Picard picked up a padd displaying the personnel files on the transfer officers and scrolled through them. “Lieutenant, assign some of your people to look over all the logs and files on these people, working backward from when they boarded the Enterprise. Try to identify any suspicious behavior or recent situations in which they might have been captured or killed and replaced with a duplicate. It may help us target the screenings.”
“Yes, Captain.”
He glanced at the padd one last time and placed it facedown on the table. “The clock is ticking. We need to identify the Changeling or Changelings on this ship, neutralize any damage they may have done, and prevent them from doing more. Dismissed.”
Picard stood, tugged at his uniform, and walked quickly past the others and onto the bridge—with Berardi in charge rather than Hawk, though he knew why that was—and went directly into his ready room. He turned and set a security lock on the door, then tapped commands into the door console that caused a security force field to shimmer into existence behind the door.
He tapped his communicator. “Picard to Hawk, status report.”
“Captain, are you alone?”
“Yes, I’m secure in my ready room.”
“Captain, Lieutenant Addison didn’t leave the briefing room with the others!”
Picard looked around the room. Nothing seemed amiss. His treasured Mintakan tapestry. His complete works of Shakespeare in their transparent case. His d’k tahg from when he served as Worf’s cha’DIch. His chair. His desk. A small couch. Three side chairs.
Three chairs.
“Mr. Hawk, I believe the Changeling is here with me now.”
“Captain.” It was Riker’s voice. “We have a security team standing by on your command.”
The middle chair shimmered, changing into a reddish amber liquid that flowed and reformed into a humanoid shape, which solidified into the form of Linda Addison. Her pose was relaxed, and she made no move toward him. He was intensely aware that it could all be a ruse. “If you do that, I’ll simply have to escape, Captain, and we won’t have a chance to talk. I’ve read your files, your outstanding history of diplomacy. You once said that war is simply the ultimate failure of diplomacy.”
Picard stood motionless, his posture ramrod straight, as though bracing himself for whatever came next. He spoke slowly and carefully. “I said that a long time ago, before meeting the Borg. I am not sure I believe it anymore.”
“The Dominion is not the Borg.”
“Nor are they like any other adversary that we have ever encountered. I can assume nothing.”
“Captain?” It was Riker again.
“Have them stand by, Number One. Computer, authorize audiovisual monitoring of this room from the main bridge, authorization Picard Sigma Six.”
“Monitoring authorized.”
“Number One, if the Changeling makes any move toward me, you are authorized to enter and use whatever force is necessary. Until then, have security hold their positions.”
“Addison” tilted her head and pouted. “Picard, I was so hoping we could have a private conversation. As you can imagine, this is a very delicate situation, and if I can offer a way to forestall war between our respective powers, can you afford not to explore it?”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Computer, modify order. Allow visual monitoring only. No audio.”
“She” smiled. “That will do.”
Picard frowned at the Changeling. “You have five minutes to persuade me that this is anything but a desperate act of self-preservation.”
“Addison” seated herself on the couch and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Captain, you hide your feelings well, for a solid. But when I saw your face as you looked at the padd just before putting it down, I knew that someone had exposed me. I assure you, at that moment, if I had wanted simply to escape, I could have done so in any of a hundred ways. If I had wanted you, or any of your senior staff, or all of you dead, it would already be done.
“But what I wanted to do was talk, which is why I chose to follow you into what could well be a trap.”
“This room is sealed with force fields.”
She smiled. “Indeed, and if it comforts you to believe that will keep me in, then so be it.” Her expression turned serious. “Understand this, Picard. You think, because you have intelligence provided by our lost foundling, Odo, that you know the full capabilities of a true Founder. You do not. You think you know how to detect us, or contain us. You do not. There is a reason we’re worshipped as gods throughout what you refer to as the Gamma Quadrant. Any sense of safety or superiority you may feel is an illusion. That you live, that your ship has not yet been destroyed, is only evidence of my benign intent.”
“Forgive me if I remain unimpressed. Despite your claims, it seems that we have contained you quite successfully. If you could have left the ship while we remain this close to the Mira variable star, I believe you would have done so.”
She smiled again. “You have me then, Captain, but it does not invalidate what I said before. It only leaves it subject to interpretation.”
“And what of the U.S.S. Samson and the two hundred and twenty lives aboard her? Did you destroy her as a demonstration of your benign intent?”
“And if I did? First, Picard, our people are at war. Second, it was a regrettable accident not of my doing. While studying the Samson’s weapons systems as part of my mission, I discovered that certain components in the modern pulse phasers were incompatible with the old ship’s drive plasma. A coupling was slowly dissolving, contaminating the drive plasma.”
The Changeling shrugged, a slight, dismissive smile playing across her lips. “Of course, I did not report this, nor did I do anything about it. I am, I admit, guilty of inaction. But I had no reason to believe the problem would do more than disable the Samson. It simply made it urgent that I get off the ship before it became stranded and that I move on to a more valuable intelligence objective.”
Picard was suspicious. Some or all of the Changeling’s story could be false. “What about Lieutenant Addison—the real one. Did you murder her?”
“She died in an accidental fall on Vulcan while I was in her company, impersonating a Vulcan guide. I took the opportunity to hide her body and take the place of a Starfleet officer. It was, if you’ll forgive me, a happy accident.”
“You hid her body and stole her blood. Oh yes, that was what gave you away. Mr. Hawk located the vials of blood in your quarters.”
She laughed. “I thought he might be a problem. That’s why I tried to seduce him. It didn’t work, by the way.”
It was Picard’s turn to laugh, as much from a small sense of triumph as from amusement. “You are not nearly so perfect as you imagine, nor do you understand the nuances of humanity as well as you think.”
“If that is so, then maybe the conflicts of our people are based on misunderstanding as well. I came to talk, Picard. If you prefer armed conflict to negotiation, then call your security people to crash in here, and we’ll see what happens.” She gestured at the door. “Go ahead. Let’s do it.”
He stepped around the end of his desk and slid into his chair. “If this is to be a negotiation, then I assume you won’t mind if I make myself comfortable.”
“Not at all.”
“Then, antagonism aside, what does the Dominion have to talk with us about?”
She grinned lopsidedly. “You make the assumption that all members of the Great Link are the same, interchangeable, that they have the same agenda, and in that, you are wrong. Our lost Odo is different, because of his circumstances, as are a few others. As am I.”
Picard leaned forward, finally intrigued. “How so?”
“It is true, the Great Link, the collective consciousness that all our people join in, tends to make us the same. But I have been away from the Great Link for a long time. I have lived among solids for many years, learning your ways, assuming small parts of your limited lives. And as I have remaine
d separated from my people, my knowledge, experiences, and reasoning have been my own. In that time, my feelings about solids have changed and grown more sympathetic than is typical of my people.”
“You claim to be a friend of the Federation?”
“I care nothing for your governments or political alliances. But I have developed a fondness for you humanoid solids and your ways of living. Mind you, I have no wish to actually become a solid the way our poor, misguided, Odo seems to desire. To be limited to one form, to one life would be a nightmare for me.
“But I am literally legion, Captain. I have been hundreds of different humanoids, living their life for an hour or a day or even a month at a time, and I desire to be thousands more before I am through, sampling your simple yet chaotic lives like a bee flits from flower to flower.”
Picard forced his expression to remain neutral, to allow the Changeling to continue. With each word, he learned something more about his adversary, and each piece of information made him better able to negotiate.
“This behavior may seem strange to you. I’ll confess, from a Changeling perspective it is strange, even perverse. I should reject my interest in the solids and return to the blessed Great Link. Yet I have little desire to do this.
“My theory,” she said, a trace of pride in her voice, “is that I have uncovered the vestige of some ancient propagation instinct, left from a time when there were many Links on our world of origin. From time to time, they would send off individuals, who, instead of returning to their own link, would instead be driven to travel and explore, one day founding a new Link far from their original home. Perhaps this instinct no longer serves a purpose, but it serves me. I value you. I have no desire to see you destroyed, or even to see your fascinating existences crushed into order by the Dominion.”
“If that is so, why allow the Samson to be destroyed? Why do you still gather intelligence for the Dominion?”
The Changeling’s brow furrowed in anger. “I’m not a traitor to my people, Picard. I still work for the Dominion, and I’m loyal to them in my fashion. I confess, I’ve been assigned to negate the Federation’s flagship, and to the Great Link, that doubtless means destruction. I’ve also been charged to advance the downfall of the Federation and its sublimation into the Dominion. And in my own way I serve that goal as well.”
Picard removed his hand from under his desk, now holding the type-2 hand phaser that had been hidden there. He pointed it at the Changeling. “Then we have nothing to discuss.”
She laughed again. “How theatrical. How did you come to have a phaser hidden there?”
“It’s something I learned from a man named Dixon Hill.” He reached for his communicator to call security.
“Wait! You misunderstand, Picard. The downfall of the Federation is inevitable, and nothing you or I can do will change it. The Dominion has faced a dozen or more civilizations like yours, and each has fallen before us. But I don’t relish the day when that happens, and I’m in no hurry to see it come to pass.
“The Dominion is great and eternal. What does it matter if the Federation falls in a decade rather than a month? To the Dominion, none at all, but to me, it would mean a great deal. My people as a whole place great value in order. That is where I am different. When the Dominion comes—and it will—your people, if they survive at all, will become ordered, controlled, and will no longer be interesting to me. If I can delay that inevitable day, I will. And if I can neutralize your beautiful ship without destroying it, what difference would that make to them?”
“You have your own agenda?”
“My interests are not yours, Picard, but they are not necessarily the Dominion’s either. But for you, they are better than the alternative. Let me make things easier for you.”
“Riker to Picard. Do you need assistance?”
She stood. “We’ll talk again soon, Picard. Think about what I’ve said.” With that, the Changeling changed to liquid form.
Picard fired the phaser, but the Changeling was too fast, vanishing under the couch. He tapped the communicator. “Enter!”
The force fields on the door came down and a phalanx of security officers armed with phaser rifles charged in. At Picard’s direction, they turned the couch over and swept the wall and floor beneath it with phaser bursts. But the Changeling was gone, having somehow found some tiny crack or opening through which to send its liquid form, and Picard was faced with a difficult choice.
Could he put any trust at all in the words of an adversary whose very nature was deception?
CHAPTER
7
For the second time that day, the senior staff gathered in the Enterprise’s observation lounge. But this time things were much different. A pair of armed security officers stood guard in the corners of the room.
This time, Lieutenant Addison, or rather, her doppelgänger, was not present. This time, Lieutenant Hawk stood at the end of the table nearest the captain, not quite sure what he was doing there.
Picard looked at them grimly. “The need for subterfuge has passed. We have a confirmed Changeling loose on the ship, and if there are others, they have doubtless already been alerted that we’re aware of their presence.”
His gaze traveled around the table, connecting briefly with each of his command staff. They understood the threat, and he knew he could depend on each individual.
“I’m ordering enhanced blood screenings of all personnel, and I have ordered that everyone remain in groups of two or more at all times.” He grimaced, his voice betraying the revulsion he felt as he spoke. “That won’t help us if the Changeling should kill a crew member and take their blood, though.”
He stood and walked over to the large windows along the back wall, looking out into the nebula that was both their protector and their prison. “Mr. La Forge, I want command-level security lockouts on all shuttlecraft, Work Bees, the captain’s yacht, and all other auxiliary craft.”
“Done, Captain.”
“I’ve apprised Starfleet Command of the situation. They’re sending the Al-Batani to assist us, but of course, there can be no material contact between our ships due to the risk of allowing the Changeling to escape. We’ve been ordered to stay within the star’s radiation zone indefinitely, until the Changeling is either caught, killed, or confirmed to have left the ship.”
Crusher frowned. “That could take a very long time, Captain.”
Riker leaned his elbows on the table and knitted his fingers together in front of him. “The Changeling will be counting on us to become impatient.”
Picard turned back to face his crew. He inclined his head toward Riker, acknowledging his assessment. “Exactly, Number One. So, as frustrating as this situation is, for our own safety and the safety of the Federation, we must remain here until the threat is somehow neutralized. That’s where you come in, Mr. Hawk.”
Hawk blinked in surprise. “Me, Captain?”
“I will be directing myself toward some kind of negotiation with the Changeling. While I do not believe we can afford not to explore this avenue, it creates a conflict of interest on my part.
“In order to attempt negotiation, I must try to develop some degree of empathy and trust with the Changeling. I fear it might provide a weakness for the Changeling to exploit. Normally, I would depend on security to act as my right hand, to operate on a foundation of suspicion that would offset my empathy.” Irony filled his voice as he continued. “Unfortunately, I find myself short a security chief. I would like you to fill that role.”
Hawk’s eyes widened in surprise, quickly controlled. He kept his voice carefully neutral. “Captain, I appreciate your confidence in me, but I like my position at conn.”
Picard smiled just a little, an expression of wry amusement. “We have little need of those services at the moment, Mr. Hawk, and your record shows excellent performance in the relevant security class work. In any case, this would be a temporary assignment. But I have a particular reason for giving the assignment to you.
&nbs
p; “We do not know that the Changeling killed Lieutenant Addison, but it remains a possibility, and it was certainly there when she died. It has used her likeness and her memory for its own purposes. It has deceived all of us, you especially. I would suppose that makes you angry.”
Hawk hesitated. He didn’t like exposing his emotions in a duty situation. But in this case, there was little choice. The captain’s tone left no room for equivocation. “It does, sir. I’m angry at the Changeling for defiling her memory and for deceiving me. I’m also angry at myself for being deceived as long as I was.”
“But it was your work that ultimately exposed the Changeling, Mr. Hawk. And it is my hope that you will find it possible to channel your emotions to positive use. I believe I can trust you never to treat the Changeling with anything except suspicion and a desire for justice.”
“Yes, sir, I think I can do that.”
“You will do it, Mr. Hawk.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, then.”
“Captain? As chief of security, may I speak?”
“Proceed.”
“Captain, I’m not sure why you’re talking with the Changeling at all, under the circumstances. If it wanted diplomacy, it should have approached us in a good-faith manner rather than through sabotage and deception, and possibly murder. You’re placing yourself at risk for no good cause that I can see.”
Picard stood for a moment, contemplating his answer. Finally, he nodded slowly. “You may be right, Mr. Hawk, but slim as the chances are, the potential benefits are too great to be ignored. It is a matter of the ratio of risk versus reward. This is our first and possibly only opportunity to negotiate directly with a Founder. Moreover, this one claims to be different, to have its own agenda, and in this respect at least, I believe it. And while it is true that the Changeling has not approached us in a manner we would interpret as benign, I’m not sure we can apply our own standards in this case. Deception is the natural state of a shape-shifter, and Changelings reportedly have a long history of violence and oppression directed at them by humanoids.” Picard furrowed his brow as though considering an idea. “Counselor Troi, did you recall sensing any emotion from the Changeling during our prior meeting?”
Star Trek: The Next Generation™: Slings and Arrows Book 1: A Sea of Troubles Page 5
