Season 1 - Episode 9: Ex Post Facto (part 2)
June 15, 2371 (3 Months, 0 Days in the Delta Quadrant)
"That is a beautiful sight." I commented, looking out the front of the shuttlecraft.
It was an understatement. Banea was spectacular from orbit, the entire view of the world dominated by one of two supercontinents. Blue oceans and white clouds, just like on Earth, were the first thing to catch the eye, but when you looked further down you just saw green. Biome diversity wasn't really present in this world, and you could tell that with the naked eye. Deep, green, swampish jungles dominated most of the upper coasts and lowlands further inward, thick rivers and lakes that made the Black Sea look quaint were increasingly abundant the further inland one traveled, but more than seventy percent of the continents were covered in thick, lush hardwood forests.
Chakotay, from the pilots seat, hummed in agreement. "I'm half a mind of asking the Captain to issue shore leave. Would be nice to go on a bit of a walk in those woods."
"Would make for a nice change of pace," I nodded in agreement, leaning forward between the chairs to get a better view. "Maybe climb one of those mountain faces and set a tent up at the top."
"I think you're both crazy," Torres snarked from the co-pilot seat, but I could see the hints of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"What's wrong lieutenant?" The First Officer needled at her, "didn't enjoy your survival training?"
She glanced over at him from the corner of her eye, "I liked it just fine. I just don't find the idea of doing survival training for fun to be particularly enjoyable."
"Neither do I," I spoke up, "but I do find a nice hike to be relaxing. Besides, with proper equipment it barely qualifies as survival conditions, and the view is usually worth it in the end."
"Plus, you never know what you might find." Chakotay helpfully added.
"Sometimes it's just good to get away from it all," I pressed on, waving at our surroundings, the shuttle. "Occasionally we forget that we evolved without all this stuff. Getting a fresh reminder is good for the soul."
"I think you are both crazy." Torres grinned at us, eyes slowly turning back to the console in front of her. "Give me room service and air conditioning any day of the week."
As the planet grew larger ahead of us, I glanced up and to the left at the identical shuttle flying ahead of us. Paris was piloting it, with Kim and Janeway aboard. There had been some discussion about using the transporters, but, when the Banea were asked for a preference, they instructed us to use the available landing pads. I didn't think their security services liked the idea of people being able to appear or vanish anywhere.
Besides, it was only logical for interstellar species to have some kind of system in place to monitor incoming and outbound traffic as well as their passengers. Especially on a world where the inhabitants are in the middle of a war, however cold this one appeared to be.
As we descended into the thermosphere, Paris's voice came over the comm system, "Just a friendly reminder that we are to maintain course and decent vector until we reach an altitude of one hundred kilometers. Afterwards we are to proceed directly to our destinations."
I smiled as Chakotay rolled his eyes, reach out to open a channel with the other craft. "Thank you, lieutenant. I remember the instructions from the briefing ten minutes ago."
"Hey, I'm just trying to be helpful," Tom commented. "Wouldn't want you to get lost."
"That's enough chatter," Janeway cut in. "We have our missions, I suggest we focus on that."
"Yes, Captain/Ma'am." the two replied.
All too soon we had crossed the threshold, and our two vessels turned to head on to their destinations. Janeway and her companions moved off to the north towards the planetary capital, while we merry three continued onwards to the east. Our destination was a coastal city along the edge of the continent, more wet than I expected this feather-headed species to enjoy. Our descent accelerated as Chakotay pointed the bow of our shuttle down, leaving us skimming the thick tree canopies as we sped along.
The city swiftly rose up ahead of us, a few hundred kilometers of wetlands stretching out as far as the eye could see around us as towers of bone-white metal rose all up and down the coast. An artificial forest of steel and concrete.
I glanced down at the sensors, blinking a little at the information being fed to us. Lowest natural elevation, zero meters, with a high of sixteen meters, making it unusually flat all things considered. Compared with the orbital scans from Voyager, the city was the seventh largest city on the planet, with just over sixteen million inhabitants, although it was the second most populous on this cost. More than six hundred of those identical hundred and fifty meter tall narrow towers graced the skyline, while just off the coast was a seven hundred square kilometer reef that ran the edge of the bay to the south. It stopped right before you reached the beaches in the central quarter of the coast, acting like a natural buffer between them and the industrial sectors to the north.
"Shuttlecraft Drake, Central Control" a soft femine voice polity came over the comm as we slowed to landing speeds, "Welcome to Banea and the City of Murvi. Please proceed towards docking platform nine."
Torres nodded, tapping away at her console, "I've got the coordinates. It's one of those towers."
"ShuttlecraftDrake to Murvi Central Control," Chakotey responded, "Instructions received. Proceeding to platform nine."
Our craft lazily swung to the middle of the city towards one spire that was different from the others. It was thicker, more robust, and instead of the same exterior as all the other towers it had a transparent shell of glass and steel. Arrayed around the tower like leaves on an impossible tree were dozens of circular platforms, some with a craft or two perched atop them.
"I hope they have a way to deal with wind," I quipped, not looking forward to the walk between craft and tower while being exposed to high altitude winds. Especially since our landing platform appeared to be near the top.
Tapping a few buttons, Torres answered, "I wouldn't worry too much about it. Each platform has an electro-static field surrounding it. Not enough to stop anything determined, but powerful enough to block strong winds."
I thought about that for a moment before speaking, "If I designed this place, especially while being at war with my neighbors, I would have incorporated…"
Trailing off, I smirked and brought up my omnitool's display, which was already interfaced with the shuttle's sensors. While I worked, Chakotay prodded with a, "Incorporated what? A way to bring the fields up to full strength? Sounds fairly basic."
Torres tilted her head as our craft slowed to land on the assigned pad, the hum of our engines slowly bleeding off. "From what I can see, it wouldn't be too difficult. Looking at the scans, the emitters are overkill if they're just keeping out wind."
"Because comfort is just incidental," I answered, finishing up my scan, expanding and waving at it. "Each shield emitter is basically as strong as Voyager's, and the entire tower is drawing a lot of power. If I had to guess, I would imagine that the tower was designed to be a massive shield generator for the entire city. Something to save everyone from an orbital bombardment."
The First Officer and Chief Engineer glanced at my display, myself, each other, and the tower we'd just set down on before Torres smiled with a slight shake of her head. "At least they don't do anything halfway."
I grinned back at her, before leaving them to power down the ship while I opened up the ramp at the back of the craft.
As the three of us walked off the shuttle we all passed the various containers of goods we'd brought to barter with. Some of them were examples of minerals or alloys we thought might be valuable, a few containers were beryllium, as suggested by Neelix, and lithium, as I had suggested. Lithium deposits, together with beryllium and boron concentrations, were markedly less abundant in the universe than other elements due to the comparatively low stellar temperatures necessary to destroy them. It stood to reason that they'd be trade goods.
Most of the cargo containers, however, contained a majority of the items we had recovered from the Vidiians. The samples left for Science and Engineering to analyze or for the Doctor to use were still on the ship, but most of what we'd grabbed was redundant and I was hoping to see at least most of this stuff traded out, though I'd prefer to turn it all into things Janeway wouldn't throw a fit over if she found out.
Chakotay hadn't been pleased, when I told him about the goods we took from the ship after we dropped off the Vidiians, but he did understand the why. Per maritime code it was lawful to confiscate pirated goods, and the Vidiian practice of tricking people to check out their valuable rock for the purpose of murdering them for their organs was practically the definition of pirate behavior. He didn't like it, but he could understand it and admitted he would have done the same thing.
That said, he then ordered me to make sure that we got rid of all of it at our first opportunity and to make sure the Captain never learned it was on-board. She knew about the samples I had passed out and the data I downloaded, and he outright informed me that his goal was to keep her thinking that was all I'd taken. My respect for the man had risen, and I wondered what else he'd done to manage Janeway that we'd never seen spelled out on the show.
We exited the Drake, and made it halfway across the pad, before a group of three Baneans emerged from the tower's hatch and walked towards us. They were in a standard protective wedge formation, with two guards in the back in their green tunic-like uniforms, wearing wide belts around their midsection. The man up front wore light-grey, and from the styling looked like a cross between a business suit and a uniform, carrying a satchel at his side, fanny-pack style..
As we approached them, I got a better look at their faces. Unlike in the show, the Banea I was seeing only had feathers, which made more sense in retrospect. I couldn't imagine a reason why any species would evolve to have both hair and plumage, as they were intended to do basically the same thing so it would make sense for evolution to only pick one. The fact that it threw into question other aspects of the show that could be explained by cheap costuming was something I'd worry about later.
The two guards both had pale red feathers around their heads and across their brows, while the official before us had brilliant green feathers. What I found more curious were the distinctive forehead ridges, similar to the combs of some species of birds on Earth, that all had a unique and varied shape to them.
Perhaps they were a visual representation of genealogy? Would be something interesting to figure out.
The man in grey stopped short of us and waited until we approached him before he smiled and said, "Welcome to Murvi, Trade Capital of the World. I am Guide Vizca." He placed a hand on his side, where his heart would be on a human, and bowed to us.
Our First Officer took the lead, "Thank you for the warm welcome. I'm First Officer Commander Chaoktay of the Federation Starship Voyager." Indicating the two of us to his right, he added, "Our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Torres, and our Chief of Security, Commander Shepard."
I kept silent about the fact, of the three of us, I was the only one with a rank that wasn't Provisional. I'd learned from my Lieutenants that it wasn't polite to mention, and Dalal was rather intimidating, in a passive maternal way that wasn't against regulation, when she wanted to be. The fact that I'd been doing it on purpose seemed to have not occurred to them, but as the Maquis leader had been accepted by the Starfleet crew with disquieting alacrity, I was willing to be seen as unintentionally rude rather than firmly by-the-book as I'd intended.
The alien nodded at this, and smiled happily at us in the only slightly fake way that politicians perfected across the galaxy. "I am honored. Central Authority told us of your arrival and that you were seeking trade. I would be delighted to guide you to an applicable location. What are you looking for?"
"What do you have to offer?" Chakotay asked in turn.
"Oh," Vizca puffed up much like I had seen parrots or cockatoos do, his feathers atop the head forming a small crest of, if I had to guess, interest and pride. Neelix bare-bones report on the Banaens hadn't covered body-language, something I was quickly realizing we'd likely needed. "Greater Downtown Murvi has one of the largest concentrations of interstellar banks and trading posts in the sector, and is home to many large interplanetary companies. The Heath District is a major center for hospitals, clinics, biotechnology, and medical research industries. PortMurvi is our busiest cruise port in the world for recreational travel and relaxation. Murvi is also a major tourism hub for several species across the sector, ranking second only to the planet Sikaris in providing a pleasurable experience."
He reached into the little tote bag he was carrying and withdrew a data padd, preparing to offer it to us. Before the leader of our little expedition could say anything, I asked, "May I?" to grab their attention.
With a nod from the First Officer I accepted the padd, and then wordlessly shook my omni-tool. As the device projected its holographic glow up and down my arm, I watched out of the corner of my eye as the guards stiffened but didn't raise their weapons, rifles strung across their chest by a strap.
A quick scan of the device copied over the navigational information it provided, and I decided to not mention the small tracking device that was inside the padd as I handed it back to the Vizca. A few swipes of my raised holographic screen, and I transferred copies of the data to the Tools on Torres and Chakotay's arms.
Vizca stared on, mesmerized, before he shook himself and carefully inquired, "What is that device on your arms? I believe Central Authority instructed you to not bring any weapons with you?"
"It isn't a weapon," I replied easily, "it is a navigation and communication device. It's how we stay in touch with each other."
"Really?" the Banean asked skeptically.
As proof I activated the interface, pulled up the map function and displayed the surrounding area with a blue three-dimensional projection. Near the top of the largest structure in the city, was a flashing red dot. "Here is the city," I narrated, "and this is our current position." As I zoomed in, the single flashing dot because three. "See, it is just a way for us to know where everyone is. Wouldn't want us to go down to a strange new world and get lost, would you?"
Vizca stared a little longer, then slowly nodded. "Very well. If there is nothing else, I will guide you out of the tower and through visitor processing."
Once inside the tower we were all assaulted by the noise all around us. After so much time on a starship, with only a hundred and fifty or so people within and spending most days not seeing more than a quarter of them, you got used to the silence. I personally hated the quiet, but unless I walked around with earbuds there was no real way to avoid it. Even if that was possible, it would've been the height of stupidity to do so on a potential hostile world. The Tower didn't have that noise problem problem, as it was more like a stardock terminal in both size and function, not to mention the massive amount of people moving to and fro.
Tens of thousands crowded through the structure like an enormous ant colony. Crowds of people were steadily walking down hallways or up and down lifts to reach their terminals. The walkways were wide, easily enough for a pair of type six shuttles to pass down abreast, but they were still packed from one side to the other. Most of the towers interior was open air, giving the impression of a hollow cylinder, but when I looked over the side of the balcony to view the drop I could see a massive courtyard a dozen meters down.
Seeing what I was looking at, Vizca smiled and said, "The tower has several garden levels offering spectacular panoramic views of the city and some marvelous restaurants. Many people from around the city come here just to enjoy them."
I nodded, and then tapped my comm badge twice in rapid succession for a moment to disable the universal translator. I fought the urge to smile at the chaos of chirps and whistles from all around me, and quickly turned the function back on. It really did sound, and look, like an aviary full of birds.
While taking the lifts, that were frankly everywhere around the tower, I noticed that as the closer we got to ground level the crowd not only thickened but the ambient noise greatly increased. I also noticed that the modes of travel changed, seeing advertisements for skycars and maglevs as well as directions for how to reach them hung everywhere. Just as omnipresent were digital boards full of messages for where to eat and why. Bins for trash lined the walls near public restrooms, while janitorial staff made their way around to do their jobs.
It felt like home.
I couldn't help but smile to myself at the sounds and scents of civilization, none of this sterilized "life among the stars" that was everywhere in this Trek bullshit I'd landed in. This was a world where people were born, raised, lived their lives. It wasn't a static painting in front of a frame, no script demanded drama for the sake of drama, and it wasn't someplace where everything revolved around the actions of the handful of people on an away mission. This was a planet with its own history, rise and fall of its own civilizations, and was only momentarily part of the Voyager narrative as our paths intersected. Once we left, everything would continue on as it had, more or less.
And it just dawned on me that this is a planet of bird people at war with lizard people. 'The eternal battle continues.'
Chakotay pointed out the signs leading to the trains, and asked, "Is this more than just a star dock?"
Smiling wide, Vizca bobbed his head up and down and answered, "Indeed. Our world proudly hosts an advanced maglev train network. A person can travel from one side of the world to the other in a little over fourteen hours. Each major city has a tower like this one, where people can switch between trains as needed, or hire a skycar to take them to a nearby town that doesn't have a maglev connection."
"Fascinating," the First Officer observed, smiling at his surroundings.
Vizca commented, "I take it your own people have nothing like this?"
Torres replied, a tad dismissively, "It isn't usually necessary. Most people or freight is handled by ships of varying sizes for longer distances, or transporters for small ones. There are a few worlds further from the core that use trains for distributing freight, but not many."
"How wonderful for you," the Banean answered noncommittally. It was obvious he took that as a small slight, though just as obvious that B'Elanna didn't mean it as such, though that likely made the offense worse in the politician's eyes. Rather than comment on it, I instead did my job as Chief of Security, and took stock of the places defenses. Hopefully, I wouldn't need to use that intel, but this was Voyager.
At the lowest level you could see the various security checkpoints, mostly scanners that people walked through and with a few guards in place to make sure everything goes smoothly. The doors leading to private vehicles, like our shuttle, couldn't be accessed by anyone who wasn't a station employee so most of the people here were just getting a general scan for weapons or explosives. However, if anyone did try to access the shuttle they would be in for a surprise since I linked our omni-tools to the shuttles sensor network. Any 'surprise' left for us we'd know about long before we returned.
Vizca looked to the three of us expectantly for a moment as we stood in the main courtyard, before offering, "I would be happy to guide you to any destination you are seeking. What can Murvi offer you?"
Looking at Torres and I for a moment, Chakoay grinned and declared, "First things first, we should get our shopping out of the way. After that, we'll see what happens."