Star Trek: The Original Series - 115 - The Janus Gate 2 - Future Imperfect by L. A. GRAF

Author:L. A. GRAF [Graf, L. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Adventure, Space Opera, Star Trek Fiction, Kirk; James T. (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780671036362
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 2002-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

“Last panel, Carolyn,” Uhura said. “Are you ready?”

“Ready.” The blond archaeologist tapped a command into her translator that made its lights blink amber and red, then let it go so Uhura could begin hauling it up with the rope and pulley system they had fashioned for it. Not all of the purple-black metallic walls of the alien transporter chamber had writing on them, but the ones that did were inscribed from floor to ceiling with rows of ricelike script. In many places, curtains of translucent calcite had built up over the texts, and Sanner had to clamber up and down them wielding his rock hammer to remove the travertine. There was nothing they could do about the dark streaks of oxidation and tension fractures that had cut through other parts of the inscriptions. Uhura just hoped those missing sections didn’t contain the most crucial information about Tlaoli’s time transporter.

It had taken them over an hour to scan the nine panels of intricate runic script, and during that time Uhura had kept an apprehensive eye on the [129] archaeological translator’s power levels. They had brought chemical batteries with them as a backup, but she wasn’t sure how many of the scans they would have to redo if they lost the instrument’s original dilithium power cell. But so far, the portable magnetic shielding Spock had designed and Chief Engineer Scott had installed on all their instruments seemed to be holding power fluctuations and subspace interference at bay. The dedicated translator’s processing unit had been humming away since the first panel was scanned, performing the trillions of cross-correlations it took to decipher a completely unknown alien language.

To Uhura’s surprise, it had taken Spock and his work crew far less time to crack off the thick rind of flowstone that had built up around the alien transporter unit through uncounted millennia of being dripped on by runoff from the natural caves overhead. When it was freed from its crystalline chrysalis, the alien device was surprisingly simple to look at: a dozen interlaced and gyroscopically curved ellipses around a hollow inner space. With the travertine coating chipped away, the blue glow Sanner had been able to see only in total darkness settled down into a fierce sapphire flame visible even when all their carbide lights were turned toward it. Despite its increased brightness, the alien light seemed content to remain inside its dark metal cage for now, even when the Vulcan science officer deliberately set a spare dilithium cell next to it and watched its power leach [130] away. The force field’s glow intensified a little, but didn’t seem to reach any farther toward the metal edges of its generator.

“Do you think it was never supposed to go any farther than this?” McCoy asked, watching the force field from outside the circle Spock had gouged in the lime mud of the cavern floor to mark the safety perimeter. “Maybe all that rock around it distorted the force field into reaching out farther than it was supposed to.

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