Strange New Worlds IV

by Dean Wesley Smith

  “We should be fine,” Abram assures.

  “You spend most of your time down here?” Hawk asks.

  “I find it peaceful.”

  At the bottom of the stairway they come to a long gallery corridor. The moisture clings to their skin, making their bodies slick. Their footsteps echo as hollow clops on the limestone. A flutter of bat wings sounds farther down the gallery. The smell is almost as heavy as the humidity, the sour decay of fungus and sweat. Breathing is a problem. Hawk cycle-breathes through his mouth to block out most of the odor.

  “The cenote is a natural underground well,” Abram explains in a stage whisper. “The Maya believed it to be sacred, that the gods had created it so those living in the arid land of the Yucatán could have water. We know that the walls are limestone, a porous rock saturated with rainwater. It collects in wells and when the thin limestone cracks in places—precious water from the gods.”

  They pause at the end of the gallery at another wooden stairway. The slope is extremely steep about thirty yards down, difficult to maneuver. Abram tosses a second activated glowrod down the stairs so they can see where they are headed. The staircase is held together by strong vines instead of nails. Hawk eyes it suspiciously as Abram gets down on his knees and begins to crawl down the staircase backward. The stairs are wide enough for twenty people to use them at the same time. Hawk follows his father’s lead, the limestone slimy and warm against his bare chest. The stairs wobble from their weight. Sweat bathes Hawk’s face, hands, legs, making the descent difficult. His father, nearly twice his age, maneuvers with relative ease and familiarity. Hawk’s strength doesn’t compensate for his slippery grip.

  Abram gets to the bottom first and retrieves the glowrod. He lets out a careful breath. Hawk works steadily to catch up. No real strain for him. Though he tries to imagine doing this when he was ten and realizes his father was right to forbid him.

  “Right, a bit of fun,” Abram says.

  A few meters ahead a shaft of light shines from a hole nearly a hundred meters up. Abram points above. “There’s the sonic imager we saw earlier,” he says. The sunlight pours in to spoil the gloom in an angled curtain of gold. More carvings and writing are visible along the walls. Hawk is sure his father has read and recorded everything down here. After thirty-seven years, there is little Abram Hawk doesn’t know about the temples and this area.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Abram says. He switches off both glowrods for the natural lighting.

  Hawk has seen ruins like this many times before. Here, when he was a child. The Hundari site on Mystus II. Now he sees the silent stone faces guarding the cenote, covered in lichen and fungus, smoothed by time. The sun reflects stars on the wet limestone. He sees it for the first time the way his father does.

  “Pop, we need to talk,” he says.

  “Sure, Ren. Sure.” Features are muddied by darkness. A sliver of gold contours his father’s form.

  “I never looked, really looked before. These people, the temples, they speak to you.” Hawk runs a hand through his wet hair. “As a kid I thought you and Mom were obsessed with history. I was nine when I saw my first starship. I didn’t leave the solar system till I was fifteen. For you, this planet was the only thing in existence. I didn’t know any better. Klingons, Romulans, I knew about them, but they were remote. They weren’t real. When I went to the Academy I knew you weren’t pleased. Even though I studied archeology. You thought I should have stayed here and learned from you. But I wasn’t content here.”

  The water stars twinkle on the rocks.

  “Look up in the sky. There are trillions of worlds just like this one where everything’s new,” Hawk says. “The people, the places, vegetation, insects. And they’re alive. They are beings. Beings you can touch, speak to, learn from. The unknown is out there.”

  “And that’s where you want to go,” Abram says in the dark.

  Hawk doesn’t answer right away. He can hear the disappointment in his father’s voice. When he says “yes” it is lost in the walls.

  “Archeology, did you ever want to do it, Ren?”

  “At first, maybe. I don’t know.” A child sinking underground.

  “You wanted to tell me you’ve been assigned to a deep space vessel, a starship,” Abram says at last.

  “How did you know?”

  “The latest news. I keep up. The new Enterprise-E has been a big story for months. When they announced the crew last week and I saw your name, I knew you’d be coming. Stopped to see Joli first I bet. You always were a smart boy.”

  “You knew?”

  “I may be in ancient ruins, Ren, but I’m not in ancient times. We’re almost there.”

  Hawk follows the sounds of his father’s footsteps deeper into the cenote. The sunlight fades behind them and they feel the rest of the way down, traipsing fingers along the walls, winding deeper and deeper.

  “I hear you’ve been promoted already,” Abram says as they walk.

  “Lieutenant Hawk, reporting for duty.”

  “What will you be doing aboard the Enterprise?”

  “I learned to pilot. Commander Riker has me on conn rotation until I learn the ropes.”

  “Must be pretty good then,” Abram says. “I should probably be proud of you.”

  Hawk notices he doesn’t say he is proud.

  “I’d always hoped you’d be interested in this,” Abram says. “This is not merely exploring caves and ruins. We’re exploring ourselves. After hundreds of years of archeology we still don’t know much about how we got to be where we are. Adam and Eve, Mesopotamia, Atlantis. How much is real? How much contributed to what and who we are? We fly around the universe anxious to discover new things. And when we do we immediately then hop on again to find the next new thing. No one stays put and tries to see what it is we’ve discovered. We still know just about nothing about Vulcan history. They aren’t very forthcoming about it and no one’s taken the time to really delve into it. That’s what I do. It’s not about adventure or discovery, it’s about what goes on inside.” He taps his temple. “Everything out there is about what’s in here. You can go out and explore your strange new worlds. I’ll stick to the strange old one right here.”

  Abram picks up his pace, making distance between them. This has played out much as Hawk feared it would. His father is offended.

  Hawk covers the distance through a thin passage to a large open area and a wide pool of water. Abram stands along the edge of the pool, activates a glowrod and places it on a jut of rock. He stands along the edge of the pool. Hawk speaks in a harsh whisper.

  “Pop, I—”

  Abram cuts him off with a raised hand. “The Maya did not want to alarm the waters,” he says. “Starfleet has always been the thing to do. I hear Ferengi have joined now. No one stays at home anymore.”

  “There’s Joli,” Hawk says. “And there’s you.”

  “Yes, yes. In some ways we are more like the Maya than you’d think. They worried about survival and appeasing the gods. For Earth, now, the god is curiosity. We don’t have to struggle so much to survive day to day and Starfleet is there to help us survive the larger things. Invasion, war, that letter guy, the Borg. Angry gods to whom we must sacrifice our only sons.”

  He turns to Ren Hawk with a well of tears in his eyes.

  “I don’t want you to go, son.” He wraps his arms around Hawk’s body, squeezing tight. The glow lights dance on the pool. They hold each other for several moments.

  “I love you, too, Pop.”

  Abram Hawk releases his son and composes himself. “The gods provided the water for life. The levels of the pool are affected by that celestial god, the moon. To them, we must make our offering.”

  He grips Hawk’s wrist hard and yanks him into the pool with him. They punch through the surface. Water bursts heavenward in a fountain of stars. They scramble for air, relief washing over their bodies, restored by life.

  In the jade glow, laughter bounces along the walls. Abram reaches for his
son. Laughter is infectious. The ancient waters come alive.

  They splash each other, refreshed, children in a fountain. They swim in the center of the universe. Everything else is remote. Water beads stream a slow cascade of starlets in a dark tapestry. The heavens look down and see forever.

  Captain Proton and the Orb of Bajor

  Transcribed by Jonathan Bridge

  from the radio play by

  Ben Russell as broadcast October 28, 1938

  ANNOUNCER

  Alta-Schweitzer presents …

  ANOTHER VOICE

  (spoken with an echo-like reverberation)

  THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PROTON … DEFENDER OF THE EARTH!

  Cue Captain Proton main theme music, which plays for a few bars until it drops slightly in volume so that we may hear …

  ANNOUNCER

  It’s time once again for the exciting Adventures of Captain Proton! Voyage ahead with us to the thrilling days of the future as Captain Proton, Spaceman First Class, and his faithful companion Buster Kincaid and secretary Constance Goodheart continue their battle against Dr. Chaotica and all intergalactic evil! This program is brought to you by the makers of Alta-Schweitzer tablets. Whenever you’re feeling headaches, pains, or indigestion, then like Captain Proton, it’s Alta-Schweitzer to the rescue! And now we continue with the next episode in Captain Proton’s adventure, Captain Proton and the Orb of Bajor!

  Cue up volume in theme music that plays through to its coda

  NARRATOR

  In our last episode, the evil Dr. Chaotica stole one of the mystic orbs of the planet Bajor. The Bajorans then called upon Captain Proton to find Chaotica and take back their stolen orb. Not understanding the orb’s significance, but realizing its importance to the Bajorans, Proton set off with Buster and Constance to recover the missing orb. In their spaceship, they pursued Chaotica’s ship into the Badlands, a section of space with a lot of storms. The two ships were caught in a violent storm that sent Proton’s ship spinning off course. As their ship careened wildly, it seemed they would not regain control. But Buster with his expert pilot skills has managed to get the ship back on course and navigate it out of the Badlands. We now rejoin our heroes as they are back in normal space and following Chaotica’s ion trail.

  KINCAID

  (over a humming engine noise in the background)

  Captain, I’ve picked up Chaotica’s ion trail. I think he was headed near Bajor.

  PROTON

  Good. Stay on that trail. We have to catch up with Chaotica to try to get that orb back for the Bajorans.

  KINCAID

  (sounding bewildered)

  Captain, this trail is very erratic. It seems to be moving in so many different directions. It’s almost as if Chaotica was blown off course just like we were a moment ago.

  PROTON

  Maybe he got hit by the same storm that we did and it damaged his engines.

  KINCAID

  (suddenly surprised)

  Captain! The trail! It’s gone! It seems to just … come to an end all of a sudden! I can follow the trail all the way to the Denorios Belt. But at that point, the trail’s just not there.

  PROTON

  Scan for any debris. Maybe something happened to his ship.

  SFX: a beeping signal.

  KINCAID

  Captain, I’m getting an incoming message.

  (Pause)

  It’s coming from the Deep Space Sector. Station Number Nine. The captain, Ben Sisko, has given us docking clearance. He wants to speak to us.

  Cue music for scene change.

  NARRATOR

  Upon receiving this message, Proton docked his ship at Station Number Nine. Proton and his companions are now in the office of the station’s captain, Ben Sisko.

  SISKO

  A few minutes ago, a spaceship came flying near our station. The way it was flying back and forth it looked like the pilot didn’t know where he was going. We tried to hail the pilot, but he didn’t respond. Then the ship suddenly disappeared from our scanners. But we were able to trace it as far as the Denorios Belt.

  PROTON

  Dr. Chaotica’s on that ship. He stole an orb from the Bajorans and we’ve been chasing him down to try to get it back.

  SISKO

  So I’ve been told by the Bajorans below on the planet we’re orbiting. At the moment the ship disappeared, we picked up readings of many neutron emissions on our scanners. That’s something we’ve never picked up before. When we picked up your ship on our scanners, we figured you were pursuing it. And so we contacted you to let you know what we found.

  PROTON

  Do you know what could have happened to the ship? Could it have been destroyed?

  SISKO

  We got no readings of an explosion. But the area where the ship disappeared and where we picked up the neutron readings is what the Bajorans call their Celestial Temple. Ever since the Incorporated Planets stationed us here to protect Bajor, we have respected Bajor’s religious beliefs and have not allowed any ships near that area. But the Bajorans have already given their permission. And as the protectorate of Bajor, I authorize you, Captain, to search the area for Chaotica and the orb.

  PROTON

  Yes, Captain. We’re on our way!

  Cue music for scene change

  KINCAID

  (over humming engine sound)

  Captain, we’re on course for the Celestial Temple in the Denorios Belt. I’m reading heavy neutron emissions up ahead.

  PROTON

  Be careful as you approach the temple. We don’t know what happened to Chaotica’s ship. So we don’t know what those neutrons will do to us.

  KINCAID

  (with increased surprise)

  Captain, the neutron emissions seem to be increasing even more! I don’t know what’s making them do that, but …

  SFX: a large fan being turned on to make a vacuum-like noise.

  KINCAID

  (greatly surprised)

  Captain! A large hole opened just ahead of us!

  PROTON

  Try to avoid it!

  KINCAID

  I can’t! We’re going too fast! We’re already heading right into it!

  CONSTANCE

  (screams loudly)

  SFX: objects shaking around.

  KINCAID

  (yelling over the shaking noise)

  Captain, this hole seems to follow a straight path. I’ll see if I can guide the ship through it.

  PROTON

  See if you can stabilize the ship while you’re at it. This is a pretty bumpy ride.

  KINCAID

  I’ll try.

  SFX: turn fan off and bring up humming engine noise again.

  KINCAID

  We’re out of the hole, Captain. We’re back in normal space.

  PROTON

  Can you tell where we are?

  KINCAID

  (bewildered again)

  Captain, if these readings are correct, we’re on the other side of the galaxy!

  Cue intense music that plays through to its coda.

  ANNOUNCER

  We’ll return to Captain Proton in just a moment.

  (beat)

  Boys and girls, do you ever feel body aches and pains when you wake up in the morning? Does the breakfast you eat give you feelings of indigestion? At times like these, do you feel like not going to school? If so, don’t stay home from school. Ask your mother for Alta-Schweitzer tablets. Two Alta-Schweitzer tablets taken with a glass of water are enough to make you feel well so that you can go to school and learn about all the important things in life such as mathematics and science. As you learn and study in school, you can learn everything Captain Proton knows and one day grow up to be a brilliant scientist. So have your mother buy Alta-Schweitzer tablets today so you can have them nearby for mornings when you’re not feeling well enough to go to school. Remember, boys and girls, whenever you’re feeling headaches, pains, or indigestion, then like Captain Proton, it’s Alta-Schw
eitzer to the rescue! And now we return to Captain Proton!

  NARRATOR

  Our heroes have been searching for Dr. Chaotica, who has just stolen an orb from the planet Bajor. They were searching for his spaceship near a region of space the Bajorans call their Celestial Temple. As Captain Proton’s ship neared the temple, a large hole opened up in space and swallowed their ship. But Buster was able to pilot the ship through the hole to its other end where it so happens they are now on the other side of the galaxy. We rejoin our heroes as they are now back in normal space.

  PROTON

  (over a humming engine noise in the background)

  The other side of the galaxy? How did we come that far in just ten seconds?

  KINCAID

  A wormhole, Captain!

  PROTON

  A what?

  KINCAID

  That hole was a wormhole. It’s just like a wormhole in an apple. A worm would rather not crawl all the way around an apple just to get to the other side of it. So it makes a hole in the apple and takes a shortcut to get there. What we just went through was actually a shortcut in space.

  PROTON

  I’ve heard of those things. But most of them are not very stable. We may not have another chance to go back through …

  SFX: a sudden buzzing sound with a steady rhythm.

  KINCAID

  Captain, the scanners just picked up three ships on an intercept course. They’re of a type I’ve never seen before.

  PROTON

  Let them get closer. Let’s see what they want.

  SFX: a brief shimmering sound.

  PROTON

  Constance, behind you! Look out!

  CONSTANCE

  (screams loudly)

  PROTON

  Get your slimy hands off of her, you scale-faced goons!

  SFX: a brief exchange of laser fire that stops abruptly with another brief shimmering sound.

  KINCAID

  Did you see that? Those aliens just came out of nowhere, grabbed Constance, and then disappeared again along with her.