“Kirk,” Korax said loudly. He smiled at the same time that his eyes seemed filled with hatred. “You managed to conduct a battle without the help of the Organians.” The issue of the powerful incorporeal beings had concerned and confused Starfleet Command, Kirk knew. They had prevented a war between the Federation and the Klingons three years ago, essentially forcing a ceasefire upon both parties, but they had taken no action since then, even when conflicts such as this one had broken out. “Could it be because the Organians don’t approve of Starfleet attempting to build a new weapon to use against us?”
Before her ship had been rammed and obliterated by the Vintahg, Captain Chelsea of the U.S.S. Clemson had warned Kirk that this had been the Klingons’ claim, their justification for sending a quartet of warships here. The charge had no merit, but he also knew that the Klingons must have detected the waves of time displacement emanating from the nearby planet. Although Starfleet had not created the Guardian of Forever, nor intended to employ it as a weapon, Kirk could not dispute its potential use in such a manner. Still, he said, “There is no weapon, Korax.”
“Then you won’t mind me sending a landing party down to the planet to investigate for myself,” the Klingon said.
“Not at all,” Kirk told him, bluffing. He could afford the pretense. With most of the Gr’oth’s systems down, the heavy casualties it had sustained, and its life support on the verge of failure, the Klingon crew would be fortunate simply to escape the current circumstances with their lives.
Amazingly, Korax actually laughed. “Funny,” he said. “The captains of the Minerva and the Clemson didn’t seem quite so accommodating as you.”
Though he did not reveal the fact, just the mention of the two Starfleet vessels that had been lost to the Klingons enraged Kirk. To cover his fury, he stood from his command chair. “I’m an accommodating fellow,” he said equably. “Let us transport your crew aboard the Enterprise before your life support fails.”
Korax threw his head back and laughed loudly. “You are an amusing fellow, Kirk,” he said when he’d finished. “I look forward to bringing your ship back to the Empire. A minor trophy, to be sure, but still a trophy.”
In Kirk’s head, a red alert sounded. Along with what Korax had just said came the realization that, although the Gr’oth had lost weapons and shields and many other systems, its transporters might still be functioning. In that instant, aware that his own ship’s shields remained down, Kirk knew that Korax meant to board the Enterprise. “Uhura!” he called. The lieutenant immediately cut communications with the Gr’oth, and the image of the enemy vessel floating through space returned to the main viewscreen. “Chekov, fire torpedoes!”
The ensign operated his controls, to no effect. “Captain, weapons are all offline.”
Damn! “Clear the bridge!” Kirk ordered. Korax would send a boarding party here and to engineering first, he knew. He looked around and saw Haines rising from her position at the sciences station, Uhura from communications, and Lieutenant Leslie from the primary engineering console, but Sulu and Chekov still sat at their posts. “Now!” he yelled, and the two men finally moved. Kirk waited for the young ensign to pass him, then followed him up the steps to the outer section of the bridge.
By the time Kirk arrived at the turbolift, the entire bridge crew had entered before him. As he himself stepped inside the car, he saw Sulu’s eyes widen, the lieutenant peering past him, back onto the bridge. Kirk guessed in that moment that the Klingons had begun to materialize behind him. He reached for the lift’s activation wand, but Leslie already had his hand on it. “Deck two,” the lieutenant said. Kirk expected a disruptor bolt to blast him in two at any moment, but then the doors squeaked closed behind him. As the turbolift started to descend, he realized that they’d actually made it.
And then an explosion rocked the lift, knocking it sideways. Kirk hurtled forward, raising his arms to protect not just himself, but his crewmates. His head struck the side of the lift, and then—
Everything went dark.
Kirk sat in an easy chair, a hardcover novel-the twenty-first-century classic Renaissance and Blues-open on his lap. He’d read the same sentence half a dozen times and now decided to give up altogether. So many thoughts filled his head, though one image in particular kept returning to his mind.
After closing the book, Kirk reached forward and set it atop the bed, then rose and crossed the quarters that Commodore Stocker had assigned him here at Starbase 10. Kirk had been released from the station’s infirmary only this morning, after spending sixteen days there in recovery. The explosion that had demolished the Enterprise bridge and killed the members of a Klingon boarding party had sent the turbolift plunging down its shaft until it had become wedged between decks. All six members of the bridge crew had survived, though Kirk had struck his head and fallen into a coma. During the three days he’d remained unconscious, Scotty and his engineering crew had repaired the ship enough to get it back to base.
When Kirk had finally left Starbase 10’s infirmary this morning, Bones had accompanied him here, to these guest quarters. Later, Spock had arrived with Commodore Stocker to discuss with him all that had happened during and after the Enterprise’s battle with the Klingons. They hadn’t stayed long, promising to return tomorrow after he’d gotten some rest. Spock had seemed oddly reticent to Kirk, but he simply ascribed that to all that his first officer and the rest of the crew had recently endured, perhaps an indication of posttraumatic stress. He imagined that even Vulcans-and particularly half-Vulcans- might not be immune to such disorders.
Kirk reached the computer terminal on the far side of his quarters and sat down before it. Of all that Spock and Stocker had revealed to him today, one thing continued to come back to him. He’d watched with them the visual recording made by the security team aboard the Enterprise shuttlecraft Kepler, and what it had showed deeply disturbed him. He knew that he had no real reason to view it again now, but he found that he couldn’t stop himself.
He worked the terminal console, providing the computer with his security clearance and a request for the Kepler recording. After a moment, the display filled with a frozen split-screen image. On the left, an aerial view showed the Guardian of Forever, standing alone on a vast, broken plain. The irregular, coppery ring stood as he’d always seen it, a strange and inexplicable alien object of great power and potential. Fractured columns and other archeological artifacts littered the ground around it, but since he and the crew of the Enterprise had discovered the place three years ago, the landscape had changed, even if the Guardian had not. When he had first gone there, mounds and walls of rock had surrounded the time vortex, and in the distance, the ruins of a long-dead civilization had provided an eerie backdrop.
After the Enterprise’s initial visit to the world of the Guardian, Starfleet had attempted to construct a research facility there. All such efforts, even those made on the other side of the planet, had failed, wrecked by violent seisms that had altered the landscape. Ruins had been buried, the ground had cracked open in places, rock formations had toppled. The Guardian itself had refused to confirm or deny any part in producing the earthquakes, but Starfleet had believed it responsible, unwilling to allow any construction on the planet’s surface. As a result, the Einstein research station had been built in orbit.