Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [81]
‘Not yet. The engine isn’t aware of any critical mistakes or breakdowns, but it believes me when I tell it something is wrong. It’s helping me search.”
‘Very cooperative,” Crusher said.
‘It’s not just helpful; it’s curious. Don’t tell Data, but it reminds me of him. That abstract interest in anything different. The engine isn’t scared or worried; it’s just curious.”
Crusher cocked her head to one side. “It does sound like Data.”
‘Though it’s not anywhere near as intelligent. In fact it seems limited in its reasoning skills. It takes orders mostly, but it thinks about the orders and can question them.”
‘Does it learn from the answers?” Crusher asked.
‘I’m not sure.”
‘Is there any way for me to talk to it through you? Once you find the problem, it may take both of us to fix it.”
Geordi turned to Veleck who had been standing like a bright blue statue for some time. He had made no comment, helpful or otherwise. But there was a great deal of heat fluctuation coming from him. If he had been human, Geordi might have said he was under stress.
‘What do you think, Veleck? Could Dr. Crusher talk to the engines too?”
He shifted his square bulk slightly. “She would have to be tasted, and that causes injuries to your outer skin. And there would be the danger, again, of having the engines react badly. We would run the risk of explosion happening now.”
Geordi tried to think of a diplomatic way to say what he wanted to say.
‘The engines don’t have a problem with Dr. Crusher joining with them.”
‘They are not intelligent enough to realize the danger,” Veleck responded.
Geordi was beginning to think that Veleck was simply afraid of new ideas. Or maybe he just didn’t want to share his engines. Whichever it was, Geordi was running out of time to be polite.
‘Is there any way for the doctor to communicate through me then, rather than the engines?”
Veleck was silent for a moment. “There is a link-up that we have used in the past. It has only been used between Milgians, never aliens like yourselves.”
‘Let’s try it,” Geordi said.
‘Is the doctor willing to take the risk?”
‘Risk?” Crusher asked.
‘It may harm as the tasting harmed. Geordi and Crusher exchanged glances. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m game if you are.”
‘Tell us how to link-up,” Geordi said.
Nearly an hour later Geordi and Beverly were standing in front of the lighted panel. Veleck had explained that the link-up was a microprocessor combined with microorganisms. Both were necessary to allow them to speak with the engine in combination. But the link-up itself looked like nothing more than a thin wire. It had been rigged to hang on the side of Geordi’s skull. The biggest problem had been that the wire had to be placed inside the skin, like a needle. But it was a needle meant to pierce the much heavier skin of the Milgians. The challenge had been to insert it with a minimum of discomfort and not to pierce Geordi’s skull.
The needle lay just below the surface. He could feel it when he moved, the wire tugging and rolling the thin needle. It was an eerie sensation but not really painful. Dr. Crusher had given him a localized anesthetic to remove any real pain. The wire was very long and trailed from his head to Crusher’s face, disappearing under her thick red hair.
‘Ready, Beverly?”
Her green eyes were a little wide, but she gave a slight nod.
‘Okay.” He passed his hands over the control panel. The sensation of falling was doubled. It was as if he were not only falling forward into the panel but backward through the wire into Crusher’s head.
She gasped, and the sound vibrated through the wire link. “Geordi, what’s happening?”
‘The images are the engine’s internal functions.”
‘No, its blood vessels. It’s breathing,” her voice was an awestruck whisper.
Suddenly, Geordi bad the feeling of the entire engine as a giant organism. He saw it not as an intelligent machine but as a living creature with mechanical additions. He realized that he was seeing it as Dr. Crusher was seeing it. It was as if all the systems of the machine were suddenly clearly