One Small Step Page 16

  “Unknown, Captain. Due to the neutronium casing of the components, we have been limited to studying only the power and computer interface hardware.”

  Kad straightened, looking over at Tasm. “The arch itself receives direct power from the geomagnetic generator, and apparently serves to channel the magnetic current initiated by the cylinder.”

  “Just don’t ask us how it works,” Scotty added from the other side of the arch.

  Spock didn’t glance in the direction of their outspoken engineer. “Our flexible diagnostic program has matched sequences with the cylindrical unit, supplying responses depending on the queries it has issued. We believe the unit can be activated with minimal risk.”

  Tasm crossed her arms. “What is risk compared to the reward we have before us?”

  Kirk shook his head shortly. “We’ve seen other examples of superior alien technology capable of relocating objects in space. They are not to be taken lightly.”

  Next to Luz, McCoy suddenly spoke up. “Yes, the Metrons, the Gamesters of Triskelion, and the Preservers’ Obelisk on Miramanee’s planet all used some form of dimensional transporter.” He swallowed hard before adding, “And of course the Guardian of Forever, which was capable of moving objects in time as well as in space.”

  “Correct, Doctor,” Spock agreed. “However, we lack data to ascertain whether this alien technology relates to any of those other transporters. It does not appear to be consistent with the Kalandan technology we have thus far examined on this station.”

  Kirk nodded. “Understood, Mr. Spock. Let’s see for ourselves what it can do.”

  Tasm gave a sharp assent, revealing too much of her eagerness in Luz’s opinion. It was not helpful to betray any weakness to the opposing side in an engagement.

  Indeed, Spock raised one brow toward Tasm before turning back to the computer. He and Kad adjusted a few of the controls.

  “Activating the unit,” Spock announced.

  There was a pause, then the archway started to fill with a cloudy mist.

  The planetoid rumbled, just a slight tremor that soon faded.

  “That’s what happened before!” the Starfleet engineer cried out. “Then we saw those three Losira replicas walking through th’ portal —”

  “Look!” Captain Kirk interrupted, gesturing to one side of the arch.

  Something was happening to the cylinder. Luz crowded forward along with the others to get a better look. A holographic sphere now rested in the concave top of the cylinder. Tiny laser crosslines bisecting the sphere made it look like a standard targeting interface. Then she couldn’t see anything more because Marl stepped in front of her.

  Amid the exclamations and speculations at the appearance of the ghostly sphere, Luz focused on Tasm’s jubilant gloating. “It is an interstellar transporter! We must get it functional again.”

  That was apparently the consensus. Spock and Kad agreed that activating the computer had initiated the targeting mechanism. There was further speculation that the destroyed computer nodes in the ceiling overhead had served to pinpoint the portal’s target on the surface of the Kalandan station.

  “While we can no longer perform an intraplanetary transport,” Spock finally summed up, “it may be possible to open this portal to another planet.”

  “Do it, Spock,” Kirk ordered. “Set the coordinates for Earth.”

  Luz approved of Kirk’s way with command. That was what Tasm lacked. Luz was almost pleased at the way Tasm was biting her lip. She couldn’t protest Kirk’s choice of target, not when they couldn’t reveal the location of any planets in Petraw territory.

  Spock took some time performing calculations with his tricorder, then he adjusted the targeting sphere. Kirk watched his science officer closely, as did Kad. Luz could tell that Kad had come to deeply respect the Vulcan.

  Spock moved the final laser line into place. “Earth, Captain.”

  Luz held her breath as she stared at the arch. The mist boiled, making everyone tense in expectation. Finally it started to clear. Gold appeared first in the center. It spread to the edges of the portal, revealing a golden sweep of rolling land. The image sharpened and stretched back to the horizon of a sky so deep blue that Luz thought the color must be distorted.

  “Iowa!” Kirk exclaimed softly. His hand reached out and he took two steps forward. “Spock! It isn’t . . .”

  “It is Iowa, Captain.”

  “Mr. Spock!” Spock didn’t react as Kirk beamed at him, then gave a disbelieving laugh. “It’s so real, so close, almost as if I can smell the wheat . . .”

  Kirk took one step forward as if compelled.

  Spock’s quiet voice broke the spell. “Do not go through, Captain. We do not know if it will safely transport material objects without the Kalandan defense computer.”

  Kirk reluctantly pulled away. Luz wanted to shout at him, to urge him to go on. She couldn’t believe it was true. An interstellar transporter! A true gateway through space.

  Tasm also seemed elated. “Let me try,” she insisted.

  Kirk hesitated, taking one more look at the waving, golden vegetation. Then he smiled at Mr. Spock as they both moved back, giving their allies a change to operate the portal.

  Tasm went right up to the arch, flushed with importance. “Target our ship, Kad. We can send something through to see if it works.”

  Kad reached out to touch the targeting sphere and the view through the portal quickly faded to misty white. But after Kad set the coordinates, only vague impressions of light gray emerged in the portal before quickly vanishing again.

  Spock went to assist, concentrating on the Starfleet display on the subprocessor. Kad checked the diagnostic readouts. “Perhaps the electroplasmic device in your bag is disrupting the interface sensors of the targeting sphere.”

  Tasm immediately unbelted her work-pouch and gave it to him. Kad passed it on to Marl. Luz automatically stepped forward when Marl, in some instinctive response to get the pouch as far from the portal as possible, handed it back to her.

  Luz retreated almost to the doorway clutching Tasm’s precious pouch. She could feel the lumpy sides as it dangled from its strap slung over her shoulder. If Tasm saw her with it, she would order Marl to get it back. The pouch held Tasm’s padd, the key to her command logs during this engagement.

  The pouch also held the initiator for the tractor-projector unit — the only electroplasmic device Kad could have been referring to. Luz thought she recognized the edge of the unit peeking up from the corner where the flap of the pouch was pulled back. Soon Tasm was going to try her absurd Klingon feint using the tractor-projector, and that would destroy any hopes they had of getting away with the portal.

  Tasm was asking Kad questions as Spock helped him adjust the targeting sphere. But the mist in the portal didn’t clear.

  Kirk looked amused. “Having trouble getting it to listen to you?”

  Tasm ignored Kirk, demanding, “What’s wrong with it?”

  Mr. Spock theorized, “It is possible that because this portal is powered by the magnetic field of the planetoid, you must target another planet in order to balance the dimensional transport.”

  “Brilliant as ever, Mr. Spock,” Kirk told him. “Set the coordinates for Earth again, and target Starfleet Academy. We’ll send something through, then find out if it arrived safely.”

  In the bustle to prepare for the test, Luz reached into the pouch and keyed a few commands into the initiator. It was already set to imitate Klingon vessels in an interactive attack pattern. She increased the deflection bounce to show three ships approaching instead of two. That should throw Tasm off long enough to cause a diversion. Tactically that’s what the projector deflector was good for — a brief diversion that would soon be discovered.

  But that was all Luz needed. She didn’t intend to let Tasm ruin this engagement and lose the interstellar transporter. If Tasm wouldn’t do what was clearly right, then Luz would have to.

  She pressed the button on the initiator, se
nding a time-delay sequence to the tractor-projector. Then she cleared the memory. Tasm wasn’t very bright. She wouldn’t realize what had happened until it was too late. By then, Luz would already be on their birthing world with the portal.

  After all, what better way to take this technology back to their birthing world than to use the portal to get it there?

  Luz called Marl away from the crowd around the portal. She handed the pouch back to him, and putting a shaking hand to her head, she murmured, “I need to return to the ship. Overload on the information feed.” She was twitching convincingly, reacting to what she had just done.

  Information-feed overload was a malady that often appeared after intensive sessions. Marl nodded sympathetically. Brainless fool, she thought.

  Luz managed to slip from the computer chamber without anyone else seeing her go, including Dr. McCoy, who was intent on the portal. That was good. She was done with them. Soon she would be back on her birthing world, being praised and rewarded for her ingenuity in saving the interstellar transporter.

  Her anticipation was so high she couldn’t stop trembling. She would finally become what she deserved. At the very least, she would never have to see her pod-mates again. She would never again be sealed in her cell for forced information feed. She would never again have to bow down to pettiness and incompetence. She would be hailed as a savior by all Petraw.

  Chapter Fifteen

  CAPTAIN KIRK DECIDED to send a tricorder through the portal to Starfleet Academy. Spock programmed a message into the tricorder that would automatically play when it was activated. Kirk also ordered Uhura to send a subspace message to the Academy informing them of the imminent arrival of the tricorder.

  Then Kirk once again took his place in front of the archway. With the programmed tricorder in one hand, he watched as Spock set the coordinates. His first officer’s hands moved surely this time, repeating nearly the same sequence as the first time. Kirk had been surprised when Spock had targeted his home state of Iowa, but he had also appreciated the gesture.

  Slowly the boiling clouds began to clear from the portal, revealing red rocky cliffs that abruptly narrowed around the rough waters of San Francisco Bay. Spanning the coastlines was the ancient and still spectacular Golden Gate Bridge.

  For a moment, Kirk couldn’t speak. His perspective was high and disorienting until he realized the portal was showing the view from the small terrace outside the commandant’s office. It was on the third floor, overlooking the buildings of Starfleet Academy.

  “Right on target, Mr. Spock.” Kirk gave him a disbelieving shake of his head.

  “Of course, Captain.” Spock seemed unimpressed with his own achievement.

  McCoy exclaimed at the familiar sight, and Scotty was muttering his pleasure at seeing the view that was so beloved by all Starfleet cadets.

  There was a hazy quality to the air that Kirk had almost forgotten. Yet the colors were dramatic, refracted by the moisture on every surface. Even the flagstones of the terrace gleamed in the soft afternoon light. Benches lined the railing, with small pots of evergreens echoing the trees on the surrounding hillsides.

  Kirk leaned forward and tossed the tricorder through the portal. It hung for a few moments in the arch as if caught between the boundary of dimensions.

  The floor of the station trembled under his feet, growing stronger. A flashing light briefly obscured the portal, while pink and red glints sparked off the blue archway. Kirk stumbled to one side as the planetoid heaved then settled.

  Then the tricorder continued its arch out the other side of the portal. It landed on the flagstones and slid a short way.

  “What was that tremor?” Kirk demanded.

  Scotty was monitoring the system with his tricorder. “The passage through th’ portal caused a magnetic sweep and a forty-three percent power surge, Captain. I bet th’ geomagnetic synch is no longer aligned with th’ natural declination of th’ planetoid.”

  “Agreed,” Spock said. “That could cause fluctuations in the power feed and affect the stability of the dipolar magnetic field.”

  “Could that interfere with a safe transport?”

  “Unknown, Captain.”

  It looked so real on the other side of the arch that Kirk itched to try it. The tricorder lay there, almost within reach. It seemed like it had survived the journey with no ill effects . . . but even he couldn’t do it. If the portal worked, he would be stuck light-years away from the Enterprise.

  Kirk was also familiar with temporal accidents after his visit to a certain parallel universe. It was dangerously easy to pass through time and dimensions without intending to.

  His communicator beeped, and he reluctantly pulled away from the portal. “Kirk here.”

  Lt. Sulu sounded worried. “Captain, our long-range sensors are detecting vessels approaching. According to the energy signature, it’s Klingons.”

  “Klingons!” McCoy exclaimed in alarm. “I thought they wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow.”

  Kirk spoke into his communicator, “Are you sure, Mr. Sulu?”

  “Aye, Captain. I confirmed it with Officer Mlan of the Kalandan ship.”

  “Red alert, Mr. Sulu. Stand by phaser banks.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  Kirk turned to see Commander Tasm digging into her pouch and coming up with a handheld device. She stared at it for a few moments, shaking her head slightly as she shoved it back inside. “How many Kling-on ships are there?” she demanded.

  Kirk repeated the question to Sulu, who replied. “Three, Captain.”

  “Three,” Tasm repeated, sounding worried herself.

  “How long before they arrive?” Kirk asked.

  “According to the computer, nineteen minutes forty-three seconds, sir.”

  That didn’t leave much time. The others were frozen, looking from him to the portal.

  Kirk ordered Sulu, “Alert the search teams and begin transporting them off the station.”

  “Aye, sir!” Sulu acknowledged before signing off.

  Kirk folded his communicator, turning to Dr. McCoy. “Go make sure the search teams get off, then transport up to the Enterprise yourself.”

  “What about you?” McCoy asked.

  Kirk glanced at Spock and Scotty. “We have to figure out a way to secure this portal. Our orders are to not let it fall into Klingon hands.”

  “We should remove the portal from the station,” Tasm agreed. “I am loath to desecrate anything here, but the portal must be protected.”

  Spock raised one brow. “It will take approximately fifty-three minutes to remove the restraining bolts attaching the arch to the substructure of the station.”

  “Too long,” Kirk muttered. He eyed the cylindrical unit and subprocessor. They could sever the monofilaments that united the cylinder to the archway and power source, then remove it to the Enterprise. But he would rather not do something so destructive. It had taken hours for Spock and Kad to attach the monofilaments just from the cylinder to the subprocessor.

  Tasm clearly expected that she would take the portal onto her own ship for protection. She certainly wouldn’t agree to let them hold part of it on board the Enterprise. So he didn’t mention the option of cutting the cylinder off.

  “Too bad my shield didn’t work,” Scotty spoke up, “or we could hide the entrance.”

  Tasm raised her head. “We have a shield that could conceal the entrance.”

  Kirk hesitated. But he could see no other viable option. “Very well. Get your shield in place. Mr. Spock, you and Scotty stay here and dismantle the archway.”

  Commander Tasm ordered Officer Kad, “Tell Mlan to send down the Teleris shield.”

  “Teleris shield?” Spock asked, curious and perhaps even a bit jealous.

  Kirk held up his hand. “The question is, will it work?”

  “It will,” Tasm said flatly.

  Kirk made sure that he was the last one out of the station, leaving only Marl and Kad down in the portal chamber with Spock and Scot
ty. They were already dismantling the arch from the station.

  On the surface, he watched Commander Tasm set up the shield unit with assistance from Officer Pir. It was much larger than Scotty’s shield, and was painted an ominous black.

  But when they stepped back and it was activated, Kirk could instantly see the difference. The unit disappeared, but nothing else seemed different. There was no subliminal hum or tension in the air. No burning smell.

  “Looks good,” he told Tasm.

  She nodded shortly. “Are you prepared to fight to protect this station?”

  “Commander, since we discovered this station I haven’t stopped fighting to protect it.” He refrained from adding, “Even from you.” Kirk returned her nod, then signaled the Enterprise to beam him up.

  Luz stayed hidden in the living quarters near the main corridor, knowing that the first chambers had been searched already. Impatiently she waited through the general cry which called for the searchers to immediately vacate the station.

  Footsteps ran past, and there were hurried calls to one another. Since Luz was close to the corridor, she overheard Kad explaining to their pod-mates that they were going to erect the Teleris shield to conceal the entrance while they dismantled the arch from the station.

  So . . . Tasm had prevailed thus far upon Captain Kirk. But when he found out that the Klingon ships were fake, that would undermine everything Tasm had worked for. Her plan was flawed in its conception.

  Luz was breathless with hope. She was going home! After a lifetime of gazing at the stars, trying to find the tiny sun that blazed down on the desiccated crust of her birthing world . . . she was going home as she had longed to. The portal was a sign set in her path, calling for her return. And she was the only one who could see the perfect use for it.

  Luz waited until there were no more sounds, then she quickly ran up the corridor. It was not enough to count on the tractor-projector for a delay. She would take no chances on being caught before she had used the portal to return home.