and-release methods, but indicated in this case that it should euthanize the animal. It would prove unnecessary. With the last of its waning strength, one of the creature’s remaining limbs stretched out and pointed with clear intent to an area further down the conduit, concealed by a crossing conduit junction before it fell still. The DOT scanned the place the creature had indicated. The DOT-9 had only limited capacity for self-determination and decision making, but its subroutines allowed it to analyze behavior and draw conclusions. It now had a working model for why its previous pest removal strategies had failed. Its maintenance and animal-handling subroutines weighted the preservation and protection of exotic species. So it hovered down the tunnel, opened its maintenance cover, and loaded the clutch of tardigrade eggs into its chest compartment.
“Sulu, shields!” Pike demanded as Sam helped him back to his feet.
“It’s no good, sir,” Sulu protested. “I can’t get power.”
“Engineering! We need auxiliary power.”
The tannoy crackled with interference. “Barely hanging-” the engineer’s voice kept dropping out. “Main energizer is down. Main cooling- Need to vent plasma before we…”
Pike looked to La’an. “Damage report?”
La’an pulled up the ship’s schematic. “This is… This is impossibly accurate. They knew exactly the best place to hit us.”
“Who?” Pike demanded. “Why?”
“Whoever they are, we’re no match on auxiliary power,” Sam said.
“On screen. La’an, get those shields up,” Pike ordered. Reliant had come around in a circle and crossed in front of the Enterprise. “Sulu, evasive maneuvers!” Pike barked as a torpedo fired from Reliant’s stern.
“Brace for impact!” Sam shouted. Sulu struggled to turn the large, crippled ship. The ship rolled just enough that Reliant’s torpedo smashed into the portside section of Enterprise’s saucer rather than the bridge itself. All the same, the force of the impact threw Pike and Sam to the deck. Mitchell and two cadets were launched from their positions and Sulu only narrowly avoided the same fate.
“What’s left?” Pike demanded.
“Just the battery,” came the response from engineering. “I can have auxiliary power in a few minutes.”
“We don’t have a few minutes,” La’an protested.
“Phasers?” Pike asked.
La’an checked the tactical console. “Not until auxiliary power is on-line.”
Uhura’s fingers flew over the communications console. “Admiral,” she said, “The commander Reliant is signaling. He wishes to discuss terms of our surrender.”
Pike took a look around the damaged bridge. All activity had stopped, all eyes on him. Everyone was battered. Mitchell was unconscious. His own lip was bleeding. “On screen,” he said.
“Admiral?” Uhura asked for confirmation, surprised.
“Do it. While we still have a ship to surrender.”
To Be Continued…
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