Star Trek - TNG - 02 by The Peacekeepers

Author:The Peacekeepers [Peacekeepers, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-08-07T13:49:27.130000+00:00

Everyone on the bridge, even Data and Worf, was momentarily frozen by the image that had appeared without warning, without even the spatial distortions that normally presaged a starship�s emergence from warp drive. A glinting, metallic blue, the alien ship dwarfed the Enterprise. Any one of its three, rounded, fortresslike segments could have contained contained the Enterprise. Stubby wings extended out on either side of the forward segment, tipped with what could have been drive units or weapons, each as large by itself as a medium-class starship. Like a spacegoing mountain, it exuded an impression of raw, massive power. Data was the first to recover. �Captain,� he said quickly, �the appearance of a ship similar to this is another phenomenon that occurs frequently in the Ferengi-supplied information, particularly in stories that allegedly originated among star-traveling civilizations rather than among planet-bound. In all instances, this phenomenon was said to have been followed within an unspecified but not lengthy period of time by an explosion of the type we have already discussed.� �This is what wiped out the other guard posts?� Picard breathed. �Perhaps these Builders of yours were justified in their paranoia. For a ship this size to travel, as this one seems to have done, by means of transporter rather than warp drive�� �It did not travel by means of transporter, sir,� Worf announced. �It does not even exist.� Picard turned sharply toward the Klingon. �Explain!� �Sensor probes show that the Repository�s shields have expanded radically. Their dimensions, in fact, now match the dimensions of the ship you see on the viewer, and they are producing the electromagnetic radiation that makes up the image.� �An illusion?� �In the same sense that the images our holodecks produce are illusions, sir. The shields, in fact, have altered their nature so that they now include a somewhat primitive version of the force fields that give solidity to holodeck images. That is apparently what the power is being used for.� Frowning, Picard turned to the tactical station. �Mr. Brindle?� �An illusion, sir,� he agreed, �but a solid one. To less sophisticated sensor probes than our own�probes using only the standard electromagnetic spectrum�it would appear completely real.� �Then the explosions that, according to Mr. Data, follow the appearance of a ship like this�� �Must be caused by self-destruct devices!� Riker finished Picard�s thought when the captain halted abruptly, his eyes darting back to the image in the viewer. �And both the illusion and the self-destruction could be triggered simply by the approach of a starship, just as the self-destruct device on the derelict was triggered by our beaming aboard. The illusion of the massive warship must be a last-ditch effort to frighten the would-be attacker away, and if it doesn�t work, the self-destruct sequence is activated.� �Lieutenant Worf,� Picard snapped, �how powerful are the alien�s shields now? Could we punch through them with our transporters? And bring Lieutenant La Forge out?� �No, sir. Phasers, however, would penetrate easily.� Picard shook his head. �Not with Lieutenant

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