Part 15 (1/2)

”If you had earned that uniform, you'd know that the unknown is what brings us out here!” Picard snapped.

Q sniffed and turned away haughtily. ”Wasted effort,” he tossed off, ”considering the level of your intelligence.”

Picard sensed the alien backing off. He was not threatening or harrying now, not the bully boy. Q was reduced to throwing verbal barbs. In Picard's experience, that usually translated into a weakened position. ”Let's test that,” he said pleasantly. He turned to Zorn. ”Starting with the tunnels you have under Farpoint, Groppler.”

”Identical to the ones on that s.p.a.ce vessel over there,” Riker put in. ”Why was it punis.h.i.+ng you, Zorn? Perhaps in return for pain you caused some other life form?”

Picard pressed in on the Bandi administrator. Zorn flinched away from him, refusing to meet Picard's eyes. ”We did nothing wrong!” he finally snapped. ”The creature drifted down outside our city. It was weak ... starving ... it had been injured in s.p.a.ce. We are not heartless. We tried to help it...”

”Thank you,” Picard interrupted. ”That was the missing part. Lieutenant Yar, rig main phaser banks to deliver an energy beam.”

”Aye, sir.” Tasha was puzzled as to Picard's intention; but her long slim fingers automatically went to the Weapons and Tactical Station console, calling for the powering up of the energy beam.

Picard looked back at Zorn. ”You say you tried to help it. That wouldn't have made this creature so angry it's bent on wiping out every Bandi it can sense.”

Zorn wriggled uncomfortably. The Bandi had needed the creature so much. It had done all they asked of it, even if it had needed some ... coercion. ”The creature requires energy to live, and we had it in abundance. It can read thought images. It could create anything we could think of... but we had to ration its energy to control it...”

Riker sighed. ”It had to be conceivable that somewhere in the galaxy there could exist creatures able to convert energy into matter.”

”And into specific patterns of matter, much as our transporters-and our holodecks-do,” Data added.

Tasha had been watching the main viewscreen as she focused and refined the energy beam Picard ordered. Now she snapped, ”On the viewer, Captain.”

The vessel had begun to soften its edges further, melting into an amorphous lovely shape shot with soft, pulsing colors. ”Zorn, you captured something like that, didn't you? And used it.”

”It wanted to do it,” Zorn protested. ”To repay our kindness.”

”You imprisoned it,” Troi said harshly. ”For your own ends.”

”No, we just asked it to build something ... large.”

”It created Farpoint Station for you,” Riker said. Then he corrected himself. ”No ... like that s.h.i.+p out there, it is Farpoint Station.”

On the viewscreen, they could see the vessel creature flowing into a new shape. It extended feathery tendrils as it began to sink downward, toward the planet and the station below.

”Warn my people, please!” Zorn begged in panic. ”They are in danger. Tell them to leave Farpoint Station immediately!”

Q thrust his way into the debate again. ”He's lied to you, Captain. Shouldn't you let his people die?”

”Is that what you, in your advanced civilization, would recommend?” Picard inquired acidly. He didn't wait for a reply, but turned to Data at Ops. ”Transmit this message to the Bandi. 'Leave Farpoint Station at once, for your own safety.' Continue transmission whether you get a response or not.”

”Aye, sir.” The android immediately began tabbing in the commands that would send the continuous message.

Troi had taken her seat at the left of the captain's chair and was staring at the viewscreen where the vessel creature still sank ominously toward the planet. ”It was a pair of creatures I sensed. One down there in grief and pain and hunger, the other up here, filled with anger and hate...”

”And firing not on the new s.p.a.ce station, but on the Bandi and their city.”

Picard looked at Troi for confirmation of his next statement. ”Attacking those who captured its ...

its mate?”

She swiftly examined the feelings and sensitivities she had received and shook her head. ”Not quite the right word, sir.” She slid a glance at Riker. ”Perhaps the Betazoid word 'imzadi' comes closer.”

The first officer blushed.

”Energy beam ready, sir,” Tasha said.

”Lock it on Farpoint Station, Lieutenant Yar.”

Q had begun to get annoyed at being ignored. Had these humans forgotten the bargain Picard had made?

No one was doing what he wanted. They seemed to have decided he wasn't important. ”I see now this was too simple a puzzle. But generosity has always been my weakness.”

Picard continued to ignore Q. He nodded to Tasha. ”Let it have whatever it can absorb. Energize.”

Tasha tabbed a quick command into her console and glanced up at the main viewscreen. The huge screen's point of view s.h.i.+fted as Data operated his panel to follow the track of the thick, pale blue energy beam downward toward Farpoint Station. It struck the middle of the big station and seemed to be absorbed directly into it. Tasha watched her panel intently, caught a signal that brought her alert.

”Now getting feedback on the beam, sir.”

”Discontinue it,” Picard said. ”Groppler Zorn, there'll soon be no Farpoint Station if I'm right about this.”

”A lucky guess!” Q shot in, The others continued to ignore him. Zorn, who had no idea of who the alien was, took the others' lead and appealed directly to Picard. ”Please believe me, Captain, we did not mean to harm the creature.

It was starving for energy ...”

”A need which you perverted for your own purposes.”