Anxious, Chekov watched the forward sensor displays carefully as Excelsiornavigated the gray expanse of interspace. The vessel was nearing the interspatial aperture that opened up deep into Tholian territory.
“What’s ahead of us, Pavel?” Sulu wanted to know.
“No sign of any energy webs,” he reported to the captain. Relief washed over him; Yilskene hadn’t barred the door, as it were. And in the absence of the Tholians’ charged filaments, outrunning Yilskene’s small flotilla was going to be easy.
“I confirm Commander Chekov’s findings,” Tuvok said [313] from sciences. “Unfortunately, I also believe I also can explain them.”
At the same moment, Chekov’s sensor display explained the situation to him as well. His heart went into freefall.
Chekov moved toward the bridge railing. “Captain, the reason Yilskene isn’t bothering to lay energy filaments in our path is because he doesn’t need to.”
Sulu frowned. “Why?”
“Because it looks like he’s summoned half the Tholian fleet as reinforcements.”
Chapter 28
Seconds later, Excelsiorand Oghen’s Flameemerged together once again from interspace. Fortunately, Yilskene and his massed reinforcements—Tuvok had counted more than four hundred small but heavily armed Tholian ships, with more apparently on the way—did not immediately open fire.
Admiral Yilskene’s multifaceted visage was up on the bridge viewer seconds after the arrival of the admiral’s hail. Sulu imagined that if the Tholian’s face could have registered human-perceptible emotions, it would have displayed a look of intense surprise at Excelsior’ssudden reappearance.
“You escaped our energy web, Captain Sulu. And yet now you have returned. You have one of your minutes to explain yourself, or we will summarily destroy both your ship and the intruder vessel.”
Sulu looked straight into his adversary’s blank eyespots. “Admiral, I believe that you and I still had an appointment to engage in truthcombat.I have returned to you ready for combat, in order to lawfully win the freedom of my vessel—and that of the Neyel ship.”
Yilskene’s head moved slightly from side to side. “Very well then, Captain Sulu. Your lawful challenge will stand, as scheduled. You will face your death—and the destruction of[315] both your vessel and the intruder’s—in twenty of your minutes.”The screen abruptly went blank.
Sulu immediately rose from his command chair and stalked toward the situation room, calling on Chekov, Tuvok, Hopman, and Akaar to follow him. The group quickly entered the chamber, leaving Rand in charge of the bridge.
As the doors hissed closed, Sulu turned to Akaar and Hopman. “Have you found anything further that will help me gain an advantage in this fight?”
Hopman shook her head. “I’m sorry, Captain. I’ve already given you and Lieutenant Akaar everything I could dig up. The Tholians haven’t been exactly forthcoming with information about their personal fighting styles. All I can really offer you now is the obvious: Yilskene will be going for the kill. It’s hard to imagine him yielding. You may have no choice other than to kill him.”
“My intent is to gain Yilskene’s cooperation,” Sulu said. “Even if I have to place him under physical duress to do it. I think the admiral is a pragmatist. He’ll listen to reason if his alternative is dying on an alien’s monoblade.”
“You’re assuming that you’re going to win,” Chekov said, his voice grave.
Nodding, Sulu matched his old friend’s grim tone. “If I assume anything else, Pavel, then this mission has already failed.” He trained his gaze next on Akaar. “Lieutenant, what can you tell me about the weaponry I’ll be using?”
Akaar opened a canister that contained the monoblade used by Mosrene to assassinate Kasrene. He carefully removed the crystalline-hafted weapon, holding it horizontally. The molecule-thin blade would have been invisible but for the elusive glints of light it captured and reflected as it sliced the air.
“You will be using a weapon very similar to this, only longer,” Akaar said. “Take great care. From what I understand of monoblades, it can cut through your environmental suit, flesh, and bone just as easily as it penetrated Kasrene’s [316] crystalline skin and organs. However, it is also my understanding that duelists are allowed the use of an energy shield capable of repelling a monoblade attack.”
“That sounds encouraging,” Sulu said.
Then Akaar’s expression grew even more dour than usual. “Unfortunately, this shield can be activated only a limited number of times before it exhausts its energy reserves and leaves its bearer defenseless.”
Sulu nodded, thinking it was still better than nothing. Then he turned toward Tuvok, who seemed beside himself with tension. “You have something to add, Lieutenant?”
Tuvok handed him a padd, and as he spoke, Sulu scrolled through the notes there. “You will be outfitted with a modified environmental suit, which will restrict your movements. While the gravity aboard Yilskene’s ship is approximately one gee, the intense atmospheric pressure will further hamper your mobility. Additionally, if your suit is ruptured and not immediately repaired, your life will be further imperiled by the hot, anoxic atmosphere aboard the Jeb’v Tholis.”
“Thank you for all the good news, Mr. Tuvok,” Sulu said as he handed back the padd. The science officer hadn’t told him anything he didn’t already know.
Tuvok’s right eyebrow rose. “Captain, I’m not certain you fully appreciate the seriousness of this situation. In my opinion, you are walking to your death in defiance of all logic.”
“That’s enough, Lieutenant,” Chekov said. It was plain to Sulu that his exec didn’t seem any more enthused about the coming duel than Tuvok was. But Chekov was clearly committed to backing up his captain—at least in front of the junior officers.
Obviously not yet ready to back down, Tuvok glowered at Chekov. “I am merely attempting to point out that an attempt to outrun the Tholian fleet stands a far better chance of success than does personal combat with Admiral Yilskene.”
Sulu held up a hand for silence. “Your objection is duly [317] noted, Lieutenant. And you’re right. We couldrun, and probably elude the Tholian fleet. If their ships were fast enough to catch us at maximum warp, then it wouldn’t have taken them so long to get here in the first place.
“But running back to Federation space won’t help us make peace with the Tholians. And it won’t do a damned thing to keep the Tholian Assembly and the Neyel Hegemony from trying to wipe each other out.”
“Suppose Yilskene kills you, Captain,” Tuvok said, clearly still not satisfied. “What then?”
“If that should happen, Lieutenant, then thatwill be the time to run.” Sulu met Chekov’s silently reproachful gaze. “If I can’t overcome Yilskene, Pavel, you’re to tell our Neyel friends to turn hard about and go home. Then outrun the Tholians, take Excelsiorclear of any jamming by the Tholian fleet, inform Starfleet Command of the situation, and continue back into Federation space.”
“Understood, Captain,” Chekov said quietly.
Sulu realized then that very little else remained to be said. “Dismissed.”
“Are you sure about this, Hikaru?” Chekov asked after everybody else had filed out of the room.
Sulu had been asking himself that same question for the past several hours. “Of course not, Pavel. On the other hand, the only ones who never have to sweat the outcomes of things are dead people.”
Chekov chuckled in response to Sulu’s gallows humor. “In that case, let’s hope the outcome of all of this remains as ambiguous as possible—for as longas possible.”
Lojur sat behind the navigation console on the strangely quiet bridge, contemplating the Tholian ships he saw on the main viewer. They hung ominously in the void, their wedge shapes looking like so many spear-points.