All Good Things__ - Michael Jan Friedman [7]
Before he could ask them that question, they began pointing at him—pointing and jeering. Then shouting at the tops of their lungs, as if they found something amusing about him. Picard suppressed his indignation.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his companion looking at him. He looked concerned. “Captain,” asked La Forge, “are you all right?” “I’m fine,” said Picard, keeping his eyes on the intruders. “I just want to know what these people are doing in my vineyard …. “
“Captain?”
Picard turned at the sound of the shuttle pilot’s voice. “Yes, Lieutenant?” he muttered. “Are you all right, sir?”
He wasn’t sure. He seemed to have drifted off—but not merely figuratively. It was almost as if he’d been somewhere else until just this second… somewhere very different from the shuttlecraft Galileo.
But of course, that was ridiculous. For the last several minutes, he’d been sitting in the copilot’s seat of the small, crisp-looking craft, making the brief trip from the shipyard offices to his new command.
Perhaps he was just nervous, he told himself. After all, it had been several years since he’d sat in the center seat of a starship—and the assignment he was headed for was significantly more demanding than the Stargazer had been.
“Sir?” prodded the pilot, who was also to be one ofhis senior officers when he took command. Picard turned to her, noting the way her prickly, no-nonsense attitude clashed with her striking good looks. Her skin was tinted a pale green by the craft’s interior lighting; it accentuated the green of her eyes.
He smiled, a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant Yar. My mind seems to have wandered for a mo-ment. What was it you were saying?”
She seemed to relax a bit. “I was asking if you’d ever been aboard a Galaxy-class starship before, sir.”
Picard focused his mind on answering the question. Though he still had the nagging sensation that he’d left something unfinished somewhere, he tried to ignore it.
“No,” he replied. “I’m, of course, very familiar with the blueprints and specifications… and I’ve seen holograms of its performance projections… but this will be ú my first time aboard.”
The young woman smiled—an expression of pride more than one of pleasure. “Well then, sir, if I may be so bold… you’re in for a treat. The Enterprise is quite a ship.”
The captain nodded. “I’m sure she is.”
Of course, he couldn’t see it yet, with all the yard’s other ships hovering in the way like a pack of high-tech herd animals. But he would get an eyeful of the Enterprise soon enough.
As it was, he found Lieutenant Yar’s face much more interesting. There was something about it that seemed ú.. familiar, he thought, even though he was only notic-ing it now for the first time.
Perhaps it was just one of those faces. He was relatively certain he had never met her before today. Or had he?
After a moment, Yar seemed to notice that he was scrutinizing her. She glanced back at him.
“Sir?” A pause. “Have I done something wrong?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “Of course not, Lieutenant.”
He was sorry for the misconception he’d caused. No matter how curious he was, it had been wrong of him to stare.
“You just seem familiar to me,” he explained further. “I was wondering if we had run into one another on a prior occasion.”
The woman’s brow wrinkled. “I don’t think so,” she replied. Picard nodded. “No,” he agreed. “Perhaps not.” Yar returned her attention to her control console. A second later, the communications panel beeped. She hit the appropriate control pad.
“Enterprise to shuttlecraft Galileo,” announced the ship’s offcer in charge of shuttle traffic. “You are cleared for arrival in shuttlebay two.”
The lieutenant’s response was crisp and professional: “Acknowledged, Enterprise.”
Working her controls for a moment, she pointed to a spot dead ahead, between two smaller starships. The captain craned his neck to follow her gesture, but he couldn’t see anything yet from where he was sitting.
“There she is,” said Yar.
A moment later,