Star Trek: The Original Series: The Rings of Time

cyclonic winds zipping past one another in opposite directions. Saturn’s winds were believed to be the most ferocious in the solar system, reaching speeds of more than eighteen thousand kilometers per hour, while its fabled rings, which could be subdivided into thousands of smaller ringlets, spread out in concentric circles from the planet’s equator, not unlike the tattoo at the back of Zoe’s neck. Shaun wondered if she’d had it done for the voyage.

“Almost there,” Shaun said, proud of their accomplishment. They had passed through the asteroid belt unscathed, bypassed Jupiter and its deadly radiation field, and made it across the solar system to Saturn. They were farther from home than any explorer had ever ventured before — any human explorer, that was. “Well done, folks.”

“Yes,” O’Herlihy said hoarsely, choking up. “So much hard work, all our sacrifices… yet here we are. We made it.”

Shaun patted him on his back. The doc was entitled to get emotional at a moment like this. “It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?”

“You bet.” Fontana high-fived Shaun, wedging her foot into a rail to keep the motion from sending her flying across the deck. Her face was alight with jubilation; she didn’t even seem to mind that Zoe was sharing this moment with them. “Just look at those rings. Earth’s got nothing like that.”

Zoe tapped away at her smart tablet, recording the moment for posterity. Shaun had returned the device to her after making sure its wireless capacity had been disabled and that it held no terrorist-friendly apps. He suspected that the authorities would confiscate the tablet once she returned to Earth, but in the meantime, it gave her something to do, especially since she wasn’t allowed to touch any of the ship’s computer terminals, not even for recreational purposes. Cabin fever could be dangerous in space, so it had seemed best to keep her occupied.

She looked up from the tablet and squinted at the windows. “So, that’s the famous hexagon,” she said. “Freaky.”

As it happened, the planet was tilted toward them at about a twenty-six-degree angle, giving them a clear view of its north pole, where a distinctive honeycomb shape contained a colossal storm some forty thousand kilometers across. The hexagon had first been observed by Voyager 1 more than forty years ago, Shaun recalled. Scientists had been arguing about it ever since.

“One of the solar system’s odder natural wonders,” O’Herlihy observed, somewhat less emotionally than before. His deep voice had regained its cool, professorial tone. “Quite remarkable.”

“I don’t know,” Zoe said. “That doesn’t look natural at all to me. More like evidence of some arcane alien intelligence.”

O’Herlihy sighed; he had little patience for speculative pseudo-science. “Really, Zoe, you’re worse than my students. You need to rely less on the Internet and crackpot theories and more on actual scientific research.” He nodded at the view. “Although deceptively artificial in appearance, that vortex is nothing but an unusual storm formation created by rotational forces deep within the planet’s turbulent atmosphere.”

Zoe wasn’t convinced. “But look at it. A perfect geometric figure with six sides of exactly equal length, unchanged for decades? You’re telling me that just happened by accident?”

“The universe is a big place,” Shaun reminded her. “There’s time and space enough for all sorts of unlikely occurrences. Anything that can happen probably has.”

“Like mysterious alien science projects?” Zoe said. “Who knows? Maybe there’s some weird black monolith at the center of the hexagon.”

“Not on this space odyssey,” Shaun said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not planning to evolve into a higher form of life anytime soon.”

Zoe winked at him. “Speak for yourself.”

“Jesus,” Fontana said, exasperated. “You really don’t know when to give up, do you?”

“Would I be here if I did?”

“My point exactly.”

Shaun intervened before Saturn witnessed its first zero-gravity catfight. “In any event, I hope we’ll learn a lot more about that storm, and the rest of Saturn’s weather patterns, while we’re in the neighborhood.”

The plan was to settle into a polar orbit threading the planet’s rings and study Saturn and its moons for fourteen days before turning around and heading home. NASA expected them to accumulate enough data to keep scientists back on Earth occupied for years. With any luck, some of the data might actually explain the enigmatic hexagon once and for all.

“Indeed,” O’Herlihy said. “I’m looking forward to checking out the magnetometer readings on that storm, not to mention getting a close-up look at that comet.”

The comet was only a misty smudge in the distance at this point. In theory, it would be joining them any day now.

“This is where your work really starts,” Shaun said. O’Herlihy was the chief scientist on this mission; he would be taking center stage now. “I’m just glad we got you here in one piece.”

“I appreciate the smooth ride, Colonel,” O’Herlihy said. “My thanks to you and your esteemed copilot.”

“You’re welcome,” Shaun said. “Recommend us to your friends.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.” Zoe waved her hand in the air to get their attention. “How about I take a snapshot of the three of you at this historic moment? Years from now, you can even pretend I wasn’t here.”

“Oh, I’m already doing that,” Fontana said. “Trust me.”

“Not a bad idea, though,” Shaun said. NASA had issued them a couple of digital cameras so they could capture candid moments of life aboard the ship. The public-relations folks intended to get plenty of mileage out of the photos later; there was even talk of a coffee-table book and a calendar. “Let’s do it.”

He retrieved a camera from a supply locker and flew it over to Zoe. There was no need to lob it to her in an arc; momentum carried it across the cabin in a straight line. She snatched it out of the air and backed up to get the three astronauts in her sights.

“Okay, then,” she said. “All together now, in front of the big pretty planet.”

The crew posed in front of the cockpit windows, their feet not touching the floor. They were literally walking on air. Fontana took the center spot, flanked by the two men.

“Squeeze together closer,” Zoe urged them. “C’mon, Skipper, put your arm around Fontana. Don’t be shy.”

Zoe gave Shaun a puckish smirk. He resisted the urge to glare back at her. That probably wouldn’t look good in the photos.

Smiling, he hugged Fontana and felt her own arm slip around his waist. She gave his hand a furtive squeeze and beamed at the camera. O’Herlihy leaned in from the other side of her.

“Perfect!” Zoe decreed. “Everybody say ‘hexagon.’”

“Hexagon!” they shouted in unison. A flash lit up the flight deck.

As Shaun recalled, they still had one bottle of champagne left.

“LIDAR still tracking the comet,” O’Herlihy reported. “It’s right on schedule.”

Today was Comet Day. The Lewis & Clark had been in a polar orbit around Saturn, perpendicular to the rings, for more than seventy-two hours. That was more than a week by Saturn time, since the planet rotated completely every ten hours or so, giving them numerous chances to observe both its eastern and western hemispheres. They were orbiting the planet at a distance of twenty thousand kilometers, which conveniently allowed them to pass through the Cassini Division without colliding with the rings. The ship’s hull was tough enough to withstand a few minor impacts, but nobody felt like tempting fate by plowing through the rings themselves.

Today, Saturn was just a backdrop, however. Their agenda was to observe the comet close-up and guide an unmanned probe to take samples of both its icy crust and its inner core. The probe, which had been christened Sacagawea, was already waiting outside the ship to intercept the comet. The goal was to land it on the comet’s surface so that it could transmit its findings back to the Lewis & Clark. Christopher and Fontana had spent most of yesterday launching it from the ship’s cargo bay.

Zoe drifted about the flight deck, staying more or less out of the way. “The comet’s not going to hit the rings, is it?”

“Not a chance,” Shaun said from the helm. “It’s going to swing past Saturn at a distance of about two hundred twenty-five thousand kilometers, well clear of the rings.”