Ghost Ship - Diane Carey [94]
Breathing quickly, Geordi glanced at the others then back to Data, and laughed his relief away.
“All right, all right,” Picard said tolerantly. “Riker, Data, and Mr. Crusher, I want you all waiting for me in my ready room in five minutes, clear?”
“Very clear, sir,” Riker murmured, but he was still looking at Data. Looking very protectively this time.
Data looked back, and gave him a grateful nod.
The three of them stood in the captain’s ready room, admittedly nervous.
For a few minutes they were companionably silent. Riker ultimately approached Data and held out his hand. “Congratulations. You’ve got the answer you wanted.”
Data took the hand, though he seemed self-conscious now. “Not really, sir. The phenomenon’s criteria for life was never clear to us.”
“Look,” Riker said, cutting him off, “as far as I’m concerned, that was the closest we’ve come to an authority on what life is. You may not be human, exactly, but it recognized something in you as alive. And … that’s good enough for me. I’m glad you’re back.”
The android tipped his head and responded, “Thank you for coming after me. That is, as you say, good enough for me.”
Wesley folded his lanky arms and commented, “Don’t get mushy, guys.”
Riker cuffed him. “When you’ve been dead and come back to life, you can talk about mushy, mister.”
“How much trouble do you think we’re in?”
With a small shrug, Riker said, “I don’t know about you, but I doubt the captain’ll be congratulating either Data or me on our ingenuity. Two utility ships lost, disobedience of standing orders-not very pretty.”
“At least neither of you melted down the whole phaser core,” Wesley commented sullenly.
“True, but we-“
The captain entered, and they all came to attention in front of his desk, simply because none of them wanted to look him in the eye. The captain came around his desk, but didn’t sit down.
“Congratulations, Mr. Crusher,” he said immediately. “You have the unique privilege of assisting in the three-week rebuild of the entire phaser core. A rare opportunity for one so young.”
Wesley perked up and said, “Thanks, sir!”
Picard scowled at him, annoyed that his sarcasm was lost on Wesley, and added, “We’ll see if you can still smile in three weeks.”
The smile fell off appropriately.
Picard ignored him, glowering at Riker and Data. “And you two, about this propensity for stealing starship property and striking off on your own,” he said, his voice growing in intensity and ferocity, “just don’t make a habit of it. Dismissed.”
Startled, neither Riker nor Data had the sense to get away while they could, at least not for the first few seconds. Finally Riker gestured Data and Wesley out, stepping after them onto the bridge. A sense of relief washed over him as the office door slid shut behind the three of them. Together, they turned toward the bridge itself, and stopped short.
Only Riker was able to make a coherent movement-he touched the ready room door and it slid open again. As he stared out onto the bridge, he called back, “Captain … you’d better come out here.”
A moment later, Picard was at his side.
They and the command crew looked out over the large expanse of the bridge-a bridge crowded with human forms. A hundred human forms, all in uniform. Sailors. Command officers from a time past. Some uniforms were blue, some green.
At the center of the rows of naval officers from an age gone by, Arkady Reykov and Timofei Vasska stood together in ghostly silence and gazed at Captain Picard.
On the lower bridge, Deanna Troi gazed at them, tears breaking from her lovely eyes. Finally, she found her comfort.
Captain Reykov raised his hand to his forehead in salute. A moment later, every one of the hundred Earth sailors also raised their hands.
Picard cleared his throat. “Attention,” he called.
His command crew snapped straight.
He brought his own hand up and saluted those for whom he and his ship had nearly destroyed themselves.
Captain Reykov’s eyes twinkled like those of a living man, and he nodded in gratitude. His hand snapped