Kobayashi Maru - Michael A. Martin [63]
Valdore watched the virtual ship as it slowly turned through every conceivable degree of pitch, roll, and yaw, and silently thanked all the gods of Erebus for the coming culmination of his painstaking work. Both Praetor Dderidex and First Consul TLeikha had lately been applying an uncomfortable amount of pressure on him to produce results.
They would soon see results beyond their wildest expectations. Valdore was beginning to feel sure of it, even though years of finely honing his instincts gave him a general distrust of such complacent certainties.
“Very good, Nijil, he said, nodding appreciatively at his chief technologist. “But remember, both the klivam vessels and the personnel we captured along with them are to be considered expendable should anything go wrong after we launch the attack.
“Of course, Admiral, Nijil said, fist clenched and elbow bent in a crisp salute. “I will see to it that their brutish lives are spent profitably in the defense of our Empire. And that theirs are the only identifiable fresh corpses anyone will be able to recover from the wreckage.
Soon, Earth and her Coalition partners would have all the proof they might need that the slope-browed ahlh who infested the Klingon Empire represented a far more imminent danger than did the Romulan Star Empire. Despite his ingrained, pragmatic aversion to wish-fulfillment fantasies and his hesitancy to believe in best-case scenarios, Valdore grinned as he considered what was to come.
Particularly once the Coalition weaklings set their vigilant eyes upon the wrong part of the sky and became preoccupied with the phantoms that would shortly be planted in their distracted field of view.
With a little help, he thought, from my newest loyal servant, Cunaehr.
TWELVE
Thursday, July 17, 2155 Enterprise NX-01
A LTHOUGH SHE HAD APPEARED on the bridge during the alpha watch just long enough to request that Captain Archer excuse her from her duties for unspecified personal reasons, TPol had really done so to show Ensign Sato that the captain had no issues with her earlier unauthorized transmissions. As she had anticipated, he had honored her request that he refrain from prying into the specifics that lay behind it. That was perhaps for the best, since TPol knew she had never mastered the fine art of lying. Misdirection seemed more credible, at least in theory, but had proved only marginally easier in practice.
Though he didnt insist on it, Archer nevertheless seemed to wish to discuss the matter further; TPol ignored the instinct that impelled her toward forthrightness and duty and walked away from him. He had already made it abundantly clear in sickbay that he had no intention of rescuing Trip, which meant that her plans simply didnt fall into line with the captains.
The feeling was odd. She had defied authority before, but usually in the service of the needs of the many. This time, however, she knew that she was acting largely to satisfy her own deeply personal needs, no matter how she might seek to justify them using arguments about the urgency of the encroaching Romulan menace.
Life calls to Life, she thought, using the immortal words of the Third Analects of Surak to validate her all but irresistible compulsion to come to Trips aid. In doing so, she knew she was brushing aside one of the ancient Vulcan philosophers even more fundamental axioms: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. She didnt care.
Once safely within her quarters again, TPol triggered a subspace signal burst to Denak, who had signaled already during the brief time she had been on the bridge. Even with the knowledge of her transmissions shared now by Archer and Sato, TPol still took the precaution of activating the scrambling device as Denaks incoming signal announced itself with a series of beeps on her desktop computer terminal. Its preferable for them to think Im discussing personal medical issues with a doctor on Vulcan than to learn what Im really