Immortal Coil - Jeffrey Lang [95]
Picard regarded his first officer skeptically. Riker shrugged. “I’m only telling you what was in the files, sir. It may have been a trick, but it may also be a mistake for us to dismiss the story out of hand. Think of the kinds of things Q can do—”
“Point taken,” Picard agreed. “Still, from what we can piece together, Vaslovik is human, isn’t he?”
“So the scans would indicate. In fact, according to McCoy’s tricorder readings, Flint had sacrificed his regenerative abilities when he left Earth. Something unique in Earth’s ecosphere, McCoy reasoned, had kept him alive.”
“I think,” Picard sighed, “we should consider this a clever ruse on Flint’s part. Given the resources at his disposal, after six thousand years of moving seamlessly from one identity to another and covering his tracks, we shouldn’t be surprised to find he could fool a tricorder.”
“If you read McCoy’s personal logs,” Troi said, “you’ll see that the doctor hints at the same conclusion, though he seemed to be reluctant to state it unequivocally.”
“Why would he hesitate?” Picard asked.
“It’s difficult to be certain,” Troi admitted. “Although the officers’ logs are full of empirical information about Flint, they’re surprisingly lacking in details of the landing party’s interaction with the man himself. My impression,” the counselor continued, “after reading all of them, was that something of an intensely personal nature happened to Captain Kirk during that encounter, something that none of the officers wanted known.”
Picard frowned, unhappy with the thought Troi had put forward, but resigned to going forward with the information they had. He turned to the chief engineer. “What can you tell us about the escape pod, Mr. La Forge?”
“Pretty much what Commander Riker said about it: standard Starfleet issue, a few years old, but in excellent condition. I traced the registration back to a ship destroyed at Wolf 359. Vaslovik must have salvaged and refitted them.”
“Can you track the pod that Data and McAdams used?”
“Well, that’s the odd part, Captain,” La Forge said, warming to his topic. “Normally, I’d say no, not after it went into warp, not with all the background radiation from that exploded ship. But someone activated a beacon, some kind of subspace signature. We should be able to follow it without any problem.”
“Why is it there?” Riker asked.
“Only one reason I can think of,” Geordi explained. “It’s a trail of breadcrumbs. McAdams … or Data … wanted us to follow.”
“Wasn’t that a rather risky thing to do?” Picard asked. “What if we had lost the fight? Then the androids would have followed them.”
“That’s a very good point, Captain,” La Forge agreed. “And the only answers I can think of are that either Rhea or Data decided we wouldn’t lose or …” He trailed off.
“Or?” Riker prompted.
“Let’s just say that when we come out of warp wherever the breadcrumb trail ends, we should have shields up to full and phasers charged.”
“An excellent tactical recommendation, Commander,” Picard agreed. “Perhaps you should return to the engine room to make sure we can follow it. Estimates for completing repairs?”
La Forge was already on his feet and headed toward the door. “Two hours, Captain.”
“There’s one more thing, Geordi. According to Sam, the androids built their vessels by studying the remains of Dr. Korby’s spacecraft. Check the sensor logs from when they attacked earlier and see how their warp engines register. They might have advanced weapons, but I’m willing to guess that their propulsion system is a hundred years out of date. I need tactical options that would take advantage of that fact.”
Riker grinned broadly. “Yes, sir. After what they did, it would be a pleasure to hand them some of their own.”
Picard smiled grimly. “I’m glad to hear you feel that way, Mr. La Forge. I doubt very much that we’ve seen the last of those ships.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
VASLOVIK FELL SILENT—it seemed like he had finally run out of things to say—and Data