Death in Winter - Michael Jan Friedman [28]
All too well. “You told me to slow down-there would be no shortage of enemies for me to destroy.”
“Nor is there a shortage now,” said Suran, “even if they originate within the Empire rather than without. That is why my advice today is the same as then: Temper your eagerness. In time, I believe, Braeg will prevail. If I thought otherwise, I would not be here. But it will not happen overnight, no matter how promising the admiral’s reports may be.”
“Shinzon’s coup took a few seconds,” Donatra pointed out. “Just long enough to turn the Senate to dust.”
“Yes,” said Suran, “and look what became of it. Shinzon’s reign lasted hardly any longer than his victim’s cries of terror. We would do better to move slowly and make certain of our support before we reach for Tal’aura’s throat.”
Donatra smiled, grateful for her comrade’s advice. “You are too wise for your own good, Suran.”
“On occasion,” he said, “that is true. But fortunately, I am wise enough for yours.”
Abruptly, a third voice filled the room-one that came to them over the warbird’s communications system. “I sorely regret the interruption, Commander, but Commander Suran’s first officer wishes to speak with him.”
Donatra glanced at Suran. He nodded.
“By all means,” said Donatra, “put him through.”
A moment later they heard from Vorander, Suran’s second-in-command. Apparently, there was a discipline issue aboard the T’sarok that required Suran’s attention.
“It’s an epidemic,” said Donatra.
“So it would appear,” Suran responded.
It was perhaps the tenth incident that had cropped up in the last few days, and it seemed unlikely it would be the last. But then, Romulan centurions weren’t accustomed to playing the waiting game. They craved action.
And their commanders are no different, Donatra mused.
Suran rose and said, “I should take care of this. We will speak again later.”
But not in person, Donatra reflected. And that made it less satisfying, somehow. “Long live the Empire.”
“The Empire,” Suran echoed, and left Donatra sitting there alone in her wardroom.
With her colleague gone, she could hear the rhythmic throbbing of the Valdore’s engines through the bulkheads. It was a good sound, as reassuring as Suran’s presence in its way, and even more so considering how recently the engines had been rendered silent.
Donatra remembered every detail perfectly-the flash and hull-piercing impact of Shinzon’s torpedoes, the way she had been thrown across the deck, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. She remembered too how helpless she had felt after she realized the extent of the damage.
No propulsion, no weapons, not even a forward shield. All she could do was contact her ally, Captain Picard, and let him know he had to fight on alone.
But Donatra’s engineering team was among the canniest in the Empire. It hadn’t taken long for them to get the engines running again and return the Valdore to fighting form.
So she can take part in the struggle against Tal’aura, the commander thought. So she could shake the pretender free of the throne she had claimed so quickly, and to which she clung now with such consummate stubbornness.
Of course, Braeg was doing all the fighting for now. Once again he had whipped a crowd into frenzy, inflaming it with his criticisms of Tal’aura’s misguided regime. And once again, the praetor had demonstrated her weakness by declining to send her centurions to arrest him.
Donatra sympathized with the crowd in the capital. She appreciated how difficult it was to ignore Braeg, how difficult it was to turn one’s back on him.
The first time she encountered Braeg had been years earlier, in the D’nossos System, when she was still serving as Suran’s first officer. As head of a special task force, the admiral impressed Donatra with his courage and his cunning.
Not to mention his dark good looks.
Braeg had occasion, as it turned out, to notice her virtues as well. During the battle in which they finally routed the Tellati, Donatra came across a warbird whose command staff had perished. Beaming aboard with a couple of her subordinates, she