Precipice

They guided their mellulsinside a low, three-walled ruin. McLellan dismounted first, but Qui

“No,” McLellan said. “Let’s travel light. We’ll take turns on point every couple of blocks.”

Qui

He slipped through the door, and she stayed close behind him. They crossed the boulevard of broken asphalt, whose prominent fissures were choked with weeds.

Darting from one building’s corner to the next, McLellan remained alert for any sign the Klingons might be near. Her fifth turn on point, she heard the sound of disruptors echoing in the distance ahead of them. “Great,” she muttered.

“Ain’t nothin’ to panic about,” Qui

McLellan regarded her partner with a scornful stare. “You think I’m worried about the ship?”

“I sure as hell would be,” Qui

Frustration made her jaw clench. “I’m worried about Naya and her people. If they make the same mistake the nomads did—”

“They won’t,” Qui

The tension in her jaw melted away as her face went slack with disbelief. “You told them about the Klingons?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” Qui

“You realize that’s potentially a Prime Directive violation,” McLellan said.

He rolled his eyes. “I call it bein’ a Good Samaritan. Ain’t like the De

Much as it pained McLellan to admit it, he was probably right. “Okay, fine,” she said, motioning him to move on. “You’re up on point.”

Qui

Minutes later he and McLellan ducked under a slab of shattered cement and waited while a Klingon squad marched past. When the crisp echoes of stomping jackboots receded, McLellan peeked out from under the slab toward the town square.

Naya and her daughter, Ilka, stood at the front of a phalanx of De

A goateed Klingon commander stood facing Naya and read aloud from a scroll-like document. McLellan didn’t speak much tlhIngan Hol,but she understood enough to know he was explaining the new laws under which the De

Qui

“Pretty much.” She stole glances in either direction along the street. “Looks clear. If we can make it behind that row of building façades over there, we should have solid cover all the way back to the ship.”

He patted her shoulder to let her know he was moving ahead of her on point, then he broke cover and skulked across the road. She stayed with him, moving quickly but also quietly. For several seconds she felt precariously exposed, but then they were off the street and concealed once more in the embrace of Tegoresko’s crumbling urban landscape.

It took them more than half an hour to reach the Rocinante,but to their mutual relief the sca

After the ship had been secured, the De

Qui

The gangway lowered with a dull hiss and a cloud of vapor. “Home, sweet home,” Qui

He and McLellan hurried inside. She went straight to the cockpit and fired up the communications system.

“Can you do me a favor?” she asked. “Check the sensors and see what kind of ship the Klingons have in orbit?”

“On it,” Qui

“Lovely.”

McLellan typed quickly and composed a brief, code-worded report: Saw sights. Neighbors are here with a big dog. Staying with friends. Would rather see family. Waiting for next song.She encrypted the message with SI’s latest ciphers and sent it in a low-frequency subspace burst transmission to Vanguard.

“There,” she said. “Message is away. Now we wait.”

Qui

She sighed. At least it’ll keep us busy until we get a response from Starfleet.“Okay,” she said, “but no strip bets. We bothkeep our clothes on this time. Especially you.”

He frowned but started dealing out cards. “You’re no fun.”

20

One minute the view outside the Skylla’s cockpit was nothing but stars surrounding a dull orange rock of a planet; the next it was dominated by a Klingon bird-of-prey dropping out of warp all but on top of Pe

“Bloody hell,” Pe

T’Pry

As the hum of the ship’s onboard systems faded to silence and the console lights dimmed and went out, Pe

“Indeed,” T’Pry

Pe