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Star Trek™:Corps of Engineers Turn the Page by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore Troubleshooting by Robert Greenberger The Light by Jeff D. Jacques The Art of the Comeback by Glenn Greenberg Signs from Heaven by Phaedra M. Weldon COMING SOON: Ghost by Ilsa J. Bick Remembrance of Things Past Book 1 by Terri Osborne Remembrance of Things Past Book 2 by Terri Osborne
Chapter 1 Captain’s Log, Stardate 54683.2. We’ve arrived in orbit around one of the Federation’s oldest member planets, Ardana. Our mission is to prevent Stratos—Ardana’s infamous floating city—from crashing down on the populace below. Our first order of business is to stabilize the city’s descent before any work can be done on repairing the anti-gravity engines. Chief Engineer Conlon is working on using the da Vinci’s tractor beam as a safety net to test last-minute safeguards. “C aptain.” The newly promoted Lieutenant Songmin Wong spoke up. “We’re being hailed from Ardana—it’s Captain Scott.” Captain David Gold pulled his lips into a thin line as he saved his log. “On screen.” The familiar and easygoing supervisor of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers filled the screen. He smiled broadly beneath his bushy, salt-and-pepper mustache. “Ah, David. We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” Gold chuckled. “Seems like only last month we were chasing Rod Portlyn around the galaxy.” “Aye—I still ha
Chapter 2 B art Faulwell looked at the faces of the command staff as they gathered in the observation lounge. What he saw was a mixture of excitement and worry. Excitement he credited to the presence of Captain Scott—always a welcome sight. Gomez sat to Gold’s right. Bart sat on her right, then Carol Abramowitz, the da Vinci’s cultural specialist, then Sarjenka. P8 Blue, the ship’s Nasat Structural Systems specialist, sat comfortably in her chair, specially designed to accommodate her many legs, opposite Gold. To her right sat Lense; Specialist Soloman, a single Bynar; Chief Engineer Nancy Conlon; Second Officer Tev; and Captain Scott, directly on Gold’s left. Noticeably absent were Fabian Stevens and Domenica Corsi. Lense looked uncomfortable in the chair. Her brows were pinched together over her small nose. Corsi slipped inside the room at that moment and took the seat between Conlon and Tev, her expression unreadable. Amid the many padds scattered over the conference table sat the f
Chapter 3 “S ort of a green—Vulcan blood green actually.” Fabian noticed T’Nel arch a dark eyebrow. “No offense.” “What about me?” Nemeckova asked. “What colors do you see when I talk?” Fabian was in engineering, leaning back comfortably against the main console in front of the warp core. Sandy had told him he could leave sickbay—in fact she’d all but pushed him out. Muttered something about needing peace and quiet. But hey, who knew his own voice carried a sort of gold hue to it? And so he’d set about making sentences. “Hi, my name’s Fabian. Fabe is my name. I am an engineer.” But he was sure she’d only sent him on his way because he’d made fun of the colors her singing caused to dance about the room. He might have heard her voice as off-key, but the colors they made—weird. He put a finger under his chin. “Blue—a soft powder blue.” “And how about me?” Maxwell Hammett asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Fabian narrowed his eyes. “Red. Definitely red.” “I thought you said I was
Chapter 4 G omez’s team assembled in the transporter room: Bart and Carol, Corsi and her four-person team of Makk Vinx, Rennan Konya, Lauoc Soan, and Ellec Krotine. Pattie would be joining them, as well as Tev. Fabian and Sarjenka made up the back end. Captain Scott had beamed down earlier. First impressions aside, Fabian shivered twice after transporting onto a high, blue marble-floored dais. He’d never been a real fan of heights, and the abrupt view of the planet below from the less-than-protected railing nearly set him into a fit of vertigo. Scotty, also bundled up in a thick Starfleet parka, welcomed them. A tall, thin man in noticeably thinner clothing stood dutifully beside Scotty. He had long, full, thick hair pulled back in an intricate plait. This guy had to be an Ardanan. Fabian rubbed his chin. Huh…maybe Ardanans have a higher tolerance to cold? “Welcome to Stratos,” Scott said as he held his arms out. “I’d like to introduce Historian Vanov.” Gomez approached the Ardanan fir
Chapter 5 “W ell.” Bart looked up at the fourteen-foot door. It was a nice door. All big and huge and impressive. Dark wood, buffed and polished. No oil residue. No sign of age either—none that he could see. Or any tell-tale evidence of weathering. But then again, they were several floors below what Carol referred to as “cloud level.” They’d huddled down a series of streets lined by what Bart could only call brownstones of a sort—the kind he remembered seeing on Earth, in Manhattan. These were nicer—not made of brick, but what looked like shining marble. Very impressive. The path Alverson and company had taken led them to a large house down a one-way street. Bart hadn’t seen any sort of vehicles—not even a bus. How had these people gotten from place to place? Walked? Either way, it was hard to believe they were actually on a platform in the air. Except for the wind—how had they dealt with all this wind? The street ended at an impressive-looking building. All squared with no windows. No
Chapter 6 I t was like nothing Bart had ever seen before. Vanov had called this an archive. No. More like a museum. Most of the art hung on the walls, sat on pedestals, while others rested on individual dais like the one they had transported in on. What caught the group’s attention were the pieces obviously not part of the display. Sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, and books rested on the floor in a less than orderly fashion, propped against the walls or slung against one another. As if they’d been piled inside with haste. Vanov moved in the center of the path, not allowing his robes to brush any of the displayed pieces. He stopped a few feet ahead of them, his face expressionless. “It looks like they just threw some of this stuff in here,” Carol said as she and Gomez joined them. Corsi stood a few feet away, looking at a long, rectangular piece of art in a black frame. “I’m thinking they were in a hurry. Might have believed this museum was the safest place.” “Oh, this is def
Chapter 7 G old entered sickbay, his irritation building with each passing second. “All right, Lense, I’m here. What’s so damned important?” Lense motioned him to her. “We need to get Fabian out of there.” “Right now, I can’t beam anyone in or out of Stratos. The whole city’s sealed up tight—not even the Ardanan transmat devices are working.” “What kind of defense is that?” Lense asked. “Scotty says it’s the work of a madman,” Gold said. “He believes it was installed by Plasus during the verbal war with the Federation. Because Kirk had Scotty beam Plasus to the surface, Plasus installed a safeguard against that. What we don’t know is if the restart of the dampeners keyed it, or if it was the tractor beam Conlon threw around the city.” “Can’t you just somehow grab the city again and put it on the ground?” “Not according to Conlon. That one second of power the da Vinci used to hold Stratos in midair caused a sufficient drain on our own power. By more than forty percent. She and her team
Chapter 8 “A half hour,” Fabian said. He stood beside Bart in the center of what Bart now referred to as the map room. “So what are we supposed to do if we don’t get that shield shut off? Find parachutes and hope they open?” Bart suppressed a smile. His roommate’s agitation was well-founded—having just learned that the people they had come to help had decided to blow them out of the sky. But that didn’t lessen what they were doing. Bart nodded at Sonya. “We understand.” Sarjenka had her tricorder out again. “Fabian, stop doing this. Your temperature’s up again.” Gomez stepped closer to her. “What’s happening?” “His core temperature is rising, and he’s exhibiting instances of labored breathing. Those things in his head are messing with his RAS.” “What’s his core temperature?” “One hundred and two Fahrenheit.” But Fabian was staring at the paintings. Bart came up beside him. “You still don’t see it, do you?” “Bart, I’ve been standing here for ten minutes and I just can’t see—” But he did
Chapter 9 E verything happened so fast. Sarjenka had been standing by the back wall when the pole shot from one of the holes camouflaged to resemble an accent light and impaled Bart Faulwell. Carol and Gomez screamed Bart’s name. Fabian stumbled after them, the company of the entire room sprinting for the man pinned to one of the paneled paintings. Sarjenka ran forward. Corsi reached out to pull the pole from Bart’s stomach. “Don’t do that!” Sarjenka yelled out. Corsi turned a furious face toward her that made Sarjenka stop. “Why the hell not?” Calm down, calm down…. You’ve got to take your own pulse first before you can calm others. Taking in a breath, she approached the scene, her eyes focused on Corsi’s brilliant blue ones. “Because if that pole has hit major arteries it might actually be acting as a kind of stopper, a thumb in a dike. I need to assess what’s been damaged before I can go any further—” She looked at Bart, his head forward, hiding his face. “The wisest thing to do is
Chapter 10 “C aptain—High Advisor Nelois is hailing us.” Oh, boy. Gold had been sitting in his chair, feeling useless as ever. His right foot bounced up and down in a nervous twitch even Rachael couldn’t endure. “Put him on screen.” Larin Nelois appeared. His expression was less than cordial and his lips were drawn in a thin line. “Captain Gold, I must apologize for the Yaffie’s actions—” “High Advisor,” Gold interrupted. “Tell those people to stop firing on Stratos or so help me I’ll fire on them.” Nelois looked as if Gold had just punched him in the stomach. “You wouldn’t dare!” “I will dare, and I will get my people out of there. Relay that message to Yaffie now. Gold out.” He slapped at the comm on his command chair’s left arm. He turned to Haznedl. “Any word from Stratos’s engine room?” “None sir.” She turned to him. “Dr. Lense is still online with Sarjenka, but neither Commander Gomez nor Captain Scott are answering our hails. I can’t tell if their signal’s being jammed or if the
Chapter 11 Two days later… S arjenka stood outside the sterile room, looking through the glass at Bart Faulwell. He lay on a stasis table, his aging slowed, his life on hold. Lense moved in her scrubs, masked, protective eyewear over her face. She checked his vitals as a machine encased his body, keeping it in a sterile field. His feet and legs were covered in light sheets. Someone came to stand by her. A glance to her left. Captain Scott. “How’s Dr. Faulwell?” She sighed. “He’s alive. Barely. Dr. Lense worked a miracle on that table. She already knew he was allergic to Retnox 5, so she didn’t even go that route. She knew before we’d left Stratos and contacted Starfleet medical for a Retnox patient. The organs are waiting on Starbase 375. It was faster than couriering them to us.” Sarjenka turned a surprised face to Captain Scott. “Did you know she actually took an old scan of Bart’s pattern and used the EMH program to project a kidney, pancreas, and spleen into his body? That’s what’s
Epilogue H e heard a sound in the dark. The clink of glass against metal. His lids stirred and he opened his eyes. It was still dark. Someone moved beside him, brushed his left arm. He was cold. “Hello?” “Fabian?” He recognized the voice. Sonya. A tiny light came on to his left. He winced at the brightness and blinked several times. There wasn’t any pain. Reality struck him in that instant. He could talk! And move! “Whu…whut happened?” His voice sounded awful. He had strange dreams of being chased by men in white robes, all of them wanting to turn him into a motorcycle. Weird. “Elizabeth says the dendrites are gone—or at least they’re drying up. We’ll be at Starbase 375 in about three hours. She’s getting Bart ready for transport.” He looked at her in the soft light. Her hair was down, framing her face. Sonya’s skin was pale, ghostly in the dark surrounding her. Dark half moons hung beneath her eyes and they were red rimmed. “You okay? You look—You okay?” He was parched and wanted wate
Epilogue
Acknowledgments T he first and most heartfelt thank you must be given to Keith R.A. DeCandido for allowing me to be a part of such a rich and incredible series. Ever since pushing my own boundaries with Blackout, I’ve wanted to come back to the da Vinci and take on another character—and another adventure. I only hope I never disappoint—or give him agita again. I would also love to put in an affectionate thank you to Dr. Ilsa J. Bick, one of my closest friends, for without her input parts of this story could never have been realized. Also added in this list is Herbert Beas III, a friend, writer, and fellow Star Trek fan, whose love of the graviton engine was mine to mine. A thanks to my daughter, for knowing Mommy has to sit at her desk most weekends and nights, and to my parents—especially my dad—who introduced all of his children to the wonderful and inspiring world of Gene Rodenberry.
About the Author PHAEDRA M. WELDON has been a fan of Star Trek since her dad introduced her to the series when she was twelve. Her professional writing career began with stories selected for two of Pocket Books’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies—“The Lights in the Sky” in Volume 1 and “Who Cries for Prometheus?” in Volume 5. She is also the author of many original fiction short stories for DAW anthologies, and is excited about her first original published novel, Wraith, to be released from Ace in June 2007. Her other work with Star Trek includes S.C.E. #59: Blackout and The Oppressor’s Wrong, Book 2 in the upcoming Star Trek: The Next Generation six-eBook series, Slings and Arrows.
COMING NEXT MONTH:STAR TREK™:CORPS OF ENGINEERS Continuing the adventures of the U.S.S. da Vinci, as Captain David Gold, Commander Sonya Gomez, and the rest of Starfleet’s miracle workers solve the problems of the galaxy, one disaster at a time. GHOST by Ilsa J. Bick Dr. Elizabeth Lense has left the da Vinci, returning to Earth to have the child conceived in another universe. But she arrives home to find that her estranged mother—renowned archaeologist Jennifer Almieri—is dead, and the investigation into her death is being handled by Starfleet Intelligence. Soon Lense finds herself entwined in a web of intrigue, where everything she thought she knew about her mother is called into question. Also returning to Earth is Bart Faulwell, recovering from the near-fatal injuries sustained in Signs from Heaven, and looking forward to a reunion with his lover Anthony Mark. But the reunion is far less satisfying than he’d been expecting. Two crew members face major crossroads in their lives… COMI
COMING IN OCTOBER: CELEBRATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION,POCKET BOOKS PROUDLY PRESENTS: SLINGS AND ARROWS A new six-part epic covering the first year of service of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, leading up to the events of the hit movie Star Trek: First Contact. BOOK 1: A SEA OF TROUBLES by J. Steven York & Christina F. York The U.S.S. Enterprise-E has launched, with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in command. In addition to many familiar faces, the new ship also has some new crew members—Conn Officer Hawk, Security Chief Linda Addison, Deputy Chief Engineer Shontee, and Science Officer Lilly Gamaney. But soon Picard is devastated to learn that there’s a saboteur on board—in the form of a changeling infiltrator from the Dominion! Picard and his crew must learn who the changeling replaced and stop her before she destroys the fleet’s finest ship…. A new eBook from the authors of Enigma Ship and Spin! COMING IN OCTOBER FROM POCKET BOOKS!
OTHER STAR TREK™ EBOOKS Star Trek: The Next Generation™: Slings and Arrows COMING IN 2007: Book 1: A Sea of Troubles by J. Steven York & Christina F. York Book 2: The Oppressor’s Wrong by Phaedra M. Weldon Book 3: The Insolence of Office by William Leisner Star Trek: Mere Anarchy Book 1: Things Fall Apart by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore Book 2: The Centre Cannot Hold by Mike W. Barr Book 3: Shadows of the Indignant by Dave Galanter Book 4: The Darkness Drops Again by Christopher L. Bennett Book 5: The Blood-Dimmed Tide by Howard Weinstein Book 6: Its Hour Come Round by Margaret Wander Bonanno Star Trek: S.C.E. #1: The Belly of the Beast by Dean Wesley Smith #2: Fatal Error by Keith R.A. DeCandido #3: Hard Crash by Christie Golden #4: Interphase Book 1 by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore #5: Interphase Book 2 by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore #6: Cold Fusion by Keith R.A. DeCandido #7: Invincible Book 1 by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeCandido #8: Invincible Book 2 by David Mack & Keith R.A. DeC
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