Captain’s log, stardate
62660.4:
The Dauntless has entered orbit of Vega Colony, where I’ve
arranged for the crew to have some R&R.
K’danz, out.
Captain K’danz, Commander Tom Paris and Commander Dar were
strolling along the central boulevard of the Vega Colony, one of the Earth’s
first and oldest extra-solar colonies, with the colonial governor, Donald Kiley.
“Thanks for
letting us take shore leave at your beautiful colony, Governor Kiley,” K’danz said as she
admired the view of the deep blue sky over the distant snow-capped mountains.
“We’re happy to
host you, Captain,” Kiley said as he led the Dauntless command
crew through the oldest areas of the colony.
“Anything to support Starfleet. I just wish you had arrived a couple of
months ago.”
“A couple of months ago?”
“Things were much
calmer then,” Kiley said as he stopped walking and,
with a gesture, invited the Dauntless crew to sit on a bench alongside the
sidewalk. “We’ve been trying to deal
with a spate of disappearances in the last several weeks.”
“Disappearances?”
“The colony
police have been investigating, but it’s baffling. None of those missing have disappeared in the
same place, time or under the same circumstances. There doesn’t seem to be any connection, but
our police chief is sure they must be related somehow.”
“Why is that?” K’danz asked, her previous career as a security officer
coming out at the mention of a mystery.
“Because everyone
who has gone missing has been a non-human,” Kiley
explained. “While Vega was founded over
two hundred years ago, and we have some citizens from other Federation worlds,
the majority of our population are still
Earth-descended humans. For crimes like
this to occur only to this small percentage of the population can’t be a
coincidence.”
“Is there
anything we can do to…?” K’danz started to offer when
she was interrupted by the governor’s communicator.
“Chief Wingate to Governor Kiley.”
The governor, his
expression embarrassed, excused himself and touched the communicator he wore on
his wrist like a 20th century wristwatch.
“Yes, Chief?”
“There’s been an
attack in Sector 6. Possibly
connected to the disappearences. My officers managed to seal off the sector
pretty quickly, so we may have our perp trapped.”
“I’ll be right
there,” Governor Kiley said.
Space,
the Final Frontier…
These
are the voyages of the starship Dauntless!
Star
Trek: Dauntless
“Vega Prime” By PJK
Several minutes
later, Governor Kiley, Captain K’danz
and Commanders Paris and Dar arrived where Chief of Colonial Police Clancy
Wingate and several of his officers stood alongside one of the forcefield emitters that stood on each street corner,
allowing the police to seal off sections of the colony during emergencies or, like
presently, during the commission of a crime.
“Mister Flavias was attacked,” Wingate informed the governor. “He thinks whoever hit him might have been
trying to abduct him at the time, but they didn’t manage to knock him out.” The chief smiled with a half-amused smile and
added, “Tellarite skulls can be pretty thick.”
“Can he identify
his assailant?” Governor Kiley asked.
“Negative. He was approached from behind and never saw
whoever it was.” Chief Wingate then
nodded toward the active forcefield that sealed off a
two block stretch of street. “We counted
over thirty people in there, including at least five of the starship crew. We’re going to release them all one by one,
record names and where to find them later so we can interview everyone.” The chief then turned to his nearest officer
and ordered, “Open up this gate and start taking names and addresses.” He then turned back to the governor and his
guests and added, “I’ll release your crew back to you, Captain.”
As K’danz nodded, the police officers lowered the one small forcefield entrance at the corner and started letting the
people who had been trapped inside free, recording their personal information
as they passed. After a dozen had passed
through, including Chief Pono Kyman
and Ensign Carter Breitling, who had been shopping
along the commercial district before heading to a recommended pub and now
joined their crewmates, Dar noticed a face that seemed familiar. The engineer stepped closer to the forcefield entrance to get a better look, but the man
seemed to be purposely trying to hide his face as he quickly presented his ID
to the police officer and then briskly headed away down the street before Dar
could catch up.
“Excuse me,” Dar
said to one of the colony police officers near the gate. “I hope you don’t mind my asking, but who was
that man who just passed through the checkpoint?”
The officer
glanced in the direction the man in question had walked, but he was already out
of sight. Looking back at Dar, he said, “Who? Mister Spellane? He runs a small import and transport company
over on
“Spellane?” Dar asked as his wife K’danz and Governor Kiley joined
him near the forcefield emitter, where the last few
people passed though before the police shut down the forcefield
entirely.
“Something wrong,
Dar?” K’danz asked.
“I’m not sure,”
Dar said as he continued to stare in the direction of where Spellane
disappeared. “But I could have sworn I
just saw someone I grew up with on
*
* * *
A short time
later, in the governor’s residence, Dar was telling Kiley,
K’danz, Paris, Breitling
and Kyman about his youth on
“As I’m sure you
all know,
25 Years Earlier
Earth Year 2360
“Hey, Turtlehead!”
Young Dar, only
fourteen years old, was walking toward his home from the
“I said… Hey, Turtlehead!” Dean Spiro shouted as he caught up to Dar
and grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling the half-Klingon
boy around to face him. “How many times do I have to tell you to get out of my human
neighborhood and over to your own side of the planet where you belong?” Spiro sneered at Dar.
“This is my side of
the planet,” Dar responded defiantly as he pulled away from Spiro’s grip and
started to turn away, but not before noticing that Spiro’s friends,
or gang as Dar preferred to think of them, were gathering behind the older
boy. “I live down the next block, so
that makes this my side of the planet.”
“You should be
with your own people, freak,” one of the boys behind Spiro shouted.
“You mother wears
combat boots!” another yelled, prompting Dar to laugh.
“What are you
laughing about, Turtlehead?” Spiro demanded to know, oblivious.
“Because my mother is Klingon! She DOES wear combat boots, you idiot!” Dar
replied, ducking quickly when Spiro in his frustration swung his fist at
him. Dar took off running toward home,
Spiro and his gang hot on his heels, a couple of the boys pausing on occasion
to grab rocks to throw at the fleeing teenager.
Dar managed to run inside his house, one of the prefabricated shelters
that had housed over four generations of colonists, and slide the door shut
before the gang caught him. A couple of
more rocks struck the closed door but things quickly grew quiet.
Curious, Dar
headed up to his room, where the computer he used to teach himself science and
engineering principles sat on a desk below a window that overlooked the street. Looking out he noticed Spiro wadding up
something that looked like an old shirt and then pulling out something from his
pocket. Dar wondered what it was until
Spiro pulled open the top, revealing a lighter device normally found in
survival kits. He started pointing its
tip at the balled up cloth until a harsh voice interrupted him.
“What are you
doing?” shouted Dar’s mother, T’uti, as she stepped
out the front door of the home, warily looking at the almost dozen teenage boys
standing there. Dar noticed Spiro
quickly put the emergency lighter away in his pocket and toss the shirt to one
of his lackeys. “Be gone from here! I would not want anyone getting… hurt.” T’uti glared at the
boys malevolently. Spiro appeared for a
moment like he was considering taking on the female warrior, even if by
himself, then reconsidered. He nodded to
his boys and they all started walking off slowly. T’uti watched them
leave for a moment, then stepped back inside the
house, calling up the stairs.
“Dar! What is going on?”
“Nothing, Mother.
They’re just a bunch of idiots,” Dar yelled back down.
“Have nothing to
do with them,” T’uti warned. “They are without honor. I see no good coming of them.”
“Yes, Mother,”
Dar replied.
*
* * *
Six months later,
Dar was again on his way home from school, riding a small hoverbike
he had built himself when he heard sirens coming down the road. He pulled to the side of the street as
several red hovercraft rushed in the direction from which he had come, heading
toward the center of town. It was then
that he noticed the smoke rising in the air.
Curiosity getting the better of the half-Klingon
boy, he turned his vehicle around and headed after the fire apparatus.
Several blocks
later, in the midst of the colony’s commercial district, Dar came across the
emergency scene. Several stores were
burning, the fire just coming under control as the fire fighters applied a
portable forcefield around the property, denying
oxygen to the flames. Dar was shocked as
he realized he knew the owner of the store at the center of the flames, a Klingon compatriot of his mothers and one of the few Klingon citizens living in what had originally been the
Federation colony when the planet was first colonized, who sold Klingon cuisine to those brave enough to attempt eating it.
To his shock, Dar
noticed Spiro and his gang further down the block opposite the fire
engines. They appeared to be enjoying
the spectacle.
“The fire is out,”
one of the fire fighters announced to his supervisor and one of the security
officers on the scene. Dar watched as
several of the fire fighters entered the buildings, evaluating the damage. A moment later one of the firemen appeared at
the burned out door of the shop.
“We have a
fatality!”
Dar watched sadly
as several medical personnel carried the body of Kadith,
the shop owner, out on a stretcher and into a waiting ambulance before noticing
Spiro subtly give a high-five to one of his buddies. He glared at the older boy and considered
confronting him for his behavior before the security officer approached and
said, “Clear out. This is a crime scene
now. We need to clear this area
immediately.”
Dar turned his hoverbike back in the direction of his home before looking
back toward where Spiro and his gang were, but they were already gone. Dar sighed and figured he should let his
mother know about what had happened. He
figured she would not like the news.
*
* * *
“The next day,
the security officers recovered the surveillance feed from the area. The fire was not an accident, as you might
have figured,” Dar explained to the guests gathered in the Vegan governor’s
residence.
“Arson,” Chief Kyman said with a nod.
Dar nodded,
adding, “Two of Spiro’s boys, right there in glorious high definition color,
throwing a firebomb in through Kadith’s front
window. The security officers arrested
them that afternoon. They pointed
fingers at other members of the gang who had acquired the flammable liquid. They in turn named Spiro as the mastermind of
the plot, wanting to drive all the non-humans out of what they felt was a human
colony, starting with the Klingons.”
“Were they all
arrested?”
“All but Spiro himself.
His family was pretty well off.
In fact, it was Spiro’s grandfather who had covered the cost of the
first shipment of quadrotriticale to
“Until now,”
Governor Kiley said, looking at the information Chief
Wingate had provided from the ID check in Sector 6. “Except now he’s calling himself Dan
Spillane.”
*
* * *
The next morning,
‘Dan Spillane’ entered a building at the heart of the original Vega
colony. Little more than a museum now,
with displays showing the evolution of the colony from its beginnings in the
mid-22nd century to near-present day, it had once been the original
colony administration building, basically the governor’s residence and town
hall together with smaller offices of colony officials over two hundred years
earlier.
The man took out
a set of keys and opened a locked door leading to the basement. Grabbing a palm beacon at the bottom of the
stairs, he made his way down the darkened hall to a door that led to a long
forgotten natural treasure. Unlocking
and stepping through the door, making sure it locked behind him, Spillane,
actually Dean Spiro, started down a series of rough-hewn steps leading deep
into the ground. Eventually he came up
to another man, one who had a phaser weapon similar
to the large-headed type II phasers used by Starfleet
in the early 2360’s aimed at him as he came around the tunnel curve.
“Easy, Jonesy, it’s just me,” Spiro said, his hands raised
slightly. “Do you really think colonial
security could have made it this far down without setting off alarms?”
“I heard the
footsteps coming down the stairs, and I wanted to be sure it wasn’t a trick,”
the man called Jonesy replied. “They’re waiting for you in containment,
Dean.”
“Thanks.”
Spiro continued
further down the steps and into a tunnel that branched into several
directions. One direction lead to rooms
that could be used as emergency shelters designed when the colony had first
been built and the reason the administration building had been built where it
was. Another tunnel, the one Spiro took,
ended at a structure that stood out like a sore thumb in the surrounding
cave. It was apparent the door, looking
very similar to the holodeck doors aboard Federation
starships, completely sealed off the area beyond.
Spiro placed his
hand upon a palm-reader beside the door.
The reader turned green and with a heavy hydraulic sound, the door parted.
Spiro stepped
into the containment facility, which looked more like a large cargo bay than a
cavern. Stored inside were containers
each a meter high carefully stacked on pallets and shelves reaching seven
meters in height. Near the center of the
room, crowded around a control console, were three other men.
“Dean!” one of
them said as Spiro approached. “I hear
you almost got caught last night!”
Spiro suddenly
swung on the speaker, a clenched fist to the jaw knocking the man to the floor.
“I told you it
was too close! I told you to wait!”
Spiro said angrily to the man on the ground, who gently massaged his stinging
jaw.
“But we didn’t
get caught!” the man protested. “I even
made it out of the sector before the police sealed it off.”
Spiro reached
down and dragged the man he had decked to his feet by his shirt collar.
“I didn’t! I go there to stop you from kidnapping
another alien who will be dead in a few more days anyway and I’m the one who
gets trapped in the police cordon! And what
if that Tellarite had seen you and could identify you? You idiot!”
“But they let you
go, didn’t they?” the man said nervously.
“Your ID passed!”
“Of course my ID
passed! I didn’t pay all that latinum for an ID that some stupid cop is going to know is
a fake just from scanning it! But we may
have bigger problems. I think I knew one
of the crew from the visiting starship that happened to be standing there when
they cleared out the sector, and I think he may have recognized me! All because of you!”
Spiro pushed the
man back down on the ground again, his head hitting one of the many containers
stacked nearby. As the man sat up and
started to brush dirt off of his clothes, Spiro reached into a pocket and
withdrew a small device.
“You have failed
me for the last time, Cofee,” Spiro said as he aimed
the small type I phaser at the man. Cofee’s eyes went
wide and he raised his hands in surrender just as Spiro pressed the
trigger. Seconds later, Cofee ceased to exist.
Casually putting
the small weapon away like it was just some small everyday item, Spiro turned
to the other men standing silently in shock near the console.
“We can’t take
any chances that I was recognized. I
know it wasn’t our plan, but we will need to accelerate the timeline a
bit. I have already arranged for the
ship we will need to transport our product to Earth. Once the ship has departed Vega, we can
implement phase 2 here. Soon, humanity
will have its new homeworld.”
“With not an
alien parasite in the bunch,” one of Spiro’s co-conspirators agreed.
“Never again,”
Spiro added.
*
* * *
The turbolift opened on the bridge of the Dauntless, allowing Captain K’danz,
Commanders Paris and Dar and Chief Kyman to
emerge. The bridge itself was manned
only by a skeleton crew as the ship orbited Vega, only Fleet Space Cadet
“I’ve done some
research on your Mister Spiro, Commander,” Kyman said
as he activated the library computer interface.
“Besides the activities he was alleged to have participated in on
“What do you
mean, Chief? Anti-alien?”
K’danz asked.
Kyman called several files up on his console, several show
pictures of various humans, others simply text.
A few looked like police reports which, as K’danz
looked closer, had dates listed in the late 22nd and early 23rd
centuries.
“Spiro’s great-great-grandfather
on his paternal side was a member of a xenophobic group on Earth in the mid-22nd
century organized by John Frederick Paxton.
They called it Terra Prime. Basic
philosophy was ‘Earth for the Earthlings.’
Tried to drive all non-humans off the planet in 2155 and isolate Earth
from the rest of the galaxy.”
“Spiro always was
what you would call xenophobic,” Dar agreed with a nod. “Guess it ran in the family.”
“So now he’s
trying to do here what his ancestors did on Earth? Drive all the non-humans off the planet?”
“If we can find
him, we can ask him,” K’danz replied.
“Captain, we’re
being hailed by Governor Kiley,” Commander Arbelo
reported. “Do you want it in your ready
room?”
“No, Monster,”
the captain replied using the long time nickname that had been applied to the Terran/Vulcan/Efrosian hybrid officer many years earlier
aboard the starship Sarek. “Put the Governor on screen.”
The main viewer
blinked to the image of the grey-haired governor of Vega Colony.
“What can we do
for you, Governor?” K’danz asked, stepping over to
her command chair as she spoke.
“Chief Wingate
and his men went to the address listed on Dan Spillane’s ID to ask some more
questions about the incident last night, though admittedly it was really to
further investigate your Engineer’s theory that Mr. Spillane is really Dean
Spiro.”
“And what did he
say?” K’danz asked.
“He didn’t say
anything. The address was an office
building with almost a dozen suites. But
one of those offices was for an import-export business,
“Coincidence?”
“Chief Wingate
didn’t think so either, so they returned a short time later with a
warrant. Burst into the office
completely by surprise.”
“What did they
find?” K’danz inquired.
“Two seconds
after they busted through the door, an explosive went off. Three officers killed, five more, including
the Chief, injured. They’re being cared
for at
The Dauntless crew was shocked by what they
heard.
“I’m sorry,
Governor. If there is anything we can
do…?” K’danz offered.
“Actually, there
is,” Governor Kiley replied. “The explosion failed to completely destroy
the office. Forensics teams managed to retrieve
several files, badly damaged, from one of the computer systems on the opposite
side of the room. While the files it
contained were very badly corrupted, our police computer specialists managed to
find several files that makes reference to the words subterranean and…” Kiley looked down
to read something he was holding. “…And aflatox, though that last word may just be a code for
something, not a real word. There was
one other thing that appeared in almost every file the forensics team was able
to access that might provide a clue as well, Vega Prime. I’m not sure what it could mean, since there
is only one star in this system, Vega, and the planet has always been referred
to as Vega Colony.”
K’danz exchanged looks with Paris, Dar and Kyman before saying to Kiley, “We’ll
see what we can come up with up here. We’ll
tie into the Federation databank. Perhaps
that will be of more help? We’ll contact
you soon. Dauntless, out.” The captain then stepped back over to the
mission ops console and said, “Vega Prime?
That can’t be just a coincidence.”
“You think they’re
trying to terrorize all the non-human inhabitants of Vega Colony into
abandoning the planet so they can create a purely human colony?”
“It could be,”
Dar remarked, his anger starting to rise as he remembered back to the hardships
he went through with Spiro in his youth.
“Mister Arbelo, can you perform a scan of the planet’s surface in the
vicinity of the colony?”
“Aye, Mister Dar,”
Arbelo replied as he got up from his ops seat and made his way to the science
console. “What am I looking for?”
“If the Vega
Prime group had so many references to the term ‘subterranean’ in their files, I’m
thinking there’s some kind of cave system in the vicinity that they’re using as
a base of operations.”
“Here it is, sir,”
Kyman interjected as he called another LCARS file up
on his console. “The original Vega
Colony was deliberately built above a large limestone cave system. Since Vega was one of the first Earth
colonies, the colonists didn’t know what to expect, so they decided to turn the
cave they found into an emergency shelter in case of disaster. Nothing terrible ever befell the colony, so
it was never used, but the shelter contains quarters for up to 5000 people, an
emergency hospital, fusion reactors for power generation, air reclamation
facilities, emergency rations for up to three months. Very few colonists currently living on Vega
Colony are even aware of the shelter’s existence.”
“And where is
this cave shelter?” K’danz asked.
“Directly below
the oldest part of the colony,” Arbelo answered from across the bridge. “According to my scans, direct access is
through the old admin building, which about fifty years ago was converted into
a history museum. And…
Uh oh!”
“What is it,
Monster?”
“Sensors are
detecting a large amount of a toxic substance within the cave, concentrated
within a 14.000 cubic meter chamber. The
chamber is currently sealed off from the rest of the tunnels, but if that toxin
were ever to get out, it could kill every man, woman and child in the colony in
less than 24 hours.”
*
* * *
Within the
containment facility, Spiro was conversing with another of his men, who was
manipulating equipment within a small, self-contained lab near the door.
“How’s the
progress on altering the aflatoxin, Ty?” he asked.
“Looks promising,
Dean. I’ve managed to incorporate human
DNA into the matrix. I need to perform a
few tests, but if my results match, we should have a toxin that infects only
non-humans within a week. We can deploy
it anytime after that. And once it’s in
the biosphere, the planet will always be toxic to non-humans.”
“Great!” Spiro
said with a smile, gently patting Ty on the back of
his shoulder when suddenly alarms started sounding, interrupting the work the
members of Vega Prime were performing to prepare the containers filling the
room for transport.
“We’re being
scanned, Dean,” the other man in the chamber said after running over to the
control console near the center of the room.
“High power sensor scan, nothing the local police would have. Has to be coming from the
orbiting starship.”
“They located us
faster than I predicted,” Spiro said as he walked over to the console. “Get back to work, get these containers ready
for transport, but prepare for plan B if I say so.”
A look of fear
appeared in the man’s eyes, but he silently nodded and went back to what he had
been doing. Meanwhile, Spiro opened a
communications channel to the orbiting starship.
*
* * *
“Captain, we’re
being hailed,” reported Captain Mendez. “Secure
channel.”
“Governor Kiley again?” K’danz wondered.
“No, Captain, it’s…”
The viewscreen blinked again, the image of Spiro’s face filling
the screen.
“I’ll assume you
know who I am, so I won’t bother with long introductions, Captain…?” He looked through the viewer expectantly.
“K’danz. Captain K’danz of the Federation starship
USS Dauntless. And yes, we’re aware of who you are, Mr.
Spiro. And of what you represent.”
“Still haven’t
given up your racist ways, have you?” Dar said from behind his usual station on
the bridge. Spiro looked in the engineer’s
general direction, his eyes widening in recognition.
“I do know you,
don’t I?” He seemed to be searching his
memory before finally smiling and saying, “Is it really you, Turtlehead? All grown up now and playing soldier?”
“That’s Commander
Dar to you…”
Dar noticed his
wife and commanding officer’s glare and closed his mouth before anything
further came out. Meanwhile, K’danz addressed the man on the viewscreen.
“We already know
your plan. Vega Prime? You’re going to drive all the non-humans off
that world? And then
what? Turn your sights on Earth,
like your great-great-grandfather and John Paxton did over two hundred years
ago?”
“You’re half
right, Captain,” Spiro replied. “Vega
Colony will be alien-free as soon as my plan comes to fruition, and I won’t
even have to scare all the parasites away like Paxton tried to do. But as for Earth…” Spiro sneered. “Earth is far too infiltrated by aliens and
parasites. We could never accomplish the
great John Frederick Paxton’s goal. So
we will instead punish them. I’m sure by
now you have detected my stockpile of aflatoxin.”
Again K’danz exchanged a glance with her first officer and
engineer.
“I have enough toxin derived from the fungus that grows in the deepest
recesses of the caves below the colony that all I need do is dump it into Earth’s
atmosphere and the planet is finished.
Within 12 hours the entire population will start showing symptoms. Within 36 hours the deaths will reach their
peak. Within 72 hours the planet will be
a lifeless hunk of rock in space, uninhabitable for centuries. And Vega Prime will become the new human homeworld.”
“You’re mad!” Dar
exclaimed.
“Am I?” Spiro
taunted. “Try and stop me and Vega will
become lifeless as well. And with a
population of only 500,000, it will take far less time than 24 hours to
accomplish. I recommend you leave,
Captain. …Now!”
The viewer
changed back to the view of Vega from orbit, the blue-green world rotating peacefully
below the Dauntless.
“Mister Paris, I
want the entire crew back up here, now! Emergency recall!”
“We’re not
actually just going to leave Spiro to his plan, are we?” Dar asked, surprised.
“Of course not,” K’danz assured. “But
I don’t want my crew down there in the middle of it all if this goes
south. Mister Mendez…”
“Aye, Captain?”
Mendez replied.
“Contact Governor
Kiley. Tell
him everything we’ve learned. And make
sure they know that toxin can’t leave those caves!”
“Aye, Captain,”
the Marine officer replied.
*
* * *
An hour later,
hidden police surveillance watched as Spiro and one of his men left the museum
building, intent on final arrangements for transporting their cargo to a
freighter that sat waiting at the Eavesdown Docks, the
colony’s port complex.
As soon as the
vicinity was clear, a dozen officers with special gear entered the museum and
headed directly to the long-forgotten door.
“On three,”
ordered the police lieutenant in charge to the two officers carrying a portable
battering ram. “One…
two… three!”
The two officers
swung the ram, busting the old door in.
Immediately alarms sounded throughout the cave complex.
“Go! Go!
Go!” the lieutenant shouted as the men and women under his command rushed
down the stone steps. The sounds of
trampling feet were soon replaced by the sounds of phaser
fire.
“We’ve got
resistance down here, L-T!” one of the officers shouted back up to his
commander. “Seems to
be a lone defender!”
The lieutenant
ordered his officers back up the steps out of the range of fire. He then removed a small device that looked
like a blue rubber ball from a pouch on his belt and, after pressing in the
side of it, started rolling it down the stairs.
“Back up the steps! Now!”
The police
officers all rushed back into the basement of the museum/admin building, taking
cover against the wall to each side of the doorway just before a loud bang and
bright flash occurred in the cavern. The
officers then cautiously started back down the stairs. As they reached the bottom, Jonesy lay moaning in pain on the ground, his hands
covering bleeding ears caused by the flash/bang grenade.
“Take him topside
and have a medic take a look at him,” the lieutenant ordered as the rest of the
officers started making a room by room sweep of the complex. With the exception of Jonesy,
they found no other people present before reaching the large door into the
containment facility.
“I-T!” the
lieutenant shouted, which drew the squad’s electronics officer forward. The police officer attached several leads
from a portable computer into the exposed panel below the palm reader and
inserted two isolinear chips. He then started entering a series of commands
into the computer. The palm reader
changed color several times, from red to orange to purple before finally
turning green. With a hydraulic hum, the
heavy doors parted and several police officers rushed into the chamber,
shouting for anyone who may have been inside to get down on the ground. But no one there.
“We’re clear,
L-T,” one of the officers reported through his communicator when suddenly a phaser beam struck the officer in the back. Those around him dove to the floor as more
shots were fired from behind a stack of containers past the control console. Several of the police officers started
shooting back.
“Wait!” the
police lieutenant shouted. “Don’t shoot
inside that chamber!” But it was too
late. One of the stray phaser shots hit a container, splitting it open and dumping
what looked like a white powder onto the floor and into the air. Less than a second later a rotating red light
above the door started spinning and an alarm, different than the one that had
sounded when the basement door had been breeched, sounded loudly throughout the
cavern. Everyone in the containment
facility looked fearful as exposed skin started to necrotize, turning dark and
scaly. The same sensor that sounded the
alarm also sealed the facility door, preventing the further spread of the toxin
but locking the half dozen officers, who were already exposed, inside. In less than a minute, all six police
officers and the one member of Vega Prime had suffered agonizing deaths.
“Evacuate to the
surface!” the lieutenant shouted. “Have
decontamination units standing ready in the basement of the old admin
building! And seal off the cavern!”
*
* * *
“We lost six more
police officers,” Governor Kiley reported to Captain K’danz over the main bridge viewscreen. “And while we had a close call, one of the
containers spilling the toxin when the police tried to secure the facility, at
least Spiro and his organization had taken precautions and designed a
self-sealing environment to prevent the toxin from escaping.”
“Until they want
it to,” K’danz said grimly. “Spiro gave us an ultimatum that makes me
believe he is prepared to release that toxin into the environment if he thinks
he will be captured. I don’t want to
give him a chance.”
“What can we
do? We can’t enter the facility with a
decontamination crew without risking release of the toxin!” Kiley
said.
“Carrie, may I
make use of your ready room?” Dar asked, standing up from behind his
engineering console.
“You have an
idea?” K’danz asked, hopeful.
“There’s a
possibility, but I need to study the geological data we have on the colony.” Dar then turned to address Kiley. “Governor, do
you have the survey data the old Earth Starfleet must have performed on Vega
before the colony was established?”
“I think that
information would be kept in the old admin building, and that’s now sealed off,”
Kiley responded.
“It must have a
computer interface?”
“If it does, it
hasn’t been accessed in years. Probably decades!”
“I’ll give it a
try anyway. Alasdair, could you please
send our most recent scans in to the ready room,” Dar requested as he walked
across the bridge.
“Aye, Commander,”
Alasdair Wallace, the chief science officer, replied.
*
* * *
An hour later,
Dar was meeting with K’danz, Lt Colonel Sean
McIntyre, Commander Wallace and both Governor Kiley
and the injured Chief Wingate in the conference lounge behind the bridge.
“I believe I have
a solution to our problem,” the engineer said.
“I have studied the original Starfleet surveys conducted in the early
2100’s and compared them to the scans we made of the geology today. It turns out there is a larger, deeper cavern
below the one the Vega Prime group has been using that no one knew about,” Dar
told the group, displaying a graphic representation of the planet’s crust on
the bulkhead monitor. “The information
has been long since forgotten.”
“How does that
help our situation?” Chief Wingate asked.
“I have been
running numerous simulations of the geologic structure of the area, and have
come to the conclusion that, with proper and precise firepower, we can cause
the lower cavern to collapse, literally swallowing the cavern containing the
toxin facility within it and making it totally inaccessible.” The engineer looked at Colonel McIntyre and
said, “We’re going to need to drill into the surface with phasers
at an angle of 45 to 48 degrees to the depth of between 300 and 450 meters in eight
locations.” The display on the monitor
added several holes leading at 45 degree angles around the caverns. “We will then launch photon torpedoes into
these drill holes in a precise sequence.”
Again, the display changed to represent torpedoes entering the holes and
detonating in a specific pattern at the bottoms. The rock between the upper and lower caves
crumbled and the upper cave descended, nearly whole, into the lower cavern and
was buried by the collapse of the surface rock above it. “Unfortunately, Governor, I’m afraid you’re
going to lose a good portion of the historic district of your colony,” Dar
apologized.
“What good is an
historic district if everyone there is dead, Mister Dar?” Kiley
responded. He then turned to Wingate and
said, “See to the evacuation of the historic district. Tell people they must only take what they can
carry.”
“Yes, Governor,”
Wingate replied before heading out of the conference room and toward the
nearest transporter.
“How long will it
take to clear out the neighborhood?” K’danz asked the
governor.
“Hopefully not more than an hour or two. We can try and make it look as if it is in
response to the toxin spill. That way if
Spiro is watching, he won’t be tempted to release the rest of the toxin before
we can bury it. How
long until you can bring about the cavern collapse?”
“We can probably
be ready to start drilling with phasers in an
hour. Maybe two,” replied McIntyre. “I’ll have Mister Drake coordinate with your
engineers to modify the phaser emitters and photon
torpedo casings we’ll need, Mister Dar.”
“Coordinate
through Commander Windsor,” Dar said, referring to his Assistant Chief
Engineer. McIntyre nodded and left the
briefing lounge.
“You really think
this will work?” Governor Kiley asked.
As K’danz walked over to stand next to her husband, Dar
replied, “It will be a very precise operation, and there’s always the chance
something could go wrong and the toxin could be released into the environment,
but I feel confident we can pull this off.
I’ve studied geology extensively.
The rock will crumble as predicted.”
The engineer then looked at his wife and added, “I really would have
preferred if we could evacuate the colony before we did this, but there’s no
way we can beam over half a million people aboard the ship, and we can’t wait
for more starships to arrive.”
“Or give away
what we’re doing to Spiro and his group.
He would know something is wrong if the entire population just suddenly disappeared.,” K’danz said.
*
* * *
Dean Spiro knew
something was wrong. Neither Jonesy nor Ty were responding to
repeated calls to the cavern below the old admin building, and when he tried to
return to the historic district he discovered the area had been closed off to
civilians, reports of a potentially dangerous spill prompting an evacuation of
the neighborhood.
“The arrangements
have been made,” Spiro now told the twenty members of Vega Prime that remained,
gathered in his home on the other side of the colony. “Instead of moving the aflatoxin,
the transport I have hired will take us all off the planet. We can establish ourselves on a new
world. It will mean starting from scratch
again, but Vega Prime will have a new human homeworld
someday.”
“When do we
leave?” one of the men asked, his expression nervous, as if he expected the
colonial police force to break down the door any second.
“Soon,
An hour later,
Spiro and Rogers approached the checkpoint the police had set up at the end of
the road leading to the old admin building.
Both were dressed in anti-contamination suits that Spiro had obtained
for emergencies and carried fake ID’s identifying them as emergency service
personnel involved in the cleanup. The
police officer who checked them, a nervous looking young man who had only
joined the colonial force a few months earlier, only gave them a cursory glance
and let them enter the evacuated area.
After all, who in their right mind would want to go into a potentially
poisoned area?
“How are we going
to release the toxin and get back to the ship without getting covered in the
stuff?”
“Don’t
worry. When I built that containment
facility, I rigged the bulkheads with explosives I can detonate with a timer. They will crack that vault wide open and blow
the toxin right out to the surface and we’ll be on the transport saying
good-bye to this sorry world before it happens.”
The second man
felt much more reassured as they reached the old admin building and entered it,
heading down toward the basement.
*
* * *
“Take the ship to
yellow alert,” Captain K’danz ordered as she assumed
her seat in the command chair while offering Governor Kiley
the seat to her left where Counselor Gera normally sat. “Stand by to initiate drilling.”
“Ship is at
yellow alert, Captain,”
“Weapons systems
in standby,” added McIntyre.
“Very well. Cadet
Koester, alter orbit to predetermined altitude and attitude,” K’danz ordered.
“Maneuvering to
new orbital position,” the teenaged Fleet Space Cadet responded from the
helm. On the main viewer, the planet
appeared to grow slightly larger as the starship maneuvered into a lower orbit
and faced toward the planet directly above the colony on its surface.
“Ship is in
predetermined orbit and proper attitude for proposed operation, Captain,” Cadet
Koester reported.
“Very well. Governor Kiley?”
The governor
looked nervously at his colony on the viewscreen
before taking a deep breath. He finally
looked at K’danz and quietly said, “Proceed, captain.”
K’danz nodded and, with a slight smile toward her husband
said, “Mister Dar, the ship is yours.”
“Aye,
Captain. Transferring weapons control to
the engineering console.”
On the console in
front of Dar, an image of the planet’s surface seen both from above and by
elevation appeared on side by side monitors.
Dar locked the phasers on their targets based
on his previous calculations.
“Phasers locked on target.
Firing phasers,” he reported.
The phaser strip on the underside of the Dauntless’ ovoid saucer hull glowed orange, the glows meeting at
the very forward end of the emitters and erupted as a beam heading toward the
planet’s surface.
“First hole is proceding as expected,” Lt Commander Arbelo reported as he
monitored the operation from his position at ops. “Current depth; 150 meters and increasing…”
*
* * *
Spiro and his
co-conspirator reached the bottom of the stone steps and headed toward the door
at the far end of the tunnel when they felt the first tremor.
“What was that?”
the
“It felt like a
ground tremor. Perhaps this cave isn’t
as stable as I first believed? All the better.” When
his partner looked at him curiously through the transparent cover of his
anti-contamination cover, Spiro added, “If the Federation ever investigates,
they will blame the release of the toxins on a natural disaster, not Vega
Prime.”
The pair of men
finally reached the containment facility door, which the second man started
examining.
“This door is
sealed. There has been a spill,”
he said. “How do we get in to retrieve
your sample and set the detonation timer?”
“No need to
actually enter the containment facility,” Spiro assured. He tapped a code into a keypad next to the
sealed door, pausing as another tremor could be felt. As soon as he finished entering the code, a
small hatch opened in the wall to his right, leading directly into the side lab
where Ty had developed his altered strain of the aflatoxin. Spiro
reached inside, grabbing two vials of the toxic powder and sealed the door
again. He then went back over to the
keypad and started entering in a string of numbers.
“An hour should
be more than enough time to get back to the transport and get off this planet,”
he remarked.
Once again, the
ground shook beneath the two men’s feet.
*
* * *
“Hole number
eight, current depth; 445 meters,” Arbelo reported.
“Deactivating phaser array,” Dar stated.
“Arming forward torpedo tubes.”
“Fire at will,” K’danz ordered, watching the screen intently.
“Firing
torpedoes,” Dar confirmed.
*
* * *
Spiro and his
partner had just reached the bottom of the stone steps when the first photon
torpedo hit its target.
“My God, what was
that?!?”
“Quick, let’s get
the hell out of here!” Spiro said as he quickly got to his feet and tried to
head up the steps again just as the next torpedo struck its target.
*
* * *
“All torpedoes
away,” Dar reported. “Sensors indicate
tectonic stresses in the target area have increased one hundred fold.”
“I’m detectin’ cracks formin’ on the
surface b’neath the evacuated area o’ the colony, Cap’n,”
Alasdair Wallace reported. “Several buildin’s have
already collapsed.”
*
* * *
On the surface, a
sound like a thousand freight trains filled the air. Though evacuated, the police force had left
several remote cameras and sensors in the neighborhood to alert for any
escaping toxin. In the police
headquarters across the colony, Chief Wingate and several of his staff watched
cracks forming in the facade of the old administration building.
“There she goes!”
the chief shouted as the admin building suddenly crumbled and collapsed into
the ground.
“Wow!” one of the
younger officers remarked.
*
* * *
“The cavern
structure is breaking up,” Dar reported as he watched the graphic representation
on his console fall in upon itself. “The
whole area is collapsing down at least 200 meters. Vega Colony is going to have a new valley
pretty soon, Governor.”
Kiley continued to hold his breath, staring in near shock
at the image on the viewscreen.
“Any indications of a release of the toxins?” K’danz asked.
“No indications
on sensors,” reported Arbelo.
“Sensor reports
from on the ground in the colony concur,” McIntyre added. “No indications of any toxic release.”
“Cadet, magnify
the image,” the captain ordered.
Cadet Koester
altered the image on the viewscreen, magnifying the
view of the colony as seen from above.
Smoke was rising form numerous buildings that had collapsed. Then, like in images of underground atomic bomb
tests from the late 20th century, a roughly oval shape formed in the
landscape as the ground cracked open and within seconds collapsed downward, a
cloud of dust and dirt rising into the air.
“Standard orbit,
Cadet,” K’danz ordered. “Keep monitoring the former cavern complex.”
As both Koester
and Arbelo acknowledged the order, K’danz looked over
toward her husband, flashing him crossed fingers. Dar smiled at his commanding officer in
return, giving her a thumbs up.
“Monster, hail
Chief Wingate,” the captain ordered. “Have
his teams don their anti-C suits and sweep the area with portable sensors.
“Aye, Captain,”
Arbelo replied.
*
* * *
Captain’s log, stardate
62676.8:
The Dauntless has remained in orbit over Vega Colony for
five days to monitor the situation. It
appears Commander Dar’s plan worked perfectly, as there has been no indications
of any toxin release. It appears Vega
Colony has dodged a bullet this time, but monitoring of the new valley will
continue.
During the operation to bury the toxic
stockpile, all civilian vessels were grounded to the planet. One transport’s multiple requests for
departure during and after our operation brought it to the attention of
colonial security. As a result, Chief
Wingate’s officers have captured nineteen self-admitted members of Vega Prime trying to escape the system. Unfortunately their leader, Dean Spiro, is
still unaccounted for, and we fear he may have escaped the planet by some other
means.
We will now be helping the colonists of Vega
to rebuild their colony until a Federation relief ship arrives in a few
days. Meanwhile, with a little time to
finally relax, our crew will be celebrating a special day.
K’danz,
out.
“What are you doing
tonight?” Lauren asked as the three of them moved down the corridor.
“I don’t have
bridge duty tonight, so I thought I might reserve a holosuite
later on. You guys want to join me?”
“Ooh, what can we
play?” the slightly metallic sounding voice of Dot asked through Koester’s combadge, attached to the front of her civilian shirt.
“Captain K’danz to
“This is Gem. Go ahead, Captain.”
“Gem, please
report to 10-Forward as soon as possible.”
“I need to drop my
schoolwork off in my quarters first, but I’ll be there in a few minutes. Koester, out.”
“What’s up?” Lauren
asked.
“I’m not sure,”
Gem replied, increasing her pace slightly.
“But if they need me in 10-Forward, it probably isn’t Cadet Corps
related. Come with me, it might only
take a few minutes.”
The two girls and
one non-corporeal being quickly dropped Gem’s padds
off in her quarters, then took a turbolift down to
deck 10. A moment later the ornately
carved wooden doors to the starship’s main lounge parted to admit the three.
“Happy Birthday!”
everyone inside shouted.
The entire senior
staff of the Dauntless was gathered
in 10-Forward under a banner that read ‘Happy Sweet 16th Birthday.’ Also among the celebrants were Governor Kiley, Chief Wingate and several of Gem’s other friends as
well. Gem, her face a deep crimson,
turned and glared at Lauren.
“Did you know
about this?” she asked accusingly.
“No, not a thing!” Lauren protested.
“I knew,” Dot
admitted. “But only
because I rushed down here when you two entered the turbolift,
and then I rushed back to join you.”
Gem looked down
at the pink spot on the deck as she said, “I guess being able to travel at the
speed of light has its advantages?” She
then blushed again as several stewards wheeled a cart with a large cake covered
with sixteen candles into the middle of the lounge.
“Make a wish!”
Captain K’danz implored.
“I wish I was
anywhere but here,” Gem remarked before looking contemplative for a moment,
then blowing out all the candles to another round of applause.
“What did you
wish for?” Lauren asked.
“If I tell you,
it will never come true,” Gem replied, accepting the first piece of cake from
the lounge steward before turning to look out the nearest of the forward-facing
windows and quietly gazing at the distant stars.
The End
Return to 2385.
Return to Stories Archive.