The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [192]
Which one of the two of us, I wonder, is playing the role of Satan? T’Pol thought as she allowed T’Pau to think on her words in silence.
“It is imperative,” the administrator said at length, “that our allies do not discover our relationship to the Romulans. Perhaps the Romulans’ own obsession with keeping their society closed and leaving behind no prisoners will be enough to ensure that this does not occur.”
“It will occur, Administrator. The only question is when it will occur.”
“We shall see,” T’Pau said, then resumed walking.
“Your reluctance to see our Romulan connection revealed is logical, Administrator,” T’Pol said as she moved alongside her again. “But if you fail to plan for its inevitable revelation—if you continue to sit out the fight without offering a satisfactory explanation for Vulcan’s idleness—then you may damage the Coalition beyond all hope of repair.”
“That is the burden we must carry, T’Pol.”
“And that burden may be heavier than you realize. There is a fundamental ethical concern at play here, Administrator. Even without the Coalition Compact, Vulcan bears at least some responsibility for the actions of the Romulans.”
“The Romulans make their own choices,” T’Pau said. “Just as their ancestors did, centuries ago. Vulcan is not responsible for that.”
“Can you be certain of that? Are the Romulans not what we once were? Are they not us?”
Nodding solemnly as she trudged onward, T’Pau said, “That is precisely why we dare not get any more deeply involved in this fight than we are already.”
SIXTY-FOUR
Day Two, Month of et’Khior
Thursday, March 18, 2156
Uaenn Ei’krih Outpost, near Haakonan space
WORKING IN ORANGE FATIGUES right alongside the eighteen enlisted personnel in his company, Uhlan Takris personally oversaw the preparations to evacuate the partially hollowed-out planetoid. Most of the base’s equipment and supplies had been inventoried and packed on antigrav pallets within three dierha of Commander Pehrek’s initial posting of Admiral Valdore’s surprising new orders.
Takris, the clerk in charge of maintaining the outpost’s electronic supply manifests, might have been disappointed to have a posting downgraded as Command had just done with the Uaenn Ei’krih facility; the stroke of an admiral’s stylus had just redesignated Uaenn Ei’krih as a semiautomated listening post. In lieu of its banks of hastily disassembled particle weapons, the base would soon train multitudes of sensitive electronic ears upon Haakona, once the final technical swapouts had been completed and the new staff of intel specialists—a far smaller number of personnel than made up the base’s present all-military complement—had arrived and settled in.
Takris was anything but disappointed at the prospect of leaving this barren, lonely place behind; Uaenn Ei’krih was essentially just a ten-mat’drih-diameter ball of rock and iron, tumbling eternally through the cold silence just beyond the bow-shock of the central Haakonan binary star system.
But mostly he was delighted at the prospect of going home and seeing V’Kelis again, at least until his next deployment orders came through.
Takris had briefly questioned the wisdom of packing up everything in the facility, weapons included; but those fears had been assuaged by Subcommander Ghavenehk’s assurances that such measures were necessary to discourage any Haakonan scavenging of the base’s weapons technology in the unlikely event of a sudden enemy attack. Ghavenehk considered it prudent to have all the weaponry already packed and secured