Fortunately, he already knew from experience that she wasn’t unduly bothered by his bygone romantic entanglements. One couldn’t easily keep such old episodes hidden from her Betazoid empathy anyway, and he was grateful that she had the good sense not to be scandalized by them. She had, after all, been raised by the unabashedly free-spirited Lwaxana Troi; Deanna therefore demonstrated very few sexual inhibitions.

At least that had been so until recently, he reflected glumly. Ever since the psychic assault that Shinzon, through his viceroy, had committed against Deanna while she and Riker had been making love nearly two months ago, she had become far more sensitive and introspective than usual in the bedroom. Even their honeymoon had been haunted by the specter of Shinzon’s violation, and Riker sensed that she still had some healing left to do even now.

As Vale stepped toward him and handed him a padd, Riker re-focused his thoughts on the business of running Titan.Taking his place in the command chair, he scanned the reports on the padd and listened as his exec told him about Donatra’s cargo information request and a number of other matters that would demand his attention during his final duty shift prior to Titan’s arrival at Romulus.

“Captain, Commander, I have some additional readings from the anomaly we’ve been observing,” Jaza said, calling over to Riker and Vale from the main science station.

“Put it on the screen, please, Lieutenant,” Riker said.

The forward viewscreen’s default image of warp field–distorted stars was replaced by a long-range view of another, more static, starfield. The image was of lower-than-usual resolution, but glowing, crackling, gracefully tapered and braided ribbons of energy were clearly visible despite the somewhat grainy quality of the picture. Text and numbers scrolled at the bottom of the screen, fed directly to the viewer from the Bajoran science officer’s console.

“It’s producing some truly powerful spatial and sub-spatial distortions, as well as a great deal of gravimetric shear at its event horizon, Captain,” Jaza said.

“Does it pose any danger to the convoy?” Riker asked, though he knew Vale would have advised him were there any real cause for concern.

“Negative, sir. Our current heading won’t take us close enough to it to cause us any problems. But thanks to some pretty exotic chemistry in the debris cloud surrounding the anomaly, it’ll probably give us some fairly spectacular fireworks displays.”

Riker nodded. The shifting bands of colors and lightning-like discharges reminded him of the thunderstorms and auroral displays he used to see in the skies over Valdez, Alaska, during his childhood.

“What sort of ‘exotic chemistry’ have you found, Mr. Jaza?” Riker asked.

“Heavy transuranic elements and alloys that probably couldn’t have occurred here naturally. Duranium, polyferranide, polyduranium.”

“Materials used in building starship hulls and engine components,” Vale said.

“Exactly,” said Jaza. “And I’ve also detected traces of cobalt, molybdenum, tripolymers, highly ionized cortenide, and something that strongly resembles polyalloy.”

Riker recognized several of the chemical compounds Jaza had listed. And he knew of only one source from which they all might have come. Something very cold slowly ascended his vertebrae.

“It’s amazing,” Jaza continued. “I only wish I had a chance to take our new sensor nets a lot closer to this thing.”

“Maybe you will, Jaza,” Vale said, “on the way back to Federation space.”

On the way back to Federation space,Riker thought. Of course.

“I certainly hope so, Commander,” Jaza said to Vale. “This thing’s almost as mysterious as the Celestial Temple. I haven’t been able to find any previous record of this specific anomaly anywhere. Even Lieutenant Pazlar’s stellar cartog section is stumped. It’s apparently a spatial rift of some sort. And it has a background thalaron radiation signature that’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

Thalaron,he thought, closing his eyes momentarily as he considered how close Earth had come to being flensed of all life by this lethal form of radiation, which had been harnessed by the mad usurper Shinzon.

Opening his eyes again, Riker slowly swiveled in his chair and took a long, slow look around his bridge. He saw looks of sad recognition on Deanna’s face, as well as on those of Ranul Keru and Christine Vale. Although Vale had not been aboard the Enterpriseduring the battle against Shinzon, Riker knew that she had made herself almost obsessively familiar with everything that had occurred on that fateful day. Only Lieutenants Jaza and Rager seemed oblivious to the subdued feelings of everyone else.

Of course. Neither of them were part of the crew of theEnterprise that day.

“The reason this anomaly hasn’t been charted yet, Mr. Jaza, is because it wasn’t even here until a few weeks ago. You’re looking at the remnants of the late Praetor Shinzon’s illegal thalaron weapon.”

And the echoes of the explosion that took Data from us forever.

Jaza bowed his head momentarily in apparent prayer. Riker thought the Bajoran must have just realized that he had been observing a graveyard. He wondered which losses of his own Jaza was now contemplating.

Riker resumed studying the phenomenon on the screen. His eyes moist, he bade his dear, dead friend Data a silent farewell. Though his longtime shipmate had been vaporized rather than buried, he now had a permanent monument of sorts.

Deanna, her eyes also bright with unshed tears, silently reached out and squeezed Riker’s hand.

He hoped that neither Titannor her escort convoy would suffer any similar losses before this mission was finished.

Chapter Thirteen

SOMEWHERE DEEP IN ROMULAN SPACE

Space itself twisted into gigantic shimmering whorls and glowing iridescent loops before Commander Donatra’s fascinated eyes. What she saw was a thing of both beauty and power. A monument to the heroism of many.

And to the overweening ambition of one.

The Great Bloom. Here is where the thalaron explosion finally rid us of Shinzon,she thought , along with his plans to spread still more death and destruction across the galaxy.

Surveying the bridge of the warbird Valdore,she watched her crew as they busied themselves scanning and monitoring the phenomenon displayed on the viewer. Turning back toward the Great Bloom’s spectacular image, she reflected that this region of space had nearly become a cemetery for her own ship and crew, as well as for Shinzon. How many noble Romulan soldiers, as well as subordinates of Captain Picard, had died in the battle to stop the upstart praetor’s dishonorable rampage?

Now, many weeks after a truly dreadful weapon had been turned back upon its wielder, the site of Shinzon’s denouement still blazed furiously. Commander Suran had recently confided to her that he regarded the Great Bloom as a cosmic warning about the deadly consequences of wielding power unwisely—and of choosing allies poorly. It was obvious now to Donatra that she and Suran had chosen poorly indeed when they’d made their initial alliance with Shinzon and his Reman faction.

Just as Tal’Aura chose poorly,she thought, when she threw in with Shinzon.She remained convinced that Tal’Aura could never have assumed the praetorship without first conspiring to enable Shinzon to eliminate Praetor Hiren and every important member of the Romulan Senate save herself.