The annunciator chimed.
Picard smiled, knew who it was. “Yes?” he called out.
But instead of Joseph’s voice, he heard another.
“Jean-Luc—it’s Jim.”
Picard tugged on his trousers and a large, burgundy sweater. “Just a moment,” he said. Then he slipped his communicator under the pillow of the undisturbed top bunk, and straightened the thin blanket and sheets of his lower bunk.
The door wasn’t automatic and required him to physically release its latch from the inside.
Kirk was waiting for him, one arm braced against the bulkhead. The engine noise was louder in the corridor. “Is this a good time?” Kirk asked.
“Certainly,” Picard said, and stood to the side so Kirk could duck down and step in. He pointed to the small stool wedged under the desk. “Pull up a chair.”
Kirk tugged the three-legged stool with its triangular seat from under the desk, was just about to sit down when Picard suddenly stopped him.
“On second thought, let me check it.” Picard ran his hand over the seat, felt around the edges.
Kirk watched in amusement. “Let me guess, your enemies are everywhere.”
Picard slid the stool back to Kirk, pronouncing it safe. “Not enemies. Your son. Pressure sensors that emit certain embarrassing sounds have been known to spontaneously appear on seating surfaces.”
Kirk laughed as he sat down. “What’s the latest?”
“Short-sheeting is still his favorite,” Picard said as he sat on the edge of the bunk. “If it’s funny once, it’s twice as funny the second time.”
“I heard about the antigrav in the cupboard.”
Picard couldn’t help smiling at that one. “Very inventive.” He had opened his cupboard only to have everything inside suddenly leap out at him as if mounted on springs, because Joseph had set an antigrav unit on the cupboard floor with a delay timer on the switch. “The clothes I could take. But the evac suits unfolded and came at me like very skinny alien attackers.”
“I think he had help with that one.”
“I think he’s had help with all his pranks. Geordi and Scotty his chief co-conspirators, I would say.”
“I could tell him to stop,” Kirk offered.
But Picard shook his head. “And spoil my plans for revenge?”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Picard leaned back, nodded. “It’s making me nostalgic for my Academy days. If I had expended half the creative thought I applied to practical jokes toward my studies, I’d probably have been Fleet Admiral by thirty-five. How about you?”
Kirk shrugged. “Actually…I was never really involved in, uh, extracurricular activities.” He smiled sheepishly. “At least, not that kind.”
“Well, your son is as delightful as he is a nuisance. You should be proud of him.”
Kirk nodded. “Immensely.”
The two old friends looked down at the thin beige carpeting on the deck as the silence grew awkward between them.
Picard broke first. “I’m going to guess that you didn’t come here to check on how your son was treating me.”
“In less than an hour we’ll be through the Neutral Zone.”
Picard nodded. “And we haven’t been challenged once.”
Kirk chewed his bottom lip, as if judging how to proceed. “Makes me think that someone knows we’re coming.”
“That goes without saying. This must be the most public espionage mission Starfleet has ever launched. The Romulan Fleet has been alerted of our arrival by Starfleet Command, by the Federation Diplomatic Mission, by the Vulcan government, and our own navigation beacon.” Picard saw the shadow of concern in Kirk’s eyes. “What is it, Jim?”
“I came into this knowing there would be two different agendas—mine, and Starfleet’s. I have no trouble with that.”
“But…?” Picard said.
“Admiral Janeway…”
“A very persuasive officer…”
“She left me with the strong impression that there was a third agenda. A mission I wasn’t to be told about.”
Picard reached back into that part of his mind that still retained the influence of Spock’s father, Sarek. It helped him keep his expression composed, made it easier to lie to Kirk. “If there is, I’m not aware of it.”
Kirk kept his eyes on Picard, long enough for Picard to begin to feel uncomfortable. “We’ve been through a lot together, Jean-Luc.”
“Indeed, we have.”
“My son is on this ship.”
Picard forced all thought of Joseph from his mind, especially the conversation he had had with Janeway just before boarding the Calypso.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Picard said, “and as far as Starfleet’s concerned, this is a fact-finding mission. Nothing more. None of us are in danger. Otherwise, Starfleet would never have allowed Joseph to be on board.”
“Then what else is Janeway up to?”
Picard tried to deflect the question. “You’re certain she’s up to something?”
“Haven’t you ever been lied to by a superior officer?”
Picard knew he had to get Kirk off this topic soon. “Starfleet officers don’t lie, Jim. They might not share all that they know, but that’s a matter of security protocols and our ‘need to know.’ “
Kirk gave a tight smile, lightly bounced his fist on the narrow desktop beside him. “Starfleet officers don’t lie…” He sighed. “Look at this ship we’re in, Jean-Luc. On the outside, a sixty-year-old hunk of junk, with mismatched hullplates, three sensor grids down, and an out-of-balance impulse drive. But on the inside, a warp core lifted from a Defiant-class vessel, an undetectable, distributed phaser system that could put a dent in your Enterprise, and shields that could probably let us punch a hole through a main-sequence star. What is this ship but a Starfleet lie?”
“This ship is different, Jim.”
But Kirk shook his head, gave a more forceful punch to the desktop to emphasize his words. “No it’s not, and this is why. This ship is designed to fool people outside of Starfleet. So even if I accept that Starfleet officers never lie to other Starfleet personnel, can you honestly tell me that for the sake of the mission, a Starfleet officer would never lie to a civilian?”
Picard respected Kirk too much to argue the point with him. “Which, of course, you are.”
” ‘Captain’ Kirk,” Kirk said dismissively. “My last rank. An honorary title. A show of respect. But I’m still a civilian. And I still think I’m the only one on this ship who doesn’t know all the reasons why we’re going to Romulus.”
“Jim, if there is a third mission, you’re not the only one who doesn’t know about it. I don’t, either.”
Picard could see that Kirk wasn’t convinced. “Which means Starfleet somehow bypassed its greatest starship captain—” Kirk suddenly flashed a smile. “—let’s make that, its greatest starship captain still on active duty, and put the responsibility of a critical espionage mission in the hands of…” Kirk held out his hands questioningly. “… Doctor Crusher? Commander La Forge? Surely not Scotty or McCoy, they’re civilians now, fair game for… misdirection.”
Picard tried another tack. “Though I have no firsthand knowledge of anything you’re suggesting, I admit it is possible that Will or Worf might have knowledge of another mission.”
But Kirk didn’t accept that, either. “Will and Worf are back on the Titan, trailing us by ten light-years, with orders to stay well outside the Romulus system.”
“But they are accompanying us with a cover story of their own,” Picard reminded Kirk. “Since the coup, Will
