It could also be argued that Kruge's transporters were indeed down. After all, if they weren't, Kruge could have captured Kirk right after his beam-down, simply by beaming him back up. Or Kruge could have evacuated the prisoners. Or done a dozen other nasty things.
There was still some Klingon crew remaining on Kruge's ship, including at least himself and Maltz, top officers who might have been technologically skilled enough to repair the transporter. There could have been more Klingons there as well, even if none were shown. For all we know, the transporter operator remained behind to repair his machinery - this would also explain why Maltz wasn't in the transporter room when Kirk and his friends beamed up, but was minding his own business on the bridge.
All this in addition to the idea that Kirk was rolling over in order to please Kruge, not in rebuttal if it.
I like the concept - but it's probably already pretty close to the use of the "pattern enhancers" we see from TNG onwards. That is, there are technologies that boost the turning of a person into a phased matter stream, technologies that one can do without but that help in tight spots, and they may be built into the starship pads and the away team enhancer poles. Both a pad and a pole need a full transporter machine somewhere, and the machine can work without the pad or the pole.
The little button in ST:NEM could be rationalized as a microminiature enhancer pole. The transporters of the mothership were said to be "down", but this shouldn't hold true for all of them, because the mothership ought to have multiply redundant systems - if not otherwise, then thanks to having transporter-equipped independent shuttlecraft aboard. But all of this could plausibly be "down" if key sensors on the ship's hull were down and the spatial anomaly serving as the fight's backdrop was impenetrable without those sensors. Add an enhancer pole or button at the other end, though, and it's not so impenetrable any more...
Timo Saloniemi
There was still some Klingon crew remaining on Kruge's ship, including at least himself and Maltz, top officers who might have been technologically skilled enough to repair the transporter. There could have been more Klingons there as well, even if none were shown. For all we know, the transporter operator remained behind to repair his machinery - this would also explain why Maltz wasn't in the transporter room when Kirk and his friends beamed up, but was minding his own business on the bridge.
All this in addition to the idea that Kirk was rolling over in order to please Kruge, not in rebuttal if it.
In many a fanfic I have taken it as a given that fold-down transporter pads (the type that can interface with the larger system on the ship) are standard equipment on all major away missions. Something the size of a briefcase that opens up like a police spike strip, enough that six people can stand on it and beam back to the ship.
I like the concept - but it's probably already pretty close to the use of the "pattern enhancers" we see from TNG onwards. That is, there are technologies that boost the turning of a person into a phased matter stream, technologies that one can do without but that help in tight spots, and they may be built into the starship pads and the away team enhancer poles. Both a pad and a pole need a full transporter machine somewhere, and the machine can work without the pad or the pole.
The little button in ST:NEM could be rationalized as a microminiature enhancer pole. The transporters of the mothership were said to be "down", but this shouldn't hold true for all of them, because the mothership ought to have multiply redundant systems - if not otherwise, then thanks to having transporter-equipped independent shuttlecraft aboard. But all of this could plausibly be "down" if key sensors on the ship's hull were down and the spatial anomaly serving as the fight's backdrop was impenetrable without those sensors. Add an enhancer pole or button at the other end, though, and it's not so impenetrable any more...
Timo Saloniemi