Part 3

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"That was what I call a close call," Riker commented, as he took his usual seat on the bridge. The Enterprise was preparing to leave orbit, a course for the closest Starbase already plotted by the Ensign at the elm. "If Data and Geordie hadn't managed to crack the mechanism of that bomb in time..." His eyes moved back towards the planet they were about to leave behind. "Half of the city would have been gone by now." He then moved his gaze on the Counsellor who had already sat down on the other side of the Captain's chair. "You were right, Deanna. The threat was more serious than we had anticipated."

"To be honest, even I hadn't grasped that the ambassador could have tried something so extreme," the woman felt the need to clarify, the shadow on her face betraying how shaken she still was by what had almost happened. "I felt his contempt, his hostility, but I would have never imagined that he would..." She let her voice trail off, not wishing to finish the sentence, and instead turned to look at Picard, who was still standing in front of the main screen of the bridge. "If it hadn't been for you, Captain, we would be counting the casualties by now. Assuming that we wouldn't have been among them. How did you know?"

"Yeah, how did you guess that they would have gone for a bomb?" Will echoed, glancing at him in turn, his eyes both intrigued and calculating. "It could have been anything. Or nothing at all."

Jean-Luc ran a hand on his forehead, before turning to face his two officers. "That's a good question," he admitted, because it was and it wasn't one he could give an honest reply to. "What the Counsellor said last night about the ambassador got stuck in my mind and if guess I had a...nightly intuition." He pretended not to notice the way in which Troi's eyes widened as she easily read between the lines of his words. "A bomb was the most logical choice. According to Starfleet's reports, the Regarsians are real experts when it comes to explosive. They are a society of miners, and it had been easy enough for them to apply their original expertise to war and combat."

"That's true," his First Officer agreed, leaning against his chair, fingers slowly brushing his beard in a pensive gesture. "Good thing our technology is sophisticated enough to trace their weapons, even if not so effective in deactivating them."

"Good thing indeed," Picard agreed, finally taking his seat in turn. "Even if avoiding this whole situation would have been better for everyone. Now the talks for the treaty would have to start from the beginning once again and I have the feeling that the other governments won't forget what the Regarsian reagent has tried to do any time soon. Those people will be facing another harsh period of their history."

"Hopefully the Federation will be able to make the process smoother for all the parties involved, despite this setback," the Counsellor added, his brown eyes taking a moment to have one last look at the planter before it completely disappeared from their sight.

Her gaze, however, quickly moved back on the Captain and that was enough for him to know that he had to expect a conversation with her about the dream he had had that night. For some reason the idea evoked a strong reluctance from his part. He didn't feel like discussing what Q had implied and especially he had no real will to talk about how such knowledge made him feel. Because, eventually, Troi would have directed the conversation in that sense and he wasn't comfortable analysing something he hadn't had a chance to explore on his own yet. If he had ever chosen to explore it in the first place. Experience had taught him a long time ago that some personal things, especially if they might have turned out inconvenient, were better left alone.

"Speaking of Starfleet future involvement, I imagine that the Command will want to begin their intervention as soon as possible. So, perhaps, it might be for the best if we get started with the paperwork," he added, trying to ignore the fact that he had jumped on Deanna's observation and turned it into an escape route for himself. He wasn't fleeing from her, just as he wasn't fleeing from all the what-ifs that his last vision had left him. He was simply postponing them for a later, hopefully better moment, assuming that it would have ever come. What he knew was that now was not the right time to face any of it.

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