Never dismiss an injury, Sarjenka admonished herself. You never know how bad it will really be. Sonya, Fabian, and Vance had nearly died from projectile weapons fire on Teneb last year. “If their injuries do prove to be life-threatening, we will need to move them to the ship as quickly as possible.” With a nod toward Domenica, she added, “Should I assume your friend Vale would have informed us if there were such a possibility?”
“She wouldn’t have been assigned to Enterprise if she were stupid enough not to, so it’s a good bet. Permission to add Konya to the away team, sir?”
“Granted.”
Sarjenka realized that she wasn’t going to be able to do all of this alone, and she was becoming less and less married to the notion of treating the wounded on the surface. She’d been studying more of the quick-fix real-world field triage situations like the one she’d done back on Stratos, but she still felt a little more secure in having another set of hands and another medical mind that she could trust around. “I’ll bring Dantas down with us. She can help with the triage and any surgical procedures that might be necessary before we can transport any of the injured or sick to the ship.”
Sonya held up a hand. “But what about the system failures the dig team reported? We can’t have them affecting the medical equipment, too. Data’s report wasn’t that clear, but it sounded like an electrical or maybe even geomagnetic disturbance. I wonder…” The commander’s fingers ran over the computer’s touchscreen. “A phase discriminator might help slow down whatever this is, but I can’t guarantee anything without knowing more about what’s going on down there. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before, but Data’s readings were taken within range of whatever is influencing the technology. He may not be immune to it himself. The information he sent may not even be reliable.”
Captain Gold pursed his lips, then nodded. “Get the phase discriminator ready. Much rather you have it and not need it than the other way around. Sarjenka, is there any way you can think of that this might be organic in origin?”
Sarjenka shook her head. “No, sir. I know of no organism that would affect technology like that. Unless, perhaps, Commander Gomez is correct and it’s geomagnetic in origin?”
Gold raised an eyebrow at Sonya, who said, “Just checked that. The planet’s geologically stable. Magnetosphere looks good. Radiation levels on the surface are within tolerable levels. Every reading I’m getting is in the range where our technology should still function normally.”
“So it’s likely to be artificial,” the captain said. “Maybe this Krialta that Abramowitz’s friend was looking for?”
“From what we have right now,” Sonya said, “I’d have to say the probability of that is high. That assessment may change when we get to the surface.”
Captain Gold’s back straightened. “It’s enough to work with. Be ready to go as soon as we enter orbit.”
Sarjenka nodded, hearing the dismissal in the captain’s tone. Turning on her heel, she headed back toward the turbolift. Her mind was whirling over the possibilities. Yet, Vale’s report of Picard’s memory of his old girlfriend was inexplicably stuck in her mind.
It could just be nostalgia. How many times have you thought of Ekaran in the last five years? But if there’s something operating on the technology in the area, then why couldn’t it be operating on the people?
As the turbolift returned her to sickbay, she made a mental note to download everything the computer’s database had on the human memory system into a padd before they left. She doubted there was any way to shield it from whatever was affecting the dig’s systems, but on a ship full of engineers, there had to be a way to at least try.
CHAPTER 3
When Carol walked into the transporter room to beam down to the surface, she was greeted by the look of annoyance on Sonya Gomez’s features.
“What’s wrong?” Abramowitz asked, a knot of dread slowly starting to form in her stomach. When Gomez was frustrated, it was usually not a good thing.
Gomez gave the transporter console a look verging on actual anger. “We can’t get a fix on the dig team’s location.”
Looking just as frustrated, Chief Poynter added, “It’s like there’s something down there deliberately blocking transporters.”
Walking over to the nearest computer terminal, Gomez said, “Computer, scan the planet’s surface for any of the known substances that could be interfering with transport.”
After a brief pause, the computer replied, “No indications of any substances known to interfere with transporter function.”
“Okay.” Gomez took a deep breath. “How about any energy fields known to disrupt transporter function?”
“There is a field resembling thoron radiation approximately three square kilometers in size in the northeast quadrant of the southern continent.”
“Precisely where the dig team is. Now where did that come from?” Gomez said in a voice filled with irritation. “Computer, can you estimate how long the field has been there?”
“Insufficient data to make an estimate.”
“You said ‘resembling.’ Computer, please clarify.”
“The field emission strength and particle density resemble a thoron radiation field.” Carol could feel the “but” coming. “However, sensors do not indicate presence of thoron radiation.”
“That’s going to be a problem. Theorize. Probability of danger to human life?”
“There is a fifty percent chance of danger with extended exposure. Due to the difference in the radiation field composition, sensors are unable to allow more specific estimate.”
“So it’s a coin toss?” Carol asked.
“Sounds like it.” Gomez pursed her lips, staring intently at the computer screen. Carol could understand the frustration. Sonya’s history with Captain Picard was well known on the da Vinci. After the hot chocolate incident of her youth, she was fairly certain that Sonya would welcome the notion of leading the team that rode to the rescue of Captain Picard and the others.
Well, in her shoes, Carol would have probably welcomed the notion, but she’d long since learned that what she’d do and what the others on the da Vinci would do weren’t always the same thing.
Corsi—phaser rifle in hand—took a step forward. “So, we take a shuttle or two, park along the perimeter of this field, and then get everyone in it out of there.”
“I’m trying to see if we can even do that,” Gomez said. “This wasn’t in any of Data’s notes, so either he didn’t know about it, or it’s new, or—and this is the really bad part—it’s affecting him as well. If that’s the case, we can’t trust anything he sent us. My guess is the field’s probably contributing to whatever is causing the dig team’s systems to fail. It’s thoron radiation, but it’s not. That can mess up sensors—” She eyed Corsi’s rifle. “—even our weapons. If we take a shuttle, there’s no guarantee we’ll be immune to the technical problems. If there are serious injuries down there, we may need to be able to get out quickly.”
Corsi deadpanned, “Okay, who here really thought we would be immune to the technical problems walking into this?” When nobody raised a hand, she continued, “What about beaming down to the edge of the field? Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had to hike to get to a mission site.”
Poynter spoke suddenly, while looking at the computer screen, her eyes as wide as saucers. “It just grew.”
Gomez and Corsi both said, “What?”
Poynter indicated a spot on the computer monitor. When Carol came around to look, she saw an oddly shaped blotch on the scan of the planet’s surface, almost as though someone had thrown translucent red paint at the monitor. “That’s the field?”
“Yes,” Poynter said. “That’s what it looked like a few seconds ago.”
“Computer,” Gomez said, “overlay the new scan of the energy field. Use a different color for representation.”
A larger orange blob sat ominously over the red blotch. “It’s not even close to the same shape,” Carol s
aid. “The field isn’t expanding equally.”
“No, it isn’t.” Gomez didn’t look pleased. “Unless we see more growth in the field, there’s no way to predict any kind of pattern from that.”
Sarjenka spoke up at that point. Carol couldn’t even remember when the kid had come in. “We need to get everyone out and shut this down before it reaches the major cities. Sounds like there’s a chance of this encompassing the planet.”
Carol had to admit, that was a very distinct possibility. Leave it to the kid who’s seen her entire planet taken over to think of that one.
“Okay, that’s settled, then,” Gomez said. “We get the dig team out, then we figure out how to shut whatever’s generating this field down. We’ll take both shuttles, and bring both phase discriminators and pattern enhancers for evacuation. That way we can monitor the field for expansion as we approach. Pack the Kwolek with emergency rations and supplies while we’re at it, just in case. Land one kilometer outside the nearest field boundary to the dig team. If we can manage to get far enough outside the field to account for another round of expansion, we should be able to get the people within the field’s perimeter evacuated. Then we can try to save the planet from this thing.”
Corsi hit her combadge. “Corsi to Captain Gold.”
“Gold here.”
“Captain, we may need to evacuate some people from within a field area of the northeast part of the southern continent.”
“Gomez here, sir. Something strange is going on. We’ve got something the computer is identifying as resembling thoron radiation, and it’s spreading in an unpredictable pattern. Our plan is to get as many people as possible out of the area, and then try to shut whatever this thing is down. Evacuation may be necessary as a last resort, sir.”
“We’ll get the spare cots out. You take care of what needs to be done, Gomez. Gold out.”
Carol noticed that everyone in the room seemed to take a deep breath at that.
“Okay,” Gomez finally said, breaking the silence. “Make sure as many pattern enhancers as will fit are on the Kwolek. Grab all of the phase discriminators we have. I want as much technical backup as we can get. Let’s move.”
In the eight plus years since Sarjenka had first encountered the Federation, she couldn’t recall a shuttle ride that had been quite as uncomfortable. She and Dantas were packed into the back of the Kwolek, which was also loaded—not to its weight limit, but as close as they could get it—with equipment, rations, medical supplies or diagnostics in the event of a tricorder failure, everything the two of them could think of to bring. As Dantas sat on the bench opposite her, Sarjenka couldn’t help but wonder if she’d made the right choice. This wasn’t just any member of Starfleet she was being sent to assist. It was the captain of one of the Federation’s most famous flagships. Everything she did would be examined under a magnifying glass by the brass back on Earth, and Traiaka help her if she made even the slightest error. But had she really had any choice in the matter?
Sure, she might have been able to argue that when it came down to it, in an ideal world, one injured person should never be given preferential treatment over another purely because of status. She’d learned all too well over her life that status was usually just something people wore like clothing, and those people were often the ones who hadn’t really done anything to earn such prestige.
Not Jean-Luc Picard, though. He’d been the one to save her people. One of the first things she’d done upon reaching Starfleet Academy was try to access the official record of what happened to her planet all those years before. It had been Picard’s report, one that had cited a distress call that his Enterprise had answered, one that had told her all she needed to know about the real saviors of her world. Her people had known nothing about a distress call, but once Sarjenka had informed Guardian Liankataka of what had truly happened to their world, and how Picard had stepped in to assist them, he had been elevated to a status that only Admiral Jameson Tucker had held before. Both men had answered Dreman requests for help, but only one had received no accolade on her world. As much as she’d always respected Tucker, the more she read about Picard, the more she held him in equally high regard.
And now she would be the one to face him, possibly the first Dreman to do so in twelve years. She reached into her pocket for her music stone, taking slow, deep breaths and allowing its familiar lilting melody to calm her jittery nerves.
Dantas leaned forward, hearing the stone’s melody and, judging by the expression on her features, liking it. “What’s that?” she asked.
Sarjenka looked down at the stone, almost embarrassed at being caught with it. “Something I’ve had since I was a child. I don’t know what it is, really. I just woke up with it one morning. Nobody could tell me what it was; they’d never seen anything like it. I call it my music stone.”
“May I?” the medtech asked, holding out her hand. Sarjenka dropped the stone into Dantas’s palm, where it began singing a darker, more haunting melody. She held it up close, seeming to ignore its song. “Wow. I haven’t seen one of these in years.”
Sarjenka’s ears perked. “You know what it is?”
“Yep,” Dantas said with a nod. “What you’ve got there is an Elanian singer stone. My grandmother used to keep one in the curio cabinet. She’d only ever let me hold it on my birthday. The sound that one used to make was just like the one this is making now.”
“Elanian singer stone?” Sarjenka asked. Something tickled the back of her mind. “Why is that familiar?”
Dantas shrugged just as the shuttle bucked from a bit of turbulence. “Don’t know. Maybe you read about one in the Academy, and just didn’t make the connection? Didn’t you say that your planet was invaded once? Maybe they brought it with them.”
Sarjenka shook her head. “No. I had this long before the Exiles came to my world. Maybe now that I know what it’s called, I can figure out how I got it.”
A smirk crossed her assistant’s face. “For all you know, it fell out of the sky.”
Taking a deep breath, Sarjenka tried to take the teasing appropriately. The dressing-down she’d received the first time she responded poorly to a sarcastic remark still stung. Not that the person who’d made the remark had fared any better—but that was the Academy, this was different.
“For all I know,” she said, staring at Dantas, “it came from the Enterprise herself. Now that we’ve finished dissecting my childhood keepsake, can we please get back to determining our plan of attack for this mission?”
Dantas nodded, a strand of dark hair falling in her face. “You’re really starting to pick up. Good job.”
“Thank you, I think.” Sarjenka turned her attention to the shielded—she hoped—padd with data on the effects of geomagnetic fields on the human brain, and once again considered that distance-learning course in psychiatry.
When they finally worked their way from the landing site through the lush, tropical vegetation to the dig site, Carol was pleased that Gabriel managed to come out and greet them. She could recall moments when it had been difficult to get him away from his work, even for something as critical as a meal when he hadn’t eaten for almost a day.
That happiness turned to concern, though, when she got a good look at the worried—no, she reclassified that to shell-shocked—expression on his features. Eyes that had once been a bright, emerald green were shadowed to the point where if she hadn’t known him for so many years, she might not have been able to see it. Tiny crow’s feet were beginning to form at the corners of those eyes, and they’d brought deep, dark circles along with them just to make themselves feel at home. His dark hair was an absolute mess, although that wasn’t unusual. He’d always been prone to running his hands through his hair while he thought. From the looks of it, he’d been doing a whole lot of thinking recently.
Almost on cue, the fingers of his right hand went to his head. When he lowered his arm, only the placement of the rumples had changed. Old habits die hard.
“Gabe?
” she asked. “When was the last time you slept?”
“Huh?” he said, shaking himself out of whatever thought had occupied his brain.
Carol tried her best not to laugh. “So, how was it on Crelmac?”
“Nice,” he said with a half-hearted smile. “Weather’s great. The high priest sends his regards.”
It was an old joke, one they’d used so many times on each other in college that it had become habit. This time, however, it caused the knot of concern in her stomach to grow into something far more sinister. He’d always told her that she knew him better than anyone, and seeing him distractedly reacting to things was more suggestive than anything else to her of how much this was stressing him—and how much he was trying to hide it.
Gabriel’s entire demeanor changed for a moment, softening into the old Gabe she’d known all those years ago. “Carol,” he said, as though he’d finally realized she was there. “How have you been?”
That was the point where Corsi decided to clear her throat. Like I needed a reminder that they’re there. She’d have rolled her eyes, if she weren’t sure old Core-Breach would have found out about it somehow and inflicted damage upon her at a time of Corsi’s choosing. Fabian may have mellowed her a bit, but Vance had told Carol far more stories of Corsi’s temper than half the crew probably knew. Shaking her own head, she dragged herself back to the conversation. “There’ll be plenty of time to catch up later. We got a report that you guys were in some strange trouble down here? Is Captain Picard around? We’d like to talk to him as soon as possible. We think an evac may be in order.”
Gabriel’s expression fell. “His tent is the black one over next to mine, but I don’t think you’ll get much from him.”
“Really?” Sarjenka asked, stepping into the conversation. “What’s wrong?”
Carol realized that her manners had apparently flown out the airlock when she’d seen Gabriel again. “I’m sorry, Gabe. This is Dr. Sarjenka, our chief medical officer. That’s Dantas Falcão, her assistant. The blonde back there is our security chief Commander Domenica Corsi. Makk Vinx and Rennan Konya, also security. Bart Faulwell here is our crack linguist and cryptographer. He and I are here to help with this artifact Inana said you’re looking for. And last, but certainly not least, Commander Sonya Gomez, the head of our S.C.E. contingent, resident genius, and first officer of the da Vinci. She’s here to help figure out what’s going wrong with the equipment.”
Star Trek™ Corps of Engineers: Remembrance of Things Past Book One Page 3