Captain's log. The crew of the Integrity are safely aboard the Enterprise. While it might be tempting to consider such a magnanimous act to be an indication that we still have some leverage with Hugh, I am reminded of Admiral Nechayev's observation that this simply represents the most efficient solution to the problem, from Hugh's point of view. It's in their best interests, and the fact that it's also in our best interests is purely gratuitous. This leaves me no basis for optimism concerning the task that lies ahead. With power restored to weapons and warp drive systems, we are proceeding along the course taken by the Integrity. I will deeply regret having to destroy it.
Picard stood on the bridge and watched the Romulan space rush by.
"We'll never find them using long-range sensor sweeps," Riker said. "Even if the vent interference stays down, and even if the other warbird isn't cloaked, and those are two pretty big assumptions, it could be anywhere."
"Except that it isn't headed just anywhere," Picard said. "My guess is that they're headed back to the outposts that meant so much to them. They are the Tal Shiar, after all. They won't return to Romulus in defeat. They'll return to their base of operations to fall back and regroup. Data, call up any information we have on the locations of those outposts and get us to them."
Data nodded, and worked at the panel. "Estimated time of arrival at outposts, six hours."
Picard stood there for a moment, and then, as if deciding something, turned to leave the bridge. "Keep me informed."
Data nearly leaped out of his chair to speak to Picard before he was gone. "Captain." And as Picard turned to him, Data seemed a little embarrassed at his own enthusiasm. "I was thinking that you might want to take this opportunity to review my holonovel."
"I don't think--" I'm much in the mood for that sort of thing right now. The unsaid part of it hung there in the air under the weight of the way Troi looked at Picard. "I'll see what I can do."
Data returned to the panel, pleased. Picard headed on to the turbolift.
"Captain."
It was Riker this time. Picard turned back, annoyed. Riker came over to hand him the PADD. "You might need this."
Picard looked like he'd rather belt Riker in the jaw than say it.
"Thank you, Commander."
Riker smiled mischievously as Picard exited the bridge with the PADD.
Tiffany and Picard each took one good breath before Picard gave the order for the computer to open the holodeck doors. They were startled to find themselves in Ten Forward, or at least in a close facsimile of it. Tiffany stepped tentatively into the room.
"Seems like this is where I came in," she said.
"Well, Troi did advise Data to write about something familiar."
They proceeded cautiously to the bar, where a grungy bartender was wiping out glasses with a horrific-looking towel. This was startling enough in itself, but as they were about to settle themselves at the bar, they turned abruptly at the sound of the door to see Guinan entering. Dressed grungily like the bartender, and with a huge purse slung over her shoulder, she nevertheless couldn't help but be aghast at her surroundings.
"My God, this is worse than I thought," she said, and came over to the bar and sat on Picard's free side.
The bartender eyed Picard slyly. "Lucky fella. What'll it be, Dolls?"
"Prime Directives all around." Guinan hauled her purse up onto the bar.
Picard gave her a dirty look. The bartender stood, uncomprehending. Pulling three wine glasses out of the huge purse, Guinan next pulled out and opened a bottle of wine.
"Hey," The bartender began to protest, "you can't do that in here."
But Guinan dug some more in the purse, pulled out a twenty dollar bill and waved it under the bartender's nose. "Sawbuck. Blow."
The bartender grabbed the banknote, stuffed it into a pocket, and headed away, wiping out a glass. "Anything you say, Doll."
Guinan poured, recorking the bottle and replacing it into the purse, all with Picard watching her intently. He took the glass offered him, but didn't drink from it right away.
"That's not synthetic, is it," he said.
"It's okay," Guinan said. "I'm not on duty."
They drank.
"The Prime Directive," Picard said into the bottom of the glass, as if it were some sort of comment about the quality of the spirits.
"Noninterference, Picard," Guinan said. "You're supposed to know that."
"I can't seem to avoid it, interfering."
"Maybe none of us can. Maybe that's the point."
"You mean," Tiffany said to Guinan, "maybe we're deluding ourselves."
"How does someone evolve to that point," Picard said "of being so desperate that they would go to such measures as to destroy a part of themselves which they find no longer--appropriate?"
"If they felt," Guinan said, "that that part was detrimental to the survival of the whole. If the entire system were constantly being wracked by internal turmoil, couldn't accomplish enough to sustain itself, the best bet for everyone would be for one side or the other to take over entirely. It would provide a better chance for survival of the whole than would continued fighting, where neither side has control."
"I wonder how it will end for them."
"I'm not much of a military strategist," Guinan said.
"No, of course you're not."
Guinan stiffened then, suddenly. "We are talking about the Romulans, right?"
And Picard was up and away from the bar. "Computer, exit."
The exit appeared. Picard took it. After a moment of good resolute hesitation, Tiffany went after him.
"Captain," Tiffany called, coming down the corridor to him, "there's something you should know."
"Does this concern my behavior, or yours?"
"Mine."
People passed down the corridor. Tiffany bit her tongue. She and Picard walked in silence until they had passed into an empty corridor.
"They suppose we've done them a great injury," Picard said. "We suppose they've done us one. It goes on and on and in the end, there is no point in trying to place blame. It was Q who put us in the Delta Quadrant, put us face to face with them. Maybe he had a point for doing it, maybe he didn't. In any case, we ourselves are not to be held accountable. And in any case, the Borg would have come here eventually on their own."
"You're so certain Q brought you and the Borg together just to see if you'd be able to outfight them, just for amusement or whatever. It's probably all that military training."
Picard considered being insulted...
"You're so absolutely certain of yourself," Tiffany went on, "that you've never considered the possibility that it could have been anything else."
...but thought better of it.
"Maybe Q was trying to make a point." Tiffany paused. "Can you understand, about how a people can go wrong if they get blinded and single-minded about their purpose, no matter what purpose that is, no matter how admirable or noble it might have seemed at the outset? You've never considered that maybe Q was trying to show you some possible future, some potential danger in the way we ourselves are thinking--that maybe he was trying to tell you that that's what we're supposed to overcome. Maybe Q was hoping you could learn something from all of this. That we could learn something, for ourselves, each of us. Maybe he was hoping that we would learn to see what is right in front of us, that we're not so different from them as we might like to think, and we need to keep that in mind whatever we do, whatever we decide is the right thing to do. Maybe that's just something people have to learn, firsthand, by going through it."
Picard and Tiffany exchanged a respectful look. And whether any more would ever have been said...
"That's all I wanted to say." Tiffany turned and went.
Through the ready-room window Romulan space was still rushing by, more of the same. It wasn't, Picard had to remind himself, over yet. And what Tiffany had said ran over and over through his mind.
"What a profoundly fascinating point of view."
Picard turned quickly to Q, sitting on the couch.
"Such insight," he went on. "Such passion. Such a telling off of a superior officer the likes of which I have never seen." And Q paused, recovering from the theatrics that accompanied his semi-facetious response to Tiffany. He recomposed himself to say the rest. "She's completely wrong, of course. I did bring you together to see if you could outfight them. But the thought processes that led her to such a fantastic conclusion--I must pay more attention to this creature. She is much more open-minded than you, Jean-Luc, much more worthy of my attentions. May I call you Jean-Luc? We've been through so much together."
"No."
Then Q was up and looking exaggeratedly deflated as he went to the replicater. "She's much more dynamic in her thoughts than you are. Not so inexorably tied to a few limited patterns of behavior." He acted as if he would order. "Tea, Earl Grey, hot."
"If you have a point to make then make it."
Q swung around to Picard and looked decidedly pleased. "You're jealous of my interest in her."
"I am not."
And Q appeared, for just a flash, genuinely disappointed. Or maybe it was the light. "Damn. Maybe I'll just have to start paying more attention to this other little creation of yours. Maybe it will turn out to be more worthy."
"Other creation of mine?"
There was a flash, and Q was carrying over to Picard a bundle cradled in one arm as if it were a baby. On reaching Picard, Q unfolded part of blankets to reveal a piece of machinery. Q took a good long drag off of the cigar he decided to be smoking. "Congratulations," he said.
"It's a boy, Picard. And it hates you."
"I am not here to play father-figure to some--"
"Foul-mouthed toaster? I always suspected you would make a horrible father, Picard. So avoidant. Never there. Never listening. Never seeing what is right in front of you. Fathers so often can't bring themselves to accept long-term responsibility, and it really is a shame, the way an absent father can have such a profound effect on a budding young mind."
"I am not responsible--"
The bundle and cigar disappeared and Q planted his palms flat on Picard's desk. "But of course you are, Picard. You could have smothered him in his sleep, no one would have cared. You could have left him on that planet where you found him to die, but instead you turned around and let him live, as if you had the right, and whatever he does for the rest of his life will land right on your head."
Worf's voice came over the com, reporting their approach to the Romulan outposts. Picard started to exit, but couldn't help but be stopped by Q's "you really have no idea, do you, what's happening here."
Q came around to face Picard. "And so it ends as it began. At a cluster of obscure Romulan outposts with irascible human arrogance laying waste."
Picard walked past him to go out to the bridge. Being it didn't make the words stop echoing in his head.
But the sight of a warbird on the screen made them die down, some.
"Hail them," Picard said.
"Channel open, Sir."
"This is the Enterprise. You are being pursued by the Borg--"
Taposs appeared on the screen and was laughing at Picard hard enough to interrupt him. "Really, Picard, get a hobby."
"You must listen to me."
"There are no Borg ships here. Even with the vent our sensors would have detected them. I thought we'd settled all that."
"They are in a cloaked ship. Assuming that you are headed to the Tal Shiar's base outpost, they will follow you and most likely destroy it. We will have better luck tracking the ship they are using if you tell us where you are headed."
"What are you suggesting," Mana broke in, "a trade? Cooperation for information?"
"I'm suggesting that you are in serious danger."
Mana laughed. "The Borg? You saw them yourself. They're a threat to no one. Besides, if they're such a threat, where are they? Oh, yes, they're in a cloaked ship."
"Since when," Taposs asked, "have the Borg had need to sneak around in cloaked ships, Captain? Just where did they obtain this technology?"
Picard opened him mouth to speak, but Taposs cut him off with a curt, "if this is the best you can do--" and cut communications.
"Try and get them back."
"They will not listen," Worf said.
"I know they won't. Try anyway. The Integrity?"
"Nothing to report, Sir."
On the warbird, Mana and Taposs were enjoying a good retelling of their conversation with Picard. An alarm sounded on a console, but Chitin shut it off immediately.
"Sorry," Chitin said. "That was my fault."
"Get a hold of yourself," Mana said to him. "Don't you see that's exactly what they want is for us to get scared and screw up."
"You are a fool," Taposs told Chitin.
The report came; they were nearing the outposts.
"Change course," Mana ordered. "Come around to base outpost, the far side." To Chitin, she said, "can't you see what they're doing? They call it reverse psychology. They're throwing our own story back at us to get our cooperation. They want to know where the Tal Shiar is headquartered so they can destroy us and steal back what we stole from the Borg, and use it against the Empire."
"But suppose--"
"Quiet! They think they're very clever, this Federation."
Taposs reported to Mana. "I'm reading a spatial displacement that wasn't there before."
"What's causing it? Distortions from the vent."
"It matches nothing in our information about the vent, and nothing the Enterprise shared with us about the vent."
"So, they didn't tell us quite everything even then. I knew they would never--"
"The displacements have disappeared."
"Good."
Picard looked out into the space on the screen. "Are you certain you're reading such a displacement?"
"Yes, Sir," Data reported. "It is consistent with warp artifacts that show through cloaking devices of the type used on Defiant-class ships. The displacements have disappeared."
"The Integrity," Riker said, "dropped out of warp."
"Yes, but how do we locate her? She's still cloaked."
"The Jem' Hadar located the Defiant by taking finer displacement readings."
"Those readings were taken from many different perspectives by many different ships," Data reminded him. "We are only one ship. And in any case, distortions from the vent would make such a search practically impossible."
"ERPs," I said.
"Ensign?"
"Evoked response potentials, Captain. Tiffany uses them. We can detect the Integrity by essentially the same method you use to record an ERP from someone's brain. You take hundreds of consecutive rapid readings from a specific brain site. By averaging the recordings together, the computer regresses the random background noise to zero, and what you're left with is a waveform caused by the response of that brain site to the stimulus. Using repeated recording to weed out random energy, the evenly traveling stream of particles has to be the Integrity's signature." Picard looked at Data, who considered the hypothesis and nodded.
"Make it so," Picard said.
There was a flurry of work, and eventually, a distinct look of satisfaction from Worf. "Got her, Sir."
"Show me." On the screen came a tactical display showing the relative locations of the Enterprise, the warbird, the Integrity, and the destroyed Romulan outposts.
"Can the Integrity tell we've spotted her?" Picard asked.
"No indication," I reported.
"Open a channel to the warbird."
Picard stood to address Mana.
"I must again warn you that you are being pursued--" but Picard shifted gears as the Romulans were about to cut communications again.
"Wait! I'll show you. Mr. Data, transmit tactical information on the location of the Integrity."
Nechayev stepped up as if to stop this, and thought better of it. The Romulans' expressions got serious just for a moment when they began reading the information being sent to them, but then they relaxed again.
"This is the Integrity," Mana said indignantly. "What trickery is this? You're trying to beat us at our own game? If they're such a threat, why don't they fire? Why are they just sitting there?"
Picard, tired of trying to save the Romulans from themselves, crossed his arms and settled in. "Because you have something of theirs and they it want back."
And it was at this point you could see that Mana was increasingly distracted by goings-on that we couldn't see. There was weapons fire, disorientation. Communications were lost.
Picard was not quite so entertained anymore. "What's happening on that ship?"
Data shook his head. "Unable to determine, Sir. The Integrity has uncloaked."
"Where is Hugh? Is he on the warbird?"
I could only shake my head in defeat, look at Data, and curse that goddamned vent for making me look bad, repeatedly. Data shaking his head made me feel not quite so bad, except that Picard was becoming increasingly agitated.
"Is he still on the Integrity?" he demanded.
I shook my head, and worked
Riker just made matters worse. "Or have they gone down to the outpost?"
"Ensign."
"Trying, Sir."
"Dammit. Try harder!"
I swung in my chair to face him. "Hugh is on the planet, Sir."
"Explain."
"There is no longer any life on the warbird."
Picard headed to the turbolift, pointing to Worf and to me to join him. He sent the order for La Forge to meet us. Troi was going also, but what was happening on the screen stopped them. The Integrity was firing on the outpost. Picard stood perfectly still and watched it happen. Riker took a step to him, but gave no indication of whether he thought it more appropriate to try and do anything, or not. Nechayev stood perfectly still. In a matter of minutes, it was over. Picard simply turned and continued his steps, maybe with a little less immediacy.
We materialized on the planet to utter and total destruction.
Base Outpost, no doubt, or what was left of it.
Worf was immediately on alert, but you could tell that the worst of it was over for these poor bastards. There was simply nothing left to be done. Picard and La Forge were headed for the largest thing left standing, at least partially, a structure that indicated a major entranceway to a complex that was now as much a part of the great outdoors as the boulders and the trees. I held Tiffany back half a step. She needed to develop a sense of fear of them, the Borg, who were there, packed tightly together, cohesive and standing their ground. They made no move toward the away-team, no move away. Out from the center of them emerged Hugh. He didn't acknowledge La Forge or Picard, or anyone else. He just stood like the rest of them, and I tried to convince myself that he couldn't possibly be proud of what he'd done, that they weren't supposed to have the capacity. I tried to convince myself that they weren't standing there waiting for something in particular.
"This matter no longer concerns you," was all Hugh said, out to all of us, in general. "Take your Integrity and get out."
"Just like that?" La Forge said. "You're just going to give us back our ship?"
"The Federation has nothing of use for us. We will have no further contact with you. Leave this space or we will take your ship under tow and drag it out."
"Hugh--" La Forge was immediately sorry he'd said it out loud. He got nothing for it, no reaction, and maybe, after all, what was simply the way it had to be.
"Riker to away-team. Indications of transwarp conduit activity in the system. I don't recommend that we stay here any longer than necessary, Captain."
"Understood."
Damn.
Final order of business; if the captain looks nervous, panic, otherwise hold your ground, no matter who's coming to get you. Picard stood still and looked at Hugh, looked him over good.
"You suppose," Picard said instead, "that you've been hurt by us, that we have caused you this devastating loss, this uncertainty. We've been hurt by you, as well. We can all either sit around and take shots at each other and boil away in our own pain, or we can admit that we've been hurt, and go on, and deal with each other. You're supposed to be leading your people. You're supposed to be doing what is best for them, for the whole. And you're feeding them on uncontrolled rage, lashing out in all directions at whoever comes nearest. Is that the way you want your people to behave? If these are the attitudes that are going to permeate the collective, is this going to help it survive? Is this what's best? What you've done here is wrong, Hugh. You know that. What you're about to do is wrong."
"We have reclaimed what is ours. We will not allow our technology to remain in the possession of others. It would not be appropriate."
"And you'll destroy an entire civilization to make certain it doesn't happen."
"Irrelevant."
"Captain," came Riker's voice from the ship, "I strongly suggest that we leave the area immediately."
"Captain," Worf concurred, "it might already be too late. If they have detected the Enterprise--"
"You will not be pursued," Hugh said. "Just go. Now."
"No tricks?" Picard said.
Hugh hesitated barely noticeably, his eyes darted to La Forge barely noticeably.
"No tricks," Hugh said.
Picard touched his combadge. "Get us out of here."
The turbolift opened onto the bridge, the bright and normal and ordered bridge.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to be considered of no use," I said to Data as we stepped out and came down to the helm.
Nechayev stood uncomfortably inside the turbolift as it headed for the bridge. Riker and La Forge stood uncomfortably in the presence of an uncomfortable admiral. Only Picard seemed undisturbed, and only because he knew what was making her uncomfortable.
"Not what you expected?" Picard finally said to her.
"No," she admitted. "Not what I expected." She seemed to be thinking about whether or not to say it at all, what she said next.
"Within thirty minutes of coming aboard the Integrity, he managed to explicitly insult the professional capacities of every one of my officers."
La Forge laughed out loud.
Riker gave him a singular look. "You think that's funny?"
"Well, yea." La Forge shrugged.
The turbolift opened onto the bridge, and La Forge went immediately and stayed down at the helm by Data. It seemed the safest place. Riker went to his chair. Nechayev was looking after him, La Forge. She paused outside the turbolift, and Picard paused with her.
"What did Tiffany say to me once," Nechayev said. "Sometimes the only way to learn about something is to poke it with a stick? I guess sometimes the only way to learn is to get poked with a stick. I wasn't prepared for such a tremendous presence--"
"Neither was I," Picard said, "the first time I saw it."
"On behalf of myself and my crew," Nechayev hesitated, barely noticeably. "I would like to thank you for having done the humanitarian thing."
Picard went to his chair and sat. "Ensign."
"La Rue, Sir," I said, turning to him.
"Yes, I know. Welcome aboard."
I turned as steadily as I could muster back to the screen. "Thank you, Sir."
Captain's log. We have left Romulan space, and, I am told, nature to its own devices. If this perspective was intended to offer me a measure of comfort, it has not. Monitoring of communications within Romulan space has revealed to us system after system going quiet. Reports of Romulan ships escaping into Cardassian space are unsubstantiated. There is no way I cannot be conscious of the battle we are leaving behind, the battle being lost. It is as we have always suspected, that evolution is a spontaneous and unpredictable thing. And as for what will happen to Hugh when he rejoins the collective, only time will tell. A single individual out of twenty can have a profound impact, but one out of countless thousands... Note: Recommendation to Admiral Murphy to continue the accelerated cadet program in light of the performance of those cadets aboard ship. They have shown the ability to adapt rapidly to difficult circumstances, and have not hesitated to do their duty for their ship, however painful that duty might have seemed. Personal note: I should have seen it coming. Or is that pretentious of me. Tiffany would tell me that I have no right to see, any more than anyone else. She would tell me that we have to take what we have, now, and do the best we can with it, and have faith. She would tell me that I'm beginning to sound like her, expecting to be able to figure out all of the right answers all of the time. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps she will make a good ship's captain, someday.
Picard rose and came down to the helm station. "Mr. Data, would you care to join me on the holodeck? I believe we have some unfinished business."
Data got up happily from his station. "I cannot help but find it a curious perspective, Hugh's wishing no further contact with humans."
"That's because you like humans," La Forge said. "He hates them. He reckons we've done him, and his kind, a great deal of harm."
"And we--" Data stumbled on the word, "--reckon --they did us a great deal of harm. Checkmate."
"Frankly," I said, "I agree with Hugh."
They all stared at me.
"Not about hating humans," I said quickly. "I just hope we never see each other again."
Data thought it over and then nodded. "And I am forced to agree with Ensign La Rue. I believe that would be for the best."
"Of both worlds?" La Forge said. "Maybe, but when's the last time you got what you wanted?"
"I am getting what I have wanted right now, as a matter of fact." Data turned with Picard to go, but Picard paused, as Nechayev was approaching.
"The last time I was here," she said to Picard, "there was a cup of tea you offered me, that I couldn't see my way clear to accepting. I'd like to take you up on that."
Picard shrugged to Data, "sorry, Mr. Data," and walked down to the ready-room with Nechayev. The door closed. Data stood there for a moment, as La Forge smiled at him.
"See?"
The End
This story is my property, please do not distribute it without this attachment.
(c) 1998
(With the exception of Tiffany, Ruisi, Kidder, Guire, and LaRue {I created them}) All characters and terms are the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc.