Star Trek(85)
“Sir,” Detzel reported grimly a moment later, “the power grid on F deck is damaged. Our weapons are down.”
Reed didn’t pause to dwell on the news. “Will shields hold long enough to get them working again?”
“Negative, sir.”
Mayweather stepped closer to Reed. “Captain, let’s grab the pod in a tractor beam and get out of here, best speed.”
“That mass driver has unlimited range, and impulse drive is hobbled.”
“Sir, we’ll go back in,” Williams offered. “If we can reach the driver controls—”
“Negative! We can’t risk letting that archive fall back into their hands. And I won’t risk you again either.” He paused. “Make a break for the nearest asteroid, use it for cover. We’ll shield you as long as we can. As for the radiation, you’ll just have to hope—”
“Sir!” Sangupta interrupted, beaming. “It’s Endeavour!”
Multiple phase-cannon bolts and spatial torpedoes speared from the black into the mass driver, striking the track in enough places to render it useless. Moments later, the Columbia-class starship hove into view on the screen, taking up position in the asteroid’s umbra near Pioneer. Then the image changed to a sight Malcolm Reed had never found more beautiful: the face of Captain T’Pol. “Captain Reed. Do you require assistance?”
Reed decided it would be ungrateful to tell her she had a talent for the obvious.
• • •
“Kirk and Grev will both be fine physically in a few days,” Doctor Therese Liao told Captain Reed as Valeria Williams stood at his side. “Mentally,” the compact, middle-aged physician went on, “it’s harder to say. They’ve both been through rough treatment, and Sam was subjected to several sessions of torture. I’m going to need to have him in for regular psych counseling for a while, and I recommend a reduced duty schedule.”
“Of course, Doctor,” said Reed. “Whatever he needs.”
Williams let the rest of their conversation wash over her, too preoccupied with the thought of what Kirk had endured over the past week. Finally Liao gave her permission to speak to the historian.
Kirk’s face brightened when he saw her. “Val!” He beckoned her forward, clasping her hands when she drew in range. “I . . . I really wanted to thank you for saving us. I, I know that’s not adequate to—there are no words—”
She shook her head uneasily. “No, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“Val, you saved my life. And I want you to know . . . that is, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say to you—”
“Sam, wait.” She pulled her hands away. “There’s something I need you to know first.”
She told him about Rigel IV, about how she’d had the opportunity to discover where he and Grev were being held but had passed it up to rescue a stranger. “That was five days ago. Before you were—Sam, if I’d done my job then, we might have found you before . . .”
He just lay in the medical bed, staring at nothing, absorbing what he’d heard. She spoke again, tentatively. “Sam . . . if you’re mad at me, I understand. I’m so sorry.”
“Mad.” He scoffed gently, and Williams realized what a totally inadequate word it was. But then his eyes met hers, very briefly. “No . . . I understand why you . . . felt you had to do that. I can’t blame you for it. What they did—I blame them. It was all them.”
She was more relieved than she fully understood. “That’s good. I’m glad—I mean, I appreciate—” She broke off. After a moment’s silence, she said, “You, um, said there was something you wanted to tell me?”
Kirk looked at her for a long moment. Finally: “No. No, there’s nothing to say. In fact . . . I think I want to be alone right now, if that’s okay.”
She lowered her head, understanding that it would be a while before things were okay. “Of course. I understand.”
He said nothing more to her. There was a tear in her eye as she left.
15
June 27, 2164
Thamnos estate, Rigel IV
“WHAT’S HAPPENING, THAMNOS?” a panicked Vemrim Corthoc demanded over the viewing screen. Behind him in the Corthocs’ communications parlor, his senior siblings were undertaking more important tasks, delegating the panic to the otherwise useless Vemrim. “Our people are being arrested all over Two and Five and the Colonies! Our offworld assets have been seized—the secret ones nobody was supposed to know about! And our peasants have risen up! They’ve taken the armory and they’re heading for the mansion! We tried shooting at them from our ships, but someone sabotaged the weapon systems!”