1

JEAN-LUC PICARD STUDIED THE PARTICOLORED cluster of stars glittering in front of him, dangling so close he felt as though he could touch them, and was reminded of the faery lights of French legend.

His forebears had feared them because they lured young men to their dooms in the realms of magic. But Picard, captain of the Federation Starship Enterprise, had no need to be concerned. For one thing, he was no longer a young man. And for another, he had developed a healthy resistance to temptation.

Besides, these stars weren't faery-inspired. They were three-dimensional images, generated by the multitude of tiny holographic projectors positioned in the walls around him.

Nor was it this cluster alone they were bringing to life. In fact, there were thousands of them hanging there in the cool, dark air, three-dimendional entities so numerous as to make even the Enterprise-E's new stellar cartography facility seem crowded.

On the Enterprise-D, stellar cartography had been much more modest—a planetarium-like chamber with images of the stars emblazoned on its concave, digitally enabled wall. The original Enterprise-E version had been only a bit more sophisticated, incorporating a few extra bells and whistles.

But this, Picard thought, is a different approach entirely.

He turned to the fellow standing beside him on a high, safety-railed platform. "And you say this is wrong?"

"Completely wrong," said Lieutenant Paisner, Picard's new chief of stellar cartography. "Beta Diomede, second from the top, is supposed to be a healthy young stud, not even an adult yet. It should be as bright yellow as they come. And yet it looks red enough to go nova at any second."

"Really," said the captain.

"And that's just one example."

Paisner pressed a button on his handheld device and the expanse of stars whirled about them. It made the captain feel as if he were standing in a spinning top.

"Here's another," said the cartographer, as the galaxy mercifully stopping revolving. "Archandra, second star from the bottom on the left side."

Picard searched the cluster in front of him. "Yes, I see it. Too red again?"

"Not red enough," said Paisner. "And it's got no planets. The real Archandra's got three of them."

The captain frowned. "Unfortunate."

"You can say that again."

Paisner's previous posting had been on Voyager, the Intrepid-class vessel that had been lost for seven years in the Delta Quadrant. In addition to charting any number of previously uncharted systems, he had assisted in the assimilation of alien technologies into the ship's long-range sensor functions.

Once back on Earth, he had drawn up plans for a pet idea—a three-dimensional approach to the study of stars. Starfleet had liked it well enough to give it support. And it had chosen to implement Paisner's idea on the Enterprise-E, which was undergoing an overhaul after her near-destruction in Romulan space.

Which explained the lieutenant's determination to get everything right as quickly as possible. Like any new parent, he wanted his baby to be perfect.

Copyright © 2005 by Paramount Pictures