Chapter Five.

Federation Research Colony on Gamma Hydra IV Gamma Hydra Sector Section 2 Sixteen days ago "I'M telling you, it's probably just another comet. You get them here all the time, right?"

Young Miko Tariki idolized Dr. Spurn, so the good doctor decided not to crush the new transfer with a few well-chosen words. Yes, the fresh-from-university man was imbecilic, but he agreed with every scientific paper written by J.B. Spurn, and so the boy had some promise, if little else.

"Planetary defense systems have taken care of two comets in the last three years. Sensor stations throughout the system say we're clear," said K'leeta Mertal, head of research for the southern projects. Another imbecile heard from. She wouldn't know a comet if she was standing on its tail.

"One sensor buoy isn't responding," Spurn said. "Or did you forget that, my young flower?"

"Buoys fail all the time. There is sensor overlap." A beautiful woman, but Spurn had never seen her smile, not once, in his presence. "Or," she added, "did you forget that, my old weed?"

Petulant.

Horace Blake, colony leader-more a figurehead than a true decision-maker-finally stepped into the discussion he'd let meander for more than twenty minutes. "A starship will be by in three days for supplies and crew replacement. The-" Blake looked down at some notes, but didn't see the ship's name quickly enough.

"The Dezago," Spurn offered.

"Yes, the Dezago." Blake nodded.

Mertal pressed her lips into what Spurn figured was her version of a smile. "Why don't you go with the Dezago, J.B.? Get away for a month. Or two. Or twelve."

"As close as we are to the Romulan Neutral Zone, I should want to leave here. Who's to say our dead buoy isn't their doing?"

"We are very close to the Neutral Zone-" Tariki said.

"But Starbase 10-"

"Ignores us repeatedly, boy," Spurn scoffed.

"Well, they don't have their own starship, not since the Stacker was destroyed," one of the other, lesser members mumbled.

Spurn didn't know the person well, and didn't care to, he was sure. "We have a more immediate problem, ladies and gentlemen. We're running on batteries only."

"We have food stores to last us months," Blake said, glancing again at his notes. Chances are he didn't see that fact in his notes, and only used them to avoid the looks of others when he spoke. Spurn had yet to see the man look anyone straight in the eyes.

"I have several experiments that will falter when we lose the battery power to the labs," Spurn said. "There's a reason why there aren't any of the generators working, and we should find out what it is."

Mertel smiled. "You're a scientist, J.B." so you tell us."

"If I ever want to write a paper on arrogance, I know where I'll find my subject," Spurn said.

"A mirror? Or will you look in the holosuites?"

"Listen here, I've had it with-"

"Enough!" All were taken aback. Blake rarely yelled, and never became unpleasant "I'm afraid this is the situation, people. Subs.p.a.ce communications are out and the Dezago isn't due for three more days. In that time, we may lose our research, but we won't lose our lives. I'd call that d.a.m.ned lucky."

"I'd call it-"

"No one cares what you'd call it, Spurn."

"Professor Blake, do I need to take this abuse?"

Some men are crashed by pressure. Others, pressure hardens and focuses them.

"Not at all," Blake said. "You're not required to be at these meetings at all."

Starfleet Sensor Monitoring Station Sector 001-Sol III [Earth] Detroit, Michigan Sixteen days ago "Oh, come on, Hedrick, you're not working on all thrusters with that one." Crewman Chris Spiker half chuckled, half winced at yet another of his chief's "supposin's."

"Hey, you don't need to believe me." Hedrick clicked b.u.t.tons on his console with the ease of rote. "I'm just tellin' you what the reports say."

Spiker turned and picked up a padd. "Hmmmm..." He poured over the text with mock intensity. "The reports say four ships have lost power under mysterious circ.u.mstances. They say nothing about some hokey Romulan invasion plot."

Nodding matter-of-factly, Hedrick said, "You gotta learn to read between the lines, young' un You been a sensor jockey for what? Five seconds? I been-"

"I spent thirteen months on the Jenkins."

"Science vessel," Hedrick scoffed. "And thirteen months ain't nothing. You're so d.a.m.n young, I 'spect when you smile I don't know if something's funny or you got gas."

"Spare me the southern jibes, Chief. If you're so d.a.m.n smart-" Spiker tossed the padd down and swiveled his chair toward the other console he needed to calibrate.

"Yup. Am smart. You don't think so? You tell me why four different ships in three days have had this power-loss thing. And all near the d.a.m.n Romulan Neutral Zone."

"Yeah, yeah. There's no evidence-" Spiker turned back around.

Hedrick rolled his eyes. "Geez. There's no evidence of a cloaked ship until it's on top of you, is there? And I've heard about a few other things happening to other ships, a few Romulan colonies."

"You can't believe barroom talk from gossiping traders."

"You can't. I can. Nine times outta ten, it has a kernel of truth-"

This time Spiker was the one to roll his eyes. "See, listen to you: 'kernel of truth." "

"You just gotta know what sounds plausible and what doesn't. Remember the conspiracy thing with Admiral Quinn and those parasites thirteen years back?"

Crewman Spiker grinned. "Before my time, Gramps."

"What isn't?" Hedrick grinned back. "Anyway, I heard 'bout that a week 'fore the press did."

"Fine, let me get this straight. The Romulans want to go to war, despite our being allies now, and are testing some new disabling weapon. Is that the latest from the Great and Powerful Mind of Randall Hedrick?"

Hedrick shrugged. "Maybe."

Leaning over and resting his arm on Hedrick's console, Spiker almost whispered, as if the two of them were keeping some dark secret. "Okay, Chief, one question: Why? Why now, and over what? We're all hurting from the Dominion War, the Romulans as much as us."

The older man shrugged. "I don't make the news, I just report it. Who knows why the people in charge do what they do? Five'll get you ten, even they don't know half the time."

Spiker c.o.c.ked his head to one side, pursed his lips, then nodded. "Yeah, that one I buy."

Abruptly, Hedrick turned away toward a blinking monitor. "Hey, you picking this up?" Suddenly his accent was less defined.

Turning toward his own panel, Spiker punched up the same screen. "Yeah, got it. Priority report Switching to speakers."

"This is Priority Channel from Starbase 10. We've lost all sensor and comm contact with the U.S.S. Dezago, eleven pars off Gamma Hydra Section two. Requesting search and support, Gamma Hydra, surrounding sectors. Starfleet, please respond."

Spiker shook his head. "d.a.m.n weak message. Lot of distortion."

"Not meant for us," Hedrick said. "I'm routing it to San Fran and Olympus Mons."

"Why Mars, too?"

"Buncha bra.s.s on Mars. You don't need to listen to barroom gossip, but you can at least read internal fleet memos. Bra.s.s meeting will wanna know."

"Yeah. Maybe this is something big."

Hedrick chuckled. "You're finally getting' it, kid. And I reckon big won't even cast a shadow on this one."

Chapter Six.

U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701E Sector 001 In orbit, Sol IV [Mars]

"This can't be right. Why would there be nuclear radiation?" Commander Will Riker handed the padd back to the yeoman with a shake of his head. "Have Sciences check their findings. I seriously doubt Mars has a nuclear pile somewhere."

Data turned from the ops station. "Actually, sir, I believe it does."

Pushing himself from the command chair, Riker took a few steps forward as he motioned for the yeoman to wait "Come again, Mr. Data?"

Dabbing a few commands at his station before he swiveled completely away from it, Data continued. "Dilithium re-crystallization experiments."

Looking back for a moment, Riker shared a glance with Deanna Troi, then turned his gaze back to Data. "That's possible?"

"Recently decla.s.sified Starfleet files, as well as contemporary experiments, have confirmed it, but I believe they are working on a less complicated method," Data said.

Riker let out a soft chuckle. "Learn something new every day."

"Indeed." As he turned back toward his console, Data nodded and his brows drew up.

"Question is, should we be registering anything from it?"

Data seemed to consider the question thoughtfully as he silently turned. "No. I do not believe that we should. Such radiation should be contained."

There was a feeling Riker sometimes got. Not so drastic as a sinking feeling in the stomach or his neck hair standing on end. This was just a little gut-twitch. Something that made his eyes squint a little, as if there was something to listen for that he couldn't quite hear.

Whether he ignored such feelings depended on the situation. This time, he didn't want to disregard it.

"Data, look into this."

"Aye, sir."

Riker turned away, stroking his currently beardless chin. "Captain wanted me to contact him if anything came up."

"Is something 'up' with this?" Deanna asked.

"Not sure." Riker lowered himself into the command chair. "But when the captain is in all-day meetings like this, a bad transporter circuit is big enough to interrupt him."

"Ah, of course." Deanna nodded and smiled that knowing smile.

"Then again," Riker added, returning her smile, "last time there were meetings to attend, he sent me and wouldn't do the same. We'll sit on this for a little longer."

Picard glanced at the timepiece to the left of the podium for the forty-third time. Admiral Dulroy, a.k.a. Admiral Dullard, had been talking for ninety-six minutes, the last fifty of which Picard had been praying the man would use some sort of punctuation. My command for a comma, he thought.

No such luck. Riker was to have called with something of false import at least thirty minutes ago. No luck there, either. Picard would see that his first officer suffered through a few Starfleet staff meetings himself.

Had the admirals that called the meeting been talking about the current HQ buzz, Picard would have been interested. The Enterprise had been the first to witness the dead zones in s.p.a.ce. Since then, there'd been more such incidences. And well outside of the Romulan Neutral Zone. In fact, each such happening had been closer and closer to the heart of Federation s.p.a.ce. It was possible Picard had been wrong about the Romulans not testing a weapon. And perhaps Picard had failed their test badly enough that the Romulans had decided to be increasingly bold. Of course, the nagging question was: why would they want to break a beneficial peace?

As Dulroy glanced his way through another volume of his speech, and Picard realized he'd not been listening for some time, finally the captain heard his communicator chirp.

He tapped it perhaps a bit too anxiously. "Picard here. Stand by." Rising, the captain bowed slightly, and whispered to those closest to him. "Urgent from my ship. Apologize to the admiralty for me."

One of the captains next to him nodded. Another chuckled lightly, probably wishing his first officer would make an urgent comm call about a bad batch of replicated coffee.

Once out in the hallway, Picard started a stride toward one of the HQ transporter rooms. "I'm hoping you have a good excuse for leaving me in there an extra hour, Number One."

"/ do. We have a real alert situation, Captain."

That brought Picard up short for a moment. Then he quickened his gait. "Go."

"There's a nuclear reactor near Vanes Marineris. It's heading for a... what did you call it, Data?"

"Meltdown, sir."

"Meltdown, Captain," Riker continued. "No power to their coolant systems, no power of any kind. Only way we knew about it was they have a battery-powered backup comm system. It's on such a low frequency, the local authorities wouldn't even have heard it."

"You've alerted Vanes Marineris?"

"Aye, sir, but if power isn't restored, if enough pressure builds in the reactor core-"

"I understand. Beam down a-"