ignored the starbase," observed Shelby.
"Obviously, they were in something of a hurry,"
said Riker. "And I think I know what they were in
a hurry for."
He glanced out the viewing port. Ahead of
them, space was warping around the speeding shape of the
planet-killer, still on its head-on course
to penetrate Borg space. Thus far the
Enterprise and the Chekov were keeping pace, but
it was not an easy task, and it required careful
monitoring of the engines.
Riker shook his head in amazement. That it would
take years to achieve her goal was clearly of
no interest to her at all. As she had said, she
had all the time in the universe.
It was time that the Enterprise did not share, which
Data was just now pointing out. "If we can assume
that the planet-killer is capable of surviving the
next Borg attack, the next densely
populated system will be that of the Gorn.
Furthermore, beyond that she will inevitably--
presuming she does not alter her course--enter a
section of Romulan space."
"Just perfect," said Riker sarcastically.
"Why doesn't she just open fire on the
Federation headquarters and be done with it?" demanded
Korsmo, sounding even more frustrated. "She's
going to have the entire galaxy in pieces before she's
through."
"I am aware of what she might and might not
do, Captain," said Picard quietly.
"Well, she's not going to have the chance," said
Korsmo. "I received a communique from
Starfleet ..."
"Yes, I know," Picard told him. "We
received the same one."
Korsmo seemed surprised for a moment, but then
shrugged. "Then you know."
Crusher looked confused, as did Troi and
La Forge. "Well I don't know," said the
doctor. "Someone care to let me in on it?"
"Starfleet is assembling a fleet
to intercept her," said Korsmo with great
satisfaction. "If the Borg don't get her,
we definitely will."
There was silence in the briefing room for a moment.
Picard cast a glance at Shelby, who was seated
next to her captain but clearly wasn't sharing his
enthusiasm. Nor did Riker look ecstatic.
"Problem, Commander? Commanders?" said
Picard.
Shelby looked at Riker. "It's Wolf
359 all over again."
"My thoughts exactly," said Riker.
"I do not like what you're implying at all,"
declared Korsmo. "Starfleet can no more let that
woman carve her way through the galaxy than they
could let the Borg assault us unanswered. For a
galaxy to be at peace, that peace must be
protected. Starfleet and the Federation aren't
simply going to turn away when such a massive
threat presents itself, whether it be the
planet-killer or the Borg. And I will have you
know, young officers," he added stiffly, "that Wolf
359 was heroism at its finest!"
"Wolf 359 was a massacre," said Riker.
"I will never forget the look on Admiral
Hanson's face when he told us of the fight he
was going to give the Borg. He was like a
war-horse put back into harness. You weren't there
to see that, Captains. We saw it. A brave
defender going off to be slaughtered. And we saw
the graveyard of ships that were left behind in the
Borg's wake."
"And that was against one Borg ship," Shelby
said. "Now you're telling us that a fleet is being
assembled--a fleet which can't possibly be as
powerful as the one at Wolf, because most of the best
ships were lost there--and it's going up against a foe
that's more powerful."
Now Picard cleared his throat loudly and said,
in a tone that was indicating that no further discussion
on that topic was being tolerated, "It's of far more
importance, I think, that we deal with the here and now.
And the here and now would indicate that, sooner rather than
later, depending upon their speed, we will be encountering
three Borg ships. Mr. La Forge, what are
our options?"
"We've developed ways to temporarily
stall the Borg during an attack," said
Geordi. "Fluctuating the phaser resonance
frequencies tampers with their ability to adjust
to our weapons. Also varying the nutonics slows
down their ability to overcome our deflectors,
although only for a matter of seconds."
"There was something else you did. Memoranda were
circulated throughout Starfleet," said Korsmo,
"and Shelby was telling me about it as well, with the
deflector dish ..."
Geordi's head bobbed up and down.
"We discovered that the power nodules of the Borg were
susceptible to phaser frequencies along the
higher end of the band. It caused system-wide
drops throughout the Borg ship when fired on them.
Figuring that more is better, we generated a
concentrated burst of energy using power from the warp
engines, channeled through the deflector dish,
to give us more punch than phasers or photon
torpedoes could have provided. The problem was that
since it took so much power, we couldn't maneuver
at warp speed. Furthermore, it caused
failure in the warp reactor core primary
coolant system, and we came damned close
to cracking the dilithium crystals."
"The result?" asked Korsmo.
Geordi shifted uncomfortably in his chair,
and no one else around the table looked particularly
at ease. "Nothing. The Borg shields
absorbed it."
"That would be my doing," admitted Picard.
"When the Borg "recruited" me, they took
all of our possible planned strategies from my
mind."
"The other drawback is that it left us
virtual sitting ducks," said Riker. "That
kind of failure against one Borg ship is bad
enough. Trying it again with two other ships to attack
you while you're making yourself vulnerable attacking a
third is even more risky."
"They can only prepare for what they knew we
could do, up to the point where they abducted the
captain," said Geordi. "But they don't know
about things that we've come up with since."
"You have something in mind, Mr. La Forge?"
asked Picard.
"Something that's worth a shot," said Geordi.
"Wesley had been conducting experiments with
creating warp bubbles."
"Oh God, don't remind me," said
Beverly Crusher.
"But it may be something we can use," Geordi
continued. "All the equations and records of the
experiment are in the computer, and I've been
looking them over from time to time when I had a spare
few minutes. And I've been discussing
possibilities with Data ..."
"We have theorized," Data said, "that it would be
possible to program into the computer a remix of
matter and antimatter to duplicate, on a
large scale, the warp bubble that
Wesley created."
"In the main engines?" said Picard, looking
somewhat taken aback.
"No, sir," said Data. "The mixture would
be contained in the emergency antimatter generator
on the lower engineering hull. However, upon command, the
computer would then channel it through the warp field
generators on the outboard nacelles. The warp
bubble would interact with the subspace field of the
Borg ship and encapsulate it in a shrinking
universal field similar to the one which trapped
Doctor Crusher. It would, for all intents and
purposes, remove the affected ship from our
space-time continuum."
"So we would have to maneuver close enough to the
Borg vessel to, essentially, "drop off"
the warp bubble on their subspace field," said
Picard.
"Yes, sir," confirmed Geordi. "And we
would have to keep moving at impulse power to leave the
discharge behind. We'd have maybe three seconds
to get away--at impulse power--or risk being
encompassed in the warp bubble along with the Borg
ship."
"Sounds dicey," admitted Riker.
"How long would it take you to prepare the
emergency antimatter generator?" asked
Picard.
"Wesley did all the theoretical groundwork
when he was first doing his experiments." Geordi
shrugged. "This is just a straightforward application.
Maybe half an hour."
"Make it so." Picard paused. "Captain
Korsmo, I--"
But he didn't get to complete the sentence, as
the briefing room communicator sounded.
"Captain," came Chafin's voice, "the
planet-killer is reducing speed."
"Are there Borg ships ahead?"
"No, sir."
"Maybe it's running out of gas," said
Korsmo.
The briefing room doors opened and Guinan
entered quickly. Korsmo looked up and sighed in
exasperation, but kept his peace. Guinan, for her
part, ignored him completely but instead went
straight to Picard.
"She wants to see us."
"Wants to?" said Picard, not having to ask
who Guinan meant by "she."
"Perhaps "wants to" is too strong a
term," allowed Guinan. "She will see us. That
alone is a breakthrough."
"What she is that?" asked Korsmo. "The
woman in the planet-killer?"
"Captain," Chafin's voice came, "it's
dropping out of warp."
"Bring us alongside," said Picard, and
stood. "Transporter room. Prepare for four
to beam aboard the planet-killer. Doctor,
Guinan, Mr. Data, with me."
"No, sir!" Riker said immediately, "that would
be--"
"The only logical course of action," said
Picard with quiet confidence. "This may be our
only chance to ally the planet-killer solidly
with Federation interests. If that can be accomplished,
we need never worry about the threat of the Borg
again. Mr. La Forge, Counselor Troi,
tell me of the Bonaventure woman. Could she be
useful somehow in negotiating with Delcara?"
"You can't negotiate with her, Picard,"
Korsmo now said. "She's a terrorist! She
does what she wants, where she wants. There can
be no compromise with someone like that."
Picard simply stared at him icily, and then
said very quietly, as if Korsmo had not even
spoken, "I'm waiting for an answer to my question,
Counselor."
"Using Reannon would not be advisable," said
Troi. "She is at a very delicate stage in
her recovery, and very unpredictable. She could do
as much harm as good."
"I agree," said Geordi.
"Very well, then. She'll stay here." And
seeing Riker's mouth about to open, Picard quickly
interrupted with a curt, "There is nothing to discuss,
Number One."
"Captain," Shelby now said, leaning forward,
"this is not the time."
"Commander Shelby is right, sir. You can't be
away from the Enterprise now. The Borg are
coming."
Picard turned to Riker, and his first officer
understood immediately from the look in Picard's face.
This was more than determination on Picard's part
to take the risk himself. This was a personal
fulfillment of a lifelong quest on the part of his
captain, and he came to the quiet realization that
there was no way in hell he was going to be
able to get in this man's way.
"You will have to give them my regrets," said
Picard.
Chapter Nineteen
Korsmo strode onto the bridge of the
Chekov and dropped into the command chair. Shelby
followed a few steps behind him, looking far more
composed and controlled.
"Against every common sense move," Korsmo said,
more to himself than anything. But everyone on the bridge
heard, and turned towards him with curiosity.
"Sir?" asked the man at ops.
Korsmo didn't look at anyone as he just
shook his head and said, "There are certain people in the
galaxy who go by the book, who always do the
correct thing, and they lead satisfactory, but
uninspiring, careers. And then there are the ones who
do whatever the hell they feel like, and they get the
attention and acclaim. Now, you want to tell me
what you call that?"
There was silence on the bridge for a moment, and
then Shelby said, simply and clearly, "I
call that justice."
Korsmo fired her a look that wasn't
sharing that with us, Commander."
Shelby said nothing, just inclined her head
slightly as if giving a tongue-in-cheek
"You're welcome."
Korsmo looked at the screen, at the
planet-killer that was now stationary in space. The
Enterprise had drawn closer, and Korsmo
said, "Hold our position here."
"Sir," said Hobson in surprise. "The
planet-killer had been generating a field
scrambler that had made transport aboard
impossible. But sensors are detecting that a
hole has just been created in the field. Should
we--?"
"No," said Korsmo quietly. "Take no
action. Hold us steady. You see, we weren't
invited."
Guinan, Picard, Data, and Troi stepped
up onto the transporter platform. Worf and
Riker stood at the base, while O'Brien
checked his readouts. "Transportation is now
possible, sir," said O'Brien, not
without some surprise. "And I'm reading a
transporter beacon signal from within the
planet-killer. Someone has someplace very
specific they want me to send you."
"Then we shan't disappoint them," Picard
said.
"Sir, I still recommend against this," said
Riker firmly, though he
did not think, at this
point, that Picard was going to listen to him. In that
he was correct.
"Recommendation noted, Number One."
Now Worf stepped forward and proffered a
phaser. "Sir, you should have this with you."
"I don't think that will be necessary, Mr.
Worf."
In a firm, even fierce voice, Worf
said, "I do."
Picard was slightly surprised by the vehemence
of his security head. He also understood it. It was
a very difficult thing to ask a Klingon to stand by and
permit a commanding officer to do some thing that he,
Worf, felt was inappropriate. Klingons were
driven by an immense sense of duty, and Worf
was in tremendous conflict. On the one hand, he was
obligated to obey the wishes of his captain. On
the other hand, he felt duty-bound to protect his
commanding officer from harm.
As much out of consideration for Worf's feelings as
anything else, Picard took the phaser.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," he said.
Worf gave a curt nod and stepped back,
his arms folded across his broad chest.
Picard stepped back up onto the
transporter platform and glanced at Guinan.
"Your first time through a transporter?"
She shrugged. "First time for everything."
Picard nodded and then turned to O'Brien.
"Energize," he said.
They shimmered and vanished off the transporter
pads.
"Vaya con dios," murmured Riker.
Picard was staring at himself.
He took a step back and reflexively his
hand went towards his phaser. Then he realized that
the individual he was facing, who looked just like
him, was doing the exact same thing. In less than
a second upon first seeing his reflection he
realized what it was, and he felt a bit
sheepish. He retreated a step farther
so that he could get a look around.
"Just as Geordi surmised," said Picard.
"Crystal."
Picard, Troi, and Guinan stood in the
middle of their surroundings, taking it all in.
Troi and Picard were clearly amazed at what
they saw. Guinan, for her part, merely stood
impassively and looked around as if she had seen
it all before.
All around them, for as far and as high as they could
see, they were surrounded by intricately designed
structures from a material that looked for all the
world like crystal.
The walls, vast sheets and pillars of
crystal, reflected endlessly the images of the
four Enterprise visitors. Picard reached out
tentatively, after consulting with Data's