Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Books 1-4) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [11]
“Commander,” Corsi said, breaking in, “if we missed both the gravity and the atmosphere in our initial scans through this ship’s hull, we might have missed more crew as well.”
“I’m starting to realize that,” Gomez said. She knew exactly what she had to do. “Everyone move back to the edge of the blast hole. Gomez to da Vinci. Bring us home when you have clear signals.”
She and Geordi moved back toward the end of the hallway. Ten steps from the ragged edge, the transporter beam took them. In their first short foray into the belly of the beast, they had learned enough to know they needed to be better prepared before they came back.
And as far as she was concerned, that knowledge was very much worth the trip.
CHAPTER
5
Geordi glanced up as Lieutenant Vale poked her head into the panel he was inside; he was lying on his back, working on a sensor relay over his head.
“Don’t you ever sleep?” she asked.
He laughed. “Not lately,” he said, dropping the calibration tool on his chest and cracking his fingers.
In fact, now that she mentioned it, he couldn’t remember exactly how long it had been since he’d slept. He’d been on duty since before the distress call and the fight with the alien ship everyone was calling the Beast. Then, almost twelve hours of emergency repair work after the fight; then, ten hours of scanning the Beast while waiting for the da Vinci. Now they had been back onboard the da Vinci, after the first short mission, for almost six hours, working on the sensors and transporter, trying to find a way to get them to work through that alien metal. None of the engineers had slept, and it hadn’t occurred to him either.
“Well,” Vale said, “you are going to need to take a break pretty soon.”
“Friendship talking?” Geordi asked, smiling at her. “Or duty?”
“Both,” she said, her blue eyes showing him warmth and caring. “Captain Picard sent me along to watch your back and try to keep you out of trouble, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
Geordi laughed. “Noted. But, as you can tell, my back is safe at the moment.”
She laughed and scooted back out of the panel entrance as two people came up behind her.
“Thank—”
“—you,” the voices said to Vale. “We—”
“—won’t be long.”
“No problem,” Vale said. “I was finished.”
The two faces of 110 and 111 appeared in the entrance to the panel where Vale had been a moment before. 110 and 111 were the names of a linked pair of the computer-dependent race called Bynars. Geordi had heard of these two before meeting them. They were supposed to be two of the best computer experts anywhere, and somehow the pair had been assigned to the da Vinci as civilian consultants to the S.C.E.
How, Geordi had no idea, but it was very lucky they were here. Corrections and adjustments to the sensors that would have taken Geordi a day to figure out had taken the Bynars, with his and Stevens’ help, a little over two hours.
The only thing that annoyed Geordi about them was that they talked together, never completing an entire sentence alone. After the last number of hours working with and around the Bynars, Geordi could understand that maybe there would be a time when he would become accustomed to their manner of speaking. But that was a long way off.
“Are you—”
“—almost finished—”
“—with the—”
“—relay adjustments?”
“One moment,” Geordi said. He did two small final adjustments and checked over his work. The alien ship’s metal alloys had been blocking the sensors in much the same way as a shield’s harmonics did. But, by running computer models, the Bynars had found an exact band that should penetrate the blockage. Geordi figured it was going to work, but the question was how well. With luck, good enough to focus a transporter beam.
“Done. Coming out.” He scooted feet-first out of the panel as the two Bynars backed out of his way.
“We are