Chapter 6: Ghost Ship Part 5

Picard paced in his ready room as Angel sat in the chair behind Picard's desk. "What do you make of all this?" he asked after being filled in on what had happened with the stardrive section. "Those words they spoke ... and are they in contact with the same thing that was contacting Data?"

Angel shook his head. "I don't know. I really wish I did. I've known Buffy longer than Dawn, but that was because when Buffy was in high school, I was her boyfriend." He noted Picard's raised eyebrow. "It's a long story. Anyways I feel concern for her because of that, even a few hundred years later. What really has me puzzled is the Tkon telepathy that she and Dawn have somehow activated. Is that how this entity managed to contact them?"

"Sadly, we don't know anything about their telepathy," Picard said with a sigh. "Counselor Troi originally thought that their telepathy was something similar to a Betazoid Imzadi bond. But when we learned about their ancestry, we've been practically learning more about it alongside them. On what was being said, we can end it? End what?"

"Again," Angel said, "I do not know. It may mean us. But it may not also. It could be the ghosts. Once Data has been looked over and cleared and once things are back to normal for Buffy and Dawn, we should see what they can tell us."

"Agreed," Picard said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Bridge to Admiral Summers and Captain Picard," came Riker's voice from the intercom. "It's gone."

Angel and Picard looked at each other and stepped out of the ready room onto the bridge. "Gone?" Picard repeated. "Just like that?"

"Even faster." Yar glowered over her equipment as though angrier at the phenomenon's disappearance than she had been about its attacks. It was allowed to go away, but not without checking with the security chief first. "No trail, no residual energy, nothing. Popped out of existence."

"I believe this confirms our theory that the entity itself is phasing between realities," Angel said. "And why it has been affecting Dawn as well, especially recently."

"Maybe we should get out of the area while we can, Admiral, Captain," Riker suggested.

"No," Angel said.

"But if-"

"It's not gone," Angel said. "Since it's able to phase between realities it's likely this entity can also sense what's happening in the realities it exists in. It will know if we leave. I believe it could have laid a trap. Our diversion worked for a moment, but now that diversion is gone its attention is back on us. And since its initial hunt was unsuccessful, well its going to try and trap us instead."

"Sickbay to Bridge, Buffy and Dawn are showing some life to them and are requesting the Admiral."

Angel immediately left the bridge followed by Picard. When they reached Sickbay, they found Buffy standing by the biobed she had been on. "Angel," she said, "I've never experienced anything like this before. I'm sure you know …"

"About the telepathy, yes," Angel said.

"You know me when it comes to science, but the ghosts, they're alive. They're not ghosts, at least not ghosts as we think of them anyways."

"What Buffy is saying," Dawn said and unlike Buffy they saw that Dawn was still lying down. "Somehow the entity has preserved the consciousness and discarded their physical body. They still know who they are though."

"All humans?" Picard wondered.

"We're not sure," Buffy said. "I do know this; we were correct in our initial research that some of them are indeed Reykov and his crew. But they are definitely not alone."

"For a while, what they wanted was very confusing," Dawn said. "There are a good number of them, and only the strongest of them can still maintain a single self-image, but only for limited amounts of time such as the one I saw in the corridor."

"And now it's clearer?" Picard prompted. "What they want? You both have some idea?"

"We haven't told you everything," Buffy said. "About the confusion. It's true that there are millions of minds pressing upon Dawn and I, but there is ... an absolute unanimity in what they want."

"We have a decision to make that no single person should have to make," Dawn said. "They want to die. You have to remember that they are conscious and self-aware. They want to end this endless existence."

"Dr. Crusher, you've reviewed all the material on current medical ethics," Angel said.

"Yes," Crusher answered. "I had to as part of accepting the position of chief medical officer."

"Let's start with assisted suicide," Angel said. "After all that is what these people are asking for. Correct?" Buffy and Dawn simply nodded in response.

"Its meaning is simply a gentle, quiet, good death, usually just a matter of luck. Society has come to take it as ending life painlessly so as to end suffering. What we're really dealing with, however, is the point at which the only chance left for a person to have die painlessly is for someone else to kill him. There are complications, believe me. We get into the questions of suffering or not suffering, rationality or not, direct or indirect killing, killing by providing pain relief, the difference between personhood and potential personhood, capability of expressing a rational desire to die, death of biological organisms as opposed to persons, the distinction between ordinary versus extraordinary means of keeping a person alive, that ever-elusive phrase quality of life, failure to supply help versus active harm with kind intent, sanctity of life, obligation to live, freedom of choice versus deific property, being and not being the cause of a death other than one's own, avoidance of giving euthanasia for selfish reasons- keeping one's conscience clear, for instance-"

"I know this is not an easy subject for anyone in this room, myself included," Angel said as they Picard and Crusher looked at him. "I may be a vampire, but I can still die a final permanent death. I am not truly immortal."

"Okay," Crusher said with a toss of her hair. "Unless you're into horror stories, we all basically know what death is. We start with dying as a recognizable physiological process, one that medical science can pretty easily recognize. We know the difference between a living body and one that's being kept alive. Any intern worth his salt can spend ten minutes with the readouts and tell which is which. But the clincher has always been brain activity- the flat electroencephalogram. As far as current medical consensus goes, the only absolute criterion for death is its irreversibility. That's not the only criterion, mind you, I didn't say that. Death is a cluster concept and requires several criteria in a lump, but irreversibility is the only absolute one."

"Dying is irreversible in my estimation," Picard said. "At least I thought so until recently." He looked at Buffy, Dawn and Angel. "When we met you three."

"Thing is," Buffy said. "Despite that their supernatural beings. Their also not dead. Their physical bodies are gone but their still alive like you or I."

"In another words," Angel said.

"Yes," Dawn said, "they're similar to vampires but without the dietary requirements or a physical body."

"So," Picard said. "What is it we should be doing?"

"That sadly is the question," Angel said. "And one that I have to answer."

"Admiral," Picard said. "Before we continue. I wonder would it be possible to put these entities into a body similar to Data's?"

Angel sighed. "Since Commander Data's discovery, Federation scientists have been trying to recreate Noonien Soongh's experiments that lead to Data's creation. And sadly have had no success. It could be years before they can do it. That said I don't think they even know how to be corporeal again."

"I see where the Admiral is going," Crusher said. "There are plenty of circumstances that allow current medicine to replace or restore sight, but unless the patient is very young, there are usually grave complications. If I suddenly restored Geordi's sight with some kind of transplant or something, he'd have to completely retrain his senses. His whole body, his whole brain. His sense of visual depth would be all askew, for one. He'd be grabbing for things that were ten feet away, because he wouldn't be able to tell the difference. He probably couldn't walk with his eyes open either. Not without extensive therapy. His equilibrium would be completely thrown off. His balance would suddenly be affected by something that had never affected it before. There've been too many disastrous cases of restored sight. Some patients ultimately opted to have blindness re-inflicted rather than continue with sight."

"My God ... seriously?"

"Far too many for me to recommend trying to hook up these whatever-they-ares to android bodies." She lowered her voice and let empathy slip into her professional assessment. "It'd be a worse hell than they're already going through. And, Admiral, Captain, I think the only rational, moral decision," she added, "is the one they've selected for themselves."

"Then apparently my decision has been made for me," Angel said. "We have to assist them in what they want."

"Angel," Buffy said. "Another thing in support of our assisting them. Remember James?"

Angel sighed. "Yes, Buffy, I do," he said as Picard and Crusher looked at him. "James was a poltergeist who was tormenting himself. He had accidentally killed the woman he loved and then killed himself. Buffy and I helped him to forgive himself so he could move on."

"Bridge to Sickbay."

Picard tapped his commbadge. "Go ahead."

"Admiral," Yar said, "Commander Data has taken a shuttlecraft and gone out into the sector to attempt contact with the entity, and Commander Riker has gone after him in a research dinghy."

"Wha-" Picard said.

"We're in contact with him, but he hasn't found Data. We're keeping communication to a minimum, of course."

"We're on our way," Angel said as he, Buffy, Picard and Dawn left Sickbay.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Enterprise to Shuttlecraft Ansel Adams," Angel said.

"Enterprise, this is Riker."

"What the hell do you think you're doing out there, Number One?" Picard asked.

"I'm zeroing in on Data, Captain. I've almost got a transporter triangulation on him."

"Have you got a lock on him? He's out of low-power communication range with us."

"Yes, sir I'm talking to him right now. At least I'm trying to."

"Is he having any success with his hypothesis? He may be our only chance to communicate."

"That's true, sir, but I really think there's more risk in that than profit, especially for Data."

"Understood," Angel said. "Get us those coordinates and we'll beam you both back."

"Yes, Admiral- Data! Stop it!"

"Riker, what is it! Report!" Picard said as he looked towards Angel.

"He's arming the shuttlecraft's weapons, Captain, he's going to fire blind to attract that thing. Data, kill those weapons. That's an order."

"Commander," Angel said. "Is it possible to relay us to Commander Data."

"I believe so," Riker replied.

"Admiral," Worf said, "I'm picking up massive energy readings."

Angel nodded. "Commander Data, did you hear that?"

"Yes, Admiral," Data replied.

"Enterprise! Beam us up now! Now!" Riker said.

"Transporter room," Picard said. "Beam them back now!"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The nauseating sensation of beaming began almost instantly. Riker gave himself to it, as though that would help, and stared into the viewscreen of the shuttle as he felt himself dematerializing. But he was still able to see the viewer clearly enough when the shuttlecraft was torn to bits, its tiny impulse engine blasting outward in a dynamic explosion.

Agonizing seconds later the interior of the research dinghy was gone and the transporter room's dark gray textured walls were forming around him. Above him the soft lighting, below him the glowing platform- beside him ... another form materializing.

He reached out as soon as he could, but instinctively recoiled from the crackling electrical sheath that enveloped Data once again. This time it seemed to have a sense of purpose- or was he imagining it?

"Data!" he shouted without thinking.

The electricity snapped a few more times, then faded. Riker stepped toward Data instantly. Just in time to catch him.

Angel followed by Picard stepped into the transporter room. They knelt next to Data and Riker. "What happened?" Angel asked.

"He was enveloped for a moment in an electrical sheath," Riker answered.

"Tricorder," Angel said as the transporter chief handed him one. He scanned Data and frowned. "There is no synaptic response in his positronic brain. For all intents and purposes he's shut down." He looked at Riker. "Take him to Sickbay and have an engineer familiar with his circuitry meet you there. Hopefully we can bring him back online."