Strange New Worlds X

by Dean Wesley Smith

“David, when you were assimilated, were you aware of Farragut being in the Collective?”

  “He wasn’t in the Collective, he was simply communicating with it. I could hear his messages, but could not access him as I could the other members of the Collective. The echoes from Picard’s DNA were enough to convince the Borg that he was already part of their consciousness. He pulled it off. Don’t worry, Jillian, he’s at peace now.”

  She knew he was right. “This is incredible, David. How in the world did you ever know this would work?”

  “When it comes to pure joy and total peace, you can only be sure of one thing. Resistance is futile. Even for the Borg.”

  Sam Farragut walked through the forest. It was a crisp, clear fall day, and the leaves were at their peak. He figured he was somewhere in the western part of the United States, but it didn’t matter. The mountains looked like a rainbow caught in a light breeze, the reds and oranges and golds flowing like waves.

  He heard a sound in the distance and decided to follow it, crunching his way through the woods. Without fear.

  He was in the Nexus. Nothing could hurt him. Or would want to.

  He’d completed his final mission for Starfleet. The Borg Collective had been easy to reach once it had experienced the pure joy of the Nexus. The souls were being reborn to an existence without barriers of any kind.

  He continued walking, the chilly air seeming to flow through his veins, invigorating him even more. The intense smell of pine brought back the few memories he had of the holidays. He could enjoy Christmas every day in the Nexus if he wanted to.

  Farragut hopped over a ridge and saw a middle-aged man chopping wood in front of a cabin. The man looked up at him and smiled. “Beautiful day,” he said, stating the obvious.

  “Yes, it is,” said Sam Farragut. The man looked very familiar. “Do I know you?”

  “Jim Kirk,” said the man, dropping the axe and sticking out his hand.

  Farragut nodded and shook it. “Of course. Yes, I studied your missions at the Academy. Captain of the Enterprise.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And if I remember correctly, you left the Nexus. To help Captain Picard.”

  “Correct again. You get an ‘A’ in history.”

  “I’m Sam Farragut, by the way.”

  “I know.”

  Farragut walked around and studied Kirk. “So … if you left the Nexus, how can you be here? I mean, aren’t you …”

  “Consider me as an echo of the person who was once here,” said Kirk. “While I am here with you I am also … somewhere else.”

  “Is there a reason you’re here?”

  “Thought you’d never ask,” said Kirk. “You’re the kid with the blank memory.”

  “Yes.”

  “The Nexus lets you relive your favorite memories, but since you’re a little short in that department, I thought I’d share some of mine. You might say you and I have a lot in common.”

  Brigadoon

  Rigel Ailur

  Rigel Ailur began writing stories—including a “novel” seven pages long!—in first grade and hasn’t stopped since. A fan of Star Trek her whole life, she enjoys all five incarnations of the show and all the literature associated with it. Rigel is thrilled and honored to have her work included in Strange New Worlds. The proud and doting mother of four felines, Rigel loves cinema and theater and has worked backstage doing lights and sound, and as stage manager. She’s bilingual, having lived in Germany, and is an avid reader of all genres but especially of science fiction and fantasy. Rigel is currently working on original fiction.

  J onathan Archer’s chair dropped out from under him. After hanging in air for a split second, he crashed down into it, feeling like his stomach had stayed on the ceiling. Enterprise lurched sideways, but now that he was prepared he stayed in the captain’s seat.

  “What happened?” he shouted to be heard above the blaring alarms.

  He wasn’t likely to get a fast reply. Lieutenant Malcolm Reed no longer stood at tactical; Archer spotted his prone body behind the console.

  As Archer moved to the tactical station, he yelled, “Hoshi, help T’Pol!” His Vulcan first officer was pulling herself up off the deck. Green blood poured from a gash at her temple.

  Ensigns Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato had managed to stay at their positions, aided by the fact that they were seated at their consoles. Malcolm Reed, in contrast, lay crumbled against the wall.

  A glance told Archer that Reed was still breathing, and he didn’t see any blood, but that didn’t preclude internal injuries. Still, Archer’s first concern was to keep the ship safe for the sake of the entire crew.

  As he studied sensor readings, he muted the alarm on the bridge. His nerves felt an instant improvement when the blaring siren fell silent. The ship had quit pitching, and according to the readings, there was nothing out there except the frigid vacuum of space and an unremarkable star approximately eight light minutes away….

  … And an Earth-sized planet that had not been there five minutes ago.

  “Travis! All stop!” Archer nearly choked on his shock, but even as he spoke, the helmsman echoed his order back to him.

  “All stop, Captain. We’re at five-hundred thousand and holding,” Travis added.

  “It is a Minshara-class planet, Captain.” T’Pol’s voice sounded weak, but steady nonetheless. She continued reporting, “Abundant life-signs, including approximately two billion humanoids.”

  “Ship’s status?”

  “Damage and casualty reports coming in from all decks,” T’Pol studied the display. “No hull or other structural damage. Engines are intact. Dozens of injuries. Those who are able are reporting to sickbay. Medical teams are transporting those who are critical. I’ve told Doctor Phlox we need a stretcher up here immediately for Lieutenant Reed. He said to tell you Porthos is fine.”

  As she spoke, the lift door opened and two medics emerged, and an officer from security to take Reed’s post. The slim brunette woman replaced Archer at tactical as the medics tended to the fallen crewmate.

  “T’Pol, what the hell happened? Were we attacked?”

  “If so, it was a weapon I am unfamiliar with. Residual radiation is consistent with that of an ion storm, Captain. Levels are elevated, indicating that the intensity of the storm was unprecedented.”

  “Captain, ship incoming from the planet. No shields or weapons, sir,” the woman at tactical said.

  “We’re being hailed,” Ensign Sato added.

  The man who appeared looked basically like a human in his thirties. He had a pleasant, open face although his forehead was now creased by a frown of concern. Except for pale azure skin and navy hair, and the unintelligible language, he could have passed as someone from Earth.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t understand what you’re saying,” Archer replied, although he didn’t expect the other man to understand him any better. He said over his shoulder, “Hoshi, are you having any luck translating?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her give a little shake of her head. With a mental shrug, he continued anyway, “I’m Jonathan Archer, captain of Enterprise. We’re peaceful explorers from a planet called Earth.”

  The man smiled and said a few more words, and made a rolling gesture with one hand. To Archer, it looked like he wanted him to continue speaking. He only hoped he was interpreting correctly.

  Sato said softly behind him, “Captain, we need him to keep talking. The more I have to work with, the better.”

  “Yes, well, I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be saying to each other at this point. I’d love to ask him how his planet appeared literally out of nowhere, but that seems a bit beyond our abilities at the moment.” He redirected his remarks to the stranger. “Can you tell me who you are? What you’re doing here?” Archer paused, hoping the man would realize it was his turn. Just as Archer was about to mimic the hand motion, the man gave a quick look at something off to his side.

  Then he stunned Archer by saying, “Gre
etings, Jonathan Archer. I’m Gaemes. I apologize for the delay. Our translation device was unfamiliar with your language. Your ship appears to be in distress. Do you require assistance?”

  “No, thank you. We’re managing. However, if you can tell us what happened …” Archer hesitated. He felt silly asking them where an entire planet had come from.

  Understanding Archer’s confusion, no doubt thanks to Archer’s aside to communications officer Sato, Gaemes gave a rueful smile. “Basically it’s a fluke of nature. I’d be happy to explain in detail at your convenience. Would you like to come aboard? Or, if you prefer, you’re more than welcome to visit our world. We don’t get many visitors on this side of the Curtain.”

  “Curtain?” Archer asked.

  “It’s what we call the dimensional rift. Every sixth day, we’re on this side of it, for just one day. Then we spend five days on the other side. We’ve been going back and forth for all our recorded history.

  “But I can explain all that when you’re done tending to your repairs. I’ll await your signal.”

  The building appeared to be made entirely of glass, or another similarly transparent but much stronger material. Although he knew, thanks to T’Pol’s scan of the location, that where he stood was merely the top floor of a skyscraper that towered two hundred stories. Archer looked up and saw that the apex of the transparent pyramid soared high overhead. He, Ensign Sato, and Commander Charles Tucker found themselves standing in an indoor park.

  Gaemes had assured them they could beam down; their transporter system was well tested. As of the past two hundred years, it had been the primary method of mass transit.

  Archer had initially been reluctant to leave the shuttle pods on Enterprise, as he hated lacking his own means of egress. He’d been convinced when Gaemes guilelessly offered to share their cultural database. T’Pol had perused it and confirmed that it matched the scans she’d taken, which showed a peaceful planet.

  Gaemes, flanked by a man and a woman, came striding forward, a beaming grin on his face. “Captain Archer, it’s a pleasure. Welcome to Nalyn.” His two companions were equally blue, the woman with paler skin and much fairer blue hair. The other man had skin almost as dark as Gaemes’s navy hair. His own short tresses were such a dark blue as to be almost black.

  “Thank you,” Archer found himself smiling as well. “Please, it’s Jonathan.” The other man’s good humor seemed to be infectious. He introduced his communications officer and chief engineer who received equally warm greetings.

  “Please, feel free to explore all you like,” Gaemes said. “We’ll be happy to answer any questions to the best of our ability. This is Elfys and Ralf.” He indicated the man and woman, respectively. “We’re all with the Bureau of Offworld Affairs. But before we proceed, Captain, there is something you need to know.”

  Gaemes’ voice grew intense, although not in a threatening way. “This world is only here for a day, as I told you. Then—from the perspective of anyone not actually on Nalyn—we vanish again. We won’t reappear for five days, but that is five days from our perspective on the other side of the Curtain. From your perspective here on this side it will be over a century before we return. It’s very important to watch the time, Captain. Otherwise you’ll be returning home a hundred years in your future.”

  Not an engineer by profession, Elfys had always had an interest and was one by education. He and Trip strolled off in one direction, while Ralf suggested that Hoshi would enjoy seeing more of the sky gardens.

  “Jonathan, I was giving some thought to what damaged your ship,” Gaemes said as they wandered among the trees. “We’d always wondered what would happen when Nalyn appeared, if something were there at that precise moment. I think you’ve answered our question. The ion wave from the rift acted like a blast wave and cleared the area. You were tossed out of the space.”

  “That makes sense.” It wasn’t an event Archer cared to repeat. The crew had escaped with only bruises, but he didn’t care to tempt fate any further. Fixing his mind on more pleasant things, he looked around the arborium. “Nalyn is beautiful. I wish we had more time.”

  “You, or your people, are welcome to return.”

  “Thank you, Gaemes. We might take you up on that. Or at least, someone from my future should.”

  “This is a waste of time and resources,” James Kirk fumed, pacing in the small sickbay office. His chief medical officer, Leonard McCoy, regarded him with irritation.

  “Would you sit down,” McCoy snapped, “you’re making me spacesick. You know, rest does a person good on occasion. This crew deserves a break. So do you.”

  Kirk pulled a face, then acquiesced and sat down opposite McCoy at his desk. “But chasing after a vanishing planet, Bones? Even resting, this crew has better things to do.”

  “Oh, come on.” McCoy slid a glass of Romulan ale across the desk. “I know you’re a skeptic, but the report wasn’t from some fly-by-night freighter captain trying to explain a late delivery. It’s from Jonathan Archer’s logs. You know, captain of some starship called Enterprise. Went on to become President of the Federation. That guy.”

  Kirk’s surliness didn’t abate. “I know; and I’m sure it was accurate to the best of his ability. But I can’t help it; I just can’t shake the feeling that there was some misunderstanding. I don’t believe we’ll find a planet in the Nalyn System.”

  “Well, we’ll find out soon enough.” McCoy gulped down some of his own drink. “In the meantime, quit worrying.”

  The captain grunted and emptied his glass, then sat there contemplating it as he turned it round in both hands. “No, thanks,” he said quickly, stopping the doctor just as he was about to pour a refill.

  McCoy shrugged, added a little to his own glass then set the bottle down. “What’s the problem, Jim? We’ve seen an amoeba eleven thousand kilometers long and met Apollo himself. Why shouldn’t an entire planet vanish and reappear like Brigadoon?”

  “Brigadoon?” Kirk frowned.

  McCoy waved an impatient hand. “Never mind. Why shouldn’t a planet cycle between two dimensions?”

  “I don’t know.” Kirk shook his head and with the gesture seemed to shake off much of his foul mood. “Just sour grapes we’re not at Eeixi Prime, I suppose. Spock would die before admitting it to anyone, but he was bitterly disappointed. He wanted to lead the science team studying the supernova as it collapsed into a black hole.”

  “Yeah. I was irritated on his behalf as well.” McCoy finished his drink. “But don’t you dare tell him I said so.”

  Kirk chuckled as he stood. “Your secret is safe with me, Doctor. And you’re right, we should be approaching the system now. Care to join me on the bridge?”

  Spock vacated the captain’s chair in a fluid motion and returned to his post at the science station as Kirk strode onto the bridge. McCoy took up his customary, albeit unofficial, position at Kirk’s left shoulder.

  “We are in-system, Captain, and scanning the area where Nalyn is to appear. We are also safely out of range, to prevent a repeat of the damage Archer’s Enterprise experienced.”

  “If their calculations are correct,” McCoy muttered.

  The first officer raised his eyebrow. “Indeed, Doctor. There is no reason to consider the data is anything less than reliable. Captain Archer’s logs are a reputable source. And it is unlikely his science officer made a mathematical miscalculation.”

  McCoy snorted. “And why is that? After all, he was only human.”

  The eyebrow arched higher. “On the contrary, Doctor, she was Vulcan. I’m surprised you were not aware of that fact.”

  “Gentlemen, thank you for the history lesson.” Kirk feigned severity as he regarded his two senior officers. “Mister Spock, what’s the expected arrival time?”

  “Precisely one day from now, Captain. Sensors are on highest resolution and are recording scans of the system. Thus far, there is no indication of any dimensional rift. But per Captain Archer’s and Commander T’Pol’s logs, there
is no advance warning.”

  Nor was there any warning before the world appeared. The sensor probes they’d deployed registered nothing but stardust from the solar wind. Then came a rainbow burst of ionized energy, and a lovely blue-white-green planet swirled in the blackness of space.

  Just as Archer had said, Kirk admitted. He imagined the energy storm hadn’t had a good effect on that previous ship and gave silent thanks he’d been warned to stay out of the way.

  Uhura turned from the control panel to face the captain. “Sir, we’re receiving a hail from Nalyn. It’s a general hail from someone named Gaemes to any ships in the area.”

  “On screen, Lieutenant.” After she complied, he continued, “This is Captain Kirk of the Federation Starship Enterprise.”

  “A pleasure to meet you, Captain.” The young blue-hued man smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. A crease between his brows betrayed some concern. “We were very much hoping to encounter someone after meeting the Earth captain. Your ship is named after his?”

  “Yes, Gaemes, it is. Good to meet you as well. Is it true you spoke to Captain Archer just last week? By your timeframe, that is.”

  “That’s correct captain.” But then Gaemes’s smile faded and he didn’t wait for a reply. “Captain, we’re very glad you’re here. We’re in dire need of assistance. There has been a change in the dimensional transition. We’re still investigating the cause. It might be cyclical, or a natural shift that won’t reverse itself. We don’t know.

  “But it’s affecting our technology like it never has before. Last time, it shut down half the planet for a whole day. This time was even worse—despite our taking precautions. Captain, if we can’t find a way to block the effects, we’ll be destroyed. Millions, if not tens of millions, will die. Our transportation, power, and communication grids will be shut down, we won’t be able to distribute food, hospitals will be ineffective. Our whole infrastructure will crash.

  “Our technology isn’t designed to be shut off for one out of every six days. It can’t work that way. We’re implementing what changes we can, as fast as we can, but the death count by the time we can adapt … it will be staggering. And our culture will be thrown back to a pre-technological era.”