The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [21]
“Indeed it might,” Picard said, “but we have rules about revealing our technology to those who have not yet reached that stage on their own. Suffice it to say that it was radiation relating to the method by which we travel faster than light. Tell me,” Picard asked cautiously, “have you been working on developing such a technology?”
“Don’t answer that,” Jemmagar said quickly.
Kerajem looked at the security minister with a sour expression. “Oh, come now, Jemmagar,” he said. “No, Captain, we don’t have any such program under way. We do have a presence in space, of course. We have many of the kind of probes you encountered, all of which are unmanned. We have people in orbit aboard weather monitoring stations.”
“Sir,” Data said, “forgive me, but your people did come here from another star system.”
“Yes, we did,” Minister Terrestak said. “Ages ago—if our legends are to be believed.”
“We will see,” Captain Picard said quickly. “We will be glad to provide the Council of Ministers with all the data our rules permit.”
“The question remains, sirs,” Data continued. “How do your legends say you got here, to this planet?”
Kerajem looked at them for a long moment. “I can’t answer that adequately,” he said. “In fact, I probably can’t answer that at all. We have a number of ancient writings that may bear on this matter, however.”
“I would like to see those writings,” Picard said.
We can provide them to you,” Kerajem said. “They are contained in a religious tract that was used when the old theocracy ruled our world. The old religion was purged after the revolution, but there must be some copies of the scrolls left somewhere.”
“I have one,” old Rikkadar said quietly. “I’ve always had one.”
Jemmagar sat back forward. “That’s not allowed, you know.”
The finance minister shrugged. “So? What are you going to do, Jemsy boy? Arrest me?”
Kerajem held up a hand. “It’s all right, Rikkadar. My mother kept hers, too. Many people did. Captain, you’ll have your own copy shortly.”
“What about the Krann?” Jemmagar said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Supply these people with all the illegal religious documents you care to, by all means, but first I want to know about the Krann.”
Picard calmed himself. “Once again, Minister Jemmagar,” he said, “we don’t know anything about any Krann.”
“Really?” Jemmagar continued. “You sailed through our entire solar system without seeing any Krann? You, who were able to detect three brief radiation blips from nearly a million billion kilometers away?”
“We saw no Krann,” Picard said again. “We saw no one.”
Jemmagar turned to Kerajem. “First Among Equals, it’s time we ended this farce. Show him.”
Kerajem paused in thought for a long moment. “Captain Picard,” he finally said, “I suspect you might not have been entirely forthcoming with us. I must tell you that I’m disappointed. I’d hoped for much more from you.”
“Kerajem, I assure you—”
“Never mind,” the First Among Equals said, holding up a hand. He addressed the air. “Raise the cover panel,” he called, and the wall behind Picard and the others began to slide smoothly into the ceiling.
“About time,” Jemmagar said under his breath.
Every one of Worf’s senses was at full alert. The Klingon, unarmed as everyone in the landing party was, had every intention of ordering an emergency beam-up should the Lethanta try anything. The sudden light touch of Troi’s hand on his arm startled him. “We are in no danger from them,” she whispered to him. “They are apprehensive and angry, but nothing more.”
Worf gave her a small nod. Nevertheless, he held himself in readiness.
The wall slid fully up into the ceiling to reveal a large mirror about three meters tall and five meters wide. “Opaque,” Kerajem called, and the mirror went dead black from end to end.
“Project real-time correlated view from all sentinel probes,” Kerajem called, and an image swam slowly onto the black surface. It was a starfield, an unusually dense one.
No. It looked like a starfield, but there were too many stars. Far too many.
“That is a 360-degree view of the Krann fleet, Captain,” Kerajem