Star Trek Hunter
Episode 10:
The Philosopher
Scene 11:
Deus Ex Machina
About the time that Kenny Dolphin was arriving at Pilgrim’s Landing and disrobing at the behest of the governor’s representatives, 2nd Lt. Gaia Gamor (at the navigator’s station), Ensign Ethan Phillips (at the tactical station) and Chief Dewayne Guth (at the pilot’s station) were collaborating to move the Hunter very carefully through a massive debris field that had no obvious business covering as yet unmeasured parsecs almost 800 light years below the galactic plane near the border between the Romulan Star Empire and the Dead Zone.
Wherever the Hunter’s running lights illuminated large metal sections, the metal had a greenish sheen to it. The technology was vaguely familiar looking, but no one could identify where they had seen its like before. The scale beggared imagination - dozens of solar systems could easily fit into those parts of the debris field that could be seen, and sensor readings indicated the debris field went on and on for light years in several directions and was more than a thousand kilometers deep.
The U.S.S. Hunter had temporarily deactivated its holographic interactive avatar. The artificial intelligence was thoroughly engaged in micro targeting the deflectors and the sensors to protect the hull from small debris moving at various, apparently random velocities within the vast field.
Commander David Pepper was in the captain’s chair, gripping it as though he might suddenly be required to use the arms of the chair to steer the boat by brute force. Chief Guth was flying the Hunter manually, using the control stick from under the pilot’s console that had last been used by Kenny Dolphin in the landing on Ocean nearly eight months previously.
No one was talking – as if their silence would somehow make it easier to detect and avoid chunks of debris. Those crew members who were not glued to their workstations were glued to viewscreens or windows. None of the holographic systems were in use. The load on the computer was so heavy that Hunter had recruited Dr. Kim, the evolved personality stored on the tactical unit initially to serve as an emergency doctor, to separately operate the tactical unit’s shield and sensor array.
In the ground operations center, Lt. Tauk kept getting up to pace, getting tired and returning to his seat. 2nd Lt. T’Lon and her investigators were glued to their workstations, analyzing telemetry, seeking a good target. Ensign Tolon Reeves and his four tactical specialists were in transporter room #1 - wearing EVA suits and ready to beam over to any part of the structure that might turn out to be complete enough to merit an away mission.
Navigator Johanna Imex was on deck 2 in deflector control and the main navigation center. She opened a channel to the bridge. “Commander, I am reading a strong gamma burst at -87 degrees z axis. It should arrive in 48 minutes.”
Pep’s voice came from the bridge, “Plot an escape course.”
“There isn’t one,” Imex replied. “We are barely able to move in this debris field. There is no direction that we can go to warp that would not shred the Hunter. We can’t even go back down toward the burst - it would reach us before we could clear the field.”
“Recommendations?” Pep asked.
Dr. Carrera responded from main engineering: “Put the densest piece of debris we can find between us and that burst, angle the vessel’s nose away from the wave to provide lowest possible angle of exposure and focus deflectors between us and that gamma wave.”
On the bridge, 2nd Lt. Gamor spoke up, “Ethan, Johanna, take a look at the large section above us to the port side - what does that look like to you?”
“It looks like some sort of hangar bay,” Ensign Phillips said.
From deflector control, Navigator Imex concurred. “Parking for big ships. It is as dense as anything I can find in this area.”
“Put us inside, nose up at +93z and leave enough room between the tail of our main nacelle and that object for our shields,” Pep ordered. “Dr. C., get me those shields!”
“We’re on it,” Carerra replied from main engineering. “Hui, join Imex in deflector control. Hunter will configure the shields. I need you to keep an eye on the output. We’re going to need those emitters running at 110% when that wave gets here – and not before.”
Ensign Sun Ho Hui was not much taller than Dr. Carrera – both men barely over 5’ and both small of build. Both trained regularly on the track on deck 5 and were fast runners. With deflector control only two decks up, Sun took to the ladders as he could scramble up in less time that it would take to wait for the lift. On arriving in deflector control, he quickly set up a screen to monitor the approaching gamma wave and another to monitor deflector output. After verifying the most advantageous deflector configuration, he set up the output matrix to oversaturate the deflectors to 110% in the seconds before projected gamma wave arrival. He also set up a switch that would do the same thing as a manual failsafe.
“It won’t be enough,” said Navigator Johanna Imex, looking over Sun’s shoulder. We could run those emitters at 200% and we’re still going to get cooked in here.”
“If we were to run the emitters at 200%, we would destroy the emitters and we would no longer have shields,” Sun replied.
Johanna Imex grimaced. “Mr. Sun, I’m not ready to die. I never thought if it happened out here that I would see it coming.” Imex was, like Lt. Gamor, tall and muscular, stronger and heavier than Ensign Sun. “You can run the numbers, Sir – do you think we’re going to survive this?”
Sun turned his chair to face her. “Given the vector, depth and intensity of the approaching gamma radiation field, our current course of action provides the best chance for survival, which I would estimate at one in several hundred million.”
Imex rose from her chair, paced a little. “I envy you, Mr. Sun. You are far more vulcan than I am. Odds like that are pretty much the same as certain death. I don’t see how you can be so calm...”
“My mother is vulcan. Given your appearance, I always assumed you were half too. You have the look,” Sun said.
Imex unconsciously touched her ear. “Paternal great-grandmother,” she said. She flipped her ear-tip with a finger. “Except for these, I’m completely human. You’re always so calm, so… aloof… I mean, not aloof, but nothing seems to get to you.”
Sun raised an eyebrow. “When I was a child, I was told I would have to choose between being vulcan and being human. I’ve honestly never felt I had to make a decision. I’ve never tried to be one or the other. I have a bajoran grandfather on my father’s side – but no one ever told me I had to figure out how to be bajoran.”
Imex brought her face close to Sun’s face, studying his nose. She caressed his nose with her finger, laughed nervously. “I can barely see it, but I can feel it – the nose ridge – just a little.” Her finger trailed across his nose again.
Sun blushed violently and looked down suddenly, caught his breath.
“So that’s what makes Mr. Sun rise,” said Imex, smiling suddenly.
“I…” Sun’s voice was suddenly hushed, nervous, aware for the first time that he was probably a decade younger than the navigator. “I never went through Pon Farr. I always assumed that part of me was human…”
“Maybe it’s bajoran,” Imex teased, still caressing Sun’s nose. “Does it have ridges too? We have 17 minutes left to live… Let’s find out…”
“I have to make sure the emitters hit 110%...” Sun managed..
“Oh they’ll hit 110%… I’ll drive Mr. Sun,” Imex said. “You just keep an eye on those emitters…”
“Maybe you should call me Hui?”
Justice Minerva Irons, Dr. Tali Shae and Lt. Commander Mlady were in Irons’ office, quietly watching through the window behind Irons’ desk. Not that they expected to see anything. Gamma radiation, deadly to all life forms, is far outside of the visible light spectrum, even for bolians. Seconds before the gamma wave was scheduled to arrive, just as Ensign Sun was swatting unnecessarily at the manual switch to bring the Hunter’s shield emitters to 110%, the entire debris field suddenly came alive with brilliant green light. Countless, apparently random particles of debris were instantly connected into a vast, cascading green web. Irons stood up and walked to the window, joined by Tali and Mlady, looking out in wonder at what was evidently a vast machine come to life.
Many areas flickered on and off, presumably allowing significant amounts of the deadly gamma radiation through. But in the Hunter’s immediate environs, and in several other areas, the field remained strong. The entire event lasted less than four minutes, then the lights gradually began to fade.
Pep’s voice was broadcast shipwide: “The gamma wave has, apparently, collapsed. All sectors report any damage or contamination…”
Minerva Irons turned to Tali Shae and Mlady and smiled. “Now
that is a deus ex machina.”
Nothing may have been as it originally appeared, or this could all be someone's clever ruse...
Who... what... how?
