Reap the Whirlwind

Okagawa nodded. “They know,” he said. “But they’re doing whatever President Vinueza tells them to do. And she’s telling them to stay put.”

“We’ve got to be careful how we handle this,” Reyes said. “Those colonists need to be evacuated, but they have to leave by choice—and that means convincing Jea

“Understood, sir,” Khatami said. “What’s our timetable?”

“R.F.N.,” Reyes said. “Get those people out of there before all hell breaks loose. Vanguard out.” The cha

“So…Captain,” Okagawa said with the rehearsed politesse of someone who was masking a profound frustration, “any idea how to get those colonists off the planet without shooting them?”

Khatami chuckled slightly at Okagawa’s grim prognosis for the situation. “Motivating them to leave shouldn’t be that hard,” she said. “I’m worried about the logistics. Best-case scenario, even if every ship they own is spaceworthy, we can only evac fifty percent of them.”

“I considered asking the Klingons to take the colonists prisoner,” Okagawa said. “But I don’t think they could carry more than fifteen hundred. That still leaves four thousand behind.” He sighed. “But the fact remains, Captain, that as of an hour ago, none of them were leaving. So I hope you’re right about being able to motivate them—or, more to the point, her.”

The way Okagawa spoke about the colony president gave Khatami the distinct impression that there was something she ought to know about the woman but didn’t. “Daniel,” she said, “why does everybody walk on eggshells around this woman?”

He rolled his eyes. “You mean aside from her being Reyes’s ex-wife and a high-level esper?”

Khatami paused in surprise, then mimicked Okagawa’s pained grin. “This just gets better and better, doesn’t it?”

“And you’ve been here two whole minutes,” Okagawa said. “We’ve been here five weeks. Imagine how much fun we’re having.”

“I’m guessing there’s a stick and some shaking involved,” Khatami said. “I hope you’ll forgive me for putting an end to it.” She turned her chair toward the communications officer. “Estrada, get me President Vinueza. It’s time to finish this. Her colony is being evacuated, and that’s final.”

“We’re not going anywhere, Captain,” Jea

This discussion is off to a bad start, Khatami decided. Try not to make it worse. “Madam President,” she said, doing her best to strike a civil tone, “by now you must have noticed that a second Klingon cruiser has entered orbit.”

“Of course,” Vinueza said. “How fortunate, then, that your ship is here as well.”

“If the Klingons move against you, there won’t be much we can do, Madam President. Not unless you’ve reconsidered the Federation’s offer of protectorate status. Have you?”

Vinueza’s faux courtesy communicated her ire. “Well, that depends,” she said with an insincere smile. “Would you or Captain Okagawa like to tell me the truth about what Starfleet’s been doing on this planet for the last five weeks?”

Khatami permitted herself a glance across the bridge toward the science station, where Lieutenant Stephen Klisiewicz peeked up from the blue glow beneath the sensor hood, no doubt curious about how the captain would respond to Vinueza’s request.

“Our people have been supporting your colony, Madam President,” Khatami said. “But we’ve been ordered to withdraw and avoid a conflict with the Klingons. It would be in your colony’s best interest to do likewise.”

“I fail to see how surrendering to the Klingons is in our best interest, Captain. If anything, we’d be rewarding them for being vicious enough to murder our people in cold blood.”

Concocting a plausible scenario that would convince Vinueza to evacuate her colony but also would not expose any classified information was proving much more difficult than Khatami had expected. This would be a lot easier if I could show her what she’s really up against down there. She sighed. “I don’t suppose you’d agree to evacuate if I simply begged you to trust me?”

“No, Captain, I wouldn’t. If the Klingons want to take our colony, they’ll have to work for it. We’re ready for them.”

“I sincerely doubt that, Madam President,” Khatami said. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back in touch shortly. Endeavour out.” On a nod from Khatami, Estrada closed the cha

“Steadily increasing, Captain,” Klisiewicz said. “If these discharge at the same levels we saw on Erilon, they’ll be ready to fire in twenty minutes.” He adjusted his controls and added, “Still no lock on the main firing nodes, though.”

Khatami watched the two Klingon cruisers on the main viewer begin to maneuver to positions from which they could provide each other with covering fire. She wondered whether the Klingons or the Shedai would attack the New Boulder colony first and resolved not to wait to find out. “Yellow alert,” she said, then snapped out orders in quick succession. “McCormick, raise shields. Neelakanta, widen our orbit and optimize our firing position against both Klingon cruisers. Estrada, warn the Lovell to break orbit and move out of the Shedai’s weapons range. Then open a priority cha

Rana Desai wondered why so many Starfleet officers had so much trouble understanding the basic principles of Federation law.

“Atish,” she said to Captain Khatami, whose image graced the small viewscreen in Desai’s private office, “I made this very clear to Commodore Reyes, and I’m certain he made it equally clear to you: the colonists invoked their right to independence. We have to respect that. If they reject our advice, we can’t force them to take it.”

Her answer only seemed to tighten Khatami’s pursed frown. “Rana, we’ve got ten minutes till we start taking fire from the planet’s defense system. When that happens, I think the colonists are going to realize there’s more on the planet than them and the Klingons. So why don’t we just tell them truth and get them out while we still can?”

“That’s not a legal decision, Atish—that’s a command decision. If you want to debate it, you’ll have to talk to the commodore.” Pushing the responsibility onto Reyes felt like a cheat to Desai, but in this case it was legally necessary.

A soft string of muttered Farsi curses escaped Khatami’s lips. “When the shooting starts, those people are going to die.”

“They’ve renounced Federation citizenship,” Desai said. “Your duty is to protect your crew and your ship, not the colonists. Unless its government asks for your help, you have to remain neutral when the Klingons move against them.”

“It’s not the Klingons I’m worried about,” Khatami said. “Those people have no idea what they’re facing, Rana. Please, there has to be some loophole, some pretext we can use to get them out of there.”

Shaking her head, Desai said sadly, “There isn’t. I’ve checked a dozen times. And Atish…?” She waited until the starship captain met her stare across the subspace cha