Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Books 1-4) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [115]
Wong interrupted. “Commander, I’m getting some resistance now. It’s growing, almost as if something’s pulling harder the farther we get the Defiant out.”
Here’s where the fun begins, Duffy cracked to himself. “Is this new?”
Stevens answered first. “Not new. The pull from inside the rift was slight from the very beginning and was almost undetectable.” He checked more readings. “Yeah, it’s growing exponentially, Duff. We’ll have to fight to get her free.”
“Kick it up to half-impulse, Mr. Wong,” Duffy said, “and intensify that deflector beam, Fabian. I don’t want to rip a chunk out of the saucer just to win a tug-of-war.”
Duffy didn’t want to contemplate a stalemate just yet as he hoped the away team could help. “Stand by on thrusters, Sonya. Seems as if we’ll need all of the kick we can get.”
CHAPTER
7
Tholians were not known as a race that wasted a lot of movement. Their unusual physiology, evolved over millennia spent on their home planet, did not lend itself to ease of mobility beyond the confines of that world. Conditions aboard ship favored their life support needs, of course, but generations spent exploring and colonizing other planets had long since conditioned Tholians to conserve their energy for only the most appropriate of occasions.
Nostrene, however, cared for none of that as he paced the length of his private quarters. He had decisions to make, and precious little time to make them.
His analysis of the data supplied by the Starfleet engineers regarding the device they had found in the abandoned ship’s cargo hold had led him to believe that the mechanism was of Tholian origin. However, he had not recognized it, and his surprise was compounded when a search of his ship’s computer yielded no useful information. That revelation had prompted him to transmit the data and his report to the High Magistrates personally.
Their response had been alarming.
“We are to destroy the derelict?” asked Taghrex, Nostrene’s second in command. From where he stood near the computer station terminal set into one wall of the room, he studied the message Nostrene had just received from the High Magistrates on the home world. He made no effort to hide the astonishment in his voice.
“That is the command of the Magistrates,” Nostrene replied. “As soon as we are able to achieve a weapons lock, we are to either capture or destroy it as circumstances permit. Either of these options will obviously require us to destroy the recovery vessel as well.”
“We risk retaliatory action from the Federation,” Taghrex said. “Is that truly a wise course?”
Nostrene did not reply immediately, instead taking an additional moment to study his subordinate. Like Nostrene, his body was of a similar reddish hue as befitting someone of noble upbringing. Taghrex had served with distinction under him for many cycles, more than the Tholian commander could easily remember. He would make a fine leader one day, of that Nostrene was sure, once he learned to curb his rash impulses to openly question the wisdom or dictates of those superior to him.
Taghrex was correct about one thing, Nostrene decided. Their next action could well anger the Federation, perhaps endangering the fragile peace that had been established between the two governments.
As if sensing that he may have overstepped his bounds, Taghrex said, “If the Magistrates are willing to risk such a response, then the situation we face now must be dire indeed.”
Much better, Nostrene mused. There was potential in the young officer yet. “You are correct,” he said. “It seems that the Starfleet engineers have stumbled across something that should not exist, at least not any longer.”
Part of a prototype defensive system, the landbased web generator had been designed to capture the inhabitants of a planetary installation without harm to them or the structures they occupied. At least, that was what the Assembly’s official