• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Mastroeni snarled again. “I just don’t like him.” With that, she opened the door to the bridge.

Hudson sighed and followed, settling into his chair. He entered Tuvok’s chip into one of the slots in the console in front of him, then called up the energy signature. Not for the first time wishing like hell they had a ship with a working voice interface, he manually fed the signature into the ship’s sensors and then did a long-range scan.

“I think this is a waste of time,” Mastroeni said. “We’re not going to find anything. We should just shoot him and then get as far away from—”

The sensor alarm beeped. “We’ve got something,” Hudson said with a certain amount of satisfaction. Mastroeni’s caution was understandable, of course, but there was enough of the Starfleet officer left in Cal Hudson that he didn’t feel comfortable with a first mate who insisted on shooting a person down in cold blood.

“That’s in Cardassian space,” Mastroeni said, peering at the sensor display in front of Hudson. “Right over the border.”

“Nearest planet is Nramia.” Hudson pursed his lips. “That’s on the list.”

Mastroeni shot Hudson a look. He didn’t need to explain any further. The Maquis had a list of planets that were viable targets. Hudson knew that one of the other cells—though he did not know which, nor would he know—had targeted Nramia, a colony that had a military outpost.

Hudson hesitated at first. He didn’t want to barge in on someone else’s operation—but if one of the Malkus Artifacts was on Nramia, he had to find it sooner rather than later. They certainly couldn’t risk the Cardassians getting their hands on it.

Besides, there was no timetable for the attack on Nramia that Hudson was aware of. So for all he knew, whoever was attacking wouldn’t be doing so for weeks yet.

“Set a course for Nramia, Darleen. Warp six.”

They made their way toward the Cardassian border in silence. Hudson took advantage of the time to finish reading the report from Eddington that he’d started. What got his attention in particular was the Defiant. Hudson remembered Ben Sisko talking about the ship—a warship originally designed for use against the Borg—when the latter was assigned to Utopia Planitia. The ship had been outfitted with a cloaking device, on loan from the Romulan Star Empire with the proviso that it be used only in the Gamma Quadrant.

I wonder if there’s any way we can get our hands on that….

“Cal, we’ve got a problem. Actually, two.”

Hudson looked up. “What?”

“I’m not reading the energy signature anywhere near Nramia anymore. However, I am picking up five ships bearing down on the planet, and they’re all Galor-class.”

Hudson immediately called up a long-range scan of Nramia itself. Something didn’t look right.

Tuvok’s voice sounded suddenly over the intercom. “Those readings should not be accurate. Nramia’s northern continent is mostly desert and should not experience such extremes of precipitation as are being shown in that scan. In addition, the polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate, one that would, in the normal course of time, take decades. The logical deduction is that the Malkus Artifact in question is the weather controller, and it has already been used.”

“Gee, all that from a long-range scan,” Mastroeni said, rolling her eyes.

“I would also surmise—”

“This ought to be good,” Mastroeni muttered.

Tuvok continued as if Mastroeni hadn’t spoken. “—that the artifact is already in the hands of fellow Maquis.”

Hudson smiled. Nice touch, he thought, referring to them as “fellow.”“It’s possible the Cardassians have it.”

“Unlikely. If that were the case, we would still be reading the artifact’s emissions. I recommend that we abandon our course to Nramia and attempt to relocate the emission.”

“Much as I hate to agree with our—guest, he’s right,” Mastroeni said.

Hudson nodded. “I agree, too. Those Cardassians’ll have itchy trigger fingers, and they’ll probably blame the Maquis whether or not we’re actually responsible. Change course back into the DMZ. I’ll try to reacquire the emission.”

“Changing