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The Warden was incandescent with pride.
To war.
2
Admiral Heihachiro Nogura stood alone, looking down through a pane of transparent aluminum that sloped outward, affording him an unobstructed view of a wide arc of Starbase 47’s main docking bay. Dozens of meters directly beneath his vantage point, the Starfleet scout vessel Sagittarius was tethered at the airlock for Bay 2. Its pristine hull was a testament to the skills of its chief engineer and the starbase’s repair perso
All so I can send it back out to get mauled again.
Sending the ship and its crew into danger didn’t bother Nogura. If he’d had his way, the Archer-class starship would have been deployed weeks earlier. What made him livid was that, for reasons beyond his control, it was still here instead of on its way to one of the most vital missions it had ever been assigned, and that he had no other vessels suited to assume its role.
Distant footsteps echoed in the empty corridor and slowly drew closer. He glanced to his right, but the source of the footfalls was not yet visible, still somewhere beyond the long curve of the passageway that ringed the station’s core, one level above the cathedral-like main concourse of the docking level. Nogura preferred to admire the ships under his command from this more isolated location, a service level free of the random pedestrian traffic and bustling activity of the main level’s gangways. The service level was rarely visited by more than a handful of station perso
The footsteps were close now, snapping crisply on the gleaming duranium floor, which reeked of pine and ammonia, thanks to a recent pass by a crewman with a mop, a bucket, and punishment-detail work orders. Nogura’s visitor cleared the bend in the corridor, and he noted with a sidelong glance that it was Lieutenant T’Pry
Nogura turned his attention back to the Sagittarius until T’Pry
The diminutive, square-jawed flag officer’s voice was as deep as the sea and had a rasping growl like a power saw. “What’s the excuse this time?”
His brusque query seemed to surprise T’Pry
“In other words, the same excuse as last time.” He shook his head, frustrated by the prospect of another indefinite delay. “We can’t just sit and wait for the Klingons and the Romulans to let their guard down. That escaped Shedai could come back at any time—and if it brings friends, we’ll be in real trouble.”
T’Pry
“Exactly,” Nogura said. “But it won’t do us any good if the Klingons or the Romulans follow the Sagittarius to that pulsar. Best-case scenario, they’d swoop in and steal the artifacts out from under us. Worst-case scenario, they’d destroy the Sagittarius in the process. It’s not enough to get Nassir and his ship there. We also need to bring them home with the prize.”
She proffered the data slate to Nogura. “I have a plan that may accomplish the first part of our mission objective.”
He took the slate and skimmed its contents. “Just the high points, if you please.”
“An act of subterfuge. First, we disguise a small craft as a replica of the Sagittarius, one capable of high-warp speed. Then we launch it as a decoy on a heading away from Eremar.”
Nogura scowled at the Vulcan. “And where, exactly, will we find the spare duranium, fuel, and warp nacelles to make this drone?”
“We already have them. They’re in Repair Bay One, awaiting assembly.”
Getting the sense that he was being read into a plan already set in motion, he harrumphed and resumed perusing the slate’s contents. “Go on.”
“We conceal the Sagittarius’s deployment by hiding it inside the main cargo bay of a larger vessel, which will carry it to the Iremal Cluster, a stellar phenomenon known for scrambling short- and long-range sensors. Once the ship reaches the cluster, the Sagittarius deploys on a new course while its transport continues on its original heading. There is a high probability the Sagittarius will reach Eremar undetected if it can reach Iremal without incident.”
Nogura exhaled slowly; it was not so much a sigh as a prolonged huff of irritation. “I see several things wrong with your plan, Lieutenant.”
T’Pry
“For starters, whatever ship you dress up as your decoy will have a dozen Klingon and Romulan warships hunting it from the moment it leaves our patrol zone.”
She pointed at the slate in his hand. “I’ve accounted for that, sir. The decoy will, in fact, be an unma
He paged forward in her briefing and saw that she was telling the truth. “Very well. Now maybe you can tell me how you plan to fit the Sagittarius inside another ship’s cargo hold. Don’t most ships usually leave here packed stem to stern?”
“Under normal circumstances, yes. We would need to take the extraordinary measure of commandeering a civilian vessel of sufficient capacity to execute the ruse. As a result, whatever ship we select would be deprived of its cargo and civilian passengers.”
Nogura regarded her with naked suspicion. “I presume the ship of ‘sufficient capacity’ you have in mind is the freighter Ephialtes?”
“In fact it is.”
“I trust you know Captain Alodae won’t go along without a fight.” He waited for T’Pry
She lowered her chin, lending her mien a conspiratorial air. “I don’t claim to be a legal expert, but I sincerely doubt Captain Alodae would prevail in such a dispute.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“I strive to be prepared, sir.”
Unable to shake off his skepticism, he pored over a few more paragraphs of T’Pry