Foundations Book One Read online

  “Sage advice, Duff. I’ll consi—”

  “Wait!” And just like that, the answer was there. It was so simple, sitting right in front of him the entire time while he had been so engrossed in searching for a complex solution that he had missed the easier approach. “That’s it! A cold shower!”

  Stevens was rattled. “Huh?”

  Duffy jumped from his seat and put a hand on each of Stevens’s shoulders, smiling as he regarded the shocked expression on his friend’s face. “You’re a brilliant man, Fabe! Brilliant!” Duffy freed a hand from Stevens and used it to tap his combadge. “Duffy to Gold. Captain, I think I have an idea.”

  “You want to give the Senuta a cold shower?”

  Gold looked no less incredulous at the idea than anyone else seated at the table in the da Vinci’s observation lounge. Duffy smiled as his eyes moved from Gold to Sonya Gomez, then to Stevens and finally to Abramowitz. “You know that’s not exactly what I mean, but in theory, yes.”

  Gomez nodded back toward Duffy and smiled. “Then please enlighten us.”

  “As I understand it, their ion engines work on principles very similar to those employed by other races in our experience. What happened, as far as I can tell, is that their ion engine reactions became hyperstimulated in an exchange with whatever charged particles passed through their ship during that storm forty-seven days ago.” Duffy paused to take a sip from a glass of quinine water. “Something happened to really heat things up over there. I propose we cool things off.”

  Gold smiled in approval. Though the captain himself was not an engineer, Duffy knew that his commanding officer had taken advantage of leading a crew of engineers and enabled him to acquire knowledge in a wide variety of engineering principles. “And your proposal?”

  Leaning forward in his seat, Duffy replied, “We use our deflector dish to fire a stream of ions of alternating charges. The goal is to slow the reactions within the engines without disrupting other systems on the ship. And, we do it in a gradual process so the folks inside don’t end up more liquid than solid.”

  “That’s a laudable goal,” Gold said. Turning to Gomez, he asked, “Does that sound reasonable to you, Gomez?”

  “Very, Captain.” To Duffy she smiled and said, “I knew you had it in you.”

  “Thank Captain Scott and Fabian over there,” Duffy replied, indicating his friend across the table with a nod of his head. “They’re the ones who helped me sort it all out.” The assembled group shared puzzled glances for a second time, but Duffy moved on. “What might make this operation less risky would be to evacuate the Senuta ship before slowing it down.”

  “Great plan,” Gold said. “So why don’t we?”

  Abramowitz shook her head. “They won’t hear of it. I’ve spoken to Daltren twice to suggest it but some of the Senuta refuse to leave the ship. Some of them claim to be too ill or just not completely trusting of us. Daltren said those willing to come aboard are respecting the beliefs of the rest of the crew and refuse to abandon them.” She paused as the others took in her words. “I’d like us to honor their wishes and their solidarity. It’s not just an issue with the people on the ship. We’re representatives of the Federation, and the Senuta are a race new to us. This may determine whether we make friends or enemies of an entire civilization.”

  Gold nodded. “Abramowitz is right on the mark. We know the dangers here and so do the Senuta. If they want to stay on their ship, then we won’t make an issue of it. What else, people?”

  “As soon as we get their ship stopped,” Gomez replied, “I’d like a team ready to beam aboard her. I’m going, and I’m taking Elizabeth, Soloman, and Bart with me.” Duffy shifted in his seat noisily enough to draw Gomez’s attention, making her smile. “Kieran, I’ll invite you to take a look at the Senuta’s systems as soon as we’re ready.”

  “Oh…okay,” he said, feigning disappointment. “Give me a couple more minutes to double-check my frequencies for the ion shower, and I’ll be ready.”

  Rising from his chair, Gold regarded his officers. “Then we’re through here. Fine work as always, people. Let’s get this done.”

  Duffy hurried his step so he could walk through the door to the bridge just behind Gomez. He tugged on her uniform sleeve with two fingers just hard enough to draw her attention, and then he motioned with a nod of his head for her to follow him to his workstation. As the two neared the engineering console, Duffy spoke first. “Quick question. After we get all of this settled, could we set up a dinner or something with Fabian?”

  “So I can watch him squirm through yet another retelling of the Tellarite story?” Gomez asked. “It’s really not that funny, you know.”

  Duffy laughed harder than he expected at the jab. “Nope. I just owe him some time, and some open-minded attention.” As she nodded assent he added, “And, um, let’s invite Corsi, too.”

  “What?” Gomez’s jaw dropped, and then she broke into a huge smile. “Am I actually hearing you acknowledge Domenica Corsi as a real human being?”

  He sighed and let slip one more laugh. “Sonnie, I’m happy. Aren’t you?”

  Gomez’s features softened. “Yeah. Yeah, I am, Kieran.”

  “Fabe is my best friend, and we talk about everything. Everything but Corsi,” Duffy said. “It’s time I lightened up, I think, and figured out what makes my friend happy.”

  “You big softie.” Gomez scuffed her fist against his arm. “I’ll work it out and make sure she’s there.”

  “Just don’t tell her I’m coming.”

  “Precisely.” Gomez smiled as she walked away, taking the opportunity to stroll about the bridge’s outer stations and review their status. Satisfied that everything and everyone was where they needed to be, she turned back to Gold, who had taken his place in the da Vinci’s command chair. “Captain, we can begin at your discretion.”

  Gold nodded. “This is an S.C.E. operation now, Gomez. Lead away.”

  Gomez turned to Abramowitz at the communications station. “Alert the Senuta that we’re ready to bring them out of warp. They need to be in their acceleration couches and expecting a bumpy ride.” As the cultural liaison tapped at her console, Gomez looked to Duffy’s station. “How close are you, Kieran?”

  Running a final check of his calculations, Duffy looked up at Gomez and gave her a short nod. “Ready when you are.”

  On the main viewer, the stars streaked past and the silver Senuta ship was growing in size as the da Vinci continued to close the distance. Duffy could feel his pulse beginning to quicken as the time approached to put his bold plan into motion. He was confident in the preparations he had made to this point, and he trusted the da Vinci’s computer to carry out the required actions with the necessary precision that no living being could possibly match. With a touch on his console, he expected their problems would be over and then he could get a look at those ion engines. So why was he feeling such a sense of dread?

  Because you’re paranoid, he scolded himself. But isn’t this the point where something usually goes wrong?

  Forcing the errant thoughts from his mind, Duffy returned his attention to the task at hand, his finger hovering over the panel as he awaited Gomez’s order. Finally, after what seemed like a century, the words came.

  “Mr. Duffy, engage the deflector beam.”

  To be continued

  in Star Trek: S.C.E. #18: Foundations Book 2

  About the Authors

  DAYTON WARD has been a fan of Star Trek since conception (his, not the show’s). After serving for eleven years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he discovered the private sector and the piles of cash to be made there as a software engineer. His start in professional writing came as a result of placing stories in each of the first three Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies. He is also the author of the Star Trek Original Series novel In the Name of Honor, as well has having cowritten the two-part Interphase for the Star Trek: S.C.E. series with Kevin Dilmore. Besides working on other Star Trek projects, Dayton is currentl
y writing The Last World War, an original science fiction novel scheduled for publication in 2003. Though he currently lives in Kansas City with his wife, Michi, he is a Florida native and still maintains a torrid long-distance romance with his beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Feel free to contact Dayton anytime via e-mail at [email protected].

  KEVIN DILMORE remains very thankful to the person who, at age nine, tipped him off to the fact that Star Trek was a live-action television show before it was a Saturday morning cartoon. A graduate of the University of Kansas, he works as news editor and “cops and courts” reporter for a twice-weekly newspaper in Paola, Kansas, where he lives with his daughter, Colleen. Kevin also covers “nonfiction” aspects of the Star Trek universe as a contributing writer for Star Trek Communicator magazine. He is looking forward to his future writing projects with Dayton Ward, which include additional tales in the Star Trek: S.C.E. line to be published in coming months. Kevin still harbors his adolescent desire to see his name shared with a doomed red-shirted ensign in an Original Series novel.

  Coming Next Month:

  Star Trek™: S.C.E. #18

  Foundations

  Book 2

  by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

  Continuing an all-new trilogy that tells the origin of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers!

  While the U.S.S. da Vinci has managed to stop a ship that was careening out of control, they still have work to be done: the vessel’s computer has broken down, and the ship cannot function without it. This echoes the early days of the S.C.E….

  Over a century before the days of the da Vinci, the Starship Enterprise™ encountered—and deactivated—a world-running computer called Landru on Beta III. In the aftermath of the incident, a team of engineers, led by Montgomery Scott, are tasked with getting Beta III back on its feet. But even in “death,” Landru’s influence can be felt….

  COMING IN JULY FROM POCKET BOOKS!