Part 10 (1/2)
”Commander,” Leyoro spoke up, echoing his own thoughts, ”we can't wait any longer.”
”Agreed,” Riker said, hitting the alert switch on the command console. He regretted that yet another first-contact situation had to lead to a show of force, but the Calamarain hadn't given them any other choice except retreat. Let's see what happens when we bite back, he thought. ”All crew to battle stations.”
Baeta Leyoro, for one, was raring to go. Her white teeth gleamed wolfishly as she leaned over the tactical controls. ”All weapons systems primed and ready,” she announced. ”Awaiting your command.”
”Start with a midrange phaser burst,” he ordered. ”Maximum possible dispersal.” The wide beams would weaken the burst's total force, but Riker saw no obvious alternative. How the h.e.l.l, he thought, do you target a cloud?
”Yes, sir!” Leyoro said, pressing down on the controls. Phaser arrays mounted all along the s.h.i.+p's surface fired at once, emitting a unified pulse that spread out from the Enterprise in every possible direction. On the screen, Riker saw the pulse emerge as a wave of scarlet energy that disappeared into the billowing, churning ma.s.s of the Calamarain. He wasn't sure, but he thought the turbulent cloud became even more agitated when and where it intersected with the phaser burst. The roiling gases swirled furiously, throwing off electrical discharges that crackled against the Enterprise's s.h.i.+elds. A clap of thunder rattled Riker all the way through to his bones.
”I sure felt that,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the din. ”The question is: did they feel us?” He peered over at Deanna, who had taken her seat beside him the minute he sounded the battle alert. ”Any response from out there?”
Deanna shook her head. ”I'm not sure. I don't think so. They're already so upset, it's hard to tell.”
He nodded. In for a penny, he thought, in for a pound. ”Another burst. Increase phaser intensity to the next level.” There was no turning back now. He hoped he could avoid actually killing one or more of the Calamarain, but their alien nature made it impossible to gauge the ultimate effect of the phaser beams. He had no intention of going to maximum strength before he had to, but, one way or another, he was going to make these strange, bodiless beings think twice about attacking this s.h.i.+p.
”Here goes nothing,” Leyoro muttered as she fired again. A second burst of directed energy, even more dazzling than before, met the fury of the Calamarain. Once again, it was absorbed into the acc.u.mulated plasma almost instantaneously.
The cloud's reaction was just as immediate.
With a howl even louder than any Riker or the others had heard before, the Calamarain shook the Enterprise savagely. Riker held on tightly to the armrests of the captain's chair while keeping his jaw firmly set to avoid biting down on his tongue. All about the bridge, crew members bounced in their seats, their minds and bodies jangled by the brutal quaking. Even Data appeared distracted by the disturbance; he looked up from his console with an impatient expression upon his golden face, as if he were anxious for the shaking to cease so he could continue with his work. Riker knew just how he felt.
Mercifully, the worst of the battering subsided after a few moments, although the sentient tempest still raged upon the screen and the thunder reverberated ominously behind every buzz and beep from the bridge apparatus. Riker felt his temples begin to pound in concert with every resounding peal. He searched the bridge to make sure that no one had been injured seriously, then looked back at Deanna. The counselor's face was pale, her eyes wide with alarm.
”They felt that,” she gasped. Obviously, she had shared at least a part of the Calamarain's pain.
”I got that impression,” he said.
Barclay had hoped that Mr. La Forge would be alone when he reached Engineering, but no such luck. The first thing Barclay saw as soon as he got off the turbolift was the chief engrossed in a heated discussion with Lem Faal, who was the last person Barclay wanted to run into right now. The red alert signals flas.h.i.+ng all around the engineering section only added to his trepidation, as did all the busy Starfleet officers hard at work in response to the alert.
Engineering was abuzz with activity, much more so than usual. Every duty station was manned, sometimes by more than one individual. His fellow engineers shouted instructions and queries back and forth to each other as they hastily adjusted and/or monitored illuminated instrumentation panels all along Engineering. Yellow warning signals blinked upon the tabletop master systems display, indicating problems with at least half a dozen vital s.h.i.+p systems, while a whole team of crew members, led by Sonya Gomez, cl.u.s.tered around the towering warp engine core, carefully manipulating the enclosed matter/antimatter reaction. Ordinarily, Barclay could have expected a friendly greeting upon entering Engineering, but at the moment his colleagues were too intent upon their a.s.signed tasks to take note of his arrival. Even Lem Faal seemed too busy with Chief La Forge to spare Barclay another dirty look.
Maybe this isn't the best time, Barclay thought, his previous enthusiasm cooling in the face of the irate Betazoid scientist. He wanted to talk to Mr. La Forge about his discovery in Transporter Room Five, but the chief looked like he had his hands full with the red alert, not to mention Professor Faal. The visiting scientist was obviously upset. He held on to a duranium pylon for support while he argued with La Forge. ”I don't understand,” he said. ”We can't cancel the experiment now. It's ridiculous.”
”We're under attack,” La Forge pointed out, looking past Faal at the cutaway diagram of the Enterprise on the master situation monitor, his attention clearly divided between Faal and the ongoing crisis. ”It's a shame, but I'm sure Commander Riker knows what he's doing.” He started to turn away from the irate physicist. ”Now, you'll have to excuse me while I see what's the matter with our warp engines. You should go back to your quarters.”
”This is more than a shame,” Faal objected, a faint whistle escaping his throat with every breath. La Forge had discreetly briefed the engineering team on the physicist's medical problems, and Barclay felt sorry for the man despite the bad blood between them. Iverson's disease, like all manner of illnesses and medical threats, terrified Barclay. Even though he knew Iverson's disease was caused by a genetic disorder and was by no means contagious, listening to Faal's tortured breathing still gave him the creeps.
”I've devoted years to this project. It's my last hope for...well, I suppose you'd call it immortality.” His knuckles whitened as he held on to the pylon with what looked like all his strength. ”Your Commander Riker has no right to make this decision. I'm in charge of this experiment. Starfleet specifically told your captain to cooperate with my experiment!”
La Forge shrugged impatiently. ”I don't know much more than you do, but I know we can't pull this off in the middle of a combat situation, especially with the captain missing.” He hurried over to the master systems display, where Ensign Daniel Sutter stepped aside to permit La Forge access to the primary workstation. La Forge continued to speak to Faal as he simultaneously ran a diagnostic on the graviton polarity generators. ”Maybe the Calamarain will go somewhere else and we can try again. Or maybe you'll have to try another section of the barrier.”
”No,” Faal said, following closely behind La Forge. He sounded ever more sick and distraught. ”This is the ideal location. All our sensor readings and calculations prove that. We have to break through the barrier now. I might not get another chance. I don't have much time left....”
Barclay was getting tense just listening to this conversation. He seriously considered turning around and coming back later. But what if the way the bio-gel packs in the probe absorbed some of the barrier's energy turns out to be important? He'd never forgive himself if the Enterprise got destroyed and it was all his fault; it was bad enough that he'd infected the entire crew with that mutagenic virus a couple of years ago. Don't live in the past, Counselor Troi always told him. Show people what you're capable of.
Mustering up all his courage, Barclay stepped closer to the chief and Faal. The Betazoid genius spotted him approaching and gave him a murderous look; clearly, he hadn't forgotten the incident with the pulse generator. Or forgiven.
”Excuse me, sir,” Barclay said to La Forge. He could feel Lem Faal's baleful glare burning into the back of his neck. ”But when you've got a moment, I'd like to talk to you about something I found in that probe you asked me to look at.”
La Forge sighed, as if the rescued probe was just one more thing for him to worry about. Barclay immediately regretted bringing it up. ”Can this wait, Reg?” he asked with a slight edge of irritation in his tone. ”There's an emergency with the warp engines and the deflectors.”
”Yes. No,” he answered. ”I mean, I don't know.”
Professor Faal lost his patience entirely. ”What are you doing, wasting time with this idiot?” Saliva sprayed from his mouth as he gasped out the words. ”This is intolerable! I want to speak to Commander Riker!”
Before La Forge could respond, a tremendous clap of thunder echoed through Engineering, drowning out even the constant thrum of the warp core. The floor swayed beneath Barclay's feet and he found himself stumbling down a sudden incline that hadn't existed an instant before, b.u.mping awkwardly into no less than Professor Faal himself. Just kill me now, he thought.
La Forge frowned as the floor gradually leveled out again. ”This isn't good,” he said. Circuit patterns rotated in his ocular implants as he concentrated on the tabletop display, taking stock of the situation. ”I can't waste any more time with this. Reg, make sure the professor gets back to his quarters okay, then head back here. We'll talk about the probe later.” Without a backward glance, he stalked across Engineering toward the warp core, issuing orders as he went. ”Sutter, divert impulse power to the subs.p.a.ce field amplifiers. Ortega, keep an eye on the EPS flow....”
Why me? Barclay thought, left alone with Lem Faal. Couldn't someone else-anyone else-escort Faal? He already hates me enough. But La Forge was in charge; he had to keep his eyes on the big picture. ”Yes, sir,” Barclay said dutifully, if less than enthusiastically. ”Please come with me.”
Faal ignored him entirely, chasing after Geordi. ”You can't do this, La Forge,” he said, his wheezing voice no more than a whisper. ”The barrier is bigger than some pointless military exercise. We can't lose sight of that. The experiment is all that matters!”
But La Forge, determined to inspect the warp engine power transfer conduits, would not be distracted. ”Reg,” he called out, exasperated, ”if you could take care of this?”
I can't let Mr. La Forge down, Reg thought, taking Faal gently but firmly by the arm. ”Please come along, Professor.” Part of him felt guilty about bullying a sick man; another part was greatly relieved that Faal wouldn't be able to put up much resistance.
Physically, that is. The scientist's vocal indignation showed no sign of abating. ”Let go of me, you incompetent cretin! I insist on seeing Commander Riker.”
Barclay had no idea where Riker was. On the bridge, he a.s.sumed, coping with the latest ghastly emergency. There you go again, he chastised himself, leaping to the worst possible conclusion. But he couldn't help it. The flas.h.i.+ng red alert signals and blaring sirens ate away at his nerves like Tarca.s.sian piranha. A dozen nightmarish scenarios, ranging from an uncontrolled plasma leak to a full-scale Q invasion, raced through his mind. He tried to dismiss his fears as irrational and unfounded, but with only partial success. An angry Q could do anything, he thought, anything at all. Still, he somehow managed to get the professor away from La Forge and into the turbolift. Let me just get Faal stowed away safely. Then I can report my findings on the probe. ”Which deck are your quarters on?” he asked.
”Seven,” Faal said grudgingly, still visibly incensed. Unable to stand upright on his own, he had to lean back against the wall of the lift. Something wet and clotted gurgled in his lungs. Barclay tried not to stare at the silver hypospray Faal removed from his pocket. It's not contagious, he kept reminding himself. It's not.
The turbolift came to a stop and the doors whooshed open, revealing an empty corridor leading to the s.h.i.+p's deluxe guest quarters, the ones reserved for visiting admirals and amba.s.sadors. Nothing but the best for the winner of the Daystrom Prize, Barclay thought, wondering how much larger the suite was than his own quarters on Level Eleven. ”Here we are,” he announced, grateful that Faal had not raised more of a fuss once they left Engineering. I'll just drop him off, then hurry back to Mr. La Forge. He still needed to tell the chief about the psionic energy the probe had picked up.
”Just give me a minute, Lieutenant,” Faal said. His hypospray hissed for an instant, and the debilitated scientist grabbed on to the handrail for support. His chest rose and fell slowly as he choked back a rasping cough. Barclay looked away so as not to embarra.s.s the professor.
The next thing he knew a pair of hands shoved him out of the lift compartment into the hall. Surprised and befuddled, he spun around in time to see the doors sliding shut in front of his face. For one brief instant, he glimpsed Faal through the disappearing gap in the door. The Betazoid grinned maliciously at him. The doors came together and the lift was on its way.
Oh no! he thought. He immediately called for another lift, which arrived seconds later, and he jumped inside. I can't believe I let him do that. I can't even keep track of one sickly Betazoid. He didn't know how he was ever going to look Geordi La Forge in the eyes again. Just when I thought I was really on to something, what with the probe and all, I have to go and do something like this!
”Destination?” the turbolift inquired when Barclay didn't say anything at first. The prompt jogged his mind. Where could Professor Faal have run off to? Back to Engineering? Boy, was Chief La Forge going to be annoyed when Faal showed up to pester him again. ”Engineering,” he blurted, and the lift began to descend. Maybe I can still stop him before he gets to Mr. La Forge.
But, wait, he recalled. Hadn't Faal kept demanding to see Commander Riker? Suddenly, he knew what the professor's destination had to be.
The bridge.
”Stop. Cancel previous order. Take me to the bridge. Nonstop.”
Please let me get there before Faal can bother the commander too much.
”Fire phasers again,” Commander Riker ordered. ”Take us up another notch, Lieutenant.”
”With pleasure, sir,” Leyoro said. A burst of high-intensity phaser beams leaped from the emitter arrays to sting the alien cloud-creatures enclosing the Enterprise. As before, the Calamarain reacted with a thunderous roar that caused the stars.h.i.+p to rock like an old-fas.h.i.+oned sailing vessel adrift on a stormy sea.
The floor of the command area rolled beneath Riker's feet as yet another tremor jarred the bridge, reminding him forcibly of the Great Alaskan Earthquake of 2349. Back on Earth, he thought, that would have been at least a five-point-two. Thank heavens the Enterprise-E had been constructed as soundly as it had; otherwise, he'd be expecting the roof to cave in at any moment.