Enigma - Michael Jan Friedman [15]
Wu saw that she had her work cut out for her.
“Our logs indicate a series of transmissions over the last several weeks. You made those transmissions, yes?”
Ulelo nodded.
At least he’s not denying it. “Each transmission,” said the second officer, “contained technical specs on one or more of the Stargazer’s systems. This was information you initially collected in your personal files.”
Again, the prisoner nodded.
“And when you had enough to justify the risk, you sent it—right from your com station.”
Another nod. Wu was encouraged.
“What I find puzzling,” she said, “is that those transmissions weren’t sent to any set of coordinates twice. They were sent in what seems like every possible direction.”
Ulelo had no comment.
“What were you trying to accomplish?” she asked.
“I was following orders,” he said, surprising her.
Now we’re getting somewhere. “Whose orders?”
Ulelo fell silent again.
But Wu wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Lieutenant, you said you were following orders. I asked you whose they were.”
The com officer just stared at her.
“Was it the Ubarrak?” she ventured, groping in the dark.
He shook his head. “No.”
Good, Wu thought. If we can’t get a direct answer, maybe we can at least narrow it down.
“The Cardassians?”
Ulelo hesitated this time. But in the end, he answered in the negative again.
Wu searched his eyes. Did his hesitation mean something? Was it the Cardassians after all?
She didn’t let on about her suspicion. Why put the com officer on his guard? Maybe he would say something later that would nail it down for her.
“The Klingons?” she asked.
The Federation wasn’t at odds with the Empire these days. Still, one never knew….
“No,” said Ulelo, as easily as he had ruled out the Ubarrak. No hesitation at all that time.
There weren’t too many other possibilities. Of course, Ulelo could have been in cahoots with a party heretofore undiscovered by the Federation, but Wu couldn’t inquire about entities of which she was unaware.
Ulelo would have to volunteer that kind of information. And judging from the way their conversation was going, he wasn’t about to do that.
“What about the Aristaani?” she suggested.
It was a belligerent species, and one with which the Federation had butted heads on occasion. But to Wu’s knowledge, they weren’t the type to engage in espionage.
That made it all the more surprising when Ulelo said, “Yes.”
He said it freely, too—as if he had no compunctions about saying it. And yet he hadn’t been willing to mention the Aristaani when Wu had asked him an open-ended question.
She didn’t understand. Unless Ulelo was trying to deceive her, throw her off the trail…
But her instincts, and the look on his face, told her that he wasn’t doing that at all. He was telling her the truth. She would have bet on it.
“The Aristaani,” she said, just to be sure.
Ulelo nodded. “Yes.”
But the more she thought about it, the less she believed it. The Aristaani were even more bullheaded and battle-hungry than the Klingons. It had always been their practice to meet their enemies head-on.
So why change now? Wu wished she knew.
“Did the Aristaani tell you what they were planning to do with this information?”
Ulelo shook his head. “No.”
Of course not. That would have made Wu’s job too easy. “How did you come to work for them?”
The prisoner’s eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment. Then he said, “Work for whom?”
What is this, a game? “The Aristaani.”
A strange look came over Ulelo’s face. An almost frightened look. “I didn’t work for the Aristaani.”
“You just said you did,” Wu told him, feeling more than a hint of annoyance now.
The prisoner shook his head from side to side. “No,” he said, “not the Aristaani. The Andorians.”
“The Andorians…?” she echoed incredulously.
The Andorians were members of the Federation. Some of their people were serving on Federation starships. It seemed unlikely that they would go to such trouble to obtain technical information on the Stargazer.
Ulelo looked at her, his eyes full of innocence. “Yes.”
Anger tightened Wu’s jaw. “Do you know what you