I must have blacked out at that point. When I came to, I was on the bridge of the Orion ship, lying in a corner where soft, purplish lighting bathed me in violet shadows. Worf was hunkered down next to me, watching the bridge officers apply themselves to their various tasks.

On the vessel's diamond-shaped viewscreen, I could see two Abinarri ships. As I looked on, one of them was stabbed by a bolt of disruptor fire. A moment later, the vessel shivered and exploded in a flare of pure, white light.

"Got him!" exclaimed the weapons officer, an awkward-looking fellow with four arms and jet black skin.

"We've still got one more!" roared the being in charge a ponderous female with wrinkled, gray flesh and eyes like tiny, glittering diamonds. "Target and fire, Mastrokk!"

With an effort, I sat up. Every part of me felt bruised to the bone, but the ringing in my ears seemed to have stopped for the most part.

My lieutenant turned to me. "Captain ...?"

Weakly, I held up a hand. "I'm all right," I a.s.sured him, though it came out little more than a whisper.

Then I remembered, and my throat constricted.

"Where's Abby?" I asked him.

Worf jerked his s.h.a.ggy head.

Following the gesture, I saw her. Abby was lying in another corner of the bridge, surrounded by Thadoc, Dunwoody, and three of her other crewmen. Even in the eerie, purple lighting, she looked paler than the living had a right to be.

My G.o.d, I thought.

I remembered what Abby and I had said in the turbolift just a little while earlier. "We're getting out of here," I had told her. "We can't allow ourselves to think any other way." And she had replied, "Whatever you say, Picard. But just in case we don't ..."

I got up on shaky knees and started across the bridge. The Klingon grabbed my arm as gently as he could, hoping to restrain me but I shrugged him off and kept going.

It can't be, I told myself. Not after we've come so far.

Thadoc and the others looked up at me as I approached. Their faces were grim, their eyesockets dark and hollow-looking though not half as hollow-looking as Abby's.

Sinking to my knees in front of them, I reached out and touched her cheek with the back of my hand. It felt cold, waxy to the touch.

"Abby," I said.

Suddenly, her eyelids fluttered. A moment later, she opened them and took in the sight of me.

It took me a second or two to come to grips with my surprise. "You're not dead," I observed wonderingly.

Abby's mouth pulled up at the corners. "No," she agreed weakly. "But I think you may be." She shook her head. "You look awful, Picard."

I grinned, though my skin was so bruised, it hurt mightily to do so. "As matter of fact," I told her, "I feel awful."

Just then, someone yelled "Fire!" It turned out to be the female in charge of the vessel.

Before our eyes, the last of our attackers spasmed and blew herself to atoms in a moment of terrible splendor. Abby frowned.

"The last of them?" she asked. Apparently, she hadn't had her eyes closed the whole time.

I nodded. "The last of them."

Madigoor "THEN IT WORKED?" asked the Captain of the Kalliope.

Hompaq grinned at the thought. "The warbird blew up and took your enemies with it?"

"So it would seem," said Picard.

The Klingon pounded the table with her fist. "Well done!" she rasped. "A feat worthy of a warrior!"

The captain nodded. "Thank you, Hompaq. Of course, I would rather have settled our differences with the Abinarri another way ..." He shrugged. "But as I noted, they didn't leave us a great many options."

"But why did your lieutenant have to come and get you?" asked Flenarrh. He leaned forward in his chair. "What prevented him from simply beaming you out of the commander's quarters?"

"A good question," said Picard. "Apparently, by that time, site-to-site transports had been made impossible by the release of plasma gas all over the ship. Worf had no choice but to fetch us personally."

"It's a good thing it was the Klingon," Dravvin noted, "and not someone less powerful."

"Or less determined," Robinson added. "The warbird might have destroyed itself at any moment. Yet your man ignored that fact, risking his life to save your own."

Flenarrh grunted. "A brave man, that Worf."

"A warrior," Hompaq pointed out.

The Captain of the Kalliope chuckled. "Your first officer certainly knew what he was talking about."

Bo'tex looked at him. "His first officer?"

The Captain of the Kalliope nodded. "Early on in Picard's story, the man said Worf was worth several ordinary officers. The facts seemed to have proved him right."

"To be sure," Picard agreed.

"But surely," said Robinson, "you're not finished, Picard? What became of the fair Lady Abby? And her stalwarts?"

"And Brant?" the Captain of the Kalliope added. "What happened to him and his rebels?"

"And their h.o.a.rd?" Flenarrh wondered.

The gecko perked his head up. It seemed he had some questions of his own, if he could only voice them.

"You're right," Picard told them all. "There's more of my story to be told ... if only a little."

The Tale

WE NEVER BEAMED back down to Brant's world. Rather, Brant and his fellow rebels beamed up to the mercenary vessel, along with all the equipment and supplies we had seen on the planet's surface.

And the h.o.a.rd as well.

Then we left the vicinity. Apparently, the rebels were well prepared, having decided in advance where they would rendezvous if they were ever attacked while their fleet was away.

Fortunately, the mercenary vessel had sustained little damage at the hands of the Abinarri. Cruising at warp eight, we would reach the rebellion's new headquarters world in a little less than two days.

In the meantime, we were treated for our injuries and given a chance to convalesce. Even Worf allowed his wounds to be dressed and subjected to a healing device of some kind. However, he refused to remain in the rebels' too bright, makeshift sickbay, preferring to prowl the purple-shadowed precincts of the ship.

I didn't have the strength to prowl with him, nor did I pretend to. I remained in sickbay, Abby's bed just a few feet from my own. I remember lying there as weariness and my medications conspired to overwhelm me, glad to see her color starting to come back a little.

After all, I had begun to care about her. To care deeply.

Finally, I succ.u.mbed to sleep a wonderful sleep, peaceful and without dreams. When I woke, I was surprised to learn I had been out for eighteen hours straight and that Abby was gone.

I searched for her throughout the ship. A few of the rebels said they had seen her, speaking here and there with the survivors of her crew. Then one of them directed me to the observation lounge.

That's where I found her. She was standing with her brother, gazing at the streaking stars through a large, diamond-shaped port. They were cast in a purple light, like almost everything else on that ship.

If our vessel had still been operated by its original owners, the Orions, the place would have boasted a wide variety of gambling paraphernalia. As it was, it contained just a few tables and chairs. I made my way through them to join the Brants.

Abby turned and smiled at the sight of me. She looked a lot better than when I had glimpsed her last. Her pallor was gone and her eyes were as bright as before.

"Picard," she said.

I nodded. "Or anyway, what's left of me." I turned to Brant. "I take it our journey has been without incident thus far."

"It has," he confirmed. "With any luck, it'll stay that way."

"We need to talk," Abby told me.

"I guess that's my cue," said Brant. "Glad to see you're up and about again, Picard." Then he made his way out of the lounge, leaving his sister and me alone.

Abby was silent for a moment, strangely pensive. Then she said, "I've spoken to my men."

"How are they?" I asked.

"They're fine," she replied. "I ... told them I was sorry."

"For what?" I asked.

Abby shrugged. "For letting them think there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. One they could keep, I mean."

"You didn't know there wasn't," I reminded her.

"But even if I had," she insisted, "I would still have led them on. I would have done whatever it took to put a crew together."

"Only because your brother's life was at stake. At least, that's what you thought at the time."

"Still," said Abby, "there's no way I could have carried off this gambit without them no way I could've made it to Hel's Gate, much less gotten through to this universe and helped turn away the Abinarri."

She had a point. Had her crew been any less capable or courageous, Abby would never have survived her encounters with the Carda.s.sians and the Romulans not to mention the pirates we kept running into.

"So they risked their lives over and over," Abby said, "and for what? In the end, they had nothing to show for it except my unending grat.i.tude and affection, as if that were worth anything on the open market."

"What did they say?" I asked.

"What do you think? Thadoc told me there was no need for an apology. He was glad to have followed me anywhere, for any reason." She grinned. "Dunwoody told me I'd have to make it up to him say, with another voyage. After all, he said, Dujonian's h.o.a.rd isn't the only treasure in the universe."

I smiled. "That sounds like him."

Abby's smile faded. "I thanked him for the sentiment, of course. But I said that it wouldn't be possible for us to make another voyage. He would have to find someone else with whom to seek out those treasures."

"And why is that?" I inquired.

She glanced at me meaningfully. "Because I have decided to stay here with the rebels."

Somewhere deep inside, I believe I had known she would say that. Still, it knocked the stuffing out of me. As I noted earlier, I had grown rather fond of Abby Brant.

"I see," I said.

Perceiving that I was less than ecstatic about her announcement, she took my hand. "Try to understand," she told me. "This is a second chance for me. A chance to do some good for people, to fight the good fight the way some of those privateers fought it whether you believe that or not."

"Abby ..." I said softly.

"And this time," she finished, "I don't intend to screw it up."

The observation lounge echoed with the force of her words. Blushing, she looked away from me, as if she had suddenly taken an interest in the stars outside our ship.

"Thadoc said one word," she went on. "It was 'no.' I asked him not to make my decision any harder than it had to be. 'Who's making it harder?' he asked. 'Your brother needs all the help he can get.' "

"Then Thadoc's staying, as well?" I asked.

Abby nodded, her eyes sparkling with reflected light. "Dunwoody, too. He said he could use a change of scenery if I'd have him."

"And you told him you would, of course."

She chuckled. "In a minute."

Abby had asked the other survivors as well, all three of them but they hadn't been quite so eager as Thadoc and Dunwoody. They wanted to go home to their own universe.

She turned back to me, her eyes seeking mine. "It'll feel good to have a couple of familiar faces around while I'm chipping at the Abinarri."

"No doubt," I said hollowly.

Abby's brow creased. "It'd be even better to have one more around. Say, for instance ... yours."

I didn't respond.