Original Sin

by David R. George III

  “It’s all right,” Tey said with a smile, attempting to put Derish at ease. “I’m only asking about what you can remember. This isn’t a test.”

  One side of Derish’s lips curled upward, but the expression did nothing to convince Tey that she had in the slightest reduced his anxiety about being questioned. “Well, like I said, we really don’t speak much. And when we do, it’s mostly about what’s going on in the transporter terminal.”

  “I understand,” Tey said. “How would you describe—” Her wrist comm emitted an urgent chirp. She glanced down and saw Major Orisin attempting to contact her. Looking up at Derish, Tey said, “I’m afraid I need to respond to this.”

  “Of course,” Derish said, but he made no move to leave the room.

  “Would you mind giving me some privacy?” Tey asked, again smiling so as to avoid intimidating the young man.

  “Oh, right, sorry,” Derish said. He quickly stood up and scampered out of the operators’ lounge. Tey followed him to the door, ensuring that it closed securely behind him. Then she tapped at her wrist comm.

  “This is Tey,” she said. “What is it, Major?”

  “I wanted you to know that we distributed Radovan’s name and likeness to the checkpoints in Johcat,” Orisin said. “We got an immediate hit. He left the city in a public travel pod not long after sunset, under his own name.”

  “He gave his own name? Then he doesn’t think we’ve identified him yet,” Tey said. “Was the girl with him?” She did not say Rebecca in case somebody overheard the conversation.

  “She wasn’t visible in the pod, and sensors didn’t detect her presence,” Orisin said. “But the sergeant who dealt with Radovan said he had camping gear in the pod, including a large antigrav trunk. Considering that he replicated sensor-resistant materials, it’s conceivable that he masked her life signs and smuggled her out.” The major didn’t need to mention that, carried from the city in such a manner, Rebecca could have been alive or dead.

  “Have you tracked the travel pod’s transponder?” Tey asked.

  “Yes, but Radovan disabled it not far from where he left the city. We’re utilizing satellite-based sensors now to scan for the pod.”

  “Do we have any idea where he might be headed?” Tey asked.

  “The sergeant at the checkpoint said that he spoke about visiting his uncle’s cabin, but a survey of public records shows that Radovan has no uncle—no living family of any kind, actually.”

  “Is he anywhere near the Deserak Wilderness?” Tey asked on a hunch.

  “He did leave the city on a route that took him past there, yes,” Orisin said. “We’ve got eyes on the location of the kidnapping. We’re trying to watch the entire region, but Deserak is a massive preserve.” The major paused, then added, “We did think it was possible that he might be bringing her back to where he abducted her—maybe so that he could return her, if he’s thought better of what he’s done.”

  “He’s not bringing her back,” Tey said decisively. “With the dead body we found at his flat, he’s in too deep, but . . .” She thought through her profile of Radovan, then added in what she’d just been told. “He used his own name at the checkpoint, then headed toward the Deserak Wilderness before disabling the travel pod’s transponder. It’s a ruse. He didn’t hide his identity because he didn’t think we were onto him; he wants us to believe that he’s going to Deserak. He’s not.”

  “Does that mean you think we should call off the search there?” Orisin asked. It sounded as though he found the idea troubling.

  “No, by all means, maintain surveillance there,” Tey told the major. “But I would also spread your efforts out all around the city.”

  “I agree,” Orisin said. “Have you learned anything in Elanda?”

  “No, not yet, and I don’t expect to,” Tey said. “It turns out that Radovan was something of a loner.” Orisin made a yapping sound that might have been labeled a laugh in less serious circumstances. “I’ve got one last interview to finish up here, then I’m headed home to get some sleep.”

  “So am I,” said the major. “I’ll leave orders with Captain Fisel to contact both of us if there are any developments overnight. Orisin out.”

  Tey deactivated her comm, then sat silently for a moment, trying to put herself inside the mind of Radovan Tavus. Where would he go? Why would he take Rebecca Sisko there?

  And once he gets there, what does he intend to do with her?

  With no answers apparent to her, Tey went back over to the door, opened it, and looked out into the terminal. She thought she might have to search for Derish in one of the eight chambers housing transporter platforms in the large facility, but the operator hadn’t left the concourse. He stood just ten meters away, with his back against a support column. He straightened when he saw Tey, and she motioned him back into the lounge.

  Inside, Derish sat back down at the table. Tey once more took a seat across from him. She asked if the young man had ever heard Radovan talk about an uncle—or about any of his family, for that matter.

  “Um, no, ma’am,” Derish said.

  “What about hobbies?” Tey asked. “Does he ever talk about what sorts of activities he enjoys?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Really?” Tey persisted. “He never talks about hiking? Skiing? Camping?”

  “No, not any of those. Like I said, he mostly keeps to himself and doesn’t say much.”

  Tey spoke with Derish for another ten minutes, but the character of their conversation didn’t change. He provided no information of value about Radovan—other than to further confirm the profile she had developed of the kidnapper. Finally, she thanked the young man for his time.

  Back out in the terminal, Derish resumed his post, and Tey had him beam her to the Ashalla District Five Transporter Terminal. She walked home from there, quickly ran through her nightly ablutions, and climbed into bed. As she lay in the darkness, staring up at the shadows on her ceiling, it occurred to her that, as they’d burst into his home that night, Radovan had already slipped away.

  Tey concentrated on that frustrating thought for a few seconds, allowing it to motivate her. Then she set it aside and closed her eyes. She fell asleep almost immediately—a habit born out of a career spent in security, where, on occasion, sleep came at irregular and unpredictable intervals.

  Vivid dreams visited Tey through the night and into the early morning, but when she woke, they slipped away like a spring mist beneath the rising sun.

  Gamma Quadrant, 2386

  As Kasidy marched into Robinson’s shuttlebay with the rest of the away team, she experienced a mixture of anxiety and eagerness, of fear and anticipation, but she also had confidence that she could handle all of it. For the first time since Robinson had been attacked four days earlier, she actually felt rested. While the crew had waited for word from the Glant about the meeting Ben had proposed, he’d insisted that she get some sleep—that they both get some sleep. Doctor Kosciuszko prescribed a soporific for them, which helped them get through the night.

  Although Kasidy had definitely needed the rest, she believed it even more important that her husband had actually gotten a good night’s sleep—or at least six hours’ worth. Ben suffered through the same anxieties and fears about their daughter that Kasidy did, but the responsibility of the more than thirteen hundred lives aboard Robinson also fell on his shoulders. On top of all that, one of the crew, Lieutenant Stannis, had been shot in the chest during the attempt to rescue the children. The Orion arrived back on the ship in critical condition, but Doctor Mensara, who’d done her residency on his homeworld, successfully operated on him. Although expected to fully recover, he remained in serious condition, and Kasidy knew that the lieutenant’s health would weigh on Ben until the medical staff released Stannis.

  Inside the shuttlebay, it surprised Kasidy to see a veritable squadron of vessels spread out in a rectangular formation on the landing deck. Three rows of four shuttlecraft, their bows all pointed to
ward space, stretched from near the outer hatch to the interior bulkhead. Ben led the way past all of those ships toward the front of the bay, where a runabout sat open and waiting.

  Kasidy boarded Styx amid the group of people Ben had chosen for the mission. They included Doctor Kosciuszko, Counselor Althouse, Ensign Weil, and Crewwoman Spingeld, as well as five of the six security guards who’d already visited the Glant world. Crewwoman Stephanie DeSantis replaced Ensign Bevelaqua, who’d suffered a minor injury when she’d been grazed by weapons fire. The ensign would be fine, but Ben wanted a fresh officer for the mission.

  As Kasidy understood it, the plan called for Ensign Weil, the pilot, and Crewwoman Spingeld, the transporter operator, to remain aboard the runabout, along with all but one of the security officers. Kasidy had expected Ben to bring along additional diplomatic and first-contact personnel, but he’d explained that the Glant would allow only five individuals from Robinson to meet with five of their representatives. As the captain making command decisions, Ben obviously needed to be there. He also wanted the ship’s counselor to attend the meeting in order to help make sense of the Glant—something even the universal translator had difficulty achieving. Further, he wanted to bring medical and security personnel in the event that the away team ended up conducting another operation to recover the children. That left only one opening for somebody with Kasidy’s expertise.

  As Ben and Ensign Weil took their positions at the main console in the runabout’s cockpit, the rest of the away team moved past the high-capacity transporters to the rear compartment. As Kasidy sat down with the others, she wondered why Ben had selected her for the meeting with the Glant. She certainly had the training for such an encounter, along with a modicum of experience, but others among the ship’s civilian staff had both more training and more experience than Kasidy.

  Ben wants me there because of Rebecca, she thought. The conclusion seemed obvious, but it also didn’t quite stand to reason. She knew that Ben trusted in her skills, but did he think that her desperation to get their daughter back would somehow motivate her to do a better job? That didn’t track; her personal involvement might just as easily—and perhaps more likely—inhibit her performance and cause her to make mistakes.

  Kasidy heard the runabout’s hatch close with a reassuringly thick sound. The vessel’s engines swelled to life, and then she felt the faintest sensation of movement, which surely meant that Styx had launched. Kasidy glanced around the compartment, looking for a port so she could confirm that the runabout had departed Robinson, but the vessel had clearly been reconfigured since the last time she’d been aboard. Lieutenant Rogers must have noticed her searching for a nonexistent port, because he rose from his chair and activated a viewscreen on the forward bulkhead. It blinked to life focused on the clearly artificial concave square of the Glant world. Numerous ships buzzed about in the space above it, while distant movement suggested that still other vessels served as sentries closer to the surface.

  When he returned to his seat, Lieutenant Rogers leaned over to the chair next to his, to where he had placed a carrying case he’d brought aboard with him. He unfastened the lid and flipped it open. From inside the case, he removed a pair of small devices.

  “These are special comm units designed to withstand the sound weapons of the Glant,” Rogers said. “Wear one in each ear the entire time we’re on their world. They also function as universal translators.”

  He placed the comm units back in the case, then drew out a black metal circle. It looked to Kasidy like a bracelet. The lieutenant held it up in front of him.

  “This is a transport enhancer,” Rogers said. “Commander Relkdahz developed it. Wear one around your dominant wrist at all times.” He put both his hands on it and pulled, revealing and spreading a break in the circle. Rogers slid the device onto his right wrist and allowed it to snap closed again. Then he passed the carrying case around so that everybody could take their equipment.

  “What does this do?” Kasidy asked as she slipped her transport enhancer on.

  “In a way, it’s like a combadge,” Rogers said. Though Kasidy did not wear a Starfleet uniform—she’d chosen a sleek red-and-black jumpsuit, much like those she’d donned aboard Xhosa—she nevertheless sported a combadge on the left side of her chest. “It continuously transmits real-time transporter data, but in a much more granular way.”

  “But to what end?” Doctor Kosciuszko asked.

  Rogers explained a bit of theory about the transport enhancers, and then revealed their practical application. He answered a couple more questions. When everybody had taken one of the devices and a pair of the specialized comm units, the carrying case made its way back to Rogers. The lieutenant secured a second enhancer around his other wrist without explanation. He then selected two more of the devices, as well as two pair of the comm units, and took them up to the cockpit, presumably for Ben and Ensign Weil. He came back shortly, empty-handed.

  As Styx drew closer to its destination, the viewscreen showed a quartet of alien ships break off from the others and navigate toward the runabout. For a few intense seconds, Kasidy thought that the Glant might be attacking, but she noted that Ben and Ensign Weil took no evasive action. Two of the alien ships—one that looked like a white pretzel, and another that resembled a dappled feather duster—took up positions just forward of Styx, to port and starboard. Kasidy assumed that the other pair followed the runabout aft.

  After a while, the comm system chimed, and Ben’s voice emerged. “We’re about to enter the zone of null space above the Glant world, so we’re shutting down the impulse drive.” Even knowing that, Kasidy found the fading sound of the engines ominous.

  The runabout coasted for a short distance before it shuddered, as though it had struck something. Kasidy glanced up toward the comm system, expecting Ben to make another announcement. He didn’t, but Lieutenant Rogers said, “It’s the threshold between the regular continuum and null space.” Kasidy nodded her understanding and thanked the security officer with a smile.

  When the surface of the Glant world had grown to fill the display, it looked to Kasidy like a view of any normal, naturally formed planet. She saw the browns of soil, the greens of vegetation, the dark blues of water, the whites of clouds. And somewhere down there, she could not help thinking, Rebecca is being held captive.

  The runabout jolted a second time as it obviously left null space, but then it catapulted forward—not forward, but down. Styx fell, unpowered, toward the surface, the gravity of the Glant world taking hold. Kasidy involuntarily grabbed at the sides of her chair. Her stomach quavered, but then she heard the runabout’s drive resume.

  Kasidy peered again at the screen, but she didn’t see it. Why am I here? she asked herself. She wanted to be there, it pleased her that Ben had assigned her to the away team, but she still didn’t understand her husband’s reasoning.

  And then, all at once, she did.

  Kasidy gazed at the screen. She saw that, down on the surface, a complex of buildings had come into view. As she eyed the away team’s apparent destination, she understood that Ben intended for the two of them to bring Rebecca home together—or for both of them to die in the attempt.

  Kasidy closed her eyes, nodded ever so slightly to herself, and thought, I’m on board with that plan.

  • • •

  Sisko studied the large room to which he, Doctors Kosciuszko and Althouse, Lieutenant Rogers, and Kasidy had been escorted. Roughly rectangular, it featured two sets of wide doors, one pair on each end, and no windows. The walls, which wavered from side to side and from top to bottom, appeared to be composed of buffed shards of glass, piled atop one another with their flat sides oriented horizontally. The room had a light-green cast, and though the floors and ceiling had been constructed of a material different from that of the walls, they had been colored to match. Other than lighting panels overhead and a glass table in a far corner, it featured no other built-in details and no other furnishings. The room contained no chairs—
no places to sit other than on the floor.

  The captain had piloted Styx to the surface coordinates provided by the Glant, with the runabout accompanied for most of its journey by a quartet of their ships. The landing zone—a paved area beside a sprawling complex of buildings—lay thousands of kilometers from the location where the remaining Robinson children were being held. Spingeld confirmed via sensors that they hadn’t been moved. An attempt to transport them to the runabout failed, just as it had during the first away mission, owing to the local interference of Glant technology.

  When Sisko and the other four members of his team had disembarked Styx, they’d been met by a score of Glant. As had been the case with every one of their individuals the captain had so far seen, none of them looked like any other. They differed in form and hue, in the type and number of body parts and appendages, and in the amount of flesh, metal, and other materials that covered their bodies.

  No member of the Glant had stepped forward to greet the Robinson delegation. The individual nearest Sisko—a gaunt, four-legged being with an oversize head, three massive eyes, and a body covered in pink down—said simply, “You are to come with us.” Without waiting for a response, half of the group marched away. Sisko and the others followed, with the other half of the Glant contingent behind them.

  The Robinson delegation had been led into a building, down a corridor Sisko found conspicuously empty, and into the large room. None of their escorts said anything more. They simply left and the doors slid closed behind them.

  “Not terribly talkative, are they?” Althouse noted.

  “When we did speak, the conversation wasn’t easy,” Sisko said. “That’s one of the reasons you’re here.” Then, speaking to everybody, the captain said, “That’s why we’re all here. We have to try to understand the Glant. We need to—”

  The doors at the far end of the room glided open to reveal five more of the aliens. As they entered, Sisko recognized one of the individuals—or at least its species. Its stocky, boxy body sprouted six tentacles in no discernible pattern, with a trio of balloon-shaped heads perched on malleable metal necks. Such an entity, which called itself Voranesk, had contacted Robinson in an attempt to warn the crew away. Either it was the same individual, or it marked the first time the captain had spotted a duplication—presumably meaning a second member of that particular species. To that point, every member of the Glant he’d seen had been different from every other—including the four others that entered the room. One comprised a series of spherical body parts that connected tangentially to each other and, but for the topmost such structure, continually changed places as the being, or robot, moved. Another walked on four stubby legs, low to the ground, but had a quartet of massive, elegant wings extending from its back. The fourth member of the group slid along like a large snake, though it possessed heads at both ends, and below each, a pair of arms. The final Glant resembled a Minotaur, except that while its lower half looked like that of a bull—albeit an eight-legged bull—its upper half appeared more Gorn than human.