War Stories (Book 2) - Keith R. A. DeCandido [3]
“The ship itself provided no useful intelligence that Starfleet did not already possess, but this device was found on the vessel’s main bridge. P8 Blue was part of the team that salvaged the device.” Salek then nodded at the Nasat.
Standing on her hind legs, Pattie stepped forward. “Thus far, there isn’t much to tell. The device doesn’t have any obvious function, and scans have detected material unknown to Starfleet databases. However, the scan we did was cursory at best.”
Duffy smiled. “So our job is to curse a bit less?”
Making another one of those tinkly sounds, Pattie said, “Something like that, yes.”
Fabian noticed that Salek made no reaction to Duffy whatsoever. He would have expected some kind of noise of disapproval from the stolid Vulcan, but Salek remained all business. That’ll teach me to stereotype people, he thought ruefully.
One of the Bynars started to speak: “We might be able—”
Then the other Bynar continued. “—to integrate with—”
“—the computer systems of the device—”
“—and learn its function.”
Okay, Fabian thought, that’s going to take a lot of getting used to. He knew that Bynar pairs were heavily integrated, but he’d never actually met any before, and so was unaware that they finished each other’s sentences like that.
“That would be a logical step to take,” Salek said. “However, precautions should be taken.”
Abramowitz said, “So Okha and I are here, why exactly? Cheerleading?”
Salek regarded the woman. “I assume, Dr. Abramowitz, that you are sufficiently versed in the cultures of the Dominion member races that the Federation and its allies have come into contact with that you might be able to provide some insight into the device.”
Okha grinned. “And I can cheerlead in fifteen different languages. Thirty, if you count the dead ones.”
“Really?” Duffy said. “How do you say ‘sis-boombah’ in Old High Andorii?”
While the banter went on, Fabian noticed something: the surface of the golf ball looked familiar somehow. He hadn’t realized it before, but Salek’s comment about Dominion member races started the gears turning in his mind.
Before he could pursue this, he noticed a subtle change in the vibration of the bulkheads.
Duffy looked up. “We just went to warp.”
“Warp eight, from the feel of it,” Pattie said.
Fabian frowned. “Feels more like warp seven to me.”
Salek raised an eyebrow again. “We are, in fact, traveling at warp seven-point-three.”
Pattie made another tinkly noise—Fabian noted that each one had sounded different, and he wondered if he’d ever figure out how they related to her emotional state.
“Saber s are like the Defiant,” Fabian said to the Nasat. “Overpowered and undersized, so it’s easy to overestimate how fast they’re going.”
“Two quatloos to the new guy,” Duffy said with a grin.
A voice sounded over the speakers. “S.C.E. team, report to the observation lounge.”
“That’s us, folks,” Duffy said. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Within a few minutes, they all reassembled in the observation lounge, another small room, but this one with a big window that looked out on the distorted starfield that indicated that the da Vinci was at warp. Three others were present in addition to the group that had been gathered in the lab. One was a medium-height human with snow-white hair, bushy eyebrows, and grandfatherly blue eyes. The four pips and red trim on his uniform indicated that he was Captain David Gold. From what Fabian understood, the captain had no background in engineering, so he was unclear as to what the older man was doing supervising a group of engineers.
Then he thought about the engineers he’d known in his time, and realized that it was probably better this way….
The other two were a human woman with blond hair tied back severely in a bun and a Bolian man with no hair whatsoever. The former wore gold, the latter blue, which made it tough to tell where his collar ended and his neck began. The thickness of the ridge that bisected his