The Brave And The Bold Book Two Part 18

But that was for later. "I take it," she said, "that you figured stunning him was better than his getting in the way?"

Worf nodded. "Something like that."

"Good plan," G'joth said. "Davok is not a true warrior. He is simply a boor. Shall we continue working? I believe we should start by realigning these circuits."

"I like that plan," Falce said, sitting up and moving over to the workstation they had set up. Looking at Worf, the lieutenant asked, "By the way, Mr. Amba.s.sador-how many weapons you have on you?"

Again, the not-really-a-smile. "Enough."

While the quartet worked, B'Oraq picked Davok up-not making any effort to be gentle-and laid him down on the QongDaq in the rear. With the power out, she couldn't seal the room, but at least he'd be out of the way there.

"Doctor," McKenna said when she came back to the fore, "this thing is set to give off a level-four nelaron pulse. Will that have any negative impact on us?"

B'Oraq thought a moment. "For how long?"

Falce said, "As long as it takes to bring the forcefield down."

Closing her eyes, B'Oraq juggled figures in her head. Then she opened them. "At level four, we should be fine as long as you don't go over five minutes."

G'joth laughed a hearty laugh. "That is hardly an issue. This thing will burn out after three minutes."

"In that case, Ensign, I'd say no negative impact whatsoever." B'Oraq smiled.

A few minutes later, Worf announced that they were ready. B'Oraq noticed that the phaser Worf had used on Davok was now part of the device, as well.

McKenna placed the device-which looked like nothing else to B'Oraq but a piece of surrealist sculpture she'd seen on Earth-next to one of the bulkheads. The forcefield went all around the s.h.i.+p, so the device could apparently be placed anywhere.

"Activating nelaron pulse-now."

On now, McKenna touched a control. A lowlevel hum started to build in intensity.

Forcefields were generally only visible when they were interfered with: when they turned on, when they were turned off, and when someone or something touched them. So when B'Oraq saw a flicker in the field, she felt a similar flicker of hope.

Then the forcefield crackled and went offline.

Half a second later, the device that they had constructed exploded in a shower of sparks and a small fire.

G'joth immediately reached for the fire extinguisher that sat under the copilot's seat and used it to put the small fire out. The chemicals probably weren't good for the device, but an explosion was far worse.

"Well, the good news," Falce said, "is that we got the field down. The bad news is that there's no way in h.e.l.l we'll be able to reconstruct this thing-and we lost some of our most potentially useful equipment-including all our weapons."

B'Oraq smiled grimly. "Isn't there some kind of human expression about lemons and lemonade?"

"What is a lemon aid?" G'joth asked. "For that matter, what is a lemon?"

"A foul drink made from a foul fruit." With a more playful smile at McKenna and Falce, B'Oraq added, "No surprise from a race that can't even handle bloodwine."

"Hey, I like bloodwine just fine, thanks," Falce said, returning the smile. "It makes a dandy lubricant when I have engine trouble."

"Enough," Worf said, though in a gentle voice. "Let us see what we can find outside." He turned to B'Oraq. "Doctor, it might be best if you remained behind."

"I can take care of myself, Amba.s.sador. And I want to know what is going on here, and I can't very well learn that sitting here."

"You are just a doctor," G'joth said dismissively.

"I can use my d'k tahg just as well as you can, G'joth. Better, probably, since I'm trained in, shall we say, surgical strikes?"

McKenna snorted. Falce tried to hide a grin.

G'joth stared at her for a second, then burst into laughter. "Very well, Doctor. We shall face-whatever it is that has taken us together."

Nodding, Worf said, "Let us proceed."

B'Oraq was glad no one had argued. On top of everything else, she had no desire to be alone in the shuttle when Davok woke up.

Worf led them out through the open-and now usable-rear hatch. Behind him were Falce and McKenna, then B'Oraq, with G'joth bringing up the rear.

PAIN!.

The moment they were all out of the shuttle, she felt intense pain in her skull that made her earlier headache seem meaningless.

As she fell unconscious for the second time in as many days, she decided that staying in the shuttle might not have been such a bad idea....

Chapter Thirteen.

COMMANDER TERETH GAZED OVER THE BRIDGE of the Gorkon and was content.

She had requested this posting the instant she knew that it was available. Tereth had gone far in her career because she had always had a good instinct for picking winners. It had been a necessary survival skill. The House of Kular was not an especially powerful one when Tereth was a girl, and she was the only child left. Her parents had hoped she would mate well and bring the House glory that way, but she had been mated twice to men who subsequently died before they had a chance to forge a path of honor that would bring Kular to greater glory.

But neither of those mates had made her crest ache. They were adequate par'machkai, but nothing spectacular.

So, though her doddering father was the ostensible House head, she took over running the House herself-behind the scenes, of course, since women were not permitted to be House heads without special dispensation from the High Council, which Kular was hardly in a position to get.

When Gowron-an outsider and political agitator-campaigned to be considered a worthy successor to the aging Chancellor K'mpec, Tereth had insisted that Kular back him, even though Duras-a councillor from a most influential House-seemed the favorite. Her parents had argued, but she insisted. Besides, their debts were huge, their prospects growing dimmer with each turn. They had very little to lose.

Sure enough, Gowron eventually became chancellor, Duras died in disgrace, and the House of Kular reaped the benefits. Gowron forgave many of Kular's debts, paved the way for others to be easily repaid, and also sponsored Tereth's application to become an officer in the Defense Force.

Since then, she had flourished. She had served with Captain Akhra when he took the Carda.s.sian world of Hranish. Given the opportunity to serve directly under General Talak, she chose instead a less prestigious post with Captain Huss as part of the general's armada. Once again her instincts proved prophetic: Huss was soon inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth, then went on to win several major campaigns against the Dominion.

Her crest ached again when she encountered Klag on Qo'noS when the latter was recovering from Marcan V. She kept an eye on him, and he soon was given one of the mighty Qang-cla.s.s s.h.i.+ps. He, too, was destined to join the Order, and within a month of his shakedown cruise, he had an opening for a first officer and no viable candidates on-s.h.i.+p.

As with so many others Tereth had chosen as patrons, Klag seemed odd on the face of it. He had served on the Pagh for an absurdly long time without promotion or attrition, and even though he was rewarded for his actions on Marcan V, he was also given no say in his own command crew. His exploits to date were satisfactory, but he had won no great victories, defeating only simple foes-Kreel, Kinshaya pirates, jeghpu'wI' rebels. Still, Tereth's instincts had not failed her yet.

The Gorkon pilot, a newly a.s.signed youth named Vralk, recently promoted to lieutenant and still with a sad excuse for a beard dirtying his face, said, "We are at the last known position of the captain's shuttle, Commander."

"Full stop." Tereth strode to her position on the captain's right. To Toq, who stood at the operations console behind the captain's chair, she said, "Report."

"I am picking up the shuttle's warp signature, Commander," Toq said. "Its heading is 156 mark 7-right on course for Qo'noS. They were traveling somewhere between warp five and warp seven-point-five."

Tereth nodded and turned to Vralk. "Set course 156 mark 7, execute at warp five."

Vralk acknowledged the order and set a course.

"Toq, inform me if the warp signature changes."

Within a few minutes, Toq said, "Warp signature lost, Commander."

That was fast, Tereth thought. "Feed the coordinates where you lost it to Lieutenant Vralk. Bring us to that position and then full stop, Lieutenant."

Both Toq and Vralk acknowledged and carried out their orders.

At the coordinates, Vralk said, "All stop, Commander."

Tereth got up and walked over to the operations console. "Toq?"

"I have the signature, Commander." He looked up from his readings. "The heading is 211 mark 1."

Vralk turned around to look at Toq. "That brings them right to the Laktar system."

Tereth blinked. The Battle of Laktar was one of the more vicious skirmishes of the Dominion War. Captain Huss's fleet had arrived at the tail end of it, but the battle was over by then: it was a victory for the Empire, but the radiation that infused that system from the sheer volume of destroyed s.h.i.+ps made any kind of sensor scan impossible.

Antic.i.p.ating Tereth's question, Toq said, "The warp signature goes right through the radiation, Commander. We cannot track them any farther."

Tereth muttered a curse.

"Something else, Commander," Toq said. "The discrepant reading that was found on Earth and Bajor is also here. It was not present when we first encountered the shuttle's warp trail, but it is here now."

"Have you determined what that reading is?"

Abashedly, Toq said, "Not yet, Commander."

Tereth kept her smile to herself. Toq took great pride in his work, something Tereth had done her best to encourage. He had the makings of greatness in him. "The next time I ask that question, Lieutenant, I expect a different answer."

"Yes, sir!" Toq said.

Leaving Toq to his work, Tereth walked over to the helm control. "Vralk, project the shuttle's course ahead. I want to know all the possible places they could have gone."

Vralk punched up a display on his console. "I am afraid that list is very long, Commander." Tereth was pleased that Vralk had already projected the course, but had not been foolish enough to volunteer the information before Tereth was ready for it. "The course takes them directly through the Ch'grath Stellar Cl.u.s.ter."

Tereth growled low in her throat. Vralk said, "Commander, I-"

She waved him off. "It's not your fault, Vralk." She bared her teeth. "If my displeasure was with you, you would not be able to apologize."

"Yes, sir," Vralk said quickly. The boy had only been a.s.signed to the Gorkon for a week. He will learn the protocols soon enough, she thought, or he will be rea.s.signed. She smiled, remembering Bekk Kelad's thoughtless burst of laughter at Captain Klag's unfortunate-and temporary-difficulties adjusting to his new limb. Tereth had thought her captain to be courageous in putting his own ability to fight over outmoded medical practices and allowing Dr. B'Oraq to give him a new limb. An adjustment period was to be expected, and it hadn't affected his ability to lead them so far. If it did, Tereth would deal with it, as any first officer would-and as long as it didn't, any who dared to mock the captain would pay for it.

Kelad certainly had been paying. His a.s.signment to waste extraction was not due to end for another two months.

Since Toq was occupied with his sensor sweeps, Tereth went directly to the ensign at the communications console to Toq's left. "Send to all s.h.i.+ps, planets, and outposts in the Ch'grath cl.u.s.ter to be on the lookout for the captain's shuttle."

"Yes, sir," said the ensign.

Again, Tereth looked around the bridge. Vralk kept the s.h.i.+p in position for Toq to make his sensor sweeps. Next to Toq's operations station, Lieutenant Rodek stood impa.s.sively at the gunner's position, presumably ready to go into battle if needed. Behind the two of them, the four gunner positions sat empty for the moment. The other secondary stations remained staffed and occupied.

At this point, Tereth realized, she needed to inform Klag of their progress. Until Toq found something substantial-or something else happened-there was nothing more to be done without orders from her commander.

"You have the bridge, Toq. I will be with the captain."

Toq's head was pounding when Tereth walked up behind him.

"Lieutenant, why are you still here?"

Toq looked around the bridge. He was currently sitting at one of the two science consoles, taking advantage of its ability to do more in-depth study than the more general applications of his operations station. Ironically, it was the same post on the bridge that he had served at when he came on board the Gorkon-and from which he warned the second officer, Lieutenant Kegren, that there might be an explosive device in the debris of a Breen s.h.i.+p. Kegren ignored this warning, and the s.h.i.+p was almost destroyed by such an explosive. Toq challenged Kegren, with Klag's support, and defeated him; Klag rewarded him with the post of second officer.

As he looked around, he realized that none of the same people were on the bridge anymore-aside from himself and Tereth. He checked his chronometer and saw that his s.h.i.+ft had ended almost half an hour earlier. Since he had been in charge of the bridge, he should have noticed that. And, for that matter, noticed Tereth returning from the captain's office...

"I have not yet determined what this sensor reading is, Commander," Toq said in answer to the first officer's question.

"And you will not if you die of starvation. You have not eaten since you came on-s.h.i.+ft, and you are of no use if you collapse from hunger. Go eat." Toq started to object, but Tereth didn't give him the chance to speak. "You have been staring at those waveform patterns for over an hour, Lieutenant. You need a distraction. This is not a request."

Tereth had an odd style of giving an order in such a way that it felt like she was doing you a service by giving it. Toq wasn't sure how she did it, but he found himself getting up from the science console and exiting the bridge via the turbolift.

He was late for the evening meal, but since tonight was B'Elath's turn to sing the traditional song before dinner, Toq didn't consider that a hards.h.i.+p. B'Elath always sang the dreadful "Campaign at Kol'Vat," and always sang it very badly.

She finished the song just as Toq walked in. She had ended on the tenth verse instead of singing all fifteen, which no doubt pleased all the inhabitants of the mess hall.

Toq grabbed a plate of pipius claw and bregit lung, then tossed some gagh into a bowl, grabbed a mug and poured it only half full of bloodwine-he was going right back on duty after dinner-and went to sit with Rodek and Vralk.

As he sat, Toq asked, "Why do we keep letting that woman ma.s.sacre that awful song?"

"You mean she has done that before?" Vralk asked with revulsion.

Rodek nodded. "Many times."

"And she has not been killed to spare our ears the damage?"

Toq laughed at the young pilot. "Not yet, no."

"I do not know if you've noticed, Toq," Rodek said, "but every time she sings before dinner, the next day we are victorious in battle."

Frowning, Toq said, "That is ridiculous."

"It is the truth." Rodek ate a piece of skull stew, but kept talking as he chewed. "The first time she sang was the night before we arrived at taD and destroyed those rebel s.h.i.+ps. The second time, we engaged those marauders on Galtra the following day. The third-"