Intellivore - Diane Duane [46]
Crusher sat back in her chair. “Well. When the forensics team was done sweeping the pirate vessel, there was a fairly high incidence of fullerenes found on its hull. Now, I didn’t make anything of that at the time. You can pick up that kind of debris by passing through asteroid fields where there have been a lot of random impacts, or just by traveling through particularly dusty areas of space, regions with a lot of dark matter.
“Then, of course, they found Boreal. I didn’t have time to look at the forensics on Boreal for some time, as you might imagine. I had a chance to look at them yesterday morning. And I found a significant occurrence of fullerenes.”
“Matching what you would have found on the pirate vessel?” Picard said.
“Somewhat higher. Difficult to say why, in this particular case, but they do match the fullerenes I found on the Alpheccan’s vessel.”
Picard sat quietly for a moment and then said, “It’s still not quite conclusive, is it? If the two ships had passed through the same area of space, they could have picked up the same kind of debris—”
“Yes, but I would have expected a closer agreement on the ‘background level,’ ” Crusher said.
And then she pushed the screen aside, and said, “Jean-Luc, why is it so hard for you to believe it?”
He looked at her.
“That thing out there, that planet—the intellivore—that’s what made those pirates vanish and left that poor Alpheccan in the condition we found him. That’s what reduced the Boreal people to the state they’re in now. Why won’t you believe it?”
“Beverly,” he said, “in this particular area, belief is not my job. My job is finding out what happened, and I have to be careful to put aside my own desire to find a quick conclusion, which, believe me, I want as much as you do.”
She looked at him, shook her head slowly. “That thing has already ended two hundred people’s lives, and it’s going to end many more if someone doesn’t do something about it!”
“We don’t have sufficient evidence to confirm that conclusion, Doctor,” Picard said softly. “I will not act until I have something that will ‘stand up in court.’ “
“Captain,” Dr. Crusher said, just as softly. “This thing takes beings, any beings, and sucks out of them the one thing that makes them people. Surely you can’t intend to treat this”—she let out a long breath, looking for the right word—”this predator, this extremely clever and sophisticated predator, with the same consideration you would give to a human.”
“Indeed I do not,” Picard said, “because it is not human. It’s my responsibility to remember that, and to treat it accordingly.” Crusher stared at Picard for a moment, and then averted her eyes. “Was there something else, Doctor?”
She paused and shook her head slowly. “Jean-Luc, I never thought I’d say this, but I think …” her voice trailed off.
“Go on,” Picard said.
“I think you should destroy it. Before it does any more harm, eats any more lives, any more minds—kill it now, while you have a chance.”
Picard sat silent for a few moments. “Your concerns are noted, Doctor,” he said.
“I’m honestly not interested in being right, Jean-Luc,” she said as he got up. “I’m just interested in preserving life. Life in its proper sense—not this half-life.” She gestured with her head in the direction of the cargo bay, some decks down, some decks back. “I don’t want any more patients like that. I don’t want doctors on other planets to have any more patients like that. Please, sir … do what you can.”
Picard nodded. Dr. Crusher turned away, looking at the fullerene rotating, planetlike, on her screen. Troubled, Picard went out.
He went to the meeting with Maisel and Clif almost with a sense of relief. Ileen and her exec were waiting for him already. Clif came in with his own XO