ENT - 012 - Kobayashi Maru

TWENTY-ONE

Romulan Scoutship Drolae

A LTHOUGH THE SCOUTSHIPS DAMPING SYSTEMeffectively canceled out any noticeable inertial-acceleration effects, Tucker found he couldnt keep his heart from lodging itself firmly in his throat. As he contemplated the velocity gauge on his copilots console, it occurred to him that he had never before traveled so fast in his life, not even aboard Enterprise.In fact, he might just have become the fastest human who ever lived.

Trip had picked up enough of the Romulan Empires dominant written language to understand the meaning of the text displayed on the speed readout before him. In his mind he pronounced the sounds that the blocky, angular Rihannsu script would make had he chosen to speak them aloud: avaihh fve ehr rhi.

Warp six point five,he thought, translating those alien sounds into English. Plasma flow is up to eight thousandkolem, with twenty-two thousandmelakols of pressure in the intermix chamber. Damn.

Even during the Drolaes swift voyage from Romulus to Cheron, Terix had not pushed the little scoutships warp drive nearly so hard as he was doing now. Once the Cheron mission had revealed Taugus III to be the most recent known location of the Ejhoi Ormiincell responsible for Doctor Ehrehins murder and the theft of his warp-seven data, the centurion had seemed absolutely hell-bent on either reaching the dissidents enclave as quickly as possible or perishing in the attempt.

The little ship shuddered briefly, revealing what was probably an eddy of turbulence in the tiny, barely stable warp field that surrounded the vessel. He could only hope the unaccustomed vibrations didnt portend some impending catastrophic failure; at such high speeds, a sudden warp-field collapse could reduce a vessel to a light-year-long string of vaporized debris in a matter of moments. And with the propulsion systems under so much obvious strain, the margin for error within that superluminal bubble of survival was probably too small even to measure.

“Do we really have to ride this poor beast so hard, Terix? Trip asked, taking care to keep both Alabama and Florida out of his diction.

“We have no way of knowing for certain how long the Ejhoi Ormiinwe seek will remain at the coordinates TLuadh provided, the centurion said. His gaze was focused straight ahead at the warp-distorted vista that rushed ceaselessly, and at unimaginable speeds, toward the scoutships forward windows. “We must reach the Taugus system before they find another hiding place.

“All this speed wont do us much good if we blow ourselves clear to Erebus getting there, said Trip. “Besides, if we can generate this much speed with such a small warp core, I have to wonder why its worth taking such risks to recover the data these dissidents stole from Doctor Ehrehin in the first place.

Terix turned to face Trip and looked at him as though he was being deliberately obtuse. “Look at the readouts on this ships support systems, Cunaehr.

With a shrug, Trip did as the centurion asked. A moment later he realized that both the life-support and structural integrity systems were redliningor rather greenlining, since the emerald-blooded Romulans had their own unique take on which color best signified imminent danger.

He realized all at once that hed been playing the spy game so long that hed momentarily forgotten to think like a warp engineer. The Drolaes extreme current speedwhich nearly rivaled that of Ehrehins yet-unrealized dream of a warp-seven stardrivecame at a trade-off cost that a larger, better-armed vessel could never sustain. Terixs current speed-at-the-expense-of-everything-else use of the Drolaereminded Trip that Ehrehins research hadnt been about merely reaching the upper reaches of the warp scale; it had been about doing so in a sustained fashion without sacrificing every scrap of a starships non-propulsion-related functionality.

“I understand, Trip said, nodding. He didnt relish the prospect of having a long conversation about the calculus of power utilization curves with the centurion.

Unfortunately, Terix seemed to be one of those martinet types who enjoyed lecturing those he regarded as his inferiors. “We cant very well assemble a viable war fleet out of ships configured like this one, he said. “An armada that has to expend all of its energy resources just to reach the battlefield is useless from a tactical perspective. Unlessyour ship needs only to deliver one or two men very quickly to a target by stealth.

“All right. So maybe taking a few risks to neutralize the Ejhoi Ormiinis a worthwhile thing after all. But I still say that blowing ourselves to quarks on the way there is a spectacularly bad idea.

“We have little time to waste, Cunaehr. And for reasons other than our urgent errand in the Taugus system.

Trip frowned, wondering whether his own time might not have just become even shorter than hed feared. “Im afraid I dont understand.

“Taugus will not be our only stop on this voyage, Terix said.

Thats assuming we dont smithereenize ourselves en route,Trip thought. Or get killed by Chuihvs people once we reach Taugus.

Aloud, he said only, “Oh?

The centurion offered a grim nod. “Once we put an end to the dissidents in the Taugus system, we shall head directly to the Sei Paehhosaehallh sector.

It took Trip a beat or two to translate the Romulan place name into the words that appeared on the star maps with which he was most familiar. Sei Paehhosaehallh. Thats what the Romulans call the Gamma Hydra sector.

“Why arent we heading back to Romulus? Trip wanted to know, almost as much as he wanted to know why Terix hadnt seen fit to mention this little detour before now.

“Our intelligence operatives have uncovered evidence that the Coalition has recently set up a small surveillance station near the Tezel-Oroko star system. We must find that listening post and take it out.

“Oh, Trip said, still suspicious. “Well, I suppose wed better get on with Taugus, then. Pedal to the metal,he thought as he faced forward again and stared out into the relentlessly approaching cosmos.

Since the bureau wasnt in the habit of deliberately giving itself vulnerabilities by briefing its operatives beyond what they needed to know for a given assignment, Trip knew he could neither confirm Terixs intel about a Coalition spy base in the Gamma Hydra sector nor dismiss it out of hand. He desperately wished for enough time alone with the Drolaes subspace transmitter to allow himself to touch base even briefly with his superiors, or at least to send a burst transmission to warn them to take precautions at Tezel-Oroko. That might not only protect anyone who was stationed there monitoring the Romulans, but could also keep him from being killed by friendly fire coming from the alleged listening posts defenders.

It occurred to him then that he was already more than six hours late for his regularly scheduled check-in with what he liked to think of as “the home office. Unfortunately, that couldnt be helped. At least not so long as circumstances forced him into close quarters with a Romulan soldier who probably already harbored enough suspicion about him right now to justify blowing him right out the nearest airlockand at warp six-point-five, no less.

Okay, so I dont get to check in with Stillwell or Harris while this guys looking over my shoulder,Trip thought, hoping, as always, to make the best of a bad situation. But at least he cant file any reports aboutme tohis home office without my knowing about it.

Nevertheless, the continued inescapable presence of Centurion Terix gave Trip an intermittent but highly uncomfortable sensation.

He kept imagining he could feel Admiral Valdores hard, vigilant stare drilling into the back of his neck like a pair of white-hot mining lasers.