It's Unthinkable

by TimeTraveller-1900

The Pegasus mission raised a number of red flags for Captain Picard; not only does he have a secretive admiral on his ship, but his own first officer is keeping secrets and there are now so many questions he wants answering, and now he's received the report, he discovers things are much worse.

I don't own Star Trek The Next Generation.

"It's Unthinkable."

"Captain Picard to the Bridge," Riker's voice came over the comms while Picard and Pressman were both talking in the Ready Room. The two senior officers had been going over a report about the latest scan analysis. At the same time, Picard carefully chose a few questions about the whole mission.

Frustratingly Pressman had been tight-lipped about the whole thing.

Annoyingly, so was Starfleet.

Ever since they'd gotten this mission, Picard had seen several red flags spring up to half-mast. So many things about the mission made little sense, like what had happened to the Pegasus in the first place. Picard had heard about the incident a long time ago, of course, but what surprised him was that Will hadn't told him anything about the first ship he'd served on.

Bad memories?

No, that didn't make any sense.

But what staggered him was that the Pegasus had somehow survived its destruction and had drifted into this asteroid field. It was plausible, but there were so many things that didn't add up.

Picard, determined to get some answers, had sent a few messages back to Starfleet Command so he could get hold of the report on the destruction of the Pegasus, but it had proven to be harder, and more difficult than he'd expected. He had needed to call in a startlingly large number of favours, another red flag just to look at the details, but he was hopeful it would come through today with a little bit of luck. He hadn't had a chance to check his inbox.

Picard and Pressman exchanged a look. "Do you think we'll get lucky this time?" Pressman asked.

"Perhaps," Picard replied, as he and the admiral walked onto the bridge and up to the mission ops where they found Will standing behind Geordi. "Geordi's found something," Will said.

Picard nodded, keeping Will in his peripheral vision. He had served with Will Riker long enough to know he wasn't pleased. In fact, the emotion coming from his first officer could be summed up in just one word.

Dread.

Any further speculation on why Will was not happy was put on the back burner when Geordi broke through his thoughts, "There's a subspace resonance signature coming from that asteroid, sir. It could be the warp core of the Pegasus."

"I think he's right," Pressman agreed, "I recognise some of the variance patterns."

Picard ordered, "Put the asteroid on the main viewscreen."

On the view screen, the asteroid itself materialised. It didn't look truly spectacular like any of the other comets and meteorites he had seen over the years, but what he didn't understand was why the Pegasus had come this far into the system while it was unmanned to stop it from hitting anything, and hadn't hit anything. They were quite deep inside the asteroid field, so how had the Pegasus gotten so lucky it hadn't been destroyed for real with any of the others?

Questions, questions. All he had were questions and damn few answers. But if the Pegasus was in the asteroid, there was a strong chance they could discover what was really happening, and why Pressman was so determined to retrieve his old ship. Picard recognised the attachment a captain had for their former command - that mess with the Stargazer and Bok's attempt to drive him insane was proof of that, but he had discovered enough to be worried.

The fact he'd found nothing substantial was worrying enough, that was why he wanted answers.

"I have confirmed Geordi's readings," Data said, "The resonance signature is originating from somewhere beneath the asteroid's surface."

What?

Picard knew there were deep cracks and fissures in an asteroid's surface. Mining robots took advantage of them to go deep inside so they could start stripping the rocks for every mineral they were worth, and he'd even taken shuttlecraft deep inside for surveys with more unique asteroids, but he had never heard of a case where a starship drifted through a full asteroid field, full of radiation and gravity anomalies, and was pulled into one specific asteroid before.

And he had never heard of an unmanned starship being lucky enough to drift this far through an asteroid field and slip into a chasm in an asteroid. What was going on?

"Beneath the surface? How's that possible?" Pressman demanded.

Picard glanced at him, seeing he was genuinely surprised. But he wished he had the authority and the means to demand answers from Pressman.

Data confirmed Picard's thoughts about fissures, but he didn't have any proper answers, "This asteroid contains several deep chasms large enough for a starship to enter. It is possible the Pegasus drifted into the asteroid's gravitational field and was pulled down into one of the fissures."

"Sir, the Romulan warbird has altered course once again," Worf announced as he looked up from his console, "They are heading toward our position."

"They probably want to see what we're so interested in over here," Will commented.

"Mr Data, how long will it take to determine the exact location of the Pegasus?" Picard asked, knowing they had little time. He knew what was at stake if the Pegasus contained the prototype systems which went into the technology which was improved upon before being fitted to the Enterprise and other ships. If the Romulans were coming, he wanted such a sweep to be quick.

Sadly, his hopes were not to be.

"At least another six hours, sir," Data replied promptly.

Picard sighed, cursing the Romulans for not being anywhere else. "That's too long," Pressman shook his head. "If the Romulans start searching the asteroid, they could find the ship before we do."

"I recommend we destroy the asteroid," Will said abruptly, and Picard stared at him in surprise. "It would take most of our photon torpedoes, but it would preclude any possibility of the Pegasus falling into Romulan hands."

Picard couldn't believe what he was hearing. On one side he had Pressman who wanted to retrieve the Pegasus at all costs, and on the other, he had Will, who was determined to destroy the ship. Why, what was happening?

The look Pressman sent towards Will was withering and furious. "Our top priority is to salvage the ship, Commander. I'll consider destroying it only as a last resort."

"Yes, sir," Will replied in a tone that was close to insubordinate. What was happening between these two men?

Pressman sent Will another look before he turned to Picard. "Captain, could you give me a third alternative?"

Picard thought through the options they had, he wracked his brain for anything they could use before his mind focused on the possibilities of particles and radiation. That might work, but he needed to be sure. "Mr Data, would it be possible to saturate the asteroid with verteron particles that could mask the resonance signature and prevent the Romulans from detecting it?"

Data looked away thoughtfully. "In order for the deception to succeed, it would have to appear to be a natural phenomenon. Verteron particles are artificial in nature."

Picard sighed. Blast, he'd forgotten about that. Luckily, Geordi had cottoned on to what Picard was hoping for. "Wait a minute. We could blanket the asteroid with high levels of ionising radiation. There's so much of it in the system already, the Romulans won't know the difference."

It was a good idea, but Picard still turned to Data to see if it was feasible enough, "Mr Data?"

The android nodded. "Theoretically, sir, it should work."

That was enough for Picard, but time was not on their side. "If we do this, we have to do it fast the Romulans will be within sensor range in less than a minute," Will said grimly from where he was checking the readouts on Worf's console.

"Make it so, Mr Data," Picard ordered.

Data quickly turned back to his console. "Aye, sir. Initiating ionisation field pulse."

Picard, Pressman and Riker sat down in the three command chairs. "When he's finished we'll have to move away and make it look like we've scanned the asteroid but haven't found anything," Picard said.

Will turned his attention to the officer at the helm, "Lay in a course for the next search grid. Stand by to engage."

"If it works, the Romulans won't find anything and we can return later. If it doesn't….," Picard trailed off. They all knew what the Romulans would do.

Sadly, Pressman stated the obvious. "If it doesn't work, we'll have handed them the Pegasus."

Picard bit his tongue. He wished he had the authority to make the admiral keep his obvious statements to himself. Did he really think nobody knew what was at stake?

"Ionisation pulse complete," Data announced.

"Helm, one quarter impulse. Engage," Picard said, wishing that they had slowly moved away from the asteroid to give the Romulans the impression they'd finished studying the asteroid.

"The Romulans are initiating a tachyon scan of the asteroid," Data reported, "They have switched to their lateral sensor array. Beginning another scan."

"They're certainly being thorough," Will commented. Picard didn't say a thing. The Romulans, like their Vulcan cousins, were a thorough and highly intelligent people. And since the Romulans lived on a knife edge, they would be quick and proactive to begin looking for a piece of top-secret technology, but Picard knew something was off and he knew the Romulans were suspecting something.

Picard frowned as he watched the image of the warbird as it moved closer to the asteroid, the Romulans might expend this much effort looking for the Pegasus if Pressman was telling the truth, but Picard was positive something else was happening. Right now he had seen enough to be suspicious and concerned.

The resonance signature within the asteroid.

The strong lead that said the Pegasus had gone into the asteroid, after somehow miraculously avoiding so many other asteroids along the way. Was it because of the stronger gravity? But there were other large asteroids so that theory was killed quickly.

Will's suggestion to blow the asteroid to pieces with photons. He was hiding something he wanted to avoid, and Picard was becoming worried.

The Romulans' attentiveness.

But the biggest red flags for Picard were the lack of formal documents to really explain what the Pegasus had been doing and what had actually happened, and he couldn't persuade Pressman to talk. Starfleet Intelligence operatives were always tightlipped but this was taking it to the extreme.

"The warbird has completed its sensor sweep," Data reported a moment later.

"If they found the resonance signature, they should be sending away teams any second," Pressman pointed out gloomily, and the tension on the bridge "They are moving out," Data reported.

Picard knew he was not the only one who sighed with relief. "Mr Data, we must convince the Romulans that we're still looking for the Pegasus. I want you to continue scanning this system," Picard ordered.

"Yes, sir," Data instantly got to work on a new series of scans. While the android got to work with hopefully making sure the Romulans were properly deceived, Picard turned to Will, "I want to be back at this asteroid at 08:00 hours tomorrow. Plan your search pattern accordingly."

Will nodded, "Aye, sir."

Picard frowned, now more worried about Will, but he decided to find out what was going on with him later. Right now, he was outwardly presenting his usual manner as a diligent and efficient first officer, but he was still acting oddly. Picard could understand the feelings that came with the loss of a ship, but both Will and Pressman were acting oddly; Pressman wanted the ship back while keeping quiet about something big, and Will wanted to destroy the Pegasus to stop the something from getting out.

Red flags were fluttering, and Picard knew this thing was massive. Out of courtesy, Picard turned to Pressman, "Admiral, would you care to join me for some late dinner?"

Pressman shook his head, "Please excuse me, Captain," he replied politely, "but I think I'd better turn in early."

Picard nodded as he stood up, "You have the Bridge, Number One. Oh, and will you bring the scan analysis to my quarters when you're off watch?"

"Aye, sir," Will said as Picard left the bridge.

X

As he stood in the turbolift after giving the deck number where his quarters were on, Picard took a moment to think. So many things just didn't add up, and so many red flags had gone up while he had been on the bridge just now. Finding out the Pegasus had somehow miraculously survived the gravity anomalies which were found in an asteroid field before entering one so far into the field was unexpected enough since the ship should have been smashed to pieces, but Will's attitude was startling.

And now Picard was more concerned.

Picard sighed with relief when the turbolift stopped, and he strode to his quarters where he hoped his messages to Starfleet Headquarters had gotten somewhere. Picard frowned as he considered the sheer number of favours he had been forced to call in just to get a glimpse at the Pegasus report.

So far, they hadn't had much luck. That was worrying. It meant someone had gone to great lengths to bury the report, and that meant the Pegasus was involved in something more clandestine than they had been told. That would explain Will's current attitude.

When he got to his quarters, he checked his personal computer and to his relief, he saw a message from Starfleet Command. He almost cheered with joy and relief, when he saw it was the report.

'"Dear Jean-Luc, here is the Pegasus report. Now you owe me. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get?"' Picard read the note attached. "No, but I have a good idea considering what I've put up with these last few days."

After downloading the report onto a padd, Picard placed it on his desk. He replicated himself a nice, filling and nutritious meal and he started to eat. He tapped the padd, and he began to read the contents. His eyes widened in shock when he saw one word jump out at him.

Mutiny.

Picard closed his eyes and reopened them again, hoping he had misread the report, but he hadn't. The report from the Judge Advocate General made it perfectly clear this was serious. Some members of the Pegasus crew had indeed launched a mutiny against the then Captain Pressman, who had escaped the ship in time before the ship apparently exploded. According to the inquiry, Pressman had escaped with only a small fraction of loyalists. The rest of the crew had mutinied, and they had barely escaped with their lives before the Pegasus seemingly exploded. Starfleet had launched an investigation, of course, but as he read the report, Picard had the impression that, like himself, the Judge Advocate had tried and failed to get clear answers but nobody was talking. Eventually, the Judge Advocate realised there had been something on the Pegasus the crew wanted to keep secret.

In the end, the inquest ran out of steam, but the Judge Advocate General had recommended a deeper investigation when he was convinced Pressman and the survivors had been covering up the truth.

Only there wasn't a deeper investigation, Picard saw that, and considering how hard it had been to get hold of the report, it had been classified and then it was quietly buried.

But why?

What had the Pegasus been doing that would make such a large number of the crew mutiny in the first place?

And Will was involved. He was helping cover this up.

Picard was still nowhere near the answers when the door chime went off. "Come," Picard ordered through a mouthful.

The doors opened, admitting in Will. "The scan analysis you asked for," he said and placed a padd on the desk.

"Thank you," Picard took the padd and put it to the side, and gazed at Will in unhidden disappointment; it was one thing he hadn't told Picard about what happened, but to find out he was involved in a cover-up conspiracy….

Will quickly noted the atmosphere, "Is there something else, sir?"

Picard sighed. "Yes, there is," he picked up the padd with the Pegasus report, "Judge Advocate General's Report. Stardate 36764. Subject, inquiry into mutiny aboard USS Pegasus. Based on testimony from Captain Pressman and other surviving officers, the Judge Advocate believes there is sufficient evidence to conclude that certain members of the crew did mutiny," he paused just for a moment so he could study Will's face, he was uncomfortable, good then perhaps he could get some answers for a change, "against the captain just prior to the destruction of the Pegasus." Finally, he looked up, and stared at Will, unable to read anymore now he wanted answers, Mutiny on a Federation starship? That's shocking. It's unthinkable. And yet you've never mentioned it."

Looking truly uncomfortable, Will shook his head, "No, sir."

Chuckling without any humour, Picard held up the padd. "You know, it wasn't easy to get this record. I had to pull in quite a few favours at Starfleet just to get a look at it." A few? Try nearly all of them. "It seems that it was classified by Starfleet Intelligence," Picard stood up and slowly walked up to Will who was as still as a tree, "So, not only was the Pegasus carrying sensitive equipment which must be allowed to fall into Romulan hands, not only was there a mysterious explosion which seemed to destroy the ship but didn't, but it seems there was a mutiny on board. Now, I've read the official report of the inquiry on that mutiny, but I want to know your version of what happened."

Will tensed and a haunted expression swept over his face as he went over the memories of his last days of the Pegasus, "I was on the Bridge. The ship was at yellow alert. We were running some tests on the engines. Something went wrong. There was an explosion in Engineering. Heavy casualties. In the midst of this crisis, the First Officer, the Chief of Engineering and most of the Bridge crew mutinied against Captain Pressman."

Picard frowned as the picture started to clear slightly, but there were some things he still could not work out. "Why?" What would make everyone suddenly turn like that? Explosions in engineering happened all the time, they didn't normally spark something like a mutiny off?

"They thought he was jeopardising the ship."

Picard knew Main Engineering was the most dangerous part of a ship, and anything could explode, but he was still unclear about what could have caused the crew to mutiny. All the obvious reasons didn't fit. "And you?"

Will chuckled without any good humour, and Picard had the feeling that while he had been proud of this decision a long time ago, he had slowly begun regretting it ever since. That worried him even more, the thought of Will Riker being a mutineer was a worrying one.

But what worried Picard more was the reason for the mutiny in the first place.

"I was seven months out of the Academy, my head still ringing with words like duty and honour. When they turned on him, I thought they were a bunch of self-serving, disloyal officers," for a moment a surge of anger bled into his voice as he passionately explained what he had felt on the Pegasus at the time, "so I grabbed a phaser and defended my captain. Two or three others joined us, but it was clear by then that the mutineers had most of the crew behind them. We felt a need to get off the ship. There was a running firefight all the way to the escape pod. About five minutes after we left the ship there was an explosion."

Picard had been silent as he had conjured in his mind the image of a youthful Will Riker grabbing a phaser, and fighting people who had been his friends. That was one of the more painful things about the idea of mutiny, it was a terrible way of friendships being torn to bits. "The Judge Advocate also believes that the surviving officers are deliberately withholding vital information from this inquiry. Further investigation is recommended. Will, there was no further investigation. This report was classified and then it was quietly buried. Why?"

Will swallowed uncomfortably, "Sir, may I suggest you take this up with Admiral-."

The anger, the frustration, and the disappointment Picard had been feeling exploded. "I'm taking this up with you, Will!" He shouted as he felt the constant blocks put up by Pressman to avoid talking about Pegasus's mission come out. He was tired of this infantile game, and he wanted answers. The news a mutiny had taken place under his command was bad enough, but the idea of a conspiracy with Pressman in the middle of it was frustrating, but what angered Picard was how he had pushed Will to not say a word. "The Judge Advocate thought you were participating in a conspiracy to cover up the truth. Now, what the hell is going on here, Will? Why did that mutiny happen? Why is Pressman so determined to find your ship twelve years later?"

Will took a deep breath, his shoulders tense while his expression was set in apology. Somehow Picard knew what he would say before he even spoke. "I've said all I can. I am under direct orders from Admiral Pressman not to discuss this, sir."

Picard pulled back as if he had been slapped, and he narrowed his gaze. He'd had enough of this, but now it was time for Will to realise what the price was going to be. "Very well. He's an admiral, I'm a captain," he said as he retook his seat at the desk. "I cannot force you to disobey his orders. Therefore I will have to remain in the dark on this mission. And I will just have to trust that you will not let Pressman put this ship at unnecessary risk. And if I find that that trust has been misplaced, then I will have to re-evaluate the command structure of this ship. Dismissed."

A visibly shaken and surprised Will Riker left Picard's quarters, leaving Picard to sit alone at the desk and consider what was going on. Sooner or later, answers were going to be coming and Picard knew it was not going to be good.

X

Author's Note - I always did love The Pegasus episode where there was so much intrigue and revealed the Federation was willing to play dirty tricks while signing treaties.