Agents of Influence
Page 25
“I am certain of nothing anymore,” she replied. “But I know we are now caught between two adversaries who likely will make our lives very difficult in the near future.”
Of course, D’zinn doubted she would be alive to see any of that.
Twenty-nine
“Well done, you two.”
Kirk could not help a satisfied smile as he along with Atish Khatami greeted Lieutenants McCormack and Sulu when they emerged from the airlock and into the EVA preparation room. With the chamber behind them once again sealed and pressurized to match the Endeavour’s interior environment, both helm officers had removed their suit helmets. Both looked sweaty and tired but also more than a bit pleased with themselves.
Nodding to Kirk, Sulu replied, “Thank you, sir. It’s nice to catch a win once in a while.”
“More than just a win, if you ask me,” Khatami said, reaching out to tap McCormack on the shoulder. “Is there anything in the quadrant you two can’t fly?”
McCormack exchanged knowing glances with Sulu. “Haven’t found it yet, Captain.”
“Same here,” Sulu added. Moving to a nearby bench, he deposited his helmet on an adjacent storage rack before beginning the process of extricating himself from his suit.
“We’re going to have to recycle the air in here if this keeps up,” Khatami said. Looking to Kirk, she asked, “Is he as bad as she is?”
“At least.”
Khatami smiled. “Having them retrieve those transports was a sharp idea. Lieutenant Klisiewicz tells me the sensor buoys are once again operating normally. We’ve got our eyes and ears back.”
Nodding in approval at the report, Kirk gestured to Sulu and McCormack. “They’re the ones who made it happen. No complications, right?”
“No, sir,” McCormack replied as she worked the closures on her EV suit. “There were two Orions aboard each transport, and they offered no resistance when we arrived. We had them pretty well outgunned. They’ve been transferred to Lieutenant Brax for safekeeping with our other guests.”
At Kirk’s direction and using the Dreamline, both helm officers along with teams from the Endeavour’s security section made their way to where the Orions had left their small personnel transports before embarking on their ground assault. The primary objective was to deny the pirates any ability to use the craft against the crashed, vulnerable starship. Whether they might be of any other use remained to be seen, but Kirk preferred to have several options available. He lamented the fact the ships, even working with the Dreamline, were nowhere near a size needed to facilitate an evacuation of the Endeavour’s crew, but he decided they might come in handy at some point. This situation was still a long way from being over.
Removing her EV suit left McCormack wearing the standard black single-piece coverall responsible for maintaining her body temperature while encased in the heavier protective garment. It bore no name or rank designation. She crossed to a storage locker and removed from it an olive-drab jumpsuit. This variant featured a patch where a Starfleet insignia might normally reside, embossed with her name and rank.
“Our scans showed the port impulse engine’s back up and running,” she said as she pulled on the jumpsuit.
“Yataro and his people came through again,” Khatami replied. “The starboard engine’s hopeless, but they were able to salvage components from it to help with the other one.” She glanced around the corridor. “Of course, we’re now officially out of spare impulse engines, so if we get hit again with those things, it’s going to be a bad day for all of us.”
Kirk said, “According to Lieutenant Klisiewicz, the Orions used a portable electromagnetic-pulse emitter system. It’s an Andorian design, for use as a nonlethal weapon by their Imperial Guard units. They’re not supposed to be available anywhere except the Andorian homeworld, but like anything else, you can probably find them on one black market or another.”
“Based on what we know from the tech specs we pulled from the library computer, it shouldn’t have been able to do what it did,” Khatami added. “Not to a ship our size. I guess they made some modifications. Brax was able to capture the other before it could be used. Lucky for us they didn’t launch it against the port engine. Even deactivated for repairs, there’s no telling how much of the pulse it generated might still have ruptured conduits, circuits, or relays.” She released a tired sigh. “We’re really starting to push our luck out here.”
Pulling on the jumpsuit provided to him by Commander Stano shortly after his arrival with Kirk and Uhura, Sulu said, “I think it might be time to call in the cavalry, sir.”
Kirk nodded. “I agree.”
His mission parameters as defined by Admiral Nogura specified making contact with the Enterprise if he, Sulu, and Uhura were the first to find the Endeavour. At the time, doing so carried the risk of leaving Khatami and her people at the mercy of anyone who might wander down here with less than noble intentions. However, the situation had changed. There was no longer any secret hiding place to protect. At least one Orion ship was still out there with the knowledge of the Endeavour’s location. Whether that vessel was in league with the Klingons or someone else remained to be seen, but that did not matter. The priority now was evacuating the crippled ship’s crew to safety, along with Binnix and her fellow agents and their storehouse of intelligence data. Kirk suspected Nogura would give him grief for the interpretation of his orders, but he also believed he had adhered to the spirit if not every letter of those instructions. On the bright side, he would face Nogura’s wrath only if the admiral and the Enterprise succeeded in rescuing them all.
The metallic chirp made Khatami pull a communicator from under the back of her uniform tunic, and she flipped open the device’s antenna cover. “Khatami here.”
“XO here, Captain,” replied Commander Katherine Stano. “Something’s happened. We just transmitted a high-power burst communications signal.”
“What?” Khatami made no attempt to hide her surprise. “Who transmitted this signal?”
“No idea. Whoever it was certainly didn’t have authorization.”
Kirk asked, “Any idea who it was intended for?”
“It wasn’t a very powerful transmission, sir,” replied Lieutenant Uhura. “But it was configured to punch through the local interference from the asteroid field. There wasn’t much range to it, but I’m guessing anyone in the immediate vicinity could have picked it up. Lieutenant Estrada and I are still going over the whole thing, looking for clues The message wasn’t even encrypted. It doesn’t appear to be directed to anyone specifically, but it provides our approximate coordinates and mentions ‘three undesirables’ who are threats to the Klingon Empire. The coordinates are close enough they can lead anybody who might be listening right to our front door.”
Reaching up to rub the bridge of her nose, Khatami blew out her breath. “Wonderful. Orions or Klingons? I guess we take our pick. Meanwhile, who the hell just gave away our position?”
“The same person who crippled your impulse engine,” Kirk replied. “I think we’ve removed any doubt we have a saboteur on board.”
* * *
His hands clasped behind his back as he stood before the briefing room’s viewscreen, Spock studied the computer-generated schematic of the Ivratis asteroid field. The rendering—presented in a vector graphics format similar to those used in a tactical diagram—was as complete a picture of the region as could be assembled. Navigation maps from the Enterprise’s library computer were augmented with information from the ship’s recent sensor scans of the area as well as data pulled from the Endeavour’s original distress buoy. With their knowledge increasing as the search continued for any sign of a permanent Klingon presence within the asteroid field, the resulting computer model was comprehensive. Even still, far too much of the region remained a mystery.
Thanks to his Vulcan hearing, Spock heard footsteps from the corridor outside the briefing room before the doors parted. He turned at the sound to see Doctor McCoy enter, pausing at one of
the chairs arrayed around the conference table. At some point since their last encounter, the Enterprise’s chief medical officer had exchanged his short-sleeved medical smock for his regulation blue uniform tunic. Spock offered a single formal nod in greeting.
“Doctor.”
McCoy said, “Chekov told me I’d find you down here.” His eyes shifted to look past Spock to the viewscreen and its schematic. “Doing a little homework?”
His right eyebrow cocking as he pondered the question, Spock replied, “Indeed, and there is still much work to be done.”
“It’s not like you to be off the bridge when Jim’s not aboard.” McCoy crossed his arms. “Everything all right? You’re not hiding from Nogura, are you?”
Spock shook his head. “The admiral is resting.”
It was well beyond even the extended duty shift to which the first officer had assigned himself while Captain Kirk was off the ship. Despite his best intentions, Nogura had finally conceded the need for at least some sleep after the many long hours spent monitoring the search efforts. Spock knew that in addition to himself, Doctor McCoy, Mister Scott, and other senior members of the crew were continuing with their duties. The chief engineer was still working with the Enterprise’s sensor and communications systems, searching for ways to extend their effectiveness despite the asteroid field’s continued interference. That effort kept him contained within the depths of the starship’s engineering spaces.
For his part, McCoy operated under a longstanding rule of his own imposition, in which he directed himself to remain on duty during anything other than normal circumstances. The doctor used that time to monitor the crew’s well-being and stepped in to suggest or order rest or meals when he felt individual crew members were pushing themselves beyond their limits. This included keeping watch over the captain, or in this case whoever the captain left in command. While Spock had rebuffed such practices during the early years of their time together aboard the Enterprise, he had come to value McCoy’s counsel.
Spock saw no reason to admit this to the doctor, of course.
“I simply preferred to work in quiet for a time,” he said. His review of the information being collected by the Enterprise’s sensors as it traversed the asteroid field had proven insufficient. With that in mind and after leaving the bridge in Ensign Chekov’s capable hands, he directed the ship’s main computer to transfer all available information on the region to the briefing room’s interface. Here, in relative solitude while still being only moments away in the event of a change in the situation, he had set to work.
“There was a time,” McCoy said, “not all that long ago, you know, where I’d have to order you off the bridge to get some rest when you were hell-bent on carrying out… well, whatever you thought needed carrying out.”
“And I recall both you and the captain encouraging me to have more confidence in our junior officers to manage various situations,” Spock replied, “thereby freeing me for more pressing duties.” He gestured to the viewscreen. “Would this not constitute ‘character growth’ in your eyes, Doctor?”
With a single, quiet snort, McCoy smiled. “I wish Jim could hear you say that.”
“I am working on that as well.” Turning his attention back to the screen, Spock waited until McCoy moved to stand beside him. After a moment of shared silence, the doctor grunted.
“It’s probably too much to hope the Klingons are just hiding right in the middle of these asteroids, isn’t it?”
Spock replied, “If you mean the center of the field, I did consider that possibility, if for no other reason than logic suggests placing the maximum distance between one and one’s potential hunter. However, nothing in any of our scans of the Klingon vessels traversing the region indicates a trajectory in that direction.”
He stepped to a control pad set into the bulkhead at the right of the viewscreen and entered a command sequence. The screen responded by filling in the silhouettes of asteroids represented by the simple line drawings, to a point where several areas of the image had little or no space visible between them.
Spock said, “Asteroid fields, particularly ones spread across a large area, are generally not so dense, and in truth the Ivratis field for the most part is no exception. That said, there are numerous sections where the debris drifts in much closer proximity. This of course presents navigational hazards for ships attempting to traverse the region.”
“And damned tempting if you’re an Orion pirate or someone else up to no good,” McCoy replied. “Even with knowledge of the area, it’d take a hell of a pilot to fly through something like that.”
Studying the viewscreen’s enhanced image, Spock said, “Agreed, and while I do not believe the Orions or the Klingons possess a pilot of Lieutenant Sulu’s skill, I submit they do have a broad working knowledge of the asteroid field. Even with constant drift, experienced pilots using navigational computer systems and course projection models can still plot routes of safe passage. Unfortunately, our present knowledge is lacking in that regard.”
McCoy folded his arms across his chest before proceeding to rub his chin. From past experience, Spock knew it was a habit the doctor tended to display when he was lost in thought.
After a moment, McCoy asked, “Is any of this helping us get a line on where Jim and the others are?”
“While that is also a goal of this exercise, I have not yet compiled sufficient information to answer your question.”
McCoy cast a doubtful expression. “Come on, Spock. I’ve seen you figure out where aliens took Jim when he was dozens of light-years away. This should be easy. We had a general idea where they were going when they left the ship, didn’t we? Captain Khatami gave us at least that much. How hard can it be to figure out a probable course for that deathtrap Nogura made Jim use and follow it?”
“The issue with the captain and his team is not quite so simple,” Spock replied. “Assuming they found the Endeavour and given the lack of communication from the Dreamline, we can surmise the captain felt compelled to maintain operations security until such time as circumstances were favorable enough to risk making contact.”
“Or, they didn’t find the Endeavour and they’re just in trouble.”
“That is a distinct possibility, Doctor.”
“Hell of a way to boost my morale, Spock.”
The whistle of the ship’s intercom filtered through the briefing room, interrupting Spock’s reply.
“Bridge to Mister Spock,” said Lieutenant Elizabeth Palmer, the communications officer currently on bridge duty.
Crossing to the conference table, Spock reached for the communications panel set into its polished surface and keyed its activation control. “Spock here.”
“Sir, we’ve just detected a high-powered burst transmission originating from somewhere in the asteroid field. Based on the attached identification protocols, I can confirm it’s from the Endeavour but not Captain Khatami or Captain Kirk. Based on its content, it’s a general distress call to anyone within range. It provides coordinates to the Endeavour’s location, but it also mentions three individuals I think are meant to be the intelligence agents, sir.”
McCoy scowled. “Who in blazes would send a signal like that?” Then his expression turned to one of horror. “They’ve got a spy on board the Endeavour?”
“It is a logical conclusion,” Spock replied.
“There’s more, sir.”
Rolling his eyes, McCoy blew out his breath. “Of course there is.”
“Just moments after we detected the original message, we picked up a much more powerful signal sent via high-energy tight-beam transmission. This one is Klingon, sir. It was encrypted, but using an older code already deciphered by Starfleet Command and the protocols were in our computer banks. The message relayed the same information, but emphasized what it refers to as ‘three individuals of particular interest.’ We’re still working to determine the intended recipient, sir.”
“Probably the entire Klingon fleet,” McCoy said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Notify Admiral Nogura of this development and request he meet us on the bridge. Transfer both sets of coordinates to the helm and have them plot rendezvous courses for each. Spock out.” As he severed the connection, Spock sensed McCoy staring at him.
“What are you thinking, Spock?”
The first officer drew himself up to his full height, “To further answer your earlier question, Doctor, it appears the time for homework has passed. Now we must prepare for the test.”
Thirty
His tricorder leading the way, Yataro maneuvered through the cramped confines of the Jefferies tube. Designed for functionality rather than aesthetics, these access conduits were intended for use by the engineering team and other technicians tasked with maintaining the ship in peak operating condition. The restricted space could be problematic for those with larger physiques, but Yataro’s slim build offered him some advantage with maneuverability. Only his head, far larger and elongated compared to many humanoid species, offered a challenge in navigating certain junctions or other narrow crawlways, but he managed well enough.
Access panels, control modules, power distribution hubs and their associated components, optical cabling, and the odd tool or supply locker were stuffed into every parcel of available space along the bulkheads or beneath duranium grilles serving as deck plating.
Even with his rigorous standards for cleanliness when it came to tools and equipment as well as the areas in which his people worked, it was impossible to keep every centimeter of a starship’s innards as pristine looking as sections where the majority of the crew spent their time. There was no avoiding the odd spot of lubricant on a bulkhead or deck plate. The sleeves and padded knees of Yataro’s jumpsuit bore witness to that.