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“I wish I could stay and say hello,” Picard said. “Shame to be this close and not get the chance, but we’ll be leaving within the hour.”

Scotty smiled, the twinkle in his eyes clear from the contained laughter. “Well, you gotta pick up your Chief Engineer sometime, don’t ya?”

Now it was Picard’s turn to laugh. He hadn’t thought of that at all. Geordi would have a shuttlecraft, but meeting the da Vinci after the next mission would be even better. It would be a great time to have an enjoyable dinner with Gold, find out how his wife and children were doing, and hear about some of the S.C.E. adventures and discoveries.

“Thank you, Captain,” Picard said. “I just might do that. Hope your people find something worthwhile here.”

“I’m sure we will,” Captain Scott said. “I’m sure you’ll be hearing all about it from Gold and La Forge.”

“More than likely,” Picard said, nodding at the smiling face of one of the legends of Starfleet history. “ Enterprise out.”

Picard leaned back and took another sip of his tea, savoring not only the taste, but also the quiet of the room. After a moment, he brought up on his screen the image of the alien ship. The massive black ball with its strange rings seemed to just hang there, taunting him. Every time he looked at the ship, he felt a sense of dread and unease. Even dead and helpless in space as it was, the ship looked and felt dangerous. Picard just couldn’t shake the feeling.

Ten hours until the da Vinci arrived. Too long for Geordi to be alone with that thing, even with the colony nearby. Picard sipped the tea, and then clicked off the screen. With a tap on his communication link, he said, “Lieutenant Vale, report to me in my ready room.”

If the Enterprise could make it a few days without its chief engineer, it could also make it without a security chief. And, that way, maybe he could sleep a little better as well.

CHAPTER

3

Lieutenant Vale’s light snoring filled the small main cabin of the shuttlecraft Cook . Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge glanced over at her and smiled. She had a young and innocent look about her, with blond hair cut in a pageboy style, and round, blue eyes. She stood—in boots—no taller than five-three, and looked slight. But Geordi knew someone didn’t make chief security officer in Starfleet without knowing every fighting trick there was. So far, she hadn’t had to prove any of her skills, and she seemed cool enough under the pressure of battle. He just hoped this side mission would be no exception. It was certainly going to be interesting having her along.

She was slumped in the copilot’s chair, her head back, her mouth slightly open. Captain Picard had forbidden him to enter the alien ship until the S.C.E. team arrived, but the captain had said nothing about landing on its surface and taking readings. No doubt doing nothing but gathering data for ten hours was boring to her, but not to him.

Especially not with this alien ship. Frustrating him, maybe, but not boring him.

At the moment, he had the Cook parked on a junction where the two rings met. They were very flat and smooth on top, and looked like wide highways leading off in four directions. Each ring was over a hundred meters wide and twenty thick. He had taken a dozen readings, using everything he could to penetrate the thick skin of the rings, but had had little success. The alloys that made up that hull were almost as good as shields when it came to blocking scans. He could tell there were no life signs, could get basic shapes and energy signatures from what appeared to be backup systems, and could tell there was a very wide hallway and lots of rooms in the rings below him, but nothing more. This ship’s metal hull, whatever its exact makeup, might be a very important find for the Federation and Starfleet.

It was clear that unless he, or someone on the da Vinci, came up with a way to penetrate the hull, they were going to have to learn about this ship the old-fashioned way: by exploring it.

And finding out exactly what purpose these rings served was something