STAR TREK - TNG - 58 - Gemworld Bk1

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For Dennis and Mel
Chapter One
MAMMOTH PRISMS AND SPINDLY SPIRESstretched across the pale blue sky, catching the sun
in a ripple of rainbow shimmers. Stairlike forms seemed to stretch forever, crossing and weaving in an
endless dance of structure and light. From a distance, the crystalline fingers and branches looked fragile,
like coral growing in a fish tank. But at close range, the giant prisms were as solid as marble columns, and
as smooth and dazzling as diamonds.
Dwarfed by the towering crystals were five young humanoids; they soared among the spires like birds
flying through a forest. Sails billowed from their arms and legs to catch the convection currents, but the
fliers mostly depended upon graceful acrobatics to propel themselves. Tandra, the team leader of the five
youths, glided to a thick green monolith, tagged up like a swimmer making a lap turn, then bounded off in
an altered direction.
Two young Elaysians followed her lead, bouncing off the same crystal and racing after her. The other
two members of the science team took different angles at the big monolith and soared off in parallel
trajectories. One of the boys rolled into a midair somersault, just having fun. This close to the core of the
planet, crystals grew in profusion, so there were plenty of smooth surfaces for pushing off.
Tandra frowned, deepening the crease around her V-shaped forehead ridges. Once they reached the
hollow core, she knew they would have to be more careful with their flight patterns. She glanced over her
shoulder to make sure the robotic hover-platform was following them. At a discreet distance, the
meter-long disc floated along, its small thrusters making minute course changes. Once they reached the
core, Tandra knew they might need the platform, for a push-off or a roost.
Laughing and chatting, the five students soared from one spidery, crystalline structure to another,
plunging deeper into the center of the unique planet. To the few visitors who came here, Gemworld
looked more like the intricate skeleton of a planet, or a giant snowflake made of prisms. For the
Elaysians, it was a crystalline aviary. For the other sentient races, Gemworld was what they made of it.
All of the inhabitants knew it was a special place, even if very few of them had ever seen a conventional
planet for comparison.
As Tandra flew through a stand of rainbow-hued prisms—old growth before the natural geometry had
been improved by fractal models—she gaped at the exquisite beauty. She thought angrily about the
outsiders who claimed that Gemworld wasn’t a real planet. They pointed to its forcefields and lack of
mass, thinking that such a place had to be artificial, despite its immense size. They simply didn’t
understand.
Although the crystals looked cold and foreboding, even with their uncanny beauty, they sheltered a
surprising variety of life. What could an outsider know about that? Outsiders couldn’t stay long enough to
really appreciate Gemworld because the low gravity was harmful to most gravity-dependent species.
Although humans’ muscles were a dozen times more developed, they could never soar between the
sparkling archways like Elaysians born and raised in this gossamer cage.
A clearing loomed on the far side of a thicket of crystals, and Tandra realized they were getting close to
the core of Gemworld. At one time, it had been a molten, metallic mass like a conventional planetary
core, but the Ancients had sacrificed it to fuel the crystal. Now the inhabitants were slowly rebuilding the
core with new crystal growth, which was the reason for the students’ outing today.
Despite the fact it was empty—or because of it—Tandra found the core of Gemworld an eerie place to
travel. Since it was hollow and equidistant from the massive crystal constructs surrounding it, the core
was the most weightless part of the planet. Only trace gravity was measurable here.
As they flew farther into the ancient heart of the planet and the old-growth crystal, the light became more
refracted and eerie, as if the ancient ocean were still there. Tandra felt the weight of ages, how many ages
nobody knew, except perhaps the Lipuls. And even they had gaps in their history. The sparkling hues of
the upper levels had given way to rust, olive, and sage colors, and the weathered facets were striated
from elements that hadn’t assaulted them for millions of years.
Tandra could well imagine the great oceans that pummeled these prisms eons ago, when even the Lipuls
and the Gendlii were single-celled animals. Gemworld had been young then. Now it was old. But it was
still a planet, thought Tandra, despite its low gravity.
Glancing around, she noted that her friends gave little regard to their solemn surroundings as they soared
and tumbled through a swooping archway. They were just a flock of young people on a field trip, thought
Tandra, and she shouldn’t judge them too harshly. Hovering so close to the birthplace of the planet
always gave her a sense of history—and a chill—but today it seemed more eerie than usual.
“We’ll hold up at the purple prism!” Tandra shouted to her comrades.
“Oh, we can make it across!” scoffed one of the boys, soaring past her.
“We’ll hold up!” she shouted back. “I’m the team leader.”
Tandra knew she couldn’t do much if the others disobeyed, but none of them wanted to get stuck out
here in the wilderness. They wanted to measure the new stand, see if the fractal modeling program was
working as expected, and get out of here. It was too lovely a day to be plodding through kilometer after
kilometer of empty air. Although the outing had been fun so far, it had also been long, and the young
Elaysians were impatient to return to their research base about four hundred prisms above them.
One by one, the students alighted softly on the ancient purple spire at the edge of the clearing. Tandra
gazed into the hollow marrow of the crystal and could see its pulsing gel center. It was a sight she always
found reassuring, because it meant that Lipuls probably lived within the marrow. Before the students lay a
wide expanse of nothingness, broken up by little islands of discarded equipment, dust, and debris, all of it
floating uselessly. In the distance, the edge of the crystal growth shimmered like a mirage.
“How much farther?” asked Lucio, the cutest of the boys, with his slight frame and rare dark hair.
“I’ll find out.” From her backpack, Tandra took a small handheld device and turned it on. She waited a
few seconds until the positioning device communicated with the shell that circled the planet and fixed their
current position. As the students hovered around her, Tandra punched in the coordinates of their
destination.
“About two hundred prisms.” Tandra took a bit of ground crystal from her pocket and tossed it into the
air to check the air currents. Now she knew what kind of arc to take to stay on course. “We can cover it
in an hour if we get good jumps. Everyone, take a drink, because there won’t be time to stop.”
Taking her advice, the young Elaysians pulled out sip tubes and sipped from water bladders built into
their backpacks. One by one, they used the hovercraft to crouch on the rough-hewn monolith then bound
off into the wide-open wilderness. Strung out like a line of migrant birds, the Elaysians soared gracefully
across the hollow core of Gemworld.
Tandra realized she would have to rely heavily on the positioning device, so she took it out of her
backpack and slipped the strap around her neck, letting it float behind her. A quick glance assured her
that the rest of the team and the hover-platform were following dutifully behind, then she double-checked
to make sure they were on course. Finally satisfied that they would reach their destination in due time, the
team leader spread her sails to catch the prevailing air currents.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that something was wrong. Clumps of old mining equipment, which
she used for landmarks, never materialized. Tandra checked the device hanging from her neck and
discovered that they were considerably off course. That was odd. Tandra had always been the best flier
in her class, as demonstrated by her promotion to team leader. Flying on course came naturally to her,
but not today. Not down here in the bowels of the planet.
The dimness was more disturbing than usual, as if something were cutting off what little sunshine filtered
down to the core. It was almost as dark as twilight, which was the closest they ever came to having a
night on Gemworld. The air smelled dry, chalky, hotter than usual. Tandra felt a nervous prickling on her
white skin, and her triangular forehead ridges deepened.
“Lucio!” she called. “We’re going to stop, and I want you to check the tricorder.”
“Why stop?” he responded. “We’re making great time!”
“We’re off course,” she answered. “I want to know why.”
A laugh came from Honroj, who was flying closely behind Lucio. “Could it be that our team leader is
fallible?”
“Could be” she answered. “I hope it’s that simple.”
Lenora, who looked enough like Tandra to be her sister, caught a gust in her sails and swooped over
Tandra’s head. “If we stop,” she complained, “we’ll never get up to this pace again.”
Several of the others shouted in agreement, but Tandra had her mind made up. And she wasn’t in a
mood to argue.
“Aid me,” she ordered the hover-platform. Thrusters kicked on, and the small disc-shaped drone
cruised to her side, letting her grab ahold of its low handles. She worked the control panel and stopped
the platform, also stopping herself. The other students cruised ahead for some distance, but they soon
unfurled backsails and began to float. Tandra noted how long it took for them to slow down, and she
also saw something in the distance, something that shouldn’t have been there.
She fumbled in her backpack for a pair of lenses, which she pulled over her eyes. At once, the empty
distances evaporated, and she could see the apparition ahead of them. It appeared to be a cluster of
crystals, where none should be, growing in unruly profusion. Even more disturbing was the color of the
new growth: dark and cancerous.
It has to be a mistake, thought Tandra,a trick of the dim light . Things looked funny down here,
where distance couldn’t be judged by the ubiquitous crystals. Gripping the hover-platform, the young
Elaysian put the conveyance into forward and cruised toward her friends. “Link up!” she shouted.
“We’re checking something out!”
“What?” came one response.
“Says who?” asked another.
She ignored the questions and kept cruising toward her friends, letting the platform do all the work. In a
maneuver which they had performed since infancy, the Elaysians drifted together and linked hands. They
were still grumbling about the unplanned stop when Tandra snagged Lenora’s hand and towed the others
behind her like a chain of paper dolls.
When she was certain the link was solid, Tandra increased speed until they were clipping along briskly.
She had no spare hand to hold lenses to her eyes, but she could see the cluster of dingy crystals looming
ahead of them.It must be huge . The others could see it, too, and they had stopped grousing. In fact, a
worried hush had fallen over the team because none of them had ever seen a stand of crystals that looked
anything like this one.
“What is it?” breathed Lenora.
“I don’t know,” admitted Tandra. Normally they would have released hands by now to fly individually,
but there was an urgency to their mission. In the face of this unknown threat, it felt safer to hold onto each
other.
As they drew closer, Tandra could see the nourishment strands hanging like spiderwebs around the
ragged cluster. The strands stretched into the vastness, connected to distant relays. But who would feed
this monstrosity?
“Is somebody growingthat ?” asked Lucio, voicing the thought on everyone’s mind. “Is it an
experiment?”
“It’s not in the logs,” answered Tandra. “Nor on any chart I’ve ever seen.”
“Who would claim it?” asked Honroj. No one could answer his question, and the students fell back into
an uneasy silence as they soared in unison through the deepening gloom.
With every passing moment, the mass of stunted, deformed crystals loomed larger and more
foreboding—like an icy meteorite with spikes. Tandra almost ordered the group to turn around and flee
from the anomaly; but they were training to be scientists, and scientists didn’t run from the unknown.
They would find a logical explanation for this aberration, she told herself. It had to be a failed experiment
or a terrible accident. The young Elaysian didn’t want to think about what it really looked like—a part of
Gemworld’s heart that was rotting from within.
Tandra cut the power on the hover-platform, and the students glided slowly into the shadows of the
jagged cluster. Seen up close, the crystals were even more alarming than seen from a distance; they were
twisted, broken, and streaked with imperfections. There were no fractal modeling programs at work
here, no careful stimulation and feeding of the crystal—there were only rampant, obscene growth. Tandra
shuddered, thinking that no power on Gemworld was capable of mutating the crystal to such a degree.
As soon as they stopped drifting, Lucio pulled a tricorder from his pack and began to take readings. A
look of horror flashed across his handsome face.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Thoron radiation,” he answered. “Enough to cause some damage. We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Not until we’ve taken a sample of it,” said Tandra with determination. From her pack, she removed a
small hammer and chisel. Even without being told about the radiation, she could sense danger permeating
the dark growth.
Pushing off from the platform, Tandra drifted toward one of the largest, most deformed prisms. It looked
like a blackened tree, burned in some monstrous fire. Tandra felt the odd sensation of gravity, and she
wondered if these mutant crystals were somehow more dense than the typical variety. Her friends hung
back. They obviously wanted to help, but were paralyzed with fear and indecision, and she couldn’t
really blame them. They needed a cutting for the professors, for the laboratory, Tandra doggedly told
herself.
Without giving it a thought, she uncurled her legs to land on a dark facet of the prism. The moment her
toes touched, she realized what a terrible mistake that had been—the murky crystal shattered at contact,
and Tandra was engulfed in jagged shards and sooty powder. It burned her skin like an acid bath, and
she coughed uncontrollably as she plunged into the crumbling morass. She couldn’t stop her momentum!
The deformed monolith broke in two, and the upper half closed on top of the young Elaysian like a
clamshell.
“Tandra!” shouted Lucio. He and the others started to fly to her aid, but a black cloud spewed outward,
forcing all of them back. They closed their eyes and shielded their faces, but even the diluted debris was
noxious.
For several seconds, Lucio fell victim to a wracking cough. When he recovered, he realized that he had
dropped his tricorder. Braving the venomous debris, be opened his eyes and spotted the device floating
only an arm’s length away. He quickly snagged the tricorder and checked to see if it was still working.
Lucio heard the others shouting at one another as they crowded around the hover-platform, but he tuned
them out. There was only one thing he wanted to see—the lifesign display on the tricorder. He aimed the
device toward the dark cluster and adjusted its field. Trying to ignore the disturbing data he was picking
up, he concentrated on the lifesign scan.Tandra has to be alive .She just has to be!
When the first pass was negative, he tried again. And again.
“Lucio!” shouted Honroj, waving to him from the platform. “Link up with us! We’ve got to rescue
Tandra!”
“No, we don’t,” answered the young Elaysian grimly. “She’s dead.”
“Shouldn’t we look . . . for her body?”
“No. The thoron radiation is at dangerous levels. If we don’t get out of here now, they’ll be looking for
all of our bodies.”
Clenching his jaw to fight back the tears, Honroj piloted the disc to Lucio’s side and grabbed his hand.
One by one, he picked up the other students until he had collected a dispirited chain, linked by hands.
With worried glances and stifled sobs, the young Elaysians pulled away from the dull, spiny mass of
malformed crystals growing at the heart of their world.
Chapter Two
ACHIME SOUNDED INSIDE Captain Picard’s ready room, and the distinguished commander of the
Enterprise looked up from his desk. “Come.”
The door slid open, and Commander William Riker stepped into the room. With his broad shoulders
and commanding presence, Will Riker seemed to fill up the small office. He approached the captain and
held out a padd. “Here’s the new personnel. We’ve picked up twenty new crewmembers in the last
forty-eight hours.”
“Good,” said Picard, taking the proffered device. It was a relief to be at peace after the Dominion War,
when the harried crew of theEnterprise had been shorthanded and burned-out . . . on a good day. Now
they were gaining crew, and even the most routine science mission seemed like a vacation.
The captain took a moment to politely glance at the data on the padd. They were nearly up to a full
complement again, although they still hadn’t assembled a community of families and civilians as they’d
had aboard theEnterprise-D . Starfleet was depleted and in a state of shock after almost six years of
war, starting with the Maquis and going through the Borg, Cardassians, and the Dominion. The altruism
and idealism were still there, but tempered by hard-earned cynicism. These days, fewer families
volunteered for active duty.
“Is there something wrong, Captain?” asked Riker, attuned as usual to his commander’s moods.
Picard mustered a smile. “No, Number One. It’s just that . . . I never thought I’d say this, but I miss
them sometimes.”
“Who?”
“The children. The families we used to have in the old days.” He pointed to the padd. “This seems to be
the usual mixture of career officers and new graduates.”
Riker shrugged good-naturedly. “We’re lucky to get them.”
“I know,” answered the captain. His voice took on a businesslike tone. “Any potential problems in this
group?”
“Most of the ensigns are inexperienced, but I’ll whip them into shape,” bragged Riker with his usual
bravado. Then the first officer frowned and pointed at the padd. “There is one officer with special needs:
Lieutenant Melora Pazlar. She’s Elaysian.”
“Elaysian?” asked the captain in surprise. “That’s rather unusual, isn’t it?”
“Well, she’s the only Elaysian in Starfleet,” answered Riker, “but she comes highly recommended. She’s
on temporary assignment, for the low-gravity study on Primus IV.”
“Mission specialist, shuttlecraft pilot, and stellar cartographer,” said Picard, reading her dossier.
“Decorated for valor after saving her ship and a hundred and ninety-two lives during the Dominion War.”
Riker smiled. “She’s a handy one to have around when the artificial gravity goes out. Then she’s in her
element.”
“But in normal gravity?”
“Normal gravity is another story,” said the first officer. “Her body just isn’t geared for it. She has a
special anti-gravity suit which works fairly well with theEnterprise ’s gravity systems. At least she can get
around. When she was on Deep Space Nine, she was confined to a wheelchair and special harnesses
because they couldn’t adapt the Cardassian design of the station to her needs. Even here, she’ll need a
cane and her suit to walk.”
“Surprising that she’s put up with this for so many years,” said Picard, scanning through Melora Pazlar’s
illustrious record. “Couldn’t Starfleet do anything to make her life easier?”
“Well, she was a candidate for an experimental treatment called neuromuscular adaptation. Dr. Bashir
on Deep Space Nine was all set to do the procedure, but she backed out at the last minute. I guess it
was irreversible, and she didn’t want to take such a big step.”
“But she’s remained in Starfleet for almost a decade,” said Picard with admiration, “despite being at an
extreme disadvantage. Do what you can to make her feel at home, Number One.”
“I will, sir. If she were here for an extended period, we could reconfigure our systems to turn off the
gravity in her quarters. But she’s going to be on Primus IV in a few days. For her, that will probably be
like a vacation.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” said the captain with a smile. The two old comrades knew instinctively when
their business was over, and Will Riker started for the door. He paused to look back.
“Next time, Captain, I’ll see if I can requisition some children for you.”
Picard smiled. “Not too young. Toddlers are untidy, and I like my ship neat.”
Riker chuckled and strode out of the ready room. After the door slid shut behind him, Captain Picard
tapped his chin thoughtfully. Melora Pazlar was one crewmember he really wanted to meet, and he knew
she wasn’t going to be under his command for very long. TheEnterprise was doing little on the Primus
mission except to offer transportation and logistical support.
“Computer,” he said, “give me the location and status of Lieutenant Melora Pazlar.”
After taking a moment to consider the question, an efficient female voice answered, “Lieutenant Melora
Pazlar is in her quarters, cabin one-four-dash-six-three-one. Ambient readings would indicate that she is
asleep.”
“Asleep” echoed Picard. “I’ll contact her later. No message.”
“Acknowledged,” said the computer.
The captain stood up, straightened his uniform top, and walked to the food replicator. “Tea, Earl Grey,
hot.”
He took his cup and saucer from the slot and returned to his desk. After taking a few thoughtful sips,
Picard swiveled his computer screen and punched up progress reports for all of their current missions,
plus recent Starfleet dispatches. After reading and sipping for a while, he decided that things were going
smoothly. Very smoothly indeed. There was not a single crisis or emergency either on the ship or
anywhere in the Federation.
It always made him nervous when that happened.
Melora Pazlar writhed uncomfortably in her bunk, her straight blond hair sticking to the V-shaped ridges
on her forehead. Her face and body felt clammy from contact with the pillow and mattress, and her joints
ached. Despite years of sleeping in gravity, she could never get used to it.How can people sleep when
they aren’t floating? It’s cooler, more comfortable, and more natural to float .
At one time, she would have demanded that her quarters be in a natural state, gravity-free. But she had
stopped doing that because it often created problems and resentment. Many ships and bases couldn’t
accommodate her, even if they wanted to. Of course, theEnterprise was a mighty starship—they could
probably turn off the artificial gravity in a single room—but she wouldn’t push for it.Go along to get
along was her motto.
Over the years, Melora had found plenty of ways to get away from gravity, such as piloting long-haul
shuttlecraft and volunteering for low-gravity assignments. She couldn’t wait to get to Primus IV, which
probably accounted for her restlessness. Melora had found that escaping into space was a lot easier than
fighting the system everywhere she went; mapping, exploration, and science experiments fed her hunger
for adventure. As long as the Elaysian was surrounded by the blackness of space—with its miniscule
gravity—she felt at home.
When she felt sorry for herself, she recalled how dependent most species were on gravity. She had seen
tadpoles from Earth that had been raised in weightless environments, with legs sprouting from their heads
and tails growing from their stomachs. Without gravity, their genetic code simply didn’t know where to
put things; it couldn’t get oriented. Other species needed gravity much more than she needed to be
without it.
After she realized that she had been awake for forty hours straight, exhaustion finally conquered
discomfort. Melora drifted into an uneasy sleep. As happened so often lately, she dreamt of home . . .
and flying. She could see herself soaring through the intricate archways and monoliths of Gemworld. The
shifting light was filtered through a million glistening prisms, and the wind caressed her body and whipped
her hair. She was home, and nothing was ever going to take her away again.
In her dream, she landed on an icy blue spire, one of the old-growth crystals in the former ocean. She
remembered this crystal from years ago, when her family had picnicked on this very spot. Melora
marveled that she had been able to find it again, but how could she forget it? Hovering over this spire, she
had seen a Lipul for the first time in her life.
Just as she had done thirty years ago, Melora pressed her face against the weathered blue facet. It felt
cool, solid, and aged. Light refracted through the crystal in a hundred different directions, giving the inner
gel an ethereal glow. In the marrow of the crystal, bubbles and glints of light danced to unheard music—a
miniature version of the sunlight dancing among the spires and monoliths above her.
Thenit came into view, just as it had all those years ago . . . an amorphous creature moving with pulsing
motions through the dense liquid. At an aquarium in San Francisco, Melora had seen a terran creature
which looked something like a Lipul. It had been called a jellyfish, and the name fit both of them. Shy and
retiring, Lipuls seldom revealed themselves to Elaysians, even though they were the two oldest sentient
species on Gemworld.
In her childhood encounter, the Lipul had kept moving in its jerky fashion, taking little notice of the child
floating above it. In this new encounter, the Lipul actually stopped and confronted her from the other side
of the crystal barrier. Although it had no eyes, the creature seemed to be gazing at her as intently as she
stared at it.
This was unheard of. Melora tried to calm her thumping heart. She was certain that the Lipul knew of
her presence—they were telepathic, after all—but what did it want? Was she supposed to do something,
other than gape like a child?
Gradually the Lipul began to darken in color. It changed from a rough imitation of the color of the crystal
into a much darker purple shade. Fascinated, the Elaysian pressed closer to see more. Before her
horrified eyes, the filmy creature turned a ghastly shade of brown, flecked with black and yellow spots. A
few seconds later, the Lipul was even more discolored, and the gel around it turned black, as if shot
through with ink. Trapped within the murky depths, the poor creature began to writhe in its death throes.
Melora had no idea how she knew it was dying, but sheknew ! She screamed and beat her fists on the
icy blue facet. It crumbled and began to turn black and brittle, and Pazlar froze in shock. Inside the
diseased marrow, the Lipul continued to thrash about in its death. Melora sobbed pitifully, because it
seemed as if the entire planet was dying. The elegant spire, which had shimmered like a rainbow only a
few seconds ago, was now disintegrating into shards and soot. The dead Lipul floated in the debris, all
dark and shriveled.
Melora recoiled from the grisly sight, an action which had the strange effect of causing her to sit up. The
sensation of gravity was her first inkling that she had been dreaming and was now awake. She certainly
wasn’t on Gemworld, not the way she was pinned to this bed. The Elaysian looked around at the dim,
unfamiliar surroundings and wondered where she was. Then she remembered that she had shipped out
on theEnterprise only that day. These were her new quarters.
Oddly, this knowledge was not reassuring. It was terrifying! Her dream had been so vivid and full of
disturbing images that she was certain itwasn’t a dream, even if it was. Melora rubbed her eyes, trying to
make sense of it all. Her dream had replayed an old memory, but she knew instinctively that it was more
than the mental gymnastics of her subconscious mind. The dream had been a cry for help from her
home-world, she was sure of it.
What made it so troubling was that Melora considered herself the most unlikely person to be called for
help. She was physically removed from Gemworld, light-years away in the service of the Federation. Her
desire to travel and see other worlds was a rare trait among her reticent people.
Perhaps, thought Melora,that’s the reason they contacted me . She was one of the few natives of
Gemworld who lived elsewhere, who was in daily contact with the Federation. When they contacted her
aboard theEnterprise , they were contacting the Federation itself.
With a start, Melora realized whothey were. The Lipuls had traveled the vast distances of space in order
to deliver a desperate message toher . She knew about the Lipuls’ dreamships, and the telepathic
explorations that had brought them into contact with the Federation and numerous other races; but she
had never experienced such contact firsthand. She was honored, humbled, and frightened by the
encounter.
If only I knew what it meant!thought Pazlar with frustration. There was little she could do but get back
to Gemworld as quickly as possible and hope she was in time.
The Elaysian rolled painfully out of bed and grabbed her gnarled wooden cane, which had been resting
against the nightstand. The rustic cane helped her feel rooted to the ground—or the deck—and steadied
her if her leg muscles weakened.In this world , she reminded herself,I’ m a tree, not a breeze .
Already weary from these minor exertions, Melora took a few deep breaths and prepared to don her
anti-grav suit. It didn’t make her movements that much easier, but the suit fooled her body into thinking
that she was in her native low gravity. The pains and aches were relieved, side effects eliminated, and she
had better muscle control.
Still she felt like one of those tadpoles with a leg growing out of her head.
Lieutenant Reginald Barclay strode briskly down the corridor on his way to the turbolift. The tall,
sandy-haired man wasn’t exactly late to his shift in engineering, but he would only be five minutes early if
he kept up his current pace. He straightened his cuffs and made sure his tunic was hanging properly on
his gangly frame. Then he brushed his hair back with his hand, wishing it wasn’t thinning quite so quickly.
Should he go with the captain’s look and cut it short? Or would that make him look too aggressive?
Reg was checking the shine on his shoes as he rounded a corner and plowed into a blond-haired
woman. He instinctively threw out his hands to catch her, and he was quite surprised when his hands
closed around a black environmental suit. A moment later, he was shocked when the woman’s cane
clattered to the deck.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” he stammered. “Are you all right?”
“Why don’t you look where you’re going?” grumbled the woman, shaking off his hands. He realized
with a start that she was rather attractive, and not human, although he couldn’t place her species.
She looked around for her cane, and he immediately bent down to retrieve it. This gave Barclay an
opportunity to study her suit in detail, from toe to top. It wasn’t an environmental suit, as he first thought,
because it was open at the neck and head. It looked more like an emergency, full-body medical cast. He
had seen some in sickbay. The only thing wrong with that theory was that the person within was vibrantly
alive and apparently healthy.
“Are you looking for something?” she asked as his face neared her chest.
“Uh, no! Not at all,” said Reg, straightening to his full height.
“Then may I have my cane?”
He remembered the wooden staff in his hand and gave it to her with a sheepish smile. “I’m . . . I’m really
sorry I bumped into you. I shouldn’t be in such a hurry. I’m Reginald Barclay.”
摘要：

ForDennisandMelChapterOneMAMMOTHPRISMSANDSPINDLYSPIRESstretchedacrossthepalebluesky,catchingthesuninarippleofrainbowshimmers.Stairlikeformsseemedtostretchforever,crossingandweavinginanendlessdanceofstructureandlight.Fromadistance,thecrystallinefingersandbrancheslookedfragile,likecoralgrowinginafisht...

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