The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [16]
Again turning his attention fully upon First Consul T’Leikha, Valdore said, “I require a meal, a bath, a clean uniform, and communications with my family. And then I want a briefing about everything that has happened while I have been… away.”
T’Leikha nodded. “All of that has been prepared. You will have until tomorrow morning to prepare a coherent strategic plan for presentation to the Empire’s Military Tribunes, and to the Praetor himself.” She grinned like a predator anticipating a kill. “Welcome back, Admiral Valdore.”
After taking a swift meal and an equally swift shower, and then properly attiring himself in a uniform tunic that now felt disconcertingly loose across his chest, Valdore took a seat at a triangular table in a small conference room located deep in the bowels of the Hall of State. Here he endured a briefing that was anything but brief. The uniformed centurion who was conducting it- a young man named Terix- was copiously thorough, so much so that Valdore could not help but feel overwhelmed by all that had occurred since his confinement had begun.
But he knew he hadn’t the time to dwell on that, for there was far too much to do. Nor did he wish to consider overmuch the mortal danger he was in, since the Praetor’s own intelligence service was no doubt watching him closely for any sign of disloyalty, now that he once again had access to so much highly sensitive imperial military data.
He concentrated instead on the renewed sense of overarching purpose that once again consumed him.
The Empire’s adversaries had moved forward considerably in their plans during Valdore’s detention. Earth and its allies were now close to formalizing a mutual defense pact that might be better described as a permanent confederation. Five highly advanced, starfaring worlds capable of interposing themselves between the Romulan Star Empire and its necessity-driven ambitions for expansion could soon present a unified military front to the outworlds of the Empire’s ever-broadening- and ever more diffuse- frontier. And that hostile front might even succeed in beating back the Empire’s massed forces, given the reliable new intelligence reports indicating that Coridan Prime now apparently possessed avaihh lli vastam- warp-seven-capable vessels- at least in prototype form.
They could very well strangle us within our own territory, Valdore thought with increasing agitation as he listened to Terix and reviewed the many classified text files, flat and holographic pictures, and graphs that the centurion had provided. If the Coridanites should share this technology with the rest of the worlds in this so-called Coalition of Planets before our Empire can bring its own countermeasures online…
Valdore did not want to pursue the thought to its conclusion, though he couldn’t stop himself from visualizing the national banners of Earth or Vulcan or Coridan fluttering in the Apnex Sea’s cool breezes over all of the ancient domes and arches of Dartha’s venerable Government Quarter, including the stately vastness of the Romulan Senate itself. Even without the Coridanites’ warp-seven-capable technology, the Coridan system’s abundant dilithium reserves would not only greatly strengthen Earth and its Coalition of Planets, but they might also benefit the uncouth creatures of the Klingon Empire, longtime adversaries whose own expansionist tendencies rivaled those of Romulus itself.
Putting aside his apocalyptic speculations for the moment, Valdore leaned toward Terix and interrupted him. “Centurion, what is the current status of our own high-warp research projects?”
Still standing between Valdore’s table and the wall screen that currently carried a map of the Coalition of Planets’ projected boundaries along the Romulan frontier, the young briefer scowled down at his boots for a moment. He was clearly about to convey some bad news, and was just as clearly worried about being held personally responsible for