Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [50]
Deanna made a small amused expression at Geordi’s fastidiousness and went back to what she was doing, listening with all of her. Up above them she felt a faint bloom of concern, confusion, curiosity tinged with suspicion, but not tinged too strongly—well mixed with the sense of someone not particularly caring, the vague satisfaction and relief that there was actually nothing here to respond to. The level of emotion here was consonant with someone who did think that the crewman who had been here really had stepped away briefly because of an equipment failure. “I think it may be all right,” Troi said.
“Yeah,” Geordi said, “for about five minutes. And when they find out that that crewman hasn’t gone for help and isn’t anywhere to be found …”
“What are we going to do with him?”
Geordi shook his head. “I would beam him over to the Enterprise, but I don’t think the captain would thank me for that—and we can’t leave him in the shuttle. And the more beaming around we do, the more likely these people are to notice something, even though the transporter carrier is tuned to match their own. I think the guy’s better left here. He’s got another four or five hours’ snoozing left to him, from what the doctor told me about those doses we’re carrying. I’m more concerned about us at the moment.”
That tingling, buzzing feeling appeared to be trying to wrap itself around Troi’s ears. She shook her head. Her eyes were feeling bleary, too, as if she had just awakened early. She said, “Exactly how long is it safe for us to stay down here?”
Geordi shrugged. “I’ve got two answers for that. The practical one is, “Twenty seconds after those guys have gone, it’s safe for us to come out and go somewhere else.” And as to where, I’ll happily entertain your suggestions. If you’re asking me about the physiological effects of a faster-than-light field on the body …”
“That was what I had in mind.”
Geordi shook his head with a wry expression. “No one’s done double-blind testing, and when there’s heavy maintenance to do, we shut the field down first. But no one’s ever died of it. Fortunately, the body’s software is used to running at one speed—and even when it can run faster, it tends to stay at the old speed, because it tends not to believe that anything faster is possible. Spend too long in the field, and I think possibly your body might start noticing the possibilities, and trying to take advantage of them—with bad effects when the speed drops down to “normal” again. I’ve spent more time down here sometimes than was wise, I think: the headache—” He shook his head. “But that’s why we usually try to keep our heads up out of the field. More sensitive “hardware” than just the motor nerves, and more of it. But if we have to stay down here much longer, don’t try to make any fast moves—you may surprise yourself.”
They waited. After a while Deanna felt the typical “slackening” effect of someone who had decided to give up and try something else; then the attenuation of a mind moving away in space as well as intention. “They’re leaving,” she said.
“Just as well … I was starting to get tired of this.”
They went carefully up the ladders again, hoisted themselves up over the edge of the core cylinder, and sat there for a moment, rubbing their legs and getting their composure back. “You feel all right?” Geordi said.
“My head is buzzing a little, but it’s already less than it was a few seconds ago.”
“Good. I was afraid we might get more of the experience than we wanted.”
Deanna smiled at him. “I guess you’ll just have to write a paper on this.”
“It was that,” he said with a grin, “or write a paper on being dead. Now what?”
“I don’t much like the thought of trying to make our way out through those corridors at the moment. And the shaft-and-access tunnel method is going to take too much time—of which we have very little. I would think it’s going to have to be intraship beaming.”
Geordi nodded. “I agree. We’d better send a note home and tell them so—I agree with Chief O’Brien: I don’t want to use even scrambled communicators