"Phasers armed and locked on target."
"Mr. Blair, inform the transporter room
that you and I will be beaming down to planet surface
within two minutes. Attention Chance," Data
continued, raising his voice and thereby activating the
comm link. "Our phasers are armed and locked on
you. Unless you respond immediately, we will be forced,
in this state of emergency, to fire on you.
Acknowledge or suffer attack. Acknowledge."
The intership radio crackled to life immediately.
"Enterprise," came an irritated
gravelly voice, "this is Captain Tennant
of the Chance. What in hell do you think you're
playing at?"
"I believe," responded Data, "that the
same could be asked of you, Captain."
"We're simply obeying orders," shot
back Tennant, "as part of a confidential
mission, the contents of which I am not at
liberty to disclose. Not even to one of the flagship
vessels of the fleet."
"Disclosing them would be pointless," Data said.
"I have no doubt that they are utter fabrication.
I would assume radio silence is one of those
orders. One moment, please." Data turned
to Margolin. "Are we within range of the Forever World
yet?"
"Yes, sir."
"Raise them ... Captain Tennant,"
Data continued the first conversation, "am I
correct about the assumption of radio silence?"
"Yes, you are. And to be blunt, I'm
jeopardizing the safety of that mission by conversing with
you. But with the safety of my crew on the line, I
decided to acknowledge your hail, in direct
contradiction of my orders."
"Excellent judgment, Captain," said
Data calmly. "Am I also correct in
assuming that Admiral Riker is not there?"
"That is correct. He beamed down to the
surface fifteen minutes ago. He told us
to maintain orbit and radio silence."
"That does not surprise me."
"Sir," said Margolin, "we're unable
to raise anyone on the surface."
"That also does not surprise me.
Transporter room, can you lock on any
life-forms on the surface? If so, I want
them all beamed up immediately."
There was a pause as the transporter chief
ran a quick scan. Then her voice came over the
comm: "Negative, bridge. Readings are too
sketchy. If someone is down there and gives us
coordinates, that's not a problem. But as it is,
I'd be afraid to try and lock on and bring
something up. I might get nothing at all, or
maybe a puddle of protoplasm. There's no
predicting without solid confirmation."
"Very well. Mr. Blair," said Data, "with
me."
Data crossed quickly to the turbolift,
Blair right behind him. Almost as an afterthought,
Data called out, "Chance ... maintain
position. We will inform you if there is anything you can
do."
"Enterprise, would you mind telling us what's
going on?" came the voice of Captain
Tennant. "Admiral Riker said that we were being
commandeered as part of a top-secret mission
for Starfleet. He even had orders--"
"I'm sure he did," said Data. "I
assure you, however, they were forged. You are on a
mission, Chance ... but it's not on behalf of
Starfleet. It's on behalf of Admiral
Riker."
"What? What in hell is this about,
Enterprise?"
"Don't concern yourself about it, Captain
Tennant. Whether the admiral's mission
succeeds or not ... either way, you'll never know.
Enterprise out." And then he cut the
transmission rather than waste more time.
After all, the entire conversation might end up
being moot.
When Data and Blair arrived on the
planet's surface, they discovered precisely
what they thought they would find.
The bodies of the scientists were scattered about.
A quick inspection revealed that they were alive, but
a small hand unit ... perhaps several ... on his
person. He'd done it in such a way that
Tennant hadn't known ... otherwise he'd
certainly have let Enterprise know about it.
What tissue of lies had Riker constructed?
Data wondered as he and Blair quickly made
their way across the compound. Sindareen scheme?
Romulan incursion? Or perhaps the Ferengii were
up to their old tricks? There was no end to the
possibilities that an inventive mind could
conjure, and Riker's mind was as inventive as
anyone's.
Data scanned the entire area and came to an
immediate realization. "Mary Mac is not here."
"Which means--"
"She's with him," concluded Data. "Odds are
it's an unwilling accompaniment."
Above them the air swirled and crackled, and more
than once lightning lanced across the sky. Data
felt forces gathering around him, as if some
massive, insane celestial experiment were in the
works.
Quickly they ran through the compound, small bits of
dirt and rock swirling around in whirlpools that
moved, Data noticed, in opposite
directions from one another. Somehow that seemed
perfectly in keeping with the rest of the environment.
"He's crazy," Blair was
muttering. "He's completely crazy."
"No, Mr. Blair," Data replied,
speeding up slightly. "He's not crazy at
all. He's merely determined, and certain he
is doing the right thing."
The wind grew louder, and Blair raised his
voice. "And what if he is? How do we know for
sure?"
"We don't. But we cannot take the chance."
They raced to the top of an outcropping. Far,
far in the distance, the ruins of the city were still there, as
silent and unproviding of information as they had ever
been. There below them was the Guardian of Forever.
The protective force field surrounding it was
intact.
Riker, however, was on the inside.
So was Mary Mac. He had a firm grip
on her wrist, but now she was struggling with the
fierceness of her Orion heritage. Her teeth
were bared, her fingernails flashing. Riker had been
holding a tricorder, but it had clattered to the
ground. Data saw that Riker needed both hands
to keep off her savage onslaught.
She was shouting something that even Data, with his
supersensitive hearing, couldn't make out over the
howling of the winds. And then Data also saw, on the
large screen that had been erected nearby the
Guardian, events being played out that were
horribly familiar. There was Deanna Troi,
on the floor of her quarters, writhing and gasping,
and a terrified and confused Commander Riker leaning
over her, looking more helpless than he ever had in
his life. On the ground near
by, the fallen
tricorder continued to record the information with
precision.
Data gestured for Blair to follow and the two
Starfleet officers made their way quickly down
toward the Guardian.
Mary Mac swung Riker's arm around and
clamped down with her teeth. Riker howled in pain
and slammed her in the face with as hard a punch as
he could remember ever using. Mary Mac released
her grip and staggered, wiping at the blood
trickling down her mouth.
"You'll destroy everything!" she shouted.
"This "everything"' has no right to be!"
"You're not the one to make that decision!"
"Wrong! I'm the only one!"
She leaped at him again, a feral
snarl ripping from her throat. Riker ducked and
she sailed over him, and he stood quickly, catching
her in midlunge. Before she could make a
countermove, he deliberately threw himself
backward and body-slammed her to the ground. He
twisted quickly around while she was stunned and, giving
it everything he had, slugged her on the side of the
head. The green-skinned woman's eyes rolled
up into the back of her head, and she went limp.
Quickly Riker felt under her chin and checked her
pulse. He wasn't entirely sure what was
normal for an Orion, but this felt strong and
firm. Good enough.
He grabbed his fallen tricorder and forced himself
to be dispassionate as he programmed it.
Carefully, he began to calibrate the
tricorder to the enlarged screen designed
specifically to display the Guardian's readouts.
The tricorder would be able to measure the speed of the
Guardian's actual display against the
time-delayed playback of specific moments as
depicted on the screen. Once it was all fed in
and cross-programmed, the tricorder would be able
to tell him exactly when to jump through the portal.
There would still be no guarantee of 100 percent
accuracy. But it was the only shot that Riker had.
His determination was to try to leap through as close to the
actual event as possible. He knew that the
longer he was back in the Enterprise
1701-D, the more chance he had of affecting things
he wanted to leave alone. So he had to bring himself
as near to Deanna's death as he could without missing
it ... while leaving himself enough time to do something about it.
His fingers flew over the tricorder's
controls, cross-referencing the two displays.
He programmed in, basically, a countdown.
When the correct moment was approaching, a small
green light on the tricorder would snap on. The
moment that happened, Riker had to leap through
precisely five seconds later ... a
built-in delay factor, as he had
calculated how long the actual, physical
act of taking two steps forward and jumping through would
require.
"Guardian!" he shouted. "The display I just
witnessed--on my mark, begin again. Three ...
two ... one ... now!"
Images began to coruscate across the face
of the Guardian of Forever. The same dizzying
blur that Riker had seen before. The
primary command had been simple: Riker had
asked to see the history of the Enterprise. The
Guardian had proceeded to show it--except that the
display had begun with the first event that the Guardian
had considered to be instrumental to the creation of the
mighty starship. Unfortunately for Riker, that
event had been the invention of fire. Images of
beings that were barely recognizable as ancestors of
humanity, clustered around a small pile of
sparking wood, was hardly what Riker needed.
Fortunately enough, the Guardian was renowned
for its speed. In an eyeblink Riker witnessed
the creation of the wheel, the development of tools.
They were wonders that, under other circumstances,
Riker would have been spellbound to witness. As it
was, he was merely impatient to get past them.
The tricorder's programming had brought it on
line as soon as the Guardian began the
playback. It hummed along silently, matching
and timing the display. Inside its circuitry, the
countdown had begun.
Riker patted the vial that he had hidden in his
jacket.
"Admiral!" came the shout from behind him.
Riker spun, and he saw Blair and Data
approaching. For a moment he was startled and even
frightened that they would stop him when he was so near
to his goal ... and that he would never get another
opportunity. But then he remembered the force
screen that was serenely in place. "It won't do
any good, Dataffwas Riker called. "My
mind's made up!"
Data and Blair came to a halt just on the
other side of the force field. Blair's thick
fur was blown this way and that in the fierce windstorm
that surrounded them. Data called out, "Is Mary
Mac all right?"
Riker checked the Guardian. Leonardo da
Vinci was stroking his chin thoughtfully, studying his
designs for a primitive flying machine.
"She's fine, Data! She was less than
cooperative when I forced her, at phaser
point, to open up the forcefield. I told her
I'd just stun her and used her handprint and retina
pattern even if she was semiconscious. She
chose to remain conscious, hoping that she could talk
me out of this. And when she realized she couldn't, she
seized a moment when I was distracted and tried
to take me out. Damn near did, too," he
said, rubbing the back of his neck
ruefully.
"Admiral, you must turn away from this
destructive course."
Riker glanced back at the Guardian.
Alexander Graham Bell was just informing Watson
that he needed him, and in an overlapping image,
Thomas Edison was staring in wonderment at the
glowing light in front of him.
"I'm going to save her, Data! For forty
years, I've been eaten up by the thought that I should
have done something! She begged me to ... I
promised that I would, and then all I did was stand
there and watch her die!"
"She wouldn't have wanted this, Admiral!
You're risking everything!"
"Don't you remember, Data?" called
back Riker. "The name of James Kirk's
autobiography?"
Data needed only a moment to recall it.
"It was entitled Risk Is Our
Business."
"Damn right! I owe Deanna nothing less
than to try everything! You hear me, Data?
Nothing less!"
"Admiral, if you do not come out of there immediately,
I shall order the Enterprise to open fire and use
ship's phasers to penetrate the force field! You
may very well be destroyed if that happens!"
"And the Guardian might be as well!" shouted
back Riker. He took a step toward the t
ime
gate. Seconds before, a Saturn Very
rocket had been lifting off. Now Zephram
Cochrane was about to activate the first warp drive
unit. "Would you do that, Data? Would you risk
destroying the Guardian? Don't you see,
Data? You've longed to understand humanity! You've
longed for a soul! Well, Mr. Data--the
Guardian is the resting place of all the souls,
throughout all time! It's God's window on
eternity! Who are you to destroy it?"
Andwith icy calm, Data replied, "I have
already contacted Starfleet, Admiral. Their
orders were very specific. Protect the time
stream, no matter what. Deanna Troi must
die ... and if it takes the destruction of
God's window, then who better, Admiral,
to assume that responsibility? After all ...
I am not one of God's creatures." And
Data angled his head upward and said,
"Enterprise ... target the shielding
directly in front of me. On my command ...
fire."
"Don't do it, Mr. Dataffwas called
Riker with genuine pleading in his voice. "Don't
kill Deannaffwas
"I did not kill her, Admiral. But if
maintaining the integrity of the space-time continuum were
at stake, I would take her life with my own
hands. I would derive no satisfaction from it.
Indeed, the counselor was as dear to me in my own
way as she is to you in yours. But I am prepared
to accept that her death is a requirement in the
natural order of things, and to preserve that order,
I will do whatever I have to do."
Data had spoken with certainty and a sense of
implacable decision. And Riker knew that lines
had been drawn. "So will I, Mr. Data."
"Enterprise," said Data tonelessly.
"Fire."
From orbit, the mighty phasers of the
Enterprise cut loose. They struck the force
field directly above Riker's head. The force
field sparked and shimmered under the barrage,
resisting the power of the weapons.
It was the strongest force field that Federation
technology had to offer ... on par with the
deflector shields of the Enterprise herself.
Furthermore, the Forever World had been equipped
with its own heavy-duty defense array,
protected by similar shields. If a hostile
vessel had shown up, the scientists below could very
easily have given a very formidable accounting of themselves
--in all likelihood, blowing the attacking
ship out of orbit.
But the Chance had not been a hostile vessel,
and the renowned and esteemed Adm. William t.