by Peter David
“He’s not asleep,” she said with the air of someone who was not explaining this for the first time. “It only seems that way. Actually he’s just deep in thought, but he’s completely attuned to everything that’s going on. One hundred percent alert.”
“I see.”
“Also, I admit…he’s probably a bit worn out. I still don’t think he’s sleeping on the job. But his exhaustion is understandable. He’s been through something of an emotional wringer.”
“How so? Unless you feel it’s none of my business.”
“Well, sir…probably it’s not your business, no.” With that mandatory disclaimer out of the way, Lefler quickly and eagerly sat down, elbows propped on her knees.
Riker noted with quiet amusement that she was displaying one of the oldest mindsets of young humans, stretching back centuries: the slightly guilty joy of dishing gossip. No matter how advanced humanity became, no matter how many horizons were explored, no matter how many adventures were pursued, no matter how great and noble the race aspired to be…there was simply something irresistible about chattering about people behind their backs. Riker, the older, wiser, cooler head, was relieved that he himself was above such things…and then leaned forward so as not to miss anything.
“Okay,” continued Lefler, “the fact is that for a while McHenry and Burgoyne 172 were quite the couple, if you catch my drift.”
“Not really.”
“Well, Burgoyne is a Hermat.”
“Hmm. A Hermat.” He understood why she said it that way. Not since the Deltans had there been a race whose sexual mores and practices had engendered more interest than the Hermats. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “There aren’t all that many in Starfleet. It’s somewhat amazing that two were assigned to this vessel.”
“Two?” The tops of her eyebrows knitted together in quiet surprise and confusion. “What two?”
“Well, the Hermat who is involved with McHenry, and the one who is involved with your CMO. At least, I was told the father…mother…whatever…that that individual is the father of Doctor Selar’s child.”
“Right. That’s Burgoyne. Same person.”
Riker stared at her. “The…three of them are involved…”
“No, no. You see…well, yes, kind of,” and she started ticking off major elements on her fingers. “Burgoyne was interested in Selar. But Selar wasn’t interested in Burgoyne. At least, she was trying to pretend that she wasn’t interested, but she really was, but part of it was as a result of this whole Vulcan biological thing. They don’t like to talk about. There’s all kinds of different stories about it. It’s a personal, private cultural thing and far be it from me to pry.
“Anyway, Selar apparently changed her mind, but Burgoyne was involved with McHenry by that point. So Selar approached the captain about ‘accommodating’ her. Apparently he said okay…”
“He said what?”
“He said okay. Apparently it was part of his Xenexian duty to be accommodating about something like that.” At Riker’s shocked expression, she quickly added, “It’s a life or death situation.”
“Apparently so.” For some reason, Riker was suddenly relieved that Calhoun hadn’t been in command of the Enterprise when Lwaxana Troi had shown up with a quadrupled sex drive. He was sure that Lwaxana would have convinced Calhoun that hers was a life and death situation as well. “You seem to be rather up on everything that’s going on around the ship, Lieutenant.”
“A starship is like a small town, Captain. Everybody hears everything. Fortunately enough,” she said with a touch of irony, “there’s some of us who work hard to make sure that accurate information is being disseminated.”
“Bless you.”
“Thanks,” she said, with a grin. “Anyway, some other stuff happened, and Doctor Selar wound up with Burgoyne after all. Now she’s pregnant.”
“I see.” He was intrigued in spite of himself. “And how does McHenry feel about all this?”
“Well, he was okay with it, but really stunned when he found out that Burgoyne was pregnant too.”
“What?” He felt his head starting to spin.
“Yeah. At about the same time that Selar announced she was pregnant with Burgoyne’s child, Burgy announced that s/he was pregnant with McHenry’s child. Poor Mark. Passed right out. Fainted dead away. Since then, he’s just thrown himself into his work. I don’t think he knows quite how to approach Burgoyne about it. He feels embarrassed about fainting, I know that, and I sure don’t think he was prepared for the notion of being a father.”
“Well, he’s going to have to deal with it sooner or later.”
“I think he’s angling for later, sir.”
“Computer…service record of Burgoyne 172. I think,” Riker said slowly, “that I very much want to meet Burgoy—.” His voice trailed off as he stared at the screen, and his eyes widened. “Burgoyne is the chief engineer?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is this individual stable enough?”
“Oh yes,” Lefler said cheerfully. “S/he’s as stable as the rest of us.”
Riker wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
They walked out of the Captain’s ready room. Shelby was seated in the command chair, and made as if to stand up and give way to Riker, but he waved her off. “That won’t be necessary, Commander. Presuming everything is calm here, Lieutenant Lefler is going to help familiarize me with the ship.”
“As you wish…Captain.”
There was just that moment of hesitation, and Riker wondered if something vaguely insubordinate was meant by it. But there was nothing about Shelby’s attitude or deportment that seemed to indicate it, and Riker chalked it off to his imagination.
His gaze shifted to Mark McHenry. McHenry was exactly as Riker had seen him before. He was tilted back in his chair, his eyes closed. He wasn’t snoring. He didn’t even quite seem alive. No one else on the bridge, however, was taking notice of it.
Shelby noticed what had caught his attention, and she smiled slightly. “I went through the same thing,” she said. “Trust me…it’s fine. He’s completely attuned to the ship. Check if you want.”
Riker paused, wondering how one could possibly “check” such a thing. Then a thought occurred to him. He walked over to the tactical section of the bridge, quietly gesturing for the man on duty there to step aside. He did so and Riker glanced over the array. He tapped a control…and the ship’s primary defense shields snapped on. There was no signal of an alert, although there was a slight rerouting of energy that was part of the natural defense systems process.
The effect on McHenry was instantaneous. He sat bolt upright, glancing at his board and looking at the main screen at the same time. “Are we under attack?” he asked.
Riker couldn’t believe it. He looked to Shelby, who shrugged in a “told you so” manner.
“He’ll do,” Riker said after a moment, and then walked out of the bridge with Lefler right behind him, leaving a puzzled McHenry checking his readouts.
They walked briskly down the corridor, Lefler saying, “Ensign Beth down in engineering said that Burgy is down in the holodeck, working out. She checked with Burgy, though, who said we should feel perfectly free to come by.”
“‘Burgy’ is what you call him?”
“That’s what everybody calls hir. Hermats have their own pronouns. ‘Hir (H,I,R)’ and ‘s/he.’”
He shook his head. “Hard to be—”
Then he stopped as a woman headed down the hall toward him. She was a dark-haired, older woman, with a rather aristocratic air about her. And she looked stunningly familiar.
“Hello, honey,” she nodded to Robin.
Lefler kissed the woman lightly on the cheek. “Mom…this is Captain William Riker. He’s in temporary command of the ship while Captain Calhoun is on another assignment. Captain, this is my mother, Morgan Lefler.”
“An honor.” She shook his hand firmly and then tilted her head in polite confusion. “Is something wrong, C
aptain?”
“It’s just that…” He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “You just…you remind me of the mother of someone else I know.”
“It’s entirely possible, I suppose. I have gotten around quite a bit.”
“Mom’s very long lived,” Robin said cheerfully.
“Aren’t they all,” Riker said. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “I’m…sorry, Mrs. Lefler. It’s just…the resemblance is uncanny.”
“Yes, I’m sure it is. Well, you go on about your business; I’m sure you have far more important things to do than standing around, ogling me. I’ll see you for dinner, Robin,” and with that, she headed off down the hallway.
“Incredible,” Riker said as he watched her go. “They could be twins. It’s like looking at the same woman. Voice, attitude, everything.”
“Captain—?”
He shook it off. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t allow myself to get distracted by things that probably don’t mean anything.”
They chatted about assorted other matters as they walked to the holodeck. When they arrived, Riker leaned close to the door, frowning. He could have sworn he heard something that sounded like…growling. “What is Burgoyne doing in there?” he asked.
“Let’s find out.” She tapped the control padd on the doors and they obediently slid open.
The sight that greeted them upon entering was a rather astounding one.
Burgoyne was dressed in a skintight workout suit, and s/he was surrounded by a forest environment. There was a vista of trees as far as the eye could see. The ground was uneven around them, with dirt and gravel that made traction difficult. At that moment, Burgoyne was perched in a tree, crouched on a branch, and s/he had hir mouth drawn back in a feline snarl like a cornered cat.
Below her was roaring a massive creature with thick white fur, leaping up at hir and swinging its clawed hands, trying to get a piece of hir and drag hir down from the branch.
“Lieutenant Commander Burgoyne,” Lefler said, “this is—”
Burgoyne leaped from the branch, seeming not to have heard Lefler or even noticed her presence or that of Commander Riker. Hir speed carried hir between the outstretched arms of what looked to Riker like a white furred monster, and drove the creature flat onto its back. They rolled across the floor together, hissing and snarling at each other. Then the monster braced itself and twisted, hurling the lighter but more agile Burgoyne back. S/he landed on hir feet, and the way that s/he had her hands poised, s/he looked for all the world as if s/he had claws.
Riker had had enough. “Lieutenant Commander, I hate to break in on your exercise…”
And suddenly Burgoyne was flattened from behind.
What looked to Riker’s surprised eyes like a white furred creature was atop hir, roaring its fury. Burgoyne twisted around within its grasp and grabbed it by either wrist. S/he managed to get the creature’s hands from around hir throat, but apparently it was everything s/he could do to stop it from tearing hir to pieces.
“Computer, freeze program!” shouted Riker. Burgoyne, intent on hir opponent, didn’t seem to hear him.
The creature was straddling Burgoyne, and appeared to be doing its level best to kill the struggling Hermat.
Believing there to be a holodeck malfunction, Riker didn’t hesitate. He charged toward the creature and leaped onto its back. He braced himself, putting all his strength into trying to haul the monster off Burgoyne. It didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him at all, focusing all its efforts on annihilating its chosen prey. For that matter, Riker wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to do in the event that the monster actually noticed him, because the odds were that it could kill Riker without any great effort. But Riker was determined that he wasn’t going down without a struggle.
He saw Lefler standing there…and she was shaking her head, looking more bemused than anything. He couldn’t understand it. Here she was faced with a clear emergency, and she didn’t seem to have a clue how to react. “Security! Get security down here!” Riker shouted.
“Commander,” Lefler began, “this is—”
Burgoyne snarled, trying to fight back, but s/he seemed to be losing the struggle.
“I gave you a direct order, dammit! Now follow it!”
With a troubled frown, she tapped her comm badge. “Security, this is Lefler, in holodeck 4A. Get someone down here, fast.” But there was absolutely no sense of urgency in her voice.
Is everyone around here insane? Riker wondered as he redoubled his efforts to haul the creature off Burgoyne. And if he did manage to accomplish that feat, his only hope then was that Burgoyne would recover quickly enough to aid him in subduing the creature. Or at the very least, they could hold out long enough for security to get there. And why was Lefler just standing around? Granted, she was rather slight in comparison to Riker and Burgoyne, but dammit, she could certainly find something to do besides just watching it happen.
The doors slid open and a walking land mass entered. The security guard took up the entirety of the door frame. When he moved, it was slow and ponderous. He had no neck, his head apparently attached directly to his shoulders, and his skin in the dim lighting of the holodeck looked like solid granite.
“Hi, Zak,” said Robin.
“Hello. You called?” he rumbled.
Riker couldn’t believe it. They genuinely were all insane. A security officer had just walked into the middle of what was clearly a life-and-death holodeck malfunction, and he didn’t seem quite clear on what had to be done.
“Stop this thing before it kills someone!” shouted Riker.
The guard called Zak stood there for a moment, taking in the situation. He didn’t move. Instead he spoke four words:
“Janos.” Zak shouted, “Janos! Knock it off.” Zak’s loud voice almost shook the moon.
The white furred creature stopped in its tracks. Then, with a sigh, it stood fully upright rather than in the hunched position it had been using until that point. Riker was still hanging on its back, dumbfounded.
“Sir? If you don’t mind?” asked the creature, and the question was clearly addressed to Riker. “Apparently, this exercise period is over.” Riker, feeling as if sanity was slipping away from him, released his grip and dropped to the floor. Burgoyne, for hir part, was picking hirself off the floor and dusting hirself off.
Zak looked back to Lefler. “Anything else?”
“No, that should about do it.”
He inclined his chest slightly, which was his equivalent of nodding, and then he turned and walked back out the door.
VIII.
GERRID THUL WAS EMINENTLY pleased as he looked around the room of dead men.
That might not have been the most accurate of terms, he reasoned. Not all of them were men, for starters. A goodly number of males of the species were there, yes, but there was a vast array of females as well. All equally deserving, equally titled, equally dead. And to be absolutely, one hundred percent correct, he would have to admit that none of them were actually, in point of fact, dead.
Yet.
Never had the word “yet” been so delicious, held so much promise. Yet. Definitely, indisputably, yet.
As he walked through the grand reception hall that hosted the first of what was intended to be a number of gatherings celebrating the bicentennial, he couldn’t help but be satisfied, and even amused, at the way that others within the Federation were reacting to him. There were nods, smiles, a polite wink or two. And many, ever so many requests for “just a few moments” of his time that invariably expanded into many minutes.
He had been careful, so very careful in making his contacts. And what had been so elegant about the entire matter was that those poor, benighted fools in the Federation had a tendency to side with the underdog. And that was something that Thul had very much seemed. A man who was once great, who had lost everything, and who was now trying to build himself back up to a position of strength and influence. He had come to people seemingly hat in hand, unprepossessin
g, undemanding. And he played, like a virtuoso, upon one of the fundamental truths of all sentient beings: Everyone liked to feel superior to someone else. It made them comfortable. It made them generous. And best of all, it made them sloppy and offered a situation that General Thul could capitalize upon.
Of course, Vara Syndra had helped.
“Where is Vara this fine evening?” assorted ambassadors and high muck-a-mucks in the Federation asked. But Thul had held her back, and not without reason. Best to build up anticipation, to get them to want to see her, ask about her, look around and try to catch a glimpse of her. Vara knew her place, though, and also knew that timing was everything. She would remain secreted away until the appropriate time had presented itself, and then he would send for her.
He had a feeling that the time was fast approaching.
“Thul! General Thul!” came a hearty voice that Thul recognized instantly. He turned to see Admiral Edward Jellico approaching.
