The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [79]
Deanna smiled at the deliberate flub. “Beam up, Mother.”
“As if I care,” Lwaxana said impatiently. “Come, Little-One. Let’s find Elias.”
“Lwaxana,” Picard said. “This is a delightful surprise.”
Lwaxana snorted as she, Vaughn, and Deanna took their places around the observation lounge table, where Riker, Dr. Povron, and Dr. Crusher were already seated. “I’m afraid I really have no interest in returning your advances this time, Jean-Luc. I suggest we get down to business.”
Picard managed to keep a straight face, but doing so was a challenge. “Of course, Ambassador. My apologies. You’re quite right. Time is of the essence. This is a bit complicated, but if you’ll bear with me, I believe you’ll welcome what I have to say.” He took his place at the head of the table. “When Commander Vaughn first came to us with this mission, Counselor Troi related to me her experiences with Tevren. In explaining how he had developed his abilities to kill with his mind, she described the first telepathic skill that he learned, the ability to project extreme emotion into the mind of another. Am I remembering correctly, Counselor?”
“Yes, sir. He said that the emotion projection had no value to him except as a parlor trick, and held little interest for him, especially since it produced a debilitating drain on the telepath who employed it.”
Picard nodded. “I’ve spent the last several hours interrogating Crell Moset. By appealing to the man’s enormous ego, I’ve convinced him to share results of his experiments on the Jem’Hadar.”
A visible shiver of revulsion passed over Nerissa Povron, and Picard guessed she was thinking how close she’d come to being the subject of one of Moset’s experiments.
“Moset succeeded in creating telepathic Jem’Hadar,” Picard said, “but they contained a fatal flaw. Because the Jem’Hadar mind processes emotions very differently from other humanoids, the ones that were made telepathic suddenly found themselves bombarded empathically, with no way to close off their new perceptions. Immediate, fatal seizures were invariably the result.”
“You found a chink in the Jem’Hadar armor,” Vaughn said.
Picard smiled. “I think so, yes. Using Moset’s information, I’ve developed a theory. Telepathic Jem’Hadar can’t handle an empathic overload. What if normal Jem’Hadar can’t handle it either?”
Riker leaned forward. “That would explain why there were no mature Jem’Hadar on the station,” he realized.
“Precisely, Number One. Neither the altered soldiers nor unaltered Jem’Hadar in close proximity could tolerate the empathic fallout of Moset’s procedure.”
Lwaxana frowned. “Are you suggesting, Jean-Luc, that my people learn to project emotions the way Tevren did and give all our enemies brain seizures?”
“Not exactly.” Picard glanced around the room. “What I’m suggesting is that normal Jem’Hadar won’t die from the overload of emotions, but if hit hard enough they will become seriously disoriented, perhaps enough to make their capture relatively effortless.”
For the first time since the mission began, Deanna felt a surge of hope. “If that proves true, then Betazoids would be able to defeat the Jem’Hadar without wholesale slaughter.”
“If,” the captain said, “is the operative word. I’ve had three Jem’Hadar beamed from the planet into the brig. Counselor, how quickly can you teach Tevren’s emotion projection method to some of the stronger telepaths we rescued from the Cardassian freighter?”
“It shouldn’t take long at all,” Troi said. “They’re among the strongest telepaths on Betazed.”
“Make it so. When the telepaths are ready, assemble them in the brig. Dr. Crusher, you will monitor the responses of the Jem’Hadar.”
Crusher inclined her head in agreement.
“Dr. Povron,” Picard continued, “will you keep a close eye on the effects of the emotion projection technique on your people?”
The Betazoid doctor nodded. “I’ll