Asphyxia set in, softening her vision, filling her ears with the roar of her own slowing pulse, clouding her mind with panic. Sten gazed down at her with condescending pity.
“Your struggle is pointless, T’Prynn. I have always been stronger than you, and I always will be.” Fury burned in her eyes, and he smirked at it. “You know I speak the truth. In all those moments when you have lacked the strength to do what had to be done, I gave you that strength. My strength.” To her air-starved mind, he had become little more than a dark blur against a pitch-black sky, a shadow in a world without true light. “Why go on fighting, T’Prynn? You’ve lost, but you don’t need to be destroyed. Surrender.” All she saw was his silhouette looming triumphant above her as he bade her, “Submit.”
There was a rock in her hand, a sharp and pointed stone. She had no memory of picking it up, but it was as real in her grasp as her fear. A savage thrust plunged it deep and squarely into Sten’s groin. He bellowed in agony and staggered backward, releasing the ahn-woon, which went limp around T’Prynn’s throat. She let go of the stone, which fell with a soft thump into the sand. Her Vulcan blood now fully inflamed, she began un-coiling the ahn-woon from her neck and forced herself to stand on unsteady feet.
Dozens of wounds inflicted on almost every part of her body bled copiously, covering her with an emerald sheen.
The last wrap of the ahn-woon fell from her throat. She flicked her wrist, and the bloodstained rawhide strap snapped loudly, commanding Sten’s attention.
“You’ve only postponed the inevitable, T’Prynn.” He reached back, picked up a lirpa, and swung its blunt, heavy end-weight and fan-shaped blade with leisurely ease. “Accept your defeat, and I will spare you.” He advanced on her, spinning the lirpa in slow, hypnotic turns.
And once more he dared to command her: “Submit.”
She looped the ahn-woon around the lirpa’s handle and disarmed him with one pull. His weapon flew into her hands.
Then he had her answer.
“Never.”
The saga of
STAR TREK VANGUARD
will continue
Star Trek Vanguard
Minipedia
DEW: Star Trek Corps of Engineers: Distant Early Warning
HAR: Harbinger
STT: Summon the Thunder
RTW: Reap the Whirlwind
Adams, Lieutenant Donovan—Search party leader, Gamma Tauri IV. KIA. (RTW)
Adjudicator—Member of the Shedai Serrataal. Ally of the Maker. (RTW)
Aen’q Tholis —Tholian warship destroyed by Romulan bird-of-prey Bloodied Talon. (STT)
Age of Grim Awareness—From Shedai history: Time in distant past corresponding to the Tholians’ achieving sentience. (RTW)
Alakon, Councillor—Member of Klingon High Council in 2265; commoner-born, ascended through honorable combat. (HAR)
al-Jazaar, Imam—Religious leader on Starbase 47. (HAR)
al-Khaled, Lieutenant Commander Mahmud—S.C.E. leader aboard the U.S.S. Lovell. (STT) Promoted to lieutenant commander during mission to Gamma Tauri IV. (RTW)
Anderson, Ensign (Brett)—Engineer aboard U.S.S. Bombay. KIA. (HAR)
Anderson, Ensign Jeff—Member of S.C.E. team on U.S.S. Lovell. Lost right arm in action against Shedai sentinels on Gamma Tauri IV. Best friend of Ensign Brian O’Halloran. (RTW)
Anitra, Senator—Junior member of Romulan Senate. (STT)
Anzarosh—Spaceport town on Kessik IV. Shabby, dirty, depressing. (HAR)
Apostate—Second-oldest of the Shedai, leads opposition movement against the Maker. Source of first contact, with Ensign Vanessa Theriault. Destroyed the Jinoteur system, believed to have been lost with it. (RTW)
Archer, U.S.S. —Namesake ship for the Archer class, which includes the U.S.S. Sagittarius.
Argashek, Councillor—Member of Klingon High Council in 2265. Allied with Councillors Grozik and Glazya. (HAR)
Argelian flu—Viral malady that afflicted residents of Martian city of Cydonia in 2266, including Dr. Ezekiel Fisher’s daughter, Jane, and her husband, Neil, and sons, James and Seth. (RTW)
Arinex—Star system within a couple of days’ high-warp transit from Starbase 47. (RTW)
Arjuna, U.S.S. —Ship of the Archer class.
Armnoj, Sakud—Accountant to Orion merchant-prince Ganz; transported from his home on Yerad III by Cervantes Quinn and Tim Pennington; kept a pet slijm named Sniffy. Assassinated by Ganz after delivering potentially incriminating records to him aboard Ganz’s ship, the Omari-Ekon. (STT)
Artemis, U.S.S. —Ship of the Archer class. Avainenoran—Shedai name for the planet Gamma Tauri IV. (RTW)
Avenger—Member of the Shedai Serrataal; allied with the Maker. (RTW)
Azrene [The Violet]—Member of the Tholian Ruling Conclave. (HAR)
Babitz, Dr. Lisa—Chief medical officer, U.S.S. Sagittarius. Blonde, blue-eyed, tall, pretty, germophobic. (RTW)
Ballard, Lieutenant Curtis—Original chief engineering officer, Starbase 47. Was part of the team that built Deep Space Station K-5. Flummoxed by systemic failures caused by Shedai Carrier Wave. Killed by the self-destruct function of a Rigelian scrambler-transmitter that had been insinuated into Starbase 47’s comm relays. Replaced by U.S.S. Lovell engineer Isaiah Farber. (DEW)
Buquair III—Planet where, in 2263, an underwater earthquake generated a tsunami that damaged the Federation-run Glassner Colony. The U.S.S. Lovell and its S.C.E. team, along with several other ships, were dispatched to aid the colony. During the relief mission, the S.C.E. team discovered an alien spacecraft that had long ago crashed on the planet, and which was continuing to transmit an S.O.S. (DEW)
BelHoQ, Commander—First officer of the I.K.S. Zin’za. (RTW)
Belleau Wood, U.S.S. —Starship to which a young Diego Reyes was posted after leaving the U.S.S. Helios, but prior to his command of the U.S.S. Dauntless.
Berry, Ensign Daniel—Navigator of the U.S.S. Bombay. KIA. (HAR)
Beyer, Lieutenant—Female security officer on Starbase 47. Escorted envoys out of a diplomatic meeting led by Ambassador Jetanien. (STT)
Bloodied Talon —Romulan bird-of-prey, commanded by Commander Sarith, dispatched on undercover mission to Taurus Reach. Destroyed the Tholian warship Aen’q Tholis, witnessed the destruction of Palgrenax. Transmitted data back to Romulus before being destroyed near the Palgrenax system by the I.K.S. Zin’za. (STT)
Boam II—Colony world that reporter Tim Pennington hoped to visit in order to conduct interviews; he never got there. (STT)
Bohanon—Member of research team studying the Shedai artifact on Erilon. Killed by the Shedai wanderer. His autopsy yielded valuable information about the Shedai meta-genome. (STT)
Bohica—Borzhan administrator of the Klingon-occupied spaceport facility in orbit of Borzha II. (RTW)
bojnoggi —Thick Tellarite concoction, richly caffeinated; according to Dr. Anthony Leone, it’s similar to mushroom soup. (STT)
bolmaq —Klingon herd animal. (STT)
Bombay, U.S.S. —Federation starship, Miranda class. Commanded by Captain Hallie Gannon. Destroyed at Ravanar IV by attack of six Tholian cruisers, four of which it destroyed in self-defense. (HAR)
Borzha II—Location of a Klingon-occupied spaceport; site of repairs for the I.K.S. Zin’za after failed attempts to explore the Jinoteur system. (RTW)
Borzhans—Pacifistic people whose world was occupied by Klingon forces in 2266. (RTW)