to reach it at warp speed, we’d overshoot. We’d strain the engines far past the danger point with such rapid acceleration and deceleration.”
“Wait, Captain, I wasn’t objecting—I’ve never been on a starship before, I’m glad to have the chance to look around. I kind of hoped I’d experience warp speed once in my life, though,” he said wistfully.
Kirk began to find it extremely difficult to maintain his irritation at Ian Braithewaite.
“Well, you never know what opportunities will come up,” he said. “But you asked to discuss security. I thought Commander Flynn should be here, too.”
Flynn had kept her silence; now she stepped forward to join them.
Ian pulled a folded slip of paper from his pocket. “This came while you were asleep, Captain.” He handed it over.
Kirk read it: another Aleph citizen had come down with hypermorphic botulism.
“Do you think Aleph will need my ship’s medical facilities as backup? Are you worried about an epidemic?”
“I almost wish I were,” Ian said. “But since my friend Lee was Dr. Mordreaux’s defense counsel, and Judge Desmoulins heard the case, I have to think it could be deliberate.”
“Someonepoisoned them?”
“I have no proof. But I think it’s at least possible.”
“Why?”
“At this point I could only speculate. But the coincidence makes me very uncomfortable. And scared.
The possibility that troubles me most is that someone might be trying to free Dr. Mordreaux. I think we should intensify security.”
“Ian,” Kirk said tolerantly, “I can certainly understand why you’re upset. But you’re perfectly safe on the Enterprise , and Commander Flynn has Dr. Mordreaux’s security well in hand.” He glanced at Flynn for confirmation, but she avoided his eyes. “Commander Flynn?”
She looked at him straight on, with her crystalline green gaze. “I’d prefer to discuss security less publicly, Captain.”
“Oh,” said Kirk, and he understood that she expected him to take a hint—that she was not happy with the security arrangements—just as he had counted on her to take hints since this assignment started. “Well. All right. But after all Dr. Mordreaux is an elderly man—”
“Commander Flynn,” Braithewaite said, “Dr. Mordreaux is my responsibility as much as yours, and I don’t think it’s fair to exclude me from discussions about him. Captain Kirk—”
“Kirk!”
Braithewaite spoke at the same moment as the shriek: for an instant Flynn thought it was he who had screamed Kirk’s name.
“You destroyed me, Kirk! You deserve to die!”
In shock, everyone turned.
Dr. Mordreaux, wild-eyed, stood at the entrance to the bridge. He thrust out an ugly, heavy pistol, and gestured to Flynn and Braithewaite with its muzzle. “You two, out of the way.”
“Dr. Mordreaux,” Braithewaite said, “don’t make things worse for yourself—”
In the hypersensitivity of a rush of adrenaline, Flynn saw the pistol steady as Braithewaite started toward Mordreaux. She thought, Wrong, wrong, that is just the wrong thing to do, brave but stupid, damn all amateurs; as the hammer cocked she had already flung herself forward. Her momentum rammed Braithewaite out of the line of fire and carried her to the upper level of the bridge. One more second’s hesitation in Mordreaux and her hand would clamp around his wrist, one more second—Damn Kirk for not telling her what was going on, damn him for making this sound trivial, if he had not she would have kept her phaser on and to hell with general regulations. Another instant—
The gun went off.
The explosion of sound surprised her more than the crushing jolt that hurled her to the deck.
Jim Kirk leaped to his feet. The gun went off a second time, the sound cutting through the cacophonous disorder on the bridge. The bullet smashed into him, engulfing him in a nova-bright haze of pain.
Mordreaux stepped backwards into the lift and the doors closed, a moment before Spock reached them. The science officer did not waste time trying to force them open. He leaped back down the stairs, past Commander Flynn struggling to her feet, and slapped the paging switch.
“Dr. McCoy to the bridge immediately! Trauma team, emergency nine!”
Spock knelt beside Jim Kirk.
“Jim...”
The bridge was in chaos around them. Blood spattered deck and bulkheads and glistened on the illuminated data screens. The security commander, her hand clamped over the wound in her shoulder, gave orders crisply over the intercom, deploying her forces to apprehend Mordreaux. Blood dripped between her fingers and sprinkled the floor beside Spock, like rain.
The second bullet had taken Kirk full in the chest. His blood gushed fresh with each beat of his heart. That meant at least that his heart was still beating.
“Spock...” Jim fought his way up through massive scarlet light, until he forced enough of it away to see beyond it.
“Lie still, Jim. Dr. McCoy is on his way.”
Spock tried to stop the bleeding. Jim cried out and fumbled for Spock’s wrist. “Don’t,” he said.
“Please...” He felt the blood bubbling up in his lungs.
The wound was too deep, too bad, to quell by direct pressure. Spock ceased the futile effort that only caused pain. Jim felt himself gently lifted, gently supported, and the sensation of drowning eased just perceptibly.
“Is anyone else hurt? Mandala...?”
“I’m all right, Captain.” She started up the stairs again.
“Commander Flynn!” Spock said without glancing back.
“What?”
“Do not summon the lift—Dr. McCoy must not be delayed.”
She needed to get below to help her people: she needed to, it was like an instinct. But Spock was right. She waited, swaying unsteadily.
“Mandala, let me help you.” Uhura’s gentle hands guided her around and a few steps forward before she balked.
“No, I can’t.”
“Mandala—”
“Uhura,” she whispered, “Uhura, if I sit down I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back up.”
“Lieutenant Uhura,” Spock snapped, “page Dr. McCoy again.”
Spock did not want to move Jim without a stretcher, but if it and Dr. McCoy did not arrive in another thirty seconds he was going to carry Jim Kirk to sick bay himself.
“What happened, Spock?” Jim whispered. “This was supposed to be... a milk run.” A light pink froth formed on his lips. The bullet had punctured his lungs. His breathing was irregular, and when he tried to draw breath, pain racked him.
“I don’t know, Jim. Please be quiet.”
Jim was slipping down into shock, and there was no more time to lose.
The doors opened and McCoy rushed onto the bridge.
“What happened? Oh, my god—” He saw Flynn first and started toward her.
“Not me,” she said. “It’s the captain.”
He hesitated only a moment, but saw that the blood covering her uniform shirt and spattering her face and hands and hair concealed a high and non-critical shoulder wound; he hurried to Kirk’s side.
Flynn walked into the lift and the doors closed behind her.
McCoy knelt beside Jim.
“Take it easy, Jim, boy,” he said. “We’ll have you in sick bay so fast—”
Kirk had never been so aware of his own pulse, throbbing like a thunderstorm through his body.
“Bones... I...”
