by Dayton Ward
There is no dishonor in falling before a superior enemy. The old maxim was one of many he had read and reread all through his childhood as he struggled to retain his Klingon heritage while living at the agricultural colony on Gault with his human foster parents. Like most young Klingons with aspirations of one day becoming a warrior in service to the empire, he had found it difficult to balance the concept with his natural urge to always be the victor in battle. The wisdom to reconcile the two disparate viewpoints had come later, as an adult and after numerous opportunities to put to the test his skills, beliefs, and commitment to the warrior ethos.
But were the Raqilan truly a superior enemy? In numbers, yes, but otherwise? Worf was not convinced that if the odds were different their pursuers would emerge from battle as the victors. Of course, he dismissed that scenario even as he considered it, annoyed with himself for entertaining the thought because it sounded like a feeble attempt to justify the Siouxsie’s weaker tactical position.
“Communications status?” Worf asked, the impact from another barrage rocking the shuttle.
Elfiki grunted in obvious frustration. “I’m still trying to reroute. Aft shield generator is out, sir, and two of the ships are trying to maneuver in behind us.”
Already pushing the shuttlecraft into a banking, twisting dive, Worf managed to shake loose the pair of Raqilan pursuers, though the tactical scanner showed him that his maneuver had provided only momentary respite. That was confirmed seconds later as yet another particle beam slammed into the Siouxsie.
“There goes the port impulse engine,” Elfiki reported, fighting with her console in a frantic attempt to mitigate or isolate the damage. “We’re also losing power in the starboard system.” That much was evident by the strained hum of the engines as they struggled under renewed stress and fading thrust. “There’s no way we can outrun them now, sir.” A moment later, she added, “I’ve got partial communications back. Low power, but it’s something.”
Worf grunted in mounting irritation. “They are closing.” Outside the viewing port, he saw the first asteroids as the Siouxsie approached the debris field’s leading edge. It was a group consisting of one massive asteroid flanked by more than a dozen smaller companions, each of them tumbling as they drifted through the void. Whatever cover they might offer was now beyond reach.
“Commander, we’re being hailed.” Elfiki stabbed at the intercom controls, and the shuttle’s cockpit became awash with static.
“Unidentified vessel, you are trespassing in a region controlled by the Raqilan Military Forces. We have scanned your ship and know it is damaged. You will reduce your speed and cease all attempts at escape, or we will be forced to destroy you. Acknowledge this transmission.”
Elfiki frowned. “He called us an unidentified ship. They don’t know who we are.”
“Not yet,” Worf said, “but I cannot imagine their long-range tracking facilities have failed to detect the Enterprise or the Arrow.” He also wondered if the Raqilan military might be monitoring any of the messages Fleet Legate Mynlara was supposed to have been sending to superiors on Uphrel.
“They have to know we’re not a threat, right?” Elfiki asked.
The Klingon scowled. “Not anymore.” He loathed the very idea of surrendering, but he was convinced that he and Elfiki were in no immediate danger. If their pursuers had wanted to destroy the shuttlecraft, they could now do so with little difficulty. They had to be aware of the Enterprise’s presence outside the solar system, and likely wanted as much information as possible. Perhaps Worf could find a way to use that to his and Elfiki’s advantage.
“Drop speed to one-quarter impulse and power down our weapons,” he ordered, and was greeted by an uncertain nod from Elfiki. “And send a burst transmission to the Enterprise with our current position and status.”
Elfiki said, “The transmission won’t be strong enough to get a response right away.”
“It doesn’t have to,” Worf replied. “It just has to be received. Captain Picard will take it from there.” He had no doubt that the captain would be able to navigate the rather troubling wrinkle he and Elfiki were about to introduce to the current situation. Until Picard had a chance to act, he and the science officer would have to exercise patience and discretion in the presence of their new hosts.
Forcing back the feelings of defeat welling up within him, he pressed the control to open the communications channel. “This is Commander Worf aboard the Federation shuttlecraft Siouxsie. We are complying with your request. It is not our intention to invite hostile action. We were conducting a peaceful exploration of this area. I regret firing on your vessel, but I did so only in defense of my own ship and crew.”
Over the static-filled channel, the disembodied voice replied, “Your explanations will receive full and fair attention from the appropriate parties.” As he listened to the reply, Worf watched one of the fighter craft move ahead of the Siouxsie, taking up position less than two dozen meters off the shuttlecraft’s bow. “You will follow the craft ahead of you. Any deviation from its course will be interpreted as an attempt at escape.”
Feeling his jaw clench, Worf bit off his acknowledgement. “Understood.”
19
Except for the beds, the patient ward had been stripped of everything. Every other piece of furniture, along with all of the equipment and supplies stored there, had been relocated. Even the monitors affixed to the beds themselves had been taken, and now the room resembled little more than a holding cell. As Jodis stood before the room’s only door, which led out to the medical facility’s main work area and was currently closed and locked, he found it an apt comparison.
“How long do you think they will keep us here?” asked Bnira, and Jodis turned to see her crossing the room toward him. Like him, she was dressed in a drab yet form-fitting one-piece garment provided by the human doctor after her staff had found several in the medical section’s storage compartment. The clothing possessed no pockets or other means of concealment, and Jodis knew that they had been searched thoroughly before he and the others were allowed to wear them.
“I suspect not for much longer,” Jodis replied. “Mynlara will undoubtedly be ordered to tow the ship to one of their bases, but given its size and density, doing so will prove problematic. Eventually, they will realize that the only efficient means of moving it is under its own power, at which time our assistance will be required.” The fleet legate had already made plain their status as prisoners, and that the Poklori gil dara now was considered seized by the Golvonek military.
Bnira said, “And will we be providing that assistance?” She was making no effort to hide her disdain.
“A fair question,” Jodis said, offering a small, sympathetic smile, as he knew Bnira was still mourning the loss of their friends and crewmates. “I confess that I have no answer. At least, not yet.” His initial thoughts on the subject were to offer whatever resistance they could muster, but he knew that, ultimately, it would be a futile effort. Given time, Golvonek military and civilian scientists would determine how to gain control of the ship’s systems. More interesting to him was the possibility that Raqilan forces of the current time period might try to reclaim the vessel. Of course, knowledge of the Poklori gil dara in the present was limited to those involved in the ship’s design and construction, the latter of which had only recently begun in earnest, if his calculations were correct. What sort of paradox might that offer, with two such ships now existing in the current time? And as for Jodis and his surviving crew? They were alone here, separated from possible aid not by distance but by time itself.
“We have no allies here,” said Bnira. “Except the humans, perhaps.”
“Perhaps,” Jodis repeated.
“But how do we know the humans did not kill Ehondar and the others?” she asked. “They may have tried to revive them first and failed, or maybe they murdered them.”
Jodis frowned. “
To what end?” He had been considering their apparent benefactors for some time. The beings who had revived him and Bnira and provided care following their awakening certainly did not present themselves as an enemy. Their every interaction had been peaceful and with the obvious attempt to foster a positive relationship. The leader, Picard, had expressed what Jodis interpreted as genuine regret over their lost comrades, which he attributed to a failure in the cryogenics systems. It was not an implausible explanation, given the duration of the crew’s hibernation. To him, Picard seemed to possess wisdom, empathy, and sound judgment, and Jodis felt an implicit desire to trust him. Whether this presented a potential problem as the situation continued to evolve remained to be seen, but for now he was content to see what might happen.
“Even if they are not responsible,” Bnira said, “they have been talking with the Golvonek. That makes them untrustworthy.”
“Under other circumstances, I would be inclined to agree,” Jodis replied, moving to pace the length of the room. It felt good to be moving around again after being asleep for so long. Of course, it amused him to harbor such thoughts, as he recalled no sensation of time’s passage while in hibernation. “Still, the more I consider it, the more I come to believe it does not make sense. If we take the humans at their word, they revived us because they thought they were coming to our aid. Given how long we had been asleep, I am rather grateful they are here. If the ship’s systems are beginning to succumb to age and neglect despite the best efforts of its builders and the computer, then we likely would have suffered fates similar to Ehondar and the others.”
“But what of the Golvonek?” asked Bnira. “They are here, and they will soon be crawling through this ship, learning all its secrets. We cannot allow that.”
Jodis nodded. “Agreed, but there is little we can do about that at the moment.” What he did not offer was another thought that had been bothering him as they sat in their makeshift cage. His own need to assert some form of control, even while bound to the bed as Picard and Fleet Legate Mynlara questioned him, had caused him to commit a grave error by informing the Golvonek officer of the Poklori gil dara’s true origins. It was an inexcusable breach of operational security, though any ramifications likely were minimal. He suspected that Picard and his people, given how much they seemed able to interact with its onboard systems as well as some of the cryptic statements they had made to one another, knew the ship had come from the future. If that was the case, then the human captain seemed to be dealing with the revelation in remarkably stoic fashion. Was it possible these strangers possessed time travel capabilities of their own, or had at least experienced the phenomenon for themselves?
An interesting possibility, Jodis conceded.
“There is a larger concern,” Bnira said. “If the Golvonek know where we came from, then they may realize that—at this point in time—the ship is currently under construction. They will go looking for it, and when they find it, they will be able to destroy it. Will that not change the future? What would happen to us?”
Jodis sighed. “If the scientists who oversaw our training are correct, then it will be as though we did not exist.” Of course, it was only a theory, one of several they had discussed during countless cycles spent in immersive study attempting to understand the principles of temporal displacement, the alteration or disruption of past events, and their impact on future history. There was no practical knowledge on this subject, given that the earlier temporal relocation experiments had been limited in scope to prevent the very thing the scientists feared might happen. Jodis had always found that aspect of their preparations amusing, given the driving purpose of the Poklori gil dara’s mission.
Bnira asked, “So, what do we do?” She gestured around them, indicating the room that was their prison. “We are helpless so long as we remain here.”
“We wait,” Jodis answered. “Patience, Bnira, is what is now required. Patience, and vigilance. Opportunity may yet present itself.”
As if in response to his comments, he heard the sound of the door’s locks being disengaged, and he turned as it cycled open to reveal the human captain.
Patience, Jodis reminded himself. And vigilance.
* * *
For someone who now was a prisoner of the enemy he had sworn to fight, Jodis looked confident to Picard. Like his companion, Jodis seemed to have acclimated to the patient care ward of the Arrow’s medical facility, which had been reconfigured to act as a holding area. Golvonek guards now were stationed outside the ward’s door as well as outside the medical bay’s main entrance. Standing before Picard with hands clasped behind his back, Jodis presented the appearance of someone who was precisely where he wanted to be at that moment.
“Captain,” Jodis said, stepping away from his companion, “what can I do for you?”
Standing just inside the doorway, flanked by Lieutenants Konya and Cruzen and with two Golvonek security officers behind them, Picard regarded the Raqilan. “First, you should understand that we’ve corroborated your claims regarding your mission and this ship with information from your own computer, as well as our own abilities to scan a vessel which has . . .” He paused, glancing over his shoulder at the two Golvonek soldiers who had been assigned by Fleet Legate Mynlara to watch over Jodis and his crew. “As well as our own abilities to verify what you and your vessel experienced.”
As he studied Jodis, Picard became convinced that there was more to the Raqilan’s story than had been revealed to this point, or even could be substantiated by his crew’s review of the Arrow’s computer databases. Given their mission, it made sense that Jodis and his people would possess information that would not be recorded, at least not in a computer file that was vulnerable to unauthorized access. In truth, there were dozens of questions Picard wanted to ask of the Raqilan, only some of which pertained to the Arrow’s mission.
The captain had been troubled by the report submitted to him by Commander Taurik after the Vulcan engineer had inadvertently accessed information from the Arrow’s computer memory banks that provided insight into future events and which may or may not involve Starfleet or the Federation. In keeping with the strictures of the Temporal Prime Directive, Taurik had quarantined all such information and prepared an official statement for the Department of Temporal Investigations. The secretive agency would doubtless take a keen interest not only in the report and the data Taurik had isolated, but also the engineer himself. Having endured his own lengthy debriefings following various time-related anomalies and other odd missions, Picard did not envy the Vulcan. With regulations forbidding him from coercing his junior officer into revealing anything about the information he had seen, the captain could only trust Taurik’s assurances that nothing in the weapon ship’s computer foretold any danger to the Enterprise or its current mission. What happened the moment this incident was concluded, however, would have to remain a total mystery.
“Captain Picard,” said one of the Golvonek guards, “You said this was urgent. Fleet Legate Mynlara will not be pleased when she learns I have allowed you access to the prisoners.”
“And I also told you to contact Fleet Legate Mynlara and advise her of my intention to speak to them,” Picard countered. After his previous discussion with Jodis, he had agreed to the Golvonek officer’s request to speak with the Raqilan only with her present, but circumstances had changed and time was of the essence.
To Jodis, he said, “Two of my people have been captured by a Raqilan military patrol while investigating the moon orbiting the planet you call Landorem.” He saw the fleeting shift in the Raqilan’s expression. Despite his notable self-control, Jodis had been unable to suppress a reaction to the planet’s name.
Glancing to the Golvonek guards as though gauging what to say, Jodis replied, “I am unaware of anything of significance there. Still, I am surprised that their ship was not immediately destroyed.”
Picard understood why the Raqilan was being careful with
his answers. It was likely that the planet killer’s crash site as well as the installation where the Arrow was being constructed were closely guarded secrets. Conscious of the security considerations as well as the danger of interfering with future events should the Golvonek become aware of the weapon ship, Picard opted to sidestep that matter, at least for the moment. “We received a communication from them which indicated they were being taken into custody.”
The message from Commander Worf and Lieutenant Elfiki had come as an encrypted data burst, providing the shuttlecraft Siouxsie’s location near the Landorem moon on the far side of the asteroid field at the time it was intercepted by Raqilan military vessels. Worf had reported that they were being escorted to an unknown location, and it had taken all of Picard’s self-control not to order the Enterprise into the system on an all-out search and rescue mission. Instead, he had opted to send a quartet of sensor buoys which Lieutenant Šmrhová could then use to augment the starship’s scans of the moon and surrounding area. Though the buoys had been deployed within moments of receiving Worf’s distress call, they had not yet navigated far enough into the system to circumvent the effects of the asteroid field. Staying Picard’s hand to this point was that he was not keen on sending in another shuttle or additional personnel without verified reconnaissance of the area, but his reasoned assumption was that had the Raqilan wanted to harm his officers, they would have destroyed the Siouxsie rather than capturing it. Despite his desire for restraint, Picard had ordered his security chief to have a tactical team ready to launch at a moment’s notice once Worf and Elfiki’s location was confirmed.