Boogeymen - Mel Gilden [23]
Opposite the door was a flow chart showing which parts of the main computer and its satellite computer were busy and what they were doing. Had someone made an inquiry? Was someone using a food slot? Was the life-support computer making routine adjustments? The computers could do thousands of complex tasks, both independent and interconnected, and if you knew how to read the flow chart, you could find out what they were at any particular moment.
Except for the long breathe sound of the air recirculators, the room was completely silent.
Wesley said, “Raise illumination to daytime level.”
The light came up, and Wesley saw that the dwarfs were computer terminals. He knew they should have been terminals, but he was relieved they weren’t Boogeymen. He and Picard and Data spread out a little as they ventured farther into the room.
Picard said, “It all looks astonishingly normal.”
“The computer has every inch of the ship in permanent read-only memory,” Data said.
“Let’s remember that when considering the Boogeymen.”
Wesley sat at one of the terminals. Everyone on the ship had at least a basic knowledge of how to operate a computer, and Wesley’s knowledge went far beyond the basic. Once, while on a routine mission from Starbase 123 to a nearby planet, Picard had allowed him to temporarily reprogram the navigational computer with his own set of specifications, laboriously worked out over the preceding months. The Enterprise had arrived three days late and fifteen planetary diameters off course, but Riker claimed to have been astonished at such sharpshooting. Picard had gently suggested Wesley reinstall the Starfleet specs.
Still, when Wesley put one hand out to the control surface, he pulled it back without touching anything. This wasn’t a real terminal. It might not work at all, or it might work in a wonky way. He figured he’d caused enough trouble already. Let Data and the captain do the experimenting.
“You know why we’re here, Mr. Data?” Picard asked.
The captain stood near the central column. Data had been wandering around the walls, apparently checking the chips, and then had spent some time studying the flow chart. He turned to the captain. “I do, sir. You wish me to go on line with the holo-simulation of Enterprise’s main computer.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Wesley said. “I mean, if the main computer has an information surge while Data’s on line, it could overload his circuits and blow out his positronic brain.”
Matter-of-factly, Data said, “The odds of that happening are only one in eight hundred million.”
“That’s for the real main computer.”
“The chance must be taken.”
“Mr. Crusher is correct, Data. A large element of risk is involved here. That is why I am making a request rather than giving an order. Maybe we can solve our problem another way.”
“I would be delighted to hear any suggestion.”
“Mr. Crusher?” Picard said.
In the quiet room, Wesley tried to think of something they might do other than talk to the main computer. The main computer ran everything. It knew every centimeter and circuit of everything on the Enterprise, every centimeter and circuit even of itself. The main computer had to be an important part of any simulation of the Enterprise, and it was not impossible that the computer was simulated down to its last chip. Wesley said, “No, sir. If we’re going to break through to the outside at all, this is the place to do it.”
Picard nodded and said, “Very well. Proceed when ready, Mr. Data.” He sat down at one of the other terminals, made as if to rest his hand on it, glanced at Wesley, who was sitting with his hands in his lap, and decided to sit that way also. Wesley didn’t feel like such a gazebo if Picard also seemed to be afraid to touch