Текст книги "What Judgments Come"

Standing on a rise that afforded him an unobstructed view of the valley below, Thomas Blair studied the settlement through the viewfinder of the field binoculars. The structures, all of obvious Klingon design, appeared to be intact. He saw no signs of attack or even a natural disaster that might have been misconstrued as an attack. To his eyes, nothing about the colony appeared amiss.

Except for the bodies, of course. “Good God,” Blair said, his voice barely louder than a whisper. His mouth had gone dry, and he swallowed several times in an effort to work up some spit. Panning the binoculars across the colony center, he opted to stop counting the number of Klingon bodies scattered along the open streets and courtyards. Other corpses were draped over balconies, or slumped over the consoles of land vehicles or other equipment. From somewhere, probably within one or more of the structures, Blair heard the low, constant hum of machinery still in operation. Generators, he thought, or environmental control or refrigeration units. He saw no sign of weapons or other military apparatus. “No life signs. You’re sure about that?”

Standing next to him, his security chief, Lieutenant Commander Trethishavu th’Vlene, replied, “None, Captain. At least, none within the target area.”

“Eight kilometers across,” Blair said, repeating that nugget of information from the briefing his science officer had given to him prior to his decision to beam down. “And almost a perfect circle. There’s no way this was a natural phenomenon, so what the hell happened? An attack, or maybe some kind of accident?” Magnifying the image being fed to him through the binoculars, he focused on a section of one of the streets where three bodies were strewn across the ground. The expressions fixed on the Klingons’ faces and the dried blood running from their mouths, noses, and ears told Blair that whatever had caused their deaths, it had been anything but pleasant.

“Perhaps some sort of chemical or biological agent was deployed,” th’Vlene said. The Andorian thaan was holding up a tricorder, its sensors aimed toward the settlement. “Though it would have to be something we’ve never encountered. I’m not picking up any traces of contaminants in the atmosphere.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Blair said, “especially considering we’re standing out here in the open, with no sort of protective equipment.” Sensor scans of the planet from orbit had shown no trace of anything untoward, which was the main reason he had opted for a firsthand look at the colony site.

Th’Vlene frowned, adjusting the tricorder’s settings. “However, I am detecting a residual energy signature. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before.”

Blair lowered the binoculars and turned to look as th’Vlene angled the tricorder so that he could see its display. “Send your readings back to the ship. We’ll get the computer chewing on it.” Sighing, he reached up to wipe the light sheen of perspiration that had formed on his forehead. “This is a farming colony. Would the Tholians resort to attacking civilians?”

“There are unconfirmed reports that the Klingons have a military installation hidden somewhere on this planet,” th’Vlene replied.

“I’ve read those reports,” Blair said, “but according to Commander Nyn, there’s nothing here to suggest a military presence. According to every scan she ran, this is a farming colony, which makes absolutely no sense, considering everything else this planet has to offer.”

Frowning, th’Vlene replied, “Maybe they got what they wanted simply by laying claim to the planet. If they’re here, then we can’t be, and we can’t conduct mining operations.”

“But you’d think they would be,” Blair countered. He then paused as he realized what his security chief was inferring. “You mean they’re just holding on to this rock for now—saving it for a rainy day.”

Th’Vlene said, “I don’t know why the weather should factor into whatever strategy the Klingons might have for exploiting this planet’s resources.”

His eyes narrowing, Blair chuckled despite the situation and his surroundings, and shook his head. “Are you sure you’re not a Vulcan?”

By all accounts, the Traelus system had been of interest to the Empire even before their first forays into the Taurus Reach. Traelus II, the world on which Blair and his landing party now stood, was rich in natural resources valued both by the Federation as well as the Klingons. Deposits of dilithium, pergium, rodinium—minerals essential to the operation of modern starships as well as starbases and other land-based facilities—were present across the planet. The system’s proximity to the Tholian border also made it attractive from a strategic point of view, as it was one of a handful of such systems from which military action could be supported in the event of a conflict with Tholian forces. It was these same interests that had motivated the Klingons to stake a claim to Traelus II ahead of the Federation.

According to the latest version of whatever fluid diplomatic agreement governed the two powers’ activities in the Taurus Reach, simply by beaming down to the planet, Blair may well have triggered an interstellar incident, even though his reasons were straightforward. The distress call his communications officer had intercepted, broadcast without benefit of any encryption, had not expressly forbidden any non-Klingon vessels from answering the plea for help. On the other hand, it had been a generic, all-purpose distress signal transmitted on a repeating loop, the sort of prerecorded summons often designed to be dispatched quickly, such as when some kind of massive accident or disaster had occurred. Whether that was sufficient to absolve Blair of any wrongdoing so far as answering the call was concerned, he did not know.

All that’s for the politicians to worry about, he mused as he once more raised the binoculars to his face and took another survey of the devastated settlement. He had come here with the intentions of answering the distress call—detected two days earlier as the Defiant continued its patrol of the sector—and making a good-faith effort to render whatever assistance might be needed. As that was no longer necessary, his first instinct was to send Doctor Hamilton and her team to search for clues and answers as to what might have wiped out the colony.

An autopsy of one of the victims was out of the question, of course, and not just because his chief medical officer—so far as he knew, at least—possessed no in-depth knowledge of Klingon anatomy. While he was certain Hamilton could conduct at least some cursory examinations using whatever records might be on file in the Defiant’s library computer, even that would take more time than Blair knew remained to him. What if the settlers had fallen prey to some as yet unknown, perhaps even infectious disease that defied detection by sensor scans? Was that not important enough to secure as much information as possible? A full science team was what really was needed here, but the likelihood of the Empire allowing such an excursion was small, no matter how noble or innocuous the purpose. Despite whatever pretense of peace imposed upon the Federation and the Empire by the Organian Peace Treaty, tensions remained strained between the two powers, and events that had transpired in the Taurus Reach in recent months had only exacerbated the situation. The last thing Blair wanted was a confrontation with a Klingon battle cruiser here. Not now, when there remained far too many questions about what happened here.

“There’s nothing we can do now,” he said, shaking his head in disgust, “and our being here’s only going to upset whoever comes to check on the colony.” The best Blair could do now would be to compose a detailed report and transmit it back to Starbase 47, where Admiral Nogura would see to it that it was forwarded to the appropriate parties on the Federation as well as the Klingon side of whatever negotiating table the governments’ respective diplomats currently graced.

“Commander Mbugua did order me to make sure you returned to the ship within one hour, sir,” th’Vlene said.

Eyeing the Andorian, Blair replied, “Has it been that long?” He then heard the telltale beep of his communicator, and he offered a small smile. “Well, it looks like the commander’s been keeping at least one eye on the clock.” Reaching for the device at the small of his back, he flipped open the communicator’s antenna grid. “Blair here.” Expecting Mbugua, he was surprised to hear the voice of his science officer.

“It’s Commander Nyn, sir,” the young woman replied. “Captain, we’ve found something you need to see.”

The first thought that occurred to Thomas Blair as he studied the object before him was that it was the product of a science experiment gone wrong in some horrific manner.

“What the hell is it?” he asked as he walked a circuit around the odd device, which sat alone atop a small plateau no more than twenty meters across at its widest point. “Some kind of probe?”

From where she stood to one side, tricorder in hand, Lieutenant Commander Nyn said, “I don’t think so, sir. I’m picking up components of what looks to be some kind of sensor apparatus, but it seems to be fairly limited in scope.”

“A weapon of some kind?” Blair frowned, and for a worried moment, he wondered if it might be some kind of mine. Now’s a hell of a time to think of that.

Nyn shook her head. “That’d make sense, sir, particularly given what else we’ve found.” She gestured first to where the bodies of two Tholians lay a short distance from the object, near the edge of the rise, before pointing to the body of a Klingon female. “That said, I don’t see how.” Pausing, she continued to consult her tricorder. “I mean, I’m picking up what looks to be some kind of particle beam generator, but there’s nothing else that makes me think it’s part of a weapons system. No targeting array, and it doesn’t seem to have any sort of propulsion or flight control systems. It pretty much just sits here, and whatever beam it’s supposed to generate goes in one direction, though from what I can tell the beam is meant to disperse as it travels from its origin point, rather than focusing on a single target.”

“And this is the only one we’ve found that’s intact?” Blair asked.

“That’s correct, sir,” Nyn replied. “Though our sensors found twenty-three other sites, arrayed in an equidistant perimeter around the colony, every one of those sites has nothing but a small crater and some residual materials that are obviously artificial in origin.”

His gaze still fixed on the object, Blair said, “Let me guess. The perimeter is eight kilometers wide.” He heard Nyn clear her throat before replying.

“That’s right, sir.”

Blair ran his hand along the object’s flank. “And what’s that sound like to you, Commander?”

“Whatever these things are,” the science officer said, “they formed a kill zone, with the colony in the middle. Afterward, they initiated some kind of self-destruct protocol.” Turning, she pointed to another, smaller crater. “Something was over there, too, but beats me what it might’ve been. My tricorder picked up traces of Tholian remains from that site, sir. Whatever blew up, it took at least one Tholian with it.”

His fingers brushing over a series of scorch marks blemishing the object’s otherwise flawless black surface, Blair said, “Somebody took a shot at it. These look like disruptor burns.”

Nyn replied, “Judging by the damage and residual energy reading. I don’t think it’s from a Klingon weapon, though.”

Bending closer, Blair saw that the object’s outer casing had been penetrated. “Whatever hit it managed to punch through the shell.”

“There appears to be some internal damage,” Nyn said. “Some kind of computer component, I think, but without tearing it apart, I can’t be sure.”

Blair always liked a good puzzle, even if he knew he would not like the picture it would form. “I’ll bet a month’s pay this is the reason we have twenty-three craters instead of twenty-four.” He pointed to the damaged section. “The shot damaged whatever self-destruct mechanism this thing contains.”

“It’s certainly a possibility, sir,” the science officer replied.

Turning from the still unidentified object, Blair said, “What the hell were the Tholians doing here?”

“Upsetting the natives, I think,” another voice answered, and Blair turned to see th’Vlene making his way up one angled face of the rise toward them. The Andorian stopped before pointing back the way he had come. “I found another Klingon down there.”

Blair walked to the edge of the plateau and directed his gaze down the slope until he caught sight of the unmoving form lying at the bottom of the ravine th’Vlene had been investigating. The body was partially obscured by boulders and vegetation, but there was no mistaking the rather large burn mark on the Klingon male’s chest. Clothing along with skin and muscle tissue had been burned away, probably from a particle beam weapon at close range.

Pointing to another area of the ravine, th’Vlene replied, “As for the other Klingon, she didn’t have any obvious signs of trauma, but she looked like what we saw at the colony, sir.”

“Interesting,” Blair said, his attention shifting between where th’Vlene had pointed and the general direction of the settlement. Nodding toward the mysterious, drone-like object, he said, “She’s between this thing and the colony.” That seemed to lend some additional weight to his idea that the drone, along with its twenty-three destroyed counterparts, might well be some kind of broad-based antipersonnel weapon. How had they gotten here undetected? Were they moved into position by hand, or dropped from orbit? Without a more detailed examination of the drone, there would be no way to answer such a question, along with the hundred or so others Blair was contemplating, such as how the Tholians, however many there might have been, had kept their presence a secret. Where was their ship? Not in orbit, or it would have been detected by the Defiant’s sensors. Was it here, hidden? That made more sense. If the Klingon colony here was in truth just an actual agricultural outpost and not part of a larger, clandestine military operation, then the inhabitants likely would not have had access to the same levels of sensor and weapons technology used by the imperial forces. A party with sufficient skill, particularly if they were employing covert infiltration tactics, could very easily exploit such a shortcoming.

Maybe the colony was targeted for exactly that reason. The thought at once saddened and angered Blair, for the devastation that had been wreaked as well as the idea that the Tholians had with deliberate calculation targeted civilians with whatever weapon they had created. Such an overt, unjustifiable act would only serve to further deteriorate the already fragile political situation in this part of the Taurus Reach. And here we are, stuck right in the middle.

“Get this thing ready for transport,” he said. “We’re taking it with us. You’ll start your investigation on our way back to Vanguard. Meanwhile, I want every sensor scan you can throw at this planet. The Tholians had to have a ship. I want it found.”

Nyn nodded. “Aye, sir.”

His communicator beeped for attention, and Blair reached for the device and activated it. “Blair here.”

“Defiant here, sir,” replied the voice of Commander Mbugua. “It’s time for you to call it a day, Skipper. We’ve got company.”

Uh-oh, Blair thought. “Klingons?”

“No, sir,” the first officer replied. “Long-range sensors are picking up three Tholian ships, heading this way at high warp. They’ll be here within the hour.”

Th’Vlene said, “It seems someone else heard the colony’s distress call.”

“That, or the Tholians sent their own,” Blair countered, then nodded toward the drone. “Or one of these things fired off a call for help before self-destructing. Doesn’t matter now.” He was gripped by the sudden thought that everything they had seen of the mysterious Tholian technology here had smacked of tracks being covered. Perhaps the devices had self-destructed so as to give the Tholian government plausible deniability for what had happened here?

“Nyn, get this thing back to the ship, now.” For all Blair knew, this was the lone remaining piece of evidence implicating the Tholian Assembly as instigators of interstellar war with the Klingons.

If that was the case, and with more Tholian vessels fast approaching, Blair was certain of only one thing: The best place to be right at the moment was anywhere but here.

30