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STAR TREK:
THE EQUATORIAL
By Darrin A. Colbourne
She woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath! Her lungs hurt from the effort! She tried to grab her chest, but something was holding her arms down, holding her down! There were people in her room, people in shadow! They were arguing with each other in some foreign language. She struggled against them, but it was no use! The ones holding her in the bed were too strong! One of the shadows barked what seemed like an order. Another pointed a rod at her. There was a flash of light, then nothing.
TWO WEEKS EARLIER…
"Range to go: 30,000 miles." Commander Mary McDonald called out from her place at the helm.
"Slow to Ahead Creep and turn us bow-on to the planet." Captain Christopher Pike said.
"Slow to Ahead Creep, Aye." McDonald said. "Answers Ahead Creep, turning bow-on to the planet."
Isabel Montoya's gaze was riveted on the main viewer as the Enterprise conducted a high-speed pass over the first planet in the Juno Star System. She'd managed to force herself to stop biting her thumbnail - something she'd been doing since the ship reentered normal space - but she couldn't shake her trepidation.
Juno Prime would be the third planet they'd visited since the events at Shiva Three. The first, a small Mars-like world, was entering the final stages of planetary dormancy. Too small to maintain a thick, life-sustaining atmosphere, the world they'd found was cold and barren, devoid of all life save for a few hibernating microorganisms. The next world was at the opposite stage in its life. It was in the final throes of planet formation. There was violent seismic activity everywhere, the air was full of noxious gases and ash and even if there were enough water on the surface for life to get started in, the ambient heat, radiation and still-frequent cosmic impacts would kill most of it off. Both worlds were worth a look from a general scientific standpoint, but for the purposes of the Common Man Project they were a waste of time.
That was Montoya's problem. She wanted to get the project back on track, use it to get her mind off the incident with the Klingons - her mind and everyone else's - but she couldn't do that without having something relevant to the project to investigate. That meant sentient, civilized life. She knew intellectually that she had to be patient, that it was unreasonable to think that she would find new civilizations at every single stop, but her gut was at odds with her head. Deep down, it only made sense to her that since they were still so close to Known Space - which was teeming with sentient, space-faring life-forms - they ought to be encountering similar life-forms more frequently in the early stages of the mission.
She saw Juno Prime as a test of that sentiment. One of only a handful of planetary bodies orbiting a small yellow star, Juno Prime showed every sign of being a Goldilocks World. It was the right distance from its primary, the right size and the right mass to sustain a rich ecosystem. The next step would be to see if it had actually done so, and if that ecosystem in turn had produced a higher intelligence. The orbital fly-by would answer that question almost immediately.
"Sensors, report all contacts." Pike said.
"Captain, my only contacts are the major bodies of the system." Sensors said. "No Warp contacts out to four light-years, no spacecraft in orbit around the target world."
"Very Well. Report all surface contacts."
"Wait One…reading numerous power generation centers on the surface, several aircraft and sea-going ships. Most of the vessels are doing around twelve knots. All of the aircraft are operating in the low sub-sonic range."
"Any sign they're alerted to our presence?"
"No, Sir. All contacts appear to be transiting normally."
All at once Montoya felt herself relax. There were people on Juno Prime, and though they hadn't yet reached out to the stars they had achieved powered flight and navigation. That made them adolescent by Human standards, but definitely worth studying. The project was back on track.
"Very Well." Pike said. "Helm, bring us into synchronous orbit. Communicator, launch the Alert spacecraft and let's go to Emcon One." After the appropriate officers acknowledged and complied: "Let's stand down from Departure Stations and set a normal watch."
Pike was out of the center seat by the time the Communicator keyed her Intercraft control. "All Hands, Stand Down from Departure Stations," she announced. "Set Midwatch in Control." The Captain was out of the Control Room before she finished.
Montoya's gaze was still fixed on the main viewer as she went over to the center seat. As a result she overshot and almost bumped into McDonald as the Executive Officer made her way to the portside passage. "Sorry…" Montoya said.
"Patience, Commander…" McDonald began.
"I know, I know," Montoya said, "'the planet isn't going anywhere.'"
McDonald shrugged. "At least as far as we know at this point." They shared a smile, then McDonald whispered, "Have fun, dear," and left.
Montoya waited until the watch change was completed before she sat down. "Sensors, magnify the image on the viewer," She said.
"Aye, Sir." Sensors said. Juno Prime started to expand in the view. Montoya waited until the angle was wide enough for her to make out the lights of a large city as the ship entered the planet's shadow.
"Hold!" She called out. The image stopped expanding, giving her a good look at what might be Juno Prime's New York City or Paris. As she contemplated the lights, she got comfortable in the center seat and let herself get lost in thought.
Down there, now only about 23,000 miles away, millions, maybe billions of people were going about their daily lives. Maybe they were Humanoid, maybe they were truly Human, but in either case they seemed stable and content, and in cosmic terms they were close enough for her to spit at, and that left her with the need to answer a deceptively simple question:
Now what?