The Rings of Tautee (16 page)

And motionless.

"How much time do we have before we need to close that hole?" Kirk asked. 174 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE "Twenty-six minutes, Captain." Spock didn't even glance into his scope. Instead he kept scanning surrounding space for more survivors.

Kirk nodded and sat down in his chair. Its ruined pad felt almost welcome. He tapped his comm button. "Mister Scott. Are the last survivors out of that mine?"

They had been pulling two hundred more Tauteean survivors from a deep mine on an asteroid in the remains of the sixth planet. From Mister Spock's last count, they had rescued nine hundred and sixty Tauteeans.

They had no idea how many the two Klingon ships or the Farragut had found.

"Aye, sir. We've got the last few and are awaiting coordinates for more," Scotty said.

"Although I don't know where we'll put 'em."

More survivors. There wouldn't be any more. Even though he wanted there to be. He shook his head, marveling at the choices before him. A thousand was simply not enough.

A small difference . . .

"dis . . is better than no difference at all," he muttered.

"Captain?" Uhura asked. She had turned, hand to her ear, as if she had heard him in the intercom.

He shook his head again. "Just muttering, Lieutenant."

He punched the intercom button again to the transporter room. "Good work, Mister Scott.

Stand by."

"Aye, sir," Scotty said.

Kirk was running out of the time or the luxury to worry about all the Tauteeans he couldn't rescue. 175 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch All he could do now, when he had quiet time[*thorngg'if he ever had quiet time ag[*thorngg'was hope that Spock's estimates were wrong, that they had found every last survivor.

That was a possibility, wasn't it?

But he knew better than to ask.

"Captain," Spock said, glancing up from his scope. "I have found a large group of survivors in a deep, underground mining area on the fourth planet."

"How large?" Kirk wasn't really sure he wanted to know the answer.

"I would estimate there to be over eight hundred, sir."

"Eight hundred. We can't[*thorn]" Suddenly the lights flickered and then went out. In the half second of total darkness, Kirk stood.

This was too much. Then the emergency lights came on-line. The display screens and the instrumentation panels provided most of the light. The crew looked ghostly, but they had all retained their positions.

"We have had a full power loss, Captain," Spock said. "All of the sensors are down."

"Communications are out," Uhura said.

"The helm is not responding," Sulu said.

Kirk glanced around, not really believing what was happening. Suddenly they were completely dead and blind in the middle of the most dangerous debris field this side of Earth.

Quickly he slammed his fist onto the comm button.

"Scatty! What's going on?"

There was a moment of silence; then a quavering 176 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE voice said, "Mister Scott is in the transporter room."

Kirk knew that. He had hit engineering by force of habit. He hit the comm button for the transporter room. "Mister Scott! Status!"

This time, Scotty's voice responded immediately. "Well, Captain, from what I can tell here, all this shaking and rattling around caused a short somewhere in the main circuits. The short caused a power spike large enough to knock out the main power couplings. Most of the systems are off-line."

"We noticed,"" Kirk said. "We can't run like this, Scotty. We need power. Now."

"I know, sir. I'll do what I can. But at the moment, I canna get you more power."

Kirk leaned toward the arm of his seat. "How long will it take to get the power back on-line?"

"I'm heading for engineering now," Scotty said.

"It shouldn't be very long."

"How long, Mister Scott?"

"Ach, five minutes, maybe six," Scotty said.

"Captain," Spock said, without turning around, "the next subspace wave will hit us in exactly two minutes and eight seconds."

"Mister Scott, you have two minutes."

"Aye, sir," Scotty said.

Kirk hoped two minutes was enough time. Because if it wasn't, the Enterprise and the thousand Tauteean survivors on board would be smashed to a pulp against the nearest asteroid.

Chapter Twenty-five "CAPTAIN," Science Officer Lee said, glancing up from his scope. His voice seemed to shake and his face looked pale in the blue light from his panel. "The Enterprise is in trouble."

"What?" Bogle jumped up from his command chair.

He'd spent most of the last hour there in silence, riding out the bumps of the subspace waves, and thinking, letting his crew handle the few rescue operations. Kirk's last communique before the Enterprise went into the rings on a rescue operation had been addressed to both him and Admiral Hoffman at Starfleet. Kirk had reasoned that without the Federation and Klingons closing the rift, the Tauteean race might have a chance of survival.

A small chance, but chance nonetheless. Therefore, since the Federation was causing the 178 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE final destruction of the Tauteean system to save itself, a rescue operation was justified. The Prime Directive no longer applied.

Kirk had a good argument, but it was nothing more than that. Hoffman might buy it. She wasn't here.

She hadn't seen the rings, or the destruction. She didn't know just how devastating it was.

But Bogle did. And he wasn't convinced. The Tauteeans would have died if the Federation didn't exist. They would have died if no one had come into their sector. They would die five days sooner because of Federation interference, but no race could save itself in only five days.

Not in circumstances like these.

Not with this kind of rift, in these kind of waves, with the Tauteeans' level of technology.

Jim Kirk knew that, and Kelly Bogle knew that.

Bogle respected Kirk enough not to argue the point at this time. But that was it. If he was called to testify, he knew what he would say.

"Sir?" Lee said.

Bogle stood and moved over to the science station.

"Can you tell what's happening?" Bogle asked.

"They seem to have suddenly lost all power and engines."

Behind him Bogle heard a few gasps from his bridge crew. Without power or engines, the Enterprise would not survive in those waves. Damn Kirk.

Bogle turned to Gustavus. "Hail them."

"Yes, sir," she said. "Farragut to Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise."

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch Bogle waited in silence.

"Farragut to Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise."

Nothing. Bogle rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, an old nervous habit he thought he'd lost.

"Farragut to Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise."

Kirk had caused this. Kirk had gone in with no regard for Federation dictates, and now Kirk and his ship had become Bogle's responsibility.

"They may have lost communication in the power outage," Lee said. "It appears to be a shipwide failure. If that is the case, they probably also have lost sensors."

Bogle glanced at the front screen, which showed the huge debris fields slowly forming rings around the Tauteean sun. A ship stranded in there, without power, had no chance of survival.

Bogle didn't want to know the answer to the next question, but he had to ask it. "How long until the next subspace wave hits them?"

Lee studied his scope for a moment, his fingers dancing on his control board. Finally he said, "Less than two minutes, sir."

Bogle stood frozen for a moment. Not enough time to get there and help. Not enough time at all.

But he could at least try.

He turned to Rodriguez. "Take us in to the position of the Enterprise at the safest and fastest possible course."

After just a second Rodriguez said, "The course is plotted."

"Do it," Bogle said. Then he turned to Lee. "Keep an eye on that wave and make sure it doesn't slam us into a damn rock."

THE RINGS OF TAUTEE "Understood, sir."

Bogle sat down and watched the big screen.

There was little he could do now. He had to trust the skill of his navigator and his science officer. He had no other choice.

The Farragut and the Enterprise were his responsibility. He had to risk his own ship to go after James Kirk.

He hated that.

And right now he hated Jim Kirk more than anything.

Chapter Twenty-six BEIND, DEAF, TRAPPED in a lifeless ship in the middle of a debris field. With a subspace wave on the way.

Kirk glanced at Prescott. She had gone very pale.

She knew what was happening.

It had happened to her before. All of her people had been in this situation before.

He had risked his ship and his life to save as many of them as he could. He wouldn't let this stop him.

He would succeed, at any cost.

"One minute until the wave hits, Captain," Spock said.

Kirk pressed the comm button so hard his finger hurt. "Mister Scott, I need power, at least to the impulse engines and the sensors."

"I'm working on it, sir," Scotty said. His voice 182 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE sounded strained and breathless, as if he'd been running.

Kirk took a deep breath and forced himself to glance around, away from the totally blank main screen.

Prescott stood, her hands grasping the rail as if she'd fall off a cliff were she to let go.

Kirk didn't blame her. He couldn't imagine going through what she had experienced the past few weeks.

Sulu continued to work the helm as if he could get control from his seat. Uhura was beneath the communications board, apparently trying to patch things. Chekov was beside her, offering his advice softly.

But Kirk's gaze kept coming back to the blank screen. He felt as if it were a curtain on the rest of the world, hiding but not preventing danger.

Outside the thin hull of this ship, hundreds of huge rocks and asteroids Doated. When the wave hit, the Enterprise would be in for the ride of her life.

Kirk took his finger off the comm button.

"What's our status, Mister Spock?"

"We have full shields, Captain," Spock said, his face intent on the panel before him, "but no sensors or impulse power. Warp drive is still available to us, as are the docking thrusters."

"What's our chance of surviving this next wave?"

"Without impulse power and sensors," Spock said, "we have a ninety-nine-percent chance of being smashed into an asteroid too large for our shields.

There is an eighty-seven-percent chance there will be no survivors from such a collision."

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch "Oh, no," Prescott said into the silence of the bridge. "This can't be happening."

"Sensors are back," Sulu said, his voice almost breaking in the excitement.

Kirk whirled as the main screen lit up, showing them the debris field around them.

"Thirty seconds until the wave hits," Spock said.

That last minute and a half had been the longest of Kirk's life.

"Mister Spock," Kirk asked, still staring at the screen, "can we move quickly enough with docking thrusters to avoid collisions?"

"No, sir," Spock said.

"Scotty?" Kirk said, holding his finger down on the comm button. "There's no time left. We need impulse power."

He didn't expect Scotty to answer.

"Mister Spock, give Sulu the course just in case."

"I have already done so, Captain," Spock said.

Chekov made his way back down the bridge, returning to his position. Uhura had climbed back into her chair. Apparently the rewiring hadn't worked.

Kirk stepped forward and patted Sulu on the shoulder. "If we don't have impulse when the wave hits, do your best with the docking thrusters. Avoid what you can."

"Aye, sir," Sulu said.

"Ten seconds," Spock said.

Kirk retreated and sat down in his command chair.

"Nine seconds," Spock said. 184 THE RINGS OF TAUTEE His voice almost sounded calmer than the computer's.

"Eight."

Kirk grimaced. It seemed like his entire life had been lived with countdowns.

"Seven."

Maybe he did prefer the computer's voice.

He was used to it counting the seconds of his life away.

"six."

"Scatty," he said softly, not bothering to punch the comm button.

"Five."

"Hold on, everyone," Kirk said, making certain he sounded calm.

"Four."

"Captain," Scotty's voice cut through the bridge. "You got your power."

"Three."

Kirk took a deep breath. "It's all yours, Mister Sulu."

"Two."

The ship moved forward.

"One.", The moaning started and the wave hit with the force of an angry child pounding on an unwanted toy.

To Kirk this wave felt more intense than any of the others. He didn't know if it really was, or if it just seemed to be because they had come so close to dying with this one.

He managed to maintain his seat. Everyone on the bridge stayed at their stations and Prescott 185 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch remained standing as the pounding shook the ship. It was amazing they hadn't had something fail before now.

Then the wave passed.

And they were still alive.

Every face on the bridge, except for Spock's, had an ear-to-ear smile. Kirk could feel himself smiling as well.

"Nice work, Mister Scott," Kirk said into the intercom.

"My poor girl will need every nut and bolt tightened after this ride," Scotty said.

"At Starbase Eleven, Mister Scott. I promise."

"I'll hold you to that, Captain."

"The Farragut is approaching," Chekov said.

"And they're hailing us," Uhura said.

Kirk's grin widened. He had an idea that just might work, now that Bogle had come charging to their rescue. He turned to Mister Spock. "Do we still have time to rescue those survivors you spotted?"

"Barely, sir," Spock said. "We have twenty minutes until we need to close the rift."

"That's enough time," Kirk said.

"Eight hundred people, sir," Chekov said.

"They'll be hanging off the rafters."