Chapter Six

"Yow!" Ishta yelped, and shoved Kay back with her elbow. "Stop stepping on my heel!"

Kay shoved back, her teeth bared and gleaming. "Then quit stopping short every ten seconds!"

"I wouldn't have to if this stupid passage would stay straight!" Ishta snapped, tightening her grip on her padd. Its glowing screen lit the girls' faces, but not much else. If anything, the rectangular patch of light only made the darkness around them seem denser. "Whoever designed this place must have had tangled string for a brain!"

"Actually, I think we've been walking in a spiral," Kay said, touching her fingers to the narrow corridor's rough brick wall. "No, not a spiral – back-and-forth curves. Like we've been walking through the building's intestines."

"Urk!" Ishta wrinkled her nose. "There's an image I didn't need. Are all Klingons so disgusting or just you?"

Kay's sharp teeth glinted smugly. "Think about it though," she insisted. "What if the inside of the Stairway is set up like a maze? A labyrinth, you know, like in that ancient Earth myth about the man-bull monster who ate children?"

"The what?" Ishta recoiled. "What the hell kind of messed-up story is that?"

"The kind that says there wouldn't be a maze unless you had something crazy-dangerous to hide in the center. Or protect."

Ishta's eyebrows twitched. "You mean like that energy source," she said. "The one Data was trying to keep that chameleon from stealing when he—"

"Listen," Kay cut her off sharply, forcing her voice over and past the terrible fears that threatened to crawl up her throat whenever she remembered the day Data had disappeared. "If Data got pulled into a quantum tunnel like the grown-ups think, there has to be a way to open it again. Right?"

"That is why we came here," Ishta said dryly.

"Right," Kay said. "So, if we follow the twists and turns of this passage all the way to its heart—"

"We either find something that can help, or we get totally lost and end up starving to death in this stuffy, musty, bat-blind tunnel," Ishta snarked and curled her lip. "Whatever. Let's just keep moving. And watch your stupid feet!"

The passage snaked on, curving away then sharply back until both girls began to worry they wouldn't be able to find their way out again.

"It's all been one long tunnel, though," Kay said, trying to keep calm despite the low-humming panic she felt squeezing her insides. "Seriously, all we'd have to do is turn around and—"

"Yeah, but how do you know we didn't already turn around, or turn off into some other passage?" Ishta said. "It's so blasted dark in here, we could have been walking in circles for an hour and we wouldn't even know it!"

"Wait!" Kay raised her chin, her nostrils twitching. "Do you smell that?"

The Orion gave the air over Kay's head a theatrical sniff. "Nope, just you."

Kay shoved her, but the space was too small and too dark for a real fight.

"It's a breeze, you idiot!" the Klingon snarled. "The air down to the right is different from the rest of this blasted tunnel. Don't you get what that means?"

The girls' wide eyes seemed to glow in the padd's light as they chorused, "The heart of the maze!"


Kay and Ishta stood close together, staring up at the sharp angles, intricate spirals, and rainbow-like sheen of what looked to them like the Stairway's metallic spine. Harsh desert sunlight filtered in from somewhere high above, barely enough to chase away the shadows. But after the thick darkness of the tunnels, the girls found the faint light almost blinding.

"It's like a temple," Ishta whispered, her voice echoing in the tube-like chamber. She craned her neck back as far as it would go, trying to see to the top. "A huge, towering temple built out of stacked-together temples."

"I don't think it's stacked together," Kay said, venturing a few steps closer. "I think it's all one super-giant crystal. It could even be this whole huge thing was grown right here!"

"Grown?" Ishta frowned. "You mean, this wasn't carved?"

"I don't think it was," Kay said. Cautiously, she reached out to touch the smooth metal with her fingertips. "I've seen something like this before, back in science class. We were talking about geology and metals and… Bismuth!" she recalled. "That's what this reminds me of! It looks like a giant bismuth crystal!"

"When I think crystals, I see diamonds and gems," Ishta said, moving to join her. "This looks like steps. Millions of twisty, turny temples made out of billions and billions of steps."

"That's because these are hopper crystals," Kay informed her knowledgeably. "The twisty, spirally step-look and sharp edges happen because this kind of crystal forms so fast the inside never fills in. You just get smaller and smaller step-shapes until the crystal's done growing."

"Hmph," Ishta grunted, but she stepped closer, pressing her palm next to Kay's. "It does feel like metal. But it's warm. And it vibrates!" She pulled her hand away and rubbed it, her eyes narrowed. "Did you feel that too?"

"It's probably the energy source," Kay supposed. "Or something like it. We're probably in the center of some giant machine – and this bismuth-looking tower could be like the dilithium crystals for a warp drive engine!"

"Or that quantum tunnel," Ishta said and stared around the cylindrical space. There was no ceiling – or, if there was, it was too high to see. The walls were made of the same sandy brick as everything else. "So, how do we get it to work?" she said. "Shouldn't there be some kind of control panel or switch or - I don't know - a big blue button or something?"

Kay shot a pointed look at the padd in Ishta's hands. Specifically, the little device Ishta had plugged into the padd.

"You could always try those codes again," she suggested. "I mean, it did work on the door outside."

"Yeah..." Ishta nodded, her long dark hair falling over her eyes.

"If I do..." she said. "That is, if it works and the portal opens and we can go in... Do you think..." She squeezed the padd tighter. "Do you think he'll be inside, that we'll be able to find him, or—"

"We won't know if we don't try," Kahlestra said, trying to sound braver than she felt. "And if it doesn't work or we end up getting incinerated like that chameleon did—"

"We still won't know."

Ishta sighed and pushed her bangs back from her face.

"All right, stay close, " she said. "I'm going to do this."

The familiar garble of voices and static echoed against the sandy walls. Only, instead of fading as the recording ended, the sounds seemed to intensify, their resonance increasing within the tube-like chamber until both girls had to clap their hands over their ears. The intricate tower began to rotate, its rainbow sheen becoming a fierce, searing glow. For one blinding instant rose-gold light filled the room.

Then, the tower stilled. The echoes vanished.

Apart from a few windblown footprints in the dusty sand, it was as if the cylindrical chamber had never been disturbed.


"Sir?"

Data took the futuristic listening devices from his ears and swung his legs over the side of the advanced medicot. A young woman stood stiffly in the doorway separating the android's 'cell' from the ship's main sickbay. Data curiously cocked his head.

"Yes, Ensign?"

"Captain's orders, sir," the Bajoran said. "I'm to escort you to the bridge."

"Excellent." Data deactivated the holo-screens he'd arranged over his cot with a few quick taps of his fingers then smoothed his hands over his silver-white hair, making sure any errant strands were neatly back in place before following the ensign from the room.

To Be Continued...


It's alive! Sorry for taking so long with the updates. This story is all plotted out, I just need time to figure out some detail stuff and do the actual writing. LOL! Next Time: What happened to Kay and Ishta? What information must Data gather from the future? Stay Tuned, thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think! :D