Star Trek: 24th Century Crossover - 018 - Section 31 - Disavowed by David Mack

Author:David Mack
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Alien Contact, Action & Adventure, General, Science Fiction, Military, Fiction
ISBN: 9781476753089
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Published: 2014-10-28T07:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

It galled Thot Trom that he and his men had been forced to slink away from a fight. From a tactical standpoint, retreat had been the best option. He had withdrawn his troops with only a few fatalities. Now they were safe aboard the Tajny, which drifted, cloaked and radio silent, within the Denorios Belt, well hidden from the probing sensors of the jaunt ship Enterprise and its Dominion allies. When a new opportunity to attack presented itself, Trom knew he would have at least nearly the full strength of his Spetzkar company at his command.

Regardless, he was angry. And he wanted answers.

He entered the Tajny’s briefing room with long strides and no patience. “We had our prize, and then it was taken from us. Someone explain to me why.” He looked down the plotting table ringed with his senior officers, then pointed at his second-in-command. “Crin, you start.”

“After-action review of our sensor logs suggests there were undetected comm signals passing between the Enterprise and the ShiKahr.”

“What type of signals?”

“Ultralow frequency, encrypted subspace radio pulses.” Crin tapped on the interactive surface of the oblong plotting table and called up an annotated sensor report on its central holographic display for everyone to look at as he continued. “It’s a system similar to the one Ikkuna Station used to warn us about the Federation team on the Królik.”

Trom spent a few seconds reviewing the projected data. “Backdoor command codes. We missed some kind of challenge-and-response, so they used this to take remote control of the ShiKahr and locked us out.” He looked at Solt. “How do we prevent that next time?”

The chief engineer traced a few lines in a schematic on the table’s display. “To receive that type of signal requires a special antenna. We can disable it next time.”

“I presume you’ll know where to find it.”

“It would be part of the main comm array. Once we find its input node on the transceiver router, we can trace that back to the antenna, and to any backups it has.”

“Good.” The next commando in Trom’s sights was his computer specialist and second officer. “Rem, is it possible there might be some other frequency the Commonwealth crews could use to hijack a jaunt ship from us?”

Rem shook his head. “No. Their computer cores are shielded against outside signals, and we’d be able to monitor the other comm channels. Now that we know about this security exploit, we won’t let them use it again. We’ll be ready for them next time.”

That was an answer Trom could accept, so he shifted his attention to someone new. “Karn, how did their boarding teams reacquire control of the ShiKahr so quickly? You assured me we had all the key areas of the ship secured.”

The tactical specialist shifted his weight, a telltale sign that he was nervous. “We aren’t entirely sure, sir. I’ve reviewed some of the recordings from our teams’ helmet comms, and as far as I can tell, they followed procedure. At the first sign of hostile transporter signals, they engaged the shroud circuits on their armor and assumed ambush positions.

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