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Troubled by these unpredictable rashes, so obviously driven by emotion rather than by tactical plans, Spock paused a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Unfortunately, events are moving forward with the rapidity typical of a national crisis. We can now officially call the disease an epidemic.” Spock lowered his voice and significantly added, “Captain, the proconsul of the Senate died yesterday.” “Uh-oh,” Riker opined.

Picard grimaced. “That means instability at the top of the empire.”

“Dr. McCoy should be arriving soon,” Spock told them, “with current information about the medical aspects of the Romulan crisis. You should shortly be receiving a signal from a Tellarite grain ship upon which he’s traveling at the moment.”

“Leonard McCoy” Dr. Crusher observed, “is the only man I’ve ever known who can shuttle in and out of nontreaty cultures as easily as the rest of us visit the stores in a shopping promenade. He can charm his way past border guards and squirm past warrants like some kind of spirit.”

“Hardly charm;’ Spock commented. “In any case, we should shortly have fresh information. The massive sickness is causing havoc throughout the empire.”

“We’ve been feeling the effect.” Captain Picard validated. “These border eruptions are like wildcat strikes. Isolated leaders are finding excuses to attack Federation outposts and ships, staging incidents on purpose, hoping one of them will flame into all-out conflict. Nothing that smacks of coordination. however, not so far.”

“They are not coordinated attacks at all,” Spock concurred. “As certain members of the royal family die, their followers-and sometimes the family members themselves-are flaring up in frustration and anger.”

“And fear” Crusher added. “The royal family is spread all over, and they’re all in charge. And they’re all terrified. They’re not only dying themselves, but also watching their children die. It’s not a gentle disease, Ambassador… it attacks quickly, painfully, then inflicts a stow death. It behaves like a curse. Some people think that’s what it is. Terrified people do terrible things.”

“We’ve got a reason to be terrified too,” her captain said. “As more and more of the royal family die, others who have had no chance for power are seeing an opportunity for upheaval. The Federation’s managing to handle these spurts without considering any one of them an act of war, but how long can we hold out? If the structure breaks down too much “

“Could that happen?” Dr. Crasher asked. “Could the empress really be deposed because she and her whole family are sick?”

Riker looked at Crusher. “If the empress dies, all the hungry near-orbiters who never had a shot at the throne will start smelling velvet.”

“With too many decisive defeats of Romulan flareups by Starfleet crews,” Picard added, “the empress could be deposed very quickly and someone more hungry for war could take over` No matter how you look at it politically, there’s every reason to stir up trouble and virtually no reason not to. So our goal in these skirmishes is to prevail, but not so decisively that the Romulan commanders are deeply humiliated or destroyed. We try to push them back without squashing them, stalling for time, seeking a biological solution. If the empress falls and her relatives are all infected too, there could be decades of instability on one of the Federation’s longest borders. We have a stake in restoring the status quo.”

“True;’ Spock agreed, relieved that they shared his hopes. “Better to have a stable empire as a neighbor than anarchy at our gates.”

“Well, we’ve done a good job so far,” Will Riker injected, “of keeping these flareup attacks from turning into acts of war” “As the family breaks down,” Spock said, “some dissident

elements are striking out at the Federation, even though the core of the royal family is not yet ready to do that. Some of these elements are in control of ships.”

Spock turned a fraction toward him, careful not to mm his back on the captain. “Those closest to power-the empress, her