Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [123]
He knew it.
And he knew other things. He knew he was no longer that man. The Borg had changed him. And other things had changed him. New things.
And he knew the battle, saw it in his mind’s eye, knew all the maneuvers the Federation ships, both Starfleet and private, would try to use against the garish Borg cubeship as it vectored in to threaten Earth, the hub of the Federation. And he knew they would all fail.
Rather than sinking into hopelessness, as he saw his crew doing around him, he was suddenly charged up.
“Mr. Hawk,” he said to his young conn officer, “set a course for Earth.”
They all looked at him. Reactions ranged from fear to shock. He didn’t care. Let them be shocked. Let them be afraid. It was good for them.
“Aye, sir …” Hawk glanced at Riker, then put his attention to his conn and changed course.
“Maximum warp,” Picard ordered.
He waited until the order had been executed. Then he turned to face all those who were gazing at him, astonished, confused, wondering if he had snapped at the sound of that Borg challenge.
Yes, he had.
“I’m about to commit a direct violation of our orders,” he told them. “Any of you who wish to object should do so now. It will be noted in my log.”
Of course, he didn’t say he would change his mind. They knew that.
They all stood silent, waiting to see if anyone else would speak up.
The surprising response came from Data. “Captain … I believe I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say ‘to hell with our orders.’ “
Picard felt a smile rise on his cheeks, and it took all his personal fortitude from breaking into a grin. This wasn’t the time for that. But he was working up to it.
“Red alert,” he said. “All hands to battlestations. Engage!”
The starship hummed with power around him. He stood in his ready room, knowing the bridge was beyond that door and that he had less than thirty minutes before they would engage the Borg. Perhaps that’s what he really had meant when he said engage …
No one wants ships of the line commanded by a set of clones.
“Captain?”
“Number One … who invited you in?”
“Just a voice in the mist.”
“Are you here to talk me out of this?”
“No, sir, I’m here to make sure you don’t talk yourself out of it.”
At this, Captain Picard turned. “No chance of that.”
Riker came to his side, and together they looked out the wide viewport at open space, the peaceful deceiver. In the curve of the viewport, they caught a reflection of the ship’s seagull-silver hull and the lights of windows on the deck below.
“Bateson was right,” Riker murmured after a moment.
“Pardon?”
“Morgan Bateson. He wanted preparedness. He thought there’d be trouble with the Klingons. Or Romulans, or Cardassians. Later he thought it would be the Dominion. After all that, it turns out to be the Borg. Worse than all the others put together.”
“Yes, they are,” Picard quietly agreed. “Ironic you should mention Bateson after all these months. The Bozeman II is in the defense perimeter.”
“I heard… . Bateson’s going to face down the Borg.”
“Yes. The last line of defense. He’s stationed there, at Earth’s solar system.”
“With Gabe and the whole crew?”
“Yes, they’re still together,” Picard said.
“Like us. Just lucky, I guess.”
“Very lucky, but by design. Bateson always knew his own mind. So did James Kirk. I admired that. When the EnterpriseD was destroyed, I fell into a dangerous pattern of not accepting what I wanted all along. I wouldn’t accept that my life had been irrevocably changed by being one of the very few captains of a Starship Enterprise. I accept that now, and I take it as a solemn charge. I know that I want nothing else, and nothing more.”
Riker’s face beamed with warmth and satisfaction, though under the circumstances he apparently couldn’t bring himself to smile.
Yet there was eminent pride in the decision they had made to ignore caution. This just wasn’t the time for that.
“We’re all with you, Captain,” Riker told him. “Any action you take, we take with you.”
“Thank you, Will. You’ll never know what that