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The Smallest Alien by A. Rhea King
Rating: PG CHAPTER 2 Archer sat on the stairs, staring at the metallic sphere. They had sat it on a stand that he was sure was meant for something else and after nine hours they still didn’t know anything about it. “Computer, time,” Archer said. “The time is twenty-three and forty-two hundred hours,” the computer replied. Archer looked up. “Let’s call it a night, folks. It’s not going anywhere and we’ve been at this all day.” Archer walked up to the device. He yawned again, closing his eyes when they watered. ‘Captain, can you hear me?’ the woman’s voice whispered. The silence that followed made Archer’s skin tingle. He looked at the object. An opening had appeared along the seam of one of the indentations. “It opened when you exhaled on it,” T’Pol told Archer as she approached. Archer stepped back, letting her scan the object. “I’m still not getting any readings from the object.” T’Pol looked back at Archer. “Open it. Let’s see what’s in there.” T’Pol sat her scanner down and reached out to pick it up. Electricity leapt from the edges of the opening and zapped her hand, making T’Pol jump back. “Are you hurt?” Archer asked. “No.” T’Pol looked at Archer. “It apparently has a defense mechanism.” “You said you didn’t get any readings. Where did the power come from?” “I am uncertain.” Trip reached for it. “Trip, no!” Archer said, reaching out to stop him. But Trip had the object in both hands before Archer could touch him, and the object didn’t zap Trip. Trip opened it like a cracked egg and pulled out a perfectly smooth, metallic sphere the size of a grapefruit. Trip reached in and picked it up, turning it. Everyone jumped when the casing snapped itself closed and a voice started speaking in an alien language. “That sounds like a countdown,” Trip said. “Everyone out!” Archer ordered. Trip dropped the sphere and casing on the floor, following the others out of the loading bay into the hall. Archer slammed his hand on the controls as Trip ran through and locked it. He turned to open the outer loading bay doors when they all heard a pop like a gun going off. Archer stepped back. The three were silent for several minutes. “What now, Captain?” Trip asked. “I’ll have Malcolm post a security team, we’ll get some rest, and see what happened to it in the morning,” Archer told them. “It’s not likely we’ll get much rest with this thing on board, Cap’n,” Trip remarked. Archer didn’t respond to Trip’s remark, because he knew it was true. # Archer walked into the loading bay and stopped. Trip was sitting on the floor with the sphere in his lap and a scanner in his hand. Judging from Trip’s stubble and wrinkled uniform, Archer suspected he hadn’t been to his quarters all night. “I said we’d work on this in the morning,” Archer said as he sat down beside him. Trip smiled. “It’s like getting a new toy on Christmas. Me and T’Pol couldn’t leave it alone.” “She was up all night too?” “Yeah.” “Do either of you ever obey my orders?” Trip grinned. “When we have the inclination.” Archer looked down. Melted metal had solidified on the floor. It had the same smooth appearance as the sphere. “Was that the casing?” Archer asked. “Yeah. It was still liquid when I got back. It was strange how long it took to harden.” “So where is T’Pol?” Archer asked. “She went to get some breakfast and a shower.” “Found anything out about it?” “Nope. I even tried blowing on it, but that didn’t do anything, either.” “Why would you try that?” “Worked on opening the casing.” Trip glanced at the stand. “I collected a sample before the metal hardened and T’Pol examined it. She said the molecular structure isn’t like anything she’d seen before. The only element she recognized was titanium, but only traces.” Archer yawned. “Didn’t sleep either, huh?” “Kept having strange dreams and waking up thinking there was someone standing in my bathroom door. “What if someone comes looking for this thing?” “Like who?” Archer asked. “Someone. Anyone. What would you do?” “If it’s theirs, hand it over.” “But, we’ve never seen anything like it. How would you know?” Archer smiled. “You think someone’s missing a small round object traveling at warp one?” Trip shrugged. “Never know.” The door opened and T’Pol entered with a covered plate and mug. She sat them down next to Trip before sitting across from him. “Good morning, Captain,” T’Pol said. “Morning.” Trip sat the sphere on the floor and T’Pol began scanning it again. He pulled the cover off the plate and laid it upside down next to him. Archer watched condensation pool in the top of the lid. “Western omelet, huh?” Trip asked. “You said to get anything,” T’Pol told him. “I did.” He picked up the fork sitting on the omelet and began wolfing it down. “You could chew that, you know,” Archer taunted. Over a mouthful of food, Trip retorted, “No time for modesty.” Archer laughed. Trip finished and picked up the lid, spraying T’Pol with water. She glanced up at him, but froze when she looked back at the sphere. “A panel has opened where the water landed on the sphere,” T’Pol said. The men looked down. A new opening revealed two controls and they could see more controls hidden further in the opening. Trip picked up the lid and shook the water on the sphere. Nothing more happened. “This does not make sense,” T’Pol said. Trip picked up a scanner and held it over the newly exposed controls. “Still not getting any readings. It’s like--” An idea hit Archer. He jumped to his feet and ran out of the loading bay. The two watched him run off. “It’s like the thing’s runnin’ on ghost juice,” Trip finished saying. “Where’s he going?” “I don’t know. What is ‘ghost juice’?” “Energy that doesn’t exist.” Trip returned to scanning the sphere. T’Pol leaned in closer, careful to keep her distance. Archer jogged back into the room, carrying a Petri dish of dirt and a lighter. “Warming your dirt before breakfast?” Trip asked. “I think it’s triggered by fundamental elements.” “Like earth, fire, air, water?” Archer picked up a pinch of dirt and sprinkled it on the sphere. Another section opened. He struck the lighter and held it to the sphere, opening the third panel. The three quickly moved away as the sphere began spinning and rising. It stopped four feet off the ground and hung in the air. T’Pol scanned it. “Anything?” Archer asked. “No, Captain.” The device slowed to a stop and hung in the air. The lights in the loading bay went out and beams of light shot from the sphere, bathing the room in pale blue light. Archer glanced back when the door opened. Hoshi walked in, stopping beside Archer. “What’s happening?” she asked. “We don’t know, yet,” Archer answered. Around them the blue lines faded into galaxies with voids of light filling in between them. The only indication they could tell each other was still in the room was by the black voids their bodies made. “It looks like a star chart,” Hoshi commented. “Is it T’Pol?” Archer asked. T’Pol didn’t reply right away. “There are star systems the scanner has identified from our database.” “So...this is an astronomy device?” Trip asked. “I don’t know.” Archer walked over to a point of light. He waved his hand through it. The sphere emitted a low pitch hum as the blue light reshaped to form a galaxy that filled the entire loading bay. “This is the Andromeda galaxy,” T’Pol told them. “Captain, look left,” Hoshi said On his left a holographic screen with red lettering and scrolling text appeared. There were holographic buttons along the bottom. The scrolling text disappeared, leaving only one line of text with a blinking cursor at the end. With the change of color in the room, Archer could see the other three better. He walked over to the screen and touched one of the buttons. Writing appeared on the screen and formed into two lists. “Can you read any of this, Hoshi?” Archer asked. “Not without some kind of pattern or root.” ‘That’s a first,’ Archer thought. T’Pol reached out to touch one of the list items. A bolt of electricity shot from the sphere and hit her between her shoulder blades, throwing her against the wall and knocking her unconscious. Trip ran over to her, gently shaking her. “T’Pol?” “Get her to Sickbay,” Archer ordered. “I don’t think this thing likes Vulcans,” Trip said as he picked her up. “That’s the second time it’s zapped her.” He hurried out of the room. Archer turned back to the red screen. He walked over to it, watching it rotate with him so it was always in the same position no matter where he moved. “Doesn’t seem to mind humans much,” Hoshi said. “Wonder what it thinks about Denobulans.” “Ask Phlox to come down here,” he told Hoshi. “Trip just took T’Pol to--” Hoshi was interrupted when Enterprise rocked. “CAPTAIN TO THE BRIDGE!” Malcolm yelled over the ship COM. “Hoshi,” Archer said. The two ran out of the loading bay. # Archer and Hoshi ran off the lift together, Hoshi running to her station and Archer stumbling into his chair. The view screen showed a ship Archer didn’t recognize. “Hull plating at sixty percent, Captain,” Malcolm reported. “Return fire.” Enterprise was hit several times before Malcolm reported, “Their engines are disabled, Captain.” “Warp five, Travis,” Archer ordered. Enterprise leapt to warp, leaving the attacking ship behind. “What happened, Malcolm?” “They hailed us, said they were the Shogefi, and that we had an object that belonged to them. I told them they must speak to you and they opened fire.” “Hoshi, go back to the loading bay and work on translating that device’s language.” “Yes, sir.” Hoshi left the bridge. Archer sat down, debating what to do if the Shogefi pursued. |
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