Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [26]
Once Torg had finished securing his prisoner’s ankles to the chair, the door slid open, and he stood at attention as Kruge slowly entered, followed by Maltz and flanked by a leashed animal that appeared to be a monstrous cross between a wolf and a giant lizard, with matted hair, long sharp teeth, and an immediately noticeable foul odor. In the opposite hand from the leash, Kruge held a large crescent-shaped sword with cruelly sharpened points at each end. Whether this grand entrance had been masterfully planned to produce a terrifying effect, from David’s perspective it most certainly had achieved that result.
Kruge took his position directly in front of the chair, with Maltz and Torg standing idly along the wall behind him. But Kruge did not even look at David yet; instead, he faced the side walls and began casually performing some form of martial arts exercises with his weapon, while leaving his formidable animal sitting at the foot of David’s chair to snarl menacingly at him.
With his eyes anxiously trained upon the beast, David decided to go ahead and open up the negotiations. “Uh, have you informed the Federation that you’re holding one of their citizens? There’s not much I can do to help you, but I’m sure they’d be willing to negotiate. I mean, you don’t want to start an interstellar incident, right?”
Kruge halted and slowly turned his head to the young man. “An incident?” he said incredulously. “You have the audacity to suggest that I may begin an incident? The Federation creates a technology capable of incalculable destruction, they even allow a Romulan woman access to its secrets, while at the same time insulting the High Council on Qo’noS, and yet with typical Federation bravado and insolence, you claim to be the injured party.”
He stepped up to the chair and leaned forward menacingly until he hovered just inches from David’s face. “Then injured you shall be,” he snarled, as droplets of spittle shot out from between his teeth, “unless you tell me what I wish to know.”
David gulped. He was going to have to try awfully hard to make this sound believable. “Look, I’ll be glad to share whatever information I have,” he said, grinning in what he hoped was a cooperative-looking expression. “But I didn’t even know anything about Genesis until I received the assignment to investigate the planet. When I…”
The back of Kruge’s hand made a violent impact against David’s nose.
The young scientist’s vision exploded with a white flash as the pain shot up through his sinus cavities, and moments later the blood began to gush forth from his ruptured mucous membranes.
“Don’t toy with me, human,” Kruge said calmly. He motioned for Torg to join him in front of their bound captive, and the subordinate obliged all too eagerly.
David lay back as the searing pain continued to pound throughout his nose, up into his forehead and back to his temples. He opened his mouth to let out an agonized groan and tasted the saltiness of his own blood dripping down past his lips.
Kruge had nonchalantly resumed his swordplay routines. “Let me keep this simple for you, human,” he said amid a phantom parry and a lunge. “If you are telling the truth, then you are of no use to me. I would advise against any further attempts to convince me of your ignorance.”
The possibilities raced through David’s mind, and he struggled to evaluate his options despite the pain. Perhaps he should tell Kruge something…A few base principles about metastatic waveform matrices, or the propagation of protomatter…Surely that wouldn’t be enough for these adversaries to actually build a weapon, would it?
“Perhaps a simple question will spark your memory,” Kruge said. “Where is the base of operations for the Genesis research team?”
No, that would be too much information. Granted, the Regula One spacelab was now deserted, but unless Starfleet had retrieved them, the databanks were still hidden away in the Genesis Cave beneath