Chapter 21
Found And Lost
Stardate 2366.091-093
The shuttle barely had room to set down. The entire landscape consisted of jutting rock formations and randomly strewn boulders. It was going to be hell hiking the terrain. It was already late evening, so there was no point in hiking only a klick or two only to have to stop and make camp. Better to head out at first light. As soon as they landed near the base camp, Riker hustled his team out the door. There was a fleet of Romulan warships on the way and time was short. The device they were sent to the barren surface to retrieve, was located a long ten-kilometer-long slog toward the base of the mountains in the distance. Shorter if they were lucky enough to run into the science team tasked with finding the device on their way back. Riker was skeptical at first, but after Jon had taken him aside and briefed him on what they were looking for, and that there might be more alien technology out there, he had been sold. There was no way they could let the Romulans have the device, or get their hands on any other technology on this planet.
His team consisted of Jon, Worf, the twins, and six of the Enterprise's security personnel, who were experts in hand to hand. Since the nearby nebula precluded the use of modern, energy intensive weapons, each carried armaments more in common with their ancient ancestors. Jon's choice was his katana, which he carried with an ease that was a testament to his many years of almost daily practice, and of course, instruction from his father, one of the best kengou sword masters in the Federation. Worf carried his bat'leth, a particularly deadly multi-bladed weapon primarily used to fight duels amongst the Klingons. Both of the twins were armed with their Terseht Maat of course. Each also carried other arms. Sahrafel favored a bow her grandmother had given her when she was just twelve; one of the items her family had passed down for generations. Although she practiced with it quite often, she had never anticipated having to use it when it really counted, and was concerned about damaging the priceless artifact. Ugaya preferred another ancient weapon, a small crossbow meant to be worn on the arm. It fired bolts of the same type as the dagger portion of her hairpiece. Riker himself preferred a roman short sword, but also carried an assortment of fighting knives strapped to various parts of his body. All of the team had been ordered to wear body armor; ineffective against modern weaponry, but very good protection against the types of things they were likely to encounter if the Romulans showed up and started a fight.
The base camp was in a small open area, some distance from the foothills where the ruins they were headed to, and was barely large enough to accommodate the shuttles, and bulky gear needed to maintain communications with the Enterprise. The communications device in the middle of the camp consisted of a powerful transmitter attached to a three-meter dish that had just about tracked the Enterprise to the edge of the horizon. There would be no more talking to the ship until it came around the planet in another hour. Even with the powerful system, the Enterprise had to be pretty close to minimize interference from the nebula, hence the shallow orbit and short communications window. After they had landed, Riker had just enough time to confirm he and his team had made it down safely.
Riker's first job was to talk to all of the scientists still at the camp. It turned out there were only three, the rest were with the lead scientist excavating the Tantalus Device. He was surprised at first, until he realized there were numerous ruins scattered over the rest of the planet that needed to be investigated, and only so many people available to complete the task.
This site however had proved to be the most promising. The lead scientist here had reported that he had found an artifact that matched the description of the Tantalus Device. Whether it was the exact same device that Captain Kirk had described from his mission to the mirror universe would have to wait until it was brought back to the Enterprise for testing. It was with some urgency therefore that Riker spoke with the remaining scientists gathered at the base camp.
"OK folks. Don't know if you've heard, but some really bad people will be showing up in system shortly, and we need to get back up to the Enterprise as soon as possible. I expect that as soon as they do, they will be sending some soldiers down here. Now, I don't have to tell you how monumentally unfortunate it would be if the Romulans got their hands on that little gadget you found in the hills. Admiral Mifune has ordered me to bring it back up to the ship and I'm going to need one of you to lead us to wherever the excavation site is. I've been told it's a bit of a hike from here and we are going to be moving pretty fast, so I need someone who can keep up."
One of the scientists stepped forward.
"Commander, I'm probably the best hiker here, and I have some martial arts training as well."
"That works. What is your name?"
"Steven Kim commander."
The other two scientists did not object to their colleague volunteering.
"What about Dr. Janey and me commander?"
"You two will be going back up to the Enterprise at first light."
"But commander, we've got pretty valuable equipment here. We can't just leave it."
"Yes you can and you will. You've got almost twelve hours to gather up what equipment you can, but we need that shuttle back down here to collect the rest of us when we get back with the Tantalus Device tomorrow evening. We will be moving out at first light as well. That shuttle can't hold all of your friends and my team in one trip, so you either get on it first thing in the morning or you get left to deal with the Romulans by yourself, your call."
After hiking a good part of the day toward the hills, the team finally met up with the scientists carrying the tantalus device. Riker was struck by how small it was. From what the captain had told him, the device could completely disintegrate an object from a fair distance away. Given what he knew about the immense energies involved at the sub-atomic level, the ability to significantly interfere with molecular bonding spoke to an energy source well beyond anything Federation technology could currently command. The Captain was right. If the Romulans got their hands on the device and reverse engineered it, there was no doubt that they would start a war with the Federation, and Riker feared, have a good chance of winning it. Sobered by the thought, he directed his team to take over carrying the improvised litter the scientists had put together to transport the device and directed his attention to a man about the captain's age.
"Dr. Livingston I presume?"
Not surprisingly, the anthropologist had heard this particular joke many times before, and did not react as he shook Riker's hand. Dr. Kim groaned audibly.
"Yes Commander. I'm a little surprised to see you. To what do I owe the honor of this reception?"
"No way to sugarcoat it Doc. The Romulans are on their way here. They've apparently gotten wind of some of the interesting things on this rock and are coming to have a look see for themselves. We don't know exactly when they will be here, but the earliest estimates are sometime tomorrow, so we need to get this thing back up to the Enterprise as soon as we can. Our shuttle brought your other two scientists up to the ship and is on its way back down to pick us up as we speak. The sooner we get back to camp and, on that shuttle, the better. I suggest we set up camp for the night and head out again at dawn."
"Sounds good Commander. We could use the time to try to better understand how the device works."
"Have you found out anything about it yet doc? It's not going to blow or anything if we drop it right?"
"Commander, I can sum up what we know about the Tantalus Field and this device that generates it very simply. I believe the technical term is nada. It took longer to excavate than we anticipated so we did not have time to test it."
"Sooo, don't drop it?"
"That would be an excellent safety tip Commander."
Great. For all they knew, this thing could disintegrate them if they tripped over a damn rock carrying it. If its energy source became unstable, he had no doubt it could take a good chunk of the planet along with it as well.
"We did take the precaution of duct taping the controls so they can't move as we're carrying it though."
Jon and Riker exchanged looks. They both sincerely hoped this would be enough of a precaution.
"Nothing for it then. If it blows up, at least the Romulans won't get their hands on it. Let's make camp for the night and head out in the morning."
At first light Will was woken by one of the redshirts who had the morning watch. The temperature was slightly cool, but he could tell it was going to be a hot day. He roused the rest of the party, ensured the cargo was safely secured, and after striking camp had everyone moving withing thirty minutes. He ordered Jon, Sarahfel, and a security member on point and took off at a trot down the path they had just come up from.
"Professor, I just thought of something. How do you know this is the actual device if you haven't tested it?"
"All we have is a written description and some sketches the old Captain Kirk had drawn. Luckily, as you can see, it looks pretty simple so we're confident this is the actual device. That's not the real problem though."
"Doc, please don't tell me there's more bad news."
"Remember I said we had trouble excavating it? Well, the device had a connection through a wall we didn't have time to dig through. We couldn't figure out what that connection was, and we had no choice but to cut it. We assumed it wasn't hooked up to a power source because it didn't immediately vaporize us when we got through it, but it could have been vital in some other way. We'll find out as soon as we start tinkering with it up on the ship. Hopefully, it was just some sort of anchor and will have no adverse effect on its operation. Even if we can't get it to work, I have no doubt we'll be able to learn quite a lot from taking it apart."
The doctor went on in this vein for quite a while. Riker found it better just to tune him out and concentrate on not tripping on the rocks that littered the ground on this planet. Twenty minutes later the professor had not stopped talking and Riker was finding it increasingly difficult to ignore him. A stray word here and there would creep into his consciousness despite his best efforts, and one raised a red flag.
"What did you just say doc?"
"What? Oh, I said the weather on this planet is remarkably similar to that of Vulcan."
"Before that doc." Riker said impatiently.
"Yes, umm. Oh, I was commenting on the rest of the technology we saw in the chamber we were excavating. It seems it was a repository of some sort."
This time Jon spoke up.
"You mean to tell me there's more of this stuff back there?"
"Well yes. A few things. I mean, no more Tantalus devices, at least in the room we were in. We did not have time to really examine the other items but we did document them. Much of it was identical, like arrays of something. That's why we thought it was a repository. We speculated that maybe they were memory banks. If so, can you imagine…"
He was about to go on down the rabbit hole again so Jon cut him off.
"How many rooms were there professor?"
"Oh I don't know. We only saw the one. Does it matter?"
"Yes it does professor," Riker said.
"We were planning on grabbing the device and high tailing it out of here before the Romulans arrived."
Jon continued. "But there's no way we can let them get their hands on technology as potentially destructive as this is. That means we need to destroy that room and everything in it before they can get to it."
To say the professor was horrified was an understatement.
"But you can't do that Commander!", he sputtered.
"Doc, they outnumber us. That means if they want the tech, they can probably roll over us to get it."
"I'm sure we can make them listen to reason Commander."
Riker had learned to be patient with the types of people who were inclined to take a deep dive into whatever subject they were interested in and purposely tuning out the rest of the world, with the result that they were totally clueless about anything outside of that area. It had not always been so. After the academy, his lack of patience with people who, he thought, were being deliberately obtuse, was legendary. As he became more used to the mantle of leadership, he realized that it takes all kinds, and some people just were not interested in anything outside of their area of expertise. So even though they were quite literally about to be in a fight to save the galaxy, he tamped down his natural tendency to be irritated at the professor and affected a calm tone.
"Professor. Romulans do not negotiate when they have a military advantage and rarely even if they do not. If they manage to land on the planet, they will attempt to take the device and any other technology they can get their hands on. They will have no qualms about killing any of us to make that happen."
"There's got to be a better way Commander! Think of the knowledge that will be lost!"
"Professor, we're on the clock here! If you have a realistic idea on how to deal with our predicament, speak up, otherwise I must insist you save your energy for getting back to camp as soon as possible."
As if on cue, the air suddenly split with the sound of several sonic booms in quick succession. The team looked up and saw three shuttles, obviously Romulan, landing near the horizon, off to the right of the path they were taking back to camp. The Romulans had spotted them and landed as close to the team as they could. They obviously hoped to intercept Riker's people before they could reach the shuttle he hoped was waiting for them back at camp. Riker knew his group could not run faster than the Romulans given they were carrying a heavy piece of equipment, but he hoped if they really pushed it, they could get to the shuttle soon enough ahead of the Romulans to take off. Once they were in the air, the Romulans' shuttle armaments would not work well enough to do them much damage. Short of ramming them, they should be able to make their escape.
"We've got company people, let's double time it!"
An hour later, they reached the camp out of breath, only to discover their ride back to the Enterprise had yet to materialize. Riker's heart would have sunk but he didn't have time for the sentiment. The Romulans were no more than ten minutes behind them so he needed to act fast.
"Jon, defensive perimeter stat!"
Will saw the communication dish tracking the Enterprise and rushed over to it.
"Riker to Enterprise."
The response was immediate but filled with static.
"Go ahead Will."
"Captain, the good news is we've got the package, the bad is that our ride is not here and in about five minutes we will be overrun by a superior force of Romulans."
"Yes, we just got word they arrived in system. They must have sent a ship to the planet ahead of the main fleet.
"Hold one Will."
Hold one? Hold one?! Didn't the captain hear what he had just said!
"Captain, I don't think you understand…"
"Sorry Will, I was consulting with Admiral Mifune. Help is on the way. Unfortunately, we don't have an exact ETA, but some allies should be there within the hour. Do what you can to stall the Romulans as long as possible until help arrives. If they manage to take off, there's not much we will be able to do. "
"Understood sir."
"We're heading out system to intercept the main fleet so will be out of communications for a while. Good luck Will. Picard out."
Some allies? What the hell was that supposed to mean? And how was he going to prevent a superior force from taking the tantalus device in the first place, let alone stopping them from carrying it back to their shuttles? He made his way over to Jon and briefed him on their orders.
"The good news Jon is that help is on the way. The bad news is that it's probably going to take them almost an hour to get here and we are ordered to delay the Romulans until then. Any ideas?"
"Well, I had the professor and his people bury the gadget over by that small hill there, and grab a random piece of equipment from the comm gear. I figure we can give the Romulans that. Unless they're engineers, they should be fooled for a little while."
"Damn Jon," Riker said with admiration, "I guess that's why they pay you the big bucks!"
It didn't take long for the Romulans to show up. Or rather, the Romulan leader showed himself; the rest of his men remained lightly concealed nearby. It was obvious to Riker from the number of shuttles he saw land earlier, that his team was heavily outnumbered and that fighting would be a useless exercise. The Romulan leader came forward. He obviously wanted to talk, get the equipment he saw them carrying, and leave without fighting. A prolonged battle would only delay the completion of his mission. Strapped to his back was a long stick with a cup on the end. One of his hands was covered in a heavy glove. Riker judged him to be reasonable, not belligerent; a good leader concerned for the welfare of his men, but obviously tough as nails.
The commander looked over the away team and focused on Riker.
"Is it safe for me to assume you are the leader of this group?"
The twins slowly removed their hairpieces and separated the components. The Romulan commander was momentarily distracted when their long hair cascaded down their back to their waist. They slowly moved to flank Jon, scanning the area constantly. It was obvious from the way they moved that they were coordinating with one another.
"I am Commander Riker. With whom am I speaking?"
"Sub-Commander Ostrovsky, leader of this humble group of men. Commander, you look like a reasonable man. You are faced and flanked by over forty of my men, most of them in excellent positions of concealment, and have mniet aihn trained upon you and your vastly inferior force. As you can see, you are very much at a disadvantage and cannot hope to prevail if hostilities were to commence. You are in possession of what I have been told is an alien device. If you would be so kind as to give it to me, we will be on our way. There is no need for either of us to endanger our men."
The mniet aihn must be the curved stick attached to his back. He was at a loss as to what it was supposed to do. It was too thin to do much damage if you hit someone with it.
"You are mistaken commander. It's just a piece of equipment our scientific team uses to record data on the ruins you see around you. We are attempting to discover more about the civilization that built them."
"A peaceful scientific expedition then."
"Yes."
"Well then commander, may I humbly request that my scientific team here and I share in this data?"
"Your scientific team sub-commander? Do your scientists normally dress in soldier's uniforms and carry weapons?"
"When faced with a threat, we Romulans are all soldiers commander. The device please."
This last was said in a flat, deadly voice. The Romulan was done talking.
"Jon, can you get the gadget?"
Jon directed the professor to bring the "gadget" forward. He placed it at the feet of the Romulan leader, who signaled for two of his men to come forward and pick it up. They swung their weapons over their backs, lifted the device and all three began to walk back toward their lines.
The twins were the first to move. Riker saw them slowly start to notch their bows. They had noticed something in the sub-commander's movements that concerned them. He had been looking at the device closely as they were walking away, touching various parts of it. Right about then, he directed his men to stop and drop the equipment. He barked a command as he turned to address Riker.
"Commander, perhaps you have misunderstood my intentions. You should know that although I wish to resolve this situation peacefully, I do so only because it is expedient."
As he said this, a number of his men came into the open, all with the stick weapons and one hand covering the cup portion. Riker had been wondering exactly what a mniet aihn was and how the Romulans were planning on using the sticks, and had at first thought they were maybe a club, but then he saw that their gloved hand was holding a spiked ball in the cup. A device to throw balls along the lines of a lacrosse stick. The balls could easily be thrown at a high enough speed to be lethal then. Ingenious. If you run out of the metal balls, you could always just pick up a rock and throw that. He made a mental note to get one and practice with it.
The Romulans formed a semicircle around Riker and his people. They outnumbered them three to one and he thought he saw more hidden a little farther away. Obviously, fighting their way out of this situation was a non-starter. The sub-commander continued.
"I must tell you sir, although I am under strict orders to avoid violence that will delay the expeditious completion of my task, my personal nature is a violent one. I am experiencing grave difficulties as it is in the restraining myself from giving my men the command to open fire. Commander, I will give you exactly two minutes to stand away and release the device, starting now."
Suddenly the air was rent with the sound of numerous sonic booms. Riker looked up as two more Romulan shuttles streaked through the atmosphere. They landed a few kilometers away, near where the sub-commander's craft had come down.
As everyone was looking up, Jon leaned over and whispered in his ear,
"That's our help."
Riker didn't have time to ask him what the hell he was talking about and more importantly, how he knew, as he moved away to be near the twins. Will knew Romulan shuttles when he saw them, but Jon was giving him a "trust me" look. He hoped these really were the allies the Captain had told him about.
Commander. Time is up. Either you give me the device or I order my men to advance to take the device, and to open fire, if one man in your command should fire one shot.
"Professor, can you bring me the device please?"
"Commander! You cannot..!"
He sighed. If Jon was wrong about this, his worse day ever was going to get really, really bad.
He raised his hand to silence the man.
"Professor, if we start a fight, we will all die and the commander will get the device anyway. Please go fetch it and bring it back here."
"But… if they get the device, they could…", he sputtered.
Riker cut him off as he expected the man was about to blurt out something about what the device was capable of doing.
"Enough! Professor Kim, you are now in charge of the science team here. Please retrieve the device."
Livingston opened his mouth to object but closed it with an audible click at Riker's look.
Professor Kim moved toward where they had hidden it. Riker motioned for one of his people to help him.
"Forgive me sub-commander, the device has been buried. Give me a few minutes to recover it."
He hoped the professor had heard him and would take his time digging the thing up. Every extra minute of delay could only help them – he hoped. Eventually, the scientist and one of his people brought it forward.
"Don't drop it! It…"
"Shut the hell up Livingston!"
This man was going to be the death of him – maybe literally! He needed to have a serious talk with him about giving away secrets to the enemy. At least he did as he was told this time. Riker brought the device to the Romulan leader and placed it at his feet. He moved back to the professor, tightly grabbed his arm, and whispered harshly into his ear.
"You will not say another word! If you do, I swear I'll shoot you myself!"
He didn't actually have a phaser to shoot anyone with, but he hoped the professor was smart enough to get the idea. Probably not given what he'd seen so far.
The Romulan leader had his men pick up the device and move away.
Riker turned to the Romulan commander and in a voice just as flat and deadly as the man had used on him moments before he said:
"I hope you find the information in this device useful commander."
The sub-commander was suspicious of Riker's confident tone, but only with the briefest of pauses, continued to move away with the device.
"Sub-commander, please put the device down!"
Everyone turned. Unnoticed by anyone, one of the red shirts had crept within ten meters of the Romulan leader and was pointing his crossbow directly at him. Other Romulan soldiers got ready to throw their deadly metal projectiles, but at a gesture from their commander, stopped.
"Young man! Put your weapon down. If you use it now, you will be shot down and there is no need for that. We have what we came for, the incident is clos-ed."
"That may be sir, but I have you in my sites and will get a bolt off before I am hit. I can't miss at this distance."
Riker took it back. This youngster, not Livingston was going to be the death of him. Why did it always have to be the damn redshirts?"
"Son, I need you to stand down," he said calmly.
"I'm sorry sir, I can't do that."
The Romulan took this opportunity to slowly turn and start walking back to his men with the device.
"Lieutenant, I'm giving you a direct order! Stand down immediately!"
This last command got the young officer's attention and he momentarily took his eyes off the Romulan, slightly lowering his weapon. The man nearest the sub-commander though, took the opportunity to snap off a shot and hit the man in the head, killing him instantly. At the sound of his man taking the shot, the Romulan commander's soldier's instincts kicked in and he immediately dropped to the ground. For his efforts, the shot the Lt. managed to get off took a piece out of his cheek and neck. Better than directly through the heart if he had not moved so quickly, he thought.
The rest of the Romulan soldiers did not waste any time and started hurling steel balls at Riker's people. The damn things were very accurate. One hit Jon and he went down. Seeing this, the twins immediately took a running leap toward the Romulans, twisted in mid-air and threw their daggers simultaneously as if they had rehearsed this exact move thousands of times before. The only thing different in their movements was that Sarahfel's dagger took the Romulan who had killed the Lieutenant in the throat. He grabbed his neck as blood spurted between his fingers and he crumpled to the ground. Ugaya's dagger sprouted from the eye of the Romulan on the other side of his commander who had dared attack Jon. They continued to wade into the Romulans, alternating between their daggers and shuriken.
Warf used the broad side of his bat'leth to block the initial projectiles aimed for him, went for cover behind a nearby boulder, and then began moving to flank the Romulans.
"Stop firing!", Riker yelled. Despite the twins' success in taking out the Romulans, he knew there were too many of them for this fight to continue much longer.
"Stand down!" Jon added.
A half beat later the sub-commander added his voice to the mayhem in Romulan. Riker understood the sentiment if not the exact words.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!"
The firing stopped in just a few seconds. The twins stopped fighting only after they heard Jon's order. Sarahfel looked up from pulling the head back of a terrified Romulan whose throat she was just about to plunge her dagger into. She saw that Jon, who had stood back up by this time, was not dead as she had initially thought, but just injured. She calmly let the Romulan drop to the ground and walked over to Jon. Ugaya stood up from her fighting stance, picked her way around the four dead and injured Romulans at her feet and also moved to Jon. This time they stood directly in front of him; nothing was going to hit him if fighting started up again. Jon expressed no emotion at the carnage they had initiated. Everyone else appeared to be nearly in shock.
Riker spoke up.
"Sub-Commander, you have what you want. May I suggest you gather your men and depart."
At his order of "Yytaera!" the sub-commander's troops came out from cover and began to pick up their casualties. Riker noted that there were even more Romulan soldiers than the away team had initially thought. They moved off into the surrounding hills and brush in good military order.
"I hope you know what you're doing Jon. If that thing does what you say it does, it could be a serious problem for us down the road."
"They haven't made it home yet Will."
Riker was still confused but trusted Jon enough to not pursue the point.
