Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/differentstartrek.ch3-p2

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Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 17:13:40 GMT

~Date: 5/12/94


        HERE IT IS!! THE LONG AWAITED RETURN........


            A Different Star Trek

               Chapter 3  Pt.2



    "You said the ship was in orbit around a dead moon."

    "Yes, Number One. That is the impression I recieved. It was very small,
not generating a powerful gravity well. Otherwise the Enterprise would have
crashed long ago to the surface." Picard said quietly, hands steepled, gazing
through his fingers out the observation window.

    "Captain, did you notice any familiar constellations?" Data queried.

    The older man shook his head.

    "No. Of course that could simply have been Q interfering with my
perceptions. For all I really know, we could have been in Earth orbit."

    "And Q gave you no clues as to where these poor people were?" Dr.
Crusher asked.

    Picard lowered his head, shaking it slowly. Then, he stopped. Rasing
his head, a small smile began to creep across his face.

    "But he did let me know where they were going to head first."

******************************************************************************

    Down in Sickbay, Martin Boccacella and Sonya Brava were busy cleaning
their department. Much was strewn around the rooms. Broken instruments and
glass littered the floor. About the only thing that worked at all, according to
Sonya, was the door. Thw two were engaged in janitorial duties when Emilio
Riveras walked in, carrying a tool case.

    "Anything major in here you want me to try fixing?" he asked, stooping
to come through the inner door to the office.

    "Sure." Martin snorted. "Try and get me one of those diagnostic tables
working. That'd be something to start with anyway."

    "Oh, is there a replicator working at all?" Sonya asked, as the big
Latino man squeezed past her to begin his assignment.

    "Uh, yeah. The one on level eight, in the repair shop seems to work
okay. What do you need?"

    "Well, all of the hand held medical scanners and equipment in here are
pretty much beyond repair. I'd like to fabricate some new ones, if I could."

    "We can try. Hold on a second."

    Emilio stepped to the wall and hit the intercom.

    "Yo, anybody on H deck, in the repair shop?"

    There was a momentary lapse of silence, before the answer came.

    "EEEEYYYEEEESSSSS? May I help you?"

    "Ben, Sonya needs some medical equipment. If I send her down, will you
punch it up from stores?"

    "That, and whatever else her little heart may desire." he replied
lecherously.

    "Thanks Ben."

    "No problem."

    Emilio turned to the woman.

    "There you go. Just go to Level eight, deck H. There's a repair shop
there with the working replicator."

    Sonya smiled and reaching out, gently squeezed the young giant's arm.

    "Thanks. You're a big help."

    "Literally." Martin yelled from the other room.

******************************************************************************

    David McCallister looked at the shambles in Warp Engineering and
sighed. He had been wrong. There were Dilithium crystals. There was antimatter.
But nowhere near enough to power the silent warp drive engines. In fact, the
amount and quality of the crystals they did have, were now deteriorating at an
alarming rate. The engineer moved to an intercom unit, and whacked it, rather a
bit harder than he had to.

    "Auxiliary Bridge, this is Engineering."

    "Yeah Dave?" James Cain's voice floated over the speaker. "What's on
your mind?"

    "I made a boo-boo. We've got a serious problem."

    "Which is?" the voice came back, now razor sharp and concerned.

    "I doubt we're going to make it to Qualor Two. The dilithium crystals
are degrading, and I'm not going to be able to maintain containment bottle
integrity."

    "How long have we got?"

    "Not sure. A few hours at best."

    There was silence from the Bridge.

    "Alright Dave. Keep us moving as long as you can."

    "Will do. McCallister out."

    Up on the Auxiliary Bridge, the mood had darkened considerably. I bit
at my thumbnail absently, And stared into space.

    "Suggestions, anybody?"

    "Find a closer destination." Layla offered.

    "Bend over, put our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye."
Mike Kelly grunted.

    I ignored his tasteless, but probably appropriate remark.

    "Well, where are we now?"

    "According to the computer, we're........right on the edge of something
called........the Delta Triangle." Lauren offered, poking at her scanner
terminal.

    I was blank for a second. Then, I looked at Mike in suprise. I assume
the silly grin on his face was mirrored by my own.

    "Time Trap." we said, in unison.

    "Oh come on. Not the animated episodes! Gene Roddenberry didn't even
want to include them in the Star Trek continuum." Art protested.

    "But here we are, right on the edge of the Triangle."

    "Conveniently." Mike said.

    "Too conveniently." I replied. "Q obviously wants us to find Elysia.
You have to admit, there's plenty of spare parts there."

    "Yeah, but once we get in, will we be able to get out again?" Art
mused.

    "Somehow, I think so." I smiled. "Mike, find me the last known
co-ordinants for the rift."

    "They didn't think it was stationary." he warned, spinning back to his
console.

    "Yeah, but they didn't say it wasn't either."

    "We're dealing with a hell of a lot of conjecture here, guys." Layla
said, absently drumming her fingernails on the weapons station.

    I shrugged.

    "We've got nothing else to go on."

    "Got it!"

    "ETA?"

    "At full impulse, we'll be there in one hour."

    "Way too convenient." Layla murmured, gazing out at the stars.

******************************************************************************

    Eugene Elligton was buried to his waist in the banks of the
Enterprise's M-6 backup computer banks. The portions of memory which had been
damaged or totally destroyed, could be rerouted here, but the nature of the
damage meant it had to be done manually. The natural choice for the job was
Eugene. Computers were his life.

    "Computer." he said cheerfully, the lower half of his body hanging out
of the access hatch.

    "Working."

    "Tell me where it hurts."

    "................please rephrase the question."

    "Wher exactly is the damage? Run me a diagnositc of the system here so
I know what to do."

    "All backup memoery is functional. Cooling system is working only on
minimal levels. To fully repair main memory, cabling must be run from the
backup systems to the main core."

    "Alright, Guess I might as well start on the cooling stsems then, eh?
Won't do any good to run the wiring if it's not going to function right."
Eugene said, jumping down from the hatch. He looked about for a moment before
stopping totally.

    "Where's the coolant system?"

    "Third hatch to the left, on the floor." Q said, mimicing the
computer's voice.

    The small, black man whistled in no particualr key, as he removed the
hatch and peered into the cramped area that housed the glorified air
conditioning unit. Q crouched behind him, unseen, and cringed at the
tonelessness of the man's tune. Crawling into the hole, Eugene saw the problem
at once.

    "No wonder you aren't feeling well! My, my, what a mess we have here.
But, never fear. I'll have you fixed up in no time. No twenty-third century
technology is gonna stump this computer geek."

    Q watched as the young human started to repair the damaged computer
coolant system. The powerful alien found himself again both impressed, yet
distainful of this puny, upstart, human race. They showed promise at every
turn, but such lack of priority for the importance of things. Thsi man, he
thought, showed more compassion for things mechanical, than for his fellow
humans.

    "Yeah, there's no computer ever made that I can't get to work, one way
or the other. SHame it's not the same with people."

    The alien cocked his head to one side, and sat at the hatchway
entrance, listening to the man's dialogue with himself.

    " A computer with a decent diagnostic program can tell you exactly
what's wrong with it. No muss, no fuss, no beating around the bush. A direct
approach and a direct repair, that's the way to go. At least my uncle Dan said.
But it's not so easy with people." a hand reached out of the hatchway, groping
for some tool that had been left just out of reach. Q gently nudged the piece
into range, just as Eugene's searching hand closed on it.

    "With people, there's feelings to think about, and that menas a lot of
beating around the bush before you can find out what's really up." Q nodded
emphatically in agreement. "Then, it's not a hands on job, you have to talk it
through. That means choosing the right words, being careful how you phrase
things; generally a lot more crap than you want to have to deal with. Even
then, maybe you just can't fix whatever's wrong. No way with a computer. Yeah,
reliable, solid, dependable. With a little care and preventive maintenance,
that is. So, I can see why you're feeling down. No work for so long, no one to
care for you. I'd be feeling pretty neglected myself. Well, no need to fret
anymore."

    Q sat silently. Here was a human with true compassion. Compassion for
something that others didn't consider having feelings about. Maybe the computer
didn't, couldn't care.........then again........maybe it could. Standing, he
phased through the ships walls, heading for the computer's central core.
Absently, Q changed his perceptions, to see as a machine would perhaps `see.'
He entered the core itslef, transforming his essence intoa billion tiny
impulses that raced about the wounded system. He saw blinking lights, the
machine's `thoughts?' They seemed ........weak. The alien saw it was because of
the damage done, years ago, when Kirk had initiated the self destruct sequence.
The ship was ailing badly, and had been alone.............so long. James Kirk
had been right to think of the vessel as his mate. For, in a way, it did have a
life of it's own. This suprised Q indeed, that so primitive a device could
actually take on some spirit that could be called unique unto it. So the human
had been right to talk to the old ship. For she could hear. Without hesitation,
Q reached out, in his non-corporeal form, and fixed an ill. Then another. ANd
another. In seconds, he raced through the core system and repaired everything.
The fog lifted, as if a human in coma were beginnignto revive. Systems that had
been down for decades suddenly came back on line. On the Auxiliary Bridge, he
could imagine the confusion, as auto systems took over for struggling humans.

    "There we go. That's all I'm going to do. Can't give them too much of
an edge." Q pulled back and admired his handiwork. "Opps. One more thing." He
cast a thin layer of energy, which seeped in, and permeated the entire ship.

*****************************************************************************

    "What the hell?!" Dave McCallister murmured, looking at he lights on
his engineering console. Suddenly, three quarters of ships systems were back on
line.

    "Computer."

    "Working."

    "Why the sudden increase in on-line system functions?"

    "Those systems on-line in the last thirty seconds have been repaired."

    "From where?"

    "H deck. Auxiliary computer memory."

    The red haired, young man stabbed at the intercom.

    "AUx Bridge here." Michael Kelly's voice intoned.

    "You should have just registered a jump in ship's systems."

    "..........yeah. We've got it."

    "Are you reading we've got almost everything but warp drive?"

    "Ummmhmmmm. That's what I have."

    "Greta. The one thing we could really use, more speed, and we get
everything else."

    "C'mon Dave. You really don't want to take this heap into  warp space
with all the holes in her, do you?"

    "McCallister sighed.

    "Guess not. The end result might not be too pretty, eh?"

    "Exactly. Anyway, good work on the rest of it. I'll tell Jim we're as
good as we're gonna get without drydock."

    "Right. McCallister out."

    The engineer turned, and thought her saw something move out of the
corner of his eye. WHen he faced that direction, there was nothing. Grumbling
to himself, he turned back and continued his diligent study of the warp
controls. The matter/antimatter intermix process baffled him completely. He
knew, that in all probability he would never understand it. All of his
knowledge was geared towards twentieth century science. There had been
fundamental changes in the very foundations of these sciences. It would
probably take him half a lifetime just to learn the changes, let alone the
actual mechanics that were affected by them. David sighed to himself and
checked a computer readout. This was all he could do. Count on the auto systems
to tell him when something was wrong, and then pray the computer could tell him
how to fix it. Lord help them if there was ever a full computer failture.
They'd all end up dead.


                End Chap. 3 pt. 2



    Well, I'll post all the other parts shortly, so you can all refresh
your memories. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Lets hear `em.


                        -Lou-