STAR TREK: TOS #11 - The Yesterday Saga I - Yesterday's Son by A.C. Crispin

Author:A.C. Crispin [Crispin, A.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-08-06T16:23:11.386000+00:00

Zar was confused and excited. He’d awakened from a restless sleep to find a message flashing on the screen in his quarters. Now, in response to Spock’s orders, he hurried through the corridors toward sickbay. The ship was strangely deserted, and a yellow light flashed from each signal panel. A contingent of security personnel, including his friend David, passed him at a dead run, as though he were invisible.

Sickbay was a scene of furious activity. Doctor McCoy, Nurse Chapel and the other medical personnel were checking and sorting supplies, and rigging temporary cots in the labs. McCoy looked up and saw the younger man standing hesitantly in the doorway. “Zar—glad you’re here. Go into the storage area and lug that old-fashioned coronary stimulator and the battery resuscitator into that corner there. If we lose power we may need them.”

The Chief Surgeon kept all of them scrambling for the next two hours, then straightened, looking around the transformed sickbay, and addressed his staff. “Guess that’s all we can do for now. Report back when we go to red alert. Zar, you stay here.”

When they were alone, the younger man looked wonderingly at the preparations. “What’s going to happen?”

“You mean nobody told you?”

“No, Mr. Spock just told me to come here and help you any way I could.”

“Well, Spock’s got a lot of things on his mind, I guess. We’ve received a distress call from the [103] Lexington, another Federation starship. She reported unauthorized entry of Romulan vessels into our space. When you’re talking about Romulans, that generally means an act of war.”

“War? You mean the Enterprise is going to fight?” The gray eyes gleamed.

“Probably, and don’t get any ideas about going up to the bridge. The Captain would toss you out on your pointed ear. You’re staying down here, where you’ll be out of the way. I can use those muscles of yours to help if there are casualties.”

“When will we fight?”

“I don’t know. We’d better get there soon, or our engines will burn out, and our first patient will be Scotty.”

“And I have to stay here? There’s nothing to see!”

McCoy sighed. “Bloodthirsty, aren’t you? Get this straight, Zar. There is absolutely nothing glamorous or thrilling about any war, and interstellar conflicts are no exception. You’ll realize that when you see your friends coming through that door—horizontally.”

“I’ve heard of the Romulans, but very little. They’re deadly and brutal enemies, according to what I’ve read. What are they like?”

McCoy’s grin was sardonic. “Go look in the mirror.”

“They’re Vulcans?”

“Not exactly. An offshoot of the parent stock that went their separate way long before Vulcans adopted their philosophy of peace and total objectivity. The Romulans are what the Vulcans were long ago—unprincipled and warlike. As far as we know, their culture is a kind of military theocracy. Not too unlike the ancient Spartans of Earth’s history.”

Zar nodded absently, suddenly withdrawn. “I’ve read of them. ‘With your shield or on it.’ Like the Japanese culture of the early twentieth century on Earth.”

McCoy’s eyes had narrowed, watching him.

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