Dark Matters_ Shadow of Heaven (Book 3) - Christie Golden [52]
The face of a Romulan female, who would have been beautiful had she not been so thin and haggard-looking, filled the viewscreen. Janeway recognized that face, and so did Telek R'Mor, who stood stiffly at his post.
"Captain Janeway," said the woman. "My name is Jekri Kaleh."
CHAPTER 12
JEKRI WAS FEELINGALMOST-ALMOST-ROMULAN AGAIN. Dr. T'Lar had given her supplements that had made her feel stronger almost immediately, and the Mend/foe had also healed all of Jekri's many festering injuries. Still, it had taken a shower and an enormous helping of viinnerine before Jekri felt even a shadow of her old self.
Idran was an old and trusted friend, back in the days when Jekri had believed herself to have old and trusted friends. Like Verrak, Idran had come through for her, for what she was righting for, and Jekri was more grateful than she ever would have imagined.
She ate hungrily in Idran's quarters while Verrak and Idran told her the plan. Things were worse than she had feared. Without Jekri Kaleh watching him, Lhiau had been free to move unencumbered, and move he had.
"We will likely be striking within the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours," Idran told her solemnly. "The fleet is beginning to gather. We must hasten if we are to rendezvous with the Tektral and appear in our appointed position on time."
"Where? How many?" Jekri asked, reaching for a glass of fresh, cold water and gulping it down eagerly. She had thought nothing of water a few weeks ago. Now, she marveled at how refreshing, how precious a fluid it was. She would never take water for granted again.
Idran rose and activated a viewscreen. "Here, here, and here," he said, indicating three key positions along the Neutral Zone. "We have a total of over four thousand vessels."
Jekri almost choked. It was the largest fleet she had ever heard of being assembled.
"The Federation has colonies in these five systems," continued Idran. "We will be in a position to explode from the Neutral Zone and destroy those colonies in moments. This would put an end to any spy missions that might be encamped there."
"Lhiau has commandeered the Talvath and its wormhole technology as well," said Verrak.
"I am not surprised," said Jekri, knowing with a sick knot in her belly where this was leading.
"Once the battle is under way, we will allow a few hours for the Federation to respond to the crisis at the colonies," said Verrak. "At that point, we will open several dozen wormholes, one right after the other. Their targets will be-"
"Earth, of course," said Jekri.."Vulcan, Solaris LX, Starbases 12 and probably 74 and 212, at the very least. You frighten me, gentlemen, with this news of war. It seems that we would win."
"But the dark matter is not wholesome, Jekri," said Verrak, leaning in earnestly. "Lhiau has done everything to cast suspicion on Telek R'Mor, but I have called in a few favors and had some testing done in secret. We do not know much, but we know this: the dark matter is dangerous. And by arming so many vessels, and using so many wormholes, Lhiau is causing us to create more and more of it."
Jekri's hunger was sated, for the moment She knew she should eat more, build up her strength, but her mind was working on the problems and she did not want to eat. Pushing the viinnerine aside, she thought back to the disastrous battle with Voyager.
"Thirteen warbirds against one Federation Starship," she said, voicing her thoughts aloud as they occurred to her for the benefit of her comrades. "Even with Voyager's advantage of twenty years of advanced technology, we ought to have won that battle."
"But the ships seemed to help destroy themselves," said Idran. "We saw."
Impulsively, Jekri reached out a hand to the heavyset, gravelly-voiced commander. "Glad I am that you were not on one of those ships, Idran."
"As am I," the old warrior admitted, "though at the time