Ghost Ship - Diane Carey [44]
On the upper deck, Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi stood like mannequins, not daring to rupture the captain’s carefully phrased offer or the reactions it would bring. Troi stood especially still. She felt the quandary of each person here as the captain’s request flowed into each mind, stirred their consciences, and flowed out again.
Picard turned in place, touching each of them with his gaze. He took this unlikely moment to shake his head almost sentimentally. “I’m very proud of every one of you,” he said.
At bridge center, William Riker beamed at them, proud of the stock he had behind him.
Picard touched the intercom on his command chair. “Engineering, this is Picard. Chief Engineer Argyle, report to the bridge to take command of the saucer module.”
“Argyle here. Did I hear you right, Captain?”
“You did. Get up here, and bring an adjunct bridge crew with you. We’re going to take some action.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be right there, sir.”
The captain turned forward now without the slightest pause. “Mr. Riker, you may begin.”
His stomach churning so hard that he actually bent forward-he knew that Deanna saw the change if no one else did Riker faced the helm and forced out words that bothered him. A lot.
“Mr. Data, activate the battle bridge power junctions so it’s ready when we get there. All hands, prepare to adjourn to the battle bridge. Go to yellow alert. Secure for saucer separation.”
The mandolin jangles of starship noise jumped to life on the compact and utilitarian battle bridge. This was a darker place, in some ways a more private place, a place with its mind on its work. The viewscreen here was markedly smaller, as though to demand more focused attention.
Enterprise’s command crew bolted from the turbolift and settled into their respective places. Tasha and Worf to the tactical and science stations, LaForge to the helm, Data to Ops, the captain to the command center, Riker to the place of all first officers-to the right and slightly behind the captain’s shoulder. There was something about that place. Even when a first officer was somewhere else, he was still always right here. And above them, far above, the vast saucer section would soon break away from its sustaining power source, leaving the stardrive section to its little seventeen percent chance of survival and the gratification of knowing what only self-sacrifice can provide to the human soul.
Everyone was aware of LaForge’s fingers moving across his panel. Beside him, Data slid into his seat and fed in the corresponding internal adjustments-thrust to get the two modules away from each other as they hung here at full stop, careful limitation of energy surge, just in case the entity could pick up on their move, and myriad other tiny calculations required in what the naked eye saw as a simple maneuver. But this wasn’t like pulling apart a child’s toy. A million circuitry signals would have to be rerouted, and the energy to feed them would have to be ready. All the while, the creature outside moved along their starfield, glowing and snapping, hot on the trail of what it had so recently tasted.
“On my mark,” Riker said, knowing perfectly well they could do it without him. In the corner of his eye he saw the cool back of Data’s neck, the muscles working there as Data pegged down to calculating this tricky maneuver, saw the efficiency of android fingers, and felt suddenly crude. “All systems at nominal. Energy feed at fifteen percent, allowing for a twenty percent surge on separation. Flight shields only, stardrive aft thrust at point-zero five sublight. All sections comply clearance of turbolifts and maintenance shafts.”
The bridge lift opened. Riker’s concentration shattered.
“Deanna, what are you doing here?” He actually stepped away from the captain toward the lift, so driven was he to ask this, to ask why she would expose herself to so puny a chance of living beyond today. But he saw it in her almond eyes as she met his scolding tone unyieldingly, and he felt it in the