Enigma Ship - J. Steven York [16]
Abramowitz turned to face her. It never occurred to her that the doctor would feel that way—especially after how she handled herself on Sherman’s Planet. “I didn’t mean—”
Lense waved her off. “You didn’t do anything. It’s me. Maybe one day you’ll understand, but for your sake, I hope you never do.”
They were quiet for a while. Then Lense raised her chin and looked up at Abramowitz. “I’ve been thinking about our question, and I think you’re right. This thing is artificial. A probe, a ship, a robot, something like that. If it were an animal, it would clearly have to be a sophisticated one. Even a space amoeba has a ‘flight or flight’ reflex. This thing doesn’t. It’s not chasing food, and it’s not running away. It’s not defending itself. It’s just hiding, just going about its business, hoping not to be seen, not to be engaged.” She grimaced. “I can relate to that.”
“Mineral then,” said Abramowitz, avoiding the personal comment. “A ship, or something like it. But a ship would be ‘animal’ too, it would have a crew.”
Lense shook her head. “Not a conscious one. ‘Fight or flight’ again. Maybe it’s just a probe, but it seems far too big and sophisticated. Too simple-minded even for a robot. Maybe the crew is dead. Maybe they abandoned ship. Maybe this is a sleeper ship, and the crew is in suspended animation.” She considered her last statement. “Yeah, that sounds about right to me. These ‘enigmans,’ whoever they are, whatever they want, they left home a very, very long time ago.”
Chapter
6
Captain Gold reached the bridge just as the da Vinci came out of warp. He slid into the big chair. “Put the Enigma on screen.”
The beta shift conn officer glanced back at him. The ensign at the post was new, a Betazoid, having just transferred in from the U.S.S. Hood. “It already is on screen, Captain. There just isn’t much to see.”
Gold wondered if she’d simply anticipated the order, or if she was reading his mind. Stop that. He watched her face for a reaction. No, he didn’t think so. It took a lot of restraint for a Betazoid to function well as a Starfleet officer. The concept of private thoughts didn’t come naturally to them.
“Ensign—Deo is it?”
She nodded.
“Deo, overlay a tactical grid on the object, based on our sensor scans. I’d like to at least know where to look.”
She tapped her console. A grid of yellow lines appeared, outlining the shape of the object.
He’d been expecting—well, he wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. A sphere possibly, or some other geometric shape. Instead Enigma was lumpy and irregular, like a cluster of grapes, or perhaps a bag full of soccer balls. Moreover, even that shape didn’t appear to be static. As he watched, the spherical lumps moved slowly across the surface, even sinking inside to be replaced by others rising to the surface. “Are we getting any sensor readings from inside the object at all?”
“No sir,” said Deo. “We can detect a bit of displacement at the boundaries that allows us to tell where that boundary is, but when we look deeper, all we see is—uh, whatever’s on the other side.”
Gold nodded. Stevens’s modifications to the deflector dish couldn’t be performed while they were at warp. It would be several hours before they knew if his plan to probe Enigma would work.
Deo was still looking at him. Something seemed to be bothering her. “Sir, there is something else. Enigma has a…telepathic component.”
“The Chinook didn’t report anything like that.”
“Perhaps they didn’t have any telepaths on board, sir.”
“Can you read it, communicate?”
“No sir.