Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [55]
“And what if someone’s inside one of the modules at the time?”
“We’re assuming they’ll hear the commotion you and Mr. Tuvok are creating in the control cabin trying to keep the invaders out, and manage to step away in time,” Heisenberg explained. “If not, I’ve programmed in just enough space for an average-sized person to conceal themselves-not comfortably, but safely-and enough breathable oxygen for about thirty minutes. If you can’t subdue your attackers in that amount of time, the assumption is they’re going to take over the ship and your cover will be blown and your crew captured regardless of what I’ve done to prevent it. The bottom line, Mr. Sisko, is that technology can only do so much. The rest is up to you. And now, just one more thing…” Heisenberg motioned toward the mystery apparatus in the final container. “A little joint venture on the part of the admiral and myself. This one amazes even me.”
It was the module that had mystified Sisko when he first saw it. Heisenberg allowed him to puzzle over it for several minutes.
“I give up!” Sisko said finally. “What is it?”
“Only the most amazing holotransmitter not yet known to modern technology,” Heisenberg said. “It’s a little bit of transporter technology grafted onto a great deal of communications wizardry. With this, the admiral and her medical team will be able to accompany you on your journey.”
With that Dr. Selar “appeared” at one of the lab consoles. She glanced up at the three of them as if it were they who had appeared in her space and not the other way around.
“How goes it, Selar?” Uhura asked.
“Progressing, Admiral. We have been able to track some samples of the pathogen by sound using wave transmitters, and consequently to increase the accuracy with which we detect mutations.”
“Excellent… I think,” Uhura said. “I’ll get back to you on that. We’re just testing the holotech at the moment.”
“Understood,” Selar said as she shimmered out of sight.
“Holograms,” Sisko shrugged, unimpressed for the first time. “Fun to play with at close range in real time. But impractical for long-range transmission. They’d be detected immediately.”
Heisenberg and Uhura exchanged glances.
“He’s young,” Uhura admitted.
“O ye of little faith…” Heisenberg shook his head. “You did not hear me say what I’m about to say, but SI’s best comm people and I have created a kind of piggyback technique that rides existing carrier waves and is virtually undetectable.”
“It’s only a prototype,” Uhura explained. “It’ll be decades before it’s standard issue, but what we’ve developed so far will be tested on this mission. You, Tuvok, and Dr. Selar will physically be on the ship inside the Zone, but with the help of Heisenberg’s wizardry, Dr. Crusher and Dr. McCoy will ‘go along’ as consultants. And I’ll be popping in from time to time as well.”
Sisko looked from one to the other of them. They seemed to think this was the most brilliant bit of technology aboard this old ship, but he was still unimpressed.
“I can’t see how that’s going to help,” he began tentatively. “Or how it can go undetected…”
Heisenberg motioned him toward the controls. “Run a diagnostic right now and tell me if you detect any stray transmissions.”
Sisko did as he was told and, not surprisingly, came up with nothing. “Not now, sir. You’ve shut down the transmission to Dr. Selar. There’s no reason why there should be-“
“Tsk, tsk, tsk!” Uhura said as she shimmered out of sight.
“What the-?” was all Sisko could manage.
Heisenberg was chuckling. “You reported to her office, walked together to the pod bay, got in the shuttle and came all the way up here together. Or so you thought.”
Sisko said nothing.
“She’s been walking through the choreography in her office, son. She was never here. And neither am I.”
Now it was Heisenberg’s turn to disappear.
“But…” Sisko suddenly had to sit down, but he wondered, if he did, whether any seemingly solid surface around him