Текст книги "The Star to Every Wandering "

Kirk stepped out of the turbolift and onto the bridge of the Enterprise-B. In the command chair, a young man-presumably Ensign Rousseau, the current officer of the deck-peered casually over his shoulder, but when he saw Kirk, he stood up and virtually snapped to attention. “Captain on the bridge,” he said.

Glancing around, Kirk had to suppress a laugh, even given the gravity of the situation that had brought him aboard this new Enterprise. Other than the young officer and himself, he saw only one other person on the bridge, a technician lying on her back, partially hidden beneath the combined helm and navigation stations that stood forward of the command chair. As Kirk looked on, she rolled out from under the console and rose to her feet.

“As you were,” Kirk told the two crewmembers.

“Yes, sir,” said the officer beside the command chair, though he did not move. Slight of stature, he had cropped blond hair and light blue eyes. The technician, dark haired and with a serious expression that seemed to reflect concentration on her work, immediately lowered herself back to the floor and resumed what she’d been doing.

Kirk gazed around the command center of this new Enterprise. Larger than the bridge of any of the vessels he had captained, it now sat largely dark, as did much of the ship. He had asked Admiral Sinclair-Alexander to allow him to come aboard so that he could tour the Enterprise-B, and he had so far done just that, visiting main engineering, sickbay, one of the mess halls, one of the gymnasia, and various other areas. In several places, technicians had been working busily, but in others, Kirk had found himself alone. He’d been sure to be seen by those present, though he’d avoided engaging in conversation with any of them. Though he recalled having very little contact with the Enterprise crew during the brief tour of the ship he’d taken with Scotty, Chekov, and members of the press during the launch, he did not want to risk one of them feeling comfortable enough to approach him and say something like, “Nice to see you again, Captain.”

Peering around the empty bridge, Kirk felt a sense of nostalgia for the command center of his first command, the Constitution-class Enterprise. In those days, nearly three decades ago, his bridge had physically been a brighter, more intimate place. Although he’d found a connection with each of the vessels he’d commanded and with each of his crews, he held a special fondness within him for that old Enterprise and the days of the five-year mission.

Kirk began slowly along the raised periphery of the bridge. He walked between the primary systems display-one of the few screens currently active here-and the tactical console, then past the communications station, past sciences. At a mission operations panel situated beside the dark main viewscreen, he turned and stepped down to the lower, central portion of the bridge. As he moved over to the helm and navigation stations, he noted that the young officer still stood beside the command chair.

“Ensign Rousseau, I assume,” Kirk said. When he’d beamed aboard from Starfleet Headquarters, he had heard the transporter operator inform Rousseau, the officer of the deck, of his arrival. Traditionally stationed on the bridge while in port, the officer of the deck functioned as a representative of the captain and bore responsibility for the security of the ship. Aboard a Starfleet vessel in Earth dry dock and that had yet to launch, the requirements for such a task would amount to little more than keeping track of who embarked and disembarked.

“Sir, yes, sir,” the ensign said. His attentiveness and eager responses likely betrayed an anxiety born of inexperience, Kirk thought. He guessed that Rousseau hadn’t been long out of the academy. The young officer seemed as though he might jump out of his own skin at any moment.

“At ease, Ensign,” Kirk said.

“Yes, sir,” Rousseau said. He relaxed his posture, but almost imperceptibly so. Kirk noticed the gray hue of the division bands circling the left wrist of the ensign’s crimson uniform jacket and sitting atop its right shoulder. The color indicated the scientific nature of Rousseau’s regular duties, meaning that he would be able to provide Kirk with the information he needed.

“Will this be your first deep space assignment?” Kirk asked.

“Yes, it will be, sir,” Rousseau replied.

Kirk nodded. “I envy you, mister,” he said, attempting to put the ensign truly at ease. “Your first time out exploring the universe, meeting the unknown head-on, making new discoveries. This will be an exciting time for you.”

“Yes, I think so, sir,” Rousseau said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“What’s your position, Ensign?” Kirk asked.

“I’m an assistant science officer, sir,” Rousseau said. “I have a specialty in geology.”

“A science officer and a geologist,” Kirk said appreciatively as he moved past the command chair and mounted the steps back up to the outer ring of the bridge. “Then you’ll be getting a lot of landing party assignments,” he said, looking back at Rousseau, who remained standing by the command chair.

“Yes, sir,” the ensign said, a small smile stealing onto his face. “I hope so.”

Kirk walked over to the main ship display at the rear of the bridge, which showed lateral and dorsal cutaway views of the Enterprise and detailed its primary systems. He studied it for a moment, then raised his hand and traced a finger along the underside of the saucer section to the phaser emitters. “Is phaser power no longer channeled through the warp engines?” he asked. He could actually see the redesign and the answer to his question, but he did not want the information he really needed to stand out when he inquired about it.

Rousseau climbed the steps and joined Kirk at the display. “The phasers are still augmented by being routed through the main engines,” the ensign said, pointing to a location on the diagram, “but they can now also be fed through the impulse drive. That way, in the event of a warp power shutdown, there’s still a means of increasing phaser strength.”

“I see,” Kirk said. He stared at the display for a few seconds, then asked another question, and another, and then several more. At some point while the ensign answered all of his queries, the technician who’d been working at the helm and navigation console reported to Rousseau that she’d completed her work and would be returning to main engineering. After acknowledging the captain, she left the bridge.

Once Kirk had finished at the main systems display, he turned his attention to the tactical console. He activated it, asked a few more questions of Rousseau, then shut it down again. He did the same thing at the communications station before finally arriving at the primary sciences panel. “Care to walk me through your neck of the woods, Ensign?” Kirk asked.

“I’d be delighted to, sir,” Rousseau said. He sat down and switched the station on, its controls coming to life, illuminated from within, its monitors winking on. As with the main systems display, most of the readouts came tinted in blue and green. The ensign pointed out the primary computer interface and its associated controls, his manner shifting from nervous to confident. He talked about the ship’s sensors, including one set of scanning nodes dedicated to astronomical objects and another to spacecraft. He detailed the nature and abilities of the large number of analytical laboratories aboard, the types of probes to be stocked on the ship, and the sizeable amount of scientific data available to the crew in a series of general and specialized databases. As before, Kirk asked numerous questions, including the most important one to which he had needed an answer: At what frequency and intensity are the sensors operated?

When Rousseau had finished his presentation of the sciences station, Kirk thanked him. “I appreciate your time, Ensign,” he said.

“I enjoyed it, Captain,” Rousseau said, obviously pleased by his exchange with Kirk.

“I’m going to continue taking a look at the rest of the ship,” he said. “I thought I might go down to the hangar deck and take a look at the shuttlecraft. I understand the new class-Ks are capable of warp six and have nearly the range of a starship.”

“That’s true, sir,” Rousseau said.

“I think I’d like to see that for myself,” Kirk said. “Carry on, Ensign.”

“Yes, sir,” Rousseau said. “Thank you, sir.”

Kirk headed over to the turbolift. As he turned around within the car, he saw the ensign descending back toward the command chair. Then the doors closed and Kirk ordered the lift to take him to the hangar deck.

Located at the aft end of the secondary hull, the shuttlebay reached upward through several decks. Before Kirk went into the hangar itself, he first visited the manual control room and the observation lounge, both of which overlooked it. He found the two compartments empty, and the control room, like many of the ship’s systems, completely inactive. Through the viewports, he saw the shuttle Archimedes in launch position.

Kirk made his way down to the hangar deck itself. Inside, he walked to where the shuttlecraft sat at its center, his boot heels echoing through the large open space. He crossed one of three platforms that raised and lowered the Enterprise’s various auxiliary craft from and to their storage deck below. The Archimedes had been positioned forward of the second platform, seemingly prepared for launch.

Sleeker than most of the shuttles Kirk had ever seen, the class-K craft carried two pair of engine structures. The lower set appeared to house an impulse drive and also to serve as landing gear, while the upper nacelles composed a small warp system. The bow came to a point, and the lines of the hull swept aft in a streamlining effect. The shuttle’s name had been rendered in cursive letters across its nose, while its registry-NCC-1701-B/1-marched in block characters near its aft end.

Toward the bow, Kirk reached up beside the hatch and tapped the hull within the outline of a small rectangle, which slid aside to reveal a control panel. He touched the entry switch and the hatch folded down across the landing gear, down to the deck. Kirk climbed aboard, sealing the shuttle behind him.

At the forward console, he took a seat and activated the internal power of the Archimedes, though not its engines. He accessed the craft’s deflector systems, then worked to tune their frequency. It did not require much time. When he’d finished, he had configured the shuttle’s defenses in such a way that the Enterprise’s sensors would not be able to penetrate them. He also set the shuttle’s own sensors in such a way that their use would avoid detection. Kirk then moved into the rear compartment, which housed a refresher and a two-person transporter. It also provided storage for a number of items, including an emergency survival cache and environmental suits. In addition to powering up the transporter, he also found there the two last things he required: handheld phasers and individual transporter recalls. He took one of the latter, set it, and slipped it into his uniform beside the blue data card.

Having completed his preparations, he left the shuttlecraft and the hangar deck, heading for the transporter room. There, he told the operator, Ensign Odette, that he’d completed his tour of the ship and wanted to beam back down to Starfleet Headquarters. After Odette informed Rousseau, Kirk stepped up onto the platform and waited while she worked her console. The whine of the transporter rose around him, accompanied by the blue-white light of dematerialization.

Kirk reappeared back at Starfleet. He dismounted the platform and exited the building, then left the campus and started toward his old San Francisco apartment. Once he arrived there, he removed his uniform jacket and replaced it in his counterpart’s closet. Then he pulled out the recall device he’d purloined from the Archimedes.

For just a few seconds, Kirk paused, pacing around the apartment in an attempt to make certain that he hadn’t forgotten to do anything. Believing that he’d done all he needed to here, he activated the recall device. Once more, the high-pitched hum of the transporter surrounded him. This time, when the blue-white light released him, he stood in the rear compartment of the Archimedes, in the middle of the hangar deck of the new starship Enterprise.

Kirk deactivated the shuttle’s transporter, but left the deflectors powered in order to mask his life signs, though he doubted anybody would be performing any internal scans of the ship before he’d be gone. He accessed the emergency survival cache, pulled out a ration pack, then took a seat to begin his wait. Later, he would program the shuttle’s sensors, antigravs, and thrusters, as well as the communications panel. Beyond that, though, he would have nothing else to do until tomorrow morning, when he would take action to prevent the development of the converging temporal loop, while at the same time avoiding any disruption to history.

And after that? he asked himself. He had some ideas about that, but at this point, he didn’t know. His own fate, as well at that of hundreds of millions-and possibly even many more than that-might depend on the Guardian of Forever.

That thought did not fill him with confidence.