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He turned and eased the Cook off its position on the ring and moved across the surface of the giant ship like he was skimming over a moon. Unlike the surface of the rings, the surface of the sphere was almost entirely covered with what looked like equipment. Over the last ten hours, he’d managed to identify some of it; he’d found hundreds of redundant environmental systems, and what looked like energy collectors. He had also pinpointed over one hundred airlocks.

But what was under that surface he had no idea, and it was driving him nuts.

He slowly lowered the Cook over what had been the only smooth area of the ship’s surface before the final Enterprise attack. Now it was a large hole, showing layer after layer of open decks below. The top deck appeared to have been the ship’s main control room. It was now mostly gone.

The clear surface wasn’t made up of the same material as the rest of the hull, but looked as if it might be transparent from the inside, sort of a oneway window. Only it had been the biggest window Geordi had ever seen. The Enterprise could have landed on it and not even started to cover it all. On top of that, to be that big, the material had to be fantastically strong. That interested him as well.

The control room had faced the center part of the massive window. It must have had some spectacular view into space. Now it was nothing but a giant hole.

He scanned down through the mess, trying to penetrate into the open decks the explosion had exposed. This ship looked like it was big enough to hold a city’s-worth of beings, yet only twelve had been aboard flying it. Why?

He hoped to find the answer to that question before this was over. And a thousand other questions as well.

Lieutenant Vale coughed lightly, gave a small snort, and turned to her right. A moment later her snoring returned, light and consistent.

Geordi smiled and shook his head in amusement. For a young officer on a strange away-mission, she certainly had a sense of comfort and self-assurance. He never would have been able to sleep in her position.

Suddenly the proximity alert beeped, warning them that another ship was approaching.

Vale snapped awake, coming out of her chair with one hand on her phaser. Her blue eyes were very round, and Geordi doubted she had taken a breath.

“Easy, Lieutenant,” he said, holding up his hand to her as he glanced at the sensor readings. It was the da Vinci, dropping out of warp. “No sense in shooting who we’re here to help.”

She glared at him, then stood up straight and stretched, as if nothing unusual had happened.

“Have a nice nap?” he asked, smiling.

“Not really,” she said, using one hand to massage her neck.

“Seemed like it was pretty good, considering how you were snoring.”

Vale looked at him, at first slightly confused. Then she got this defiant look in her eyes. “I don’t snore.”

Geordi laughed. “Whatever you say. But I had to turn up the warning signal to make sure I heard it.”

“Yeah, right,” she said, turning away from him and dropping into the copilot’s chair.

He could see a little red creeping up her neck, so he just smiled and said nothing. Having her along was going to be fun.

On the main screen, the da Vinci swept in, turning and swooping in the same motion. The sleek ship ended up in a position just above the Cook . Geordi was impressed. Their pilot must be good, and very confident, to approach like that.

“Da Vinci to Enterprise shuttlecraft Cook. ”

“Welcome, da Vinci, ” Geordi said as Captain Gold’s smiling face filled the screen.

Geordi knew that Gold was only slightly older than Captain Picard, but he looked older. He was a thick man, with white hair and bushy eyebrows. Geordi could tell from his brown eyes that the man didn’t miss much.

“Seems like Picard has left us with a doozy this time,” Gold said. “Glad you wanted to stick around and give us a hand.”

“Thanks to you and the S.C.E. team for having me, Captain,” Geordi said. “Just couldn’t leave this one without knowing what makes her tick.”

Gold laughed. “We know the feeling. I assume you’ve