degrees and follow me.”
In a couple of seconds, the other man was in view, and soon Kirk was flying along almost parallel to him.
There remained the small matter, however, of whether or not they were about to smash themselves into the unyielding flank of the massive ship directly in front of them.
“Scotty,” Kirk declaimed into his still-functioning helmet pickup, “we’re getting close. We’re gonna need a warm welcome. Scotty, do you copy—Scotty! ”
“If you can hear us, Mr. Scott,” Spock commanded, “open the door in ten . . .”
“Scotty!” a desperate Kirk yelled.
“. . . nine . . . ,” Spock continued to count down.
On board the warship, Spock’s voice continued to spill from the open communicator on the floor. A nervously innocent Scott gazed pleasantly at the man holding the phaser on him while the chief’s free hand slid back and down to steady himself against the console.
“That person counting down,” the man demanded, “what is that?”
“What?” Scott feigned ignorance. “I don’t hear anything.”
“. . . seven . . . ,” Spock’s voice declaimed clearly from the device.
“Mr. Scott, where are you?” Kirk queried as the distance between himself, his companion, and the warship continued to shrink rapidly.
“. . . three . . . two . . . one . . . Now, Mr. Scott,” Spock said tightly.
Eyeing the security officer, Scott shook his head slightly. “Sorry about this.”
Frowning, the guard gestured slightly with his phaser. “Sorry about what?”
Even Spock could not keep his voice from rising slightly. “I said, Scott, open the door!”
“Open the door!” Kirk shouted.
Spinning sharply to his left, Scott slammed his right hand down on a very large yellow-tinged button near the center of the console behind him, putting all his force into the gesture.
At the far terminus of the hangar, a small door snapped open. Instantly, a substantial quantity of air was sucked outward into open space—taking the unfortunate security officer along with it. With his left arm strapped to the console, a grimacing Scott found himself stretched out full-length, like a flag in a hurricane, in the direction of the open port.
Kirk barely saw the wide-eyed figure go sailing past him as he entered backward, both he and Khan having reversed position at the last moment so that their full-firing backpacks could slow their momentum. As they crossed the outer boundary of the now-gaping hangar, they also entered the warship’s artificial gravity field.
Flailing with his right hand, Scott quickly hit the control again, repeating in reverse the gesture he had made a moment earlier. He fell flat on his front side as the hangar’s outer door slammed shut and was all but out of breath when the ship’s automated life-support systems rapidly filled the open space around him with atmosphere. Air pressure in the hangar swiftly returned to normal. Thankfully, the atmospherics were one component of the warship’s life-support system that did not require a manual reset in order to operate.
Dropping to the deck, Kirk and Khan skidded, rolled, and tumbled down its length, slowing steadily—though not fast enough for Kirk. They came to rest close to where a gasping Scott was now sitting up.
“Welcome aboard,” the chief wheezed, delighted and more than a little surprised to find that he was still alive.
“It’s good to see you, Mr. Scott.” Kirk found he was in no hurry to stand.
The chief smiled. “Don’t you maybe mean ‘relieved’ to see me, Captain?” The engineer looked questioningly at the other arrival, who was in the process of rising to his knees. “Who is that?”
Having managed, with difficulty, to get onto his knees, the heavily breathing Kirk performed cursory introductions. “Scotty, Khan. Khan, Scotty . . . best engineer in Starfleet.”
“Hello,” Scott offered.
Khan did not waste time on pleasantries. “They’ll know we’re here. Marcus will have all approaches to the bridge secured if only as a precaution, but I know another route.”
The two men regarded each other wordlessly as Kirk removed phasers from his backpack and handed one to each of them. “They’re locked to stun.”
Khan pursed his lips. “Theirs won’t be.”
Kirk responded with a wan smile. “Then try not to get shot.”
Though it was confirmed that Kirk and Khan had successfully boarded the warship and made contact with Mr. Scott, everyone on the Enterprise knew it was far too soon to take anything, including hope, for granted. The three men were out of harm’s way, but only for the moment. At any time, with a single wrong turn or move, they could be swept up by the