• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Kruge’s eyes widened with sudden revelation. As he stepped toward Saavik, the increasingly turbulent winds blew his long hair outward in a halo about his head, giving him the unsettling appearance of some kind of messianic zealot. “Aaaaaah…So then, it is true. The Romulans have conspired with the Federation against us.”

“I am here only as a neutral scientific observer,” Saavik said.

“Yes, of course,” Kruge’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You will stand by 'neutrally’ while the Federation tests out its new ultimate weapon, and plots the destruction of the entire Klingon Empire!”

The rumble of another earthquake shook their feet, providing an ominous punctuation to Kruge’s words. He backed away from the young woman and began to slowly pace the ground in front of her while his two subordinate officers looked on. “It wasn’t long ago that Klingons and Romulans were openly sharing each other’s technology. I knew a Romulan woman…Charvanek, I think was her name. She was instrumental in getting the first cloaking device installed in my vessel.”

Saavik raised her voice against the howl of the storm. “I’m sure you were quite smitten with her.”

Kruge spun around in response. “She was a crazy bitch!” He approached Saavik again, his gaze locked upon her face. “But she was honorable. I trust I can expect the same from you?”

She considered this. “Well, I’m not crazy,” she said. “But two out of three are reasonably accurate.”

The commander squinted for a moment as he worked out the comment in his mind, then broke into a wily grin. Behind him, the horizon was dotted with distant volcanoes belching forth clouds of ash and occasional explosive eruptions of bright lava, staining the sky in deepening shades of crimson, and casting the Klingon’s face in a demonic glow. “This may yet turn out to be rather interesting,” he said.

Another tremor reverberated through the ground, and the escarpments surrounding them began to shed huge boulders, tumbling down into the ravine where they stood and narrowly missing them as the rocks rolled past. Maltz, who had gotten to his feet and retrieved his weapon, looked about them with growing consternation.

Kruge produced his communicator and activated it. “Transporter room! Five to bring up. Activate beam.”

As the five figures were dissolved by the particle beam, the ground they had been standing upon heaved forth, breaking apart and then collapsing into a gaping chasm, releasing flames that licked their way up the sides of the abyss-releasing the forces within that would slowly tear apart the planetary crust, destroying the newborn world.

The squalid interior of the transporter room on Kruge’s vessel slowly materialized around David, and he was immediately assailed by the dank smells that could only be produced by a dozen Klingon officers in cramped quarters on a ship with clearly inadequate ventilation. Without a word, he and Saavik were forcefully shoved from behind off the transporter pad. The young scientist turned and scowled at the Klingon entourage assembled on the pads behind him, but they simply laughed derisively while pushing their prisoners inexorably forward.

Upon reaching the open central corridor that spanned the length of the ship, Kruge shouted a command in Klingon, bringing his men to a halt. David felt a hand on his shoulder and the point of a disruptor lodged in his back. Kruge circled around to the front of the group and leveled his gaze at his two captive Federation scientists.

“The two of you,” he said in English, “have been captured as enemies of galactic peace. If you choose to cooperate, I will reciprocate by sparing your lives. If you choose otherwise, the consequences will be most unpleasant. So, to begin, you will tell me the secrets of the Federation’s new Genesis super-weapon.”

David averted his gaze, nervously looking over at Saavik. Though maintaining her composure, the half Vulcan had set her jaw, and her sweeping eyebrows drew together sternly-clearly she was expending tremendous effort to hold her temper