Captain's Table_ Dujonian's Hoard Part 27

"You and I," she said, "we've been through a lot in the short time we've known each other. We've proven we make one h.e.l.l of a team, haven't we? Why not make it ... a permanent one?"

I searched Abby Brant's features her wise, pale blue eyes, her fine, freckled nose, her full and inviting lips. There was a great deal to keep me there, I mused.

And if I left, I would likely never see her again. After all, Brant's rebels would have to establish one new base after another. Even if I managed to reach this reality a second time, I would have no way to find them.

No way to find her.

To be honest, I was tempted by Abby's offer. There were worse ways to live than to fight every day for a cause. The problem was, I already had one. It was called the Federation.

Telling myself that didn't make my decision any easier. But it made me see it was the only decision I could make.

"We do make a h.e.l.l of a team," I told Abby, "and part of me wants very much to remain. But like you, I've made a commitment to others and to myself and I cannot help but see it through."

For a moment, she looked as if she would argue with me, try to talk me into staying. Then it seemed she thought better of it.

"I understand," Abby told me, her voice wavering only slightly.

"I knew you would," I replied.

And that was that.

We spent the next night on the surface of another barren planet, helping the rebels set up their camp while a select few of them used the Orion's transporter to bury their h.o.a.rd. I met people from races I had never seen before and would probably never see again. And I spent a few precious hours with Abby Brant.

The next morning, Worf and I along with the three other men who had decided not to join the rebels gathered in the center of the camp. We said good-bye to the friends we had made. Then Richard Brant called the mercenary vessel and told her captain to beam us up.

I gazed for the last time at Abby, doing my best to memorize everything I could about her her eyes, her manner, her bearing. Then I found myself on an Orion transporter pad, alongside Worf and the others.

The transporter technician was slight and angular, with black, staring eyes, a bluish white topknot, and skin the color of bronze. He looked up at us after a moment.

"You're sure you want to go back?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yes."

"Too bad," he said, making no effort to hide his disappointment. "The Gate gives me indigestion."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I told him, but my mind was elsewhere.

Exiting the transporter chamber, I made my way out into the corridor and located a diamond-shaped observation port with a view of the world below us. As I stood there, we began to break orbit.

"Captain?" said a deep voice.

I turned and saw Worf standing behind me.

"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked.

I found I was glad for the company. "No," I told the lieutenant. "I don't mind at all."

Together, we watched the rebels' new home dwindle beneath us, until it was the size of a ball and then a coin and then barely visible at all. At last, I lost sight of it.

And, regrettably, Abby with it.

Nonetheless, I found I was happy for her. Happy beyond words.

After all, she had found a treasure far more precious than anything she might have hoped for ... an opportunity to start her life anew.

But if Abby Brant had found a treasure, Jean-Luc Picard had lost one. And no matter how far I traveled, no matter how many exotic star systems I explored, I knew I might never see its like again.

Madigoor

AS THE STORY ended, there was silence around the table. Picard's companions looked at one another. Then they nodded.

"A good story," Bo'tex decided.

"A very good story," Dravvin insisted.

"Just very good?" Robinson responded.

"Masterful," said the Captain of the Kalliope. "I won't even attempt to tell one of my own."

Hompaq grumbled in agreement. "Why waste it when the contest has already been won?"

Flenarrh smiled at Picard. "I'm glad Lafitte didn't run you through before you could tell it."

"As a matter of fact," the captain replied, "so am I."

Just then, the gecko roused itself and skittered to the edge of our table. With a last look around, it leaped off and lost itself in the crowd.

"Talk about your fair-weather friends," commented the Captain of the Kalliope. "Show's over and he's gone."

Smiling in his beard, Robinson leaned closer to his fellow human. "Answer a question for me, Picard."

The captain of the Enterprise shrugged. "Ask away."

"If your story's true," Robinson inquired, "why have I never heard of Hel's Gate before? As long as I've frequented the Captain's Table, and that's long indeed, why has no one ever mentioned such a phenomenon?"

"I was wondering that myself," said Bo'tex.

"Though perhaps you were too embarra.s.sed to admit it," Dravvin suggested. He drew disapproving looks from around the table. "Perhaps ... almost as embarra.s.sed as I was," he confessed grudgingly.

Flenarrh looked relieved. "Thank Trannis. I thought I was just me."

Hompaq nodded ruefully. "You shamed us all into silence, Picard. I don't know whether to slap you on the back or spill your blood."

"Well?" said Robinson, his eyes narrowing mischievously as he regarded Picard. "Is it possible you've woven a yarn for us and a wonderful yarn it was with no basis in fact?"

Picard looked around the table and smiled. "That," he said, "is something that must remain between myself and my conscience."

"That's all you'll tell us?" Hompaq rasped.

"That's all," the human confirmed.

"It's an outrage!" the Klingon bellowed, attracting the attention of other captains in the vicinity.

"No," Robinson told her. "It's an enhancement."

Again, those a.s.sembled at the table looked at one another, considering the proposition. And again, they nodded slowly in agreement.

"It makes the story that much more exciting," the Captain of the Kalliope observed. "Never to know if it's fact or fiction, spun from personal experience or the imagination."

"Never to know if Hel's Gate really exists," Dravvin added. "Or for that matter, the dimension beyond it."

"Or the lovely Red Abby," Robinson noted.

Hompaq grunted, the lone dissenter at the table. "And never to sleep again for wondering."

Flenarrh quirked a smile. "I salute you, Picard."

"And I as well," Bo'tex told him.

Robinson clapped Picard on the shoulder. "Well done, my friend."

"Jean Luc!" came a voice.

Turning in his seat, Picard saw Neil Gleason making his way toward them. And he had a female on his arm.

"Gleason," Picard declared, unable to conceal his exasperation. "Where the devil have you been?"

His fellow captain gestured to the female. "This is Captain Prrghh," he said. "An old friend. We've been ... er, catching up on old times." He smiled at Prrghh. "Isn't that right, my love?"

Prrghh smiled back at him with her vaguely feline features. "Yes," she purred. "Catching up."

It didn't quite explain the suddenness of Gleason's disappearance. However, it did seem to explain why it had taken him so long to turn up again.

"Pleased to meet you," Picard told Prrghh.

"Likewise," the female responded. She nodded to the other captains at the table, then turned to Gleason. "I suppose you have to go now."

He sighed. "Duty calls. We've got an early-morning meeting we don't dare miss on pain of death."

Prrghh laughed. "Until next time, then." And she kissed Gleason softly on the cheek.

Gleason reddened. "Till next time," he echoed.

By then, Picard's tablemates had begun some new discussion, which had nothing to do with either Hel's Gate or Prrghh. Picard took advantage of the fact to stand and approach his friend.

"You abandoned me," he told Gleason.

His friend glanced at the table where Picard's companions still sat. "No one stays abandoned in this place for long," he said. He looked at Picard. "And can you say you didn't have a good time?"

Picard considered his surroundings and frowned. "Perhaps abandoned is too strong a word. Nonetheless, you could have warned me you were going to disappear. I was concerned that something might have happened to you."

Gleason chuckled. "Something did. But it was a most pleasant something, I a.s.sure you." He gestured. "Shall we?"

Following the gesture, Picard saw the door by which he'd entered the place.

He felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Robinson, reaching over from where he sat. "Don't tell me you're leaving us," the bearded man said.

"I'm afraid so," Picard told him. "Perhaps we'll meet again."

Robinson shrugged. "I'll be here."

Picard was about to say how unlikely it was he'd return to Madigoor IV. After all, if not for the conference, he might never have come here in the first place.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't return to the Captain's Table. In fact, he would make a point of returning.

Bo'tex waved good-bye. "Take care of yourself," he told Picard.

"Good voyaging," Dravvin chimed in.

"Fair ports," Flenarrh wished him.

Hompaq lifted her chin. "Qapla."

Picard smiled. "The same to you." He glanced at the Captain of the Kalliope, who smiled back at him. "To all of you." Then he nodded to Gleason, and they headed for the door.

Before they could quite reach it, however, someone shouted to them. Turning, Picard saw it was the fellow behind the bar.

"I'm sorry," he told the bartender. "I didn't hear you."

The man cupped his hands and called out again. "Give my regards to Guinan, won't you?"

It took Picard by surprise not that the fellow knew Guinan, since she had been to any number of places in the course of her long life. But how had he known that Picard knew Guinan?

Then he remembered. He had identified himself to his tablemates as the captain of the Enterprise. Obviously, someone else had overheard and mentioned it to the bartender.

Yes, he thought, that was it. It had to be.

"Of course," he finally shouted back. "I'll be happy to."

The bartender waved his thanks and went back to his duties. And Picard, even more intrigued with the place than before, nonetheless resumed his progress toward the exit.

He took one last look at the Captain's Table at the people, the place ... the eerie, uncertain, and yet insistently familiar landscape. And then he followed his friend Gleason into the night and the fog.

For a while, they walked in silence. And when Picard looked back, he couldn't find the sign anymore that identified the Captain's Table. But somehow, he knew, if he searched long and hard enough, it would be right there before his eyes.