The Children of Hamlin - Carmen Carter [69]
The android looked at her expectantly, waiting for a comment.
“I can’t tell anymore,” cried Yar, throwing up her hands in despair. “Warmer, colder, more pressure, less pressure. Data, we’ve tried it so many different ways that I’m all mixed up now.” At one time her mind had retained a crisp, clear image of the Choraii ship, but that picture could no longer be trusted. Whenever she reached out to touch it, the image shifted away like a desert mirage.
“Perhaps we should work on the viscosity index next,” suggested Data. “You said that was near completion.”
“When did I say that?” groaned Yar. “Data, it doesn’t make any sense to go on.” She turned her burning face away from the android.
Data possessed an infinite store of patience, and he would have continued for as long as necessary, but he felt the futility of their efforts as well. “Dr. Crusher will be disappointed.” Human emotions often puzzled him, but he had detected Dr. Crusher’s reliance on this project. And her urgency.
He called up the projection image again and studied its appearance critically. Regardless of the interior programming, the exterior of the Choraii bubble matched his visual records. “Perhaps this will be sufficient for the treatment.”
“Maybe,” sighed Yar. She tried one last time to summon a memory that had not been overwritten with the trial and error of their design experiments, only to sense a further retreat of that reality; her brief experience had been too fragile to withstand hard use.
Data resigned himself to the fact that the project had reached its end. He prepared to lock in his most recent model when the startled look on Yar’s face alerted him to the presence of a third person.
Neither of them had heard Ruthe’s approach. The translator appeared as if from thin air at the holodeck entrance. She stood silent and unmoving, mesmerized by the translucent orange sphere inside. Then, as if pulled over the threshold against her will, she took one step closer, then another, gliding across the floor until she was within an arm’s reach of the image.
Ruthe stretched out a hand to touch the bubble’s surface. When her fingers met resistance, she pulled back as if burned by the contact. She turned to face Yar. “How can I get inside?”
Chapter Fifteen
RUTHE FLOATED FREELY in the warm ocean at the very center of the Choraii cluster. The innermost sphere was large, several times her length, bounded on all sides by the flat ovals marking its joining with the spheres around it. With lazy strokes she swam up to the faceted surface and kicked her feet against the smooth shell, stretching the flexible fabric. The spring of the wall’s return pushed her across the interior to the far side. Her steepled fingers pierced an entry membrane to another sphere. She glided through to the other side and heard the pop of the closing gate. Stamping the flat of her foot against the nearest surface, she gained another burst of speed. She sped onward in that manner through a succession of spheres.
Her race through the cluster of bubbles had begun for the sheer joy of it. She moved in time to a lilting music which rippled through the surrounding liquid and shivered across her skin. She tumbled and bounced with careless ease until a darker, deeper thrumming sound began to drown out the dance. Fear chased after her. The game became a hunt and she was the prey.
As Ruthe swam onward, the spheres of the cluster grew smaller. She shot through them faster and faster, but the chase continued. Kick, glide, kick glide. When she saw the defracted light of stars sparkling and glittering through the curved hull, she knew she was trapped in the outside layer of the Choraii ship. The sound of snapping gates grew louder as her pursuer drew closer. A current washed over her, carrying an