Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [187]
“You are blanketing the area with subspace interference,” Data said, thoughtfully. It was a statement, but served just as easily as a question.
The subcommander ignored him, but turned to address the shock troopers. “Shoot these two, as well,” she ordered, motioning to Isaac and Data. “I’m tired of these games.”
Isaac turned just in time to see the barrels of the disruptors pointed toward them. Then came the torrent of blue energy, and after that was only pain and darkness.
8
“Mister Isaac, report,” Picard said, the volume of his voice increasing more than he intended.
Lal shook her head. “I am afraid I have lost contact.”
“Is he injured?” Picard asked. “Was he fired upon as well?”
Lal looked off into the middle distance, her head cocked slightly to one side. Her expression indicated confusion. “I…” She paused for a moment, then collected herself and looked up to meet Picard’s gaze. “It would appear that some sort of subspace interference has compromised the Turing communications network. I am unable to reach any other member of the populace over subspace.”
She turned to the hairless android at the gateway controls, who looked up and shook his head in response. “As am I,” he said, his voice flat and affectless.
“Damn,” Picard swore under his breath.
There was a time, Picard knew, when he would have needed no greater incentive than this to rush headlong into battle. An officer under his command in peril, and an old friend and former crewmen in the bargain? A younger Jean-Luc Picard would not have hesitated to order a gateway opened, leaping into the fray with phaser firing and a war cry on his lips. But that was a Jean-Luc Picard who had managed to get himself stabbed through the heart with a Nausicaan’s blade on Starbase Earhart. As he’d recovered from that wound, he’d learned what risks to take, and which to avoid.
Still, he thought with a wry smile, a life entirely without risks would hardly be worth living.
“Lal, is the functioning of your gateway network impaired in the slightest by the interference?”
“No, Captain,” she replied. “It operates at a more fundamental level of space-time altogether, and its efficacy is independent of the surrounding subspace conditions.”
“Then there is nothing preventing us, in theory, from opening a gateway to your father’s last known coordinates and retrieving him and the others.”
Lal considered. “No, that is entirely within the scope of the gateway’s capacity. However, Captain, would not such an action reveal to the Romulans that Starfleet officers are present on the planet? Unless, of course, you intend to send me through the gateway alone?”
Picard chuckled slightly, shaking his head. “No, I’m not about to send a young woman…even a young android…into any place I am unwilling to go myself. But I should point out, Lal, that matters may be rapidly approaching the point where my people and I can no longer remain in hiding, watching from safety while the population of Turing is put at risk.”
“But my father’s hope for a diplomatic solution…?” she began.
“Is still possible,” Picard finished, interrupting. “But there is nothing to say that it cannot be a diplomacy of the more…muscular variety.”
“Captain?” Sito said, standing a few meters away, a worried look on her face. “Will the Romulans take Commander Isaac and the others prisoner, do you suppose?”
“It seems likely,” Picard agreed. “Standard Romulan tactics in these sorts of situations demand for the leader of a population to be taken hostage, to ensure the cooperation of the others. It seems likely that this Subcommander Taris will follow suit.”
La Forge and Crusher still stood by the gateway controls, their analysis interrupted for the moment by their concern for the others. “We’re not just going to let them be taken prisoner, are we, Captain?”
“No, Number