Star Trek: Enterprise - 016 - Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel

by Christopher L. Bennett

  Still, those challenges lay in the future, and this was a time to commemorate battles won. Archer was proudest to see the command crews of Endeavour and Pioneer standing at his flanks in full dress. It was the closest he’d come in more than a year and a half to reuniting his old crew from Enterprise. He could not be more proud of T’Pol, Reed, Sato, Mayweather, Phlox, Kimura, and Cutler, as well as their colleagues Thanien, Williams, Sangupta, Dax, Grev, and Kirk, all valued additions to what he saw as the extended Enterprise family—the people who kept the spirit of that ship alive even though its body was now a museum display. The achievement being celebrated this day would not have been possible without their skill, dedication, and courage, and he was proud that the whole Federation could celebrate their victory along with him. His only regret was that Trip Tucker had not found a way to be part of these proceedings in some way.

  Well, no: he had one more regret. “Jon? What is it?”

  He turned to the one person whose presence in this room he was perhaps most grateful for. Danica Erickson stood there, looking resplendent in a satiny silver gown that highlighted the chocolate richness of her skin. Her warm, dark eyes met his with concern and deep compassion. Those eyes reminded him of someone else’s—or maybe, he thought, he had been drawn to that other’s eyes because they had reminded him of Dani’s.

  He gave her a wistful smile, appreciating her instinctive compassion, her ability to read him like few others could. “I was just thinking . . . it’s a shame Sedra Hemnask couldn’t be here to see this. Whatever she may have done . . . she really loved Rigel and believed it deserved a better future, a future in the Federation.” He shook his head. “If only she hadn’t been trapped by what she saw as her duty . . . she could’ve been here to see the culmination of her hopes.”

  Dani’s hand moved to his, their fingers intermingling. “You really cared about her, didn’t you?”

  “I wanted to. Or maybe . . . maybe she just offered me something at a time when I was ready to look for it. I just wasn’t looking in the right place.”

  “Hm.” She kept on holding his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for inviting me to this, Jon,” she said after a while. “I’m really glad you finally got up the nerve to ask me out.”

  He let go of her hand, but only to put his arm around her shoulders. “I wasn’t afraid,” he said. “I was just too focused on the future to see what was waiting right in front of me.”

  She gave him a look, reminding him he knew better than to try corny lines on her. “The future’s still what matters, Jon.”

  “Of course it is.” Gazing into eyes as dark as space, he couldn’t resist one more corny line. “And right now it looks better than ever.”

  November 18, 2164

  Boslic trading vessel Namkun, uncharted space

  Captain Bievel sobbed as the freighter’s deck jolted beneath her feet and warning lights multiplied on her status console. “Please,” she begged to her attackers. “We’re sorry, we won’t tell anyone! Please, just let us go!”

  It had started out so invitingly, with that pristine white trading post Namkun had found while seeking new trade contacts in the unknown territories that had opened up now that the Romulans had been forced behind the Neutral Zone and the Mutes had stopped hijacking ships. Bievel had known that, with those powers no longer blocking entry into the space beyond, it would not be long before Starfleet explorers and prospectors in the Rigelian trade network would begin expanding here, discovering what resources the region had to offer. She had been determined to beat them to it.

  True, the trading post had been entirely automated, and its computer had been a very limited conversationalist. But the outpost had offered resources and comforts irresistible to a crew weary from five weeks of fruitless searching. The station’s menus had offered a variety of technologies for sale, including engine components, robotic maintenance drones, and advanced, transporter-based food synthesizers. The barter payments it had demanded had been exorbitant, limiting what Bievel had been able to purchase; and they had lost their life support specialist to a stupid accident during installation of one of the new components. But that had hardly been the station’s fault, she had thought at the time, and if anything it had marginally increased the average competence of her crew. Once Namkun had made its payment and undocked, the station had transmitted an advertisement for other, similar facilities in the sector. Intrigued, Bievel had set out in that direction, hoping to learn more about the robot stations and their builders.

  Contacts with other travelers and natives of the region turned up stories of other such facilities of various types, and even automated ships of the same make, some ferrying tourists or colonists, others unoccupied but adamant about refusing passage into certain territories. The consensus was that the white robots were useful so long as you respected their restrictions and could afford their fees. Although there were a few spacers’ tales of the stations being cursed, demanding blood from those who entered them. Bievel had paused to wonder about that, given her own loss and similar tales of fatal accidents from some of the others she spoke to. But her visits to other white stations had gone smoothly, so she had dismissed the tales as traders’ follies or the slander of jealous competitors.

  But then she had gone a bit too far into the sector, probed a bit too deeply into the white robots’ origins. She had found one of the worlds they had overrun and seen what had happened to its people. And she had made the mistake of trying to warn the next world it was happening to.

  Now their orbital patrol ships closed on Namkun with mindless singularity of purpose, firing relentlessly, giving no quarter. Most of her crew was dead already, her beloved freighter was disintegrating around her, and the only thing left for her to try was a distress signal to warn Rigel and the Federation what would face them as they expanded this way. But the subspace transmitter had been damaged, and there was nothing she could do but beg. “Please,” she sobbed over the short-range comm, “just tell me, why are you doing this? Who are you?!”

  Just before a clean white mechanical arm tore through the cockpit viewport and closed around her, Bievel heard her killers’ answer, the only reply they ever gave to the most important questions:

  “Your inquiry was not recognized.”

  STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE

  RISE OF THE FEDERATION

  will continue

  Acknowledgments

  I don’t have room to recap all the thanks and acknowledgments I made in the previous volume, A Choice of Futures, but most of them still apply. Thanks to Ed and Margaret at Pocket Books for letting me continue to develop this story. Thanks to Doug Drexler for technical advice on the Enterprise era and to Paul Abell for asteroid expertise. The Amateur Magician’s Handbook by Henry Hay provided the basic principles from which I derived Tobin’s magic trick.

  Many things have been asserted about the Rigel system in Star Trek episodes and books, and I’ve tried to reconcile what I could, favoring information from canon and the modern novel continuity. While Star Trek’s Rigel has traditionally been assumed to be the blue supergiant star of that name in the constellation Orion, its depiction in Enterprise: “Broken Bow” as a nearer, less familiar system led to its reinterpretation as “Beta Rigel” in Star Trek Star Charts by Geoffrey Mandel, and the StarMap site at whitten.org/starmap identified Mandel’s Beta Rigel with the real star Tau-3 Eridani. The Kandari Sector was mentioned in an onscreen graphic in The Next Generation: “Conspiracy” by Tracy Tormé.

  By the numbers:

  The Trojan asteroids of Rigel I are loosely inspired by the Rigel asteroid belt depicted in Worlds of the Federation by Shane Johnson and in Star Charts, but reinterpreted to fit our modern knowledge of the abundance of hot Jovians orbiting close to their stars.

  The cabarets of Rigel II were established in The Original Series: “Shore Leave” by Theodore Sturgeon. Its seedy reputation and criminal ties were suggested by The Lost Era: Catalyst of Sorrows by Margaret Wander Bonanno and IDW
Comics’s Alien Spotlight: Orions by Scott and David Tipton and Elena Casagrande. Kefvenek was alluded to in Vanguard: Precipice by David Mack.

  The Chelons were introduced as background “Rigellians” [sic] in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Costume designer Robert Fletcher’s background notes for the film described them as single-gendered. The Vanguard novels by David Mack, Dayton Ward, and Kevin Dilmore established their specific name and characteristics and identified Rigel III as their homeworld, while also giving them two sexes, which I have tried to reconcile. Rigelian hypnoids are from The Animated Series: “Mudd’s Passion” by Stephen Kandel. My portrayal of the Hainali Basin is heavily informed by the chapter on Amazonia in the fascinating nonfiction book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.

  The “Vulcanoid” Rigelians were established in TOS: “Journey to Babel” by D.C. Fontana. Catalyst of Sorrows established Rigel IV as their native world (drawing on TOS: “Wolf in the Fold” by Robert Bloch) and introduced the First Families (including the Thamnos clan) and the expatriate population on Rigel V. That novel depicts these Rigelians as human in appearance, while other sources suggest a more Vulcan appearance; I have struck a middle path. The name “Zami” is based on Zamiar, the name for Rigel IV in the Decipher role-playing game. Rigelian fever and ryetalyn are from TOS: “Requiem for Methuselah” by Jerome Bixby.

  The craggy-faced, bead-wearing Rigelians were first seen in Enterprise: “Demons” by Manny Coto, after being established as four-gendered in ENT: “Cogenitor” by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, identifies Rigel V as their homeworld, perhaps by the process of elimination. I have chosen to identify their “endosexes” with the silver-skinned, red-eyed Rigelians posited in various novels by Michael Jan Friedman, one of whom, Folanir Pzial, is a member of the U.S.S. Lovell crew created by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore and featured in the Corps of Engineers and Vanguard series.

  The Rigel Colonies were mentioned in TOS: “The Doomsday Machine” by Norman Spinrad. My interpretation of them as colonies of alien immigrants identifying as Rigelian was inspired by a comment by David Mack. The presence of major shipyards around Rigel VI is based on a reference to one such shipyard in the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual by Herman Zimmerman, Rick Sternbach, and Doug Drexler.

  Rigel VII and the Kalar are from TOS: “The Cage” by Gene Roddenberry. My depiction of them is heavily influenced by Marvel Comics’s Star Trek: Early Voyages #3, “Our Dearest Blood” by Ian Edgington, Dan Abnett, and Patrick Zircher. The giant cratered world seen in Rigel VII’s sky in the famous Albert Whitlock matte painting from “The Cage” has been interpreted as Rigel VI in fan sources, but due to the DS9 Technical Manual reference, I made it Rigel VIII instead.

  The 1980 Star Trek Maps and Star Charts both interpreted Rigel VIII as a ringed Jovian, implicitly the one seen in the sky of the “Cage” matte painting. I have followed this precedent but made it Rigel IX instead.

  The Rigel X trading outpost was seen in ENT: “Broken Bow” and “These Are the Voyages,” and its Orion slave market was established in the ENT novel The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin.

  My depiction of the Babel outpost (introduced in “Journey to Babel”) is informed primarily by Myriad Universes: A Less Perfect Union by William Leisner (which established the Ramatis Choral Debates and the basic station layout) and Alien Spotlight: Orions (which established the esplanade). Thoris (Joel Swetow) debuted in ENT: “Demons.” Avaranthi sh’Rothress is a historical figure introduced in Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido. Selina Rosen and Doctor Sobon are from Vanguard: Open Secrets by Dayton Ward. Solkar, father of Skon, was named in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock by Harve Bennett and established as Vulcan’s first ambassador to Earth in ENT: “The Catwalk” by Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong. His daughter-in-law T’Rama was created by John Takis in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds V: “A Girl For Every Star,” and established as a member of T’Pau’s security force in ENT: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm by Michael A. Martin.

  Kaferia was established in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before” by Samuel A. Peeples. Star Trek Maps identified it with Tau Ceti III and established its insectoid natives, a precedent I followed in Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. Yet The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor’s Wing by Michael A. Martin identified Kaferia as a human colony on Tau Ceti IV. I have attempted to reconcile this herein.

  Harrad-Sar (William Lucking) is from ENT: “Bound” by Manny Coto. The Mazarites are from ENT: “Fallen Hero” by Alan Cross (story by Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and Chris Black), the Agaron from ENT: “The Seventh” by Berman and Braga. The Venus drug is from TOS: “Mudd’s Women” by Stephen Kandel.

  Brantik is the name of a Tellarite colony in Articles of the Federation, which may be the same Tellarite colony founded herein. Danica Erickson (Leslie Silva) is from ENT: “Daedalus” by Ken LaZebnik and Michael Bryant. Jeremy Lucas (later played by Richard Riehle) was introduced in ENT: “Dear Doctor” by Maria and André Jacquemetton. Section 31 agent Harris (Eric Pierpoint) debuted in ENT: “Affliction” by Mike Sussman (story by Manny Coto).

  This was a tough one to get done, so I want to thank my friends at the 2013 Shore Leave convention, my cousins Barb, Mark, and Teddy, their friend Charles, and the folks at GraphicAudio for helping me recover mentally and Amanda Lass, NP, for helping me recover physically. Thanks to Dave Mack and Kevin Dilmore for moral support, and particularly to Kirsten Beyer for being willing to find the time.

  About the Author

  Christopher L. Bennett is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, with bachelor’s degrees in physics and history from the University of Cincinnati. He has written such critically acclaimed Star Trek novels as Ex Machina, The Buried Age, the Titan novels Orion’s Hounds and Over a Torrent Sea, the two Department of Temporal Investigations novels Watching the Clock and Forgotten History, and the Enterprise novel Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures, as well as shorter works including stories in the anniversary anthologies Constellations, The Sky’s the Limit, Prophecy and Change, and Distant Shores. Beyond Star Trek, he has penned the novels X-Men: Watchers on the Walls and Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder. His original work includes the hard science fiction superhero novel Only Superhuman, as well as several novelettes in Analog and other science fiction magazines. More information and annotations can be found at home.fuse.net/ChristopherLBennett, and the author’s blog can be found at christopherlbennett.wordpress.com.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  Cover design by Alan Dingman

  Cover art by Doug Drexler

  ISBN 978-1-4767-4964-8

  ISBN 978-1-4767-4966-2 (ebook)

  CONTENTS

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8