Gods Above

by Peter David

  He simply nodded, acknowledging the plan. Feeling she had nothing else to say, Shelby turned and headed for the door. As she headed out, Calhoun suddenly said, “Captain.”

  She turned to face him. “Yes?”

  “Nothing,” he said after a moment. “I just…”

  “You just what?”

  “I wanted to see if you would turn around to look at me or just stop and talk to me with your back turned.”

  She sighed heavily at that, then walked out the door. When he called her name again, she didn’t stop walking.

  iii.

  It was some hours later when Moke finally got up the nerve to address the very odd computer once more.

  Moke hadn’t been sitting around contemplating in horror the notion of talking to the computer again. He’d been busy with Xyon, who had been his usual rambunctious self. Xyon had been looking around at empty air in a most aggressive fashion, and Moke had the feeling that Xyon was trying to catch sight of the “ghostly” inhabitants of the Excalibur. Moke was quite certain that they were keeping themselves scarce.

  He couldn’t help but wonder if it had something to do with the planet they’d come to. He’d been able to overhear enough scattered conversations to put two and two together and realize that more of these strange “Beings” were present on the world below. So it might well have been that McHenry and the one-eyed man were either hiding, or else doing everything they could to shield their presence from those whom they wanted to avoid. Either way, they sure weren’t around.

  Still, Moke was starting to feel it was definitely time to seek out Mackenzie Calhoun and tell him what had been going on. After all, what if McHenry and the one-eyed man were, in fact, gone for good? Certainly, then, no harm would be done by letting Calhoun know about their presence.

  He and Xyon were in the holodeck, Xyon romping around on a holo-created beachfront. The green ocean came rolling in and washed up over his toes, and he giggled in childish glee, as Moke abruptly called out, “Computer.”

  And then he jumped back several feet in shock as a woman materialized in front of him. He shook his head in bewilderment and then said, “Wait…I know you. You’re Robin’s mother, aren’t you?”

  “That’s correct. Well…I was. Actually…I suppose I still am.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I’m in the computer now. I’m part of it.”

  “Oh.” He wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Does it hurt?”

  “No,” she assured him. Then she just stood there, smiling, her head slightly tilted in a polite and attentive manner.

  “Why are you just…standing there?” he asked.

  “You summoned me. I’m waiting for you to—”

  “Oh! Oh, right!” He thumped his forehead with the base of his palm in chagrin. “Right, of course. Sorry. Uhm…do you know where Captain Calhoun is? Is he still in the shouting meeting?”

  “Captain Calhoun is no longer on board the ship.”

  “He’s not? Are you sure?”

  “I’m a computer, Moke. Being sure is more or less all I do now.”

  “Oh. Okay. Well…where is he?”

  “Captain Calhoun has gone down to Danter as part of an away team, along with Lieutenants Soleta and Kebron.”

  “When will he be back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Hah!” he said challengingly. “You said being sure was all you did.”

  “All right,” said Morgan, sounding rather reasonable. “He will be back precisely 0.00003 seconds after being beamed back aboard the ship.”

  He looked at her suspiciously. “That’s not much of an answer.”

  “Perhaps. It is, however, one I am sure of.” She took a step toward him, which startled him slightly. For some reason he’d just assumed she was rooted to one spot. “This is the second time you have desired to converse with him. Is there a matter of some urgency you wish to discuss? I can make it known to him upon his return.”

  “All right. Tell him that Mark McHenry and a strange, bearded one-eyed guy are walking around the ship, except they’re invisible and can walk through things, like ghosts, and only Xyon and I can see them.”

  “Hmmm.” She processed that information. The way in which she stored it was an endlessly complex procedure that only an expert in computer systems would have been able to explain. Visually, she simply looked thoughtful for a moment. “Very well. I will convey that to him. That is a most unusual message.”

  “I guess.” Feeling much better, and satisfied that he had done his duty, Moke went to play with Xyon in the rolling waters as the computer image of Morgan blinked out of sight.

  Danter

  i.

  SI CWAN HADN’T HAD THE FAINTEST IDEA of what to expect, but whatever that lack of expectations might have been, it certainly hadn’t included what he ultimately encountered on the surface of Danter.

  Kalinda had wanted to go with him to the planet’s surface, but Cwan had been quite firm in forbidding it. “If something happens to me,” he had said to her, “you will be the last remaining member of Thallonian nobility. Danter is too unpredictable. We can’t take the chance of something happening to both of us.” Kalinda had understood his reasoning, but nevertheless was frustrated by it and wasn’t the least bit happy about it.

  When he beamed down to a central plaza, along with Ambassador Spock, XO Mueller, and Lieutenant Arex, he wasn’t all that surprised to see that Mackenzie Calhoun, Soleta, and Zak Kebron had already materialized. Calhoun offered a ragged smile upon seeing Si Cwan.

  “I hear you’ve had some adventures since departing us, Ambassador,” he said.

  “And your life has been no less an adventure.” But then his attention was caught by Zak Kebron, and he looked the Brikar up and down. “Kebron, are you quite all right? You look…odd.”

  Kebron just stared at him stonily.

  Cwan knew perfectly well that Zak Kebron was not his biggest fan. He wasn’t going to pretend that he was all that solicitous or caring about Kebron’s welfare. Still, the Brikar had his uses in a combat situation, and since Cwan was still leery of Danteri reception, he wanted to know that Kebron would be up to snuff if a battle arose. It was the strangest thing. It looked like pieces of Kebron’s thick hide were actually peeling off. Kebron was obviously aware of it; he brushed away a few small pieces while endeavoring to look nonchalant about it. Turning his back to Kebron, he sidled over to Calhoun and said in a low voice, “Seriously…is Kebron in ill health?”

  “Hard to tell with him,” said Calhoun.

  Except by that point, Si Cwan wasn’t actually listening to what Calhoun was saying. Instead he was looking around the central plaza, and he noticed from the corner of his eye that Arex was having the same reaction.

  “What’s wrong, Lieutenant?” asked Mueller, noticing the way her security chief was gazing around in bewilderment. It would have been hard to miss it. Arex’s head had stretched out on its distended neck, and he was surveying their surroundings with the attitude of someone who thought he might have wound up in the wrong place.

  “It…wasn’t like this,” Arex said. And Si Cwan knew exactly what he was referring to.

  When they’d come to the planet’s surface last time, and indeed beamed down to pretty much this exact space, it had been an away team consisting of Si Cwan and Kalinda, Captain Shelby, and Arex. Then, as now, there had been various tall, majestic buildings. In fact, everything had smacked of being overdone, as if the Danteri were collectively interested in trotting out the glory that was the Danteri race to anyone who happened by their world.

  But a number of those buildings, including places that he knew for a fact had housed senate offices, were gone. And they’d been replaced by structures that were decidedly simple and boxy in their design, but no less ornate. They were decorated with statues and mosaics, and they were busy.

  Quite busy.

  Various Danteri were going in and out of the buildings—about half a dozen in all—and they seeme
d to be all business as they did so. People who were entering were carrying branches, or garlands, or small livestock, and those who were leaving were empty-handed. But all of them carried with them beatific smiles upon their faces. He had never seen so many people looking so damned happy. Their general bronze skin color seemed to glow with health and life.

  There was a steady, pungent burning smell in the air, and at one point Si Cwan was certain he heard a small animal cry out.

  “These…these things weren’t here…were they?” Arex looked to Si Cwan for confirmation.

  “No,” Si Cwan assured him. “They weren’t. And it wasn’t all that long ago that Kalinda and I were driven from this place. Which means they must have built these structures incredibly quickly. But…what—?”

  It was Ambassador Spock who replied. “Temples, Ambassador Cwan,” the Vulcan said quietly, in that gravelly but unperturbable tone of his. “They have built temples. These structures are not dissimilar from the structure upon which Apollo resided when we encountered these godlike beings during my tenure on the Enterprise.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Calhoun.

  “Always,” Spock told him in an offhand manner, as if the notion that he could ever be anything else was so ludicrous that it hardly warranted being addressed. “I did not see the structure in person, but I was able to discern its specifics clearly enough when we were firing ship’s phasers at it.”

  “So at the instruction of the Beings,” Soleta said, taking readings of the temples with her tricorder, “the Danteri have built temples to them. For worship?”

  “One would conclude so,” said Spock.

  Another animal cried out, and then the cry was abruptly truncated. The members of the away team looked at each other with barely disguised distaste. “So…those animals…” said Si Cwan.

  Spock nodded in confirmation. “Sacrifices.”

  “Charming,” said Mueller. She was looking at the steady stream of supplicants. “I suppose, Captain Calhoun, it would be considered poor form to shoot them.”

  “Personally, I’d give you a commendation,” Calhoun told her. “Unfortunately, I think it would be frowned upon, yes.”

  “My friends! My dear friends!”

  Si Cwan was certain he recognized the voice instantly, and sure enough, there he came: Lodec, the senate speaker, his arms thrown wide in greeting, and his skin scintillating with the same glow of health that everyone else in the damned area seemed to possess. The hem of his long, blue and white garment swished around on the floor as Lodec approached him, looking as if he were greeting old and beloved companions.

  Then he stopped in his tracks, his hands clasped almost delicately in front of him. He sighed heavily, as if exhaling the weight of the world. “Oh. Oh, yes. But you very likely don’t consider me your dear friend, do you. At least several of you. You…Captain Mackenzie Calhoun.”

  He approached Calhoun, who stood there with his face clouding like an incoming storm. “You, who still blame me for the death of your father.”

  “That’s probably because you killed him,” replied Calhoun, his tone flat.

  “Under orders from my superior, at a time of war. But you must believe me now, Mackenzie…I would sooner have my right arm cut off—again—than bring harm to another living thing.”

  “Really. Testing that resolve might prove educational.”

  Inwardly, Si Cwan winced. He was quite aware that Captain Shelby wasn’t sanguine over Calhoun’s presence upon this world. He was positive that his antipathy for the Danteri would make his functioning there problematic. At the same time, though, he could very much understand it. It wasn’t as if there were any love lost between Si Cwan and the Danteri in general, and Lodec in particular.

  As if sensing what was going through Cwan’s mind, Lodec turned and beamed that chillingly calm smile at Si Cwan, apparently deciding to ignore Calhoun’s last gibe. “And Ambassador. What can I possibly say…what words of apology can conceivably be offered…to make clear just how stricken I am over our ghastly treatment of you.”

  There was a great deal that Si Cwan wanted to say at that moment…most of it hostile. Plus, some vivid imaginings regarding sustained pummeling were likewise crossing his mind. But he quickly decided that it might just further provoke Calhoun to rash action, and the Thallonian didn’t want to feel responsible for that.

  “There is nothing you can say,” Si Cwan told him evenly, “so perhaps it would be best…to say nothing.”

  Lodec bobbed his head. He actually seemed grateful, which further perplexed Si Cwan, because he hadn’t thought he was being especially generous in his response.

  “Very wise, Ambassador,” he said. Then he turned and regarded the others. “And you would be Commander Mueller…Lieutenant Arex, I believe it was…” He looked blankly at the two Vulcans and the Brikar. When his eye caught Zak’s, he looked up, and up a bit more. “My. You’re a considerable individual.”

  Zak glowered at him.

  “This is Lieutenant Soleta, my science officer,” Calhoun said, “and my security chief, Lieutenant Kebron, and this,” and he paused with what seemed to Cwan to be some dramatic significance, “is Ambassador Spock.”

  Even Lodec appeared impressed. “The legendary Spock?”

  “Yes,” said Spock, matter-of-factly. Si Cwan suppressed a small smile. None could ever accuse the Vulcan of lack of hubris. Then again, “hubris” might be the wrong word. It meant, after all, “exaggerated pride,” and Spock’s accomplishments were such that there was no reason for exaggeration. The truth was impressive enough.

  “I am here,” Spock continued, “representing the interests of the United Federation of Planets.”

  “Because of the ambrosia.”

  “That is correct.”

  “The ambrosia is the food of the gods.” He smiled reverently. “The Beings provide it to us in exchange for our love and devotion. They give us so much, and all that is truly required from us is our appreciation. It is a remarkable bargain, is it not?”

  “Remarkable,” Soleta echoed, exchanging a glance with Spock.

  “And permit me to guess,” said Lodec. Amusement twinkled in his eyes. “You are here to obtain a sample of the ambrosia.”

  Calhoun looked as if he were about to respond, but Mueller spoke up before he could do so. “That is one consideration,” she said. “But my orders were simply to observe the impact that the presence of the Beings has had upon you.”

  “Why, they have had a benevolent impact,” Lodec said, as if any other notion was too absurd to contemplate. “How could any reasonable person think otherwise.”

  “Considering,” Spock said, “that the Beings assaulted and nearly destroyed a Federation starship…and that the earliest known Being, one ‘Apollo,’ held my shipmates hostage a century ago…and that one of them aided you in terrorizing Ambassador Cwan and his sister…one would logically have to conclude the Beings are sending mixed messages insofar as benevolence is concerned.”

  To Cwan’s surprise, Lodec laughed softly at that. “My, you do have a way of turning a phrase, Ambassador. Very well, point taken. But things have changed, you have to see that.”

  “We intend to see what needs to be seen,” Calhoun told him sharply.

  For a moment, Lodec studied Calhoun, and then he just shrugged neutrally. “Then you shall do so in as unimpeded a fashion as possible. You are free to do what you will. Go anywhere you wish, see anything you wish. We’ve nothing to hide here. None of my people will hinder you.”

  “And the Beings? Where are they?” asked Calhoun.

  “Oh,” and Lodec gestured in a vague manner, still smiling. “They are around. They move in mysterious ways.”

  “Summon them.”

  For the first time, Lodec looked perturbed. “That…is not within my ability. I would accommodate you if I could, but I swear I cannot. The Beings come and go as they will. If they choose to appear, they do so. But we do not control them.”

  “No, no…you just ado
re them,” said Calhoun. He was now much closer to Lodec, and Si Cwan could see that the scar which Calhoun perpetually carried upon his face was flushing a slightly brighter crimson…a sure sign that the starship captain was becoming angry. “I want Artemis. I have an injured man because of her. A man who might very well be on the brink of death…or worse. I believe she’s the only one who can do anything about it. And she had better, or…”

  “Or what?” Lodec sounded gently reproving. “What do you think you could possibly do that will deter her in some way? Artemis is what she is. They all are what they are. If you,” and he glanced at Spock, “have any hope of working out some manner of cooperation with the Beings, or if you have a desire to obtain ambrosia, then it’s far preferable that you respect them as we do.”

  “By building temples to them?” asked Arex. “By sacrificing helpless animals to them?”

  “Yes,” Lodec said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  And Si Cwan realized that, to Lodec, it very likely was.

  ii.

  The away team had split into three groups, heading off in different directions in an almost arbitrary fashion. The notion was, after all, that they were upon a fact-finding mission. So they went their separate ways to find facts. Since they were all in easy communication with one another, there didn’t seem to be a problem.

  Nevertheless, Calhoun insisted that each of them check in with him every half hour. He had no intention of losing touch with any of his people. And Mueller, for her part, kept in constant touch with the Trident, and the Trident with the Excalibur. No one was taking any chances.

  Mueller and Arex walked from residence to residence in the city, stopping and talking with passersby, or knocking on doors and speaking to whomever inside would talk to them. Mueller was impressed by the forthright way in which the people spoke to two offworld strangers.

  Her study of the typical Danteri mind-set indicated that they should have treated them in a high-handed, arrogant manner. But that definitely was not what she and Arex were encountering. Instead the Danteri greeted them warmly, welcomed them into their homes, spoke to them of their hopes, dreams, and aspirations.