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  For Ira, Robert, Toni, and Jack:

  Thanks for making us believe in the “Little Green Men.”

  Historian’s Note

  This story begins approximately one week after the return of the U.S.S. Enterprise from its time travel mission to 1968 Earth and its encounter with Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln in the original Star Trek episode “Assignment: Earth.”

  AFTEREFFECTS

  ONE

  U.S.S. Enterprise

  Earth Year 2268 (ACE)

  “General quarters! Intruder alert, Deck 8!”

  James Kirk emerged from the turbolift to find Spock waiting for him. Standing behind the first officer was a four-person security team—three junior officers led by the Enterprise’s veteran chief of security, Lieutenant Commander Barry Giotto. Beyond the small group, two more security officers with phasers drawn stood outside the doors at the end of the short corridor.

  “They’re still in there?” Kirk asked, nodding toward the doors leading to the cargo bay on this deck.

  Spock nodded. “Affirmative. Two life-forms. Our internal sensors detected an attempt to access our communications systems.”

  “We’ve secured all access points, sir,” Giotto added, offering a formal nod that was fitting for his stern expression, which in turn seemed to complement his gray hair, itself a rarity among security officers. “Nobody’s getting in or out of there without our knowing about it.”

  “They managed to sneak in there, well enough,” Kirk said. “Any idea how they got aboard in the first place? Have they been here since we left Starbase 9?” The Enterprise had been on course for its next assignment since departing the starbase nearly a week earlier. There had been no stops or contacts with other vessels during that time, and—to the best of Kirk’s knowledge—the only incoming or outgoing communications were of the usual authorized and expected variety.

  Though his expression remained fixed, Spock’s eyes narrowed. “Lieutenant Uhura has already dispatched a message to Starbase 9 with a request to inquire into that possibility. A reply should be forthcoming.”

  “Then I guess we’re on our own for the time being.” Any discussion about a possible security breach, and whether the intruders hiding within the cargo bay were the only results of that infringement, would have to wait until their uninvited guests were in custody. “What do we know about them?” Kirk asked, gesturing toward the door.

  Spock held up his tricorder. “According to my scans, one of the life-forms appears to be female; a native of Certoss Ajahlan.”

  His brow furrowing, Kirk asked, “That name rings a bell. The Taurus Reach?”

  “Correct, sir,” replied the first officer. “According to our data banks, the U.S.S. Endeavour visited the system during their surveys of the region last year. Prior to that, contact was limited to unmanned probes and a first-contact team when Federation colonization and exploration efforts moved into the Taurus Reach. By all accounts, the Certoss people are peaceful, bordering on pacifistic, and their culture revolves around an ardent devotion to the arts.”

  “So how does a peaceful Certoss native turn up uninvited in one of our cargo bays?” the captain asked.

  Spock’s right eyebrow rose. “I am at a loss to answer that, just as I cannot explain why the other intruder is a Vulcan.”

  That caught Kirk by surprise. “You’re sure? Any chance it could be a Romulan?”

  “A thorough examination by Doctor McCoy should remove any doubts,” Spock said, “but my tricorder readings indicate Vulcan physiology.” As though anticipating Kirk’s next remark, he added, “The fact that both intruders represent pacifist civilizations is not lost on me, Captain.”

  “I never thought it was,” Kirk said, suppressing a smile before returning his full attention to the very serious matter at hand. “What about their trying to get into the comm system? Do we know who they might be trying to contact?”

  Shaking his head, Spock replied, “No, sir. I submit that such questions might best be answered by our guests.”

  “Agreed. Did you scan any weapons in there?”

  “Affirmative.” Spock looked at his tricorder again before adding, “It appears to be a rudimentary particle beam weapon.”

  Pointing to one of Giotto’s junior security officers, Kirk indicated for the young crewman to hand over his weapon. He took the Type II phaser and verified its power setting. “Phasers on stun, Mister Giotto. I’ll lead the way.”

  To his credit, the security chief maintained his professional bearing. “Captain, with all due respect, my team and I can secure the room first.”

  With a small grin, Kirk reached out and clapped the older man on his left shoulder. “You never stop trying to keep me out of trouble, do you, Barry?”

  “Mister Spock keeps telling me it’s a lost cause, sir,” Giotto replied, his expression never wavering.

  “Probably true,” Kirk said as he began moving toward the cargo bay. He nodded to the pair of security guards still standing watch near the door. Ensigns Nick Minecci and Pasqua Hawthorne both nodded at his approach. Eyeing both junior officers with what he hoped was a look of confidence, Kirk said, “Ready to say hello?”

  Minecci nodded, holding up his phaser. “Yes, sir.”

  “Right behind you, Captain,” Hawthorne added.

  To Kirk’s right, Spock stepped to the nearby comm panel and pressed its activation control. “Spock to bridge. Deactivate the security lock on Cargo Bay 1.”

  A moment later, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu’s voice replied, “Aye, aye, Mister Spock. Lock deactivated.”

  Kirk moved to stand to the left of the door, with Giotto mimicking him on the entrance’s opposite side. “Alternate entry,” he said to the security team. “If you detect a threat, don’t hesitate to fire.”

  The doors parted with their characteristic high-pitched pneumatic hiss, and Kirk got his first look at the chamber beyond. Containers of varying size and shape occupied the space along the far bulkhead, either stacked atop one another on the deck or else stored on shelving units rising three stories to the ceiling. A large expanse of floor right inside the entrance was empty. He scanned the shelves, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing appeared to be moving among the crates. Once past the doorway, he sidestepped to his left and saw Giotto mirroring his movements as the security chief stepped to his right. At the door, Spock activated his tricorder, and the device’s warbling tone echoed through the cavernous bay as the science officer conducted his scans.

  “Ten meters in front of us,” the Vulcan said, pointing toward the center of the room. “Both life-forms are stationary.”

  “Whoever you are,” Kirk called out, raising his voice, “there’s nowhere for you to go. I’m Captain James Kirk, in command of this vessel. If you surrender peacefully, I promise you will not be harmed.” When no answer came, Kirk frowned. “Okay,” he said, looking to Giotto, “let’s go.”

  Following Spock’s direction, Kirk moved toward the center of the room, his phaser leading the way. As he approached the set of stacked cargo containers separating him from their still-unidentified guests, he motioned for Giotto to make his way around the far side of the storage units. Even without Spock’s tricorder, Kirk now was able to sense the intruder’s presence. He heard breathing and the rustling o
f clothing. Muscles tensing in anticipation of a confrontation if not a full-blown firefight, Kirk stepped around the stacked containers and leveled his phaser at the figure standing in the open. It was the Vulcan, who appeared flushed and disheveled. At his feet lay what could only be the particle weapon detected by Spock’s tricorder.

  “That is my only weapon,” he said, standing in place and holding his hands away from his body. “I am not a threat. It is my counterpart who should concern you.”

  Before Kirk could ask what that meant, Spock called out, “Captain, the Certoss life sign has disappeared.”

  What?

  “Captain!” shouted a voice, Giotto’s, from the stack of crates to his right.

  The call was followed by the sounds of scuffling and fighting. Kirk began moving in that direction, catching sight of Ensigns Minecci and Hawthorne. “Watch him!” Kirk ordered before darting between a pair of cargo containers, following the sounds of struggle until he saw Giotto flung backward into one of the larger crates. The security chief grunted in pain as he struck the oversized, unyielding box, and it was only then that Kirk realized Giotto no longer held his phaser.

  “He’s got Giotto’s weapon!” Kirk warned the rest of his people as he lunged forward, stepping around another stack of containers and catching sight of the dark figure trying to hide among another freight consignment. Kirk’s eyes registered the phaser in the intruder’s hand even before the weapon’s emitter moved to aim at him.

  Kirk fired first.

  His phaser’s harsh blue-white beam sliced the air, catching the stowaway in his chest and sending him tumbling backward to the deck. “He’s down!” Kirk called, stepping toward the stunned intruder while keeping his phaser trained on him.

  You mean her.

  Though humanoid, the Certoss’s skin possessed a pigmentation that resembled copper. There was no hair on her head, and Kirk noted the three long fingers and what appeared to be two opposing thumbs on each hand. She was dressed from neck to toe in a dark gray skin-tight bodysuit. As Giotto moved into view, one hand rubbing the back of his neck as he retrieved his phaser from the Certoss, Kirk asked, “Are you all right?”

  “My pride hurts worse than anything else, sir,” replied the security chief. “I don’t know where she came from. One second I was alone, the next she was in my face.”

  “Spock said something about her life signs disappearing from his tricorder scan,” Kirk said. “Maybe she’s got some kind of personal cloak or shield.”

  Pointing to the odd device the Certoss intruder wore strapped to her chest, Giotto said, “Could be this thing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “We’ll have Spock and Scotty give it the once-over.” Hearing footsteps behind him, Kirk turned to see Spock with Minecci and Hawthorne, escorting the Vulcan intruder.

  “I regret trespassing aboard your vessel, Captain,” the Vulcan said, indicating the motionless Certoss. “It was unintentional, I assure you; a consequence of my pursuing this individual.”

  It took Kirk an extra moment to realize that the trespasser’s clothing was not typical Vulcan civilian attire. Instead, it consisted of black trousers and a matching jacket worn over a white shirt with a length of black ribbon hanging from his neck. Kirk recognized it as a business suit, of the sort he had seen less than a week ago.

  On Earth. Three hundred years ago?

  Kirk looked to Ensign Minecci, who had moved to cover the fallen Certoss. “Minecci, alert sickbay. Tell Doctor McCoy he may need to provide medical treatment for a female Certoss native.”

  “Aye, sir,” the ensign replied before stepping back from the Certoss and disappearing between the stacks of crates.

  For the first time, Kirk lowered his phaser as he regarded the Vulcan. “Who are you, and how’d you get aboard my ship? And while you’re at it, perhaps you’ll tell me why you’re wearing clothing that’s three centuries out of date and from my planet instead of yours.”

  “Three centuries,” the Vulcan repeated. “Interesting. It is your contention that you traveled through time to Earth, and that we are now in what would be my future?”

  Kirk nodded. “That’s right.” Then, it occurred to him that until this very moment, he had failed to consider one very obvious possibility. “Did you somehow get aboard while we were back in Earth’s past?” Of course, even as he spoke the words, he realized he was prompting more questions than answers. “What were you even doing on Earth, anyway?”

  “My name is Mestral,” the Vulcan replied, “and though I did not board your ship while you were visiting Earth, that is where I came from. As measured on your planet, I had been there for more than a decade.” He gestured to the unconscious Certoss. “My unlikely travel companion has been living there even longer, though her motives were quite different than mine. Whereas I was content to live in peace among your people, she and others of her kind were working to bring about your world’s destruction.” Then, as he was about to say something else, he paused, and Kirk saw the slight change in his expression as the Vulcan’s gaze shifted. Kirk turned to see Spock standing behind him.

  “Fascinating,” said the science officer before he stepped forward. “Were you acting against her?”

  Mestral’s eyes narrowed. “In a manner of speaking. I was . . . assisting in a clandestine effort to locate and neutralize the Certoss agents before they could put their plans into motion.”

  “You mean Gary Seven?” Kirk asked, his recent encounter with the mysterious, genetically advanced human operating on twentieth-century Earth still fresh in his mind.

  “I only recently became familiar with that name, Captain, though I have never interacted with that person. I suspect that any explanation I provide regarding my time on your planet will perhaps be difficult to accept.” Was it Kirk’s imagination, or did he detect the hint of a smile on the Vulcan’s face? “I imagine it also will take considerable time.”

  “Then I suggest we get started,” Kirk said, “because I for one can’t wait to hear what you have to say.”

  But I’m betting I’m not going to like it.

  TWO

  Holding the piece of unfamiliar technology so that he could examine it with his own eyes, Montgomery Scott saw nothing that his tricorder and other diagnostic instruments had not already told him.

  “It’s a transmitter of some kind, Mister Spock,” he said after a moment, setting the article down on the worktable in his office. “So far as I can tell, it’s not even capable of receiving any sort of signal; only sending one, and even then it couldn’t broadcast very far on its own.” He pointed to a small protrusion on the device’s face. “This is what passes for an antenna. Very small, but fairly powerful, and likely capable of linking with any larger communications network within its broadcast range, so long as the interface protocols can be worked out.”

  “The Certoss intruder was working to connect to a communications terminal in the Cargo Bay 1 operations office,” Spock said. “It was this tampering and the device’s own energy source that Lieutenant Uhura detected from the bridge.”

  “This thing would need a larger communications array to work, but even then, its capabilities look pretty limited.” Scott shrugged. “To me, it looks like it might be a distress beacon of some kind.”

  Spock, standing next to him at the table with his hands clasped behind his back, asked, “But most of its components are not of Certoss origin?”

  Scott frowned as he shook his head. “That’s what’s bugging me about this, sir. This thing has been cobbled together with parts from several different pieces of twentieth-century technology, plus a few bits that couldn’t have come from that time period, but neither are they exactly consistent with what we know of Certoss technology.” Shrugging, he added, “Of course, I’ve only had time for a quick review of the data we have on Certoss Ajahlan, but so far, what I’m finding here doesn’t line up.” The discrepancies had bothered him throughout his examination of the odd items taken from the Certoss intruder, who now resi
ded in the Enterprise brig.

  “I shall conduct a more thorough review of the relevant library computer entries,” Spock said, before gesturing to the other item on the table. “And what of this device?”

  “Definitely not a product of twentieth-century Earth technology, though it does contain some components that fit the time frame. From the looks of it, those parts were used to effect repairs of one sort or another.”

  During the Enterprise’s recent time travel mission to observe Earth’s people and events taking place three hundred years ago, Scott had taken advantage of the opportunity to conduct sensor scans in an attempt to learn more about the technology of the era. Of course, much of that research had been set aside when the Enterprise crew became entangled in the activities of Gary Seven. He was one of a small group of genetically enhanced humans placed on Earth throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by a still-unknown alien cooperative with a mission, as Seven had explained it, “to prevent Earth’s civilization from destroying itself before it can mature into a peaceful society.” Still, the ship’s computer had collected and stored the data, of which Scott so far had accomplished only a cursory review.

  “Interesting,” Spock said, inspecting the odd device for himself. Activating his tricorder, he waved it over the unidentified item. “Its internal power source and transmission array are not intended for any sort of long-range broadcast.”

  “From what I can tell,” Scott replied, crossing his arms, “it’s not meant to emit anything much farther than the body of the person wearing it. This has to be what that Certoss lass used to mask her life signs, but beats me how the bloody thing works. I tried to activate it, but it’s not having any of that. The same goes for the transmitter, if that’s what it is. I guess we’ll have to ask their owner about them.”

  Spock nodded. “Indeed.” A beep from his tricorder as he continued to scan the alien devices seemed to catch his attention, and Scott noted the barest change in the Vulcan’s expression as he consulted the unit. “My scan appears to have found something unusual with the transmitter.” He adjusted a control on the tricorder and repeated the scan. “It is emanating a multi-phasic power reading.”