Many thoughts went through Vaughn’s head. One was that the Romulan connection needed to be investigated. One was that somebody needed to find Curzon Dax and beat him until he admitted that his solution to the Raknal V problem was a total disaster, just as Vaughn had predicted. One was that “months” was a long time for him to be out of commission.
But the thought that remained at the forefront was how a seven-year-old girl was going to react to the news that her father was never coming home.
Chapter 26
Raknal V
The specially designed transporter beam deposited Corbin Entek in the apartment that he had rented on Raknal V’s northern continent.
The stealth transporter was a handy tool of the Obsidian Order. It masked its signal by hiding amid the authorized transporter patterns that flew back and forth from the surface to orbit and from orbit back to the planet. In this case, Entek had beamed here from the wreckage of the sabotaged building by hiding amid the transporter traffic going from the surface to the Carthage,“bouncing” the signal off the Starfleet ship and coming back to the planet behind a beam from the Cardassian Orbital Center to the spaceport on the northern continent.
The technology was years ahead of anything Central Command had, of course. It was the benefit of seeking out, hiring, and paying top money for the best, as opposed to getting one’s equipment on the open market.
As soon as he materialized, Entek checked the time. It was still two hours before he was to make his report. He decided to get a meal. The apartment was conveniently located near an especially good restaurant, which Entek had discovered upon his arrival two weeks earlier. They served an especially fine sem’halstew made from some local vegetables, marinated in kanar,and the thought of having some now cheered Entek a great deal.
Especially after what he’d just observed.
Though he was not able to get near the wreckage of the collapsed building—as a Cardassian in the Klingon section of the planet, that would be quite impossible without surgical alterations that Entek did not have the means to have performed—he was able to release a small roving imager. It told quite the story.
Romulans.Between the two Starfleet lieutenant commanders’ conclusions regarding the molecular decay detonator and the type of weapon used by the person who subsequently attacked those two men and tried to bury them alive, it was patently obvious that the Romulans were trying to stir things up between the Klingons and Cardassians even more. It would seem that Praetor Dralath truly wishes a war.
As he entered the restaurant, Entek wondered if Tain suspected this all along. It would explain why I was sent.
A monitor screen showed a Cardassian speaking. Entek recognized the man as Prefect Monor’s aide-de-camp Ekron. “The tragedy on the Klingon continent is just another example of the shoddy work we have come to expect from Klingons, who believe that their alleged prowess at hand-to-hand combat somehow entitles them to domination of the galaxy. In truth, they cannot even keep a building from falling down. It is more proof that Cardassia deserves—”
“What rot,” said Entek’s server, who chose that moment to come by. “I take it you’ll have your usual?”
“Sem’halstew, yes. And some water. What do you mean, rot?”
“Hey, look, I’m the last person to say something nice about the Foreheads, but I mean, come on—they know how to put a building up. That was sabotage, plain and simple. And you knowMonor was behind it. And did you hear? One of those Starfleeters died, too.”
Only one?Entek had assumed that both Elias Vaughn and Ian Troi died when the building collapsed on them. “No, I hadn’t heard.”
“Yeah, two people from their ship were investigating the mess, and the building fell on them. One of them died, but they got the other one back up to orbit and saved him. Now you knowthat was Monor. I mean, come on—the Klingons aren’t going to go around dropping buildings on their allies like that, but Monor? He’d do it in a minute.”
The server went off to place Entek’s order. The Obsidian Order agent brooded, even as he mentally prepared the report he would make to Gul Monor’s office of the sedition he had just heard. The server would not be working here for long.
This isn’t good. If even the Cardassian people are believing the worst of the government, then the Romulans’ work is being done for them. A Federation death won’t help matters. Cardassia needs to get out of this conflict. Perhaps we can use the Romulans’ hatred of Klingons to give Dralath the very war he seems desperate to fight and also restore some of Cardassia’s lost lustre.
As he waited for his stew, Entek finished his mental composition of the sedition report, and began to compose his report to his supervisor—and to Enabran Tain.
Chapter 27
Deep Space Station K-7
Lorgh wasn’t sure why simply walking the hallways of this ancient space station made him tense. Perhaps it was the odd looks that the station’s denizens—mostly humans—gave him. Perhaps it was simply the reputation that this place had in Klingon history. After all, it was here that the infamous tribble infestation got its start, a plague that had menaced several Klingon worlds until the foul species was finally eradicated like the vermin they were.
Still, this was the ideal meeting place—close to the Federation–Klingon border, administered by civilians rather than Starfleet, and sparsely populated these days—for his meeting with the human Vaughn.
He entered the drinking establishment where they were to have their meeting. The diamond-shaped door slid open slowly, briefly stopping halfway before finally opening all the way. That, sadly, set the tone for the entire place. The décor was no doubt the height of human fashion eighty years earlier, but it also looked like it hadn’t been maintained in almost as long. The tables were cracked and balanced unevenly on legs that had fallen off and been given inadequate replacements, the cushions on the chairs were split open or missing, and the trays on which the bored-looking servers brought the drinks were worn and gray.
One of those servers gave Lorgh a sharp look upon his entrance. “Can I help you?” she asked in a snide tone. She wore a pink outfit that revealed more than it concealed. Lorgh found the sight of so much soft, human flesh to be nauseating.
“I’m meeting someone.”
Her face indicated a mind that was torn between not believing Lorgh and not caring much one way or the other. The latter apparently won out, as she shrugged, indicated a table in the corner with her head, and said, “Have a seat. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“I’ll have a—”
“I saidI’ll be with you in a minute.” Then she turned her back on him.
Lorgh knew that wasn’t an insult to quite the same degree among humans as it was among Klingons, but he decided to accept it as such in any case.
It was considerably more than a minute before the server finally came to take his order. Knowing that this establishment was unlikely to have any proper drinks, he ordered an Altair water.