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= Star Trek Outwardly Mobile 107 Running Interference =
2022

By Jay P Hailey

We weren't too far outside the Klingon Empire. The planet was class M and pretty. The people on it were Orions.

Their technology was primitive; the planet was balkanized. The living standards of the natives ranged from pretty good, considering, to barely surviving.

The largest and richest nation was called the Throne of Decharia. It had a rivalry with The Alliance of Bechtrum.

They had nuclear bombs on chemical-powered rockets pointed at each other. Not as many as Earth had at a similar time era, but bad enough.

They had radio and television and nattered to each other across them in a language that looked, to our translation computers, like old high Orion with two thousand years of drift.

Their storybooks described legends of their ancestors traveling the stars in magic ships, but not many people outside of temples or science fiction magazines believed that.

The natives rode around in motor cars driven by internal combustion engines. The principles were pretty straightforward, but the execution was, as always, weird, driven as much by chance, style, and history as by engineering and physics.

They called their world Deeav, which seemed to translate more directly as "This Place", "The Place where we are" or "The Place to which we have come" in an ancient iteration of their language.

All of this made the polaron reactor they were building a real puzzle.

Polaron reactors use... well, polarons. High-energy subatomic particles that seem angry and vicious. If you can tame them, there's a lot of power there.

Taming them is the problem. A polaron reactor brewing up can take out a whole planet. Which is why no one sane uses them.

Their computers were the size of entire rooms and had less computing power than a light switch.

These people had no business knowing polarons existed, let alone trying to harness them.

On an Island, far out to sea, away from the main landmasses of Deeav we could see someone building coils to try and channel polaronic energy.

They were doing it badly.

On the Discovery, we scanned and raided the world at night for scans of libraries and newspapers. We dropped bugs like they were going out of style.

I was sitting forward at the command station on the bridge and staring intently. We could find no evidence of outside visitors.

The collision alert sounded.

I turned and looked at Lucas McCoy. "Who's going to hit us?" I could see that there was nothing in range.

"Subspace flux, captain. A big one."

"How big?" I was thinking of the Whalesong Probe. 90 years ago, it had shut down Earth cold.

"That big," Lucas confirmed. "But this one is more focused and detailed. It's some sort of handshake."

"Red Alert," I said. As I spoke, about half the engineering panel went red. We lost the warp drive, and main power was cut way, way back. Our shields collapsed like tissue paper.

The Red Alert alarm went off, and people started running to their stations.

"It's got us. It's locked onto the transporter. I'm routing the signal to... wow."

I stood up, ready to run ... somewhere. My hindbrain didn't get the whole starship thing, sometimes.

"It just collapsed into a transporter signal. I'm bringing it in, Captain. If we reject it, whatever it is is going to disperse. The beam came from out of range."

Lucas was overstepping his bounds a bit, but as I thought about it, I agreed. It was scary, but if it was a person, I didn't want to kill them without knowing something.

"Put it in Transporter Room 1, I'm heading down there. Have security meet me."

"Aye, Sir."

At least then I knew where I was running.

-*-

As I ran into transporter Room 1, Stephanie and a quad of her people were waiting. I'd had to run through half our security force to get into the room, so I knew we had plenty of backup if we needed it.

Nojineok was right there as were Kamaline and Rotamgreb.

I looked at a screen and saw Mendez and McCoy holding down the bridge. Mishimi Miatsu was busy in Engineering resetting everything he could as quickly as he could. The Discovery was coming back to life, slowly.

The transporter tech, Graham reported "Signal complete, virtual memory holding. We can materialize at your command, Sir.

I wiped my hand on my pants. It wasn't the biggest thing we'd encountered, but it was plenty big enough.

"Energize," I said.

On the transporter beam, there was the usual sparkle, which resolved into a man.

He was Orion, with a lustrous golden skin tone that most Orion cultures considered attractive.

He was dressed to blend in on Deeav, every detail of the native dress correct. His demeanor was cool and in control.

I didn't like it. I had the feeling he knew more than I did.

"Why have you intercepted me?" He asked.

"It was an accident. May I ask the reason for your visit to the planet below?" I tried to keep a hostile tone out of my voice.

"Please identify yourselves," He said.

"You're aboard the Federation Starship USS Discovery. I'm Jay P. Hailey, commanding. Your turn."

"You must beam me down. The planet below us is at a critical juncture. Their future must be protected." His voice didn't waver.

"Who are you?" I insisted.

He breathed deeply. "My name is Gee. Sinla Gee. I am from an advanced world. We wish to protect Deeav."

"Which world?" He wasn't giving us much.

"My world wishes to remain anonymous, and so it shall."

"Okay," I found myself rubbing my scalp. "There's already been damage done here. I'm not going to let you screw it up any worse, Mister Gee."

Gee became intense. He wasn't upset, but you could see it from there. "This world must be protected, Commander. Millions of lives, perhaps the whole planet may be at stake."

"They're trying to build a polaron reactor down there!" I found myself more emotional than he was. "Now we see where they got that idea!"

His surprised reaction was very good, "What? Impossible! Their technology isn't even close to that!"

"No," I pointed out, "but yours is."

He blinked at me "Oh."

"Security," I ordered. I always feel like a villain shouting 'Seize him' when I have to have someone taken into custody. "Search Mister Gee and take him to the brig."

Gee slowly reached into the front of his cloak. "Taking out a device, please don't panic. I am surrendering."

I watched his hands carefully. I realized later that this was stupid. I didn't have a phaser; I didn't have a phaser out. He pulled out a small silver tube. It looked like a native pen.

With a quick, practiced motion, he flipped it over in his hands and all five Security people shot him.

Ignoring the Stun beams he swept the device across my security people and they fell instantly. I ducked, joining Graham behind the transporter console.

Nojineok, Rotamgreb, and Kamaline ducked behind a corner of the transporter room. It didn't have enough corners to go around.

"Transporter Room One, Under Attack!" I shouted, "Subject is stun-resistant! Advance Phasers to kill!"

As I said this, Gee adjusted his pen device and waved it at first one door to the transporter room and then the other. I heard the door controls make popping noises and smelled the ozone. He'd overloaded the doors into the transporter room. Reinforcements would have to take a moment to force the door open.

Nojineok hit Gee hard, and they went down.

Gee pushed at Nojineok, getting a hard punch in the face for his trouble. Nojineok stopped fighting and started groaning.

Graham popped up with his phaser. He didn't have a shot. From under Nojieok, Gee took him down.

As he hit the floor, I was there. His pulse was good, and his respiration was good. Thank God Gee was using stun.

Rotamgreb said, "Perhaps we could resolve this rationally."

Gee replied, "I'd love to, but I am pressed for time."

I grabbed Graham's phaser and rammed the power settings to the stops.

I heard more phaser fire from outside. They were cutting through the door.

I looked for Gee and he wasn't where I looked. He grabbed my hand. His grip was like a Vulcan's.

Suddenly, I was dizzy and enormously sick. It was the worst I'd felt physically for a long time. It felt like the world was ending, and my guts were leading the way.

I couldn't help groaning and violently retching. It was like being gassed or drinking way too much rotgut. But instantly. The feeling was overpowering.

I flailed at him, shouting inside my head. My body just wouldn't work! He stunned Kamaline and Rotamgreb and then dropped me.

I think I heard him doing something with the transporter, but I can't really tell in retrospect. I was that sick.

He stepped past me and I grabbed his boot as he passed. If I hadn't been so miserable, I'd have killed him in cold blood.

He easily shook me off and walked away.

I think there was a transporter noise.

I lay there and retched and wanted to die.

An eternity later, the door to the transporter room fell in with a crack and I heard voices.

-*-

In sick bay, I listened and tried not to let emotions ruin my thinking.

I was battling against a mountain of anger.

Marcella Burlington told me what happened. "He had something on his hands. It's a contact poison and transmits an artificial neurotransmitter. It's not the right one for humans. That's why you got so sick. Applied to an Orion or a Vulcan they'd pass out like a light and sleep peacefully for a while until they'd metabolized the substance."

I glared at her.

"You couldn't have done anything. I'm surprised you could move and curse as well as you did."

"Everyone else?" I barked.

"They're fine. A pretty generic little sonic stunner, from the effects," she said. "We got lucky."

That made me angrier. My stomach informed me that it was pretty angry too. The room spun a little.

"Our stunners." I snarled.

T'Sing chimed in "There is precedent. The Angosian Special Forces developed treatments that rendered their operatives invisible to sensors and stun-resistant. Our visitor seems to have had a similar treatment."

"But more advanced," I added. I could not keep the anger out of my voice.

"Indeed."

Carlos looked at me with sympathy. It was all I could do not to shout.

"He hot-wired the transporter using Graham's phaser for a power supply. Our sensors couldn't see him, so he did a blind transport.

A blind transport was where you set the transporter just to grab a volume of space. anything in it was transported. Air. Parts of other things. Anything.

"He damaged the console badly bypassing the computer access. It'll be out of service for four days." Carlos said.

"Are my other transporters working?" I bit.

"Yes."

"Then we're going to go and find Gee and ..." I stopped myself from snarling that I was going to kill him. It was an exceptionally Klingon feeling.

My brain crashed against something in its blind rush. "We know what his technology looks like now. Find it."

I got off the sick bay bed. It was a struggle and I retched some. "I have to go and..."

Carlos nodded. "I have it until you're back."

I stomped out of sick bay.

-*-

We beamed down into a city. It smelled interesting. The exhaust of the motor vehicles was pungent and exotic. There were other smells. Trash, cooking food from somewhere.

Primitive cities are exciting, interesting, and really toxic.

Buildings the size of starships rose into the sky. They were modest compared to San Francisco, but the natives were working with concrete and steel hardly much different molecularly than the dirt they dug them up from. It was amazing work, for what they had.

Spaat opened a clipboard that looked like something a workman would use. It had our technology hidden inside it.

Spaat was dressed as a workman. His newly rounded ears and eyebrows looked just weird to me. We both were colored a lustrous gold. I was dressed as a businessman, with soft clothing suited to an office.

"That way, Captain. The thirteenth floor." Spaat pointed.

We left the alley and walked briskly towards the building Spaat pointed out. Everything was rectilinear. It's easier to build that way. There were lines painted everywhere and instructions written in the native script.

Signs everywhere hawked all manner of goods and services.

I had smart contacts that translated the language I was seeing. But it didn't help much for the context. Uncle Desmardy recommended Kozloks Cure. I had no idea who Uncle Desmardy was what Kozloks cure was for, nor why Uncle Desmardy's endorsement would matter. I didn't care about any of that. I was on a mission.

Into the building. Into the lobby. Metal, wood, concrete, and decor. It spoke of solidity, trustworthiness, and stability. If I'd taken the time, I'd have probably liked it.

We went into the elevator. Honest to goodness - there was an elevator operator there. Right out of a holodeck adventure.

"Thirteen, please," I said to him. I felt in my pockets. I had a few replicated copies of native coins.

We all rode up in the weird social liminal space, where you don't say much.

On the thirteenth floor, the operator halted the elevator and opened the door. I fished out a coin and handed it to him. His expression told me I'd vastly overtipped. I put my finger to my lips and we left the elevator. The Operator gave me a knowing grin and closed the door, on about his day.

At the end of a hallway, there was an open door. I hurried towards it and took out my phaser.

I entered the door, phaser out. There was an office in ruins, Gee and a native woman standing in it looking disturbed.

"Gee! Get your hands up!" I bellowed.

Spaat came in and closed the door behind us.

"Lost Ancestors!" The girl squeaked.

"Gee, you touch anything, I'll burn you down where you stand," I snarled.

"In front of this.... girl?" Gee said.

"Try me," I hissed. "Your game ends now."

Spaat said "Captain. Please take a moment to regain your composure and observe your surroundings."

I flicked a glance at Spaat. He had his phaser pointing at Gee.

I stopped and breathed and looked.

"What did he do to you, Mister?" The young woman asked.

"He walked all over me and my people and made me look like a fool," I explained.

The place had been an office. Nice desk. Furniture. Plants. Bookshelves. Filing cabinets. It had been ruined. Everything was thrown about. Lots of things were broken.

Among the broken pieces, there was technology. Not native technology. Modern stuff.

In the ruins of the desk, there was a shattered crystal processing unit of some kind.

"I guess that hurt your pride, huh?" The young woman asked, with an edge of mocking to her voice.

I immediately felt stupid. "Yeah, I guess it did. What's your name?"

I went to the broken processing unit and picked a large chunk of it up. Input cables were cut. It was faintly warm to the touch.

"Denlin," she said, "What's yours?"

"Hailey," I said. I held up the piece to Gee "This was done recently. It's still warm."

He looked at me grimly and nodded.

"They didn't know what they were looking at. They smashed and grabbed."

Gee nodded.

"What's missing?" I was mad. At Gee and myself.

"I can track the stolen items if you'll-"

"Spaat, if he touches anything, light him up!"

Denlin said, "Wow, Mister, you're pretty hostile!"

"This man is a criminal and may be on the verge of injuring your whole world," I said.

"I am not the criminal here," Gee said, "My mission was to prevent this."

"My whole world? What are you talking about?" Denlin asked.

"You're doing a great job!" I said

The door thundered, "OPEN UP! POLICE!"

Spaat put his hand on the door and leaned on it.

I found the girl, Denlin in my personal space. She grabbed my wrist, twisted it, and turned, and I went flying. Fortunately, I'd learned to fall in close-quarters combat class. I hit hard. It would hurt tomorrow.

Denlin stepped on my face and twisted my phaser out of my hand.

The door made breaking noises.

"Discovery, emergency transhport, this room!" I mushed, my face compressed by a stylish boot.

I twisted to see Gee step out of the window of his office. On the 13th floor.

The transporter grabbed us.

After the transport, Denlin stepped off me.

"What in the name of my sainted aunt is this!?" A Deeavan voice yelled.

I sat up to see four law enforcement officers pointing slug throwers at us.

Stephanie and more of her security were pointing phasers back at the policemen.

"Please remain calm," Spaat said.

"Clear the room! Everyone but Spaat and me, out!" I ordered.

"Captain," Stephanie's voice was measured and modulated.

"Confirmed! This is a Prime Directive situation." I stood up, somewhat awkwardly.

"Don't move!" An older cop yelled "Nobody move!"

"Sir, please stand down. I'll operate this transporter and we'll put you right back where you came from."

"What's going on!?"

"Computer, exterior view, on the large viewscreen."

The screen showed Deeav from orbit. "You're on a spaceship in orbit."

"What, like in the fables? The kids' stories?"

"Yes. Something like that. Now please, holster your weapons, and let's work on unfucking this situation."

The policemen holstered their weapons. Denlin gave me back my phaser. "Thank you," I said with more of an edge to it than I wanted.

Stephanie gave me a look as she and her security crew filed out of the transporter room. Next time there was an away mission, I figured she'd throw me in the brig rather than let me go.

It wouldn't have been uncalled for.

"Computer, secure this room."

The computer bleeped, "Transporter Room Four is secure."

"Blank all screens but the one showing the planet."

All the screens went dark except for the one showing Deeav. It was a pretty world. Sort of a purple tinge to it.

"Computer, show the location of the polaron reactor."

The view of the planet changed and swooped into an Island.

Denlin's eyes narrowed.

"Someone there has technology that's at least 100 years ahead of anything you should have, But the technology they're trying to implement is dangerous. It's been banned on all civilized worlds. When it fails it could damage or destroy your world. When we saw the signature of this machine on our sensors we came here to investigate and we discovered this."

"Computer estimate three cases for the failure of that polaron reactor. best case, moderate case, and worst case. Then display here." I said.

The computer bleeped and ready the simulation. I pushed the green button for the best case. The Island vanished in a terrible flash of light. A mushroom cloud blasted debris into the stratosphere. A small tsunami rolled across the oceans. The computer pointed out that temperatures would be affected for two to three years, to a small degree.

Then I pressed the yellow button for the moderate case. The reactor exploded much harder. It dug a hole in the crust. Massive Tsunamis rolled out. A blanket of debris covered the sky of Deeav. They'd have an impact winter; agriculture would be severely suppressed for at least a year.

I pressed the button to show the worst-case scenario. A blast wave spread out across the planet, as everything burned from the runaway polaron flux. "The planet Deeav no longer supports life." The computer accompanied this with a suitably dire red coloring of the simulation and a disappointed buzz.

The natives looked at me, appropriately worried "You can stop this right?"

"We can and we will. But first I want to get you folks back home safe. Above all, you cannot tell anyone what you saw here. I have committed a terrible violation of my people's laws showing you this.

"Transporter activity noted," The computer said.

The screen showed two ends of the transport. One was Gee's office. One was the island.

"God damn it," I hissed. "Okay folks, please step up there," I gestured to the transporter. "I'll send you home and then go get Gee."

"You haven't had much luck with that," Denlin said.

"If I can't de-escalate this, we have other ways," I explained, "My people think talking is better than weapons fire."

"We're going with you," Denlin said. I looked at her. The cops looked at her. Spaat raised an eyebrow.

"It's our world. We have a right to defend it."

I blinked again. Spaat nodded. "Logical."

"Ancestors on toast," the old cop breathed

"Listen to me. You can NOT tell anyone about any of this. Knowledge outside of what your people discover for themselves is extremely dangerous. Non-interference is our Prime Directive. I have sworn an oath to die before I interfere or let anyone interfere in your world's natural development."

"And yet, here you are interfering."

"That reactor and Gee are interfering. I am trying to fix it."

Denlin turned to the four city cops, "And we're going to help you."

The older cop puffed out his chest and said: "Now look here, little lady."

Denlin reached into her stylish purse and pulled out a wallet. She flipped it open and showed it to the cops. There was some sort of ID card and a badge there. "I am an agent for my uncle." She said.

The cops looked at each other nervously

"Sorry?" I asked.

"The Multinational Network and Command for Law Enforcement," Denlin explained "The acronym works out to the word for uncle."

I blinked at her "Okay," At least I didn't have to feel so bad for getting thrown down and disarmed so easily.

"And you want us to help you storm this island?" The Cop asked

"I hope it doesn't come down to that, but more friends are better," Denlin said

"We really need to try talking this out first. It's possible they don't know the dangers. Spaat and I can explain it to them."

Spaat raised his now rounded eyebrow. Then he went to the equipment locker and checked out a tricorder.

Denlin nodded "Okay. Let's go."

I stepped to the transporter controls, set the coordinates for the Island, set a ten-second delay, and stepped up to the transporter pad. I pointed at the spots for Denlin and the cops.

-*-

The sky was iron gray, and it felt like rain. Wind pelted us. The ocean waves were choppy and looked unfriendly.

The Island was a craggy mountain sticking out of the ocean. Life clung to the sides. Sea Birds gave musical calls. I liked them better than seagulls.

A complex of buildings hunkered into the shore and partway up the slope. They looked utilitarian and brutal. Whoever built this place had no care for design or aesthetics.

We walked towards the docks and what looked like the main entrance.

-*-

The cargo doors were unlocked. There was no one moving. Spaat and the older cop pushed the doors open.

The floor was littered with people. Denlin carefully moved forward and felt for a pulse. Spaat scanned.

"Stunned, Captain," Spaat said.

"Gee," I said darkly.

One of the cops looked at a downed person's coverall. "That's the flag of the East Mugerlans."

Denlin nodded "We had a briefing on this. The East Mugerlans were taking over this island. I didn't realize they were this entrenched."

"I was in the war in Mugerla," The older said looking around nervously, "They don't like visitors."

Denlin said "They also don't have advanced reactor technology. Somethings going on here."

"Let's go see if we can find out who's running this base," I said, "If Gee hasn't gotten to them first."

"What happens if he does?" one of the cops asked

"No idea," I shrugged. "Let's go find out."

-*-

The core of the reactor had a weird neon purple glow. I didn't like that. It was a maze of pipes and conduits with control panels scattered around in a manner that seemed deliberately obscure and hard to use. In a pool of water, I spotted accelerator coils and particle generators... I think.

Gee was in a face-off with two Deeavans.

"Heslin!" Denlin called like she was greeting an old friend

Heslin was a big man in a gray uniform. He had a scar on his face and an eye patch. His skin ranged from golden to copper in places. Interesting look. He had a remote of some sort.

Heslin turned and bowed slightly "Young miss Denlin. I am pleased to see you well. Is this new man a friend of yours?"

"We just met this afternoon. He's not one of ours. You make friends all over."

Gee looked puzzled and then frustrated, "Be careful. He has a deadman switch."

"Please! You must leave! The reactor! It's at a critical stage! Years of work could be lost!" The other Deeavan was an older man, his skin darkened to copper all over, with white hair pulled back into a ponytail. He had glasses. He was wearing a coat with lots of pockets filled with all sorts of doodads.

"Is that a slide rule?" I asked him.

He blinked at me, confused. He felt his pockets and pulled it out "Yes, why?"

I shook my head. I'd seen them in museums and on the holodeck, "Wow. How in the world did you come up with a polaron reactor?"

"A what now?" He asked

"Polarons - the particles, their decay from light speed is what's making the purple glow."

"Those are Jardo particles!"

I grinned. "And your name is?"

"Doctor Jardo, of course!"

I raised my hands "Okay, but there's a lot of things about your Jardo particles you might not be aware of-"

"Silence!" Heslin bellowed, "Science can wait."

Dr. Jardo looked frustrated

"I'm afraid it really can't-" I started

Heslin pointed the slug thrower in his other hand at me. "How did you get here?"

I blinked rapidly. "We followed him," I pointed at Gee.

The cops had moved to cover and were covering Heslin with their slug throwers.

Spaat also moved to cover and was working with his tricorder.

"I should tell you that this is, indeed, a deadman switch," Heslin said "If for any reason, I take my hand off this button, the reactor will overcharge, frying us all. Shooting me is not in your interest."

"You know that risks blowing up the whole world, right?" I said.

"I explained it to him," Gee said

I looked at Heslin.

"If so, then so be it. It means the whole world is my hostage."

I squinted my eyes and tilted my head. That sort of thinking puzzled me.

"No, it won't," Dr. Jardo said. "It'll melt the reactor and irradiate the island. It'll kill us all, but not the rest of the world."

"Why... Why do you even HAVE that button?" I asked.

"He jury-rigged it when security stations stopped answering. We're in terrible danger," Jardo said.

"Okay, so. How do you see this going?" I asked Heslin

"You're going to put your weapons on the floor and surrender. Once you're in my custody, I'll turn you over to my friends in East Mugerla. Then Dr. Jardo and I will finish this reactor and begin the next phase of my plan," Heslin said

"What plan is that?" I asked

Jardo sighed "He means to take over the world using the power of my particles and this reactor."

"Stop explaining my plans!" Heslin fumed, "Is there some part of 'Foreign Spies' that has escaped your comprehension?"

"Please put down your weapons and surrender," Dr. Jardo said. "I have some pull with the Mugerlan government. I'll ask them to treat you fairly. The longer this goes on, the greater the chance of something going wrong."

"Very generous of you," Gee said dryly.

"I don't want this thing to cook me. Or you. Mostly me."

I nodded. That was a fair point.

Spaat caught my eye and gave me a thumbs-up.

Denlin looked perfectly horrified at Gee "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Heslin looked, swinging his slug thrower towards Gee and when he took his eyes off me I stunned him.

Dr. Jardo screamed, expecting to be cooked by a runaway polaron reactor. Excuse me, a Jardo particle reactor.

Gee looked at Denlin and then me accusingly.

Denlin approached Gee and kicked his gun and the deadman switch away from him.

Spaat said, "Dr. Jardo, my device is mimicking the radio signal of Heslin's deadman switch. Perhaps we should turn off whatever modifications he made."

Jardo looked at Spaat. Horror gave way to relief "Thank the Flying Ancestors!"

Denlin checked Heslin "He's alive!"

"Our weapons have a stun setting."

"Handy. Otherwise, that's a terrible weapon. The beam gives you away."

"It works for our purposes."

Gee was waving his pen at the reactor

"Gee, what are you doing!?" I yelled.

"I am shutting down this reactor," Gee said, "Permanently."

"There are questions we need to be answered," I said

Denlin pointed a slug thrower she'd picked up from one of the stunned guards "Back away from the reactor."

"Captain Hailey explained how this technology threatens your world?"

"Yes, but it's our property. It's not your call to make."

I turned to Dr. Jardo "How did you come up with this?"

"I ...I invented it," he lied, badly.

"No, seriously, where did you get this idea?"

Jardo was hurt. "No, really. I invented it."

"You're a genius for understanding it as much as you do. It's really impressive. But this sort of thing needs intermediary steps that you haven't made. Now, please tell me."

"How do you know that?" Jardo asked

"National Security!" Denlin said

"Ummm... I can't tell you for reasons of national security," I guessed.

Jardo looked at me, stunned "Your side has people working on this already?"

"Ummm, my side? Well, national security."

"You found another ship!?"

"Is that what this was? You found a spaceship?"

"Yes! It took years of searching and archaeology! The technology of the ancients was so advanced I couldn't understand most of it!"

Gee closed his eyes slowly.

Denlin and the cops looked at Jardo like he had two heads.

"Well, that's amazing!" I said, "That's not something you keep under your hat. That's part of the legacy of the whole world, isn't it? That's for all the people."

"I wish that was true," Jardo said, "But I had to make compromises. I had to make promises to get the resources to continue my work."

"How about you come with us?" Denlin said. "The multinational network will support your work and preserve the legacy for all the people of this world."

"You'll let me build a reactor?"

"NO!" Gee and I shouted at the same time

Denlin said, "Maybe we can work on the basic science and the archaeology first?"

"Huh. I could do that." Jardo said.

"That just leaves the question of what we do about this place."

Denlin said, "We need to destroy it. We need to make it look like the reactor failed, but not in such a way as to wreck the planet."

"I can help with that," I said.

-*-

Ships of the Royal Decharian Navy milled about, picking up survivors. The people from the base on Okram Island were in overloaded boats, fleeing from an imminent core meltdown.

Gee and Denlin watched from the deck of a Royal Navy guided missile cruiser. At the agreed-upon time, carefully placed photon torpedo warheads detonated, melting the dangerous technology to slag and creating a credible, if non-radioactive mushroom cloud.

Denlin looked at the sky. "Do you think we'll ever see them again?"

Gee shook his head. "I hope not. They meant well, but they had an air of practiced chaos about them. Far too much improvisational problem-solving for my tastes."

Denlin grinned. "Oh, you're going to enjoy our world so much."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

ST-OM 107 Running Interference

By Jay P. Hailey

Nov 20, 2022, 12:08:44 PM

107 Running Interference - Revision history

Jayphailey: Added the story