Echoes of Coventry

by Richard C. White

  The first few messages they translated were fairly innocuous, providing little information about the Vorta representatives in Breen and Cardassian space outside of their names. Apparently negotiations with the Breen had progressed slowly. However, the message they’d received yesterday was much more ominous.

  Greetings Veydek,

  Our efforts appear to have begun to pay off. The Breen have expressed interest in an alliance with the Dominion. We agreed there is much to be gained by both sides in such an alliance, both militarily and economically. Their forces are fresh and would help compensate for the losses our forces have sustained.

  However, they still wish to be convinced that our forces will prevail. They point out that they gain very little if they back the wrong side in this war. While there is little love between the Breen and the Federation, there is also no real rivalry. They desire to see something more convincing before they will agree to ally with the Dominion.

  Please coordinate with the Founders and inform me of their desired response to the Breen.

  In service to the Founders,

  Lithara

  After they’d read the message, Bart and Priya turned toward each other. “That does not sound good,” she said, touching a few controls on her terminal. Bart nodded in agreement as she continued. “I’m going to run that through the translator one more time. I want to be certain those words match up against the other messages.”

  “A very logical course of action,” Sabran said, looking up from his work.

  Bart scratched his beard thoughtfully. “Maybe we should see what today’s message says before you do that. If we’re correct, it should be a response to this message. We could even do it as a blind test by running the translation program on it without input from us. This way, we could be certain it was really what the message was breaking out to instead of us filling in what we thought we’d see. I think we’ve recovered enough to understand what was being said even if a few words were missing.”

  “Might as well. I’m as curious as you are about what the reply might have been.” Priya turned to the terminal and poked in a few commands. “Given the length of the message, it’ll be a few minutes before the computer has an answer for us. Want to grab something to drink while we wait?”

  “I think a quick stretch and a cup of coffee would be just the thing. Actually, a quick session in the gym and a long jog would be even more useful, but that’ll have to wait.”

  By the time he rejoined her at the computer, the program had run its course. Calling up the message, they stared as the words scrolled across the main screen. As the enormity of the message sank in, Bart felt his blood run cold.

  Lithara,

  The wisdom of the Founders never ceases to amaze me. The Founders have just arrived at Naval Repair Station Delta Seven, bringing the Breen ambassador to Cardassia with them to tour the Jem’Hadar battleships at my disposal. I had no more brought your latest message to their attention before they summoned the Breen ambassador to the conference room. We discussed several points that might serve as a basis for a treaty with the Breen. It would call for them to set aside their neutrality in return for certain concessions by the Dominion in the way of resource-rich planets currently within the Federation.

  The Breen ambassador did mention he was impressed by the latest counterattack we’d launched against the Federation/Klingon combined fleet. The Founder had a situation map brought in and showed him the purpose for our fleet to be assembled at Delta Seven.

  We are prepared to attack Federation Starbase 11. If our attack on the starbase is successful and we can drive off their defenders, we are to proceed toward Benecia. No doubt, the Federation will have to move their forces to ensure an important system like Benecia does not fall to the Dominion. If the Federation reacts as our analysts believe they will, they will have to weaken their forces around [untranslatable]. We will use this opportunity to seize [untranslatable] which will make their position in the [untranslatable] system untenable.

  The Breen ambassador was impressed by this plan. If our mission is successful, your mission should easily come to fruition. Wish us luck.

  In the service of the Founders,

  Veydek

  As the last words scrolled across the screen, a deathly silence settled on the room. Finally, Bart pried his eyes away from the screen to turn and look at Priya, who had paled reading the translated message.

  “We’ve got to get this information to Starfleet, now!” Bart said, the urgency unmistakable in his voice. “What planets were they discussing?”

  “I don’t know, Bart, the computer didn’t recognize the names. I don’t know if those were code words, if they were recoveries we simply haven’t made yet, or if the Dominion have their own name for those planets, similar to the Cardassians calling Deep Space 9 ‘Terok Nor.’ Either way, you’re correct. We’ve got to get this forwarded as quickly as possible.”

  Bart spun around in his chair and went over to where Jamie was sleeping. “Rise and shine, bossman. Time for you to earn your keep,” he said, poking Jamie to wake him up.

  Slowly Jamie’s eyes opened and he blinked them furiously to try to focus them. “Wha…what the hell are you do—” As he tried to sit up, he banged the side of his head against the wall. “Ow!” He reached up to rub the sore spot and looked around confused.

  “Yes, you’re still in ops. I wasn’t going to haul your carcass all the way down to your room just because you can’t be bothered to go to bed when you should have.” Bart helped their sleep-addled leader to his feet. “Come on, we’ve got something hot here. We need you to send it out.”

  Jamie finally stood up, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand. He shook himself all over, trying to get the blood flowing again and slowly made his way over to his terminal. “Quick, hot chocolate, a status report, and more hot chocolate in that order.” Easing his way into his seat, he winced as he sat down and arched his back, obviously trying to get a kink out from where he’d slept on the hard floor. He heard Priya’s sympathetic chuckle and looked over at her. “Remind me to requisition softer floors the next time we go out on one of these damn-fool missions.”

  “You’d better look this over, Jamie. If we don’t get this information out soon, there may not be any more missions, damn-fool or otherwise.”

  Accepting the steaming hot chocolate from Sabran, he blinked several times getting the last of the sleep out of his system and then turned to the main viewscreen. The hot chocolate paused just short of its intended destination as Jamie’s eyes began running down the message on view there. He eased the untouched cup back down onto the table and began calling up additional information about the message, correlating the new recoveries with the message externals.

  “Incredible! I knew there was something going on, especially once we saw there were four battleships there, but to think the Breen ambassador was actually visiting,” he said in an awed voice. “This is incredible. Time to break radio silence. Send me everything you have on this. I’ll need a few minutes to get everything together that they’re going to need back at SI HQ. This ought to spin a few heads, once they get a load of this.”

  Sabran looked over at Priya, who smiled at him and nodded. “I believe he’s saying they’ll be pleased with this,” she said. Sabran merely nodded and raised an eyebrow as he looked back at the Alpha Centaurian who was frantically typing his report at his station.

  The room was strangely quiet, except for the tapping sound coming from Jamie’s position. After a few more minutes, he raised his right hand with a flourish and brought it down on the button next to his terminal. “And, kids, that’s a wrap!” He beamed at his team with obvious delight. “Now it’s all up to the guys back at HQ. With any luck, they can maneuver a fleet to intercept the Jem’Hadar. That would deliver a crushing blow to the Dominion and keep the Breen out of this war once and for all.”

  Several hours later, as they were finishing up their celebration, a buzzer went off in the room. “Incoming message from
Starfleet,” the computer’s voice rang out over the dying conversations.

  “On-screen,” Jamie called out, as they moved quickly over by the main transmission screen. It took the signal a little bit to focus, but shortly they could see Commander Mwakwere sitting there. “Sir, we hope you received our message.”

  “Indeed. Let’s just say you’ve kicked over a beehive here. I just wanted to call and let you know everyone is very proud of the work you’ve done.” The commander’s huge smile said more than any words could. “In fact, we have new orders for you.”

  “Standing by,” Jamie said, picking up a nearby padd.

  “This target is being assigned to another collector. You are only required to maintain logs when this target transmits and only report on it if there is a major change in their communications. Report any signs of ships moving into that region or departing. Otherwise, resume standard sweeps looking for new targets of interest.”

  “Sir?” The hurt and confusion was visible on Jamie’s face. “We have a strong signal from the target and we’ve just finished adapting a translator for the messages. With all due respect, I think we’ve earned the right to continue providing information on this target.”

  The commander’s face became serious as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I understand your feelings, Chief Warrant Officer, but these orders are not open to negotiation. This is no reflection on your team’s competency. In fact, word of your discovery has already been forwarded back to Starfleet Command. They are the ones who issued the orders for you to discontinue the current mission. Don’t know exactly what they’ve got planned, and I didn’t ask.”

  Jamie let out an audible sigh. “Understood, sir. Wilco on the new orders.”

  “At least I have some good news for you, Mr. Cruz. Admiral Hazlitt has decided to relieve you at the six-month mark. Looks like you’ll be saying good-bye to that place pretty soon.” Mwakwere’s smile returned as he passed that information on to them. “Tiger out.”

  As the screen faded to black, everyone sat there pondering what they’d just heard. Bart felt the tension they’d all been under for the past several weeks begin to fade away a little bit at a time. He felt himself physically slumping in his chair, letting his back relax.

  “Well, folks, you know what this means?” Jamie asked after a short while.

  “No, but I’m certain you’ll tell us,” Priya teased.

  “I think it’s time we got back to that well deserved R&R on those sandy beaches. Last one to the holosuite is a rotten egg.”

  Chapter

  10

  The rest of the time spent at Mungin was uneventful and the repetitive shift work helped mask the passage of time. They found themselves retreating to the holosuite more and more often as their tour wound down. To everyone’s relief, the next shift of analysts arrived at Antros III on schedule. Jamie’s team briefed the newcomers and boarded a tramp freighter with their gear, all under the watchful eyes of Zarinth’s people.

  Their flight back into Federation space was quiet. In fact, a little too quiet. The only member of the crew they saw was the steward who brought them their meals. The freighter’s captain had restricted them to their quarters, which didn’t even have their own replicators, stating his ship was too cramped for a bunch of passengers to be wandering about, interfering with his crew’s work. Bart and the others were too excited to care about their accommodations as long as they were leaving the ice-covered moon that had been their home for the past six months.

  Once they were deep in Federation space, the freighter rendezvoused with an Excelsior-class Federation starship. After a quick exchange of information on the communicator screen, they were beamed aboard the starship. Instead of materializing in the ship’s transporter room however, they found themselves in an isolation ward in the ship’s sickbay.

  “All right, this is starting to get ridiculous.” Bart tested the door to find it sealed.

  Jamie paced around the room like a caged tiger. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think we were under house arrest.”

  “But why? What’s going on? If we’re under arrest, why are we here and not in the brig?” Priya asked.

  “I do not believe we are officially ‘under arrest,’ ” Sabran said, looking at Priya. “If I have begun to understand Mr. Cruz’s dialectal use of language, I believe he means we’re being kept away from the crew for some unknown reason rather than being held for criminal matters.”

  “Either way, this stinks. If we’ve done something wrong, they should just come out and tell us.” The frustration of the situation pushed Bart’s words out like an explosion.

  Before he could continue with his rant, Priya broke in, “Has anyone seen or heard anything from Zarinth? Do we even know if he left on the freighter when we did?”

  “I saw some of Zarinth’s security personnel when we were boarding the freighter, but I had no way to ascertain whether or not they actually boarded once we were in our quarters,” Sabran said, sitting down on one of the examination tables.

  Bart started to ask the Vulcan if he knew how to answer a question with a simple yes or no, but managed to rein in the sharp reply. Sabran was not the enemy and this was not the time to make him one. He went over to the communications terminal and activated it.

  “Nurse Orisaka,” came a feminine voice over the intercom. “How may I help you?”

  “You could let us out.” Bart knew what the response would be, but felt he had to try.

  “I’m sorry. We’ve been ordered to keep you in the isolation ward until we reach our destination. We can’t risk the possibility of infection,” came the sympathetic reply.

  “Infection? What infection?” Jamie’s voice broke in over Bart’s intended question. “There has to have been some mistake here.”

  “Again, I’m sorry. Our orders stated we were to pick you up from that freighter and transport you. You’ll have to ask Dr. MacDonald for more information. I thought you knew why we’d been sent to retrieve you.”

  “Could you please summon Dr. MacDonald for us? We’d like to speak to him as soon as possible,” Bart asked, shushing Jamie with his left hand.

  “I’ll have him come to your ward so you can speak to him personally,” Nurse Orisaka said. “If you’re hungry or thirsty, there is a replicator in the ward set up for your needs.”

  Bart turned off the intercom. “Well, they’ve thought of everything. A nice little gilded cage we find ourselves in.”

  “I’m not certain what’s going on, but there’s nothing we can do until Dr. MacDonald arrives,” Priya said. “I recommend relaxing and enjoying the trip. After all the things we’ve been through the past six months, some enforced inactivity is not the worst that could have happened to us.”

  Bart and Jamie looked at each other, and took seats at the one table in the room with little grace. Bart had just gotten up to get a cup of coffee when Dr. MacDonald appeared at the door. They rose as one to move toward the door, but he casually waved them back to their seats. He pulled up a chair outside their door and hit the communications button beside it.

  “The communication system in the isolation ward is set up so that we can hear you wherever you’re resting. There’s no need to crowd around the companel,” he said, a slight accent coloring his voice. He brought his long fingers up in front of his face, forming an inverted V with his hands as he looked them over. Bart felt the gaze from his green eyes boring into him and knew, without a doubt, what a specimen felt like beneath a microscope.

  Jamie recovered first. “We’d like to know what’s going on, Doctor.”

  The tall, lanky figure on the other side of the door slowly turned his head to look at Jamie. “Mr. Cruz, we received orders from Starfleet to rendevous with the S.S. Kristen’s Luck to assume responsibility for transporting three Starfleet members and one Bajoran officer for medical attention.” He paused, looking at a padd before continuing. “According to the information we received, you were examining alien artifacts when the containment
field failed. Each of you had been contaminated in the incident. Your last station had been unable to isolate the cause of the illness, so you needed transportation for further medical examination. I am not to enter, nor examine you for fear of contaminating this ship. Is this not correct?”

  Bart started to open his mouth when Jamie quickly stopped him. “You have to understand, Doctor, it’s just we were surprised about the transfer. When we left, we thought the freighter was going to take us all the way.”

  “Understandable, given the current situation and all. However, we were already headed back to Jupiter Station. Diverting to meet the Kristen only took us a few hours off course. We’ll be able to make up the lost time, now that you’re safely aboard.”

  “Do you have an estimate of when we’ll arrive?” Priya asked in a small voice.

  “It shouldn’t take more than a couple of days. We received some damage in our last battle and can’t quite make maximum warp. As long as we maintain this speed though, we should be all right. The captain wanted me to reassure you we’ll do everything in our power to get you there in plenty of time.”

  “Just one moment, Doctor, I want to make certain everyone is feeling all right.” Pulling the others into a tight huddle, the Alpha Centaurian whispered as he made a show of checking pulses and foreheads, “I don’t know what’s going on, but we still have to maintain operational security. At least, we know where we’re headed now. Just play along and let’s see where this leads.”

  “Is everyone all right in there, Mr. Cruz?” Dr. MacDonald asked, brushing a lock of his red hair out of his eyes. “I do not like the idea of not being allowed to examine you. Just seems very inappropriate, but my orders were very clear.”