STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JEAN-LUC PICARD

by David A. Goodman

  Top: Jean-Luc at 7 with his brother Robert, age 10.

  A rare pleasant shot of Robert, who was enjoying the new gift of a toy spaceship.

  Bottom: Picard with Jack Crusher, shortly after Crusher was promoted to First Officer of the Stargazer.

  Picard upon graduating from Starfleet Academy.

  Top: The U.S.S. Stargazer, Picard’s ship for over 20 years.

  Bottom: The command crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, 1701-D.

  Clockwise from upper left: Worf, Geordi LaForge, William Riker, Picard, Deanna Troi, Beverley Crusher, Data.

  This picture was found in 1962 among the personal letters of Samuel Clemens bequeathed to the University of California/Berkley. Picard would remain unidentified by historians for over 400 years. The inscription from Picard reads: “A great man once said ‘Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.’ Thanks for the possibilities! J.L.P.” In quoting Clemens himself, Picard created a conundrum: He met Clemens in 1893, four years before Clemens would publish that quote.

  An unused poster created by Commander Data for Picard’s lectures on his experiences on Kataan. Data suggested hanging them in the corridors, but Picard denied him permission.

  Top: A scan Beverly Crusher took of Picard’s skull when he was assimilated by the Borg.

  Bottom: Part of a transmission obtained by Starfleet Intelligence of three Cardassians: Gul Madred, Gul Lemec and Gul Dukat, discussing Picard, shortly before his capture and torture at the hands of Madred.

  Picard and Beverly Crusher’s wedding invitation.

  A recent photo of Picard in front of his portrait in the gallery beneath his home.

  Despite the intensity of the work, I started to lead a very different life. The work days could be long, but it was nothing like being on Stargazer. When you’re serving on a ship, you are always occupied; the life never allows you to truly relax. You lose some of your personal identity to your responsibility to the people you serve with. This is especially true when you’re captain. The lives of the people under your command depend on you being fully attuned at all hours of the day and night.

  So however busy life as Hanson’s chief of staff was, I still found myself with time to relax. After a long day of work, I would often meet Jack Crusher and Walker Keel for drinks. I also began a relationship with Jenice, beaming over to Paris for dinner or a weekend. (Serving on ships, weekends are irrelevant.) The emotional vulnerability that I’d revealed to her opened me up to an intimacy I’d never had before. She and I became very close, very quickly. We spent many days and evenings together. It was unlike any connection I’d ever had with a woman. She was intelligent and lovely, and though our bond was still very new, the pull I felt toward her was compelling. I could easily lose myself to her.

  I was having a good, happy life. And it was beginning to drive me mad.

  It wasn’t happening consciously, there were just snippets of annoyance over trivial things that I couldn’t explain: restless sleep, slight indigestion, having to wait a moment too long for a transporter. The moment I became aware something was wrong was in a meeting with Admiral Hanson. The maintenance on Stargazer was almost complete, and I was going over my recommendation for my replacement.

  “Edward Jellico has been first officer of the Cairo for five years,” I said. “Relatively young for a captain, but an exemplary record. He would make a fine captain of the Stargazer.”

  “Milano won’t like losing him,” Hanson said, referring to Dan Milano, the captain of the Cairo.

  “Captain Milano has forty years experience in command, and will undoubtedly be adept at training a replacement.”

  “You recommended Crusher for XO of the Stargazer,” he said. “A good mix with Jellico?”

  “I’ve never served with Jellico, but Crusher knows Stargazer almost as well as I do, and Jellico will need that expertise. I’ve also left him an experienced command crew.”

  “Okay, done. I’ll recommend that Jellico gets Stargazer at the Admiralty meeting tomorrow,” Hanson said. There was something about the finality of this that left me uneasy. Hanson read my expression, and smiled.

  “Hard to give up your first girl to another guy,” Hanson said. “Even if she isn’t the prettiest one on the block.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said. I smiled, but in truth his anachronistic, and rather offensive, metaphor did not make me feel better. I felt a great sense of loss, and it stayed with me the rest of the day.

  That evening, as I routinely did, I met Jack and Walker for a drink in the 602 Club.2 I told them about the new captain of the Stargazer. We all were a bit wistful.

  “Hard to imagine the ship going on without you,” Walker said.

  “Jack’ll have to carry the flag for the three of us,” I said. I had another piece of news for Crusher. “And assuming the Admiralty approves Jellico, Stargazer could ship out as early as tomorrow.”

  “Is the Cairo here?” Crusher said.

  “No, it’s at Starbase 11,” I said. “So, you have to take Stargazer and rendezvous with him there.” I thought Jack would be thrilled at this news; though I’d left him in charge of the bridge from time to time, he’d never been in command for that length of voyage. His reaction, however, wasn’t what I expected: he looked forlorn.

  “I thought you’d be more excited,” I said.

  “No, I am,” Jack said. “And I really appreciate what you’ve done, Jean-Luc… but I’ve got to go.” He hurriedly finished his drink and left. Walker laughed.

  “Our boy’s in love,” Walker said. “He didn’t expect he’d have to say goodbye to Beverly so soon.” I hadn’t met Jack’s girlfriend yet but he was clearly enraptured.

  “Another drink?” I said, but Walker shook his head.

  “I should probably get going, too. Still have some work to do tonight if Horatio is going to ship out on time.” He left and I found myself alone in the bar, ignoring the other patrons. I was supposed to see Jenice the next afternoon in Paris and had the thought I could call her tonight. But instead, I just stared at the walls.

  I wasn’t staring at nothing. The walls of the 602 Club were adorned with pictures and souvenirs of past Starfleet heroism. Directly in front of me was a photo of A.G. Robinson, the first man to break the warp 2 barrier. To the left of that was the famous Captain Garth of Izar. On the right, two young captains, Matt Decker and Jose Mendez, who’d brought a superior Klingon force to a stalemate in the Battle of Donatu V. Looking at the past, I felt my future was slipping away.

  “Can I get you something else?” The voice was familiar. I looked over and was surprised to see a new bartender on duty.

  “Guinan,” I said. “What… what are you…”

  “I wanted to tend bar,” she said. “They had an opening.” I hadn’t seen her in nine years, and she didn’t look a day older.

  “Finally started losing your hair,” she said. My hair had been thinning lately, and this, again, seemed to be some kind of private joke between her and me, except I didn’t know what it meant.

  She had been living on Earth for over a year but was rather mysterious about how she’d come here or what she’d been doing in the intervening years. As she had done in the past, her listening skills effortlessly shifted the focus to me. I filled her in on what I’d been doing since coming to Earth. She looked at me with a slightly sardonic expression.

  “What?” I said.

  “Nothing,” she said. “You sound very happy. Working in an office, helping out an admiral.”

  “It’s a little more important than that,” I said.

  “Of course it is,” she said. As she poured me another drink, she referenced a picture on the wall of a middle-aged Starfleet officer receiving a medal. “You know this guy?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said.

  “To work here, you’re supposed to memorize every picture. You know what he got the medal for?”

  “Was it for bringing the humpback whale forward in time
to save the Earth?”

  “No,” Guinan said, “I don’t think he got a medal for that. I think this was when he saved the president’s life at Camp Khitomer… or maybe it was after stopping the V’Ger probe…”

  “Can’t be,” I said, “the uniforms were different then.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “Who knows, the guy did so much.”

  “I feel like you’re trying to make a point,” I said.

  “I am? What point would that be?” I didn’t answer her question, because it was obvious. I finished my drink and left the bar. Emboldened by alcohol, I decided to visit Admiral Hanson at home.

  This was not a short trip; Admiral Hanson had his own personal transporter, so he could live anywhere in the world. He chose to live in a small home on Cape Kidnappers, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It was daytime when I arrived there. A yeoman took me to the admiral, who was seated outside, overlooking the rocky coast and a beautiful blue ocean. When he saw me, he looked concerned.

  “Jean-Luc? What’s the matter?”

  “Sorry to disturb you, Admiral,” I said. “I was wondering if I could have a word.” He looked at me curiously, then offered me the empty chair next to him, and dismissed the yeoman.

  “What can I do for you?” Hanson said.

  “I appreciate all you’ve done for me,” I said, “but I’d like to return as captain of the Stargazer.”

  “Why?” He was clearly disappointed, but I couldn’t say he looked surprised. “I feel I can do more good out there.”

  “You’re doing a lot of good down here,” Hanson said. “You’ve already made yourself invaluable to me, and as Starfleet officers we unfortunately don’t always get to choose our postings.”

  “I know, sir,” I said. “I can only make the request; if you decide not to grant it, I understand.”

  “If you wait just a little longer,” Hanson said, “the Melbourne or the Yamaguchi will be off the assembly line, I’ll make sure you get one of those. That way I’d get a few more months out of you.” As attractive as a brand-new ship might be, they didn’t interest me. I felt a need to get out.

  “Yes, sir,” I said, “but if it’s important to have experienced captains out there now, the right choice is to put me back on Stargazer. The old lady is temperamental, and anyone else in that chair may not have time to get used to her before we need to put her in action.”

  Hanson considered me for a long while, then sighed. I knew he was worried about the situation with the Klingons, and my appeal went to the heart of those concerns. He wanted people he could rely on in positions of command. He looked out at the ocean. A flock of gannets flew over.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “It’s paradise.”

  “What we’re trying to protect,” he said.

  I could see I’d made my point. Though I was making his job easier on Earth, he wouldn’t let his own privileges get in the way of his commitment to the service.

  “All right,” Hanson said. “You ship out tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I said.

  I left his home, momentarily pleased. This was what I wanted, to be out on the edge, in charge, and participating in the making of history. I still had this overwhelming desire to make my mark, and being the captain of a ship, even an old tin can like the Stargazer, fulfilled that desire.

  The only remaining problem, of course, was Jenice. My desire to get back on a ship right away was fueled in part by my fear that saying goodbye to her would only become more difficult, if not impossible. Right then, I thought I could walk away; a few more weeks, I wasn’t sure. We were set to meet at the Café des Artistes in Paris the very next day. I would tell her then. It would be a difficult parting, but I knew it was best for me. If I didn’t say goodbye then, I might never.

  * * *

  “Captain on the bridge,” Commander Black said, as I walked on.

  It was the next morning, and Black had received my transfer of command order, so by the time I beamed up the whole crew knew. I’d gotten warm greetings and handshakes all the way from the transporter room to the bridge.

  Crusher was there at the conn, Cheva was at ops. Vigo, who’d been down in the torpedo room, was now the bridge weapons and security officer, and Scully was at the engineering console. And though I’d skipped over Black again to be first officer, I’d gotten him a grade promotion, and he seemed happy to stay.

  As I stepped off the turbolift, they all applauded, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I looked around; the maintenance the ship had undergone had breathed new life into it. Or maybe I was seeing it with new eyes, I didn’t know.

  “Status report, Number One,” I said.

  “Dock command has signaled we’re clear for departure,” Crusher said. “All stations report ready.” This caught me a little by surprise. I was supposed to meet Jenice at noon in Paris; it was ten o’clock Paris time then. I could have delayed our departure three hours. No one would know why or even question it.

  I was going to order a delay, and stopped myself. I pictured seeing her, saying goodbye. She would understand, she’d let me go. I had to go see her, but if I did…

  “Orders, sir?” Crusher said.

  I was at war with myself. I felt a pull, a need, to delay our departure so I could go see Jenice. And, in that moment, I was overcome with a new perspective: I thought I wanted to be back here, on this bridge, but Jenice’s smile, her eyes, her presence in my mind diminished the desire for this ship to a shadow. We’d only just started our romance, but Jenice embodied love, affection, and desire. This machine, the “old lady,” couldn’t compete. If I went to see her, Jenice might let me go, but I was suddenly unsure, face to face, that I could leave her.

  “Stand by to depart,” I said. I couldn’t say goodbye. I wanted my career. I was a coward.

  * * *

  “The raiders came in the middle of the night,” Governor Harriman said. “They were in a small scout ship. They wore armor…”

  “Take your time,” I said. He was lying on a cot in the infirmary on Hakton VII.

  About 80 years old, he’d been the governor since its founding a decade before. Dr. Ailat tended to a gash on his forehead, as other members of the Stargazer’s medical team worked with colony doctors administering care to the rest of the patients, victims of a recent attack by persons unknown.

  “They were very aggressive,” Harriman said.

  “They weren’t Klingons,” I said.

  Harriman shook his head. “They were more civilized in one way, but there was an arrogance about them,” he said. “They landed, we went to greet them, and they came out firing. I immediately surrendered; they were better armed than we were. They rounded up most of us, picking just a few to load equipment into their ship. And then they left.”

  “You acted properly,” I said. “You probably saved a lot of lives by cooperating.”

  “I hope so, because it just felt like cowardice.”

  I tried to look reassuring, then excused myself and went outside. The infirmary was in the center of the colony. The colony itself was an orderly collection of single-story buildings made of stone in a unified architectural style, designed to coexist with the natural surroundings.

  We’d received the distress call less than an hour before. Fortunately, we were already on our way to Hakton VII, delivering supplies from Starbase 32. But we hadn’t made it in time to stop the raid. I was immediately met by Cheva and Vigo, returning from their scout of the area.

  “I examined the blast marks from their weapons,” Vigo said. “Some kind of disruptor.”

  “What did they steal?”

  “That’s the strange thing,” Cheva said. “They didn’t take any of the colony’s weapons, they were only interested in replicators.” The jigsaw was slowly coming together in my head when Crusher called from the ship.

  “Stargazer to Picard,” he said. “I’ve picked up an ionization trail. We can track that ship.”

>   “Beam everyone up but the medical team,” I said. “Go to red alert.”

  We were lucky: the small scout vessel was slower than Stargazer, and it didn’t take long before we were closing in on them. The unmarked ship’s hammerhead design was very similar to one I’d seen before. I had Black open a hailing frequency.

  “This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the Federation ship Stargazer. We are investigating an attack on the Federation colony on Hakton VII. Please secure from warp drive…”

  I was cut off as the ship rocked, the result of an impact by a torpedo on our shields.

  “Vigo, report on their weapons,” I said.

  “Standard photon torpedo,” Vigo said. “We can take ’em, sir.”

  “Lock phasers,” I said. “Target their engines and weapons.” Vigo complied and the Stargazer fired on the unknown ship.

  “Sensors report we’ve knocked out their torpedo launcher,” Cheva said. “But they haven’t slowed down.”

  “Reading an overload building in their warp reactor,” Crusher said. “We damaged them, but they’re trying to ignore it.” I checked the scan of the ship; its reactor was reaching critical mass.

  “Transporter Room, lock onto that ship, and beam—”

  I was cut off again, this time by the ship exploding. Whatever their mission was, they didn’t want to get caught. I had Crusher extrapolate their destination based on the course they were on, and ordered him to stay on that course. I thought that perhaps by finding their destination, we might gather some clue as to their purpose.

  We soon found ourselves entering an uncharted system with fourteen planets. The raider’s course led us to the largest one, the eleventh planet—a Class-M world. Sensors showed an extensive and ancient humanoid civilization. A formidable-looking space station was in orbit. It was a strange design, dark, almost skeletal, like a giant incomplete gyroscope. Arms curved up and down from the hub of the station, where spaceships were docked.