The Devil's Heart - Carmen Carter [120]
Picard fell silent for a moment as his thoughts turned inward. “You aren’t the first one to warn me that I’ve held on too long.” In a voice tinged with a Vulcan accent, he recited, “It constantly struggles to free itself from the tangle of our grasping hands.”
Encouraged by this admission of doubt, the android pressed his argument even harder. “In the years that we have served together, you have stressed how much you value my unique perspective. Captain, trust to my objectivity, to my lack of emotion, when I tell you that the Heart is more of a danger to us than any alien fleet. Give it up now, while you still can. If you rely on its powers to shield us from harm, we will be destroyed.”
He held out his hands, palms upturned, to accept the stone.
“Data,” said Picard, “neither Surak or T’Sara would lay this burden on another living being. I don’t have that right either.”
“Remember that I have held the stone before with complete immunity. As an android, I cannot be seduced by its powers.”
Picard’s hands trembled when he lifted up the Heart, as if this slight effort required a concentration of all of his strength and will. “Then take—” “Bridge to Captain Picard,” boomed Worf’s voice over the intercom. “The unDiWahn fleet has reentered the perimeter of our sensorfield … the ships have been dispersed in a surround pattern and are drawing in toward us.”
“Surrounded …” Picard froze in mid-gesture. “Data, I won’t leave the Enterprise vulnerable to attack!”
This was as much a plea for help as it was a declaration of defiance. Data urged the obvious solution. “Then we must leave this place while there is still time to break through their formation. At our fastest warp speed we can outpace the entire unDiWahn fleet.”
“Leave?” Despite his reluctance to accept this suggestion, the captain was unable to marshal a counter argument. “Yes … I suppose we must.”
Data reached out to take hold of the Heart.
“Captain,” said Worf again. “Sensors have detected a Federation starship approaching the sector.”
The android’s finger brushed against air.
Picard had pulled the stone back a few inches. “The cavalry has reached us just in time, Data.”
“The registry number is that of the Miranda-class USS Sullivan,” continued the security chief. “However, they are not answering our hails, and Starfleet records indicate the vessel was last assigned to diplomatic duty in another quadrant.”
“Yet another betrayal,” said Data, quick to underscore their growing danger. “All the more reason for us to depart this sector.”
“On the contrary,” said Picard unexpectedly. “This proves the futility of retreat. Enemies follow in our wake wherever we go. Even if we escape these forces, new enemies and new betrayals will be waiting for us at every port. We carry violence with us like a plague. The chase must end here.”
A calmness seemed to settle over the captain, smoothing away the furrows of confusion and doubt that had etched themselves into his face.
Cradling the stone to his chest, Picard said, “I will need the Heart for just a while longer.”
CHAPTER 33
“Make it so.”
The huddle of officers around the captain flew apart. Like players aiming for their marks on a stage, they all moved briskly to their bridge stations.
Picard took a step forward to center himself in the command area, and Riker planted himself by the captain’s side; Worf assumed his background role at the tactical console; and in the foreground, Data took the helm. Transporter Chief O’Brien, the one foreign element in this familiar tableau, marched through the turbolift’s opening doors and disappeared.
“Status report, Mr. Worf?”
“Sensors show the unDiWahn fleet is still closing at six hundred thousand kilometers …”
Images began to form on the viewscreen. From a distance, the unDiWahn ships appeared surprisingly delicate. Their colorful hulls were curled in spirals and waves, like autumn leaves twisting in the wind. The thick saucer section of the lone Miranda-class starship was stiff and ungainly in the midst of these undulating shapes.
“… five