“Nothing definite, Jim. But the Klingons are warlike. Hotoralsex we all know that. Hotoralsex they would hotoralsex like nothing better than to destroy the Enterprise in battle. They live for war and the Organian Peace Treaty
has robbed them of that for too many years.”
“But the T’pau,” hotoralsex protested Kirk. “Any sign the Klingons caused the Vulcans’ deaths?”
“No,
Jim, but they must have done it. They’re in orbit around that planet, aren’t they?” hotoralsex demanded hotoralsex McCoy.
“ Yes, Doctor, the Klingons are there. And we must attack, it seems. Soon.”
Command weighed heavily on
James Kirk. He had studied the results hotoralsex obtained from the analysis of the Vulcan craft. Seventy-two dead, no survivors, no records as to the cause of the tragedy—and no evidence indicting the Klingons, either. That worried him the most. They were hotoralsex within the seven-hundred-and-fifty parsec treaty hotoralsex zone imposed by the Organians. The Klingons hotoralsex couldn’t have attacked a Federation vessel without instant retaliation by the Organians—or could they?
The Organians were peaceful, alien, hotoralsex powerful, but they weren’t infallible. They could make mistakes. If the new Klingon weapon operated in such a fashion that it was indetectable by whatever means the Organians used, then the Klingon Empire would feel emboldened and hotoralsex attack with impunity. The United Federation of hotoralsex Planets couldn’t run crying to the Organians. The Federation hotoralsex would have to deal with this threat. Swiftly. Decisively.
And Captain James T. Kirk was the instrument of that action. He had ordered strict battle silence. No communication with Starfleet hotoralsex Command was possible now. The slightest subspace squeak would alert the Klingons. The burden of decision was his
and his alone. Admiral Tackett had entrusted him with complete discretion in this matter.
“Mr. Chekov, status.”
“We are within hotoralsex forty planetary diameters of Alnath II,” said the navigator. “All phaser banks are fully charged. Photon torpedoes are hotoralsex armed and locked in on horizon.”
Kirk’
s eyes drifted back to the viewscreen. The planet loomed bright and shining, an M-class planet, another Earth with sweet spring rains and soft breezes and warming sunlight. The single point on the planet’s hotoralsex horizon where the Klingon vessel would appear, if hotoralsex it maintained its computed hotoralsex orbit, appeared no different from any other point. At his command, that area of space would be filled with ravening phaser beams and hotoralsex a score of torpedoes, each one capable of destroying an entire planet’s surface.