Enterprise – The Maiden Voyage

by Soledad

For disclaimer, rating, etc. see the Introduction.

Beta read by the wonderful and generous LoyaulteMeLie, whom I owe my gratitude. All remaining mistakes are exclusively mine.


Chapter 15 – The Iconian Legacy

They walked around the structure that was relatively small from close-up –about the size of the Bridge of Enterprise in diameter, although roughly twice as high. There was no outward sign of an entrance, but when they had come almost full circle, suddenly the outline of a rectangle appeared on the previously smooth metal… and in the next moment the neutronium wall within that outline simply wasn't there any longer. In its stead, there was an opening: a doorway without a door, leading into a dimly lit, circular room that seemed to occupy the entire ground level of the structure.

"Fascinating," T'Pol commented languidly, while both humans were busy picking up their jaws from the floor. "A unique method of matter-energy transfer; and a controlled one, too."

"Are we gonna take a closer look?" Tucker asked eagerly.

"I'd advise against going in," Ensign Soccorro warned. "This is unknown technology, beyond our understanding; even beyond yours, I presume." She looked at the Vulcan, who nodded.

"True enough. We must leave at once if we want to reach the caves in time."

"We could take shelter inside the structure, now that we've managed to open it," the chief engineer insisted. "It's been sittin' here for two hundred millennia – it won't be toppled over by a storm, no matter how strong it is."

"Perhaps," T'Pol allowed. "However, there is a strong possibility that we might not be able to leave again when the storm is over. We do not have the means to blow a hole in a wall made of neutronium."

The chirping of her communicator interrupted their dispute. "Yannes to T'Pol."

"Go ahead, Doctor."

"Subcommander, we've found the entrance to the cave system. The first room appears to be empty; we saw no sign that anyone had ever lived here. The entrance is fairly wide, though, we might need to go further in to be safe from the storm."

"Be careful," the Vulcan said. "The fact that the first cave is empty does not mean that no-one is hiding deeper within."

Dr Yannes acknowledged the order and disconnected.

Tucker looked at T'Pol expectantly. "What now? Are we going in or are we turning around to run after the others?"

His tone revealed clearly what he felt about the second option.

T'Pol consulted the scanner Gerasen Gerasal had lent to her.

"It appears that nature has taken the decision out of our hands," she finally said. "Our chances to reach the protection of the caves are slim. Logic dictates that we seek refuge within the structure; and since we will be already there, we can explore the inside during the storm."

Soccorro... grinned at Tucker. "That was Vulcan-ish for 'I really want to know what's in there.'"

"And this time I happen to agree with her," the chief engineer replied a little shortly; whatever he might think of Vulcans in general and their science officer in particular, he was not sharing a joke with Reed's lapdog at her expense.

T'Pol either didn't get the joke, which was possible, or she didn't care – which was far more likely.

"Let us enter the structure," she said. "Ensign Soccorro, you first; you are already armed. I will follow and scan for possible dangers. Commander Tucker, you take the rear."

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" The chief engineer saluted smartly. Theoretically, he outranked T'Pol in the ship's hierarchy, but she had command of the survey team and was thus entitled to give him orders. Soccorro was already moving forward, phase pistol drawn and at the ready.

They stepped through the miraculously-present opening directly into the circular room. Hidden lights came alive all around the inner walls, giving them a much better view of everything inside… which was mostly advanced machinery of unknown purpose.

The walls were covered with controls and conduits. Directly across from the entrance the wall showed the silver outlines of three gateways. In front of these, in the centre of the room, stood a pentagon-shaped table – presumably a central console of some sort – about waist high. Over the middle of the table, under a large, translucent dome, a softly glowing blue globe hung, seemingly in thin air. It was flecked with the same bits of reflective material as the probe they had recently destroyed. Around the dome, extending to the edge of the table, were countless coloured keys.

There were also flat screens set in each of the five angles of the table. Each screen had a different geometric shape – a square, a triangle, an octagon, a pentagon and a rectangle. There was alien script beneath the screens and on certain parts of the control walls. T'Pol scanned it with her borrowed Viseeth device, while Tucker roamed the room with interest and Soccorro watched their backs.

"Seems to be Iconian," the chief engineer commented, referring to the script.

"It is Iconian," the Vulcan answered dryly. "But the purpose of these instruments remains a puzzle to me."

"Well," Tucker said, pointing to a set of symbols, "this seems to be a manual override of some sort."

He touched the keys, and a low humming filled the room. The light within the globe intensified. Soccorro stiffened, her hand on the phase pistol tightening. Suddenly white-blue rays – much like lightning – lanced out from the globe. They struck the panels on the back wall and intersected in the room between the central console the silver arches to form a gateway – basically an opening in the fabric of space. It spun slowly. Each time it came around a new image appeared through the opening, and for several revolutions the Enterprise officers watched it, stunned.

"It makes one full revolution every one point eight one minutes," T'Pol stated, consulting her scanner.

At the moment, the gateway showed the courtyard of a house with an alien-coloured sky, the full spectrum of which the human eye couldn't even interpret. After that came a desert scene with a bizarrely-shaped city in the distance, then a street with iron balconies and pastel stucco walls, then a grassy field with odd-looking animals grazing on it….

Tucker walked forward and kept staring in wonder.

"That was not the manual override," Soccorro commented.

"No," T'Pol agreed. "Mr. Tucker seems to have activated a still-functional Iconian gateway by accident."

"Those scenes could be holographic images," Soccorro suggested.

"Unlikely." Tucker stepped forward and thrust his arm through the gate. To the eye of the beholder, from his elbow downwards the arm had disappeared. T'Pol froze for a moment in the face of such foolishness, but Soccorro reacted quickly, thanks to her security training. Leaning forward, she grabbed the chief engineer by the shoulders and pulled him back just as the scene changed.

"With all due respect, sir, that was a very stupid thing to do," the ensign said, her tone sharp with reprimand. "You could have lost that arm, had the gate switched while you were still holding it inside."

Tucker shrugged. "Well, at least we know it ain't no holograph." He glanced at the still astounded Vulcan. "Do you think if I stepped through to investigate, it would really be takin' me to other places?"

T'Pol regained her calm… with considerable effort. "I suggest you curb your typical human impulsiveness, Commander. As Ensign Soccorro has correctly pointed out, you could have lost your arm. And no, we are not stepping through the gateway. We might not be able to get back, and that is a risk we cannot take."

"Why not?" Tucker asked, challenge clear in his voice. "Wasn't this how the Iconians travelled? Steppin' across light years as easily as we would cross a room?" He gestured in the direction of the gateway, his animated face glowing with excitement. "Those worlds might be in distant sectors of our galaxy!"

"Indeed; most likely without a way back," the Vulcan answered dryly. "As alluring as it might be to be taken beyond the confines of this planet with a single step, the risk is getting lost forever is inordinately great."

"We still may have to take that risk," Soccorro interrupted their argument. "The door at our backs seems to have just closed."

She waved with her phase pistol into the direction where the neutronium wall had just re-formed behind them. The door through which they had entered the building was gone and no trace of it could be detected anymore.


In the meantime, the rest of the survey team was making themselves comfortable at the cave. They had moved all equipment to a safe distance from the cave entrance, but for the time being they remained outside, enjoying the undisturbed nature and watching the stars.

"That's it, to the left of that trinary cluster," Novakovich said, pointing up.

Crewman Namod, admittedly not the sharpest tool in the toolkit, stared at him in confusion. "What?"

"Our sun," Novakovich explained.

Namod gave him a doubtful look. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, positive. I'm a scientist, remember? It's odd seeing it from this far away, though," he added wistfully.

Namod still didn't seem convinced. "I dunno. It seems just another speck of light no different than any other."

Novakovich opened his mouth to answer, but a sudden sharp pain lacing through his head stopped him. He cringed, pressing both palms to his temples.

"Are you all right, Crewman?" Dr Yannes asked in concern.

"Headache," Novakovich replied through gritted teeth. "I'm prone to them when the weather changes abruptly. If it's all right with you, Doctor, I'd like to lie down for a while."

Before the Centaurian could reply, a sudden powerful gust of wind blew through the small lighting in front of the cave. It came from the south-west, nearly knocking them over.

"It would be best for us all if we retreated into the cave," Dr Yannes said. "Looks like the storm has finally caught up with us. We'll need shelter, now."

"What about the others?" Namod asked; Novakovich had already retreated into the cave.

"I'll inform them; and the captain," she replied.


"The wind storm's moving quickly across the northern continent," Lieutenant Reed reported. "It looks like a nasty one."

"It is," Dr Yannes said. "According to Crewman Namod it must be gusting at eighty kph."

Archer grinned. "Trip would say that's nothing compared to a hurricane coming up through the Florida Keys."

"Try flying through an ion storm at warp two," Mayweather added.

"That may be so, sir," Reed said in concern, "but I'd recommend pulling them out nonetheless. I've got a shuttlepod on standby."

"We can't do so until the rest of the survey team has reached the shelter too." The captain leaned closer to the communications unit. "Archer to Dr Yannes."

"Yes, Captain."

"Mister Reed thinks we should come down and get you. Have you heard anything from T'Pol?"

"Not since we've arrived here," the xenobiologist replied. "They were about to enter the structure in the middle of that 'cirque' as Crewman Novakovich called it."

"I can't reach them either, Captain," Hoshi reported worriedly. "They could be in serious trouble."

"I'd advise coming down right now, though," Dr Yannes said. "A landing under these circumstances might be difficult. We'll be protected until the winds diminish; and so will be the others if they've found a way into the structure."

"And what if they haven't?" Reed asked quietly. "We must make an attempt to contact them. Crewman Namod is massive. He wouldn't be knocked off his feet by a bit of wind."

Archer gnawed his lower lip for a moment. This wasn't an easy decision to make. Should he leave the survey team to fend for themselves and thus risk losing them – or should he risk even more lives by going down for them?

"All right," he finally said. "We should at least try to contact them before the storm hits full force. We'll keep an eye on it and warn you when it's time to turn back. NO unnecessary heroics, Crewman, and that's an order."

"Understood, Captain," the big, beefy security officer replied stoically.

"I hope so," the captain muttered. "Keep me informed, Doctor, and let us know if you need anything."

"I will, Captain. Yannes out."

Archer looked at his armoury officer. "Keep the pod on standby, just in case."

"Aye, sir," Reed replied crisply.


Down in the caves under the planet's surface, Crewman Namod opened one of the field kits and took out a phase pistol and a torch, fastening them both on his heavy utility belt. Then he picked up a few sizeable stones, bound them in two handkerchiefs that could have been mistaken for small tablecloths and hung them on his belt as well.

"What are you doing?" Dr Yannes stared at him, a bit baffled.

Namod shrugged his massive shoulders. "You heard the captain. He wants me to go out and look for the rest of the team. A bit of extra weight can come in handy in a strong wind."

"Ingenious," the Centaurian admitted. "Be careful, though."

"Doctor, I never did a rash thing in my whole life," the man assured her. "I'm always careful – I'm still alive, ain't I?"

It would indeed have been hard to imagine Namod who, as Lieutenant Reed had once put it, was 'built like a brick shithouse', doing anything in haste. So Dr Yannes reluctantly allowed him to go.

Novakovich, clearly fighting a raging headache, was peering suspiciously at shadows further into the cavern.

"What if this is all a trap, though?" he presently asked anxiously. "What if the Vulcans are secretly allied to these Shroomies and are about to compromise our mission? They never wanted us out here; and if anything happened to Commander Tucker, we'd have to turn back. His engineering team is good, but not half as good as he is. No-one knows the Warp Five engine like he does. Without him we'd be lost."

Dr Yannes rolled her jewel-like eyes in exasperation. "You're being grossly paranoid, Crewman!"

"Perhaps," Novakovich muttered darkly. "That doesn't mean I'm wrong."


In the meantime Crewman Namod was tracing their steps backwards, heading for the small cirque they'd passed on their way to the caves. It was a difficult undertaking, with the increasingly strong wind blowing straight into his face, but he hadn't been nicknamed The Rock for nothing. Stubborn as a mule, he fought his way downwards from the entrance of the cave, despite the attempts of the storm to blow him back and shatter him on the dock face.

A little further below, the area was more wooded – that was where he planned to go, in the hope that he would find better support under the trees. Holding onto the trunks might help him stay on his feet and make better headway.

He'd almost reached the edge of the wooded area when he spotted a grey, grotesquely thin figure ambling among the trees, holding on to them for safety. The figure was small, vaguely humanoid with spidery limbs, but most definitely not human. One didn't have to be a xenobiologist to realize that at first sight.

Crewman Namod was confused. The science department had scanned the planet and declared it uninhabited, hadn't they? And the rest of the survey team had found the structure empty, too, right? Then where had this alien creature come from?

No… not just one creature – there were three of them by now, looking identical save for the fact that one of them had a green-glowing artificial eye attachment.

Now like all the ship's security officers, Crewman Namod had watched the video records on the aliens recently infiltrating Enterprise, and thus he had no difficulty in identifying one of the Shroomies if he saw one. Besides, Lieutenant Reed had warned them that they might run into the little buggers, as he called them, on this planet.

What was even worse, they were obviously heading in the same direction as he was – towards the rest of the survey team. Whom Namod had no way to warn. Therefore it was up to him to stop the aliens before they could harm his shipmates. That was what Security was for, wasn't it?

He unhooked the phase pistol from his utility belt and struggled on determinedly to intercept the skinny aliens.

"Hey!" he raised his voice to make it audible over the howling of the wind. "Where do ya think you're going?"

The Shroomies stopped – and stared at him mutely with their glowing eyes. Then the one with the eye attachment raised some sort of weapon and fired without warning. Something hot like liquid fire hit Namod in the chest and he collapsed, losing consciousness.


At the same time the personnel trapped in the Iconian structure were making desperate efforts to find a way out. While Ensign Soccorro was watching – and recording – the various scenes showing up in the gateway, T'Pol and Tucker tried to figure out the function of the controls… with limited effort.

"There's a vast underground power source which is controlled by this console." The chief engineer pointed to a bank of lights that had not been lit previously, but were now glowing brightly. "You see those lights here? Somethin's going on down there."

"Could our triggering of the gateway have caused a dramatic upsurge in power levels?" the Vulcan asked. "We are dealing with very old and possibly faulty technology here, after all."

"I don't think so." Tucker was running more scans. "It seems to me that the consoles are getting' impulses from outside."

"But where from?" Soccorro asked with a frown. "There's nobody else on this planet, is there?"

"Not that we detected; but we could have been mistaken." T'Pol turned to Tucker. "Can you stop the upsurge in the power levels?"

"I can try."

While the chief engineer studied the instruments, Soccorro spotted something familiar in the gateway. "Subcommander," she called out. "I can see the rest of the team in a cave; well, at least Doctor Yannes and Ethan!"

The Vulcan glanced at the gateway. "That is fortunate; it seems we have a way to join the others safely. Time the rotation; I have already done so, but the gateway seems to gain additional destinations as it goes on. When the cave appears again, we are going through."

"Ah!" Tucker said contentedly. "I have access, it seems."

Symbols appeared on one side of the screens. Tucker studied them for a while; then he began to input, using the keys on the console. "This should do the trick… or so I hope."

"Ma'am, the cave with the others again," Soccorro supplied. "The rotation now seems to take six point two minutes."

"Good," T'Pol said. "Prepare to cross over the next time it appears… just in case we should not manage to stop the power upsurge. We ought to be safe enough in the cave, even in the case of an explosion."

As if on cue, suddenly the globe above the central control panel emitted a high-pitched tone followed by a beam of sickly green light. There was a sound of crackling as the ray enveloped Tucker. It travelled the entire length of his body, making him jerk uncontrollably. After a few seconds, the energy flow stopped and the chief engineer collapsed like a wet rag and just lay there unmoving, eyes open but devoid of expression, staring at the ceiling.

Soccorro whipped out her scanner to check on him.

"He's in shock," she said. "Without a medical scanner I can't be sure, but I'm fairly certain that there might be some nerve damage. How serious I can't tell. But he definitely needs Doctor Phlox, and soon."

"Unfortunately, we have an even more urgent problem." T'Pol was consulting the Viseeth scanner borrowed from Gerasen Gerasal. "Commander Tucker was right. This console did receive an outside input – one that has triggered the self-destruction protocol."

"How soon?" Soccorro was a very practical-minded woman. The situation called for action; she would allow herself a bit of quiet panicking later, in the privacy of her quarters – assuming she would get the chance to see it ever again.

"I do not know," the Vulcan replied. "If the countdown is faster than the gate rotation, we may have a problem."


In the cave serving as the survey team's shelter, Crewman Novakovich was getting increasingly hysterical. He was swinging his torch around, as if looking for something… or someone.

"There's someone back there," he insisted. "I heard voices."

"Other than ourselves, there are no humanoid life forms here," Dr Yannes replied with forced patience.

"There could be something wrong with your scanner," Novakovich argued stubbornly.

The Centaurian rolled her eyes. "It's functioning perfectly."

"Are you telling me I'm imagining things?" the crewman demanded. "It's not safe here. We should leave."

"Where do you propose we go?" she asked impatiently. "Back out into the storm?"

"It's better than being trapped in here!"

"I'm not sure Crewman Namod would agree; he still hasn't returned, and he's better suited to survive in such conditions than either of us." The xenobiologist took another phase pistol from Namod's field kit and aimed at her increasingly irrational companion. "Slow down, Crewman, or I'll shoot you in the knee!"

Shocked, Novakovich dropped to the floor – only to jump to his feet again and dash out, screaming, when suddenly a doorway appeared out of thin air in the middle of the cave and out stepped T'Pol and Ensign Soccorro, the later carrying Tucker's seemingly lifeless body. As soon as they'd stepped out, the doorway vanished as if it had never been there.

T'Pol took an inquisitive look around. "You seem to be missing two-thirds of your team, Doctor. What happened?"

"Crewman Namod went out to look for you," Dr Yannes told her. "Captain's orders. He hasn't returned so far. As for Crewman Novakovich, he bolted in a bout of paranoia when the three of you simply appeared out of nowhere. Something isn't right with him, but I'm not a medical officer. What about Mr Tucker?"

"He had an unpleasant encounter with Iconian technology." T'Pol considered their possibilities for a moment. "He needs medical assistance, and we need to find Crewmen Novakovich and Namod, quickly."

"We won't manage on our own," Ensign Soccorro said darkly.

T'Pol nodded. "I must concur. Therefore our only choice is to contact Enterprise and ask for help." She took out her communicator. "T'Pol to Enterprise."

"Go ahead," Archer's voice answered.

"Captain, we are having several problems," T'Pol summarised the situation. "We have rejoined Dr Yannis, but Commander Tucker had an accident, related to Iconian technology. He is in shock, with the strong possibility of nerve damage. Crewman Namod is missing, and Crewman Novakovich had a paranoid episode and ran away. But the most urgent problem is that some outside impulse has triggered the self-destruction device of the Iconian structure and we have no way to know how long we have until it explodes. Nor do we know how far the blast will extend when it does."

"I see." The captain was clearly weighing their options. "Under the circumstances we have no other choice than go down and get you. Were Trip on board to operate it, I'd say give the transporter a chance, but without him…" He trailed off.

"Understood," the Vulcan answered. "In the meantime we shall attempt to find our missing crewmen. They cannot have gone too far. Doctor Yannes will keep an eye on Commander Tucker while Ensign Soccorro and I attempt a search."

"Agreed," Archer said. "We're coming down as fast as we can. Be careful. Enterprise out."

T'Pol looked at Dr Yannes. "The captain is on his way. Let us hope he gets here in time. Ensign Soccorro and I are going after our lost crewmen now. Watch Commander Tucker's condition and stay in radio contact."

The Centaurian simply nodded and began to pack the field kits, readying them for departure. T'Pol and Ensign Soccorro aimed themselves with phase pistols and scanners and went to find the missing men. The chances weren't good, but they had at least to try.

~TBC~