Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 57 - Out of the Cocoon by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780743496926
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2005-10-17T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter

7

After the way the meeting at the Prime Ministers’ residence had ended, Reade Latta feared Starfleet would be abandoning them for another decade, if not longer. So when he learned that a Starfleet team was to come calling to discuss security matters, he resolved to show them how much he welcomed their presence.

“Ten-year-old whiskey,” he announced, holding up the bottle and beaming at his guests. “Distilled from the finest Bringloidi-raised quadrotriticale; none of that biosynthesized swill for you good folk.” The Starfleeters—Corsi, the tall blond security chief he’d met earlier, and Soloman, whose large skull clearly identified him as some manner of technological genius—were clearly overwhelmed by his graciousness, and they could only smile silently as he filled their glasses. “To fallen comrades,” he said as he lifted his glass, “and absent friends.”

Corsi nodded solemnly, raised her glass in kind, and added, “And to new friends.”

The Starfleeters both brought the drink to their lips, but Latta hesitated. He stared into the amber liquid for a long guilty moment, as if only then remembering his promises and his responsibilities. But you only promised Brenna you would stay sober for the duration of the crisis, the demon in the back of his head reminded him. Well, now Starfleet is here to put things right, aren’t they? Besides, you were the one who proposed that toast; it would be an insult to Kevin Hammond and all the rest not to—

Latta slammed the untouched drink down on the desk, sloshing a good share of it onto his hand. Stupid weak old man, he cursed himself. Pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his hand, he put on a smile to meet the questioning gazes from across the desk. “Well then, friends, shall we get to business?”

Corsi set her still half-full glass aside. “The da Vinci stands ready to offer our assistance in securing the safety of this colony. Soloman and I are here to determine how to best organize those efforts.”

“Ah, yes, yes. Very wise, very forward thinking.”

“Thank you,” Soloman said. His glass was also sitting forgotten in front of him, the level barely a centimeter lower than what he had poured. “To this end, we hoped you would grant us access to your computer systems.”

“Oh, well, certainly,” said Latta, gesturing to the fancy chrome and glass panels set into the wall to his right.

The Starfleeters looked at the device, and then back to Latta, as if they had expected something else. After a moment of awkward silence, Mr. Soloman spoke. “Minister, we would require an authorization code in order to fully access your systems.”

“Um…” Latta replied. “Yes. An authorization code. Of course.” Kevin Hammond had mentioned something to him about codes, maybe, when he set off on his counterstrike against those A.M.P. madmen. But all power was out then, so Latta hadn’t bothered remembering any of it. Hell, in his younger days, back on the Old World with Danilo Odell (God rest his sweet soul), you didn’t need computers or any of the rest of this machinery to keep order.

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