What's Past_ Many Splendors (Book 6) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [10]
“Exactly what I said!” Wesley got a wide-eyed look that Sonya had seen all too often in the mirror. “Davies thought it might be a fool’s echo, but Commander Riker put me in charge of finding out what’s happening, and we’ve got to cover all our bases.”
“Yeah, but”—Sonya took one last look at the diagnostic, saw it was compiling normally, then turned to face Wesley—“dilithium wouldn’t explain this instability. I mean, you’d need more dilithium than there’s ever been in one place, and not even Archer IX has that much dilithium.”
“Maybe.” Wesley seemed a bit deflated. “It might be a dead end, but we’ve got to be sure. Besides, it can’t hurt to find out if there’s another source of dilithium.”
“True.” Sonya smiled. “All right, then, let’s go redistribute the sensors.”
CHAPTER
4
Memo from Ensign Esmeralda Clancy to Lieutenant Geordi La Forge, stardate 42760.9. I believe that Ensign Sonya Gomez bears watching. She has one of the finest engineering minds I’ve ever seen, but she’s in danger of burning herself out. She has tremendous drive, but to the exclusion of all else. I’ve never seen her in Ten-Forward, she’s never booked leisure time on the holodeck, she’s constantly working extra shifts, and I’ve never seen her socializing with anyone beyond her roommate. It’s my recommendation that she be given more guidance than I’ve been able to provide.
Alpha shift hadn’t been as bad as Sonya had feared. Although Geordi La Forge was a perfectionist, he wasn’t an unreasonable one, and he never asked his people to do anything they couldn’t. He was very hands-on, to the point where Sonya wondered why he bothered even having a staff, but he could delegate when it was called for.
She also saw a lot more of Wesley Crusher. Although nominally assigned to the bridge as the alpha-shift conn officer, Wesley—partly in preparation for his Academy studies, partly due to the kid’s sheer brilliance—also did quite a bit of work in engineering. The icogram he’d requested had been the right call, as had Sonya’s caveat. It would indeed take more dilithium than had ever been recorded to have it be the reason for the geologic stresses wracking Selcundi Drema, but that’s just what the icogram found on Drema IV. The Enterprise was also able to prevent that world from being destroyed, thus saving its native civilization. Sonya had heard a lot more rumors like the one Lian told her about Data talking to a girl on the surface, and several people had said they saw Data walking the corridors with an alien child nobody recognized, but again, Sonya didn’t put much stock in the rumors.
She did, however, put stock in Wesley. The kid was the genuine article. They’d spoken a few times since she switched to alpha, regularly interrupting each other and throwing ideas back and forth.
When she had her first break on her third day on alpha, she walked over to the replicator near the corridor entrance and requested a hot chocolate.
Laughter from her left caused her to look up to see La Forge chuckling and walking over to her. “We, uh—we don’t ordinarily say ‘please’ to food dispensers around here.”
Sonya smiled. Lian had said much the same thing when she ended her first dinner request with a “please,” and she gave La Forge the same answer she had given Lian then: “Well, since it’s listed as intelligent circuitry, why not?” However, with Lian, she’d stopped there. Now, she went on. “After all, working with so much artificial intelligence can be dehumanizing, right? So why not combat that tendency with a little simple courtesy?” Turning to the replicator, she reached for the hot chocolate and said, “Ah, thank you.”
“For someone who just arrived, you certainly aren’t shy with your opinions.” As La Forge spoke, he walked into main engineering.
Sonya absently followed him, gripping the hot chocolate with both hands, and realizing she should’ve cut herself off. Lian was used to her babbling, as was Ella, and Wesley had been babbling right back. But with La Forge…“Have I been