Star Trek-TNG-Novel-Imzadi 1

by Peter David

  "Phasers armed and locked on target."

  "Mr. Blair, inform the transporter room

  that you and I will be beaming down to planet surface

  within two minutes. Attention Chance," Data

  continued, raising his voice and thereby activating the

  comm link. "Our phasers are armed and locked on

  you. Unless you respond immediately, we will be forced,

  in this state of emergency, to fire on you.

  Acknowledge or suffer attack. Acknowledge."

  The intership radio crackled to life immediately.

  "Enterprise," came an irritated

  gravelly voice, "this is Captain Tennant

  of the Chance. What in hell do you think you're

  playing at?"

  "I believe," responded Data, "that the

  same could be asked of you, Captain."

  "We're simply obeying orders," shot

  back Tennant, "as part of a confidential

  mission, the contents of which I am not at

  liberty to disclose. Not even to one of the flagship

  vessels of the fleet."

  "Disclosing them would be pointless," Data said.

  "I have no doubt that they are utter fabrication.

  I would assume radio silence is one of those

  orders. One moment, please." Data turned

  to Margolin. "Are we within range of the Forever World

  yet?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Raise them ... Captain Tennant,"

  Data continued the first conversation, "am I

  correct about the assumption of radio silence?"

  "Yes, you are. And to be blunt, I'm

  jeopardizing the safety of that mission by conversing with

  you. But with the safety of my crew on the line, I

  decided to acknowledge your hail, in direct

  contradiction of my orders."

  "Excellent judgment, Captain," said

  Data calmly. "Am I also correct in

  assuming that Admiral Riker is not there?"

  "That is correct. He beamed down to the

  surface fifteen minutes ago. He told us

  to maintain orbit and radio silence."

  "That does not surprise me."

  "Sir," said Margolin, "we're unable

  to raise anyone on the surface."

  "That also does not surprise me.

  Transporter room, can you lock on any

  life-forms on the surface? If so, I want

  them all beamed up immediately."

  There was a pause as the transporter chief

  ran a quick scan. Then her voice came over the

  comm: "Negative, bridge. Readings are too

  sketchy. If someone is down there and gives us

  coordinates, that's not a problem. But as it is,

  I'd be afraid to try and lock on and bring

  something up. I might get nothing at all, or

  maybe a puddle of protoplasm. There's no

  predicting without solid confirmation."

  "Very well. Mr. Blair," said Data, "with

  me."

  Data crossed quickly to the turbolift,

  Blair right behind him. Almost as an afterthought,

  Data called out, "Chance ... maintain

  position. We will inform you if there is anything you can

  do."

  "Enterprise, would you mind telling us what's

  going on?" came the voice of Captain

  Tennant. "Admiral Riker said that we were being

  commandeered as part of a top-secret mission

  for Starfleet. He even had orders--"

  "I'm sure he did," said Data. "I

  assure you, however, they were forged. You are on a

  mission, Chance ... but it's not on behalf of

  Starfleet. It's on behalf of Admiral

  Riker."

  "What? What in hell is this about,

  Enterprise?"

  "Don't concern yourself about it, Captain

  Tennant. Whether the admiral's mission

  succeeds or not ... either way, you'll never know.

  Enterprise out." And then he cut the

  transmission rather than waste more time.

  After all, the entire conversation might end up

  being moot.

  When Data and Blair arrived on the

  planet's surface, they discovered precisely

  what they thought they would find.

  The bodies of the scientists were scattered about.

  A quick inspection revealed that they were alive, but

  clearly phaser-stunned. Riker must have secreted

  a small hand unit ... perhaps several ... on his

  person. He'd done it in such a way that

  Tennant hadn't known ... otherwise he'd

  certainly have let Enterprise know about it.

  What tissue of lies had Riker constructed?

  Data wondered as he and Blair quickly made

  their way across the compound. Sindareen scheme?

  Romulan incursion? Or perhaps the Ferengii were

  up to their old tricks? There was no end to the

  possibilities that an inventive mind could

  conjure, and Riker's mind was as inventive as

  anyone's.

  Data scanned the entire area and came to an

  immediate realization. "Mary Mac is not here."

  "Which means--"

  "She's with him," concluded Data. "Odds are

  it's an unwilling accompaniment."

  Above them the air swirled and crackled, and more

  than once lightning lanced across the sky. Data

  felt forces gathering around him, as if some

  massive, insane celestial experiment were in the

  works.

  Quickly they ran through the compound, small bits of

  dirt and rock swirling around in whirlpools that

  moved, Data noticed, in opposite

  directions from one another. Somehow that seemed

  perfectly in keeping with the rest of the environment.

  "He's crazy," Blair was

  muttering. "He's completely crazy."

  "No, Mr. Blair," Data replied,

  speeding up slightly. "He's not crazy at

  all. He's merely determined, and certain he

  is doing the right thing."

  The wind grew louder, and Blair raised his

  voice. "And what if he is? How do we know for

  sure?"

  "We don't. But we cannot take the chance."

  They raced to the top of an outcropping. Far,

  far in the distance, the ruins of the city were still there, as

  silent and unproviding of information as they had ever

  been. There below them was the Guardian of Forever.

  The protective force field surrounding it was

  intact.

  Riker, however, was on the inside.

  So was Mary Mac. He had a firm grip

  on her wrist, but now she was struggling with the

  fierceness of her Orion heritage. Her teeth

  were bared, her fingernails flashing. Riker had been

  holding a tricorder, but it had clattered to the

  ground. Data saw that Riker needed both hands

  to keep off her savage onslaught.

  She was shouting something that even Data, with his

  supersensitive hearing, couldn't make out over the

  howling of the winds. And then Data also saw, on the

  large screen that had been erected nearby the

  Guardian, events being played out that were

  horribly familiar. There was Deanna Troi,

  on the floor of her quarters, writhing and gasping,

  and a terrified and confused Commander Riker leaning

  over her, looking more helpless than he ever had in

  his life. On the ground near
by, the fallen

  tricorder continued to record the information with

  precision.

  Data gestured for Blair to follow and the two

  Starfleet officers made their way quickly down

  toward the Guardian.

  Mary Mac swung Riker's arm around and

  clamped down with her teeth. Riker howled in pain

  and slammed her in the face with as hard a punch as

  he could remember ever using. Mary Mac released

  her grip and staggered, wiping at the blood

  trickling down her mouth.

  "You'll destroy everything!" she shouted.

  "This "everything"' has no right to be!"

  "You're not the one to make that decision!"

  "Wrong! I'm the only one!"

  She leaped at him again, a feral

  snarl ripping from her throat. Riker ducked and

  she sailed over him, and he stood quickly, catching

  her in midlunge. Before she could make a

  countermove, he deliberately threw himself

  backward and body-slammed her to the ground. He

  twisted quickly around while she was stunned and, giving

  it everything he had, slugged her on the side of the

  head. The green-skinned woman's eyes rolled

  up into the back of her head, and she went limp.

  Quickly Riker felt under her chin and checked her

  pulse. He wasn't entirely sure what was

  normal for an Orion, but this felt strong and

  firm. Good enough.

  He grabbed his fallen tricorder and forced himself

  to be dispassionate as he programmed it.

  Carefully, he began to calibrate the

  tricorder to the enlarged screen designed

  specifically to display the Guardian's readouts.

  The tricorder would be able to measure the speed of the

  Guardian's actual display against the

  time-delayed playback of specific moments as

  depicted on the screen. Once it was all fed in

  and cross-programmed, the tricorder would be able

  to tell him exactly when to jump through the portal.

  There would still be no guarantee of 100 percent

  accuracy. But it was the only shot that Riker had.

  His determination was to try to leap through as close to the

  actual event as possible. He knew that the

  longer he was back in the Enterprise

  1701-D, the more chance he had of affecting things

  he wanted to leave alone. So he had to bring himself

  as near to Deanna's death as he could without missing

  it ... while leaving himself enough time to do something about it.

  His fingers flew over the tricorder's

  controls, cross-referencing the two displays.

  He programmed in, basically, a countdown.

  When the correct moment was approaching, a small

  green light on the tricorder would snap on. The

  moment that happened, Riker had to leap through

  precisely five seconds later ... a

  built-in delay factor, as he had

  calculated how long the actual, physical

  act of taking two steps forward and jumping through would

  require.

  "Guardian!" he shouted. "The display I just

  witnessed--on my mark, begin again. Three ...

  two ... one ... now!"

  Images began to coruscate across the face

  of the Guardian of Forever. The same dizzying

  blur that Riker had seen before. The

  primary command had been simple: Riker had

  asked to see the history of the Enterprise. The

  Guardian had proceeded to show it--except that the

  display had begun with the first event that the Guardian

  had considered to be instrumental to the creation of the

  mighty starship. Unfortunately for Riker, that

  event had been the invention of fire. Images of

  beings that were barely recognizable as ancestors of

  humanity, clustered around a small pile of

  sparking wood, was hardly what Riker needed.

  Fortunately enough, the Guardian was renowned

  for its speed. In an eyeblink Riker witnessed

  the creation of the wheel, the development of tools.

  They were wonders that, under other circumstances,

  Riker would have been spellbound to witness. As it

  was, he was merely impatient to get past them.

  The tricorder's programming had brought it on

  line as soon as the Guardian began the

  playback. It hummed along silently, matching

  and timing the display. Inside its circuitry, the

  countdown had begun.

  Riker patted the vial that he had hidden in his

  jacket.

  "Admiral!" came the shout from behind him.

  Riker spun, and he saw Blair and Data

  approaching. For a moment he was startled and even

  frightened that they would stop him when he was so near

  to his goal ... and that he would never get another

  opportunity. But then he remembered the force

  screen that was serenely in place. "It won't do

  any good, Dataffwas Riker called. "My

  mind's made up!"

  Data and Blair came to a halt just on the

  other side of the force field. Blair's thick

  fur was blown this way and that in the fierce windstorm

  that surrounded them. Data called out, "Is Mary

  Mac all right?"

  Riker checked the Guardian. Leonardo da

  Vinci was stroking his chin thoughtfully, studying his

  designs for a primitive flying machine.

  "She's fine, Data! She was less than

  cooperative when I forced her, at phaser

  point, to open up the forcefield. I told her

  I'd just stun her and used her handprint and retina

  pattern even if she was semiconscious. She

  chose to remain conscious, hoping that she could talk

  me out of this. And when she realized she couldn't, she

  seized a moment when I was distracted and tried

  to take me out. Damn near did, too," he

  said, rubbing the back of his neck

  ruefully.

  "Admiral, you must turn away from this

  destructive course."

  Riker glanced back at the Guardian.

  Alexander Graham Bell was just informing Watson

  that he needed him, and in an overlapping image,

  Thomas Edison was staring in wonderment at the

  glowing light in front of him.

  "I'm going to save her, Data! For forty

  years, I've been eaten up by the thought that I should

  have done something! She begged me to ... I

  promised that I would, and then all I did was stand

  there and watch her die!"

  "She wouldn't have wanted this, Admiral!

  You're risking everything!"

  "Don't you remember, Data?" called

  back Riker. "The name of James Kirk's

  autobiography?"

  Data needed only a moment to recall it.

  "It was entitled Risk Is Our

  Business."

  "Damn right! I owe Deanna nothing less

  than to try everything! You hear me, Data?

  Nothing less!"

  "Admiral, if you do not come out of there immediately,

  I shall order the Enterprise to open fire and use

  ship's phasers to penetrate the force field! You

  may very well be destroyed if that happens!"

  "And the Guardian might be as well!" shouted

  back Riker. He took a step toward the t
ime

  gate. Seconds before, a Saturn Very

  rocket had been lifting off. Now Zephram

  Cochrane was about to activate the first warp drive

  unit. "Would you do that, Data? Would you risk

  destroying the Guardian? Don't you see,

  Data? You've longed to understand humanity! You've

  longed for a soul! Well, Mr. Data--the

  Guardian is the resting place of all the souls,

  throughout all time! It's God's window on

  eternity! Who are you to destroy it?"

  Andwith icy calm, Data replied, "I have

  already contacted Starfleet, Admiral. Their

  orders were very specific. Protect the time

  stream, no matter what. Deanna Troi must

  die ... and if it takes the destruction of

  God's window, then who better, Admiral,

  to assume that responsibility? After all ...

  I am not one of God's creatures." And

  Data angled his head upward and said,

  "Enterprise ... target the shielding

  directly in front of me. On my command ...

  fire."

  "Don't do it, Mr. Dataffwas called

  Riker with genuine pleading in his voice. "Don't

  kill Deannaffwas

  "I did not kill her, Admiral. But if

  maintaining the integrity of the space-time continuum were

  at stake, I would take her life with my own

  hands. I would derive no satisfaction from it.

  Indeed, the counselor was as dear to me in my own

  way as she is to you in yours. But I am prepared

  to accept that her death is a requirement in the

  natural order of things, and to preserve that order,

  I will do whatever I have to do."

  Data had spoken with certainty and a sense of

  implacable decision. And Riker knew that lines

  had been drawn. "So will I, Mr. Data."

  "Enterprise," said Data tonelessly.

  "Fire."

  From orbit, the mighty phasers of the

  Enterprise cut loose. They struck the force

  field directly above Riker's head. The force

  field sparked and shimmered under the barrage,

  resisting the power of the weapons.

  It was the strongest force field that Federation

  technology had to offer ... on par with the

  deflector shields of the Enterprise herself.

  Furthermore, the Forever World had been equipped

  with its own heavy-duty defense array,

  protected by similar shields. If a hostile

  vessel had shown up, the scientists below could very

  easily have given a very formidable accounting of themselves

  --in all likelihood, blowing the attacking

  ship out of orbit.

  But the Chance had not been a hostile vessel,

  and the renowned and esteemed Adm. William t.