• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“—ready as well.”

Geordi nodded and tapped his combadge. “Commander, give it a try.”

“Affirmative,” Gomez’s voice came back. “Stand by.”

Geordi smiled at the two Bynars, who simply stood like robots and waited. Even Data had more personality than these two at times, and Data was an android.

“Bingo,” Gomez said. “Good work, you three. Get back up here, and we’ll see what we can see.”

Both Bynars smiled right along with Geordi, then waited for him to lead the way, even though it was their ship. Thankfully, as far as Geordi was concerned, they didn’t try to make small talk as they walked.

The S.C.E. team had a staging room near the da Vinci ’s bridge. Usually the room had only a large table and eleven chairs for the captain and the ten senior S.C.E. team members. But for this mission, the chairs had been pulled back against the wall and the center of the table had been rigged up to project a hologram of the alien ship. As they gathered details about the Beast, the computer would fill in the three-dimensional map floating above the table’s surface.

As Geordi and the Bynars entered the staging room, the hologram was slowly filling in. Not with great detail, but at least with deck shapings and sizes, like a thin sketch. Clearly, the sensors could get through the skin better than before. Not anywhere near as well as he would have liked, but enough for the moment.

Gomez and Stevens were watching, along with Carol Abramowitz, a short, black-haired woman who was the team’s specialist in intercultural relations, and P8 Blue, who was a structural specialist.

“We’re getting clear images of the top deck area,” Stevens said. “And the rings. But the deeper we go into the center of the ship, the worse it gets.”

“We will—”

“—continue to—”

“—make adjustments.”

“Please,” Gomez said.

As one, the Bynars nodded, turned, and left.

Carol stared at the image of the alien ship filling in slowly. “We’re going to need to find their central computer. Can you have the sensors locate and pinpoint it?”

“Sure,” Stevens said, his fingers going to work on the computer controls.

Geordi watched as detail after tiny detail appeared, thick near the surface, very light and sketchy toward the center. Geordi could tell it was one amazing ship. There had to be far over a hundred decks, with large open areas scattered throughout. And the rings looked more like observation decks than anything else. There were a number of very large, multiroom private quarters scattered in the rings, and a lot of large gathering areas. Clearly the ship had been designed by a race as advanced as the Federation, to carry thousands and thousands of beings.

Suddenly Geordi realized that the surface of the rings was smooth. “Check out the material on the outer side of the rings,” he said, pointing. “I’m betting you can see through it from the inside.”

Stevens did a few quick calculations, then looked up, shocked. “You’re right. Every inch of floor inside those rings had an unobstructed view into space.”

“What the hell was this ship?” Gomez asked.

“I’m putting my money on a cruise ship of some sort,” Carol said.

Geordi knew instantly she was right. It would explain the lush cabin they had been in, and the rings.

Gomez was nodding. “You just might be right. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Geordi watched as the computer scans slowly filled in detail after detail. The answers to the questions What happened to the people on this ship? and Why was the ship built? and Why did it attack a colony? weren’t going to be filled in by the computer scanners, that much was for sure.

“Computer,” Gomez said, “at this rate of scanning, how long until a complete image of the ship is finished?”

“Six hours, seven minutes, and ten seconds,” the ship’s computer said. “At this scanning level.”

Gomez nodded. She glanced at Geordi, and then at P8 Blue. “Pattie, you want to stay here and monitor this? The rest of us need some sleep.”

“Boy, you aren’t kidding there,” Carol said.

“Agree completely,” Stevens said.

Geordi said nothing. He wanted to stay and keep working, but he knew he needed