NO REGRETS
by ardavenport
- - - Part 7
Lari Alvarez was just finishing a late dinner with Poi Nan when the comm panel in his cabin chimed.
"Picard to Alvarez,"
"At last, Captain." He wiped his mouth as he spoke.
"I understand you want to speak to me, Mr. Ambassador, about the results of our mission."
"Lack of results, Picard," he told the disembodied starship captain.
"I'm available now if you wish to speak with me in my ready room."
"I will be there momentarily." He threw his napkin down and without a word to Nan left the room.
When he arrived on the bridge he noted with some satisfaction that the damned klingon was off duty.
But the android wasn't.
"May I be of some asistance, Mr. Ambassador," Data asked, deliberately stepping in Alvarez's path.
"No, Mr. Data, Captain Picard simply asked to speak with me. I am on my way to see him." Alvarez did not try to get around the Enterprise third officer; he knew it would be futile. He waited for Data to make the appropriate inquiry.
"Data to Captain Picard." He tapped his comm badge.
"Yes, Mr. Data."
"Ambassador Alvarez is here to see you, Captain."
"Please show him in."
Data tilted his head in the most neutral show of surprise that Alvarez had ever seen. He stepped aside and with some satisfaction Alvarez proceeded to the door of Picard's ready room. Data had been the most effective obstacle to his attempts to see Picard that day. Lt. Worf and Commander Riker relied on intimidation to scare him off and it had little effect on the seasoned ambassador. But Data's tedious distractions were harder to ignore. The android was so boringly polite that he would have made the perfect diplomatic attache'. If Alvarez were not so annoyed with the android he might have inquired about where Data had been manufactured and if there were any more of him available.
Picard was seated at his desk. "Come in," Picard said, turning his chair. "Have a seat. "You wanted to speak with me about our mission," he said as Alvarez sat down in the chair opposite him at the desk.
"Yes, Captain," he said with a trace of sarcasm in his reply. "I've read your report and your officer's reports and the ship's log and I wish to state my dissatisfaction with the outcome of our attempt."
"I see. And you intend to include that in your report?" Picard smiled congenially. He and Alvarez both knew that Starfleet would support Picard's decision to cut their mission short no matter what the ambassador said. Command had not apporoved of the expedition in the first place. The authority to embark on the Talos mission came from the Federation Council, not Starfleet.
"Yes, Captain."
"Well, I have been speaking with some of my staff about yesterday's incident, and I've been rethinking some of my conclusions about it. I intend to include these observations in my report and I though you might like to hear them before filing yours."
"I would like nothing better."
"Ambassador," Picard paused for just the right dramatic effect. Alvarez had reviewed Picard's extrensive diplomatic experience that came from being a starship captain for more than twenty years. He appreciated Picard's style but he did not care for having to wait all afternoon to hear the delivery.
"Have you wondered why the Talosians chose to say 'no' to our attempt at contact the way they did?"
"I would not presume to guess their motives." He folded his arms across he chest, unimpressed by the opening question.
"It would seem clear that they wanted us to leave."
"That would appear to be the case," Alvarez conceded.
"But why did they choose to deliver this messaage in such a dramatic fashion?"
"The Talosians seem to have a tendency toward excessive dramatics as far as can be told from our limited experience with them."
"But if they were just putting on a show, then why didn't they do something more extreme to any of the other ships that have been in their area?" Picard pressed a key on a secure note padd on his desk, retrieving a record. "Even the crew of the ship that claimed to have landed on Talos reported only to have been instantaneously transported out of the system. Nothing else happened to them and nothing severe happened to anyone else involved in any other recent incident."
Alvarez took a moment to answer. It was an inconsistancy, but it was still too early in the discussion to admit that any of Picard's observations might be valid. "As I said before, I don't presume to guess the Talosians' motives."
"Could it possibly be that that last ship actually landed on Talos?"
"Why would they allow that?"
"Because perhaps that ship wasn't noticed until it had landed. Perhaps these other ships that claimed to have entered the Talosian system weren't noticed until just before they were expelled."
Alvarez was interested in this argument but it had obvious weaknesses. "Picard, the Talosians are capable of projecting illusions lightyears away from their own world. You, yourself, are personally acquainted with their ability." Picard's back straightened. "How could a ship just slip in without their noticing?"
"I am quite aware of their abilities, which makes these earlier lapses even more notable. If they were just entertaining themselves as you speculate here," Picard punched up the Talos mission plan on the note padd, "then why would they simply send them away?" Picard returned his attention to the note padd. Alvarez looked at the reflection of the overhead light in the hairless top of Picard's lowered head. The captain had prepared his arguments well; they would be difficult to dismiss later if he didn't like them. "You also speculate," he continued, looking up," mission that perhaps they're dropping hints that they would like to talk to the Federation in some discrete fashion. Yet all we've turned up here is a very definite 'no'."
"You haven't explained how the Talosians could have missed those ships."
"We know that the Talosians are a dying civilization. Now if they really are dying out they won't do it all at once. Gradually their technological abilities will break down. They'll become less and less capable of supporting themselves let alone a complex monitoring of their planetary system. Now if you were a dying Talosian, how would you actually die?"
The ambassador didn't answer verbally; he just raised his eyebrows in an expression of positive interest. Picard was leading the conversation and he did not intend to be lead to any conclusions prematurely.
"If you were a master of illusion and all around you the world was becoming more and more difficult to survive in, wouldn't you choose to escape into a more comfortable reality?"
"So, you think they're losing themselves in their own illusions. Then why would they notice us now?"
"I'm sure at least some of them are aware of their surroundings. After that last ship landed on their world it must have jolted the rest of them back into the real world; they must have assumed we'd be coming sooner or later. All they'd have to do is monitor Starfleet communications to find out when. And we already know that they do listen to our communications."
Alvarez thought about it. He had to admit that it wasn't an unlikely scenario, and it was one that he had not considered at all. "Then why do you think they rejected us so dramatically?"
"They want to scare us off. Only Starfleet and the Federation Council know that the Talosians are a dying race and the real reason for Talos' isolation. The Talosians themselves have stated that we could learn their power of illusion and fall into the same trap that caused the decline of their own civilization. It's common knowledge that the Talosians are masters of illusion. If it became known that they were dying out . . . ."
" . . . . then every free trader in the area would be on their doorstep bartering the tools for survival for their illusions. Starfleet would never be able to catch them all."
"And," Picard finished the thought, the Talosians might be tempted to trade their secrets. "The Talosians sent those other ships away with as little indication as possible, without even a warning, that there would be anything worth going back for." He spoke with a bit too much feeling for Alvarez's taste. "But Starfleet already knows how dangerous they are. Now that their decline is affecting their ability to maintain their isolation they have a very strong motive for delivering their warning to us in as graphic a fashion as possible."
"I can't say your evidence is very convincing," the ambassador concluded.
"No, It's all quite circumstatial. I could be completely wrong. But there are so few facts about Talos that it seems as likely a possibilty as anything else. "If they are dying out, shouldn't we offer to help?"
This suggestion seemed to annoy Picard. "If they wish to be left alone, Ambassador, shouldn't we do as they wish? "
Alvarez smiled humorlessly. "You are, of course, correct. The Federation does not interfere where we're not wanted," he admitted. "If that is truly what they want."
"I don't think they could have made it any clearer," Picard responded angrily.
"Then why didn't they speak to everyone? Why only you?"
"I wouldn't presume to guess their motives, Mr. Ambassador."
"No, Picard, but as the Talosians become fewer and fewer they become more of a danger to us. It becomes more and more likely that some outside influence will gain control of their world and perhaps their secrets."
"Including us?"
"Would you prefer it be someone else? The Orions or the G'Haruis? The Ferengi?"
"I would prefer it be no one."
"That is not always an option." Alvarez laid his hands on the desk top and studied his fingertips. He had a silver ring on his left hand with a large milky blue stone. It matched Alvarez's ankle-length blue tunic, silver boots and sash. Picard had yet to see him in anything that was not a solid powder blue. It was a good neutral color for a diplomat and the idiosynchrosy seemed to match the man's determined personality. Picard would not allow him to make a second attempt to contact the Talosianns, so now he had apparently switched his priorities to changing Federation policy regarding Talos IV.
Picard hoped he would not succeed.
"You intend to include this opinion in your report?" he inquired.
"Yes, I believe so." Alvarez rose from his chair. "And now, I think I shall retire for the night. Thank-you for your insights, Captain. They have been quite enlightening."
"Good night, Ambassador." Alvarez gave a little bow and left.
PIcard sat back in his high-backed chair and sighed. He doubted that Alvarez would get Starfleet Command to change its mind about Talos. And with Starfleet against him he'd have little chance of getting the Federation council to sponsor a second attempt. The whole project could consume the rest of Alvarez's career and Picard could think of many more worthwhile things for him to do. But if, by some chance, he did succeed in getting his second try, Picard hoped he would never come face to face with the Talosians. A man as determined, as goal-oriented as Alvarez liked to have things around him under control, or at least predictable. Picard sympathized with that; he like to have things under control as well.
But when dealing with the Talosians, they would always control things, everything. They controlled reality itself.
- - - End Part 7
