U.S.S. ENTERPRISE 1701-E, MERCURY
STARDATE 58564.6
They all wore medical monitors now. No one was allowed to move through the Enterprise unescorted. By order of Provisional Starfleet Command, Mercury, three crew must be present at all times. Anyone found alone or with only one other companion was subject to be stunned on sight.
In the awkward silence of the turbolift, Riker voiced his disapproval. “This is unacceptable.”
Picard kept his eyes straight ahead. “I agree.” He sighed. “But given that we’re dealing with shapeshifters, can you think of any other way to ensure our security?”
Riker shook his head. Troi placed her hand on his arm.
He knew she meant it to be comforting, but the gesture did the opposite. All Riker could see was the white manacle his wife wore on her wrist. They were all captives. What made it worse was that they were captives by their own choice.
The turbolift doors swept open onto the bridge of the Enterprise. Picard nodded to the three security personnel stationed between the turbolift alcoves, and Riker was appalled at how easily and automatically he and Picard and Troi raised their right wrists to show that their monitors were still in place, establishing their somatic continuity.
“We’re going to the ready room,” Picard told the lieutenant leading the security detail.
The lieutenant nodded as if giving permission.
Riker knew it was useless to object, or even comment.
In the ready room, La Forge, Crusher, and Worf were waiting.
There was an empty chair beside them and it brought Riker a pang of loss as he thought of Data. The android’s absence was deeply felt. The knowledge that he had sacrificed his existence to save Picard’s life gave some solace, but not enough.
La Forge stood to greet Riker with a handshake. “You’re looking well, Captain.”
“A new spinal cord will do that,” Riker said. He turned to his Klingon friend, now in a regulation Starfleet uniform. “Worf.”
“Captain.”
The two men had exchanged a wealth of emotion with those two words, both pleased to see each other again. Both glad that whatever the overwhelming menace facing the Federation in these dark days, at least they were confronting it together.
Then Riker gave a small smile to Doctor Crusher as he saw the medical tricorder in her hand. “Shouldn’t you be off duty?” he asked. “You pronounced me cured six hours ago.”
Crusher shut the tricorder. “It never hurts to be cautious.”
Picard took his seat behind his desk. The others recognized that as a sign Picard’s meeting had started, found chairs.
“To begin,” Picard said, “any questions regarding our orders?”
“Are we allowed to question them?” La Forge asked. He said it as if making a joke, but Riker knew there was truth in those words.
Picard clearly recognized that truth as well. He treated La Forge’s comment seriously.
“Geordi, Starfleet has never faced such an overwhelming threat. The enemy doesn’t have a fleet we can attack, no homeworld we can isolate. We don’t even know how they move from one location to another. They have no weapons systems we can target, or even create defenses against. Fighting them is… like fighting smoke.”
Riker understood all that. He was certain everyone in the room did. But prosecuting a war wasn’t his objective right now. Neither was it Starfleet’s.
“My concern,” Riker said, “is that I don’t believe our current orders are sustainable.”
“Probably not,” Picard agreed. “Not in the long run. But we do need to secure ourselves.”
“With a systemwide embargo?” Riker asked in frustration. “Isn’t that the obvious purpose of these attacks? To shut down interstellar traffic?”
“And in that they have been successful,” Picard said.
“Then aren’t we simply helping the enemy achieve what they set out to do?” Riker asked. “I’m reluctant to take a course of action that’s been dictated by whoever’s attacking us.”
Picard didn’t offer an argument, which made Riker guess his mentor didn’t have one.
Instead, Picard asked a question of his own. “What would you suggest, Will?”
Riker had to consciously shake off his reluctance to confront his old friend as an equal. He had been Picard’s executive officer for more than a decade, and old habits died hard. But now they were two starship captains, face to face.
Riker spoke his mind.
“The first thing I suggest is that we don’t give up. We don’t do what the enemy wants us to do. Ending interstellar travel… putting a shipping embargo around every system… that’s the same as cowering in a cave.”
Riker paused to give Picard a chance to respond, but Picard kept his silence.
Riker continued.
“To start with, according to Doctor Muirhead’s analysis, we have at our disposal dozens of ships with outmoded warp cores that presumably won’t be affected by whatever’s causing the malfunctions for at least a week. Let’s use them to make the enemy attack at a time and place of our choosing, so we can fully analyze their tactics and technology.”
Riker paused again and this time Picard did have a question.
“How do you propose we invite such an attack?”
“Use the Titan as bait,” Riker said. “Install a new-model warp core, ferry her out to interstellar space, then we’ll power it up while surrounded by other ships, sensors at full resolution.”
Picard dismissed the idea. “We’ve lost too many ships already. Even with only impulse propulsion, the Titan is crucial to maintaining the embargo around this system.”
“The Titan won’t be in danger, Jean-Luc. We already know her core-ejection system works. At worst, we lose another core. At best, we figure out how the enemy manages to attack.”
“And then what?” Picard asked.
Riker looked at his other friends in the room, saw no signs of support or of disapproval. Everyone, even Troi, appeared willing to let the two captains have their discussion uninterrupted.
Riker proceeded with his explanation. “If we learn something from the attack, then we have a starting point for developing a defense.”
“And if we learn nothing more than what we’ve already learned from eyewitness accounts and sensor logs from hundreds of other attacks, what happens then, Will?”
Riker had seen this sharpness in Picard before, but never directed at him.
Picard answered his own question. “There’s a strong possibility that by the time your plan could be put into effect, the escort vessels with their outmoded warp cores will finally have become vulnerable. In which case, we’ll have another handful of ships lost to us, stranded between the stars, needing years if not decades to reach port at slower-than-light velocities.
“And each ship we lose like that is one ship fewer to defend this system. To defend Earth.”
“Defend against what?” Riker asked, and he instantly regretted raising his voice.
Picard’s response was swift.
“Romulan warbirds are not affected. The theorists believe that the transwarp conduits used by the Borg are not affected. Those are two enemies of the Federation that’ll be able to travel faster than light, and we can’t discount the possibility that there are others-either those responsible for the attacks, or those eager to exploit our new weakness.”
Riker didn’t want to argue. He only wanted a discussion of the facts. Careful to keep his tone calm and reasonable, he began again.
“All right, Jean-Luc, let’s see where Command’s plan leads us. We set up an embargo around the system, ostensibly to keep the enemy from reaching us. We have the Titan, the Enterprise, a hundred other ships, all take
