A Giant Leap, Chapter 11

A Giant Leap, Chapter 11

The Federation and Sam's Quantum Leap Security forces were all in place when the Klingons began their attack. The sealed front entrance to the complex burst inward with a violent explosion. As the Klingons made their way through the ruined entry way, they found themselves in an empty, large hallway/foyer that ended about sixty yards ahead, branching off to the right and left at ninety degree angles. Leading the way were the Duras sisters, accompanied by several of their fiercest warriors. Commissioner Bele and Darvin brought up the rear; Bele surrounded by several assigned to guard him with their lives.

"So where is everyone?" roared one of the warriors. "Where are the defenders of this place?"

"You know Humans" another replied with disdain. "They run like frightened children at the first sign of trouble!"

"Shut up!" Lursa barked, as they continued down the hallway.

"Why worry?" B'Etor added. "These Humans have never seen a Klingon before, nor have they ever encountered technology like ours. They are primitive. As Vorkton said, they're probably cowering under their beds at the thought of the unknown."

"Obviously, sister, you know nothing about Earth history. These primitives as you call them had a habit of shooting first and asking questions later. They could be quite ferocious when cornered. None of that soft Federation civility that made their descendants so docile exists here."

"Maybe so, but we still have the superior weaponry." B'Etor replied, as they neared the end of the hallway. As if in reply to her statement, the Federation forces hiding around the corners at the end of the hallway jumped out from each side, opening fire. Taken by surprise, the Klingons fell back as Federation phasers set on heavy stun whizzed through their ranks. Worf and Riker were in front of the rest of the Federation personnel. Cooper signaled the others to advance on the enemies as well. The Duras sisters pulled back as their warriors stepped out in front of them, drawing the Federation fire.

The Federation forces picked off three Klingons as the others fought back tenaciously. Ensign Zorn had been asked to join the away team, even though he was a nurse. Captain Picard knew his true nature and asked him if he would be willing to kill a few of them by extracting the sodium chloride from their bodies. Klingons didn't taste very good to him, but he said he would be happy to do it if he got the chance. The Klingons managed to shoot four Federation soldiers, but were forced to retreat due to several factors. One was the superior numbers of the Federation forces; another was the close quarters they were fighting in, and the final factor was that they hadn't expected to be going up against superior firepower from their own time. So, although they put up a valiant struggle, the Klingons soon found themselves forced out of the destroyed entry way and back into the large parking area, dragging with them their three stunned comrades. They huddled around the isolation pod together, trying to decide what to do next, while still firing upon the Starfleet forces trying to hold them off.

"How the hell did Starfleet get here?" Darvin asked angrily.

"How should I know?" B'Etor snarled defensively.

"One thing is for sure" Lursa said. "There must be a Federation starship somewhere in orbit. There is no way that we are going to be able to take this complex until we destroy that ship up there. That way, we can drop the isolation shield and send for more reinforcements without worrying about their sending for their own. However, we will need to move fast. So, once we turn off the pod, we'll have to return to our ships and destroy theirs before they know the reason we left here."

"May I make a suggestion?" Commissioner Bele spoke up.

"What is it, Cheronian?" Lursa snapped irritably. Once Bele had finished with his suggestion, Lursa smiled savagely. "Good idea, Bele. Do it."

With that, Bele vanished. Then, a few seconds later, B'Etor turned off the isolation pod and the rest of the Klingons transported back to their ships.

***

As Sam and Tola waited for further word on the Klingons, they didn't have to wait very long. Ziggy immediately announced in her cool, smooth emotionless voice that the Klingons had left. Tola was thinking to herself about how Ziggy reminded her of a Vulcan when it hit her what the Klingons were up to. Realizing that they would have to eliminate the Federation ships in orbit before returning with reinforcements, Tola, forgetting that she was still in Sam Beckett, rushed over to Sam and hit the com badge on his chest.

"Tola to Little Creek! The Klingons are going to attack! Tell the Enterprise!"

Puzzled by the sound of Sam's voice, Little Creek on the Constellation was momentarily hesitant.

"Tola? What happened to your voice?"

Realizing the danger they were in, Sam answered in Tola's voice.

"No time to explain, Little Creek! I suggest you open fire on them before they open fire on you! Destroy those Klingon ships if you have to!"

"Our sensors have already detected the Klingon weapons powering up, Tola. We will take care of them. Little Creek out."

"Good thinking, Sam." Tola complimented him. Suddenly, before he could respond, they were both surprised to hear a strange voice from the direction of the waiting room.

"Yes, very clever, human. However, you both won't live long enough to see the results of the fight up there."

Sam and Tola both spun around to see who it was. It was none other than Bele of the planet Cheron, covering them with a Klingon disruptor in his hand.

***

As Colonel Green activated the remote satellite feed on his submarine, bringing up their targets on ten individual screens, he took a seat that gave him a clear view of all ten targets. Once settled in, Vickers watched as the technicians in charge of the remote satellite broadcasts activated an eleventh screen, showing Green's QL complex, where, just outside, in a concrete bunker, the torpedoes awaited launching.

"Are the tracking systems operational?" Green asked.

"Yes, sir. Everything is ready for launching."

"Well, in that case, let's get the show on the road." Green said gleefully, pushing the ten buttons on the remote launching device. Upon doing so, the screen showed ten flashes of light streaking up into the sky. As they soared up into the wild blue yonder, the technicians monitoring the tracking screen announced that all the missiles were on course for their designated targets.

***

B'tok Zorn wondered in his mind if Cheronians had any salt in their bodies. If only he could get close enough to that ingrate! Sam, not knowing very much about the "Deltan", didn't bother to answer, but gave him a brief, puzzled look. Then, he looked at Bele with wonder.

"How did you get past all our security personnel and get down here?"

"Unlike you mere humanoids, my species doesn't require machinery to transport. We teleport, and can do so quite naturally." Bele paused for a moment. "Oh, I should say I can do so, since I'm the last of my kind."

"Interesting" Tola responded. "So how come that fact doesn't appear in the logs of Captain Kirk or the crew of the original Enterprise?"

"That's probably because I led Kirk to believe that I was using artificial means of transport whenever I used the ability." Bele replied smugly.

"But, that still doesn't explain why—" Tola began. She was cut off by Bele, who growled impatiently.

"Enough trivia, human. Now you both are going to take me to the QL accelerator. Once there, I'll be taking the place of Dr. Beckett in the past. Then, we'll see how Beckett's planet's history develops. I have a lot of interesting plans for you monotones. Once I'm done with this planet's past, you won't recognize it."

"I'm afraid you'll have to abandon your plans, Commissioner, because now you're going to be history yourself, knuckle nose."

The unmistakable voice of Admiral Al Calavicci spoke from behind the alien. Bele immediately spun around, ready to blast Al with his Klingon disruptor. However, with his trained military reflexes, Al shot Bele first with a standard issue military pistol. Although able to deflect the harmful effects of such energy-based weapons as phasers and disruptors with ease, Bele found himself ill-equipped and ill-prepared, and, in fact, utterly defenseless when it came to good old fashioned lead projectiles. The bullets from Al's gun smashed into Bele's midsection and head. As Bele fell dead, Al looked at Sam and Tola and then at the lifeless body of the alien.

"Boy, he sure was a nozzle. I wonder if we should give the body to the guys at Area 51 to pickle, along with the other alien stiffs from the Roswell Crash of '47."

"Al…!" Sam and Tola both groaned in unison.

***

The technician in Colonel Green's headquarters was the first to notice the change in the course of the quantum torpedoes.

"Colonel, we have a problem." He announced gravely.

"What?" Green responded in alarm.

"The missiles have changed course and are heading back towards the Quantum Leap complex in Afghanistan." Startled, Green pushed the auto destruct button he had had Vickers install on the remote control device for the torpedoes. However, after asking the technicians if that had take care of the problem, they replied with great astonishment that the torpedoes were now moving faster toward Green's complex.

"Shoot them down! How long before impac--?"

"Too late, sir! The torpedoes have already taken out the complex. There's nothing left."

"YOU!!" Green screamed, turning angrily towards who he thought was Vickers in Alia's body. He withdrew his pistol from its holster. "You did this to me!" Green raged, firing. He missed.

"Wait!" Alia screamed back, having leapt back into her own body just before Green's Quantum Leap complex was destroyed, and returning Vickers to his. "You are making a mistake! I'm not--!"

"The only mistake I made was trusting you!" Green roared, as another bullet flew from his gun, slammed into Alia, and flung her backward into the viewing screens. Green fired two more times. She was dead before she hit the floor.

Thames, who was standing behind Green, suddenly whipped out a pen-like device. Before Green could ask him what it was, he aimed it and killed the colonel. Then, to everyone's surprise and amazement, Thames, who was actually Isis in disguise, transformed into a raven-haired breathtakingly beautiful young woman, wearing a diamond-studded necklace. Then, she vanished before their very eyes, her mission accomplished.

***

Vickers suddenly found himself back with the Federation forces in Sam's QL headquarters. Evans informed them all that he was now who he appeared to be. Dr. Thornn and Roberta Lincoln were both themselves again. Seven had transported the good doctor back to the Constellation to her quarters just as they were starting to fight with the Klingons. As they did, the Enterprise approached from behind the two birds of prey and opened fire. Taken by surprise and expecting only one Federation starship, one of the Klingon ships suffered serious damage to its port nacelle unit, while the other was hit in the center on the underside of its outer hull. The second Klingon vessel was leaking oxygen and power quickly. It veered off to the right in retreat, but not before it fired on the Constellation, temporarily disabling the starship's warp drive capabilities. As the Klingon vessel fled from the solar system, the Klingon ship with the damaged nacelle kept up its attack on both the Enterprise and the Constellation, giving the other Klingon ship the time it needed to make good on its escape. As the fleeing Klingon ship disappeared from scanner range, the remaining ship put up a valiant struggle, even though they were no match for the combined efforts of the Enterprise and the Constellation. So, in a final act of defiance, it diverted all power to its shields and set course for the surface of the Earth, having set its matter/antimatter reactor core on overload, turning itself into a super-bomb, aimed at the remaining Quantum Leap facility. That's where Tola, Sam and the landing parties from the two Federation ships awaited the results of the battle above them.

When word finally reached them on Tola's com badge, it came from Commander Little Creek, who announced that one Klingon vessel had escaped and the other one had set course for Sam's complex, and was about to self-destruct.

"Alien Kamikazes!" Al said in disgust, as they all heard the Constellation first officer speak again.

"We've locked onto the remaining Klingons and beamed them into the brig. We are beaming you all up right now."

"No, wait!" Tola (still in Sam's body) called out. Not realizing it was the security officer speaking in Beckett's voice, Commander Little Creek began transporting her and the other Federation personnel up to the Constellation. It was too late for Sam to give the order to wait on her behalf, for transport had already begun. At that moment, Sam and Tola finally leaped out of each other.