Star trek: typhon pact: seize the fire by Michael A. Martin

Author:Michael A. Martin [Michael A. Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SF
ISBN: 9781439167823
Published: 2010-11-30T01:01:50+00:00

15

GORN HEGEMONY WARSHIP S’ALATH

Asinking feeling was developing in the pits of Z’shezhira’s stomachs as she watched the tactical display, which showed one of Captain Krassrr’s six vessels separating itself from the others. Not wishing to rouse First Myrmidon Gog’resssh’s ever-more-easily-roused suspicions, she dutifully reported the development the moment she noticed it.

“I have confirmed it, First Myrmidon,” Second Myrmidon Zegrroz’rh said moments later, his ruined compound eye seeming to stare into Z’shezhira’s soul though she knew this to be an utter impossibility. “One of Krassrr’s ships is breaking formation, moving away from the ecosculptor. It’s the Zser’resz, Krassrr’s best-armed vessel.”

“Heading?” Gog’resssh demanded from the middle of the command deck.

“It’s coming toward this hemisphere,” Sk’salissk said from the helm console.

Gog’resssh pounded the arm of his chair, splitting it as though it were a cord of dunewood. “Have they detected us?”

“Negative,” Z’shezhira said, focusing on her scanner’s readouts. The Zser’resz’s trajectory suggested that the vessel might be seeking the source of the two subspace pulses she had detected earlier in the ship’s day; Z’shezhira wasn’t certain, but she thought they might have originated on one of Hranrar’s five small moons, or else had been bounced off one of the satellites on its way elsewhere.

She hoped that Gog’resssh wouldn’t act rashly—or at least not so rashly that he got everyone aboard the S’alath killed. But she knew how badly shipboard supplies had dwindled of late. The Gorn war-caster requirement for live food greatly constrained the size of each supply raid the S’alath’s de facto crew could conduct in its endless search for sustenance; therefore such raids had to be undertaken fairly frequently.

If Gog’resssh and his cronies wait much longer, she thought with an inward shiver, then they will scarcely be able to restrain themselves from consuming me and the other technical personnel they have seized along with this vessel.

Z’shezhira looked up from the tactical display and stepped into the harsh glare of Gog’resssh’s insect-eyed gaze. “Call the auxiliary-craft team,” he said as he rose from his partially wrecked command chair. “Tell them we must move immediately to take what we require from Krassrr’s main supply vessel. We may never have a better opportunity.”

Z’shezhira nodded, grimly aware that she, too, would soon have an unprecedented chance to do what had to be done. . . .

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