Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [4]
“My feelings really dont matter all that much, Erika, Archer said to the image on the terminal. “And frankly, neither do yours. This was Starfleets call to make, not ours.
From across the nearly six-parsec-wide gulf of interstellar space that currently separated Enterprise from Columbia, Captain Erika Hernandez punctuated her reply with a withering frown. “All right. Who are you, and what have you done with Jon Archer?
His lips curled in an inadvertent grin. “Im just an explorer, Erika. I dont make policy. And I dont like babysitting Earth Cargo Service freighter convoys any more than you do. But youve got to admit that there have been enough attacks on the main civilian shipping lanes over the past few weeks to justify keeping Earths two fastest and best-armed starships out on continuous patrol, at least for a while.
She shook her head slightly. “Maybe. But not indefinitely. And certainly not if youre interested in treating the underlying disease instead of just the symptoms.
Archer couldnt really disagree with that either. The past six weeks of mostly uneventful patrol duty, spent endlessly covering the same roughly twenty-light-year stretches outbound from Earth, followed by a virtually identical inbound course which intermittently brought Enterprise and Columbia together from opposite directions, put him in mind of the ancient Greek myth about a man whose misdeeds had earned him the divine punishment of rolling a huge boulder up a hill, only to have to repeat the process endlessly after reaching the summit and seeing it roll down again. Archer sometimes half-seriously considered asking Starfleet to send the new NX -class starship Challenger, still under construction in the skies above San Francisco, to relieve himafter rechristening it Sisyphus, of course.
But he knew better than to think that either he or Captain Hernandez could do much to change the minds of Admirals Gardner, Black, Douglas, Clark, Palmieri, or any of the rest of Starfleet Commands determined brass hats. After all, each of them had shot down essentially the same argument Erika was making today when Archer had first brought the topic before them weeks ago.
“We still dont have any hard proof that the attacks against our freighters are anything other than exactly what they appear to be, Archer said. “The work of rogue pirates and freebooters.
“Thats probably only because those alleged rogue pirates and freebooters have been keeping us both so busy waiting and watching, not to mention wearing a triangular groove in the space between Earth and Draylax and Deneva, that we havent had any time to go hunt down the real culprits.
“The Romulans, Archer said.
She nodded, confirming that he had completed her unvoiced thought. “Or the Klingons. Or maybe even both. The disruptor traces we found on the hull debris are consistent with either of them.
“As nasty as the Klingons can be, my moneys on the Romulans, Archer said.
Her eyes widened. “Why? You know something I dont?
He nodded. “Is this line secure on your end?
“I trust my mother and God, in that order, she said with a nod of her own. “Everybody and everything else has to go through the most stringent of security protocols. Go ahead.
He paused to gather his thoughts. From the edge of the bed, Porthos released a low growl that almost made Archer wonder if his own dog wasnt spying on him on behalf of Admiral Gardner.
“The attack on Coridan has overshadowed just about everything else thats been going on in a dozen sectors in every direction, Archer said at length.
“Thats understandable. Over a billion people have died on Coridan Prime so far, and people are still dying there three months later thanks to all the environmental damage, not to mention the damned civil war theyre fighting. Have you