Conspiracy Renewed

Picard looked at the viewscreen. A ship was visible—small, probably only enough to carry a dozen or so crewmembers at most.

“Status report?” he said.

“The ship isn’t responding to hails,” Worf said.

“I’m reading eight crew members onboard,” Data said. “From what I can tell, the crew are humanoid, but I cannot tell you from where. They have some kind of sensor jamming equipment in effect blocking any accurate readings.”

“Any speculations, Data?” Riker asked.

“No sir,” Data said. “From what I can tell, the ship is coming from a previously unexplored part of the galaxy. The ship is of unknown origins; however it’s not totally unlike ships that the crew of the Voyager encountered when they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant. I am unable to find an exact match for this particular ship configuration in our ship computers, however.”

“So best guess is that they’re from the Delta Quadrant,” Picard said. “They’ve certainly come a long way.”

“Especially for such a small ship,” Riker said. “It’s unlikely they’d have the facilities for a trip lasting multiple generations; they might have encountered a wormhole or some other phenomenon.”

“Another possibility is that they have the technology to make such trips feasible within a single lifetime,” Data said. “Or perhaps their life spans are longer than ours.”

“Alright, that’s enough speculation for now,” Picard said. “Counselor, do you sense anything coming from them?”

“I’m sensing a certain amount of tension coming from them,” Troi said. “I’m tempted to compare it to a drug addict who’s used up their supply.”

“Alright,” Picard said. “Mister Worf, open a hailing frequency. They don’t need to respond, they just need to hear this.”

Worf nodded. “Channel open.”

“Unidentified vessel, this is the Federation starship Enterprise. We mean you no harm. Please identify yourself.”

A few seconds passed. Worf looked up and said, “No reponse.” He paused and then added, “Wait, they’re responding.”

The viewscreen went dark for half a second and then a figure appeared. At first the figure was in darkness, but then he stepped into the light.

“Lore,” Data said.

“It seems you remember me, brother,” Lore said with his distinctive smile. “It’s certainly been a while.”

“Lore, you were deactivated years ago,” Picard said. “What are you doing in Federation space?”

“What are you doing in Federation space?” Lore mimicked. “I’m doing what I should have done years ago. I’m going to extract revenge on your ship, Captain.” He looked over to one side and said, “End transmission.”

Lore disappeared off the viewscreen. Now the viewscreen showed the ship again.

“Red alert!” Picard said.

“They’re firing phasers,” Worf said, just as three phaser beams hit the ship’s shields. “Shields down to ninety-two percent and holding.”

“Return fire, Mister Worf,” Riker said. “Aim for their weapons array only. We don’t want to destroy them. Helmsman, evasive maneuvers.”

“Aye sir, evasive maneuvers,” the ensign at the helm said.

“Firing phasers,” Worf said. He paused, and then said, “Direct hit. Their shields are down.”

The ship shook wildly. Picard fell into his chair and some consoles at the back of the bridge exploded in a display of sparks and smoke.

“What was that?” Picard said.

“Some kind of photon torpedo,” Worf said. “Shields are down to eighteen percent but holding. If they fire another volley of those, we will experience heavy damage.”

“Fire phasers again,” Riker said. “Get those torpedo chutes down.”

The Enterprise shook briefly as Lore’s ship fired phasers.

“Forward shields holding. I’m firing phasers…direct hit, their torpedoes chute is offline.”

The Enterprise shook wildly a second time. Sparks flew out of the viewscreen and some smoke came out of the helmsmen’s console. A volley of phaser fire from Lore’s ship hit and the console exploded. The helmsmen was dead.

“What was that, Worf? That’s not an offline torpedo chute.”

“Shields are down!” Worf said. “We’ve got damage to the forward hull; decks one, seven, nine and sixteen are reporting casualties and two fatalities so far.” He paused for a moment and said, “Sir, Lore is hailing us.”

“Onscreen,” Picard said.

“Oh, Captain,” Lore said. “I hope I haven’t damaged your ship too badly. I see my brother survived my last attack. But then again, that’s not my real surprise for you, Captain.”

“Lore, wait!” Picard said. “This doesn’t have to end with violence. If you come over to our custody, I’m sure you could come to some arrangement with Starfleet.”

“An arrangement with Starfleet?” Lore laughed. “The last time I had anything to do with Starfleet, it was when you sent dozens of ships looking for me. As I recall, a ship called Enterprise was responsible for the destruction of my vessel.”

“You were endangering civilians—”

“I was reconciling with my brother and giving some hopeless people a purpose. What else was I supposed to do? I couldn’t bring them to the Federation; your kind hates the Borg. No, Captain, it has to end this way.”

Lore disappeared from the viewscreen. His ship began firing again.

“Worf, return fire!”

“Aye sir, firing phasers.” A moment later, Lore’s ship had stopped firing.

“That’s it?” Riker said. “Their phasers are down? No more torpedoes?”

“No, they must be up to something,” Picard said.

“Sir, I’m reading several transporter beams coming from Lore’s ship,” Data said. “It seems they’re beaming over—”

Lore and a Borg appeared on the bridge. Worf grabbed his phaser and fired on the Borg while Data tackled Lore to the ground. The Borg drone survived half a dozen hits before it fell to the ground.
Lore kicked Data off him. Worf fired, but Lore activated a personal shield. Data stood up at the same time as his brother, and punched him twice in the face. Lore went over the helmsmen’s dead body and landed on the busted panel.

Two security officers rushed onto the bridge. They both headed for Lore. He stood up, drew a weapon and fired on one of the ensigns. The ensign fell to the ground. The other made it to Lore and grabbed one of his arms and placed a restraint on him.

Data grabbed Lore’s other arm and finished the restraint. Lore struggled, but in the end didn’t fight hard.

“Brother, you don’t need to betray me like this,” Lore said. “We were once invincible. We can be again.”

“Lore, what you did was wrong,” Data said. “You manipulated me. And I will not willingly betray Captain Picard or Starfleet again.”

“Have it your way, brother,” Lore said. “There will be others who’ll serve with me, just you see.”
“Data, Worf…please walk Lore to the brig,” Picard said. “He will remain there until we get in touch with Starfleet.”

Worf walked down to Lore and took his arm from the ensign. The ensign walked up and assumed Worf’s post at the security station. Worf and Data walked Lore off the bridge.

“La Forge to bridge,” La Forge said over the intercom.

“Bridge here,” Picard said.

“Sir, we’ve just had half a dozen Borg drones down here,” La Forge said. “We’ve neutralized them now, but what the hell is going on up there?”

“I’m not sure, Commander,” Picard said. “I’ll tell you when we have any idea ourselves.”

“Sir, I recommend we search Lore’s ship,” Riker said. “He might have left something over there which will reveal what he’s doing here.”

“Good idea, Number One,” Picard said. “I want his ship brought into our shuttlebay. Take La Forge and Worf down to look at it.