Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [122]
Finding the frequency, however, was easier said than done. “I don’t understand,” Geordi complained.
“Why can’t your diagnostics tell you what frequency you are receiving the Konor’s transmissions on?” “Geordi,” Data explained for the third time, “my diagnostics say there is no transmission. They detect nothing, yet I hear the Konor as clearly as you do.”
“Then maybe it’s telepathy after all,” said his friend. “Medical tests can’t detect telepathy, either.”
Nor could either Geordi’s or Dr.
Pulaski’s most delicate instruments tell what it was that Data-Or the rest of the crew for that matter-received from the Konor.
So close to a solution, Data felt his failure very strongly. He spent hours listening to the Konor as he focused on one set of interior sensors after another, determined to discover how he could hear something that had no detectable physical manifestation.
Meanwhile, the Konor on the planet below continued their conquest, killing or enslaving all but those few who were able to return the mental communication. The ones who, as they saw it, had souls. “Perhaps the Konor are right,” Data said. He and Geordi had come to TenForward to “drown their sorrows,” as the engineer had put it. “Perhaps they do speak with the voice of the soul.”
“Then we just have to answer the same way,” Geordi said firmly. “1 am not the one to answer, then,” Data said. “If souls exist-was “Data.”
It was Thralen, just released back to active duty after his injury. The Theskian took the stool next
to his. “Don’t let the Konor distract you with their misinterpretation of their telepathic powers.
They’ve got it exactly backward, can’t you see?” “No, I cannot,” Data admitted.
“Can the ship’s computer detect the Konor’s telepathic transmissions?” Thralen asked.
“No, of course not,” Geordi said.
“We do not know that, Geordi,” Data pointed out. “We have not tested that possibility.”
Geordi shook his head. “The computer would tell us about the transmissions-unless,” he snapped his fingers, “unless it interpreted them as conversations not addressed to it!”
Data nodded. “Excuse us, Thralen-but we have work to do.” He climbed down off his stool.
“And I’m coming with you,” the Theskian insisted, following then out the door.
The Konor, healed of his minor injuries, had been moved to the brig. Worf had left standing permission for Data to interview him at any time, so there was nothing to hamper their experiment. In half an hour they had verified that the ship’s computer indeed could not receive the Konor’s transmissions.
What is the point of all this? he asked them.
Do you think to manufacture mechanical souls?
The sarcastic question made Thralen smile, but Data was distracted by another of those odd moments of dgja vu. There was definitely something odd about his memory circuits, ever since Elysia.
They returned to Ten-Fore, and found an animated discussion in progress. Worf and Riker were teamed up against Dare and his gang. The news was not good. Starfleet reported Ferengi and Waykani ships on course to the Samdian Sector. 341 “If we don’t give the Sarndians help,” Dare was saying, “they’ll accept it from those who will do so.”
“It’s an internal conflict,” Riker added.
“The moment we found that out, our hands were tied.”
“Ours are not,” Dare said.
“What can you do?” Worf asked. “Two small ships, eight people? If you had time, you might be able to equip the Samdians with weaponry, train them to fight. But there is no time. The Ferengi will be here within four days.” “The Samdians have space flight, even if it is subwarp,” Dare replied.
“In four days the children of the remaining free people of Dacket could be refugeed to Gellesen. So could a good portion of the adults, perhaps all of them.”
“So you would have them run,” Worf said. “How long before the Konor attack Gellesen?”
“Not quickly, once they realize what they are likely to get for their trouble.” For the first time since they had rescued