Enigma Ship - J. Steven York [38]
“Your holoprograms,” said Gomez. “You built your entire ship out of holotechnology, self-powered, self-sustaining.”
“It worked well. We visited many worlds, until we reached the void where stars were far apart. Somewhere, on the edge of that gulf, we fell into our dreams and did not come out. From time to time, we encountered other beings such as yourselves, but by then, our stories had grown stale and repetitive, and we welcomed the new stories these beings brought with them.”
“You were like me,” said Newport, “denying reality, incorporating anything that challenged it into your fantasies.”
“Until,” said the Bolian, “like you, Captain, we were forced to confront reality in a way we could not deny.”
“What I don’t understand,” said Duffy, “is how you and all your ‘passengers’ survived without your holotechnology, or even how you’re maintaining this form. At minimum. Your systems are only now rebooting.”
“Your ship disrupted our independent holographic projectors, the telepathic systems that maintained our ship’s systems and ran our gross simulations. But we have developed our holotechnology over a long time. We are more intimately associated with it than you imagine. Each of us has individual holographic capabilities as well. These forms I have adopted, have aided in communication, but it is time that you saw us as we really are.”
Abruptly the Bolian faded. It brightened into the familiar ball of light, then that too dimmed, revealing what was hidden within.
The device was as they had glimpsed in the alien marketplace. About the size of a human torso, perhaps a little larger, it floated a meter above the deck, apparently supported by antigravs or force beams. The curved surface was intricately inlaid with tiny, jeweled hexagons, which Gomez guessed corresponded to the holodiodes on their holodecks, though vastly more sophisticated.
But their eyes were drawn irresistibly to the transparent dome on top, and the tiny being housed inside.
It was covered with brown fur, and looked at them with large, yellow, eyes. The top of it was domed, and Gomez supposed that was the brain case. Under this was a tiny, flattened, body, and four useless, atrophied, limbs.
Various tubes and wires connected the body to the machine, providing life support. Gomez doubted the entity could live more than a few minutes without it.
Gomez would have loved to study the technology the “holobody” represented, but there was a shimmer, and as though shy, the creature was again shrouded in a glowing ball of light.
Chapter
12
Duffy sat in the dining hall, studying his padd and the flat diagrams of a nonexistent ship that covered it. He thought about the holographic U.S.S. Roebling and sighed.
He wished he’d gotten the chance to beam on board, see what it was like. Then he remembered Captain Newport, and decided he was just as happy to have missed it. Maybe next time they were docked at starbase, he’d reserve a holodeck for a little while. That would be good enough.
Gomez walked over, carrying her lunch on a tray, and sat down across the table. Corsi and Stevens were right behind her. “Mind if we join you?” asked Gomez.
Duffy nodded at the other empty seats at the table. They all sat down. Corsi leaned toward Gomez conspiratorially.
“So,” she said, nodding towards the corner table, where “Pappy” Omthon sat talking with Ensign Conlon and Robins from security, neither of whom seemed to be able to stop giggling, “how long is he staying?”
“For a week or so, till we can rendezvous with his freighter.”
Corsi grinned. “As far as I’m concerned, he can stay as long as he wants.” She almost giggled herself.
Corsi?
Corsi turned to Gomez. “Have you—smelled him?”
Duffy frowned at her. “He gets that a lot, you know.”
“It’s happening,” Stevens said suddenly. Everyone—the four of them at the table, Omthon and his two new friends, and Drew and Hawkins from security, who were