“Gold to Abramowitz.”
Carol tapped her combadge. “Abramowitz here. We read you very clear, Captain. I couldn’t reach you earlier.”
“Oh? Was something wrong?”
Carol glanced at Bart. He shook his head and gave her his meanest frown, which of course turned into a wince. His head still rang. “Not anymore. We handled it.”
“Conlon was able to punch through whatever’s holding full power hostage. Apparently its range doesn’t extend into space. It’s easier to establish a link from space to you, instead of the other way around. You people all right? We registered a significant quake with your position as the epicenter.”
They looked at one another. Carol spoke, “We’re okay. Has the other team been able to establish what it is that’s causing the problem?”
“Gomez and Tev are disagreeing. One believes it’s something within the planet’s core.”
“That would be Tev.”
“And Gomez thinks it’s artificial. Stevens is having a harder time discovering the source, which he believes will shed some light on things. Whatever it is, it’s apparently working as a blanket over the entire planet.”
Jewlan frowned. “For something to work like your captain is saying, it’d either have to generate an enormous amount of power, or it’s working through relay points—” Her eyes widened abruptly and she yanked her hand from Bart’s and stepped back.
Riz took a step toward Jewlan, her eyes narrowed.
Bart looked from Riz to Jewlan. Was Ms. Grumpy Jewlan’s watchdog? What was wrong?
“Whoever that was just echoed Stevens’s assessment. He lost twelve of the fusion reactors after that last quake. Those particular ones were working at a higher field rate than the others.” Gold paused. “Apparently whatever’s zapping power detected the increased power output and successfully eliminated them. We don’t have any more generators to spare and the increase of demand on those in use is going to reach a critical mass.”
Carol ran her right hand through her close-cropped hair. “Captain, is there any way we can evacuate the sick and injured to the da Vinci? In case we can’t find the source and shut it off?”
“Lense is heading up that contingency plan. One of the wrenches that got thrown into it is the da Vinci isn’t big enough to hold the number of people L’Olan quoted us, but the Mercury might be able to clear room. She’s only a small cargo ship.”
Corsi spoke up. “L’Olan, sir?”
“Corlis’s replacement. She Beta-shifted about an hour ago.”
“Which means she’s now a he, right?”
“Right. And no longer able to help us.” Gold sounded irritated. “She—he—wouldn’t even update L’Olan on what’s happened so far. So we had to waste a good half hour doing a recap. Oy, this is insane.”
Bart noticed Jewlan retreat another step. She held her hands out in front of her, studying them. Is this it? Was she about to shift herself? I hope not—I need her knowledge here with me. And is there a way to get rid of the ol’ life of the party over there?
“Faulwell, have you made any progress down there?”
“Not yet, sir. We’re at the final chamber where we believe the problems started. I’ll give you an update as soon as we find something.”
“Good. Any more Jewish maxims?”
“None, sir. I’m afraid that first one was only a fluke.”
“Well, Rachel will be disappointed. Is there anything else we can do from our end?”
“Captain,” Carol said as she held up her device. “Have Ensign Haznedl do a geothermal scan of this area as well. I want her to dig as deep as the ship’s sensors can go.”
“You have that scary tone in your voice, Abramowitz. Does it have something to do with your cultural findings?”
“No,” she looked around and up at the high ceiling. “But it has everything to do with what I’m hearing right now. Abramowitz out.”
Bart narrowed his eyes at Carol. “Care to let us in on your scary tone?”
“Not yet. I’m going to take Corsi and do a bit more looking about at the artifacts here. I think you and Jewlan should continue with trying to open that door.”
“I’ll go with you,” Riz said.
With a glare in Jewlan’s direction, the older Asarion followed Carol and Corsi from the chamber.
Bart shook his head, a slight smile on his lips, and turned to look at Jewlan. She’d moved into the shadows. “Nice lady. She the talk at parties?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Riz is okay. She’s just doing her job keeping me straight. But I’m afraid I might not have much time left.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you in Alpha State right now?”
Jewlan nodded again. “I’m—I’m a random shifter. Most people know when they’re going to shift, down to the minute. They don’t always prepare, which drives me nuts. I mean, to have that luxury and not use it.” She stopped talking as if she were afraid she’d said too much. “My shifts come suddenly, and I’m overdue for one. I’ve been in Alpha State for over three years.”
“What do you do for a living in Beta State?”
“Mechanic.”
“Mechanic—like an engineer?”
She nodded.
If he understood Carol’s briefing earlier, it meant that Jewlan also had the skill of an engineer.
There was just one problem. “It’s my understanding that once you shift, you’re no longer allowed to use the skills held by the other state?”
Jewlan nodded.
Bart wasn’t going to profess to understand this cultural limit, but he would abide by it. For now. He hoped her Beta State didn’t impose too quickly, though he was curious what she would look like in male form. He liked Jewlan’s easygoing attitude. She was fun to talk to—and she listened. Very much like Anthony.
He gave her a smile both to ease her obvious worry and to wipe away any evidence on his face of the surprise he’d just given himself at such thoughts. Why had he compared her to Anthony? “What you said is true—about the power output needed. That either there is an incredible storage of power being used or there are relays all over this world. And our people will find out which it is. For now, let’s look at this door, okay?”
Bart turned and gave the door a narrow look as well as the symbols. They followed the same straight-line pattern as the other doors, but there were six of them instead of four. He absently rubbed at his beard. “How far in the translation have you gotten with these?”
Jewlan stepped forward. She pointed to the four left-side symbols without touching them. “I haven’t seen these other two before, and they’re not on any of the scrolls we brought from the temple site.”
“Did you try to press a combination and that’s when the blackout occurred?” Bart said.
Jewlan chewed on her lower lip. “You’ve been talking to Corlis.”
“Then it’s true,” Bart said. “You triggered it. What did you do?”
“I was upset. I was frustrated. I know it was stupid. But I wanted so much to prove to them I could do this—that I didn’t have to wait for a new partner to be brought from the city.”
Bart reached out with his right hand and gripped her shoulder. There was something disarming about Jewlan that touched him. Something very innocent and yet intelligent. He’d also noticed the smudge on the middle finger of her left hand.
Same as his own. Opposite hands.
Opposite sex.
For now.
He continued to give her shoulder a slight squeeze, locking his gaze with her own in the dim light. Her eyes were the colors of the Mediterranean Sea. A deep, blue green. “Jewlan, I understand frustration. Lately I seem to be drowning in it to the point of impotency. Okay—that was oversharing. You have that effect on me. But just tell me what you did so we don’t make the same mistake again. I’m not here to judge you, but I am here to help.”
She expected him to be angry. He read that in her expression. Everyone else had been angry with her. Bart made s
ure he didn’t look angry; he probably looked pretty damned awful if he judged that on how he felt—but he wouldn’t look angry.
“I pressed the symbols in order of their relevance to the other chambers.” She nodded to the door. “And then I pressed the two remaining ones in order.”
“And that set off the blackout.”
She nodded. “I think that’s when I triggered some sort of defense protocol, which I’m sure is being powered by something behind that door.”
He stared at her. “A what?”
Jewlan chewed on her lower lip. “Defense protocol. You’ve never encountered one? If this building, structure, whatever, was something of value to the indigenous race, then what better way to ensure no attacks than to simply put up a nullifying field? At least with powered weapons—but to throw up a planetwide dampening field?”
He stared at her as he reached out and touched a hand to each shoulder. “Jewlan, that’s it. Of course that’s it! It’s so obvious—I mean, even Starfleet Academy has dampening fields on campus, for the students’ protection. Why haven’t you said something before now?”
“Because Riz was watching me,” she said, putting her hands over Bart’s. “Bart, I’m a random shifter. We’re different. We’re loose cannons, for lack of a better term. I share my Beta State’s knowledge sometimes. Most of my people don’t.”
“You don’t? Our information says you retain your Alpha or Beta State memories.”
“No.” Jewlan smiled. “Not as much anymore. Before the Borg, we were mostly randoms, like me. But we adapt and change, and one started to forget the life of the other. But what I said about the dampening field—Bart, that’s Jolen’s field of expertise, not mine.”
“That doesn’t matter.” He smiled at her. “Not to me.”
Jewlan slid her fingers between his. “I like that. I like that a great deal. I can be…me, and it doesn’t matter if I’m a man or a woman.” She moved closer. The aroma of jasmine filled his senses and his head swam. “I like you, Bartholomew Faulwell—a great deal.”
Okay, that last statement made him uncomfortable, but not too terribly so. It was becoming obvious to him that Jewlan had developed a crush—and he could see where it was an easy thing to do. He found himself attracted to her as well, on a more intellectual level. They shared the same love of words, of language; she obviously wrote in longhand, evidenced by the smudge on her finger. He’d found himself occasionally attracted to the opposite sex during his long life—mostly on superficial levels.
And those attractions had ended up as good friends. Which he hoped Jewlan would be.
So maybe now was the best time to bring her back to reality and possibly quell any more possible romantic thoughts. They needed to get to work. “Jewlan…I’m not really in the habit of sharing my personal life with other people, but I think you should know that I have a partner.”
To his surprise, she nodded, though her expression remained peaceful. Jewlan removed her hands from his and stepped back. “I know.”
“You do? Who told you?”
“No one. It is very obvious the way you and Carol Abramowitz work together. You are very close. And you are very lucky that your professions complement each other.”
He could hear Fabian’s laughter ringing on the wind even now. Bart could also see the jovial laughter coming from Vance Hawkins as well upon hearing his lover was having an affair with the linguist.
“Jewlan…” he shook his head. “Ah, Carol and I are just good friends. You’re right in that we do work together a lot because of our professions, but she’s only a friend.” A very talkative friend, but a friend nonetheless.
The look of relief that opened up Jewlan’s face made Bart take a step back. “Then you are not taken?”
“No, I mean yes, I am taken. I have a lover. He works on a starbase.”
Jewlan’s expression fell. “You have a lover…someone locked to your soul and heart—but you are not together?”
“No. Anthony’s job takes him to a different place.”
She reached out to touch his arm and her expression as well as her tone were full of concern. “I do apologize. I didn’t know you were married.”
“I’m not married.” His teeth ached as he tried not to clench them.
“Do you not have marriages in your culture?”
“Yes.” Bart stopped himself from snapping at Jewlan. It did no good to be angry with her. She had no idea of what had been plaguing him the past few weeks. “But Anthony and I aren’t.”
“Do you not love one another?”
“Yes…we do. Look, Jewlan…it’s a lot more complicated than just loving one another.”
She frowned. “Do you risk social taboos?”
“No.”
“Are there cultural differences that prevent marriage?”
“No. Look, Jewlan—”
“Ah, perhaps Anthony isn’t ready for marriage.” She smiled at this.
Bart put his hands over his face. Is screaming okay? ’Cause I could use a really good primordial wail right about now.
“Bart?” Her touch was light on his left wrist. “What is wrong? Do you miss him so very much?”
He moved his hands down, aware of the headache he still wore from his brush with the Poplin. Or was it the stimulant? “Jewlan, let’s say I’m not ready for marriage and leave it at that, okay? We’ve got a lot of work to do even though this subject is just rousingly stimulating.” He blanched at his own words. “If you have a state-shift coming, we’re racing a clock.”
He didn’t know what he expected from Jewlan. Maybe another round of questions about his and Anthony’s relationship. What he didn’t expect was for her to step forward and kiss his forehead. That’s when he noticed she was slightly taller than he was.
No, that’s not right. Jewlan had been shorter before. Carol’s height. This comparison made him curious if a state-shift happened instantaneously, or slowly.
“Let’s get to work on that door.” Jewlan turned and walked to the table full of scrolls.
Chapter
7
“How is it possible that Bartholomew came up with a defense theory? Was it something they found in the ruins?” Tev stood just inside the front glass doors of the reactor plant. The sky overhead had muted from brilliant blue to shades of lavender and yellow as the sun set over the horizon. The temperature had cooled considerably since mid-afternoon.
Stevens had wanted to use one of the portable reactors to power at least one of the building’s cooling units, but Tev had been against such an action. It would have been a useless expenditure of power.
Gold’s voice filtered through the combadge on Tev’s uniform. “He said Jewlan had suspected it ever since the blackout. I can’t believe we never found it before this.”
Tev blanched. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of a planetwide dampening field that irked him. It was that with all his wasted brilliance they hadn’t seen the answer from the start. They had been looking at the situation from the standpoint of coincidence. Tev suspected the dampening field keeping things running at a minimum had to be because of a fault in the Asarion’s system and not that of an exterior caustic anomaly.
“The dampening field—if that is what it truly is, though I highly doubt the word of a linguist—isn’t operating on a normal modulation,” Tev said. “Most dampening fields work on a continual, low-emission power output. Single modulation. The ones running on the grounds at Starfleet Academy put out enough power to nullify phaser weapons.”
Stevens emerged from the reactor’s inner doors at that moment, wiping his brow across his forehead. Vinx stepped out just behind him, yawning. Sweat darkened the collars on both men’s uniforms. Stevens whistled at the setting sun. “Beautiful.”
“Is that Stevens?” Gold asked.
Stevens tapped his combadge. “Here, Captain. Did Tev tell you this dampening field, or whatever it is, runs in pulses, very much like small EMP bursts?”
“I was getting to that point,”
the Tellarite said.
The captain said, “But it’s not a continual output?”
Stevens shook his head. “No, and the pulses aren’t evenly spaced. It’s more like the thing waits till something rebuilds power and then it zaps it again.”
“So it has a sophisticated sensor array somewhere.”
Tev spoke up. “Yes, sir. But I’ve been unable to pinpoint where these sensors are. If I—we—can’t find the source of the field, perhaps we can damage a sensor or rewrite its prime directive to shut down the dampening field instead of empower it.”
“Or maybe we’ll stumble on a booby-trap and blow the whole thing up.” Stevens sighed. “It’s annoying to get the reactor back online only to have it zapped again. What’s even more disturbing is what Soloman just discovered; the pulses are gaining in strength.”
“Gaining strength? The EMPs?”
“Yes. Another fifteen hours or so and these small fusion generators won’t even work.”
“Is there any threat to the da Vinci?”
“Not sure at this point. The range isn’t extending, only the strength of the pulses sent to keep the planet in a lingering blackout. What’s got me stumped is the purpose.” Stevens knelt in the increasing shade of the building. “Why build a defense system that keeps everybody neutral? No one benefits from it.”
“Well,” Vinx said hesitantly as he glanced at Tev, “beggin’ your pardon, boss, but I was thinkin’ this here thing ain’t built as no defense system. Seems to me this kinda situation is made for one reason—invasion.”
Tev shook his head. “Preposterous.”
But Stevens shook his head. “I’m not so sure Makk’s not on to something. The only question remaining is, invasion from outside, or invasion from inside.”
“My guts tell me it’s outside.” Vinx shrugged and gave a palms’-up gesture. “Black out the entire planet, knock out its defenses, ba-dah-boom, ba-da-bing, you can slip in and take over.”
Stevens nodded. “What about the invading force’s weapons? Wouldn’t any weapon with a power signature be shut off?”
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