• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

But that left over a hundred decks below that point. At some point, she was going to have to figure out what was worth exploring and what wasn’t. Otherwise, they’d be roaming around inside this monster for the rest of the year.

Geordi had moved ahead and was using his tricorder to study the computer panel on the wall. She and Corsi moved over to join him.

The panel looked like a schematic, touch-screen type that was on standby status. It had a red line arching over the length of the panel. It took her a moment to realize that, more than likely, she was looking at a schematic of the hallway they were standing in.

“If this thing really was a type of cruise ship,” Corsi said, “this panel should be easy to use.”

“I think I can activate it,” Geordi said, looking up from his tricorder. “You want me to give it a try?”

“Do it,” Gomez said.

Corsi looked worried, her ice-blue eyes slitted and focused, but she said nothing.

Geordi reached forward and touched a spot on the computer panel. The entire thing lit up in bright reds and greens. Gomez had been right, it was a map of the area of the ship on this deck— hallways, rooms, and all. And it even showed where they were standing, and the fact that there were three of them. Clearly, the Beast ’s sensors, to a limited degree, were still working.

Geordi studied his tricorder for a moment, then reached up and touched another point on the wall.

“You are on deck one, quarter section red, fifth segment,” a computer voice said.

“Our translators picked that up quickly,” Geordi said. “The basic language of whoever built this ship must be compatible with our basics.”

“Agreed,” Gomez said. “Carol’s going to love this.” She stared at the board, trying to study what it could show them. “Corsi, walk ten feet away and then return.”

Corsi did, and, as she moved, the red dot on the map indicating her position moved with her.

“Interesting,” Geordi said.

“Can it show us the closest access to deck two?” Gomez asked.

A red line appeared on the screen, marking a path to a door on their right.

“It seems the Beast ’s translators don’t have a problem with our speech, either,” Geordi said, laughing.

She didn’t join in his laugh. Actually, it gave her shivers, for some reason she couldn’t figure out.

“If there was a way to download this information to the da Vinci, ” Gomez said, “we wouldn’t have to worry about mapping any of this monster.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Corsi said.

“Especially if we could tap into it and track all the team’s movements,” Geordi said.

Gomez agreed completely. The sooner they could turn their attention fully to finding out more about who built this ship and what had happened to them, the happier she was going to be. And maybe, along the way, find out if there was anything on board that Starfleet and the Federation could use, like this ship’s strange shields.

She flipped open her tricorder, and she and Geordi spent the next minute studying the computer panel while Corsi paced. Finally, Geordi scanned down under the panel, then clicked open a small access area and continued scanning.

“Anything?”

“Maybe,” he said.

“Stevens to Commander Gomez.”

“Go ahead,” Gomez said.

“Any problems down there?” Stevens asked. “I’m not showing you three moving much.”

She laughed. “We’re fine. Just trying to access a working computer panel. Stand by and prepare an isolated computer storage area for a possible download.”

“Affirmative,” Stevens said.

“Got it,” Geordi said. He attached his tricorder to the inside of the panel under the screen and made a few quick adjustments. “Stevens, are you picking up the signal from my tricorder?”

“I am,” Stevens’ voice came back strong.

“This could be a large amount of data,” Gomez said. “So make sure you have enough space to handle it.”

“Affirmative,” Stevens said. “Stand by.”

As she watched, Geordi made a few more slight adjustments on his tricorder. Then he glanced up at her. “I’m fairly certain this panel only taps into specific data on mapping and layout of the ship, as well as tracking of passengers. I doubt we’ll get into the ship