Requiem - Michael Jan Friedman [45]
It made sense. It was a plan of action and it gave them something to do, rather than buck up against theoretical problems that were—if not unsolvable—at least virtually impossible to figure out in a matter of days.
“Okay, let’s get to work,” the chief engineer told his team.
When the lights flickered a moment later, Geordi jumped. Directing his VISOR to the ceiling panels, he watched them brighten momentarily before returning to their customary low level of illumination.
Each of the four away-team members had his or her tricorder out and was scanning. Data was finished first.
“Definitely a power surge,” he announced, just as Geordi’s own tricorder confirmed the finding. “A much milder variety than the ones that occurred before the captain’s disappearance.”
“Did we do this by hooking up the power here?” Geordi asked.
“I do not think so,” the android replied. “I suspect that the initial disturbance created by our transporters may have rendered the power generators unstable.”
“So we’re looking at bigger and bigger surges until the station is enveloped again and …” The chief engineer let his voice trail off.
Data didn’t respond, and for a moment the team was silent. Geordi had expected this danger, but had hoped it wouldn’t come until after they had finished their work—or at least made some serious progress.
“How long?” he asked.
“It is difficult to say,” the android responded. “I do not think it is safe to forecast a steady increase in these power surges. A random element seemed to be at work last time and will almost certainly be at work this time as well. However, given the relatively small magnitude of the surge, I would say several hours at least. Perhaps more, but we should be prepared to evacuate quickly.”
Damn, Geordi thought. He touched his communicator, which was tapped into their portable subspace radio.
“La Forge to Enterprise.”
A moment later, he heard the crisp reply “Riker here.”
“Commander, we have a problem,” the engineer said evenly.
“Incoming communication from Lieutenant Commander La Forge,” advised the Klingon.
“Patch it into my communicator,” the first officer said, tapping his Starfleet insignia. “Riker here.”
“Commander, we have a problem,” Geordi told him.
Somehow Riker wasn’t surprised. So far, this mission had been nothing but problems. After three days, the ship had surveyed twenty-two systems and eliminated thirty-eight others with long-range scans. More than one-third of the search was complete, but they had turned up no sign of the captain, and less than two days remained to them.
“What have you got, Geordi?” Riker asked.
“We’ve just experienced a small power surge on the station, sir. It was very slight, but it’s now clear the station is unstable.”
“Are you in any danger at the moment?” the first officer asked. He quickly did the calculations in his head. At top speed, the station was almost a day away.
“No, sir. Don’t worry about us. Even if the worst happens, we should have enough warning to evacuate. We’ve rigged all the doors in the area and the airlock with independent power sources and controls. Before we have another surge like the one that caught the captain, we’ll be well out of the way.”
“Any estimate of how long that’ll be?”
“Hard to say, Commander. Data figures we have several hours at least, but it could be longer. I’m sorry, but the power increases don’t seem to follow a regular pattern.”
Riker grunted. “Will the equipment survive another critical surge?” He waited for a moment, presumably as Geordi conferred with his colleagues.
“Negative, sir,” came the engineer’s measured reply. “If the station has a surge of the same magnitude as before, Data predicts severe damage to the remaining equipment, as well as to the structure of the station. I wish I had some better news, Commander… .”
That’s just fine, the first officer thought. Without the alien equipment, even if they succeeded in finding the captain, they could forget about retrieving him from the past. Even though time travel was theoretically possible with a starship, the peril to the ship and crew