The worst of the confusion was over, things were under control. Earth Spacedock was still turning away traffic - Quinn winced at the thought of how much repair and reconstruction was needed - but the situation was stable, power and communications were restored throughout the huge station -
So now Quinn had to deal with everything else that had gone wrong.
He keyed his desk console. "Do we have any sort of a line on the situation at Andoria?" he demanded.
The harassed-looking ensign on the other end of the comms link said, "Main subspace link is still down, sir. Some warning about data viruses. Um. I've got a link to a ship that reports it's in the vicinity - science vessel, USS Trinidad -"
"Patch me through. Maybe they'll know something."
The ensign's face vanished from the screen. After a worrying moment of blankness, a new image appeared.
"Sir!" A Caitian female, black-furred, green-eyed, and very young. Too fast, Quinn thought, we bring them on too fast. "Captain M'eioi of the USS Trinidad reporting. The situation is stable, sir, the Andorians have control, and the Republic relief fleet is -"
"Republic fleet?" Quinn demanded. "Captain, what the hell is going on out there?"
"Ah." The Caitian's whiskers drooped. "Sir, maybe you'd better talk to my superior, Vice Admiral T'Pia - she can give you more information -" M'eioi's face disappeared into a holding pattern. Quinn ground his teeth.
The next face to appear on the screen was that of a Vulcan, sharp-featured, red-haired. "Admiral Quinn," she said. "I understand you require a full report."
"Vice Admiral T'Pia, that would be very welcome," Quinn ground out.
"I will endeavour to -" There was a noise, a loud bang, from the other end of the link. T'Pia turned away, her green eyes narrowing. "My apologies, Admiral. My ship has suffered extensive combat damage, and I must attend to it urgently. In any case, Vice Admiral Grau had overall command of Federation forces during the battle, and will be able to present you with more complete information. Transferring you now."
"Wait!" Quinn yelled. "Veronika Grau? Ronnie Grau?"
"I understand that is how she prefers to be addressed. Excuse me, Admiral." And T'Pia's image, too, faded into a holding pattern. Quinn fought down the urge to groan.
The next face to appear was deathly pale, the only splashes of colour the targeting laser over the left eye, and a trickle of blood leaking from the lower lip. And grinning. Grinning from ear to ear. It's no worse than dealing with a Tellarite, after all, Quinn told himself, with little conviction.
"Jorel!" Ronnie Grau yelled. "Hey there, long time no see! Boy, have I got some news for you." The woman was focussed when in stress situations, Quinn recalled. It was only when things were going well that her scatterbrained side came through. So, if she was like this - the news might not be all bad -
"Vice Admiral Grau. Report."
"Oooh, yeah. Lots of fun stuff to get through. Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to begin - um. Not quite sure when that is, though. Probably it kicked off when Tylha had T'Laihhae snatch Stileg from Vulcan - that must have rung T'Nir's alarm bells, got her to kick off the plan to destroy Andoria -"
"What?"
"Relax. We stopped it. Tylha and me and T'Laihhae and Obisek, oh, and T'Pia helped. You owe us a whole bunch of medals, and make mine a nice shiny one. Last one you gave me was rubbish. No offence. Oh, and I owe Obisek a big wet sloppy one. With lots of tongue." Grau laughed. "Might not be too much of a hardship, at that."
"Vice Admiral Grau -"
"Call me Ronnie, everyone does. Oh, right, reporting, yeah. Stileg had recordings of T'Nir murdering Valikra and planning to destroy Andoria. We've been spamming those all over the airwaves, surprised you haven't seen them yet. Anyway, we got to Andoria just in time for everything to kick off. Poison gas in the planetary atmosphere, computer virus knocking the defence systems offline, relativistic bombing, cargoes of tricobalt and Pasicide-7, even an experimental isolytic planet-killer - we beat 'em all. Damn, we're good."
"The Hegemony launched an all-out attack on Andoria?"
"The works, pal, they gave us the works. Tylha and I, umm, that's Vice Admiral Shohl, you know her, don't you? - anyway, gotta admit, we both thought it got pretty hairy there. But Obisek showed up with his Reman buddies, and then T'Pia brought in her cavalry - oh, yeah, D'Tan sent help, too. They showed up after the action was all over, though. Coordinating with the Imperial Guard now, disarming and collaring the last few survivors of the Hegemony fleet. I think we got damn near the entire Hegemony navy here. Seriously. Medals. Shiny ones."
"Andoria is still intact, and the Andorian government is in control?"
"Imperial Guard took some casualties, and they're going to need a new weather control system, and there's some radioactive fallout to clean up, and a whole lot of scrap metal needs sweeping up in the planetary approaches - but, yeah, basically, intact. Oh, were you worried about the Republic? Don't be. They've been a lot of help - they know the Hegemony is the enemy, not us. T'Laihhae, I mentioned her, didn't I? Republic hotshot, snatched Stileg, helped out in the big scrap. Anyway, she's gone off with Tylha now."
"Gone off with -" Quinn heaved a sigh. "Vice Admiral Shohl and this T'Laihhae have gone off - where, exactly?"
"Oh, didn't I say? Vulcan. Strike while the iron's hot and all that. Catch the Hegemony off-balance. They've both got those sub-transwarp drives, they can be there in no time. Why can't I get a sub-transwarp drive, boss? I bet I could do a lot more damage with one of those. Um, I mean fulfil my duties more effectively and in a more professional manner. Dib-dib-dib."
A yawning gulf seemed to open in Quinn's stomach. He stared in horror at the screen. "Vice Admiral Shohl and this Republic officer are on their way to Vulcan," he said in a dead level voice.
"Yeah, that's about right."
"To... strike while the iron is hot."
"Yup. Now, listen. About those medals - couple of civilians will be needing 'em too. The guy at Storm Command -"
"Vice Admiral Grau," said Quinn heavily, "you are telling me that the Hegemony just mounted a genocidal attack on Andoria... and an Andorian officer is now on the way to Vulcan to respond. In the company, moreover, of a Republic officer - the Romulan Republic being in a state of open warfare with the Hegemony already. Have you considered what might be the diplomatic consequences of their action?"
"Ah." Grau's grin, finally, started to slip. "Yeah. Diplomacy, not really little Ronnie's strongest point, boss. You know that, right?"
"What are their plans?"
"Um." The grin had vanished completely, now. "I don't really know. T'Laihhae said something about exploiting a psychological moment -"
"Vice Admiral Grau. Your ship has transwarp capability. Get to Vulcan ahead of them, turn them back, and wait until Starfleet and the Federation Council have decided on an appropriate response."
"Ah. Um. Er. We sort of, um, voided the warranty on the transwarp components during the battle. We had to, boss. It was all - look, I'll work up a full report -"
"You still have conventional warp drive?" Quinn demanded.
"Well, yes. Well, I think so. We did get kind of banged up, a bit."
"Vice Admiral Grau," Quinn spat the words out, "your orders are to make best speed for Vulcan, and to try to take control of this situation. You are acting directly under my orders and with my full authority. Convince Shohl and this T'Laihhae to stand down."
"Right. Um. OK. Yeah. They've got a hell of a head start, though."
"Do the best you can."
"OK. On it." Grau looked pleadingly at Quinn. "I shouldn't strap the baby to the space-rocket just yet, Jorel. Honest. Don't panic. Tylha's sensible, and she's much more diplomatic than I am. Um.... OK, so that's not saying a lot, but...."
"You have your orders, Vice Admiral. Carry on."
"Right. Right." Grau looked off-screen. "OK, team, you heard the boss man. I hear Vulcan's nice at this time of the year anyway. Let's go." She turned back. "Talk to you soon, boss, and, really, don't worry. It'll all be the same in another hundred years." She shook her head. "Funny saying, that. I mean, every time I get kicked a hundred years into the future, whole heaps of things aren't the same at all. Right. Waffling. Sorry. On my way."
The screen went blank. Quinn gave way to his impulses, and buried his head in his hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment