The trinary system of Tramil was devastated by the Vaadwaur during their early advances. The industrialized worlds circling the Alpha and Beta stars are recovering, rebuilding... the scientific bases and scattered military installations around the feeble red spark of Tramil Gamma are abandoned. Except by us.
The KDF has - appropriated - one asteroid moonlet for a repair and resupply base. As Brathana glides towards the barren planetoid, I can see a scattering of other ships in the orbital approaches - a flight of Birds of Prey, a massive Vo'Quv carrier surrounded by the sparking lights of repair drones - and, a little closer to the base, the gleaming shape of the Timor. With, it seems, a companion.
"Kazon heavy raider, extensively modified," says Toriash. "ID transponder checks out on the demilitarized list - sold to a Delta Quadrant trading concern, apparently. Ship is called Ostankino."
Oschmann looks up from her console. "What was that name?"
Toriash turns towards her. "Ostankino. Does it mean something to you?"
Oschmann's face expresses puzzlement, as does the tone of her mind. "It's a place name... from Earth. I wouldn't have expected it for a Delta Quadrant ship. I suppose it might be... some kind of coincidence...."
"Interesting," I say. "Perhaps the Caitian will have some explanation for her... companion. Rrueo hopes the Caitian will have an explanation for a number of things. Contact the Timor, tell her that Rrueo is coming." I stand up. "K'Rokok. Speak to the base personnel, coordinate with them on necessary repairs and resupply. Oschmann, with Rrueo."
"Sir." K'Rokok stands. "A word, sir, before you depart." His mind shows anger and determination.
I stand quite still for a second or two, then say, "Very well. In the ready room."
He nods. What he has to say, evidently, he would rather say in private - so far. I am relieved. If he went so far as to speak out in the open -
But he accompanies me to the ready room in silence, and waits as the door shuts behind us, cutting off all sound. I go to my desk, but I do not sit; I stand beside it and look steadily at him. "Speak."
His lips compress, and he inhales deeply, and then his anger bursts out. "Why do you favour the human renegade over me?"
My claws slide out from my fingertips, an involuntary reflex that I do not even try to suppress. I take a step closer to him, fix his eyes with mine. "Rrueo did not hear what you just said."
"I said -"
"No. You misunderstand. Rrueo did not hear what you said, and Rrueo will continue not to have heard it, because if Rrueo ever did hear it, she would have to kill you where you stand. Rrueo dislikes killing competent officers. She finds it wasteful."
He does not speak, but I see resentment bubbling in him, would see it even if his mind were closed to me. "Rrueo was not aware that we were in Starfleet," I say. "Rrueo does not see the need to justify her orders before a committee. But, once only, Rrueo will explain her reasoning, in response to the words she did not hear. Because you are a good officer. Rrueo assigns you the responsibility of seeing that her ship is ready once more for battle - a serious task. Rrueo will take Oschmann to visit the Caitian, because Oschmann has experience of Starfleet, and because her mere presence is enough to unsettle our... allies." I grin without mirth, baring my
fangs. "You are to perform a necessary duty. Oschmann is to be... a walking insult to the Feds. Now, do you feel slighted?"
He holds my gaze a few heartbeats longer, then bows his head. "I am at fault, sir," he mutters. "I accept and await your discipline."
"Discipline? There will be none, this time, for the words that Rrueo did not hear." I lean a little closer to him. "If Rrueo ever does hear those words, your first taste of discipline will be Rrueo's fangs meeting in your throat. Does Rrueo make herself clear?"
Despite everything, he smiles. Klingons... they appreciate savagery. "Yes, sir."
"Good. Then let us be about our duties." And I stride to the door.
---
The briefing room aboard the Timor is bright and neat, typical of the Federation. The Caitian is there, and her Betazoid henchman. Both are bright and neat, too. The one incongruous note in all this... is not neat.
The Talaxian is sitting on a couch with her legs drawn up on the seat. She is skinny, with the typical reticulated skin patterns of her species; her hair is drawn up in an unruly topknot, and she is dressed in the outfit of a dilithium miner, with many pouches and pockets, and heavy armoured boots that must be making terrible marks on the Caitian's seat cushions. She is not neat. But, despite the presence of the Betazoid, I risk a peek at her mind, and that is bright... bright with a gaudy rapid flickering of thought, chains of ideas sparkling with a meretricious light, like... like a dabo table in action. Interesting. Who is she?
"Rrueo has transmitted log extracts along a secure ship-to-ship data channel," I say without preamble. "Rrueo hopes you have had the time to review and digest them."
"Yes." The Caitian sits back in her chair and steeples her hands. "Captain Pexlini, here -" she indicates the Talaxian "- made me aware of the security breach."
"Yeah," the Talaxian says. "We've been spotting problems for a while, now - 'course, your problems tell us something, right? Gotta mean KDF data channels are compromised too, and that maybe narrows things down. There are only so many places where all the allied forces share comms resources in Delta Command -"
"Rrueo notes that you know a good deal about Delta Command's secure networks," I comment.
"Yeah, well," says the Talaxian, "kinda goes with the territory, know what I mean?"
"Captain Pexlini operates as an irregular asset for Starfleet in the Delta Quadrant."
"I'm cleared for some things on a need to know basis," says the Talaxian, "and, y'know, sometimes you need to know quite a lot of stuff. 'Sides, I'm full of 'satiable curiosity, like the elephant's child." I do not know what this means, but I sense a flicker in Oschmann's mind as she stands at my right hand behind me.
"In any case," I say, as I take a seat across the desk from the Caitian, "this breach complicates our situation. Prudence would seem to dictate a withdrawal to the Alpha Quadrant, to inform Starfleet and KDF authorities and begin a formal investigation. Rrueo does not, however, believe we have time for prudence. The Vaadwaur may already have whatever weapon the Kadirians used -"
"No," the Caitian interrupts. "I've looked through your logs, and they confirm something we've been sort of suspecting for a while now. The Kadirians aren't the issue. Whatever killed the Kobali, it's something to do with the Hazari guard the Kadirians employed." She taps at a desk console, swings it around so that I can see the screen. I recognize the graphs, the data readouts. "There's your scans from that - anomaly - you found in Kadirian space." She types in another command, and a second set of graphs appears. "I recognized the similarities immediately. But, then, high energy physics - well, it's my field."
"What is it?" I am in no mood to hear her congratulate herself.
"The Genesis Wave."
"Ah," I say. "The Federation's ultimate weapon - oh, please forgive Rrueo, she means the entirely peaceful terraforming device."
"Only ever used the one time," says the Caitian, "because we have no way of predicting the reactions of the protomatter components in the system. It might even be theoretically impossible to predict them. But your anomaly confirms the use of a protomatter device - and the Kadirians' Hazari escort has a deal with another Hazari, who was siphoning protomatter out of a Hierarchy research station."
I sit still, digesting this. The Federation exercises restraint in the use of doomsday weapons like the Genesis Device. There is no guarantee that the Hazari would do likewise - and, as for the Vaadwaur, restraint to them means only a device for keeping prisoners still under torture. "The Hazari need to be... dissuaded... from this line of research," I say, eventually.
"Knowledge can't be suppressed," says the Caitian, "but we can at least make them aware of the probable consequences. We have to make some sort of deal with them, one that will get them to discontinue this - whatever it is they're doing. And we have to do that before the Vaadwaur get to them. If they haven't already."
"Thing is this." The Talaxian speaks up. "We can maybe use this whole deal to backtrack onto our other big problem, if we can get some cooperation from the Hazari. Y'know, find out what they're up to, we can work out who's after them, maybe work out from that how they got their information. If you see what I mean." The gaudy lights in her mind are flashing in sequence. She obviously knows what she means... I think I follow her.
"The involvement of the Vaadwaur suggests that their intelligence services are at the heart of this," I say. "That is a matter of urgent concern."
The Caitian and the Talaxian both shake their heads. "Not Vaadwaur military intelligence," says the Talaxian. "They wouldn't bother with the chickenfeed, or the piecemeal selling of information to bottom-feeders like Ro'khellselan. No, our leak is going out through someone who is not a major player, but who's trying to get into the big leagues. See what I mean?"
"It's... consistent with what we've deciphered from the isolinear chips," says the Caitian. I am tempted to bang her head against the desk until she tells me what these chips are, and who or what Ro'khellselan is. But it would not be productive. "There is a lot of unorganized, low-level data -"
"Like, someone's listening to a lot of what Delta Command is saying, but can't easily pick out the important stuff," the Talaxian adds. "So they sell on what they can, where they can."
"Very well," I say. "Rrueo will read your full report when you submit it, and she hopes it will contain all the relevant information. In the meantime, how are we to proceed?"
"We have tabs on one of the Hazari ships," says the Talaxian. "I'm guessing that at some point very soon, this guy will be wanting a meet with the one we think has the protomatter device. So, we move in then, and, well, make a deal."
"The Hazari are not, by and large, an unreasonable people," says the Caitian. And they may be yet more reasonable with Brathana's disruptors locked on their ship - but I keep that thought to myself, for the moment.
"And the deal involves what? Setting some bait for the pursuing Vaadwaur to take, and then learning from them where their information came from - Rrueo will tell you now, that will prove difficult."
"Well," says the Caitian, "let's at least rough out a plan, based on what we know of Vaadwaur and Hazari tactical patterns -"
"Also," says the Talaxian, "we can maybe now get a handle on the leak from another direction, kinda thing. KDF and Federation don't share all the secure data channels, and since we know KDF info is leaking too, maybe we can narrow down the places it might be leaking from, am I right?"
I sigh, inwardly. This is going to be a long session.
---
It is. I am low in spirits when we step off the Brathana's transporter platform, hoping for nothing else to bother me while I return to my quarters and sleep.
"That Talaxian is... wearing," I mutter.
"If she's Talaxian," growls Oschmann.
I stop, and turn towards her. The light in her mind is gleaming brightly, she has some thoughts. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," says Oschmann, "that it's not impossible she's a Starfleet agent, surgically or cosmetically altered to look like a Talaxian. Starfleet does it while studying pre-warp alien species - you can safely bet Intelligence uses the same technique."
My whiskers twitch. "Why do you think this?"
"Cultural references," says Oschmann. "Ostankino is an Earth place name - well, that might be a coincidence. But an elephant is an Earth animal - and I recognized the reference, too, it's to a story by a human writer. An Earth writer."
"You think she is a human disguised as a Talaxian?"
"I don't know." Oschmann shakes her head. "But she is steeped in Earth culture, I'm sure of that much. And how would she pick that up, from the other side of the galaxy?"
"The Caitian seems to take her at face value." I sniff. "Perhaps that is one reason to suppose you are right."
"The Caitian's not stupid, sir. Though maybe a little naïve."
I shake my head. "It amounts to the same thing.... Never mind. We will address these matters soon enough. For now, Rrueo must rest."
No comments:
Post a Comment