ENT - 012 - Kobayashi Maru

TWENTY-FIVE

Shuttlepod Two

S O FAR AS M ALCOLM R EED KNEW, the name of the aquamarine planet that turned slowly several hundred klicks below the shuttlepod had never been recorded on any Earth star chart. In fact, it was one of the farthest-flung worlds that human eyes had ever beheld.

But if Commander TPol was right, another human may already have preceded him to this remote place.

“How can you be so certain well find Commander Tucker here? Reed said.

TPol raised an eyebrow as she regarded him with that damnably cool Vulcan assuredness of hers. “My intelligence sources have always proved reliable in the past, Lieutenant.

“Ill grant you that the Vulcan transport vessel you got us docked with did a damned fine job of sneaking us past those Romulan patrols at Alpha Fornacis, Reed said. Not to mention not reporting our whereabouts to Starfleet,he added silently. It was obvious that the ship in question had been up to something other than the banal tasks of moving passengers and cargo in order to operate with impunitysometimes at speeds in excess of warp factor sixmore than half a parsec inside territory claimed by the Romulan Star Empire.

He still felt annoyed at having been confined to the shuttlepod for most of their three-day voyage, deprived of even the laconic company of TPol, who had been allowed at least partial access to the transport vessel that had carried Shuttlepod Two so close to its destination. But even the usually stoic TPol had complained about how little access she had been given to the all but invisible Vulcan benefactor whom her VShar contacts had persuaded to grant them covert passage into Romulan space. The Vulcans seemed quite intent on keeping a tight lid on whatever they were really up to so deep within the Romulan sphere of interest. This cloak of secrecy made Reed very nervous about whatever it was that the new, purportedly more transparent TPau regime on Vulcan might want to keep hidden from its Coalition partners. And those worries werent so much for his own safety, or even that of TPol, but for that of Trip. A second Coalition-based spy bureau blundering about here among the Romulans could well put Trips mission and life in jeopardy without meaning to do so or even noticing the damage theyd done.

Of course, he was uncomfortably aware that the very same accusation could well be leveled at both himself and TPol.

Putting those matters aside for the moment, Reed continued his conversation with TPol: “But the only confirmation we have that we might find Trip here, as opposed to any of a dozen other systems, comes from yourvisions.

“I do not have visions,Lieutenant, TPol said, her equanimity apparently shaken but little by Reeds almost accusatory point. “But I remain convinced that I have achieved at least an intermittent telepathic link with Trip She paused, apparently catching herself in the act of revealing more than she preferred to reveal. “With Commander Tucker. There is ample precedent for such things, Mister Reed. The Aenar of Andoria, for example.

Reed still didnt feel sufficiently convinced to be able to stop himself from subjecting TPols reasoning to another round of verbal destruction testing. “The Aenar are verystrong telepaths, Commander. I thought the esper ability was restricted to touch in Vulcans.

“That is certainly true for the vast majority of us, she said, reiterating a point she had made not long ago to Captain Archer and Doctor Phlox. “However, there have been exceptions. I have become convinced that the link Commander Tucker and I share represents just such an exception.

Knowing what he did about the neurological effects of the trellium-D to which TPol had once been addicted, Reed felt a good deal less sanguine than she apparently did about trusting her subjective feelings of certainty.

“Please forgive me for saying this, Commander, he said very gently. “But I think youre putting a great deal of faith in what might turn out to be nothing more than a dream. Or even some residual effect of trellium-D exposure,he thought, recalling TPols recovery from an addiction to the neurologically toxic mineral.

She said nothing as she stared straight ahead at the planet.

“It just doesnt seem very scientific to me, he said, uncomfortable with the spreading silence.

Seeming to balance her words very delicately on a bulwark of nettles and brambles, she said, “I am a Vulcan, Lieutenant. And Vulcans do not pursue mere dreams across parsecs of interstellar space.

Never underestimate the power of dreams,he thought. Or nightmares.

“Dreams. Visions. Gut hunches. Call them whatever you like, Commander, he said with a shrug. “I just have to ask whether its entirely logicalfor you to place so much trust in a phenomenon that neither of us can really look at objectively.

To her credit, the only sign of emotion she allowed herself to display was an inquisitive tip of the head as she turned to face him again. “If you truly harbor so many doubts about what were doing out here, then why did you insist on coming along?

Now that is a damned fine question,he thought; he had asked himself the very same thing more than a few times since she had first asked it just before they had absconded with Shuttlepod Two. In light of all the subspace chatter theyd subsequently picked up concerning the Klingon-Draylaxian conflict that had broken out since theyd left Enterprise,Reed could only hope that their current quest wouldnt prove to be as barmy as it might now look to Captain Archer or the rest of his crew.

“I already told you, Commander, he said at length. “We both want to rescue Trip if hes really in as much trouble as you say he is. Besides, I couldnt just let you go off on your own.

The eyebrow rose again. “Even if this entire endeavor ultimately turns out to bewhat is the phrase you humans use?a wild goose chase?

He smiled gently. “ Especiallythen.

After a pause, TPol said, “I am placing a great deal of faith in you as well, Lieutenant. Specifically in your discretion.

“I thought I already proved how discreet I can be when I didnt rat you out to Captain Archer, Reed said.

“Of course, Mister Reed. But that action only required confidence on a relatively small scale. In allowing you to accompany me on this mission, you are almost certain to discover one of my peoples most closely guarded secrets. And that knowledge will require a much larger degree of discretion.

Reed found it difficult to imagine the nature of any secret the Vulcans might be so intent upon protecting. Nevertheless, he shrugged and said, “I used to work for a bureau whose stock in trade was secrets. I think you can rely on me to keep mum when it counts.

A flashing light on the pilots console interrupted whatever she had been about to say in response. In that same instant, the shuttlepod shook violently before settling back to normal perhaps a second or two later.

“What the hell was that?Reed said as he consulted several conflicting sets of readouts that were vying for his attention across the copilots console.

“We appear to have encountered an intense warp bow shock, TPol said as her long fingers moved across her instruments with almost preternatural speed. “The phenomenon is very similar to a starships subspace wake.

Reeds own subspace field monitor confirmed TPols observation a moment later. “That must mean we have company here, he said. Though he had yet to locate any other vessel, either by eye or by sensors, his readings had revealed that the already fading subspace concussion fit a particular profile: that of a ship that had suddenly collapsed its warp field bubble, thereby dropping almost instantaneously from high warp speed back to the Einstein-mandated sublight velocities of normal space.

Whoevers behind the wheel on that ship has got to be barking mad,Reed thought, to perform a maneuver like that so close to a planet.

“I still cannot pinpoint the other ships precise location or heading using only passive scans, TPol said.

“Maybe the planets gravity well tore her apart as she decelerated, Reed ventured.

She shook her head. “If that had occurred, then I should be able to detect solid and gaseous debris and hard radiation. Switching to active sensor mode and scanning.

Reed looked up from his console, and he was immediately transfixed by what he saw crossing the half-sunlit world below. “Wait, he said, jabbing an index finger toward the forward transparent aluminum window. “Have a look at that first.

A bright orange line of fire was inscribing itself across the dark side of the planets terminator, extending at supersonic speeds a rapidly collapsing and steeply descending column of ionized atmosphere. The glowing, meteoric mass at the growing lines forefront hurtled toward the side of the planet that presently stood exposed to the pitiless blue-white glare of this solar systems primary star.

Reed turned toward TPol, watching her in silence as she scrutinized the enigmatic trail of fire that bisected the planets skies. After a moment she checked a scanner readout on her console, and then swiftly rose from her seat to check a secondary monitor located on the port side of the cockpit compartment.

As though responding to some inner will of their own, Reeds eyes dropped toward the portion of TPols anatomy that was, for the moment, in closest proximity.

He thought, She reallydoes have quite a nice bum, doesnt she?

She turned toward him, abruptly scattering his already errant train of thought. His cheeks flushed with a heat born of something other than atmospheric friction.

“The object is on a precise heading for the coordinates that my intel sources have provided, she said, showing no sign of having noticed his discomfiture as she retook her seat.

Reed wondered again about TPols intel sources, upon which they had both staked so much. How much did they know about Trips current mission, or that of Trips adversaries on this planet? Had the VShar allowed them to come here to aid Trip because the Vulcan spy bureau shared Trips goals, or were they motivated by something else entirely? Were they counting on TPol to remove a troublesome game piece from their chessboard?

Or were they banking on the opposite outcome?

Instead of raising any of those doubtless sensitive points, or launching into an infinitely recursive volley of questions, Reed merely nodded and began entering a series of commands into his console. “Plotting an intercept course, Commander. Passive sensors only. There was no point, after all, in shouting their arrival from the proverbial rooftops, as it were, regardless of whether the new arrival proved to be friend, foe, or merely a large meteor or asteroid fragment that had chosen this particular time and place to cross the planets path.

Judging from both the instruments and the evidence of his own eyes, Reed concluded that whatever was creating the pyrotechnics in the planets atmosphere was making an extremely bumpy descent. He braced himself to follow it down as TPol engaged the impulse drive.

As the shuttlepod lurched into a motion that was almost but not quite in phase with that of his stomach, Reed couldnt help but recall a recent, similarly harrowing descent through the much-thinner atmosphere of Mars. Moving surreptitiously, he reached beneath the copilots console even as the little ship began to bounce and shake in the planets steadily thickening blanket of air.

He sighed in relief when his fingers brushed against the motion-sickness bag dispenser.