Picard woke, stretching and feeling wonderful. For a moment he allowed himself to not remember his duty, the problems the day would invariably present. But only for a moment. Rising he performed his morning rituals, and within 15 minutes was settling himself in his command chair.
"Good morning, Mr. Data." He greeted the android.
"Good morning, Captain. I trust you slept well?" Picard raised his eyebrow. "I am attempting to expand my knowledge of the appropriate use of human customs, in this case well wishes used as greetings."
"Ah, I see. Yes, Mr. Data I slept extremely well." Twelve hours well, he thought to himself ruefully. Riker had a point. I allowed myself to grow so tired it could very well have affected my judgment. I must watch that in the future.
"Report, Mr. Data. What have you learned while I was asleep?"
"We have learned a great deal Captain. Much of it is at odds with Federation history. I believe you were correct in your suspicion that Q has sent us to some kind of alternate universe. May I suggest a meeting of senior officers to present our findings?"
"An excellent suggestion, Mr. Data. Mr. Worf, would you be so kind as to arrange for the senior officers to meet me in one hour? "
"Yes, Captain."
"Oh, and Worf? That ship you mentioned yesterday, the one that was two days away. Where is it now?"
"It passed within 750,000 kilometers at its closest approach, sir. Once past it maintained course and speed and will reach one of the moons surrounding Chara VI in approximately two weeks. Sensors were able to determine the ship carried a crew of nine, all human."
"So they didn't detect us?"
"I believe not, Captain. I had Mr. La Forge tune our shields at the frequency of their EM pulse sensors so the signal was directed around us. While not a true cloak, it allowed us to remain undetected."
"Good thinking, Mr. Worf. Well done."
"Thank you, Captain."
He spent the next hour on the humdrum routine of captaining a starship, studying the reports of his senior officers concerning ship operations, proposed procedural changes, and study requests from most of the scientists on board. Half the job of being captain, he mused, was playing politician to the various department heads who wanted to monopolize a sensor array or use up most of the computer's available capacity on their own pet projects. It was a relief when it was time for the staff meeting.
Such is the life of a Star Fleet officer. He reflected. Tedium mixed with equal parts stark terror. Chuckling at his own whimsy he settled into his chair, his senior officers already assembled. Picard opened the meeting as he always did, with a quick summary.
"By now I'm sure you're all aware Q has deigned, in his infinite arrogance, to send the Enterprise to the Chara system some 150 years in our future. This meeting is to bring everyone up to speed on our current situation. Commander Riker, if you please." He settled back in his chair, relaxed yet alert.
"Certainly, Captain. It seems we really are in some kind of alternate reality. In our reality the Chara system is uninhabited, with no class M planets. In this reality the Chara system is composed of literally hundreds of terraformed planets and moons. The Charans don't have FTL capability of any kind--travel or communications--yet their presence indicates they traveled here from another system."
"We've also determined the Charans are human, and come from Earth. There's no trace of other intelligent species. As far as technology goes, they seem to be on par or ahead of the Federation in many areas, with the notable exception of sub-space physics, which they appear not to have discovered."
"Certainly their terraforming skills far exceed anything in the Federation. They seem to have mastered nanotechnology, artificial gravity, and from the evidence we've gathered they also have inertial damping systems of some kind. They lack warp drive but have highly developed ion drives which are certainly on par with our impulse engines. Coincidentally, their drives use deuterium, just like ours do."
"They use nuclear reactors to power their ships, but don't seem to deploy nuclear weapons--at least our sensors haven't picked up anything that looks like a weapon signature. Some of the more developed planets have fusion generators; the less developed moons use nuclear reactors, or have no power source at all. We haven't managed to discover what powers the artificial gravity systems they use for terraformed moons, however."
"Energy weapons seem to be limited to lasers and particle beams, and they still use chemical projectile weapons. They don't have shield technology either, and we found no evidence of antimatter."
Riker gestured for Lieutenant Worf to take over.
"Captain, from a tactical point of view the Charans pose no threat to the Enterprise. Even the largest of their capital ships does not mount any weapons that could penetrate our shields. In fact, unless they do possess nuclear weapons we could ignore even a massed attack by the bulk of their forces--should we choose to stand and fight. With warp drive it would be our choice to engage the enemy or not."
"I see. Mr. Data, what have you to add?"
"The Charans possess a sophisticated light-speed communications network that links most of the settled worlds of the system. From transmissions we've intercepted it appears the ships can act as nodes in this network when within range of a world-based transceiver. Transmissions are encrypted; we are attempting to analyze both the communication protocol and the encryption algorithm. Lieutenant Annera assures me she will have the problem solved very soon. Once that occurs we will be able to tap into the Charan network to communicate."
"Captain, I've already modified our EM sensor array to serve as a transceiver whenever Lieutenant Annera cracks the Charan protocols." La Forge, the chief engineer spoke up.
"Very good, Mr. La Forge. That brings up the subject of whether we should communicate with the Charans. I want to defer that discussion until the rest of you finish your reports."
"I guess I'm next." Dr. Crusher spoke up. "Obviously I can't make any determination of the Charans medical technology from this distance so I want to talk about the exams I ran on the crew members Q returned to us." She instantly had everyone's attention.
You mean the crew members Q raised from the dead. Picard thought. He was still intensely uncomfortable about that, not having had time to come to terms with their being alive.
"None of the crew members remember anything about the Enterprise being hurled into the Delta quadrant. Ensign Tanaka was actually taking a shower, which she wouldn't have been doing during an alert situation." Dr. Crusher smiled and shook her head. "From what I can piece together what Q actually did was snatch the crew members from a point in time just before the Enterprise appeared in the J-25 system and move them forward onto our bridge, yesterday."
Damn him! Picard thought, while remaining outwardly calm. Q knew the hull section the Borg grabbed was empty but let us think the crew had been killed. It was all a trick.
"That's why Q called it trivial." Picard said aloud. "It was a trick. He never raised those crew members from the dead; he simply shunted them through time, just as he's done with us."
"At least he rescued them, Captain." Deanna Troi spoke up. "We should count our blessings."
"Indeed." Picard said. "While I'm overjoyed to have those crew members back, it would have been better if Q had informed us they were alive before we told their families they were dead. Tell me Councilor, have you had any luck sensing the Charans?"
Troi shook her head. "No, Captain, we're too far away. But I did sense something unusual in the ship that passed us last night. I'm sure one of the crew was a telepath."
"Telepathy is nearly unheard of in humans, Councilor."
"I know. But every crew member on that ship was human, I'm certain of that. Even the telepath was human--a young girl I think. But her mind..." Troi shook her head.
"What about her mind, Deanna?" Riker asked. "Was she powerful?"
"Insane." Troi said. "I've never sensed anything like it before. And--she was looking back at me." Troi shivered.
"Could she have read anything from you?" Picard asked.
"It's possible, Captain. I didn't sense hostility, just curiosity. But there was something about her mind. It felt...predatory. No, that's not quite right. She felt like a predator feels, like an eagle, or a wolf. Focused." She shook her head again. "It's hard to explain to non-telepaths."
"That may complicate things." Picard frowned. "If she told the ship's captain he might report it to the authorities."
"No." She said flatly. Picard looked at Troi.
"Councilor?"
"It's an impression, Captain. The crew of that ship would not go to the authorities."
"Are you certain, Councilor?"
"Yes." She said firmly. "To an empath a person's emotional state has a...a taste I suppose you could call it. Every crew member on that ship gave off the same taste."
"What are you saying?" Riker asked her. "That the crew of that ship are criminals?"
Troi hesitated. "Noooo...I wouldn't say criminals, Commander." She frowned. "But I definitely got the impression they regard authority as being something best avoided."
"Well, that might work to our advantage in a first contact scenario." Riker commented. Picard set back and folded his hands on the table.
"Now that Commander Riker has raised the subject a second time we should discuss out next move. Would it violate the Prime Directive if we contacted the Charans? I am open to opinions. Anyone?"
"The Charans are an advanced civilization." Commander Riker said immediately. "They obviously have interstellar capability and widespread space travel. We know the Charans originally came from Earth."
"With all due respect, Commander." Data spoke up. "The Prime Directive applies to pre-warp civilizations. In other words, civilizations that have not yet discovered FTL travel--which the Charans do not possess."
"Yes, but Data, I'm not certain the interstellar travel has to be FTL." La Forge objected. "The Prime Directive is designed to protect a civilization from the knowledge that other intelligent life forms exist before they're ready to handle it. It also makes sure the Federation won't supply a culture with technology that culture couldn't develop on its own."
"That is an interesting point, Geordi. However the Prime Directive also prevents us from interfering in the internal affairs of another culture. We could not, for example use our technological advantage to aid one side in a civil war."
"Well, if we kept the contact limited and made sure the Charans didn't get their hands on any Federation technology we wouldn't be interfering." Geordi replied. "That ship last night, the one who's crew doesn't like the authorities. Sounds like they'd be a perfect way for us to find out what we need to know."
"Deanna, you said the telepath on that ship is insane." Dr. Crusher joined the conversation. "What kind of crew would serve with an insane telepath?"
"I don't know. Perhaps her insanity is only evident to another telepath. Or perhaps she doesn't appear to be a threat to them."
"Councilor, do you believe we can trust the crew of that ship?" Picard asked, point blank.
"I...believe so, Captain. Well, almost all of them. One of them struck me as very mercenary. That one might attempt to take advantage of us if he could, but I believe the rest of the crew is trustworthy."
"Trustworthy..." Picard murmured, staring into space. "We are here because Q wants to test our compassion--or so he says. Q may be malicious, and not to be trusted, but he isn't stupid."
"It would be no kindness on our part if we interfered in the Charan culture or sovereignty. Yet we need to interact with the Charans in some respect to gain the information we need. And, conveniently, there is one ship passing close to us, whose crew is unlikely to share knowledge of our existence with the authorities."
He looked around the table. "A ship that just happens to be far from the shipping lanes, that just happens to have a crew with the right attitude and just happens to pass oh so very close to us."
"You believe Q has laid a trap, Captain?" Worf asked.
"A trap--or a test. When it comes to Q I suspect there isn't much of a difference." Picard said. "However where Q is concerned we should be wary of coincidence--especially convenient coincidence."
"I wonder..." Dr. Crusher mused.
"Doctor?" Picard asked.
"Has anyone else noticed how Q reversed the roles this time?" She asked. "The last time he did this we were the primitives facing vastly overwhelming technology. This time we are in the superior role. We're talking about contacting one tiny isolated ship that is no match for us if it came to a fight, just as we were no match for the Borg."
"So you think Q is setting us up to be a bully?" Troi asked the doctor.
"Maybe. Obviously when it comes to the Charan civilization we're pretty evenly matched. One on one they can't win militarily, but we can't really fight an entire civilization, either."
"But against the Enterprise, what chance would one tiny ship and her crew have? They can't run, they can't fight, and they can't hide. Under those circumstances, our just saying hello might make us the bully."
"And then Q wins." La Forge commented.
"Yet if we sit out here quietly, doing nothing, the test will continue forever." Commander Riker said, stroking his beard.
"Then we are agreed, Q is testing us to see what we'll do." Picard said. "The real question seems to be what compassion means in this particular situation."
Dr. Crusher nodded. "I think that's it. We claim to be able to perform first contact missions without causing harm to the civilizations we contact--but Q has tailor-made a situation where it would be terribly easy to act like the Borg."
"Almost like he wants to us to." La Forge said.
"What Q wants is immaterial." Picard said firmly. "Whatever we decide, we will uphold Federation ideals and prove Q wrong--again."
"You don't like him either, do you Captain?" Riker asked with a smile.
"No, Number One. Q causes grief and mayhem wherever he goes. That offends me."
"It still leaves the question of contacting that ship." Worf spoke up. "Do we or don't we?"
Picard settled back in his chair, thinking. "Mr. Data, how long before we're able to communicate on the Charan network?"
"Lieutenant Annera did not give a definite ETA, Captain. She is confident it will be today, however."
"Very well. Until she solves the Charan protocol we'll continue to gather information using ship's sensors. I'll take your reports under advisement and decide once we can talk to them if we should. Dismissed."