According to the latest version of whatever fluid diplomatic agreement governed the two powers’ activities in the Taurus Reach, simply by beaming down to the planet, Blair may well have triggered an interstellar incident, even though his reasons were straightforward. The distress call his communications officer had intercepted, broadcast without benefit of any encryption, had not expressly forbidden any non-Klingon vessels from answering the plea for help. On the other hand, it had been a generic, all-purpose distress signal transmitted on a repeating loop, the sort of prerecorded summons often designed to be dispatched quickly, such as when some kind of massive accident or disaster had occurred. Whether that was sufficient to absolve Blair of any wrongdoing so far as answering the call was concerned, he did not know.
All that’s for the politicians to worry about,he mused as he once more raised the binoculars to his face and took another survey of the devastated settlement. He had come here with the intentions of answering the distress call—detected two days earlier as the Defiantcontinued its patrol of the sector—and making a good-faith effort to render whatever assistance might be needed. As that was no longer necessary, his first instinct was to send Doctor Hamilton and her team to search for clues and answers as to what might have wiped out the colony.
An autopsy of one of the victims was out of the question, of course, and not just because his chief medical officer—so far as he knew, at least—possessed no in-depth knowledge of Klingon anatomy. While he was certain Hamilton could conduct at least some cursory examinations using whatever records might be on file in the Defiant’s library computer, even that would take more time than Blair knew remained to him. What if the settlers had fallen prey to some as yet unknown, perhaps even infectious disease that defied detection by sensor scans? Was that not important enough to secure as much information as possible? A full science team was what really was needed here, but the likelihood of the Empire allowing such an excursion was small, no matter how noble or innocuous the purpose. Despite whatever pretense of peace imposed upon the Federation and the Empire by the Organian Peace Treaty, tensions remained strained between the two powers, and events that had transpired in the Taurus Reach in recent months had only exacerbated the situation. The last thing Blair wanted was a confrontation with a Klingon battle cruiser here. Not now, when there remained far too many questions about what happened here.
“There’s nothing we can do now,” he said, shaking his head in disgust, “and our being here’s only going to upset whoever comes to check on the colony.” The best Blair could do now would be to compose a detailed report and transmit it back to Starbase 47, where Admiral Nogura would see to it that it was forwarded to the appropriate parties on the Federation as well as the Klingon side of whatever negotiating table the governments’ respective diplomats currently graced.
“Commander Mbugua did order me to make sure you returned to the ship within one hour, sir,” th’Vlene said.
Eyeing the Andorian, Blair replied, “Has it been that long?” He then heard the telltale beep of his communicator, and he offered a small smile. “Well, it looks like the commander’s been keeping at least one eye on the clock.” Reaching for the device at the small of his back, he flipped open the communicator’s antenna grid. “Blair here.” Expecting Mbugua, he was surprised to hear the voice of his science officer.
“ It’s Commander Nyn, sir,” the young woman replied. “ Captain, we’ve found something you need to see.”
The first thought that occurred to Thomas Blair as he studied the object before him was that it was the product of a science experiment gone wrong in some horrific manner.
“What the hell is it?” he asked as he walked a circuit around the odd device, which sat alone atop a small plateau no more than twenty meters across at its widest point. “Some kind of probe?”
From where she stood to one side, tricorder in hand, Lieutenant Commander Nyn said, “I don’t think so, sir. I’m picking up components of what looks to be some kind of sensor apparatus, but it seems to be fairly limited in scope.”
“A weapon of some kind?” Blair frowned, and for a worried moment, he wondered if it might be some kind of mine. Now’s a hell of a time to think of that.
Nyn shook her head. “That’d make sense, sir, particularly given what else we’ve found.” She gestured first to where the bodies of two Tholians lay a short distance from the object, near the edge of the rise, before pointing to the body of a Klingon female. “That said, I don’t see how.” Pausing, she continued to consult her tricorder. “I mean, I’m picking up what looks to be some kind of particle beam generator, but there’s nothing else that makes me think it’s part of a weapons system. No targeting array, and it doesn’t seem to have any sort of propulsion or flight control systems. It pretty much just sits here, and whatever beam it’s supposed to generate goes in one direction, though from what I can tell the beam is meant to disperse as it travels from its origin point, rather than focusing on a single target.”
“And this is the only one we’ve found that’s intact?” Blair asked.
“That’s correct, sir,” Nyn replied. “Though our sensors found twenty-three other sites, arrayed in an equidistant perimeter around the colony, every one of those sites has nothing but a small crater and some residual materials that are obviously artificial in origin.”
His gaze still fixed on the object, Blair said, “Let me guess. The perimeter is eight kilometers wide.” He heard Nyn clear her throat before replying.
“That’s right, sir.”
Blair ran his hand along the object’s flank. “And what’s that sound like to you, Commander?”
“Whatever these things are,” the science officer said, “they formed a kill zone, with the colony in the middle. Afterward, they initiated some kind of self-destruct protocol.” Turning, she pointed to another, smaller crater. “Something was over there, too, but beats me what it might’ve been. My tricorder picked up traces of Tholian remains from that site, sir. Whatever blew up, it took at least one Tholian with it.”
His fingers brushing over a series of scorch marks blemishing the object’s otherwise flawless black surface, Blair said, “Somebody took a shot at it. These look like disruptor burns.”
Nyn replied, “Judging by the damage and residual energy reading. I don’t think it’s from a Klingon weapon, though.”
Bending closer, Blair saw that the object’s outer casing had been penetrated. “Whatever hit it managed to punch through the shell.”
“There appears to be some internal damage,” Nyn said. “Some kind of computer component, I think, but without tearing it apart, I can’t be sure.”
Blair always liked a good puzzle, even if he knew he would not like the picture it would form. “I’ll bet a month’s pay this is the reason we have twenty-three craters instead of twenty-four.” He pointed to the damaged section. “The shot damaged whatever self-destruct mechanism this thing contains.”
“It’s certainly a possibility, sir,” the science officer replied.
Turning from the still unidentified object, Blair said, “What the hell were the Tholians doing here?”
“Upsetting the natives, I think,” another voice answered, and Blair turned to see th’Vlene making his way up one angled face of the rise toward them. The Andorian stopped before pointing back the way he had come. “I found another Klingon down there.”
Blair walked to the edge of the plateau and directed his gaze down the slope until he caught sight of the unmoving form lying at the bottom of the ravine th’Vlene had been investigating. The body was partially obscured by boulders and vegetation, but there was no mistaking the rather large burn mark on the Klingon male’s chest. Clothing along with skin and muscle tissue had been burned away, probably from a particle beam weapon at close range.