Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [177]
Finally, just as she was about to try another editor at the sub-net, Nash McEvoy picked up his comlink.
“What is it, Naquase? he asked breathlessly, as though hed just entered his office at a flat-out run.
She toggled the headpiece vidcam she wore, activating it even as she turned her back to face the rest of the press gaggle. She didnt want them to see the “on light on the headset.
“I promised you Id scoop your girl, she said, subvocalizing into her throat mic. “And I recorded your promises. So dont even think about trying to back away from our deal.
“This had better be big, or else you just torched your bridge while you were still standing on it, McEvoy said, hiding none of his testiness.
“Oh, its big, all right, Keisha said, holding the datapad up to where the cameras eyeand Nashcould see it.
Thursday, July 24, 2155 Grangeburg, Alabama
Albert Tucker balanced the four plates of waffles in both hands as he exited the kitchen. He had picked the strawberries in their patch of the communal garden at sunrise, then sliced them thinly in order to add them to the multigrain batter. He knew how much his dad loved strawberry waffles, and he and Mom visited so rarely these days that Bert wanted to make certain they both had a good time.
“All right, Dad, heres your favorite, he said, entering the dining room.
Seated at the table were his father, Charles, and his mother, Elaine, while Berts husband, Miguel, stood nearby. They all looked stunned and grief-stricken.
What now? Bert thought. They had already lost Berts sister in a Xindi attack on Earth, and his brother, Trip, had been killed on the Starship Enterprise only a few months back. Today everyone in the room bore the same signature of tragedy hed seen on both of those other terrible occasions.
“What is it, Mike? he asked, holding the shifting stack of plates like an inexpert juggler.
Miguel pointed to the nearby wall-mounted flatscreen, which he often left turned on as a soundless visual wallpaper. Though the sound was muted as usual, he could see the silent news anchor mouthing words, the screen split between him and a stern-looking uniformed Starfleet official.
Bert watched as his father took his mothers hand. “Say goodnight, Gracie, said Dad, incorporating his nickname for Mom into what was doubtless some sort of obscure, centuries-old pop-culture reference calculated to cheer her up.
It didnt seem to be working, however; Moms misting eyes remained riveted to the image on the screen, which Bert finally began looking at closely.
Crawling across the screens bottom, in large white capital letters superimposed onto a red stripe, was a single ill-omened phrase.
The stack of plates left Berts nerveless fingers in time-dilated slow motion, smashing on the floor with the same silence as the screens three endlessly marching words:
COALITION DECLARES WAR!
FIFTY-ONE
Friday, July 25, 2155 Enterprise NX-01, Gamma Hydra sector, near Sataghni
E VERY TIME C APTAIN A RCHER and Commander TPol were off the bridge, Travis Mayweathers mind took him to the worst places imaginable. It wasnt significantly better for him when they were on the bridge Enterprise had been mostly stopped dead in space, undergoing a number of in-place emergency repairs and systems diagnostics ever since the Tezel-Oroko confrontation and the Kobayashi Maru disasterbut at least having command staff in place on the bridge meant that they werent sequestered away exchanging secret messages with Starfleet Command.
Malcolm Reed and Hoshi Sato had both tried to reassure him that even if Starfleet was calling with news, it wasnt necessarily related to the disappearance of the Horizon . That hadnt helped. He already knew that; the specter of impending war had