Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [0]
The group was standing beneath a gigantic silver sculpture fashioned in the shape of a hawklike avian that loomed over the curved tiers of desks and chairs where the late Romulan Senate had done its deliberations for centuries. Surrounded by blue pillars and abstract, rust-colored wall hangings, the room’s expansive stone floor was dominated by a circular mosaic of smooth marble, half blue and half green, and inlaid with lines and circlets of gold. A wavy ribbon of turquoise bisected the mosaic, at once separating and joining the two halves together. Golden icons faced one another across the length of the divide, arrayed like chess pieces.
On the green side, far off-center and larger than every other element on the mosaic, was the stylized image of a star and two nearby planets.
To Troi, the symbolism was both obvious and shocking…. and perhaps indicative of a disturbing cultural mindset. Here, at the very heart of their power, was the Romulan worldview: an image not of the empire entire, with Romulus at its center, but rather, a symbol of enmity, of its centuries-old antagonism with its old foe, the Federation.
And it dominated the very floor of the Senate Chamber.
Is this how they see themselves? Troi wondered. Always on the verge of war with us? Or does the central placement of the Neutral Zone speak more to a feeling of confinement? A reminder of thwarted ambition? What does this say about a civilization, that it defines itself by its relationship to its longtime adversary?
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For D. Randolph Jones, M.D.,
whose electrocardiological artistry keeps
my heart beating. And for my wife, Jenny,
for whom that heart beats.
—M.A.M.
This book is dedicated to Paul Smalley,
my chosen son, with love from his chosen dad.
Ich liebe Dich, mein Sohn.
—A.M.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this volume owe a debt of appreciation (or is that vengeance?) to several other Star Trek novelists: John Vornholt, Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, Robert Greenberger, David Mack, and Keith R. A. DeCandido, the authors of the A Time To series of novels; Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz, the Romulan historians extraordinaire who named the Romulan capital; Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who also supplied a name for the Romulan capital; Michael Jan Friedman, who shepherded some of the characters who appear in (or are referenced in) this book through their very first post-Nemesis adventures; Dave Galanter, David Mack (again), and Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz (again), all of whom left some nifty little Easter eggs hidden for us in the Tales of the Dominion War anthology; and Diane Duane, who painted a great deal of the basic linguistic and cultural backdrop for the Romulan Star Empire.
Historian’s Note
Most of this story unfolds during the final days of the year 2379 (Old Calendar), shortly after the events of Star Trek Nemesis and the novel Death in Winter.
All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power,