Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [136]
She paused, looking away toward something that might have been parsecs distant. She seemed to be gathering her thoughts and emotions around her like tattered garments.
“During the confusion that followed the elimination of Praetor Hiren and the Senate,” she began at length, “Suran and I gained access to a large complement of warbirds. These vessels and their armaments were, shall we say, subsequently unaccounted for.
“Obviously, we needed to keep the existence of these vessels a secret, and their location concealed. I convinced Suran that the best place to hide the fleet was within the gravimetric and subspace flux zone surrounding the Great Bloom.”
“Great Bloom?” Riker asked.
“Forgive me. The Great Bloom is our designation for the spatial anomaly located only a handful of veraku away from Romulus at high warp. You have no doubt observed the phenomenon yourselves, and have given it another name. It’s centered in the very spot where Shinzon’s vessel exploded after our engagement with him.”
“The spatial rift,” Deanna said quietly.
“Why are you sharing this with us, Commander?” he said aloud.
“Because…” Donatra began, her voice faltering momentarily before she found the strength to continue. “Because the entire fleet has vanished. Every ship. Every officer. Every enlisted crew member. All gone, without leaving so much as a body or any identifiable debris. Suran and I have been searching the region for two full eisae , but to no avail.”
“You think your ships have fallen into the event horizon of the spatial rift,” said Deanna.
“The Great Bloom’s center is the only place we’ve yet to search directly, because our sensors cannot penetrate it. But it is the likeliest place.”
“And you want us to help you find them,” Riker added.
“Yes.”
Riker understood that yet another fairly monumental decision was now expected of him. He was more than passing familiar with the Romulan aphorism “He who rules the military rules the Empire.” And it seemed fairly obvious that helping the Romulan military faction acquire—or reacquire—large quantities of ships and arms could jeopardize the already delicate balance of power that now existed between the mutually opposed Romulan factions and the Klingon-protected Remans.
But leaving those ships lost, he thought , where they might fall into the hands of gods-only-know-who might be an even worse idea.
“I am taking the Valdore into the center of the Great Bloom, Captain. With or without your help. I intend to give my crew the order in a moment.”
Riker had seen enough spatial rifts over the course of his career to understand the extreme danger inherent in flying into one. But ever since Commander Donatra had joined forces with the Enterprise crew against Shinzon, Riker had regarded her almost as a comrade-in-arms. Her cooperation during the recent Reman attack and the subsequent power-sharing summit had only solidified that working relationship. How could he let her face such a terrible risk alone?
He came to a decision. “Titan will accompany you to the edge of the rift, Commander.”
“But not over its edge. You disappoint me, Captain. I thought you had more courage.”
Riker answered with an involuntary chuckle. Does she really expect to manipulate me by calling me “chicken”?
“There’s courage and then there’s suicide,” he said. “I’ll do my best to help you recover your ships and crews. But I’m not interested in helping you atone for losing them by throwing yourself off a cliff.”
Her eyes narrowed, but it was obvious she had no desire to alienate him by venting her anger on him. “And what will merely standing on the cliff’s edge accomplish?”
“Titan has sensors that I’ll wager are a good deal more sensitive than anything aboard the Valdore. Perhaps they can tell us just how dangerous that cliff really is.”
She took this in with a curt nod. “Very well, Captain. The Valdore will depart for the Great Bloom in five of your minutes.” And with that her image vanished, to be replaced by