Constellations (29 page)

“Lieutenant Uhura, hail the planet,” Kirk said as the
Enterprise
assumed orbit of Donico II. “Let's see if we can get some answers from someone in charge,” Kirk said. Uhura found the appropriate frequency based on her last hour's study of the planet and hailed the planet's governing authority. The beautiful smiling face of a dark-haired humanoid woman appeared on the ship's viewscreen.

“This is Kyo-Ina of the Donico Decorum and Diplomacy Corps. How may I be of assistance?” the woman asked, smile firmly frozen in place.

Kirk answered the woman's charm in kind. “I'm Captain James T. Kirk of the
Starship Enterprise
, representing the United Federation of Planets. We received a distress call from your planet and came to find out how we could help.”

The smile never left Kyo-Ina's face as she explained that no distress call had been issued, nor was there any need for one as everything on Donico was fine, just fine. “I thank you for your concern, Captain, and apologize that you were brought out of your way, but your help is not required. Have a lovely day.” Abruptly, Kyo-Ina signed off.

Kirk looked around at his officers. “Well, it seems there is no emergency, gentlemen…and yet…”

Scott stood at the engineering station on the bridge and completed the thought. “It might not be a bad idea to get a second opinion.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Kirk concurred.

As the captain had been speaking with Kyo-Ina, Uhura had idly rechecked the information she'd noted on their approach to the planet. With a shock, she found no mention of Nyshev, the leader who'd formerly been so lauded. Instead, she found reference to a man named Zimmer, who'd supposedly headed the city council for the past five years in an easy run with no problems to fix. Uhura scanned the planetary databases and found no reference to anyone named Nyshev. Perplexed, the communications officer read about another province of the planet, an agrarian sector whose news reports proudly announced that for the fifty-eighth year in a row there had been no drought and crop yield had exceeded expectations. Uhura made a note of the information. She returned to a scan of the original area and now found additional information had been added to praise Zimmer's planting of trees in the city—but unlike the reports about Nyshev, there was no record of fixing traffic conditions or disruption to residents as a result. Though the critical voice inside her suggested that perhaps she faced memory troubles again, Uhura felt it worth mentioning to the captain as part of that “second opinion” he sought.

“Captain?” she said when he took a break from speaking with Scotty. “I might have something here…but…I'm not really sure.” Kirk gave her an indulgent smile and encouraged her to continue. “It's just that the first time I looked through the communications on the planet…well, sir, that information just isn't there anymore.”

“What do you mean it isn't there?” he asked.

Uhura explained the discrepancies between the original news of Nyshev and now his seeming replacement by Zimmer.

“Could you have just been reading about a different city?”

“No, sir,” Uhura insisted, “it was definitely this area.”

“A malfunction of the universal translator, then.”

“I just ran a check of the translator, sir. It's working just fine.”

Spock sat down at the computer and requested it find all reference to someone named Nyshev in the Donican planetary computer and communications systems. “Working,” the computer responded in feminine but robotic tones. “No match for requested name.” Spock asked it to check on someone named Zimmer. “Working…no match for requested name.”

“But that's impossible!” Uhura exclaimed. “I just read about Zimmer not ten minutes ago.”

Kirk exchanged a look with Spock and then turned to Uhura. “Perhaps, Lieutenant, you're just tired and…mistook the names.”

Uhura began to protest, then rightly or wrongly, she felt all eyes on her and heard the critical voice in her head mock her. So she acquiesced and nodded. “That…must be it. Sorry, Captain.”

“If you'd like to leave your shift early, Lieutenant, perhaps go down to sickbay to see Dr. McCoy…” Kirk suggested.

Uhura quickly assured him that was unnecessary. A brunette female yeoman who Uhura mentally identified as Yeoman Cappa, someone who according to her logs she'd considered a friend, quickly offered to go get Uhura some coffee, for which Uhura smiled gratefully and said she was sure that would help. As Kirk turned his attention back to Scotty, Uhura returned to her panel. Was it possible? Had she mis-remembered the names or provinces? It was hard to imagine, with her own notes jotted down on the padd beside her. Determined to prove it wasn't incompetence on her part, Uhura decided to probe further. Her suspicions were soon confirmed when she revisited the news service of the agrarian sector and found no mention of the previously stated fifty-eight years since a drought. Now the sector boasted “a healthy rain system to promote growth, now and always.” Unsure what to make of these changing “facts,” Uhura continued her study of the planet's news and information. Periodically it seemed there was an echo to her sweeps, as if someone was monitoring her scans. But she couldn't immediately trace this echo as it appeared to route through various redundant portions of the comm system on the planet. Undaunted but aware, Uhura continued her research.

Meanwhile, Mr. Scott had concluded some research of his own. He called the captain over to show him what he'd discovered. “There's your imminent planetary disaster,” he said, pointing to a viewer at his station.

Kirk asked, “The energy Grid powering the planet?”

“Aye,” a grim-faced Scotty said. “And if they continue to overload it at this rate, it will blow out completely, with the power exploding back into every home and business it feeds. Anyone even remotely close to a powered device could be killed or, at the least, very badly hurt.”

“Scotty, that's every home and business on this planet,” Kirk pointed out.

“Which is why they have to switch off their grid immediately and effect repairs. They need to reroute their circuits, install redundancies and breakers, and add more infrastructure to handle the power output. And they need to do it now. If they keep this up much longer, the whole system will blow and take most of the population with it.” Scotty's worried look was mirrored by Kirk's own.

“Lieutenant Uhura, get me Kyo-Ina again. Now,” Kirk ordered.

The smiling face returned to the viewscreen. “This is Kyo-Ina of the Donico Decorous Diplomacy Corps. How may I be of assistance?” If Kirk noted the slight name change, he didn't show it, but Uhura caught the difference and added it to her growing notes.

“Kyo-Ina, our sensors show that there is indeed a problem on your planet—one that threatens your entire population,” Kirk began.

Kyo-Ina didn't blink. “Donico has no problems. But thank you for your concern. Have a lovely day.” She again cut communications. Kirk quickly indicated to Uhura to get the woman back onscreen. She did so.

“Kyo-Ina,” Kirk was getting annoyed as well as concerned, “whether you believe me or not, there
is
a threat to your planet. Your energy grid will overload if it is not shut down immediately.”

This time a shadow nearly broke through Kyo-Ina's smiling façade. But it was not from fear of a Grid shutdown. Uhura caught the brief disturbed look on Kyo-Ina's face, but Kirk was more concerned with getting his message across. “Kyo-Ina, you must shut down the Grid, do you understand? If you can't do it, let us help you.”

The smile definitely faltered as Kyo-Ina firmly informed Kirk, “No, Captain, it is this communication which must be shut down. We have nothing further to say to you. Please leave our planet.” Her customary signoff, “Have a lovely day,” had no warmth to it this time. And communication was again shut down.

“Captain,” Scotty warned, “that Grid is going to blow. It's a matter of when, not if. And when is likely to be within the next few hours.”

Spock observed, “Regulations forbid us to interfere with the inner workings of a nonallied planet. They have refused our help.”

Scott pointed out, “Not everyone. Someone sent a distress call.” He appealed to the captain, “Surely that counts as requesting assistance?”

Kirk agreed. “We're not going to let these people destroy themselves if we can help it. Scotty, how do we shut down the Grid?”

Scott referred back to his findings on the computer. “The network and its control system are located deep underground. We can't reach it with ship's phasers nor disable it via computer command—we need to go down and shut it off manually.” Kirk did not look happy at the option.

“And we're persona non grata on Donico II if Kyo-Ina is any representation,” Kirk noted. “We may face a fight just to help these people not kill themselves.”

“Sir, we canna just let them die! Not if we can do something.” Scott's concern grew.

Kirk made up his mind. “I agree. But before I bring an army of security men down to fight our way to the Grid controls, let's try the carrot before the stick.” He pointed to his chief engineer. “Mr. Scott, you're with me. Time to play diplomat to the Donican diplomacy corps. Mr. Spock, you're in command.”

The first officer protested. “Captain, may I remind you of Mr. Scott's own assessment that the Grid system could self-destruct in the next few hours? If you go down there, you are risking your lives just to try to communicate the danger to these people.”

“Objection noted, Mr. Spock. But they'll all die if we can't get through to them. It's a risk we have to take.” Scott nodded in agreement. The captain added to Spock, “While we're down there, I want you and Lieutenant Uhura to find out what's going on down there. Why won't they listen? Why won't they even accept that there's a problem? And Uhura?” She looked at her captain expectantly. “Maybe you'll find your Nyshev and Zimmer while you're at it. If they deny there's a problem, maybe that's tied into denying the existence of members of their own population.”

Uhura smiled gratefully at the captain for his validation of her earlier concerns, while he and Scott headed for the turbolift. With Spock's tacit approval, she returned to studying the planet's communications. She continued to find more and more discrepancies in her investigation—there were ongoing subtle and not-so-subtle alterations being made to the planet's histories, news reports, and even popular entertainment. She began to see a common thread in the changes. And still that communications echo followed her probes….

 

Kirk and Scott materialized in what appeared to be the lobby of the Donican Diplomatic Corps. It was a bright and airy, high-ceilinged building with tall windows that gave the impression of a great chapel crossed with a high-rise corporate office in a combination of beauty and efficiency. A monorail passed by outside the higher levels of the building. Inside and out, smiling people bustled by and made great efforts not to notice Kirk and Scott. But before the two managed to speak to anyone, Kyo-Ina was suddenly before them. “Gentlemen, you must leave,” she said at once. She looked around herself constantly as if nervous, but she kept smiling at them and everyone around them.

But Kirk wouldn't be rushed off. “And you and your government council must listen to me and my chief engineer. You wouldn't do it when I was aboard my ship, so I thought we'd appeal to you in person.” He and Scott kept wary eyes on all the powered systems around them, from lights to computers. “Mr. Scott?”

The engineer immediately attempted to outline the problem with the Grid system to Kyo-Ina, whose protests began to draw attention despite the locals' best efforts to ignore them.

“Please, you must stop,” Kyo-Ina practically pleaded with Scott. “There's nothing wrong. Nothing at all. Everything's fine. The system is fine. There is no problem with it.” Her grin seemed locked onto her face, but her eyes began to betray a panic. A group of large, heavily-muscled black-uniformed men emerged from a far doorway and headed in their direction. The crowds parted before them, as people intently ignored but avoided the men. Kyo-Ina saw them coming. She urged Scott and Kirk to stop, and finally begged them as the large men drew closer and closer. But Scott was insistent on telling her of the problem and Kirk was insistent she listen. And then it was too late. Before Kirk could even pull his phaser, he was grabbed by three of the men. Another three grabbed Scott. Their weapons and communicators were taken from them and handed to Kyo-Ina.

Kirk looked at a blissfully unhappy Kyo-Ina. “What's going on? Why won't you listen to us?”

She looked at him and said, “Nothing is going on. There is nothing to listen to.” But Kirk could tell she didn't believe this. The black-clad men silently looked at Kyo-Ina, who sadly, but still smiling, pointed at Scott. “Enforcers, this one insists that there's a problem, that there's danger, that people will die.”

Scott pulled against his captors. “There
is
a danger! The Grid is going to explode! You canna let it stay on! It must be shut down! I can help you recalibrate it, help you upgrade the infrastructure, but you must power it down now! Do you want people to be killed?”