Cathedral by Michael Mangels (ebook reader color screen txt) 📕

“Meaning we’ll be without replicator technology for the rest of the voyage,” Nog said.

Vaughn appeared to take the news in stride. “It’s a small price to pay if it means restoring our friends. Besides, the cargo bays are adequately stocked with field rations and spare parts. If the plan works, I’m sure that we’re all prepared to ‘rough it’ until we’re back home.” He looked around the room, apparently looking for objections. There were none.

“The whole idea reminds me,” Bowers said, “of the self-replicating mines Starfleet set up outside the wormhole during the war to discourage the Dominion from bringing reinforcements into the Alpha Quadrant.”

Nog swelled with familial pride. Those mines had been conceived by his father, Rom, the year before he became the grand nagus of the Ferengi Alliance.

“That’s partly where I got the idea,” Nog said. “It’s also a natural extension of something I was already researching when we took the Sagan into the Oort cloud in the first place. Originally, I thought that the crystal lattice structures of the cloud’s comet fragments might be used as natural high-bandwidth enhancers for extending the range of our sensor beams. But when we almost collided with the alien artifact, we discovered that those crystalline bodies have another interesting property: Their subspace resonance patterns function like natural cloaking devices. Which is why we were almost right on top of the artifact before we even saw it.”

Shar set aside the padd he’d been studying, his eyebrows and antennae raised in evident admiration of Nog’s plan. “So this cloaking effect should prevent the Nyazen from detecting our away team’s transporter beam as it moves from relay to relay through the Oort cloud.”

“Possibly,” Nog said. “It’s a natural effect, so we can’t count on it working perfectly. But it should cover our tracks well enough to let us slip our away team onto the artifact from extreme range. If we’re lucky, the blockade ships will never even suspect what we’re up to. And we only need to be within transporter range of the first relay station to do it. The other relay stations in the series will take care of the rest of the transport.”

Tenmei looked skeptical. “As long as your figures aren’t off. You’ve got to take into account all of the mutual motions and gravitational interactions of all the comets and planetesimals in that part of the Oort cloud.”

“That was the hardest part,” Nog said, nodding. “But everyone seems to agree that my numbers check out.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said. “But we’re not going to know for sure until a real live away team steps into harm’s way.”

“So the first big question is, Who gets to join this away team?” Bowers said.

“The original Sagan crew, of course,” Vaughn said. “Ezri, the Dax symbiont, Nog, and Dr. Bashir.”

Bowers frowned. “I have to point out that we have no idea what’s inside that artifact. I’d feel more comfortable if some security or tactical personnel were going along. I’m volunteering, by the way.”

“I appreciate that, but no,” Vaughn said in a tone that did not invite debate. “Only the shuttle crew will beam over. I’m not going to put more people at risk.” Bowers subsided, though he still looked unhappy. Nog was mildly surprised to note that Vaughn had apparently taken to heart Sacagawea’s warning that only the original Sagan crew should venture onto the artifact.

On the other hand, what choice does he have but to believe? What choice does any of us have?

“The next big question is,” Ezri said, “Will it work?” Nog thought she sounded remarkably self-possessed. Still, his sensitive lobes detected a trace of well-concealed distress in her voice. He couldn’t help but admire her toughness.

“I am confident that this is going to work,” Nog said, his eyes locked with Ezri’s. “And we can be ready to deploy the first self-replicating transporter relay after Shar and I finish programming the prototype. It’ll take maybe three hours, tops.”

“The procedure is actually somewhat simpler than the mathematics would make it appear,” T’rb said.

“Unless you happen to be one of the people standing on the transporter pad,” Ezri parried gently. “Nog’s plan calls for the transporter relays to be beamed ahead of the away team by just a second or two. That’s pretty slim timing.”

“If we don’t beam the relays out at essentially the same time as we send the away team,” Shar pointed out, “the Nyazen ships are much likelier to discover what we’re trying to do and launch an attack before we can carry off the mission.”

“But it’s risky,” Ezri said. “The only test of the transporter relay series will be in actual use.”

Shar nodded, conceding her point. “I admit that there is a…nonzero possibility that one of the relays might fail during operation, or that the transporter beam carrying either a relay or the away team might be diffracted or scattered by the internal crystalline structure of one of the Oort cloud bodies. Either of those eventualities, of course, would immediately kill the away team. Also, if any of our coordinate lock calculations contain errors—”

“Just how much of a ‘nonzero possibility’are we talking about here?” Tenmei wanted to know.

Shar’s antennae were nearly flat against his head. Nog knew he hated to be pinned down like that, with so many chaotic variables at play.

“If I were a betting man,” Nog said, answering first, “I’d lay odds of seventeen or eighteen in twenty in favor of our surviving the process.” The riskier the road, the greater the profit.

“I agree,” Shar said.

Vaughn sat in silence, mulling it all over. He didn’t look happy with the odds, as good as they were. For a moment, Nog feared that he was about to be sent back to the drawing board again. Vaughn appeared to be about to speak—

—when Nog realized all at once that he was elsewhere. He was outside, standing on a city street, a warm rain running down his face. He looked up into the darkening sky and saw