Star Trek® Cast no Shadow by James Swallow

Author:James Swallow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Vaughn turned over the sheer How-the-hell-did-I-end-up-here? of his situation and tried to push those thoughts out of his mind. This wasn’t how he had wanted to find himself in command of a mission: by dint of a murderous Klingon. Miller had seemed so effortlessly in control of his situation, even to the very end as he bled to death there on the deck, while Vaughn was still struggling to gather in the scope of where he was and what it meant. Miller’s experience had given Elias the belief that they could make this mission succeed. Without him, all that was left to rely on was Kaj’s desire for vengeance, the unreadable motivations Valeris kept hidden, and Vaughn’s dogged determination not to fail.

And he had no idea if it would be enough. Vaughn pulled at his jacket, in the place where his rank insignia would have lain, if it were a Starfleet uniform. This is where you are, Lieutenant, he told himself. You’ve got no choice but to make it work.

He looked up and met Kaj’s fiery eyes as he crossed the gloomy circular space of the hub deck. The rest of the landing party teams were assembled in a loose knot around her, grumbling and surly with the cold.

Kaj threw a look at Urkoj and pointed in the direction of Valeris. The Orion reacted instantly by drawing a knife as long as Elias’s forearm and pulling the Vulcan woman into a headlock. He pressed the tip of the weapon to her throat and she immediately ceased any attempt to struggle.

When Vaughn looked back at Kaj, all her men had drawn their pistols and taken aim at his chest. “So this is how it’s going to be, then?”

“Have you enjoyed your sport, convict?” Kaj spat at Valeris. “Tell me, did something go wrong? Did you bring us here with intent to flee, or have us ambushed? Did your cohorts leave you twisting in the wind?”

“Where are you getting that from?” Vaughn demanded, determined to draw her attention. “Did you expect Valeris to deliver your sister’s killers wrapped like a gift box?”

Mentioning Kaj’s sibling made the tension in the chamber leap, and the major’s simmering glare finally turned on him. She looked at the lieutenant as if she were picturing a point in the middle of his head and contemplating how to get there the hard way. “I should execute you both. There is nothing here,” she said, her voice low and loaded with menace. “The Kriosians are gone! The convict has led us down a blind canyon!”

“Not so,” Valeris managed, talking around Urkoj’s unmoving grip. “We found traces—”

“From the isolytic weapons,” Vaughn broke in. He quickly explained what they had discovered, the assembly room and the radiation readings.

Kaj folded her arms. He noticed that the strange gene alteration the major had undertaken was turning her skin a shade of violet that seemed to darken as she spoke. “Finding the spoor of your prey has no value if you cannot track it any farther.

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