Sulu and I watched the docking from the back of the amphitheater; most of the five hundred seats were occupied, and another two hundred people stood in the aisles or off to the side. Thirty or forty teens congregated in small groups, and some of the adults had brought their young children with them to watch.
The main screen showed the view from a camera on one of the maintenance modules which had gone out several hundred meters from the two ships, providing the best overall view of the entire procedure. In the corners were smaller screens showing video images from the other cameras, all of them closer, including one set right next to the docking mechanism on the Enterprise so that we could watch the alien ship coming slowly but inexorably toward us---I was glad that picture wasn't on the main screen.
"I sense an anticlimax approaching," said Sulu.
I nodded. "Why is that?"
"It's not real. It might as well be a story film. We know it's real, but that's intellectual. It feels staged. For most of these people, nothing outside this ship is real."
All of the images stopped moving; only an occasional flicker of light gave evidence that the transmission hadn't frozen. The two ships kept their distance, the docking mechanisms fewer than ten meters apart.
Guide cylinders emerged from the Enterprise and telescoped toward the alien ship. Just before contact, they were positioned to enter corresponding sheafts. The Enterprise began to slowly move again.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Ll6UFyXrN
We felt the brief, muted jolt. A caption flashed on the screen: DOCKING COMPLETE. Someone applauded, and another dozen or so joined in halfheartedly.
"What did I tell you?" Sulu said. "These people have no idea what this means to them." He turned to me. "They have no idea it means the end of their way of life."
"What do you mean?"
"When we find human civilization again and take this alien ship there, the mission of the Enterprise will be finished. No, not finished----that implies completion. This mission, whatever the hell it is, or was supposed to be, will end. We won't continue on afterward. We'll all leave this ship and never set foot on it again."
I hadn't thought of that, but Sulu was right. I reflected on it as we watched the people drifting out of the amphitheater. The screens went dead. Someone, probably one of the teenagers, threw something at the main screen; red and brow splattered across the gray surface.
"It'll be good for us," I said.
"I doubt that the bishop would agree," Sulu replied.
I nodded. If the bishop had considered these implications, it would help explain his opposition.
"None of this will matter, though, if we can't figure out where to go," I said. "I'm going to see Pike."562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYSB9Vrwj98
Pike hadn't been this happy in years.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJkLTMqvgG
I was not allowed into the archives. Instead, a cleric asked me to wait in an anteroom while she went to get Pike. The room was small, furnished only with two chairs; the walls were bare. I had the feeling it was rarely used.
When the cleric escorted Pike into the anteroom, the old man gave off an aura of contentment and well-being. The cleric withdrew, the door sealing behind her. Pike clasped my shoulder, shaking his head with a smile.
"You should see the archives, Pavel. They're incredible!"
"Believe me, Christopher, I'd like to see them."
"I know, it's crazy. Does anyone really think you'd steal or harm anything?"
"The bishop, apparently."
"The books, Pavel....there are thousands of bound folios in the History. Beautiful workmanship, quality materials...."
"That's fine, Christopher, but what about what's written in them?"
"That, too, is incredible. Not so much the prose itself, which is sometimes awkward and pedestrian, but the content---the detail and texture...."
I was becoming impatient. "What about what we're looking for?"
Pike shook his head. "Nothing yet, Pavel. It's so slow-going. All of it is handwritten, none of it is recorded in any other media, so it's impossible to do a computer search. I've asked the bishop if we could scan the records into the computers, but he refused." He shrugged. "We can only push him so far."
Damn! I shouldn't have expected this to be easy; I was beginning to realize it could take weeks, or months, to find what we were looking for. I knew we didn't have that kind of time---people on the Planning committee would grow impatient, support for my proposal would wane, and eventually the decision would be made to undock from the alien ship and resume our travels in the same manner we'd been traveling for decades.
"We're working our way back from the time of the Repudiation," Pike said.
"Why start thre? Why not start at the beginning?"
He smiled. "You forget, Pavel. The bishop claims there is no beginning. According to him, the Church's History goes back forever. We have no choice but to work backwards. What else should we do? Pick our volumes at random? Ask for one from three hundred and fifty years ago? Five hundred? Any other approach would be arbitrary. This is the best way. We won't miss anything."
"Try to hurry it up, Christopher. Skim the damn things."
"We are, Pavel. Sophia and I are working in shifts, and most of our shifts overlap. We're not getting much sleep." He grinned. "But it's wonderful. It's hard not to get caught up in the archives, not to get lost....We are historians. But we're working through them as fast as we can." He sighed, frowned. "There may not be anything there, Pavel."
"It's there, Christopher. Somewhere in all those beautiful folios of yours is the information we want."
The cleric returned. "Mr. Chekov?"
"Yes?"
"A call from you. From Mr. Gardner."
"All right." I turned to Pike. "Find it, Christopher."
He nodded. We left the anteroom through the same door, but Pike went down the connecting corridor to the right while the cleric led me off to the left and a communications station. Gardner's face was on the screen.
"Pavel," he said, "I've been trying to find you for half an hour." His face was flushed. "You'll want to get up here. She's talking."
"The old woman?"
"Yes. In English!"
"I'll be right there."562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ppNcmrtd3
