Star Trek: Coda: Book 3: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack

Star Trek: Coda: Book 3: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack

Author:David Mack [Mack, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2021-11-29T16:00:00+00:00


U.S.S. Titan NCC-80102

At first Sarai had thought Riker had frozen at the sight of twelve jaunt-ships snapping into position above and around his ambush. It wouldn’t have surprised her. She had seen veteran commanders succumb to combat paralysis just as often as newly minted officers. To lose one’s advantages and wind up surrounded in the blink of an eye? It could faze anyone.

Just before she was about to step in, Riker recovered his wits. “Hard to port, full evasive!” The tableau on the viewscreen shifted in wild blurs as Titan broke away from the Klingon attack group. Thunderous blasts rocked the ship and flickered the lights.

Despite the continuing barrage, Tuvok remained stoic. “Two jaunt-ships in pursuit, Admiral. Closing fast, firing phasers.”

“Fire aft torpedoes, wide spread!”

With a single tap, Tuvok fired a cluster of six quantum torpedoes, whose launch resounded through the ship’s spaceframe. “Torpedoes away.”

“Helm, evasive loop, into attack pattern Kilo.”

Lavena was already executing the maneuvers as she confirmed, “Evasive loops, pattern Kilo—aye, sir.” The stars on the main viewscreen spun, twisted, and streaked with sickening velocity as the flight controller pushed Titan through a looping corkscrew at nearly half impulse, finishing its final roll into an attack position off the starboard side of one of its pursuers.

Riker sprang to his feet, with one fist raised and his eyes manic. “Fire everything!”

It took less than a second for Tuvok to trigger the ship’s main phaser banks and launch another volley of quantum torpedoes—but before any of them found the target, the ringship blinked out of sight, gone in a flash followed by ripples of distorted starlight. Crisscrossing phaser beams slashed at nothing, and six torpedoes vanished into empty space.

The admiral’s face contorted into a mask of rage. “No!” He spun and pointed at Sarai. “Get me another target, now!”

Sarai was already consulting her tactical monitor. “Tuvok, our second pursuer is on our aft port quarter—”

“Target acquired.”

Riker snapped, “Fire!”

“Firing phasers,” Tuvok confirmed, pressing the pad.

Now the admiral sounded desperate. “Dammit, Rager! Get it on-screen!”

Lieutenant Rager didn’t acknowledge his order; she had done it before he’d finished saying it. On the main viewscreen, more shafts of brilliant phaser energy cut across one another’s paths… only to find nothing there.

Keru reacted with curiosity to new alerts on his console. “Sir, the jaunt-ship fleet is jumping away. Only three— Correction: two left, bearing— Correction: they’ve all gone, sir.”

Riker gaped at the chief of security. “Even the first one? The one we’ve been hunting?”

“All of them, sir.”

“Well, track them, dammit!”

That demand prompted Keru to trade bewildered looks with Tuvok before he replied, “We can’t, Admiral. They vanished through wormholes that aren’t there anymore. There’s nothing to follow.”

Riker looked ready to rip out his own hair, set it on fire, and eat it. “Did we even score a single hit? One goddamned hit, on any of them?” No one spoke up. “You’re all worthless!”

Gauging the bridge crew’s reactions to Riker’s tantrum, Sarai found it telling that, for the first time since she had joined Titan’s crew, Keru and Tuvok both regarded the admiral with the same expression of aloof disdain.



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