Chapter Two.

AS A MATTER OF REFLEX, Commander Riker turned his head and shut his eyes at the brilliant flash on the main viewscreen. A moment later, he remembered that the effort was unnecessary-the optical system automatically filtered out dangerously bright light, Willing his eyes to stay open, Riker saw the nearest portion of the doughnut-shaped s.p.a.ce station enveloped in a long pulse of blue-white light. It was as if the initial flash of energy was frozen in place for long seconds.

"Riker to shuttlecraft. Come in, Mr. Worf."

No response.

"Riker to Picard."

"No response to hails, sir," Data reported.

d.a.m.n, the first officer thought. "Sensors, Mr. Data? Can you get a fix on the shuttle?"

The android shook his head almost imperceptibly. "No, sir, too much interference from the power surge."

Riker watched the station, its nearest segment awash in light, and felt completely and utterly useless to his captain and crewmates on the away team-who, for all he knew ...

And then there was a momentary flicker in the cloud of light that hung around the station. After a moment, Riker was sure, the light was dimming.

"Power levels dropping," announced Data.

The first officer could see that for himself. The nimbus of light and energy quickly dulled to a haze and then disappeared, leaving the affected part of the station with small points of light emanating from the windows.

"Station power at nominal levels," Data said.

"Any sign of the away team?" Riker asked anxiously.

The android manipulated the controls at the ops station for a moment. "Yes. I have located the shuttle, and I am receiving life-form readings from within." The exec heard Troi let out a breath of relief beside him.

"However," Data went on, "shuttle communications and propulsion are out."

Riker got up. "Throw a tractor beam around the shuttle. I'll meet it in bay three." Making his way to the turbolift, he noticed that Deanna was right behind him. They didn't speak a word as they entered the compartment, but they didn't need to. The counselor wore her concern on her sleeve, and the first officer knew he was no harder to read than she was.

The ride seemed interminably long, though Riker knew it was really only seconds. Then the doors opened and he practically sprinted to the landing area, just as the shuttle was being brought through the forcefield that separated the shuttle bay from the vacuum of s.p.a.ce.

A quick glance told him what he needed to know. The shuttle was completely dark inside and out. That meant power had been knocked out completely. Still if they hadn't been hurt by the blast, the away team would be fine; even without life-support, a shuttle would be safe for at least an hour.

The craft touched down with the help of the bay tractor beams. The moment it touched the deck, Riker nodded to the two waiting technicians. The men fixed a capacitor to the shuttle next to the door and hit the switch.

The door slid open and Worf was outside almost instantly, face-to-face with the first officer.

"We were unable to retrieve the captain," the Klingon snapped. Riker could see the frustration in his scowl.

Geordi came out next, no less frustrated. "He was caught behind a bulkhead door in the station, sir. The shuttle's emergency transporters got to us, but couldn't reach him."

"Commander," Worf interjected. "Request permission to take another shuttle immediately to effect rescue. If we act quickly, we may be able to avoid the next power surge."

Riker hit his communicator. "Data, do sensors show the captain on board the station?"

There was a brief pause as they awaited the android's reply.

"Negative," Data answered at last.

Riker cursed inwardly. "Any life signs at all?"

"Negative," the android replied again.

Looking at Worf, the first officer didn't need to guess how the security chief felt, because he felt the same way himself. d.a.m.ned useless.

The swish of the opening door broke Geordi's concentration. He looked up from his work to see Counselor Troi entering with Lieutenant Barclay in tow. They approached the engineering console where Geordi and Data were working.

To the engineering chief's surprise, Barclay spoke first. "Sir, I'd like to help with the a.n.a.lysis."

Geordi was taken aback. He hadn't expected the counselor to put Barclay back on duty so quickly, if at all. The man had had his ups and downs on the Enterprise, and when he panicked on board the alien station, Geordi felt all of the old doubts about Barclay's future in Starfleet rearing up again.

Over the past couple of years, Geordi had watched as Barclay overcame what had once seemed like crippling self-doubt. And to his surprise, he had come to like the tall, thin engineer.

However, that didn't mean Barclay was cut out for starship duty. As much as Geordi didn't like to admit it, there was a very good chance that the young officer wouldn't recover from the day's events-at least not enough to remain in the Fleet.

But one look at the counselor told the chief engineer that she approved of the idea. Otherwise, she would have approached Geordi in private later.

Without further thought, he said, "Sure, Reg. We could use a fresh pair of eyes."

Turning to the main engineering console, he pointed to the data streaming across the terminal. "We're trying to build a computer model of what happened on the station, using records from the Enterprise and shuttlecraft sensors as well as the limited tricorder readings we took on board. Commander Data can bring you up to speed."

Geordi then turned his attention to Deanna. "Counselor, if you have a moment?" he asked.

Troi nodded, and the engineer led her into his office. Inside, he didn't waste a second.

"Counselor," he asked, "do you really think Barclay is ready for duty? I a.s.sume he told you what happened on the station."

"Yes," she replied. "He said he panicked when Mr. Varley was killed, and failed to respond to orders. He feels responsible... ."

"Look," La Forge interjected. "I don't have time to hold his hand right now. I've lost one of my staff and the captain is missing. I can't take any chances on Barclay falling apart."

The counselor kept her voice conversational. "Geordi, you've said more than once that Barclay often has good insights."

"Yes, but-"

"And," Troi added, "I'm not suggesting that you subject him to any pressure or make him part of another away mission. I'm merely hoping that you will make use of Barclay as a resource, just as you would have if today hadn't happened. It may help the investigation. And it would certainly help Lieutenant Barclay."

Geordi felt a response rising up in his throat, but he knew there was no sense behind it-only frustration. "Okay," the engineer said finally, "you're right." Nodding, he secured control of his emotions. "Right now," he admitted, "I can use all the help I can get."

Riker drummed his fingers on the conference-room table. d.a.m.n it, he hated waiting around at a time like this. '

He tapped his communicator. "Lieutenant Burke, this is Commander Riker. Any change on the station?"

"No, sir. No change in power levels." And then the answer to the question the first officer hadn't asked. "And no life signs."

d.a.m.n.

Moments later, Geordi, Data, and Barclay filed into the room, with Beverly Crusher, Deanna, and Worf right behind them. They were right on time-early, actually. Riker nodded his approval. Until they knew the captain's status for certain, they would have to a.s.sume that every minute counted.

He turned immediately to Geordi. "What have you come up with?"

The chief engineer got up and walked over to the monitor at the front of the room. "Computer, replay station simulation one."

Immediately, the station appeared on the screen. It was already bright with light from the inside, as flashes of energy pulsed through a portion of the exterior structure.

"This," Geordi continued, "is the station's status at the moment when the away team reached the airlock-and the captain was locked out. And here is the shuttle's approach." He pointed out the small ship's trajectory. "This is also about where ship's sensors lost the landing party completely."

The engineer went on as the screen focused on the slightly raised airlock door. "Worf was able to get us out through the opening airlock, but there was still too much interference to even get a reading on the captain. A moment later, the shuttle's sensors got a flash of life signs when the inner door to the airlock opened."

Riker leaned forward. "If that's the case, then Captain Picard should've been thrown into s.p.a.ce."

"True," Geordi allowed, touching the screen's controls and turning it blank. "And that's what the shuttle's sensors seem to indicate was happening. But the interference went up exponentially here, and the shuttle lost its shaky sensor contact. It seems, though, that the captain was not ejected into s.p.a.ce. Instead, he simply ... disappeared."

The first officer didn't hesitate to ask the next question, even though he dreaded the answer. "Is there any chance that the captain was ... disintegrated by the energy fluctuation?"

Geordi shook his head slowly. "It's possible, but ... I don't think so. All known methods of disintegration leave certain particle traces and electromagnetic signatures. The signatures we found here were entirely different. The closest a.n.a.logy we can make is a super-high-energy transporter field with a strong subs.p.a.ce component."

"A transporter?" Riker asked.

The engineer nodded. "That would be consistent with some of our early a.n.a.lyses of the station's technology. A lot of it seems dedicated to sophisticated and very powerful transporter circuits."

Worf was scowling. "But sensors would have indicated if the captain had transported to any other site on the station."

"That's just it," Geordi said. "We think he transported off the station-far off the station."

Riker found himself vacillating between outright disbelief and budding hope. "But ... there's nowhere to go. The nearest planet is light-years away."

The engineer shrugged. "The station had built up enough energy to transport the captain's ma.s.s much farther than that. There's something else, too." He paused a moment. "There was a subs.p.a.ce component to that energy. Which makes it possible that the captain was transported through time as well."

Riker heard Beverly gasp. "Is that possible?" he asked.

Geordi grunted. "We couldn't do it. But then again, we couldn't have built that station either."

"All right," the exec conceded. "But why, after thousands of years, did the station activate now?"

Geordi took his seat. "I think our transporter beams interacted with the station's systems and activated them somehow."

Riker nodded. "Then if we're operating on the a.s.sumption that all of this is possible ... where is the captain? And can we use their equipment to bring him back?"

The engineer sighed. "Difficult to say. Even if we could get it going, we wouldn't know where to look." He turned and addressed the computer. "Computer, run Picard parameters one."

A three-dimensional star chart appeared with a glowing dot in the middle, surrounded by a large, shaded circle, inside of which were a huge number of stars.

Geordi continued. "By a.n.a.lyzing the power curve and compensating for the captain's ma.s.s, we can make a pretty good guess about the range of the alien transporter. It's about one and one half sectors and sometime in the last three hundred years. Of course, the closer the final spatial destination is to the station, the further through time the captain would have been transported-and vice versa."

Riker considered the star chart. "Is there any chance the captain could have been transported into the future?"

The engineer shook his head. "No. Not according to our a.n.a.lysis of the subs.p.a.ce transporter circuits. If he was transported through time at all, it would have been into the past."

"So we've got a search on our hands?" Riker asked.

"A pretty big one, sir," Geordi replied.

The first officer nodded. "Mr. La Forge, if the Enterprise executes the search, can you get the alien transporter going well enough to retrieve the captain from the past-if that's where he is?"

Geordi thought for a moment in silence. "Given a little time, I think I could figure it out."

"Would going back to the station be safe?" Riker asked.

The engineer hesitated again. "a.s.suming we went over by shuttle instead of by transporter, I think we could avoid setting off the equipment. Power is building up again on the station, but it's happening very slowly. We'd have plenty of time to get off if there was any trouble."

Riker bit the inside of his mouth. "All right. Prepare a team and the equipment you'll need. Just make sure you take every possible safety precaution."

He turned to Data. "How many star systems are in the search area?"

"One hundred and seventy-four, sir," said the android. "Of course, we should be able to eliminate most of those as uninhabitable. But before we continue, I should point out that given the size of even a single sector, the chances that the captain was transported to a planet, let alone a habitable one, are ..." Data hesitated for a moment as he performed his calculations. "Very remote indeed."

Riker's hopes fell.

"Hold on, Data," Geordi said. "Don't forget the aliens who built the station had life support requirements similar to ours. They probably had safety devices to prevent the transport signal from depositing a living being anywhere but on a habitable world."

But the android wasn't satisfied with that response. "We have already observed that many of the station's systems, including some of its safety routines, were not functioning. We have no reason to believe-"

The first officer cut him short. "Mr. Data," he said. "It is my firm belief that Captain Picard is on a cla.s.s M world somewhere in this sector. Any other situation would be unacceptable. We will search every possible system until we find him. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the android replied evenly.

Riker cleared his throat. "Then the only remaining question is how quickly we can execute the search. Mr. Data?"

"I will have to actually plot the search pattern to be certain," the android told him. "But I would estimate at least ten days to two weeks."

"And we've got less than one week," Geordi muttered.

The first officer stood up, ending the meeting. "Then we had better get lucky and find him before it's up."

Leaving the meeting, Geordi was already making a list in his head: portable generators, portable computer, diagnostic kit, subs.p.a.ce transmitter, and general food and supplies for as much as a few weeks.

He entered the turbolift with Beverly, Troi, and Barclay. No one said a word, which gave Geordi a chance to work out the logistics of his mission.

The makeup of the team ... that was a problem. It wouldn't pay to take very many of his people with him. They'd just be tripping over each other. Besides, he wanted to minimize the number of people he exposed to risk.

Earlier, he had held a brief staff meeting to tell the crew about Varley's death. His people were professionals, but the chief engineer knew the news had taken its toll on his staff. Undoubtedly, they were nervous: Well, he certainly could understand that. The idea of spending an extended period back on the station gave him the creeps, too.