“Sometimes, Vice Admiral Bonner,” he said in reply to the man’s final statement, “all the strategy in the world isn’t worth as much as a good right hook.”
“Is he insane, do you think, Kyle?” Owen Paris asked him later. “Even with all of our science, all our knowledge, there’s so much we don’t know about the human mind. We can’t build ships that can go in and explore it like we do outer space. We’re only guessing at so much of it. Is it possible that Heidl really is, somehow, in there with Bonner?”
They were in Owen’s office. They had eaten some lunch, and Kyle felt better, more relaxed and contented, than he had in a very long while. He took a sip of excellent coffee. “I’ll leave it to people smarter than me to figure that out,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s just nuts. He had to listen to his stepson die. The Berlincame to drop off the team that was to investigate Heidl’s experiments, then it left. Bonner was on that ship, keeping it just far enough away to not be able to help when the Tholians came, but trying to keep it close enough that Heidl could escape to it. Heidl went back, as Bonner said, but then the attack came and no one could beam off the starbase anymore. He tried to launch a shuttle—our records prove that someone tried to—but he couldn’t do that either. He was trapped on the starbase, and Bonner was stuck listening to him die. Then he couldn’t tear himself away from listening to the rest of the invasion either. It must have been then that he went insane, or started to.”
Owen steepled his hands and tapped his fingertips against his mouth. “You’re probably right,” he said. “At least, that story fits the facts that we know. The other facts—what Heidl and his friends were working on, why Donner went on that trip and why he couldn’t save Heidl—we’ll just have to speculate on. Or take Bonner’s word for.”
“I’m not sure I’d do that,” Kyle suggested. “Bonner’s word probably isn’t good for much.”
“What amazes me,” Owen said, “is how long he was able to function here. We’ll go through his records thoroughly, and maybe we’ll find that he wasn’t really functioning all that well. But he seemed to be. He passed. Except that he was also busy planning his revenge on you, for surviving when Heidl couldn’t.”
“And on Will,” Kyle reminded him. “It’s no coincidence that it was the Pegasushe tried to sabotage.”
Owen’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t even thought of it that way,” he said.
“Your mind isn’t devious enough,” Kyle said. “You sure you want to go into space again?”
“I hope a devious mind isn’t a necessary prerequisite,” Owen replied. “From listening to the Pegasustoday, though, it sounds like courage is.”
Kyle simply nodded, and Owen continued. “Who do you suppose that was,” he asked, “who spoke up, volunteering to initiate the auto-destruct since the first officer wouldn’t? The voice sounded awfully familiar to me.”
Kyle just looked at Owen, sitting across the desk from him. “You know who it was,” he said.
“I know who I think it was. And his name’s Riker.”
“Of course it was Will,” Kyle confirmed. “Who else but a Riker?” He was willing to blow up his own ship to pull off a bluff—moving close enough to the enemy to guarantee that if the ship did auto-destruct, it’d’ take both ships with it. Given that the phrase ‘self-sacrifice’ didn’t seem to be in their vocabulary, the Omistol hadto cut their tractor. Will’s a chip off the old block, that’s for sure.”
“He’s the image of his old man,” Owen said with a friendly smile. “I hope I have a crew full of young people just like him on the Al-Batani.I hope Tom grows up just as gutsy.”
“If you have a crew like that Ensign Janeway,” Kyle told him, “you’ll be in good shape.”
“She’s a peach, all right,” Owen agreed. “Kyle, I just can’t wait to get out there.”
Later still, Kyle walked alone alongside the bayfront, enjoying the cool snap of the wind as it blew off the water. For a change, there were no security officers following him, and he did not miss their presence. He was convinced that his ordeal was finally over, that there would be no more attempts on his life now that Horace Bonner was in custody.
Instead of worrying about his own safety, though, he thought about Will, so far away, one little person on one little ship in the vastness of the universe. There would be dangers untold in Will’s future, he knew. As he’d told Owen, Will was a Riker, through and through. Of coursehe had volunteered to blow up the ship. He put duty before his own fears, his own feelings. That’s what Rikers did.
But when he thought of Will, so far away, acting like a Riker, he did so with a great sense of melancholy. The Rikers had a way about them, that much was undeniable. Kyle Riker looked out across the bay, then up at the sky, where a single star appeared above the horizon. He felt a kinship with that star, alone in the sky. Acting like a Riker had put him here, he knew. Being a Riker had made him alone. He had never really seen it before, had learned this lesson much too late to do him any good, or to save any of the possible futures he might have had, with Kate or with Michelle.
Or with Will.
He just hoped his son could learn the lessons he had more easily than he had. He hoped that Will could become a different kind of Riker, could become unlike his old man, who loved him dearly but couldn’t find a way to tell him so.
And he hoped it would happen for Will before his life was screwed up, for good. Like his old man’s was.
But as he watched the sky, standing there with the wind picking up, whipping his hair and stinging his skin, another star appeared in the night sky, and then another, and then ten, thousands, millions.
And Kyle understood then that it wasn’t too late, not even for him. Alone now didn’t have to mean alone forever. If he’d had a glass in his hand, he’d have raised it, but instead he just turned his face to the sky.
“Another lesson, son,” he said softly. “We Rikers may be stubborn as hell, but eventually we learn from our mistakes. You’ll do fine out there, I know you will.”
He turned away from the bay and the wind and the stars and started to walk home. “You’ll do fine,” he repeated. And as he did so, he knew, somehow, that he was right.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Mariotte is the author of many novels, including several set in the universes of Buffy the Vampire Slayerand Angel,as well as Charmed, Gen 13, Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda,and the original dark suspense novel The Slab.Previous encounters with Star Trekinclude writing the S.C.E. novella No Surrenderand editing Star Trekcomics for DC Comics/WildStorm. He’s also written more comic books than he has time to count, including the Stoker award—nominated horror/Western series Desperadoes.With his wife Maryelizabeth Hart and partner Terry Gilman, he owns Mysterious Galaxy, a bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. He lives in San Diego, California, with his family and pets, in a home filled with books, music, toys, and other examples of American pop culture. More about him can be gleaned from www.jefrmariotte.com.
About the e-Book
(JAN, 2003)—Scanned, proofed, and formatted by Bibliophile.