“Thank you, Lieutenant,” he said, moving in long strides toward the door, which slid open at his approach.
Inside the office, Commodore Reyes was seated behind his desk, reclining with his right foot crossed over his left knee. Lieutenant Commander T’Prynn stood in front of the desk, hands folded together behind her back. Both watched Jetanien as he hurried in. As soon as he heard the door close behind him, muting the sounds of the operations center, he said to them, “We have a problem. The Klingons—”
“Just landed a colony ship on Gamma Tauri IV,” Reyes cut in. “We know. T’Prynn’s been tracking them and their escort, the Che’leth, since they shipped out of Somraw five weeks ago.”
“How considerate of you both to keep me so well informed,” Jetanien said. “Since the Klingons do not share our objective of preventing hostilities in the Taurus Reach, I recommend that we withdraw all uniformed Starfleet personnel from Gamma Tauri IV immediately and—”
“Whoa!” Reyes bellowed. “One disaster at a time, Jetanien. T’Prynn got here first. You’ll just have to take a number and wait your turn.”
Only now did Jetanien notice that the display screen on the wall beside Reyes’s desk showed an orbital chart of the Jinoteur system. His already profound sense of foreboding deepened. “Have the Klingons lost another ship at Jinoteur?”
“Three ships, actually,” T’Prynn said. “The lead vessel escaped but suffered significant losses. However, that is the least notable detail of today’s sensor logs.”
She picked up a data slate from Reyes’s desk and offered it to Jetanien. He reflexively reached forward to take it, then remembered that both his hands were full. Fumbling in a diagonal reach, he handed his data slate to her and then accepted hers. Reyes watched the transaction with droll amusement. “What, nothing for me?”
Jetanien handed him the letter. “This is for your ex-wife.”
“I’m not sure that counts,” Reyes said, tossing the folded pages casually onto his desk.
Reviewing the information on T’Prynn’s data slate, Jetanien adopted a more professional tone. “Forgive the interruption, Commander. Please proceed.”
“Our reconnaissance probes have detected a Tholian ship in orbit above the fourth planet of the Jinoteur system,” T’Prynn reported. “Based on previous sensor readings, we estimate that it reached the planet between 0300 and 0500 station time today. Shortly afterward, four Klingon battle cruisers attempted to join it in orbit. They were immediately fired upon by artillery concealed on the planet’s three moons.”
As Jetanien studied the details on the data slate, he was troubled by the news. During a heated round of negotiations seven weeks earlier, the Tholian ambassador, Sesrene, had intimated that his people feared the Taurus Reach, that they had for ages avoided it because of something they called Shedai. “Of all places,” Sesrene had confided, “this is where we are not to be.” Even more telling, not only did the Tholians wish to leave the Taurus Reach unclaimed, but it seemed vitally important to them that no one else lay claim to it, either.
The pieces of this ancient puzzle had begun to come together for Jetanien. Starfleet discovered the meta-genome and an alien artifact on Ravanar IV, and the Tholians wiped out the planet; the Klingons moved aggressively to claim worlds in the Taurus Reach, and the Tholians retaliated by launching a campaign of sneak attacks on Klingon ships.
On every planet on which Starfleet had found an artifact like the one on Ravanar, it also had found the meta-genome. With those discoveries had come terrible reprisals, by a powerful adversary unlike any the Federation had ever encountered before. Merciless and brutal, the obsidian entity had proved itself willing to obliterate entire planets in order to protect its secrets. Though Jetanien as yet had no proof for his hypothesis, he was certain that whatever else this foe proved to be, it was the force that the Tholians called Shedai.
At the heart of the entire mystery lay the Jinoteur system. It had been the source of bizarre carrier wave signals that had disrupted Vanguard’s systems during construction a year earlier. Now, having looked more closely at the system, Starfleet had discovered that its planets’ orbital mechanics were unlike anything else ever recorded in nature. All evidence currently available suggested that if the Taurus Reach mystery had a focal point, the Jinoteur system was it.
And now a Tholian heavy cruiser was there.
Jetanien put down the data slate on Reyes’s desk. “Most troubling,” he said. “Covertly enlightening the Klingons about Jinoteur was a calculated risk. Their impulsive nature has spared us a great many casualties and provided us with valuable intelligence. But the presence of the Tholians is…unexpected.” He made a few clicking noises with his beak while he pondered the matter. “Why would the Tholians, after making a point of their aversion to the Taurus Reach and the thing they call Shedai, send a starship to Jinoteur?”
Reyes replied, “Maybe for the same reason that they sent six ships to destroy the artifact on Ravanar IV.”
T’Prynn cocked one eyebrow into a high arch. “Doubtful, sir,” she said. “If the Tholians had attempted an attack on Jinoteur IV, we would have detected radiation from a planetary barrage. Furthermore, to neutralize all the planets and satellites in the system would require more firepower than one ship could carry. Lastly, considering the violent responses the Klingons have suffered when entering the Jinoteur system, a single Tholian vessel would seem to have little hope of waging a successful assault.”
Reyes pressed two fingers against his left temple while he considered T’Prynn’s reasoning. “Good points,” he said. “So answer me this: If the Tholians aren’t there for a fight, what are they doing there?”
“At present I find their motives opaque, sir,” T’Prynn said. “We lack sufficient information about their link to the meta-genome and the artifacts to make an informed hypothesis regarding their purpose in the Jinoteur system. I do, however, find it interesting that the Tholian ship does not appear to have been fired upon—unlike the Klingons’ vessels.”
Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Jetanien said, “It seems that expediting our investigation of the Jinoteur system has become our chief priority.”
Reyes frowned and fixed Jetanien with a dour look. “You think?” He uncrossed his legs and sat up straighter as he pulled his chair closer to his desk. “I canceled Sagittarius’s shore leave five minutes before you got here. As soon as we get them loaded and Xiong finishes their briefing, they’ll be shipping out, probably by 2300.”
“That might present a problem, sir,” T’Prynn said. “Klingon fleet activity in this sector has doubled since the recall of their ambassador, and we know they monitor our deployments. It is likely they will try to intercept the Sagittarius.”
“Relax, Commander,” Reyes said with a grin. “I still know a few tricks the Klingons don’t. By the time they realize our boat’s shipped out, she’ll be long gone.”
“Splendid, Commodore,” Jetanien said with vigor. “As you appear to have the Jinoteur crisis well in hand, perhaps you could now direct your formidable talents toward the less glamorous fiasco developing on Gamma Tauri IV.”
Reyes’s grin flattened, and his thick eyebrows pressed down over his eyes, imparting a long-suffering quality to his face. “Would you like to run this starbase, Ambassador?” Knowing that the question was rhetorical, Jetanien took the gentle chiding in stride. Apparently satisfied that he’d made his point, Reyes continued, “I pulled the Endeavour off the border twenty minutes ago. She’s on her way to Gamma Tauri IV at maximum warp.”
“From the border?” Jetanien fumed. “It will take them nearly a week to reach Gamma Tauri! And what, pray tell, will they do to improve the current situation once they arrive?”