by Gene DeWeese
“I knew that would be too easy,” Riker said with a curt sigh, “for the ships to be coming from down there.”
“Get us as close as possible to this new ship, Mr. Data,” Picard said. “I want as reliable a set of readings as you can get before it disappears.”
“Yes, Captain. Sensors at maximum.”
Another minute, and a glowing dot appeared on the viewscreen.
“It appears to be similar to the object we encountered in the asteroid belt,” Data said. “As with that one, the sensors cannot penetrate the shell of transporter-like energy that surrounds it. I can only assume that, like the first, it is using the energy field to clear a path through the dust.”
“Another of the scout-type vessels?” Picard wondered aloud.
“It is probably of a similar size, Captain, but it is moving more rapidly, indicating that its impulse engines are more powerful than those of the previous ship. They might be the equal of one of our larger shuttlecraft.”
For another minute, the glow grew larger and brighter on the viewscreen. Then, abruptly, it vanished and was replaced by the image of a ship, this one bearing a slight resemblance to Federation shuttlecraft of half a century earlier. It continued to move closer, but more slowly, the equivalent of minimum impulse.
“Captain,” Data said an instant later, “there are two laser devices that can only be described as weapons, although they are not powerful enough to pose a threat to the Enterprise. They appear to be fully primed and ready to fire. There is one life-form on board, definitely humanoid, possibly Krantinese.”
“Continue to monitor.”
“Should I hail it, sir?” Ensign Thompson at the tactical station asked hesitantly.
Picard considered a moment. The previous ships had not responded to hails, only vanished. “Not yet, Ensign,” he said, “not until it becomes obvious the pilot is aware of us.”
On the screen, the image of the ship grew steadily larger and more detailed, finally revealing the snouts of what must have been the laser weapons.
“The pilot does appear to be indistinguishable from the Krantinese, Captain,” Data announced finally.
“Koralus?” Riker looked down at the Krantinese. “Can you enlighten us in any way?”
Koralus shook his head vigorously. “This ship could not possibly be from Krantin!”
“Counselor?” Picard leaned toward Troi, who, taking her cue, whispered briefly in his ear, confirming the alien’s truthfulness. Nodding, he turned his attention back to the viewscreen.
“It has stopped,” Data announced. “I assume the pilot has become aware of us.”
“Very well. Ensign, hail the ship, all EM channels.”
“The laser devices are being redirected, Captain,” Data said. “I suspect they are being aimed at the Enterprise. They could be fired at any moment.”
“Ensign,” Picard said, “on my command, transmit my words on all EM channels.” Pausing, he took the auxiliary earpiece from the panel in the arm of Riker’s seat and handed it to Koralus. “If there is a response, Ensign, patch the raw sound through to Commander Riker’s station. Koralus, listen and tell us if it is a language you recognize.”
Obediently, the Krantinese inserted the tiny device in his right ear and waited as it adjusted itself to fit. By the time it had finished, Thompson had made the necessary adjustments to the comm panel controls. “Ready, sir.”
“Now, Ensign,” Picard said, beginning his message moments later when Thompson nodded acknowledgment.
“Unidentified ship, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. Please identify yourself.” Another pause, and then: “We are aware of the weapons you have trained on us.”
For a full minute there was no response. Finally, it came. “Where are you from? Why are you here?”
“We represent the United Federation of Planets. We are currently negotiating with the natives of this world, Krantin, to assist them. Now we would like answers to the same questions from you.”
There was another silence, not so long this time. “You have come here from another star?”
“That is correct. Now please, identify yourselves.”
This time there was no verbal answer. Instead, as Picard began to again demand identification, the intruder’s lasers fired. The Enterprise shields flared softly near the points of contact.
“Phasers on stun, fire,” Picard snapped. “Lock on with tractor beam, full power.”
“The humanoid is unconscious,” Data announced an instant later.
“Energy surge beginning to build, sir,” Thompson said, almost simultaneously.
A flare of light once again blinded the viewscreen. When the screen cleared, the tiny ship was gone.
Picard frowned, though he wasn’t surprised. He had not really expected it to be that easy. “Deadman switch, Mr. Data?”
“I can only assume that is the case, Captain. The energy field began to build within three seconds of the humanoid’s loss of consciousness.”
“Koralus—the language?”
The Krantinese removed the earpiece. “It was like Krantinese, but different. Some of the words I recognized, others I did not.”
“Counselor, could you pick up anything at all?”
“Not at this distance, Captain, not without a video link.”
“Mr. Data, any other surges, anywhere?”
“None, Captain. However, if a second surge had occurred at a distance, simultaneous with the nearby one, the more distant one would have likely been masked by the nearer.”
“Mr. Worf, did the shuttlecraft sensors pick up anything?”
“Only the surge in the vicinity of the Enterprise, sir.”
Picard suppressed a sigh. “Very well. Mr. Data, take us through the incident again, image by image.”
He didn’t expect them to find anything new, and, to no one’s surprise, they didn’t.
The analysis of the latest incident completed, Data hurried back to his quarters to review the records the computer had been making of the area. He was not surprised to find that Spot had experienced another interlude of extreme agitation starting within seconds of the moment the latest ship had vanished.
Intrigued, he began a second-by-second review of the computer records for both of the most recent surges. When he was finished, he thought for a moment of informing the captain of the results, but he decided it would be premature. Instead, he contacted Ensign Thompson, who listened to Data’s account and bemusedly agreed to allow Data to have the computer maintain a similar record of his own quarters and Fido’s activity.
Chapter Nine
RIKER FIDGETED, earning an amused glance from Troi. Waiting was not something he did well or gracefully, particularly when he had nothing to do while others did all the work. It had been more than an hour since the party from the Enterprise—himself and Deanna, Data, and Geordi—had delivered the newly fabricated laser unit to Zalkan’s cramped laboratory in the city’s lower level. Technician Denbahr, with Zalkan and Geordi watching over her shoulder, was still performing her tests, which apparently included every one in the official checklist as well as several she had improvised based on what she had seen at the power station in recent months. If there had been room in the little lab, Riker would have been pacing, but there wasn’t.
Finally, Denbahr looked up from the test console with a broad grin. “As far as I can tell,” she announced, “this unit is identical to our own—except that it works at least as well as ours did fifty years ago.” She looked questioningly toward Geordi, who had been monitoring the tests with his tricorder.
He shook his head. “It won’t last as long—ten years at the most, assuming the Plague gets no worse than it is now. The vacuum started to degrade the moment it was formed. Your instruments can’t detect it yet, and it’s degrading less rapidly here than it was in the Enterprise or in the shuttlecraft on the way down, but it’s still degrading.”
Denbahr’s smile faded for a moment but then returned, tinged with defiance
. “So,” she said, glancing at Zalkan, “we have ten years to find a permanent solution. Like beating the Plague.”
“A worthy goal,” the scientist said grimly, “but not one we’re likely to accomplish.”
“Not alone, maybe, but with a little help . . .”
“She’s right,” Riker said as Zalkan grimaced. It might be the contrast to Denbahr’s infectious optimism, but Zalkan’s seeming pessimism struck Riker as counterproductive at best. “I have the feeling that if we can just find out where those ships are coming from—and disappearing to—we’ll have a good start.”
“You’re both more optimistic than I, Commander. Nonetheless, I applaud your efforts. At the moment, however, my greatest applause would be for another hundred laser units like this one.”
“Of course,” Riker said, glancing toward Geordi, who nodded assent. “As soon as this one is successfully installed and we see that it does indeed work as well as the tests indicate, we’ll get things started.” He turned to Denbahr. “I suggest we get under way. We can take you and Commander La Forge and the unit to the power plant whenever you’re ready.”
Before anyone could answer, the door opened and President Khozak strode in. He had contacted Zalkan earlier, saying he would be at the lab shortly, but Riker had been hoping they would be gone before he arrived, as had Zalkan, if his scowl was any indication.
“Commander Riker,” Khozak said without preamble, ignoring Zalkan’s obvious annoyance, “after you informed me yesterday about the mines, I uncovered information that will, I think, cause you to reconsider your decision not to search at least the area of the mines for the source of the energy surges.”
“Something in the records computer, you mean?” Riker asked, not volunteering that a search was already planned. “Just what did you find?”
Khozak smiled. “Nothing, literally nothing.”
“If you found nothing,” Zalkan snapped, “why are you wasting our time? The laser unit should be—”
“When I first discovered there was nothing about the mines in the computer,” Khozak continued, his voice rolling over the frail scientist’s words as if they didn’t exist, “I assumed that your Deserter friend had been mistaken or was lying for reasons of his own. However, I quickly realized that a lack of information this complete was itself suspicious. And it was complete, totally complete. It was as if that entire area, several hundred square kilometers, hadn’t existed for the last three hundred years. The last reference was at least that old, from about the time most records were being transferred to the computer, long before mining was begun. The area was referred to only as ‘farmland.’
“So I located someone in what remains of the history department of the university, a Professor Gammelkar, and he confirmed what you had told me—that that area had indeed contained the richest mines on Krantin. And yet, when Professor Gammelkar himself checked the records computer, he was no more successful than I in finding information about the area. It was as if those mines had never existed.”
“Which tells you what?” Riker prompted when Khozak paused and looked around expectantly.
“Two things,” Khozak said, and Riker didn’t need Deanna’s empathic talent to recognize the smugness in his tone. “First, that the surges your instruments detected in that area in all likelihood came from somewhere in those abandoned mines. And second, that someone has tampered with the records computer to try to keep the existence of those mines a secret.”
“The people in the disappearing ships, you mean?” Zalkan said, his voice thick with sarcasm. “The people responsible for the Plague?”
Khozak nodded, seemingly oblivious to the sarcastic tone. “It seems to me a perfectly obvious conclusion. As it must to you as well; otherwise it would not have occurred to you so quickly.”
“A perfectly insane conclusion, you mean!” Zalkan snapped.
Riker was about to suggest that the pointless wrangling was only delaying the installation of the laser unit when he recognized Deanna’s restraining touch on his arm. Glancing down at her, he saw from the brief flicker of her eyes toward his that she had picked up something worth pursuing. Nodding almost imperceptibly, he said nothing, deferring to her.
“I wouldn’t say the conclusion was obvious by any means,” Troi said, “but it does seem at least possible, even plausible. Do you know of some reason it is not possible, Zalkan?”
“Just common sense!” Zalkan shot back. “You expect aliens from—from somewhere to not only get into a sealed city unnoticed but to be able to find the records computer and be allowed access to it?” The scientist snorted derisively. “And then to be able to operate the computer, to selectively remove information from it? That isn’t easy even for the people who operate it every day. There are built-in safeguards against both intentional and accidental destruction of information.” He shook his head. “It is impossible.”
“Unfortunately, gaining access to the computer would present no problem,” Khozak said. “Much as I deplore the situation, my security forces are stretched far too thin to cope with anything but open physical vandalism and violence. They have been for years. In any event, if these aliens can appear wherever they want, the way their ships apparently can, no amount of security forces could keep them out.”
“And Lieutenant Commander Data,” Troi added quietly, “given a little time, could almost certainly operate the computer well enough to remove whatever pieces of information he desired.”
Zalkan scowled at the android. “Perhaps. But only because he is a computer himself!”
“So who’s to say these aliens don’t have similar creations?” Troi countered. “Do you know positively that they do not?”
Zalkan blinked. “Of course not! But from what you said about their ships, they’re not nearly as technologically advanced as your Federation.”
“But they are at least as advanced as Krantin,” Troi persisted. “They must have computers at least as complex as yours. Given time, certainly their scientists could master your computer.”
“Given time, perhaps. But they would have to have free access to it for weeks or months, and despite President Khozak’s inadequate security forces, even despite their magical ability to pop out of nothing in a flash of light, I very much doubt that an alien working at the records computer for the necessary length of time would not have attracted someone’s attention!”
“Perhaps,” Troi said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “However, considering that the Plague has been with you for at least five hundred years, you might assume the aliens have been here equally as long. They would have had more than adequate time to infiltrate Krantin.” She smiled sympathetically. “For all you know, your computer may have been designed by one of them.”
Khozak guffawed. “She has you there, Zalkan! For all I know, you could be an alien.”
Zalkan spun on the president, obviously intending to reply angrily, but he seemed to catch himself. He turned back to Troi and Riker. “What did your doctor’s machines say yesterday?” he asked stiffly. “Did they say I was an alien? Or a Krantinese?”
Troi smiled. “He has you there, President Khozak,” she said, echoing the president’s words of a moment before. “According to all the readings Dr. Crusher took, Zalkan is no more an alien than Koralus.”
“Have we wasted enough time now?” Zalkan asked angrily. “I for one would like to see this new laser unit installed before the existing ones begin to fail!”
“And I,” Khozak echoed, all traces of laughter gone from his voice. “And while Technician Denbahr and Commander La Forge are installing it, the rest of us can investigate the mysterious mines. Can we not, Commander Riker?”
Riker nodded. “We were planning to do just that. I take it you would like to accompany us rather than supervise the installation of the laser unit?”
“Of course.”
“And you, Zalkan? Would you like to accompany us as well?”
Troi eyed the scientist as he remained nervously silent for several s
econds. Finally he said, “Khozak can waste his time as he wishes. I will assist with the installation.”
With eight occupants and the laser unit as cargo, the shuttlecraft was full. As it lifted off, Worf at the controls, Troi pointed out the viewscreens to the three Krantinese and explained that they would give them a clear and constant view of the ground over which they were passing, regardless of the dim light and the haze.
Within a minute, a frowning Zalkan spoke up. “This is not the way to the power plant.”
“We’re taking a slight detour,” Riker said, preparing to spin out the story he and Deanna and Data had improvised during the few private moments they had managed to have for themselves during the return to the shuttlecraft. He only hoped it would sound more convincing to Khozak and Zalkan than it had to him. “It will delay us only a few minutes at most. You see, the Enterprise computer detected a possible pattern in the timing of the energy surges in space. If the pattern is real and if a similar pattern applies to those on Krantin, the most likely time for another surge is in the next few minutes. And, as President Khozak pointed out yesterday, if such a surge occurs while we are nearby, we might be able to pinpoint the source more closely.”
Khozak smiled while Zalkan’s frown deepened. “You have been able to establish a pattern from only two surges?” Zalkan asked suspiciously. “Or have there been more that we were not told about?”
“There was another pair shortly after you left the Enterprise yesterday,” Riker said, “but none since.”
Zalkan looked like he wanted to ask more, but finally, with an angry shake of his head, he subsided into silence. His eyes, however, as well as those of the other two Krantinese, remained fixed on the viewscreen as the shrouded, barren landscape slid by. Patches of mosslike vegetation covered some of the hilltops, growing mostly on the rotting remains of long-dead trees and grasses. Occasional stands of live but stunted trees poked into the poisonous haze that was the air of Krantin.
At one point they passed low over a massive pit, an excavation several kilometers wide. To one side squatted the ruins of dozens of massive buildings. Within the pit were rusting hulks of almost equally massive strip-mining machines.