"Don't be," she snapped coldly. "Understand this, La Forge: I am not acting out of some idea of Federation-style n.o.bility. I intend to go home, and if I can secure the trans-slipstream technology then that will be an excellent bonus. If I can make an alliance with these aliens for it, I will. If I have to steal it, I will. If I have to force it from them, I will."

"And if you can't, you'll let Varaan destroy it."

"I don't believe it will come to that, do you?"

"Would you have put your warbird between Varaan's ship and the aliens?"

"Of course not," she replied blandly. "A Federation ship is something I'd be all right with sacrificing if something went wrong." She hailed Varaan again. "Varaan, do you have transporter power?"

"Yes."

"Beam me aboard." She gave La Forge a little wave with her fingers as the Romulan transporter beam took her away.

Varaan was waiting in the transporter room when she materialized. "I hadn't expected to see you again, Madam Chairman," he said. "You were reported dead, the Stormcrow Stormcrow destroyed." destroyed."

"It was. One of those alien vessels collided with it."

"And Challenger Challenger picked up survivors." He paused. "You're looking well." picked up survivors." He paused. "You're looking well."

"So are you." He was unsure whether she sounded pleased or displeased at that fact.

Varaan shrugged. "My orders were to find out what happened to you. Since I've now done so, I'm at the Tal Shiar's disposal."

"Good. I was worried you might try to play politics."

"We've never seen eye-to-eye, Sela."

"That's putting it mildly."

"Your mother stole my father. How am I supposed to feel? Every time we see each other, I see that human in you."

"You think that's enough? I see the image of a traitor every time I look in the mirror. Unlike you, I can't just turn and run away from the stink of humanity that's on me. You think you hate them? You're not infected by them. You can't feel their taint on you, every waking moment."

He preferred her when she spoke this way. It showed her loyalty to the Empire. "What are our plans, Madam Chairman?"

"Guinan on the Challenger Challenger thinks she may know how to contact the aliens. If she succeeds, we want their trans-slipstream technology. We also have a missing away team." thinks she may know how to contact the aliens. If she succeeds, we want their trans-slipstream technology. We also have a missing away team."

"Do you want me to send more soldiers to Challenger Challenger and take her as a prize?" and take her as a prize?"

Sela looked tempted for a moment. "No. It's damaged beyond repair. I think we should bring the Stormcrow Stormcrow survivors over here. I'll give La Forge his useless ship back, and let Guinan make her attempts at contact, on the proviso that I stay there and take part." survivors over here. I'll give La Forge his useless ship back, and let Guinan make her attempts at contact, on the proviso that I stay there and take part."

"And you expect him to not throw you in his brig?"

Sela smiled. "As I say, we have a joint away team missing. And Starfleet has rules about visiting foreign dignitaries. La Forge knows the ramifications of my well-being."

"He might just kill you anyway. Out here, who'd know the difference?"

"No, he can't harm me. That's a piece of programming I had buried in his head a long time ago. Standard psycho-surgical procedure." The expression on her face chilled even Varaan to the bone.

45.

It had been, La Forge reflected, probably the shortest capture of a Starfleet vessel in history. Ten minutes after Sela had dematerialized from Challenger Challenger's bridge, the two Romulans had done likewise. Qat'qa had immediately run for the battle bridge, to check for damage there. She had quickly explained that she had found Sela's radiogenic marker there, and that she had planned to set a trap for the Romulans, as Nog might have done.

Not knowing their code-word rendered her efforts moot.

Two minutes after she had gone, Sela re-materialized. Carolan had a phaser on her immediately, but she ignored it. "Captain La Forge, I apologize for, briefly, taking over your ship, to protect it."

"Why have you come back? Don't you have a nice working ship now?"

"I do, but I still have a mission as well, and it's the same mission as yours. We both need the use-or the help-of these aliens if we're to get home. Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist has fully working warp drive, but as you said yourself it's a two-hundred-year trip to the galactic barrier." has fully working warp drive, but as you said yourself it's a two-hundred-year trip to the galactic barrier."

"What is it you want?"

"To pool our resources. I've withdrawn my people from Challenger, Challenger, but will continue to offer a.s.sistance. We do have a joint away team to recover as well," she reminded him. but will continue to offer a.s.sistance. We do have a joint away team to recover as well," she reminded him.

"And what is it you want in return?"

"Just to remain on your bridge, and take part in any communications that you and Guinan establish with the aliens."

La Forge's first instinct was to toss Sela in the brig, but he knew that first instincts and knee-jerk reactions were usually wrong. Years of Starfleet training and experience told him that working together was always for the best, and she did have a point about both the away team and the need for a.s.sistance in returning to their home galaxy. Besides, placing the head of a foreign government's intelligence arm in custody could start a war.

"All right. But one sign of trouble, and you're in the brig."

"You can trust me," Sela promised.

Leah sat at the ops console, trying not to look at Sela. She wasn't certain that she could hold her tongue if she looked the Romulan torturer in the face. For that matter, she wasn't sure she could hold her fists or feet in check either.

So she concentrated on doing everything she could to get a sensor reading on the aliens. Anything she could find that would help make contact might help them get home.

She was tempted to try ma.s.saging her temples to see if direct physical stimulation would get her head into gear, but she knew from long experience that it didn't work that way. Her mind was a frustrating blank, and it shouldn't be. She was a starship designer, an engine designer, and as such she should have some idea of how to read those d.a.m.ned things out there.

The alien ships were sensor-dark even when they moved, and they shouldn't be. They left enough trails in subs.p.a.ce and slipstream s.p.a.ce.

That's it, she realized. Perhaps they radiated energy, or communicated, she realized. Perhaps they radiated energy, or communicated, in in subs.p.a.ce rather than subs.p.a.ce rather than through through subs.p.a.ce as most technological cultures did. subs.p.a.ce as most technological cultures did.

Swiftly, Leah phased the active sensors to read energy signatures in subs.p.a.ce, and there they were. It was so simple, and yet it had taken her so long that she just wanted to scream at herself.

"Captain," she said. "I think I've finally got some sensor readings on one of the alien ships." She brought up a set of waveforms on screen, which were layered within each other in multiple nested sub-channels.

"I've never seen an engine signature like that before, have you?"

"Never. No engine signature, no EM output, nothing like that. She cursed the fact that Scotty, Reg, and Nog were all missing. One of them would surely have seen something like this much earlier.

"Can you patch it through to Tomalak's Fist Tomalak's Fist?" Sela asked.

"Do it," La Forge ordered. "The more people look at this, the better chance of someone recognizing it."

"Aye, sir." Leah began sending copies of the waveforms. "I'll also patch it through to as many screens on this ship as possible. Maybe Vol will recognize it."

"Excellent." La Forge returned to Guinan, and her tales of myth and legend. "What about making contact with them? Have you heard of that being done?"

"I know it's been tried. Some stories say it works, some say it doesn't."

"We've been trying regular hailing frequencies with no luck. If they're a s.p.a.ceflight-capable race there must be something-"

"I don't know, Geordi, they could just be too . . . alien. It happens sometimes. The clue's in the name."

"It's at times like this that I wish Deanna was on board."

"There are a couple of Betazoids in the crew. And Vulcans," Carolan said.

"None of them are trained for the sort of contact we need, but if someone can talk to them and get them to help out, that'd be great," La Forge said.

"I'll see to it," Carolan said, and left the bridge.

"What about radio on 21.1 hertz, or gravity waves?" Leah mused aloud.

"Sickbay to Captain La Forge." Ogawa's voice was urgent. Ogawa's voice was urgent.

"What is it, Doctor?"

"These waveforms that are being patched through. Are they important?"

"They're the only energy readings we can pick up from the alien ships. It's some kind of drive signature neither Leah nor I have ever seen before."

"That's not a warp signature. Or any other kind of technological energy signature."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I see this kind of reading every day. It's a set of alpha, delta, and theta rhythms."

"You mean like brain waves?"

"Exactly like brain waves."

"Then those ships out there . . ." Leah could see the same frustrated regret in him that she felt in herself a few minutes ago. Geordi was realizing that he should have seen the truth long before now, and she wished she could just go and make that feeling leave him.

"Aren't ships," Ogawa confirmed. Ogawa confirmed. "They're s.p.a.ceborne life-forms. Can you come down to sickbay? I think I have an idea." "They're s.p.a.ceborne life-forms. Can you come down to sickbay? I think I have an idea."

Doctor Ogawa was standing by one of the few unoccupied biobeds. Helped by a tech, she was positioning a dome-shaped neuroscanner at the head end of the bed when La Forge, Sela, and Guinan came in. She patted the biobed. "Have a seat, Guinan. We're just about ready for you."

"You do know I feel perfectly fine, don't you?"

"You look the picture of health to me," Ogawa agreed.

"Then what's with the brain scanner?" Guinan asked.

"You're trying to communicate with the s.p.a.ceborne aliens?"

"Yes," said La Forge.

Ogawa patted the scanner. "The brain gives off electrical energy which we can monitor with this. We can also input electrical impulses into a brain. The receptor circuits transmit neuro-electrical energy into your visual cortex, and that cortex forms the images you see."

"Okay, so how does this help us talk to these aliens?"

"If we can scale up the effect, we should be able to make them understand us."

Sela was fascinated by the idea. "You mean directly access their cognitive centers? Perform psycho-surgery on them?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to call it that, but . . ." Ogawa helped Guinan off with her broad hat as she sat on the biobed. "We can use this to calibrate our shields and the deflector array to mimic the neuro-electrical appearance and signals of the aliens."

"They'll think we're one of them?" La Forge asked.

"Possibly. More importantly, with Guinan's brain-waves as a control baseline while she establishes contact, we should have a translation matrix available very quickly. Then we can feed our-Guinan's-responses back to the alien by way of the main deflector." Ogawa blinked and looked from face to face. "Is that all right?"

"Alyssa, that's genius! You're in the wrong business."

"Not really. The body's just a bio-chemical machine in need of engineering. Or maybe I'm just on the right ship."

"Let's find out," Guinan said from under the neuro-scanner. "You're not going to be shooting neural energy into me, are you?"

"Only a little, directly into your auditory cortex. What they beam back onto our shields, if they reply at all, you'll hear as words and can relay to us." Alyssa handed Guinan a small device. "Press the b.u.t.ton when you're talking to the aliens, so the system knows to patch you through. Let it go when you talk to us. When there is enough data the communications system will cut in."

"Okay," Guinan said, sounding uncertain, if not actually outright suspicious. "Let's talk to them. What do you want me to say?"

"How about h.e.l.lo," La Forge suggested.

"h.e.l.lo?"

The alien nearest to Challenger, Challenger, and in a direct line with the deflector beam's signal, spun on its axis without warning. and in a direct line with the deflector beam's signal, spun on its axis without warning.

On the bridge Qat'qa and Leah didn't like the look of it. "Captain," Leah said into the communications system, "one of the aliens is approaching. I'm reading more activity in those brainwaves . . ."

"That means it's responding," Alyssa said. "Do you understand these signals, Guinan?"

"Sort of, I think. There's a good reason why my people are called listeners. Every species explores its environment in a different way. Some use radio signals, or telescopes. Some dissect other species, or observe them. We listen, and so we learn about the universe around us."

"What does the alien say?" Sela demanded.

La Forge didn't know what he expected to hear from it. A h.e.l.lo, an order to leave, a welcome, an expression of surprise?