The Complication

The Cold Truth

"The Atakapa has a highly important diplomatic mission to Hustia III," Picard replied. "They're negotiating the ceasefire."

Tasha blinked in disbelief.

"And they can't complete their mission without the handful of crew that we're rotating to their ship?" Tasha demanded.

Captain Picard's shoulders slumped. He could sympathise with her position.

"One of those crew is Lieutenant Commander Underwood from the xenolinguistics department," Picard shared. "He's one of only a handful of people capable of communicating with the Hustians."

The Hustian people communicated through a complex series of rhythmic tapping on a specialised drum. It was a difficult language to learn and even more challenging to accurately communicate in the proper context.

"Then he can take a damn shuttle to Starbase 173!" Tasha snapped.

She took a shaky breath and composed herself.

"Or let me stay and come later by shuttle," Tasha requested in a much softer voice.

She hadn't meant to lose her temper with Captain Picard - but she had been up all night worried for Data and Geordi.

"I will speak with Admiral Nakamura again," Picard assured her.

Tasha visibly relaxed.

"At a more reasonable hour," Picard added quickly.

It was early and Jean-Luc suspected the Admiral would be none too happy about being awoken only to hear of further delay.

"I agree this requires more study," Jean-Luc said. "But I am not willing to risk the safety of any more members of my crew until we know what we're dealing with."

Sonya nodded in understanding.

"I'll get right on it," she promised.

As soon as Sonya was gone, Tasha looked up to meet Captain Picard's eyes.

"Sir, I'm sorry for-" Tasha began to apologise.

Jean-Luc put his hand up to stop her.

"I'm worried about them too," Jean-Luc said.

-X-

"Then is there any way that the Atakapa could rendezvous with us here?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Negative. She's coming in hot from Ungala. We've got a window of just a few hours in which you two overlap to make this crew rotation," Admiral Nakamura answered. "And from what I read in this latest report, the situation on Hustia III is deteriorating."

Admiral Nakamura leaned forward and folded his hands on the surface of his desk.

"You'll need to pull out of there by 13:00 if you want to make it here on time," Nakamura warned.

The Enterprise was going to have to push warp 9.3 just to make it there for the rendezvous. And a shuttle couldn't go that fast.

"Admiral, my Second Officer and my Chief Engineer are out there," Jean-Luc protested. "And whatever this thing is that we've discovered, it could be something entirely unknown."

"I understand that you're in a tough position," Nakamura said. "But there are millions of people on Hustia III. Their very survival depends on this ceasefire."

Jean-Luc loathed to admit that Nakamura was right.

The fate of an entire world rested on the ceasefire. Two lives was hardly a fair comparison. Furthermore, he could always leave a shuttle behind – though it would be placing additional lives at risk.