Harbinger

“I’m not thinking that far ahead,” Reyes said. “Right now I’m worried about the board of inquiry; it’s starting to feel like it’s being run by the Salem judiciary. If the JAG office files enough subpoenas, somebody’ll say something they shouldn’t. And once it’s out—well, that’ll be that.”

Jetanien folded the claws of his hands together in a slow, pensive gesture. “I might be able to open a discreet dialogue with one of Captain Desai’s superiors. Someone who could quash her inquiry.”

“That’ll just make her more suspicious,” Reyes said. He sighed. “If I could just bring her into the loop, explain the mission to her, I know she’d find a way to shut it down, subtle or not.”

In a tone that implied it was painfully obvious, Jetanien asked, “Why not just grant her security clearance, then?”

“I gave clearance to Kirk and his men because I had to,” Reyes said. “It was that or court-martial Xiong and lose our best hope of piecing all this together. I’d have a harder time justifying a breach for a JAG officer.”

“Not necessarily,” Jetanien said. “The risk is the same, only the circumstances are different. The admiralty would understand, I am certain.”

“I’m guessing you’ve never met the admiralty,” Reyes said.

“I sponsored several of their commissions,” Jetanien said.

Reyes grimaced. “Well, that explains quite a bit.”

“Gentlemen,” T’Pry

The Chelon ambassador turned his body to look at T’Pry

She arched a single, thin eyebrow. “Indeed.”

For several hours, on the far side of a semiopaque security curtain that had been erected in the main spacedock hangar, a team of stevedores had been off-loading from the Enterprise mangled piles of metal, and shipping containers packed tight with small debris. One load at a time, it was all being transferred into Vanguard’s repair and salvage bay.

Isolated on the observation deck, watching the dim outlines of the activity from afar, was Tim Pe

For the past three months, word of the Bombay’s return to Vanguard had been cause for celebration. This morning there had been no cheerful reveille to herald its approach. Federation ba

He had intended to write an exposé. Tell everyone why the ship had been lost in action. Secure justice for Oriana and her shipmates. He had overheard T’Pry

Desperate to vent his pent-up emotions, he’d written a memorial instead, culled from the personal recollections and anecdotes he’d been inundated with while devoutly pursuing some u

His mirage-like, long-faced reflection looked back at him from the transparent aluminum. Over the past few days he’d had time to think, and to recant the convenient lie he had been telling himself. I didn’t scrub every trace of Oriana from my life to protect her husband’s feelings. Telling myself it was for his benefit was just an excuse.

Down in the docking bay, the off-loading was complete. The Enterprise slowly shut its scalloped aft hangar doors, and a team of zero-g workers in lightweight EVA gear retracted the gauzy privacy screen that had been obscuring the view. With the transfer finished, Pe

The first clue that word of his dustup on Kessik IV had reached Vanguard before Qui

Strolling through the gambling parlor on the lower deck, Qui

Midway between the roulette wheel and the card tables, Zett intercepted him. On this occasion, the slender Nalori killer was decked out in a light-khaki casual suit. He made a point of invading Qui

“I never pictured you as the earth-tones type,” Qui

“Mr. Qui

“Can’t keep him waiting, can we?” Qui

The march up the stairs seemed, in Qui

Lounging on his scatter of bright pillows, Ganz enjoyed a long, deep pull from his hookah. The air on the quiet upper level was dense with grayish violet pipe haze. Opening his eyes, Ganz smirked at Qui

“I don’t have your dilithium,” Qui

Ganz’s voice was quiet, deep, and dangerous. “Why not?”