The Folded World Read Free Page B

“We’re receiving a distress hail from the U.S.S. McRaven.”
    The McRaven was a Starfleet ship that had left Earth a few days before the Enterprise, her mission so classified that even Kirk didn’t know what it was. Because she was following essentially the same course as the Enterprise, he assumed the mission had something to do with their own: ferrying Minister Chan’ya and her retinue to Ixtolde, along with the Federation delegation. Ixtolde was an impoverished planet, the sole inhabited world in its solar system. But its populace had acquired the capability for interstellar travel, and had appliedfor Federation membership. Everybody wanted it to happen. Trade helped make planets prosperous, and Ixtolde had untapped mineral resources to which others wanted access. The idea was that the Enterprise and the Ton’bey, the Ixtoldan battle cruiser, would arrive together in Ixtoldan space. Other Ixtoldan ships would meet them there, and the combined delegations would be shuttled to the planet’s surface for a grand entrance.
    The diplomats were negotiating with Chan’ya en route, and once they reached Ixtolde they would embark on a fact-finding tour of the world, to ascertain that it met the Federation’s membership requirements. Kirk wasn’t sure how the McRaven fit in, but he was convinced it had a role to play.
    â€œHow far behind are we?” Kirk asked.
    â€œThe McRaven appears to be immobilized,” Uhura reported. “Although it has been four days ahead of us, at our current speed we’re only about a day behind.”
    â€œDo we know the nature of their emergency?”
    â€œ No, sir. I’ve been trying to raise them, without success. We’re just getting the automated distress call.”
    Kirk met McCoy’s gaze. One of the doctor’s eyebrows arched slightly. The captain knew well what that meant. He was curious, too. “Inform the Ixtoldan ship. Intercept course. Warp six,” he said. “I’m on my way.”
    â€¢   •   •
    By the time he and McCoy reached the bridge, Gonzales and a couple of the other diplomats, Perkins and Rinaldo, were already there. So were MinisterChan’ya and three additional members of her party. Ixtoldans were generally humanoid in appearance, but with skin that appeared at most times to have been dusted with gold. The colors of the crystalline matter creating that impression could change, under intense emotional stimulus, turning a glowering purple when an Ixtoldan was angry and a deep sea green, according to reports, when sexually aroused. Chan’ya’s had been a pale gold as long as Kirk had known her, although he noticed as he stepped off the turbolift that it was slightly more pronounced than usual.
    The minister was shorter than Kirk and broader through the shoulders, with thick arms and legs and a sturdy torso. She wore a floor-length dress that appeared to be composed of a series of ribbons partially interwoven and wrapped tightly around her, in various shades of red and yellow. Her hair was pulled back off her face and braided into shoulder-length coils, each braid comprising white, gold, and silver strands. Kirk had not spent a lot of time with her, but he knew her well enough to realize that although her even-featured, seemingly guileless face appeared to betray an utter lack of sophistication, that was an illusion. She was not to be underestimated.
    The other two Ixtoldans were even taller than Gonzales, towering over their minister, and both thin as rails. This told Kirk that Ixtoldans were a physically diverse people, similar in coloration but not necessarily in size and build.
    Chan’ya greeted Kirk with a challenge. “Are we to understand, Captain, that our arrival at Ixtolde is to be delayed?” She spoke in a low, throaty mumble, hard to hear, but with each word distinctly pronounced. Her English was almost without accent.
    â€œI’m not sure