Synthesis - James Swallow [40]
Vale glanced at Tuvok. “What if we hit it with a maximum-power phaser strike, targeted at the tractor emitter on the other ship?”
“There is no emitter,” replied the Vulcan. “The Sentry craft appears to be able to multiplex the tractor beam from any location, just as it can emit antiproton energy as a weapon system.”
“We’re not going to start that fight up again,” Riker said firmly. “At least, not until I’m sure we could win it.” He shook his head. “We’re playing catch-up here, and I don’t like it. I don’t want to lose any more people through mistakes.”
“White-Blue may have had the ability to cut through the forcefield we erected around him from the start,” began Melora. “If he followed the same pattern as the attacker, I believe he computed the frequency from first principles.”
“He?” Ranul grunted. “It’s a machine, Melora. Don’t read traits into it that aren’t there.”
“Don’t be so certain, sir,” said Torvig. “The White-Blue AI may not have a gender identity as we perceive it, but it does have a personality, and it appears deliberately to exhibit a male aspect, just as the Cyan-Gray AI demonstrated a female one.”
“My point is,” Melora continued, “it, he, whatever pronoun you want to use, I believe White-Blue was capable of invading the ship’s systems long before he actually did it.”
“It was imperative,” said Troi. “That’s what White-Blue said. We can’t deny that the ship out there would have destroyed us if it continued to attack. White-Blue stopped that.”
“And now we’re its captives,” Vale replied, “hostages on our own starship, being taken to an unknown fate.”
Riker eyed her. “Have you managed to make contact with the… the shipframe again?”
“Yes, but we just get the same message as before: ‘Please stand by.’ ”
“If I may,” said Tuvok. “I believe your perception of the motives of these artificial intelligences is colored by your human viewpoint. What the Sentries are doing is, from their perspective, not only logical but also altruistic.”
“They put a hole in our ship, and now they want to fix it?” Ranul frowned.
“Correct.” The Vulcan nodded. “I would suggest that White-Blue and Cyan-Gray are, for want of a better term, sorry for their error. They wish to make amends, to repair the damage they caused.”
“Two people are dead because of the damage they caused,” said Vale in a low voice.
“A distinction a machine life-form might not fully comprehend,” Tuvok answered.
Riker held up a hand to forestall any further conversation on that tack. “We’re being taken to the star system Melora located before all of this took place,” he noted. “Even if we break free before we get there, we’re in no state to fight or to run for cover. On top of that, we have too many questions about these AIs, about the disruption zones, and about this ‘Null’ that White-Blue mentioned.”
“Even if we did disengage, I don’t know what the effect would be,” noted Melora. “The ship is traveling through a subspace surface anomaly. We might not be able to get back into normal space without suffering even more damage.”
“So for now, we just go along with them?” Ranul asked.
The captain gave a nod. “Make no mistake, this is not a situation I want to place my ship and my crew in, but right now, the only place we’re going to find answers is with these machines.”
“I hope you’re right, sir.”
“So do I.” Riker turned away.
Xin Ra-Havreii entered the small, alcovelike office off the main computer core and banged his fist on the table, startling the Cygnian officer. “Sethe!” he barked. “I suddenly find myself wondering exactly what kind of dunsel you are.”
The lieutenant blinked, and then his lips thinned. “Is there a problem, Doctor?” He said the title as if it rhymed with “idiot.”
Ra-Havreii slid a padd across the table toward him. “The captain’s orders to perform a deep system diagnostic were clear, weren’t they? As were mine when I gave you your assigned quadrants of the memory core to sweep and evaluate, yes?”
“Perfectly clear.” Sethe sniffed, picking up the padd.
“So, then, why did you