Star Trek: Mere Anarchy by Margaret Wander Bonanno & Christopher L. Bennett

Author:Margaret Wander Bonanno & Christopher L. Bennett
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439158418
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Lieutenant Commander Hikaru Sulu had flown many types of craft in his years as a helmsman and test pilot. Yet somehow he’d never expected that one of them would be a crop duster.

More precisely, he flew the Galileo III, one of the new multipurpose shuttlecraft assigned to the Enterprise. The flat, blocky shuttles, whose shape reminded Sulu of an axe head cleaving the air, could be customized for various mission profiles with attachable modules such as long-range impulse engines, compact warp nacelles, weapons pods, cargo units, and so forth. Right now, the Galileo was outfitted with a tank-and-nozzle assembly for aerial spraying and stout wings to improve its atmospheric performance. Since the Enterprise’s nominal mission here was to assist in the eco-recovery project, the ship had stopped off at Starbase 49, command base for Mestiko operations, to pick up these and other supplies for that effort. The starbase staff had been grateful for the extra help, giving the crew their first indication of how massive this undertaking was.

Still, there were signs of progress being made, as Pavel Chekov observed from the copilot’s seat. “It looks better than the last time,” the young lieutenant said, studying the view in the large virtual display that took the place of a window in this shuttle design. “No more brown gunk in the sky. And there’s green on the ground.”

“Not much,” Uhura added from behind them. “No trees, no flowers…hardly anything more than moss.”

“But it’s a start,” Sulu told her. “You should’ve seen it up close last time. I’ve hardly ever been anywhere so completely dead. Well, airless moons and such, of course—but those are supposed to be barren.” He suppressed a shudder. “Compared to last time, this is downright lush.” According to the briefings—which, in his new capacity as Enterprise second officer, he had studied more carefully than he would have as just a helmsman—the Kazarite ecologists spearheading Mestiko’s restoration were starting out with simple life-forms that could thrive in cold, low-oxygen, high-UV conditions. Some were indigenous species, but most were genetically engineered, imported from alien worlds, or both, such as the Martian “frostbuster” moss that was at the foundation of the new ecosystem. What lived below them at the moment consisted mostly of plant life, but those plants relied on insects, worms, and other such forms to pollinate them and to mix, aerate, and fertilize the soil they grew in. It was a barely visible ecosystem from this altitude but already a complex one and, as Sulu was well aware from his botanical hobby, a vital one. (Charles Darwin had once proposed that no other species had “played so important a part in the history of the world” as the earthworm, for plant cultivation would be impossible without it.) The chemical mix spraying from the shuttle helped sustain the whole biosphere: fertilizing agents and growth enhancers for the plants, tri-ox compounds and radiation counteragents for the invertebrates. Yet it was a carefully designed mix of organic compounds, gentle to the environment, as one would expect of anything designed by Kazarites.

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