• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Turn the squadrons about and fall back to the Dhivael, T’Voras told his subordinate. “Let this scattered Terran crew survive to spread fear among their kind.”

TWENTY-SIX

Monday, November 17, 2155

Enterprise, near Threllvia IV

“THE DISTRESS CALL IS COMING from the Andorian Imperial Guard Destroyer Ka’Thelan Krotus, Captain,” said Ensign Hoshi Sato as she listened to the voices chattering in her earpiece. “She’s taken heavy damage from three Romulan birds-of-prey. And she reports complete failure in every one of her critical systems, including the backups.”

That last news sent a chill up Archer’s spine. Just like what happened to the Kobayashi Maru, the Miracht, and probably the Yeager, too, he thought, recalling the remote-control hijacking Enterprise had only narrowly avoided as well.

“Don’t tell me,” Malcolm said, leaning forward across the tactical console. “We’re closer than any of their own ships are.”

“Threllvia is one of Andoria’s most remote colonies, Lieutenant,” T’Pol said, looking up from the hooded scanner at her science station.

Reed straightened and nodded toward the exec. “And Andoria’s forces have been spread pretty thin these days, ever since...” He busied himself at his console displays rather than completing the sentence he had left hanging in the air, as conspicuous as a sign written in meter-high letters of fire.

Ever since Vulcan decided to hide in the basement until the Romulan storm blows over.

Archer turned his chair forward so that he faced Ensign Leydon, who was manning the helm. “How quickly can we reach the Krotus?”

“About twenty minutes at warp five, Captain,” she said.

“Do it,” Archer said as he rose and approached Hoshi’s comm console. “Tell the Andorians we’re on the way.”

Hoshi’s face fell abruptly. “I was already trying to do that. But now I can’t raise the Krotus. They’re no longer transmitting.”

Damn it, Archer thought. This may have just changed from a rescue mission to a recovery operation.

Eighteen minutes later, T’Pol’s sensor readings transformed the captain’s dismaying speculations into cold, hard fact.

“I’m reading an expanding debris cloud with strong duranium and polyferranide signatures,” T’Pol said. “It is definitely the remains of the Ka’Thelan Krotus. And the cloud’s sensor profile is consistent with a sudden catastrophic failure of the ship’s antimatter containment system.”

“Looks like this Romulan remote-control thing needs some serious fine-tuning,” a stunned-looking Ensign Leydon said. “They tried for a hijacking but vaporized their target instead.”

“The Romulans are nothing if not careful, Ensign,” Archer said. “I’d say it’s likelier that the Andorians did this themselves.”

Leydon looked even more nonplussed than before. “They’d really commit mass suicide?”

“If that was the only way to keep one of their best-armed warships out of Romulan hands,” Archer said with a grim nod. Turning toward Malcolm and T’Pol, both of whom were already busy running their respective scanners, he added, “Let me know the minute you find any survivors.”

“No sign of survivors yet, Captain,” Reed said. “But I am picking up three Romulan vessels, at extreme range and retreating at about warp four, on a heading for Romulan space. Judging from the unusually high delta-particle counts I read in their warp trails, all three vessels sustained considerable damage during their encounter with the Krotus.”

“We could catch up to them before they return to their own territory,” T’Pol said.

Archer was sorely tempted to order Ensign Leydon to do exactly that.

But only for a moment. Earth still needed Enterprise’s protection, and Archer knew he wouldn’t be able to provide it if the Romulans were to snare his ship with their remote-hijack weapon.

“Continue scanning for survivors,” he said at length. “And find the log buoy. Once we’re done with recovery operations here, we’ll resume our heading for Earth, at maximum warp.”

Within two minutes of having received Lieutenant Reed’s warning of