“WE’RE PUTTING A STOP TO THIS.”
SULU SAID. “NOW.
Asher, take us into the path of those blasts, between the Neyel ship and the Tholian settlement.”
Chekov moved toward the command chair and leaned in. “Please tell me you a have a plan,” he said quietly.
“If we lost only seven percent of our shield capacity from the previous attack, then we ought to be able to sustain another few direct hits without serious damage. And that may buy some time for the Tholians down there.”
“You hope,” Chekov finished for him. “If that first volley they fired at us really was only a warning shot ...”
“I can’t just allow the wanton slaughter of those people down there, Pavel. And if we can stop the attack without having to open fire ourselves ...”
“Big gamble,” Chekov said.
“I know,” Sulu told him. He studied the viewer as the Neyel ship, with its long, weapons-festooned hull, loomed steadily larger in Excelsior’sflight path. He wondered for a moment if any sort of parley or peace was even possible with such apparently hate-filled people. After all, the Neyel with whom he had spoken had referred to the Tholians as an “infestation.”
I just hope I’m not placing my ship and my crew in jeopardy over a lost cause.
POCKET BOOKS
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For the gallant crew of STS-107, the proud handful of achievers who flew into Eternity aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia:Michael Anderson; David Brown; Kalpana Chawla; Laurel Clark; Rick Husband; William McCool; and Ilan Ramon. Your courage is writ large across the sky, through all the eras, lost or otherwise.
—MAM.
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—A.M.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
HISTORIAN’S NOTE
PART 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
PART 2
Chapter 8
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
PART 3
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
PART 4
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
PART 5
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
PART 6
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
PART 7
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
PART 8
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
PART 9
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
PART 10
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE E-BOOK
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors’ heartfelt thanks go to Dr. Al Globus of the NASAAmesResearchCenter. His keen insights into the construction of off-world orbital habitats was invaluable to us both.
Thanks are also due to the dean of science fiction, the late Robert A. Heinlein, for penning the novellas Universeand Common Sense,and the short story “The Green Hills of Earth,” which is (mis)quoted very briefly in Chapter 25 (granted by permission of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust).
One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.
—ANDRÉ [PAUL-GUILLAUME] GIDE (1869-1951)
If it were all so simple!
If only there were evil people somewhere
insidiously committing evil deeds,
and it were necessary only to separate them
from the rest of us and destroy them.
But the line dividing good and evil
cuts through the heart of every human being.
And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
—ALEXSANDR SOLZHENITSYN
HISTORIAN’S NOTE
This story is set in the year 2298, five years after the presumed death of Captain James T. Kirk aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations,and sixty-six years before the launch of the Enterprise-D in “Encounter at Farpoint.”
PART 1
ALIENS
Chapter 1
After bowing respectfully before his opponent, Captain Hikaru Sulu straightened, tensing his wiry form as he raised his épée to the ready position. “En garde!”he shouted, then lunged forward, the slender blade flashing before him.
With a grace that belied her considerable size, Lieutenant P’mu’la Hopman deflected Sulu’s foil toward the captains left with a deft parry sixte. Sulu tried to conceal his surprise at how quick the muscular exosociology specialist was on her rather large feet. Though less than twenty years Sulu’s junior, Hopman moved like someone far younger. On top of that, she was in her male phase this morning. Sulu had become accustomed to sparring with Hopman when she wore her female form, which was more equivalent to Sulu’s own mass.
Recovering quickly, Sulu renewed his attack, stepping forward, then back, then forward again, all the while probing his opponent for weakness or hesitation. He thrust, cobralike. Hopman countered him once again with a quarte parry, melding fluidly into a forward-lunging riposte that Sulu easily sidestepped.