Section 31_ Rogue - Andy Mangels [43]
Grelun nodded soberly. “This may be so,” he said, and took a single long stride back toward the compound. “Nevertheless, my communications sentinels will continue listening to the sky.”
Grelun’s tone held little hope. The rebels did possess a fairly sensitive subspace radio transceiver, after all. Despite its being located at the bottom of Chiaros IV’s turbulent atmosphere, it should have picked up some trace of the Slayton by now. But the starship apparently had been silent ever since Koval had arranged for the shuttle Archimedes to be diverted here more than a week ago. And the security-minded Grelun had given strict orders that no subspace signals be transmitted until after the planetary referendum. Zweller could make no attempt to contact his crewmates until Grelun had finished carrying out Falhain’s plan to evict the Federation from Chiaros IV.
But Zweller had another, even more fundamental reason to worry about the Slayton’s fate. He knew it was useless to dwell on it, but he found the matter impossible to ignore completely. He still couldn’t resolve one simple, nagging question to his satisfaction: If the Slayton and her crew were safe, then why had the Federation dispatched a second starship to the illfated conference in Hagraté? Grelun hadn’t seen fit to divulge which starship the two captured Starfleet officers had come from-if he even knew or cared about that piece of information-but Zweller was certain that he had never seen either of the unconscious captives before the rebels had made their escape from the battle in the Chiarosan capital.
Grelun interrupted his gloomy reverie. Taking a single long stride back toward the compound, he said, “Freezing to death will not make your silent comrades speak to you. And I have need of your services.”
Zweller’s teeth were beginning to chatter. “What do you want me to do?”
“Our two newest… guests have at last regained consciousness.” Grelun reached into his jacket and produced a Starfleet-issue tricorder, one of the devices his troops had confiscated from the crew of the Archimedes. He tossed it to Zweller, who caught it clumsily between his cold-numbed hands.
“I wish for our guests to see what I have already shown to you,” Grelun said. “But you must be the one to show them, if they are to be persuaded that our cause is just.”
“I can do that,” Zweller said without hesitation. Stowing the tricorder on his belt, he fell into step beside Grelun.
He felt he had every reason to cooperate with Grelun’s request. Despite the complications created by Falhain’s unforeseen demise at the Hagraté peace conference-it was unfortunate that Zweller had not had a chance to confer with Tabor prior to the ambassador’s arrival on Chiaros IV, or to discuss the aftermath of the melee with him-Zweller was satisfied that he had already achieved Section 31’s desired objective: He had set the vast wheels of Chiarosan internal politics into motion, and once started they couldn’t be stopped. The outcome of the referendum on Federation membership-to be held in a mere three days-was now all but certain to go in favor of Romulus, thanks to Starfleet’s ‘catastrophic failure to maintain order’ in Hagraté. And assuming that Koval was as good as his word, Zweller would soon return to Federation space with ample compensation for this favor-a list of the Romulan intelligence operatives working within the Federation.
Zweller could see no serious downside to his decision to help Grelun end the genocidal war being carried out by Ruardh’s armies. This sort of meddling would almost certainly get him cashiered out of Starfleet, but he had been thinking about retiring soon anyway.
He felt certain he would still have a home within Section 31 after the conclusion of the Chiaros affair. After all, his assisting Grelun couldn’t affect the outcome of this mission. And, even more important, it felt like the right thing to do.
The time had finally come to bring the horrible truth about Chiaros IV to light.
Flanked by a pair of silent Chiarosan warriors, Zweller and Grelun made their