Chapter 4: Ghost Ship - Part 3

Quivering, Data lay across the Ops panel in a skein of light threads, and his mouth began to work as though by an invisible hand. "Ship ... con ... tact ... con ... kill ... "

"Is he in communication with it?" Picard asked. "Data! Are you in contact? Are you in contact! Data!"

The ship began to settle as the attack stopped. Data slipped down the console and flopped to the floor, catching hold of the console's edge and managing to land on his knees.

Geordi moved to Data and skidded to one knee, giving Data his arm to lean on. Angel knelt down next to Buffy and Dawn before tapping his commbadge. "Medical Emergency on the bridge."

"Shut down all systems!" Picard said at the same moment. "Passive sensors only. Do not hit it with active sensors!"

"Aye, sir, passive sensors," Tasha confirmed.

"Where is it?" Picard demanded.

"Moved off, sir," Worf boomed. "Now hovering approximately two light-years distant. It's not doing anything but just roaming there snapping at us, working some kind of a pattern."

"It's moving?" Angel asked.

"Yes, Admiral. Random turns and coasts along a cube pattern. I think it's looking for us, Captain."

"Ship's status?" Picard scanned the bridge all the way around once.

"Shields drained seventy-nine percent, sir," Worf reported angrily. "Systems blown out all over the ship. Warp drive is down. Communications are out. Sensors are unstable. Most disabled are the shields, and they'll take the longest to recharge."

"Condition of the saucer section?" Picard asked.

"Intact, sir. It was shook up, but not as badly as the bridge and the engineering areas were. Looks to me like it focused on high-energy areas of the ship."

"What was that thing?" Picard asked as he looked at Angel.

Tasha was the one to answer. Though she had thought he meant the attack itself and not the attacker. "Evidently a bombardment of pure antimatter," she said, casting a nervous glance at Geordi and Data, still huddled on the floor. "Engineering reports the thing absorbed the energy from our shields and about half the systems on board, mostly the ones on the outer parts of the ship. The computer core itself is still intact, sir, but I doubt we could stand off another attack of that level."

"Seventy-nine percent drain? I should think not," Riker said. "I never saw such a burst of speed before. What happened? Why did it move off?"

"For the moment," Picard said steadily, "only it knows." He knelt down next to Angel and the two of them lifted the sisters into Troi and his own seat. When Crusher arrived, he directed her to the sisters and stood to one side as she gave them a quick check.

"I should have warned you," Buffy said.

"About what?" Angel wondered.

"The weapons," Buffy said. "When I saw it, I had the feeling that I had seen it before. But couldn't remember. My spidey sense was telling me your weapons would attract it."

"Get then to sickbay," Angel said.

Beverly took the sisters and led them from the bridge.

Angel turned and looked at Picard frowning. "You realize why I ordered …"

"The sensor adjustment," Picard answered with a nod. "It's a ghost."

"Sir?" Tasha looked up from her readout screen.

"Go ahead," Picard said.

"I'm getting analysis from engineering now. The thing's peppered with antimatter, but it isn't made of antimatter alone. When it enveloped the ship, we became a million tiny explosions all over, wherever the bits of antimatter hit the shields. If it had broken through them, we'd-"

"Keep all systems shut down until further notice. Stabilize within that context." Picard said as he and Angel strode toward the Ops position. "Data? You functional?"

"Yes, sir."

"Were you in contact with that thing out there?" Angel asked.

"With something ... Admiral ... conclude that must have been the case ... "

"Anything to report?" Picard wondered.

"Nothing clear, sir; there was no ... no sense to the contact."

"Captain?" Tasha said. "The thing's energy output is up thirty-one percent from before it hit us."

Picard sighed as he looked at Angel. It seemed he was out of his depth. "Admiral, if you…"

"Of course, Captain," Angel replied.

"Admiral?" Tasha said recognizing that Angel was now officially in command of the Enterprise.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Angel replied.

"Admiral, I think our passive sensors might not be working properly. Or I'm not very good at reading them ... " Tasha said.

"Go on," Angel said.

Tasha tilted her head and frowned. "The thing's energy level appears to be slowly dropping. Definitely going down."

"In the thing itself?" Picard wondered.

"Yes, in the thing."

"What's the matter with that?" Picard asked looking at Angel.

"Well, its mass isn't- Worf, can you corroborate this?"

"Checking," Worf rumbled.

"Lieutenant," Angel said. "It's alright. I know that none of you have dealt with the supernatural before Buffy and Dawn's arrival. It's okay to be afraid."

"Thank you, Admiral," Tasha said relieved that Angel was sympathetic to her plight. "The mass isn't changing. And there's no change in the antimatter, and it's not emanating enough energy to account for the drop."

"That's not possible," Picard said. "The energy can't go nowhere. That's a fundamental law of the universe. It has to go somewhere."

"When it comes to the supernatural," Angel said, "the fundamental laws of the universe go out of the window. After all, look at me. I am after all a vampire, remember? According to the fundamental laws of the universe I should not exist."

"Of course, Admiral," Picard said.

"Admiral," Tasha said. "Whatever it is, it tends to phase as we're reading it. Its mass, its total energy- there's almost nothing about it that's constant."

Picard looked at Angel as a thought occurred to him. Why the entity seemed to effect Dawn as well as Buffy. "Admiral, my ready room."

Angel nodded as he and Picard stepped into the ready room.

"There is something that has been left out of my logs about when Buffy and Dawn appeared," Picard said. "The Traveler told me and Buffy something that we were not to repeat to anyone let alone to Wesley Crusher or Dawn. That both of them were gifted. Wesley with propulsion and everything this ship… Anyways he also said that Dawn was gifted when it came to dimensions."

"Because of the Key," Angel said with a nod. "I assume you think our ghost actually maybe somewhat based in the fundamental laws of the universe. That it could be interdimensional."

"Yes, Admiral. It would make sense with what our sensors are showing us that its phasing as if it's…"

"Moving between dimensions," Angel said. "Maybe that thing out there is not a ghost. And it would explain where the energy drain is going. But that would not explain the Soviet people Buffy and Dawn have seen and we ourselves saw on your monitor."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy and Dawn lay on a diagnostic bed in sickbay as Beverly checked them over.

"Doctor?" Picard said as he and Angel walked into sickbay.

"I can't find anything wrong with either of them," Beverly said as she looked at the Captain and Admiral. She then looked back at the sisters who were lying on a pair of diagnostic beds. "That doesn't mean of course that neither of you have been injured."

"Can we get up?" Buffy wondered.

Beverly nodded as she swung the diagnostic shell away from first one sister and then the other and stood back while the Angel and Picard helped them off the tables. Without a pause they led them to a nearby desk and the sisters sat down.

"Dawn," Angel said. "You realized why I ordered the sensor adjustment."

Dawn nodded. "Yeah. You thought it could be a ghost. But I am not sure it is. I felt something, Angel. When the Traveler had me help him, I was sure the Key was gone. But now, I am not as sure. I can feel it out there. I think the Captain is correct that it could be a vessel phasing between dimensions."

"Buffy," Picard said. "Could it be possible that Vasska and his people could be the crew somehow."

"I had wondered that," Buffy answered. "It's possible that if they are ghosts that whatever that thing is, it's trapped them somehow. I don't know."

"Maybe we should attempt to try and talk to them again," Angel mused.

"Admiral," Beverly injected," that requires power. And with what happened with its first attack."

"It could destroy us," Angel said with a nod. "We could wind up just like Vasska and his crew."

"Also let's assume they do answer a hail," Beverly said. "What do we do if they simply will not negotiate with us?"

"A good question, Doctor," Picard said as he looked at Angel. "One neither of us have an answer for, currently."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Worf," Riker said.

"Yes, Commander?" Worf replied.

"The Captain and Admiral will want a report when they get back up here."

"I've been doing a study and Worf's right," Tasha said. "That thing's working a pattern all right, but the pattern does have some random movements in it. It must be designed to be unpredictable."

"It's working out a search that's deliberately hard to evade," Worf added. "It gives us less than a fifty percent chance of escape."

"That's a more-than-fifty percent chance of getting caught," Riker said with a sigh.

"And that's only our certainty level, "Tasha said. "The actual odds could be a lot drearier. "

"I agree," Worf added. "Our odds are dropping with every minute we wait to take action. They won't get better. They'll just get worse. The cage is tightening."

"What if that thing gets an adrenaline surge or something and bites down harder than it did before?" Tasha asked. "Even if we get shields up to power, we might not be able to take it. At least, not like we are now. Not with shields taxed to protect the whole ship, I mean."

"You are suggesting separating the ship," Picard said as he Angel, Buffy and Dawn stepped onto the bridge from the aft turbolift. "Do you have the slightest perception of the danger of your proposal, Lieutenant Yar?"

"Yes, sir. I do," Tasha replied as she glanced at Angel and Picard. "As the ship is, I put our odds for escape at less than fifty percent and shrinking. I've made an analysis of the last attack and it looks like the thing attacked only the high-energy portions of the ship. The warp engine chambers, the high-gain condensers on the weaponry, the sensors, and the shields."

"You think that the saucer section if it was detached," Angel said, "might not attract our friend's attention."

"Yes, Admiral," Tasha replied. "The saucer section's chances of sneaking away on very low impulse power go up to almost ninety percent, especially if we run some power through the stardrive section and distract the thing."

"Not counting any unknown variables," Picard said.

"Correct, sir," Tasha said. "But also, if stardrive doesn't have to put out a shield envelope around the entire saucer section too, we'll be able to pump more power into our shields and maybe withstand another attack. Long enough to fight it, I mean, sir."

"And stardrive's chances of escape in your scenario?"

"Less ... than eighteen percent, sir," Tasha reluctantly replied.

"Captain," Angel said as he motioned toward the ready room.

Picard nodded and they, Buffy and Dawn walked over to the doors and entered.

"What she is suggesting, Admiral," Picard said as he turned to face Angel as soon as the doors closed. "Is worth the risk."

Angel sighed as he sat down on the couch. "I know. It's basically a suicide mission for anyone left in the stardrive section."

"Buffy and I will join the people on the stardrive section," Dawn said. "If that is the plan we are going with. With the fact it effected the both of us."

"Angel," Buffy said. "They want something from us."

Picard looked at Buffy dubiously. "I beg your pardon? Have you been in contact with it again?"

"They want something," Buffy pushed on, "something we can provide for them, or at least something they think we can provide."

"Dawn?" Angel asked.

"I think Buffy may be right," she said, "At the same time based on our scans, she also may not be right."

Picard nodded in agreement. "According to Data it only has a rudimentary intelligence. But here is what I am seeing. What Buffy and Data have said is in conflict. There is some form of intelligence. Something in its very simple programming triggers its actions."

"I have to agree," Angel said. "Our weapons attracted and agitated it."

"We do have to realize that there may be a difference between the hostile and the minds Buffy is sensing," Dawn pointed out.