Have Tech, Will Travel

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  Suddenly Geordi realized that the surface of the rings was smooth. “Check out the material on the outer side of the rings,” he said, pointing. “I’m betting you can see through it from the inside.”

  Stevens did a few quick calculations, then looked up, shocked. “You’re right. Every inch of floor inside those rings had an unobstructed view into space.”

  “What the hell was this ship?” Gomez asked.

  “I’m putting my money on a cruise ship of some sort,” Carol said.

  Geordi knew instantly she was right. It would explain the lush cabin they had been in, and the rings.

  Gomez was nodding. “You just might be right. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  Geordi watched as the computer scans slowly filled in detail after detail. The answers to the questions What happened to the people on this ship? and Why was the ship built? and Why did it attack a colony? weren’t going to be filled in by the computer scanners, that much was for sure.

  “Computer,” Gomez said, “at this rate of scanning, how long until a complete image of the ship is finished?”

  “Six hours, seven minutes, and ten seconds,” the ship’s computer said. “At this scanning level.”

  Gomez nodded. She glanced at Geordi, and then at P8 Blue. “Pattie, you want to stay here and monitor this? The rest of us need some sleep.”

  “Boy, you aren’t kidding there,” Carol said.

  “Agree completely,” Stevens said.

  Geordi said nothing. He wanted to stay and keep working, but he knew he needed a few hours’ rest at least. After Vale had brought up the subject of sleep, he had been wondering how he would find time to catch a nap. Clearly, Gomez was taking care of her team on all counts.

  “I would be happy to,” Pattie said. “I find the structure of this alien ship completely fascinating, and would enjoy the time to study this as it forms.”

  “Thanks,” Gomez said. “Inform me and the captain at once if the computer picks up any sign of life at all in there.”

  “Of course,” Pattie said.

  “Geordi, you all right bunking on your shuttle for the time being?”

  “Expected it,” he said. He knew the size of the da Vinci, and since they had a full complement, many of the crew were sharing rooms. That was standard for a ship this size. There was certainly no luxury of guest quarters, like on the Enterprise .

  Or on that Beast out there.

  Gomez nodded. “The entire team will meet back here in six hours.”

  Ten minutes later, Geordi crawled into the bunk across the shuttle’s small sleeping compartment from Lieutenant Vale. She opened her eyes and smiled. “Glad you are following my suggestion.”

  “Commander’s orders,” he said. “Now, no snoring.”

  “I don’t snore,” she said firmly.

  “Right.”

  He rolled over on his side to face the bulkhead, trying not to laugh.

  “I don’t snore,” Vale said again.

  He didn’t respond. A few deep breaths and the exhaustion took him before his mind could start to work again on the puzzle that was called the Beast.

  CHAPTER

  6

  Gomez looked from the transporter pad at the worried face of Duffy and smiled. Clearly, he cared as much about her welfare as she did about his. If they could just both relax a little, being assigned together might turn out to be a lot of fun. “Ready when you are, Commander,” Stevens said from the transporter controls. “I’ve got a clear lock just inside the sealed door on the top deck.”

  Gomez glanced at Corsi to her right and then Geordi to her left. She had decided that the three of them would beam in first, with Stevens keeping a lock on them until they signaled the all clear. The sensors had shown the atmosphere inside the ship to be breathable, and no life-forms to be seen, at least on the decks closest to the surface. They still didn’t have a very clear picture of what was near the center of the Beast. She had talked with Captain Gold, and both of them had agreed that they shouldn’t risk a large part of the team. The three of them would test the waters first.

  “Do it,” she said, nodding to Stevens. Then, with a smile at Duffy, she felt the transporter take her.

  The inside of the hallway smelled of burnt wires and peaches. She hadn’t thought of peaches in a long time. It wasn’t a strong odor, but noticeable. The walls in this corridor were painted a soft white, the floor was soft under her feet, and what looked like a computer panel filled one wall about a dozen paces ahead. Behind them, the sealed door led out into the cold of space, where this ship’s control room had once been.

  Geordi was doing a quick scan of the atmosphere while Corsi scanned for any life-form that might be dangerous.

  “Preliminary scans from the da Vinci were on the money,” Geordi said. “A little higher levels of oxygen than we’re used to, but it won’t hurt us any.”

  “No sign of any life,” Corsi reported, putting her phaser away.

  “Da Vinci, can you hear me?”

  “Clear as a bell,” Stevens’ voice came back. “And we still have a clean transporter lock on you.”

  “We’re fine here,” she said. “Atmosphere is good. Starting our descent. Have the second team insert.”

  “Affirmative.”

  The second team was Pattie and the Bynars, led by Duffy. They were going to beam into a point on the other side of the ship and start down toward the center of the ship, exploring and mapping as they went. Stevens was going to stay on the sensors and let her know when either team reached their point-of-no-return level as far as the transporter went. She figured that level was twenty decks down, but the Bynars said it would be twenty-three. She had a hunch they were going to be right. They usually were about anything to do with computers.

  But that left over a hundred decks below that point. At some point, she was going to have to figure out what was worth exploring and what wasn’t. Otherwise, they’d be roaming around inside this monster for the rest of the year.

  Geordi had moved ahead and was using his tricorder to study the computer panel on the wall. She and Corsi moved over to join him.

  The panel looked like a schematic, touch-screen type that was on standby status. It had a red line arching over the length of the panel. It took her a moment to realize that, more than likely, she was looking at a schematic of the hallway they were standing in.

  “If this thing really was a type of cruise ship,” Corsi said, “this panel should be easy to use.”

  “I think I can activate it,” Geordi said, looking up from his tricorder. “You want me to give it a try?”

  “Do it,” Gomez said.

  Corsi looked worried, her ice-blue eyes slitted and focused, but she said nothing.

  Geordi reached forward and touched a spot on the computer panel. The entire thing lit up in bright reds and greens. Gomez had been right, it was a map of the area of the ship on this deck— hallways, rooms, and all. And it even showed where they were standing, and the fact that there were three of them. Clearly, the Beast ’s sensors, to a limited degree, were still working.

  Geordi studied his tricorder for a moment, then reached up and touched another point on the wall.

  “You are on deck one, quarter section red, fifth segment,” a computer voice said.

  “Our translators picked that up quickly,” Geordi said. “The basic language of whoever built this ship must be compatible with our basics.”

  “Agreed,” Gomez said. “Carol’s going to love this.” She stared at the board, trying to study what it could show them. “Corsi, walk ten feet away and then return.”

  Corsi did, and, as she moved, the red dot on the map indicating her position moved with her.

  “Interesting,” Geordi said.

  “Can it show us the closest access to deck two?” Gomez asked.

  A red line appeared on the screen, marking a path to a door on their right.

  “It seems the Beast ’s translators don’t have a problem with our speech, either,” Ge
ordi said, laughing.

  She didn’t join in his laugh. Actually, it gave her shivers, for some reason she couldn’t figure out.

  “If there was a way to download this information to the da Vinci, ” Gomez said, “we wouldn’t have to worry about mapping any of this monster.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice,” Corsi said.

  “Especially if we could tap into it and track all the team’s movements,” Geordi said.

  Gomez agreed completely. The sooner they could turn their attention fully to finding out more about who built this ship and what had happened to them, the happier she was going to be. And maybe, along the way, find out if there was anything on board that Starfleet and the Federation could use, like this ship’s strange shields.

  She flipped open her tricorder, and she and Geordi spent the next minute studying the computer panel while Corsi paced. Finally, Geordi scanned down under the panel, then clicked open a small access area and continued scanning.

  “Anything?”

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “Stevens to Commander Gomez.”

  “Go ahead,” Gomez said.

  “Any problems down there?” Stevens asked. “I’m not showing you three moving much.”

  She laughed. “We’re fine. Just trying to access a working computer panel. Stand by and prepare an isolated computer storage area for a possible download.”

  “Affirmative,” Stevens said.

  “Got it,” Geordi said. He attached his tricorder to the inside of the panel under the screen and made a few quick adjustments. “Stevens, are you picking up the signal from my tricorder?”

  “I am,” Stevens’ voice came back strong.

  “This could be a large amount of data,” Gomez said. “So make sure you have enough space to handle it.”

  “Affirmative,” Stevens said. “Stand by.”

  As she watched, Geordi made a few more slight adjustments on his tricorder. Then he glanced up at her. “I’m fairly certain this panel only taps into specific data on mapping and layout of the ship, as well as tracking of passengers. I doubt we’ll get into the ship’s main computer from here.”

  “Makes sense, security-wise,” Corsi said, “if this was a tourist liner.”

  “Yeah,” Gomez said. “It actually does.”

  “Ready,” Stevens’ voice came back clear.

  “Starting download now,” Geordi said.

  He tapped his tricorder and then stepped back. Gomez knew that, if nothing else, the speed of his tricorder was going to make the download a slow process, considering the size of this ship.

  “Stevens,” Gomez said, “beam us another tricorder and we’ll continue exploring. How’s the other team doing?”

  “Down seven decks, without problems,” Stevens answered as the tricorder appeared a few steps away and Geordi retrieved it. “They found a massive hydro-garden still alive on deck five.”

  “Tell them not to worry about the information panels in the hallways,” Gomez said, “since we’ve already dealt with that.”

  “Ahead of you,” Stevens said.

  Geordi laughed. “You have a great team here.”

  Gomez smiled. “Coming from you, La Forge, that means a lot.”

  He smiled, then said, “How about, instead of going down for the moment, we go up and check out the rings? Give the computer time to get all the information from the panel directional system.”

  Gomez looked down the wide hallway that slowly curved away in the distance. If their guess about this being a tourist liner was right, most of what they would find in the decks below were rooms. And the second team was exploring downward at the moment anyway.

  “Good idea. Stevens, change of plans for team one. We’re going to see if we can find an access to the rings.”

  “Affirmative,” Stevens said.

  Geordi turned back to the computer panel, then stopped. “Let’s ask the next one down the hall.”

  She laughed.

  “What, afraid you’re going to overload it?” Corsi asked.

  “Better to not take chances,” Geordi said.

  “With unknown technology, I agree completely,” Gomez said.

  A hundred paces down the hallway, past twenty doors, was another computer board. Geordi touched it and brought it to life. Gomez noted that, again, it showed them as three red dots. No doubt the red meant they were unidentified. If they had been passengers on this ship, more than likely they would have been a different color. And, also more than likely, still another color for the crew.

  “Where is the closest access to one of the rings?” Geordi asked the computer panel.

  The computer image changed scale slightly and a red line appeared, leading them in the direction they were heading. The line ended in a large, open-looking area.

  The hike was like walking ten times the length of the Enterprise , with smaller side corridors moving off in both directions about every hundred paces. She could see other, even smaller corridors branching off of each of those side corridors. And doors. Seemingly thousands of doors.

  Gomez was getting a real sense of the size of this Beast. They were just walking a small part of one area of the outer deck. Their preliminary scans showed there were well over a hundred decks below this one.

  “Wow!” Corsi said as the corridor finally opened up onto a massive room.

  Gomez had to agree. In all her years, she had never seen anything this stunningly spectacular before. The room was more than large enough to land the da Vinci in, with massive growing trees and shrubs scattered everywhere. A beautiful waterfall cascaded down the side of a rock face near the center, giving the room a soothing background noise. There were literally hundreds of furniture groupings on different levels around the space, clearly designed like a massive meeting and resting place.

  A slight wind blew through the trees, and the peach odor was stronger here.

  “Elevators,” Geordi said, pointing at some almost invisible clear platforms that floated upward in continuing columns in five places around the room. A few feet from each upward column were platforms moving slowly downward as well.

  All in all, this was one of the most spectacular rooms she had ever been in. But it wasn’t just the room that was stunning; it was the sky above them.

  Or, more accurately, space.

  Open, beautiful space, with the da Vinci off to one side, was the ceiling to this room. She knew that a hundred meters overhead there had to be the surface of one of the black rings. But from where they stood, she couldn’t tell it.

  Geordi shook his head and glanced at her. “No matter what we find in this thing, I’m putting in a vote right now that this Beast be towed to a nearby starbase and repaired. It would be a shame to toss this into a sun.”

  “I’ll second that,” Corsi said.

  Gomez glanced at her hard-edged security chief. It wasn’t often Corsi was awed by anything, but clearly this was one of those times.

  Gomez had to admit, she was just as awed. And now even more determined to discover where the passengers of this ship had gone. And why the twelve remaining crew had attacked a colony.

  Once she found out the answers to those questions, she would make the decision as to what would happen to this fantastically beautiful and powerful alien cruise ship.

  CHAPTER

  7

  For some reason, even though he was now one hundred percent convinced that the Beast was an alien cruise ship, designed for tourists, that information didn’t calm Geordi’s uneasy feeling about it. After exploring the spectacular observation decks on the rings, which was like walking in open space under the incredible windows, Gomez had recalled all the teams to wait for the results of the computer download.

  Twenty minutes later, after the download had been completed, Stevens and the Bynars had meshed the information from the da Vinci scans with the downloaded information from the Beast and fed it all to the holo-image of the ship in the staging room.

  They now had a mostly clear deck plan of the
Beast, one they could focus in on in very decent detail in certain areas. In other areas, it still showed nothing. It was those black spaces Geordi was the most worried about. Still, the detail of the holomap was going to make their job a lot easier, and let them get to working on the real questions much faster. And Geordi had a sneaking hunch a lot of those questions would be answered in the engineering section of the ship, and by accessing the main computer, not in the passenger sections.

  But the problem was that the download from the directional computers on the Beast only showed public areas, calling the support areas private. Most of the lower decks were labeled support areas. And since the da Vinci scans were still having problems getting all the way to the center of the Beast, there were still big empty areas in the center of the hologram image.

  “Okay, people,” Gomez said, getting the attention of the entire S.C.E. team and Captain Gold, who were all standing around the table, talking and discussing the alien ship.

  For Geordi, this was the first time he had seen the entire team together. It was an impressive group of talent and skills Gomez had put together. Top-ranked engineers, two of the leading computer experts in the Federation, respected specialists in intercultural relations and languages, a great flagship with an experienced captain, and some top security people. Geordi was glad he had gotten this chance to work with them.

  The only member he hadn’t met was the sternfaced Dr. Elizabeth Lense, but he knew her by reputation. She had served on the Lexington and graduated from her medical class as valedictorian, the same class that had contained Dr. Julian Bashir. Dr. Crusher had been raving about a couple of Lense’s recent medical papers.

  Lieutenant Vale moved over and stood silently beside him as Gomez went on.

  “Since the Beast ’s main control room was destroyed, we’re going to have to get to the secondary control room, and the engineering section. From what we’ve learned from our scans, combined with the computer download, the secondary control room should be on deck ninety, and the engineering sections might fill the five decks below that.”