Constellations (18 page)

“We assume something went wrong with their ships' life-support systems. But we've never nailed down a specific cause.”

“Yet the Assembly's failure to retrieve them strongly suggests they were aware of the inevitability of their deaths,” Spock said. “What have you learned of Tholian metabolic processes?”

“They generate their own very high internal temperature,” Glasser said. “But we've never been able to determine much about their internal structure. It seems to disintegrate very rapidly after death.”

“Disintegrate or dissipate?” Spock said.

“Sir?” Glasser asked curiously.

“I believe Federation science may have taken the Earth insect analogy too far where it regards the Tholians,” he said. “I do not believe Tholian external bodies are exoskeletons in the traditional sense.”

“Then what are they?”

Spock moved a few steps into the fragile remains of the dead Tholian vessel he was examining and knelt next to the shattered crystalline corpse of its Tholian pilot. “Prisms, in a respect,” he said. “You found no chemical residues of a physical body after this necrotic disintegration,” the Vulcan continued. “I submit that no physical internal structures were there to disintegrate.”

Glasser's face slackened as she caught up with Spock's line of reasoning. “We assumed the Tholians died when their ship's life-support systems stopped functioning. You're saying it was the other way around!”

“Precisely,” Spock said, showing Glasser his tricorder viewing screen. “These high energy readings from within the Tholian vessel are not simply the ship's power systems. Some of them must emanate from the Tholian pilot itself.”

Glasser shook her head wonderingly. “We were ID'ing those signatures as the ship's power feeds. We just assumed those readings were too high for a living creature's body temperature.” Glasser pulled up her own tricorder and began cycling through its records. “Look at this,” she said, showing her readings to Spock. “That means these are the energy readouts from the pilots that died, taken during their last few hours of life.”

Spock nodded as he analyzed the readings. “Fascinating. A specific level of radioactive decay across a uniform spectrum. Doctor, by examining these levels, one could predict down to the nanosecond the life span of any Tholian individual.”

“They're like living atomic clocks,” Glasser said. “That certainly explains Tholian punctuality.”

“It may explain more than that,” Spock said. “Why Tholian society is so rigidly organized, for one thing. And perhaps why this particular individual represents such a threat to the Assembly.”

“Mr. Spock,” Uhura's voice sounded. “You'd better hear this.”

Kirk watched as the Tholian web tightened around M-33, its blazing filaments now igniting a violent glow as they pressed in on the station's weakening deflector shields. The
Enterprise
had slowed some of the Outsider ships' work by focused phaser fire, but with the ships and their web now in direct contact with the station, Kirk had to be judicious about how much fire he could lay down on their adversaries. He swore he could see the structure of the station crunching inward under the press of the energy web, and he winced as lights on several levels of the station went dark as power levels drained under the assault. Suddenly the deflector grid on the station flared brilliantly and the bubble of protective energy disappeared.

“They've lost their shields,” Chekov said.

“Scotty, route power back to transporters and beam the rest of those people out of there!” Kirk ordered.

“Aye, sir, if there's any power left to route,” Scott groaned.

“Beam up the station's command crew, then Spock, Uhura, and that xenobiology team—immediately.”

“Captain, incoming communication,” Palmer interrupted. “It's from the commander of the Assembly attack force.”

Kirk shook his head and blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Down here, Lieutenant,” he said as he hit his chair intercom. “This is Captain James Kirk—”

“Starship Enterprise—
by order of the Tholian Assembly you are to depart this system immediately.”

Kirk closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before replying. “Tholian commander,” he began, “your government has officially recognized our claim to this system and you have no authority here; we are involved in the evacuation of our space station and require more time to complete that operation…however, we would appreciate any assistance your fleet can render.”

“Your claim on this region is currently irrelevant,
Enterprise,” the Tholian's dissonant voice replied.
“This situation will be resolved by us. We will not be responsible for the consequences if you do not withdraw.”

“I can assure you the Tholian government
will
be held responsible for any further actions taken against Federation personnel,” Kirk argued.

“Captain, the station command crew and Mr. Spock's party have been beamed aboard,” Scott announced. “But our transporters will need at least five more minutes' recharge before we can beam another group aboard.”

“Get Merrill, Spock, and Uhura up to the bridge immediately,” Kirk said.

“Jim, what about the rest of the station crew? There's still almost a hundred people over there!” McCoy demanded.

“I haven't forgotten them, Doctor,” Kirk snapped. “Maybe you'd like to walk over and evacuate them by hand?”

“Well, there must be something we can do!” the doctor argued.

“We can't stand between two attack groups at our current power output,” Kirk said. “I'd be leery of doing that even at full power. We have to withdraw, at least until we can get our main systems back online.”

Kirk eyed the formation of Outsider ships as they continued to tighten their web around the now-defenseless station. Most of the structure beacons and viewport illumination on the station had gone black now, and support pylons were searing and buckling under the strain of the collapsing web. Kirk could almost hear the station's alloys screeching under the strain.

The bridge elevator doors slid aside at that moment, and Spock, Uhura, Glasser, and Merrill stepped onto the bridge. “Kirk, what's the meaning of beaming me off my station before it's evacuated?” Merrill demanded.

Kirk motioned Spock to take his station. “I need you and your command crew here. Every attempt to get the rest of the station evacuated is being made.”

“I told you what you were dealing with,” Merrill said, gesturing toward the viewscreen where the Tholian's energy web was already contracting around M-33. “They'll crush the station before the Assembly ships get here. And now that you've broken the transfer agreement, we can't even count on help from them!”

“What about that hydrogen field?” Kirk said. “Merrill, you've been planning to tap that power. Can we find a way to channel the energy to the
Enterprise
?”

“On a ship like this?” Merrill said. “Sure, if you're using it to kick-start a dead engine.”

“What?” Kirk said, but he saw Scott nodding in understanding.

“Aye,” the engineer said. “To use raw plasma like that you'd have to bypass the intermix and flush the new plasma directly into the warp coils. We'd have to drain the engines completely before trying it on battery power. But at the rate we're losing power we'll be down to batteries sooner rather than later.”

“It's not as bad as all that,” Merrill said. “We still retain some control over the Veil satellites; we can use them to channel the plasma we need for our own use. In fact, we can do a lot better than that from a tactical standpoint.”

“Meaning what?” Kirk asked.

“Meaning we can ignite the rest of the field once we're through. If we draw the Outsiders in the right way, we could take a hell of a lot of 'em down from the blast—if not half of the gas giant with them.”

Kirk frowned, trying to divide his attention between Scott and Merrill and the cascade of data from the tactical screen. “Doesn't that obviate your plan for using the Veil as a power source in the future?”

“To hell with that,” Merrill said. “The only way to keep the Veil out of the Outsiders' hands right now is to destroy it. It's what the Assembly wants in the long run.”

“Explain,” Kirk said.

“I believe I can, Captain,” Spock said suddenly. The Vulcan had been intently studying readings from his science station viewer but now stepped away from the station with an unaccustomed sense of urgency. “It is imperative that we not interfere with the Ifukube Veil in any way. The Veil is the point of contention between the opposing Tholian forces.”

“What are you talking about?” Merrill demanded.

“Commodore, your personnel's study of the Tholians you have encountered has been extensive but incomplete. You have failed to note the connection between the Ifukube Veil and the Tholians.”

“What connection?” Kirk asked.

“Tholians are indeed silicon-based life-forms, as we have long suspected. But examinations of their physical structure have not revealed any definable internal organs. I suspect that these internal structures are not corporeal or even igneous in nature, but rather focused energy, organized and refracted through the internal facets of the Tholians' crystalline exoskeleton.”

“Mr. Spock,” Uhura said as she conferred with Lieutenant Palmer at the communications station. “I still have telemetry from the translator node we attached to Naskeel's ship. It sounds like the holding chamber on the station is depressurizing.”

“Maintain communication with the vessel if possible, Lieutenant,” Spock said before turning back to Kirk. “Captain, the Tholian internal structure—its life force, if you will—consists of highly organized high-energy plasma.”

Kirk's eyes widened as he turned to look back at the screen and the red glint of the Ifukube Veil. “Plasma…like the plasma contained within that hydrogen cloud?”

“Affirmative, Captain,” Spock said. “In our communication with the Outsider captive it indicated that this system was the site of a sectarian massacre of almost inconceivable proportions that occurred millennia ago. Billions of Tholians were killed in the orbit of that gas giant, enough to leave a cloud of ionized hydrogen several thousand kilometers in diameter.”

Kirk stared at the hydrogen cloud on the bridge screen. Its abstract shape now took on a blood-chilling new aspect. “And they're only now returning to the site of the incident?” Kirk asked.

“Only after thousands of years of Tholian society's attempt to eradicate the memory of the event,” Spock said. “Their own regimented social order has aided in that goal. Racial memory of the massacre is part of the genetic makeup of a segment of the Tholian population—the Outsiders. But the Tholians can repurpose such deviant individuals and in effect program out the drives that might ultimately bring them here.”

“But the reverse is also true,” Glasser cut in. “That must be why the Assembly was so eager to capture the pilot we snagged. As a Tholian Mage it can reprogram Tholian individuals itself and keep the insurrection alive, repurpose individuals so that they can break away from the Assembly. And Tholians who step outside their defined functions disrupt not only their own roles but those of countless connected Tholians around them—a domino effect.”

Kirk looked at Merrill. “Then they're not pirates. They're…pilgrims. That's the rift developing in Tholian society. The need to explore this ancient tragedy and the Assembly's desire to sweep it under the rug.”

Even Merrill now looked humbled. “No wonder they wouldn't communicate with us. We were about to tear apart a mass grave…stir up the blood of a billion massacre victims.”

“Not blood, Commodore,” Spock said. “Something far more vital. I've cross-correlated my sensor readings of the interior of the Tholian vessel with the
Enterprise
and station sensor readings of the cloud. Without the key of an individual Tholian's energy signature to compare it with, it would all add up to meaningless complexity. But it is now clear the cloud contains billions of distinct, individual energy signatures that correspond to the internal plasma configuration that exists within Tholian exoskeletons.”