Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Books 1-4) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [108]
The pair swept the immense chamber with their helmet lamps, chasing the black away as the illumination shone across the bizarre sight of cargo containers drifting freely about the chamber. Dust littered the air as well, further hampering their vision, and in some instances the grime covered shipping labels and other markings on various containers.
Pattie’s eyes widened as one reading on her tricorder changed. “I have located the anomalous power source.” She pointed off into the depths of the cargo bay. “That way.”
With Lense following, Pattie stepped cautiously into the hold, her attention riveted on the information being relayed by her tricorder as the pair continued past containers and other equipment. While some of it was still strapped to the deck or fastened to storage shelves, the majority of the room’s contents floated about the room free of any restraint.
Inspecting the label on one container, Lense shook her head. “This one is full of replacement components for computer workstations.” She pointed to another. “That one has parts for engineering control systems. This stuff could fill a museum exhibit.”
“Perhaps it will, one day,” Pattie said as she continued to consult her tricorder. “Starfleet may see fit to honor the Defiant ’s crew by interring the ship in the Fleet Museum as part of a memorial. Such an action would seem appropriate.” She turned a corner and headed toward the bay’s far bulkhead. Moving in and around more drifting containers and components, the insect-like engineering specialist abruptly stopped.
“This is it,” she said simply. It was an understatement.
Unlike the drab gray square and rectangular containers dominating the rest of the cargo hold, the object Pattie and Lense now beheld was octagonal in shape and painted in a dark black that shone through the thick dust covering it. Pattie guessed that the object was half again as long as a Starfleet standard quantum torpedo tube while being nearly twice as wide. Secured to the deck with restraining bands, the item sat atop a suite of six stocky legs. Bending down near one end of the squat device, Pattie waved her tricorder over one of the legs.
“Soil residue,” she said as she examined the unit’s readings. “Whatever it is, it was intended for use on the surface of a planet or moon.”
Lense wiped dust from the surface of the object, looking for some clue to its origin or purpose. “There doesn’t seem to be any external markings. Do you have any idea what it might be?”
“Components of this device look similar to technology possessed by the Tholians,” Pattie said. “Or at least the configurations carry basic Tholian tenets of design.” She pointed to one of the object’s eight side panels. “These appear to be energy emitters of some kind.” She shook her head. “It is remarkable that its power cell is still functioning after all this time, and despite the debilitating effects of the rift. We may be able to learn something useful about the protective aspects of its internal shielding.”
Lense frowned as she studied the squat device. “No means of propulsion, nothing that appears to be a weapon. What could it be?”
For that, Pattie had no answer. Lense mentally filed their exchange among her reminders as to why she preferred medical science to engineering: At least her patients could assist in their own diagnoses.
Sitting at the engineering station on the bridge of the Defiant , Sonya Gomez couldn’t deny the feeling that she’d stepped backward into history.
As she ran her hands along the glossy black console and let her fingers trace over the rows of multicolored buttons, she realized how Captain Gold had been enamored with the idea of boarding this vessel. The sensation had begun to assert itself earlier, down in the engineering section, but it was nothing compared to what she had felt when she set foot on the bridge.
Her trained eyes had inspected every