Star Trek TNG - 38 Debtor's Planet by W. R. Thompson

Author:W. R. Thompson [W. R. Thompson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780671883416
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 2014-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

“It works!” Geordi exclaimed. Gakor laughed and slapped the display panel in triumph. The rippling gravity waves were causing the neutron-decay process to emit neutrinos that weighed nine-tenths of an electron volt. While neutrinos came in several masses, none occurred in nature with that weight. The gimmick was working far better than the engineer could have hoped. “La Forge to bridge. Commander, we’ve got the bugs worked out of the detector. We’ll be ready for a full-scale test in an hour.”

“Understood,” Riker answered. “Hurry it up.”

Geordi looked at Gakor, who gave him a very human shrug. “You just can’t please some people,” the Tellarite said.

“Things must be heating up,” Geordi said. He switched off the oscillator and its annoying vibrations ended. He and Gakor walked over to the oscillator. “I figure it’ll be easier to mount this beast outside a shuttle-bay door.”

“No, we should reconfigure the hull mooring plates,” Gakor said, jumping on a chance to argue.

“We’ll just have to reconfigure them again after we’re done,” Geordi said. “That’s a lot of work for one test.”

“But if the test works, we won’t want to reconfigure,” Gakor said. “And the mooring plates are already plugged into the computer. Adjustments will be easier than with this oscillator, and the mooring plates can emit more powerful gravity waves.”

“The trouble is, Riker wants us to hurry,” Geordi said. He tapped the oscillator’s base with a toe. “Besides, I’d just love to boot this thing out the airlock.”

Gakor laughed heartily. “At full power it would interfere with the ship’s artigrav systems, even placed outside. The whole ship will feel that grauko buzz, and that won’t make us popular.”

Geordi threw up his hands. “You’ve convinced me. We’ll use the mooring plates.”

“That will be time-consuming,” Gakor said, smoothly changing his side in the argument. “We’re only after proof-of-principle now, and if we don’t get it, we’ll have wasted our time and effort.”

Geordi laughed. “Gakor, if I said suicide was a bad idea, I honestly think you’d talk yourself into trying it.”

“Me? Never,” the Tellarite said. “But if you were to try it, it would improve my chances for promotion. . . . ”

Laughing, the two engineers went to the computer station and set to work on the mooring plates. These were powerful artigrav generators, placed at strategic points around the ship’s hull and used to anchor the Enterprise in spacedock. They weren’t designed for any other purpose, and Geordi could see that they would need extensive modifications before they could serve as gravity-wave emitters. Cross-connections—new circuit modules—sensors and controls—“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said happily.

“It should keep us out of trouble for a while,” Gakor agreed. He called up a master circuit chart on the computer display and highlighted points around the ship’s hull. “I think we’ll do better if we work together.”

“No, we can get this done faster if we work separately.”Geordi smiled. “But first things first. La Forge to Alexander Roshenko.”

A rasping, grating noise answered him. Like father, like son, Geordi thought, hearing the Klingonese snore.

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