"Sir, I have your report on our intruders." Worf stepped through the doors and into the Captain's ready room, a padd in his hand. "Doctor Crusher has had time to run full detailed analysis on a few of the bodies and she would like to talk to you in private. Data is downloading the footage from the corridors and dock that where infiltrated." He reported handing Picard the data padd.
"Thank you Mr. Worf." Picard acknowledged as a signal to leave but Worf remained standing where he was.
"Is there something else I can help you with?" He asked finally.
"It's……." Worf trailed off, still trying to think of a suitable way to say what was on his mind. He hadn't had time to tell the Captain, or anyone else for that matter about River. He was still trying to get it through his mind.
"Yes?" Picard started to become impatient.
"The girl, from Serenity…….." He trailed off again, knowing he would be reprimand for not telling him sooner.
"Yes?" Picard folded his arms around himself, letting Worf know he had reached his waiting point.
"She emerged from the turbolift, minutes before anyone could get to the corridor. They were all dead sir." The last part was almost whispered.
"Are you trying to tell me, River murdered them?" Picard couldn't believe him. What he was saying didn't make sense. Not even Data could kill off that many people at once.
"I do not know sir. Just what I saw." He answered before turning around and exiting the ready room. Picard stood in thought before sitting himself down on his chair. Quickly scanning over the padd Worf had given him, his eyes opened wide at the information. All of the boarding party had been killed in one way or another, and all of the occupants of the ship had tried to board, so he would get no explanation from their side which troubled him. This was entirely a one sided situation in which the Serenity crew and a few of his own security officers had killed 56 people.
"Data to Captian Picard." Data's voice sounded over the comm. System.
"Go ahead Data." He replied curtly.
"I had finished downloading the data from the docking port sir. Would you like me to transfer it to the conference room?" He offered, knowing the Captain and the rest of the senior staff wished to view it.
"Yes and when you are finished, summon all senior officers there." He closed the comm. Link and headed in the direction he was hoping would provide all information that was currently missing. Information that would help them sort out what the hell had happened on that deck.
They were all sitting around the large conference room, Picard at the top chair, Riker to his left, Data to his right and so forth, all waiting to see the recording of what had happened. Data pressed a few controls and the computer beeped in acknowledgment at his request. The view screen flickered and there were the images of some very alive Reavers. They ran up the corridor to where the security officer Ensign Malow was trying his best to keep them at bay, but to no success. One of them managed to get behind him, yanking his arm where a loud 'pop' could be heard, telling Doctor Crusher that his arm had just been dislocated. A few more Reavers then jumped him and his couldn't be seen as he screamed for his life. Deanna felt like turning away, but she knew she needed to watch, she would need to talk to the other security officers when they had fully recovered in Sickbay.
Next came the exposition that appeared to originate from the turbolift. Out stepped most of the Serenity crew, those who were not present were kaylee and Inara. Jayne was at the front, his arms tightly around some kind of grenade launcher. As everyone took up positions, they began their assault with mostly hand guns. It was clear to them that they were vastly outnumbered as they began to retreat, Enterprises officers following suit. As they reached the turbolift they had entered from, all but one clambered aboard. That who was left was the girl, River. Her head tilted to the right as the Reavers rushed in her direction and as if in fast forward, she snatched weapons from their waists, and began chopping through them at a phenomenal rate, their bodies not even hitting the ground before another one joined them. When she was done, their bodies littered the floor as they had found them, and River, besides several cuts and bruises she had sustained, turned calmly around and stepped into the turbolift that would take her to where Worf would meet her.
"Fascinating." Data remarked softly, his eyes still on the screen even though it had stopped.
"My God." Riker whispered. "How the hell did she do that?"
Picard shook his head, even though he had just watched it he was still finding it hard to believe.
"I've never seen anyone move like that." Crusher said. "They barely even touched her."
"It was almost like she knew what they were going to do, and anticipated." Riker thought aloud.
"Where is the girl now?" Picard asked Worf.
"She and the rest of them are on Serenity." He answered.
"Then they knew she could do this?" He motioned to the screen.
"It would seem likely." Deanna answered, adding "There is so much we don't know about them or where they came from, as for my readings of her……" She paused before divulging what she had told Crusher. "They were confusing and chaotic at best."
"This makes sense from the brain scan. Captain, I've been thinking." She rotated her chair towards him, "Whoever did this to her, perhaps this was what they intended to use her for. There are assassins on many different worlds, as they've told us, they are the only intelligent beings they've found in their universe, my guess is that they use people who don't seem that much of a threat at all." She shrugged her shoulders.
"How were they able to fire their weapons inside the ship?" Picard asked thinking back to the slaughter.
At this question, Geordie leaned forward, a data padd in his hands. "I think I may be able to answer that one sir. After carefully scanning the computers systems, I noticed that someone had managed to deactivate that safety protocol. How they did it I'm, still trying to figure out. To deactivate something like this, you need level one clearance which only a handful of officers have. I ran some background tests and they were all accounted for, none of them were anywhere near the console that was tampered with when it happened. And second of all, if someone did manage to falsify the computers records, they would need more then one person as it takes two people to deactivate it."
It took a few minutes for everything to sink in before Picard asked, "What about the Serentiy crew? Was there anyone in engineering at that time?"
Geordie thought for a moment. "I don't know sir, I didn't think of that. Their technology is quite limited; they don't even know how to use the replicates properly. For one of them to be able to do this?" He thought, placing a hand on his chin.
"What about River?" Crusher shrugged.
"What about her?" Riker asked, not understanding what she was getting at.
"If she's capable to take down 50 of those things," she pointed to the screen, "Then who says she isn't capable of tampering with our computer controls?"
"I don't know." Geordie sounded sceptical. "Data's probably the only one capable of doing something like this." He looked at his friend who raised his eyebrow, in the way that meant he had acknowledged Geordie's comment.
"Why don't we just ask them?" Deanna piped up, the thought coming to her.
"Why didn't we think of that before?" Crusher raised her hands and smiled in amusement that it had taken this long to think of something so simple.
"Alright then Consular, you, Riker and Data will have a chat to our friends. Lets see if we can't figure this out before they decide to high tail it and leave." Everyone rose form their chairs and began filing out of the room.
"'High tail it' sir?" Data asked Picard who had remained seated in thought. He smiled for the first time that day.
"Leave Mr Data, leave."
"Yes sir." He lowered his head in the way that meant dismissal and headed for the door.
"No, I meant High tail means to leave, not……" He sighed, "Never mind." Shaking his head, he left for the bridge.