Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [43]
Trip Tucker had never before felt more alone and isolated than he did at this very moment. Only now was he beginning to understand, in a deep, visceral way, just how dependent he had become upon Ehrehin, not only for the accomplishment of his mission on behalf of Earth and the Coalition, but also for simple survival in such a strange, faraway land.
Long before he had allowed circumstance to sweep him into the spy trade, all Trip had ever wanted to do was to be an engineer. For the first time in his career, he wished hed never picked up a tool, never gone into space, served on a starship, or so much as laid eyes on the Starfleet Charter.
Particularly Article Fourteen, Section Thirty-one.
Day Thirty, Month of KriBrax The Hall of State, Dartha, Romulus
The intercom on the desk buzzed in a broken tone that denoted an incoming communication from a particular source. Chief Technologist Nijil placed the secured privacy earpiece carefully into his right ear before opening up the channel.
“Go ahead.
“The deed has been done, said the deep but flat voice on the lines other end.
A triumphant smile slowly began to spread across Nijils vulpine features.
“There has, however, the voice continued guardedly, “been a slight complication.
EIGHT
Tuesday, July 15, 2155 E.C.S. Horizon, Gamma Hydra Sector
P AUL M AYWEATHER HEARD the noise of the creaking deck plates behind him as it rose slightly above the background buzz of the ancient freighters computers and air-circulation fans. Turning toward the familiar sound, he watched as his mother and chief engineer, Rianna Mayweather, approached the middle of the aft section of the small hexagonal bridge that she had always insisted on describing as “cozy rather than “cramped.
Gesturing toward the image of the uncannily Earth-like globe that turned slowly on the bridges large forward viewer, she said, “The people down there really surprised me.
“Im just happy they turned out to be friendly and willing to deal with us, Paul said.
Rianna nodded. “Of course. But isnt it amazing how quickly they picked up English?
“I thought that was pretty remarkable, too, said Charlie Nichols, who seemed delighted to be back behind his helm console after his brief sojourn dirtside. He looked happy to hear that the last few repairs had finally been completed, no doubt because he was raring to perpetrate yet another one of the sudden, kidney-damaging lurches directly from space-normal speed to warp two for which he was so renowned.
Paul nodded silently in response to the observations of his mother and the helmsman before facing forward again to study the stately turning of the blue-and-white-streaked world on which he and the Horizon s crew had just completed the bulk of their emergency repairs. He had to admit that the natives facility for languages was remarkable, if indeed they had been telling the truth about never before having played host to a visiting Earth vessel.
But even more remarkable was the lucky happenstance that this worlds barely industrial-age inhabitants had been able to furnish sufficient supplies of the metals and organic polymer precursors necessary to allow Mom, Nora, and Juan to get the Horizon s propulsion system up and running again after that damned micrometeoroid swarm had crippled the Horizon s aging Bussard collectors and navigational deflectors.
Juan Marquez and Nora Melchior, who served in the freighters small merchant crew as junior engineer and Jill-of-all-trades respectively, were in the process of replacing a burned-out navigation sensor module in one of the starboard consoles. Although theyd seemed utterly absorbed in their work, they both evidently had been following the desultory conversation every bit as closely as Paul had done.
“Ill grant you that theyre quick learners, Nora said, grunting as she strained to free a slightly balky hydrospanner from the awkward tight space between consoles into