The communications screen in front of him beeped softly, and he opened his eyes as the Starfleet insignia was replaced by the broad, smiling face of Captain Montgomery Scott.
“Capt’n,” Scott said, his smile getting even broader. “ ’Tis good ta see ya again.”
“Likewise, Captain,” Picard said, putting his tea down and leaning forward. “It has been far too long since we’ve had the pleasure of your company aboard the Enterprise .”
“An it’s gonna be even longer,” Scott said, laughing, “as busy as they’re keepin’ me around here.”
Picard had a hunch Scott was enjoying being busy, especially in his job. During the last months of the war, Scott had been appointed the liaison between the Starfleet Corps of Engineers and the Starfleet Admiralty. And he was the perfect man for the job. He was respected by everyone. Period. And he not only knew how to navigate the world of Starfleet politics, but how to deal and work with engineers of every type. Picard’s only thought when he had learned of the appointment was, “Of course.”
“I’m afraid,” Picard said, “that I’m not going to help your schedule much. I have a big job to dump in your lap.”
Scott’s grin faded some. “I read your preliminary report and scanned the battle information. That’s a strange bird all right. And big.” Scott chuckled. “The Enterprise always was a giant-killer.”
Picard laughed. “We were a little too close to being stepped on by that giant for my blood.”
Scott shook his head. “Gonna take a lot more than a big, ugly ball to stop the Enterprise . So, what more can ya tell me about that alien monster?”
“Not much, I’m sorry to say,” Picard said. “We’ve been so busy dealing with our own repairs and helping the colonists that we haven’t had time to even start to explore the thing yet. I can tell you its metal is resistant to any scanning. We have no idea why.”
Scott laughed, the sound deep and rich, then waved a hand in dismissal of Picard’s apology. “That’s our job, Capt’n.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Picard said. “We’re due in the Folnar system as soon as we can get there.”
“Don’t ya worry, Capt’n,” Scott said, “I gotta ship in the area. It will be there inside ten hours. We’ll take good care of your friend there.”
And Picard knew they would. The S.C.E. were the ones charged with the task of boarding unknown ships like the one they had just fought to sift through the rubble and learn what they could from the alien technology and even the remains of the aliens themselves. At times Picard thought that searching through alien ships for new information, new technology, would be exciting. In a way it was a branch of archaeology, his favorite hobby. Of course, when they were digging through the alien ships, most of the time it was in zero gravity, surrounded by intense radiation, and surrounded by far too many dead bodies.
But he knew that wasn’t all that the S.C.E. people did by a long ways. If anything in the galaxy needed to be built, rebuilt, programmed, reprogrammed, assembled, reassembled or just understood, the S.C.E. was who you called on.
In many ways, the S.C.E. was the branch of Starfleet with the most varied and interesting job after these recent times of war, and Picard slightly envied them that.
“Would you mind, Captain,” Picard asked, “if my Chief Engineer stuck around and worked with your people?”
“That monster’s got La Forge’s interest bubbling, has she?” Scott asked.
“Salivating, I think would describe it better,” Picard said. “He’s made sure all the major repairs to the Enterprise were done in record time, just for the chance to get over there and look at those strange shields and hull metal. But with us leaving for Folnar system, he’s not going to get the chance, unless he stays with your people.”
Scotty nodded. “I can remember doin’ that a few times myself. I’ll tell Captain Gold he’s goin’ ta have some help. He’ll be happy ta hear it.”
“Captain David Gold?” Picard asked. “The da Vinci is nearby?”
“Sure is,” Scott said. “Speedin’ your way at warp six.”
Picard knew David Gold from all the way back to their Academy days. Gold had been one of the upperclassmen Picard had beat in the Academy marathon; they had become friends and kept in touch as often as their careers had allowed. Gold was what many called “old Starfleet.” He ruled with a solid hand, and always kept the mission and his crew at the top of all priorities. But he had a wicked sense of humor that Picard loved. Gold was married to Rabbi Rachel Gilman, who had a thriving congregation in New York. Picard had lost track of all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren they had.
“I wish I could stay and say hello,” Picard said. “Shame to be this close and not get the chance, but we’ll be leaving within the hour.”
Scotty smiled, the twinkle in his eyes clear from the contained laughter. “Well, you gotta pick up your Chief Engineer sometime, don’t ya?”
Now it was Picard’s turn to laugh. He hadn’t thought of that at all. Geordi would have a shuttlecraft, but meeting the da Vinci after the next mission would be even better. It would be a great time to have an enjoyable dinner with Gold, find out how his wife and children were doing, and hear about some of the S.C.E. adventures and discoveries.
“Thank you, Captain,” Picard said. “I just might do that. Hope your people find something worthwhile here.”
“I’m sure we will,” Captain Scott said. “I’m sure you’ll be hearing all about it from Gold and La Forge.”
“More than likely,” Picard said, nodding at the smiling face of one of the legends of Starfleet history. “ Enterprise out.”
Picard leaned back and took another sip of his tea, savoring not only the taste, but also the quiet of the room. After a moment, he brought up on his screen the image of the alien ship. The massive black ball with its strange rings seemed to just hang there, taunting him. Every time he looked at the ship, he felt a sense of dread and unease. Even dead and helpless in space as it was, the ship looked and felt dangerous. Picard just couldn’t shake the feeling.
Ten hours until the da Vinci arrived. Too long for Geordi to be alone with that thing, even with the colony nearby. Picard sipped the tea, and then clicked off the screen. With a tap on his communication link, he said, “Lieutenant Vale, report to me in my ready room.”
If the Enterprise could make it a few days without its chief engineer, it could also make it without a security chief. And, that way, maybe he could sleep a little better as well.
CHAPTER
3
Lieutenant Vale’s light snoring filled the small main cabin of the shuttlecraft Cook . Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge glanced over at her and smiled. She had a young and innocent look about her, with blond hair cut in a pageboy style, and round, blue eyes. She stood—in boots—no taller than five-three, and looked slight. But Geordi knew someone didn’t make chief security officer in Starfleet without knowing every fighting trick there was. So far, she hadn’t had to prove any of her skills, and she seemed cool enough under the pressure of battle. He just hoped this side mission would be no exception. It was certainly going to be interesting having her along. She was slumped in the copilot’s chair, her head back, her mouth slightly open. Captain Picard had forbidden him to enter the alien ship until the S.C.E. team arrived, but the captain had said nothing about landing on its surface and taking readings. No doubt doing nothing but gathering data for ten hours was boring to her, but not to him.
Especially not with this alien ship. Frustrating him, maybe, but not boring him.
At the moment, he had the Cook parked on a junction where the two rings met. They were very flat and smooth on top, and looked like wide highways leading off in four directions. Each ring was over a hundred meters wide and twenty thick. He had taken a dozen readings, using everything he could to penetrate the thick skin of the rings, but had had little success. The alloys that made up that hull were almost as good as shields when it came to blocking scans. He could tell th
ere were no life signs, could get basic shapes and energy signatures from what appeared to be backup systems, and could tell there was a very wide hallway and lots of rooms in the rings below him, but nothing more. This ship’s metal hull, whatever its exact makeup, might be a very important find for the Federation and Starfleet.
It was clear that unless he, or someone on the da Vinci, came up with a way to penetrate the hull, they were going to have to learn about this ship the old-fashioned way: by exploring it.
And finding out exactly what purpose these rings served was something he really wanted to know.
He turned and eased the Cook off its position on the ring and moved across the surface of the giant ship like he was skimming over a moon. Unlike the surface of the rings, the surface of the sphere was almost entirely covered with what looked like equipment. Over the last ten hours, he’d managed to identify some of it; he’d found hundreds of redundant environmental systems, and what looked like energy collectors. He had also pinpointed over one hundred airlocks.
But what was under that surface he had no idea, and it was driving him nuts.
He slowly lowered the Cook over what had been the only smooth area of the ship’s surface before the final Enterprise attack. Now it was a large hole, showing layer after layer of open decks below. The top deck appeared to have been the ship’s main control room. It was now mostly gone.
The clear surface wasn’t made up of the same material as the rest of the hull, but looked as if it might be transparent from the inside, sort of a oneway window. Only it had been the biggest window Geordi had ever seen. The Enterprise could have landed on it and not even started to cover it all. On top of that, to be that big, the material had to be fantastically strong. That interested him as well.
The control room had faced the center part of the massive window. It must have had some spectacular view into space. Now it was nothing but a giant hole.
He scanned down through the mess, trying to penetrate into the open decks the explosion had exposed. This ship looked like it was big enough to hold a city’s-worth of beings, yet only twelve had been aboard flying it. Why?
He hoped to find the answer to that question before this was over. And a thousand other questions as well.
Lieutenant Vale coughed lightly, gave a small snort, and turned to her right. A moment later her snoring returned, light and consistent.
Geordi smiled and shook his head in amusement. For a young officer on a strange away-mission, she certainly had a sense of comfort and self-assurance. He never would have been able to sleep in her position.
Suddenly the proximity alert beeped, warning them that another ship was approaching.
Vale snapped awake, coming out of her chair with one hand on her phaser. Her blue eyes were very round, and Geordi doubted she had taken a breath.
“Easy, Lieutenant,” he said, holding up his hand to her as he glanced at the sensor readings. It was the da Vinci, dropping out of warp. “No sense in shooting who we’re here to help.”
She glared at him, then stood up straight and stretched, as if nothing unusual had happened.
“Have a nice nap?” he asked, smiling.
“Not really,” she said, using one hand to massage her neck.
“Seemed like it was pretty good, considering how you were snoring.”
Vale looked at him, at first slightly confused. Then she got this defiant look in her eyes. “I don’t snore.”
Geordi laughed. “Whatever you say. But I had to turn up the warning signal to make sure I heard it.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, turning away from him and dropping into the copilot’s chair.
He could see a little red creeping up her neck, so he just smiled and said nothing. Having her along was going to be fun.
On the main screen, the da Vinci swept in, turning and swooping in the same motion. The sleek ship ended up in a position just above the Cook . Geordi was impressed. Their pilot must be good, and very confident, to approach like that.
“Da Vinci to Enterprise shuttlecraft Cook. ”
“Welcome, da Vinci, ” Geordi said as Captain Gold’s smiling face filled the screen.
Geordi knew that Gold was only slightly older than Captain Picard, but he looked older. He was a thick man, with white hair and bushy eyebrows. Geordi could tell from his brown eyes that the man didn’t miss much.
“Seems like Picard has left us with a doozy this time,” Gold said. “Glad you wanted to stick around and give us a hand.”
“Thanks to you and the S.C.E. team for having me, Captain,” Geordi said. “Just couldn’t leave this one without knowing what makes her tick.”
Gold laughed. “We know the feeling. I assume you’ve gotten some readings in the last few hours?”
“What I could get,” Geordi said. “It’s not giving up its secrets easily.”
“They seldom do,” Gold said. “We’re ready for docking when you are.”
Ten minutes later, Geordi had slipped the Cook in beside the da Vinci ’s two shuttles, and he and Vale were headed for the bridge.
“Never been onboard a Saber -class ship before,” Vale said, glancing around the hallway and into a medical lab as they passed. “Feels small.”
“Compared to the Enterprise , it is,” Geordi said. “The Saber -class holds a crew of forty at most. But these ships can move and fight, trust me.”
“Small and mean,” she said, nodding. “I like that.”
He glanced at her and decided it was just better to say nothing.
Ahead of them a door brushed open, and a woman stepped out, turning in the same direction they were heading. It took Geordi a moment before he recognized her. It was Sonya Gomez, who had been an ensign on the Enterprise ten years ago. He hadn’t realized she was going to be on this mission. That’s what he got for not checking.
He knew she had done well for herself in those ten years. She had ended up, during the war, as the chief engineer on the U.S.S. Sentinel. The Sentinel had found itself dead behind enemy lines, but Gomez had managed to get the warp core back up and running and adjust the warp field so that Breen sensors had thought the ship was Cardassian. She was decorated for that, and after the war she had been promoted to Commander and joined the S.C.E. as its commanding officer. Ten years ago he had been her superior officer; now, for this mission, she was going to be his.
“Not even going to say hello to an old friend?” Geordi asked, loud enough for Gomez to hear.
She glanced back and then stopped, a smile covering her attractive face. “Geordi.”
She waited and gave him a hug. “I was excited when I heard you were coming aboard.” Then she glanced at Vale and extended a hand. “ Commander Gomez,” she said.
“Lieutenant Vale,” Vale said, shaking Gomez’s hand.
Gomez looked her over for a moment. “So you’re the Enterprise ’s new Security Chief. Corsi’s going to love meeting you.”
“Oh,” Vale said, “Lieutenant Commander Corsi and I go way back.”
Gomez looked at Vale for a moment, puzzled, but when the young security chief didn’t go on, she shrugged and turned to walk beside Geordi toward the bridge. Geordi was going to have to ask Vale later about her history with Lieutenant Commander Corsi, the security chief for the S.C.E.
“So what’s it like working S.C.E.?” Geordi asked. “Actually running it.”
“Wonderful, most of the time,” she said. “Gold is a great captain, and we are constantly challenged. I must have a backlog of must-figure-out projects that would last an entire year—assuming I don’t add on any more.”
“Most of the time, huh?” Geordi asked, smiling at her.
“Climbing inside dead alien ships isn’t always fun,” she said.
Geordi could tell from the flat expression on her face that there were a few bad memories attached to that comment, so he didn’t push it.
“We just spent a week on a hot, desert planet trying to get a water system up and running for a candidate for Federation membershi
p. I don’t think I’m ever going to get all the sand out of places I don’t want it to be.”
Geordi laughed. “I see what you mean. I hope this project turns out better.”
“Oh, trust me,” she said, “as long as there isn’t sand, I won’t care. And, from the looks of the preliminary data the Enterprise sent us, we’ve got a real puzzle on our hands. That’s always interesting.”
“That’s why I stayed,” Geordi said. “Thanks for having me.”
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re always welcome,” Gomez said. “The rest of the team is looking forward to meeting you. Your reputation precedes you.”
“Not sure if that’s good or bad,” Geordi said, laughing. And he wasn’t. But having Gomez make him feel welcome and wanted was a good sign of things to come.
The door to the bridge slipped open and Gomez led the way in, stepping to the right toward the science station. Captain Gold was sitting in the captain’s chair, and the large alien ship filled the main screen.
Besides Captain Gold, there were three others on the bridge. A fit-looking man had the conn under the main screen. A blond Bajoran woman was at the operations station, and a well-muscled Atrean male sat at engineering. Geordi didn’t recognize any of them.
Captain Gold glanced around, then smiled and stood, moving to shake Geordi’s hand. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Commander.”
“Thank you, sir,” Geordi said, shaking the firm, strong hand of the captain. Gold was instantly likable, and clearly in charge. Very much like Captain Picard.
Geordi turned and indicated Vale. “This is the Enterprise ’s Chief of Security, Lieutenant Christine Vale.”
“Welcome, Lieutenant,” Gold said, also shaking her hand.
“A pleasure,” Vale said. “And a beautiful ship you have here.”
Gold laughed and winked at Geordi. “I like an officer who knows how to say the right things to a captain.”
“Better warn Captain Picard,” Gomez said to Geordi, moving over to join them. “Captain Gold here has a way of getting people he likes to work for him.”
Have Tech, Will Travel Page 2
