Текст книги "Serpents Among the Ruins "

Автор книги: David George

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Текущая страница: 20 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

The lieutenant worked his controls, and then said, “He just arrived at the brig.”

After Harriman had stunned Admiral Vokar and the other Romulan—Akeev?—he’d wanted to load them back onto the antigrav stretchers so that he could take them to the brig. Gravenor had considered the decision an overly cautious one, since the two Romulans would not regain consciousness prior to Tomed’s destruction. But the captain had insisted, and Gravenor had realized that he’d had a reason other than caution: justice. The two Romulan officers had murdered their own crewmates, and Harriman had wanted to see them spend the last moments of their lives paying for those crimes—and in Vokar’s case, she was sure, for other crimes as well. It might have been only a gesture, but she believed it to be an important one, and she respected Captain Harriman for making it.

She thought about trying to discuss the matter with Lieutenant Vaughn, but decided instead to allow him the solitude he seemed to need right now. “I’m going to run one more test sequence,” she said as she stood from her chair.

“Understood, Commander,” Vaughn said simply.

Gravenor returned to the rear of the cabin and attempted to pinpoint once more just what the chances were of the special ops team ever seeing the Federation again.

Harriman watched as the stimulant he’d administered took effect. Vokar’s eyes blinked open, and he lifted his head from the antigrav stretcher and peered around the small cell. When he spotted Harriman standing outside the doorway, he froze, and then said, “So, are we to die together?”

Harriman said nothing. On his way here with his two prisoners, he’d thought of many things to say, but he realized now the pointlessness of whatever words he might utter. Vokar had lived a life devoted to beliefs and actions impossible for Harriman to justify rationally, and nothing he or Vokar might say now could change that.

Vokar rose from the stretcher and paced toward the doorway. “No, I guess we’re not going to die together,” he said, “because you’re going to run away before that, aren’t you?” Harriman maintained his silence. “You’ve set your plan in motion, and you’re going to slink away before it’s done. And no doubt you’ll cast the blame my way for all the deaths you’ll cause, all in the name of the survival of the glorious Federation.” Vokar stopped about a half-meter from the forcefield that sealed the cell.

“Actually,” Harriman said, “you arethe cause of these events.”

“I am?” Vokar asked. “By spying on Starfleet’s testing of a first-strike weapon? By conquering a weak, inferior race like the Koltaari? Or perhaps you mean that I drove you to do this by my attempt to protect my people from a Federation starship and freighter trespassing in our space thirty years ago?”

Harriman smiled without humor. “You don’t even believe any of that yourself,” he said. “You caused this by trying to find any excuse to go to war with the Federation—by trying to provideany excuse.”

“The superior will survive,” Vokar said, as though quoting personal doctrine. “Tell me,” he said, turning away and pacing back across the cell, “where is Lieutenant Akeev? Or have you left him in the middle of the shuttle compartment?”

“He’s in another section,” Harriman said, “in another cell, paying for his crime while he’s still alive.”

“Crime?” Vokar said, whirling around to face Harriman again. “Is that why you’ve brought me here, to exact some form of retribution for crimes you imagine me to have committed?”

“I just watched you murder one of your own crew,” Harriman said.

Vokar walked back to the doorway, until he stood only centimeters from the forcefield, his cold gray eyes glaring at Harriman. “What you call murder,I call discipline. Unlike Starfleet, members of the Romulan Imperial Fleet are trained to give up their lives when duty requires that they do so.” Vokar reached up and tapped at the forcefield. Harriman did not move as a flash of blue-green buzzed through the doorway. “Is that why you’rehere now?” Vokar asked. “To see me pay for my so-called crimes?”

“No,” Harriman said simply.

Vokar said nothing, apparently waiting for an explanation. When he received none, he said, “Then why are you here?”

“Just to tell you that I’ve relieved you of your command.” Harriman held up his hand before Vokar’s face. In his fingers, he clutched the long patch of stylized starbursts that identified the Romulan Imperial Fleet rank of commanding admiral. Harriman had removed it from the neck of Vokar’s uniform.

Vokar stepped back, reeling as though he’d been struck across the face. He reached for the collar of his uniform, and found his rank missing. He said nothing for a moment, and then seemed to force an expression of nonchalance onto his face. “You have no authority to relieve me.”

Harriman shrugged. “Nevertheless,” he said, and he dropped the rank patch onto the deck. Then he turned and walked away.

It required all of Sulu’s concentration not to display the anxiety mounting within her as Enterpriseapproached Foxtrot XIII. She resisted the urge to tap the arm of the command chair, or to stand up and pace the bridge. Still in shock at the audacity of Captain Harriman’s plan, she wanted to take action as quickly as possible, see it completed, and put it in her past.

“Captain,” Linojj said from the helm, “sensors just detected a vessel in the Neutral Zone.”

“Heading in which direction?” Sulu said, careful to ask the questions she should be asking, as though she knew nothing beyond what had just been reported to her.

“Toward Federation space,” Linojj said.

“Lieutenant Tenger,” Sulu said, “can you identify the ship? Is it one of ours?”

“Scanning,” Tenger said from the tactical station. “It is a Romulan vessel, Ivarixclass…it is Tomed.”

Sulu rose and stepped forward, both playing her role and finding an outlet for her restlessness. “Open a channel,” she said.

She heard the tones of the communications station being worked behind her, and then Lieutenant Kanchumurthi said, “Channel open.”

“Romulan vessel Tomed,”she said, “this is Commander Sulu of the Starfleet vessel Enterprise.”She peered at the main viewscreen, where the stars shot by as the ship sped through Foxtrot Sector.

“There’s no response,” Kanchumurthi said.

“Enterpriseto Tomed,”Sulu tried again. “You are in violation of the Neutral Zone and heading for the Federation. You must alter your course immediately and return to Romulan space.”

“Still nothing,” Kanchumurthi said.

“Lieutenant Tenger, course and speed of the Tomed?”Sulu said.

“The ship is traveling at warp nine,” Tenger said, “on a direct heading for Foxtrot XIII.”

Linojj looked up at Sulu. “They’re going to attack,” she said in a low voice, obviously horrified. The declaration actually underscored the need for Sulu’s next order.

“Ensign Tolek,” she said, “plot an intercept course.”

“At maximum warp,” Tolek said, “we will intercept Tomedjust as it reaches the outpost.”

“Set course, maximum warp,” Sulu said. Tolek and Linojj acknowledged the order and worked their consoles. “Are there any Starfleet vessels in the vicinity?”

“Agamemnonis on patrol there,” Tenger said.

“Captain, Foxtrot Thirteen and the Agamemnonare both transmitting warning messages to the Tomed,”Kanchumurthi said. Sulu glanced over and saw the communications officer reaching up to his silver earpiece, obviously listening to the transmissions.

“Let them both know we’re on our way,” Sulu said.

“Captain,” Tenger said, “there are indications of a singularity containment failure in progress aboard Tomed.”

“If containment fails at warp…” Linojj said, but she did not need to finish her statement. Almost everybody on the bridge would know that the introduction of a quantum singularity into a warp field would have devastating results.

“A few months ago, they installed those new defenses,” Lieutenant Kanchumurthi said hopefully. “Perhaps that will be enough to protect the outpost.”

“No defense known to Starfleet could withstand such an event,” Tenger said soberly.

“What can we do?” Sulu asked, already knowing the action she would take. “Can we evacuate the outpost? Can Agamemnon?”

“We’re not close enough, “Linojj said. “And even if we were, there isn’t enough time to beam up three hundred people.”

“We can attempt to destroy Tomed,”Tenger said.

“Too risky,” Linojj said.

“What if—” Sulu started, speaking to the entire bridge crew. “Can we get close enough to transport the microsingularity off of the Tomed,out of its warp field?”

“It seems unlikely,” Tenger said. “In addition to the highly condensed matter overloading the transporter circuits, we would be attempting transport from a vessel moving at warp speed.”

“Unlikely,” Sulu said, “but not impossible.”

“It may be impossible,” Tenger said, “but a thorough analysis would be required to determine that.”

“I’m going to try,” Sulu declared. “Xintal, I’ll be in transporter room one. You have the bridge.”

“Aye, aye,” Linojj responded.

Sulu walked over to the helm and made eye contact with Linojj. “If I’m not successful,” she said, “if there isan explosion, get the Enterpriseout of here immediately.”

“Understood,” Linojj said.

Sulu headed for the turbolift. She felt extremely uncomfortable at having to deceive her crew, but she could not think about that right now. Instead, she needed to concentrate on trying to save Captain Harriman.

“Thirty seconds until launch,” Vaughn announced, reading the chronometer in a panel set into the side bulkhead. He had moved to the second row of seats in the cabin so that Commander Gravenor and Captain Harriman could take the two forward positions. The captain would pilot the shuttle, while the commander would operate the cloaking device. Vaughn’s duty would be to monitor the time and the sensors, and then to transmit a disguised signal to the retreval vessel sent by Admiral Harriman—or by Admiral Sinclair-Alexander, he supposed, if the elder Harriman was still incapacitated.

“I’m bringing the warp engines to full power,” Harriman said, working his console.

“Initiating power to the cloak,” Gravenor said.

Around them, the shuttle hummed to life. Vaughn glanced quickly to the aft of the cabin and saw the sphere of the cloaking device begin to glow. “Twenty seconds,” he said, looking back to the chronometer.

“Commencing antigrav liftoff sequence,” Harriman said, his fingers roaming expertly across his panel.

Through the forward viewing port, Vaughn saw another shuttle and several work pods seem to descend as Liss Riehnlifted from the landing stage. A moment later, the shuttle stopped rising, and then it yawed to port. The bay slipped away in the opposite direction as the stars came into view, the warp effect stretching them into thin lines as Tomedraced through space. “Ten seconds,” Vaughn said.

“Activating cloak,” Gravenor said. The lighting in the cabin immediately dimmed, a signal both of the cloak’s operation and of the enormous amount of power it drew.

“Aft thrusters at the ready,” Harriman said.

“Three seconds,” Vaughn said. “Two…one…” As he reached “zero,” the shuttle surged forward into the starscape, the bay slipping past the viewing port until it was no longer visible. “Subspace threshold in three seconds,” Vaughn said. He knew that navigating the border between a ship’s warp field and normal space could be accomplished safely and easily at speeds slower than warp five, but at Tomed’s current velocity—

A jolt thundered through the shuttle, and it skewed laterally from its course. Vaughn flew from his chair across the cabin. He raised his uninjured arm in time to absorb the impact as he struck the bulkhead, but the wounds in his shoulder and hand screamed in pain. A loud drone rose in the enclosed space, and Vaughn recognized the sound of the structural-integrity field straining to protect the shuttle.

The vibrations in the cabin increased as he pushed himself away from the bulkhead and staggered back to his chair. He saw Commander Gravenor also pulling herself back up to her console, but Captain Harriman had somehow braced himself and had maintained his position. Past the two officers, a faint translucent glow, golden and the consistency of vapor, shined outside the viewing port.

“The cloak is holding,” Gravenor yelled above the din.

“We’re almost clear,” Harriman said, also raising his voice to be heard.

Vaughn checked the time, grabbing hold of the panel to steady his gaze. “Five minutes, forty-five seconds until containment failure,” he called, indicating the time left before the destruction of Tomed.“Forty-five seconds until we need to go to warp.” In order to escape the ensuing shock wave, the shuttle would need to put some distance between it and the Romulan flagship.

All at once, the shuttle stopped shaking. “We’ve cleared the subspace threshold,” Harriman said.

Vaughn peered over at the viewing port. The stars moved in counterclockwise spirals out in space, he saw, the shuttle obviously in an uncontrolled roll. Then he checked the chronometer. “Thirty seconds until we need to go to warp,” he said.

Captain Harriman operated his controls. “Starboard thrusters,” he said beneath his breath, his words almost inaudible. The spinning of the stars slowed, and Vaughn imagined that he could feel the decelerating effects of the thrusters as they braked the shuttle’s roll, although with no external gravitational reference, he surely could not.

“Fifteen seconds to warp,” he said.

“We’ll make it,” Harriman said calmly. Through the viewing port, the stars coasted to a stop. “Laying in our course away from Tomedand Foxtrot XIII,” he said, working his panel once more. “Going to warp.”

The hum of the warp engines filled the cabin, accompanied by a controlled vibration. Through the viewing port, Vaughn watched the stars streak past the shuttle as it rocketed to lightspeed. Then he turned to his own panel. “Transmitting our signal,” he said. Using his uninjured hand, he activated the control sequence that would cause a random dispersion in Liss Riehn’s navigational deflector. “Signal away,” he confirmed when he had completed his task.

Five minutes later, Captain Harriman brought the shuttle out of warp. The stars returned to pinpoints as the cabin quieted and stilled. “Maneuvering thrusters,” the captain said. “We are at station-keeping.” Then he turned in his chair and faced both Commander Gravenor and Vaughn. “Drysi, Elias, well done,” he said. “You’ve completed an incredibly difficult mission. And an importantone. Your actions may have saved billions on both sides of the Neutral Zone.” He paused, and then added, “If I could, I’d put each of you in for the highest commendation.”

“Thank you, John,” Gravenor said.

“Thank you, sir,” Vaughn said.

“John,” the captain told Vaughn. “Right now, you can call me John.”

“Thank you, John,” Vaughn said.

Harriman and Gravenor both turned back to their consoles, and Vaughn looked at his own panel. Their duties completed, they sat in silence, waiting to learn whether or not they would survive their mission.

Linojj stared from the command chair at the tactical readout displayed on the main viewer, having trouble accepting what she saw. An icon representing the Foxtrot XIII asteroid sat in the center of the screen, with concentric circles drawn around it to indicate distance from the outpost. A representation of Tomed,a small, green starship symbol, sped toward the center of the display on an unwavering course.

“It’s headed directly for it,” Ensign Fenn said from the sciences station, her voice low, her tone one of disbelief.

“Tomedis nine billion kilometers from the outpost,” Tenger reported. “The containment field will fail completely in eighteen seconds.”

Linojj didn’t need to work through the mathematics to know that the explosion would occur extremely close to Foxtrot XIII. Even at a greater distance, though, the unleashing of a quantum singularity within a warp field would send such a powerful shock wave through subspace that the outpost would still be destroyed. And with Tomedtraveling at warp nine, the entire sector might be at risk.

“We’re within visual range,” Kanchumurthi said.

“On screen, maximum magnification,” Linojj ordered.

The viewer changed, the tactical display replaced by a starscape, with the brown, irregularly shaped oval of Foxtrot XIII visible at its center.

“Four-point-five billion kilometers,” Tenger said. “Eight seconds to containment failure.”

Linojj felt helpless, unable to bring Enterpriseclose enough in the final seconds to help in any way. She could only hope that that Agamemnonwould be able in the last moments to force Tomedout of warp. If containment failed outside a warp field, the microsingularity would cause localized destruction, but there would be no threat to the outposts.

“Agamemnonhas opened fire on Tomed,”Ensign Fenn said excitedly.

“Two-point-two billion kilometers,” Tenger said. “Three seconds…two…one…”

Linojj peered around the bridge and saw all eyes focused on the main viewer. She looked there herself, in time to see a brilliant flash of white fill the screen, the protective filters unable to compensate for the intensity of the light. Linojj squinted and looked away for a moment to protect her eyes.

When she looked back, Foxtrot XIII was gone.

Zero: Tomed

InTomed’ s main engineering section, containment failed. With the complex fields that tamed its effects gone, the microscopic black hole that powered the starship reached out into the universe. Matter tore apart under the relentless draw of the singularity, and then disappeared into the pure darkness. Space and time, bound together seamlessly to form the structure of reality, rent beneath the force, twisting and wrinkling as portions of the continuum sank into the ultimate gravitational vortex. The black hole pulled at everything, devouring all it captured, its appetite insatiable.

AroundTomed, the warp field generated by its faster-than-light drive carried the ship through subspace. The alternate realm existed within and without the starship, allowing it to travel at speeds not possible in normal space-time. Loosed in this domain, the singularity continued to feast, consuming the fabric of this other existence.

But as subspace folded in on itself at warp factor nine, it filled the black hole. The actuality of velocity overwhelmed the potentiality of force. The singularity, infinite in its dimension, could not contain the greater infinity of subspace collapsing into it.

Gravity turned. Matter transmuted into energy, and the energy shifted, reversed, pushing from the negative, through the zero, and into the positive. Subspace grew into the superior power, transcending the might of the singularity.

The black hole became the black entrance, the black portal. Subspace pushed backward, flowed from the point of its virtual demise and rushed, born again, back into the universe, carrying with it matter and energy previously consumed.

In the space occupied by the disintegrating form ofTomed, subspace asserted itself with its new force, destroying the rest of the starship in a fraction of second. And the wave of energy continued on, expanding in every direction, coursing through and beneath space and time with little resistance.

The shock wave caughtAgamemnon, and an instant later,Agamemnon was no more. The inconspicuous asteroid dubbed Foxtrot XIII provided more opposition, withstanding the onslaught of subspace energy for an entire second before crumbling into nothingness. And still the great sphere of the wave expanded.

The shuttleLiss Riehn lasted as long as each of the two starships had, its distance from the source of the shock wave keeping its smaller form intact longer than it would have had it been closer. And still the subspace wave spread.

It chased another starship,Enterprise, which escaped only by virtue of the greater speed allowed by the separate subspace field projected around it.

Foxtrot XII vanished next, its matter blown apart in seconds. Outposts XI and IX followed, gone as though they had never been, so complete was their destruction. Two unnamed asteroids and a comet in the Neutral Zone were pulverized.

Finally, the vastness of space and time over which the shock wave had traveled took its toll. The subspace wave, its energy diminishing at each point as it expanded, began to fade. It demolished Foxtrot X, but took a half-minute to do so. Outposts VIII and VII each disappeared in a minute, and Foxtrot VI in two. As the wave weakened and slowed, it lost its ability to devour. Four of the remaining five Foxtrot asteroids shattered, but left progressively larger chunks of themselves floating through the void. Foxtrot I withstood the initial assault relatively intact, its hollow center caving in, but the asteroid itself not breaking up for more than an hour.

And then at last, the wave died, its energies spent on trillions of trillions of cubic kilometers of space.

In its wake, Foxtrot Sector was gone.