Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [108]
“By the authority of the battle fleet of the Romulan Star Empire, you are all under arrest, Terix said. He brandished his disruptor pistol, keeping it leveled more or less at all three dissidents, all of whom appeared to be academics rather than soldiers. Raising their hands in barely contained shock and fear, none of these people looked eager to rise from the small round lunch table around which they sat, or to do anything else that might provoke their captors.
“This cant be everybody, Terix said curtly, leaning toward Trip.
Trip couldnt help but agree. Holstering his own weapon, he pulled out the bulky Romulan military scanning device hed kept strapped to the belt on his simple, black paramilitary outfit, which was a close match for Terixs mission garb.
After consulting the palm-sized display screen for a few moments, Trip said, “Theres still no sign of life in this building other than these people and the two of us. Maybe the interference we picked up in the planets ionosphere is affecting this thing. He shook the scanner as though something broken might have rattled inside it.
“All the way down here on the surface? Terix shook his head. “That would seem to be a rather convenient technical failure.
Already weary of the centurions thinly veiled accusations, Trip found it difficult to make his reply sound entirely civil. “Im not just making this stuff up, you know.
“Of course youre not, Terix said in an ironic tone.
Trip counted slowly to five, trying to calm himself as he turned his attention back to his scanners readout display. “We have to accept the possibility that Chuihv managed to get off the planet before we even got here. Maybe that flash of hull metal I detected on our way in was our man making his escape.
Terix nodded. “Perhaps. But it is equally likely that he has somehow hidden himself here . And that he is using his compatriots as a diversion.
Another mans voice spoke up from directly behind Trip at that moment, making him start reflexively. It was a voice he recognized instantly.
“My associates are no diversion. I prefer to think of them more as bait for a trap.
Trip turned toward the man who had just spoken, and found that Terix was already facing him. The centurion was crouching as though he had been about to launch a “spray-and-pray pattern of fire from his disruptor pistol, but had thought better of it at the last instantand for very solid reasons.
“Chuihv, the centurion said through clenched teeth as he raised the barrel of his weapon so that it pointed harmlessly toward the upper curve of the domed ceiling.
Captain Sopek, Trip thought, mentally correcting Terix. Well, at least we wont have to waste any more precious time searching for you, will we?
“ Jolantru, Centurion Terix, the dissident leader said as he strode calmly forward from underneath the very same open doorway arch through which Trip and Terix had entered the room. The man was obviously emboldened by the half-dozen or so armed, paramilitary-garbed young Romulans who had already deployed themselves very swiftly and efficiently around the ten-meter-wide wardroom. Ugly gray pistols were raised and ready, and Trip recalled having seen nearly identical weapons on two earlier occasions. The first was his brief captivity in the Ejhoi Ormiin compound on Rator II; the second encounter had occurred in the lab where just such a weapon had been used to assassinate Doctor Ehrehin.
The weapons Trip faced now were no doubt every bit as dangerous as those he remembered, and looked as hostile as the expressions on the pale faces of the men and women who wielded them. Trip harbored little doubt that a single word from Chuihv/Sopek, or one false move by either himself or Terix, would suffice to envelop the room immediately