The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [65]
“We should also officially declare the four vessels missing,” Tereth said, “if they haven’t been already. Even to civilian ships. Someone may come across them.”
Klag said, “I will also alert all Defense Force ships to search for these Malkus Artifacts. I understand they give off a particular emission?”
“Yes,” Data said. “Starfleet ships are under general orders to confiscate a Malkus Artifact should they detect that emission.”
Riker rubbed his chin. “I think we might be better off making that a more active scan. General Order 16 says that if anyone happens to find it, they should confiscate it. Until we find out what happened yesterday, all Starfleet and Defense Force ships should be on the lookout for those emissions.”
Picard put his hand on Riker’s arm, a familiar gesture that Toq thought to be horribly inappropriate. “Good idea, Number One. Captain?” he added with a look to Klag.
“Agreed.”
Toq was about to speak with a thought of his own, but before he could, a female voice sounded from the intercom. “Vale to Picard.”
Picard tapped the communications device on the emblem attached to his chest. “Go ahead.”
“Incoming call from Commander Vaughn on Deep Space 9, sir.”
Turning his chair to face the viewer behind him, Picard said, “Put him through, Lieutenant.”
The viewer flickered, changing from a simple display to that of a human face. He looked just like all the others to Toq, though this one had a beard.
“Jean-Luc, we simply have to stop meeting like this,” the human said with a smile.
Toq shook his head. What is it about humans? Toq wouldn’t have minded their obsession with humor at odd times, if the attempts were actually funny.
“Such is the nature of our business, Elias, sad to say,” Picard said. “I believe you know Captain Klag?”
“Of course,” the human said with a simple nod to the captain, who returned the gesture.
“What news do you have for us?”
“Nothing good, I’m afraid. There’s too much traffic between Bajor and the station to filter out the warp signature of the Rio Grande from all the other ships that went back and forth yesterday. We’re questioning some of the ship captains and going over the sensor data. That’s being forwarded to you. Oh, and we found an odd sensor reading that we haven’t been able to nail down.”
Picard nodded. “Starfleet Command found something similar on Earth.”
“In the meantime, I’m going to take the Defiant out to search the area, try to find the runabout’s warp signature. We’ll keep you posted.”
“Excellent. Picard out.”
At almost the precise moment that the screen went blank, the Vale woman’s voice came over the intercom again. “Bridge to Picard. Sir, we’ve got another transmission, this time from Commander Buonfiglio on the Hood.”
“Put it through,” Picard said.
Yet another indistinguishable human face appeared on the viewer.
“Captain Picard, I’m contacting you to let you know that the Hood is at your disposal.”
Frowning, Picard said, “I was told that the Hood was assigned to Sector 817.”
“We were, but I managed to talk Admiral Koike into cutting that assignment short. He then told us to contact you—said you were handling the investigation.” The human’s eyes seemed to blaze with an almost Klingon-like fury that Toq admired. “That’s our captain who’s gone missing, sir. We’re not about to sit around mapping quasars. We want to help.”
Toq saw this as the perfect opening for what he had been about to say when Commander Vaughn called. “Sir, there is, perhaps, something the Hood might be able to accomplish.”
All eyes at the table turned to Toq—even that of the human on the viewer. Toq turned to Klag, who nodded his approval for Klag to continue.
“It is possible that the location of the fourth artifact can be determined using the locations of the three previous artifacts as a base.”
The android pursed his lips. “All indications are that the artifacts were hidden at random points on the out-skirts of what was then Zalkatian territory, Lieutenant.”
“There still could have been a pattern—even an unconscious one,” Toq said