Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [48]
‘Could we look at more panels?”
‘This is the main panel. It will show you what you need to see.”
‘We need more input before we can understand your engines,” Geordi said.
‘Very well.” He moved along the wall that held the first panel, and a host of panels appeared behind his hand. Every time there was a burst of heat, an exchange of body cells, perhaps. To Geordi it seemed that for a moment the… hand had become part of the wall. Dr. Crusher said that to her eyes, it didn’t happen that way. But the heat sharing was so intense that it blinded Geordi’s VISOR, and the illusion of mixing hand and wall was a good one.
Geordi approached the second wall panel. It was just barely at eye level for him. Veleck stood beside him, staring down at the much smaller man. Geordi couldn’t read the Milgian’s face, but he seemed to be looming over him. Geordi had an urge to tell him to back up, give him a little room, but it was his ship, his engines. If things had been reversed Geordi probably wouldn’t have let some stranger run around his engine room unsupervised.
Geordi touched the clear panel. It still felt more like metal than anything else, but there was a warmth to it, as if blood flowed behind it. Was that the fuel of the Milgian ship-blood, life? Did the ship truly move because it wanted to? Veleck explained it that way, but Geordi wasn’t sure if he was asking the right questions. But try as he would Geordi couldn’t think of better questions.
There was no rush of heat when he touched the panels. He pressed his fingers to the flashing lights as he had seen the Milgian do, but the cool, smooth surface just sat there. No heat, no spark, not even a change in the swirling, indecipherable patterns. The control panels were ignoring him.
‘How do I get them to work?” La Forge asked.
‘You pass your hands over them, and they recognize you.”
‘You mean they recognize fingerprints, cell structure, what?”
‘Cell structure,” Veleck said.
‘So, you’re saying that I can’t get the engines to do anything because they don’t know me?”
‘Your hand is strange to them. There are no pieces of you in the engine. But I will do all that you require. You have only to ask.”
Geordi sighed and glanced at the doctor. Doctor Crusher shrugged. She didn’t have any brilliant suggestions.
‘All right, Veleck, show me the fuel monitoring system.”
‘Fuel?”
‘How you know how much energy the engines have?”
‘Ah, here.” He led them to the fourth panel. It was a mix of mostly red with some orange. It was indeed a very hot screen.
‘Is the amount of red an indication of a full reserve of energy?”
‘Yes.”
‘What color would be low energy?”
‘Blue.”
Three questions, three straightforward answers. They were on a roll. “What panel tells you the health of the engines?”
‘Overall health is here.” The last panel on the wall was a lurid smear of violet-purple. Geordi could feel his body react to the shade and the intensity of it.
‘What color should this panel be? What color is good?”
‘Green.”
Either he was finally connecting with the alien, or Veleck had suddenly decided to be helpful. Geordi didn’t care which. He had an entirely unknown engine system to figure out, diagnose, and fix. All in a little over two hours. Geordi smiled slightly. It was like asking for a miracle and expecting to get it.
But Chief Engineer La Forge had made his own share of miracles in the past. What was one more?
Chapter Twelve
Acting ambassador Worf stood staring down at the sentinel of the now very dead General Alick. It had been Breck’s suggestion to question the sentinel. He was the walking dead according to Orianian law. If they were going to ask him questions it had to be soon, before he chose a way to end his life.
After the scene with Dr. Stasha, Worf was determined that this questioning would go more smoothly. He did not need Troi’s urgings to behave in a civilized manner. He was Klingon and deeply offended at Talanne’s assumption that he would not mind a little torture. He would show them what Klingon honor meant, even if it meant holding his temper.
Troi sat quietly in a