A Fury Scorned by Pamela Sargent & George Zebrowski

Author:Pamela Sargent & George Zebrowski [Sargent, Pamela & Zebrowski, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9780671527037
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1996-10-31T10:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“CAPTAIN,” DATA SAID from his post in main engineering, “we are ready to test the subspace core link.”

“Proceed,” Picard’s voice said from the bridge.

Geordi La Forge was already standing at the central console with Lieutenant Anita Obrion and two other engineering officers. Lieutenant Obrion looked pale. She was one of the most competent of the Enterprise engineers, and was clearly aware of everything that could go wrong. Indeed, Data thought, she might be only too aware of both the engineering problems and the immensity of their task. From the tension in her face, he saw that the human implications of the problem—the risks that passage through the wormhole posed to the inhabitants of Epictetus III, the chance that the wormhole might become unstable and doom the planet, the possibility that their plan might bring on the nova too soon—had finally caught up with Obrion.

Those, of course, were some of the possibilities only if they actually managed to open a wormhole. If they failed to do so, they would have an entirely different set of problems.

Data joined the others at the instrument assembly that had been fitted onto the central console, then glanced at Geordi, who gave him a quick nod, and together they began to enter a dual set of commands on the control pads.

“We are taking precautions,” Data said, “so that we will not draw a flood of power through the alien suncore device. At first, I considered using a storage device to hold the incoming power before directing it through our warp engines to open the wormhole, but that would risk overload. The best and safest way is to pass power directly from the suncore device through our warp generators to the wormhole target position. That should cause a minimum of buildup within our power-handling systems and avoid a possible massive influx that we could not hold or discharge in time.”

“I see,” Picard said.

“Additionally, Captain, besides the danger of overload, we have to control the flow for the time needed to open the wormhole, and it may take a large portion of the star’s energy output to open and then to keep open a controlled wormhole of the size needed to accommodate a planet. An uncontrolled wormhole would act like a black hole and destabilize this entire solar system.”

“But trying to open a wormhole is the only thing we can do,” Picard’s voice said.

“Yes,” Data said. “Do you still wish to proceed?”

“Continue,” Picard said.

“I will inform you at every juncture where we will still have a choice to make,” Data continued.

“I understand,” Picard said.

“First test flow coming in,” Anita Obrion said.

“It appears stable and manageable,” Data said. “Shall we proceed to the next step, Captain?”

“Yes.”

“Insurge overload!” Obrion shouted.

“Correct heavily!” Data ordered.

“Correcting.”

“Continue,” Data said, and waited.

“Still correcting.” Data heard Obrion sigh with relief. “Stable again.”

“Set these limits in the program,” Data said. “Captain, shall we proceed?”

“We must.” Picard’s voice sounded strained. “Proceed.”

Data watched as the instruments began to register a double flow. “Double flow stable, Captain. Increasing to five times.

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