Faced with an intractable problem, with both tactical alternatives leading to the same unwanted outcome, Picard found himself considering how Kirk would face this dilemma. It was one thing to say, “Change the rules,” but there were precious few rules at work. Unless…
“Doctor,” Picard said quickly, “we do not resist the medication. It is not necessary for you to stun us. But we are concerned that the medication is not suitable for humans. It might render us unable to perform our work here. That would be a waste of resources which the Assessors would notice.”
The doctor appeared distressed by such a possibility. He was obviously prepared to take action against the prisoners left in his control, but Picard guessed that the Assessors were equally prepared to take action against any Reman slave who interfered with productivity.
“Has the medication been tested on humans?” Picard asked. He gambled that if it had been tested, the doctor would have dismissed his earlier question.
“I do not know,” the doctor admitted.
“Take us to McCoy. He is a doctor.”
“I know,” the Reman said, distraught.
Picard remained calm, offering his conflicted captor a way out of his predicament. “Tell McCoy about the medication, and he will know whether it will allow us to perform our work, in accordance with the Assessors’ orders.”
The doctor looked from Picard to La Forge, his eyes hidden in the deep shadows of his prominent brow and the darkness of the room, keeping his thoughts equally unknown.
Then he reached a decision. “As we walk,” the Reman said, “you will remain two meters in front of me. If you attempt to escape, I am authorized to kill you.”
“So you will take us to McCoy?” Picard asked.
“So you may perform your work for the Assessors.”
As the doctor reached behind his back to close the equipment cabinet door, Picard took that moment to look over at La Forge. The engineer gave him a look that said, Good work.
And then the infirmary door shuddered and slid open with a squeal of torn metal. A small dark humanoid silhouette stepped into the doorway, outlined by the green glow of the corridor.
Picard and La Forge moved as one as they dropped to the floor. The silhouette was far too similar to the intruders who had boarded the Calypso.
But the doctor swung his disruptor toward the figure.
“Escape will not be permitted!” he shouted.
In response, the figure raised its weapon, convincing Picard that he and La Forge were right. This was just like the Calypso.
The doctor fired first.
But his disruptor’s low-power beam flashed harmlessly over the intruder’s armor.
Then the intruder fired and a bolt of lethal energy slammed through the space above the doctor just as he ducked and ran for cover.
Picard and La Forge could only watch as the doctor scurried through the lab and the intruder called out, “Down! Down! Down!”
Two more blasts of energy singed the air.
Then Picard saw the doctor jump up from behind an equipment console, taking aim once again.
Too late. The intruder’s final shot seared into the doctor’s chest and the Reman died at once. The choking smell of disrupted flesh spread through the infirmary.
Picard and La Forge rose shoulder to shoulder to face the doctor’s killer.
The intruder was already before them, his weapon held to the side, pointed at the floor. Picard had remembered the other intruders were smaller than Remans. But this one was smaller still. The top of his helmet was barely up to Picard’s eye level.
“Follow me,” the intruder said, his words still generated by his external helmet speaker. The artificial voice brought back memories of the attack on board Calypso.
“What about our friends?” Picard demanded, though he had no means to force a reply.
“If you help us, we can save them all. But we must hurry.”
The intruder started to step away, but Picard persisted, grabbing his shoulder, and then was shocked by the speed of the intruder’s response—instantaneously wheeling and grabbing and twisting his arm, so that the slightest move on his part would result in a fractured arm at best. At the same time, their captor aimed his disruptor point-blank at La Forge.
Picard’s frustration boiled over. Nothing made sense here. People were missing. And people had died. For what? “Why should we believe you? We’re here because of you!”
“I did nothing to bring you here, Picard. But there are others who will think nothing of killing you and your friends. And that we must not let happen. Do you agree?”
Picard could hardly believe an answer was necessary, but the intruder did not lessen his grip or lower his weapon. Waiting.
“I agree!” Picard said.
The intruder let go, turned away from both of them. “Move quickly, stay close.” He sprinted toward the open door.
Picard and La Forge exchanged a baffled look before they followed their liberator. Our own personal Shinzon, Picard thought wildly.
The figure in black armor ran swiftly to the left, then stopped in front of a blank section of corridor wall. He placed a hand on one spot indistinguishable to Picard from any other spot, then tapped his black-gloved fingers.
Amazingly, as if a holographic curtain were in place, a sharp line appeared in the wall, then grew wider—a hidden door opening.
The intruder jumped through, Picard and La Forge right behind him.
There was another, narrower corridor on the other side of the hidden door. The intruder moved to close the door behind them.
More like an engineering passage than a corridor, Picard thought as he checked out their surroundings with some difficulty. The glow here was even duller than in the main corridor. One wall was completely covered with pipes and conduits—nothing labeled, everything the same drab green-gray color.
He found La Forge watching the door close as both sides came together to form a single vertical line, and then the line vanished as if the door had never existed.
It was then that Picard noticed the intruder had not just used his hand to control the door. He was holding a small mechanism. And right now, he was looking down at his equipment belt, opening a small pouch, apparently trying to put the device back inside.
Picard had worn enough environmental suits to know how difficult it was to look directly down in a helmet. For precisely that reason, most critical controls were placed on a suit’s forearms.
For just these few moments, their captor was vulnerable, distracted, especially since he would not expect his two captives to offer any more resistance.
Surprise, Picard thought.
He brought both fists down on the back of the intruder’s helmet, counting on the impact doubling as the force of the helmet struck the back of the skull, and the faceplate rebounded to slam into the intruder’s nose.
La Forge jumped to help, snapping the intruder’s disruptor from its adhesion patch.
The intruder sagged to the floor, and for a moment, Picard heard an odd hissing noise, almost as if he had broken an air-pressure seal on the intruder’s suit.
He had a moment of panic as he suddenly feared the intruder might require a different atmosphere. But there was no way to predict how long the intruder might remain stunned. He had to act now.
“Quickly,” Picard said, and together he and La Forge rolled the intruder onto his back, propping him against the wall.
Picard felt a twinge of unease. The intruder seemed too light, almost as if he weighed little more than his armor.
La Forge popped the seal on the helmet, Picard pulled it free, and both of them gasped in shock as they saw
