"Full about, Mr. Data! Stand by to fire again.

" As the Enterprise came about again, they saw the other ship turning to meet them. It had been struck, but it was difficult to tell the extent of the damage. Apparently, it still had maneuvering power.

"He's putting the Wyoming between us," said Gruzinov. "And she can't maneuver out of the way."

"Stand by phasers, Mr. Worf," Picard said. "Open hailing frequency."

"Phasers standing by, Captain. Hailing frequency open."

"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise. Identify yourself!"

A bizarre image suddenly appeared on the viewscreen. It was the bridge of an old, Const.i.tution-cla.s.s starship, unchanged from the way Picard remembered it. However, the man seated in the captain's chair and the crew members visible around him looked decidedly out of place on the bridge of a Const.i.tution-cla.s.s starship. They were a mixed crew, including K'tralli and human freebooters, with an Orion at the weapons console and a Capellan seated at the navigator's station. But as strange as this outlandishly garbed a.s.sortment was, it was the man sitting in the captain's chair who immediately commanded attention.

He was neither human nor K'tralli, but some of both, with long, thick, and straight black hair hanging down well below his shoulders. He had a sharp-featured face with high cheekbones, a straight and narrow nose, a cruel-looking mouth, gracefully arched eyebrows, and a piercing, pale gray right eye. His left eye was covered by a black leather patch. He was dressed in a soft, sleeveless, black leather tunic, tight red breeches and over-the-knee black boots. He had a gold ring in his left ear and his bare, muscular arms were colorfully tattooed.

The combination of human and K'tralli ancestry gave him the aspect of a predatory elf, thought Riker. But it was immediately obvious that he was no Romulan, nor were the other members of his bridge crew. Behind him, Riker heard the turbolift door open and he turned to see Lieutenant Dorn come onto the bridge. She took one look at the viewscreen and froze, fascinated.

"This is Captain Blaze, of the Starship Glory. I regret to say I cannot see you, Captain. Your phasers have rendered my visual receiving scanners inoperative and caused some damage to my engineering section. My compliments to your weapons officer. His marksmanship is excellent."

Picard shook his head in astonishment at the freebooter's casual insolence and devil-may-care manner. "Captain Blaze?" he said. "Don't you mean DeBlazio?"

Blaze smiled. "So you know who I am? Well, it seems you have the advantage of me, Captain." He gave a slight, mocking bow. "Diego DeBlazio, at your service. But my friends simply call me Blaze. I fear you have arrived at a most inconvenient time. However, the stimulation of this encounter has more than made up for the loss of a fat prize."

"You will surrender your vessel immediately, Captain, and stand by to be boarded," said Picard.

Blaze grinned broadly, then chuckled. "You have a sense of humor, Captain. I like that in a man."

"If you do not surrender your ship at once, I shall be forced to open fire," said Picard.

"And do you plan to shoot through this helpless merchant vessel?" asked Blaze. "That would rather defeat your purpose, would it not? Of course, I could make things easier for you by blowing the Wyoming to pieces. Then we could trade broadsides at our leisure, so to speak."

Picard compressed his lips into a tight grimace. "Any further hostile action toward the Wyoming will result in the immediate destruction of your vessel," he said.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Blaze replied. "I've grown rather attached to this ship. She has served me very well. And it would be a shame to end things so soon when we are only beginning to become acquainted."

Picard glanced at Riker and saw that he was getting a slight facial tic in his cheek. He had seen that mannerism before, and it was a clear signal that Riker was absolutely furious.

"I will ask you one last time, Captain," said Picard. "Are you prepared to surrender your ship?"

"No, Captain, I am not," Blaze replied. "Why don't you come and take it, if you can?"

The image suddenly disappeared as Blaze cut off communications, replaced by the sight of the Glory, positioned just behind the crippled Wyoming.

"Stand by phasers, Mr. Worf," Picard said, tensely. "Mr. Data, prepare to-"

Suddenly, the Glory disappeared from sight.

"He's cloaked!" Gruzinov said.

"I'll be a son of a-" Riker caught himself and stopped.

"Stand by to come about!" said Picard.

"He can't fire when he's cloaked," Gruzinov said.

"But he may try to get around behind us," said Picard. "Stand by, Mr. Data."

"Ready, sir."

"Come about full!"

The Enterprise came about, but there was no sign of the Glory. They all waited, tensely.

"Scan for drive particle emissions, Mr. Data," said Picard.

"Scanning, sir," said Data. He shook his head. "I'm picking up rapidly decaying traces of drive particle emissions, Captain. He's gone, sir."

"Maintain shields," said Picard. "It could be a ploy."

Moments pa.s.sed, and nothing happened.

"He's given us the slip," said Riker. "We may have damaged him more than he let on."

"We did score at least one direct hit, Captain," Worf added.

"Well, at least the Wyoming's safe," Gruzinov said, exhaling heavily as he relaxed.

"So that was Captain Blaze," said Picard. He shook his head. "Well, you've got to give him one thing-the rogue does have a certain style."

Riker frowned. "I'd rather give him the business end of a photon torpedo," he said.

"My apologies, Captain," Worf said, tensely. "I allowed myself to be taken by surprise."

"No more than I, Mr. Worf," Picard said. "It was I who gave the order to lower the shields. I never imagined a mere freebooter would attack when he was so heavily outgunned. I allowed myself to be surprised by a common criminal."

"And a coward, at that," said Riker.

"He may be a criminal, Commander, but he is no coward," Worf said.

"Do I actually detect a note of admiration, Mr. Worf?" Riker asked, with surprise.

"Not admiration, sir, but respect, even if it is grudgingly bestowed," the Klingon replied. "It took a warrior's courage to attack a clearly superior foe."

"It was almost as if he were playing some sort of game with us," said Troi. "And he seemed to be enjoying it."

"It was no game, Counselor," Picard replied. "He was testing us. This is the first time a Galaxy-cla.s.s starship has visited this sector. He wanted to see what we could do. I had foolishly a.s.sumed he fled at our arrival, but it seems I underestimated Captain Blaze." He touched the communicator on his breast. "Picard to Engineering."

"La Forge here, Captain."

"What is the extent of the damage, Mr. La Forge?"

"We've sustained some structural damage on Decks 12 and 13, Captain, mostly in the shuttlebay area. I've got the areas sealed off and repair teams are at work in pressure suits. The situation does not appear to be critical, but I'd be a whole lot happier finishing the job at Starbase 37. It looks as if they tried to take out our starboard engine nacelle and missed, but not by very much. That was a bit too close for comfort. A direct hit there would have taken us clean out of action. This guy knows what he's doing, sir."

"What do you make of the sensor readings on that ship, Mr. La Forge?" asked Picard.

"The sensors were able to take a quick reading as he made his pa.s.s, sir," said La Forge, "but it wasn't enough time to get any really detailed information. It's a Const.i.tution-cla.s.s ship, all right, but it's a lot faster than it has any right to be, even if it had its original warp drives."

Riker nodded. It was exactly what he had been thinking. "Is there any possibility the ship might have been disguised by an artificial hull?" he asked.

"Practically none, Commander," La Forge replied. "She'd never be able to maneuver that way if she was. The only things I know of capable of making that kind of speed, aside from us, would be a Romulan light cruiser or a Warbird. Frankly, Captain, I'm at a loss to explain it."

"Work on it, Mr. La Forge," Picard said. "I want an explanation. Picard out."

He turned and saw that Lieutenant Dorn was still on the bridge. "Yes, Lieutenant?" he said.

"I ... Forgive me for barging in, Captain, but when the alert signal sounded, I thought ... that is, I didn't know if I could be of any help, but ..."

"But you wanted to see the man you've been gathering intelligence on all this time," Picard said. "I quite understand, Lieutenant. What did you make of him?"

She shook her head. "He was not what I expected, sir."

"I don't think he's what any of us expected," Picard replied, dryly.

"Well, at least you've blooded him," Gruzinov said. "You scored a direct hit on the Glory. That's a lot more than anyone else has been able to do."

"It didn't seem to bother him a great deal," Picard said.

"Bluff and bravado," Riker said. "He took refuge behind the Wyoming because he had sustained serious damage, enough to make him quit the fight."

"But not enough to cripple him," said Picard. "And speaking of the Wyoming ... her captain must be having a coronary. Open hailing frequency, Mr. Worf."

The captain of the Wyoming looked badly shaken when his image came onscreen. "Oh, Lord, is he really gone now?"

"He's gone, Captain Bryant," Picard replied. "Your ship is safe."

"Talk about being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea! I thought we'd had it for sure. Are your people all right, Captain? Did you suffer any casualties in that exchange?"

"Negative, Captain Bryant," said Picard. "Thank you for asking. Stand by, we will take you in tow. Enterprise out."

"No casualties," said Troi. "Not aboard our ship, or the Wyoming. Captain Blaze picks his targets very carefully. Whatever else he may be, he does not appear to be a wanton killer."

"Whatever else he may be," Picard echoed her, "he is clearly a highly capable ship's captain, and I shall not underestimate him again. What was your impression of him, Counselor?"

"He seemed very confident, Captain," Troi replied. "I sensed no fear in him. Quite the contrary. To use his own words, he found the encounter very stimulating. I would a.s.sess him as the sort of man who thrives on risk."

"And that, in addition to his obvious skill, makes him very dangerous," Picard said. "Forgive me, Ivan," he said to Gruzinov. "I must confess that I did not take your warning very seriously. I a.s.sure you it shall not happen again."

"I wonder about the timing of this whole affair," said Riker.

"How's that, Number One?" Picard asked.

"We wasted no time getting to the Wyoming," Riker replied. "But Blaze had already disengaged and prepared his attack. Maybe he picked up our response to the Wyoming's distress call. But on the other hand, maybe he knew that we were coming."

"J'drahn," Gruzinov said, realizing what Riker was suggesting. "He could easily have communicated with the Glory the moment we left the palace."

"Perhaps," Picard said, "but we have no proof of that. It is certainly possible, in fact, highly probable that Blaze intercepted our response to the Wyoming."

"Maybe," said Gruzinov, "but I think Commander Riker's right in his suspicions. If you ask me, J'drahn is into this right up to his crooked neck."

"If that's the case, then what does he stand to gain?" Picard asked. "To risk his standing in the Federation, to say nothing of violating his father's treaty with us, merely for the sake of some short-term profit?"

"You don't know J'drahn, Jean-Luc," Gruzinov said. "He and Blaze are both cut from the same cloth. Both egotists, both opportunists. J'drahn believes he can do anything he wants. And he really doesn't think that he can lose."

"He may find out differently," Picard replied. "But we shall have to handle this very carefully. If J'drahn is officially implicated, it could have serious political repercussions."

"I know," Gruzinov said. "That's the truly frustrating part of this whole thing. Whatever we do, we can't touch J'drahn, or he will claim the Federation is attempting to topple his government."

"I think I am going to have another talk with Overlord J'drahn," Picard said. "Mr. Data, set course for Starbase 37. Mr. Worf, engage tractor beam and take the Wyoming in tow."

"Tractor beam engaged, sir."

"Take us out of here, Mr. Data, impulse power only. Let's not shake up the Wyoming any more than necessary."

"Aye-aye, sir."

"You've got something on your mind, Jean-Luc," Gruzinov said.

Picard nodded. "Yes, but we shall discuss it in detail later. I think the Glory may have sustained more damage than Blaze admitted. And that means he will be making for his home base."

"D'rahl," Gruzinov said. "That's where it is. I'll stake my career on it."

"Will you?" asked Picard. "Because that may be exactly what you shall have to do."

Chapter Two.

WHILE LA FORGE DIRECTED the repairs on the damage to the Enterprise in the main docking bay of Starbase 37, Picard, Riker, Troi, and Worf met with Gruzinov in the lounge aboard the starbase.

"Not exactly a very good beginning, is it?" Riker said wryly, as he sipped his coffee.

"On the contrary, Commander," said Gruzinov. "I'd say it was an excellent beginning."

"Outmaneuvered by some small-time, arrogant, frontier freebooter?" said Riker, with disgust. "Pardon me, but I fail to see what's so excellent about it, sir."