"She's right, of course," Nechayev reminded herself. "We have to get a better look at that ship from over here. The only question is how. Mr. La Forge, what can you offer us by way of enhancing sensor output?"
It was only when he failed to respond that Picard looked up into the conversation. Nechayev had paused in pacing across the room and was staring at La Forge. The others were sitting and looking at him with varying degrees of understanding his distance from the conversation.
"Mr. La Forge?" Picard coaxed.
"What? Sorry, Sir."
"Something, Mr. La Forge?" Nechayev asked.
"No, Sir."
Nechayev moved in closer. She wasn't buying it. "If there's something you know that can help us here, Mister, you'd better spit it out."
"I trust Mr. La Forge implicitly," Picard countered. "If he knows anything that might be relevant, I am certain he will share it with us."
Nechayev backed down. "Then figure it out. I'll expect a full report on their capabilities, their resources, and any way that ship might be making use of the energy being produced by that vent. Dismissed. "
Everyone rose except La Forge. Picard stood slowly, staying focused on La Forge and coming around the table to him. Nothing was said until Nechayev and Mana had gone.
"I wish you hadn't said that, Captain," La Forge said.
"Tell me you didn't just make me lie to an Admiral."
"I don't need to make a detailed report. I know exactly where there's a weakness in the scout, and how to exploit it."
"Then I expect you to do as you're ordered."
"Yes, Sir."
Riker was moving into the conversation as La Forge was standing slowly and saying it. "It's just--it seems so ruthless."
"They're ruthless, Geordi," Riker said.
"They were. Now they're just dying."
And out in the corridor there was no relief.
"In your opinion," Nechayev was asking Worf as they headed down the corridor, "how much of a potential threat do they pose to us, really?"
"Militarily? My assessment, Admiral, is that their defenses are inadequate to resist us."
"Geordi, I do--" and Picard paused for so long that La Forge nearly decided he had changed his mind about speaking. Each subsequent word seemed a battle. "--partly understand your sentiment. That isn't to say that I don't find it--misplaced. What I'm trying to say is that you must understand. This is the way it must be."
"Yes, Sir," La Forge said flatly, and he headed off down the corridor. Nechayev turned as Riker caught up to them. Her eyes went past him just for a moment, went back on Picard. Riker noticed.
"If he gives me the first sign of trouble," Nechayev started, and then shook her head.
"He might be reluctant, for whatever reason, but he's a damn good captain. He's the best there is. He knows his duty."
Nechayev looked at Riker, perhaps a little surprised at being reminded, or at having to be reminded.
"He'll do what's best, for us," Riker continued.
"My God, I hope you're right."
Captain's log, supplemental. With the help of the Romulans, we have devised a plan for extracting information from the Borg scout. Although La Forge's survey of the damage to the interior of the scout will form the focus of this plan, the core ideas came from the Romulans, which doesn't surprise me. I can't help but think that there is more to it than their having had time to sit around and think about it, waiting to see if we would help them, the way Mana said. I also can't help being aware that I have no basis for arguing against implementing such a plan. The Dominion are a serious threat, the Jem' Hadar ruthless and unrelenting in their attacks. Having not been able to communicate through the vent interference, we have no way of knowing whether the Jem' Hadar have continued to attack the Romulans. We can only assume that they have. What Taposs said was true. They attack in waves of increasing force, until they have achieved their objectives. And we have no way of determining who is winning the battle, and who is losing.
Having just exited sickbay into the corridor when Picard passed, Tiffany was suddenly uncertain, over the closing of the door, whether he had actually said her name or not. She stole a look around, but it was essentially too late, she had already fallen into step with him. She nearly had trouble keeping up. It wasn't until they were sealed inside the turbolift that she stopped to think it over consciously, that even if he had said it, maybe he hadn't meant it that way. Maybe she had no business being here. Picard ordered the destination. Bridge. He stared into the PADD.
"I want you on the bridge during this," he said flatly, without looking up.
"Why? What lesson am I supposed to learn there?" She paused. "Not to second-guess my captain?"
Picard very nearly smiled. Very nearly. "Perhaps."
Tiffany nodded at the PADD. "Data's story?"
"I thought if I read it ahead of time."
"Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"
That remark got her nothing but Picard's undivided attention. She had no choice but to defend herself from it.
"I mean, it's a holonovel. It responds to your reactions. It has no one set course, it all depends on the spontaneity of the driving character. You're not supposed to be able to tell ahead to time--"
"A starship captain can never afford to go into any situation unprepared."
"Lesson number..." And her voice hung there in the air, as a smile spread across her face despite herself. "You're trying to cheat."
"Ensign Tiffany," Picard feigned indignation.
Nechayev's voice burst into the turbolift, ordering Picard to the bridge, asking, implied underneath the order, why he wasn't there already. That he was on his way, was all he said in return.
"You're not very happy about what you're about to do," Tiffany said. "But given the same situation, you'd do it over. That's all that counts. Saving yourself. Whether you're right or not is secondary, because if you are and you don't survive to pass it on, it doesn't matter anyway."
"You sound like the Romulans."
"Everything they've said is true."
Picard looked at her.
"That's what's making them so hard to take," Tiffany continued. "You can't fight the truth. You can just try to ignore it for as long as possible."
"Is that what I'm doing? Trying to ignore the truth? Or am I misunderstanding you again?"
"You can't hang onto all of yourself all of the time. You reach a point where there is inevitably something in you that is no longer--appropriate. You know what I mean, you're just trying to ignore it. You pride yourself on being compassionate, idealistic, and you're trying like hell not to give that up, even though it isn't appropriate here. It's like your fight with the Nausicaans, where you very nearly got yourself killed over nothing. Q gave you a chance to put it right. But it would have meant that you'd have been, now, a different person. If you hadn't given up something, your innocence, your sheltered point of view, whatever it was, you wouldn't be as successful as you are." Tiffany shrugged. "If you hadn't gotten your nose bloodied a few times."
It was a long moment before Picard said, "You seem to know an awful lot about me."
"I just know what I see. But besides that, I'm telepathic."
Picard was somewhat startled. "You're telepathic?"
"Yes sir, I'm fully telepathic."
The turbolift opened onto the bridge. It was the same awkward feeling of misplacement that had been there when they'd gotten on. As Picard stepped out, Tiffany was so uncertain as to whether or not she should follow that she very nearly let the door close on her again. I decided, in having the unfortunate luck of being right there, not to remember having seen that almost happen, again.
"Captain," I said instead, "we're ready on the Admiral's order."
"You'll do what I tell you when I tell you. Nothing more, nothing less. It that understood?"
"Yes, Sir."
Picard and Tiffany continued on down to the bridge.
"Nice going, trilobite-boy." Ruisi tapped a hand on the wall, reminiscent of the way I had tapped the trilobite fossil behind Tiffany's head in the turbolift, coming onto the ship so long ago I could barely remember.
"It's not always so easy to tell who's on their way up and who's on their way down, eh."
The scout looked pitiful from this angle. It looked sagging. The Enterprise was specifically positioned near its structurally weakest points. Mana was explaining to Nechayev. "This way, we can read right through the hull."
"Why not just go around to where the hull has been breached?"
"Because all of the machinery in that section is dead. It can't tell us anything, even if we can get to it. Here, though, readings indicate that the machinery is still functioning. If we can shunt a properly modulated sensor beam to that machinery, we might be able to, in essence, overload the interface without ever having had to access it directly, forcing a feedback cascade that would download information directly back down the sensor beam, to us."
"That's pretty ambitious."
Picard agreed. "When did you have time to sit around and think this plan through?"
"Actually," Mana accepted the attack without missing a beat, "we were developing the system to use against you. But under the circumstances, we are willing to share our technological advancement."
"How magnanimous of you." Picard turned back to the screen.
"This information," Nechayev said, "when we get it, will we be able to interpret it? It's liable to be incredibly complex."
"All we have to do is pick out the pieces we can use," Mana answered her. "If we can identify the segments pertaining to the use of this vent energy as a power source, and we should be able to by virtue of their making reference to the vent harmonics, which we have been monitoring and logging, then the rest we can just discard."
"But we have to take it all in order to make certain that we get what we can use."
"Exactly." Mana shrugged. "That's the only way the system can work."
Nechayev nodded understanding, acceptance, and an eagerness to get this underway.
"As soon as Mr. La Forge has the sensors properly configured," Mana said.
"Picard to La Forge. Are we ready for this?"
"Yes, Captain. I've reconfigured to sensor array to--"
"Don't tell me about it. Just do it."
And so we did. And it worked, for a while.
"My God," Mana breathed. "We're actually starting to get something."
And then the information stopped. The sensors were no longer getting through.
"Nechayev to La Forge. What's going on down there?"
"Sorry, Admiral. The scout is moving out of range. We can't get a sufficiently strong signal through the hull."
"Set a course to keep us in position."
Mana was shaking her head. "Powering up the warp drive will disrupt the feedback harmonics. We won't get anything intelligible."
"Admiral," I said, calling everyone's attention to the screen, where the scout was laboring to veer away. "They may have just decided they've had enough of this."
"Set a course and get after that ship," Nechayev ordered. "Shut off that sensor array. We'll have to do this another way. Get the Integrity and the Tammuz to move in."
"Actually, Admiral," Data turned around to her, "with our three ships more widely separated, we have a better chance of tracking the scout. By comparing sensor information among our ships and taking into account the discrepancies in our relative positions, we will be able to determine the actual course of the scout through the vent interference."
"Because we'll be tracking them from what amounts to three different locations."
"Yes, Sir."
"Is there a way of determining just what the optimal arrangement of our ships should be?"
"I believe so, Admiral."
Nechayev nodded to Data, who returned it, and got to work.
Even with the system in place, tracking the scout was not easy.
Having to compare sensor information constantly back and forth between the Enterprise, the Integrity, and the Tammuz made the helm slow to respond, made our best possible speed nothing to brag about. Even in the condition it was in, the scout was steadily pulling out of range. "We're going to lose them," I said.
"Then we'll have to do this the old fashioned way." Nechayev turned to Worf. "Get me an armed away-team. Nechayev to La Forge. We're going to try to slow that ship down from the inside. At your earliest opportunity, restart that sensor beam. Get us what you can out of that ship."
"Yes, Sir."
Nechayev headed for the turbolift with Mana close on her heels and motioning to Tiffany to join them.
On the scout, Mana directed Tiffany to the machinery that was still functioning.
"I want you here. Do what you can with it. Anything to facilitate getting that link back up."
"They won't just sit still for this."
"That's what the rest of us are here for. Just do your job."
Drawing her weapon, Mana went off after the others.
Tiffany worked. "Tiffany to La Forge. I'm going to try and set up a relay on this end. Maybe we can get some more range out of this. Stand by."
And she didn't move when she heard weapons fire coming from somewhere unseen. "Don't think," she reminded herself, "don't feel, just do your job."
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"What we have to," Tiffany spun to Hugh. "We have no choice!"
"I cannot let you do this."
"We can't let you stop us. We have to survive."
"At the expense of us."
"Well, that's your decision. If you would just cooperate, none of this would be necessary. Can you not understand? All we want--"
"Is to take what you want."
"When did you develop such an inconvenient sense of morality? This is not the time, Hugh!"
"La Forge to Tiffany. I'm not reading anything from you yet. What's going on over there?"
"We're experiencing some technical difficulty, Captain. I'm going to have to get back to you in a minute."
Weapons fire. Tiffany clenched her teeth.
"You cannot do this."
"And you can't keep expending the energy necessary to stop us. You don't understand that, do you. You can only see one step at a time." Tiffany turned away from the PADD, took a step away from the station. "We can't lose. You can't understand that, and that's exactly why we can't lose. You can't understand what's happening right here. I could ride you and ride you and you'd get nothing but more and more furious, and never be able to figure out that I'm only saying these things to make you furious. You're incapable. You may be stronger than us, faster, better organized, able to process information, but you can't outthink us, not by yourselves. You're stupid. You've never had to think for yourself. You can't figure anything out. You don't want to tell the others what to do, because you're waiting for them to tell you. Only they don't know what to do any more than you do. Don't you see? Humans have to think for a living. We can't rely on anybody else to help us, to show us the way. We have to figure it out for ourselves, every one of us. We can outthink you at every turn. That's the difference. And that is why, when it comes right down to it, you can never beat us."
It was when the sounds of running footsteps could be heard, coming closer from some indiscriminate direction and sounding increasingly and distinctly human that Hugh stepped away from her, to a power conduit that didn't seem to be working. When he accessed it she did nothing. There didn't seem any reason to do anything. There could be no possible reason behind his behavior. It was when Mana rushed around the corner that the station Tiffany was standing by blew, throwing her and Mana back into the corridor.
"It was my fault," Tiffany said.
"We're not reading any computer activity aboard the scout," La Forge reported. "He blew the entire thing. There's no way to get any information out of it now."
Picard sat behind the desk, waiting. Riker and Troi stood off in the shadows, waiting. It would have been easy to say nothing for as long as possible, to watch the stars through the slit of a window, to watch the fish, who simply didn't care. It would have been easy to just stand there and take it, but not in the long run.
"I think I said something that--upset him," Tiffany said.
When Picard spoke the words were flat, drawn out, stinging. "Just telling him what you saw, Ensign?"
"Sir, I--wasn't trying to be cruel."
"Nevertheless, you should be more careful how you provoke other peoples' feelings."
And Tiffany made an honest effort to keep it in. But standing there facing him, it simply wouldn't stay. "Feelings," she said. "There aren't supposed to be any feelings involved here. This is supposed to be duty. Whatever happened to that? What about the way I've been drug along behind you like some little lost puppy, never getting a chance to be sure just what it is I'm supposed to be doing or how I'm supposed to get it done? These duties you've been giving me are impossible. And you have to know that. And there isn't any reason why I've been put in this position. Are you going to tell me your feelings haven't--"
Picard threw himself out of his chair, slapping his palms onto the desk. "We are Starfleet!" he yelled at her. "Personal feelings do not dictate command decisions. You will go where it is decided that you will serve best, and you will fill that slot. Anything else is irrelevant. If you aren't up to it, if you can't put aside your feelings to do your duty," and the rest of it was left to hang there, in the air.
"I can do my duty," Tiffany said weakly.
"Don't tell me that, Mister. Prove it to me. And until you can, get out."
Picard remained there, frozen. Tiffany hesitated, then turned on a heel and left. It was only after the door had closed that Picard sat. He turned on the computer, but didn't look at it. Riker stepped up as if he would address Picard.
"Dismissed."
And with a bit of hesitation and a look at Troi, Riker went. La Forge bailed out with him. Troi shifted her weight just enough to draw attention.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Picard said.
In the corridor, Mana and Taposs approached the intersection leading to the turbolift.
"Relax, Taposs. This isn't the end of anything. It's the beginning. You don't know how to adapt. You don't know what to do when things turn out better than you possibly could have planned."
Not close enough to actually want on the turbolift, Mana stood patiently and waited. When the door opened and Tiffany emerged, Mana simply fell into step with her.
"If you were under my command I'd have you relieved of duty."
"Me, too."
"That was damned irresponsible, what you did."
"I'm not cut out for this. I shouldn't even be here. I didn't ask for this. It just--"
"Happened. Too bad. Then again, Picard wouldn't give you such a thorough going-over if he didn't think there was something inside there worth keeping. He'd just toss you on the scrap heap. He's practically begging you to show him that under that shell there's something you can contribute, to the whole."
"What if he's wrong?"
"Then we're all in very serious trouble."
Tiffany looked at her.
"You don't have the luxury," Mana said, "of feeling sorry for yourself right now. It's about time you realized that. You have too many others to think about, too many others dependent on you for their survival." And Mana nodded and reiterated to Tiffany's astonished stare, "yes, for their survival. And you don't even seem to realize it. Or you're unwilling to realize it. Afraid of the responsibility? You'd better decide that you've got the stomach for it. Now."
"I'm not afraid."
"That's a lie."
Tiffany stopped in her tracks and looked at Mana.
"What are you going to do," Mana said. "What's to become of you?"
"I'm no fool."
"Exactly my point," Mana jumped at Tiffany's words like a snake on a rat. "But try to explain that to this captain of yours, these friends, after the way you've behaved. They don't understand you. How can they. They haven't had the same experiences you've had. They can't know what it's like." She paused, slowed. "No matter how hard you try to hide it, you aren't one of them and you never will be. You are always different to them. And that's worse than being a fool, for humans. There's a niche for fools. There's no niche for difference."
"I do my job."
"Being successful in Starfleet is more than doing your job," Mana said.
"I get along."
"I've seen you with them, these peers of yours. You don't. Besides, it's Picard you care about. And he will never respect you. Unless you give him something to bite down on."
Mana caught Tiffany by the arm, stopping her.
"Do the right thing here," Mana said. "Save your people. And they won't be able to forget it, no matter what they might think of you themselves. They'll have to give you a place. They'll have to keep you around. That's really all you want, isn't it, just to be kept around? To just be allowed to stay here and do your job? Well, you'll have to earn it."
"None of this surprises me," Troi said. "And I don't believe it surprises you."
Picard looked up as if he were fully prepared to repeat himself; that is, to throw her the hell out. But he didn't, quite.
"Hugh does present a distinct presence," Troi went on. "It's very controlled, perhaps too controlled, perhaps a little disordered, but it's very strong and very individual. When it's there," she finished almost reluctantly.
"What do you mean, when it's there?"
"It isn't--consistent," she started as if, after having started, she didn't want to finish saying what she really meant. But it was too late. "It isn't consistently there. It seems to be mostly when we're engaging his attention."
"And when we're not? Then what do you sense?"
"Nothing."
Picard seemed particularly uneasy at this assessment.
"It seems to be mainly," Troi clarified, "when you're engaging his attention."
Picard stared her down.
"In a way," she said. "I think he wants you to respect him."
"In a way, I think I do."
Picard stood, and was headed out to the bridge, except that he paused there by Troi. "It's my fault," he said. "I've put him in this position."
"You were doing the right thing at the time, each time, in saving his life and sending him back to his own people. Nothing that stems from what you've done can be considered your fault. Hugh is a sentient individual. He has to make his own decisions."
"He hasn't many decisions left. Has he?"
I knew it would be impossible to track the scout if it actually did start to move away from us, which it seemed to be trying to do. No free lunch, I was thinking, and then I looked up. Had I said that out loud? Data was staring at me. As if I might actually explain myself, I looked that way, but at just the wrong time. Picard was emerging from the ready-room. Through the interference on the screen it was difficult to confirm for yourself what Worf was reporting to him, that the scout was powering up, or at least trying to, perhaps to flee. Picard stood right behind me and stared at the screen. Damn.
"Where's the Integrity?" Picard asked.
"She has re-establishing her position around the scout," I answered. And whether I could hear him breathing or it was just me...
"Is the scout actually moving away from us?"
"We will not be able to make that determination until the Integrity is in place," Data answered him.
That satisfied Picard, and he moved away. Not that I moved a muscle to look, it was just a lessening of the electricity around the back of my neck that told me that he was gone.
"I'm not sure I follow," Tiffany said shakily through trying to keep up with Mana.
"This one," Mana started.
"Hugh."
"Yes, whatever. What do we know about him?"
"We know he's angry, suspicious of us."
"We know he's compassionate. He's confused, or he wouldn't have helped us so readily on the Integrity. We can use both of those things to make him give us whatever we want."
"But, he's gone."
Mana stopped abruptly. "What if I told you I could get you over there, to the scout. And back, of course. What if I told you that this is an eventuality for which we came prepared--"
"I can't just go transporting back and forth to a Borg ship without permission. I'm in enough trouble as it is. One more wrong move out of me and I'll be in the brig."
Mana was shaking her head, anticipating the criticism and ready to move past it. "You can transport from the Tammuz. We have the proper equipment to get you on board. On the bridge of the Enterprise they'll read transient power fluctuations from the scout, but they won't be able to identify the origin. They'll attribute it to the only plausible origin, the scout. Any seeming discrepancy in sensor readings will be attributed to interference caused by the vent. "
"You have got this all worked out, haven't you."
"What if I told you," Mana ignored her, "that you can save your ship? Save your people, from the Dominion? Wouldn't that put things right?"
"Then I'd be on the scout, surrounded by them. It's Hugh we need. Not only do they not register as individual lifeforms, but even if they did, there would be no way to distinguish him from the rest."
"They aren't identical. They can't be, genetically. They wouldn't be able to survive. There has to be something that distinguishes one individual, that one, from the rest."
"There is. His character."
"But based on that you can't locate someone with sensor arrays."
"But based on that you can locate someone with this." Tiffany tapped the side of her head. "He's scared and confused and ineffectual, and he knows it. They're losing a battle I'm not so sure he wants to live to see the end of. He'll be in the outermost least structurally sound section of that ship that's left, the farthest away from the rest of them. He'll be isolated, and the only thing there that's functioning, and we'll be able to detect him."
"You're brilliant."
"Great. The only one to appreciate me and it's--" Tiffany shut up abruptly, looks self-conscious.
Mana finished for her. "A Romulan."
"That didn't come out the way I'd intended."
"Apology accepted."
Mana touched her combadge. "Mana to Chitin. Sequence delta xi omicron."
Tiffany and Mana beamed away.
It was all too easy.
"I knew I'd find you here," Tiffany said to Hugh. "You're a creature of habit."
"I am Borg."
"That doesn't even make sense. Listen to yourself. You alone are nothing. It isn't that I don't understand. You have your duty to your kind. And I have mine."
Tiffany pulled out her phaser and shot.
On to Chapter Six.
