"In due time, Counselor, I will explain," Llewellyn replied. "However, before we can get to that, there are some things that you will have to understand first. Now, if you will allow me to continue ..."

They nodded, though both Ro and Troi looked vaguely dissatisfied with his reply. Dr. Crusher merely sat there listening to Llewellyn and watching him carefully.

Llewellyn went on with his story. "I led the first away team. With me were our science officer, Lieutenant Nakamura; our chief weapons and security officer, Lieutenant Jamal; Dr. Vishinski; and two other crewmen who, regrettably, are no longer alive. We beamed down not far from where we sit right now, and we were confronted by essentially the same things you saw. We did not find any sign of life. The ark appeared to be deserted, but all the systems that maintained it were apparently still functioning. Our instruments, like yours, would not work properly, and we could not get any accurate readings, although at first we were able to communicate with our ship. We began to explore the ark.

"It was daytime aboard the ark when we arrived, so we spent most of that first day simply looking around, wandering through the streets. We did not attempt to enter any of the buildings because we could not find an entrance. So far as we could tell, the buildings were solid cubes, stacked in patterns resembling crystalline formations. We thought they might be residential structures with concealed entrances, or perhaps sealed power plants that ran the ark. All we could do at that point was theorize."

"It was obvious that this ark was constructed by an advanced civilization," added Nakamura, "at least as advanced as we were, possibly more. As we soon discovered, they were advanced far beyond our own technological capabilities."

"When we were satisfied that we seemed to be alone aboard the ark, we brought down more personnel," continued Llewellyn. "We had decided to make a complete survey of this huge vessel and learn as much about it as possible. The captain, figuring it would be a long-term project, prepared a dispatch for Starfleet Command, reporting our discovery. To the best of our knowledge, that message never reached its destination. It was only after a good number of our people had beamed down that we began to encounter problems."

"Some of our people began to disappear," said Lieutenant Jamal. "They simply vanished without a trace. And at about the same time we lost the ability to communicate with our ship."

"The same thing happened to us," said Dr. Crusher.

"I know," said Llewellyn. "Initially we believed that power fluctuations aboard the ark were responsible for some sort of interference, but we soon realized that our signals were being purposely jammed. We suspected it might be the result of some sort of automated defense program, but we were unable to discover anything that looked like a central control station for this ark. We figured it had to be inside one of the buildings, but they all looked more or less alike, and we had no idea which one it might be, much less how to gain entry."

"We'd had several reports of our people finding arched entryways to buildings and going inside to investigate," said Nakamura. "Then we simply lost contact with them. Nor could we find those entryways. It was not until we actually witnessed one of the walls sealing itself that we understood what had happened to them."

"We attempted to use our phasers to blast our way inside the buildings," said Jamal, "but our weapons had absolutely no effect. That seemed impossible, until we realized that the structural material was actually repairing itself as it was being damaged by our phasers. It was happening so quickly we couldn't even see it."

"You stated that you believed the interference with your communications might have been the result of some sort of automated defense system designed to jam your signals," Data said, "and yet you had not experienced any initial difficulty in communicating with your ship. Our experience was the same, at first. It is possible that an automated system might have required time to detect your presence aboard this vessel and then lock on to your communications frequency so that it could be jammed, but your tone of voice suggests that you do not believe that to have been the case."

"Very good, Mr. Data," said Llewellyn. "You are exactly right. That was not the case."

"Then what was responsible for jamming your communications?" Data asked.

"Very simple, Mr. Data," said Llewellyn. "We were not alone aboard the ark. The original crew, or at least the descendants of the original crew, were-and are-still present."

Dr. Crusher leaned forward. "You mean they are still here?"

"That's correct," Llewellyn replied.

"But ... where?" asked Troi.

"Where?" said Llewellyn. "Why, all around us. I'm not sure exactly how many of them there are, but excluding ourselves I would estimate the present population of the ark at roughly thirty thousand."

"Thirty thousand?" Ro said.

"More or less," Llewellyn replied, as Troi and Crusher stared at him with astonishment. "If it hadn't been for them, we never would have survived. They've been taking care of us all these years, and our colony, such as it is, has thrived. That is very fortunate, for you see, we can never leave."

Riker grunted as he painfully squeezed his way through the duct, following La Forge. Neither of them, fortunately, possessed a husky build, but Geordi was smaller, and it had been a tight squeeze for him in places. For Riker, inching his way through the ductwork like a worm was an ordeal.

"Just a little bit farther, Commander," La Forge said, from just ahead of him.

"I'm ... going ... on a diet," said Riker, wincing as he dragged himself about another foot. He had to inhale, then exhale heavily, emptying his lungs and inching forward as he did so. He had been repeating the whole process over and over, with painful slowness, wondering if he was ever going to reach the point where the duct vented into one of the Jefferies tubes.

"Come on, Commander, you're almost there," said La Forge.

"I ... don't know ... if I'm going ... to make it," Riker said, gasping for breath. He was starting to develop claustrophobia. The narrow pa.s.sageway had not been meant to accommodate a human body, and he could barely move. He raised his head very slightly, just enough to see about a foot or two in front of him, then stretched his arms out almost completely straight and pulled himself along by pressing down with his elbows and pushing a little with his knees, making slow, tortuous progress. What worried him most of all was not discovery by the Romulans, but the thought that he might become stuck.

"Just a few more feet," said La Forge, urging him on.

Riker grunted and dragged himself forward once again, sc.r.a.ping his shoulders painfully and ripping his tunic. "d.a.m.n!" he said, gritting his teeth as he felt his skin being sc.r.a.ped away along with the cloth. They were trying to move along quietly, but inside the duct, it sounded to him as if they were making enough noise to wake up the whole ship. It seemed like an eternity before Geordi finally helped him through the vent opening and out into one of the ship's maintenance tubes.

Riker took a deep breath, filling his lungs gratefully, and closed his eyes as he exhaled heavily. "Whew! After that, the rest of this mission will be all downhill."

"I'm not sure I'd go that far," said La Forge. "You know how long it's been since either of us walked in s.p.a.ce?"

"Not as long as it took to crawl through that d.a.m.ned duct," said Riker. He glanced around at the Jefferies tube they stood in, part of a vast, interconnecting network of maintenance tubes that ran throughout the ship. It was close in there, and there wasn't enough room for him to straighten up completely, but he wasn't anywhere near as uncomfortable as he had been inside the ductwork. "I used to hate coming into these d.a.m.n things," said Riker. "Can't stand up straight, got to crawl through on your hands and knees in places-it made me feel closed in. Brother, not anymore. After what I just went through, this feels as roomy as an open field."

La Forge grinned. "Welcome to how the other half lives," he said. "At least we won't have to crawl through any more ducts. We can follow the tubes down to Deck Thirteen and suit up, then exit through the emergency hatch in Shuttle Bay Two."

"How's the rest of your team going to get to the shuttle bay?" Riker asked.

"Same way," said La Forge. "Through the ducts to the nearest vent into the tubes, then on to the shuttle bay from there."

"Well, I sure hope you picked a bunch of skinny guys," said Riker, with a grimace.

"Not much chance for us to get fat down in the engineering section," La Forge replied. "We spend most of our time working, unlike you goldbricks up on the bridge."

"Sure, we just sit around playing computer games on the main viewer," Riker said, grinning back at him. "Okay, let's get this show on the road."

"Right," said La Forge, leading the way as they moved off down the tube. "You know, Commander, I was wondering... . a.s.suming we get that far, what happens if we don't find any phasers aboard the Independence?"

"You'd better hope we do," said Riker, "otherwise we'll have to cannibalize whatever we can find to rig up for weapons, and you'll get to show me what a hot engineer you are."

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that."

They wound their way through the maze of the maintenance tubes, then climbed through a narrow hatchway and down a steel ladder that led to the lower decks. "You know, it's been so long since I've been down in the guts of this ship that I'm not sure I can find my way around in here," said Riker.

"Well, if you see a large rabbit with a pocket watch, you'll know we took a wrong turn somewhere," said La Forge, with a grin.

"Hold on," Riker said, freezing on the ladder as they descended. "I hear something."

La Forge stopped. They listened for a moment, then heard a m.u.f.fled clanking sound.

"What's making that noise?" Riker asked softly.

"Mice?"

"You don't suppose the Romulans heard us moving through the ducts?"

"I don't think so," La Forge said. "But it's possible."

"Valak knows about the Jefferies tubes," said Riker. "If he's sent a search party in here after us, we've had it."

The sounds were getting closer.

"It's coming from just below us," said La Forge.

"Not much room in here to maneuver," Riker said. "And we don't have any weapons."

"Yeah, this could get interesting."

A moment later a head poked into the tube from an accessway just below them. "Commander Riker?"

Both La Forge and Riker exhaled heavily. It was one of Geordi's engineers. "Lewis!" La Forge said, shaking his head. "You scared the h.e.l.l out of us."

"Sorry about that, sir," said the bearded crewman. "I heard noise over this way and figured it had to be you."

"You have any trouble getting here?" asked Riker.

"Bit of a tight squeeze through the duct, sir, but except for leaving some skin back there, it was no trouble at all. I'm pretty sure none of the guards heard me. They won't be checking on us till the next watch."

"We'd better get moving, just the same," said Riker.

They continued climbing down the ladder down to Deck 13. By the time they got there, several members of La Forge's engineering crew had joined them. They continued on until they reached the access hatch that !led out into the shuttle bay. La Forge put his ear up against it and listened intently for a few moments, then slowly and carefully opened the hatch. "It's all right," he said. "Come on."

They climbed out into the shuttle bay and La Forge took a quick head count. Not counting himself and Riker, there were six of them. "We're missing two," he said. "Rogers and Chan."

"They'll probably be along any minute," Lewis said. "it's not exactly easy making it through those ducts."

"We can't afford to wait," said Riker. "Let's get suited up. If Rogers and Chan don't arrive in the next few minutes, we'll have to go without them."

They crossed the darkened shuttle bay to the opposite side, where the suit lockers were. As they were getting into the suits, the other two arrived, first Rogers, and then Chan, about two minutes later.

"Sorry I'm late," Chan said, as she came running up to the group. "I had trouble getting the vent grill off in my quarters. Somebody stripped one of the d.a.m.n screws."

La Forge handed her a suit. "Never mind," he said. "You made it, that's what counts. Let's move it."

She quickly slipped into the suit. Then they all helped one another strap on the EVA packs. La Forge, Rogers, and Lewis also strapped on some tool kits.

"Okay," said Riker, just before he put on his helmet. "Now listen up. I don't want any chatter out there. We maintain strict radio silence. The last thing we need is for the bridge to pick up our suit communicators. So it's hand signals only, got that?"

They all nodded.

"Good. Keep each other in sight. Use the buddy system. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Sir?"

"What is it, Chan?"

"Is there any way we can get out of this lousy detail?"

The others chuckled and Riker grinned. He was glad to see they still had their sense of humor. It helped dissipate the nervousness they were all feeling. Riker knew, because he was feeling it himself. "Okay," he said. "Let's move it. Geordi, don't forget to disable the warning light. We don't want them to see it on the bridge."

"Got it," La Forge said.

They donned their helmets and checked one another's seals, then quickly checked their life support backpacks, giving thumbs-up signs as the systems checked out. Then they trooped over to the emergency hatch. La Forge disabled the circuit that would indicate an open emergency hatch up on the bridge; then he and Lewis opened it and they all crowded into the small chamber on the other side. La Forge closed the hatch behind them, then opened the outer hatch. Riker took a deep breath. Well, he thought, here goes, and he stepped out into s.p.a.ce.

As he started to drift away from the ship, he used the small jets on his EVA pack to direct his flight. La Forge floated close beside him. He gave him a thumbs-up signal to indicate that everything was okay. The others followed them in pairs, heading across the gulf of s.p.a.ce that separated the Enterprise from the Independence. They had achieved orbit fairly close to it when they first went on board to investigate, but while the ships were near enough to each other to be within easy transporter range, for EVA, thought Riker, it wasn't exactly close.

He couldn't even remember the last time he had taken a s.p.a.ce walk. d.a.m.n, he thought, how long had it been? Probably back when he was still a young ensign. There wasn't any call for extravehicular activity in the normal routine of a ship's crew. Hardly anybody did it anymore except shipwrights at construction docks and refitting teams at starbases. We really ought to do more drills on this, Riker thought to himself. In a way, it was like riding a bicycle-once you learned how, you never forgot-but that didn't mean you wouldn't feel a bit shaky at first if enough time had gone by since your last walk. Come to think of it, he hadn't ridden a bicycle in years, either. There were a lot of things he hadn't done in a long time. Things that never seemed important until there was a very real chance of never being able to do them again, ever.

Fortunately the Enterprise was between them and the warbird, so they probably would not be seen from the Syrinx. And the Enterprise was positioned so that the bridge was facing away from them, as they floated in the opposite direction toward the Independence. However, there was still a possibility they could be spotted, and at this stage that was the greatest risk. About all they could do was keep their fingers crossed and hope that none of the Romulans felt like gazing out of any of the starboard viewports. However, most of the Romulans aboard the Enterprise would probably be sleeping or standing watch in the areas of the ship where they had sequestered the crew.

With any luck, thought Riker, we might get through this. He could hope that the arms lockers of the Independence had not been stripped completely bare. Even so, he had never known an ordnance officer who didn't squirrel away a few spare cases of weapons somewhere among the supplies, just as he had never known a chief engineer who didn't always make certain he had at least twice as many spares as he would need. He glanced toward La Forge, then back over his shoulder. The others were all strung out behind them, still keeping roughly abreast of their partners, so they could stay in visual contact with each other. Riker wished he could talk to them, but he didn't dare break radio silence. That would have been a sure way to give themselves away to the Romulans.

They were about halfway to the Independence by now. So far, so good, thought Riker. Now if only they could gain access to the ship without trouble. Even if everything went smoothly at this stage, they could still run into a snag while getting back to the Enterprise. A little more than half a dozen crewmen with phasers would not stand much chance against a full ship's complement of Romulans. Fortunately, some of the Romulans were aboard the Syrinx and others had beamed down to the ark, so the odds had been reduced somewhat, but they were still pretty stiff. There were still enough of them on board the Enterprise to quash the rebellion if the Starfleet team didn't move very quickly and take advantage of the element of surprise.

No matter what, thought Riker, they had to get back to the Enterprise before the watch changed. If the Romulans discovered any of them missing, there would be a full alert and that would be the end of it. They stood a chance of freeing and arming their fellow crew members only if they could get back and overpower the guards before the Romulans realized what had happened. The whole project was a monstrous long shot. And then there would still be the problem of the Syrinx and the hostages aboard it, and the people who were still down inside the ark-the captain, Deanna, Ro, Beverly, and Data.

He pushed the thought from his mind. He could not afford to think about them right now. He had to fix his concentration on one thing at a time. There were so many ways this could go wrong, they could not afford the slightest slipup. They did, however, have one thing in their favor. With Valak down inside the ark, Korak was in command, apparently under the authority of this Romulan lord, Kazanak or whatever his name was. He seemed to be a government bureaucrat of some sort; Riker was reasonably certain he wasn't in the Romulan military. Romulan lords did not command starships; they became colonial governors or served on the Romulan High Council. That meant Korak was the senior military officer in charge. And Korak wasn't half the officer that Valak was. Riker had found that out the hard way.

His body was still sore from the pummeling Korak had given it, and the sc.r.a.pes and bruises he'd received worming his way through the ductwork hadn't improved things any. That Romulan b.a.s.t.a.r.d could hit like a jackhammer. Riker still had a score to settle with Korak, and the Romulan felt exactly the same way. There would be a rematch, no doubt about it. The question was, would it occur on Riker's terms or Korak's?

Riker gave the jets another squirt and brought himself up alongside the Independence. La Forge joined him a moment later, and then the others came floating up. They were directly underneath the engine nacelles and were now effectively hidden from view. If the Romulans had seen them on the way over, they would probably find out very soon-one or two well-placed photon torpedoes would solve all their problems permanently.

Slowly they worked their way along the outer hull toward the shuttle bay doors. The emergency hatchways could be opened from the outside during extravehicular work on the hull, while a routine refitting was in progress, but not if they were locked from the inside. Standard operating procedure called for the hatches to remain locked at all other times, so they had come prepared to blow them open.

Using hand signals, he directed La Forge to begin the operation. Lewis and Rogers moved in to help him begin the work. They used small portable power drivers to open up the access panel, then La Forge rigged a small power pack and switch to the wiring that would blow the explosive bolts. He turned toward Riker and nodded, giving him a thumbs up to indicate that he was ready. Riker took a deep breath, then nodded back and signaled the others to get clear. La Forge had to remain where he was to throw the switch. It would have been far better to use a timer switch for the job, but La Forge had been limited to what he could scrounge together un.o.btrusively without alerting the Romulans. Under the circ.u.mstances, it was the best he could do, but it also meant that he would be at risk when the bolts blew-a.s.suming they would blow. Riker backed off with the others, then waved to La Forge. He couldn't see the chief engineer tense up in his suit, but he could easily imagine how he felt. A moment later Geordi threw the switch.

There was, of course, no sound when the bolts blew, but Riker saw them come flying out at great speed. In the blink of an eye it was over, and the outer hatch drifted loose. As the others moved in, Riker reached La Forge first and saw him raise his right hand, holding his thumb and forefinger about two inches apart to show how close one of the bolts had come to hitting him. Riker exhaled heavily. If the bolt had struck Geordi, it would have penetrated the suit, and even if it hadn't hit a vital organ, he would have died when the integrity of his suit was violated.

Moments later, they went through the inner hatchway and safely entered the ship. They still had to wear their suits and maintain radio silence, for the lifesupport systems on the Independence were not functioning and there had been no opportunity for La Forge to alter the frequencies of their helmet communicators. Time was of the essence.

Now all they had to do was search through the ship's ordnance and hope there were some spare phasers stashed away somewhere, then return to the Enterprise with the weapons, get back aboard without being spotted, and free some of their fellow crew members so they could take back control of their own ship without giving the Romulans time to alert their friends aboard the Syrinx.

Right, thought Riker grimly. Piece of cake.

Chapter Eleven.

THE ROMULANS WAITED TENSELY, uneasily holding their weapons as they took shelter beside the buildings and behind the low walls of the illuminated sculpture gardens in the street. Valak had dispatched them in groups, so they were all in visual contact with one another and capable of laying down fields of fire covering all approaches to their position. Picard waited beside him, along with several other warriors, as they watched the lights spreading out toward them.

What had initially appeared to be several trails of lights moving away from the illuminated area on the opposite side of the ark had now branched out into dozens of light trails coming toward them from all directions. It was like watching dozens of huge torchlight processions from a distance. A distance that was steadily closing.

"There must be literally hundreds of them coming toward us," said Picard.

"They will find us waiting for them," Valak replied grimly, although he sounded tense.

"Don't be a fool," Picard said. "You are hopelessly outnumbered."