Captain's Table 02_ Dujonian's Hoard - Michael Jan Friedman [46]
She frowned, clearly reluctant to comply. But after a moment, she turned to Thadoc.
“Do whatever he says,” she commanded.
Without a word, Thadoc opened the Romulan commander’s control panel and gave me the lockout I had requested. “From this point on,” he announced, “no one will be able to enter the bridge without our permission.”
“Sounds good to me,” Dunwoody remarked.
Thadoc turned to me. “What next?”
I didn’t need much time to think about it. “Conduct an emergency override, deactivating all transporter facilities. Then check to see how many Romulans have already been sent to the Cardassian ship.”
Again, Thadoc complied. After a second or so, he looked up. “Transporters are all locked down. As for how many have left the warbird …” He shook his head. “All boarding parties are still here.”
“No one left?” I asked. “Are you sure?”
His expression told me he was very sure.
I frowned. “Some astute Romulan officer must have noticed our transport and called a halt to the boarding operation.”
“Let’s make sure the situation doesn’t change,” said Red Abby. She turned to Thadoc. “Raise the shields.”
He nodded. “Done.”
Red Abby looked at me, the epitome of cooperation. “What now?” she asked.
“Now,” I told her, “I give them their walking papers. Mr. Thadoc, would you activate the ship’s intercom?”
It took only a moment for him to do as I had requested. Choosing my words judiciously, I addressed the warbird’s crew, trusting the system’s translation protocols to make my announcement understandable to them.
“Attention,” I said. “We have secured control of your vessel.”
A chorus of cheers went up from the throats of Red Abby’s men. Or most of them, anyway. Red Abby herself remained silent. If she harbored any resentment toward me, she didn’t show it.
Not that I would have stepped aside in any case. I was clearly better prepared for this stage of the operation than she was.
“At this time,” I continued, “we recommend you leave the ship by any means available to you.”
Thadoc glanced at me, his brows raised in surprise.
“They are Romulans,” he whispered, too softly to be heard over the intercom system. “That recommendation will not sit well with them.”
“I’m aware of that,” I whispered back. “But they are also painfully vulnerable under the circumstances. And though I have no desire to take advantage of their vulnerability, they have no way of knowing that.”
In fact, the Romulans had no idea who I was or what I was capable of. What’s more, I had no intention of enlightening them.
“It’s all right,” Red Abby told Thadoc. “Picard’s got the ball.” She looked at me. “Let’s see if he can run with it.”
If it was a vote of confidence, it was hardly a resounding one. Nonetheless, I went on.
“I will allow you to make use of all shuttles and life-pods,” I told the crew. “If you decline to do so, I will cut off your life support and you will die slowly for a lost cause. The choice is yours.”
At that point, I terminated the communication. Worf was standing in a corner from which he could keep an eye on the Romulans lying about the bridge. He nodded approvingly.
“Do you think they’ll respond to your generosity?” Assad asked.
“I suspect they will,” I told him. “But one never knows. There are Romulans and there are Romulans.”
A moment later, an indicator lit up on the commander’s board. Someone was boarding one of the life-pods.
“I’ve got at least one taker,” I noted.
In the next several seconds, I saw five more indicators. Three of them were life-pods, the others shuttles. Obviously, at least part of the crew had decided to take me up on my offer.
“It’s working,” Worf observed.
“So it is,” Thadoc said. He looked at me. “But what do you propose to do if there are stragglers? Romulans who would rather die than renege on their oaths and abandon their ship?”
It was a fair question.
“I have a plan for them,” I assured him. I jerked my head to indicate the Romulans we had knocked unconscious.