The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [46]
“How is it weird?”
“It’s as though the tractor effect is a by-product of the field, not the main purpose. I don’t think it was designed to do what it’s doing. Instead, I think it was designed to have a completely different effect on vessels that were totally unlike any that humans or humanoids use for space travel. Whatever creatures constructed the artifact, their whole approach to science was different—physics, mathematics, everything!”
“How so?”
“From what I can tell, the beings that created the artifact moved through space not by warping it, so they could travel at FTL speeds, but by going around it.”
“How does one go around space?” Data asked. obviously intrigued.
“I can’t be sure, but I think they popped into another dimension where everything is very compressed. “He made a squeezing motion with his hands. “A universe that’s much smaller than ours, so they had only a very short distance to go, and when they snapped back into the point of correspondence in this universe, they would have traversed incredible distances in our space in just hours. Only they didn’t travel within this space-time continuum, they bypassed it completely.”
Multiuniverse geometry and theoretical physics had never been Geordi’s favorite subjects. He preferred the here-and-now, the good ol’ universe where E was equal to mc2—except, of course, that humans had long ago found ways to warp space so that Doctor Einstein’s edict didn’t apply.
La Forge scratched his head. “But you’ve never seen one of their vessels, unless the artifact is one.”
Wesley shook his head. “I’m positive it’s just a structure, like a space station. It can’t travel under its own power.”
“Then if it isn’t a vessel, what makes you think you know what kind of ships they had?”
Frustrated, the boy bit his lip. “I don’t know, Geordi! It seems as though they had a different way of looking at physics, at the way the universe works, and I really don’t understand it yet. So I guess you’d have to call this a theory that isn’t backed up by much data, very little observation and no certain facts. It’s just a feeling I have, when I look at the way they made this energy field function.”
“You mean a hunch.”
“I guess so,” Wesley admitted, his shoulders sagging dejectedly.
Geordi smiled. If that statement had been made by anyone else, the chief engineer would have rolled his eyes. Engineering was facts: mathematical formulas, the laws of physics, scientific theory, and data plus observation—not hunches. But he’d known Wesley Crusher for years now, and he knew damned well that the kid had something the rest of them didn’t. A sixth sense, a spark of genius that at times allowed him to leap past facts, to arrive at intuitive solutions that were correct—not to mention brilliant.
So Geordi considered Wesley’s words seriously.
“Even though the interweaving energy fields are alien, they appear harmless,” Data interjected. While the two humans had been discussing space-time theory, his strange eyes had been moving over the readouts.
“I know, but some of them must be the cause of the insanity, the depression, and all the other mental and emotional distress that’s been affecting the crew,” Wesley said.
“Could some of these broadcasts be picked up … absorbed … by portions of the human—or humanoid—brain?” Geordi asked, trying the idea on for size.
Wesley got a faraway look, then quickly entered several commands. Another wavelength band appeared above the first, and the youth let out a cry of triumph and pointed triumphantly. “Geordi, you’re a genius!”
La Forge grinned. No I’m not, I just work hard. You’re the genius, kid. But aloud he said, straight-faced, “I am?”
“You sure are! Look there, that one peak of alien energy is very close to the EEG pattern of human alpha waves! Waves the human brain gives off all the time,