The Folded World Read Online Free Page A

tell, without notable success.
    â€œ Engineering to bridge! ” The voice over the intercom belonged to Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott. “ Captain! I dinna know what’s goin’ on with the instruments here, but I’m losin’ all control of the engines! ”
    â€œFull stop,” Kirk instructed.
    â€œFull stop,” Sulu repeated, already moving to implement the command.
    â€œ Far as I can tell, Captain, we’re stopped, ” Scotty said a moment later. “ It’s hard t’ know for certain. ”
    Kirk rose from his chair and went to the viewscreen. Even in the depths of space, with all the starship’s environmental controls and artificial gravity fully functional, there was a faint but constant sensation of motion. He didn’t sense it now. “I believe we are,” he said. “Now, reverse thrusters. Slow and steady. Let’s back out to where things started going haywire.”
    The slightest lurch indicated that the Enterprise was once again in motion. Most people—those not as attuned to the rhythms of the vessel as he was—would not have felt it. Even Kirk couldn’t have said definitively whether they were moving forward or back. He trusted his crew, though, and both Scotty and Sulu had said they were losing control, not that control had already been lost. Given that, he believed a controlled reverse was achievable, and if Spock was right about the source of the instrument trouble, then getting out of range of whatever had caused it might set things straight.
    He returned to his chair, but he didn’t have to wait long for the answer. “Instruments normal,” Sulu said after a few minutes.
    â€œHere too, Captain,” Uhura added.
    Kirk touched his intercom controls. “Kirk to engineering,” he said. “What about you, Mister Scott? Back to normal?”
    â€œ Aye, Captain, it seems so, ” Scotty said.
    â€œWe’re going to stay put and try to figure out what’s going on,” Kirk said. “We’ll probe the vicinity from here and see what we find.” He rose from the chair again. “Call me when you learn something,” he added. “I’ve got to pay someone a visit.”
    â€¢   •   •
    He found Miranda Tikolo in her shared quarters. When she called out for him to enter, her voice sounded far away. He went in and she was sitting onthe edge of her bed, her eyes vacant. After he stood there a moment, she focused on him.
    â€œCaptain,” she said. “This is . . . a surprise.”
    â€œI just wanted to drop in, see how you’re doing,” he said.
    She smiled. He had heard that the petty officer was the subject of possible romantic interest from more than one member of the ship’s crew, and seeing the way her smile lit the room, he understood why. “Okay,” she said. Her tone was sincere, in his judgment. And a person didn’t become a starship captain without plenty of experience reading other people. “Captain, I want to thank you again for making me part of your crew.”
    â€œNo thanks necessary,” he said. “You earned that.”
    â€œStill, I—”
    â€œMiranda,” he interrupted. “I know you’ve been talking with Doctor McCoy, and that’s good. What you’ve been through isn’t easy, but it’s a load you don’t have to carry alone. I want you to understand that you can talk to Bones, you can talk to me—this ship is full of sympathetic ears.”
    â€œThank you, sir. I understand.”
    He wasn’t sure he was making himself clear. Tikolo’s verbal responses seemed to indicate that he was getting through, but her facial expression hadn’t changed. She looked like someone pretending to appreciate her gifts at a party, where the givers were watching her open every package. “There will beplenty of times when others are counting on you. You just