Security - Keith R. A. DeCandido [28]
Thoughts of her dead lover prompted thoughts of his replacement—God, what a terrible association—and she looked over at Tev, hunched over another sensor station, wondering what she would do with him. The S.C.E. team she ran was as good a group of people as she’d ever worked with. And Tev was as good as any of them, truly, but his attitude…
“Commander.”
Sonya looked away from Tev to Soloman, who was at one of the consoles with Fabian Stevens. When she saw the look on his face, she flinched a bit. I didn’t know Bynars could look like someone had walked over their grave. “What is it, Soloman?”
“We got a doozy here, Commander,” Fabian said. “The energy readings we’re getting keep fluctuating.”
“So does the structure,” Pattie Blue added. “Every time I think I have an idea of this thing’s shape, it completely alters.”
“However,” Soloman said, “I recognized one of the energy signatures. It matches the data patterns we found emanating from Empok Nor.”
Now Sonya understood Soloman’s apprehension. Only a couple of weeks ago, they’d encountered another universe that was seeking out information in this one, a request that almost destroyed the Bajoran system. Both Soloman’s dead bondmate 111 and Kieran Duffy were alive in that universe; it had been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but especially for Soloman, who had, for the first time, lied to Sonya and the captain in order to get a chance to see 111 again, even an alternate one.
“The pattern’s changed again,” Fabian said, “but I’m starting to think that this may be another gateway between universes.”
“Not another one,” Sonya said with a sigh.
Tev suddenly stood up. “Commander, I need to go to engineering.”
Sonya frowned. “Why?”
“I must modif—” Tev cut himself off, took a breath, and then spoke in a much calmer voice. “Request permission to modify one of our class-1 probes to investigate the anomaly. When I was assigned to the Madison, I devised a program—”
Well, that’s a little progress. Aloud, Sonya said, “I’m familiar with the program, Tev—that’s why Nancy’s people are already modifying one of them with a variation on your program. Should be ready in another two minutes or so.”
“Ah.” At first Tev looked deflated, then perked up. “A variation? Of what sort?”
“It’s something we came up with here right after I signed on—a form of sensor compression that triples the amount of information the probe can take in. Soloman and Stevens rewrote your program about six months ago to utilize that angle as well.”
“Why was I not—” Again, Tev stopped himself. “Six months?”
“Yup—we pay attention to what engineers on other ships are doing, too.”
Fabian chuckled. “For example, Lieutenant Rao on the Musgrave makes a mean set of asna dumplings.”
“Conlon to Gomez. It’s done and loaded, Commander.”
Tapping her combadge, Sonya said, “Good work, Nancy. Gomez to bridge—Tony, there’s a modified class-1 in the probe launcher.”
“I’m reading it, Commander.”
“Launch it, please, and have the telemetry sent down here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Seconds later, the probe’s telemetry started showing up on her screen, fed from Tony Shabalala’s tactical station.
“That’s what I thought,” Pattie said.
Walking over to the specially modified chair the Nasat was sitting in, Sonya asked, “What did you think?”
“I finally figured out this thing’s structure—it’s perfectly spherical.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Tev got up and walked over to Pattie’s station. “The structure has been inconsistent. It is obviously of variable construction, that—”
Pointing at the sensor results with two of her pincers, Pattie said, “No it isn’t, unless that program of yours doesn’t work right. And anyhow, I figured this out five mintues ago—the probe just verified it. What that thing does is change the structure of space around it, at the subquark level, making it look like there’s a structure there, but there isn’t. What is variable is the way and amount of space it changes.”
Tev was now staring at Pattie’s screen. “I believe you are right, Specialist.