Miracle Workers (SCE Books 5-8) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [88]
GOMEZ: I’m sorry, Doctor, I didn’t realize . . .
DOLAHN: Yes, well, there was no way you could’ve known. GOMEZ: Especially since you didn’t tell me. If you actually gave me reports . . .
DOLAHN: [makes throat-clearing noise] Yes, well, be that as it may, I have begun the autopsy, and I’ve come to rather a shocking revelation.
GOMEZ: What?
DOLAHN: Whatever this creature is, it isn’t native to Sarindar.
GOMEZ: But—
DOLAHN: It may appear to be a shii—and rather a mutated one at that—but it isn’t. Take a look at this. Some of these match the way the internal organs of a shii are supposed to be arranged, but half of them aren’t even actual organs. I’ve been studying silicon-based life-forms for most of my career, and I can’t make heads nor feet out of any of th—
GOMEZ: These aren’t organs.
DOLAHN: I beg your pardon?
GOMEZ: These aren’t organs.
DOLAHN: What are you doing with that thing? I thought those Starfleet contraptions of yours were just glorified recording devices on this planet.
GOMEZ: I’ve been able to modify this one to get at least partial readings, even with the chimerium. And, according to the readings I’m getting right now, these don’t behave like “proper” organs because they’re biomechanical.
DOLAHN: Commander, most silicon-based life might read on a tricorder as “ biomechanical” due to the nature of their—
GOMEZ: Doctor, contrary to the opinions of the Nalori government, I’m not stupid. I compensated for that. But this creature was never “alive” in the traditional sense. It’s an artificial life-form. In fact . . .
DOLAHN: What is it?
GOMEZ: If I’m reading this right, some of these “organs” are actually chameleon circuits. Some people at the Daystrom Institute were working on something like this, but they were never able to make it work.
DOLAHN: For those of us who don’t follow every move of the Daystrom Institute, Commander, what, exactly, is a chameleon circuit?
GOMEZ: It’s something that allows a mechanism to change its outer form. You program it to alter its appearance. The problem is, the power demands to let something with an unstable molecular structure perform stable mechanical functions were always way in excess of what was practical. Whoever built this was able to solve that. This is amazing.
DOLAHN: Why would anyone build something like this?
GOMEZ: I don’t know. But this changes everything. I need to study these circuits, see if I can figure out the programming.
DOLAHN: What, you’re going to work here?
GOMEZ: Unless you have a better idea, Doctor. I won’t have the space to do this in my tent, and this is the closest we have to a lab in the camp.
DOLAHN: Fine, if you must, but please stay out of my way.
First officer’s log, Commander Sonya Gomez, planet Sarindar, Stardate 53288.6
I have left Razka and J’Roh in charge of what remains of the project—apparently, the crew working on the mining mechanics have been throwing themselves into their work, on the premise that it’s better than waiting for something to kill them. Everyone else is sulking in their tents. I, meanwhile, have spent the last twenty-eight hours trying to figure out what makes the “ monster shii” tick.
And, I’m happy to say, I think I’ve found it.
I’ve been able to extract a visual record from the creature’s “eyes”—actually, recording devices. It took a while for me to determine how to read the things—I finally managed it by constructing an image translator, cannibalizing parts from Dr. Dolahn’s X-ray machine, of all things.
Some time in the past—it’s impossible to be sure how far, as the manner in which this mechanism tells time doesn’t have an obvious analogue to Federation or Nalori timekeeping—an expedition of aliens came to Sarindar. I can’t say what they were called—the universal translator renders the references to them as simply “the owners”—but the two shii were the protectors for the expedition. Their job was to keep them safe and gather food for them.
The owners are quadrupedal beings who look, at first glance, like a hybrid between seals and dogs