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#38: Orphans

Previous: #37: Ring Around the Sky
Next: #39: Grand Designs
Star Trek: S.C.E.
eBook / April, 2004
0-7434-8085-6

Written by Kevin Killiany

Excerpt:

Kairn looked about with interest as the Federation vessel's transporter room materialized around him. He was careful to betray no excitement, of course, emulating the weary professionalism of Captain Kortag. The captain made this seem completely routine, which, as far as Kairn knew, it might be.

Not so Langk, ostensibly second in command of the engineering team Kairn led. Head and shoulders taller than the others, Langk stood like a chieftain taking possession of a prize.

Langk was of the powerful House of K'Tal and destined for greater things--chief engineer of the Sword of Kahless within the decade, to hear him tell it. He obeyed as a warrior should, but let no one forget his social status. Where Kortag's uniform was supple with years of service, Langk's was polished to high luster, squeaking with his every movement.

Kairn hoped that whenever the young warrior managed to make a complete fool of himself, he'd do it without dishonoring the Empire.

For his own part, Kairn wore more cloth than leather, his only badge of status the Master's dagger across his heart.

Facing them now were four humans, one male and three female.

The captain was instantly apparent; though not as grizzled as Kortag, he was just as gray. The practice of giving nursemaid tasks to senior warriors whose honored prime was past seemed common to both cultures.

The gray human surprised Kairn by speaking in precise, if heavily accented, Klingon. "I am Captain Gold. The da Vinci is my ship."

"Kortag, captain of the Qaw'qay'," Kortag answered. Then, not to be out done, he continued in the Federation's language. "Commander Kairn, leader of the engineers and Lieutenant Langk, his second."

Kairn nodded in acknowledgement; Langk raised his chin a notch.

Captain Gold indicated the darker haired female, then the golden one. "Commander Gomez, leader of the S.C.E. team. Lt. Commander Corsi, chief of security." Then he indicated the woman behind the transporter console. "And Transporter Chief Poynter."

That surprised Kairn; a mere technician would never be introduced to officers. Kortag grunted in unsurprised acknowledgement, evidently familiar with human custom. Langk turned his shoulder to the technician.

"If you will accompany us to the observation lounge," Captain Gold was saying, "we can discuss strategy."

As he stepped from the transporter platform behind his captain, Kairn stole a quick glance at the light fixtures and another at the fit of the control console. The technician caught his eye and smiled, recognizing the professional appraisal.

Kairn cocked an eyebrow, engineer to engineer, before falling into step with the human engineer.

As they walked side by side behind the captains and ahead of Langk and the security officer, Kairn was very aware this was the first time he had been so close to a human. He clasped his hands behind his back to avoid accidental contact, content in her apparent decision to walk in silence.

His senses heightened by stress, he noted the air lacked the scents of a living ship. Shifting his eyes but not his head, he saw an overabundance of ventilation fixtures though he felt no breeze. His fingers drummed idly on the hilt of his Master's dagger as he calculated the volume of air they must be moving.

Behind him Langk cursed. Kairn turned to see the warrior staring, his hand on the hilt of the d'k tahg at his hip. A huge blue arachnid stood on the threshold of a cross corridor. However, Kairn noted that a Starfleet communicator was attached to the apparition's upper body. The beast must be a member of the crew.

"I have heard of Nasats," Kortag's voice carried from behind him. He and Captain Gold had also turned at the sound of Langk's curse.

"Pleased to meet you, too," said the creature in a voice like crystalline bells.

"This is P8 Blue," Commander Gomez introduced. "She's our structural engineering specialist."

Langk compensated for his first reaction by nodding to Pattie as an equal. Every now and then he surprised Kairn into thinking there might be hope for him.

The Nasat mirrored the nod solemnly, curling its--her--antenna nearest the humans. As the group resumed its way to the observation lounge, she fell in beside Kairn.

"What do you make of the energy source?" she asked conversationally.

"Energy source?"

"Large source of radiant energy," she took his obtuse question in stride. "Appears just below the forward hull every seventeen or so hours, then seems to fade."

Kairn considered for a step. Much of this was to be discussed openly in a few moments, so there was no point in secrecy on this issue.

"An apparent artificial sun," he said neutrally. "It takes just over eight point five standard hours to traverse the interior of the vessel from bow to stern."

"I was afraid of that." P8 Blue made a sound like a breeze through copper wind chimes. "A seventeen-hour day will play hell with our sleep cycles and won't convert easily at all to standard time. We're going to spend a lot of energy wondering what time it is."

Kairn was still considering whether this was Nasat humor when they entered the observation lounge.

There were a half-dozen other Federation personnel already there, standing to greet the visitors, but Kairn barely registered their presence. His attention was completely captured by the huge windows. He doubted there was that much transparent aluminum aboard the Qaw'qay'. How complex must their structural integrity field parameters be to compensate?

Kairn did not consider the effect of using his dagger until it registered that the Federation engineers were suddenly silent. He'd meant to work quickly while they were distracted with being presented to Kortag, but the glint of his blade extended before him had drawn every eye in the room. He slowly lowered his hand until the blade was flat across his stomach.

Langk snorted derisively. Kairn saw Kortag's hand move, perhaps a centimeter, enough to silence the young warrior. He thought he saw a faint glint of amusement in his captain's eye, but no help. It was his blunder to deal with alone.

The Federation structural engineer saved him from having to speak.

"May I?" she asked, extending one of her hands.

Kairn paused. One did not surrender one's dagger lightly. On the other hand, one did not wave a blade--even a Master's dagger--in another's house without explanation. He offered it to her hilt first.

The Nasat peered closely at the dagger for several seconds, turning it over several times as she studied the blade. The other engineers seemed content to wait as she made her examination, Kairn noted. Professionals waited for information before they acted. He hoped Langk was taking notes.

Kairn knew P8 Blue had deduced the dagger's purpose when she extended her arm and began waving the blade experimentally before her. She laughed, a delightful tinkle of class.

Turning from the window, she extended the dagger toward a stocky officer near her captain. Kairn realized he was more powerfully built than a human, with a commanding, aggressive mien; a Tellarite.

"Commander Tev, you are--" She stopped herself. "No, that can't be right." She considered the blade a moment. "Of course," she turned to Kairn. "This is made to your dimensions."

"Every Master Craftsman fashions his own," he said neutrally.

She peered at the edge, turning it so the etchings along the flat of the blade caught the light.

"My Klingon is not good, but this is a scale, and these conversion factors, while this," she flipped the dagger and sighted at an angle along the opposite side of the same edge, "Handles proportion and ratios."

She looked around the lounge at her teammates and seemed to realize she'd lost them.

"It's a measuring tool," she said. "Depending on which edge he uses and what angle he holds it at, Kairn could use this to tell you how many square centimeters of fabric are in your uniform or the displacement of the da Vinci."

She reversed the blade, offering Kairn the hilt.

"Before we part company," she said, "would you instruct me on fashioning one of my own?"

Kairn's hand hesitated midmotion. He knew Captain Kortag's heart; there was little chance the two ships would part on friendly terms. He lacked the guile to smile as he retook his dagger.

Commander Gomez presented the remaining Federation engineers, introducing four more humans, a lone Bynar, and the Tellarite. Though Kairn did not retain names, he was impressed by the range of specialties included. What role would a cultural specialist or a physician play in engineering? This team was obviously intended to deal with a wide range of situations without support.

He introduced himself and Langk when she finished. Captain Kortag had already identified himself to the only person aboard the Federation vessel who mattered.

The courtesies attended to, Kortag took the proffered seat, identical to the Federation Captain's facing him from the opposite end of the table. Langk and Kairn sat at either side of him as Gomez and the Tellarite flanked their own captain.

In Federation fashion the others attempted to leave the visitors enough space, crowding toward their end of the table. However, even with their security chief standing by the door, there simply was not enough room for formal separation. Kairn found himself elbow to elbow with the Nasat, which, he decided, he did not mind at all.

For the next forty minutes, the technical data flowed freely. The Federation engineers had done a thorough job of modeling the alien vessel. They had missed the entry ports, but their deep scans revealed much of the structure which had eluded the Qaw'qay'.

Even Langk was not immune to the spirit of cooperation, questioning the Tellarite's assessment of some detail, then conceding the point. Kairn could not remember the last time that had happened.

Kairn found himself comparing the two captains. Both followed the multiple conversations with evident interest and comprehension, but offered no comments of their own. Clearly each was comfortable with letting the specialists under their command work in their own way. The two looked to be of an age, but he knew nothing of how human longevity compared to that of Klingons. For all he knew, Captain Gold was twice as old as Captain Kortag, or had only half his years.

When his captain shifted slightly in his chair, Kairn knew the period of conviviality was about to end. Langk realized it, too, straightening in his seat and resuming his imperious warrior's air. The others, of course, noticed nothing.

"Have you determined their point of origin?" Kortag demanded.

"No," the Tellarite, whose name, Kairn recalled, was Tev, said shortly.

"No." Kortag echoed, and waited.

Kairn knew his captain understood why they had been unable to discover the colony ship's home system. He wondered whether Kortag thought the Federation was withholding information or simply using the issue as a pretext for confrontation. Both seemed likely.

"From its current heading, we know the vessel passed through the Dancido system about six hundred years ago," the Tellarite said. "Where it was attacked, apparently over a protracted period of time, by the Dancidii."

"Six hundred years ago?" asked the smallest human female. The cultural specialist, if Kairn recalled correctly. "That was during the Dancidii unification. They hardly had space flight then. Their armament would have been--"

"Primitive nuclear missiles," Tev finished.

The image of the colony vessel on the viewscreen rotated, shifting from a schematic diagram to a graphic representation. Centered in the screen was a ragged trench about a third of the way back from the leading edge of the cylinder. Kilometers wide, it formed an uneven collar ringing half the ship's circumference. Several craters of various sizes were grouped around the trench.

"There was apparently a structure here which the Dancidii took to be the control center," Tev said. "It was the target of at least fifty low-yield nuclear warheads."

Kairn knew from their analysis of the rotational rocket control network, something invisible to the Starfleeters' distant scans, that the Dancidii had been right. He did not need to look to his captain for guidance; he knew to school his face to remain blank. This was information they would not share.

"A navigational array would make sense," Gomez was saying. "The ship's rotation would provide continuous triangulation."

"That's a lot of firepower for a fledgling space force to deliver," the black-haired male--tactical systems specialist?--observed. "I wonder if this ship was the common threat that unified the Dancidii."

Tev shrugged, dismissing the speculation. "Either their impacts turned the vessel or the crew attempted evasive maneuvers. In either case the ship's course was altered. Extrapolating from the age of the ship and its limited maneuverability renders eight possible points of origin, all beyond the range of Federation exploration."

Kortag grunted. Clearly not satisfied, but resigned to accept the Federation's limitations.

"You will download these speculations and all of your hard data to memory crystal," he ordered, rising. Kairn and Langk rose with him. "We will collect it in four hours. The Empire will remember your efforts."

He strode toward the door. For a heartbeat, Kairn thought the security chief was going to block their way. But responding to either an unseen signal or her own judgment, she moved well clear of their path.

"Explain yourself." The human captain's voice, speaking again in Klingon, caught them just as the automatic door opened.

Kortag paused just within the room. "It is a Klingon problem." He stated the obvious without turning. "Klingons will deal with it."

"The ship is in Federation space," Captain Gold pointed out. "And will be for eight more days."

"Your Federation asked us to come."

"To work with us," Gold said. "This is a joint mission."

Kortag gave no sign he heard the words, much less granted their validity. He stepped forward.

"Our intent is to save the thousands of beings aboard that vessel," Gold stated flatly. "You are welcome to either help us do that or get the hell out of Federation space."

The human's voice lacked Klingon heat, but so did a knife blade.

Kortag whirled at the threshold, his eyes blazing. Langk and Kairn stepped clear, but their captain didn't charge. Instead he stalked back to stand behind his chair at the head of the table.

"The Klingon Empire does not exterminate helpless peoples," he growled; his raised hand forestalled response. "Do not insult me by denying your insinuation."

"Your choice, sir," Captain Gold said in the same flat tone. "Do you go or stay?"

Kortag swept the Federation engineers with his glare, coming at last to the Starfleet captain.

"We have a common goal," he said at last. "What do you propose?"

Copyright © 2004 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.