Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [138]
Tuvok’s preliminary research on the identities of the seeds on Tenjin was confirmed by a thorough census of all persons arriving in the domes over the past three years. It was decided that the two Romulans, both posing as Vulcans, who had died in the tram accident at about the time the first cancer patients began appearing were most likely the only seeds sent to Tenjin, but the entire indigenous population was inoculated against the Catalyst virus all the same.
The earliest casualties on the Federation side, the seventeen Rigelians from a single extended family, were discovered to be members of a clan that had been engaged in a land dispute since the time of Papaver Thamnos’s great-grandfather. Uhura thought that sufficient to at least begin an investigation into the Thamnos family’s recent activities, but she was warned off by the Federation Council. The Rigel worlds were deemed too valuable, and the Thamnos family too deeply embedded in the governments of those worlds, to risk offending them. Despite her objections, Uhura was told, “Hands off,” and was obliged to comply.
She had been pondering secure ways to tell Cretak everything her team had discovered, when she received even more infuriating news.
It arrived in the form of a bland-looking young man from the C-in-C’s office, who handed her a padd whose contents were retina-scan classified, and waited silently and at attention while the padd scanned the admiral and she read the cover page.
“Did Commander Starfleet tell you why he was sending you with this instead of simply messaging me?” Uhura asked the young man, wondering if he had any idea what was in the document.
“Security, sir. All he told me. And I’m to await your reply.”
“I see,” Uhura said carefully. “It may take me a while to read this. Would you care to sit down? What’s your name?”
“Thank you, sir, no. Luther Sloan.”
He sounds like he thinks I’m interrogating him even when I’m just trying to be friendly, Uhura noted. Very well, let him stand. What she read in the C-in-C’s memo made her all but forget the young man was there.
No! she thought. He can’t do this to me! Hands off the Thamnos cartel-well, fine. Local politics, nothing I can do about it, except maybe plant a few extra Listeners on Rigel and see what if anything they came up with. But if I comply with this, thousands more Romulans may die! And the source or sources behind Catalyst may never be stopped.
She was too seasoned and too well trained to let her thoughts show on her face. She could feel Sloan’s eyes on her, though she knew if she glanced up at him she would find him contemplating the view out the window. He was one of those people who knew when he was being watched, and could glance away a millisecond before the person he was watching attempted to make eye contact.
A natural spy.
So why was he working for the C-in-C and not for her? Uhura wondered, determined to do a background check on him soonest. For now, she deactivated the padd and glanced up at Sloan, who was in fact looking out the window, though he did make eye contact with the admiral once he heard the beep of the padd recoding itself.
“Message, Admiral?” he asked, his voice absolutely devoid of inflection.
Uhura put her not inconsiderable acting talent into a show of reluctant compliance when she said. “Inform Commander Starfleet: Message received and acknowledged. No further action contemplated.”
It was apparently the only message Sloan was prepared to take back to his boss. He accepted the padd from Uhura’s hands, and all but clicked his heels before turning on them sharply and going back the way he came.
The door had not entirely slid closed behind him before Uhura had pulled his file.
Name, rank, serial number. Sloan, Luther, born on Earth, near Pretoria, South Africa. Academy graduate, though from one of the satellite campuses. Now why, Uhura