U.S.S. Enterprise
Departing Shivane
Nearly a year into his mission to the Pergamum, and a number of things no longer seemed funny to Pike. One of them: Amin’s joke about being able to tell where the Essfive attackers had been. Not after Enterprise visited Shivane, a planet named in the records of Courier 4, the most recent probe his team had captured. A significant portion of the world’s surface had been purged by antimatter blasts.
“Essfive sure didn’t spare the gigatons,” Nhan said, studying her recordings of the blast zone from her bridge station. “We can’t find an atom of what was there before.”
“It was a colony,” Raden said. “These characters steal people. That’s all.”
Pike couldn’t imagine it had been anything but a settlement either. “But why,” he asked, “does Essfive cover its tracks on planets but not spaceships?”
“Possibly two different kinds of raiders,” Nhan said. “Maybe even two unrelated groups?”
Let’s hope not, Pike thought. He was all theorized out—and the tsakat protocol, as Galadjian’s nebula-navigating procedure had come to be known, was rattling enough to make the transits between clues as off-putting as the stops.
Nhan spoke again. “Huh.”
“Something else, Lieutenant?”
“Sensors thought they saw something in the rear-view tactical display—just for an instant.” She shook her head. “It’s gone now.”
“Should we investigate?”
“No, not for this,” Nhan responded. “This nebula is a floating trash heap.”
“If you’re sure,” Pike said. “What’s next?”
“Back onto Courier 4 ’s mail route,” Amin said. It had led them to Shivane. “Three stops yet where we might find more probes waiting.”
“Or something else,” Pike said. Like our people—or maybe another Shivane. Touring ghost towns and ships of the Pergamum had turned all their lives ghoulish.
“Course is laid in,” Amin said, looking at the massive swirl of gas on the viewscreen. “I feel like we’re about to fly into yesterday’s tapioca.”
That, Pike laughed at. He touched his armrest control. “About to be tsakat time again, Number One.”
From the stardrive section, Una responded, “It’s a little crowded down here, but we’re ready to go.”
“I just realized I am the only engineer currently in the saucer section,” Galadjian mused aloud from his station. Pike knew there had been a time when the engineers would have preferred that state of affairs—but hopefully success ahead would get his chief engineer past all that.
“We’re here to keep you company,” Pike said. “Engage tsakat. Mister Raden, hit the trail.”
Combat Module Carrier 539-Aloga
Approaching Little Hope
“Thank you for what you are doing, daughter. The Rengru are destroying our lives. Your duty honors all of us.”
Seated again—as she often was these days—in the carrier’s spherical strategic-planning chamber, Kormagan thought back to the message she had first seen as a child. It had not been written by her mother, but rather was an exchange between two of her ancient forbears. The message of gratitude had inspired Kormagan as she was growing up in a Boundless mobile educational facility—and later, she had made sure to hand it down to her own daughters and granddaughters.
They were long since dead. The Rengru knew no mercy. Not on her ancestors—nor her children.
Still, Kormagan wondered. Who were you, Greatmother Eudah? How did you meet your end? And what would you say if you knew what we still do for you?
“Troops are prepared, Wavemaster.”
Kormagan opened her eyes. When she looked down and to the left, Opmaster Sperrin appeared superimposed over the nebular imagery. “Thanks, Oppy,” she said, snapped back to the job at hand. “You’re blocking my view of Wave Five-Four-Four.”
Sperrin chuckled. “I’m doing you a favor. Couldn’t we get anyone better for the right flank?”
“Not a lot of choice—not with eleven waves tied up at Varadah.” She didn’t add “at the moment,” because her updates were limited to what their network of messenger probes had delivered—but it was a safe bet. The Varadah Gap was a massive engagement that was into its seventh year. “Besides,” she added, “Hemmick said I owed him for the Lurian trade.”
“They’re better his problem than ours,” Sperrin said. “So you’re going to stay here for the operation? Not like I mind getting back into action.”
“Three waves, fifteen carriers. Somebody’s got to play commodore—and it was my idea, after all.”
“The master of the Fifty-Twos is all mouth,” Sperrin said. “If this doesn’t work, Quadeo will ensure the other waves never let us lead anything again.”
“Like they have any better ideas. This war has gone on for centuries—Enterprise is the first chance we’ve had to break it wide open. I’m not letting it go.” Kormagan repositioned her map point of view and opened the channel for Sperrin to see what she was seeing. “Just about figured out all the positions. What do you think of the plan?”
Sperrin looked up. “I think it’s overkill.”
“It’s fine. Is the trap baited?”
“Affirm. We’ve launched several probes to places where Enterprise ought to be able to find them, all directing them straight to Little Hope.”
The moderate clearing in the nebula was right before Kormagan’s eyes. “You took that name out of the probes’ navigational databases, I assume.”
“We changed the entry, as ordered.”
“Good. Spock cooperated on that too. Did you get him what he needs to break into Enterprise?”
“Requisitioned. You’re sure you trust him?”
Inside Kormagan’s headgear, reptilian eyes narrowed. “I don’t trust anyone,” she said. “But I didn’t see any way he could have been fooling us. From what I hear from Baladon, I don’t think Vulcans lie.”
“Great! He can become Hemmick’s new opmaster for the Damn Fool Brigade. And speaking of dumb ideas,” Sperrin asked, “are you really going to set Spock’s people free after we capture them?”
“If he does as instructed—yes. Enterprise’s tech is such a force multiplier we won’t need as many warriors.”
“K’davu by the equinox,” Sperrin said. “That would be a capper to your career.”
“To everyone’s.” Kormagan breathed easily, her whole being full of the certainty that this was the best hope for her people. “Get our ships into position. I’m expecting guests at any time.”
As Sperrin faded from view, Kormagan looked at the icons indicating assembling forces and thought again of the message from the woman she had never met. Greatmother Eudah’s daughter—and so many more—had fallen. It had convinced her: inspirational words were not enough to give future generations of Boundless. She would give them Enterprise—or she would reduce it to atoms.