Chain of Attack (14 page)

"I do not know, but I suspect they would. No one has ever been taken from a ship in the manner you took me, so no rules exist for my treatment if I am returned. However, I cannot believe that I could ever be allowed to return to our home world. Nor would I wish to, no matter how strongly you profess to be our friends. You have shown me too much to allow me to trust you."

"Too much? I don't understand."

"You have shown me how you are able to track our ships without your own being detected. You could follow whatever ship I was on. You could find our home world, and that is unthinkable."

"We can follow your ships whether you are on them or not."

"Of course. But none now will ever return to our home world. Only rarely do ships return under any circumstances, but now that your ship, obviously superior to ours, has been observed, none will return, ever. None in this sector of space dares risk it, and I suspect that none anywhere will risk it, at least not for many years."

"If we are able to convince you we are not your enemy, you could direct us to your home world and we could take you there directly. We could talk to your leaders."

"There is no way I can be sufficiently convinced, not when the fate of my world hangs on my decision to trust you. But my decision is of no importance. I could tell you nothing of our home world's location, no matter what my decision. For I do not
know
its location. I am a planetbound, and I was told nothing of such matters."

The alien paused, his narrow shoulders moving in what could have been a shrug, or perhaps a shudder. "The rest of my life, I fear, must be spent elsewhere than with my own people. Whoever you are, once you took me from them, I became as dead to them as if the collar had done what it was intended to do. As dead as all those on our ships are to our home world."

Which was, Kirk thought grimly, not all that different from what the Hoshan had said. Communication might be possible with the Zeator, but they would listen no more than would the Hoshan.

Unless something could be done.

"I think," he said, glancing at Spock and McCoy, "it's time for the Destroyer to meet the World Killers."

 

TO NO ONE'S surprise, the meeting between the Hoshan and the Zeator accomplished little.

"He lies, of course!" Tarasek said.

"Atragon?" Kirk said, turning to the Zeator on the opposite side of the conference table. "Do the Hoshan lie as well?"

For a long moment there was only silence. "I do not know," he said finally, his trilling voice dull, virtually lifeless. "It is possible that he tells the truth. If so, we deserve the fate we have been given."

Of the Hoshan, only Bolduc openly admitted there might be some truth to Atragon's words. "When for generations you have known only enemies and when the life of your entire race is at stake," he said, "you do not take chances. Mistakes will be made under such conditions."

"Shoot first and ask questions later," McCoy said, his voice oddly flat. "The only trouble is, when the shooters are as efficient as you two, there's never anyone left to answer the questions. Or even to ask them."

At McCoy's words, a thoughtful frown creased Kirk's forehead. "Bones," he said, standing up abruptly, "thank you. I think your collection of archaic sayings may have saved the day. At least it's given me an idea how to start."

"I dinna like it, Captain." Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott's eyes had a look of betrayal in them as he stood protectively in front of the line of main control panels on the engineering deck.

"I don't blame you, Scotty. I'm not very happy with it myself, but I don't have any other ideas at the moment."

"Could ye no' just
talk
to them?"

"We'll try, of course, but you've seen how they react to us—to
anyone
besides themselves. Even now that we have their languages in the computer, all we can do is talk
at
them. And all they're going to do is shoot at us from the moment they see us."

"And ye want to
let
them!"

"According to Mr. Spock, the deflectors will take anything either the Hoshan or the Zeator can dish out. If you have any doubts, Scotty—"

"I dinna have doubts, Captain!" Scott said, an offended note entering his voice as he waved his hand in a gesture that included not only the control panels behind him but the antimatter engines and everything else that was under his care. "I ha' no doubts about these bairns! They can take care of themselves, but to allow—"

"If there were another way, I'd take it, Scotty."

Scott fell silent, pulling in a breath. "Aye, Captain," he said finally, "I know ye would. We'll be ready."

"Thank you, Mr. Scott," Kirk said, his hand briefly and uncustomarily gripping the chief engineer's shoulder. "I never doubted it for a second."

For several minutes, Kirk and the entire first-watch bridge crew had been watching the approaching Hoshan ship. Both the Hoshan and the Zeator were watching on monitor screens in their guarded staterooms, as was Dr. Crandall. Only the aliens' rooms, however, were hooked up so they could talk directly to the bridge and could be channeled, by the touch of a button, into Lieutenant Uhura's broadcasts.

"In effect, Mr. Sulu," Kirk had said, "we're going to park in the middle of the road. Just be prepared to take us into the ditch, fast, at the first indication that they're intentionally overloading their main antimatter power unit. Or that any weakness is developing in the deflectors, of course."

"Aye-aye, Captain," Sulu replied, a certain grim satisfaction in his tone and expression.

"Lieutenant Uhura, ready to transmit our recorded message at them until further orders."

"Message loaded and ready, sir."

"The
Enterprise
will be within the Hoshan vessel's sensor range in one-point-three minutes, Captain," Spock announced.

"Lieutenant Uhura, start the message."

The Hoshan reaction was virtually instantaneous. Obviously not taking the time to listen to the words of the message, the ship—the same one the
Enterprise
had decoyed away from the Zeator fleet earlier—altered its course fractionally to home in on the transmission. Seconds later, it transmitted what was apparently today's computer-generated request for today's recognition code. Almost simultaneously, a compressed thirty-seven-millisecond subspace burst was sent out.

"As predicted, weapons preparing to fire, Captain," Spock announced.

But none was fired. Nearly a minute went by, and nothing happened.

"Tarasek," Kirk said, "does this mean they are listening to the message?"

"It is possible," the computer said, translating the Hoshan's words virtually simultaneously.

"Speak to them directly, Tarasek," Kirk said. "Lieutenant Uhura, open Tarasek's channel."

"Done, sir," she said, tapping a single button on the control panel.

"I am Tarasek." The computer translated the broadcast words of the Hoshan. "I was in command of Defender ship
Tromak
, which was recently lost in battle with six Destroyer vessels. I and two of my crew, Radzyk and Bolduc, have been taken aboard a ship called by its masters the
Enterprise
. It is the same ship that you saw and pursued two days ago. Its owners say they wish to be friends to the Hoshan, but—"

"Hoshan ship accelerating to warp two-point-three, sir," Chekov broke in. "It is on a collision course with us!"

"Lieutenant Uhura, give me the channel!" Kirk snapped.

"Aye-aye, sir." With a touch of Uhura's finger, the Hoshan's voice was cut off.

"This is the commander of the
Enterprise
," Kirk said, speaking rapidly into the translator. "You have heard our message. We are not your enemies. You have no reason to fear us or attack us. We will not fire on your ship. If we wished to harm you, we could have destroyed your ship when you first attacked us two days ago. We could destroy it now if we wished. We have been observing you for the past hour and could have destroyed your ship at any time during
that
period as well, but we have not. I repeat, we have no wish to harm you. We only wish to talk and to transfer Commander Tarasek and the remainder of his crew to your ship."

"Within laser range in thirteen seconds, Captain," Spock said. "No sign of overloading in antimatter generator as yet."

"To demonstrate our peaceful intentions—and our patience—we will allow you to fire at the
Enterprise
if you wish to do so," Kirk said, speaking even more quickly. "We will not return the fire."

Even as Kirk finished speaking, the deflector shields flared violently, cutting off the direct visual image of the approaching Hoshan ship.

"Deflectors holding as predicted, Captain," Spock said, continuing to study the science station instruments. "Still no sign of intentional antimatter overload."

"The ship is no longer on a collision course, sir!" Chekov said, a note of triumph in his voice. "It will now miss us by more than fifteen kilometers."

"And how long can they keep that up, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked, gesturing at the viewscreen image of the flaring deflector shields.

"Approximately seven minutes at the present level, Captain."

At two minutes, the Hoshan ship shot past the
Enterprise
, still firing.

At two minutes and forty seconds, it made a second, even closer pass.

At three minutes and ten seconds, it made a third. At three minutes and thirty seconds, it came to a dead stop little more than three kilometers distant, still firing. The deflector shields toward the Hoshan ship were a wall of scintillating radiation, stretching into the ultraviolet and beyond.

"All Hoshan power drive being diverted to lasers, Captain," Spock said a moment later. "The additional power will reduce the effective life of the lasers by approximately forty-five seconds. Still no sign of antimatter overload."

"Open the channel to the Hoshan ship, Lieutenant Uhura," Kirk said, and when it was done he repeated what Spock had said, except for the remark about the antimatter. "When your lasers cease functioning in another two minutes," he finished, "perhaps we can start talking. Lieutenant, leave the channel open."

The first laser failed in less than one minute, the final one a minute and a half after that. Five seconds after the final failure, yet another burst of compressed subspace radiation was emitted, this one forty-eight milliseconds in length.

"Antimatter overload sequence beginning, Captain."

"Destroying yourself by exploding your antimatter generators will not harm us," Kirk said quickly. "We can monitor the process and be out of danger before the explosion occurs. The ones you call the Destroyers already tried it with us, and it didn't work for them, either."

"Still increasing, Captain. Twenty-six seconds to terminal overload."

"Ready for maximum warp, Mr. Sulu, at my command."

"Ready, Captain."

"You saw how easily we outran you the first time we met," Kirk said. "We can do the same again. We can outrun the danger from your exploding antimatter generators. You will kill
only yourselves, no one else!
"

"Fourteen seconds, Captain."

"Mr. Sulu, max—"

"Overload stabilizing, Captain," Spock cut in.

"Stay ready, Mr. Sulu. Spock, what's happening?"

"It is similar to what the Zeator ship did, Captain. They have stablized the overload. However, they have not yet reversed the sequence."

"In effect, they're holding—at what? Ten seconds?"

"Twelve, Captain."

"And presumably they could restart the clock whenever they want?"

"It is likely, Captain."

"Tarasek? Any thoughts?"

"That they stopped at all is surprising. If it were my ship, I would have allowed it to continue!"

"Of course you would!" the computer translated for Bolduc, in whose voice Kirk detected what he had come to recognize as sarcasm. The Hoshan had made several oblique remarks before but had always backed down when pressed for further information. Nor had he ever before sounded so vehement, and Kirk couldn't help but wonder if the Hoshan were simply unable to hold back any longer or if the fact that the words were being broadcast to another Hoshan ship might have something to do with the sudden outburst. "I have seen your performance under fire before, Commander!" Bolduc finished sharply.

"That is enough, Bolduc!" Tarasek snapped.

"Is it, now? When the
Tromak
was struck by the Destroyer ships, I was knocked unconscious, but not before I saw you try to reach the override control! If you had been able—"

"Silence!"

"Tarasek!" With startling suddenness, a new voice burst from the speakers on the bridge, and everyone's eyes snapped to the Hoshan ship on the main viewscreen. "Are Bolduc's words true?"

"They are." The computer translated Radzyk's thin, distinctive voice.

"He lies!"

"I do not believe so, T arasek," the new voice said. "Their words have the ring of truth about them."

"But you yourself have just now overridden the—"

"Present circumstances are quite different, Tarasek! Whether or not I believe the words of this alien commander who has captured you, I must believe my eyes and my instruments. I have seen those things of which he speaks, and I have seen my weapons rendered useless by his ship's defenses. I think it is time we learned more."

Abruptly, there was silence, and when the voice came again, it was obvious that it was no longer addressing Tarasek. "I will speak with you, Commander of the
Enterprise
. I will not, for now, reverse the overload sequence you say you are able to monitor, but neither will I continue it. We will speak."

A collective sigh of relief swept the bridge. Even Spock seemed to relax a tiny fraction.

"That is all we ask at the moment, Commander," Kirk said. "That's all we ask."

For more than an hour, they talked—Hrozak, the commander of the Hoshan vessel, Bolduc and Radzyk, and Kirk and the others on the bridge, even, briefly, the Zeator—with Kirk slowly allowing himself to feel a grudging admiration for the alien commander. He could easily see himself in Hrozak's position had he been born a Hoshan rather than a human a billion parsecs or a billion years away. Protection of his home world was everything to Hrozak, as protection of the Federation—of earth—was to Kirk. But Hrozak paid a dearer price than most Federation Starfleet captains. Even under so-called normal circumstances, Hrozak's chances of ever again setting foot on his home world were slim. With the
Enterprise
in the picture, those chances had been essentially reduced to zero.

"We cannot take the chance," Hrozak said, much as the Zeator had said earlier. "No matter what my personal judgment is, we cannot take the chance."

"And if we had joined you against the Zeator?" Kirk asked. "The Destroyers, as you call them? If we had put on a show of attacking them and destroying their ships? Would you have trusted us enough then?"

"Perhaps, in time, but I cannot know what others would say. We would have only your word that the ships you destroyed were genuine, not simply dummies constructed to be destroyed for our benefit. Or even that the ships were truly destroyed. I strongly suspect that our sensors can be fooled as easily as our eyes by the devices you possess."