Reap the Whirlwind

“Three ships, actually,” T’Pry

She picked up a data slate from Reyes’s desk and offered it to Jetanien. He reflexively reached forward to take it, then remembered that both his hands were full. Fumbling in a diagonal reach, he handed his data slate to her and then accepted hers. Reyes watched the transaction with droll amusement. “What, nothing for me?”

Jetanien handed him the letter. “This is for your ex-wife.”

“I’m not sure that counts,” Reyes said, tossing the folded pages casually onto his desk.

Reviewing the information on T’Pry

“Our reco

As Jetanien studied the details on the data slate, he was troubled by the news. During a heated round of negotiations seven weeks earlier, the Tholian ambassador, Sesrene, had intimated that his people feared the Taurus Reach, that they had for ages avoided it because of something they called Shedai. “Of all places,” Sesrene had confided, “this is where we are not to be.” Even more telling, not only did the Tholians wish to leave the Taurus Reach unclaimed, but it seemed vitally important to them that no one else lay claim to it, either.

The pieces of this ancient puzzle had begun to come together for Jetanien. Starfleet discovered the meta-genome and an alien artifact on Ravanar IV, and the Tholians wiped out the planet; the Klingons moved aggressively to claim worlds in the Taurus Reach, and the Tholians retaliated by launching a campaign of sneak attacks on Klingon ships.

On every planet on which Starfleet had found an artifact like the one on Ravanar, it also had found the meta-genome. With those discoveries had come terrible reprisals, by a powerful adversary unlike any the Federation had ever encountered before. Merciless and brutal, the obsidian entity had proved itself willing to obliterate entire planets in order to protect its secrets. Though Jetanien as yet had no proof for his hypothesis, he was certain that whatever else this foe proved to be, it was the force that the Tholians called Shedai.

At the heart of the entire mystery lay the Jinoteur system. It had been the source of bizarre carrier wave signals that had disrupted Vanguard’s systems during construction a year earlier. Now, having looked more closely at the system, Starfleet had discovered that its planets’ orbital mechanics were unlike anything else ever recorded in nature. All evidence currently available suggested that if the Taurus Reach mystery had a focal point, the Jinoteur system was it.

And now a Tholian heavy cruiser was there.

Jetanien put down the data slate on Reyes’s desk. “Most troubling,” he said. “Covertly enlightening the Klingons about Jinoteur was a calculated risk. Their impulsive nature has spared us a great many casualties and provided us with valuable intelligence. But the presence of the Tholians is…unexpected.” He made a few clicking noises with his beak while he pondered the matter. “Why would the Tholians, after making a point of their aversion to the Taurus Reach and the thing they call Shedai, send a starship to Jinoteur?”

Reyes replied, “Maybe for the same reason that they sent six ships to destroy the artifact on Ravanar IV.”

T’Pry

Reyes pressed two fingers against his left temple while he considered T’Pry

“At present I find their motives opaque, sir,” T’Pry

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Jetanien said, “It seems that expediting our investigation of the Jinoteur system has become our chief priority.”

Reyes frowned and fixed Jetanien with a dour look. “You think?” He uncrossed his legs and sat up straighter as he pulled his chair closer to his desk. “I canceled Sagittarius’s shore leave five minutes before you got here. As soon as we get them loaded and Xiong finishes their briefing, they’ll be shipping out, probably by 2300.”

“That might present a problem, sir,” T’Pry

“Relax, Commander,” Reyes said with a grin. “I still know a few tricks the Klingons don’t. By the time they realize our boat’s shipped out, she’ll be long gone.”

“Splendid, Commodore,” Jetanien said with vigor. “As you appear to have the Jinoteur crisis well in hand, perhaps you could now direct your formidable talents toward the less glamorous fiasco developing on Gamma Tauri IV.”

Reyes’s grin flattened, and his thick eyebrows pressed down over his eyes, imparting a long-suffering quality to his face. “Would you like to run this starbase, Ambassador?” Knowing that the question was rhetorical, Jetanien took the gentle chiding in stride. Apparently satisfied that he’d made his point, Reyes continued, “I pulled the Endeavour off the border twenty minutes ago. She’s on her way to Gamma Tauri IV at maximum warp.”

“From the border?” Jetanien fumed. “It will take them nearly a week to reach Gamma Tauri! And what, pray tell, will they do to improve the current situation once they arrive?”

The commodore pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, as though trying to will away a headache. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “Prevent the Klingons from killing everyone?” He lowered his hand and sighed. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Well, naturally,” Jetanien said. He reached forward and tapped with two clawed digits on the letter he had given to Reyes minutes earlier. “Persuade your ex-wife to reverse her decision about protectorate status. If she signs the accord, we can order the Klingons off the planet.”

A gallows-humor chuckle rattled from Reyes’s throat. “You think it’d be that easy?” He shook his head. “Trust me, that’s not how Jea

T’Pry

“Spoken like someone who’s never been married,” Reyes said. For a moment Jetanien thought he saw T’Pry

Reyes, oblivious of T’Pry