The Flaming Arrow PDF
Preview The Flaming Arrow
“ ‘YOU CAN TELL THE PIONEERS BY THE ARROWS IN THEIR BACKS.’ “That’s what my father told me, and Tom and I laughed. We all thought it was funny. Now here we are, and here comes the—what, the third? Fourth? Fifth?” Lilian sniffed, and dabbed at an eye with her sleeve, the motion barely visible in the darkness. “We’ll think of something,” Kirk said. “Big mirrors to bounce it right back at them, or . . . I don’t know, but we’ll think of something.” “And the fleet behind that?” “We’ll take care of them too.” K A T H Y O L T I O N AND J E R R Y O L T I O N NEW EARTH CONCEPT BY DIANE CAREY AND JOHN ORDOVER POCKET BOOKS New York London Toronto Sydney Singapore Belle Terre This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. An Original Publication of POCKET BOOKS POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.SimonSays.com/st http://www.startrek.com Copyright © 2000 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures. This book is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc., under exclusive license from Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 ISBN: 0-7434-1118-8 POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six Chapter Twenty-seven Chapter Twenty-eight Chapter Twenty-nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-one Chapter Thirty-two Chapter Thirty-three Chapter Thirty-four Chapter Thirty-five Chapter Thirty-six Thin Air Starfleet: Year One Look for STAR TREK fiction from Pocket Books For Kerry and George Palko, the best parents (and in-laws!) a person could ask for THE FLAMING ARROW Chapter One CAPTAIN KIRK was in his quarters when the Kauld ship attacked. It was late in the evening—past eleven—and he had been trying for the last hour to put down the twenty-first-century potboiler he had picked up for a little mindless entertainment before bedtime, but Ryan Hughes’s tale of piracy and romance in the early Lunar colonies had proven more engaging than he’d expected. He was three-quarters of the way into it when the intercom whistled for his attention. He pressed the reply button on the wall panel beside his bed. “Kirk here.” “Captain,” Spock said. “Sensors have picked up a Kauld warship approaching the planet. It is a single vessel traveling through normal space under half- impulse power. It does not respond to our hails.” For a moment Kirk couldn’t make sense of it. Kauld ships on Luna? In the twenty-first century? But then his own reality reasserted itself and he remembered where he was. This was the Belle Terre system, and the Kauld had been harassing the Federation colonists ever since they had arrived here, nearly a year ago. “Go to yellow alert,” Kirk said. “Move to intercept. I’ll be right there.” “Acknowledged.” Kirk looked for a bookmark, but there was nothing within reach that would work. He fingered the pages—real paper, printed especially for the colony library—then dog-eared page 248 and set the book on his bed. He would probably hear no end of grief about that from the librarian, but it was either that or lay the book facedown and risk breaking the spine. That would probably lose him his library card, one of the few pleasures this colony world, far beyond the edge of civilization, had to offer. He was alone in the turbolift on the way to the bridge. This time of night, most of the crew were in their quarters or at their graveyard-shift duty stations. He wondered if the Kauld knew that, and if they expected it to affect the Enterprise’s ability to respond. If so, they would get a rude surprise. The same people who worked the day shift rotated through night duty as well; there wasn’t an inexperienced crew member on board. And few of them would regret kicking some Kauld butt in the name of defense. It wasn’t professional, it wasn’t Starfleet, but there it was. These sapphire-skinned, bad-tempered, antagonistic aliens had been a thorn in the Enterprise’s side ever since the colony convoy had entered the Sagittarian sector. What had originally been intended as a simple escort mission while on her way into deeper space had instead become an extended peacekeeping job— in part because of these alien troublemakers. The turbolift doors opened and Kirk stepped onto the bridge. Normally at this hour, the lights would have been at half-intensity to simulate a diurnal schedule, but during a yellow alert everything went back to full operational status. He noted that Sulu was at the helm and Thomsen was at the navigation console. Thomsen was less experienced than Sulu, but she was a good navigator, and she had been gaining much more experience since Chekov had left to join the Reliant. Spock was seated in the captain’s chair, but he vacated it as Kirk stepped forward. “Report,” Kirk said. Spock stepped through the gap in the railing around the captain’s chair and stood by his science station. “No change. The Kauld ship is continuing on course toward the planet and refuses to respond to our warnings.” He studied one of his displays for a moment, then added, “Deep-space scans do not reveal any other supporting ships. It appears that they are acting alone.” Kirk looked past the helmsman and navigator to the main viewscreen, which showed the boxy, utilitarian Kauld fighter as it sped toward its goal: the Federation colony planet Belle Terre. Was this some kind of renegade attack? Surely the Kauld crew knew they were outgunned. Besides the Enterprise, there were a couple of dozen other starships orbiting the planet; mostly colony freighters, but the Kauld had learned before that those ships were far from helpless. “They usually gang up five to one,” Kirk said. “This doesn’t feel right.” “It is most illogical, even for Kauld,” Spock agreed. “Helm, fire a warning shot across their bow,” Kirk ordered. “Let’s see if that gets their attention.” “Aye, sir,” said Sulu. His fingers danced on the control console, and a bright
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