The Soldiers of Fear (12 page)

La Forge glanced at Redbay. A shiver ran down Redbay's spine. The fear rose, as if someone had turned up the volume.

Maybe someone had.

"If they can project something that makes us feel fear," La Forge said softly, "we can block it." Then he paused. "You said interspace?"

Redbay nodded. "That's how they're projecting whatever it is they're projecting. Through interspace."

La Forge paced for a moment, then came back and stood over the cone image. "Interspace. The original Enterprise stumbled into interspace during the first meetings with the Tholians? I wonder ..." La Forge seemed to be talking only to himself.

Redbay suddenly remembered that part of his history class. It had again been the original Enterprise and their encounter with the Tholians. But beyond the successful outcome, and the fact that interspace almost took Captain Kirk, he couldn't remember more. But it was clear La Forge did.

La Forge turned to Redbay. "What if the beam they send out is harmless in this universe but opens a conduit into interspace in the area affected by the beam? Interspace can have a devastating effect on the human nervous system, leading to paranoia and insanity. What if they've managed to control and amplify that effect?"

Redbay grinned. "You might be on to something there. I'll run the checks."

Suddenly, beneath his fear was an elation. La Forge was right. Redbay felt lot better.

He could concentrate now on the task at hand.

"That's it. We've got it," he told La Forge.

La Forge nodded. "I'll tell the captain. I bet this will make his day."

"And Dr. Crusher," Redbay said.

La Forge stopped, and then nodded. "The doctor on the original Enterprise came up with something to block the effects, didn't he." He patted Redbay on the shoulder. "On my way."

Redbay turned back to his panel, his fingers flying over the keys. He had work to do, and now he at least knew he was making progress.

She felt as if she were the only physician working on a plague.

Beverly Crusher sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her forehead. Her eyes were gritty, as if she had gone too long without sleep. She leaned her head against the computer display and gulped the fear down.

Patience, Beverly, she thought. Take your time.

Over the years, she had learned that taking her time was the only way to really hurry. Any other method caused her to make mistakes.

She took a sip of the Bajoran root tea that was supposed to calm fears. It was warm and bitter. Then she sat up and peered through the glass of her research area into the sickbay.

Her flu patients were under heavy sedation. They had awakened earlier, convinced they were dying. She had been unable to calm them; instead she had put them under and hoped that the drug blocked the emotions as well as consciousness. They didn't appear to be having any more bad dreams, so her guess was probably right.

Deanna lay very still on her bed as well. When Beverly had returned to sickbay, she had taken Deanna's pulse just to double-check the machines. Deanna had looked still as death.

Perhaps that was Beverly's fear: losing her friend to an unnecessary cause.

A few other beds were filled with crew members injured in that first wave of fear that swept the station. The medical staff had had a run on the station just after Beverly had left to find Deanna: a series of scrapes, scratches, and burns, all minor and blown entirely out of proportion because of the fears.

The cases that remained were people brought in by others, people who had been too terrified to notice that they were hurt. Beverly had made a note of their names; when and if they got through this crisis, she wanted Deanna to make a full report on their psychological states.

If Deanna recovered.

Beverly sighed and took another sip of the tea, wincing at its taste.

Then she paused, rolled the tea around on her tongue, and swallowed.

Her tongue was numb. Not completely without sensation, but she had lost enough sensation to get a prickly feeling around the edges.

She had used the root tea before, often on long stressful nights, and had never found that her judgment was impaired.

But it always reduced her stress.

Just like it had calmed her fears now.

She wasn't shaking anymore. She hadn't shaken since she had her first cup.

Then she smiled, pulled out a test tube, and poured the tea in it. The liquid stained the sides of the tube orange. She put the tube in the compositor and had it analyze the contents. While it mixed and remixed the chemicals, Beverly got up and went into sickbay proper. She passed the fear patients and went directly to the flu patients. They were still on the diagnostic beds. She flipped on the overhead screens, and watched as she read the levels.

The flu was running its course. They would be on their feet again in a day or so. But she wasn't interested in their virus. She was interested in brain waves or any indication of REM sleep.

The patients appeared to be sleeping soundly, dreamlessly, and their physical symptoms confirmed it. Heartbeat, respiration, and blood pressure readings had returned to normal or as near to normal as it was physically possible with the Xotic Flu.

She called up their readings from the past few hours, ever since she had given them the sedative.

No dreams.

None.

The fears were buried, for now.

She went back into her research station. The chemical component of the Bajoran root tea blinked on her screen. As she had thought, the tea had a mild sedative. Very mild, a kind, the computer told her (and her own experience confirmed), that did not impair thoughts or cause drowsiness. It took the edge off certain emotions by blocking the chemical components of those emotions within the body. It did not affect motor skills or judgment.

"Dr. Crusher?" Chief Engineer La Forge's voice came over the comm.

"Go ahead," she said.

"Doctor," La Forge said, "we think the beam hitting us controls and amplifies the effects of interspace."

"Interspace?" She let the word sink in. Why hadn't she thought of that possibility?

"Yes, Doctor," La Forge said.

"Damn," she said softly to herself.

"Excuse me, Doctor?" La Forge said.

"Sorry, Geordi," she said, half laughing. "I'll get right on it. I think I may be able to come up with a block."

"Good," La Forge said. "Out."

She turned her attention back to her screen. With a few keystrokes she had the Theragen formula up on the screen, along with the history of its development and use. For the next few minutes she read, letting the exact details of the drug back into her mind. Its first use was as a nerve gas, developed by the Klingons. But Dr. McCoy on the first Enterprise had diluted the drug to stop the effects of interspace on the crew. His diluted form was called the Theragen derivative.

She studied McCoy's work. McCoy had diluted the Theragen with alcohol, but she thought it would make a better mix with the Bajoran tea that way it would not only block the fear, but have a calming effect on the crew.

She asked the computer to confirm that analysis, and the computer did. Replication possible in both liquid and gaseous form.

Beverly smiled. With a lot of help from Geordi, she had come up with a solution much faster than she had expected.

But barely within the captain's deadline.

She hit her comm badge. "Captain?"

"Picard here." His voice sounded firm and steady. She wondered how he managed that when she knew how he felt. The fears sent by the Furies had affected him too.

"I have found a way to help block the fears within the crew."

"Excellent. If you believe it will work, begin treatment immediately."

He was on edge. She could hear it in his tone.

"Captain, I do have to tell you that what I have come up with is partially a mild sedative."

"Sedative?" His voice rose. "Doctor, we may be about to face the most dangerous enemy known to the Federation, and you want to sedate my crew?"

"Yes, sir." She smiled. She had known he would react like that to the word. Better to get it out of the way now. "The sedative will calm the emotions only. It will not affect judgment or impair motor skills. Since I was unable to test it fully, however, I do not know how long its effects will last." She took a deep breath. "I need to also add small quantities of Theragen derivative to the sedative, to help block the effects of interspace."

The captain did not answer immediately. Perhaps she shouldn't have worried about impaired judgment from the drug. The fear was doing that all by itself. Captain Picard usually made decisions much quicker than this.

"How long will it take you to inoculate the entire crew?"

"I won't have to inoculate them," she said. "I can make this sedative mixed with the Theragen derivative into a gas and flood the air filtration systems. I'll have to let Geordi know so that the systems won't automatically purify it. Other than that, no one will even notice except that their fears will have eased. They won't abate completely, but everyone will be calmer."

"Proceed," Picard said, and signed off.

Beverly took another sip of her root tea and smiled at the mug. Then she turned and punched in the sequence to begin synthesizing the tea and mixing it with Theragen derivative. This just might be the complete answer. She hoped so.

Commander Riker took a deep breath and uncrossed his arms. Somehow, just sitting beside Captain Picard on the bridge calmed him. Everything was calming him. He was regaining control, even without Dr. Crusher's help. When the gas filled the ship, he would be prepared, and maybe feel like his own self again.

On the screen before them, the entire bridge crew was studying Redbay's discovery: the wave of emotion they had all felt was actually sent in the form of a cone-shaped wave that created an interspace conduit. And the Enterprise was stuck in the middle of it. The wave picked up and amplified or maybe twisted would be a better way of putting it the adverse effects of interspace on the human mind. The more he studied the data Redbay and La Forge had come up with, the prouder he felt of the crew of the Enterprise. They had withstood a very vicious attack and kept their sanity.

"At least we know that our unusual feelings have been manufactured," Picard said.

"That eased the mind of everyone on the engineering staff," Riker said.

"Yes, I can see how it would." Picard stood and tugged on his shirt. "I hope we have as much success in blocking the effects of the wave."

"Lieutenant Redbay believes we will," Riker said. "He and La Forge are researching the incident that occurred with the original Enterprise. It should give them some help."

Picard only nodded his agreement.

"Captain," Worf said, "I have received a short, encrypted message from the Madison. They will arrive within the hour."

"Did they say anything about the Idaho? "

"The ships are traveling in tandem, sir."

Picard nodded. He stared at the screen another moment, frowning at the data about the interspace beam.

"Captain, those ships will fly straight into that beam," Riker said.

"They will encounter it sooner than we did," Data added. "The strength of the cone-shaped beam at its outer edge might be weaker, but the closer they come the more they will feel its effects."

"Without warning," Riker said, "they will go through the same feelings we did."

"I understand that, Number One," Picard said. "I am trying to figure out a way to communicate to them without letting the Furies know that we have ameliorated the effects of their transmission."

"Oh, I know how to do that, sir," Riker said. "Captain Kiser is quite a poker player. I met him on Rigel in a galaxy-wide tournament."

Picard nodded and seemed to take a deep, almost relaxing breath.

Riker suddenly felt as if he wanted to smile. Dr. McCoy's Theragen derivative and Dr. Crusher's sedative gas must be working. The feeling of fear was clearly reduced. It wasn't completely gone, but it was better.

"Kiser and I," Riker said, "were the only humans left in the contest. We worked out a series of signals that allowed us to eliminate the others"

"You cheated, Number One?"

"Not exactly," Riker said. "It became clear early on that it wasn't a clean tournament, and that the Ferengi sponsors had set up their own people to win. We just ... how should I say this ... made sure that wouldn't happen."

"I do not see how a game of chance will enable you to communicate with Captain Kiser," Data said. "It could not carry the needed information."

"It means, Mr. Data, that Commander Riker and Captain Kiser have already developed a method for saying one thing and meaning another," Picard said. "You will need to bury Dr. Crusher's formula for the sedative in the message as well as the theory of the Furies' fear wave being sent via interspace. The poker signals will only alert him to the fact the information is there."

Data nodded, understanding.

"Yes, sir," Riker said. "I will tell him that this is a view of the Brundage Station and they need to review it immediately. Since they've already seen Brundage Station, Kiser will know that we have new or different information buried in there."

"I would suggest," Worf said, "that you let the Klingon and Vulcan vessels know this information as well."

"I'll ask Captain Kiser to forward it," Riker said. "The Furies are less likely to be monitoring his communications."

"Do you think they're monitoring ours?" Ensign Eckley asked. She was back at her post, looking shaky but calmer.

"We're monitoring theirs, aren't we?" Riker asked.

Picard smiled. "Go to it, Number One. Record the message and encrypt it. Ask for an encrypted message in return. Use my ready room."

Riker nodded and started across the bridge.

"And, Number One," Picard added, "give Captain Kiser my regards as well. Warn him that the house has the advantage so far."

"I will," Riker said. Then he stopped. "But I will also say that I believe we can turn the tables and use the house's advantage to our own. Kiser always did like a long shot."