by David Smith
He scanned the vessel with his tricorder, but found no sign of life. He cursed under his breath. If the professor had been on the yacht they could have taken him with minimal fuss and no risk of breaching the prime directive. If the professor wasn’t here, there was only one other place he could be: Down in the village.
‘Ok team, it’s a bust. The professor’s gone, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s actually in the village down below. We still have to go after him, but we need to be on top of our game here. We’re half a click from the village. We fan out, approach the last fifty metres in silence. We stop at the wall that surrounds the village and assess the situation before proceeding.’
The team nodded and complied. They moved out in single file before slipping away into the darkness like ghosts as they got close to the village. ASBeau and Belle stayed together and reached the low wall immediately behind the nearest of the round-houses. They huddled behind the rough dry-stone wall and when everyone was in position ASBeau peeked over the wall.
It was a peaceful scene. No-one was stirring in amongst a cluster of twenty-odd similar round-houses. Unfamiliar stars and a pair of small moons gave plenty of light for the image intensifiers to pick up the detail of the village.
As well as the houses and the stone wall around the settlement there were rough wooden fences penning in a number of small ovine type creatures and a few larger, more porcine animals. Although there were curls of smoke rising from vents in the roofs of most of the round-houses, ASBeau could see that the hinges on the wooden doors were leather straps. The society clearly hadn’t developed significant metal-working skills yet although there were signs of arable and pastoral farming.
The tricorder screen blinked and new data appeared. There were odd energy readings dotted around that weren’t consistent with the nature of the society. The tricorder also flagged up elevated radiation readings more akin to a post-industrial society rather than this Neolithic scene. Had the Professor introduced modern technology into the area?
He focused on his mission. It didn’t matter. What was done was done and couldn’t be undone. Their objective now was to stop the professor from doing even more damage.
He scanned the area with his tricorder. As well as the animals there were over a hundred other life signs, mostly of one predominant pattern. He refined the scan, and swept the tricorder in a low arc in front of him before checking the readings again.
One hundred and twelve life-forms of an unknown type. And one Terran. He was here.
ASBeau refined the search again, focusing on the odd Terran. There he was. Not in a roundhouse, but in some kind of square storage building next to the animal pens. There were no indigenous life-signs close to him and ASBeau breathed a sigh of relief: they might just get away with this.
He pulled out his pad and used the tactical software to designate the square structure on his map of the village. The pad communicated the information out to the other members of the team, outlining the target structure with a red line in their visors. Each team member silently signalled their readiness and ASBeau raised a hand and pointed; as one, they rose and clambered over the low wall.
As ASBeau continued to scan with the tricorder, Chief Belle signalled to move Deer and Ga’Zhar to the rear of the structure, while she led Chowdhury to the front.
The little structure was a crudely built tent of animal skins stretched over a timber frame. There was no door, but facing them was a loose flap that gave an entrance. They approached the entrance silently and from inside could hear heavy snoring.
ASBeau whispered in the Chief’s ear. ‘Remember; minimum fuss.’
She nodded, lifted the flap and peeked inside. Laying on a low cot was the snoring form of a tubby, untidy man.
Drawing her phaser and a tricorder she stepped inside. As she did all hell broke loose.
Her foot snagged a small wire, which pulled a pin from a pyrotechnic device that launched a number of flares high into the air outside the tent with a whoosh. As they soared skyward, other small charges exploded right by Belle’s feet filling the tent with smoke and light and stunning the Chief.
At the same time a klaxon began to sound, deafeningly loud in the otherwise silent night. The flares exploded with sharp cracks and hissing, flickering lights turned night into day.
As Belle recovered her senses, she heard a shout over her intercom from Ga’Zhar: ‘I’m hit!’ and a grunt from Running Deer. She could see a ragged hole burnt through the skins and realised the professor had absconded through the sidewall of the tent. She dashed through the hole to see Ga’Zhar lying on the floor holding his badly burnt arm while Running Deer rolled on the floor, grappling with the professor.
ASBeau and Chowdhury had followed her and went to help Deer, but the lithe security woman won the fight when the sight of her ferocious hunting knife under his nose dissuaded the professor from continuing his resistance.
Belle would have breathed a sigh of relief, but there were shouts from elsewhere in the village, and more lights appearing.
ASBeau was screaming into his communicator ‘Man down! Emergency medical transport!’ but even as he did his attention was drawn to the lights around the camp. Not the angry, flickering light of lit branches wielded by stone-age farmers. They were the cold, concise beams of flash-lights, sweeping all around the village and settling on them.
Before they had the chance to wonder where stone-age farmers had got access to modern torches, the discharge of an energy weapon sizzled through the air between Belle and ASBeau and he shouted again ‘Emergency transport, all personnel!’
Belle set her phaser for stun and took stock of the situation. The villagers were humanoid, and dressed in the sort of rustic fabrics and animal skins you might expect in a Neolithic society. However the large and heavy looking weapons they carried were made from exotic materials and metal alloys that were thousands of years displaced from the society in which they resided.
More practically and more worryingly, there were a lot of them. Every villager seemed to be toting a personal arsenal of which Chief Belle herself would be proud. As the transport beam took hold of them and carried them to safety, she had just a fraction of a second to feel the heat of a huge explosion as one cannon blasted a massive crater in the earth just a few metres away from her.
--------------------
Ga’Zhar had been transported direct to the Sick-bay, but the rest of them appeared in the Transporter Room in the pose that they’d been stood in on the surface of the planet.
While Running Deer appeared still straddling the professor, with her knife poised where he could see it and fear it, Belle, ASBeau and Chowdhury all appeared facing the back wall of the transporter pad.
They stayed on the spot as a familiar voice said ‘When I said I wanted the professor off the planet with the least possible fuss, I didn’t envisage that encompassing a pitched battle.’
Chief Belle stoically accepted the blame. ‘It’s my fault Captain. The professor must have been expecting trouble: he’d rigged a warning system.’
The professor was not a happy bunny. ‘And you wonder why?? Who the hell are you? What do you want?’
Running Deer climbed off him, took a blaster out of his hand and calmly replaced her knife. The rest of team rather sheepishly gathered behind the professor as Captain Hollins approached the pad.
‘I’m Captain Hollins of the Federation starship Tiger. As the senior representative of Federal Government in Treaty Exploration Space, I’m arresting you for clear and obvious breaches of many pieces of Federal legislation appertaining to contact with pre-industrial societies. Professor Hubert, a man of your knowledge and background should appreciate the necessity of non-interference more than anyone else.’
The professor appeared unrepentant. ‘The Prime Directive is a moot point in this case. I didn’t provide the indigenous population with the blasters and torches that they were using. Other species have visited this planet hundreds of years in the past and altered their developme
nt. I can’t do any more damage. And even if I could, then you’d be guilty of the same crimes with that little planetary assault your storm-troopers just mounted.’
ASBeau felt horrendously embarrassed about how things had panned out and felt an urge to explain. ‘Sorry, sir, but I believe he’s right. The locals were armed with significant modern weaponry, which we weren’t expecting. Someone has definitely made contact with them previously, and left them a whole bundle of technology in the process.’
Hollins wasn’t impressed with the input from his Tactical Officer. ’That’s neither here nor there, ASBeau. Compounding other people’s mistakes does not absolve you of guilt. Regardless of how heavily armed they are, they’re still pre-industrial and must be left alone.’
Professor Hubert was dismissive. ‘A typical response of the un-educated. The law is an ass. There’s nothing I’ve done here which will have any significant effect on the way this society develops.’
The Captain was having none of it. ‘That’s not your decision to make professor, or mine. A government tribunal will discuss the matter more fully when I report back to the Federal Authorities and hand you over.’
Hubert was furious. ‘Hand me over?? For what?? I’ve done nothing wrong!!’
Hollins was firm on the matter. ‘Somehow, I doubt the Office of the Foreign Secretary will see it that way. Obviously you’ll be able to argue your case at trial, but in the meantime, you’ll be held aboard this ship as a suspect, with restrictions on your freedom of movement.’
‘That’s ridiculous!!’ roared the professor. ‘What evidence do you have that I’ve done anything wrong??’
Hollins was surprised. ‘Aside from finding you kipping down in a barn inside the village? Or the fact that you shot one of my crew? And abandoned your space-going yacht in plain sight of anyone in the village?’
There was a pause as the professor considered his position, which suddenly seemed less tenable.
He sounded vaguely apologetic. ‘I didn’t mean to shoot your crew man. When the warning mechanism was tripped, I panicked and blasted a hole in the side of the tent. He must have been on the other side.’
‘Carrying a modern blaster in a stone-age village is not going to look good either’ added Hollins.
The professor wasn’t apologetic on that point. ‘You can’t be too careful on a field expedition like this. As the Sayalli natives were already armed with blasters when I arrived, it seemed like a reasonable precaution. And besides, that fact the a group of fascists tried to abduct me at phaser point as I was sleeping only proves the necessity of arming one’s self.’
The professor shifted uncomfortably under Dave’s unsympathetic glare, and tried a slightly different tack. ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve been out her for years looking into why the advanced species in this area of space have stagnated for so long. It appears that there was a huge war that has been catastrophic for all concerned, but the species involved in the war left much of their technology just lying around.’
The professor shrugged. ‘Every species in this area, post-industrial, pre-industrial, pre-anything, they were all dragged into the war. They all knew the nature of the two sides, and all suffered accordingly. All I’m trying to do is find out what caused such a disastrous war, for the sake of posterity and so our society might learn from the mistakes of others.’
Hollins was unmoved. ‘All very laudable, professor, but that still doesn’t absolve you of your legal responsibilities.’
The professor still appealed to Dave’s better nature. ‘But I really haven’t revealed anything that the indigenous species aren’t already aware of! You might even say that I’m having a beneficial impact as I’m proving to them that advanced technology does not necessarily equate to war and conquest.’
Hollins continued. ‘Well, either way, we’ll be confiscating your side-arms, and also your yacht, which is being parked in a low holding-orbit by my team even as we speak. With us having reasonable grounds for suspicion, we’re legally obliged to investigate your records. I don’t doubt we’ll find all manner of interesting detail of what you’ve been up to.’
The professor blanched at the thought of someone else poring over his vessel and continued to argue stubbornly. ‘You can’t go around arresting everyone who sets foot on a planet with an indigenous population! You don’t have a big enough ship! You’ll be up to your necks in traders, archaeologists, entrepreneurs . . . there are hundreds of people out here investigating the systems in Treaty Space!’
Hollins remained calm. ‘We’ll deal with them as we find them. If, like yourself, they’re clearly in breach of their obligations to the Prime Directive, we’ll be arresting them too. Hopefully, word might get around and people like “them” might take the hint that being far removed from our society does not remove the need to follow our society’s laws.’
He fixed the professor with a level, unblinking stare. ‘This isn’t a debate about the rights and wrongs professor, that’ll happen in court. In the meantime, I suggest you behave yourself. As your ship isn’t currently warp-capable you can enjoy the hospitality of the ship as our guest, or you can continue to argue and enjoy the comforts of a three-metre square cell down in the ship’s Brig.’
The professor looked angry, but knew he had no real choice. It didn’t stop him arguing. ‘I’m really not the only one, you know, and I’m certainly not the one you should be worried about. Keep your eyes peeled Captain, there are far worse types than me floating around this space.’
--------------------
Hollins called his Science Officer. ‘Good morning Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara. How’s the observation mission going?’
Hollins knew that the science team had been working non-stop for a week now and that the Irish woman in charge of them had worked harder than any of them. She sounded tired but excited as she replied. ‘Morning, sir. It’s all going very well. We’ve got loads of data on the indigenous population and have got to grips with their language now. There’s a lot of work to be done assessing their culture, but it’s largely Neolithic even with the injection of advanced technology.’
The anachronistic technology was Hollins main concern. ‘Any clues as to how they’ve come by it?’
‘No clear evidence sir, but what is clear is that they don’t understand it and can’t maintain it. It appears to be technology left behind by others, rather than technology that’s been deliberately introduced to them. Was there anything in Professor Hubert’s records?’
Hollins sighed. ‘There’s nothing in his ships logs or data recorders of any interest, or that we can use as evidence against him. Unfortunately, the professor isn’t playing ball and won’t give us access to his personal files and we all suspect that’s where the important stuff is. Sato has brought the data storage unit with those logs across to Tiger but her, Park and Susan still haven’t managed to defeat the encryption system yet. They’re still working on it now.’
O’Mara sounded disappointed. ‘Those files could save us a huge amount of work. The professor’s been out here for years and there’s no way he’d have passed on a chance to investigate such things.’
Hollins agreed. ‘Yeah, that’s why I’ve asked Sato to keep going. It’s an encryption method they’re not familiar with so at the moment Susan’s just crunching numbers trying to beat it. Sato reckons it’ll happen, but it’ll take time. In the meantime we keep going. Is the availability of technology giving you any problems?’
O’Mara was wary. ‘Well, ASBeau’s little firework display has made the locals mighty skittish and my team are a little nervous about observing them too closely as they’re all armed to the teeth now. The Marines offered to come down and act as bodyguards, bless ‘em, but I figured that would be tempting fate.’
Hollins nodded. The Marines propensity for over-reaction was well established. Legend had it that a major interplanetary incident had once been started by an inopportune moment of flatulence in front of an over-eager Marine Corps Sergeant. ‘Yeah, they’re prob
ably wound a little too tight for this sort of situation.’
O’Mara agreed. ‘Yeah, we thought that too, but the locals were swarming around the area where the professor’s ship had been left. They were getting too close to the duck-blind for comfort and we had to do something so we’ve moved it to a different location. The locals definitely have access to scanning devices like our tricorder, but fortunately they can’t use them properly, or the devices don’t work properly and they don’t have the skills to fix them.’
‘That’s good then.’
‘Yes, and in more ways than one. It looks like without the skills to maintain it, the technology will eventually fall down, so that will minimise any social impact. The anthropologists tell me that eventually the blasters and torches will stop working and only have a symbolic relevance. The society should carry on developing normally without it.’
‘Ok, Aisling, thanks for that, carry on the good work . . . ‘
O’Mara interrupted him before he could close the comm-link, but sounded uncertain. ‘One more thing sir, before you go.’
‘What is it Aisling?’
‘I don’t think we’re alone.’
There was a pause as Hollins considered what his Science Officer was intimating, but she continued before he had to press her.
‘We’re getting some very odd readings, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear that we’re being watched.’
Hollins knew that his Science Officer was a little scatty at times and that observation missions like this could play on one’s nerves, but she sounded distinctly uncomfortable. ‘It’s not those damned bat-things, is it? I’ve had a couple of people mention the fact that they show no fear of humans at all.’
‘No sir. We’ve had a few problems with the bats, but that’s not a worry. We’ve got some equipment down here that we’re using to check out back-ground radiation levels and the like, but we keep getting spurious readings. Like spikes. Very high readings for very short periods that don’t seem to make sense.’