Unfinished Business
Chapter 11 : Communication?
March, 2273
They headed slowly toward the cloud. Decker made some comment about thousands of starships not being able to generate the power that was in that cloud, and then he noticed that Spock seemed to be frozen in place. He called his name, and got no response. Kirk swiveled around and moved to the pit railing, calling Spock's name again, and this time, he turned his head, slowly. And then he swiveled his chair around and rose, not speaking at all. When he reached the railing, he stopped, and began to speak, his brows drawn together. "I sense … puzzlement. We have been contacted. Why have we not replied?"
Uhura turned her head over her shoulder, watching, knowing that she had been sending continuous hails, and friendship messages, which had not been answered at all. Before she could make a comment the red alert sounded. Everyone jumped for their chairs, and the restraints automatically fell into place. Kirk began issuing orders, for shields and deflectors. And there, on the viewscreen, was something coming at them, glowing blue-white. Whatever it was, none of them had ever seen anything like it before.
Spock gave an analysis of the beam headed their way - plasma energy of unknown power, and not much else known about it either. This was something so far from what they were used to that they didn't even have words for it.
They braced for impact, and the ship was enveloped in blue lightning. In Engineering and on the bridge, energy struck out from consoles. Chekov screamed, one hand burned, his uniform cuff smoking. Decker and Ilia ran to assist him as he fell to the floor, and medics were soon there to assist.
Scotty's report from Engineering was sobering. Kirk gave the order to divert auxiliary power to the deflectors. It was then that Spock stated that he had found the contact from the intruder - at such a high rate of speed and frequency that no human would ever have thought to look for it there. He was reprogramming his station to broadcast in lingua-code at that speed and frequency. Even for Spock, such reprogramming took a measurable amount of time. Time which they were very short on, as another of those blue beams headed in their direction. Kirk goaded and prodded, but Spock continued to work, undisturbed, until he finished, and transmitted the message, and the beam died, finally, only a short distance away.
The bridge was quiet. People sagged in relief. They continued on their forward journey, almost to the cloud boundary now. Their messages of friendship had obviously been received. Kirk rose from his chair and moved toward the science station, where Spock was still seated, Decker leaning over him. There followed a short discussion, as they tried to make sense of what had happened. And Spock gravely stated that he sensed no emotion from whatever intelligence there was there, only pure logic.
Although Decker insisted that entering the cloud at this time, with so little knowledge of what it was, was an unwarranted risk, Kirk insisted that the thing was only twenty hours from Earth. Kirk looked from his exec to his science officer, but turned at last, knowing that the decision ultimately was his own. He returned to his seat, and ordered 'steady as she goes'.
They proceeded into the fringes of the cloud, scattered filaments flowing blue against the black of space. Eyes kept turning to the viewscreen, mesmerized. Kirk speculated that no ship could project a field that strong. Spock came to stand by his side, saying that the pattern of fluctuations in the field was unrecognizable. And still they proceeded, slowly, through filmy layers studded with sparks of light, that went on and on, for distances too illogical to mention. And then there began to be brilliant flashes of light, half hidden behind prominences they could not distinguish. People watched, but flinched, as the lights flashed in apparent randomness. When they had passed that, and were in almost darkness again, only wisps and shimmers of violet blue around them, there was something ahead of them, a huge sphere, with a smaller sphere inside, both glowing bluely.
Eyes continued glued to the viewscreen as people paid more attention to what was outside the ship than to their consoles. McCoy exited from the turbolift, Chekov following him, and stopped at the railing, leaning forward to stare with the others at the unknown before them.
Kirk ordered Uhura to transmit a report to StarFleet, telling what little they had learned. However, she was unable to do so, reporting that any attempt to transmit outside the cloud only resulted in the message being reflected back. The sphere within a sphere continued to grow closer.
Kirk ordered Sulu to circle the object at a height of 500 meters, and then to retreat to 100 kilometers, keeping a constant distance from the object. Behind them, Decker looked at McCoy, and McCoy seemed as though he might speak, but then he closed his mouth, and turned and left the bridge. No one else spoke, the bridge so quiet that they could hear their hearts beating.
They passed over the surface of the object, attempting to make sense of what they saw, but there were few references to aid them in interpreting what they saw. And then there was an intense beam of energy and light, that penetrated the bridge, accompanied by an intense sound. It moved across the bridge, sending out lashes of energy toward the consoles. Spock said it was an energy plasma probe. Kirk ordered everyone not to interfere. When it reached the main library computer interface, Decker tried to shut down the console, but could not, saying that it had taken control. Spock stepped forward, clasping his hands and raising them high, then bringing them down forcefully, breaking the console. More of the bright blue-white lashes of energy sprang from the beam and flung him across the bridge, returning twice to deal him more punishment, leaving him face down on the floor, gasping. The small lashes landed on Ilia, and returned to her again, and again, and enveloped her, and she was gone, and the energy beam as well.