Star Trek: That Which Divides (20 page)

Kirk reached for the communicator on his hip and flipped it open. “Kirk to Spock,” he said as he held the device near his mouth. “Come in, Spock.”

The first officer’s voice replied from the communicator’s speaker grille, “
Spock here, Captain. We noted your arrival, and I should be joining you in short order
.”

“Are you invisible, Mister Spock?” Kirk asked.

“
In a manner of speaking, sir
.”

A low rumbling sound rolled across the plateau from the direction of the hillside farthest from the chasm. Kirk turned in that direction, half expecting to see an avalanche despite the admitted absurdity of such a notion. Still, he was relieved to see no surge of tumbling rocks bearing down on them. Instead, there was only Spock, standing no more than twenty meters from them, before an opening in the hillside that Kirk was certain had not been there upon their arrival.

“Greetings, Captain,” the Vulcan called out, his voice carrying across the open ground. His left hand gripped the strap of the tricorder he wore slung over his right shoulder, and Kirk noted the dirt stains on his uniform tunic and trousers.

“It looks like you’ve been busy, Spock,” Kirk said as he and the others began walking toward him.

The first officer nodded, “Indeed we have. I think you will find what we’ve discovered below to be most interesting.” As the landing party drew closer, he inclined his head toward Sortino. “Greetings to you, as well, Ambassador.”

“And to you, Mister Spock.” She gestured toward
the gap in the hill’s rocky façade. “You make quite the entrance.”

“No kidding,” Kirk added. “That’s some trick.”

In response to the comments, Spock’s right eyebrow arched as he turned to regard the opening from which he had emerged. “To borrow a human colloquialism, Captain, I believe that you have not yet seen anything.”

In his travels, Kirk had seen his share of alien technology. While much of it was less advanced than that with which he normally interacted, there were those occasions where the sophistication of a computer or other mechanism far surpassed anything with which he was familiar. The Preservers, the Fabrini, and the Shedai, along with so many others, fell into that latter category. As he beheld the subterranean storehouse into which Spock had led him, he once again was reminded that the Kalandans also stood among such august company.

“It really is them, isn’t it, Spock?” Kirk asked as he stepped through the archway leading from the underground passage into the chamber. Even as he asked the question, he already had his answer. Though some of the details were different, they were outnumbered by the similarities to the technology he recalled studying back on that unnamed world: the small, seemingly irrelevant planet guarded by the lone sentinel, Losira. “The Kalandans, again?”

“Even without the prerecorded message we found, the parallels in technology and instrumentation are unmistakable, Captain,” his first officer replied as he stepped around Kirk on his way to a nearby bank of what could only be control consoles designed for unknown users. “There are
some divergences, of course. First and foremost, this planetoid does not show any evidence of having been artificially created, as was the case with Kalandan Outpost 1.” Kirk nodded at his friend’s use of the planetary designator he had given to the peculiar, artificially created world, which the Kalandans had opted not to name—at least so far as Spock had been able to determine during his time spent studying the ancient technology they had found there.

Spock continued, “Just based on what we’ve been able to find to this point, the planetoid belongs to the Kondaii system, and was appropriated by the Kalandans for their use many thousands of years ago, well before the Dolysian society evolved on their world.” He indicated his tricorder. “Our readings indicate that this chamber and the equipment in it is much older than what we encountered on the other outpost planet.”

At one of the nearby consoles, where he had been working when Spock led Kirk and the others into the room, Lieutenant Boma turned and pointed to the cube hanging at the center of the room. “That’s a computer control mechanism, sir. Our tricorder scans show that it has power and other connections running through the rock to and from other chambers in this complex. Some of those rooms have devices like this one, while others don’t.”

“A kind of network?” asked Uhura as she paced the room’s perimeter, examining the different consoles and banks of controls.

Boma replied, “That seems to be the case. The whole facility actually looks to be laid out that way, with five clusters of rooms and other compartments all networked by a series of tunnels, with other, larger passages connecting the clusters. Each cluster looks to have its own power source,
environmental control, and other self-contained systems, almost as though sections were designed to run independently of each other.” Shaking his head, Boma blew out an audible breath. “We’re still figuring a lot of it out, but Mister Spock’s knowledge of Kalandan technology from your previous encounter is definitely coming in handy.” Redirecting his attention to Kirk, he added, “Captain, we found what looks to be the Kalandan version of a medical bay in one room. Doctor McCoy’s investigating it now.”

Nodding at the report, Kirk held out his hand to Boma. “I’m sorry about the loss of your shipmates, Lieutenant.”

Boma took the proffered hand and shook it, his expression turning solemn. “I appreciate that, sir.”

“How are you holding up?”

As though uncertain as to the best response for the question, Boma paused, casting his gaze toward the floor before replying, “It’s hard, thinking about it, but working helps. I was angry at first, but it’s hard to be angry at people who’ve been dead for thousands of years.” He sighed, shaking his head. “The
Huang Zhong
was a small ship, so we got to know each other pretty well, very quickly. They were good people, from Captain Arens on down.”

“I’m sure they were,” Kirk replied. The last time he had seen Boma was on the day the lieutenant had requested his transfer from the
Enterprise
, that act coming after Kirk had been forced to enter a notation into the younger officer’s service record regarding his conduct during the events on Taurus II. His insubordination and near-mutinous conduct toward Spock on that occasion might have garnered him a court-martial from another starship captain, but Kirk had opted for nonjudicial punishment and a formal reprimand. It was obvious at the time that Boma regretted his actions,
and even though Spock himself never again discussed the matter, Boma still felt that a new assignment to another ship or base was the best way to put the incident behind him. Kirk had tried to convince him otherwise, but to no avail.

Joining them after taking a circuit around the room and looking over some of the mechanisms for herself, Ambassador Sortino said, “The sophistication of the design looks astounding.”

Spock turned from where he had taken up station at an adjacent console. “Indeed it is, Ambassador, though it also is worth noting that despite this equipment’s relative complexity, it still lacks some of the more refined features we discovered on Kalandan Outpost 1.”

“Well, it’s a damned sight more advanced than anything I ever saw on border patrol,” the ambassador countered.

Spock said, “Although our tricorders were not able to detect it, the system’s own internal monitoring equipment revealed the presence of a massive energy plant, far beneath us and separated from the rest of the complex. Based on the amount of power being generated, it would appear that the plant is responsible for the energy field surrounding Gralafi.”

“The source of the rift is here?” Kirk asked. “In this complex? If that’s the case, we should be able to find evidence of broadcast arrays or some other means of focusing that power into space, right?”

Shaking his head, the Vulcan answered, “Only in a manner of speaking, sir. From what we’ve been able to determine, the planetoid itself, with its rich variety of particular mineral ores, acts as a form of antenna. Indeed, Gralafi and the energy barrier encompassing it would seem to be
intrinsically linked. As Mister Boma earlier hypothesized and the projection of Meyeliri confirmed, the field has several uses, simple protection being its primary function. However, it does conduct the equivalent of covert sensor scans on any vessel passing through it, during which it assesses each ship’s threat potential.”

“That’s incredible,” Sortino said. “An entire planet, deliberately engineered to act as an energy field generator. Imagine what you could do with that kind of power, and the ability to broadcast it on such a scale. What’s even more amazing is that these systems are still functioning even after all this time.”

“Though not without issue,” Spock replied. “Based on what we have learned about the generation of the energy field, the interval during which it remains open is much longer than originally intended. There would appear to be a fault in the control mechanisms overseeing the barrier—one from which the Dolysians have benefited for generations.”

“How about that?” Kirk said, shaking his head. “One civilization’s mistake or misfortune is another’s gain, only in this case, it’s an innocent reward, rather than something obtained via theft or conquest.” He wondered how this revelation would affect Dolysian society once the truth became known. “So, this place just came on line once you found a way in?”

Spock replied, “We found evidence of very few systems in an active state, though other systems did later come on line. It appears some form of passive detection process is monitoring conditions within the complex, and reacts to the presence of living beings. For example, the air in these caves seemed rather stale and oxygen depleted, and it was
cooler than it is now. An environmental control system has been activated in response to our being here.”

Stepping closer, Boma gestured toward the stations. “And notice the lack of dust? Some kind of automated maintenance protocols are probably responsible for that.”

“Precisely, Lieutenant,” Spock said, nodding in approval. “There doubtless will be other systems which will cycle through periods of activity and dormancy, the longer we remain here.”

Kirk cleared his throat and waved once more toward the suspended cube with its illuminated, rotating light color display. “Speaking of Kalandan technology reacting to our presence, you’re sure there’s no Losira lurking about, right? Or any of her brothers or sisters, for that matter?”

“Our initial scans have shown no mechanism comparable to the internal defense system we found on the Kalandan outpost,” Spock said. “Nor have we found any indications of any device like the one which transported the
Enterprise
away from the outpost during our initial encounter with that planet. Based on our studies of that facility, I believe that the equipment powering and controlling its defense system is more advanced than anything we’ve so far discovered here. I suspect that any internal security systems will be as comparably primitive as the other mechanisms here.”

Kirk asked, “And no mysterious portals that let you leap entire galaxies in a single bound?”

“We have found no indications of any such technology, Captain,” Spock replied, his expression, as always, unreadable.

“I suppose that’s a relief,” Kirk said. Then, eyeing the cube again, he sighed. “All we need right now is this place
doing its damnedest to kill us.” No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he regretted the casual air of his statement. He glanced to Sortino, though the ambassador seemed not to have heard the comment. Despite Spock’s assurances—such as they were—Kirk still was troubled by the possibility of having to face off against some ancient Kalandan security system, particularly given the current situation.

Commander Scott’s report about the infiltration of a Romulan ship into the Kondaii system and its apparent traversing of the conduit had placed him on edge. He had already asked Sortino to alert the Kondaii government and mining colony leaders about the new development, and also had apprised all
Enterprise
personnel here on the planetoid, and concurred with Scott’s recommendation that shuttle missions to and from the ship be suspended until further notice. If the Romulans decided to push a confrontation with him or his people here and now, there would be precious little Kirk could do about it unless and until he ordered the
Enterprise
into the rift. On the other hand, it had been nearly two hours since Scotty’s report and the last verified sensor scans of the Romulan ship, which the chief engineer believed to have been damaged during its transit of the rift. For all anyone knew, the Romulan ship was disabled, drifting somewhere in space near Gralafi, and in no condition to present any sort of threat.

Wishful thinking
, Kirk mused, rebuking himself.

Turning from the console she had been studying, Sortino asked, “Mister Spock, you’re able to operate this equipment?”

The first officer replied, “Only to a point, Ambassador. Some of the Kalandan text is similar if not identical
to script we found on the other outpost, whereas other samples are unfamiliar to me.” To Kirk, he said, “Captain, I have scanned those marked surfaces we have encountered since entering the complex. I will require a link to the
Enterprise
main computer in order to proceed with my analysis, though due to interference from the energy field, such a connection is not reliable at the present time.”

Kirk nodded at the report. “The next time we check in with Scotty, we’ll ask him to figure out a way to link one of the shuttlecraft onboard computers to the
Enterprise
. In the meantime, keep doing what you can with what we have here.”

From behind him, he heard Uhura say, “Maybe Kyle’s team at the
Huang Zhong
site can find a portable computer we can use. We could at least bring that down here.”

“An excellent suggestion, Lieutenant,” Spock replied. He started to say something else, but his words were cut off by a new sound in the chamber rising above the omnipresent hum of the central cube. All around the room, control stations were coming to life, their flat black panels illuminating from within to display an array of blinking, shifting graphics and scrolling alien script.