The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [138]
Trip smiled at the scientist. “I’m calling the one man who’ll do whatever it takes to help us.”
Touching the control on his chest that opened his helmet microphone, he said, “Lazarus to Captain Archer of Enterprise, Priority One and Coded. This is Lazarus, calling Captain Jonathan Archer….”
Forty-Three
Friday, February 21, 2155
Enterprise Nx-01
“CAPTAIN, I HAVE A PRIORITY audio communication for you,” Hoshi Sato said, swiveling in her chair and touching the com device she sometimes wore clipped to her ear.
Archer looked over to her, his attention diverted from the padd onto which he’d begun entering his speech. After the events of this week, he didn’t know if he’d even be allowed to present it at the Coalition Compact ceremony, but he wanted it to be ready nonetheless. “Who’s the message from, Hoshi?”
“Your ears only, sir.” She frowned slightly. “The only other word in the subspace burst is the name Lazarus.”
Archer immediately stood and moved toward his ready room. “I’ll take it in here,” he said.
Trip’s alive, he thought, trying hard to stifle a big grin as he breezed past several of the bridge crew. He hoped that the message would contain good news, perhaps with the engineer telling them he was ready to come in from the cold of his spy mission. He slid into his chair in the ready room and tapped the console on the desk in front of him.
“Lazarus to Captain Archer of Enterprise,” the voice said over the speakers. The sound was full of static, and distorted slightly, but it was undeniably Trip’s voice.
“Archer here. It’s good to hear your voice. You ready to come home?”
“Thanks, Captain, but not quite yet. There’s been a whole mess of complications.”
“Are you all right?” Archer asked, frowning with concern as he leaned forward. He wished there was a visual component to the message, so that he could see his old friend’s face again.
“I’m okay, but Coridan’s in trouble. The Romulans are definitely targeting the planet. But it doesn’t seem to be an invasion. It’s more of an annihilation.”
Archer was stunned. “You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely. Some time in the next seventy-two hours, they’re striking Coridan. You’ve got to warn them.”
“Any idea how they’ll attack?”
“No, sir. What I—” the rest of Trip’s reply was cut off in static.
Archer hit the com button. “Hoshi, I’ve lost the signal. Boost our reception.”
“Aye, sir,” Hoshi said.
The wait for Trip’s signal to be regained was torture. Archer’s mind reeled with the news. The annihilation of Coridan in the next seventy-two hours. The thought was ghastly almost beyond imagination.
“I can’t reestablish the signal,” Hoshi said. “Whoever it was, they’ll have to start sending to us again.”
“Okay, thank you.” Archer couldn’t wait any longer. He knew that he had to warn the Coridanites, and inform his superiors on Earth. “Hoshi, raise the highest Coridan government official you can, and pipe them onto my screen.”
While he waited to speak to the Coridanite government, he tapped in the emergency code to contact Admiral Gardner on Earth. At the moment it was 4:50 A.M. Pacific time on Earth, but the news he’d just received certainly qualified as an emergency.
Archer’s desktop screen jumped to life as a weary Gardner appeared on it, yawning as he pulled on a robe. Archer saw the ready light that Hoshi had sent from the bridge, and his finger hovered over the appropriate button.
“This had better be damned important, Captain,” Gardner said grumpily. “I have some crucial meetings first thing in the morning.”
“It’s vitally important,” Archer said. He tapped the button, and the screen split in two. Half of the screen now showed the face of a Coridan official, someone in the diplomatic corps, Archer thought, judging from the Coridanite’s ceremonial mask. “Admiral Gardner, I’ve patched us in on a conference transmission with the Coridan official…” His voice trailed off.
“Legate