Worlds in Collision Read Free Page B

rest until they discover who is behind this action.”
    â€œThat is not a precise question.”
    â€œWhat do you wish the officials to find out?”
    â€œThat is not a clear question.”
    â€œShould I leave evidence implicating the empire in this crime?”
    Karth leaned back and snorted. He gestured to his dark face. “Who has set this crime in motion, trader? What do you think?”
    Starn took his opening. “I think it is intriguing that I am being hired to commit this crime by a mechanical device attempting to pass itself off as a Klingon.”
    Karth’s hands disappeared beneath the desk with unnatural speed. Starn twisted sideways and reached beneath his cloak. Karth jumped back from the desk, aiming a disruptor at Starn. The cutter’s particle beam sliced through the air with a thunderous crackle, disassociating dust and smoke molecules. But Karth dodged! The beam erupted on his shoulder instead of his chest.
    Starn stumbled back against his chair. The cutter whined as it cycled up to discharge again but it would take too many seconds. Karth’s shoulder dripped with thick blue coolant. Wires and transtators glowed and sparked in the mechanical ruin. The Klingon robot leveled its disruptor and fired. Starn braced himself for disruption. The Andorian girl was engulfed in a sputtering orange corona and collapsed onto the floor. The robot placed the disruptor on the desk.
    Starn looked over to the Andorian. Her body had not disintegrated. She was still breathing. A Klingon disruptor set for stun? What kind of madness was this?
    â€œNeural disruption only,” the robot said. “She won’t remember anything of the last twelve hours. She didn’t know.” It pointed to its shoulder.
    The cutter beeped its ready signal in Starn’s hand.
    â€œYou won’t need that,” the robot said, pushing small silver tendrils back into its shoulder. The arm beneath fluttered erratically, then jerked once and hung limply.
    Starn replaced the cutter beneath his cloak. “You didn’t kill her?” he asked.
    â€œLow crime rate in Town. She’d be missed. There’d be questions. The important thing is that there be no witnesses.” A flesh-colored foam sprayed from the robot’s good hand to cover the open circuitry of its blasted shoulder. “Not now, and not when you carry out your contract.”
    Starn watched with fascination as the robot began to repair itself. He suddenly doubted that the Klingons had anything at all to do with this.
    â€œThat sounds quite…logical,” Starn said and, thinking of the image that hung above the tavern door, he began to laugh.

Two
    Spock did not need logic to know that another attempt was going to be made. The only question was, who was behind it: the captain or the doctor? He finally decided that the instigator would be the one who entered the Enterprise’ s recreation lounge last. Satisfied, Spock returned to his meal. His theory was disproved when the lounge door puffed open and Kirk and McCoy entered together. Spock realized then that they were both in on it. Whatever this one was going to be, it was going to be big.
    â€œMr. Spock, mind if I join you?” Kirk was already seated by the time Spock could swallow and begin his reply. McCoy sat beside the captain, not even bothering to ask Spock’s permission. The table for eight was now filled. As were the two tables closest to it. The fact that the two chairs across from Spock had been left empty, even as other crew members decided to sit as close to him as possible, indicated that everyone else knew that Kirk and McCoy were expected. It had also been Spock’s first clue that he was, as McCoy would put it, being set up.
    â€œWell, Captain?” Spock decided to play white and take the advantage of the opening move.
    â€œWell what, Spock?” Kirk’s wide-eyed innocence confirmed his guilt.
    â€œI merely assume that you