nervous system.
It lets me control precisely
how much pain you feel.
This setting is usually sufficient.
However, if necessary,
it can go much higher.
These devices
were my predecessor's idea.
It's a convenient way
of enforcing discipline.
- What happened to him?
- He failed to enforce it with me.
This is a waste of time, Baran.
Get rid of him now.
You should be more patient, Vekor.
It might be rewarding. We will wait.
Let the memory of pain
argue with him for a while.
It might change his attitude.
Vekor is right.
We should get rid of him.
It's dangerous
having a Starfleet man on board.
Dangerous? It might be profitable.
A Starfleet commander
is a valuable hostage.
Starfleet won't negotiate.
They'll pursue us.
This discussion is over.
Get back to your post.
They're right, Baran,
and you know it. I say kill him.
Now.
If he has nothing to give us,
we should kill him now.
Everybody recognises that except you.
I don't need a consensus
to run this ship.
What's going on?
I'm bypassing
the aft plasma couplings.
The power loss
should only last for a few seconds.
You should learn not to limit your
options. Riker could be very useful.
He may not be that useful, if this is
the same Riker that I've heard about.
What Riker might that be?
Commander of the Enterprise,
formerly assigned to the USS Hood.
- That's right.
- Then you're the William T Riker
with a history of insubordination.
He was even once relieved of duty
during the Cardassian incident
at Minos Korva.
How do you know all this?
I've smuggled artefacts
from Federation sites for years.
You end up developing a familiarity
with certain Starfleet personnel.
If we hadn't caught him, he'd
probably have been court-martialled.
I've gotten out of them before.
Look, he's no use to us.
Finish him now. Let me do it for you.
Watch him.
We're accelerating.
- What have you done?
- It's nothing to do with my repairs.
It's a malfunction
in the intermix chamber.
- Plasma pressure is rising.
- Where's the malfunction?
It could be one of 30 subsystems.
It'll take time to locate.
You won't have a chance.
Pressure is critical.
Seal off the intermix chamber.
I can't. Override won't engage.
The antimatter flow regulator
is locked open.
Subsystems still not responding.
- Get out of the way.
- Pressure is beyond maximum.
Eight percent above critical.
- Jettison the core.
- No, we'll be stranded.
- The flow regulator is frozen.
- Let me do it.
I've had a lot of experience.
Maybe I can do something.
11 percent above critical.
The containment fields will degrade.
- Go.
- The regulator is not responding.
Containment fields
won't hold much longer.
Looks like a logic lockout
in the regulator subsystem.
We'll run a bypass
through the plasma flow converter.
Run phase-lock feedback
through that regulator.
- I want a six-second delay.
- What? I don't take orders from you.
- Do as he says.
- 14 percent above critical.
If you fail...
We'll all be dead anyway.
Just a few more seconds.
Plasma pressure is dropping.
We're back into safe levels.
If you don't want that
to happen again,
reinitiate your regulator
sub-compressors,
and do a full diagnostic
of the intermix chamber.
Do it.
Put him in quarters for now.
You still wish you'd killed me?
The search teams have found
several archaeological sites.
Each one has been looted.
It's possible
that the microcrystalline damage
is caused by
a high-energy transporter beam.
But I still don't understand.
Nothing here is very valuable. Why
would anyone want to steal anything?
- Perhaps the Romulans value them.
- The Romulans?
These structures
were built by the Debrune.
That race is an ancient offshoot
of the Romulans.
The ruins on the planet where
the Captain died were also Romulan.
The leader of our attackers
was Romulan.
Perhaps they control
the mercenaries.
The question remains,
why are they stealing the artefacts?
There are several