Star Trek: Savage Trade by Tony Daniel

Author:Tony Daniel
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek
ISBN: 9781476765549
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2015-02-24T08:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

“Reports,” Kirk said. “Mister Spock.”

“A fascinating experience becoming acquainted with the Excalbian Benjamin Franklin,” the first officer said. “I had expected to discover an obvious anachronism, but could not do so. My conclusion is that, if the real Benjamin Franklin were taken from his place in time and put into the present day, he would behave much like this Benjamin Franklin.”

“Franklin was a genius,” Kirk pressed, “and a polymath. Surely this Franklin isn’t as dazzling as the historic Franklin seemed to be.”

“I cannot speak to that point directly, having knowledge of the historic Franklin only through secondary sources and Franklin’s own writing,” Spock replied. “I would make the observation, however, that I have played this Benjamin Franklin eight times in three-dimensional chess. He has been victorious five of those times, and we have achieved stalemate once. I have, so far, two victories to my credit.”

Kirk nodded. That was impressive Yet three-dimensional chess did have an element of bluffing as well as pure analytics. A human could beat a Vulcan on occasion, as Kirk himself had proved.

But five out of eight?

“Doctor McCoy, you’ve had a look at them on the inside. What are they, Bones?”

“They’re human, Jim,” said McCoy. “To a point. I could treat any of them with human medications, and those would be effective. If I had to operate, the organs would all be in the right places.” McCoy leaned forward and scratched his head. “On the other hand, I did watch one of them regrow an arm in the period of twelve hours.”

“Every bit of baggage and accouterments they have regenerates, Captain. Watt told me that it would limit itself to about the contents of a room,” Scott said. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but, along with several members of my engineering team, I watched a beautiful bottle of six-hundred-year-old Scotch fill itself up.” Scott put out a hand, palm side down, lowered it. “And we’d drink it down, and it would fill back up. And we’d drink it down, and it would fill back up, and we’d—”

“We get the idea, Mister Scott, thank you.” Kirk turned to his science officer. “Speculation?”

“Analysis indicates a holographic engram in a matrix between every major molecular structure in both people and objects,” Spock said. “This is very likely the mechanism, but we have yet to ascertain how it functions.”

“They’re not really human at all.”

“Captain, I wouldn’t necessarily go that far,” Uhura said. “Spending time with the Excalbian Harriet Tubman has been very stimulating. She may not be a human being, but I got the sense that she truly believed in the cause she fought for. I have to admit that speaking with her has been . . . inspirational.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. So this is a not a conscious charade that the Excalbians are putting on, it would seem. Even if they know differently, it’s clear the Excalbians feel as if they are who they say they are,” Kirk said. “But since none

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.