Текст книги "Open Secrets "

Автор книги: Dayton Ward

Соавторы: Kevin Dilmore
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Текущая страница: 14 (всего у книги 32 страниц)

26

“Well, if there’s any added bonus to getting you out of the brig,” said Desai as she studied Reyes, a smile playing at her lips and a mischievous glint in her eyes, “it’s that they let you change clothes. Orange most definitely was notyour color.”

The commodore said nothing as he retrieved two cups of coffee from the food slot in his quarters. “I’m just happy to be getting decent coffee again. It took weeks for Farber and his crew of engineers to get that damned thing working right.” Setting one of the cups near Desai’s right arm, he took his own coffee and moved to a chair on the opposite side of the small, oval-shaped dining table in one corner of his quarters. With a sigh, he lowered himself into the chair, leaned back, and sipped the steaming beverage. It was his own personal recipe, derived after weeks of fine-tuning the food slot’s programming with the help of the talented wizard Isaiah Farber. After placing his cup on the table, he moved his hand to smooth the lines of his gold uniform tunic. He had to admit that the familiar material felt good against his skin. Seeing himself in the mirror after he had finished dressing that morning, he almost had begun to feel like his old self.

Almost but not quite.

Looking around, Reyes was struck by the seeming immensity of his quarters. During the months he had spent here—before his extended stay in the station’s brig—the rooms assigned to him as his home away from home had always felt even more like a prison than the one from which he had recently been released. Now the suite felt cavernous. It was a natural reaction, given the length of his incarceration, which had been terminated and replaced with house arrest at the order of Admiral Moratino. It was far better than the brig, but of course, he was anything but free. The presence of the security guards outside his door, along with the requirement that he remain confined to his quarters except for agreed-upon sojourns to the station’s fitness center—which could occur only during a set time when no other personnel were utilizing the facility—shattered any such illusion.

“I’m guessing that even though the admiral showed me this little bit of mercy,” Reyes said as he held his coffee mug between his hands, “I can’t count on her having a soft spot for me, can I?”

Looking up from one of the data states on the table before her, Desai regarded Reyes with a frown of mock irritation as she reached for her coffee. “Hardly, Diego. Admiral Moratino will follow the regulations to the letter, but she’s also fair. She has no problem exercising any option or leeway available to her under the Uniform Code.”

Reyes nodded, thankful for his judge’s apparent compassion, especially given that she had also granted Captain Sereb a thirty-day continuance in order to meet his stated requirement to interview and depose numerous Vanguard personnel. The outspoken Tellarite attorney naturally had protested Desai’s resulting request to have Reyes moved to house arrest, using as justification the severity of the charges against the commodore. Admiral Moratino had sided with Desai, given that Reyes—at the present time—only stood accused of the crimes listed against him. Until and unless he actually was convicted of the charges, the judge had seen no need to treat him with anything less than the respect due a Starfleet flag officer. However, even before Reyes could release a sigh of relief at that decision, Moratino had made it clear that neither he nor Desai should view it as any sort of bias in favor of the commodore.

I’ll take what I can get.

“I’m planning follow-up interviews with the senior staff later today,” Desai said. She pointed to one of the data slates before her. “Then, tomorrow, I plan to talk with the Sagittariuscrew. Given the events they witnessed on Jinoteur, there are some conflicts in individual statements. Understandable, considering what they went through, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance. If there’s even the slightest crack in our strategy, Sereb will force it wide open, and we’ll end up fighting with our backs to the wall.”

“Isn’t that when you’re at your best?” Reyes said, allowing a hint of innuendo to creep into his voice. Despite the court-martial hanging over his head and the very real repercussions he likely was to endure, it felt almost too easy to slip back into old routines. Sitting here in his quarters, wearing the uniform for which he always had felt unmitigated pride—until recently, of course—drinking coffee with the woman who had brought him a happiness he had not known for far too long, it took almost no effort to resume such enjoyable pastimes as teasing his lover.

Desai, for her part, was not amused. He saw her jaw tighten as she began to tap her data slate’s stylus along the tabletop. “You need to be serious, Diego. When it comes to Sereb, we can’t afford the slightest chink in our armor. Once he finds that hole, we’ll spend all of our time just parrying whatever attacks he sets up to keep us from the most important matter at hand, and we’ll look weak and guilty doing it. It’ll just make his case appear that much stronger.”

“So, he likes to play mind games,” Reyes said, pursing his lips. “Feints and dodges and whatever else he can dream up to keep you off balance.” He shook his head, grunting in irritation. “Have I mentioned how much I hate lawyers?”

As if on cue, the door leading from his quarters opened, and he and Desai turned to see Captain Sereb himself marching into the room, silver briefcase in hand. Behind the Tellarite, one of the two security guards stationed outside his door, Lieutenant Beyer, regarded him with a look of shock and apology on her face. Reyes remained seated, but Desai bolted from her own chair, her expression one of surprise and newly blossomed anger.

Sereb released a derisive snort. “You may go now, Lieutenant.”

Beyer ignored him, her attention still focused on Reyes. “Commodore, I’m sorry, he—”

“No problem, Lieutenant,” Reyes replied, raising a hand to silence her. “It’s fine. We’ll take it from here.” Waiting until Beyer offered a sheepish nod before backing out of the room and allowing the door to close after her, he turned his attention to Sereb.

“Please, docome in, Captain.”

Before the attorney could respond to the obvious sarcasm, Desai cut him off. “What’s this about? How dare you just barge into someone’s private quarters without invitation? Particularly when they belong to my client?”

Sereb grunted. “The commodore is still in the custody of station security, is he not? Regulations grant me access to accused prisoners at my discretion.”

“If you want unfettered access to me any time you damned well please,” Reyes said, keeping his voice low and tight and refusing to rise from his chair, “then make your case to the judge, and get me thrown back in the brig. Until then, you request permission to enter myhome just like anyone else. Otherwise, they’ll be adding an assault charge to my sheet after I dropkick your ass through the nearest bulkhead. Do I make myself clear, Captain?”

After a momentary pause, during which Reyes figured the lawyer was contemplating the pros and cons of pushing this issue, Sereb finally nodded in agreement. “Understood, Commodore. I apologize for my rudeness. It will not happen again.” He glanced around the room before adding, “I was told you both would be here, and in the interest of expediency, I thought it would be more convenient if I just came to you rather than setting up a meeting at a later time.”

Casting a glance in Desai’s direction, Reyes replied, “Well, golly, why didn’t you say so in the first place?” He indicated one of the table’s two remaining chairs. “Coffee?”

“Given the circumstances, I don’t believe that would be appropriate,” Sereb said, clearly caught off guard.

Reyes shrugged as he leaned back in his chair. “That’s me. Mr. Inappropriate.”

“Diego,” said Desai, her tone and the narrowing of her eyes telling Reyes that she wanted to move this along. Turning to Sereb, she asked, “What can we do for you, Captain?”

“It’s what Imay be able to do for you,” Sereb replied as he moved around the table to the chair. He set his briefcase on the table and did not sit down. “Obviously, Starfleet is interested in dispensing with this matter as quickly and cleanly as possible. With that in mind, I’ve been given significant latitude in order to bring about such a resolution.” As the Tellarite spoke, Reyes noted that he seemed to have recovered some of his earlier bluster but was still reining himself in, to a degree.

“I take it you’re proposing some kind of plea bargain?” Desai asked, and Reyes heard the hint of skepticism lacing her words.

Sereb nodded. “Exactly. The offer, were I to tender it, would be simple: I move for all but the charges of releasing classified information to be dismissed. Plead guilty to the remaining charge, and I request that no incarceration be levied against you. Your Starfleet career would, of course, be over, and you would lose any and all benefits and standing afforded a retired officer of your rank.”

He forced his features to remain fixed and impassive, but Reyes still felt the kick to his gut as he absorbed Sereb’s offer. Of course, he had expected to be offered a choice like this, but being stripped of everything for which he had served and sacrificed for his entire adult life was almost too much for him to contemplate.

Fortunately, Desai knew this, too. “You seem to be forgetting some very important facts, Captain. If we can demonstrate that the orders under which Commodore Reyes was operating were illegal, then you don’t have a case. Perhaps that’s what you’re worried about and why you’re so eager to offer up such a generousplea deal?”

Sereb appeared unruffled by her remarks. “I forget none of those things, Captain, just as I do not forget that you are an accomplished and respected attorney. Because of that, I’m confident that we both know just how fragile your stance with respect to legal or illegal orders will be. If this is the strategy you elect to follow, then you do so at great peril to your client.”

Before Desai could answer, Reyes held up his hand. “What about my staff? What happens to them?”

Looking across the table at him, Sereb asked, “Except for Lieutenant Commander T’Prynn, there appears to be no willful impropriety or wrongdoing on the part of any other member of your staff.” Snorting, he reached up with one massive paw to wipe his stout, porcine nose. “Charges havebeen filed against T’Prynn, but until or unless the commander emerges from her coma, there is nothing else we can do.”

Reyes was, of course, troubled by the thought of any proceedings that might be launched against his intelligence officer—assuming she ever regained consciousness and only if she somehow managed to avoid any serious or prolonged damage induced by her affliction. Despite that, Reyes wondered if Sereb’s offer was something he could accept. In truth, he had been trying to prepare himself for just such a decision for weeks, attempting to come to terms with what it might mean for his life going forward and especially any future he hoped to share with Rana.

Screw it,he decided. You’re old enough to retire, anyway, right?He knew it was going against everything he had been telling himself for weeks, to say nothing of what he had communicated first to Commander Spires and then to Rana, but what he had been trying to ignore during that time—the single thought that had been gnawing at him during those uncounted hours alone in his cell—was that he simply was tired and wanted all of this to be over. With it done, perhaps he and Rana, assuming that her own career aspirations did not preclude a continuing relationship with him, might settle somewhere, build a life and a home together, and maybe even start a family. He knew Rana was hesitant at the notion, but perhaps this sort of life-altering event was just the thing to renew the infrequent, fragmented conversations they had shared on this topic.

Long past time to seize the day, I suppose.

With a slow, resigned sigh, Reyes finally looked to Desai and nodded.

“Diego,” she said, her face a mask of concern, “are you sure about this?”

“Yeah. Maybe it’s best for everyone involved. You and I both know they’ve got me. It’s just a matter of how much they want to beat on me before they finally throw me in a cell somewhere.” He sighed. “Why go through all of that when I can just put it all behind me? Everybody would probably be better off.” The words were sour in his mouth. He despised the idea of compromising, particularly with anyone he considered an enemy. For purposes of the court-martial, Sereb was that opponent, and realizing that the best course of action for all concerned was to agree to the attorney’s proposal made Reyes feel both anger and defeat.

After a moment, Sereb offered a perfunctory nod, his blunt nose moving up and down in rapid fashion as he folded his beefy arms across his broad chest. “Excellent. I thought as much.”

Frowning in confusion, Reyes glanced at Desai, whose eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I beg your pardon?” she asked.

“Well,” Sereb replied, “as you say, we’ve got you, and it’s just a matter of degrees at this point. I simply wanted some firsthand insight into the defendant I will be prosecuting.” To Reyes, he added, “You are fully culpable for every charge against you, Commodore, and it’s my duty to prosecute you to the fullest extent of Starfleet regulations, which is precisely what I intend to do.”

He was sizing me up.The bitter thought pounded in Reyes’s mind in response to the realization of what he soon would be facing in the courtroom. Cunning bastard.He saw that Desai had drawn herself up to her full height. Her hands had balled into fists, which she kept locked at her sides.

“How dare you come in here and ambush my client under false pretenses,” she said, her already crisp accent taking on a brutal, clipped quality underscoring the anger she clearly was trying to keep at bay. “This meeting is over. We’ll see you in court, Counselor.”

Sereb reached for his briefcase, and Reyes was certain that he caught a hint of smugness crossing the Tellarite’s pudgy features. “Indeed you will. Good day.” With a formal nod, he turned and exited the room. Reyes and Desai watched him until the doors closed behind him.

27

“So,” Nogura said as he took in the expansive area of the Vault and nodded in appreciation, “this is where the fun happens.”

All around him, nearly a dozen Starfleet officers and civilian scientists busied themselves at computer workstations or in several of the laboratories and offices he could see from where he stood inside the office currently occupied by Dr. Marcus. In this part of the station, which on technical schematics appeared as an area devoted to environmental-control and waste-extraction systems, was housed the sum total of knowledge that Starfleet had collected with regard to the Shedai and the Taurus Meta-Genome.

“I suppose that’s one way to put it,” replied Marcus from where she stood behind her desk, looking over one of the numerous reports littering her office. The room itself was not that large, and its limited space was cluttered with boxes, reports, data cards, and other managerial flotsam.

Numerous ongoing efforts ensured the facility’s secrecy. As far as the vast majority of Starbase 47’s Starfleet and civilian contingents were concerned, the Vault did not exist. The people working here appeared on personnel rosters as assigned to other sections throughout the station, though most fell within a rather nondescript group known as Logistical Studies, with Marcus listed as the civilian section head. Plans currently were under way to create a mirror site at another, undisclosed location, but for now, Starfleet’s efforts to understand the mysteries of the Taurus Reach were spearheaded by the people hidden away within this core of the station.

Marcus stepped around her desk and moved for the door. “If you’ll follow me, sir, I think we’ve got something you’ll find very interesting.”

“I’d imagine that term fits pretty much everything in this room,” Nogura said as he fell in step beside her, and the pair proceeded down the Vault’s central corridor. “At least, it seems that way according to what I’ve been reading.”

Marcus nodded. “You don’t know the half of it.” She gestured to the labs they passed. “When I think about what’s out there for us to find, compared with what we actually know at this point, it boggles the mind. You’ve read the reports, Admiral, so you know we’re not exaggerating when we say we may be on the cusp of expanding our knowledge a hundredfold in so many different areas of science and technology. It’s all out there, waiting for us.”

“We have but to understand how the key fits the lock containing all of this information,” Nogura said, repeating a phrase he had come across on several occasions, in reports submitted by Dr. Marcus as well as Lieutenant Ming Xiong.

“Exactly,” Marcus said. “The problem is that the meta-genome is so complex, and when we couple that with the manner in which the Shedai apparently interact with their technology, we’re talking about quantum leaps of scientific advancement.” She paused, sighing and smiling in what Nogura took to be something approaching embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Admiral. I tend to get excited about my work.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Nogura replied wryly. In fact, he was quite aware that there seemed to be an energy permeating the room, something palpable enveloping the effort being expended here. The people around him were driven to understand the mysteries they had been tasked with solving. One of the things that had interested him upon reading the regular Vanguard updates was how young everyone seemed. Carol Marcus was in her early thirties, according to her personnel file, and Lieutenant Xiong was even younger. Nogura had no issues with age as far as the people under his command were concerned; indeed, he welcomed the diversity of experience and attitudes, as well as the vigor and unbridled passion that youth often contributed to undertakings of this type. What interested him was how such people might come to cope with the knowledge that even at their young age, they were involved in one of the greatest scientific endeavors in the history of civilization. With so much of their lives still ahead of them, would they be driven to find something of even grander scale in which to invest their efforts, perhaps as a means of proving—whether to themselves or to anyone else—that their potential had not already peaked and that they still had so much to offer?

In other words, what do you do for an encore?

Near the end of the corridor was a door flanked by a pair of security guards, who came to attention upon seeing Nogura. The admiral acknowledged the men, but Marcus ignored the Starfleet protocol and reached for the security keypad on the bulkhead next to the door. She placed her thumb on a biometric sensor. A red indicator at the top of the keypad turned green, and the door slid aside to reveal another laboratory, one that did not feature any walls of transparent aluminum.

“After you, Admiral,” Marcus offered, standing to one side and allowing Nogura to enter the room. He was greeted by the sight of a young Asian man sitting at a computer workstation, wearing a blue uniform tunic with the rank stripe of lieutenant on the sleeves. His dark, tousled hair was a bit longer than regulation, and his entire appearance made it seem that the lieutenant had not slept the previous night. Also in the room was a Tholian, dressed in what Nogura recognized as one of the environment suits they wore when outside their native atmospheric conditions. The Tholian seemed engrossed in a piece of unfamiliar equipment, but when the lieutenant looked up and saw Nogura, he immediately rose to his feet.

“Admiral,” he said, nodding.

Nogura crossed the room, extending his right hand in greeting. “Lieutenant Xiong, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” Xiong replied, and Nogura noted the dark circles under the other man’s eyes.

“You look tired, son,” the admiral said. “When’s the last time you slept?”

Xiong smiled. “What day is it, sir?”

“We’re all a little behind in that department, Admiral,” Marcus said, “but I think it’s been worth it.” She indicated the Tholian with a gesture. “With Nezrene’s help, Mr. Xiong has made what we believe is a major breakthrough with our efforts to understand Shedai technology.”

At the mention of her name, Nezrene turned to face the group. A string of indecipherable clicks and chirps echoed in the small room before her native language was converted to Federation Standard. “Greetings, Admiral. I have not yet had the opportunity to extend my thanks to you for continuing to allow me sanctuary here.”

Nogura nodded. “Ambassador Jetanien spoke most highly of you. I appreciate everything you’re doing to assist us.” Looking first to Xiong and then to Marcus before smiling, he added, “Though I must confess I’m not at all sure that I understand just what it is you’re doing.”

“That’s what you have us for,” Marcus said. “Mr. Xiong, why don’t you show the admiral what you’ve come up with?”

“Of course,” Xiong replied. “Admiral, as you know, we’ve run into several obstacles while trying to understand the Shedai artifacts we’ve found. One of the theories I’ve put forth is that the unique crystalline nature of their physiology is a key component to interfacing with their technology. I believe this lends itself to a form of biometric interface, though of a sort far beyond anything we’ve developed. I think the Shedai are able to access their versions of electronic pathways directly, with the physical-equipment components acting as little more than interface conduits. For all intents and purposes, the Shedai are able to channel themselves directly through their computers and communications.”

Marcus said, “Mr. Xiong’s theory was given some weight after Dr. Fisher’s examination of a Shedai body brought back from Erilon. It was the doctor who also discovered the ancestral link between Tholians and the Shedai. It’s this similarity that allowed the Shedai Apostate—that’s what Nezrene calls it—to utilize several captive Tholians while on Jinoteur, including Nezrene, and force them to interact with Shedai technology on that world.”

Nogura asked Nezrene, “You understand this technology?”

“To a very limited degree, Admiral,” replied the Tholian. “While under the control of the Apostate, we were forced to operate within very stringent parameters. We were portals for the Apostate, our minds acting as surrogates for his thoughts, rather than exercising any independent control.”

“I don’t think I like the sound of that,” Nogura said, his mind conjuring various unpleasant depictions of what such an experience might entail.

Nezrene pointed to the equipment she had been working upon when Nogura arrived. “We have been experimenting with this console, which we found in one of the underground chambers on Erilon.” The component was approximately one meter in length and about half that in width. It was only a few centimeters thick, leading Nogura to believe that it was merely one piece of a larger piece of equipment, perhaps too large to be transported.

“Based on what we’ve already learned from previous expeditions to Erilon and Ravanar IV,” Xiong said as he crossed the room toward Nezrene, “we’ve been able to make very limited inroads into understanding their technology. However, if my theory about a biometric interface is correct, then we’re going to be limited by our very physiology in making real use of such equipment. We may be able to fashion an artificial substitute, but I believe that will only get us in the door. After that, we’re still lost.”

Marcus pointed to Nezrene. “However, Nezrene’s Tholian physiology is much closer to that of the Shedai. Nezrene’s been able to interface directly with this piece of equipment, which we’ve linked to our testing stations here in the lab in such a way that we can record various responses as power is fed to it.”

I like where this is going,Nogura thought.

“And you’re able to comprehend what it is you’re experiencing?” he asked Nezrene.

The Tholian replied, “Somewhat.” She indicated the console with one appendage, which Nogura noted had been free from the confines of Nezrene’s environment suit. “This interface contains several points of access embedded in its surface. They mean nothing to beings with physiologies like humans, but for my species, they are easy to ascertain, and they provide a natural port of entry as far as accessing the equipment is concerned.” Demonstrating her point, she reached out and touched the console, which immediately flared to life. Nogura was able to make out several graphical displays, none that made any sense to him.

“Remarkable,” he said.

Nezrene continued, “As I have explained to Lieutenant Xiong, the experience is much like what I endured while under the Apostate’s control, but without him forcing me to certain paths and actions, I am uncertain how to proceed once I am integrated with the console.”

“Integrated?” Nogura repeated.

“I become one with the machine,” Nezrene said.

Xiong said, “Based on her descriptions, it sounds like an outof-body experience.” He pointed to the alien console. “On some level, she’s actually insidethat thing.”

Nogura frowned, trying to wrap his head around this idea. “So, your theory of them somehow projecting themselves into whatever it is they call their version of a computer network is correct?”

“Possibly,” Xiong said. “Or it could simply be a case of using telepathy and psychokinesis to operate such equipment, rather than actual physical contact or even voice commands. Whatever it is, it’s centuries beyond even our most advanced experimental computer systems. Imagine the possibilities of instantaneous, seamless integration between computer and user.”

“I don’t have to,” Nogura countered. “I’ve read the reports of the Shedai attacks on Erilon, Gamma Tauri IV, and Jinoteur.” What could the Federation do with technology on this scale? More important, what would their enemies do with it? Looking to Marcus, he said, “I bet I can guess where this is going.”

“We have to go back to one of the Shedai planets,” Marcus replied.

Xiong added, “We can only do so much from here, Admiral. To make any real progress, we’ll need to conduct hands-on research with equipment like what we found on Erilon and Ravanar. Those computer systems are integrated into the entire planet, and if we’re to believe just some of what the Shedai can do, they’re capable of establishing networks between those planets and all of the others they once controlled.”

“They may still be out there,” Nogura replied, crossing his arms. “We’ve seen what they’re capable of. I’m not sure I want my people exposed to dangers like that again.”

“Sir,” Xiong said, “we’re talking real-timeconnections, Admiral, across dozens, perhaps hundreds of light-years. The uses for that kind of technology are countless, and if the Shedai are able to project themselves into their computer conduits, then we’re talking about an ability to move between worlds the way you and I cross a room. We have to understand it, if only as a means of countering it. What if the Klingons, or someone else, learn to manipulate it?”

An interesting observation, Nogura decided, coming from someone who by all accounts was driven first and foremost by the quest for knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Of course, Nogura thought the young man’s experiences on Erilon and Jinoteur likely had changed his outlook about what understanding the Shedai meant from a scientific standpoint. Reality had a way of doing that.

He has a point. We can’t stand by and do nothing, not while the Klingons are sniffing around.There simply was too much at stake.

Finally, Nogura nodded. “I agree, it’s worth the risk.” Looking to Xiong, he said, “Gear up, Lieutenant, and dress warm. You’re heading back to Erilon.”