Star Trek: Indistinguishable From Magic by David A. McIntee

Author:David A. McIntee
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9781451606157
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2011-03-28T10:00:00+00:00

19

Intrepid banked away as the marauder’s shields contracted around the Ferengi ship. The marauder then rotated to keep her scoop-like nose on an orientation that could face both Intrepid and the oncoming Challenger.

On the bridge, La Forge sat in the center seat. He felt tense, but didn’t show it. “Hail the marauder.”

Grak’s voice responded instantly. “Go ahead.”

“Grak, this is Commander Geordi La Forge. The Intrepid is Starfleet property. Cease your attack and withdraw.”

“Where is Bok?”

“Bok and his crew are disarmed and in our brig.”

“Alive?”

“So long as you do what I tell you. If you press your attack, Bok will die.”

“Starfleeters don’t kill prisoners,” Grak said stubbornly.

Rasmussen cleared his throat as he stepped beside Geordi. “Erm, that’s true, Grak, but, as you know, I’m not Starfleet, and I’ve served my time in prison, just like you and Bok. Commander La Forge is somewhat preoccupied running the ship, and so are the other Starfleet technicians, but I find myself as something of a fifth wheel around here, and well . . . I think if I were to go down to the brig with a disruptor and have some target practice with Bok, none of them would really have the free time to come and stop me. You do see where I’m going with this, don’t you, Grak?”

“Yes, I see where you’re going.” There was a long pause. “This isn’t over, welcher.” The comm went dead. La Forge got up and moved to stand with Balis at tactical, where he could see that the marauder was backing off, but only slightly. Their weapons were still armed, but on a standby cycle.

“Looks like we’ve bought ourselves some time.”

On the larger and better-lit bridge of the Challenger, smiles of relief rippled around the senior staff. They had all heard the exchange between La Forge and Grak. Scotty slapped the arm of his chair in a little moment of triumph. “Can we contact Geordi directly?”

“We’re still being jammed,” Nog informed him. “And I’m having trouble filtering out the random interference coming out of the Infinite.”

“EM interference is only to be expected—”

“No, sir, it’s not just radiation and EM interference. There are actual signals, snatches of conversations . . . I think they’re signals passing through the system, which have been deflected through the Infinite.”

Leah’s eyes widened, and her tone grew hushed and reverent. “Messages from the past and the future . . .” Scotty understood how intrigued she was, because he was equally interested. “I’ll record them. We might learn some things about both history and future technological developments.”

Nog had lowered his ear to the tactical console, listening closely to the signals. “I don’t think we’ll learn much. It’s all just single words and sounds, out of context. Not complete sentences.”

“There’s no harm in saving everything we can,” Leah said firmly.

A similar conversation was taking place on Intrepid, where Barclay was also recording the signals. “Wow . . . Commander, look at this.”

“Sensor readings, Reg?”

“More than that. Fragments of signals passing through this system have been caught in the Infinite.

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