—Chapter 10—
"I tell you, Pinkskin, it was the damned Vulcans!" said Shran, slamming his fist on the arm of his command chair.
"You saw them?" said Trip. "You're sure?"
"No, I was in my Ready Room when the attack came."
"You must have sensor data, Shran."
"I do, but our computer systems are down, along with the engines, communications and a half dozen other systems. We just got life support back online two hours ago and I don't have much confidence in how long that will last."
"Ok, Shran, let me speak to the Vulcans and we'll take things from there."
"Have you gone mad, Pinkskin? The Vulcans did this to us!"
"I doubt it, Shran. You know that's not their style."
"I know them better than you!"
"Listen, Shran, if the Vulcans attacked you, why did they bring me here to speak with you? Why are they willing to help repair the Kumari? Why not just finish the job?"
"I don't pretend to understand them, Pinkskin, but I want nothing from Vulcans! When I get the Kumari back to Andoria, I am certain the Emperor will call for war, and if survive the Emperor's displeasure I will be part of that war, in a somewhat diminished capacity."
"What do you mean?"
"I lost my ship without even firing a shot, Commander Tucker. I'll be busted down to cabin boy, if I'm not executed immediately for my folly. With my luck I'll have to serve a humiliating tour as a cabin boy, and then I'll be executed."
"Fine, but for any of that to happen, the Kumari has to amount to something more than a hunk of junk floating in space."
"Hunk of junk! You'd be wise to watch your tongue, Commander Tucker," said Shran, rising to his feet, antennas waving sinuously.
"Apologies, Shran."
After a long moment of silence, Shran waved his hand, and said, "Forget it."
"Listen, Shran, I want to help. Can you get the Kumari back in some sort of shape by yourselves? Because if you can, I'm a hell of an engineer and I want to help."
Reluctantly, Shran shook his head, and said, "No, Commander, I can not."
"So unless an Andorian ship finds you, this ship is dead in the water."
"Yes, I suppose. But they will come looking for us, Commander."
"But how long will it take for them to find you, Shran. If your life support systems go down, the search parties will find only corpses. You have a duty to your crew, Commander. May I suggest a course of action?"
"Yes."
"Allow me to ask for Vulcan help," said Trip, then raised his hand to forestall Shran's objections. "In the name of StarFleet, Shran, so you won't be the one asking for their help. Let's shore up your life support systems, then see if we can fix your communications array. Once we do that, we'll call for Andorian help, and while we're waiting, we get your computer systems back online. That way we can access your sensor data and we'll know what happened to your ship."
Shran mulled over Trip's offer, but he really didn't have much choice.
"Agreed."
"I must say," said Soval, "I am pleasantly surprised that Commander Tucker managed to persuade an Imperial Guard to accept Vulcan help."
"Do not be surprised, Soval," said T'Pol, "for he can be quite persuasive. When I first met Commander Tucker, I did not care for him. Now, I am his Bonded mate, and I still can not tell you how he did it."
"Interesting," said Soval, for he had lived among Humans long enough to find amusement in T'Pol's statement, and though he couldn't be certain, Soval thought it likely that T'Pol had deliberately made a joke with her statement.
For the next twenty hours, the Vulcans beamed aboard the Kumari those items requested by Commander Tucker. Some parts had to be manufactured onsite by the Vulcans, but the S'Lenn had a quality machine shop and skilled craftsmen. Once those requested items were aboard the Kumari, a team of suspicious Andorians scanned every item for signs of treachery or espionage before sending it on its way to the appropriate station. The Andorians themselves were tireless, and so, later that watch, the life support was nailed down, computer systems back online to twenty-percent of capacity and the comm array partially rebuilt.
"We have some time to kill, Shran," said Trip. "The comm array will take another six hours to repair."
"That's too long," said Shran. "I'll light a fire under my enginee-"
"Leave them alone, Shran. The comm array was a disaster, and they're doing the best they can. In the meantime, pull up your sensor data. Let's have a look at it."
Shran spoke a few words in Andorian and the main video display showed a large number of thumbnails. One thumbnail represented optical data, another, energy readings, still another represented navigational readings, and so on.
"Pull up the visual data first, Shran."
"The aft display, Tel," said Shran. "We were attacked from the rear."
One of Shran's officers began playing the visual record, which was gathered by a system of cameras placed all around the hull of the Kumari.
"There!" said Shran, as a section of space shimmered, then solidified into the form of a ship.
All watched as the mystery ship unleashed a brutal attack upon the Kumari. The Andorians had never stood a chance.
"Malcolm, stop molesting Lieutenant Talas and get to the Bridge," said Trip, speaking into his comm unit. "You need to see something here."
"On my way," said Malcolm.
Trip had time to replay the attack several times by the time Malcolm showed up on the Bridge, and he had no doubts over the identity of the attacker, though he wanted Malcolm to verify that identity.
"What's going on, Commander?" said Reed.
"Look at this, Malcolm."
Malcolm only needed to see the video footage once.
"Romulans."
"Who are the Romulans?" said Shran, eager to discover the identity of the people who had attacked his ship in such a cowardly fashion.
"Trouble, Shran," said Trip. "The Romulans are trouble."