• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Neither has the computer” Travis confirmed. “No cataloguing at all.” “Increase speed as soon as you can” Stiles said.

Zack Bolt frowned at his nav controls. “They’re hailing us through my nav impulses. Must not be compatible with Federation tech.” “Can you make it so we can hear it?”

“Well… attempting.” He poked at his controls, and a moment later a completely unexpected sound burbled from the other ship.

“Surrender. You have no chance against this fighting spaceship. Turn back now and you will live.”

Rage boiled up in Stiles’s head till he thought his hair would blow off. He pounded the fight button.

“Orsova! What are you doing in that ship! Where’d you get a thing like that!”

“Surrender now or be killed. We have more speed and more weapons. I will kill you before I let you leave the sector.”

“Cut him off!” Stiles roared. “I don’t want to hear his voice again! He can’t want me back that badly-he can’t care about me that much! Travis! What’s the gasball got?”

Travis bent again over the tactical scanners. “High shielding… full warp capacity… strike-force shields… weapons are-” He paused and shook his head in worried admiration. “It’s a fighting warship, Eric. We’re completely outmatched:’

“Twins, get us out of this stupid solar system? Stiles ordered. “Full impulse as soon as you can. Travis, you take weapons yourself. Transfer all the reserve from the cutting phasers and find some distance power. Get ready to use the welding torches if they get too close. I want to skin that bastard!”

At the nav station, Zack Bolt turned to look at him. “We’re a combat support tender, not a battleship! We can’t beat that thing!”

“We don’t have to beat it. He wants us alive for some reason.” Everybody looked at him as if he’d grown feathers. “You’re gonna have to explain that one,” Travis said.

“ff he wanted to kill us,” Stiles told them, “why would he shoot at the CST instead of nice bald helpless people on the ground?”

Unsure of that, Spock tightened his brow and waited for more explanation, so Stiles gave it to him.

“That gives me an advantage. It means I should run harder than I fight. Getting away is more important than beating them. All we have to do is knock ‘em down long enough to get away.”

The CST hummed and cranked its way toward full speed, chased easily by the constellation ship with Orsova impossibly aboard. Against the pure blackness of night, the enemy ship’s blue body nearly disappeared and its hundreds of white plate bolts didn’t, so that it looked indeed like a set of stars rushing freely after them in space. But every few moments the other ship made its solid presence known with a full-power blast that shocked the CST to its bones and made everybody grab for something to hold onto.

“How’re we doing?” Stiles asked when he thought enough time had gone by.

“Not an inch,” Jeremy sourly reported. “In fact, they’re closing.”

His teeth gnashing, Stiles growled at the side screens. “Maybe if I give myself up, he’ll be happy and leave the rest of you alone.”

Even in the midst of rocking and rolling, Spock found a way to face him gracefully. “No, Mr. Stiles. That is one decision I will not allow.” “You can’t tell me what to do, with all due respect, sir”

“I know. Orsova has no ship like that. Someone is either supporting or manipulating him. That power must have farther-reaching goals than being entertained with your capture. And,” he added, rather gently, “once in a lifetime is enough to sacrifice yourself to that man.”

In spite of everything, Stiles smiled at the sentimental reminder that Spock knew all the mistakes he’d made, and liked him anyway.

A javelin of weapon power struck the CST and backhanded it across space. The engines screamed. The crew and passengers were throttled, bouncing off the equipment around them. Stiles tried to stay on his feet, but ended up sharing a chair with Jason Bolt at the helm as the ship went howling on its edge through space.

While Jason struggled to recover, Jeremy called, ‘What was our port engine! We can’t make top speed any more, Eric!” “Can we have emergency warp?