The Rings of Tautee (12 page)

And, beneath it all, he was worried that the Klingons would attack again just as the wave hit, when the Farragut would be at her most vulnerable.

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch Bogle swiveled his chair.

Lee was hunched over his science console, monitoring everything. He didn't know what he'd do without Lee.

"What's the status of the Enterprise?" Bogle asked.

"They seem to have taken very little damage," Lee said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Bogle shook his head, too. He didn't know how Kirk managed it. If Bogle were to lay odds, he would guess that Kirk would be the only officer in the fleet to retire without losing a ship. If he didn't get tossed out first for breaking rules.

The red-alert lights shut off, leaving the bridge in near darkness. Bogle blinked, grinning to himself.

Nice going, Proje "Sir," Gustavus said, "the Enterprise is hailing us."

"And sir," Lee said, "that Klingon ship off our bow is powering up."

"Wonderful," Bogle said. Just as he had predicted. The Klingons would attack when the wave hit. He hoped Pro repaired those shields in time. "Put the Enterprise on screen."

The screen flickered and then an image filled it. Bogle resisted the urge to rub his eyes. The Klingon commander stood beside Kirk, looking as at ease on the bridge of the Enterprise as her own captain did. A tiny woman stood beside them. The men dwarfed her and yet she seemed to belong in their company.

"Captain," Kirk said, a slight smile crossing his face. He knew what impact he was having and it 128 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE was clear he was enjoying it. "I'd like to introduce you to Commander KerDaq." Kirk indicated the Klingon standing beside him on-screen.

KerDaq nodded, but said nothing.

Kirk's smile disappeared. Bogle saw the determination in Kirk's eyes. Even though Kirk gave the appearance of enjoying things, he knew how serious the situation was.

For all of them.

"I understand you're having shield problems," Kirk said. "Mister Spock is sending a heading and timing so that you will be able to run with the coming subspace wave to reduce its impact."

"Understood," Bogle said.

"As do I," KerDaq said. "Now I must warn my ships."

Kirk nodded. "Kirk out."

The screen went dark and then came back with the picture of the Klingon battle cruiser off their bow.

Bogle sat staring, not totally understanding what he'd just seen. Kirk and the Klingons working together. And behind them a woman had been standing silently.

An alien woman.

An obvious Tauteean survivor.

"I have the heading and coordinates," Lee said.

"We have fifty seconds."

"Transfer them to navigation and be ready to initiate on the correct timing." Bogle turned to Lee. "Mister, I want a double check on those calculations within twenty seconds or we're going to jump to warp to outrun the subspace wave. I 129 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch won't take any chances with this crew and this ship."

"Working, sir," Lee said.

Fifty seconds to repair the shields and to hold on. Bogle let out his breath. At least the Klingon attack he had been expecting probably wouldn't come. Not if KerDaq was on the bridge of the Enterprise.

"They are correct, sir," Lee said, and he actually sounded confident. Bogle couldn't see his face in the dimness, and didn't know if Lee's tone was a sign of true confidence or not.

"Explain," Bogle said.

"If we follow the course and speed given to us by the Enterprise, the impact of the subspace wave will be reduced by almost sixty percent. With our shields at sixty percent, we will sustain no damage."

"Understood," Bogle said. "Stand by."

"Captain," Rodriguez said. "Our shields are now at seventy percent."

Bogle grinned to himself in the darkness of the bridge.

He knew those red-alert lights were wasted energy.

"Good work, Pro," he muttered.

"Follow the Enterprise instructions, Mister Lee."

"Yes, sir," Lee said. "Mister Rodriguez, I want you to go to one-fifth impulse on my mark."

On the screen the Klingon ship was turning and aiming itself in the same direction they were heading.

Bogle shook his head. How Kirk did it, Bogle would never know.

THE RINGS OF TAUTEE "Now, Rodriguez!" Lee said. "Impact in five seconds."

Bogle held on as his starship surfed a destructive wave.

Off the port side of the Farragut a Klingon battle cruiser did the same thing.

Chapter Eighteen McCoally WAS STARTING to measure time with the Enterprise's collisions with the shock waves.

After Prescott made her revelation, he had left the bridge. He had arrived in sickbay when the next shock wave hit. Then a complement of crew members arrived, sporting minor bruises.

He had Nurse Chapel tend to them while he mended the broken Tauteean bones, and cleaned the gangrenous wounds.

Then the next shock wave hit. He didn't really notice it, only its effects. He treated all the minor bruises and had time to help the Klingon doctor treat a seriously injured Klingon who had been burned in the fight.

The only benefit he could see to the waves was that the influx of battered crew members always 132 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE brought new information The Farragut and the Klingon vessels made it through the waves; Captain Kirk and the Klingon were working side by side; Mr. Spock, in what seemed like exasperation, asked that the Farragut's science officer join them in an attempt to close the rift.

The ensign who had imparted the last bit of information had seemed surprised that Spock would be exasperated. McCoy, on the other hand, felt no such surprise. He had known Spock for years, and it had always seemed as if their relationship had been based on exasperation[*thorngg'on both sides.

The waves continued, but the crew was finally catching on. During the last wave, only a few bruises had arrived. Nurse Chapel could ha ndle them.

McCoy wanted to be on the bridge. He told himself he wanted to contribute to the discussions, to see if he could provide some solution to closing the rift. But the truth was that he wanted to see Prescott.

He arrived to find the bridge crowded.

Kirk, Scotty, and KerDaq circled the science station behind Spock.

Uhura was monitoring communications, Sulu and Chekov were conferring on ways to better "surf" the wave, but Prescott was nowhere to be seen.

McCoy walked closer to the duster of people around the science station. Prescott was seated beside Spock, her tiny hands stretched over the console.

Another science officer, recognisable by his blue uniform, sat on Spock's other side.

Appar133 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch entry the Farragut's science of ficer[*thorngg'Lee, if McCoy remembered his name correctly[*thorngg'was a big redheaded man who had a joviality that made Spock seem positively morose.

It was very clear to McCoy that they had made no headway at all.

McCoy stopped beside Kirk. The captain moved aside for him, and McCoy stared down at the computer screens, the scope, and the buttons that marked the tools of Spock's trade. Prescott glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled. It was an absent smile[*thorngg'her mind was clearly elsewhere[*thorn] but it warmed him all the same.

Spock looked up from his scope. "The subspace waves are gaining in intensity, and the rift is widening."

"How long do we have?" Kirk asked.

"Not long," Lee said. His voice was deep. McCoy glanced at him in surprise.

Spock would never have been satisfied with such a vague answer.

"I agree," Spock said. And then he gave the correction McCoy had been expecting. "If we do not find a solution within two hours and ten minutes, no starship will be able to approach the rift.

We will be unable to close it."

Prescott leaned back. McCoy could feel the warmth of her skin against his leg. "I don't understand.

There has to be a source for all this power causing the waves. Can't we just shut down the source? Maybe destroy it?"

KerDaq snorted and rolled his eyes. McCoy never realized that the Klingons could be so expressive without saying a single word.

THE RINGS OF TAUTEE of the rift that Spock had called up earlier.

"We could easily work toward the center of the rift, closing and[*thorn]" "I have to concur with Commander KerDaq," Spock said. "The moment the warp signatures expanded to cover the tear in the universe, both ships would be destroyed. We would, in essence, be creating a feedback loop similar to the original."

"At least the Vulcan has some sense," KerDaq said.

But the others ignored him. Prescott studied the diagram of the rift as if it could expand her scientific knowledge overnight. Lee and Scotty looked at each other, their minds obviously whirling. Then Scotty grabbed a chair and slid it beside the engineering console.

"There has to be a way," he said.

"The doctor might have had the right metaphor," Spock said. "But this is a wound caused by a burning hole in space. It would seem to me that instead of stitching the wound closed, we would need to cauterise it."

"You don't cauterise burns, Spock," McCoy said.

"We are speaking in metaphors, Doctor," Spock said. "We would be closing the wound in the same manner in which it was created."

McCoy was about to protest when he noticed the others around him. Lee and Scotty were frowning, deep in thought. KerDaq no longer looked so disgruntled either.

"It might work," Lee said, softly.

"Aye, lad," Scotty said. "It just might."

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch McCoy shook his head. It was as if both men were reading each other's mind.

"Would someone please explain the idea to me?"

Kirk said, moving around the rail and back down near his chair.

"Captain," Spock said, "if we, along with the Farrag"...lt and two of the Klingon vessels, were to fire full phasers at the rift as a wave began, we would set up a feedback loop between the wave and the ships."

"Increasing the power of the wave," Scotty said.

"And turning the wave back on itself," Lee finished.

Spock nodded. "Effectively closing the rift in space."

"Electively, Mister Spock?" Kirk asked.

"I don't think it matters how we do it, Jim," McCoy said, not sure if he understood the concept either, "just that the rift gets closed."

"My ships will help with such a solution," Ker-Daq said, his voice full and firm, as if the decision was now made.

McCoy glanced at the Klingon. His arms were still crossed over his chest, but he looked less threatening suddenly, as if the solution had calmed something within him.

"Captain," Spock said, swiveling on his chair, and nearly knocking Prescott aside.

McCoy put a hand on her back to steady her.

"There is a problem."

"Of course," Kirk said, taking a deep breath. "Isn't there always?"

THE RINGS OF TAUTEE Rather like human teenagers.

Science Officer Lee shook his head as if he couldn't believe her stupidity. Spock ignored her.

But Scotty looked at her with compassion.

"There is a source, lass," he said. "The universe is like a person's body. A person[*thorn]" He glanced at KerDaq.

"[*thorngg'well, a human at any rate, has a heart that is the main source of power within the body. The universe has a heart, for lack of a better word, an energy source that keeps the universe running. Your fusion reaction tapped that source of universal power. The problem you gave us, though, is that there is now a hole between universes, allowing the power of Universe A to spill over into Universe B at an ever-increasing rate. We just happen to be in Universe B."

The analogy wasn't as precise as Scotty had thought it was, but it still set mental bells ringing for McCoy. He had never pictured the universe like a being, with a heart and lungs, and all. If he tried to stretch the analogy, it failed. But when he first pictured it, he got an image.

And an idea.

"Jim," McCoy said, stepping forward. "What Scotty is saying, if I hear this right, is that this hole in space is very much like a bleeding cut on a human?"

"The analogy is, in fact, faulty," Spock said, "because a human does not bleed into another[*thorn]" "Give him a minute, Spock," Kirk said.

"You have an idea, Bones?"

McCoy nodded. He could feel the excitement of a new[*thorngg'correct[*thorn)'.covery welling within him. 135 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch "When a patient has a cut, you don't close the entire thing at once. You work from the sides, stopping the expansion and closing it slowly."

Spock tilted his head, and gazed at a spot between all of them. McCoy knew that look.

Spock was deep in thought.

"You close it from the ends," Scotty said.

"Not from the middle," Lee said almost simultaneously.

"We could be[*thorn]" "[*thorngg'farther away[*thorn]" "[*thorngg'and still close[*thorn]" "Gentlemen?" Kirk said, obviously hoping to stop the cacophony. The two men were clearly speaking the same language, but no one else could understand the subtext. They had an idea and it seemed to match.

"Captain," Scotty said, his dark eyes alight with the beauty of his idea. "If we can get close enough we could expand our warp shields out over a corner of the rip."

"The Farragut could do the same," Lee said, "on the other side, at the same time."

Spock tilted his head the other way, as if he were picturing it all. Then his gaze met Kirk's.

"That would effectively let the covered area seal itself," Spock said.

"And both ships would implode," KerDaq said, from behind them, making McCoy jump. "I will not participate in such a foolhardy mission with Klingon ships."

Scotty leaned forward, put his hand on the console, and touched the two-dimensional image 136 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE McCoy almost laughed. Kirk was right. Solu-tions never seemed to come easy with this crew. If the time wasn't short, then the solution was impossible.

He couldn't begin to remember how many times this crew had made the impossible happen.

Spock continued as if Kirk hadn't even spoken. "The resulting closure of the rift will be sudden. It will send out a final subspace wave of approximately two hundred times the destructive power we are currently experiencing."