Section 31_ Rogue - Andy Mangels [87]
“And what happens then?” Riker said, his blue eyes wide.
La Forge spread his hands and shrugged. “Worst case scenario? All of normal space gets sucked into subspace.”
“Or perhaps vice versa,” said Data, obviously intrigued with this line of speculation. “In fact, it is possible that all of space and subspace would be drawn into the singularity, precipitating a repeat of the Big Bang explosion itself. Such a phenomenon might even subsequently create an entirely new universe.”
“After blowing this one to quarks first,” Riker said dryly.
The admiral spoke up, getting everyone’s attention. “Just before the first atomic bombs were tested on Earth back in the twentieth century, nobody was sure what the outcome would be. Some physicists worried that they might burn up every last oxygen molecule in the atmosphere in a single colossal, unstoppable firestorm. But they went ahead and detonated the first bomb anyway. The worst didn’t happen. Luckily.”
She looked gravely at every person standing in the cathedral-like room before continuing. “This time, we can’t afford to be quite so… callous. Or allow the Romulans to be.”
Picard stood by quietly as the singularity’s image blazed overhead, eerily quiet. No one spoke for perhaps an entire minute as the captain ruminated, his expression unfathomable as he stared at the representation of the singularity. Finally, he looked away and regarded each and every face in the room once again, settling at last on La Forge and Data, who still stood on the dais beside Keru.
“If the Romulans were smart enough to beat us to discovering and harnessing this thing,” Picard said, “then surely they’ve also anticipated the risks. They must have a plan to abort what they’re doing. Some means of jettisoning the singularity permanently into subspace.”
“That would be a rational contingency plan, Captain,” Data said. “A successful abort, however, would involve causing a deliberate and extremely precise collapse of the Romulans’ containment forcefields, while simultaneously sealing the breach between subspace and normal space. There would be no margin for error.”
“If we could neutralize this new Romulan toy,” Batanides said, “then losing the Geminus Gulf to them would be an acceptable price to pay.”
“And it would also remove the Romulans’ entire reason for coming here in the first place,” Riker said, smiling slightly at the irony.
“Mr. Keru, please deactivate the image,” Picard said, signaling that he had come to a decision. Keru touched a button and the singularity abruptly vanished.
Once again, the captain spoke toward the dais. “Mr. La Forge, Mr. Data, in just under four hours, the Chiarosan referendum will officially conclude. I expect that we won’t be able to remain in this system for very long after that without seriously provoking the Romulans.”
La Forge smiled. “Data and I already have a plan that we think we can pull off before the electoral deadline.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Picard said, a slow smile crossing his face. “What will you need?”
“The Romulan scoutship, Mr. Data, a good pilot, and a couple of hours of preparation time. That singularity ought to be back where it came from permanently by the time we get booted out of here.”
“Hold it,” Batanides said sharply. “You can’t be planning to fly that scoutship into the lion’s den, Mr. La Forge. The lion already has a pretty good idea that we’re coming.”
“Fortunately,” Data said, “the element of surprise will be entirely irrelevant to our plan. We will need only to stay within the cloaking field long enough to establish a link between the Romulan security network and my own neural nets.”
“With a little luck, the scoutship will be halfway back to the Enterprise before the Romulans even know what hit them,” La Forge said.
Zweller was wearing a sour expression. “So that’s your solution? Destroy the most potent source of power ever discovered?”
“I’m not thrilled about it, Commander,” said the engineer. “But it seems like a better idea than giving the Romulans a