Marty saw the message the following morning, as he was preparing for his shift. He tapped out a quick response.
I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. I know I won’t be able to get leave. But you know I want to be there. – MDM
He got to the Bridge. “Mister Madden,” Picard said, almost as soon as Marty had sat down. “I should like you to lead another mission to study that phenomenon we had discussed.”
“Yes, of course.” The chi spectrum radiation. “Anything specific we should be looking for?”
“I have no specifics as of yet. But the Admiral has requested another set of scans to further our investigations. As before, take Mister LaForge and B-4 with you.”
“Should I borrow Barclay again, sir?”
“Not this time.”
“Sir, will we be getting anywhere near Andorian space any time within the next few weeks?”
The captain thought for a moment. “I don’t believe so. Some special reason you’re interested in that particular destination?”
“That team where I’m part-owner, sir, they’re playing ice hockey there, pretty soon.”
“How soon?”
“My cousin doesn’t use star dates. I guess she never got used to them.” Or they didn’t use them at Canamar, Marty mused. He quickly tamped down the thought. “It’s in about twenty standard Federation days, I believe.”
“I’m sorry,” Picard shook his head, “but I get the nagging feeling that we will still be here then. But,” he thought for a moment, “best of luck to your athletes.”
“Thank you, sir.” Marty did his best to hide his disappointment, but they had not seen each other for going on two decades. It hurt to extend that time even longer.
=/=
“So you will do it? You will share a room with me?” Crita asked.
“Sure,” replied M’Belle, the Caitian. “I’d’ve had a roommate anyway, right?”
“Probably,” allowed the Daranaean. “I won’t paint in our room. I’ll find some other place to let my works dry.”
“Paint?”
“I’m an artist. That’s how Mack found me, in the first place.”
“Understood. I guess we’re roommates.”
The remaining athletes boarded the Cookie, carrying suitcases or duffles. Mack, Wes and Daniya greeted everyone as Majira stayed in Sick Bay and fed her menagerie of experimental animals.
The Jem’Hadar, Xochar’inif, lingered as others filed past. “I should like to thank you for having confidence in my abilities,” he told Mack, “particularly as my behavior on the first few days was deplorable. It is, the arrogance, I do not relinquish responsibility for my speech, but I suspect that some of that was ketrecel white withdrawal talking.”
“Maybe so,” she conceded, “but do try to be kind to your fellow travelers here, okay?”
“Yes.” Xochar’inif moved into the ship.
Bringing up the rear was the human guy, Tag Shaw. “This is gonna be fun,” he stated.
“Yeah, it will,” Mack clapped him on the back.
She gave them all a few hours to sort out their living quarters and various roommate situations, and get unpacked, before sending a message.
Meet me at the holodeck at 1100 hours. Dress for cold weather.
A rather surprised, albeit bundled up, group arrived more or less on time. The holodeck was as cold as Mack had promised. The Vulcans looked stoically miserable.
“Our first game is in a couple of weeks. It’ll be ice hockey on Andoria.” There were some murmurs from the athletes as Mack continued, “Remember when we played a form of field hockey? Well, this is similar, but we’ll go with the full-blown rules this time. Plus you’ll need to skate.”
A lot of the athletes looked around nervously. “Skate?” asked one of the Vulcans.
“Computer, make me an ice skating rink.”
Accomplished.
“Tag, you’ve skated, right?”
“I’ve even played pickup hockey, Coach.”
“Perfect. Anybody else ever skate, even if you were really bad at it?” The other athletes shook their heads although Wes nodded. Mack sighed a little. “It’s okay; you’ll figure it out. Computer, make two pairs of hockey skates – one to fit me, and the other pair to fit Mister Shaw here.”
They laced up as the others watched. “At least to start, you’ll probably find that grace and agility help a lot. So, uh, M’Belle, I bet you’d be good at this.” She turned to Shaw and quietly added, “I haven’t done this in years. I’ll probably fall a lot.”
“Heh, me, too.”
Slowly, they both made their way to a gate for the rink. Once they were on the ice, they both struggled to get and keep their balance. “Okay,” Tag said, “You just kinda push off with your toes, like this, and you glide.”
“You point your toes out a bit,” Mack clarified. “Push off, glide. Push off, glide.” She very nearly fell, but recovered by putting her arms out. “Didja see that? You can stop some falls that way. But you won’t be able to stop every single fall. Get used to the fact that, at first, you’re gonna fall a lot.”
“Turn like this,” Shaw demonstrated.
“Right,” Mack agreed. She tried to turn, and fell.
Crita came over quickly, nearly slipping as well. “Do you need for me to contact Majira?”
“No, uh, I’m okay,” Mack assured her, although she knew the fall would leave a bruise and perhaps a welt. “Unfortunately,” she said to all of them, “this is reality. Falling is no fun. But you’ll get better. Now,” she cast about, thinking of what to say, “There are all sorts of ways to vary things. This will include learning how to skate backwards. But for now, let’s just concentrate on getting you on the ice, and leave the fancy stuff for later. Computer, create hockey skates for everyone who does not yet have them.”
Accomplished.
“Okay, it’s time to lace up. Not too tight, and not too loose – and tuck in any long ends. I don’t want you tripping over that. Also, I want everyone to pick a buddy. You and your partner will skate as a hand-holding pair to start. That’ll mostly make things easier, but I caution you that one person falling might bring down the other one.”
Even Crita put on a pair of skates, and paired up with her new roommate, M’Belle. Mack found herself paired with Xochar’inif, the Jem’Hadar. “With a height difference,” she explained, “the taller person is going to take a bigger stride. That person needs to go a little slower in order to help out their partner. We’ll just go around, slowly, clockwise. If you feel like you’re gonna fall, put your arms out to try to steady yourself. If you get injured, speak up! That’s what Majira is here for.”
Xochar’inif looked at her. “If I fall upon you, my apologies.”
“Got it, uh, Xo.” He looked at her. “Can I call you that?”
He thought for a moment. “Very well.”
It was slow going. Tag was paired with a Vulcan, T’Val. After a few minutes, it suddenly clicked in her head, and they began to skate closer to the center of the ice, and went a lot faster than most of the other athletes.
Crita and M’Belle were graceful, fluffy girls on ice, laughing and enjoying themselves. The Tandaran man, Dathan, was paired with Grosk the Imvari. There was even more of a height differential than between Mack and Xochar’inif, and it was difficult for Grosk and Dathan to remain balanced.
After several minutes of slow progress, Mack called out, “Skaters, reverse!”
Turning was harder, and then to go counterclockwise was another challenge. This time, there were more falls, and it looked like one of the Calafans was becoming discouraged.
Mack said to Xo, “Let’s go to the center of the ice, slowly. I need to get everyone’s attention.” He nodded and they progressed to the center together. She clicked her personal communicator, which was in the form of a bracelet – they did not have combadges as it was not Starfleet. “Mack to Majira.”
“Go ahead.”
“I think we’ve got some minor injuries here.”
“What type?” asked the Ikaaran.
“Bruises, mostly. Nothing looks that bad, but I bet it’s a bit painful.”
“Got it. I’ll be right there. Majira out.” A Derellian bat squawked as she left Sick Bay and headed to the holodeck.
In the holodeck, Mack yelled, “Listen up!” They all stopped, but that meant some colliding and more falling. It was not going so well. “I just called Majira. She’ll come over and will heal whatever ails you. In the meantime,” Mack added, “I want you to do a little self-selection. Think about how fast or how slow you’ve been skating. Consider the number of falls or near-falls you’ve had today, and take note of how far you were from the walls of the rink, and if you leaned a lot on your partner, or if they leaned on you.”
She took a breath. “When you weigh these things in your mind, consider, today, whether you’re in the top half or the bottom half for skating. There is no shame in being in the bottom half. Most of you have never even seen a skating rink before, let alone skated. You could move up with training. Or you might sit our first game out. That’s okay, too.”
Tag said, “I know it’ll come back to me, with a little practice.”
“I, yeah,” Mack replied, a tad distracted. She could feel herself getting a wicked bruise.
“Coach?” he asked.
“Hmm?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah; I had forgotten just how much ice skating can really hurt if you haven’t done it in a while.” Majira entered the holodeck, and was a little underdressed for its chill. Immediately, she came over to Mack. “I’m okay,” assured the coach. “Fix everybody else first. Please.”
Shivering a little, Majira went over to Grosk. “Where is the trouble?”
“It is not too bad. I have some bruises from falling.” She put her hands on him and a glow went from his body to hers. It ping-ponged around a little, and then settled in her calf. There was the slightest scent of roasting meats, for just a moment. “It is better,” stated the tall alien. Majira smiled up at him and moved onto her next patient.
=/=
Marty, Geordi and B-4 were on a shuttle, the Monongahela. “It’s almost pretty,” LaForge stated, gazing out a viewing portal at the phenomenon they were studying. As before, they had fed the sound through, and there were occasional seemingly random pinging sounds every now and again.
“Is that a reference to its aesthetics?” inquired the android. “Are not these so-called pretty things more likely to be symmetrical? This phenomenon is asymmetrical.”
“Not necessarily,” Marty explained. “But for women, though, yeah, symmetry is usually a good idea.”
“True enough,” replied Geordi, smiling to himself a little. He rapidly changed the subject. “Done any research on universe to universe transfers yet?”
“I haven’t gotten the chance to,” Marty admitted. “I guess there’s no time like the present. B-4,” he commanded, “tie into the interface with the Enterprise’s main computers and look up crossovers between universes.” Ping.
B-4 accessed a port on the shuttle’s console. “Initiating link.” Then the computer responded.
Linkage complete. Data transfer initiated.
There was a pause of maybe a minute.
Data transfer is complete.
B-4 disconnected from the port. “I am ready to report.”
Geordi set his PADD to record mode and nodded at the android.
“Universe to universe crossovers can currently be divided into four types, with a fifth type being unknown. The first is ancient, and is accomplished only by Calafans. This species originates in the part of the Milky Way galaxy where the septum between two universes is at its thinnest. Amplifying dishes located on Lafa II, at a spot that the natives refer to as Point Abic, help to focus Calafan meditations and dream states. Dreaming and meditating Calafans are able to readily cross over, although only between the home universe, which vibrates on the twenty-one centimeter radiation band, and the mirror, which vibrates at twenty centimeters. Prior to 2157, the dishes prevented Calafan crossovers during their conscious, nonmeditative states. However, the mirror High Priestess, known as the teenager Yimar, commanded a change in the frequency emitted by the dishes in her universe, thereby permitting conscious, nonmeditative crossovers, but only by purebred Calafans in either universe.”
“Why did she change things?” Marty asked. Ping.
“That information is considered absolute level classified,” answered the android.
“Do Mister LaForge and I – or either of us – have that kind of authorization?”
“Negative. Authorization is at the flag officer level. The closest Starfleet member with this level of authorization is Admiral Alynna Nechayev.”
“I see. What’s the second kind?” asked Marty.
“The second type is simultaneous transports by counterparts, during ion storms in both universes. Again, these are the twenty and twenty-one centimeter radiation bands. This method was discovered by accident by Captain James T. Kirk, on star date 5692, with no information past the decimal. The old style calendar date is in 2267, with month and date currently unknown.”
“The third type?” Geordi prompted.
“Passage through the Bajoran wormhole near space station Deep Space Nine. Not all passages through this wormhole result in universe to universe crossovers. The difference in circumstances is a plasma injector leak from a vessel’s warp core. This manner of crossing over is also solely achieved between the prime universe and the mirror.”
“Are there any crosses to any other radiation bands?” asked Marty.
“That is the fourth type,” stated the android. “It can be mimicked with interphase generators. On star date 45892.4 – 2368 – by the old style calendar – Klingons attempted to create an interphase cloak by utilizing a molecular phase inverter. This resulted in two persons being trapped in a transporter buffer.” Ping.
“That was me,” Geordi clarified, “and Ro Laren.”
“How’d you get out of it?” asked Marty.
“We were leaving chronitons in our wake, so we were detectable. We were hit by a large anyon field. It was a strange day, let me tell you.”
“This was,” Marty asked the android, “a different radiation band? It wasn’t twenty or twenty-one?”
“Correct,” replied B-4. “The band was nineteen centimeters. This attempt at cloaking was unsuccessfully duplicated during an event that is considered highest level classified.”
“I may know this,” Geordi stated. “I’m sorry, Commander, but you heard what the level was – I can’t be any more specific.”
“That’s all right,” Marty assured him. “B-4,” he turned back to the android, “posit how one might sequence through several radiation bands at will. What sort of technology could accomplish such a feat?”
The android thought for a few minutes as they continued scanning. “An emitter of some sort, continually shifting frequencies and radiation bands, perhaps.”
“How could that be set up?” Marty asked Geordi.
“It seems almost like rotating shield harmonics, or phaser frequencies, like we used to battle the Borg.” The engineer surmised as there was a sudden burst of staccato pinging.
“Then it’s a weapon,” concluded Commander Madden.
=/=
As Majira did her work, Wesley drew Mac aside. “We really shouldn’t be using the holodeck with the safety settings off, y’know.”
“Normally, I’d agree with you, but they’re gonna really be skating, and really soon, too. Hockey can be a brutal sport. There won’t be any safety nets when we play on Andoria.”
“Still,” he persisted, “these people need to be able to succeed, right?”
She was about to object, and remind him that he was the engineer and not the coach, but stopped herself. “Y’know, you’re probably right.” She raised her voice so that they could all hear her, “I know that a lot of you got hurt, even if it was a little bit. Majira, I’m sorry you got so much work to do. I, I think maybe we should consider using the holodeck’s safety features for practice.”
Xo looked up. “I will abide by whatever is decided,” He began, “but I think it would be better to continue as we are. After all, this is practice, yes? We should understand everything that can possibly happen, including injuries, am I right? What good does it do us to ignore the fact that we could be hurt while playing?”
Yi’imspi, the Calafan woman, answered, “I agree. We should have thorough preparation. If Dr. Majira does not mind; then I say we should continue this way.”
“Majira?” asked Mack.
“This is why you hired me. Of course I am fine with it. Now, who’s next?”