The Empty Chair by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Star Trek fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Life on other planets, General
ISBN: 9781416508915
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2006-11-28T07:53:14.227452+00:00

They came to the rendezvous point some five hours later, and though she dared not show anything else she was feeling at the moment, Ael was at least able to rejoice at what they found waiting for them in that empty space. There were no less than eighteen vessels of various sizes there, corvettes or bigger. Some of them, as at Artaleirh, had been purloined from the Empire after they had attempted punitive missions in other systems. But there were several of them that, to Ael’s way of thinking, were worth much more. Those were the ships whose crews had independently turned against the Empire and had sought out the colonies in rebellion, looking to find ways to be of help.

She could not trust them either, right now, and they would look suspiciously enough at her, those ships’ captains who would meet her on Tyrava with various people from Enterprise and from the Artaleirh system. But that could all keep for the moment.

Ael came up from her quarters with nothing in her pocket but a data solid with that message’s contents on it. “Would you call Enterprise for me?” she said to the comms officer.

“Right away, khre’Riov—”

Ael turned to the screen and saw Lieutenant Commander Uhura’s face. “Good afternoon, Commander,” she said. “How can I help you?”

“I need to talk to the captain about a matter concerning our approach to Augo,” Ael said. “It is rather urgent, and I would like to get the matter handled before we meet with the commanders of the new ships.”

Uhura glanced to one side. “He’s free at the moment, Commander; he’s down in sickbay. Come on over and I’ll let him know you’re on the way.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Ael said. As the screen flicked to darkness and then back to the images of the eighteen ships hanging in the starlight, Ael made her way to the lift.

“How long will you be gone, khre’Riov?” said the comms officer.

“No more than an hour, I’d think,” Ael said. “Tr’Keirianh wanted me to come down to the engine room before the captains’ meeting this afternoon. Tell him I’ll see him there as soon as I return.”

“Ie, khre’Riov.”

Ael made her way down to her own transporter room and beamed over to the Enterprise. The transport technician there nodded to her as she materialized. “Commander, can I help you get anywhere?”

“I am meeting the captain in sickbay,” Ael said.

“Do you need escort, ma’am?”

“I think not; I know the way.”

The transport tech nodded at her, and Ael headed out into the corridor, heading for the lift. She remembered how huge and overblown this ship had seemed to her once. Now, though, Enterprise seemed the right size for the people in it; it was Bloodwing that seemed pitifully cramped. I have spent too long with these people, they would tell me in Fleet. Yet what is wrong with having enough room for the crew not to have to live in one another’s laps? How wonderful it would be to have an empire

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