Captain Thorpe could not help but to feel a little nervous, and a little worried. The lander was heading back to the site where it had first appeared at the best possible speed. He was only too aware that the Salosians had set a deadline, at which time they would turn off all the outbound functions. Given what had happened seemingly moments earlier, Thorpe was pretty sure that the Salosians would not be accommodating in his request to keep the system operational a little longer.
But his mind was not really on that. His mind was on the report that he had gotten, that Matsubara and one other man, apparently a citizen of Adamsburg, had been somehow attacked by the Salosians, and the man had not survived the transport back to the lander. He did not know about Matsubara. He was worried about her, about her condition and her chances at recovery, just as he was worried that in the end, they might still be trapped on this planet so far from home. At moments like this, Thorpe wished that he was in a different line of work, one where these responsibilities and feelings were not part of the obligation. As a captain, he often felt he was in control of a situation, but he just did not feel like he was here. That frustrated and to a degree angered him.
Thorpe arrived at the small sickbay area on the lander. The sickbay here was not designed to be a full-service medical facility like the one on the Athena itself. This was more of an emergency operation, to stabilize patients and perform immediate and emergency procedures on them and prepare them for transfer to a more complete facility. As a result, it was small, with a couple of active-care beds, and in an adjacent room, a small ward for recuperation. When Thorpe entered the room, he saw that both active-care beds were occupied, although in one, the patient was covered in a sheet and the area surrounded by a sterile field that caused everything within to glow a faint red. On the other bed was Matsubara, enclosed with the surgical clamshell, and just by looking at her, Thorpe could tell that she was in some distress. She was on her back, with neural simulators and suppressers on her forehead, and other devices on both arms. Even so, her body seemed to jerk, and she was writhing slightly, although confined by the friction field generated by the clamshell. Her gaze was distant and unseeing, while she was utterly silent.
The sound of the doors opening drew the attention of Dr. Psakolaps, the chief medical officer. "You wanted to see me, doctor," Thorpe said.
"Yes," Psakolaps answered, as he turned to face the captain. "We must return to the Athena as quickly as possible. I can do nothing for Commander Matsubara here."
Thorpe just felt his heart start to beat a little faster, and he could feel that tension just stiffen through his whole body. "What is wrong with her?"
"I'm not completely sure. Some kind of energy field, almost like a current, is going through her body. I can't do anything for her. I can't even treat those surface wounds or deal with her pain while that current is flowing through her nervous system."
"Where did it come from?" Thorpe asked.
"It might have been the Salosian weapon. I'm not sure what it did or how it does it. It might have been a stun setting, but it just didn't agree with the human physiology. Beaming her on board the ship made it worse. It killed him." Psakolaps gestured towards the body. "The combination of that energy and the transport process essentially randomized his quantum state, so he came out of it inert."
"Maybe it's a weapon designed to prevent people from being transported."
"Perhaps, but Damiko didn't get the full hit because she still had the forcefield belt on. It had just enough power left to dampen that energy, but the energy is still there, and it is gradually weakening her, and impairing her functions. Her brain right now is working with an assist from technology."
Very concerned, and very worried now, Thorpe asked, "What can you do for her on the Athena?"
"There's a decapacitor on board."
"What's that?"
Psakolaps thought it unusual that Thorpe might not be familiar with that piece of technology, but he just put it down to the fact that the captain had a lot on his mind right now. "It's a device I have that allows me to drain off bioelectricity in Odonans, in order to perform procedures on them when they are not in full control of their facilities, due to trauma or whatever."
Thorpe was surprised at that, and said, "You're telling me, doctor, that you came here, perhaps with the intention of treating Odonans, and you didn't bring this device with you?"
"It's not portable, sir. It's a fixed piece of equipment in sickbay."
Thorpe glanced once more at Matsubara, who might have been conscious, or not, and even might have been alive, or not. All he knew was that she might not be alive too much longer unless he did what he could. "I see," the captain finally said. "I'll see what I can do. We should be back at the site in about five minutes. Maybe it's possible to send us back home the same way we came. I'll find out."
"I know you will."
* * *
Thorpe returned to the lander bridge, where a very tired crew were at their posts. If all went well, he thought, they would be back home in a few minutes, and they could all get a well-deserved rest. He too was tired, but was fighting it, trying to stay awake just a little longer. "Lieutenant Hakamura," he said, as he approached the captain's chair, which Takoo was still sitting in. "Contact the site. I want to speak to Lieutenant Turokuot."
"Right away, sir," the security officer said, as he sent out the necessary instructions to link with the transmitter at the site. "I have him, sir," he said fifteen seconds later.
"This is Lieutenant Turokuot," came the voice of the engineer. He sounded tired too. They all were. "Captain?"
"Lieutenant, have you decoded how to send the lander back, basically the way that we came, through that cavern?"
"It's possible, sir. It's a little ambiguous on how that is done, but I believe that I might be able to do it."
"How certain?" Thorpe asked. He sounded impatient as he raised his voice just a little. Worse, he suspected the others on the bridge had heard that.
"I can't promise you anything, sir. I'd say fifty-fifty."
"I'm counting on your abilities, lieutenant. Open up that hatch because when we arrive, we're going straight in."
"Understood. Turokuot out."
Takoo, overhearing the whole conversation, asked, "What are we doing? Why aren't we waiting for the others?"
"Commander Matsubara needs medical attention, the kind of attention she can only get in our sickbay. It's vital that we get back to the galaxy. At this point of time, most of the people-maybe all of them-are now on the other side, and we're just waiting for a way out of the structure itself. The ship is not needed anymore."
"If you say," the Odonan said softly.
"Of course I say," Thorpe said, again a little loudly. He was aware of eyes turning to look at him. Once more taking a second to regain his composure, he added, "Lieutenant Hakamura, I need to speak with you in private for a moment."
The two officers headed to the small room off of the bridge that Thorpe had used as his ready room. It was simply furnished, kind of like the whole lander was. Thorpe found himself fumbling for a padd, and he used it to download some information from the computer. The whole time, Hakamura was watching him, and Thorpe felt rather uncomfortable in that. It was as if the security officer was observing him, and noticing how he differed from the usual captain that he knew. Of course he differed. A lot was on his mind. He was worried about the deadline, and he was especially worried about Matsubara, and how he really still had no idea if they could return home. "Lieutenant," he finally said, "once the lander arrives at the site and enters the cavern, you'll be beaming down. I want you to bring this to Commander Rocha." He handed Hakamura the padd, which had been turned off. "This contains the codes and instructions necessary to arm and set off the tricobalt explosive that we've positioned in the spire."
"You're going to use it?"
"I believe that is in our best interest. The Salosians are dangerous."
Hakamura felt a little ill at ease as well. "Sir, permission to speak freely."
Thorpe hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Granted."
"Sir, I do not believe that destroying the spire, and the power connection with the solar tap, is in our best interests. What we have here is an incredibly valuable resource, technologies that we can't really comprehend yet, but which we could learn. If the explosion destroys that power connective, then the entire system could become inert. We'd lose this resource."
"I'm aware of that," Thorpe answered, "but I do not trust the Salosians."
"Would they really attack us through Charamand?"
"It is not impossible, considering the conflict at the location we've just left. Dorans escaped through there, and though we did a lot of damage to the structure, the Salosians seem to have a great deal of knowledge on how this technology works. They could repair the structure and then go after the Dorans. In addition, other Dorans escaped the control centre too. We even had the captured prisoners from their raid on our location. We let them go. With all the outbound systems active, the Dorans could've gone anywhere. The Salosians, trying to track them down, could go anywhere. Imagine what they could stumble across, planets that aren't even aware the structure exists on their planet. That could cause a lot of problems. It's not a chance I want to take."
"I see," Hakamura said. "It's still a shame."
"I know it is, but I see no alternative."
"And your assessment of the Salosians is accurate?"
"It's a gut feeling, nothing more, but I think face to face, ship to ship, they'd make a formidable adversary. They're close to Dominion space but have never heard of them, suggesting the Dominion is avoiding them. They're dangerous."
"Very well, sir." Clutching the padd against his chest, Hakamura said, "I'll carry out the orders."
"It's keyed to Aleksandr's lifesign. It'll be his call, ultimately."
"You're leaving it up to him?"
"Yes," Thorpe said. He found it surprising that he had agreed to that so readily. He did it, he realized, simply because he did not want to dwell on it any longer than he had to. He kept seeing in his mind's eye Matsubara spread out on that bed, devices attached to her and her body being attacked by some kind of randomizing energy. Given that, blowing up the spire really did not seem that important. Stopping the Salosians from staging search-and-destroy missions on planets all over the Milky Way galaxy did not matter in comparison.
* * *
Ahead was the site, the massive, hideously-ugly black-metal monstrosity that likely looked somehow pleasing in the eyes of the unknown alien group that built it. In another life, Thorpe might have liked to have met this race, and learned what kind of legacy they had left to the galaxy beyond this complex and the technology that powered it, but this was not that life. He was not curious now. He was simply anxious. Upon seeing the structure, he could tell that the big doors were open, and the cavern, its floor still covered in masses of uprooted and decaying vegetation, clearly visible. As far as he was concerned, the only thing that mattered right now was that the outbound function was still operational.
Thorpe said, "I'd imagine that fourty-two minutes and thirty-one seconds have passed." He was seated now in the captain's chair, although he was only using the edge.
"By a margin," Takoo replied. She was once more standing beside him. "Perhaps they haven't fully mastered the controls yet. I can't imagine that it is easy, and the Dorans sure aren't co-operating."
Ochi spoke up, saying, "Sir, we're ready to enter the cavern."
Tapping his commbadge, the captain said, "Thorpe to Hakamura."
"Go ahead, sir," came the reply.
"Are you in the transporter room?"
"Yes."
"Stand by for transport." Tapping the badge to shut it off, Thorpe added, "DeWillis, beam him down to near the entranceway."
"Understood," the engineer replied. He operated the remote transporter controls, and then added, "Transport is complete."
Through the windows, Thorpe could see the cavern looming ever larger, as Ochi expertly piloted the ship into the admittedly-large space. Thorpe was just saying to himself, "Just hang in there a little longer, Damiko. We're getting you home."
On the surface, Rocha was surprised to see someone beam down from the lander, and was even more surprised to see that it was Hakamura. Stepping out into the chill of the outside, in time to see the lander smoothly and noiselessly-except for the displaced air-enter the chamber, Rocha called out, "Sal, what are you doing here?"
"The captain is giving you this," he said, handing over the padd. To the chief's unasked question, Hakamura added, "It's the control codes for the tricobalt device. You might have to run a check through the transmitter here to make sure you can control it. Is Lieutenant Turokuot ready?"
"He's in position," Rocha added. The two retreated inside and got through the crowd of people still using the replicators, to get things to eat and drink while the waiting went on. They found Turokuot, and several other engineers, at the control panels, discussing among themselves what they did and consulting tricorders and charts they had drawn by hand. As the lander entered the cavern, they could see a number of small lights and displays change on their own. With Hakamura standing beside him, Rocha asked, "What happened back there?"
"I think we made enemies of the Salosians. They're determined to track down the Dorans, and it looks like Damiko might have helped some escape, and she's paying the price."
"What?"
"They shot her with some kind of weapon, and it's touch-and-go. That's why they're so anxious to get back to the Athena. Sickbay there has equipment that might help. It was pretty intense there, actually, as we got into conflict with the Salosians, destroyed two of their small vessels, and trashed the complex to shut down its power. I'd say they're a little angry. How about here?"
Turokuot spoke up, "They're in position now. Lets see if-"
Someone else shouted, "Something's happening!"
From the lander bridge, Captain Thorpe and the crew could see the interior. Ochi had brought the ship to a stop relative to the structure, and as soon as she did, a reddish glow started to appear above them, and it seemed to spread until the glow was persuasive and almost blinding. Then, with a reddish flash, it vanished-as did the cavern. Instead, they saw a blue sky, with some patchy cumulus, the kind one would see on a morning of a fine, sunny day.
"What the?" mumbled Bayanhong.
The communications system beeped, just as Ochi yelled out, "Sir, we're home! We've made it! We're back." Somewhat surprisingly, the bridge erupted in cheering. The crew had somehow found their way back home from the Small Magellanic Cloud.
"I do say," Bayanhong started, "that Turokuot is one of the best I've ever seen at figuring out alien technology."
Two hundred thousand light years away, Turokuot threw up his hands, saying, "I don't know what happened, sir. As soon as it stopped, the system came on. Maybe it's designed that way. With the outbound function active, it could go automatically."
"Geez," Rocha started, "why didn't we know that before?"
"I don't think it would've done any good. All that vegetation and stuff that came over is still there, Only vessels might go that way. We'd have to find ourselves some."
"Where'd they go?"
"Charamand, hopefully. As far as we know, this is a closed system. Charamand to here and back to Charamand, it's the only option."
"Lets hope so."
Hakamura asked, again, "Is everybody here yet?"
* * *
On the Athena, Commander Johnson was on her way to the transporter room, for another breakfast meeting with Governor Whitmore. It was another exercise in a waste of time, Johnson thought, but in reality, she had nothing better to do. The starship was just sitting here, with the Bluestar, and she knew that she would be sitting here until Starfleet Command called them away. It had only been just over a day since the lander left, and other than one possibly-significant development, nothing much had happened.
Stepping out of the turbolift, she heard her commbadge chirp, so she tapped it and said, "Johnson here."
"Torin, here, ma'am," he said, with undisguised excitement in his voice. "The lander has just reappeared!"
* * *
A hundred and twenty kilometres below the Athena, the lander hovered above the denuded environs around Adamsburg. It still looked starkly barren, Thorpe thought, and yet it looked like the distant planet in the Small Magellanic Cloud, except with blue skies and better lighting. This was not the time to dwell on that, as he said, "Helm, get us back to the ship with the best possible speed. Open that link."
"This is the Athena," came the voice of Lorne Hathson. "Are you there?"
"We're here," Thorpe started. "Where's Commander Johnson?"
"On her way back to the bridge."
"Very well. We have a medical emergency on board. Commander Matsubara has been injured in such a manner that we cannot transport her. We're going to launch one of the shuttlepods with her and Dr. Psakolaps on board, and it'll dock at the airlock near sickbay. It'll be faster than docking the lander and taking her through the length of both ships. The doctor will contact sickbay and make preparations."
"We'll be prepared on this end. I've notified sickbay to get ready."
While they waited for Johnson to return to the bridge, Bayanhong spoke up, "Sir, I've detected something very interesting. A small section of the alien structure has revealed itself. It's about fourty metres in diameter, a single, circular room, with some machinery around it. Everything else is still hidden, but that part is clear."
"For what purpose?" Takoo asked.
"A way out. If there's a clear way back to where the others are all waiting, that could be the way to get them out. Maybe somebody should beam down and explore."
"We'll let a fresh team from the ship do that. Our priority now is to get back to the ship, and-"
Ochi spoke up again, saying, "Sir, the ship."
Thorpe used a control on the armrest of his chair to open the commlink, and said, "Thorpe here."
"Sir, you're back," Johnson started. "It's my understanding that there was cheering on the bridge when you appeared. I was informed about Damiko. What happened?"
"It's a little too complicated to get into now, but we need to get her back on board the ship as soon as possible."
"Jules has informed me. Is everybody else okay?"
"Among the crew, yes. Among the Adamsburg people, there are some casualties. We've got most of them back, and a lot of Odonans too. We're just waiting for the last of the Odonans to return, and a way to get them to the surface."
"We spotted a possible way."
"So have we, this fourty-metre opening in the cloaking field, revealing a chamber."
"Yes."
"Did you send anybody into it?"
"No, sir," Johnson replied. "I was talking to Captain Padda on the Bluestar, and she was very concerned about booby traps and defensive systems."
"Nevertheless, that could be the only way to get our people out of there." Thorpe could have continued, but knew that the rest of the story and the details could wait until the lander docked with the main ship and he could talk to his first officer face-to-face. Yet, hearing her voice was somehow reassuring. It was a most welcome sound, a sound that told him he was home, and everything was back in his control again. He also realized that talking to her, and attempting to take in everything that had happened and relay so much information had, at least momentarily, taken his mind off of Matsubara.
* * *
Hakamura and Rocha stood outside, where the transmitter was located. Rocha had used the control codes in the padd to connect with the circuitry in the tricobalt explosive hidden in the spire. He was able to confirm that he had full and complete access to the systems. Hakamura, who happened to be looking up, saw the doors at the residential end open again. "Another group coming out now."
"I wonder if the Odonan troopers are among them," Rocha said. "They're guarding the transit station at the Odonans' end, and are likely to be the last group out."
"I'll go down and find out."
"Sal?"
"None of the Odonan civilians are equipped with translators. You guys might be having a tough time talking to them."
"Tell me about it."
"I speak their language. I'll find out how they're doing."
"Okay," Rocha said, but he wondered if he could have stopped Hakamura even if he wanted to. He watched him start off on the one and a quarter kilometre journey across the flat, open area.
* * *
While the lander climbed through the atmosphere and re-entered space, Psaklolaps and an orderly moved Matsubara onto a portable antigrav stretcher, and guided her to the shuttlepod bay, which was not that far away from sickbay. The shuttlepod was actually set up to accommodate a stretcher, in case it was necessary to move a patient in this manner. All the while, Psakolaps watched the vital signs monitors, and how some of the indicators became erratic, especially those indicating brain waves and other neural activity. He was not very familiar with this type of weapon or its effect, or similar effects on humans, but the doctor was starting to worry about long-term damage. He was concerned with the twitching and the laboured breathing as well.
As soon as the stretcher was secure, Psakolaps got into the pilot's seat-realizing he had not actually flown anything since he joined the Athena crew-and contacted the bridge. "I'm ready to proceed. What's our approach time?"
"One minute, doctor," Thorpe replied.
That minute seemed to take forever. During that time, Psakolaps, his mind really on Matsubara and not the task at hand, powered up the shuttlepod and disengaged the docking ring. He depressurized the pod bay and opened the hatch-and the just waited. Finally, after glancing back at the science officer so many times he was losing count, he heard the bridge say, "Doctor, you're cleared to go. Good luck."
"Thanks," the Kentyan replied. He gripped the controls and lifted the pod out of its bay. He could see the Athena ahead, and it was looming ever larger mostly because the pod had the same speed as the lander, even without its engines on. Psakolaps pulled away from the lander, which veered away so that it could move into a more conventional docking course. The man piloted the pod the short distance towards the deck twelve docking port which was close to sickbay, again to allow quick transfers of patients as necessary. Psakolaps turned the pod around so that he could back into the docking ring, and then he did what most engineers and pilots actually hated to do. He switched control of the pod over to the computer to handle the docking. He was back with Matsubara, making adjustments to the neural controllers and monitors, trying to keep her body functioning normally while this strange energy coursed through her body.
With a slight jolt and the impact reverberating through the structure of small ship, the pod docked with the Athena. Almost immediately, the orderly with Psakolaps punched at the controls that opened the hatches. On the other side was Lieutenant Ngyguen, who was ready to receive the stretcher through the airlock hatch.
"Is it ready?" Psakolaps asked.
"Ready to go, sir," Ngyguen remarked. "I hope this works."
"So do I. It's the last thing I can think of."
* * *
Hakamura reached the Odonans about three-quarters of the way down the path, since the Odonans, some of whom were carrying or guiding children, were moving more slowly. The security officer approached the man in front of the group, and speaking in Odonien, asked, "How many more are left at your location?"
The man, getting over his surprise to see a human actually speaking Odonien and not relying on a translator, answered, "I don't know."
"But the troopers remained behind?"
"The men with the funny weapons and the equipment?"
"Yes," Hakamura remarked. These Odonans were out of the loop for sixty-one years, and were returning to a galaxy, and an Odonan Empire, that was different from what they knew. "Are they still there?"
"Yes, they did not come." Now the man had questions for Hakamura, asking, "What about this planet that we're going to?"
"It's in the Federation," Hakamura remarked, "but you won't be staying there. Your government is sending an evac vessel to bring you home." At least, he was hoping that the Odonans would do that, and he could see no reason why not. He just doubted that it was on the way already.
"It's been so long since this happened on Norg," the man said, as Hakamura found himself walking alongside the man. "I thought I never would return home."
"Sometimes," the woman beside him continued, "I wasn't so sure that we wanted to return home. When you live in a location long enough, it becomes home. Now we were told that we might not be able to live here any longer."
"It's easier if you volunteer to live here," Hakamura continued. "For you, it must've been a sudden disruption."
"Yes," the woman agreed. "It was very difficult. The two Space Service officers who were trapped with us helped a lot. They must've had survival training or something. They taught us a lot. We learned a lot. I might miss this place a little, but... I look forward to home. It's not good to be cut off from home. I hear rumours there are changes."
"Yes, many changes," Hakamura replied.
"Those men with the weapons, they say there's a big war going on back home."
"Yes, there is."
"And that the Odonan Empire was attacked?"
"Yes," Hakamura said. Those moments at Pusedchou were still very fresh in his mind, as were the other encounters in this war so far. "The attack was repulsed, though."
"That is good. War is not something that is in our history."
"I know." As Hakamura spoke, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, something in the sky. It was a light, a series of lights, actually, against the peculiar black daytime sky of this world. Since they came from a direction almost opposite to where the galaxy shone down on them, Hakamura noticed them. He watched as they quickly resolved into vessels whose shape the security officer had grown to know. "Oh, great, damn," the man muttered, a sense of panic starting to rise in him. He had his phaser rifle, but there was not much else in this group. Hearing his commbadge chirp, he tapped it and said quickly, "Hakamura here."
"Sal, you see it?"
"Salosian aircraft, yes, six of them," he answered.
"Tell me that those Odonans you're with are the last of them."
"No."
"Damn," Rocha muttered. "Do you think you can outrun those Salosians?"
"Not a hope if they start firing from up there."
"Do what you can."
Tapping off the commbadge, Hakamura, speaking Odonien again, said somewhat loudly, "Listen up. Those aircraft that are approaching are the reason that we're evacuating now. Lets not panic, but lets pick up the pace a little!" The tone of his voice, and the urgency within it, seemed to inspire the Odonans to move a little bit faster. Children who were too young to walk quickly were picked up and carried, and others were urged along. They watched the Salosian aircraft approach and land, in a line close to the operations end of the structure, but away from the walkway. Hakamura simply gestured for the Odonans to keep on moving, while he watched with an expert eye the landed craft. Much to his surprise, they did not fire on the fleeing Odonans, and nobody on board disembarked. As they approached the end of the walkway, Hakamura said, "Keep moving, go straight through the first door and straight through the second one, right in front. That'll take you through. Others on the other side will give you further instructions." As best they can, Hakamura added to himself.
Rocha had gathered up what security officers he had, and had them take up positions around the entrance. He made sure that the transmitter was protected, but was ordering the others to get through the gateway. "Move, move!" he shouted, as a couple of loitering civilians.
"What's your problem?" the younger of the two asked.
"This place could erupt in a firefight at any moment, that's what. Get moving."
"I'm starving," the man retorted.
"Sorry, but the buffet is closed. Lieutenant Turokuot, I want you and your engineers to start disassembling this equipment and getting it on the other side."
"Yes sir," the engineer replied.
"As for you... move!" Rocha yelled. "Hann and Gorwitz, make sure that the traffic through that gateway is one way only, in!"
With the engineers scrambling to unplug the replicators from the power generators and other equipment, and then moving the equipment on their built-in antigravity lifts, and the civilians pushed through to the other side, Rocha felt there was some degree of order restored. At the very worst, he thought, if the Salosians attacked, he could seal off the gateway, and defend it from within. However, he wondered if he could control the gateway from the other side, and he was worried about any other groups of Odonans stumbling on this. Most of all, he had to think about the tricobalt explosive.
Standing outside was Hakamura and Lieutenant Giselle Mannheim. Other security officers were taking up positions beside the entrance. "Any change?" the chief asked.
"No," Hakamura replied. "They're in their ships. I'd say each one could hold twelve."
"Could we hold off seventy-two?" Mannheim asked.
"Not for long. It's too bad that the lander had to leave, though. With that around, those Salosians would not even have landed."
"Maybe they know it transited. Is there any chance to bring it back?"
"I doubt it."
As they watched, a second group of three Salosian aircraft approached the structure, and made one pass around it before coming down for a landing behind the first row of aircraft. "They're going to be coming after us," Hakamura remarked. "I don't know why, except to think that these aliens are big on revenge. They're going after the Dorans because of what happened what, five hundred years ago, and now they're coming after us after we bloodied their noses."
"At least that'll keep the outbound system operating for now. They're not going to shut it down if they plan to follow us through."
Mannheim asked, "You don't think they're stupid enough to follow us through, do you? What do you think they'll find on the other end?"
"Maybe they don't know what's on the other side," Rocha said, as he stood near the transmitter, and felt the padd in the pocket of his field jacket. That, he knew, would be the ultimate guarantee that the Salosians did not follow, but it would also mean anybody left behind would never return home. "Maybe we should tell them."
"Alex?" Hakamura asked.
"I've got to find out."
"This is crazy," the assistant chief said.
"I know, but I'm still doing it."
* * *
Doctor Psakolaps and the others guided the stretcher containing Matsubara though the main entrance into sickbay and guided it towards the central bed in the trauma unit. The decapacitor, a device used to drain bioelectricity out of Odonans when they could not do it, was already positioned around the bed. The doctor and the orderly, donning rubber gloves, carefully guided Matsubara onto the treatment bed, and closed up the surgical clamshell over her. On the displays on the shell, her vital signs appeared, and they continued to worry Psakolaps. Heartbeat and breathing were now irregular, and Matsubara just did not look right. Her skin was showing a dangerous blue tinge, with the exposed skin covered in sweat and goosepimples. This was happening despite the fact that her body temperature was dropping.
Once she was secured, and the neutral controllers switched over to the main sickbay computer for control, Psakolaps and Ngyguen moved the beams of the decapacitor into position. Each one had a series of loops and electrodes that were designed to be placed against orsotic tips, the hardened bundle of nerves where an Odonan could conduct the bioelectricity to the surface and allow it to flow from the body. The only problem was that humans did not have orsotic tips. All Psakolaps had was a bundle of nerves that passed through the wrist and into the hands.
"Where?" the nurse asked.
"Underside of the wrists. We'll try there. The nerves are exposed," the doctor said. He quickly guided the straps around her wrists, and tightened them, which was not easy since the muscles in her arms were still spasming. With the straps in place, he began to move the electrodes into place and pressed them into her skin at the right locations.
"Lets hope this works," Ngyguen remarked. "I don't see how since it's designed for Odonans, but lets hope."
"Yeah, lets hope. Stasis is the only other alternative, and given that transporting her onto the lander is what really caused this, I'm not sure about that."
"Ready here, doctor," Ngyguen finally said.
"Okay." The doctor moved to the control panel, and made some adjustments to the equipment before activating it. The decapacitor worked simply by creating a more desirable pathway for the energy to flow, and with bioelectricity, it was very effective, usually draining off the current in seconds. Psakolaps realized that if this device worked here in seconds, it could well be called a miracle. However, with the decapacitor turned on, some power flowed into it, but it did not weaken the strange fields around and in Matsubara.
"It might be a frequency problem," Ngyguen remarked. "We might have to adjust."
"But what frequency?" Psakolaps asked. He glanced at Matsubara again, and her vital signs. "This strange energy is slowly destroying the equipment that's keeping her going."
"If only we knew more about this weapon."
"Lets try varying the field a little. At worst, it seems to have no additional effect, so we can't make it worse."
"Very well..."
* * *
The lander came in for a dock, and was quickly secured. Thorpe then ordered the bridge officers to go off duty and get some rest, something that he wished he could do. However, he knew there was no chance he could rest until he knew the status of Matsubara. When he, along with Takoo, Ochi and a couple of others, emerged from the turbolift that led into the lander, he was greeted by Johnson. "Any word?" he asked.
"No," the first officer replied, "but the doctor is working on him."
Thorpe wanted to contact Psakolaps and get a progress report, but he knew better than to disturb him. Right now, he needed to apply his full attention to saving Matsubara, and did not need the captain hanging over him. One way or the other, Thorpe was sure that he would be the first to know, but it was the suspense that was starting to bother him. He was wondering if he could think straight, to fully contemplate the information he might be given and to have the ability to give clear orders. Finally, he said, "It would be best to leave him alone, until he knows."
"That would be best," Johnson continued. She had many questions for the captain, and really wanted to know in some detail what had happened on that planet in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Within a day or so, he and the other officers on the lander would discuss this with those who had remained on the Athena, and reports would be filed, and even Starfleet might have some questions. She would know in detail soon enough, but she did have one important thought on her mind. "Captain, if that open area is in fact the way out, and the Adamsburg people are waiting somewhere in the structure, it might be worth our while to beam in a team and see if we can connect. I've had T'Kor, Hathson and Hassen standing by, along with a couple of volunteers from other departments. They're willing to go in and see if they can link up with the others."
"There is that risk of defenses and booby traps, though."
"True, but if we don't go in, I can't see any way of getting them out. That particular open area in the cloaking field has to be there for a reason."
"Very well, proceed."
Takoo, hanging near the two senior officers, spoke up, saying, "Captain, I should go along on this. I've been through the structure on Norg. I'd recognize the defenses and the surprises that may be in store in there."
"You're willing to go, after what was a day-long shift mostly on your feet?"
With a slight smirk, Takoo admitted, "Well, I did get to keep the captain's chair on the lander bridge warm a couple of times. Anyway, yeah, I can go, sir."
"Very well. You're in the group. Johnson, send the group down and have Takoo join them. Remember, they're to take every precaution..."
* * *
Rocha approached the first Salosian ship slowly, and carefully. He had his phaser rifle with him, but it was slung over his back and not in an immediately-accessible position. He was nervous, but oddly, not afraid. Based on what he had heard, these Salosians were not some wild group of men hell-bent on revenge, but were highly-trained, highly-disciplined professional soldiers. If they had orders to wait, and not to shoot at a lone man approaching in a non-threatening manner, they were not going to shoot.
The security chief was surprised to see, as he approached, the hatch on the lead vehicle open and lower. A Salosian, wearing the uniform, including the body armour, of his military, came down the ramp. He was not visibly armed, but two Salosians who were clearly armed, stood by the entrance and provided cover. The Salosian asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm Lieutenant Commander Aleksandr Rocha of the Federation starship Athena. Right now, I'm in charge of my people in this location."
"I'm Malpat," the man said. Rocha got the impression that he was very young, perhaps the equivalent of a human in his mid to late twenties. "Sector Commander here."
"Why are you here?"
"It's my understanding," Malpat started, "that your people are in the process of transiting back to your originating planet. We're worried that when this process is complete, you might be attempting to sabotage the structure, to seal it off so that it would no longer be functional. We saw some of this at another location, where some of the slave-taking criminals had taken refuge. Now we cannot access that location. We're worried that you may sabotage this location too. We're here to make sure that does not happen."
Oddly, the explanation seemed reasonable. The Salosians had replaced the Dorans as the rulers of this world and this technology, and they might not want it damaged. Yet, Rocha did not believe them. He had no rational explanation for that belief, just a feeling that the Salosians might be more than they had been letting on. They might have had aims that were a bit more grandiose than simply getting revenge on the Dorans, but they were not going to admit that. He doubted that he could draw it out of them. Finally, the man said, "Some of my people are worried that, since you control the system now and can turn on or off the functions at will, you might come through the gateway, or bring ships through, and attack."
Malpat smiled just a little. "We have no such plans."
"That's good. You must remember that the planet that this structure leads to, a world we call Charamand, is a member of our Federation." He saw no need to state that it was only a small colony. "As such, we will fully defend it against any aggression. Right now, my people are involved in a war with a powerful enemy, so we're no strangers to combat. We know battle now, and we will defend ourselves."
"As I said, that's not a problem."
"Good. This world might be a Salosian world now, but the other side of that gateway is our world. Failing to remember that could have dire consequences."
"I'll keep that in mind, Lieutenant Commander Rocha. Now, it appears that another group is coming towards you from the other end, like others that have come before them." Rocha looked, and saw another group of Odonans, a much smaller group, was coming through, and it did not look like the shock troops were in with them. "We have been attempting to locate this other group, and see how many there are left, but we haven't been able to find them."
That was surprising, Rocha thought, and implied that the Salosians still were not fully in control of this planet and its technology. He said, "By now, we must be getting to the end of them. As soon as the last ones are through, you can shut down all functions at this location. That would be best."
"I see. It was nice meeting you."
Rocha returned to where Hakamura and Mannheim were standing. Hakamura, seemingly more interested in the approaching group of Odonans, left it to Mannheim to ask, "How did it go?"
"They're coming through the gateway once we're through. How are things here?"
"The engineers are still working on getting the equipment to the other side..."
* * *
For ten minutes, Psakolaps and Ngyguen worked with the decapacitor, trying to get its negative-energy fields and its energy sinks set up just right to draw off the strange energies in Matsubara's body, but whatever energy was coming out was immediately replaced with new energy from an unknown source. Psakolaps found himself increasingly spending time making adjustments to the neural controllers and other equipment to keep the science officer alive and her body working. The readings were starting to oscillate and waver even more.
"This doesn't appear to be working," Ngyguen said.
"If this effect was intentional," the doctor started, "there must be some way to draw it off."
"Maybe we should go and ask the Salosians."
"I don't think they'd co-operate," Psakolaps replied. He tried to stay calm and focused. Practicing medicine on a starship often meant dealing with the unfamiliar and the unusual, especially when intentionally inflicted on a person. Such things had a way out. He looked over at Matsubara and her readings, and said, "Oh damn." The heart was still beating and the lungs were still taking in air, but many of the other organs were shutting down for a lack of instruction from the brain. What the brain was doing looked increasingly random. "We're losing her."
"Even if this does work, what kind of damage is it doing?" Ngyguen asked.
"I'm fearful of finding out." He started calling up information. "The decapacitor is drawing out energy, and the fields around Damiko are varying. Is it random, or is there a pattern here? There has to be something."
Elsewhere on the Athena, Thorpe could just wait and hope. Johnson understood this, and did not question him when he let her go to the bridge to monitor the group that had beamed down into the opening in the cloaking field. Once more, he resisted all urges to contact sickbay and find out what was happening. He would know, he said to himself. He would be the first to know.
* * *
Just as this latest group of Odonans approached the outside entrance-and not a single Odonan soldier among them-three more Salosian aircraft appeared, but these ones did not attempt to land. "Oh damn," Rocha finally said. These aircraft were roughly the same shape, but were three times the size and had what appeared to be integrated warp and impulse engines. They were spaceships, Rocha realized. He had no idea if they were going to transport troops, or would be used to attack targets on Charamand. He was pretty sure that the Athena and the Bluestar could make short work of them, but he was still worried of the damage that they could do, especially in the first few seconds after they appeared without warning.
"They're not landing," Mannheim said. As she spoke, the soldiers started to disembark from the landed vessels, and they were taking up formation. Heavier weapons were being brought out. "This is not good. Those other ships..."
"Are going to transit through the cavern."
"The lander went through automatically."
Rocha added, "We didn't have to do anything to make that happen, but is there anything that we can do to stop this?" He looked around, but Turokuot was not around. He looked about, seeing all kinds of people moving around, but this was chaos and was too confusing.
Hakamura asked the first Odonan of the somewhat panic-stricken group to reach him, "Are you the last of your people there?"
"I think so, maybe. Some don't want to come. They're being persuaded."
"Oh damn," Rocha muttered sharply. The Salosians themselves had taken control of the hatch that allowed ships to enter the cavern. The moment was at hand. "Everybody, and I mean everybody, to the other side, now!" He gestured for them to leave the transmitter alone for now, while he took out the padd and called up the controls for the tricobalt device. He tested it again, and found that he still had control. Hakamura and Mannheim remained at his side. Turning to the woman, he said, "Mannheim, get behind the gateway and with the others, prepare to set up defenses." As Rocha spoke, he noticed that the three larger Salosian craft were approaching the now-open hatch to the cavern, but were not yet entering. The soldiers were not yet storming the cavern, and Rocha suspected they were doing so since they were not fully sure of what they would be facing on the other side.
* * *
On the Athena, Psakolaps and Ngyguen continued to work on Matsubara, to try to draw off the strange energies in her body and to get her neural patterns and brain waves normalized. It was not easy, and increasingly the activity was entering the orange "danger" zone. The sensors indicated that the energy in her body was not constant, but was varying, and now Psakolaps was looking for any kind of correlation. The computer was finding nothing, so he realized that he was going to have to do this with intuition.
Ngyguen remarked, "The problem I think is that the technology used here is not designed for humans."
"It's not working perfectly?" the doctor asked.
The nurse looked up, unsure if the Kentyan was being facetious or not. She said nothing, and kept her face grim. She consulted the same charts and data that Psakolaps was looking at, trying to spot anything, no matter how remote. Finally, something seemed to come together in her mind. "Doctor, look at this."
"What do you got?"
"I pulled the records on Damiko's body temperature. It's erratic, and look, a correlation."
Psakolaps called up the displays on one of the monitors, and overlaid the data recording the patient's body temperature and the levels of the strange alien energy. There was not much of an effect there, but even he noticed that at least some semblance of a pattern existed. "Could it be? The energy is sensitive to body temperature?"
"It does dip when her temperature goes up, and rises when her temperature dips. I'd almost think there's a correlation here. The natural instinct of the body is to fight this, and that could raise core temperature, and the fields drop back to cause the body to ease back."
"This is a risky course," Psakolaps admitted, realizing what he had to do.
"I know," Ngyguen answered, "but it's all that I can see right now, and I think we're running out of time."
Psakolaps made the decision. It was the right of any starship chief medical officer to make such a decision, and not ask permission from the captain or any relative of the patient. Seconds counted right now. The doctor moved over to the medical replicator and called out, "Computer, one hundred millilitres of themolyne." Seconds later, a small vial of the yellowish liquid, a drug used to help a body fight off hypothermia, appeared. Psakolaps took it over to the surgical shell, and inserted it in the slot that fed medication intravenously into the body. "Okay, lets try this, start with twenty millilitres." He tapped the controls that caused the small quantity of thermolyne to enter the body.
"Temperature is thirty-seven point three," Ngyguen said. "Rising to... thirty-seven point six."
One of the monitors beeped, indicating a worrisome level of randomness in her neural activity. Psakolaps quickly responded by making adjustments to the cordical simulators, giving them greater control. He could see the sweat on Matsubara's face. "C'mon, Damiko," the doctor said, "you're made of stronger stuff than that."
"Thirty-eight degrees," Ngyguen said. "Anything?"
"Variance in field strength increasing."
Five minutes later, after Psakolaps administered another twenty millilitres, Ngyguen reported, "Thirty-nine degrees. Maybe... I'm wrong, and there's no correlation."
"One more degree."
"That's getting dangerous, doctor."
"I know."
* * *
In a way, Rocha did not mind the stalling too much, since it gave them all more time for another-and hopefully the last-group of Odonans to arrive. The three craft did not enter the cavern, but were ready to do so. Rocha looked down at the padd-wondering what the Salosians thought of that-and saw that the tricobalt device was at thirty seconds and holding. All he needed to do to begin the countdown was tap two icons on the small screen.
The Salosians were taking up position, using the vessels for cover, and moving among the concentric ring of columns. Some had reached the structure some distance from the doorway, and others, Rocha noticed, were approaching the large, open hatch.
Malpat approached. Rocha held his phaser rifle loosely in one hand, and kept the other firmly on the padd. Hakamura and Mannheim were again at his side. The Salosian approached Rocha, and started, "Commander, it might be possible to reach an accommodation between your group and mine. I'm sure that your people have no interest in dying in a pointless battle, and neither do mine. I'm fully aware that we each can inflict heavy losses on each other with no sure outcome."
"What do you propose?" Rocha asked, tentatively, and nervously.
"As stated, we have no argument with your people in general. However, it has come to my understanding that you are harbouring two individuals wanted for criminal charges."
Although Rocha had a pretty good idea what Malpat was talking about, he said, "Can you elaborate?"
"Our mission here was to liquidate the Dorans, who committed serious crimes against my people in the past. Two of your people have committed the crime of aiding and abetting the enemy. I could give you the particulars of the charge, but basically what they did was to guide a fleeing group of Dorans through a structure similar to this one, and then they damaged the structure, making retrieving the fleeing Dorans impossible. We are demanding the return of those two individuals so that they can stand trial."
Rocha did all he could to avoid breaking out into laughter. He seriously doubted that Matsubara would get a fair trial, but he could not really tell that to Malpat's face, especially with all of those weapons pointing at him. Instead, he said, "Your request is not possible at the present time. Before we recovered them, you fired a weapon at them, seriously injuring them. One did not survive, and the fate of the other is unknown, but it is my understanding is that she is in serious condition."
"You have no proof of that."
"If you are willing," Rocha started, "you, and a small, select group of men can made the transit in one vehicle. I will accompany you. We will contact my captain on the other side, and he will show you the body of the one who has died, and, unless medical procedures forbid it, the status of the other. However, I do not think that Captain Thorpe will be willing to turn over the one survivor under any conditions."
"Surely your people understand the rule of law, and the judicial process, and how criminals must be prosecuted and not harboured."
"We do," Rocha replied. "However, we can only allow citizens of the Federation to be turned over to alien authorities only for crimes that we recognize as crimes. What Commander Matsubara did was not a crime in the eyes of my people. Throughout our history, people have helped others escape what would be a massacre or a genocide. We don't call such people criminals. We call them heroes instead."
"And you wish to see many other people die so that you can actually use that distinction?"
"No," Rocha said, after some thought. He got the feeling that what he was really doing was stalling, but through this whole time, he saw no other groups come out of the residential half of the structure. "In the history of my people, if others had thought the same way that you want me to think, it's highly unlikely that I would be standing here today, or that we would still be existing on our homeworld. I mean, my offer stands, but I don't think it'll do much good. The position back home is not likely to change."
Malpat stepped away, saying, "Then I have no choice. Our mission is to capture the criminals, and we will use all methods necessary to achieve our goal." With a dramatic wave, the Salosian leader gestured for the three larger vessels to continue their trip into the cavern.
"Damn," muttered the security chief. The other Salosians began to advance. He looked at the padd, and the graphics on it. His thumb was near the first icon.
"Sir," Hakamura said softly.
"I have no choice in the matter," he said, mostly to himself. He tapped the first icon. The Salosians were not going to attack until their leader was out of the line of fire. "Is everybody clear?"
"Just us three," Mannheim said.
"It's odd the way people think," Rocha continued. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. The needs of the one outweigh the needs of many. It is easier to accept the death of many people you don't know than to accept the death of one person that you do know. Guilt never falls on the side that is shot at first."
"Platitudes," Hakamura said.
"I know. There are no easy answers here, none at all." Rocha looked, and saw his thumb was over the second icon. The countdown was not technically irrevocable, except that once he started it, he was going to get behind the outer door and then the gateway door, which made communication with the device impossible. "Mannheim, the inner door, Hakamura, this one." The two retreated inside, leaving Rocha standing there. He picked up the transmitter. Malpat reached the lead vehicle, and briefly spoke with another man. The two began gesturing, and the Salosians all around shouldered weapons and took up positions. It looked like the major assault was going to come through the open hatch.
Rocha tapped the last icon. He glanced at the display, and saw it flash to twenty-nine, then twenty-eight. He got inside. Hakamura hit the switch to close the door, and as the thick metal panels slammed shut, Rocha thought he saw something in the distance, a glint, a movement, at the opposite end of the structure. He did not dwell on it. He and Hakamura helped haul the transmitter across the gateway threshold, just as the first Salosians climbed up to the hatch opening, and the vessels started to enter. The two Athena security officers briskly stepped through the threshold, and Mannheim hit the switch that closed the other door. Just beyond was a group of security officers, weapons trained and ready.
Rocha consulted the padd. The countdown timer said ten seconds. He wondered if he had seen anything at all across the open space.
Beyond was a commotion, and he heard someone shout something along the lines that Takoo was back, and T'Kor was with her. What was T'Kor doing here? Did she not stay on the Athena...
* * *
"Fourty degrees," Psakolaps said nervously. Pushing the body temperature up that high could have serious consequences. People sometimes did not survive at fourty-one. "Anything?"
"The fields dip a little," Ngyguen said, "like you said. It adjusts."
"But it dips."
"Yes."
"We've got to do it," the doctor said. He felt nervous, and unsure of himself. He could feel his heartbeat rise, almost matching the strained nature of Matsubara's vital signs. He was sweating too, while her face was wet with sweat.
"You know the risks."
"I know." He adjusted the thermolyne supply, to add another twenty millilitres to her bloodstream. Her body would run hotter, edging close to where it would become fatally hot and the brain would cease to function-as if it was not doing that already.
Ngyguen watched the rise in body temperature, and the adjustment in the field strength.
* * *
Halfway around the planet from where Malpat and his forces were massing for their attack, the Salosians had occupied the control centre. They were using the information they had learned from other sources, and a quick examination of the consoles and the modifications that the Dorans had made to them to learn how to operate the system. They already knew far more than the Dorans-whom the Salosians regarded as little above mental defectives-had learned in their centuries of ruling this planet. Slight vibrations caught their attention. Displays flashed off and on.
"Is this planet seismically active?" one asked.
A short distance away, the spire, mostly dark, with only a few points of light, rose high into the darkness. A flash of light was seen through a few of the viewports and opening, and this was followed a second later by a rather large blast of debris and energy, which crashed through the few openings available, and then it created its own openings. Superheated debris shot out in all directions, with such force that they tore through the surrounding structures. That explosion was followed by a far larger one, which caused extensive gaps to form in the spire, with smoke and flames shooting out behind a shield of rock and debris.
Within the control centre, the second explosion caused the room to shake so violently that those standing were knocked over those who were sitting. Consoles shattered, and equipment mounted on the wall collapsed, shooting sparks and plasma through the room. Salosian technicians and scientists dove for cover, or were thrown through the holographic table. It was as if the room was tilting, with those thrown about hurled into a far wall. Panels exploded, adding to the churning debris that flew about due to the relentless and increasing shaking.
The third explosion vapourized the spire. A jet of plasma sheathed with vapourized and superheated debris, shot into space, tearing through the fields that contained the atmosphere. The energies at the core of the now-vanished spire, matching the system star in its intensity, were no longer contained, and expanded extremely rapidly, vapourizing the crater and everything within it, and penetrating the crust of the planet so deeply and so quickly that the structure of the planet was ruptured. Through all of this, the expanding energy vapourized rock and turned the atmosphere into a plasma as it expanded outwards at over ten thousand kilometres per hour.
Malpat grabbed his weapon, and faced the doorway that the humans had just closed. He glanced at the three attack craft now entering the chamber. They were doing so slowly, knowing that they would not transit until fully stopped. Air resistance would stop them, while their engines were primed for maximum acceleration after the transit. It was why they were moving slowly. Malpat turned back to the matter at hand. He would lead the charge through the doorway, along with his elite group of officers. They approached the doorway quickly, with the lead officer, holding the sensing device, saying, "They've closed the hatch to the gateway too."
"Have they terminated power?"
"Not yet."
All ten Salosians were close to the door. Malpat looked around, and saw to the southeast a strange glow. "What is that?" he asked. The glow started red, turned orange and then yellow, and was expanding.
The lead officer said, "Sir, a problem. We've lost all power."
"What?" the leader asked.
"The system has gone completely inert." As if to demonstrate, the man worked the controls that opened the door. Nothing happened.
Another Salosian, standing on the frame of the hatch, yelled out, "It's gone completely dark in here."
"What have the humans done?"
"Do you see damage?" another asked.
"No."
But Malpat saw a lot of damage. That glow filled half the sky, and virtually every Salosian on the ground noticed it. So, the Salosians realized, did that group of aliens that emerged from the residential half of the structure. The glow was becoming brighter, casting shadows and becoming almost blinding. As the glow intensified, he could see that it was being generated by something, a wave of destruction, a rolling, unstoppable mass of superheated plasma and matter. The Salosians broke ranks. One of the vessels lifted off. People were scrambling for cover. Malpat just stood there. To the lead officer, he said simply, "The humans, or maybe the Dorans, sabotaged something in the crater."
"Nothing unusual was reported."
"Because we didn't know enough," cursed Malpat. "We spent five hundred years getting ready for this, learning all that we could, and we still didn't know enough."
The other Salosian simply looked at the wave bearing down on him. The last thing he saw was the galaxy disappear behind that energy. The wall of destruction raced down on them. Malpat knew there was no escape, no chance to hide. He did know there was one blessing, though. The end would be instantaneous.
* * *
To Rocha, Hakamura and Mannheim, along with other security officers, Athena engineers and scientists, a lot of Odonans, many Adamsburg citizens and some others, the hatch that they were facing led to the structure on that planet in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It looked that close. In reality, it was two hundred thousand light years away, and in seconds, they were going to feel it. Hakamura and his chief looked at the padd as the one changed to zero. "What will it be like?" asked the assistant chief.
"I don't know."
Then the lights went out. Voices rose. Rocha could sense shuffling, and hear a sense of concern and panic. The multitude still on the cavern on the Charamand side of the structure were plunged into darkness and felt a rising fear and uncertainty.
"That must be it," Hakamura said. "We severed the power, and the technology on that planet powered this complex."
Mannheim spoke up, "But what's this about T'Kor and Takoo? Did they find another way in?"
Before Rocha could answer, he heard his commbadge sound. That chirping sound, so familiar and yet so strange here, caught everybody's attention. The voices momentarily stilled. Tapping it, the man said, "Rocha here."
"This is Commander Johnson," came the response. "What has happened there? Suddenly, the entire alien complex is visible to our sensors. There's no power at all, but we're reading thousand of people, humans and Odonans."
"We used the tricobalt device to sever power at the source. It appears to have worked."
"Very well. Commander, pass the word, as best you can-it's probably pitch black down there."
"You got that right, commander."
"Pass the word. We've getting all of our transporter rooms ready. We'll start beaming out people. The Bluestar is doing likewise. Let them know they're getting out of there soon and not to panic."
"Understood," Rocha answered. Already, the news was starting to spread, with Hakamura translating the instructions to the Odonans. As the news spread, there was cheering, not panic. They had done it. They had come home.
* * *
"Fourty and a half degrees," Psakolaps said. "Neural activity still declining."
"Fourty point six," added Ngyguen. She was watching the displays, and noticed something changing. "Wait, something's happening. Reset the decapacitor."
Psakolaps cleared the stored energy and reset it to draw off the energy within Matsubara. He even set the resistors to a lower temperature. Suddenly, all the energy drained from Matsubara's body and was dumped into the capacitors, but before the energy flows could reverse, Psakolaps hit the switches that severed the connections. "Got it," the man said. "We did it."
"Neural activity slowly adjusting," the nurse added. "Do we cool her, or let her body do it?"
Psakolaps ejected the vial containing the remaining thermolyne. "It would be best to let her body handle it. She's resting now, and it would be best to let her rest on her own, and remain unconscious. I've still go the plasma burns to treat." Looking over at Ngyguen, he added, "Thank you, Ashana. I don't think that I would've spotted the correlation, but it appeared to work. Damiko, no doubt, will thank you too." The two looked down at the suddenly-peaceful expression on the young woman's face, even if her face was coated in sweat-as were the faces of the two medical officers who had worked on her.
