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By Root 540 0

had been helpful enough to allow Archer to survive this long without injury, though mostly he had been defending himself rather than striking any blows of his own. As Kolos had explained and demonstrated various techniques for handling a batleth, Archer began to understand that some of the principles were not significantly different from certain types of terrestrial sword fighting, blended with a bit of quarterstaff or bō stick combat. Kolos had also provided some guidance in the use of the batleth s secondary blades and their multiple serrations; they were used mostly to trap the points of an opponents weapon. Executed properly, such a trapping maneuver could not only effectively block an otherwise lethal blow, it might also disarm a foe with little more than a simple twist and a yank.

With a roar, Krell attacked again, pulling Archers focus into laser sharpness. The Klingons blade swung around in an arc, coming up from below, the tip whistling as it cleaved the air; Archer could tell the move was meant to chop his hands out from under the handgrip. Feeling a stalagmite at his back, he couldnt duck to the side, so he moved his own blade to counter, swiveling his batleth from an upward-curving angle to a down-turned position.

Krells blow and Archers parry brought the two blades together hard enough to strike sparks, and Archer felt the shock reverberate through his wrists as the Klingons momentum and greater weight rammed his blade upward. Pain lanced his arms, and as Krell attacked again, Archer scrabbled to retreat behind another stalagmite. He ducked, barely evading a horizontal slice that had come uncomfortably close to cleanly decapitating him; instead of Archer losing his head, one of the upturned rocky deposits lost its conical end, shattering into a gray-brown powder as the baakonite blade tore through it with all the force of Krells offended sense of honor.

As Krells arms followed through with the blow, Archer charged from his defensive crouch, stabbing the pointed end of his weapon toward his foes midsection. Krell sidestepped in time to avoid being impaled right through the gut, but not quickly enough to prevent Archers blade from inflicting a superficial flesh wound that announced its presence with a small spray of lavender Klingon blood.

Even as Archer continued moving forward, his boot caught on something he couldnt see on the uneven floor, and he suddenly felt himself falling. In the quarter second or so it took his momentum to carry him to the caverns rocky floor, he willed his arms to move the batleth out from in front of him.

NotgonnastabmyselftodeathbeforeKrelldoes, he thought, his mind racing.

Even as he rolled to the side in an effort to get his feet back under him, he felt a sharp pain in his mid-chest area, then felt the breath whoosh from his lungs as agony struck him in earnest. He realized in a horrified rush that Krells batleth had pierced him at the ribs, and even now, before the red blood had dripped from its tip, Krell was standing above him, a look of rage commingled with triumph flushing his hard features.

Through his pain, Archer wanted to laugh, as in an instant he realized that he was about to die trying to prevent his world and its allies from going to war against the wrong enemy, all while the Romulans were setting Earth up for conquest. Given how little his sacrifice was evidently destined to mean, he hoped that hed at least leave a good-looking corpse behind for posteritys sake.

Krell brought the batleth down in a lethal arc straight toward Archers face, and the captain knew that his final wish would not be granted.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Monday, July 21, 2155 Taugus III

T RIP WAS SURPRISED at how easy entering the dissident complex had turned out to be once he and Terix had located a small, concealed emergency entrance, an aperture that must have been intended to allow easy ingress during times of bad weather outside.

And he was further surprised by just how few of the suspected Ejhoi Ormiin dissidents he and Terix had actually found within the indeterminate-sized complex once