Part 26 (2/2)
Choudhury looked up from her station. ”Sir, the Caeliar have acknowledged our hail but are refusing audible or visual contact. They've asked Captain Hernandez to return to the city.”
”Dare I ask how she responded?”
”She agreed-on the condition that the Caeliar release t.i.tan's away team. They've accepted her terms.”
He nodded. ”Understood. Keep me informed of any developments in the situation.”
”Aye, sir.”
Worf took a small step to stand closer to Picard, and he dropped his voice to a confidential level. ”Once the Caeliar have Captain Hernandez back in their custody, they might go back where they came from-and abandon us to the Borg.”
”Possibly,” Picard said. ”Though the departure of the Caeliar is hardly the worst outcome in this scenario. I'm more concerned about the risk of the Borg a.s.similating the Caeliar's technology, which appears to be formidable.”
A muted tone from the tactical console signaled an incoming transmission. Choudhury silenced the alert with a brush of her fingertip and said, ”New reports from Starfleet Command, sir. The entire Borg armada has reversed course.”
”In other words,” Worf said, ”they are converging on us.”
”Correct,” Choudhury said, her tone dry but droll.
Picard asked, ”How long until they reach us?”
”Fourteen hours,” the security chief said.
The captain frowned. As powerful as the Caeliar appeared to be, Picard was unable to let go of his doubt that anything could truly stop the Borg. Worse, if the Caeliar either refused or proved unable to help, fourteen hours didn't leave him or his crew much time to formulate a backup plan.
He saw only one remaining alternative: to build a thalaron projector. The biogenic weapon might prove futile, but he doubted he would ever again be in a position to strike so many Borg cubes at the same time. He judged the risk worthwhile.
If it failed, then he, his crew, and the rest of the Federation were already as good as dead, anyway.
And if it worked...all it would cost him was his soul.
26.
The shuttlecraft Mance ascended from Axion and pa.s.sed through the city-s.h.i.+p's protective force field with hardly a b.u.mp.
Christine Vale sat at the aft end of the shuttlecraft's pa.s.senger cabin, across from Deanna Troi. Chief Dennisar and Lieutenant Sortollo from security sat at the forward end, and Dr. Ree and Ensign Torvig stood and awkwardly filled the s.p.a.ce in the compartment's center. In the c.o.c.kpit, Tuvok was at the controls, and Ranul Keru occupied the mission commander's seat.
Inyx had delivered the news of the away team's release from Axion with as little preamble as when, days earlier, he'd told them of their incarceration. One moment, they had thought of themselves as prisoners, and the next, their shuttlecraft was hovering beside their terrace, its boarding ramp extended.
At the urging of the Caeliar, they'd remained inside the Mance and had kept it landed inside Axion's s.h.i.+eld perimeter while the city had risen from the surface of New Erigol. The sky had opened above them. At first, it had looked like a mere dark sliver, and then it had widened. The complex details of its inner mechanisms had become visible. Within moments, Axion had climbed into orbit, and then s.p.a.ce-time itself had been torn asunder and sent pinwheeling into a blinding vortex.
The twist of light and color that had raged around Axion was unlike anything else Vale had ever seen. The vortex had exhibited a fluid quality, but it also had s.h.i.+mmered and pulsed. Before her eyes had been given an opportunity to adjust, Axion had sped free of the pa.s.sage, back into normal s.p.a.ce-time.
Waiting there, brilliant and still against the backdrop of stars, had been t.i.tan, accompanied by two other vessels. The first was a Sovereign-cla.s.s stars.h.i.+p that Vale had recognized as her previous billet, the Enterprise-E; the other was a new Vesta-cla.s.s explorer, a s.h.i.+p cla.s.s she'd heard about but until that moment hadn't actually seen with her own eyes.
Via the shuttlecraft's comm, Inyx had delivered his terse valediction: ”You may go now.” Tuvok had wasted no time accepting the invitation. As soon as the channel had clicked off, the Mance had been airborne and on its way home.
Seeing t.i.tan growing larger and sharper in front of the shuttlecraft brought a smile of relief to Vale's face. ”I don't know how Will did it, but I'm glad he didn't make a liar out of me,” she said to Troi. ”I knew he wouldn't give up on us.”
”So did I,” Troi said, through her own bittersweet smile.
Vale leaned forward to keep their conversation discreet. ”Are you sure you're okay?”
”Yes, Chris,” Troi said, matching Vale's posture. ”Better than okay.”
”Good,” Vale said, sincere in her concern. ”You had us all pretty worried there-especially Will.”
”I know,” Troi said, lowering her eyes for a moment. ”It's been hard on all of us. And I made it even worse for him. But it'll be all right now. I'm sure of it. I can hear him in my thoughts, and I know he's waiting for me to come home.”
Unable to bury her envy, Vale blinked and looked away aft. She felt Troi's inquiring stare. Turning back to face her, she said, ”Sorry. I'm happy for you, really. It's just hard for me to hear about your amazing bond with Will when I...” She hesitated, at a loss for words. ”When I'm...”
”When you're still mourning Jaza?”
Vale's emotional barrier faltered enough for a single tear to escape from her eye. She palmed it away and laughed once, softly, because the alternative was to weep like a child. ”Right to the heart of it, as always,” she said. ”Brava, Deanna.”
”It's kind of my job,” Troi said. ”I know you've been under a lot of stress since we lost Jaza. The troubles Will and I have been going through left him...” She rolled her eyes toward the overhead, apparently searching for the most diplomatic word. ”Not at his best,” she finished. ”And that left you to pick up the slack, for a lot longer than you should have. You had to do most of his job as well as your own. I'm sorry for that.”
Shaking her head, Vale replied, ”Not your fault.”
”In a way, it was,” Troi said. ”I sensed what you were going through, but I was so caught up in my own pain and problems that I didn't get you the help that I should have.”
”Apology completely unnecessary but accepted all the same,” Vale said. A recent memory nipped at the edge of her thoughts: the moment, a few days earlier, when she had tried to comfort the distraught Will Riker in his ready room, only to come within millimeters (and a momentary lapse of reason) of kissing him. She balked at the idea of confessing her near-miss indiscretion to Troi. Then she considered the possible consequences if she tried to hide it and it came out in a less candid manner-or, even worse, if at some point she did something as monumentally stupid as to make out with her married commanding officer.
”Deanna,” Vale said, ”there's something I should probably get off my chest. It was nothing, really, but I feel kind of strange about it, and even stranger about feeling like I should hide it, and I-”
”You mean when you almost kissed Will a few days ago,” Troi said, as if it were some mundane detail of s.h.i.+p's business.
”Um, well, yeah.” It took a moment to push through the shock and realize how transparent she must seem to the half-Betazoid counselor. ”How did you know?”
A broad grin lit up Deanna's face. ”I haven't felt Will panic like that since he met my mother.”
Troi laughed, and Vale found her friend's mirth contagious. Their self-conscious chortles drew curious stares from the rest of the away team and a disapproving arch of one eyebrow from Tuvok. The muscles in Vale's face hurt from the effort of reining in her laughter. ”So, you're not angry with me?”
”Of course not. You were still missing Jaza, and I'd been pus.h.i.+ng Will away for months. It's an almost textbook example of transference, with a touch of displacement.”
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