The Abode of Life

by Lee Correy

Sulu was sprawled on the floor beside his post. Uhura was also injured, holding her elbows and trying vainly and valiantly to respond to distress signals and calls coming into her station from all over the ship. Spock had taken over Sulu's post next to a battered Ensign Chekov, who was bleeding from a deep cut across his forehead. Scotty, with his uniform tunic torn, was desperately working at the engineering station.

  Kirk knelt next to Sulu momentarily, only long enough to learn that his helmsman was still breathing. Then he snapped to Spock, "Report."

  "Extreme gravitational anomaly," Spock managed to get out. "Actually, a 'fold' in the fabric of space, so to speak. There was no way to tell that it was coming, because we have no sensors that can detect such a thing."

  "Injuries?"

  "We don't know. The ship's fields went down momentarily, actually reversed themselves, then came back. Communications are out in some sectors of the ship," Spock fired back.

  "Uhura." Kirk got to her side. "Anything broken? Are you badly hurt?"

  "I … I hit the ceiling," she mumbled. "When I came back down, I landed on both elbows. I wasn't ready for it … or I would've relaxed and rolled with it. . . . I don't know if anything's broken. . . . My arms just hurt terribly. . . ."

  Kirk punched a button on her panel. "Sick Bay, this is the Bridge. McCoy?"

  "Jim, I'll have a team up there just as quickly as I can," McCoy's harried voice came back. "There're injuries all over the ship." And the circuit was cut from the other end.

  Kirk did not react to this curt reply from his medical officer. He knew that McCoy was under terrific pressure at the moment. There'd be a paramedic team to the Bridge as soon as McCoy could get things organized.

  Yeoman Rand appeared through the emergency exit of the Bridge. She was disheveled but apparently unhurt. "Yeoman, are you all right?" Kirk wanted to know.

  "Yes, sir. I thought I would be needed most here," Janice Rand replied.

  "You are indeed. Take over emergency medical aid to Uhura, then Chekov, then Sulu," Kirk ordered. He turned to Scotty, knowing that Janice Rand would handle the Bridge-crew injuries without further attention from him.

  "Scotty, engineering status report," Kirk snapped.

  The engineer was shaking his head sadly as he took reports coming in from his engineering department. "Minor damage to the ship's structure, Captain. We have life support, impulse power, and one warp drive unit functioning. There's considerable damage to the second warp drive unit, the full extent of which I dinna know yet."

  "Can we make warp speed?" Kirk wanted to know.

  "Aye, but with only one unit, the best I can give ye is Warp Factor Two … and that's full-out with the good unit wide open … and subject to possible breakdown, since I haven't had the chance to check for possible damage there," the Engineering Officer replied, not looking up from the engineering consoles.

  "Mister Chekov, take the helm," Kirk ordered. "All engines stop. Let her drift in space until we find out where we are. Mister Spock, give me a position. Where are we?"

  Spock moved from the helm and walked back to his library computer console. Kirk joined him, watching his first officer bring systems back on line and check them out. "Captain, the Stellar Inertial Navigation System has completely lost alignment. We still have the galactic time base pulse in operation, and the course record and data banks appear to be secure. I maybe able to reconstruct what happened. But as you can see, the course-record data bank indicates a major discontinuity."

  "Which means that somehow the Enterprise has jumped through normal space," Kirk added.

  "Quite correct. As I pointed out earlier, the gravitational anomalies in this area could create what amounts to a fold in the fabric of space," the Vulcan continued. "According to the data here, that is exactly what has happened. We were thrown across such a fold in space, caused by an extremely strong gravitational anomaly, almost like jumping through a black hole or Dirac discontinuity."

  "Spare me the theory, Mister Spock. Right now, I need to know where we are," Kirk told his First Officer, his first thoughts being of the ship and its crew. "We can run over the theory later when we know where we are and where we're going."

  "I'll put a visual panoramic scan on the main screen," Spock remarked. He then addressed the ship's computer in the verbal command mode, "Computer, scan and analyze the visual, ultraviolet, and X-ray spectra of the stars in the panoramic sensor scan. Match and identify any known star groups and give me a hard copy printout of same. Store the data for possible use in realigning the SINS."

  "Working," the computer's vocoder-created female voice replied tonelessly.

  Kirk turned to watch the scan on the screen. "Let's have full magnification and image intensification, Mister Spock. It doesn't look like there are any stars out there at all."

  And there weren't.

  At full intensity, the best the scanners could pick up was the faint band of light emanating from the stars in the galactic plane.

  "Reporting," the ship's computer voice said. "No known star groupings are recognized. Further instructions, please."

  "Computer, run analyses of selected star groups assuming a ship displacement of several hundred parsecs toward the center of the Galaxy and adjusting stellar parallax accordingly," Spock ordered.

  "Working."

  "Are we still in the Galaxy, Mister Spock?" Kirk wanted to know.

  "Affirmative. I have the Shapley Center identified," Spock remarked, gazing into the hooded viewer of the library computer console. "But there's considerable interstellar dust along the plane of the Galaxy. Therefore, I'm having great difficulty identifying any known star groups. I'll need at least two recognizable stellar reference points in addition to the Shapley Center before we can realign the SINS."

  "But where in the Galaxy are we?"

  "I can't give you a precise answer yet, Captain."

  "Speculate, then."

  "Very well. We jumped an estimated distance of about three hundred parsecs, and we appear to be in the void between the Orion and Sagittarius Arms. This is totally unknown and unexplored space, Captain. I can't locate a single individual star at this time."

  Yeoman Janice Rand stepped up to Kirk and reported, "Sir, I've stopped the bleeding from the cut on Mister Chekov's forehead, and Lieutenant Uhura's arms appear to be only bruised, not broken. I gave her a mild analgesic injection into each forearm. That will ease the pain until Doctor McCoy can make a professional examination. But we'll have to get Mister Sulu to Sick Bay as quickly as we can get a medical team up here."

  "How about it, Lieutenant?" Kirk asked gently. "Can you continue to run your post temporarily?"

  "Yes, sir. I hurt, but not badly enough to ask to be relieved."

  "Good. First, raise Starbase Four and report what's happened. Then get me a summary of internal damage and injury reports."

  "Right away, sir." Although Uhura's face showed that she was indeed injured, she stuck to her post, inserted the receiver in her ear, and began to attempt to communicate with Starbase 4.

  "Three hundred parsecs," Kirk mused, doing the calculations in his head. "That's a long trip at Warp Factor Two. . . ."

  "One hundred twenty-two-point-two-five real-time years, to be precise, Captain," Spock put in.

  "And that's just to get out of this void and back into the Orion Arm," James T. Kirk added. "Scotty, we've got to get that warp drive unit repaired and back on line."

  "Aye." The Engineering Officer nodded. "We can't crawl across the galaxy with only one unit working. We'll all be old and gray by the time we get back to Starbase Four."

  "What will it take to fix the warp drive unit?" Kirk wanted to know.

  "I canna tell ye yet," Scotty replied. "My first priority is to make sure that all internal systems are functioning, and we've just about got everything back now. I'll get to work examining the warp drive unit. I'll have an answer for ye shortly."

  The doors to the turbolift swished open, and Bones McCoy entered with a team of four paramedics
.

  "Well, it's about time," Ensign Chekov remarked.

  "Half the crew injured, most of the turbolifts out, and you expect ambulance service?" McCoy snapped, obviously under pressure and rushed to a far greater extent than he liked. He looked around. "Who's hurt here?"

  "Better get Sulu down to Sick Bay right away," Kirk pointed out. "And Uhura and Chekov both got banged up."

  McCoy was at Sulu's side at once, his medical sensor out and checking the Helm Officer. "You're right. He's got internal injuries. How about you, Uhura?"

  The Communications Officer was busy at her console, and she didn't hear the doctor's question. McCoy walked over to examine her, and she seemed oblivious of him. Finally, she spoke to Kirk. "Captain, I'm sorry, but I can't raise Starbase Four. In fact, I can't raise anything on subspace frequencies, not even the usual data exchange buzz or the ship-to-ship channels. Nothing but Jansky noise and subspace whistles."

  "Which means I'd better get busy on that drive unit or we'll be out here in the middle of nowhere forever," Scott remarked, heading for the turbolift. "I'm going down to Engineering, Captain. I'll let you know the status of the other drive unit as quickly as I can." And he was gone.

  Kirk looked at his First Officer. "Spock, I hope you can get that SINS unit aligned again. In the meantime, Mister Chekov, put the Shapley Center on our stern and hold a course directly away from it back toward the Orion Arm. Make Warp Factor One. I don't want to overstrain our remaining warp drive unit."

  "Aye, aye, sir."

  Captain's Log, supplemental

  We are limping back toward home, the Orion Arm of the Galaxy, at Warp Factor One. By random matrix techniques, Spock and the ship's computer have located us approximately three hundred sixty-five parsecs into the interarm void between the Orion and Sagittarius Arms at galactic coordinate Mark twenty-one-point-zero-one and a distance of approximately sixteen hundred parsecs from Starbase Four. This extreme distance, plus the presence of considerable interstellar dust along the galactic plane at the edge of the Orion Arm, explains Lieutenant Uhura's inability to raise Starbase Four on subspace radio. Commander Spock has managed to complete a rough realignment of the SINS, providing us with rudimentary navigational capability. Sensor probes out to the limit of range have located a few Population Two stars scattered through the interarm void, but we're not close enough to any of them to determine whether or not they possess planets. . . . And we're going to have to find a planet or a planetoid to orbit in order for Lieutenant Commander Scott to effect repairs to our second warp drive unit, which is completely inoperable. In fact, its repair will require materials that Scott will have to extract from a material source in order to fabricate parts. Without a second warp drive unit, we're doomed to crawl across the interarm void for perhaps years before we are able to get a distress signal to Federation facilities. On the other hand, the jump interrupted a data-dump transmission to Starbase Four, which means that Star Fleet Command knows the Enterprise is in trouble somewhere. We can only hope that a search-and-rescue mission will be dispatched, which is the reason why I've instructed Lieutenant Uhura to broadcast an assistance call on all Federation emergency frequencies. However, since we can't count on getting any help, we must do the best we can to save ourselves, because I will not abandon the Enterprise even if we happened to discover a habitable planet but were unable to repair our warp drive. We'll get home with our data … and I will do everything I can to ensure that it doesn't take forever to do it. . . .

  Most of the superficial damage had been repaired, the injured had been treated, but the Enterprise continued to limp along at Warp Factor One with all sensors operating at the extreme limits of their ranges. Kirk spent most of his time on the Bridge during the next several watches. He couldn't bring himself to admit the possibility of an extremely long voyage back to the charted and populated Orion Arm. It wasn't his training but his experience that gave him a totally nonlogical gut feeling that something was certain to happen to change the existing situation for the better. He'd been in too many tight spots and through too many emergency situations. Not only did he have to maintain a personal appearance of hope for the morale of his crew, but his own personal makeup wouldn't permit him to do otherwise.

  He knew the only thing he could really count on was change.

  Sooner or later, something was bound to turn up to alter the present predicament.

  And it did.

  It was Uhura who spotted it. "Captain," she remarked to him in the middle of the sixth watch since the jump, "I'm picking up something very strange." Her fingers were delicately adjusting controls on her comm console. Anticipating her commander's question, she went on, "It's very weak, but it has all the characteristics of radiation from a transporter system … except it's behaving as though it were a side-lobe transmission or even a suppressed carrier side-band … and it's continuous, not sporadic and intermittent as it would be if a single transporter were operating on sequential objects. It's as though there were many transporters working almost constantly. . . ."

  Kirk had turned his seat to face her console. "There isn't anything we know of in the Galaxy that puts out the characteristic transmission pattern of a transporter, is there, Lieutenant?"

  "No, sir. That's a very special scan and phase pattern."

  "That's what I thought. It's not natural. Can you get a fix on it?"

  "Affirmative, Captain. Shall I patch the data to the logic and integrating unit of the ship's computer as a sensor input?"

  "Yes. Mister Chekov, man the library-computer position until Spock gets here," Kirk snapped. "Get us a course line on the source of that transporter radiation. If it's coming from the interarm void, it means somebody lives around here and uses transporters." He slapped the all-call switch on the arm of his seat. "Commander Spock, report to the Bridge on the double."

  Chekov, plastiskin covering the gash on his forehead, was working the computer already. "I have a preliminary course line, Captain. The transporter radiation source appears to be coming from Bearing zero-seven, Mark ninety. No range data."

  "Lieutenant Kyle," Kirk addressed the helmsman, "turn to Bearing zero-seven, Mark ninety. Put that source on our nose. Maintain Warp Factor One. That transporter-type radiation can be coming only from a nonnatural source, which means an intelligent life form somewhere nearby, which may mean an inhabited planet. And that means Scotty may be able to get our warp drive repaired. Uhura, Yellow Alert until we find out what or who is responsible for that transporter radiation."

  Chapter Two

  "Lieutenant Uhura, you deserve a commendation," Kirk said as they watched the image of the planet grow on the screen.

  "Thank you, Captain, but I didn't discover this planet. I merely noticed the unusual transporter signals coming from it," Uhura pointed out.

  "Yes, but you didn't dismiss the data as spurious," Kirk reminded her. "This star shouldn't be here, and should not have a single planet orbiting it."

  Doctor McCoy, whose hard work over the past few days had patched up most of the crew, merely watched from the side of Kirk's command seat but couldn't refrain from commenting, "The universe is not only stranger than we think; it is stranger than we can possibly imagine."

  "I believe," Spock said from the library computer console, "that your statement was made back in the twentieth century, Doctor. . . ."

  "Probably," McCoy replied. "In my experience, I've found very few ideas or concepts that're original. Everybody seems to reinvent the square wheel at one time or another."

  "Well, regardless of the philosophy, gentlemen, we've located a highly unusual situation," James Kirk observed. "And it'll likely permit us to save ourselves and get the Enterprise back into Federation territory."

  "But we are in Federation territory, Captain," Sulu said. "The UFP Negotiated Exploration Treaty permits exploration out to 4750 parsecs from Sol, and we're certainly well within that boundary."

  "I stand corrected, Mister Sulu. Amend my statement to read 'explored' Federation ter
ritory." Kirk was relieved, and both his expression and mood showed it. The planet looming up on the screen looked too good to be true.

  It had polar caps, a cloud-rifted atmosphere, abundant oceans, and several continents. It appeared to be Type M, terrestrial in nature, a rocky planet with water and an atmosphere. Spock had diverted his efforts from determining a precise location of the Enterprise because their newly discovered planet was becoming extremely interesting as the ship came within range that permitted accurate sensor readings.

  "How about it, Mister Spock? Any interesting data to report yet?"

  Spock's head was buried in the hood of the library computer console. However, he looked up, jotted a few notes on a pad, and turned to his captain. "My survey is superficial, Captain, but I do have some preliminary data that are rather fascinating. . . ."

  "Well, don't keep us in suspense, Spock," McCoy snapped.

  Spock ignored the ship's doctor, or at least he gave the impression of so doing, which probably angered McCoy more than if Spock had made some numbing, ultralogical retort. "The mean planetary diameter is nine thousand seven hundred fifty kilometers, and its surface gravity appears to be seven-point-eight-four meters per second squared … or about eight-tenths of a standard gee. I'll have better data once we establish standard orbit. My preliminary data indicate the planet's in an orbit point-nine-three-seven-five astronomical units from its primary, with an orbital eccentricity of zero-point-nine-eight. Other data which are highly preliminary include an inclination of the spin axis to the orbital plane of only a bit more than twelve degrees. Length of its solar day is twenty-six hours, twelve minutes, and thirty-four seconds with a probable error of five-point-six-eight percent. I'd estimate the length of its year at three hundred eight days, four hours, and seventeen minutes with a probable error of plus or minus thirty-five minutes."

  "Close enough for Federation work," Sulu mumbled to himself.

  "Good." Kirk sounded excited. "Any atmospheric data yet?"