by Ian Edginton
Five long days passed. The now core-less Debenture had been dragged by tractor beam to Starbase 96. The powerless computer core was held in stasis, under guard in the da Vinci’s cargo hold.
The vast cleanup operation had begun—there were many shopowners who found they’d carried out transactions for weeks in a fair and equitable way, and consequently were low on resources. DaiMon Phug had sold his controlling share in the vessel to Forg. Under Ferengi law, leaving the vessel as he had was tantamount to abandoning control, and therefore making it open to salvage rights. In a lingering nod to the spirit of Milia, he had allowed Phug to keep his wardrobe of fine silks (none of which fit the taller, less rotund Forg).
The crew of the da Vinci had been over to assist in maintaining life-support systems. Fabian Stevens had noted that the systems were of a type that wasn’t supposed to be on the market—indeed, that both the Romulans and the Klingons considered possession of those systems to be tantamount to a declaration of war. Consequently, they were impounded and stored in the cargo hold along with the Landru/Milia computer, pending an investigation—one that Phug was not looking forward to. Already, he was trying to figure out ways to make Forg responsible for it.
Hawkins was taken off duty for a few days, recovering from a severe concussion. He announced to Emmett, who treated him, and to anyone else who came into sickbay that in the past few months he’d been shot twice, and now clubbed on the head twice while acting like a lust-filled savage, and he was, dammit, taking some shore leave. Corsi—who did not apologize for being responsible for half of the concussion, having viewed it as simply doing her duty—granted the leave.
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Gold sat in his ready room, the diminutive Klingon language teacher pacing back and forth on the desk.
“Again!”
Gold looked down. “Hmm?” He realized he hadn’t been listening. He’d been too busy mulling over the events of the past few days. How the saga of his people from ancient history still had lessons in life today. Of how it was all too easy to listen to a machine, and follow the path of least resistance.
“Well?” The Klingon had his hands on his hips, glaring up at Gold.
“If I want to talk Klingon, I’ll do it with a real one,” he announced, canceling the program.
As the Klingon disappeared in a puff of photons, he called the bridge and had McAllan put a communication through to Esther on Qo’noS. He would tell her how she’d indirectly inspired his crew, and ask her how it was going with Khor….
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
IAN EDGINTON’s first collaboration with fellow West Midlandser Mike Collins was on Marvel Comics’ Star Trek: Early Voyages series. A comic book writer of long standing, Ian has worked in the industry for well over a decade and has written for most of the popular mainstay comic book characters such as Batman, the X-Men, Blade, X-Force, and Spider-Man. He also specializes in working on licensed film and television characters, including among them Xena: Warrior Princess, Star Wars, Star Trek, and The Terminator. Most recently he has written the comic book sequel to Tim Burton’s re-imagining of the Planet of the Apes franchise. However, Ian’s most substantial body of licensed work is in relation to the Aliens and Predator films, where he has contributed to both movie canons.
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A fifteen-year-plus veteran of comic books, MIKE COLLINS has worked as writer and artist on many iconic characters including Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Judge Dredd, and the X-Men in both U.S. and British comics. However, Mike has been happiest writing and drawing Star Trek comics for the past eight years for Marvel Comics, WildStorm, and the British comics weekly TV21. Outside of comics, Mike works in animation as a designer and storyboard artist, has contributed toward Oxford University Press’s English as a Second Language book division, and various other educational-based graphic projects. He is currently writing and designing a major graphic novel (the first in Welsh) for the Welsh TV/Movie Company S4C, to accompany their film adaptation of the Welsh myth cycle The Mabinogion. He has also provided the covers for all the S.C.E. eBooks since Interphase Book 1 and for the two paperback collections, Have Tech, Will Travel and Miracle Workers. He lives in Cardiff, Wales with his wife and three daughters, two cats and a dog, and a lot of Star Trek stuff.
COMING NEXT MONTH:
Star Trek™: S.C.E. #15
PAST LIFE
by Robert Greenberger
The Evorans, a new Federation protectorate, have made a fantastic discovery on their homeworld: a device that predates their civilization and proves that aliens visited their world in the distant past. The U.S.S. da Vinci is sent to investigate the device and find out its true nature.
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But disaster strikes when a radical isolationist faction wishes to destroy all evidence that their world was once visited—and wipe out the da Vinci crew as well! And when the true nature of the device is revealed, it will take all the ingenuity of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to save Evora!
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COMING IN APRIL FROM POCKET BOOKS!