Declassified

Desai saw the opening and wasted no time stepping through. “If you don’t mind my asking, Doctor . . . what areyou trying to get away from?” she asked.

Ying shrugged as she took up her fork and started eating. “Too little freedom, too much compromise, too many broken promises . . . take your pick, Captain. We aren’t short on reasons for being here.”

“I guess not,” Desai said.

“Were you and Aole close?” Ying asked.

“Somewhat. Our jobs intersected a great deal. That’s how we became friends.”

“I envy you that. I wish I could have known him better. He had this way about him . . .”

Desai smiled. “I know. Everybody who spent enough time talking to him says the same thing.”

“That’s quite a legacy. I’m glad to know my experience with him wasn’t unique.”

“I take it his powers of persuasion weren’t enough to convince you of the need to evacuate this planet.”

Ying exchanged a look with Sgouros. “No, they weren’t.”

Desai set down her fork. “Doctor, help me to understand. Why are you fighting this? What sense does it make to remain out here, on your own, so far from Starfleet protection?”

“We long ago accepted that New Anglesey and the Federation have grown apart,” Ying said. “Maybe you should do the same, Captain.”

Desai noticed Sgouros watching her, and she decided to try a different tack. “I couldn’t help but notice as we traveled through town that everyone in New Anglesey walks around armed. Is that one of the freedoms you believe you have too little of?”

“Newly colonized planets are dangerous, Captain,” Sgouros answered. “Surely that’ssomething Starfleet needs no help understanding? Especially given the events of this week.”

“Because Commander Miller left the safety of the settlement by himself?”

“Yes, but let’s be clear about this,” Sgouros said. “We don’t carry weapons to make a political statement. We have no shortage of dangerous predators on Kadru, and we’ve had to adjust our everyday behavior to fit that reality. We can’t even use communicators safely outside the town perimeter, because for some reason the sound of electronically filtered voices attracts the predators.”

“The bottom line,” Ying said, “is that we’re playing the hand we’ve been dealt. We’re big believers in self-reliance.”

“I actually have no trouble believing that, Doctor,” Desai said, “given New Anglesey’s abrupt shift toward isolationism.”

“As I mentioned earlier,” Ying said, reaching for her lemonade, “there’s a great deal we wanted to get away from.”

“It didn’t start out that way, though, did it? Back when the Bombayassisted you and your people in establishing this settlement, you weren’t motivated by the desire to get away, but by a passion to explore a new and biologically diverse world. Then, for no reason you were willing to explain, you started keeping Starfleet at a distance. Captain Ga

“Maybe you should ask the colonists on Gamma Tauri Four,” said Sgouros.

Desai nodded. “I did consider that the destruction of the New Boulder colony might be the reason for your sudden withdrawal, but the chronology doesn’t line up. New Anglesey went independent six months before the incident at Gamma Tauri.”

Ying set down her glass and leaned forward. “Then call it validation of our decision—the most recent in a long history of so-called ‘incidents’ where Starfleet failed the colonies it was supposed to be protecting—Tarsus Four, Azha-R7a, Ingraham B, Deneva, Omicron Ceti Three, Cestus Three, Janus Six, New Paris—do I really need to go on, Captain? Oh, yes, I know: some of those settlements were actually savedby Starfleet intervention, but you couldn’t actually protectany of them, could you?”

Desai said nothing. Everything she feared Ying might say had been heaped at her feet.

And still Ying wasn’t done. “Twenty years ago on Tarsus Four, the system failed spectacularly. When famine threatened the colony, Starfleet sent ships to help, but they didn’t get there before the colony’s warped leadership exterminated half the population in order to save the other half. Our entire colonial system has been paying for that crime ever since. Each new crisis has led to stricter laws, tougher regulations, tighter controls, forced relocations, and less freedom to live as the colonists choose—which is the reason many of them became colonists in the first place!

“So let me say it as plainly as I can, Captain. If Starfleet abandons this sector, New Anglesey is prepared to stand on its own. My people won’t be pressured into leaving Kadru by anyone.”

“Is that why Aole Miller died?” Desai asked.

Sgouros frowned. “Exactly what are you implying, Captain?”

Desai looked at her. “I’m on Kadru to investigate the death of a Starfleet officer. By the governor’s own statements, her feelings toward Starfleet represent those of her constituents. I need to know if some of them would resent Miller’s presence here—and his purpose—enough to do something about it.”

Ying rose slowly to her feet. “You want to know if one of my people was capable of murdering Aole?”

“That’s exactly what I want to know.”

“Then this is my answer: you and your doctor have twenty-four hours to complete your investigation and get the hell off this planet.”

6

2259

“. . . Unfortunately, Captain Reyes, this matter is beyond your authority,”Admiral Telles Vindeilin said from the briefing room monitor, the Denobulan’s usually genial ma

Reyes, Fisher knew, had already sat through the recording once. He spent the replay watching the faces of his gathered senior officers, as well as that of their guest, Philippe Latour, for their reactions. No one looked happy.

As silence settled over the circular room, Reyes tapped the comm on the tabletop’s computer interface. “Reyes to bridge.”

“Jordan here, sir.”“Mister Jordan, I believe the Chech’Iwis waiting to hear from us. Please inform them we’ll be ready to get under way at one-quarter impulse in ten minutes. You may then proceed at your discretion to a position thirty astronomical units from Azha.”

“Understood, sir.”

“Reyes out.”

“That’s it, then,” Brzezinski said.

“The hell it is,” said the captain.

“Sir, Starfleet Command—”

“We may not be able to engage the Klingons directly,” Reyes said, “but I’m not about to simply do nothing. Think, people! Let’s break it down: an explosion of indeterminate origin on Azha-R7a forces the Arkenites to send out an SOS, just when the Chech’Iwwas close enough to be the first responder. Does that strike anyone else here as even remotely suspicious?”

“It can’t be a coincidence,” Sadler agreed. “And since when do the Klingons come to the aid of Federation citizens in distress?”

“It’s unlike them,” Ga

“It’s a diplomatic knife between the ribs,” Shey said. “Think about it, the Klingons have acquired new territory and absorbed its population without firing a shot, essentially beating us at our own game. When word of this gets out, and it will, the Federation will be humiliated. Its ability to protect its members and holdings will be cast into doubt. If Gorkon did engineer all this, he knew exactly how to hit us.”