Section 31_ Rogue - Andy Mangels [1]
Picard’s own cabin was untouched, and, except for the occasionally malfunctioning environmental controls, it offered him a place of rest and solitude. He knew that the repair crews hadn’t touched his ready room yet. He suspected that Riker had told them not to. It too had not been violated by the Borg or their technology, but the display case which had held models of the previous Starships Enterprise was still half-destroyed, smashed by the phaser rifle Picard had swung at the case during his fit of pique. You broke your little ships, the woman from the past had said. Lily Sloane had known that the battle against the Borg was too personal for him. But it wasn’t until afterward, when he saw the wrecked models, that Picard had seen it too.
He heard a knock, and the door of his quarters swished halfway open before grinding to a halt. “Captain?” a voice questioned. Two strong hands pushed the door the rest of the way into its wall recess, and Picard turned, seeing a familiar face. Like the captain, Riker had hardly slept the last several days, and the bags under his eyes showed it.
“Rather a mess out there, wouldn’t you say, Number One?” Picard asked, gesturing out the door, where work crews could be seen removing Borg conduit hoses from a ceiling duct.
“Yes, sir. From the reports I’m hearing, the Borg circuitry got farther into our systems than we realized. We’re lucky we made it back in one piece,” Riker said. He didn’t need to add the words “this time.”
Picard sat on his couch, gesturing for his first officer to sit opposite him. It was late, but until the Borg matter was completely concluded, Picard didn’t mind Riker interrupting his all-too-rare quiet time. The padd his first officer carried hadn’t escaped the captain’s notice, and as much as Picard might not wish to face the duty it represented, he knew that he must. He owed it to them.
But not just yet.
“How is everyone coping?” he asked.
“Medically, most of the crew appears to be fine. Dr. Crusher and Nurse Ogawa were cleared very quickly, and they’ve been helping in the sickbays on McKinley. So far everyone’s been in the clear. They’re trying to process our people through the rest of the tests as quickly as possible. They’ve even got a dozen or so EMH programs running. I’m glad we aren’t forced to use one of those on our ship very often. They don’t quite have Beverly’s bedside manner.”
Picard crossed over and sat behind his desk, sinking into his chair. Riker continued. “Worf has to depart for Deep Space 9 as soon as possible, perhaps first thing in the morning. Things are getting very tense with the Dominion, and they need him back there. Chief O’Brien’s going to have his hands full finishing the repairs on the Defiant that the McKinley techs started. Data’s eye and skin have been repaired. And, understandably, Deanna’s been especially busy since we returned; she’s coping well with the workload… though she swears she’ll never touch a drop of tequila again.”
“Pardon?”
Riker grinned for perhaps the first time in days. “She got a little drunk down there with Cochrane, sir. But I can assure you it was purely in the line of duty.”
“What was it like?” Picard asked suddenly, leaning forward. Riker looked at him quizzically. “The Phoenix. What was it like? I got to… I touched it, but you… you rode in it! You and Geordi were part of it. Mankind’s first warp flight!”
Riker’s demeanor loosened a bit, and he focused his eyes on the windows, out into space. “I don’t know if I can describe it. I’ve never felt anything so unsettling since flight training at the Academy, and this was even worse. I wasn’t sure that we weren’t going to blow apart at any second,