Requiem - Michael Jan Friedman [66]
“Join me in my … in the captain’s ready room. I think there’s something we have to discuss.”
Ro didn’t bother to acknowledge his order. But a moment later, he heard a beep at the door.
“Come in, Ensign.”
The doors had barely slid aside before the Bajoran was past them, approaching him with an eagerness that told him she knew exactly what he wanted. Under the circumstances, Riker decided, he would get right to the point.
“Not too long ago,” he said, “you offered me the services of the Bon Amar. If the offer’s still on the table, I’d like to take you up on it.”
He searched her face for a hint of the triumph she must have been feeling. He couldn’t find any. Ro was a professional, he’d give her that.
“I’ll contact them immediately,” she answered.
Riker nodded. “Thank you, Ensign. In the meantime, I’ll have Lieutenant Worf map out the routes I’d like your friends to search. And—”
“Begging your pardon, sir,” Ro interrupted, “but I think they’ll prefer to map out their own routes. That’s just their way.”
He could live with that. He said so. The ensign turned to go, then stopped herself and looked back at him.
“You know,” she said, “you surprised me. I thought you’d hold out until the bitter end.”
Riker allowed himself a smile. “So did I,” he admitted.
Ro looked at him frankly. “What changed your mind?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, exactly. I guess desperation has a way of clarifying your priorities.”
She smiled back. “Right.” And a moment later, the ready-room doors were closing behind her.
Squinting in the rays of the hot midday sun, Picard kept his phaser hidden in the crook of his arm as he and Julia made their way across the colony’s plaza to the sensor facility. Fortunately, there were few of the colonists around, and those who were didn’t seem to take any inordinate interest in them.
At the entrance to the facility, they stopped, waiting for the security system to announce their presence. The captain looked around uneasily, then turned as the doors started to slide aside.
Of all people, it had to be Hronsky himself who stood there, his eyes popping open suddenly as he realized whom he was facing. Before he could sound the alarm, Picard drew his weapon and pressed the trigger.
The chief engineer staggered under the impact of the blast, hit the wall behind him, and slid to the ground. With one last sweeping glance, to make sure this hadn’t been noticed by anyone in the plaza, the captain took Julia by the arm and led her inside.
“Damn,” she whispered, kneeling for a second by the unconscious Hronsky. “Did you have to stun him, too?”
“Yes,” Picard replied—also in a whisper. “There was no time to do anything else.”
Scanning the interior of the structure, he saw that it was sparsely populated now—in contrast to the day before, when the chief engineer had announced his discovery. And all those present were too occupied with their monitors to notice what had happened to their superior.
The controls that related to the power source were in the center of the room. No one was watching them at the moment. Perhaps that had been Hronsky’s job. Or perhaps he had decided not to post anyone over them, as a show of disdain for the prisoner’s warning.
In any case, the captain and Julia were able to get halfway to the controls before anyone even glanced in their direction. But once one of the engineers noticed them, the others all raised their heads—almost as if there were a telepathic link between them.
“What do you want?” blurted one of them—the red-bearded man that Picard had seen here before. He was looking not at Picard’s face, but at his leveled phaser.
“Not to harm you,” the captain assured him.
“He’s here to sabotage the power source,” concluded a woman with long, blonde hair tied up in a braid.
There was no point in explaining, Picard decided. He had tried that once already and failed miserably. So instead, he merely took the few extra steps he needed to reach the control console.
Julia stayed with him. She must have felt terrible, the way her fellow colonists were staring at her. Like a traitor. But