Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [102]
“I did a bit of hobby shooting back at the university, Trip said as he undid his own flight harness and followed Terix into the rear of the ship. After watching the centurion open the locker and arm himself, Trip silently accepted the heavy silver pistol that Terix handed him.
“This is the dangerous end, right? Trip said, pointing at the weapons tapered, hand-length barrel.
Terix only scowled, then checked and holstered his own weapon before handing Trip an empty holster belt.
Again, no stun setting, Trip thought as he gave the weapon a quick once-over, making certain that the safety was on. He hoped to hell he wouldnt have to fire one of these things in combat again anytime soon, though he knew that was probably far too much to hope for. After all, they were about to raid the stronghold of a cold-blooded killer who had already proved he had no compunctions about killing.
Strapping on the holster belt, Trip thought, Lets hope my old friend Sopek is getting careless in his old age and left a window open for us.
TWENTY-FIVE
Shuttlepod Two
S O FAR AS M ALCOLM R EED KNEW , the name of the aquamarine planet that turned slowly several hundred klicks below the shuttlepod had never been recorded on any Earth star chart. In fact, it was one of the farthest-flung worlds that human eyes had ever beheld.
But if Commander TPol was right, another human may already have preceded him to this remote place.
“How can you be so certain well find Commander Tucker here? Reed said.
TPol raised an eyebrow as she regarded him with that damnably cool Vulcan assuredness of hers. “My intelligence sources have always proved reliable in the past, Lieutenant.
“Ill grant you that the Vulcan transport vessel you got us docked with did a damned fine job of sneaking us past those Romulan patrols at Alpha Fornacis, Reed said. Not to mention not reporting our whereabouts to Starfleet, he added silently. It was obvious that the ship in question had been up to something other than the banal tasks of moving passengers and cargo in order to operate with impunitysometimes at speeds in excess of warp factor sixmore than half a parsec inside territory claimed by the Romulan Star Empire.
He still felt annoyed at having been confined to the shuttlepod for most of their three-day voyage, deprived of even the laconic company of TPol, who had been allowed at least partial access to the transport vessel that had carried Shuttlepod Two so close to its destination. But even the usually stoic TPol had complained about how little access she had been given to the all but invisible Vulcan benefactor whom her VShar contacts had persuaded to grant them covert passage into Romulan space. The Vulcans seemed quite intent on keeping a tight lid on whatever they were really up to so deep within the Romulan sphere of interest. This cloak of secrecy made Reed very nervous about whatever it was that the new, purportedly more transparent TPau regime on Vulcan might want to keep hidden from its Coalition partners. And those worries werent so much for his own safety, or even that of TPol, but for that of Trip. A second Coalition-based spy bureau blundering about here among the Romulans could well put Trips mission and life in jeopardy without meaning to do so or even noticing the damage theyd done.
Of course, he was uncomfortably aware that the very same accusation could well be leveled at both himself and TPol.
Putting those matters aside for the moment, Reed continued his conversation with TPol: “But the only confirmation we have that we might find Trip here, as opposed to any of a dozen other systems, comes from yourvisions.
“I do not have visions, Lieutenant, TPol said, her equanimity apparently shaken but little by Reeds almost accusatory point. “But I remain convinced that I have achieved at least an intermittent telepathic link with Trip She paused, apparently catching herself in the act of revealing more than she preferred to reveal. “With Commander Tucker. There is ample precedent for such things, Mister