Echoes of Coventry

by Richard C. White

  The team quickly headed up to deck two and began shutting everything down. Bart saw the computer was about eighty-five percent through the process, but he had no clue if it was getting anything useful. With a lump in his throat, he hit the interrupt key, placing the diagnostic program on standby and saved what he had. He had to hope the computer system would be able to restart from the saved point, but there were no guarantees, especially once they powered the computers down.

  Looking up from his work, he saw Jamie and Sabran talking. With a curt nod, the Vulcan headed out of the room toward the turbolift. Bart knew Jamie was still steaming about the incident with Zarinth, but he could see their leader was in no mood to speak to anyone about it.

  Snagging his padd and all his printouts, he headed toward the door. Priya was waiting there and he could see Jamie was making one last check through the room before shutting everything down. Finally, as operations went dark and silent, they made their way down the corridor to the turbolift and returned to deck three.

  As they entered the holosuite, Bart saw Sabran had already set up several folding tables and was busy setting up a portable communications system. He turned to Jamie, “I thought we were supposed to shut everything down. What’s with the comms equipment?”

  “If they break through into the compound, I plan on dumping everything we’ve got on file here as long as the subspace antenna is intact,” the Alpha Centaurian said, a wry tone in his voice. “That blasted Andorian isn’t the only professional at this site.”

  Bart grinned back at him. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.” Looking over to his left, he saw Sabran handing a phaser and a couple of spare power packs to Priya. “What’s up with the weapons?”

  “No sense in taking chances. I requisitioned the weapons and borrowed enough stuff to make some rather nasty booby traps, just in case,” Jamie replied, setting a large satchel on one of the tables by the door. He opened it up, showing Bart a number of devices with a series of lights on them. “Pressure activated bombs, remote activated bombs, and a rather nasty electrical field generator. Zarinth would have a fit, but some of his people thought it was funny to teach the ‘old professor’ something about things that go boom.”

  “Tears of the Prophets…did you build those yourself?” Priya asked, looking over his shoulder.

  “A few of them. M’thanga helped with the trickier parts. We tested a few of them outside, so I know they work in theory.” Jamie beamed down on the devices as if they were his children.

  “Outside? When the—? Those sleep shifts you were missing. You weren’t working on this, you were out goofing off with the security guards!” Priya yelled at him, the veins in her forehead becoming pronounced.

  “Not all of them,” Jamie confessed. “However, I figure a few hours of missed sleep may just pay off for us. And if we don’t need them, at least it was fun learning about this stuff.” Priya looked at him like he’d lost his mind, but she finally just laughed softly and walked away. Bart noticed Jamie was so busy checking and rechecking the devices he’d designed, he never saw her leave.

  A sudden chirping caught everyone’s attention. Jamie reached up and tapped his combadge. “Cruz here.”

  “Mayhew here, sir. The Cardassian scout ship has transited the Antros system, but the rest of the Cardassian fleet has moved into orbit around Antros III. Don’t know what they’re up to; we’re passively monitoring the situation. Will keep you informed.”

  “Understood. Cruz out.” Jamie turned around and looked at the group. “Well, that’s it for now. We hunker down and wait.”

  Chapter

  7

  Bart stepped out of the holosuite after another frustrating shift. He’d gone over and over the readouts he’d brought with him when they shut down operations, but he was no closer after this shift than he’d been two days earlier. He knew without a doubt the answer was waiting for him in the memory buffer of the main computer, but they simply couldn’t chance turning it back on.

  Mayhew had informed them that the ice-covered moon had been probed at least four times in the past two days. Apparently the shielding Starfleet Intelligence had used to hide the underground facility had done its job, but knowing a single barrage from one of the ships floating near Antros III would completely obliterate their spider hole kept everyone on edge. Bart gave Zarinth credit, though. Whatever his personal feelings were toward the SI personnel, he did a great job of keeping them updated as things began happening.

  “Hey, Bart, you awake there?” He glanced up to see Priya standing over by the entrance to the zero-gravity racquetball court. “You’re just staring off into space.”

  “Oh, hey, Priya. Sorry, I was just thinking about those cruisers up there. It’s just tough knowing we don’t even have a good spitwad shooter to fire back at them if they decided to take a few dozen feet off the surface.”

  “Welcome to my world. When the resistance was fighting with the Cardassians, we had no navy and very little air support to speak of. We learned to appreciate caves with high concentrations of magnetic rocks. The Cardassians knew we were using them to hide from their sensors, but there were too many caves and tunnels for them to guard all of them all the time. I swear, there were times I wondered if the sun was still in the sky. It felt like I lived most of my life underground.”

  The earnest look on her face made him smile. “That sounds familiar. Not so much the hiding in caves, but working for SI, I spend way too much time in windowless buildings, hiding behind sensor-resistant screens. We called the place I was just at ‘the mushroom farm’ because we were always kept in the dark and fed a lot of manure.”

  Priya laughed. “So, are you up for a quick set of racquetball?”

  “Ah, trying to work off some of your stress by picking on my minuscule racquetball skills?” Bart teased.

  “Oh, please. I mean, you actually scored seven points last match.”

  Bart retrieved the racquetball as it hovered in midair. Floating about five feet above the floor, his measured movements helped keep him stationary, letting him savor the moment. The current score was 14–11 and for the first time since they’d started playing against each other, he felt confident he was about to win a match. He turned his head, trying to estimate where Priya’s trajectory was going to take her before he served.

  “All right, quit gloating and serve, would you?” He finally located her, floating near the ceiling. She was positioning herself to kick off to try to retrieve his shot.

  “Gloat? Me?” he asked in a shocked voice. “Perish the thought.” Bart drew back, trying to counter his body’s inertia as he pushed the ball downward. If he’d done it right, he should hit the ceiling just about the time the ball struck the floor and they’d meet about the center of the room.

  Just as the ball hit the ground, he felt himself growing heavier and he started floating down toward the ground as the dampeners kicked in. Before he could turn around, Jamie’s voice rang out from the control room. “Sorry about the game, guys, but we need you in here now.”

  “Dammit, Jamie! Couldn’t you have waited one more minute?” Bart called back as his feet settled to the ground and normal gravity returned to the room. “I was finally going to beat her. It was game point!”

  “In your dreams, cryppie boy,” Priya muttered, just loud enough for Bart to hear.

  “Sorry, but it can’t be helped. The Cardassians just launched a small shuttle toward our position. Zarinth wants everyone in position, even us nonprofessionals.”

  The smile fled from Priya’s face. “What’s the shuttle’s ETA?” From the tone of voice and the way she held her body, Bart was reminded more of Zarinth than the racquetball partner he’d had a moment ago.

  “Best estimate is one hour before they touch down. You’ve got a little time to shower and change, but we need you in the holosuite as quick as possible.” The concern was easy to hear in Jamie’s voice. Bart realized their leader might try to keep the atmosphere light but Jamie took the responsibility of his
command seriously.

  A quick shower later, Bart found himself being issued an additional hand phaser, just in case. As Jamie went over a series of strategies, the door to the holosuite slid open without warning and Mayhew walked in. The blond-haired noncom’s eyes bugged out and his hands involuntarily rose skyward at the sight of four phasers being pointed in his direction.

  “You know, you could knock and let us know you’re coming, Mayhew,” Priya said, an aggravated tone coloring her voice as she realized her mistake.

  “Uh…yeah…sorry. Lieutenant Zarinth wanted me to issue you these.” He handed each member of the team a wide belt. Each belt had a large bulge in the middle and a covered button on the buckle.

  “And these would be?” Sabran asked, gingerly holding the belt in one hand.

  “Those are your last-ditch weapons. If it looks like you’re about to be captured, flip open the cover and hit the button. Five seconds later, the phaser power packs mounted on your belt will go critical.” Mayhew’s voice showed no more emotion than if he were explaining how to perform maintenance on a turbolift. He raised an eyebrow as his ice-blue eyes scanned the shocked faces in the room.

  “Are you crazy? Why would we do that?” Jamie sputtered.

  “Sir, with all due respect, I’d rather you do that than fall into the hands of the Cardassians. Besides, if they manage to fight their way all the way down here to where you are, we’ve probably hit the self-destruct button. I’d rather go like this, quick and painless, than have several tons of rock and ferrocrete land on me. But, that’s just me.”

  “A very sensible precaution, Mr. Mayhew,” Sabran said, buckling on the belt. “What is the status of the approaching enemy?”

  The rest of the team eyed the belts like they were handling live snakes. After everyone had put them on, Mayhew continued. “The shuttle just landed. We lost visual on them as soon as they got within half a klick of the surface, but it appears they landed just north of this site. We have a few micro-sensors out there, but for now, we’re keeping them in their shelters. The lieutenant thinks trying to acquire them isn’t worth the chance of them spotting the sensors.”

  “That makes sense,” Priya said. “Surely we have other methods for tracking anyone trying to approach the base, though.”

  “We have a few, but this site was designed for concealment. I don’t think when they built it they were considering defending against an enemy on the surface of the moon. We’re going to have to rely on the pressure grid and the passive sensor system to give us a heads-up. Odds are, we won’t know where they are until they’re right on top of us,” Mayhew said, rubbing his hand on his chin. “Oh, and we’re shutting down the turbolift as soon as I get back upstairs. You’ll have to take the ladders if you need to get anywhere. We’ll keep you up-to-date as best we can.”

  “Thanks. We appreciate your candor,” Cruz said.

  The noncom nodded sharply to the chief warrant officer and beat a hasty retreat out of the holosuite.

  “Well, that certainly puts a different light on things,” Bart said, patting the power pack resting in the small of his back. “I didn’t realize our sensors were so limited.”

  “We have additional sensors, but cannot use them,” Sabran responded, inspecting his phaser once again. “They’re all active sensors. They’d show up on the Cardassian monitors the instant they were turned on. We have to rely on passive sensors, which are notorious for their short range and lack of sensitivity. They’d pick up a ship flying overhead, but probably not a human-sized target using a jet pack.”

  “You’re not making me feel any better, Sabran.”

  “I didn’t realize you were ill. Do you require something from the medical supplies, Petty Officer?”

  Bart started to say something and just shook his head no. Jamie tried to suppress a smile and failed miserably and Priya spun around, giving Bart the impression she was trying to hide her amusement also. Once he regained control, Jamie told Sabran and Priya to go grab some sleep while Bart and he settled in to take the first watch.

  They spent the first half of the watch setting up some barricades where they could keep an eye on the turbolift. After Jamie was comfortable with their efforts, he sent Bart in to get back to work on his project, while he sat out in the hallway on guard.

  Six hours later, Sabran and Priya relieved them. After Jamie and he showed them the improvements they’d made, Bart climbed down the emergency ladder to his quarters on deck four. He smiled at his pillow as he flopped down on his bunk and dropped off into an exhausted sleep.

  All too soon, his alarm went off. Making his way back up the ladder, he was surprised to see Sabran working at a portable monitor. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes widened even more as he saw the Vulcan technician had acquired a picture of the security office. It was easy to make out the complement of guards on duty, monitoring various stations in there.

  “I thought we weren’t supposed to be using the computer. How’d you get that signal?”

  “While I was on duty last night, I realized, even with the main computer offline, the computer that maintains our life support system was still operational. It’s a much less powerful system, but a computer is a computer.”

  “And, you are a computer expert,” Priya said, grinning.

  The Vulcan looked at her and gave her a small nod to acknowledge her compliment. Turning to face Jamie, who’d just arrived, he continued. “All I had to do was tap into its systems and I was able to bring this up. This device can receive signals that are only available through the life-support monitors to minimize bandwidth. It’s crude, but it’ll be more effective than sitting here staring at the turbolift door.”

  “A commendable solution, Chief Sabran,” Jamie said, a broad grin spreading out over his face. “However, I wouldn’t make a big deal about this. I’m not certain how well Lieutenant Zarinth would take it.”

  Sabran started to say something to Jamie and then paused and nodded. “I see your point, Mr. Cruz.”

  The next three days crept along for the quartet. Bart was going over the printouts for what seemed to be the thousandth time when he heard the familiar chirp of a combadge.

  “Cruz here,” Jamie said.

  “Mr. Cruz, this is Zarinth. Sensors indicate the Cardassian shuttle has left the surface of the planet. From what we can ascertain, it appears the fleet is making preparations to leave the Antros system.”

  Bart thought he heard disappointment in the Andorian’s voice. He’s actually upset they didn’t get to fight the Cardassians, he thought as Jamie acknowledged Zarinth’s transmission.

  “We’ll stay on minimal functions for another day until we’re certain they’ve actually left the system. This will give my people sufficient time to do a sweep and see if they left any monitors on the surface. We’ll be restoring turbolift functions in a little bit. You can tell Chief Sabran he’ll have to keep using his sensor for a bit longer.”

  “Why that son-of-a—He knew all along,” Jamie said, a smile of admiration forcing its way onto his face.

  “Apparently they have their own computer experts,” Sabran said. “I was not trying to hide my intrusion, but then again, it wasn’t an obvious program I was running. I wonder if they spotted it, or if they’ve been observing us on their own terms?”

  “Their own terms, meaning they’ve bugged the compound?” Bart asked, letting the others draw the same conclusions he was reaching.

  “It’s possible, since they work out of the security office. It would make perfect sense for there to be hidden sensors. Remember, there have been rumors of Changelings infiltrating Starfleet. A saboteur could easily threaten the safety of this mission. Of course, if there had been a spy in our midst, transmitting messages to the Cardassian ships overhead would have been just as effective.”

  Jamie agreed, nodding to himself. “If the Dominion could gain control of this site without Starfleet’s knowledge, they could feed false data directly to SI. They could trick us into maneuvering our limited
reserves to meet a nonexistent threat, opening up entire sectors to be exploited. I certainly don’t think any of us is a traitor, and I’m pretty darn confident that Zarinth’s people are solid, but from a security standpoint, Zarinth can’t afford to take any chances.”

  “That’s a pretty damn cynical attitude to take, Jamie,” Priya said, shaking her head and looking up at the ceiling for any telltale signs.

  “Thirty-eight years in Starfleet Intelligence will do that to you, Chantrea. I’ve seen some peculiar things and met some peculiar people, but the men and women in counterintelligence are the most paranoid, anal-retentive, everything-by-the-book bastards you’d ever meet. However, they’re also the people I most want watching my back.”

  “Even so,” Priya said, “I dislike Zarinth flaunting his abilities like that.”

  “He does seem to have an attitude about SI that goes beyond the typical combat arms mentality. However, as long as he does his job and lets us do ours, I don’t have the time to let his petty games get to me. Grab your stuff, guys, and let’s get ready to head back upstairs. There’s work that needs to be done and we’re the people to do it.”

  Chapter

  8

  The near-miss by the Cardassian vessels seemed to spur everyone into a higher gear. As Bart had feared, shutting down the computer system had corrupted his data. However, Sabran was able to do a partial recovery, so the cryptologist didn’t have to start from square one again.

  They found Probe 26 had managed to record much of the Cardassian’s ship-to-ship chatter during the transit of the Antros system. Jamie immediately set out to incorporate this new information into their databases and compare it against earlier intercepts. As he suspected, it was a different system than the one they were most interested in, but he noted a few similarities that might be worth pursuing.