Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Episode #50:
Commodore Lucius' Pulsar
(Stardate 51304.1)
By
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Star Trek Players


"And do you know what James T. Kirk said to me?" Wilford Lucius said.

The crew of the Starship ShiKahr was listening to the ancient man with rapt attention. He'd actually met the hero of the Federation.

Wilford Lucius looked like a scarecrow in an old style Starfleet uniform. Black boots, pants and maroon jacket. His comm badge was modern but his rank pips were ancient and most of the crew of the ShiKahr had to look up what all the decorations meant in the ship's archives. Lucius himself looked like an ancient parchment wrapped around old, brittle bones and animated more by attitude than anything else.

"Nothin'! I was a damn Ensign! Admirals don't talk to Ensigns!" Lucius hooted.

"But, you're a Commodore and you're talking to us." One of the Ensigns in the audience said.

"Honey, I ain't on Duty anymore. I ain't busy makin' the big decisions, or doin' any of that ol' important crap so I have the time to pay attention to ya. Yer Captain. Li'ira, She's so busy carrying the weight of the Federation on her shoulders and bein' responsible for every little thing. She'd love to know you each as her personal friends. She's beginnin' ta realize how lonely the center seat can git. She ain't got the time to get ta know anybody. There's always another damned strategic update. There's always more political bull hockey to absorb. Who's fightin' with who today? Who might take a pot shot at us? Who might we have ta nurse maid through a crisis? A starship captain has ta try an' know everything all the time. Lots of us struggle for it. Oh, it happens in every class. Eighty five percent of 'em say 'I'm gonna be a Starship Captain!' It really one of the worst jobs you can have in the fleet."

A lot of the assembled officers exchanged dubious looks at this statement after all; many of them were aiming at being captains one day.

"Ya want my advice? Be a Science Officer! Ya get ta beam down quite a bit. The work's always there but not usually as urgent. You can stick your tricorders into things and stop and smell the roses. Excluding times when the whole ship was affected, hostile aliens controlled my mind on no less than five different occasions. They like to go for the Command officers. My science officers had this sort of thing happen twice. The Red shirts? Everyone's out to kick you around ta prove how tough they are. You Engineers, you always have ta pull a new technical miracle out of yer hats. Last week's gizmo or new technique is old news! It's case of what laws of physics have you broken for me lately."

The crew laughed as Lucius continued on.

"Fer my opinion it's about meeting new people and seein' new places. That's what we're here about. Fer that my preference is for either the science department or the diplomatic service. I didn't have the head fer math, so's I went to the Diplomatic corps."

More laughter.

Suval the Vulcan first officer of the ShiKahr asked. "Commodore. You were a Federation Ambassador, a more august and respected position than a Commodore in Starfleet. Why do you wear your uniform and prefer to be addressed as Commodore?"

Lucius sighed. "Well, Commander. I am reading your buttons right aren't I? Anyway, Commander, I served in Starfleet for sixty years. Much of the rest of my career as a diplomat was spent in transit aboard starships. I am more comfortable here than anywhere else in the galaxy. Now Subsector 21 alpha has been mapped before but only lightly, right? That means there's going to be surprises. Stuff we haven't seen before. Anything from a type of mold with a new and unique bio-molecular energy cycle to a whole new world with new history and new customs, to maybe even a whole new empire waiting for us out here in the dark."

Lucius sighed nostalgically. "I was never better than when I stood on the bridge of a Starship. I got too many red alerts and not enough exploration missions like these, but this is my home. A starship in deep space, pulling back the covers. The truth lives out here somewhere. This may be the last time I get to look it in the face."

The memories of other ships and other crews played across his mind. They all seemed so young now.

"We are honored by your presence, Commodore." Suval nodded.

Yanking himself out of old memories, Lucius howled in mock outrage "Hey, don't talk to me like I'm an old man. I'm only a 132 years old! That's only middle aged for a Vulcan!"

More laughter. Suval nodded again with serious face, Lucius grinned back at him.

Sunshine, the Chief Medical Officer on the Starship ShiKahr began to pick out a tune on her instrument. It looked like the love child of a Lute and guitar and sounded about like that, too. Sunshine could make it sing. She began to pick out a gentle melody, and her voice seemed to leave her physical self to float across the room.

"Somewhere my heart is flying,
where the stars are
where the stars are
where the stars are-"

"Somewhere my love lies waiting,
where the stars are
where the stars are
where the stars are-"

By the third verse Commodore Lucius was sound asleep.

-*-

"Captain's Log Stardate 51304.2."

"We are entering a section of space whose name in pre-Federation records translates roughly to Subsector 21 Alpha. Although the Scout ship USS Blackfoot made a pass through this sector some 30 years ago, there has never been a follow up survey until today. That's our mission. We'll be stopping at all eight stars in the sector and making observations and recordings of them, as well as investigating anything else that catches our eye here. In the end we'll have detailed maps of the sector and a decent sensor record to aid in the planning of a more detailed scientific cataloging of whatever is out there."

"The ShiKahr is in excellent condition and operating well. The crew's morale is high and even better due to the visit of Commodore Wilford Lucius, viewed as a sort of grandfather figure by many in Starfleet."

Li'ira shut off the log. "What's first on the list Tandala?

"It's cataloged as object 21-Alpha A. A type G yellow dwarf star. It has a complex system and at least one Class M world." Tandala MacBier said. "We're heading towards it now."

"Captain I have something on Sensors." Crystara Acnapma said.

"Already?" Li'ira asked.

"It's the top of shift. I just turned the sensors on." Crystara answered. "We're reading enhanced radio emissions from the class M world ahead. Apparently the natives have entered a technological phase of development."

"Can we discern any content?" Li'ira asked.

"Our warp drive is distorting the emissions badly, Captain. I can't pull any meaning out of it. However since we're heading towards it, anyway I don't see any advantage to stopping here." Crystara said. "We'll be able to receive them much more clearly once we arrive in the 21-Alpha A system."

"How long until we get there?" Li'ira asked.

"Five more days at this speed, Captain." Brett Tyson said. The ShiKahr's Chief Helmsman was a former Security Chief who seemed to be busted to permanent Ensign. He didn't seem to mind unduly.

"You have that long to get undercover surveillance gear together, Tandala." Li'ira said.

Tandala jumped up out of her chair on the bridge. "If you'll excuse me, Captain, I'll go get those started right now."

"Have fun." Li'ira said.

Tandala bounced over to the turbo lift and away.

-*-

Five days later the ShiKahr edged into orbit over a world that called itself Puorielle.

Li'ira was in the center seat watching everything unfold. It was nice to watch a professional crew at work.

On her right Commodore Lucius. He smelled very faintly of ammonia, but Li'ira didn't mention this. She found herself smiling at his presence. Was he an official Starfleet Grandfather figure? Li'ira thought Starfleet couldn't have chosen a better one.

He was staring at the screen and smiling himself.

"Stealth probes are in position, Captain. We have global sensor coverage, although readings of the poles will be of lesser quality." Suval announced.

'Very good, Commander." Li'ira said "Please let me know if you find anything worth noting."

Commodore Lucius looked puzzled. "What's with their moon?"

Li'ira looked at the main view screen. Since no activity had been reported on Puorielle's one large moon, it was discarded as a subject for examination until the world with people on it could be given a thorough scanning.

Now the large j class planetoid had the whole bridge crew's attention.

There was a single stripe of darker rock that cut an unnaturally straight line across the planetoid.

"Scan that please." Li'ira said.

-*-

A crowd waited for Brett Tyson and the Geology crew to exit the shuttle. It was spattered with gray dust, As if the shuttle was a piece of astronautical history. Tyson and the geologists exited the shuttle in EVA Suits that were also covered in gray dust. It was as if they were just back from Luna. Puorielle's moon was very similar to Luna in many ways.

Tyson and the crew waved to the assembled onlookers and entered the ready room next to the shuttle bay to start changing their clothes.

-*-

"It goes all the way through." Gtisomm, the chief Geologist said, shaking his head.

"It's an unbelievable formation." Another specialist said. "It implies geological processes we know nothing of."

Tyson was grim. "It looks just exactly like someone took a giant laser cutter and just buzzed the moon in half."

Li'ira and Garan Draxil, the chief security officer boggled at the thought. Lucius grinned merrily.

"You say that's impossible, right?" Lucius asked.

"Yep." Tyson nodded. "No starship ever made or rumored could mount that sort of power. No beam could channel it."

Lucius grinned. "I guess I picked the right ship, huh?"

Crystara nodded, grinning. Suval nodded slightly. "Indeed."

Li'ira was still digesting the implications of the thing.

Gtisomm added "Whatever it was, our sensors indicate that it happened 4000 years ago, and happened very, very quickly."

-*-

The sparkly vision and the bugs-under-the-skin feeling of the transporter went away and Garan Draxil found himself standing in the library.

It was a library on Puorielle, in one of their larger cities. The natives had no computer technology to speak of, simply large binary calculators which took teams of technicians to run.

So the natives stored their collective wisdom in hard copy.

Draxil and Milu had some technology from Earth's third world war era that they used to move around the library in darkness. Night vision goggles made flashlights that could give away their position unnecessary.

The tricorders and phasers used on the raids had to be altered. The tiny flashes of light from normal devices were eye dazzling through the Night Vision goggles. So the ShiKahr's crew fabricated a low light read outs for the devices.

It took some work to learn how to navigate a pre-computer library. Draxil was simply aghast at how much effort it took to run one.

Now he and Milu under stood such concepts as a Dewey Decimal System, Alphabetization and index card catalogs.

The Natives of the planet used a totally different system but once the Starfleet crew knew what to look for they were able to figure it out.

Milu searched out the index cards. They were held in some sort of rotating rack, row upon row, hanging down from a frame. One could tilt cards up to read them but they would fall safely back into the file if dropped or left alone.

Draxil walked around randomly waving his tricorder around. What he was doing was part two of a multi stage process. He was showing his tricorder all the labels on the racks and some glimpses of books on the racks.

The ShiKahr already had scans of the library from orbit. These scans allowed the creation of a map with every sizable physical object noted on it. Now, with the more detailed, close up tricorder scans, Draxil was able to add notations of the labels on each book case and shelf

After a few moments Milu's tricorder scanned and memorized every card. It beeped very softly sounding extremely loud in the empty library. Now Milu's tricorder and Garan's exchanged data over a quiet subspace link. With maps updated by visual labels from the library and the contents of the index cards, Crystara was able to highlight which shelves in the library held the books of interest to the Starfleet raiders.

History. Sociology. Classical fiction, myths and legends. On the tricorder maps, several shelves began to blink softly.

The raiders had been in the library for fifteen minutes.

Draxil and Milu moved to the first history shelf. They weren't going to touch any of the native books. Garan took a small black disk out of a pouch on his belt. He placed it approximately to the center of the shelf up near the top. Then he placed a second about midway and then thirds near the bottom. These were sensor antennas. Leverage for the tricorders.

Soon Milu gave him a thumbs up from the other end.

Draxil set his tricorder on close range, maximum sensitivity scans, placed it on the floor and stepped back. Now the hard part. Wait for the machine to complete its sensitive work.

Because the natives had no clues about Subspace technology the tricorders were able to hand off some of the processing of their scans to the ShiKahr's computers using data link channels.

Draxil walked around slowly, keeping a vision enhanced eye open for trouble. He occasionally had to squint or look away from the windows. The native's primitive ground cars were ubiquitous, and relatively brightly lit.

As he wandered, the tricorder slowly but completely scanned every history book on the shelf. When it was done, even though no one in Starfleet touched the original book, it would exist in a data file in the ShiKahr's computer. It could be read as a data file or even replicated.

This process took approximately 15 minutes per shelf.

Draxil sat down at a study desk with his back to the wall and relaxed. At first he hated the Library raids. He'd become more tolerant as the last couple of weeks wore on and he grew used to the pace of the job.

Milu wandered over to the children's books and picked up some picture books to look at. These communicated a lot of very basic information to her about how the natives saw themselves.

Bright lights swept through the library, blinding Draxil. He threw himself to the floor and ripped the night vision goggles off, cursing softly and trying to blink spots from before his eyes.

The alien growling noise of one of the ground vehicles approached from outside but stopped. The lights went down.

Draxil lifted himself up and skittered over to the window with his phaser out. Stunning security guards and beaming out quickly was too common on this mission so far. Draxil wondered if the library had some primitive security system that he'd over looked.

Draxil peeked out of the window to see who'd driven up. He saw Milu approach another window along that facing of the building.

Then natives hadn't left their vehicle yet. Their cars looked like pill bugs to Draxil.

In fact they seemed to be engaged in conversation. Taking a risk, Draxil placed the night vision goggles back on. In the strange monotone picture the goggles presented Draxil saw that these natives were practicing a form of communication far more intimate and primal than talking. They were making out.

"Going to the Library to get laid?" Draxil thought to himself. "That's a new one on me!"

After watching for a bit Draxil assured himself that the two natives in the pill bug car were very distracted by each other and probably wouldn't notice two intruders in the library.

He turned around and went to go check the tricorders.

After moving the tricorders to the next shelf, Draxil approached Milu. "I'd better keep an eye on the love birds."

"Pervert." She said. "Sir."

"Hey! I have to watch. It's for the safety of the mission. Next time I'll bring a holo-camera and that'll be perversion." Draxil leered.

Milu shook her head and grinned "Suit yourself."

As Draxil approached the window to spy on the two affectionate natives, he smiled to himself. It beat the hell out of the raid on the morgue and that was the truth.

-*-

Li'ira and Tandala were sharing tea before going on duty.

"I personally prefer Uncle Zabooti." Li'ira said. "Hey, Kids! It's Uncle Zabooti time! The kids in the audience just go nuts for the guy."

"Give me the music any day." Tandala said. "Can we add another raid for music tubes to the list?"

Li'ira thought about it. "No promises. We have to add the newspaper archives to the list and then we have to think about whether we've over stayed our welcome. The local police are stepping up motor patrols in most of the towns we hit in response to the museum raids. We've had to stun guards on almost all the Museum raids."

Tandala sighed "Li'ira, the music is who they are. It's how the define them selves apart from the dream time."

"I understand that." Li'ira lied. "But we just can't get everything. We're not an anthropology mission."

Tandala nodded and sighed. At least she had some of it.

Commodore Lucius approached the table, waving a PADD very slowly. "Looky, looky what I got."

"Please have a seat, Commodore." Li'ira nodded almost too formally.

"Wilford!" Tandala grinned. "What can I get you?"

"Umm. Some tea, please. Lots of cream and sugar." Lucius sat down slowly and carefully. "I found another reference. I have another source for the Kraken myth."

"Kraken?" Li'ira said. "Oh, Those! I heard a couple of those stories on the subspace net when I was young."

"Yep. The myth of the Kraken is wide spread. There's a version of it here on Puorielle." Lucius mangled the name "Why can't anyone ever name their planet Bob or somethin'? Anyway. I was given an assignment as a young man to collate the variations of the Kraken myth and it's been my hobby ever since."

"Why Krakens?" Tandala asked setting Lucius tea down in front of him. "I thought Krakens were sea monsters on earth or another name for Giant Squid."

"It's a mis-translation of their name in some Orion texts. The true name is Nagarrla, or Monster of the Black, Deep, or what have you. In the main Orion source material from the Rigel colonies, they have sizable oceans and history of sailing on these oceans and so their Nagarrla refers specifically to Sea Monsters in most cases. So our translators in their infinite wisdom eventually defaulted to Krakens. The name of the creature varies from myth to myth. Demons, Dragons, Shadows, the Hidden Enemy, the Night Hunters. Their habitual enemy is often referred to in similar if reversed terms. Angels, Dragons, Beings of Light, Bringers of Wisdom, and so on. The thematic content of the myths is usually parallel. The Demons and Angels fight. Humanity (or whatever) can sway the balance. The hero receives the wisdom of the Angels and either fights alone with great skill and courage or raises an army to fight for the Light side."

"The people of this world have such a reference?" Tandala asked.

"Yes. Right here." Lucius put down the PADD. "The Story of Purzan, Scion of Light and his Battle against the Dark Ones. It's basically the same story, although it appears in different variations. You can tell a lot about a culture by the spin they put on the variations of this story." Lucius said excitedly. "Looky here."

He pointed out a highlighted Glyph in the text. It showed a Pyramid with a five pointed star on top. "The pyramid with the brilliant top. It's a common marker of the myth. Sometimes it's a star. Some times it's an eye, sometimes it's a flame, but I feel that it's all a reference to the same root image."

"Which root image is that?" Li'ira asked.

"I have no clue. Maybe I'll find out someday!" Lucius chortled.

Li'ira smiled. Tandala laughed. Then they dove back into the debate over music versus Uncle Zabooti with Commodore Lucius' commentary.

-*-

Li'ira sat back in her Captain's chair and took a deep breath. "Are we ready to go?"

"The ship's all packed. I think I could have stayed there a while longer." Tandala reported.

"We are ready to proceed to our next destination, Captain." Suval said.

"Set course for Subsector 21-alpha, object 2." Li'ira said. "Engage."

The ShiKahr engaged her engines and left Puorielle.

-*-

Suval reported to Li'ira two days later. "I am pleased to report no less than three astrophysical anomalies in this sector." He didn't grin. Li'ira could tell that he would have if he could.

They were seated in her office aboard the USS ShiKahr. "Three?" Li'ira asked.

"Yes. One is the energy density of the local interstellar medium." Suval said. "There is a very strong solar wind all over this sector. Energized particles and x-rays abound, in relative terms. Although the practical effect is negligible, it is very puzzling."

"What's the second one?"

"That one is a blue dwarf star that will be the third stop on our current itinerary." Suval said.

Li'ira blinked. "I don't recall a blue dwarf in the usual stellar evolutionary charts."

"There is none. Blue stars are hot. This heat is a function of mass. A low mass star cannot be hot enough to be blue. I can not explain this by any common mechanism." Suval explained.

Li'ira nodded. "Ah. Any theories?"

"Perhaps it is a neutron star with a dwarf star wrapped around it. This would explain a small star shining hotly enough to be blue." Suval said "But there are problems with this theory."

Li'ira smiled. "Good thing that we're going to pass by and check it out."

"Indeed."

"What's the last one?" Li'ira asked.

"There is a pulsar at the far end of the Sector from us. It has a ring of particles, but we cannot accurately scan them. The ring rotates around the pulsar at an extreme angle. The pulsar itself has had its rotation slowed by a mechanism I am as yet unfamiliar with."

-*-


"Captain, I'm reading a lot of Asteroid debris in the system." Brett Tyson said from the Helm Station.

"How much?" Li'ira asked.

Crystara Acnapma the Chief Science Officer replied "I'm scanning now. Ensign Tyson is correct there are more planetoids than average in this system."

"Does it pose a threat to the ship?" Li'ira asked.

"Not really, Captain," Tyson said. "Although there's more debris than average, this system is still mostly empty space. What I am concerned about is micro-meteor density."

Li'ira nodded. "Tandala, when we go sublight in the system raise shields to minimum levels."

"Aye, Captain" Tandala MacBier replied.

As the ShiKahr approached the System Crystara reported. "Captain, the number of asteroids in this system is roughly three to five times the number in Sol system. Their orbits are widely scattered."

Li'ira thought about it. "What does that suggest to you?"

"I do not like to make conclusions based on such shallow surface data. However, a working hypothesis that a planet in the system was destroyed is possible. I'll need a period of scanning and running simulations before I can give you a preliminary answer."

-*-

"Captain, Come see." Crystara said.

Li'ira looked up from her sun lounge. Smiling insincerely she thought to herself "Duty calls", put down her historical romance novel and rose to follow her ship's chief geologist.

The planet was now named Purzan after the mythical hero of the Puorielle. The location chosen for the landing camp was in a warm quiet valley, during that hemisphere's summer. The valley was mostly grasses with stands of tall ferns. No animals more complex than insects roamed Purzan, although what did exist came in an impressive array of sizes and roles.

Scattered on the south side of the valley were prefabricated huts and subsidiary equipment associated with a scouting encampment mixed with a shore leave.

Once the planet's ecosystem was certified relatively safe the away mission
investigating the surface took on a casual working vacation atmosphere, about half science field trip and half camping trip. Li'ira was solidly in vacation mode about it.

Crystara led Li'ira to the edge of the valley were the small river cut into the side of the mountains that towered away to the north.

There was a cliff that until recently was obscured by its own debris sliding away from the cut. ShiKahr crew people dug through the slide using powered equipment to reveal the protected layers underneath.

Now layers of dirt and rock lay revealed telling their story to any geologist or paleontologist who cared to look with a discerning eye.

"We have discovered fossils." Crystara explained. "Excellent samples."

Gtisomm handed Crystara a flat rock with a complex pattern embedded in it. Crystara handed it to Li'ira.

Li'ira looked at it for a few moments. "What? It's a good image but it's a fossil I don't see- wait a minute."

Li'ira turned the rock carefully against the sunlight to bring out the contrast. "That's an internal skeleton. It looks almost like a mouse."

Crystara nodded "Yes. Below that layer there, the brownish gray one, we're seeing a while different ecology. Much more complex than what exists here currently. I have seen the fossils of flowering plants and complex internal skeleton animals."

"All that ends at the brownish gray layer?" Li'ira asked.

"Yes, Captain," Gtisomm said. "Furthermore, in that brownish green layer we see isotopes of Helium that suggest strong solar wind. This is nothing that reaches the surface of this world, but an asteroid could carry it here."

"A mass extinction?"

"Again it's too soon to tell but it looks likely" Crystara said. She waved around to the landscape. "What we see here is a world in recovery from something horribly violent."

Li'ira looked at the serene valley. "Seems hard to believe."

"I have Ensign Tyson working on the Astrogation and mapping this systems asteroid population. Perhaps we can tell more when he's done."

"Keep working on it."

-*-

"This is a simulation of our best guesses of the orbits of the asteroids. They all seem to reach back to a single point.

On the large view screen the display showed a map of the system with dozens of elliptical lines showing the orbits of the asteroids. The asteroids all zipped backwards around and a around until they all met at a central point in orbit #5.

"If we assume that twenty five to thirty percent of the planet has been lost, then we get a stable orbit in that position, conforming to Bode's Law." Tyson said.

"We can make a good guess about the location of the planet when it broke up, but as to why or what happened we have no idea. This simulation works when we assume the planet was ripped apart within a single day. It doesn't work any other way. Our estimate has this event happening 14 million years ago." Suval explained.

"That's about the time we see the mass extinction on Purzan." Crystara confirmed.

"All of the planets in this system would have received a terrible bombardment at that time." Suval said.

"Okay." Li'ira nodded "We've done all the preliminary work we can here. There's enough detail work to keep us here for years and I'd like to move on. So we'll leave on one week. Suval, authorize leaves for the crew, Ensign Tyson, please conduct a closer scan and see if Purzan is due to get hit within the next year or so. Crystara, you and your staff make a list. We'll take a grand tour of the five most interesting asteroids on our way out of the system. Until then, let's enjoy getting some of that fresh air."

-*-

The ShiKahr went sublight in the next system, the one with the Blue Dwarf star at its center.

As the ship cruised on Impulse power in an ellipse around the target star, Suval said "Fascinating."

"What do you see?" Li'ira asked.

"The largest planet in this system is a gas giant with a very unusual profile. It seems denser than it should. Its composition is more complex than we expect from planets like these. It's warmer than it should be and it has left a ring of its atmosphere around the blue dwarf in its own orbit."

"What does that suggest?" Li'ira asked.

"I have no idea Captain. I am continuing to scan."

"You do that."

-*-

Later the ShiKahr approached the only other planet in the system. A small rocky planet up close to the blue dwarf.

"This planet's composition is also all wrong." Crystara said, scanning it. "The surface is a matrix of nickel iron, silicon and titanium. It's got extensive cavern systems. Almost as if the surface is a pastry that puffed up during baking."

Li'ira boggled at the imagery. "Like a pastry?"

"Yes." Crystara said. "I am reading atmospheres and temperatures trapped in isolated caverns that are not natural for a world in this position at this time."

"We are approximately the same distance from the Blue Dwarf as the Earth is from Sol." Suval said. "The temperature of the planet is livable, but it suffers from an extremely heavy ultraviolet flux and has no atmosphere to protect it."

Li'ira nodded. "Keep scanning. Why is this system so strange?"

"I cannot say with any certainty, Captain." Crystara replied. "However I can point out that this star has a high relative motion compared to the rest of the sector and that its course puts it inside the Phoenix Nebula about 50 mullion years ago."

"Is it possible that it scooped fuel and mass from the nebula as it passed through?" Tyson asked.

Crystara shrugged. "I have no way of knowing that for sure."

"Contact." Tandala said. "Captain I am getting a huge dilithium reading. It just came into view around the limb of the planet."

Li'ira was concerned. "Why didn't you pick it up before?"

"It's down in one of the chambers in the surface of the planet." Tandala explained. "The titanium and nickel/iron mix dampens our sensors, and the high solar wind from the blue dwarf also obscures our sensors."

"Garan, how bad are we blinded?" Li'ira asked.

Draxil looked thoughtfully at his sensors "If there's another ship within weapons range, I'll be able to see it. I can't guarantee a positive ID until they're within medium weapons range. Maybe closer.

"How about outside of weapons range?"

"Well that may be iffy. A ship could sneak passed us." Draxil said.

Li'ira pursed her lips. "That would make this planet an excellent hiding place for Orions or Phoenix Domain renegades. Scan that contact carefully."

"I'm seeing straight lines and reading manufactured material now." Tandala reported. "Captain the amount of dylithium I am reading is enormous. I estimate there enough there to take care of the ShiKahr's needs for a century at least."

Crystara agreed. "It seems to be all in one large lump, not veins or scattered pieces."

"Keep scanning." Li'ira said.

-*-

"Good Gawd almighty," Lucius said "It's a Kraken ship!"

"It does seem to have some similarities, doesn't it?" Li'ira asked.

They were looking at scans of the object the ShiKahr discovered. It was a Pyramid 200 meters tall and 400 meters across the base, roughly. It was made of some strange metal related to Duranium. At the apex of the Pyramid there was single crystal of dilithium 3 meters across.

"Why does it need that Dilithium crystal on the tip?" Lucius asked.

"We're not sure." Li'ira said truthfully. "It seems connected to the derelict's power system. Our scans seem to be absorbed by the crystal and echo around inside the systems of the ship."

"The dragon absorbed the strikes of the bolts and missiles, and then it turned the force of the blow back upon the angels, so that their own strength was turned against them." Lucius sounded like he was quoting an old story.

Li'ira blinked and then took a note. "That's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. If there's anything the legends can tell us that would be useful coping with that thing."

Lucius looked at the picture for a little while longer. "In every authentic version of the legend, the Kraken wield terrible force. Their armies and ships are almost undefeatable. This is why the Angels have to turn to the mortals for help. However in versions with native starships mentioned, mortal ships and weapons are all but useless against the Krakens, until the Hero can discover the secret of the Krakens and turn it against them."

"That suggests that Kraken ships are advanced and dangerous." Li'ira said.

"The pre-reformation legends from Vulcan state that 101 battleships were built and launched in ever larger groups. Each new batch was more powerful and deadly. Of the last batch, only 1 ship of 20 survived the encounter with the Krakens and that was mainly due to having a Mind Wizard of Gol along." Lucius said.

Li'ira looked grim "As it happens, we don't have any Mind Wizards of Gol with us."

"There's a certain amount of debate as to whether there were any such things as Mind Wizards of Gol or any of that sort of stuff."

Li'ira gestured at the scan "Looking at that what would you say?"

"That we have a ship with a startling resemblance to some ancient legends. I don't see how you could say any more without further investigation." Lucius replied.

"There are people living around the derelict." Li'ira said.

"Who are they?" Lucius was excited. Perhaps people who knew of or were related to the Kraken?

"Trinaries."

"Who?"

"A race we discovered a little while ago at Deep Space Ten. The Trinaries are people with tri-lateral symmetry. They're about 1.3 meters tall; they have cylindrical bodies with the mouth right on the top. They have two tentacles on each of three sides, one eye and one ear. The lower tentacle is like a leg, the upper one is like an arm, but they're both very flexible. They breathe methane. They aren't from a class M world."

"They the ones living on top of the derelict?"

"Literally. They've built a set of stone steps up the side and seem to worship the dilithium crystal at the tip.

"What do you know about these Trinaries?"

They come from a world inside the As'Taan sphere. The As'Taan utterly defeated them in a war about 200 years ago. We discovered a derelict Trinary attack ship that dated from that time. The Trinaries approached technology in a fairly unique way, but their attack ship was not up to modern standards. It mounted particle beam and fusion bomb weapons, Light shields, and a pretty primitive power system. Although they were somewhat ahead of Earth in the integration and use of dilithium in that stage."

"I wonder what in the galaxy's goin' on down there? You say these people have built a stone staircase up to the top of the Pyramid?"

"Our scans show them to be firmly Stone Age people."

Lucius shook his head. "So what are you going to do?"

"I am definitely punting this one back upstairs, unless you tell me we're in imminent danger. The pocket these people are living in is surrounded on all sides by hostile atmospheres. I can't imagine that it's stable. On top of that, they're digging into it for working material."

"If they're stone aged people then we can't interfere. Prime Directive."

Li'ira shrugged. "I don't like the thought of an Orion Pirate or a Phoenix Domain Noble getting their hands on that ship either."

"A punt sounds like a good thing." Lucius said "How are you going to keep your message from giving away the location of the find?"

"That's a good question." Li'ira answered.

-*-

"Fire" Li'ira said.

Instead of sending a subspace message that could be intercepted, and, in time, decoded, Li'ira elected to send a probe with her report stored in its memory. It was equipped to erase all sensitive data if captured. The ShiKahr would use its warp drives to give the probe a boost to a very high warp speed, allowing it to make the voyage back to starbase 94 in a reasonable amount of time.

A thump sounded as the probe left the ship. The sound of the warp drives ramped down.

Charged with subspace energy, the probe took the handed off warp field and streaked off towards Starbase 94.

Li'ira nodded with satisfaction. "Okay, people, let's get to the next item on the itinerary."

Li'ira hoped that her codes weren't too out of date or too badly compromised.

-*-


"We've hit the jackpot." Tandala said.

"What do you mean?" Li'ira asked.

"There's a native civilization on the planet ahead."

"That's the third one in the sector."

"There are cases with more, but they're usually the result of outside interference." Crystara said.

"I think the presence of the Trinaries count as out side interference." Li'ira said, "How about these people?"

"I'll be able to tell more once we reach orbit and do some detailed scans, Captain." Crystara replied.

"Then by all means, let's proceed into standard orbit, Ensign Tyson."

"Aye, Captain."

"Tandala," Li'ira said "Can you arrange for another surreptitious survey?"

"I think we have a few stealth probes left, Captain." Tandala grinned.

"Let's go ahead and use them all." Li'ira said. "If we need more we can replicate more casings and strip out the other probes."

"We don't get paid to bring them home." Tandala agreed.

-*-

In the briefing room, Crystara and Sunshine the Healer reported their findings.

"These people are speaking a corrupted form of Ferengi." Crystara said. "Our universal translators had no problem locking on the language. They call themselves the People of Chartreuse Color or Chartreusians. Their language is littered with terms and phrases from other languages that we haven't identified, yet. Their culture is Iron Age, with some steam power and some complex mechanical engineering. Their works and language indicate a sophisticated knowledge of math, physics geology and engineering."

Sunshine took over and a scan of three natives filled the screen. "We were able to beam tricorders modified for stealthy use into some of the native buildings. Operating by remote control we got excellent scans of several of the natives." The picture of the three natives was replaced by a single detailed simulation of the insides of a Chartreusian. "As you can see there are several areas that defy conventional theories of evolution about these people. Their hips and backs are designed to support much heavier loads then they ever do on this world, except in extreme circumstances. The muscle attachment points are also all wrong. Our scans of their biochemistry reveal that these people are only partially compatible with the bio-chemistry of this world. Our investigation of their cooking methods confirms this. They use a lot of low tech organic engineering techniques, including chemical leeching, yeast culturing and so on to create foods that are healthier for them than the normal flora and fauna of their world would be. Even so, our scans reveal endemic nutritional deficiencies and poor health among the people of this world."

"From Sunshine's medical and anthropological scans, I have speculated what sort of gravity loading the Chartreusians are built for and it seems at least 1.4 or 1.5 times standard gravity. Heavier than Vulcan." Crystara added.

"Between the bio-chemistry incompatibilities and the morphological inconsistency, I think it's plain that these people are transplants on this world." Sunshine said.

"You said they speak a degenerate form of Ferengi." Li'ira said.

"It's more of a corruption. There have been some syntax and grammar shifts, some loss of the original vocabulary and a lot of borrowing from at least one other unidentified language."

"Are they related to a known race in the Federation?" Suval asked.

"No, Sir. This is our first encounter with these sorts of people." Crystara replied.

"Why would the Ferengi transplant heavy worlders here?" Li'ira wondered.

"Ah. We think we have an answer to that, too." Sunshine said.

Crystara called up a map of the local area around the main Chartreusian village. It showed a large depression to the north. "This is not a natural phenomenon. Gtisomm reports that geology samples show this world to be rich in Gadolinium, Pergium and Iridium, elements used in subspace coils. This formation here seems to be a primitive form of mine called a strip mine."

Sunshine sounded a little angry at the idea. "Most races eventually abandon strip mining because it's destructive to the local ecology. Over use can render a land barren and inhospitable. Several places on Earth were damaged for generations because of this sort of abuse. If this was the Ferengi they weren't very careful about the ecology of this world or the health of the Chartreusians."

Li'ira sighed. "Sadly, that wouldn't be too out of character for the Ferengi."

"The question now is do we make contact with the Chartreusians?" Tandala asked.

"I believe the wisest course of action would be to report back to Starfleet and allow them to design a more specific contact mission for the Chartreusians." Suval said.

"I really think we should initiate contact, Captain." Crystara said. "We have had no previous contact with these people. If they have any lore about where they come from then this could lead to contact with their home world and a whole new society."

"I don't see that there is any pressing need to initiate contact, Captain. The Chartreusians will still be here when the next ship arrives with a first contact specialist aboard." Suval said.

"There is one." Sunshine said. "Through no fault of their own all those people are ill. I estimate their life span now at about half of what it might be with good nutrition and medicine."

"How many natives are there?"

"Approximately 250,000 individuals, Captain."

"Could you treat them all?"

"Given time and the replicator, certainly."

Li'ira nodded. "This isn't a situation for impulsive decision making. I will consider it tonight. Tomorrow we'll have another briefing. Do your homework and be prepared to support your opinion, I'll make my decision once we're done."

Suval nodded. "Yes, Captain."

-*-

"Taste," Sunshine help up the wooden spoon. She was in the Kitchen of the Palace of Zeeloz, the King of the Chartreusians, Maleet, The Kingdom's chief cook sipped Sunshine's concoction carefully.

Maleet's face lit up. "It's delicious!"

Maleet was thin but wiry in her upper body, and broad across her hips. The odd shape came from being designed for high gravity, living in lower gravity and then working hard. Her black hair was back in a pony tail, her yellowish green skin shone with sweat.

The Kitchen in the Palace was low tech. Cut stone, Iron fittings, a large fire place, and huge wooden tables. Shelves lined every available wall, filled with all the ingredients the Chartreusians could pull from their world. Sunshine, Crystara and Gtisomm added a few more that weren't immediately obvious.

Seeing the reaction to her new concoction, Sunshine smiled tiredly and gave a thumbs-up to Crystara. "We'll make up a small batch and test it on a wider basis."

Crystara stared at the iron pans, clay pots, and the fire place. The place smelled unusual to her. Sunshine's concoction smelled vile. Sunshine assured her that it was because it was designed for the Chartreusians and not her.

Crystara could explain the usual bio-chemistry that occurred when Sunshine's recipe was followed, but how Sunshine knew the correct low tech steps to take was beyond her.

Sunshine's concoction took days of trial and error and some of the most demanding bio-chemical lab bench work Crystara had ever put in. Its success was that using the knowledge that advanced science gave them; they were able to create a treatment that the Chartreusians were able to create using their own native cooking and food processing techniques.

The Kitchen staff lined up to take tastes and offer suggestions, which Sunshine wrote down on paper next to her. The paper would have to be scanned and then replicated to be translated into anything the Chartreusians could read, but Sunshine was adamant about her working style.

As the first dish was exterminated by the enthusiastic staff, Sunshine looked at Crystara thoughtfully. "I'd forgotten how much I like to cook. Maybe I'll whip up a little something for the Staff dinner."

Crystara smiled and tried to be sincere "I look forward to that." Actually if it looked and smelled like the stuff Sunshine was serving to the Chartreusians, Crystara would look forward to escaping it.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We don't know what effects this will have on their digestion systems." Sunshine said. "If this works I want at least four more dishes."

Maleet looked at Sunshine with an almost feral expression "Four more?"

Sunshine said "Well, yes, of course. It wouldn't do for you to get bored, then you wouldn't eat them and it wouldn't do you any good."

Maleet smiled wryly. "Oh, no. We couldn't have that."

-*-

"Thank you for your visit and your words of hope, Captain Li'ira, the Dark Green." Zeeloz said. He was the King of the Chartreusians. He was bare chested, his boots were worn and his hands rough to the touch. Among the Chartreusians status was earned by station of birth, clever maneuver and hard work, with hard work being the most publicly displayed quality.

"You're welcome." Li'ira said "I hope that we can help your people find their original home world and how to make a better world here."

"In all of our myths and legends and wildest speculation, it never occurred to us that women would appear from the stars and cook for us." Zeeloz said. He sounded bemused.

Sunshine covered her mouth.

Suval raised an Eyebrow.

Li'ira blinked a couple of times and nodded slowly. "Yes, that is sort of unusual, isn't it?"

Zeeloz smiled "If these work as Sunshine and Crystara have said they will, then perhaps one day, we shall venture to the stars and cook for the people we find there."

Garan Draxil bit his lips.

Li'ira noted that Maleet's eyes were shining.

"In time a Federation Diplomatic team will come to you. They may not cook for you. But we hope they will lead to more friendship between you world and the Federation." Li'ira said. Everyone in the room heard the Irony in her voice, "I can't wait to read their reports."

Li'ira made a mental note to advise the diplomatic team to bring chefs versed in low tech cooking with them.

-*-

The ShiKahr came out of warp near the Pulsar. Near being a relative term of course. By naked eye the Pulsar would have been hard to spot. The ShiKahr was billions of miles away from it.

"Helm set course for a flyby." Li'ira ordered. "Science department, it's your show."

Crystara was already setting up the sensor scans. "Commander Suval would you like to assist?"

"Indeed." Suval moved to a reserve station and tied it into the Science Department dataflow.

"How close a flyby, Captain?" Brett Tyson asked.

"Oh, I think we'll be conservative, let's keep at one AU." Li'ira said.

"Captain, I do not recommend that close an approach." Suval said.

"Oh?"

"At that distance from the pulsar, we'd almost certainly take damage." Suval said. "It is unusually energetic."

"What would you consider a safe distance, Commander?" Li'ira asked.

"I would suggest we venture no closer than four astronomical units." Suval said.

"Make our flyby distance five astronomical units, helm. Our speed is one half impulse until you are notified differently." Li'ira ordered.

"Aye-Aye, Captain." Tyson set the course. "A fly by of the pulsar at five astronomical units, at one half impulse."

The ShiKahr gently moved onto the specified path.

"Oh," Crystara said. "Look at the gravimetric readings."

"Of course." Suval said. "That would explain it."

Li'ira looked at Tandala who indicated by expression that she didn't have any idea either.

The turbolift door opened. "Permission to enter the Bridge," Wilford Lucius said.

"Granted, Ambassador, please come in." Li'ira grinned.

Lucius came onto the bridge and took a seat at another one of the reserve stations on the opposite side of the Bridge from Suval.

"What do the gravimetric readings tell you, Commander?" Li'ira asked.

"The Pulsar ahead is not one, but actually two stellar bodies. Both are extremely dense, on the order of neutronium. They are surrounded by a shell of gas. They are emitting high powered radiation and particle streams." Suval explained.

Garan Draxil's tactical board beeped an insistent tone. Garan looked at his board for a moment "Whoa."

"What is it?" Li'ira asked.

"Well it has to be a mistake, Captain. My board is telling me there is a residue of weapons fire in the system. But it's only identifying one weapons signature and the power level is right off the scale." Garan explained. "Some how these pulsar things are making the biggest false positive I ever heard of."

Suval double checked. "Indeed. It may well be that our ship's tactical systems are interpreting the particle streams from the poles of the pulsar to be a particle beam weapon."

"Are we in any danger?" Li'ira asked.

"No Captain, but the energy density is pretty hairy out there." Garan said. I recommend minimal shields."

"Raise the shields." Li'ira said. "Minimum levels."

Crystara and Suval both looked at Draxil in unison with a straight face and then went back to their science work. Li'ira smiled. Both were bothered that the shields might obscure some sensor readings but both were too professional to admit it. It was amusing to see the same thought played out almost identically on two such seperate faces.

"Aye Captain, Shields up." Draxil did so.

For the next two hours, the ShiKahr rolled slowly through the system; Li'ira became bored although she sternly told herself she wasn't. Lucius fell asleep in his chair, snoring gently. Tandala turned back and looked at him, and then shot Li'ira a significant look. That might be a good way to wait out the slow science fly by.

Li'ira grinned at Tandala, understanding. Then she very broadly put on a professional face. "I am being responsible now." her expression said.

Tandala grinned, catching the subtext, "No matter how boring that is."

Suval spoke "Captain. We are very fortunate."

Li'ira looked at him, repressing a smile. A Vulcan having a grand old time. "How so, Commander?"

"The two objects are each generating two very powerful beams at once. Their orbits periodically place them in position to cross their streams. Perhaps every century or two. We have happened to arrive just as such an event is going to happen." Suval explained "Observations of this event will offer us invaluable insight to stellar physics."

Li'ira grinned "Big science, huh?"

Suval's eyes twinkled. "It is big science indeed."

Li'ira smile was genuine "Excellent. I think we've earned our pay on this trip."

Over the course of the next several hours, the ShiKahr drift closer to the point of closest fly by. Shifts changed. Li'ira found herself in the lounge listening to the sounds her crew made. The Lounge was the newest part of the USS ShiKahr occupying a space that originally was a cargo hold. It was spacious and open, with a design steeped in careful ergonomics. It was comfortable place. There were tables in various patterns separated by carefully placed partitions and plants. In the center of the lounge was an open space for larger meetings

The most attractive feature of the lounge were the large windows facing out into space. They drew most of the people. Li'ira often sat back a bit to watch the people in her crew react to them. She was endlessly fascinated by the patterns and throughout processes the people marked by their interactions.

The ShiKahr went to Red Alert. Li'ira was already running for the door to the lounge by the time the Intercom fed down Suval's voice. "Captain to the Bridge, please. Captain Li'ira to the Bridge."

Li'ira felt somewhat better. It was nice knowing that Suval had the Bridge until she got there.

Li'ira shared a tense Turbolift ride with Tandala MacBier. They didn't look at each other or say a word.

Li'ira led the way out of the turbo lift. "Report."

Suval stood up from the center seat. "Captain. The Pulsar has fired an X-Ray laser beam."

Li'ira sat down in her chair and called up the ships status readouts. Everything was fine; all stations were coming on line secure at red alert. "Did it hit us? What's the damage?"

"Captain." Suval said "If the beam had impacted us, the ShiKahr would have been vaporized in an instant, even with our shields in place and fully reinforced."

Li'ira noticed the tactical schematic on the main view screen. The beam was aimed a good eighty degrees away from them, and still firing.

"What's going on? Who's firing the beam?" Li'ira asked.

"I suspect it is a natural phenomenon of the pulsar itself." Suval said. "It is of inordinate power. On the order of ten the sixty-first power megajoules."

Li'ira looked up at him as the math fell into place in her head, she felt her face drain of color "That's..."

Suval finished the sentence for her. "Enough to shatter a planet, yes."

Draxil spoke up. "The Sensors detected the beam, called it weapons fire and sounded red alert automatically Captain." He sounded a touch embarrassed.

"Helm, Mister Tyson, track that beam. Who is this thing firing at?" Li'ira ordered.

"Aye Captain." Tyson began to track the beam.

"I do not believe there is a sentient mind behind this effect." Suval said.

"It's a NATURAL planet cracker beam?" Li'ira was stunned by the concept.

"The two beams together are interacting with the gas shell around the pulsar, energizing it, and naturally causing the beam to lase." Suval explained.

Li'ira looked at the screen horrified. "That's what happened to the moon of Puorielle and the planet that torn apart in the Purzan system." As she spoke the beam winked out.

Suval raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps a premature conclusion but it does seem reasonable."

"Captain, I have a course on the beam." Tyson said. "I can't be exactly sure but it seems to be heading right for the Chartreusians."

-*-

The briefing room was tense.

"There's no mistake now. It's heading right for the Chartreusians. "Tyson said.

"Can we stop it? Can we channel warp power through the shields and deflect the beam?" Li'ira asked. Her eyes were more deeply green around the edges than usual.

"We possess only a fraction of the power necessary." Suval said. "We'd be destroyed and the beam would proceed to the Chartreusians."

Li'ira's face grew grim. "If we sacrificed the ship, could we deflect the beam?"

Suval shook his head. "Unlikely."

Li'ira pursed her lips, Could we evacuate the planet. We have five years until it impacts.

Suval shook his head again. "The only suitable planet in easy range is Puorielle."

"There's Purzan." Tandala said.

Sunshine shook her head. "There is not enough of an ecosystem to support them, and it's not terribly compatible with their physiology anyway. It'd be like the planet they're on now, but worse."

Birdy, the ShiKahr's Chief Engineer came into the briefing room. "Sorry I'm late. Had some work to do. Did I miss anything?"

Li'ira looked at him carefully. "Yes Commander, we're discussing how to stop a planet cracking x-ray laser beam from impacting the Chartreusians world, splattering it. It dwarfs the power available to the ShiKahr so any attempt to physically interfere with it would result in our destruction, but not the deflection of the beam."

Byrdy looked thoughtful. "What's the energy of the beam, again?"

Suval told him. Byrdy nodded decisively. "I could do that."

The rest of the senior officers stared at him.

He took a deep breath "We'll need a spare starship though."

"Please explain, Commander Byrd." Suval said carefully.

-*-

Lt. Commander Jeffery Jones sat in the Command Seat of the USS Brunswick and day dreamed. "Starship Commander" he thought to himself. He was a tall, lanky red head. He knew he looked like a very typical earnest young Starfleet Officer. He didn't worry about this. He figured experience would come and change his appearance when it was ready to. He found the self conscious effort of other younger officers to appear worldlier and sophisticated laughable.

Jones' self assured acceptance of his own status was working on changing his appearance, from earnest young officer to competent experienced officer. Jones hadn't really noticed.

The fact of the matter was that he was in command of a starship. Not much of one, though. The USS Brunswick an Excelsior class cruiser was used up. She was 90 years old and her hull was well past being useful to upgrade.

She was cruising from Starbase 35 to Earth, a trip that promised to be her last. Her crew was the minimum necessary, plus a handful of people who just happened to be heading that way.

Once back at Earth, She was to be scrapped. Lt. Commander Jones was under orders, do not engage anything, do anything, or try to respond to anything, unless the Brunswick was the absolute last hope. Admiral Benton reinforced to Jones repeatedly that the Brunswick was not an active duty starship and that Jones was not, therefore a line commander and not expected to handle such things.

Jones' face soured slightly at the memory. "That's okay." He told himself firmly. "This will look good on my resume. In time I'll make it to the center seat legitimately."

Milo Bradley came onto the Bridge. He wasn't officially one of the Brunswick's Engineering staff, but he just sort of wandered onto the Brunswick's Main Engineering and took a shift without much announcement or ceremony.

Jones liked him. He didn't think in straight lines. He leapt from strange disconnection to incredible genius insight almost at random. Bradley seemed to be really enjoying the trip. Most of the crew were engineers, allowing Bradly a crew that most spoke his language, even if he did have to slow down for them.

Bradley had a distracted look, a mop of brown hair, and was taller than he looked.

Bradley approached Jones with a PADD and handed it to him without ceremony. "What do you think?"

Jones took the PADD. And looked at it. "Nice. Very nice. You'd never be able to use it at Warp, though."

Bradley shrugged. "It still adds mobile capacity we don't have."

Jones looked at the design again. A thought began to occur to him. If he could swing this as a proposal, he could wind up commanding the project to build it. He looked intently at Bradley. "Tell me about this. How do you see this working?"

Just then the Ops officer, Ensign Merkle said "Skipper? I'm getting a distress call."

Jones winced. He had to try and answer a distress call, but the Brunswick was really not in condition to handle it. Not enough crew, not enough material, not enough ship left.

"On screen." Jones said. The text message played out

From, Commander USS ShiKahr, Li'ira, Captain, NMN, NLN
To Commander, USS Brunswick.
Subject: Distress Call

An in habited planet is about to suffer a catastrophe with total fatalities. We believe your ship could help. Please rendezvous with us at Chartreuse as soon as possible, coordinates appended. Estimated time of Impact 5 years.

Yours, Li'ira


Jones read the message. "Sounds like an Asteroid impact."

Bradley said. "The ShiKahr could probably handle that by herself. This call is aimed directly at us."

Jones blinked at the screen "I'm all curious, now. Helm lay in course to Planet Chartreuse. Merkle, send a message to the ShiKahr that we're on our way, as them to forward details to us and to Starbase Thirty Five. Then send a message to Starbase Thirty-Five advising of our change in course."

"Aye Skipper," Merkle said.

-*-

The briefing room of the Brunswick was old and smelled faintly musty. Jones Imagined Captain sitting in his chair for the last ninety years, making the big calls.

Lieutenant Fhad was there, his XO on this trip. So was Milo Bradley.

Li'ira sat on the far end of the table, quietly watching the briefing unfold. Jones snuck a look at her out of the corner of his eye. She was very pretty indeed. Jones hated to think of himself as being so shallow that it mattered, but it did. The thought dominated his mind. "Boy, she sure is pretty."

Suval, the Executive Officer of the ShiKahr spoke. "Gentlemen, here is the problem we face. An X-Ray laser beam of immense proportions is moving across space from this pulsar. In eight years it will strike this planet, inhabited by a sentient species we have made contact with. It will destroy them."

Jones sat forward and looked at the notation of the energy of the beam. "Oh my God. There no way any Starship could deflect that. That would smash through Space dock and not even be slowed down."

Lieutenant Fhad looked mystified "What can the Brunswick do here that the ShiKahr couldn't?"

Bradley looked thoughtful. "Where did the beam come from?"

Suval handed him a PADD with scans of the Pulsar on it. Bradley paged through it quickly, absorbing the qualities of the pulsar without bothering himself with the details that bored him. "Wow."

Commander Byrd, the Chief Engineer of the ShiKahr spoke up. "Our deflectors would be useless against this monster, but there is a technique we might be able to borrow. Have you heard of gravitational lensing?"

Jones noticed that Lieutenant Fhad looked confused again. He also noticed that Bradley looked up sharply and grinned. Jones focused for a moment and the answer came to him. "Aaahhhh."

-*-

Several weeks later, The USS ShiKahr and the USS Brunswick floated in deep space at the correct distance from the Pulsar.

All was in readiness. Most of the Brunswick's crew was on the ShiKahr, and the rest were beaming back even now.

Li'ira looked at Jones. "Thank you, Commander. It's quite a sacrifice."

Jones looked at the main view screen where the Brunswick floated, her engines glowing with energy pent up waiting for release. "We were heading to the breakers with her anyway, Captain. At least this way she goes out being of service one last time."

"Time." Suval said.

"Go ahead commander." Li'ira said.

"Brunswick helm, assume position."

"Aye Skipper." The young crewman who'd been the Brunswick's helmsman now worked the ship's helm from a remote console on the ShiKahr.

He got a sour look from many crew people. His use of the term "Skipper" was not appropriate. But Li'ira smiled at Jones. He must have some talent to bond a crew like he had already.

The Brunswick lumbered into the path of the onrushing beam. "In position, Sir."

"Fifteen Seconds" Suval counted.

Jones nodded to Bradley "Engage the Warp drive."

Bradley wordlessly activated the controls.

The Brunswick's old engine core strained. Her hard used nacelles glowed with massive energies. Her last warp field formed. All her impulse reactors activated, and fed all power into the Brunswick's old shields.

"Ten Seconds," Suval counted.

The old ship couldn't take that strain for long without breaking. She wouldn't have to. Her warp field was strong enough to drive the ship at warp nine, but it was carefully balanced. The Brunswick was expending heroic effort to establish a static warp bubble.

Remote sensors complained. The Brunswick was using herself up fast.

"Five, Four, Three, Two, One." Suval counted.

As the last word left his mouth, the view screen went black.

"Viewer overload." Tandala MacBier said. "Compensating now."

A corrected view appeared.

The X-Ray laser beam, crossing the threshold of the Brunswick's warp bubble, was warped itself. Climbing a huge gravitational incline in its path, its frequencies were warped and the paths of its photons were randomized.

Acting as a giant prism, the Brunswick disassembled the horrifyingly powerful beam.

Brilliant colors flashed, and radio static screamed. Some of the beam was converted into infrared energy and even though not in a coherent beam anymore, the power unleashed was immense. The Brunswick started to cook and melt. High energy microwaves and gamma rays bounced off the Brunswick's shields stealing some energy away.

Windows on the ship melted, bloated outwards and then exploded. The paint on her hull burned. The fittings for sensors started to melt and burn away. Seals melted around airlocks and hatches and atmosphere blew out into the light where it was flashed to incredible temperatures by the radiant energy.

Huge black streaks appeared on the Brunswick's hull as the atmosphere burned.

Lights on the remote stations turned yellow and then red as the Brunswick suffered.

In the end, her warp core breached and her explosion was lost amid the horrible brilliance of the refracted planet killer beam.

However, her warp bubble lasted until the beam passed all the way through it.

Her last mission was successful, the Chartreusians were saved.

"Well done, everyone. That was how to do that." Lucius said.

-*-

On the way back to Starbase 35, Li'ira noticed that Jones listened with care to every story Commodore Lucius told. But then, so did she.

 

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