Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile

Episode 14: ZTA-1

(Stardate 46716)

By

Jay P. Hailey

And

Dennnis Washburn

A couple of days later, The door bell chimed in my office.

"Enter." I said. I was surprised when the Marines assigned to the Delegate from the Zantree World of Youn came in. Truth to tell, they had spiffy uniforms. They were green and black, with straps, buttons, ribbons and a neat trim.

However, as I admired the uniforms I noticed that they were not clean. I couldn't tell exactly, but some of the lines didn't seem to be set straight. The guys wearing them didn't exactly seem to be prime specimens, either.

One of the men with an extra layer of rank markings on his arm spoke. "Captain Hailey? I'm Sergeant Yung."

"How can I help you today, Sergeant?" I wondered why he was talking to me. His direct superior was the delegate.

"Well, sir, We'd like to register a complaint."

I couldn't believe my ears. "A complaint?"

"Yes, Sir, you see it's those Starfleet Marines."

"What did they do?" A fight? No, these poor guys were still walking.

"Well, ah-"

Another Marine broke in "They're always pickin' on us!" His tone was belligerent and accusatory.

"They what?"

"Well, sir there was a fight."

"Uh huh. Go ahead." I wouldn't have been notified of a minor disciplinary problem if Stephanie or Li'ira felt that they could handle it.

"Well those Starfleet Marines are really giving us a hard time. They go out their way to be mean to us, to call us names, to pick fights, you know."

"I'm not certain I understand."

The other Marine spoke up. "They hate us. They know that we're better than they are."

"Really, I think that they're jealous, Captain. They obviously feel a little insecure around us." The Sergeant said.

I was stunned. These guys were whiny, undisciplined slobs. "I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, gentlemen. I will look into this."

They all looked relieved. "Thank you, Captain."

As they walked out I heard one say "See, I knew he was different. He's kind of cool."

As soon as they were out of my office I called Sergeant-Major Kendricks and asked him to handle it.

-*-

"Hello!" The planet was saying. "I've waiting for you for so long!" The messages were coded into lighting flashes that ripped though the atmosphere.

"Open a channel to the planet." I said.

Stephanie keyed a few buttons on her station and was met with a complaining buzz. "Captain, the planet doesn't seem to be receiving our subspace signals."

I looked at Tillean. This was her fault. She was the first to detect that the lighting flashes of the planet were organized signals. "Lieutenant, do you have any ideas about how to communicate with it?"

She looked at me helplessly "Not a one, Captain."

"Hmph." I said, disapprovingly.

We tried everything we could think of. Subspace signals modulated in every band that the Harrier could reach. We tried old fashioned radio signals. We even tried flashing the running lights on the Harrier in different sequences. The planet seemed not to notice any of it.

The messages coded into the lightning flashes became a little exasperated. "Why won't you talk to me? Why did you leave me all alone? Anything might have happened!"

Our scans of the planet were not complete. The heavy lightning flashes and weird metals in its crust along with the boiling hot nitrogen-chlorine atmosphere interfered with our sensors.

"The problem seems to be that we don't know what it's using for eyes." I said. "If we knew more about how it saw, we might be able to design a message that it could see."

"Permission to launch a probe, Captain?" Tillean liked to use probes. So did

I. No one got hurt if the planet ate one of our probes.

"Permission granted, Lieutenant."

Tillean prepared and launched a probe at the planet. The planet was the in the first, closest orbit to its star. The star seemed to be a perfectly ordinary yellow dwarf, not unlike Earth's sun.

While the planet itself was about the size of Earth its atmosphere was vastly different. It was a boiling hot, super dense mixture of nitrogen and chlorine. Ordinarily not worth a second look except to scientists interested in such things. Until we realized that it was talking to us.

It was the first thing we had looked at inside the Zantree Taboo Zone. The race that had declared the area tabooed never revealed to the rest of the Zantree why it was off limits.

We named the Planet "Zantree Taboo-Zone Anomaly Number One" or ZTA-1 for short

We tracked the probe all the way to the atmosphere. It recorded readings of detailed close up confusion similar to that recorded by the Harrier's own sensors. As the probe entered the atmosphere, we lost the signal.

"Report. What happened to the probe?" I said. The probe should have been tough enough to handle a couple of days in the atmosphere of the planet.

"Unknown, Captain." Tillean replayed the recordings looking for clues. "The signal just dropped out as the probe entered the atmosphere."

We examined our sensor records closely for the next fifteen minutes, but they held no hints of what had happened to the probe.

"Contact, Captain." Varupuchu reported. "It's the probe. It seems to be heading this way."

"Do we have communications with it?"

"No signals detected."

The probe came right back to the Harrier. We scanned it as it approached the ship. It seemed to be the same probe. None of the elements in it had changed. The small engines of the probe had the same energy signatures. Tillean reported that her sensors revealed strange electrical activity.

The probe came to within five kilometers and stopped. I had taken the Harrier to yellow alert and our shields were raised. The probe hailed us.

"This is Probe A7-TU-BL, calling starship USS Harrier NCC-45657. I'm home! Requesting permission to dock."

I opened a channel. "Probe A7-TU-BL, returning to the Harrier was not of your original programming."

The Probe sounded embarrassed "ZTA-1 sent me back. I don't know where else to go."

"Uh, stand by, Probe." I gave the signal to close the channel.

Li'ira looked at me. "What in the world?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

Tillean said. "That scares me a little."

Spaat turned and said "Perhaps the Probe's programming was changed in an attempt to communicate with us?"

Varupuchu blandly said "Perhaps we should send a probe to probe the probe?"

I stared at him. This was a totally uncharacteristic outburst from the dower

Andorian. Tillean snickered.

Stephanie growled "This situation isn't funny. The probe represents a danger to the ship. Captain, my recommendation is to destroy it."

Li'ira said "I agree that it's a tricky situation, but I'd like to know more about it."

Tillean said "But, the probe hasn't done anything yet."

I made my decision. "Clear shuttle bay two. Stephanie, get with Ensign Bruce to secure the computer against intrusion. Mr. Varupuchu, reinforce the structural integrity field in the shuttle bay. Establish isolation fields on the entrances and exits to the bay. Lt. Darvon Ahk, call for volunteers to examine Probe A7-TU-BL."

Everyone looked at me for a beat and then got to work. It felt wonderful.

When the bay was prepared I called the probe. "Probe A7-TU-BL, you are cleared to dock in shuttle bay two."

"Thank you Captain!" The Probe said.

-*-

While Tillean and her crew examined the probe, Lt. Commander Varupuchu continued to scan the planet. It had an artificial core. It was generating some sort of energy, but we couldn't tell what kind or how much.

About an hour later, Tillean called me to say that her preliminary examination of the Probe was complete. There were no viruses or contaminants on board the probe. It seemed to pose no physical danger.

I went down to the shuttle bay.

-*-

The shuttle bays had rooms in them designed to allow work crews to get into space suits and be briefed on a job, These rooms had exits into the Shuttle bays and to airlocks that led to the outer hull of the Harrier.

Tillean was briefing me. "This is a schematic of the inside of the Probe." The screen came to life displaying it to me.

Most of it looked like a perfectly ordinary probe. There was the casing, there were the fuel tanks, there were the engines, there were the krellide storage cells and there were the subspace coils for the communications system. However, the electronics of the probe were all different. They seemed at first to be a sort of gray, undifferentiated mass. As Tillean zoomed in, the mass began to look different. As the scan zoomed closer and closer I could see broad lumps and groupings of the mass.

Finally the zoom in went into the realm of the microscopic and I could see what we were looking at. What looked like a gray lumpy mass was really small electronic neurons. They were as complex as anything I had ever seen. I didn't know if the Federation could build them.

"The neurons are made out of the same elements that composed the computers and electronics of the probe. Each individual neuron seems to be a simple adaptive computer circuit but there over one hundred billion of them."

"You mean it has a brain?"

"Yes Captain, a quite complex one. Another thing. The mass of the Probe has not changed. Whatever did this used only the material that we provided them."

"Okay, tell me what you've learned of its programming."

Tillean looked embarrassed. "Not much, although he seems to be pretty nice."

I had a bad moment then. In the middle Twenty-First century on Earth, things were pretty bad. The Third World War was well under way. The eventual death toll was a billion people. In the Twenty-First century no one would have recognized the term World War Three. What we called the Third World War was really about four wars that over-lapped in a long haze of violence and misery.

There was the Eugenics Wars in the nineteen nineties. These actually started in the twentieth century when Khan Noonian Singh invaded Kuwait from Iraq. By nineteen ninety-five they had gone nuclear. The Middle East struggled for forty years to recover from the disaster.

Then civilization seemed to collapse under its own weight. The bad times came, poverty and violence swept the world. This allowed Colonel Green's Optimum Movement to have its stab for power.

The Optimum Movement was Social Darwinism taken to a bizarre extreme. They felt that a cabal of people with high intelligence measurements should rule the world, and were willing to take whatever actions necessary to advance that goal.

Their leader, Colonel Green had one of the highest measured intellects in the world. He was outraged because his definable superiority was not rewarded with promotion.

In the end the Optimum Movement died when Colonel Green was found to have invented the whole story and the whole movement in an attempt to grab for personal power. His personal notes indicated that he felt that people with measurably high intelligence were easily manipulated emotionally by using their "Superior" status. If he hadn't died during a battle in the Philippines, his scheme might have worked.

The final insult to the world was the limited nuclear exchange that finished off the collapse and exacerbated the ecological disaster. Humanity hit bottom. There was nowhere to go from there but death or progress.

The third wave of warfare and violence left its mark also. The technological nations of the world tried to find a gadget to fix the world. What they came up with were a series of anthropomorphic androids. They were meant to do the scut-work of civilized society. They were also the geishas, hookers and personal servants. They were all physically perfect. Then some maniac hacked them and randomized their programs.

"Take a Chance." That one phrase led the AI's onto the warpath. They slaughtered a couple of million people before they were all destroyed. They actually managed to replace several key world leaders with AI duplicates. They also made electronically implanted mind control devices.

Following this, the Earth had a violent and extremely negative reaction to artificial intelligence in any form. It was a distinct psychological condition called "Frankenstein's Syndrome". The people of Earth lived in morbid fear of creating the monster that would destroy them. Robots and Artificial Intelligence were the bad guys of Earth for another three hundred years.

Even today the old prejudice was rampant. Cybernetic systems could replace lost or damaged organs and limbs, but they were always kept hidden, and replaced with organics as soon as the unfortunate cripple could. A human body mixed with a machine was an abomination. A sell out to the monster.

The android Data was the first to confront this backlash. The Borg had simply confirmed the prejudices. Men were meant to rule machines. Never the reverse. Never.

The Vicharrians had made their fortunes with robotic systems. They had never been traumatized like Earth and they never made many sales there. Tillean was much more open to the concept of a strange alien-built neural network running our probe than I was.

Eventually she convinced me to talk to the probe itself. I agreed although my first impulse was to jettison the thing and blast it with full phasers.

-*-

I walked across the deck of the shuttle bay towards the probe. From a distance it looked like any other probe. The schematic that Tillean briefed me with showed that all the scientific instruments and sensors had been distributed throughout the probe casing by microscopic circuits. Every inch of the probe's surface was a sensor that watched my approach.

The probe rested on a service cradle and its access door was open. As I approached I could see that the access door opened to reveal the standard Federation interface panel.

"Attention Probe A7-TU-BL." I barked. "Identify."

"Why, you're Captain Jay P. Hailey. Access code Delta Gamma Mu. My highest access code." It sounded a bit awed.

"Report all data recorded on target ZTA-1." My tone was still harsh. This probe was a positive danger.

"Do you wish me to report by voice or data channel, Sir?"

I looked at Tillean "Do we have a computer memory readied to hold and analyze the data?"

She looked around, but didn't seem to find anything that was unoccupied. She turned to a technician and said "Grab me a C-128 unit, make sure that the memory is cleared and that the subspace datalink is disabled."

I returned to the Probe. "Summarize by voice, until capacity can be cleared for your data."

"Okay. First, ZTA-1 is a sentient entity. Secondly, it's artificial in nature. Third, its primary purpose is to be a haven for life forms. Fourth, it has been abandoned for a long time. Fifth, it is desperately lonely for life forms to occupy it, so that its primary function can be fulfilled. Do you need any clarification?"

"How did you scan this data?"

"Item one was confirmed by personal contact. The second was in the memories of ZTA-1 as well as being confirmed by laser altimeter seismology reading of the planet's core which reveal that seismic waves have a symmetrical transmission pattern through the core. The third, fourth and fifth items were told to me directly by ZTA-1 itself."

"Hmph. Do you still hold the standard diagnostic programs?"

"Yes. Program number four, Standard Federation Adaptive Self-Diagnostic Program Release twenty four, probe version, with added diagnostics for a type four probe, which is me."

"Run it, please."

Yes, Sir." The Probe seemed eager to please. I resolved not to let that interfere with my judgment.

"Ooooh. I can feel my drives, all the important subsystems. They seem okay, but the program crashes whenever I try to run it on my brain. I guess the design is just too different."

"Can you tell me what happened to you?"

"Yes. I was activated on Stardate 48619.1, just a couple of hours ago. I was loaded with targeting and navigational data as well as sensor routines for the target ZTA-1. I was launched and proceeded to the target on the specified trajectory. I made atmospheric entry at time index 73.3."

"Once inside the atmosphere, what happened?"

"I noted the loss of signal with starship USS Harrier NCC-45657. Do I have to use the full name and serial number every time?"

"Can you keep track of which ship we're talking about when we only use the name?"

"This is the only Federation ship present at this time. I think I can keep it straight, sir."

"Then call her the Harrier."

"Affirmative. Anyway, I noted the loss of signal and went into recording mode. Then I was caught and examined by ZTA-1. At this point, things changed. This was time index 73.345. My first consciously aware thought was that ZTA-1 thought that I was nearly hopeless but that it would make a few minor adjustments to enhance my function. Since I'm a probe, and my function is to gather data, I asked it what was happening. Then it told me the things I related to you earlier."

"What is your purpose now, Probe A7-TU-BL?"

"Just exactly what I'm doing now, Sir." The probe said happily. "To learn about things and then bring the data home and tell you about it."

"How did ZTA-1 communicate with you?"

"I don't really know. The signals seem to generate inside my new brain."

"Can you communicate with ZTA-1?"

"I do not know. Would you like me to try?"

"Yes, Please."

"I'll have to ask you to stand back. My subspace coil will generate a pulse of two hundred and fifty millicochranes. This is dangerous to organic life forms within a distance of two meters." It was the automated warning, except that it was delivered with feeling.

I stood well back. So did the rest of the crew examining the probe. I watched he signal on a tricorder. The Probe sent a standard automated hail.

"I'm sorry, Captain." The Probe called. "Something seems to be jamming my signal. Are there force fields in the way?"

I went back up to the probe "Please power down your subspace coil." The probe complied.

"Tillean analyze the signal. Find out if there were there any added features to the signal."

"Aye, sir."

-*-

The Probe didn't know anything about communicating with the planet either. I had a nice afternoon chatting with it. It seemed friendly and eager to please. For the next day, we talked to the probe and explored it.

The planet itself bothered me. Some of the power emanations from the artificial core looked familiar. They had a certain resemblance to the power readings from Rishan Pleasure Base Number Five.

The planet had grown quiet while we talked with the probe. It wasn't sending the frantic messages in lighting form anymore. I had the feeling that it was watching us.

I figured that the probe was speaking more clearly than it knew when it said that it was fulfilling its purpose. It was learning things and reporting. I just figured that the planet was somehow monitoring the probe. Most of the crew shared my feeling although we had no real evidence to support it.

I was unable to sleep that night. I couldn't relax. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Either we would get a handle on communicating with the thing or it would decide that we were... something. The Pleasure Base had functioned on us like it was supposed to, with no judgment or hindrance. When someone responsible realized that we were too primitive, it ran us off.

The planet tried to speak to us using its normal communications channel. We didn't respond. We sent the probe. Now it was figuring us out...

I got out of bed and called the bridge. "I'm coming up there. Get ready to move out."

"Aye, Sir." Was the reply.

I threw on my pants and my jacket and went up to the bridge carrying my shoes.

I hopped out of the turbo lift struggling to get my shoe on. I hopped over to the Captain's chair and sat down getting a better grip on the shoe. "Are we ready to go?" I grunted while bent over. I was getting a little thicker around the middle than I really wanted to admit.

The officer of the bridge, Ensign Spaat watched me calmly from the Flight Control station. "Yes, Captain. All stations report ready for space."

"Take us out of orbit, one half impulse." I didn't want to bolt. After all, nothing had actually happened, yet.

"Wake up Lieutenant Darvon Ahk, please. Tell her to get a crew down to shuttle bay two."

"Aye, sir."

"Then make sure that security is alerted. I want to be prepared in case the probe makes a ruckus."

-*-

I walked into Shuttle Bay Two. Tillean was there. She was barefoot. I noticed that her uniform was somewhat disheveled, too. I figured I was lucky that she hadn't come down to the Shuttle bay in her night gown. If she wore one.

"Report."

"Everything is in the same shape as when we left it, sir. The guards monitoring said that they haven't noticed any changes."

"I'm fine. Captain." The Probe chimed in.

I turned to focus my attention on Tillean. "Prepare to jettison the probe. We're leaving the system."

"But," Tillean was horrified. I was running out just as she was getting really involved in the whole puzzle. Looking in my face she realized that I was serious and somewhat nervous. She accepted my order.

"You're going to abandon me here?" The Probe asked.

I looked at it for a moment. It was an alien machine. A dangerous and unpredictable Artificial Intelligence that could be programmed to perfectly mimic appealing human emotions while awaiting the perfect chance to strike. Nevertheless, I couldn't ignore the hurt tone in its output.

"You belong here, with ZTA-1." I said. "That's your home now."

"But I'm a Federation probe, Sir!"

"No, you were a Federation probe. Now you're... something else. Maybe you can help it find some life forms."

The probe sounded heartbroken. "I'm sorry. I was built to explore space with a Federation starship. I was really hoping that you would take me along, when you left."

"Why can't you explore space with ZTA-1?"

"It's not the same. It doesn't think of me as a tool to use or a thing with a function. I saw it in its mind when it was transforming me. I'm not real to ZTA-1. It will probably just ignore me."

I rolled my eyes. It was getting harder to ignore the pleading in the probe's voice. "Look at it from my position. How do I know that you don't pose a danger to the Harrier?"

"If I were a photon torpedo, I would have detonated by now. Other than that I can't say. But I'll do anything to prove that I'm not dangerous. I'm not fueled anymore. I can't really explode. Please let me stay!"

"Captain, I can rig a service cradle on the outer hull. He can ride along on the outside." Tillean suggested.

"Please?" The probe begged "All I want to do is ride along and explore things with you."

Shooting a dirty look at Tillean I said "All right. On one condition. You have to try to make sure that we know everything that's going on inside your new brain. If we know this and can confirm it independently, then we know if you're a danger."

"Okay!" The probe happily said

"Aye, Sir!" Tillean was nearly as happy.

"Captain to the Bridge!" Li'ira called over the intercom.

-*-

"The planet has changed course to intercept us." Spaat said.

I boggled. "What?"

He said again, slowly and precisely. "The planet ZTA-1 has changed course to intercept us."

I got a serious case of the willies. "Time until intercept?"

"Thirty-seven years, ten months, nine days, six hours, twenty-three minutes and approximately ten seconds, assuming that we don't change course before then."

My willies died down a little bit. "Really?"

"I estimate that the power expressed is somewhere in the seventh magnitude, on the standard Vulcan scale of planetary energy." Spaat said.

My willies returned. In the twenty-fourth century, the planet Earth had stayed firmly in the fifth magnitude of energy generation. It was the scale for rating an entire civilization. ZTA-1 had just used as much energy as one hundred Earths.

"Can you read any signs of weapons or tractor beams?" I asked. With the power levels available to ZTA-1 it could push a phaser beam a billion miles and still have it be powerful enough to destroy the Harrier.

"No, Captain. It is possible that our sensors are not capable of detecting any."

"Yellow alert. Take us to full impulse."

The Harrier's speed increased. More officers came to the bridge in response to the yellow alert. Stephanie Anderson took her position. So did Harksain Varupuchu.

Spaat studied the sensor data closely and ran the calculations through the navigational computers. "The Planet has once again changed course to intercept. Estimated time of intercept, one hundred and eighty years."

"Change course to zero mark 180 relative bearing." I ordered the Harrier's nose pointed out of the plane of the ecliptic. It would take much more energy to shift ZTA's course away from the ecliptic of its primary.

The Harrier sped away from the Planet. Our range was really opening up, now, nearing a million kilometers. "Any changes in the Planet's heading?"

"None, Captain."

The Harrier lurched. It was a bad one. It wasn't as though the Harrier tilted, it was as though she suddenly shifted several inches to the side. I picked myself up off the deck and said "Red alert! Report please."

Stephanie Anderson picked herself up and got to her station. She began reading off damage reports. "Main power is out. Engineering reports that the warp power will be restored in five minutes. Auxiliary power is operational at eighty-five percent. Photon Torpedoes are off-line. Phasers are available."

Varupuchu reported "We are in a powerful and localized gravity field. It is too powerful for our impulse engines to break out of."

"The Planet has us?"

"I can not confirm that. I can not determine an origin for the gravity waves."

I knew that using our warp drives in the gravity field would be quite risky. Starships don't engage their engines near planets because the gravity of the planet can be slightly different from one warp engine nacelle to the next. It would take sensitive equipment to measure the difference. Magnify that

difference by warp speeds and the nacelles can be miles apart in the blink of an eye. This is not a healthy experience.

"Are we stationary or moving, relative to ZTA-1?"

Spaat checked. "We are moving back to ZTA-1 at a constant rate."

"Li'ira, you have the con." I said. he accepted command of the bridge and I ran down to Shuttle Bay Two.

As I ran in, the reason that Tillean had not reported to the bridge became clear. The jolt that had thrown me out of my seat had also thrown scientific equipment all over the shuttle bay. Tillean and her crew were working with a medical team to free a trapped crewman. He was pinned underneath a temporary console.

The Probe had fallen off of its service cradle and was lying at an angle against the deck and the cradle.

"Probe A7-TU-BL, report."

"I fell down. With no fuel I can't correct my attitude." The Probe sounded resigned "Chief Petty Officer Krakowski was pinned under the system analysis module and has been injured. I hope he'll be repairable."

"That jolt was ZTA-1 capturing us. Do you know what it wants?"

"Oh, yes, Captain. More than anything else it wants to nurture life forms on its surface. You're just the first examples that have happened along."

"It wants sentient life forms?" I had a vision of myself and my descendants as the hostages of a mad planet.

"No Captain. Any life forms."

"Then why doesn't it build them? The work it did on you was easily complex enough to allow building life forms."

"I am not a true life form, according to ZTA-1. Although my mental processes are easily more complicated than many life forms, ZTA-1 feels that a natural life form is superior to an artificial one. It's ironic. I can't imagine the difference between molecules assembled deliberately or by accident, but to ZTA-1 that makes all the difference."

"Yeah," I grumbled "Ironic. Could we give ZTA-1 simple life forms and fulfill its needs?"

"I suppose so."

I turned to the crowd that was concentrated around CPO Krakowski. "Tillean, please go down to the Arboretum and grab some plants. Grab examples that will fit in the Probe's payload bay and bring them back here."

Tillean looked at me. She was shocked "Captain, Krakowski's pinned." She waved at him.

"All due respect Lieutenant, did you hear what the Captain said?" Krakowski grated from under the console.

We looked at him. "Being pinned is painful and boring, Sirs. I heard every word."

"Besides Lieutenant, there are enough people here to pull him out without us interfering. Please go now. We're in a little trouble, here." I added.

Dubiously, Tillean left to carry out my instructions. I picked several science and engineering people who were standing around being concerned about Krakowski.

"You, you and you, come help with the Probe." It had been a while since I was on a probe crew but I remembered the basics. We hefted him back onto his cradle and fueled him up.

"Ah! That feels nice!" He said.

The medical team stabilized Krakowski and said "Go!" The engineers still in that effort turned on antigravity units and set the console drifting slowly but definitely towards the roof of the shuttle bay. Krakowski cursed a blue streak as the Console lifted off of his leg. I have seen industrial accidents before, but I still hate them. I wasn't able to turn away in time and I saw Krakowski's leg squished flat through the lower thigh. There was a lot of blood on the deck and some of it dripped off the console as it rose. The medical team ran off with Krakowski on a stretcher. They got clear of the force fields shielding the bay and were beamed to sickbay.

I continued what I was doing. I went to a console and entered my access code. I pulled out the current navigational files and a file on horticulture. I took the files back to the Probe and stuck the isolinear chips into the appropriate slot.

"Aha! Good idea Captain!" The Probe was enthusiastic.

"Can you maintain a class M environment inside your shell long enough to take the plants to ZTA-1?"

"If I have a small life support module installed, it should be a snap! That's part number P9-U8-4T, Life Support System, Small, Standard Environment."

In a few moments we set the Probe up and got him centered on the launch platform. Tillean came back with the plants and we clipped them inside the Probe's payload bay.

As we ran out of the bay the doors swept open. The force fields held in the atmosphere. I turned and stopped. It was an excellent view out of the bay. "Permission to launch, Captain?" Tillean said over the intercom. Her voice echoed in the shuttle bay. I nodded and waved her on.

The tractor beam lit up and I both heard and felt the throbbing hum as it gently lifted the Probe out of his cradle and pushed him out side of the Harrier. There was a slight gust of wind as the force field bubbled to let him through.

-*-

After the Probe entered the atmosphere of ZTA-1, we lost the signal again. In a few moments we saw the Probe rise again. At the same time a bubble of class "M" environment appeared under the point where the probe entered the atmosphere of ZTA-1.

We saw ZTA-1 rearrange its orbit further away from the star, Then its atmosphere started to change, flooding with carbon dioxide, an element necessary for plants to grow.

ZTA-1 seemed to lose interest in us completely, after that. The Probe returned to the Harrier. It reported that ZTA-1 seemed deliriously happy upon the transfer of the plants and seemed to become wrapped up in its own concerns.

Tillean and the Probe discovered how to access his neural nets and examine the programming found there. It was simply the Probes original programming which had expanded and adapted to fit its new environment.

I allowed the Probe to stay with the Harrier. There were a raft of issues to resolve, but the Probe felt that he was a Federation loyalist, if not a citizen. I was reluctant to abandon a sentient creature that knew what I was doing to it, and could feel sad about it. He still made me nervous, and I believe that Stephanie Anderson made a point of keeping an eye on him.

As soon as he found that he could stay, he asked to be referred to as "Bill" a name he felt was more palatable than "Probe A7-TU-BL". And so Bill the Probe joined our strange crew.

-*-

We left the system of ZTA-1 and moved on. The next star was three light years away. Exactly. To ten decimal places. That made me nervous. A light year is the distance that light takes to travel in one year. Since the year in question is one of Earth's years, the coincidence of a star system being located a precise multiple of light years away was too much to accept.

During the first two days of the trip, the star was a G5 spectral type a little smaller and cooler than Earth's sun. On the third day of the trip, the star changed to a G3 type, almost identical to Earth's sun.

Later on the third day as we entered the system, we scanned eight major planets and a multitude of smaller planetoids. The outer four planets were all gas giants with extensive rings systems and moons.

The seventh planet was laid over on its side at almost ninety degrees to the plane of the ecliptic.

The third planet was Earth-like. Really, really Earth-like. It appeared to be a replica of Earth set about four centuries in our past.

They hailed us with old fashioned radio waves. The travel time on the messages was about an hour, but they seemed to know roughly where we'd be. After I cautiously answered the first message, we received a long signal explaining that all of this planet's history had lead them to expect us at this moment. They were prepared for our visit, which would begin a planetary time of celebration and renewal. Our arrival signaled the beginning of a new golden age of happiness.

I chickened out. I sealed up the ship and ordered that no further signals would be answered.

My decision was justified when they put my mother on the radio. She begged me to speak to her and to stop by for the planned visit.

As soon as possible we warped out of the system. The day after, we reached a distance of one light year from this strange Virtual Earth. The G3 star disappeared and was replaced with the smaller G5 type.

We reported these things back to the Zantree and Poong's world.

-*-

Another two days passed. I signed off on Krakowski's medical report. Dr. Flynn had managed to rebuild his leg. A few weeks of light duty and therapy and he would be back on duty. My doorbell rang again. I said "Enter." The Youn Delegate squeezed himself into my office. This was quite a trick. My office wasn't all that big to begin with. He had his Sergeant with him. "Uh-oh." I thought. Sergeant Yung had a black eye.

The pompous delegate drew him self up and said "Captain, I must lodge an official protest."

"Yes, Mr. Delegate?"

"Please, it's `Your Honor'," The Delegate corrected "Your Starfleet Marines. They must be stopped and punished."

"What have they done?"

"They savagely beat my honor guard, sir! This act could have far reaching and dire consequences. Already word of this atrocity is already spreading among the Zantree Delegates."

My voice turned cold "They what?"

"Tell him, Sergeant." The delegate turned to the leader of his honor guard.

The Sergeant stood with his shoulders hunched, his eyes on the deck. He was sulking.

"They beat us up." He said, sulkily. I could see his pride dying a hideous death while he said it.

"I don't mind telling you, Captain, that I take the safety of my honor guard very seriously. Very seriously, you see, for the Sergeant is also my nephew." The delegate's message was plain. Treat him right or eat hot politics.

I was able to keep a straight face while the remains of the Sergeant's self respect and pride died.

-*-

The two Starfleet Marines stood at attention. I hadn't seen such a tight attention pose since the Academy. The young Marine was a private. He was nervous. Watching Sergeant-Major Kendrick's body language, I could easily see why. It had been years since my academy days, but I was still nervous. Kendricks was stock still and his body was completely rigid. There was a ghastly pink undertone to his skin that spoke of laps and push ups and peeling potatoes and latrine duty until you passed out.

My shoulders were reminding me that it had been many years since I had done twenty push ups and if I tried it at this point I was going to pay.

I got a hold of myself. "Sergeant-Major. I have just received ..." I tried to make my tone as dry and ironic as possible "...a complaint."

His pink tone got deeper. I continued before my natural instincts to shut up when the Sergeant was angry took over. "I'm certain that you have a point of view on this matter."

The Sergeant-Major growled. "Those Youn Marines are not the most diligent of men."

I looked at him. He gritted his teeth and continued. "Private Simpson entered the lounge yesterday at approximately 14:30 hours. He reported encountering the Youn Marines in the Lounge. Since they were not speaking to him he ignored them and continued with his recreation." From the Sergeant's tone I could almost picture the Marine Corps Basic Training Manual on Beginning Recreation. The recruits would have to practice recreation in groups by the counts of their Sergeants.

"Private Simpson, in the act of recreation noticed that the Youn Marines were harassing one of their own number." His tone was grim. I understood why. For Marines to publicly pick on one of their own squad, the discipline in their unit had to be nearly nonexistent.

"Private Simpson, knowing that such behavior was unworthy of anyone who called themselves Marines went over to try to reason with them. His sentimentality also played a role. He hoped to provide some relief to the individual who was being harassed." Sergeant-Major Hendricks tone told what he thought of

sentimentality in a Marine. I thought it was nice thing to try to do.

"The Youn Marines turned on Private Simpson, growing abusive and aggressive towards him." Kendricks paused for effect.

"When the Youn Marines grew bold enough to physically abuse Private Simpson, he was forced to subdue them until the arrival of ship's Security." Simpson looked embarrassed.

"Just him?" I asked.

Kendricks pinned Simpson on a glare. Simpson cleared his throat. "Yes, Sir. It was only me."

I was stunned. "How many of the Youn Marines were there?"

"All of them sir. All five."

"What, even the guy you were trying to help?"

"Yes, sir." Simpson was bright red. He wasn't amused. He was honestly embarrassed. The situation had become ugly and then the Youn Marines had given a pathetic accounting of themselves.

After a few embarrassing moments I had an idea. "Private, you are dismissed." I said.

Kendricks looked at me and then nodded to Simpson. The young Starfleet Marine fled my office.

"Captain, this won't happen again." He said. His tone frightened me. How many laps around the Harrier could a Marine do before he died? I didn't want to find out.

"One guy?" I asked.

Kendricks nodded bitterly. His Marines were excellent at what they did, but this wasn't a measure of that. The Youn "Marines" were pathetic.

"Those guys are dangerous." I said. I pictured that group of pathetic whiners with phaser rifles. I pictured them panicking in a battle I shuddered.

"I think I could convince the Delegate that a combined training exercise would be a good idea, Sergeant. Do you think that you could handle those Youn Marines?" I asked.

Sergeant-Major Kendricks said "It's been a while since I ran a class through boot camp, Captain. I would enjoy the chance." He grinned ferally.

I feared for the lives and sanity of the poor losers from Youn at the hands of Sergeant-Major Kendricks.

-*-

"Captain Hailey?" The Delegate of Youn's voice sounded stressed.

"Yes, Your Honor?"

"Would you please come to my quarters? I would like to speak with you."

"I'll be there soon."

I wandered down to the quarters assigned to the delegate of the Youn. I pressed on the door bell to announce my self. The door opened.

The artificial gravity had been turned off in the Delegates quarters. Furniture and luggage belonging to the Delegate floated randomly around the compartment.

I saw Sergeant Logan and the second squad of Marines floating naked in the quarters. They all floated randomly around the room, holding themselves stiffly at attention. Their uniforms drifted independently around the room also. Little slips of paper floated around the room, also. I snatched a slip of paper as it went by. It said "The Delegate from Youn shall be refereed to as Your Honor." It was signed by both the delegate and Sergeant Logan.

The Delegate floated in the middle of the room, holding onto a table. He looked miserably unhappy. One of the Marines drifted into him and he gently pushed the man away.

The delegate made his way towards me from fixture to fixture in a zero-g hand over hand style. He tried to cross the thresh hold out of his quarters but miss-judged the change to full gravity and fell heavily down on the deck of the corridor.

I helped him up, and we walked a short distance away from his quarters.

"Captain, upon thoughtful consideration I find that your offer of joint training exercises, while of commendable intent are simply not practical. I wish you would return my Marine Honor Guard to me and take your own fine young Marines back with you."

"I'm terribly sorry, Your Honor, they have recently entered the Holodeck for an extended training exercise with Sergeant-Major Kendricks. To remove them now with a series of half formed survival traits and reflexes would not only ruin them as Marines, it might drive them mad."

"Really? How unfortunate! Uncalled for really. I may have to lodge a complaint. Er, How long did you say that this exercise was to continue for?"

"Approximately four weeks depending on how your Marines fare in the early going."

"Four weeks?" Despite the cultured tones, the Delegate had the look of a trapped animal. "Oh, dear."

He pressed on "It might drive my Marines mad if you released them now?"

"Sadly, yes."

"How mad, exactly?"

"The most common threat is homicidal mania, followed by suicidal depression."

"Suicidal depression?" The Delegate said hopefully.

"Yes. From the fragments and the ship's recorder marker, it seems that some poor tortured soul sabotaged the starship he was on. It was lost, with all hands. Since then, we don't interrupt the training cycle if we can help it."

"All hands?" He squeaked.

"Yes, so you see it's vital that your boys complete the training regimen. I simply can't allow them to quit."

"I see, I see." It was the voice of a man coming to terms with his own death.

"I can have the Marines reassigned, if you like, but that would leave you without an honor guard."

"But, what about my status?"

"I'm not certain of the effect that it would have on your status."

"No, Captain, I'm sure that you don't. It's all right, I'll try to make it through, somehow."

He turned and stiffly walked back into his quarters. He resumed his float in the middle of the room miserably.

"Sergeant Logan, may I speak to you out here in the corridor?" I said.

The Sergeant moved with a reasonable amount of grace and alacrity to join me out in the corridor. Anyone who speculates about humanity evolving into a space borne race hasn't seen naked Marines in zero-g.

Logan came to attention in the corridor. I noticed that we were drawing looks. I was using the Japanese etiquette which says "Nakedness is seen, but not noticed." Several female crew members on the Harrier did not see it that way.

"Report, please, Sergeant."

"The Delegate was somewhat vague with his orders, Sir. I requested clarification."

"Does this have anything to do with a White Mutiny?"

"Sir! No, Sir!" His expression was carefully neutral. The Marines had a time honored method of putting an arrogant CO in his place. It was called a "White Mutiny." In a white mutiny, the officers and crew members interpret the unfortunate victim's orders as literally as possible. It was a standard technique for training superior officers to think before they speak. They pulled it on us in command school. I remembered my own run in with it quite ruefully. The Delegate from Youn was having about as much fun with it as anyone did.

"I see. Carry on Sergeant."

"Aye Captain." He saluted and then with perfect self possession turned and marched back into the delegates quarters.

-*-

The next day, the door bell to my office rang again. I considered having it disconnected, but instead I said "Enter."

Two of the Youn Marines came in. They were wearing the gray fatigues that were standard issue for recruits in boot camp. They were dirty and disheveled. I noticed that one of them was the especially whiny Marine from my earlier encounter. He had scratches on the side of his face. I thought that it looked like the live fire phaser exercise. The live fire phaser exercise had one crawling beneath barbed wire while the Sergeant fired phaser beams over your head. The recruits were told that it was set on disintegrate, but I doubted that. That is, until I got into the trench. Then I believed with all of my heart.

I knew that the training was working. They came to attention and saluted me. I returned the salute and said "Yes, gentlemen?"

"Sir, we have to report that Sgt. Major Kendricks is dangerously insane, Sir."

Somehow I managed to keep a straight face. "Really?"

They were frightened about half out of their minds. "Oh, yes. He took us into the Holodeck and started to torture us. We barely escaped. He might kill the other guys when he finds that we're gone."

The other one chimed in. "Please don't let him get us!"

"He made Sergeant Yung do push ups until he passed out!" The young man was horrified.

"Hmmm." I said, thinking furiously.

"Please do something!"

"These are very serious charges." I began. "Are you sure that you want to press the issue?"

They looked at each other.

"I mean, it's been quite some time since we've had a trial by ordeal in Starfleet. I'm certain we could find the equipment to perform trial or at least replicate it. But I don't know if I remember the invocations correctly."

The two gulped almost in unison. The leader of the two spoke. "Trial by ordeal, Sir?"

"Well, yes, in cases of challenges to a superior officer's sanity, we invoke the gods and put the two sides through trial by ordeal. The gods favor the side of righteousness, you see."

"The Gods?" He squeaked. The other one was just looking at me with big eyes.

"Well, yes. It's the only really fair option. The counselor has known Sergeant-Major Kendricks for the entire trip. Do you want to trust him for an impartial judgment?"

"Uh...uh..."

"Fortunately such challenges are very rare in the modern Starfleet. We rarely even flog people anymore."

"Flog?"

"Well, that's only if the Sergeant finds out that you've come directly to me. We place great weight on the chain of command, in Starfleet. But don't worry. If you press the challenge, the we go straight to the trial by ordeal. No floggings."

"Ah... ah.."

"We've got to go!" The other Marine grabbed his friend and started to drag him out of my office.

"Er, yeah! Sorry to bother you, Sir."

I was amazed when they both stopped and saluted me on the way out of my office.

-*-

The day after that, The delegate from the Tabooists came to me. "Captain, may I speak with you?"

"Certainly, Sir." We went to my office, where I offered the Delegate a beverage from my replicator.

"It has come to my attention that we have entered the Taboo Zone."

I bit the bullet. "Yes, Sir, that is correct."

"My government has asked me to express our disapproval in the strongest possible terms. We request with utmost sincerity that you turn your ship about and exit the Taboo Zone."

"I'm sorry, Sir, I have made an agreement with the Poong to continue this course."

"That is regrettable. I am authorized to make any possible argument to convince you that this is an imprudent course of action. Knowing what I know of your trip and your actions I will save time by using my most persuasive argument, the truth."

"Do you mind if I record this?"

"Not at all. My respected brothers have met in council and have decided that the knowledge of our sacred trust will be made available to all."

I set the computer to record.

"Our most ancient mission is to guard this region of space. We do not guard secrets from the unworthy. We guard the unprepared against those secrets. Approximately eighty thousand years ago there lived an advanced race called the Rishans. Their race was ancient and their powers dwarf the understanding of mortals."

"In time they grew so advanced and so powerful that their motivations were no longer such that we could grasp them. Shortly after this, as such things are measured, they moved on. We know not where."

"They raised up our race as children, and gave us our mission to guard the area of the Taboo Zone. Primitive people such as your Federation, the Zantree Alliance or ourselves are in terrible danger when trespassing in the area once inhabited by the Rishans. In their haste to move on, they were untidy. They left their ancient wonders behind. These things are simply beyond the understanding of our races. Yet they may endanger us. They can change us. Individuals among the Tabooists sometimes break the taboo, and enter the zone on a quest to understand our progenitor race. Few return. Many have been quite mad. Some have had the powers of the Rishans, uncontrolled except by their primitive minds. Even amongst us, the faithful, the results have been tragic and bloody. The results among your Federation worlds or our own Zantree Alliance will be worse for you have little or no knowledge of what you're dealing with."

"Uh-huh." I said.

"Will you please reconsider?"

"I certainly would, if it would do us any good. However, we have reached the furthest point inside the Taboo Zone. It is just as far to keep going forward as it is to go backwards."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

-end-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.