STARFLEET ACADEMY: THE HAUNTED
STARSHIP [065-ecomj]
By: BRAD AND KATHI FERGUSON
SYNOPSIS:
Geordi opened the access panel and looked around
inside. his,'allyes!-was, He withdrew a large,
half-full package of fresh bread.
Geordi found a knife and two plates. He
quickly made a couple of overstuffed sandwiches for
himself and Hassan and set eveything on a tray.
Hassan would be surprised, all right. Geordi
left the galley and walked through officers" country,
heading for the turbolift that would take him up to the
bridge.
It was very quiet on Deck 2. His three
off-duty shipmates were fast asleep. As he
rounded a bend in the corridor, Geordi suddenly
stopped cold.
Standing right in front of him was Captain
Ikushima!
Geordi's mouth opened in astonishment. The tray
fell out of his nerveless hands with a crash.
Silently, the unsmiling Captain Ikushima
slowly raised his arm and pointed straight at
Geordi.
Star Trek: the Next Generation Star Trek:
beep Space Nine STARFLEET ACADEMY 1
The Star (ihost 1 Worf's First Adventure
2 Stowaways 2
Line of Fire 3 Prisoners of Peace 3
Survival bled The Pet bled Capture the
Flag 5 Arcade 5 Atlantis Station 6
Field Trip 6 Mystery of the Missing Crew
7 Gypsy World 7 Secret of the Lizard People
8 Highest Score 8 Starfall 9
Cardassian Imps 9 Nova Command 10
Space Camp 10
Loyalties 11 Day of Honor: Honor
11 Crossfire Bound 12 Breakaway
The Haunted Starship Star Trek: Voyager
STARFLEET ACADEMY
Star Trek: STARFLEET ACADEMY 1
Lifeline 2 The Chance Factor 1 Crisis
on Vulcan 3 Quarantine 2 Aftershock
3 Cadet Kirk Star Trek movie
tie-ins
Star Trek Generations Star Trek First Contact
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A IIACII IOIPINI
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CHAPTER
I
Bernardo O'Higgins Sanchez was in the main
storage bay of the U.s.s.
Benjamin Franklin, carefully squeezing his
way around the stacks of closely packed cargo
modules. The small, powerfully built Sanchez
had just finished checking the contents of the modules against
the master list on his padd, and he hadn't found a
thing wrong. Starfleet Academy's refitting
crews had done their usual thorough job.
Inspecting the storage bay was the last item on
Sanchez's checklist.
Benjamin Franklin was ready to leave her berth
at Spacedock. All she needed now was the members
of her crew, and they'd be along shortly.
Sanchez left the storage bay and entered the
ship's turbolift.
"Transporter room," he ordered, grabbing
onto the handle that set the lift in motion. The short
RI-DE gave hIm a chance to think. He had already
been aboard for hours, busier than he'd ever been
in his life, making sure that everything was in order.
For the next couple of days, this was going to be his ship
and his show, and he wasn't going to let anything go
wrong on this trip-not if he could help it. He
smiled again.
No more simulations, no more practice runs with a
Starfleet officer by his side. This was the real thing.
His first command!
The turbolift came to a halt, and its doors
slid open onto Deck 3.
Ben's transporter room was only a few
meters down the corridor, and Sanchez's
communicator chirped for attention just as he entered the
room.
"Benjamin Franklin here," he said.
"Franklin, this isMcKenna," came a young
woman's voice. "Ready to beam aboard."
"Acknowledged. Stand by." Sanchez turned to the
compact transporter console. Ben might well be
the oldest ship in Starfleet still on active duty,
but her singleposition transporter, though small, was
the very latest model. He touched the proper
controls. "Energizing."
SiobhanMcKenna appeared on the
transporter pad.
The tall, blond cadet was carrying a small
travel bag that contained her personal effects.
"Reporting for duty, Captain Sanchez," she
said formally.
"Welcome aboard, CadetMcKenna,"
Sanchez replied in the same serious tone. Then
he grinned. "I'm glad you're here, Siobhan,"
he said, delighted to see his friend again.
"I wouldn't have missed this little safari of yours for
anything, Bernie," she replied. "It's getting
harder and harder to squeeze in a few days
spaceside, what
with the study schedule you and I have to maintain
as seniors."
"You're not kidding," Sanchez said. "To tell you
the truth, I've been developing a good case of
cabin fever. A little trip out to the asteroid belt
might be just what the doctor ordered."
"Anything I need to know right off?"
"No. I just finished eyeballing the supplies."
He handed Siobhan the padd. "Everything's fine.
We're ready."
"Good," Siobhan said, looking at the display.
After a moment, she said, "The manifest appears
to be in order."
"Spoken like a good first officer," Sanchez said.
"I'm glad you concur. We're ready to go, as
soon as the others show up."
"We'll crowd "em aboard somehow,"
Siobhan said dryly. She looked around. "I
went over the specs, of course, but seeing things up
close and personal is always different. This ship's
small" "I prefer to think of her as 'snug," was
Sanchez said.
"These old Daedalus-class ships weren't
built very big, despite the fact that Ben was
intended to carry a crew of more than two hundred."
"That's what it says in the specs, all
right," Siobhan said. "I still don't believe it."
"They didn't waste a lot of space on
creature comforts in those days."
Sanchez patted a bulkhead.
"After all, these were the first starships ever built
by Starfleet.
But there's more than enough room for the five of us, even
though eighty percent of the ship is shut down.
Anyway, she's beautiful, isn't she?"
Slobhan grinned. "In love already, are
we'!"
"I've waited a long time for this," Sanchez
said, suddenly very serious. "I want it to go right."
"It will, Bernie. Don't worry."
The chirp came again. "Franklin here,"
Sanchez answered.
"Trennek Sann to beam up."
"Acknowledged. Energizing."
A moment later, a blue-skinned Andorian
cadet holding a rather large travel bag stood on
the transporter pad. She glanced around and nodded.
"Snug," she said with quiet approval.
"Reporting aboard, Captain Sanchez."
"Welcome aboard, Cadet Sann,"
Sanchez responded. "You can drop your bag over
in that corner for now."
"disThank you, sir." The Andorian set her
bag down on the deck with a heavy thump. "I may
have overpacked."
"I understand you're at the top of your class in
second-year premed, Cadet Sann,"
Siobhan said.
"Congratulations."
Trennek bowed her head in acknowledgment.
"Thank you, CadetMcKenna. For my part, I
am pleased to make the acquaintance of one whose own
standing among her fellow mathematics majors is so
high."
"000h, I think we're bonding already."
Siobhan grinned. "For that, Sann, you may call
me Siobhan."
"Then, Shah-vahn, please call me
Trennek."
The communicator chirped again. "Ben Franklin
here," Sanchez called.
"Hassan el-Dallal here, requesting
transport aboard."
"Acknowledged," Sanchez said.
"Energizing."
When he arrived, Hassan looked at the other
three.
"I am pleased to meet you all," he said,
putting down his small bag and a compact tool kit.
The third-year cadet from Earth spoke in
precise, smooth tones. "It seems to have grown a
tad crowded in here. Should I wait out in the
corridor?"
"No need," Sanchez said. "We'll manage,
but it'd probably be a good idea if you chucked your
stuff outside. We've got one more warm body
due aboard-was The communicator called for attention
again. "Benjamin Franklin," answered Sanchez.
"La Forge here, Franklin," came a voice.
"Ready to beam aboard."
"Stand by, Cadet La Forge," said Sanchez,
fiddling with the transporter controls. "Just tweaking
things here a bit."
"La Forge?" Hassan asked. "I have not met
him yet, but I am looking forward to it. I understand
he shows great promise."
"That's why he's here," said Sanchez, nodding as
he worked. "Commander Brown, no less, wants
to see what La Forge can do in the field."
Siobhan whistled. "The head of Academy command
training himself," she said. "Well, well. So that's
why we drew a plebe."
"Right," Sanchez said. "Special
circumstances. Besides, like me, La Forge is a
Starfleet brat. Knows his way around a ship and
protocol.
Both his parents are still on active duty, as a
matter of fact-ah, that's got
it. Frtinklin here, Cadet La Forge.
Sorry t'OF the delay.
Energizing now."
Geordi materialized on the transporter
pad. He smiled and said, "Hello, everyone.
Glad to be aboard."
"Glad you could make it, Cadet La Forge,"
Sanchez said. "You can drop your bag and tool kit
Just on the other side of that door-that's right.
Everyone-this is Geordi La Forge, first-year
cadet and assistant engineer for this mission.
Geordi, meet SiobhanMcKenna.
She's our first officer and navigator."
"Pleased to meet you, Geordi," she said,
smiling.
"Likewise, Slobhan."
Sanchez then indicated the Andorian. "Trennek
Sann here is our communications officer and medical
officer."
"Greetings, Geordl," Trennek said. "I
look forward to serving with you."
"Why, thank you, Trennek," Geordi said.
"I feel the same way."
Sanchez indicated Hassan. "And this is
Hassan elDallal, our chief engineer. You'll
be working for him."
"With me," Hassan said. "Welcome,
Geordi."
"Pleased to meet you, Hassan."
Sanchez spoke up. "You've each been
assigned separate quarters along officers" row.
That's Deck Two, forward, on this ship. Your names
are on the doors.
Take five minutes to stow your gear and get
settled, and then report to the officers' galley for a
short briefing. The galley is also on Deck
Two. Just follow the signs."
"A galley, of all things," Trennek said.
"Isn't that
7
old-fashioned? I'll miss having a
replicator available, even if it's only for a
little while."
"We're going to be roughing it this trip, Sann,"
Sanchez told her. "No creature comforts.
Packaged rations, recirculated air, canned
water.
Just like the pioneers. You'll love it. Trust
me."
,.yes, sir," Trennek said. She looked a
little unhappy.
"Right, then," Sanchez said briskly. "I
want everyone in the galley in four and a half
minutes.
Dismissed."
a
CHAPTER
Geordi stood before a freshly painted door in
officers' country on Deck 2. There was a little
sign with his name on it, just as promised:
2A-05
LA FORGE, G.
ASSISTANT ENGINEER U.s2.s.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN NCC-01 3
The sign made Geordi feel proud. He was
officially part of the crew aboard a starship!
Geordi was deter 9
nned to do as good a job as he could. to he better
than he had ever been before. There were people who believed in
him-his parents, his teachers, his frsand he wanted
to Justify their belief.
"Better hurry, Geordi," came a voice
from up the corridor. "Only three minutes left
until the briefing."
"Eh?" Geordi turned, startled. It was
Siobhan, standing at the door to her own quarters, which
were closer to the bridge. She was about to go inside.
"Oh," Geordi said. "Yeah. I was just
thinking."
"That's a commendable trait in an assistant
engineer," she replied.
"However, so is punctuality."
"I won't be late," Geordi assured her.
"Good," Siobhan told him. Her tone
softened.
"Your name does look pretty wonderful the first
time you see it like that, doesn't it? Better get a
move on, though."
Geordi smiled. "Yes, ma'am," he
said as the door slid aside for him.
The interior lights came on automatically as
Geordi entered the room.
From the ship's drawings he had studied, Geordi
knew that, long ago, this small room had been shared
by Benjamin Franklin's chief weapons officer and
its chief engineer. Geordi whistled softly. He
thought it must have been pretty crowded in here back
then. The second bunk had long since been
removed, of course, but things still seemed tight.
Geordi dropped his effects just inside the
door. He looked around.
Then he stood in the middle of the room and stretched
his arms out to either side of him, as far as he could. He
could almost touch the opposite walls. He grinned.
Things are pretty cramped, but that "i 0
doesn't matter. The.v're o.flic-erv"
qlitirters, (itid tlic-yea"re mine.
Geordi made a quick inspection of what would be his
home for the next two days. There was a standard cadet
study module, complete with a computer interface that
would let him tap into Ben's library banks, or
into the much bigger banks back at the Academy.
A small storage area for personal effects was
set into the bulkhead next to the bunk. Off
to the side was a very small room with a sonic shower,
sink, and toilet.
There were just two pieces of art on the flat gray
walls: a rather impressive holograph of
Benjamin Franklin in flight, and a small,
dignified portrait of Benjamin Franklin, the
American statesman and philosopher for whom the
ship had been named. The picture of the ship had a
single, bold word printed beneath it, in the margin:
Outstanding!
Geordi wondered why someone had written that right
on the holograph.
Time was growing short. Geordi placed his
personal bag in the storage bay and, taking his
engineer's tool kit along, left his quarters and
headed quickly down the corridor to the galley.
All five members of Ben's complement seated
themselves around the long table in the officers" galley.
The lights had been dimmed by about half. A
small holoprojector had been placed in the
center of the table, and its emitter was aimed at the
smooth, gunmetal-gray ceiling. As Sanchez
began working the holoproj jector controls, the four
others looked up.
Suddenly the ceiling went dead black, and
thousands of stars appeared.
It looked as if a giant hand
had peeled Ben's hull like a banana, exposing
the galley to raw space.
Even though Geordi knew better, the picture
above him looked so real that he shivered, in spite of
himself. It looks cold out there!
Geordi hoped no one else had noticed him
shiver. He didn't want to look foolish in
front of his shipmates.
The stars above them began to move from left to right and
then down, at first slowly and then more quickly. It was as
if Ben were somehow doing a cartwheel, despite still
being tied firmly to her berth in Spacedock.
Siobhan gripped the edge of the table with her right hand,
as if to keep from falling out of her chair.
"I feel a bit dizzy," Hassan
admitted.
Sanchez grinned. "So do I, a little-and I'm the
one who's running this thing. The holoprojector is
skewing around to the part of space I want us to look
at. I have to keep telling myself that the rolling of the
ship is only an optical illusion, but it
doesn't do much good.
Ah, here we go."
The picture above them stopped moving. Then it
zoomed in to reveal a long, thick line of floating
rocks and boulders of various sizes.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Sanchez announced,
"I give you the asteroid belt-or, rather, a very
small segment of it. The area you're looking at is
going to be our home over the next couple of days.
Although there are some huge gaps around the Belt, much
of our sector is relatively thick with
asteroids, so we'll have plenty of them to study.
CadetMcKenna, please continue."
"As you already know," Siobhan said, "we'll be
"l 2
doing a routine mapping survey of our assigned
sector of the Belt. Our sensors will
automatically gather data on every asteroi 'd we
encounter, and we can do special studies of any we
find to be particularly interesting.
The ship will be put on autopilot, and we'll
fly a crisscrossing, looping pattern around and through
our sector. This will give us maximum coverage."
"Will anyone be going outside?" Trennek asked.
"Yes," Siobhan replied. "We'll be
gathering mineral samples from the more interesting asteroids
for analysis back at the Academy.
We'll also be placing navigational beacons on some
of the bigger rocks out there so their orbits can be
monitored by Starfleet."
"Is there a watch schedule?" Hassan
inquired.
"I'll have one posted before lunch," Siobhan
replied. "Anything else?
No? All right. Thanks for your attention."
"Thank you, Number One," Sanchez said.
"La Forge, why don't you enlighten us a bit about
the Belt?"
Geordi cleared his throat. He had studied up
on this for the last week. "Sir," he said, "the
local asteroid belt is typical of similar
structures found in a small number of other star
systems. Most of the Belt lies in an orbit
roughly four hundred million kilometers from the
Sun, between the orbits of the planets Mars and
Jupiter."
"How many asteroids are there?" asked Sanchez.
Geordi quoted his Academy textbook from
memory. "There are an estimated one billion
asteroids of significant size in the Belt,"
he recited, "and fewer than one in ten thousand has
been catalogued.
The
I 4
asteroids range in size from the biggest one, which
is named Ceres and is more than a thousand kilometers
in diameter, to big rocks just a meter across."
Geordi held his hands that far apart. "Anything
smaller than this doesn't really count."
"You'd think it did, if one came crashing through
your hull," Siobhan observed. "Those puppies
travel fast."
"Nothing like that will happen to us," Sanchez
reassured them. "This ship is shielded.
Besides, the Belt just isn't that dangerous. Those
rocks out there aren't stacked together like some big stone
fence in space.
They're sometimes hundreds of kilometers apart.
Even the twentieth-century Pioneer and
Voyager probes made it through the Belt without
harm, and they didn't have any shields at all."
"The Belt is very interesting to me," Trennek
said.
his, m glad to be going there. Asteroid belts
are relatively rare, you know. We certainly have
nothing like this back home in our local star group."
"The Belt is so big that it's largely
unexplored"" Sanchez reminded him. "There was a
time, years ago, when thousands of miners from Earth
lived and worked in the Belt. It contains a vast
amount of raw materials, especially metals, which
were pretty easy to get to with old-fashioned
methods. We don't have to mine for those materials
anymore, thanks to replicators, so no one
lives in the Belt now. A few researchers stop
by every so often. Once in a while, people like us do, too."
"It does look pretty lonely out there,"
Siobhan observed. "I'd like to have seen the Belt
back in the
early days. They say Ceresville used to he quite
a place before it became a ghost town. It was
supposed to be a lot like the Ancient West."
"I'm sorry," Trennek interrupted,
puzzled. "A "ghost town"? Do you mean a
settlement actually inhabited by spirits of the dead? I
find that a bit hard to believe."
"So would I," Siobhan replied. "It's *j
an Earth term for a deserted town, a place no
one's lived in for many years. Ceresville was the
biggest settlement in the Belt when the miners were here.
No one lives there now, though, and that's all
I meant. There's no such things as ghosts."
"There are a lot of stories, though," Geordi
said.
"For instance-was Sanchez held up a hand. "I'm
as interested in this sort of thing as the next person,"
he said, "but now's not the time.
La Forge, use the study module in your
quarters to brief yourself on the history of this ship and the
history of the Belt, with special attention to the
history of Ceresville. Following dinner tonight,
you'll give the rest of us a report summarizing your
findings. Keep in mind that you may discover the two
histories have something in common."
"Aye, sir," Geordi said. He didn't
mind the extra research. History, especially
Starfleet history, fascinated him.
Hassan was gazing at the asteroids pictured
above him. "Some say the asteroids are a planet that
was never born," he said.
"Excuse me, Hassan?" Sanchez asked.
"I beg your pardon, sir," the engineer
apologized.
"i 6
"was referring to the prevailing theory of how the
Belt came to be."
"Oh. Well, why not remind all of us about
it"!"
"Of course, sir," Hassan said. "Long
ago, in the eighteenth century, Earth
mathematicians calculated that there should be a
planet located between Mars and Jupiter. Of
course, everyone thought there was nothing there, but
astronomers began to look more closely with their
telescopes anyway, Just in case. That is when the
largest asteroids were discovered. Later, scientists
came to believe that the presence of Jupiter, the
largest planet in Earth's star system, actually
kept a planet that was supposed to be there from forming."
"And how might that have happened?" Sanchez
prompted.
"The material that was supposed to gather together
to build the planet kept getting dragged apart
by Jupiter's vast gravity field," Hassan
answered. "As a resuit, the Belt is just a lot
of wreckage and trash that never managed to put itself
together. The asteroids are little pieces of what might
once have become a planet, but now can never be."
"That is really quite poetic," Trennek said. "Quite
sad, as well. A stillborn planet."
"There used to be other theories, too,"
Siobhan chimed in. "All wrong, of course.
One had it that a planet actually did form, but that it
exploded for some unknown reason. Some people even
believed the planet was blown apart during an
attack by aliensbut just which aliens, nobody ever
said. Silly."
Sanchez nodded. "The Belt is an interesting enough
place as it is. We could explore it for the next
million "l 7
years and still not know all there is to know about it."
Suddenly, he grinned. "As far as I'm
concerned, that makes it the perfect place to spend the
weekend."
"Hear, hear," chimed in Siobhan. "You'd
never think that something so close to home could be so
exotic, and remain so unknown."
"The Belt is not very close to my home,"
Trennek said softly, "but that should make it even more of
an adventure, don't you think?"
"That it should," Sanchez agreed firmly. "All
right, then. Attention to orders. Communications
officer, you'll handle getting our final clearance from
Spacedock Control."
"Aye, sir," Trennek acknowledged.
"Engineering, I'm going to want
three-quarter impulse from here all the way to the
Belt."
"Aye, sir," Hassan answered for both him and
Geordi. "We shall be ready."
"Good. First officer, I'll want a direct
course to our assigned sector."
Siobhan closed her eyes for a moment as she
did a rough calculation of the course in her head.
"The course and speed you've ordered will put us at
our destination a bit more than twenty minutes after we
leave Spacedock," she said. "Is that acceptable,
Captain?"
With that word, Sanchez seemed to stand a little taller.
He nodded.
"That will do fine, Number One," he said
firmly. "All hands report to your stations.
Begin departure routine. I want to be ready
to clear Spacedock not later than ten minutes from
now."
CHAPTER
Geordi and Hassan were standing together in front of the
main console in Benjamin Franklin's small
engineering room. "Look at these controls,"
Geordi marveled. "I never thought I'd
see such modern equipment in this old a ship. These
automatics are cutting-edge stuff."
"It is all rather fine and fancy, is it not?"
Hassan said, smiling.
"I have seen this equipment only in simulations.
It will be a pleasure to work with it." He tapped a
rapid series of commands into his padd, which was linked
into the main console. "Ah, the impulse engines are
warming up nicely. We will be ready when the captain
gives the word."
Geordi took a moment to look around him. "How
do you think they ever fit a chief engineer and a full
'i 9
I ays"!" he asked Hilssan.
CF-EW n here, back *tion the o (i (i
"There's hardly enough room for just us two."
"It was not nearly as crowded then as you might
think," the older cadet replied. "It must have been
tight, yes, but there was a great deal less
monitoring equipment installed in here originally.
They did not have anything like the automatic systems
we have today. Basically speaking, this ship will fly herself
and take care of her own needs, with Just a little bit of
help from the two of us. We could never manage
to perform the duties of an entire engineering
staff, of course, even on a small ship such as
this-not even if both of us worked all three watches,
every day."
Geordi nodded. "I understand that, but I guess
I was hoping for a little more of an engineering challenge
during this trip."
Hassan chuckled. "Oh. I have been fortunate
enough to be taken along on missions that offer intensive
training in many starship disciplines, including
engineering. Such missions last for weeks, perhaps
months, and they are led by Starfleet officers, not
senior Academy cadets. No doubt you'll be
offered a berth on one of those before very long.
You'll find a great deal of challenge there, let
me assure you."
"I'm looking forward to it."
"Of course." Hassan nodded. He glanced again
at his padd and nodded with satisfaction. Everything was
fine so far. "t was going to say that Ben is an
excellent vessel for short-duration missions such as
these," he continued. "Her top speed of warp two was
impressive when she was built almost two hundred
years ago, but it makes her impractical for long
interstellar flights
20
today. She can't be fitted with modern warp engines,
either, as her frame was not designed for the stress of
high-speed travel. She's still useful, though, so
we cadets get to use Ben for short-duration
flights, for training purposes."
"And the Academy doesn't want to assign a
couple of hundred cadets to a long-term training
mission," Geordi guessed, "so they load these
old ships with automatic systems?"
"Precisely," Hassan said, nodding. "These
short missions are a good idea for another reason,
too. They allow seniors to escape the Academy
for a weekend.
Starfleet knows that there is no one quite so restless as
a senior who is approaching graduation. These
missions put all that energy to good, practical
use. Have the warp core self-diagnostics finished
running yet?"
Geordi took a quick look at his own padd.
"Almost done," he replied.
"I understood we wouldn't be needing warp drive
on this trip, though."
Hassan pursed his lips. "True-but I think
you can take it for granted that if Captain Sanchez
desires to go to warp, he is going to want
to do so at once. As we are staying well within the
boundaries of the local star system, engaging the warp
drive would be done only in case of an extreme
emergency. Captain Sanchez is not going to want
to wait for us to run the self-diagnostic routine
then, oh no."
Geordi nodded. "I see."
"You must always be ready," Hassan went on.
"Keeping everything on the ship running is only
half the job, Geordi.
The main job of a starship's chief engineer is
to be as prepared as possible for anything 2 "l
that might happen. 'That's what a chiet"
cliginceF'So captain wants most of all.
Give your captain that, and you will have a job for
life." , Hassan consulted his padd's display.
"Everything's set," he said with satisfaction.
"comWe are ready to go, and with more than two minutes
to spare." Hassan tapped his communicator.
"Engineering to Captain."
"Sanchez here, Chief."
"We are ready, sir."
"Excellent, Hassan. Can you spare your
assistant for a while?"
Hassan glanced at Geordi. "I
believe so, sir."
"Good. La Forge, please report to the
bridge. I think you should be on deck to observe our
departure."
Geordi grinned. "I'm on my way,
Captain."
The bridge of the Benjamin Franklin was smaller
in scale than those of more modern ships, but the three
cadets on duty there hardly noticed.
Sanchez was sitting in the command chair, trying
to look confident and assured. Trennek and
Siobhan were seated at the navigation console,
located directly in front of Sanchez. There was
so little extra room that Sanchez's knees were almost
touching the backs of their chairs.
"Look at how we're sitting, the three of us,"
said Siobhan. "I feel like I'm on the
Academy bobsiedding team."
"That's some mountain we've got here," Sanchez
observed.
"Communications, any word yet on our clearance?"
"No, sir," replied Trennek. "Outgoing
traffic is exceedingly heavy at the moment, but it's
moving.
22
Spacedock Control is not reporting any
undue deltivs.
However, as we are a training mission, we have been
assigned a low priority for departure."
"It's all this weekend traffic," Siobhan
said. "I hate rush hours."
The turbolift doors to the bridge opened.
"La Forge reporting as ordered, sir," Geordi
announced with great formality.
"Find a spot and stay there, Geordi,"
Sanchez said.
'Enjoy the show."
"Thank you, sir." Geordi found a place at
the science officer's station. There was no longer a seat
there, so he leaned back against the console, trying
to stay out of everyone's way.
The forward view on the bridge screen showed the
interior of Spacedock.
Hundreds of spacecraft of all sorts,
large and small, dotted the interior surface of the
huge orbiting structure. Every few seconds, a
ship crossed their field of view. Sometimes it was
only a far-off point of light, but occasionally one
would sail by closely enough for them to read the writing on
her hull.
"Beautiful," breathed Geordi.
They watched as U.s.s. Independence drifted
by on thrusters and suddenly swung about, positioning
herself for departure. "Now there's a starship!"
Siobhan said enviously. "Ambassador-class.
What a sight!"
"I would like to be on our way," Trennek said,
"but we really do have a marvelous view of things here.
I've never visited Spacedock before."
"I have," Sanchez said. "I've been here often,
even before I entered the Academy. The first time was
when I was almost five years old. My mom
brought me and my kid sister up here to see off the
Enterprise, the one they usually call
Enterprise-C. My dad had been assigned
aboard. Starfleet invited the surviving personnel
from the first Enterprise to the departure ceremony, and
I got to meet some of them later, at the reception.
I remember there was this old doctor, a real character-was
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Trennek said, ,b
Spacedock Control is clearing us for
departure-oh, my."
"What is it?" Sanchez asked.
"Control is generously giving us a
twelve-second window to be on our way. We're
to follow Independence out the hatch and peel away
immediately thereafter. U.s.s. Ohio will be seconds
behind us. 'Stay out of the way of everybody else,
kid," is the way the controller phrased it. He
didn't sound very happy."
Siobhan's hands were already flying over her
navigation controls. "Got it, Captain," she said
briskly. "I can eyeball the roll when the time
comes. Laid in. All set. Awaiting your
orders, sir."
Sanchez took a breath. "Stand by. Bridge
to engineering. Here we go, gentlemen."
"Aye, sir," came Hassan's steady
voice.
"Helm, cast off," Sanchez continued.
"Follow Independence out on thrusters. Maintain
proper distance. Be ready to go to impulse as soon as
we clear Spacedock."
"Aye, sir." Under pressure from her thrusters,
Ben began floating gently away from her berth as
Siobhan cut the tractor beams that had been
holding her there.
As Ben came about, the huge stern of the Indepen
24
dence suddenly filled the screen. They began
following her closely.
"She looks just like my dad's ship did,"
Sanchez said softly.
"It's a good omen for us, Bernie," Slobhan
told him.
"Yes. Yes, it is," Sanchez replied.
"Put the aft view on screen, Sann," he
added briskly. "Let's take a look at the
Ohio."
"Aft view on screen, sir."
They watched as the Excelsior-class starship
seemed to bear down on them. "She's a big one,
all right," Siobhan said. "I'd hate to get
bumped by a thing like that."
"I trust you'll make sure that won't happen,
MeKenna," Sanchez said.
"I'll do my best, sir," Siobhan
returned dryly.
"Incoming message from Ohio, Captain,"
Trennek reported. "They know we're busy.
It's short: "Take good care of her for me,
Captain, and smooth sailing.
Outstanding! Signed, Manning, Class of
"32, commanding Ohio." Any reply?"
"Yes. Send: "Will do, Captain. May the
wind be at your backs.
Signed, Sanchez, Class of "54, commanding
Benjamin Franklin." End message." Sanchez
grinned.
He suddenly felt ten meters tall. "Man,
that made my day," he said.
"Return the view forward, please, Sann."
"We're approaching the gate, Captain,"
Siobhan reported. She consulted her board
quickly. "Once we've left Spacedock, we'll
have a narrow clearance through traffic at 143 mark
7."
"Fine. Lock that in and peel awely at my
signal."
All concentration, Sanchez leaned forward in his
chair as Ben followed Independence through
Spacedock's main gate. Earth suddenly appeared
below them, framing the larger starship in bright blue
light.
"We're clear, sir," Siobhan said.
"Do it!" Sanchez commanded, and Siobhan had
Ben make a quick, neat roll onto her departure
course.
Geordi watched the screen as Ben slipped past
dozens of ships of all sizes. Some of them seemed
to come pretty close to Ben-perhaps a little too
close. Geordi whistled softly as a big
freighter lumbered out of their way just in time.
When the twelve seconds were up, the forward view
skewed sharply away from Earth and slowly righted itself
again as Siobhan established Ben's outbound course
to the Belt. The main screen showed only stars before
them.
"On course at three-quarter impulse,
Captain," Siobhan reported.
"Everything nominal. We'll arrive at our
assigned sector in twenty-three minutes."
Trennek gulped. "Your remark about bobsledding
was not entirely misplaced, Shah-vahn," she said.
"That was an interesting twelve seconds, to be
sure."
"Time to get down to business," Sanchez
announced. "Captain to engineering."
"Engineering here, sir."
"If everything down there is secure, Hassan,
I'd like you to relieve me on the bridge."
"Aye, Captain."
"Sir?" Geordi began. "May I
ask a question?"
Sanchez swiveled in his seat to face Geordi.
"Go ahead."
"Captain, what's the significance of the word
outstanding? It seems to have something to do with Ben, but I
don't know what. Captain Manning used it in his
message to you, and it's written under a picture of the
ship in my quarters."
"Let's talk about that later," Sanchez said.
"We have other business right now. Feel like taking a
close look at some rocks, La Forge?"
"Yes, sir," Geordi replied. "I
certainly do."
"Good. Report to the suit-up room on Deck
Five.
I'll be joining you there shortly."
"Aye, sir."
"Cadet Sann, you come along as well,"
Sanchez added. "You're going to go outside with us."
"Yes, sir!" Trennek said enthusiastically.
CHAPTER
Sanchez, Geordi, and Trennek soared
effortlessly around an asteroid, carefully threading their
way through and around the gigantic crags in its sometimes
jagged and always broken surface. The distance they
kept from the surface of the flying mountain was a careful
balance of their desire to inspect the asteroid
closely and the need to proceed in safety. Benjamin
Franklin sat in space just half a kilometer
away, her white hull glowing brightly in raw
sunlight.
Wearing and using a spacesuit correctly and
efflciently was second nature to Geordi, who'd
first put one on at the age of five. Geordi
always felt a certain thrill in venturing through an
airlock and going outside a ship, with nothing between him
and the raw vacuum of space but an air recycler
and a few thin
layers of spacesuit material. The canned
air Geordi was breathing had a sharp, cold tang
that his suit's heaters could not quite conquer. He liked
it, though.
The chill reminded him of the times he would go camping
overnight on Earth with family or friends.
They'd all wake up with the sun on a brisk
autumn morning, and someone would start a fire
for breakfast.
"Careful there, La Forge." It was Sanchez,
over the communicator link.
"You're getting a little too close to the
surface."
"Yes, sir," Geordi replied, abashed.
Quickly, he boosted the power to his personal thruster
pack and increased his altitude over the asteroid
by ten meters.
"Try not to get too bedazzled by all the wonder,
La Forge," Sanchez cautioned. "What can you
tell me so far about our asteroid here?"
"and Captain," Geordi began, "tricorder
readings indicate-was "No, Geordi," Sanchez
interrupted. "Forget the tricorder for now.
Instruments are fine, but I want you to tell me
what you see."
"Oh." Geordi looked closely at the
terrain as the three of them flew over it together. "I
see a big, jagged rock the size of a small
mountain on Earth. There are hills and valleys, and
I can even see shallow caves.
My VISOR detects the color equivalents
of mineral deposits-grays, mostly, but there's also
some brown and a kind of muddy yellow.
There's a lot of iron and nickel contained in this
one."
"That's right," Sanchez said. "What else do you
see?"
"It looks like someone's hit the asteroid over and
over again with a gigantic sledgehammer,"
Geordi said. "There are places where huge amounts
of material have been broken off the asteroid in
collisions.
The scars look like raw wounds. There are other
places that look old, smooth, and worn."
"That smoothness is caused by erosion," Sanchez
said. "There's a lot of dust flying around in the
Belt, and an asteroid is always getting hit by it.
Our spacesuits are built to withstand the dust, of
course.
Every so often, a cloud of dust will collide at
high speed with an asteroid, and part of the asteroid
gets sandblasted."
"I see a crater," Trennek said suddenly.
"A big one.
There's melted rock all around it. It must have
been caused by a collision."
"Right," Sanchez said. "Collisions between
asterol 'ds can generate enormous amounts of heat,
more than enough to melt rock. The asteroids involved
might shatter into smaller ones, and their orbits can be
changed significantly. Sometimes an asteroid is
hurled right out of the Belt, and it takes up a new
orbit that brings it much closer to the sun. Those are the
asteroids Starfleet keeps a careful eye on,
because it's possible that one could collide with an inner
planet-Mars, Earth, Venus, or Mercury."
"Does this asteroid have a name?" Trennek asked.
"No," Sanchez answered. "Like most
asteroids, this one's never been catalogued, so it's
never been assigned a number or a name. You were at
the helm, Trennek, so you spotted it first.
By tradition, the discoverer gets the honor of naming
the asteroid. It's all yours, if you want it."
He paused. "This rock's big
enough to be worth a line in the catalog, that's for
sure."
"Thank you, sir." Trennek thought for a moment.
"Malakeh, then. For my mother."
was Excellent. Now send the registration for this
asteroid through our computer to Starfleet Records, and
get it confirmed. For now, though .
. ." From the belt on his suit, Sanchez took
out what looked like a large pistol, aimed it at the
asteroid, and fired it squarely into the surface. A
small projectile burrowed into the rock.
Sanchez drifted backward with the recoil, but he
used his personal thruster pack to resume his
position near the other two cadets. "How was that,
La Forge?" he asked.
Geordi looked at his tricorder. "Beacon
functioning, sir. Orbital data coming in."
Trennek spoke up. "Captain, Starfleet
Records confirms this asteroid has been registered
Malakeh."
"We just missed a round number," Sanchez said.
"Darn it. I'd snap my fingers, if I could."
"Captain?" Geordi broke in.
"Tricorder readings indicate another, smaller
asteroid close by, but the bearing . . ."
"Yes?"
"It seems to be tracking us, sir. That's
crazy. It must be a ghost reading."
Geordi and Trennek heard Sanchez chuckle.
"Oh, we've found a good old rock here, all
right. La Forge, take another look at
those readings, with an eye to the data you've already
recorded on Malakeh here."
"Hmmm," Geordi said under his breath. "They
seem to be virtually the same-hey! Now this is
interesting. Trennek, this asteroid of yours has a
nlooli."
"I'm reading it," Trennek confirmed. "The
moon is about one-hundredth the size of the big
asteroid. It's in a nearly circular orbit around
Malakeh at a distance of about sixty-five
kilometers. Malakeh's moon is too small
for us to see from here with the naked eye, but the tricorder
picks it right up-mnce you know what to look for.
Captain, I didn't know asteroids could have
moons."
"They're not uncommon," Sanchez said. "These
little moons tend not to last very long, though. They get
pulled out of orbit by other, bigger asteroids, or
they eventually collide with something and shatter.
We're lucky to have found one."
"Does Geordi get to name this moon,
Captain?"
Trennek asked. "After all, he's the one who
found it."
"I'm afraid not," Sanchez replied.
"Asteroid moons don't get special names.
They're catalogued under the names of the asteroids they
orbit, and they're assigned a letter of the alphabet.
Since the moon Geordi found is the only one
Malakeh has, it'll be called Malakeh-a.
They do the same thing for moons orbiting
planets, too.
Big or small, moons are all the same
to Starfleet-was Suddenly Trennek cried out, and then
the other two cadets heard nothing but a rush of
static over the communicator band.
"Trennek? Trennek!" called Sanchez,
looking around him. "Where is she? She's
disappeared!"
"Walt a minute, Captain," Geordi said,
pointing away from the asteroid.
"There she is-heading out into open space at high
speed. She's tumbling out of control. There's a
large plume of gas coming from her
air recycler. It's pushing her away from us like a
little rocket.
Can't you see it?"
"No. I can't even spot Trennek.
That VISOR of yours sure is handy.
Ben, are you listening?"
"Aye, sir. This isMcKenna. We're
tracking Trennek on sensors. She's still alive,
but she's losing air fast."
"Fine. Get a transporter lock on her
and-was "Bernie, we can't get a lock! There's some
sort of magnetic interference close
by-probably from the metal in that asteroid you've
been inspecting. If we try to beam Trennek
aboard, we'll probably kill her.
We'll have to chase her and pick her up.
Hassan is heading for the suit-up room now-was
Geordi interrupted. "Begging your pardon, sir,
but we can get to Trennek using our thruster packs
faster than the ship can get under way. Trennek's
losing air too quickly for us to wait."
"I agree. Siobhan, we're going to pursue
Trennek ourselves. Keep an eye on what we're
doing and be in position to pick us up when we've got
her. Understand?"
"Aye, sir."
"La Forge, you're the one who can see her. I
presume you've figured out some sort of a course?"
"Yes, sir," Geordi replied.
"If we point ourselves in that direction and head out on
full thrusters, we'll catch up with Trennek within
a minute."
"No time to waste. I'll follow you closely.
Let's go."
"Aye, sir." Carefully, both cadets
positioned themselves with quick, brief bursts from their
thruster packs. "On my mark, Captain,"
Geordi said. "Three, two, one, mark!"
Geordi pulled back hard on the thruster unit
handgrip and felt a kick in the small of
his back as the unit fired up. Instantly,
Geordi felt himself go from weightlessness to his
normal weight and more, as his acceleration increased.
He looked ahead for Trennek, found her-and saw that
the plume of air from her recycler was gone.
"I think she's run out of air, Captain,"
Geordi said.
"She's passed out, Bernie," Siobhan
reported.
"Geordi's right about the air. Sensors say her
air recycler is empty.
Trennek's living off the air that's left in her
suit, and there isn't much of that left."
Almost without thinking, Geordi made short,
swift motions with his handgrip control. He increased
his speed even more, feeling himself grow even heavier, but
he kept himself on course and on target. Geordi
was flying by instinct.
"Siobhan," Geordi called, "I want us
to match Trennek's course and speed as closely as
possible when we catch up with her. The captain and
I need to know exactly when to fire our retros."
"I'm way ahead of you, Geordi. It'll be
rough-a three-gee burst for eleven seconds.
I'll give you the cue."
"Standing by, Siobhan."
"On my count, then-three, two, one, fire!"
Geordi pushed his handgrip control full forward,
and his stomach did a flip-flop as the thruster unit
quickly turned him end over end. The blast that
followed made the first one seem like the kiss of a
spring wind. Geordi felt as if three people his own
size had suddenly jumped on top of him and were
trying to push him through a floor that was as hard as stone.
It became very difficult to breathe. The entire
universe turned red and seemed full of haze.
Now that Geordi had turned over and was
facing the way he'd come, he could see Sanchez
again, very close by. True to his word, the senior
cadet had kept right up with him.
Throughout all this, Siobhan had been counting off the
seconds.
"Eight, nine, ten, eleven, and shutdown!" she
cried, and Geordi and Sanchez instantly cut their
deceleration to zero.
The two cadets looked around quickly. Trennek
was floating in space near them, drifting slowly
away at a distance of about ten meters.
They caught up to her in seconds. Sanchez
got a good grip on the utility belt of
Trennek's spacesuit and, with quick blasts of his own
thrusters, stopped her tumbling. With him holding on
tight, she wouldn't drift away again.
"We've got her, Siobhan," Sanchez
called. "Is the transporter operational yet?"
"Negative, Captain. However, I'll have
Ben in position for pickup within sixty seconds."
"Acknowledged." Through her faceplate, Sanchez
could see that Trennek was unconscious and breathing very
shallowly. The Andorian's normally blue face
had turned a dark green due to a lack of oxygen.
Sanchez realized that one of the air supply
hoses on Trennek's suit was no longer attached
to her air recycler and was floating limply behind her.
The end of the hose was ragged, as if it had been
torn out of the air recycler by an unseen hand. The
fail-safes in the recycling unit had sealed it off
from the vacuum of space, but not before Trennek had
lost almost all of the air in her suit during that one
explosive moment.
"We can't wait for Ben to get here," Sanchez
told
Geordi. "We have to get some air to Trennek
right away. How much do you have"?"
"I've got just over half my reserves left,
sir."
"That's more than me. Turn around and let me at
your air recycler.
I'm going to buddy you two up."
Geordi blipped his thrusters rapidly on and
off, spinning himself around so Sanchez could reach the
emergency module at the base of the younger cadet's
air recycling unit. He thumbed a red
triangular switch, and a small access door
popped open. This exposed a control panel, into which
was inset a shiny gold nozzle about the size
of Sanchez's thumb. Sanchez reached in carefully
and drew out the nozzle, extending two meters of
long, thin hose. He jammed the nozzle into the
emergency port of Trennek's air recycling
unit, and Geordi's unit automatically began
feeding welcome air to Trennek. She would share
Geordi's air until they could all get back
aboard Ben.
Sanchez and Geordi watched as Trennek's
color began changing back to blue. After a moment,
her eyes fluttered open. They could see that
Trennek was trying to say something, but her
communicator was out.
Geordi held up a hand and gestured.
Everything's all right. Stay calm.
A few seconds later, Benjamin Franklin
loomed up and glided to a halt right beside them. The
outer airlock door to Deck 5 opened. With the still
groggy Trennek braced between them, Geordi and
Sanchez hit their thrusters and headed toward the
hatch.
CHAPTER
"I'm fine, I tell you," Trennek
said. She was sitting up, her legs hanging over the
side of one of the beds in Ben's sickbay. Her
shipmates were gathered around her. Trennek's color
was again a healthy blue, and she was cheerful and alert.
"The tri-ox compound is working," she continued.
"I'll give myself another dose before turning in
tonight, and that'll be that."
"I'm still worried," Sanchez said. "You had a
bad time out there, and your eyes are still all
bloodshot."
"That'll happen when your spacesuit's air
pressure suddenly drops by nine-tenths,"
Trennek said, "but I can see fine. A little eye
wash will take care of it. My eyes will be clear by the
morning watch."
She grinned so wi "dely that even her antennae
wiggled. "I do look like I've been up all
week cramming for finals, don't I?"
They all laughed. "It figures that our medical
officer would be the first one on sicklest," Slobhan
said.
"Doctors always make the worst patients."
"That's right," Trennek announced, "and to prove
it, I'm releasing myself from sickbay forthwith."
Sanchez looked stern. "Only if you assign
yourself to light duty."
"That's all right with me, sir," Trennek said.
"There's not a whole lot for me to do anyway, as
long as all of you stay healthy."
"And no more going outside this trip," Sanchez
went on. "Clear?"
Trennek nodded. "Clear, sir."
"In fact," Sanchez continued, "it seems
to me we're done with trips outside for the rest of the
day. MeKenna, I want us to take up a mapping
course through our assigned sector of the Belt.
It's time we logged some hours on behalf of
Starfleet's chartmakers. I'll join you on the
bridge for that. La Forge, I believe I gave
you an assignment for tonight?"
"Yes, Captain," Geordi replied. "After
dinner, I'm to give an oral report on the
history of this ship and the history of the Belt. Er,
I haven't gotten to the research yet, sir."
Sanchez smiled slightly. "Understandable-but if
elDallal can spare you from your engineering duties for the
rest of your watch . . . ?"
Hassan nodded quickly. "Oh, indeed I can,
sir.
Everything down below is going very well, very well
indeed."
The captain nodded. "Then get to it now, please,
La Forge. You still have a couple of hours until din
ner. By the way, don't forget to find out what
otstanding means. It's important." Sanchez almost
sighed. "I think the rest of us ought to go about our
business now. It's been quite a day so far."
"You can say that again," Siobhan muttered.
As they all filed out of sickbay, Geordi
felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned. It was Trennek. "I can't thank
you for what you did," she said. "Thanking you would be
inadequate."
As Geordi opened his mouth to speak, Trennek
held up a hand. "No," she said. "Don't say
anything.
The only reason I'm still alive is because you
spotted me and got help to me in the nick of time.
The captain couldn't see me, and the ship could never have
gotten to me quickly enough. I've seen my own
post-accident readouts, Geordi, and I was in bad
shape. If you'd been even thirty seconds
later, I wouldn't be here now. So I
won't forget what you did for me. Not ever."
Geordi didn't know what to say.
"Well, then," Trennek said briskly. "Did
you manage to get a look at my broken air
line?"
"Yes, I did," Geordi replied. "I
didn't see anything wrong with its basic
structure. Hassan will run a few tests on it
later. He says it looks like the line was torn out,
probably by a micro-meteorite strike.
I think the impact also caused a tiny
magnetic pulse that fried your suit's
communicator link, which is why we couldn't talk
to you. That's a lot of damage from just one pebble."
"A pebble got me?"
Geordi nodded. "Probably a very small
one," he 4 'l
said. "They travel very fast, and they can do some real
damage. The spacesuits we use are tough, but
they're not that tough. The odds against a person getting
hit by a micro are pretty high, but it's been
known to happen."
"Oh." Trennek thought for a moment. "You know,"
she said somberly, "If that little thing had zipped
another centimeter or two closer, it would
have gone right through my helmet."
"And if were''t had zipped by a centimeter or
two farther away, it would have been a clean miss,"
Geordi reminded her. "You'd never even have known it
had been there."
"True enough," Trennek admitted. She
smiled a little. "I'm going to depend on you to keep
me from obsessing about this."
"That's a deal," Geordi agreed with a smile.
"Sorry, but I really do have to go cram for that
report now."
"Oh, I'll be fine. You go on ahead." She
waved Geordi out of sickbay.
"I've got to clean up around here anyway. You
people made such a mess saving my life! was The
bridge was darkened and very, very quiet. Even the little
electronic noises that formed the constant happy
chatter typical of a Starfleet bridge seemed
muted. Sanchez was sitting in the command chair,
quietly staring at the main screen. The view was
forward at magnification one. He watched as Ben,
her course fully preprogrammed, moved
smoothly past asteroids of various sizes while
her sensors drank in everything there was to know about them.
42
Slobhan was at the helm, but Be was on full
automatic, so she had little to do. "So, do you think
Hassan's right?" she said into the silence. "I mean
about Trennek's air line having been clipped by a
micro?"
"I guess he is," Sanchez grunted. He
sounded weary.
"It was a little spooky, wasn't it?" Siobhan
continued. "It's like firing a shot at random down
into the Grand Canyon and actually hitting somebody."
"That's an exaggeration."
"Not by much." Siobhan sighed. This was getting
nowhere. "All right, Bernie," she said. "So
what's on your mind?"
"You really want to know?"
Siobhan shrugged. "This ship is doing a good
job of flying herself, so I figure you asked me up
here for the company. I'll listen if you want to talk,
Bernie."
"Okay." Sanchez paused. "What's on my
mind is that I almost lost a person today. I never
had that happen before. Not even close. This is a
school mission, Siobhan, for heaven's sake.
Short and sweet.
Fun.
Easy. Nobody's supposed to die."
"Missions are always dangerous, Bernie, because
space is dangerous.
Everybody knows that. Bad things can happen."
"Not to my people."
"No, not to your people," Siobhan agreed.
"Trennek's alive and well, thanks to you."
Sanchez waved a hand. "Thanks to Geordi
La Forge, not me."
Siobhan's expression went blank.
"Excuse me, boss?"
"La Forge did the job today, thanks to that
VISOR of his. He spotted Trennek right
away and went straight to her. He didn't waste a
second.
All I could do was follow along. Some boss,
huh?"
"Really?" Siobhan said. "As Hassan and I
saw it, you were right behind Geordi all the way.
You're the one who established the emergency air feed
between his recycle unit and hers-and just in time.
It seemed to take forever for Hassan and me to get
this old bucket moving and into position. With the
transporter out, we could never have done all
that and gotten Trennek back inside the ship in time
to save her life, too. You two could move much more
quickly-quickly enough to save our shipmate, thank
goodness."
"But I should have-was "No buts allowed, boss,"
Siobhan said flatly. "I can think of an
upperclassman or two who would never have permitted
a plebe to take the lead on a rescue mission,
even in an emergency. You did it instinctively,
though, because you knew in your gut that Geordi was your
one and only chance to save Trennek. Geordi got
you to the spot, and then you took over. You saved
Trennek's life today because you were smart enough and good enough
to let Geordi help you. Now that's a captain who
knows how to lead. If it matters to you, I think you
did a superb job out there today."
Sanchez was quiet for a moment. "Thanks,
Siobhan," he said at last.
"It does matter, very much."
was Okay, then," she replied, turning back to the
navigation console.
"We're about done with this pass through our assigned
sector, Captain.
Do you want to
45
loop through it again right away, or would you prefer us
to stand off and wait until the morning watch"?"
"Maintain present routine, Number One,"
Sanchez told her. "We're doing fine."
Geordi was sitting at the study module in his
quarters, reading quickly through Starfleet's official
history of the Benjamin Franklin. Like most
official histories, Ben's was a clipped and very
dry list of facts. Geordi was willing to bet that
the "unofficial" history of the ship was a lot more
interesting than that-and a lot more fun. There was also this
mysterious little bit of trivia about the word outstanding, and
what it meant in terms of Ben's history. It
turned out to be no mystery at all.
As her low registry number suggested, Ben was a
very old ship. In fact, as Geordi already knew,
she was the oldest ship in Starfleet still on active
duty.
Geordi had just finished reading the exciting story
of Ben's first captain, and how he'd saved the ship
at the cost of his own life.
Geordi was now going through a condensed account of the
exploration and settlement of the Belt, giving
special attention to the mining towns that had thrived there
until the middle of the twenty-third
century.
Captain Sanchez had mentioned that Ceresville,
the biggest settlement, was tied in somehow with the story
of the Benjamin Franklin. It didn't take very
long for Geordi to find the cross-reference. He
whistled as he read. Now this was a wild story! He
hoped he could do it justice when he told it after
dinner. Geordi downloaded several sets of
associated graphics from
the study module to his padd. After a little thought,
he quickly wrote a short routine that he thought might
come in handy during his talk.
He tested the program and pronounced it good.
His work done, Geordi sat back in his chair and
took a well-deserved break. For the first time all
day, Geordi had absolutely nothing to do, and there
was still a little time before he had to go to the galley for
dinner. He sat quietly for a moment and thought about
what had happened outside the ship, and how he and
Sanchez had managed to rescue Trennek.
Geordi realized just how close a call it had
been for the Andorian, and how lucky he and the captain
had been to be able to get her out of danger.
We couldn't have done it without my
VISOR. Geordi always considered himself lucky to have
it, but this was the first time that it had ever done anyone
else some good.
Geordi sometimes wished that he had working eyes and
normal vision like almost everyone else. He often
thought he might like to see a sunset someday, because
he'd heard they were beautiful. All he could see were
varying bands of heat. However, today, normal vision
would not have been enough to save Trennek.
Even a skilled and experienced person like
Sanchez could not have used his tricorder quickly enough
to pinpoint Trennek's location. The VISOR had
instantly allowed Geordi to pick out Trennek's
heat signature from the backdrop of stars and cold
space, which had enabled Geordi and Sanchez to get
to her in time.
Trennek was alive tonight only because of the VISOR,
and Geordi would never again think of the device in the
same way.
Geordi almost laughed as he suddenly realized
something he'd never thought of before. Not only had he
never seen a sunset, he'd never even seen the
VISOR, except in a mirror. The VISOR was
the one thing, the only thing, he could never look
at directly.
It was impossible. If he took it off to look
at it, he'd be blind.
Geordi detached the VISOR from the pickups
at his temples, and his world went suddenly and
completely dark. With the tips of his fingers, Geordi
carefully and thoughtfully stroked the cool metal of the
device, "seeing" it in the only way he could. He
took great care not to get finger marks on the sensory
pickups under the front grid. After a moment or
two, Geordi put his VISOR back on, got
up, and left his quarters. It was dinnertime.
Time for his report.
4But
CHAPTER
Dinner was rations-standard ration packs, direct from
Ben's fully stocked larder. The four cadets
seated around the big table in the galley ate
hungrily. Siobhan was on the bridge keeping
watch, but she was tied into the galley through an open
communicator link. The others could talk to her as
easily as if she were sitting there and eating with them.
"This is not bad," Trennek said, chewing. "The
taste vaguely reminds me of actual
food."
Hassan nodded. "I cannot decide whether it is
the blue glop or the green glop that reminds me
most of food," he said. "Perhaps our assistant
engineer right shed some light on this perplexing question.
Geordi nodded somberly and, holding his
VISOR between thumb and forefinger, made a great show of
leaning forward and peering intently at the blue
square of dinner ration on his plate. After several
seconds, he said, "Hmmm."
"Your report, Cadet?" Hassan ordered.
"It's definitely blue, sir," Geordi
replied in a serious tone. "Very, very blue. End of
report."
"Good work, La Forge," Hassan said
approvingly.
"Thank you." He looked proudly at the others.
"My training made him what he is today, you know."
"Well, I like it," Sanchez said, scooping up
the last of the green paste before him with a spork. "I
used to eat this stuff all the time, when I was a kid.
Tastes like chicken. Good, and good for you, too."
"Kids will eat anything," Siobhan said from the
bridge. "Next time, I'm bringing along
a dozen bags of chocolate chip cookies."
"Now there's a fine spaceside diet,"
Sanchez said approvingly. "What do you think,
Medical Officer?"
"Yes, Captain," Trennek said agreeably.
"The MeKenna Space Diet contains elements of
all four major food groups-sugar, fat,
grease, and calories. There might be a vitamin
hiding in there somewhere, but we'll yank it out by the
roots if we find it. I approve, sir."
"Actually," Geordi said, finishing his ration,
"I wish we did have some chocolate chip cookies
aboard."
"It's just as well, Geordi," Siobhan said.
"We don't have any milk aboard, either."
Hassan sat back. "All this loose talk of
cookies is beginning to bother me," he said. "I
believe that, when we return, I will place a
chair in front of the
nearest replicator and remain seated there for a
week."
"All this complaining after less than a day,"
Sanchez said, shaking his head in mock sadness.
"Starfleet's blood has grown mighty
thin since the early days, let me tell you." Then
he seemed to brighten.
"Better yet, let Geordi tell you. We
all seem to be finished with dinner-was "I'm not,"
came a plaintive voice from the bridge.
"Out of sight, out of mind," Sanchez said, and they
heard Siobhan laugh. "But if you don't mind,
Number One-?"
"Not at all. I'm looking forward to hearing
Geordi's report."
"So am I," said Sanchez. "La Forge?"
"I'm ready, sir."
"Then please begin."
Geordi produced his padd and leaned forward.
"First, I need a moment to tie my padd into the
holoprojector." He rapidly hit a few
keys and, suddenly, a small, neat stack of
sticks piled about a foot high appeared in the
middle of the table. Sanchez blinked, and then he
chuckled.
"Computer, take the room lights down ninety
percent," Geordi ordered.
He hit another button on his padd, and a
fire suddenly sprang up from the wood.
He could see the faces of the three others
outlined in the golden firelight.
"What's going on?" Siobhan called.
"La Forge just used the holoprojector to make
a campfire on the table," Sanchez replied.
"Well done, Geordi. You sure know how to set
up a story."
Trennek held out a hand. "I can actually feel
heat," she said. She sounded surprised. "How did
you manage it?"
Geordi grinned. "I'm having the
holoprojector transmit a little infrared along
with the visible light you're seeing. You feel the
infrared as heat. I'm not putting enough through to hurt the
table, though."
Hassan looked around. Because the light from the fire
was so bright, the room around them appeared to have gone
completely dark. It reminded him of cool desert
nights, and the many campfires he'd sat around with his
family and friends when he was younger.
"Siobhan," Geordi called, "I've set
this presentation up so you'll be able to follow along if
you tie one of the viewers on the bridge into the
galley's briefing circuit."
"Done. Thanks for thinking of me, Geordi."
Geordi cleared his throat. "Let's go
back one hundred and seventy-five years," he
began. "Our story begins on the very same day this
ship went into service. The date is Saturday,
February thirteen, 2179."
He touched another button on his padd, and the
holoprojector formed a figure above their heads.
It was a man dressed in the very earliest version of a
Starfleet captain's uniform. He was a handsome
Asian who looked to be in his midthirties.
Geordi began. "Meet Captain lwasaki
Ikushima, everybody. He was the first captain of the
Benjamin Franklin, and today-the thirteenth of
February in the year 2179-is the day he took
command of this newly built starship. Captain
Ikushima is thirty-three years old. He's
married, and his wife and two children live
at the starfleet complex just outside Tokyo.
fie's a member of the Academy class of 2167,
which was only the third class to graduate.
Starfleet is still a very, very new thing, and it's still
trying to find its way. Not everyone is sure it will
last."
That drew a small laugh from the others.
"The Federation is growing rapidly in the
2170's," Geordi continued.
"The Romulan Wars are finally over, and
Starfleet is discovering its mission of peaceful
exploration and scientific discovery. There's always
room for a talented officer to rise quickly through the
ranks, and Ike Ikushima is one of those
officers. He was promoted to captain just three
weeks ago. The first thing he did was assign his
personal motto to his new command. From the outset,
Benjamin Franklin's motto has always been the
exclamation "Outstanding!"
was Geordi touched another padd control, and a
figure appeared beside Ikushima. It was a tall,
dark-haired Caucasian with a wiry beard and a big
grin. "This is Commander Robert DePaima,"
Geordi said. "He and Captain Ikushima met
at the Academy, where they were in the same class.
They were assigned as roommates, and they soon
became best friends.
Twelve years after graduation, in 2179, they still
are. In fact, Bob DePalma is godfather
to both Ikushima children.
When Ike Ikushima was given command of the Ben,
there was only one man he wanted as his first officerand
you're looking at him."
"He looks friendly," Trennek observed.
"He's also tough as nails," Geordi pointed
out.
"Did you ever hear of a book called Nine Days
Behind the Line? It's the story of how a senior
Starfleet
admiral taken prisoner by a Klingo mtirship
managed to escape. He also captured the warship,
delivering it and its crew of fourteen to Starfleet
Command."
"He's that DePalma?" Sanchez exclaimed.
I had no idea. You learn something new about
Starfleet every day. Uh, all that happened much
later, though, didn't it?"
Geordi nodded. "Yes, sir, it did-about forty
years later. Right now, in 2179, Captain
Ikushima and Commander DePalma are just about to take
Ben out on her first mission, and it could be a nasty
one."
"Which star system are they going to, Geordi?"
asked Trennek.
"They're staying right here, in Earth's star
system," Geordi answered.
"Ben is rushing to a domed settlement in
the asteroid belt-Ceresville, the biggest town in
the entire Belt." He erased the projections of
Ikushima and DePalma, and put up a picture
of a very large, almost spherical, asteroid. The
rugged, threedimensional globe hung over their
heads. "This is Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first
one ever discovered," Geordi went on. "About three
thousand people live on it at this time, most of them in
Ceresville."
"Why?" asked Hassan. "I mean to say, why
would anyone want to live in the Belt? It seems
so desolate."
"It is, but there's a good reason," Geordi
said. "At this time, there are no replicators.
Earth is chronically short of metals and other raw
materials because centuries of waste, abuse, and
bad judgment have depleted the planet's natural
resources. The Belt has plenty of resources,
though, and miners have been working
there steadily since the early 2100's. Some of
tile millers do quite well, and a few get very rich-but
most of them are poor, and many lose their lives.
Asteroid mining is very dangerous."
"Even asteroid watching is dangerous,"
said Trennek ruefully.
"You said it," commented Siobhan.
"Most of the people living in Ceresville aren't miners
at all," Geordi went on. "They're merchants
and traders. They buy raw ore from the miners and ship
it to Earth for processing in huge orbiting
refineries.
They also sell food, clothing, and supplies to the
miners."
"I remember reading about those refineries,"
Sanchez said. "They were in orbit so they wouldn't
cause pollution on Earth. They're all gone
now, of course."
"Right," Geordi agreed. "They're no longer
needed-but in 2179 they're part of a huge industry,
and they're very important to Earth's economy.
And that's why Captain Ikushima is taking the
Benjamin Franklin to the Belt."
Geordi issued another command with his padd, and the
image of Ceres was replaced by another picture.
"Ugh!" exclaimed Trennek. "Who's that?"
The picture showed an ugly, angry-looking
man. He looked as if he were ready to spring at the
camera in order to attack it. The man's hair was
blazing white, but his full beard was a
deep, rich black. His face was lined with scars.
His black, bushy eyebrows knitted themselves together
above his nose, which appeared to have been broken many
times.
He was a powerfully
built man, too. Muscles bulged under his
plain, 111fitting clothing like thick ropes.
He looked like very bad news.
"Meet the bad guy," Geordi said. "His
real name is unknown to this day. At the time of our
story, in 2179, this man is about thirty-five
years old. He probably used to be a miner but,
not too long ago, he organized a gang of
outlaws and began robbing and murdering other miners for
their meager hordes of supplies and money. This man
and his gang have killed perhaps hundreds of miners.
There's no way to know just how many victims there have
been, since the miners live alone and keep to themselves
most of the time. It's hard to tell when one's
disappeared."
"That's shocking!" Hassan exclaimed. "Where
are the local police?
They should be doing something about capturing these people!"
He was so excited that he seemed to forget the whole
thing had happened almost two centuries before.
"There are no police in the Belt," Geordi
said. "The Belt has no government at all.
Finally, though, someone has decided that Starfleet
should get involved. The situation has gotten so bad
that ore shipments to Earth's orbiting refineries have
fallen off drastically.
Captain Ikushima's mission is to capture this
man and as many members of his gang as he can, and
turn them over for trial before a Federation court in
Geneva."
"Wait a minute," Siobhan said. "This story
is ringing a faint bell with me. Isn't the freaky
guy with the hair and the beard actually the one and
only-?"
"That's right," Geordi stated. For the benefit of the
others, he pointed up at the figure floating above
them. "Meet Billy Devil, the biggest and
baddestand ugliest-outlaw the Belt ever knew."
"Ah," Trennek said. "I've come across
stories of Billy Devil in my reading. He had
quite a reputation, didn't he? Geordi, are you
saying that Ikushima is the man who ended Billy
Devil's criminal career?"
"That's right," Geordi confirmed.
"Ikushima took on Billy Devil himself. They
used to say Billy was a hundred kilograms of
bad hair and worse attitude."
"He looks it," Siobhan said.
"But I don't remember reading anything about
Billy Devil ever being captured," Trennek
recalled. "In fact, I don't think he
was."
Geordi nodded in the firelight. "That's right.
He wasn't. Benjamin Franklin, alone, faced
down Billy Devil and more than thirty renegade
ships in what was called the Battle of the Belt.
Captain Ikushima and Ben smashed Billy
Devil's operation and captured more than a dozen
renegade ships. The rest of Billy Devil's
forces were destroyed in the battle. Ikushima tried
to capture Billy Devil, too, but Billy
put his ship on self-destruct, killing himself and
everyone else aboard."
Geordi erased the figure of Billy Devil
from over their heads.
"He blew himself up?" Hassan said. "Well,
good riddance to bad rubbish, as they say."
"For many years afterward," Geordi continued, some people
claimed that Billy Devil hadn't really
died.
There were reports of him being spotted here and there in
the Belt, on Earth, and even in other Federation star
systems. None of those reports was ever confirmed, and
they're very unlikely to have been true. Sometimes, people
just make things up to suit themselves."
SB
"And those weren't the only tales about BIIIV,
were they, La Forge?"
Sanchez prompted.
"No, Captain, they weren't," Geordi said.
"There were also stories that the ghost of Billy Devil
was haunting the Belt, causing all sorts of
mischief aboard ships passing by. The stories
said that Billy's ghost could never find rest because it was
condemned to float around inside the Belt, weightless
and alone, for all eternity."
"That's ridiculous!" Hassan said with some heat.
"There are no such things as ghosts."
"It's just a story, Hassan," Geordi
replied. "That's all."
Trennek shrugged. "It must be tempting to blame
your own incompetence or bad luck on the work of a
mischievous ghost," she said. "Just for the record, I
don't think Billy Devil snuck up
behind me today and yanked out my air line."
"Maybe it was one of Billy's pirate
pals," joked Siobhan. "Booga booga!"
They all laughed.
"Geordi," Trennek asked, "what happened
to Captain Ikushima?"
"He died saving this ship," Geordi answered.
"Captain Ikushima was killed two years after the
Battle of the Belt, while Ben was on patrol in
another star system. It happened during an
emergency in the engine room. Ben's old-fashioned
impulse engines were powered by nuclear reactors.
One of those reactors suffered a massive
mechanical failure that nearly caused it to melt
down. If it had melted down, the ship would have been
destroyed, and all hands would have been lost. Ben's
entire engineering staff had been disabled
by the initial release of radiation, so Captain
Ikushima himself entered the contaminated engine room and
manually shut down the reactor. The ship was saved.
However, the captain had been exposed to a deadly
amount of radiation.
He died within an hour."
"What a hero," Trennek said, her
eyes shining in the firelight.
"Yes," Sanchez said. "He was truly a
hero. The courage of someone like Ike Ikushima
gives all of us something to live up to. With any
luck, maybe they'll say the same thing about one of
us someday."
"Respectfully, sir," Hassan said, "with
any luck, I shall live to be two hundred."
Sanchez and the others burst out laughing. "And that's
as good a last word on the subject as any," the
captain said. "Computer, lights up full.
Geordi, that was an excellent presentation-and the
campfire was a very nice touch. Well done."
"Thank you, Captain." Geordi thumbed his
padd, and the campfire disappeared from the table.
"Make sure you stir the ashes and douse them
again," Siobhan said.
Sanchez grimaced. "Hassan, you'd better
relieve
McKenna on the bridge as soon as you can," he
said.
"Not only is her watch over, but her jokes are
getting worse."
"Aye, sir," Hassan replied. "I will be
up there right away.
Geordi?"
"Yes, Hassan?"
"The events of the day rather interfered with our normal
routine. If you're able, I would like you to stand a watch
in engineering for several hours-let's say, four
hours. You'll be by yourself down there, but you don't
need me. I think all you really need are the engines
and a few manuals. This will allow you to make up some
of the study time you lost today. Look at everything down
there, Geordi. Practice being an engineer."
Geordi grinned. "Thanks, Hassan. I'd
like that very much."
A real engineer!
Geordi was as happy as he knew how to be.
Here he was, in full charge of the engineering department
aboard a starship! Granted, it was only a small
shipbut it felt mighty good anyway. At the
moment, Geordi was keeping an eye and an ear on
the output of Ben's impulse engines. He thought
they were running a little roughly. Nothing showed on the
instruments. It was just a feeling he had that things were a
little out of whack. After a moment or two, Geordi
reached out, touching a slider switch on the main
console. He moved the switch ever so
slightly forward and then listened carefully to the
engines. After a moment, he smiled. The problem was
gone.
Geordi dictated a short log entry,
recording what he had done. That was proper
procedure. After that, he continued his inspection, doing
whatever maintenance checks were required. As he
went, Geordi drank in everything he saw-every
circuit, every engine part. Textbooks were fine, but
there was no substitute for practical experienceand
Ben was giving him plenty!
It took nearly four hours for Geordi to finish
his careful, complete inspection. It showed that everything
was working properly. Geordi sat at the main
console 6 'l
and dictated a complete log entry that contained a
full report on the status of the ship. When
Geordi was finished, he got up, yawned, and
stretched. Exciting as it had been, it had also been
a very long day.
Ben's automatic systems would take care of the
ship and keep things running until he and Hassan
reported for the morning watch in eight hours.
"La Forge to bridge," Geordi said.
"Hello, Geordi," Hassan
answered. "I see it is now nearly 2300
hours.
Are you about ready to turn in?"
"I think so, Hassan. I was going to go to the
galley and grab something to eat first. Can I bring you
anything? was "Most thoughtful of you. Yes, please-but,
I beg you, no more blue modeling compound. I had enough
of that at dinner to last me for quite a while, thank you.
Something in pink or orange, perhaps."
Geordi laughed. "I hope I can do better
than that.
See you in a few minutes. La Forge out."
Geordi arrived in the galley. Ben's supply
list said only standard-issue Starfleet rations had
been stored aboard for the mission, but Geordi was
sure that not every item aboard the ship would be on that
list.
"Now if I were real food," he wondered
aloud, where would I be hiding?"
Geordi took it for granted that Starfleet
cargo handlers had been working hard to restock Ben's
supplies for a day or two before the mission.
Geordi also knew-having grown up in Starfleet
and being wise to its ways-that no Starfleet cargo
handler would eat standard rations while en duty
at Spacedock. They liked their comfort, and they
took it where they could get it. The cargo handlers
would eat breakfast and dinner where they lived, but they'd
bring real food aboard with them for lunches and
snacks so they could eat while they worked. The handlers
usually brought extra food to share around, and they
hardly ever bothered to take the leftovers with them when
they finished a job.
Geordi ducked down behind the galley's serving
station.
Sure enough, he found a standard food storage
compartment built into the bottom. It was a stasis
unit. Any food stored inside would remain fresh
for many years, even without refrigeration. Geordi
opened the access panel and looked around inside.
"Yes!" He withdrew a large, half-full
package of fresh bread. There were also
replicator-fresh cold cuts and cheese.
Mustard! And pickIt's! These people had treated
themselves pretty well, all night. Pushing his
luck, Geordi wondered if there was anything in there
to drink, too, but there wasn't.
Geordi found a knife and two plates. He
quickly made a couple of overstuffed sandwiches for
himself and Hassan. Coffee was always ready,
so Geordi poured a couple of cups. He found a
tray and set everything on it. He looked at it,
feeling a little smug.
Hassan would be surprised, all right. Geordi
left the galley and walked through officers" country,
heading for the turbolift that would take him up to the
bridge.
It was very quiet on Deck 2. His three
off-duty shipmates were fast asleep.
As he rounded a bend in the corridor, Geordi
suddenly stopped cold.
Standing right in front of him was Captain
Ikushima!
CHAPTER
Geordi's mouth opened in astonishment. The tray
fell out of his nerveless hands with a crash. His heart
began racing.
Silently, the unsmiling Captain Ikushima
slowly raised his arm and pointed straight at
Geordi. Geordi found himself frozen to the spot.
He could not move or speak.
Ikushima dropped his arm back to his side and
continued looking at Geordi for a very long
moment.
Then he disappeared, slowly, like mist over water.
For a moment, Geordi just stood there, confused and
frightened. Then his instincts took over, and he tapped
his communicator. "Intruder alert!" he barked.
"Deck Two!"
The lights up and down the corridor instantly
went
red, and the alert signal began blaring throughout the
ship.
"Geordi?" Hassan called. "What is it?
I have activated all intruder-alert routines, but
I would like to know why. Are you all right? What's going
on?"
"I'm fine, Hassan. As for what's going
on-was The doors to everyone's quarters began sliding
open, and Sanchez, Siobhan, and Trennek
emerged into the corridor. They were all wearing
sleeping gear.
"What's going on, La Forge?" Sanchez
asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Report."
"Captain, we have an intruder aboard. I just
saw him."
Sanchez blinked. He was fully awake
now. "My communicator's still on my uniform," he
said. "Let me use yours." Geordi unclipped
his communicator and handed it over. "Thank you.
Computer, cancel audio alert. I can't hear myself
think. El-Dallal, this is Sanchez.
Report, please."
"Captain, we are running all intruder-alert
routines.
Nothing has been detected so far."
Sanchez glanced at Geordi. "Nothing?" the
captain asked. "Nothing at all?"
"Nothing, sir. Internal sensors show the five
of us aboard, and that is all."
"Anything strange?" Sanchez inquired.
"Energy readings you can't account for, anything of that
sort?"
"No, sir. Nothing."
"Stand by. Geordi, what did you see?"
Geordi hesitated. "Captain "Go on."
Geordi took a deep breath. "I saw
Captain Iku 66
shima, sir. He was standing right there in the
corridor, just about where Trennek is standing now."
"Right here?" Trennek asked, her eyes wide.
She sidestepped half a meter to her
left.
." see," Sanchez said, nodding. "Computer,
cancel intruder alert."
"But, sin" Geordi began. The red lights in the
corridor turned back to white.
"Not now, Geordi," Sanchez said, not
unkindly. He returned Geordi's
communicator to him. "We'll talk about this in the
morning. Go get some sleep."
"Am I dreaming, or is that an actual
sandwich?"
Siobhan said, pointing at the coffee-soaked
mess on the deck. "Did Geordi's ghost bring
it here with him?"
"I'll clean this up right away, Captain,"
Geordi said.
"Good night, everyone."
The others said their good-nights and returned to their
quarters.
Geordi heard Siobhan mumble something to herself as
the door closed behind her.
Geordi went to the galley and found a broom and a
dustpan. He returned to where he'd dropped the
tray, and began sweeping. He knew it was silly,
but he kept looking over his shoulder as he
worked. When he was finished, he returned to the
galley, dumped the trash into the recycler, and put
the broom and dustpan away. Geordi knew there was
enough food left to make another sandwich, so he did
so. Tray in hand, he headed for the turbolift again.
This time, nothing unusual happened on the way.
The "lift brought him quickly to the bridge.
Hassan
turned in the command seat as the door opened.
"Geordi? What is it now?"
Geord) indicated the tray. "I still owe you a
snack."
"Ah. Thank you. I thought that, perhaps, in all the
excitement-was "I didn't forget." Geordi handed
the tray to Hassan.
"A sandwich? Where did you find this?" Hassan
said, taking a bite.
"Turkey? Glorious! I wasn't aware that
anything like this was on the supply list."
"It wasn't. I just knew where to look."
"Well, it's a good thing you did." Hassan
paused.
"You're not eating?"
"I'm not hungry anymore."
Hassan nodded. "Geordi," he asked, "what
happened down on Deck Two?"
"I don't know, Hassan. I saw Captain
Ikushima standing in front of me, pointing at
me-or at least I thought I did."
Hassan nodded. "You understand that there are no such
things as ghosts?"
"I know that, of course-but I saw him,
Hassan. He looked real, too, right up to the time
he faded away."
"He faded away? As if he were being beamed off
the ship? Perhaps it actually was an intruder of some
sort, a real one-was "No," Geordi said, shaking
his head. "Captain Ikushima just slowly
disappeared. I've never seen a trans porter do
anything like that."
"Nor have I," Hassan admitted. He
sighed. "Perhaps you should rest now, Geordi. It has
been a long day. I will see you again at the morning
watch."
All right, Hassan. Good night." Geord)
turned and left.
Hassan watched as the turbolift door closed
behind Geordi. He shook his head sadly.
Geordi must've been seeing things-and "seeing things"
would buy Geordi a one-way ticket out of
Starfleet Academy. Geordi's career would be
over before it began. That would be a shame, but Hassan
had seen other cadets washed out of the Academy for
similar reasons.
Trennek's close call earlier today must've
rattled him more than we thought. Between that and all the
Ikushima research he did today and standing watch in
engineering by himself, it was too much for him.
Hassan shook his head. He felt bad for
Geordi, but he knew there was nothing he could do for the
first-year cadet.
Hassan put down the sandwich Geordi had
made for him and turned his full attention back
to his work.
He wasn't hungry anymore, either.
CHAPTER
Geordi reported for the morning watch promptly
at 0700 hours. It was easy to do since he
hadn't really slept. No sooner had Geordi
seated himself in front of the assistant engineer's
console than Sanchez called for him.
"Cadet La Forge, please come see me. I'm
in my quarters."
"Aye, sir," Geordi replied.
To Hassan, he said, "Well, I guess I
already know what the captain wants to talk about."
Hassan could not look at him. "I suppose
so," he replied, his eyes fixed on the console before
him.
Geordi waited for a moment, as if he expected
Hassan to say something else. When he didn't,
Geordi cleared his throat. "Well, I guess
I'll be on my way," he said a little
uncertainly. "Uh, see you later."
T0
Hassan merely nodded, not knowing what to say. A
little disappointed, Geordi left the room.
"Come in," Sanchez called, and the door to his
quarters slid aside.
Geordi found the senior cadet seated at his
study module. He had accessed the overnight
sensor logs and was going through them. "Good morning,
Geordl," Sanchez said. "Have a seat."
"Good morning, Captain. Thank you. Have you found
anything?"
Sanchez shook his head. "No," he
replied. "Not that I haven't been trying. I can
account for the whereabouts of everyone on the ship at all
times since we set out from Spacedock yesterday.
I've been through the logs three times, Geordi, and
I can't find anything wrong. Tell me again
exactly what you saw, and when."
"Yes, sir. It was 2258 hours. I'd just
finished my watch in engineering. Hassan was on the
bridge. I checked in with him to say I was going off
duty, and that I was stopping by the galley to get something
to eat. I asked him if he wanted something, too,
and he said yes. I told him I'd bring it to him."
"So you went to the galley. Did anything happen
in there?"
"No, sir. I found some food in the storage
unit and made a couple of sandwiches."
"I saw the remnants all over the deck.
Turkey, weren't they? I was surprised to find there
was anything like that aboard."
Geordi told him about the cargo handlers and their
usual practice of bringing their own food and
snacks
with them when they worked. Sanchez chuckled. "I'll
keep that dodge in mind for next time," he
said. "I'm not as big a fan of Starfleet rations
as I claim to be.
All right, then. So you made the sandwiches and
poured the coffee, put everything on a tray, left
the galley, and headed for the turbolift."
"That's right," Geordi said. "That's when I saw
Captain Ikushima. He was in the corridor, on
the spot I showed you last night. He stood in
front of me and pointed at me. He looked
straight at me. He seemed sad and alone. Then
he stopped pointing at me and disappeared. The rest you
know."
"What did you see to make you think he was a
ghost?"
"Begging your pardon, sir, but I never said I
saw a ghost," Geordi replied. "I said I
saw Captain Ikushima. Siobhan called it a
ghost, not me."
"Captain Ikushima's been dead for more than a
hundred and seventy years, Geordi."
"I know that, sir. I can't explain it."
Sanchez gestured at the data screen on his
study module. "Neither can I. The sensor logs
don't show a thing. Geordi, I don't mean
to sound insensitive, but have you checked your
VISOR to see if anything's gone wrong with it?"
Geordi nodded. "That's the first thing I did when
I returned to my quarters, sir. I ran all the
self-tests.
Everything checked out fine."
Sanchez nodded. "You know, Geordi," he
began slowly, "you had a pretty strenuous day
yesterday. It was all pretty exciting, and you must have
been very tired when you finally went off duty. Is there
any pos 72
sibility, any at all, that you had a walking
dream"! Very tired people do sometimes micro-sleep for
only a second or two, even while they're
walking around. If you did that, you might have been
likely to see anything."
"No, sir," Geordi replied firmly. "I
was tired, but not that tired. I was fully awake and
aware at all times."
"You might not have realized you weren't," Sanchez
continued "Think about it."
Geordi did. "No, sir," he repeated after
a moment.
"There's no possibility I was dreaming."
Sanchez nodded. "Okay. I accept that." He
paused, looking uncomfortable. "I want
to go off the record with you now."
"Yes, sir," Geordi said.
"There's no way I can keep this matter out of the
log, Geordi. There was an intruder alert declared.
The computer has recorded it. There will have to be a
report made about it when we get back to the
Academy."
"I understand that, sir."
Sanchez sighed. "Look, Geordi, not only
have you pulled more than your full weight on this trip,
but you saved Trennek's life yesterday.
We'll all be in your debt forever-not just
Trennek, but all of us.
Nobody, especially me, wants to see you
hurt by whatever happened on Deck Two last
night."
"I understand, Captain," Geordi said firmly.
"The review board will say I was seeing things. I
may be washed out of the Academy." He did not add
that he'd been up all night thinking about that.
Sanchez held up a hand. "The review board
won't
do anything of the sort if we log this matter as I
see it-that you were exhausted after a very trying
day, that you fell asleep briefly while you were
waiting for the turbolift, and that you only dreamed you
saw Captain Ikushima in the corridor.
Startled and confused, you suddenly awakened and called
the intruder alert.
The review board will understand completely. Some of the
members may even laugh a little, but no harm done.
Your Starfleet career won't be affected at
all."
"You'd be willing to do that?" Geordi sounded
surprised.
"Yes, I would, since I believe what I'm
saying is the absolute truth.
I think everything happened just the way I said it
did. I want to help you, Geordi. We all
do. Let us."
Geordi sat quietly for a moment. Could things have
happened the way Sanchez thought they did? Did I
really fall asleep for a second or two? Did
I only dream that Captain Ikushima appeared
before me? The answer was clear.
Geordi took a deep breath. "No. Thank
you, sir, but no. I can't lie-not to you, not to my other
shipmates, and not to Starfleet. I'm certain that I
saw Captain Ikushima in the
corridor, and that I was fully awake when I
did. I don't know what it means, but I know what
I saw."
"This may get you thrown out of the Academy,
Geordi."
"I know, sir."
Sanchez nodded. "Very well. I'll log your
report of the incident just the way you gave it to me, but
I'll have to add that no one else aboard can confirm
the
sighting. That's all, La Forge. Report
back to engineering and finish your watch."
"Aye, sir. Thank you, sir."
"Don't thank me, Geordi , Sanchez said,
shaking his head. "I just bulldozed your career."
Geordi left. A minute later, there was a
soft knock on the door.
"Come in," Sanchez called.
It was Siobhan. "He didn't go for it," she
said flatly.
"I can see it in your face."
"No," Sanchez said. "No, he didn't go for
it. He insists that he saw what he saw. I'll
have to log his version of the incident just as he first
stated it. Jeer! A ghost! That'll go over real
big with the review board."
Siobhan nodded. "Just on a hunch, I took
a look at the holoprojector in the galley,"
she said. "I figure it's the only gizmo aboard
the ship capable of throwing an image that might fool
someone into thinking he'd actually seen a ghost. After
all, Geordi said he saw Ikushima last night
right after he left the galley."
"Oh? Find anything out?"
"Just that no one's touched the projector since
Geordi's presentation yesterday, and in any case
it's not nearly powerful enough to cast an image outside
the galley. I guess I thought that someone might be
playing a practical joke on the rest of us."
Sanchez almost laughed. "Who? Hassan? I
don't think it's in him.
Trennek worships Geordi. And it sure
wasn't you or me."
His friend shrugged. "I wasn't being terribly
logical," Siobhan said.
"I just don't believe Geordi's the kind
to make things up, or hallucinate. I also think
he knows the difference between being asleep and being
76
awake. He's from a family of starfleet
officers. It' he called an intruder alert, he
had a good reason."
"I wish I could believe that," Sanchez said,
"but I have to go by the facts as we know them."
"We all understand that, Bernie," Siobhan said.
"All of us do, including Geordi La Forge."
"Yes. Geordi understands. He'd make a fine
officer someday, but now he'll probably never get
the chance.
It's a shame."
"You tried to save him, Bernie."
"It wasn't enough." Sanchez sounded very tired.
"Excuse me now, Siobhan. I've got a
log entry to make."
The rest of the morning watch went very slowly for
Geordi. Hassan didn't say a single word
to him that was outside the line of duty. The situation
made Geordi very uncomfortable. He felt as if
he were an unwelcome guest. I'll be glad
to get back to Spacedock tomorrow.
Geordi had an hour free between the end of the
morning watch and lunch.
Under other circumstances, he might have wandered through
the ship and looked things over, but today all
he wanted to do was go to his quarters. He thought
he'd get some studying done, even if it didn't
really matter. He wondered just how long he would be
permitted to remain at the Academy.
He'd been at his study module for almost the
entire hour when there was a knock at the door.
"Yes?"
Geordi called.
The door slid aside. It was Trennek. "Can
I come in?"
"Sure. Have a seat. I was just reading, but
nothing's making a whole lot of sense." He
turned off the monitor and sat back, swiveling his
seat so he was facing the Andorian cadet. "What's
up?"
She shrugged. "I just wanted to see how you were,"
she said.
"Everybody's worried about you."
For a second, Geordi looked sad. "I know
they are," he told her, "and I appreciate it."
was Siobhan says the captain offered to let you
off the hook this morning."
"He did," Geordi said. "It was good of him,
but I couldn't accept. He thinks I was
asleep and dreaming, and I know I wasn't. I
can't lie, especially not on the ship's log. It's
just not right."
"No, it's not," Trennek said, nodding. "I
understand, Geordi. Look, if you ever need someone
to talk to, a friend, I'll be there for you, whatever
happens."
She got up to go. "We'll see you at lunch,
won't we?"
"Sure." Geordi managed a smile.
"Wouldn't miss it. I'll be there in a few
minutes."
"Okay." As the door to Geordi's quarters
rolled slid, Trennek suddenly turned back and
said, "Geordi, if they throw you out of the Academy,
they're absolutely crazy!" She suddenly
looked a little embarrassed and, turning, hurried
away down the corridor toward the galley.
Geordi's eyes widened with surprise. Then,
despite everything, he smiled. He suddenly felt
good for the first time all day.
Lunch consisted of rations that were colored red and
white, which Captain Sanchez ate with every appearance
of gusto. He told himself he was doing so
78
for the sake of ship's morale. By common consent,
since not enough of the real food Geordi had found in the
stasis unit remained to share around, none of them
took any of it. Trennek had the afternoon watch on the
bridge, but had tied into the galley via the
communicator link.
No one mentioned Geordi's sighting of the night
before but, clearly, it was on everyone's mind. At one
point, intending to ask Geordi to pass the salt,
Hassan had said, "Geordi, please hand me the
ghost." After a shocked moment everyone had laughed,
including Geordi. Hassan had looked very
uncomfortable afterward, though.
Siobhan was talking about the changes she'd made
that morning to their course. "I've tightened our search
loop somewhat," she said. "We're no longer
traveling our entire assigned sector end to end.
Our automatic charting systems have finished doing the
more thinly populated part of our sector, so I'm
having us concentrate on this limited area, where most
of the asteroids are. We'll be looping in and out of this
subsector until we head back to Spacedock
tomorrow.
I'm sure we'll get the entire job done in
time."
"Good," Sanchez said. "Anything interesting you'd
like to share with us?"
Siobhan nodded. "We've made a few
interesting finds," she said.
"We've located a couple of good-size
asteroids containing large stores of heavy metals.
The old-time miners would have gone nuts about them.
As it is, some scientist-types might want
to take a closer look at some point. Oh, and
we've placed a beacon on a big asteroid that we
calculate has a six percent
chance of leaving the Belt and heading sunward sometime
during the next thirty years. That one may turn out
to be the most important find we make during this
trip."
Trennek spoke up on the communicator link.
"Are we going outside again, sir?"
"You're not," Sanchez replied firmly. "Not
this trip.
Sorry, Sann, but you suffered a nasty
decompression accident just yesterday. You haven't
fully recovered yet."
"Yes, I have, sir."
"No, you haven't."
coneaBut I feel fine."
"I know you do," Sanchez said. "The tri-ox you
took has been helping, but you still need a few days
to recover fully. If you should have another accident
outside, even one that's not nearly as bad, you'll
suffer far worse physical damage because you're in
a weakened condition. I can't allow you to take the
risk. It's just not necessary."
"Yes, sir." The disappointment was clear in her
voice.
"I won't be going outside, either. I'll be
helping
McKenna get the maps and charts we've made
so far in order. La Forge, I'd like you to remain
on watch with Hassan in engineering. There must still be a
great deal for you to do down there."
"Yes, sir," Geordi said, glad to still be
useful.
"There certainly is. There's always a lot more
to learn."
Sanchez looked over at Hassan. "I trust
that suits you?"
Hassan hesitated for a second, and then said.
"Oi" course, Captain."
"Very well." Sanchez looked around the table.
"I see we've finished our lunch," he said.
"Good, too, wasn't it? Love the red and whites.
Now let's get back to work."
CHAPTER
Two hours of the afternoon watch had gone by, and
Hassan still hadn't said a thing to Geordi that
wasn't strictly related to their work.
Geordi realized there was a great deal of tension and
that Hassan no longer wanted him to be there in
engineering with him. He'd hoped that he and Hassan
could become friends, but that seemed impossible now.
They were sitting together at the main engineering console,
but Geordi felt as if there were thousands of
kilometers of cold, empty space between them.
Geordi had been reluctant to bring up the
subject with Hassan, but he could stand the silence no
longer.
"I need to talk to you," Geordi began.
"About what?" Hassan said, not looking at him.
"About what's going on here between us. I'd like to know
what's bothering you."
"Nothing is bothering me." Hassan
kept working.
"That's not true," Geordi said. "You've been
acting as if if I'm not really here. You tell me
to do something, you ask me for a status report. All
you're doing is pressing my buttons and getting me
to do things for you. You're treating me like a thing, just like that
console of yours. You're not dealing with me."
"You're here. You're working with me. On any
ship, that should be enough."
,It's not nearly enough. I thought we were becoming
friends."
Hassan sighed. He seemed to slouch in his
chair.
He swiveled it so he could look directly at
Geordi. "T thought so, too," he said softly.
"I would have liked to become your friend. You have been a
good ship mate to us all, and I respect your
considerable ability as an engineer."
Geordi was puzzled. "Then what's the problem?"
he asked. "If it's about what I saw last
night, I'm the one who's going to have to face the
consequences, not you."
Hassan paused in careful thought. He clasped
his hands together and leaned forward in his chair. "Do you know
where I'm from, Geordi?
What my back ground is?"
Geordi shrugged. "I know that you're from
Africa, on Earth. That's all."
"That's right," Hassan said. "I'm from Northern
Af rica, though-the desert country. We still
follow many of the old customs. The only society
we've ever needed is each other. We're wanderers
by nature, Geordi. My people never settle down
anywhere for
EL
very long. We prefer the freedom that constant
movement gives us. Our elders say that nothing
lasts, except for us. Empires and republics have
come and gone in our part of the world. Now there is the
Federation, and our elders say that when the Federation is
gone as well, our people will endure only because we've
chosen to remain apart."
"But you're here, Hassan. In Starfleet you
haven't remained apart."
"No," Hassan said. "I left my people. I
chose to join the world.
When I was a boy, Geordi, I would look up
into the sky on our cold, clear desert nights and
study the stars. I would dream of going out there
among them. I was so cut off from the world that I was
eleven years old before I learned that journeying to the
stars was actually possible. So I packed my things
and left my family and friends, and I've never seen
any of them again. I traveled alone by foot for
several weeks to the nearest city and got in touch with a
Federation welfare agency. I told my story and
declared my intentions, and the agency took care of me.
Not very long after that, I applied for admission to the
Academy and was accepted. And so here we are."
Geordi looked thoughtful. "You've given up a
lot to be here, haven't you?"
Hassan nodded. "I've given up everything I
was once. I miss my people. I miss my
family." Hassan gestured around the room. "But
I would miss this even more, Geordi, if I were
to lose it. I would never put my career at risk.
It is everything I am, now. I'd be nothing without
it."
"And you think you're putting your career at risk
by even talking to me?"
Hassan held up a hand. "No," he denied.
"Not at all. That is not the problem."
"Then what is it? If it's something
I've said or done . . ."
Hassan shook his head. "No, it is what I
must do," he said. "Geordi, I, too, hoped we
could have become friends and serve together again someday, perhaps
aboard a ship of the line. But the Academy review
board is certain to ask me, as your supervisor,
my opinion of your sighting of the late captain. I
will have to tell them that I believe you were asleep,
hallucinating, or suffering from some mental disorder,
because whatever you saw could not possibly exist. My
testimony will certainly help the review board
justify separating you from the Academy. I cannot do a
terrible thing like that to a friend, but I cannot lie to the
review board, either."
"I wouldn't want you to lie to the review board,
Hassan."
"I know that. You are a person of character and
integrity, Geordi. I truly wish things were
different."
"So do I. I don't bear you any ill will."
Geordi put out a hand, and after a moment Hassan
shook it.
Hassan turned back to his console. "Everything
seems fine here," he said, again not looking at
Geordi.
"I believe I can handle both our
responsibilities from here on out. If you
desire, you may spend the rest of the watch in your
quarters, catching up on your studying."
"Thank you," Geordi said. "I believe
I'll do that.
Uh, I guess I'll see you later."
"Yes," Hassan said, keeping his eyes on his
board.
"I will call you if I need you. Have a
productive afternoon." Hassan heard the door behind
him whoosh open and shut as Geordi left the room.
When Geordi was gone, Hassan leaned forward and
put his bead in his hands. He felt sad and
miserable.
Hassan liked and respected Geordi. He
did not want to be one of the people who would destroy his
career, but he knew that was what would happen as soon
as everyone got back to the Academy. He sighed
heavily, and tried to lose himself in work. The next
few hours blurred by as Hassan checked and
rechecked every one of Ben's internal systems,
tweaking the automatic controls as necessary.
Hassan was so busy that he almost
didn't catch the reflection in the glossy black
surface of the overhead engineering display.
But he did. Hassan whirled around in his seat and
stood up abruptly, knocking over his chair.
Captain Ikushima was standing there, right in front
of him, plain as day. The captain was unsmiling,
almost glowering. The only sound in he room was
Hassan's sudden heavy breathing. His eyes wide
in fear and shock, Hassan watched as Ikushima
slowly and silently raised an arm and pointed at
him. Hassan thought that Ikushima was trying to give
some sort of order, or to tell him something
important.
"What is it?" Hassan managed to say.
"What is it you want from me-Captain?"
Ikushima said nothing. As Geord) had
described the
8But
night before, Ikushima lowered his arm, stood
silent and unmoving for a moment, and then faded away.
Hassan fell back against the console, his knees
wobbly. He felt weak and shaky. He bent
to pick up his chair and sat down heavily.
What just happened? Hassan had grown up on the
legends of the desert, which frequently
featured the sudden appearances of ghosts and demons.
But all those stories are fiction. They were created
only to give a little scare to children ... weren't they?
Hassan began to perspire in the cool room.
What do I do now? Should I report this? If he
did, would he run the risk of being dismissed from the
Academy, too, as Geordi was almost certain
to be? What if they said Hassan had been
influenced by Geordi? What if they decided
Hassan was suffering from hallucinations, too? Should
Hassan risk his career, which was everything to him? Should
he just say nothing? It was certainly tempting to stay
quiet.
A moment later, Hassan cursed himself for even
considering doing anything like that. Geordi hadn't
hesitated for a moment. Geordi had acted
instantly, and in the best interests of the ship.
Hassan was ashamed of himself.
But he could still do the right thing, if he acted right
away. Hassan stood and tapped his communicator.
"Computer, intruder alert!" he snapped.
"Engineering!"
Again all the lights went red, and the alert signal
began blaring throughout the ship.
Geordi was at his study console, trying
to concentrate on the material before him. Warp
dynamics in
an ion storm ... He wasn't doing very well,
though.
He kept worrying about what would happen when he
was called before the Academy review board
to explain what had happened on Deck 2 the night
before.
Geordi had looked forward to going along on this
mission for so long, and now it was turning out to be one
of the worst things that had ever happened to him. He had
wanted to do the best he could, to be a credit to his
ship and his shipmates. Instead, he'd become an
embarrassment to them. He knew that all he could do
now was tell the board what had happened, to the best of
his knowledge and ability, and hope for the best. He knew he
had a good record, including his performance under
pressure when the Atlantis Station was damaged.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll only get an
official reprimand in my file. Or some sort of
probation ... However, he was expecting the worst.
When the lights in his quarters suddenly went red
and the alert began to blare, Geordi was startled.
After a second, he realized what it could mean,
and he grew excited.
Someone else must have seen Captain Ikushima!
"Intruder alert," Sanchez said over the
communicator link. "This is not a drill. All
hands to the bridge."
After a pause, he added, "Especially you, La
Forge."
CHAPTER
All five members of Benjamin Franklin's
crew quickly gathered on the bridge.
"You're sure of what you saw?" Sanchez was
asking Hassan, as Geordi entered. "You're
absolutely sure?"
"Yes, sir," Hassan replied forthrightly.
"It was exactly as Geordi had described. It
was Captain Ikushima. I recognized him from
Geordi's presentation yesterday. The captain
appeared right behind me, while I was sitting at the
main engineering console. I turned in my chair and
then stood up. The captain pointed at me, then
dropped his arm and, after a moment, disappeared into thin
air."
Sanchez nodded. "Did he say anything this
time?"
"Nothing, sir," said Hassan. "He didn't
make a sound." so
Sanchez turned to Geordi. "Does any of this
sound familiar to you, La Forge?"
"Yes, Captain," Geordi replied
excitedly. "From what Hassan is saying,
exactly the same thing happened to me last night."
"Why would the ghost do exactly the same thing
twice?" Siobhan wondered. "It seems
useless."
"Is it even remotely possible that this ship could
be haunted by the ghost of her first captain?" Hassan
asked. "There are many strange things in space. We
do not know everything there is to know."
"Look here," Sanchez said. "For one thing,
let's stop referring to whatever this is as a "ghost."
Whatever it is, it can't be a ghost.
Ghosts don't exist."
"Perhaps it is an alien life-form trying
to communicate with us," Hassan said.
Siobhan shook her head. "If that's so," she
said, "then the alien life-form is doing a terrible
job of communicating. It says and does nothing
except appear, point at somebody, and disappear.
Not real effective."
"As odd as this is," Sanchez insisted, "it has
to be a natural phenomenon. There's no such things
as ghosts." Trennek's face suddenly turned a
shade of pale blue. "Uh, if there's no such
things as ghosts, sir, then what do you call that?" She
pointed behind the four others, toward the engineering station.
They turned around.
Captain Ikushima was standing there.
Siobhan gasped.
"Quiet down, everyone," Sanchez said, much more
calmly than he felt.
He rushed to the science station
and quickly redirected all of Be is internal
sensors to that portion of the bridge where Ikushima was
standing. "If there's anything at all to be read from this
...
thing ... then the sensors will get it now," he
told the others. "And it's definitely not a ghost.
Guaranteed."
"Oh?" Siobhan said. "How come you're so
sure"?"
She and the others watched as Captain Ikushima
slowly raised his arm and pointed at them all.
" I'll tell you in a moment,"
Sanchez replied. "Ah.
It's not a life-form. I'm getting a very
slight, very natural, energy reading. Our 'ghost"
is actually a finely tuned transmission on a very
narrow bandwidth. It's originating from somewhere within the
Belt.
There.
I've got it plotted."
"This is a projection?" Siobhan asked.
"Then who's projecting it?"
was I'm sending the trajectory I've plotted
to your nayigation console.
As for who's responsible for this, I intend for us
to find out.
Geordi, Hassan, is our friend here doing
anything different from what he did before?"
"No, sir," Geordi replied. "He's
acting exactly the same way."
"It's so, Captain," Hassan added.
"All right," Sanchez said. They all watched as
Ikushima dropped his arm and, after a moment, faded
away again.
"That's all," Geordi said. "It's over ...
for now."
"I hope it's over for good," Trennek
added.
"It may be," Sanchez said. "McKenna,
put our chart of this section of the Belt on the main
screen.
Overlay the coordinates I just sent to your
console."
"Yes, sir." Slobhan worked quickly and,
soon, their newly minted map of the Belt sprang
up onto the screen. A slashing red line appeared
over it, and a bright yellow dot blinked on and off in
the upper-left corner of the screen. The blinking dot
was sitting on the red line.
"The trajectory you plotted is the red line and
it directly intersects an asteroid named
198763 Siva," Siobhan reported. "That's
the blinker.
Siva's a big mama, too-one of the very few in
this sector that was on Starfleet's charts before we
got here. It was catalogued during a pretty
sketchy NASA survey way back in the early
twenty-first century.
Now look at this."
Three bright green dots appeared along the red
line Sanchez had plotted. "Notice
those green dots, now," Siobhan continued. "Ben
has been crisscrossing this entire sector over and
over again for almost two days, charting asteroids. Each
green dot indicates the spot in space where Ben
was when Captain Ikushima appeared, and each dot
is sitting exactly on the red line."
"Interesting," Sanchez said as he returned to the
command chair. "I take this as confirmation that this ,ghost'
has been a message transmission of some sort.
We'll try to find out what's going on when we
arrive at Siva. McKenna, get us there.
Half-impulse."
"Aye, Captain. We'll arrive off Siva
in just under three minutes."
"Very good," Sanchez said. "Sann, you'll take
the science station.
El-Dallal, you can handle engineering from the
bridge," Sanchez continued. "I want everyone
to remain up here together."
"Of course, sir," Hassan acknowledged.
"Geordi, wil] you please J*oln me over
here?"
Geordi grinned. "Yes, sir!"
"Ah," Slobhan said. "We seem
to be one big, happy family again.
Good.
You know, there's nothing like seeing a ghost to reunite
you with your loved ones."
"It's not a ghosteaMcKenna," Sanchez
reminded her.
"We've had more than enough talk of ghosts aboard this
ship. What we're looking for is a signaling
device of some kind. The "ghost" is actually a
beacon, intended to attract our attention."
"If someone's trying to send us a signal,"
Geordi said, "then I guess we've finally
gotten the message."
"Okay, time to ask," Siobhan said.
"Captain, how come you were so sure before that the beacon
wasn't really a ghost? Logic can only take you
so far, you know."
Sanchez shrugged. "It took me far enough. We
all saw the beacon appear the third time.
Remember that Geordi and Hassan confirmed that it
had acted exactly the same way during its first
two appearances.
That might seem strange, unless you consider the
obviousthat the "ghost" was actually a recording of
some sort.
On a continuous loop."
"Why was it Captain Ikushima, though?"
Geordi asked. "Why Inot someone else?"
"Maybe the device that sent the beacon got the
image of Ikushima from your mind, Geordi. We
have records of alien computers that can scan certain
synapses and respond accordingly. Remember the
"shore leave" planet? You'd just worked very hard
to put together a presentation on the history of this ship.
You'd been concentrating on the story ol'
Captain Ikushima in particular. You were the first
person to see the beacon, and you saw it appear as
Ikushima.
Afterward, everyone was talking about it nonstop.
That's why everyone else saw the beacon as
Ikushima, too. That's exactly who they
expected to see."
"But why did we see a person at all'? Why
not hall us? Send a warning buoy?" Geordi
wondered. "All that did was confuse and upset us."
"It got our attention, didn't it?" Sanchez
said, shrugging. "The gimmick did its job."
"But there's something else, isn't there?"
Siobhan prompted. "You were so sure of
yourself, Captain."
Sanchez nodded. "I really don't believe in
ghosts, Siobhan-but, yes, there was another reason
I was so sure," he said. "The beacon appeared to the
rest of you as Captain Ikushima because that was the
strongest image in your minds at the time. But,
unlike the rest of you, I wasn't seeing
Ikushima." He paused. "I was seeing my father."
"Your father?" Hassan asked, puzzled.
"Oh, Bernie," Siobhan said a little sadly.
of course."
Sanchez addressed the others. "As Siobhan
already knows, my father was aboard the Enterprise-C
when she was lost at Narendra I'll ten years
ago," he told them quietly. "He's the reason
why I've chosen a career in Starfleet, and why I
was so happy to get this command. My father has been the
strongest image in my mind for the past two days, because
I've been thinking of him quite often during this mission."
"Of course, sir," Hassan said.
ince we were seeing different people," Sanchez
continued, "it became clear to me that, somehow. our
minds were being manipulated. That suggested we were being
affected either by a living alien force or some
kind of advanced technology. Since the beacon was
repeating its actions exactly, I knew it had
to be something like a recording that was being piped our
way." For a few moments there was silence on the
bridge, while each cadet turned the situation
over in his or her mind.
Which is worse? Geordi wondered. Seeing the
longdead captain of this ship, or the image of your
father?
Concerned as he'd been for his career, Geordi was
sure things had been worse for Sanchez.
"We've just arrived off Siva, Captain,"
Siobhan said. "I'll put It on screen."
The screen showed nothing but a big, gray,
floating rock against the stars. It looked very much like
all the other asteroids they'd seen over the past two
days, only bigger.
"Sensor readings, Sann?" Sanchez asked.
"I'm getting them, sir," Trennek replied from
the science station.
"This asteroid is nothing but rock.
There's no magnetic interference, so we'll have the
transporter available to us this time, if we need
it."
"Keep looking," Sanchez prompted.
"There might-was "I've found something else!"
Trennek interrupted the captain. "Metal
alloy, of a common type used by many different
races. It's strong and durable, and suitable for
shipbuilding. It does seem to be a ship, sir.
It's a very small one, but it's apparently
intact. It's
located just beneath the surface of Siva-probably
in a cave or similar structure, since I'm
showing rock surrounding it on two sides. I'm
showing minimal power readings, too."
"That sounds like our baby," Siobhan said.
"Any life-forms?" Sanchez asked.
"No, sir," said Trennek. "Nothing."
"Well?" Hassan said excitedly. "What are
we waiting for?"
Sanchez laughed. "What, indeed. Geordi and
Hassan, you're with me.
Siobhan, bring us right up next to Siva and
hold her steady. We won't be using the
transporter."
"We won't?" asked Geordi.
"No," said Sanchez. "There's no reason
to wait around for each of us to use the single
transporter pad we've got. We'll just drift
across a few meters from the suit-up room's
outside airlock and touch down on Siva's
surface with our own six feet. Okay, let's
go."
9But
CHAPTER
The outer airlock door to the suit-up room on
Deck 5 opened, and Sanchez, Geordi, and
Hassan slowly drifted across fifteen meters or
so of empty space toward the surface of Siva.
Siobhan was keeping Ben a fixed distance away from
the asteroid with the tractor beams the ship normally
used to tie up at facilities such as
Spacedock. It was the smart choice to make.
With her shipmates outside, Siobhan didn't
want to use the ship's thrusters to maintain station.
Someone might get hurt by the sudden ignition of one
of Ben's thruster units.
Using their thruster packs, Geordi and the two
other cadets oriented themselves so their feet were aimed
toward the surface of Siva. They touched down
gently, taking the slight "ar of their landings in their
99
knees and ankles. "Move very carefully,"
Sanchez warned over their communications link. "This
rock's much too small to have any real gravity.
You want to walk with a sort of shuffle. Try
to keep your weight balanced so you don't go flying
off into the great beyond.
Pretend you're walking on ice." He set off
in the direction of the signal, the others following in a
line.
"I don't seem to weigh anything at all,"
Hassan mused. "I feel as if I could jump
off this rock and not come back down."
"You just might manage it," Sanchez told him.
"The gravity of an asteroid this size is
extremely weak.
Humans have fallen right off rocks like these and been
lost forever."
Geordi looked at Siva's horizon, which was
only a few dozen meters away. There was nothing
to be seen but cracked, broken rock. The bright
sunlight threw black shadows, making it hard for
Geordi to see where to put his feet. Siva was as
desolate and lifeless a place as there could
possibly be. No one could expect there'd ever be
anything worth looking at in a place like
this.
But here they were.
Geordi looked up. Ben filled the sky. She
hovered only fifteen meters or so above his head.
He felt as if he could reach out and touch her.
Sanchez consulted his tricorder. "This way,"
he ordered, pointing.
"Siobhan, we're heading approximately
sixty meters on a bearing of one seventy-five
point three from grid north."
"Back home, we call that 'south," was
Siobhan replied.
"Watch your step, boys."
Carefully, Geordi and the others slid and picked
their way across the shattered surface of Siva.
Once in a while, when the light was adequate,
Geordi saw what looked like phaser burns marking
the fronts and sides of the surfaces around them.
"What are these, Captain?" he asked, pointing.
"It looks like someone's been shooting at each other
out here."
"Those are the impact trails of
micro-meteorites," Sanchez told him.
"Little rocks are hitting these big ones
all the time. The micros that made these marks are
probably similar to the one that took out Trennek's
air line yesterday."
"You're absolutely sure that wasn't the work of
Billy Devil?" Siobhan joked.
"Siva looks like it could serve as Billy
Devil's current headquarters," Geordi said.
"It's dry, airless, and downright unfrly."
"And here I thought I might actually be missing
something," said Trennek. The Andorian cadet was
stationed at the transporter controls, just in case
another situation arose where a cadet needed
emergency beam-up.
The three cadets finally reached the spot
indicated by Sanchez's tricorder. They were at the
edge of a big crater in the rock. "This open area
covers almost one hundred square kilometers,"
Sanchez reported, "but there's not a lot of flat
area. It has a lot of deeper canyons and
ridges across the bottom. We'll have to scramble a
bit as we go. Get your lights ready."
Threading his way between ridges, Geordi thumbed
his flashlight on and pointed it here and there. He saw
nothing but rock and more rock.
There was a sharp
10eaI
bend about five meters ahead. Geordi couldn't
see past that. "How much farther do we have to go,
Captain?" he asked.
"The tricorder says twenty meters, give or
take. I wonder what we'll find. The mass
I'm reading is pretty small for a ship."
"Perhaps it was built by a race of smaller beings,"
Hassan guessed.
"We'll soon find out," Sanchez said as they
rounded the bend. He pointed his flashlight forward, and
all of them saw a telltale glint of metal.
"There she is," Hassan said. "Even from here I
can tell that I have never seen anything like it before."
They hurried to the spot as quickly as the light
grayity permitted.
Geordi was the first to speak. "This isn't a ship,
Captain," he said.
"This is an escape pod. It's just a
lifeboat and nothing more. See?
It has chemically powered engines." He pointed
toward the stern of the little spacecraft. "You can't go very
far or very fast with those."
"Does anyone recognize this style of
construction?"
Hassan asked, walking around the part of the ship that
was not embedded in the rocky asteroid.
"Not me," Geordi said. "I've never seen
anything like this before."
Sanchez frowned. "The tricorder's not telling
me very much about these engines," he complained. "I
gather there's nothing to tell. Do you see anything about
them I should know, Geordi?"
Geordi' looked them over carefully. "All
I can see is that they seem to be intact, sir. I
believe this craft "I 02
simply ran out of fuel, and that its pilot was
forced to land here.
There's no visible damage and it appears-was
"Wow!" Sanchez exclaimed.
"This is incredible."
"What is it, Bernie?" Siobhan called.
"I've just tapped into the tricorder readings of the
age of the rock around this thing," Sanchez said. He
paused. "This craft has been sitting here,
undisturbed, for more than six hundred thousand
years, based on the surrounding formations. It's still in
perfect condition, too. It's been protected from
dust and microimpacts all this time because it was
embedded in this pocket of rock."
"Are there any remains aboard, Captain?"
Trennek asked. "I think we'd all like to know what
kind of people built this thing."
"There are no bodies in plain view, Sann."
Sanchez approached the little spacecraft and aimed
his flashlight through a nearly transparent dome and
onto a padded seat where the pilot would have sat. "This
craft appears to be a one-seater for a being about the
same size and shape as one of us, but there's no
body inside."
"Could whoever it was have wandered away and died
elsewhere?" Siobhan wondered.
"Perhaps. This is all rock here and no dust, so
there's no footprints showing for us to follow. If
he's still on Siva to find, though, then we'll find
him." Sanchez carefully aimed the tricorder here
and there for several long minutes. "There's no trace
anywhere on Siva of any sort of organic
material, except for us three," Sanchez finally
reported. "If anyone was ever aboard this craft,
he's not on Siva now."
'l 03
"Ship's sensors indicate the same,"
Trennek added.
"Perhaps he was rescued by his
counterparts," Geordi said.
"I don't think so," Sanchez replied, and there
was regret in his voice.
"If he'd been saved, he'd have turned off the
beacon, or his rescuers would have.
They'd probably have retrieved the escape
pod, too.
No, I think our friend accidentally fell off
Siva somehow and never managed to climb back on.
If he died outside of the cockpit, he could've just
drifted away."
"I wonder what happened?" Hassan said.
"Did this lifeboat come from a large starship, such as
we have 4 in Starfleet? Or was this person piloting
a merchant ship all by himself? What happened to that
bigger ship? And what was it doing here in this star system
that long ago, anyway?"
"We may never know the answers to any of those
questions," Sanchez said. "Believe me, I don't
have a clue about how to find out, either."
"I wonder if some of the old legends concerning
ghosts in the Belt were caused by this beacongenerating
device," Hassan said.
"Good question," said Sanchez. "If there was ever an
excuse for a legend to arise, we've seen
it here."
"I wonder why we're not being visited by the so
called ghost anymore," Geordi said. "After
all, we're standing right on top of the beacon
device."
"Perhaps that is why it isn't doing anything,"
Hassan guessed. "Maybe our transporter
beam or life-signs indicated a presence, and so
it has stopped transmitting. Are we going to try
to move the pod now, Cap 104
tain"? We could certainly tractor it out of this
rock easily in this very low gravity."
"Not on your life!" Sanchez told him.
"We're not going to try to get inside the pod, either.
No, we're handing this over to the experts just as soon
as we can. This is too important. For one thing,
I think Starfleet might like to find out how to build
a battery that can hold a charge for six hundred
thousand years.
Siobhan, does Siva have a beacon placed
on it-one of ours, I mean?"
"No, Captain, it doesn't."
"Fire one into it, then. Right over this spot. I
want this site marked for the follow-up survey
team."
"Right away, Bernie." A moment later, they
saw a flash and felt a slight thump through their
boots as one of their own beacons plowed into the rock
beside them.
"Nice shot," Sanchez said.
"Call me Deadeye."
"Hey," said Geordi suddenly, looking toward
the nearest wall of rock.
"What about all this writing over here, Captain?"
"Writing?" Sanchez asked, aiming his own
flashlight at the wall.
"What writing? I don't see anything."
"It's right there," Geordi insisted. He swept
his flashlight over the wall. "The writing looks like
it was etched into the rock with something like a phaser
focused to emit a very narrow beam," he continued.
"The style of the alphabet doesn't look at
all familiar to me, but whoever wrote this had a
bunch to say.
There's an awful lot here."
"I'm the last one to cast doubt on anything you
see 11 05 from now on, La Forge," Sanchez
said. His,-There must be some explanation, though.
Let me fool with the tricorder a little-ah. Here
we go." Sanchez studied the readout on the
device closely. "You're right, Geordi," he
said after a moment. "It looks like writing-very neat
writing-and there's a great deal of it.
It's visible only in a spectrum we can't
see-well, most of us, anyway.
Your VISOR picked it up without trouble, though.
I'm making a video record of it now."
"Whatever race built the pod must have had eyes
that were vastly different from ours," Geordi guessed.
"I think you must be right," Sanchez said. "We
may never know for sure, but this writing could be a
personal log kept by the occupant of the pod during
the time he was marooned here. Who knows? It might be
a last will and testament. Starfleet's translators
will take a good, solid whack at it, anyway.
Good job, Geordi. This evidence might have been
damaged somehow, either by us or the follow-up team, if
you hadn't been around to warn us."
"My word!" Hassan exclaimed. "Have we found
something really good here, or what?"
"This is much better than good, Hassan,"
Sanchez told him, grinning.
"Not only have we located this ancient
lifeboat, but Geordi's discovered the only
written record left by a previously
unknown race that visited the solar system more than
half a million years ago.
We've rewritten history without even breaking a
sweat. That's a pretty full day's work for a bunch
of wet-behind-the-ears asteroid counters, if you ask
me."
He paused. "You might even say it's
outstanding."
CHAPTER
It was Sunday afternoon, and all five of them had come
to the bridge for these last few minutes together.
"Approaching Spacedock," Slobhan
reported.
"We have our clearance to dock, Captain,"
Trennek reported from the communications station. She
smiled.
"Strange, but they didn't stall us off this time.
We're been placed at the head of the incoming line."
Her smile broadened. "Gee, I wonder why."
"Take us on ineaMcKenna," Sanchez said
quietly.
He glanced over his left shoulder at the engineering
station. "How are we doing, you two?"
"Everything is fine, Captain," Hassan
reported.
"We are go for docking. Geordi has just finished
running the end-of-mission diagnostics. All
systems nominal."
The Benjamin Franklin, the oldest ship ol"
them all, moved easily through Spacedock's
massive main gate and on inside.
"Captain?" Trennek said. "Incoming message
traffic . . ." she trailed off.
Sanchez swiveled around in his seat, looking
concerned. "What is it, Sann?"
Trennek was shaking her head. "I have, urn,
something on the order of two hundred messages from
other ships in Spacedock greeting us on our
arrival, sir. Uh, make that three hundred.
M."
"I guess Starfleet got your report,
Bernie," said Siobhan.
The captain remained quiet for a moment. Then he
said, "Send this to each individual ship, Sann:
"Thank you. Sanchez, commanding Benjamin
Franklin." End message."
"Aye, sir."
Ben moved farther into Spacedock, heading for her
assigned berth on the side opposite the main
gate.
"Whoa!" Siobhan said. "Look out there,
guys. Look what's happening."
They all looked. Geordi saw that at first one,
and then another, and then another and another and another
of the ships in Spacedock began flashing their running
lights in a pattern of tribute as Ben passed
by them. Soon they were all doing it, every one of the more than
three hundred ships present, from Starfleet's
finest top-of-the-line cruiser to the humblest
Spacedock drone. It was all for Ben, and for the five
of them, for a job well done.
dis"...My," said Hassan. "must adinit that tills
is most affecting."
"I'm recording this for my old age," said
Slobhan.
Her eyes were wet.
"Don't miss our bertheaMcKenna," Sanchez
said with quiet humor. "It'd be kind of
embarrassing, after all this fuss."
"Not a chance, Captain." Smoothly, Ben
spun ninety degrees on her middle
axis and coasted sideways toward the Spacedock
wall. Siobhan put the port view on screen.
They saw that Ben's berth was lighted and waiting to receive
her. They could see people watching them from behind the
pressure doors.
"Dead stop, Captain," Siobhan reported.
"Tractor beams on. We are docked and locked,
sir." She sat back in her chair and stretched.
"It's been quite a weekend," she said tiredly.
"Bernie, find yourself another starship driver next
time. I quit."
Sanchez laughed. "Come to think of it, so do
Iuntil the next mission comes along, anyway.
Come on, everyone. We've got a ship to shut
down, and then we've got to get back to the
Academy."
It took about half an hour to shut down Ben's
systems and put the ship in parking mode. After the
job was done, the five cadets gathered for a final
time in Ben's tiny transporter room, where it had
all begun just two days before. It was time now to say
goodbye. Each of them knew they'd be seeing the others
here and there around school for at least the rest of the term,
but it wouldn't be the same. This was the end of a very short
but very important time.
"I hope we get to do this again, everyone."
Hassan told them all as he stepped onto the
transporter platform with his bag. "I have learned
much during my time with you. Thank you, Captain,
Slobhan, Geordi, Trennek. May we meet
again, and often."
"Thank you, Hassan," Sanchez said.
"Energizing.
Hassan disappeared.
Trennek sighed. "I guess it is over," she
said.
"Me next," Siobhan said. She seemed a
little upset as she stepped onto the platform.
"Look, everyone, I really hate good-byes.
Let's just take them for granted, okay? Captain
Bernie, I'm glad you invited me along.
It's been a pleasure, and I wouldn't have missed
it for the world. Now please beam me off this bucket."
Sanchez smiled. "We're still having lunch on
Monday, though, right?
Energizing."
"As long as you're buying," Siobhan said, her
voice and smile fading as she beamed out.
"You're next, Trennek," Sanchez said.
"Step on up."
Trennek was lugging the big, overpacked bag
she'd brought aboard. "I never used more than a
handful of this stuff," she said as she set it down
next to her on the platform. "I'll know better
next time. Thank you for the ride, Captain."
"My pleasure," Sanchez said. "And it's just
'Bernie" now, by the way.
We're home again."
"Bernie, then." She smiled. "Geordi, I
just don't know what to say."
Geordi shrugged, and then he grinned. "Then
don't say anything. I'm glad we served together,
Trennek.
I "l 2
I'll see you around." And lln gltici to ktio
, I'll still be around!
"Count on it. Captain? I'm ready."
"Energizing."
When Trennek was gone, Sanchez turned
to Geordi.
"It's my turn to thank you, Geordi. You already
know for what. Before we left, though, I also wanted
to apologize."
"Apologize?" Geordi was puzzled. "For
what?"
"For doubting your initial report. I was wrong
to do so."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Captain . . .
ah, Bernie. It was an extremely unusual
situation, and you were in a bad position. I realized
that at the time."
"Regardless," Sanchez said, "you were sure of your
story, and you stuck by it, even when it seemed likely
you'd be cashiered for it. That's a rare kind of
confidence, but I think it's the best kind-when it's
justified, as yours was. I envy you that kind of
selfassurance, Geordi. Never lose it."
Geordi didn't know what to say.
"Now tell me something," Sanchez said. "Just between
us, now. Didn't you, even for just a moment, think the
ship was really being haunted by Captain Ikushima
when you first saw him?"
Geordi tried hard, but he couldn't hide a
broad smi 're. "You better believe I did!"
They both laughed heartily. "So did I, but
only after Hassan made his report," Sanchez
confessed. "T guess there's that tendency in all of
us to fall back on superstition, even when we know
better. We still tell kids
I I 3
ghost stories, and I guess a lot of" thilt
kind ol' thing stays with us even after we grow up.
It's comforting to think that someone like Captain Ikushima
might be watching over us, silly as that is. I
guess we'll always need our dreams." He looked
at the chrono on the console.
"Well, it's long past time to go, I guess,"
he finished. "I'll beam you out and follow you
directly.
Oh, I almost forgot."
"What?" Geordi asked.
"You didn't remember to take this with you."
Sanchez produced a small, white square of
plastic. It was the nameplate from the door
to Geordi's quarters.
"Your first commission, Geordi. Keep it as a
souvenir."
Geordi smiled as he accepted the plate.
"Thanks.
Thanks very much." He stepped up to the platform.
"Okay. I'm ready."
"See you again soon, Geordi. Energizing."
Sanchez was alone now. He set the
transporter for automatic beam-out, and entered a
countdown of ten seconds. He strode up
to the platform and, patting a bulkhead
affectionately, said softly, "Thanks, old
girl.
Thanks for the ride. Thanks for everything. Thanks
for taking care of us. Take care of yourself, now."
The transporter energized, and then there were none.
I I 4
EPILOGUE
Benjamin Franklin was empty now, silent and
dark throughout, waiting to be made ready for its next
complement of cadets.
If anyone had been in the transporter room with
eyes to see, they would have noticed that, right after
Bernie Sanchez beamed off the ship, a short
circuit suddenly hissed and spit its way to life
somewhere deep within the innards of the transporter room
console. The accident immediately took out the
automatic systems designed to shut off power to the
console in case of an emergency such as this. With the
safeties gone, the console was bound to suffer
significant damage, because no one was there
to activate the emergency manual shutoff.
However, if anyone had been there watching, they would
have seen the control knob for the emergency manual
shutoff begin to turn slowly, slowly, ever
so slowly, as if by itself. They would have seen the short
circuit sputter and die before it could do any real
damage.
And if anyone had been present, and they had
histened very, very carefully in the utter quiet and the
deepest dark, they might have heard the breathy
utterance of a single word: Outstanding!
I I 5
About the Authors
Brad Ferguson is the author of five
books, including the Star Trek novels Crisis
on Centaurus and The Last Stand. He has also
written and published half a dozen short
stories. In the past, Brad has been a
newspaper editor, a clerk in an intensive care
unit, a toy salesman, a typesetter, a
switchboard operator, and a magazine writer.
Most recently, he was a writer and editor at
CBS Radio News in New York, but he's
finally getting over that.
Kathi Ferguson makes her debut with The
Haunted Starship. She holds a Ph.d. in
forest soils from Iowa State University. Kathi
is a senior staff scientist at a company that
helps the U.s. government protect the
environment. She is also a masterful gardener who
specializes in daylilies, with a sideline in
daffodils and irises.
Brad and Kathi met at a Star Trek convention
in the summer of 1990 and got married the following
February. They live in Maryland, in a house where
the cats haven't quite taken over-yet.