Dark Mirror - Diane Duane [95]
“Yes, sir,” Geordi said, and went over to the engineering panel and started working at it. At least once it went down on him, so that he swore and smacked it. It came back up immediately, leaving Picard wondering about the malleability of machines in their perceived master’s hands.
“Damn,” Geordi said. “All three cores are compromised. Nonselective holes are developing in the associational networks. Looks like the subspace field is down, but that alone wouldn’t cause these problems.”
He moved to another panel, touched it; it flickered and went dark. “Captain,” Geordi said, “we’d better unlock these cores while they’re still answering to command. If they go down before we do that, we’ve got problems.”
“Quite right. Counselor?” Picard said. “We’ll need your security code.”
“I should think you might do that yourself,” the counselor said, raising her eyebrows at him, “since you know the code as well as I do.”
“I bow to your primacy in this matter, as I should have bowed in that other. My apologies: I overreacted.”
Picard stood there and tried not to sweat too visibly while starting to recite “The boy stood on the burning deck …” in his head, by way of cover. The counselor studied him for a long moment: there was that feeling of a veil brushing across the face of his mind. … Then she bowed her head to Picard with a slight smile—a queenly gesture, and a condescending one. “And they say chivalry is dead,” she said with another odd glance over at Riker, a different one this time, that left Picard wondering again. “But perhaps the reports of its death were premature.”
She walked over to the engineering console and said, “Computer. This is Lieutenant Commander Troi.”
“Voice ID verified,” said the computer in a voice that cracked and wavered unnervingly.
“Release computer core security controls in all three cores. Code fourteen nine twelve twelve A.”
“Code correct. Core security controls released.”
“Thanks, Counselor,” Geordi said. “Oops—”
For the console went dark again, and around the bridge, various telltales and lights that never went dark now vanished. Only the main viewer remained functional, and the image on it was stitched with signal artifact, normally filtered out, now making a nuisance of itself. “I’d better get down there. Counselor, will you release me some security people as well, to act as runners? We’re going to need them, with comms down. I’ll pull three teams from engineering.”
“Go on, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said. “Time’s wasting, and we have a mission that won’t wait.”
“Aye aye, sir,” Geordi said, understanding perfectly, and made for the ‘lift in a hurry, with the security guard behind him.
The bridge crew watched him go. After a moment, Picard said, “Well, it’s late in my shift, and I can do little here until we’re operational again. I’ll be in my quarters getting some rest.” He looked over at Riker. “Number One, please send a runner immediately when we start to get any results with the cores.”
“Yes, sir.”
Picard nodded and headed for the ‘lift, his pulse racing. And but the booming shots replied, and fast the flames rolled on. He could feel the counselor looking at his back as the doors shut.
Geordi headed into engineering at high speed, which was probably just as well. Though he had seen the schematics of the place, stopping to gawk at the sheer wonderfulness of it would probably have been a bad move at the moment. He made his way down the great central hallway toward the matterstantimatter exchanger in a hurry, with the security man behind him, and shouted, “Okay, people, we’ve got trouble, let’s have a meeting!”
There were curious looks directed down at him from some of the crewmen up in the galleries, but obediently enough they started heading for the lifters and ladders that would take them down to the bottom level. While waiting for them to gather, Geordi did a quick cruise around the main status table, wondering at the differences of it, and noticing particularly the indications of the