Worf In The Fold
| [Ext. shot, Enterprise under warp.] | |
| Picard (VO) | Captain's Log, stardate 47026 point 8. The Enterprise has just completed
processing the data from the Borg's databases; Hugh has allowed us to retrieve
any and all information contained in them pertaining to the TransWarp Conduits
and although these Conduits are extensive, it does not appear that they
will cause a threat to Federation Security. However, it seems the secret
of their manufacture died with Lore.
We are now en route to Noltim VII, where we are to pick up the planet's new Ambassador to the Federation and deliver him to the Babel conference. I am looking to forward to meeting Ambassador Tackoff. I hear he has a very charismatic personality. |
| [Int shot, Enterprise Bridge.] | |
| Riker | Three hours to Noltim VII, Captain. |
| Picard | Thank you, Number One. |
| Riker | It will be nice to have a nice, sedate mission for a change. I've had my fill of excitement for a while. |
| Picard | Be careful what you wish for, Number One, you - |
| Worf | Captain! Sensors register a disturbance ahead of us. |
| Picard | Data? |
| Data | Confirmed. There is an anomaly in the space-time curvature of the area in our flight path, coupled with irregularities in the local gravitational field. |
| Picard | All stop. On screen. |
| Con | All stop, Sir. |
| [Shot of Bridge screen showing an area of space where colours are being fragmented into their composite red, yellow and blue.] | |
| Data | Captain, there is a breach opening within the gravitational disturbance. It resembles the opening of the TransWarp Conduits used by the Borg. Sensors detect movement inside. |
| Riker | Red alert! |
| [Opening sequence music.] | |
| Picard (VO) | Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its on-going mission; to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no-one has gone before. |
| [Opening sequence.] | |
| [Ext. shot, Enterprise at rest in front of a large, mainly rectangular, mass of panels and cables. The Conduit is no longer visible.] | |
| Title | Worf In The Fold. |
| Picard (VO) | Captain's Log, supplemental. The... object... in front of us has made no move since coming out of the TransWarp Conduit. Although it has the look of a typical Borg design, its lack of hostility leads me to suspect they may not be involved in this matter. |
| [Int. shot, Enterprise bridge.] | |
| Picard | Mister Worf, please inform Noltim VII that we may be late picking up the Ambassador. Mister Data, any lifeform readings? |
| Data | For a few seconds after the object appeared, there seemed to be some biological readings. However, they were not like any I have encountered so far. |
| Riker | Ferengi? |
| Worf | Romulan? |
| Picard | Borg? |
| Data | They more closely resembled plant-life than anything else. I am afraid that whatever it was is no longer alive, Captain. The readings faded 38 milliseconds after the Conduit closed. |
| Riker | Then it's possible that you were picking up sensor echoes of whatever was on the other end of the Conduit. |
| Data | The sensor logs insist that the readings came from the object. |
| Picard | We won't learn anything more by simply staring at it. Mister Worf, do you detect any explosives or weapons inside that thing? |
| Worf | Negative, Captain. The object is inert and incapable of harming us. |
| Picard | Then please lock a tractor beam on it and bring it into the Main Shuttle Bay. I want Engineering on it as soon as you declare it safe. I'll be in my ready-room, explaining our delay to Starfleet. |
| [Picard turns to leave.] | |
| Riker | Aye-aye, Captain. Riker to Engineering. |
| Geordi (VO) | Engineering, Geordi here. |
| Riker | Geordi, I'd like you to take a team up to Main Shuttle Bay. We're bringing something aboard we'd like you to have a look at. |
| Geordi (VO) | On my way. Geordi out. |
| Data | Commander. I would like to request permission to join the Engineering team. |
| Riker | Granted. Mr Worf... Let's make this as gentle as possible. |
| [Int. shot, Enterprise Main Shuttle Bay. The doors are open and a large object is heading in from the outside. Worf is at the tractor beam controls, guiding its way in. The large, rectangular object finally settles on the floor, trailing cables behind itself.] | |
| Geordi | Alright, people, look lively. The Captain wants answers and he wants them yesterday. |
| [Int. shot, Enterprise Conference Room.] | |
| Geordi | As far as we can figure, what we have here is an engine. |
| Data | We located a control panel on its surface, next to what appears to be a computer uplink. The engine seems to accommodate manual overrides as well as computer-control. |
| Riker | Any idea who built it? |
| Worf | The manual controls were labelled in some sort of cuneiform writing. However, there were extra tags on some of them. In English. |
| Data | The device itself seems to have been designed to create an event-horizon around itself, but without the need for a black hole at its centre. In effect, it allows a ship to leave the space-time continuum and travel in another media. |
| Riker | Subspace? |
| Geordi | Hyperspace. |
| Dr. Crusher | I thought Hyperspace was just speculations. |
| Geordi | There were some experiments done trying to create a Hyperspace drive early on in Earth's history, but with the advent of the Warp drive and Subspace Theory, well... It pretty much fell by the way-side. |
| Picard | Nevertheless, someone has managed to create such a drive. |
| Geordi | If it ever worked. |
| Data | Geordi is correct in his qualifying of your statement, Captain. The fact that only the drive system, and no accompanying ship, was found would seem to point to a failure of some sort. Probably disastrous for those testing the drive. |
| Picard | But the drive did make it to this sector of space without any other means of transportation? |
| Worf | There were no ships within sensor range when it appeared. |
| Picard | So the experiment was not a complete failure, was it Data? |
| Data | Looked upon in this light, there was some success to this experiment. |
| Troy | Do we know how to work it? |
| Data | The entire system seems to operate on the theory that there is more to the Universe than just three spatial dimensions and one time dimension. If our understanding of the controls are correct, then whomever built this device seem to believe there were three spatial and three time dimensions, as well as another set of three dimensions which I have yet to define. |
| Riker | Obsessed with the number three, weren't they? |
| Data | Indeed, Commander. Very astute of you to have remarked upon this. Our investigation does indeed seem to bear out that the creators of this device were fixated on the number three. All systems within the engine were made not just doubly, but triply redundant. |
| Geordi | The engineering specs we found inside the engine's cover were all in base 27. Three times three times three. Three cubed. The controls were recalibrated at some point to accept base ten and convert them to the original base 27. |
| Troy | So what you're saying is that someone built the engine, but another race tested it? |
| Data | It may simply have been another culture on the same planet, but that is essentially correct. Those who last used the engine were not those who originally built it. |
| Picard | Do we know where it came from? |
| Geordi | Not really. The engine's coordinate system seems to be vector-based. Put simply, you give it a direction and a distance. In other words, to get from A to B, you need to know where A is so you can say where B is in relation to you. But this doesn't mean we can't get to where the engine came from. |
| Data | The engine's computer has a special buffer to deal with situations such as this one. It stores the last set of directions given to it. |
| Geordi | And it also stores an extrapolation of the directions required to get it back to where it tunnelled from. |
| Riker | So all that's require is to give it some power, press the "return" button, and it goes back home? |
| Data | Essentially. Although the actual steps are a little more complex than those you have just described. The sequence of buttons requiring to be pressed is Power, A9, H1 - |
| Picard | Thank you Data, we get the point. I don't think we are equipped for dealing with a new drive system, no matter how revolutionary. We will proceed to Noltim VII, deliver the Ambassador to his destination, then stop at Starbase 126 to drop off the engine into more capable - and better equipped - hands. Mister Worf, please see to it that the engine is secured. |
| [Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay. Crews are securing the fold engine to the Bay's floor under Worf's supervision.] | |
| [Int. shot, Jeffries Tubes, Plasma Converter. There is a flash, followed by a spraying of fumes.] | |
| [Int. shot, Main Engineering. An alarm suddenly sounds.] | |
| Computer | Warning. Plasma leak in sub-converter seven. Evacuate the area. Warning. Plasma leak in - |
| Geordi | LaForge to Captain Picard. |
| [Int. shot, Enterprise Bridge.] | |
| Picard | Picard here. |
| Geordi (VO) | Captain, the repairs to one of the plasma sub-converters just gave way. Seven's only venting fumes for the moment but we'll be venting plasma soon if I don't shut it down. |
| Picard | Make it so. |
| Data | Captain, there will be a need to evacuate the plasma already in the sub-converter before it completely ruptures. |
| Riker | Any ideas? |
| Data | It should be possible to vent the plasma through Main Shuttle Bay and out into space without too much problems. |
| Picard | Will it damage the engine? |
| Data | There is a high probability of damage due to the plasma's extreme heat. However, such damage would be slight compared to a failure of the converter when under full load. The converter will fail in thirty seconds. |
| Picard | Picard to Mister Worf. |
| Worf (VO) | Worf here. |
| Picard | Mister Worf, evacuate Main Shuttle Bay as soon as possible. You have twenty seconds. |
| [Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay.] | |
| Worf | Everybody, out, now! Move! |
| [Int. shot, Bridge.] | |
| Data | The converter is failing. I am now venting the plasma. |
| [Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay. Worf is ushering the last of his team out of the Bay when the outer doors open, with the atmospheric field on. The far wall of the Bay begins to glow. Worf notices the fold engine is between the glowing patch on the wall and the Bay's doors and rushes towards the tractor-beam controls. At the same time as he reaches them, the wall gives way and a stream of plasma hits the fold engine. The engine starts to glow and beeps in random patterns. There is a bright flash. When it subsides, Worf and the controls have disappeared.] | |
| [Int. shot, Bridge.] | |
| Data | Venting complete, closing Main Shuttle Bay doors. |
| Picard | Mister Worf, please inspect the engine for possible damage. Mister Worf? Captain to Worf, please acknowledge. |
| Crewman (VO) | Security Officer Williams here. I'm afraid there has been an accident in Main Shuttle Bay, Captain. Mister Worf is nowhere to be found. |
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