Belle Terre

by Dean Wesley Smith

  “Can you get it started up again?” Sunn asked, staring at the exposed mass of circuits and boards. Another strange trait of these people had been their desire to leave all working parts right out in the open. Most cultures covered their machinery with boxes, hid it behind walls, or decorated it with something to change its nature. This race had seemed to love the working parts of something left right out in plain sight. It sure made working on them easier, that was for sure.

  “I think so,” Roger said. “If I can cross-connect my sensor’s power source like I did on the other one, it should be enough to run the thing, but not blow the old circuits.”

  “I wonder why this guy wasn’t afraid of the light?” Dar said, pointing to the skeleton. “First one we’ve seen on an upper floor.”

  “Maybe we’ll find out right now,” Roger said, patting the mass of circuits. He tapped a button on his sensor and there was a slight pop and a small screen in the middle of the parts came to life.

  Roger watched the snow on the screen for a moment, then said, “So far nothing shorted out. Let me see if I can recover some memory from the storage bank on this thing.”

  Sunn nodded. What had sent them on this search for a news room of some sort in the first place was the discovery that these machines sitting on desks throughout the city had memory that wasn’t dependent on energy to maintain. This culture had discovered a way to store bits of information on the molecular structure of a silicon substance. Since that was the case, Roger said he could recover some of the memory, even after one hundred years of no power to the machines. He had proved that by recovering what looked to be accounting information from a machine in one building.

  At this place they hoped for news.

  After a moment Roger said, “Here we go.”

  A creature’s face appeared frozen on the screen. Humanoid, close-set eyes, no hair, wide forehead. It was talking, showing the double row of teeth Sunn had seen so much of over the past few hours in all the skeletons.

  “This is the last image on the memory,” Roger said, “I figured it would be best to start here and work backwards.”

  “Good idea,” Sunn said. “Run it.”

  Roger punched a button and the alien started talking and moving, clearly not happy with what he was saying. It took the Universal Translator a moment to catch up; then the words the alien was saying became clear.

  “The massive blackness that is passing through our sky is not pausing or taking any prisoners. It is our judgment day. It is the time of the passing as we all knew was coming.”

  The alien took a deep breath and went on. “Our planet’s entire space fleet has been lost. In the last hour the area of the planet closest to the blackness has lost all communications. We have been unable to contact anyone. The blackness does not kill, but takes all energy from every source. No machines will work after it has passed. It is the judgment.”

  Again the entity paused. Sunn didn’t know what to think. He almost had Roger stop the recording and start it again, but then the entity went on.

  “Our area of Nevlin, our city, will be drained into the blackness within a few minutes. Take shelter! Fear the sky! The foretold time of blackness is upon us at last. This is all Elah’s time of judgment and we have been judged lacking. The entire surface of Nevlin will soon be black. May we all meet in the next life where the sun always shines upon our people.”

  The small screen went dead.

  Sunn felt stunned.

  He glanced at the skeleton of the creature slumped over the edge of the desk in the sunlight. Now he knew their names, the planet’s name, and what happened to their civilization. All its energy was sucked from it, literally.

  “Why did they all die?” Dar asked. “It was only their energy that was taken from them? They could find new energy sources.”

  “They all died because they all thought it was their duty to die,” Roger said. “Religion of some sort, more than likely.”

  Sunn glanced at Roger, then at the skeleton. Well, they had answers. These Elah had died of fear after something black in the sky took their energy. Sunn could just hear Captain Kirk. “Do you know what the blackness was?”

  It seemed that by finding these answers, they now had another larger question. And a question that had to be answered before this planet could be deemed safe for the colonists.

  Countdown: 5 Days, 10 Hours

  Pardonnet had just finished explaining to the other leading members of the colony what Captain Kirk had proposed to do. The room was silent; all hundred or so people who had come seemed stunned. He took a drink from a glass of water on the table beside him, letting the coolness of the water calm him. He’d talked about thousands of different things over the years preparing to lead this colony. But nothing had prepared him for this kind of decision.

  “Any questions at all?” he asked, finally breaking the silence.

  “After the Gamma Night,” Dr. Connie Baxter said from the back, “are you going to tell all the colonists?”

  “I will,” Pardonnet said. “We’ll set a time here, in this meeting, and hope that everyone can get to a communications screen or a central location somewhere. Then for the three hours following the announcement, I propose everyone vote.”

  “Majority wins?” someone asked from the back.

  “Do you see another way?” Pardonnet asked. “All the ships need to be involved in the effort, and we all need to be on the ships. Majority on this rules and there’s not time to take the dissenting voters anywhere safe, even if we had someplace safe to go.”

  “And we can’t spare one ship to take all the children to safety?” someone asked.

  Pardonnet shook his head. “I asked the exact question of Kirk. Every ship is needed, especially the large ones, or everything might fail.”

  He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “Look, people, we are in this colony together. Captain Kirk has found another way to save our planet and this colony. I think the chance is our best hope for a future. Any future, to be honest with you. I know I have no future back on Earth. My home is here now.”

  Around the room heads were nodding. Almost everyone in this colony had never expected ever to see Earth or Federation space again.

  “Okay, then,” he said after another long moment of silence. “The evacuation needs to continue at full pace. Everyone has to have all the supplies and personal belongings on board their ship in thirty-six hours whether we vote to try this idea or not.”

  That deadline seemed to take energy out of the air as people slumped and a few groaned. Pardonnet ignored them and went on. “Pass the information from this meeting to as many others as you can over the Gamma Night and stand ready for my general announcement and then the vote. We have a chance to save our planet. I am hoping we all vote to take it.”

  With that he stepped away from the table, indicating that the meeting was over. The room filled with talking, but he didn’t stay to get involved. He headed for the door. He could spare a few more hours right now helping in the search for the children and he was going to take them.

  Those six kids were out there somewhere, and if it were up to him, they would be on board the ships in thirty-six hours, no matter what the decision was about the moon.

  Countdown: 5 Days, 9 Hours

  Reynold looked at the entrance to the cave. From what little light was coming through the brush, he could tell it was starting to get dark again. His mom was going to be really, really mad at him after this. And he knew she was worried. But as Danny had said, if they went back now, they’d still just end up on the ships going back to Earth.

  Reynold knew that Danny was right. Danny was usually right.

  All day they had spent playing games and eating. Each of them had brought lots of food, and the caves were pretty big, so it had been fun exploring and eating. But now it was getting dark and he missed his mother. He’d never been away from her this long before.

  And he really missed his dad.

  He tossed a few more sti
cks on the fire and rubbed his hands together to warm them. He’d gotten warm during the night in his sleeping bag, but now was cold again.

  “Hey!” Diane said, appearing out of the dark in the back of the cave. “Come look. I found a new cave!”

  He jumped up, taking his flashlight and a candy stick with him. Finding new caves was always fun.

  For the next few hours of exploring, he forgot about leaving Belle Terre and going back to Earth. Looking through new caves was just too much fun.

  Countdown: 5 Days, 5 Hours

  Kirk stared at the fuzzy screen. He could barely see the small moon they were about to knock out of orbit around the gas giant. The moon was so small, and this system so uncharted, that no one had bothered to name it. Sulu was calling it the Needle and so far, much to McCoy’s annoyance, the name was sticking.

  Gamma Night blocked most of the sensors and communications with other ships. They had managed to rig a tight-beam system that allowed him to communicate with the other Starfleet ships near the small moon. The system worked on relays, one ship to the other, and remained constantly open, in case it was needed. That way if something went wrong, he could at least call off the attempt.

  But all the preparations for moving the moon had been done before Gamma Night had set in six hours ago. Tractor beams had been calibrated and set, each ship attached by tractor to the small moon. Timing had been worked out to the second. Since then they had just done more waiting.

  Kirk tried to stare through the fuzziness of the screen. It seemed that since this fleet had left Federation space, he’d done more waiting than any other time in his career. Space always was basically long stretches of boredom punctuated by short moments of activity. But for some reason, on this mission, with this colony, he’d noticed the waiting more than usual.

  “One minute,” Spock said.

  Behind them the lift door slid open and McCoy joined the bridge crew.

  “All systems ready, sir,” Sulu said. “Tractor beam still locked and holding.”

  “Stand by,” Kirk said. He hoped the rest of the ships were ready as well. Nothing was coming across the tight-beam emergency frequency, so he was assuming they were. He had no other choice at the moment. They were mostly blind and basically deaf out here, trying to shove a moon out of orbit. A thousand things could go wrong. He just hoped none of them did.

  “I see I’m just in time for the big show,” McCoy said, moving down to stand by Kirk’s chair.

  “Let’s hope there’s not much to see,” Kirk said.

  “On that screen, how could we see if something did go wrong?” McCoy asked.

  Kirk didn’t even want to think about that.

  “Fifteen seconds,” Spock said.

  “On Spock’s command, Mr. Sulu,” Kirk said.

  “Aye, sir,” Sulu said.

  “Five,” Spock said.

  “Four.

  “Three.

  “Two.

  “One.

  “Fire engines.”

  “One-quarter impulse now!” Sulu said.

  Around Kirk the Enterprise shook and the noise level increased to a dull roar as the ship struggled to push on the moon. He could feel the deck under his feet shudder slightly.

  “Seven minutes and sixteen seconds to shutdown,” Spock said.

  “Status, Mr. Sulu?” Kirk asked.

  “Tractor beam holding firm. Engines overheating slightly as expected, but nothing more.”

  “Good.”

  He sat, watching the fuzzy image of the moon on the screen, waiting again.

  Waiting for something to go wrong.

  Waiting for the time to pass.

  Waiting.

  Maybe it was getting older that was causing him to notice the waiting more. Time seemed more important and waiting more worthless. But at times there was just no choice. They all had to just wait.

  No one on the bridge, not even McCoy, said anything.

  Seven minutes of silence, seven long minutes of waiting later Mr. Spock said, “Cut engines now!”

  “Engines cut,” Sulu said.

  “Release tractor beam,” Kirk ordered.

  “Released,” Sulu said.

  Kirk looked around at Mr. Spock. “Let’s hope that worked.”

  “We’ll know in three hours and forty-two minutes,” Spock said. “I will be able to take accurate readings at that point.”

  “Well, I’m glad I didn’t miss that,” McCoy said, the sarcasm clear in his voice. “You up for some dinner, Jim?”

  Kirk nodded. No point in sitting up here waiting for three more hours. He stood and smiled at Bones. “Only if you’re buying.”

  Bones laughed. “You think your company is worth that much, huh?”

  “Would you rather eat with Spock?” Kirk asked as they headed for the lift.

  Both of them laughed as they entered the lift and turned to face the clearly puzzled look of the Vulcan.

  Chapter Twelve

  Countdown: 4 Days, 19 Hours

  LILIAN COATES stood outside her dome home, brushed her hair back out of her eyes, and stared up into the trees. Another night had come and gone and still no sign of Reynold or the other children. Almost a thousand people at different times had spread out around the main colony area, searching, calling, walking. The children had just vanished. Even the Starfleet ship Impeller had used its powerful scans to cover as much of the area within one hundred miles as they could. And the parts the Impeller couldn’t cover had been searched on foot dozens of times. Nothing.

  Yet in her heart she knew Reynold was alive. But her heart wouldn’t lead her to him. It just kept pushing her to keep searching and searching.

  Slowly, others who had been searching had stopped and gone back to packing, promising if they had time they would return. And right now she’d heard there was a vote going on. Captain Kirk had another idea to save the colony, but it would risk the life of every colonist. Governor Pardonnet had given a speech and then called for a vote. It would be over shortly, or maybe it already was. It didn’t matter to her at the moment. Only finding Reynold mattered.

  Over the last few days she had come back to her home, to her and Reynold’s home, every few hours to see if he had returned. She also used the time to freshen up, get a small bite to eat, and then return to the search.

  Around here people were moving belongings out of their domes, taking them to beam-up points. She knew that many of the homes along the two-week-old road were already empty. But she had no doubt that six were not.

  Six families were staying, at least until the very last minute. She doubted if she’d be able to leave at all without Reynold. The other families had other children to think about. They would have to go. With Tom dead, Reynold was all she had left. She’d either find him or die trying.

  She stared at the tree-covered hill above the colony. For some reason her little voice kept pulling her back to that hill, even though it had been completely searched. At this point, she had nothing else to lose, so she might as well follow her little voice.

  It couldn’t lead her any farther off track than she had already gone.

  She started up through the trees alone. The few searchers who were left were scattered far and wide. There was so little time left. At this point, it was going to take a miracle to find Reynold.

  And she had never been one to believe in miracles. Maybe it was about time she started.

  Countdown: 4 Days, 19 Hours

  “In six hours we’re going to need seven colony ships, Governor,” Kirk said. “At least three of them must be the Conestogas.”

  Governor Pardonnet’s face filled the main screen. To Kirk, the young governor was starting to look older. He had bags under his eyes and for the first time that Kirk could remember, his jacket seemed wrinkled. The fire that usually lit Pardonnet’s eyes wasn’t there at the moment.

  “I know, Captain,” Pardonnet said. “The vote will be over and counted shortly and I’ll let you know the results. If the people don’t want to tak
e the chance, there will be no point in sending the ships. There will be time.”

  “Thank you, Governor. I’ll be standing by. Kirk out.”

  The image of the governor was replaced with a small, pitted moon that everyone was now calling the Needle. Its entire size fit on the viewscreen, unlike the images of the Quake Moon Kirk had been staring at for days. This moon was only a fraction of the size of the Quake Moon, which was why they could move it. And why it would only rupture the skin of the Quake Moon instead of causing the complete explosion.

  Their push during Gamma Night had gotten the Needle started right on track, and given it enough velocity to escape the orbit of the gas-giant planet. In the last two hours the Starfleet ships had already nudged it three times, helping it gain speed, slightly changing its course. But the crucial first course change and acceleration was going to need the colony ships to help. If the colony voted to go back to Earth, it wasn’t going to matter.

  And if that happened, he’d be faced with the problem of what to do with the colonists. He doubted he could let them head off unprotected, yet at the same time he really couldn’t stop them. His duty was to protect them, and to protect the vast importance of the olivium. Millions would die if he lost control of the olivium. But sixty-two thousand colonists might die if he let them leave unprotected.

  He stared at the Needle on the screen, its pitted surface rotating slowly. He hoped the colonists went for this idea and it worked.

  The other option was not something he wanted to face.

  Countdown: 4 Days, 19 Hours

  Pardonnet paced in the small room as the electronic votes were verified with each colonist’s personal identification number, then recorded. Judith Short and Harvey Ray-Johns, two of the colony’s official treasurers, were doing the work. Judith was a short, young woman with three children. Harvey was tall, thin, and had a skin condition that caused his face to always seem sunburned.

  Pardonnet watched them for a moment as their fingers flew over the keys, working. They were both so intent on their work, he didn’t want to even ask how it was going. There was nothing he could do to help. In a few minutes he would know the results. But there was no way he could sit still.