Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [139]
Barclay twitched a little. “I can’t just sit around doing nothing, Captain. It makes me crazy.”
“Yes. I know it does.” Picard studied the screen for a moment longer, then said, “Your next career review isn’t scheduled for another year or so, but I see no reason not to add a special commendation to your file.” He smiled slightly. “It’s my pleasure to do that effective immediately.”
Barclay blinked, then grinned widely. “Thank you, Captain!”
“You’re more than welcome … and as I say, it’s my pleasure. You’re dismissed.”
Barclay stood, still grinning, nodded to Picard in acknowledgment, and went out.
Picard sat there for a moment, smiling, too, though the smile had an edge of sadness on it. The promise might have been kept at a remove, he thought, but that’s better than not keeping it at all. Symmetry.
He went back to looking over his notes.
The department heads’ meeting got under way as usual. The department heads had already read Picard’s and Troi’s initial debriefing memos. Geordi’s was still forthcoming since Dr. Crusher had been infuriated at “the state of his nervous system” when she had finally gotten him into sickbay and had forbidden him any further work or duty of any kind for at least three days. She had permitted him to attend the department heads’ meeting, “but more out of his need for closure than anything else,” she had said angrily to all of them once they were around the table, “so don’t push him!”
As it turned out, Geordi was amused but unconcerned by the concern. He wanted to talk about what he and Hwiii had done: “There are a lot of other possibilities inherent in the inclusion apparatus, and the changes we rang on its basic equations. But the most important one— at least, the one Starfleet is going to consider most important—is the “subversive” use of the device to toss back ships originating in another space.”
“The technique of sourcing the hyperstring structure in a large mass, with another smaller mass as the control, is the key,” Hwiii said from beside Geordi. “Any large mass can be used for this technique—stars, planets, any large astronomical body. If we were concerned about an invasion fleet from this universe—we need not be. Any planet can now mount its own defenses against vessels originating from another universe: you simply supply the power necessary for their own, attenuated connection with their own universe to “snap them back.”“
“The Imperials made a tactical mistake,” Geordi said, “by not carrying their theoretical research through to its logical conclusion. If they had, this development would have become obvious to them—and maybe they would never have bothered with this at all or would have gone down some other theoretical avenue, one less likely to be turned against them. In any case, now we know about them; we know their state-of-the-art equipment, too. And any starship or planet can be equipped to throw them back where they come from as quickly as they emerge, should they try it again.”
“Subspace radio distances being what they are,” Picard said, “it will be a little while before we hear back from Starfleet about this episode. I am minded to keep us in this general area of space for a little while, until we hear from them and know that defenses are being prepared—just in case. It would be a shame to have come so successfully out of this encounter only to fail in our trust now, through carelessness.”
Around the table, people nodded. “I have a feeling, though,” Dr. Crusher said, “that Starfleet will not be releasing information about this incident for general consumption. Psychologically … it’s a bit of a time bomb.”
“You’re right,” Picard said. “And I think for the moment that we had better instruct our own crewpeople to restrain themselves as regards this incident when it comes to communications home and so forth, since this information is more than likely to be classified under need-to-know strictures. Among other things, I suspect Starfleet would