Chain of Attack Read Free Page B

be propelled into the turbolift.
    "As you were saying, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked, turning back to the science officer.
    "Yes, Captain. There is an area that appears to be the Shapley Center directly ahead, though the computer has not yet positively identified it. If it is indeed the Shapley Center, we have been transported at least five thousand parsecs."
    "Five thousand? "
    "Affirmative, Captain. We are approximately five thousand parsecs closer to this object than we were to the Shapley Center. Of course, if it is not the Shapley Center, then we could well have traveled much farther."
    Kirk was silent a moment before turning back to the screen. "Mr. Chekov, have you located our—our point of entry into the sector of space?"
    "I believe so, sir."
    "Very well. Mr. Sulu, take us to within a half-A.U. and hold there. Warp factor two."
    Again the view on the forward screen shifted, but now it was as if the Enterprise were turning within a heavy curtain of stars. In every direction, the brightness and density were the same.
    "Mr. Spock, prepare to launch a probe directly at our point of entry."
    "Prepared, Captain."
    "Launch the probe, Mr. Spock."
    "It is being transported…now, Captain."
    "And while we're waiting for the results, Mr. Spock, see if you can find out where we are."
    Spock turned again to the data displays. "The computer has been performing a more detailed analysis of the radiation profile of the object that appeared similar to the Shapley Center," he said, pausing to study a set of readouts more closely. "There appear to be a number of basic differences in the spectrum," he added.
    "Could the differences be accounted for by the time difference? We are, after all, more than fifteen thousand light-years closer."
    "Negative, Captain. Certain of the readings indicate precisely the opposite. The spectrum indicates that the central black hole, for example, is less massive than that of the Shapley Center by a factor of nearly ten, not marginally more massive, as would be the case had we come five thousand parsecs closer. And there are other, independent indications that argue against this object's being the Shapley Center."
    "And those are, Mr. Spock?" Kirk prompted when Spock paused to scan a new set of readings.
    "The computer has also been scanning for recognizable extragalactic objects since we arrived, Captain. Few external galaxies are visible from within this cluster of stars, but among those few, it has found none that it can positively identify."
    "What you're saying, then, Mr. Spock," Kirk said after three or four seconds of silence, "is that, first, we are no longer in the Milky Way galaxy. And second, the computer has not been able to determine what galaxy we are in."
    "Precisely, Captain."
    Though no one did more than glance at Spock and the captain for a fraction of a second, the bridge was suddenly totally silent except for the ever-present hums and beeps of the equipment and the ship itself. There was no panic, no wild questions or howls of disbelief. Instead, after allowing only a moment to inwardly acknowledge Spock's confirmation of what they had already begun to suspect, everyone concentrated all the harder on his or her instruments, knowing that such concentration and the ability to react instantly and effectively could very well be, as it had been so often before, the key to their survival.
    "I don't suppose," Kirk said after a good thirty seconds of silence, "that the missing probe is somewhere in this neighborhood, too."
    "It has not been detected, Captain."
    "Any theories, Mr. Spock?"
    "Only the obvious one, Captain. Despite the sensors' failure to detect the characteristic gravitational turbulence, the Enterprise has passed through one of the so-called anomalies."
    Kirk nodded. "I'd assumed as much. How does this affect your hunch, your unquantifiable possibility?"
    "I would say it raises it to the level of a probability, Captain, although it remains unquantifiable." Spock paused, his eyes on