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Then he sat back down at his desk and looked at his security reports.

Robert DeSoto stared at the Go board game. The replicator in his guest quarters on the Enterprise had been happy to provide one. It would have been equally happy to provide him with the stones, but DeSoto hadn’t been able to bring himself to ask for that as well.

The door chime rang. “Come on in,” he said.

The tall form of Will Riker stood on the other side of the door. DeSoto couldn’t help but smile broadly. “Hey, Will. How’s everything going?”

Riker came into the quarters, an equally broad smile on his beardless face. “That was going to be my question for you, Captain. After all, I wasn’t mind-controlled by a ninety-thousand-yearold tyrant.”

“Good point.”

“Just by the way,” Riker said, pointing at the Go board, “I’ve already warned the crew about you, so if you’re planning to hustle anyone—”

“No, I’m not,” DeSoto said, unable to keep his tone jovial. “In fact—honestly, this is the first time I’ve even looked at a Go board in a year and a half. Ever since Chin’toka.” He sighed. “It’s funny, the last time one of those Malkus Artifacts got dug up was five years ago. Since then, I’ve pretty much lost everyone who was on the Hood then—the only one who didn’t die in the war or leave Starfleet is my old security chief, and he’s got his own ship now. But the worst was losing Dina.”

“She was your first officer?” Riker asked.

DeSoto nodded. “She actually used to beat me at Go.”

“You’re kidding.”

At that, DeSoto did actually laugh, just from the sheer incredulousness in Riker’s tone. “Yup. She went from a handicap to whupping my tail in less than a year. I’ve taught lots of people to play—including, if memory serves,” he added with a look at Riker, “a young lieutenant commander who said he didn’t like games where he couldn’t bluff—but she was the only one who got to be as good as me. Hell, she was probably better.”

DeSoto got up from the desk and walked over to the replicator. “You want anything?”

Riker shook his head.

“Water, cold.” As the replicator provided the glass of water, DeSoto said, “The worst part is, she wasn’t even supposed to still be on the ship. For Chin’toka, I mean. Her promotion’d come through, but her post, the Tian An Men, was still in the yard for repairs. She insisted on coming along for one last hurrah on the Hood.” He took a sip of the water. “It was a last hurrah, all right. It’s funny, she died the same way that first officer on the Klingon ship went. A plasma conduit blew, and the shrapnel would’ve shredded one of the junior officers. She knocked the ensign out of the way, took it all herself.” He gulped down the rest of the water. “I haven’t played Go since.”

Riker didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then: “You doing anything right now, Captain?”

DeSoto shrugged. “Just waiting for the Hood to show up and take me to a starbase so they can do my disciplinary hearing.”

“I’m sure that’ll be fine.”

“Yeah.” DeSoto sighed. “You know, Malkus sat in that artifact for ninety thousand years—and that Aidulac woman wandered around the galaxy for ninety thousand years waiting for him. That’s a helluva long time to basically do nothing. And you know what? I’m not going to be like that.” He smiled. “How’d you like a game?”

“Much as I would love to humiliate myself before your Go prowess, Captain,” Riker said with a grin, “I have another engagement. And I’d like you to join me.”

Aidulac stared at the four walls of her cell.

Well, three walls, truly. The fourth was a forcefield.

She was no more concerned now than she was the last time she’d been put in prison after a defeat to Malkus. Her skills weren’t what they once were, but she still had them. She would be able to escape.

The cries of the dead continued to haunt her. It had been ninety thousand years, and still the corpses that Malkus had created with Instruments she helped create would not leave her mind’s eye.

Not to mention the corpses of her team.

A very large part of her thought that it was time to simply end it all. She’d waited for ninety thousand