Star Trek_ A Choice of Catastrophes - Michael Schuster [83]
It let out a terrifying shriek that threatened to pierce Kirk’s eardrum. The universal translator activated, and he was treated to an equally piercing, “Assistance! Assistance! Assistance requirement!”
The captain had to get the situation under control. “Please calm down,” he said. “I’m not here to hurt you. My name is James Kirk. I am a visitor from another planet.”
“Assistance requirement here now!”
“There’s nobody here to help you except me. I’m sorry to tell you this, but some of your people want to sell you into slavery.”
The Farrezzi had stopped screaming, but now it was trembling. Suddenly it was out of the pod, heading away from him, surprisingly fast for somebody who’d just come out of a century-long sleep. Kirk knew he needed to be patient, but he couldn’t afford to be discovered. He had no choice but to run after it.
“I’m here to help you!” he shouted, desperate to be heard over the alien’s wailing. “You’re on a ship that belongs to these slavers. They’ve taken you from your underground refuge and intend to sell you to the Orions.”
The Farrezzi was fast; he’d lost sight of it already. After a while the captain realized that he could no longer hear the loud thumps it made when running. It was hiding somewhere. He had to convince it of his intentions, but would it listen?
“My name is James Kirk. I am the captain of a starship that belongs to an interstellar organization called the United Federation of Planets. We are explorers. We thought you had disappeared. We came to Farrezz to find out why. We discovered that you had not left. We were surprised. Then we saw the slavers. They were members of your own species. They took advantage of your sleeping state to put thousands of your kind on ships to be sold into slavery.” He let that sink in.
Silence. From nowhere, shots rang out. Kirk ducked instinctively.
Where was the fire coming from? How had the Farrezzi got its hands—tentacles—on a weapon?
More shots, some of them ricocheting off the pods closest to him. Kirk realized that the shots were coming from the entrance. He held his breath, waiting for the next impact. There was somebody over there, probably a slaver who’d heard him talking, or the scared Farrezzi wailing.
The captain grabbed his phaser and leaned out from behind the pod. He couldn’t see the doorway from here, so he’d have to move carefully. He waited for a lull in the shots and went into a roll, coming up behind another pod. Cautiously, Kirk leaned out and immediately jumped back as more shots rang out. But he had spotted the shooter. He leaned out and squeezed off a quick shot. His phaser hit the edge of the doorway, showering sparks everywhere.
A sudden wailing from the side of the room diverted his attention. “Assistance requirement here! Assistance requirement! Alien presence! Hostility! Hostility!” It was Kirk’s sleeper, rapidly moving in his direction.
“Identity request! Identity request! Individual family location!” It was the shooter.
“Compliance: I name statement Horr-Sav-Frerin.”
“Explanation: pod nonimmersion! Explanation! Explanation!”
“Sleep disturbance. Awakening with surprise, presence of unknown alien. Assistance requirement!”
“Identity class: sleeper?”
Kirk could see the wailing Farrezzi now. It had reached the doorway. “Affirmative. Assistance requirement immediate!”
A shot impacted a pod right next to the sleeper. “Direction: pod return! Alternative: fatality!” The shooter shot at the sleeper again.
A loud wail emanated from the sleeper as it began moving—toward the shooter. “Assistance requirement! Assistance requirement!”
The shooter slipped through the doorway, pointing its weapon right at the sleeper. “Alternative: fatality!”
Kirk leaned out, hoping that despite the fact that his opponent had five eyes, its attention was elsewhere. His luck failed him. The shooter began to aim its weapon his way, but Kirk got off two good shots, dropping the Farrezzi.
The sleeper ran toward Kirk and stopped short,