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oversimplifying, hyperstrings are hyperdimensional, nonphysical structures on which the matter and the energy of the physical universe are more or less ‘strung’ like beads. They aren’t anything to do with the strings you already know about, the strands of dense ‘cold’ matter that drift about in realspace; but the name was so appropriate that it stuck.”
    Hwiii put his knife and fork down crosswise on his plate and studied them for a moment. “Now, hyperstrings are, or have been, of no particular use. They’re just
there
. Their properties—density and so forth—have been thought to be only marginally affected by objects and occurrences in the physical universe, so there’s been some study of them to see whether hyperstrings themselves can be used as the determinants for an ‘absolute’ coordinate system against which the movements and locations of things in the physical universe, like stars and planets, can be plotted. However… my mathematical work is leading me in another direction. I believe that our previous assumptions are wrong, and that hyperstrings are
profoundly
affected by objects in the physical universe… even to the point where they might be usable to
predict
changes in it. It’s still unproven, but my reading of the theoretical work done so far suggests that when something happens to a physical object, the hyperstring structures it’s ‘attached’ to resonate with the change. But they resonate both forward and backward in time. Like a string, plucked, vibrating both back and forth.”
    “I bet astrophysicists would find that useful, if it were true,” Geordi said. “You could tell if a star was about to gonova—because the hyperstrings it was ‘attached’ to would be vibrating with the star’s explosion before the star itself blew up.”
    “That’s exactly right, Mr. La Forge. And there are endless other possibilities for what comes down, quite simply, to predicting the future, if my conclusions are correct. But there are problems.” Hwiii grinned, and Picard smiled wryly at the look of someone so thoroughly enjoying the prospect of “problems.” “Especially on the quantum level, the matter of reading hyperstrings and their data becomes more difficult the more hyperstrings, and henceforth matter and energy, there are in an area. Instead of one harpstring vibrating in the stillness, producing a single clear note, imagine many sounding all together, all on different notes.”
    “Harmonic interferences,” Data said. “Dissonances, canceling and partially canceling waves, chaotic sines—”
    “
Chaotic,”
Hwiii said, “is the operant term. You hear confusion, a buzz; nothing comes through clearly, especially not the datum you most desire, the one pure note. Interference from matter itself isn’t the problem, though hyperstrings and matter are inextricably associated. But the more matter and energy there are in an area, the more hyperstrings there are, and the harder it gets to clearly read any one of them in order to find out what its properties
mean.”
    “Clear-hyperstring studies, then, would involve getting out somewhere where there aren’t many hyperstrings because there isn’t much matter or energy?” said Troi.
    “That’s exactly it, Counselor. Our studies of hyperstrings are still in their infancy precisely because no one has spent enough time out this far, taking the kind of measurements that will allow us to understand what hyperstring properties mean. Once obtained, we can take that information and apply it to hyperstrings closer to thepopulated worlds, eventually using hyperstring detection and analysis to build a navigational system which will exist independent of the moving Galaxy: an absolute coordinate system, utterly dependable.”
    “Such a thing would be an explorer’s dream,” Picard said. “Besides the limitations of the speed of today’s warpdrive engines, the other main problem hindering exploration out of the Galaxy has been the lack of