Greg Cox: Star Trek: The Original Series: The Rings of Time

“Captain,” Lieutenant Uhura said. “A priority message from Starfleet Command.”

James T. Kirk sat up straight. His chair faced the viewscreen at the front of the bridge. “Put it on-screen,” he said crisply.

“Yes, Captain.”

Uhura patched the communication through. On the viewer, a starry vista was replaced by the head and shoulders of a dark-skinned older man with silver hair and a grave expression. Visual and aural static hinted at the vast distance between the Enterprise and Earth. A network of subspace relay beacons carried data back and forth across the quadrant. Uhura worked her communications console, and the transmission quickly cleared up. Kirk recognized Commodore Faris. The man was a Starfleet veteran who had once served under Robert April himself.

What’s this about? Kirk wondered. Are the Klingons acting up again? Or the Romulans?

“Kirk,” Faris addressed him. “Are you reading me?”

“Loud and clear, sir.” Kirk got right down to business. “What can I do for you?”

“We’ve received a distress call from the Skagway colony. Are you familiar with it?”

Kirk searched his memory. “It’s a mining outpost. In the Klondike system?”

Faris nodded. “Skagway is one of the moons of Klondike VI, a gas giant not unlike Saturn. For reasons unknown, the planet’s rings appear to be destabilizing, possibly compromising the safety of the colony. Skagway’s governor has requested Starfleet’s immediate assistance, and I’m afraid the Enterprise is the only starship in the vicinity.”

“Understood,” Kirk replied. “We’ll set course for the Klondike system at once.”

“Good.” Care furrowed the commodore’s brow. “Skagway has proven to be a rich source of dilithium crystals. I don’t have to tell you how important it is, to Starfleet and the Federation, that we keep that colony up and running, if at all possible. We need those crystals.”

Dilithium was essential to warp-propulsion systems. And rare enough to make it one of the most precious substances in the galaxy.

“If I ever forget that, my chief engineer will be sure to remind me,” Kirk assured Faris. He sought to anticipate the challenges ahead. “Sir, you said the planet’s rings were ‘destabilizing.’ Do we know how quickly or what might be causing this?”

“ Details are sketchy,” Faris admitted. “You’ll probably have a better idea of the situation once you get there. But I wouldn’t recommend taking the scenic route. Governor Dawson sounded very concerned.”

A mental image of a handsome, middle-aged woman surfaced from Kirk’s memory banks. He vaguely recalled receiving a briefing on her appointment a few years back.

“Tell the governor she can expect us shortly.” Kirk made this new mission his top priority. “You can count on us, Commodore.”

“Good luck, Jim.” The other man reached to cut off the transmission. “Faris out.”

His image blinked away. An endless expanse of stars beckoned on the viewer. Kirk wondered which, if any, of those distant points of light was their new destination.

“Mr. Chekov.” He addressed the navigator. The young ensign shared the conn with Lieutenant Sulu, who was at the helm. The ship’s astrogator unit was positioned between them. “How far to the Klondike system?”

Chekov consulted his display panel. “Skagway is very remote,” he observed. “At warp five, we’re talking approximately nineteen days.”

“Nineteen-point-four-eight, to be exact,” Spock amended. The Vulcan science officer was seated at his usual station at the rear of the bridge. Glancing back over his shoulder, Kirk noted that Spock had already called up a schematic of the Klondike system on his console’s monitor. Streams of data regarding the system, its planets, and its moons scrolled along the edges of the screen.

“Increase speed to warp six,” Kirk ordered. If the colony was truly in jeopardy, the sooner they got there, the better. Especially since it was unclear how rapidly the crisis might escalate.

“Aye, aye, sir.” Sulu worked the helm. “Warp six.”

Kirk tapped the intercom controls on his right armrest. “Kirk to Engineering. I’m going to need you to push the engines, Mr. Scott. We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

“Captain!” Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott protested via the speaker. A Scottish accent colored his inflections. “Canna we take it a little slower? My bairns are no spring chickens, you know. They’re overdue for a refit.”

Kirk repressed a grin. Scotty’s response was to be expected. He could be very protective of his engines.

“This is a rescue mission, Mr. Scott. Lives may be at stake.”

Scotty couldn’t argue with that. “Ah, well. In that case, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you, Mr. Scott.” Kirk closed the line, then turned toward his science officer. “What do you make of this, Spock?”

“It is puzzling, Captain.” Spock lifted his eyes from his data. “As the commodore reported, Klondike VI is a Class J gas giant. Long-range telescopes and unmanned probes have observed it for more than a century, beginning long before the mining colony on Skagway was established. During this time, the planet’s rings have remained stable, within the standard parameters. A cursory examination of recent data from the colony suggests no obvious reason for the rings to alter their orbits. The primary gravitational factors have remained constant.”

Kirk took his word for it. Spock’s “cursory examination” was likely to put the most detailed computerized analysis to shame. “Then we have a mystery on our hands.”

“So it appears,” Spock agreed.

Kirk frowned. The prospect of studying such an inexplicable celestial phenomenon would be more appealing were innocent lives not in jeopardy. A troubling thought occurred to him. “What is the current population of Skagway?”

Spock looked it up in the ship’s database. “Our records indicate that some one thousand seven hundred forty-six individuals currently inhabit the colony, give or take any recent births, deaths, or fissions. Including several families and small children.”

Damn, Kirk thought. The Enterprise was not equipped to transport that many individuals at one time. They would be unable to evacuate the entire colony should it prove necessary. “And there are no other vessels nearby?”

“None, Captain.” Spock confirmed the inconvenient truth. “Mr. Chekov was quite correct when he stated that the Skagway colony is notably distant from any other inhabited worlds. Aside from the Enterprise, the nearest Federation starship is the Vancouver, which is currently four-point-zero-three-three sectors away.”

Kirk got the message. “Then it’s up to us.”

He just hoped that would be enough.

2020

They found the stowaway waiting for them on the lower level of the habitat module. The crew’s personal quarters were one deck above, while the mid-deck was a common area that served as gym, infirmary, galley, and general rec room. Sealed cupboards and pantries lined the walls. A treadmill was there for exercise. Circular windows offered a view of the endless void outside, but Shaun wasn’t interested in sightseeing right then. He stared instead at someone who, to put it mildly, was not supposed to be there.

“Whoa,” she said, tumbling in the air just below the ceiling. From the look of things, she was still trying to get the hang of navigating without gravity. She grabbed onto a hanging guide loop to arrest her uncontrolled flight. She groped in vain for a smart tablet floating nearby. “This is trickier than it looked on YouTube.”