Ghost Ship - Diane Carey [32]
The effect squealed around her, and as it sought her brain and all the parts of her that reacted to her telepathic self, it released her muscles one by one and she sank to the deck, still staring, still wrapped in the blue lightning.
Riker saw her fall, and tried to reach for her. But he too was being beaten by the attack. The ship might as well have been impaled on a lightning rod. Fiery blue veins accosted every panel, and beneath them the deck itself tossed and bucked as energy crashed through it. As the seconds dragged past, the effect sank away from Troi and left her lying on the deck as it scouted the bridge for whatever it wanted and couldn’t find.
Riker was trying to reach Troi when the chair beside him moved abruptly and Data was dragged out of it and thrown across the Ops console on his back, and mauled by the electrical pistolwhipping. The ship shuddered one more time before the silvery blitz dropped away from its attack on the whole bridge, converged to a single point from all over the bridge and settled on Data, wrapping around him and his Ops console and effervescing there.
“Data!” LaForge plunged toward the android, only to be knocked to one side by Riker’s shoulder.
“Don’t touch him!”
Chapter Five
RIKER SHOUTED OVER the crackle. “Nobody touch him!”
LaForge shoved against the first officer. “It’s killing him!”
Riker had to twist around and grab him in order to hold him off. The navigator continued to push his way toward Data, his hands biting into Riker’s arm, but Riker simply refused to let him through.
Quivering, Data lay across the Ops panel in a skein of light threads, and his mouth began to work as though by an invisible hand. “Ship … con … tact … con … kill … “
“Is he in communication with it?” Picard shouted over the awful electrical din. “Data! Are you in contact? Are you in contact! Data!”
The ship began to settle as the effect fell away, leaving only the snaps and fizzes of frenzied equipment. Data was the last to be released. The iridescence had its fill of him and dropped off, seeping down into the Ops panel and leaving only a confused flicker behind on the board. Data slipped down the console and flopped to the floor, catching hold of the console’s edge and managing to land on his knees. His face had a very human glaze of panic, and he was trembling.
Geordi shoved his way past Riker and skidded to one knee, giving Data his arm to lean on. Riker let him go, and they crossed by each other as Riker dropped to Troi’s limp form on the deck, lifting her with one arm and using the other hand to tap his comlink. “Sickbay, emergency!”
“Shut down all systems!” the captain said at the same moment. “Passive sensors only. Do not hit it with active sensors!”
“Aye, sir, passive sensors,” Yar confirmed, her voice cracking. Her features, spare as a porcelain doll’s, worked as she fought for control.
“Where is it?” Picard demanded.
“Moved off, sir,” Worf boomed. “Now hovering approximately two light-years distant. It’s not doing anything but just roaming there snapping at us, working some kind of a pattern.”
“It’s moving?”
“Yes, sir. Random turns and coasts along a cube pattern. I think it’s looking for us, Captain.”
“Ship’s status?” Picard scanned the bridge all the way around once, noticing the shimmying electrical quirks and vibrations that still flashed here and there.
“Shields drained seventy-nine percent, sir,” Worf reported angrily. “Systems blown out all over the ship. Stardrive is down. Communications are out. Sensors are unstable. Most disabled are the shields, and they’ll take the longest to recharge.”
“Condition of the saucer section?”
“Intact, sir. They were shook up, but not as badly as the bridge and as the stardrive areas were. Looks to me like it focused on high-energy areas of