Dragon's Honor - Kij Johnson [50]
“Any further information, Ensign Craigie?” Data asked.
“No, sir, the concentration of ionized plasma in the nebula is higher than one would expect, but it’s holding steady. It could indicate the presence of a sizable number of starships within the nebula, or it could just be a statistical glitch. The nebula itself makes obtaining reliable readings difficult.”
“Understood,” Data said. “Continue to monitor the nebula and alert me if the situation changes.” Data assimilated the ensign’s report, adding it to the list of variables operative at this time. He considered informing the captain, but swiftly decided to wait until more information was available. As he had attempted to explain to Worf, the current readings, while unexpected, did fall within the outer parameters established for a trigol-type nebula of this variety.
The turbolift doors opened behind Data, and Geordi La Forge stepped onto the bridge. “I hate dress uniforms,” he said, tugging at the neat standing collar of the formal uniform. “And what’s all this about a guided tour anyway? I have enough to do finalizing the wedding fireworks without this sort of thing.”
“I am sorry, Geordi,” Data said, rising from the command seat. “The Lord High Celestial Mechanic of the First Rank and the Grand Astronomical Savant have both expressed an interest in Federation starship technology. It seemed politic to offer them a firsthand look at the Enterprise’s engines.”
“Isn’t this a violation of the Prime Directive,” La Forge said hopefully, “showing them Federation technology?”
“Apparently, the Dragon Empire already has star travel, although it seems a little cumbersome to us, being based on nebular-sail dynamics rather than warp and impulse drives. Besides, the Empire will shortly be a part of the Federation.”
“That’s not what I heard,” La Forge said. “Rumor has it the Dragon is giving the captain a rough time about the treaty.”
“That is correct,” Data confirmed, “but I can assure you that the Dragon will almost certainly not sign the treaty if we treat his scientists with anything less than respect.” Everything he had observed about the Pai supported the proposition that they placed great importance on matters of propriety and personal honor. In that manner, they resembled many of the 6,726 humanoid species Data had studied and committed to memory.
“Oh, I’ll be perfectly charming,” La Forge said grumpily. “I’ll show them every bolt and fuse-scar on the fuselage if they want to see them. I just hope they’re on time. I still have half the remote phaser programmables to charge.”
A soft tone punctuated La Forge’s complaints, coming from Lieutenant Melilli’s console. She silenced the deadman’s warning and was keying rapidly.
“Commander Data,” she said. “We have intercepted a transmission sent from somewhere in the nebula.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Data crossed to her station and looked over her shoulder as she continued running a computer check. “Can you pinpoint the source?”
“I’m working on it, sir,” she said. “It won’t be easy in this Prophet-cursed gas cloud.”
“What about the content of the transmission?” Data inquired.
“It’s encrypted,” Melilli said. “The computer is attempting to break the code, but it may take a while.”
“I see,” Data said. “Please call up the digital breakdown of the transmission so I can see it for myself.”
Melilli complied, and a stream of numerical information raced across her screen, faster than a human mind could absorb. “Thank you,” Data said a few heartbeats later. He assigned 36.89% of his reasoning faculties the task of deciphering the coded transmission. Fortunately, he was more than capable of addressing several tasks at once.
Data stepped away from Melilli’s station and joined La Forge