Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [71]
Hwiii swung his tail no. “No more than an hour. Can you spare me that long?”
“Is this in aid of your own research, or is this something that has to do with our present predicament?”
“Both! Sea alone knows, there are times when even the most assiduously pursued research needs to be put aside. I would do so gladly, but fortunately the two problems are swimming in pod at the moment. No, there are definitely differences in this space that seem to have nothing to do with hyperstring structure per se. I’m trying to follow those up. Without going into too much technical detail, hyperstring structure here seems to be both slightly more complex and slightly more … elastic is the best word I can use … than it is in our universe. If what Mr. Data and I suspect about the methods used to bring us here is in fact correct—if this information is in fact corroborated by what Mr. La Forge is able to bring back with him, once the other Enterprise’s computer cores have been penetrated—then we may be able to ensure against its happening again. I think that space in a given area of, say, this universe can be caused to infect, contaminate, influence, space in a congruent area of a neighboring universe, briefly—to cause the congruent universe’s hyperstring structure to become more “flexible,” in tune with its own. So that a ship like ours might be propelled across the boundary.”
“Or sucked in,” Riker said thoughtfully.
“Sucked would be an adequate description, since energy tends to flow from areas of higher concentration to those of lesser, and the movement can be perceived as a suction on at least one side of the transaction. And if such a transfer was timed so that the hyperstring structure was more energetic on, say, our home side of the transfer and less energetic here, then everything in that area of space— and it wouldn’t have to be very large—would find itself drawn or pulled or sucked into the congruent space.” Hwiii shook his fins in a gesture Riker assumed was meant as a shrug. “It’s possible, but there are more tests I need to run, and the simplest and most conclusive of them will involve me getting out there in my skin.”
“Without a space suit?”
“No, Commander, I’m sorry: I was being idiomatic. I have a space suit—it’s in my luggage.”
“You have a maneuvering pack on that?” Riker said, slightly uneasy.
“Yes, sir, it’s quite well equipped. It’s the delphine form of the standard spacecraft maintenance and installation suit that they use at the Yards at Utopia Planitia. Manipulators and so forth are all installed.”
Riker thought about it. “All right, Commander. Just one thing. Thrusters or not, I would prefer that you be tethered. That way, if for some reason we have to move quickly, at least you’ll still be inside the warpfield and matching our velocity so that we can beam you in without any trouble.”
“I was going to suggest as much. Five hundred meters will more than satisfy my needs, if you agree.”
“Make it so. And let me know what you find out.”
“Absolutely I will.” Hwiii boosted himself up on his pad and started to back a little toward the door, then paused. Riker had let his eyes drop to the screen. “Something else?”
“Commander.” Hwiii paused. “I would hope not to be intruding …”
“In what regard?”
The dolphin looked uncomfortable, but resolute. “You’re very troubled. I would intervene on your behalf.”
The phrasing struck Riker as odd: would not as a conditional but as a statement of intent. “Intervene with who?” he said, somewhat puzzled.
The dolphin let out a little blowhole-snort of laughter. “I wasn’t using the word in the personal sense. With the universe, I suppose. You are being greatly tried.”
“I wish you could,” Riker said somewhat ruefully. The dolphin hung there looking at him quietly. Will had a powerful urge to tell him to go away, and just as powerful an urge to confide in him. Who do you go to for advice, he thought, when the counselor’s gone? He had no time for Ten-Forward just now. The friend to whom he might most readily have turned, the fellow officer and professional whom he