The Last Stand Part 24

"Listen to me! If you stay here, you'll die with the rest of us!"

"Tell me what you're talking about!" demanded Picard. "There is always hope, Kerajem. If I believe in anything, I believe in that."

Kerajem turned away. "We developed a project. It was a defense project. We called it Plan Blue Ultimate. It's a weapons system. We performed the final tests on it shortly before you showed up."

"Shortly before-?"

"The tests were-successful and we put Blue Ultimate into effect, hoping we would never have to activate it." Kerajem walked over to his desk. "We hoped against hope that it wouldn't come to this, but we have just about run out of time. The madness must stop now, and it falls to me to make sure that it does." He opened a drawer. There was a black box inside. Kerajem opened it and pressed a b.u.t.ton and threw a switch.

"What did you do, Kerajem?" Picard asked.

"I've just made sure."

"Wait a minute," Picard said. "We came here because we detected three brief warp-field signatures-oh, no." The captain went utterly pale. "You can't possibly mean what I think you mean."

"I see you finally understand," Kerajem said, shaking his head. "Forgive me, my friend, but it wasn't until this morning that I realized our Blue Ultimate technology and what you call warp drive must be one and the same thing. At least know that I wasn't lying to you about our not possessing warp technology when you asked me about it. I didn't realize we'd invented it."

Picard paled. "And you've also discovered that activating a warp field within the Cochrane radius of a main-sequence star will explode that star into a nova."

"Yes. Yes, we have. Three of our warp-field generators are orbiting the sun at a certain critical distance. I've activated one of those generators with this radio relay. The Krann will be gone-and so will we. You'd better leave now, Captain."

Picard slapped his communicator. "Transporter Room Two, this is Picard. Put me on the bridge right now."

As his friend disappeared into thin air, Kerajem felt no regret. He would have left just as quickly, given the chance.

Heads turned as Picard materialized on the bridge. "Mr. La Forge," he called, "I want our best speed to the local star."

"Aye, sir," came Geordi's somewhat puzzled voice. "You'll get our best."

"Ensign Ro, lay in a course. Lock it in. Maximum warp. Engage. Picard to Dr. Crusher."

"Yes, Captain?"

"When can I have my first officer back?"

It was just then that the turbolift doors slid open and out walked Riker and Troi. "Reporting for duty, Captain," Riker said as the counselor took her seat.

"Never mind, Doctor," the captain said. "Thank you. Listen, all of you. I've just talked to the First Among Equals. Some forty seconds ago, he sent a radio signal to activate a warp-field generator that is...o...b..ting the local star well within the Cochrane radius."

"The Lethanta are blowing up their own sun?" Troi gasped. "Why?"

"To take the Krann with them," Picard said. "No Krann s.h.i.+p could hope to outrace a nova wave front. Everyone in this star system would die-except for us. We could escape."

"What would you like us to do, Captain?" Worf asked for them all.

"There is a light-speed radio wave heading for one of three primitive warp-field generators...o...b..ting closely around the local star. We are presently outracing that radio wave. I intend to find the targeted generator and destroy it before it can be activated." There was iron in his voice now. "I intend to prevent this nova from occurring."

Data spoke up. "Of course, Captain, if we do not locate the correct generator in time, we will ourselves be caught in the formation of the nova."

"Better find it quickly, then," said Picard. The captain seated himself in his chair and, outwardly, appeared calm. Counselor Troi, sitting next to him, knew better. In the years she had known the captain, she had never detected such agitation within him.

Chapter Nineteen.

THE RADIO WAVE would take just under eight minutes to reach the warp-field generator from Nem Ma'ak Bratuna. It had been sent six minutes ago. Every sensor aboard the Enterprise was strained to the limit and beyond in an attempt to find the generator before the radio wave could activate it.

It was worse than finding a needle in a haystack. They were trying to find the barest speck of matter against the biggest sea of electromagnetic radiation in that part of s.p.a.ce.

Troi was beginning to read something new in Captain Picard, something she had never before felt from him.

Despair.

"Captain," Data suddenly said, "I am picking up what I believe to be the radio wave sent by Kerajem to activate the generator."

"Are you sure, Data?" Picard asked. Troi blinked with the suddenness of his change of mood.

"Reasonably so, sir. It has every indication of having been generated artificially, and it is heading in the proper general direction." He paused. "I have extrapolated the path the wave will take to its target. May I suggest, sir, that we concentrate our efforts to locate the generator along that path?"

"Make it so. Mr. Worf, I want photon torpedoes ready to go on my order. We will not have much time."

"Aye, sir."

"Captain!" Harkey cried. "I have a blip at three twenty-two mark seventeen! Range forty-three thousand kilometers."

"Let's see it." The image on the screen swam for a second. There was some interference in the image because of the proximity of the Enterprise to the local star, but-wasn't that it? Could that be it?

"Torpedoes ready, Captain," Worf reported. "I am having difficulty locking onto the target. We are quite close to the local star."

"Do what you can, Lieutenant. Time to generator reception of destruct code, Mr. Data?"

"Twenty seconds to zero, sir."

"Mr. Worf," Picard said tightly, "target that d.a.m.ned thing and fire!"

"No lock, Captain," Worf said. "Firing in manual mode. Torpedoes away."

Picard and everyone else watched the screen as the flight of four glowing red torpedoes coursed quickly away from the s.h.i.+p. The captain could almost feel Worf's concentration as a physical force as the Klingon worked quickly and efficiently behind him.

"Ten seconds to zero," said Data.

"Second volley ready, Captain," Worf reported.

"One way or the other, Mr. Worf, a second volley will not be necessary."

"Five seconds, sir," Data said.

There was a flash of blinding white light from about forty-three thousand kilometers away, and then there was another.

"Target destroyed, Captain," Worf reported.

"The count is zero, sir," said Data.

They all paused for a moment.

"Well," Troi said brightly, breaking the silence, "we're all still here."

"Indeed," said Picard. "I suppose we got the right one, after all. Good shooting, Lieutenant. Harkey, get us back to Nem Ma'ak Bratuna. Maximum warp. I want to talk to Kerajem again before he decides to do something else insane."

"Course laid in, sir."

"Engage."

It would not be long now. Kerajem wondered if he would have time to see the sky light up in amazing fas.h.i.+on just before the end. Probably not, he decided. Some of the scientists on Plan Blue Ultimate had gotten together to write a cla.s.sified piece on what the nova would do to Nem Ma'ak Bratuna-blow off the atmosphere, boil off the seas, maybe even blow off the crust of the planet. At the core of the piece was the notion that no one would feel anything as the wave front engulfed the world.

That was good. Kerajem was tired of feeling.

With ten seconds left in his life, Kerajem suddenly heard a voice behind him. "h.e.l.lo again, my friend."

He whirled. "Picard?!? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to try to talk some sense into you. No, your sun hasn't gone nova. We stopped it."

Kerajem went pale. "How?"

"Never mind. Killing everyone is an act of despair. There is still hope of peace. Is that understood?"

Kerajem nodded slowly.

"Good. Now please come with me. We're returning to the Enterprise. Picard to Transporter Room Three. Two to beam up."

Picard was again standing on the bridge, this time with Kerajem at his side.

"Let me make myself clear," Picard told the Krann bureaucratic functionary who was on screen. "The First Among Equals and I will talk to Presider Hek within three minutes."

"The Presider will speak to no one at this time," the functionary said. "The Fleet is in a state of emergency."

"The Presider will speak to me," Picard said, "or the entire Krann fleet will be destroyed-not by us, but by the Lethanta. I promise you that they have the means. He had better talk to me."

The bureaucrat looked doubtful. "The Presider has left orders-"

The transmission was interrupted. "Never mind," came a familiar voice. The image of the functionary was replaced by that of Presider Hek. "I monitor all this claptrap, Picard, even during Fleet Congress meetings." The Krann leader was standing at the lectern in the Great Hall. "You're talking to the entire Congress this time," Hek told Picard, and there was a chorus of cheers. "What do you want now?"

"I want you to listen to me, Hek," Picard said. "I want you to listen to me very carefully. Unbeknownst to us, the Lethanta have developed a device that can explode their star. It is a doomsday weapon, and it is intended to destroy your entire Krann fleet, should you destroy the Lethanta, by exploding this star and catching you all in the wave front. Both races will perish, not just one."

There was some muttering in the background from the members of the Congress, but Hek only laughed. "Why should I believe this nonsense?" he said derisively. "This isn't even very entertaining."

"Look at me, Hek," demanded Picard. "Look at me. You are the supreme leader of a race of three billion people. You have some skill at reading people. Tell me:Am I lying?"

Hek looked at Picard for a long, long moment. "All right, Picard," Hek said finally. "Either you're telling the truth, or you're the greatest liar I've ever met-and I don't think you're anywhere near that good." That drew a laugh from some of the Congress members. "A doomsday weapon, you say? The Lethanta can actually blow up a G0-type star? From what I understand of stars, that can't be done."

"Yes, it can."

Hek waved a hand. "All right. Let's a.s.sume for the sake of argument that the Lethanta can do this. What are we supposed to do about it?"

Picard began ticking off Kerajem's demands on his fingers. "The Krann fleet must cease all hostilities against the Lethanta at once. All Krann vessels are to remain at station-keeping. The Krann and the Lethanta will immediately commence meaningful, Federation-mediated negotiations to resolve their differences."

Many members of the Fleet Congress began to boo, and Hek almost smirked. "You actually want us to have 'meaningful negotiations' with the people who destroyed our world," he said. "Picard, I'm astonished. Perhaps we'll let them live, if what you say about the doomsday weapon is true-but come to an agreement with them? You're hallucinating."

"Nonsense," Picard said, and he allowed his annoyance to show. "Your war against the Lethanta isn't any n.o.ble crusade, Hek. It's nothing more than an elitist ploy to spread wealth and power among the civilian and military leaders.h.i.+p of the Krann. Most of your people have never even heard of the Lethanta, much less want to go to war with them."

The turbolift door slid open, and Beverly Crusher stepped onto the bridge. Picard turned and saw her. "Ah, Doctor. Have you completed your work?"

"Yes, Captain, and so has Mr. La Forge. I have the results you asked for-and the proof." She looked at the screen and held up an isolinear chip.

"What's this about, Picard?" Hek demanded.

Picard clasped his hands behind his back and began. "As you know, Presider Hek, we recently visited your ancestral homeworld and took a large number of biological samples. Necessarily, we also took some samples of the biological agent that ran rampant on your original world and killed all higher orders of life. Dr. Crusher has spent a great deal of time since then trying to figure out just what this biological ent.i.ty was. Would you like to continue, Doctor?"

"I'd be pleased to, Captain. Presider Hek, I have done a thorough a.n.a.lysis of that biological agent, and I have the findings here. I regret to inform you that the agent is not Lethantan. It is entirely of Krann origin, and it is entirely natural."

"Eh?" Hek said, looking confused. "What's that you say?"

"The virus that destroyed most life on your world arose naturally. It happens, Presider Hek. The catastrophe that befell your world was a natural occurrence. The Lethanta did not attack you. When you bombed their world, the few survivors left that star system as quickly as they could. They never attacked your planet in retaliation for your attack on them."

"I don't believe it!" Hek exploded. "The Lethanta killed our world! The virus was not an accident!" The members of the Fleet Congress began shouting.

Kerajem nearly collapsed, and Beverly rushed over to steady him. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I didn't realize this would be quite such a shock to you."

"This is beyond belief," said the First Among Equals. "Dr. Crusher, Captain, all our people have been brought up with the terrible guilt of knowing that we destroyed the world of the Krann for no reason other than spite. Now it turns out not to be true. It never was." There was a touch of wonder in his voice as he said it.

Picard addressed the Krann leader. "Presider Hek, Dr. Crusher's findings are being broadcast throughout your Fleet even as we speak. Every device you have that is capable of storing and printing out information is receiving a copy of Dr. Crusher's report. Your scientists are free to check it-in fact, knowing scientists as I do, they are certain to check it whether you approve of it or not. There is also a summary of the report that has been phrased in layman's language, and it is being distributed over your information networks to as many of your three billion as we can reach. There is also a brief but interesting account of your government's role in prosecuting this unnecessary war against the Lethanta. This report has been included as part of the mission you a.s.signed us under our Prime Directive to preserve the interests of the members of the Krann Fleet."

"How dare you!" Hek bl.u.s.tered.

Picard was placid. "There are a number of things our people are very good at, Presider Hek, and one of them is getting information into the right hands. Our people have a saying, Hek: 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'"

Epilogue.