Boogeymen - Mel Gilden [74]
“He was in passive mode last time,” La Forge said.
“Still,” Picard said, “what Mr. Data suggests is dangerous.”
“Three minutes thirty seconds and counting.”
Data said, “We really do not have the time to argue.”
“Make it so,” Picard said.
Using the cable, Data plugged himself into the port, and his eyes began to move as if he were zip-scanning a book.
“Abort airlock jettison sequence,” Picard shouted. He did not have much faith his order would be obeyed, but there was nothing else to do.
“Three minutes twenty seconds and counting.”
“Try it, Wesley,” Picard said.
“Abort airlock jettison sequence.”
For a moment it seemed as if Wesley had succeeded, and then the Boogeyman said, “Three minutes ten seconds and counting.”
“Come on, Data,” Dr. Crusher said.
Picard wanted to say the same thing though he knew such encouragement was pointless. Events moved slowly. Hours came and went between ten-second calls.
“Three minutes.”
Data continued to input the program changes. The others concentrated on him as if their thoughts and wishes could make his job go faster, ensure its success.
“Two minutes fifty seconds.”
“Abort airlock jettison sequence,” Picard commanded.
“Two minutes forty seconds.”
“Abort airlock jettison sequence,” Wesley said.
The countdown and the Klaxon continued. Data worked.
“Two minutes,” the Boogeyman said and laughed.
Data pulled the cable from the port and from his head and said, “The Boogeyman reference string is installed.”
“There goes the d’Ort’d virus,” La Forge said and pointed to a small magnifying glass symbol leaping from place to place on the schematic, leaving behind replicas of itself. It flashed and moved on. Picard knew that parts of the computer did not have to call on the modified virus program to make it spread. It would go where the Boogeyman-d’Ort’d program was already in place. As fast as it was, the process seemed painfully slow.
“Will it work fast enough?” Wesley said.
“Will it work at all?” La Forge said.
“One minute fifty seconds.”
At one minute, Picard gave the abort order again. Then Wesley gave it. They tried every ten seconds thereafter.
“Thirty seconds to emergency airlock jettison,” a Boogeyman said and laughed.
Chapter Seventeen
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE, Picard thought calmly. The mysterious force that Riker claimed watched over ships called Enterprise had failed at last. And no one would ever know why. Someday a Federation starship would come out to Tantamon IV to investigate Enterprise’s disappearance. They would find wreckage, evidence of an antimatter breech, and absolutely no clue as to why this had happened. Nothing they found on the planet would help them. Picard could not even send a helpful message without contaminating every computer in the Federation.
That was all right. The Federation did not need warning—though the mystery of the lost Enterprise would probably be the subject of cocktail party talk for months. It was unlikely such a tragedy would occur again. Without the unhappy coincidental meeting of the d’Ort’d, Baldwin’s desire to disappear, and Wesley’s Boogeymen, this tragedy would not have happened even once. So much for Riker’s mysterious force.
“Twenty seconds to emergency jettison.”
Picard’s people were taking it well. Perhaps they could not comprehend the enormity of the tragedy. One could imagine the death of loved ones, perhaps even one’s own death. But it was more difficult to believe the death of one’s entire universe.
“Ten seconds to emergency jettison.”
“Abort sequence,” Picard said. Wesley repeated the command.
“Sequence aborted,” said the normal computer voice.
At first Picard thought he’d heard wrong. Then he thought this must be another Boogeyman trick: give the dullards hope, then snatch it away from them.
But the Klaxon had stopped. Gravity was normal. Temperature seemed to be returning to normal. The only sounds he heard were the hiss of the air recyclers and the small movements of the people around him.
“Is it over?” Ensign Perry said.
Picard said, “Apparently