STAR TREK - TOS - 06 - The Abode of Life

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The Abode of Life

LEE CORREY

POCKET BOOKS New York London

Toronto Sydney Tokyo

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

places and

incidents are either the product of the author's

imagination or are

used fictitiously. Any resemblance

to actual events or locales or

persons, living or dead, is entirely

coincidental.

An Original Publication of POCKET

BOOKS

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon and

Schuster Inc. 1230

Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY

STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of

Paramount Pictures.

This book is published by Pocket Books, a

division of Simon and

Schuster Inc., under exclusive license from

Paramount Pictures.

to reproduce this book or

portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information

address

Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the

Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-671-70596-2

First Pocket Books printing May 1982

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9

POCKET and colophon are registered

trademarks of Simon and Schuster

Inc.

Printed in the U.s.a. TO CAROLYN AND

LEW

"May I call to your attention,

Captain, that our present course takes

us disturbingly near the reported gravitational

turbulence reported

by Federation ships in this sector of the Orion

Arm?" As usual, Spock

was both punctilious and logically correct in his

assessment of the

situation. Captain James T. Kirk turned

in his command seat and

glanced at where his Vulcan First Officer was

looking at him from

the navigation station of the Bridge of the USS

Enterprise. Kirk

smiled. "I am, Mister Spock. May I

call to your attention the fact

that Star Fleet Command sent the Enterprise out here

to investigate

that reported gravitational turbulence?" He

looked thoughtful for a

moment, then added, "I was told it would be an

easy,

straightforward scientific exploration mission

to make up for the fact

that we've seen more than our share of Klingons

lately . . . ."

"I was present at the mission briefing,

Captain," Spock reminded him.

"Then why the note of caution?" Kirk wanted

to know. "Probably,"

said Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy as

he stepped onto the Bridge

from the turbolift, "because our Science Officer

needs to inject a bit

speculative hazard into a mission that's turned

out to be nothing but

a boring tour of largely uncharted space. As a

respite from continual

action, this RandR scientific exploration

mission's driving your crew

batty, Jim." "I'll second that," Sulu

remarked from the helm.

"We've held the same heading now for seven

watches . . . ."

Kirk smiled. His people needed the rest and relaxation

they termed

"boredom." It had been a rough tour out on the

edge of the Organian

Treaty Zone. Not even a month of shore leave

on Starbase 4 had

eliminated his own fatigue. And he was certain the

rest of the crew

was no better off than he. Kirk had actually

looked forward to

their current mission: cruising along the inner edge

of the Orion

Arm, taking data. They were far from Kfingons and

Romulans. His

crew needed the break that a purely scientific

measurement and

charting mission would involve. "Be that as it may,

steady as she

goes, Mister Sulu," Kirk gently told his

helmsman. "And don't get

too lax. I might become difficult and pull

an emergency phaser

drill to keep you on your toes." "The crew would

welcome it," McCoy

said. "Jim, I know we've had some difficult

missions recently, but

this crew thrives on such things. Give them a

long and uneventful

assignment such as this, and they'll go soft on you."

"That I

doubt," the Captain of the Enterprise

said. "Lieutenant Uhura, you

don't seem to be bored." Uhura removed the

receiver unit from her

ear and smiled at her commanding officer, a definite

breach of her

usual efficient Bridge behavior.

"Actually, Captain, handling

routine communications has been a welcome

change. My division needs

to regain its proficiency in handling standard,

normal procedures

again. And do you realize I haven't had to open a

hailing frequency

even once since we left Starbase Four?"

Kirk chuckled at that,

remembering the one time his

comm officer almost broke under stress and complained

about incessant

and repeated opening of hailing frequencies. "Quite

seriously,

Captain," Spock persisted, "we are

penetrating totally unexplored

space where we are not precisely certain of the

shape of space

caused by gravitational anomalies. The data

returned by the Scout Ship

Phoenix were quite incomplete because they did not

penetrate as closely to

the edge of the arm as our course has already taken

us."

Kirk sensed that something was bothering Spock.

"What seems to be the basis

for your concern, Spock? You didn't appear to be

disturbed during the

mission briefing at Starbase Four.

Explain."

"I had insufficient time to thoroughly study the

data during that briefing,

which was exactly as its name implied: brief. In

fact, too brief in

relationship to the possible hazards we might

face," Spock explained. He

turned to the library computer console and called up

an image of the

galactic sector in which the Enterprise was

currently operating. Kirk rose

from his seat and came over to Spock's side to get

a better view of what

his Science Officer was trying to explain.

He found that McCoy was at his

side as well.

Projected on the screen was the known galactic

region from Mark lOD to Mark

25D. The computer image of the Enterprise was

shown skirting the inner edge

of the Orion Arm about 10 kiloparsecs from

Starbase 4. Spock didn't bother

to use the electronic cursor to point to what he

was talking about; he

merely used one of his long Vulcan fingers. "As

we already know from our

extensive experience in crossing the void between the

Orion Arm and the

outer Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, there's usually

considerable gravitational

turbulence at the edges of galactic spiral

arms. This turbulence is

analogous to that which one would see when mixing a

granular material with

a liquid using a circular motion."

"Analogous, but not the same, because analogies

never bear a one-to-one relationship with the real

universe," Kirk pointed

out.

"True. However, the Federation has charted the

zones of maximum

gravitational turbulence in the rift void between

Starbases One, Ten, and

Eleven and the Outpost Colonies at the edge of the

Romulan Treaty Zone . .

. and traffic consisting of both Star Fleet and

commercial vessels

carefully avoids these zones. There's no

acceptable theory concerning the

gravitational turbulence on the edges of

galactic arms at this time.

However, I suspect that such turbulence is

caused by the fact that, unlike

stellar motions in the galactic arms themselves,

stellar motions at the

edge of the galactic arms are almost random in

nature. In turn, this would

produce interacting gravitational fields which,

essentially, distort the

fabric of space itself." Spock turned to his

Captain and added, "Of course,

this verbal description is extremely

imprecise because of the semantic

illogic of our language. I've not

yet been able to formulate a logical

mathematical model of this hypothesis, but I'd

be happy to show you the

mathematical model that I've managed

to derive thus far, imprecise as it

may be at this time ....

his

Kirk held up his hand. "Spare me, Spock.

When it comes to field tensors and

translational dynamic matrices, I struggled

through them at the Academy and

understand them. But when you can get your hypothesis

into such a shape

that you can explain it in the imprecise words of

language, it means you've

got your hooks into it."

"I beg your pardon?" Spock put in,

raising one eyebrow.

"I think what the Captain's trying to tell you,

Spock, is that words

sometimes convey a more meaningful explanation of the real

world than

mathematics," McCoy said with the usual

cynical tone in his voice that

arose when he confronted the logical

Vulcan on such matters. "A long time

ago, I learned that mathematics

will tell you only the logical consequences of your

initial assumptions . .

. and since assumptions are rarely logical, the

mathematical results that

come from illogical assumptions are garbage."

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摘要：

TheAbodeofLife by LEECORREY POCKETBOOKSNewYorkLondonTorontoSydneyTokyo Thisbookisaworkoffiction.Names,characters,placesand incidentsareeithertheproductoftheauthor'simaginationorare usedfictitiously.Anyresemblancetoactualeventsorlocalesor persons,livingordead,isentirelycoincidental. AnOri...

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