Day of Honor 01_ Ancient Blood - Diane Carey [0]
“CAPTAIN PICARD, MY MISSION is urgent. If it fails, six star systems and ten Federation colonies are going to fall under the influence of the most nefarious planet in this sector. I can’t give you any more details than I have already. All I can say is we’re picking up two key witnesses on whom our entire plan depends.”
Interesting words.
Strange.
Evasive, yet somehow revealing.
“Commissioner … you’re asking me to use my starship to delay a legal transport in authorized spacelanes.”
“That’s right, Captain.”
“So you can arrest two of the passengers?”
“Arrest is a little harsh. Take them into protective custody is how I’d put it.”
“Very well. If it’s so vital, let’s go get it done.” “
“Jean-Luc Picard hadn’t bothered to sit down in his ready room just off the ship’s bridge. The commissioner followed him out, and Picard felt the other man’s eyes all the way.
His first officer and security chief were waiting on the bridge. They were the only bridge crew who looked at him. The others—ops, helm, science station, tactical, engineering—were all fixed on their duties. Lieutenant Commander Data, in his elementally android manner, concentrated on his console and on the dominating main viewscreen at the fore of the bridge, which showed a docile vision of an oncoming ship.
“Transport on the screen, Captain,” William Riker reported. “Roughly ten kilotons, carrying cargo and thirty-two life-forms.”
“Pull them over, Number One.” Picard turned then to the security officer. “Mr. Worf, prepare to go aboard and take two persons into custody. We’ll be remanding them to Commissioner Toledano.”
The Klingon officer nodded once. “Aye, sir.” “
“At Picard’s side, the commissioner leaned close and murmured, “Must’ve been hard for you, getting used to having a Klingon on the bridge of a Federation starship.”
Will Riker—a bit taller than the Klingon though not as brawny—came down the port ramp, his eyes fixed on the transport as they drew nearer. “Hail them, Mr. Worf.”
“Aye, sir,” Worf responded, and played the glossy console before him to open hailing frequencies. Then he spoke into the com receptors. “This is the U.S.S. Enterprise. Stop your engines and prepare to be boarded.”
“Do our—passengers—know we’re coming?” Picard asked.
“No,” Toledano replied. “It was too risky to tell anyone. There are two people on that ship who have to be isolated and protected. There’s no place safer than a starship. Then, we’ll rendezvous with another starship, which will take them to an unspecified starbase. Even I don’t know the ship or base. Not yet anyway.”
“We’re in the vicinity of the Vaughn-Creighton system, aren’t we?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Does this have anything to do with the planet Sindikash?”
“I can’t talk to you about that yet.”
“Yes, you said that.”
“Sir, they are not reducing speed.” Commander Data’s android face remained typically expressionless.
“No answer to our hail, sir,” Worf added from the upper aft bridge, his bass voice like low thunder.
Picard deliberately said nothing. There was a certain art to captaincy, and that involved not doing his crewmen’s jobs for them.
“Tractor beams,” Riker decided. “
“Data looked at his board and worked it. “Tractor beams engaging, sir. Sir… their engines are still not reducing power. There is no response at all. They have not raised shields.”
“Prepare to beam aboard immediately,” Picard injected. “We’ll shut those engines off ourselves, or they’ll overload.”
“Why wouldn’t they respond?” Toledano asked as he, Picard, and Worf headed for the turbolift. “Aren’t they required to answer you?”
“Could be any number of problems,” Picard said as Worf stepped aside to let him board the lift first.
Despite not wanting to talk to him “yet,” Toledano had already told him a great deal. Two witnesses were involved in a tentacled network of espionage and were willing to speak to the Federation in exchange for sanctuary. Their information probably had something to do with Sindikash, the only habitable planet in the Vaughn-Creighton system, a colony of the Federation inhabited by Earth people from