Star Trek by James Swallow

Author:James Swallow
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Published: 2018-06-09T13:32:42.221000+00:00

8

* * *

When they reentered the cargo modules, Saru sensed immediately that something had changed.

Before, the prickle of the Gorlan sensory fields had washed over him like the current of a river, moving about the Kelpien as if he were a stone in their path around which they had to flow. Now it was different. The auras were shaded toward more subtle nuance and finer detail. There was less of the brute-force emotional content he had sensed before, and in its place there was a kind of strange anticipatory air. Like the world around me is holding its breath, he thought.

Saru frowned, walking slowly to keep pace with Vetch and the others, thinking back to what he had said before to Captain Georgiou about the Gorlan aura-field. It was difficult to put it into words for a being who had never experienced such a thing. How would one explain colors to someone whose eyes could only perceive in monochrome? Saru could think of it as music, or as the rush of wind through trees. An effect that lay beneath everything, on which dialogue and unity could rise or fall.

The Gorlans walking with him seemed to be aware of it too, on some level. As they moved closer to their destination, Saru was sure that he saw them walk a little straighter, unconsciously reflecting the emotional timbre of the atmosphere. This is the circle, he thought. Little wonder their bonds of community are so strong.

But part of the Kelpien was fearful as well as fascinated. If this was how the Gorlans were, if their collective, gathered will had a common focus, what might happen if it was turned to a darker end? The Peliar engineer Hekan had spoken of those who called the Gorlans violent and primitive. Did those rumors have a grain of truth in them?

A thought formed as Saru examined the prospect. There was another possibility, and the more he considered it, the more it seemed to fit the facts at hand. Saru could actively sense the aura-fields of the Gorlans, and he imagined that given enough time and cooperation, it might even have been possible for the Kelpien to learn to communicate with the aliens without the use of a universal translator device. A species like humans would never be able to bridge that gap without a technological aid, their more limited senses forever deaf to the ephemeral, additional component to the Gorlan language. Saru could sense the aura and be fully aware of it.

But what if the Peliars sensed it too? Their physiology is certainly comparable, he thought. Saru would need to conduct a full tricorder scan to be sure, but even a cursory visual examination could pick out the telltale cranial structures on the Peliars where clusters of epithelial cells existed, suggesting that they were beings with a very basic, instinctive electroreceptivity.

Saru’s theory snapped into sharp focus. What if the Peliars unconsciously sense the auras of the Gorlans, but on a level so subtle they are

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