One Small Step Read online

  When the unit signaled that the transformation was complete, Tasm stepped out and took in the delight of her pod-mates. She examined herself in the mirrored surface that lowered after her pod-mate entered the surgical unit.

  Her face had been changed by a strong chin and jaw-line. She also had rounded cheeks. Most dramatic were her eyes and brows, swooping up expressively at the ends. The colored swaths on her eyelids were brilliant peach and yellow, complementing her golden skin tone. Great amounts of hair had been attached to her head, and were now swept back in Kalandan-style rolls before falling down her back.

  When her pod-mate emerged from the surgical unit, he was a male Kalandan, with the same high cheekbones and slanting eyes. His hair was a shorter version of Losira’s, with the bulk rolled back away from his face and tied in a curling tail.

  They were both rather blurred copies of the Kalandans, it was true, but they could explain that by the intervening generations since their people had lost contact with the science station.

  In high spirits, Tasm led her altered pod-mates down the corridor to the replicator that would create their uniforms. Their usual nudity on board would cease, and they would even meditate in their cells in the required clothing until their engagement was completed.

  The replicator modified the Kalandan uniform to their rather spare bodies. It was dark purple and showed no skin, though it had the same wide-legged pants trimmed with silver braid. The uniform also had built-in padding to imitate the Kalandan’s exaggerated humanoid sex characteristics. Tasm was amused. The Petraw bodies were sleek in comparison.

  Tasm examined the result in the mirror and was satisfied. She knew that sexual attraction could be one key to targeting Captain Kirk. From the specs the computer had given her on humans, his increased pulse and the widening of his pupils when he spoke about Losira indicated his attraction to her. Tasm knew that sexual allure did not depend on physical appearance alone. She could create any impression she wanted to simply by being who Kirk wanted her to be.

  Smiling slightly, already sinking into her imitation of the serene and intelligent Losira, Tasm headed back to the control booth to relieve her pod-mates so they could make the transformation and prepare for their engagement.

  Chapter Three

  SHORTLY AFTER LYING DOWN in the underground station, Sulu woke with a start when Losira began to speak. Her melodious voice caused a surge of panic, as he thought he was going to be attacked. But the captain and Mr. Spock appeared unconcerned. That was when Sulu realized it was the message they had already seen, the one the commander had left to welcome her long-dead compatriots.

  Sulu lay back down. Dr. McCoy never stirred, sleeping more soundly than anyone in their position had a right to. Sulu dozed fitfully. The problem of Losira bothered him. How could the Kalandans be so compassionate and yet so ruthless? What kind of people could be technically superior in every way and yet fall prey to total annihilation?

  Sulu also couldn’t imagine why such an advanced civilization would create a terrible weapon like cellular disruption. It didn’t just kill, it caused agony. Even now, after multiple medical regenerations with the anabolic protoplaser, his shoulder still sent shooting pains straight into his spine. Sometimes it was so bad he could hardly see. He shuddered at the amount of pain D’Amato, Wyatt, and Watkins must have suffered as they died. Pure torture . . .

  After everything that had happened, Sulu wouldn’t be surprised to see one of those thick black lines appear, heralding the arrival of the Losira replica. One touch was all it would take to turn him into a dead man.

  So Sulu was hardly refreshed when he finally got up from the sleeping mat. The others didn’t look like they were thinking much about the danger that lurked in thin air. Then again, he was the only one who knew what Losira’s touch felt like.

  Dr. McCoy was yawning as he quietly consulted with the medical staff on board the Enterprise. The doctors would surely find a cure for whatever had infected them . . . yet Sulu couldn’t help but be worried. Losira’s people were scientists so advanced that they could fling the Enterprise a thousand light-years away. Yet they hadn’t been able to fight this deadly organism. How could the medical staff of the Enterprise hope to do better?

  Sulu wasn’t about to voice his misgivings, not when the captain was looking so grim. Kirk had taken his tricorder and was examining the walls, a thoughtful frown on his face. Mr. Spock was still working on the lift, scanning the computer node. The Vulcan had apparently toiled the night through and would continue to keep up that pace until they were able to beam back to the Enterprise. Sulu had seen Spock in crisis situations before, and envied his stamina.

  The Enterprise . . . Sulu hoped it wouldn’t be long before they returned. His breakfast rations sat like a lump in his stomach. He cleared his throat. “Have you found anything, Captain? I wasn’t able to detect any variation in the surface.”

  “Nothing, down to the atomic level.” Kirk’s eyes didn’t leave the tricorder.

  Sulu joined him near the back wall. “There must be more to this station than this one room.”

  “Indeed, Mr. Sulu. The question is where.”

  Sulu shook his head briefly. “Maybe this isn’t the entrance to the station. We could try looking around outside for another door. Those bigger rocks could be hiding other underground chambers.”

  Kirk smiled briefly. “I suppose we could go around saying ‘open sesame’ to every rock outcropping ” He suddenly looked up, as if taken with the idea. “Or no . . . what if we tried that in here? The door to this chamber opened when I said, ‘The entrance is here.’ Perhaps the same command will work inside.”

  Sulu was doubtful, but it wasn’t his place to shoot down the captain’s suggestions. “It’s worth a try, sir.”

  “You take that side. I’ll start over here,” Kirk ordered.

  Sulu went to the wall where Losira’s message had appeared. He felt silly facing the wall, but he heard Captain Kirk’s quiet command from the other side of the room. “The entrance is here.”

  Sulu glanced over his shoulder, but nothing happened. Kirk stepped sideways and continued to face the wall, repeating his statement.

  Taking a deep breath, Sulu looked at the pale, shimmering surface and said, “The entrance is here.”

  Nothing happened.

  Now feeling even sillier, he moved aside and tried it again. And again. Security Guard Reinhart quickly finished his morning rations and joined them. He started on the wall next to the passageway.

  Sulu stepped past a support beam and continued methodically reciting the words. He wondered how long they would have to do this before they could give up. Kirk was nearly through his second section of wall, while Sulu was moving toward the middle of another section.

  “The entrance is here,” Sulu doggedly repeated.

  A section of the wall abruptly slid up, revealing a door with a rounded top.

  Sulu leaped away, tripping over his own feet. He drew his phaser so fast it felt like it materialized in his hand. “Captain! I’ve found something.”

  Captain Kirk was already striding over. “So I gathered, Lieutenant.” His phaser was also in his hand.

  They stared into the darkened space, but there was nothing to be seen beyond a few meters where light slanted in from the entrance chamber.

  Kirk gestured with his phaser. “Sulu and Reinhart, you’re with me.”

  Sulu glanced back at Mr. Spock, but he was already returning to his work. The Vulcan was curious, but he was even more self-disciplined. But Sulu wasn’t surprised when McCoy strained to see after them. The doctor liked to be involved in everything the captain did.

  As soon as Kirk stepped over the threshold, recessed lights came on. They ran in a strip down the center of the corridor. The walls were straight, curving overhead to meet the ceiling. Sulu aimed his tricorder at the closest surface and found it was made of plasticized osmium. An unusual choice of building materials. But that’s what gave the walls their milky white surface. Be
neath that was the usual diburnium-osmium alloy.

  The corridor slanted downhill. Sulu didn’t notice it at first, but after a few steps, he could feel it in his legs. The ceiling seemed to press down overhead. When he looked back, the doorway was slightly above him.

  The walls were marked every so often by black lines, delineating doors opening off the corridor. Kirk went to the first door and it slid up automatically. Cautiously, holding his phaser ready, the captain stepped inside.

  The tricorder was reading no energy emissions. Sulu followed, curiously looking around the long, wide chamber. It had waist-high counters against the walls, with panels above and below indicating storage. Kirk opened the closest one, and an entire atomic microscope slid forward and settled down on the counter.

  Sulu smiled. “Here’s one of those science labs we’ve been looking for.”

  “Everything a scientist needs.” Kirk touched the next panel, which opened to reveal a spherical unit that looked like a laser gene-slicer. The next panel held a photosynthesis meter.

  Sulu was opening panels at the other end of the room. “There must be ten fully equipped science stations in this one room.”

  “It’s certainly efficient, as Mr. Spock would say.”

  They closed the panels and proceeded to check the other rooms that lay behind the doors. Ten rooms in all, with ten stations in each one. The soft lighting was augmented by stronger spots that clicked on whenever equipment was pulled out. The air didn’t seem stale, as one would expect from the lack of circulation. Sulu could almost imagine the labs were still in use. It would be a pleasant place to work, with nice, high ceilings and a comfortably padded floor.

  Everywhere he looked there was evidence of the long-dead Kalandan scientists. The normal detritus of life had gathered on the shelves and under equipment. The Kalandans favored decorations of once-live vegetation encased in bubbles or pressed flat in plastex cards. There were even a few millennium-old sealed food containers. Sulu carefully avoided touching these, wondering if the atomic structure had degraded enough for them to explode at a touch. He scanned them and found nothing but dust inside.

  Despite thorough scans, Sulu could find no genetic material, not even a strand of hair. Quite likely the proteins and organic compounds had degraded over the centuries. That more than anything made it real — the weight of the years since the station had been inhabited had left it sterile. Except for the deadly parasites.

  “It is a ghost station,” he murmured. That’s what Kirk had called it on the bridge before they beamed down. Proof once more of the captain’s incredible instincts.

  Sulu gazed at a spectroscope, knowing that Losira could have stood right here. If she hadn’t, some of her fellow scientists had. It made their ruthless computer seem even more puzzling.

  They found lots of strange devices they couldn’t explain, and Sulu carefully scanned their components for further study. They also found bins of raw material, some with the elements still sealed in condensed stasis blocks, ready to be tapped and used in the Kalandan experiments.

  “There’s one thing missing,” Sulu said after they had finished searching each room.

  Captain Kirk was way ahead of him. “There’s no access ports to the computer. Or screens for interactive communication. Nothing.”

  “But they must have had a way to record the results of their experiments,” Sulu protested.

  Reinhart was holding up a few circular cards that had magnetic crystalline cores. “These sure look like data discs. But where do they go?”

  The captain shook his head. “Perhaps they used personal computers. Handheld devices.”

  Sulu glanced in another cupboard. “Why haven’t we found one, left behind on a shelf or something?”

  “That’s a mystery to be solved, Lieutenant.”

  They left the science labs and proceeded to the end of the corridor. Here was another flattened, oval chamber, similar to the entrance chamber that housed the computer node. But this one didn’t have a node. The ceiling was a smooth arch, just like the corridor.

  “Back to where we started.” Sulu morosely rubbed his shoulder. It was throbbing in pain from his exertions.

  “Not quite, Mr. Sulu. There must be another door in here leading deeper into the station.”

  Sulu knew that was probably true, but he couldn’t help feeling daunted. “Sir, this planetoid is the size of Earth’s moon. If we have to search for every door, it’s going to take forever to explore this place.”

  “Think of it as a treasure hunt, Mr. Sulu. This treasure’s been buried for ten thousand years, so it’s worth some extra effort.”

  “Aye, sir.” Sulu couldn’t disappoint the captain.

  Kirk slung the tricorder over his shoulder. “I’m going to show Mr. Spock the readings of the science labs. You two continue on,” he ordered. “Keep me informed.”

  “Aye, sir,” Sulu acknowledged, along with Reinhart’s brisk response.

  Kirk disappeared back down the corridor. The doorway stayed open.

  Nodding to Reinhart, Sulu strode to the far end of the chamber and faced the wall.

  “The entrance is here.” He said it with much more certainty now. The captain was right. They would find what lay beyond if they just kept trying.

  Spock looked up from his diagnostic unit as Captain Kirk returned. Dr. McCoy was far more eager as he left his temporary medical lab to join the captain. “What did you find, Jim?”

  “Science labs,” Kirk replied. “Some of the best-equipped labs I’ve ever seen. You should take your gear in there, Bones, and set up.”

  McCoy headed to the open door and the corridor beyond. Spock appreciated the doctor’s absence, and hoped it would be lengthy. McCoy’s muttering as he monitored the growing cultures in the bio-trays had become almost annoying.

  “We also found these discs, Spock.” Kirk splayed a handful of circular cards. “But we couldn’t find any computer access ports.”

  “The communications unit has an interface port,” Spock reminded him.

  Kirk handed Spock the tricorder he had taken into the labs. “Here, take a look at the equipment we found in there.”

  Spock examined the readings while the captain fed one of the circular discs into the interface port on the communications unit. It took some adjustments to initiate the interface. “That should do it,” Kirk said. “We’ll let that —”

  The communications unit let out a series of rapid beeps, indicating there was a malfunction. After a moment, a wisp of smoke appeared from the aperture. Hastily, Kirk ejected the circular disc. From the way he tossed it from hand to hand, then dropped it, Spock ascertained that the casing was hot.

  Spock picked up the disc. It was currently 132 degrees and cooling rapidly. The plasticized osmium casing had melted and twisted from the heat.

  “Intriguing,” Spock commented. “The disc must possess an internal energy source, to be capable of self-destructing.”

  Kirk was looking doubtfully at Spock’s fingers as he held the hot disc. “Quite the defensive-minded people, these Kalandans.”

  “Undoubtedly.” Spock examined the tricorder readings of the labs. There were unusual features in each of the devices. “This equipment appears to be designed for botanical studies.”

  “Botany?” Kirk asked. “On a space station?”

  “Apparently the Kalandans were well-rounded in their scientific inquiry.” Spock nodded over the list of devices. “Quite thorough, in fact.”

  “As soon as I saw those labs, I knew you’d appreciate them.”

  Spock raised one brow in question. “This station has survived without maintenance or sentient guidance for over ten thousand years. Surely that is an accomplishment to be admired.”

  “Admired, yes,” Kirk said shortly. “I wish we could see more of it. Sulu and Reinhart are continuing the search. We found another sort of . . . nexus chamber, like this one. Only it doesn’t have a computer node.” Kirk nodded toward the detached cube. The colors seemed to move e
ven more sluggishly. “What have you found?”

  Spock turned to the white node. “This node is not the source of the Losira images. However, it did target and focus the energy of the computer. I also believe this node targeted the Enterprise for interstellar transport.”

  “How does it work, Spock?”

  “In much the same way our tractor-emitters focus on a remote target and use a superimposed subspace/graviton force beam to move an object. This device focused the energy force beams and allow them to be transmitted to the target.”

  “Like a valve or a gateway,” Kirk agreed. “That’s why our tricorders read the energy spike like a door opening, then shutting.”

  “Precisely, Captain.” Spock gave the node an admiring glance.

  “Can you tell where the energy beam originated from?”

  “Negative.” He indicated a precise spot in the wall. “The monofilaments go through a stasis junction here, beyond which our sensors cannot penetrate. The reason is currently unknown. However, I may have a solution.”

  Spock went to workspace built into the side of the lift. There he had placed one container of medical nanites.

  “These are nanites,” he explained to Kirk. “Submicroscopic robots that are manufactured in Dakar, Senegal, and used for medical functions. Dr. McCoy has been attempting to use them to isolate the virus.”

  Dr. McCoy returned from the science labs just in time to overhear. “What have you got there, Spock?” As he drew closer, his eyes widened. “Those are my nanites! What are you doing with them?”

  “I was assessing their usefulness in penetrating the monofilaments of the computer node.” Nanites were not easy to obtain, and Spock held on to the self-programmable container firmly. He wouldn’t put it past the doctor to claim ownership, despite his pressing need. “They are small enough to enter the monofilaments. I intend to program them to trace a path to the source of the energy.”

  McCoy hesitated. “I guess they could be used for that. Here, give it to me.” He took the container from Spock and programmed it. “I’m setting their functions for vascular work. The nanites will run through the tubes until they reach a blockage, where they’ll attempt to clear it and continue on. They won’t be able to do much for damaged monofilaments.”