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

by V. E. Mitchell

  Leilani moved to the front. “This is Dr. Cris Hall. She’s director of the telepresence studies done here—”

  “Please, nothing so formal. Just Cris.” Cris smiled and waved off the rest of the introduction. Geordi wondered if this act was staged for every group that visited the lab. “Besides, we’re just playing with the toys here.”

  Leilani smiled back. “It may be play, but these ‘toys’ are the Federation’s most advanced exploration tools. They allow us to study environments where it would be impossible to send a human.”

  Cris laughed. “You’re stealing my lecture. But if you cadets don’t learn anything else today, remember this. If your work doesn’t seem like play, find something different. Life isn’t long enough to spend years doing something you don’t enjoy.”

  She faced each cadet squarely for a moment. Light sparkled off the plates of her vest. It reminded Geordi of something—something very familiar. He frowned. What did that vest remind him of?

  Cris smiled again. “End of lecture. Everyone, choose a station and we’ll get to work.”

  Geordi took the closest chair and examined his equipment. The gloves were easy. When he put them on, they transmitted his commands to a robot explorer somewhere on the ocean floor.

  The helmet, though, was a problem. It relayed visual information from the robot’s cameras to the user’s eyes. When properly adjusted, the helmet let its wearer see what the robot saw as it moved across the ocean floor.

  These helmets were standard issue. Geordi had tried to use them before. They wouldn’t work with his VISOR.

  With a sigh of frustration, he pushed the equipment away. There was nothing he could do with that helmet. He couldn’t complete this part of the assignment, either.

  Geordi slumped in his chair. It wasn’t fair! The harder he tried, the more things went wrong. How was he going to pass this class if he couldn’t do any of the field-trip projects?

  To make matters worse, Ven was sitting beside him. Cris had started on the far side of the room and was working her way toward him, helping the cadets adjust their helmets.

  Ven glanced toward Geordi. “On an away team, you would endanger everyone because you cannot use the equipment.”

  He can’t use this model of helmet, either! Geordi realized. The helmets were solid and fitted tightly over the head. They had no openings for the Andorian’s sensitive antennae. “How does your helmet fit?” Geordi asked. It was a cheap shot, but he was tired of Ven’s comments.

  Ven didn’t answer. For a moment, Geordi was sorry he’d said anything. Attacking Ven wouldn’t solve his problems. He wished he knew what he was supposed to do since he couldn’t use the helmet.

  Cris dropped a pair of helmets on the counter between them. “Why don’t you two try these on?” she asked. “I think they’ll work a little better than standard issue.”

  Geordi glanced at the helmets. Ven’s had an open framework. He could adjust the supports to fit his head and, more importantly, to avoid his antennae. The other helmet didn’t look any different from the one Geordi already had.

  Ven grabbed his helmet and put it on. He swung the eyecups into place, adjusting them to fit. After tightening the straps, Ven slipped his hands into the control gloves. His fingers twitched as he picked up his robot and began exploring.

  “What are you waiting for?” Cris asked with a trace of laughter in her voice. “I’ll think you don’t want to play with my toys.”

  “It’s not that.” Geordi turned the new helmet over in his hands. To his surprise, the internal wiring had been greatly altered. He wasn’t sure what most of the new parts did.

  “It should work for you.” Cris pointed to the contact points on either side of the helmet. “I had the Academy’s Medical Officer send down the specifications for you VISOR. Having equipment you can use is your right.”

  “I, uh, I don’t know, that is, I—” Geordi examined the helmet to cover his confusion. Because of the wide range of humanoid body shapes and physical abilities, every Federation citizen could have essential equipment altered to his or her personal requirements. Somehow, Geordi hadn’t expected Starfleet to worry about his unique problems until after he graduated.

  “It was my pleasure,” Cris said. “This finally gave me an excuse to see how they designed your VISOR. It’s a wonderful piece of technology.”

  Something in her voice struck a chord in Geordi. He had heard his VISOR called many things, but “wonderful” was not a term most people used. He turned to look at her. At close range, the tiny sensors on her vest were impossible to miss. Like the facets of an insect’s compound eye, each sensor picked up part of the scene around her. Computer implants fed the information to her optic nerves, bypassing her damaged retinas. This let her “see” her surroundings better than a sighted person.

  Suddenly, Geordi remembered where he had heard of Cris Hall. Several years ago, while his parents were visiting the university on Olbrecht Five, terrorists bombed the biochemistry research facilities. The resulting explosions and fire filled the nearby buildings with dense, poisonous smoke.

  Most of the scientists were overcome by chemical fumes. Rescuers, blinded by the thick smoke, could not find the victims. Without help, a graduate student named Cris Hall pulled eight people from the marine biology lab before the rescue squad arrived. Geordi remembered the incident because, like him, Cris Hall was blind.

  “You went to the university on Olbrecht Five.” Geordi hadn’t realized he was going to say it until the words popped out. “I remember hearing about what you did during the bombing.”

  “You heard about that? Small galaxy.” She laughed. “That was a long time ago. Try your helmet.”

  Geordi removed his VISOR and put on the helmet. At first, he couldn’t make the connections work. He adjusted the helmet several times before he got a solid contact. Even then, what he was seeing was nonsense.

  After a moment, he realized the problem was the difference between the two devices. The VISOR presented him with a broad range of data that he then interpreted. The telepresence helmet was connected to a robot with limited senses. The robot’s sensors reported the most useful information about an extremely alien world. He’d have to rethink what he saw through the helmet.

  “Have fun.” Cris squeezed his shoulder briefly. Her footsteps whispered against the tile floor, moving away from him.

  He started to call her back, wanting to ask her more questions about the helmet. He didn’t understand everything about how his VISOR worked. That made him doubly curious to learn how she had altered the helmet for him.

  Before he could say anything, his brain connected with the information coming through the helmet. Suddenly, Geordi was in an alien world. He was clinging to the side of a cliff, looking down on the strangest sight he had ever seen.

  CHAPTER

  7

  He was perched on a vertical sheet of cracked and broken rock. How the robot had gotten up the cliff, Geordi couldn’t guess. He wasn’t sure how to get it down, either. Even someone with lots of experience using remote equipment would have trouble getting out of this position.

  Straight below him, rounded boulders and jagged blocks of dark rock littered the ocean floor. He turned his head, and a cone of light followed the movement. Anything situated more than a few feet away was blurred by the murky water.

  The ground shivered beneath him. Pressure pulses, like waves passing, pushed against his right side. Curious, he looked in that direction.

  At the edge of his vision, dense black “smoke” billowed from an irregular column of rock. Geordi struggled to see what was happening. Suddenly, as if he were zooming through the water, the boiling clouds jumped in front of him.

  He tried to make out the details, but the light was too poor. Whether the robot’s lenses were focused close or far, the light from his spotlight determined what Geordi saw. To get a better look, he had to get closer.

  How was he going to get down the cliff? Geordi wondered. There were almost as man
y kinds of remotely operated robots as there were jobs for them to do. Nobody had said anything about what type of robot he was using. That meant either that he should already know how to run the robot or that the directions were readily available. Geordi decided the information must be somewhere in the computer. He just had to figure out where. If, like his classmates, he had used the helmets before, he would know the answer.

  What was the correct command? “Computer” reached the main system on a starship or in certain areas of the Academy. It didn’t work everywhere, though. Geordi chuckled, remembering a classmate who had asked for the answers during a test.

  The computer in this station seemed much like a starship’s. If he had designed the system, Geordi thought, he would have used a different command to access the robot’s controls.

  “Robot,” he whispered into his microphone. Nothing happened, and his robot remained motionless. “Command” and “control” didn’t work, either. He was starting to feel desperate. He’d never be able to face his classmates if he had to ask for the command.

  “Remote?”

  A menu in soft green letters appeared on the lower corner of his view. His left pinkie moved the cursor. He flipped through his choices. Everything he needed was there. Relieved, Geordi asked how to make the robot move.

  It took several minutes to sort through the directions. His robot could do many different things. It was, he discovered, a high-powered research and exploration unit designed to work in dangerous environments. Rugged and durable, it could withstand years of hard work under harsh conditions. If Geordi wanted, he could drop the robot off the cliff without hurting it.

  He could not, however, float himself free. For all its abilities, this robot was a walker, a ground-based unit. In an emergency, he could dump his samples and head for the surface—once. The robot would have to be serviced before it returned to the ocean’s floor.

  Geordi thought about taking the quick route down. What would happen, though, if the robot landed on its back? He looked, but that information wasn’t in the manual. If he was lucky, he could get the robot turned over. But if he wasn’t, he’d have to call for help.

  That convinced him. He checked his equipment list, looking for another way down. After a moment, he found his answer—a tether line.

  He searched the rock face for an anchor point. The grapples on his eight legs were firmly embedded in cracks in the rock, but those places wouldn’t hold the line. He needed something he could tie it around.

  Geordi went back to his equipment list. There had to be a way to anchor his line to the rock. After three times through, he was about to give up. Everything he found would leave him permanently fastened to this spot.

  Then inspiration struck. The robot had a drill for taking rock samples. All he had to do was take a sample through the slab of rock. He ordered the robot to begin drilling.

  The robot’s side opened and a flexible arm snaked out. Geordi wiggled his fingers in the control gloves. He was surprised at how little effort it took to move the robot’s arm. When he had the drill in position, he chose the “Go” command.

  The arm went rigid and the high-speed drill bored into the rock. Through the helmet, he heard the whir and rasp of the bit. The sounds were much softer than if he had been there, but they still set his teeth on edge. The scene bobbed and jerked from the vibrations.

  Much sooner than Geordi expected, the drill cut through the rock. Quickly, he turned the drill off. The arm pulled itself, and the rock core back into its compartment.

  Geordi considered throwing the rock sample away. After all, he hadn’t chosen that spot because the rock was particularly interesting. The robot would travel faster if it wasn’t carrying the extra weight. Still, how many of his classmates would collect rock samples at all? He might score a few extra points for bringing back a “typical” sample.

  In the end, Geordi kept the rock. Maybe, if he collected enough information, he could make up the piloting points he had lost this morning. To go with his sample, he ordered the robot’s computer to record continuous temperature and water-chemistry data.

  It was time to get off the cliff. Geordi looped his tether line through the hole. Bringing the loose end around, he sealed the lock-it to the cable. It would hold until he released it.

  Once he was sure the cable was anchored firmly, Geordi began working himself loose. One by one, he released the grapples and pulled the robot’s legs against its body. Slowly, he paid out the tether line. The robot inched down the cliff.

  At first it was easy. All Geordi had to do was pay out the line. If he went too fast, the robot swung into the cliff face. About halfway down, it started twisting as well. The combined motions made his head spin.

  Geordi grabbed the side of the cliff with his robot. That didn’t stop the scene in his helmet from swaying back and forth. The robot—and the rocks it was attached to—were still moving. An earthquake was shaking the sea floor.

  What should he do now?

  The earthquake lasted over a minute. Large rocks tumbled past him. The water slowed the falling boulders, but not enough. They could still damage the remote. Geordi kept his robot clamped to its perch, hoping nothing would hit it.

  When things quit shaking around the robot, Geordi slumped back in his chair. He felt drained, almost as if he had been out there himself. “Computer, tell me about that earthquake.”

  “The earthquake registered 8.3 on the Richter scale,” the computer said in his earphones. “It was centered one thousand kilometers north-northwest of this station and occurred five kilometers below the ocean floor.”

  Eight point three on the Richter scale? Geordi thought. That was a major earthquake. No wonder his robot had bounced around so much. It must have been very close to the center of the quake.

  He tipped the helmet away from one ear. The room was quiet except for the soft hum of the fans and the scritch of fingers moving on the counter. The other cadets, including Leilani, were calmly working their controls. As far as he could tell, no one else had felt the earthquake. His must be the only robot in that area.

  Getting his bearings back, Geordi straightened his helmet. His robot was where he’d left it, halfway down the cliff. Off to his right, bigger clouds of black smoke poured out of the rock chimneys than before.

  It isn’t really smoke, he reminded himself. The streams of hot, chemical-laden water billowed and twisted like dense, black smoke from a major fire. The first scientists who saw the rock columns with their streams of metal-rich water had called them black smokers. The name stuck.

  He looked for the best way to get close to the chimneys. With luck, he could sample them. He grinned to himself. The deep oceans were so remote and so hard to reach that every sample was important. Even after centuries of studying the black smokers, geologists were still learning how they worked.

  First, Geordi had to get the robot off the cliff. He looked back along his tether line. When he released his holds, the robot would swing like a pendulum. That thought was enough to make his stomach do flip-flops.

  Geordi buried the robot’s grapples deeper into the rock. A pulse of current along the tether line released the lock-it. He reeled in the line, drilled another hole, and tied off the tether. With the shorter line, he lowered himself to the bottom of the cliff.

  Even then, it was rough going. The ground wasn't as level as it had looked from above. Boulders and rocks of many sizes were scattered everywhere. Narrow cracks and deep holes waited to swallow him.

  He started off, picking his way through the obstacles. At first, it was very difficult. Geordi wasn’t used to working with remotes. The control gloves were extremely sensitive, and they translated small twitches of his fingers into large motions of the robot’s legs. It would have been much easier, he thought, if he’d gotten a floating robot.

  After ten minutes, he got the hang of running the robot. It was a matter of practice, of repeating the commands until he didn’t have to think about them. The robot’s speed picked up. He wa
s almost to the base of the nearest chimney.

  The robot’s spotlight showed Geordi a strange and fantastic sight. Hot water streamed through cracks in the sea floor. When it mixed with the cold ocean water, chemicals in the water formed tiny crystals of iron oxide and other minerals. There were so many of them that the water looked black.

  As the crystals settled to the ocean floor, they made irregular mounds and knobby towers of rock. Patches of red and orange and black spotted the rocks. Feathery particles floated past the robot’s “eye.”

  Geordi moved the robot around a low hill. On the other side, he stopped. Several dozen white clams grew beside a small crack in the ocean floor. To one side, a few short, stubby tubes clustered together. Eyeless worms lived in the tubes, and three of them were snapping at the water. He wondered what they were trying to catch.

  It was too good a chance to miss. Geordi moved the robot nearer to the worms. He used his camera and sensors to record them from every angle, and he also took water samples from the crack.

  I wish. I could take one of the worms, too, he thought. However, his equipment list didn’t have anything that would hold one. His robot wasn’t built to collect living samples. The computer told him his samples wouldn’t be retrieved for almost three weeks. That was when the service robot was due to visit this area.

  He could still take rock and water samples. With a last look at the clams, Geordi returned to his original plan. There were so many interesting things to see in his area. His report would be the best ever written by a Starfleet cadet.

  Geordi had been so busy observing the black smoker and collecting samples that he lost track of the time. Once he got used to the control gloves and helmet, the work was more like a game. A game where the person who collects the most data wins, Geordi thought. He was determined to win this time.

  Suddenly, his world went black. The darkness was as complete and as shocking as if someone had yanked his VISOR off his face. At the same time, his seat vibrated like a shuttle fighting a high wind. It felt like a huge dog was shaking the station in its mouth.