Prey: Book Three: The Hall of Heroes by John Jackson Miller

Author:John Jackson Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2016-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty-one

U.S.S. ENTERPRISE

DEEP SPACE

Alone in the void. It was a natural state for starships; their function was traversing vast distances populated by nothing whatsoever. Enterprise and Houdini had arrived first at their rendezvous point with Aventine— an unexpected prospect given the other vessel’s immense speed—and sat motionless in a patch of Klingon space far from any star.

Chen saw nothing whatsoever outside the observation lounge port. Since her conversation with Tuvok, she had spent several of her off-hours here, contemplating the things she’d discussed. Vulcan meditation still seemed like an alien and unnecessary practice to her—but she couldn’t dispute that being here relaxed her, allowing her to focus on the larger issues.

One of them was the Holy Order of the Kinshaya. Janalwa had gone relatively mute, a highly irregular thing for a people who couldn’t keep from evangelizing. Her padd displayed only a handful of news items. They came from the Episcopate and were bizarre even by Kinshaya standards. Regularly scheduled agricultural reports appeared as expected, but now spoke in rapturous terms about the most mundane things. The taproot harvest had come in three percent higher, proof that the gods were alive and walked Janalwa, where their feet produced miracles whenever they touched the soil.

A three-percent miracle, Chen thought. The gods must favor taproots, but not by a lot. She set the padd on the table behind her.

Exhaling, Chen looked out at the emptiness—and found it reflected in her being. Ennui aboard Enterprise had been replaced by confusion following the ship’s mysterious orders away from the one lead it had found on Cabeus. Chen felt useless and out of the loop. Now that mood was spreading, threatening even to engulf the captain. He was close to losing his temper over Starfleet’s unwillingness to explain their strange redirection.

Chen tried to focus for several moments on the blackness before giving up. She shook her head. “Sorry, Tuvok,” she said to the air. “I don’t see what you get out of this.” She rose and reached for her padd—

—which buzzed, indicating a message. Examining the device, she saw the missive had been sent some time earlier from one of the Devotionalist friends she had made on Janalwa. Multiple attempts at delivery had been made, prodding at the Holy Order’s firewall in hopes of reaching her. One, finally, had gotten through.

The message contained no words, written or spoken. The Episcopate’s automated censors would have stopped that immediately. What it did contain was nineteen seconds of shaky imagery, taken by a tricorder.

She recognized the location. The subject, however, was something else.

The doors opened. Tuvok stepped through. “It is agreeable to see you, Lieutenant Chen. Have you been meditating?”

“No.” She offered Tuvok the padd. “Tell me what you think of this . . .”

• • •

A quiet family dinner had been a rarity for Picard in the days since the Unsung crisis had started. The delay in Aventine ’s arrival had given him a chance to eat with René, who was nearly five. And a chance for him and his wife to discuss something other than their disappointment at being ordered away from Cabeus.

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