Chapter One - Shattered Steel
Katherine Janeway was fuming, and anyone could see it. She stomped out of her office onto the bridge and sat down in her chair. After giving her a few minutes to calm down, Chakotay ventured to ask what was wrong.
With an airy wave of her hand, she told him to wait, and turned around in her chair to look at the young Ensign manning the Ops-Station.
'Ensign Kim, status report,' she demanded.
Kim checked his console.
'All systems up and running sir, except of course the warp-drive.'
Janeway nodded. In their last engagement, the Dominion had scored severe hits on Voyager, and Carey, the young engineer replacing B'Elanna Torres, had been forced to dumb the warp core, leaving them stranded in the Cardassian Realm.
'We're currently heading into Federation Space at full impulse,' Kim continued. 'No Dominion ships on long-range sensors. Looks like they lost us.'
Janeway nodded grimly.
'Bridge to Engineering.'
'Carey here.'
'Lieutenant Carey, what's your status.'
'All systems nominal, sir. Tachyon emissions are stable, and I don't think we'll be getting any problems soon. Of course…' He hesitated. 'Of course, since we've dumped the core, we're effectively going nowhere.'
Janeway ignored that last remark. 'Thank you Lieutenant,' she said, rising from her chair.
She paced the bridge for a while, then stood to attention in front of the viewscreen which covered the entire front of the bridge.
She coughed, to get everyone's attention, but that really was unnecessary.
'Gentlemen,' she said. 'I've just had a call from StarFleet Command, and, to be very frank, we're in big trouble. The remaining ships of our Squadron have made it back to StarBase 89, though most of them are heavily damaged, and it looks like one of the Intrepids is beyond repair. This leaves us here, alone. Command hasn't got any ships to spare to stage a rescue operation, and we'll probably be detected by the Dominion, anyway. So that leaves us two options.'
Janeway paused, mainly for effect.
'Either we can try and evacuate Voyager using the Shuttles, or we surrender the ship to the Jem H'Adar.'
Kim was the first to recover from his initial shock.
'I say fight.'
There were agreeing nods all over the bridge.
Janeway shook her head, but Chakotay gave her no chance to protest.
'Sir, of course I can't speak for the entire crew, but, personally, I'd never surrender to the Dominion.'
'I feel exactly the same, Commander. And, giving the circumstances, we don't seem to have any other choice but to try it. I know there will be some crewmembers who'd rather surrender, but, as is often said, we're here to preserve democracy, not practice it.'
__________
Romulan Warship Endruga
*Zirp*
With a gasp and a sob, Talina bolted upright in her bed. Her hands and lips trembling, her face covered with wetness, she tried to focus on where and who she was.
*Zirp*
'Who is it!'
*Zirp*
With an unnerved moan, Talina sat up in her bed and tiredly rubbed her forehead. The same dream she had been having for the last three days had returned this night. Her last talk with Ian, and then...
*Zirp*
'Sal'tasnon!' She grabbed her pillow and flung it at the door. The soft fabric collided with the duranium-hardened doors, and slid off its surface to the ground.
Painfully controlling herself, she swang her long legs over the edge of her bed, and grabbed the black robe lying on the far end of the bed.
'Lights,' she ordered the computer when she got up to let her late visitor enter.
'Open,' she said, standing some meters in front of her door.
With the familiar hiss, the doors slid aside and revealed a tall man standing in the doorframe.
'Captain Ryan?' Talina exclaimed.
'Christopher, while I'm off duty. Please, may I come in?'
Talina nodded her agreement and waved him in. She directed him to the couch and hesitated.
'Can I offer you something to drink?' she finally resolved to say.
Ryan smiled slightly and shook his head. 'Hardly. Those things can't replicate a serious Ale,' he said, gesturing at the replicator.
Unfolding the arms before her chest, Talina moved to her wardrobe.
Seconds later, she emerged again, holding a bottle of blue fluid and two small, narrow glasses. She placed them on the table and poured in two glasses of Romulan Ale.
Ryan took his and drank of it. 'Why doesn't that surprise me?' he asked.
Talina did her best to maintain a neutral expression.
'Forgive me Captain, but it is very late...or very early. May I ask why you have come here?'
Ryan took a deep breath. 'It's because of Ian. You see, Ian and I…We have been friends since I was fifteen. You could always rely on him, to be there when you needed someone. In good and in bad times, he'd stick to you, no matter what others said, or what happened. I was always proud to have him as friend, and I would've been very ungrateful if I wouldn't have sticked to him. Now that Ian's...gone, I somehow feel concerned about you.'
Talina looked at him. 'Why should you?' she asked, her voice surprisingly calm.
'He told me about you when he had that fight with the Klingons, the day before you both left for Corvus II. Well, I reckon I'm no Don Juan, but I've been in love myself before, and I do recognize the symptoms. I don't know what happened after that mission, but...let me put it this way: when you two were together, he was happy. You did him no end of good, particularly since he wasn't that grumpy anymore. Everyone noticed it. At least we noticed it…Christ, I sound like my gran! My apologies, I didn't want to get this mushy. Anyway, before he left, he told me it was over, and…well, whatever happened between you, I knew Ian very well, and he...believe me, he loved you.'
Biting her lower lip, Talina blinked her tears away and nodded slightly.
'Now, the reason why I have come here is quite simple. As his CO, I have to see through his personal belongings, to see what should be kept, stored, and what should be send back...to his family back home.
He gave me the access code to his personal logs long ago; In any case, he said. Well, I went through them, and I found this.'
Out of his pocket, he took a small data-crystal, enfolded in a paper-ribbon. Talina took it carefully and examined it.
'Knowing Ian, you will already know what unit we both belong to, too.'
At her slight nod, Ryan thought 'speak of Romulan efficiency'
'We doesn't use isolinear chips, because they're too easy to crack. Data-crystals like that one are almost impossible to access without permission. Scan it with a tricorder, and it will ask you the access code. I have written it down his on that bit of paper; enter it, and the tricorder will display the message.'
Talina looked at him silently.
'Why do you give me this?' she asked.
'You will understand when you see the message. I just thought, you might want to take a look at it.'
'Thank you,' she whispered. 'Could you just...' Her voice trailed off.
'Of course,' Ryan said, rising from the couch and heading towards the door. When they had opened, he turned in the doorframe
'If you want to talk,' he said. 'Later I mean, please, don't hesitate.'
She nodded. 'Thank you.'
With the finality of a coffin-lid, the door closed.
__________
When Sela saw the human Captain Ryan leaving Talina's quarters, she knew that something wasn't right. She eyed him suspiciously, as he went down one of the ship's seemingly endless corridors. She didn't know - yet – how he had managed to beam, onboard this ship, but suspected Jera's, the nekekami's, hand in this. Apparently the two units, Rabid Fox and the Spirit Cats, were bonding, something which Sela observed with growing unrest.
When she had entered the room, Sela was somewhat surprised to find Talina kneeling on the floor, in front of a grand window. The entire room was dark, the only light coming from a handful of candles. When her eyes had accustomed to the darkness, Sela saw that the other woman was clad in a ceremonial white kimono, and apparently meditating, oblivious to her presence. She heard the young woman chant, in a long-forgotten language.
Sela coughed, and the chanting stopped.
'Duì-bu-qui Sang-Jian-Jun Sela,' Talina apologized. 'Forgive me, I had not noticed your arrival.'
Sela saw her own reflection in the window, and smiled. 'Qui. That much is obvious. It is I who should apologize, for intruding in your chamber.' She nodded. 'Though, I must say, I am surprised to find you in mourning. Is your family alright?'
Talina straightened. 'My family is well, thank you Jian-Jun. I mourn the loss of a very good friend.'
'I don't suspect it has anything to do with the human, Ryan, being here?'
Only a vers slight quiver betrayed Talina's emotions, but Sela saw her reflection in the window shedding a tear. 'So it does have something to do with the human, has it?'
As the younger woman tried to protest, Sela stopped her with a wave of her hand.
'Don't bother,' she said. 'Did you really think your little liason with the human would go unnoticed? I know you and your equals have no respect for the Tal Shiar, but we are not an assembly of geriatric fool.'
Talina lowered her head, but didn't reply.
Sela looked down at the woman, and her expression softened somewhat.
'Talina.' Sela let her voice drop to a whisper, and tried to put as much warmth into the name as she could. 'Look at me. My own mother was a human. I know them. They have their mistakes, they are weak, but they also are special. Both our races have more in common than those old, xenophobic fools of the senate realize. Both our races can be compassionate, but also ruthless. Both, we are capable of love and mercy, but also of extraordinary cruelty. Granted, they tend to complicate things unnecessary, but I don't hate them for that. They intrigue me, much in the same way that guinea-pigs intrigue scientists. Of course, I'd never admit that to anyone. And if you did, I should have to kill you.' The colonel kneeled down in front of Talina and grasped her shoulders. 'I didn't know Malenkov, and I doubt that I'd
have approved much of your relationship, or even liked him, but as your kin, I am saddened by your loss.'
So saddened, in fact, that I will graciously oversee what you have done here. Sela let her eyes wander disdainfully over the room. The Cult of Varesh is forbidden, you know that as well as I do, and death would be the appropriate punishment for your crime. Though I doubt the Tal Shiar would be able to get at you.
Talina noticed that Sela's thoughts were wandering and stared defiantly up at her.
And you know that, too. The nekekami definetively are getting too powerful. They have forced this cooperation with the humans on us, and for that alone they shall have to pay.
'Now,' Sela said after a while. 'What did Ryan want?'
__________
As the data-crytal was inserted into the tricorder, the banner of the Federation appeared on a computer display on the opposite wall. The password was entered, and the logo was repaced by the image of Ian Malenkov. He was holding a PADD, the shirt of his uniformed unbuttoned, and rubbing his eyes tiredly. He looked up at the camera briefly, then back at his PADD. 'Sergej's mission was succesfull. He returned from ----' There was a brief pause as the computer blended out a part of the log entry classified as secret. '…last Tuesday. Intel Reports keep coming in from --------- and everything seems to be running smoothly. If that keeps on we'll be able to retire Eva from her assignment ahead of schedule.'
He tossed the PADD aside, and leaned forward, burying his face in his hands.
'I just got a report that they caught Adams while he was trying to get some information out. Chances are that he'll be tried for high treason and executed. Of course, he won't let that happen. The report got in yesterday. I suppose that he's done it by now. That leaves me with only one operative in ----------. He won't be of much help of course. But for now I have decided for him to remain in position. It's just as dad always used to say : If you're falling of a cliff, you might just as well try to fly. You've got nothing to lose.'
He paused a moment, and supported his head with his right hand.
'In a way…I feel the same way about Talina. I know it's ridiculous…I mean I fought Romulans. I killed Romulans. I saw good friends die, from Romulan hands. I should hate them all, and I should hate her. But I can't. As much as I try I can't hate her. When I am with her, it's jut like falling off a cliff…and yet…when I look into her eyes, I sometimes let myself think maybe….maybe, I really can fly.'
His image on the screen froze.
A slender hand reached out and touched the screen, where his mouth would have been.
__________
In Enterprise's Main Shuttle Bay, Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge knelt beside a pile of debris, running his tricorder over each of them. All throughout the room, other, larger, chunks of the Baruni, the shuttlecraft that exploded three days ago, taking with it its only passenger, some Ian Malenkov, of the StarFleet Security Branch. Geordi and his team of engineers had already run the usual series of tests, to determinate the cause of the accident. All they knew was that the antimatter-shielding went down, causing a massive explosion in the craft's reactor. But yet they had no clue whatsoever as to what caused the shielding to break down, in the first place.
Geordi stood up and turned around, when he heard the bay's large doors open. He knew who had entered, even before he saw Jean-Luc Picard and Will Riker walking towards him. The bald Captain walked up to Geordi, glancing at the various debris that bordered his path. Geordi nodded at both of them. 'Sir.'
'Mr. LaForge,' the Captain said, 'I understand you have found something?'
'Yes, sir.' Geordi led them over to the large computer panel that stood next to the door, and activated it. After he had touched some glyphs, an alien script appeared on the display. It read:
Elen Sila lumemn omentielvo
Cuyo mellon! Na tama galad Sihaya
And below it was the computer's translation into Federation Standard:
A star has shone upon the hour of our meeting.
Farewell, friend! Never forget, Sihaya.
'The Computer has identified it as Romulan, sir,' Geordi said. 'From what we learned of the Black Box, it was sent to the shuttle shortly before the explosion.'
Riker frowned. 'Sabotage?'
'It looks like it, sir. It could be some sort of code, which triggered the explosion, though, given the length of the message, that seems unlikely. I'll have the computer thoroughly checked, as soon as we have fixed Data.'
Picard looked up thoughtfully. 'How is Mr. Data?'
'Well sir, the Cardassians almost ruined his processors. They weren't exactly careful on their search for information. But I think we'll have him ready by tomorrow. Almost certainly there will be no long-term damage.'
Picard nodded, then looked up and tugged at his uniform. 'Very well,' he said, turning to leave. 'Keep me informed.'
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Funeral Blues, by W.H. Auden
----------------------------------
Katherine Janeway was fuming, and anyone could see it. She stomped out of her office onto the bridge and sat down in her chair. After giving her a few minutes to calm down, Chakotay ventured to ask what was wrong.
With an airy wave of her hand, she told him to wait, and turned around in her chair to look at the young Ensign manning the Ops-Station.
'Ensign Kim, status report,' she demanded.
Kim checked his console.
'All systems up and running sir, except of course the warp-drive.'
Janeway nodded. In their last engagement, the Dominion had scored severe hits on Voyager, and Carey, the young engineer replacing B'Elanna Torres, had been forced to dumb the warp core, leaving them stranded in the Cardassian Realm.
'We're currently heading into Federation Space at full impulse,' Kim continued. 'No Dominion ships on long-range sensors. Looks like they lost us.'
Janeway nodded grimly.
'Bridge to Engineering.'
'Carey here.'
'Lieutenant Carey, what's your status.'
'All systems nominal, sir. Tachyon emissions are stable, and I don't think we'll be getting any problems soon. Of course…' He hesitated. 'Of course, since we've dumped the core, we're effectively going nowhere.'
Janeway ignored that last remark. 'Thank you Lieutenant,' she said, rising from her chair.
She paced the bridge for a while, then stood to attention in front of the viewscreen which covered the entire front of the bridge.
She coughed, to get everyone's attention, but that really was unnecessary.
'Gentlemen,' she said. 'I've just had a call from StarFleet Command, and, to be very frank, we're in big trouble. The remaining ships of our Squadron have made it back to StarBase 89, though most of them are heavily damaged, and it looks like one of the Intrepids is beyond repair. This leaves us here, alone. Command hasn't got any ships to spare to stage a rescue operation, and we'll probably be detected by the Dominion, anyway. So that leaves us two options.'
Janeway paused, mainly for effect.
'Either we can try and evacuate Voyager using the Shuttles, or we surrender the ship to the Jem H'Adar.'
Kim was the first to recover from his initial shock.
'I say fight.'
There were agreeing nods all over the bridge.
Janeway shook her head, but Chakotay gave her no chance to protest.
'Sir, of course I can't speak for the entire crew, but, personally, I'd never surrender to the Dominion.'
'I feel exactly the same, Commander. And, giving the circumstances, we don't seem to have any other choice but to try it. I know there will be some crewmembers who'd rather surrender, but, as is often said, we're here to preserve democracy, not practice it.'
__________
Romulan Warship Endruga
*Zirp*
With a gasp and a sob, Talina bolted upright in her bed. Her hands and lips trembling, her face covered with wetness, she tried to focus on where and who she was.
*Zirp*
'Who is it!'
*Zirp*
With an unnerved moan, Talina sat up in her bed and tiredly rubbed her forehead. The same dream she had been having for the last three days had returned this night. Her last talk with Ian, and then...
*Zirp*
'Sal'tasnon!' She grabbed her pillow and flung it at the door. The soft fabric collided with the duranium-hardened doors, and slid off its surface to the ground.
Painfully controlling herself, she swang her long legs over the edge of her bed, and grabbed the black robe lying on the far end of the bed.
'Lights,' she ordered the computer when she got up to let her late visitor enter.
'Open,' she said, standing some meters in front of her door.
With the familiar hiss, the doors slid aside and revealed a tall man standing in the doorframe.
'Captain Ryan?' Talina exclaimed.
'Christopher, while I'm off duty. Please, may I come in?'
Talina nodded her agreement and waved him in. She directed him to the couch and hesitated.
'Can I offer you something to drink?' she finally resolved to say.
Ryan smiled slightly and shook his head. 'Hardly. Those things can't replicate a serious Ale,' he said, gesturing at the replicator.
Unfolding the arms before her chest, Talina moved to her wardrobe.
Seconds later, she emerged again, holding a bottle of blue fluid and two small, narrow glasses. She placed them on the table and poured in two glasses of Romulan Ale.
Ryan took his and drank of it. 'Why doesn't that surprise me?' he asked.
Talina did her best to maintain a neutral expression.
'Forgive me Captain, but it is very late...or very early. May I ask why you have come here?'
Ryan took a deep breath. 'It's because of Ian. You see, Ian and I…We have been friends since I was fifteen. You could always rely on him, to be there when you needed someone. In good and in bad times, he'd stick to you, no matter what others said, or what happened. I was always proud to have him as friend, and I would've been very ungrateful if I wouldn't have sticked to him. Now that Ian's...gone, I somehow feel concerned about you.'
Talina looked at him. 'Why should you?' she asked, her voice surprisingly calm.
'He told me about you when he had that fight with the Klingons, the day before you both left for Corvus II. Well, I reckon I'm no Don Juan, but I've been in love myself before, and I do recognize the symptoms. I don't know what happened after that mission, but...let me put it this way: when you two were together, he was happy. You did him no end of good, particularly since he wasn't that grumpy anymore. Everyone noticed it. At least we noticed it…Christ, I sound like my gran! My apologies, I didn't want to get this mushy. Anyway, before he left, he told me it was over, and…well, whatever happened between you, I knew Ian very well, and he...believe me, he loved you.'
Biting her lower lip, Talina blinked her tears away and nodded slightly.
'Now, the reason why I have come here is quite simple. As his CO, I have to see through his personal belongings, to see what should be kept, stored, and what should be send back...to his family back home.
He gave me the access code to his personal logs long ago; In any case, he said. Well, I went through them, and I found this.'
Out of his pocket, he took a small data-crystal, enfolded in a paper-ribbon. Talina took it carefully and examined it.
'Knowing Ian, you will already know what unit we both belong to, too.'
At her slight nod, Ryan thought 'speak of Romulan efficiency'
'We doesn't use isolinear chips, because they're too easy to crack. Data-crystals like that one are almost impossible to access without permission. Scan it with a tricorder, and it will ask you the access code. I have written it down his on that bit of paper; enter it, and the tricorder will display the message.'
Talina looked at him silently.
'Why do you give me this?' she asked.
'You will understand when you see the message. I just thought, you might want to take a look at it.'
'Thank you,' she whispered. 'Could you just...' Her voice trailed off.
'Of course,' Ryan said, rising from the couch and heading towards the door. When they had opened, he turned in the doorframe
'If you want to talk,' he said. 'Later I mean, please, don't hesitate.'
She nodded. 'Thank you.'
With the finality of a coffin-lid, the door closed.
__________
When Sela saw the human Captain Ryan leaving Talina's quarters, she knew that something wasn't right. She eyed him suspiciously, as he went down one of the ship's seemingly endless corridors. She didn't know - yet – how he had managed to beam, onboard this ship, but suspected Jera's, the nekekami's, hand in this. Apparently the two units, Rabid Fox and the Spirit Cats, were bonding, something which Sela observed with growing unrest.
When she had entered the room, Sela was somewhat surprised to find Talina kneeling on the floor, in front of a grand window. The entire room was dark, the only light coming from a handful of candles. When her eyes had accustomed to the darkness, Sela saw that the other woman was clad in a ceremonial white kimono, and apparently meditating, oblivious to her presence. She heard the young woman chant, in a long-forgotten language.
Sela coughed, and the chanting stopped.
'Duì-bu-qui Sang-Jian-Jun Sela,' Talina apologized. 'Forgive me, I had not noticed your arrival.'
Sela saw her own reflection in the window, and smiled. 'Qui. That much is obvious. It is I who should apologize, for intruding in your chamber.' She nodded. 'Though, I must say, I am surprised to find you in mourning. Is your family alright?'
Talina straightened. 'My family is well, thank you Jian-Jun. I mourn the loss of a very good friend.'
'I don't suspect it has anything to do with the human, Ryan, being here?'
Only a vers slight quiver betrayed Talina's emotions, but Sela saw her reflection in the window shedding a tear. 'So it does have something to do with the human, has it?'
As the younger woman tried to protest, Sela stopped her with a wave of her hand.
'Don't bother,' she said. 'Did you really think your little liason with the human would go unnoticed? I know you and your equals have no respect for the Tal Shiar, but we are not an assembly of geriatric fool.'
Talina lowered her head, but didn't reply.
Sela looked down at the woman, and her expression softened somewhat.
'Talina.' Sela let her voice drop to a whisper, and tried to put as much warmth into the name as she could. 'Look at me. My own mother was a human. I know them. They have their mistakes, they are weak, but they also are special. Both our races have more in common than those old, xenophobic fools of the senate realize. Both our races can be compassionate, but also ruthless. Both, we are capable of love and mercy, but also of extraordinary cruelty. Granted, they tend to complicate things unnecessary, but I don't hate them for that. They intrigue me, much in the same way that guinea-pigs intrigue scientists. Of course, I'd never admit that to anyone. And if you did, I should have to kill you.' The colonel kneeled down in front of Talina and grasped her shoulders. 'I didn't know Malenkov, and I doubt that I'd
have approved much of your relationship, or even liked him, but as your kin, I am saddened by your loss.'
So saddened, in fact, that I will graciously oversee what you have done here. Sela let her eyes wander disdainfully over the room. The Cult of Varesh is forbidden, you know that as well as I do, and death would be the appropriate punishment for your crime. Though I doubt the Tal Shiar would be able to get at you.
Talina noticed that Sela's thoughts were wandering and stared defiantly up at her.
And you know that, too. The nekekami definetively are getting too powerful. They have forced this cooperation with the humans on us, and for that alone they shall have to pay.
'Now,' Sela said after a while. 'What did Ryan want?'
__________
As the data-crytal was inserted into the tricorder, the banner of the Federation appeared on a computer display on the opposite wall. The password was entered, and the logo was repaced by the image of Ian Malenkov. He was holding a PADD, the shirt of his uniformed unbuttoned, and rubbing his eyes tiredly. He looked up at the camera briefly, then back at his PADD. 'Sergej's mission was succesfull. He returned from ----' There was a brief pause as the computer blended out a part of the log entry classified as secret. '…last Tuesday. Intel Reports keep coming in from --------- and everything seems to be running smoothly. If that keeps on we'll be able to retire Eva from her assignment ahead of schedule.'
He tossed the PADD aside, and leaned forward, burying his face in his hands.
'I just got a report that they caught Adams while he was trying to get some information out. Chances are that he'll be tried for high treason and executed. Of course, he won't let that happen. The report got in yesterday. I suppose that he's done it by now. That leaves me with only one operative in ----------. He won't be of much help of course. But for now I have decided for him to remain in position. It's just as dad always used to say : If you're falling of a cliff, you might just as well try to fly. You've got nothing to lose.'
He paused a moment, and supported his head with his right hand.
'In a way…I feel the same way about Talina. I know it's ridiculous…I mean I fought Romulans. I killed Romulans. I saw good friends die, from Romulan hands. I should hate them all, and I should hate her. But I can't. As much as I try I can't hate her. When I am with her, it's jut like falling off a cliff…and yet…when I look into her eyes, I sometimes let myself think maybe….maybe, I really can fly.'
His image on the screen froze.
A slender hand reached out and touched the screen, where his mouth would have been.
__________
In Enterprise's Main Shuttle Bay, Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge knelt beside a pile of debris, running his tricorder over each of them. All throughout the room, other, larger, chunks of the Baruni, the shuttlecraft that exploded three days ago, taking with it its only passenger, some Ian Malenkov, of the StarFleet Security Branch. Geordi and his team of engineers had already run the usual series of tests, to determinate the cause of the accident. All they knew was that the antimatter-shielding went down, causing a massive explosion in the craft's reactor. But yet they had no clue whatsoever as to what caused the shielding to break down, in the first place.
Geordi stood up and turned around, when he heard the bay's large doors open. He knew who had entered, even before he saw Jean-Luc Picard and Will Riker walking towards him. The bald Captain walked up to Geordi, glancing at the various debris that bordered his path. Geordi nodded at both of them. 'Sir.'
'Mr. LaForge,' the Captain said, 'I understand you have found something?'
'Yes, sir.' Geordi led them over to the large computer panel that stood next to the door, and activated it. After he had touched some glyphs, an alien script appeared on the display. It read:
Elen Sila lumemn omentielvo
Cuyo mellon! Na tama galad Sihaya
And below it was the computer's translation into Federation Standard:
A star has shone upon the hour of our meeting.
Farewell, friend! Never forget, Sihaya.
'The Computer has identified it as Romulan, sir,' Geordi said. 'From what we learned of the Black Box, it was sent to the shuttle shortly before the explosion.'
Riker frowned. 'Sabotage?'
'It looks like it, sir. It could be some sort of code, which triggered the explosion, though, given the length of the message, that seems unlikely. I'll have the computer thoroughly checked, as soon as we have fixed Data.'
Picard looked up thoughtfully. 'How is Mr. Data?'
'Well sir, the Cardassians almost ruined his processors. They weren't exactly careful on their search for information. But I think we'll have him ready by tomorrow. Almost certainly there will be no long-term damage.'
Picard nodded, then looked up and tugged at his uniform. 'Very well,' he said, turning to leave. 'Keep me informed.'
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one:
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods:
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Funeral Blues, by W.H. Auden
----------------------------------