Part 1 (2/2)
”No, no.” Riker waved his hand feebly. ”I kind of like it down here.”
”As you wish.” Worf turned and left the holodeck.
Riker rolled his eyes. Only a Klingon could make a thank you sound like an insult. Though he was happy to help Worf with Alexander's education, he rather doubted the use of a combat simulation like this. The Klingons placed a great deal of stress on hand-to-hand combat, but it was an outdated mode of fighting. Nowadays stars.h.i.+ps and phasers were the more customary weapons to use. A man with a phaser could stun a 'tcharian warrior without mussing his hair. Why bother with obsolete arms like swords and spears? He sighed. No matter how hard he tried, he never really understood the Klingon mind.
The computer chimed softly. ”Do you require medical a.s.sistance?” it inquired in its pleasant but unemotional tones.
”Don't you start!” Riker groaned.
He had a feeling that this wasn't going to be his day... .
Chapter Two.
CAPTAIN JEAN-LUC PICARD sat back in the command chair, his fingers inches from the cup of tea (Earl Grey, hot), a feeling of deep satisfaction within his soul. Moments like these never failed to remind him why he had applied to join Starfleet in the first place. On the huge viewscreen that dominated the main bridge of the Enterprise was perhaps one of the most beautiful sights in all the universe.
The s.h.i.+p was cautiously approaching an interstellar cl.u.s.ter, and the screen showed the view ahead in all its majestic glory. The cl.u.s.ter was an immense cloud of gases, all tendrils and thunderheads, like some cosmic Rorschach test fresh-dripped from the fingers of G.o.d. It was out of matter like this that stars were born, as gravity and other forces acted upon the microscopic particles that made up the dust. The tiny particles and molecules would be drawn together, layered, and shaped until in one blinding instant they would explode with light and energy-the microsecond of stellar birth. Picard felt like an expectant father, waiting in the wards for news of a fresh arrival.
Dozens of stars had already begun their lives within the cloud. Light streaming from them danced and diffused off the particles of gas, casting strange and exotic hues into the cloud. Salmon pinks, intense magentas, glowing ochres, startling chartreuses, vivid sapphires-they all swirled and streaked and demanded attention. Rarely did such violent and savage forces as existed here come together to result in so much beauty. The individual particles were caught in the grips of fields of such strength that they were s.n.a.t.c.hed from their paths and dragged into the embrace of their fellow particles in a process that was almost a flicker on the cosmic scale. Yet the view that now entranced him would barely change in the next thousand or even ten thousand years. The cloud was so huge, the forces so slow by human standards that only their most delicate instruments could detect any changes at all.
Picard wasn't the only one affected by the sight on the screen. Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, standing beside Picard, murmured softly: ”Man, oh, man, oh, man.” Picard couldn't resist a smile-and a flicker of envy. Geordi had been born blind, but the VISOR he wore over his sightless eyes more than compensated for his lost vision. Its technology enabled Geordi to ”see” far more of the electromagnetic spectrum than the normal human eye. If the cloud looked this gorgeous to Picard, how much more wonderful did it appear to Geordi?
”When I was a boy,” Picard said softly-to speak any louder would be unforgivably intrusive in the presence of this scene-”I was given a book by an aunt. It was some text on astronomy that my father said was far too advanced for a boy my age. He was right, too. But it had a section of color photographs that stole my heart. I loved looking through them and dreamed of being out here, amongst objects of such rare elegance.” He looked again at the screen. ”And here I am.”
From his station at Ops in front of Picard, Data glanced around, an expression of childlike innocence on his face. ”Maintaining our position, sir,” he reported. ”Scans confirm that the s.h.i.+elds can easily withstand the forces we are now experiencing.”
”Thank you, Mr. Data.” Picard sighed slightly. Data could always be relied upon to bring even the grandest vistas down to practical reality. Lacking human emotions, the android tended to respond inappropriately at times.
Geordi shook his head ruefully. ”Data,” he said softly, ”it's a shame that view out there doesn't mean anything to you.”
Data looked back at the screen, then at Geordi, a slight frown on his face. ”It means a great deal to me,” he replied in all seriousness. ”It means that proto-star formation is entering a scientifically interesting stage. It means that we are in an excellent situation to check Zingleman's Theory of Beta Tachyon Decay. It means that we must keep our s.h.i.+elds raised as long as we are this close to the formation zone. It means-”
”Mr. Data,” Picard broke in before the android could list every pertinent fact, ”I think Mr. La Forge is referring to the beauty of the view.”
”Ah.” Data glanced at the screen once more. ”It is aesthetically interesting.”
Seated beside him at Navigation, Ensign Ro Laren snorted. ”Trying to discuss beauty with an android is like trying to discuss business ethics with a Ferengi,” she said. ”No common ground.”
”On the contrary,” Data replied. ”I have a great appreciation of aesthetics. I merely do not have an emotional response to beauty.”
Knowing Ro's own appreciation of a good argument, Picard broke in. ”Thank you. Mr. La Forge, perhaps you'd be kind enough to let the science teams know that they can begin launching their probes as soon as they are ready.”
”Aye, sir.”
As the turbolift door to the bridge hissed open, Picard glanced up. His first officer, Will Riker, entered. ”Ah, Will,” Picard called in greeting. ”Come to enjoy the sights?”
Riker looked up at the screen, and his face creased into a smile. ”It's certainly worth a long, hard stare,” he agreed. He seemed to wince momentarily as he took his seat at Picard's right hand.
”Are you all right, Number One?” asked Picard, concerned.
Riker shot him a pained look. ”It's just a ... twinge,” he replied. ”Nothing to worry about.” Before Picard could ask for details, Riker called out to Data: ”What are the tachyon levels like out there?”
”Within predicted parameters,” the android replied. ”At this distance we will have no problems. s.h.i.+elds are holding at five percent carrying capacity.”
Riker nodded. ”And if the science teams want us closer in?”
Data c.o.c.ked his head slightly as he performed the calculations in his positronic matrix. ”We could go another light-year closer before the s.h.i.+elds begin to show strain,” he reported. ”Two light-years would definitely overextend their capacity.”
”Well, there's little chance we'll have to worry about that,” Picard said. ”This is a nice, routine examination, and science section will just have to be happy with whatever they get from this distance.”
Riker couldn't resist a grin. ”Aren't you at all interested in getting some answers to the mystery of beta tachyon decay?”
”I might be, Number One, if I knew what it was!” Picard was willing to let him have his fun at the captain's expense.
Riker stroked his beard. ”Data's been explaining it to me,” he said. ”Apparently a maverick scientist named Zingleman from Benecia has this theory that the forces at the heart of a stellar cl.u.s.ter like this are sufficient to funnel not merely alpha tachyons but the beta version as well. And beta tachyons seem to undergo some form of decay that n.o.body's been able to measure or explain exactly. They should have all evaporated or something when the universe was half its present age.”
Picard was intrigued despite himself. ”And yet they haven't?”
Riker nodded at the android. ”Data?” he prompted.
Data swung about in his seat to face them. ”No, sir, they haven't. There are a number of hypotheses that might account for this, but Professor Zingleman's theory is the most intriguing. He posits the idea that they may create a kind of s.p.a.ce-time tunnel that leads from their moment of creation to their eventual destruction-a form of very localized distortion that allows them to live on far after they theoretically should have decayed.”
Struggling to grasp this, Picard asked: ”You mean a kind of time warp reaching back to the instant of the Big Bang itself and then forward to the eventual end of the entire universe?”
”Precisely.” Data raised an eyebrow. ”An intriguing possibility, is it not?”
”Think of the ramifications,” Riker urged. ”If such corridors through time do exist, it might be possible to actually send probes back through them to the very instant of creation itself-and to the other end of time as well... . ”
Ro had stayed silent longer than she liked. Ever practical, all the talk of theory rankled her. ”Except that we know that tachyons can rip normal matter apart in seconds,” she pointed out. ”If the Enterprise tried to enter a tachyon funnel, we'd be annihilated instantly and our atoms scattered from the Big Bang to the Last Flicker.” Then, recalling herself, she added: ”Sir.”
Picard and Riker exchanged smiles. When she had first been a.s.signed to the Enterprise, Ro Laren's records had labeled her a malcontent and habitual troublemaker. Picard, however, considered her a valuable addition to the crew-not at all the problem that her previous commanders had rated her. What some officers had considered to be her weaknesses-questioning orders, offering unasked-for recommendations, and sometimes simply acting without proper authorization-Picard felt were strengths that simply needed channeling in the right directions. She had proved her worth many times over.
”Then we had better be certain that our s.h.i.+elds remain at full strength for this survey, hadn't we?” Picard said mildly. Then he noted that Data had swung back to study new readings on his board. ”Mr. Data?”
”Sir,” the android reported without turning his head. ”I am receiving some very anomalous information from sensors.” Ro busied herself checking the incoming data.
”Clarify, please.” Picard leaned forward. What could possibly be happening out there that would register on the sensors? In a stellar cloud such as this, events took place over cosmic periods of time, not minutes.
”It appears to be another vessel, Captain,” Data replied.
Riker frowned. Starfleet didn't have any other s.h.i.+ps in this sector-which was why the Enterprise was taking these readings in the first place. ”Where is it, Data?”
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