Star Trek - [Gateways 1] - [TOS] - One Small Step

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Star Trek TOS – Gateways
Book One of Seven – One Small Step
Prologue
commander losira disappeared.Her body compressed into a thick line before vanishing in a flash of light.
Captain James T. Kirk was touched by the expres-sion of profound sorrow on her face. Despite the
lack of life-form readings, he was certain this woman was not an android.
His last question had been"Are you lonely?" For certainly her attitude supported her claim that the oth-ers on
tiu's station were "no more." But she hadn't an-swered him.
"She must be somewhere!" Lt. Sulu exclaimed.
McCoy was busy with his tricorder. "She's not regis-tering."
"Then there's another power surge." Captain Kirk examined the readings on the tricorder Sulu had given
him. "Off the scale, like a door closing. It must be near here."
Kirk and his landing party had been stranded for one day on this strange planetoid, and they were being
forced to defend their lives. Losira was capable of killing with a single touch, yet she appeared to loathe
doing it.
Though Kirk had appealed to Losira, questioning her desire to kill when she knew it was wrong, she had
continued to try to touch him. The fact that she was beautiful, with a haunting pain in her eyes, made it
even worse.
The lovely killer had already murdered Senior Geo-logist D'Amato, a member of the landing party.
D'Amato had been a gifted scientist and a fine officer. Kirk felt his loss as only a commander could.
Kirk was also concerned about Ensign Wyatt, who had been manning the transporter as the landing
party beamed down to the planetoid. Losira had somehow bypassed security on theEnterprise and had
appeared in the transporter room just as the landing party dema-terialized. There was no telling what she
had done to Wyatt or the rest of his crew. Losira had significantly damaged Mr. Sulu's shoulder with only
a glancing brush of her fingertips.
Everything would be different if only theEnter-prise —his ship!—had not disappeared. There was
nothing: no radiation, no wreckage near the rogue plan-etoid. His ship was simply gone.
Kirk refused to believe that theEnterprise had been destroyed during that first enormous power surge
that had shaken the planetoid. He would not fear the worst.
The key to their survival was Losira. What kind of alien was she? At the very least, someone to be
treated „ with extreme caution.
That didn't stop Kirk from tracking the source of the magnetic sweep they had detected. The
high-pitched
whine of the tricorder was the only sound as he fol-lowed the residual energy readings, circling several
large rock outcroppings to trace the path of the energy waves.
He didn't have to order Dr. McCoy and Lieutenant Sulu to follow. Sulu was still suffering from the
wound Losira had inflicted on him, but except for a slight breathlessness, he was doing a good job of
hiding the pain from his superior officers.
As they followed the search pattern, McCoy asked, "Is the power level still holding, Jim?"
"Right off the scale." Kirk glanced up as he stepped around a clump of yellow and blue grass sprinkled
with tiny red flowers. "It's remained at a peak ever since Losira disappeared."
Kirk kept walking, noting that the proximity locator was approaching O degrees. Yet this area looked
no dif-ferent from the rest of the rock-strewn land they had al-ready passed. Many of the outcroppings
appeared to have been deliberately tortured into looming shapes. In the distance, cutting off the horizon,
were spiky, black hills.
The landing party had recently discovered that the topsoil was only a thin layer, covering a red-colored
shell of diburnium-osmium alloy. Kirk thought the manufactured planetoid was singularly ugly, except for
the sparkling minerals in the greenish-gray rocks that cast off silver, gold, and blue flickers whenever he
moved.
The sky was a permanent, threatening purplish-pink, completely unlike its appearance from space. The
view from onboard his ship had been of a typical class-M at-mosphere, with a white cloud-filled sky
over blue
water. They still had not determined what created the surface light, since the planetoid was not in orbit
around any sun. They had found no trace of water on the surface.
The lack of a sun made the spindly blue and yellow blades of grass all the more perplexing. Most of the
vegetation seemed dry. Kirk was not surprised that the plants were poisonous to humans, even the bright
red flowers, which were the most compelling foliage he had seen here.
Concentrating on the tricorder, Kirk approached the massive gray butte that towered above them. It
looked like solid rock, nothing unusual about it.
"The entrance is ..." Kirk turned nearly in a circle until the indicator was on zero. "Here!"
The entire rock slab shifted, making Kirk look up. A thick ledge slid aside, belying its bulk, and revealed
a red door in the rock behind. This door slid up to reveal a narrow passageway, lit by a faint, green glow.
Kirk half-expected Losira to appear in the doorway, but nothing happened. They stood in silence for a
mo-ment, peering inside.
"You think we're being invited in?" McCoy drawled.
"It certainly looks like it," Kirk agreed. "And the in-vitation doesn't exactly relax me."
Sulu finally spoke up. "I'd rather be on theEnter-prise, sir."
"I agree."
"We've been led here," McCoy said. "Why?"
"I don't know. But whatever civilization exists on this planet is in there." Kirk pointed toward the open
door-way. "And without theEnterprise, gentlemen, the only source of food and water is also in there.
Let's go."
Taking the lead, Kirk went through the doorway. The narrow rough-walled passageway slanted steeply
down-ward, then curved in a U-shape, taking them back in the direction they had come, descending
even lower.
Finally they stepped into a large, ovoid chamber. The walls were smoothed to a polished shine,
supported by discrete alloy beams every few meters. The lights tinted everything as pink as the sky
outside, including the ceiling, which had been left rough-hewn bluish rock.
A large white cube had been set into the center of the ceiling, directly above their heads. The cube
pulsed in a mesmerizing flow of colors. It reflected an iridescent light against the walls of the chamber and
across the faces of Dr. McCoy and Mr. Sulu.
Kirk took one step forward, aiming the tricorder at the cube. His first thought was that the cube housed
the computer that operated this place.
Suddenly, a black, vertical line appeared underneath the cube. The line expanded sideways to reveal
Losira. Her glossy, dark hair was rolled away from her face and gathered in the back to fall down to her
shoulders. Her eyes and dark brows slanted upward at the outer corners, highlighted by green and pink
streaks on her eyelids. Her uniform was unusual—a purple two-piece, edged with silver braid. The cap
sleeves and collar were attached to a narrow bodice. The pants had a square flap covering her bare
stomach, suspended by nothing that Kirk could see.
Losira's anguished expression did not match her de-termined step forward. One hand raised.
"Who have you come for?" Kirk demanded.
This time, she didn't reply. Perhaps she had learned better from their last encounter, when the landing
party
had successfully kept her from touching him. Now her eyes shifted to look at each of them as her steps
quick-ened. She spread both hands wide, preparing to touch any one of them.
TheEnterprise officers backed away slightly.
"Form a circle," Kirk ordered.
Losira halted, momentarily confused as the three men surrounded her. Slowly they circled her, staying
just out of reach, taunting her to see which one she would choose.
Kirk knew they had her now. "You see, you'd better tell us." He shifted to her right as McCoy took his
place. 'Tell us ... who have you come for?"
McCoy was too close, and though Losira could have touched him, she didn't. Instead, she seemed to
always keep an eye on Kirk.
"You're a very determined woman. For me?"
"I am for James T. Kirk," she agreed sadly.
"Gentlemen!" Kirk called out. 'TII need your help."
McCoy and Sulu leaped together in front of the cap-tain, blocking Losira.
"Please ... I must touch you. I beg it," she pleaded, one hand held out toward him despite the intervening
men. "It is my existence."
"We have seen the results of your touch." Kirk held his place behind McCoy and Sulu.
"But you are my match, James Kirk." Her insistence was almost painful. "Imust touch you. Then I will
live as one, even to the structure of your cells and the arrangement of chromosomes. I need you."
"That is how you kill," Kirk insisted. She stepped forward, as if to push her way through McCoy and
Sulu. "You will never reach me."
Even as he spoke, a second woman appeared. She was identical to Losira. She silently moved toward
them.
"Watch out!" Kirk exclaimed.
The second Losira said, "I am for McCoy." Her pose was identical to the first Losira.
Kirk moved to block the doctor from her. "That com-puter! It must be programming these replicas."
"The women match our chromosome patterns after they touch us," McCoy agreed.
Sulu quickly added, "It's a very painful affair, I can tell you!"
Suddenly, a third Losira appeared. They looked iden-tical, from their clothing to their exquisite,
tormented faces.
"I am for Sulu," the third Losira replica announced.
"Shift positions!" Kirk ordered.
They moved quickly, so they each faced a Losira replica that wasn't meant for them. Kirk glanced from
his men to the replicas, instantly rejecting impossible defenses. They were defenseless in this echoing
cham-ber, empty except for the computer cube overhead.
"Captain, we can no longer protect each other!" Sulu cried out.
Silently, the three identical replicas approached, their hands outstretched and their faces resolute. They
moved in, closer and closer, as the threeEnterprise men drew together.
Behind the replicas, the air began to shimmer. Kirk Celt the familiar distortion of a transporter beam at
close range.
Mr. Spock and anEnterprise security guard material-ized behind the Losira replicas. They were both
armed with phasers.
Spock and the security guard looked first at the threatening women, but Kirk yelled, "Spock! That
cubed computer—destroy it!"
The blue beam from the security guard's phaser hit the pulsing cube, causing vivid red sparks. Kirk
finally noticed a subliminal sound when it began to falter as the iridescent colors slowed and began to
move slug-gishly. The cube dimmed and actually seemed to grow smaller as the light ceased to blaze
through the cham-ber.
The three replicas disappeared.
McCoy gasped in relief, supporting Mr. Sulu, who staggered slightly.
Kirk turned to Spock, his first thought for theEnter-prise. His ship must be safe, or Spock wouldn't be
here.
"Mr. Spock!" Kirk shook his head, almost laughing in relief at such a close call. "I certainly am glad to
see you. I thought you and theEnterprise had been de-stroyed."
His Vulcan first officer appeared exactly the same as when Kirk had left him in charge of the bridge
yester-day. "I had the same misgivings about you, Captain. We returned and picked up your life-form
readings only a moment ago."
Kirk asked, "Returned from where?"
Spock stepped closer to the computer cube, looking up at it in admiration. Kirk wasn't surprised, joining
him underneath to be sure it wasn't still a threat. The colors were hardly moving anymore, barely showing
life. Otherwise, the exterior shell appeared unharmed.
"From where this brain had the power to send theEnterprise ... nine-hundred-and-ninety point seven
light-years across the galaxy. What a remarkable cul-ture this is."
"Was,Mr. Spock. Its defenses were run by com-puter."
Spock nodded. "I surmised that, Captain. Its moves were immensely logical." Spock glanced around the
polished chamber. "But what people created this? Are there any representatives here?"
"Therewere replicas of one of them." Kirk thought of Losira and her distress over her need to kill them.
"But the power to re-create them has been destroyed."
"Thatis a loss, Captain," Spock said flatly.
"Well, you wouldn't have thought so, Mr. Spock, if you had been among us."
A low humming distracted the captain. Turning, he saw a distortion on the blank wall of the chamber
be-hind them.
Losira's image gradually formed. It was different from the replicas, reflected flat on the wall, and showed
her only from the knees up. Her lips opened briefly in a slight smile.
"My fellow Kalandans, welcome. A disease has de-stroyed us. Beware of it. After your long journey,
I'm sorry to give you only a recorded welcome. But we who have guarded the station for you will be
dead by the time you take possession of this planet."
Her voice faltered for a moment, then resumed.
"/am the last of our advance force left alive. Too late, our physicians discovered the cause of this
sick-ness that killed us. In creating this planet, we have ac-cidentally created a deadly organism. I have
awaited the regular supply ship from our home star with med-ical assistance, but ... /doubt now they will
arrive in
time. I shall set the station's controls on automatic. The computer will selectively defend against all
life-forms except our own. My fellow Kalandans—/,Losira, wish you well."
Her image remained on the wall, but her eyes closed as if to indicate that she was through fighting to
keep them open.
McCoy looked glum. "The previous ships probably spread the disease right through their people. The
sup-ply ship she was waiting for never came. All these thousands of years, she's been waiting to greet
people who were ... dead."
Spock's eyes returned to the still computer cube. 'To do the job of defense, the computer projected a
replica of the only image available—Losira's."
Kirk's eyes remained on the impassive image of Losira, who continued to stand with her eyes closed.
"The computer was too perfect. It projected so much of Losira's personality into the replica that it felt
regret— guilt—at killing. That bought us the time we needed to destroy it." He paused, looking at Losira.
"She must have been a remarkable woman."
"And beautiful!" McCoy exclaimed.
Spock briefly shook his head. "Beauty is transitory, Doctor. However she was, evidently, highly
intelligent."
The image of Losira on the wall disappeared, leaving them alone in the echoing chamber. No Kalandans
would ever walk here again. Kirk felt strangely let down.
The captain flipped open his communicator. "Kirk toEnterprise. Five of us to beam up." He waited for
con-firmation. "I don't agree with you, Mr. Spock."
"Indeed, Captain?"
Kirk remembered Losira's voice, melodic and sooth-ing. And her lovely face, flinching in horror at the
idea of killing him. It was heartrending to think of Losira waiting in vain for the return of her people, and
salva-tion.
There was too much to say. All he could manage was, "Beauty ... survives."
Spock stared at him for a moment. There was a small, sad smile on Kirk's lips. He knew he could never
explain it to his first officer.
Chapter One
dr.McCoyjoined the captain and Spock to prepare for transport. The transporter wasn't one of his
favorite pieces of technology, but this time he was almost eager to be split into a billion bits. Anything to
get off this blighted dustball and back to civilization.
He had been forced to sleep in the dirt last night, but at least he had been on top of it rather than under a
tomb of rocks, like Senior Geologist D'Amato. Their rescue had been close—none of the landing party
had had a sip of water for nearly twenty-four hours. He, for one, was ready for a hot meal and a long
sonic shower.
Sulu also took his position in the proscribed circle for transport. He was holding his arm again, in pain
from the injured shoulder. Dehydration had aggravated the wound.
McCoy tensed, anticipating the familiar tug of the transporter.
The chamber seemed to sparkle and fade. But it was
only for a moment. Then they were back again, inside the Kalandan station.
"The joys of modern technology!" McCoy ex-claimed. "How can anyone trust these things?"
Kirk flipped his communicator open."Enterprise, what happened?"
"Sir!"The voice of the transporter operator wa-vered."The automatic sequence was interrupted by a
biofilter alert. There is an unknown organism in your systems."
McCoy unslung his medical tricorder, "It must be the organism that the Kalandans accidentally created."
Spock also began to scan the chamber. Security Guard Joe Reinhart, a big, stocky man, looked
dis-tinctly uncomfortable.
Pulling out the tiny medical scanner, McCoy checked Reinhart. "Go ahead and breathe. It's already
infected all of us."
"Fascinating," Spock murmured. "There are several unusual parasites on this planetoid."
"The one inside us doesn't appear to be a true virus, but it's certainly not bacterial." McCoy shook his
head over his medical scanner. "This thing can't seem to pin-point the exact nature of the organism."
Kirk nodded shortly. "That must be why the trans-porter biofilter didn't work."
"I'll have to perform a level one bio-scan," McCoy agreed. "That will give the computer the
specifications it needs."
Sulu was looking bleak. "That could take hours."
Kirk glanced around the chamber, placing his fists on his hips. "Gentlemen, it looks like we'll be here for
a while longer. Might as well make ourselves comfortable."
McCoy grumbled, "Sure,you get comfortable while I get to work."
"Aren't doctors always on call?" The captain ad-justed the dial on his communicator. "Kirk to
Enter-prise. No one, I repeat, no one is to transport down to the station until further orders."
Scotty sounded determined."Aye, sir. I wish Wyatt was here. He was a genius with biofiltration systems.
I'll just run down —"
"Hold on there, Scotty. What happened to Wyatt?" Kirk glanced at Spock, who was nodding slowly.
"I'm sorry, Captain, Transporter Chief Wyatt was killed at his station."
Kirk clenched his jaw while McCoy felt his stomach twist. None of them had wanted to believe the
trans-porter chief was dead. Wyatt had been seeing one of McCoy's nurses for the past year. Medical
Technician Michaels must be distraught right now.
Security Guard Reinhart was looking uncomfortable. "We never found the intruder who killed Wyatt or
Engi-neer Watkins."
"Watkins, too?" Kirk demanded. Now he looked angry. "How?"
Scotty must have thought the question was directed at him."According to Dr. M'Benga's autopsy,
Captain, every cell in their bodies was disrupted. We don' know how it happened, but I heard Watkins
call out a warn-ing about a woman in engineering."
"Could it have been Losira?" Sulu asked, startled.
"I don't doubt it," Kirk said flatly.
That made three crew members dead. McCoy sin-cerely hoped they would be the last, but he had a
feel-ing it wouldn't be that easy.
Scotty was saying, "/ran to help, Captain, but I dinna get there in time."
"It's not your fault, Scotty. None of us could stop her."
"Aye, Captain."Scotty sounded unconvinced.
"Maintain an open channel to sickbay so Dr. McCoy can perform a level one bio-scan."
"That we can do, Captain."
"And Scotty, perform a continuous scan of this sector for approaching ships. Since this is unexplored
terri-tory, there's no telling who might happen by."
"Aye,"Scotty agreed dourly."We'll keep an eye out up here. Don' you worry about that."
McCoy half-listened while Spock continued briefing Kirk on what had happened while the landing party
was stranded. The captain only interrupted once to ex-press shock at the extreme warp speed the
Enterprise had managed to sustain. What would normally take months to travel at warp 9, had taken little
more than a day at warp 14. It was typical of Spock to act like it was all in a normal day's work.
Meanwhile, McCoy started sending orders to Dr. M'Benga in sickbay. Not only did he order a portable
bio-computer and diagnostic unit, but he also asked the technicians to send down half-a-dozen
emergency ra-tion kits, complete with food and water. It wasn't as good as a sonic shower, but with a
little bit of nourish-ment inside him, he could tackle this organism and get them back to the ship before the
next duty-shift.
Near the Starfleet border, the cruiser'Ong of the Klingon Defense Force made its scheduled rounds.
Captain Mox had been spending most of his time in his own narrow quarters. Only Mox knew why, but
his
crew would find out soon enough. Any time now, one of his officers would receive tidings from Qo'noS
con-taining the latest news of his father, Sowron.
As a devoted follower of the Cult of Kahless, Mox believed in honor above all. Kahless had shown the
way, decreeing that a warrior's honor was founded on the honor of his father's house. And Mox's father
had no honor!
Mox slammed his fist into the reinforced wall above his sleep bench. There was a sour stench in the air
from his unwashed, unkempt body. For days he had battered the walls of his chamber, to no avail. He
kept the lights low, so the heavy bulkheads curved into the darkness over his head. He wanted no
witness to his struggle, not even himself.
His crew would never understand. He was the only one on board who adhered to Kahless' teachings.
Some of his crew complained about his strict adherence to honor. Their scorn would flow freely when
they found out about his father. Many would doubtless be amused that Sowron had squandered the
family fortune on at-tempted "cures" after he had fallen sick with a wasting illness. Then Sowron had
fallen down dead in the City Council Chamber in front of gathered officials from across the Klingon
Empire, struck down by a tiny para-site that had slowly eaten away his gut.
Mox let out a roar of fury every time he thought of it. He would not return for his father's funeral. His
father was nothing to him now.
He could find no resolution, as much as he tore at his armor and hair, growling in frustration. If only he
could go to battle! Onlythat would restore honor to his family.
No—if only his father had listened to the words of
Kahless! A true Klingon would have ended his life in glory, choosing a valiant enemy to battle his way to
death. But no, not his father. From a mighty house, they had fallen far.
Mox was in the foulest of tempers when his first offi-cer signaled. Gulda's surly face was the same as
usual, her frizzy brown hair standing on end."Captain! Long-range sensors are picking up the remnants of
a power surge. From the degradation of the signal, it appears that, at the source, the energy expended
would have been off the scale."
Mox called up the log on his screen without bother-ing to settle his bulk into the chair. "It comes from
near Federation territory."
"Yes, Captain. Shall I relay the information to High Command?"There was an odd look in Gulda's eyes,
no doubt taking in her captain's disheveled armor and his bleeding fists.
Mox made his decision. "Set course for the source of that power surge."
"But, Captain—" his first officer protested, her sneer becoming more pronounced.
"TammoH!"Mox shouted.
So Gulda knew. That meant they all knew.
She was sullen as Mox ordered, "Proceed at warp 8."
"By your command, Captain!"She did him the courtesy of waiting until Mox closed the channel first.
Mox knew his first officer would do as he said, but her slow response would show her disdain. His crew
would mock his dishonor as surely as they had chafed under his rules.
All of his warriors would react like Gulda. But none would dare break rank and contact Klingon High
Com-
mand about their course alteration. They were heading toward the furthest reaches of space, where the
Neutral Zone had not yet been designated. It was one vast, un-explored zone, so, technically, Mox was
not violating orders.
Before his dishonor, he would have been satisfied to report the unusual power surge to High Command.
His duty rotation would have taken him out of the area be-fore his superiors could determine whether
they wanted the phenomenon investigated.
Now, it was in his hands. Mox intended to wrest some glory from this mission if it took every drop of
blood in his body and that of his crew to do it. He would give his crew a chance to die a good and noble
death. Whether they appreciated it or not
While McCoy analyzed the bio-readings of the deadly organism, Spock took the opportunity to
exam-ine the computer cube. At his request, theEnterprise sent down a lift unit to raise him up to the
crumpled rock ceiling of the chamber.
Getting the outer casing off proved to be a challenge, but one that Spock met with dispatch. The cube
was at-tached to the ceiling with electrostatic bolts. With the muted colors still cycling over the surface,
Spock laid the cube on one of the telescoping supports of the lift.
Inside the cube were hundreds of thousands of monofilaments connecting to various devices, which
Spock proceeded to scan. The other ends of the monofilaments disappeared into a stasis-sealed junction
摘要：

StarTrekTOS–GatewaysBookOneofSeven–OneSmallStep   Prologuecommanderlosiradisappeared.Herbodycompressedintoathicklinebeforevanishinginaflashoflight.CaptainJamesT.Kirkwastouchedbytheexpres­sionofprofoundsorrowonherface.Despitethelackoflife-formreadings,hewascertainthiswomanwasnotanandroid.Hislastquest...

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