Free Constellations by Marco Palmieri Page A

than us. Over two meters, easy. Look at the scale.” Lindstrom gestured at the large chair in front of the controls.
    â€œGood point.” Sulu took another step and heard Manprasad’s tricorder at work to his left. In front of him was a main panel. He’d have to climb up the oversized chair to get a better look at it.
    â€œSulu!”
    â€œWhat is it, Manprasad?”
    â€œSome sort of energy buildup!”
    All three looked at their tricorders, which stopped passive scanning when given a different command, and sure enough, there was a gradual increase of energy, the exact nature of which the device was unable to determine. With a twist of the controls, Sulu tried to figure out where the energy was coming from, but it was elusive, and he didn’t like it one bit.
    â€œEverybody out!”
    As Lindstrom got to the door, though, he rebounded as a bright orange electric field crackled to life.
    â€œWhat the hell is that?” Sulu demanded.
    â€œSecurity barrier,” Lindstrom said, a touch of anger in his voice. “That’s fairly obvious. I wonder how we missed that.”
    â€œWish we’d brought an engineer with us,” Sulu said, his eyes returning to his tricorder.
    â€œWhat, and spoil this unique opportunity for a bunch of junior officers?”
    â€œShut it,” Sulu snapped. He reached behind his back and pulled his communicator off the utility belt he wore under his duty shirt. As it flipped open, all he heard was static. The energy buildup clearly was interfering with the communicator’s signal, and with each passing moment, the starship was that much farther away. They were on their own.
    Decisively, he stepped toward the main console, straining on tiptoe to get a look at the dust-covered controls. Nothing looked intuitive so he gambled, stabbing at one large, circular blue button. He felt it depress, but nothing occurred. Trying each button and control seemed like a waste of time since the panel’s lights were out, its small screens dark. Okay, he thought, time for something else.
    â€œManprasad, check those smaller rooms off to the rear, see if there’s any working technology there. Lindstrom, go left, I’ll go right. Let’s see if we can find some way to turn this off.” He heard confirming ayes and was satisfied that they were respecting his position as leader. Now he had to make sure they still felt that way once they were safely away from the building.
    The first thing Sulu did was take more detailed readings of the force field. While the energy disrupted his communicator, it didn’t prevent the tricorder from performing as expected. That told him something, but he wasn’t sure what yet. According to his scans, the energy was charged plasma at a very high temperature. He didn’t dare touch it for fear of severe burns.
    From deep in the building, he heard Manprasad call out, “Hey, this room just woke up!”
    â€œAnything beyond lights?” Sulu called back.
    â€œNothing. I’m looking around,” she replied.
    â€œBe careful,” he added.
    â€œNo kidding, Sulu, I have it covered,” Manprasad said. Sulu turned his attention to Lindstrom, who was on the far side of the large central room. Looking up, Sulu saw what fascinated the sociologist: some alien writing on the upper portion of the wall.
    â€œAnything interesting?” the helmsman asked.
    â€œI really like the way the loops intertwine, but only in certain places. That may be a clue to how the language is constructed.”
    â€œLet me guess, you need more time before you can hazard a guess as to what it’s saying?”
    â€œSomething set this far back and this high, even for being this size, it’s probably something standard, not a warning, if that’s what you want to hear,” Lindstrom said.
    â€œI’ll take anything to reassure us—” Sulu’s words were cut off as Manprasad’s shriek pierced