Star Trek

By Jecel

The silence on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise was continuously interrupted by small beeps from the various panels manned by the busy crew. Captain James T. Kirk, however, heard nothing as he sat in the command chair, for his thoughts were light-years away.

Just three days ago he had been sitting in the briefing room on his ship facing five admirals with very serious faces on the room's large viewscreen. Such real time, long distance conferences were almost unheard of, but quite justified in this case as conflicting reports of Romulan vessels sighted on this side of the neutral zone had reached Star Fleet Command. Kirk was frustrated as the admirals seemed to hesitate and disagree between themselves. He had argued that no matter how unlikely the rumors might be, they could not risk to repeat what had happened the last time a Romulan ship had invaded Federation territory. Kirk could not remember that incident without being overwhelmed by a sense of great loss. All those innocent lives so stupidly destroyed! Yet his ever logical first officer, Mr. Spock, agreed with Command's conclusion that this time they were dealing with harmless smugglers who made their ships look Romulan, hoping to scare away anyone who might interfere.

"That's crazy!", Kirk had raged, "That would bring the whole Star Fleet on them, and the one thing smugglers want least of all is to attract attention!"

But Star Fleet would not be in force after those mysterious ships, for it had been pointed out that real enemy vessels would use their cloaking devices to pass invisible and undetected into the Federation, if they ever tried to break the peace treaty again. Everybody was pretty upset by the time the meeting ended, and Kirk had a hard time letting the issue go.

Forcing himself to concentrate on the present mission, he asked "Estimated time to Quantatu, Mr. Sulu?"

"Approximately five point eight hours, present speed, Captain." the helmsman promptly replied, having expected the question for the last few minutes.

They were taking a team of specialists to study the source of some strange planetquakes detected on that gigantic chunk of rock, home to just four dillethium miners. The captain wondered why a smaller ship couldn't have been arranged for this purpose, freeing the Enterprise to keep a close watch on the Zerinsky asteroid belt, where two Romulan sightings had occurred. "How far is the Zerinsky system from Quantatu?" Kirk asked, always planning ahead, determined to be always prepared for any emergency.

Sulu turned around looking surprised, "Quantatu is in the Zerinsky system!" Kirk, of course, knew that. He was a little embarrassed for having forgotten it, but couldn't help smiling at the idea of Star Fleet trying to seem casual about this whole phantom enemy ship business, yet having a starship around... just in case. It wasn't usual for them not to discuss with him all the implications of a mission, though, and he became very annoyed as he tried to figure out the reasons for their odd behavior. The lack of consensus among the admirals probably had a lot to do with it.

He didn't have time to brood on that for long before Lt. Uhura interrupted, "A message from Emperor John of New Dorset, Sir!"

"On screen, Lieutenant" Kirk ordered, composing himself to deal with an unpleasant surprise, which no doubt awaited him. He was indeed surprised when a young, angry face greeted him from the bridge's main viewscreen instead of the smiling old man he expected.

"I was expecting Emperor John..." he started informing the young man, who cut him short.

"I am Emperor John V of New Dorset, Captain Kirk! My father, John IV, was brutally murdered just a few hours ago." He paused for a moment, watching Kirk's reaction as the meaning of his unbelievable words became clear. "The assassin has fled in one of our ships" he continued in ill controlled tones. "Sabotage has delayed our pursuit for several hours. We request your assistance. If you could intercept and hold that ship for us, we would be very grateful, Captain! Otherwise, I fear that the guilty will escape unpunished."

New Dorset was a traditional ally of the Federation. It was one of Zanthus III's large moons, and the Enterprise would pass very close to the huge planet anyway. The slow moving spaceships could not be far, by starship standards, from their home base. Since good relations with this new Emperor were now so important and his request would delay Kirk's mission no more than half an hour, he did not hesitate to answer "Of course! We will do everything in our power to help your quest for justice!" Besides, Kirk thought, it might be a good thing to have the suspected killer in his custody while the facts were cleared up, for he felt that justice was not exactly what John V had in mind.

"Thank you, Enterprise! Once again, our friendship with the Federation is proven well founded."

Immediately the viewscreen was filled with a still image of very attractive young woman as the Emperor continued, "This is Jane Jordan, the killer! She seems to be alone in the stolen shuttle, but the sabotage of our other ships shows that more people might be involved. Of course, that's being carefully checked back home."

"Fascinating" muttered Mr. Spock to himself. Kirk did not need to glance at his friend to know that a raised eyebrow would greet him as the only expression of the sole emotion the Vulcan would ever allow himself: curiosity. As he studied the girl's small, fine features framed by her flowing red hair, he wondered what, exactly, Spock found so fascinating. He certainly would not share Kirk's opinion the she didn't look like a killer. Were such a thing to be suggested, he would inevitably argue that "A specific physical appearance is not a necessary condition for violent crime." The Captain made a mental note to ask about that later and, once again, focused his attention on the new Emperor's explanation about evidence that Zanthus IV was somehow involved with this murder.

"Thank you, Captain Kirk!" he said, looking not at all thankful, but rather like someone who had satisfied himself that he was getting his due. "This will not be forgotten. I will wait for your message when you have secured that ship" he concluded as the usual shifting field of stars filled the main viewscreen once more.

Mr. Spock, peering intensely into his instruments, spoke with an unemotional voice "Eight ships on a low power trajectory from New Dorset to Tanashiro. Seven are grouped in a close formation and the other has a five point two hour lead. Estimated target arrival at destination: thirty-one point six hours."

"Mr. Sulu, you have the coordinates." Kirk stated, rather than asked. "I want an intercept course at warp seven, with a full stop within tractor-beam range of that ship!" he added, guessing that there would be no weapons on such a small shuttle. He turned towards Mr. Spock, waiting for him to confirm his suspicions as Sulu replied: "Intercept in one minute, forty three seconds." Just in time! A few more seconds and their maneuver would have to have been a complicated curve, called the Lorentz Turn , instead of the simple detour that the Enterprise had just taken. They would have lost many precious minutes, or perhaps even half an hour. The subtle collective sigh of relief told Mr. Sulu that everyone on the bridge was well aware of that fact, so he made no comment.

"Scanning the target ship..." Spock continued, "... one life form aboard ... no detectable weapons. The Enterprise would, however, sustain considerable damage if the shuttle were to self-destruct at a short distance."

Kirk nodded as he turned his chair back to the viewscreen. "Understood, Mr. Spock. Mr. Chekov! Tractor-beam, stand by to engage as soon as we stop. Phaser bank one, stand by. Any sign of engine overload and I want that ship blown to bits!"

"Aye, aye, Keptin!" answered the navigator, his thick Russian accent barely hiding his strain as he fiddled with his control panels to carry out the orders. There would be no room for error!

"One minute to intercept!" called out Mr. Sulu. Silence once more reigned on the bridge until Sulu started the final count-down. "Fifteen seconds to intercept! Thirteen ... twelve ... eleven ..." A small white object seemed to float just outside as the main screen searched ahead in ever decreasing magnification to compensate for their inconceivably fast approach. "... ten ... nine ... eight ... seven ... six ... five ..."

"Abnormal energy readings!" warned Spock.

"Mr. Chekov!" yelled the captain, standing up almost at the same time the phasers fired! The intense blue light faded away into empty space, however, for their quarry had jerked to the left and then simply vanished just a moment before!

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© Jecel Assumpcao Jr, 1988