Section 31_ Rogue - Andy Mangels [48]
“More recently, Ruardh started worrying that the exiled tribes might complicate her initiative for Federation membership. So she ordered them liquidated, town by town, village by village. There are new massacres every few weeks, but Ruardh has managed to keep a lid on things so far by jamming whatever long-range subspace communications capabilities the rebels may have. And since her people control the orbiting transmitter, the Federation knows only what Ruardh wants us to know. If the Federation wins the referendum-and Ruardh hangs onto power-these people can’t hope to hold out for much more than another year or two. Not without help, anyway.”
Riker stroked his beard calmly, giving Zweller the impression of a man about to place a bid in a friendly game of poker. “Commander, the sooner we get back to the Enterprise, the sooner we might be able to provide that help.”
“Grelun has promised to release all of us after the referendum,” Zweller said. “That includes the three of us and my shuttle crew.”
Troi shook her head. “Even if the vote goes the way Grelun wants it to, we’d all still be stuck here for the next three days, unable to help anybody. And if what we saw in the village is any indication, a lot more people could die during that time.”
Excellent point, Zweller thought, taking care to keep his mind opaque to Troi’s empathic senses. He wondered how many more Chiarosan children might have to pay with their lives for his adherence to prearranged mission timetables. After all, if they were all to escape to the Enterprise sooner rather than later, there might be time to expose Ruardh’s crimes to the general populace-and to the Federation Council-before the planet-wide referendum.
Zweller assumed that the vote would, in any event, still go against the Federation because of its earlier failure to broker peace between Ruardh and Falhain. But that also meant, as Zweller reasoned it, that an early departure could not disrupt the bargain he’d made with Koval on behalf of Section 31. Therefore, his mission objective would still be accomplished even if he and the other prisoners were to leave right now.
Turning away from the guard, Zweller whispered, “Let me see what I can do.”
After the visit to the destroyed village, no one had thought to relieve Zweller of the tricorder Grelun had returned to him. Zweller had maintained possession of it by leaving it attached to his belt, right out in the open. He had, in effect, hidden it in plain sight. The rebels apparently didn’t see the point of confiscating something that he was clearly making no effort whatsoever to conceal.
While Grelun hadn’t exactly given Zweller the run of the Army of Light compound, the rebel leader had allowed him considerable freedom of movement in exchange for his tactical advice. That, and for helping the Chiarosans use the replicator salvaged from the Archimedes to create weapons and spare components for the freedom fighters’ dozen or so battered fighter craft. Zweller thought of his surviving Slayton crewmates, reflecting that Roget would be extremely upset if he ever discovered just how badly maintained the ships that captured the Archimedes had been; the Starfleet shuttle could easily have held its own against them.
During the eight days or so he had spent among the Chiarosan rebels so far-it was awkward expressing time in terms of days on a world without sunrises and sunsets-Zweller had come to feel that these grim warriors had become at least tolerant of his presence. Many of them now genuinely seemed to like him, and were no doubt grateful for his help.
Thus Zweller was unsupervised when, less than ten minutes after parting company with Riker and Troi, he entered an empty alcove. Here he opened a wall-mounted panel through