Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [52]
“You’re saying we got lucky,” Crusher said.
“More than that.” La Forge shook his head. “We saw what we saw because we’re stupider than they expected us to be. That doesn’t bode well for our odds.”
Worf understood the chief engineer’s caution but did not share it. “Perhaps they simply were hoping that no one would examine their deception too carefully. That indicates an enemy who might grow careless. We should take advantage of that.”
The captain took in everyone’s comments. He had a look on his face that Worf had come to know well over the years he served under Picard, and he had also seen it on the faces of Sisko and Martok: a commanding officer weighing everything, adding in countless other factors that few in the room even knew about, before coming to a decision.
“Bridge to Captain.”
Looking up, Picard said, “Go ahead, Lieutenant.”
“Sir, you have a priority-one communique from Admiral Janeway at Starfleet Command.”
Now Worf saw a different expression on his captain’s face, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. Picard had disobeyed Janeway’s direct orders when they engaged the Borg. Worf had suspected the reason the Enterprise was assigned to explore the remote Gorsach system was to get the ship and her captain out of Janeway’s hair.
With only the slightest hint of regret in his voice—Worf doubted that Leybenzon, Kadohata, and T’Lana detected it—the captain said, “Pipe it in here, Lieutenant.”
The four images of the cavern on Gorsach IX were replaced by the familiar face of Kathryn Janeway—which looked, as Worf expected, grim—sitting in her office at Starfleet Headquarters.
“Admiral Janeway,” Picard said. “What can we do for you?”
Janeway said, “This isn’t a social call, as you might imagine, Captain. We’ve been receiving reports over the past day or so of spatial rifts opening all over the galaxy.”
Frowning, Picard said, “What kind of rifts?”
“That’s just it,” Janeway said, “we don’t know. They’re not showing up on any kind of sensor scan. We do know that they’re all spherical but varying in diameter. Some of them have swallowed up entire star systems, while others are no larger than an asteroid. But several dozen ships have gone missing, and these rifts may have claimed billions of lives already. No kind of scan is picking them up—we can see them, but that’s it.
“It’s not just the Alpha Quadrant, either,” the admiral continued. “Titan, Ganymede, and the Klingons have reported rifts in the Beta Quadrant, Deep Space 9 has reported several instances that have been relayed to them from the Gamma Quadrant, and Project Voyager has been keeping in touch with several allies we made in the Delta Quadrant who’ve been reporting the same.”
“We have seen no such rifts here, Admiral,” Picard said.
“We’ve mapped the rifts’ appearances, and they’re occurring in a very specific pattern. The epicenter of that pattern is the Gorsach system.”
Picard sat up. Worf stiffened.
Before either could comment, however, the sound of slow clapping came from the other end of the table. Turning, Worf saw that Q had appeared at the far end of the table, facing Picard, now wearing an admiral’s uniform.
“Bravissimo! You’ve finally figured it out. I did warn you that this was a pivotal place in the universe.”
“Q, what kind of game are you playing?” That was Janeway. Worf recalled that Janeway’s former command, Voyager, had encountered Q on several occasions, and that Q’s offspring considered Janeway to be his godmother. Based on the look on the admiral’s face, it was an honor she would have preferred to decline.
“Ah, Kathy, always a pleasure to lay eyes on your lovely visage.”
“The pleasure is all yours,” Janeway said tightly.
Q snickered. “The admiral’s bars suit you, you know—now you have a whole fleet to annoy, instead of just a few random nincompoops on that garden spade with a pituitary problem you commanded.” Q then turned to Picard. “Well, then, Jean-Luc, have you seen enough?”
Abandoning the ploy of ignoring Q, Picard asked, “Seen enough of what?”
Shaking his head, Q said, “My my my my, you have gone dense.