Precipice

As Qui

He stepped back beside his partner. “It’s from an ancient Earth novel called Don Quixote de la Mancha.” He looked at Bridy. “Dulcinea was a very beautiful woman for whom a slightly crazy old man did a lot of really stupid things.”

She smiled and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “Sounds about right.” Then she climbed the steps and boarded the ship.

He followed her aboard. “So, I was thinkin’, the captain’s quarters on this boat has a double bed and—”

“Just fly the ship.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

53

November 19, 2267

Admiral Nogura stood like a rock before the river of bodies pouring from the gangway of Docking Bay Two, where the Endeavourhad only minutes earlier made its hard airlock seal.

Junior officers on leave flooded up the gangway and broke to either side of Nogura as soon as they saw the markings on his uniform and the stern expression on his face.

Then came a break in the sea of faces, and four figures crossed the suddenly empty gangway in a tight cluster. Three were Vanguard perso

Leading the group were Commander ch’Nayla and Lieutenant Jackson.

At the rear of the group, Captain Desai escorted the prisoner, Lieutenant Commander T’Pry

The group emerged onto the main concourse of Vanguard’s docking level and stopped in front of Nogura. He looked T’Pry

“Yes, Admiral,” T’Pry

“Good. Your court-martial has been expedited. It starts in two weeks. You have that long to prepare a defense.”

The Vulcan woman nodded. “Understood.”

Desai said, “Lieutenant Commander T’Pry

At once curious and suspicious, Nogura said, “No doubt.” He aimed his steely gaze at T’Pry

“Aye, sir,” Jackson said. He motioned T’Pry

As soon as the lift doors closed behind Jackson, T’Pry

The middle-aged Andorian chanfell into step beside the diminutive admiral and dropped his voice to a whisper. “The artifact is back aboard the station,” he said. “It was transferred off disguised as routine cargo and routed back to the Vault, which is once again secure.”

“No,” corrected Nogura, “you mean it’s finallysecure.” Chastened, ch’Nayla replied, “If you prefer, yes. That distinction aside, Lieutenant Farber assures me the security flaws have been addressed and that the Vault is now the most impregnable compartment on the station.”

“Better late than never,” Nogura said. “Tell Doctor Marcus I want real-time updates. The moment anything happens with that thing, I want to know about it.”

“That makes two of us, sir.”

Anxious eyes greeted the artifact’s return to the Vault.

Dr. Carol Marcus stood beside Ming Xiong and watched as a robotic arm lowered the glowing dodecahedron onto a new pedestal that was linked into the lab’s various systems, several of which had been engineered to emulate some aspect of the Shedai’s technology. As before, a palpable aura of fear traveled with the radiant, skull-sized crystal.

“I’ve been thinking,” Xiong said in a confidential tone to Marcus. “Since I was right about using phased harmonics of the

Jinoteur Pattern to trigger the device, I thought maybe we could try feeding it the regenerative sequence discovered by the CMO on the Sagittarius. You know, to see if we could replicate the tissue-repair function Doctor Babitz documented.”

“One thing at a time, Ming,” Marcus cautioned.

On the other side of Marcus, Dr. Gek leaned in close. “I couldn’t help but overhear,” said the Tellarite. “If we’re pla

“All in good time,” Marcus said.

She hoped that would be the end of the solicitations, but Gek had spoken loudly enough for several other scientists to overhear, and as a result the floodgates were open.

“I’d like to propose that we prioritize high-energy communication applications,” said Dr. Koothrappali.

Then the requests began to overlap, and Marcus no longer knew who was talking.

“Can we start with a test of the Meta-Genome’s ability to correct gaps in its sequence?”

“We need to know what that crystal’s made of!”

“No, we need to communicate with the entity inside it!”

Marcus held up her hands and shouted, “Enough!” When the hubbub subsided, she added, “Let’s all start by focusing on something simple.” She threw a worried glance at the artifact. “Like not blowing up any more planets by mistake.”

54

December 28, 2267

After nineteen days of witness testimony and forensic evidence examination and six days of deliberations, the court-martial board had reached its decision and summoned T’Pry

She gave no thought to the audience in the gallery of seats behind her, or to the prosecutor at the table parallel to hers. All her attention was on the raised bench at the front of the room, where three empty seats awaited their occupants. Red UFP flags adorned with white stars stood at either end of the bench, in front of which was a single chair whose armrest was equipped with a biometric sensor. Next to the judges’ bench was a computer interface that served as the court’s recorder and its link to the station’s library computer.

T’Pry

At her side was her defense counsel, Lieutenant Holly Moyer. The redhead whispered to T’Pry

There did not seem to be any need to respond to Moyer’s expression of personal anxiety, so T’Pry

A boatswain’s whistle a

Khatami was a tall woman with olive skin, raven hair, and exquisite features. For T’Pry

The judges stood behind their chairs and waited while a female Rigellian ensign entered the courtroom, walked to the recording computer, and activated it. When the ensign nodded, Nogura pulled back his chair and sat down, and Khatami and Desai did the same. Once they had settled, Nogura picked up a wooden striker and rang an ancient ship’s bell atop the bench to call the proceedings to order.

“Lieutenant Commander T’Pry