I didn't get a warm reception in the council chambers, I'm afraid. Most of the council members had obviously been awakened, and none were happy about it. Someone had brought in two pots of coffee, and they were already working on the second. Even Gardner looked annoyed----unhappy, I'm sure, at being called away from the Church archives. He was about to get more than just annoyed.639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpssfZP97mR
"A crash session and we have to wait for him!" the bishop snarled, waving toward me. "I know we have a serious problem."
I looked at Jean-Luc. "Did you talk to Gardner?"
"Yes. I gave him the order. He should be taking care of it right now."
"Taking care of what?" LaForge demanded.
I ignored him and sat at the foot of the table. "Yes, we have a serious problem. The alien ship. We've got to undock from it, and we've got to get out of here."
I expected a sarcastic remark from the bishop, but he said nothing. Nobody else did, either. There must've been something in my tone that warned them. They all waited intently for me to explain.
I told them then what I'd seen, what Charles had discovered. I had difficulty talking about it, but I gave them enough detail so they would appreciate the enormity of what was there, and the implications. My pulse had become rapid again, and I felt dizzy. Breathe deeply, I told myself, breathe; this was no time to collapse.
When I finished, Hernandez stood.
"Unless there's going to be some insane vote in the next five minutes, I'm going to get us undocked from that ship. Any objections?"
There weren't any, and she hurried from the room.
Xi Jinping was the first to speak. "Okay, okay...the obvious conclusion is the aliens killed all the people you saw on their ship. But there ship is dead now. No signs of life, or that's what we keep hearing. Doesn't it seem likely that something happened to them, to the aliens, that they've died out, or abandoned ship, something like that?"
Before anyone had a chance to respond, Jean-Luc said, "What about what the old woman said, Pavel?"
"What old woman?" Racine asked.
"Susan," I answered.
"Susan?" snapped LaForge. "Who the hell is Susan?"
"The old woman from the alien ship?" asked the bishop. As usual, he understood more than did the others. Or more quickly.
I nodded. "Yes, the old woman from the ship."
"I assume she started talking," the bishop said, "and you did not feel it necessary to inform us."
"Jesus Christ!" LaForge exclaimed. "What the hell is going on around here?"
"I will thank you not to use His name in that manner, Mr. LaForge." The bishop's tone was stern and unyielding.
"I'm sorry. But what is going on?"
"Yes," Jean-Luc said, "the old woman started talking. But she didn't say much. Dr. J. was with her. The old woman seemed to be comfortable with Dr. J., and she finally came around a little, and started talking. In Standard English. She said her name was Susan. It was all a little disjointed, but she seemed to be saying that someone had been killing people on Antioch. Not aliens, but other people. Madmen, she said. She said the aliens rescued her and others from the slaughter. She also said she was a young woman at the time, so it must have happened years ago." He paused. "She said something had happened to the aliens, and they'd apparently died."
"Antioch is the problem," I said. "The old woman said 'Antioch.' She said she'd been rescued from Antioch." I left it there, hoping they would truly understand.
The bishop did, of course. "I gave that world the name of Antioch," he said quietly. "I refuse to believe those living there all those years ago had given it exactly the same name."
I watched the understanding work its way through the other council members. Even Cole Racine got it; but he was confused.
"What are you saying? That the old woman is---what? She's an alien?"
"She isn't human," I said.
"What? The aliens look exactly like us?"
"I don't know, Cole; I won't even pretend to know. It could be anything. An alien---essence animating an old woman's body they kept alive. Or some creature that can take on the form of an old woman. I----don't---know. And it doesn't matter. What matters is, she's not human." I paused. "And we've got to get her off this ship."639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDvMtPe5YF
"How?" the bishop asked.
"I told Gardner to get Dr. J. out and secure the room, and Jean-Luc gave him the order to sedate the old woman."639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvop2QTuKBx
"Then what?" asked LaForge. "After she's sedated."
"Then we give her a burial," I said. "We seal her in one of the coffins and jettison her from the ship. Just like we did to Doyle."
"She'll die," Pike said.
"Yes, she will."
"What if you're mistaken? What if she's just what she says she is? A confused, traumatized old woman who heard someone mention Antioch?"
"I'm not mistaken."
Jean-Luc tapped at the table controls and the wall screen came to life. A few moments later it was filled with Gardner's face.639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ4KsIXO4Ib
"Damn, I'm glad it's you," he said. "I've been trying to get through, but I was told you were in emergency session and couldn't be interrupted. I told Communications the survival of the ship was at stake, but they didn't believe me. I'm not sure I believe it myself."
"Did you get Dr. J. out?" I asked.
"Yeah, I got her out." Dr. J. moved into the picture behind Gardner, nodding toward us. "As soon as I got her out and secured the room. I began pumping in an aerosol sedative. The old woman woke up and went crazy. She's been tring to get out ever since." He shook his head. "Only she's not an old woman. I don't know what she is, but she's definitely not human."
Without warning, Gardner switched the video, changing the transmission to the video from a camera in the room. The old woman was clawing at the door with a hand now larger and darker with thick, crusted talons. She appeared to have shrunk in height but gained bulk, limbs now heavily muscled, yet, except for the one hand, she still maintained human form. The talons made slight gouges in the metal, but it seemed the door would remain secure.
Gardner's voice cut in, although the picture didn't change. "I'm pumping in the sedative at maximum rate, but I don't know how long it'll take to put her under." The woman picked up the chair and slammed it against the door, again and again. Her strength was incredible. "It'll get her eventually," Gardner said. "I hope to God before she manages to break out." He paused and switched the picture back to himself. "When she's under, then what do we do?"
"I'm sending a security team right now," Jean-Luc said. He was already tapping out commands on the table. "They'll have a coffin. When you're sure, absolutely sure that thing is sedated, we'll send the team in. They'll seal her up in the coffin and dispose of her. Just hold on until they get there."
"We'll be all right here," Gardner said.
Jean-Luc broke the connection, then finished tapping out the orders.
"Why don't we just kill it?" Xi interjected.
Jean-Luc shook his head. "We don't know what it would take to kill that thing. We don't know what would happen if we tried. Poison defense? Energy feedback? Shit, anything's possible. We don't take chances. Clean as we can make it."
"Should we attack the ship?" Racine asked.
Everyone turned to look at him incredulously.
"Once we get undocked," he added. "Shouldn't we attack?"
"Cole," Jean-Luc said, "I've wanted to tell you this many times over the years, and I'm going to tell you now. Sometimes you have the brains of a carrot. Once we get undocked, we get the hell out of here as fast as we can, period. We're not going to complicate this mess by launching an attack. We just might be able to get away without much trouble if we do nothing at all." He punched in more commands. "Unless I hear any objections, I'm ordering Navigation to set course and Engineering to run the warp-drive startup sequence." He glanced up, then back down at the table console and resumed keying.639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcq7InncJJV
We waited to hear from Hernandez, or Gardner, or maybe even someone else who would be calling through with more bad news. Time stretched painfully with the silence and tension.
Finally the wall screen flickered, and Hernandez appeared. She looked haggard. She was in a darkened control room, mute-lighted instrument panels in the background.
"We can't undock," she said.
"Explain," Jean-Luc demanded.
"The docking mechanism has become nonfunctional. It does not respond to commands. We've been trying every alternative routing, but there is no response. The whole thing's gone dead."
"Diagnostics?"
"Dead also. I've got a team suiting up right now to go out and try to disengage manually. If they can't do that, they've got equipment to cut and burn us the hell off that damn ship."
"Wait," Jean-luc said. "Hold off on the burning. That's too risky."
"We have no choice, Captain."
Jean-Luc slowly nodded. We all knew Hernandez was right.
"All right," Jean-Luc said. "Keep us informed."
"I will."
The screen blanked out. The silence and tension returned.
After some time, the bishop turned toward me and said, "You." He paused for a moment, then went on. "You're responsible for this. You've doomed us all."
"Don't be so damned melodramatic," Jean-Luc said. "We're not dead yet."
The bishop laughed. "You don't think so? What world are you living in, Captain?" His expression turned hard and bitter. "We're all dead men."
With that he got up and left the room.
Nobody would look at me. Nobody, that is, except Jean-Luc, who almost imperceptibly shook his head as if to say, Don't worry about it. But I couldn't blame them. We'd taken votes, but this had been my idea, and I had persuded the Planning Committee to go along.
"What do we do now?" Racine asked.
"Wait," Jean-Luc replied. "The bishop shouldn't have gone. Our job is by no means done."
Scotty started the pot of coffee around. There was no cup for me, and nobody offered to find one or have one brought in.
Nobody had the heart for small talk. Racine obsessively rubbed his right thumb and forefinger together while staring down into his own lap. Xi bounced a leg up and down. Wyse chewed on his lip. Pike, Jean-Luc and LaForge tried unsuccessfully to appear calm.
Racine broke the silence. "I'll do it," he said. "I'll as the question nobody wants to ask. What do we do if we can't break free? I don't have any good ideas. I don't even have and bad ideas. But we'd better start working on it, because I've got a strong suspicion that we're going to need an answer."
"Not now," Jean-Luc said.
"Why not?"
"Because we may not have to deal with that. And even if the problem does arise, we can't anticipate the circumstances. For now, we just wait."
"Brilliant leadership from our captain."
"You want to take over, Racine, I'll step down right now in your favor."
Racine's only response was to slump in his chair and jam his chin into his fist.
"Quarrelling isn't going to help," LaForge said quietly.
"Fine," said Racine. "Why don't you be captain? Hell, I'll gladly support you."
"This isn't the time for leadership changes."
The room lapsed into silence again. A few minutes later we were shaken by a rolling vibration. It persisted for two full minutes, rattling the coffee cups, shaking the chairs and table. I wondered if this was what an earthquake felt like. Then the vibrations abruptly ceased.
Jean-Luc had started keying the console when Hernandez's face appeared on the wall.
"The alien starship is coming alive, Captain. We don't know whether that was its engines starting up, or some other internal machinery, or what."
"What about the docking mechanism?"
"The crew's out there now. They've just started working on it. Nothing yet."
"Maybe we should call them back."
"No, Captain. If anything, it's become more imperative that we find a way to break free. I've given them orders to continue."
"Okay."
Hernandez's face disappeared.
"Maybe my idea of attacking isn't so crazy after all," LaForge said.
"It's still not a good idea," Pike responded.
"And why not?"
"We're still locked together with that ship, that's why not. We risk damaging the Enterprise. Retaliation's also much easier since we're so close."
"Launch missiles at those areas of ship farthest from us."
"To what end, Giordi?"
"Maybe it'll frighten them enough to let us go."
Pike just shook his head.
"How do we know that's such a bad idea?" Racine asked. He was rubbing his thumb and finger again.
"It may come to something like that," Jean-Luc said. "But we're not close. We've got alternatives. Give Hernandez's crew a chance. They may get it done."
The waiting dragged on, with increasing tension. I wanted to leave, to get away from the hostility and fear being directed indirectly at me. I didn't know how long I could stand it.
One hour passed, then another. People began to talk a little, trying to fill the void, but the conversations were forced and awkward. Nobody talked to me. Jean-Luc might have, but he was at the far end of the table, which made it impossible.
A faint jolt: then another. We all turned expectantly toward the wall screen. It stayed dormant. Maybe it was nothing.
No such luck. There was no image, but Racine's voice came through the speakers. She was breathing hard.
"I have't got much time," she said. "I'm suit up and on my way out. We don't know what happened, some kind of massive energy feedback, an explosion of some kind, some---we just don't know. The crew's down. Telemetry tells us we've got three dead, the others badly injured and crashing hard. Nobody's responding to our calls. We're on our wya out to bring them back in."
"I'm on my way," Jean-Luc said. "What kind of support do you need?"
"Nothing," Hernandez answered. "Med teams are on their way. You don't need to come, Captain. By the time you get here...."
Jean-Luc cut her off. "I'm on my way," he repeated. "Ship damage?"
"None. And we're still docked. Whatever happened didn't damage the docking mechanism, didn't damage a damn thing except our people. We'll try to have something else later----Okay, that's it. We're going out now."
"I'll be there as fast as I can."
The sound cut out; Hernandez was gone.
"Okay, Captain," It was Racine, leaning forward across the table. "Maybe now we'll have to start thinking about other alternatives."
"You start thinking, Racine. If you come up with any ideas, you just let me know." Jean-Luc turned to me. "Pavel. Make sure the old woman gets taken care of."
I nodded and stood. Jean-Luc stood as well, then said, "I declare this meeting adjourned."
As we left the council chambers, Racine called after us.
"The bishop was right! We're all dead men!"639Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhkv77Ja3Zi
