Star Trek - TOS - Legacies 02-Best Defense by David Mack

Author:David Mack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek

* * *

Less than two hours after her forced departure in disgrace from the Velibor’s command deck, Major Sadira returned with her chin up, her bearing proud. She was met by hateful stares from nearly every direction. Even the lowliest personnel regarded her with naked contempt.

At last—conclusive proof that hatred is stronger than fear.

The one person who didn’t shy away from Sadira in revulsion chose to meet her head-on just a few steps inside the hatchway. Subcommander Bedisa blocked her path, eyes gleaming with anger, hand perched on the grip of her sidearm. “You aren’t needed here, Major.”

“Quite the contrary. As this ship’s new commanding officer, I’d say my presence is nothing short of essential.”

“What are you talking about? I’m next in the chain of command.”

“Not anymore. My orders empower me to assume command if, in my estimation, the success of the mission depends upon it.” Sadira leaned in and lowered her voice to add, “Commander Creelok forced me to pull rank. I’d advise you not to repeat his mistake.”

Bedisa clenched her jaw, as if biting down on words she knew she might come to regret if spoken. Then she turned her gaze toward the centurion, who shrank from her attention into a shadowy nook of the command deck. When she looked back at Sadira, the ship’s second-in-command projected nothing so much as disgust. “Tread with care, human.”

Sadira cracked a humorless smile. “You invoke my heritage like it’s a slur. Yet the Senate and the Tal Shiar trust me with more power than they’ve ever given you. So perhaps the next time you utter that word, you should consider using it with a bit more respect.” Then, as if the confrontation had never happened, she turned toward the main console. “Helm! What is our current position?”

Toporok replied, “Far side of the planet’s moon.”

“Take us back into orbit at once.”

The helm officer balked. “I can’t, Major. All primary systems are offline.”

Bedisa explained, with more than a trace of condescension, “Ranimir disabled the cloaking device and took main power offline to expedite repairs to all the systems damaged by your mysterious artifact.”

“Then have him restore main power and engage the cloak.”

The subcommander shook her head. “Not possible, Major. Now that he’s begun repairs, it would take more time to reverse his steps than it would to let him finish.”

“Do we have a repair time estimate?”

“Primary systems back online in four hours,” Bedisa said. “Once that’s done, we can raise the cloak and return to orbit.”

It wasn’t what Sadira had wanted, but she couldn’t help what had been done in express contravention of her orders. All she could do was cope with the situation at hand. “Very well. Let him use any personnel or resources he needs to speed repairs.”

“Understood, Major.”

Sadira activated the commander’s panel of the main console. “Kurat. Have we continued to monitor signal traffic to and from Centaurus?”

The tactical officer joined Sadira and Bedisa at the main console. “We’ve intercepted the Enterprise’s reports that the Orion Syndicate has operatives near the conference.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.