Several data analysts look up from their work as my boots clatter on the walkway. Let them look. I continue to run, run until I am right at the door of Xerek's office, and it hisses open before me.
Xerek stands up as I burst in. "What is it?" he demands.
I glare at him, fury and outrage concentrated in my eyes. "You know."
He reaches for his stick, and I leap. My fist crashes into his skinny stomach, and he grunts and claws at my face with his free hand. But he is bringing the stick around - I grab it, wrestle with him for it. He is strong, for all his years. Fury makes me stronger. I twist the stick around, and the beam from the concealed disruptor spears out of the handle, past me, to scorch a hole in the office wall. His other hand is on my throat. I tear it away, grab him by his coat -
"What is happening here?"
The voice demands an answer. Both of us turn our heads. Obisek is standing there, framed in the open doorway.
"Betrayal and murder," I say, "what else? Let me introduce you to the true head of Action Green - the collaborator with Kalevar Thrang - the author of all our security difficulties. Am I not right, General Xerek?"
Xerek finds his voice. "She is insane," he croaks.
"Betrayal and murder," says Obisek. "You can prove this?"
"Oh, yes," I say softly, because the collar of Xerek's leather coat is open, now, and I can see the proof. I reach up quickly, grab the thing around his neck. My finger finds the control stud -
And suddenly, it is not Xerek standing there. To our eyes, at least.
"Oh, look," I say. "Kalevar Thrang, exactly as he appeared when he infiltrated our station. Exactly as he appeared. Down to the coat -" I pluck at Xerek's lapels "- and the stick." I pick up the stick. "I wondered what that long, thin object was."
Thrang's false face is frozen in Xerek's expression of woe.
"Thrang always wears the same face," I say. "Even though he has shape-shifting abilities, can change his apparent species, he always wears the same face. And with these holo-emitters, his trusted lieutenants can wear it too. Starfleet's data warfare analysts found a trigger, a three-dimensional structure that Thrang's computer virus recognizes... but they did not know where to input it into the system. Well, we know now. It is an abstraction of some of the proportions of Thrang's facial bones. When it is spotted through a compromised biometric scan, it triggers Thrang's shadow OS, to obey his commands - and to delete and confuse security around it. Am I not right, General?"
Xerek says nothing. Obisek steps forward, touches the General's neck. The false face fades away. Underneath it, Xerek is unable to meet Obisek's eyes.
"Why?" Obisek asks in a soft voice.
Xerek swallows loudly. "Because we need a strong leader. Because Thrang promises, above all, strong leadership. He can do it. He can take the factions and the rabble in hand, and - and -" He looks down at the floor. "We need a strong leader."
"There was a time," says Obisek, still very gently, "when you thought me strong enough."
"That was before," says Xerek, and he finally raises his gaze to meet Obisek's. "Before you sold us all to that idealistic Romulan academic!" he screeches.
"Oh, my old friend," says Obisek. "How many years, how many lives, did we spend, fruitlessly trying to seize a mere fraction of the respect and freedom that D'Tan has given us for nothing?" His voice sharpens, grows louder. "And what can Kalevar Thrang offer, to replace that? Do you think I will see the Reman people brought under the heel of a megalomaniac genetic experiment? I would die first, old friend. And this I swear to you - many others would die, before me."
There is a long, ugly silence. Xerek's eyes are frantic, haunted. Obisek's are implacable.
"Starfleet already has some of the protocols for the shadow OS." Someone has to break that silence, it may as well be me. "Now that we have a way in, we can use it. We can override the computer subversion, learn Thrang's secrets, perhaps even turn it against him."
"And we will know all we need to know about Action Green," says Obisek, still staring at Xerek.
Xerek closes his eyes. "Yes," he says, "it is... over. I will tell you all that you need to know."
"Yes," says Obisek, and there is that in his voice which reminds me why our enemies fear him. "Yes. You will."
No comments:
Post a Comment