Boogeymen - Mel Gilden [64]
“The d’Ort’d are eventually going to have to come to you.”
Riker smiled and nodded. He sat down next to Picard, folded his hands, and together they waited.
*
Worf stood at ease in front of the holodeck doors while Ensign Perry sat against the wall opposite him. Perry ran a finger around inside her collar and said, “Don’t you ever sweat?”
“Yes,” said Worf.
After a long silence Ensign Perry said, “You’re not sweating now.”
Worf made a sigh that sounded like a growl and said, “I am comfortable at the moment, thank you. Generally I am much too cold.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“I am a warrior.”
Perry nodded and said, “I wish I had some water.”
Worf just stiffened and ground his teeth.
Perry smiled and said, “Don’t you wish you had some water?”
“No.”
Perry did her best to look hurt.
A moment later three things happened at once: the holodeck doors slid open, Baldwin leapt through the opening, and Worf turned and caught him. Baldwin struggled hard, but like a child.
“I do not want to have to sit on you,” Worf said.
Baldwin’s fighting subsided, but Worf still held him. Worf looked around and said, “What’s that smell?”
“Skunk,” said Perry with surprise.
“Skunk?” said Worf.
“A small Earth animal that smells bad to protect itself. Lot of them near Grangeville, where I grew up. But what’s that smell doing on the Enterprise?”
“Boogeymen,” Worf said.
“What?”
“Come along. We will take Professor Baldwin to the brig for safekeeping.”
“No,” cried Baldwin. “You must not.”
Picard sat on the steps below the hatch listening and waiting. Riker was watching him from across the room. They hadn’t heard noise from above for a long time. Without warning the pirate ship disappeared, leaving Picard and Riker standing on a blank holodeck. Blank but for Captain Pilgrim. At the other side of the big room the doors were open, and through them Picard could see Worf clutching Baldwin, who was struggling. Ensign Perry stood nearby, wanting to help but not knowing how.
Captain Pilgrim walked toward them; it was almost a stroll, not the swagger that he’d used before. He spoke in the Boogeyman voice, but it had changed. It was no longer arrogant and evil, but softer, more reasonable. Pilgrim said, “Captain Picard, you must allow Baldwin to beam down to Tantamon Four.”
“Whom do I have the honor of addressing?” Picard said.
“We have no individual names. You may call us Pilgrim.”
Riker, always quick to get to the point, folded his arms and said, “Who are you, exactly?”
“We are the d’Ort’d.”
Picard did not know what the others were doing at that moment. He was too busy dealing with his own astonishment. The d’Ort’d were obviously as alien as the sensors had shown them to be, and someday soon that alienness would be a pretty problem for a specialist like Shubunkin. Anger grew in Picard, and it overwhelmed his astonishment. He said, “Release control of my ship and we can discuss Baldwin.”
“Another controls your ship. Not us. We have tried to restrain them.”
“The Boogeymen?” Riker asked.
“So you call them.”
“Why didn’t you communicate with us before?”
“No one came on the holodeck before. Baldwin was not detained before.”
Riker gave a short, humorless laugh.
“I was on the holodeck before. With two other crew members.”
“For a long time we were in shock. Being installed in an alien computer is stimulating but difficult.”
“Not so easy from this side of the terminal either,” Riker said. He smiled, but he wasn’t joking.
“Can we have a few chairs?” Picard said.
The air wavered and four armchairs off the pirate ship appeared. They faced each other across a small campfire. Picard could smell smoke, hear the wood crackling. Was the fire a trick, a calculated ploy to relax them, or just a nice touch? These chairs, this fire, in the middle of the blank holodeck gave Picard the impression of camping in the middle of a technological wilderness. Perhaps,