Star Trek_ A Choice of Catastrophes - Michael Schuster [40]
Padmanabhan straightened up and faced Sulu. “Sir, we’ve been trying to map the extent of the distortions—that is, Bellos and I have been trying—me being Ensign Padmanabhan, sir—and we were having problems—difficulties that would arise—”
McCoy caught Uhura’s eyes, and she smiled.
Sulu, on the other hand, was becoming impatient. “We don’t need every detail of the investigation, Ensign,” he interjected. “Skip ahead.”
“Sorry, sir. The interiors of the distortions are infinite—they’re bigger on the inside, you might say—not just ripples or bumps in the space-time continuum, but holes to another universe. They’re spots where another universe is pushing its way into ours.”
Sulu nodded in apparent understanding. “What kind of universe?”
“This is a realm entirely separate from our own—floating around in the higher dimensions, with its own stars, its own planets—maybe not, though, if its physical laws are too different.”
“Wait,” said McCoy. “I thought the universe was infinite. How can there be other universes out there?”
Padmanabhan looked back at Rodriguez helplessly. Sulu graciously stepped in. “A sheet of paper could be infinite, Doctor, yet since it is almost two-dimensional, there could be other infinite sheets of paper out there, within the three-dimensional world. Our universe has the same relationship to the higher dimensions.”
“Exactly!” Padmanabhan chirped. “And if you had two sheets of paper—well, probably you have more, but let’s just say two—then they’d intersect in some places, and that’s where we are. At an intersection.”
“Does the other universe have different physical laws?” asked Sulu.
“We think so,” said Padmanabhan. “These distortions—‘holes’ would be more proper—are places where our universe is being rewritten by the other one. Well, parts of our universe—subspace, to be exact—the overlap seems to be confined to that.”
“I might just be a simple country doctor,” said McCoy, “but that doesn’t sound good.”
“It is!” Padmanabhan looked around excitedly, then immediately backtracked. “Well, it sort of is. It is from a physics perspective—it could be absolutely fascinating—”
Obviously this boy had been spending too much time around Spock.
“—but it’s not good for us—seeing as how we come from this universe—and its laws.”
“Could this account for our computer problems?” asked Sulu, turning to face DeSalle.
“It’s possible. I’ll look into it,” he said.
“And what about my patients?” McCoy asked. “Is the other universe affecting them?”
Padmanabhan gave him a quizzical look. “Patients, sir?”
“I have five people in comas, Ensign, with no apparent cause. Can these intersections be causing that?”
“Sorry, sir. I’m a physicist, not a medical doctor.”
“Ensign, I want you to send all the data you have to Lieutenant DeSalle and Doctor McCoy. And gentlemen, please pass whatever you have to the physics labs,” Sulu ordered. “If there’s a connection, we need to pool our knowledge to find it.”
Watch a group of Spock’s number-crunchers figure out this problem before you can. That’ll satisfy the pointy-eared intellectual.
“I’d better head back down to sickbay,” said McCoy.
Like that’ll help.
Could he put that self-doubt aside for just a moment?
McCoy began moving toward the turbolift as Sulu hit a button to clear the power diagram from the viewscreen. “Distance from Mu Arigulon?” the lieutenant asked.
Farrell checked his panel. “Point-nine-seven light-years,” he said.
McCoy paused just before the lift and turned. “We won’t be moving at impulse that entire distance, will we?” he asked.
“Hopefully not,” said Sulu. “The distortions only extend a few days ahead of us.”
“If we stay out of warp,” Rodriguez added, “no new ones should form, and once we’re far enough away, we can go to warp again.”
And what would happen if they weren’t able to find a way around this? McCoy was not at all happy about the thick layer of uncertainty that coated everything. It made