The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [0]
BENEATH THE RAPTOR’S WING
OTHER STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE BOOKS
Last Full Measure
by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels
The Good That Men Do
by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
Kobayashi Maru
by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels
—STAR TREK—
ENTERPRISE®
THE ROMULAN WAR
BENEATH THE RAPTOR’S WING
MICHAEL A. MARTIN
Based upon Star Trek®
created by Gene Roddenberry
and Star Trek: Enterprise
created by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga
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First Pocket Books trade paperback edition October 2009
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ISBN 978-1-4391-0798-0
ISBN 978-1-4391-2347-8 (ebook)
For Majel Barrett Roddenberry (1932–2008), a grand lady who left us far too soon.
For Tim Dechristopher, an “auction hero” whose singular act of courage confounded the (thankfully defunct) Bush Administration’s unconscionable eleventh-hour attempt to despoil vast tracts of Utah public land.
And for Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, a warrior of conscience who drew from the terrors of war the determination and grace to work for the ideals of peace.
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war
Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head
Turning the widows’ tears, the orphans’ cries,
The dead men’s blood, the pining maidens’ groans,
For husbands, fathers, and betrothèd lovers,
That shall be swallowed in this controversy.
—Henry V
William Shakespeare
The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
HISTORIAN’S NOTE
The bulk of this story is set in the second half of the year 2155— and into the first half of 2156 (ACE). The destruction of the civilian freighter the Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek: Enterprise—Kobayashi Maru) set off a series of events that will forever shape the history of Starfleet, United Earth and her allies (Star Trek: Enterprise).
TOMORROW
2156
PROLOGUE
Thursday, July 22, 2156
Late in the month of Soo’jen, the Year of Kahless 782
Qam-Chee, the First City, Qo’noS
FLANKED BY A PAIR of scowling guards, Jonathan Archer led the way into the center of the dimly illuminated, vaulted chamber. An oddly heterogenous mélange of smells—the ghosts of old sweat mingled with leather, incense, and the coppery tinge of blood, along with vague notes of freshly turned earth and lilac—assaulted his nostrils as he came to a square-shouldered stop before the ranks of empty High Council benches that bracketed the Chancellor’s equally empty seat.
He fought down a surge of worry that the urgent errand on which Starfleet, UESPA, and the United Earth government had dispatched