Seconds later, Lieutenant Jackson and two of his security officers rushed forward, covering the other fallen Orions and verifying that no threats remained. Jackson was speaking into a communicator, and Reyes heard something about reinforcements, sealing off access to the Omari-Ekon,and requesting an emergency medical team for the injured personnel. Hearing that, Reyes turned to where T’Prynn was huddling over Pennington, who lay unconscious on the deck with a ghastly wound covering most of his right arm and shoulder.
“T’Prynn,” he said, “is he all right?”
The Vulcan shook her head, and Reyes thought he heard the note of concern in her voice. “I do not know.”
Sagging until his back rested against the bulkhead, Reyes allowed himself to slide to a sitting position on the deck. He bit back the pain from his own injury, at the same time allowing the first wave of relief to wash over him. After his long exile with the Klingons and the Orions, he was free, at least in a relative sense. There was no way to know what might next be in store for him, but at the moment he did not care.
A moment later, he looked up to see Lieutenant Jackson walking toward him, pulling his attention from his fallen crewmates long enough to offer a small, grim smile as he nodded in greeting.
“Welcome aboard, Mister Reyes.”
27
Amid the hive of perpetual activity that was Starbase 47’s operations center, Admiral Nogura watched the image of the Omari-Ekonas displayed on one of the room’s oversized viewscreens. The Orion vessel had just disconnected from its docking port along the station’s secondary hull and was now maneuvering away, rotating on its axis as it took up a course for open space.
“Good riddance,” Nogura said. Turning away from the viewer, he looked to where the station’s executive officer, Commander Jon Cooper, stood at a nearby workstation. “Commander, keep an eye on that ship until it’s out of sensor range. I don’t really care where they’re going, just so long as they go.”
Smiling at the comment, Cooper nodded. “Aye, aye, sir. Do you think that’s the last we’ll be seeing of them?”
“I highly doubt it,” Nogura replied. “They found a way to ingratiate themselves to me once before. Something tells me they’re not above trying it again.” It would have to be something spectacular, he decided, for him to consider allowing the Orion ship to regain the favored status it once had enjoyed. With T’Prynn having seen to the deletion from the Omari-Ekon’s navigational logs of any useful information pertaining to the possible location of the Mirdonyae artifacts, Nogura could conceive of no reason he might entertain the idea of allowing the Orion ship to return.
But,he reminded himself, you said that once before.
“There’s always the chance they’ll come looking for me,” said a voice from behind him, and Nogura looked over his shoulder to where Diego Reyes stood, flanked by two members of the station’s security detail. “But something tells me they’ll probably just cut their losses and call it a day.”
Nogura nodded as he turned to face Reyes. “Were I in their position, I’d likely do the same thing. Neera has an easy scapegoat in Ganz, and you did her a favor when you tied off that particular loose end.”
“Happy to be of service,” Reyes replied, his expression flat and unreadable.
Nogura gestured for Reyes and his security escort to accompany him as he began walking toward his office. “Given that the Federation now has every reason and justification to make life absolute hell for every Orion vessel in the quadrant, I’m thinking Neera and her bosses are more than happy to lay everything at Ganz’s feet.” In addition to Ganz being killed, several of his subordinates had been stunned and taken into custody by members of Lieutenant Jackson’s security detail. They had languished in the brig for more than a day while Nogura decided what to do with them. It had been his first impulse to have them all tried under Federation law for Commander ch’Nayla’s death as well as those of two security officers, along with the injuries to Reyes, Tim Pennington, and other members of the detail.
The reality of the situation, Nogura knew, was that such a trial would only serve to shed unwanted light on the reasons for the incident in the first place, including the acts of subterfuge and espionage Reyes had conducted with Starfleet authorization aboard the Omari-Ekon. After consulting with Lieutenant Commander Holly Moyer in order to get the Starfleet JAG view of the situation, Nogura had come to the reluctant conclusion that the best for all involved parties was to see to it that the matter was handled as quickly and quietly as possible. The Orion Syndicate would also want to avoid public attention, so attributing everything to Ganz, his wounded pride, and his insatiable need for vengeance against Reyes in response to any perceived slights made for a nice, tidy end to the entire odious affair. Starfleet’s position was that it was easier to accept such a premise knowing that Reyes had been successful in obtaining the navigational log information from the Omari-Ekon’s computer.
Reyes said, “I don’t think it’s a simple case of blame game. If Neera really was pulling Ganz’s strings, then there’s no way she would have sanctioned sending an armed boarding party to the station after me.” He paused, frowning as though recalling a memory. “You should have seen the look on Ganz’s face there at the end. He was livid, and wanted my head on a plate, right then and there, and by any means necessary.”
“That’s pretty much what Neera said when Lieutenant Jackson questioned her,” Nogura replied. “According to her, she laid on the tears and came across as little more than the helpless moll, forced to do his bidding. She had no idea that we suspected the truth about her relationship with Ganz.” There had been isolated reports—some dating back more than a century—of other female Orions holding positions of power within criminal organizations similar to the one supposedly run by Ganz. In several of those examples, the females chose to downplay their role, allowing a subordinate—almost always a male—to be the group’s public face. This carried with it the obvious benefit of allowing the figurehead manager to be the target of competition, ridicule, and even the odd assassination attempt. The dynamic also was useful for situations where blame needed to be shifted away from the organization’s true leader.
“You mean Neera didn’t try any of those tricks on Jackson that Orion women do so well?” Reyes asked. “I’ve experienced that sort of thing firsthand, and I can tell you that resisting their charms is harder than you might think.”
“I can imagine,” Nogura said. “I observed Jackson’s interview with her, and she did try to wile him with her charms. She played up how grateful she was that we’d taken care of Ganz for her, as she’d been scared of him and all sorts of other nonsense.” He shook his head. “There was a minute there when I thought I’d have to intervene, but Jackson kept everything under control. Her little secret’s safe, though I expect she’ll have a tough time finding a dependable replacement for Ganz, given the fate he suffered and how quickly Neera and everyone else threw him to the lions.” He shook his head. “Her problem, not ours.”
Nogura led the way into his office, instructing the two security guards that they could wait outside before indicating that Reyes should follow him. Clasping his hands behind his back, he waited until the doors closed before saying, “By the way, I haven’t yet had a chance to thank you for what you did over there. I know how much danger you were in just by being there, but helping us placed you at even greater risk. I appreciate that you accepted that risk on our behalf.”
Reyes shrugged. “Old habits die hard, I suppose. I just hope it’s worth it, for ch’Nayla’s sake, and Pennington, Hetzlein, and Gianetti, and everyone else who’s died or been hurt since we found that damned meta-genome.”
“With any luck,” Nogura replied, “we’ll know something soon.” Even as he stood here with Reyes, Lieutenants T’Prynn and Xiong were working with the navigational data Reyes had secured from the Omari-Ekon.