Riker saw then that Vale was once again staring at the blank spot on the aft bulkhead. This time she was pointing toward it as well.
“I told you it was bad luck to leave Utopia Planitia without a dedication plaque,” she said, speaking quietly enough so that he doubted anyone else had heard her.
His brow furrowed involuntarily. “No, you didn’t.”
“Okay,” she whispered after a beat. “Then I should have.”
Except for the red-alert klaxons, silence reigned on the bridge. Every eye was on the viewscreen, where hell had begun to erupt in the skies over Ki Baratan. Riker was thankful, at least, that the convoy’s three aid ships had managed to get themselves out of harm’s way, at least for the moment.
“Incoming!” shouted Keru.
The bridge lights flickered as Titanshuddered from a sharp, forceful impact.
Commander Donatra’s bridge shook violently. Sparks and flame flashed across the oval-shaped chamber as yet another salvo of disruptor fire pummeled the Valdore.Ozone and smoke stung her nostrils as electrical fires tested the battered warbird’s fire-suppression system to its limits. Her right side ached as old wounds flared back to livid, angry life.
“Forward shields are failing, Commander,” cried Centurion T’Relek from the primary tactical station. Two decurions and an antecenturion were sprawled nearby on the deck, dead or dying.
Despite that, Donatra remained encouraged. They’re still merely trying to coerce us into backing off,she thought. They haven’t strafed the cities yet.
“Return fire, all tubes!” The bridge rumbled again from yet another direct hit. With shaking hands, the centurion launched another fusillade.
Donatra spun her chair toward the stoic young female decurion who was operating the communications console. “Have our reinforcements responded yet?”
The decurion shook her head gravely. “The Remans must be jamming us locally, Commander. I can’t even tell if our initial message got through to offworld elements of the fleet. Local units seem to be rallying, however.”
Donatra silently prayed that this would suffice to drive the Remans off, or at least dissuade them from trying to transform Ki Baratan into a charred crater.
Just before the Valdore’s recent communications difficulties began, Donatra had managed to intercept a fascinating subspace exchange between Xiomek and Captain Riker. She knew of the outrageous demand Xiomek had just made, as well as his threat to immolate the Romulan capital, as well as other cities, within four verakushould the Empire fail to accede. She had heard his threat to attack immediately should his own forces be assailed. She wondered if she could afford to take the colonel at his word.
It shouldn’t have made any difference either way. She was a Romulan military officer, and her world was in peril. Though she was badly outnumbered, she knew she should engage the enemy now. She wanted nothing more than to put a decisive end to the Reman threat, even if that meant risking everyone under her command, and courting the abrupt destruction of most of Ki Baratan.
But if there is to be any chance of our reinforcements arriving in time to overwhelm thesewortu ,Donatra thought, then I may have no choice but to find another way.
“Withdraw!” she shouted, despising herself. “Get our attack wing clear of jamming range as quickly as possible. We have to raise the reinforcement fleet immediately.”
The Valdoreshuddered in protest for several moments after the flight controller executed her commands. Donatra breathed a silent prayer of thanks to the Gate-keeper of Erebus when the singularity drive finally engaged. The ozone-tainted air gradually cleared, though the atmospheric recirculators whined in protest.
“Damage procedures, all decks!” she shouted into the ship-wide comm channel, then settled heavily back into her scorched command chair. There had been neither the time nor the opportunity to repair the Valdoreproperly after the severe punishment the warbird had received from the Scimitar,Shinzon’s flagship. Though Colonel Xiomek’s weapons were far less potent than Shinzon’s, they might very well have reopened some of Valdore’s recent war wounds.
Donatra watched the gently curved main viewer, which showed a crescent-shaped Romulus falling rapidly away into the infinite night. No pursuit was in evidence.
Donatra was both relieved and heartsick. Does this mean that Xiomek is too preoccupied with carrying out his threat to destroy Romulus to go after me?
She forced such thoughts from her mind. There was very important work to be done, and she needed to focus all her attention on it.
“Resume trying to raise our reinforcements,” Donatra ordered, after dispatching the remaining three ships of her attack wing to a high polar orbit over Romulus. The Valdorewas now on a different course, heading un-escorted back toward the Great Bloom, the last known position of the reinforcement fleet that Donatra had left in Suran’s care.
“Immediately, Commander,” said the decurion at the communications post.
Once again, the Valdorereceived no response. Everyone on the bridge listened intently to the static-laced silence, which seemed to last for at least half a verak.
Then, abruptly: “Commander!” The tactical officer began pointing animatedly at the central viewer, where another vessel was decloaking.
“Alert status!” Donatra said, rising. The old burns on her leg and torso rudely reminded her of their presence yet again.
A split second later, she recognized Suran’s flagship as it became visible in the empty space before the Valdore.
“Helm, match our velocities. Hail them.”
Relief warred with apprehension within Donatra’s breast. Her old wounds were now itching so fiercely they almost seemed to burn. Where is the rest of the fleet?
Suran’s face appeared on the main viewer. He looked haunted, his sunken eyes resembling frightened animals engaged in a desperate search for some means of escape.
“Suran. What is the status of our reinforcements?”
He stared at her in silence, his face contorting into an angry, accusatory expression. “You should have listened to me, Donatra, when I warned you not to entrust our fleet to the Great Bloom.”
Donatra felt her patience with her emotionally volatile colleague beginning to wane. When she spoke, her voice sounded brittle in her own ears. “Suran. Where. Are. Our. Ships?”
“They’regone , Donatra. As though they had never been.”
She sank backward into her chair as though she had just been slapped. Her heart turned to ice.
Akhh! I have signed my people’s death warrant!
Chapter Twenty-one
U.S.S. TITAN
Riker was both grateful and annoyed that the new command seats came equipped with automatic safety harnesses. Triggered into operation by Titan’s momentarily overloaded inertial damping system, the automatic restraints had deployed quickly enough to prevent the violent impact of the first attacker’s barrage from throwing him to the deck. But he was not in the habit of allowing himself to be pinned down, especially in the middle of a combat situation.