Star Trek: The Original Series: The Rings of Time

Seventeen

2270

“It’s dead, Mr. Spock. As the proverbial doornail.”

Montgomery Scott stepped away from the inert probe, which had been beamed directly to a force-shielded laboratory pod. In an emergency, the entire pod could be jettisoned into space to avoid harm to the rest of the ship. Antigrav lifts suspended the massive probe above the floor. A battery of specialized scanners, far more powerful and sophisticated than a standard tricorder, were aimed at the relic. Data from the scanners scrolled across a wall screen at the opposite end of the pod. Spock studied the data, which appeared to confirm Mr. Scott’s colorful diagnosis.

“I have to agree with Mr. Scott,” Qat Zaldana added. She faced the screen alongside the two men. “We’ve been studying the probe for hours now, and all indications are that it’s completely inoperative. Its internal components are nothing but slag. Its memory banks are fused.” She looked away from the screen to the blackened wreck itself. “Honestly, from the looks of things, it’s a miracle that the probe made it to this system at all. It’s been through a lot.”

“Aye,” Mr. Scott agreed. “There are radiation burns, microfractures in the hull, fused circuits, even traces of extreme phase changes on the quantum level.” He whistled at the extent of the damage. “This thing was built to last, you can tell that even now, but it’s taken a heap of punishment over who knows how long. We’re talking a couple of level-twelve ion storms at the very least, disruptor fire, solar flares, maybe even a brush with a black star or two.”

“I see.”

Spock did not find the engineer’s report encouraging. He had hoped that the combined efforts of Mr. Scott and Qat Zaldana would yield some insights into the probe’s mission and origins, as well as some clue to its connection to the current crisis.

“Did you learn anything of use?” he inquired.

“Not really,” Qat Zaldana confessed. “To be honest, even if its internal workings were still intact, I’m not sure I’d be able to make head or tail of it. I’m no engineer like Mr. Scott here, but even I can tell that we’re dealing with technology that’s way beyond anything the Federation or its peers have come up with yet.” A rueful chuckle escaped her veil. “I feel like a medieval astrologer trying to make sense of a crashed Romulan bird-of-prey that was burned to a crisp on its way down.”

Spock sympathized with the challenge. He was tempted to examine the probe himself but doubted that he would find anything that Qat Zaldana or Mr. Scott had missed. Perhaps later, he mused, when the time comes to investigate the captain’s fate. At the moment, however, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

“We can take the bloody thing apart piece by piece,” Mr. Scott volunteered, “but I canna guarantee it will do any good. Not in time to help those poor souls on Skagway, at any rate.”

Spock nodded. “Very well. It appears that the probe will not provide an answer to our present dilemma. Let us put it aside for future study while we prepare the Enterprise to take on as many evacuees as possible. Mr. Scott, please see to it that all available cargo areas and recreational facilities are converted to temporary living quarters and that the ship’s life-support capabilities are operating at peak efficiency. We have a long way to go and a good many refugees to accommodate.”

The nearest starbase was more than three weeks away. Spock mentally calculated how many extra passengers the ship could support for that period of time, depending on various controllable factors. The numbers were not encouraging.

“What about the others?” Qat Zaldana asked. “The ones you can’t evacuate?”

“The Enterprise will remain to protect the colony for as long as it endures,” he promised her. “You, of course, are welcome to remain aboard until we reach a safer harbor.”

“Thank you,” she said somberly, “but I’ll have to think about that. It’s a hard decision, like being a passenger on the Titanic or the Solar Queen. Do you take a spot in the lifeboats or not? And if you do, how do you live with yourself afterward?”

“That is an emotional question. I cannot help you answer it,” Spock said. “I can only say that it would be a great loss if your intellect and scientific expertise were not preserved.”

“That’s nice of you to say, Mr. Spock, but… let me think about it. I’ll give you my answer when the time comes.”

Spock respected her wishes. There was still time, although not as much as he would have preferred. They now had twenty hours before Skagway entered the inner rings; he hoped to have all of the evacuees aboard by then. He wondered briefly what he would do in her place. Would it be logical to sacrifice himself to save another?

Possibly, depending on the circumstances. He had faced that choice before, as when he and Kirk and McCoy had been subjected to the Vians’ experiments in the Minervan system or when he had piloted a shuttle into the nucleus of a destructive space amoeba, but those had been matters of duty to the ship and his fellow officers. The needs of the many had outweighed the needs of the one. That did not necessarily apply in the case of Qat Zaldana and her fellow colonists.

He could only hope that she would choose to save herself.