The Red King - Michael A. Martin [65]
“Captain Riker,” said the familiar voice of Donatra, which echoed slightly in the high-ceilinged chamber. Ensign Crandall responded with a startled yip, nearly tripped over his toolbox, then settled into an embarrassed silence.
Riker turned toward the voice that had called to him, as did the rest of his party.
“Welcome aboard the Imperial Warbird Ra’khoi,” Donatra said. She stood at the front of a group of four Romulan officers, including herself. Like the Titan team, she and her staff were dressed in pressure suits and helmets, the livid orange-amber of the Romulan garments presenting a sharp contrast to the stark Starfleet white. The quartet stood in a rough circle, evidently having just beamed over from the Valdore.
Jaza, Tuvok, and a pair of Donatra’s people ran some quick scans and within moments determined that the room—an alcove adjacent to the main engineering section—was utterly empty. Riker and Donatra then exchanged quick introductions of their respective teams. Seketh and Daehla, both of whom were running scanners, were apparently youngish women, a decurion and a sciences specialist respectively, while Liravek was an imperious male centurion of perhaps early middle age.
“Life readings?” Riker asked.
“The entire crew complement seems to be alive, but unconscious,” Daehla said.
“Comatose is a more apt word, I should think,” Seketh said, consulting her own scanner.
“What could cause such a thing?” Centurion Liravek asked sharply, as though interrogating a group of recalcitrant prisoners. Riker was beginning not to like him very much.
When it became clear that neither Seketh nor Daehla had a ready answer, Jaza spoke up. “This…entity that’s controlling the fleet’s computer systems seems to have altered the environmental control system. I’m picking up high concentrations of anesthezine in the air supply, which didn’t show up on our sensor scans, probably because of interference caused by the shields. If we hadn’t taken the precaution of putting on environmental suits…” The Bajoran trailed off significantly.
“So you’re saying that our…‘Red King’ just wanted to nudge the crew out of its way,” Crandall asked.
Still consulting his tricorder, Jaza nodded. “I’d wager it probably did the very same thing on every ship in the fleet. Our long-range scanners must have missed it because of distance and spatial distortions.”
“The intelligence that hijacked this fleet can lay waste to entire stars and planets,” Riker said. “But it left the crews relatively unharmed. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Jaza shrugged. “Well, we’re positing that our Sleeper has somehow subverted the computers of the entire fleet network, except the Valdore, which wasn’t present at the time of the takeover. Perhaps the entity ran afoul of some sort of personnel-protection fail-safe subroutine in the Romulan rokhelh software. Something like Asimov’s Laws.”
Riker nodded. The fact that the emerging intelligence that had seized control of Donatra’s fleet hadn’t simply killed the crews outright argued in favor of that idea. But it’s wiped out at least one inhabited world so far, whether intentionally or not, he reminded himself again.
He turned toward Donatra and noted the relieved expression he saw through the faceplate of her helmet. “I am grateful not to have found my crews dead, whatever the reason.”
Riker nodded. “We need to access this ship’s computer system,” he said, keenly aware that the Red King’s current beneficence might not last. “Now.”
Donatra nodded back, then immediately took the point, leading the group across a corridor and into an adjacent chamber, a room lined with consoles, monitor screens, and holotanks. A pair of uniformed figures lay across a bank of consoles, their bodies sprawled in deathlike postures. Donatra and Liravek paused beside them long enough to confirm that they were merely unconscious, like the rest of the crew.
With a gauntleted right hand, Riker tapped the external communicator key located near his suit’s neck ring. “Riker to Titan.”