"Yes."

Kerajem seemed a little dazed. "Then please do so."

"Number One," Picard said, "lock on to and destroy those unknowns."

"Aye, sir. Phasers armed and locked. Firing phasers."

The red squares disappeared from the map as a blinding greenish white light burst through the windows.

"Kerajem?" came Hattajek's voice. "What just happened? We've lost the unknowns. We suddenly had a very high energy reading, and now we're not even reading debris. They're just-gone. Uh, final range from Government House, five point eight kilometers."

The First Among Equals was still blinking. "The problem has been taken care of," he told the defense minister.

"Eh?"

"We have some friends upstairs," Kerajem said. "Take us down to defense condition two, Hattajek."

"Yes, First. War Room out."

Kerajem turned to address Picard. "Captain, it seems you've saved our lives. On behalf of the Council, I thank you."

There was a murmur of agreement.

"I wonder," Picard asked, "why the unknown craft were not detected before they entered your atmosphere, however."

"I would like an answer to that myself," Klerran said. "I believe I will get on the communication links straight away and ask the people who are paid to know such things."

"It seems likely that these unknown s.p.a.cecraft were probes launched by the Krann to test your defenses, Kerajem," Data said.

The First Among Equals nodded. "They proved that our defenses are not as good as we thought they were," he said. "We were lucky, thanks to you."

"Captain," Worf said, "obviously the Krann are using a cloaking device that operates in ways unfamiliar to us. It appears that not even the Lethanta know everything there is to know about the camouflage system developed by the Krann. I suggest we become familiar with the camouflage system as quickly as possible."

Security Minister Jemmagar had a practiced look of disinterest. "I think," he said, "that we have been gulled by these people long enough. Now they want us to give them the greatest secret of our counterintelligence operation." Jemmagar laughed without humor. "I admire the sheer gall of it, Captain. I'm curious. Just which of the Krann ships did you command before the fleet constructed that sham currently in orbit above us?"

"What?" Picard was taken aback.

"You were in charge of the flagship, I'll bet," Jemmagar said. "You have a certain style about you, I'll admit that."

"Jemmagar, mind yourself!" Kerajem barked.

"I'm doing my job!" Jemmagar shot back. "We first detect this Enterprise inside the orbit of Ma'ak Unselbe a mere hundred million kilometers ahead of the leading edge of the Krann fleet. It was traveling at a quarter of the speed of light. That's fast, but not impossibly fast, and not hard to achieve if you've got the energy budget. Call it two gravities of acceleration applied for a period of, oh, about six weeks-"

"Ridiculous," Picard said. "You are mistaken."

"-from a distance of about a hundred and thirty billion kilometers. Quite a ways out, Captain, and a fast, uncomfortable ride sunward to boot." He was sneering now. "You and your people must be pretty tired. You look a bit tired to me, you know."

"Minister Jemmagar," Kerajem said sharply, "control yourself. These are our guests."

The security minister paid no attention to him. "You people must have been working on this little fraud for quite some time, constructing that so-called starship of yours," he continued. "It took the Krann fleet quite a while to get from that point to where it is now. Why, you almost didn't make it to our world in time, did you? The vanguard of your fleet almost beat you here."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Picard said icily.

"Certainly you do," the security minister responded. "We've been able to read incredible energy reserves aboard your vessel-more than enough to provide constant boost for an indefinite period. You might even have been able to get here much faster than I think, since you decelerated so quickly once you reached orbit. I'd even venture to guess that you've come up with some way to negate the effects of acceleration and inertia. We'd be very interested in obtaining something like that for ourselves, you know."

"This has gone far enough," Picard said, rising, and the other Enterprise officers stood with him. "Perhaps we should recess, let things calm down a bit. My colleagues and I will be leaving immediately."

"Please, Captain-" Kerajem said. "Jemmagar, this is outrageous! These people are not Krann, you idiot!"

"I believe they are," Jemmagar said, "and none of them is leaving just yet. I have the building under a security alert." The doors to the room opened, and a squad of armed guards entered. "Guards, make these four comfortable. They will be staying with us for a while."

"On the contrary," Worf said, tapping his communicator. "Transporter. Emergency beam up."

"We'll pick up the shuttlecraft later," came Picard's voice as he and his officers faded away.

The ministers and guards gaped at the empty s.p.a.ce where Picard and the others had been standing.

"You surely can clear a room, Jemmagar," Rikkadar said.

"But-but-" the security minister stammered.

"Jemmagar, you screaming idiot," Kerajem said, suddenly very weary. He rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger. "Those people are our only hope. You may have doomed us. I'd fire you, you complete jacka.s.s, if there were enough time left to make firing you worthwhile."

Presider Hek was sitting at the small desk in his working quarters, waiting for the results of the initial probe by the high-speed attack drones. He had finished his lunch, a pretty good one, and shoved the plates and utensils into the reclaimer. Now he was just sitting there, waiting. For once, he was leaving his military people to themselves.

Fleet tacticians were fairly sure that at least one of the probes would get through, and Hek would be content with that. While the object of the exercise was to see what ground defenses the Lethanta might be able to bring to bear to destroy a determined attacking s.p.a.cecraft, the destruction of their political headquarters would be a strategic bonus.

And he had thousands of drones. Thousands of them.

Hek had waited his entire life for the coming struggle. Every one of his ancestors had lived their lives and died their deaths to bring Hek and the Krann to this point. His people had missed a chance thousands of years before to eradicate the Lethanta from the universe, but Hek would not permit that to happen again.

His ancestors cried out in their deaths for the completion of vengeance. Hek would not fail them.

The door signal rang. "Enter," Hek called.

It was Graff Starboard Water Line Tester, his military attache. The look on Graff's face fairly shouted that the news he had to tell Hek was not good.

"You look troubled, Graff," Hek said, carefully keeping the disappointment out of his voice. "I take it that things went poorly."

"Presider, I regret to report that both of our drones were destroyed just short of their target."

"Both? What happened?"

"The drones became detectable by the enemy upon their entry into the atmosphere of Nem Ma'ak Bratuna, and the Lethanta went to full military alert immediately upon seeing them."

"We'll have to have a little talk with the research and development people about that," Hek said. "We knew that the secret of our present concealment apparatus was probably compromised. I was told the new version of the apparatus would render a concealed craft completely undetectable."

"Yes, Presider," Graff said, nodding quickly. "It was an unexpected result, perhaps due to our inability to properly test the new apparatus in an atmosphere-"

"Never mind that now," the Presider said, waving a hand impatiently. "What about the destruction of the drones? What did the enemy use to do it?"

"As nearly as we can tell, a phased energy weapon of some sort was used to cause the const.i.tuent molecules of the drones to dissociate. In other words, they were vaporized."

"And we didn't realize they had anything like that," Hek said.

"No, Presider," Graft said. "They do not have such weapons at all. The phased energy weapon that was used was not fired by the Lethanta-"

"-but by the alien ship in orbit around their world," Hek finished for him. "Of course. The aliens have become involved on the side of the Lethanta." Hek chuckled, a sound that sent a shiver up his attache's spine. "We'll have to delay further action until we can sort this matter out." He smiled a dangerous smile. "This gets more interesting by the minute, doesn't it, Graff?"

"Perhaps, Presider, the aliens were operating out of self-interest," Graff pointed out. "We already know from our monitoring of their communications that alien representatives were to meet with the leaders of the planetary government at about the time the drones were due to arrive. The aliens may have destroyed the drones simply to save themselves."

The Presider looked at him in that intimidating manner he so often used on his subordinates. Graff stood his ground, trying to appear more calm than he felt. The Presider's last two attaches had disappeared after short terms of service, never to be seen again. Everyone in the officer corps believed the attaches had gone through that special door in the star chamber, the recently installed air lock to nowhere that the officers called Hek's Closet.

"All right," Hek finally said, frowning harshly. "I'll admit the timing fits, Graff. You could be right. d.a.m.n, what a dismal turn of events. We would have had the Lethantan leadership cold if only we'd launched the drones a bit earlier. Whose fault do you think it was?"

"There is no blame to be a.s.signed here, Presider," Graff said. "The alien ship had not even entered this star system when we launched the drones several weeks ago. The transit time to target was considerable at this distance, even for a high-velocity drone. The timing of the launch was based on the position of the fleet relative to Nem Ma'ak Bratuna and the tactical need for the drones to arrive during the workday, to enhance our chances of catching the members of the leadership inside the building."

"I didn't ask you that, Graff," Hek said coldly. "I asked you whose fault you thought this disaster was."

"I, uh, I will begin investigating the matter immediately, Presider."

"Do that," Hek said abruptly. "The High Council will want to know. I'll expect your report on this desk by the dinner hour." He pointed at the door. "Go."

As Graff left the room, he wondered which of his friends in the officer corps he would sell out this time. The list of Graff's sacrificial offerings to the need of Presider Hek to punish simple bad luck was becoming a rather long one.

Chapter Seven.

THE BRIDGE WAS QUIET, as it usually was before everything was about to happen. Picard thought of the bridge as being in "calm before storm" mode.

The contact team had been back for about an hour. Upon their return to the Enterprise, Picard had ordered a shuttle pilot beamed directly into Justman, which had then been flown back to the Enterprise without incident. The captain had spent the time since then sitting comfortably in his chair on the bridge, sipping at a cup of tea, and waiting for the Lethanta to call him. If they did not, he would have no choice but to leave them to themselves.

"I believe it will be all right, Captain," Troi said. As usual, she was sitting to his left, a quiet presence that steadied him. "They need us, and they know it."

"I'm not worried about that, Counselor," Picard said, "but we're losing time. I wonder how Geordi and Data are doing-"

"La Forge to Captain Picard," came Geordi's voice.

"Ah. Yes, Mr. La Forge?"

"If you'll take a look at the main viewscreen, Captain, I think you'll see that we've defeated the Krann cloaking device."

Picard nodded to himself as thousands of bright specks began to appear on screen. "Thank you, Mr. La Forge."

"Incredible," Riker breathed. "You told me about this, Captain, but seeing it is something else entirely. There seems to be a million of them."

Ro glanced over at the Ops panel. "Only a little over a hundred and sixty-three thousand, sir," she reported.

"I stand corrected, Ensign," said Riker. "That's much better."

"Data and I have refined the tachyon sweep routine of the main sensor array to defeat whatever it is the Krann are doing to hide themselves," La Forge continued. "This should work for any expectable cloaking configuration the Krann manage to come up with for their probes, their manned ships, whatever. We figured that since the Krann don't have faster-than-light drive or communications, they wouldn't know enough about tachyons to be able to hide theirs from us."

"Well done, both of you," Picard said. "Mr. Data, when you're finished down there, please return to the bridge."

"Aye, sir."

Picard turned to Troi. "Now all we do is wait for a call," he said. "I don't believe Kerajem will wait much longer, if he's going to call us at all."

"Captain," Worf said, "I am now able to display a visual of the lead Krann ships. They have come close enough now to be visible under full magnification."

"Excellent," Picard said. "Let's see them."

The view of the Krann armada disappeared and was replaced by a visual of a single ship. "This is full magnification, sir," Worf said.

The ship was a vast, spindly looking cage, inside of which were contained a large number of spinning spheres of various sizes. Each sphere was rotating on an axis attached to the cage. There was an array of conical shapes on the sunward side of the cage.

"It looks like a bunch of big balloons caught in a net," Riker said.

"A clockwork starship," Picard said. "Incredible. Each sphere must represent an independent environment."

"Why are they spinning?" Troi wondered.

"Artificial gravity, I should think," said the captain. "It's an old idea. The acceleration of spin on the inside surface of each sphere would subst.i.tute nicely for a gravity field."

"This ship is fifteen to twenty times larger than we are," Worf reported, "and it is the largest ship I can detect. Those conelike objects to sunward appear to be engine outlets. They are putting out large streams of hot ions. That must be how they decelerate, Captain."

"The outlets are up front?" Troi asked.

"That's where you'd expect to see them on a ship of this type during deceleration, Counselor," Picard said. "The outlets would be opposite the direction of flight."

"I can see what must be radiative fins here and there," Riker commented. "There are a good many of them. They must carry internal heat away from the core of the ship and allow it to leak very slowly into vacuum. All the heat is wasted to s.p.a.ce. This suggests that the Krann can't do anything about entropy except to succ.u.mb to it. I've seen designs like this-ancient ones that were drawn up before the development of warp drive. It was back when the old Earth nations were contemplating sending colony ships to the star systems nearest Sol. They came up with kludges like this one."

"The hull seems to be festooned with gadgets," Troi said. "Those over there look very much like sensor dishes."

"I'll bet that's just what they are," Riker said. "The sensor dish is about as basic a design as you can get. Related designs go all the way back to the nineteenth century on Earth. Mr. Worf, let's see some other ships."

"Aye, sir," the Klingon replied. The view shifted, and three smaller Krann vessels appeared on screen.

"The same thing," Troi observed, "only smaller. Fewer spheres inside the cages."

"There are much smaller ships as well," Worf told them. He worked the Tactical panel for a moment, and the scene changed yet again. Now framed in the center of the screen was a small, boxy s.p.a.cecraft that looked not unlike a Starfleet shuttlecraft of the previous century. "This one appears to be a personnel transport vessel, Captain-small, chemically powered, not much in the way of energy reserves, and no detectable weaponry. I'm reading a complement of seven aboard, and all bear the same life signs. With your permission, Captain, I will provisionally log these readings as representative of the Krann race, and I will add them to our database."

"Make it so," Picard said, "and put the long-range view back on screen. Ro, how far are the lead Krann vessels from Nem Ma'ak Bratuna?"