ENT - 012 - Kobayashi Maru

FORTY-SEVEN

EnterpriseNX-01, Gamma Hydra sector

“L EAVING SECTION ELEVEN, C APTAIN , Mayweather said. “Entering section ten. Contact with the Kobayashi Maruon long-range navigational sensors.

“Very good, Travis, Archer said, wincing slightly as he leaned forward on his chair. Despite the lingering pain in his side, he found the movement hard to resist, as though by gaining a few additional centimeters of proximity to the main bridge viewer, he might make any lurking hull-breach hazards more apparent and avoidable. “Steady as she goes. And keep scanning for gravitic mines or anything else that might sink us.

“The sensors are already tuned to maximum resolution enhancement, Captain, said TPol, most of her attention apparently riveted to the hooded scanner on her science station.

“Tactical systems are also running everything through a pretty fine sieve, Captain, said Reed, who stood at the aft tactical array, entering commands and studying representations of power curves and marching columns of figures. “Phase cannons and photonic torpedoes are ready as well. Ill be damned if I let anything bigger than a Ping-Pong ball get within ten thousand klicks of us.

Despite his lingering mixed feelings about the unauthorized actions TPol and Reed had recently taken, Archer was nevertheless grateful for the restoration of the core of his alpha-watch crew. The entire bridge crew seemed keenly aware, as he was, that this far away from any human-inhabited world, rescue was a commodity that was strictly BYOBring Your Own. All Starfleet personnel, from midshipmen up through the admiralty, recognized this sobering fact.

But in the case of the vessel toward which Enterprisenow hurtled, rescue was indeed on the way. The master and commander of theS.S. Kobayashi Maru has got to be the luckiest freighter captain in the history of maritime disasters,Archer thought.

Despite the remoteness of this region of space, Archer was already somewhat familiar with the portion of it that Enterprisehad just entered; it lay well inside the boundaries of a not-yet-ratified “neutral zone that Vulcan and Andoria had recently jointly proposed as a buffer zone between Coalition space and the vast unknown regions controlled by the mysterious Romulan Star Empire. None of the other Coalition member worlds, including Earth, had raised any serious objections to the idea.

Archer, however, harbored serious doubts that the Romulans would pay even the slightest attention to any such resolution. He was certain that they would go right on scrapping with the Klingons over the many resource-rich systems scattered across this swatch of what the stellar cartographers had dubbed the Milky Ways Beta Quadrant. And that was to say nothing of their current plan to foment dissension and possibly even warfare between the Coalitions member planets.

“The Kobayashi Marushould be coming within extreme visual range now, Captain, TPol said.

“Graviton counts at the vessels coordinates are going through the roof, said Reed.

“That would be consistent with the detonation of a gravitic mine, TPol said crisply, in full Vulcan mode.

“Lets have a look at her, TPol. Maximum magnification.

The star-flecked darkness that lay ahead of Enterpriseswiftly gave way to the grainy image of a badly battered freighter; the tapering shape was silhouetted only faintly in the dim reflected glow of one of the countless irregularly shaped ice bodies that made up the frigid halo of cometary debris that surrounded the dim and distant star Tezel and its co-orbital partner, the even dimmer gas-giant-protostar Oroko. Though the vessels long, narrow lines gave it only a superficial resemblance to a Klingon battle cruiser, Archers central nervous system found the similarity close enough to make his hackles rise.

“Whats our ETA, Travis? Archer asked, finally succumbing to the urge to rise from his chair and begin pacing across the middle of the bridge.

“Well come within transporter range in about four minutes, Captain, the helmsman said as he checked a nav display and entered a small course correction.

“The MACO and Starfleet emergency boarding teams are assembled and ready, Captain, said TPol. “Theyve prepped the shuttlepods in both launch bays, and are standing by at the transporter pad.

“Sickbay reports ready as well, Captain, Hoshi said from her com station.

“Captain, Im reading another vessel in orbit around one of this systems Kuiper bodies, Malcolm said, sounding alarmed.

Archers hackles stiffened even further. “What kind of vessel?

“Her profile is consistent with that of a Romulan warship, Captain, Reed said, sounding almost eager to get a closer look.

Romulans. Great. Swell.On the other hand, this could be an opportunity to gather whatever additional proof of Romulan aggression even the most skeptical Coalition representative might require. “Location?

“About two million kilometers on the other side of the Kobayashi Maru.

Well, they cant do very much damage to either of us atthat range,Archer thought. “Keep tabs on it, Malcolm. Let me know immediately if she starts moving.

“Aye, sir. Reed immediately set about entering a new series of commands into his tactical station.

“Hoshi, raise the Kobayashi Marus captain, Archer said.

Hoshis fingers moved nimbly across her com console. “Opening a channel, Captain.

“Captain Vance, this is Enterprise,Archer said, raising his voice slightly for the benefit of the com systems audio pickups. “We can begin transporting your survivors in two minutes.

“Archer, I never thought Id be so glad to hearyour voice again,Vance said, all but shouting over a sibilant background wash of static. “Seems unlikely, doesnt it?

Archer let a small smile crease his lips, since he was certain that he knew a good deal more about the Kobayashi Marus mission than Vance would have preferred. “Probably about as likely as your ship sailing so far off the edge of the map, Captain.

“Believe me, Captain Archer, theMaru would be navigating far safer waters right now had theHorizon showed up for our rendezvous when she was supposed to.

Mayweather turned his chair so that he faced Archer, his eyes wide with concern.

Picking up on his helmsmans obvious distress, Archer continued addressing Vance. “The Horizon? Are you referring to Paul Mayweathers Earth Cargo Service freighter, Captain Vance?

Another blast of static preceded Vances scratchy reply. “The same. We were supposed to transfer our, ah, cargo to her at Psi Octantis, which is a whole lot closer to the Coalition side of this sector. She never turned up there, so were making the delivery she was supposed

The tide of static rose abruptly, drowning out whatever Vance might have had to say next.

“Hoshi, can you clean that up? Archer said, frowning.

Scowling down at her console, the youthful communications expert shook her head. “Sorry, Captain. Theres just too much external interference. Its almost as though

“Almost as though somebody a little closer to her than we are is jamming her signals, Archer said, interrupting. “That damned Romulan ship.

“What could have happened to the Horizon? Mayweather said, looking up from his helm seat; he was obviously rattled emotionally, though he seemed to be working hard to conceal that fact. “The booby trap that the Kobayashi Maruhit cant have been the only one the Romulans or the Klingons left lying around in this sector. Maybe

“Lets not get ahead of ourselves, Travis, Archer said. He stepped toward the pilot and laid a hand gently on his shoulder. “I promise you well get to the bottom of this, just as quickly as we can.

Mayweather nodded, his dark eyes gleaming with both appreciation and worry. “Thank you, sir.

Turning back toward Hoshis station, Archer said, “Why the hell would even the Romulans try to jam distress calls from a human freighter way out here in the boondocks?

“Its actually a modified Klingonfreighter, Captain, Malcolm said. “The Romulans might be taking over her systems with their new weapon, as part of another one of their territorial skirmishes against the Klingons.

Or maybe they know full well that theKobayashi Maru is filled with defenseless humans and theyre doing this just for the sheer sadistic hell of it,Archer thought. He knew hed never forget how theyd tried to annihilate the civilization on Coridan Prime, even if he never succeeded in proving their involvement definitively. Maybe theyre trying to force us to fire some of the first shots in the new war we all know is coming.

“Were receiving another incoming signal, Captain, Hoshi said as she examined the frequency and modulation graphs on her displays.

“From the Kobayashi Maru? Archer said.

“No, sir. The point-source vector doesnt match at all, and the signal seems to have bypassed the worst of the jamming effect.

Archers eyebrows rose involuntarily as he approached her console to get a better look at the incoming message scrolling on her displays. “Starfleet Command?

“No, sir. Its in the wrong frequency range. And its in the lowest portions of the subspace bands, so low its hard to sort out from the cosmic subspace background noise.

“Enhance that signal and pinpoint its source, Archer said.

Hoshi swiftly tapped new instructions into her board, and her brow crumpled in puzzlement as she studied the new data that resulted. “Looks like its coming from the Romulanship, Captain.

“Audio? Archer asked.

She shook her head. “No, only modulation pulses. Its almost as though somebody on that ship is tapping against the ships own signal-jamming protocols, using some other on-board system to create the taps.

“The way you might bang out a Morse code message by rapping a monkey wrench against a pipe, said Archer.

“Exactly.

“Any idea who the sender is? Archer said, although he already had a pretty good idea of the identity of whoever was wielding the “subspace monkey wrench on the Romulan ship.

“Just the name Lazarus, Captainjust like the message we received back in February. The name keeps repeating throughout the message. He saw her eyes widen in evident recognition of the name, which he knew she had encountered once before not so very long ago.

“Pipe it to my ready room, Hoshi, Archer said, then turned so that he faced both the main science console and the tactical station.

“Malcolm, you have the bridge. TPol, youre with me.

Then he was practically in a footrace with his first officer to discover whether or not “Lazarus had returned from the dead yet again.