CHAPTER SIX
Sisko returned to the station in bright spirits. Kasidy's brother's team had won, and as a bonus, Sisko actually got to carry out Captain Racer's request, and caught a home run ball. He left the airlock with Jake; they were both smiling and having a good time. Dax had met them at the airlock, and smiled when she saw Sisko in a good mood. She made him feel even better when she told him that the Nimitz had finished repairs early the night before; it had left this morning, shortly before Sisko arrived. He had noticed the Enterprise was still here, but a new ship had added itself to the list. The USS Tolstoy had arrived from Earth, bearing Fleet Admiral Nechayev. Sisko's smile had subsided somewhat upon hearing that, but he otherwise remained in a good mood.
When he showed up at Ops for his shift, he greeted everyone warmly and headed for his office. A few minutes later, Kira showed up, smiling, and handed him the morning's reports. He was just finishing them up when his door chime sounded. "Enter," he said.
The doors opened to admit Apollo. "Good morning, Captain. I trust your leave went well."
"It sure did," he replied. He reached for a baseball sitting next to the one he kept on his desk, and tossed it to Apollo, who snatched it one-handed from the air.
"You did it! Well, I have to admit I wasn't being serious when I asked you to catch a fly for me. But... thank you." Apollo smiled, and tossed the ball in the air a few times. "My God, do you realize how long it's been since I've held one of these."
Sisko chuckled. "Probably since before you've ever heard of the Federation."
"You're right." Apollo paused. "I take it you know who's here."
Sisko's smile disappeared. Time for business. "I've met her a few times."
Apollo sighed and paced Sisko's office. "No guesses as to why she's here. I'll probably have to go up in front of another board of inquiry."
"Another board?"
Apollo told him briefly about the time he had returned to Earth after having been rescued from the barrier, about how he went before an inquiry for the loss of the Excalibur. Sisko nodded in understanding. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. First of all, it was so long ago. And besides, at that time, I understand that starship captains rushed into the unknown all the time, instead of staying on their ships."
Apollo stopped pacing and sat on the corner of Sisko's desk. He looked at Sisko and gave him a little smile. "Yeah, well, I understand they all but ignore that little policy these days, too."
Sisko shrugged. "Who would have known that there were so many instances where we have no other choice?" he said, feigning innocence.
Apollo was about to respond to that when the com went off. "Dax to Sisko."
"Go ahead," he replied.
"Admiral Nechayev is here to see you and Captain Racer."
The two captains glanced at each other, the same thoughts crossing their minds. "Send her in," he finally said.
They both stood as the doors opened and Admiral Nechayev walked in. "Gentlemen, at ease," she said. "It's good to see you again, Captain Sisko."
"It's always a pleasure, Admiral. I just wish I knew if the reasons for your visit were good or bad."
She smiled at Sisko, but otherwise said nothing. Instead she turned to Apollo. "The great Captain Apollo Racer. The whole way here I wondered what it would be like meeting up with one of Starfleet's finest historical figures. Somehow, I would have thought you were taller."
Apollo thought this an odd statement coming from her; at last check, which was several years ago, Apollo considered himself pretty tall already at 6'6". He judged Nechayev to be somewhere around a full foot shorter. "We always tend to make the people we look up to seem larger than life. The opposite could not be more true."
She nodded considering his words. "You were a brilliant tactician in your day. We could have used someone like you when this war began. I never expected you to be the Johnny-come-lately type."
Sisko stood abruptly. "Admiral, what does..."
"I don't believe I was addressing you, Captain," she said quietly but firmly. Apollo noticed her effect, as Sisko reluctantly sat back down and kept quiet. "Now, Racer. I just want make clear that I'm not making any accusations..."
"Bullshit."
Apollo's tone, like Nechayev's was low and even. Somehow, Sisko had difficulty making out what he just said, yet she heard him quite well. She faced him fully, bringing her full authority to bear. "Excuse me, Captain?"
He turned his sapphire gaze upon her. "I said bullshit, sir. I know damn well that you're holding it against me. I didn't choose to come back, but Picard's crewmembers needed my help. I simply returned with them."
"Because you were ordered to."
"I was on inactive duty at the time. Technically, I wasn't subject to your authority."
She seemed smug. "But now you're back on active duty, mister. So I'd watch my step if I were you."
He got right in her face, which reflected the glow from his eyes. "I can change that back in a heartbeat."
"We don't have to allow you to go back to inactive status."
"Who said anything about going back to inactive."
And right there, Sisko suddenly saw what Apollo had seen all along, what he was toying Nechayev with. Starfleet needed officers like him right now. The war had taken its toll on resources, true enough. But manpower was getting fairly low, too. At the rate they were going, they soon wouldn't have enough able or experienced people to command their ships. What Apollo had seen all along was the big picture; Starfleet was teetering at a critical phase of the war. One factor could either doom the Federation or save it.
Sisko had a feeling he was looking at that factor right now.
Nechayev picked up on his threat, and decided it was no bluff. But she was damned if she was going to give him the satisfaction of seeing how she really felt. In a nonchalant tone, she said, "Now Captain, you wouldn't take away my whole reason for coming all this way out here, now would you?" She smiled, but there was no warmth behind it.
Apollo began pacing the office. After a moment, he spoke. "Let me tell you something, Admiral. The Starfleet I knew respected its officers and their opinions. There was politics, sure. It's inescapable. But when politics start to interfere in Starfleet's duties, then I have to draw the line. I want to say this right here, right now. I will not stand for bureaucratic nonsense. If you want diplomacy, get yourself a damn ambassador. I'm a Starfleet officer. At least, for now. But I can change that mighty quick. If you think you can bully me into submission, I'm out that door right now, and the Federation can take a flying leap."
Sisko was shocked to hear Apollo say he would turn his back on the Federation. All the reports and the articles he read suggested a very different man than the one who just made this threat to the admiral just now. Apparently, Nechayev was thinking the same way; she had expected someone who fit the reports she had read, not the man standing before her now. But she was thinking on her feet and still didn't back completely down. "Captain. Hold it a minute. We're being just a bit too hasty here. First off, let me apologize. I truly didn't mean to alienate you."
"Could've fooled me," replied Apollo.
"This isn't getting us anywhere."
"That much is certain."
Sisko thought he could see Nechayev's mask of calm slip to reveal how furious she was getting. "Admiral, Captain," he said, trying to calm things, "There's no reason to get into this. It would have been nice to have him here before the war began, but it just didn't turn out that way. To keep this up would be to drive Racer away. And Captain, she won't mention how badly we need you, but we do need you." Apollo looked at him for what seemed a long time. Sisko continued. "If you came back, perhaps you could show us how Starfleet once was, so we could return to that age."
Apollo worked his jaw, mulling it over. "You're saying that Starfleet has gone soft."
Nechayev took over. "He's saying that right now, Starfleet could use all the help it can get, and if it means having to resort to using veterans from Starfleet's past, then we'll do it."
Apollo considered his options. "When are you scheduled to return?"
"This afternoon," she replied.
He sighed and headed for the door. "Then I shall be aboard the Tolstoy before it leaves." He stopped just before the door sensors could detect him. "If I may be dismissed?" Taking her stunned silence as an affirmative, he nodded to Sisko. "Captain." Allowing the doors to open, he made his way toward the turbolift.
She looked toward Sisko. "Thank you for keeping things level in here, Benjamin."
He sat back in his chair. "Don't thank me yet, Admiral. You still have to deal with him on the way back."
~ * ~
Apollo was in his quarters on the station, lying back and relaxing. He had nothing to prepare per se in order to leave, so he just sat tight. He was about to drift off to sleep when he heard a voice in the room. "My, but you certainly had them jumping through hoops today."
He sat up abruptly. "Who was that? Computer, repeat page."
A bright flash appeared next to him, and saw a man in a Starfleet uniform sitting up by the head of the bed, his hands clasped around one leg while the other was stretched out. "I can't believe that after all this time, you're still going to play this game. Don't you ever tire of it eventually?"
"Who the hell are you, mister?" Apollo snapped, leaping from the bed. His eyes flashed to their full brightness.
"You have been hanging around with the mortals too long, haven't you? Do you mean to tell me you have absolutely no idea who I am?"
Apollo studied the man. He was about average height, average build. He had gray hair at the temples, just as Apollo did, but there was an all-too-mischievous look on his face. His uniform, also like Apollo's, was that of a Starfleet captain. He carried himself with the airs of a man who felt confident that there was nothing he didn't know and nothing he couldn't do. Apollo fought his anger down and clicked his Vulcan controls into place. "That statement is illogical. If I had known who you were, would I have asked the question?"
The being grinned. "Oh, you're good. Seething with anger one moment, calm and cool the next. One would think there are two of you sharing the same body."
"If you think I am suffering from a bipolar condition, it has been proven otherwise. Now, are you going to tell me who you are and what you're doing here, or will I have to coolly and efficiently beat it out of you?"
His visitor sighed. "Primitive. Utterly primitive."
"But pleasurable." Apollo allowed a feral grin to creep onto his face.
"Oh, all right. We'll have it your way. I am Q."
Apollo's face went blank.
"You're Cue?"
"No, I'm Q."
"Queue?"
"Q!"
"Are you sure? I've met an S once, and he looks just like you."
Until Apollo allowed a smile to slowly creep onto his face, Q had no idea he was being mocked. "Your humor is painfully immature," he said.
"You only say that because you didn't catch on right away," Apollo replied. He wasn't about to let up; he was having too much fun.
Q, however, would have none of it. "I can see this is going nowhere. I'll leave you to your pathetic little one-liners. But I'll be back." And in a flash of light, Q disappeared.
Which was exactly what Apollo wanted in the first place. He tapped his combadge. "Racer to Ops. I just had... a very interesting experience."
~ * ~
Fifteen minutes later, he was in Ops, relating his visit to Sisko, Nechayev, and the rest of the officers in Ops. When he finished, he studied the reactions of the people around him. Sisko seemed to be smoldering, while Dax sat in quiet amusement. Worf scowled; well, Klingons normally scowled, but Worf's was... more pronounced. O'Brien looked like someone who was thinking, "There goes the neighborhood." Kira and Bashir had the same annoyed looks as Sisko. Nechayev was holding the bridge of her nose, as if to ward off a headache. Quite basically, Apollo had judged correctly upon his first contact. This Q must definitely be a nuisance, he thought, and he said as much to the group.
"You don't know the half of it," O'Brien said. "Captain Picard was lucky he left with the Enterprise already. If he had known Q was here, he'd have a fit."
"Q liked him that much, did he?" Apollo asked amusingly.
"He would visit the Enterprise at least once a year," Worf growled, "and each time, we felt he didn't leave soon enough."
Apollo raised an eyebrow at this comment. Sisko chuckled. "Captain?" Apollo prompted.
"I'm just remembering the time he showed up here. He's only been to the station once."
"You must have made quite an impression on him," Apollo said.
This caused Sisko's grin to grow wider. "You could say that. He provoked me into slugging him."
"Really." Apollo smiled. "Maybe I should try that the next time he shows up."
"I would not advise it," Worf said. "That would be a very dangerous thing to do."
Apollo thought about it for a moment. "Oh, I don't know. As I think of our conversation, what little we had, I think there was something he was trying to get me to realize. But he didn't seem to me to be very dangerous."
There would have been further speculation, but Nechayev spoke up. "I'm afraid we have to cut this short. The Tolstoy leaves in half an hour."
"Right," Apollo said rising in his seat. He held out his hand for Sisko to shake. "Captain, I appreciate your hospitality."
"It was an honor, Captain," Sisko said, pumping Apollo's arm. "I hope we can meet again someday."
Apollo winked. "Count on it." He turned to Nechayev. "Sir, I didn't really arrive on the station with very much. Whatever I have is already on the Tolstoy. I'm ready to leave whenever you are."
"Fine. Let's get started. Until next time, Benjamin." With that, she and Apollo entered the turbolift. "Docking ring," she stated, and the lift lowered them out of sight.