The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [55]
Two sets of Krann clothing had been placed in neat piles on one of the unused beds. “Mr. Worf did an admirably thorough job of recording the physical characteristics of the Krann we saw and met with while we were aboard the flagship,” Picard said. “The clothing is a copy of the usual Krann style of dress—a two-piece black suit varying little in ornamentation from individual to individual. Everyone we saw was wearing the same thing, more or less.”
“You only see that in totalitarian cultures,” Beverly observed. “It’s a bad sign, Captain.”
“Indeed,” Picard said. “However, keep in mind that we saw hardly anything aboard that flagship— rather, we were not permitted by the Krann authorities to see much of anything. That’s a lack that you two will correct, I hope. We need to know a great deal more about these people than we do.”
The door to sickbay opened, and Geordi La Forge entered the room. “They’re ready now, Captain,” the chief engineer said. He handed Picard two shiny, silver-colored buckles about six centimeters by four.
Picard took one of them and held it up, studying it closely. “Excellent, Mr. La Forge,” the captain said approvingly. “This is very good work.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“We’ve been worried about the Krann being able to listen in on our message traffic,” Riker said. “I assume you’ve dealt with that problem, Geordi.”
La Forge nodded. “That we have,” he said. “These communicators operate on subspace frequencies we presume the Krann don’t know about, can’t detect, and won’t be able to monitor. These units have a shorter range than standard communicators, and they require more power, but that shouldn’t be troublesome.” He held a small, dull object between his forefinger and thumb. It looked like a cough lozenge. “The buckles themselves run silent, for security reasons. This is the audio pickup. It fits in the canal of your left ear and is visually undetectable, unless you’re being body-searched.”
“In which case, the jig is up anyway,” Riker said wryly.
“That’s what I thought,” said Geordi. “With this pickup bug, those around you won’t be able to hear message traffic from this end. To transmit, tap the buckle and talk as you normally do.”
“How long is the power cell good for?” Riker asked.
“Two days at this range,” Geordi replied. “Less if the range increases, but it won’t. We’ll be maintaining station close by, and in any case, you and Counselor Troi won’t be away that long. Since we don’t care whether the Krann can monitor our message traffic with Nem Ma’ak Bratuna, Data and Ro have standard-issue communicators disguised as belt buckles compatible with their Lethantan clothing. These subspace models I’ve rigged for you and the counselor don’t have nearly enough range to reach us here from Nem Ma’ak Bratuna. The power pack alone would be about the size of your head.”
“How closely do you think the Krann are monitoring our communications, Captain?” Troi asked.
“Several of the things Presider Hek said clearly indicated to me that he knew the content of our space-to-ground radio communications with the Lethanta,” Picard replied. “I think they are probably unable to monitor our normal communicator traffic, Counselor, but ‘probably’ is not good enough for the sort of operation you and Will are to be conducting. We have to be cautious. The Krann have had centuries to play with signal interception techniques, and I imagine that by now they’ve become rather good at it. If we use subspace frequencies, I don’t expect the Krann will be able to listen in. Up to this point, after all, they’ve had no experience with subspace—not even any knowledge of it.”
“How do we wear these things?” Riker asked, taking them from Picard and handing one to Deanna.
“The buckles attach electrostatically to a treated area of your Krann jacket just below the collar on the left side,” La Forge replied, touching an area around his collarbone and just to the left of his throat. “That’s where the Krann have an extra fastener, apparently so they can close the top of their jackets if they want to. These buckles work like standard communicators