The Valiant - Michael Jan Friedman [24]
CHAPTER 2
I icard watched the ships new chief medical officer enter the lounge with some difficulty. Carter Greyhorse was so big and broad-shouldered, he could barely fit through the door.
Good of you to make it, Doctor, said Ruhalter, from his place at the head of the dark, oval table.
Greyhorse looked at him, then mumbled an apology. Something about some research he was conducting.
Be thankful Im inclined to be lenient with ships surgeons, the captain told him. I never forget they can relieve me of my command.
The doctors brow furrowed beneath his crop of dark hair.
That was a joke, Ruhalter informed him.
Greyhorse chuckled to show that he got it, but his response lacked enthusiasm. Clearly, Picard reflected as the doctor took a seat beside him, humor wasnt Greyhorses strong suit.
In addition to Ruhalter and Picard himself, five other section heads had arrived before Greyhorse. They included Weapons
Chief Werber, Chief Engineer Phigus Simenon, Communications Chief Martin Paxton, Sciences Chief Angela Cariello and Security Chief Gilaad Ben Zoma.
Simenon was a Gnalisha compact, lizardlike being with ruby-red eyes and a long tail. Everyone else at the table was human.
The assembled officers sat in silence for more than a minute. Then, just as some of them were beginning to shift in their seats, Leach arrived with Eliopoulos in tow.
Commander Eliopoulos, said Ruhalter, may I present my command staff. He reeled off their names. Naturally, theyre all most eager to learn why weve made this trip.
Im not surprised, the bearded man responded.
Leach indicated a chair and Eliopoulos sat down. Then the first officer took a seat next to him and said, Go ahead, sir.
Eliopoulos looked around the table. No doubt, he said, you noticed a strange-looking ship as you approached the base. It arrived here seven days ago. There were only two people aboarda man named Guard Daniels and a woman named Serenity Santana.
Humans? asked Werber, a stocky, balding man with piercing blue eyes and a dense walrus mustache.
From all appearances, Eliopoulos confirmed. But from what they told us, they werent just any humans. They were descendants of the crew of the S.S. Valiant the ship that went through the galactic barrier nearly three hundred years ago.
The remark hung in the air for a moment as its significance sank in around the room. Picard, who was more excited by history than most, felt his pulse begin to race.
Three hundred years
It was then that he realized where he had seen the strange-looking ship before. Or rather, not the ship itself, but elements of it.
Back at the Academy, one of his professors had showed him a picture of the S.S. Valiant . He recalled its wide, dark body and its abundance of small, curiously placed nacelles. The vessel hanging in space alongside the starbase could easily have evolved from that primitive design.
Then something occurred to Picardsomething that seemed to preclude the claim made by Eliopouloss visitors. Wasnt the Valiant destroyed by order of her captain?
Ruhalter nodded. That was my understanding as well.
The second officer knew the story. For that matter, everyone did. James Kirk, the last captain of the original Starship Enterprise , had embarked for the galactic barrier on a research mission in 2265. Just shy of his destination, he encountered an antique message buoya warning sent out by the captain of the Valiant two centuries earlier, chronicling his experiences after penetrating the barrier.
Though the details provided by the buoy were sketchy, it seemed one of the Valiants crewmen had become a threat to his colleagues and to Earth as well, if he lived to return to her. To eliminate that possibility, the Valiants captain was forced to blow up his ship.
That seemed like a good reason to turn back. And as far as most people in Kirks time knew, that was exactly what he had done.
But he hadnt turned back. He had braved the barrier despite the warning. And in doing so, he had shed some