Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [133]
“But there’s nothing like that within—” A pause. “Wait a minute.”
“Will this do?” Eileen said from the other side of the console. They both looked up at her in shock; she was pointing to a display.
They hurried over to her. “How did you know to look for that?” Hwiii said.
“It’s in the equations,” Eileen said calmly. “All that mass-relations material. Half of the business of the inclusion apparatus seems to involve ways to get around the mass-anchoring problem. But when you have one handy …” She shrugged. “I started looking just after you two began arguing about the phasers.”
Geordi and Hwiii looked down at the readout. “It’s 2044 Hydri,” Eileen said, “or it used to be. It’s a brown dwarf now. That enough mass for you?”
“Wow,” Geordi said. “More like ten to the ninetieth, that one. Horrific. I wouldn’t want to get too close.”
“Four or five hundred thousand kilometers will be close enough,” Hwiii said. “Where is that thing?”
“About three hundred light-years in the direction of the Galactic south pole,” Eileen said.
Geordi frowned a moment. “At nine point five—twelve minutes. Assuming the warp coils don’t give out first.”
“We can do some reinforcement,” Hwiii said, heading off toward the engine control panels. “It won’t last long, but it won’t need to.”
“Hwiii,” Geordi said, going back around to the panel they had first been looking at, “wait a moment! This last part of the initial equation— couldn’t you flip it around again?”
Hwiii looked over at Geordi in surprise. “What?” He came back to look at the panel.
“Another inversion. More like a subversion, actually. If you take the hyperstring elements here and force a change in the elements—even ten percent out of phase would be enough.”
Hwiii’s eyes went wide. “Wouldn’t that just put the shark amongst the mullet. You wouldn’t be able to hold it for very long, either.”
“You wouldn’t have to. But once you dropped out of warp again, the string congruencies would be broken. They wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
“I’ll get on it,” Hwiii said, and turned back to the warp engine control panels. “Tell me what you want done first, though.”
“Better see about reinforcing the warp coils first —they’re what we’re going to need real quick now.” Geordi hit his badge. “La Forge to Captain Picard!”
Picard sat in his seat, watching the other ship slowly gaining on them again, while Mr. Redpath continued his frantic evasive maneuvers. “Are you sure this will work, Mr. La Forge? This is not a chance we can afford to mishandle. Much more rides on it than just us.”
“I understand that, Captain—and this is the best chance we’ve got of coming out of this alive, let alone getting rid of our present problem.”
“You’re quite sure.”
“We’ll bet our lives on it.”
“You will indeed,” Picard said, thinking. “Very well—I have no superior options. What is the heading you require?”
“Two seventy-one mark three, 2044 Hydri. We need to get within about five hundred thousand kilometers. Four hundred thousand, max. That’s a very massive dwarf and we can’t afford to get close enough for the gravitational conditions to start affecting the warp engines. We won’t be in warp toward the end of this, but we’re going to need the power.”
“We’re going to be on impulse near a brown dwarf?” Riker said. “Is that safe?”
“It’s not safe at all, Commander, but it’s the only chance we have to stay alive.”
Survival, Picard thought. How strong the urge is. He glanced at the viewscreen, then over at Redpath.
“Mr. Redpath, you’re showing signs of fatigue. Pass helm control to Mr. Data for the moment.”
“Yes, sir,” Redpath said, sounding both nervous and profoundly relieved.
Picard stood up and pulled his tunic down and smiled and went to stand behind Data. “You are going to have to be our ace in the hole at the moment, Mr. Data. You are one advantage we have over our adversaries: they do not have you. Have you had time to internalize the new antithreat routines?”
“Yes, Captain. I acquired most of