Combat Module Carrier 539-Urdoh
Approaching Shennau Corridor
“I’m delighted to see you, Evan,” Ghalka said. Wiping away tears of happiness, she looked to her other three Enterprise companions. “I never thought I’d see any of you again. But what the hell is going on?”
Connolly smiled, happy to see her—as well as Gupta, the ensign who had been kidnapped from the polar camp. He had only encountered the other officers, Godwin and Haddad, once since their abduction, so he was glad to see they were in one piece—and more excited to tell them his news. “Didn’t the Boundless explain? They’re going to put a team on Enterprise—and you’re going with them.” He pointed to the glowing red light on all their shoulder assemblies. “You’re my squad,” he said.
“Enterprise?” Ghalka blurted, before looking nervously around at the other squads gathering on the carrier’s muster deck. “They told us it was destroyed!” she whispered.
He quickly explained about the discovery of the saucer section—and the fact that the Rengru controlled it. Seeing the others’ faces fall, he quickly apologized for getting their hopes up. “We don’t think there’s anybody left on the ship—but we don’t know what happened to them either. There’s still hope.”
“But boarding?” Godwin asked. “Why us? We haven’t been in the fighting since near the start.”
“The Boundless want us to board Enterprise and help them get everything they want to know about the transporters.”
“Transporters?” Ghalka was baffled. “I’m a biologist.”
“And I’m in security,” Gupta said. “If I didn’t know disruptors inside and out, I’d probably be fighting Rengru rather than building weapons.”
Connolly expected this reaction. “We can still operate the computers, right? I told them I needed everyone we could find, because some of the doors and systems have coded locks—and it takes at least three crewmembers to scuttle the ship.”
Haddad’s eyes went wide. “But we want to go home.”
“And that might happen if we help the Boundless. But it won’t be aboard Enterprise. That’s lost. We just have to deny it to the Rengru.”
“I can’t scuttle the ship,” Ghalka said, looking self-conscious.
Connolly tried to look supportive. “Ensign, we have to, or else the—”
“That’s not it.” She leaned close to him and mouthed, “They never told me how to do that.”
“Me neither,” Connolly confessed. “But how hard could it be? The impulse drive still works. We just point it at a sun—or get one of the Boundless to tote one of those tactical nukes aboard.”
Connolly pointed over to the other squads gathering. Kormagan was there, as were several of the wavemasters who’d been at his briefing. It was Boundless practice that their greatest generals took the field along with their newest recruits; this grouping, however, was top-heavy.
“These are the all-stars,” he said. “Total first-string. Just them and us. And if it works—and the transporter tech helps them beat the Rengru—they’ve promised to help us defeat the Klingons!”
All four of his crewmates reacted at once to that. “Less than a year ago he’s swinging a stick at snowballs,” Ghalka said. “Now you’re running your own foreign policy?”
Godwin shook her head. “Lieutenant, you are way out on a limb here.”
“We’ve been exiled to a nebula, kidnapped, and made to walk around in these things all year. Court-martial is not really on my sensor screen at the moment.” Connolly spoke with determination. “Look, if any of you have seen the Rengru fight, you know we can’t let them defeat the Boundless. They could go after the Federation next—and if the Klingon War is still going on, that could be a deathblow.”
The others nodded.
“The Varadah Gap’s fallen. This thing could be ready to break in favor of the Boundless once and for all.” He pumped his fist—and then studied the wooden faces of his armored crewmates. “Are you in?”
“We’re going to take a meeting to decide your sanity,” Godwin said. “But we’ve never had any choice about where we went, and this’ll probably be no different.”
“Good,” Connolly said, taking it as a victory even though it wasn’t a sentiment to feel good about. He patted the light on his shoulder. “Just remember, for this one, you’re Red Squad, I’m subaltern.”
“You would pick red,” Ghalka said.
“Not funny,” Gupta responded.
Connolly excused himself to give them time to talk. Similar gaggles were going on all around—only rather than conversing with one another, the wavemasters were on comm with their waves, coordinating the upcoming attack.
Kormagan spied him. “We’ve got everyone we wanted. Your little talk worked.”
“Pieces in motion?”
“Pieces in action. Probes say after the Rengru convoy left the cloud complex it went just where we thought—farther up the Shennau Corridor.” It was a narrow bottleneck leading right to the Nest, and because of that it was a place the Boundless never struck. Until today. “Three waves have already hit them to slow them down. Four more are coming in.”
“That’s . . . a lot. And fast,” Connolly said. For a force without central command, the Boundless could move quickly when faced with an existential threat.
“There’s more to come. I don’t know if you really comprehend the scale of the operation that’s being mounted. The Rengru convoy grows every kilometer it gets closer to the Nest. They really think Enterprise is worth having—and if any of the Boundless didn’t think so at Little Hope, everyone does now. A lot of people are risking everything because of you.”
Connolly’s mouth went dry. “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“Just get us in and out,” Kormagan said, her tone icing. “If you get aboard and change your mind again, we’ll treat you as if a Rengru got you and blow you away.”
“Noted.”
He ambled awkwardly away. It had never dawned on most of the Boundless that a final defeat of the Rengru could even be an option. Looking around the deck at the animated discussions of the other wavemasters underscored for him how important success could be.
“You Federation people,” said a figure inside the doorway to the bridge. Baladon stepped fully onto the deck. “A few months running about and you turn everything upside down.”
“Something like that. Why aren’t you flying this thing?”
“As soon as we run into the Rengru, I’m back to being a boarder. I asked Kormagan to let me come along. This Enterprise has become a bit of an obsession for me. Third time is blood or nothing, as they say.”
Connolly studied him. Baladon didn’t look his usual, smart-aleck self. “What’s wrong?”
“I saw your little reunion over there. Others are not so fortunate.”
“What do you mean?”
“I received word before we left Varadah,” Baladon said. “Just before the Rengru pulled out, a troop module belonging to the Forty-Eights went down with no survivors. Two of my brothers were on it.”
“Baladon, I’m sorry.” Connolly thought for a moment. “Wait. Weren’t you always talking about how you used to threaten them?”
“Yes, but the decision to kill them should have been mine.”
“Some weird Lurian custom?”
“No. Just me.” Baladon crossed his arms. “There is something else. The others of my species within the Boundless are declining in number every day. The loss of buffoons is no danger to the gene pool, but it occurs to me that I might wish to procreate someday. Being the last Lurian alive here might be an impediment to that.”
“That just dawned on you, huh?” Connolly smirked.
“These antics have been fun, but if we successfully take the transporters and defeat the Rengru, I could be convinced to found that colony planet and retire.”
“Well, we’re not done yet. Klingons first, remember?”
“Details.” A chime announced that the carrier toting the troop module was approaching the Rengru convoy. Kormagan left her group to hurry forward. Baladon nudged Connolly. “We won’t be deploying until the other waves clear the path. Why not come look at some delightful carnage while we wait?”
“Just a second.” Connolly looked over at his Starfleet companions. They nodded to him approvingly. They’re on board, he thought. He turned back to Baladon. “Yeah, I guess I have a minute.”
“Splendid.” Baladon walked with Connolly toward the bridge. “So, these Klingons. They’ll be just as much fun to fight, I hope?”