Ishmael by Barbara Hambly

Author:Barbara Hambly [Hambly, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780671554279
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1985-05-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

" IT WAS A MISTAKE ," said Trae of Vulcanis thoughtfully, resting his thin hands on the faintly glowing console of the larger of the two computer terminals in his study, "for the Klingon imperial representative to panic. Offhand I can think of no clearer way in which he could have told anyone who was interested that they were on the right track." He looked out at the three humans who sat in a semicircle on the small island of white couches in the midst of the cluttered and shadowy sanctum.

"All right," said McCoy. "So what was Khlaru working on?"

Trae's glance shifted to the doctor, an inflectionless query as to why Kirk had seen fit to saddle them with the retarded.

"It isn't that simple, Bones," said Kirk quietly. "It might not be a single event. And it might not have been told about directly. We'd need ..."

"Well, it would have to be a simple event, wouldn't it?" McCoy said impatiently, a little tired of dealing with that maddening Vulcan superiority. "If the Klingons are tampering with time, it would have to be something very simple, and very small, because you said yourself, Trae, that we'd be dealing with an exponential progression of random factors. Every incident they tampered with, they'd run the risk of compounding the problem--every alteration of an event would put them in greater and greater danger of getting in their own way later on down the line. If it's predictable, it has to be simple, and it just about has to be single. Doesn't it?" He looked defiantly from Trae to Kirk, then back to the ancient Vulcan again.

"I agree," said the historian unexpectedly. "Yet such an incident as we seek might not have appeared to its contemporaries as important, and would not be recorded as such. To answer your question, Doctor--Khlaru, like myself, was working on translating and cataloging the Karsid outpost records discovered here ten years ago. The data had not been put in order even by its original compilers. It is a random assortment of intelligence reports, captains' logs, scientific studies of the Tau Eridani Cloud, trade invoices and data readouts from the base computers, information much as you collect today, Commander Kellogg. Khlaru and I both filed periodic reports on our findings. I can only assume that the information from which the Klingons began their plan was taken from one of Khlaru's reports."

"And where would those be?" asked Kirk.

"Copies of the reports are logged in data retrieval." Trae turned back to the terminal, long fingers poised over the console. "Logically, we can rule out reports filed within the last two years, as it would have taken the Klingons at least that long to evolve the mathematical theory and the hardware to implement their plans."

"Two years?" said Kellogg, aghast. "How many reports are we talking about?"

"Seven years' worth. Each report is approximately sixty thousand words, a total of roughly twenty reports to be read through for clues as to the Klingons' intentions." He

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