Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [47]
Picard put his hands on the back of the nearest chair. “Mr. Data is physically far stronger than any Cardassian or human and he’s quite obviously an android. He’d present the wrong kind of intimidation. However, I do intend to take some intimidation along with me. I’ve already contacted Captain Sisko at Deep Space 9. I’m going to stop off there and borrow Commander Worf.”
“You’re trying to appear ‘neutral,’ ” Crusher challenged, “and you’re taking a Klingon into Cardassian space?”
“I want a neutral ship,” Picard explained. “But this is not a neutral mission. I want it made perfectly clear that I don’t care how the Klingons and Cardassians feel about each other at the moment. They can’t tell Starfleet who to have in it.”
“As long as you’re borrowing,” Riker asked, “why don’t you ‘borrow’ the Defiant too?”
“No. No armed ships. No Starfleet presentations. I’m taking a privately owned vessel. I want no mistakes made about my intentions. The Cardassians will know exactly how to behave if they see a warship coming at them. If I bring a neutral vessel with a hired captain, someone other than myself, they’ll hesitate. And they’ll be paying attention to me instead of a phaser bank.”
As he spoke, the captain went to a closet and removed an already packed and strapped suitcase and a Starfleet duffel bag. Obviously he was vacating these quarters and not intending to return.
Riker found himself disturbed by the luggage, and he stared at it for a long time, even missing the captain’s first few words when Picard turned to them again.
“Now, listen to me,” Picard said. “Morgan Bateson is a man with different priorities than you and I have ever known. No matter how much we may disapprove, he believes in himself more than in the structure of Starfleet. Captains of his time had to. You can learn something from a man like that. The Klingons have been quiet for nearly eighty years, but they’ve been a smoldering volcano. Now the top is blowing off. They’ve always been resource-poor, angry at having been contained by the Federation, and now they’ve found reasons to be our enemies again. Whether we like it or not, Morgan Bateson’s attitude about Klingons is back in fashion. He is the captain of the Enterprise now. I expect you to treat him accordingly. Mr. Riker, Counselor, you both report to Captain Bateson at eleven hundred. Doctor, get your things and report to Captain Reynolds aboard the merchant explorer Half Moon. Take whatever you may need for a rescue mission. We leave in an hour.”
There was a storm brewing, without a doubt, and moreover a storm which had so long been foretold would be all the more violent when it did come.
Ship of the Line
Chapter 13
Cardassia Prime
“Madred Village”
“Steve! Over here!”
“Dan—there you are. I couldn’t find you.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Nah, fell into a crater. Took me a while to get out. Are the others protected?”
“Under cover. Atherton’s got his crew over in the gym, and David and Jack got everybody else in here before the bombardment. They’re down in the basement. Y’know, m’friend, I think they’re really trying to kill us today.”
“Same as yesterday. Why don’t you turn on that bartender charm of yours and talk them out of it.”
“They’re trying harder today. You really made them quite mad when you blew up their amphibious unit.”
“Couldn’t let them work the beach.”
“Sure couldn’t. Do you think the Cardies are enjoying this?”
“Hell, no, I think they’re dead serious. I don’t think they’re having any more fun than—”
“Hey! Look! Somebody’s beaming in!”
“Where?”
“Right in the middle of the compound! Right dead center of the bombardment! Those bastards!”
“Dan—stay here! Don’t go out there. Can you see who it is? Is it anybody we know?”
“I can’t see very well … it’s a man … human … it’s Mark! Steve, it’s your brother! It’s Mark!”
At the sound of his brother’s name, Lieutenant Steve McClellan dropped his commanding manner and plunged past Dan Leith, right out of the protective doorway of the building they were hiding in. The last thing he saw was