At least, he supposed, there was a wonderful view from Quinn's desk. The head of Starfleet looked out, now, directly through that wide-open doorway at the great windows beyond, at the free-floating spacedocks and the warm blue curve of the Earth beyond them. Just now, the sleek, massive form of an Odyssey-class cruiser was drifting past the windows. Quite a sight, Gref thought. Yes.
"Apart from Ronnie Grau," said Quinn, "Sixth Fleet is ready for operations, yes?"
"I don't need Grau," said Gref. "She's useful, but my table of organization is flexible, I can plug any gaps. Within reason. Don't ask me to operate without proper logistic support."
"That shouldn't be a problem," said Quinn. He swung his chair around, to face the huge star sector map that dominated the rear wall. "You'll be operating inside the Federation, or near to the Neutral Zone - the old Neutral Zone, I should say, now. Here." He touched a button on his desk, and a group of stars began to flash red.
"The Siohonin," Quinn said. "Apparently, an unremarkable Klingon client species. Overpopulated, stuck in an archaic social order, but progressing towards a modern economy.... Now, all of a sudden, they are fighting the Klingons, and they are winning. Not only that, they have hit scattered systems in Republic space - and the Romulans have so far had no success in taking those systems back."
Gref stumped forwards to peer at the map. He sighed, noisily. "A few months ago, we'd have been glad of someone else fighting the Klingons."
"Times change," said Quinn. "Besides, the Siohonin aren't natural allies of the Federation, either. Their social structure is very old-fashioned - and unpleasant. All their females, and most of their males, are disenfranchised, effectively a body of serfs owned by a small entrenched aristocracy. It doesn't conform to the standards of a UFP member."
"Nor do the Klingons." Gref snorted "I suppose we can't just let them tear each other apart."
"We have commitments, now, in the face of a greater threat. And there are formal treaty obligations towards the Republic, too. And there are some other complicating factors." Quinn stood up, abruptly, and strode over to the map.
"The first issue," he said, "is one of simple proximity. So far, the Siohonin expansion has been limited to Klingon, and a few Reman, systems - but they're close to the border, and there is no reason to suppose they wouldn't hold back from attacking Federation territory. Within easy strike range of their ships...." He tapped his fingertip against the map. "Sorella IX, Tau Herculis, Farnon's World, Siraneia Zeta - all Federation colonies, all potentially vulnerable. They could even reach as far as the trading station at Dioclema -"
"That's a Tellarite commercial facility!" Gref bristled.
"I thought you'd spot that," Quinn remarked dryly. "In any case, all these worlds need to be defended, and that is Starfleet's job. That brings me to the second factor... we still aren't sure what we're defending against. The Romulans have intelligence assets in place -"
"Oh, they would," said Gref.
"They're trying to get a handle on the Siohonin weaponry," Quinn continued. "So are we, in our way. We're deploying a network of sensor buoys and patrol drones in the vicinity of the Siohonin. Intensive passive surveillance and analysis. Again, it's a job for Starfleet - the science division, mostly, but still Starfleet." His face turned pensive. "The third complicating factor... is a wild card. Ronnie Grau."
"What about Grau?" Gref demanded.
"That's the problem. We don't know. We know she's missing, we know the Siohonin want her badly for some reason - bad enough to pay an enormous sum to those Gorn mercenaries. But we don't know if they have her already, or - most importantly - why they want her. We have to assume that it's related, somehow, to Grau's past, and to the - cryptic - message we got from Q. In that context -" Quinn frowned. "It may be unrelated, but - Grau ordered a watch kept, and there have been anomalies sighted in the region of the former Stygmalian rift. Chroniton surges, anti-tachyon emissions - I don't understand half the details myself, to be honest, but science division is puzzled."
"Me, too," said Gref. "So. What is it you want me to do?"
"Take Sixth Fleet and secure the border in the neighbourhood of Siohonin-held space. You have all the military and scientific capability to handle that... and you know Ronnie Grau better than most people." Quinn's face was grave. "I don't know how, but that may count for something."
No comments:
Post a Comment