Chapter 2

Linus Seagram did not appear receptive to the prospect of receiving guests. He eyed the six Starfleet officers balefully as they materialised out of the transporter beam, as he paused from directing his robotic work-force which was sorting cut stone taken from a nearby outcrop. He was a stern-looking man of medium height and build with short black hair, and was physically rock-solid with a look that attested to a life of hard labour rather than working out.

The six Starfleet officers didn't notice at first, however, because they were looking about in wonder. To the south stood a work in progress, a magnificent long stone building four storeys tall and shaped like an "H" that looked to be a Gothic palace. A rail ran from a tunnel which issued from a stone outcropping to the north to the front of the palatial building and beyond. The palace grounds were surrounded at a fair distance by a massive stone wall than met the stone outcropping in a semicircle running from a point north-west to a point south-east. To the north lay a stone outcropping or hill which ran as far as the eye could see from north-west to south-east. Due north from their position, and just to the left, was the tunnel entrance. Five-hundred metres to the right of this was a huge double wooden door built right into the native rock; to the right of this was a small window, a massive chimney, another small window, a long vertical line of glass running high up the outcropping, and to its right a churning stream which issued from the grass plain which lay at the top of the outcropping.

'I've got that thing of yours boxed in,' Seagram said without preamble. 'I'd like you to pack it up and leave here as soon as possible.'

Captain Picard, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, Mr Worf, Will Riker and Mr Data stared. 'You've already managed to confine it?' the captain said in surprise.

'The locals have it surrounded,' he replied cryptically.

'Locals,' Worf echoed suspiciously. 'We detected only three humanoid life-forms in this area.'

'Ah, bipedal arrogance,' Seagram said, though without sarcasm. 'If it thinks, it must walk around on two legs.'

'We detected no sentient beings in this area,' Data said, frowning.

Seagram turned to a curious-looking animal, a thickset creature the size of a small dog, orange-cinnamon coloured with light areas and darker stripes. The creature had ears, a nose and a mouth. But it had no eyes.

'Bite 'em, Sunshine,' Seagram said, not seriously. In response the little animal uttered a curious chirruping, trilling sound. 'Yeah, I'm not sure I like them either.'

'Fascinating,' Data said, engrossed with the creature. 'I have heard that many of the indigenous life-forms on this planet have sensory capabilities other than sight.'

'Oh, they can see all right,' Seagram told him, finishing a short inventory of various pieces of stone and sending it on its way. 'Far better than we can, in fact- don't do that!' Data had been about to scan the creature using his tricorder, but Seagram stopped him just short of turning the device on. 'The frequencies put out by those things play havoc with their sensory apparatus,' he explained. 'Don't ever use sensor equipment around them, and especially do not ever discharge weapons like phasers. They're incredibly sensitive to certain types of energy, and trust me- you do not want to make them angry.' As he said this, two more people beamed down- Dr Crusher and Raya. 'Hey! Sunshine!' He watched in surprise as the little animal bounded over to Lt Raya, reared up on its hind feet, and began pawing at her leg.

Without thinking, Raya knelt down and picked it up.

'I'll be damned,' Seagram muttered. 'He's normally very cagey around people.'

'He purrs!' Raya exclaimed, causing captain Picard to suppress a small smile.

Changing the subject, the captain said, 'Who are these others, who have managed to contain the artifact?'

Seagram appeared to be finished with what he was doing, and said, 'Oh-h-h, they're like Sunshine here. And not.'

'Meaning?' Picard rejoined.

'You'll see,' Seagram said enigmatically. 'Anyway, I'll take you to where they're holding it, now. C'mon . . . I've got some landriders parked in the underground.'

-

The Federation team followed Seagram to the big wooden double doors. He hauled one side to the right, rolling it on wheels so that it disappeared into a space cut right into the rock at the base of the stone outcropping. He closed the door behind them once they entered, they followed him to the left, and left again down a wide metal staircase, and then the Federation team stopped and gasped in surprise.

'Just how big is this place?' Geordi exclaimed. They were in a vast underground garage filled with various types of equipment, from earth-moving machines to transports to various types of air and space craft.

'I had this area filled in,' Seagram told them. 'It's really a shallow valley that goes on for about half a kilometre, right where the wall begins. This area here is for machinery, and on the left side, the upper floor is one big grow-up for vegetables and vat-grown muscle-tissue-'

'Humane meat,' Dr Crusher interjected approvingly. 'The only kind I'll eat, unless it comes out of a replicator.'

At the mention of replicator food, Seagram winced. 'Anyway, underneath the grow-op are the manufacturing levels. Here, we'll use this one. It's the only one that's been driven so far.' He led them to a landrider, a heavy transport with two-metre-tall tires, an empty space in back with two large doors at the rear and small doors to either side, and a huge cab space in front with a driver's seat in the middle, and bench seats to either side and behind it. With an electric whine, the machine started up instantly. Seagram backed it out, wheeled it around, and they were on their way.

-

As they waited for an automatic ramp to lower itself, Seagram said, 'This is kind of an abuse of a very useful industrial vehicle, but I just love driving this thing. The back is for equipment and stuff, and the front is for the work crew. Once the crews arrive, it'll have more of a lived-in look.' He chuckled. 'I doubt it'll ever be so clean inside again.'

He gunned the landrider forward as soon as the ramp was lowered. In an instant they were out on the plain, heading for a gate in the wall. He pressed an overhead button and the gate opened before them. Just as they were passing through, he pressed another overhead button to close it, and they were afforded their first view of the open plain.

'It looks a bit like the African savannah,' Dr Crusher commented.

'It does, a bit,' Seagram agreed a bit morosely. 'When I first arrived here the animal populations were in very rough shape.'

'How can that be?' Geordi asked him. 'This place looks like there hasn't been any human interference.'

'Unlike Earth,' Seagram told him, 'things are very stable, which doesn't drive the engine of evolution forward at a furious pace. When I first came here part of the animal habitat picture was coming to an end. There were once huge caves all over the place that the animals made use of in order to survive the winters. But the hills are all made of stone, so as they eroded away the animals were unable to dig themselves new homes, and every winter their numbers had been falling, to the point that there weren't all that many left.'

'You've been making new caves for them,' captain Picard anticipated, his tone a mixture of respect and admonition.

'Oh-h-h,' Seagram responded with an enigmatic smile, 'I interfered a lot more than that.'

-

Within a few minutes they came in sight of the coast. Seagram was following a road that was obviously of his own making: the shallow tire ruts of his own vehicle which had apparently made this journey often over a period of time. They were soon travelling north west in a line parallel to the high stone outcrop, which itself ran from northwest to southeast as far as the eye could see. Eventually they came to a man-made incline at a low point in the stone outcropping, surged upwards with a gravel-spitting roar . . . and then they were on the vast expanses of the upper plain.

While the others were drinking in this spectacular sight, turning often in their seats and craning their heads in order to get a look at the ocean to the west, Deanna Troi's attention was consumed by the eyeless little animal perched on Raya's lap, his front paws on the dashboard, gazing ahead, apparently able to see.

'This creature is sentient!' she exclaimed, catching the Federation team off-guard. 'I'm sure he understands a good deal of what we're saying!' She looked to Seagram who was smiling broadly. 'But you already know this.'

Seagram said nothing.

-

Within the hour they had entered a new region, of rolling hills and thickets, and the occasional stand of massive tree-like plants of the same type that lay to the south of the wall. Soon they were at the border of a tall forest and drawing towards an apparently dry vale. At the lowest point, in the middle, was an extraordinary sight.

'They look like little Sunshine . . . only much bigger!' Deanna exclaimed. 'What on earth are they doing?'

'They're doing exactly what it looks like they're doing,' Seagram told her. 'Sitting in a circle, blocking that artifact of yours from getting away.'

'Astonishing,' Data said with more emotion than he believed himself capable of.

Captain Picard raised an eyebrow. 'The question, however, is what we're going to do now. We still don't know how we're going to contain it.'

'My understanding is that you had it contained before,' Seagram said sourly.

'My people did have it contained before,' Raya said, her gazed fixed on the strange sight before them, 'but it was a matter of trial and error and accident. We're still not sure how the feat was accomplished.'

Seagram sighed, considering. 'Well . . . for now, let's get it to my lab.' He rose from his seat.

'How do you intend getting it there?' Data asked him.

'I don't,' Seagram shot back. 'I intend to let others do it for me.'

-

The others watched in silent wonder as Seagram approached the circle of animals with easy familiarity and seemed almost to converse with them. Within moments the entire group was moving towards the rear of the vehicle, herding the artifact which remained in their midst. Worf and Geordi assisted by opening the rear doors and laying a ramp which slid out from underneath the rear of the vehicle. The suspension system groaned under the weight of the seven animals, each of which was from four to five feet at the shoulder. In the meantime, as the were loaded in and ready to get under way once more, some of the Federation team got their first look at the artifact.

'It really does look flat, no matter which side you look at it from,' Dr Crusher remarked. 'It looks like nothing more than a sort of flat, grey hole.' The shape of the artifact was changeable, and at the moment was roughly vertical and ovoid, about twenty-four inches tall by eleven wide.

'This is part of what destroyed three of my people's most powerful ships and their crews,' Raya reminded them.

'Has anyone physically touched it?' Data asked her absently, staring intently at the animal-encircled object.

Raya gave him a sharp look, but said nothing.

-

Worf spent much of the ride back admiring the animals guarding the artifact. At one point he said to Seagram, 'They are magnificent. They have the look of warriors.'

Seagram smiled somewhat privately to himself at that. 'You're right, they are magnificent, and they are warriors in the truest sense.'

'How do they see?' Worf asked him.

Picard felt the man wouldn't answer such a question, but to his surprise, perhaps because Worf's innocent curiosity aroused something akin in himself, he replied, 'They have a number of sensory organs in their heads that are like sensors, some of them active, some of them passive, and they can control which are active, at will. This is because their active sensors give them away, both to one another and to other creatures that have a similar sensory apparatus. Their active sensory system probably developed from living in caves where there is no light.'

'So they can literally see in the dark,' Dr Crusher put in, genuinely fascinated. 'How do their sensors work? Is it echolocation, or something different?'

'There are several sets of sensors,' Seagram told her, 'and several organs that may be sensors which I haven't figured out yet. They work on a number of principles, some of them bioelectromagnetic, some of them bioelectric, some of them to do with ultrasound, and several of them to do with senses I can't identify.

'Even their "normal" senses differ from ours. They have a directional sense of smell, spatial senses of orientation and hearing, a directional sense that can tell them exactly where they are on this planet at all times, a highly attuned sense of time which I'm only beginning to understand, and a distal hearing sense that can exactly pinpoint a sound's point of origin.

'There's one thing to remember, above all else,' he said, raising his voice for everyone's benefit. 'They're incredibly, I would say painfully sensitive to many technological devices such as certain types of sensors and weapons. Before I purchased this planet and moved here, this planet was a haven for wack-jobs from all over, who used to pay big money to go on safaris and try to hunt these creatures. They'd kill one now and then, but most of the time the mighty hunters ended up becoming the hunted, especially when they discharged hi-tech weaponry. A phaser or disruptor discharge will drive these guys into a killing frenzy, as will a tricorder.'

'How do you protect yourself?' Will Riker asked him.

'All equipment that comes here, like these landriders for example, are rebuilt using shielded parts,' Seagram told him. 'I won't have these guys hurt.' He tousled Sunshine's head, affectionately. The little animal was half-asleep in Raya's lap. Afterward, Lt Raya looked askance at Seagram, and it was difficult to tell what she was thinking.

-

Seagram sighed as he drove the vehicle into its stall, as though he'd enjoyed himself. He climbed out of the vehicle, opened the back, waited for the big animals to herd the artifact out into the underground motor pool, then led the way to a door in the south east wall. This opened into a wide stairwell, and they descended two floors, walked south through a large assembly area, came to another door, then passed through this into a darkened science centre. The lights flickered on automatically as they entered, and Seagram led them to an area replete with scientific equipment.

'Wow!' Geordi breathed. 'You have some nice toys!'

'Yes, well, they're all yours,' Seagram replied. 'So if you'd like to get to work, I'll leave you to it. I've got a lot to do, so the sooner you get that thing packed and crated and out of here, the better-'

'Linus Seagram, that is no way for you to speak to your guests!' Everyone turned in surprise as a wiry little old woman followed them in. One of the animals went straight to her, accepting the stroking of its big muzzle with something like humour in its mien.

Raya stared. The elderly woman was Romulan!

The woman, in her turn, studied Raya with great interest. 'Linus, why didn't you tell me someone was here from the home world?'

Seagram's eyes widened. 'You're Romulan? Being with the Federation, I assumed you were Vulcan.'

'Anyway, soup's on!' the elderly woman announced in a tone which brooked no compromise, and began heading out. 'Linus, bring your guests. It's past mid-day, and you at least haven't eaten yet.'

Linus Seagram smiled sheepishly, shrugged, and followed in her wake.

-

'Who is . . .?' Riker nodded towards the elderly woman as he walked with Seagram.

Seagram smiled, broadly. 'I call her "Mom" because all the young guys used to call her that who came into her restaurant. It was really tough on her when she retired, and I asked her and her husband to come here with me when I moved here. They're helping me with the planning, and to tell the truth . . .' he chuckled, 'she practically runs things.'

Raya followed behind them, carrying the now-sleeping Sunshine in her arms. She noted that the seven large creatures were herding the artifact in their wake, but that Seagram seemed to be taking little notice.

They eventually reached their point of entry- the two wooden doors set into the base of the stone promontory- went past this point to a door, then passed through this into what was obviously Seagram's living-quarters. To their immediate right was a raised area with table and chairs set before the window they'd seen from the outside. Below this to the right was another table and chairs and a kitchen area. To the left was an old-fashioned cast iron hearth complete with cast-iron utensils for cooking, and to the left of this was a leviathan of a cast-iron wood furnace. To the left of this was an elevated bed before the other window, set between the great furnace and the wall, and under the bed was a rack full of eight-foot-long wooden logs, each of them easily a foot thick. To the north was one large room with a floor that was terraced towards the back, and to the east was a semitransparent wall with two doors in it. The one to the right, Seagram told them, led to a room with washing, lavatory and bathing facilities, and the one to the left led to the stream at the base of a waterfall. The area high above this was covered by glass, all the way up the side of the stone promontory, so that the water egressed through a portal leading outside.

Captain Picard was oblivious to all of this, however, as he met- and recognised- the old woman's husband. 'General Dalz.' He inclined his head politely. 'Which would make your wife Anala, if I remember correctly.'

'You have a good memory,' the old Romulan said, adding, 'Relax, captain Picard. My profession put me out to pasture a good long while ago.'

'I heard you got something of a raw deal,' Riker said sourly. 'Yes, I know who you are. Many of the Federation elders thought very highly of you, even though we were on opposite sides.'

'Many Klingons remember you with honour as well,' Worf put in. 'Your battle tactics are required learning.'

'Enough talk!' the old lady interrupted. 'Sit and eat, and then you can talk to your heart's content. You,' she said, intercepting Raya, must sit with me down here and share news of the home world! I've been starved for gossip for several months!'

-

'You are a complete fraud,' Beverly Crusher said to Seagram with a broad smile. 'Anala has you wrapped around her little finger.'

Linus Seagram and the retired general shared a look at that. Dalz said, 'Anala is a force to be reckoned with, for which I am very thankful. Without her, life would have been rather dull.'

They were seated at the table before the window and rose now and then to sample a number of dishes from a tiered rack set at the head of the table.

'I can see why she used to run a restaurant,' Deanna said appreciatively. 'Everything is exquisite!'

'The food was not the reason her restaurant was successful,' Dalz confided with a meaningful glance at Seagram.

Taking his cue, Linus Seagram said, 'I got to know pilots in the Romulan military because I bought a number of Maltran transports and used to bring them in myself to be serviced.'

'Those are darned good ships!' Geordi said with a heartfelt engineers empathy. 'I wish we made them ourselves.'

'They are, and that's why I bought them,' Seagram continued. 'Anyway, the main repair depot is at Velanar spaceport, and the place to eat, I was told, was a restaurant several blocks away in a kind of seedy, rough area. The food was great, I was told, but that's not why the guys were going there. They were going there because of Anala.'

He smiled to himself, remembering. 'When I walked in through the front door with two friends of mine, she was berating a table full of cadets, treating them like kids. And they just loved her for it. They'd help her around the place, keep the riff-raff out of the neighbourhood, keep an eye on the place around the clock, and come into her place whenever they were in port.

'She had lots of old regulars, too, a lot of them higher-ups who came in for news and for her company. And especially for her advice and for her connections. She had a way of knowing everyone who counted.' Seagram smiled to himself. 'I can see that a lot of this is lost on you. You have to know Romulus and the military regime there in order to know how this fits in, in its proper context.'

'I ate in that restaurant a few times disguised as a Romulan,' Picard confessed, drawing all eyes to himself. 'It was a secret mission that was not subversive in any way,' Jean Luc said to Dalz, whose eyes had hardened. 'I was not there to spy.'

Dalz sighed, the heat went out of him. 'I shouldn't care, regardless. I came here because of my dissatisfaction.'

'That's quite a palace you're building,' Riker remarked to change the subject. 'I suppose you're going to move into it when it's finished?'

Seagram's reply was a baffled look.

Riker nodded to the ornate building outside. 'It's kind of hard to miss.'

'Oh, that!' Seagram said, shaking his head. 'The retirement hospital.'

Picard gave him a look. 'Retirement hospital?'

Seagram sighed, realising replying meant opening a big subject. Trying to keep it simple, he responded, 'The reason for this place is twofold: the wildlife and retired Romulan military people. Threefold, come to think of it. Romulan colonists, too.'

'Why military retirees?' Dr Crusher asked him, frowning.

Seagram and Dalz shared a meaning look. 'Crappy pensions,' Seagram answered, 'crappy health-care, crappy living conditions, crappy . . . pretty much everything.'

They were joined by Mr Data, who had been making a cursory study of the artifact.

'Yes, Mr Data?' captain Picard said. 'Have you found out anything?'

'Perhaps,' Data responded. 'I think the animals may know what the artifact is.'

-

'Data, what makes you think they know what the artifact is?' Geordi queried as later on they mixed with the creatures gather around the artifact.

'The old one was somehow able to modulate it,' the android replied. 'I think he used his sensory apparatus to interconnect with it.'

As though this were her cue, the elderly creature positioned itself before the artifact. They thought at first the creature was bowing its head, but soon realised that it was aligning the sensory organs in its head so that they faced the ancient artifact vertically. In response the artifact wavered, began to change colour.'

'Whoa! Guys, are you seeing this?' Geordi breathed.

Commander Riker gave him a sardonic look. 'I doubt it. Your visor is probably picking up a lot of stuff we can't see.'

'Then I'll tell you what I see,' La Forge said excitedly. 'It's like a window into . . . I guess this is the past. It's some sort of time bubble. No, wait!' He shifted his position, sidling around the artifact for another view. 'What the hell? It shifts when I move . . . kind of like a prism. I think these are other dimensions or . . . maybe other worlds? Or maybe the same world at vastly different times? But no . . . from this angle I'm seeing stuff I can't make sense of. And from here . . . you're not going to believe this!' He turned around to look behind himself, apparently seeing nothing. 'From here I'm seeing all of us standing here, but from behind, right about over there.'

'I am going to touch it-' Data began, but was cut off, both by the creatures which simultaneously chuffed a warning, and by Raya who blurted, 'Do not!'

'I only intend to place my hand within it in order to see if my sensors will interact with it. Perhaps I can attune my neural network-'

'You will learn nothing!' Raya said with a ferocity that took the others aback.

Data gave her a look. 'You yourself have touched it. I know this because my positronic brain reacts somewhat to its unique energy signature, some of which is on you.'

'So that's what I'm seeing when I look at you,' Geordi said to her. 'There's an odd aura around you. It's so faint that I thought my visor was seeing things. You've actually handled this thing! Why didn't you tell us before-?' Sudden realisation brought him up short. 'No . . . you've done more than touch it. The emanations I'm seeing are all over you. You've been inside this thing!'

'I have!' she shot back, 'and I am telling you, do not touch it! You have no idea what will happen to you!'

'They why don't you enlighten us?' Riker said sarcastically.

To everyone's surprise, Deanna Troi came to the young Romulan woman's defence. 'She knows what she's talking about. There's very real danger here. She's telling you the truth.'

'Raya, what happened to you when you went inside it?' captain Picard asked her quietly.

In response she shuddered reflexively, hugging herself, not as though for warmth, but in order to keep her personal demons locked inside. 'It almost broke my mind. I was overwhelmed with what may have been illusions, or reality, or the past . . . I do not know which. All I can tell you is that it was like being inside a monitor and being at the mercy of what it shows, that the workings of that monitor are something else entirely.'

'I have no emotional frailties to protect,' Data said seriously. 'Perhaps I will not be affected in the same manner.'

'Nevertheless,' captain Picard said, 'the risk is not worth it. From what Lt Raya is saying, even if you make the attempt successfully, you will not learning anything that will be of use to us.'

'I would still like to make the attempt,' Data persisted, 'if only to satisfy my curiosity.'

'You know what happened to the cat,' Geordi told him meaningly.

Data looked up in alarm. 'Has something happened to Spot?'

Geordi patted him on the shoulder with a sardonic smile. 'Spot's just fine. It's you we've got to keep an eye on.'

-

By evening the artifact was back in the science lab under the watchful presence of the seven sentient creatures.

'I still can't get a handle on how they're able to hold it here,' Geordi said to Seagram in frustration as they shut things down for the evening.

'There's obviously some sort of intent involved,' Seagram replied, 'otherwise its movements would be entirely random. It's not sitting out in space, or a mile up in the air, or ten miles underground. It came down here to the surface, and from what you've told me it has a habit of doing that. It probably wants to be found and accessed by sentient beings.'

'Wanting suggests conscious intent,' Deanna Troi said. 'Do you think it's alive? I detect no consciousness in it, although the fact that I feel nothing at all from it may not mean anything.'

'When I was inside it,' Raya said quietly, 'I received the impression that it is a made thing, a product of a civilisation so advanced that it transcends what we term "technology". I do not think it has one type of function or one intended purpose. I think it represents the culmination of some lost civilisation's overall progress and was at the heart of what their civilisation was, in the same manner that computer technology is so pervasive in ours.'

'Did you get any sense of that civilisation's beings?' captain Picard ask her suddenly on an intuition.

She raised an eyebrow at that. 'None.' She considered him a moment. 'That is strange, isn't it.' It was a statement. 'There was no sense of civilisation or beings at all. Nor intelligence nor intent nor a guiding consciousness. No sense . . .' she sought for words, 'that a conscious mind was involved at all.'

'A machine, perhaps?' Data asked.

Raya shook her head, thoughtful. 'You mean like a machine intelligence? No, this is something else. Something I cannot find words to.'

'Except that it makes you afraid,' Deanna Troi said quietly.

Raya gave her a sharp, angry look, but seeing unassuming sympathy in the empath's eyes soon dissolved her anger. 'There is something to fear, here,' she said seriously. 'Something elusive, on the edge of consciousness, on the border of reason . . .' she looked around as though her surroundings had become untrustworthy, 'on the periphery of an existence we think to be known and familiar.'

Changing the subject, Seagram interjected, 'I think we need to know more about where this thing was found. You say it was buried deep within part of what used to be a planet? Did your scientists determine how it came to be buried? I mean, did it appear to have been buried deliberately, or was it some ancient thing that just got covered over by the passage of time?'

'It was found within some ancient ruins,' she told him. 'It appeared to have been buried deliberately and to have been guarded for aeons.'

All eyes turned to the artifact at that.

'Well, that's just great!' Seagram said with a sarcastic laugh. 'Hell has been relocated to my home and the front door has been left wide open.'