“Let’s hear it, Lieutenant,” the captain prompted, still obviously intent on staying one step ahead of the Romulan guns. A disruptor salvo rocked them at that precise instant, and the scoutship’s responses to Picard’s piloting seemed to be growing sluggish. Heaven only knew how badly they’d been damaged.
Hawk took a deep breath, then plunged forward. “Data, if the array’s own defenses were to malfunction and attack the singularity’s containment facility, wouldn’t that bring on an abort automatically? And send the singularity back into subspace immediately?”
“That wasthe scenario that I originally attempted to make the singularity’s containment machinery believe,” Data said calmly. “However, I would still have to transmit the abort order through command pathways from which we are now blocked.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Hawk said, his words piling onto one another in his excitement. “What if the array’s defenses really didstart shooting at the singularity’s containment field?”
The android nodded, evidently grasping the idea. “In that event, the Romulans’ own failsafe programs should initiate an abort command on their own from within the singularity’s subspace containment system. I would not need to send any such command myself.”
“All right, gentlemen,” Picard said, now clearly preoccupied with keeping the ship in one piece. “How might we accomplish that?”
“What about trying to alter the containment facility’s sensor profile?” Hawk said hopefully. “We could make the singularity itself appear to be surrounded by a fleet of invading ships.”
“And thus in danger of suffering a fatal containment breach,” Picard added, nodding.
“Unfortunately,” Data said, “The systems that govern sensor data are now closed to me as well.”
Hawk’s spirits flagged again when he heard this. Then he glanced at Picard, and saw a slow smile spreading across the captain’s face.
“Maybe there’s another way to go about Mr. Hawk’s idea, Data.” Picard then handed the conn back over to Hawk. Though the evasive flying kept him busy, the lieutenant listened carefully to the captain’s words.
“Tell me about the cloaking‑generator buoys, Data. How do they maintain such a perfect spherical formation? You’d think that the singularity’s periodic releases of gravitational energy would disturb that pattern.”
Data did not reply, leaving Hawk to assume that he was accessing information, either from the ship’s computer or from elsewhere in the Romulan array. A moment later, Data broke the anxious silence.
“The cloaking buoys maintain their relative positions by means of a system of onboard station‑keeping thrusters. Each thruster pack carries a large fuel supply, so that the buoys can hold their positions for years without requiring maintenance.”
“And what would happen,” Picard said, “if each and every one of those buoys were suddenly to point their main thrusters away from the singularity, and fire them all at full throttle?”
“In that scenario, Captain, there would be an equal and opposite reaction. The entire cloaking‑buoy network would quickly collapse inward, simulating an attack on the singularity.”
“Bringing about an automatic abort,” Picard said.
Data sounded intrigued. “Perhaps I can gain access to the buoys’ thruster command pathways through one of the multiple backup channels in the array’s maintenance grid–”
Picard interrupted him. “Do whatever it takes, Data. And hurry.”
Data once again lapsed into silence as Hawk fought with the sluggish controls, bringing the scoutship tumbling past an active Romulan gunport just in time to avoid a direct hit. Hawk ardently hoped that Data’s silence meant that the android had already begun moving those buoys.
A moment later, the scoutship shook as though something extremely heavy had struck it. An overhead conduit ruptured, fogging the crew cabin with gray, foul‑smelling vapors. The collision alarm hadn’t sounded, so Hawk assumed that the scout had taken a glancing blow from one of the warbird’s secondary disruptor banks. A glance at the tactical display showed that the scout’s engine core had taken a high‑angle disruptor hit as well.
Before Hawk could relay this information to Picard, the captain cried out in pain and went sprawling from his seat onto the deck. He lay there, groaning and clutching at his chest.
Hawk understood the problem immediately. The damaged engine core must have emitted an acute radiation burst–the tetryons Dr. Crusher had been concerned about–causing some sort of malfunction in the captain’s artificial heart. But Hawk couldn’t afford to be distracted from his duties at the helm, not if any of them were to survive this mission. He had to hope that Data could tend to the captain’s urgent medical needs.
A split‑second later, a flash of light issued from behind the cockpit, filling the scoutship’s interior with the acrid smell of ozone, burnt circuitry, and scorched artificial flesh. Glancing behind him, Hawk saw patterns of blue incandescence shooting through the cable that connected Data to the scout vessel’s computer core. Saint Elmo’s fire briefly crackled around the android’s head. He convulsed briefly, then became as motionless as a statue, frozen in the act of rising to render aid to the captain.
Not good,Hawk thought as he returned his attention to the viewer. There, the coruscating inferno of the subspace singularity still burned, as brightly and defiantly as ever.
And the warbird Gal Gath’thongwas coming about, like a hungry shark closing in for the kill.
Chapter Sixteen
In the central control room of the warbird Gal Gath’thong,Commander T’Veren kept a dispassionate eye on the scoutship that rolled and tumbled across his screen. Though his directive to destroy the small vessel had been authorized by no less a personage than Tal Shiar Chairman Koval himself, T’Veren remained curious about the motives of whoever was inside. By flying evasive patterns at close quarters with the Gal Gath’thong,the scout had so far managed to avoid being severely hit by the warbird’s weapons.
The heavy brows of the young decurion behind the weapons console were knit together in frustration. It was apparent that she knew that the other vessel should have been dispatched minutes ago.
That pilot deserves credit for his courage and audacity,T’Veren thought, smiling at his gunner’s obvious pique. But even the most skilled flyer will eventually make a mistake.
Suddenly, the weapons officer grinned triumphantly. On the screen, one of the scoutship’s warp nacelles had taken a savage blow, and was spewing superheated plasma in every direction. A moment later, one of the secondary guns hit the scoutship yet again, pummeling it squarely amidships. The smaller vessel began to spin in an uncontrolled manner, the glow of its shields dimming steadily, then finally guttering out completely. Without having to be told, the helm officer minimized the danger of a collision by increasing the distance between the two ships.
T’Veren smiled. It wouldn’t be long now. “Bring us about, helmsman,” he said quietly. “Then finish them.”
This can’t be happening,Hawk thought as he watched the warbird make its slow, stately approach.
Peering across the darkened cockpit, he saw the captain’s insensate form sprawled on the scoutship’s deck. Behind the cockpit, Data appeared to be in much the same condition, though the android had remained eerily frozen in a half‑standing position, his golden eyes wide but vacant, his positronic network still cabled to the ship’s computer core. Deciding that there was nothing he could do for Data at the moment, Hawk returned his attentions to the flight console. From the dozens of flashing readouts and alarms vying for his attention, Hawk gathered that a warp‑powered retreat was out of the question. At least,he thought, the main controls seem to be working.