Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy #5: Atlantis Station

by V. E. Mitchell

  “You mean, you’re guessing.” Todd laughed, a sound that held very little humor. “I can do that, too.”

  Blood rushed to T’Varien’s face. Geordi didn’t think the others could tell that she experienced any emotions, but his VISOR showed him the heat that surged to her face.

  “That confirms our theory.” Amray gave her clone sister a significant look.

  Amril nodded. “The impending eruption is causing the deep-water organisms to abandon their habitats.”

  “There is a 1.5% chance that, at any given time, organisms from a deeper life zone will be found in shallower water.” T’Varien’s hand tightened around her PADD.

  “The life zones in this area are deeper because of the warm surface temperatures.” Amray acted like she hadn’t heard T’Varien, although her words contradicted the Vulcan’s statement.

  “That variety of fish normally lives below the level of the lower station,” Amril added.

  “If this shuttle had the proper sensors, we could monitor the migrations—” Amray glanced toward the front of the shuttle. Ven’s antennae were swiveled as far forward as he could get them.

  The Andorian was trying to ignore the conversation, Geordi decided. Clearly he still didn’t want to hear any suggestion that the volcano might erupt. That Leilani didn’t say anything either must mean that the shuttle wasn’t equipped with the special sensors needed for detailed underwater research.

  “—and chart the movements to show when the volcano will explode.” Amril finished her sister’s sentence, matching tone and meter perfectly.

  T’Varien turned toward the clones. Her Vulcan mask was firmly in place. “You do not have sufficient information to support your conclusions. It is not logical for you to continue to ignore that fact.”

  Amril and Amray looked at each other, then began giggling. Amray tried to say something and both girls laughed harder. Soon tears were streaming down their cheeks. “Not—” Amray said, gasping for breath between her giggles.

  “—logical.” Amril wrapped her arms around her stomach. Both girls howled even louder.

  “I fail to see the humor in this situation.” T’Varien looked from Amril to Amray. One of her eyebrows had disappeared into her bangs.

  The giggling died down, replaced by Amril’s and Amray’s gasps for breath. Finally, both were able to talk.

  Amray tugged her hand through her dark ponytail. “It’s not logical for us to believe that the volcano is going to erupt—”

  “—because you disagree with our analysis. But the same reasoning makes it—”

  “—equally illogical for you to believe an analysis—”

  “—that neither of us supports.”

  “My analysis is based purely on logic.” T’Varien’s face was a rigid mask. “Each of the factors that are used to predict eruptions is within the normal range. If the volcano is behaving normally, it will not erupt.”

  Geordi frowned, trying to find the flaw in T’Varien’s argument. Volcanoes were formed by eruptions. That meant eruptions were as “normal” as the quiet periods between them.

  Amril shook her head impatiently. “We agree that each individual reading falls within the normal range—”

  “—for the periods between eruptions. But every reading for every instrument is on the high end of the range. Everything suggests—”

  The two girls glanced at each other and finished the sentence in unison. “—that the volcano is getting ready to blow up big time.”

  T’Varien lifted one eyebrow. “Your conclusion is totally illogical. The sum cannot be greater than the numbers added to obtain it.”

  Geordi called up his report. Comparing his data with the historical records, he was surprised to find that T’Varien was right. Each of the present readings was matched by similar readings taken when the volcano had not erupted.

  With nothing else to do until they got to the lower station, Geordi began cross-checking the data. The research was so absorbing that he lost track of everything but what he was reading on his PADD. His classmates’ conversations and the thrum of the engines faded into the background.

  Within ten minutes, he was more convinced than ever that he was right about a pending eruption. To prove it, he would need to check every record in the computer. However, the pattern he found was consistent. When only one type of sensor reading was high, nothing happened. When all the readings were high, the volcano erupted.

  It wasn’t an question of if the volcano was going to erupt, he realized. It was a question of when.

  He leaned back in his seat, thinking. He was just a first-year cadet, and not even a science specialist. There were seventy-five professional scientists working on Isla del Fuego. Most of them knew more about the volcano than he did. If the pattern he had found was real, they should have noticed it.

  Was the pattern real? Yes, Geordi decided. He was convinced that the volcano was going to erupt soon. However, in geologic terms, “soon” was a tricky word. For a planet, time was measured in thousands or millions of years. “Soon” could be five minutes—or five decades—from now.

  “Leilani, do the geologists know when the volcano is going to erupt?” he asked.

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “That’s a major topic of research here. Isla del Fuego is not as predictable as the Hawaiian volcanoes. Our geologists think their models are accurate to within a day, but we haven’t had an eruption in twenty years. It’s hard to check their predictions without any data.”

  “Thanks.” Suddenly, Geordi felt much better. Even if the volcano was going to erupt, he didn’t need to worry about it ruining their field trip. The experts had spent years studying the volcano. They would have ordered the cadets back to the Academy if they thought something would happen this afternoon.

  Even so, Geordi was glad when he saw the first soft glow from the lower station’s marker beacons. Sitting gave him too much time to think—and to worry. The lower station was a superb example of Federation engineering. He couldn’t wait to explore it.

  CHAPTER

  6

  The glow from the beacon grew brighter. Leilani turned to Ven. “I’m taking over.”

  “I am in command of this vessel,” the Andorian replied. “I refuse to let an unqualified person endanger our lives.”

  “Exactly.” Leilani gave him a tight smile. “You’ve never docked a shuttle underwater. Not even in the simulator.”

  Geordi grinned. It was good to see someone stand up to Ven. Underwater dockings weren’t as easy as they looked. He’d practiced in the simulator, but had missed more times than he had succeeded. Luckily, Leilani had checked Ven’s practice log.

  Ven turned to his classmates for support. Geordi quickly looked out the window. He didn’t want an inexperienced pilot trying to dock the aquashuttle. No one else stood up for Ven, either.

  When he realized his classmates weren’t going to help him, Ven switched his controls to standby and took over the copilot’s duties. Leilani brought her command functions on-line. “Cadet Ven, read off the approach distances,” she ordered.

  “Two hundred meters,” Ven read from the screen. “One hundred fifty meters, one hundred twenty-five, one hundred.”

  Leilani reduced the power to the engines. Friction from the water slowed the shuttle faster than Geordi expected. Piloting underwater was more complicated than flying in the air or in space. Geordi remembered why he had found the underwater simulator sessions so difficult.

  Ven continued to read off the distances, freeing Leilani to adjust for the unpredictable crosscurrents near the station. The computer could have reported the numbers. Having Ven read them showed him that the underwater approach wasn’t as simple as he had assumed.

  The shuttle coasted alongside the station. The rectangular airlock, surrounded by bright beacons, jutted out from the dome’s smooth surface. Leilani tapped the port thrusters. The shuttle scooted sideways and bumped against the magnetic grapples with just enough force to engage the clamps and the airloc
k’s seals.

  A low, mechanical throbbing shook the shuttle, followed by the splash and slosh of water outside the door. Fascinated, Geordi listened as the water splashed lower and lower on the door.

  “Does it always take this long?” Lissa’s freckles stood out against her pale skin. She ruffled a hand through her coppery hair. Geordi tried to decide whether she had asked the question from impatience or from nerves.

  “This model of pump drains the water in the airlock while simultaneously adjusting the air pressure in the shuttle to match that of the station. Shortly our ears will—I believe the expression is—‘pop.’” T’Varien’s voice sounded strained. In a way, Geordi understood her reaction. Vulcan was a desert planet and it had no deep ocean research posts like Atlantis Station.

  Geordi touched his rebreather again to remind himself that they did have backup systems for emergencies. As he did, he wondered why he felt so uneasy. He had spent most of his life on Starfleet vessels or on space stations, following his parents from one assignment to another. If something went wrong in deep space, rescue was a lot farther away than it was here.

  Besides, he told himself, nothing can possibly go wrong. The lower dome of Atlantis Station was built to survive in its environment. They were as safe here as they would be on the island above.

  Finally, the pumps finished draining the airlock. At the same time Geordi’s ears popped. Around him the other cadets swallowed to adjust the pressure in their ears. The shuttle’s door slid open, letting in a gust of damp, cold air. It smelled of iodine and scorched lubricant. Mixed with that was the flat, faintly metallic odor of air held too long in storage tanks.

  The inner door slid open, letting them into the station. The narrow corridor curved in either direction. The air smelled much better here, Geordi thought, although it still seemed flat and metallic.

  “Welcome to Neptune’s Locker. That’s what the people who work here call this undersea dome.” Leilani’s voice was almost an octave higher than it had been.

  Lissa giggled at the change in Leilani’s voice. The sound was high-pitched, like the voices in some old cartoons Geordi had once seen. Once started, Lissa couldn’t stop. The laughter was contagious, and everyone but T’Varien joined her.

  “I fail to see what you find so amusing.” T’Varien’s expression was faintly alarmed. “At this depth, the station must use a helium-oxygen atmosphere. This is to prevent people from becoming intoxicated from nitrogen in the bloodstream.”

  Geordi tried to stop laughing long enough to explain. “Everyone sounds so different.” He started giggling again. Studying how helium altered sounds was completely different from hearing your own voice suddenly changed to soprano. He’d expected the change, but he couldn’t help laughing at how silly he sounded.

  “It’s all right,” Leilani said. “Everyone has the same reaction the first time. We maintain surface pressure and atmosphere in the shuttle as we come down. You don’t have to worry about having ‘rapture of the deep.’”

  T’Varien pulled her eyebrows together in a look of fierce concentration. “What about the nitrogen we were breathing?”

  Leilani’s smile showed that she had been expecting the question. “That’s why we keep the shuttle at surface pressure. Studies show the nitrogen is forced from your bloodstream within minutes because of the greater air pressure here in the station.

  “When we return to the surface, we’ll take about four times as long as we did coming down. That lets us gradually reduce the pressure in the shuttle’s cabin. We’ll also change the air mix back to surface normal as we go up.”

  T’Varien shook her head. “I still do not understand why everyone is laughing. It is not logical.”

  She really doesn’t understand our humor, Geordi thought. It was hard to realize how differently Vulcans thought. He tried to control his laughter. “That’s why we think it’s funny. Because it isn’t logical.”

  She shook her head, struggling with the idea. Geordi tried to find a better way to tell her why they were laughing. It wasn’t easy. When you had to explain a joke, it wasn’t as funny as when you heard it the first time.

  Leilani glanced at her PADD. “We’ve got a full schedule this afternoon. If you’re ready, we’ll get started.”

  She started down the corridor. Geordi followed her, and the other cadets fell in with him. He couldn’t wait to see what their next project would be.

  Leilani led them along the corridor. It followed the outer rim of the station, curving ahead and behind them. Thick viewports, as dark as the ocean beyond, looked outward. Opposite them, sliding doors led to the interior of the station.

  The inner walls of the corridor were flat fish tanks. Each section was filled with water, algae, and seaweed. The plants helped keep the station’s air fresh and breathable. Geordi had read how the system worked with nature as much as possible.

  Heavy pressure doors divided the station into sectors. When they passed the third set, Geordi paused to examine them. Sensors were located throughout the station to detect sudden changes in air pressure or to report water in the corridors. If the hull started leaking, the doors sealed off that sector. Control panels beside the door overrode the automatic systems. That let repairmen get to the damaged hull.

  Halfway around the station, Leilani stopped. Painted across the door in dark blue letters was the sign: Science Department, Research 1. Leilani palmed the door’s control pad.

  “Why don’t the doors just open for us?” Lissa asked. She gave the control pad a suspicious look as she passed it. “I feel like a criminal or something. We shouldn’t have to ask to get in to the public areas.”

  Before Geordi could say anything, Yoshi spoke. “Underwater station has many doors, Honorable Lissa. Station keeps doors closed for safety. If hull leaks, water will not go past closed door.”

  “Thanks a bunch, Yoshi.” Todd sounded tense.

  That gave Geordi something to think about as they followed Leilani deeper into the station. Starfleet cadets were the best and the strongest people in the Federation. In spite of that, he was edgy about this field trip and about being in such a dangerous place. His classmates also seemed worried.

  Was there a reason they were nervous? Were they all sensing an impending disaster? Geordi snorted at his foolishness. It wasn’t impossible that everyone would make the same psychic prediction, he supposed, but it was very, very unlikely.

  That left only one explanation. Lieutenant Muldov had analyzed their psychological profiles. When he assigned their mission, he had chosen a field trip that played on their hidden fears.

  That made sense to Geordi. Life in Starfleet meant dealing with the unknown. If you couldn’t make your fears work for you, you’d never survive away-team duty. Proper respect and, a healthy dose of fear would keep you alert on an unexplored world.

  Figuring that out made Geordi feel better. He was used to dealing with alien worlds. His blindness, and later his VISOR, showed him a far different world than what the people around him saw. For his classmates, this field trip was the first time they had dealt with that strangeness. Most of them, it seemed, were finding the experience a little unsettling.

  Nobody was born knowing how to handle alien environments. Even Starfleet cadets had to learn how to handle strange, and possibly hostile, situations. It was much better for them to learn that lesson now than to face it on an away-team mission where lives depended on their actions.

  Geordi shook his head. How many lessons within lessons had Lieutenant Muldov put into this field trip? Clearly their grades would be based on much more than the reports they had been assigned to write.

  Geordi almost ran into Yoshi when they stopped. Startled, he stepped back, running into Ven.

  “Watch where you are going!” Reacting to the unexpected impact, Ven pushed Geordi away. For someone of his slight build, the Andorian was amazingly strong.

  Geordi stumbled against the door frame. Somehow, he snagged his VISOR on a projecting edge and knocked it loose.
He grabbed for it and settled it back into place, shaking. For a few seconds, he couldn’t make any sense of the visual inputs.

  He leaned against the wall, waiting for things to return to normal. He heard the door open, heard his classmates file past him into the lab.

  “Are you all right?” Leilani put her hand on his shoulder.

  Some of the tension left Geordi. He nodded. “My VISOR isn’t supposed to come loose like that. But once in a while—” He shrugged. “I guess nothing’s perfect.”

  Leilani felt along the door frame. “There’s a bump here, right where it would catch your VISOR.”

  “That figures.” He wiggled the VISOR against its contact points. “It feels a little loose, too. I wonder if the pressure or the atmosphere is affecting it.”

  “It’s possible. Sometimes we have trouble with our equipment when it first comes down from the surface.”

  Geordi checked the VISOR again. “It’s working fine now.” I’ll just have to avoid walking into walls for the rest of the day, he promised himself.

  “In that case, let’s join the others.” Leilani grinned at him. “I think you’ll like this part.”

  The room was small, barely large enough to hold the entire group. Counters were built into three of the room’s four walls. Each work station held a helmet and control gloves, with monitor gauges and video screens on the wall.

  A short, dark-haired woman was talking to someone through her communicator as Geordi entered. She had her back to the door. “That’s right. We’ve got a student group here now. They’ll be running Unit Five for the next hour.”

  “Got it,” answered a voice from the ceiling. “We’ll schedule the remote links for later this afternoon, then Brooks, out.”

  The woman turned around slowly. She was wearing a gray worksuit and a metallic mesh vest that sparkled when she moved. Although she looked young, Geordi got the feeling she had worked here a long time.

  “Welcome,” she said with a smile. “I’m always pleased to see Starfleet’s latest group of cadets.”