Chapter VI
Picard was up and about bright and early the next day in order to watch the Enterprise's arrival with Admiral Bill Ross from Spacedock orbiting the Earth.
The Grand Admiral had been surprised at how quickly the news of his appointment had travelled, even on Earth. The messages of congratulations from his friends and erstwhile superiors in Starfleet's hierarchy had stilled his fears of being rejected and opposed because of his rapid and unexpected rise in the ranks, above the heads of distinguished career officers who had spent most of their lives climbing the career ladder.
Thus, with this heartening feeling of security, he had requested Ross' presence in Spacedock this morning in order to discuss something that was of vital importance to the war effort. However, as he and Ross had walked along the corridor towards the main airlock which the Enterprise was assigned to, he had noticed that depressed and resigned faces he had seen when he had proceeded to his rendezvous with the President's order had now turned to hopeful expressions that followed him along the corridor. For the first time, used as he was to heavy burdens of command, he felt a new weight settle onto his shoulders – that of expectation, and the knowledge that these people's lives depended on his decisions.
Now, staring at the sleek shape of the Enterprise, he felt a twinge as he realised that should things go as he planned, he would never command her again. Condemned to a planet-bound existence, behind a desk.
Well, he thought, it's either that or let the planet be destroyed. What a choice. Either way I lose out.
That's the burden of command.
Picard glanced at Ross. 'Are you fully aware of the implications of your mission?'
Ross nodded silently. Picard returned the nod. 'Good. I expect frequent reports on your findings.'
At that moment, the airlock at the far end of the corridor hissed open, and Ross curtailed his reply. Riker emerged, and caught sight of his two senior officers.
Ross greeted the captain of the Enterprise reservedly, but Picard rushed forward and shook his hand. 'Will, it's great to see you! Successful mission?'
'Yes, sir, thank you,' replied Riker, slightly bemused.
Picard turned to face his fellow Admiral. 'Bill, I would like to speak with Captain Riker alone.'
Ross nodded silently and left the room. Riker turned to Picard, a pleased smile on his face. 'It's good to see you again, Admiral. We've brought a hundred Ferengi D'Kora-class warships to Earth. It was all we could salvage. The new crew performed well.' Picard nodded, pleased. He had suggested the reassignments to Riker.
'With respect, sir, the Enterprise doesn't feel right without you on the bridge,' Riker added. Picard smiled modestly.
'Thank you, Will.' His voice turned serious. 'Q came to me last night.' After noting Riker's look of surprise, Picard continued, 'He's told me how to block off the reinforcements to the alien invaders. We need to get hold of one of the type-forty planet-wrecker missiles, and destroy the planet that we first encountered the aliens at.' He looked at Riker, who frowned.
'I thought we'd made it a policy never to trust Q.'
'You're right of course,' replied Picard, although he smiled slightly as he turned to look at the distant shape of the Enterprise. 'However, he seemed sincere enough. He doesn't have a style of lying. Half-truths... yes, but never straight lies.' He stared into Riker's eyes, making sure that the younger man understood his requests. 'I need the Enterprise for this, Will.'
'You've got it,' said Riker immediately. 'The moment that you call, we'll be there.'
Picard nodded, having expected Riker's response. 'However, I also need Data and Geordi on the Enterprise as well. Geordi had experience with planet-wreckers on the USS Victory, and I just feel secure having Data along anyway. Unfortunately, they're on the Hood, at Starbase Four. They won't get back for a day.' Riker nodded, not expressing the trepidation Picard knew that he had to feel.
'You have my support. But I know that Starfleet won't sanction this mission. It does go against Starfleet procedure.'
Picard turned and looked out at the sleek shape of the Enterprise across the docking bay. 'I am Starfleet. My duties are total administration of Starfleet, and I only answer to the President.' He smiled to himself, as if at some private joke. Riker had an idea.
'If you want to get Data and Geordi back here quickly, then you can arrange for either the Hood to return, or for Data and Geordi to return to Earth.' Picard nodded.
'I've already done so, Captain,' he said. There was a pause while Riker watched two engineers walk past with a piece of equipment, bound for the Enterprise. Few of the crew would leave by this entrance – an old and rarely used airlock, now kept open for repair crews and engineers to have easy access, Picard had chosen it to have a quiet talk with Riker.
'Captain,' said Riker carefully after a moment's thought, 'why do we have to steal this missile? Surely, if you are only answerable to the President, then why don't you just requisition it for the war? Even if Starfleet as a whole opposes the mission, you can still go ahead with it and damn it all.'
Picard smiled involuntarily at the trace of Riker's old impetuosity. 'I know this, but unfortunately, Starfleet has still not yet woken up to this war, for a reason that I believe I've uncovered.' At Riker's inquiring look, Picard held up a hand. 'That's all you need to know for the moment, Will. I've tried my best, but the Admiralty does not seem to recognise the importance of this mission. They do not realise, except for a few individuals like Admiral Paris, that the Aralla are more deadly than anything we've faced before. Thanks to Admiral Nechayev's influence, many of them still believe that it is a Romulan plot.'
Riker frowned. 'Admiral Nechayev's influence?'
Picard sighed. 'Admiral Nechayev, for all her ability, is sometimes a little narrow-minded. She apparently opposed my appointment, or at least believed that my position should go to someone else.'
'Like herself?'
Picard shot Riker a hard look. 'Whatever you may think of her privately, she is still your commanding officer, Captain!'
Riker nodded, surprised at Picard's reaction. Picard's expression softened. 'Sorry, Will. I'm uncomfortable about going behind Starfleet's back. I have not got time to go through the proper channels before the Aralla become too powerful to make the loss of their supply base a big blow.
'There are no planet-wrecker warheads left, but the plans to create them still exist. However, these are restricted to no code-level other than that provided by the President and all the Fleet Admirals together. Even I can't go over the head of Starfleet with that sort of protection, and obviously, Admiral Nechayev is a Fleet Admiral, and her co-operation would be extremely unlikely, even if she hadn't vanished. The plans will be noticed as having gone missing as soon as they leave the library system – no copies - and so, to get the missile casing through legal channels would connect me with the theft of the plans of the warhead. It must look like a theft by a totally unconnected party.'
'And when we destroy the planet in the Neutral Zone? Won't Starfleet realise what happened then?'
'It'll be too late by then.' Picard smiled slightly. 'Crimes only occur if they cause pain to the majority.'
Riker nodded, not accepting Picard's philosophy, but agreeing with his superior officer's judgement of the situation. Something that Picard had said came back to him, and he frowned. 'Admiral Nechayev has vanished?'
Picard drew Riker aside a little further, trying to make his voice unaffected, but glimmers of dark anger shone through. 'About four days ago, she left her office in Starfleet Headquarters, and hasn't been seen again since. I have no idea where she is or what she's doing – and in the middle of a war situation, that's not good.'
Riker nodded understandingly. 'I understand that Admiral Paris was taken into hospital shortly after our first warnings about the alien ships.'
'Yes, I spoke to him a couple of days ago.'
Riker did a double-take. 'It was said he had had a nervous breakdown and was incommunicado.'
Picard smiled, but there was no humour in the expression. 'When I went to see him he was fine, and unable to understand why he was there. Apparently, he fell asleep one evening, and woke up there. The doctors can't find anything psychologically or physically wrong with him, but they received orders from Admiral Nechayev to keep him there until they received further instructions. I ordered them to release him.'
'It all stems back to Admiral Nechayev, doesn't it?' said Riker.
Picard nodded grimly. 'I've set Admirals Ross and Paris to work trying to locate her.'
Riker nodded thoughtfully and then changed the subject to one that had been bothering him for a while. 'Has the warhead been replicated yet?'
'We're not replicating it, Will,' said Picard with a smile at Riker's discomfort about the entire idea. 'Geordi says that since we have the time, he's going to build it by hand, to make sure that he gets it right first time.'
Riker smiled. 'That sounds like Geordi. How come he knows so much about these things?'
'They were originally installed on the Constellation-class starships like the Victory, so Geordi has had some experience using them. The official reason was in case of a war against the Klingons.'
'I can't believe that Starfleet would knowingly sanction anything like that, even against the Klingons at the time,' said Riker.
'And you'd be right,' replied Picard. 'I've done a little digging in my short time as Grand Admiral, and I've discovered that Starfleet not only knew about the threat the Romulans faced all that time ago, but took active steps to prevent it from happening to the Federation. The planet-wrecker was conceived as the only weapon we could produce that could harm ships of that size.'
'But we know better now they've arrived at last.'
Picard winced and nodded. 'That's all too true. Even something as abominably powerful as these missiles wouldn't penetrate their shielding. Once the immediate threat had passed, Starfleet, realising what a threat to galactic peace they were, withdrew all the missiles, decommissioned them, and buried the evidence. Until now.'
Riker nodded. 'It seems that they're likely to finally answer their calling.'
Picard turned to look at the Enterprise. 'I only hope that it's not too late.'
Two figures left Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco in the early hours of the morning, and headed towards the air tram park. They both wore Starfleet combat uniforms, basically for the dark content of the material.
There was a sleepy guard on attendance. He sat in his chair at the front of the tram, dozing. Suddenly, he was rudely awoken when he was thrown out of the tram by a masked figure that suddenly emerged from the darkness.
'Hey! Whatcha doin'....' He broke off as he found a phaser hurriedly thrust into his face. The figure was dark against the skyline, but he could easily make out the figure's long blonde hair.
'You will find that my argument is extremely persuasive, sir.' The voice was an American contralto. The guard gulped.
'I'll go and sit somewhere else, shall I?' The figure nodded.
'Why don't you go and do that?' The guard turned and walked towards the park. The figure watched him go, and then entered the tram. The door closed, and the tram powered up and moved away from the headquarters.
The guard walked into the park, and lay down on a bench. 'I've got to stop eating cheese before I go to sleep,' he complained to himself.
The tram moved silently through the night, the two Starfleet officers controlling it professionally. Earlier that day, Picard had recalled Data and Geordi to Earth, on a mission of supreme importance to the war. Then, that night, Ghia Hedly and Will Riker had left the Headquarters to steal a planet-wrecker.
It would raise too many questions, Picard had said, if they had merely requisitioned it. Questions from Starfleet, and from the other races now assembled at Earth, over why Starfleet had a weapon as powerful as a planet-wrecker still in its armouries. Questions that could cause a split at a critical time.
Riker slowed the tram down as they pulled into Houston, and they disembarked. Before them was the looming shape of the Starfleet museum facility. Still open at this late hour, it was designed to give people access at all times, if they had come from another planet and were not yet used to the length of Terran days.
The museum housed only one missile, in a section designated USS Enterprise NCC 1701 - NCC 1701-E. Riker had never failed to be amused that he was already considered worth putting in a museum at such an early age. Part of the Enterprise-B's complement, the only planet-wrecker assigned to a ship other than the Constellation-class, it was the only planet-wrecker that had survived the last mission of Harriman's ill-fated command.
Riker turned a corner – and stopped, staring up at the missile in all its dark glory.
Unarmed, it was still an imposing and worrying sight. Encased in a black torpedo casing that was twice the size of a normal torpedo, it loomed before them, like a black slug. Hedly stared at it for a moment and then hit her commbadge.
'Hedly to Thames. Objective achieved. Give us four minutes to get clear of the building, and then energise.' There was an acknowledgement from the young bridge lieutenant.
Now came the dangerous part for the two Enterprise officers. To beam something from the museum would set off alarms all through the building. Security guards would come out of every room and alcove on the city, and two ships in space would begin to search for any ship that had beamed the object out of the museum. They also knew that the search would be much more intense for something as dangerous as a planet-wrecker missile.
Even though the two ships, USS Antares and USS Cochrane, were not nearly as powerful as the Enterprise, Picard would be reluctant to fire on fellow ships at any time, even on an important mission such as this.
The two officers had almost reached the exit when a man stepped from the shadows and stood like a wall before them.
'And just where do you think you're going?' The figure was about a foot shorter than Riker, and about the same height as Hedly, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in stockiness.
Riker pulled up short with a gasp. 'Sorry. We came to look at the Enterprise exhibits.' The figure raised an eyebrow, giving Riker an insane suspicion that he was a Vulcan. The man stepped forward and held out a hand.
'In Starfleet combat uniforms? Can I see your ID's?'
Riker hesitated for a brief second, realising that he had not brought his ID with him. Fortunately, the alarms suddenly went off around the grounds. Taking his eyes off the pair, the man glanced around in surprise. 'What -?'
Hedly moved quickly. Unconscious, the man fell without a sound. 'Saved by the bell,' she muttered. She glanced at Riker. 'The tram park ought to be impounded by now.'
Riker could only agree. Any transporter beams would be immediately tracked to their point of origin, as would the one that had removed the missile from its spot. By now, the Enterprise had almost certainly left orbit, realising that the away team was lost.
Next moment, Riker was proved wrong. Abruptly, glittering energy surrounded them and removed the from the museum.
They rematerialised on the Enterprise transporter pad. Reg Barclay and Picard were stood watching.
'Don't look so surprised, Captain,' said Picard, registering Riker's expression of stunned amazement. 'I was beamed aboard immediately after you left.' He leaned towards the communicator on the transporter console.
'Bridge, set course 591 mark 5. Warp 9. Engage.'
The Enterprise roared into warp. Riker looked at Picard, not quite comprehending. Picard sighed in annoyance.
'Will, we have the planet-wrecker onboard, and in position. We just tracked Commander Hedly's commbadge, and beamed you up. We are en route for the target now.'
'How did you get the plans?' asked Riker.
'Do you remember that Admiral Paris had access to the archives when we told him about the first ships emerging from the Neutral Zone?' Riker nodded, and then understanding dawned.
'You went to see him.'
Picard nodded. 'I went to see him. He's in a hospital at the moment, but the doctors can't find anything psychologically or physically wrong with him. They received orders from Admiral Nechayev to keep him there until they received further orders. I ordered them to release him.'
'It all stems back to Admiral Nechayev, doesn't it?' said Riker.
Picard nodded grimly. 'I've set Admirals Ross and Paris to work trying to locate her.'
Riker nodded thoughtfully. 'Has the warhead been replicated yet?'
'We're not replicating it, Will,' said Picard. 'Geordi says that since we have the time, he's going to build it by hand, to make sure that he gets it right first.'
Riker smiled. 'That sounds like Geordi. How come he knows so much about these things?'
'They were originally installed on the Constellation-class starships like the Victory, so Geordi has had some experience using them. The official reason was in case of a war against the Klingons or the Romulans after the Tomed Incident; they could be used to hit strategic bases with a single destructive shot. The real reason Starfleet even considered using these weapons was in case the city destroyers decided to put in an appearance in Federation space. It's amazing,' he added, wryly, 'there was quite a big scare behind the scenes after that Romulan fleet was lost. Starfleet created lots of emergency measures because of the fear that these invaders might return. However, because it's taken so long for them to return, most of these fallback measures have disappeared in the bureaucracy.'
'Why not use them now?'
'Mainly, they were based on the premise of only the city destroyers returning. There was no contingency measure based on one of those mother ships appearing. We'd never even heard of them. A lot of scenarios concerned planetary invasion, but nobody counted on the sheer number of invaders we'd be facing. I've tried to adapt them, but they just don't work. We'd be better off thinking of something of our own.'
'What about the planet-wrecker?'
'It'd never get through that shielding. Believe me, our quantum torpedoes are better designed than this monster, and they can't get anywhere near these ships.'
Picard stopped talking and moved to the steps of the platform. 'Anyway, welcome aboard, Captain.' Riker frowned and stepped from the platform.
'Please; it's always Number One.'
The senior crew assembled in the briefing room two hours later. Adorning the far bulkhead of the room was a display, which Data had activated and was currently showing a view of the planet.
'Admiral, as we enter orbit, we shall be in range of sensors around the planet that were established by the enemy. I suggest that we establish a geo-stationary orbit over this continent.' Data pointed to a position on the screen at the equator.
Picard nodded. 'Good idea, Data.'
Riker objected. 'The Hiroshima hasn't returned from Cardassia yet. We won't have any advantages over them, but they'll detect our presence immediately.'
Picard nodded. 'We'll have to live with that, Captain. It appears that even in our galaxy, the aliens have home advantage. Which makes our mission that more crucial.' He leaned forward and planted his hands on the table. 'I have kept this information secret up until now. The Hiroshima was destroyed soon after it entered Cardassian space. Before their destruction, they reported the presence of massive fleets of city destroyers and attack planes, thousands and thousands of them.' He had everybody's attention now. 'They have to lose their source of munitions or, no matter how many battles we win, we will eventually lose under the sheer weight of numbers they can bring to bear.
'If we fail here, we will be defeated eventually. I could not trust this mission to any other crew in Starfleet and I need you all to play your part.'
As the Enterprise travelled through the Neutral Zone, her crew remained on full red alert. Fortunately, they managed to avoid any contact with the invaders.
Data shook his head as they passed by another planet that the sensors described as being only lightly damaged. He turned to face Riker, who sat in the captain's chair. 'Captain, I'm scanning planets as we're passing them, but there's no sign of any moves towards colonisation.'
Riker stood, and moved to stand beside Data. 'Why is that so odd?'
'Our analysis of their attack plans shows that they attack planets for colonisation, wiping out any form of major opposition first. Logically, after they deliver their strikes on the cities, the mother ship descends and lands an invasion force, after which they set up a new colony.'
'Sounds logical, yes,' replied Riker. 'Do we have any evidence to support this theory?'
'Not as yet, sir,' replied Data. 'Every time they have attacked us, we've been pushed back so quickly that we haven't had the time to analyse what happens after they destroy the cities.'
'Then it's possible that they are just interested in random destruction, isn't it?'
Data looked unhappy. 'A low probability, sir, but it is possible.'
'Then worry about it another time.' Riker turned back to his seat.
'Sir,' interrupted Lieutenant Thames, 'we're coming into sensor range of the target.'
'Slow to impulse power and enter an orbit out of the range of any scanning devices they might have set up.'
'Aye, sir.'
The Enterprise entered orbit in a sweeping arc that carried it out of the way of the sensor scans established by the enemy. It then moved into a geo-stationary orbit around the planet. There it waited.
'Admiral Picard to the bridge.' A moment later, Picard came out of his old ready room. Riker turned to face him. 'Admiral, we're in position.'
Picard nodded. 'Very good, Number One.'
'Engineering to bridge.' Geordi La Forge's voice came out of thin air.
'Picard here.'
'Sir, we've got the planet-wrecker loaded into our forward torpedo launcher and ready when you give the order.'
'Understood, Commander,' replied Picard. 'Commander Hedly, prepare to fire one. Arm quantum torpedoes and phasers in case we have to fight our way out.'
'Aye, sir,' came the quick reply.
A moment later, there was a bright flash in the corner of the bridge, and Q appeared, smiling slightly. He glanced around the bridge. 'Very… stark, isn't it?'
'We've got no time for interior decorating, Q,' replied Riker angrily.
'We're ready when you are,' said Picard, cutting Riker's angry tone off.
'Lock the torpedo onto those co-ordinates, Jean-Luc,' instructed Q, nodding his head towards the helm. Picard glanced at Thames, who looked up, surprised.
'Sir, I've got co-ordinates appearing on my readout, but I haven't put them there.'
'Very well, Lieutenant, transfer them to tactical,' said Riker.
'Aye, Captain,' she replied.
Q glanced at Picard for a short moment, noticing exactly what he had expected; Picard's gaze had been fixed on Thames a second too long. Q turned away, a smile on his face. Picard turned to face him. Even at this critical moment, Q could see the displeasure on Picard's face at having to take orders from his nemesis on his own bridge.
'All right, then, Q. When do we fire?' Q did not answer, and instead lowered his head, with an expression of deep concentration, communing with the Q Continuum. He then looked up.
'The Q Continuum is ready. You will fire in three minutes.'
'Remember everybody, we've got one shot at this; so make it a good one,' said Riker, making himself heard across the bridge.
'Admiral, I think that you'd better take a look at this.' said Data, worriedly. Picard stood, followed by Riker, and walked over to where Data sat. He leaned over, and examined the readings. Data said, 'These show the position of large interstellar masses, in particular, comet debris.' Picard frowned.
'But this one's moving,' he said, pointing to one of the formations. Data nodded.
'I believe that is one of the city destroyer ships. It is travelling in this direction at warp five. At that velocity, they will reach here in two minutes.'
Q came forward and put on a worried face. 'I thought that they couldn't travel faster than light.'
'Yes, I know,' replied Picard. 'We noticed that before when they attacked Qo'nos.'
Suddenly, Data's console started sounding an alarm. Data turned his attention to it, and then said, 'Admiral, there is severe seismic stress on the planet. I think it is a new ship emerging.' Picard whirled to look at Hedly.
'How long until firing time?' Hedly pressed a few buttons.
'One minute, Admiral.' Picard looked at the screen.
'How long until the city destroyer intercepts us?' he asked.
Data replied, 'One minute, Admiral.' Picard nodded, and stared at the screen.
All of a sudden, Data said, 'Admiral, the new ship is a mother ship!' Picard nodded.
'On screen.' The screen flashed, showing a large black circle emerging from the rock of the planet. Picard looked at Q.
'We must fire, now.' Q nodded. Picard looked at Hedly.
'Fire on my command.'
'Admiral, the city destroyer is dropping out of warp.' Picard nodded, too engrossed to take in the information fully.
'Fire.'
A sizzling bolt of energy shot from the torpedo launcher of the Enterprise. It sped towards the planet's surface. It submerged in the sea. A second later, it exploded. The sea suddenly boiled up, and spouted in a massive explosion. The large mother ship that was emerging struggled to free itself. The planet started to shake as the Enterprise pulled away. Another huge explosion ripped along the surface, and a ball of fire, at least a hundred feet high leapt into the sky. The flame enveloped the mother ship, covering it from view.
The city destroyer tried to move away from the planet, but it was too late. The Enterprise accelerated from orbit. The planet seemed to convulse as the sea poured into the mantle, and then it exploded. The massive ball of fire threw massive clumps of debris and energy into space. The Enterprise flew away as the massive explosion of the planet caught the city destroyer, whose much-vaunted shields could not protect it from a detonation of that magnitude.
When the explosion finally died down, there was nothing left. It was as if the planet had never existed. In its place, however, was a shimmering field of pure energy. Inside its dazzling radiance, the Enterprise crew could see stars against the darkness of another universe, but they shimmered and wobbled against the radiant dimensional rift.
Q stood suddenly, glaring at the screen. He pointed at it, and a stream of light from his hand hit the screen, left the forward hull of the Enterprise and struck the portal.
Beside the Enterprise, there appeared another glow of energy. Picard surmised that it was the Q Continuum, and his theory seemed to be confirmed when a more powerful beam of energy emanated from the glow and merged with Q's beam to strike the portal. The dimensional gate shuddered and began to close. All of a sudden, however, the beam seemed to recoil and feedback.
Q shook dramatically. 'Jean-Luc, I need your help. We need more energy to block the opposite Q.'
'Lock phasers and fire,' ordered Picard immediately. The blast rippled out from the Enterprise and struck the portal. Immediately, the phaser beam seemed to feedback, but suddenly, as if the portal had weakened itself against the Q, the beam of energy from the Q entered the portal, which flared up brightly for a moment, and closed silently. The glow of energy to the port side of the Enterprise vanished as well.
Q collapsed with a gasp. Picard hurriedly knelt beside him.
'Q!' Q looked at him, and smiled.
'It's all right. I am quite fine.' He struggled to his feet and smiled weakly. 'The portal is closed. I will be returning to the Continuum. We will, as I promised, close off our borders to humanity, and your people won't ever see me again. Furthermore, the aliens will receive no further reinforcements.'
Picard looked concerned. 'Can't you give me any more advice?'
Q frowned. 'I don't believe that I've ever given you any advice in the past.' His body was fading now. 'One piece of advice, anyway, for old times sake; they have no immunity.' Q shimmered.
'Goodbye, Jean-Luc. We two will meet once again in this lifetime.' Q's body flared in a burst of white light, and he vanished.
Picard stood, looking saddened. He turned to the helm officer. 'Take us back to Earth, Ensign.'
The Enterprise turned and headed into warp.