"Dante's Inferno"

[Mr. Atoz]

DANTE'S INFERNO >>

Captain's log, Stardate 52399.9: The Odysseus is on course for the Upsilon Reticuli star system, also known as Dante, bringing cargo and passengers to the Federation trititanium extraction station located on the second planet.

The arena was a rectangular space, approximately eight meters by ten, delineated by a perimeter of slender steel pillars with a low level force beam in between them. The two combatants, dressed alike in loose white trousers and tunics, stood with their feet planted, eying one another warily. Without warning, Caeli lunged forward and brought his left arm up in a swift thrust at his opponent's face. Rosh, both taller and older, blocked the blow with ease, as well as the four that came rapidly behind it. Caeli followed the onslaught with a kick, and that caught the Eminian off guard.

Rosh dropped backward with the first blow, turned with the second, and managed to catch Caeli's ankle on the third. The younger man leaped, using Rosh's own hand to propel himself upwards, twisting as he came back down and landing in a mantis stance. Rosh advanced, raining down blow after blow, each of which Caeli blocked, giving ground reluctantly as the stronger man gradually forced him back towards the ring of force beams. Suddenly sweeping his leg around, he forced Rosh to jump back or be tripped. Pressing his advantage, Caeli completed the spin and charged, found himself caught in a shoulder throw, and the next thing he knew, he was slamming hard into the mat.

"Next time..." he panted, gasping for breath, "we use swords..."

"Am I fool enough to give you that much of an advantage, Roman?" replied Rosh, smiling good-naturedly as he reached down to help his opponent up. "Besides, this is more realistic. Studies have shown that if forced into hand to hand combat, nine out of ten times it is either unarmed or with improvised weapons."

Caeli sat down on a bench and reached for his towel. "And the tenth time your opponent has a phaser, so you're screwed anyway."

Rosh shrugged as he picked up his own towel. "The situation where the enemy is honorable enough to challenge you to a rapier duel rarely happens in real life."

"Yeah, too bad," said Caeli, thoughtfully mopping his face as his eyes wandered to the two ridges across the other man's skull. "And I appreciate you not using your natural advantages."

"My horns are largely vestigial, lieutenant," the Eminian replied, as the two of them moved towards the exit. "Although my cranial structure is thicker than yours, head-butting you would not be that great an advantage."

"My uncle always said I had a hard--"

Just then, the strident blast of a warning siren briefly sounded. The arena suddenly disappeared, replaced by matte gray walls as the holodeck automatically saved the program and deactivated. The broad doorway hatch appeared and slid back into the wall with a deep hiss, revealing the starship corridor.

A calm voice in midair said, "All decks, collision alert! Collision Alert! Hold on to something!" As Rosh and Caeli braced themselves, the deck beneath their feet seemed to abruptly slide sideways about thirty feet, slamming both of them into the corridor bulkhead. The impact, whatever it was, lasted for no more than thirty seconds. When it was over, the two officers scrambled to their feet, running for the nearest turbolift.

[Mr. Atoz]

Captain Atoz was sitting in the bridge command chair, holding himself steady by the armrests as the starship stopped quivering and came back under control. On the main view screen, a bright, wavy line continued streaking away across the blackness of space. "What was it?"

Lieutenant Commander Diane Weir didn't look up from the Sciences station. "It's a magnaclastic loop, sir," she said, staring intently into the sensor display. "Approximately ten thousand kilometers long, force five on the cosmic ray scale. Now moving away from us at approximately point five c." She turned to face the Captain. "It's a fragment of the star's chromosphere, sir. A mass of ionized gases accelerated to near relativistic speed by a temporary instability."

Atoz nodded. He had been taught about objects like these in his astronomy classes, but they were so rare he had never actually encountered one before. He swiveled to face the tactical station. "Damage report, Mr. Attenborough?"

The ensign on security duty scanned his status board grimly. "Metaphasic shields holding firm, Captain. I'm reading a plasma discharge from the starboard engine nacelle. Minor structural damage, sections J and D. Sickbay is reporting minor injuries."

Atoz tapped a button on his command chair. "Bridge to Engineering. Status report, Mr. Vespis."

The main view screen abruptly changed to show the blue tinted face of the Odysseus' Andorian chief engineer. "Starboard side took the brunt of it, Captain," she said, as her antennae flexed with irritation, "but it's under control. The power converter is off line. Warp engines are good, but the rest of the ship's systems are on battery power for the time being. It's a good thing it only grazed us. Without the shields, we'd have been torn apart and fried in our own juices."

Behind him, the bridge turbolift doors hissed open, as First Officer Charles Fawkes, then Rosh and Caeli arrived, the latter two still in their exercise clothing. Atoz registered their presence with a nod while still speaking to the chief engineer. "How long until full power is restored?"

The Andorian shrugged. "Say... forty-five minutes to an hour." Her image disappeared from the screen, and once again Atoz was looking at the black of open space, the filament of gas now a mere wisp in the distance.

"Diane, what's the status of the object?" he asked Weir.

The Science Officer frowned, her short brunette hair dancing as she shook her head. "Dissipating, sir," she replied. "But not rapidly enough, I'm afraid. Arachne, tie in to the Sciences station, please. Can you give me an estimate of the loop's intensity when it reaches the orbit of the second planet?"

On the main viewscreen, the three dimensional likeness of a young woman wearing a Greek style gown appeared. "Working, Diane," the AI said calmly. "The object will intersect the planet in 14.63 minutes. It will be force four intensity at that time. Eighty one point nine four times--"

"Thank you, Arachne," said Weir quickly. "That checks with my own estimate, Captain. The planet is Class F. The colony relies on an atmospheric compression shield to extract oxygen from the thin atmosphere. Even if it doesn't strike the colony head on, the heavy nuclei in the fragment will cause severe atmospheric disruption. The compression shield wasn't designed for that kind of punishment."

Atoz paused for just a half a second to draw a deep breath. Then he turned quickly to the officer at the helm. "Lieutenant Fletcher, plot a parabolic course around the object to arrive at the planet ahead of it. Warp three. Engage." As the ship leaped into warp speed, Atoz turned around, his gaze taking in both Fawkes and Weir, while Rosh and Caeli stood unobtrusively nearby. "We've got less than fourteen minutes to figure out what to do when we get there. Any ideas?"

The four officers exchanged glances silently as the enormity of the situation hit them. Weir stared downward at the deck, taking refuge in methodical logic. "Counting families and children, there are 8,400 colonists living inside a five mile wide crater. Fourteen minutes isn't enough time to beam up that many people."

"Even if we could," said Fawkes, "the Odysseus couldn't accommodate that many. And they don't have ships or shuttlecraft enough, either."

"Trying to evacuate in only fourteen minutes would be a recipe for panic, anyway," Weir added.

"Okay," said Fawkes. "It's a mining station, right? Can we—?"

"Coming up on the planet now, Captain," Fletcher reported suddenly.

"Standard orbit. Ensign Schechter, put me contact with the colony administrator."

"Frequency open, sir. On screen."

Atoz turned again to face the main view screen, which abruptly changed to show an office. A man wearing an orange one piece suit looked up from his desk in annoyance. "Is this Starfleet finally?" he said gruffly. "We expected you yesterday!"

"This is Captain Atoz of the Odysseus. Who am I speaking to?"

The man drew himself up haughtily, unused to being questioned in his own office. "I'm Absalom Burr, administrator of the
ante II colony."

"Mister Burr, I'm afraid we don't have time for pleasantries. There's a magnaclastic fragment from the sun heading towards your planet."

"A what?"

"There really isn't time to explain, Mr. Burr," said Atoz impatiently. "It's a mass of ionized solar nuclei. We're doing our best to come up with a plan of action, but I felt you should be warned, to take whatever precautions you can."

The man scowled as if this were all Atoz' fault. "I see. Thank you for the warning, Captain. We'll raise the deflector shield to full intensity and begin moving our people into the deeper mines just to be safe. Dante out." The screen went dark.

"That won't be good enough, Captain," said Weir. "The colony has a low-yield pergium power plant, not designed to generate the amount of power needed."

"So we augment their shield with our own main deflector," suggested Fawkes.

Atoz shook his head. "Ordinarily that would work. But with our converter damaged, we don't have the power."

"Captain," said Weir thoughtfully, "we could use shuttlecraft fuel rods. The fusion cores should energize their shield enough."

Fawkes grimaced discouragingly. "Their generators wouldn't take the strain more than five minutes or so..."

"But the loop will have passed by then," the Science Officer insisted. "I think it's our only option, with the time available."

"The only other problem," said the First Officer, "is that whoever we send down to install them wouldn't have time to beam
back to the ship afterwards."

Atoz paused. "Mister Fletcher, put the object on the main viewscreen." They all stood watching the blazing bright line of the fragment grow larger with each passing second.

Caeli suddenly stepped forward. "Will a volunteer help, Captain?"

"Do you know what you're getting into, Mr. Caeli?"

"Yes, sir," he replied. "Exactly what a Starfleet officer is supposed to get into."

Atoz sighed. The young Roman was right. Their responsibility was to do everything possible to protect the lives of the colonists. "All right, go. Just try and keep your head down."

***

Three minutes later, Lt. Cmdr. Vespis strode into the transporter room carrying a large duralinium case. Ensign T'Pana was working the control console, while Fawkes stood waiting along with Rosh and Caeli, now hastily dressed in uniforms. "Two fuel rods," Vespis said cheerfully. "We're going to need at least two, if it's a standard setup. Just plug them into the secondary input ports, adjust the flow rate to compensate for the recharge cycle of their capacitors, and watch the sparks fly."

"I'll have that," said Fawkes, taking hold of the handle of the case.

"Relax, Papa," she replied, showing no sign of letting go. "I've got it."

"Not this time," he said grimly. He nodded towards to Caeli and Rosh, assuming stations on the transporter pads. "I think we can manage without you."

"But you'll need me to--"

"I said No, Mr. Vespis." The tone of his voice conveyed a warning that this was the ship's First Officer speaking. She let go of the handle.

"Just for that, don't expect me to come down there and save your darkskin butt if something goes wrong."

Fawkes swung the case up onto the pad so that Caeli could steer it into the center cargo unit. He took his place on the pad, glanced across to make sure that the other two officers were in position. As he faced forward again, Vespis was watching him with her eyes narrowed. She gave him a sardonic wink. "Energize," he said to T'Pana.

***

The sky was gray but deceptively calm as the three officers materialized atop the rim of the crater. In front of them was the square, flat-roofed thermocrete structure housing the colony's power plant. Beyond a low parapet, they could see the town scattered across the floor of the crater -- apartment buildings, shops, schools, and the open framework of the trititanium extraction tower itself, with a dozen ovoid shaped storage bins marching behind it. Looming above them was one of the support struts for the compression shield, arching skyward like a slender sculpture.

All three of them were at least loosely familiar with the concept. A compression shield was like a virtual dome, keeping the atmosphere within it pressurized by means of a low level force field. The six struts supporting the field itself were spaced equidistantly around the rim of the five mile crater. "We will first need to release the port covers," said Rosh, pointing towards two long, projecting metal slabs raised perhaps a foot off the ground.

Fawkes nodded. "That will most likely be in the power room. I'll handle that." He set off at a trot for the doorway to the building, as Rosh found the auxiliary feeds and struggled to uncap the access ducts. Caeli knelt, already snapping open the latches to the case and pulling out the first of the translucent crystal fuel cores.

The pocket door slid open reluctantly, allowing Fawkes into a short entry corridor, where a stout man wearing a green work suit was waiting impatiently by the manual operating wheel. "What were you doing out there?" the man demanded, hauling the door shut again. "I was about to seal the building! Didn't you hear the sirens?"

"No time for that," said Fawkes, brushing past him to the control room. "Where are the auxiliary port controls for your shield generators?"

"The what?" the man said, hurrying to keep up as his eyes belatedly took in Fawkes' red and black Starfleet uniform. "Hey, who are you anyway? You don't have authorization to be in here..."

Fawkes ran his eyes swiftly over panel after panel, hunting for anything that looked like a secondary inputs control. He finally found the power consumption log, wasted precious seconds figuring out that their keyboard was an LOS system instead of the more typical LCAR, then managed to reconfigure the controls. "Auxiliary ports unlock. Standby to accept Secondary power feed..."

***

On the bridge of the Odysseus, Atoz and Weir were shoulder to shoulder in front of the Sciences station. "Impact in six minutes, Captain," Weir said, her fingers flying over the console.

"The object is approaching from the spin-wise side of the planet," Atoz replied, checking his calculation again and then turning away to face the main viewscreen again. "It will intercept right about the dawn terminator."

Weir bit her lower lip. "And the Dante crater is on the middle of the daylight side," she added. "It's going to be close, but I think the curve of the horizon is going to save the colony from a direct hit."

"Even so, Diane," interrupted the calm, feminine voice of the ship's computer, "atmospheric turbulence on the order of 120 kilometers per hour or more may be expected."

"Thank you, Arachne," said Weir, watching as Atoz strode towards his station at the center of the bridge. "Can you tell us whether the fuel cells will be effective in augmenting the deflector shield?"

"I'm sorry, Diane," the AI replied. "There are too many unknown variables. The exact composition and viscosity of the atmosphere, the exact model number of the shield, the maintenance history of its power couplings..."

"What's the worse-case scenario?" said Atoz.

"The colony is a typical frontier settlement," Arachne responded. "The buildings have emergency seals, but in the event the shield fails, the turbulence could shatter the flexi-glass windows. Asphyxiation would occur. The taller apartments could suffer from structural fatigue and collapse. Any organic beings exposed to the ions will of course be irradiated and killed." As she finished, everyone on the bridge stood silent as the fragment drew closer on the main screen.

"Impact in three minutes, Captain," Weir said. She could see his shoulders tense up as he grabbed the back of his command chair, and she knew what he was thinking. Three of his best officers were down there trying to save the planet, but up here in orbit, the ship itself was also in danger unless he raised the shields. But raising the shields would also strand Fawkes, Rosh and Caeli on the planet.

"Mister Attenborough, raise shields to full intensity," said Atoz, biting the bullet. The away team was now committed. "Mister Fletcher, take us out of orbit. Course 354 mark 20. Point eight c. Engage."

***

The wind was beginning to pick up as the input port latches gave out a firm CLUNK and the covers slid back out of the way. Rosh ran to the nearest and drew back the casing to reveal a tubular opening. Methodically he went through the three separate steps necessary to establish a feed from a secondary power source, finally holding the arming handle back as Caeli maneuvered the cylindrical fuel rod into place, gave it a firm clockwise twist, and pushed it home with a satisfying click. The blue indicator stripe down the side of the rod lit up to mark that a good connection had been made.

They moved to the second port, several meters to the left, and went through the entire procedure a second time. As Rosh knelt by the keypad to initialize the recharge cycle, Caeli slid the fuel core into its tunnel, gave it a clockwise turn, and felt it balk. He tried again, but all he got from the rod was the dull thud of a failed coupling.

"Lieutenant Caeli," said Rosh, raising his voice to be heard over the sound of the wind, "we must get to cover."

Caeli shook his head, grunting as he extracted the fuel core and tried it again. Again there was that disheartening thud as the connection failed.

"Luke, we are out of time!" Rosh shouted, grabbing the Roman's shoulder and pointing overhead, to where a bright vermilion ribbon of cold light -- an aurora – danced erratically, high in the leaden sky. The leading edge of the magnaclastic loop was already striking the ionosphere.

"Then help me!" was Caeli's only reply as he twisted the rod again, half closing his eyes to keep out the flying sand and debris being blown about by the rising wind. Rosh took hold of the lower end of rod, maneuvered it into position, where it hung up again. Caeli, swearing under his breath in Latin, gave it a sharp rap with the heel of his hand, and finally the cylinder slid home. The click sounded to him like the sigh of a beautiful woman, and the bright blue glow of the telltale stripe made him want to shout for joy. Another indicator on the panel lit up, announcing that the shield was now about to discharge in five ... four... three...

"Come!" Rosh commanded, pulling Caeli away from the input feed. He flicked open the manual release lever and hauled the service hatch aside, as his companion dove through into the maintenance tunnel. Behind them, the shield flared to life, its capacitors sending sparking energy discharges over the area underneath the strut where they had been standing.

***

"Impact," said Weir softly. Atoz spun his chair around, nearly sat down in it, but changed his mind at the last minute and began pacing nervously. The main viewscreen was now showing the planet below them. The shield over the crater was glowing amber from the energy of the fuel rods, flaming here and there with streaks of deeper red as the ionized gases of the fragment struck against it. "I'm reading a vortex forming south southwest of the colony. But the shield appears to be holding."

"What about radiation?" asked Atoz.

"Within acceptable limits," she replied.

Just after she had spoken, as the magnaclastic loop continued past the planet and away into space to dissipate further, a much more intense burst of energy bloomed near the north face of the dome. Attenborough, at the Tactical station, checked his readings twice. "Captain... that was an explosion!"

"Confirmed," said Weir, rapidly tapping commands into her sensor station. "It appears to be a underground pocket of metrion gas, ignited by the energy of the plasma. But I don't understand--"

"Now I'm picking up a seismic disturbance," said Attenborough. "About 4.7 on the Richter scale."

"The escaping gas is forcing open a fissure," said the Science Officer. "Part of the crater wall is collapsing."

***

Fawkes felt the floor underneath him rise and slide about two meters, but since it was made of a solid slab of duralinium, it didn't crack from the strain. He held on to the control panel until the building stopped shaking.

Although the control panels had remained intact and functional, a desk and a supply cabinet had fallen over and tumbled across the shaking room. The technician had ended up face down underneath the debris. Fawkes hurried over to check on him, turning the man over just as he opened his eyes and gasped for breath. "Wow! What was that?"

"Felt like a tremor," said Fawkes. "You get them often around here?"

"No!" the tech insisted, sitting up and using his sleeve to wipe blood from a minor cut the side of his face. "This is supposed to be a stable planet." Squatting beside him, Fawkes tried his comm badge, but was unable to contact either his landing party or the ship in orbit. Seeing this, the man pressed the e-phone attached to the collar of his green uniform. Nothing happened. "The comm relay must be down," he said apologetically.

Fawkes frowned, hauled the man to his feet, and pushed him towards the control panel. "What's this then? Your security scan shows a fire in section four. It looks like your primary transformer series is off line."

The technician wiped his face nervously again. "That shouldn't be," he said, punching buttons. "I can't bring it back up. Grid four is out. It looks like the coolant pumps for the turbines are down, too."

"The compression shield is still powered up at least," said Fawkes, checking another nearby control board.

"Yeah," said the tech a little dazedly. "I don't know where the power's coming from. I've got nothing but secondaries on line."

Fawkes briefly told him about the installation of the fuel rods. "Charles Fawkes, Starship Odysseus," he said in conclusion. "Now, we need to get your power grid up again and pull those rods before they burn out your shield generators. I take it you're the chief engineer of this place?"

"Uh, no," said the man, automatically shaking the hand that Fawkes had held out for him. "He's across town, at his daughter's birthday party."

"Second engineer, then?" said Fawkes, still shaking the man's hand.

The technician swallowed awkwardly. "He was, uh, down in the maintenance tunnel, inspecting the coolant pumps." He paused. "I'm Ojo. Third assistant engineer apprentice."

[Mr. Atoz]

The maintenance hatch had opened on a tunnel going straight down, lit by a string of tiny service lamps. Caeli had dropped out of sight, clinging to the rungs three or four meters down to make room for Rosh. The tremor, when it struck, caught them both by surprise. Caeli had lost his grip, fell another few meters, caught another rung, and then had been knocked loose when the ladder itself had broken free from the wall and sent the Eminian hurtling down on top of him.

As the dust settled, Caeli looked around in the light of the still glowing service lamps. They seemed to have landed on the floor of a cross tunnel. Overhead, he could see the tangled remains of the maintenance ladder, effectively blocking their return in that direction. He grunted softly as he sat up. "You okay, sir?"

Rosh hissed between clenched teeth in reply. "Not entirely." Neither of them had a tricorder, but between them, they determined that there was a closed fracture in the Eminian's right thigh bone. While Caeli improvised a splint from a broken section of ladder and some fiber optic cable, Rosh tried his comm badge, but was unable to raise anyone.

"It looks like we're in another service corridor," said Caeli, looking along the tunnel, which stretched away along a shallow curve. "I'll go scout, if you think you'll be okay for a minute."

Rosh grimaced. "I do not appear to be in imminent danger, lieutenant."

Caeli followed the arc of the tunnel. After a few meters, he came across a short branch corridor that ended in a pocket door. He was about to continue around the curve when he heard the echo of a series of thuds, followed by muttered voices, and finally a good, solid English swear word. Caeli hurried to the door. It didn't open automatically, so he put his shoulder to it. One hard ram was enough to force the door back into its groove, enabling him to slide it back into the wall.

The chamber beyond was a small monitor room, hardly more than an alcove with a transparent aluminum window overlooking the cavernous pumping station. Four people -- two men and two women – were standing around a control panel, and they looked up in astonishment at Caeli's distinctive red and black uniform. "How did you get in here?" demanded one of the men, a thin, middle-aged man who from the sound of his voice was the one who had sworn.

"I've got an injured man," said Caeli briskly. "Do you have a first aid station?"

The man shook his head, pointing towards another door on the other end of the room. "Through there. But it's an emergency door, and it's been sealed."

Caeli rushed over to the door and tried it anyway. It was locked solid. "Why? I mean, what's the emergency?"

One of the women brushed at a dark soot stain on her face while she tried typing a command into the control station. "There's a gas fire in the tunnels around the primary turbine transformers. None of the fire suppression systems are working."

"And the coolant pumps have quit," added the first man, scowling.

"So the power plant might have a meltdown?" said Caeli. "Is that what you're saying?"

The man and the woman looked at one another, but didn't say anything. "Marvelous," said Caeli, pointing to the other two, who seemed to be just standing around in shock. "While we're waiting for that, you two can help me carry my friend. He's not far away."

***

Captain Atoz eased back into his command chair, studying the scene on the main view screen. "Diane, metrion gas doesn't naturally occur on a planet like this, does it?"

"No, sir, it doesn't, " Weir replied, swiveling around to face him. "That's what I can't understand. Even if it did, the most elementary safety precautions would have removed any pockets of flammable gas from the vicinity of an inhabited crater. It doesn't make sense."

"In a way, it does," said Vespis, looking up from the bridge engineering monitor. "Metrion is a by-product of the trititanium extraction process. But dispersing it safely is difficult and time-consuming. I've seen frontier outposts get around all that by just putting the stuff in storage."

"But it's dangerous," said Weir.

The Andorian shrugged. "Yes, but the planet is geologically stable, so who's to know?"

"Ensign Schechter," said Atoz, leaning forward. "Have communications been restored?"

She shook her head, tugging at her ear clip. "The ionization is slowly clearing, Captain. But I'm still unable to raise the away team."

"Captain," said Weir, "metrion gas is pouring from the fissure at the rate of 50 tons per second. At its current rate of progress, the fire should strike the colony within the next fifteen minutes. And I've detected two more pockets of metrion actually underneath the colony. As far as I can determine, they're cavities left over from the excavation process."

"We've got bigger problems," said Vespis. "Would you like to guess what will happen when a rolling cloud of flaming gas hits an atmosphere compression shield?"

[Mr. Atoz]

Fawkes briefly dashed outside to manually disarm the secondary feed cycles, leaving the rods in place but disconnected. He noted in passing that one of the ceramic insulator towers had collapsed across the maintenance hatch which he had seen Rosh and Caeli disappear into, completely blocking access to it. As he turned back toward the power building, he saw the dark, boiling cloud of the metrion gas fire for the first time, slowly drifting in his direction like a thunderhead.

Inside the control room, he drew Ojo's attention to it on one of the external monitor screens. "Uh-oh," said the engineer, his eyes going wide with terror.

Fawkes narrowed his eyes dangerously. "Tell me you've got something more than 'uh-oh'!"

"Uh... I'm still reading that temperature spike in the main power plant," the other man gulped. "If the coolant pumps don't start up soon, there's going to be a meltdown. If we turn off the turbines, the compression shield goes."

"So? How do we get the pumps working?"

"You're asking me? I'm just a--"

"Third assistant apprentice engineer," repeated Fawkes. "You keep telling me that. Well, this is your chance to be a hero, Buck. Think, man!"

With the Starfleet officer standing over him, Ojo methodically went over the monitor screens of the control board. "Um, it looks like the pumps are down because the feed from the coolant tanks has been blocked by something."

Fawkes nodded. "That could have happened during the tremor. Is there any way to reroute around the damage?"

"I don't..." Ojo began, but a warning look from Fawkes made him hastily reconsider. "I mean, the plant has never needed a redundant circulating system before. But there is a procedure... an emergency procedure to use waste water from the third stage extraction process."

"How do we do that?"

Ojo closed his eyes to concentrate. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, but Fawkes waited impatiently. Pressing him too hard would do more harm than good. "Panel three," the technician finally said, as he opened his eyes and hurried over to it. His fingers stabbed at the controls, activating the emergency procedure. "I'm getting a green light, but the temperature isn't dropping. I guess there's an obstruction in that line, too." He suddenly slapped his forehead. "No, wait. There's a manual valve that has to be turned, down by the pump monitor room."

"We need to contact the monitor room, then? How?"

***

Caeli and the two technicians had gone out and, using a modified two-man lift, brought Rosh to the monitor room. The air in the corridor was noticeably hazy as they returned. The female tech mentioned that she could smell smoke, so as they went inside they were careful to close the pocket door behind them. "Comfortable, sir?" said Caeli, settling Rosh firmly against a corner of the monitor room and squatting close by.

The Eminian grunted as he looked over the younger man. "Comfort is irrelevant. But I know well enough that when you prattle nonsense, it is a sign you are nervous."

The young Roman sighed. "To tell the truth, I'd rather be in a position where there was something to fight."

"There is," said Rosh, tapping a pointing finger against Caeli's forehead. "Up here."

"Very Zen," Caeli said, forcing a grin.

The two engineers who had remained at the monitor console had been arguing together in low, urgent tones. "We can't stay here, Martin!" the woman said, suddenly raising her voice and inadvertently drawing everyone's attention. "Those turbines are going to melt down any minute."

The man glanced briefly at the onlookers, then turned back to her, trying to keep his voice down and failing miserably. "Where do you suggest we go, Chase? The service corridor is blocked!"

"That Starfleet bono probably has a phaser!" she retorted, pointing at Caeli. "He can clear it!"

With the senior engineers no longer bothering to hide their disagreement, the two other technicians began to look decidedly anxious, moving uneasily towards the pocket door. Caeli exchanged looks with Rosh. If someone didn't take charge soon, there was liable to be a panic. And since Rosh couldn't stand...

"The metrion gas concentration in the tunnel has risen too high," Martin was saying. "Firing a weapon in there could kill us all!"

"It's better than slowly suffocating in here!"

"Hey, people?" said Caeli. "Can the Starfleet bono just get a word in?"

They both turned and glared at him. The other two froze where they were. Caeli walked over to join them as casually as he could. "I just want to say that we're all going to get out of this situation. Trust me."

"Why should we trust you?" the woman engineer sullenly demanded.

Caeli could feel a shift in the air as the four people closed in around him. The two techs made a break for the door, but the young Roman was there first, blocking their way. The man threw a clumsy punch, which Caeli caught in a hard, painful arm lock. "Trust me because I'm telling you to," he said. "I don't need a phaser to break your arm. I'll put down the first person who tries to get through this door."

He released the man's arm, holding the eyes of all four of them like a lion tamer in an entire cage full of animals. After a second, they blinked and looked away. "Now, first thing's first. Why aren't the coolant pumps operating?"

Martin gestured at the icons on the graphic interface screen. "The main coolant line must have been blocked when the tremor struck. There's a secondary system, but the manual valve is in there, in the pump room." He pointed to the floor hatch in the opposite corner, near the sealed emergency door.

Caeli briskly walked over and uncovered the keypad. He slid the hatch back, revealing a narrow square opening and a steep ladder. The blast of air rising from the hatch was much too hot for comfort, but at least it didn't smell of smoke. The woman engineer called Chase knelt beside him. "Can't you feel the heat coming off the turbines? You'll be cooked alive down there."

***

Vespis suddenly swung her chair around. "I've got a radical idea, sir. But you're not going to like it."

"Try me," said Atoz.

"Create a molecular implosion just in front of the cloud. Blow out the fire like a birthday candle."

The Captain shifted a little in his chair. "How do we do that?"

Weir turned from her station, her eyebrows knit together thoughtfully. "The tractor beam concentrates gravitons at a specific point. A second tractor beam focused on the same area, but half out of phase, could stress the gravimetric field enough that a extremely volatile gas like metrion would implode and create a temporary vacuum. Theoretically."

"But metrion doesn't need air to burn," Atoz pointed out. "It burns happily in a vacuum."

"Yes, sir," replied the science officer. "But the molecular shock wave would also instantaneously reach absolute zero. That should not only freeze the fire, but temporarily seal the fissure until it could be repaired permanently."

"I can make it work, trust me," said Vespis, her antennae fluttering. "The bad news is if we miscalculate, the implosion would also envelope the colony."

Atoz tried to think it through, but on the view screen he could see the boiling cloud creeping towards an unsuspecting community of over eight thousand people. "If anyone but you and Weir had suggested this, I would have said they were crazy."

Vespis shrugged. "Well, I can't speak for Weir, sir..."

"Captain," said Schechter, "Administrator Burr is hailing you."

Burr was no longer in his office. He was speaking from his personal communications device, while walking down a corridor with several members of his staff. His voice was tense, his expression far from happy. "I've just been informed that there is storm of explosive gas heading our way, Captain. What are you doing about it?"

"Everything we can, Mr. Burr," Atoz replied. "We have an idea, but it involves--"

"I don't have time to listen to excuses, Captain," Burr snarled. "Can you do anything or can't you? It's a simple question."

"Tell me about your metrion storage policy, Mr. Burr," Atoz said..

The man froze in place. The others walking with him pulled up short, looking around in horror in case someone had overheard. Burr tried bluster. "Poppythingy! I don't have to listen to this!" And he broke the connection.

"Well, that was helpful," said Atoz sarcastically. He turned to Vespis and Weir. "All right, do it."

[Mr. Atoz]

At first it wasn't so bad. It was unbearably hot in the pump room, but it was like the dry heat of an oven. The insulation of Caeli's xenylon uniform seemed to be doing its work well. The gray duralloy sheet of the walls went by swiftly as he lowered himself downward, using his sleeves to protect his hands from being burnt on the metal.

By the time he got to the narrow platform, the exertion had formed sweat on his arms and legs, but he ignored the discomfort. Gasping for breath, he looked to the left, his hand grazing the low railing that was the only thing separating him from a plunge into the turbine housing below. There was no sign of the manual lever he had been told to expect. Then he realized that he was facing the wrong way. The heat was beginning to press on his head, making it hard to think. He turned around, took a few steps towards the lever he could now see attached to a fat, rectangular conduit, then stumbled.

He was on one knee, clutching the railing, when he heard his comm badge chirp. Great, hallucinations now, he thought. "Fawkes to Lt. Rosh," a tinny voice seemed to be saying. "Fawkes to Lt. Caeli. Testing. Do you read me?"

Then came Rosh's voice. "We are here, Commander, at the pump monitor station along with four others."

"Good, hang on," Fawkes replied. "Since you're there, you've got to activate the emergency turbine coolant system. There's a manual release lever--"

"Lieutenant Caeli is already on it, sir," said Rosh's voice. "Luke? Can you hear me, Luke?"

That was his name. The tinny little voices were talking about him. Caeli felt light-headed, wondering how he was supposed to answer them. Wasn't there a button or something on the breast of his uniform he was supposed to press? He reached for it and missed. But it didn't matter. There was this other thing he was supposed to do first. Just ahead of him he could see the manual valve lever. Now... what was he supposed to do with it? Pushing himself upright with the railing, he lunged for the lever and grabbed it.

***

"Tractor beam reading is holding steady at two zero one," said Weir, keeping her eyes glued to her sensor screen. "Right on the target we calculated. Phase adjustment is thirty-eight percent."

"We need more power," said Vespis crossly, punching buttons on the engineering station.

"Reading is now two four seven, phase forty-five percent."

"Come on, come on," the Andorian muttered. "Arachne, are you watching the J-51 EPS junction?"

"Yes, commander Vespis," the computer replied. "The particle flow is four one eight."

Atoz watched the main view screen grimly from the command chair as the tractor beam stretched out towards a point on the planet's surface which also coincided with the onrushing cloud of the metrion fire. A red light began to blink on his command monitor, and another on the Ops station in front of him. Lieutenant Fletcher half turned to call it to his attention, but the Captain nodded. "Reroute emergency power from the deflector grid, lieutenant," he said quietly. Reserves were already in use.

"Reading is eight five five!" said Weir, suddenly alarmed. "Phase is fifty-seven percent."

"Particle flow is seven zero three, commander Vespis," said the AI.

"Too high!" said Vespis, frantically making adjustments. "Come on..."

Atoz could have sworn he heard the explosion, although the very idea was absurd. On the screen, there was a vivid blue-white flash. The fireball seemed to well up like a mushroom cloud, and for a second he was sure it was going to engulf the colony dome. But five seconds later, it was drifting away down wind, and the deadly metrion cloud was gone. "Did it!" he heard Vespis yell behind him. "I can't believe it worked!"

Atoz stood up out of his chair to look at her. She had the grace to look a little bit abashed. "Um...I can't believe it was so easy, is what I meant to say," she said, as she busied herself securing the tractor beam.

***

The shimmering of the transporter effect fell silent as the away team returned home to the Odysseus. Doctor Pierce and a medical team rushed the pads to take charge of Rosh and Caeli. "Fractured leg, dehydration, heat exhaustion," Pierce said, running his portable hand-held feinberger over them. "You guys just keep coming up with new things to keep me busy, don't you?"

The two lieutenants were quickly stabilized and bustled onto anti-grav stretchers. The pocket doors hissed shut behind them, and in the relative calm remaining in the empty transporter room, Fawkes found himself alone with Vespis. She was standing next to the console with her arms folded across her chest, giving him a strange look.

He stepped down from the pad. "I thought you said you weren't going to rescue my butt this time," he said

"Sorry," she said, her antennae fluttering merrily as his arm went around her waist. "I couldn't resist."

THE END >>>

[Thallassa]

Haha! I like that Vespis!

"I can't believe it worked!" She had the grace to look a little bit abashed. "Um...I can't believe it was so easy, is what I meant to say."