The Operative (A Star Trek novel)

Chapter Sixteen

"Mr. Scott," Spock says, turning to the chief engineer, "I believe I have found a useful energy signature and pattern in the defense satellites' phaser fire."

The two of them are standing at Spock's computer station. They have been there for hours, poring over the data gained from watching the defsat attacking Flynn's ship. Kirk, impatient in his command chair some distance away, could just hear the suggestions and comments of the scientist and engineer to one another. Though he is far from technically illiterate, most of it might as well have been in another language. Since this is the first intelligible thing he has heard, he takes it as an excuse to leave his chair and kibitz.

"Progress, gentlemen?" he inquires.

"Aye, Captain," Scott says, "I think our Mr. Spock has found what we need. It'll nae be much help, maybe, but it'll be a far sight better than nothing."

"What exactly have you found?"

"I have," says Spock as he turns to face Kirk, "examined the phaser fire of the defensive satellites as they fired on Shelley. It appears that one of the new features of Athenian phasers is the ability to rapidly shift the maximum output frequency in a pseudorandom fashion. Unless shields are able to compensate, there is a high probability that their maximum protective point will be other than the frequency at which the phaser is firing."

"But that's old technology, Spock, isn't it? I mean, our phasers do that, right?"

"Correct, Captain..."

"But the beauty of theirs, Captain," Scott breaks in, "is how fast the frequency can be shifted. With our phasers, the change is slow enough that the enemy shields have time to compensate before significant damage is done. These, though, they switch so fast that before the shield generator adjusts, the phaser has moved on to another frequency."

"But you've found something?"

"Yes, Captain," Spock says. "As I suspected, the phaser frequency modulator operates on a pseudorandom rather than truly random basis. Real random numbers are quite difficult to produce. Pseudorandom numbers are easier, but have a pattern, though that pattern may be extremely difficult to find. I have found the pattern inherent in the Athenian defense satellites' phasers."

Kirk looks at Scott. "So you can counter them?"

"Oh, aye, Captain—we can predict when and to what frequency the phaser will switch next, and our shield generator can be there waiting for them!"

"Let's do it, then, Scotty, let's do it. The Athenian transporters on that defsat are our only ticket to the surface, if we can get aboard without getting ourselves killed."

"And if," McCoy interjects, "they don't scramble their own transporters as soon as you're aboard."

"Always the optimist, eh, Bones?"

"I should point out," says Spock gravely, "that the ability to rapidly shift frequency is only one aspect of how these phasers are more advanced than ours. Our shields may still not be able to survive them for long."

"I seem to be blessed with optimists today," Kirk says, shaking his head.

❖

Early in the planetary defenses' search for Shelley, the Enterprise was ordered out to geosync where one of the defsats could keep an eye on her. Now, the ship drifts almost imperceptibly closer to Defsat 3, a gigantic spindle floating point-on to the planet below.

The lights of viewports can be seen as pinpricks of brilliance against a dark, almost invisible hull, like diamonds on black velvet. At several locations around the satellite's distended middle, ominous circular plates glow like angry red eyes, revealing the presence of phaser generators. Between these, open maws of photon torpedo tubes gape. Above and below are huge doors leading to the bays of the intrasystem fighter craft, small deadly ships meant to harass intruders while their mother disposes of them.