The Last Stand Part 5

"It is quite well preserved," Data said.

"Thank you, Commander," Kerajem said, smiling. "It's been restored several times. We try to keep it in good repair." He leaned slightly forward and looked down at the tabletop. "I sometimes find this restful."

Picard looked, too. It was like gazing into a pool, with only his own mirror image guarding the border between the surface of the table and the infinity that began just below it. The gloss of the finish used was unmarred and incredibly reflective. Out of the corner of his eye, Picard spotted Data and the others from the Enterprise doing the same.

"It's lovely," Troi said quietly. "So peaceful."

"We have it refinished every so often," Kerajem said. "Each time we repair the table, it comes back to us better and stronger."

Picard looked up. "I sense there's a parallel there to the experience of your entire world, First Among Equals."

Kerajem smiled a secret smile. "I believe there is, Captain. Shall we all be seated? We have a great deal to talk about."

"Certainly." Everyone took their seats.

"If I may, Kerajem," Picard began, "I would like to ask you about these ancient writings that Minister Rikkadar referred to aboard the aircraft on our way here. Perhaps they might offer us further clues about your past-"

Out of the corner of his eye, Picard saw Troi suddenly sit up perfectly straight. Her hands were clasped easily in front of her on the table, but the captain saw that she was holding one forefinger slightly elevated. Wait.

Picard saw that, suddenly, several of the faces across the table had grown clouded with something that seemed like anger. With the skill of long practice, the captain smoothly changed the course of his remark. "-but, of course, all that can come later. We feel sure that all of you must have many questions for us." He smiled encouragingly. "Please proceed."

Security Minister Jemmagar had something very much like a sneer on his face. "Captain Picard, there is only one thing we want to know about," he said bitingly. "How did your s.h.i.+p get past the Krann line?"

Picard looked at him. "The Krann line? I told you that we know nothing of these Krann you've been talking about-"

Jemmagar slapped a hand on the flawless surface of the table, leaving a palm print. Worf stiffened. "Come, Captain!" Jemmagar prodded. "You know very well what I am talking about! How did you do it? How did you get past the Krann?"

Picard looked straight at Kerajem. The captain knew that his face was coloring with anger, and he did not bother to hide it. "First Among Equals, this is insulting and completely needless. I have a.s.sured you repeatedly that we have come here in peace-"

"Captain, please," Kerajem said, holding up a hand. "I tell you in all candor that no one here greeted the arrival of your s.h.i.+p with more antic.i.p.ation, more hope, than I-but your lack of response to this vital question is straining even my goodwill."

"Please, Captain Picard," Minister Klerran said, pain in his eyes. "Please tell us how you got through the Krann line unmolested. It is so vitally important to us. Surely you must see that. Surely."

Picard shook his head in puzzlement. He did not need Troi to tell him that Klerran was sincere. "We went through no line, sir. We have seen no Krann and have no knowledge of them. The first thing we encountered in this star system was your very own probe."

"The one that first detected you in the region of Ma'ak Unselbe," Jemmagar said. "Yes."

"Captain Picard," Minister Presinget said, "we really don't have much time for this nonsense. Please tell us about the Krann."

"We know of no Krann," Data said.

Jemmagar leaned back in his seat. "Of course you don't," the security minister said in a bored tone as he gazed absently at the ceiling. "You came here out of simple curiosity, is that it? How nice for you."

Picard ignored his tone. "We came here because we detected a certain form of radiation, a pulse, that was of interest to us."

"Do you generally go more than eight hundred trillion kilometers out of your way just to look at interesting forms of radiation pulses, Captain?"

"Frequently," Picard responded calmly. "Our mandate is to explore, to find out what we can, and to send back the information we gather. That is our job. That is what we do."

"I believe him," Minister Umbeltag said suddenly.

"You would," Jemmagar sneered. "Liberals!"

"What kind of radiation pulse was this?" Klerran asked. "It might help if we knew more about it."

"Indeed it might," Picard said, "but we have rules about revealing our technology to those who have not yet reached that stage on their own. Suffice it to say that it was radiation relating to the method by which we travel faster than light. Tell me," Picard asked cautiously, "have you been working on developing such a technology?"

"Don't answer that," Jemmagar said quickly.

Kerajem looked at the security minister with a sour expression. "Oh, come now, Jemmagar," he said. "No, Captain, we don't have any such program under way. We do have a presence in s.p.a.ce, of course. We have many of the kind of probes you encountered, all of which are unmanned. We have people in orbit aboard weather monitoring stations."

"Sir," Data said, "forgive me, but your people did come here from another star system."

"Yes, we did," Minister Terrestak said. "Ages ago-if our legends are to be believed."

"We will see," Captain Picard said quickly. "We will be glad to provide the Council of Ministers with all the data our rules permit."

"The question remains, sirs," Data continued. "How do your legends say you got here, to this planet?"

Kerajem looked at them for a long moment. "I can't answer that adequately," he said. "In fact, I probably can't answer that at all. We have a number of ancient writings that may bear on this matter, however."

"I would like to see those writings," Picard said.

We can provide them to you," Kerajem said. "They are contained in a religious tract that was used when the old theocracy ruled our world. The old religion was purged after the revolution, but there must be some copies of the scrolls left somewhere."

"I have one," old Rikkadar said quietly. "I've always had one."

Jemmagar sat back forward. "That's not allowed, you know."

The finance minister shrugged. "So? What are you going to do, Jemsy boy? Arrest me?"

Kerajem held up a hand. "It's all right, Rikkadar. My mother kept hers, too. Many people did. Captain, you'll have your own copy shortly."

"What about the Krann?" Jemmagar said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Supply these people with all the illegal religious doc.u.ments you care to, by all means, but first I want to know about the Krann."

Picard calmed himself. "Once again, Minister Jemmagar," he said, "we don't know anything about any Krann."

"Really?" Jemmagar continued. "You sailed through our entire solar system without seeing any Krann? You, who were able to detect three brief radiation blips from nearly a million billion kilometers away?"

"We saw no Krann," Picard said again. "We saw no one."

Jemmagar turned to Kerajem. "First Among Equals, it's time we ended this farce. Show him."

Kerajem paused in thought for a long moment. "Captain Picard," he finally said, "I suspect you might not have been entirely forthcoming with us. I must tell you that I'm disappointed. I'd hoped for much more from you."

"Kerajem, I a.s.sure you-"

"Never mind," the First Among Equals said, holding up a hand. He addressed the air. "Raise the cover panel," he called, and the wall behind Picard and the others began to slide smoothly into the ceiling.

"About time," Jemmagar said under his breath.

Every one of Worf's senses was at full alert. The Klingon, unarmed as everyone in the landing party was, had every intention of ordering an emergency beam-up should the Lethanta try anything. The sudden light touch of Troi's hand on his arm startled him. "We are in no danger from them," she whispered to him. "They are apprehensive and angry, but nothing more."

Worf gave her a small nod. Nevertheless, he held himself in readiness.

The wall slid fully up into the ceiling to reveal a large mirror about three meters tall and five meters wide. "Opaque," Kerajem called, and the mirror went dead black from end to end.

"Project real-time correlated view from all sentinel probes," Kerajem called, and an image swam slowly onto the black surface. It was a starfield, an unusually dense one.

No. It looked like a starfield, but there were too many stars. Far too many.

"That is a 360-degree view of the Krann fleet, Captain," Kerajem said. "As you can see, it surrounds us."

Picard's mouth opened. "A fleet? Do you mean to say that each one of those lights is-?"

"A Krann s.h.i.+p, of course," Jemmagar said impatiently. "At our last count, the oncoming Krann fleet consisted of one hundred sixty-three thousand, two hundred forty-seven s.h.i.+ps of various sizes and configurations. We estimate that there are more than three billion Krann aboard those s.h.i.+ps. Don't play the fool for our benefit, Captain Picard. Surely you knew all this already."

"I see one hundred sixty-three thousand, three hundred ninety-six Krann s.h.i.+ps indicated on this display panel, Captain," Data said. "Minister Jemmagar is incorrect."

"Some of those blips are false echoes," Jemmagar grated. "A completely accurate count is impossible. Might our friends from s.p.a.ce condescend to allow us a certain margin for error?"

"Uh, thank you, Mr. Data," Picard said distractedly. "Kerajem, you say these are Krann s.h.i.+ps? But we never saw them!"

The First Among Equals studied Picard for several moments. "I could almost believe that," he almost whispered.

Picard was still looking at the display panel. "On our way here to Government House, Kerajem, my first officer reported to me that we had detected a brief indication of cla.s.s-M conditions-that is, normal environmental factors-in free s.p.a.ce near the orbit of the fifth planet in this system. He was monitoring the situation closely, as the phenomenon could be interpreted to indicate the presence in this system of a known adversary of ours. There was no clue that it could have been anything like-this."

"The leading elements of the Krann fleet are just inside the orbit of Ma'ak Unselbe," Klerran pointed out. "Your s.h.i.+p may well have detected a temporary failure of the camouflage system of one of the Krann vessels. They are rare, but they occur. We've noted them in the course of our monitoring the approach of the Krann."

"You are able to track their s.h.i.+ps?" Worf asked. "Their camouflage system, as you call it, is of no consequence to you?"

Klerran shook his head. "It was at first, Lieutenant. We knew they were coming, though, and we kept looking for them in all sorts of ways until we finally found them. We have gotten very good at finding things, you know. We found you quickly enough, after all-"

"First Among Equals," came a voice from a hidden loudspeaker. "There is a priority call from Minister Hattajek at the War Room."

"Put it through immediately," Kerajem ordered. "Yes, Hattajek. What is it?"

"Kerajem, we are presently tracking two large craft of unknown type approaching the city at high speed. We are a.s.suming that they are hostile. Estimated time to your position is three minutes."

"I wonder whose they are," Jemmagar muttered, staring at Picard.

"Defense condition one," Kerajem snapped. "How come we didn't spot them sooner, Hattajek?"

"Unknown, First. General Blakendet suggests that they used a new type of camouflage that we were not initially prepared to detect. We spotted them only as they entered our atmosphere and left an ionic trail. We are tracking them closely now."

"Launch interceptor missiles," Kerajem ordered.

"Interceptors launched," came the reply.

Picard's communicator buzzed.

"Enterprise to Picard," Riker said. "We're tracking two unmanned chemically powered s.p.a.cecraft of unknown origin. They're leaving a significant ionic trail behind them. The unknowns are flying at an alt.i.tude of fifteen thousand three hundred meters at a constant speed of two hundred ninety meters per second, bearing seventy-seven degrees grid north and heading straight for your position. Present distance from you, forty-nine point three kilometers. Estimated time to target, two minutes fifty seconds."

"Are the unknowns dangerous?" Picard asked.

"We're not reading any explosive materials aboard either of the unknowns, Captain. There are power sources aboard that seem independent of engine configuration, however. Those sources may be part of onboard energy weapons systems. But at that speed, the two unknowns would be able to do considerable damage to the building you're in simply by cras.h.i.+ng into it. They need not be carrying warheads."

"Understood. Stand by, Number One. Kerajem," Picard said, "if there's anything we can do to a.s.sist you, please let us know."

"Thank you, Captain, but I believe we have this situation well in hand." The First Among Equals addressed the air again. "Hattajek, relay your tactical display of these two unknowns and the approach of our interceptors."

The view of the Krann fleet on the display wall was immediately replaced by a schematic map of the immediate region. The coast was shown as a jagged, glowing green line separating a black land ma.s.s on the left side of the map from a light blue ocean that dominated the right. The capital city area was a neatly bounded yellow zone between the coast and the Kajja Kojja mountains to the west. A group of six green streaks was moving rapidly from left to right across the map toward two red squares moving more slowly in the opposite direction.

"Those unknowns are not far off the coast," Picard observed.

"They will not get much farther," Kerajem said. "We are about to-"

The six green streaks suddenly disappeared from the map.

"Kerajem," came Hattajek's voice, "the interceptors are gone. We've lost all telemetry from them." There was a brief pause. "General Blakendet has just launched a second flight. We will try an interception over land."

Kerajem's voice was calm. "Do you have any idea what happened to the first flight?" he asked.

"No, Kerajem. It seems obvious that the unknowns shot down our interceptors somehow."

Picard's communicator buzzed again.

"Captain," Riker's worried voice reported, "each of the two unknowns emitted a short, high-frequency energy burst that cleared the sky in front of them as the interceptors were making their final approach. The burst shattered all six interceptors. We're tracking the debris. It's cras.h.i.+ng into the ocean in a three-kilometer-long path approximately thirty-five kilometers east of you."

"Stand by, Will." Picard looked at the schematic map. He and everyone else in the room watched for a minute as a flight of more than a dozen interceptors launched from near the capital headed toward the red squares.

"It looks as if they will meet not far from here," Picard observed.

"Eight point seven kilometers east of here, sir," Data said. "However, my estimate may be off by a minor amount if this schematic is not to consistent scale."

The dozen interceptors drew very close to the unknowns and then disappeared from the map, just as the first flight had.

"Riker to Picard. They've just done it again. All twelve interceptors in the second flight are gone, and we're tracking debris."

"The unknowns will arrive at these coordinates in thirty seconds," Data said.

"We're dead," Jemmagar said simply.

Kerajem turned to Picard as the red squares crossed over the boundary of the yellow zone that represented the capital city area. "Captain, I am most deeply sorry," the First Among Equals said. "We have no way of stopping those-those things-in time. We've involved you in our troubles, and now it seems you're to suffer for it."

Picard said nothing. He kept his face carefully blank.

"Unless-unless you can do something about this. Can you?"