with our bodies.”
“You’re not helping,” Burgoyne said.
“True, but in my defense, I wasn’t trying to.”
And suddenly Robin, who was holding Cwansi close to her, said, “Wait… Tobias… you said you could turn the running lights on and off?”
Tania, in the throes of bracing herself for the phaser blasts that she just knew were going to be unleashed upon them at practically any time, looked up at Robin in confusion. “What? Yes… but what’s—”
“Do it! Flash the lights at them! Flash three quickly—on, off, on, off, on, off—and then another three, holding them on for a second longer, and then three fast again! And keep doing it!”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not the only one around here who knows about things! So just do it!”
“Do what she’s telling you, Tobias,” said Burgoyne. “She believes it, and that’s good enough for me.”
“Okay,” said Tobias. “Three short, three long, three short?” When Robin nodded, she started flashing the lights as she’d been instructed, without the slightest idea why.
“Now what?” said Burgoyne as Tania continued as instructed.
“Now we pray that someone there knows about things, too,” said Robin, clutching Cwansi even more tightly, as if in doing so she could protect him from the imminent destruction.
U.S.S. Dauntless
i.
Until the last moment, Jellico wasn’t sure that he was just going to stand by and let Kemper open fire on the Excalibur.
The damning thing was that Kemper was absolutely in the right, and Jellico knew it. The orders had come from above Jellico and he had no authority to countermand them without some excuse, and at the moment he had none. It was the reason that Jellico was hesitating to take charge of the ship: because it would mean undercutting an officer who was doing nothing more than obeying the orders that had been handed down by Starfleet. The fact that Jellico believed they were wrongheaded was Jellico’s problem and not anyone else’s.
It would have been one thing if the captain was incapacitated or otherwise unavailable. Then Jellico, as the ranking officer, would have been able to take command of the ship. But Kemper, despite his negative history with Calhoun, was by all evidence operating with clear faculties and a full awareness of everything he was doing. Consequently, his direct authority as the ship’s commanding officer would be the final arbiter, at least on all practical levels. It might be possible for Jellico to make a case at a subsequent disciplinary hearing that Kemper should have willingly ceded command to him, but none of that would solve the immediate problem.
Furthermore, there was no one in Starfleet who had a greater respect for the chain of command than Jellico. And he was loath to be the weak link in that chain. But was he really supposed to just stand by and allow Calhoun and his people to be blown to bits?
He needed a cause, a reason to intercede. He stared fixedly at the ship on the screen. Give me something. Give me anything. Come on, you bastard, find a way to—
Then he squinted. Was that—?
“Fifty eight… fifty nine… sixty seconds, Commodore,” said Commander Williams, and there was a sense of real tragedy in his voice.
Kemper didn’t share the setiment. “Mr. Hopkins… fire pha—”
“Hold it!” said Jellico.
As if anticipating that Jellico was going to try and intercede, Kemper said, “Admiral Jellico, if I need to get security—”
“Magnify the image. I think I see something.”
Kemper hesitated, as if suspecting that Jellico was up to some sort of trick. But then he nodded and said, “Increase by fifty percent.”
The Excalibur grew in size. Jellico approached, staring at it for long seconds, and just at the point where Kemper was about to say that enough was enough, Jellico pointed and said, “Look! There!”
“What am I looking at?” Kemper said impatiently.
“The running lights. They’re not flashing in normal sequence. They’re flashing three short, three long, three short, repeatedly.”
Kemper stared at him. “So?”
“It’s SOS. Morse code.”
“It’s what?”
“Morse code. An ancient form of communication conveyed through a series of dots and dashes via a device called a telegraph.”
“Sir, with all respect, are you making this up?”
Jellico almost laughed but caught himself, since this was hardly the type of situation where laughing would help anything. “SOS was the international signal for dire emergency. Some people claimed it stood for ‘save our ship,’ but it was just a handy way of remembering the key letters: three quick transmissions, then three slower ones, then three quick ones again.”
Kemper regarded him suspiciously and then said, “Computer. Analyze image of vessel designated Excalibur,