He shrugged. "Professor Mornay won't expect me
so soon either. That's our extra playing card. Besides
you, of course."
"Weirdest game I ever seen," Scanner complained,
wincing as he stretched his arm.
I pressed on. "What happened when they took you
in for questioning?"
Kirk shrugged. "I answered them." His casual air
deflated the bureaucratic web he'd probably had to
untangle before making good his promise to meet
Spock here. He hadn't said, of course, that the an-
swers had been truthful--only effective.
"You could're told me what was going on," I said,
facing the captain, surprised at my boldness and some-
how urged on by it. In that moment of bald honesty, I
was talking to the captain of my starship, the captain
of my schooner, and the captain of my destiny. He
knew what I was feeling. I might as well have the
satisfaction of speaking the words. "It wasn't neces-
133
sary to leave me holding an empty bag out in the
middle of an ocean on a ship I didn't know how to pilot
... sir."
He nodded, one shoulder cocked and his brow
furrowed. "I see. Anything else?"
' I dropped the crumpled flight suit and started peel-
ing off excess veils. "Well, I could mention something
about getting stuck in a smelly tavern and being pawed
by some K!ingon with no neck and a face like a
macaque...
"But," he prodded.
"But... I think I'd rather know what you want us
to do next."
"I want us all to fulfill our respective missions. Go
ahead, Spock."
Spock shifted as he crouched beside McCoy. In his
tunic and cape, he seemed forbiddingly natural to this
guerrilla life-style, as though he only half fit in any kind
of world. He addressed me directly with his serene
Vulcan approach, and any other identity but that of
science officer dropped softly away. 'I was attempting
to hail you when the captain beamed aboard unex-
pectedly from the ship that transported him from
Earth. You were correct about Lieutenant Sarda and
your carrier waves."
Scanner inhaled sharply and grinned. "Did we tree
him?"
Spock hesitated, lost for a moment in the colloquial
assault, then recovered and said, "Yes, we... treed
him. Shortly before the captain arrived, I began re-
ceiving low-gain impulses from what is apparently an
abandoned dairy farm on the northern outskirts of the
city, just over that rise." He gestured to a shadowy
ridge just behind a densely populated slum area. In the
twilight, we could see it clearly. "The pulses were
regular and definitely geared to be picked up by sen-
sors attuned to radio waves. Logically, the sender
could only be Lieutenant Sarda, since those waves are
134
tricky to broadcast. Congratulations on your guess.
We now have a location."
I slumped back and closed my eyes for a moment.
He was alive. Alive and answering me. Cold and still
since the first transwarp waves had hit Rex, my heart
started beating again. Merete reached over and
squeezed my arm in much-needed reassurance. She
was grinning that silent fairylike grin. He was alive.
"The Enterprise isn't here?" I blurted, turning to
Kirk.
"Not yet," he said. "Too conspicuous. Scotty's in
command and the ship is on its way... slowly."
"A decoy? Mornay thinks you'll be on board the
starship?"
"Yes. And Dr. Boma is on board. He may be of
some help when it comes down to the wire. He's
worked more closely with these scientists than any of
US."
I crouched between the cistern and a wooden build-
;ng long enough to squirm out of the harem pants and
back into my flight suit and boots. Ahhh, that felt right.
"So we'll go ahead with our plan to split up into three
teams and separate the scientists, sir?"
"They'll be easier to handle that way," Captain Kirk
added. "But I'm also counting on your relationship
with Sarda to shed light on Mornay's mental state
before we try to deal with her. We don't want her
pushing the wrong buttons in a panic. With any luck,"
he said, peering over his shoulder at his closest col-
league, "Mr. Spock will be able to pull out his bag of
Vulcan logic tricks with Perren and weaken Mornay's
stand by taking away her support. Her possession of
transwarp loses its potency if she doesn't also possess
Sarda and Perren."
Fully dressed and loving it, I stepped Out to put on
my boots. "What if you can't reason with her? We
have reason to suspect they're actually building a
transwarp device---"
135
"Which makes them a thousand times more danger-
ous." He paused, driving home the seriousness of that
one change. "Spock told me. We can't afford to wait
too long," he said, his voice taking on an abrupt
strength. "Every minute that goes by heightens the
risk that other governments, hostile ones, might get
word of Mornay's plans and descend on Argelius.
We've got to shut her down before that happens. It's
up to you to give that process a strong beginning." The
captain's finger pointed at me in illustration, pinning
the responsibility right back on my shoulders. "Mot-
nay doesn't know you. That's an advantage," he said.
"Use it."
"Aye, sir, I'll do my best." Of course, I was really
saying that I would fake it to the best of my abilities. I
hoped he took it as that kind of promise. Nothing was
guaranteed.
"We'll go in teams," he said, calculatedly making
eye contact with each of us as he spoke. "Piper, you
and Sandage go first. Isolate Lieutenant Sarda and get
him out of the red zone. That'll leave Spock and me
free to move in on the others."
Charming .... I get to go first. "How are we going
to pinpoint the location without the ship's sensors?"
Spock retrieved a tricorder from Merete, who had
kept her presence of mind during our foray with the
Klingons and made sure our equipment got out of
there safely. Checking the tuning, Spock then handed
the tricorder to Scanner. "These tricorders have been
adjusted down to the carrier wavelength. There's in-
sufficient power to send the waves, but the tricorders
can now receive them adequately to home in on the
source. The signal will be faint. You'll have to con-
stantly tune in. It may be tedious."
Scanner shrugged. "They don't call me Scanner for
riothin'." His eyes made a self-conscious flick and he
added, "sir."
"We'll give you forty-five minutes to get into posi-
136
tion outside their compound," Captain Kirk said. "At
that point, Mr. Spock and I will create a diversion,
giving you the opportunity to get inside unnoticed."
His tone, abrupt and poignant, insisted on success
"It's critical that each of you understand. Don't under-
estimate the gravity of this situation. Those scientists
. . each of us . . . even this entire planet are
expendable. Mornay has to be stopped, even if the
cost is all of our lives. Understood?" He paused, a
long, measured pause until he received the depth of
awareness from us that he demanded. With a nod, he
said, "Good luck."
The clock started ticking again.
137
Chapter Fight
"There are some things that transcend even the discipline
of the Service."
--Amok Time
IT TOOK US almost thirty minutes to wind our way
through the Argelian slums and up that rise to the
dairy farm. A motley collection of old wooden shacks
and stone-processing buildings, the farm also now
possessed an incongruous sophistication guards.
"How many?" I asked as Scanner crouched beside
me in the nearby overgrowth.
He turned his tricorder and squinted at the screen
"Twelve or more. These buildings are armed with
screens. Sensors can't penetrate, but I read twelve
guards on this side. You think they're Argelian?"
I smirked at him. "Not if M ornay's worth her salt.
Look at those phaser rifles."
"Yeah, so much for Argelian law. Those guys don't
look very affectionate, do they?"
"They look like hired guns to me," I said. "Mornay
must've scraped the bottoms of some seedy bar-
rels."
"Tell you what . . . they got a sensor wall around
this place that's steady as a docked ship. A butterfly
couldn't get in without them findin' out."
"But it isn't a force field..."
"Negative, just sensors."
"We only have twelve minutes before the captain
and Spock make their diversion. Let's find a door to
target."
"What kind of a diversion you think the Captain'll
come up with?" Scanner asked as he followed me in a
wide arch through the surrounding trees and reddish
Argelian scrub growth.
"Who knows?" I answered. "He'll use whatever's
at his disposal. The ship he came in, the ship Spock
came in... maybe even Rex. Whatever it is, it'll be
fast and sudden. We'll have to be ready."
"We're ready for anything," he said with a little
snarl of confidence.
"This is a good place," I said, hunching down and
scanning the farm area below. "On the far side from
the city... only one door, and only three guards. See
any others?"
"Yup, right behind that wall. Two of 'era."
"Where?"
"Next to that lopsided shed."
"Oh... I see them," I said, peering down the grade
at the guards as they lazily paced. "Look at their
clothes. All different. And they're all humanoid, too.
Quick and good with hand-held weapons."
"Those scientists ain't takin' chances, are they?"
"No," I said, feeling the weight again. "They're
not." I gazed over the buildings, plugging myself into
the faint lights that shone from tiny windows. Those
were probably set up as labs, probably set up quickly
and without safety measures. Sarda would be in one of
them, confined somehow. Each of those thoughts
made me stiff with worry. If the scientists, in their rush
to produce a transwarp device and up their ante, could
have one "accident," then certainly they could have
more. Sarda wouldn't be safe as long as he was forced
to cooperate with them.
The three stone buildings were attached to one
another with lath-ribbed breezeways covered with
138 139
some kind of tarp. The only opening on this side of the
compound was a heavy wooden double door, warped
by time and the elements, and guarded by two sentries
with phaser rifles.
"Any time now," I breathed. Captain, make it a
good show for me.
Soon phasers would lance from the sky, or perhaps
he would use photon torps for a brighter effect. A
distraction, he said. If I was in Kirk's position, I'd
have drawn the guards away by hitting a target down
the glen, near enough to see very well and far enough
to get the guards out of my way. Nervously, I glanced
at the sky.
"Are you ready?" I asked Scanner, more out of
need for the sound of a voice, even my own.
The night was dead quiet. The two nearest planets in
the Argelian system wheeled blue and pink overhead,
conflicting with the two moons for attention. "Yeah,
I'm ready," he whispered, also watching the sky.
"Any time," I said again. I licked my lips and
pushed my mind right through that door. All I had to
do now was join it. "Any minute."
"I'm still ready."
"Good... good..."
"Wish we had phasers."
"Use your imagination," I scoffed. "What did they
do before phasers were invented?"
He shrugged. "They used photons."
A smirk was the best I could manage for his com-
ment. I watched the sky. It was time. Where was the
captain?
Fleeting and horrible, the idea struck that Scanner
and I might be in the wrong place, about to break into
the wrong compound. Could that be it? Was I screwing
up already? Frantically I started scanning the country-
side, looking for the right compound or some signal of
Besides, why would they have phaser rifles if this
140
wasn't the right place? Right, right, that made sense.
"Hey, Piper?"
"What?"
"You see what I see?"
I swung around to him. "Where?"
"Yonder." He pointed down at the compound and
the slope behind it.
I squinted through the purple Argelian night, trying
to home in on a strange snorting noise that was groan-
ing its way up the slope. A moment later a score of fat
animal faces popped up over the hill, followed by
!umbering gray bodies, then more faces and more
bodies. Resembling, more than anything, a cross be-
tween Earth rhinoceroses and those clodheaded mud-
pigs discovered lurebering around Rigel Four about a
century ago, they were Argelian currbucks. Big, genr
tie, and clumsy, they shook their horns in confusion
and gallumphed toward the farm. Nobody would ever
have bothered to keep them around except that their
milk made up about 90 percent of Argelius's export
trade, considered a delicacy for its alcoholic effects
without the usual hangover. The animals themselves
were born with a case of industrial strength stupidity.
"Warthogs!" Scanner blustered. He watched in as-
tonishment as three chubby Argelian shepherds franti-
cally waved prods at the animals, evidently trying to
get them under control, but to no avail. The currbucks,
wide-eyed and snorting in panic, thundered over the
crest of the hill
and headed straight for the guarded
farm area.
We watched, tense and unsure, as the currbucks
lumbered right through the compound's sensor
screens and set off the alarms. The night filled with
flashing lights and whooping klaxons. One by one, the
guards around the compound ran to help herd the
curtbucks away from the farm. Eventually, when it
was clear the herd was out of control, when currbucks
were running snout-first into the compound walls in
141
blind panic, even the guards at the rear door drifted
away toward the scampering herd.
Scanner stared downward. "Was that it?"
"I don't know," I said quickly, tensed on bent knees
and ready either to go or stay, or go... or... "What
do you think?"
"I don't know. What do you think?"
"What do you think?"
"You're the one who's always tryin' to think like the
captain. You tell me! Would he send hogs after us?"
"Maybe that's it."
"We can go if you wanna go..."
"Maybe we should go."
"But what if that wasn't it?"
"But what if it was?"
"You think it was?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Let's go."
We went. A diversion is a diversion. And 100 Arge-
lian currbucks can be plenty diverting.
The mercenaries were shouting at each other, be-
cause with mercenaries there's usually too much ego
to elect any one leader, and they made a silly spectacle
trying to direct an impossible roundup. By the time
Scanner and I reached the door, the klaxons and
flashing lights had thoroughly terrorized the currbucks
and the guards were sufficiently distracted with what
they thought was just an accident from a neighboring
farm. With a last glance over our shoulders, we slipped
inside the wooden doors and closed them tightly be-
hind us, locking out the flashes and most of the
sounds.
The silence of danger closed in around us. My skin
quivered with anticipation. "Lock it," 1 said.
Scanner pulled the bolt with a shaking hand.
The hallway was simple, made of stone blocks,
unadorned except for small filament lights that cast a
cold glow.
142
"I can't believe that worked!" Scanner gasped.
Until then, I hadn't noticed how nervous he really