From: arxt@quads.uchicago.edu (Aidan Palmer)
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: STORY: "Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt"
Message-ID: <1992Apr25.170159.6279@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 25 Apr 92 17:01:59 GMT


   What follows is the prologue and first chapter of a new Star Trek
story, "Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt."  The title of the story comes from
Shakespeare's nintieth sonnet.  I will be posting new chapters as I write
them.  I'm not exactly sure how long this will turn out to be.
   Please send any questions, comments, and other death threats to me
at arxt@midway.uchicago.edu.


Star Trek
"Then Hate Me When Thou Wilt"
by David Palmer

Disclaimers

    The facts and background details regarding the Star Trek universe as
presented in this work are solely the author's interpretation of that universe.
    This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are
either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any
resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is purely
coincidental.

Historian's Note

    This adventure takes place about three years before the events chronicled
in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.


Prologue

    With a resonating clang and a brilliant flash of light, the door was blown
away.  The rebels stormed into the control room.  "Nobody move," a metallic
voice hissed.  Base Commander Linda Rivera looked up.  It came from a tall man
in a dark, ragged cloak.  Of his face, only a single eye was visible; a
breathing mask covered his nose and mouth, and the hood of his cloak left the
rest of his face in shadow.  The leader, Rivera reasoned.  "Drop all your
weapons," he continued, sounding very in control of the situation.  Weapons
dropped to the floor.  But not Rivera's.
    "You'll never get away with this, rebel bastard," she said, with nothing
but pure hatred in her voice.  She fired.
    And missed.  There was a shower of sparks as her phaser beam struck a video
screen.  The tall man made a small gesture with a hand.  A mining
tool-turner-laser-weapon fired from across the room, knocking her phaser away,
but not cleanly.  Rivera looked down in horror at her mangled hand.  Another
beam struck her square in the chest.  She cried out in pain as flesh and muscle
seared.  The burning body fell to the floor.
    The coolness had evaporated from the rebel leader's voice.  "Anyone else?"
he asked threateningly, fighting a losing battle against himself to keep
control.  "Anyone else?"

Chapter One

    "Captain's log, U.S.S. Enterprise, stardate 9218.4.  We are en route to the
Mars colonies, where, I am unhappy to note, Commander Sulu will be leaving us
for a promotion to captain of the U.S.S. Excelsior."  Kirk hit the log entry
button with a sigh.  He remembered the comment Sulu had made when he first saw
the Excelsior.  It had been something to the effect of, "I hear she's got
transwarp drive," but even a fool could see that it had been said more in
admiration of the ship itself rather than her engines.  He remembered how Sulu
had been promised the Excelsior, and how downcast he had been when Captain
Stiles was given her instead.  But now Stiles was leaving her, and this time
she would really be Sulu's.  Sulu would get what he wanted and what he
deserved.  But would Kirk? He was losing a trained helmsman, and, much more
than that, a friend.  He looked back more than twenty years, to when Sulu first
joined the crew of the Enterprise.  He remembered how Sulu tried to convince
him that there had been a mistake, that he had been posted to the Aerfen
instead.  He remembered --
    Kirk was quickly brought out of the past by the sound of an alarm signal.
"Uhura, shut of that goddamn noise!" was his automatic reaction.  Then, "What
is it?"
    "Captain, we're receiving a priority-one distress call from Gamma Hydra
Four.  Something about a rebellion, then the message ends," Uhura said.
    "Gamma Hydra Four?" Kirk asked.  "Wasn't the Gamma Hydra Four colony wiped
out over twenty years ago?"
    Spock turned from his console.  "Affirmative, captain.  However, after the
initial disaster, a new expedition was planted.  The expedition discovered
vast, highly concentrated deposits of iridium, and the planet is now a major
supplier of iridium to the Federation."
    "What did you do, memorize the entire encyclopedia?" McCoy asked.  Before
Spock could answer, McCoy corrected himself.  "Oh.  I forgot.  You're a
walking encyclopedia."
    "Gentlemen --" Kirk broke in.
    Uhura interrupted him.  "Captain, something new from Gamma Hydra. 'Code
seven-ten, ignore previous message, do not approach the planet under any
circumstances, do not attempt any communication with the planet.'" Uhura's
puzzlement seemed to grow with each word, until the last one sounded more like
a question.
    Spock raised an eyebrow.  "Highly illogical."
    "Damn peculiar," said McCoy.  "I don't like it."
    Kirk nodded.  "First they tell us that they need us there immediately,
then they tell us not to even come close.  There's got to be something going on
down there that we don't know about."  He turned to Sulu.  "It looks like the
Excelsior is going to have to wait, commander."
    Sulu was silent, but his usual good-humored look faded away.  He had only
had a ship of his own once before, the Robert A. Heinlein, but that had been
only for a few months, and was nothing short of a disaster.  But it wasn't so
much command that he wanted.  It was the Excelsior.  He felt about the
Excelsior the way Kirk felt about the Enterprise.  For Sulu, like Kirk, it had
been love at first sight.  He had waited seven years for the Excelsior and
certainly did not want to wait any longer, not now when it was so close.  But
until he was officially promoted, Kirk would be his superior officer, and he
would have to follow his orders.  All he did was mumble, "Aye, sir."  But
inside he was in pain.
--

      "I don't know whether I'm basically lazy or what, but I enjoy
   my home and my general surroundings and living the kind of life I
   live." - DeForest Kelley