Regardless, when Vaughn scheduled a technical briefing for the senior staff at 0800 the next morning, Nog felt that he was ready, his fears and misgivings notwithstanding.
Nog strode into the mess hall, where Vaughn, Ezri, and Shar were arranging themselves around the room’s largest table. Also present was Dr. Bashir, who sat with his hands folded in his lap, conspicuously silent amid the low conversational murmur that filled the room. Though he was shaved and his hair was combed, he still had a hollow, haunted look about him that made Nog shiver inwardly. The doctor glanced occasionally toward Ezri, who was seated at his right, and at Sacagawea, who occupied a specially constructed chair on his left. The towering, slender alien seemed intensely curious, swiveling its great head in every direction as though taking great care to miss nothing. As he took a seat almost directly across the table from Sacagawea, Nog wondered how much of the proceedings the alien would understand—and exactly what Commander Vaughn believed their D’Naali guide could contribute to the briefing.
Seated near Tenmei, Shar, and science specialist T’rb, Bowers stared with obvious unease across the table at Sacagawea. Turning toward the head of the table, he addressed Vaughn. “Captain, are you sure it’s appropriate for Sacagawea to attend this meeting?”
A look of sadness crossed Vaughn’s features, then vanished behind the façade of command. “I do, Lieutenant. Our guest requires Dr. Bashir’s constant attention.” Vaughn looked significantly in Bowers’s direction, and the tactical officer immediately seemed to grasp his meaning.
It’s really the other way around,Nog realized a moment later. Having the alien nearby must be keeping the doctor calm.Trying not to stare, he watched as Bashir placed a hand on the table. It was impossible not to notice the hand’s slight tremor. Or Ezri, as she placed her hand atop the doctor’s while offering him chatty reassurances that soon, very soon,everything would be all right. He wondered if she was trying to be strong for them both, or if she was leaning on the doctor for support.
Once again, Nog felt a sensation of intense guilt welling up inside him. Two of his closest friends had been torn to pieces, maimed by the alien artifact. Perhaps forever. I, on the other hand, get restored to perfect condition. At least until we get Sacagawea’s “worldlines” untangled.
“I said we’re ready whenever you are, Lieutenant,” Vaughn was saying, his impatient tone bringing Nog out of his reverie like a sudden Ferenginar cloudburst.
Nog felt like a cadet who’d turned up for inspection late and out of uniform. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts. “Yes, sir. I wanted to start by saying that Ensign ch’Thane has double-checked my figures, as have specialists T’rb, Hunter, and other members of the science and engineering teams involved.” Nog was gratified to see that Shar and T’rb were both nodding. A wide smile bisected T’rb’s cyan-hued Bolian features.
“And I’ll give it an official thumbs-up from a tactical perspective,” Bowers said. “At least, that’s how it looks on the padd.”
“Sounds chancy to me,” Tenmei said, laying aside a padd that displayed some of Nog’s numbers. “What you’re essentially proposing is that we use a series of large Oort cloud bodies as relays for the Defiant’s transporter.”
“Actually,” Nog said, “those frozen rocks will act as platforms for a series of self-replicating transporter relays, which we’ll send out ahead of our away team. We’ll beam the first one out to the nearest cometary body, and it will beam another relay out to the next body, and so on.”
“It sounds too easy,” Tenmei said. “There’s got to be a huge power cost associated with doing something like this.”
Shar nodded. “You’re correct. The drain on the Defiant’s replicator systems will be enormous. Setting up the transporter relay system will burn out the central replicator waveguides.”
“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 Saganinto 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 Sagancrew, 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 Sagancrew should venture onto the artifact.
On the other hand, what choice does he have but to believe? What choice doesany 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.”