Fallout 28

Tylha
Our two ships close on the gate, weapons on standby now, sensors humming. I bite my tongue to keep from cursing freely.

So close. So very, very close. And how, and why, is a transwarp gate here, in this desolate debris field?

Well, the second part of that question is easy enough to answer - planted here for the smuggling of illicit cargoes, or to take fugitives into or out of Federation space. But who built it? And, more importantly, where might it go?

"Command interface isn't responding," Klerupiru reports. The Ferengi computer expert is sending signals, trying to probe the gateway, to establish its parameters of operation. So far, she's not having much luck. Shalo, no doubt, has her own cyber-warfare experts doing the same, aboard the Garaka. I'm pretty sure, though, that if Klerupiru can't crack the interface, the Klingons won't be able to.

Meanwhile, Zazaru is working on the routine stuff - so far as any of this could be described as routine. She is scanning the gate, trying to read its construction, the materials it's made of - the ratios of isotopes in the metal of the structure might give us a lead on the planet where it was made, for instance. And she is scanning the energy traces left by Klur's escape, though I'm pretty sure that's hopeless. If there is any quick way to determine a transwarp gate's destination, based only on the energy signatures of the jump, I haven't heard of it.

"Skipper." F'hon Tlaxx speaks up from the comms console. His pleasant Bolian face is wearing a puzzled frown. "I'm getting a signal...."

"Who from?"

"I don't know. Skipper, it seems to be coming from the gateway itself."

My lips thin in anger. If this is Klur, calling to taunt us - Well, there is only one way to find out. "Let's hear it, then."

"It's got a visual, too. Just a minute."

The image of the gate disappears from the viewer, and a human face takes its place - a human face, and a Starfleet uniform below it, and what looks like a starship bridge behind it. "Signalling to all Starfleet vessels," the ensign says, "but especially the USS King Estmere, please respond. Signalling all Starfleet vessels -"

"USS King Estmere here," I say. "Who are you, and where are you signalling from?"

"We're -" the ensign begins to speak. Then there is a shout from behind him - a voice I think I've heard before.

"Out of the way, face-ache!" The ensign steps aside, and a new face fills the viewer. "Wowie zowie, you're clear. Either this transmission rig is really good, or you're right on top of a transwarp gate."

Veronika Grau. What the hell is she doing here? "We're at a transwarp gate at Massidia Alpha. What's going on?"

"Massidia Alpha? I guess you must have chased Klur out of there, then." Her mouth twists. "We were waiting for him at the exit to Klingon space, but these gates have a sort of bolt-hole capability - backup capacitors - he ducked back to the central interchange, and I don't know which rabbit hole he ran down after that. Well, I sort of do, I know which it has to be, but I don't know which one it is. Does that make sense?"

"Not really," I say. "Vice Admiral Grau. What the hell is going on?"

"Oh, call me Ronnie. I love Andorians, you guys are so good at telling me when I don't make sense. You should meet my exec, she's made it her life's work. Listen. I'm transmitting the command codes for the gateway network along the data channels now, once you get them, you'll have the same level of control as me. Or Klur, damn him. Power up the gate, meet me at the central interchange, and we can go from there. Truth be told, I'm not too sure I can take Klur by myself. The Virtue took a pounding at Aznetkur, we repaired and refitted in a hurry, my status board is looking pretty jaundiced right now. Yellow lights everywhere, know what I mean?"

I glance at F'hon; he's already showing something on his console to Klerupiru. I look back at the screen. "I'm guessing it'll take a short time to power up this gate. Anything you want to tell me while I'm waiting?" Like, maybe, what's going on?

"Right," says Ronnie, "right. Tracked down this Ferengi guy, he has this network of off-the-record transwarp gates, well, they would, wouldn't they? Ferengi. Anyway. Klur used this network, or his backers did, to get the tricobalt he hit Bercera with. And he was going to use it to get back to Klink space in a hurry, only it's not gone according to plan."

"Because you were there to intercept him?"

"That, too. But I think the whole thing is not going according to plan, and that's what's got me worried. Have you not powered up that gate yet?"

I look questioningly at Klerupiru. "It all checks out," she says. "Sir, should we -?"

I sigh. "Transmit the data to the Garaka, yes." Tempting though it might be to cut Shalo out. I explain to Ronnie, "We're accompanied by the IKS Garaka, which is carrying J'mpok's agent under diplomatic credentials - they've been helping us track Klur."

"Right, right. Better transmit their transponder codes, then, so I can sort them out on IFF when the fur starts flying. Cripes, this gets complicated. Are you ready yet?"

"Power still building up. How do we set a destination on this thing?"

"You don't. It's a very cut-price sort of transwarp net, none of your tuneable gates like we have on starbases, each one goes to one specific destination only. Hence the central interchange. Come on, come on, I can't hang around here forever!"

I check the readings on my command console. "Still some way to go. Remember, Klur just used this gateway, it needs time to cycle - unless we can access those backup capacitors you talked about?"

"No, I think Klur must've activated them at the interchange. Damn, damn, damn. Sorry. Getting frustrated, here, I hate hanging around. Should never have gone into the military, really. Hurry up and wait."

"Signal from the Garaka, skipper," F'hon reports. "Shalo says she'll follow our lead on this one."

"OK." The gateway is easily big enough to take our two ships at once. "Then we'll meet aboard the - Virtue? - as soon as we arrive. I'll bring my exec with me, she's Andorian too." I smile. "Plenty of incentive for you to make sense."

---

The interchange point is just empty space, with a dozen hexagonal gateway scattered about. I check our position: way out in Alpha Trianguli space, in a gap between two star clusters... no reason for anyone ever to come looking here, a good place to hide something in plain sight.

Ronnie Grau's Virtue is moving in tight circles, pointing her prow at each gateway in turn. My practised eye can tell that she's right, the Chimera-class destroyer shows every sign of having taken a battering lately. Still... it's a comforting presence. Another Starfleet ship on my side... even if Shalo turns treacherous, we should still be able to win a fight, now.

Anthi and I are met in the Virtue's transporter room by a tired and harrassed-looking shen. "Commander Tallasa," she introduces herself.

Anthi - normally so cool and professional - visibly bristles at that. "Just Tallasa?" I ask, in a neutral voice.

"Just Tallasa." Her voice is equally neutral.

I think for a moment. I can't come up with anything you could do, to get disowned by your family, that wouldn't get you kicked out of Starfleet too. But, of course, it's not just the disowned who suffer, but their children, too. "Family troubles?" I ask, trying to sound sympathetic.

"You could say that."

"Well," I say, "I found out recently that one of my ancestors was an amoral genetic engineer and would-be dictator, so I guess I can't judge." Tallasa looks faintly surprised. A pleasant surprise, I hope.

Behind us, the transporter pad starts to whine. I turn around, to watch Shalo and her alien assistant Foojoy step out of columns of light. "Welcome aboard," says Tallasa, in a tone that's about as welcoming as a glacier.

"Thank you," says Shalo. "For the record, I am Lieutenant General Shalo, here under diplomatic immunity as an agent of Chancellor J'mpok in... this matter. My aide, Lieutenant Commander Foojoy."

"I hope you're not planning to pull any stunts like you did with Sutton," I say.

Shalo favours me with a flicker of a smile. "I realize I am dealing with professionals, here," she says. "In any case... for the present, we are all on the same side." She hesitates a moment, then says, "After we are done with this meeting, I would like to ask a favour of you. I wish to transport over to your ship - to confer with my cousin."

I shrug. "If it's all right with her, it's all right with me."

---

The conference room on the Virtue looks new. Either they don't use it much, or it's just been rebuilt from scratch after the battle - with Ronnie Grau, either one seems likely. She sits at the head of the conference table, grinning at us through a holographic display of the transwarp gate network.

"So here it is," she says. "Five exits into Federation territory, including Massidia Alpha - don't worry, Ronnie's been a good girl, she's sent all this stuff to Starfleet Command, and task forces are on their way to those gates right now. Four exits into Ferengi territory, all a long way from Klingon space, and can Klur afford to bribe his way home safely by those routes? I'm guessing not. Two exits in Romulan space, and both the Republic and the remains of the Empire are keen to earn brownie points with the Federation, so they'd turn Klur in as soon as look at him. And one, count 'em, one exit into the neutral zone, close enough for Klur to make a dash across the border back to his home. If they'll have him."

"The obvious move, then," says Shalo, "is to destroy the outbound gateway, here, to Klingon space."

"Yeah," says Ronnie, "obvious, but I think wrong. Psychology. Mustn't let him think there's no escape, not now, or he might do something drastic."

"What do you mean?" asks Shalo. "What could he possibly do, now?"

Ronnie grimaces. "Sorry. Should explain. Having trouble keeping things straight. Your guy there, Foojoy? His species isn't known to the Borg, and Two of Twelve - my Borg half - is going spare, trying to sort out a species number for him. It's distracting. Sorry."

"Of gratification, there is," says Foojoy, "my race, none of falling to the Borg, to know."

"Yeah, well, don't bet on it," says Ronnie. "Two of Twelve, she's not exactly reliable, you know. Anyway, yes. It all comes down to Talakh, and Kysang, and the House of Toros, and the freighter." She shakes her head. "And the theory and practice of terror."

"Talakh and Kysang were the two who spoke against Klur's action," says Shalo with a frown, "and were executed for it."

"Yeah," says Ronnie. "Sad end, really, for a Federation agent. Kysang."

Shalo's mouth drops open. "Commander Kysang was a highly respected officer!" she protests. "His record was unequalled -"

"Yeah, what a swine, huh? Probably didn't even wear his secret decoder ring or his 'I am a Federation spy' t-shirt. He was one of our agents, and Talakh was an ordinary black-market spiv, and one or other of 'em got caught. And they died noble deaths, didn't they? Klinks do like their deaths to be noble. Protesting an illegal order from their captain, upholding Klingon honour even in the face of his disruptor pistol, oh, I can hear the Klingon opera about 'em right now. Brings tears to the eyes, it does."

There are no tears in Shalo's eyes, only calculation. "Councillor T'Jeg was particularly keen to have those two officers' actions made known in the High Council...."

"Right. Right. Dead heroes, no one asks too many questions about dead heroes. Dead but misguided, possibly, they might say later. See, whoever caught out Talakh and Kysang then had the lever they needed to push the House of Toros, and Klur himself, into this whole business. Might not have needed much pushing, of course, depends what their political views are."

"T'Jeg has been arguing loudly for total war," says Shalo.

Ronnie nods. "Total war is what our guys want. So far, the Federation's not taken them up on it. So far. No actual world-wrecking machinery deployed in retaliation for Bercera, yet. Yet."

"We're certainly considering it, though," I say. "Admiral Semok's been tasked with working out how to do - massive destructive strikes."

"Theory, yes," says Ronnie, "and my CO was threatening the practice, though mercifully he stopped at the threat. Admirals, they're all nuts. I should be an admiral, maybe I'm not nuts enough. Anyway. My good friend Daimon Prago told me how a House of Toros freighter got sent through, with all the tricobalt supplies Klur needed for his act of provocation. If we can find that freighter -"

"Can we track its movements through the gateway network?" Shalo asks. "Does the system keep records of transits?"

Ronnie shakes her head. "It's set up to be discreet," she says. "Selling point. The command codes are hard-wired into the gates, anyone who's got those codes can access them... and they have that nifty all-points communications rig I used to call you up... but any traffic through them is, you know, strictly on the q.t. No records."

"Hold on," I say. "I'm trying to think.... The sort of people who'd use a setup like this - they're also the sort of people who'd realize how valuable a record of its activities would be. For blackmail purposes, if nothing else. Surely someone would be bound to - to bug the gateway systems, somewhere, somehow." My mind is racing. "Thinking about it - you'd have to leave a low profile sensor package, something that would do a passive scan for transponder codes and comms traffic -"

"Have you seen those gateways?" Ronnie says. "They're flippin' enormous."

"But there aren't so many places you could put a package like that," I say, "where it wouldn't either be spotted during routine maintenance, or torn apart by the power surges during a transit. I can think of a few spots - it might not take such a long time to check them out -"

"Then we might be able to get a record of this freighter's travels," says Shalo, "though I am not clear how that helps us."

"Didn't I explain?" says Ronnie. "Dammit, three Andorians in the room, you should be able to keep me on track. The freighter. Prago told me, the freighter, he was expecting it back, but it never came back. Don't you see? Klur stashed it somewhere on the network. Klingon R-class freighter, twice the size of Klur's Kar'fi, could be loaded to the rafters with tricobalt munitions. That's why we need the freighter, that's why I don't want Klur backed into a corner. Because, with that freighter, he's got everything he needs to burn another Federation world."