The Red King - Michael A. Martin [49]
“I’m sure we can all agree that now is not the time for a metaphysical debate,” Jaza said. “We need to consider the facts before us calmly, and arrive at a solution to this problem.”
“What we need,” Tchev said, stabbing a finger at the holographic display, “is to destroy this ‘protouniverse.’ Once we’ve finally figured out how to get ourselves home, of course.”
“Again, I have to concur,” Donatra said, a sour expression on her face.
“That would seem to be our most prudent course,” Akaar said.
“I’m not a big fan of the wholesale destruction of entire universes,” Will said, sounding the same note of caution that was already coming through loud and clear to Troi’s conscience. “Even one that’s apparently still in an embryonic form. But with so much at stake, I agree that we may find that we have no better choice.”
Troi detected a sudden, extreme change in the emotional timbre of the scientific team. Jaza and Pazlar were again glancing uneasily at one other, and even Cethente’s usually placid aura seemed to grow almost turbulent. The uncomfortable silence that ensued spoke volumes.
“Gentlemen?” Will prompted.
Jaza cleared his throat. “Captain, I would have agreed with you, if only reluctantly.”
“ ‘Would have’?”
“Yes. Until we compared the energy signatures and thermodynamic readings of this protouniverse with the one DS9’s crew discovered a decade ago. They’re substantially similar.”
“Meaning?” Vale asked.
“Meaning that this new universe,” Jaza paused to nod in Frane’s direction, “or this awakening Sleeper, if you prefer, is already showing signs of life.”
“And intelligence,” Pazlar added quietly.
Troi’s mouth fell open involuntarily at this entirely unexpected revelation. This was undoubtedly the reason the members of the science team had just experienced such emotional discomfiture. It was obviously far too recent a discovery to have made it into any of the already-distributed reports and summaries.
The room erupted in a gabble of raised voices, as everyone present radiated varying intensities of incredulity. Will, to his credit, displayed a healthy undercurrent of wonder that made her smile in spite of her own shocked reaction.
Troi noted that one of the strongest disbelieving reactions was coming from Vale. “This continuum was already almost ten billion years old before the first signs of life appeared on Earth,” she said.
“Or Qo’noS,” Tchev said, nodding in agreement.
“So how could any life, intelligent or not, appear so quickly in such a young universe?” Vale concluded.
Cethente spoke up. “Time flows at varying rates in different universes, Commander. The equivalent of many billions of years may have already passed within the confines of this protouniverse.”
“The Sleeper emerges from his slumbers only after billions-year-long intervals,” Frane said, delivering this pronouncement in the same matter-of-fact manner that Jaza or Cethente might make a scientific report.
“So what are you saying?” Vale asked, facing the science team. “That this…baby universe is giving off something that looks like brainwave patterns?”
“Not exactly,” Jaza said. “But there are other easily-recognizable signs of emergent life, and these generally converge with intelligence. Highly organized replication patterns that occur far more frequently than nonliving processes could possibly account for. Nonrandom energy generation and consumption curves. Vast pockets of accumulating negative entropy, as well as numerous other extreme and sustained environmental disequilibriums, similar to those we can detect at galactic distances, in such things as the spectra of M-Class planets. So far as we know, those sorts of environments cannot come into being except via biological processes.”
Troi offered a tentative nod, granting at least part of Jaza’s point. “But we’ve founds lots of blue planets where microbes and plants are the crown