Getting to grips with Intractan red tape was fast becoming Commander Riker's hobby, if not his bane. He was frequently to be seen pacing the bridge, interrogating the various crew members who were working on research topics set by himself; if not that, then he would sequester himself in Picard's ready room, occasionally shuttling out to bark an order before shuttling back in again in what was obviously becoming a foul temper.
After an hour or so of this, he practically sprang out of the ready room, a mixture of gloating glee and fury on his face, and snapped: "Get me Tractusaria. Prisoner liaison."
"Hailing frequencies open and standing by."
"On screen," Riker snarled, flopping down into the command chair and plucking at the arms. The willowy figure of the Intractan aide appeared, looking polite and helpful.
"Supply, under regulation order C34-12a, the full names in their entirety as they appear on the charge sheet against Prisoner Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise."
The Intractan didn't bat an eyelid (figuratively - the species was lacking in what could be safely termed eyelids) and tapped at the info panel at his side.
"Full names as entered are Picard, Jean-Luc, title, Captain, and Soong, Lore, title, Mister."
Riker's anger seemed to deflate all of an instant, his face draining to white. "Spell that, please? The second name…"
"Soong, S-O-O-N-G, first name Lore, L-O-R-E, title Mister, M-I -"
"Thankyou. That's very helpful. Enterprise out."
Riker stared at the screen til it cleared, then tilted his head slowly to eye Deanna in the seat at his side. No-one on the bridge said a word.
"Well," he croaked, eventually. "In case you were wondering - whatever I was expecting, that wasn't it."
The counsellor shook her head once, quickly.
"I need to speak to the captain. Failing that, I really need to speak to Data." He raised his voice. "Everybody here is now dedicated to finding me the clause that will let me do that. The first one to find something useful gets to go off-duty early. Until then, no-one stops."
Whatever Picard had been expecting of the woman Lore had allegedly assaulted, this wasn't it either.
For one thing she was arrestingly beautiful, and for another, apparently sane. Picard would have been prepared to swear that anyone who would willingly throw their lot in with Data's brother had to be lacking a certain important chunk of sense.
She did, however, have a lot of bruises dappling her tawny upper arm and by the way she moved, her ribs as well. She stared up at Picard with haunted eyes, a hand curling over her stomach instinctively.
"Who are you?"
Thoroughly wishing the Intractan guards weren't standing over them both like surrealist statues, Picard laced his fingers behind his back and tried his best not to look like the enemy.
"My name is Jean-Luc Picard," he said. "If you don't mind, its taken a lot of negotiation just to be able to enter the same room as you, and I would very much like to speak with you. It's about Mr Soong."
Even more bafflingly, to his mind at least, he saw all the tiny non-verbal clues that suggested she was relaxing as soon as she mentioned the android's name. Curious for an apparent assault survivor.
That's if she even knows he's an android, was the immediate following thought. We know Data so well we assume it's obvious. Her next words clashed with her body language.
"I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about him."
Ever aware of the strict time-clock on this interview, Picard took a seat on the only chair in the hospital room, a safe and non-threatening distance from her.
"I appreciate this has been a difficult experience for you," he said. "But my own liberty rests upon my being able to understand what happened between Mr Soong and yourself. You see, he's - he's my responsibility."
That gathered a startled look. "Well, if you're expecting me to believe he's your son, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that."
"No," said Picard, glad she was even speaking to him, "no, he's not my son."
"Your partner, then?"
The tension was back, Picard noted.
"No," he repeated. "He's the brother of a friend of mine."
Her blue eyes narrowed. "In case you were under some kind of misapprehension," she said, sweetly, "I may be pregnant, but I'm not a fool. I know he's a machine. He showed me. So unless you're telling me you can buy kits like him at the store -"
Picard held up a hand in negation and decided to go with the abridged version of the truth.
"Lore's creator made more than one android," he said, quietly. "That other android serves about my ship. During our visit to this planet, I mistook Lore for his brother and admitted responsibility for his actions as a member of my crew." Her expression fell. "I am now being charged with your assault by proxy."
She was silent for a long moment, as if, like an android herself, thousands of possible answers were constructing themselves behind her eyes. "Oh," was all she said, at length, her fingers lacing and interlacing with themselves, and didn't look at him. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"
It wasn't said defiantly, or selfishly, Picard was almost certain: the woman was tired, frightened and above all determined to protect the child she carried. Such circumstances could colour the reactions of a saint.
"You could start by telling me your name," he said, gently.
"Sarah," she said, almost immediately. Almost certainly not the truth, but it was a start.
"Thankyou, Sarah. Now, if you could just answer one question for me, and answer it as thoroughly as you can, that would be exceedingly good of you."
She nodded, her eyes flicking to the Intractan guards hovering behind Picard.
"I'll try."
"Why were you travelling with Mr Soong in his ship?"
Again, that moment of disturbing calculation flashed in her eyes.
"It's not his ship," she said. "It's mine."
She had rolled helplessly in the mud, feeling like a wallowing beast and more full of rage than she had ever been in her life. How dare they throw her out? And into this filthy night, soaking wet and, gods help her, unable to get up under her own power. The weight of her pregnant body still surprised her, even after so long getting used to it.
She swore loudly in several languages, including her native tongue, and felt the gelatinous mud sinking insidiously through all her clothes to the skin below. Her neck ached abominably, and she was forced, with a shudder of disgust, to allow her head and her hair to hit the ground and be soiled in their turn.
Lying there, her eyes turned upward because there was nowhere else they could comfortably look, she became aware of the man standing only an arm's length away.
He was medium height and as pale as death. The light from the rapidly closing doorway hit his eyes and they flared up yellow as an animal's. Like her, he was soaking wet and had no coat. What she could see of his expression before the darkness swallowed them both was flatly surprised.
"Well, aren't you going to help me up?" she snapped, before she could stop herself. His expression barely flickered.
"No," he said, immediately.
She baulked at his utter disregard for her. Pregnancy can do this even to the most chastened of women. Most males of any species will treat a pregnant female as if she is made of china.
This male looked at her as if she was only mildly more interesting than the mud she lay in. "Why not?" she demanded. "For gods' sake, I'm helpless and I'm pregnant. Give me a hand."
"Why not?" he shot back at her. "You're the one who should be giving me a good reason why. I'm under no obligation to explain myself to you." He cocked his head in an oddly birdlike manner, and added: "If you'd managed to trip me up, lying down there like that, it'd be a different matter."
He was about two words away from thoroughly infuriating. "And why would it be different?" she snarled, and he crouched down on his haunches easily next to her, apparently to emphasize how smoothly and gracefully he could move, unencumbered by the problems her body faced. He was hateful. They were all hateful.
"Well," he said, rain pouring down his face and dripping from his long nose, "I'd be really quite annoyed with you if that had happened."
She stared up at him, stunned for a moment into not having a thing to say.
As was common with her, though, this didn't last.
"You're an even bigger bastard than the rest of them," she said, and then had to cope with a fresh level of ascending rage as he laughed out loud.