SHIP OF FOOLS

Chapter 27

"Well, Lieutenant," replied Picard, „perhaps you could escort him to my ready room."

"Yes, Captain." There was an added element of resignation in the voice now. Troi was looking faintly amused, as if she had noticed the change in tone as well.

"Tell me," said Picard quickly, „has Commander Riker found out anything about him?"

"As far as I know he didn't try, Captain. I don't believe he would have had the time. I do know that Admiral Juarez called once, asking the same question, and Will put him off. Apparently he told him that you were resting, and that you would be in contact as soon as we had sorted out the worst of the mess, or something along those lines."

"Oh dear," muttered Picard.

"Yes," agreed Troi with a quick sympathetic smile. "It wasn't a long conversation."

"I see," Picard said dryly. "No doubt I'll be hearing from the admiral quite soon, then. I'll definitely call a briefing later... Well, let's hope that man justifies all the trouble we've gone to."

Troi stood. „You won't be needing me during this, Captain?"

"Personally, I wouldn't mind your presence at all. But I have a feeling that he does mean in private."

"So have I." She left with another smile at him, and a couple of minutes later the door chime announced Worf and the Cardassian.

Gul Dravek appeared serene and undaunted, and took the chair Picard indicated with a gracious little nod of thanks. Worf remained a moment longer than usual, saying pointedly and rather unnecessarily: "I will be on the bridge, Captain," and left. The door swished shut in his wake.

"Well," said Picard. "I am listening."

"First of all, I would like to thank you, Captain – on behalf of all of us. I am quite aware that you don't trust me, of course. I truly appreciate it that we are here despite that fact."

"In that case I am glad we waited for you as long as we did, of course," replied Picard dryly. "You did take your time turning up for the meeting you had initiated, Gul Dravek."

"Through no choice of mine, I assure you. I don't know if you have heard, Captain – my contact was murdered before we could arrange the details. I knew then that part at least of my plan was known. We have been lying low since then, in a place my colleagues appear not to be aware of, fortunately. I knew that I would have to return to visibility eventually, but I wanted to make sure you would be there by then, to reduce the time I would have to remain visible as much as possible. As you saw, I arrived only just ahead of our mutual friends out there." He paused to observe Picard's expression. "You appear to have your doubts, Captain."

"Naturally," said Picard. "But then maybe you'll be wanting to tell me why you are here. It might alleviate a considerable part of my doubts. I assume that's why you wanted to see me."

"In part." Dravek gave one of his brief, rather menacing smiles. "You see, Captain, in some respects I am as good as dead. Things on Cardassia Prime would have to change considerably before I could return home, and I am not sufficiently naïve to believe that I'd be particularly safe abroad even if the Federation was to grant me asylum. And I have to admit, when I realized that Starfleet had sent you of all people I was tempted to turn and run. Yes, as you have already guessed, I have heard all about that rather unfortunate business of Minos Korva, and Celtris III. Frankly, I am... surprised, Captain. You said that you are authorized to use your own discretion. Would you go one step further under the right circumstances, then, and put in a word for me?"

"That depends. You see, I still know nothing about you."

"If you'll allow, I am going to rectify that now."

Picard silently motioned him to go on.

"As I said before, I have been working for the Obsidian Order. You will have heard that the Order and Central Command are not on the best of terms – I'm sure that is common knowledge –, but the truth is that they need each other. There would be quite enough public discontent to upset the government if it were not for the Order. Unfortunately, with time I have come to the conclusion that some of it at least is perfectly justified. Obviously this put me into a somewhat uncomfortable position. And obviously I was not going to join the dissident movement, engage in pointless heroics undermining my homeworld's social structure, and end up being executed for my troubles. I would like to see the Union minding its own business for a while – sorting out its internal problems. As your superiors will no doubt be delighted to hear, even though they should have a notion of it by now – they are substantial, and would be the better for some sorting. And as for the Order itself... Let's just say that by now war has become an end in itself to many high-ranking Cardassians. War has made us great no doubt, but if we go on like this it will ruin us. Personally, I don't believe we would survive another large-scale war with the Federation. Many of my peers disagree." Dravek smiled again, tensely. „What it comes to is that I am trying to readjust the balance very slightly in the Federation's favor – just enough to discourage this talk of a first strike. And I believe I am in a position to do it. Then of course, once I have done it I will be at the mercy of your Starfleet. I'm an officer, Captain, I can take the consequences – but I have a responsibility towards my crew and the civilians I brought along. So I ask you again, would you be willing to put in a word for me?"

"It's still rather early to be asking me that question, don't you think?" replied Picard neutrally. "If you are what you say you are, I might consider it – but I'll make no promises at this point."

Dravek studied him for a long moment, thoughtfully, as if weighing his impressions. "You still don't trust me," he said, sounding entirely unsurprised.

"You are quite right. I don't. I really cannot imagine you expected me to, on the strength of an explanation like the one you just gave me." Picard sat forward, hands locked on his desk. "Then again, it is within my powers to grant you political asylum, provisionally at least, and I have done it. Obviously my recommendation will be to look into your story very carefully, whatever the full version of it will turn out to be. After that it rests with Starfleet Intelligence. Obviously again, I am neither qualified nor competent to decide the question of whether or not to act on your advice – whatever that will turn out to be. You see, I simply don't know enough about it all."

Gul Dravek leaned forward in his chair. "Perhaps you don't, at the moment, but you know something else. This peace is quite simply in the best interests of both our nations. I have given up everything for it, and now I happen to run into you. Wouldn't you agree that it would be... well, let's say the consistent thing for you to do, to help me put this to Starfleet? I can't believe that you wouldn't be willing to go to the trouble."

"The trouble or the risk, Gul Dravek? You haven't even convinced me so far. You haven't even tried to convince me. What makes you think I'd be willing to risk anything – the most minute aspect of Federation security – by helping you convince Starfleet Intelligence?"

Dravek looked at him out of slightly narrowed eyes. "Believe it or not, Captain, you have a reputation. I don't mind telling you that I'm proceeding on the assumption here that this reputation matches the facts. I don't know where exactly you are taking us, but from what your first officer told me it will be a few days before you can hand me over to any authority whatsoever. You're quite right, I haven't even tried to convince you so far. But perhaps you will grant me another opportunity to speak during those days. I might just try it then."

"Perhaps I will," agreed Picard, lightly. "For the moment, though, I must ask you to allow me to return to my work. We developed a number of technical problems while waiting for you in that nebula."

"I understand. Thank you for hearing me out so far, Captain."

"You are quite welcome. – Picard to Lieutenant Worf. Would you accompany our guest back to his quarters?"

He sat quietly for a few seconds after Worf had left with the Cardassian, and then he got to his feet and went over to the replicator for some Earl Grey tea, smiling slightly to himself without being aware of it. Afterwards he sank back into his chair with a profound sense of relief. He was still tired he realized. But there was more to it than that. A kind of serenity, of confidence, of – could it be that? – accomplishment.

It was much too early to tell, of course. But then, it was quite a journey to Starbase 109.

He had actually closed his eyes when the door alarm chimed again. "Come," he said, knowing perfectly well who was outside.

"Everything all right, Captain?" asked Riker.

"Yes. Yes, everything's all right."

The first officer looked at him searchingly. "Must have been an interesting conversation."

"Preliminary sparring is the term I might have used. But yes, it was." Picard reached for his mug, looking up at Riker with faint amusement. Will was positively radiating curiosity. "In effect, he asked me to back him. He wants me to believe that he sacrificed everything in order to preserve the balance of power, and thus prevent a new war."

"And do you believe it?" asked Riker, quietly.

"So far? No, of course not – I am merely interested. Willing to keep an open mind. Not entirely averse to the thought of being convinced, if you like. He thinks he could convince me of his bona fides if I gave him a chance. Of course, if I was to mess it up it's entirely possible Starfleet will still decide that those wide-ranging discretionary powers have been severely misplaced, isn't it?"

Riker's mouth twitched slightly. "Yes, Captain."

Picard looked down at the mug he was holding in both hands. "You know, Will, I wonder if I am being influenced by recent experiences. Reverse psychology, possibly. This Doctor Maruk... I've had too much dodging of responsibility today."

Riker edged closer, sliding into his own chair with barely a sound.

"I suppose it is just possible that the man did sacrifice everything he had and risked not just himself but a number of other people – people close to him – for the sake of something that he believes has to be done. Just... a possibility. One that I am going to entertain with the utmost caution, naturally."

Riker said nothing, did not even give a nod that might have interrupted the captain's train of thought.

"I would like to feel that all of this has been worth it, in some way. Just now I almost did. Then of course, it hardly matters what I would like to feel. But if this man is telling the truth..." He frowned a little. Riker waited quietly.

"How long to Starbase 109, again?" the captain asked after a few seconds of unbroken silence.

"About sixty-nine hours at warp five."

„I see."

Riker got to his feet. "I'll be on the bridge if you want me, Captain. Let you mull it over in peace."

"No," said Picard, rising. „That won't be necessary. I'm coming too."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(The End)

Author's Notes/Postscript:

By now I think I owe everybody here a bit of an explanation.

As several people have pointed out, the plot of Ship of Fools is somewhat reminiscent of the episode The Game. They were right on target, of course. That's because The Game was one of the... inspirations behind SoF back then. I loathed The Game. I loathed the implications. I loathed the fact that those fine, noble, intelligent people came over as dim, weak-willed, pathetic fools. Yerch. You'd think that at the very least Picard and Worf wouldn't want anything to do with the wretched thing in the first place – Worf because he's too arrogant, too suspicious and too anti-fun and Picard because he's too much of an intellectual snob and too protective of his mental integrity, for lack of a better word. Not to mention too traumatized. And if everybody else was to succumb to such a device they would have to have a decent reason at least. Voilà – Ship of Fools in a nutshell. It took off from there.

That's that out of the way. Now for the more important bit.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments and feedback, and the time you spent writing them! This has been incredibly enjoyable and inspiring. As Worf would say, I am honored. Very much so. Thank you.

And finally, there's another, shorter novel lurking on my hard drive. It, too, is several years old, and it may need a more thorough revision that SoF did. I'm thinking of uploading it, but the breaks between chapters may be longer. And it's a very different type of story too. If you want to stay with me, you'll see what I mean. Don't say I didn't warn you, though.

And for right now – wishing you a wonderful, peaceful, successful New Year 2007. May it turn out to be everything everybody is most hoping for.