Satisfied for the moment, Sandesjo said, “According to a subspace communication I was able to intercept and decrypt, the U.S.S. Endeavourwas attacked near Erilon and sustained several casualties, including its captain. The ship is making its return to the station now.”
“ Who is responsible?”Turag asked. While his own inflection was measured, Sandesjo could see that he still was stinging from her admonishment.
Sandesjo shook her head. “Unknown. From what I have been able to learn, the ship was attacked by a planet-based weapon of considerable power, enough to drive them from orbit. It’s not Tholian, and based on the Endeavour’s report as well as information gathered since the station became operational, there may be other repositories of such technologies scattered throughout the Taurus Reach.”
Shrugging, Turag said, “ Planetary defense systems are nothing new, Lurqal.”
Sandesjo braced against the sudden rise in anger at hearing her given name again. “I’ve told you not to call me that.” She had no desire to be reminded that her Klingon heritage had been buried beneath a façade. “The technology itself is not the issue. Personnel on the planet’s surface were also attacked, by an unknown alien life-form. Details on that are sketchy, no doubt due to security protocols, but I was able to gather that this development is of paramount concern to Commodore Reyes.”
“ How so?”Turag asked.
Shaking her head, Sandesjo replied, “There’s no way to know, based on the limited amount of information that was shared over the communications channel. I’ll pass on more information as soon as possible.” Of course, she had no idea at this point how she might accomplish that, given the apparent secrecy that seemed to enshroud much of the activity taking place among the station’s most senior officers and civilian advisors.
On her transceiver’s display screen, Turag nodded. “ See that you do.Qapla’.”
The communication was severed without even offering Sandesjo a chance to return the traditional farewell. Absentmindedly, she reached out and pressed the control that deactivated the unit and returned it to its hiding place inside her briefcase’s concealed compartment. Once more, her cover was back in place.
Reviewing the information she had gathered and reported, Sandesjo found herself with as many new questions as Turag had posed. Who had destroyed the Tholian vessel? The Klingons? If so, why?
She realized that the commander of a Klingon battle cruiser in the middle of barely charted space did not need any compelling reason to unleash his weapons—on anything or anyone. Still, most officers in such positions of responsibility still tended to exercise a modicum of restraint, even in this age when personal honor and discipline seemed to be out of favor with many Klingon warriors. After all, Sandesjo knew of no officers so bold that they would risk the wrath of the chancellor of the High Council, who had expressly forbidden any vessel operating in the Taurus Reach from taking aggressive action against Federation or Tholian interests in the region unless acting in self-defense. It was an uncharacteristic position for the chancellor to take, suggesting to her that there indeed was more occurring in this area of space than met the eye.
What that might be, of course, was the question which now taunted Sandesjo.
17
Once again, the call rang out through the Conduit. Once more, the Shedai Wanderer answered.
Doing so was difficult. Many of the channels, which long ago had allowed for limitless movement of information as well as the ability to oversee everything and everyone the Shedai once had ruled, now possessed only a fraction of their former capabilities. Navigation was problematic, with only a few scattered interface points available for reference. While transiting the Conduits had at one time been as effortless as drawing breath into one’s own body, their current lack of power and cohesion now presented a hazard to anyone who might now choose to navigate them. It was a distinct possibility that one of the few remaining thought-strands might fail.
Traveling to this world also had involved an additional risk, given that the Wanderer had left behind the shell she had worn on the frozen world. She had no way of knowing what awaited her at her destination, and should the channel falter while she was in transit before she could acquire a new host, there would be nothing to prevent her being extinguished from existence.
Regardless of the risk, the song cannot be ignored.
As before on the cold, barren world she had left behind, the Wanderer found that the call had been uttered as a consequence of the clumsy actions of Telinaruulattempting to understand that which was far beyond their comprehension. She recalled that this planet—which possessed vast potential perfectly suited to the needs of the Shedai in their quest to regain what once had been theirs—also was home to what once had been a primitive and inferior species that nevertheless held great promise. From what the Wanderer could remember from the time before the long darkness had laid claim to her, these life-forms had only just begun to display the most basic levels of sentience.
There had been fierce debates about how best to proceed with these beings, but ultimately they were left to develop at their own pace and without external interference. In doing so, it was believed, these life-forms might eventually be of some use when the time finally came for the Shedai to ascend once more to their rightful place as rulers of their vast empire.
Arriving on this world in response to the song resonating through the Conduit, the Wanderer was surprised to discover that a different species of sentient life—more advanced though still hopelessly primeval when compared with the Shedai—now was present on this planet. These new life-forms—nothing more than the lowest form of Telinaruulever to plague the rule of the Shedai—apparently had come and asserted their will over the native inhabitants. They had found the temple as well as the support structures that housed and protected the anchor point for the Conduit on this world.
Their vessel, now hanging in orbit, was a conventional if archaic mode of transportation, at least according to the Wanderer’s scans. Like the conveyance she had engaged above the frozen world, it appeared to rely upon a crude method of controlled matter-antimatter annihilation in order to achieve a form of hyperspatial warping, which allowed it to reach the velocities necessary for interstellar travel. The ship’s capabilities were interesting, but she suspected it too would be no match against the weaponry she might bring to bear against it. Such was the primitive nature of the craft—to say nothing of the Telinaruulwho crewed it—that the Wanderer was curious as to how such unevolved beings could even have survived the harsh, unforgiving environs of space.
Still, despite their obvious limitations, the newcomers had learned enough about the ancient Shedai technology to activate a portion of the structure’s intricate network of control mechanisms, a chance accomplishment which had signaled the Wanderer to this latest incursion and allowed her to travel to the violated site.
Perhaps they possess abilities I have overlooked or underestimated.
That concern had weighed upon the Wanderer even as she willed the activation of other power sources and control systems, breathing new life into that which had lain dormant for uncounted generations. She at first was apprehensive that the long-neglected temple and its complex arrangement of command and oversight systems would not be up to the tasks she had set for it, to say nothing of the rest of the control network spread out across the planet. That anxiety had been short-lived, however, when she determined that the ancient structures and the technology they housed had been remarkably well preserved, a much different state of affairs when compared to the frozen, lifeless world from which the Wanderer had transited. Even in their aged and compromised state, the assets at her command were more than enough for her immediate needs.