Belle Terre

by Dean Wesley Smith

  There was no one else on the three-person bridge with him. There was no reason for anyone else to be here, with nothing happening for days at a time. He hadn’t even bothered to shave in three days and his long black hair was tangled from his fingers twisting it. On the main screen in front of him was the planet Belle Terre, the destination of the colonial expedition.

  As with a wagon train in the Old West, heading for parts unknown, they’d gone so far from Federation space that they had needed scouts to work the area ahead. So Pardonnet had hired Sunn and his ship to be part of that scouting trip, before Starfleet and Kirk had gotten involved. Granted, the trip out had had its exciting moments, but sitting here in orbit doing nothing was soon going to drive him crazy.

  Maybe he was already going crazy and the feeling of dread was just the start of it.

  He laughed and pulled himself up to a full sitting position, then quickly checked all the sensors.

  “Empty, as expected,” he said to himself, his words echoing around the empty bridge.

  After the first three days of just sitting in orbit, he had tried to think of a way out of his contract with the colony, a contract which called for him and the Rattlesnake to stay near the colonists for at least another month, then explore the surrounding star systems before heading back.

  Now only two weeks had passed, with two long, dull weeks to look forward to. He was going to be completely insane if he had to wait out the full month. There had to be a way to get the exploration started sooner, rather than later. Seeing what the surrounding systems were like excited him.

  Originally from the wide-open plains of Texas, Sunn had grown up mostly bored, looking for adventure in any place he could find it as a kid. Back then he’d always dreamed about having his own starship, of exploring wherever he wanted in deep space. Now he had the ship, his own ship, and he was just about as deep into space as he had imagined getting. Maybe even deeper.

  And he was again bored.

  That was not what he had expected way out here. Something had to change and change fast. Maybe the feeling of dread was coming from that need for change?

  He pulled his lanky, six-foot-six frame out of the chair and moved over to the main sensor station. He did a quick scan of the other ships in orbit, then the surrounding area of the system.

  Nothing happening. Most of the colonists had already moved to the planet’s surface and all attention was there.

  “Except,” he said aloud. His scans had noted that someone on the Enterprise had been doing an intense study of the Quake Moon. Why?

  The feeling of dread seemed to increase as he turned the ship’s best scanners at the moon. At first the readings he got made no sense. He’d gone to school for astrophysics and alien-planet geology, figured it would help him get off Earth. And it had, getting him a hitch right out of school on an exploration ship headed for an asteroid swarm in search of minerals for a nearby manufacturing planet. That kind of exploration had turned out to be more boring than sitting in orbit watching over colonists, so he had quickly moved on.

  Now his college education was coming in handy again as he tried to adjust the instruments, always coming back to a setting that gave him the weird readings.

  The inside of that moon wasn’t hollow after all.

  The entire inside was in an intense state of quantum flux. But that wasn’t possible either.

  For the next hour he did every test he could figure out to do, always getting the same answer, never letting himself believe the answer he got. Finally, he could think of no other test.

  Finally he had to trust his findings.

  The moon wasn’t hollow. Far from it, actually. It was filled with quasar olivium, a mineral so desired that just an ounce of it would make anyone in the colony a fortune.

  The Quake Moon was full of the stuff. By his readings, maybe hundreds of thousands of tons.

  And clearly, from the scans the Enterprise was doing, they knew about it also.

  Sunn moved back over and dropped down into his chair, smiling as he stared at the main viewscreen still focused on Belle Terre. The immediate future now looked far from boring. It seemed that this planet and its not-so-hollow moon was about to become the most desired hunk of ground in all the sector.

  And the colonists and Starfleet were going to need all the help they could get.

  And he was just the man to give it to them.

  Chapter Three

  Countdown: 8 Days, 6 Hours

  KIRK HADN’T FELT this much silence and pressure on the bridge in a long time. In battle each member of the crew had something to do. Now they were simply waiting. As each of the bridge crew had come back, each had asked the same question: What was happening?

  He had told them all the same answer: Give Mr. Spock a little more time and wait until everyone was back.

  That left everyone wondering in a very thick, very heavy silence.

  Kirk glanced around the bridge at his crew. Uhura at communications, Chief Engineer Scott at the engineering panel, Sulu at the helm, and Chekov at tactical. They were all trying to look busy at something, even though there was nothing to do. The only one missing was Dr. McCoy. Kirk knew he had beamed back on board, but had gone to sickbay first.

  Kirk glanced around as the lift doors opened and Dr. McCoy stepped onto the bridge. Now everyone was present. Time to tell everyone what they faced.

  McCoy didn’t look happy and Kirk had no doubt the good doctor was going to be even less happy when he learned what was going on. For some reason, McCoy had come to like many of the colonists during the trip here and seemed to be in his element working with them on the surface. Much more than many of the rest of the crew.

  McCoy glanced around, obviously seeing that all the bridge crew had been recalled. Scott shrugged at McCoy, shaking his gray-covered head, clearly telling the doctor with his motion that he had no idea what was happening either.

  “Well, Captain,” McCoy said, moving down to stand beside Kirk’s chair. “Would you mind telling me what was so all fired important as to drag me away from a fantastic discovery, one that just might, if it pans out, change the face of agriculture in all the Federation?”

  Kirk just held up his hand for McCoy to wait a moment, then turned to his first officer, still intently bent over his scope. “Well, Spock? Anything more to report?”

  Spock stepped back from the science station and turned to face the captain. Everyone on the bridge at the same time turned to stare at the first officer.

  Kirk could tell that Spock knew that he was not only reporting to the captain, but informing the rest of the bridge crew at the same time. “The quasar olivium that fills the center part of the moon is difficult at best to measure, owing to its nature.”

  “Olivium?” Bones almost shouted. “Filling the moon? Poppycock!”

  “No way, sir,” Scotty said at the same time as Bones’s explosion. Scotty stepped away from the station to the railing. “That stuff does na exist inna natural state.”

  “I assure you, it does exist,” Spock said calmly in the face of the sudden onslaught of disagreement. “It fills the moon in its theorized state of quantum flux.”

  “The entire inside of the moon?” Bones asked, clearly shocked, from the tone of his voice. “Do you know what such a find would mean to medicine?”

  “Yes, Doctor,” Spock said.

  Kirk glanced at his medical officer, who was looking stunned and pale. He had felt the same way when told the news. The repercussions of such a find were beyond comprehension all at once. This discovery would touch every aspect of Federation life and science.

  “Go on with your report,” Kirk said, turning back to his first officer.

  “I have confirmed a more accurate time frame for the explosion,” Spock said.

  “Explosion?” Bones asked. “What explosion? Would someone please explain to me what in tarnation is going on?”

  Kirk indicated for Bones to wait, and Spock went on.

  “If left unchecked, and at th
e current rate of increase of pressure, and approximating the average crust density of the moon and its resistance to the pressure, the moon will explode in eight days and six hours. My margin of error is plus or minus three hours, but I should be able to refine that estimate within one hour, given a little more time.”

  “And the results will be as you predicted?” Kirk asked, stunned that the time was so much shorter than the one month he had been hoping for.

  “Yes,” Spock said. “All life on the planet will be instantly destroyed. And at least sixty-eight percent of the olivium will be destroyed as well.”

  “If this is some kind of Vulcan trick,” Bones said, “so help me I’ll drain your green blood right into a jar.”

  “I assure you, Doctor,” Spock said, “this is no trick. The moon contains, very securely it seems, a large quantity of quasar olivium. Due to olivium’s unstable nature, and quantum flux properties of the mineral, the pressure inside the moon has been building for thousands of years.”

  “And it’s going to explode in eight more days?” Kirk asked. “Why then? Why not eight more years? Or eight more centuries for that matter?”

  “I do not have an exact answer for that, Captain,” Spock said. “The pressure inside the moon seemed to reach a critical point some sixteen months ago, changing the gradual increase of pressure to a sudden and exponential one.”

  “So we have a moon full of the most priceless mineral ever known to civilized man,” McCoy said, “inside a crust that’s about to explode and kill sixty-two thousand colonists on the planet below. Right?”

  “Doctor,” Spock said, “you have an ability to summarize that seems beyond measure.”

  McCoy was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t even realize Spock had insulted him. But Kirk laughed. “Spock, any leads on how we might stop this explosion?”

  “None, Captain,” Spock said. “I can think of no method that would drain the buildup of energy inside the moon without triggering the explosion itself.”

  “We canna just sit here and do nothin’,” Scott said.

  “Oh, we’re not going to,” Kirk assured his chief engineer. “I’ve already informed Governor Pardonnet and he’s starting evacuation plans. You worked with the medical staff in that area, didn’t you, Doctor?”

  McCoy nodded. “I did, but more along the nature of a medical-emergency evacuation under quarantine conditions. Nothing was ever done about trying to evacuate the entire population back to the ships. No one expected it would be needed.”

  Kirk nodded. “I want you back working with the medical staff to make sure that however the governor decides to handle this evacuation, it is done safely.”

  “Understood,” McCoy said.

  Kirk turned to his chief engineer. “Scotty, I want you working with Mr. Spock. I want the two of you searching for any method, no matter how far-fetched it might seem, to stop this explosion.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Scott said.

  Spock said nothing.

  Kirk glanced around. “I’m going to be informing the other ships’ captains of the problem we discovered. I’ll tell them to send all ideas they might have through here. Listen to them, people. Who knows who might come up with the method of saving this planet. Now get to work.”

  McCoy turned and headed for the door while Scott moved over and joined Spock. Kirk stared for a moment at the scene of Belle Terre on the screen, then turned to Uhura. “Put a visual of the moon on the screen.”

  The ragged, cold image of the olivium-filled Quake Moon filled the viewscreen.

  “Now,” Kirk said to Uhura, “open a channel to all captains of all the ships in orbit around Belle Terre and let me know when they are all standing by. Tell them we have an emergency.”

  “Right away, sir,” Uhura said, then set to work.

  Kirk stared at the dark moon. Over the years his enemies had come in all shapes and sizes. But never one that looked quite like this. Or that packed such a punch as this.

  Or had as many repercussions for the future of the entire Federation.

  Countdown: 8 Days, 3 Hours

  The domelike plastic structure that Lilian Coates and her son lived in actually seemed spacious compared to what their quarters had been on the ship. They now had one of a hundred “domes” made of blown plastic, form-fitted, that lined up through the trees just to the west outside the main colony, each spaced twenty paces apart. The “street” that connected them all was nothing more than a dirt-covered road where two tracks had been worn down in the slight underbrush.

  Even though the row of domes looked the same, the interiors and sizes were different in many ways. Their dome actually had two small bedrooms, one for her and one for Reynold. Plus a bathroom with running water from a small storage tank, and combination kitchen and living area that was stuffed with most of the furnishings and personal possessions they had been allowed to bring with them from Earth.

  And outside, around the row of domes, there was nothing but forest. It was heaven compared to how they had survived on the trip out.

  If her plans worked as she hoped, she would stake claim to some land near the ocean, then over the next few years build her dream home. Actually it had been her and Tom’s plan for a dream home overlooking this new ocean, but she was still going to build it anyway, she loved the plan that much.

  Now all her dreams, and the colony’s dreams, seemed to be evaporating like water on a hot sidewalk. From what she had heard, the Quake Moon, as people had called one of the planet’s many moons, wasn’t actually hollow as everyone thought, but instead held vast riches of an unusual mineral. And because of this mineral the moon was going to explode, destroying the planet.

  Governor Pardonnet had called a large meeting in a few hours in the main colony center, broadcast live to every colonist on the planet and those few still remaining on the ships. At first she had considered going down into the center, to stand in the crowds in front of the newly built town hall, but then decided to stay right here and make sure she heard every word he said over the communication links.

  Reynold came in from playing outside and sat down dejectedly at the table. His face was drawn and he looked like he was holding back tears. “Are we really going to have to go back into the ships? They’re just kidding me, aren’t they?”

  “I don’t know,” Lilian said. “Governor Pardonnet will tell us tonight.”

  “The other kids say we are,” Reynold said. “I don’t want to go. I like it here.”

  She moved over and sat down with her son. “So do I,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder for comfort.

  “So let’s just stay,” he said, his face brightening up. “I hate the ship. If you like it here and I like it here, why don’t we just stay right here?”

  She laughed at the simplicity of a child’s logic. You wanted to stay, so you stayed. She wished it were that simple.

  “We’ll stay if we can,” she said. “I promise you that.”

  “Good.”

  He jumped down and headed off into his room. Her promise had satisfied him for the moment, but if that Quake Moon was about to explode, she knew it wasn’t a promise she could keep. And she knew that if they got back on those ships, Governor Pardonnet’s dream of a colony was dead.

  Her and Tom’s dream would never come to be, and Tom’s life would have been lost for nothing.

  All of this would be for nothing.

  She was so angry she wanted to slam things, break things, swear and cry. Instead she forced herself to just sit there at the table.

  She forced herself to remember Tom and all the good times they had had planning this new life.

  She forced herself to just wait until she had more information.

  There was nothing else she could do.

  Countdown: 8 Days, 1 Hour

  Governor Pardonnet banged on the table in front of him and shouted over the roar of people talking. “Everyone please quiet down!”

  He took a deep breath as the mass of people in the roo
m broke off their conversations and either sat or leaned against the wall of the town meeting hall to listen. The building was the first one built on the planet, out of trees cut down here. It seemed an appropriate place to hold this meeting. This gathering was much smaller than the one to be held in the center area of the main settlement, in front of this building, in two hours. This was a preliminary meeting, with the leaders of all branches of the colony, to determine what he would say to all the colonists in the big meeting later.

  He knew that talking to all the colonists at once was going to be difficult. He could feel the weight of that responsibility push down on him again, as it had done so often on the preparation and voyage here. He just hoped they had a few more answers by that point.

  One hour ago he’d gotten the update and exact time of the explosion from Captain Kirk and passed it along to his scientists for confirmation. At the moment he had no idea what needed to be done, what needed to be said to the entire colony. He wanted the people in front of him to help on that score.

  He looked around at all the familiar faces. They were the heads of all the different areas of the colony. Science, medicine, mechanics, agriculture, supplies, defense, and so on. With their help he had gotten them this far. Now they faced maybe the biggest challenge to the colony ever, and their settlement of the planet wasn’t even two weeks old yet.

  He waited until the room was almost quiet, then turned to Dr. Cullen Hayes, their chief physicist, and the man everyone seemed to turn to with most science-related questions. Hayes was a short man, middle-aged, with a bald head and thick eyebrows. He very seldom smiled and Pardonnet had never seen the man laugh.

  “Have you confirmed the Enterprise findings?” Pardonnet asked.

  “They are correct,” Hayes said, his voice flat, but loud enough to carry easily to every corner of the room.

  Instantly everyone in the room shifted, as if they had all been hoping, waiting for a different answer. Pardonnet could feel the depression settle over the room like a heavy blanket.

  Hayes didn’t seem to notice as he went on. “What we initially took to be a hollow moon is filled with olivium. And the moon itself is containing the olivium in such a way as to build up pressure inside. The pressure is increasing at an exponential rate and will cause an explosion in eight days, give or take a few hours.”