Waking Nightmare

Chapter 1 of Edge of the Universe

The view out the conference room glass was bleak: nothing. Picard had gambled everything on Ardra's magic, but she was unable to fix the ancient Builder sphere, which could receive but not transmit. Otherwise they could merely teleport to another sphere and gradually find their way home. They were literally at the edge of the known universe. Was there anything beyond? Perhaps where the Builders went so many eons ago? It was one of only a few depressing options. So far, the joint operation of the sphere close to Romulan space had turned little profit. And now, disaster. Picard turned as his command staff filed in: Riker, Data, Troi, Worf, La Forge, and Vixia, commander of the Romulan ship Valdor.

Picard took his place across from Vixia, and next to Riker. "Where's Ardra?"

"Computer," Riker said. "Location of Ardra."

"Ardra is on holodeck two."

"Identify program," Riker added.

"The Addams Family."

"Addams who?" Picard's brow knitted.

"Accessing." Data went blank for a second. "A twentieth century TV comedy about a family of ghoulish non-conformists. The family patriarch became rich by sheer luck in the stock market, as his bumbling—"

"Very good, Data." Riker leaned an elbow on the polished mahogany. "That's all we need. Our one hope of getting out of here has discovered vintage TV."

On Picard's left, engineer La Forge pulled up a diagram on a console that rose from the surface. "At least we know where we are. Stellar Cartography has identified galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 at our sensor limit. It was long considered the oldest and farthest from Earth. Now we're equally far on the back side of it, a whopping sixty-six billion light years from Earth."

Worf crossed arms in the somber quiet. "It makes no sense to place a sphere outside a galaxy."

"Unless," Troi said, "it was moved here by accident or design. Perhaps its star went nova."

Data turned to her. "Unlikely. In such an event, it would be moving, rather than stationary."

Picard considered the dour Romulan. "Thoughts, Commander?"

Vixia departed from Romulan fashion by favoring all black, minus the blocky shoulders. Red lips painted a stark contrast with black bangs. "My staff are debating the merits of scouting some outlier stars we detected, some with exoplanets. We may after all be stranded here permanently."

"Should we divide forces like that?" Riker challenged. "We need all our best minds on this Builder technology."

Worf glowered. "It seems the Romulans wish to stake out a claim on the best—perhaps only—habitable worlds."

Picard headed off Vixia's retort. "There is no rush to scramble for spoils. I for one have no intention of staying here. Mr La Forge, assemble an away team to learn what you can about the sphere's malfunction. Data, find out what Ardra is up to. It isn't like her to giggle at some silly TV comedy."

"That's a sobering thought," Troi said. "Without Ardra, our chances are slim indeed."

Holodeck Two

When Data knocked, the door was opened by a black-suited giant with a squarish head, having razored white bangs and strong black brows. "My name is Data. I am looking for Ardra."

"Follllowwww meeeee," said the bass voice. The giant had a Frankenstein gate, with arms at his sides. Ardra was seated next to a raven-haired beauty in a floor-length black gown. Behind her stood a bug-eyed man in a pinstripe suit. "Data," the giant announced.

"Thank you, Lurch." The man came around and offered a hand. "Remarkable! Yellow skin and eyes—you're the picture of health! What's your secret?"

"I am an android."

"Ha ha haa! Of course you are! Lurch, tea for the gentleman."

Data sat on a stool beside Ardra, staring suspiciously at the mist boiling out of his cup. "Ardra, the captain is concerned about the time you spend here. He wishes input on actions you might take to resolve the dilemma."

"Data," Ardra began, "this is Morticia and her husband Gomez. I was explaining our problem, how our ship is broken down at sea, and there's no one to fix it." She patted Morticia's hand. "I've had insight already. Did you know this woman had tentacles around her ankles and could barely walk? I had the computer change it."

"And the insight?" Data prompted.

"Don't work against yourself. With a few more like that, I'll know how to focus my magic."

A black, three-stringed instrument caught Data's eye. "Ah, a Japanese shamisen, derived from the Chinese sanxian."

"You're a student of fine art?" Morticia queried. She plucked a string and screeched, "Haruuuu!" Another pluck. "Sayonaraaa!"

Ardra had hands at ears. "Hold off, lady. To use an Earth expression—you suck."

Morticia pouted. "Gomez, have I been insulted?"

Data to the rescue. "Not at all, madam. Japanese music is unknown where Ardra hails from."

Having set the instrument aside, Morticia tilted her head to contemplate Ardra. "Do all of your people have that lovely brow ridge." She felt her own smooth brow. "Should I have it done, Gomez?"

He leaned down to nuzzle her hair. "Nonsense, cara mia. You can't improve perfection!"

"Mon cher." She caressed his face.

"Tish! That's French!" He began kissing the length of her arm.

Ardra stared. "You like foreign language? Try some Ventaxian. Tresh' ti molktari-zuon."

Gomez rushed to take Ardra's arm. "Ardra! That's . . . whatever that is . . ."

His wife's eyes rounded. "GoMEZ! Don't you dare!"

"Ardra . . ." Data spread hands imploringly.

"Right." She stood up. "Folks, you've been very helpful. Lurch, let's go dancing sometime."

Lurch shook his head and rolled eyes. "Uh huh huh huh huh."

Inside the sphere

Geordi La Forge surveyed the rows of octagons picked out in the shuttle's forward spots. His first order of business was matching these with the standard model. So far the correlation was exact. He was hesitant to even scan this alien tech, much less tamper with it. There had to be something different about this sphere to explain its remote isolation.

"We have an anomaly," Data said from the pilot seat. "One of the octagons is unmarked. Shall we send in a probe?"

"I'm not sure it would work," Geordi said. "None of them do. That suggests the problem is with some kind of master power unit. But where is it, and how do we fix it?" He activated his com unit. "Shuttle to Enterprise. We've found a unique portal. I'd like to send a probe in."

"Go ahead," Picard replied.

The shuttle launched a top-mounted craft toward the mysterious hatch illumined ahead of them. It cycled open as the others did, and enclosed the probe. This time, something happened.

"Transfer sequence initiated," Data said. "Destination is unknown until the probe returns ten minutes from now." But the craft didn't return.

"Shuttle three," said Worf's voice. "We have multiple contacts approaching from the void. You'd better come back aboard."

"Acknowledged," Geordi said. "Looks like we got somebody's attention." They piloted the craft out of the sphere, noting how the Valdor was already moving out to intercept. "They'd better wait for Enterprise," Geordi said. "True, we do have to protect the sphere, but we need to stick together out here." As they docked aboard ship, red alert was in progress.

"Command staff to the bridge," Picard said on speakers.

"And away we go," Geordi added, rushing to the shuttle bay exit.