Star Trek - Pandora Principle

by Pandora Principle

  "Silence." Tahn drew himself up tall. "You know nothing of what I bargain for! You know nothing of our mission here! Do you-do any of you-wish to answer to the Empire if my orders are disobeyed?" Eyes dropped, shifted; clearly no one did. Tahn vowed then and there to make the Empire a gift of his dank, disgusting house and lands, his costly ships and surly troops-and most of all this viper of a commander.

  That Vulcan face came back onscreen. Its hooded, ruthless eyes made the skin crawl at the nape of Tahn's neck.

  "Agreed," the Vulcan said. "You wish to speak further?"

  Tahn thought of gold and sun, the gleam of precious rubies and all that they would buy. He was not given to gambling, but he must gamble now, with everything to gain and everything to lose.

  "Yes," he said, "a warning to your Starfleet. We see the result of your presence in our Empire. We know your ships mass beyond your borders. We know you plan to attack. You may burn our worlds, but you will never conquer us. What say you to that?"

  Not a flicker in that face. "That I will stop it, if I can. And return your friend to his ship. But I shall do neither of those things here."

  "Old friend? Does this Vulcan keep his word?"

  "I believe so, Tahn. You know that I keep mine. He has promised to repair my ship. We shall rendezvous here as planned."

  "Then go. There is nothing to stop you between here and the Line. Beyond that, I cannot say. Old friend, I will be waiting."

  Tahn broke the link and gave terse orders to his commander, who relayed them with a new respect. The alien ship moved away, leaving its damage behind. Thieurrull. Tahn had never been there, only heard its name whispered down the years through voice-changers from beneath black cloaks. To the government it was another failed colony; to The Ten it was the Grand Design; to soldiers it was the worst duty in all the Empire.

  "Lord," his commander whispered, "what was our mission here?"

  "That." He nodded to the distant fires. "The invader did it for us. Learn to use your enemies, Commander, lest they learn to use you." The lie came so easily that Tahn knew it for the truth. An evil place, a danger best undone-and there must have been some reason why the soldiers called it "Hellguard."

  "I don't believe this, sir," said Sulu from his station at the helm. "They're doing it! They're letting us go!"

  "Aye," Scott looked away from the limp body in Harper's arms. "I'll go see to the engines."

  The medical team arrived in one lift as Scott was departing in the other. McCoy waved them aside, put an arm around Harper's shoulders. Spock came to stand beside him.

  "Mr. Harper. You must go with the doctor now."

  "Yes, sir. c'mon Obo, you're gonna be just." He saw everyone watching and tried to smile. "One tough kid, huh?"

  "Indeed, Lieutenant," Spock said quietly. In a gesture of respect and grief, he laid his hand on Obo's head. And raised an eyebrow. "Doctor," he said, "you are neglecting your patient!"

  "What?" McCoy snatched a scanner from the nearest medic, who was transferring the severed arm into a cryo-unit. ". Well, I'll be-don't just stand there, Harper! Move it! Medics! Get that unit-"

  "That's okay, guys. I can manage."

  "Guess he can at that." McCoy fussed over his patient. "Easy does it, Harper. Sickbay!" he ordered the lift as they all piled in.

  Spock switched on the comm, and started issuing instructions to the transporter room and science lab. Work crews began arriving on the bridge. With them came Nelson, rubbing his neck and expecting reprimands. Achernar walked forward to meet him, and to Nelson's acute embarrassment, returned the phaser with a smile.

  "Forgive me, friend. You did not seem amenable to persuasion. And you, Commander." He turned to Uhura with an apologetic bow. "I sincerely regret the inconvenience. Friend Tahn would not have believed me without some show of force."

  "Crude," said Uhura, "but effective."

  "And Spock," Achernar gazed at the floor where Obo had fallen, "I also regret. I had hoped to prevent damage."

  Spock nodded. "Mr. Nelson, escort Mr. Achernar to his ship. He may ready it for departure, and his transmitter may be removed. Do try to remain conscious."

  "Aye, sir," Nelson mumbled.

  "Achernar, if and when we reach safety, you are free to go. Your cargo will be returned. Since the logs of our encounter were erased, its presence without yours would be difficult to explain. It seems that today at least our interests have coincided."

  "They do," said Achernar, "more often than you might think. These hostilities are tiresome-and so bad for business."

  When Nelson left the bridge with his charge, Spock moved down to the helm, studied the main screen, and spoke in a low voice.

  "Mr. Sulu. If I understand the sequence of events, some time elapsed between the scout's explosion and my beam-up. Correct?"

  "Yes, sir." Sulu knew what was coming. "Power was out for a while, but I think it was about two hours. Sir."

  "And although warp drive was inoperable, you were aware of approaching enemy ships and you did have impulse power. Correct?" Sulu nodded. "Then in fact you could have left orbit. You could have carried out my orders, yet you chose not to do so. Correct?" Another nod. "And you undertook this action on your own?"

  "I did, sir," said Sulu, calm as any Vulcan.

  "This will be reported, Mr. Sulu. Relinquish the conn to Mr. Scott when he returns. I shall be unavailable."

  "Yes, sir." Sulu kept his eyes studiously on the helm, but Uhura and Chekov glared openly at Spock. Several techs working on the bridge wisely kept their mouths shut, even after the lift doors closed and Spock was out of hearing.

  "Maybe he'll get over it, Sulu," Uhura muttered, from under a snarl of cables at her station. "After all, you saved their lives-and those ships would have caught us anyway. He knows that."

  "Not the point," Sulu said without rancor. "I had my orders. Fact is I just couldn't do it. He knows that too."

  "You are in good company," Chekov spoke up loyally. "Neither could the keptin. But 'Ensign Sulu' does not sound so bad."

  "It's a little early for jokes, Pavel. The bridge is a wreck, we're on impulse power on the wrong side of the Zone, and our scanners are fried. So look sharp, and keep us out of trouble."

  "I am trying, Sulu. But vhat is Spock doing? Vhy isn't he-"

  "I don't know!" Sulu glared.

  That silenced everyone. For the next hour, repairs proceeded. Someone brought up trays of sandwiches and coffee. Senior crew had been on duty almost around the clock, but no one talked about relief, and the stars outside barely changed position as Enterprise crawled through space. The snail's pace frayed their nerves. As Uhura cleared interference on ship's channels, her board began beeping steadily with incoming calls: departments checking in, duty officers reporting systems back on line, and Dr. McCoy from sickbay. His news sent a cheer around the bridge.

  ". Obo'll make it! That little fellow's got two brains-when one shuts down, the other keeps going. Couldn't reattach the fingers, though, too much tissue damage-but Obo doesn't seem to mind. It woke up and talked to Harper for a minute, then went back to sleep. Now what I want to know is-"

  "We'll pass the word, sir." Sulu's attention was on Scott, who had just stomped onto the bridge looking like a thundercloud. "Got to go now, Doctor. Tell Harper to take his time."

  "Harper's not here," McCoy growled. "Spock came and got him! And Saavik's not here either! Now I want to know-"

  "She's not up here, sir. We'll send her back if we see her," Sulu promised, switching off. "The conn's yours, Mr. Scott, and-"

  "Aye, laddie, I know. The beastie's livin', and our drive's back on line." But Scott wasn't celebrating. He poked about at the engineering station and finally seemed satisfied with what he found. "Warp one, Sulu. Let's see how she goes."

  She went, and the crew cheered once more. Warp one became warp two, then warp three, and the bridge was breathing easier as they entered the Neutral Zone. When Chekov spotted two patrols bearing down on them, Enterprise accelerated agai
n and left the Romulans blasting at her emission particles in frustration. She sped on across that no-man's-land of space a single light-year wide, but Scott's mood lightened not at all, not even when Sulu and Chekov gave mighty sighs and sagged in their chairs with relief.

  "Entering Federation space, Mr. Scott," Sulu said quietly. "We made it, sir. We're home. And sir, I ought to tell you."

  "Bridge to all decks," Uhura broke the news over ship's channels. "We made it, folks. Just thought you'd like to know."

  ". so I think I'm on report, sir." Sulu finished the account of his exchange with Spock, and Scotty snorted in disgust.

  "Ye'll sit helm, lad, where ye belong!" He muttered some choice oaths in Gaelic, inspected the progress of repairs, then he shooed the techs off the bridge.

  "There's something ye don't know," Scott announced. "We may be close to home, but we've not made it yet. An' I can't say we will. Our Mr. Spock's taken leave of his senses! He and Harper-"

  Scott stopped. The lift was arriving, and its passenger was yelling. As usual.

  "For once!" McCoy shouted, as he charged through the opening doors. "For once, will somebody tell me what the hell-"

  "Scotty was just about to," Uhura said. "Weren't you, sir."

  "Aye," Scott glowered, "'tis against orders, but I can't keep it to myself. Spock and the Harper lad sealed off lab one. They're in there with one of those bloody Romulan boxes! They're workin' in suits, testin' bits of rock an' dust. Containment barriers, feeder lines, oxygen-I set 'em up, but I don't like it. If he's right, all's well, he says. An' if he's wrong." Scott shook his head.

  "If he's wrong-what?" McCoy demanded. "Go on, dammit!"

  "Ye'll not breathe a word of this, Doctor!" Scott snapped. "Nor any of ye, understand? If it goes wrong, we lay in a course on the computer, then send out the logs and abandon ship-aye, leavin' Spock an' Harper behind, alive or no, for if containment breaks, there'll be no way to bring 'em out. We'll drift in the pods till someone picks us up. An' if Earth's no better'n we left it, this plague aboard cannot be stopped. Now, nary a word, mind you! Or Spock'll have my-"

  "Indeed!" Spock's voice tolled behind them; this time no one had noticed the lift. He and Harper walked onto the bridge, minus their helmets, but still clad in white environment suits that were covered with a powdery, glittering dust. Harper wore a look of quiet triumph and rushed over to McCoy, asking about Obo. Spock held a computer tape in his hand and went straight to Uhura's station, ignoring the grins and exclamations of relief.

  "Break radio silence, Commander. Admiral Nogura, Eyes Only. I trust your Rosecrypt can confirm our ID without question?"

  "Mr. Spock," Uhura took the tape and began encoding, "you just leave it to me."

  Spock watched her work, and Scott hovered at his shoulder.

  "Sir," he prompted, "might we be knowin' what ye found?"

  "The antidote was in the dust," said Spock. "Dr. McCoy was correct. Fortunately, as his theory was the only clue we had."

  "Well, I'll be damned!" swore McCoy, grinning broadly.

  "I have no doubt of it," Spock agreed. "Nevertheless, in this case your deduction was actually logical, a watershed of sorts in your career. May I assume that your patient is stable, Doctor? Since you are here engaging in idle gossip?"

  "Spock, Obo is being watched by the best staff and every working monitor in my sickbay! And I wouldn't need to be here, if someone'd just told me what the hell-"

  "Message sent, sir," Uhura interrupted. "What do we do now?"

  "We have done all we can. But you may hope, Commander, if you wish. Hope that we were in time. Call relief personnel to the bridge. Mr. Sulu, move us off from station. Mr. Scott, we hold here for repairs. I shall return shortly. Perhaps," he looked from Scott to Sulu as he started off the bridge, "you can carry out those orders without creative embellishment."

  "Oh, aye," Scott muttered, trailing after him. "But sir, about Sulu bein' on report. The lad misremembers, sir. I pulled rank on him, I did. I said-belay that, laddie!" he warned, as Sulu opened his mouth to protest. "Ye'll not be contradictin' your betters! Here's how it happened, sir: 'We'll find 'em!' I said, 'if we have to send down the shuttles!' Now," he looked around for confirmation, "is that not what I said?" All heads but Sulu's nodded on cue. Spock turned; his eyebrow hung like an icicle.

  "And what I said, Mr. Scott, is that Sulu's actions will be reported. As will the performance of each member of this crew. to the captain, of course. Given his own creative tendencies," Spock sighed in resignation, "I have little faith that discipline will improve. I shall be on the hangar deck."

  "Not so fast, Spock!" McCoy stood in his path. "Your Saavik's walked out of my sickbay, and I want her back. If you see her-"

  Spock's expression hardened. "That is most unlikely, Doctor," he said and strode past McCoy into the lift.

  The bridge erupted with questions and congratulations. Harper began a blow-by-blow account of their lab experiments, and Scott and McCoy converged on Uhura to see the contents of that message.

  "I don't understand it," she said. "Just a formula and some directions. Sounds simple, if they've got this stuff back home."

  "But this-" Scotty frowned at her screen, shaking his head. "Oh, lass, they've got a-plenty. Starfleet's been sittin' on the answer all along. But I can't believe it! The stuff's worthless!"

  "No, sir," Harper assured him. "Not anymore."

  "Welcome aboard, friend Spock." Achernar sat in the padded splendor of his ship, checking readouts on his instrument panel. "My compliments to your crew. My ship is repaired and undamaged."

  "It was powered down at the time of the explosion. And no doubt your hull is shielded."

  Spock climbed through the hatch, inspecting the interior with interest. Scott was right: the ship was a delight, obviously custom-built, and no expense had been spared. A single-unit transporter occupied the aft main deck, extravagant in so light a craft. Pearl gray and chrome, plush furnishings, hand-tooled wood trim, a sensor array Spock wished he could study. All of it was far more lavish than a Vulcan would consider tasteful, but the elegance and workmanship surpassed any he had seen. A music tape played softly. The only feature out of place was a gaping hole in the center of the deck, which revealed an empty cargo hold.

  ". as it will need to be," Spock added. "The Zone is a dangerous place at present."

  Achernar shrugged. "It always is. So you keep your bargain?"

  "Yes. What intrigues me, Achernar, is how you plan to keep yours. What is this thing of value that Tahn thinks you have?"

  "A fortune," Achernar smiled, "which he made by embezzling funds from a certain 'organization.'" An organization, Achernar thought to himself, that is about to be dissolved forever. "I assisted him over the years to render his assets more. liquid, shall we say. But then this organization demanded his ships and troops, and that very night twenty chests vanished from his locked cellar. Tahn saw his days being numbered. He wanted to escape, but without wealth he could go nowhere. So he commissioned me to get it back. It is worth more to him than any ship-even yours." Achernar leaned back in his custom-crafted chair and gazed at Spock. His smile broadened.

  "So. something for something," Spock murmured.

  "Always. The secret, you see, is in knowing what."

  "What I see, Achernar, is that you bargained in bad faith. You have no twenty chests. No fortune."

  "You do not believe me."

  "No," said Spock, and found himself oddly disappointed. "We rescued you in Federation space. We searched your ship. You carried only contraband. Your word is your affair, of course."

  "And I am not accustomed to having it impugned!" Achernar's eyes flashed. "I find that troubles me. So, friend Spock, I too shall make a trade. Look again." A hand brushed under the flight panel, but Spock never saw it. His eyes followed Achernar's pointing finger to the cargo hold, where a second bay had opened up beneath the first. This one wasn't empty.

  The belly of the little ship was lined with gold. And silve
r. And the fiery shine of Romulan rubies scattered over gleaming mounds of coins, goblets, bars of pure bullion.

  "Do not blame your crew, friend. When searchers discover a full cargo hold, they seldom think to look further. And what use would my expensive scan-proofing be if it failed to work?"

  "Fascinating," said Spock.

  "Damnably complicated!" Achernar frowned in annoyance. "A pernicious nuisance! I stole Tahn's treasure myself, you see-oh, come now, Spock. A fool and his gold are soon parted anyway, are they not? Better I should steal it than someone else. He would come to me for help. I would return it, charge a modest sum for my efforts, and meanwhile satisfy a certain client on your side of the Zone who has an inordinate craving for rubies."