Requiem - Michael Jan Friedman [59]
Careful not to hit his head as he had before, the chief engineer swung himself up to a standing position and crossed the room. Stopping just behind Barclay, he watched the man lock on to a subject pictured on the sensor system’s monitor. Immediately, the images flickering across the screen stopped.
What it showed them now was some kind of ancient building, more than half in ruin. To Geordi, it looked like the remnants of the Achorri civilization that he’d seen with his family at the age often. Or was it eleven?
In any case, it gave them a convenient object to use in their test. The chief engineer pointed past Barclay to the central structure in the ruins—something that might have been a statue of a venerated ancestor, if the race in question had four arms and six legs. On the other hand, it could also have been a piece of furniture; it was hard to tell.
“Let’s try for that thing,” Geordi instructed.
Barclay nodded. Operating the controls accordingly, he activated the system. There was a hum, more felt than heard, which lasted only a few seconds. Then all was silent again. His pulse racing, La Forge turned to Data, who was closest to the monitor that kept track of the internal sensor network.
They had worked together for so long, and at so many intricate tasks, the engineer didn’t even have to ask. Data knew exactly what he wanted.
“The object in question has been retrieved,” the android reported, his eyes fixed on his screen. “What is more, it is on this level.” He looked up and gestured toward the corridor outside. “Just down this hall, behind the third door on the left.”
Geordi grunted. That solved that question. Up until now, they’d had no idea where anything beamed aboard the station would actually appear. Now they had located the beam-on point, at least in this particular node.
“I’m going to check it out,” the chief engineer announced. He put a hand on Barclay’s shoulder. “You too, Reg. You’re the one that got the mechanism going. You deserve to see the fruits of your labor.”
A brief smile of gratitude flickering across his face, Barclay followed him out of the control room and down the corridor. The third door on their left had a pad next to it, but Geordi didn’t expect it to work for them. He was all set to pry off the panel next to it when the door simply slid aside at his approach.
Apparently, its program was still intact—unlike many of the station’s programs, which had been wiped clean during the surge that sent the captain reeling through time and space. Stepping through the portal, the chief engineer peered inside.
The room was dark, and a lot bigger than it had looked from the outside, with graceful arches in the places where the walls met the ceiling. The only illumination within was a circle of very dim, red light at floor level—and even that was fading fast. As Geordi took a closer look, he saw that the ruddy glow had come from a series of energy coils recessed into the deck.
“Look,” said Barclay. “There’s something here.” Kneeling just outside the circle of energy coils, he played his tricorder over the area described by them.
The chief engineer knelt beside him and used his tricorder as well. Sure enough, there was something there, something that wasn’t part of the transporter arrangement. Geordi would have recognized it sooner, except the material had basically the same texture and energy absorption factors as the surface below it.
But Barclay was right. Concentrating, he saw that there was a solid film coating the center of the aliens’ transporter platform. And it hadn’t been there before, he bet.
“Could this be … ?” The thin man’s voice trailed off ominously.
The chief engineer frowned under his VISOR. “I think it is, Reg. Whatever it was we transported here, this is the shape it arrived in.” He sat back on his heels, still regarding the film. “So much for working without a reassembling device. But at least it got here. We’re a step ahead of where we were before.”
Barclay nodded and turned to his superior.