Star Trek: That Which Divides Read Online Free PDF Page B

Spock replied, reaching for one of the stacks of chips representing his modest winnings from the previous hand. No sooner did he toss two blue chips into the center of the table than the familiar whistle of the ship’s intercom sounded across the rec room.
    “ Bridge to Captain Kirk ,” said the voice of Lieutenant M’Ress, the communications officer assigned to the bridge during the Enterprise ’s beta shift.
    “If you get up to answer that,” McCoy said while looking over the tops of his cards, “you automatically fold.”
    Rising from his seat, Kirk grinned and tossed his cards facedown on the table. “I didn’t have anything, anyway.”He crossed the room, offering greetings along the way to members of his crew as he made his way to a nearby wall-mounted intercom panel. After pressing the control to activate the panel, he said, “Kirk here. What is it, Lieutenant?”
    “ I apologize for disturbing you, sir ,” the Caitian officer replied, her words soft and drawn out in a manner that could be soothing if not outright hypnotic. “ I’ve just picked up a distress call being broadcast on all Starfleet emergency frequencies. It’s the U.S.S. Huang Zhong, Captain, calling from the Kondaii system . They’ve encountered some kind of trouble while investigating the spatial anomaly .”
    His brow furrowing in concern, Kirk asked, “Does the message give any idea as to the nature of the problem?”
    “ No, sir ,” M’Ress replied. “ It’s simply a distress call, and seems to cut out in mid-transmission before repeating on a continuous loop. A data packet containing their most recent sensor readings has also been attached to the message.”
    Not liking the sound of that, Kirk did not hesitate. “Send a message to Starfleet Command and Starbase 23, updating them on the situation. Instruct the helm to accelerate to maximum warp. Have navigation recalculate our arrival time and send that on to Starfleet, as well. And route the sensor data to the science station.”
    “ Aye, aye, sir ,” the communications officer acknowledged.
    “Mister Spock and I are on our way up now. Kirk out.” Severing the connection, the captain turned to his companions at their table, and noted that Scott was already reacting to the subtle shift in the pitch of the Enterprise ’s massive warp engines as the ship began to increase its speed. The engineer was looking at him, his expression conveying the question he did not need to ask aloud.
    Kirk nodded to him as he moved toward the table. “Break’s over, gentlemen. Time to go to work. Scotty, I’ll need you keeping an eye on the engines. Mister Spock, if you’ll join me on the bridge?”
    “What’s going on, Captain?” Sortino asked, her own expression one of worry. “Something with the Huang Zhong ?”
    “It looks that way, Ambassador,” Kirk replied, sighing as he wondered what they might find when they reached the Kondaii system.

THREE
    Despite the best efforts of the bridge’s environmental control system, the stench of acrid smoke from burned-out relays and scorched insulation still assailed Ronald Arens’s nostrils. Normal illumination had been extinguished as a consequence of losing main power, replaced by emergency lighting that cast most of the bridge in shadows highlighted by the glow of workstations and status monitors. Though the alert sirens had been deactivated at least a full minute earlier, his ears still rang with their sharp warble. Because of that, it took Arens an extra moment to realize that the omnipresent reverberation of the Huang Zhong ’s warp engines was notable by its absence.
    “Position report!” he called out, pulling himself from his captain’s chair and moving to stand behind Lieutenant T’Vrel at the helm. “Did we make it through the rift?”
    The Vulcan nodded. “Affirmative, sir. We appear to have cleared the inner boundary and are now on a course toward the planetoid.”
    Arens directed his attention to the main viewscreen,