Star Trek: Typhon Pact 02: Seize the Fire by Michael A. Martin

Author:Michael A. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2010-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

The energy readings Dakal had associated with a critical Hranrarii data hub turned out to lie about two hundred meters from the precise spot his tricorder had selected, as well as some thirty meters off the ground; the young Cardassian attributed the slight gap between theory and the real world to the combined effects of Hranrar’s magnetic field and the interference-generating energy pulsations Evesh had detected coming from the deep core of the city. Dakal didn’t let the slight discrepancy between his estimate and empirical reality discourage him. Factoring in Evesh’s interference and local magnetism, the readings on Dakal’s tricorder represented a highly fine-tuned estimate at best.

Dakal took the point climbing the narrow, apparently deserted tower that led to the node itself, with Evesh and Modan following close behind while the away team’s nontechnical personnel—Vale, Troi, and Sortollo—remained at the bottom of the tower to serve as lookouts, just in case a curious native should happen by.

Getting inside the small chamber that housed the node—the confined space was barely big enough to admit the entire trio at once—had been surprisingly simple, a mere matter of forcing a metal hasp open with brute strength. Dakal supposed the Hranrarii were an extremely honest people, materially speaking, since they seemed to have little use for complex locking mechanisms.

Once the team had crawled inside, Dakal wasted no time exposing the interior mechanism of the Hranrarii information node, which resembled a two-meter-long Cardassian cavegrub covered in a centimeter-thick layer of slimy, mucouslike material.

“It looks like organic technology,” Evesh said. “Not unlike the bioneural gel packs that Starfleet uses to enhance computer performance. You were right, Ensign.”

“Too bad I’m not a betting man,” Dakal said as he opened his toolkit and began extracting a high-performance ODN cable that was already hooked into a series of high-capacity data modules, collectively capable of storing several hundred teraquads of information. “I could have collected a tidy sum.”

“Don’t count your leks just yet,” Evesh said, still running tricorder scans. “You still can’t explain the interference coming from the city’s interior any better than I can. And you don’t know yet whether or not anything in your toolkit is compatible with the Hranrarii’s information technology.”

“I’ll have a look at the interference issue later,” Dakal said, preferring his own investigative approach to the Tellarite’s more scattergun methodology. “As for the compatibility question, I can think of only one way to settle it.” He raised the end of the ODN cable and brought it toward the slimy mass of the Hranrarii data hub’s core, his eyes closed so he wouldn’t have to watch himself touch the odious-looking thing.

Dakal felt a hand grasp his arm firmly, restraining him. He opened his eyes to see Modan holding him back. “What?”

“Wait just a moment,” said the cryptolinguist. “All we know for certain about this . . . thing is that it’s pulsing with energy. What we don’t know is whether it’s actually carrying any information.”

Dakal scowled. “It certainly looks like an information hub to me. And to my tricorder.

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