Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [134]
“Good. You’re going to need them—whatever else those people may be, we cannot count on their being stupid. They can be caught off balance as easily as anyone else, but they learn fast. Set Mr. La Forge’s course and engage.”
“Yes, sir.” The view on the screen changed, going darker: there were not many stars down this way.
Picard turned from it after a moment to find Troi looking at him, her face quiet. “You’re still troubled,” she said.
“If we come through this, I will be troubled for a long time, I think.”
She nodded. “You won’t be alone.”
He smiled very slightly. “No advice, Counselor?”
Troi’s expression was wry. “At this moment in time I find my advice badly contaminated by my reactions. Myself, I’m wishing I had hit her harder when I had the chance.” She grimaced. “Not very self-actualized.”
“No, but that place had a tendency to bring out the worst in one. … I suppose it would be foolish to come away from there without expecting some aftereffects.”
“True, Captain. I’m merely concerned about how long they might last.”
“Believe me, Counselor,” Picard said, watching that other ship still slowly drawing closer to them, “so am I. And at the moment I’d prefer that they last quite a long time … rather than have them go away extremely suddenly.”
Troi nodded.
“They continue to close, Captain,” Data said. “They have increased to warp nine point six.”
“Mr. La Forge, can we match the increase?”
“You’d better not for the moment, Captain,” came the answer. “Commander Hwiii is working on the warp coils, and some of the shifts he’s having to make are fairly delicate. Can it wait about two minutes?”
Data looked at the screen. “At this rate, they will be within firing range in two minutes fourteen seconds.”
“Do what you have to, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said, beginning to sweat again as that image in the screen continued to grow and grow. “But let us know the minute we can increase speed. How long will the engines hold out at this rate?”
“I make it another fifteen minutes or so, Captain. By that time we’ll be where we need to be, and we can start decelerating for the drop out of warp.”
Picard was not entirely wild about that idea, either. “Are our shields going to be able to handle their phaser output?”
“Not for long,” Geordi said, sounding entirely too cheerful, “but it won’t be necessary.”
Picard nodded and looked over at Troi, then at Riker. “Is that probe ready?”
“Yes, Captain. Waiting your word.”
“Launch it.”
Data touched his console. “Probe away.”
“Keep an eye on it. I want to make sure they don’t spot it and destroy it. Mr. Worf,” Picard said, “copy over the data that went out in the probe to an encrypted packet and send it by subspace to Starfleet immediately.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“The “belt and suspenders” approach,” Riker said.
Picard nodded. “In this case in particular, I’d sooner be safe than sorry.”
“Captain,” Worf said, “subspace is being jammed.” He scowled at his console. “The pursuing vessel is the source of the jamming.”
Now is this just their resourcefulness? he thought. Or is this standard equipment for starships in a universe where treason is so commonplace? The image of what the rest of that Fleet must be like rose up and started to horrify him again. He pushed it aside.
“The probe continues unmolested,” Data said. “They have in fact passed it. Either they are unwilling to break off pursuit to deal with it, or they did not detect it.”
“Probabilities?”
“Uncertain,” Data said. “But it was very thoroughly screened. If they had detected it, I would think they would at least attempt to fire a photon torpedo at it en passant.”
Picard nodded. “All right. We’ll assume it got away—but Mr. Worf, keep trying subspace. Even if we can’t get through, they may detect the effort and assume that we have no other way of getting the news to Starfleet.”
“Aye, sir.” They all sat and watched the ship get closer.
“What’s the word, Mr. La Forge?” Picard said.
“We’re pretty close to being ready, Captain. By the time we’re in the neighborhood of 2044, I’ll let you