Free Star Trek: The Original Series - 147 - Devil’s Bargain by Tony Daniel Page A

indeed.
    •   •   •
    Montgomery Scott turned to Chekov, who was at the bridge science station, and asked him to verify the positions of the bombs.
    “We have them all logged and verified,” Chekov replied in his Russian accent, having trouble, as always, with the v sound. Scott sometimes wondered what his own Scottish brogue sounded like to Chekov. He supposed it must be as odd to Chekov as Chekov’s was to him. The truth was, to Scotty it was everyone else who had an accent, not him. To Scotty’s ears, his way of speaking sounded just perfect. To each his own.
    “All right then, let’s beam them out, as many as we can at a time.” Scotty touched the key on the captain’s chair and opened communication to the transporter room. “Stand by to transport bombs to deep space. Is the security and science team ready in case there’s the slightest glitch when those things appear on the transporter platform?”
    “Both are standing by,” reported Transporter Chief Bynum. “They won’t be here longer than a millisecond, sir.”
    “Aye, but it’s best to be on the safe side,” said Scotty. “Energize when ready.”
    “Energizing.”
    In the transporter room the bombs materialized one by one on the platform and were almost instantaneously beamed away to the same region in space—a distance as far from the Enterprise as the transporter beam could put them. After about two minutes of steady beaming, the job was done, and the transporter chief reported in to the bridge.
    “Bombs transported, sir.”
    “Very good.” Scott turned to the helm. “Weapons locked on target.”
    “Phasers locked,” said Sulu. “Standing by to fire.”
    “All right, let’s make those things go away permanently,” said Scott. “Fire phasers.”
    Sulu activated the phasers, and there was the familiar power whine of discharge. To Scotty, it was a beautiful sound, the sound of energy being properly directed, and a problem being solved.
    On the viewscreen, the bombs erupted in an expanding fireball of pure energy. If they had gone off on the planet surface, they would not have had nearly this much explosive potential. The phasers were effectively transforming the bomb material into plasma. There was no need for oxygen to ignite them here in space, not with a starship’s phasers blasting through the matter of which they were composed.
    The chief engineer watched as the last of the explosive streamers trailed away into space and all was empty again against the backdrop of stars.
    Scotty realized that he hadn’t slept for nearly eighteen hours. He’d been working overtime to track down those bombs. He hoped that he had them all. He and Chekov had developed a search algorithm that served as a very effective net. He couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but Scotty felt he could finally rest confident that the crew of the Enterprise had saved a lot of lives.
    “Let’s call it a day,” Scott said. “At least I will. Mister Sulu, you have the conn.” Scotty turned to Chekov. He could see the excitement of having fulfilled his duty still lingering on the ensign’s face. He could also detect the weariness of the task starting to take its toll. “Ensign Chekov, that was some good work you did. I know you’re young, but it’s time to take a wee little breather.”
    “I don’t know if I could close my eyes if I tried,” said Chekov.
    “I know how you feel, laddy,” Mister Scott replied, “I do. But that’s an order. I have a feeling our services will be needed soon enough.”

Six
    Captain James Kirk looked over the faces of the Planetary Council assembled before him. They appeared careworn, and not like people open to a last-minute idea that would severely challenge the direction they’d taken to save themselves.
    Hannah sat nearby. He’d seen her the night before, and if anything their coming together had been even more passionate than the first time. Kirk enjoyed the company of women, but she was proving to be