Declassified

The moment passed. Reyes slowly lowered his disruptor and surrendered it butt-first to Gorkon. One by one, the other weapons all went down.

Reyes’s eyes never left the Klingon’s. “I demand to speak with Doctor Duvadi.”

“You’re in no position to demand anything, Captain. This asteroid is no longer Federation territory, and its inhabitants have chosen freely to join the Klingon Empire.”

“You mean they were coerced.”

Gorkon shrugged. “Semantics. They made a choice. Had they chosen instead to wait for Dauntlessto answer their distress call, they would be dead now. They chose life.” The derisive smile returned. “Is that not what the Federation advocates?”

Reyes nodded toward the d’k tahghanging from Gorkon’s belt and said in a quiet voice, “You allow me to speak to Doctor Duvadi now, or I’m going to take that dagger you’re so fond of and feed it to you. How’s that for a choice?”

“That’s enough!”

Fisher looked past the Klingons, startled. Even Gorkon seemed surprised. An Arkenite woman, possessing the elongated, backswept, and hairless head that made her species so easily recognizable, strode toward them from the i

Gorkon stared at her. “Of course, Doctor Duvadi,” he said after an awkward moment, and with that blessing, the administrator of Azha-R7a led Latour and the landing party down the corridor, away from the Klingons.

“Let me get right to the point, Captain,” Duvadi began, her eyes becoming highly reflective in the subdued light. “I know what you’re doing here, but it needs to stop. I’m honoring my pact with Gorkon, and I don’t want you interfering.”

“Forgive me, Doctor,” Reyes said, “but how can you possibly believe I’ll allow this to continue?”

Duvadi looked at her human deputy. “Did you explain it to him?”

Latour nodded. “I did. But there’s a cultural divide here, Doctor. And frankly, this is a difficult thing for any human to grasp.”

“But you honor your debts,” Duvadi insisted, turning back to Reyes. “I know that you do.”

“Yes, of course,” Reyes agreed. “But under conditions when the parties involved are both acting in good faith.”

“This is good faith.”

“The Klingons took advantage of your people during a crisis, and exploited your vulnerability! How is that good faith?”

“The Klingons were being true to their nature, and we are being true to ours.”

Reyes shook his head as if unable to process what he had just heard. “Look, Doctor, even if I were to let this go—something I have no intention of doing—do you really think the Federation will honor a deal you made while the Klingons held a gun to your head?”

Duvadi fixed him with a harsh gaze. “We did not agree to stop being Arkenites when we joined the Federation, Captain. Or am I to understand that only your human value system is relevant here?”

“Of course not. But—”

“If the Klingons can be persuaded to release my people from our agreement, we’ll have no objection, Captain,” Duvadi assured him. “But let me be clear that there is no military alternative to this course that any Arkenite would support. We will not compromise who we are simply because you ca

“You’re putting me in a very difficult position, Doctor,” Reyes said.

“I realize that,” said Duvadi. “That’s why you need to leave, Captain.”

Reyes nodded toward Latour. “What about the people here who aren’t Arkenites?”

“My deputy is the only one.”

“I’ll have to insist that he be allowed to depart with me.”

“I would not object to that. Philippe is bound by a different set of ethics. He doesn’t share our obligation. Besides, he would likely face a harsh punishment from the Klingons for his role in your recent mischief, and I have no desire to see that happen.” Duvadi turned and walked back toward the lab complex.

Reyes exchanged a look with Ga

Ga

Finally Reyes turned back to face the Klingons. “We’re going,” he told Gorkon. “All four of us. You have a problem with that?”

Gorkon looked at Duvadi, his eyes narrowing, and it was becoming clear to Fisher that however the general might have wanted to respond, he wished to avoid antagonizing the Arkenite administrator more.

“ ‘Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once,’ “ he told Reyes, who then flipped open his communicator and called Dauntlessfor beam-out.

“This isn’t over,” he promised Gorkon, just before the transporter beam took them.

5

2268

Turbulence shook the Guo Shoujingas the shuttlecraft arrowed through the dense clouds that shrouded Kadru. Working the helm, Desai fought to compensate, but whatever she tried seemed only to make things worse. “Fish, where’s that beacon?”

Fisher looked as if he was trying very hard not to be sick as he struggled to read the navigation console. “I had it a moment ago. . . . Hang on. . . .”

A rough jolt nearly bounced Desai out of her seat. “I need it now!”

“I can’t— Wait, there it is! Eighteen degrees to starboard! Can you get a lock?”

“Trying . . .” Desai applied thrust, angling the shuttle to the right and dipping its nose in slow increments as the wind crashed against the hull. On her board, directional targeting icons started to intersect, and as they finally became one, Desai keyed the autopilot.

The Guo Shoujingshook again, and for one terrifying instant Desai thought the shuttle would go into a roll and drop from the sky like the brick it really was. But then the turbulence abated and the ship leveled off, letting its occupants catch their breath as the shuttle eased into a much gentler descent.

“That was some chop,” Fisher said. “Is that normal?”

“Did you even tryreading the mission file?” Desai scolded.

“I’m a doctor, not a lawyer.”

Desai shook her head. “The upper atmosphere’s highly active and heavily ionized. Plays hell with sensors, too. I knew it would be a rough entry, but that was even worse than I expected.”

“How about if, next time, we ask for a pilot? No offense.”

“None taken,” Desai assured him.

The air on Kadru was soup. Fog rolled everywhere, just dense enough to reduce the one- and two-story buildings of the New Anglesey settlement to gray silhouettes, a kilometer west of where the Guo Shoujinghad set down. Beads of moisture started collecting on Desai’s skin as soon as she stepped out of the shuttlecraft.

“This landing field doesn’t get much use,” Fisher said. Desai followed his gaze and saw immediately what had prompted the comment: coarse green shoots broke through the tarmac all around them.

From somewhere far away came a trumpeting sound, like an elephant in agony. A startled flock of cranelike avians took to the air from a line of trees south of the landing field, and for the first time Desai noticed the densely forested ridge rising above the tree line. Then she remembered: New Anglesey had been built at the foot of that ridge in order to take advantage of the immense river that flowed on the other side of it. The river led down to the ocean, fifteen kilometers east.

“Company,” Fisher said.

Desai squinted into the distance. From the direction of town, two skimmers sped toward them. One of them towed a cargo sled, its oblong burden draped in a plastic tarp and held down by thick elastic cords. As the vehicles hovered to a stop, three humans got out, all wearing the two-toned civilian jumpsuits that were ubiquitous on frontier worlds. From the first skimmer emerged two middle-aged women, one with long black hair tied back, the other with a blond buzz cut. The second skimmer, the one towing the sled, let out a thin-faced, bearded man shouldering a Starfleet duffel bag and carrying a data slate. Desai recognized all three of them from the mission file . . . and all three, she noted, wore sidearms.