“You request assurances?You require proof?MRek turned his back on Archer. He laughed loudly, as did most of the other Klingons in the room. “And what is it weare getting in return? Other than your Coalitions promise not to initiate a suicidal war with us?
“What is it you want?Archer asked, aware that he might regret that question more than anything he had said in this chamber so far. He recalled that on the day he had first seen a Klingon, the Vulcan ambassador Soval had warned him, “The last thing your people need is to make an enemy of the Klingon Empire.Those words of wisdom reverberated in his head now.
MRek turned back again to face him. “When our children are young, they learn to befriend the lowlier creatures of our world. Targs, qogh, qaHomthey play with them, sleep beside them, find allies in them. And when they attend to the Rite of Ascension, they learn that they must killthe animals that trusted them and feaston them. The animals are not Sajany longer, weaker creatures kept at our sufferance. They exist to be sacrificed. MRek smiled, showing his pointed teeth. “You are a Sajtoday, Captain Archer. You must decide whether your Coalition Council sent you here knowingyou would be sacrificedor whether your sacrifice is born of their stupidity.
“Any act against me ormy ship or crew will be considered an act of war as well, Chancellor, Archer said, trying not to imagine what was going to happen next. He was aware that the two MACOs with him were even now assessing every possible mode of attackas they more than likely had been doing from the moment the three of them had entered this chamber.
“You ask us for proof,Captain, MRek. “We have already given you every answer you will get without cost. Anything further you will have to earn through vItHaycombat against a warrior of my choosing. If you truly wish to avoid war with the Empire, youmay prove itby fighting for the truth.
MRek gestured to the back of the chamber with a flourish, and Archer saw a figure standing in the shadows behind the chancellor. “If you are not a craven bIHnuch,then you will cross blades with the very person you most accuse of being a taHqeq.
The man stepped forward, and Archer saw the swarthy skin, the braided goatee, and the smooth forehead.
Unless he backed downa choice he doubted was in any way a realistic possibilitythe warrior he was to face in a battle to the death was none other than Admiral Krell.
TWENTY-FOUR
Romulan Scoutship Drolae
T HE ALREADY OVERSTRAINED ENGINESshrieked in protest at suddenly being thrown into full reverse. The half-illuminated, blue-green limb of a planet suddenly appeared in the formerly empty space directly in front of the slender sheet of transparent aluminum that protected the cramped crew compartment from the unforgiving vacuum of space.
“Damn! Trip shouted, momentarily forgetting to avoid using human idioms in the presence of Romulans. The planet that had suddenly appeared before him grew steadily and quickly until it filled the viewers field of vision almost completely. One moment he had been calmly studying the nav display on his copilots console; the next, an entire world threatened to fall directly on top of him like the mother of all rockslides.
“Terix, I know we need to sneak up on these people, Trip said, grateful for the flight harness that prevented his bucking seat from ejecting him like the Romulan equivalent of a cowboy taverns mechanical bull. “But did you really have to cut it thisclose?
Seated at the pilots console to Trips left, the centurion only laughed indulgently as he pulled back on his control yoke with one hand while entering attitude corrections with the other. If he was at all concerned about Trips outburst, he showed no outward sign.
“As you have already noted more than once, we must provide our quarry with as little advance warning as possible, the Romulan said. His words were punctuated by loud bounces and vibrations as the sturdy little ships belly slammed hard into the planets rarefied upper atmosphere.
Trip attempted to draw some comfort from the clear evidence hed just seen that human pilots had no monopoly on insanity. Before today, he had never brought a ship out of warp so close to the surface of a planet. Starfleet regulations strictly prohibited such stunts except in the direst of emergencies, presumably not only because they were hard on ships, but also because they could cause untold havoc planetside. The still-burning surface of Coridan Prime stood as a mute testament to the wisdom of those flight regs. He breathed a silent prayer of thanks that the Romulan recon vessel had not only survived the punishing high-warp voyage all the way from Cheron to Taugus more or less intact, but had also somehow resisted being torn to molecule-sized pieces by the stress of Terixs brutally abrupt deceleration.
Now he feared that the reallydangerous part of this mission still lay ahead.
Terix quickly leveled out the Drolaes descent as he continued to bring her down. The propulsion system gradually quieted, though its din was replaced by the nearly deafening howl of the steadily thickening nimbus of ionized atmosphere that surrounded the friction-superheated hulls ventral surfaces. Still trading velocity for heat as it plunged ever deeper into the atmosphere, the scoutship roared across the terminator, passing very quickly from impenetrable night into a cloud-decked but brightly illuminated dayside.
The scout punched through the bottom of the cloud deck moments later; despite the deep band of haze beneath the clouds, the planets upper mesosphere evidently admitted more than enough light to allow Trip to see that what hed thought of only moments earlier as Taugus IIIs western limb had now become its sunward horizon.
Only about fifteen kilometers of intermittently turbulent atmosphere now separated the little vessels still-glowing hull from the planets forbidding rocky surface.
“Do you have a fix yet on the dissidents camp, Cunaehr? Terix asked, the rest of his attention completely absorbed by his buckboard-style piloting.
Trip had already been fully engaged in trying to pinpoint their target before the centurion had asked the question. “The passive scans are giving me some ambiguous results. Im not sure its a good idea to risk tipping these people off by putting the sensors into active mode, though.
Terix nodded. “I agree. Im locking in on TLuadhs preprogrammed coordinates to make our approach. Can you handle the sensor controls?
“I think so, Trip said, though he was wary of rousing Terixs suspicions by appearing to be toofamiliar with Romulan military hardware.
“Good, said the centurion. “Continue making passive scans. Be on the lookout for any heavy concentrations of refined metals.
Trip nodded, working his console and keeping a weather eye on the passive sensors displays as the scoutship continued its rolling, bumping descent. He felt grateful that he wasnt prone to motion sickness.
An orange light flashed, followed by a column of numbers in Romulan script. Trip paused the figures and read them over twice to make absolutely sure he wasnt simply misinterpreting the alien characters to which he was still trying to become accustomed.