Kirk leaned back in his seat and tilted his head
to
look over his shoulder. "Put it on screen," he said,
and directed his attention to the large viewscreen at
the front of the bridge.
"Yes, sir," Uhura responded. The dark woman
frowned,
and ran her hands over the communications board again. She shook
her head. "Sir, there's a lot of interference with
the signal."
The captain leaned forward. "Can you clean it
up?"
"I can try sir," she answered.
A moment later, a static streaked image of the
emblem of the Talin Embassy appeared, which then
switched to an elderly man standing in a large rock
cavern. The sounds of people hurrying here and there
in the background could be heard. Through the
static lines flashing across the screen, they could
see lighting flickering alarmingly, and every now
and then sparks erupted from an overtaxed
machine.
The man had to turn away from a group of
technicians to order to address the screen,
eyes lighting up his haggard face as his eyebrows
climbed up into an unruly shock of white hair.
"Ah," he said, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Perfect timing. Perfect timing".
Kirk eyed the screen quizzically "I am Captain
Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. May I ask your name
and the nature of your distress?"
The man apperared startled at the question, and
frowned. "Didn't I already tell you?" he asked, and
then waved his hands to forestall any answer.
"Never mind. I'm Garold Arnet, manager of this
orbiter. Our job," he continued, gesturing at the
cavern in general, "Is to set up and maintain a monitoring station, on the planet below." He took a deep
breath and let it out slowly. "But now there is some
kind of electromagnetic field interfering with our equipment."
Kirk frowned, and glanced over at his science
officer. As he'd expected, the Vulcan was already bent
over his console in search of anything unusual. Kirk
turned back to the screen. "Are you able to trace
the source of the emissions?" he asked.
Arnet threw his hands up in the air with a sudden
cry of exasperation, startling some of his
crew. "The stuff is screwing up all our sensors.
The ones that haven't already exploded aren't giving
us reliable readings--one of them told me the
planets atmosphere had turned itself into..... into
something called Jello."
Kirk almost smiled at the ancient reference. He
didn't glance up as he heard the lift doors whisper
open behind him to admit someone to the bridge. He
knew who it was. McCoy came to hover behind the
captain's chair, contemplating the viewscreen
silently with only a raised eyebrow to explain his
presence on the bridge.
"Captain," Arnet continued, "We believe our main
facilities here in orbit are sufficiently sheilded
to prevent any serious damage to our circuitry.
However, we have a station on the planets surface as
well--we've lost all contact.Their last message
indicated that their equipment was on the verge of
total collapse. We haven't heard from them
since."
Kirk nodded. "I understand sir. If it comes down
to
it, the Enterprise may be able to evacuate your
personnel from the surface. I assume you still wish to monitor the planet, so i propose
we search for the cause of these emmissions. We may even be able to block them."
Arnet shook his head. "I appreciate the offer,
but i
would preffer it if you sent a shuttle down to the
surface to check on my personnel first. The station
is in need of equipment--it is imperative that they
repair the holographic projector. Without that
camoflauge, my people could be in serious trouble if
the natives happen to discover them."
Kirk frowned, and searched for a tactful way to
phrase his next question. Instead, he was forced to
put it somewhat bluntly. "Sir, if this equipment is
so vital, why didn't you send one of your own
shuttles?"
Arnet sighed. "We've only got three of these
things
--no--make that two now, and they're both already on
the surface from their last trip. Neither one of
them was able to return--the emmissions are playing
havoc with the weather system down there. We've
already lost one shuttle. And it's pilot."
Kirk took a deep breath , and let it out slowly,
thinking. He finally nodded his head and addressed
the screen once more. "All right, I'll send one of our
own shuttles down if it becomes feasible; I have no intention of losing any of my own pilots. But first I'd
like to scan for the source of this
interference."
Arnets mouth twisted in a half smile. He
obviously
hadn't heard what he'd wanted to, but he realised
that it was the best he could expect. "Very well
Captain. I'll translate the surface station's
coordinates to your computers. Arnet out."
The screen switched to a view of the planet as
the
frequency was closed. Kirk swiveled to
regard his first officer, "Mr. Spock, scan the
planet and give me a readout on this interference.
And I want to know if this is going to affect our
own systems."
Having anticipated the order, Spock didn't even
glance at his scanners. "Already done, sir. Due to
the interference itself, it is difficult to
determine its exact nature. It would seem to be
concentrated on one of the smaller
continents, but that is the closest that I can
pinpoint it. Sensors have
already begun to deteriorate."
Kirk scowled in consternation. "How?"
Spock ran his fingers over the board, and raised a
single slender eyebrow. "There is a large amount of
unknown radiation bombarding the ship. Some
particles are penetrating the shields, and are
interfering with the electrical pathways of the
ship's circuits."
The Captains lips drew into a thin line as he
evaluated the information. "How long before systems
begin to fail?"
Spock gave a small, negative shake of his head.
"There is no way to tell; the bombardment seems random,
as does its effects."
"Is it biologically harmful?"
Spock gave it a moments thought. "Not at its
current level. At a much higher rate of bombardment,
it could conceivably interfere with the electrical
pathways of the body. The Enterprise's sheilds are
deflecting most of the particles, however, and the
ones that do get through run into the hull first,
traveling along the circuitry there. It is unlikely
that any would get through the hull and into the
air, and even more unlikely that any of those should
strike at an important enough electrical pathway in
the body that it would cause an undue amount of
harm. At the moment, there is no danger."
Behind Kirk, McCoy gave a derisive snort, a
response not unexpected by most people present. "Why
thank you, Mr. Spock, for your concern. I happen to
think that all of my "electrical pathways" are
important!"
The first officer looked at McCoy and blinked
slowly, looking for all the world as though he were
attempting to comprehend the doctors meaning. "I had
not intended to imply that any were not important,
although your efficiency is rather questionable due to
some rather unnecessary and illogical mental
pathways."
McCoy harrumphed loudly, turning slightly away.
"You're the only person I've ever met that could
give a compliment and take it away in the same
sentance."
Kirk smiled slightly, joining the majority of the
bridge crew. Only McCoy, and of course Spock, did
not give any evidence of amusement. But enough was
enough. The captain waved his hand to prevent
Spock's rejoinder and any further argument. "Alright
you two, we have work to do."
Spock inclined his head slightly in
acnowledgement, and McCoy became silent as well,
although not without a dissatisfied grumble.
Kirk let out his breath slowly. "Since we can't
scan for an exact position, then we have no choice
but to go down ourselves and see if we can find the
source of all this interference. Spock, i don't
suppose the transporters work?"
"They do not, Captain. The radiation interferes in that area, as well."
"Hm. Thought so." In his experience, the
transporters, with all their sensitivity, were
often the first thing to be affected by
outside forces. This usually left the crew in a
somewhat inconvenient position.
"Would shuttles be operational?"
Spock paused. "Marginally. Entering the
atmosphere during a lull in the radiation, a
shuttle, though not as heavily shielded as the
Enterprise, would most likely have a sufficient amount of
sheilding to arrive at the surface intact."
Kirk nodded decisively, "Spock, scan for a break in the atmospheric storms," he said, "We have little choice but to take one of our shuttles down there, with Arnets holographic generator on board, and pay a visit to the station. When we get there, we'll do a land search for whatever's creating this radiation." He glanced at Spock..
"The society below
doesn't have the level of technology needed to create
something of this nature," Spock confirmed
He pressed a button on the arm of his chair. "Mr
Scott, prepare one of our cargo shuttles for a trip. Mr. Spock will provide you with the specifics."
"Aye sair," the engineer responded, his Scottish
brogue carrying a slight note of long suffering.
Kirk smiled briefly, letting it show faintly in his
voice as he continued, "Sorry Scotty."
He closed the channel after Scotty's dour
acknowledgement, and turned to his communications
officer. "Uhura, contact the orbiter and ask them to
prepare the projector."
Kirk stood, and found McCoy staring squarely at
him. "And what will the Captain be doing?" he asked,
a faint hint of suspicion creeping into his voice.
He had a pretty good idea what Jim had planned, and was
resigning himself to a fight.
Kirk spoke firmly, leaving no room for
discussion. "When Spock finds that weather break, I'm taking
a shuttle and a landing party to the surface."
"Absolutely not! you--."
"I'm going," Kirk said shortly, cutting him off
with an edge to his voice that made it clear he
would brook no more argument on the matter.
McCoy sighed. "Then I'm going with you." Before
Kirk could say anything, he added "There may be
people down there who need medical attenion--we have no
idea what long term effects this stuff has on the
body."
Kirk opened his mouth to answer, but was
interrupted by Spock. "I believe I have found the
opening you were referring to. The weather has
cleared on the southern continent, very close
to the coordinates given for the planet bound
station. Taking into account current weather
patterns, it should remain clear for an hour and a
half."
"So if we hurry, we ought to make it," Kirk
added. Spock only nodded, refraining from commenting
on the innacuracy of the statement.
Kirk leaned over and tapped the button to the
shuttle bay. "Mr. Scott, how long will it take you
to prepare that shuttle?"
A brief moment passed as Scott made his way to
the comm. "Five more minutes Cap'n. We're makin' a
few additions to the wee bairn."
"We're on our way down. You have the con, Mr. Scott, bring
yourself to the bridge." Kirk said as he headed
for the 'lift. "Mr. Sulu,
Mr. Spock, with me." He glanced at McCoy, who was
staring hard at him. Kirk sighed. "And you, too,
Bones."
Spock and Sulu rose form their stations, their
replacements sliding smoothly into place.
As he passed her station Kirk said, "Uhura,
please have a security guard sent to the shuttle
bay." He stepped into the lift,
and the doors closed on her confirmation.
Fanfic written by my sister, who wishes to remain annonymous.
If you wanna borrow it for whatever reason, please e-mail me,
and i'll contact her