Maiden Voyage

Seventeen

On the Solarian vessel, Owen went to work. Laying still in the cradle, he reached deeper into his subconscious. Tendrils of Solarian energy coiled his body, drawing down from above, amplifying his mental processes. The other energies from the group of unnamed visitors in adjacent dwellings rushed towards his thoughts as he navigated the neural network. They were attempting to merge with his purpose. To aid him with their own special talents that he may be lacking. He resisted the merging, moving across the systems with alacrity.

Along the way, Owen began tampering with the Solarian ship's functions. Ping-ponging randomly from one vital system to the next, all the while separating a small portion of his energy from scrambling the flow sensors so that the shuttle could approach undetected. His thoughts roamed freely, without borders in his imagination. The neural energy from the Solarian hub fueled his efforts. He deposited bits of random information as his mind traveled. It was a skill he learned well on M-114 with the energy wall that surrounded the colony. The randomness of the data bits made it nearly impossible for the system to decipher.

Random words emanated from his brain. He started running the alphabet from a to z, then sets of integers, notes of music, poetry quotes, incomplete mathematical equations. The process had to be arbitrary, or the hive mind could join with his purpose. He didn't want that. Not yet anyway.

Faster and faster, he switched from variable to variable. His mind drifted to Sam. That would be a mistake. Quickly, Owen detached from the emotional tether that held the memory. His actions kept the other members of the Solarian vessel busy by tending to what they perceived as malfunctions in the equipment. He even undocked several of the pod shuttles, which fell off their rails to the deck. That required manual attention, further distracting the Solarian crew. Eventually, the mass disturbances drew the actual Solarians' attention to act. Within milliseconds of the energy fluctuation, he sensed deep in his subconscious the neural network's attention had been overwhelmed. Owen doubled back to the flow sensors. He now permitted any merging that might occur to happen. Rewriting the protocols to ignore the shuttle, or any small craft, the coast was clear.

#

The shuttle whipped around the aft of the Enterprise, igniting its afterburners. It arrived at the Solarian vessel in a little under two minutes. True to his word, Owen masked their approach from sensors and they did not trip the activation of the shuttle pods. Drifting under the hull of the Solarian vessel, Sam shifted over to maneuvering thrusters. They were running silent. At this proximity, silence was vital. She drifted forward, navigating the bleed-off of artificial gravity with small thruster bursts to propel the shuttle forward. Inertial dampeners hummed softly. Hoping they wouldn't be an issue, she switched them off. There was no need for them anyway, as they were well below impulse power.

Switching to visual, she scanned the side of the vessel directly beneath the bottom row of pod shuttles for docking bays. The first one came into view. She counted down two more to number three. That was her destination. Gently, she rolled the Archimedes so that the starboard hatch lined up with the pod. She fired the umbilical walkway deployment. It latched on to the artificial gravity of Solarian vessel, creating a universal seal. They were in place.

#

All members of the bridge team watched in anxious anticipation. This would work. It had to work. Number One had put the mission in the hands of one of their newest recruits. Other than the captain, nobody had more flight experience. Dead silence permeated the bridge as they let out a collective sigh of relief at seeing the Archimedes dock successfully. Only one thing remained, the return trip. Number One had finally arrived back on the bridge, taking her place in the command chair.

"How's our girl doing?"

"The shuttle has successfully docked, sir," Ensign Spock reported.

Now it was up to the captain.