Chapter 42
2355 Orbiting the Malkatan Base
Once in orbit around the Malkatan moon, Picard quickly targeted the Malkatan base. However, the influence of the Singularity Net almost immediately began to close like gentle fingers around his consciousness. He began to consider that he didn't really want to destroy the base at all. Revenge was meaningless. Why not use his remaining warp power to return to Earth and see Beverly? Even if she rejected him, he would have at least tried.
The problem was, reality set in again when he scanned the ship's damage readouts and was forced to conclude that his ship would not make the trip home. After being first stripped down by the Malkatans, and then enduring the drawn out battle with the Ferengi, the Stargazer had since been limping through space. Then following the unprovoked surprise attack before the jump into warp, he knew he was lucky to have made it back to the moon with the ship intact.
But now it became clear just how damaged his ship was. His shields had been down when the cloaked ship had strafed the top of his ship and the bridge, as well as both the left and right top nacelle had been hit by the plasma burst. As a result some of the warp coils had taken on damage to the extent that they were now misaligned. Even if they were able to still create a warp field for faster than light travel, it wouldn't be sustainable. At worst the imbalance in the warp field could be catastrophic. Just one more possible way for him to die. What he needed most right now, he admitted to himself, was a capable engineering crew—even one capable engineer would have been something more than what he had. He was many things, but certainly not an engineer. He couldn't repair the ship in the way it needed repairing.
His greatest and perhaps only remaining advantage was that in this year 2355, the Malkatans on the moon below had weaponry and technology which was vastly inferior to the Stargazer's, as beaten as it was. Increasingly he began to worry that even if he destroyed the Malkatan base as planned, the Singularity net would still exist. As long as it existed, Mayer would be able to simply give it to the next ignorant and brutal race and chaos would ensue again. Suddenly it became clear.
He would need to destroy not only the Malkatan base, but the Singularity Net as well. But how? An anti-matter dump might be enough to do it. That was it. He would eject the warp core into the singularity net detonating the core, and simultaneously he would set the Stargazer on a collision course for the Malkatan base on the moon's surface. Meanwhile he would take the Galileo shuttlecraft—it had limited warp capability—and then he would get the hell out of there and out of the Maxia Zeta system forever. And then home to Earth; home to Beverly.
Glanua 2366
Wesley continued his march toward the bar in the middle of the desert. He was close enough to see the blinking sign: "Galactic Oasis" when things began to change quickly. First, Wesley saw Bok emerge from the bar, carrying some kind of bundle under his arm. But he was wearing different clothes, and it occurred to Wes right away, that this was not the same Bok who had accompanied him from the Aldrin. No, this must have been the Bok from a year ago...and by all appearances he was leaving with the item he'd already obtained from Mayer.
Wesley hesitated, watching Bok walk toward a sleek silver vehicle hovering low to the ground. Another Ferengi jumped out of the vehicle and made a show of opening the door for Bok, who slid into the passenger's side. Wesley's eyes narrowed as he looked on. It was Kad-no doubt about it. And they were about to take off with the singularity net technology. Wesley was so focused on the two Ferengi that he almost didn't notice that a tall man with long blonde hair had also exited the Galactic Oasis and was walking swiftly toward him. Wesley immediately pulled out his phaser and pointed it at the man.
The man halted immediately and put his hands up. "Oh, what a clever boy you are," he said. "But it should be clear to even you that you are too late." He tilted his head gesturing behind him. "The Ferengi has already bought my singularity net and is departing for the space port now. No doubt he'll be up to no good, soon enough," Mayer assured him. "But you already know that…."
"Where's Bok?" Wesley demanded, shouting over the wind "I mean, the other Bok."
Mayer began to laugh. "He's dead of course. I didn't need him attempting to influence his former self, and so I made him disappear."
"Is that what you call murder-making people disappear?"
"Words mean nothing, only the acts one undertakes have meaning, young man."
"And your acts are evil," Wesley shouted, unable to keep his voice from trembling.
Mayer shrugged. "To you perhaps...but to me my actions are necessary to express my craft...my genius. What do you know of such things?"
"I know I'm going to do whatever I can to stop you," promised Wesley. "The Malkatans will destroy humanity with the technology you made available to them. Don't you care about that?" Looking past Mayer he could see several vehicles parked outside the bar. Presumably their owners were still inside. Wesley figured if he grabbed one of the hover bikes, he might still be able to catch Bok and Kad. But he had to get past Mayer.
"I do not care," said Mayer plainly. "I will do whatever I must to perfect this technology as it was meant to be used. Time and the people existing in it are merely the pieces of my continuing experiment. Introducing Bok into the equation, and his desire to see Picard humiliated set into motion a series of fascinating variables. And the opportunity to see Picard as a failure, just as he would have liked to have seen me… was an added pleasure. You are an intelligent boy. You should understand this."
Wesley kept his phaser trained on Mayer and began to step around him slowly, walking closer to the bar. "Captain Picard tried to arrest you for murdering your wife and son. He would have treated you fairly. You would have stood trial. But instead you escaped and just expanded your killing spree."
"Lies!"
"You say you are perfecting this technology, but did you ever stop to think it was never yours to use? You stole it!"
Mayer's expression darkened further. "I made it special—improved it. It was left there…abandoned in space when my shuttle encountered the anomaly you call the singularity net. I was mortally wounded and bleeding, because of your perfect Captain Picard," he spat. "But the singularity caught my ship and gradually it healed me. I should have died. But it kept me alive, boy, because it recognized my greatness. I am a master engineer…a genius."
"You're delusional," Wesley declared, now backing up slowly toward the bar.
Mayer broke into a slow smile. And that was when Wesley turned and sprinted as fast as he could toward the bar. Hopping on a hover bike, he was overjoyed to find it was not locked. Pressing the engine button it fired up quickly, and he sped off in the direction Bok had gone. He didn't look behind him to see if Mayer was following.
2367 The Aldrin
"Why will no one tell me where the hell my son is?"
"We don't know where Wesley traveled to, Beverly. But we have to trust that he's alright," Deanna said as soothingly as possible.
Beverly looked at Troi as though her friend had lost her mind. "Trust?"
Deanna adopted a reasonable tone. "He's nearly an adult now. And he's more intelligent and level-headed than most young men his age."
"True," agreed Beverly allowing just the faintest of smiles. "But with him missing and Jean-Luc at such risk, that's not much consolation, Deanna."
Troi smiled and took a deep breath. "Aside from those things, which you are right are very distressing, you have had an extremely positive development recently. In fact it really doesn't get more positive than what you've just accomplished, Beverly."
Beverly looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "I…I was waiting for him to share this with me. I don't know why I haven't gone to see her," she said quietly. "I want to of course, more than anything…but I'm scared. For some reason, Deanna I am afraid to see my baby. Why?" she whispered, turning to face Troi. There was very clear anguish etched into her features.
"Because of the uncertainty of our collective situation, Beverly, as well as your own. You have the right to hesitate, after what you have been through. But just as you told me a few minutes ago…we cannot waste the time we have. You don't have to go alone; we'll do it together." She reached out her hand.
Beverly moved to the edge of the recovery bed and allowed Deanna to help her get to her feet. She felt stronger than she had expected, and the exhilaration of what she was about to do finally hit her. "Yes, let's go and see her together."
Troi had moved to embrace Beverly when her communicator beeped.
"Riker to Troi…."
Deanna sighed and hit her communicator. "Troi here."
"Deanna tell Beverly…we'll arrive at Earth in fifteen minutes. Whatever you need to do, do it now and then find a safe place near the interior of the ship. We're going into battle."
2355
Picard quickly finished entering the warp core ejection program down in Engineering and the computer had already begun its countdown. He sprinted back to the turbo lift and took it straight up to the bridge. He would have ten minutes to set the Stargazer's final flight coordinates and get back down to the shuttlecraft.
Once back on the bridge he rushed to the helm and began to input the collision course. His hands were steady and his mind was as clear as it could be, given the proximity of the ship to the Net.
There was no guarantee that his shuttlecraft would clear the vicinity before the core detonated inside the Singularity Net and the Stargazer crashed into the base below. It was an insane plan, so perhaps he should not have been surprised that the insanity would continue.
"Turn around, Picard," a quiet voice commanded him from the direction of tactical. "Turn around and face your executioner."
The tone was so familiar, so cold, that he felt little emotion at hearing the voice. Somehow he should have known who it would be. And so when he turned around he was not surprised to see Mayer standing, holding a small spinning singularity device in his palm.
