Scotty's sad eyes locked with Reg's eyes, and bored deep into his soul. "Ye're a lot smarter than you usually get credit for, especially from yourself." He nodded slowly. "There's something in what you say. On both counts."

Scotty gave Reg the most rea.s.suring smile he could muster and turned back to the group. "There's something that we haven't thought about yet, with the universe intersecting with itself here. How can the larger part that's trapped inside the smaller part stay that way? Wouldn't the smaller part rupture?" He had their attention now. "Sooner or later it has to. So far I'm thinking that each part of the universe, when scanned from the other side, is compressed more densely into a smaller s.p.a.ce. That's why they're both reading as those incredible ma.s.ses, because the sensors are trying to cope with the amount of universe on the other side of the manifold."

He made quick diagrams with his hands. "Eventually the smaller bubble of the universe won't be able to hold the rest of it. The main part of the universe won't be able to be compressed any further, and the smaller part will be ruptured." The movement of his hands to ill.u.s.trate this was all too simple and brutal, his hands coming apart, fingers splayed.

"That sounds apocalyptic," Savar said.

"Aye, and it gets worse. There's no way to tell which half is which."

"What?"

"All we can know with the level of technology we've achieved is that a sizable percentage of the universe will be torn apart by the impact of the rest of it. It could be this piece of it right here, or it could be the half we came from."

Everyone remained silent. Scotty continued, "I do have a scheme that I'm pretty b.l.o.o.d.y sure will set things to rights, but it will require the . . . well, the sacrifice of the Challenger Challenger. And without another ship to replace her, that leaves us-"

"Up a certain minor tributary without an appropriate implement," Savar said.

"Not exactly the way I would phrase it, but close enough."

La Forge was asleep when Vol woke him up with a call. "Guv! I mean Captain!" "Guv! I mean Captain!"

"Vol?"

"I've received a signal from the away team, skip. They're okay. Well, apart from one of the Romulans. Anyway, they also have forty-seven survivors of the Hera!" Hera!"

Geordi shot bolt upright. "Is my mother-?"

"Sorry sir, but no."

"All right. Call the senior staff to the bridge."

He and Leah dressed quickly, and were on the bridge in two minutes.

"We have contact with the away team," Carolan said as she rose from the center seat. "Audio only."

"Put them on."

"Captain La Forge!" A cheery Scottish brogue called out. A cheery Scottish brogue called out.

"Scotty! What happened to you?"

"That's a long story, Geordi. And it'll have to wait, because I've got a job for you, Leah, and Vol, and it's more important than you can imagine." He explained about the situation with the two bubble sections of the universe. He explained about the situation with the two bubble sections of the universe. "We need to restore the Klein bottle of two bubble universe Mobius strips back into being one universal Mobius strip." "We need to restore the Klein bottle of two bubble universe Mobius strips back into being one universal Mobius strip."

"You want to re-engineer the universe itself?"

"What we need to do to put things right is to remove the intersection. We have to collapse the toroidal continuum fold."

La Forge could see the flaw immediately. "The first problem is going to be actually accessing the fold. Whichever side we're on, the fold is on the other side. Which means we need something that can contain both sides of the fold at the same time . . . Oh no. You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"

La Forge could d.a.m.n well hear hear Scotty's roguish grin. Scotty's roguish grin. "I'd like to think I am." "I'd like to think I am."

"The Challenger Challenger's warp field."

"We extend the shields around and through the Hera Hera to their maximum extent, and then generate a static warp sh.e.l.l just within the inner limits of the shield." to their maximum extent, and then generate a static warp sh.e.l.l just within the inner limits of the shield."

"But if the other side of the fold is on a planetary surface-"

"If we put enough power into the shield extension it'll go up to a hundred kilometers above the surface."

"A hundred kilometers is more than enough of a corridor to fly a ship through."

"A rescue party, d'ye mean? I doubt Challenger Challenger herself could stand the strain, but if there's another ship available . . ." herself could stand the strain, but if there's another ship available . . ."

"Some of Sela's friends have arrived."

"More Romulans?"

"Yes. For the moment, they seem to be willing to help."

"Maybe your friend Sela thinks she owes us one. Which doesn't sound very Romulan to me, but I'll take all the help we can get."

"Well, there are Romulans in the away team. At the very least they would want to rescue them."

La Forge stood outside the door to the quarters that he hoped were still occupied by Sela. She said she would remain on board for any future conversations that Guinan might have with the aliens. It had occurred to Qat'qa that Sela might try to steal the modified neural scanner, so she had armed guards outside sickbay.

He kept pressing the b.u.t.ton for the chime until, after several minutes, Sela opened it. There were two uniformed Romulan guards inside as well. La Forge eyed them but said nothing. The chairman of the Tal Shiar was a position that demanded loyal guards.

"This is an unexpected pleasure, Captain. Do come in."

"There's . . ." He hesitated. If there was anyone he would be less keen to ask this of, La Forge had no idea who it could be. "I know we have some issues . . ."

"You have."

"Yes, dammit, I have! Kidnapping, brainwashing . . . you having that face-"

"This face."

"That face belongs on another person. A good Starfleet officer. A friend."

"I am a good officer, Captain," she said with surprising mildness.

La Forge took a deep breath to steady himself. "I have a responsibility to my crew, even to the members of your your crew on the ship or away team." crew on the ship or away team."

"I understand, Captain. Believe me, I was dismayed that a Federation ship answered our distress call. But I am still grateful that you came."

"I'd like to ask for Challenger Challenger's crew to be evacuated to Tomalak's Fist." Tomalak's Fist."

"Is that all?" She seemed amused.

"No, I lost my mother too. And, maybe, if I'd been quicker to realize-to find out what had happened, I'd have been able to look for the right things. If I'd done that, maybe we'd have found the Hera Hera in time. If I'd done that, maybe she'd still be alive." in time. If I'd done that, maybe she'd still be alive."

"Maybe. But who can say?"

"What I'm saying is . . . I can't pretend to know how you feel about what you did as a child. I can't pretend to know how much stronger a Romulan's emotions are. But I do know that somewhere, on some level, we both wonder what might have been."

"I didn't lose my mother, as you put it," Sela replied. "I killed her, by scre-by alerting the guards when she tried to take me from my father."

"You didn't kill your mother by yelling out when you thought you were going to lose your father," said La Forge. "He maybe killed her, because he had to. In the end, politics politics killed her. Someday they'll kill you." killed her. Someday they'll kill you."

"And you. You're telling me you killed your mother by not finding a clue in time? That's guilt."

"Yes it is. It's guilt because I miss her."

"I don't miss my mother. She was human, she was Starfleet-"

"If you don't miss her, then why do you feel guilty about her being gone?"

"I don't."

"Then what makes you think you were responsible?"

Sela closed her eyes for a moment. "Let's go talk to Varaan."

"We have a plan to retrieve the survivors of the U.S.S. Hera U.S.S. Hera, and also recover the away team, made up of a mix of Starfleet personnel and Romulan personnel."

Varaan gave La Forge a thin half-smile, but no more than that. "I was under the impression that the away team was now in a remote part of the universe. It all sounded rather final. Unless you're simply engaging in a morale-boosting exercise." "I was under the impression that the away team was now in a remote part of the universe. It all sounded rather final. Unless you're simply engaging in a morale-boosting exercise."

Sela turned from where she was looking out of a viewport at the alien vessels back to the comm. "I hate to admit such a thing, Varaan, but I-and the Tal Shiar-will vouch for La Forge having the ability to do the things he says he intends to do. And Captain Scott is . . ."

"Oh, the Miracle Worker. I had no idea he was still in the Starfleet."

La Forge stepped into the comm pickup. "We've already been able to discuss it over a communications link and we both agree it's our best hope."

"Hope isn't a strategy I can use. If you have something practical to say, go ahead, but I don't need the Federation propaganda speech."

"I need you to bring Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist closer to closer to Challenger Challenger and and Hera Hera. We'll extend our shields around your ship and through the Hera Hera, and then create a static warp sh.e.l.l within the extension. That way we'll have a single field on both sides of the spatial fold, and it'll expand into that s.p.a.ce. We'll then drop shields, but keep the static warp sh.e.l.l in the same configuration. That'll mean you can fly through the fold and into orbit somewhere between around seventy and a hundred kilometers above the surface."

"That's treetop-skimming in a ship the size of ours."

"If your helmsman isn't sure about it, I'm perfectly willing to lend you mine."

Varaan grunted. "Once I'm through, what then?" "Once I'm through, what then?"

"You should have no problem beaming up the survivors from the surface. You should then be able to fly back through that hundred-kilometer fold, to where we are now. How much capacity does Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist have?" have?"

"It was designed for long-range scouting missions, but her interior s.p.a.ce is larger than that of Challenger. Challenger. What is your crew complement? I understand the typical What is your crew complement? I understand the typical Galaxy- Galaxy-cla.s.s complement is around fourteen hundred."

"We have six hundred and five people right now."

"And the Hera's Hera's survivors?" survivors?"

"Forty-seven."

"We have the room."

Three hours later Geordi and Leah were walking in the half-gravity through a near-empty ship. Carolan had supervised the transport of the crew to Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist. The energy budget was less of a problem without the need to move the ship or support the crew.

Qat'qa had put the ship firmly in the required position, and engaged automated station-keeping systems before evacuating the ship. Doctor Ogawa and Guinan had taken the neural scanner and makeshift communications setup with them, to where a Romulan named Saldis was installing it on their ship.

Only Vol was left, down in engineering, setting up the static warp sh.e.l.l.

"Originally I didn't want to come aboard," Geordi reflected, "and now I'm going to miss her."

"Me too. I built her, and now I'm going to kill her."

"You're not going to kill her. Not personally. You're going to see her off."

"Yes. The Galaxy Galaxy-cla.s.s was designed to last for a hundred years, you know."

"I know."

"She's had such a short life."

"We all do," Geordi said softly.

"Who gets to extend the shields?"

"I do."

She stopped, and looked at him closely. "Don't get any funny ideas about going down with the ship."

"Not a chance."

She kissed him, hoping it wasn't going to be the last time. "I'll see you on the Romulan ship."

La Forge stood alone at the tactical console, one of the few systems still running. This would be the second Galaxy- Galaxy-cla.s.s ship he had lost.

On the main viewer, Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist loomed large, the raptor-like head of the command section appearing to peer into the loomed large, the raptor-like head of the command section appearing to peer into the Challenger Challenger through the viewscreen. through the viewscreen.

"Vol," he said, "are you ready?"

"Hot to trot, Guv."

"Varaan?"

"When you give the word, Captain La Forge."