EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
P2G-0091 lies in the dark sea of space, its three parent stars far in the distance. A world of empty desert, its atmosphere providing it its rosy tint, it is a near-twin of the planet Mars as it was thousands of years into the past, before it was terraformed into a resplendent M-class planet.
Dropping out of warp, the Enterprise moves on approach for the colony world.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
Kirk sits in his chair, clenching and unclenching his left fist at regular intervals; it is all he can do to keep himself from jumping up out off his seat and pacing about the bridge. Capt. Quloob stands behind him, a quiet observer.
KELSO: We are coming up on P2G-0091 now, sir.
KIRK: On-screen, Mr. Kelso.
The navigator brings a live-feed image of P2G-0091’s upper hemisphere up onto the viewscreen.
KELSO: On-screen, sir.
KIRK: Magnify to 10.
The Enterprise’s scanners zoom in and the image grows in size, enlarging until details on the surface come into focus. In moments, the P2G-0091 colony can be seen – or more accurately, the remains of the P2G-0091 colony. The entire colony – its housing facilities, its processing plants, everything – has been burnt down to the ground, leaving scorched earth in its place; only a few transmitter towers and derelict land vehicles remain to indicate that a colony had ever been here.
CAPT QULOOB: We’re too late.
KIRK: Uhura …?
Uhura turns in her seat, meeting Kirk’s gaze with her own.
UHURA: (shakes her head) I’m sorry, Captain.
Kirk’s features briefly contort with rage, but the captain pushes them down, refusing to let them take hold and overwhelm him.
KIRK: Where are they?
ENS. DFHUE: Straight ahead, sir.
EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
Emerging from behind the other side of the planet, two K’t’inga-class battle cruisers move on approach for the Enterprise, disruptor banks powering up with baleful energy.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
UHURA: They’re hailing us.
KIRK: Let’s see them.
Uhura relays the incoming transmission to the viewscreen, and an image of a Klingon appears on-screen. The Klingon is male, clad in the black bodysuit and sleeveless mail tunic of a Klingon officer, a gold baldric bearing his rank, family, house, and caste insignia affixed over his chest. His skin is bronze, with beady eyes, a broad nose, a Fu Manchu mustache, and a cruel mouth situated upon his face. Were it not for the pronounced forehead ridges he sports, he’d be virtually indistinguishable from a baseline human.
KOR: Commander Kor of the Klingon battle cruiser Klothos.
EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
The lead K’t’inga opens fire. The disruptor beams pass just over the Enterprise’s bow – a warning shot.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KOR: (cont’d) I am prepared to discuss the terms of your surrender.
KIRK: Capt. Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise. Commander, does this look like a cold day in Hell to you?
KOR: Should I interpret that clumsy Human idiom to mean you refuse to surrender, Kirk? With your one ship under the guns of my two cruisers? (beat) Very well, perhaps I should give you a choice instead. You may surrender or you may die.
KIRK: If that’s a bluff, it’s not a strong one, Kor. You’ve already destroyed a Federation colony in Federation space; destroy a Starfleet vessel and war between our two peoples will be a foregone conclusion.
KOR: It is you who provides the weak bluff, Kirk. This planet does not fall within Federation space; your mining operation was established on unclaimed territory. And as the terms of the Treaty of Organia clearly state, either of our two powers can lay claim to disputed territories – with or without extreme prejudice. (beat) I give you seven minutes, Captain – seven minutes to acquiesce or suffer the consequences of the alternative.
Kor ends the connection.
KIRK: (turns and looks up at Quloob) Was he telling the truth? Did our people erect a colony without laying claim to the planet first?
CAPT. QULOOB: Technically … yes.
KIRK: (angry) Three-hundred people dead – needlessly!
CAPT. QULOOB: It wasn’t my decision to make, Captain.
Frustrated, Kirk faces back forward.
KIRK: Mr. S’Pock, you are our resident logician. What course of action do you suggest we take?
S’POCK: Captain, the Enterprise is an exploratory vessel; it was designed for long-duration missions at the expense of heavy weaponry. Conversely, the D7s were specifically designed to be combat vessels; they are equipped with six disruptor banks and two torpedo launchers each. (beat) Only through subterfuge were we able to defeat the last D7, and then only barely. The same initial conditions will not be in effect here.
KIRK: So we turn tail and run.
CAPT QULOOB: We can’t leave all that nithium to the Klingons!
S’POCK: It is the logical decision.
KIRK: Logical, but not reasonable.
S’Pock merely cocks an eyebrow in response.
KIRK: (sighs) Lt. Uhura, hail the Klothos.
Uhura opens a channel to the Klothos. In seconds, Kor’s face reappears on the viewscreen.
KOR: So, you’ve accepted the inevitable.
KIRK: Yes, I’ve accepted the inevitable – the inevitable conclusion that I can’t allow a planet of nithium to fall into Klingon hands.
KOR: (grins) Will you make a fight out of this after all?
KIRK: No. Trying to take you on would be like a cat trying to take on a pair of sharks.
KOR: What then? You have no reinforcements, nothing to bargain with.
KIRK: Kor, are you at all familiar with King Solomon?
KOR: I don’t make the sovereigns of inferior races a concern of mine.
KIRK: Solomon was a king on ancient Earth, famous for his wisdom. He was so wise that people from all over the world came to him, eagre for his advice. (beat) On one morning, a pair of women came to his palace; they each claimed to be the mother of a newborn son and wanted Solomon to resolve their dispute. Solomon, wise as his was, quickly came up with a solution; he would have the child cut in half, allowing the pair to have equal shares of the boy.
KOR: If this is what passes for wisdom among Humans, then your race is a sorry one indeed.
KIRK: (cont’d) While one of the women agreed to Solomon’s resolution, the other was despondent. She begged Solomon not to have the boy killed, promising to relinquish all claim to him, to allow the other woman to raise the boy as her son if the king would only have him spared. Right then Solomon knew who the rightful mother was; taking the baby, he placed him in the arms of the woman who was ready to give him up for his own benefit. (beat) You see, Kor, I am King Solomon and the Federation and Klingon Empire are the two women. Only this time, neither of the women will be willing to give the child up for its own benefit.
INT. KLOTHOS/BRIDGE
The Klingon science officer – a gracile Klingon with negligible forehead ridges, incredibly pale skin, and very fine hair – spins around in his chair to face Kor.
KLINGON SCIENCE OFFICER: The Enterprise has charged her weapons. She is targeting the planet!
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: If you have any personnel on the surface, I advise you to beam them up if you can. (beat) Lt. Sulu, photon torpedoes, full spread.
EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
The Enterprise deploys its entire payload of photon torpedoes. A massive arrow of glowing red death, they head straight for the planet. Upon dropping into the atmosphere, they detonate, setting off a massive conflagration which immediately begins consuming the dinithium gases.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
S’POCK: Sensors indicate the photon torpedoes have ignited the dinithium atmosphere and initiated a combustive cascade through the entire geosphere. I estimate that the whole of P2G-0091 will explode in 1.29 minutes, unleashing a subspace shockwave which will annihilate everything within a 1.7 light-year radius. (beat) You have inadvertently killed us all, Captain.
KIRK: Kelso, turn us around and get us the hell out of here.
EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
The Enterprise swivels around, impulse engines flaring as it heads as far and as fast as it can away from the volatile planet.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: (presses an armrest button) Mr. Scott.
INT. ENTERPRISE/MAIN ENGINEERING
SCOTT: Yes, Captain?
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: Mr. Scott, you recall that discussion on speed trials we had the other day?
INT. ENTERPRISE/MAIN ENGINEERING
SCOTT: Yes, Captain.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: (O.S.) Now would be an opportune time to follow through with them. Don’t you agree?
INT. ENTERPRISE/MAIN ENGINEERING
SCOTT: (grins) Aye, Ah certainly do!
EXT. SPACE – P2G-0091
As the Enterprise goes to warp, P2G-0091 explodes, unleashing a spherical shockwave of coruscating violet energy which quickly subsumes into subspace, obliterating the neighbouring planets and parent stars in an instant before moving on to the surrounding systems.
EXT. WARP SPACE – ENTERPRISE
The Enterprise moves forward through warp space, travelling at the highest possible velocities to escape the subspace shockwave. The shockwave is right on the ship’s heels, however, its destructive violet energies seeping into the pocket universe and licking the rear end of the starship, threatening to overtake and destroy it.
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: Faster, Mr. Scott! Must go faster!
INT. ENTERPRISE/MAIN ENGINEERING
Scott and his corp of engineers are hard at work coaxing more-and-more energy out of the warp drive.
SCOTT: The bairns are burnin’ at warp 8.8, sir!
INT. ENTERPRISE/BRIDGE
KIRK: Then get them burning at warp 9, Mr. Scott!
EXT. WARP SPACE – ENTERPRISE
Warp space directly behind the Enterprise burns with glowing violet-white energy, warp space in front criss-crossed with angry red veins as the shockwave threatens to tear everything apart. In moments – certainly under a minute – the shockwave will consume the Enterprise.
Miraculously, the Enterprise begins to accelerate to ever greater velocity. Perhaps Scotty managed to coax a little more energy out of the warp drive, or perhaps the energies of the shockwave itself are augmenting the starship’s speed. Whatever the explanation, the Enterprise pulls ahead, escaping the shockwave’s path of destruction.
The threatening violent energies retreat and vanish, restoring warp space to its natural black state.