"Take him back to his quarters," Riker told the security guard. "Make sure the other one stays there, too."

Mengred hurried from the bridge back to his quarters, ignoring the guard who accompanied him. He needed to get a message to Enabran Tain to find out if Central Command was testing a biological weapon carried by a subs.p.a.ce shock wave. Now was the time to use the subs.p.a.ce transmitter he carried in his thumbnail. The problem was that it would take some time for a message to reach Tain and return. He hoped there was enough time to stop Gul Ocett from killing them all.

Chapter Nine.

Keiko o'brien felt a twisting in her stomach, but it was just the baby moving again. She was seven months pregnant and wanted it to be over already. She couldn't wait to get her own body back.

Luckily, she had been in bed asleep when the gravity was displaced The thick mat had cushioned her fall, so she wasn't hurt. Her botany samples were another thing.

She was down on her hands and knees, having trouble working around the bulge in her abdomen while trying to pick up the sample dishes containing baby Selca trees. Then she had trouble sitting up. Standing up seemed like an impossibility.

Sighing, she swiped a dirty hand across her forehead. The botanical lab was a disaster area because of the gravity failure. An occasional jolt or two was expected, but not a total loss of gravity. Sample dishes had cracked open, spilling tender saplings and buds on the floor, and moist soil was stuck everywhereon the ceiling, the walls, and all over her.

Everyone else was on emergency duty, but Keiko had been placed on light duty only by Dr. Crusher last week. So she was frantically picking up plants like it mattered, because there was nothing else she could do. After Miles had hurried down to engineering to help repair the circuitry, she couldn't stand to wait alone in their quarters.

Sitting back on her heels, she realized how useless she felt. Her back also hurt She was staring right at the bulkhead between the lab and the arboretum, but it took a few seconds for her to realize that it was glowing. It was beautiful, sparkling with colors and silver light Lurching to her feet, she grabbed her tricorder from the table. Her hands were shaking as she aimed it at the wall.

The affected area was the secondary layer of stressed trilanium fabric, underneath the microfoam duranium filaments. The trilanium was irradiated, reading an exposure of 462 rads.

She pulled away immediately, backing up until she reached the door. She pressed the control to close it, still looking at the patch of hull that sparkled with inner light But irradiation was impossiblethe hull had radiation attenuation provided by a thick layer of monocrys-tal beryllium silicate. How could a patch of the bulkhead, only a small section of the structural element, get exposed to radiation?

Clutching the tricorder, holding her stomach with the other hand, she hurried to sickbay. The corridors were busy with people rushing around. In the turbolift, she was standing next to Ensign Oliver when he doubled over. She had to help him stand up.

"I keep feeling the gravity fail," he told her, his eyes desperately fastened on her, as she supported him. "That drop in the pit of my stomach. I keep thinking it's happening again."

"Breathe slowly and deeply," she advised. "We'll be in sickbay in a minute."

"Am I hurting you?" he asked, giving her a worried glance. But he couldn't keep his balance without her help.

"No, I'm fine," she a.s.sured him, hoping that was true. Four hundred and fifty rads would make someone like Ensign Oliver feel very ill, but it could kill a developing baby.

She was glad to pa.s.s Ensign Oliver over to a medical technician. Every bed was taken, with more patients leaning against the walls or seated on low replicated cots. She kept having to protect her protruding stomach from people hurrying through sickbay. All the connecting doors were open, and those wards were full too. She noticed Ensign Ro was groaning on a nearby bed.

"Keiko!" Dr. Crusher exclaimed. "Are you all right? I was going to call to check on you, but..." She glanced around, letting the tumult speak for itself. Pulling out the medical tricorder, she scanned Keiko, then her stomach. It seemed to take longer than usual.

"Is something wrong?" Keiko asked. "The bulkhead, it was irradiated, 420 rads. I don't know if I was exposed or how"

"Don't worry," Dr. Crusher a.s.sured her. "You've received a low level of radiation exposurebelow 150 rads."

"What will it do to the baby?"

Crusher patted her on the shoulder, already pa.s.sing the cellular regenerator over her. "The baby is insulated by you. You should go to your quarters and rest. Radiation exposure has been known to bring on early labor. But the full effects take a few weeks to manifest, and by then you'll be eight months along."

Keiko was panicked, but she knew the doctor had other concerns. Crusher was already looking around the sickbay with a worried expression.

"Are you sure it will be okay?" she asked.

Dr. Crusher handed Keiko the regenerator. 'Take this and use it once an hour for the next twelve hours. That should neutralize the bulk of the free radicals in your system."

With another pat on the shoulder, Crusher was gone. Keiko stood with her back to the wall, holding the regenerator and her tricorder, watching the medical emergency with wide eyes. She couldn't move.

Then she saw a medical technician clear the pad for an emergency transport to sickbay. A person began to materialize, hunched over, one arm hanging slackly. A red uniform, meaning another command officer was sick.

When the particles coalesced, it was Captain Picard. The medical technician quickly helped him just like he was any other patient, but Keiko felt her throat tighten. The captain! Sick! No....

As Picard was helped through sickbay, even the groans were stifled as everyone realized who it was. Keiko wanted to follow after him, but his eyes were reddened and he glanced at her so piteously as he pa.s.sed, she couldn't speak.

Keiko rushed from sickbay, running through the corridors, trying to get home as fast as possible. She knew it made no sense, but all she could think about was burrowing into bed where she could feel safe until Miles returned.

Commander Riker sat down in the captain's chair. Now that the Carda.s.sian was off the bridge, he could speak freely.

"Data, what's our status?" Riker asked.

"Warp drive is offline; it will take another thirty minutes to complete the power-up sequence. Sensors are operational, but our range is limited. The main power conduits have been repaired and we are operating on impulse."

"Weapons?" Riker asked Worf.

"Phaser banks charged and ready, sir." Worf nodded in approval from the tactical station as Riker sat down.

"Full-impulse power," Riker ordered. "Proceed on course."

"Full impulse," helm acknowledged.

Riker quickly consulted the ami panel to a.s.sess the situation. Nearly one-quarter of those on board had received exposure to the tetryon radiation, capable of piercing their shields without alerting the biological warning system. The dispersal pattern was erratic, with interior portions of the ship irradiated while large areas adjacent to the hull were unaffected.

He had known the Carda.s.sians did something to him. Now everyone knew. It was not some crippling diseaseit was an attack. The Carda.s.sians must have launched their biological weapon on the subs.p.a.ce carrier wave toward the Hawking. They had also denied him medical treatment to give the tetryon radiation a chance to do as much damage as possible, while the initial free radicals were absorbed by his system. Very neatly done.

"Sir!" Worf was accessing information. "Onboard sensors report a transmission coming from inside the Enterprise."

"Source?" Riker demanded.

'Triangulating," Data acknowledged. "It appears to be coming from deck 5"

"The Carda.s.sians?" Riker interrupted.

Worf contacted security. "Security alert! Unauthorized transmission from Jos Mengred's quarters."

'Transmission has ceased," Data informed Riker.

Riker stood up and just looked at Worf. "Have security take both of them to the brig. I want any recording or transmitting devices they've got."

"With pleasure, sir!" Worf's eyes were hard as he gave the orders.

"Red alert," Riker announced, sitting back down.

"Red alert," Data confirmed as the red warning lights came on. "I have the Carda.s.sian warship on sensors, sir."

"Change course to intercept," Riker ordered.

"Changing course," helm confirmed.

Riker narrowed his yes, softly adding, "Let's see how serious they are about starting a war."

The tension on the bridge was high. None of them wanted to think about Captain Picard falling sick with tetryon radiation poisoning... Riker noted that several key stations were now manned by secondary personnel. Not the best tactical situation for a confrontation, but it would have to do.

"Commander," Worf said. "The Carda.s.sians are in the brig. Two transmission devices were discovered under their thumbnails. Jos Mengred has several additional implants in his fingers and a cranial implant that would have to be surgically removed."

"We don't have time for that," Riker said. He wished they did. Carving into Mengred's skull wouldn't be such a bad thing. The Carda.s.sian had spent a week dropping comments about Riker's physical "weakness" to anyone who would listen.

The Enterprise closed on the Carda.s.sian warship at full impulse.

"The Carda.s.sians are charging their plasma banks," Data reported.

Riker nodded. If he saw a fully shielded Starship accelerating towards him, he would take defensive measures, too. The warship was changing course to evade.

"Stay on them," he ordered.

"Aye, sir."

Worf reported, "Commander, Gul Ocett is hailing us."

Riker stood up. "Open frequency."

"What are you doing?" Ocett demanded. "Where is Captain Picard?"

Riker noted that she split her attention between him and the small data screen on her headset. "Captain Picard is suffering from your earlier attack. We are defending ourselves."

"Again you falsely accuse us of attack !"

Riker raised his voice. "You can deny it all you want, Captain, but we know what's going on here. The Enterprise has been hit with tetryon radiation, sent on a subs.p.a.ce carrier wave"

"That is not my concern," Ocett exclaimed. "If you people are too weak to survive in s.p.a.ce, then I would recommend you return to your planets."

The transmission ceased abruptly. The Galor-cla.s.s warship turned.

"They are changing course, Commander," Data announced. It only took a few seconds for the ship to grow larger.

"The warship is approaching in an attack posture, sir," Worf announced.

"Would she fire on the Enterprise with Mengred and Pakat on board?" Riker thought it must be a bluff, to see if they would back down.

Data turned. "Sir, it has been observed that the Obsidian Order and Central Command have been at odds in both their goals and methods of execution."

"Nice," Riker said dryly. Just when you thought you knew who the enemy was....

"Approaching at 200,000 kilometers," Data reported.

He slowly counted down their approach, as Riker forced himself to wait. "One hundred fifty thousand kilometers. Entering weapons range"

"Evasive maneuvers," Riker ordered. "Delta sequence"

"She's firing weapons!" Worf exclaimed.

The ship dropped in a spiraling maneuver that took them out of the target window. But as the Enterprise came around, she shuddered under the impact of two more plasma beams shot from the warship.

"Direct hit on our port nacelle," Worf reported. "Shields holding at 74 percent."

"Warship closing at 100,000 kilometers," Data announced steadily.

"Bring us around to attack," Riker ordered.

Data was preparing for the battle when his self-diagnostic completed. A rare form of tetryon neutrinos had pa.s.sed through his systems, ionizing molecules hi a way that mimicked radiation exposure. Over the past few hours, the diagnostic had automatically run a comparison with Starfleet's database, producing an incident that was similar in terms of mechanical and biological effects. The same thing had happened nearly a hundred years before to the original Enterprise, when they had discovered the Badlands.

"Sir!" Data interrupted. "I believe the Carda.s.sians are not responsible for the tetryon radiation."

Commander Riker was in battle mode and he clearly thought he didn't hear Data correctly. "The Carda.s.sians are responsible," Riker insisted.

"No, sir, I believe not."

"Why not?" the commander demanded.

"A similar phenomenon affected the crew of the Enterprise under command of Captain James T. Kirk in 2268, shortly after reaching the Badlands." Data quickly ran through the physical symptoms that had affected both Enterprise crews and their Starships. "Commander Spock correctly ascertained that gamma radiation was a.s.sociated with the phenomenon, but standard sensor sweeps at that time would not have been able to detect the tetryon particles."

Worf announced, "The warship is coming around."

"Evasive maneuvers," Riker ordered. "Get us away from that ship, helmsman!"

Riker came towards Data, his expression intent. "Are you certain about this, Data?"

"Affirmative. It is apparently the same phenomenon that damaged the Yosemite and the Hawking, though hi those instances it was a much weaker, briefer occurrence that took place while the vessels were inside the sensor shadow. Nevertheless, there were apparently enough tetryons to penetrate the shields. That is what caused your illness, Commander, not Myers disease."

"I knew it wasn't Myers disease," Riker said slowly. "Why didn't the sensors on the Hawking pick up these tetryon neutrinos?"

'Tetryons can exist only in subs.p.a.ce and are highly unstable in normal s.p.a.ce. They move at speeds over warp 9, which makes them invisible unless sensors are specifically calibrated to search for that type of subs.p.a.ce particle." Data reminded him, "Our work on the sensor grid enabled the Enterprise to detect the tetryons a microsecond prior to the subs.p.a.ce shockwave, which subsequently overloaded our sensor banks."

"Why wasn't everyone affected by the tetryon radiation?" Worf demanded.

'Tetryons interact erratically with matter, due to the radioactive force they exert on particles," Data informed him. 'The situation was identical the first time this phenomenon was recorded by the Enterprise, one hundred years ago."

Riker considered the situation for a moment, watching the warship on the viewscreen. "So it happened once before."

"At least three times prior to this incident," Data corrected. "When the original Enterprise was affected, 43 percent of the crew were seriously injured. The second shock wave lasted longer than our most recent incident. Except for one death, the crew members recovered with little or no permanent damage when they were treated with cellular regeneration."