"Pressure"

[Mr. Atoz]

PRESSURE >>>

"Captain's log, Stardate 52647.8: The Odysseus is in orbit around the neutral planet Vola Doradus while we enjoy some down time in between missions. Nearly a third of the crew are away on shore leave on various planets in the neighborhood. The rest of us find alternative means of relaxation as best we can.

Between the green avenue of trees, the path was partly covered by a sprinkling of five-lobed leaves. Captain Atoz, accustomed to walking pristine starship corridors, had to adjust to the fastidious tendency of his feet to avoid stepping on the leaves. As the path curved alongside the reed-grown pond, a pair of Ebbet's ducks suddenly took flight, quacking noisily. He watched the ripples they had left behind in the water, slightly annoyed by the minor glitch in the holodeck program which generated those same ducks virtually every time he came this way.

Lieutenant Commander Diane Weir, walking beside him, didn't seem to notice. "It's beautiful, sir!" she gushed. "And this is...?"

"Vindhya Canyon, back home," he replied. "We'll come up on the waterfall in a moment, and that's worth seeing."

"It's all worth seeing, sir," she corrected, edging a little closer to his side. "It's breathtaking! Thank you for bringing me." She had been taken completely by surprise when he had suddenly poked his head into her office on Deck 4, asking if she would like to "go for a walk". As a matter of fact, she did have two projects pending that she desperately needed to catch up on, but a personal invitation from the Captain was intriguing.

They were both in unisex Starfleet uniforms – Atoz in Command red and black, she in Sciences blue and black – but as they walked together through the peaceful forest, they somehow managed to forget what they were wearing. Immersed in the simple pleasure of one another's company, the difference in rank which sometimes came between them had miraculously vanished, and for this brief time, they were only a man and a woman – two lonely people who were attracted to one another. They walked side by side, and as the rhythm of their stride unconsciously synchronized, the back of Weir's hand lightly brushed the back of Atoz' hand. Their fingers touched and then interlaced without either of them willing it, or even being fully aware of doing it.

"I was sorry to hear about your cat," she said quietly.

"Thank you," he replied simply. There had been an accident with life support on Deck 5 several days earlier, one of the hazards of space flight even in the 24th century. "I had him for... nine and a half years. Pierce offered to clone him for me, but it wouldn't have felt right, somehow."

In silence the two of them rounded the bend and emerged from under the trees, and there ahead of them was the waterfall. The low murmuring had been in their ears for some time, but now they could see the crystal torrent falling forty meters through the gap in the cliff above and plunging into the pool, the mist forming a rainbow in the tropical sun. And as if to counterpoint the deep gurgle of the falls, the air was also full of the shrill twittering of innumerable swallows diving in and out of the water.

"It's... it's spectacular!" Weir breathed. After a few moments, she was very aware of Atoz' body standing very close beside her. His hand had let go of hers and casually slipped into the smooth indentation in the small of her back. She discovered somewhat to her surprise that her adrenal glands were functioning more than adequately, thank you. Her heart was beating faster as he drew closer. She could feel his face hovering mere inches from hers, and she sensed that if she turned just slightly in his direction, he would probably kiss her.

She closed her eyes. She turned, tilting her face upward to present the proper angle...

The bosun's whistle gave its brief warning call. "Sorry to bother you, Captain," said the voice of Ensign Amelia Penner from out of nowhere. "The Federation consul on Vola Doradus is waiting on channel one, and he says it's important."

Atoz sighed heavily as Weir self-consciously stepped two paces back. "Very well, ensign. Pipe it down here, please. Computer, Arch!"

The holodeck program paused as the gray metal archway silently appeared off to one side. Atoz stepped underneath it, where a small view screen was already displaying the face of an Orycian. The alien had large, round eyes, a long face with a flexible snout, and a pair of ears on the top of his skull which flicked back and forth as he spoke. "My name is Kray Widrah, Captain -- Federation consul to the Doradians."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Widrah. What can we do for you?"

"I just received a rather garbled subspace message from our science outpost on Pactolus 408."

Weir, listening from behind Atoz' right shoulder, added quietly, "It's a C class planet, sir. A short-term mission studying the piezo-barometric dynamics of a reducing atmosphere. Only three people, civilians."

"What seems to be their problem?" asked Atoz.

The consul's ears twitched even harder. "That's what I'm not sure of. They say they found something, and they need a starship urgently. I know I don't have the authority to order you, but..."

"The safety of Federation citizens is my primary responsibility, sir," Atoz assured him. "I'll leave right away." The consul thanked him and vanished from the screen. "Ensign Penner, put me through to the duty officer. Lieutenant Caeli, set a course for Theta Pactolus 408."

"Aye-aye, Captain. Course set and laid in."

"Engage. Warp factor five as soon as we clear the perimeter."

[Mr. Atoz]

The third planet of the Pactolus 408 system had all the appearance of a fuzzy tennis ball, its surface features obscured by a uniform blue-gray cloud cover which was totally featureless apart from the odd flash of lightning. One tiny barren moon was frozen in close orbit with one hemisphere perpetually facing the planet, and it was on this that the small three-person science module had been left.

"The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide," said Weir at the bridge Sciences station. "Traces of water vapor, argon, nitrogen, sulfur, and methane. Surface pressure is approximately fifty-five atmospheres, the temperature an average of six hundred degrees Celsius."

"So no lifeforms," said Captain Atoz, swiveling around in the command chair.

Weir shrugged. "In rare cases, C class planets have been known to evolve silicon-based life, sir. But none have been detected here, as far as I know."

"The science station is hailing us, Captain," said Penner at the Comm board.

"On screen."

The main view screen gave them a good picture of a fairly cramped control room. Standing in front of the console side by side were a man and a woman, both dressed in gray and white bodysuits. "Greetings," the man announced. "I am Rajesh Saravi of the University of Delhi. This is my colleague, Carol Deighton of New London."

Atoz introduced himself. "Your message stated that you had found something?"

The faces of both of them split into pleased grins. "Wait until you see!" the woman blurted, frantically pushing buttons on her console. "It's so extraordinary!"

"There was an impact event four weeks ago," Saravi said. "During a meteor shower. The object came to rest on the surface of the planet. It was only three days ago we noticed something peculiar about it."

"Came to rest? Do you mean it's intact?"

"They're transmitting an H/V feed, Captain," said Penner.

"Put it on screen please, ensign." Under the comm officer's direction, the main view screen divided, the left half showing Saravi's and Deighton's faces, the right half showing a contrast-enhanced image being transmitted, Atoz assumed, from a remote probe. The picture showed a murky gray landscape of barren, wind-eroded hills, and lying nestled against them, a roughly egg-shaped object, flattened a little from its own weight. Its surface seemed to be made up of irregular polygons, dull orange in color and glowing faintly from within. The scale along the side of the image recorder suggested that it was about ten meters wide across the narrow axis, perhaps fifteen or sixteen long.

"As you can see, very much intact," said Deighton, grinning.

"What do your sensors say?" said Atoz. "Is it some kind of space vessel?"

The two scientists looked at one another as if they were silently deciding which one would have the pleasure of breaking the news. Finally Deighton said, "Our sensors show stage one Kirlian bio-emissions and complex organic molecules. It's alive!"

Atoz impulsively looked over at Weir, standing by the Sciences station. The stunned look on her face was probably a mirror of his own. She immediately turned to her own sensor console. A few seconds later, she looked back at him. "Confirmed, Captain. It's definitely reading as a life form."

For quite a number of years there had been reports of organic life forms that actually lived, "free swimming" as it were in open space, but they were always extremely xenophobic creatures, making it nearly impossible for science vessels to get close enough to study them. If this one was quiescent for some reason, possibly injured, the possibilities were...

"Meigs couldn't wait for your arrival," Saravi added. "He went down in the shuttlepod to take a closer look."

According to the briefing Weir had given him en route, Saravi and Deighton were respectively a meteorologist and a chemist. Danil Meigs of Manark II was the third member of the team, an exobiologist. "Alone?" said Atoz, frowning. "That's highly irregular."

"Spoken like a true Starfleet milksop," a cheerful voice broke in. An inset popped up on the video feed showing the grinning face of a young, handsome man, framed in the helmet of a hostile environment suit. He was outside his shuttle pod on the surface! Atoz took note of the red flush to his skin and the slightly too high pitch of his voice. His suit was doing its best to compensate for the heat and atmospheric pressure, at the same time reducing his oxygen mixture and replacing it with inert gases. The comm link in his helmet would also be adjusting the pitch of his voice to an audible level.

"Mr. Meigs," Atoz said levelly, "do you have any idea what you're doing? Your space suit isn't designed for--"

"Relax, Captain," the Manarkian replied. "Sometimes you have to be willing... risks if you expect to learn anything. I estimate the suit... stand up for twenty minutes or so."

Atoz noticed that a few words of his transmission had dropped out due to radio interference. He turned to the tactical station. "Lieutenant Rosh, lock onto that man and be ready to beam him up if necessary."

"Aye-aye, Captain." At his station on the port side of the bridge, the Eminian tactical officer tapped commands into his console. "I have a sensor lock. Interference from the ion layer, Captain. Only partial penetration."

"Ensign Penner," said Atoz, "have Dr. Pierce stand by in Sickbay. Better still, call him up here."

The right-hand image wobbled a bit as Meigs moved closer, clumsy in his space suit. Atoz could see his face on the inset picture grimacing from the effort, his breathing raspy as he labored across the broken ground. "My tricorder..." Meigs panted, "...is reading complex synaptic waveforms. The entity has... it's not taken... any notice... of me yet..."

Atoz bit his lip. Don't push it, Meigs, he wanted to say. We have no idea what we're dealing with. He glanced over at Weir, but her back was to him, her face intent on her own sensor station and ignoring the images on the view screen.

The turbolift doors hissed open suddenly as Ben Pierce, the ship's Chief Medical Officer, arrived on the bridge. He took one look at the scene unfolding of the main view screen and his jaw dropped. "What the devil's going on, Seven?" he said, stepping down into the thingypit beside the command chair. "Amelia said--"

"The object masses... 36.024 tonnes..." Meigs was saying, moving still closer to it. "Not... reading any respiration or... conventional circulation..." This close, the luminosity under its skin seemed to be pulsing slightly. They could see Meigs' gloved hand appear on the screen as he reached out to touch its surface. Was it Atoz' imagination, or did the pulsations of the object speed up just a tiny bit? "It feels smooth... almost frictionless. I'm going to... try to..."

"I'm reading an electromagnetic fluctuation," said Weir urgently. "Twenty thousand to forty thousand hertz. Spiking at twenty-five, twenty-nine ..."

"Mister Meigs--" Atoz began.

The object flared. A burst of energy lashed out, momentarily overwhelming the sensor recorder with static. When it subsided, Meigs was tumbling backward across the ground. They could hear him panting heavily as he tried to stand, then he slumped. The picture being transmitted from his helmet went out.

"Mister Rosh, beam that man up!" snapped Atoz.

The tactical officer's fingers moved across his console. "Atmospheric interference, Captain. Safety systems will not allow me to energize the transporter."

"Override your d**n safeties!" Deighton shouted from the view screen. "Beam him up!"

Atoz tried to be calm. "We could, but he'd only come up in pieces."

"He's going to die anyway if we don't do something!"

"Not necessarily," Atoz snapped, turning to Pierce. "Hawkeye? What do you think?"

The doctor had hurried over to the tactical station beside Rosh, studying the telemetry signal from Meigs' space suit. "He's unconscious, but his vital signs look in pretty good shape. I can't do anything here, Seven. If we can't beam him up, we have to go down there and get him."

Atoz turned to the Sciences station. "Diane? How does it look?"

"The EM fluctuation has diminished, sir. Returning to normal background levels."

Atoz hesitated only a second. "Captain to Shuttle Bay One. Prepare the Telemachus for launch." He turned forward to the helm. "Lieutenant Caeli, you'll pilot. Okay Hawk, go. But try to be careful!"

[Mr. Atoz]

Two minutes later, the shuttlecraft Telemachus maneuvered out through the hangar doors and streaked towards the planet. The craft dropped like a brick through the upper atmosphere and disappeared into the thick clouds of the troposphere. Its aerodynamic wings unfolded, immediately caught by the winds which spun the ship like a toy kite while a storm of small thumps rattled alarmingly against the hull. "Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" Pierce grumbled, slammed repeatedly against his seat like a rag doll.

"Take it easy, doc," said Caeli, grinning. "We're fighting a 200 mile an hour jet stream, pelting us with sulfuric acid hailstones. Unless you'd rather drive?"

"I withdraw my complaint."

Lightning forked through the clouds as Caeli flew the shuttle steadily downward. All at once they broke through into the relatively calm surface layer. Through the porthole, there wasn't much to be seen in the perpetual midnight where no sunlight ever penetrated the clouds. The atmosphere was so thick and murky, they could just as easily have been at the bottom of an ocean. Even contrast-enhancement only showed them a dismal desert landscape, visibility limited.

"Telemachus to Odysseus," Caeli said, flicking on the comm link. "Do you read me?"

"We hear you, Luke," Penner's voice responded anxiously. "You're a little bit off course. Mister Rosh says you need to come four degrees to starboard."

"Thanks, Amelia," Caeli said, making the adjustment. "My sensors aren't too reliable down here."

A few moments later, the shuttle touched down next to Meigs' pod. Pierce and Caeli climbed into space suits and sealed the helmets. "Wait up, doc," said Caeli. "We've got to pressurize to match the outside first, or the second we open the airlock, the shuttle with crumple up like an empty soda can."

"Like a what?" said Pierce.

Caeli shook his head ruefully, remembering too late that his home planet was behind the times. Most of the Federation didn't use aluminum cans anymore. "Just trust me. It will only take a minute or two."

In fact it took several minutes before they could open the hatch and step through the transpartent airlock force field to venture out onto the planet's surface. Caeli led, feeling as if he was wading through hot soup. He couldn't help remembering that his suit was officially rated for up to 45 atmospheres, and his indicator told him that they were already nearly eight atmospheres past that. Well, he thought philosophically, someone had once said that pushing the envelope was an unwritten part of every Starfleet officer's job description.

The object loomed over them like a glowing, gently pulsating dome. Caeli approached warily. Seen up close, it looked a lot bigger than it had on the view screen. But Pierce only had eyes for his patient. He knelt next to the unmoving shape of Meigs' body and rolled him over to that he could look at the body functions panel on the front of his suit. "Looks like he's in shock," Pierce said, his voice sounding strange and tinny through the helmet radio. His hand went to the medikit on his belt, where it paused. There was a patch on the shoulder of the suit expressly for the purpose of accommodating hypospray injections, but he wasn't sure if it would maintain its seal properly under so much pressure. "Better not risk injecting him out here," he said to Caeli. "Let's get him inside the shuttlecraft."

Together they managed to hoist the scientist upright in between them. They were halfway back to the Telemachus when they heard Weir's voice in their ears. "I'm reading another EM fluctuation, at thirty five thousand." Pierce and Caeli looked up to see the object vibrating like a drum, its golden glow shot through with overtones of red and yellow. In perfect sync with its pulsations, they could both hear and feel it humming and throbbing in the dense atmosphere. And it was definitely larger than it had been just a moment ago.

Caeli reacted instinctively, pushing Pierce ahead of him into the shadow of Meigs' shuttlepod and turning his back on the object so that the bulk of his suit would absorb the impact, if any. Dragging the unconscious scientist along with him, the helmsman lunged forward in slow motion and hit the dirt just as the thing flared again. A staccato howl rent the air around them, transmitted through the fabric of their space suits as the energy discharge crumpled up Meigs' shuttlepod and tore it to pieces.

***

Atoz leaned forward in his command chair, looking anxiously at the chaotic, interference-riven picture from Pierce's helmet being shown on the main view screen. "Diane, what's going on?"

"The fluctuation is dying down again, sir," the Science Officer replied. "Doctor Pierce and Lt. Caeli are all right." She turned from her sensor console to face him. "But the second one had twice as much energy as the first. And the object now occupies over twice the volume it did when I first observed it."

"It's growing?" Atoz said, with a certain amount of awe in his voice.

She nodded. "Very rapidly, too. I surmise that it's an infant. The thick carbon dioxide atmosphere is acting as an incubator, and accelerating its growth potential."

"That would make a certain amount of sense," the captain said thoughtfully. "If this is a carbon-based, space-dwelling life form, its normal environment is cold. The mother finds a nice Class C planet and drops off her eggs to be hatched, like sea turtles do."

The faces of Drs. Saravi and Deighton, temporarily gone from the screen, now reappeared. "We have been taking readings of the entity during its outburst," said Saravi, "and what we have found is astonishing. The creature's life energy wavelength appears to be in the K3 to K4 range. Now, our mission was designed for physical sciences, so we do not have a plasma projector of that type."

Atoz faced them, puzzled. "I'm sorry, I don't see the significance."

Deighton sighed as if she thought Atoz was being willfully dense. "We calculate that a bias-modulated electrostatic plasidron stream in the K4 area could effectively neutralize its higher neuron functions. Then it could be held with a tractor beam. There would probably be some finagling before we found exactly the right combination, but I'm sure a fully equipped Starfleet vessel can accommodate us, can't you? Help us capture it? We'll certainly see to it that your name is featured prominently in any paper we publish. Yours and your Science Officer's, of course."

Atoz glanced across at Weir, then back to the screen. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "Capture it?"

"Of course," said Deighton, it a tone of voice that said it was the obvious thing to do. "At the rate it's growing, it will soon be mature. It can't stay in that thick atmosphere forever. Presumably it will leave for deep space again, and we'll have missed any opportunity to study it. Well, why do you think we sent for you?"

***

When Caeli opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw were the red warning indicators on the inside of his helmet. The self-sealing skin of his suit had somehow survived intact –- if it had sprung a leak at all under this pressure, he would have died before there was time for him to be aware of it -- but his backpack had taken damage, and he only had about ten minutes of life support left. He began to struggle to his feet and felt Pierce's hands helping him.

"You okay?" the doctor asked, checking his body functions panel and not liking what he saw.

"Fine," Caeli replied. "But let's not wait around for the skiing season to open."

Together they picked up Meigs and bundled him into the Telemachus. It seemed a long wait until the pressure had equalized again and they could pop their spacesuit helmets. Pierce got the unconscious scientist out of his helmet, gave him a hypospray injection, ran his portable medical feinberger his body, then set up a respirator and cardio-stimulator. "That's it. I've got him stabilized for the time being," he said over his shoulder to Caeli. "Home, Jeeves."

The helmsman had already slid into the pilot's seat, his fingers expertly dancing across the control panel. "Uh oh. Thrusters don't respond." He tried again, reaching across to the flight engineer's position. "Main engine pod is damaged. Power isn't getting to the manifolds. Let me see what I can do." Getting out of his chair, he crossed to the engineering compartment in the rear of the shuttle and opened the panel. While Pierce watched him anxiously, he poked around among the components for a few seconds and then shook his head. "I think we're in trouble, doc."

[Thallassa]

I love it so far. Only...

She closed her eyes. She turned, tilting her face upward to present the proper angle...

The bosun's whistle gave its brief warning call. "Sorry to bother you, Captain," said the voice of Ensign Amelia Penner from out of nowhere....

That darned bosun's whistle!!!

[Mr. Atoz]

Atoz responded patiently to the two scientists on the view screen. "I don't care what your intentions were in sending for us. It is against Starfleet policy to capture deep space creatures."

Saravi scowled. "You cannot be serious! Do you realize how rare an opportunity this is?"

"Believe me, I do," said Atoz regretfully. An exobiologist by training himself, he thought the chance to study one these life forms was tremendously exciting. "But we have no idea if they're sentient or not. The Fundamental Declaration of Sentient Rights requires that we exercise reasonable care to afford them protection."

"But captain--"

"Captain, I've got the shuttlecraft," burst out Ensign Penner, holding one hand to her ear pod. "Luke says their main ion engines are a little bit damaged, and the thrusters won't lift off. He says he can correct the problem but it will take him some time."

On the main view screen, Deighton's face appeared almost smug. "You see, captain? The creature's convulsions are becoming progressively more violent. If it goes into another with our men still down there, your shuttlecraft will most likely be destroyed just as our pod was! You have to disable it."

Atoz silently counted to five. "Give a minute to think about it. Screen off, ensign." As the view screen went out, he restlessly got up out of his command chair and walked over to the thingypit railing. Weir, noting the gesture, swiveled around to face him. "What do you think, Diane?" he asked her quietly.

"We know very little about this type of life form," the science officer murmured. "The kind of modulated plasidron beam they're talking about could easily disrupt its neural connections and kill it. Especially if, as we suppose, it's an infant and not fully developed."

He nodded bitterly. "But I'm also responsible for those three men on the surface. I can't risk their lives either."

"I'm not insensitive to that, sir. Doctor Deighton is correct about one thing -- the power level of its growth spurts is increasing geometrically. The shuttle will probably not survive another one. I have Arachne monitoring it. She'll warn us when the next one is due."

"Unfortunately that doesn't help my--"

"Captain," said tactical officer Rosh suddenly, "sensors show a space vessel approaching from astern. It is Tamarian, a type designated by Starfleet as a Bravo class cruiser."

Tamarians? They were a mysterious race who had turned up some seven years previously, and contacted only sporadically since then. "Raise defensive screens, Mr. Rosh," Atoz said, crossing back to his command chair as he turned to the communications officer. "Hail them, ensign."

"Hailing frequencies open, sir," Penner replied. "I'm getting a return signal." She touched a button on her console and a spacious starship bridge appeared on the main view screen, not unlike that of the Odysseus. The alien captain was stout, dressed in a gray uniform studded with emblems. His head was hairless, his skin purplish and rather blubbery in texture, with a prominent rounded ridge down the center of his face.

"This is the Federation starship Odysseus," said Atoz. "May I ask your intentions?"

"Federation? Aha!" The alien smiled, gesturing expansively with his arms. "Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel!" Then his expression changed. "Jiri when he met Monokta at the Gorge of Fire?"

The statement had definitely ended with the rising intonation of a question. Atoz made what he hoped was a friendly gesture in return as he turned his face slightly to one side. "Ensign Penner, " he said quietly, "tie in the Tamarian translation protocols."

"Er... As far as I know, Captain," the comm officer replied, "there is no Tamarian translation protocol yet. I think Lt. Cmdr. Vespis speaks it a little bit," she added apologetically.

"That's just marvelous," Atoz muttered sarcastically under his breath. Vespis was on shore leave on Hulowia, thirty light-years away. Well, back to the basics. Facing the screen again, he placed both hands on his chest. "My name is Atoz," he said, then spreading his arms to indicate the rest of the ship, "captain of the starship Odysseus."

The alien captain looked back at him patiently, and seemed to grasp the idea he was trying to convey. He touched his fist to his own chest. "Harnok, captain-commander of Obedient Servant of the Monarch."

Atoz smiled. We seem to be getting somewhere, he thought. "Our outpost is here purely in the interest of scientific research," he said slowly, pronouncing his words with caution. "We have three people in distress on the surface."

Harnok tilted his head to one side, clearly trying as hard as he could to comprehend. And then he burst out with a torrent of speech. "Darmok and Jiri and the Beast of Chilok! Shaka at rest! Immina at the Well of Souls, eh?"

Atoz could only shake his head. "I'm sorry, captain-commander. Would you please--?"

"Kilean with his eyes covered!" the Tamarian scoffed impatiently, making urgent gestures toward the view screen. "Iminna, turning back from the Well of Souls! Shaka when the walls fell!"

"Diane," Atoz said, turning to the Sciences station, "it seems to me he knows about the entity on the surface and he's warning us to keep our distance. Is that your feeling, too?"

The Science Officer cautiously nodded. "That would be my interpretation, sir. But whether he's concerned about our safety or he's laying claim to the entity for his own purposes..."

"I hadn't thought of that." Atoz turned back to the Tamarian captain. "Captain Harnok, I don't want there to be any misunderstanding--"

"Chinza in the Court of Silence!" the alien interrupted angrily. He pointed imperiously at Atoz. "Mirab with his sails unfurled!" And then the screen went blank.

"I think we've just been dismissed," Atoz muttered.

***

"Try it now, doc," said Caeli, his face buried in the engineering panel.

At the pilot seat, Pierce keyed in a command as the helmsman had taught him to do. "Nothing."

"Stercus," Caeli muttered cheerfully in Latin. The shuttlecraft had plenty of power, it just wasn't getting to the thrusters for some reason. He was afraid he was going to have to try some non-regulation circuit repair if they were going to get out of this. Grunting, he went back to work.

Left to himself, the doctor checked on his patient. Meigs, still comatose, was strapped into one of the seats set back in full recline. In addition to some circulatory strain, the feinberger showed a slight hemorrhage and mild subdural pressure, but it would be better to wait until they got to Sickbay to operate.

With nothing else to do, Pierce couldn't help feeling a wave of claustrophobia settle over him as he looked around the interior of the shuttlecraft. Here they were shipwrecked at the bottom of a crushingly dense atmosphere in a craft Caeli had described as a "soda can". Fortunately up until now the helmsman had been too busy to worry much about their predicament, but as time went on Pierce would have to watch him carefully for any signs of stress.

"Okay, what about now?"

Pierce tried the console again. "I'm getting green lights," he said happily.

Caeli hurried forward to take his station. "Thrusters fully powered. Ion engines cycling up. Ready to--"

"Wait a second," said Pierce suddenly, pointing through the forward porthole. The entity, now twenty meters in diameter and dwarfing the Telemachus as a shark dwarfs a pilot fish, was pulsing more brightly than ever. "It looks like it's going to blow again."

The helmsman made a rapid decision, his fingers dancing over the console. "I'm rerouting all our power into the structural integrity field. It's our only chance."

Outside the porthole, nothing happened for a long time. Then, instead of discharging its energy, the whole bulk of the creature's body lifted up off the ground like a blimp. Still pulsating, it continued to gracefully rise, retaining its slightly flattened ovoid shape as two long, inward curving tentacles trailed from its ventral surface.

Pierce was grinning. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Caeli only nodded in reply, his eyes on the passive sensor console. The power readings from the creature were unbelievable, as they would have to be to levitate its forty plus tons of mass upwards against the force of gravity this way. He could only hope that it didn't decide to attack the shuttlecraft. If it did, the shields would never be able to hold it back.

The tentacles, at full extension, seemed to be about ninety meters long. But just after they had reached their full length and cleared the earth, something happened. It started with a blue actinic flash from high up on the creature's upper surface. Lightning struck the ground with a crash. The creature sank back downward, tentacles flailing, sending thunderous howls reverberating through the thick atmosphere. The Telemachus, beneath it, shook as the very ground began to tremble.

"What's happening?" Pierce yelled, hurled out of his seat and gritting his teeth against the monstrous din echoing off the shuttlecraft's hull.

***

"Diane, what's happening?" said Atoz, almost simultaneously. Arachne, the ship's AI computer interface, had appeared on the bridge moments before to announce that the life form had evidently reached its maximum growth and was preparing to leave. Although the visual transmission from ground level had been lost, the bridge crew had been watching the magnified image on the main view screen as the creature had slowly begun to rise upwards. And now...

The Science Officer studied her sensor display. "It's the Tamarians, sir. They're beaming a static J-band kiridium stream into the atmosphere. It seems to be interfering with the creature's levitation capability."

Atoz shot a look at the main screen, where lightning was marking the spot in the clouds from the point where the Tamarians' beam was converging. "How is the creature reacting to that?"

"Violently," Weir replied as her eyes darted back and forth over her console. "It's trying to draw on the planet's gravimetric field. I'm reading severe atmospheric disruption and tectonic stresses."

Arachne's Greek goddess holographic avatar was floating just to the left of the command chair. "Confirmed," she said placidly. "An estimated force four earthquake is building up 0.34 kilometers west of the entity's current location."

Atoz rubbed his chin. Something had to be done, and fast! "Red Alert, Mr. Rosh," he said. "Shields to full power. Charge phasers and target that beam projector." Sirens began to blare as the red warning lights flashed. "Ensign Nickel," he said to the helmsman sitting in for Lt. Caeli, "come about to 220 mark 30. Put us between the Tamarian and the planet."

"Shields to full, Captain," the tactical officer said. "Phasers locked."

All this time, Atoz had been debating whether to hail the Tamarian again, but on balance he decided against it. With their failure to communicate, it would be a wasted effort, even though taking action without warning would technically put him in violation of the Rules of Engagement. After all, it was a well known adage that before you can talk to a Cardassian, you first have to get his attention. "Fire phasers!"

Rosh didn't hesitate a moment. The beams lanced out into space, striking the prow of the wedge-shaped Tamarian vessel. Its shields absorbed the phasers with ease, leaving the kiridium stream intact. "Fire again," Atoz said. "With both banks this time." The phasers darted out again, and this time the projector was silenced.

"Captain, the Tamarians are hailing us," said Penner.

Atoz nodded to her, and once again Captain Harnok appeared on the main view screen. "Lawoos with his eyes unfocused, his mouth drooling?" the Tamarian shouted angrily. "Mirab with his hands empty!"

This time, Atoz didn't need a translator to catch the meaning. He stood up from his command chair, planting his feet firmly on the deck. "Obi Wan on the Death Star," he said. "Take your best shot, Darth Vader."

Harnok flinched as if he had been slapped. He turned to his second in command and issued rapid orders.

"Captain," said Rosh, "the Tamarian is arming weapons."

[Mr. Atoz]

Silence suddenly descended on the shuttlecraft, a silence so deep that Pierce and Caeli could hear the tick-tick of the computer relays and the hum of the life support condensers. "What do you think happened?" said the doctor, trying to peer upward through the porthole. The creature was hovering just above them, its tentacles waving.

"I don't know," the helmsman replied, climbing back into the pilot seat, "but I don't recommend we wait around to find out." As he warmed up the main engine manifold, he frowned at the warning lights on the helm display. His quick jury rig was already feeling the strain. When he remembered the jet stream they had fought their way through on the way down, he couldn't help but be pessimistic. But there was no purpose in making the doctor worry too.

The Telemachus rose unsteadily on its anti-gravs, turning slowly in place as Caeli tried to point its nose away from the monstrous creature. As he straightened out and started forward, the craft brushed one of the trailing tentacles. An energy discharge of some kind flared between them, making the ship tumble. "Hang on, I've--!" the helmsman began, then stopped when he noticed that the appendage had curled around underneath them and the engine was no longer straining.

The creature didn't seem to take any overt notice, peacefully resuming its climb upwards and carrying the Telemachus with it. Together they plunged into the thick overhang of clouds with the shuttlecraft safely tucked underneath the creature's mantle. It was relatively slow going, like a balloon ride, but the creature rose steadily. When it hit the jet stream, it struggled for a moment against the 200 mile an hour wind and then fell back.

"I guess it's not strong enough yet," said Pierce. "How do you think that thing flies, anyway?"

"No idea," Caeli replied, as he looked over at the sensor station. "Looks like some kind of contra-gravity repulsion. That kind of makes sense. The further it gets from the planet's core, the weaker the force gets. It must be straining right at the limit of its..." His voice trailed off as a thought struck him. "You know, doc. If that's the case, we could help it by running our subspace warp field in standby mode."

"A shuttlecraft has a subspace warp field?" said Pierce incredulously.

Caeli shrugged. "Just a little one. We can do up to 2.1 c. But the size of the field wouldn't matter so much. The whole point is to smooth out the Cooper-Hofstadder curve and--"

"Stop it, stop it!" said the doctor quickly. "Spare me the gory engineering details. Just do it."

***

"Darmok and Jiri and the Beast of Chilok!" the Tamarian captain on the view screen insisted. "Shaka at rest!" Rosh reported that his weapons were armed and locked on the Odysseus, but he had not fired yet.

Atoz had settled into his command chair again, staring down the alien. "I have three men down there, captain," he explained. "I am not going to allow you to attack that creature if it endangers their lives."

Harnok shook his head sadly, wrestling with the futility of explaining. "The Gift of Chilok. The Gift of Serenity."

As with most of the Tamarian's metaphors, Atoz hadn't the slightest clue what to make of this statement. He supposed that it was probably related to some legend about such space dwelling creatures, passed down through generations of his ancestors. The only result was to make Atoz that much more determined not to allow Harnok to harm the poor thing.

"Captain," said Weir's voice, suddenly sounding surprised. "Something's happening."

With a gesture, she flicked the main view screen again, so that the left half displayed a view of the planet below them. A bright round dot was struggling it's way upwards through the dark gray thunderclouds. Painfully and steadfastly the creature, glowing yellow like a small sun, was fighting its way clear of the planet's troposphere. Atoz shot a distrustful look at Harnok, alert for any sign of a renewed attack. But the Tamarian captain only had eyes for his own view screen, his mouth open in a smile, his hands moving slowly apart and then together again. If Atoz didn't know better, he would think he was... He was! He was very slowly applauding!

Once in free space, the creature, now fifty meters or more in diameter and flattened almost to a disk, turned on its side. Its tentacles unfurled like banners, releasing the Telemachus and allowing the unharmed shuttlecraft to go its own way. Atoz breathed a sigh of relief. "Secure from Red Alert, Mr. Rosh," he said. "Prepare to receive the shuttlecraft."

And then the entity seemed to just hover there. The golden glow seemed to pulse in a complicated pattern as the disk spun in a lazy clockwise circle. Atoz slowly stood up. It was almost mesmerizingly beautiful.

And now what was...Was it communicating with him? Atoz felt something, but it wasn't words, it wasn't language. It wasn't thought. For a moment, he seemed to be experiencing the universe from the creature's own perspective, looking out at two ungraceful looking starships full of fragile, absurdly tiny little life forms. The next moment, his perception expanded and he was looking into the infinite, unfathomable depths of the cosmos itself. The glorious black abyss of the universe, freezing the mind with the thought of its limitless eternity both in space and in time...

Atoz instantly snapped back into his own body. He was on the bridge again, watching the entity spin slowly clockwise.

"The Gift of Chilok," said Harnok on the other half of the view screen. "The Gift of Serenity."

But now the entity was diminishing in size as it drifted away out of orbit and into deep space. Silently the crews of the two ships watched it, until with a sudden flash of light, it was gone.

Harnok let out a heavy sigh. Atoz, with some newfound wisdom, suddenly realized that the Tamarian hadn't come to capture the thing at all. "You came here to help it, didn't you?" he said aloud. "You know about creatures like this. You know they sometimes have trouble finding their way out of the planet's gravity well. You try to help them and... "

"Darmok and Jiri and the Beast of Chilok," Harnok said simply. "Shaka at rest."

At rest indeed.

The Tamarian captain raised his hand in a gesture of farewell. "Darmok and Jalad on the Ocean," he said, and the image from his bridge disappeared from the screen. A moment later, the Tamarian ship accelerated away, until it was soon lost among the stars.

It was Rosh who broke the spell. "Telemachus is back on board, Captain," he said briskly. "Mister Meigs is being rushed to Sickbay. The doctor reports that he is doing well."

"That's good to hear," said Atoz, returning gratefully to his command chair. "Thank you, Mr. Rosh." He still felt profoundly touched by the entity's... communication, if you could call it that. He realized that it had been felt all over the ship, and all two hundred and fifty of them had probably been affected differently. It was difficult to know what to say, how to begin.

Weir, sitting behind him at the Sciences station, understood that he couldn't talk about it yet. She came to his rescue, deliberately keeping the tone of her voice light. "I'm surprised that Dr. Saravi and Dr. Deighton have been so quiet through all of this."

"Now that you mention it, so am I," Atoz agreed, eagerly grasping at the new topic.

"Er.. actually, Captain," said Penner sheepishly, "they hailed us when the Tamarians first showed up. But you were so busy at that time, I... um... kind of put that channel on hold and forgot about them. Sorry about that, sir."

Atoz' eyes met Weir's and received her knowing look. There were some things the two of them would never have to say out loud. "No harm done, ensign," he said.

THE END>>>

[Mr. Atoz]

Additional note: Thallassa just PMd me to ask where the "airlock" is on a shuttlecraft. This is an excellent question! I wouldn't think a 24th century shuttlecraft has an "airlock" the way we think of it. It's probably a force field that goes over the hatchway, keeping air in but allowing a person to walk through. Since if performs the same function as an airlock, it would be called an "airlock force field" or just "airlock" for short. I've corrected the story to make it clearer that this is what I'm talking about.

When you think about it, this would be fine for keeping in one standard atmosphere of ship's air against the vacuum of space, but if it has to hold OUT 55 atmospheres, I would think the force field surface tension would have to be so high you couldn't walk through it, which is why they had to pressurize the interior of the shuttlecraft.