Star Trek: New Earth: Thin Air by Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith

Author:Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780671785772
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1971-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

“One minute until Gamma Night,” Sulu said.

Kirk stared at the big screen in front of him. It was showing the land areas of Belle Terre below the Enterprise that could possibly hold a laser relay station for a Kauld observation post. It was only the most northern area of the planet’s largest continent, and a small chain of frozen islands. The entire land area was covered in snow and in places a thick layer of ice.

They had done a preliminary scan of the area, but found nothing. Spock had suggested that was caused by heavy shielding and asked permission to make sure they penetrated the shielding with the phaser fire.

Kirk had told him to do what he considered best.

So for the last twenty minutes they had just waited.

If those Kauld warships were really guarding an observation post, and if Mr. Spock’s theory that the observation post got its information by laser during Gamma Night, then in just a few seconds they were going to melt some ice on the surface when they destroyed that station.

“Thirty seconds to Gamma Night,” Sulu said.

Kirk turned to Spock. “Everything ready?”

“Ready, Captain,” Spock said. “I’ll show whatever activity we have on the screen.”

“Mr. Sulu,” Kirk asked, “are the phasers armed and ready?”

“At Mr. Spock’s command, sir,” Sulu said.

The next few seconds ticked by slowly. Kirk watched the screen, waiting. If they were wrong about any number of assumptions, nothing was going to happen. But as Mr. Spock had said, the percentages were that they were correct.

“Energy spike on the surface,” Spock said.

On the screen Kirk could see a bright red spot appear near the edge of a vast ice field. Suddenly bright red lines streaked at it from twenty different directions around the planet. Those lines showed communications coming into the energy location.

They had been right. The Kauld had been gathering data from all over Belle Terre and sending it every Gamma Night.

The familiar sound of the Enterprise phasers firing filled the bridge. Twice.

Pause.

Then twice more.

Pause.

Then twice more.

Spock was taking no chances on not destroying the target, which was fine with Kirk.

“Target destroyed,” Spock said.

“We’re in Gamma Night,” Sulu announced.

The screen in front of him went fuzzy.

Kirk hated Gamma Night, but at the moment he bet there was a group of Kauld on an asteroid that were going to hate it even more over the next ten hours.

“Play back what just happened,” Kirk said. “I want close-ups if we have them.”

“We do,” Spock said as the screen showed a barren ice-covered small hill on an otherwise flat ice plain.

“That bump the relay station?” Kirk asked.

“It was,” Spock said.

An instant later the camera showed the first two phasers striking the station in slow motion, melting the ice down to the building and then through the thick shielding to the machinery inside.

It hadn’t been a very large building, but big enough for a buried and shielded power plant large enough to fire a laser across the system to the asteroid.

The next Enterprise phaser strikes caused a massive explosion of equipment.

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