STAR TREK - TOS - 29 - Dreadnought

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Look for STAR TREK fiction from Pocket Books

Chapter One

"ENEMY CRUISERS DEAD ahead!"

"How many,LieutenantBroxon ?"

"Four, Captain. Four."

"Communications, advise them of our situation."

"Aye. Captain Piper, they refuse to receive. Subspace hailing frequencies on reverse scramb—"

"Two more ships, ma'am, bearing point-zero-zero-five and point-zero-fifty. Entering spherical envelope

… Captain, they're firing!"

"Raise shields!"

I already knew it was too late. The critical tactical error resulted in my being hurled backward into my

command chair—not a place I felt worthy of. Only my better-than-average height kept me from

sprawling onto the deck. Staggering up, I barked out the first order I could think of: "Fire at will! Helm,

evasive action!"

IllyaGalinaturned to look at me, his faced limned with panic beneath a cap of sweat-caked blond hair.

"Helm doesn't respond. Direct … direct hit in—"

Our main viewscreen glittered with a new blast. A thought later, impact came, taking out the entire port

side of the bridge and six bridge personnel with it. My hands shook as I dived forward to the mangled

helm, running my fingers over deadened switches, desperate to find even one that would tell me my ship

was still with me. The screen dimmed again as the blast dissipated, leaving only the crackling vista of

Romulan starships maneuvering for the kill. "Dispatch mayday! Divert helm to auxiliary control."

"Aye—ma'am, auxiliary cont—" Communications Officer Page choked, and it was the first time I

realized there was smoke billowing from the upper space sensor platform. He recovered and gasped,

"Auxiliary cannot connect. Can't override damage to main circuitry."

"Engineering! Damage report." I managed to brush my hair out of my face and vowed it would be the

last time I went without a haircut before a voyage. Something within me didn't allow the thought to

penetrate that this might be my last voyage. It very well might be, but they werenot taking my ship.

The intercom crackled with the comfortingly deep voice ofChiefEngineerSilayna ."Impulse drive down.

One warp drive nacelle severely damaged, but marginally operable. Shields fading. Forward

shields gone entirely. Took two direct hits to main engine room and we're trying to—"

"Do I have phasers?"

"—disengage primary pow—"The transmission snapped and died.

"Silayna!Brian , I need phasers!" I grasped at controls that were hot and sparking, vaulting over the

fallen bodies of my bridge crew, and with a stab of horror came the realization that I was alone, alone on

the bridge of a starship. My crew was dead or dying. My ship was much the same. I hurdled the forms of

people I needed badly now, begging and cajoling the instruments to resurrect themselves enough to save

the ship. None would. Even if the main computer was still working, most of the connections had been

severed, rendering useless any order I might think of. I shoved Illya's body away, hammering at the

subspace frequency override. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Captain Piper, Federation StarshipLiberty .

We are surrounded by Romulan vessels. Engaging self-destruct mode; repeat, engaging self-destruct—"

My voice jammed in my throat. As I had bumped the empty chair at the navigational console, I felt the

bulge of a communicator at my hip. Evidently I had forgotten to turn it over to the clerk after the last

landing party excursion. Funny … that wasn't like me. I didn't like anything that marred my freedom of

movement. Pausing only a moment, feeling the smoke sting my eyes when I failed to blink, I caught at the

communicator until it fell into my hands and desperately tuned it to computer override, thanking

providence that I had bothered to study the nuances of direct tie-in. It was a radical, almost terroristic

procedure, frowned upon to a point where hardly anyone knew about it. My own awareness came only

from a latent addiction to the short stories ofNalEiili ofProximaII , which were a series of computer crime

mysteries for teenagers. Certainly I had no idea whether such a fictional marriage between auxiliary

computer and hand communicator would actually work, and certainly I was going to die trying it.

"Computer! Override tie-in, command authorization code T-Rescue. Emergency!" I waited. There was a

muted percussion of clicks beneath the demolished library console. "Implement override. Emergency."

My voice cracked.

Another blast took out the defense subsystems monitor. Beyond the mangled station I could see the

wing of a Romulan bird of prey gliding past our starboard. I was thrown to my side on the upper

walkway, but I managed to keep hold of the communicator and some of my wits. Smoke blinded me

now and I was choking. There was no response from the computer. My ploy was failing. Still, possibly to

stave off the inevitability of mental collapse, I continued to gasp the override directive. "Code T-Rescue,

command authorization, emer—"

"Working. Specify."

Damn! At least something was going to happen. "Computer, link auxiliary warp drive controls. Critical

adversity catalog number eight-eight-one, tape deck C-one-A. Evasive action. Implement!"

"Working. Sensors indicate enemy vessels at all vector points."

"Acknowledged. Do we have phasers?"

"Affirmative. One-half potency on secondary batteries."

"Bleed off impulse power batteries and divert to phasers. Pinpoint nearest enemy vessel's engineering

section, aim, and fire!" Ridiculous. Yelling at the computer wasn't going to help. "Implement evasive

action one-four-zero degrees declination plane." I felt the commands shudder through the crippled

equipment, jumping damaged connections, inventing frequencies, shortcutting schematics that were

popping on and off the last three viewing screens still providing information. Shredded circuitry was

knitting wherever it could find power, threading together and tapping other computers to draw power

back toLiberty .

Other computers … a distant signal flickered in my mind.Other …

I shook off the temptation to think, feeling in my veins the pulsing blood of my remaining crew

belowdecks, separated from me, their life force joining with mine in a surge of survival instinct.They were

not taking my ship .

"You're not taking this ship!" I shouted at the fizzing shape of another Romulan vessel as it veered in and

fired. The blast shook the bridge. I could feel the entire primary hull ofLiberty shifting away from the

engineering hull, feel the nacelles cutting loose, the shields finally falling as the last of the power was

tapped by my loyal computer as it struggled to implement my last order.

My last order.

The very last.

The hull shuddered under me and myriad voices began to penetrate the bulkheads.

Suddenly everything stopped. Everything. The noises all went away—the hum of machinery and

computer circuits ceased. Only the voices remained.

"What the hell—" someone said, like a ghost calling from another dimension.

I closed my eyes. The voices began to solidify behind the walls. "Overload! Access lights, go to

emergency power. Goddamn insane cadet!"

"Auxiliary power, where's the juice?"

"Whole main simulator's down."

"That's not possible."

"It's a junction overload. She made the system try to fight itself."

"Harrison, what's taking so long? Oh—'scuse me, Captain."

"Tech crew, report to simulator A on the double."

"Where'sLieutenantSelok ? Maybe he can talk to it."

The universe began to subdivide. Slowly I remembered: I was no different from anybody else. They'd

done it to me, just as I'd heard they would. Not only had I failed, but I'd destroyed the simulator in the

process. I had never heard of that happening before. So why did it have to happen to me?

Voices buzzed. They were talking about me. I heard my name spinning like a dervish through the

corridor.

"All right. That's enough. Quite enough."

There was a whirling sensation that nearly threw me flat. The hum of ventilators rose. The smoke began

to clear. I lay on my side, blinking into a maze of lights and humanoid shapes. I felt violated.

"Quite enough, Mister Piper. Please relax."

Swallowing was an effort, but I did manage to get to my feet from my kneeling position on the upper

deck beforeCommanderJosephson approached me. Behind him, foggy forms of Star Fleet

upper-echelon personnel stood soberly watching me. To my left,IllyaGalina was crawling out from

beneath part of his control panel, staring at me with something that might have been astonishment.

Outside the simulation chamber, technicians were scrambling to disengage the simulation computer from

all the other computers in the immediate area. Only then did I realize what I had done.

"Rather a unique display, Lieutenant," the Commander grumbled, his black eyes and swarthy complexion

obscured by the clearing smoke. He stopped in his advance to let two "dead" members of the bridge

crew rise and step aside. There were coughs and sneezes all around, and a general feeling of discomfort.

"Tell me … at which point did you decide there was noKobayashiMaru? "

I cleared my throat and packed back my hair in a gesture that was too feminine, suddenly aware that my

nonregulation backcombs had failed to keep the layered, honey-brown strands out of my face. "It had to

be a trap. There was no other possibility."

"At whichpoint ."

"When the second contingent of enemy vessels appeared, sir. At that point it became clear there were

too many of them for a simple border patrol. So many ships would not have allowed a distress call to

penetrate the neutral zone."

"Your estimation of your performance?"Josephson repressed the quirkish grin he was known for.

"Inadequate, sir."

"Why?"

"I raised shields too late. I failed to order weapons armed upon entry into the neutral zone. I also should

have dispatched a communiqué to Star Fleet Command that I was about to breach the Organian accord

by attempting rescue ofKobayashi Maru . By failing to do so, I prevented any possibility ofLiberty 's

being rescued if it was indeed a trap."

He had a habit of tilting his head to favor his nearly deaf left ear. "All true. Final score?"

"Grade B midrange." I winced at giving myself such a high score. New shame engulfed me.

He raised his head, looking out into the main training depot beyond the shattered walls of the simulation

chamber. "Are those systems clearing yet?"

"Getting there, Commander," a technician called. "It's a mess."

Josephsonturned to me. "You caused quite a hullabaloo with the base computers."

I remained silent. There was nothing I could say.

"Lieutenant," he began slowly, "do you realize you have just come closer than any command-line cadet

to actually checkmating the no-win scenario?"

Not knowing if it was a reprimand or a compliment, I gulped, "No, sir."

"Report to debriefing at two hundred hours. And Lieutenant … your assignment has just been changed.

You won't be reporting to theMagellan ."

"Sir?" I had turned away, but this stopped me. Not report toCaptainFlynn ? The sweat that had

collected on my forehead seeped into the furrows of a confused expression. Had I done so badly that

they would prevent my serving on a Galaxy-class ship? "Commander?"

He hadn't intended to tell me, yet it seemed he was itching to. I couldn't imagineCommanderJosephson

capable of petty arrogance, but all it took was this small prodding to make him turn back to me. "I've had

a direct request, just now. You're to report to Docking Bay12 at eight hundred thirty hours. You've been

assigned to Captain Kirk."

I stared at him, my eyes stinging. This time, there was no smoke.

Enterprise!

Chapter Two

BRIANSILAYNA FOUND me in my quarters, staring at the wall. When I saw him, still wearing his

standard Engineering Division jumpsuit in the familiar red of Star Fleet services, I stumbled into his arms

and held him more tightly than I ever had, even at more intimate times. Together we hid in the threshold's

shadow.

"They reassigned you," he said, not moving.

"Brian, they put me onEnterprise! They said I was asked for."

"Are you happy about it?"

I pulled away, knowing what he was really asking. I was nearly as tall as he was, tall enough to look

straight into his dark eyes. "Yes."

His expression twitched. We'd been lovers for over a year. He knew what the answer meant.

I went on. "But I don't understand it."

"What do you mean?"

"I failed. I made tactical errors every step of the way. I lost the ship."

"Piper, everybody loses the ship. That's the purpose behind theKobayashiMaru test. Even if you made

the right decisions, the people around you are obligated to make sure every alternative fails. It was the

same when I took the test. Except …" He put space between us, pensively fingering the mementos on my

dresser and the open duffel bag I had been distractedly packing.

"Except?"

"Except that I didn't turn the whole starbase on its ear like you did."

Humiliated, I dropped onto my bed and put my back to him. "You're exaggerating."

"The hell I am. You set a record. There's only been one person ever to beat the no-win test, and he

cheated."

"Who?"

"The same person who was in the observation room withJosephson . The same man who asked to put

you on Star Fleet's sweetheart."

"Captain …"

"Kirk. Yes."

He sat next to me, a warm magnetic presence against my arm, evidently giving up trying to convince me

that I had done something good. "I have to report toCaptainFlynn at nine hundred hours. It won't be easy

to go alone."

Clasping my hands between my knees, I waited until the knot in my throat dissolved before trying to

speak.Brian was alluding, with his tone, to plans we'd made together, dreams we'd built, possible futures.

"We've been lovers,Brian , and I do love you. Even more significantly, we've been friends. I cherish that.

But if I learned anything from that test, I learned not to love too dearly anyone on my ship." With a

shuddering breath I went on. "I can't tell you how strong the impulse was to leave the bridge and run to

find you when I thought the engineering section had been hit. My mind was with you, with us, when the

Romulans fired onLiberty . It curtailed my deductive reasoning. I had to force myself to think clearly, and

I can't afford that. It's fatal to give in to love. I understand now why the Vulcans are so efficient, and why

they survive.Enterprise will be better for me than serving onMagellan with a person I love."

Silence fell in my cabin, descending like a crystal-cloud I saw once on Proxima Beta. It felt just that

heavy. "I don't mean to hurt you."

He sighed. "I would be hurt if anyone else told me this. You really intend to command, don't you,

Piper?"

"If I'm good enough," I said. "But only if I'm good enough."

"You're always too hard on yourself."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Command has to be." I stopped with that sharp remark, realizing I was on the verge of insulting him. He

would make a fine assistant engineer onMagellan , and somedayBrian would make an excellent chief

engineer—I had no doubt of it. If he was lacking in any skill, his steadiness of character would make up

for it. But he would never make an officer of the line. He didn't have the drive.

Yet, who was I to say? I compared myself to everyone and everyone to myself, always fighting to be an

iota better, faster, that extra dimension more worthy than anyone around me. I didn't care what I had

done to the computer system. I could deal with the whispers and rumors and the nicknames. I couldn't

deal with having lost my ship.

Secretly I was angry withBrian for not telling me what to expect duringKobayashiMaru , though the

secrecy in which the test was shrouded wasn't his fault. It might have been a streak of vindication or

sniggering cruelty that kept upperclassmen from divulging the horrors of no-win, even secreting away the

name of the ship that would make the fake distress call, but it wasStarFleetAcademy tradition never to tip

anyone's hand. I now understood that going into the test cold was the only way.

Brianput his arms around me. In friendship, but refusing love, I returned the embrace. "I'll miss you," he

whispered simply. "Enterprise's gain is my loss. I guess it's better than losing out to some smooth-talking

midshipman. I love you, Piper."

My fingers found his hair. "We're too close," I warned. "We'll always be friends … that's good love

too."

The soft beep of my intercom alarm seemed loud as a red alert klaxon. Dazedly I ordered it off.

"Eight hundred hours."

"Yes."

"Docking Bay12 is waiting."

"Yes."

I had never been to Earth before graduating into command school. It was a nice enough planet, very

blue and watery, and its atmosphere had a propensity for cumulus clouds, but it wasn't as consistently

beautiful as Proxima Beta. But then, home is always more beautiful to those who leave with the idea of

seldom returning. I kept a photoslide tape of Proxima's lush mossy landscape and dripping

lepidodendron trees—moss was our most tenacious perennial—and in times of mental turmoil I would

scan the collection, drugging myself with the bathed greens of the humid emerald planet that had spawned

me. Meeting more and more Terrans now, here on our ancestral rocks, I often wondered how we had

adapted to so many varieties of climate. Earth had more kinds of air than any place I knew of, and

humans could breath them all. Being descended from humans who had colonized and adapted to

Proxima made most of Earth uncomfortable for me. Though the heat of coastalCalifornia was easier to

deal with than most localities on the planet, I couldn't get used to the wind. Every time I opened my

mouth to breathe, some capricious little gust would steal my breath and leave me gasping. And I could

never,never get used to that garish yellow sun.

I was quivering with anticipation as the shuttle arched out over the shimmer ofPuget Sound , baring to

me and the other passengers the volcanic topography that gave the area its flavor. Character. LikeBrian .

I vowed that would be my last thought of him, and turned my mind to sifting out all the tidbits of

near-legend that had come my way about the majesticEnterprise and her daring who's-who of officers.

No ship had explored as far, encountered as much, endured as much as this starship, and no crew had

survived so long under such a roster of impossible situations. Oh, yes, we'd heard plenty about these

people. I'd heard and marveled at the stories like every other plebe, but, never expecting to find myself

serving on board her, I'd eventually discarded these bits of information. Now I had to gather them once

again, force my mind to remember. It was my duty.

There she was. The buttresses of the docking bay opened before us as the shuttle maneuvered for final

approach toEnterprise . Everyone in the shuttle was flashing looks at each other, trying to figure out

which of us was to board the starship. Not me, though. I knew who it was.

I was looking ather .

She didn't look like a ship that had been from hell to Klingon and back, several times. She gleamed and

glowed in the eternal night like a star instead of a starship. Her newly painted Fleet insignia and call letters

stood out as though they had substance, her warp engine nacelles fanning out across the universe as

though they knew its secrets. Vast, it was vast … shockingly bigger than I ever guessed a starship could

be. Amazement shunted through me that mankind, any race, could engineer and actually build such a

thing of power and grace. And I was going to board her. I was going to serve her. More than anything

else, she appeared as a giant constellation of a winged horse, reared and prancing, refusing to look into

the eyes of weak beings who had merely created her; life belonged toEnterprise , and she was in

command of it.

When I arrived at the cabin assigned to me by the duty officer, I found precious few clues as to the

habits of my suitemates. There were two cabins joined by a common head; my cabin had three bunks in

typically austere Star Fleet style, and in deference to the unknowns who already called this home I found

a noncommital place to dump my gear. It was quiet and dim in here compared to the bustle going on all

over the ship. Every transporter was busily rematerializing crewpeople from the surface. Not knowing

whether the rush to board was usual, I took it as such and minded my own business. There was, though,

a distended air of excitement. Probably just me. After all …Enterprise .

I stood in the middle of the cabin, feeling out of place and seeking out signals about those I was living

with. Boldness took over when I spied a sealed canister on one of the vanities. That quarter had a few

personal items around it: a3 -D of grinning people, all blond, obviously related to each other, was

perched next to a discarded hand towel and a hairbrush. The lid of the canister came off easily—

And went right back on. We had insect life on Proxima, and pets too, but nothing like the writhing

crayfishy half-snakes in there. I shuddered. To each its own.

The canister clunked back onto the vanity to the sibilance of the door opening. I turned, and it took

every discipline I knew to bury the spontaneous gasp in my throat.

The Gorn was tall, much taller than I and too tall for the cabin portal, so she was stooping to come in,

curving her reptilian spine and dipping the massive headful of undeniably carnivorous teeth. Her

tyrannosauric appearance and glittering sapphire eyes gave her an aura of attack stance. Her skin was

crimson, evidently to imitate the color of Star Fleet issue. She was wearing a Gorn tunic emblazoned with

Fleet insignia and the cobra crest of Cestus System. I smiled. It couldn't hurt.

"I'm Piper. We're roommates, I guess."

The Gorn hissed, moved into the room, stood to full height, and began touching me. I thought I was

being searched, but soon it became evident she was introducing herself to me. Clawed pads rippled up

and down my legs, and I raised my arms to let her explore.

Another voice sounded from the door, obviously human and very welcome. "Oh, y'all're here. Good." A

sloppy young second lieutenant strode in with a medical officer directly behind him. He was blessed with

a perpetually friendly face, a nose slightly crooked from a break long-healed, average height and hair,

and nice eyes. His companion might or might not have been of Earth. "You must be Piper.

I'mJuddSandage , Starship services. I'm in charge of the officers' mess, so watch out what you eat. Y'all

can call me Scanner. Everbody does, 'cuz I got some great dream of working in the sensory. Too bad

about triple bunkin', ain't it? They got decks five and eight closed down for bulkhead repairs, so even the

officers are sharing." He squinted as though he'd just thought of something. "Y'know, I hope you speak

English."

I laughed. "Yes, I do, Scanner."

"Good," he drawled. "And you don't mind the unisex setup."

"I asked for it."

"Glad to hear it. It don't pay to be shy on a starship." He waved a hand. "This here

isDr.MereteAndrusTaurus , and the one checkin' you out is Telosirizharcrede of Cestus Eliar. We know

it as Wren's Planet. You know … Cestus Seven?"

"Oh!" I blurted, and frightened Telosirizharcrede with my enthusiasm. She jolted away, hissing, but I

snatched her paw and smiled away both our embarrassments. "Is she one of the first?"

"Thefirst. They just started bilingual training for Eliarn cadets. Osira is the Gorn ambassador's daughter."

"Ah, so diplomatic immunity."

"Yeah, she sideswiped a shipload of red tape."

I was still holding Osira's hand—paw—and with a look I hoped was as friendly on Wren's Planet as it

was on Proxima, I replaced her pads on my leg and she continued scouring me.

"Where are you from?" the medical officer asked. She was a stocky woman, plantinum haired and with

slightly upturned eyes that hinted at alien cells in Terran bloodlines.

"Proxima Beta."

"That's why you're tall."

"I thought I was, till I met Osira."

Dr.AndrusTaurussaid, "We're system-mates. I'm from Earth Outpost Walter Twelve. I did

biomorphology training on Proxima Alpha. What section are you assigned to?"

"A nice quiet place in Environmental Control. They tell me it's temporary. I'm a captaincy candidate, so

they'll be moving me around a lot."

"One ofthem ," Scanner whistled, rolling his eyes. "Probably chompin' to get to the bridge."

"Not too soon. I'm still reeling from finding myself on this ship instead ofMagellan ."

"Know anything about her?"Merete asked.

"I know about the officers," I said shrugging, "and the usual tall tales. Same as everybody."

Scanner gestured to an empty bunk. "All yours. You'd best stay belowdecks till you get used to

everything."

I sat down, testing the mattress for comfort. There wasn't much. They deliberately made them that way

to keep us from sleeping too much, I had always thought. "I intend to. Sure, I want bridge duty, but not

till I warm up to the ship and get to know her."

"Good sense." Scanner leaned against the vanity and pocketed his hands. I got a mental vision of a plow

reposing next to him. His demeanor defied the stiff military line of his uniform, making it seem more like

grubby overalls. He was the kind of person that couldn't be decorated at any cost. "What's your first

name?"

"Piper." The look on his face made me explain. "Proxima was just colonized four generations ago, so

we're all one family. We have no use for clan identification, so we each have one name."

"You don't have another one, like the Vulcans?"

"Just Piper."

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摘要：

TableofContentsChapter1Chapter2Chapter3Chapter4Chapter5Chapter6Chapter7Chapter8Chapter9Chapter10Chapter11LookforSTARTREKfictionfromPocketBooks ChapterOne "ENEMYCRUISERSDEADahead!""Howmany,LieutenantBroxon?""Four,Captain.Four.""Communications,advisethemofoursituation.""Aye.CaptainPiper,theyrefuseto...

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