Star Trek The Original Series - 01 - The Motion Picture by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780671723002
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1979-06-09T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Captain’s log, stardate 7413.9. Navigational scanners have picked up Intruder and our plot indicates no change in Intruder velocity or heading. We expect a visual within five minutes.

As Kirk completed his log entry, Decker handed him the status readouts. He scanned it, turned toward the helm.

“Navigational scans off; reduce navigational deflections to minimum,” Kirk ordered.

“Forward scans off,” Sulu said. “Deflectors to minimum.”

Kirk’s eyes scanned the bridge, checking off station by station that nothing on the starship could possibly indicate that they were either planning or expecting an attack. It had been as small a thing as a sensor scan which had brought on the destruction of Epsilon Nine. Kirk turned to the helm.

“Navigator?”

“I have a conic interception and pursuit course laid in, sir,” Ilia said.

“Linguacode?”

We are transmitting basic friendship code and standing by with full-range repeats, sir,” reported Uhura.

Kirk checked to see that Spock was at the science station and relief crew members were at all emergency positions. McCoy came in and fixed himself behind Kirk’s shoulder.

“Are we full mag on viewer?” Kirk asked.

“Full mag,” Sulu confirmed. “Still nothing in sight, sir.”

They would see something soon enough with the huge cloud moving toward them at warp seven and themselves moving toward the cloud even faster. The incredible speed of their combined closure rate was complicated by the unusual mechanics of hyperspace, and an eyeblink of a navigational error could see them flashing past the Intruder-cloud and a million stars past it. But Kirk had confidence in the Deltan.

The conic interception to be used would see them passing to one side, but always with the “nose” of the Enterprise headed at the center of the strange cloud. Thus, as Enterprise passed the cloud, the starship would be traveling sideways but still heading directly toward it until the starship’s path took it in directly behind the cloud, almost as if attached to it by a rubber string. Once behind the cloud, Enterprise could overtake it from the rear, permitting Kirk to approach the cloud as slowly or as rapidly as he chose. To anyone looking out the nose of the starship, the conic interception would make it appear that they had always been approaching the cloud head-on but more and more slowly as they got close to it.

The Klingons had not intercepted the cloud this way. Kirk hoped that any star-traveling intelligence would immediately understand the Enterprise maneuver for the peaceful interception that it was.

“Do you see it, sir?” It was Decker asking. Kirk realized that a hush had fallen over the bridge some seconds ago.

“Thank you, Mr. Decker. Commander Uhura, you can begin transmitting full-range friendship signals.”

Kirk was glad that he had remembered that communications were to be expanded on sighting the cloud. Otherwise, Will Decker might have suspected that the man who replaced him was daydreaming at this significant moment. Yes, he did have it in sight now, too. It was hardly a pinpoint of just slightly warmer color than the coalesced star mass ahead.

“Go to red alert,” Kirk said quietly.

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