Chapter Nine

“I’MGETTING SICK AND TIREDof sitting here doing nothing,” Chief Miles O’Brien said in a low voice. “Are we going to

just give up without a fight?”

 

“I feel much as you do,” Worf replied, “but we have had no word from the captain. We must also think of the children.

If we make an attempt to break out of here, we might endanger them.”

 

“They are endangered already,” replied Keiko O’Brien, coming to her husband’s support. They all lay together on the

bedding the Romulans had provided for them in the large shuttle bay, whispering softly. “What chance will they have

at the mercy of the Romulans?”

 

“She’s right, sir,” whispered Ensign Tyler, the ship’s environmental systems officer. “The Romulans can never let us

go. They’ll have to kill us all.

 

“Or we’ll wind up in their slave markets,” added Lieutenant Arthur, Worf’s deputy chief of security.

 

“I’d rather have my child die than end up as a Romulan slave,” said Keiko vehemently.

 

“Keep your voice down,” Worf cautioned her, glancing around at the guards posted by the doors to the shuttle bay.

They had turned out some of the lights in the bay to enable their prisoners to sleep, but they had left enough on so

they could still keep an eye on them. “I am a Klingon warrior,” Worf said. “You think I like this any better than you

do? My blood boils at being held captive, but what would you have me do? The captain told us to wait. I do not have

the authority to initiate any action.”

 

“You’re the senior officer present,” said O’Brien. “And for all we know, the captain and Commander Riker may already

be dead.”

 

“And if they aren’t, their hands are tied because of us,” said Arthur.

 

“Our hands are tied as well,” said Worf. “We have no weapons. If we attempt to rush the guards, they will shoot us

down before we even reach them, or they will simply retreat and leave us locked inside here. If we attempt to break

out, they can either open the outer bay doors, cancel the force field, and kill us all, or else purge the lifesupport system in the shuttle bay and suffocate us.”

 

“But we can’t just sit here. We’ve got to dosomething!” said Chief O’Brien in exasperation.

 

“Sir, I’ve been thinking,” Tyler said. “If I can manage to get behind that shuttlecraft over there, I’ll be blocked

from the guards’ view. I noticed a large access panel in the bulkhead back there. Unless I miss my guess, it’s a

maintenance panel for the outer bay doors. If I can get inside it, I might be able to temporarily disable the

controls so the Romulans couldn’t open the outer doors from the bridge.”

 

“That would still not eliminate the threat presented by the guards,” said Worf. “Besides, you would never be able to

reach the panel without them seeing you.”

 

“He might have a chance if there’s a distraction,” O’Brien said hopefully.

 

“Even so,” said Worf, “it would take time to open the panel and trace the unfamiliar circuits. The slightest sound

would alert them, and if any of the guards moved away from their present position, they would see what Tyler was

doing.”

 

“Not if I did it during night watch,” Tyler said. “That whole area’s in shadow right now. And it wouldn’t take much

to cover up any noise I might make. A loud argument, a fight among the hostages, anything that would distract the

guards.”

 

“Perhaps,” said Worf, thinking it over. “And then?”

 

“If I could disable the controls for the outer bay doors, it would buy us some time,” said Tyler. “I could get inside

that shuttlecraft and fire it up. That would get the guards’ attention, and you might have a chance to rush them. And

I could use the shuttlecraft to block the entrance doors and prevent them from getting any reinforcements.”

 

“Even if we were able to overcome the guards,” said Worf, a plan he had already been considering himself, “we would

not do so without casualties. For myself, I do not fear death, if I can die like a warrior, but to risk the lives of

the children …”

 

He glanced over at his own son, Alexander, who was sleeping. It seemed ironic to Worf that he, of all people, should

be the one to counsel caution instead of following the dictates of his Klingon warrior spirit and urging the others

on to battle. However, as the senior officer among them, he had responsibilities, and above all he had a

responsibility toward his own son.

 

He could understand now how Captain Picard must have felt during the crises they’d faced in the past. A captain of a

ship was, in a very real sense, a paternal figure, not only a figure of respect and authority but also a custodian of

his “children,” the crew. His duty was always clear, but the manner in which he carried out that duty frequently

called for agonizing decisions, decisions that often went against his nature.

 

Worf’s nature was to fight, to prevail over the enemy or go down in battle as a warrior should rather than submit to

defeat. But as Captain Picard knew, what seemed like a defeat could often be turned into victory through boldness or

clever use of strategy. There was merit in Tyler’s idea, but Tyler was young, and the enthusiasm and boldness of the

young had to be tempered by the wisdom of their more experienced elders. Resistance was always preferable to

submission, but now was not the time for what French-speaking humans referred to as abeau geste , a noble gesture of

self-sacrifice. While it might be noble to die in battle against the Romulans, it would be pointless if it did not

accomplish anything, and tragic if it resulted in the death of children.

 

Worf recalled how ill at ease he’d felt at first with Alexander. He hadn’t been prepared for the discovery that he

had a son, and he was even less prepared to assume the responsibilities of fatherhood. He had felt awkward around the

child, and while Deanna Troi had offered invaluable counsel to him in his new role, he had felt uncomfortable at

having to seek that counsel. It seemed to undermine his self-sufficiency. It had taken time for him to realize that

no one was truly self-sufficient, and that those who thought they were merely took refuge in a form of weakness, the

weakness of being unable to ask for help and guidance and thus find greater strength in reliance on close friends and

comrades.

 

That was Picard’s strength, he realized. Emotionally, the captain was the strongest human Worf had ever known. Yet

Picard relied as much upon the strength and counsel of his immediate subordinates as he did upon his own. In this

situation, Worf thought, I must do the same if I am to lead effectively.

 

These thoughts all flashed through his mind as he gazed at the sleeping form of his young son. He glanced around at

the other children, the older ones all huddled together in a group, the little ones clinging to their parents, some

of whom were sleeping, but most of whom were lying awake and watching him. They knew something was going on, but they

could not hear the soft, whispered exchanges between him and the others. They simply watched and waited expectantly.

Worf saw some of them nod at him as his gaze swept over them. It was as if they were reassuring him. They were all

depending on him to make the right decisions. He could not let them down.

 

“Your idea may have some merit,” he told Tyler cautiously. “However, let us consider it carefully. If we could

overcome the guards, we could fortify our position by blocking off the entrance doors. We could then hold the

Romulans off, but not for long.” He glanced at Tyler. “They could still purge the lifesupport system in the shuttle

bay and suffocate us. Our only option would be to open the outer bay doors ourselves and attempt escape in the

shuttles. It is possible that we could reach theEnterprise , but with the Romulans still in control of our ship, we

would be recaptured as soon as we brought our shuttles aboard. And then our situation would be no different from what

it is now.”

 

“At least we’d be back aboard our own ship,” said O’Brien. “And I don’t intend to allow myself to get captured again

without a fight.”

 

“If we could seize some weapons from the guards, that would at least improve our chances,” Arthur said.

 

“And it might prove enough of a distraction to allow our shipmates aboard theEnterprise to act,” said Tyler.

 

“You are forgetting one thing,” said Worf. “If we attempt escape aboard the shuttles, someone will first have to open

the outer bay doors. With the bridge controls disabled, the doors will have to be opened from in here, at the

maintenance panel.”

 

“Yes, I could do that manually by reconnecting the outer bay door controls and leaving the bridge controls out of the

circuit,” Tyler said.

 

“Disabling the controls would also disable the forcefield that maintains atmospheric integrity in the shuttle bay

with the outer bay doors open,” Worf said. “It would then undoubtedly register as a malfunction both on the bridge

and in the engineering section. That would give away our intentions and enable the Romulans to disconnect the

forcefield generators from their main engineering section. If they were to do thatand it would be the obvious

countermeasurethen any attempt to open the outer bay doors would be suicide.”

 

Their faces fell as they realized that Worf was right. He had obviously already considered the idea.

 

“Not necessarily,” said Tyler. “If everyone got aboard the shuttles first and we brought one of the shuttles around

right next to the maintenance panel, then I could reconnect the circuits to open the outer bay doors from in here and

still get inside the shuttlecraft before the vacuum sucked all the air out of the bay.”

 

“Perhaps,” said Worf, considering the plan. “It could work. But it would be dangerous. You would have only seconds to

get aboard the shuttlecraft. And we would still have to reach theEnterprise . The Romulans in control there could

simply leave the shuttle bay doors closed. We would not be able to get aboard, and our life support aboard the

shuttles would eventually run out. We would all die within sight of our own ship.”

 

“But not until our life support ran out,” said O’Brien. “And once our shipmates knew we had escaped from theSyrinx ,

they would be free to rise up against the Romulans aboard theEnterprise .”

 

“The warbird would not attack our ship,” Arthur pointed out, “not with their own people aboard. We’d stand a fighting

chance, at least.”

 

“Sir,” O’Brien said to Worf, “I understand what you’re doing. You’re playing devil’s advocate, pointing out all the

flaws in our plan so we can see the potential consequences. We all know that no one wants to take a crack at these

Romulan bastards more than you do. You just want to make sure we’ve thought the whole thing through. Well, maybe we

stand a chance and maybe we don’t, but unless we do something, we don’t stand any chance at all. So long as we’re

held hostage here, there’s not much our shipmates back aboard theEnterprise can do. Even if we die, we’ll have

succeeded in giving our crewmates the freedom to act. And at least we’ll go down fighting.”

 

Worf gazed at O’Brien for a moment, then turned to the others. “Is this how you all feel?” he asked.

 

Tyler nodded. So did Arthur. Keiko O’Brien said, “We all knew the risks when we joined Starfleet. We knew the risks

when we decided to start our families. All the people here know and respect you, Worf. They’ll follow you regardless

of what you decide.”

 

Worf looked at them all for a long moment, then nodded. He felt proud of them. He glanced around at the others lying

all around him, a few of the women sitting on the bedding and rocking their small children. Worf asked himself what

the captain would have done in such a situation. The others all met his gaze steadily and nodded, as if to say,

whatever you decide, we’re with you. And he had his answer.

 

The sound of disruptor fire echoing through the streets galvanized Valak and his warriors and they ran toward it,

several of them flanking Picard and keeping a close watch on him. The glow of the curious sculpted streetlights

followed them as they moved, the lights going on as they drew close to them and then going out again as they passed.

When they reached the spot where they thought the disruptor fire had come from, they saw nothing. The warriors spread

out, their weapons drawn, their eyes alert for any sign of movement, but there was no sign of any of the others.

 

Picard came up beside Valak as the Romulan commander issued orders to his warriors. “Spread out! Secure the area, but

maintain visual contact with one another.” He looked all around him anxiously. “Torak!” he called out. “Torak!”There

was no answer. “Talar? Antor, can you hear me?Respond!”

 

“You seem to be losing track of your warriors, Valak,” Picard said. “How many does that make so fareighteen

disappeared without a trace?”

 

Valak turned an angry gaze on him. “I remind you that your own people have disappeared as well!”

 

“Believe me, that thought remains foremost in my mind,” Picard replied. “As does the fact that if we do not find a

way to reestablish contact with your ship, this ark might be destroyed at any time, due to your ill-considered

orders.”

 

Valak’s frustration was clearly evident. The muscles in his jaw worked as he struggled to control his temper. “Damn

you, Picard, if I die here, then so do you.”

 

“I am prepared for that,” Picard replied in a level tone. “But as you said yourself, this game is far from over.”

 

“Commander!” one of the warriors called out. He came running over. “I found this,” he said. He held out a Romulan

disruptor. “It was lying on the ground over there.”

 

“No warrior of mine would abandon his weapon unless he was dead,” said Valak.

 

“There was no trace of any bodies, Commander.”

 

“Then they must have been removed,” said Valak. “If they were killed by a disintegrating weapon, this disruptor would

have disintegrated as well. And if our opponents lack such weapons, I cannot imagine them leaving this one behind.

Call everyone back.”

 

“What do you intend?” Picard asked.

 

Valak turned to face him. “We are going over there,” he said, pointing to the lights on the opposite side of the ark.

“I am going to bring the fight to them. And if the others aboard this cursed vessel want to stop us, they will have

to show themselves and face all of us together!”

 

“It will take several days to reach that place,” Picard said. “You may not have the time.”

 

“Then I shall die,” said Valak. “But I shall not remain here helpless while they pick us off at their leisure. If

they want a war, then by the gods, I shall give them one!”

 

“As yet you have not evenseen them, whoever they may be,” Picard pointed out. “This may be exactly how it started

with theIndependence . First one landing party beamed down; then interference knocked out communications and another

away team followed, and then that team disappeared …”

 

“You think Lord Kazanak would be foolish enough to risk sending down another team when three have already been

transported down and there has been no contact with them?” Valak said.

 

“You did not think he would send down Talar and his team,” Picard reminded him. “The captain of theIndependence was

no fool, and yet his entire crew disappeared without a trace. There were only four survivors, all of whom committed

suicide by attempting escape in a shuttlecraft. TheIndependence has been here for thirty years, Valak. Thirty years!

Why hasn’t its orbit decayed? What is holding it up there? If something can reach out from here and affect

theIndependence , what makes you think your own ship will be invulnerable?”

 

“Commander, someone else is beaming down,” said one of the warriors.

 

“What?”Valak turned around and saw another Romulan away team materialize a short distance away.

 

“You were saying, Valak?” said Picard dryly.

 

Valak hurried toward the new away team, followed by the others. The new arrivals came to meet him.

 

“Zorak!”the Romulan commander said. “What are you doing here?”

 

Zorak looked at his commander with a puzzled expression. “But, Commander … you yourself gave the order for us to

beam down!”

 

“I?”said Valak. “Are you mad? I did no such thing! We have been unable to contact theSyrinx ever since we arrived

here!”

 

Zorak looked utterly confused. “But … I do not understand, Commander. Lord Kazanak received a message from you

that there was no more interference with the communications signals and that you required more personnel to”

 

“Impossible! I sent no message!”

 

“So it begins,” Picard said softly.

 

Valak turned on him furiously. “I have heard about enough from you, Picard!”

 

“You may have heard,” Picard said, “but you have notlistened . I warned you that there was danger here, but you chose

not to believe me. If Lord Kazanak received a message from here, then we can draw only one possible conclusion: the

interference is no accident; the signal frequency of your communicators is purposely being jammed, just as you

suspected. However,someone obviously managed to get through, someone who was able to convince Lord Kazanak and your

bridge crew that the message came from you. Whoever is aboard this ark is not afraid of you, Valak. Theywant more of

your people to beam down. And once they are here, they will never be allowed to leave.”

 

“We shall see about that,” Valak replied, though he no longer seemed quite so sure of himself. “Remember that

whatever happens to us, Picard, will happen to you as well.”

 

“Obviously,” Picard said wryly, “since I am your prisoner. Only now it would seem that you are prisoners too.”

 

Valak raised his hand as if to strike him, but at that moment one of the warriors shouted and fired his disruptor.

Instantly the others also began firing. Valak turned quickly and drew his own weapon, then shouted at them to stop

when he saw that there was no return fire being directed toward them.

 

“Cease firing! Cease firing!What are you all shooting at?” he shouted.

 

“Over there, Commander,” one of the warriors said, pointing across the street toward a shadowed area between two

buildings. “I saw someone running.”

 

“Who?”

 

“I do not know, Commander. A figure … all in black. Wearing a hooded robe.”

 

“So they are showing themselves at last,” said Valak. “Zorak, take your team over there and investigate. The rest of

you, come with me.”

 

The group split up, with Zorak’s team moving toward the area where the shadowy figure had been seen, and Valak

leading the rest of the warriors to the opposite side of the street, to set up a field of covering fire in case it

was a trap. Once they had taken up position, Valak tried using his communicator once again.

 

“Valak toSyrinx . Respond!” The only answer was a crackle of static. He tapped the communicator and tried again, with

no better result. He swore vehemently.

 

Valak’s self-control was starting to slip, Picard noticed. Up to now the young Romulan commander had been confident

of his superiority, secure in the knowledge that he had planned everything out to the last detail. Now, separated

from his ship and unable to communicate with his crew, Valak was suddenly faced with the unknown. Without the might

of the Romulan war machine behind him, he was caught in a situation where he could make no plans, map out no

strategy. He would have to improvise and depend entirely on his own resources. In this, his youth and temperament

worked against him.

 

Picard, on the other hand, had often found himself in circumstances where he was forced to improvise. This current

situation certainly looked bad, he thought, but as long as a man could think clearly, there were always options. He

had been in some pretty tight spots before, but for Valak, this was a new experience, and he was starting to fray at

the edges.

 

Suddenly a voice came over the communicator. “Zorak to Commander Valak. Are you receiving me?” The transmission

crackled with static, but it was still audible, though barely.

 

“Zorak!” Valak turned up the gain on his communicator. “Zorak, can you hear me?”

 

“Barely, Commander,” came the static-filled reply. “There is still interference, but I can hear you. Apparently the

communicators will function only within very close distances.”

 

“At least that is something,” Valak said. “Report.”

 

A burst of static came back over his communicator, with only a few words audible.

 

“Again, Zorak,” Valak said. “I did not receive you clearly.”

 

Another burst of static, then, “… sign of … here, Commander. Whoever … has disappeared. Wait! There is

something moving farther … We see them!” The transmission ended in a burst of static.

 

Valak tapped his communicator in frustration.”Zorak! Respond!Zorak!”

 

“He must have moved just out of range,” Picard said. “Or been decoyed out of range.”

 

“I did nottell him to move, blast his soul!” said Valak angrily. He beckoned to the others.”Come on!”

 

They ran across the street in the direction Zorak had taken with his team. They reached the point where the others

had gone around a corner of the building and down an alleyway. There was no illumination in there, and they could see

only a few yards ahead of them.

 

Valak tried his communicator again. “Zorak! Respond!” There was no answer.”Zorak!”

 

The communicator crackled with static.

 

Valak cursed and led the way into the alley. Picard felt someone shove him from behind, and then he was running with

the rest of them. The dark alley extended for several hundred yards, then opened out onto another street that ran

parallel to the one they had come from. There was no sign of Zorak and his party.

 

“Zorak!”Valak shouted, his voice echoing off the buildings all around them.”Zorak!”

 

There was no reply. The soft glow of the sculpted streetlights illuminated the immediate area, but there was no light

farther down the street to indicate where Zorak and the others might have gone. They had simply disappeared, just

like the others.

 

“That brings the total missing to what, about thirty?” said Picard.

 

Valak spun around and grabbed him by the front of his tunic, pushing him back and slamming him against a wall. “Damn

you, Picard”

 

Picard quickly brought up his hands and broke the Romulan’s grip, then shoved him away hard. “Take your hands off

me!”

 

Valak stumbled and fell, and the others immediately trained their weapons on Picard. He tensed, waiting for them to

fire.

 

“No!”said Valak. He got to his feet, his eyes narrowed with fury. “If anyone kills him, it will beme!”

 

“And here I thought you wanted to take me back to Romulus with you and show me off,” Picard said sarcastically,

though inwardly he sighed with relief.

 

“Do not overestimate your value to me, Picard,” said Valak, a hard edge to his voice. “I could easily do without you.

You have sorely tested my patience, and you are beginning to grate on my nerves.”

 

“Only because you are allowing your emotions to cloud your judgment,” said Picard. “You are not thinking, Valak; you

are merely reacting. I thought you were a better officer than that.”

 

“I do not need you to point out my responsibilities!”

 

“For better or for worse, Valak, we are in this together,” said Picard. “My people are missing too. And unless we can

put aside our differences, we shallall fall victim to whatever fate befell them.”

 

Valak stared at him for a long moment, then took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. He nodded. “Very well, then. I

shall listen. Speak.”

 

“Brute force will not get us out of here,” said Picard. “Your warriors were all armed with disruptors, and yet they

vanished. Whatever they saw was obviously a lure intended to draw them into some sort of trap. The same thing

occurred with all the others.”

 

“Divide and conquer,” Valak said.

 

“Precisely,” said Picard. “We have been watched all along, and those who are watching us could have chosen to attack

us at any time.”

 

“But they have not, which means they must lack the strength to do so,” Valak said.

 

“Perhaps,” Picard said. “This ark was obviously designed to accommodate a crew numbering in the tens of thousands.

Yet it appears to be almost deserted. If we are dealing with the original occupants of this vessel, then it would

seem their original number has been significantly reduced somehow.”

 

“Ifwe are faced with the original occupants of this vessel,” Valak said. “For all we know, we could be dealing with

the survivors of theIndependence.”

 

“Thirty years have passed since theIndependence was reported missing,” said Picard. “Even if there were survivors,

which seems doubtful, they would all be in their sixties and seventies.”

 

“Humans reproduce, do they not?” Valak said wryly.

 

“If they found a way to survive here, then that is indeed a possibility,” Picard said, “though I consider it remote.

If they’re human, I undoubtedly have less to fear from them than from you. Still, why would the crew of

theIndependence have chosen to disable their own vessel and remain here? Surely you realize by now that there cannot

be a secret Federation base here. If there were, why would they leave theIndependence in orbit to advertise its

presence? Perhaps it was left there as a warning.”

 

“A warning against what?”

 

“Against whatever prompted the Federation to impose a quarantine on Hermeticus Two,” said Picard. “The logical

assumption in this case is the presence of a life-form too dangerous for us to have contact with, or the existence of

a disease for which there was no cure. Either possibility could explain what happened to the original crew of this

ark.”

 

“Butsomeone is still alive here,” Valak said.

 

“True,” Picard said. “If the crew members were struck with a deadly disease, perhaps some of them survived and

developed an immunity. But if so, they are probably carriers of that disease. And if, on its journey to this sector,

the ark encountered some life-form that destroyed all of its occupants, then that life-form could still be here.”

 

“This is nothing but idle speculation,” Valak said. “It still fails to address the problem.”

 

“Before a problem can be solved, it is first necessary to know precisely what it is,” Picard said. “We still know

very little about what we are faced with here. What wedo know is that whoever or whatever is aboard this ark

possesses enough intelligence to utilize the technology that holds theIndependence in orbit and interferes with our

communications. They also possess enough intelligence to communicate with your ship and make your crew believe the

message came from you. Zorak and his away team were beamed down on what they thought were your orders. What is to

prevent another message being sent and more of your people ordered down in your name?”

 

Valak’s face looked grim. He was starting to listen at last. “Lord Kazanak is eager to discover something here that

will give the Romulan Empire an edge in competing with the Federation. If he believes I have made significant

discoveries here, he will be only too glad to beam down more away teams to investigate. Yet I fail to see how that

would work against us. It would only serve to reinforce our strength. Besides, it is not the Romulan way to avoid our

enemies rather than confront them.”

 

“Be that as it may,” Picard replied, “your people will still have no idea what they are getting into unless someone

warns them as soon as they arrive.”

 

“Then I shall station warriors at the arrival coordinates to brief any more teams that may arrive,” said Valak.

 

“But what guarantee do you have that they will not disappear as well, or that anyone else who beams down will arrive

at the same coordinates?” said Picard. “Whoever sent that message in your name could easily have given them new

coordinates. They could have away teams transported down anywhere inside this ark, effectively splitting up your

forces even as they arrive.”

 

Valak exhaled heavily and nodded. “I must admit there is sense in what you say,” he replied. “So what are we to do?”

 

The other Romulans looked on with amazement as their commander asked advice from a Starfleet officer. It was

absolutely unprecedented. They had no idea what to make of it. But at the same time, they were profoundly unsettled.

Since they had arrived, some thirty of their fellow warriors had disappeared without a trace. And Valak had been

unable to do anything about it. They all knew they could be next, and the man they had looked to for leadership no

longer seemed sure of himself whereas Picard remained calm and in control. And that, coupled with his frequent subtle

use of the word “we” in referring to them all together, was having its effect. Theywere all in this together, and

even though Picard was human, the things he was saying made sense.

 

“We must assess the situation calmly and logically,” Picard said. “Some of your warriors have disappeared. However,

up to this point, we have not actually been attacked or fired upon. What does that suggest to you?”

 

“Either they possess weapons that function silently or else no energy weapons are being used against us,” Valak

replied.

 

Picard nodded. “If they possessed such weapons, they could easily have used them on us by now. So either their

weapons are of a different order or they are not using any weapons as we understand them. We have also seen no

bodies. If your warriors were killed, then their bodies have all been taken away. But why? On the other hand, perhaps

they may still be alive.”

 

“No Romulan warrior would ever allow himself to be captured and taken prisoner,” Valak said.

 

“Spare me the bombastic rhetoric,” Picard said. “Given the proper circumstances, anyone can be captured and taken

prisoner, as you yourself have demonstrated by seizing my ship.”

 

“Very well, for the sake of argument, I shall concede the point,” Valak said. “But why would they want to take us

alive?”

 

“Perhaps they are a nonaggressive species,” said Picard. “That is something you seem not to have considered.

Remember, it iswe who are presenting a threat tothem . We have invaded their home, and we have come with weapons of

war. They may only be seeking to defend themselves.”

 

“And I suppose if we all lay down our weapons and surrender, they will come out and welcome us with open arms?” Valak

said scornfully. “Is that your advice, Picard? I expected more from you.”

 

“I did not say we should surrender,” said Picard, “but there is always the possibility of negotiation.”

 

“I did not come here to negotiate with anyone, Picard,” said Valak. “Whoever we are facingthe survivors of

theIndependence or the original occupants of this vesselI intend to find them. And when I do, this matter will be

settled once and for all.”

 

“You may not have long to wait,” Picard said. “Observe.”

 

He indicated the lights on the opposite side of the ark. They were spreading out. And they were moving closer.