[80] “Put that device on the floor,” he said, referring to the space-time scanner.
“It would be in your best interest to let me take it,” Silik replied simply.
Archer didn’t believe the Suliban. “You keep saying you’re here to help us. But I can’t help wondering what kind of genetic enhancements you’ll get for bringing back that little prize. Eyes in the back of your head? A pair of wings?”
Silik’s expression darkened. “That’s a cynical attitude, Jon. I thought your species was more trusting.”
The ship trembled from the protostar reactions as the Great Plume of Agosoria flared with a burst of energy. As the reactions grew they caused the ship to bounce violently about, knocking both men off balance. Silik seized upon the opportunity and rushed Archer.
The pair struggled against each other, both losing their weapons. Gaining the upper hand, Silik buffeted Archer’s body with savage blows, knocking the captain to the deck, dazed. Moving back to the panel, Silik managed to open the hatch and climbed into the launch bay precisely at the moment the bridge crew discovered a Suliban vessel approaching.
Moving to the launch bay control panel, Silik found the instrument necessary to open the bay doors.
“I’m not going to ask you again,” Archer said from behind the alien, holding his phase pistol. “Put it down.”
“You’re going to kill me after I saved your life?” Silik replied.
A tense moment followed as Archer stared down the [81] Suliban. Lowering his aim, the captain fired, striking the space-time scanner and blowing it out of Silik’s hand. The device skittered across the deck, charred and destroyed.
“You may have endangered your future, Jon,” Silik said angrily and then dashed out into the launch bay, camouflaging himself once again.
As Archer followed, a Klaxon sounded, signifying that the hydraulics had engaged. Knowing what that meant, Archer grabbed hold of a nearby railing on a catwalk just in time as the bay doors opened and the entire room began to decompress.
Archer was yanked over the railing where he held on for dear life watching the doors open on the stunning sight of the stellar nursery. In the struggle to maintain his grip on the rail, the phase device resting on his finger was ripped off and sucked into space. Archer could only watch as Silik decamouflaged by the bay doors and leaped into space, dropping down to the awaiting Suliban vessel. Silik had escaped, but at least Archer could take some satisfaction in the fact that the Suliban did not take the futuristic technology with him.
Chapter 8
Archer opened his eyes and found himself lying in darkness once again. This time, however, his conscious mind recognized the shifts in reality. Without being able to see, he knew that he was back in his quarters aboard Enterprise.
Was it a dream? he asked himself. His body felt rested, but his mind was wide awake. He wondered if that meant that only his conscious mind had traveled through time. Maybe his body had remained behind, asleep. Looking over at the clock display, he noted that it had been a couple hours since he had first gone to bed. That didn’t really tell him anything. Listening closely, he could hear the soft, shallow breathing of a sleeping Porthos.
His mind was filled with the information that Daniels had given him as well as the questions and doubts every word had raised. But Daniels is dead, he reminded himself. Trip saw it happen.
[83] Pushing past the doubts and the memories of his previous interaction with Daniels and Silik, Archer sat up in his bed. He could not ignore what Daniels had just told him—ten months ago. Forgetting anything else that had happened in the past, he knew it was the only explanation for the recent events, and right now, that was all Archer cared to know.
The only way to discover the truth was to act on the information he’d been given, so Archer hit the lights and sprung out of his bunk. Throwing on his uniform with a renewed sense of determination, he hit the companel on his desk. “All senior staff report to the situation room in fifteen minutes. Mister Reed, I’d like you in my quarters immediately.”
Apparently Reed had taken the command very seriously, because the lieutenant was at Archer’s quarters in just under a minute. The captain suspected that Reed hadn’t been asleep when he received the call, as evidenced by the exhausted look of despair on his face. His uniform seemed slightly crumpled as if he had been lying in it. Archer silently cursed himself from not noticing the lieutenant’s obvious guilt-ridden state long before. But that would have meant dealing with my own issues, he thought regretfully.
“Malcolm?” he asked as the lieutenant stepped into the quarters.
“Did you find something, sir?” The look on Reed’s face was begging for a positive answer.
“Possibly.” Archer didn’t want to build false hopes, but [84] he could not contain his own optimistic attitude. “But I’m going to need your help to prove it.”
He watched as Reed’s entire body came to life. The nearly despondent officer who had come to his door was gone and replaced by a man with renewed purpose. Archer couldn’t help but think that all it took was one simple phrase. No, he corrected himself, not just a simple phrase—a command from his captain, who has been wallowing in his own depression for far too long.
Archer detailed what he needed Reed to do as the pair stepped out onto E-deck, splitting in two directions. While Reed headed for the launch bay, Archer made his way to the bridge. He was almost disappointed that the hour was so late. With hardly any of the crew walking the corridors, he had no one to greet and let know that he was back to his old self. As he rode the turbolift to the bridge, it stopped on B-deck where T’Pol stepped in.
“T’Pol,” he said in greeting, maintaining the proper air of dignity expected of a commanding officer.
“Captain,” she replied. “May I ask what is so important that it couldn’t wait until morning?”
He knew she was throwing his own words back at him. “I’ve stopped feeling sorry for myself,” he cryptically replied as the turbolift opened on the bridge.
Stepping out, he found Trip already waiting. Is anyone on this ship getting sleep? he wondered.
“Sir?” Trip asked.
“In the situation room.” Archer nodded and moved to [85] the aft section of the bridge. He stood, silently, not wanting to reveal too much information until the confirmation he was waiting for came in. The night shift crew just looked on, wondering why the senior staff was arriving several hours early.
Minutes later Ensigns Sato and Mayweather came off the turbolift and joined the rest of the staff in the situation room. Archer took his place at the head of the table as the others circled around.
“We’re waiting for Malcolm,” he announced to his staff.
“Is something wrong, sir?” Trip asked.
“Yeah, something’s very wrong,” he said, though there was a slight grin on his face for the first time in a while. “But we’re about to make it right.”
Where’s Malcolm? he wondered, pacing with anticipation. He’s got to find it.
The turbolift doors opened and all heads turned to find Reed entering the bridge, looking slightly confused. Cupped in his hand he carried some kind of small alien component.
Archer knew exactly what it was.
“It was just where we detected the EM signature.” Reed held up a round object that was only a few centimeters in diameter. “But I don’t understand. It was completely invisible. How on earth did you know that a phase-discriminator would expose it?”
Archer took the component from Reed. It was the first validation of what Daniels had told him. “If I’m not mistaken”—he handed the item to T’Pol—“you’ll find this thing was designed to generate a plasma stream.”
[86] She kept her eyes on the captain as unspoken questions filled her gaze.
Archer set himself in motion around the table. The energy he had lacked in the past two days suddenly came back and needed an outlet. “Put a team together, Trip. I’ll need two quantum beacons. They’ll have to be positron-b
ased and have an output of two hundred gigawatts apiece.”
“Positron based, sir?” Trip asked to clarify what he had just heard.
Archer knew it sounded like he was requesting the impossible. “Just get started. I’ll bring you the specs in a few minutes.” He came to Hoshi. “We’re going to need our com frequencies on the fritz for a day or so. See to it.”
“Aye, sir,” she replied, though with much uncertainty in her voice. She knew what he was asking her to do, but she was unclear on the “why.”
Archer came back to Reed. “Put the armory on full alert.” He knew that they would be seeing action before long. Then he turned to Mayweather. “Turn the ship around, Travis. We’re going back to the Paraagan colony.”
The crew stared at him, hoping for more.
“What are you all waiting for?”
The officers swung into action as they went to their stations for an early reprieve of the night shift. Trip, however, hung back a little to stay by his friend.
“Sir?” he asked, baffled by the commands.
[87] “It wasn’t us, Trip,” Archer said, anticipating the question. “We didn’t do it.”
The captain’s change in attitude invigorated Trip as he let out the breath it seemed as if he had been holding in since he discovered the mission was canceled.
Archer knew exactly how he felt.
Chapter 9
In the hours that followed, Enterprise was bustling with activity, though most of the crew was not entirely sure of what was going on. Even those in the know had little idea what exactly they were doing. Captain Archer was the only one with all the information, and even he was treading on unknown ground as he moved around the ship bringing each part of the plan together. He knew that every one of his bridge officers would have to play a part, but, more important, he knew that he could count on each and every one of them. In the many months they had spent together, Archer had formed a bond with his crew, one that he regretted letting slip for the past two days. It was now his turn to make up for the missed time.
The entire engineering crew had been called to duty and were waiting for their orders as Archer and Trip huddled in a work area set off from main engineering. The captain was using the information provided by Daniels to explain [89] just what those orders would be. Looking over a wall monitor, Archer quickly detailed the specifications of what he would need the team to create for him.
“Take a look at the dispersal curve.” He pointed Trip’s attention to the monitor as the image shifted one-hundred-eighty degrees. “Here and here. You’ll have to isolate the subassembly tolerances from the emitter algorithms.”
“Whoa, hold on a minute.” Trip had a perplexed look on his face. “You’re saying the assembly’s independent of the emitters?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Not if you generate a stable flux between the positronic conductors.” Archer was aware that even though Trip had more experience and knowledge than anyone on the crew, the words coming out of his mouth probably sounded like little more than technological babble to the engineer. Archer slid his hand across the monitor at a diagonal, illustrating his point. “Then all you’ll have to do is renormalize the tertiary wave functions.”
“With all due respect, sir”—Trip chose his words carefully—“this is a level of quantum engineering that’s beyond anything I ever learned. How the hell do you know this?”
Archer finally slowed for a moment, knowing that it was important that Trip believed what he was about to say. His friend was the most likely member of the crew to go along with the plan once he knew where it came from. If Trip balked at this point, Archer was going to need to [90] seriously reconsider how he proceeded. “You remember Crewman Daniels?”
“Yeah.” Trip couldn’t see where this was going. “I saw him get vaporized by our friend, Silik.”
“Well, for a cloud of vapor he’s one wealth of information,” Archer responded after moving to another monitor to work. “I just spent two hours with him.”
“He’s on Enterprise?” Trip was confused.
“Not exactly,” Archer said, well aware of the fact that his non-answers were becoming very much like Daniels’s unclear responses. “Listen, I’ll explain later. Right now we’ve got to get back to building these beacons.”
“Whatever you say.” Trip was still trying to keep up. But he did keep going, which pleased Archer immeasurably.
Archer continued to work with the commander on the development of the beacons until Trip was far enough along that he could finish things up with his engineering team and set about building the devices.
From there the captain headed for the bridge to brief T’Pol and Hoshi on their part of the plan. The trio gathered around the science station in discussion as Mayweather listened in from his station at the helm.
“The circuitry in there isn’t compatible with our technology,” Archer said, referring to the device T’Pol was still examining. “We’re going to have to create an interface.”
“What for?” Hoshi asked.
He informed both of them of the riskiest part of the plan. “We’re going to be retrieving some Suliban data [91] discs. I have no doubt you’ll be able to handle the content. But before you can do that, we’ll have to find a way to access the data.”
T’Pol continued to examine the component. “And Daniels claimed this is Suliban technology?”
“Everything he has told me has checked out so far,” he explained defensively, sensing Vulcan cynicism in her question. “I have no reason to doubt him on this.”
“We’ll do our best, Captain,” Hoshi promised.
The meeting ended and Archer headed for the turbolift for the next phase of the plan.
“Captain,” T’Pol stopped him before he was gone. “The Vulcan ship we were headed for ... it’s no doubt detected that we’ve altered course.”
“Have they tried to hail us?” he asked Hoshi.
“I wouldn’t know, sir,” she said with a small glimmer in her eye. “Our com is on the fritz.”
Archer smiled at his com officer before stepping into the turbolift. He was pleased that everything seemed to be going along smoothly, since it would only get more dangerous from here on out.
The turbolift deposited Archer back on E-deck where he met up with Lieutenant Reed. The pair went on to retrieve one of the key elements in the plan and, he hoped, further proof that Daniels could be trusted.
“Why did Daniels leave it in his quarters?” Reed asked as they moved through the corridors. He had brought along the hand-scanner as Archer had requested.
[92] “I don’t recall him having much time to pack before he left,” Archer wryly commented.
“Well, if it is there,” Reed said, “and it contains what he said it does, it could be invaluable to Starfleet.”
Archer could understand Reed’s enthusiasm, but he had already explained why that was not a part of the plan. “I gave Daniels my word, Malcolm. We download the schematics for the Suliban stealth-cruiser. Nothing else.”
“Pity,” Reed said as they turned a corner and reached Daniels’s former quarters where the mag-lock was still in place on the door. After the events of six months ago Archer had ordered Daniels’s former roommate shifted to other quarters and the room sealed until such time as it became necessary that it be reopened. Now was that time.
“Assuming he’s right and we manage to find the cruiser,” Reed said, his tactical mind working, “what makes you think the Suliban won’t come after us?”
“Just like those old Bible movies, Malcolm. ‘It wasn’t written.’ ”
Archer watched as Reed keyed in the combination to the mag-lock. The red light changed to green as the magnetic force of the lock shut down and Reed removed it from the door. Archer took a deep breath as they stepped into the darkened quarters. He had often considered exploring the room to see what kind of treasures it could be holding, but he knew how dangerous it would be to mess with tech
nology supposedly nine hundreds years ahead of their time. Now that he was going in there on a specific [93] mission, he couldn’t help but feel both excitement and apprehension.
As light spilled in from the corridor, Archer opened Daniels’s locker and reached for the upper compartment. Brushing aside a folded article of clothing, he found the object he was looking for underneath. As Reed turned on an overhead light, Archer moved the metal container over to the deck and set it down, taking a seat himself.
Opening the box, he found a futuristic-looking device. “So far, Daniels is batting a thousand.”
Removing the device from the container, Archer examined it for a moment, turning it over in his hands to see where the controls were placed. Reed took a seat on the bunk beside the captain and peered over his shoulder as Archer set the device back down and activated it.
A holographic page shot up from the instrument, pulling Reed off the bunk to stare with curiosity at the wondrous image. Archer tried to get accustomed to the controls as data filled the page floating in front of them.
“Wait a minute,” Reed said, eyeing the text. “Did you see that? They’ve got schematics on half a dozen Klingon ships!”
Gaining familiarity with the controls, Archer began to scroll through the pages quickly. “The stealth-cruiser, Lieutenant. Nothing else.”
But as the images flew by, even the captain couldn’t help but notice some of the numerous varieties of ships, including a few that seemed as if they could have evolved from Enterprise design.
[94] “There! There it is,” Reed said as the image flashed before them.
Hitting another control, Archer made the rest of the page disappear as a three-dimensional schematic of the Suliban ship was pulled out and hung in front of them. He motioned to Reed, who took out the hand-scanner and moved it slowly across the floating image. Archer waited while the scanner absorbed the data, ticking off each new clue as further proof that Daniels could be trusted.
STAR TREK: Enterprise - Shockwave Page 7
