Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:45:39 -0500 (EST) In: alt.startrek.creative From: kdj2020@webtv.net (Kevin Johnston) Title: Image Of Thyself Author: Kevin Johnston Series: The Original Series Rating: G, just like in 1979 Archive: Yes For ASC Feedback: Always welcomed. Everyone on the Bridge waited, as Uhura sent out the message of greeting. The silence was broken only by the sounds of the ship itself, as equipment hummed along. Kirk's eyes rested on the viewer in front of him, his hands gripping both sides of the arm rest on his chair. With no warning, bolts of energy shot out from the Intruder's energy field, just as they had when destroying the Klingon vessels and the Columbia. "Evasive!", Kirk screamed. "No time, impact in ten seconds, raising shields now." Ilia got the words out of her mouth with an amazing calmness to them, one that impressed her captain. As the shield status display lit up with dotted lines forming a barrier around an image of the great starship, Kirk heard Uhura sounding a warning to all decks to brace for impact. Greenish-yellow death raced towards them, filling the screen, and Kirk hoped, prayed, that the new shields would hold. And it was upon them. Striking head-on, the pounding energies shook Enterprise violently, for five seconds, ten, fifteen. And, then, it was over, and they had survived. "Scott to Bridge. Whatever that was, we can not take another hit. Shields at forty percent and holding." "Bridge, Kirk here, acknowledged. Damage?" "We took a good pounding, but the shields held well enough. Minor damage only." "About that next hit, Mister Scott..." "Sir?" "I'll do what I can to keep it from happening." "Aye, sir. Scott, out." Uhura, with good news. "Sir, all decks report status normal, minor damage only. Seven crew injured, Sickbay reports all well." "Acknowledge that. Are we still transmitting?" "Aye, sir, but we're getting no response." "Mister Sulu, comments?" Sulu drew near to his captain's side, at that. He had grabbed a railing and held on during the attack, was uninjured. "Recommendation, sir. Withdraw to a safe distance and signal the Intruder from there." "Chekov, can you calculate a maximum range for those bolts?" "Done already, sir. Estimated safe distance is one hundred thousand kilometers." "Sir?", a question from Ilia. "Not yet, Lieutenant. Stand by to back us off, but hold for my order." "Aye, sir." Turning to face his Science Officer, Kirk let him finish the task he was engaged in, waited for him to speak. Raising his head from his instrument readings, Spock explained his findings. "The Intruder can not receive our messages. We must send again, in its own fashion." Uhura, again. "Sir, due respect, but I haven't a clue what you mean." "No offense taken, Commander. The Intruder is sending its own signals on a frequency not used by our comm systems. I can reprogram my station to route the message from your station. Please disable your security overrides." Doing as he asked, Uhura watched her part of own console go dark. "How long?", Kirk asked, worried about that next attack. "Please be patient, Captain, this is a complex task." Kirk tried to not fidget, keeping one eye on Spock, the other on the viewer. "Spock.", he implored, not very patiently at all. Precious seconds ticked away as the Vulcan worked at it. "They've fired!", Chekov warned. "Helm, evasive, buy us a few seconds.", Ilia and DeFalco worked as a team, bringing the ship around, trying to save the ship. Chekov, again. "It's tracking us, sir. Impact in twelve seconds." "Spock, hurry." He could see his former (and he dared hope, soon-to-be-again) friend move his hands swiftly over the controls, working at inhuman speeds. "Seven seconds." "Spock, please, hurry." "Four seconds." Spock reached with his right hand, slammed the transmit button, and on the viewer, the fire died out, leaving the starship untouched. Calmly, emotionless, he then turned to face his captain, spoke again. "It would appear as if our message of greeting has been received and understood." -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Awards Tech Support http://www.trekiverse.us/ASCAwards/commenting/ No Tribbles were harmed in the running of these Awards ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. Comments and feedback should be directed to alt.startrek .creative or directly to the author. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From ???@??? Thu Apr 08 22:14:15 2004 X-Persona: Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n21.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.77]) by skylark (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1bbwRP7KG3NZFjw0 for ; Thu, 8 Apr 2004 03:34:40 -0700 (PDT) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-13366-1081420453-stephenbratliffasc=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yah