The Adventures of Jean-Luc Picard
Hammer of Thunder
by Jasjit Singh
(jasjit@uranium.dashmail.net)

Hammer of Thunder

"Fire aft torpedoes, full spread!"

For a moment Keel thought that T'Pau had not heard the order, which he had shouted over the din of the alarms and the ruptured conduits, now leaking toxic gases all over the bridge. But, even as he turned to repeat his order, he heard T'Pau's strained report: "Torpedoes away!" She was barely on her feet, but she still manned her station. Most of the other crew members lay dead or bleeding on the floor. Only a handful of the bridge crew remained on their feet. "They're coming in from all sides!" someone yelled in a pitch-high voice, frantic due to fear.

"Maintain your stations!" roared Keel, "Chavez, man your station dammit! Get back in that chair!"

He stalked forward. Chavez lay on the floor, blood streaming down his face. Keel ripped his uniform arm sleeve and knelt down beside the bleeding Chavez. He wiped the blood from his face and eyes. "Chavez, I need helm control if we have any chance of getting out of this alive. Can you continue?" he asked urgently. Chavez, weak from his blow and still dazed, nodded slightly. Keel helped him back up into his chair.

"Helm!" Keel ordered, "Evasive maneuvers, pattern Keel beta seven!"

The surroundings of the ship rocked violently as another volley of fire was launched at them. A new alarm began to sound. Keel swung around and sought T'Pau's eyes in the mists and clouds of smoke and vented plasma that now enveloped most of the bridge. He saw her look up, alarmed. She saw him.

"Captain," she cried, but her voice was almost drowned out, "our shields are down to seven percent! If we suffer one more hit like that, this engagement will be over!"

The turbolift doors began to open but got stuck half-way. Hands poked out and began to pry them apart. Eventually the doors were open enough for a man to squeeze through sideways. Jean-Luc Picard stepped onto the main bridge. He made his way towards Keel.

"Do we have warp power yet?" Keel asked, shouting in Picards ear. Picard shook his head.

"The warp conduits have been fused," he replied, "it must have happened during the initial attack. We cannot go to warp until we've taken all systems offline for a complete repair. That could take days, even weeks."

"I don't have that kind of time, Mr. Picard!" said Keel, as the ship began to rock and swing again -- evasive maneuvers. "We're almost out of shields. We are outnumbered three to one. We need to get out of this situation fast!"

Picard looked around for a solution. The deck was strewn with bodies. Some dead, most of them injured. In the far corner, the doctor, Jyresh Maxwell, knelt down as he tended to one of the wounded.

"We need to buy ourselves some time," said Picard, surveying the bodies all around. The ship was not the only thing in need of repair -- so was her crew. They needed time.

Picard ran towards one of the several unmanned consoles, just as the ship swung wildly again. He had to swing both arms about to keep his balance. He heard Keel yell for phasors behind him. Before he could give the order to fire, the ship shook violently again. T'Pau reported that shields were gone.

"There!" Picard had brought up a star chart of the surrounding Space. He had located something to buy them more time.

"Sir, we need to get to that behind the planet's moons!"

"Won't they come around in a separate trajectory?" asked Keel, dubious of Picards plan.

"There are two moons in orbit of this planet," explained Picard, "if we have sensors, and can detect their ships, with carefully calculated maneuvering, we can stay hidden, on the dark side of the moon, away from their line of fire."

"I can see how that might work with one ship," said Keel, "but here we are dealing with three Romulan warbirds."

"There is a chance," said Picard, tapping the controls on the console. He pointed with his finger at the tiny display screen. "There is a natural ionic disturbance that is located just beyond the planet's orbit. It has a refractive quality. We could use it to mask our signature!"

"It's the best chance we have," Keel said, "Helm, take us in!"

"Aye sir," Chavez was looking pale, but he was able to keep his eyes open enough to navigate towards the nearest moon. As the Stargazer reached it, weapons fire from the enemy ships shot past and disappeared into the blackness of Space. Seconds after that moment, the Stargazer dipped down and was hidden in the shadows of the moon.

Keel fell into his chair with a sigh. He surveyed the damage on the bridge. It was a mess. Keel raised a hand to his head and rubbed his temples. The veins on his forehead were standing out with the stress and pressure. He tried to calm himself down.

Picard was helping Jyresh attend to the wounded. Chavez had gotten a hypospray for his injury, and now seemed much more capable of his duties.

T'Pau walked over to Keel. "Sir, I have set up a compound scan cycle. We'll be able to detect any approaching ships. However, due to their speed and cloaking ability, we may have only a few seconds in which to maneuver."

"Understood," replied Keel. And then, as he looked up at her, he noticed that she had a hand clutched to her side, which was now green with blood, already soaking through her uniform.

"My God," he gasped, "you're injured."

"I will be alright," she said, with difficulty. Keel helped her down onto a seat. He turned to see where Jyresh was. The doctor was busy applying salve and bandaging the arm of another officer, who had suffered severe burns.

Keel turned back to T'Pau. "Stay with me," he said. "You're going to be alright."

T'Pau winced. Keel knew he had to hurry. For her, a Vulcan, to display such an overt reaction, the pain must be great indeed.

Keel half-stumbled, half-ran, to where Jyresh was crouching beside the injured officer. A hypospray lay on the floor next to Jyresh. Keel grabbed it.

"I'll be needing this, doctor," he murmured as he returned to T'Pau and administered the pain reliever.

"I'm going to get you to sick bay," he said to T'Pau. Her eyes were rolling back, she was slipping into unconsciousness. He was not sure if she had heard him.

* * *

"They're out there, you know," said Jack, "circling like vultures. Waiting for the chance to finish us off."

It had been five hours since the Stargazer had sought refuge behind the moons of planet named Koraihai, or Tau Epsilon Theta, according to Starfleet databanks. A Romulan warbird had come uncomfortably close to discovering them once, but they had quickly swung around the moon, in its orbit, and had caught the trajectory of the second moon. In that way, they had avoided being seen or shot at again. Repairs were going at a furious pace -- crews were working feverishly to get systems back online. The first priority was given to shields, and weapons. A second priority was given to the warp core. Picard and Jack Crusher had helped in many of the repairs and in tending to the wounded. Now, the two men sat in the dark and quiet mess hall, staring out at the starry sky from their hiding place in the shadow of the hulking moon.

"They won't get the chance," said Picard in reply to Jack's comment, as he stared out at the stars.

"Where did they all suddenly come from?" wondered Jack, "three cloaked Romulan warbirds. It was almost as if they were in orbit around the planet."

"Yes," replied Picard absently, staring down at the swirling mass of clouds on the brown and red planet below. "It's an uncharted M-class world, abandoned as far as anyone knows. Sitting here idly by in neutral Space. No strategic importance whatsoever. And now. Well, now, it appears that there is more to Tau Epsilon Theta than we had originally imagined."

Jack nodded. And then he asked in a sombre voice: "Jean-Luc, do you think we'll make it out of here alive?"

Picard glanced up and noticed Jack's worried features. He smiled and patted Jack on the shoulder, attempting to cheer him up. "We'll be out of this little scrape in no time at all," he said, trying to sound lighthearted and confident. It must not have worked, because Jack's brow crinkled, and he looked down at the floor.

"I'm glad that Beverly stayed at starbase before we came on this mission," he said in a very thoughtful and serious voice, "with Wesley now, I couldn't stand the thought that---"

He stopped. The silence was ominous. And then Jack began again. "Jean-Luc," he said, "I would like to ask for you a rather large favor."

Picard nodded, and listened.

"If anything should happen to me, if I don't make it . . . I want you to take care of Beverly and Wesley. Please make sure they are not--"

Picard interrupted him. "Nothing," he said emphatically, "is going to happen to you, Jack. Or to any of us, for that matter. We are going to get out of this situation, we are going to make it back to starbase, and you'll be able to see Beverly and Wesley."

"I sure hope you're right, Jean-Luc," Jack stared out at the stars wistfully. "I want to have the chance to see Wesley grow up to be a man. I am so proud of him. I want to be there, for him."

Picard nodded understandingly.

"I made a recording, you know," Jack continued, with a bit of a smile, "it was when he was born. I thought that, someday when he is old enough, if I am not there for whatever reason, he will be able to see it, see me as I am now, and know me, Lieutenant Jack Crusher, Starfleet Officer. And be proud of his father. I just . . . I just wanted to be sure he would know, when he was old enough. Does that make sense?"

"Oh absolutely," agreed Picard, "only problem is, that holo-recording might be a bit of a waste of your time, as you'll be around yourself to tell him, and show him."

Jack smiled at Picard's encouraging words. "Yes you're probably right Jean-Luc," he said, "but still, it never hurts to be prepared."

"Come on, we've got to be getting back. They probably need us in engineering again."

* * *

Keel looked around at all the weary faces of the senior bridge crew. Khalid had just reported from engineering that there was little progress on restoring warp power. Weapons were still offline, although the Stargazer now had shields. In light of the current facts, Keel had asked for suggestions.

"Any further attempts to engage the Romulans would be inadvisable," said Do'reth Sainor, almost placidly.

"We can't run from them," added Michiko Hatta, who had been promoted to the rank of Commander, and First Officer of the Stargazer, following Picard's demotion.

"Our warp conduits are fused," she continued, "There is no possibility of warp speed until we have the resources of at least a starbase engineering team. Right now we are barely keeping systems online with our emergency repair crews."

"Agreed," said Keel, "We can't run, and we can't fight. We need a third option."

"We communicate," said T'Pau, who had recovered from her injuries and returned to duty immediately upon becoming conscious.

"What do you propose we say to them?" asked Keel.

"They've just been trying to destroy us," offered Hastings, the chief of security. "Why would they be willing to stop and talk to us now?"

"Because we have something that they don't," replied T'Pau, and then nodded towards Sainor.

Sainor stood up and walked to the display screen, where he brought up a star chart, and eventually zoomed in on Tau Epsilon Theta. "Tau Epsilon Theta," he said, as the image of the planet settled onto the screen, "or, as is it is often called by the Romulans, 'Koraihai'. This is the reason why we are being attacked."

"Mr. Sainor?" Keel was at a loss, "please explain yourself." "Certainly, sir. During the past three hours, I have been researching the Starfleet database for any references to this planet. It was scouted thirty years ago by a Vulcan science vessel, but it was largely unexplored. The planet itself is unremarkable. It is mostly arid land, and there is little wildlife. There are no settlers, although it is thought that at one time in the distant past, this planet may have had a thriving population.

"This planet, being in neutral Space and having apparently very little activity around it, was mostly ignored by Starfleet for the past three decades. We don't have any mapping or structure of the planets surface other than the orbital mapping that was done by cursory scans of the Vulcan science vessel. So the planet is mostly uncharted. There was no value in it, there was nothing 'interesting' happening down there. Or so we thought."

Sainor tapped a button and a new image filled the screen. It was an image of what appeared to be an ancient stone hammer. Keel was puzzled. "This artifact is known by the Romulans as Kor's Hammer, or 'The Hammer of Thunder'," explained Sainor, "It is a legend derived from Romulan mythology. Kor was apparently a Romulan General, during the Romulan Dark Ages, before they became a Space-faring race, and still had wars on their home planet, where regions of land were held as symbols of power and wealth. There were several fragmented societies, but the strongest one was the Romulan Imperial Guard. It was this civilization that General Kor belonged to. He was loyal to his Emperor, and conquered the neighboring lands quickly. His fame spread far and wide, and he was soon feared and respected by many of the smaller Lords."

"A fascinating history lesson, Mr. Sainor," said Keel. "But, bring us to the present situation please."

Sainor nodded. "General Kor used a specific type of weapon during his legendary conquests -- it was in style similar to an axe and a hammer, as this depiction shows. It was known as Kor's Hammer because he carried it with him always into battle. It is said among the Romulans that when Kor had his hammer, no one could defeat him. Allegedly, in one battle, General Kor stood at the edge of the tallest hill, with his entire army behind him, and the enemy charging up the hill at full speed, and he raised his hammer and struck it on the ground with such force that it caused a landslide, with magnificent thunder from the heavens, and killed every single soldier of the opposing forces. Consequently, it is also known as 'The Hammer of Thunder'."

Keel was beginning to understand. "The Romulans call this planet Koraihai," he said, "Kor's country?" Sainor nodded.

"In the Romulan language, the term 'aihai' refers to 'plains', or 'plain country'."

"This planet was supposedly the home of Kor?"

"The birthplace, it is supposed," Sainor answered, "but no one is certain. Kor was looked upon as mythic or perhaps of the spiritual world, so he could trangress physical boundaries of Space and time."

"They think that the hammer is still down there," said Hastings.

"That is the most logical explanation," said T'Pau. "The Romulans who are attacking us may be searching for the hammer, believing it to be a weapon that they may be able to employ."

"If it does hold the type of power as the legend describes," said Michiko. "But all those stories were of long ago. Surely the hammer can't be more powerful than, say, a photon torpedo."

"The stories have been updated," said Sainor, in answer. "In the new legends, Kor's Hammer was more powerful than any warbird or battle cruiser. It had an unlimited source of energy and power."

Keel turned to T'Pau. "You said that we had something that they don't," he asked.

"We have their hammer," T'Pau answered, "or at least, that's what we can lead them to believe. Logically, they cannot destroy us if what they seek is on board this ship."

Keel mused over this. "If it works," he said finally, rubbing his chin. "Still, I'll want a backup. Michiko, I want you to prepare an away team. Once transporters are online, I want you to beam down to the surface of the planet. Look for any signs of this 'hammer'. The Romulans are probably already down there, so use caution. And this thing is probably well-hidden."

"Aye sir," replied Michiko, and began her preparations.

"Meanwhile, T'Pau, lets see if we can't open a communications channel to our friends out there," said Keel.

* * *

"Sir, we are ready to begin," said T'Pau from her station on the bridge.

"Deploy the communications buoy," ordered Keel, from his seat. They did not want to risk their comm signal being traced by any of the Romulan warbirds. So they were going to use the communications buoy to relay the comm signal from the Stargazer to the warbirds.

"Buoy deployed."

"Open a channel, all frequencies," said Keel, standing from his seat, "audio only."

"Channel open."

"Romulan vessels, this is Captain Walker Keel, of the Federation Starship Stargazer. We've been playing a little game of cat and mouse. I think that it is time we talked."

Keel turned to face T'Pau. She was monitoring the comm traffic. She waited a few seconds, then shook her head. There was no reply.

"They're probably trying to lock on to the signal," mumbled Keel, realizing that he had to be more persuasuve. He nodded to have the channel opened again.

"This is Stargazer to Romulan vessels," he said, "we know what you are looking for on Koraihai. You may as well call off your search. We've already been to the planets surface and back. And we've got it already. We've got your hammer, the Hammer of Thunder! Kor's Hammer is in our hands!"

Keel indicated to T'Pau to close the channel. She nodded and closed it.

"Now we wait," said Keel with a small sigh.

"Sir, the away team has beamed down to the planet," it was Picard, who had stepped onto the bridge with a status report from Engineering. He handed Keel a padd. "We had to reroute emergency power and managed to get Transporter room three functional, but barely."

"Very good," said Keel, studying the padd. And then he sat down. "Keep a lock on their bio-patterns. I want to be able to transport them out of there at a moment's notice."

"Aye sir," replied Sainor.

Keel had barely sat down in his chair when T'Pau reported an incoming transmission.

"It's them," she said.

"Put them on," replied Keel, standing again. The audio communication that came through was faint and distant, and often interrupted by static. The voice belonged to a female.

"Captain Walker Keel, I am Commander Creetek, of the Romulan warbird Champa. Give us your co-ordinates, and surrender your vessel."

Keel chuckled. "I cannot do that. What assurances do I have that my crew will be unharmed, after you have taken what you want from us?"

"You have none," replied Creetek. "The Hammer of Thunder belongs to us. Therefore, we demand what is rightfully ours. Your position in this matter is only as illegal possessors of a Romulan artifact."

"Artifact?" Keel put on his best indignant voice, "Oh now come on, Creetek. Even you know of the immense power of this thing! Why, we could destroy all of your ships with one single stroke, if we used the Hammer!"

There was a silence from the other side.

Keel pressed his advantage. "Now, I don't want that anyone should have to die today. You want the Hammer, fine, it belongs to the Romulans as you said. We will trade you for it. But we want safe passage out of this system."

The comm channel once again crackled with static as Creetek's voice floated towards them: "Ah, but then you may decide to use the weapon after all. Or keep it for your Starfleet. Isn't that what the Federation is all about, thievery and cowardice?"

"All I'm interested in is the lives of my crew, Creetek. You can understand that?"

"Ah yes, the petty human sentiment. Yes, that I can understand. So, how do you propose to effect this exchange?"

"First call off your search," said Keel, smiling to himself.

"Done."

"We can beam the artifact to a specified location, once we are sure we are safe."

"And when will that be?"

"We can plot a course trajectory out of this system. I can send you the co-ordinates."

"But of course," the voice on the other end sounded compliant, almost sweet. Keel suddenly sensed that something was wrong. An urgent alarm bell rang loudly in his head. With a shock he realized that this was a trap. He swung around to face T'Pau, but it was too late. There was a loud bang, and the ship swung wildly out of control. Everyone toppled to the floor. Immediately following the bang, the whole ship shook and thundered as torpedoes were launched at it.

The aft screen came on and there, looming above them, having risen unnoticed from behind them, was the menacing green belly of a Romulan warbird. The colors wavered and shimmered, and it looked as deadly as some deep sea creature about to devour it's prey.

"Damn!" cried Keel, "Damn! Helm! Get us out of here!"

Before helm control could respond, the warbird fired again. It's phasors penetrated the outer shields, and struck the hull. A brilliant explosion rocked the bridge, starting a fire, and singing Sainor's uniform. Sainor stepped away from his station, now burnt black, and found a secondary station to work from.

"Sir, Michiko Hatta is reporting from the surface of the planet," said T'Pau, above the noise of the exploding consoles and alarms, "they are under heavy fire from the Romulans!"

"Bring them back!" growled Keel, gritting his teeth. They were in a very bad situation, and he knew it.

"Transporters are offline," reported Sainor, "we lost most of our secondary systems after the Romulans fired on us. We lost emergency and auxiliary power."

Keel clenched his fists. The situation was getting grim.

The Stargazer began to move, sluggishly at first, and then picking up speed. They could only move at impulse speed. They began to turn, but the warbird was directly overhead. Seeing that the Stargazer was trying to make a run for it, the Romulan warbird let loose another volley of torpedoes. Most of them were aimed at the bridge.

The torpedoes resulted in several hull breaches. One of the last ones to hit blew open the ceiling, sending a hail of electricty amidst a shower of sparks, flying down onto the main bridge. Falling bulkheads accompanied the hail of plasma and electricity, as the bridge crew sought shelter.

Keel was directly underneath the rupture. Picard shouted but his voice was drowned out. He saw Keel look up, and then get enveloped in swirling gas and sparks. Picard leaped forward, but was pulled back by Sainor.

"You cannot save him!" Sainor shouted in Picard's ear. "it's too late!" Picard's arm was still held out as Sainor dragged him back to the corner of the bridge, where there was relatively little damage. Sainor set Picard down here, and then glanced about the bridge.

There were very few survivors.

Chavez was dead, sprawled across the helm controls with his face and body burnt to a crisp. A few crew members were on the floor, but beginning to stir. T'Pau began to pick herself up off the ground.

Picard was staring at the center of the bridge, near the command chair, where the Captain lay, dead.

The sparks subsided, and they were able to return to their stations. Remarkably, the comm station was undamaged. And a transmission began to come through. It was Creetek. "How arrogant of you, Captain Walker Keel," she said venomously, "to think that you could steal the Hammer of Thunder, Kor's Hammer, which belongs to the glorious Romulan Empire, and simply walk away with it."

Picard hobbled over to where Keel lay. His ankle was hurt, he did not realize how, but it pained him greatly to put any weight on it. He ignored it and half-ran, half-limped to Keel. He knelt down and felt for a pulse in Keel's neck. His skin was charred black, and his eyes stared out into nothing. Still, Picard hoped against all hope that Keel was alive.

"And then," Creetek's voice continued over the comm speakers like the voice of death for them all, "you expected to bargain with it!?" -- she laughed, a short, spiteful laugh -- "you obviously underestimated the Tal Shi'ar. Oh, didn't you know who you were dealing with? Tsk Tsk, Captain. To make a mistake like that. It will cost you."

A tear rolled down Picard's cheek. Keel was dead.

"Now, listen carefully, Captain. I will give you one last chance to surrender the Hammer to me. You and your crew will be taken as prisoners of war. Your fate will be decided upon reaching Romulus. Take my advice Captain, without any more of your Human treachery, and preserve your life and the lives of your crew."

Picard stood up. He was resolute. He scanned the bridge. A handful of Officers were still alive. Behind him, T'Pau was on her feet. And Sainor was manning three stations at once.

Picard asked T'Pau: "Anything from the away team?"

She shook her head mournfully.

Picard turned to Sainor. "How much power do we still have left?"

Sainor reached for the engineering station and ran the report. "For emergency life support for thirty minutes," he replied in an even voice.

"That's not a lot of power," Picard thought aloud. "Still, we must use what we have."

T'Pau raised her eyebrows and looked at Picard in question.

"I hereby take command of the U.S.S. Stargazer," replied Picard, making it official. "Note it in the log, Mr. Sainor."

"Aye sir," replied Sainor, wondering if they actually had time for this particular ritual. Still, he added the note into the ships log. It took him two seconds, and then he was back at monitoring his stations.

Creetek's voice came over the comm signal. "I await your reply, Captain. But do not test my patience. My gunner has his finger on the trigger, and he is most impatient to finish his work."

Picard nodded to T'Pau for a channel to be opened. "Listen to me Creetek," he said desperately, "I am Jean-Luc Picard. I have taken command of the Stargazer. Keel is dead."

"A pity," replied Creetek. "Do you surrender?"

"We will lower our shields and allow you to beam aboard," Picard said, hoping that Creetek would agree to his suggestion.

"No," replied Creetek, "lower your shields and beam the Hammer to our cargo bay. Also prepare your crew for transport to our brig."

Picard shook his head. He could not allow this to happen. "Reroute emergency life support to shields and propulsion," he instructed Sainor, as he walked to helm control. He removed Chavez from his seat and gently lay him on the ground. Then, he sat at helm.

"We're going to get out of here," he said, staring at the empty space displayed on the main viewer.

"There are two other Romulan vessels 'out there'," pointed out T'Pau.

"I know," said Picard, "we'll just have to deal with them when they become a problem."

"Power re-routed," said Sainor, "we no longer have life support, but we have reinforced shields and full impulse power, for approximately seventeen minutes."

"That will be enough," said Picard, "thank you Mr. Sainor."

The lights went dim as life support was cut. Immediately, everyone began to feel the chill. Not long from now, when the last wisps of oxygen were used, they were going to suffocate on their own carbon dioxide and lie cold and dead, frozen, as the Stargazer drifted through empty Space.

But Picard did not plan on that course of events. He fully intended on getting out of this situation alive. He set the speed to full impulse, and set the course. Then, telling the others to brace themselves, he tapped the buttons, and held onto the console for support.

Stargazer lurched *upwards*. It struck the green belly of the Romulan warbird violently, sending the warbird off-trajectory. The Stargazer's shields held, but everyone got a good jolt.

Immediately Picard tapped the controls again, and the Stargazer spun away from the warbird, ducking behind the mass of the moon. There was torpedo fire behind them, but it struck the surface of the moon.

Picard turned the Stargazer towards the planet at full impulse. For a few seconds, the way seemed clear. But then, directly ahead of them, two images of the large green beasts of Romulan warbirds decloaked, shimmering and wavering in Space.

Picard blinked. His breath was beginning to become shallow. Lack of oxygen. He looked at the two Romulan ships, wondering if it was an illusion or of it was real. As if in answer to his unspoken query, Do'reth Sainor said, "they're real!"

"This is it," gasped Picard, leaning back in his chair. With one hand, he programmed the last course trajectory. Directly towards the monster on the left. He set speed to full impulse. He was going to ram the bastards.

His finger hovered over the button for a second, unsure. His breath became raspy. It was not going to be long before he lost consciousness. He took a deep breath, struggling to stay awake.

A voice cracked over the comm. "Cease your trajectory and surrender your vessel."

"Go to hell," murmured Picard, and tapped the button. The computer beeped to confirm that the new course had been set. And the Stargazer sped towards the Romulan warbird.

"Computer," said Picard weakly, his head rolling to the side, "bring forward shield strength to maximum."

"Acknowledged," replied the cheery computer, "Forward shield strength to maximum."

And then: "Warning, imminent collision. Warning."

"Override warning, authorization Picard delta one one zero," gasped Picard, losing air.

And then he waited for death to come.

But it didn't. The comm system cracked again, and this time, and old voice came over it. A voice that was rich and deep, thick with an accent he had long forgotten. A voice that sounded friendly, and familiar. A voice that had relish for battle in it, and was strong and proud.

"I see I have caught you sleeping on the job again, Picard," said the voice cheerfully. Picard forced open his eyes, and looked up at the main viewscreen. What he saw astonished him.

One of the Romulan warbirds was losing altitude, engulfed in orange and red flames, while the other was firing it's phasors at a Klingon bird of prey. Even though the warbird had more powerful weapons than the Klingon bird of prey, it was a massive ship, and moved slowly. In contrast, the Klingon ship was small, quick and agile. And it was doing massive damage to the remaining Romulan ship.

The image on the viewscreen changed from the battle in Space to the face of a smiling Klingon. Picard looked up and nodded in relief as he recognized the face of Kempek, son of Dorath.

"Do not worry, Picard of the Stargazer," said Kempek triumphantly, "we shall take care of these patak. I will send emergency crews to your ship."

Picard nodded, and opened his dry mouth to speak. "Thank you," he said. Kempek acknowledged his thanks with a tilt of his head, and then the image vanished, and once again Picard saw the Klingon bird of prey make short work of the remaining Romulan warbird.

"Computer, restore life support," said Picard haltingly, and he tapped the control panel, leaning forward, decreasing speed until the Stargazer stopped moving.

Then he remembered Creetek. He opened a channel to the Klingon ship. "Kempek," he said urgently, "there is one more ship!"

Kempek grinned. "Do not worry Picard," he assured him, "we did not come alone. My ally from the house of Kaerne is here with me. They have dealt with the last ship. The Romulans ran like cowards when they saw the approach of the Klingon warriors!"

And he laughed uproariously. As the lights on the main bridge of the Stargazer came back on, and the emergency crews of Klingon doctors and engineers transported onto the Stargazer, Picard stood on the main bridge, wounded, but alive, and joined Kempek in a joyous laugh of victory.

The End

"The Hammer of Thunder"
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© Jasjit Singh, December 1999