Chapter Eight

PICARD FELT ANNOYED for the first time this trip. He remained seated in his chair as the rest of the attendees stood and left the large room. The round table was littered with water glasses and a few scraps of notepaper. For the third day in a row, the meetings between the Federation and the Klingon Empire had gone poorly. Both sides claimed they wanted to work with the other, yet there seemed to be no common ground on which to base trust. Tomorrow was scheduled to be the last day, but at this point Picard doubted it would even be worth his time to attend. Nothing was going to be solved.

“Captain?” Commander Sisko said, moving to a place beside Picard’s chair.

Picard pushed his chair back and stood. “Yes,

Commander,” he said, doing his best to keep annoyance out of his voice.

“My chief of security thought it might be a good idea to include you in his afternoon briefing.” Then Sisko added quickly, “If you have the time.”

Picard nodded. That made sense. Worf had been informing him as to what measures were being taken, but it would be good also to hear what Commander Sisko’s people were doing, especially after the attempt on all their lives yesterday.

“I can make the time,” Picard said, smiling at Sisko. “Lead the way, Commander.”

Three minutes later he was seated in Odo’s office, facing the changeling. Also there were Major Kira Nerys, Lieutenant Worf, and Commander Sisko. Worf and Kira remained standing.

Odo started in immediately. “It seems likely that the person directly behind the bombing was a Klingon named dRacLa. He’s been on the station for three weeks, ostensibly working on an agricultural exchange.”

“Has he been picked up?” Worf asked.

Odo shook his head. “No. Even though I witnessed a meeting between him and the Caxtonian bomber, we do not yet have enough direct evidence to hold him.”

Worf nodded. Picard could tell he clearly wasn’t happy.

“Any information as to motive?” Picard said. “Whom he might be working for? Or if he is working for anyone?”

Odo shook his head no and consulted his padd. “dRacLa is from the agricultural planet Taganika. He-“

Both Picard and Sisko said, “Taganika?” at the same time.

Startled, Odo looked up.

“Who was his father?” Picard asked. He had a hunch he knew.

. “Vok,” Odo said after glancing at his notes. “DracLa, son of Vok.”

Picard glanced at Sisko, who looked as shocked as Picard felt. It seemed Gowron’s story might have a little more to do with the meetings than Picard originally thought.

Riker and Dax left the meeting together, with Dax leading. She said she knew of a small cafe that was the farthest point from Quark’s bar on the Promenade. “We won’t be bombed there,” she had said, and Riker had found himself laughing.

It had been some time since he had so enjoyed the company of a woman. Of course, Dax was not a normal woman, with all the Trill lifetimes inside her. But that made her all the more interesting. And mysterious.

The restaurant turned out to be a very small Argainian cafd with a wonderful wine selection. Huge plants hung everywhere, and small glow-pots on each table gave the entire place an intimate, yet outdoor feeling. Riker felt extremely comfortable by the time they were seated.

Conversation at first stayed mainly on the hopelessness of the meetings. They both very much wanted them to work, but like the rest of the attendees, they could come up with no place to really start.

They were halfway through the second course, a delicious Argainian soup, when Riker’s comm badge brought Captain Picard’s voice to the table. “All senior officers report to the conference room.”

Riker tapped his comm badge. “Understood.”

Dax shook her head, but Riker could see she was laughing at the humor in the situation. Twice they had been unable to finish a dinner together.

“Seems I am wanted elsewhere,” he said, taking her hand. “Later in Quark’s for Gowron’s story?”

“I’ll save you a seat,” she said.

He nodded, then with a quick turn left the restaurant.

Five minutes later he strolled into the conference room. Captain Picard stood near the front of the table behind his chair. Counselor Deanna Troi, Lieutenant Worf, Data, and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge were already seated.

“Sorry to pull you away from dinner, Number One,” Picard said.

“No problem, sir,” he said, and moved quickly around and took his chair beside where the captain stood. Beside him Deanna smiled at him with one of “those” smiles and he hoped his face wasn’t red.

It took only a minute for Picard to fill them in on

the discovery of the Klingon dRacLa’s history and his presence on the station. Riker was completely shocked at the news. He had been totally engrossed in Gowron’s story of young Pok, but he had had no idea that a continuation of the story might be playing out as Gowron was telling it.

“At this point,” Picard said, “we will not mention to Gowron that we know of the family history of dRacLa. Gowron and his security advisors have been informed of dRacLa’s presence on the station. That is enough.”

Picard looked at Riker, the only other person in the room attending the storytelling sessions, and Riker nodded his agreement.

“Now,” Picard said, finally sitting down. “Commander Sisko is putting Deep Space Nine on alert status. This ship will go to alert and stay there until further notice.”

Riker sat forward, puzzled. “Percussion only. Or do you expect trouble?”

Picard smiled. “I don’t expect it, I know it’s coming. I just don’t know from which direction. And to start, two Cardassian ships will be arriving here within ten minutes. We do not know their mission or their intentions.”

“Cardassian?” La Forge said. “They hate

Klingons.”

“And the Federation,” Riker said, starting to understand where the captain was heading.

“Exactly,” Picard said. “Disrupting these meetings

benefits any number of races, as well as factions inside the Klingon Empire. The Cardassians would profit greatly from a Federation/Klingon war.”

“But I understand, sir,” Data said, “that the meetings are not going well. Why disrupt a failed meeting?”

“Just the simple fact that the meeting is occurring is a bad sign for those seeking power in other ways, Data,” Riker said.

Picard nodded. “Even if the meeting fails to come to any agreements, we need to guarantee it continues the full five days.”

Everyone nodded and Picard stood. “Dismissed.”

Riker sat for a moment longer, thinking, as the others filed out. Gowron must have known that dRacLa was on the station when he arrived. What was he trying to tell them with his story? Only Gowron knew. The rest would find out as the story progressed.

“Crafty,” Riker said to himself as he stood. “Very crafty.”