Star Trek: The Next Generation: Takedown by John Jackson Miller

Author:John Jackson Miller
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek
ISBN: 9781476782720
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2015-01-27T08:00:00+00:00

Twenty-five

Worf wore a sour expression when he materialized on Enterprise’s bridge. Picard had thought it best to bring him quickly back from the outpost. He needed his first officer’s strategic expertise.

And Worf had already thought through the next steps, as Picard had expected. “Captain, there’s a lot of territory between us and the Adelphous Array. Admiral Riker could emerge anywhere on that route—and he could go in any direction from there.”

“There’s no reason for Aventine to go there anyway,” La Forge said. “That installation hasn’t been crewed since the Borg Invasion. It’s already out of commission.”

“Riker would know that. I wonder what he’s getting at?” Picard looked to the counselor, who had been watching in silence from the chair beside Picard’s throughout the engagement. “What did you make of him, Doctor Den?”

“It’s the strangest thing,” the young Bajoran said. “Everything in Riker’s voice exudes confidence—and not just the superiority of rank and experience. He’s speaking to us like he’d talk to children. He’s a level beyond, or at least he feels like he is. He had not the slightest doubt that he would disable the station and head on to his next destination.”

“And yet his next destination is someplace he knows is defunct.”

“Watch where I go next,” Den said, citing perfectly from memory. “The man who attacked us does not waste words. He meant you to heed them.”

“Watch—and learn,” Picard said, paraphrasing. Taking his seat, he scratched his head. “I don’t know what I am to learn.”

But it was clear there was something to learn. What had sounded like bluster and bravado to Picard at the time now presented itself to him as another clue. He thought back again to the line from the Corvus Beacon encounter. Was Riker trying to communicate then that he was someone else’s thrall?

“You say he’s showing that he’s in complete control, Doctor. Is he in control of himself?”

Den templed his fingers and considered the question. “He’s presenting himself as he wants to be seen. That may be the reason for the holographic image.”

“You mean, it may be Riker’s mind, but his body may be changed?”

“Or captive, somehow. We’ve seen outside influence manifest itself in many ways.”

Outside influence. It clicked for Picard. Riker had attained his goal and departed immediately, not following up on the obvious possibility that he had been deceived. Perhaps Riker was following only the letter of the law, when it came to his mad mission. Enough to satisfy . . . whom? What?

Starfleet had seen many cases of individuals being compromised by outside influence; it was inevitable in an organization that brought dramatically different species into contact. The effects of such influences ran the gamut, from subtle, almost unnoticeable changes in behavior to complete sublimation and loss of all control. Picard had been near the far end of the spectrum with the Borg—but even with his personality submerged, he had been able to provide Riker and Enterprise’s crew with the clue that saved the Federation.

Will Riker had—possibly—given him hints that he was under someone else’s sway and that he only needed to disable the outpost’s communications.

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