Corona (10 page)

The shuttle landed at the cargo lock of the storage dome, its landing fields disturbing years of micrometeoroid dust and ejecting it in straight rays from the pad. A boarding tube automatically stretched from the lock to the shuttle's rear cargo doors and connected with a sigh of equalizing pressures. Mason's ears popped. She reached up to release the recorder.

As the
Enterprise
party left the storage dome, Chekov broke away from the main group and encountered T'Raus in a side corridor near the research dome. Part of Chekov stared curiously at the closed hatches. No one had yet seen the station's rebuilt science areas. T'Raus held out her hand, and he gave her the hard copy of the
Enterprise
charts and specifications. She nodded, and without a word exchanged, he hurried to catch up with his shipmates before his absence was noticed.

The group passed by Wah Ching and Pauli, standing the current watch. Chekov relieved them and told them to return to the shuttle and wait for the rest of the group to join them. "Nothing to report?" he asked, wondering if they, too, were being controlled. The burst of hidden anguish he felt was so intense that tears came to his eyes.

"Nothing unusual," said Pauli. "It's a bit chilly down here, society-wise, but I suppose that's not unusual." He grinned. The understood words were, "for Vulcans." Chekov watched them return to the storage dome.

McCoy and Spock went to the hibernaculum chamber, escorted by Anauk and T'Kosa. They turned on their environment fields and entered the chamber lock. The lock doors closed behind them, and they stood in the cold and silence. Outside, T'Kosa and Anauk waited to take them to the medical center for the scheduled meeting with Grake and T'Prylla.

Spock scanned the hibernacula with his science tricorder while McCoy took final measurements. The doctor bent down beside the hibernaculum closest to the inner chamber lock door and examined the connections on the power supply cables. "We'll have to move them quickly," he said. "The pallets can keep them cold for about five minutes. Then we'll hook them to the shuttle power supply."

Spock motioned for McCoy to examine the display on the science tricorder. "Your suspicions are correct," Spock said. "There is no further damage, but they have been tampered with."

"Why? What would the others gain?"

"As you suspected, the sleepers seem to have been utilized for information storage."

"That seems highly irregular, Spock. Besides, they're too cold for their brains to have any chemical activity."

"At their current temperature, their brains would have superconducting properties. No chemical activity would be needed; they could store enormous amounts of information without benefit of normal memory operations."

"If that's the case, thawing them would destroy the information … erase it."

Spock nodded.

"So what do you think the others will say?"

"If we are finished here, we can only go to the medical center and find out."

"Spock, you've been tight-lipped since before we arrived. You behave like a cat who knows where a whole cageful of canaries is hidden. Sometimes I get the willies just looking at you."

"I would assume that is a normal state of affairs, Doctor."

McCoy handed the tricorder back to him and shook his head. "Jim thinks we're conspiring on something. Maybe we are. If so, don't you think co-conspirators should share all their secrets?"

"Perhaps later," Spock said. McCoy knew better than to press him any further. They exited the cold lock and accompanied T'Kosa and Anauk to the meeting.

"We cannot allow removal of the sleepers," Grake said. He stood before the
Enterprise
visitors in the station medical center, hands gripping the edge of a stripped-down diagnostics table. "There is too much risk." T'Prylla, the children, T'Kosa and Anauk regarded the visitors with a calm isolation which, to Kirk, seemed like contempt.

"I've evaluated the risk," McCoy said. "There is some, but it's minimal." Kirk glanced at Spock to gauge his reaction to this turn of events. Spock stared intently at Grake, who refused to meet the first officer's eyes.

"While we respect Dr. McCoy's expertise, we have learned much about Ybakra radiation in the past ten years. We are constantly bathed in it, but at a level which cannot cause any more damage to the sleepers. The Ybakra is considerably reduced by proximity to our planetoid. In the shuttle, however, that protection is taken away. More damage may result."

McCoy stood and pointed a finger at Grake. "Your sleepers are as good as dead now. What can you do for them here?"

"We can protect them until a way is found to transport them to the
Enterprise
safely. Or until we devise a means of treating them ourselves."

"The
Enterprise
can't stay here indefinitely," Kirk said. "Frankly, I'm puzzled by the level of resistance we've met here. We are your rescuers, not your enemies." His voice was level, ominously so. "I stand by Dr. McCoy's decision to move the sleepers to the sickbay of the
Enterprise.
"

T'Kosa stepped close to Grake. "I believe it is time we convince our visitors of how well we have done here, without their help."

Grake nodded. "There have been many delays, Captain, but now would seem to be a very appropriate time to show you the research dome."

"We're avoiding the issue," McCoy said, exasperated. "Jim, we're wasting time if we don't move the sleepers and begin reconstruction now!"

Kirk felt at a loss what to do. It was obvious that Spock still did not wish to reveal the existence of Ybakra shields, but mention of the technique now would save a great deal of trouble and argument. (Or would it? Would they find another excuse? And why didn't they know about Ybakra shields themselves? Their research on Ybakra had been comprehensive …) He disliked making decisions which would further antagonize McCoy, but he couldn't think of a way around it. "I think there's time enough to take a brief tour before we make our decision." He hoped McCoy could sense what was going on. The doctor looked even more exasperated, but did not protest further.

"Good," Grake said. "As I said before, I believe we have many surprises in store for you …"

* * *

Veblen finished checking the form-memory and experience-memory units of the transporter and shook his head. Scott waited anxiously a step behind him.

"I have to agree," Veblen said. "There's nothing wrong with the circuitry."

"Then it must be outside interference. Perhaps the radiation …?"

"Ybakra operates in a different layer of fraction space than the transient memories," Veblen said, frowning. He took a data pack from his belt and hefted it, thinking. He had neglected to feed the new information from the station's researches on Ybakra radiation into the stochastic algorithm. "I don't think it would have any effect. However …"

"I'm at my wit's end," Scott said. "I've checked every aspect of transporter functioning, from power supplies to the memory coordinators. There is nothing wrong with the transporters." He put on a look of defiance. "It is not my machinery that's at fault! And I've never heard of a
delay
in transporter assembly."

"It's a puzzle," Veblen admitted. "I'll back your report as much as my expertise allows."

"Thank you," Scott said, relieved. Veblen left the transporter room and took the turbolift to the computer command center. He plugged the new information into the algorithm—which had been placed on temporary hold—and then asked for a specific level of inquiry.
Is there any chance,
he typed on the console,
that personnel aboard the station have learned to manipulate Ybakra, and are using that knowledge to cause anomalous events aboard the
Enterprise? He restarted the algorithm and leaned back in his chair, biting a fingernail and waiting for any coherent result.

Mason tugged the recorder closer to her and walked behind Radak. She felt completely out of place, and yet she had a strong sensation of something very important about to happen. Grake led the way to the research chambers, followed by T'Prylla and Spock. The others squeezed through the open hatchway after them, and all stood in a loose grouping to one side of the station's largest dome.

It was easy to see now where all the equipment in storage had been put to use. The dome was crowded with every conceivable combination of hardware, electronics and computers jury-rigged together in large piles, without much apparent regard for placement or visual order. To Mason, it looked like a child's playroom—a Vulcan child's playroom, perhaps, the child having been given anything he wished for. She glanced at Radak and T'Raus and met the girl's eyes. For a moment they stared directly at each other. Mason shuddered—and not just because the girl was Vulcan. She thought she was getting used to being around Vulcans. For all his quirks and strange appearance, Spock was certainly no ogre. But T'Raus …

There was a cold appraisal in her eyes that went beyond the constrained emotions of a Vulcan.

"Very impressive," Kirk said diplomatically. Grake walked them around the perimeter of the dome until they came to a raised platform, on which was mounted a small control panel. The FNS recorder positioned itself near the edge of the platform, motors within whining softly as its lenses followed Grake up the steps.

"It is a preliminary construction," Grake said, motioning for T'Prylla to join him. Radak followed his mother. "But what it does is much more impressive than its appearance suggests." Radak stood at the control panel. Grake seemed to hesitate before continuing his explanation. "With the Transformer, we are in control of all forms of matter, energy, space and time within the vicinity of the station. Our researches have given us mastery of the very foundation of the universe, from which all creation arose. Our work is tentative, but we have accomplished a great deal."

Mason saw McCoy's lips move. He seemed to be saying something about madness.

"My son will prepare a demonstration."

Radak reached out to the dimly lighted switches on the panel and touched a few with the conservative grace born of long experience.
He knows the system better than his father,
Mason thought, wondering why Grake himself didn't perform the demonstration. The machinery in the dome made itself felt with a sensation beneath sound, a reminder of the presence of great power.

Then, very slowly, Radak faded. It took the visitors some seconds to realize what was happening. Chekov, even tightly controlled, jumped in startlement as the boy simply vanished. Mason believed she saw a flicker in the spot where the boy had stood, but it could have been a trick of her eyes. Spock observed the dematerialization without reaction.

While Radak's exit was quite interesting, Spock had noticed something very peculiar while walking around the dome's perimeter. Some of the equipment had been scavenged from a Starfleet unmanned rescue vessel—no doubt, the one that had been sent out years before, never to return.

Some of the puzzle, for him at least, was starting to fall into place.

Shallert was standing the watch in the main transporter room, duty which did not require constant vigilance, so he spent much of the time studying updated equipment manuals.

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something move on the transporter platform. He looked up. A smiling Vulcan youth stood on the reference disk. Shallert blinked, and the boy was gone. Mouth open, he checked the transporter console. It was not turned on; besides, there had been none of the characteristic sound or transporter effect.

He hesitated, then called for security on the com. "Olaus here," came the reply.

"Edward, Jonathan here. Clear out the padded cell in the brig. Are you registering an intruder?"

"No," Olaus said. "What's up? Wait a minute … there's a warm body in quadrant 2, deck 7 … nobody was there a second ago."

On deck 7 of the saucer, or primary hull, in a corridor just outside engineering and the impulse power plant, Radak walked alone, staring at this and that, marveling at the construction of the metal ship. He stretched his hand out to touch the door to engineering. It was locked, but that did not matter to Radak. It opened and he peered into the multi-level chamber. Engineering was almost empty; only one junior watch officer stood on the second level, facing the grid which divided engineering from the impulse engines. The impulse engines were shut down; very little orbital adjustment was required by the
Enterprise
at the moment, and that could be handled by the docking and positioning engines mounted at various places around the outside of the ship's engineering and primary hulls. Very quietly, very boldly, Radak strolled by the control panels without attracting the officer's notice, and quickly realized that this was not the
Enterprise
's main power plant. He visualized the outboard nacelles housing the main propulsion units, but decided against touring them for the moment. He had been gone for thirty seconds, and it would be best to return …

"We're rather used to that sort of coming and going," Kirk said as soon as he had recovered. "We do it often ourselves." He was aware of the difference between transporting and what Radak had just done, but he wasn't about to reveal his astonishment to Grake.

"The boy has not been dematerialized and assembled by a transporter," T'Prylla said, stepping on to the platform. "He has had his body exactly replicated at another point in space-time, balancing the event with a complete transformation of his past structure. In essence, the individual disturbances of all his atoms have been unwound and rewound at different coordinates. Some would call it controlled coincidence. We can now master synchronicity itself, Captain."