Star Trek: The Original Series - 142 - Cast no Shadow by James Swallow

Author:James Swallow
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Space Opera, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9781451607178
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 2011-07-25T07:00:00+00:00

13

Object JDEK-3246553-AKV

Ikalian Asteroid Belt

Ty’Gokor Sector, Klingon Empire

The return of the Daughter under tow by a Klingon ship created something akin to panic when it appeared on the base’s sensors, but a swift communication from Rein stopped those they had left behind from unveiling the hidden phaser batteries on the surface of the massive asteroid blind, and opening fire.

Gattin wouldn’t go as far to concede that Rein had allayed their fears. Indeed, when the two ships hove into the landing bay, there were a handful of men waiting there with proton launchers and armor, ready to repulse a boarding operation; for the moment no one was aiming a weapon at anyone else.

For safety’s sake, Kaj’s mercenaries remained on board the bird-of-prey. She, the pet Orion, and the two ex-Starfleeters were granted permission to enter the Thorn base. But even that was almost too much for Gattin to tolerate.

The moment the medical supplies had been beamed over to the Daughter, she knew how the rest of the conversation would go. Rein was the best leader the Thorn had ever had, but his brother’s illness was cutting into him and he could not stand by and let him die slowly. Gattin had no wish to see Colen suffer, either, but if it meant making pacts with the very same people who had cut them loose seven years ago . . . That would never sit well with her.

Valeris said the right things. Perhaps she was being truthful. Perhaps she had been as much a victim of the catastrophic failure of General Chang’s grand plan as the Kriosians. Or perhaps she was there to stop them from achieving the victory that had been denied them for decades.

A lifetime of hating the tyrants, years of alternately running from or striking at them, had made Gattin a pragmatic woman. Some people thought she was coldhearted, but those people were idiots. She had simply grown to understand that the universe was an unfeeling place that bore no regard for the life that dwelled in it. Once you understood that, things became a lot clearer. Things like justice and fairness were not natural forces in the universe, they were the artificial constructs of sentient beings—and they needed to be applied with ruthless intent, or else they meant nothing.

Trust was something else that didn’t occur naturally in Gattin’s universe. It was rarer than iridium, and she had little to share with the new arrivals. At the first opportunity she slipped away from Rein’s sight and headed up through the tunnels to the small cavern where they kept the subspace communications gear. Gattin ordered the man on monitor duty to take an unscheduled rest break, and when she was alone, she activated the system.

There were a number of protocols that had to be adhered to, but she’d learned them by rote, and within a few minutes the hyperchannel line connected. There was no voice transmission, no visual component; the data needed to provide them could have been detected by tyrant monitors.

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