(Star Trek) The Lieutenant

Chapter 15

I felt my heart race as I rushed to the bridge.

As soon as Jim contacted me I was pushing past everyone. It had been three years since I had last seen my brother and his family. Both Sam and I had gotten into an argument, which caused him to break ties with me.

The lift opened and I walked up to Jim, who was looking at Uhura.

"Anything, Lieutenant?" Jim asked with a frown.

"No, sir. I've tried every major transmitting station on Deneva. None of them have acknowledged my contact signal."

"Try GSK-783, sub-space frequency 3." I said cutting Jim off.

"But, that's a call sign for a private transmitter." Uhura questioned.

"I'm very well aware of that, Lieutenant. Try it." Jim ordered.

"Yes, sir."

"Evaluation, Mister Spock." Jim said as I tapped away on my datapad.

"As I speculated, Captain, the overall pattern of mass insanity destroying civilisations follows an almost straight line through this section of the galaxy. Over here the Beta Portilin system the ancient civilisations. Archaeologists have given us information indicating that they were the beginning. Two hundred years ago, Levinius Five was swept by mass insanity, then Theta Cygni Twelve. The last was Ingraham B, two years ago." Spock explained.

"And next in line, Deneva. Bones, what's your theory about the cause of all this?" Jim asked as he turned to look at Bones.

"There's no medical or scientific cause for what happened on those planets."

"But it follows a definite pattern, a systematic progression from planet to planet."

"Captain, we're picking up a ship on our sensors, heading directly into the Denevan sun. He'll burn up." Sulu said as he turned to look at us.

"Plot an interception course, Mister Sulu. Warp factor eight. Lieutenant Uhura, try to contact that ship." Jim ordered the crew.

"Aye, aye, sir." She said as she turned back around.

"The ship is a one-man vessel of Denevan configuration, Captain. He does not seem to be out of control. His course is straight for the sun." Spock said as he turned to look at the screen.

"Scotty, tractor beams?" Jim asked thru his communicator.

"Out of range, sir." Scotty said with a sigh.

"Making contact, Captain."

"Denevan ship, this is the USS Enterprise. Can you reverse your course? Acknowledge." Jim ordered.

"Captain, we'll get too close to the sun."

"Keep closing. Denevan ship, reverse your course. Do you hear me? Reverse your course. Acknowledge."

"Outer hull temperature now four hundred and eighty degrees and rising." Spock said as I walked over to Uhura.

"He's too close, Captain." Sulu called as he turned to look at Jim.

"So are we. Hull temperature one thousand degrees and rising. The sun's gravimetric pull increasing."

"I did it. It's finally gone. I'm free. I'm-"

The communication was cut off and I turned to see the shuttle explode.

"He burned up, Captain."

"Reverse course. One hundred and eighty degrees about." Jim ordered with a frown.