"Do any of you require s.e.xual release before the meeting?" h.e.l.lek asked politely.

Troi swallowed the wrong way and began coughing. "No, no, I'll be all right," she gasped, waving away several very concerned Krann.

"Er, I believe we'll be fine, h.e.l.lek," Captain Picard said. "That will be all for now."

"Is Deanna Advisor to Captain all right?" h.e.l.lek asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," Troi said, still red-faced and watery-eyed. "Really I am."

"Then we'll go for now and let you talk in private," h.e.l.lek said, a trifle doubtfully. "One of us will be back to escort you to the meeting room at the appointed time. Good-bye."

"Good-bye, then, and thank you for everything," Picard said. The six Krann bowed, turned, and left the reception lounge with polite haste.

"All right," Picard said after they were alone. "We have a number of things to discuss. Mr. Worf?"

The Klingon used the tricorder. "I am reading nothing except what should be here, sir-electrical current in the walls, environmental and maintenance systems in operation, and so forth. We are not being scanned-according to the tricorder."

"Excellent," Picard said, nodding. "Counselor, Lieutenant, do you recall our good friend Dathon?"

"Why, certainly, Captain," Troi replied. "Didn't he have two good friends, Darmok and Jalad, who met at-"

"Tenagra," Worf finished. "Yes, I remember them all quite well. They were to be emulated."

"Yes, they were," Picard said. "They were fine role models for Starfleet officers. Actually, I think of them quite often. I recall especially well their story of how Pinocchio's nose grew during his time inside the whale."

Both Troi and Worf nodded. It was helpful that both of them had been raised by at least one Earth parent, and so each had a working knowledge of some of that faraway world's more celebrated myths and legends.

"Yes," Troi said. "It grew quite long, didn't it?"

Worf nodded. "It had been given many reasons to do so." The Klingon thought hard for a moment. "Do you believe that Pinocchio had a taste for missionary stew?" he asked after a moment.

Picard thought about it. "No, I don't think so, Mr. Worf-at least, not as an appetizer. As I understood it, Pinocchio was quite a player of the game of cat and mouse."

"Pinocchio had friends, though," Worf said.

"Yes, and Aladdin needed exactly that kind of friend to patrol his harem, too," Troi said with a studied contempt. "Pinocchio called all the shots, believe me."

"I wonder whatever happened to Geppetto," Picard said. "I wish they'd told us that part of the story."

"It would be useful to know," Troi agreed. "John Wilkes Booth at the theater, perhaps-or maybe Hirohito in his bedchamber."

"Snow White and the apple," Picard put in. "Just a feeling."

"I think that was the way it worked," Worf confirmed. "That seemed to me to be the way Pinocchio went about things."

"What happened after that?" Troi asked.

"The shrink sat down and did her job," Picard said. "When it was over, she left, to return another day. You know something? I'm a bit hungry, after all, and we've got a little time left to us. How are those sandwiches, Mr. Worf?"

Not very far away, Presider Hek and Drappa were listening closely to the conversation between Picard, Troi, and Worf.

"What is this gibberish?" Hek fumed. "Pinocchio? What in hull is a Pinocchio? Aren't these people ever going to talk about anything important?"

"No one ever speaks about anything important in the reception lounge," Drappa said. "It's too thoroughly monitored for that, and everyone knows it. I don't bother my people about it anymore, except in special circ.u.mstances. Presider, either these people from the starship are mindless idiots capable of speaking of nothing but old stories, or they've a.s.sumed they're being monitored and are speaking in a kind of code."

"Fine, then. Break it."

"Oh, we're trying," Drappa said. "Our best cryptographers are already working on it-but they have no chance of success, Presider. The code clearly depends on cultural references with which we are not familiar-"

"Oh, shut up," Hek said tiredly. "We've got to meet with these people in half an hour, and I don't know a wasted thing more about them than I did when they first got here." He suddenly turned on Drappa. "You were supposed to keep that advisor of theirs off balance by making her nervous and keeping her preoccupied by hara.s.sing her."

"Perhaps you should have sent for the real Leader of the North Nation," Drappa shot back. "He'd have been more than fool enough to try again, even after that monster threatened him. It wouldn't have been in character for me to face this Worf down-not then." Drappa frowned darkly. "But I will, and sooner rather than later."

The Presider laughed. "Now that's more like the Drappa Chief of Intelligence I've long since come to respect." Hek glanced at the wall chronometer. "Not much time left," he said. "Call those five jacka.s.ses back in here, and we'll go over some basics for the meeting. I want our side of the table to at least appear to be negotiating in good faith. The more reasonable we seem, the more we sound like the Lethanta, the more effective we'll be in stalling these Federation people until we're ready to strike."

Entr'acte KERAJEM WAS WORKING at his desk in Government House. He was alone for the moment. Less than two hours remained before he had to join Hattajek, Blakendet, and the others in the War Room, where he would stay throughout the remainder of the crisis.

The First Among Equals was clearing up the last of his paperwork while he waited for his visitors to arrive. There was someone special who he very much wanted to see before the Krann arrived, and this would be his last chance to do so. In the meantime, Kerajem was emptying his IN box. If this was indeed the last time he would be in his office, he intended to leave a clean desk behind.

There were a few doc.u.ments that still needed his signature. For instance, an opposition party member in the Citizen a.s.sembly had pushed through a resolution mandating a slowdown in the implementation schedule of the antipollution laws Kerajem's allies had pa.s.sed the previous year. Kerajem knew that the idiot was secretly in the pay of the industrialists who had never done quite so well after the revolution as they had before it. Kerajem signed the veto and thumbprinted it with some satisfaction. He appended a brief memorandum explaining his veto.

The measure would be sent back to the a.s.sembly by courier a little later that day. The a.s.sembly was still in session, and most of its members were still in town and still meeting at the Citizen Palace. When the vetoed bill was received and posted, there would be scattered applause from his fickle friends on the left and predictable howls of outrage from his dedicated enemies on the right. More important, though, there would be the appearance of continuity, of policy being made, of mundane work getting done. There would be the appearance of normalcy. The veto would be the first item mentioned on the planetary information report to be broadcast that evening. The people would understand from it that their government expected things to continue much as they were, even after the arrival of the Krann fleet the next day.

Kerajem knew in his heart that the veto really didn't mean anything, that things could not continue as they were, that nothing would ever be the same again, that the arrival of the Krann would change everything forever, and that their coming might even bring the end of the world-but he nevertheless felt better for having cast his veto. He thought of the veto as a final affirmation of his principles, the last word on his hopes and dreams for his people. He placed the doc.u.ment in the OUT box.

The announcer on Kerajem's desk chimed softly for his attention just as he finished initialing the last pending doc.u.ment. "Yes?"

It was his primary receptionist. "Citizen Magala and your granddaughter have just arrived, First."

"Have them brought in, please."

"At once."

Kerajem reached into his desk and retrieved a small, gaily wrapped package which he placed on the desktop. A few seconds later, the door to the office was opened from the other side by one of Kerajem's personal aides, who stood back a slight but respectful distance as a young, attractive woman and her five-year-old daughter entered the office, hand in hand. The aide left the room, closing the door behind him.

"h.e.l.lo, Daddy," the woman said, managing a smile for him. She looked tired and drawn.

"Grampa!" the child cried happily. She pulled away from her mother and ran to Kerajem as he came out from behind his desk.

"Ha!" Kerajem greeted her. The girl's feet gleefully kicked the air as Kerajem swept her up in a roundhouse embrace. "How's my precious little bug?" he asked, hugging her to him.

"I'm fine, Grampa," she said, kissing his cheek. "I missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Kara," he said, putting her down gently. "I've missed you very much. I'm sorry I've been so busy. I haven't had much of a chance to come see you and Mommy."

"I know. It's okay. Mommy told me you were busy. Mommy's missed you, too."

"And I've missed her," Kerajem said, putting his granddaughter down. "h.e.l.lo, Seletina," he said to his daughter. He kissed her on the cheek, and they hugged each other very hard indeed. "Thanks for coming."

"As if you could have kept us away," she said into his shoulder. Her voice was thick with hidden tears. "We haven't seen you for so long, what with all this going on. I'm glad you sent for us."

"I'm glad you could get here." Kerajem hugged her even more tightly. After a moment, he stopped and took a step back. They looked at each other, red-eyed.

"Why are you crying, Mommy?" asked Kara.

"It's all right, honey," her mother replied. "I'm just happy to see Grampa, that's all."

"There's a little something for you over there on the desk, Bug," Kerajem said. "Go and see."

The girl hurried over and threw herself into Kerajem's plush office chair. She leaned forward in the seat and grasped the small package Kerajem had placed there. She began to unwrap it. "A music cube!" she cried. "Oh!"

"What do you say, Kara?" her mother called.

"Thank you, Grampa."

"You're welcome, Bug," he said. "Do you know how to work it?"

"Sure. See?" The girl pushed the black b.u.t.ton on one side of the cube, and the device began playing a thin rendition of a simple children's song. She interrupted it after a few seconds by pushing the b.u.t.ton again, allowing the cube to select another song at random.

"I remember that one very well," Seletina said. "'The Old Miner's Wife.' You don't hear it much anymore. You used to sing it to me."

"I remember," he said. "It would help you get to sleep after-"

"After Mother died," Seletina finished for him. She smiled. "I guess I should finally tell you I was shamming."

"Eh? You're kidding me."

"No." She hugged him again. "I knew you'd sit up all night trying to sing me to sleep if you had to, and I'd worry that you wouldn't get any rest at all. So I closed my eyes, and after a minute you would kiss me on the forehead and leave the room. When I heard your door close, I'd sit up and read until I could really fall asleep."

Kerajem shook his head ruefully. "Outfoxed by a seven-year-old," he said. "Please don't tell Jemmagar. It could ruin me."

"Don't worry, Daddy. He won't hear about it from me."

They laughed together. It was a good sound.

"Did you two have any trouble getting here?" he asked Seletina after a moment.

"Not with that escort you sent for us," she replied. "We got through the jams on the main roads without any trouble at all. We attracted an awful lot of attention, though. I hope no one asks you about it."

"I just wanted to make sure you got here in one piece. Besides, everyone's a little too busy right now to worry about my pulling a few strings for the benefit of my family. Did the movers get everything packed?"

"Everything we hadn't sent up already, yes. The 'spinner is full to bursting with the last-minute things." Seletina paused. "Going to the mountains isn't going to do much good, is it, Daddy?" she asked him, almost in a whisper, so her daughter wouldn't hear. "I mean, it really doesn't matter where we go, does it?"

Kerajem held up a hand. He glanced over at Kara, who was thoroughly occupied by the music cube and paying them no attention. "You never know," he said to Seletina quietly. "The situation may not become as bad as we've been fearing."

His daughter blinked. "You've heard from the Krann?"

Her father shook his head. "No. Not the Krann."

"Then who-?"

He gave her a small, mysterious smile. "There's someone else, daughter. Someone who might be able to help. I think they're friends, or they could become our friends if we're given time to form a friendship."

"'Someone else'? What 'someone else'?"

"Others. People from very far away, people not unlike us."

"You mean, like, aliens? People from another planet?"

Kerajem nodded. "People from another star- from many other stars, explorers and scientists from many races, all working together for peaceful purposes. We met them yesterday, soon after they arrived in orbit. I've even been aboard their ship-I and some other members of the council, that is."

"Their ship? In orbit?" Her jaw dropped. "You mean you've actually been in s.p.a.ce?"

"Mommy, is something wrong?" Kara called.

"No, darling. Everything's fine. You just play with the nice toy Grampa gave you, okay?"

"Okay."

"Sorry, Daddy," Seletina continued. "This is a lot to take in all at once-s.p.a.ce people, and you being an astronaut. You know."

"I'll tell you all about it later," Kerajem promised her, hoping there would be a later. "Right now, just know that their leader and his a.s.sociates are talking to the Krann, trying to find a way out of this for both our peoples."

"Can they do that?" Seletina wondered. "Do you think these aliens can actually get anywhere with the Krann?"

Kerajem saw hope dawn in his daughter's eyes. "We'll see," he told her.

"It's a miracle," Seletina said. "I remember that Grandmother used to speak of miracles."

"I remember, too. Maybe she had something there." He took his daughter by the hand. "Come," he said. "You two have to get going. I'd like you safe at the vacation house before it gets dark."

"All right," Seletina said reluctantly. "We'll leave right away." Suddenly she reached for him and hugged him as hard as she ever had in her entire life, as hard as she had right after her mother had died. "I know you'll do your best for us all, Daddy. We'll see you after this is over."

"Count on it," Kerajem told her.

Chapter Ten.

THE THREE STRANGERS from the Enterprise and the seven Krann officials gathered around a long, flat table of unpolished metal that had been covered from edge to edge with a thick, beautifully woven cloth of some natural material-cotton, Picard thought, or something very much like it.

The chairs they were sitting in were simple but ergonomically correct, and they were very comfortable. Several young Krann-different ones, this time-brought in refreshments and set them in strategic locations around the table. If these hospitality workers were as nervous in the presence of Presider Hek as some of their colleagues had been that day, Picard could see no sign of it.

Troi and Worf were sitting to either side of Picard, waiting as patiently as he for the meeting to begin.