Chapter Thirteen
Jean-Luc Picard stood in front of the Stargate, admiring it in great detail. Geordi LaForge and Martin Madden had their heads buried in their tricorders, whereas he was studying it at a different approach. The design of it had drawn his attention in, now he was just admiring its beauty. This thing has been on earth for thousands and thousands of years, and we are just now finding it. He thought. A reminder of just how much we don't know.
"Commander Maddens initial observation seems to be the right one." LaForge said, breaking Picards thought.
"I'm sorry Geordi, I was light-years away." Picard chuckled. "What did you say?"
"You did look far out there. When Commander Madden had first seen the gate, he said that he thought the constellations on the inner ring acted as coordinates and the chevrons were locking mechanisms. It seems he was right. From the sensor data we brought back from the Enterprise, this device seems to be able to activate a stable wormhole between two points in space."
"Two points? You mean we can simply choose where we want to go?" Picard asked.
"No, we think it has to have another gate. The two gates act as a link, which is what makes the wormhole possible." Madden interjected.
"Intriguing," Picard replied, "so how do we turn it on?"
"Well there is the kicker… I don't think we can." Geordi said slowly. "We seem to be missing a vital part to its operation. There is no way to input the coordinates, and no way to power the thing."
The large double doors in the back of the room parted and five people entered the Stargate room. "Oh my, the Stargate, its real!" A furry man ran up to the Stargate.
"Everyone, meet Vrant. He is the leading expert on the Stargate straight from the planet Cait." Captain Riker said dryly, as he walked with his officers towards Picards party.
"Will!" Jean-Luc exclaimed, and took off to meet his old first officer. They met and shook hands, which turned into a hug. "How is the Titan treating you?"
"She holds her own, although she isn't the Enterprise." Will laughed his response.
"My turn!" Deanna pushed Will aside and ran up to Picard. "Jean-Luc!" She said as she hugged his neck.
"Its great to see you again Deanna." Picard replied, and noticed the two very uncomfortable looking ensigns standing behind Captain Riker. Deanna broke away from her hug and stepped aside.
"Ensigns Orlando Walker and Darius McKinney," Riker started as moved aside. "meet Captain Picard of the Enterprise." He turned to Picard. "They were in Deannas vision of the Stargate, so we decided to keep them up to speed."
Picard smiled and nodded to them. "Well let's go see what Mister Vrant has to say about all of this."
--
Admiral Janeway stood next to the pulsing Omega core with a tricorder in her hand. It suddenly beeped, and a particle wave pattern displayed on the screen. She frowned, reset the scanner and ran the scan again. The same pattern appeared on the screen. "Tachyons." She mumbled.
Annika Hanson glanced up from her computer station and frowned. "Admiral?"
"Tachyon particles. Look, this entire area is flooded with them." She handed her tricorder down to Annika.
"This doesn't make sense. None of the tests resulted in the formation of tachyon particles."
"Sometimes, Seven, you'll find that the actual thing turns out to act quite differently than how it acts in simulations and on paper." Janeway stopped and bit her tongue. "Sorry. I keep forgetting."
"Its ok. The Doctor cant quit calling me that either." She turned and walked over to the main control panel.
"How is the Doctor these days? I haven't spoke to him in a couple of months." Janeway followed her.
"He is settling in quite well at Starfleet Medical. Look at this…" She stopped and pointed to the screen. "I just reconfigured the sensors to scan for tachyons outside the ship. They are all around us." Janeway turned back to face the Omega core.
"It must be a side effect. Somehow this drive is fracturing time in front and behind us. We need to figure out if we are causing any damage… and if not see if we can manipulate it to our advantage."
--
The tactical officer on the bridge of the Vitesse glanced down at his panel to a flashing red indicator. He tapped a few keys, and ran a high-intensity scan of the sector. A star grid appeared on the screen, with a flashing red dot directly to starboard.
"Sir… I think we have company." He spoke up. Captain Dickson stood from his seat.
"Where are they? Our cloak is still online isn't it?"
"Yes sir, we are still cloaked… and I'm pretty sure they are too. I've got a small power signature directly starboard."
"Onscreen." The main viewer flicked on, and displayed the blackness of space littered with stars. "If there is anyone out there, they have a damn good cloak. There is no visual distortion. The sensors on this ship, they can see right through the Romulan and Klingons cloaks, cant they?"
"Yes sir."
"Which means if that is a ship out there… they are someone new. Someone we haven't met yet…" Dickson turned to his tactical officer. "…yellow alert."
--
Picard and Riker both stood back with their arms crossed, watching Vrant go over every centimeter of the Stargate. "He is a strange one, isn't he?" Picard leaned over to Riker.
"Yes… I can't stand him. I will be very happy to dump him back on Cait the first chance I get." Picard chuckled, and noticed the two ensigns talking quietly to each other, consulting their tricorders.
"What's their story? They seem smart." Picard asked.
"Walker and McKinney? They are the tops in their fields. They will surely be climbing up the rank latter soon." Riker stopped and watched them work. "They are also lovers."
"Huh. It's interesting that they were in Deannas vision, how they got put on this mission together. Their expertise may help us unravel this mystery a little quicker. Did they meet on the Titan?"
"According to Deanna, they have been together for several years. Met at the academy."
"And they got stationed on the same ship? That was lucky." Picard replied. He glanced over to Riker and saw him shift his weight uneasily. "They make you uncomfortable? I'm surprised at you, Will." Riker sighed.
"I know, its ridiculous. I'm ashamed of myself, its just… unnerving."
"It's the twenty-fourth century Will, get over it." Picard grinned, patted him on the back, and walked closer to the Stargate. "Mister Vrant, what do you think?"
"Me? I think? I think that this is the Stargate. Its real, and its dangerous. If you know what's good for you, you will bury it… and bury it now." He said quickly.
"Why is it dangerous?"
Before Vrant could answer, the top chevron on the gate lit up red. Then the second one lit up. "Its activating!" Deanna said loudly. "Every step back!" They all ran to the side, as the third and fourth chevron lit up.
"Everyone, set your tricorders to active scan!" Picard said quickly, as the last chevron lit up. A blast of blue light appeared in the center of the ring. Captain Riker reached down and rested his hand on the phaser clipped on his belt.
A clear being stepped through the gate. Picard instantly recognized it as the Unekran representative that had visited earlier. It seemed to recognize him as well, for it walked closer to him.
"Captain Jean-Luc Picard." It said.
"Welcome back to earth." He replied to it.
"The Unekran have studied the information you provided us with upon our last visit." The clear being stated.
"Information?" Picard asked, confused.
"Your sensory equipment, on my last visit I created a uplink into your main database and downloaded its contents." Picard widened his eyes as the Unekran pointed to the tricorders they were all holding.
"You used our tricorders as a link to the main computer?"
"Yes. We found information that intrigues us. The individual designated Data." Picard glanced down for a moment.
"Data was killed on a mission several months ago." He said quietly.
"Your computer logs confirm that. They also state that his memory was copied to an identical android designated B-4."
"B-4 was not nearly as advanced, and Datas programming never surfaced. Our engineers never found a way to fix it." Jean-Luc replied, starting to get uneasy about the conversation.
"My race believes we can fix him. We have studied your logs, the file copy process, and Datas schematics. The Unekran believe we can restore your Data to his original capacity." The being said. Picard herd Deanna gasp behind him.
"Why are you offering this? Why would you do this for us?" Picard found himself saying.
"Because… it is what we do."