Subject: Belly of the Whale - final
From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:46:49 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative

Scene IV

[Blackness cut by a narrow band of light. Rising through the 
band, the Enterprise. Flood-lamps flare along the rim of her 
saucer, 
their glare reflecting off pale skeletons of steel.

Enterprise bridge.]

Worf:  We have lost direct contact with the T'Kiar and 
R'Shal. As expected, Captain. Establishing contact via probe 
links.

[The Highest strides towards the main viewing screen. She 
stops before it, cutting an imposing profile.]

Attendant:  The Highest senses a mind.

Picard:  A mind? Singular?

Attendant:  Singular. A primitive mind. Barely sentient.

Troi:  It's true, Captain. I can feel it as well. Primitive, 
yet vast.

Data:  I do not understand. How can a mind be 'vast?' and 
yet 'primitive?'

Troi:  I don't understand, either. It feels as if I am 
surrounded by thoughts - or more rather, feelings - but all 
emanate from the same entity.

Data:  I do not think that would be possible.

Attendant:  Quite possible, android. This ship is alive.

Killpatrick:  You mean, we're in the belly of a whale!?

Attendant:  Your metaphor pleases the Highest.

Troi:  The full spectrum of emotional activity one would 
expect in a truly animate creature is not present.

Picard:  An artificial life-form?

Troi:  Very possible.

Data:  We are nearing the fore section of the craft. As 
their initial programming did not anticipate the super-
structure, the probes did not penetrate this far.

Picard:  Meaning we may yet bump into something.

Data:  A possibility. We are detecting a massive structure 
ahead, Captain. A wall. We should clear enough of the super-
structure that our lamps will illuminate it's complex 
surface soon.

Riker:  Complex?

Data:  According to sensors, reliefs and embossings mark the 
surface. On a very large scale. From an averaged base, 
projections and valleys occur to plus and minus seven 
meters...

[Picard rises from his chair. He steps towards the screen, 
until he stands by the Highest's side. Light from the 
Enterprise begins to illuminate the wall. We see shapes. 
Humanoid shapes taking part in a colossal dance, not unlike 
those which grace the ceilings of palaces and churches of 
Renaissance Italy.

From space, we see the Enterprise stopped before the wall. 
Her flood lamps stream across it as far as we can see. 
Throughout this range, the wall is flat, and the figures 
continue to dance.]

ACT V

Scene I

[Enterprise bridge.]

Picard [voice-over]:  Captain's log, supplemental. In the 
belly of the whale. We have found what we believe to be a 
portal. Remarkable in that we can find no others. The hull 
of the vessel blocks both our scanners and transporter. 
Access to the Behemoth proper thus apparently limited to a 
single, small entrance. Not much larger than a shuttle 
craft. Commander Data has left the Enterprise in an attempt 
to open this door.

Worf:  The R'Shal reports Vulcan industrial vessel Ch'iar 
and Federation battleship Yamato arriving, Captain.

Picard:  Excellent. Request the R'Shal join us. Have the 
Ch'iar begin salvage operations on the Nadia.

Riker:  Don't like the idea of being alone in here any 
longer than necessary either, Captain?

Picard:  No, Number One. I do not.

Worf:  Data hailing us from Shuttle 4.

Picard:  Visual.

Data:  I have been unable to find any mechanism for opening 
this portal, Captain. In fact, I can find no automatic 
systems at all. 

Riker:  Have you tried "Open Sesame?"

Data:  No, Commander Riker. I am not familiar with that 
device.

Attendant:  There are no automatic systems. There is no 
computer. Only the ship.

Riker:  A starship without a computer?

Attendant:  Correct. This vessel is alive. It must be 
treated as such.

Picard:  Then perhaps "Open Sesame" is the right idea, 
Number One.

Data:  Forgive me, Captain. Could you explain what "Open 
Sesame" is?

Picard:  Not now, Data.

Riker:  You're suggesting we ask to be let in?

Picard:  Right, Number One.

Killpatrick:  But ask who? We've been hailing for hours. 
Haven't gotten a peep back yet.

Picard:  We've been asking the wrong way.

Data:  Ah, 'Open Sesame...' Taken from the myth of 'Ali Baba 
and the Thousand Thieves.' The magic words which, when 
spoken, would open the cave used by...

Riker:  Data...

Haifa:  I believe I understand.

Picard:  Prepare for a guest, Data.

Scene II

[Haifa floats by the great wall. Data floats near her. Her 
gloved hand brushes against the surface. For a moment, she 
is still.

She takes a hold of the glove with her other hand and begins 
to remove it.]

Data:  That is not wise, Commander. We are still in deep 
space. The elbow pressure point will protect the rest of 
your body, but you could loose your forearm to the extreme 
cold.

Haifa:  I must touch the ship. 

Picard:  Transporter Room. Lock on Commander Haifa. Energize 
on my command. Dr. Crusher, prepare for a case of severe 
frostbite.

[Haifa removes her glove. Air puffs from the forearm section 
of her suite. Frost crystallizes along her fingers. We can 
see the bulge of veins. She touches the wall of the ship 
gingerly.

Haifa:  Open.

[Light flares along the periphery of the small circular 
portal. It moves back several meters, then slides to the 
left, revealing a dock slightly larger than the shuttle 
craft.

Killpatrick:  That's my girl!

Picard:  Energize.

Scene III

[Enterprise sick bay. Haifa lays on a platform. Dr. Crusher 
finishes examining her arm with a monitoring device.]

Beverly:  That was very brave. And very foolish. It'll be 
awhile before you have full use of your fingers again.

Haifa:  I understand.

[The Highest and her attendant enter. Dr. Crusher does not 
recognize her. The Highest touches Haifa's head tenderly. 
Several moments pass.]

Attendant:  You were not happy on Vulcan.

Haifa:  There is no happiness on Vulcan.

Attendant:  You did not consider it home. Did you feel ill 
treated?

Haifa:  I was treated as a Vulcan.

Attendant:  And this did not please you?

Haifa:  I am not a Vulcan.

Scene IV

Picard, the Highest, and her Attendant move quickly down a 
corridor aboard the Enterprise.

Picard [voice-over]:  Captain's log, supplemental. The inner 
door of the docking chamber does not possess enough of the 
outer hull's unidentifiable materials to block our 
transporter. This provides us a window of opportunity 
into the main ship. Captain Killpatrick has already lead an 
away team, comprised primarily of his own crew. Their 
training in infiltration and commando activities made them 
ideal for the first-in scenario. They report no signs of 
life.

[Enterprise transporter room. Riker, Worf, and Data ready 
themselves on the platform. Picard enters. Behind him, the 
Highest and her Attendant.]

Riker:  Is it wise...?

Picard:  The Highest insisted.

Riker:  Even so...

Picard [interrupting]:  Argument is useless, Number One

Riker:  Energize.

The team materializes within a cavernous chamber, not unlike 
the lobby of a hotel, on a truly enormous scale. On three 
walls of the square, rising up almost beyond sight, are tier 
after tier of balconies. Everything covered in baroque 
carvings. A graceful, arching double-door marks the fourth 
wall - several stories tall itself. Above that, a 
hanging banner emblazoned with a coat-of-arms. Killpatrick 
walks over to the new arrivals.]

Killpatrick:  Pretty spectacular, eh Picard? This room here, 
about a hundred meters square. Must be eighty stories up 
that way. Rooms spread out and out and out. It'll take weeks 
to go through the whole thing. I've pulled my men back to 
form a perimeter. If something wanders over, we'll be ready.

Picard:  Have you opened those?

Killpatrick:  No. Haifa thought the Highest would be coming. 
Thought she'd like to open them.

Riker:  And if there's something on the other side?

Attendant?  Then we shall know soon enough. Where is 
Commander Haifa?

Killpatrick:  Checking the perimeter. Always a soldier, that 
girl...

Attendant:  Please tell her we are grateful.

[The Highest walks across the chamber. She places her hand 
on the smooth, metallic surface. The doors shimmer slightly 
as they sweep back silently.]

Attendant:  Truly a fascinating vessel. It shall take far 
longer than weeks, Captain Killpatrick, to investigate it's 
complexities.

[The group passes between the doors. They enter another 
cavernous chamber, though smaller than the first. Darker as 
well. And littered with towering mound after towering mound 
of glittering, broken swords. A path leads through the 
useless weapons. It ends before a glossy black disk, raised 
slightly from the floor.

Picard:  What is it, Data?

Data:  It would appear to be some manner of projector, 
Captain. Holographic.

[The Highest's kneels, placing her hand upon the surface. A 
brilliant image chases away the darkness. An incredibly 
tall, fiercely beautiful woman with billowing silver hair. 
She begins to speak, but at first her words are foreign and 
cannot be understood. A look of concentration washes over 
the Highest's face. The words become clearer.]

Data:  Fascinating, Captain. The Highest is interacting with 
this vessel to translate the words as they are spoken.

Woman:  ...Lady Niam, Empress on Avelos. But this is all 
that remains of my empire. Empty chambers and broken swords. 
But even that is more than all the others. Their kingdoms, 
ash. Their people, dead. Forty millennia of star-spanning 
civilization. Ended. These, the fruits of my strength, now 
stand as mute testimony to our weakness. 

[As Lady Niam speaks, other images flash by. A whirling 
galaxy. A planet. Massive ships like the Behemoth disgorging 
swarms of smaller craft. Titanic struggle. Then nothing. 
Just the Empress. Her head bowed.

Lady Niam:  Our failing... But perhaps all shall not be ash. 
Here, in the holds of ships within this ship, the life of 
those worlds - in vanity - I called mine. Primitive life. 
'Foolish,' my generals screamed at me. Foolish to waste so 
valuable a carrier - the greatest in space - on animals. 
'Mere' animals. But it is they who were foolish. They who 
could not see. Why could they not see? From the lowly come 
the high. Perhaps it shall not be as it was, the second time 
around?

[The image vanishes. An uncomfortable blackness returns. The 
Highest stands.]

Attendant:  There is no more. Nothing.

Data:  The galaxy shown in the holograph matches what we 
call Andromeda. Apparently, this vessel has crossed the 
intergalactic void, to escape the calamity of warfare.

Riker:  What does it all mean?

Worf:  From the lowly come the high? Second time around? And 
ships within this ship? Where did they go?

Riker:  Escape with nothing but animals? Why wouldn't the 
Empress escape herself? With her people. A carrier of this 
size could hold perhaps hundreds of thousands.

Attendant:  You do not see. They did escape. 

Riker:  In the ships this vessel carried? She said only 
animals...

Picard:  Perhaps they are us?

Riker:  Captain?

Picard:  Noah's ark, Number One. 'The second time around.' A 
second chance. The Empress understood the process of nature. 
From animals come successively higher forms of life.

Data:'From the lowly come the high.' It could be, Captain. 
And it would help to explain the similarities of alien life 
throughout the range of our travels. Though it would place 
this ship's age in the hundreds of millions of years.

Riker:  Which I find rather difficult to accept.

Picard:  There may be other explanations, Number One. 
Granted. But imagine. A common thread, woven through all of 
our histories. Imagine.

[We rise into the darkness, looking down at the team, 
surrounded by the broken swords. Light falls on them from 
the open door, itself shaped like a dagger.