Crossover - Michael Jan Friedman [8]
Admiral Keaton eyed McCoy intensely.
“Let me remind you once again that secrecy is our greatest weapon here, Admiral. It must be maintained at all costs.”
McCoy bristled at that. He hadn’t reached his rank and age without a clear understanding of security.
“Thank you,” he told her. “I know what a Priority One classification means. After all, I had that rating when you were still a plebe at the Academy.”
McCoy made no effort to soften his tone, letting his displeasure show. Technically speaking, he didn’t outrank Keaton, but he had certainly lived a damned sight longer than she had.
His words and tone had their desired effect. Keaton looked contrite. Or anyway, as contrite as McCoy expected she had ever looked.
“Of course,” she said. “I didn’t mean to suggest—”
“Fine, fine,” McCoy cut her off. “Now, what’s the name of the ship that I’m meeting?”
Keaton paused for a moment, as if she were delivering important news.
“It’s the U.S.S. Enterprise.”
***
Montgomery Scott was sleeping when the call came, and he was still groggy when he reached the computer console. He had spent a long night reconfiguring the warp engines of his shuttlecraft.
The net result of his work was only a minimal increase in engine efficiency. Still, he had taken pleasure in getting any increase at all, after the computer had told him the system could not be improved even marginally—and definitely not, the computer pointed out, using the configuration Scotty had planned for it.
He activated the computer screen with a tap of his controls—and straightened when he saw why the computer had flagged him. It was a Priority One communication, heavily encrypted. Holding his breath, the engineer waited to see if the computer would be able to decode it.
It had been a simple matter to program his computer to scan subspace messages and news services for information that interested him. Among the subjects it was programmed to flag were a select group of names.
Doctor—nay, Admiral—McCoy was on that list. So was Captain Spock—or Ambassador Spock, as he was known these days. Of course, most of the information Scotty’s computer scanned was on open public and Starfleet channels.
Coded messages were more difficult—he was no Uhura when it came to deciphering such things. However, Scotty knew that a number of the codes Starfleet used were based on engineering protocols.
As a result, he’d designed and added circuits to the communications system that looked for codes based on these same principles and then interpreted them based on Scotty’s personal data base. The Priority One code that contained this particular message was based on the shifting harmonics of warp field physics.
After a long moment, the message finally came through, allowing him to eavesdrop on it. He smiled at the sight of Doctor McCoy, though he didn’t know the woman on the other end.
Then Scotty heard the news Keaton was bringing, and his smile faded. He leaned back heavily into his padded chair.
Spock was in danger. Grave danger.
Even if the Romulans never found out the Vulcan’s true identity, Romulan justice was swift and sure. And in the Romulan Empire, there was only one punishment for treason.
Scotty knew that the Federation was in a difficult position. It couldn’t launch a full-scale attack to retrieve one man.
And even if such a thing were possible, it wouldn’t work. Spock would be tried, convicted, and punished long before forces could be mobilized.
A smaller-scale rescue would have a little better chance, but a Starfleet vessel would never get very far into the Romulan Empire. This time, it seemed to Scotty, Spock would not escape death or have anyone there to help him cheat it.
The thought left him cold. Scotty felt he was listening to the death knell of someone he’d once believed was indestructible.
That, of course, was at a time when he was young— when they all were young. When they firmly believed their adventures would go on forever.
In those days, Scotty had been known as a miracle worker—though in truth, the engineer and his friends had accomplished their miracles together.