by Dayton Ward
“If our scanners can be configured to better work in here,” said B’tinzal, “then perhaps transporters can be modified to work as well.” Though the field transporter outside the fortress was effective for moving to and from the structure’s outer areas and some of its interior spaces, it was all but useless when trying to penetrate the citadel’s innermost sections. Defeating this restriction would prove most helpful in the team’s continuing research.
B’tinzal noted Tothar taking a step closer to the bulkhead. “Wait. Something is happening. The scans are shifting. I am detecting . . . weapons fire.”
“Where?” Even as she asked the question, B’tinzal realized the foolishness of her own question. Her gaze shifted to the wall separating her from the blocked compartment. “Who is firing?”
“It must be K’troq,” said Vurgh. “He and Komaraq were assigned to serve as security in this section.”
Before B’tinzal could respond, she became aware of the new, low rumbling that began emanating from behind the walls around them. It also resonated through the floor, the vibrations working their way up and over her body.
“It is the same sound we heard before,” said Komaraq. “We must move from here immediately.”
Vurgh added, “He’s right. We could also become trapped here.”
Still eyeing his scanner, Tothar said, “These readings are much more powerful and widespread than anything we have seen.”
“What do you mean?” asked B’tinzal.
“It is as though the entire structure is undergoing a reconfiguration this time.” Tothar looked up from the device, and B’tinzal saw the uncertainty in her colleague’s eyes, along with something else.
Fear?
Ahead of them, a hole appeared in the center of the bulkhead and the barrier began to dilate. The opening expanded until the entire wall retracted into the edges of the cylindrical passageway, revealing two Klingons standing inside the newly unsealed compartment. B’tinzal saw the soldier K’troq and another member of her science team, Z’teth. The warrior was wounded, his left arm hanging limp at his side as he backpedaled toward them. His right arm, wielding his disruptor pistol, was raised and he was aiming at something B’tinzal could not see.
Then B’tinzal’s gaze fell on the soldier’s target. Peering into the adjoining section, she saw four black metallic globes moving about inside the compartment. From the looks of their maneuvering, B’tinzal guessed the automated or remote-operated drones were attempting to envelop the two Klingons as a precursor to some kind of offensive action. Beyond them, another of the devices lay on the deck, its outer shell marred by the telltale sign of a disruptor beam from K’troq’s weapon. It appeared inert, but now its four companions were pressing their own attack.
“Everyone retreat!” B’tinzal snapped, her hand reaching for the smaller disruptor she carried in a pocket of her jacket. Tothar and Vurgh, though scientists and unarmed, nevertheless remained nearby, regarding B’tinzal with uncertainty.
“And leave you here?” asked Tothar. “No. We cannot run like frightened children.”
“We need to regroup,” replied B’tinzal. “Courage is useless if we’re caged down here like animals. Retreat to the control room. Now!”
The rumblings from the citadel’s depths were louder here, but now they were accompanied by the high-pitched whine of the sentry globes. There were more of the infernal devices moving about the compartment now. At least seven or eight additional drones had joined the original complement. There could be more, but it was difficult to be sure, given that some were moving almost too fast for B’tinzal to track. K’troq was doing his best to keep the drones at bay, but he was outnumbered.
We all are.
Checking the setting on her weapon, B’tinzal used her free hand to push Tothar farther up the corridor, away from the sentry globes. She gestured toward her aide and Vurgh. “I told you to get to the control room!” She stepped toward the open doorway, reaching for Z’teth’s arm. “You as well. Evacuate this area.”
The younger scientist’s eyes were wide. “They emerged from hidden compartments in the walls. K’troq disabled one, but they are so fast.”
“Move!” shouted B’tinzal.
A disruptor beam howled in the corridor, accompanied by a flash of brilliant light, and B’tinzal turned to see K’troq firing at another of the drones. The device was faster, arcing up and over the attack before diving straight at the Klingon. K’troq attempted to duck to his right but he was too slow, and the globe slammed into the soldier’s chest. His entire body jerked and twitched and B’tinzal heard the sound of what likely was an electrical discharge being unleashed against him. Releasing a cry of shock and pain, K’troq staggered backward but did not fall. The globe, having backed away from the warrior, was moving in again but B’tinzal took aim with her disruptor and fired. A harsh green energy beam spat forth and struck the drone and the device stopped its advance. It shuddered for a moment before dropping to the floor.
“Can you run?” asked B’tinzal, splitting her attention between the remaining three globes and the injured K’troq. For the first time, she realized she needed to raise her voice to be heard over the muffled reverberations emanating from within the fortress.
The Klingon, still staggering from the effects of the attack, had not dropped his disruptor and even now was raising it to search for a new target. The trio of drones had moved back in the wake of losing another of their number, and B’tinzal was certain she could sense them plotting and scheming, looking for another opening. She fired at the closest device, but it seemed to anticipate her move, pulling itself up and out of immediate danger.
“They are taunting us,” said K’troq, forcing the words between gritted teeth. He moved a few more steps backward, crossing the threshold of the bulkhead that had cycled open.
No, decided B’tinzal. This was something else. The drones, apparently operated by some central control mechanism that had eluded her and her team, showed signs of independent action and even decision making. This ability was likely governed by each unit’s independent onboard computer software. Though she was not a computer expert, B’tinzal still had enough familiarity with the science that she knew she would spend many fascinating hours studying the alien devices.
Perhaps later. There are more pressing matters now.
“I think they’re being cautious,” she said, guiding K’troq back into the corridor, away from the compartment and in the direction of the master control room. “Perhaps we have damaged or destroyed enough of them that they are being judicious with their remaining numbers.” There was also the possibility that a greater, even insurmountable number of the sentry globes were lying in wait, ready to strike.
Always an optimist.
Backtracking to the control room, B’tinzal noted that the vibrations coursing through the surrounding bulkheads were even louder here. All around her, lights blinked in rapid, chaotic fashion, as though experiencing an interruption from the citadel’s massive power plant.
“Something new is definitely happening,” B’tinzal surmised, though she had no idea what action the fortress might be taking. The structure’s current reactions were unlike anything she and her team had yet encountered. Had they done something to trigger this new development? Was it even safe to remain here?
Once again studying his personal scanner, Tothar replied, “It is the same power readings we detected before, Professor. Water, along with silt and other sludge from the lake bottom, is being drawn through those intake valves. We still do not know the purpose for this action.”
B’tinzal’s attempts to track the water being pumped into the citadel had been defeated by the structure’s continuing efforts to block scans of the interior. They had managed to acquire scans of massive storage tanks deep within the alien fortress, but tracking where the large volumes of drawn water went after that had proven fruitless.
“And the power readings?” she asked.
Tothar said, “They are much more intense than anything we have seen.” He shook his head. “I have no idea how to explain it, except that there are power sources within the structure coming online that have been dormant to this point.” Scowling, he deactivated the scanner, and for a moment B’tinzal thought her aide might hurl the device against a nearby bulkhead.
B’tinzal asked, “What about the main power generators?”
“Sealed off,” replied Tothar. “Our scans are even more muddled than before. I can see indications of inner mechanisms in operation, but as always, their purpose or goal remains unknown. The thing has been relatively quiet since our arrival, and you have been using scanners almost the entire time we have been here. Why does the machine grow upset at us now?”
B’tinzal nodded. “A very good question, and one for which we have no answer.”
The reports of weapons fire from behind them made B’tinzal turn to see Komaraq shooting at another of the sentry globes that had appeared near the entrance to the control room. His shot missed as the drone darted toward the floor before lifting again. The device then surged forward, striking Komaraq in his right arm and causing him to drop his disruptor. The weapon clattered to the floor and slid out of reach across its smooth surface.
“Move aside!” shouted B’tinzal, taking aim at the globe and firing. She also missed, and the drone flitted up and away. Looking past the injured but still conscious and upright Komaraq, she saw more of the sentries moving about in and around the control room, along with Tothar and others attempting to defend themselves. Her aide and Vurgh had found disruptors similar to her own in one of the equipment containers the team had brought with them from the Vron’joQ, and now they were attempting to assist the warriors. More sentry globes had entered the room, apparently coming from compartments or passages hidden within the bulkheads.
“We need to evacuate!” shouted Tothar, even as a dull, pulsating tone began to sound in the corridor. He waved toward B’tinzal. “Entire sections of the interior are being reconfigured. If we stay here, we will be trapped!”
B’tinzal gestured with her disruptor. “Outside! Everyone outside!” She had to yell to be heard over the mounting din in the passageway.
Ahead of her, K’troq was still firing at any drone that presented itself, but the devices were moving with such speed and dexterity that it was becoming increasingly difficult to target them. The warrior still managed to score a glancing blow against one of the drones, his shot just grazing its dark outer shell. The globe wavered in the air for a beat before dropping to avoid K’troq’s next shot, then launched itself at him. It struck K’troq below his knees, sweeping his legs out from under him. The warrior collapsed to the deck, grimacing in momentary pain even as he rolled onto his side and fired his disruptor at his assailant. This time he was successful, striking a direct hit on the drone and sending it crashing into a nearby bulkhead.
“Well done,” said Komaraq as he reached his companion and assisted him to his feet. The warrior turned his attention to B’tinzal. “Professor?”
Dividing her focus between the warriors and the other globes moving about the corridor, B’tinzal replied, “We cannot stay here. At least, not without reinforcements.” She noted that the sentries now seemed to be holding their ground, no longer advancing on them the farther they retreated from the citadel’s interior areas as well as the control room. While all of this was taking place, the structure was continuing to vibrate and rumble. It was similar to an earthquake, or perhaps the sensation of an ancient spacecraft preparing to propel itself toward the distant stars beyond the confines of this pitiful ball of mud.
“Evacuate!” B’tinzal shouted the command, catching the attention of everyone in the control room. “Head for the transporter!”
Having anticipated this order, Tothar was now standing before one of the science team’s portable computer workstations. While holding a compact disruptor pistol in one hand, he moved his other hand across his console’s array of controls.
“I am transmitting our data to the Vron’joQ,” he called out. “We cannot afford to lose all that we have learned.”
B’tinzal’s first instinct was to tell her aide to ignore all of that, but Tothar was correct. They would need the information they had collected. Perhaps buried among all of that data was the answer to what they were now experiencing.
Two of the sentry globes appeared to decide that they had loitered long enough in the control room. Drifting away from their companions, the drones moved toward Tothar, who was still hunched over his workstation.
“Watch out!” warned B’tinzal.
She was joined by K’troq as they fired their disruptors, each striking one of the globes and halting their advance. First one and then another of the devices shivered in midair before dropping like stones to the floor, bouncing and sliding along the floor’s smooth surface. The reaction of the other five globes in the room was immediate: they spread out and formed a circle. By then, Tothar had moved from his console and was following B’tinzal and K’troq from the control room and into the corridor.
Their escape route was blocked.
“The corridor has reconfigured itself,” said K’troq, growling with mounting frustration. Gone was the curved, circular passage that would lead them out to the peripheral quad. In its place was solid bulkhead, and B’tinzal could hear still more rumbling behind the walls and beyond the ceiling and floor plating. Whatever was happening, they were trapped in the middle of it.
“The docking areas,” she said. “We will get out that way. We will swim if we must.” She recalled the route to the closest of the docking bays that provided underwater access to the citadel. While she and her team had not used any of those entry points for some time, they would without doubt serve their current purposes. “Follow me,” she said, gesturing toward another length of corridor.
“B’tinzal!” The shout came from Tothar, who grabbed her arm just as she saw another segment of bulkhead begin to move before them. It swung outward, blocking their access to the passageway before locking into place. More groaning of metal accompanied the movement, followed by what sounded to B’tinzal like a series of heavy clicks as other components were shifted to new positions.
Seams appeared in the floor plating, and B’tinzal saw the gaps widening as sections of the floor began retracting toward the walls.
“Back!” she shouted. “To the control room!”
It was too late. Another section of bulkhead had emerged from the ceiling, blocking their route back the way they had come. Segments of the ceiling now were pulling apart, offering B’tinzal an unfettered view up a narrow column that stretched into darkness. The corridor was becoming a shaft or vertical conduit, and the smooth bulkheads offered no purchase or safe harbor.
Then the floor beneath her disappeared, and she along with K’troq and Tothar fell into unyielding blackness.
Fifteen
“Fascinating.”
Swiveling his command chair to face the science station, Kirk watched Spock continue to bend over his sensor readouts for another moment. When the Vulcan said nothing further, Kirk realized he was tapping his fingers on the chair’s arm, and he forced his hand to remain still. Just as he was about to say something, Spock turned from his console.
“The citadel’s power readings are increasing at a significant rate.” Moving to stand before the curved red railing separating him from Kirk, the first officer added, “As with our previous attempts to scan its interior, I am unable to ascertain just what sort of activity is taking place within the structure, but these new readings are consistent with a startup sequence for the transfer-field generator.”
Frowning, Kirk asked, “It’s activating? Without the Transfer Key?”
“The Key was designed to operate independently from the field generator, but the larger mechanism cannot by itself
generate the portal connecting the Jatohr universe with ours. Only with the Key can it complete the necessary computations to align the generator and select a transfer target and destination.”
Kirk recalled how Captain Una had manipulated the alien controls in the citadel, instructing the machine to select her before she disappeared with but the press of a single button, hurled across dimensions from their universe toward that of the Jatohr. Where was she? Assuming she had survived the transfer, what had become of her and the others who had endured the same fate? What of Sarek, and Joanna McCoy, and Councillor Gorkon? Would Una be able to find them and bring them to whatever rendezvous point the field generator selected if and when it could be reactivated with the Transfer Key?
The questions, as they had for days, hammered at Kirk, partnered with concerns that had nothing to do with the fates of Captain Una and the others. With the Klingons in orbit above Usilde and on the surface, accessing the alien machine was going to be problematic. Even if the giant mechanism could be controlled from the Enterprise with the help of the Transfer Key, Kirk knew that the Klingons would not stand idle and allow him and his crew to carry out such a brazen act right before their eyes.
That’s one way to put it.
The whistle of the ship’s intercom system echoed across the bridge, followed by the voice of Ensign Chekov.
“Science lab to Mister Spock.”
Activating the comm panel at his station, the first officer replied, “Spock here.”
“Sir, it’s the Transfer Key. I think you and the captain should see this.”
* * *
The science lab, one of twelve aboard the Enterprise, was packed with all manner of computer consoles, worktables, storage lockers, and other cabinets and equipment. Kirk recognized some of the items here, and of those devices, the number he knew how to operate was only a small subset. This despite having enviable grades in all of the science classes he took at the Academy, and a host of assignments as a junior officer that required him to possess a working knowledge of a vast array of equipment. As he solidified his career path on the command track, his studies had become more specialized, and there were times when he regretted not keeping up with the latest advancements of computer, engineering, and other science technology.