Star Trek_ A Choice of Catastrophes - Michael Schuster [61]
McCoy spun his chair around to face Uhura and the rest. “No one quite knows how telepathy works,” he said, “especially human telepathy, which is too rare and too weak to study. But one theory is that it’s a form of quantum entanglement. The theory is that once two particles become linked, they stay linked, no matter the distance between them. Particles in my brain are linked with some in yours, and information can pass between them instantaneously. Some species can access this better than others.”
“If we’ve hit a universe with no quantum physics,” said Uhura, “then it would affect our telepathic crew.”
“Yes,” said McCoy grimly.
“This is amazing,” Padmanabhan muttered, frantically making more notes on his slate.
Uhura asked, “What can we do about this?”
“You say the other universe is pushing into ours?” asked McCoy.
Padmanabhan nodded.
“Well, when most people get pushed around, they push back.”
You pushed back at me, all right. Great way to handle a marriage.
No, that wasn’t how it had been.
“Push back?” asked Padmanabhan.
“The warp engines can generate a bubble of subspace.” Uhura was suddenly excited. “But can they generate a bubble of real space?”
Everyone looked to DeSalle. “It’ll be difficult,” he said, looking thoughtful, “but it should be possible. I might need Ensign Padmanabhan’s help with checking the math.”
“Hop to it, gentlemen,” Uhura ordered. Padmanabhan joined DeSalle at his console, data slate at the ready. She looked up at McCoy, a smile on that beautiful face of hers. “Thank you, Doctor.”
The doctor returned the smile. “All in a day’s work. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my patients.”
Take that, Jocelyn.
Captain Kirk and the landing party hung back, watching the Farrezzi moving the cryopods into the block-like structure. Kirk hated to just watch, but he had his reasons. The first, he wanted a better idea of what was going on. The other reason was the Prime Directive.
If slavery was a normal Farrezzi practice, Kirk had no right to put a stop to it. The Farrezzi were trading with the Orions; perhaps they picked up the practice from them. In that case, Kirk could act, and argue that he was restoring the Farrezzi to their norm.
Or he could just take action and deal with the consequences later.
“Captain,” said Giotto, being sure to keep his voice down. Absorbed in their task, the Farrezzi slavers had not yet noticed their hiding place. “I recommend we reunite with Tra and Chekov, get back to the surface, and contact the Hofstadter. We can’t handle this ourselves.”
“I’m tempted—” began Kirk, but he was interrupted by footsteps from behind. Both of them looked around together to see Y Tra coming up in a hurry. He was alone.
“Where’s Chekov?” Giotto barked.
Tra looked uneasy. “The Farrezzi got him. I’m surprised you haven’t seen him yet. He was kicking up quite a—”
“Captain.” Rawlins pointed at the moving Farrezzi. Three Farrezzi were pushing a cryopod with a human into the blocky structure. Kirk couldn’t quite tell, but the figure could have been Yüksel. A fourth alien was coming up behind them, a human man in a gold uniform shirt squirming in its limbs. Even from this distance, Kirk could tell that it was Ensign Chekov. As he was dragged along, Chekov occasionally yelped in pain.
“Order: end of resistance, alternative: pain! Long agonizing pain!” the Farrezzi holding Chekov said. It was dragging the ensign up to the Farrezzi who had been issuing orders. “Discovery: biped here.”
“Confusion, annoyance. Query: biped intrusion imminent?” The Farrezzi did not have to change direction to focus on Chekov. The captain found its radial symmetry disconcerting. “Order: declaration of name, purpose of presence?”
“Aah! I am… a tourist. I came here… to visit your beautiful planet,” Chekov said, pain evident in his voice. “I heard you had nice beaches, but there