Chapter Twenty-Two
Data returned to the Operations room.
"May I have your attention please?" The room quietened.
"It seems the remainder of your party and now Commander Riker have been transported to the north shore of your planet."
"What!" Exclaimed Guss. "If that's where they are, they are in the unknown I'm afraid."
"There seems to be a type of barrier that surrounds the continent that will not allow our scans to penetrate, we cannot beam them out. It appears we can get in, but not out. I am reluctant to send a shuttle until we know more about the barrier; we cannot allow a shuttle to possibly become stranded either."
"That sounds very wise," offered Starnel, "let's keep your technology out of their hands."
"Do any of you have any idea what this barrier is or what it is for?"
"It was erected by the north thousands of years ago now. We assumed it was to keep us out, not that we've ever wanted to go. Unfortunately, we never studied it. Perhaps they thought we cared enough to spy on them; they could be doing any number of things they want to keep hidden."
Lyden had led the party to a small cave not far from where the beach met marsh land. Compared to the south, the north was very barren. There was very little bird song and a severe lack lustre of colour.
"What do you know of this barrier, Lyden?" Questioned Picard as they all sat, tucked a few meters into the cave.
"I don't know a lot about it, other than in was erected to keep citizens in and not allow them to look elsewhere."
"Keep citizens in?" Queried Riker.
"Oh yes, if you think your freedoms were curtailed under Aygor, you have no idea." He specifically addressed Tarya and Doone. "Your people as a whole retained a tremendous amount of freedom compared to their northern counterparts."
"How so?" queried Doone.
"The average citizen in the north believes equanime is a poison, they've been brainwashed into thinking so and undergo a quarterly draining. They are all under their particular town arrest; all have specified jobs and all are subject to the will of the Higher Counted."
"The Higher Counted," Asked Tarya.
"They are the ruling body. They of course keep all the benefits of their equanime; it's a very closely guarded secret. Then you have the counted. They are the favoured citizens, the ones who do the Higher Counted's bidding and enjoy more freedoms and get invited to parties. Below them you have the citizens who are the menial workers, then you have slaves, then the hunted - those who try to rebel and seek freedom. I have no idea whether they've been successful in any of their endeavours, if they are organised enough to even have any. You can guess as to why they are called the hunted."
"Why are you telling us all of this?" Doone asked suspiciously.
"I told you. I'm probably less welcome here than I am in the south. I'm all about saving my skin right now, nothing more, nothing less."
"How come you are aware of equanime, you and Aygor, have you ever had it drained?" Wondered Beverly.
"We were sons of members of the Higher Counted, we are practically royalty, so no, we've never had it drained."
"How do we get out of here?" Asked Picard.
"Short of your ship finding a way out, the only way I can think would be to destroy the source of the barrier."
"Do you know where it is?" Asked Tarya. He gave an almost insane cackle.
"You have to be kidding me. There's no way we are going to be venturing into the heart the north – the inner sanctum. Honestly, I wouldn't even know how to get us in. Guards patrol the lands between the cities, guards live on the gates, and you need to confirm who you are when you leave or enter with a blood sample and you have to have permission to travel and have the correct documentation."
"So what, we just hang around and hope the Enterprise can figure this out?" Figured Deanna.
"I don't think we have the luxury," pondered Tarya "Our technologies are too juxtaposed. There's not even anything around to eat or drink. We can't drink sea water and we can't eat what isn't available. How do you lot survive?" She threw the question back at Lyden.
"The majority of the North's operations are underground now. Food is artificially grown and produced and water is supplied mainly by the underground canal systems."
"Well, we are going to have to think of something, most of us haven't eaten, let alone drunk anything since this morning. It's nearly evening now."
Back aboard the Enterprise, Geordi and Data had reached an impasse, even the most detailed of scans alluded nothing. It was as though the planet had its own black hole.
"Data, I'm not sure there's anything else I can suggest. Nothing is registering. If it wasn't for the fact we could physically see the area, you wouldn't otherwise know it exists."
"Yet we can communicate through the barrier," mused Data.
"It could be the simplicity of the signal, a bit like piercing a pin through a balloon, easy."
"But anything larger or blunter will not penetrate – unless of course you use an object to pop the balloon, though that could be catastrophic," countered Data.
"Exactly, we have to at least know what that object is, or what the objects source is before we attempt anything. The last thing we need to do is implode half an entire race."
"Indeed."
"I wonder if we can still communicate with them."
"La Forge to Captain Picard."
"Picard here Geordi."
"Nothing we do seems to allow us to register your surroundings, this barrier or anything beyond. Is there anything you can tell us about this barrier?"
"We are just heading onto the beach now. We have the tricorder the Commander brought with him and one phaser, we are going to see what we can find out. I will contact you shortly."
"Aye Sir."
Picard led his team to the edge of the Ocean and Riker began to scan.
"I'm not registering anything out of the ordinary, nothing."
"Keep scanning whilst I fire the phaser at it." As Picard fired the phaser, about a hundred feet out to sea, roughly where they landed, it dispersed into the barrier, merely creating a momentary burst of energy. "Anything?"
"No, the energy just dissipated, but into what I couldn't say."
"Let me try." They looked to Tarya her eyes were shining with an intense blue light, she'd been charging for a while. "Everyone, move away from me, just in case." They ran nearer the cave. She looked to Riker and he gave her the nod. Within a few seconds her hands began to glow brighter and brighter until and intense beam shot forth and hit the barrier within seconds. It seemed to be battling with the barrier. Ripples were shooting from the impact. She increased the intensity to its height. The whole thing began to ripple now, as though it were wavering. Suddenly, it too began to shine blue. Tarya couldn't keep it up. It was as though something was fighting back, draining her energy. She realised it was now travelling back down her channel of equanime too. She stopped her flow and dived into the sand just as the beam shot over her and into a cluster of sand dunes. It made a crater like impact that shook the ground momentarily.
"If they didn't know we were here, they do now," threw out Doone as he rushed to check on Tarya who was already beginning to rise.
"I'm fine. I almost had it, but its power increased as though it knew it was being broken down. Do you think someone did that, or did it do it out of self-defence, assuming its part biological? It's definitely equanime based."
"That would make sense," said Riker, "I get absolutely nothing from the tricorder. It doesn't even register."
"That would be consistent with my scans Commander," offered Beverly. "It didn't register on my medical tricorder either. I was working on programming it before we left the enterprise. It's a surprisingly complex substance. I wasn't able to complete it before we left for the planet, it had hardly made any progress so I stopped it, planning to re-start when I returned."
"I gave Geordi a small vial of it. Maybe he can continue your work?" Said Tarya.
"That's a good idea, though it could take days or weeks, maybe even longer, but we still need to re-start it."
"Picard to Geordi."
"Geordi here Captain, are you alright? We were watching the planet on the viewscreen, there seemed to be a large impact near your area. We could also see the barrier. Whatever you did exposed it to view, it surrounds the entire continent."
"Indeed, it appears to be primarily made of this equanime. Geordi, Dr Crusher had begun analysing it. It appears to be very complex, but we need to start the process again. Do you have any left?"
"I do, I could use some to analyse, but it would leave little left, maybe just enough for one jump back to our dimension, but I couldn't guarantee it."
"Mr Geordi," came a voice from behind. "I can get you some more you know."
"Of course, thank you Guss."
"Geordi, work with our new friends. Good luck, we will see what we can do from this end." Before he could finish, voices and cries could be heard in the distance, it sounded as though a small army was heading their way.
"Quick, let's get to the cave." Suggested Lyden.
"Where they will surely find us?" Rebutted Doone.
"We are in a cove, we have rocks," Lyden was in full blown health and safety mode with his direction and motions, "ocean and the way out, where a small force will soon appear."
"Fair enough, the cave sounds good," relented Doone. They all scurried to the cave and huddled together.
"You know, they will find us," pointed out Deanna.
"Yeah, we have time to put a story together. Will you trust me?" Said Lyden.
"Do we have a choice?" Quiped Tarya. He smiled as though a small battle had been won.
"Place your badge thingies in your shoes. We don't want them finding them."
"in our shoes", asked a perplexed Picard.
"They aren't going to be caring about your feet. You will be poked, prodded and exposed, it's your best shot.
"Picard to Data."
"Data here."
"Under no circumstances must anyone contact us until we contact you. Do you understand."
"Understood Captain." Picard was grateful at this stage that Data was in command. His rational head was needed right now.
"I am the conquering hero and you are all off worlders," declared Lyden.
"What?" It was hard to tell whether Doone was surprised or horrified.
"Look, it's the only thing that may stop us being instantly tortured. Unless they've developed, in the last two hundred years, which I doubt, a way to analyse anatomy, they won't be able to tell where any of you are from. At the very least it will buy us time, perhaps even get us an audience with someone important. Captain, you need to utilise your best diplomatic skills, as do I. You need to command your woman too, Tarya, you can be Doone's"
"What?" She instantly reacted.
"Doone's or mine, your choice... Look they are more likely to allow you to just be if you belong to someone – if not you are free game. Are you getting the picture?"
"Sadly, it appears we are." Riker managed the final word just as small group of armed officers approached the entrance to the cave.