The Red King - Michael A. Martin [105]
VANGUARD
Ever since she had first come aboard Vanguard, Deanna Troi hadn’t felt quite right. It was as though the great asteroid’s hollow interior were somehow amplifying the emotional distress of the hundreds of thousands of people who had been hastily brought aboard the ancient Terran space habitat.
“You are dead on your feet, Commander Troi,” Dr. Ree said, his sharp foreclaws clutching a handheld medical scanner that he ran quickly past her temples. The whirring sound it made was already giving her a headache. It was all she could do to keep from growling in irritation at the infuriatingly intrusive reptilian physician. Couldn’t he see how busy she was?
“I’ll be fine, Doctor. There’s far too much to do here for my condition to become anybody’s priority. We still have industrial replicators to assemble, shelters to build, hordes of refugees to feed, medicine to distribute, childr—”
“None of which you can accomplish if you end up dead from psionic trauma,” Ree said, shutting off the scanner. “I’d advise you to get back to Titan for some rest, Deanna. Now, preferably.”
“Out of the question.” She rose from her chair and walked toward the door of the prefab shelter. Through the window, she could see one of the Vanguard colony’s broad, curving public spaces, which had already been dotted with many rows of other small, tent-like emergency shelters—as well as huge throngs of people numbering in the thousands, all of whom would soon need shelter desperately. Apparently, the interior of the asteroid was not only large enough to support more than a million people indefinitely, it also generated its own internal weather, making the tents a necessity until more permanent structures could be constructed.
But there are already more people crammed into this habitat than it ever supported before, Troi thought, growing increasingly worried. I don’t think more than a thousand or so people lived and worked here centuries ago when Vanguard was originally placed in Earth orbit. What happens when the sanitation gets out of hand in here? And what about clean water? And—
“Counselor?”
It was Ree again, sounding insistent. How many times had he been forced to call her name to get her attention?
“Counselor, I’m sure you realize that I have the authority to simply order you back to Titan. Please don’t force me to do that.”
She scrunched her eyes closed and rubbed her temples. Maybe he’s right. Maybe the emotional intensity of so many people seeing their world end is too much, even for me. Especially for me.
She opened her eyes and met Ree’s concerned gaze. “Let’s compromise. How about this: I’ll go back aboard Titan before the Vanguard towing convoy goes to warp. That way, I won’t be forced to stay here during the two days it will take to move Vanguard to the rift.”
He sighed, a great sibilant rush of air. He was clearly willing to accept the compromise, but was just as plainly unhappy with it. “All right, Commander. Unless I see you taking a sudden turn for the worse in the meantime. But please remember, Titan needs you.”
She nodded. And Will needs me.
But so does an entire society that’s doing its damnedest right now not to die.
IMPERIAL WARBIRD VALDORE, STARDATE 57038.5
Even with the towing convoy now safely underway, albeit only at impulse speeds at the moment, the image still haunted her.
A planet on which billions lived had been cast, whole and screaming, into the afterworld of Erebus. The world the Neyel called Oghen was no more.
Scarcely a verak after having refused Riker’s request, Donatra summoned him back to her ready room’s comm screen.
“I have reconsidered, Captain,” she said simply. “Can you guarantee that your plan will close the gate through which this…protouniverse is leaking into normal space?”
“I believe so,” Riker said, nodding. “As much as I can guarantee anything.”
Donatra decided she was satisfied with that. Ambiguity, after all, was one of life’s few constants, in her experience. “No more worlds should die this way, Riker. Least of all because I refused to act.