Zero Hour 17

An acrid smell came in with the acid rain as Osrin entered the dome. He closed the door and walked over to the desk, rubbing the back of his neck as he went. He sighed.

"Bad day?" said Koneph.

"Not quite." Osrin sat down and began to shuffle through the PADDs on the desktop. "Got jumped by a couple of scavengers on the way back from the distribution point... but they're not dead, they'll just have sore heads when they wake up." He sighed again. "We're falling behind. Half the people in this damn city are still not getting minimum daily calories -"

"Things are about to get worse," said Koneph. He put his hand on the comms unit. "Just had a message. They're pulling out IDRA 1."

"What -?" Osrin bit down on an obscenity. "That's our only landing capable ship! Why the hell-?"

"Another disaster," said Koneph. "Planet T, marginal world in Federation space. Its atmosphere shield failed. It's got a class B primary, so the ozone layer went in a couple of hours, and, well -"

"Casualties?"

"Some humans with very bad sunburn - you can call 'em pinkskins with a clear conscience - but that's not the problem. Every food crop on the planet wilted within a day. So the relief effort's all about providing food replicators, some medical relief - and rebuilding the atmosphere shield, and reseeding the plant life."

"And IDRA 1 has the botanical labs. I see." Osrin stretched out in his chair, wincing as his joints popped. The rain rattled on the panels of the geodesic dome, over his head. "How'd they lose the atmosphere shield?"

"Unknown." Koneph frowned. "Could have been deliberate sabotage. There's been a lot of weird rumours going around - computer attacks, that sort of thing. Starfleet Intelligence has been chasing its tail over something. So they say."

"Hell's teeth," said Osrin. "Starfleet's got too much on its plate. As usual." He shook his head. "I wish Tylha was here."

"So she could give us the inside dope on Starfleet?"

"That, too." Osrin smiled. "She may seem uptight, but she's all shen under that Starfleet uniform."

"That I'd like to see." Koneph grinned.

"So are you making any progress with -?"

"I don't know. Military conditioning... hard to break through the proprieties, sometimes. Getting people to say what obviously needs to be said...."

"Well, maybe Tylha will say something. You never know." Osrin closed his eyes. "She's spent a long time married to her job. You know the type - proving herself. Well, she's a full Admiral with enough medals to patch the holes in her starship, now... maybe we can persuade her she's proved herself enough, it's time to settle down and enjoy the benefits."

"We'd have a hard time getting her to slow down," Koneph said.

"I know. Wouldn't have it any other way." Osrin's voice was growing quieter, and the lines of his face seemed to soften; Koneph watched, with a slight smile, as his thaan-partner started to drift off to sleep -

Then the dome rang with the sound of a violent impact, and suddenly Osrin was wide awake, and on his feet, with a phaser clutched in one hand. "What the hell-?"

Koneph swore under his breath as he checked the sensor arrays. "Just a rock. Big one, but just a rock. Someone threw it and ran. Showing movement, range fifty metres and increasing -"

Osrin holstered his phaser with an irritated gesture. "Not worth chasing them, is it?"

Koneph shook his head. "Just someone - venting, I guess. The Infinite knows we're not exactly popular."

They were there to help... but they were still resented; aliens in a time of trouble, distrusted, sometimes feared... and the help they could bring was too often not enough. They were both used, by now, to the occasional rock, or shouts of abuse, or obscene graffiti scrawled on the outside of the dome. The acid rain took care of that last, in any case.

Osrin went over to one of the windows, peered through the transparent triangular panel. There was nothing to see; only the empty street stretching away, lit dimly by the security lights from the dome - the city's street lighting had long since failed. The rain cut across his vision in slashing silver streaks.

"I'll set up the security field anyway," Koneph said. "Repulsors'll take care of any more rocks. Get some sleep, that's my advice." He yawned himself. "We're gonna need it."