Dark Mirror (39 page)

Picard sighed, watching that shape in the viewscreen following them through the corkscrewing course they were running. “The sooner the better, Commander.” He glanced over at Troi. “How are you, Counselor?”

“Much better, Captain, thank you.”

“Crew status?”

“They are
much
improved,” she said, and sighed. Picard raised an eyebrow at her. Troi caught herself and said, “Concerned, Captain, but ready for the best… or the worst.”

“They are closing, Captain,” Data said. “Within two hundred thousand kilometers now.”

“Something a little more flashy, Mr. Redpath,” Picard said, sitting down again.

“Aye, Captain,” Redpath said, and keyed in a sequence at his console.

The main viewer’s vista abruptly became dangerous for those prone to motion sickness. “Go to tactical,” Picard said. The screen shifted to a schematic showing the
Enterprise’s
course and that of the vessel chasing her. Slowly but surely, that other was running her down, as Picard had known it would when he had seen that engine room, the monstrous power of the thing.
It’s not fair,
he thought
quietly.
We’re supposed to be on life’s side in this argument. Why can’t the universe break out some odds in our favor?

“
Bridge,”
La Forge’s voice said urgently, “
test cycle failed, repeat, failed. Power fluctuations in our warpdrive seem to be too big for the apparatus.”

“You are going to need to correct that situation, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said as calmly as he could. “Our pursuers are getting uncomfortably close. How long for another test cycle?”

“
Fifty seconds for reset,”
Hwiii whistled from the background. “Get on it.”

They watched the viewscreen. Picard began to sweat watching the dot that represented the other
Enterprise
draw slowly closer.

There was a soft
cheep
from Worf’s console. “The other vessel is hailing us, Captain,” he said, surprised.

Riker looked at Picard in shock. Very slowly Picard sat down in his center seat again, arranging himself comfortably. “On-screen.”

The viewscreen flickered and went bright with the view of that other bridge. It was like looking in a mirror again, except for the differences in uniform. There were the other Riker and the other Troi, and in the middle, sitting in exactly the same position as Jean-Luc, the other Picard.

“
Enterprise,”
he said, “we advise you to surrender. You cannot outrun us, and you cannot outfight us.”

Picard allowed himself the slightest smile. “Captain, I told you: you will not be allowed to dictate any aspect of this situation. There is nothing you could possibly say to me that could convince me you would spare a surrendered ship or crew… especially not
this
one. As for outrunning or outfighting you—even given your engines and armaments, we might have a surprise or so for you. We have resources you cannot begin to understand or anticipate.”

“That is exactly the point,” the other Picard said. “Why
throw yourself needlessly into a situation which will only result in unnecessary loss of life? From what we have discovered about you, we can surely come to some kind of compromise, some…”

Picard glanced over at Troi. She merely smiled and put her eyebrows up, a tell-me-another-one expression. To that other Picard, Jean-Luc said, “Your counselor has picked up a favorite theme from rummaging in my mind and the minds of my people, I feel sure, and has briefed you. Her job, of course… and she has a certain competence at it. Though if I were you, I would watch her closely, Captain. She made some interesting suggestions to me regarding the possible disposition of your command.”

That other Troi sat cool and unresponsive. The other Picard shot just one icy glance at her, then turned away. “In addition,” Jean-Luc said, “even if I believed the foolish fiction that you would spare us,
any
of us, you had better check with your chief engineer about the viability of keeping another ship of our mass in your universe. If we remain here, whether destroyed or not, your universe will suffer serious derangement over time, culminating in waves of subspatial and hyperspatial ‘distress,’ which will rip planets apart and cause their stars to go nova, along a spherical boundary centered on the area of original injection.”

The other Riker turned his head. “They’re bluffing.”

That other Picard did not react in the slightest.
He knows,
Picard thought. “You don’t care, of course,” he said to his counterpart, “because it won’t happen in your lifetime. And you hope to conceal the fact from your superiors, who I suspect consider this data as theoretical or statistical artifact, not to be taken seriously. Just one more difference between us: you would as soon destroy us here as anywhere else—though even now you hope yet to run us down, catch us, beat down our shields, and take home your prize. Well, you will have no prize. Sooner than allow our
capture, I will destroy this ship myself. And your Empire will be doomed as a result… so think about
that.
Also, we will find a way to let them know what you have done: don’t think to hide it. If a universe is about to be destroyed, in the long term or the short, I will see to it that your Empire knows at whose doorstep to lay the responsibility. Meanwhile… catch us if you can. We would spare you if we had the chance. We probably will not get it; so… do your best.”

The other Picard did not rage or fume or anything else: he sat coolly and looked at his counterpart. “I don’t understand you, Captain. I am offering you a chance to survive.”

“There are more important things than survival,” Picard said very softly. “And no, you do not understand us.” He glanced up at the other Worf, standing behind that Picard again, stony-faced. “May we never so change that you do. Out.”

The screen went blank. Picard sat there, still sweating. It was astonishing, the effort it took even to speak to the man…. Riker, though, looked over at him with slight amusement. “Is that other Troi after his job?”

Picard laughed once, sharply. “To put it mildly…. She may get it yet.”

“The other
Enterprise
is now within one hundred fifty-five thousand kilometers, Captain,” Data said, “and continues to close.”

“Is that probe ready?” Picard said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Prepare one with our theoretical data about the side effects of inclusion and program it to head for Earth. Add Mr. La Forge’s little screen routine to its shields, if you can. The more trouble they have finding it, the better.”

“Aye, Captain. It will take a short time.”

“Take it. Mr. Redpath, go up a level on the evasive. I want them to have to work for it now.”

“Yes,
sir,”
Redpath said with relish, and started to work at it.

Picard’s quick glance at the way
Enterprise’s
course now started behaving on the tactical screen made him hide another smile. “Engineering!”

“
La Forge here, Captain. Halfway through the second test cycle. It’s looking good.”

“We’ll wait, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said.

They waited.

“One hundred thousand kilometers,” Data said. “They have increased speed to warp nine.”

“Match it,” Picard said.

“
Captain, we’re getting some spikes down here! The test cycle may go out again.”

Picard swallowed. “Do you absolutely need it?”

“
If it’s not going to work,
“Hwiii said, “
I should think you would prefer to know about it now, Captain, rather than when we try to jump with it and fail to get anywhere, with
them
snapping along right behind us.”

“I take your point, Commander,” Picard said. “Please put your tail into it.”

Hwiii could be heard to chuckle. Behind him, Geordi’s voice said, ‘
Is that it? Did it go?”

“
Positive result—the curve topped out at fourteen.”

“
Test cycle is positive!”
Geordi said.

“All right,” Picard said. “Get ready to do it, gentlemen. How soon?”

“
Three minutes for the exclusion cycle,”
Geordi said. “
Captain, we can’t have any velocity changes during the cycle. If you want to accelerate, do it now. Also, firing has to be kept to a minimum—shields are going to cost us enough as it is. Any spike in the power curve will abort the whole thing.”

“Warp nine point five, Mr. Data,” Picard said. “Mr. Worf, full power to the rear shields. Watch the nutation, they may try changing attitude and coming from above or
below. Prepare a full spread of photon torpedoes. Reduce all unnecessary life support and other systems to minimal levels.”

They sat and watched the other
Enterprise
creep up behind them, more and more quickly. “She has gone to warp nine point five, Captain,” Data said. “Energy output levels indicate she can hold this speed for a matter of some hours. We would be forced to drop out of warp at the five-minute point.”

“Noted,” Picard said. “Hold her steady. Mr. Redpath, your maximum inventiveness now, within structural limits. Remember that the structural field is running low.”

“Yes, Captain,” Redpath said, looking intent, and started working over his panel again. Picard sat quiet, hearing faint groans from the fabric of his ship that he didn’t in the least care for.

“They are making warp nine point six, Captain,” Data said quietly. “Eighty thousand kilometers now.”

“Mr. Redpath.”

“Doing what I can, sir.” Redpath was sweating.

Picard watched him, thinking that at the moment he could do little more.

“
Hold it steady!”
Geordi’s voice came from down in engineering. “
One minute!”

“Steady as she goes,” Picard said, though the phrase was extremely relative, considering what the tactical display was showing. The ship was moaning more loudly around them. “Mr. Worf, ready on the photon torpedoes. Probably the only effect they’ll have will be to keep the other
Enterprise
from running right up our tail, but that may be enough.”

“
If you can keep them at a little distance, Captain, we can gain some ground,”
Hwiii’s voice said. “
If they can be kept from transiting at the same time that we do—and they cannot transit during shield impacts, they would experience the same kind of power spikes that were giving us trouble.”

“Consider it done, Commander. Mr. Worf—choose your spread for maximum disruption rather than a clean breakthrough. Try to flank their rear shields as they come in.”

“They’re changing attitude, Captain!” Ensign Redpath said, his hands flying over his console. “Coming in high and wide, corkscrewing.”

“I see it,” Worf said, and went at his controls. Picard gripped the arms of his chair and did his best to radiate calm as usual.

“
Twenty seconds!”
Geordi said. “
Nineteen, eighteen

“They are firing photon torpedoes,” Data said. “Full spread of twenty.”

“Evade, Mr. Redpath,” Picard said, “any way you can, we can’t boost shields now.”

The ship’s fabric made an appalling noise, a groan scaling down through into subsonics. “Structural field holding,” Data said. “But marginal. “…
eleven, ten, nine…”

“Impacts on their shields,” Worf said, examining his console. “Minimal effect, but some power fluctuations. Torpedoes incoming.”

“Repeat our fire, Mr. Worf,” Picard said. “Another fluctuation or so can’t hurt. Take out some of their torpedoes if you can.”

“Setting up another spread, Captain.” A pause. “Torpedoes away.”

“…four, three, two…”

The ship rocked with the impact of torpedoes on its shields: lights flickered—

—and at practically the same moment there was another flicker, a bizarre darkening, as if the universe had closed its eyes to sneeze—

—and then the lights came back up again, and they all looked at each other, blinking a little.

From the engineering section came a high-pitched cry, too pure to be called a squeal, that twittered down into a long happy chatter of noise. “
Positive result!”
Geordi shouted. “
Positive transit!”

“Congratulations, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said. “Are we where we ought to be?”

“
We’re home,”
Hwiii cried. “
I would know this space anywhere, Captain, I could feel it in my sleep!”

“And did, as I remember. I’ll take your word for it. Status of pursuit.”

“We will not be able to tell until they come out of transit themselves, Captain,” Data said, studying his console. “Most likely they have a record of the hyperstring properties associated with our
Enterprise
and will be using them to locate us.”

“Let’s not wait around,” Picard said. “A little more speed, Mr. Redpath. In a straight line, for the moment.”

“We’re at nine point four at the moment, Captain. Lost some residual in the passage.”

“
That’s odd,”
Hwiii said from engineering. “
There’s no reason we should have dropped velocity.”

“
First law of thermodynamics, Hwiii,”
Geordi said. “
Not between universal boundaries! Both universes’ thermodynamic constants are the same. They have to be, or they can’t have such a high congruency constant.”

“Gentlemen,” Picard said, somewhat amused. “If you can let it rest for a few minutes…”

“The other ship has transited,” Data said, and all around the bridge, heads turned and hearts seized. “Heading one zero three mark four, distance two hundred ten thousand kilometers and closing again at warp nine point six.”

Picard looked at Riker. “Get that probe ready. We’re only going to be able to outdistance them for a little while.”

Riker nodded and got up to see about it.

“Mr. La Forge, Commander Hwiii, well done,” Picard
said. “We have you to thank for getting us home. Unfortunately we now have another problem.”

There was a brief silence. “
They
did
follow us,”
Geordi said.

“They did. We will at least be able to warn Starfleet, however, and pass on to them the information you’ve mastered for us.” All the same, Picard was heartsore. Destroying that ship here would bring down on their home universe the same fate that would have befallen the Empire’s universe.
Not in my lifetime,
he thought bitterly,
but everyone will know at whose door the responsibility for the loss of millions of lives must be laid. Maybe it would have been better to do it there after all.