TOS 94 - New Earth 6 - Challenger (c) by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek [Star Trek]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Tags: \Star Trek
Publisher: POCKET BOOKS
Published: 2011-01-02T07:59:07.519000+00:00

* * *

Nick Keller and Tim McAddis plunged out of the lift and onto the bridge, but found conditions relatively stable. At least, that was all they could see. The ship was moving, though, and it shouldn’t be. On the main screen, which ordinarily would be showing a vista of space in the general direction they were heading now showed, as was usual during Gamma Night, only a clouded crackling gray mass that might be space or might be almost anything in it.

James Kirk had left them to hold the fort, and they were leaving the gates. In the command arena, Roger Lake was giving orders to Hurley and Makarios, who now glanced back at Keller, but dared do nothing more, nor even look again.

The blue-shadow form of Shucorion stood on the starboard side, watching McAddis’s science boards with studious fascination and a worried expression. Whatever was going on, he didn’t like it.

At Keller’s side as he moved slightly to his right, Communications Officer Tracy Chan kept her voice just enough above a whisper to avoid flagging the captain’s suspicious ears. “It’s a distress signal from Pandora’s Box. It came in just as Gamma Night was falling. They’re on the other side of the sun. We’re answering.”

“During Gamma Night? We shouldn’t be moving at all.”

She submitted to Keller’s whisper with a worried plea. “We can’t even get a reading of the mining ship’s position. The whole signal could be a misinterpretation.”

“Or something else. Tracy, find out the last known location of the mine ship and its assignment. Tim, go, go.”

McAddis stepped past him and beelined to the science station, where he set immediately to work, trying to hide a frantic edge.

To Chan, Keller murmured, “Does the colony know where we are? Did we file a flight plan?”

Her eyes full of worry, Chan simply pressed her lips tight and shook her head.

“Nick—good, you’re here.” Roger Lake came to life on the lower deck. “Come on down. I’ll show you this. Look at the helm. We’ve got this Night thing whipped.”

Keller dropped to the lower deck. “Sir, we shouldn’t be moving at all.”

Lake spread his hands. “Think I been sitting on my thumbs? I got this blackout thing figured out. I can plot the way over there without running into anything. Watch some of these tricks.”

Without the slightest protocol, he butted Makarios out of the helm chair and slid in there himself. The captain at the helm? Then who would command? Would he try to do both? Under casual conditions, maybe. In a crisis—not a chance.

“Nick,” Tracy Chan called quietly.

“Yes?”

“The mine ship’s last known position was at the ice asteroid near the fifth planet. They were supposed to be there yesterday morning at last report. Nowhere near where we’re headed.”

“Understood. Hush, now.” Thus armed, Keller came around and stepped down to the lower deck and spoke clearly. “Captain, the target area’s not where the penitentiary ship’s supposed to be. It might be a phantom call. Might not be Pandora’s Box at all.”

Could be a trap, could be a mistake, could be anything.

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