Chapter Two
"Now gentlemen, I believe you were going to assign yourselves to various portions of this endeavor. I take it you have concluded your deliberations."
The Doctor next to him said, "Yes Captain, we have. My fourth persona," he indicated the tall man to his left, "will be assisting Counselor Troi and Dr. Crusher. My fifth persona, seated next to him, will work with Commander LaForge in Engineering. My sixth persona, the one with the loud voice and louder coat, will work with Commander Data and Lt. Rondell. I shall work with you and Commander Riker, coordinating our efforts."
The Sixth Doctor, as the captain now thought of him, abruptly stood and said, "Thank you very much. Now if you will excuse me, I shall find Commander Data's quarters. I would appreciate your moving my TARDIS to that location." With that, he turned and stalked toward the door, saying, "An android and another girl. At least she won't give me carrot juice."
The captain turned to find all three of the other Doctors smiling broadly. The Seventh Doctor said, "Captain, I am sure you would like your bridge area cleared, so if you would be so kind as to move his TARDIS," indicating the Fourth Doctor, "to sickbay, his TARDIS," nodding to the Fifth Doctor, "to Engineering, and mine to an area near the bridge. We shall be ready to begin finding a solution to this dissolution. We have one other suggestion. Considering the speed at which the universes are merging, we feel it would be wise to maintain your present position and perhaps be prepared to beat a hasty retreat if necessary."
Captain Picard touched his communicator. "Number One, bring the ship to full stop." Commander Riker's voice replied, "Aye, Sir, full stop."
Doctors four and five rose and headed toward the door. Captain Picard looked at the remaining Doctor and said, "This may take some time. Shall I arrange quarters for you and the other gentlemen?"
"That won't be necessary. The TARDIS has all the facilities we need." Noting the captain's expression, he smiled and added, "You've only seen the outside, Captain. It's quite roomy once you get inside, quite roomy indeed."
Data was standing near his work station in his quarters when his door communicator beeped. He said, "Come in." and was surprised when the Doctor in the brightly colored coat entered instead of Lt. Rondell, whom he had expected.
The Doctor walked quickly in and straight to his work station. He stopped and tapped his fingers together in front of him, then turned to Data. "This is quite neat. Your own design I take it. May I?"
Data was pleased with the compliment and said, "Please, be my guest." indicating the chair at the station. "Do you require instruction in the system?"
"No, Data, but I do think we shall need some additional input stations if three of us are to work here."
"You are correct, Doctor. I shall see to it immediately."
Data turned from the communications panel, where he had ordered the input stations the Doctor had recommended, just as his door beeped again. He said, "Come in." and Lt. Rondell rushed into the room.
"Sorry I took so long, Data. I found out the quarters next to yours were empty, so I was getting them assigned to me and moving some stuff in and ... " Lt. Rondell's voice trailed off. Data followed her gaze to where the Doctor was seated, then followed her over to watch him.
The Doctor was using his station to it's fullest capacity. He was calling up and inputting information faster than any biological being Data had ever seen. He was as fast as Data himself. Data realized he was experiencing the fascination that was his analog to the human emotion of awe. He turned to look at Lt. Rondell. She was totally engrossed in what the Doctor was doing. Data thought, "Perhaps enrapt is a better term."
Data heard the transporter and turned to see the Doctor's TARDIS materializing in his quarters. The Doctor stood and walked from the work station to his TARDIS. He gave the blue box a pair of affectionate pats and stepped through the door. Data turned to Lt. Rondell. She was staring at the door the Doctor had just entered. "Yes," he decided, "enrapt is the better word."
Beverly Crusher and Deanna Troi were in sickbay. They'd pulled up the records of all ship's personnel and were checking for both psi potential and planet of origin. Deanna could feel Beverly's frustration and worry over the two crewmen who had disappeared from sickbay. She could also feel her grim determination to stop it from happening again.
"Good day, ladies." The deep voice of the tall, curly-haired, Doctor drew their attention from the readout. "I have the pleasure of working with you on this bit of our problem. May I see what you have done so far?" He crossed to them and looked at the readout. He looked up and said, "Oh, very good, very good indeed. You have anticipated my suggestions." He flashed them his dazzling smile and asked, "May I remove my coat?"
Deanna felt Beverly's tension loosening. She said, "Of course, Doctor, make yourself comfortable."
As the Doctor removed his coat, Beverly and Deanna heard the familiar sound of the transporter and turned to see the Doctor's TARDIS materializing in a corner of sickbay. "Ah, now I shall have a place to hang it." He walked to the door of the TARDIS, opened it with one hand, turned toward them, smiled, and said, "If you will excuse me, I shall return in a few moments." then stepped through the door.
Beverly and Deanna turned to one another and suddenly they both began to laugh. Beverly said, "I don't believe it. I just don't believe it. He's perfect. He's absolutely perfect." Deanna didn't tell her friend, but she thought that Beverly might be 'absolutely right'.
Geordi LaForge turned to see the Doctor standing with his hands on his hips, looking up at the warp engines. He walked over and said, "We use a matter/anti-matter mix."
The Doctor turned to him. "And very well tuned. Even at idle, there's not an harmonic out of phase."
Geordi was pleased. This guy might actually know his stuff. "Come on Doctor, let me show you around."
As they toured engineering, Geordi felt himself warming towards the Doctor. The questions he asked were relevant and he really listened to the answers. They completed the tour at the central station and Geordi said, "And this is where my staff and I solve the problems of the universe."
The Doctor walked up to the station. He began to operate it like an old pro. "That's what we've got to do Geordi, solve the problems of the universe, or there won't be a universe to have problems. Say, this is good. You've already got a running program to map the dissolution area and a cross-reference check on all active and passive data collection devices."
"Yeah, Lt. Rondell and I set it up on the way here. You see these figures, they're from some special equipment we built just to measure some unusual tachyonic decay resonances at the edge of the zone."
Geordi heard the transporter effect and saw the Doctor's TARDIS materialize against one of the few blank spaces in the walls in engineering. The Doctor said, "About time." and turned towards it, then he turned back to Geordi and said, "Geordi, I have one more question. I hope you don't mind. It's about your interesting eyepiece."
"That's okay, Doctor. It's called a VISOR, an acronym about as good as TARDIS. I was born blind, but with this and the implants connected directly to my brain, I can detect most of the electromagnetic spectrum. Sometimes I forget how much more I can see than other people can. For instance, I knew you weren't human before Dr. Crusher said anything. Your body temperature is way off, and that TARDIS of yours is definitely more than a blue box. Yes, this thing definitely takes care of my handicap."
The Doctor said, "I've got some equipment in my TARDIS I think might be useful. I'll have to hunt for it so I may be a while." He walked to his TARDIS, then stopped at the door and turned back. "Geordi, when a handicap is overcome, does it still exist? Did it ever exist?" With that he disappeared through the TARDIS door.
Geordi stood looking at the TARDIS and said to himself, "And I thought Lt. Rondell was a genius."
On the bridge, a crew of six had just moved the last TARDIS to the alcove near the science station. Two anti-grav units
had burned out before getting it into position and O'Brian, the Transporter Chief, had complained that he'd had to realign the transporter mechanisms after moving each of the other three. He'd used the heavy-duty cargo transporters after burning out three circuits in his first attempt at intra-ship beaming. "Yes," thought Captain Picard, "there's more to this blue box than meets the eye." Just as there was more to this Doctor than first glance would indicate.
"Well, Doctor," he said, "I believe we've taken care of the preliminaries. Now perhaps we should begin work on our mutual problem. This is the science station. I believe it will give you the best access to all the work being done throughout the ship. I will have one of our people show you it's operation."
The Doctor turned to him and smiled. "That won't be necessary. The system is quite logical and I've had a great deal of experience." He hung his umbrella in his pocket and began pulling up information faster than Picard could follow.
"Well," the captain said, feeling a bit extraneous, "I'll leave you to it."
Just as the captain reached his command chair, the Doctor called out, "Captain, my self, working with Commander Data and Lt. Rondell, has computed we have seventy-two hours and forty minutes to resolve this before it's beyond our capabilities. The information includes a recommendation we withdraw ten thousand astronomical units to avoid being caught in the effect before that time."
Captain Picard turned to Riker. "Make it so, Number One."
Lt. Worf joined the captain and Riker. "Sirs, I have checked Starfleet records. The Doctor is listed as having the rank of commander. It states he was given his rank by Captain James Kirk after he had saved his life several times. Once, by defeating a planetary champion in a sword duel. And Captain, apparently, he evacuated six hundred fifty people to his TARDIS while the Enterprise NCC 1701 was being repaired and prepared for it's return."
"Well, Mr. Worf," said Riker, "there definitely seems to be more to this Doctor than meets the eye."
"Yes, Commander." Worf glanced toward the science station. "Definitely."
Noting the grudging respect in Worf's voice, the Captain smiled at his First Officer. "Number One, I don't think this encounter with the Doctor is one we shall soon forget."
Riker smiled and replied, "No sir. I don't think we will."
Knight Progenitor Page 2
