THREE
Tarok stood on the bridge of the ship watching the stars flash by. It had been 11 years since they had left Vulcan. In all that time he had never gotten used to living in space. He had spent virtually the entire time aboard the ship. Even when they had found Minshara class planets to investigate he had remained on the ship, letting their scouting parties survey the planets. Even though he found the ship very confining he was the leader of these people. He couldn't risk himself on a scouting mission.
So far none of the planets they had visited had been suitable for their new colony. Most had large cultures all ready in place, or a lack of water, or animals that were far too aggressive to risk the civilian population with, or some other factor that had forced them to discount that planet. They were just entering a system that Lenick had told him about 8 years ago. A planet that was years from Vulcan. Just as Lenick has reported, there were no warp capable cultures for several light years. They would be isolated from the rest of the galaxy, at least for a while. Give them time to build their new culture.
"Sir," said an ensign walking up to him. "I have a report on the probe we sent into the system before we got here."
"What does it say?" Tarok asked.
"Well," said the ensign nervously, "there are apparently 6 planets in the system. The first, third, fifth, and sixth all seem to be uninhabitable. The fourth planet is barely habitable. There does seem to be a large indigenous population all ready there but they're extremely primitive. It might be possible to set up a colony on the planet and use the indigenous population as laborers."
"Laborers for what?" questioned the general.
"Dylithium mining," said the ensign. "According to the scans there are huge deposits of dylithium below the surface. Hundreds of thousands of quadric meters of it. Enough to supply us with power for centuries, sir."
"And you would use this indigenous population as slave labor?" questioned the general.
"Not necessarily, sir," replied the ensign. "As I said, this population is quite primitive. It's possible they may not even have a spoken language. It occurs to me that they could help us with mining the dylithium and we could help them by improving their living conditions."
"Very commendable, ensign. You said there were 2 habitable planets. What about the second planet?"
"Well, according to the scans it is a Minshara class planet. Somewhat cooler than Vulcan but still within acceptable tolerances. And it appears there are no sentient life forms on the planet. No cities or villages. No roadways or water systems. Nothing to indicate any form of organized cultures."
"That's very encouraging," said Tarok. ""This may be the planet we've been looking for. Inform Commander Lenock of the results of the scan. We'll need to prepare scouting parties to investigate this planet. I want a thorough report from each team. If this is the planet we're looking for we'll need to know the best place to . . . ."
He was interrupted by a brilliant flash that filled the view screen. At almost the same instant an explosion rocked the ship and as the flash subsided from the view screen the stars that had been streaking by only moments before suddenly stopped streaking and it appeared they were sitting still in space.
"Report," ordered the general.
"Sir, warp drive is off line," reported the helmsman. "I can't explain it, sir. We just suddenly dropped to normal space."
"Signal the fleet," ordered Tarok. "All stop. What was that flash on the screen? And what was that explosion?"
"Internal sensors indicate an explosion in the engineering section," reported another officer on the bride. "Internal communications are sporadic, sir. I'm not getting any response from the engineering section."
"Get down there and find out what happened," Tarok ordered a security guard on the bridge. "Have Lieutenant Tel'Shor report to the bridge immediately."
"Yes, sir," said the guard who then headed for the elevator.
"Sir," said the officer who had reported on the explosion in engineering, "that external flash. Sir, it was the science ship. It's gone sir. There's only a debris field where it was only a moment ago. It's been destroyed."
"Security alert to the remaining ships," ordered Tarok. "Shut down all warp drives until we can figure out what happened. Ensign Shellak, contact Commander Lenock and have him report to the bridge immediately."
"Sir," replied Shellak, "Commander Lenock was in engineering when the explosion occurred."
"Lock down the ship," Tarok ordered. "Seal all compartments. Security overrides only. Everyone stays where they are until we figure out what happened. I want a full damage report and full reports from the other six ships. All senior staff to report to the briefing room immediately."
Tarok left the bridge and headed for the briefing room. An explosion aboard his ship and the destruction of another ship at virtually the same instant. It couldn't be coincidence. And he didn't like the implications that presented.
* * *
Six people sat in the briefing room. Conspicuously absent was anyone from the engineering section and Lenock. Lieutenant Tel'Shor sat to Tarok's right briefing him on what they had learned in the 30 minutes since the explosion of their warp drive and the destruction of the science ship.
"From what we can tell," said Tel'Shor, "the science ship suffered a warp core breach. It took only a matter of seconds before the cascade effect caused the warp engines to overload. They never knew what hit them, sir."
:"What about this ship?" Tarok asked. "What happened in engineering?"
"Essentially the same thing," said Tel'Shor. "Except that for some reason the containment field remained intact. But I'm afraid the warp drive is gone, sir. The entire engineering section was virtually destroyed in the explosion. The entire engineering staff and Commander Lenock were killed instantly."
"The entire engineering staff?" questioned the general. "Are you telling me that we have no engineers on board this ship, Lieutenant?"
"That's about the size of it, sir," replied the lieutenant. "The entire staff was in engineering at the time of the explosion. There were no survivors."
"I don't believe this was coincidence," said Tarok. "Two ships having exactly the same problem at exactly the same moment? The odds of that are astronomical."
"It's worse than that, sir," replied Tel'Shor. "Apparently every ship in the fleet – all eight of them – suffered the same catastrophic failure at precisely the same instant. This was no accident, General. Clearly this was sabotage. Someone tried to destroy the entire fleet."
"Destroy the entire fleet? Why? For what purpose? Everyone on board these ships is here by choice. What possible reason could there be for trying to destroy the entire fleet?"
"To get rid of us," replied Sub-Commander Ji'Har, the second officer. With the death of Lenock he had assumed the position as second-in-command. "I think it's quite evident that not everyone on these ships is part of our group. At least some of them are some of the hardliners we supposedly left on Vulcan. I think it's very clear what their intentions were. Destroy us and rid themselves forever of us."
"But they would die as well," replied Tarok.
"Sir," said Tel'Shor, "there are always those who are willing to die for their beliefs. And as Sub-Commander Ji'Har has pointed out, there can be no question that we have some of those with us. Some on every ship in the fleet."
"Damn," sword Tarok, slamming his fist onto the table. "Why wait so long? Why not destroy us as soon as we left Vulcan? We've been gone for 11 years. Why pick this particular time to sabotage the fleet?"
"We can find that out when we discover who's responsible," said Tel'Shor. "Sir, I recommend you declare martial law throughout the fleet. The security details can investigate and discover who is responsible for these atrocities. But it may mean using measures that most of the civilian population will find . . . disagreeable."
"Find them," ordered Tarok. "Effective immediately martial law is declared on the entire fleet. All personal liberties are suspended until we get to the bottom of this. Find out who's responsible for this, lieutenant. I don't care what you have to do. Just bring me the people responsible."
"We'll get started immediately, sir," said Tel'Shor. He got up from the table and immediately left the room.
"How long before we can get the warp drive back on line?" Tarok asked.
"That's problematical," said Ji'Har. "Every engineer aboard this ship was killed. We'll have to bring other engineers from some of the other ships over to help with the repairs. But I have to tell you, general, it doesn't look promising. We can't even get into the engineering section because of the radiation. It will take at least 12 hours to vent the radiation until we can get in and see exactly what the damage is."
"What about the conventional drive?" Tarok asked. "Has it been damaged?"
"The conventional drive seems to be intact," replied Ensign Shellak. "But sir it will take us about 6 weeks to get to the second planet without warp drive. And we still don't have a complete damage report from the rest of the ships. It's possible that their conventional drives were damaged."
"Well," said Tarok, "it seems we have at least 12 hours before we can do anything anyway. Send a communiqué to all ships. I want a full damage report from each ship within 12 hours. And the status of their propulsion systems. In the mean time everyone is confined to whatever area they are currently in. Seal all compartments until further orders. Only security personnel are allowed to move between compartments. Until we find the saboteurs we can't risk them getting to any security areas."
"Yes, sir," replied Shellak.
Tarok stared out the portal in the briefing room. It was almost inconceivable that there could be so many saboteurs with them. But Tel'Shor was right. There were always fanatics who were willing to die for their cause. And he was determined to root out these traitors no matter how long it took.
