The Infinity Particle

Chapter 6

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour."

William Blake

Jim woke from deep sleep to the sound of giggling. "Stop it Sorrel, that tickles." Peter's childish treble was pitched higher than usual with his delight.

"Peter, Sorrel seems to enjoy the taste of you ear," T'Lane's smooth voice was dry as dust with suppressed laughter. Jim smiled. Her voice reminded him of Spock's when he was trying to prevent his sense of humor from showing, a fact he would deny until his dying day.

He checked his chronometer; 0700. He had slept an hour beyond his usual 0600 wake up time. Obviously the same could not be said of Peter and T'Lane. He got up and headed for the shower. Afterward he'd have breakfast, then check in with his officers. Last night's visit with his mother had been good. As Bones had predicted, she was starting to remember parts of what had happened.

Winona had been in good spirits when Jim and Peter arrived for their visit. She was sitting in a char, happily eating the food Mama Salvatore had sent. Tom and Bones were sharing the bounty, she informed Jim wryly, because Mama had sent enough food to feed an army. Tom, his mouth full, grinned at Jim nodding in agreement.

"Just tryin' not to waste food," Bones had told Peter solemnly.

Jim and Peter sat on the bed as Winona ate and talked. She questioned Peter about his afternoon and about T'Lane. "I'm happy that T'Lane is going to keep you company, sweetheart. It's very kind of Amanda and Sarek to let her come to help."

After she finished eating the delicious food, she sat back in her chair and sighed. "I've remembered a little more, Jim." She glanced at Peter focused on eating a piece of Mama's Italian cake, and softly related how she had gone into the house after feeding the animals. She'd brewed a second cup of coffee, then had gone into her office to answer a comm call. She remembered the conversation with one of her Xenobiologist colleagues, an invitation to participate in a symposium which would be filmed and broadcast on the SF net to many different worlds.

She smiled at Peter. "I told my colleague that I'd check my calendar and get back to the committee head. Since it's summer vacation, I said that I wanted to take Peter with me to Boston; he's never been there."

At this, Peter's head came up from his cake, and his eyes widened in pleased surprise. "Really, Noni?"

Winona nodded. "Really. My colleague told me that child care would be available and that many great activities were being planned for the children who would attend with their parents." That was the last thing she remembered, she told Jim, a little downcast that she couldn't remember anything more.

Bones and Tom jumped in to assure her that her memory was coming back quickly and the rest would come soon. At that point, the nurse had come in with Winona's sleep medication, and after Jim and Peter kissed her goodnight, they left her. Jim had dropped Tom off at his Fleet quarters and then taken Bones to the house. Spock had refused a ride. He would take a late Fleet shuttle to the house, he informed Jim. He was deep in his research; it was quite a fascinating plant, he informed Jim and Bones, his attention already back with his instruments.

Now finished with his shower, Jim dressed quickly and went in the kitchen to see that breakfast and his coffee were already on the table. Sorrel looked up from his food bowl, meowed once in greeting and went back to eating. "Well, this is a pleasant surprise," he exclaimed, looking at the two expectant faces.

"T'Lane and I fixed it all, Uncle Jim. Toast with butter, and oatmeal with nuts and fruit and orange juice and milk and your coffee." Peter's eyes shone with pride.

"It looks delicious, but T'Lane, Peter, I don't expect you two to cook. I was going to give you an open credit chip so you can order food to be delivered here. I did ask my service to buy groceries for us, but I expected to be the one who cooked an occasional breakfast and evening meal around here."

T'Lane looked at him serenely. "I have been taking cooking lessons from T'Lar, Lady Amanda's cook, Captain. I asked Lady Amanda if I might do so and she agreed. T'Lar is a fine cook, and she agreed to teach me. It is a skill that interests me and I have already learned to prepare quite a few human and Vulcan dishes. I would like the opportunity to cook for Peter and for you to practice my skill, if you are agreeable. Peter has agreed to help me in my endeavor."

"That's very kind of you, T'Lane. Of course, if you want to, but please order food in if you're pressed for time or just don't want to cook." He handed over a credit chip. "This is for food, entrance fees, and whatever else you might need." He sat down and took a sip of his coffee. "Excellent coffee," he smiled at them. T'Lane and Peter looked pleased as they sat down to to eat.

"What are you two planning to do today?"

"I thought a visit to the San Francisco Exploratorium would be a good educational experience for Peter," T'Lane said. "It has scientific displays, dating back to its beginning in 1969 O.C., as well as current ones." Jim glanced at Peter who met his eyes and grinned.

"And fun too?" Jim grinned back as Peter nodded.

Jim quickly finished his breakfast and coffee. "Sorry to rush off, you two, but I need to get going. Peter, we'll visit Noni again this evening. She may be ready to leave the hospital by tomorrow. Uncle Bones told me he'd let me know when we see her this evening." He bent and kissed the sandy head. "Be good, both of you, and have fun! You have my comm code, T'Lane?"

"Yes, Captain. Mr. Spock gave it to me."

"Comm me if you have any questions, or if you need me."

"I do not anticipate the need, but I will if it is necessary."

Jim made his way to the parked shuttle. First stop, the Fleet house to check on Spock and Uhura's progress. As the shuttle climbed, he drew in a deep breath of delight. Jim loved to fly, and it was a beautiful morning in San Francisco with a slight chill in the air that the bright sun was quickly dissipating and no fog at all rolling in from the bay. It was a quick flight. Jim brought the shuttle down and parked it next to the other one in front of the house. He walked briskly to the cobalt blue door and pressed the door chime.

Bones answered the door, a cup of coffee in his hand. "Mornin' Jimmy." He raised his mug in question and Jim nodded, following him to the kitchen where the other two were finishing breakfast. "Sit down Jim, I'll grab you some coffee."

"Morning, Everyone. Hope you all got some rest," Jim said, grabbing the coffee mug Bones held out to him. "Report; Spock, you first."

"Yes, Sir." Spock pushed aside his bowl of cereal, and steepled his fingers. "My findings so far indicate that the DNA of the plant is highly complex, Captain. It is unlike any thing I have seen before in any plant species across the quadrant. The DNA molecules seem to be configured in a way that they replicate themselves continuously as the plant continues to grow. That insures that the DNA strands never truly age, or should I say, the DNA continually acts like it's in the process of new growth during the plants' growth cycle, thus perpetuating its continued and amazing longevity. Also, Captain, once it reaches a certain size it will not grow taller, again unlike most plant species, thus it does not grow too large to sustain itself indefinitely. Quite remarkable," Spock added. "The plant seems to propagate itself through its root system. New plants will shoot up through the ground at certain points from the root network of the existing plants that are traveling underground. If the planet, Lama II, had not been so marginal in its atmosphere, it's soil, and water, there would be millions more of these plants. As far as I have been able to ascertain, it's propagation is limited by the very nature of where it grows." 1

"Spock, do you think it would it be possible for the plant to grow in a planet that enjoys optimal growing conditions, such as here on Earth?"

"Unknown, Sir. We do not have enough data to theorize. However, logic dictates that it would be more likely to grow in a harsher more dry environment, more like the environment on its native planet, Lamma II. More research will be needed to answer that question and others."

"Like on the planet Vulcan." Bones mused.

"Perhaps. As I said, Doctor, I must conduct more in depth research to answer some of our questions."

"Very well, carry on with your research. Spock, are you sure that the lab is completely secure? And that no one knows you're working on the the plant's DNA research?"

"The lab is completely secure, Captain, and the nature of my work is also completely secret. Commander Bradford has allowed me to engage the highest security protocols SIS has in place, both in the lab and on my research itself."

"Good, Spock, that's good. Lt. Uhura, your report?"

"I've eliminated 87 percent of the Iowa rental companies, Captain. I should be finished by mid morning. I began with the closest rental companies to Riverside and worked my way out from a grid I made and superimposed on the map of Iowa. I thought it would be more helpful than just a list of Iowa companies so I could actually see how far the men had to travel to get to the rental company and from there to the farmhouse. Also, the grid might give us a possible location of where the men might be living, working, or staying, or even perhaps the location of a corporate office. People do tend to rent vehicles where it's fast and convenient to get to them. If I don't find anything in Iowa, I'll enlarge my search peremeters."

"Good point, Uhura. Continue and keep me posted."

"Yes, Captain."

He turned to Bones. "Are you heading back to the hospital, Bones?"

"Yeah, Tom will meet me there. We'll give Winona a good goin' over and I'll let you know if we're gonna' dismiss her tomorrow morning."

"I'm meeting Gavin, Admiral Corrigan, and Admiral Nogura in Gavin's Office. SIS headquarters is located out of the way and we won't attract undue attention with all of us being there at the same time. I'll be able to update them about Uhura and Spock's reports."

Leonard walked him to the door.

"I'll see you later at the hospital, Bones. Peter will be out all day with T'Lane, but I'll bring him by early this evening to see Ma. You need a ride to the hospital this morning?"

"Naw. I'll catch a ride with Spock, and this evening too, if he can tear himself away from the lab," Leonard snorted. "If not Tom will bring me back to the house. Don't worry 'bout me."

As he left the house, a sense of uneasiness sat large and solid in the back of Jim's mind which he knew he needed to address, but right now he had a meeting to attend. Jim sat in the shuttle inputting the coordinates to the Starfleet Intelligence Service complex that Gavin had given him. He'd never had a reason to go to the complex before and had no idea of its location. The SIS location was never advertised. He looked down as he flew over the building to park the shuttle in the side parking lot. The complex was imposing in size, although its architecture was plain and nondescript, and there was no signage of any kind on or around the premises. It looked most like an old fashioned United States post office. There was an unspoken joke in Fleet that if you needed to go to SIS, you would already know how to find them. No address needed.

He walked up the marble steps to the front double doors where two redshirt sentries stood armed with phasers. "Your identification please, Captain?"

Jim presented his ID chip and both his chip and his face were carefully scrutinized, then compared to an entry that the sentry had in his padd. "All correct, Sir. After you enter these doors, walk straight down the hall to the lifts, take the lift to the third floor, step out, turn left, and the second door to your right is Commander Bradford's Office."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Jim said, as the officer put in the code to open the door. Obviously security protocols were tight here.

Jim made his way to the lift. People working on the first floor gave him quizzical looks as he walked by, which puzzled him, but maybe they weren't used to seeing Starfleet Captains here. Exiting on the third floor, he knocked lightly at Gavin's door and a clerk opened it. "Captain Kirk, please go right in. Commander Bradford, Admiral Corrigan, and Admiral Nogura are waiting for you."

Jim nodded and walked in to Gavin's office. "Admiral Nogura, Admiral Corrigan." He saluted. Nogura stood, holding out his hand. "Good to see you, Captain Kirk. How is your mother?"

"Much improved, Sir, thank you. Dr McCoy thinks she'll be able to go home tomorrow. She's remembered some things about what happened prior to her being attacked, but nothing after that. Dr. McCoy thinks she will remember the rest in the next day or so. I hope so, Admiral, because we have very little to go on to help us find the men who broke in to get that data chip."

"Please sit, Captain. Give us your report," Nogura beckoned to a chair.

Jim told the two Admirals about yesterday's second attempted break in, about Spock's research findings so far, and about Uhura's efforts to find the rental shuttle.

When he finished, Admiral Corrigan also had an update for them. "I've given orders for the Lamma II Terra forming team to be pulled out. They'll be relocated to another similar but slightly more developed planet. Our story is that after due consideration, we decided that it would take too many credits, resources, and manpower to terra form Lamma II." He sighed. "It was the best story we could come up with. We just can't take a chance that someone else might take an interest and decide to study that plant. The planet has a lot of it growing all over. The team is under orders to never discuss our "dismal failure" of not doing sufficient preliminary research on Lamma II, and the consequences of our negligence, that we wasted a lot of time and credits on a worthless effort. We told the team that discussing our failure would be bad for the morale of the department." The Admiral rubbed at his jaw. "We hope that's enough to stop any speculation. We've also set up long range sensors for reconnaissance just in case anyone shows an undue interest in the planet. If so, we'll be there immediately to discourage them." The Admiral pointedly did not say how the discouragement would occur.

"I hope what you've done will be enough, Sir."

"It's the best we can do right now," Corrigan responded. "We have to do everything possible to stop unscrupulous individuals from getting their hands on that DNA, Captain. I only hope Mr. Spock finds that it would be impossible to use the plant DNA on any sentient being."

Gavin, who had been silent up to now, spoke. "Or use it to conduct experiments on any sentient beings." They were all silent, remembering the experiments that had led to the Eugenics War which produced the Augments and the horrible consequences that followed those experiments.

Jim shivered. He was a history buff and had studied everything he could find on that horrific period in history. Admiral Corrigan was right. They had to do everything possible to stop anyone from acquiring the knowledge of the immortality DNA, or it could all happen again. Not doing anything to avoid that catastrophe was unthinkable.

"Captain, Commander" Admiral Nogura stood, his face stern. "I'm giving you both discretionary powers to stop these people by any means possible. Spend what ever credits you need, use whatever resources Fleet has, just keep the nature of this operation secret. Everything having to do with this mission has to remain highly classified. Is that understood?" The normally genial Nogura was positively taciturn with his orders reflecting the seriousness of the mission.

"Understood, Admiral."

The two Admiral took their leave and Gavin went to his office cubby to make some coffee for them. It was still early and two small cups of coffee had definitely not been enough for Jim. As they sat for a brief moment of relaxation drinking their coffee, he entertained Gavin by telling him about T'Lane's and Peter's foray into cooking. Gavin laughed. "I'm sure everything will be delicious, Jim, when have you ever known a Vulcan do anything less than perfectly."

"True that." Jim's hazel eyes twinkled. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to tell you that I don't think the SIS staff are used to seeing Starfleet captains around here. I got a lot of curious looks when I walked in."

Gavin's lips twitched. "They were probably excited to see a genuine Starfleet hero when they recognized your face. You are pretty famous you know."

Jim flushed. "No, I'm not!"

"Yeah, you really are," Gavin told him, gleefully.

Jim's irate comeback was interrupted by the beep of his comm. He flipped it open. "It's Jonathon," he murmured to Gavin. "Kirk here."

"Jim. Just got a comm from my officer who took Mr. Thompson to feed your animals. He parked close to the barn to keep an eye on Mr. Thompson. Officer Murdock showed good sense, he kept the shuttle on and it's weapons hot, said he just had a feeling, and sure enough the rental shuttle popped out of warp right over your back pasture. He recognized it right away from its markings and because it popped straight out of warp. Murdock fired at it, right at their warp engine and got a hit, he says. They popped right back into warp without firing a shot, guess it spooked them, having someone waiting for them like that," he said in satisfaction. "That shuttle has some damage now. It should be much easier to track down. Anyway, I've assigned officers to the farmhouse 24/7 now. Don't worry about Mr. Thompson, he was still in the barn, and it all happened so fast, he didn't see or hear a thing."

"Good work, Jonathon. That'll give us a little more information to work with. Do you need me to go out there?"

"No, that's not necessary, Jim. If I need you, I'll comm and meanwhile I'll keep you posted. Romaine out."

The two men looked grimly at one another. "They're getting desperate to find that data chip," Gavin said.

"I don't like desperate," Jim told him, suddenly remembering the reason for his uneasiness. "Gavin, are you sure the Fleet lab is absolutely secure and Spock is safe working in there? That his copy of the chip is safe in there?"

"I'm sure, Jim. I gave him the highest possible security code to the lab. No unauthorized person can possibly get in there. Beside no one knows he's working on that DNA data except for McCoy, Uhura, the two Admirals, you and I. Winona doesn't remember the chip at all right now, and she's got two security officers at her door. No one will know where she is when she's dismissed from the hospital to your apartment."

"The reason I asked was because I'm concerned. Last night Spock took the late night Fleet shuttle back to the house instead of going with Bones and I. I didn't say anything to him at the time, you know how Vulcans, and Spock in particular are, they love computer research, but it seemed like an unnecessary risk to me. He's not carrying the data chip with him, I know that, but everything is in that giant Vulcan brain of his."

"I agree that was foolhardy. He's totally safe in the lab, but outside, being out in the open, could become a problem if any one gets wind of what he's working on."

"That's what I thought. Spock's not going to like it, but I'll make it an order if necessary that he must leave the lab at the end of the day with Bones and Tom or I'll send him back to the ship to conduct his research. There is safety in numbers after all."

"Yeah, I think that's the best way to go. He won't like it though."

"Too bad; thats the way it's going to be." Jim stood. "I better get going. I have to check in with Scotty on the ship, get back to Uhura about the warp shuttle damage, visit Ma, and talk to Spock."

"Violet, Davy and I will see you this evening at the hospital. I'll comm you with the time so you get to see them. Davy is excited to see his Ji."

Jim grinned. He and Davy were best buddies. "I think I'll invite T'Lane to go with Peter and I to visit Ma. She loves T'Lane and she'll be very happy to see her."

"And visa versa," Gavin told him. "T'Lane thinks the world of your mother. We all do," he mused. "Even Sarek and Nogura," he added, thinking of those two inscrutable forces of nature.

Jim smiled. His love and pride in his mother had been a constant since his early childhood. But now as an adult, he could really appreciate what, as a child, he'd taken for granted; his mother's strength of character and integrity, her charm, kindness and generosity, her prodigious intelligence and lively sense of humor, but most of all, that endless bounty of love and support she'd always given to him.

The beep of his communicator startled him from his musings. "It's Uhura," he told Gavin.

"Kirk here."

"Captain, I think I've found the rental shuttle."

1 made up botanical and scientific mumbo jumbo