The Garden - Melissa Scott [22]
"Report," Janeway said, and Kim shook himself, brought up his tricorder.
He touched the control pad to run a standard scan, and watched the checklights flick from the orange of standby to the green of positive readings. At the same time, the first analysis scrolled past in the tricorder's tiny screen no sign of poisons, no signs of harmful insects or animals, just the rich, unfamiliar plant life stretching for kilometers on every side. H e looked up again, unable to suppress his pleasure in the sheer physical beauty of the planet, and said, "Nothing unexpected here, Captain. Just plants, nothing more."
"The same here," Renehan said, and the other security man echoed her.
Torres didn't answer, and Kim glanced curiously in her direction. The engineer was pacing slowly toward the line of trees, her brow even more furrowed as she frowned at the readings in her tricorder's screen.
"Lieutenant Torres?" Janeway said, and Torres swung back toward them.
"Sorry, Captain. I set my tricorder to scan specifically for signs of construction, and I found what seems to be a pipeline, directly underfoot. It could be an irrigation pipe, but it's pretty big for that."
Kim adjusted his own tricorder to match her scan, then touched controls to correlate those readings with the maps he had made from orbit. "It runs directly toward the citadel, Captain."
"Interesting." Janeway set her hands on her hips and turned slowly, surveying the parklands. "Still no life-forms?"
"Not on my scan," Renehan answered, and Kim swung his own tricorder in a full circle, confirming her results.
"I'm picking up something," Torres said, her frown deepening. "Toward the citadel. It could be those machines the scanners picked up back on Voyager."
Janeway nodded. "Well, there's no point in staying
here." She touched her communicator. "Voyager, this is Janeway."
Chakotay's response was reassuringly prompt. "Chakotay here, Captain."
"We're starting for the citadel," Janeway said. "Janeway out." She glanced at her team. "Mr. Kim, keep scanning anything that looks like a food crop. We might as well make sure we can eat what we trade for."
"If there's anybody to trade with," Paris murmured.
Janeway lifted an eyebrow. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Mr. Paris. For now, this is an inhabited planet, and we are as yet uninvited guests."
"Sorry, Captain." Paris didn't sound particularly regretful, but Janeway seemed to take his words at face value.
"Right. Lieutenant Torres, does this-pipeline- go all the way to the citadel?"
"As far as I can tell, it does," Torres answered.
"Then we'll follow it, at least until we find a road." Janeway started along the line the engineer had indicated, but paused to glance back over her shoulder. "And, for those of you who are not from agricultural worlds, be careful of the growing crops. Don't walk on or among them if you can help it."
There was a ragged chorus of acknowledgment, and Kim stepped cautiously away from the saucer-shaped flowers. They were certainly lovely, but not, he thought, terribly practical. Then, reconsidering- how could he make that assumption on form alone?-he turned his tricorder on the nearest cluster. To his surprise, the tricorder registered a large, bulbous root system, and suggested further that it was edible by humans. He touched another set of keys, refining the analysis as far as he could without taking
samples, and produced a profile that looked very like a terrestrial potato. He blinked in surprise, and touched the controls to run the test again.
"Hey, Harry! You coming?"
Kim looked up, still amazed by the results, and saw Paris beckoning from the far side of the lawn. "Sorry," he called back, and hurried to catch up. To his embarrassment,