Part 6 (2/2)

”Yes, Presider,” Graff said, nodding quickly. ”It was an unexpected result, perhaps due to our inability to properly test the new apparatus in an atmosphere-”

”Never mind that now,” the Presider said, waving a hand impatiently. ”What about the destruction of the drones? What did the enemy use to do it?”

”As nearly as we can tell, a phased energy weapon of some sort was used to cause the const.i.tuent molecules of the drones to dissociate. In other words, they were vaporized.”

”And we didn't realize they had anything like that,” Hek said.

”No, Presider,” Graft said. ”They do not have such weapons at all. The phased energy weapon that was used was not fired by the Lethanta-”

”-but by the alien s.h.i.+p in orbit around their world,” Hek finished for him. ”Of course. The aliens have become involved on the side of the Lethanta.” Hek chuckled, a sound that sent a s.h.i.+ver up his attache's spine. ”We'll have to delay further action until we can sort this matter out.” He smiled a dangerous smile. ”This gets more interesting by the minute, doesn't it, Graff?”

”Perhaps, Presider, the aliens were operating out of self-interest,” Graff pointed out. ”We already know from our monitoring of their communications that alien representatives were to meet with the leaders of the planetary government at about the time the drones were due to arrive. The aliens may have destroyed the drones simply to save themselves.”

The Presider looked at him in that intimidating manner he so often used on his subordinates. Graff stood his ground, trying to appear more calm than he felt. The Presider's last two attaches had disappeared after short terms of service, never to be seen again. Everyone in the officer corps believed the attaches had gone through that special door in the star chamber, the recently installed air lock to nowhere that the officers called Hek's Closet.

”All right,” Hek finally said, frowning harshly. ”I'll admit the timing fits, Graff. You could be right. d.a.m.n, what a dismal turn of events. We would have had the Lethantan leaders.h.i.+p cold if only we'd launched the drones a bit earlier. Whose fault do you think it was?”

”There is no blame to be a.s.signed here, Presider,” Graff said. ”The alien s.h.i.+p had not even entered this star system when we launched the drones several weeks ago. The transit time to target was considerable at this distance, even for a high-velocity drone. The timing of the launch was based on the position of the fleet relative to Nem Ma'ak Bratuna and the tactical need for the drones to arrive during the workday, to enhance our chances of catching the members of the leaders.h.i.+p inside the building.”

”I didn't ask you that, Graff,” Hek said coldly. ”I asked you whose fault you thought this disaster was.”

”I, uh, I will begin investigating the matter immediately, Presider.”

”Do that,” Hek said abruptly. ”The High Council will want to know. I'll expect your report on this desk by the dinner hour.” He pointed at the door. ”Go.”

As Graff left the room, he wondered which of his friends in the officer corps he would sell out this time. The list of Graff's sacrificial offerings to the need of Presider Hek to punish simple bad luck was becoming a rather long one.

Chapter Seven.

THE BRIDGE WAS QUIET, as it usually was before everything was about to happen. Picard thought of the bridge as being in ”calm before storm” mode.

The contact team had been back for about an hour. Upon their return to the Enterprise, Picard had ordered a shuttle pilot beamed directly into Justman, which had then been flown back to the Enterprise without incident. The captain had spent the time since then sitting comfortably in his chair on the bridge, sipping at a cup of tea, and waiting for the Lethanta to call him. If they did not, he would have no choice but to leave them to themselves.

”I believe it will be all right, Captain,” Troi said. As usual, she was sitting to his left, a quiet presence that steadied him. ”They need us, and they know it.”

”I'm not worried about that, Counselor,” Picard said, ”but we're losing time. I wonder how Geordi and Data are doing-”

”La Forge to Captain Picard,” came Geordi's voice.

”Ah. Yes, Mr. La Forge?”

”If you'll take a look at the main viewscreen, Captain, I think you'll see that we've defeated the Krann cloaking device.”

Picard nodded to himself as thousands of bright specks began to appear on screen. ”Thank you, Mr. La Forge.”

”Incredible,” Riker breathed. ”You told me about this, Captain, but seeing it is something else entirely. There seems to be a million of them.”

Ro glanced over at the Ops panel. ”Only a little over a hundred and sixty-three thousand, sir,” she reported.

”I stand corrected, Ensign,” said Riker. ”That's much better.”

”Data and I have refined the tachyon sweep routine of the main sensor array to defeat whatever it is the Krann are doing to hide themselves,” La Forge continued. ”This should work for any expectable cloaking configuration the Krann manage to come up with for their probes, their manned s.h.i.+ps, whatever. We figured that since the Krann don't have faster-than-light drive or communications, they wouldn't know enough about tachyons to be able to hide theirs from us.”

”Well done, both of you,” Picard said. ”Mr. Data, when you're finished down there, please return to the bridge.”

”Aye, sir.”

Picard turned to Troi. ”Now all we do is wait for a call,” he said. ”I don't believe Kerajem will wait much longer, if he's going to call us at all.”

”Captain,” Worf said, ”I am now able to display a visual of the lead Krann s.h.i.+ps. They have come close enough now to be visible under full magnification.”

”Excellent,” Picard said. ”Let's see them.”

The view of the Krann armada disappeared and was replaced by a visual of a single s.h.i.+p. ”This is full magnification, sir,” Worf said.

The s.h.i.+p was a vast, spindly looking cage, inside of which were contained a large number of spinning spheres of various sizes. Each sphere was rotating on an axis attached to the cage. There was an array of conical shapes on the sunward side of the cage.

”It looks like a bunch of big balloons caught in a net,” Riker said.

”A clockwork stars.h.i.+p,” Picard said. ”Incredible. Each sphere must represent an independent environment.”

”Why are they spinning?” Troi wondered.

”Artificial gravity, I should think,” said the captain. ”It's an old idea. The acceleration of spin on the inside surface of each sphere would subst.i.tute nicely for a gravity field.”

”This s.h.i.+p is fifteen to twenty times larger than we are,” Worf reported, ”and it is the largest s.h.i.+p I can detect. Those conelike objects to sunward appear to be engine outlets. They are putting out large streams of hot ions. That must be how they decelerate, Captain.”

”The outlets are up front?” Troi asked.

”That's where you'd expect to see them on a s.h.i.+p of this type during deceleration, Counselor,” Picard said. ”The outlets would be opposite the direction of flight.”

”I can see what must be radiative fins here and there,” Riker commented. ”There are a good many of them. They must carry internal heat away from the core of the s.h.i.+p and allow it to leak very slowly into vacuum. All the heat is wasted to s.p.a.ce. This suggests that the Krann can't do anything about entropy except to succ.u.mb to it. I've seen designs like this-ancient ones that were drawn up before the development of warp drive. It was back when the old Earth nations were contemplating sending colony s.h.i.+ps to the star systems nearest Sol. They came up with kludges like this one.”

”The hull seems to be festooned with gadgets,” Troi said. ”Those over there look very much like sensor dishes.”

”I'll bet that's just what they are,” Riker said. ”The sensor dish is about as basic a design as you can get. Related designs go all the way back to the nineteenth century on Earth. Mr. Worf, let's see some other s.h.i.+ps.”

”Aye, sir,” the Klingon replied. The view s.h.i.+fted, and three smaller Krann vessels appeared on screen.

”The same thing,” Troi observed, ”only smaller. Fewer spheres inside the cages.”

”There are much smaller s.h.i.+ps as well,” Worf told them. He worked the Tactical panel for a moment, and the scene changed yet again. Now framed in the center of the screen was a small, boxy s.p.a.cecraft that looked not unlike a Starfleet shuttlecraft of the previous century. ”This one appears to be a personnel transport vessel, Captain-small, chemically powered, not much in the way of energy reserves, and no detectable weaponry. I'm reading a complement of seven aboard, and all bear the same life signs. With your permission, Captain, I will provisionally log these readings as representative of the Krann race, and I will add them to our database.”

”Make it so,” Picard said, ”and put the long-range view back on screen. Ro, how far are the lead Krann vessels from Nem Ma'ak Bratuna?”

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