She s.n.a.t.c.hed the loose reins of the ealix hauling Riker and led it the rest of the way through the narrow ravine. At the mouth of the pa.s.s, she reached two other ealixes she'd left tethered to a bush. She no longer needed both, so she turned one around with a slap on its broad rump. Eventually it would shamble back to the herd. Mori tied a long lead between Riker's ealix and her own, then climbed on and rode out.

She stayed close to the foot of the cliffs. She'd been a.s.signed to the lookout posts on top of this ridge often enough to know the sentinels couldn't see her tiny caravan if she hugged the contours of the steep rock wall. Besides, lookouts were more concerned about what might be approaching from a distance than they were about who might be leaving through the pa.s.s. Mori knew her landmarks, and she knew her route. She continued around the outside of the Abraian formation. There had once been five separate peaks in this small range.

But they'd been whittled by windblown sand and coursing water, driven by seismic jolts, and shaped by the slow shifting of tectonic plates until it was hard to tell where one ended and another began. The Sojourners" canyon was actually encircled by what remained of a mountain, now remolded into an artful jumble of forbidding walls and ridges, tapered arroyos, hunched hills, and of course the canyon itself. The other Abraian Mountains stood above and behind the Stone City.

At the base of the second mountain, to the west, a natural arch jutted out like a sculpted b.u.t.tress. When she reached it, Mori knew she was out of sight of the lookout perches above the canyon.

She grasped her reins and slapped her ealix's shoulders. With a snort of displeasure, the beast broke into a trot. The second one followed, and they headed out into the barren stillness of the Sa'drit.

It could have been the sharp jab into his gut. Or the pungent odor of animal sweat right under his nose.

Or the chill in his bones. But something made Will Riker awaken. And he found himself apparently hanging upside down, his cheek resting on the fuzzy hide of an ealix. Which explained the odor flaring his nostrils. His awkward riding position-slung like a rolled rug over the ealix's back, belly down and not on the animal's cushioned part-accounted for the jabbing of ealix backbone into his abdomen.

He managed to lift his head enough to see the dark desert night around him, and understood why his teeth were chattering with cold.

But what the h.e.l.l am I doing here?

He turned the other way, toward the animal's head, and saw the rider in the lead, cloaked and hooded. Riker's first effort at a shout came out a breathless bleat or, more accurately, didn't really come out at all. He shifted his position-not an easy feat, since his hands were tied behind his back-and the maneuver allowed his diaphragm to resume its natural shape, free of intrusion by ealix vertebrae..

"Hey-was He coughed.

The rider turned her hooded head-it was Mori.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"I've been better." His voice was still a wheeze. "Do you think you could let me down?"

Mori stopped and jumped off her mount. She untied the ropes holding Riker atop the ealix in uneasy balance. Unfortunately for him, before she could pull him down feet first, he toppled off the other way, his short cry of distress m.u.f.fled by his face hitting the dirt.

"Ohh, Riker, I'm sorry!" She scrambled around and rolled him onto his back. But he didn't move. She fell back on her haunches, intending to cradle his head on her thighs. In her haste, she wrenched his neck.

"You're alive! I was afraid you'd broken your neck." "With or without your help?"

A flash of anger lit her eyes, then faded in an instant. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Mori, since yesterday, or two days ago-or whenever it was-I've been ga.s.sed, kidnapped, bounced around the inside of a box, kidnapped again, carted around like a sack of potatoes, dropped on my head-was "I get the idea. What do you want me to do?"

"Well, you could call my ship and have them beam me up, but I'm not counting on that. For starters, how about untying me and letting me warm up."

"Don't you try to escape."

Without a free limb, he gestured with his bearded chin. "To where?" She looked at him for a moment, then rolled him over again, face back in the dirt, and freed his hands and feet. With the stiffness of a wooden soldier, he got to his knees.

"Would you mind telling me what happened?" he said. "Last thing I remember is sleeping in your lodge ... and I think somebody ga.s.sed me again."

"You said you were cold."

"I'm freezing."

She pulled a blanket from the saddlebags draped over her animal and covered his shoulders with it. "Better?"

"Thanks."

"Hungry? Thirsty?"

"Both."

Turning to the saddlebags again, she came up with a small container of dried fruit and a canteen of water, which she shared with Riker. "So you want to know what happened."

Riker nodded. "What am I-what are we doing out here?"

"I decided you were my best chance to find out if my father is still alive."

"You plan to use me as leverage to get Captain Picard to put pressure on Stross?"

"Yes. But I wasn't the only one who thought you'd be worth something on the open market."

He squinted in puzzlement.

"While you were sleeping, I went out to move two ealixes out of the grazing area to the pa.s.s. I was going to come back and take you away. But Glin and Jaminaw must have been watching when I left the lodge. They're the ones who ga.s.sed you tonight."

"What were they planning to do with me?"

"Same thing I was-use you to get your captain to exercise his influence over Stross and the protectorate."

"So how did I wind up with you?" 224 "On my way back up to the Stone City, I saw them coming down with you, so I just waited and ambushed them." She dismissed Riker's alarmed expression.

"Don't worry-I just sprayed them and tied them up. They'll be fine as soon as somebody finds them."

"Where were they taking me?"

"That request you made-"

"What request?"

"To call your ship and have them beam you up. That's what I'm going to do. Glin and laminaw were taking you to the same place I'm taking you."

"Which is ...?"'

64An old communications module out near some abandoned mines."

"Nuarans built it?"

She nodded.

He chewed a shriveled morsel of fruit.

"If you people can't start agreeing among yourselves, you don't have a prayer against the government." "I know that."

"But you're still running off with me to strike a private deal with Captain Picard?"

Her expression grew as frosty as the desert night. "Sometimes you've got to look out for yourself."

"What if everybody did that? Where would you Sojourners be?" She pondered for a long moment.

"I don't know, Riker. And I'm not sure I care anymore. It's not easy being part of a movement that's trying to show the whole world the way back to the circle, on one hand, and trying to keep from being exterminated by the government, on the other."

"The government's wrong. All Thiopans should have the right to live their own way as long as they're not harming anybody else."

"Are you on our side?" From someone as young as Mori, that question might have been filled with naive hope at finding an ally. Instead, it came armored in skepticism.

"I'm not on anyone's side. No matter what my personal beliefs may be, I'm a Starfleet officer. The Federation has rules-was "I know-your noninterference directive."

"But there is something I'd like to do ... for you."

"For me?" For a moment, all wide-eyed, she seemed like a young girl instead of a guerrilla fighter.

"This might border on violating that Prime Directive, but I'm willing to consider it strictly personal."

"What?"

"If you get me back to my ship, I promise I will do whatever I can to find out if your father's alive."

Her excitement flagged. "I don't know, Riker. If I understand this noninterference thing, not changing the natural course of civilization on other planets ... well, finding out Evain is alive is bound to affect Thiopa."

"I'd be willing to risk it."

Mori shrugged. "It probably doesn't matter. There's probably no way you can find out anyway."

"That's not what you thought when you decided to steal me from Sanctuary Canyon."

Another shrug, more sullen. "Maybe it was a stupid idea."

"Your way, maybe. My way, maybe not."

"Your way?"

"I told you-Captain Picard won't make a deal for my release."

"Then your way means that I let you go and you promise to find out about my father."

"I said I would try."

She let out a cynical snort. "I don't trust promises, Riker. n.o.body keeps them.

As you said, having you gives me leverage."

"As I said, there will be no deals."

"We'll see." She pointed her blaster rifle at him. "Let's go."

"Do I get to ride sitting up this time?

Unboxed and untied?" "Sure, as long as you-was "comdon't try to escape. I know. If I do try-was "I'll shoot you." She meant it. "Oh, not to kill. But stupid or not, I've come too far to lose this chance now."

The ealixes stood placidly as they mounted.

Mori scanned the sky canopy, detecting the first glimmerings of a distant dawn. "Let's go. I want to be there by first light."

There was no such thing as first light aboard a starship. But if there had been, it would have been before dawn as Frid Undrun left his VIP cabin, padded quietly along a curving corridor, and made his way to one of the starship's large cargo transporter rooms. Down on Thiopa, he knew, it would soon be sunrise in the Sa'drit.

The doors opened and Undrun entered. A fireshfaced young woman stood over the transporter console, engrossed in a standard maintenance check on the unit. She looked up and greeted him with a friendly smile. "Good morning, sir. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Yes. I'm Amba.s.sador Undrun-was "I know, sir. Ensign Trottier." She brushed a strand of dark hair away back from her cheek.

"Well, then, Ensign Trottier-you are a transporter technician?" "Yes, sir."

Undrun circled the console until he was standing at her shoulder. "A question came to mind while I was falling asleep last night, and I wanted to ask someone first thing this morning. In view of the Nuaran attacks on our cargo drones, if one or more of the freight vessels were to be damaged, would the Enterprise transporters be able to transfer all that cargo either to this ship or down to the planet in short order?"

"Generally, that should be possible. I could give you a more specific answer, if you'd like."

"Yes, if it isn't a problem for you."

"Not at all, Mr. Amba.s.sador. Let me just check on how much those cargo ships are carrying."

Ensign Trottier activated her computer link and started to call up the information she needed. She didn't see Frid Undrun sidle behind her and quickly squeeze the back of her skull with one hand and her neck with the other. With the slightest backward jerk of her head, she folded like a marionette with its strings cut.

Gently, he lowered her to the floor.

"Apologies, Ensign," he muttered. "Time for you to take a nap."

He stepped over Trottier and tapped location coordinates into the control keyboard. Then he activated the unit and sprang up the steps to the transporter chamber just in time to be enveloped by the familiar hum and sparkle. A few seconds later Undrun was gone.

JeanLuc Picard's first sustained rest since the Enterprise had entered orbit around Thiopa was rudely interrupted by the soft summoning tone of his cabin intercom, and then by a hesitant female voice.

"Captain Picard-Lieutenant White on the bridge, sir."

With startling immediacy, Picard sat up, fully conscious and aware. Years of command had brought with them the skill to emerge from deep sleep almost instantaneously-a habit he found useful, to say the least. "Picard here. What is it, Lieutenant?"

"Sorry to wake you, sir. But we just got a signalcargo transporter number two has been activated."

"Who is on duty there?"

"Ensign Trottier was doing a maintenance check.

I thought she might have activated it as part of her work. But when I called, there was no response."

Picard rolled the bedcovers back. "Send a security team down there. I'll be on the bridge presently."