IDIC-PLANET

CHAPTER 17

"RED ALERT RED ALERT THIS IS NOT A .."

"What the..." Kirk snapped the communications on. "Report!"

The calm face of Lieutenant Uhura, sitting centre seat, addressed the Captain:
"Chekov has monitored the targeting of weapons on us from Kavayak, Captain. We seem to be under attack."

"On my way." Jim let the communication screen go blank.

"Well, Spock, the 'fun' has started."

"Captain, we will be out of range of the functioning weapon in 11 minutes and 24 seconds." Spock informed his commanding officer as they made their way to the bridge.

All around them the crew of the Enterprise were hurrying, in an orderly manner, to their respective stations. Stations that had to be manned during yet another red alert.

"Eleven and a half minutes before we enter the orbit controlled by the weapon you managed to disable, Spock?"

Spock nodded: "Ten minutes and 54 seconds" as they reached the bridge.

"Uhura try and get whoever is in control on the planet."

Uhura did not answer as she quickly vacated the Captain's chair and slid behind her familiar communications board. Kirk looked around the Bridge. Scotty was busy at his station.

"Mr. Scott, do we have full power capacity?" asked Kirk hoping for some good news.

"We have 80% of power back, Captain, includin' full shields but limited weapons. The Enterprise is capable of full impulse and a wee bit of warp."

"Wee bit?"

"Well, she can give warp 5."

"That will do." said Kirk and looked at the navigation station. 'Damn! He missed Sulu!'
"Status, Mr. Chekov."

"Their weapon is locked on to us and power building up. Now at 54%, Keptin."

"Spock, can we escape this weapon, before it's at full power?"

"Negative, Captain. Fifty five percent is enough to disrupt all our dilithium crystals."

"Captain, I have K'L'trok. Coming on screen now." Uhura touched a toggle and the screen filled with the now familiar face of the K'S'vait.

"K'L'trok, why have you targeted our ship?" Kirk did not beat about the bush.

"Just a small precautionary measure, Captain. As you see we have your uprising under control." K'L'trok looked pleased with himself.

"Not my upr..." Jim started to protest when he was interrupted by the self-assured K'S'vait:

"You, Captain, have a number of charges to answer to: Firstly the transmission of the inflammatory tape. We have also received news that a certain mine has been broken into by your officers and not only have they stolen our dilithium but massacred all the poor defenceless people working there."

The relief that K'L'trok did not mention a weapons installation, and the slight unease, that Jim felt at the mention of the dilithium evaporated with the absurd charge of mass-murder, to be replaced by real anger.

"You are wrong on a number of accounts, K'L'trok, and we have evidence to prove it." he said trying to stay calm. He knew he had to play for time. All their lives depended on keeping the K'S'vaits from firing too soon with the fully functional weapon.

"We cannot believe any evidence you have - it could have been manufactured - like that transmission of the Romulan half-breed."

Spock raised his eyebrow at the use of that particular term. He had made his way down to stand next to the Captain's chair. "Two minutes, 23 seconds. 89% charged." He said under his breath.

"K'L'trok continued: "We will give you an example of our power, if you do not pay reparation for your serious crimes against this planet. The price for your safe departure, the dilithium and the life that you have taken will be 12 humans, six male and six female specimens. We think that that is a very fair price. You will give me an affirmative answer now."

The captain glanced at Spock. A few seconds passed in tense silence, then Spock gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.

"K'L'trok, please let us..."

"NOW, Captain!" K'L'trok suddenly shouted.

K'Fron, who had been waiting at the weapons control centre, ready to fire, tensed. This ship would be a pleasure to destroy. The destruction would be recorded and replayed on his screen via the recording satellites orbiting the planet. He took pleasure in the sweet anticipation of good things to come.

On the bridge of the Enterprise Kirk had had enough. "Out of the question. We do not deal in beings, human or otherwise. We will speak to you, later, about charges against your government by your population, Federation- origin and otherwise."

"Your later will not come. Salutations, Captain." K'L'trok stated as his eyes changed colour to a deep deep red. Kirk saw him gesture at someone off-screen.

K'Fron did not hesitate. He touched, with an almost loving caress, a dark-blue pulsating pad. On the ballistic-display surface the weapons countdown started: "10,9,8,..." The countdown was audible on the Enterprise bridge, as the translator changed the mechanical computer-voiced K'S'vait numbers to Federation equivalents.

Kirk held his breath. The atmosphere was tense. Chekov and Uhura exchanged a glance.

"Captain..." Spock began calmly but softly , "we still need forty tw..."

The ship shuddered. A high pitched sound ran through the Enterprise, seemingly shaking the very fabric of her structure apart. Reality wavered. Kirk held tight onto his command chair. He felt Spock trying to keep his balance next to him. Chekov was on the floor, curled up in a foetal position. He wanted to curl up himself. Too many sensations hammered at his brain. Suddenly, he was the ship, being dismembered atom by atom. Now he was Spock, the crystal-clear thought processes being twisted into a muddy barbed coil. He was the Fear, Confusion and Hope of all his crew drowning in hopeless knowledge of the End. He was Sulu, empty yet still so full. He was McCoy fighting for all Life with Death looming above, dark and infinitely insistent. "Spock..." he whispered beseechingly.

---

"Three, four, two, one. All systems ready...firing." The computer's synthetic voice announced, in the little crystalline dome where K'Fron and now also K'L'trok watched the monitor in anticipation, like small children waiting for their favourite vid-com program.

The curve on the display peaked. A continuous ascent of energy, provided first by a single weapon. As the still, at least partially, intact starship entered the other half of the orbit, the second weapon took over the deadly battering of the ship. The display showed the disruptive isotropic-beam exiting the weapons and streaking through the planet's atmosphere to space and the orbiting helpless starship.

K'Fron watched as, on the screen, the structure that was the Enterprise shimmered, changed into a cloudy wave-like shape and disappeared.

"She has been eliminated." announced K'Fron. "Pity about the human merchandise, though."

K'Fron looked at K'L'trok when he did not answer his barb about K'L'trok's failure to obtain human stock. K'L'trok was now looking towards the communications screen. K'Fron looked at that display as well and froze.

Read a different ending.

Footnotes and explanations

Next chapter.