All Good Things__ - Michael Jan Friedman [63]
The security officer was already at work, even before the captain could complete his instructions. “Aye, sir,” she answered. “And, Lieutenant…” he continued. She looked up at him. “Don’t take no for an answer,” he told her. Tasha nodded. “I won’t, sir.”
Turning to his conn and ops officers, Picard said, “Data… O’Brien… you’re with me.” As they followed his order, other personnel took their places.
Waiting just a moment for them to fall in behind him, he led the way to the turbolift.
Several minutes later, down in engineering, Picard was peering at Data and O’Brien across the master systems display console.
The android seemed just the slightest bit frustrated. “Captain, I do not see any way to dissipate the anomaly,” he said.
O’Brien swore softly. Being human, his emotions ran a good deal higher.
“Sir,” he said, “the anomaly’s output is greater than the combined energy of our entire fleet. It’s just too big for us to handle.”
Picard thought for a moment. “Let’s concentrate on how this anomaly was initially formed. Speculation?”
Data was the first to respond. “Temporal ruptures in the space-time continuum are rarely a naturally occurring phenomenon. It is therefore most likely that this anomaly was caused by an outside catalyst.” “Like a warp-core explosion,” O’Brien suggested.
“I think I can rule out a warp-core explosion,” said the captain. The android thought some more. “Our tachyon pulse has been unable to completely penetrate the anomaly. If we had information about the center of the phenomenon, we might have a basis for speculation.”
“Can you find a way to scan the interior?”
“I’ve tried everything I know of,” O’Brien said quickly. “There’s just too much interference. There’s nothing on board that’ll do the job.” Picard thought quickly. “Do you know what would?” There was a tense moment, then Data answered. “In theory, a tomographic imaging scanner capable of multiphasic resolution would be able to penetrate this much interference.” He paused. “Sir, the Daystrom Institute has been working on such a device, although it is still only theoretical.”
Information, Picard thought, we need to know what’s going on inside that thing. The question is—
—how to get that information. Abruptly, he realized that he’d shifted again. He was no longer in the past, in engineering. Now he was back in the present, at the aft science station on the Enterprise’s bridge.
Data was still with him. But instead of O’Brien, he now had Geordi.
More important, there was an opportunity here, if he could only seize it. In the past, they’d determined a way to get more information about the anomaly’s in-ternal workings—but they’d lacked the technology to do so.
“Mr. Data,” he said. “Do we have a tomographic imaging scanner on board?” “Yes, sir,” the android replied. “Can you use it to scan the center of the anomaly?” The android turned to him. “Possibly.” He moved to do so. “Sir, there is a great deal of interference… but I am getting some readings.” Picard waited impatiently while Data pushed buttons on his console. “This is very unusual,” Data said, with just a hint of the inflection Picard remembered from Data’s future selfi
“What is it?” Picard asked. At last he felt they were closing in on the core of the problem.
“It appears that our tachyon pulse is converging with two other tachyon pulses at the center of the anomaly. The other two pulses have the exact same amplitude modulation as our own pulse. It is as if all three originated from the Enterprise.”
Picard considered that. “Three pulses… from three time periods… all converging at one point in space …. “It had to be more than a coincidence. “Captain:.” Data asked, “what are you suggesting?” Picard massaged his jaw. “Just that…” “… that…”
Damn. He’d shifted again, hadn’t he? Picard was lying on a bed in some sort of guest quarters. He was wearing a set of loose-fitting blue nightclothes. And he was old again, so this had to be the future.