EP 3 ACT 4
Rebbik stood at the edge of the lattice bridge spanning the bottomless ravine, hesitating. Lirik's grip on the rock was clearly weakening, and already Rebbik could see a large shadow passing over the structure on the far side of the crossing and heading straight for Lirik's precarious position. If it were to pass over the annoying Yeoman, the natives would release their spears that were currently poised above their heads.
The hesitation passed. In three brave, gravel spitting leaps, Rebbik was above the Yeoman's dangling position and reached down to haul him up onto the lava pipe.
"You took your time," Lirik muttered as he was pulled to safety. Spinning around to see the large shadow only a metre away, the two men took a scream-charged leap of faith across the chilling gap to the farthest pipe on the farthest side of the crossing. They teetered there, glimpsing down through the clouds far below at the black nothingness beneath as the shadow passed behind them. Once balanced, they tiptoed forward to a broader part of the structure near the mid-point of the crossing.
From there, it was like a team game. The two men helped each other to dodge the oncoming clouds with ease and slowly they progressed to the other side.
Once there, Lirik slumped to his knees and put his scarred hands under his warm armpits to soothe them. Rebbik bent forward, grasping his thighs and catching his breath. The locals with spears silently returned to the structures ahead of them as a small group of children came out, bearing some kind of stew and an alcoholic beverage in crude ceramic receptacles. They left them a few feet away, then ran giggling back to their homesteads.
Replenished, Rebbik threw back his unkempt hair from his shoulders. Lirik was surprised to see the half-Ferengi almost smiling. "You know, that reminded me of a dragons and dungeons game I used to play."
Lirik looked back at the lava pipe bridge, now drenched in the beginnings of the crimson-purple sunset with less nostalgia, but was surprised at Rebbik's comment nonetheless. "You play dungeons and dragons?"
"I did as a boy, yes," Rebbik said. "Why, don't tell me you play as well?"
Lirik slugged back the last drop of drink - it tasted like alcoholic dishwater. "Actually, I am a level two wizard. Though like you I haven't played for a while. If we ever get back to civilisation maybe we should get together sometime."
Rebbik sniggered to himself, shaking his head. "I can just see us in Brimlaw's Castle, a half-Human, half-Medusan wizard and a half-Human, half-Ferengi thief!"
Lirik appreciated the joke. "We'd fit right in, wouldn't we?!"
The two laughed out loud, almost forgetting their situation for a moment. Lirik scorned himself. "We should get going, while there's still light."
* * *
Christian and Jackson sat side by side on the bridge. Narli sat at communications. Hedrik sat at science with Professor Karnak looking over her shoulder. She was still shaken by the corpses, but insisted on continuing her work with the computer systems, wanting "to be brave for the captain". While there was little they could do in the current situation, the two women were exploring all possibilities of finding a way of activating the main computer via the bridge, though Hedrik was barrelling over everything the Professor suggested.
"Navigational display in the green," Ensign Souveson said. She sat at tactical, glancing over her shoulder at the two civilian females from time to time. There was little she had to do herself bar reporting from the same crude navigational display the rest of the bridge crew could easily see.
"Going to three quarters impulse," Lieutenant Commander Leonard sat at the engineer's post. He had lashed the helm control into his console, leaving Warnerburg and the other volunteers to monitor systems from engineering and had brought the Romulan Murak with him to stand in, should he be required to return to the engineering deck in an emergency. Murak sat at the environmental controls, his eyes darting between system readouts and what Leonard was doing. He could feel the other eyes on the bridge on him from time to time, wary of what these people thought about his race.
Suddenly, three civilians rushed in from the observation lounge, all shouting at once.
"What? One at a time," Christian bellowed.
"There's something ahead," a young woman said.
One of Professor Karnak's Vulcan lackeys embellished. "It appears to be a spacial distortion, not unlike a wormhole."
"All stop!" Christian barked. Murak rose to stand behind Leonard and watch his every move. The Captain didn't like the look of that. "Mister Leonard, Ensign, Professor, come with me. You have the bridge," he nodded to Jackson who barely had a chance to nod back.
The Commodore looked to her right as the men disappeared, watching the Romulan sliding slowly into Leonard's seat with a smile on his face.
* * *
Through the observation lounge windows, the object dead ahead was not immediately apparent. A young, barely teenage Bajoran girl handed the Captain the binoculars. Christian realised it was the same girl he'd seen in the beauty spa - she smiled at his recognition and he managed a fake smile back, patting her awkwardly on the head.
The binocular vision revealed what indeed looked like a wormhole, but it was both small, and also seemed to be leaking energy exponentially. The binoculars' logic centre was not able to compute an accurate reading.
Handing the device to the Professor, who had a beautiful, stoic look on her face and the vaguest of frowns, the captain said "Take a look and tell me what you think."
She raised the binoculars to her long-lashed eyes with delicate hands and re-focussed them. After a few moments, she lowered them. "Fascinating."
* * *
On the bridge, Jackson was becoming annoyed at the Romulan's seemingly frantic expression. He stabbed at controls and Jackson wondered what he was doing. Instinctively she looked over her shoulder, and realising the security ensign was not there, she rose and moved toward him. "What are you doing?"
The Romulan looked up, an almost frightened look in his eyes. "I - I believe we have not stopped."
"He's right," Ambassador Narli was checking his own navigational display.
Jackson could see no one in the forward corridors returning from the Observation Lounge. "Try again, all stop."
Murak hit the display - three stabs. "It's not working."
Jackson looked around the bridge, realising she was the one who had to make the next move. "Bridge to engineering! Why haven't we stopped?" Jackson thought for a dreadful moment that no one would reply.
"This is engineering, according to systems we HAVE stopped, but we see we're still moving," Warnerburg said through the speakers.
"Shall I try reverse?" Murak asked.
Jackson nodded. But there was no change to their status. A pip appeared on the navigational display.
"We're coming up fast on that anomaly," Narli reported as the Captain's party returned - at speed.
"Report!" Christian shouted. "Why haven't we stopped?"
Jackson could feel herself flushing. "We didn't stop, so we checked with engineering. They said that we had stopped, so we tried reverse, but that didn't work either."
In a small part of Christian's brain, he laughed out loud, but outwardly he was composed. "Steer us clear, Commander."
Leonard was already shaking his head. "Negative control."
"Shut the bloody things down then, and fire retros - blow hatches, I don't care what, just don't let us go into it!" Christian flung himself into his seat and gripped the arms as Jackson reeled from his outburst.
"What is it?" Jackson said.
"Wormhole," was all Christian said.
* * *
In the dim light of twilight, with hand held torch flame to guide the way, Rebbik followed Lirik as he walked slowly along a passage within the structure's walls, his fingers exploring the surface.
Rebbik changed hands again, the torch was heavy and he wondered how much longer Lirik would carry on. He felt dog tired and just wanted to fall to the ground, shut his eyes and sleep.
"Let's just try over there," the Yeoman said quietly.
"Oh, for crying - you've been saying that for the last half hour!" Rebbik lowered the torch in protest.
"Keep it up, Mister Rebbik, it can't be much longer," Lirik approached the offending wall and almost the moment he touched it he perked up. "I think this is it."
Lirik inched along the wall, hands fluttering over the surface, out to the side, up and below. Finally, his hands stopped moving. "Got it."
Reaching for his tricorder, he fired the myriad random signals at the wall and nearly jumped as part of the wall itself melted away to reveal a door. Rebbik was equally surprised. "And for your next trick?"
"I can sense energies mostly in the electromagnetic spectrum. I deduced there would be a way into the control structure somewhere. You want to do the honours?" Lirik stepped back and drew his phaser in readiness.
"It may surprise you, but not all Ferengi are felons and lockpickers," Rebbik stood his ground.
Lirik smiled and stepped up to the door's control. "Not in my experience." In minutes, the door was open.
Tricorder outstretched, phaser at the ready, Lirik led the way inside. Lights flickered on sensing their presence, and the entrance closed behind them. Creeping along a narrow passage, the two men passed through another door and into what looked like a workshop on four levels - one below, two above. In the apex of the room, Lirik saw what looked like the emitter machinery. The feeling of its power was immense and Lirik felt woozy.
All around, small displays were silently projecting machinery status. "Looks like a power source below," Rebbik leaned over the rail encircling the lower levels where a group of pods hummed deep and low.
Lirik finished his scan. "No evidence of life signs, it's been empty for some time. Curious. It's a sealed environment, so we're lucky the atmosphere is Humanoid friendly."
"Who built it?" Rebbik followed Lirik to the far side and up a ladder to the top-most gallery. There, an abundance of computerised consoles winked their ever-present attendance to duty.
"This appears to be the main emitter control," Lirik approached a large, rectangular desk in front of an even larger display screen. Luckily the iconography on and around the control switches had symbolic significance, and Lirik activated the tactical display. The screen displayed a graphic of the planet surrounded by meteors. The latter disappeared, and the planet unravelled until it was a flat map covered with grid references. Their own location was identified by a hot, red triangle. There were over thirty more, slightly paler triangles across the planet's surface.
Using his tricorder, Lirik used the universal translator part of his commbadge to supplement the diagnostic program. Scanning all the surfaces in the control suite, the tricorder managed to decode several of the alien symbols. "I think I can actually do this," Lirik smiled.
Rebbik just watched as Lirik called up an overlay map of the planet, then more and more layers of atmosphere on top until two pips appeared, travelling at a slow speed across the planet's surface. Lirik paused, then continued to add layers, passed a further pip, then finally another. "There are the K'Tani ships," he said. "I've used the emitter's diagnostic program to scan for anomalies in the projected field through a number of atmosphere layers. I've cross-programmed the tricorder to track the ships and project course and speed. Now comes the hard part."
Rebbik didn't know what Lirik was doing, and couldn't help looking around the room from time to time, instinctively making sure they were still alone. "What would that be?"
Lirik talked as he worked. "Basically, I'm hoping to deactivate certain parts of the magnetic field so that the asteroids held in orbit come crashing down on the K'Tani ships."
Rebbik nodded, then came to a sticky mental conclusion. "Won't they also rain down on the surface? What if they hit us - or other life forms on the planet surface?"
Lirik stopped to look at him. "Why Mister Rebbik, you DO care. Just not about the right people."
The other man hmphed and turned away, disinterested. Lirik felt the urge to explain himself. "Of course I don't want to harm anyone, that's why this is so difficult. I have to calculate a time when all ships are over uninhabited land and drop just the right amount of boulders to destroy them."
Rebbik suddenly straightened. "Sounds like a long shot to me," he said, walking back to the ladder. "It would be easier," he continued to climb down, "if you knew that they were all converging on the same position."
Lirik hesitated, then walked to the railing. Rebbik was almost at the doorway leading to the exit. "You're a bit keen to die, aren't you? First jumping to my rescue on the bridge, now expressing a desire to go down with the enemy?" However, Lirik couldn't help but see the logic in what Rebbik suggested. If he hadn't been a hard person, he would have almost been moved by Rebbik's brave and noble act. "Patch the runabout's comm system to the Alpha 3 coded frequency when you get aboard. I'll give you the co-ordinates to head for."
"Alpha 3, got it," Rebbik shouted back.
"And Mister Rebbik, don't abandon me here or I'll have your lobes for serving bowls. Once the ships are down, I won't hang about here. Pick me up on the other side of the bridge."
Rebbik nodded and was gone. Lirik suddenly wondered how he would get back across the bridge in the dark chill of night, then decided he would figure it out for himself when (and if) the time came. Although the Yeoman hated complex computer programming, his training equipped him to be able to do it with ease, so as he worked, he also began to analyse his surroundings and what purpose the complex served for its creators now that they had abandoned the world.
* * *
"Time to wormhole?" Christian clipped, wiping perspiration from the top of his lip.
"Approximately two minutes," Leonard reported.
The Commodore shifted in her seat to face the Captain. "I don't understand, what's so bad about going through this wormhole? Surely it will take us a long way from the K'Tani patrols?"
Professor Karnak, who had taken a seat beside Christian, spoke across him to the older woman. "The wormhole is fledgling, an off-spring of the Vekarian wormhole caused by the K'Tani."
Christian chipped in. "The Professor here has been studying the Vekarian wormhole for weeks."
"I believe the K'Tani destroyed the relatively powerful wormhole that spans Tholian space for the purpose of creating many more, smaller wormholes, in Qovakian space," Karnak explained, with little expression on her face.
"What better way of deploying their forces great distances throughout Qovakia as soon as the Vekarian attack took place?" Narli added from the sideline.
Jackson looked at the display; the blip was frighteningly close. "Are you sure?"
The Professor's jaw dropped in disbelief and adopted a rude tone. "Of course I am! I told you I have been studying it for weeks. Each wormhole has its own unique energy configurations, and this one is identical."
Jackson pursed her lips. "A simple yes would have sufficed, Professor."
Christian sighed. "Going through the wormhole means one of two things. Either we'll be sent further away from Vekaria, where there might be K'Tani forces waiting, or we'll go back to Vekarian space, and right into the thick of the K'Tani fleet."
Jackson couldn't respond, though privately she thought a fifty fifty chance of getting killed wasn't so bad in the circumstances. Leonard slammed his fist down on the console.
"Anything?" Christian asked, though he clearly knew the answer.
Everyone on the bridge, but especially those in the observation lounge, swallowed hard and braced for entry into the wormhole.
* * *
"Okay, Yeoman, I'm here," Rebbik's voice came over the commbadge just as Lirik was in the middle of a difficult calculation. He dismissed the message and carried on until he was done.
"I repeat, Yeoman, this is-"
"I'm here," Lirik smacked his badge too hard, his fingertips tingling. "Stick to basics over the air. I'm called Tix."
There was a pause. "I'm sorry, did you say your first name was Tits?"
Lirik ground his teeth, sure that Rebbik was doing this on purpose. "Tee, eye, eks - Tix. Stand by, Hudson." Lirik finished his calculations - by his reckoning Rebbik would have to act fast. "Head for alpha, one nine-"
"No grid," Rebbik interrupted, "long and lat only."
"Fine!" Lirik went back to the main display and called up the global map with the overlays again. "If I'm Greenwich, you go to 315 by 94. Clear?"
Thankfully, due to Rebbik's mother being Human, he understood the word Greenwich. "Clear, Trix."
Lirik blinked hard, ignoring the jibe. "Step on it, Hudson. You need to be there now."
* * *
As Rebbik deftly manoeuvred the runabout out of the cave mouth, he brought her up into a sharp arc, apexing twenty metres above the lattice bridge, then twisting her nose and bearing down into the deep ravine that could so easily have been a final resting place.
Steering through the ravines toward the general co-ordinates, Rebbik looked at the landmass readouts and intercomed Lirik. "I estimate co-ordinates in three minutes."
"Negative," Lirik insisted, "you've got to climb and accelerate. Intersect at an altitude of no higher than two hundred metres."
"I'll be exposed to enemy fire!" Rebbik yelped.
* * *
Lirik struck his forehead. "So help me, that's the whole idea! To lure them."
"I got bogies!" Rebbik shouted.
* * *
"Then raise your shields!" came the voice through the Hudson's speakers. The vessel zipped along above the land at over 400kph, skimming the last vestige of precipice as the terrain dropped away and flattened out to all surrounding horizons. Suddenly, the Hudson wobbled and began to shake violently. The negative magnetic effect releasing the asteroids above was affecting flight controls.
* * *
In the gentle hum of the emitter control, Lirik watched as the K'Tani ships converged toward Rebbik's position. They would soon be in firing range, but the asteroids were taking longer to topple into the atmosphere than he had anticipated. If he didn't manage to destroy all the ships in one fell swoop, here and now, he knew the Hudson wouldn't stand a chance. That was a risk he couldn't take.
"Rebbik, fire off your aft phasers, get them mad!" he shouted.
* * *
Rebbik couldn't believe his ears. "What? Are you crazy?" Two energy bursts barely missed the runabout shields as the K'Tani ships closed in, prompting Rebbik to target the formation behind and fire.
* * *
Lirik could see the K'Tani ships were spreading out slightly, clearly about to encircle the runabout to prevent its escape. The Yeoman's palms were sweating; it felt as if everything were about to go wrong. Lirik then acted unilaterally. He overcompensated on the negative energy zone, dropping the magnetic field across a wider radius. It was like opening the floodgates. Suddenly, thousands of asteroids tumbled into the gravity well, rapidly picking up velocity as they plummeted down. Lirik could see Rebbik was barely a thousand metres from the lead ship. He wasn't going to make it clear in time.
The large display showed the alien ships all in the clear line of assault from the asteroids - but so now was the runabout. Suddenly the Federation ship turned, heading back into the line of fire. "Hudson, what the hell are you doing?"
* * *
Rebbik had no time to respond. He was intent on the windows and his tactical display, the runabout's nose was up, speed reduced and he was piloting directly into the downpour of asteroids. Using shields and aerobatic skill, Rebbik piloted the ship into the storm as the K'Tani ships were obliterated below. Only a small rock hit the ship at speed, causing a shower of sparks and a wail of alarm to flood the cockpit.
The incident was over in seconds, the downpour dissipating, only the odd asteroid tumbled down before Lirik restored full power to the energy field. Rebbik levelled and turned the Hudson on its side to survey the view below. A shock wave had caused a vast indentation on the flat surface of the world. A vast cloud of dust billowed up from the impact site of multiple asteroids.
"I read no more K'Tani ships," Lirik said over the speakers. "Return to me immediately."
* * *
"Roger," Rebbik wouldn't argue with that. He'd once witnessed a Vatcan rebel assault craft that had taken a pounding from armed forces, and even when forced out of the sky, laying smashed and powerless to move on the ground, the small ship had managed to pick off ten imperial fighters with its mighty guns. There was no way he would stick around to suffer the same fate.
* * *
"Engineering reports the problem is resolved, we're all stopped, Captain," Leonard felt responsible for the ship's earlier lack of control, even though the Captain realised it was as much his own fault. Christian was peering into the navigational display.
"No ships in the area, that's good. Any idea where we are?" Christian turned to Souveson.
"Not without a reference point, sir," the Ensign replied. "Though I would guess we are nowhere near Vekaria."
Indeed, the navigational display clearly showed an immense range of asteroid fields, seemingly in all directions. Christian was pleased to see Ganhedra stride in from the Observation Lounge - he'd been called to deck one immediately they entered the wormhole.
"I think I know where we are," the alien said. "If the Professor is right, and the wormhole configuration lays on an axis away from Vekaria, then this could be the Wibbly Wobbly Way."
"Excuse me," Christian was astounded. "But I thought you just said 'Wibbly Wobbly Way'?"
Ganhedra was fretting. "I am sorry, your communication device is not translating this phrase well. It is not so much a proper noun as it is a description of what occurs here. The asteroid fields are constantly moving, sometimes coming together, sometimes apart. It is a treacherous part of Qovakia."
"Then we're still in Qovakian space?" Christian confirmed.
Ganhedra winced, moving his hunched torso from left to right and waving his hands. "Yes, well, maybe. Perhaps, anyway. Asteroid fields are prevalent throughout what you call the Outer Zone - certainly far beyond Qovakian space. For example, there's a range stretching from the wormhole all the way along the Tholian border for about 900 light years, and my guess is we're on the Qovakian side of that."
Christian rapped his fingers. "Can you suggest a safe course?"
Ganhedra clowned his thought processes once more, causing Jackson to squeeze the Captain's hand to keep him calm. "Upon consideration, I would say not. Qovakia is a vast area, as big as your Federation space. Many planets were sympathisers with K'Tani, it really depends on where we are exactly. It's probably best to trust no one. But one thing's certain, the asteroid field is largely uninhabited, particularly this stretch along Tholian space."
"Fine," Christian leapt to his feet. "Mister Leonard, we're going in. Ganhedra here will help to navigate. Commodore, Miss Hedrik tells me the Captain's ready room is below us, I think I'll go check it out." He hand-signalled the Starfleet sign language for 'Head' and she acknowledged his action with a smile.
* * *
The runabout Hudson paused beneath the asteroid cover above, Rebbik waiting for Lirik to confirm the flight path back to the Fantasy. Lirik instead was studying plastic charts he'd removed from the Vekarian minister's case they'd found in the runabout's cockpit. Rebbik picked one up, it looked like maps of Helub.
"What are you looking for?" Rebbik asked finally.
Lirik handed over the plastic film. "Take a look at this - it's a two-dimensional representation of local Vekarian space."
Rebbik looked and immediately identified Vekaria, Helub, the wormhole and the Tholian border. Other locations were also identified, but he couldn't decipher them. "So?"
"Approximate the Fantasy's flight path from Vekaria," Lirik instructed.
Rebbik flipped his lips with an index finger as he studied the chart then projected the flight path. He then approximated the Hudson's additional leap to warp and their general heading. "Oh, I see where we are."
Lirik lifted the right arm of his chair and swivelled to face the young man. "If you were still on board the Fantasy, and the Captain had ordered you continue without the runabout, where would you have taken them?"
Rebbik looked back at the map. "I suppose I would have headed for these asteroid fields near to the Tholian border."
"That's what we should do," Lirik decided. "Head for the asteroid fields and wait for them there."
Rebbik frowned. "It could be months, even years at impulse, before they get there - if they get there at all. I mean, won't they be looking for us?" He was confused.
"Think about it, Rebbik. The passengers and the ship come first, they're hardly likely to come searching for us, risking their own lives. And if I know the Commodore she'll whip the Captain and Lt Cmmdr Leonard into shape. That ship will be moving at warp before the week's out," Lirik was only guessing - the ship might turn out to be a dud. He felt a wave of honesty coming over him. "Look, sometimes in Starfleet you just have to take an educated guess, or what you'd call a risk. My hunch is that the ship will make for the safety of the asteroid fields, so we should too."
Rebbik sighed and shook his head. "I think it's a mistake, but I guess you're the boss."
Lirik smiled. "No need to guess."
* * *
EPILOGUE
As the runabout Hudson flitted through the asteroid belt encircling the planet and warped toward the asteroid field along the Tholian border, in the cold early morning light a single rock wobbled on top of a vast field of rocks. It rocked again, this time harder, finally toppling away. A small hatch opened and a petite, humanoid figure dressed from head to toe in a figure-hugging, dark red suit littered with multi-coloured shapes hauled themselves free.
On closer inspection, the suit had bumps and lumps, presumably part of the suit's design, or housing hidden devices. It clambered and leapt from rock to rock, finally making it to the outskirts of the debris field and jumping down to the harder sun-dried earth.
The figure walked on, and on, for many days and nights, in heat and cold, climbing, slowly climbing the terrain until it reached a high mountain range. There, at the foot of a great lattice bridge, it nodded its greeting to the structure's reception party and deftly jumped across the bridge, avoiding all clouds with ease. It immediately passed into the homestead and made for a secluded wall down a side street.
The wall became a door, which gave way to a passage and an interior. The figure ascended the ladder to the main control panels where it finally stopped. The figure entered several controls and the display showed a speeded up version of events as recorded internally a few days ago: Lirik and Rebbik entering the structure, Rebbik leaving, and later, Lirik leaving.
The figure walked over to another panel and entered several commands. This time, the display became alive with a myriad colours and lights. Shortly, the screen image was replaced with a similarly masked and clad humanoid. Both the foreground and background was a confusion of colour and light.
As the figure watched the display in silence, the image grew more intense, then began to dim. Finally, the two people bowed their heads, and the screen blanked.
The figure in the emitter structure slowly raised hands to the screen controls and called up a tactical display. On it, a small blip was moving at warp toward the Tholian border.
***
EPISODE 4 "LOST AND FOUND"