The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [30]
“Agreed,” Chakotay said.
Tuvok nodded. “Thank you.”
“First thing we’re doing is getting you out of that uniform. It won’t go over well around here.” Hudson smiled. “I think I’ve got something in my footlocker that’ll fit you.”
Tuvok’s eyebrow practically climbed off his head. “That estimation may be optimistic.” The Vulcan had a tall, lithe form, completely unlike Hudson’s own bulkier frame. Tuvok’s torso could practically fit in one of Hudson’s shoulders.
“We’ll figure something out. C’mon.”
“Cal.” It was Mastroeni over the intercom.
“Go ahead,” Hudson said, looking up.
“I’ve got good news and bad news. Tell Chakotay he wasn’t kidding about this Torres woman. We’ve got warp eight-point-five.”
“The bad news?”
“Tharia’s still going to beat us to Slaybis by about two hours.”
Chakotay muttered a curse in a language Hudson didn’t recognize. “With that weapon, two hours is a lifetime.”
“It will surely be the remaining lifetime of Lieutenant Phifer,” Tuvok said dryly.
Whirling on Tuvok, Chakotay said, “I don’t give a damn about the life of a Starfleet infiltrator, Vulcan. He knew the risks when he went undercover. But Tharia can’t tell what a legitimate target is anymore. He’s lashing out at everything in his way. He’s spent the last nine months pretending that the deaths of his mates didn’t affect him, and now he’s making up for it by killing indiscriminately.”
As calm as Chakotay had been intense, Tuvok said, “Then logic dictates we do everything we can to stop him.”
Chapter Six
A SMALL SHIP FLEW THROUGH THE REGION between star systems in a sector that currently was designated 22402 by the United Federation of Planets. Its registry was the Sun, though it was, truthfully, not registered to any particular planet, only to its owner, a woman named Aidulac.
Various and sundry ships piloted by Aidulac and named the Sun had wended their way throughout the galaxy for millennia, with but one purpose: to find the Instruments of Malkus the Mighty. The four Instruments that she herself had helped create millennia ago. The four Instruments that Malkus had used to cause untold death and destruction. The four Instruments that the rebels who overthrew Malkus hid throughout the galaxy.
The four Instruments that Aidulac swore to destroy if it took her the rest of her life. And, since she was functionally immortal, the rest of her life was as long as it needed to be.
It was, for the most part, a tedious existence. But Aidulac persevered.
The universe, naturally, didn’t make things easy on her. Perhaps it was its revenge for her having pried into so many of its secrets. Or perhaps she just hadn’t noticed the universe’s vicious sense of humor before. But for an obscenely long time, nobody unearthed the Instruments, and so she never found the wave pattern that would identify them. She went through hundreds of ships—all of which she named the Sun, after the vessel that had given her freedom from the Zalkat Union—and waited.
No one knew of the Instruments, even when questioned under Aidulac’s irresistible mental charms. So she waited some more.
At one point, bored with waiting and insane with loneliness, she went to a world now called Pegasus Major IV and used her abilities to take on many lovers and bear many children. Her mental charms had lessened over the years, to her annoyance. Nowadays she could truly affect only males. But that was sufficient. She thought she wanted the company of children while she waited.
But she grew bored with that, too, and resumed her wandering ways.
And her waiting.
Finally, the universe gave her hope. She detected an Instrument on a human colony belonging to a governmental body that had taken over many of the worlds once ruled by the Zalkatians: the United Federation of Planets. They called it Alpha Proxima II. However, by the time she reached the world, two Starfleet ships had already arrived, and they would not permit her to land on the planet to take the Instrument—ironically, because the planet was quarantined thanks to the Instrument’s virus, which