Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [12]
But for now they were separated, as the Enterprise was left light-years behind, slowly limping back home behind an escort, barely able to sustain warp drive.
David shared a meal with his mother in their quarters that night, then retired for some well-earned rest. His dreams, however, were troubled. Throughout the night, visions of the tortured scientists on Regula One repeatedly tormented him, and the sounds of their screams continually echoed through his mind. He had left them there to die. He had run away and hid deep underground, ostensibly to save Genesis…but had he really only saved himself?
He awoke the next morning in a cold sweat just as the Yorktown was entering the Sol system. After he had showered and dressed, he and Carol devoured a quick breakfast just as the vessel began procedures to enter the spacedock in orbit around Earth-a planet where David had not lived on a permanent basis since he was very young; yet now, with nowhere else to go, he and his mother were faced with the unforeseen prospect of finding a home there. It was while the final docking routines were locked down that the message came through to David and Carol-an official government communique, requesting (or rather, politely demanding) their immediate presence at a formal debriefing.
As they disembarked the vessel along with numerous Starfleet cadets who had transferred from the Enterprise for the return voyage, they were greeted by a Starfleet admiral in full uniform, accompanied by a shorter, older man smartly dressed in typical business attire. “Doctors Carol and David Marcus?” he inquired.
“Yes, that’s right,” Carol replied.
“Good morning. I’m Admiral Harold Morrow, Starfleet Command. This is Mack Kane, Federation Secretary of Defense.”
The elder gentleman nodded to them. “How do you do,” Carol replied in an even tone, though David knew her well enough to realize that she was concealing a fair amount of nervous surprise. Neither he nor his mother had anticipated that this meeting would be with two of the top officials in the Federation’s entire defense command structure.
“If you would please just follow me a short way,” Morrow continued, gesturing further down the hall. “I apologize for the suddenness of this request, but it was necessary. Hopefully we can keep this brief. I know you are both anxious to return home.”
“Actually, Admiral,” Carol replied as they moved down the crowded corridor of the spacedock, “we had been stationed at the Regula spacelab for more than a year. Neither of us has a home on Earth.”
Morrow seemed taken aback. “Oh, my apologies. Well, if neither of you is able to secure housing right away, you’re welcome to stay tonight in guest quarters at Starfleet Command. Here we are,” he said, entering the door to a small conference room. The four of them filed in and took seats around a display monitor at the end of a long table, though Morrow remained standing. “Can I get any of you something to drink?”
They all shook their heads. “We’re fine, thank you,” David spoke up.
“Very well,” Morrow said, taking his seat, then grimly focusing his gaze upon Carol and David each in turn. “Doctors, we’re in the midst of a crisis. Word has spread much faster than anticipated…though I suppose it would have been naive to expect the creation of a new planet in the Beta Quadrant to go unnoticed by our adversaries. No doubt the explosion was picked up on long-range scans, probably by the Klingons, and by the next day the entire subspace net was buzzing with rumor and innuendo. Today, I don’t think there’s a spacefaring civilization this side of the galactic core that doesn’t know about the Genesis planet.”
“Have they learned anything about the technology behind it?” Carol asked.
“That’s one of the things we wanted to ask you,” Kane replied. “We’ve read Kirk’s reports, but we need to be very clear. This Khan Noonien Singh…he compromised the Regula laboratory and