The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [193]
Since neither Subcommander Ghavenehk nor Commander Pehrek was worried, Takris decided not to worry either—until he felt the ground rumble beneath his feet, and the sick-making lightness in his belly that could only mean that the artificial gravity had failed. But even then Takris worried only that one of the enlisted men might have broken down and packed up the base’s tech gear a little too thoroughly, inadvertently gutting part of the life-support system in the process.
It wasn’t until one of the men activated a monitor screen—one keyed to the last sensor system capable of displaying an infrared view of the space just beyond Uaenn Ei’krih’s rocky confines—that Takris began to grasp what was happening. Limned in the false green hues of the external dark-vision sensor system was the elegant, deceptively fragile-looking shape of an approaching Haakonan warship, its forward weapons tubes refulgent with menace.
Only now, as Takris loped through the intermittent and oscillating gravity toward the emergency subspace transmitter controls, did he understand that he hadn’t worried nearly enough....
SIXTY-FIVE
Day Four, Month of et’Khior
Saturday, March 20, 2156
The Hall of State, Dartha, Romulus
THE CENTURION ENTERED VALDORE’S OFFICE, carrying a padd whose ominous deep green hue marked its contents as highly classified. From the uneasy expression on the young woman’s face, Valdore assumed that the tidings he was about to receive would make him no happier than had the initial reports of the Uaenn Ei’krih Outpost’s destruction two ch’Rihanturns ago.
“Admiral, the first detailed forensic report has just come back from the responders to the Uaenn Ei’krih attack,” she reported as she leaned across Valdore’s desk to hand him the padd.
At least the responders were able to gain access to the base’s remains, Valdore thought as he quickly scroll-skimmed over the text and tables the padd displayed, grateful for any stroke of good luck he could find in this unfavorable turn of fortune. We were fortunate that the Haakonans chose not to establish their own base at Uaenn Ei’krih. They seem mainly interested in eradicating our forward bases in Haakonan territory, and they appear content to withdraw homeward once they accomplish that.
At least that was how the Haakonans had operated so far. The future, however, was never certain, a fact that the padd in his hand now all but screamed at him.
“Has this been verified?” he asked.
The centurion nodded. “I presume you refer to the Vulcan energy signatures the forensic analysts discovered, Admiral.”
He threw her a hard glare.
“It has been verified, sir, multiple times,” she said, chastened. “The precise meaning of the findings is still being determined, however.”
“Thank you, Centurion. Dismissed.” With another nod, she made her exit.
Alone in his office, Valdore resumed studying the padd, more slowly this time. Whatever debates the intel specialists might be conducting at this moment, the meaning of this latest report from the front of D’deridex’s Haakonan war could not have been clearer: Vulcan was covertly supplying Haakona with weapons, and perhaps other technology as well.
Irrespective of the broader, more critical war with the Coalition, this revelation made it a military imperative to establish a new listening post at least as close to Haakona as the defunct Uaenn Ei’krih facility had been. Valore couldn’t afford to allow Haakona to attack from the rear just when his forces were about to become fully engaged with the higher-priority task of bringing Earth and her allies to heel.
Tossing the padd onto the desktop, Valdore keyed open one particular secure channel on his personal comm unit. The dark viewscreen before him suddenly brightened and displayed a cunning, familiar female face.
She did not appear surprised to be hearing from him. Given the nature of her work, that fact, in turn,