Chapter Five

JUSTMANMADE ITS FINAL APPROACHto the VIP landing pad at the spaceport that served the Lethantan capital.

The shuttlecrafts escort flew on by overhead. Captain Fesnerkall saluted theEnterprise landing party

with a last waggle of his wings.

 

Friendly enough,

Picard said approvingly.

Good protocol. Fine sense of fitness on the part of that

Fesnerkall.

 

Deanna Troi nodded.

I sensed nothing inimical from any of them, Captain. They were curious about us,

perhaps a bit fearful, but disposed to be friendly. The other thing, the apprehension I told you about

earlier, overlays all their thoughts and colors all their actions.

 

The other thing is what we need to find out about,

Picard observed.

 

Yes,

Troi replied, touching her forehead in something like weariness.

Their fear hangs over

everything they think and do like a thick, dark blanket. It is suffocating them, in a way.

 

Captain,

Worf called.

There are people waiting for us.

 

Picard turned to a small viewscreen that was right at hand and dialed for the view below. Casting about,

he soon found a group of perhaps thirty people standing not far from their designated landing spot.

 

What do you think, Counselor?

Picard asked.

 

Troi pursed her lips.

There is a great deal going on among them. Their emotions areare roiling.

She

paused.

The strongest feeling is coming from this one, Captainthe tall, white-haired man in the middle

of the group. To him we represent salvation.

 

Picard nodded.

Do you have any idea of what the danger might be that these people face?

 

Troi winced as she attempted to read closer.

 

Are you all right, Deanna?

Picard asked, concerned.

 

Im sorry, Captain. This isnt very easy for me. Everyone here is, is keyed up about whatever this is.

Tapping into it, trying to read it, is a bit uncomfortable. Its like trying-to grasp the lyric of a

song by putting your ear against an output unit set at its highest volume. Whatever the danger is, they

view it as both enormousand quite nearby.

 

No one else is around,

Data said.

There appears to be a conflict between what Counselor Troi

perceives and our appraisal of the tactical situation.

 

Appearances can be deceiving,

Troi observed.

 

Landing now, Captain,

Worf called.

 

Do a nice job, Mr. Worf. They expect to be impressed.

 

Jemmagar, the minister for security, was perturbed. Shielding his eyes, he squinted up into the bright

sky.

Isthis the alien ship weve been waiting for?

he asked Kerajem, exasperated.

Thistiny thing?

Hardly seems worth closing off the spaceport for it.

 

Its not so very small,

Kerajem said patiently.

In any case, this is what the aliens call a

shuttlecraft. The mother ship is still in orbit.That one should be large enough to impress you. Really,

Jemmagar, you ought to try listening to the briefing reports once in a while.

 

Jemmagar set his lips in a tight line.

There wasnt a great deal of time, First,

he said fussily.

 

Ive had about half an hours sleep in the past three days. Im afraid I was grabbing a nap in the

groundcar while the driver got me here.

 

Very well, Jemmagar,

Kerajem said, holding up a hand.

Never mind, never mind. Weve all been a little

short on sleep recently.

 

The ministers watched as, overhead, the shuttlecraft spun smartly about and settled down slowly onto the

landing pad. There was only the smallest sound as the little boat contacted the surface.

 

The engines died and, after a moment, the hatch opened. Captain Picard and his officers stood in the

hatchway. All of them were smiling in as friendly a manner as they could manage.

 

One of them is quite nonhuman,

Jemmagar whispered.

He appears rather grisly.

 

I wish he wouldnt try to smile like that,

Kerajem whispered back.

 

Theres another one who looks, well, rather pale.

 

They do seem disposed to be friendly.

 

Jemmagar snorted.

Well, I hope youre right.These people surely dont seem very concerned, considering

whats going on.

 

They may not feel any need to be concerned,

Kerajem observed.

That might be the most hopeful sign

yet.

 

The force of two dozen security personnel accompanying the Council of Ministers kept a discreet watch on

Picard and his people as they leftJustman and walked across the landing pad to the spot where Kerajem

and the other ministers were waiting for them.

 

Captain Picard, I presume,

Kerajem said, smiling broadly. He put out a hand in the friendly manner

common to many humanoid cultures, and Picard shook it.

 

Kerajem indicated the six men standing immediately behind him.

We of the Council of Ministers of Nem

Maak Bratuna extend greetings to you and your people on behalf of all the citizens of our world.

 

Picard smiled back pleasantly,

And I, sir, and my officers greet all of you in the name of the

government and citizens of the United Federation of Planets. Thank you for your most gracious welcome.

May this initial meeting be only the beginning of a long and productive relationship between our two

cultures.

 

Kerajem nodded.

Indeed.

 

Allow me, please, to introduce my colleagues,

Picard continued.

This is Counselor Deanna Troi, my

closest and most trusted advisor. To her left is Lieutenant Commander Data, second officer of

theEnterprise , and tohis left is Lieutenant Worf, our chief of security.

 

I am pleased to meet all of you,

Kerajem said.

If you will, Captain, allow me to present some of the

other members of the Council of Ministers.

Together, Kerajem and Picard walked to the head of a short

receiving line formed by the seven waiting men.

 

The first minister was a burly, determined-looking sort.

Captain, allow me to present Presinget fes

Kwaita, our minister for labor.

 

Ah. A pleasure, Minister Presinget.

 

The pleasures all mine, Captain,

the burly former miner replied, shaking Picards hand with a bone-crushing grip.

Glad to meet you. Pretty exciting, you know. People dont drop in on us from outer space

every damn day.

 

Uh, I can imagine,

the captain said.

 

They came to a slight, balding man.

Captain, this is Umbeltag zan Swannet, our social services

minister.

 

How do you do, Captain?

 

Very well, thank you, Minister. It is an honor to meet you.

 

The next minister was a short, fussy-seeming man.

Captain Picard,

Kerajem said,

this is Jemmagar fes

Kah, our minister for security.

 

Picard put out his hand and smiled.

A pleasure to meet you, Minister Jemmagar.

 

Jemmagar looked at Picard for a long and impolite moment, letting the silence linger until he saw that

Kerajem was gritting his teeth.

As you say, Captain, a pleasure,

Jemmagar said lightly, finally giving

Captain Picards hand a quick, limp shake.

 

Kerajem noted that if Picard had been offended by Jemmagars studied rudeness, he was giving no sign of

it. That was a relief. He and Picard came to the next man, one who seemed younger than the others.

 

Captain Picard, this is Klerran fes Dresnai, our minister for science and education.

 

Klerran grinned and extended his hand.

Dont let these others get to you before I do, Captain.

 

Picard smiled back.

I think thats more or less up to you, Minister Klerran.

They shook.

 

The next minister was an older, slender man with a whiff of the diplomat about him.

Captain, allow me

to introduce you to Terrestak zan Pettok, our minister for state.

 

Welcome to our world, Captain Picard,

Terrestak said politely. He shook Picards hand with just the

proper pressure for exactly the right length of time.

 

Thank you for inviting us, Minister,

Picard replied.

 

They came next to a much older man.

Captain, let me present Rikkadar zan Therrka, our finance

ministerand my oldest friend.

 

Greetings, Captain,

Rikkadar said warmly as he shook Picards hand.

May ours be a long and lasting

friendship.

 

Let us be sure to make it so, Minister Rikkadar.

 

Kerajem indicated another landing pad about fifty meters away. There were two large craft standing by.

 

I thought you might enjoy flying into the city by jethopper,

the First said.

They may be a bit old-fashioned, but they travel slowly enough to give one a chance to appreciate the scenery.

 

And I would appreciate the chance to see it,

Picard said, looking toward the distant Kajja Kojja.

 

Those mountains to the east are really quite beautiful.

 

Thank you, Captain,

Kerajem said.

I was born there, as was Minister Rikkadar.

 

Then Ill be certain to go see them,

Picard said agreeably.

 

Ill be happy to take you there myself, Captain, a little later during your visit with us,

Kerajem

told him. He gestured toward the waiting jethoppers.

Meanwhile, perhaps wed all best get started for

town.

 

That suits us very well,

Picard said.

 

Kerajem, Security Minister Jemmagar, and old Rikkadar were sitting with Captain Picard and the rest of

theEnterprise party in a comfortably appointed lounge in the forward section of the lead jethopper. The

other hopper, with the remainder of the Council of Ministers aboard, was following theirs into the

capital.

 

Picard was looking out one of the panoramic passenger windows as the countryside rolled past and under

them.

I see were following a highway,

he observed, smiling.

More fun than instrument flying any day.

I suppose pilots are pilots, wherever they might be found.

 

Kerajem smiled back.

Highway One is the only road to and from the spaceport,

he said.

This is a

regular run for me. I take it, then, that you yourself have flown something like this craft were in,

Captain.

 

Yes,

Picard said agreeably.

Yes, I havesomething very much like it, anyway. I think theyre great

fun.

The captain leaned back in his seat and put his fingertips together in the almost prayerful way he

had whenever he was about to broach a difficult subject.

Kerajem, I hope we can discuss matters freely,

when it comes time. There is a great deal we would like to know.

 

The First Among Equals nodded.

I think I can promise you that we will be at least as forthcoming as

you, Captain. After all, trust begets trust.

 

Indeed it does,

Picard said, nodding. He looked out the window.

Kerajem, I hope you dont mind my

asking you a rather direct question.

 

Please do.

 

The countryside here seems rather, well, bare,

Picard said, gesturing toward the outside.

I see no

towns and few structures of any sort. There seems to be no infrastructureonly that one highway below

us, for example. Thats not typical of the surrounding territory of the planetary capitals with which I

am familiar, sir. Usually such areas are quite crowded.

 

You find it curious?

Kerajem asked, genuinely puzzled.

I suppose I dont see anything strange about

it. Its the way we do things. There are historical reasons for that, of course. There always are.

 

Picard was all attention.

Id surely like to hear all about those reasons, Kerajem.

 

Certainly,

the First said.

Well talk at Government House. I expect that we will find that we have

much in common. After all, youve already

 

Jemmagar interrupted.

Thats all very well,

the minister for security said,

but I dare say that we

had better not be the only party to this conversation who will be forthcoming. Kerajem, I tried to warn

you

 

I need no warning, Jemmagar,

Kerajem said quietly, holding up a hand.

Captain, you must excuse the .

. . enthusiasm of my colleague. As you will surely understand, he is, shall we say, caught up in the

moment. These are trying times, as you will surely understand, and the strain on all of us has been

enormous.

 

Of course,

Picard said reassuringly.Trying times? What the devil is he talking about?

I would assure

Minister Jemmagar, and you, sir, that we are here to further mutual understanding and cooperation

between our two peoples.

The captain chuckled in his most sincere and diplomatic manner.

I assure you

that we are as curious about you as you are about us.

 

We need to know about the Krann,

Jemmagar said bluntly.

 

Come, come, Jemmagar,

Rikkadar said wearily.

We havent even arrived at Government House yet. Surely

even you can waitthat long.

 

The Krann?

Picard asked.

Who are the Krann?

He looked at Data, who shook his head from side to side

in a perfectly practiced manner.

 

As if you didnt know,

Jemmagar sneered.

Isthis the kind of forthrightness we are to expect from the

Federation of United Planets?

 

The United Federation of Planets, sir,

Data corrected him.

 

Whatever,

Jemmagar snapped.

 

Picard cleared his throat.

Kerajem,

he said,

I assure you that we have never heard of anyone called

the Krann. We are the first Federation vessel ever to enter this region of the galaxy. Everything and

everyone here is new to us.

 

Troi was having trouble pinning down the apprehension behind Jemmagars studied rudeness. There seemed

to be no reason for it, and certainly neither the captain nor anyone else from theEnterprise had offered

Jemmagar any offense. Suddenly the counselor caught the slimmest glimmer of the root of Jemmagars fear.

It was shared by all the Lethanta. The wellspring of this particular fear lay far down in the dungeons

that are built and strengthened in early childhood, where the myths and legends dwell forever even after

one has forgotten all about them. They live on without tending. These deepest dungeons represented

territory Troi had explored many, many times in psychotherapy, both as therapist and patient. Whatever

the fear was, it was big, it had power, and each one of the Lethanta was gripped by it.

 

The counselor wondered if that fear had a name.Could it be the Krann, perhaps? But who could theybe?

 

Troi had a sudden thought.

Captain,

she said,

perhaps Minister Jemmagar is referring to whomever is

responsible for the present condition of 30452 FAS Three and Four.

 

Why, yes,

Picard said, seizing upon the notion.

Kerajem, just before we came here, we visited a star

system eighty-seven light-years away. We know your people once lived on the third planet of that

system

 

Picard was surprised to see Kerajems eyes suddenly grow wide. The two ministers sitting with him looked

stunned.

You know this thing for a fact?

Kerajem whispered. He had grown pale.

How? How is it

possible?

 

Picard looked at Troi. Her face mirrored something of the awe felt by the Lethanta.

Captain,

she said

very quietly,

they did not know this before now. This is very important to them.

 

Of course.

Picard took a moment to search for the right words.

Kerajem,

he said,

we have means

available to thoroughly examine a biological form.

 

Please,

Kerajem said.

Tell us about the planet in that other system, Captain. Why do you believe we

came from there?

 

More to the point, can you prove it?

Jemmagar rasped.

 

Are you certain you want him to?

Rikkadar said.

 

I want the truth,

Jemmagar insisted.

 

All I can do is tell you how we happened to go there, and what we found when we arrived,

Picard said.

 

To begin with, we are in this sector on a mission to extend the database of the Federation

Astrophysical Surveythat is, we are finding out all we can about this sector of space and everything in

it. We visited a nearby star that we have since listed as 30452 FAS on our charts, hence Commander

Trois reference to that designation.

 

Captain, didnt you say that this star was eighty-seven light-years from here?

Rikkadar asked.

 

Yes, Minister Rikkadar. Yes, I did.

 

The concept of nearby has changed since this morning,

Kerajem said wryly.

Please continue, Captain

Picard.

 

We found the third planet of that system in a particularly severe state. Our findings were that, some

six thousand years ago, the planet was bombarded from space, possibly from orbit, by someone using high-yield nuclear weapons designed to eradicate all life upon it with hard radiation.

 

Doomsday weapons,

Klerran hazarded.

 

Yes,

Worf said.

Some cultures have called them that. Such weapons are specialized nuclear devices

that are jacketed with a substancesometimes cobaltthat pulverizes when exposed to the detonation of

the parent device. The substance turns highly radioactive and disperses throughout the ecosystem of the

target area. The radioactive agent has a very long half-life. The many such devices dropped on the

planet in question were clearly intended to sterilize it.

 

But they didnt succeed in ridding that world of all life,

Rikkadar guessed.

 

Not entirely,

Data told him.

Some lower lifeforms did survive the bombardment. The planetary

biosphere is stabilizing, but extremely slowly.

 

There are no people there, however,

Rikkadar said.

 

No, sir,

Data confirmed.

There are no people there.

 

So how do you know what you say you know?

Kerajem asked.

 

We analyzed those lower lifeforms quite thoroughly,

Picard told him.

Our studies showed that those

lifeforms, and you, evolved from the very same source.

 

So we are really from the third planet of that star?

Klerran asked in wonder.

 

Picard paused, then carefully continued.

That is what we believe.

 

Rikkadars eyes were wide and shining with tears.

The homeworld,

the old man breathed.

That third

planet must have been the homeworld.

 

I wouldnt want to draw any rash conclusions from this story,

Kerajem said.

 

It is just as the ancients wrote,

Rikkadar continued, not hearing him.

The homeworld was cleansed by

fire and storm in payment for sin, and few escaped.

 

There must be some other explanation,

Jemmagar said uncertainly.

Theremust be.

 

Can we have been so wrong?

Rikkadar said, almost to himself.

Can we have been so desperately wrong

about everything?

 

Picard sneaked a look at Troi, who shrugged just enough for him to see. She looked as puzzled as he.

 

We will speak more of this later,

Kerajem said distractedly. He looked out the window and saw that

they were flying over the capital city.

I see were approaching Government House,

the First Among

Equals said.

We hope you and your officers will feel at home, Captain.

 

I am quite sure we will, Kerajem,

Picard replied, and he tried very hard to sound as if he meant it.

 

TheEnterprise bridge routine had settled back into something approaching deadly dull. Will Riker was in

the command chair. As per Picards orders, he was maintaining yellow alert status, but everything that

needed to be done about that had long since been done.

 

Ensign Ro was handling both Ops and Flight Control in Datas absence. Aside from a visual and systems

check every ten minutes, Ro was letting the automatics do their job of maintaining standard orbit. She

was much busier doing something else. Sector by sector, almost cubic meter by cubic meter, Ro was

directing the ships sensors in an almost unimaginably thorough and dogged sweep of the Maak Indawe

system. She was determined to find the source of the warp-field blips that had originally attracted

their attention.

 

There was still no sign of what might have caused them. Instead, she found something else.

 

Commander?

Ro called.

I have been going through recent sensor logs. Fifty-three minutes ago, we

picked up a brief energy blip of some sort. Im working on an analysis.

 

Commander Riker rose from the center seat.

Where away?

he asked as he walked forward.

 

Well outsystem from here, sir,

Ro said as her fingers flew across the Ops panel.

Somewhere just

inside the orbit of planet five. Im trying to narrow it down. I can already tell you the latest blip

had nothing to do with warp-field generation, though. This is something else, something in another

spectrum entirely.

 

Riker stood behind Ro and leaned forward a bit to look over her shoulder at the Ops display.

Nothing

out of the ordinary there now,

he said.

Lets get a visual of the area in question.

 

Yes, sir.

Ro rapidly hit a series of controls, and the real-time view of Nem Maak Bratuna from orbit

swam dizzily and was quickly replaced by a static starfield.

Thats full magnification, Commander.

 

Riker looked intently at the viewscreen. There was nothing to be seen there.

 

Commander,

Ro said,

the analysis of the energy blip has just been completed.

She paused for a moment

and then tapped another rapid series of commands, never taking her eyes off the panel.

The sensors say

the phenomenon in question was a tightly contained pocket exposure of class-M environmental conditions

for a duration of one point three seconds. I am already running the sensor diagnostics, Commander,

because that sounds like nonsense.

 

I agree,

Riker said, walking back into the command area and reseating himself.

Theres nothing out

there to support class-M conditions. Maintain yellow alert, Ensign.

 

Yes, sir,

Ro replied. A moment later, she said,

Commander, youre not going to like this. The sensor

diagnostic programs have completed running. All systems read nominal.

 

Riker exhaled.

Youre right,

he said, scratching his chin.

I dont like it. Not a bit. It doesnt

make sense.

 

Sir?

Ro said, swiveling around to look at Riker.

If I may?

 

Yes, Ensign?

 

Theres one profile I can think of that fits these readings.

 

And what is that?

 

Temporary breach of a cloaking device, sir, as reported byU.S.S. Nemesis during its confrontation with

Romulan warbirdNight Raven . Sometime around stardate 42400, I believe.

 

The open door phenomenon,

Riker said, remembering.

The Romulan ship briefly lost hull integrity due

to a coolant line blowout along its inner hull.Night Raven s cloaking device could not compensate

quickly enough for the suddenly changed physical condition of the ship. Sensors aboardNemesis picked up

the resulting exposure of class-M environmental conditions inside the warbird.

 

As I recall, Commander,

Ro said,

the open door lasted for about a second, until the Romulan

cloaking device could compensate. We may be seeing something like that here, sir.

 

The commander looked at the viewscreen for a long moment. There seemed to be absolutely nothing there.

 

Keep a close watch on that sector, Ensign,

Riker said thoughtfully.

The captain is still in transit

to the local governments headquarters. Ill call him.