Enemy of the State-Ch 26

Enemy of the State"

By Quills

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star trek and I derive no financial gain from this story.

Contact: quills@thequillpen.net
Codes: A, T/Tu, Ma, S, R, P angst, drama, romance, humor, action/adventure
Summary: The starship Enterprise is on a desperate mission to save Earth from the mysterious Xindi. While searching for the weapon the Xindi intend to use against Earth, Captain Archer and his crew are reunited with their friend from the future, Captain Soma, who brings news of an even more sinister plot by a Xindi faction involving the Vulcans, which threatens not only Earth, but the entire galaxy. Now it is up to Archer and his crew, with the help of Soma, to unravel the Xindi plot and prevent Earth and the galaxy from falling at the feet of their greatest threat…Vulcan.

***Special note: This story takes place after the season three episode, “Carpenter Street,” but before the episode “Harbinger.”

**Update: Just to bring you up to speed (so you don’t have to re-read the first 25 chapters again (even though it’s well worth it ;-) ). During Enterprise’s historic mission to stop the Xindi, the time line is altered resulting in an alternate universe where violent and emotional Vulcans rule what would be Federation space. In the 24th century, Captain Soma is approached by a 31st century temporal operative seeking his help in preventing the time line from being changed. Unfortunately, they discover they are too late and encounter the Vulcans, narrowly escaping to the safety of the 22nd century and the NX-01. The operative dies and Soma is severely injured. He manages to relay what he believes has happened. Archer must interrupt his mission in order to set the time line right. In order to do this, they must travel to Vulcan, halfway across the galaxy. The trip would take weeks, if not months through unknown and potentially hostile space. Soma offers an alternative. The Enterprise heads for a planet which Soma believes holds Preserver technology that can allow them to travel to Vulcan. On route to the planet, Soma and Tucker have an altercation over the ethics of changing the time line and preventing the seven million…along with Trip’s sister from having to die. Enterprise arrives at the planet and after a short battle with a Vulcan fighter, Trip, T’Pol and Soma must dive underwater to locate the submerged Preserver technology. After fighting one of the planets native aquatic predators, they discover a Preserver subspace transporter in a submerged cave. Archer decides to use the subspace transporter to travel to Vulcan along with Soma and T’Pol. Tucker informs them that there is a limited energy supply to power the subspace transporter. They will have three windows over a 33 hour period to make it back. When they arrive on Vulcan, they try to find their way around one of the major cities. During a tense moment, Archer and T’Pol must pretend to be lovers to avoid a Vulcan military patrol. The ruse works, but Soma sees them, not realizing the reason behind their actions. This causes a rift between Soma and Archer, but they continue their mission. After locating a possible lead, they visit a person who may be able to assist them in gaining access to the Vulcan archives. However, this is a ruse to lead them into the hands of a Vulcan smuggler, Tolaris. Soma and Archer are captured and T’Pol escapes, but is detained by Vulcan soldiers, who take her to her father, Prefect Soval. Soma and Archer resolve their issues and must somehow deal with Tolaris so they can find T’Pol. Meanwhile, Vulcans soldiers have traveled to the Preserver planet through the first window of the subspace transporter. But the timely arrival of Lt. Reed and the MACOS stops the Vulcans. Enterprise’ sensors detect a ship approaching the system and due to arrive in a few hours. In addition, the time Archer’s team has left has decreased do to exponential power loss to the subspace transporter. They now have one more window to make it back or they will be trapped on Vulcan and they don’t know it.***

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Chapter 26

Trip Tucker climbed down the access ladder. Gripping the rungs, one after another, he carefully maneuvered his way along the rocky incline of the cavern wall. It had been just over three hours since they had inadvertently discovered the adjoining cavern and the second Preserver device. Lieutenant Reed had returned to the ship with the three Vulcan prisoners, leaving Corporal Kelly and a contingent of MACOs to guard Tucker and his engineering staff from any other uninvited guests. Not wasting any time, Tucker had instructed his engineering team to cut through the remaining rock with phase rifles and install a portable ladder to access the adjoining cavern.

Tucker looked down the ten meter drop from the access opening in the stone wall face to the cavern floor below. Damn, he muttered quietly as a sudden grip of intense fear caused his chest to tighten. He had always hated high places; especially when he was boy and age had done little to relieve him of that very intense fear. When he was with friends or leading a mission, it was easier to put on a brave face and push his fear to the back of his mind. But he was alone now and he couldn’t help thinking what would happen if he made a misstep or his hand slipped from one of the rungs. Turning his gaze back to the wall; he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. His hands gripped the poly-carbon rungs of the ladder tightly as he continued his descent. After what seemed an eternity, he finally reached the final rung. Stepping off, he stopped suddenly and looked at his hand still gripping the ladder; knuckles straining through white skin. Releasing the rung, he let his hand drop to his side. Next time, I’m usin’ the God Damn transporter.

Tucker headed down the makeshift ramp, leading to the open area of the cavern floor. The natural stone surface was in sharp contrast to Preserver technology that was imbedded in the natural contours of the cavern walls. Most of the technology was similar to what they had found in the first cavern. However, they discovered one new piece of technology that didn’t resemble anything they had yet discovered; a large jet black monolith, stretching upward to over thirty meters, reaching the very top of the cavern where it continued into the stone ceiling. Tucker had wasted no time putting his engineers to work on the second Preserver machine. His first thought was that it might solve the problem they had been having with the other Preserver device’s energy cubes, but to his utter disappointment, no new energy cubes were found. In fact, there was no evidence that the monolith was anything more than a solid mass. What its purpose was remained a mystery. He had Hoshi working on the machine’s glyphs for the last three hours. The clock was counting down and Captain Archer and his team didn’t know they were already behind. If they didn’t get back in the next eleven hours, then they weren’t getting back at all. But Tucker and the crew had their own problems. In a little less than twelve hours an alien ship was due to reach them. If it turned out to be Vulcan warship, then they needed to be long gone before it arrived.

Tucker walked around several Starfleet utility crates as he approached the tall ebony monolith. He could see Ensign Sato was in front of it and he couldn’t help thinking of the biblical story of David and Goliath. The diminutive ensign pitted against her formidable adversary.

“Hoshi,” Tucker called out, “how‘re you comin’ along?”

The communications officer was sitting on the floor, legs crossed with several data PADDS scattered in front of her. Looking up, she shook her head, a slight air of frustration visible in her expression. “Its slow work, sir,” she answered. “Some of the controls are almost identical to the ones on ‘Little Boy’, but-“

Tucker frowned, cutting her off, “Little Boy?”

“Yes, sir,” Sato smiled, “Lieutenant Reed’s nickname. The one in the other cavern is ‘Little Boy’ and this one is ‘Fat Man’. Apparently those were the names given to the first atomic bombs during the 20th century. The lieutenant thought it was appropriate.”

Tucker smiled at his friend’s morbid sense of humor. It was appropriate. These two devices could decide the future of the galaxy or rather which future. The Enterprise crew had their backs to the wall and was fighting against time and the odds. And even if they managed to pull it off, managed to set the time line back in order, they still had their original mission to finish. Stop the Xindi from destroying Earth. Shaking his head, he reminded himself that the immediate mission was his primary concern. He could worry about the Earth if there was one to get back to.

Turning his attention back to Sato, he studied the machine’s alien glyphs. “You said the two were similar.”

“They are…to a point. I started encountering instrument panels that had completely new glyphs. I’m sorry commander, but this could take several hours…even days.”

“Dammit, we don’t have time,” snapped Tucker. Several crewmembers looked over at Tucker. But a hard stare from their acting captain, convinced them move on with their business.

Sato looked up at him, not bothering to hide her annoyance. “I’m doing the best I can.”

Tucker looked down at the young ensign. He was out of line and he knew it. She was the best communications officer in the fleet. He couldn’t hope for anyone better suited to tackle the problem, but it didn’t make the waiting any easier.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “I know you are. I’m just worried about them.”

Sato nodded, “Me, too.”

Tucker knew the whole crew was worried about their three shipmates, but he also knew that it wouldn’t help to dwell on it. The best thing now was to focus their energies on the mission.

“So what have you got so far?”

Looking down at her data PADDS, Sato made a sweeping motion. “There are several glyphs here that aren’t on the other version,” she said, picking one of the PADDS up, “These two for instance.”

Tucker took the PADD from her and looked at it for a moment. He could see rows of alien glyphs on the screen, but that’s all they were to him, “Any idea what they’re for?”

“Well, it seems like it’s some kind of coordinate input,” she answered. “They’re numerical equivalents like the ones on the other Preserver device.”

“Then it’s like the interface panel on the transporter,” said Trip, trying to make a link.

“No, sir,” replied Sato in a slightly condescending tone. It reminded Tucker of every English school teacher he had ever had. “This one is much more complicated.”

Standing up, she came around to Tucker’s side and pointed to a glyph at the bottom of the screen. “See this symbol here? It designates a connection, but I can’t figure out to what.”

Tucker jerked his head towards the opening to the first cavern, “The other device?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “The corresponding symbols are wrong.”

“Well, we’ve scanned the surrounding area, just in case,” explained Tucker. “There aren’t any other devices that we can find.”

“Maybe it’s somewhere else on the planet?” she suggested.

“Maybe, but I doubt it,” replied Tucker. “Why go to all the trouble to build another device just to travel on the same planet. It doesn’t seem logical.”

Sato glanced at Tucker, surprised at that last comment. Logical and Trip Tucker were not two things she would ever think of putting together. Still, maybe someone was rubbing off on him. She tended not to pay attention to ship gossip, but the word was that the ship’s chief engineer and science officer were having late night rendezvous’. It really wasn’t her business and she turned her attention back to the PADD. Shaking her head in agreement, she conceded that he was right. It didn’t make any sense. Everything they had seen in the caverns and been told by Captain Soma suggested the Preserver’s worked on a large scale. They probably had simpler methods of short distance transport.

“What are these,” asked Tucker, pointing to set of glyphs on the machine, “next to this grid?”

“Those are the numerical keys I mentioned,” she explained, walking over to the console. “Little Boy has a few like it so I was able to translate them.”

“These say X and Y on them,” said Tucker, questioningly, “Is that the translation?”

“No, I used them as place holders,” explained Sato “I’m not sure what they mean, since I don’t know what it’s for.”

“What if…” Tucker stopped for a moment. Something occurred to him and he needed to work it out as an engineer, not a linguist. Taking several steps, he stopped suddenly only to pause. Reaching up to his mouth, he gently tapped his finger to his lips as he played over the possibilities in his head. Turning back, he looked directly at Sato.

“What if they are X and Y?” he asked, putting the idea out for her to consider.

Sato gave him a confused look. She obviously wasn’t seeing what he was suggesting.

“Numeric keys and a grid,” he added.

She stared at him for a moment and then her eyes suddenly opened wide. “Coordinates on a plane?”

Tucker shook his head.

“But what are they coordinates for?”

He looked up at the monolithic form for a moment and then down at the PADD in his hand. The glyphs seem to blur together and he made no attempt to hide his frustration. He was certain he was onto something, but with only a handful of pieces to the puzzle and no frame of reference, his ideas were not much better than stabs in the dark.

“You said that you recognized some of the glyphs,” said Tucker.

Sato folded her arms and gave him a questioning look. “Yes.”
“Because they were the same ones on the other device,” added Tucker.

“Yes,” answered Sato. She wasn’t seeing where he was going with this line of questioning. “No offense commander, but what are you trying to gain by reinventing the wheel?”

Tucker looked at Sato and gave her a smile. “It might seem like that Hoshi, but I’m not a linguist. So forgive me if I try to catch up in my own way.”

Looking down at the PADD again, he studied the translations that Sato had made. The translations were largely incomplete and he gathered that was due to a lack in comparative symbols. Hoshi was right, this was going to take days-or longer. He was about to look back at the ensign, when he stopped. At first, he wasn’t sure why. He was just looking at more incomplete translations and glyphs, but something was different. Moving the PADD closer, he studied the display. After several moments, he realized what it was that had caught his attention.

“Why did you leave this one empty?”

“Which one?” she asked, looking at the PADD. He was pointing to a circular glyph with a second circle inside it. “Oh, I thought it was one I had seen before, but it’s different.”

Tucker looked at her, brow furrowed, “Different how?”

“Well, this one has a circle within a circle,” she explained. “The one on ‘Little Boy’ just has a circle.”

“And you don’t think they’re related?”

“Like I said, commander,” she replied in annoyance, “they could be, but I don’t know how. Without more to work with, it’s largely trial and error. Deciphering an alien language is difficult enough when you have similar references to draw on, but it’s even more difficult, bordering on impossible when you are working with a limited set of reference points. Even the Rosetta Stone wasn’t deciphered in a day.”

“So if you had to take a guess,” said Tucker, “what do you think this circle in a circle symbol means?”

Sato took the PADD and looked at it for a moment. “The circle by itself designates our location. We know that, because it fits with the translation for the same glyph on ‘Little Boy’. That glyph was surrounded by numerical symbols-or their equivalent. Those same numerical glyphs are around the circle in a circle glyph on ‘Fat Man’s’ display, but there isn’t a circle by itself. So…it probably means the same thing, but with some added information.”

“Such as?”

“Such as…,” Sato let out an exasperated sigh, “such as anything and everything commander. Don’t you think I’ve gone over this? Yes, the symbol is similar, but that doesn’t mean its meaning is similar. We’re dealing with an alien culture with technology sophisticated enough to transport people halfway across the galaxy. For all we know, this could be a reference point for another...”

Sato stopped suddenly in the middle of her tirade. Something had just occurred to her. Kneeling down, she started picked up data PADDs, scanning over their screens and discarding them almost as quickly. Tucker watched her, but made no move to interrupt. Hoshi was onto something, he was certain of it. But just what that something was, remained a mystery.

“I knew it!” she shouted.

“Knew what?”

“I’ve been an idiot, sir,” replied the ensign.

Tucker smiled at her. “Well, let’s see what ya got and then we can decide, ok?”

Handing him the PADD, she point to the circular glyph on the first Preserver machine. “This is a reference point. It designated our location. I assumed it meant here, in this cavern.”

“Ok, I’m with you so far,” said Tucker.

“But it isn’t,” replied Sato. “I asked you why you were reinventing the wheel, when I was guilty of the same thing.”

Tucker gave her a confused look.

“I asked how the Preserver’s traveled locally, remember?” Tucker gave her a nod. He wasn’t sure where she was going, but decided it was best to let her get their in her own way. “Well, don’t you see…they didn’t use either ‘Fat Man’ or ‘Little Boy’ except as a central hub; it would be like making a direct transport…from one site to another site.”

“Right, site to site transport,” said Tucker, “it’s been theorized, but we don’t have the technology to pull it off.”

“But maybe the Preservers did.”

“I still don’t see how that changes anything,” said Tucker.

Sato smiled, “But it changes everything, Trip.” She could see he wasn’t grasping what she had discovered. She pointed to the data PADD for “Little Boy”, “Look, if these are numbers for coordinates and this is a point of reference then we know it’s a location. But what if we got the location wrong?”

A cold chill went down Tucker’s spine. “Then we would have sent the captain and the others to god-knows where.”

“But we didn’t,” said Sato, “the Vulcans who came through proved that. All they did was come through the opening we established.”

“So…so if we sent the captain and the others to the right place but with the wrong reference, then…”

“Then that means the reference is the same on a micro scale, but larger on macro scale,” finished Sato. “This symbol isn’t ‘here’, in this cavern, it’s the entire planet.”

Tucker nodded, “It makes sense. These machines probably sent people all over the galaxy…maybe even the universe. This planet might even have been some kind of transporter hub from one location to another.”

“Exactly,” agreed Sato, with a wide smile.

“So if the circle is this planet, then the circle inside it must be…”

“Another planetary body…probably in alignment,” finished Sato. “Assuming it’s intended for the same function, why open a gateway between planets?”

“I think I know,” said Tucker, reaching into his sleeve pocket. Pulling out his communicator, he flipped the antennae grid open. “Tucker to Enterprise.”

A response came almost immediately. “This Lt. Reed, go ahead commander.”

“Malcolm, does this planet have a natural satellite?”

There was pause, but when Reed replied, the answer wasn’t any surprise to Tucker. “Yes, one ‘D’ class planetoid. Why do you ask, commander?”

“Malcolm, I want you to launch a shuttle pod,” said Tucker looking at the glyph on the data PADD. “I think we’ve just found a portal big enough for a starship.”

Chapter 27

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