Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [94]
Geordi was busying himself with sealing up the access panel. “My last scan showed the nanites almost into the comms functions,” he said, “and working in all three cores. Things are going to hot up pretty quick now. Better signal the captain. Where are you going to keep yourself?”
“Here will probably be safest, but if as I’m monitoring the situation I see an excuse or an opportunity to head for the captain’s quarters, I’ll do that instead.” Troi did not mention her terror at the thought of walking out into those halls and having to “be” the woman who was the cause of so much fear … but she would do it if she had to.
From outside came the whooping of red-alert sirens. “There they go,” Geordi said with a grin. “We’re in business.”
Troi touched her badge. “Troi to Captain Picard. Objective acquired and stowed.” She smiled slightly. “Next move.”
The badge buzzed once under her fingertips. “He’s ready,” she said. “Get yourself set.”
On the bridge, everything had begun to go energetically haywire. Picard was watching it with well-feigned annoyance, stalking around as one system after another began to flicker, falter, go down, then up and then down again, as if the ship were one giant traveling short circuit. He was hard put not to laugh out loud, and he understood better than ever the delight Geordi had started to show at the prospect of purposely failing out the computers; it was hilarious to watch the results, especially when they weren’t your responsibility to fix.
“This is becoming extremely annoying,” he said severely to Riker. “What the devil are they doing down in engineering?”
“It’s difficult to tell, Captain, when we don’t seem able to reach them on comms,” Riker said, moving from one station to the other, getting redder and redder with fury.
“Well, do it the old-fashioned way,” Picard said with exaggerated patience. “Send a runner down there. I want La Forge up here to tell me what the problem is, since none of you seem able to manage it. And then I want it fixed!”
The volume of the demand brought some heads around, and Picard was slightly relieved. Good, he thought, I’m not that much of a shouter here, either, to judge by the reaction. Just as well, I couldn’t stand it if I had to rant all the time.
Riker gestured at one of the security men who was standing by the turbolift doors. “You, get down to engineering and bring Mr. La Forge up here.”
“Some diagnostics are running, though patchily, Captain,” Worf said quite calmly, seeming immune to Riker’s performance. “There would appear to be some kind of trouble in the computer cores.”
“Cores plural?” Picard said, sounding outraged. “Two of them? All of them?”
“All of them, Captain, to judge by these readings.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Uncertain as yet, sir. As I said, the diagnostics are themselves malfunctioning.”
“How very delightful.” Picard stalked up to Worf’s station and looked over his shoulder at the readouts. “What else might go wrong if all the redundant systems are contaminated this way? This ship lives by those computers.”
“Our mission could be seriously compromised,” the counselor said, getting up from her seat and throwing an obscure glance in Riker’s direction.
“I am very concerned about the mission, Counselor,” Picard said, meaning it entirely, “but I am just as concerned at the moment about the thought that the computers control life support as well, and I don’t care to breathe vacuum, or freeze to death.”
The turbolift doors opened, and the security guard who had gone out now returned with a grim-looking La Forge. He saluted Picard, who returned