STAR TREK - SCE - 07 - Invincible Book 1

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Star Trek S.C.E. 7

Invincible Book 1

by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido

approx. 15,000 words

David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido

c/o Spectrum Literary Agency

111 8th Av., Suite 1501

New York, NY 10011

212-691-7556

FAX 212-691-9644

First officer's log, Commander Sonya Gomez, U.S.S. da Vinci, Stardate 53270.2.

I'm leaving the da Vinci.

Luckily, it's only a temporary assignment, to the planet Sarindar. Captain Scott gave me the assignment

after we dropped the old Defiant off at Spacedock.

Sarindar's located in a fairly remote region-it'll take a week just to get out there from Earth-but it's in an

area of space controlled by the Nalori. That area is pretty much all that stands between the Federation

and exploration of Sector 969. I remember when I was on the Enterprise, Command had considered

having us map that out, but ultimately decided against it. The Nalori would not permit a Starfleet vessel

safe passage through their space, and going around would add several months to the journey.

I told Captain Scott that when we met in his office on Earth. He laughed. "Aye, lassie, the Nalori are a

right unpleasant bunch. There was a border clash with 'em a couple hundred years ago-that was before

even my time. We gave 'em a good punch to the nose, and they went back to their space with their tails

between their legs. They haven't been too keen on the Federation ever since."

"So what's changed?" I asked him.

"The usual. They need our help."

The captain called up a holographic projection of Sarindar. As he spoke, the image rotated, then went in

for a close view of a section of the surface. The entire planet appeared to be made of crystal. I can't wait

to see what it looks like in person.

"Sarindar's completely scan- and transporter-proof thanks to an element called chimerium."

That surprised me. "Really?"

"You know of it, then?"

I nodded. "It's a composite of magnesite and kelbonite. They've found minute traces here and there, but-"

"Well, Sarindar's loaded with it, and the Nalori are tryin' to make use of it."

"You'd need to refine it first, but how can they mine it? It's much too dense to move manually. I don't

know of any ship that could achieve escape velocity with a significant amount on board. You can't

transport it, you couldn't get a lock. I don't think even a dimensional shifter would work." I ran a bunch of

possibilities in my head, then remembered a paper I'd done at the Academy. "Wait a minute, if you can

put together a subspace accelerator to push it with a quick warp pulse-"

Captain Scott smiled that avuncular smile of his. "Congratulations, lassie-you've worked out in two

minutes what it took those bloody Nalori a couple centuries to figure out. In fact, they already designed

themselves a subspace accelerator. But they're fallin' behind schedule, and there's a lotta bugs in the

system. So they asked for Starfleet's help.

"Thing is, they still dinna like the Federation very much, and they like Starfleet even less. So they'll only let

us send one person-in order, if y'can believe it, to 'minimize cultural contamination.' As if contamination is

what they're worried out." He shook his head. "The good news is that the one person'll be in charge of

the whole kit and kaboodle."

"And I'm supposed to be the one person?"

"Aye." Scott nodded. "And ye'll be in charge. The last supervisor quit in disgust, so that's where there's a

vacancy, an' they figured they'd be better off with Starfleet's help at the very top. I've read that paper

y'wrote about subspace accelerators-that's why I recommended you specifically."

That threw me for a loop. I never thought that Montgomery Scott, of all people, would find some old

Academy paper of mine to be of the least interest. "Really, sir?"

Laughing, he said, "Aye, really. Thought it was brilliant, actually. Why d'ye think I recommended you to

David back when he was trolling for someone to head up his S.C.E. team after poor Commander Salek

died in the war?"

He not only read my Academy paper, it was what led him to recommend me to Captain Gold for the da

Vinci. Wonders upon wonders. "I-I didn't know that, sir."

"Well, now you do."

We went over the other details of the mission. In addition to the chimerium problem, Sarindar is also in a

star system that is home to a quasar/pulsar pair that interferes with communications and navigation. "Ye'll

only be able t'send messages from the surface once every fourteen hours or so. For that matter, ye'll only

be able to do any useful testing during those windows."

The biggest annoyance, though, was the revelation that the Nalori are a bit-well, backward about gender

roles. The engineering team consists of several civilians made up of numerous Nalori races, all male.

Women don't do this sort of work in Nalori society.

"Wonderful," I said. "So you're asking me to lead a team that hates Starfleet, hates the Federation, and

hates women?"

For the first time, Captain Scott sounded like a captain when he asked, "Is that a problem,

Commander?"

"No, sir," I said with full confidence. "I can handle it."

The avuncular smile came back, and he sounded like an engineer again. "That's what I like to hear. You'll

be headin' out with the da Vinci to Starbase 96, where you'll meet up with a civilian ship, the Culloden.

It'll take ye the rest of the way."

Then Captain Scott put his hand on my shoulder. "I can't emphasize how important this mission is, lassie.

The Nalori have been showin' us their backs for almost two centuries. This is the first time they've

extended a hand. We may finally get the chance to explore Sector 969, and this is our first chance to

study chimerium up close." The captain had that glint in his eye that Lt. Commander Duffy once

described as the "new toy to play with" look. And he was right-chimerium has uncounted tactical uses,

particularly against a technologically superior foe like the Borg or the Dominion.

"Don't worry, sir. I won't let you down."

"Of that, Commander, I have very little doubt. Now, be off with you. I've got an appointment."

We're now en route to Starbase 96. I've been studying everything there is to know about the Nalori in

general and Sarindar in particular-which, unfortunately, isn't much. The latest updates on the Sarindar

Project are two months old, and the information in the cultural database is sketchy at best. I'm going to

have a talk with our cultural specialist, Carol Abramowitz, before we reach the starbase to go over some

of this. One interesting thing-while the nation is called the Nalori Republic, the Nalori race is only one of

the five members of that republic. And it looks like the work crew has representatives from all five.

The design of the SA is generally sound, but they've overdesigned it to an appalling degree, and some

aspects of the engineering are, to be blunt, wrong and will need to be fixed posthaste.

It's going to be a challenge to get the project up to speed, but I'm looking forward to it.

Personal log, Commander Sonya Gomez, U.S.S. da Vinci, Stardate 53271.5.

I think I need to kill Kieran.

Before the mess with the Defiant and the Tholians, we hit the latest in a series of landmines regarding our

relationship.

If you can call it that.

What we had on the Enterprise was wonderful, while it lasted. When I transferred off, though, we

weren't really able to keep it up, and since we got thrown together on the da Vinci again, it's been one

awkward moment after another. When we're on duty, everything's fine, but the minute we see each other

in the mess hall it gets-well, messy.

But then he had command of the da Vinci against the Tholians when Captain Gold and I were on the

Defiant, and he did great. I'm happy for him, honestly-it's been a shot in the arm to his confidence, and

one he really needed, to be honest.

The thing is-he's getting more aggressive with me. Yesterday we went over the duty rosters for when I'd

be gone, and he sat closer to me than usual-his hand brushed against mine more than once, too. When

some minor crisis in engineering came up, he suggested finishing in his quarters later-which he's never

done before, not even when we were actually dating on the Enterprise. But then, it was easier to keep

business and a personal life separate on a Galaxy-class ship. The da Vinci is a much smaller-more

intimate-ship.

I think he wants to start up what we had on the Enterprise again, and I just don't know if I can handle

that. For one thing, I'm his CO. And look at what we do. What if I'd been trapped in that dimensional rift

or on Eerlik's moon? What if the da Vinci had been destroyed by the Tholians or the Pevvni or Friend or

the Androssi?

What if I had to order him to go to his death?

But the last couple of days, he's been sniffing around me like my brother's dog when he was in heat. And

I just can't give him an answer yet.

We'll be at Starbase 96 tomorrow, so at least I can get away from him-and he'll be in charge of the

S.C.E. team while I'm gone, so he can put that newfound confidence to good use.

Sooner or later, though, I'm going to have to deal with this.

Later. Definitely later.

Personal log, Commander Sonya Gomez, S.S. Culloden, Stardate 53273.9.

This may be the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.

We're just starting to descend into Sarindar's atmosphere on the Culloden. The ship is owned by Zilder,

a Bolian who was hired by the Nalori to ferry people to and from the surface, and perform various other

technical and administrative tasks for the project. When I asked him how a Bolian contrived to get a ship

named after a place on Earth, he just smiled and said, "Ho'nig will provide."

That's the really odd thing about Zilder. Ho'nig is the collective god of the Damiani, a humanoid

three-gendered Federation species. I didn't think that anyone off of Damiano worshipped their god. It

wouldn't bother me, except Zilder spent the first day of our trip trying to convince me to convert. After

over twenty hours of his missionary zeal, I'd convinced him that my religion was none of his business, and

he let up. If he hadn't, he'd be easy enough to avoid the Culloden is built to transport up to three hundred

people, so with just the two of us, it's pretty roomy.

But I was talking about Sarindar.

From space, the planet looks mostly white, almost like it's a big snowball flying through the night. As you

get into orbit, it starts to look more like a jewel-at the right time of day, from the right orbit, you can see

glints and reflections. According to what I've read, the plant and animal life is all silicon-based, and the

vast majority of it is crystalline.

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