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From: "Colin J. Wynne" <
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Subject: GhostsFromThePast.3
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 16:52:05 +0500 (EST)
This story is property of:
Colin J. Wynne
P.O. Box 4661
Lexington, VA 24450
(703) 464-4030
[email protected]
Permission is given to distribute this story freely as long as this header
is included with all files/hardcopies/electronic postings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Ghosts from the Past," Ch. 7 through Ch. 9:
--------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VII
Picard had seen ships self-destruct before, but it didn't
help to ease the emotions that he felt. He couldn't understand
anyone, or any race, that viewed death as the only way out of a
bad situation.
Even worse, he didn't know why they had been attacked in the
first place! Perhaps his hailing message had been misunderstood,
and then when the ships put their shields up, they interpreted the
action as hostile.
"Captain," announced Hathoway, one of Worf's leading security
ensigns, "Dr. Pulaski on the intercom."
"Yes, Doctor."
"I have the casualty report, Captain."
Picard sighed. "How bad?"
"Fourteen dead, all civilians, and twenty-eight wounded."
"My god. I'm sorry, Doctor. Please get me a list of the
fatalities, so I can try and offer some consolation to their
families."
Picard snapped off the intercom. That piece of news was
worse than anything that had happened so far. The Captain decided
that he was now in a suitably bad frame of mind that he might as
well get all the bad news over at once. "Captain to Engineering."
"LaForge here, Captain."
"Give me a damage report, Lieutenant."
"Not too bad from an engineering standpoint, Captain. The
hit was in the saucer, port aft. Some stored water bled off and a
few batteries were destroyed. One more thing, though. The
docking mechanism was damaged, so we can't separate the two hulls
until that's repaired."
"All right, then. We have to close the breach in the hull
first. The docking equipment is second. Then, use your
judgement."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Ensign Hathoway, get me Commander Riker."
"On screen now, sir."
Riker's bearded face appeared on the screen. From the
details visible, it appeared as though he was in Engineering.
"Yes, sir?"
Picard detailed the damage and casualty report for his ship,
then inquired about the battlecruiser's status. Fortunately it
hadn't been damaged. But there was still a problem somewhere in
the ship. It wasn't regenerating its own power, and the beating
that the attackers had done the shields had drawn off a lot of
energy.
"So, if this sort of thing happens again, this ship might
become a derelict again."
"Commander, you have fifty of the best engineering techs in
all of Starfleet aboard that ship. They must be able to do
something."
"We're doing our best."
"Number One, those ships quite obviously came out of one of
those rips."
"Yes, sir. We reached the same conclusion over here."
"Mr. Data's team is going to have to start working round the
clock. I need to know what happened after your ship went through
the rip. We have to be able to deal with a recurrence of this."
"They're already on it, sir."
"One more thing, Number One. Regulations call for me to
convene a Board of Inquiry into your destruction of the lead
attacking vessel."
"I understand, sir."
"Fine. Then we'll convene at 1200 hours aboard my ship."
"Aye, aye, sir. Riker out."
Wesley was entering just as Riker signed off. "Gee,
Commander, I hope it's nothing really serious."
"Wes, I have an assignment for you."
In the manner of any proud boy being given some measure of
responsibility, Wesley straightened himself to his full height,
giving himself a tremendous inward smile. "Yes, sir?"
"Until we can find out why the energisers aren't working
properly, we need an alternate means of powering this ship. Now,
as I understand it, Transwarp and Ultrawarp energy are not easily
compatible, but it can theoretically be done?"
"Yes, sir. And you want me to figure out a way to do it?"
Will smiled. "That's exactly what I want you to do, Wes."
"I'll get right on it."
The commander left Wesley to his new task, and took several
ladders up to the main computer deck, at the very heart of the
saucer section. The turbolifts were shut down to conserve power.
That and other measures had rendered the ship effectively blacked-
out.
Data was hard at work in the main memory banks when the
Commander arrived. "How's it going, Data?"
"Not very well, sir. The memory is badly scrambled. Even
worse than I at first thought. The individual bits of information
have been deposited through random memory locations."
"What does that mean, Data?"
Data, who had been working and talking at the same time, now
turned his full attention to Riker. "Imagine, sir, that you have
hardcopies of ten letters, each of them ten pages long, in ten
separate piles. That is how the memory is supposed to be
organised. What we have here instead is that the pages of the
first letter are in the wrong order, and each page has been
randomly placed in one of the piles, maybe the correct one, but
more likely not. Each letter has been similarly displaced, in a
completely random fashion."
"Is there any way to recover all of the information?"
"Without a doubt, it can be done. But it will take time. I
will have to break down all stored memory and rebuild it, bit by
bit."
"How much time?"
"At best, maybe a week. Probably more."
"Can't you do any better?"
"It's not the process, sir. It has to do with the processing
speed of the computers that we use to rebuild the memory. The
computers on Enterprise-D are the best, short of Starfleet
Command's."
"I see."
"We're downloading the memory from the primary banks into the
backup, then to the Enterprise a piece at a time for processing,
and back into the main memory."
"How can the Enterprise rebuild the memory with only a little
bit to work on at a time?"
"It's like a jigsaw puzzle. The Enterprise figures out where
each bit originally was, assigns it back into that location, and
sends it back."
"I'll make a report of all of this when I see the Captain."
"Yes. I heard about the Board of Inquiry. Good luck, sir."
"Thanks. I hope I won't need it."
"This Board of Inquiry is now declared open. Commander
William Riker, we are convened here to examine the recent
destruction of an unidentified ship by your direct orders. Do you
deny the event?"
"I do not, sir."
The entire atmosphere of the Board was much too stiff and
formal compared to the close and relaxed style with which they
were all familiar. Even Captain Picard seemed rather ill-at-ease
about the whole situation, but he was required to conduct the
meeting.
Picard was at the head of the table in the briefing room, the
flowing stars just over his right shoulder. At the opposite side
in the proverbial hot seat was Will Riker. On either side of the
Captain were Troi and LaForge, serving alongside Picard as the
Board. Worf was next to Riker as a prime witness.
"To review for the record, when confronted with three unknown
vessels, and communication had not been established, you employed
excessive force in dealing with them, resulting in the total
destruction of one of the ships. Is this true?"
"It is, sir."
"You are aware that Starfleet policy requires all ship
captains in crisis situations to disable hostile ships, and that
the deliberate destruction of such vessels is contrary to all that
for which Starfleet stands?"
"Yes, sir."
"For the record, what have you to say in your defense?"
"The situation was quite demanding, sir. The hostiles had
attacked and damaged, without provocation, another Starfleet
vessel," (Although everyone in the room was more than aware of the
events, having lived through them, everything had to be clearly
stated due to the fact that the transcript would eventually end up
in front of a Starfleet Review Board).
"That vessel contained civilians, and it was necessary to
defend them. My own ship did not have the power to fight a
sustained battle, so decisive action was necessary. Although I
had not intended to destroy the target, my unfamiliarity with the
heavy weapons of an Alaska class battlecruiser resulted in the use
of greater firepower than I had expected."
"Commander, you are admitting lack of control over your
vessel. That does not speak well of your command abilities."
Riker swallowed hard. "Aye, sir."
At this point, Worf spoke up. "If I may, sir?"
"Yes, Lt. Worf."
"Sir, the very appearance of those ships justifies their
destruction."
Picard was piqued by this bold statement. "How so,
Lieutenant?"
"Since those ships are obviously hostile, the battlecruiser's
logs must be preserved."
"And that is sufficient grounds for excusing these charges?"
"Aye, sir. The ship's memory must have information about
those ships, where they came from, how to-" Worf paused for a
moment, enough to catch himself from saying 'destroy', which was a
suitable response that his non-Klingon shipmates would not be able
to appreciate. "Control," he continued, "these aggressive ships."
"I see."
Worf continued. "Besides, this is all a moot point, sir.
Had the ship been disabled, it would have self-destructed anyway."
"Anything you would like to add, Cmdr. Riker?"
"No, sir."
"Fine, you may take a ten minute recess while the Board
makes its decision."
Worf and Riker exited across the bridge and into the
Captain's ready room. Worf was the first to speak. "I do not
believe all of the...nonsense surrounding a simple combat reflex."
"Worf, Starfleet tries to protect life. What we should have
done is prevent those ships from harming us, then find out why
they attacked and resolve the situation. Peacefully."
"Yes, that is Starfleet policy. But how do you feel about
the situation?"
Riker smiled. "Worf, you do get right to the point, don't
you?"
"It serves no purpose to do otherwise, sir."
"Okay. I feel guilty about having destroyed that ship, and I
have been racking my brains trying to figure out how it could have
been avoided. But I keep running into the same thing: they would
have self-destructed anyway! What bothers me the most is that
they took their own lives when they didn't have to."
"And about this 'Board of Inquiry'?"
"It's a formality. I had to save the Enterprise. Both
Enterprises!"
Worf looked pensive for a moment. "I have been trained by
Starfleet, and I know its policies and its rationale. But as a
Klingon, I understand your position very well, and...I sympathise,
sir."
Riker was taken aback. He always knew that Worf was a
fiercely loyal officer, and would go far in Starfleet, but this
was the most outward show of personal loyalty that the Klingon had
ever made. Will had earned the respect of Klingons before, as a
temporary first officer aboard one of their ships. But somehow,
that hadn't meant all that much.
Will put his hand on Worf's shoulder. "Thank you. It is
very important to me to have your respect and your loyalty."
This exchange had by now made Worf uncomfortable. He was
standing quite rigidly. "Of course, sir. Ten minutes is up."
"The Board will now deliver its findings," announced Picard.
"Commander, due to the extreme stress of the situation, and
your unfamiliarity with your command, the Board has decided that
no punitive measures are in order." Picard looked to his right,
where Troi was seated.
"I can tell that the destruction of the attacking ship was
not purposeful, and that your remorse is genuine. It is my
opinion that, now that you know the capabilities of your ship,
nothing like this will happen again."
Seeing that the Counselor was finished, Geordi made his
comments. "Commander, the phaser cannons, or 'megaphasers', that
your ship is armed with are powerful. Two of those weapons have
more destructive capacity than this entire ship." He gestured
around him while he talked. "You couldn't really have been
expected to know what a full volley like that could do."
Picard spoke last. "Commander, I have had well over twenty
years experience as a starship captain, and have faced situations
like this one. It is my personal opinion that you did what was
necessary to save both of our ships, their crews, and countless
civilians. I would have done the exact same thing had I been in
your position.
"Number One, you are hereby cleared to continue your duties
as commanding officer aboard the Enterprise."
There was a collective sigh of relief around the table. They
all rose and passed by Riker on their way out. Troi passed by
first, pausing to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Will,
you're doing a great job over there. This really wasn't all
necessary."
"Thanks, Deanna."
LaForge was next. "I knew there wouldn't be any problems for
you, Commander. Good luck with your ship."
Worf was still standing next to him. "Sir, congratulations.
I am glad you will return as our captain."
Picard caught a look in Riker's eye as he responded that
hinted at something deeper, more profound, than he thought he had
seen before. "Thank you, Worf. I'll need you back aboard right
away to do some computer simulations on those megaphasers."
"Of course, sir.
Picard was loitering conspicuously behind. "Number One, I
hope you understand that I had to do this. Regulations and all."
"Certainly, Captain. I appreciate all your support."
"I really meant that. I would have done the same." There
was a brief pause. "Well, what are you waiting for? You've got a
ship to run. Get going!"
Riker's face glowed. "Aye, aye, sir!"
It was well into third watch, a time that Picard was glad he
had free, because the day had been a tremendous drain on him, when
the Captain was awakened from his much needed slumber.
A faint pinging noise roused him, and as he noticed the
clockface, which read 23:26 hours, a voice accompanied it.
"Message from Starfleet, Captain."
"Give me five minutes; I'll be right up."
Picard dragged himself to sitting position. He paused to
count to ten, forcing himself to wake up. It worked.
"Lights," he ordered, and, four minutes later, was on his way
to the turbolift.
He just finished patting a few stray strands of hair into
place as he was disgorged onto the bridge. He wasn't used to
being on the bridge this late, and the contrast between the bright
worklights there and the diffuse midnight of the corridors was
slightly painful.
"On screen." The familiar features of Admiral Syltek
coalesced.
"Captain Picard, we have received your most recent report.
We all regret the loss of the support ship Kaibatsu. However, the
recovery of the battlecruiser remains of prime importance. A
support group has been dispatched to assist you. The group
includes a scout, a tug, and a light cruiser. They will signal
you for your ETA. Any questions, Captain?"
Picard searched his still slightly sleep-clouded mind. "What
about the rest of this sector?"
"A squadron from the Planetary Defense Fleet is due in your
sector for a standard patrol later this week. We have moved up
their arrival. It is the decision of the Council that a heavy
cruiser, two light cruisers, and four destroyers will suffice for
local defence in case of any more attacks.
"You are, of course, in command of the support group, Captain
Picard. Anything else?"
"No, sir. Thank you."
"Good luck, then."
The screen went blank.
CHAPTER VIII
"Captain's Log, Stardate 42924.2: The ship is running
smoothly, and with the new support ships due in fifteen minutes we
have already completely repowered the ship. Acting-Ensign Crusher
has successfully developed a method whereby the Ultrawarp power of
our companion ship can be transferred into our own systems, and,
with miraculous timing, the engineers have just finished repairing
the main energisers.
"Unfortunately, we're still not set to run at warp speed yet.
The computers are having some difficulty balancing the anti-matter
reaction. We are therefore preparing to be taken in tow on the
tug's arrival."
The basic design of the fleet tug had remained unchanged for
over one-hundred years: a saucer with a dorsal connector, and the
two warp nacelles angled down and to the side. Where another ship
might have had a secondary hull, the tug would attach its payload.
Before the connection was made, however, there were numerous
supplies, spare parts, and extra crew members to transfer aboard
Enterprise-C.
Since the battlecruiser was now in almost perfect working
order, she needed more than a mere skeleton crew aboard to
run all of her systems, especially since she was supposed to help
the scout and Enterprise-D conduct a detailed scan of local space
on the return to Starbase.
Also brought aboard were raw materials for the ship's
synthesis vats, warheads and casings for the photon torpedoes, and
anything else that was needed by the crew. Riker left the bridge
to Worf while he was overseeing the loading procedure, which,
unfortunately, took several hours.
It took two more hours after that to assign duties and
watches, and to otherwise integrate the new crewmembers. Riker
decided that the administrative side of captaincy was far less
rewarding than the action and adventure side.
Finally, the tug linked up to the battlecruiser's primary
hull, and the group moved off. The Enterprises, along with the
scout Cassandra, were making very detailed scans of the space
around them, in hopes of giving the defense squadron sufficient
warning of attacks.
Data had been making it his habit to check on the memory
every three hours, and knew that the check he was about to make
would reveal that they were very close to a breakthrough in some
area.
He walked over to the screen that was monitoring the rebuild
process, and his estimates were confirmed. "Commander Riker," he
said to his communicator.
"Yes, Mr. Data?"
"I believe I have something for you, sir."
"I'll be right down."
True to his word, the door was sliding closed behind Will
only minutes later. He looked eager. "All right, Data, what can
you tell me?"
"I have some information for you from the computers about
these rips."
"Great. How'd you do it so fast? I thought you said it
would be at least a week."
"I put a new priority into the reorganisation program in
Enterprise-D's computer."
"What did you change?"
"Instead of organising the information in chronological
order, the order in which it was recorded, I told the computer to
look for certain information, specifically, scientific data on the
rips."
"And so you have all of that now?"
"Not all, sir. There are still gaps, but we have some
important information. Would you like me to put it on screen?"
"Fine, fine. Let's take a look."
Riker's eyed bored into the display as information began to
flow across. The rips, as scanned, best matched something known
as a dimensional interphase, a passageway between two normally
separated points in space that made them temporarily connected.
What wasn't obvious, however, was whether the interphase
doorways led to another dimension, as had some previously recorded
examples, another universe, or simply somewhere else in this
universe - maybe even somewhere else in the Milky Way galaxy.
As a natural phenomenon, the rips were apparently almost
entirely random, but, more importantly, they could somehow be
controlled, even induced. The Enterprise had in some manner
created its own rip to return to Federation space after it had
been pulled through. But the random element had caused the ship
to reappear so far away from its point of departure.
"Data, this is great. I have to get in touch with the
Captain and tell him-"
"Captain to the bridge immediately," announced the computer,
and the klaxon droned a Yellow Alert signal to accentuate the
point.
"Data, on the bridge, now!"
"Status," ordered Riker as he and the android entered the
bridge.
Worf answered. "Rip zone detected, one five three mark four,
range, six hundred thousand kilometres."
"Sir," interrupted Data, "Captain Picard hailing."
"On screen."
"Number One, how's your ship?"
"I have everything except warp speed, Captain."
"Good. I want you to undock, then accompany the Halifax for
a close investigation of the disturbance."
"Understood, sir. Riker out. Data, get the Van Maanen.
Have them release all moorings. Worf, plot a course for the zone,
and engage as soon as we're free."
"Aye, sir."
First, the tractor beam was deactivated, and then the
physical connections were released. Before the ship could drift
more than a hundred feet, the small reaction thrusters hissed,
turning Enterprise toward the target zone, and she and the light
cruiser headed off.
Ultrawarp technology was a relatively new development for
Starfleet, though not so new that all of the front-line ships in
the fleet, especially the Planetary Defense Fleet, hadn't been
replaced with Ultrawarp.
Transwarp had kept Federation ships marginally ahead of their
competition, but a completely new breakthrough in warp technology
had created Ultrawarp, first used in the Galaxy class starships,
then used to upgrade the ships of the PD-Fleet, while their old
ships were retired to mothball service.
Of course, the PD-Fleet hardly had the duties it did when the
galaxy was a generally more hostile place, but there was always
need for routine patrols, anti-piracy, neutral zone patrols, and
other such missions.
This all made Starfleet the most advanced collection of ships
in space, with Ultrawarp Defence ships and Galaxy class
exploration cruisers.
Halifax was a beautiful ship, possessed more of the graceful
lines of an Ultrawarp ship than of the lethal silhouette of the
battlecruiser that accompanied her. Her primary hull was more
elliptical than circular, and the aft end was decorated with the
two nacelles that curved up and abeam of the saucer.
The two ships halted around the edge of the zone, moving into
perpendicular orbits for maximum sensor efficiency. For several
minutes they recorded in minute detail everything their sensors
could glean from the affected region. But the routine scan was
interrupted, as Riker feared it might be.
Data announced it. "Sensor contact, sir. Three ships in the
middle of the zone, heading three six two mark zero."
"That's straight for Enterprise-D. Signal the Halifax to
interpose herself at the fringe of the zone. We'll join her."
"Aye, sir."
"Worf, make it so."
With a few quick moves of his hand, the ship took off in a
smooth curve to intercept the new ships. While they were en
route, Riker tried to contact the arrivals. Despite all his
efforts, they would not respond. Will had hoped against reality
that the attack that had resulted from the first meeting with
these unknown beings was just a horrendous misunderstanding.
So much for hope. "Vessels are charging weapons, Commander."
Worf added, "We are being scanned, sir."
"How?"
"Fire control. Halifax is being targeted as well."
"Red Alert."
The computer picked up his words and automatically sounded
the klaxon. "Weapons charging, shields at full power," reported
Worf.
"Target the lead vessel. Do they have shields?"
"Some sort of an energy field does surround the vessel, sir.
That is interesting, considering that the initial trio of ships
encountered did not have any apparent defenses to-"
"Later, Data."
"Yes, sir."
"Worf, I want you to disable the lead ship." Then he added,
his recent experience returning to him, "And only disable it."
"Of course, sir."
This time, with the ship at full power and all weapons
working, there was no need to rely solely on the megaphasers.
Three of the ship's saucer mounted phaser banks spat lightning.
The bolts struck the alien defense shielding and were absorbed.
Riker leaned forward in his chair. The phaser fire simply
disappeared into the invisible alien shields. "Megaphasers, now!"
Two of the heavier weapons struck the same place. There was
a flash, and it was soon obvious that the shots had scored.
The attacker was now dead in space, her weapons quickly
losing power, but with what she had left, nine missiles were
propelled from her hull.
"Target has launched missiles," said Worf. Other ships are
firing."
"Evasive!"
Both of the attackers' beam weapons converged on the
battlecruiser's flank shields.
"Shields penetrated, Commander. Minor damage lower decks."
"My god, that's powerful. Take out those missiles, phasers
on rapid-fire."
The ship's phasers, firing in small, low power bursts,
swatted at the incoming flies. Scanners had trouble picking out
the small targets, and the Enterprise was only able to shoot down
seven. The remaining two hit the same part of the shields, which
had only had slight power restored to it.
The ship lurched, and Riker felt the explosion through the
deck. Data reported on the damage, all traces of his usual
longwindedness gone. "Hull breached. Integrity destroyed on
decks eighteen to twenty-three. Electrical fires."
"Get damage control on that right now. Mr. Worf report."
"Remaining ships split off after attacking. Circling around
for another pass."
The first ship detonated to punctuate the reality of Worf's
statement. Unleashed energy washed across Halifax's shields, but
not enough to penetrate. "Damn! Why...?" But Riker's question
hung in everyone's mind. Who were these mysterious attackers, and
what did they have to hide that they would always destroy
themselves when damaged? But there were more pressing matters.
"Worf, you saw that last ship. Do you have an idea how much
it will take to just puncture the shields on one of those ships?"
"I think, sir, that a full salvo from the phaser cannon would
disable the ship without destroying it."
"Fine, prepare to fire on the nearer ship as they come
around."
"Aye, sir."
"Data, do you get lifeform readings on that ship?"
"Yes, sir, but very different from anything that I know of.
They do appear to have an oxygen based atmosphere, however."
"Excellent. Transporter room?"
"Transporters, aye, sir."
"As soon as her shields are down, I want you to beam as many
beings as you can off of her."
"Understood, Commander."
"Have Halifax take the other ship when we make our move."
"Yes, sir."
The two ships completed their opposite circles and joined up
again, bearing down on the Federation vessels. "Tell Halifax to
swing around. They're after us."
The light cruiser shot off in a wide arc away from Enterprise
around the attackers' flank. Worf waited as long as he dared and
fired. As calculated, the salvo crumpled the ship's shields, in
the same bright flash as before.
Halifax, meanwhile was circling around on the last ship. The
running battle had brought the group of ships treacherously close
to the rip zone. Bright misplaced swaths of stars were visible in
the background.
Having seen its fallen comrade, though, the last ship turned
around and headed at full power into the rip zone. The light
cruiser couldn't follow into the area without too much danger to
itself, and with the distance rapidly increasing, the parting
salvo from her two saucer mounted phaser rings couldn't deal out
any damage.
The mysterious ship skirted all of the rips, until it dove
back into one of them, right in the middle of the zone. "Worf,
give that crippled ship a wide berth. Data, transmit help
messages."
The answer was no less than Riker had expected, unfortunately
- a glowing fireball against the blackness.
"All right. Let's head back to the rest of the group."
"Sir," said Data, "we took some casualties in Engineering."
"Engineering?"
"Yes, sir. There was no one on the lower decks when they
were hit."
"Data, take the conn. I'm going to have a look for myself."
The turbolift door parted to admit air thick with the stench
of burned circuitry. Riker stepped into a room filled with a
slight haze of smoke.
"What the hell happened down here? Where's Lt. Argyle?"
"Over here," said a distant voice. Riker squinted through
the mist and saw the Engineer's gold uniform standing near a
medical team.
"Argyle, are you hurt?"
"No, not me. It's the shield crew."
Riker was relieved. He couldn't afford to let anything
happen to Argyle. Suppressing a strong urge to cough, Riker
crossed the room. All around, techs were going over the monitors,
checking for damage, and generally being as efficient as they
could.
In the corner of Engineering, the space devoted to shield
generating and monitoring equipment, a med team was speaking in
low and urgent voices. Before he could see what was happening, he
managed to pick up that four people had been injured, two badly,
by an equipment malfunction.
Then he leaned over Argyle' shoulder and-
"Oh, no..."
"I was going to tell you, sir, but I didn't want to panic you
all up on the bridge."
Four bodies were sprawled on the floor. Nearest the aft
wall, Wesley lay unconscious. His uniform was covered in scorch
marks, and the sleeves were burnt off. His arms were burned and
bloody, and one of his legs was at an odd angle.
"How bad is he?"
The doctor that had come over with the second group of
crewmen looked up from where he was attending a more serious case.
"Burns and scratches, broken leg, maybe a concussion. We have
more serious things to take care of now."
The doctor, an older man with a thick head of grey hair,
returned his gaze to a tech who was laying face down. Riker
gasped. His uniform, too, was scorched, as were, Riker now
noticed, those of the other two. But the one with the doctor was
bleeding from his ears, and his left shoulder blade was visible
under shredded skin.
One more didn't look physically injured, but was twitching
horribly. He looked like he had taken a strong dose of
electricity. The fourth, the only conscious one of the
casualties, was sitting in one of the operator's chairs, looking
dazed and bleeding from a gash in his leg.
Argyle removed himself from the compartment, tugging at
Riker's elbow as he did so. Will followed the other man to the
Engineer's office, off to the side of the intermix chamber.
"I, uh, have some bad news for you, Commander."
"And that wasn't bad enough?"
"It was his fault."
"What? Whose?"
"Ensign Crusher's."
"You've got to be joking. Argyle, what-"
"I'm sorry, Commander, but I was monitoring shield control
when it happened."
A good captain needed to be objective. Riker willed himself
to sit still and listen. "Just after our first shot, Wesley was
saying something about having just thought of a way to increase
output to shields. He said something about recalibrating the coil
microscanners to repeat density output.
"I'm sure you don't know what that means, but anyway, the
shield control officer told him to forget about it, because we
were in the middle of combat and he had duties to attend to.
"Then after that first hit that punched through the shields,
he started trying to do it. Jumped up and said that we needed the
shields, and it would only take a minute to do. The lieutenant
told him to return to his post, ordered him, but he kept at it.
Then we took that second hit and the generators overloaded,
because of what he was doing."
Riker sighed and put his face in his hands. "Yeah. That's
just like him - once he gets an idea, he goes into it head first.
I have to make a report to the Captain. Tell the doctor to
prepare to medivac the wounded. They have better facilities over
there."
"Aye, sir."
CHAPTER IX
Footsteps reverberated off of the Starbase's metal corridors.
Riker and Worf had left the battlecruiser to attend to the
interrogation of the aliens that Riker had had beamed aboard
during the last battle.
At least, that's why Riker told himself he was going along.
His presence really wasn't necessary, but he couldn't stand just
now to be aboard Enterprise-C, because the order had come down
from Starfleet Command that, after its arrival at Starbase 42, the
ship was to be formally decommissioned and turned over to a team of
Starfleet specialists that would continue the work that Riker's
crew had started. As soon as his crew had started deactivating
systems and packing their belongings, Will had decided that it was
time to leave.
But he didn't really want to think about that now. He had
yet to see the aliens. They had been beamed directly to the
sickbay stasis fields. Stasis was used normally to prevent the
deterioration of critical patients, because, once inside of a
stasis field, time stopped. The technology had been used by some
race of beings who used to control, or at least populate, all of
known space, and the occasional discovery of pieces of their
technology had found fruitful application in Starfleet.
After arrival at Starbase, the aliens had been transferred
directly to a holding area, so none of the crew had ever actually
seen them. The Chief of Base Security met Worf and Riker in a
small briefing room adjoining the interrogation area.
"Ah, I'm glad you two are here." He turned towards the
Klingon. "You must be Lt. Worf, and you, of course, Capt. Riker."
"It's Commander." The Security Officer noticed Will's rank
insignia, apparently for the first time.
"Yes, so it is. My apologies. They simply told me that you
were the battlecruiser's commanding officer, so I assumed-"
"Of course. No harm done." Will did not like the man's tone
of voice. He was a captain himself, and it sounded like he felt
more than a touch of snobbery that one of a lower rank should hold
a command position.
"Shall we get started, then?"
The trio moved through a security door to the room where the
detainees were being held. Having served most of his time in
Starfleet with humanoid aliens, like Worf and the Andorian that
now accompanied them, Riker was more than a bit surprised by the
sight of the three aliens that greeted his eyes.
They were not humanoid. Riker tried to assimilate what he
was seeing as a first impression, to think of something of which
these creatures reminded him - but there was no such thing. The
largest part of their bodies was the midsection. It was
triangular, each point serving as a hip joint for one of the three
legs, with the apex at the back. The waist area was thick, and
carapaced in a mottled green exoskeleton. The legs were short and
thick, with ball joints at the knees giving their stances a
bowlegged appearance.
Riker did a double take as he noticed that the beings had
three eyes - one atop each hip joint, which were themselves
covered in the same exoskeletal material. Above the midsection,
though, they appeared to be a completely different creature.
Instead of the chitin-covered appearance of the lower half, the
top would have been formless, had it not been held up by a few
pieces of carapaced armour.
The torso was held to a sort of egg shape, with a long piece
of armour covering what would have been a spine. Three tentacle-
like arms protruded, one each from the front and sides, with the
shoulder joint partially reinforced by exoskeleton. Each arm
ended in a tripartite division, the single large tentacles
breaking down into three smaller finger-like ones. The tip of
each finger was armoured. The slit at the top of the body was
probably a mouth.
"Yes, it is. At least, that's what they eat through."
"What about talking?"
"We don't know. They've been absolutely silent so far. So
the first thing that needs to be done is getting them to talk for
the universal translator. Then we can get some information."
Riker looked again at the three aliens, perfectly still over
in the corner. "Uh, where do we start?"
"Leave that to us," answered Worf.
An hour later, Riker was again wandering aimlessly in the
Base's corridors. The aliens simply refused to say anything (the
partial logs on the battlecruiser made mention to the fact that
the aliens had some means of verbal communication, as loathe as
they seemed to be to demonstrate that now) and there was nothing
that Will could do to help things along.
He soon found himself at the gangway leading back to his ship
- his former ship, that is. If nothing else, there was a load of
paper work that he was expected to do, the standard forms 'upon
completion of a starship cruise of less than six weeks duration'.
Simple enough, but there were twenty pages, at least.
The sight of the empty corridors, dark and quiet, sent a wave
of depression over him. Riker had always viewed command as a goal
to look forward to - several years down the line. He had already
turned down one command because of two things: he wanted to stay
on the Enterprise, and he came to the decision that he wasn't
experienced enough for an extended command.
The worst thing was that Riker couldn't understand why he was
feeling the way he was. He didn't want a command right now! At
least he didn't think that he did.
By now Will had reached the bridge. He stepped out of the
turbolift and crossed the room - which was larger than that of a
Galaxy class ship's - to the center chair.
"Captain's Log, Final Entry, Stardate 42932.3: Now that the
ship has been successfully transferred to Starbase 42, my duties
here are finished. I am proud to say that I leave this ship much
better than I found her, and I share that pride with the excellent
crew I've had for these past weeks.
"As a first command, I am content with the job that I have
done here. For the most part, I feel ready to return now to being
Capt. Picard's First Officer, but I also..."
Riker clicked off the recorder without even thinking why.
Deep down in his mind, in the very basic responses that made Will
Riker his own person, something said that he had no right to
finish that sentence, and that he also shouldn't show the weakness
to which he was about to allude.
"Computer, delete the last sentence of previous log entry."
The computer thought momentarily. "Acknowledged. Action
complete."
Just then, the turbolift opened, and a group of technicians
emerged to finish up work on the bridge. Riker decided he'd
rather be somewhere else.
"Riker to Enterprise-D."
"Enterprise, sir. Hathoway here."
"Get me Counselor Troi, please."
Shortly thereafter, back aboard the Galaxy class ship
Enterprise, Will and Troi entered the sickbay. Riker was now all
but officially removed from command of the battlecruiser - he had
no more duties aboard her now. He figured it was best for him to
get back to his duties as exec as quickly as possible.
Surprisingly, there was no backlog of things that needed his
attention. Geordi and the Captain must have been working pretty
hard.
One of the first things that he had to do was to deal with
Wesley. There were two problems there. First, he could be
brought up on charges for disobeying direct orders under fire, a
serious offense, and Riker would, having been commanding officer
at the time, have to decide on appropriate punishment. Second
(and the reason for the Counselor's presence), Riker had to inform
a sixteen-year-old boy that his actions almost caused the death of
four people, including himself. There was no telling how Wesley
would take something like that.
Dr. Pulaski was present as the two entered her sickbay.
"I assume you two are here to speak with Wes?"
"Yes, Doctor. Is he awake?" asked Troi.
"Yes, just. He was out for three days recovering from that
concussion, and he wasn't entirely coherent after that, so I put
him back under to give the regenerators a chance to work on his
burns."
"Then I guess we have good timing. I didn't really want him
up and around too much before we came by," commented Riker.
"Not all timing," responded Pulaski. "I din't exactly rush
the treatment, for that very reason."
Riker allowed a smile. "I beg your pardon. Excellent
foresight, Doctor. Can we see him now?"
"Of course. Right through here."
As the Doctor started to leave, the intercom started
announcing Will's name.
"Just a second, please. Riker here," he said after tapping
his communicator.
"Commander, this is Worf." As though he couldn't tell by the
voice.
"What is it Lieutenant?"
"The interrogation has been completely unsuccessful. The
prisoners refuse to speak."
Riker realised that, even without the command of a ship, he
was still in charge of things that he had started, like the
situation with the aliens.
Will looked at Pulaski while he spoke. "How does the
security captain feel about a full medscan on the detainees?"
Riker made the emphasis simply because he didn't feel the term
'prisoners' to be appropriate.
"He had suggested just that."
"I'm glad he agrees. Doctor, would you mind?"
"Not at all, Will."
"Excellent. I'm sure Dr. Crusher will want in on this as
well. Mr. Worf, the doctor will be making a housecall."
"Of course, sir. Worf out."
Pulaski laughed. "Well, I'll get my things together. Wesley
is right through that door."
All levity vanished as Riker and Deanna walked through the
door. It was obvious that Wes knew that he didn't know something.
"At last! Are you going to tell me what's going on around here?"
Riker was the first to speak, after the two officers took a
seat near the boy's bed.
"Wes, tell me what you remember."
"That's easy. It's all I've been able to think about since I
woke up." He began walking around the room and gesticulating as
though he were talking to himself, or thinking out loud. "We were
under attack, and the shields weren't holding. All I needed to do
was recalibrate the microscanners - " He turned towards Troi and
Riker, "That's the part of the shield generator that creates the
matrix for the shields." He turned in on himself again. "I was
working on it and then I think we took a hit in Engineering,
because that's when I blacked out. The ship wasn't damaged badly,
was it?" The last was to Riker.
He ignored the comment and stayed on the subject. "Wes,
weren't you ordered to leave the generators alone."
He was back kneeling on the bed now. "Yeah, I guess so. But
it had to be done! The shields just weren't powerful enough."
"So you were given a direct order by your superior and you
disobeyed it." Deanna face's looked like she had just seen Will
run the boy through on a sword. He ignored it, for now.
"But -"
Riker's voice took on a harsh edge. "Did you or did you not
disobey a direct order, Acting-Ensign Crusher?"
"Will!"
He silenced Deanna with a flick of his hand. Of course Troi
was right that Wes would need to be handled with care - after he'd
been made to realise what he had done.
There was a long silence. Wesley responded in a voice heavily
laden with formality, as though he were insulted to have to admit
to the fact. "Yes, sir, I did."
"Why?"
"Because it was obvious that the shields couldn't take
another hit from the attackers as they were, and I saw no harm in
what I was doing."
"No harm?"
"Yes, sir."
"And what do you call four casualties?"
Surprise replaced the emotions on Wesley's face. "What?"
Riker's tone of voice softened accordingly.
"Everyone in shield control was injured, two of them pretty
badly. While you were working on the microscanners, the ship took
a hit, which caused the generators to overload completely."
Wesley was visibly staggered. "Because..."
Riker tried his best to sound fatherly and understanding.
"Because of what you did."
Wes fell back to a prone position. "It's all my fault," he
said, half unbelieving, half in frustration. Almost immediately
he sat back up. "I've got to see them, to say something!" He
started to jump up.
"Wait! They're not on board. The other three are on the
Starbase."
Finally, Troi jumped into the conversation. "I don't think
you should see them just yet. I think, Wes, that maybe we should
talk. After all-"
Wes wasn't taking it at all well. "Talk! About who I want
to try and kill this week?" Troi started towards Wes, who was
almost in tears now, and still raving. Riker held her back.
Again he felt that Troi's brand of helping Wesley deal with his
actions could wait.
"Mr. Crusher!" It was the closest Riker had ever come to
yelling at Wes, and it easily caught the boy's attention.
"Yes, sir," he said meekly.
Again, Riker's tone softened. "I'm afraid I can't say that I
know how you're feeling. But I think I can say that I know you
should have someone help you deal with this. I could order you to
undergo treatment with Counselor Troi, or I could have Dr. Pulaski
prescribe it to you. But I think it would be wise of you to be
mature enough to make your own decisions."
"Yes, sir."
"Look, Wes, I'm only trying to help you."
"I know. I'm sorry, sir, about the way I acted."
"Do you want to talk to Counselor Troi now?"
"Not right now." Riker started to interject something.
"Don't worry, I will, I just want to be alone right now. Please?"
"All right."
"It's okay, Wes. I'll come and see you later."
"Thanks."
Starbase 42's Operations Room was a large place. Commodore
Blackwell entered the room on large strides, and several junior
officers scurried to keep up. There was a huge viewscreen on the
opposite wall, and almost every other inch of the room was filled
with consoles and their operators.
"What's going on around here?"
A captain quickly crossed the compartment from one of the
forward stations. "Sir, we're getting reports from all of the
sector. Unidentified warships have been sighted. They could be
the same as reported by the Enterprise."
"How many reports?"
"Over one-hundred and fifty."
"Oh, boy. Have you done anything yet?"
"There have been no attacks as of yet, so no, I haven't."
"Very well. Put the Sector on Yellow Alert."
"Aye, aye, sir. Anything else."
"Have all system defense fleets scramble and put on alert
status. Request backup units from Starfleet Command."
"Aye, sir."
The Commodore scratched his greying beard. "We could have
ourselves one hell of a problem."
Late that afternoon, Riker was on the bridge, at his post
next to Captain Picard. Will was being rather quiet, sullen in
fact, but the Captain had refrained from saying anything; after
all, the First Officer's duties hadn't been impaired by his
moodiness. In any event, it would pass.
Picard turned towards his exec. He opened his mouth to say
something just as the turbolift doors opened. The two doctors
emerged onto the bridge.
Dr. Crusher spoke first. "Captain, we have some very good
news for you."
"Indeed. What is it?"
Pulaski answered, "We finished the medscan on the subjects,
and managed to adapt one of our standard hypo sprays to be used on
them."
Crusher continued, "We gave them an injection to loosen their
tongues, so to speak. Mr. Worf should be up soon to report on the
results."
To accent the point, the Klingon's bulky frame appeared
behind the lift doors.
"Excellent, all of you. Doctors, would you care to join me
in the ready room?"
The three of them headed for the adjacent compartment. Riker
watched the receding figures but what he saw instead was the two
rather comely women following the distinguished Picard.
This brought a smile to his face. "And it's always ready."
Data turned from his console. "Sir?"
"Never mind."
Picard turned, his voice filled with sarcasm as he turned.
"Commander, would you and Lt. Worf care to join us?"
"Of course, sir."
The five officers were seated about the ready room.
"Interesting," noted the Captain, as the doctors finished their
analysis of the aliens. "They're really that different."
Pulaski answered. "Indeed. They breathe oxygen, and some of
the basic biochemistry appears to be the same as most known races,
such as humans or Klingons for example, but beyond that..."
Dr. Crusher added, "Their chromosomes come in triplets,
instead of pairs, and their gene structure is wildly different
from anything I've even heard about."
"Lt. Worf, what were you able to learn from them?"
"Some very important things, Captain."
"Such as?"
"The prisoners' ship was one of many scouting groups from a
very large fleet."
"An entire fleet? How many? A few hundred?"
"Several thousand, sir."
There were gasps around the room. Beverly Crusher gave their
mutual fears voice, "Oh, my God..."
"Are you sure?" asked Riker
"Yes, sir. And, more importantly, they are massing for an
invasion."
"Into the Federation?" asked Picard.
"They do not know of the Federation. The target is this area
of space, but they do not now where or when."
"Number One, I want you to relay this information to the
Starbase and to Starfleet Command. Immediately!"
"Yes,sir." Riker rose to leave.
"Anything else, Mr. Worf?"
"Yes. They are all some sort of engineers, from what they
call a 'breach-drive'."
"Does that mean-"
"That they can control these rips. Yes, sir."
"Add that, too, Number One."
"On my way."
