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Besides Captain Gold, there were three others on the bridge. A fit-looking man had the conn under the main screen. A blond Bajoran woman was at the operations station, and a well-muscled Atrean male sat at engineering. Geordi didn’t recognize any of them.

Captain Gold glanced around, then smiled and stood, moving to shake Geordi’s hand. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Commander.”

“Thank you, sir,” Geordi said, shaking the firm, strong hand of the captain. Gold was instantly likable, and clearly in charge. Very much like Captain Picard.

Geordi turned and indicated Vale. “This is the Enterprise ’s Chief of Security, Lieutenant Christine Vale.”

“Welcome, Lieutenant,” Gold said, also shaking her hand.

“A pleasure,” Vale said. “And a beautiful ship you have here.”

Gold laughed and winked at Geordi. “I like an officer who knows how to say the right things to a captain.”

“Better warn Captain Picard,” Gomez said to Geordi, moving over to join them. “Captain Gold here has a way of getting people he likes to work for him.”

Smartly, Vale said nothing. Geordi was starting to understand exactly why Lieutenant Vale had gone so far so quickly. She was smart and knew when to speak and when not to, a valuable skill in Starfleet.

“Let me introduce you to my bridge crew,” Gold said, “then Commander Gomez can get you introduced to her S.C.E. team.”

The captain did a quick once-around-thebridge. The young ensign at the conn was a human named Songmin Wong. He seemed very shy, and just nodded when introduced.

The Bajoran at operations was Lieutenant Ina Mar. She had to be even younger than Wong, but nowhere near as shy. She had bright red hair and the longest, slimmest fingers Geordi had ever seen. When he shook her hand, he didn’t want to let go, or look away from her eyes.

The chief engineer was an Atrean male named Lieutenant Jil Barnak. He was middle-aged, heavyset, and very strong.

Geordi had a sense they were all very good at their jobs. And, being under Captain Gold as the bridge crew of the flagship of the S.C.E., they would see their share of action.

As the introductions were finishing, Gomez turned to Captain Gold. “My first insertion team will be ready to go in twenty minutes. You have any sense of where we should start first?”

Geordi was impressed. Gomez was in charge of the S.C.E., but she respected Gold enough to ask his opinion. Clearly, they had worked this way a number of times in the past. It was the way Captain Picard and Commander Riker worked together at times. Picard was in charge, but he valued Riker’s opinion. He didn’t always take it, but he valued it.

Gold shook his head. “From everything Lieutenant Commander La Forge and the Enterprise have given us, plus our initial scans, I’d say slow-but-sure is best.”

“My thinking exactly,” she said. “We’ll focus on building a map of that thing, identifying important areas, seeing if we can tap into its computers, and then decide what we need to take out.”

“What are you thinking of doing with it?” Lieutenant Vale asked.

“Way too early to know,” Gomez said. “Towing something that big to a starbase would be impossible on our own, and I doubt we’re going to get it up and running again, from the looks of that damage. Often, we just take the information and hardware we think is salvageable and useful and drop the ships into the nearest sun. We’ll see.”

Gold nodded. “Be careful in there. I think Captain Scott’s description of this thing as a monster is right on the money.”

Gomez laughed. “I’ve been getting the same feeling.”

Geordi didn’t laugh. He had had the exact same reaction to the alien ship since the moment he first saw it. It was an unknown beast, and taming it and pulling out its secrets was going to be something the best team of engineers in Starfleet might just have trouble doing.

CHAPTER

4

Gomez felt the transporter beam release them on an open ledge just inside the hole the Enterprise had blasted in the skin of the ship. The boots of her environmental suit snapped her onto the deck, holding her in place in what