“Anyone else wondering who put this here and why?” O’Donnell asked.
Seven searched the surrounding area until she found the answer. “Over here,” she said, moving forward.
Metallic debris littered the floor. Along the “walls” of the pool in two distinct areas opposite each other, roughly circular burns approximately two meters in diameter were visible.
“This chemical reaction happened very recently,” O’Donnell noted.
Seven knelt to collect a piece of the debris, but Patel’s voice halted her.
“Don’t touch that,” she warned as she scanned the surface with her tricorder.
“We should collect some for analysis,” Seven said.
“I believe this was a test pool for their circuit-breaking technology,” Patel said. “This formation is covered with a fine coat of silicon, similar to what was used on the surface pools. There was water here at some point, but it has obviously evaporated. When it did, the two sections of conduit that had been divided by the pool forced their way through and connected to each other. All of the conduits contained the Edrehmaia substance, particles of Sevenofninonium, and other trace metals. I think this is what was left once the conduits released their stored power.”
Although Seven chaffed at the use of the fleet’s initial designation for an isotope of the Edrehmaia substance, she let Patel’s comment pass.
“Hang on a second,” O’Donnell said as he knelt to examine the fragments with his tricorder. After a moment, he removed his phaser, targeted one of the larger fragments, and fired. The alloy began to glow, a bright, angry orangish-red color, but did not dematerialize.
“I think you got it,” Seven said dryly.
O’Donnell ceased firing, then trained his light and tricorder on the fragment. After a few moments, the metal, which had been softened by the beam, began to morph gently into a defined square.
“It shouldn’t be doing that, right?” O’Donnell asked.
“Step away from it,” Seven said.
“I’ve got a better idea,” O’Donnell said, removing a containment pod from his rucksack. He tapped his communicator. “Atlee, are you there?”
“Go ahead, Commander. I read you clearly.”
“Can you get a sensor lock on a fragment of metal near my position that was just exposed to phaser fire?”
“A moment, please. Aye, sir. I’ve got it.”
“I want you to try and transport it into the containment pod I am placing right next to it.”
“Understood. Stand by.”
Seven watched as the fragment dematerialized. When it had rematerialized within the containment pod, it did so as a liquid mass of metal. The liquid moved up the sides of the pod before solidifying.
“Now, I think we got it, Seven,” O’Donnell said. “Atlee, you still there?”
“Aye, Commander.”
“Erect a level-ten force field in my lab at workstation beta and transport this pod directly into it. Have a security team standing by and if anything unexpected happens, disengage transporters. Understood?”
“Can you define ‘unexpected’?” Fife asked.
“Anything that appears to endanger you or the ship. I trust your instincts, Commander.”
It took a few moments for Fife to comply with O’Donnell’s orders. When the canister dematerialized, a weighted silence hung between the members of the away team. Finally, Fife’s voice sounded over the comm. “Transport complete, sir. Eighty-two point six one eight percent of the targeted mass came through. The rest was rejected by the ship’s biofilters. Will that be sufficient?”
Dejected, O’Donnell replied, “It’ll have to do for now. Thank you, Atlee.”
This much accomplished, the team ascended the far side of the pool and continued forward until they reached the edge of the solid metal platform that ran the length of the station. Where it terminated, the cavern once again took on a more natural, rough-hewn shape, the walls and ceiling curving around what appeared to be a flat, solid transparent wall. Behind it, a dense fog seemed to rest over whatever lay beyond it. Light bounced back when it was illuminated, revealing nothing.
Patel was the first to find another transparent column in the corner to the right of the wall. It, too, was filled with the odd white fog. Beside it, there was a circular indentation in the wall. She began to dig with her fingers and loose rock and dirt fell easily from it.
“Help me,” she said.
O’Donnell reached her and quickly aided her in unearthing the feature’s intended shape—another alcove.
Seven could not see Patel’s smile of accomplishment through her helmet, but she could hear it in the lieutenant’s voice as she said, “This is the data interface. Watch the column,” she added as she gently deposited the sphere into its new home.
Seconds later, the fog within the column began to swirl, resolving itself into an unsettling image.
The figure was a female humanoid, standing a little over two meters tall. Both of her legs had been amputated at the knee, as had her right arm, just below the shoulder. In place of her former limbs, braided metallic prosthetics were present. The hand contained five fingers that did not appear to have articulated joints. Her torso, chest, and face had been surgically altered. Wide scars marred her pale flesh, centered by an inky black line, as if she had been sewn up with black thread. The flesh at the edges of the scars retained a reddish color, perhaps somehow still infected. The most prominent scar was a single line running from her forehead over what had been her right eye, down to the middle of her cheek. The left eye was open, the iris solid black. A series of small folds circled the underside of the eye, the only clue to part of her former alien identity.
A sharp burst of adrenaline activated Seven’s fight-or-flight response. Her mouth was suddenly parched and her heart raced with light, irregular palpitations.
Patel was the first to speak.
“I think this was Species 001,” she said.
That’s not possible, Seven thought.
O’Donnell stepped to within a few feet of the column and studied the image within it. After a moment, he turned to Patel. “Is there more?” he asked.
“The library records in Station Four had a similar design. There were controls present that allowed
