The Folded World Read Online Free Page B

need to know—”
    She started to reply, but the intercom system cut her off. “ Bridge to Captain Kirk, ” Uhura said.
    He went to the wall unit and activated it. “Kirk here.”
    â€œ Captain, I think we’ve found something. ”
    â€œWhat is it?”
    Instead of Uhura’s voice, he heard the first officer’s. “ You need to see this for yourself, Captain, ” Spock answered. “ It is most unusual. ”

Five
    When Kirk stepped onto the bridge, everybody was staring at the viewscreen. It only took him an instant to understand why.
    â€œThe anomaly you see, Captain,” Spock explained, “is what we believe to be the cause of our instrument malfunction.”
    â€œWe were heading straight for it, Captain,” Sulu said. “See that speck near the center? That’s the McRaven .”
    â€œEnlarge,” Kirk said.
    â€œAye, sir.” Sulu touched a button and the image on the screen was magnified. It looked like nothing Kirk had ever seen. What should have been the black emptiness of deep space was instead shot through with jagged strands of green light that were constantly shifting. It reminded Kirk of nothing so much as electricity arcing from one point to another. The stars on the far side of the strange energy field behaved oddly, too—instead of giving off their usual brittle glow, they seemed to pulse, appearing to grow and shrink, and at the same time becoming more and less distinct.
    As the captain watched, the scene changed. The electrical green ribbons grew wider, their edges less distinct, until the entire field of view was a brilliant green. Blue-white lightning-like bolts shot across the screen, connecting with one another in an almost web-like construction, then faded out, leaving ghost-images burned onto the screen. That blue-white light spread until it was the dominant color; as soon as it was, it began to darken toward something more like traditional deep-space black, with pinpoints of light behind it. Then the process began again.
    In the center of it all was the McRaven . Kirk still couldn’t make out anything more than a smudge on the screen. “Enlarge again,” he ordered. The captain settled into his seat, right elbow on the armrest, chin on his fist, as he watched the image seem to grow closer.
    This time, he could barely make out the McRaven . She was a Constitution -class ship, like the Enterprise .
    And she wasn’t alone.
    The McRaven was jammed into a conglomeration of spacegoing vessels, like part of a puzzle where the goal was to take apart the seemingly inextricably linked objects. All of them were clustered around another ship, one bigger than any Kirk had ever seen, as if it had attracted them with its own gravitational field.
    â€œThat’s not possible,” Kirk said.
    â€œIt is the McRaven, ” Spock assured him. “We have positively identified it.”
    â€œWe’re still picking up its distress beacon,” Uhura said.
    â€œBut it looks like it’s been there for decades.”
    â€œIndeed,” Spock said.
    â€œAnd it’s only been days, if that.”
    â€œCorrect.”
    Kirk swiveled to look at Spock. The Vulcan sat at his station with a slightly annoyed expression. Spock didn’t like not being able to explain something, but it was clear that this fell into the category of things he had not figured out. Yet, Kirk knew. Give him time.
    â€œAny sign of life?” Kirk asked.
    â€œWe’ve been scanning, sir,” Spock reported. “No carbon-based life that we can detect from here. And none of the systems on any of those ships appear to be functioning. It is possible that our distance, combined with the unknown qualities of the anomalous region, is skewing our readings, though.”
    â€œSo we won’t really know anything until we get closer. And we can’t get closer.”
    â€œIt would be inadvisable,” Spock stated.
    â€œIt