Part 32 (1/2)
Data gestured for Blair to follow and the two Starflect officers made their way quickly down toward the Guardian.
Mary Mac swung Riker's arm around and clamped down with her teeth. Riker howled in pain and slammed her in the face with as hard a punch as he could remember ever using. Mary Mac released her grip and staggered, wiping at the blood trickling down her mouth.
”You'll destroy everything!” she shouted.
”This 'everything' has no right to be!”
”You're not the one to make that decision!”
”Wrong! I'm the only one!”
She leaped at him again, a feral snarl ripping from her throat. Riker ducked and she sailed over him, and he stood quickly, catching her in midlunge. Before she could make a countermove, he deliberately threw himself backward and body-slammed her to the ground. He twisted quickly around while she was stunned and, giving it everything he had, slugged her on the side of the head. The green-skinned woman's eyes rolled up into the back ofher head, and she went limp.
Quickly Riker felt under her chin and checked her pulse. He wasn't entirely sure what was normal for an Orion, but this felt strong and firm. Good enough.
He grabbed his fallen tricorder and forced himself to he dispa.s.sionate as he programmed it. Carefully, he began to calibrate the tricorder to the enlarged screen designed specifically to display the Guardian's readouts. The tricorder would be able to measure the speed of the Guardian's actual display against the time-delayed playback of specific moments as depicted on the screen. Once it was all fed in and cross-programmed, the tricorder would be able to tell him exactly when to jump through the portal.
There would still be no guarantee of 100 percent accuracy. But it was the only shot that Riker had. His determination was to try to leap through as close to the actual event as possible. He knew that the longer he was back in the Enterprise 1701-D, the more chance he had of affecting things he wanted to leave alone. So he had to bring himself as near to Deanna's death as he could without missing it... while leaving himself enough time to do something about it.
His fingers flew over the tricorder's controls, cross-referencing the two displays. He programmed in, basically, a countdown. When the correct moment was approaching, a small green light on the tricorder would snap on. The moment that happened, Riker had to leap through precisely five seconds later... a built-in delay factor, as he had calculated how long the actual, physical act of taking two steps forward and jumping through would require.
”Guardian!” he shouted. ”The display I just witnessed-on my mark, begin again. Three... two... one... now!”
Images began to coruscate across the face of the Guardian of Forever. The same dizzying blur that Riker had seen before. The primary command had been simple: Riker had asked to see the history of the Enterprise. The Guardian had proceeded to show it-except that the display had begun with the first event that the Guardian had considered to be instrumental to the creation of the mighty stars.h.i.+p. Unfortunately for Riker, that event had been the invention of fire. Images of beings that were barely recognizable as ancestors of humanity, cl.u.s.tered around a small pile of sparking wood, was hardly what Riker needed.
Fortunately enough, the Guardian was renowned for its speed. In an eyeblink Riker witnessed the creation of the wheel. the development of tools. They were wonders that, under other circ.u.mstances, Riker would have been spellbound to witness. As it was, he was merely impatient to get past them.
The tricorder's programming had brought it on line as soon as the Guardian began the playback. It hummed along silently, matching and timing the display. Inside its circuitry, the countdown had begun.
Riker patted the vial that he had hidden in his jacket.
”Admiral!” came the shout from behind him.
Riker spun, and he saw Blair and Data approaching. For a moment he was startled and even frightened that they would stop him when he was so near to his goal... and that he would never get another opportunity. But then he remembered the force screen that was serenely in place. ”It won't do any good, Data!” Riker called. ”My mind's made up!”
Data and Blair came to a halt just on the other side of the force field. Blair's thick fur was blown this way and that in the fierce windstorm that surrounded them. Data called out, ”Is Mary Mac all right?”
Riker checked the Guardian. Leonardo da Vinci was stroking his chin thoughtfully, studying his designs for a primitive flying machine.
”She's fine, Data! She was less than cooperative when I forced her, at phaser point, to open up the forcefield. I told her I'd just stun her and used her handprint and retina pattern even if she was semiconscious. She chose to remain conscious, hoping that she could talk me out of this. And when she realized she couldn't, she seized a moment when I was distracted and tried to take me out. d.a.m.n near did, too,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully.
”Admiral, you must turn away from this destructive course.”
Riker glanced back at the Guardian. Alexander Graham Bell was just informing Watson that he needed him, and in an overlapping image, Thomas Edison was staring in wonderment at the glowing light in front of him.
”I'm going to save her, Data! For forty years, I've been eaten up by the thought that I should have done something! She begged me to... I promised that I would, and then all I did was stand there and watch her die!”
”She wouldn't have wanted this, Admiral! You're risking everything!”
”Don't you remember, Data?” called back Riker. ”The name of James Kirk's autobiography?”
Data needed only a moment to recall it. ”It was ent.i.tled Risk Is Our Business.”
”d.a.m.n right! I owe Deanna nothing less than to try everything' You hear me, Data? Nothing less!”
”Admiral, if you do not come out of there immediately, I shall order the Enterprise to open fire and use s.h.i.+p's phasers to penetrate the force field! You may very well be destroyed if that happens!”
”And the Guardian might be as well!” shouted back Riker. He took a step toward the time gate. Seconds before, a Saturn V rocket had been lifting off. Now Zephram Cochrane was about to activate the first warp drive unit. ”Would you do that, Data? Would you risk destroying the Guardian? Don't you see, Data? You've longed to understand humanity! You've longed for a soul! Well, Mr. Data-the Guardian is the resting place of all the souls, throughout all time! It's G.o.d's window on eternity! Who are you to destroy it?”
And with icy calm, Data replied, ”I have already contacted Starfleet, Admiral. Their orders were very specific. Protect the time stream, no matter what. Deanna Troi must die... and if it takes the destruction of G.o.d's window, then who better, Admiral, to a.s.sume that responsibility? After all... I am not one of G.o.d's creatures.” And Data angled his head upward and said, ”Enterprise... target the s.h.i.+elding directly in front of me. On my command... fire.”
”Don't do it, Mr. Data!” called Riker with genuine pleading in his voice. ”Don't kill Deanna!”
”I did not kill her, Admiral. But if maintaining the integrity of the s.p.a.ce-time continuum were at stake, I would take her life with my own hands. I would derive no satisfaction from it. Indeed, the counselor was as dear to me in my own way as she is to you in yours. But I am prepared to accept that her death is a requirement in the natural order of things, and to preserve that order, I will do whatever I have to do.”
Data had spoken with certainty and a sense of implacable decision. And Riker knew that lines had been drawn. ”So will I, Mr. Data.”
”Enterprise,” said Data tonelessly. ”Fire.”
From orbit, the mighty phasers of the Enterprise cut loose. They struck the force field directly above Riker's head. The force field sparked and s.h.i.+mmered under the barrage, resisting the power of the weapons.
It was the strongest force field that Federation technology had to offer... on par with the deflector s.h.i.+elds of the Enterprise herself. Furthermore, the Forever World had been equipped with its own heavy-duty defense array, protected by similar s.h.i.+elds. If a hostile vessel had shown up, the scientists below could very easily have given a very formidable accounting of themselves-in all likelihood, blowing the attacking s.h.i.+p out of orbit.
But the Chance had not been a hostile vessel, and the renowned and esteemed Adm. William T. Riker was hardly considered to be a malevolent presence. It had been the scientists' error to take Riker's word that there was urgent Starfleet business to discuss.
By the time they had realized their mistake, it had been too late.
Data was trying to make up for that mistake now. He watched, stone faced, as the Enterprise pitted her phasers against the force field. That they would eventually penetrate, he had no doubt whatsoever. The question was whether they would break through in time.
Riker took a step back, watching the phasers with a sense of grim desperation. There was nothing he could do. He was trapped inside, and besides, getting out would simply put him farther from the Guardian. He heard a low moan behind him-Mary Mac was coming around. Perfect-that was all he needed.
The field began to buckle. He could see the power reserves straining, the field integrity collapsing. How incredibly ironic that here he was at the gateway to all time, and time was the one thing he did not have.
He glanced down at the tricorder.
The green light was glowing.
He emitted a horrified yell. He should have been standing in front of the Guardian the whole time, watching, monitoring, waiting for the signal to flash to life. Had it just come on? Had it been on for a few seconds?
Too far! his mind screamed. Too far from the Guardian!
He spun and charged at the gateway. The sand crunched beneath his hoots. On the display face of the Guardian, he saw a brief image of Q dancing with Lwaxana Troi, and then Locutus threatening the s.h.i.+p, and it was all merging and blending together...
”Admiral, we will stop you!” came Data's voice, rising above the wind and the screaming of the Enterprise phasers, and he heard Blair's voice shouting something as well.
No time! No time!