Star Trek: The Original Series: The Shocks of Adversity (31 page)

“I’ll be damned,” McCoy said. “He got through to them.”

Kirk shared the doctor’s incredulity. “Uhura, can you raise the
814
?” The lieutenant acknowledged affirmatively, and a moment later, Laspas appeared
on the main viewscreen, no longer wearing his Corps uniform. Behind him, Kirk saw
N’Mi pacing the foredeck of the command center, issuing orders. “Laspas, that was
quite a speech you gave,” Kirk told him. “It seems to have stopped your fellow starvessel
commander dead in his tracks.”

“Yes, it would seem so,”
Laspas said, the corners of his mouth stretched as far back as they could go.
“Though I think they were probably more shocked by my refusal of the 9-109. That’s
the sort of thing that only happens in bad military fiction.”

Kirk returned the Goeg’s smile. “But it seems, at least, they are willing to listen
to you.”

“Well, if they are,”
Laspas said,
“I’m willing to talk.”

“But if not,”
N’Mi interjected, moving forward to the commander’s side,
“we should avoid letting Nalaing become a target.”

“Yes.”
Laspas nodded, and then turned to his crew and ordered,
“Standby code 2-43.”
He then turned back and said,
“I suspect our paths will not cross again, James.”

“Never say never,” Kirk told him. “I wish you luck.”

Laspas dipped his head low and said,
“Thank you, my friend.
Windracer
out.”

“Windracer?” McCoy repeated. “What’s Windracer?”

Kirk looked to McCoy and told him, with a glint of amusement in his eye, “
Windracer,
Doctor, is a good name for a starship. Chekov,” he then called to the navigator,
“course laid in?”

“Laid in, sir,” the ensign answered.

“Then let’s be on our way.”

The
Enterprise
broke free of the station, and the planet fell away behind them.

“Godspeed, Kawhye,” Kirk offered quietly, as the
Enterprise
jumped to warp.

My thanks go out to the following:

To the folks at Pocket Books and CBS for giving me the opportunity to tell this story.

To the fans who create invaluable online resources, particularly those behind Memory
Alpha (
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/
) and The Star Trek LCARS Blueprint Database (
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints-main2.php
).

To the numerous local coffee shops where I camped out over the course of writing this
book, for use of the space and for free refills.

To A.M., D.B., and M.R., for their friendship and encouragements.

To fellow
Trek
authors and friends Kevin Dilmore, David R. George III, Robert Greenberger, David
Mack, and Dayton Ward for their camaraderie, and especially to Scott Pearson, for
allowing me to occasionally be a terrible person.

WILLIAM LEISNER began his professional writing career with three winning stories in
the late, lamented
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
competition. His
Star Trek: The Next Generation
novel
Losing the Peace
was chosen as one of the top media tie-in novels of 2009 by Unreality-SF.net and
by SciFiChick.com. He has also written for the shared-world fantasy series
ReDeus
. His original fiction has appeared in
Lissette’s Tales of Imagination
and the 2013 anthology
A Quiet Shelter There
. He is currently at work on a historical fantasy novel set in the American West,
and maybe a few other ideas. A native of Rochester, New York, he currently lives in
Minneapolis.

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First Pocket Books paperback edition June 2013

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ISBN 978-1-4767-2240-5

ISBN 978-1-4767-2242-9 (ebook)

Cover design by Alan Dingman

Cover art by Michael Stetson