Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [163]
TPau continued to stand alone in the rooms center, feeling a bereft sense of desolation she hadnt experienced since Syrran had died protecting Suraks katra from the predations of Administrator VLas, TPaus ousted predecessor.
Surak had always believed that the logic of peace transcended all other considerations. TPau, however, was becoming bitterly aware that such logic often broke down when one was beset by uncompromising, rapacious hostiles such as those who had just attacked Alpha Centauri and Calder.
Especially when those hostiles were Romulans, misguided cousins of Suraks children, bent on destroying everything that Vulcan and her allies had worked so hard to create.
FORTY-SIX
Gamma Hydra sector
T HE MORE TIME HE SPENT on the busy bridge of Sopeks bird-of-prey, the warier Trip felt.
Why hasnt the bastard just tossed me into a cell? Trip thought as he ran a hand slowly over the bridge console to which the Vulcan-Romulan double agent had posted him. Since the console was out of orderits lone functioning monitor displayed a blood-green pictogram proclaiming that it had been closed down temporarily for diagnostics and repairTrip assumed that Sopek didnt expect him to be able to do much harm here, right out in plain sight, no less.
But why is he letting me anywhere near any of this stuff, whether its working or not? It cant be because hes decided he trusts me all of a sudden.
Glancing toward the hulking armed uhlan who stood watching him from beside the nearest turbolift entrance, Trip realized that Sopek might have allowed him onto the bridge for reasons altogether unrelated to trust. The situation brought to mind a twentieth-century flatvid film, an organized-crime drama that he had seen with TPol on a long-ago Movie Night back aboard Enterprise, years ago and parsecs away. According to one of the gangsters portrayed in the film, it was best not only to keep ones friends close, but also to keep ones enemies closer .
Maybe Sopek even thinks theres a chance Ill volunteer to sign up with his own warp-seven engineering team if he holds me captive long enough.
The exclamation of a junior com officer interrupted Trips ruminations. “Commander Chuihv! I am picking up a subspace transmission from the vicinity of Tezel-Oroko.
“Put it on audio, Sublieutenant, said the bird-of-preys commander, whom Trip still had trouble thinking of by any name other than his Vulcan nom de guerre, Sopek.
A crackling rush of static heralded the panicked utterance of a deeply terrified-sounding human male. “imperative! This is the Kobayashi Maru, nineteen periods out of Altair VI. We have struck a gravitic mine and have lost all power! Our hull is penetrated and we have sustained many casualties
Extremely conscious of the disruptor-carrying uhlan who continued to eye him from the rear of the bridge, Trip moved away from his dead console and cautiously approached the central command chair upon which Chuihv/Sopek sat.
“Is this the freighter you mentioned? Trip asked, trying to pitch his voice so that only the captain could hear him clearly. “The one thats carrying the spy gear you said you wanted to help Earth and Vulcan set up at Tezel-Oroko?
The other man only nodded before looking down at a small display screen built into the arm of his chair; whatever it showed lay just outside Trips immediate line of sight.
“Well, arent we going to rescue her? Trip asked, scarcely able to contain his mounting impatience.
“Something tells me we might not have to, Commander, Sopek said, still staring down at his hidden display.
A moment later, another human voice rose above the background hum of the bridges instruments. “Kobayashi Maru, this is Enterprise. Please confirm your position.
Hoshi! Trip experienced the first real surge of hope hed allowed himself to feel since hed encountered TPol and Malcolm at Taugus III.
“Enterprise, our position is Gamma Hydra, section ten, said the frightened man aboard the freighter. “Hull penetrated.