The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [18]
On the bridge of the Enterprise, Wesley Crusher suddenly sat bolt upright in his contoured seat. “Captain, I am picking up an ion trail,” he said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice.
“Very good, Mister Crusher.” Picard addressed the air, and the computer automatically relayed his voice. “Number One, Mister Crusher seems to have found something promising.”
“I’m on my way,” replied Will Riker’s voice.
The captain waited until his second-in-command was present, while Wesley worked feverishly with the computer. Riker glanced at the board over the young officer’s shoulder, then gave him a silent nod of approval. Wesley flushed with pleasure.
“This looks like it, Captain,” Riker said. “Exactly what we would expect to find from the Marco Polo.”
“She was pulled off her course, Captain,” Wesley said. “By some kind of, uh … energy … field.”
“Tractor beam?” Riker asked sharply, with a glance at Lieutenant Worf, who stood manning the security and communications console behind the command center on the bridge. The Klingon head of security’s mouth tightened, but his swarthy features beneath his forehead ridges remained otherwise impassive.
“No, sir,” Wesley said, then shook his head in puzzlement. “It had the same effect as a tractor beam, apparently, but this type of energy … well, it’s not anything I’ve encountered before.”
“Confirmed,” Data said in response to Riker’s questioning glance. “It is like nothing ever encountered before in Federation, Romulan, or Klingon space.”
“A new kind of energy field …” Picard got up and paced over to the viewscreen. “Destructive? Any signs of debris that would indicate an explosion or battle?”
“No, sir,” Crusher replied. “It works like a tractor beam, but it’s based on an entirely different kind of energy. It just pulled them along.”
“What about the PaKathen?” Worf rumbled. “Any signs of that vessel?”
“No, Lieutenant.” The young officer frowned. “But Klingon vessels are designed not to leave ion trails that give away their location, so it could have been pulled off-course in the same way.”
“It is also entirely possible that the two disappearances are unrelated,” Picard said, gazing out into the depths of space, the starlight reflecting off his austere features.
“Possible, but statistically unlikely,” Data added helpfully.
“How strong is this field, Mister Crusher? Could the Marco Polo have broken free?”
“I doubt it, Captain.” The teenager’s thin face was very sober. “A freighter wouldn’t have that kind of power, sir.”
“What about the Enter—”
The captain broke off abruptly as his ship actually lurched. Despite artificial gravity fields, stabilizers, meteor shields—all the protective devices the huge ship boasted—for a moment the Enterprise shied beneath them like a skittish mare. The red alert automatically activated.
Picard almost lost his footing, but as the ship steadied once again, he was able to regain it without falling. The captain turned to regard his bridge crew and, with an admirable display of sangfroid, finished his sentence. “The Enterprise,” he resumed quietly. “Could we break free of this unknown energy field?”
“Unknown, Captain,” Data said. “However, I suspect we will find that out imminently, sir. The field, whatever it may be, has just snared us.”
Chapter Four
“CAN WE BREAK FREE?” Picard demanded.
“Unknown, captain,” Data said. “Certainly not without tying in the warp engines. This field is much stronger than any tractor beam I have ever encountered.”
A moment of silence followed the android’s announcement, then Picard looked up at his Klingon officer: “Lieutenant, request that Mister La Forge join us on the bridge. I want him at the engineering station.”
“Yes, Captain.”
It didn’t take the young officer long to appear. When the ship first encountered the unknown energy field, Geordi had remained in engineering just long enough to verify that the Enterprise had suffered no damage. Then, anticipating Picard’s order, he’d started immediately for the command center. La Forge was already in