Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [46]
When he was far enough away, Crusher turned back to Geordi. “I am having enough trouble understanding the cell structure of the Milgians themselves without moonlighting as an engineer.”
‘Are you able to heal the Milgians?”
‘Yes, now that I’ve figured out how to modify some of our equipment, but all I can do is surface healing. Any surgery or internal rearranging… I’m afraid to operate on them. Their bodies seem to compartmentalize all injuries. If they suffer blood loss, the body shuts off that part of the body, sacrifices it for the survival of the whole. If I start operating on them, I don’t know what their natural defenses will do.”
‘You think that the engines will have the same problems?”
‘I just don’t know,” she said.
‘Well, if I’m right, I think that working together, we might be able to fix the engine.”
‘What makes you think that if they can’t do it, we can?”
‘I’m sure we can try.”
Crusher nodded. “Agreed. How long do we have?” Geordi turned around to find Veleck just standing across the room. He seemed to be doing nothing. If it had been the Enterprise in danger, Geordi knew he would work until the engine blew up underneath him. Every member of the alien crew seemed to have given up already. That was taking fatalism one step too far.
‘Veleck,” he called.
The alien turned his head without turning his body. It was an odd sensation watching the head turn around independently of the body, like an owl. Again there was that bright band of heat just under the head, as if the turning of the head gave off some sort of energy.
‘Veleck, how much time until the engines go critical?”
‘Perhaps six hours.”
‘Six hours,” Geordi said. He turned back to the doctor. “If it gets close, you can beam out any time you want. Fixing engines isn’t in your job description.”
‘I’ve been trying to convince the main crew of the Zar to evacuate. They won’t leave. They’re going to go down with their ship.” She shook her head. “Data is still trying to convince Captain Diric of the waste of it all. I was getting too angry to talk to him anymore.”
Geordi smiled. “I’ve been having the same trouble with Veleck here. They all seem convinced it’s useless.”
‘Fatalism is one thing, Geordi, but this is just giving up,” she said.
‘Well, we’ll show them that one thing the Federation doesn’t do is give up.”
Crusher nodded. “All right, let’s do it.” She lifted a scanner from a small kit at her side. Crusher raised the scanner over the metallike structure.
Veleck came up behind them. “What are you doing?” His slow as molasses voice was just a bit rushed. It was the quickest speech Geordi had heard him make.
‘The doctor is scanning the engine structure.” “But why? Why use a doctor for an engineer’s job?”
‘Your engine is alive. Our engines on the Enterprise are just metal and power. I don’t understand how to heal living tissue, the doctor does.”
‘If your engines are not one with you, then what makes them want to run for you?” Veleck asked.
‘Well, they don’t want to run. We make them run.”
‘You enslave your ship?”
Geordi stared at him for a moment, not sure what to say. “Our ship is just a ship, Veleck. It has no feelings, no emotions. It’s a machine.”
‘But isn’t your Lt. Commander Data a machine? Do you enslave him, too?”
That was a good question, and Geordi still didn’t know how to explain it. “Lt. Commander Data is alive. He thinks and acts independently. Our ship is just metal and power. It doesn’t have a life of its own.”
Veleck’s face wrinkled and was covered in a wash of red heat. Geordi wished he could have seen what was happening to the face, but he thought that the engineer was frowning at him.
Crusher came over to them and Geordi was grateful for the interruption. “You are right, Geordi. The engine is alive. The entire ship is alive. The cell structure is very close to the Milgian’s own.”
She turned to Veleck. “Do you mix biological cells in with your construction materials?”
He frowned again. “I do not understand the question.”
‘The engines are not merely metal. They have living structures