Reve accelerated toward the Enterprise even faster than the tractor beams propelled it.
Picard checked the sensor scans: none of the Belle Reve’s propulsion systems were active.
“What’s driving that ship?” Picard asked aloud, again trying to put himself in Kirk’s position.
The answer came from La Forge in engineering. “Captain-they’ve boosted their artificial-gravity generators! The main field’s outside their hull and they’re falling toward us!”
The Belle Reve twisted suddenly in place, and with the combined torque imparted by the Enterprise’s tractor beams and the smaller ship’s reconfigured gravity field, the Enterprise was forced to swing slowly around, directly into a cloud of debris.
But the Enterprise had what the other ship did not-a working thruster.
She reversed, skimming the debris cloud, but pulling the Belle Reve into it instead.
The Belle Reve swung out of the cloud, trailing flashes of superheated ice and organic gases that had been old when Earth’s sun was new. Her weakened shields were overloading and the Enterprise’s transporter beams punched against them, again and again, speeding their failure.
In response, the small ship fired a quantum torpedo past the Enterprise, to detonate behind her and send a rush of radiation against her one operational thruster, trying to overheat it.
The Enterprise countered by throwing all power to its aft shields and abruptly cutting its tractor beams. As if an elastic cord had been cut, the Belle Reve fell up under the attractive power of its own artificial gravity, scraping against the Enterprise’s lower hull until it was once again held in place by tractor beams, just in front of the sensor dish. Then the larger ship reestablished its shields with the Belle Reve inside their perimeter.
They were locked together now, both ships evenly matched in a complex equation of capability and battle damage. Both captains masters of their art, equally determined, each with a single, different advantage.
Picard’s advantage was that he did not fight alone. Three Starfleet vessels were already under way to lend assistance. The first, the U.S.S. Tucker, would arrive within twelve minutes and the Belle Reve’s capture would be complete.
Kirk’s advantage was an operational warp drive.
And at this distance, it was a weapon.
“If we go t’ warp inside her shields, ye’ll tear the Enterprise apart,” Scott exclaimed.
Kirk bounced his fist on the arm of his command chair, calculating the odds. “No. Jean-Luc won’t risk his ship. When we power up our warp engines, he’ll lower his shields.”
Scott didn’t look convinced.
McCoy was more vocal. “He won’t, Jim. Picard’s under orders to protect his home system. There’re three ships coming to help him right now. And he knows you’re not willing to kill half his crew.”
“What if those ships that’re on their way are full of shapechangers, Bones? What if Picard’s unwitting bait, just like Marinta?”
The holographic doctor scowled in disapproval. “I have never seen a more dispiriting display of obsessive distrust. Captain Kirk-you and Captain Picard are fellow starship captains… friends. Is there no common ground you can find between the two of you?”
“He’s fighting for his home,” Kirk said. “I’m fighting for my son.”
There could be no common ground.
22
THE OORT CLOUD, SECTOR 001
STARDATE 58567.4
Worf, forehead glistening with newly regenerated skin, reported from his console. “Captain-the enemy vessel is powering up its warp engines.”
Worf had identified Kirk as “the enemy.” How has it come to this? Picard thought.
“Mister Scott’s on that ship,” he said. “He knows what going to warp inside our shields would do to us.”
Troi leaned forward from the chair to his left, spoke urgently. “Captain, I’m certain you were speaking with the real James Kirk. I sensed no duplicity, no indication that he might’ve been an impostor. But I can’t be certain about Scott.”
Picard fought succumbing to paranoia. But what choice did any of them have?
“How soon until the Tucker’s within range?”
Kadohata spoke from her ops station; she had arrived on the bridge just a few minutes earlier, along with the rest of the senior crew.
“Nine minutes.”
“When will the Belle Reve be ready for warp?”
Worf answered. “Less than a minute.”
“Captain…” Troi began, and Picard could hear from the counselor’s plaintive tone that she sensed what decision he’d made-the only decision he could. He didn’t let her finish.
“Number One, reduce our shield perimeter to hold the Belle Reve as close to us as possible. Divert all additional power to our structural integrity field. Have all nonessential crew move to the escape pods.”
Worf growled in approval. “Understood, sir. She won’t get away.”
Picard sat back in his chair as once again his restraints folded into position. “She won’t get away because Jim Kirk won’t go to warp,” he said firmly.
He wished he could believe that.
Kirk didn’t need Scott’s expertise to interpret the basic data readouts on the left-hand viewscreen. Picard was preparing for the worst.
“I don’t think he’s bluffing,” Scott said.
“Neither do I,” Kirk agreed. “Are we going to be able to get through his shields when we go to warp?”
“Aye. But our warp bubble will take most of th’ Enterprise’s lower decks with us. And that extra mass will put our field so far out of balance, we won’t get far before our overload safeties shut us down. Maybe five, ten AUs. After that, we’ll be on impulse like every other ship in the system.”
Kirk knew Picard was sending him a message. He could read it in the steps Picard was taking to protect the Enterprise as best he could. The message was blunt: If you’re bluffing, I’m calling.
Kirk decided to raise the stakes.
“Scotty, tune our warp bubble to the smallest possible volume so we’ll cause the least damage to the Enterprise.”
McCoy looked at Kirk in horror. “Jim… you can’t.”
“Bones, Jean-Luc’s not giving me a choice. All he has to do to save his ship and his crew is drop his shields.”
Kirk felt as if he were about to step out of a shuttle to start an orbital skydive without a ceramic suit. His fingers tightened on the arms of his chair. He took a breath, gave his orders.
“Mister Scott, we need to let the Enterprise know what’s coming. Begin a thirty-second countdown to warp initialization.”
The engineer frowned, but he had no other strategy to offer. “Aye, Captain… tuning the field… minimum volume… and the countdown starts… now.”
“They’ve started a thirty-second countdown to warp initialization,” Worf announced. “They’ve also reduced their warp-field volume.”
“He’s trying to minimize the damage he’s going to cause,” Troi said. “He’s going to go through with it.”
Picard watched the time display on a console screen mark the seconds remaining. “Mister Worf, will we be able to stop him?”
“No. But the damage we inflict will prevent him from traveling at warp for more than a few seconds. That will put him within range of the other ships before he reaches the outer planets.” Worf paused, then added proudly, “We will be making an honorable sacrifice.”
Picard’s mind spun as he weighed the odds… twenty-two seconds… No matter what he did now, Kirk was
