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LSTX-2000:
Lost in Space
and Time

Chapter One:
A Temporal Displacement

Chapter Two:
An Exitor and
an EM Egg

Chapter Three: Under Cloak and
at the Edge

Chapter Four: Shanghaied by Martian Slavers

Chapter Five:
The Ntzeon Effect

Chapter Six:
Lost Survivors
in Space

Chapter Seven:
Stealth About Midnight

Chapter Eight:
Back Through Time

Chapter Nine:
Zeta 4

Chapter Ten:
The Ntzeon Plant

Chapter Eleven:
The Voyage Across Time
LSTX-2000: Lost in Space and Time

Chapter 10: The Ntzeon Plant

  “I suspect they may have sold them into slavery,” Querzo said to Crusher, who was leading the team. “I heard them talking before stopping their plans. It sounded like they made a deal for elements at Hexnot, and probably dumped them there."

  “Hexnot?”
  “It’s a city on Mars, a major slave-market and trade-center,” Querzo explained.
  “Hold on,” she objected. “I don’t know of any Hexnot on Mars.”

  “There are actually 3 such places, on 3 different Martian planets,’ he admitted. “The one I am referring to is in ancient times.”
  “You mean ancient Mars? Are you saying they took them into the ancient past?”
  “I suspect so. It would be easier than traveling through the intersection to a parallel universe.”

  Crusher was having hard time accepting all this wild information all at once. As she looked around and thought about it, the team reported in. “We found no sign of the Captain or the others, but we found this.”

  The crewmate handed her a federation phaser. “Keep looking. Expand your search outside. I’m not leaving the planet until we know for certain they’re not here.”
  She stepped closer to the central plant-mechanism, and studied the control console. Querzo joined her and let her in on it.

  “This thing is supposed to create an artificial intersection to parallel universes,” he explained. “Whether it does or not I can’t say. I do know one thing for sure. The price we pay in fallout is much too high in this universe.”

  “This is what destroyed our universe?” She said, as she looked all about the plant.
  “Yes,” he said. “That’s why I plan to set it on auto-destruct as soon as we’re finished here. We can’t let it fall into the hands of characters like these 2 Martians ever again.”

  “I agree,” she said. “But we have to make sure none of our crew is here.”
  “Oh, I don’t think you’ll find them, not here, any how,” he said, and stepped back toward the Martian transverser. “I have to dispose of their ship. Keep an eye on those 2 guys on the ground, just in case they developed anti-pazer forms, and I’ll be back in about 4 minutes.”

  He went up the ramp, into the Martian transverser, while Crusher watched over the area. Minutes later, he returned and rejoined her, and waved his hand toward the vehicle, and it disappeared.

  “Now wait, wasn’t that thing a time-vehicle?” she said.   
  “Yes,” he admitted.
  “We could use it to retrieve the Captain and the others!” she said, with surprise.
  “No, we don’t need it,” Querzo said. “We can use mine.”

  He walked beyond the site of the vanishing vehicle, around a corner of the cavern. Crusher followed a few meters behind. He stopped at an area where the soil was indented, as if someone had started to lay the foundation of a structure, and stopped. He waved his hand in the air, as if he was greeting someone, and suddenly another large vehicle appeared, filling the indentation in the ground. Crusher examined it as Querzo proceeded to touch a small panel on its side, and a doorway opened and a ramp slid to the ground.

  “It’s another transverser,” she guessed, as she stepped up to it.
  “Yes,” he admitted, “but she’s a much finer lady than the Martian version. Mars stole the designs, but their version was crude compared to the originals. There’s a reason for that, a reason somewhat beyond the Martian’s own selfish interests.”

  “So this is an upgraded version?” she said, with fascination.
  “No, it would be truer to say that the Martian version is a down-graded version of this.”
  “Down-graded?” Crusher said, “I don’t understand.”

  Querzo stepped up the ramp and went inside, and bid her to follow. The inside was not simply a fantastic technological machine; it was somewhat larger than a standard shuttle- craft, and a real work of artistic décor. The bridge had 4 seats, set apart by about a meter between each, so there was plenty of elbow room and com-consoles ran all around the wall such that each seat also filled a station. Bronze-colored wall panels were outlined by silver trimming, and the ceiling was a beautiful turquoise blue with purple striations.

  Querzo sat at the controls, touched a few places, and said, “Leaving her in cloaked phase drained a bit of power. We’ll have to make a depot-run before we take her to Mars.”
  “We?” Crusher said, still standing by the doorway to the bridge.

  “Well, you do want to get your crewmates back?” he said, and spun about in the seat to look at her.
  “Yes,” she admitted.
  “Someone will have to go with me to Mars,” he said, obviously.

  “Well, we’ll see about that,” she said. “We have to reconvene on the Enterprise before we do anything else. Can you take her, this thing to the Enterprise?”
  “Her name is Amalek,” Querzo said. “Yes, I can get her to your starship. But I could use a co-pilot, especially if I have to carry those 2 unconscious renegades.”

  “We can transport them,” she said.
  “No,” he said. “I don’t think you can. The Martians have known of your matter-energy transporters for years. They were clever enough to develop internal security-defenses against it. You can try, but it won’t work. I suggest you have some of your people carry them to my craft, then have 1 or 2 of them ride up with me to keep an eye on them.”
  Crusher left Querzo, returned to the plant, and checked in with the team.
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