The red-alert signal kept up its blaring until Captain Kirk shouted at an ensign to cut it off. The Enterprise shook with the impact of the unidentified ship's photon torpedoes.

"Hard right!" Kirk barked at the man who had leaped in to replace the injured helmsman. "Get us over there, now!"

"She won't move, Capt..." The man's words were cut off as he, too, was flung from his post and dashed to the floor by another smashing blow.

Behind Kirk, the turbolift door opened with a mocking gasp instead of its usual swoosh, and Dr. McCoy was thrown across the opening. He grabbed at the back of Kirk's command chair and held on tightly. "Damn it, Jim," the doctor barked, "The crew can't take much more of this! We've got injuries on all levels and the infirmary's overwhelmed! I should be down there myself, but the turbolift shaft's buckled and I can't get to it!"

"What do you suggest I do, Bones?" Kirk asked over the roar of another explosion. "Ask them to stop while we get ourselves sorted out?"

Spock looked up from his science station. "I doubt they would do so, Captain," he said calmly. "They seem to be determined to finish us off."

"Of course they are, Spock," McCoy spat out at the Vulcan. "Jim was just..."

With a flash of sparks, the communications station erupted. Uhura quickly picked herself up off the floor and crawled under her station. "I think I see the problem, Captain," she called out. "I think I can fix it."

McCoy stared at her backside as she wiggled and poked at the mess of wires. "What's the use?" he shouted to her. "They don't seem in the mood to discuss things!"

Kirk's sharp voice cut through the chatter and clatter. "Mr. Sulu? Do we still have phaser power?"

"Aye, Captain," the weapons officer said, gripping his console as tremors rocked the ship back and forth.

"Then I want a full phaser strike at the tip of their left nacelle. And toss over any photon torpedoes you've got left, too. Now!"

Even as Kirk finished, Sulu's hands flew over the panel and the bright light of the phasers lanced out at the alien ship, followed quickly by the pulse of two photon torpedoes hitting home. There was a bright, blinding flash; when it cleared, the alien vessel was gone.

The whoops of the crew could be heard throughout the Enterprise as the turbolift doors swooshed open again. This time Admiral T'sien Lo strode briskly onto a rock-steady deck. He ignored the shouts and back-slapping around him and walked directly to Kirk.

"Well, Admiral," Kirk greeted the stooped old man. "How'd we do? Did we do better than the Lexington?"

"You did better than the Lexington and every other ship we put up to this scenario, and you damn well know it," T'sien Lo muttered darkly. "And if I ever figure out how the hell you did it, I'll be back and I'll bring a Star Fleet resignation form with me -- for you!" With that, the admiral turned abruptly and stalked away. When the turbolift door shooshed closed behind him, Kirk chuckled briefly.

Spock raised one eyebrow. "I fail to see the humor, Captain. It is quite possible Admiral T'sien Lo will uncover the secret to your strategy."

"Not if you did your job properly, Spock. You did cover your tracks when you broke into the Star Fleet war-games computer, didn't you?"

"Indeed, Captain. But even if the admiral does not find traces of my probe, he is likely to realize the only way someone could have known about that bug in the war-games program was if they got inside it."

"Hmmm, yes, well, perhaps you're right, Spock. But if he can't prove it, he can't do anything about it. It worked on the Kobayashi Maru, and it worked here!" Kirk slapped the arm of his chair and spun toward the main viewscreen, now showing their true situation, parked peacefully off Gamma Antares VI.

"But what did we prove, Captain?" Spock pressed home the point. "It is unlikely a real adversary would have a bug in their vessel allowing us to blast it apart so readily."

"Well, perhaps you're right, Spock. But I've found that Star Fleet's war games aliens have one thing in common with all our real opponents: There's always an Achilles' heel."

"Heel, Captain? I believe..."

Spock's musing were cut off by McCoy, who broke from Kirk's side and rushed to the communications station. "You may have been playing games, Jim," the doctor snarled, "but your communications officer looks like she's really hurt. What's the matter, Uhura?"

The lithe black woman uncurled herself and sat up on the floor, holding one hand to her head. "I'm not sure," she whispered in her silky voice, "I just... felt a little woozy, that's all."

"You passed out," McCoy said. "Probably breathing fumes from that 'mock' fire under there. Come on, I'm taking you with me."

"No, Doctor, really, I'm fine now," she protested, starting to rise.

"I'll be the judge of that," McCoy snapped. Taking hold of her elbow, he led her to the turbolift.

In the infirmary, Nurse Chapel and the others were fixing up the last of the few real casualties from the war game -- a few bumps and bruises, nothing serious. While they finished up, McCoy ushered Uhura into his private examining room.

"Now stop complaining," he said, his voice slipping into a Southern drawl. "We'll have you fixed up and working again in no time. But first, we have to run some tests. I know, I know, but Star Fleet would have my name on a resignation form if I didn't make sure. Now, I've got to go out and talk to Nurse Chapel. You just take off your clothes and lie down on the table."

"My clothes?" Uhura's voice raised in surprise. "Doctor, I thought the monitors could work through clothing."

"They can, but I'm just a simple country doctor. When I do my examination, I have to have flesh to work with, not electronic blips and boops. Just take 'em off and I'll be right back."

As he closed the door behind him, Uhura slowly did as he ordered. She was just unhooking her bra when he came back in, calling over his shoulder: "I can handle things in here, Christine. You and and the others can take your break now."

Uhura lay back on the cool sheets of the examining table. She was a full-figured woman, with large breasts that culminated in full, dark aureoles and nipples erect in the slight chill of the room. Her body was a classic hourglass, slimming to the waist and then widening again to full hips and long, shapely legs.