Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

The Star Beagle Adventures                                                
Episode 2: Astral Traveller
Scene 4: Doppler Tunneling

2.4
Doppler Tunnelling

Dr. Tentis Uto had summoned his captain and his three patients to the medical conference room aboard the U.S.S. Beagle. Pel, the minuscule ferengi trader and disgraced former F.C.A. agent, the even smaller roylan chief engineer for the U.S.S. Escort, Lt. Ki Kresid, and Escort’s captain, who had been once again recuperating in the Beagle’s medical center, had joined Captain Skip Howard for this conference. General Krank was uninvited, but considering that he rarely left Captain Rhonda Carter’s side, his presence was pretty much inevitable.

Commander Dutch Holland and his wife, Sakura, the Dean of the Ship, were also present.

“At the same moment that your patients’ life signs plummeted to next to zero, we were running an experiment in engineering with the doppler tunneling… ooofff…” The engineering director’s explanation was cut short by a sharp, Japanese elbow to his ribs.

“As my husband was explaining,” Sakura Nakamura Holland continued, “we were running a classified experiment in engineering with classified equipment and, as he was no doubt about to explain, we received some very unexpected readings that occurred at the exact moment that the anomalous health readings were recorded for all three of your patients. Considering the nature of the experiment and the nature of your patients’ experiences, not to mention the timing, we find it more than likely these phenomena are closely related.”

“Something hitched a ride on our, um, wave,” Dutch added, clearly having altered his wording at a glance from his wife.

“I will need considerably more technical detail than that to be able to provide an informed decision or even determine a direction for further diagnosis,” Dr. Uto opined.

“And you will have it, in all it’s rich detail, Ten,” Skip Howard promised. “Just not in present company. For now, I have one small hunch I would like your advice on. I ran a quick check for the complement of all three ships and it appears our mysterious wave-hitchhiker selected the smallest person on each ship. Even though roylans are considerably more massive than they appear, and Lieutenant Kresid is considerably heavier than either Captain Carter or Trader Pel, she was, at the time, easily the lightest person on the Escort. As Pel was the lightest on the Mako and Rhonda the lightest here.”

“And there’s that other similarity,” Uto added.

“And everyone wants to discuss sensitive information in the presence of unauthorized persons,” Howard opined, with a laugh and a smile. “Focus, Ten. What we need everyone present to hear is the experiences of our three, um, well, if Dutch’s surmise is correct, our three travelers.”

“But we didn’t go anywhere,” Pel objected. “It was just a strange dream.”

“A joint dream from your statements,” Howard observed. “Each of you described an interaction with a somewhat amorphous being of light that spoke an unrecognizable language with a  musical voice.”

“It sounded like an organ, playing chords,” said Captain Rhonda Carter. “The only word I could make out was ‘Dolnok.’ No idea what that means.”

“There was a fire,” Pel continued. “It seemed to inflate some sort of large bag. It was between us,  but I wasn’t afraid of it. It was controlled somehow. Like part of a big machine.”

Lieutenant Ki Kresid, the tiny roylan chief engineer for the Escort, spoke up - a thin, reedy voice and for some reason she was unable to create the ‘g’ sound: “It was speaking a formal greeting request. It wanted to meet me somewhere. We were in some sort of basket - part of the traveling, greeting invitation. It’s a ceremony I recognize from the ancient aerid civilization.”

“Pel,” said Skip Howard, “You said the word you recognized was ‘Nor?’ Correct?”

The diminutive ferengi nodded. 

Howard turned toward Sakura Nakamura Holland. “Dolnok Nor?”

Sakura caught her breath. “The abandoned cardassian space station. A myth, I thought. Kind of the cardassian version of the Marie Celeste.”

“Not exactly,” Captain Howard replied. “It’s a real place and there were survivors - two of them. The cardassians abandoned it before it was completely assembled. There’s an entire cardassian space station out there, but the installation was not complete and the cardassians made no attempts to return to it. So it seems we have been invited to a haunted, abandoned, unfinished cardassian space station. Who could resist an invitation like that?”

2.4