Chapter 3
"…no sign of the Orions, still, Captain. According to astrographics, the closest possible base for them is approximately four parsecs away. Their projected course when they dropped off our sensors jives with the intelligence from astrographics." Sulu's voice paused in his report as he consulted with the Enterprise's navigation computer. "At their observed speed of warp 6, that gives them a 22 day travel time to reach their base. Uhura says they can't possibly receive a reply to subspace radio for almost 7.62 hours."
"Very well, commander," Kirk replied as the members of the landing party entered the transporter room. "Continue on yellow alert and raise the shields again just as soon as transport is completed. Keep sensors extended out as far as they'll go. I don't want any rude surprises from the Orions. Is our mystery ship still riding fine in the tractor beam?"
"Yes, sir, it is. The 'saucer' shape of the ship makes it travel through our warp envelope extremely smoothly. It's actually sliding through the warp envelope more smoothly than the Enterprise."
"Good to hear, Commander Sulu," Kirk's reply held the hint of a chuckle. "Keep us on course to Starbase 36 and keep your 'eyes' open. Kirk out."
Kirk thumbed off the intercom and turned to face the rest of the landing party in the transporter ready room. His movements were not quite as graceful as usual due to the bulk of the d-EVA suit. He saw the rest of the landing party members going through last-minute suit and equipment checks. Each landing party member was attended by a member of the life support section running a tricorder over their d-EVA suit and physically and visually checking the proper function of the suit. Kirk thought back to his Academy days and his EVA instructor. That old coot's favorite saying was 'Sucking vacuum is the nastiest way to have your whole day ruined. Don't check your suit; suck vacuum.' He walked over to the life support tech awaiting him. "Am I good to go, Ensign Gibbs?"
"Five minutes, sir," the ensign replied as he began checking Kirk's d-EVA suit. Gibbs lowered the captain's helmet onto his suit and made the initial connections. Until the helmet's visor was lowered, Kirk was still breathing air from the Enterprise. The suit's cooling systems made sure he didn't overheat by accepting power beamed from specialized transmitters in the transporter ready room. Accepting beamed power saved the suit's internal power supplies and made sure the suit had the maximum 48-hour life support capability when the wearer entered the deadly environment of open space. The new deflector equipped extravehicular activity suits, or d-EVA suits as everyone called them, were a vast improvement over the suits the Enterprise used to have. Both in comfort and life support capabilities. The deflector shield component of the suit was nice, too. Designed to stop multiple hand phaser shots and large projectiles, the deflector shield's control computer automatically angled the shield for maximum deflection and absorbed a small portion of the energy from beam weapons to reinforce the shield without draining the suit's onboard power supplies.
"There you go, Captain, you're all set," Gibbs informed Kirk.
"Thank you, Ensign," Kirk responded. As he shifted the suit on his body so it would ride more comfortably he observed that the others were ready to go. "All right, people, visors down and let's get going."
He pulled his visor down and locked it into place and the suit's heads-up display activated and projected vital information about the environment surrounding the suit. External temperature, atmospheric composition, radiation, and other vital information glowed in front of Kirk's eyes. The HUD also showed Kirk status information about the suit itself: power remaining, internal atmosphere supplies and regeneration, suit integrity, deflector power and capability, and all the other information needed by the wearer were shown by a series of graphic symbols. The HUD also showed each member of the landing party as a color and name. Finally, for self-defense, each d-EVA suit had a phaser emitter built into each sleeve. Mounted on the outer forearm—or an analogous part for other races with different physiognomies—this phaser emitter was more powerful than a standard Phaser 2, but less powerful than a phaser rifle. Powered by each suit's on-board power supply, the phaser gave the wearer of the suit a powerful defense. It was controlled by a voice command from the wearer and—like a standard phaser—could be set to stun, kill, disrupt, or vaporize.
Kirk activated his suit communicator and spoke to the members of the landing party, "Alright people, everyone get on a transporter pad. Remember, the alien ship has no internal atmosphere, and sensors show it does have an active gravity field. We don't know exactly what the gravity field is, but estimating from the construction of the saucer, it should be approximately Earth normal." He looked at each of the landing party members in the transporter room, and he knew that the damage control team members in cargo transporter 1 were also hearing his voice. "Our sensors also show that this gravity field is fluctuating, although we don't know if it's caused by damage to the saucer, faulty generator coils, low power, or it may even be intentional. Keep your heads up and your eyes and ears open. We don't know what's over there, if anything. If the gravity fluctuations start to get to you, don't try and be a 'hero'—take a space sickness shot; your suit is programmed to administer the appropriate dose. If you 'yurp' in your suit, not only do you have to live with it, but Mr. Scott will be less than happy with you." The twinkle of humor in his eye made its way to his voice and came through the communicator channel.
"Sound off with your name to confirm readiness to transport," Kirk ordered.
"Spock."
"McCoy here—ready as I'll ever be, Jim." The other members of the landing party well knew of the doctor's distrust of the transporter.
"Aye, Captain, I'm ready to see what this wee beastie is made of," Scotty's voice rang out.
"Chapel; I'm ready, too, Captain Kirk."
"Freeman, sir. Damage control tools and equipment checked and ready." The head of the damage control team was in cargo transporter room 1 with the rest of her detail. Kirk knew that Lieutenant Windy Freeman was a capable officer and could put a ship back together with spit, bubblegum, and duct tape.
"Ensign Garcia, sir," came the voice of a junior officer in damage control. Enterprise was his first starship posting and, like all ensigns from the dawn of naval ships, he was eager and excited about everything. Garcia would be in charge of the damage control team working on the exterior surfaces of the strange saucer ship.
"White reporting ready, Captain." Kirk knew the petty officer well and knew the older NCO was a steady hand and would help keep Ensign Garcia steadied down.
"Grant ready, sir."
"Williams also ready to go, sir."
"Kerasus. All systems are green and 'go', sir," the lieutenant from security was experienced and well-versed in just about every environment known to Starfleet. She was calm, steady, and—aside from Mr. Spock—could best any member of the Enterprise crew in hand-to-hand combat training.
"Wolfe here, Captain. Ready to go." The second member of the security team would stay with the damage control team working on the outside hull of the saucer ship.
Kirk ascended the steps to his preferred transporter pad while the other five members of his team assembled around him, each on a transporter pad. By unspoken tradition, Spock took the pad to Kirk's left and McCoy took the pad to Kirk's right. Once everyone had taken his, or her place, Kirk said, "Internal visor lights off. Activate your external suit lights. You want to be able to see what's in front of you. After all, this isn't one of those silly 20th century science fiction movies.
"Cargo transporter room 1; is everyone in place and ready?" Kirk listened to Lt. Freeman confirm her team's readiness. Kirk looked to his former yeoman, now a lieutenant in the Ship Support Services section, and said, "Rand? Energize."
As with every transport, the first thing that happened was the first stage force field came on and immobilized everyone in their place. Kirk could see the twinkle of the transporter field effect begin in front of his eyes and feel the tingle build throughout his body as the transporter computer began scanning his every atom. It always felt like his whole body had "fallen asleep" and had pins and needles. People who had never used a transporter always assumed your vision when completely dark and you couldn't see. In fact, the opposite was true; his entire field of vision became a soft, white blur. He always thought it looked like being in a blizzard in Wyoming in mid-morning. Everything was white and you couldn't tell where the ground ended and the sky began. Then, the field of white began clearing as the transporter reassembled all of his atoms. This was by design so that anyone who was transporting could see what was around them even before their body began reassembling. A safety precaution, it gave the person a chance to see any danger around them and be ready for it when released from the transporter field effect. The pins and needles feeling dissipated as his body reassembled and a second later he could move as he was released from the field.
The first thing Kirk noticed was the darkness at the edge of his helmet lights. Not like a darkened house at night, no, this was the complete and total absence of light. Since there was no atmosphere in the mystery ship, the beams from his helmet lights did not softly diffuse to other parts of the ship. The meeting of light and dark was as crisp, hard, and clean as if it was cut with a scalpel. The darkness warred with the beams of light and fought to crush the light with a seemingly palpable weight. In no way could this dark be considered soft, or friendly; this dark was an adversary and it conjured all the boogie men and other bad things that have haunted mankind since he first squatted in a prehistoric cave trembling at the horrible sounds of the night. This was the dark that something bad could—and often did—jump out of to snap up the unwary. All of these thoughts and feelings flitted through the back of Kirk's mind in a microsecond.
"Deflector shields up, people." Kirk's ringing, confident voice was a beacon of reassurance for some of the members of the landing party.
Kirk could see by the readouts on his command HUD that all of the d-EVA suits had an active deflector shield blossom even though he couldn't actually see a deflector shield. After ensuring his crew members were as safe as he knew how to make them, he began looking around strange ship.
The first thing he noticed was a circular pedestal in the center of the deck. Spaced around the pedestal were various controls, buttons, and levers. On the top of the pedestal was what appeared to be a old-fashioned gyroscope covered with a clear dome. Whether the dome was glass or some sort of plastic material was undeterminable by visual inspection. Directly behind the pedestal, and against the wall, was a circular cage and to the left of the cage was what appeared to be a ladder descending to the lower deck of the strange ship. Moving around the pedestal and walking toward the circular cage, Kirk could see it was an elevator, or lift, to move between the decks. He knew there had to be a purpose for the lift, but at first glance he couldn't determine what that purpose could be.
To the right of the lift cage was a closed hatch and there was a twin to it on the left side of the ladder. Picking the left hatch at random, he moved to it and looked for a way to open it. To the right of the hatch, about chest high, was a set of two buttons one above the other. To the left of the hatch, and even with his eyes, was a blank panel. Wiping the dust off the buttons, he could see the upper button was green and the lower button was red. The green one was labeled "open" and the red button was labeled "close". In English. English? It could be coincidence, but he moved again to the left to examine the next set of control panels. Wiping off the ever-present layer of dust he saw more labels. Again, in English, so it was definitely not a coincidence, then.
"Mr. Spock? I believe this is an Earth ship. I have buttons and labels over here labeled in English." Kirk continued looking at the control panels built into the wall as he spoke with Spock. They gave a sense of familiarity to him in the same way he could beam aboard any Federation ship and know where certain things were located. It didn't mean he knew what all of the functions were, necessarily, but their placement and layout were familiar.
Meanwhile, as he listened to his captain, Spock moved around the ship scanning with his tricorder. "Yes, Captain, I have found more English labels as well."
"Have you had any luck finding their master computer system?" Kirk asked his science officer.
"Yes, I believe I have. I am unable to download or examine their data because the systems are all unpowered."
"Scotty? Will you be able to restore power to this ship?" Kirk turned in the direction of the engineer as he spoke.
"I canna tell you just yet, Captain," replied the Scottish miracle maker. "I'm still tracing circuits, but I'm pretty sure the main power generator is on the lower deck."
"Alright Scotty. Take Kerasus with you when you go down there. Nobody wanders off on their own," Kirk was adamant in this; working in pairs lowered the level of danger a bit.
"Aye, sir. C'mon, Lieutenant, let's go see what we can find downstairs," the cheerfulness of his tone clearly showed how much he enjoyed a new mechanical puzzle.
"Coming, sir," Kerasus responded.
"Jim! I found the crew of this ship! Over here!" The urgency in McCoy's voice snapped from the communicators in everyone's d-EVA suit.
Turning toward the two members of the landing party that showed on his HUD in blue with the names "McCoy" and "Chapel", Kirk saw six vertical tubes running between the floor and the ceiling of the mystery ship's upper deck. Five of the tubes were still completely covered in dust. McCoy, or Chapel, had wiped some of the dust from the left-most tube in the series of six. Kirk could see the face of a man behind the transparent surface of the tube. Kirk still didn't know if it was glass, plastic, or some more exotic material, but he was beginning to suspect it was actually glass.
The face behind the glass was a pleasant face. The man had thick, curly, brown hair and strong jaw. He appeared to be about 2 meters tall, or about 6'3" in the old measurement system. Kirk looked at the man behind the glass and knew instinctively that this man was the captain of the mystery ship. "What have you found, Bones?"
"According to my tricorder, the people in these tubes are human to the tenth classification limit. This man is about 35 Earth years old. He's alive and in suspended animation. All of these tubes have a person inside in suspended animation. I can't tell how long they've been 'asleep', but they are all definitely alive. That's the good news. The bad news is that these tubes are going to fail very soon. I estimate they'll be out of power in less than 10 hours. I don't know if it's just because the ship is out of power or if it's caused by the Orions' weapons fire. We've got to get some power and life support restored to this ship, or these people will die!" McCoy had always been passionate when it came to saving lives.
"Alright, Bones, let's see what Scotty can tell us. Scotty? Can you hear me?" Kirk's called to the engineer on the lower level.
"Aye, Captain, I ken hear ye," came the Scottish brogue from the lower deck.
"What's the status of the ship's power systems?"
"It looks like she just ran out of fuel. She runs on deutronium but I've never seen anything like this except for a couple of old ships in the Spaceflight Museum on Mars. We don't even have any deutronium on the Enterprise. I can convert her to run on a matter/anti-matter fuel system, though," the Enterprise's chief engineer was rapidly running through a list of materials he would need for the conversion as he spoke.
"How long will it take, Scotty," Kirk asked.
"I can have her up and running in 12 hours, Captain."
"We don't have 12 hours, Scotty. Doctor McCoy says these people in the suspended animation tubes will be dead in less than 10 hours. Can you 'shade-tree' power for him and Nurse Chapel?" Kirk's first priority was to his crew of course, but he felt just as strongly about the crew of this mystery ship.
"Yes, Captain, I can hook up a couple of our emergency generators to power the suspended animation tubes and computer systems. It'll take me about 2 hours to get that done," Scotty was clearly reveling in the challenges of restoring power to the saucer.
"Get on it, Scotty. Doctor McCoy says these people have some time left, so make your first priority restoring power to the computer systems on this ship. I want to know more about these people before we 'wake' them up. I don't want a repeat of the Kahn fiasco." Kirk still wished he had done things differently then. Perhaps if he hadn't been in such a hurry to 'wake' Kahn and his followers, many of the people Kahn had killed would still be alive. People like Captain Terrell and all those people on the Regula 1 space station. Even Lieutenant Marla MacGyver would still be alive. He gave a mental "shrug"; he couldn't change the past—all he could do was learn from it.
"Yes, Capt… Argh!" Scotty's yell seemed to be a combination of surprise and pain.
"Scotty! What's wrong? What's going on down there?" Kirk started moving toward the ladder to the lower deck at the same time Spock did. He got there first due to the fact that he started out closer to the ladder than Kirk did. They looked down the ladder way and saw the drop was about three meters. Jumping was out of the question since they didn't know for sure what was going on. While Kirk and Spock looked down the ladder way they saw the flash of a phaser beam whine past the opening.
"Scotty! Report! What's going on?"
"Kerasus here, Captain. We're under attack by some sort of robot. It's shooting some sort of plasma lightning out of its claws. It's about two meters tall and moves on what appears to be some sort of tracks or tread belts. It has blinking lights on a chest plate and a clear bubble for a head." Kerasus reported quickly and efficiently as she moved defensively and fired her arm phaser at the attacking robot.
"Is the ladder way clear for Spock and me to come down?" Kirk's desire to be with his crew members during trouble was very palpable to the other members of the landing party listening on their communicators.
"Wait just a minute, Captain. I'll draw its attention away from the ladder," Kerasus informed him. "Now, Captain!"
Kirk began descending the ladder without hesitating. The inherent danger of a fire fight with an unknown enemy never entered his head as he descended the ladder. As soon as his head cleared the hole in the upper deck, he pushed away from the ladder and dropped the rest of the way to the lower deck. Spock was right behind him and repeated Kirk's drop movement.
As Kirk's feet hit the deck of the lower level, he allowed his momentum to carry him into a shoulder roll to clear the ladder for Spock to come down. As Kirk rolled forward toward the center of the deck, he stopped his roll and assumed a firing position smoothly and easily behind the robot who was attacking Scotty and Kerasus. His arm snapped into a firing position and he squeezed the firing stud built into the right gauntlet of his suit. A thick, pale blue stream of energy shot over the top of his right fist and splattered against the back of the robot. At the same time he fired the shot at the robot, he picked out Scotty's limp form against the wall on the other side of the deck. It looked like he was simply knocked unconscious by the impact with the wall. He was as safe as he could be at the moment while the Robot attacked Kerasus.
Seeing that his phaser beam had no effect on the robot, Kirk notched his phaser power up to the heaviest stun setting available to the weapon. He called out to Kerasus as he adjusted his phaser setting, "Lieutenant, set your phaser to stun setting five."
"Yes, sir," she replied as she made the adjustment to the weapon.
Kirk fired at the robot again and this time his phaser had a noticeable effect. The robot stopped its advance on Kerasus and the lights on the chest plate began blinking erratically. He knew this because he could see those lights reflected in Janice's visor.
"Perhaps, Captain, if the three of us fire at the same time, it will stop the robot's attack. My tricorder shows your phaser beam temporarily disrupted the robot's control systems. Three simultaneous strikes should be sufficient to completely disrupt the robot's operating system." Spock watched the robot's movements at the same time he viewed the data streaming through his tricorder.
"On my mark, Spock and Kerasus, fire simultaneously on the robot," Kirk commanded. "Ready? 3… 2… 1… Mark!"
Kirk, Spock, and Kerasus all fired at the same time. The three beams impacted the robot and it stopped. All the lights on its chest plate and inside the bubble head blinked faster than before and much more erratically and then blinked out. Smoke began rising through the seams around the robot's "neck". At the same time the lights went out, the robot's arms—that had been shooting what looked like lightning—went limp and dropped in front of it. It appeared to be completely out of commission.
"Spock? Status of that… robot? It is a robot, isn't it?" Kirk asked his science officer without taking his eyes from the robotic device in case it should suddenly start attacking again.
Spock consulted his tricorder and studied the readings flickering rapidly across its display. Spock had modified his tricorder so that it examined more data, in more detail, than any other tricorder in Starfleet. It also displayed that information nearly three times faster than any other tricorder—it was set to display information at a rate Spock considered comfortable; much too quickly for all but a small handful of humans to digest and analyze. For all the speed with which he was reviewing the tricorder data, Spock was nevertheless being very careful in his examination of the readings. The Enterprise and her crew had had many experiences with robots through their years together, and most of those experiences had been unfavorable to put it mildly. There was the whole issue of Doctor Korby and his android recreations. Harry Mudd and his android planet, the Doomsday Machine that destroyed the USS Constellation, the Nomad probe that destroyed any planet that couldn't produce a "Jackson Roykirk", and Spock didn't even like to think about the whole M-5 fiasco. Here was yet another robot bent on harming his crewmates. Sometimes it was enough to shake even a Vulcan's confidence in logic and computers.
"It appears to be completely off-line, Jim," Spock finally replied to Captain Kirk's question. "Tricorder readings show a system of nano repair devices working to restore the robot's systems. I estimate it will take 4.8734 hours for the nanites to complete the necessary repairs."
"I see. Is there a way to manually shut the thing down?" Kirk thought even less of robots than Spock did. His opinion of robots was—generally—something that shouldn't be repeated in front of children.
"Yes, there is. There is a small power pack in the lower-left quadrant on the rear of the robot. If we pull that power pack, the robot's repair systems will continue to effect repairs since they are a lower-level function. However, without the power pack, the robot's higher-level functions will be inoperative and it will not be able to attack us again." Spock's tone was—as usual—calm and matter of fact, but Kirk could see a glint in Spock's eye that indicated his thoughts about robots paralleled his own.
"Well, let's yank it and see how Scotty's doing." As he said this, Kirk moved toward the recumbent Scotsman laying on the floor.
Spock moved to the robot and pulled the power pack and then rechecked his tricorder readings. As his earlier scans had shown, the repair nanites continued their repair tasks on the robot's systems, but the higher-level functions would remain powered down until the power pack was replaced. Spock deftly opened a storage pocket on the right thigh of his d-EVA suit and dropped the power pack into it. A small indicator tell-tale on his visor's HUD turned green to indicate that the storage pocket was properly resealed.
"Kirk to Doctor McCoy: we need you on the lower deck. Scotty's been injured in an attack from a robot on this ship." Even though he knew all the members of the landing party had heard the fight and subsequent conversation between him and Spock, McCoy wouldn't come down until the situation had stabilized.
"I'll be right down, Jim," McCoy responded. From the speed in which his legs appeared in the opening between decks, Kirk knew McCoy had been anxiously waiting at the opening. As soon as his feet touched the floor of the lower deck, McCoy hurried over to the injured Scott and began examining him.
"What was he hit with, Jim?" Before McCoy could determine a treatment regime, he needed to know what the robot had used against the engineer.
"I don't know, Bones. It looked like lightning, to me." Kirk turned to the science officer and queried, "Spock? Do you know what the weapon was?"
"My tricorder readings show it was a high-voltage, high-amperage, electrical plasma. If Mr. Scott had been wearing a normal EVA suit instead of a d-EVA suit, he would have been killed in the attack." Spock's voice betrayed none of the concern he was feeling for his injured crew-mate. Spock was well aware of the deep respect and admiration the crew of the Enterprise had invested in the engineer.
"Thanks, Spock," McCoy replied in a distracted tone as he worked on the ship's chief engineer. Referring to his medical tricorder and the readouts on Scotty's external suit display, McCoy diagnosed Scotty's condition and needs. Pressing a set of buttons on the chest plate of Scotty's d-EVA suit, McCoy administered the medications the tough Scot needed directly from the suit's on-board medicine supplies. The new suits were one of the few bits of modern technology which met with the doctor's approval. Determining a patient's needs and injecting the medicines to meet those needs could all be done without having to open the suit or try to get a pressurized hypo spray through the tough fabric of the suit.
Kirk, Spock, and Kerasus watched McCoy as he worked on Scotty. When the display lights and readouts on the engineer's suit changed, Kirk asked the question they were all thinking, "Is he going to be alright, Bones?"
"He'll be just fine, Jim. The 'lightning' bolts didn't harm him; they merely stunned him. Obviously that damned robot over there was designed to protect the people in the tubes without killing."
"How long until he wakes up?" Kirk questioned. "We need him to get power restored to this ship as soon as possible."
"Ungh…," Scotty coughed a little to clear his throat, then continued, "how about now, Captain?"
"Scotty! Good to have you back with us!" Kirk didn't even attempt to hide the relief in his voice. The communicator channels in the d-EVA suits were suddenly flooded as everyone on the landing party voice sentiments similar to those of the captain. Even Spock contributed a calm 'welcome back' to the clamor.
McCoy took Scotty's proffered hand and helped him to his feet. "How do you feel, Scotty," the doctor asked.
"A bit of a headache, doctor, but 'tis just a wee one. I've felt worse after shore leave, ye know." A burst of laughter sounded as the Enterprise landing party heard the Scotsman's reply to McCoy's question.
"Well, if you're done with your nap, now, Scotty, do you think you might figure out what you can do about restoring power to this ship?" Even though his tone was teasing, the concern and relief in Kirk's voice was evident.
"Why, Cap'n! How could ye say sich a thing?" Mock indignation colored Scotty's reply. "Give me five minutes and I'll be able to tell ye everything about this wee beastie's history all the way back to when her first hull plate was laid!" He moved toward the door clearly labeled as the ship's nuclear power room. He knew that in the case of using d-EVA suits, his voice would clearly carry to the captain without his having to remain standing in front of him. As before, Lieutenant Kerasus went with Scott.
"That's great, Mr. Scott, but I'd settle for knowing if you can get 'her' powered up," Kirk responded.
Turning to Spock, Kirk asked, "Were you able to learn anything from this ship's computer system before we were interrupted, Mr. Spock?"
"Very little, sir," the science officer answered. "I can tell you that the general construction of the computers and control systems are analogous to the late 20th century on your Earth. I am, however, at a loss to explain the English labels and other labeling systems commonly used by the United States of America at that time. For instance, the door to the ship's power generator room," at this point, Spock nodded in the direction of the door which Scott and Kerasus had just gone through, "is clearly labeled with the symbol for nuclear power." Kirk, too, had noticed the yellow and black trefoil on the door in question.
"So, you're saying this ship came from Earth? I don't remember anything about a ship like this in my history classes."
"No, sir, I'm not 'saying' that. I am 'saying' that I cannot explain the reasons for the familiar labels. Starfleet records show no ship like this had ever been constructed by any of the mid-20th century countries on your Earth. Until, Mr. Scott gets power restored I am unable to examine the records stored within this ship's computer system." Spock spoke calmly and concisely as he explained to the captain about the roadblock he had encountered.
"Speakin' o' power, Cap'n, I've finished w'muh checks," Scotty interjected as the science officer paused.
"Go ahead, Scotty. How long will it take you to restore power?"
"About 2 weeks, sir," Scotty replied to Kirk's question. "The nuclear generators are just a pile of corrosion, rust, and decay. They'll have to be completely rebuilt and new parts fabricated. Fabrication is what'll take us the longest. Once we have the new engine and generators assembled on the Enterprise, we can just beam their old stuff out and beam our new stuff in here. This ship's fuel supplies are exhausted, too. We don't have any deutronium on the Enterprise, but we do have some substitutes that'll work just as well for 'em. Better in fact; our fissionables are refined to a much higher quality than they had available to themselves back in their day. Then it's just a matter of hookin' up the wirin' and turnin' the key."
"Two weeks? That's too long, Scotty. We need to have these folks 'on their feet' before the Orions can get back here with a force we can't handle," Kirk explained to the chief engineer. He knew that if they weren't gone from this area—and soon!—he wouldn't have as easy a time with the Orion reinforcements as they'd had with the original Orion 3-ship group. "How soon can you get this ship fixed?"
"Cap'n, I haven't seen anything like these systems outside of a museum or history of engineering textbook. The data plates on the generators and engines clearly show this ship came from Earth. I cannae make out the city, but the country is shown as 'U.S.A.' and the launch date was October 16, 1997."
"So, if information in this ship indicates it came from Earth in 1997, why is there no record of it in the Starfleet archives?" Kirk voiced his question as he turned to Spock. "Spock? Thoughts?"
"There are multiple possibilities, Captain. Records could have been lost during your planet's World War III conflict. Perhaps this ship was launched in secret by the American government. Any suppositions on our part at this time would be premature and unsupported by the facts at hand." Spock disliked having to draw conclusions when there was no evidence to support those conclusions.
"Riiight," Kirk drew the word out as he teased Spock. "You just hate to 'guess', don't you Spock?"
"Sir, 'guessing' is the first step in the journey to mediocre performance. I would be inexcusably remiss in my duty to Starfleet and the Enterprise if I did not perform to the best of my ability," Spock said with dignity and all but drew himself up taller as he responded to Kirk's teasing.
Kirk's smile became a chuckle as he listened to Spock's reply. "Very well, Mr. Spock, I certainly wouldn't want you to not do your best." He continued to chuckle as he turned back to Scotty.
"Alright, Mr. Scott, what can you do to shorten the time you need and how quickly can you get this museum piece up and running?"
Scotty's eyes became unfocused as he ran through options in his mind. After a few seconds of intense contemplation, he answered Captain Kirk's question, "If I bring over a couple of our emergency generators—the medium sized ones—I can have them in place and ready to supply power by the end of beta shift today. The lads and I can then get the magnetic containment fields installed in their old deutronium supply hold and provide them with all of the matter-antimatter fuels they'd need. That'll take about six hours to install and fill with fuel. So, I can have power back up for the whole ship in about 18 hours, Cap'n. Unless we run into something extremely unusual about this ship, all of the damaged wiring, plumbing, and control panels will be fixed in about two hours. Add another hour, or two, for system checks, and she'll be good to go. Altogether…" he paused as he thought about the repairs the saucer shaped space vehicle would require. "Altogether it'll take 24 hours to get her up and runnin'."
"That's too long, Scotty! These people will be dead by then!" McCoy's irritation at not being able to immediately do something to help the people on the strange ship frustrated him. That irritation always came out in his voce.
"Scotty? Can you still get a generator hooked up to the cold-sleep tubes on the upper deck?" Kirk had not forgotten the crew of this mystery ship. He was merely running through a command checklist in his head. Getting the Enterprise and the mystery ship out of the area was a high priority task on that checklist.
"Aye, sir, I can get that done for the good doctor in about 30 minutes. He'll have the power he needs for the tubes; then it'll be up to him and Mr. Spock to interpret the computers and instructions."
"Lieutenant Freeman to Captain Kirk," Kirk's communicator called out to him.
"Go ahead, lieutenant. What can you tell me?"
"None of the holes in the hull are in critical areas and none of the critical systems on this ship were involved. I think they shot a bunch of holes in this ship to dump the atmosphere out of it—possibly to kill the crew without harming the ship itself.
"The hull is constructed out of a titanium alloy. It's lightweight and strong; a good choice for ship building back in its day. We have better materials now, of course, but I can have her patched up in no time. If you just want a patch over the holes to hold some air in the ship, Ensign Garcia's team can have that done in about 20 minutes. If you want the patches to completely blend in to the ship's hull so she shows no sign of damage, we can get that done in about 45 minutes. Captain's Choice, sir," she concluded.
"Go for the 45 minute fix, 'Win'," Kirk informed her and used the nickname the crew of the Enterprise had hung on her. Windy Freeman stood about 5'5" and had long, thick, red hair. She typically wore it in a "pony tail" during duty hours, but left it down and relaxed for off-duty hours. Like Commander Scott, there wasn't much Lieutenant Windy Freeman couldn't fix or fabricate.
"Very good, sir. She'll be airtight and right in 45 minutes or less, or your money back!" Freeman's exceptional good humor was a part of her makeup, although she was still intensely embarrassed by the 'shitloads' story—that story concerned an event which happened during her initial duty stint in the Enterprise's communications section. There was no doubt that Freeman completely excelled in damage control, however; probably because it appealed to her "creative side".
"Alright, people! Listen up," Kirk called throughout the entire landing party with his d EVA suit's communicator function. "Mr. Scott, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy are going to supplement the power systems for the cold sleep tubes using one of our generators. It will take them about 30 minutes to get that done.
"Lieutenant Freeman and her damage control team will have the hull of this ship gas-tight in 45 minutes. Everyone not directly involved with these two priority tasks will move around and scan everything on this ship. I don't want any more surprises jumping out at us," Kirk's voice rang with command authority as he issued the orders. "Any questions?"
A string of 'no sirs' filled the communications channels as the various Enterprise crew members moved to their tasks. As captain of the ship, Kirk could best aid his people by staying out of their way. Spock, McCoy, and Scotty moved to the back side of the cold sleep tubes as they determined the best and most appropriate method of supplementing their power requirements. Nurse Chapel continued to take tricorder readings of occupants of the cold sleep capsules. She wanted to learn everything she could by the time Doctor McCoy returned. Lieutenant Freeman moved around the upper and lower decks of the saucer ship as she coordinated the damage control team's hull repair efforts. As she worked she kept a close eye on Crewman Kenneth Hill; his assignment to the Enterprise was his first deep space assignment since his graduation from Engineering School and this was his first landing party assignment. Lt. Freeman wanted to make sure the youngster came to no harm while he put into practice the skills he had learned in school.
Since Kirk had no particular duties at the moment, he felt free to move around and examine the control consoles more closely. All of the lights, dials, and readouts on the control consoles were dark and inoperative. He could make out the labels for many of the switches and controls on the panels with his d-EVA suit's helmet lights but he didn't try flipping, pushing, or pulling any of them. While the ship appeared to be completely dead to all outward appearances, Kirk felt no need to take a chance by pushing buttons. There was always a chance the button he pressed would be 'live'. He did want to look out of the large three-panel window panes at the front of the ship, though. He always enjoyed looking at his starship from outside every time he got the chance, but now that he had the chance he couldn't. The large windows in the front of the saucer ship were closed; covered by what appeared to be heavy duty metal shields or doors.
Looking once again at the instrument panels just below the large triple window, Kirk wondered at the lack of seating for the users of the controls. He moved his shoulders slightly to bring his helmet lights off the control panels to the front of the control section. Because of the lack of atmosphere inside the saucer there was absolutely no refraction of the light so whatever the light wasn't shining on directly was pitch black and the line between light and dark was as sharp as a Klingon knife blade. With his helmet lights now shining on the vertical front of the instrument panel, Kirk cold see the seam where a door slid up or out or opened in some fashion. There were a couple of buttons that he just 'knew' would open the door. On the next panel, just to the left of the first one he looked at was another seam and button set, similar to the first. This one was just a bit different, though; the seam looked bigger. Kirk squatted down—appreciating how much easier these new d-EVA suits moved when compared to earlier suits—and looked more closely at the seam. It was open! Just a little, but still he thought he could hood his fingers on the edge and pull the panel out a little more so he could see what was inside.
With Kirk, thinking of an action is very shortly followed by performing that action. Hooking the tips of his suit gloves around the edges of the seam, he began to gently pull. He felt the resistance of the panel and pulled a little harder until the panel began to move toward him. As he pulled on the panel, he had to reposition his feet to allow the door to keep moving out and there were none. He made a mental note of any vibrations or sounds transmitted up the arm of his suit. He felt what appeared to be a gear train of some sort, but the door moved smoothly and easily outward. 'Good engineering,' he thought to himself. 'These people obviously built their ships to last.' At last the door reached the end of its travel and Kirk felt a small click through the arms of his suit—as if the door had reached a detent in its travel mechanism.
Kirk stood and moved around to the side of the now open panel to see what his efforts had gained him. He looked down and saw a black cushioned couch. Obviously, it was an acceleration couch. However, it wasn't the couch that surprised him, rather it was what the couch held that gave him pause.
"Bones! I have another patient for you," Kirk called to the doctor.
"What?" the doctor exclaimed. "Nurse Chapel, will you go and assist the captain, please?"
"Yes, doctor," the blond nurse replied.
Kirk watched as one of the suited figures stood and began moving toward him. At the same time, his HUD showed a blue halo around the figure and the name 'Chapel' floated above the figure. As she approached, Kirk turned his attention back to the couch. He saw an older man—he appeared to be a human male, like the others—with graying hair and the long forehead that indicated a receding hairline. Deep furrows in the man's face and forehead indicated an individual who tended to over-worry about petty things. Just looking at the sleeping face gave Kirk the feeling that this man shouldn't be trusted. The cold-sleep capsule enclosing the man was obviously hastily put together from whatever parts were available to the crew of this ship. Because the capsule had been retracted into the control console—Kirk was unsure of just how that was done; perhaps the couch rotated as it went into the console?—it wasn't as covered in dust and debris as were the other six capsules at the side of this deck. As Kirk watched the man through the clear material of the cold-sleep capsule he could see small tremors, or spasms, in the man's hands and neck.
"Captain?" Nurse Chapel's voice broke into Kirks thoughts.
"Yes, Nurse?"
"Even though this capsule appears to be cobbled together, the man inside is alive. His life signs are a bit lower than those of the other six passengers. My tricorder readings show his age to be somewhere between 50 and 60 Earth years old. Readings also show that because of the apparent hasty construction of the capsule, he isn't as fully or deeply 'asleep' as the other people are. This means that he continued to age with the passage of time."
"Can you tell me how much older he is?"
"No, sir, I can't," Chapel responded. "Not without knowing his age at the time he entered the capsule and also how long ago that was. If I had to guess, based on my tricorder scans, I'd say he aged 10, or 15, years while 'sleeping'."
"Is it safe to leave him in the capsule," Kirk queried.
"I believe so, Captain. If it hasn't ceased to function by now, it probably won't stop in the next 45 minutes." Chapel's answer to his question gave Kirk some relief. It meant he wouldn't be forced into 'thawing out' this man until an investigation of the computer records gave Kirk some idea of what he was dealing with here.
"Very well, Nurse," he replied. "We'll leave him 'as is' and continue to work on getting power to this ship."
Turning away from the control console at the front of the saucer, Kirk made his way to where Scotty was working alongside Spock and McCoy. "Scotty? Status on getting some power restored?"
"Just about there, Cap'n. I have the generator hooked into what appears to be an auxiliary power supply input. I have a few more adjustments to make and I'll be able to bring their systems back on-line. I want to do this verra slowly so's not to overload these circuits. I dunno how long she's been 'cold' and I dinnae want ta melt anything," the jovial chief engineer explained his progress to Kirk.
"Very good, Scotty. Lieutenant Freeman? What's your status on getting the holes patched up?" Kirk switched his vocal attention from the engineer to the leader of the damage control team without actually turning toward her. He continued to watch Scotty as the engineer worked on restoring power to the saucer.
"Just finished the last repair, now, sir," Freeman responded. "Ensign Garcia and his team have finished up the exterior hull repairs and they're ready to return to the ship. I agree with their assessment, Captain; we don't need anyone else in here and Hill and I can begin restoring atmosphere without their assistance."
"Very well, Lieutenant," Kirk acknowledged and switched his communicator channel to the first preset frequency and spoke again, "Kirk to Enterprise."
"Enterprise here, Captain," Commander Uhura's voice sounded rich and full through his helmet's speakers.
"Beam the exterior damage control team back to the ship and then have two of our atmosphere generators beamed over here. Lieutenant Freeman will let you know where she wants them."
"Yes, sir; standby for moment, please," Uhura said and the communicator channel muted.
Kirk knew his communications chief was rapidly giving orders on another channel and would be back with him shortly. While he waited for her to resume her conversation with him, he wandered around the deck of the mystery saucer ship. Now that they were close to getting power and atmosphere restored, he could feel the old, familiar excitement building. He knew they were close to reanimating the crew of this ship and he was looking forward to talking with them and learning all about them and their travels and their origins.
"Captain Kirk? The transporter room reports the safe arrival of the damage control team. Lieutenant Rand also says the atmosphere generators are ready to be beamed over. She's talked to Lieutenant Freeman for arrival coordinates and she just needs your authorization to beam them over," Uhura succinctly informed Kirk of the proceedings of the last few moments. An excellent officer, she understood the need to keep the ship's captain informed of everything that happened on his ship.
"Very well, Uhura. Tell Janice to 'go ahead' and beam the generators over," Kirk responded. He turned toward Lieutenant Freeman and watched as she moved off to the side a step or two. The twinkling sparkle of the transporter began and the first atmosphere generator began to take shape on the deck next to Freeman.
"Lieutenant Freeman? You only requested one generator?" The surprise Kirk felt crept into his tone. He had thought the young lieutenant would have wanted two, or possibly even three, of the generators.
"No, sir, I requested two of them. I had the first one beamed here to the upper deck and I'm about to go downstairs to ensure the second generator has a clear space in which to land," she replied to the captain's question. "I thought having one generator on each deck level would reduce some of the debris turbulence. Each generator is set to produce atmosphere to match the samples taken from the cold-sleep capsules. I intend to have the lower deck generator run at 70 percent and the upper deck run at 30 percent. That should keep the bulk of the mess downstairs. If I manually open the airlock doors up here about six inches and open the lower airlock doors about halfway, most of the crud should just whisk itself away. Keep the 'housekeepers' a bit happier that way, sir." The plucky, young lieutenant had a twinkle in her eye as she finished with this last bit of information.
"Alright, Win. By all means, let's keep the housekeepers happy." Kirk chuckled as he turned from Freeman and moved toward the cold-sleep capsules.
"Everyone prepare for atmosphere effects. It's going to get a bit 'windy' in here," Kirk continued to chuckle as he made the pun about the plan and Freeman's first name.
"Aye, Captain."
"Yes, sir."
"A most logical plan, Captain."
The chorus of affirmative responses flowed over the communicator as the other members of the Enterprise crew acknowledged Lieutenant Freeman's plan to replenish the atmosphere.
"Are you ready, Lieutenant Freeman?" Kirk inquired.
"One moment, Captain; I'm opening the last airlock now," Freeman grunted as she used the manual opening mechanism to open the upper deck airlock.
"Ready, sir," she finished.
"Everybody hang on to something," Kirk informed his crew and watched as they braced themselves against the impending rush of wind. "Go ahead, Freeman."
The senior damage control officer from the Enterprise pressed a series of buttons on the control panel built into the sleeve of her d-EVA suit and everyone watched as the atmosphere generator began its work. At first the generator didn't appear to be functioning, but after a few seconds they could see a solid stream of frozen air come from the output ports. As they watched, the generator built up to the full output programmed in to it, and after a moment the amount of air inside the saucer ship soon approached about 25 percent of normal. The atmosphere generators were designed to quickly replace the air in a holed ship to reduce, or even prevent, the loss of life aboard. Because of this, the inside of the saucer ship soon resembled the inside of a tornado. Dirt, debris, and loose materials were quickly scooped up by the raging winds and literally blown out of the open airlock doors.
The tornado created by Lieutenant Freeman didn't last long at all before all of the loose debris build up from an unknown number of years was blown out of the ship. Lieutenant Freeman called to the other damage control technician remaining on the saucer ship, "Crewman Hill? Close the airlock doors downstairs. Make sure you close the outer airlock first, Kenny. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am, if I don't close the outer door first, I won't be able to open the inner door later without exhausting all the air out to space." Crewman Ken Hill's voice showed that he thought Freeman was telling him something obvious that he already knew.
"Loose the attitude, Hill! Mistakes you make at home might get you a 'boo-boo' on your finger. They'll kill you out here, Crewman! Do you understand me?" Normally Freeman's voice was light and ready to wring all the enjoyment out any situation in which she found herself, Kirk knew. Now, however, her tone had become solid steel and she used that steel to lash the youngest member of her crew into line.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry," the abashed voice of the young crewman came through the speakers.
"Don't be sorry, just be careful. Report to me when you're ready to close the doors." Freeman's voice also held a hint of worry for Hill. Kirk heard a click and his HUD readout told him Freeman had switched communicator channels. Kirk's command suit automatically monitored the new channel Freeman used and Kirk heard her call back to the ship.
"Freeman to Enterprise. Transporter room," she called out.
"Enterprise here, Lieutenant. This is Rand in Transporter Room 6," Janice Rand's voice responded.
"Janice, can you get a lock on Crewman Hill's d-EVA suit and monitor him, please?"
"Yes, Win, I can do that. Hold on just a sec," the Enterprise's Support Services lieutenant said. "I've got him."
"Ok," Freeman said to Rand. There was another click in Kirk's speakers and Freeman called out, "Kenny? Are you ready?"
"Yes, ma'am, I'm in position."
"Alright, close the outer door. Report when complete," Freeman ordered.
Kirk watched as Freeman moved into the airlock and readied herself to close the outer airlock on the upper deck. The force of the wind increased a bit more and Kirk knew that Hill was closing the door on the lower deck.
"Outer door is secured, Lieutenant. The seal appears good and my tricorder doesn't show any leaks." Hill moved back into the saucer ship and continued, "I'm closing the inner door now, ma'am. There! Both airlock doors are closed, secured and show good seals."
"Good job, Kenny. Stand by for a minute," Freeman said as she began closing the outer door she stood next to.
The force of the winds inside the saucer ship began to abate as Freeman closed the airlock door. With every inch gained toward the closed position, the force of the wind died a bit more. The sound of the wind, however, increased in pitch. Until at the very last, the wind made a high-pitched, shrill scream and then died completely. Freeman touched the controls on her sleeve again and the atmosphere generators cycled down and then shut off. Freeman consulted her tricorder and very carefully studied the information it displayed.
"Captain? The hull is sealed and she's holding air at one standard atmosphere. No leaks and all readings are well within the 'green'. Interior temperature is 11.2 degrees C and rising. The atmosphere generators are set to gradually raise the air temperature to Starfleet standard 21 degrees C. It'll take about 8 hours to reach that temperature." Freeman's report to Kirk was quick and concise. The vibrancy and humor had also returned to her tone.
"Great job, Win," Kirk lauded her. "If you're ready, go ahead and take Hill back to the Enterprise and take care of your paperwork and inventory reports for the materials used in your repairs."
"Aye, sir," Freeman replied. She moved to gather up her tools and check the atmosphere generators one more time before gathering up Hill and beaming back to the Enterprise.
Kirk turned to where Scotty and McCoy worked at the cold-sleep capsules. "Status?"
"I have the emergency generator connected and ready to power up, Cap'n," Scott informed him.
"No change in the status of the sleepers, Jim," McCoy said without looking up from his tricorder. Kirk noticed that McCoy had removed his helmet and gloves and laid them aside.
"Spock? Have you found anything with their computer systems?" Kirk also removed his helmet and gloves as he turned to where his first officer worked at an open panel in the wall of the saucer ship.
"I am unable to read any of the data contained in the computer databanks, however, the computers themselves have provided some answers," the Science Office straightened and moved toward the captain.
"What did you find?"
"These computers are an exact match to the Pentium 22's manufactured on your Earth in the mid- to late-21st century. They were built in California and bear the labels and identification stickers for IBM, Microsoft, as well as several other computer hardware manufacturers of that time. They are constructed from the typical advanced type 4 silicone processors in use at that time. Furthermore, a deep scan of the physical properties of the hardware components—and even the saucer ship as a whole—reveal molecular components typical of Earth.
There are also several other molecular signatures on the ship that indicate it has been in space for approximately 300 years and it has visited several planetary systems. Those planetary systems are unknown at this time; I am unable to tell you where this ship has been with any specifics. I can say with certainty there are no harmful life forms in, or on, this ship at this time." Spock's report was delivered in his typical, dry tone of voice. Someone who didn't know Spock would assume the Vulcan felt nothing, or—perhaps even a bit bored. Kirk knew better than that. He knew Spock was as excited about the discovery of this ship as he, himself, was.
"Any reason to not power up the computers?" Kirk also knew Spock was practically bouncing inside with excitement at the prospect of activating the computers on this mystery ship.
"No, sir. There is a 96.39856 percent chance that nothing unpleasant will happen," Spock replied.
"Alright. Good to hear. Bones? Are you and Scotty ready to hook our power up to this ship?" Kirk wanted to make sure all of his people were ready for the next step.
"We're ready, Jim," McCoy answered for Scotty as well as himself.
"Alright, Scotty, flip the switch."
The actual 'flipping of the switch' wasn't near as exciting as Kirk's order hinted. Scotty merely raised his arm and pressed a button the sleeve of his d-EVA suit, much in the same way Freeman had activated the atmosphere generators. The lights came up and all the myriad displays and indicators began twinkling, beeping, or humming softly to themselves. The gravity generation system seemed to 'shiver' slightly and the Enterprise crew felt a momentary fluctuation in their weight. The gravity generators seemed to hunt around for a few seconds, as if they were checking themselves out, and then they settled down. The mighty starship's crew felt their weight steady down at what felt like Earth normal.
Kirk looked around, surprised at all of the electrical activity takikng place in the mystery ship. He looked at Spock and said, "No 'surprises', eh, Mr. Spock? Did you expect this, might I ask?"
"No, Jim, I did not. However, I did not say there would be no surprises. I did say there was a 96.39856 percent chance that nothing 'unpleasant' would happen. Do you consider the lights to be 'unpleasant', Captain?" Spock was clearly teasing his captain in this moment of relative quiet and peace. Since he had also removed his helmet and gloves, he know that no one else in the landing party would hear what he said to Kirk.
"Spock? You're making a joke? You're teasing me? Wow. I just don't know how to process this new information." Kirk was clearly joking with Spock. He could, after all, give just as good as he got.
"Captain? I am a Vulcan. I am unable to 'joke' or 'tease'. Sir." Spock's raised eyebrow, calm expression, and tranquil tone of voice all indicated to those who knew him well that this was a Vulcan who could—and sometimes did—joke.
"Well, in that case, let's see what other 'surprises' this 'flying saucer' has for us. If you're quite finished with not teasing me, would you be so kind as to initiate a study of these people's computer data banks?"
"Certainly, Captain," Spock replied serenely and moved off with his tricorder and began to study the computer systems.
Kirk turned back toward the center of the ship and resumed his exploration of the mystery ship. Things were quiet and calm and Kirk fully intended to enjoy the quiet and also the mystery of this new ship. After all, it was Kirk's experience that things didn't stay quiet for long. Something always tended to pop up and spoil it.
Thank you for reading my first story. I hope you've enjoyed what you've read and I hope you will continue to enjoy the coming chapters. I write in my spare time—What? Spare time? What the heck is that?—so be patient and trust that I'm getting this story out there as fast as I can. Please let me know what you think about it.