Act Three: "Why I Hate Anti-Gravity"
Malcolm Reed, Hoshi Sato, Trip Tucker, and Jonathan Archer all boarded the Pod and launched from Enterprise straight over to the dead alien vessel.
"There seems to be some docking ports on both sides of the ship."
"Take us a stern," said Archer, sealing his gloves. With no true feeling of the atmosphere over there, the crew had to be careful.
The Pod moved to a large doorway and attached itself to it. Reed looked over at Tucker. "Hatch is opening."
"It's huge on their side, but we can open it just enough to let us in," Tucker continued.
"Malcolm, you go in first. You're our point man. I'll go in next, followed by Hoshi. Trip, you take up the rear."
"Aye-aye, Cap."
Reed entered first, then shouted back to the others. "There's no gravity!"
As Archer entered, his tricorder found something else. "There's no atmosphere whatsoever."
"I'm not picking up any life-signs," said Hoshi as she floated in next.
"Could maybe our attack destroyed the gravity?"
"I doubt it," replied Reed. "Something doesn't seem right about this, Captain."
"Let's keep moving," said Archer. Reed led them all through a long passage. It was dark and wide, but very circular. There was no air in here, nor any gravity and the four of them knew that if something were to happen to their suits, they were dead.
This especially applied to Hoshi, whose eyes were nervously shooting from side-to-side. She was afraid something was going to attack her at any moment. She was not one for space travel. Linguistics, sure. But not space travel.
"Ahhh!" she screamed as something bumped into her.
"Whoa! Whoa!" exclaimed Trip. "Easy there, Hoshi. It's only me."
She breathed hard. "Oh, gosh. Tucker. I swear, I hate you."
"Calm down everyone," commanded Archer. "We're approaching a door."
Indeed, they came to a large circular door that was the same size as the corridor. As soon as they reached it, it flew open and the four entered a large room. It was lined with computer consoles and small lights.
"Oh wow. Cap, it's huge," said Trip in amazement.
Shining a light around the room, Captain Archer soon discovered dozens and dozens of large cylinders with what looked wide access panels on them. Archer floated over to get a better look. They seemed to go on forever. There was definite row of twelve, then they just kept going back and back into the darkness of the ship.
Turning around, Archer saw Sato and Trip were taking a closer look at the other side of the gigantic room. It was a lot different from the other side where there were just the cylinders.
It looked like it was divided up, with one on-going area full of large, flat beds. Next to these beds were small computer panels. Or at least, what could be best guessed as computer panels. The area next to it was comprised of large storage units - all of which were divided into large, stacked piles. And each pile had a different label on it.
"Can you get anything from this?" asked Trip, jokingly.
She paused, then looked at each label. "It's looks like each one of these stacks are for different materials."
"I think I've found something," Reed suddenly said to all four of them.
Hoshi and Trip floated over to Archer, who met them in the middle of a fifty-foot expanse between the cylinders and the divided area that they were just exploring. Reed was off to the left, at what looked like a command station.
Coming closer, it was indeed such. It was comprised of sixteen panels, with eight coming up from the floor and eight attached at about three feet higher and connected to a round rail coming out from the wall so all the panels matched a perfect circular pattern.
The panels themselves were not evenly matched. Some of them had flat screens, while some of the others consisted of knobs and pulleys.
Archer couldn't help but think how large someone had to be to control the ship.
"It's definitely a command console. But it's virtually impossible to access anything."
"Hoshi?"
She nodded and floated in. She took a look at the syntax.
"Captain, I can't make heads nor tails of this. It could take years without the proper translations. I don't even know where to start."
"Well, I do. Can someone get a map of this place? I want to find Engineering."
Hoshi took a good look at some of the labels. She saw what looked the diagram controls and pulled the lever out. A mere second later, a large hologram of the ship appeared in the fifty-foot area. She pulled another level out and the interior appeared.
"Hey, looks like someone's getting the hang of this," joked Trip.
"There's Engineering," said Archer as he and Reed walked over to the hologram.
"Captain, this seems to be the only open area of the ship. Everything else is dedicated to sensors and engines," observed Reed.
"Can you identify what those large cylinders are?"
Sato, looking as curious and professional as possible, pushed in a lever, then pulled out a second one. She then pulled one half-out.
The hologram of the ship disappeared, then the section with the cylinders appeared in its place. This time, they each came with holographic labels.
"What are they?" asked Archer.
"Looks like . . . data storage units."
"There's some many of them," said Archer. According to the hologram, the cylinders went nearly all the way back to the back of the ship.
"What about that section with all those beds were?" asked Trip.
She pulled and pushed a few more levers until the hologram of the bed area appeared. It revealed hundreds of small scanners beneath the floor.
"Whoa."
"I want to know what this place is," Archer said.
"Well, I want a good look at Engineering. Where is it?" asked Trip.
"Give me a minute, here."
Hoshi pulled and pushed a few more levers, until a large panel opened up on the floor. "Is that it?"
"Sure looks like," replied Hoshi.
"Trip, you're with me. Malcolm, you stay up here with Hoshi."
"Aye captain."
Trip and Archer made their way down the hatch into a medium-sized room where there was massive and quite complicated engine core.
"Cap," said Trip in amazement. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"I'm wondering, Trip. If you figure all those cylinders we saw up there were data storage units and those beds were for some sort of biological examinations . . . I wonder if this ship could be some sort of probe?"
"That would explain the lack of atmosphere and gravity, Cap. But if it is one, then I don't want to be the one being probed."
* * *
Meanwhile, one level above, Hoshi still worked at the computer while Reed kept an eye out for . . . anything that moved.
"Hmmm," Hoshi remarked to herself.
"What is it?" asked Reed, leaving his guard halfway down.
"Well, I've been able to make some vague translations, right? And I wanted to know where this ship was from and from what race."
"And?"
"And I can't seem access any of that sort of information. Apparently, there's some sort of security block."
"I wonder . . . is there anyway you can bypass it?"
She sighed and looked down at the controls. "I suppose I could give it a shot."
As she began to press some of the keys, the once ever-present hologram disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, a flash of light laid upon them. Both Hoshi and Reed looked up see what could best be described as an insect-like robot with wrapping, snake-like tentacles flowing from its body.
One of the tentacles grabbed Hoshi's arm and threw her across the room, where she smashed into a room. As another reached for Reed, he yanked out his Phase Pistol and went firing at it. With each shot, the robot was being pushed back.
"Sato!" he shouted. "Grab your Phase Pistol and start firing! Make your way back to the Pod!"
"I'm . . . I'm on it," she stuttered in fear as she gripped the weapon, releasing phased energy at the robot attacker.
"Archer! Tucker! Get up here on the double! We need to pull out!" commanded Reed over the comm-line as he and Sato made their way toward the long tunnel that brought them here.
The pair was still firing their Phase Pistols at the robotic monstrosity while they floated over to the corridor.
Suddenly, two more blasts hit the robot sentry, noting that both Archer and Tucker were on the scene. They quickly floated over to the corridor, where they joined Sato and Reed. Energy was shooting from each one of them as their Phase Pistols continued their work against it.
Soon, they were at the airlock. Tucker opened the hatch and the foursome entered quickly. Bypassing nearly a dozen protocols, Tucker blasted away from the alien probe ship and headed back to Enterprise.
"Archer to Enterprise!" Archer exclaimed, pulling off his helmet and opening a comm-link.
"Enterprise here, Captain," T'Pol responded.
"We need to shut that thing down! Suggestions?"
"An Electro-Magnetic Pulse may disable it, Captain."
"Get it ready as soon as we board."
"Aye Captain. Enterprise out."
Archer turned to the rest of the crew inside the Pod. "Is everyone alright?"
"In one piece, Cap," replied Trip, who was moving quickly to the Enterprise.
"Same here, Captain," Reed answered, following Trip.
"Hoshi?" asked the Captain. She, of all of them, looked the most shaken up.
"I'm okay. Just going to have nightmares for the next three months, that's all."
"It'll be okay."
* * *
"They're clean," said Phlox as the Away Party returned.
"Good. What's the condition on that EMP?" asked Archer.
T'Pol looked over at him. "Nearly completely, we need to - "
Suddenly, the entire ship shook. Archer pressed the comm-button on the wall. "Bridge. Report."
"Some sort of tractor beam, Captain," reported Mayweather.
"I'll be right up," Archer replied. He turned to T'Pol. "Better get that EMP up and running."
"I will quickly double our efforts."
"Triple them."
"Yes sir. Mr. Tucker? Your assistance, please."
Trip followed her down the corridor as the others made their way to the bridge. As soon as they reached it, the ship shook again.
"The tractor beam keeps growing stronger, Captain," reported Reed as he took the Tactical.
Suddenly, a stream of what could best be described at lightning shot from the Probe Ship to the Enterprise.
"What's going on?"
"We're being scanned," said Phlox.
"Captain, they're accessing our databanks," Hoshi replied.
"Captain - this is not good. If they keep this up, the hull will rupture. That scan of theirs is disrupting the make-up of our hull," reported Reed.
"T'Pol! Tucker! Where's that EMP!?"
"Almost on-line."
"Almost isn't good enough."
"Just give us a minute, Cap!"
Archer nodded and quickly turned to Reed. "Torpedoes?"
"I wouldn't recommend it, sir. The tractor beam is disrupting the targeting sensors."
"Captain, their data link is amazing. It's taking in millions of TerraQuads of information," said Sato.
Suddenly, T'Pol and Tucker entered the bridge.
"EMP is on-line," said Trip.
"T'Pol?"
"Initiating."
From the Warp Nacelles, a swirl of energy spins, then launches forth, striking the Probe ship. In flash of light, the entire vessel shuts itself down and sits adrift in space.
Archer, sighing, sat back in his chair.
"Hoshi, contact the Vulcan ships. We can put this into their hands now," said Archer quietly.
"Aye sir."
As Archer sat back down in his chair, he starred out at the lifeless Probe ship and wondered. Was this really over? Because it sure didn't feel like it.
Malcolm Reed, Hoshi Sato, Trip Tucker, and Jonathan Archer all boarded the Pod and launched from Enterprise straight over to the dead alien vessel.
"There seems to be some docking ports on both sides of the ship."
"Take us a stern," said Archer, sealing his gloves. With no true feeling of the atmosphere over there, the crew had to be careful.
The Pod moved to a large doorway and attached itself to it. Reed looked over at Tucker. "Hatch is opening."
"It's huge on their side, but we can open it just enough to let us in," Tucker continued.
"Malcolm, you go in first. You're our point man. I'll go in next, followed by Hoshi. Trip, you take up the rear."
"Aye-aye, Cap."
Reed entered first, then shouted back to the others. "There's no gravity!"
As Archer entered, his tricorder found something else. "There's no atmosphere whatsoever."
"I'm not picking up any life-signs," said Hoshi as she floated in next.
"Could maybe our attack destroyed the gravity?"
"I doubt it," replied Reed. "Something doesn't seem right about this, Captain."
"Let's keep moving," said Archer. Reed led them all through a long passage. It was dark and wide, but very circular. There was no air in here, nor any gravity and the four of them knew that if something were to happen to their suits, they were dead.
This especially applied to Hoshi, whose eyes were nervously shooting from side-to-side. She was afraid something was going to attack her at any moment. She was not one for space travel. Linguistics, sure. But not space travel.
"Ahhh!" she screamed as something bumped into her.
"Whoa! Whoa!" exclaimed Trip. "Easy there, Hoshi. It's only me."
She breathed hard. "Oh, gosh. Tucker. I swear, I hate you."
"Calm down everyone," commanded Archer. "We're approaching a door."
Indeed, they came to a large circular door that was the same size as the corridor. As soon as they reached it, it flew open and the four entered a large room. It was lined with computer consoles and small lights.
"Oh wow. Cap, it's huge," said Trip in amazement.
Shining a light around the room, Captain Archer soon discovered dozens and dozens of large cylinders with what looked wide access panels on them. Archer floated over to get a better look. They seemed to go on forever. There was definite row of twelve, then they just kept going back and back into the darkness of the ship.
Turning around, Archer saw Sato and Trip were taking a closer look at the other side of the gigantic room. It was a lot different from the other side where there were just the cylinders.
It looked like it was divided up, with one on-going area full of large, flat beds. Next to these beds were small computer panels. Or at least, what could be best guessed as computer panels. The area next to it was comprised of large storage units - all of which were divided into large, stacked piles. And each pile had a different label on it.
"Can you get anything from this?" asked Trip, jokingly.
She paused, then looked at each label. "It's looks like each one of these stacks are for different materials."
"I think I've found something," Reed suddenly said to all four of them.
Hoshi and Trip floated over to Archer, who met them in the middle of a fifty-foot expanse between the cylinders and the divided area that they were just exploring. Reed was off to the left, at what looked like a command station.
Coming closer, it was indeed such. It was comprised of sixteen panels, with eight coming up from the floor and eight attached at about three feet higher and connected to a round rail coming out from the wall so all the panels matched a perfect circular pattern.
The panels themselves were not evenly matched. Some of them had flat screens, while some of the others consisted of knobs and pulleys.
Archer couldn't help but think how large someone had to be to control the ship.
"It's definitely a command console. But it's virtually impossible to access anything."
"Hoshi?"
She nodded and floated in. She took a look at the syntax.
"Captain, I can't make heads nor tails of this. It could take years without the proper translations. I don't even know where to start."
"Well, I do. Can someone get a map of this place? I want to find Engineering."
Hoshi took a good look at some of the labels. She saw what looked the diagram controls and pulled the lever out. A mere second later, a large hologram of the ship appeared in the fifty-foot area. She pulled another level out and the interior appeared.
"Hey, looks like someone's getting the hang of this," joked Trip.
"There's Engineering," said Archer as he and Reed walked over to the hologram.
"Captain, this seems to be the only open area of the ship. Everything else is dedicated to sensors and engines," observed Reed.
"Can you identify what those large cylinders are?"
Sato, looking as curious and professional as possible, pushed in a lever, then pulled out a second one. She then pulled one half-out.
The hologram of the ship disappeared, then the section with the cylinders appeared in its place. This time, they each came with holographic labels.
"What are they?" asked Archer.
"Looks like . . . data storage units."
"There's some many of them," said Archer. According to the hologram, the cylinders went nearly all the way back to the back of the ship.
"What about that section with all those beds were?" asked Trip.
She pulled and pushed a few more levers until the hologram of the bed area appeared. It revealed hundreds of small scanners beneath the floor.
"Whoa."
"I want to know what this place is," Archer said.
"Well, I want a good look at Engineering. Where is it?" asked Trip.
"Give me a minute, here."
Hoshi pulled and pushed a few more levers, until a large panel opened up on the floor. "Is that it?"
"Sure looks like," replied Hoshi.
"Trip, you're with me. Malcolm, you stay up here with Hoshi."
"Aye captain."
Trip and Archer made their way down the hatch into a medium-sized room where there was massive and quite complicated engine core.
"Cap," said Trip in amazement. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"I'm wondering, Trip. If you figure all those cylinders we saw up there were data storage units and those beds were for some sort of biological examinations . . . I wonder if this ship could be some sort of probe?"
"That would explain the lack of atmosphere and gravity, Cap. But if it is one, then I don't want to be the one being probed."
* * *
Meanwhile, one level above, Hoshi still worked at the computer while Reed kept an eye out for . . . anything that moved.
"Hmmm," Hoshi remarked to herself.
"What is it?" asked Reed, leaving his guard halfway down.
"Well, I've been able to make some vague translations, right? And I wanted to know where this ship was from and from what race."
"And?"
"And I can't seem access any of that sort of information. Apparently, there's some sort of security block."
"I wonder . . . is there anyway you can bypass it?"
She sighed and looked down at the controls. "I suppose I could give it a shot."
As she began to press some of the keys, the once ever-present hologram disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, a flash of light laid upon them. Both Hoshi and Reed looked up see what could best be described as an insect-like robot with wrapping, snake-like tentacles flowing from its body.
One of the tentacles grabbed Hoshi's arm and threw her across the room, where she smashed into a room. As another reached for Reed, he yanked out his Phase Pistol and went firing at it. With each shot, the robot was being pushed back.
"Sato!" he shouted. "Grab your Phase Pistol and start firing! Make your way back to the Pod!"
"I'm . . . I'm on it," she stuttered in fear as she gripped the weapon, releasing phased energy at the robot attacker.
"Archer! Tucker! Get up here on the double! We need to pull out!" commanded Reed over the comm-line as he and Sato made their way toward the long tunnel that brought them here.
The pair was still firing their Phase Pistols at the robotic monstrosity while they floated over to the corridor.
Suddenly, two more blasts hit the robot sentry, noting that both Archer and Tucker were on the scene. They quickly floated over to the corridor, where they joined Sato and Reed. Energy was shooting from each one of them as their Phase Pistols continued their work against it.
Soon, they were at the airlock. Tucker opened the hatch and the foursome entered quickly. Bypassing nearly a dozen protocols, Tucker blasted away from the alien probe ship and headed back to Enterprise.
"Archer to Enterprise!" Archer exclaimed, pulling off his helmet and opening a comm-link.
"Enterprise here, Captain," T'Pol responded.
"We need to shut that thing down! Suggestions?"
"An Electro-Magnetic Pulse may disable it, Captain."
"Get it ready as soon as we board."
"Aye Captain. Enterprise out."
Archer turned to the rest of the crew inside the Pod. "Is everyone alright?"
"In one piece, Cap," replied Trip, who was moving quickly to the Enterprise.
"Same here, Captain," Reed answered, following Trip.
"Hoshi?" asked the Captain. She, of all of them, looked the most shaken up.
"I'm okay. Just going to have nightmares for the next three months, that's all."
"It'll be okay."
* * *
"They're clean," said Phlox as the Away Party returned.
"Good. What's the condition on that EMP?" asked Archer.
T'Pol looked over at him. "Nearly completely, we need to - "
Suddenly, the entire ship shook. Archer pressed the comm-button on the wall. "Bridge. Report."
"Some sort of tractor beam, Captain," reported Mayweather.
"I'll be right up," Archer replied. He turned to T'Pol. "Better get that EMP up and running."
"I will quickly double our efforts."
"Triple them."
"Yes sir. Mr. Tucker? Your assistance, please."
Trip followed her down the corridor as the others made their way to the bridge. As soon as they reached it, the ship shook again.
"The tractor beam keeps growing stronger, Captain," reported Reed as he took the Tactical.
Suddenly, a stream of what could best be described at lightning shot from the Probe Ship to the Enterprise.
"What's going on?"
"We're being scanned," said Phlox.
"Captain, they're accessing our databanks," Hoshi replied.
"Captain - this is not good. If they keep this up, the hull will rupture. That scan of theirs is disrupting the make-up of our hull," reported Reed.
"T'Pol! Tucker! Where's that EMP!?"
"Almost on-line."
"Almost isn't good enough."
"Just give us a minute, Cap!"
Archer nodded and quickly turned to Reed. "Torpedoes?"
"I wouldn't recommend it, sir. The tractor beam is disrupting the targeting sensors."
"Captain, their data link is amazing. It's taking in millions of TerraQuads of information," said Sato.
Suddenly, T'Pol and Tucker entered the bridge.
"EMP is on-line," said Trip.
"T'Pol?"
"Initiating."
From the Warp Nacelles, a swirl of energy spins, then launches forth, striking the Probe ship. In flash of light, the entire vessel shuts itself down and sits adrift in space.
Archer, sighing, sat back in his chair.
"Hoshi, contact the Vulcan ships. We can put this into their hands now," said Archer quietly.
"Aye sir."
As Archer sat back down in his chair, he starred out at the lifeless Probe ship and wondered. Was this really over? Because it sure didn't feel like it.