Epilogue

IT HAD TAKEN TWO WEEKSto have a Federation negotiating team formally assigned and dispatched to the

Lethanta-Krann negotiations, and another week to get the team properly briefed, but it was finally done.

The professional diplomats were on the job, and theEnterprise was free to move on.

 

Captain Picard was in Ten-Forward, looking out the window at Nem Ma’ak Bratuna. Riker was standing next

to him.

They’ll be fine, I think,

Picard said.

With Hek out of office, slightly more moderate people

have come into power in the Fleet Congress. The emphasis here is on ‘slightly,’ of course.

 

Yes, sir,

Riker agreed.

They’ll have a lot to talk about. Many of the Krann, especially the younger

people, want to settle in this star system.

 

And many do not,

Picard pointed out.

That puts a large part of a vast fleet on our doorstep, and the

Lethanta are on the edge of developing warp drive for use in starships instead of doomsday weaponry.

What if they should get together?

 

Let’s hope they stay friendly if they do.

 

Indeed. You know, there’s one thing

 

What’s that, sir?

 

Ro Laren mentioned it to me during her convalescence, and I must confess I hadn’t realized it myself.

She said she’d seen parked ground vehicles all over the capital city while she and Data were there. It

bothered her for some reason, but it didn’t hit her until later what that reason was. There was

something we hadnot seen parked, not anywhere. Something important.

 

And what was that, Captain?

 

The asteroids, Willthe asteroids the Lethantans arrived in. They’re not in orbit anywhere in this

system, and if they’d impacted on the planet following orbital decay, we’d have seen traces of those

impacts; those rocks werebig . So where did they go?

 

Riker thought about it for a moment.

I have an idea about that, sir.

 

So do I, but it staggers me to think about it.

 

Have you asked Kerajem about it?

 

No,

Picard said.

I won’t do that, Will. I won’t make him tell me his people’s most important secret.

 

Yes,

Riker said.

If all else fails

 

Exactly,

Picard agreed, looking out at all those millions of stars.

I wonder if we’d have the courage

to do the same?

 

The cell was cold and uncomfortable, but Hek Portside Hull Patcher had grown used to discomfort since

his unseemly departure from office. He had started out cold, broke and hopeless; if he finished up that

way, well, it was all right by him. There was a bunk and a toilet and some insects, and that was it.

 

As a matter of fact, Hek was bored. They had given him nothing to read or write with for the nearly

three weeks he’d been held here, and there had been no one to talk to or yell at. His was the only

occupied cell in the entire block. If he was going to be executed, he wished they’d get on with it.

They’d thrown him out of office for starting the war for no reason, and then they sentenced him to

deathin absentia for all sorts of crimes, not the least of which involved making a lot of his peers

fearful of him while he was Presider.

 

Hek wondered if they’d make him take a walk into Hek’s Closet. That would be appropriate. Whatever they

did to him, it would probably be kinder and quicker than what had happened to Graff, the poor wretch.

 

There was suddenly aclang! from somewhere down the row, and then there came the hollow sound of

footsteps. Someone was coming. Although he had no timepiece, Hek knew it was too early for the next

meal. Someone was actually coming to see himor space him.

 

It was Drappa Fuel Filter Examiner, Leader of the North Nation and the new Presider.

Hello, Hek,

he

said in that dull, grating voice of his.

 

Greetings, Drappa. Congratulations, I think.

 

You’re in no position to make jokes.

Drappa thumbed open the door of the cell and entered.

Mind if I

sit down?

he asked, throwing himself onto Hek’s bunk.

I have a proposition for you.

 

I’m listening.

 

The Fleet Congress has tentatively decided that our people will settle on the fourth planet of this

system and that we’ll dismantle the Fleet. We’re going to make that proposal at the next round of the

Federation talks, and we’re sure it will be accepted. It’ll certainly make the Federation happy.

 

Hek was shocked.

Why? It flies in the face of all that we are!

 

Because the population wants it that way,

Drappa told him.

Many of our people believe the days of the

Fleet are over because we’ll soon get warp drive for ourselves, now that we’ve been given the hint that

it exists. Faster-than-light travel will make our present ships obsolete, certainly, but that hardly

matters.

 

It doesn’t?

 

Not to most of our people. We’re being granted a pristine world of our own, a new Ma’ak Krannag, and

they want to live there. Only a few of our people want to remain spaceside and live the way we’ve been

living all these centuries, always free, but those few represent enough people to fill perhaps fifty of

our larger ships. And there’s something else, too.

 

What is it?

 

These peace talks may not succeed, Hek. Everything seems fine now, but war could still break out

between us and the Lethanta. Millennia of hatred and suspicion do not evaporate away into vacuum just

because a doctor sees something odd through her microscope. And there’s another thing, too. Even if the

talksare successful, war could still come a century or two from now. It happened just that way once,

long ago, back in our native star system. It could happen here as well.

 

I can certainly see that. And if it does?

 

If it does,

Drappa said,

I don’t wantany of the Lethanta to escape our vengeance, to mock us by their

continued existence, shouldwe become extinct. Hek, I’ve learned something. Something vital. When our

Fleet was first detected coming in, the Lethanta went back into space, back to where they’d left their

asteroid ships thousands of years before, and they recovered and refurbished them. They packed the

asteroid ships full of volunteers and supplies, and they sent them on their way again. That’s why they

called this star The Last Stand, Hek. This is where they were going to sacrifice themselves and destroy

us in order to protect the small group of their own people they’d sent farther on.

 

Which way did they go?

 

I don’t know,

said Drappa.

The asteroids are shielded against our sensor probesand the Federation’s,

too, for that matter. The asteroids could have gone off in any direction and at any acceleration. For

security reasons, their destination wasn’t to be selected until they were out of this star system. The

asteroid ships could have remained together or split into several flights headed in different

directions, and they have been on their way for decades. They’ll never be found except by the sheerest

accident while in flight. Now, Hek. How would you like to be the commander of a Seventh Fleet, a new

Fleet, dedicated to finding and dealing with these escaped Lethanta when they finallydo arrive at their

destination?

 

A Seventh Fleet?

 

Yes. Your mission would be the same as that of our beloved forefathers of the First Fleetfind the

Lethanta. The job won’t be completed within your lifetime, nobut it would be a job that would last for

the rest of your life. If war comes and there are to be survivors, we want them to be Krann and not

Lethanta.

 

And you wantme for this duty?

Hek asked.

Why?

 

I can think of no one better suited for this life. I need your single-mindedness and your fanaticism.

 

He smiled, but it was a dangerous smile.

Executing you would be a waste of material.

 

Hek thought for a moment.

Won’t this Seventh Fleet be detected on the way out?

 

We’ve altered the cloaking systems aboard the selected ships,

Drappa said.

They are again

undetectable. The Federation knows that the ship census is inexact. Fifty ships among a hundred sixty

thousand will never be missed. You’d be free to go out there, go anywhere, all on your own. You and your

descendants will go to other star systems and build new ships as you need them.

He paused.

Things

would be the way they were meant to be.

 

Yes,

Hek said softly.

Things would be the way they were meant to be.

His aquamarine eyes shone in

the gloom of the cell.

 

You can think about this for a while, if you want,

Drappa said, rising from the bunk.

 

I don’t need to think about it at all,

Hek replied.