Part 2 (1/2)
”What's happening happening? Please-is the baby okay?”
”Heartbeat's dropping.” The medtech who was reporting did not address himself to her. ”Late variable decelerations, could be umbilical cord compression....”
Reverberating from the bay's speakers, Kirk's voice rose above the general bedlam. ”All decks, this is the first officer. Evacuate the s.h.i.+p. This is a general evacuation order. Get to your designated shuttlecraft. I repeat, this is a general evacuation order.” ”All decks, this is the first officer. Evacuate the s.h.i.+p. This is a general evacuation order. Get to your designated shuttlecraft. I repeat, this is a general evacuation order.”
The doctor in charge was already moving, gathering up instruments and what equipment he could shove into a single bag. ”Pack it up, we'll deliver in the shuttle!”
Firm, caring hands eased the patient onto a mobile gurney. Moaning, and with techs in attendance, a confused and struggling Winona was hustled out of the disintegrating medical bay.
So many future prospects, Kirk was thinking. So many plans unrealized, so many hopes and dreams unfulfilled. The rest of a life unlived pa.s.sed before him in seconds. He was frightened. No-he was terrified. But he was also in command, and little of what he was feeling slipped out.
”If we're going down, maybe we can take these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds with us.” He leaned slightly forward. ”Mister Pitts, set autopilot. Plot a two-minute intercept course. We know where they've been firing from. Target those weapons systems and let's see if we can buy the shuttles some time.”
The lieutenant's voice was tight. ”Aye, sir.”
”Targeting.” As the tactical officer spoke, another tremor ran through the Kelvin' Kelvin's superstructure. She was threatening to break up, Kirk realized. Hopefully she would hold together just long enough.
”Sir,” the helmsman reported despondently, ”autopilot's off-line. Can't tell if it's internal damage or disruption being beamed from the hostile vessel. We have manual control only.”
Manuel control only. Kirk thought back to his time at the Academy, to all the simulations he and his fellow cadets had been forced to run through, over and over and over again. Dull, boring, repet.i.tious, useless simulations-until you needed those skills. He knew what the lieutenant's declaration meant. Everyone still on the bridge knew. Kirk thought back to his time at the Academy, to all the simulations he and his fellow cadets had been forced to run through, over and over and over again. Dull, boring, repet.i.tious, useless simulations-until you needed those skills. He knew what the lieutenant's declaration meant. Everyone still on the bridge knew.
”Transfer manual control to the command chair. All functions: helm, tactical, science-everything.” His gaze swept the bridge. ”All of you, get to your a.s.signed shuttles. That's an order.” That's an order.”
Different faces, same expression. Just as none of them wanted this moment to come, none of them wanted to forget it. a.s.suming they lived to remember it, which none of them would do unless they got moving. As the s.h.i.+p's officers rushed to evacuate the bridge, Kirk slumped back into the captain's chair and tapped the verbal communications link. He spoke slowly and clearly, so that there would be no misunderstanding between man and machine.
”Computer, initiate directive element addendum doc.u.ment, General Order Thirteen. Set auto self-destruct sequence for maximum matter-antimatter yield on two-minute count.” He took a deep breath. ”Mark.” ”Mark.”
Something pinged. So simple, yet so fraught with significance. He settled himself into the chair. Better to go out with a bang than a ping, he told himself. Every monitor on the bridge now replaced prior information and readouts with a single, simple countdown sequence.
”Kirk to Shuttle Thirty-four pilot.” He was more relieved than he could say when a slightly shaken but still confident voice replied.
”Standing by, sir.”
”As soon as my wife's on board I'm ordering ordering you to leave. Don't wait for me, you to leave. Don't wait for me, no matter what she says. no matter what she says. Understood?” Understood?”
”Aye-sir.” The pilot's tone as well as his words indicated that he definitely did.
As the last of the bridge staff staggered out and the lift doors shut behind them, Kirk found himself alone. A strange calm settled over him now that he had done what was necessary. It was the kind of calm that comes from knowing one's fate-and that he would not have to make any more decisions.
Well, maybe one more.
He had ordered the now absent helmsman to set a course for the hostile s.h.i.+p's weapons center. The kamikaze maneuver might hit there-or it might run into an incoming torpedo. But lower down on the strange vessel, in the direction of its drive components, there would be considerably less chance of that happening. And perhaps an even better chance of saving what remained of the Kelvin' Kelvin's crew. Swiftly he began manually entering the commands necessary to change course.
The doctor was not happy when he and his team arrived at the entrance to the shuttle. Why did Nature always have to be so contrary? He bawled instructions at his technicians.
”Her water broke-this baby's coming now.” now.”
Eyes wild, head lolling, a dazed and disoriented Winona Kirk tried to focus on surroundings that were changing rapidly around her. ”George-where's George?”
She screamed, pushed instinctively, pushed again. Between her spraddled legs the delivery physician and his a.s.sistants scrambled to adjust.
”He's stuck,” the doctor muttered grimly. ”I need to free his shoulder. Push on her abdomen.”
Glancing back at a monitor that showed the continuing countdown, an agitated tech spoke through clenched teeth. ”Doctor, we have to leave.” leave.”
The physician ignored the warning. He was busy. ”Winona, I'm going to use my hand to free his shoulder. Bear down and push.” Bear down and push.”
”Everyone get ready,” the pilot told them from his position forward. ”We can't wait any longer. I'm initiating departure sequence.”
Struggling through the pain and confusion, Winona managed to raise her head slightly. ”George, the shuttle's leaving! Where are you? No! I'm not leaving without my husband!”
Swallowing hard, the pilot concentrated on his instrumentation and the task at hand. ”I have my orders, ma'am. I'm sorry.”
”Winona!” The doctor strove to command her attention. ”I need you to push.” push.”
Her convulsing body overriding her thoughts, she screamed again as she pressed her head back into the gurney's cus.h.i.+on and contracted the muscles in her abdomen.
It was almost as if she were pus.h.i.+ng the shuttle clear of the Kelvin. Kelvin. Clamps snapped back and the medivac craft found itself expelled from the stars.h.i.+p. Impulse engines sprang to life as the small vessel dropped away from the flickering, mortally damaged mother s.h.i.+p. The pilot concentrated on adjusting course so that the shuttle moved to join up with the other escape shuttles. Cl.u.s.tering in loose formation, they accelerated away from the Clamps snapped back and the medivac craft found itself expelled from the stars.h.i.+p. Impulse engines sprang to life as the small vessel dropped away from the flickering, mortally damaged mother s.h.i.+p. The pilot concentrated on adjusting course so that the shuttle moved to join up with the other escape shuttles. Cl.u.s.tering in loose formation, they accelerated away from the Kelvin Kelvin and the gargantuan vessel looming before it. Everyone on the fleeing craft knew that phasers mounted on the multilimbed malignity could sweep them from the star field in an instant. and the gargantuan vessel looming before it. Everyone on the fleeing craft knew that phasers mounted on the multilimbed malignity could sweep them from the star field in an instant.
Unless...
Winona screamed yet again-only this time there was an echo. Softer, filled with life instead of pain. Rising above both voices were the triumphant words of the relieved doctor.
”That's it, he's out! Winona, you did it! You did it!”
The pain was already starting to fade, to be replaced by joy and thankfulness as she reached for the newborn that was being cleaned and treated by the tech team. Weakly but with increasing determination, she stretched out her arms toward her child-her son.
As the wounded Kelvin Kelvin picked up speed and the countdown on the monitors shrank toward zero, a voice sounded over the speakers on the bridge. Thin and distorted by static though it was, he still recognized it instantly. picked up speed and the countdown on the monitors shrank toward zero, a voice sounded over the speakers on the bridge. Thin and distorted by static though it was, he still recognized it instantly.
”George? George!”
He could not cry. He could not spare the time. ”Right here, sweetheart. So what is it?”
”It's a boy.”
”It's a boy? Yeah! Tell me-tell me about him. Please.”
His wife was sobbing, but this time not in pain. ”He's beautiful, he's so beautiful. He looks like you. George-you should be here.” ”He's beautiful, he's so beautiful. He looks like you. George-you should be here.”