Star Trek: TOS: Legacies 03: Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Author:Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek

Nineteen

Pavel Chekov was sure he could feel his brain turning to mush.

“I know I’ve only been looking at this for ten minutes,” he said, “but it feels like I’ve been here for hours.”

Alone in the Enterprise’s astrophysics lab—at least for the moment—Chekov pushed away from his console and leaned back in his chair. Raising his arms, he reached above his head and relished the stretching of the muscles in his lower back. He rotated his arms to work the kinks from his shoulders, and made a note to ask the ship’s quartermaster about more comfortable workstation chairs.

With a small grunt of resignation, Chekov returned to the sensor viewer mounted to his console. Now that the probe had ceased transmitting data as it prioritized its limited remaining power reserves, and the ship’s computer was continuing to process the information it already had received, Lieutenant Uhura had returned to station on the bridge. This allowed her to resume her normal duties while continuing to assist Mister Spock with decoding the communications being received from the probe. Meanwhile, Chekov’s own duties remained focused on the operation of the device. It already felt like an endless cycle: observe, classify, sort, then feed the larger aggregates of data to Spock and Uhura, who would actually analyze the information. Chekov knew he was doing important work, but he could not help thinking it was a step down from the responsibilities he had had in creating the very device responsible for collecting all of this new data in the first place.

Some creator. The first piece of genuinely innovative equipment I create ends up banished irretrievably into who knows where.

“Ensign, do you have an updated systems status report?”

It took Chekov a moment to realize that it was the second time he had heard the question. With a start, he turned from his console to see Spock standing before him. Spock’s hands were clasped behind his back, regarding him with his usual stoic expression. How long had the first officer been standing there? Chekov felt blood rushing to his cheeks. Had he done something stupid, like fall asleep at his station? A quick glance to his console’s chronometer told him that could not be possible. So he had merely been daydreaming when his superior officer wandered into the lab. Perfect.

“I’m sorry, Mister Spock. I was . . . lost in thought.” Taking a moment to consult the sensor readings, he said, “Backup battery power’s continuing to drain and is now at five percent. I estimate total shutdown with reserves exhausted within ten minutes.”

“Thank you.” As he returned to the workstation at the rear of the room, Spock asked, “Ensign, based on the process we have been required to employ to collect the probe’s data, have you drawn any conclusions about the other universe?”

Frowning, Chekov replied, “I’m not sure I understand, sir.”

“I am asking if you had deduced any differences between our universe and the Jatohr’s, based on the nature of how we are forced to collect the probe’s sensor information.

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