TERMINUS
by Soledad
Note: The Bridrani were conceived after the model of the species in "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K Le Guin.
A few lines of dialogue in this chapter have been borrowed from the original TNG script for "Unnatural Selection" – a script that went through significant changes before getting filmed. Rina was a one-time female (human) character in that script, a girl so beautiful that everyone got distracted by her beauty. I found that idea a bit silly, hoping that people could behave more adult in the 24th century and went for alien pheromones instead.
Certain details of Saavik's life are my interpretation. Her actual origins are book canon.
And yes, I know that canonically the Enterprise crew wouldn't encounter their first Trill (and consequently learn about the joined species) in 2367, which would be a year from when this story takes place. I took a bit of creative freedom here.
Chapter 02 – Secrets & Lies
Three hours later the alien vessel, never slowing down a bit, had left the Enterprise behind and got out of the range of their long-range sensors.
Another two hours later the Enterprise had to slow down to Warp 9.3, and about ten minutes later to Warp 9 because the engines had begun to show first signs of stress. Understandably enough, Geordi wasn't happy about that, and he was glad to have Ensign Rina at hand who had as fine a touch at diagnostics as s/he had a sixth sense for Warp theory.
As Geordi entered the main deck of Engineering, he found Rina at the maintenance table, working on an exotic piece of equipment about the size of a basketball. Two enthralled engineering crewmen – one male and one female – were watching hir work.
"Found it?" Geordi asked, not really doubting that s/he had.
Rina smiled at him. "All set. It was the sensor contact.
Geordi nodded in satisfaction. "Just like you said it would be. Let's get it back in the panel and do a quick line test."
"Yes, sir," Rina lifted the unit off the table. The two crewmembers rushed to help hir carry it – with the result of the delicate device getting knocked from hir hand.
Geordi lunged at once and managed to catch it, mere inches from the deck where it would have shattered beyond repair. He took a few deep breaths before slowly getting to his feet and trying to check his anger.
"Come with me," he said to Rina, a little brusquely.
He wasn't really angry with hir, and the two crewmembers realized that. Embarrassed, they began packing up the test equipment as Rina followed him to the corridor.
They headed together to the equipment bay to reinstall the unit. It was a two-man job that wouldn't require the chief engineer to work on it personally, but Geordi was afraid to let anyone else with the Bridrani right now.
"Running the engineering section is no different than running a drive system," he explained while they were working. "I've got to keep everything in balance. To get maximum efficiency out of…"
"Don't bother," s/he interrupted, hir voice uncharacteristically bitter. "I've heard it all before. It's not your problem anyway. It's me."
Geordi turned and studied hir for a moment. He didn't need to 'see' hir face to read the disappointment in hir tone. It made what he had to say next even harder.
"That's right," he said slowly. "You've got plenty of aptitude, but your attitude is not making it."
S/he whirled around, hir luminous blue eyes unnaturally bright, saturating the air with hir stress pheromones.
"What do you know about my attitude?" s/he snapped. "How would you like it if people always behaved as if you were some kind of freak?"
Geordi finished the installation and closed the access panel a little harder than he needed to. Hir last remark hit a little too close to home.
"What do you think this is?" he asked, tapping his VISOR. "My ticket to success?"
He started past hir, but s/he reached out and grabbed his arm. Hir hand was small and strangely cool but hir grip was surprisingly firm.
"Wait…" s/he withdrew her hand, clearly ashamed by hir previous outburst. "I'm… sorry. Maybe I'm the one who's blind…"
"What you are is maybe the most talented engineer to come out of the Academy since… well, since me," Geordi sighed. "Doing this job is in your blood. Now all we've got to do it to convince the rest of 'em," he extended his hand. "Deal?"
Rina shook his hand. "Deal," s/he said a bit tremulously.
S/he knew, of course, that it wouldn't be quite that simple. Living among people who were in heat all the time could be difficult for a Bridrani. Dangerous, even. But perhaps Lieutenant LaForge was different. He seemed willing enough to see what s/he was capable of and give hir a chance, despite who – or what – s/he was.
Perhaps s/he could make this work, after all.
Picard had retreated to his ready room for Beta shift to think over what little they knew about the situation. Unfortunately, they had not enough facts to form a working theory. He was about to give up and return to the Bridge when Riker, in command during Beta shift, called him.
"Sir, we've come in sensor range with Bynax II," the executive officer reported. "Preliminary scans show no life forms evident on the planet surface."
"What?" Picard was on his feet already. "Is the alien ship there?"
"No, sir," Riker replied. "Neither can we locate it anywhere in the neighbourhood. The USS Cairo, however, is already in standard orbit around Bynax II, and Captain Saavik requests a conference with you."
"Saavik?" Picard repeated in surprise. "Tell her I'm on my way."
He broke the connection, not waiting for Riker to acknowledge his orders. That was definitely a surprise. Captain Saavik was a living legend within Starfleet and beyond – has been for over a century.
One of the handful survivors of Hellguard, born as the result of sexual violence committed by Romulans against a captive Vulcan – like the other half-bred children rescued by the Federation, she didn't even know which one of her parents was Romulan and which one Vulcan – she got accepted by Starfleet nonetheless, thanks to the patronage of then-Captain Spock. She built herself a stellar career, first due to her working with the infamous Genesis device and the subsequent saving of Spock's life, and then as a Starfleet officer.
Later she became even more famous as the wife – now the divorced wife – of the legendary Ambassador Spock… there was nothing the woman wouldn't have seen or done in the recent century.
Picard had been present at her wedding. He had also heard that the bond had been dissolved a few years previously. He didn't know that Saavik had returned to active service, but it didn't surprise him that she would command a long-range courier ship now. She was the wife – all right, the ex-wife – of one of the Federation's top diplomats, after all, it was only logical that she would accept work in the same line of duty.
Worf put the call on the main viewer as soon as Picard stepped out onto the Bridge. The woman sitting in the command chair of the USS Cairo was wearing the asymmetrically cut dress uniform of a Starfleet captain (she must have come directly from some diplomatic event) and seemed not to have aged a day in the last two decades. Her chiselled features were as unblemished as always, her auburn hair, worn in a tight knot on the top of her head, untouched by white. Nothing but a slight hardness in her face showed that she was well beyond a hundred and fifty years of age.
"Captain Picard!" she said with a slight smile that seemed as always, a little odd on the face of a Vulcan. "It is good to see you again. It has been a long time… too long, in fact."
"It is good to see you, too, Saavikam," Picard replied. Their long friendship allowed him to address her in this familiar manner. "I only wish the occasion would be a more pleasant one. Have you been able to locate anyone on the planet surface since your arrival?"
Saavik shook her head. "None so far; but we have barely arrived an hour ago."
"What about the alien ship?" Picard asked.
"No mechanical object of the parameters you transmitted us has been detected within sensor range," Saavik answered with typical Vulcan precision.
"But the deserted planet, combined with the distress signal the Enterprise received earlier, indicate that something fairly serious must have happened," Riker argued.
"I disagree, Commander," Data intervened. "I believe your reaction could be best described as 'alarmist'."
Riker rolled his eyes bud didn't answer. Picard turned to Troi.
"Counselor, can you sense anything from the surface?"
"Anger," the Betazoid answered without hesitation. "The distance is quite large still, but I can definitely feel anger. Somebody must still be alive down there, or else the residual emotions would be much harder to identify."
"Alive and probably hiding," Geordi added.
"What if we sent down a joined landing party… I mean, away team?" Saavik suggested, correcting herself mid-sentence.
She might not show her age, but the old-fashioned terms that sometimes slipped into her speech revealed how long she had already been in Starfleet service.
"That's a good idea," Picard said. "I don't know where the alien ship has gone, but I do have the feeling that we're not done with the thing yet. It would be the best if we could find the colonists before it returns," he turned to Riker. "Number One, assemble an away team and coordinate your efforts with…"
"With Commander Ford," Saavik finished for him. "He will be leading our half of the away team."
Picard nodded. "Make it so, Number One. You leave in ten minutes."
Less than five minutes later Riker, Troi, Data and a two-man security detail met with Geordi in Transporter Room Three.
"We've modified a few of the standard tricorders to adapt to the unique background radiation of the Bynax sun," Geordi explained, gesturing at Rina on his side. "It was tricky, but we managed it just fine.
Riker grinned at him. "That's why we gave you the job," he patted Geordi on the shoulder in a friendly manner. "Let me know as soon as you're set."
"Will I be on the away team?" Geordi asked eagerly.
Riker shook his head. "Too dangerous for a valuable man like you. Fortunately, first officers are expendable."
"Very funny," Geordi said in a tone that revealed that he didn't find it funny at all. "You may need my special vision down there, Commander, and you know that. Instruments can only do so much for you; I, on the other hand, can interpret what I'm seeing."
"I know," Riker admitted unhappily. "That doesn't mean I have to like it, right?"
"No," Geordi agreed cheekily. "It's enough if you take me with the away team, sir. I'm sure it will be all right."
"Hopefully," Riker pulled a face; then he turned to Rina. "Just in case we don't make it back…" he kissed hir hand with flourish. "It was a pleasure, Ensign."
He stepped onto the transporter platform gesturing the rest of the away team to follow suit… including Geordi.
"Six to beam down, Mr O'Brien," he said. "Energize."
The good-natured Irishman nodded and carried out his orders. Rina watched hir boss and the others dematerialize; then she wiped the hand Riker had kissed on the hem of hir tunic.
"Humans," she muttered in disgust. "No sense for personal boundaries. I should have requested a transfer to a Vulcan ship."
Bynax II might have looked spectacular seen from space, with its multiple gaseous rings that cast a bluish hue on the surface, but it was not a world Geordi would have liked to live on, he decided. Less so as lightning storms were a common sight on the planet, if the tall, dead trees marking the scorched surface were any indication.
The duranium domes of the Starbase terminal could easily withstand such storms, of course. Still, for his part Geordi would have preferred to live somewhere in the huge, ancient forests that covered basically the entire planet – save for the small oceans, of course.
O'Brien had put them down in the middle of the seemingly abandoned main dome of the Starbase terminal; in the middle of what was generally called C&C (= Command and Control) in Starfleet slang. The other half of the away team – the people from the USS Cairo – were already waiting for them.
Their commanding officer was a tall and slender Centaurian, one from the native mo'ari people from Alpha Centauri IV: bald, dark-skinned and red-eyed, with a long and complicated four-part name only one of his own people could pronounce correctly. Centaurians serving in Starfleet usually adopted human names for administrative reasons. The executive officer of the USS Cairo went by Commander Ford.
The rest of the Cairo away team was made up of a security detail of Rigelians – not surprisingly, as Vulcanoids generally preferred to work together – and an elderly, unjoined Trill who turned out to be the ship's doctor. He was stocky, with the usual spots along his neck and temples and thinning hair.
He also seemed delighted to see Troi, with whom he'd met on some medical conference a few years previously.
"What, exactly, are we looking for?" Commander Ford asked Riker.
"People," the executive officer of the Enterprise replied succinctly. "According to Starfleet data, this starbase terminal had a crew of over seven hundred. They have to be somewhere!"
"All humans?" the Trill doctor inquired.
"Save for the occasional Vulcan scientist and Bolian engineer, yeah, mostly," Riker said.
Then he turned to Data. "Mr Data, try to start a search pattern. See if you can find anything on the surface that might have justified a distress call."
"Aye, sir," the android accessed the main computer of the Starbase terminal and started scanning the surface in a steadily widening circle.
"Mr LaForge," Riker continued, "look for unusual energy sources. Perhaps that way we can figure out where these people have gone."
"Can we be certain that they are still here?" Commander Ford asked.
"I can feel a multitude of minds, mostly human," Troi said. "But it appears as if they were in a considerable distance. I find it hard to reach them, even passively."
"What do you mean?" Riker frowned. "Usually, you can feel such a large number of people from orbit. You felt them while still aboard."
"I know," Troi seemed troubled. "I can't explain it."
"Perhaps a dampening field?" the Trill doctor suggested.
"Or they can be deep under the surface," Geordi said. "I'll check the structure of the base if there are subterranean areas beneath."
"Natural caves could also serve that purpose," Ford said.
"Then you should scan for both," Riker said to Geordi, and the engineer nodded.
""It will take some time, especially if they left the immediate area of the Starbase terminal," he warned the others. "We are in the centre of Bynax II's largest continent."
"How large is it exactly?" Riker asked.
"Roughly the size of Australia," Geordi replied. "This is not a very welcoming planet, in any aspect."
"But strategically important," Commander Ford pointed out.
Riker nodded. "Exactly. Which is why we should check the surroundings of this complex and see if we can find anything threatening on the surface. Mr Data, you'll help Commander LaForge with the scanners. The rest of us should split up in two groups and begin with a systematic search."
Commander Ford agreed with the suggestion. The two executive officers contacted their respective captains and got their permission to go on with Riker's plan. Unfortunately, they didn't find any sign of the Starbase crew on the surface – or of any possible threat, for that matter.
"As if the very earth had opened up and swallowed them," Commander Ford muttered angrily.
"That's exactly what happened, Commander… well, sort of," Geordi piped in through the comm system. "Data's found the base terminal logs; apparently, Commodore Norsen had moved the entire crew into a secure area, one point five miles below the surface."
"One point five miles?" Riker repeated in astonishment. "Small wonder you couldn't feel them clearly," he added, looking at Troi. "Who knows what could be in so much rock…"
The Betazoid shook her head, her jewel-like eyes dark with concern.
"That shouldn't be able to block my abilities. No; there is something else at work – something I've never met before."
"I consider that bad news," Riker said dryly. "Geordi, have you found any access point to that secure area?"
"Negative, Commander," LaForge replied. "I believe they simply beamed in; but the memory buffers of the transporter have been wiped clean. Not even Data could reconstruct the information. He tried. It didn't work."
"But you do have the exact coordinates…?"
"Well… as exactly as one can be when scanning through one point five miles of rock. But yeah; we can ask the Enterprise to beam us directly in."
Calling the Enterprise, Riker did exactly that, after having consulted with his captain.
"You go in," Commander Ford suggested. "We'll stay on the surface and continue our search. Something must have happened here that sent these people into hiding; and I want to find out what it was. We need answers."
Riker absolutely agreed with that, and after another check-back with Picard, he requested that he and Troi be beamed directly into the underground area, leaving the security detail behind to protect Data and Geordi, just in case. Chief O'Brien asked for a moment to adjust the settings of the transporter first.
"The area is not shielded, but certain minerals in the rock might interfere with the transporter beam," he explained. "Since we don't know their exact consistence, we'll need extra caution."
Less than four minutes later he reported the transporter room ready – well, "as ready as we'll ever be" – and Riker ordered him to energize. He and Troi felt the slight disorientation that was always a side effect of using any transporter… only that this time it seemed to have lasted longer than usual.
Considerably longer.
"For a moment I had the feeling as if I had materialized in that wall over there," Troi said, swallowing nervously. All of a sudden, her throat felt very dry.
"For a moment, you actually have," Riker answered wryly. "We both have. Luckily, O'Brien managed to adjust the beam in the last millisecond. But it was a close call. Too damn close for my comfort."
"Where are we?" wondered Troi, looking around.
They were standing in a subterranean room of moderate size, with a flat ceiling. It was completely empty, not even as much as a computer interface could be seen anywhere; and yet she had the feeling that they were being watched. By many eyes.
Before he could have warned Riker, though, a previously invisible door was flung open in the blank, metal-covered wall and a short, wiry Bolian male, wearing the usual black coverall of Starbase personnel, with yellow shoulder patches and the rank insignia of a chief petty officer on his turtleneck collar, stormed out through it.
"So, you've finally come!" he declared, his voice high-pitched with indignation. "It's time that Starfleet got up from their lazy asses and did something about the situation."
Riker exchanged concerned looks with Troi. Whatever said "situation" might be, it apparently wasn't good.
Discovering just a moment later that their comm badges didn't work down there only made things worse.
As if the Bolian engineer had been but the cork removed from a bottle of champagne, dozens of other people poured into the empty room after him, crowding it till there was barely any air left to breathe, shouting angrily, demanding to be let out from this place. Troi, usually not one to easily panic, was getting more anxious with every passing moment, as the people in there clearly were panicking and wanted to get out, by any means necessary.
They also clearly didn't have a clue what was going on.
"Wait… wait!" Riker tried to raise his voice about the angry noise. "Let me speak with Commodore Norsen first. Where is he?"
"Right here, with my people – where else should I be?" a wry voice answered and out came a tall and board man with wavy white hear and an equally white, neatly trimmed full beard.
Commodore Tyrus Cassius Norsen – Ty for his friends – was probably the most imposing man Riker had ever seen; and he had seen his fair share of imposing men, from Starfleet admirals through alien dignitaries to legendary Klingon warriors. He was also the oldest of said imposing men – well, save for a handful of Vulcans, of course.
Ty Norsen was well over a hundred years old; not a unique thing among humans in the 24th century, yet the only sign of his age was his grey hair. He still looked like some Viking chieftain and was apparently every bit as fit as one.
He had been one of the young Jean-Luc Picard's mentors at the Academy – hence their long friendship – but he was also one of the few who had actually served with the living legends of the 23rd century as a young man: with Captains Kirk, Spock and Sulu, with Admiral Cartwright before his unfortunate fall, and many, many others.
He was an excellent military strategist and a skilled diplomat, which was why he had been assigned to such a remote outpost on the Federation border, where a First Contact situation was always a real possibility. He was supposed to deal with all possible aliens, both friendly and hostile ones, and he had always done so with unbroken success.
What could have frightened such a man enough to not only send out an urgent distress call to Starfleet but also go into hiding with his entire crew before his call could have been answered, Troi wondered.
Whatever it might have been, it clearly didn't prevent him from being in control of the situation, though.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded, focusing the sharp glance of his almost watery blue eyes on Riker's bearded face.
"Commander William T. Riker, executive officer of the Enterprise," Riker introduced himself. "We came answering your distress call."
"Ah, the Enterprise!" Commodore Norsen smiled in obvious relief. "Where's Picard?"
"On the Bridge, I assume," Riker said. "Commodore, what's going on here? Your message said Bynax II was in great danger, but we found nothing threatening on the surface."
"He's gone mad!" the Bolian engineer scowled. "He's forced us to go underground weeks ago. Our emergency supplies are running low down here, yet he won't allow us to go back to our quarters."
"It's for your own safety," Norsen replied grimly. "You have no idea of the threat we'll be facing, soon."
"And you do?" Troi asked sceptically. "By all due respect, Commodore, precognitive visions are all but unknown in humans; and your file doesn't mention any unusual ESP-abilities."
"I'm telling you: he's gone mad," the Bolian engineer repeated; then he turned to his comrades. "You heard the Commander: there's nothing threatening on the surface. I say, we all move back up."
"If you do, you'll be all killed," Norsen warned him grimly.
"Oh, will we?" the Bolian sneered. "I'd like to see any hard proof for that; or else I'm going back, and that's final! I've had enough from living in a dank hole like some Terran earthpig!"
The others agreed with him very vocally, and Riker knew he had no means to keep them underground, even if he wanted. And he wouldn't try to force them; not until he could be certain about the danger Norsen was reflecting to.
"Counselor?" he asked softly.
"Commodore Norsen seems to honestly and firmly believe that his people are in grave danger," Troi replied with a helpless shrug. "I don't think, however, that he would himself have any clear idea about the exact nature of that danger."
"Then how can he be sure that there is a danger in the first place?" the Bolian, clearly the spokesman of the angry crowd, demanded. "Did he have a holy vision from a purple goddess with a tail that warned him?"
The other Bolians grinned, despite themselves. Such visions were the common side effect of certain aphrodisiacs on their homeworld.
"I have my methods," Norsen said dismissively. "And you people would do better if you listened."
"No, we won't," a woman with the red eyes of an Alpha Centaurian said. "I am sorry, Commodore, but if you can't give us a reasonable explanation, we'll return to the surface. Panun E'Ni," she gestured towards a reptilian petty officer who, if her glittering scales and the crest on her head and down her neck was any indication, belonged to a rare Saurian subspecies, "is just about to go into hibernation. It's too cold for her down here; she needs to get warmed up. The heating units here cannot produce the temperatures she needs to stay conscious."
"And we need proper food and at least one long, hot shower," the Bolian added. "Come on, people! Let's have the officers discuss theory here; we'll go back to our quarters."
"I forbid you…" Norsen began but the Bolian interrupted him rudely.
"And as soon as I'm up there, I'll file a reassignment request, together with a complaint," he said. "I'm sure I won't be the only one."
There were grim nods all around, and the others surrounded the Bolian protectively while he got a site-to-site transporter online. Then, ignoring Norsen's protests and warnings, they all left for the surface, by fours and sixes.
"That went well," Riker commented sarcastically. "Care to explain what's going on, Commodore?"
Norsen shook his head. "I'm afraid I cannot, Commander. I hoped I'd be able to speak with Picard. He'd understand."
"For that you'll have to return to the surface, sir," Riker said. "Our comm badges don't work down here."
The Commodore rolled his eyes, as if Riker's stupidity had physically hurt him.
"Of course not," he said, irritated. "This is a heavily shielded are. Scanners and comm devices are not supposed to work here, for our own safety!"
Riker shrugged. "As I said, in that case you'll have to return to the surface with us, sir. The days when starship captains would run headfirst into danger, joining away teams, are passé."
"A shame," muttered the Commodore angrily. "They've all become bureaucrats, sitting in their comfortable offices, losing touch with reality."
At first Riker wanted to protest, as nothing could have been less true for a man like Captain Picard, but in the end he decided against it. He recognized an uphill battle if he faced one, and Commodore Norsen clearly wasn't in a cooperative mode. He exchanged a look with Troi who gave a tiny nod of agreement.
"Let us return to the surface, sir," he said neutrally. "There you'll be able to discuss things with Captain Picard. Shall I set the transporter to automatic?"
"I'll do it; despite common belief, I'm not a complete dotard yet!" Norsen snapped. "Or do you think they'd let me run this outpost if I were an idiot?"
As this was clearly a rhetorical question, Riker refrained from answering. He and Troi obediently stood on the transporter platforms, while Norsen set the system to automatic, and several seconds later they rematerialized in the control centre of Bynax II Base.
"Any news?" Riker asked Data and LaForge.
The android shook his head and continued working, but Geordi seemed cautiously excited.
"I went out for a look with Commander Ford's team," he reported. "Our instruments registered nothing unusual, but my VISOR picked up energy on a wavelength I've never seen before. I think we should track those energy waves; they could be important for our search."
"No!" Norsen interrupted, and there was almost something like panic in his eyes. "I won't have you turn this planet upside down, just to satisfy your curiosity! I'll speak with Picard now, and the two of us will decide what should and what shouldn't be done. That's why we are the commanding officers here!"
The Enterprise officers exchanged exasperated looks, but they couldn't do anything. Commodore Norsen was the commanding officer of Bynax II base; unless he'd prove incapable of making command decisions, his word was the law here.
Resigned, Riker touched his comm badge. "Riker to Enterprise. Captain, we've found the base personnel. They were hiding in an underground bunker but are otherwise fine. However, we found nothing threatening on the surface that would justify the need of hiding."
"That can change soon, Number One," Picard replied grimly. "Give me Commodore Norsen now."
~TBC~