Heresy 6

Tylha
Spirits of Earth hurtles between the stars, the subtranswarp drive eating up the light years. I settle down on the bridge - small and cosy, after the King Estmere's echoing Tholian hall with the peculiar artificial gravity - and take a few moments to luxuriate in the cool air.

Dr. Haught shivers. "Cold in here, isn't it?"

Harley Haught is a geologist, added to my crew at the last minute, in case we need his expertise on the surface of Chara V. He's a tall, rather good-looking young man - if you like humans - with dark hair and a rather high forehead. And, judging from his attitude, he fancies himself something of a lady-killer. Which might be amusing, come to think of it.

"It's an Andorian ship," I point out. "And I've just been enduring Earth's temperatures...."

"Yes," says Haught, "but, well, you guys are more adaptable than us poor pinkskins, right?"

Actually, that's true, though you won't often find a human who'll admit to it. I revise my estimate of Haught up a notch. "Conditions on Chara V are warmer," I say. "Normally - I don't know what this volcanic incident will have done to the climate."

"Well," Haught says, "in the medium term, there'll be a drop in temperature, as the volcanic dust increases the planetary albedo. But I guess it's early, yet, for that to take full effect. I just -" He breaks off, as the bridge door hisses open. "Whoah!" he says.

Amiga stands in the doorway, looking faintly taken aback. The android has just returned to her normal look, opening the service panels to the circuitry in her cheeks, removing the cosmetic caps from her eyes so that the naked metal shows. "Are you distressed, Dr. Haught?" she asks.

"Wow. Just, um, surprised, I guess. I saw you in the transporter room earlier...."

"Indeed you did," Amiga says. "Mostly, I do not conceal my artificial origins. I recently had reasons to assume a fully humanoid appearance, though, and I have only just reverted to my normal fashion. I trust you do not disapprove?"

Haught looks blank for a moment, then he laughs. "I'll say one thing for you," he says. "Whatever your origins, you're clearly all woman."

Amiga inclines her head. "I shall take that as a compliment... to my designers."

A low rumbling laugh comes from the tac station. "Don't mess with that one, lad," my uncle, Kophil Phohr, says. "She'll eat you alive."

"Commander Phohr, needless to say, does not speak from personal experience," Amiga says.

"Any time you want to put your money where your mouth is, robo-girl...."

"I hate to break this up." Even Anthi Vihl, my ultra-professional exec, isn't hiding a grin. "But we're about to come out of warp at Chara."

"OK. Amiga, Uncle Kophil... flirt later. F'hon." The Bolian comms officer looks up. "Patch us through to local traffic control, make sure we have all the right clearances. And get me the IDRA ship as soon as you can manage it."

"On it, skipper," says F'hon Tlaxx.

Spirits of Earth shudders as she drops to sublight speeds, and the view on the screen changes to a normal static starscape, a bright yellow star glowing to one side. I check the system display on my console. Chara has seven planets, two hot rockballs in close orbit, one habitable and prosperous class M world, then an oddity, a minor planet about the size of Sol's Mercury, in an orbit that makes it look as though it's a capture from interstellar space. Our destination, Chara V, is next, a much more marginal class M... and then there are two moderate-sized ice giants, further out. A pretty typical system - well, unusual in that there are two class M worlds, but not that unusual. I've seen many stranger.

"Got an automated response from traffic control," says F'hon. "Patching it through to helm now - and there's a Jevon Tolm, planetary governor, Chara V, wants to speak to you."

"On screen."

The face on the screen is a humanoid one, possibly even straight-up human, it's hard to tell just from a headshot sometimes. He's thin and middle-aged and worried looking, whatever species he is. "Vice Admiral Shohl?"

"That's me. We've had a request from IDRA to lend assistance."

He looks marginally less worried. "Anything you can do to help would be welcome. We have the situation in hand in the capital, and in most of the districts on Continent Alpha. But the situation on Beta is confused -"

"That's where the Vulcan science team is, isn't it? And where the disaster happened?"

"Yes. Frankly, Vice Admiral, we're worried about those people. The only inhabitants of Beta have been accounted for - but the Vulcans were a lot closer to the epicentre of the blast, and the reports we have are... confusing. We don't have air craft capable of reaching them at this time, and the IDRA vessels aren't equipped for atmospheric operations in that amount of turbulence."

"Well, if need be, I can take my ship down, we are cleared for a range of environments - but, naturally, I'd like to explore other options first."

"Of course, Vice Admiral." Does he look slightly less worried? "Just - well, please do everything you have to - everything you can - to get those people out."

"I'll put you through to my quartermaster to see if there are any other essential supplies we can get to you. We should be in transporter range in -" I shoot a questioning glance at Anthi.

"Thirty minutes at full impulse, sir."

"Thirty minutes."

He smiles, a twitchy smile but a genuine one. "It'll be a relief to have a Starfleet ship in orbit, Vice Admiral. Ready to talk to your quartermaster now. Godspeed."

The screen goes blank, comes back with the image of the planet. "I'm not sure atmosphere operation are advisable," Haught says.

"Well, very often we have to do stuff that isn't advisable. What's the problem?"

"I'm reading some odd chemical composition from the volcanic dust cloud." Haught's high forehead is furrowed in thought. "There are some heavy elements I didn't expect to see...."

Zazaru speaks up from the main science console; the soft-spoken chief science officer has been very quiet up to now. "The planet was surveyed briefly as a possible source of topaline ore, but the deposits were not considered sufficient for commercial exploitation. However, since topaline is often found near the planetary mantle -"

"Oh, of course," Haught interrupts. "Deposits blown out from deeper levels by the supervolcano. Makes sense."

"Glad to hear it." There is a certain amusement in the Trill scientist's soft brown eyes. "I'm reading something else, though, which is genuinely anomalous. Traces - just traces - of kironide. And an isotope, too, that I'm sure can't be native to the planet."

"Kironide?" Haught's eyebrows go up at that.

"In dangerous quantities?" I ask.

"Hard to tell." Kironide, in some circumstances, acts as a natural psionic amplifier. The problem is, even after two hundred years of study, no one is sure what the circumstances are. On the planet Platonius, it reliably imparts psychokinetic abilities to most humanoids... anywhere else, the results are a whole lot less reliable, and there are still no consistent theories as to why. Kironide dust in the air? That is one reason to be very, very careful.

"I don't understand about that isotope," Haught says.

"Niobium-91," says Zazaru. "In terms of the relative isotopic quantities on this particular planet, it is not something I would expect to find in any quantity... but there is a localized source reading, somewhere in the region of the Vulcan science team. The conclusion is obvious."

"It is?" Haught seems at a loss.

"Obviously," I take pity on him, "it must be what led the science team here in the first place. And, if it's not natural - well, draw your own conclusions."

"But Chara V has no native inhabitants..." says Haught.

"So," says Zazaru, "the likelihood is, it was brought from elsewhere. A spaceship. Possibly a long time ago, if my estimates of the radioactive decay chains are correct."

I frown. There are pieces of a puzzle, here, but it's a puzzle that's obstinately refusing to take shape. I crane around in my seat to look behind me, at where Commander Sirip is sitting, quietly, by a secondary security console. "Sirip, you're the nearest thing I've got to an expert on Vulcans... does any of this suggest anything at all to you?"

"Regrettably, no, sir," the Vulcan tac officer replies. "I can only offer the truism that, whatever reasons the scientists have for remaining in that location, it must be a compelling one. But nothing I have heard so far suggests any reason for the compulsion."

Well, I suppose it's too much to ask that he should know some bit of Vulcan lore that conveniently explains what they're up to. "Does the Chara system mean anything to you?" I look around the bridge. "Or anybody else, come to that."

"It is a system with habitable worlds, comparatively close to Vulcan," says Sirip. "It has been the subject of science missions before, naturally."

"I have a complete historical record," says Amiga.

"Of course you do," says Kophil. She smiles at him. I give it a few more months before she resprays herself in blue, bolts on a pair of antennae, and becomes my aunt by marriage. Perhaps I'm being simplistic, though.

"Unfortunately, nothing relevant seems to present itself," Amiga continues. "It is only a typical system, with no indigenous sentient forms, and no significant historical impact. Even the wars in this quadrant have, to date, only involved it peripherally."

"I have a sensor contact," Anthi announces suddenly, and every head turns towards her. "Something big, on an inbound vector to Chara V orbit. Trying to resolve it now...." Her eyes widen. "Sir, it's cloaked!"

"Yellow alert," I order. Can there be any good reason for a cloaked ship to be operating here? "Maintain course. Let's not let on we've spotted them."

"Maintaining course. Sir, I think - yes, they're decloaking."

"Put it on the screen. Maximum magnification - let's see what we've got."

One second, there is the empty starscape; the next, the stars shimmer, and a shape appears - the ugly winged bulk of a Romulan Scimitar, grey-green and massive.

"Weapons hot. Get me a read on that ship!"

"On it," says F'hon tersely. "Sir - incoming communication. They're hailing us."

I lean back in my command chair. "Let's have it."

The face that appears on the viewer is a harsh Romulan one, all sharp planes and angles, surmounted by iron-grey hair in an elaborate coil and braid, and with the coldest, lightest grey eyes I have ever seen. She looks at me with those icy eyes, and I sense a will behind them, a will and a purpose.

"Starfleet vessel. I am High Admiral Valikra, aboard the IRW Raven's Heart. You are no doubt at alert status. You may stand down. My mission is a peaceful one."

Stand down? I'll stand down in my own time. "You're a long way from Romulan territory, High Admiral. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to specify your - mission."

"Naturally." Is there a hint of amusement in those eyes? "We have heard that some of our Vulcan brethren are in distress on the planet Chara V. We have come to offer them our unconditional assistance."