I whistle the main theme from Indra as I stroll through the corridors of my ship. We're heading back to Spacedock at a comparatively leisurely pace; the last of the Vulcan casualties have been transferred to a science vessel for transport home, Stiak and the rest of his team have already departed... the ship feels calm and almost empty. On an impulse, I swing by the science lab, to see if anything's new, there.
Harley Haught is at the main workstation, his high brow furrowed in concentration. "What's up?" I ask him.
He looks round at me, apparently startled. "Oh. Hello, sir. I was just -" he waves at the console display. "Trying to figure something out."
"Is there a problem?"
"Not exactly. Just... something a bit odd. You recall we detected kironide, coming in?"
"I remember."
"Well, it wasn't there when we left. I'm trying to figure it out. What do you know about kironide, sir?"
"Not much."
He nods. "I think that's as much as anybody knows, really. It acts like it's element 139 of the periodic table... except that isn't actually possible, there is no configuration of nucleons that will hold stable at that number of protons. It was discovered on Vulcan, and that doesn't make a lot of sense either, since it doesn't fit in to the normal pattern of elemental abundance for that planet. And, in circumstances that we can't consistently determine, it acts as a psionic amplifier. And that's about it. Which is not a lot, when you think about it, for a substance that's been known for a couple of thousand years."
"So... where does that get us?"
"Well." Haught calls up something on his console, and points to it. It means nothing to me, but I'm damned if I'm admitting that. "There's the energy signature in the 348-nucleon range, and kironide is the only thing that will produce that. It's vanishingly faint, at the limits of our detection capability - and this ship's sensors are good. So it's either that kironide is a very, very small part of this planet's composition, or...."
"Or?"
"Or it's a single mass. A point source. All we can tell is that it's there at all, we can't be more exact than that. But when Zaz ran another scan, for the IDRA guys, just before we left -" He points to another readout display on the console, and even I can see there's something different. "Gone."
Zaz? I say to myself, silently. "So - it's possible this was a relatively small object? Something that came aboard with the archaeology team's specimens, maybe?" The Vulcans - those of them that were able to speak - did insist very loudly on rescuing some of their specimens.
"It might be an object small enough to slip into someone's pocket," says Haught. "If it's any help, I ran a shipboard scan, and there definitely isn't any kironide on board now -"
"But the archaeologists have all transferred to other ships, now," I say thoughtfully.
It's possible, of course, that they just didn't know about this -whatever it is. But it's also possible that someone - Stiak, most likely - knew, and didn't tell me, that they were bringing something as potentially hazardous as a kironide-based device onto my ship. That is a worrying thought.
"OK," I say, at length. "Well, there's clearly nothing we can do about this right now.... Let me know if you and Zaz -" I put a little bit of emphasis onto that "- come up with anything else."
I walk out, leaving Haught blushing all the way up to his hairline.
---
The ready room on the Spirits of Earth is a reasonably spacious office adjoining the bridge. There are shelves next to my desk; every time I look at them, I remind myself to find something to put on them, some day. Somehow, I just never seem to get around to it.
I'm going through some routine reports when my comms console chimes at me. "Shohl here."
"Skipper." F'hon Tlaxx's voice. "Subspace call for you, from an Admiral Hengest at Starfleet Command."
Hengest? I don't know the name. "OK, thanks, F'hon, patch him through."
The face that appears on my viewscreen is that of a dark-skinned human male, bearded, his cropped hair almost Andorian white, which suggests advanced age in humans. "Vice Admiral Shohl? Paul Hengest. I'm with Starfleet Intelligence."
"Intelligence? OK.... What can I do for you, sir?"
Hengest frowns. "Something of a situation has arisen, and you might be able to provide some... insights. You've recently had dealings with a High Admiral Valikra, yes?"
"We've... met, yes. We both, umm, participated in the rescue of some Vulcan archaeologists in the Chara system."
"Yes. What were your impressions of Valikra?"
I think I know what's happening here. Something is wrong, Hengest doesn't want to tell me what it is... he doesn't want me to have a context for his questions, so that my answers will be unbiased. "Romulan fanatic, basically," I say. "Driven, humourless, prickly. I didn't find her easy to get on with."
Hengest nods. "Charismatic?"
"Um. If you like driven and humourless - I suppose that sort of, of intensity could be appealing to some people. She definitely has presence."
"Did she mention any political views to you?"
"As far as I could gather, she is, or was, some kind of Unificationist opposed to D'Tan. A splinter faction of some sort - might be the sort that has a membership list of one, though."
Hengest nods again. His face gives nothing away. "Tell me about the Vulcan archaeologist, Dr. Stiak. What was his great discovery?"
"Relics of a pre-Surak Vulcan leader, a guy called Bresar. Stiak was excited about it - well, as excited as Vulcans ever get. Frankly, I think there's a touch of the fanatic about him, too. He put his team in a fair amount of danger -"
"Your personal impression of Stiak?"
"Well - not fanatical on the same level as Valikra. Altogether, a lot more... low-key. He must have something, though - his assistant, T'Nir, was pretty obviously devoted to him."
"Did he mention politics at all?"
"Politics? No... nothing contemporary, anyway. Politics of Vulcan maybe two millennia ago, yes, but nothing modern."
"I see," says Hengest, slowly. "Bresar.... Starfleet has just had official word that High Admiral Valikra has announced the re-establishment - her words - of the Hegemony of Bresar. She's appointed this Stiak as her liaison to the Vulcan government. And she's backed this up by a series of military strikes against Tal Shiar facilities all across Romulan Imperial space."
My eyes widen. "She can't stand a chance, surely! The Tal Shiar and the Elachi will tear her to shreds."
"Possibly. She seems to have caught them off-balance with a hard, early military strike, though - and we still don't have a full picture of the Elachi threat, but we know they've had some significant reverses thanks to our Republic friends. So we're trying to work out whether this is a mere flash in the pan, or a serious challenge for the leadership of the Romulan Empire. And we need to know the ramifications of the Vulcan involvement - and the significance, if any, of this Bresar."
I start to get a distinct sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. "Something you should be aware of, then, sir," I say. "There's a possibility - and I should say, no more than a possibility - that one of the artifacts recovered from Chara V was some sort of kironide-based device."
"The psi amplifier stuff?" Hengest and I look at each other.
"I think," I say, "we'd better come in for a thorough Intelligence debriefing."
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