Star Trek The Original Series - 105 - New Earth 4 - The Flaming Arrow by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780671785628
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 2000-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-one

KIRK AWOKE to the insistent beeping of a communicator. It took him a moment to place where he was; the room was pitch dark, and it didn’t have the familiar acoustics of his shipboard cabin.

Then he smelled the waxy candle smoke and the flowery, feminine aroma that could be found only in a woman’s bedroom, and he remembered where he was. He slipped out of bed and felt for his clothing on the chair beneath the window, found the communicator, and stepped into the living room before flipping it open.

“Kirk here,” he said softly.

“Captain,” said Lieutenant Uhura. “I’ve got an incoming message from Dr. McCoy.”

McCoy? What would Bones be calling him for at this hour? It was even later ship’s time than here on the planet. “Put him through,” he said, already dreading the news.

“Jim?” came the doctor’s voice.

“What is it, Bones?”

“Well, I wish I could tell you I’ve got good news and bad news, but the fact is, I’ve got bad news and bad news. Which do you want first?”

Kirk moved deeper into the living room. “I’m not in the mood for jokes,” he said.

“Well, that’s good, ’cause that’s the only humor you’re likely to hear for a while. We found that Kauld fleet you were so sure was out here.”

Kirk felt the hair at the back of his neck start to stand out. “You did? Are you all right?”

“They didn’t spot us. They were doing war games, breaking in three new ships that look like they can beat the pants off the Enterprise. But that’s not going to be our first problem. According to somebody we met out here, the Kauld built a great big laser about five light-days out from Belle Terre. Olivium-powered, and big enough to fry the whole damn planet when the beam hits.”

He felt like he’d been hit already, sucker-punched in the gut. Five light-days out. That was the edge of interstellar space. Nobody had thought to look for problems out there, because nobody went there except to pass through under warp power on the way to somewhere else. If the builders were careful with their energy leakage they wouldn’t even need Gamma Night to hide their activity until they fired it. That would make a subspace ripple big enough to trigger alarms, but of course if they timed it right, every subspace sensor in the Belle Terre system would be blanked out at the time.

The Enterprise had to find it before they fired it, but a spherical shell five light-days out was a big volume to search. “Do you know what direction it’s in?”

“I got ’em to draw us a star map of what they could see from their point of view while they were working on it, so that ought to narrow it down, but it won’t do you any good to find it.”

“Why not?”

“Because if we can believe the two Kauld soldiers that told us about it, they’ve already fired it. The beam is on its way.”

Kirk looked out the window at the starlight painting the front yard in delicate shades of silver.

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