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softly.
"Sorry? For what?"
"I had no idea that you had either a wife or a son. This must be...
very painful .... "
"Picard, you've no idea what I'm ex peri
It was Data who interrupted us. "Sir," he said, pointing upward, "it
appears the whirlpool is... draining the ocean dry."
"Impossible," said Picard, but he didn't sound completely certain.
"Not only is it not impossible, sir, but it is occurring at an
accelerated pace."
That last comment was obvious, as the water that threatened to suck us
down like so much debris was now moving ever faster. I strained myself
to the utmost, Picard and Data clutching the rocks just in case my
"comfort zone" evaporated and we found ourselves exposed to the ravages
of the sea.
Water swirled around us, faster and faster... and then it was gone.
It vanished with a loud popping sound, as if someone had just released
the cork from a bottle. A few stray puddles of water remained.." but
all around us was land-land that until a few moments ago had been
covered by the ocean. Mountain ranges, and wide plains as far as the
eye could see, thick with marine vegetation and very much exposed.
The sky was dark, the sun just barely peeking through. Even so, it was
certainly the first time the sun of Dante IX had ever shone upon that
world's seabed.
The water was gone, and what lay beneath us, in full view, was a huge
trench. It stretched as far as the eye could see, and its depth was
unknowable. What I did know was that I had witnessed countless poor
devils from a variety of dimensions being hauled into that abyss.
Picard and Data had seen it too. They had been, after all, in the
midst of it.
And the victims were hardly local, or even limited to a couple of
races. I'd seen humans, Andorians, Vulcans, Tellarites, Klingons,
Cardassians, Borg, on and on, with the maelstrom giving no preference,
making no distinction between peace-loving and warmongering. All were
equal, all were helpless, and all were gone... except us.
What seemed an eternity passed before I rose unsteadily to my feet and
said, "All right.." now... I'm going in after them."
"What?" Picard said.
"I'm going in. Understand me, Picard," I said and turned to face him,
"you and your entire species can go hang, along with the rest of the
universe. But someone took my wife and my son, and I'm going in there
to get them!"
"It's foolishness."
He said it with such deathly calm that I couldn't quite believe it.
"Did you hear what I said? My family"--I pointed at the abyss--"is
down there I"
"Look at your hand," Picard said quietly. "The one you're pointing
with. Look at it."
Despite my better judgment, I did as he instructed. I no riced that it
was trembling. I tried to steady it. I couldn't. A hand that could
collapse a planet with a gesture, and I was unable to keep it still.
Picard, however, was the picture of cool.
"Before you embark on any sort of rescue mission, you have to calm
yourself. If you do not, you will rush headlong into a situation that
could prove fatal to you, and then of what benefit will you be to your
family?"
"But... but..." The "but" came easily; everything after that simply
hung there, unspoken.
"I know you're frustrated," Picard continued. "I know that you want to
charge to the rescue. But you'll be serving yourself, your wife, and
your son far better if you take some time to investigate the
situation."
"I can conduct a full scientific analysis," Data offered. "Certainly
by computing the events and studying samples of the--"
I gestured impatiently for him to be quiet. "That's going to take too
long!"
As much as it galled me, however, Picard was right. I needed to find
out what was going on before jumping to conclusions. I turned away
from the abyss. "And what of you?" I
 asked after a moment. "Do you want to come along? Or shall I find a
way to get you back to your starship?"
Picard looked up at the sky, and then once more at the trench. "If
something this widespread is happening, it's only a matter of time
before the Enterprise is affected.." before everything in existence is
affected. If it's possible to head it off now, so much the better.
Besides," he said smugly, "I'm getting the impression that you need
us."
"Keep telling yourself that, Picard." I clapped my hands and rubbed
them briskly. "So... the way I see it, there's only one sensible place
for us to go."
"Where would that be... ?" Data asked. He actually seemed interested.
Perhaps androids are programmed to enjoy going to new places.
"The Q Continuum," I said. "They would know what's going on."
"But... but how do we get to--?"
"Leave it to me," I said, snapping my fingers for dramatic effect. We
vanished in a flash of light.
I have an intense dislike of crowds. The reason is quite simple: one
tends to get lost in crowds, and I find that notion deplorable I don't
like blending in. I prefer to let the universe know that I'm "on deck"
and "ready for action!"
Occasionally, I find myself in crowds, nonetheless. So I turn it into
an opportunity to study what happens when a large number of sentient
beings gather and try to engage in some sort of celebration or [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]