The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [56]
“The green button on the left is for coffee,” Phuong said as he crossed back his ship’s flight controls.
“So, where’s our first stop?” Trip asked. It struck him then that this voyage could take him to a nearly infinite list of possible destinations, virtually all of which would probably be completely unknown to him.
“Adigeon Prime. Not very far from territory claimed by the Romulans.”
Trip didn’t immediately see any cream or sugar in the kitchen alcove as he picked up one of Phuong’s cups and filled it from the spigot under the green button. Guess I’ll just have it black, he thought as he carried his beverage to the forward section. He sat in the copilot’s chair next to Phuong’s seat, and found it comfortable.
“We meeting someone there?” he asked, gratified that he had at least heard of Adigeon Prime prior to today.
“No other bureau operatives, if that’s what you mean. Just the people- or whatever they are- who’ve been hired to help us get our mission fully under way.”
“So, if you don’t mind my asking, you said you disappeared three years ago. Is that how long you’ve been working for Section 31?”
Phuong looked at him inquisitively. “Section 31?”
Trip felt a cannonball of dread drop into his stomach. Had he somehow been tricked and kidnapped by someone other than Harris’s spy organization?
Almost instantly, the other man nodded. “Oh, you mean the bureau. I get it. Article Fourteen, Section Thirty-one of the Starfleet Charter. Catchy name.”
Trip relaxed slightly. “Bureau of what?” This was definitely something that Malcolm hadn’t briefed him about.
“Of nothing. Even though we’re authorized to operate by the Starfleet Charter, we don’t exist- at least not officially. So, it’s just ‘the bureau.”’
Trip looked down into the nut-brown depths of his coffee, feeling decidedly uneasy about his radically changed circumstances. Although life aboard Enterprise had always had its dangers, the interstellar espionage business seemed a good deal more hazardous by comparison. He couldn’t forget what had happened to Malcolm last year when the Klingons had kidnapped Phlox. Malcolm, acting on Section 31’s orders, had sabotaged Enterprise to slow down Captain Archer’s rescue efforts. The incident might well have ended Malcolm’s career but for Archer’s decision to protect his armory officer rather than having him court-martialed.
Now Trip was growing concerned that the cloak-anddagger bureau might just bury him as well and as thoroughly as it had buried Phuong. After all, Phuong had apparently been operating undercover for three years already. Remaining “dead” for such a long stretch of time didn’t appeal to Trip.
“Having second thoughts?” Phuong asked, looking over at him. “Everyone does.”
“Mmmm,” Trip grunted noncommittally.
Phuong let out a heavy sigh. “I understand. I was a diplomat, in another life. Not top-level, so you’d never see me at the really world-shaking interstellar functions, but close enough to the top to know who all the players were. I guess that’s why they recruited me.”
Trip looked sideways at the man in the pilot’s seat. “This is my first… assignment.”
The other man smiled again. “Oh, I know. I’ve read your file. I probably know more about you than some of your friends do.” He grabbed a padd that had been sitting to the immediate left of his instruments, and handed it to Trip. “Read this, then we’ll be even. It’s my whole boring life story, up to and including what I’ve done for the last three years.”
And I wonder how much of it is true? Trip thought. He wasn’t sure he trusted Phuong, but the man seemed disarmingly honest. An odd trait for a spy.
“Before you get too far into it, I just wanted to say that I read your reports on the Romulans’ use of cloaking technology,” Phuong said. “Actually, I’ve read all your reports on the Romulans and their technology. I can even quote them back to you if you want.” He put a finger to his temple. “Near-photographic memory. Comes in handy when circumstances in the field force you to purge your data to keep it from