“Give it at least five meters of clearance.”
“Why?”
“I’m about to restore power to the array and in the event you’re not as good at following instructions as you appear to be…”
“Boom?”
“You’re in space, so you won’t hear it, but you’ll definitely feel it.”
“Will it be the last thing I feel?”
“Just stand the hell back.”
“Copy that, Chief.”
Thirty seconds later, Velth was treated to the sight of a functioning communications array unfolding like a sunflower turning toward a light source. Velth released a deep sigh of satisfaction.
“Looks great from out here,” he said.
“In here too. Nice work, Velth,” Conlon said with palpable relief.
“Can I come home now?”
“Not just yet.”
Oh, right, Velth remembered. “The microfractures?”
“Face the comm array and proceed forward toward two o’clock, about ten meters.”
“What exactly am I looking for?”
“Anything that looks like it shouldn’t be there,” Conlon replied.
“Okey-dokey.”
Velth was approximately two meters away when he spotted it.
“What the…?”
“I need you to get a little closer, Velth.”
He wished he didn’t have to.
He hadn’t seen most of the really weird things some of the teams who’d studied the biodomes on DK-1116 had reported: strange vegetation, objects that read as nonliving but regenerated when sampled. His work had consisted largely of helping Commander Paris prep a lakeside area in one of the larger biodomes for crew recreation activities. He had, however, been on Galen’s bridge watching when Voyager had destroyed one of its shuttles that had made contact with a black, sludgy substance and been almost entirely consumed by it. Fascinating as the shuttle’s immolation had been to witness, he’d felt significantly better when it had been blown to bits than he had while watching it approach the fleet’s position. The only thing he clearly recalled of that moment was thinking that the stuff in the process of eating the shuttle sure looked hungry.
Whatever was now affixed to Galen’s hull easily checked both the “really weird” and “possibly hungry” boxes.
The patch was roughly oval shaped, though its edges were irregular. It was definitely attached to the hull and had a fluid quality to it. Though primarily black, faint vivid flashes of color all along the visible spectrum emanated frequently from the substance. Velth couldn’t shake the sense that it was alive, despite the fact that his suit’s sensors, which automatically fed data to a display in his helmet, were not detecting anything remotely close to a life-form when angled directly toward it. It was moving, but not growing, and Velth felt almost certain that were he to disturb it, it might take offense and turn its attention toward him.
Velth took a half step closer and bent on one knee to give Conlon the best view he could comfortably provide.
“Are you receiving my sensor feed, Chief?”
“Yeah,” Conlon replied. “It’s a little confusing.”
“Any idea when we picked it up?”
“No. But it does appear to be repairing some damage to the area.”
“How?”
“Hard to say. There’s evidence of molecular adhesion and biochemical changes that are definitely reinforcing the fractures.”
“So, it’s friendly?” Velth asked dubiously.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Conlon said. “Friends might have asked before they attached a foreign substance to our ship. That said, internal sensors show similar readings at more than a dozen places on the hull. I’m guessing the fractures happened in transit and these were put in place to make sure the ship didn’t rip itself apart before we had a chance to do our own repairs.”
“There are a lot of assumptions in that statement, Chief,” Velth noted.
“I’m trying to maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity .”
“That’s adorable. I’m more of a realist, myself.”
A long silence followed. Velth maintained his position, assuming Conlon was busying herself collecting all the data his sensors could give her. After almost a minute had passed, a soft ping caught his attention. “Is that my sensor grid saying ‘Hello’?” he asked.
“Hold on. There’s a lot of weird radioactive particles out there. Could just be a random…”
Velth’s stomach tightened a notch as the voice keeping him relatively calm trailed off.
“Chief? Conlon?”
“Lieutenant Velth, it’s Harry.” The stress in Kim’s voice was easy to hear.
“Do we have a problem?”
“It is possible we have attracted a little attention,” Kim said.
“What kind of attention?” Velth asked as a wide array of frightening possibilities began to occur to him.
“Stand by,” Kim ordered.
It took every ounce of self-restraint Velth possessed to remain in place. The lizard that lived at the base of his brain insisted he run for the airlock. The trained Starfleet officer in him refused that imperative.
“Any chance you guys have fixed the transporters in the last two hours?” Velth asked.
“No, Velth,” came Conlon’s voice. She sounded every bit as stressed as Kim. “Don’t worry about the gear. Just start back toward the airlock, okay?”
She didn’t have to tell him twice. Velth rose and began his journey by retracing his steps to the array. As he did so, he began a cursory visual scan of the area around him while moving as briskly as his magnetic boots would permit. Nothing directly ahead or within ninety degrees of either side appeared to be amiss.
Fantastic, they’re coming up behind me, Velth deduced. Turning slowly, he searched the darkness for whatever had spooked Kim and Conlon, and activated his suit’s proximity alert.
Even with his suit’s sensor magnification set to maximum, it took a few seconds to pick them out among the visual spectacle of newborn stars and the distant lights that according to Kim were most likely alien vessels. At first glance, he saw two but soon enough, he could clearly discern five distinct figures. They were shaped like rectangles with no obvious extremities. Only bits and pieces of them were clearly visible as they approached.
Whatever their external suit, skin, or ships were constructed of, only portions of it reflected the distant light of the stars at any given moment. It was almost perfect camouflage but was also reminiscent of the material affixed to the hull he had just studied.
A bolt of adrenaline coursed through him as his sensors confirmed that his unwelcome visitors
