Maker - Michael Jan Friedman [39]
“Because he was so different from everyone around him…”
“Exactly right. So he reached out to those with whom he had even a tenuous form of identity. At first, it was Kirk, his oldest and most trusted friend. Then Kirk began to seem insignificant to him, an insect like all the others on the Enterprise, and Mitchell reached for Doctor Dehner instead.”
Ben Zoma grunted. “Nice coincidence for him that she was in the process of becoming a superbeing herself.”
The captain shook his head. “I am not convinced that it was a matter of coincidence.”
His friend looked at him. “Are you saying Dehner wouldn’t have been transformed if Mitchell hadn’t helped her along?”
“There is no way to know,” said Picard. “Not conclusively. But I would not be surprised if Dehner was like those who founded Magnia—affected by the barrier, yes, but not to the extent that she would have become a superbeing on her own.”
“Except Mitchell pushed her over the edge.”
“That is my theory—that he was so lonely, so miserable despite all his power, he needed the company of someone like himself. As for Brakmaktin, his urge to procreate will soon provide him with a plentitude of companions. But in the meantime…”
“He needs someone to hold his hand?”
“Is it that absurd, Gilaad? He may be powerful beyond reason, but he is still a social being. And let us not forget, he is undergoing a radical transformation. It must be rather frightening to look in a mirror and see someone so imposing looking back.”
Ben Zoma still looked unsatisfied. “Even if that’s all true…why did he choose Nikolas? Out of all the fifty-nine people on that ship, why him?”
Picard sighed. “That is the piece of the puzzle I have yet to figure out.”
It was difficult to contemplate it without considering the irony of Nikolas’s condition. The very sad irony.
The ensign had said he was miserable on the Stargazer after he lost Gerda Idun—that he couldn’t bear the thought of remaining on the ship without her. But if Picard’s theory was correct, Nikolas’s misery then was nothing compared to his misery now.
He had left what he considered to be a frying pan and been pushed by fate into the most hellish of fires. And despite Picard’s determination to rescue his former crewman, he was not optimistic about his prospects of doing so.
“I do not envy Nikolas,” he said out loud.
Ben Zoma didn’t answer. He seemed distracted.
“Gilaad?” he prompted.
The first officer snapped back into focus. “Sorry. It’s just that I keep thinking about something.”
“What is it?” the captain asked.
“What if by the time we find Brakmaktin, he has already become pregnant? What if he’s already carrying his brood of Nuyyad superbeings?”
The question had occurred to Picard as well. It was one thing to consider the destruction of an adult who had the power to enslave civilizations. That had to be an option, if not an especially satisfactory one.
But the idea of destroying the unborn went down with a good deal more difficulty. Even if each of those unborn would grow up to become as horrific a threat as their forebear.
Even then.
“Not an easy decision to make,” said Ben Zoma, “is it? Of course, we could always defer to Starfleet Command.”
But the captain had already opted to leave his superiors out of this. He could hardly invite their opinion about one aspect of the situation without accepting their authority over the rest of it.
Besides, turning the matter over to Command was the coward’s way out. He had undertaken this mission, with all its problems and pitfalls. It was up to him to find the right path.
“No,” said Picard. “Not an easy decision at all.”
Nikolas was sitting on the bridge at an undamaged control console, watching helplessly as the warship approached the planet Brakmaktin had chosen as their destination, when he realized there was someone behind him.
Turning in his seat, he saw the hulking form of his nemesis. The Nuyyad didn’t look as desolate as he had before. In fact, he looked very much at ease, as if a burden