Chapter 3
Picard entered sickbay to see a visibly shaken Beverley Crusher leaning against a counter a few feet away from the now conscious and sitting upright pilot while the security officer covered him with her phaser.
His first words were directed towards Beverley as he said: "Doctor are you all right?" With one hand over her heart, she used the other to motion to the upright man on the bed and said: "Once my heartrate slows down to normal I will be. I was startled is all. As you can see, my patient is now awake." Picard turned his attention to the man on the table. Though it was hard to tell since he was sitting, he may have been of a height with Riker. He was lean without being emaciated and appeared to be in good physical shape.
The blanket was piled at his waist since he had no other clothes on other than shorts and a shirt. His flightsuit was folded neatly and lying next to his personal articles on a side table while his black boots were at the foot of the exam table next to each other. He had reddish-brown hair cut about as short as Riker's, and his eyes were the most piercing shade of gray that Picard had ever seen. Picard would have considered him rather plain but could see that women would probably find him attractive.
Picard had much experience in first contact situations but wasn't quite sure what to make of a human male piloting a strange vehicle and able to scare the daylights out of Beverley Crusher, so he started simply with: "Hello. I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard. You are aboard the Federation starship Enterprise. Do you understand my words?"
The man sitting on the table smiled and said: "I understand you just fine Jean-Luc Picard of the starship Enterprise. My name is Armis Rau, Jedi Knight. It's a pleasure to meet you." turning to look over at Beverley who had calmed down by now he said: "I'm sorry for startling you as I did doctor. I had to stop you from using your medicine on me. I would have been awake sooner but your well-intentioned but unnecessary medical treatment was slowing me down. Again, I apologize."
Crusher said: "Apology accepted Mr. Rau. May I examine you to make sure I didn't do any harm?" Armis Rau said: "If it will make you feel better doctor, go ahead, but I'll be fine." Regaining some of her humor she said: "Let me be the judge of that please Mr. Rau."
He smiled again and allowed her to run her medical tricorder over him. When she was done, she said: "My official word is that you'll be fine." Rau smiled and said: "Told you so."
By this time, Picard had motioned for the security officer to put her weapon away as Crusher performed her exam. Rau sat there unconcerned as she finished and then teased her a little when he said 'told you so.' Picard was already feeling more comfortable around him when Rau said: "I can sense you have many questions Captain Picard. Ask them and I will answer if I can."
Picard said: "Are you telepathic or empathic? That was almost exactly what I was about to say." Deanna Troi walked in and said: "He's both of those and much, much more Captain." Troi had reinforced her mental shields by this time, and recovered enough to walk as she entered and heard Picard's question.
All eyes centered on her as she walked in. Picard said: "What do you mean Counselor?" She said: "That's all I can get from him right now. He has the strongest mental shields I have ever encountered anywhere." Picard looked back to Armis and said: "Forgive us for talking like you aren't here Mr. Rau."
He smiled and said: "No offense taken Captain, Counselor. I can sense in both of you a good set of mental shields as well. What's your midichlorian count? I can tell it's less than is required for true sensitivity but not by much." Picard said: "Midichlorian count? Doctor, do you know what he's talking about?" When Crusher shook her head in negation, Picard turned back to Deanna and said: "You said the strongest shields you've ever encountered? Stronger than say . . . your mother's?" Deanna said: "Captain, compared to this man here, my mother is an unshielded novice," as she pointed at Armis.
Picard couldn't hide his surprise for a moment as he turned back to Armis and said: "Mr. Rau I need to . . . " Picard's commbadge chirped for attention. He tapped it and said: "Picard here." Riker's voice said: "Captain, we have a situation in the shuttlebay. Can you get back to the bridge as soon as possible?" Picard said: "I think I may know what's going on. Our guest is awake now. He may be able to shed some light on this, Picard out."
Armis had appeared to be thinking of something when he said: "Captain, if your shuttlebay is what I think it is, will you please take me there. I think I do know what's going on." There suddenly came a different beep tone that sounded again a few seconds later. Picard, Troi and Crusher all looked around in confusion as Armis held his hand out to his few articles on the side table and one of them flew across the room into his hand. The security officer went for her phaser but Picard stopped her with a motion of his own hand.
Armis thumbed a switch to hear a torrent of beeps, whistles and whines come over its tiny speaker. He listened and said: "Take it easy Creak, take it easy. I'm still quite functional and I'm on my way down to you so just relax and I'll see you in a few minutes." Turning off the comlink, Armis said: "Sorry about this Captain but my droid is something of a worrier at times. If you'll take me to him, I'll settle him down right away."
Picard stepped aside and said: "This way Mr. Rau." Armis got down off of the table and shook Picard's hand as he said: "You can call me Armis if you like Captain. I'm no one special." Picard watched as Armis stepped into his flightsuit, closed it up to about his sternum, put his boots on and pick up the rest of his property, paying special attention to the cylinder and then reattaching it to a hook at his left hip.
As Picard turned to leave, he said: "Security, you're dismissed. Counselor, will you please accompany us?" Both Troi and the Security Officer's answers were dutifully automatic: "Yes Captain." The three left Sickbay and began walking down the corridor.
Armis looked around the hallway and seemed to take in every detail of every feature. He said: "Amazing Captain. I can sense a rough total of one thousand human and non-human minds aboard, including the literal mindedness of many children. Just what kind of ship is this, if you can tell me that is."
Picard made a mental note at the tone of the question as he remarked: "The Enterprise is a Galaxy-Class starship whose primary mission is peaceful exploration, not military, although we can defend ourselves if necessary. Due to the often extended periods of time that we are out exploring, many of the crew choose to bring their families with them to reduce any type of separation anxiety. Currently, we are on a routine patrol cycle to chart any spatial phenomena we encounter and we were about to finish our cycle when we encountered your ship."
As they entered the turbolift and Picard instructed the computer on their destination, Deanna took a moment to try a direct scan of Armis only to get a sharp jolt of pain as reward. Armis turned his head and said: "I'm sorry for that Counselor, my mental shields are automatic. It was not my intent to hurt you." She said: "You knew I was trying to take an empathic reading?" He answered: "Yes." As I said before, your midichlorian count is a little less than truly Force sensitive but I think you could be trained to that level."
Picard listened and said: "The Force?" Armis turned his head back to face Picard and said: "The Force is what gives a Jedi their power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together. The Force was cleansing my body of your doctor's well-intentioned attempts to revive me so I was unable to wake out of my rest trance sooner."
Deanna said: "Are there more Jedi than you?" Armis seemed wistful for a moment as he said: "For over a thousand generations the Jedi were guardians, mediators and peacekeepers, before the dark times, before the Empire. At least, that's what my Master taught me. The Empire is now a shadow of its former power, and for a time, was consumed with internecine warfare and petty, small-minded warlords. Several years ago by my reckoning, the New Republic and the Empire signed a peace treaty thus ending the state of war between the two, but there are still places where the old Empire holds power as tightly as ever. It is those pockets of cruelty and injustice that the new Jedi Order is helping to overthrow."
Before Picard could ask anything else, the turbolift reached its destination and the doors opened. As the trio neared the shuttlebay doors, there could be heard a hum unlike anything the two Starfleet officers had heard before but that Armis Rau was familiar with. He said: "Oh bother." Picard and Troi exchanged a question in a glance as the main doors opened to admit them.