Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [178]
He knew that things were bad everywhere. Columbia hadnt been heard from in days either, ever since she had gone to Alpha Centauri. And rumors were floating around that the Romulans had managed to get control of other kinds of ships besides those of the Klingons. But if those rumors were true, nobody had confirmed them yet.
But Columbia wasnt the Horizon . Mayweathers family wasnt on Columbia. Paul, Mom, where are you? he thought for perhaps the three-thousandth time in the last few hours, his slightly shaking fingers manipulating the controls as he checked and double-checked sensor readings to the limits of Enterprise s resolution.
Mayweather knew from his conversation with the Kobayashi Maru s first matethe man whom he had trusted to deliver his letters to his family and friends aboard the Horizon that the Mayweather familys freighter was supposed to have met the Maru in the Coalition side of the Gamma Hydra sector. But the Horizon hadnt made her scheduled rendezvous, according to every port of call he had managed to contact. Nobody had heard from the Horizon for over ten days; it was as if she just dropped off the edge of the star maps.
He couldnt believe that his family and their crew would allow themselves to fall prey to some stupid deep-space accident, which meant that somebody had to be responsible for their disappearance. They were too tough and clever to become the victims of garden-variety space pirates. And given the recent wave of remote-control attacks that had caused so much grief across Coalition space lately, the Romulans seemed to be the best suspects.
Mayweather scowled down at his controls for several minutes, trying not to allow himself to return to the depths of his personal darkness. He hadnt been able to sleep for days, and could barely eat. But he knew he needed to keep his focus strong. He needed to concentrate on his duties, to lose himself in them, now more than ever before. Come on, Travis, keep it together and concentrate. He could almost hear his mother alternately admonishing and encouraging him, just as she had all through his life. He would have given anything to hear her speak to him again, even if it was only to scold him for leaving his quarters looking like an explosive decompression accident.
He heard the door to Captain Archers ready room slide open, and turned his head to see Commander TPol exiting the room, with Captain Archer a few paces behind her. The Vulcan woman appeared even more dour than usual, but she didnt look in Mayweathers direction, perhaps deliberately so. Whatever was going on at the moment, Mayweather thought it likely that it had nothing to do with either him or the fate of the Horizon .
Captain Archer, however, glanced his way as he stepped onto the bridge, then looked away again a moment later, seeming to survey the bridge. Mayweather was glad his back had been turned to the captain over most of the last three days; he hadnt agreed with Archers decision to leave the Kobayashi Maru defenseless when hed ordered Enterprise to withdraw.
I would have found a way, he thought. Theres always a solution, and turning and running isnt it. Leaving helpless people behind to die cant be the solution.
It didnt help that the Kobayashi Maru was a freighter, like the Horizon, or that Mayweather had made casual friends with the Maru s first mate, Arturo Stiles, when Enterprise s crew had helped the fuel hauler with her repairs last week near Altair VI.
Captain Archer just left them to die.
As he sat at the helm of Archers ship, Mayweathers mind wandered, not for the first time, back to the question that bothered him the most: Would Archer have abandoned the Horizon as callously as he had the Kobayashi Maru ?
And with that gnawing question remaining unanswered, he wondered whether he could ever again really have faith in his captains decisions.
Archer looked out across his bridge as he exited his ready room behind TPol. The first crew members eyes he caught were those of Travis Mayweather.