Star Trek - Gateways 7 - WHAT LAY BEYOND

by Various

  "Needing both of our ships and you being the only ship to bring us the Resonators?"

  "I'm sorry, Burgoyne, I don't follow you. There was no other ship with the power to make the contact while we had our own objective. Did you want some other ship?"

  "No, just odd us crossing over like this," Burgoyne said archly.

  Riker shook his head in confusion and let the subject drop. Instead, he monitored the two ships' trajectory and saw the five-second window that would enable the transport to occur. A signal came from the transporter chief that the Enterprise was now down to carrying just one Resonator. Nodding in agreement, he turned to Data and had the ship adjust course to their final destination.

  Troi and Worf had just finished a meal in her temporary quarters, two old friends catching up their lives and friends. It was quite pleasant for her to share her happiness with the Klingon and she saw that the melancholy he normally wore as a cloak was just a bit lighter. Time was finally beginning to heal the wound caused by Jadzia Dax's death. She saw he was not at all ready to find another partner, but at least was comfortable back among his people.

  "I think being an ambassador agrees with you," she said, placing the dishes in the replicator bay for recycling.

  "It has its challenges ... and rewards," Worf agreed.

  "When this is over, what's next?"

  "Back to Qo'noS, and moving on to the next assignment."

  "Do you think our politics have been permanently altered by these events?"

  "No," Worf said after a moment. He took the glasses from the table and brought them to her. "This is like any disruptive event we've encountered such as viruses or the Borg. We adapt and grow and learn from it."

  "Captain to the bridge," rang out the intercom.

  'Troi here. What is it, Commander?"

  Davison replied, "We have the Defiant on our sensors. Contact in jive minutes."

  Troi concentrated a moment, recalling the specific instructions for this phase of the mission. "Slow to sublight, I'll be right there." Together, they left the cabin and quickly found their way to the bridge, where everyone snapped to attention. Clearly the presence of the hulking Klingon ambassador made everyone act by the book. This inwardly made her chuckle but kept her expression all business. Taking her seat, she checked a status chart, then activated the communications system.

  "Marco Polo to Defiant."

  "Vaughn, here." Elias Vaughn, just over one hundred years of age, appeared on the screen. He still had his full beard, his hair all gray, but she saw that he seemed as relaxed as he was when they had last seen each other on the Enterprise a month earlier. Clearly, his decision to take a post at Deep Space 9 was the right choice, despite Starfleet's reservations.

  "Always a pleasure to see you, Commander."

  "Imagine my surprise to find you with your own command," Vaughn said, humor filling his voice. "I see it agrees with you. Ian would be proud. And greetings to you, Ambassador Worf."

  "Commander," Worf said in return. Troi suspected that Worf had not seen Vaughn since they had met at Betazed during the war. Then, Vaughn was a floating tactical operative without a specific ship assignment. Now he was first officer on DS9 and also had Worf's old job of commanding the Defiant.

  They shared a laugh and then it was all business as Troi gave a series of commands that led to the Resonator and Ambassador Worf being beamed to the Defiant. That ship's designation took it close to the Klingon border and should any problems flare up, it made the most sense for the ambassador to be present. The Chargh, already deep within the Empire, would collect Worf later on and bring him back to the Klingon homeworld. She gave him another long hug as he left the bridge and then returned to her center seat.

  "I don't know much about Commander Vaughn," Davison said. "What's he like?"

  Troi smiled. She'd known Vaughn since she was a child - the "Ian" he had referred to was Troi's father. Enigmatically, she said, "He's an interesting fellow."

  The planet was barren and desolate, so small and unimportant the stellar cartographers never bothered to give it a name. It was catalogued as PI-3-3 over a hundred years earlier and Starfleet's records indicated that no one had ever been there. Far from the trading lanes, it was strategically unimportant, and barely Class M, so not worth the effort to colonize.

  Picard stared at the viewscreen and was unimpressed. Yet, down below was a gateway, the farthest from the Petraw fleet and their ultimate goal. Data was already conducting a survey to make certain nothing threatening awaited them. La Forge was busy studying output from the gateway and Vale was already arming a detachment for the away team.

  "It is devoid of life-forms," Data reported. "Plenty of flora but I cannot find even a bird or a fish."

  "The gateway is functioning like all the others, but seems to have huge energy reserves," La Forge added. "Sounds fairly safe," Picard said, looking over at his first officer. They shared a familiar look, the one that told Riker that his captain was going to the planet and there would be no discussion over the matter. After all, Picard went in search of the Resonators, had met the Iconians, and deserved to be involved in this, the final act.

  "Captain, I think you should not go down alone," Vale said.

  "I agree," the captain said. "Just because we don't detect life doesn't mean there's nothing threatening. Geordi, come with me as well, in case there's something unusual with the technology."

  "Just come back this time," Riker said.

  "I wouldn't have it any other way," Picard said with a smile. With that, he stood and strode off the bridge, heading straight down to the planet.

  The Excalibur was bucking as the edge of an ion storm threatened their schedule. Burgoyne was gripping on to hir command chair as crew scurried back and forth. They detected the problem minutes earlier as the night crew struggled to avoid contact with the disruptive energy. S/he was awoken from a sound sleep by the alarm klaxon. Quickly, leaving Selar to check on Xyon, their infant son, s/he headed straight to the bridge.

  "Helm is sluggish," reported Keefer, a beefy crewman who seemed to dwarf the console. He stabbed at controls but Burgoyne felt the ship continue to buck.

  Burgoyne had no problem with crew of lesser experience handling things under normal conditions, but this was far from normal - even for the Excalibur. "Burgoyne to senior staff," s/he barked. "All hands to the bridge."

  In less than two minutes, Robin and Morgan Lefler and Soleta arrived on the bridge. The Vulcan went straight to the science station and began checking readings on the storm. Robin went to ops and performed similar checks, looking to her side to watch Keefer struggle with the helm. To her surprise, Morgan, her stately mother, strode over to the younger man and leaned over his right shoulder.

  "You need to ignore the sensor readings and use more manual control to steer clear of a storm like this," Morgan advised.

  "Morgan, relieve Mr. Keefer, please," Burgoyne said. "No offense, Ensign, but we have little time for lessons."

  As the woman slid into the chair, Robin exclaimed, "What do you think you're doing?"

  "Steering the ship," Morgan replied, her hands dancing across the controls. She paused briefly to intertwine her fingers, loosening them up as if she were going to play the piano. Then she expertly began easing the starship from the edge of the storm without losing speed.

  Robin spun in her chair, looking at the first officer. "How can you do that?"

  "Simple," Burgoyne replied. "If Captain Calhoun trusted her skill at science, then I can trust her at the helm. Sounds like she knows what she's doing. Look, we've stopped being shaken like a bad drink."

  "But, but," Robin stammered, looking at her mother, who acted unperturbed by both the storm outside the vessel and inside the bridge.

  "We've lost about five minutes from our schedule," Morgan reported without turning around. She seemed totally absorbed by the board below her fingers.

  "I can fix that," Burgoyne replied. "Bridge to engineering. Time to heat up the engines. Give us warp ni
ne point eight until I say otherwise."

  And the ship surged forward, heading to a world that once proudly flew the flag of the Thallonian Empire.

  "Helm, status," Vaughn said.

  Ensign Prynn Tenmei said, "On course, ETA seventeen minutes."

  For Vaughn, all seemed to be performing according to plan. Europa Nova had been successfully evacuated, Ro's covert mission to Farius Prime had been successful, and Dax had just called in reporting that Kira was not dead as previously reported, and had returned safely to the station. He looked forward to discussing her odyssey when he returned. But for now, they had to arrive at Dinasia and find the gateway. He intended to go down with Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane, leaving Lieutenant Nog in charge. Normally, he would be wary of leaving so inexperienced an officer in charge of the Defiant without backup. But the ship's previous commander, Worf, was on board, even if he wasn't strictly speaking Starfleet anymore, in case things got out of hand. Besides, Vaughn admired Nog's style.

  "Ensign ch'Thane," Vaughn said, "you and I'll beam down with the Resonator. If I encounter any problems, you can help me with the equipment."

  Shar looked mildly apprehensive. "My technical skills are not the best, sir. Perhaps Lieutenant Nog - "

  Vaughn knew that the young Andorian had a reputation as being something of a klutz with equipment - he was a science officer, more comfortable with theory than practice - but Vaughn also knew that he wouldn't get any better without experience. "I have faith in you, Ensign. Mr. Nog, you have the conn in my absence."

  Nog, Vaughn noticed, gave Shar a look of encouragement.

  Minutes later, the ship achieved orbit and Shar quickly found the operating gateway on a remote island. It was devoid of Dinasian life-forms and Vaughn suspected they shunned it given the planet's Iconian roots. Whatever the reason, it meant they could move freely, which gave him confidence.

  Within minutes, he and Shar materialized on the island, the tangy smell of the sea greeting them immediately. Wind blew water onto the rocks, causing high surf, trees swaying with the force. It was small, with no other island in sight, totally isolated. An odd place for a gateway, Vaughn mused, but who knew what the topography had been like two hundred millennia ago?

  Shar spotted the cave entrance first and led the duo toward the island's one and only hill. The entrance was wide but low, forcing them to crouch to get inside. It was damp within, with lichen growing thick on the walls. About ten feet inside the cave stood the active gateway, the control mechanism to the left, closer to the men. Cautious, Vaughn withdrew his tricorder and took readings, noting it was functioning as expected. No surprises as yet.

  Within the aperture, the rotating images were of three different interior destinations, none of which looked vaguely familiar to Vaughn. He glanced over at Shar, who shook his head.

  The commander was holding the Resonator and recognized there was no reason not to place the device atop the control panel. The tricorder chronometer said he was running about ten minutes early from Data's elaborate plan. Still, he had no way to communicate with the thirteen other people doing the exact same task. As a result, he had to have faith and act.

  The Resonator fit snugly atop the controls, as Picard had described. And just as expected, the machine acted accordingly, and the light show began....

  ... a map of the universe began to appear before Captain Grekor, who stood alone on a desert planet that had been conquered by Kahless's son in one of the earliest additions to the Empire. The lights shifted and the images coalesced...

  ... and the Milky Way appeared to Subcommander Torath. Standing deep within a cave on a planet considered remote by the Romulan Star Empire, she was just following directions with no clarification from the Praetor's staff. Torath shielded her eyes from the brightness for a moment and then studied her universe as a single entity, no imaginary lines dividing it into quadrants, no lines marking territory, just a swirl of stars thickly clustered here and there ...

  ... purple lights began to appear, one after another, dotting all over the galaxy, and Soleta nodded in appreciation for the precision. She knew little of the Iconians, but understood them to be a technologically proficient people and this device, hidden deep within a mountain range, proved the assumption correct. She matched the purple images against her tricorder reading, arched an eyebrow, and saw that her planet was the ninth to be lit. She idly wondered if there was significance to the pattern....

  ... Bractor fingered the Resonator as it quietly hummed and continued to show highlights of key gateway locations. He wondered what would become of the items when the mission was complete and who might be interested in bidding to own one. Good as he was captaining a ship, the financial reforms on his home-world required him to change his retirement strategy and he needed one major windfall. This could be what he needed....

  ... Solok contemplated a people that could design such a device. With the T'Kumbra crisscrossing the Alpha Quadrant, they had mapped only a small portion of the gateway connections and there was an elegance to the patterns. His crew had contemplated the possibilities during their off-duty shifts and it led to much discussion, which pleased the captain. It was a fruitless task, but a vital one to help shed light on the work. But here, as he stood before the gateway on Titan, Jupiter's largest moon, he felt as if he was participating in something in concert with the rest of the quadrant and that brought a satisfaction he rarely felt as a captain....

  ... the captain thought, Damn you, Conklin. He was running late and was certain the entire galaxy was waiting for him. But it couldn't be helped: the Magellan had blown out one dilithium-crystal relay, which resulted in cascading problems that not even his entire engineering team could solve in under an hour. Then he had pushed the engines past the redline to make the schedule, which would mean a week at the nearest starbase, but it Would be worth it. He rushed into the chamber, past four cloaked monks, and snapped his Resonator into place and was stopped in place by the light show that immediately began....

  ... Command had its privileges, Captain Klag thought, as he watched the gateway on Ufandi LVI, a home to pirates and black-marketers. When the I.K.S. Gorkon arrived, he laughed mirthlessly as two scores of one-man craft broke orbit and scattered in all directions. Having a reputation to be feared could come in handy now and then - this was exactly one of those moments. When Worf had asked for his help, he was only too glad to once more provide a service to the ambassador and his people. He had bloodied his bat’leth in maintaining order along the border and was ready to do something of consequence....

  ... Kila Vet, Trill captain of the Repulse, watched frost form on his environmental suit while a meter before him, the console seemed thoroughly unaffected by Tethys III’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere. It functioned normally, as did the gateway just beyond the control panel. He watched in fascination as he saw a Romulan bridge, a smoldering volcano, and a trading outpost he did not recognize. The thirteen purple lights finished forming and the amber button continued to blink. He figured that meant all the pieces were not yet in position ...

  ... Every first officer he'd had, from Will Riker to the late Dina Voyskunsky to his current one, Mikhail Buonfiglio, would never have wanted him to beam down. But Robert DeSoto managed to convince Commander Bounfiglio to let him go down alone. There was nothing dangerous about the gateway on Gault. It was a Federation world, offering no threat to anyone, and the planetary defenses kept the curious at a distance. He'd seen a lot in his decades of service, but nothing of this nature, which went to show that being a Star-fleet captain was never going to be boring. He and Picard, who was countless light-years away, had discussed the matter at the Captain's Table once. Picard explained how he learned never to give up the center seat, and they were words DeSoto took to heart. With a steady hand, he placed the Resonator atop the control panels and felt it glide into place. With a slight change in tenor, the lights changed on the board....

  ... Kat Mueller was startled to see the amber light stop blinking, sure that meant th
e final Resonator was in place. She could only stand and wait - either for an order from Picard, or for an instruction from the Iconian device itself. Telling herself she could be patient, she watched the board and the holographic representation of the universe. She studied the console, checked a cracked fingernail, adjusted a stray hair from her usually perfect style, rechecked the console, checked in with the Trident, bit her lip, and did everything possible to avoid tapping her foot. Nothing seemed to change until...

  ... the purple lights on the graphic shaded to a deep royal color and Deanna Troi's eyes grew wide. The graphic began displaying alien typography that was characters, symbols, and some odd blend of the two. All the lights blinked in unison once, twice, and then stayed lit. She couldn't tell what it meant but figured the machinery was performing as programmed. She would remain patient. If this mission taught her anything, it was learning to wait with grace....

  ... All Picard could think about was his friend Donald Varley. Had his colleague not discovered the Iconian homeworld, they would not have had the past decade to learn more about the legendary people. It cost Varley his life and that of his crew aboard the Yamato, but it gave them an advantage when it came to dealing with the Petraw. Had they shown up posing as Iconians without that knowledge, many would have been susceptible to the pitch. Now he stood on this dead world, watching the console go through the motions, and continued to wait for a sign that he needed to act.