by Various
"What is it?" Kirk asked.
"A series of magnetic circuits that focus the electromagnetic field of this planet."
The light glanced off a microthin coil wrapped around the magnet rings. Spock would have been able to tell him exactly how much magnetic flux was being generated.
Kirk guessed it might be enough to power the dimensional transporter. "You think they're trying to activate the gateway?"
"Naturally."
"But there's no archway, no computer..." Then he remembered Tasm's pouch, probably conveniently stuffed with all the information Spock and her officers had obtained while working on the gateway.
The bulk of the room lay beyond the dull black tower of magnets. Determined to discover the truth, Kirk pushed open the tube so he could see better. The floor between the magnets and the inner wall was smooth rock. But the door was down to their left, and he would be in full view of anyone entering or leaving.
"Will that conduit hold my weight?" he asked Luz.
She also looked down, then at the wide duct next to them. In answer, she swung her leg over the duct, using her hands to balance on the shaft. Kirk kept an eye on the doorway, hoping no one would come in at that moment.
Hitching herself forward, Luz crossed over the gap so she could step onto the scaffolding. Kirk swiftly followed.
This close to the magnetic flux, Kirk could feel his hair rising on his body. A subsonic hum rattled his bones, filling his ears with an endless thrumming. It sounded as if the circuits were powering up.
Their scaffolding tower was connected to the others on either side by narrow catwalks that circled the open sections between the magnets. Squat round suspension units were spaced along the catwalks, holding up the incredible weight.
"Higher," Kirk whispered, gesturing up. If there was anyone in the room, they wouldn't be as apt to notice them if they were in the darkened area near the ceiling. Most of the light was concentrated low.
The tower swayed under their climbing, seemingly too weak to hold up the magnets. But that work was really being done by the suspension units. The entire framework would crash to the ground if enough suspension units failed.
Near the top, Kirk stepped onto one of the catwalks. He went in the opposite direction from the door so he wouldn't be seen.
As he started out, it was impossible not to look down. His arms stretched out for better balance, but he instantly pulled his hands back in. The magnetic field was strong enough to cause a burning sensation against Ms skin.
It was tough to balance on the narrow metal grate as be walked. At the next tower, he eased forward, looking farther around the magnets. The only thing he could see was the next scaffolding tower. Luz was already starting to cross the catwalk after him.
It took two more nerve-racking trips across the cat-Walks to reach the scaffolding tower one-quarter of the way around the magnets. Then Kirk saw a Petraw standing against the far corner in the attitude of a guard.
Kirk pointed down, gesturing to Luz to keep quiet. She stayed at the back of the scaffolding, gazing fearfully at the hooded head of the defender. Kirk went forward to the front end of the scaffolding. A mere two meters made the difference. Now he had a view of everything in front of the magnetomotive.
The arch was the first thing he saw. It was standing in the center of a ring of lights, highlighted like a rare piece of art. It was an identical replica of the one they had found on the Kalandan station. The neutronium gleamed in blue-black highlights, and the impenetrable alloy was even molded into the same pattern. He knew he shouldn't be surprised at anything the Petraw were capable of. Though they looked like simple underground dwellers, their technological capability exceeded that of almost every other culture he had encountered.
That arch changed everything. Kirk couldn't begin to imagine the terrible things the Petraw would be capable of with an operational interstellar transporter. These people were ruthless and would use this technology to their own advantage. It was his fault the gateway had fallen into their hands.
Kirk was determined to change that. Staying very still to keep from attracting the attention of the guard, he searched for the cylindrical unit. In the very front of the magnetomotive, the huge rings were open, with a segment at least five meters wide cut out, indicating it was the more powerful open-flux system.
But he couldn't see the key component of the gateway from his position. It wasn't attached to the new arch, which meant he couldn't steal it the same way Luz had done. Instead, there were a bunch of cables that snaked along the floor toward the magnetomotive.
Luz joined him, keeping a wary eye on the guard. Her sharp intake of breath indicated she saw the gateway, too.
A voice came from below. "You two get back to the door. Just because we're holding a test run doesn't mean you can leave your posts."
Kirk couldn't see who was talking, but he recognized her voice. It was Tasm.
A hooded Petraw strode up to the arch and knelt to check the cables. From nearly sixty meters up, Kirk couldn't see much other than a sharply foreshortened view of her head and shoulders. "Is the flux stabilized yet?" Tasm asked.
Another Petraw somewhere down below and around the curve answered, "It has reached optimum level."
"Proceed with the test run," Tasm ordered.
She pulled back to the corner of the room, standing next to the defender who was posted there. If she looked up, she would see Kirk and Luz. He hardly breathed.
A different Petraw stepped up to face the gateway. Kirk clenched his hands around the scaffolding. They were at the point of testing the gateway? Those long days of dodging through the tubes and snatching naps in cul-de-sacs took on new meaning. The Petraw must have worked continuously to pull the gateway together.
The Petraw standing in front of the gateway let out a slight cry. "I see it!"
Inside the gateway an image had formed of windblown sand nearly burying two metallic structures. The Orange sky looked fluorescent in the blazing light. Kirk recognized the surface near the fissure. "Now go through," Tasm urged from her safe spot across the room.
The Petraw eagerly stepped forward. Kirk leaned out as far as he dared to see the hooded form enter the gateway in a flash of brilliant light. The magnetomotive shook the scaffolding as power was drawn at a phenomenal rate.
Nothing came out the other side. The Petraw was gone.
The subsonic hum of the magnetomotive made Kirk's head pound.
Tasm was staring down at a handheld communicator, rigid in concentration. "Anx made it! He's next to the shield generators."
The unseen Petraw exclaimed, "The gateway is functional! I'll inform the matriarchs at once."
Tasm tapped into the communicator. "I'm ordering Anx back. We'll try a long-range test this time. Keep the magnetomotive on full standby."
Her underling acknowledged, pride in his voice. They should be proud of themselves, Kirk thought. They now possessed a weapon of unbelievable strength.
Kirk was determined to make this work for him. The gateway offered him the chance to cross those troublesome forty thousand light-years in an instant. But he couldn't allow the Petraw to keep the gateway. The responsibility would be his if they used the gateway to harm others.
Tasm went to the base of the magnetomotive, disappearing from view. Kirk carefully withdrew to the back of the scaffolding, where he could no longer see the guard.
Luz seemed goaded to dreams of glory. "How are we going to get everyone out of here?" she whispered.
"We'll have to create a diversion." Kirk reached into the top of his boot to retrieve his broken communicator.
The sarium krellide power cell was too small to cause much damage if he made it overload. But there must be something he could do in a neighboring chamber that would draw Tasm out. It would have to last long enough for the gateway to read his mind and cut through the light-years between him and home - Luz tried to snatch the communicator from his hand. "What are you doing?"
Kirk managed to hang on to
it, but the broken cover flew off the hinge, arching down and falling sixty meters. Both of them drew back as far as they could before it hit bottom, uselessly trying to hide in the shadows.
"Now who's the idiot?" Kirk shot at Luz.
"You were going to sabotage the gateway - "
"You've just proven my point."
Gritting his teeth, Kirk hoped the cover wouldn't make too much noise on the rock floor. But it bounced erratically, hitting corners and edges, before spinning slowly into a stop.
The movement caught the defender's attention. He instantly alerted the other Petraw in the room with a loud shout.
Kirk wanted to push Luz off the scaffolding. Only someone who thought they were smarter than everyone else could do something so lame-brained.
He tried a strategic retreat as the defender went to inspect what had fallen. He made it to the next scaffolding tower while Luz was still inching over the catwalk, but it didn't take long for the defender to light up the entire tower and detect them both. Kirk couldn't see any way to escape with Petraw climbing up the scaffolding on either side of him. With visions of the chasm dancing before his eyes, he slowly climbed down to the floor.
Luz was dragged from the scaffolding as well, and in the shrieking melee she caused trying to break free, Kirk made a dash for the arch. All he could think about was the misty terrace next to the commandant's office at Starfleet Academy, overlooking the glorious arch of the antiquated Golden Gate Bridge. He could almost taste the salty ocean air, he wanted it so badly.
But Tasm stepped between him and the archway, stopping him short by pointing his own phaser at him. One look in her eyes and he could see Tasm even through her dissolved face. "Don't move, Kirk, or I'll put you away for good."
Chapter 4
Kirk froze. "You'd use my own phaser on me, Tasm?"
She was as coldhearted as Kirk always believed. "Yes."
Kirk kept his hands out. "It's set to kill."
"I know."
She didn't flinch, and he didn't doubt she would fire if he made a threatening move. He did nod toward the distinctive blue cylinder that was mounted on a large computer unit. It was sitting next to the magnetomotive. "The gateway doesn't belong to you."
"Now it does. I earned it."
Kirk couldn't see anything left of the woman he had kissed in the Kalandan station. Her unformed features were softened and flattened like the other Petraw. Except for her eyes, fierce with Tasm determination.
The big Petraw defenders weren't taking any chances this time. With each of his arms held by a defender, Kirk was marched out of the experimental station. He cast one longing look back at the gateway. So close. He had almost made it home.
Tasm took the lead, overshadowed by the defender next to her. Kirk was half-carried, half-dragged up a long slanting corridor. As they went up, Kirk wondered if they were being taken to the exterior platform where they would be summarily tossed off the cliff to smash into the molten rock at the bottom. At least the heat would burn him to a cinder before he hit the lava.
But after going up a few levels, they began to move deeper into the complex. Kirk kept track of every turn they took, optimistically intending to use the knowledge to find his way back to the gateway. That was the spirit. He only needed to get Tasm and the defenders to cooperate by turning their backs and ignoring him for a few minutes....
They picked up more defenders along the way who seemed eager to pound him into a pulp if he so much as twitched. He wasn't sure how he knew that when they didn't say a word. Maybe it was because they all looked alike, and something about that uniformity was unnerving.
A couple of times Luz started yelling past Kirk at Tasm, venting the frustration that had been boiling inside of her for days. Kirk wasn't sure how Tasm kept her steady pace. Some of the insults about her intelligence and command abilities were enough to make him wince on her behalf. He supposed Luz wasn't counting on leniency from her commanding officer. She hadn't gotten it the first time.
They finally reached their destination. Kirk could tell by the way Tasm glared at him, cautioning, "One wrong move and I'll shoot you."
Kirk raised his hands slightly to indicate he didn't want any trouble. "You could just give me a ship and let me go right now, Tasm."
"That's for the matriarchs to decide."
Luz was panting, infuriated. She hardly looked Petraw compared to the others, with her face contorted in anger. "I saved the gateway! I brought it back."
Tasm actually smiled. "Perhaps the matriarchs will thank you before putting you away, Luz."
"You don't deserve to join them! It should be my honor..." Luz lunged against the defenders holding her, but she couldn't shake them. She swung there, a fighting slip of a woman.
Tasm didn't touch the wall, but an opening began to grow slightly larger than the others. The Petraw herded them inside. There must have been a dozen defenders around them now, along with Tasm holding the phaser.
Kirk looked up and kept on looking. They were at the bottom of a cylindrical well that rose very high into the rock, at least ten times higher than it was wide. In the very center, a long slender tube dangled down to a bulbous gold sack that nearly brushed the floor. It was shaped like a ripe pear, and swayed slightly as the air was disturbed by their entrance. Its rounded sides were shiny taut.
Looking up, Kirk saw that the surrounding walls, starting about ten meters above them, were dotted by hundreds of small protrusions. The curving wall was so dark that it took him a moment to see they were moving.
They were Petraw. At least, each one was the head, arms, and chest of a Petraw. Kirk shifted so he could see the lowest one better, and gulped. Where its legs had once been was a swollen mass that stretched wide, bulbously attaching to the lumpy, moist wall. "What is this?" he asked incredulously.
"This is the birthing chamber," Tasm said reverently. "Joining the birthing chamber is our highest honor," Luz snapped. "She doesn't deserve it!"
Tasm glared at Luz, but saved her words for those who mattered. "Beloved matriarchs, we have brought you Luz and the invader."
Kirk didn't think it was a good idea to be considered a nameless antagonist. "Matriarchs! I am James T. Kirk and I come in p - "
One of the Petraw defenders belted him in the stomach. That dropped him to his knees, and they withdrew to a watchful two paces.
Kirk coughed and choked, trying to catch his breath. Luz landed next to him, on her knees, looking up the well of matriarchs. Heads turned on the wall, and arms gestured in various attitudes of distress or condemnation.
Tasm stood next to them, with the phaser still aimed at Kirk. "Matriarchs, we found Luz and the intruder near the gateway while we were testing it."
Kirk had to put his hands to his ringing ears. Something about the well amplified their voices, but it was pure sound with no articulated words.
Gradually, there seemed to be streams of consensus within the tones, as threads of their comments rose to near-audibility. Kirk relaxed to hear what they said, much the same way he did inside the cells. He realized this was the source of the information feed in action. Luz is defective. Luz must be put away immediately. Luz's mouth opened wide. "But I'm the one who brought you the gateway! Ask him! He wouldn't have let Tasm take it. She would have lost it!"
Like an implacable river, the thoughts droned on: Luz is defective. Luz must be put away immediately. Rather than be condemned without a hearing, like Luz, Kirk lifted his hands to appeal to them. "Matriarchs, it was an accident that brought me to your world. I'm no invader! Surely we can come to an understanding - "
He could hear their rising agreement even as he spoke, buzzing through the bones of his ears. The invader must be put away. The invader must be put away immediately.
Tasm finally looked satisfied. "I knew it. I'll make sure it's done properly this time."
Kirk started to protest, but a new sentiment began rising from the matriarchs. It was filled with something like warmth of feeling.
Tasm
is exemplary. Tasm will soon join us.
Kirk was nonplussed by the idea of what must happen for Tasm to be transformed and joined to the wall of the birthing chamber. She would be stuck somewhere up there among the hundreds....
Tasm took another step closer to the sack that hung in the center of the birthing chamber, raising her empty hand toward it. Her body trembled in eagerness. "The royal gel is almost ready."
That's when he understood. The polymer substructure of the Petraw complex was the living body of the matriarchs. It was one vast organism that was growing in the tunnel-riddled cliffs. This well was their brain center. The matriarchs supported their children in their own body, using their own life systems to distribute nourishment and remove the waste.