Stargazer Oblivion

by Michael Jan Friedman

  The Zartani nodded. “I trust you, Jean-Luc. I always have.”

  Suddenly, Picard felt a hand on his arm. It was Guinan’s—and she didn’t look happy.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  “He’s lying,” she said.

  Picard didn’t understand—until her eyes slid in Demmix’s direction. The captain turned to the Zartani, who seemed caught between surprise and resentment.

  “I beg your pardon?” said Demmix.

  “Guinan,” Picard said in an appeal for reason, “this man has risked his life to help the Federation. I don’t think we should be disparaging him.”

  Guinan’s gaze remained fixed on Demmix. “The information he wants to give us…it’s wrong,” she said.

  “Are you out of your mind?” rasped the Zartani, his voice edged with bitterness.

  “Not in the least,” Guinan responded. “That data is designed to get the Federation into trouble somehow—maybe when it clashes with the Ubarrak’s warships.”

  Picard put his hand on Demmix’s shoulder and said, “You must be mistaken. I know Demmix. And I know what the Ubarrak have done to him.”

  “Nonetheless,” Guinan insisted, “he’s trying to deceive you. I’m certain of it.”

  “I don’t know who this person is,” said the Zartani, “but I didn’t come all the way to Oblivion to speak with her.” He eyed Picard. “I came to speak with you.”

  The captain frowned. Demmix was his friend. His first impulse was to trust him. And Starfleet was inclined to trust him as well, or it wouldn’t have dispatched one of its officers here to meet him.

  But Guinan hadn’t been wrong about anything yet. Her instincts were remarkable—better than those of anyone he had ever encountered. If she said Demmix was lying, Picard had to at least entertain the possibility that she was right.

  “I don’t believe this,” said the Zartani, reading the captain’s expression. “You’d take her word before mine?”

  Picard sighed. “Please, Demmix. I—”

  “I’ve risked my life to get the Federation this information,” the Zartani spat. “My life, Jean-Luc! You can’t just leave me twisting in the wind!”

  The captain was still trying to think of how to respond when he heard a shuffle of feet. He whirled and went for his disruptor pistol.

  But he was too late. Tain and a couple of his Cardassians had already entered the room, their own weapons drawn. Tain’s lackeys were training their disruptors on Guinan and Demmix.

  Only Tain’s weapon was trained on Picard.

  “It’s not that I would mind punching a hole in you,” Tain told him ever-so-reasonably, “but it might be easier for everyone if you simply put your stolen property on the floor.”

  Picard’s jaw clenched. He hated the idea of disarming himself. But under the circumstances, he had little choice.

  Keeping his disruptor out where the Cardassians could see it, he knelt and slid it across the floor. Then he got up and watched one of Tain’s men recover it.

  “There, now,” said Tain. “Now we can all relax.” He turned to the Zartani. “I don’t believe you and I have been formally introduced—have we, Demmix?”

  The Zartani made a sound of exasperation and turned to Picard. “How could you do this to me, Jean-Luc? I trusted you.”

  Picard chuckled grimly. “Believe me, it was not my intention to bring these people along.”

  Tain considered Picard. “You know,” he said, “you’ve led me on quite a chase. I admire you for that.”

  “Thank you,” the captain said ironically.

  “On the other hand,” the Cardassian continued, “it won’t stop me from subjecting you to a very long, very painful death. That’s the only way I can make certain that others aren’t tempted to betray me.”

  The Cardassian turned to Demmix next. “As for you,” he said, “you have something I want. That information you were going to give to the Federation…you’ll now be giving to me.”

  “And if I do?” said Demmix, a tremor in his voice.

  Tain laughed. “Not if, you fool. When. I hope I haven’t given you the impression that you and I are haggling here, because we’re not. You’ll talk, and then I’ll have you killed. The only reward you’ll get for your cooperation is a quicker death than your friend Picard’s.”

  Demmix blanched.

  Tain seemed to take pleasure in the Zartani’s discomfort. He turned to Guinan. “And of course, you’ll be killed as well.”

  “Glinn…” said one of the other Cardassians.

  “What is it?” Tain asked, his gaze remaining firmly fixed on the captain.

  “Before you arrived, as I was eavesdropping in the corridor, I heard the female accuse the Zartani of deception.”

  Now Tain did spare his underling a glance. “What kind of deception are we talking about?”

  The underling licked his lips, obviously reluctant to go on. “She said he was trying to pass off false information, which could get the Federation in trouble—perhaps in the course of a military encounter with the Ubarrak.”

  Tain looked as if he had been punched in the gut. He glanced at Guinan, then Picard, and finally at Demmix. “I don’t like what I’m hearing,” he said.

  The captain didn’t doubt it.

  Tain had obviously gone to a great deal of trouble to find Demmix, confident that he would be performing an important service for the Cardassian Union—and perhaps for himself as well, since he would be the one to take credit for it.

  Now he had to consider the possibility that he had been led on a wild-goose chase—that all his efforts in Oblivion, all the risks he had taken, had been for naught.

  Tain eyed Demmix with cold, dark eyes. “I may have been a bit hasty,” said the Cardassian, “when I promised you a quicker death than Picard’s.”

  “Oh?” said Demmix. And to Picard’s astonishment, the Zartani smiled, as if he were no longer the least bit concerned about Tain carrying out his threat.

  Suddenly, Picard felt a vibration beneath his feet. If he didn’t know better, he would have said that the hulk’s engine had been activated.

  “What’s going on?” Tain demanded of Demmix.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” asked the Zartani.

  But his voice was strangely muted. It was then that Picard realized a transparent energy barrier had been erected between Demmix and the rest of them.

  Tain scowled. “Whatever it is, stop it.”

  Demmix’s smile spread across his face. “Why? So I can earn a quicker death than Picard’s?”

  As he said it, the captain felt a jolt. It seemed to him that something had collided with their hull.

  No, he told himself. That cannot be right. The city’s shields would have deflected any foreign objects.

  Then the truth dawned on him. They hadn’t been hit by anything. Their vessel had begun to move, and in the process jerked free of the hulk beside them….

  Chapter Eighteen

  PICARD SAW TAIN’S LIP CURL as he regarded Demmix. “All right,” he said. “Have it your way.” And, raising his disruptor, he fired it at the Zartani.

  But the beam stalled in midair, fizzling out barely halfway to its intended target. I was right, the captain thought. Demmix has put up a barrier.

  Tain made a sound of derision. “You think a little energy field is going to stop us?”

  “Actually,” said the Zartani, “I do. But just in case, I’ve decided to take other measures as well.” And he produced a remote-control device, made a show of waggling it about, and replaced it in his jacket.

  The Cardassian fired again. But this time his weapon didn’t even emit a beam. He looked at it, then frowned at Demmix. “A dampening field.”

  “That’s right,” said the Zartani. “So you’re not tempted to try damaging this vehicle.”

  Tain walked up to the barrier and glared through it. “I’ll do more than damage your vehicle, Zartani. That’s a promise I extend to you.”

  “What is going on
?” Picard asked.

  Demmix’s smile, as he turned to the captain, became a humorless one. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, Jean-Luc? I’ve been working for the Ubarrak.”

  Picard didn’t understand. “The Ubarrak…?”

  “Yes,” said the Zartani. “I was doing exactly what your friend Guinan just accused me of—passing bad tactical information to the Federation, information that would give your people a false sense of security. But when the Ubarrak launched a major offensive and your ships reacted to it, you would see that your confidence was built on shifting sand instead of bedrock.”

  “Because our ace in the hole,” said Picard, “wasn’t an ace after all.”

  “And by the time you realized the truth,” Demmix continued, “it would be too late. The Ubarrak would have crushed you.” He turned to Tain. “Then they could give the Cardassians their undivided attention.”

  Picard frowned. “But why, Nuadra? The Ubarrak killed your wife, your daughters…”

  The Zartani’s eyes blazed with anger. “Do you think I need to be reminded of that? My grief for them was so great that I nearly perished. And even after I recovered, I mourned them. I labored under the burden of their loss for five long, black years.

  “But I couldn’t bring them back. No one could. And I began to ask myself if I hadn’t earned some good in my life, some small recompense for the sadness I had borne.”

  For the first time, Picard saw the change in his old friend. He wasn’t the man the captain had known on Elyrion III—not any longer. He was a threat, just like Tain, and Picard had to treat him as such.

  Tain spat in disgust. “A traitor. I wish that bomb had been a bit more lethal.”

  Demmix’s eyes narrowed. “It was you who set it off…wasn’t it? You and your underlings?”

  “Yes,” said the Cardassian, obviously letting his frustration get the better of him.

  Picard was beginning to get the picture. “After the bombing of the plaza,” he told Demmix, “you still wished to pass on your treacherous information. But you didn’t want to risk getting caught by whoever was responsible for it. So you laid down a trail you knew I could follow.”

  “Yes,” said Demmix. “And you did an admirable job of following it.” He glanced at Guinan. “With the help of your suspicious friend here.”

  It made sense. It all made sense. And Picard cursed himself for falling for it.

  “Now,” Demmix told him, “you and I are going to have a rendezvous after all. But it’s going to be with an Ubarrak vessel that’s been waiting ten kilometers from here.”

  The captain understood. “And that’s where you’ll claim your reward. Tell me…what are the Ubarrak paying these days for a Starfleet captain?”

  Demmix chuckled. “We’ll soon find out.” His eyes slid in Tain’s direction. “And the price will be that much higher when the Ubarrak see I’ve corralled a knowledgeable Cardassian for them as well.”

  Picard wanted desperately to stop the Zartani. But with the barrier separating them, there was nothing he could do. And even if they never exceeded impulse velocity, they might reach the Ubarrak ship in a matter of minutes.

  Suddenly, Guinan—who had been all but forgotten in the exchange—grabbed a disruptor from the nearest Cardassian. Before either he or his comrades could react, she stuck the weapon in one of the room’s air vents.

  And depressed the trigger.

  Picard had just enough time to wonder if Demmix’s dampening field extended into the vent. Then he got his answer as the aperture pulsed with a wild, blue light, the disruptor beam wreaking havoc with the conduit beyond and eliciting a backwash of dense, black smoke.

  It roiled through the captives’ portion of the compartment like a hellish surf, mixing with their air and making it impossible to draw a clean breath. They all started to choke—Guinan, Picard, and the Cardassians as well.

  “Damn you,” Tain rasped, as he wrestled Guinan for the disruptor, “what have you done?”

  Picard knew exactly what she had done.

  She had put everyone on her side of the barrier in a position to asphyxiate. But if Demmix wanted to, he could save them from that less-than-pleasant fate—simply by lowering the forcefield for a second or two.

  Then some of the smoke could escape, and clean air could take its place. It would be enough for his captives to survive. And letting in the smoke wouldn’t be a problem for the Zartani, who was a carbon-dioxide breather anyway.

  The captain turned to Demmix, who was still visible through the billowing fumes. He could see the panic in the traitor’s expression, the indecision. Clearly, Demmix had begun to see what Picard had seen.

  But if he was going to drop the barrier, he had to move quickly. Otherwise, his meal tickets would be dead and he would be left without anything to give the Ubarrak.

  Part of the captain wanted to drag Tain off Guinan and teach him the finer points of gallantry. But his more prudent part knew he had to be ready if Demmix dropped the barrier, because he wouldn’t get a second chance.

  However, the Zartani was still hesitating, still weighing his options. For a moment, it looked as though he wasn’t going to deactivate the forcefield after all.

  Then, as if on impulse, Demmix took out his remote-control device and pressed a stud—probably the one that had activated the field in the first place. Instantly, the lion’s share of the smoke was sucked out of the captives’ area.

  Picard didn’t wait to see the Zartani press the stud a second time. Instead, he took an aggressive step forward and launched himself through the smoke-filled air.

  Intent on his remote-control device, Demmix didn’t seem to see the human coming. Picard plowed into him and bore him to the deck, the device clattering free in the process.

  Unfortunately, as fragile as the Zartani could be in certain ways, they were also quite strong. No sooner had Demmix landed on his back than he grabbed Picard by his jacket and sent him flying into the bulkhead behind them.

  The captain protected himself from the impact with his forearm, but was jarred when he dropped to the floor. By the time he regrouped, Demmix was coming at him with a vengeance.

  And Picard could see that the barrier had closed again. He was the only captive who had made it through.

  Rolling to his right, he was able to avoid Demmix’s headlong rush. However, they were trapped in a relatively small space. The captain wasn’t confident that he could elude the Zartani much longer.

  Fortunately, Picard had another option. But to exercise it, he would have to find Demmix’s remote-control device among the floating tendrils of smoke he had brought in with him.

  Again the Zartani charged him. This time, Picard threw himself to his left—and only narrowly missed being pinned to the bulkhead.

  Scrambling to his feet, he took a moment to scan the floor for Demmix’s device. It must be here somewhere, he told himself. All I need to do is—

  Then he saw it. It was on the other side of the room, barely visible between trails of smoke.

  Demmix was closer to the device, but he seemed neither to have spotted it nor to care. His efforts were focused solely on getting hold of the captain.

  And to that end, he had changed his tactics. He was advancing slowly now rather than rushing his attack, trying to back Picard into a corner.

  It made the captain’s job more difficult. But not insurmountable, he added silently.

  “Come,” said Demmix, “you know I’m every bit as quick as you are, and a good deal stronger as well. There’s only one way this can end.”

  “Is that so?” said Picard.

  “Don’t you think so?”

  “Even if I did,” the captain said, “what would you have me do? Just surrender to you?”

  “It would certainly make it easier on both of us,” said Demmix. “And I might be convinced to release you before I turn the others over to the Ubarrak.”

  “Spare me,” Picard told him. “I made a mistake by trusting you once, old friend. Do you rea
lly think I would do it again?”

  He had barely finished his reply when Demmix came hurtling at him, his hands reaching for the captain’s legs. But Picard was ready for him.

  Springing into the air, the captain vaulted over his adversary like a little boy playing leapfrog. Then he took two steps, dove in the direction of the remote-control device, and snatched it up as he slid into the bulkhead.

  Turning it over in his hands, he found the stud that controlled the energy barrier and depressed it—just before Demmix came crashing into him.

  Picard tried to keep the device away from the Zartani, but Demmix was too strong for him. The captain delivered a short, quick blow to his adversary’s nose, hoping to damage his gas-supplement, but Demmix just hit him back twice as hard.

  Stunned for a moment and unable to see, Picard felt the Zartani try to drag the device from his fingers. But the human held on nonetheless, refusing to relinquish the thing.

  Suddenly, Picard couldn’t feel Demmix fighting him any longer. He heard a couple of thuds in quick succession, and as his vision cleared, he turned around and saw that the Zartani was lying stretched out on the deck—at the feet of Tain and one of his Cardassians.

  The other Cardassian was standing at the vessel’s control console. As Picard watched, he looked back at Tain and said, “Done, Glinn.”

  Tain then took his disruptor—which he had apparently succeeded in recovering from Guinan—trained it on an open section of bulkhead, and fired.

  His beam hit the bulkhead with devastating results. Obviously, the dampening field had been lifted.

  “There,” said Tain. “That’s a little more like it.”

  Guinan moved to Picard’s side. “Nice work,” she said.

  “You too,” he replied.

  But they were still on course to rendezvous with the Ubarrak. He had to do something about that.

  Moving to the end of the console where the helm controls were located, Picard went to work. But he had barely gotten under way when Tain barked at him.

  “What are you doing?” the Cardassian demanded, pointing his disruptor at the captain.

  “I’m putting us on a course back to Oblivion,” Picard explained. “Unless you have an irresistible urge to see the inside of an Ubarrak warship.”