Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code
Page 34
Phlox chuckled even more vigorously, overjoyed to laugh with Mettus even over the smallest thing. “I hope the lack of crowding isn’t difficult for you,” he said.
“There are enough people around to keep me sane,” Mettus replied. “But I actually enjoy the relative solitude. It gives me time to think.” He furrowed his brow, so much like his mother did. “My comrades . . . back in the group . . . they never gave me much time to think. I suppose they wanted to make sure my only thoughts were theirs.”
“I shudder to think what they must have done to you, my boy.”
Mettus gave him a sharp look. “Don’t attempt to absolve me . . . Doctor.” Phlox winced. Even now, his son held on to the distance between them. “I went to them willingly. I liked what they had to say.”
Phlox took that in. “And . . . now?”
The younger Denobulan sank into thought. “The Antarans still did us much harm.”
“In the past. And we harmed them.”
“We are very different. I still don’t believe Vaneel can be happy marrying one of them.”
Phlox sighed heavily. But after a moment, Mettus went on. “Still . . . spending every day surrounded by Antarans . . . I see they aren’t all bad. One of the guards . . . she talks to me. Brings me books. Antaran books, badly translated . . . but some of them have interesting ideas. They admit the Antarans’ mistakes. Call the war an injustice, but without blaming us. And some of them are funny. My guard is funny.” He shifted, uncomfortable at what he was feeling. Phlox smiled warmly, having seen that look on the faces of so many of his children—and one or two of his eventual wives.
“I think,” Mettus went on, “that I can understand now what always confused and upset me before.”
“What’s that?”
“How you could defend them. How you could tolerate sharing a universe with them after all their—all they did to Denobula. I thought that dishonored the memory of all we lost. Betrayed who we are.” Phlox closed his eyes briefly, but he waited for his son to continue. “I think I see now . . . that it’s more complicated. That the bad in a person . . . in a race . . . doesn’t destroy the good. It doesn’t mean . . . you can’t listen to them. Can’t learn from them.”
Phlox leaned closer to the barrier. “There’s a word for that, my boy. It’s called forgiveness.”
Meeting his father’s eyes, Mettus blinked rapidly. “Do you think Vaneel will ever forgive me for killing Retab?”
“I know she will,” Phlox said. “I know . . . that I forgive you, son.” He put his hand against the clear panel. “And I hope . . . that you can finally forgive me, too.”
After a long pause, Mettus’s fingers pressed against the panel opposite his. “Father,” he said.
Epilogue
December 29, 2165
Centauri VII, Alpha Centauri system
NOT MANY PEOPLE lived outside the colony city in the delta of Centauri VII’s largest river. This was an arid world in the current epoch, still in the earliest stages of terraforming, and the vast deserts beyond the delta were deathly hot and inhabited by a variety of small but deadly arthropods, the robust survivors of the evolutionary competition to endure the planet’s numerous extinction events over the past few billion years.
But every colony world had its pioneers, recluses, and rugged individualists—those who, for whatever reason, scorned the company of others and sought a degree of solitude unattainable on a civilized world. Thus it was that Charles Tucker, after an hour’s travel through the desert in the fastest skimmer available for rental, found himself at the compound of Antonius Taranullus, being escorted inside by a hovering spherical drone with whining turbofans and an ominous-looking phase-weapon emitter.
The man who had until recently been Willem Abramson, and countless others before that, rose from his work etching a lithographic plate as Tucker came in, greeting him with an impressed look on his newly clean-shorn face. “Mister Collier,” he said. “You are a persistent man.”
“And you’re a hard man to track down, sir.”
“Dead men usually are,” replied Abramson—or was it Taranullus? “At least, I have found so in the past. The march of technology makes it increasingly difficult to arrange my deaths convincingly. Still, I had thought my latest methods sufficient.”
I certainly hope so, Tucker thought. “Believe me, Mister . . . sir . . .”
“Akharin will do.”
Tucker nodded. “Akharin. You weren’t at all easy to find, even knowing what to look for. This is a pretty remote place.”
“As I needed it to be.” The immortal sighed. “I had grown confident enough to dabble in fame and importance for a few decades, but I had forgotten how quickly fame turns to ashes in the mouth. All my ambitions for robotics breakthroughs to make a better world . . . gone now. Once again, the fiercely ethical humanity of this modern age refuses anything to do with technologies that have proven harmful. So they reject the idea of robotic servants as righteously as they rejected genetic enhancements before. As for bioneural circuitry, I doubt that research will be pursued again for generations.” He shook his head. “Had the people of my original nation believed that way, humanity would have abandoned the wheel after the first chariot battle.”
Tucker looked the man over, realizing that his age and origins made it conceivable that he had actually invented the wheel. “So was that the final straw?” Tucker asked. “Six thousand years living on Earth and you finally decided you were fed up with the human race?”
“As I said, anonymity grows increasingly difficult as technology matures. Particularly given the fame I gained in my last identity, despite my best efforts.” Akharin raised his bushy eyebrows. “I have realized for some time that space travel created new opportunities. I suppose I should thank you for that, given your role in the perfection of the warp five engine—Mister Tucker.”
That brought a wide-eyed stare, which Akharin met with a chuckle. “I am not without considerable resources of my own, sir. And I have seen so many variations on my own face that it is easy to recognize them in others.”
“I guess we both know each other’s secrets, then.”
“Only a fraction both ways, I’m sure. But if your employers desire another service from me, let them know it is unwise to pit their resources against mine.”
Tucker licked his lips. “That’s what I’m counting on, sir. You see, they didn’t send me. They wanted me to find you, but I gave them a false lead.”
Again those eyebrows lifted. “I see. Do you expect gratitude in return?”
“No, sir.”
Akharin smiled. “Then you may have it anyway.” The ancient man pondered. “Come with me.”
They moved through the hallways of the simple house, which Tucker noted were adorned with a variety of magnificent, oddly familiar works of art. Most prominently displayed was a series of lithographs, and Tucker recalled seeing Akharin work on another in his studio. “These are yours?” he asked.
“All of them are. But these in particular are the work of Antonius Taranullus. A series of lithographs depicting the Creation.”
Tucker looked them over, but he had little understanding of modern art. “Biblical?”
Akharin shrugged. “Biblical. Greek. Mesopotamian. Hindu. Scientific. They all have common threads.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Not unprecedented. Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam depicts the figures of God and His host within a shape evoking the cross-section of a human brain. The same patterns resonate through history. That is what I attempt to show here: the Creation that never ends.”
Tucker studied him. “Ending with the creation of man? And woman?”
The immortal gave a faint, hopeful smile. “That is no ending.”
They moved on. “So this is how you plan to make your new fortune? As an artist? Seems kinda risky.”
&nb
sp; “Perhaps. But I am not untalented in the field,” Akharin replied with a slight smirk. “And I do have other sources of revenue still available to me, even without the closely watched fortune of the late Mister Abramson. My hope, eventually, is to accumulate sufficient wealth to purchase my own planet, where I can truly be alone with my work.”
They reached a door, and Akharin entered a security code. “In the meantime, I make do with this.”
A flight of stairs led them to an underground lab, where Tucker saw an abundance of high-tech equipment and robotics prototypes not unlike those he had seen on his initial visit to Abramson Industries. “You’re still doing the work. Just in secret.”
“I am.”
“It’ll take a hell of a lot longer working by yourself.”
“I can spare the time, Mister Tucker. And I am not entirely alone. In Abramson’s will, he bequeathed the fruits of his theoretical research to a Mister Arik Soong, whose acquaintance you have made. Despite his, ah, infamy, he has developed an interest in humanoid robotics and has taken quite well to the research, with some guidance from me. Eventually I will contact him—or his heirs—and guide them further.”
“I wouldn’t rely on Soong if I were you,” Tucker advised. “He’s a devious one.”
“Do not worry, sir. I have other assistance.” They reached the observation window of a clean room, and Akharin let him look inside. Sensing their movement, the man and woman within the clean room looked up—revealing the faces of Daskel Vabion and Olivia Akomo.
Vabion merely gave him a mildly surprised look of acknowledgment, then returned to his work. But Akomo cocked her head, gave him a rakish smile, and winked.
Tucker got the message, and spun to face Akharin. “She was working for you the whole time! I mean—”
“I know,” Akharin said. “And yes. She cooperated with your employers on my instructions. Before she uploaded their worm to erase all of Starfleet’s Ware research, she secured a copy for my eventual use. She also recruited Mister Vabion into my service. He is quite brilliant, and somewhat humbled by recent events . . . yet still arrogant enough to make our collaboration interesting.”
“I have to hand it to you,” Tucker said with a smile. “Not many people can pull one over on Section Thirty-one.”
“Is that what you call it? An ugly name.”
“Well, it fits.”
Akharin raised a brow. “I think it is time you told me what your purpose was in coming here, Mister Tucker.”
“I need help, sir. From someone who has plenty of experience at faking his death and creating foolproof new identities.”
After a thoughtful pause, Akharin guided him away from the window. “I see. Such agencies rarely allow peaceful retirements. Especially for those who plan to betray them.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“I have a problem with the way your agency had you blackmail me into their service. I have no problem with retaliating through their own man.” The immortal nodded. “If you need a suitably convincing death and a new life to follow, I can arrange it.” He spread his arms. “But given my current . . . more humble resources, it will take time.”
“That’s fine,” Tucker told him. “Because before I disappear . . . I intend to bring Section Thirty-one down from the inside.”
STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE ®
RISE OF THE FEDERATION
will continue
APPENDIX
Featured vessels and personnel
STARFLEET—FEDERATION SPACE
STARFLEET COMMAND
Admiral Jonathan Archer
(Human male) chief of staff, United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA)
Admiral Thy’lek Shran
(Andorian thaan) chief of staff, Andorian Guard (AG)
Fleet Commander T’Viri
(Vulcan female) chief of staff, Vulcan Space Service
Admiral Mov chim Flar
(Tellarite male) chief of staff, Tellar Defense Force
Admiral Alexis Osman
(Human female) chief of staff, Alpha Centauri Space Research Council
Captain Marcus Williams
(Human male) executive assistant to Admiral Archer
U.S.S. ENDEAVOUR NCC-06
(Columbia-class, UESPA; crew complement 132)
Captain T’Pol
(Vulcan female) commanding officer
Commander Aranthanien ch’Revash
(Andorian chan) executive officer
Commander Michel Romaine
(Human male) chief engineer
Lieutenant Commander Hoshi Sato
(Human female) communications and protocol officer
Lieutenant Elizabeth Cutler
(Human female) science officer
Doctor Phloxx-tunnai-oortann
(Denobulan male) chief medical officer
Ensign Pedro Ortega
(Human male) flight controller
U.S.S. ESSEX NCC-173
(Daedalus-class, UESPA; complement 116)
Captain Bryce Shumar
(Human male) commanding officer
Commander Caroline Paris
(Human female) executive officer
Lieutenant Commander Steven Mullen
(Human male) science officer
Lieutenant Commander Mazril
(Tiburonian female) chief medical officer
Lieutenant Morgan Kelly
(Human female) armory officer
Ensign Miguel Avila
(Human male) communications officer
U.S.S. DOCANA AGC-7-19
(Kumari-class, AG; complement 85)
Captain Senthofar ch’Menlich
(Andorian chen) commanding officer
U.S.S. ATLIRITH AGC-7-45
(Kumari-class, AG; complement 86)
Captain Molsetev sh’Retsu
(Andorian shen) commanding officer
STARFLEET—WARE TASK FORCE
U.S.S. PIONEER NCC-63
(Intrepid-class, UESPA; complement 46)
Captain Malcolm Reed
(Human male) commanding officer
Lieutenant Commander Travis Mayweather
(Human male) executive officer
Lieutenant Commander Therese Liao
(Human female) chief medical officer
Lieutenant Reynaldo Sangupta
(Human male) science officer
Lieutenant Valeria Williams
(Human female) armory officer
Lieutenant Samuel Kirk
(Human male) historian
Charles Tucker III (alias Philip Collier)
(Human male) acting chief engineer/Section 31
operative
Ensign Bodor chim Grev
(Tellarite male) communications officer
Ensign Regina Tallarico
(Human female) flight controller
Olivia Akomo
(Human female) mission specialist
U.S.S. VOL’RALA AGC-7-10
(Kumari-class, AG; complement 87)
Captain Reshthenar sh’Prenni
(Andorian shen) commanding officer
Commander Giered Charas
(Andorian chan) executive officer/security chief
Commander Silash ch’Gesrit
(Andorian chan) chief engineer
Lieutenant Commander Hari Banerji
(Human male) science and communications
officer
Lieutenant Tavrithinn th’Cheen
(Andorian thaan) tactical officer
Chirurgeon Lieutenant Zharian th’Lesinas
(Andorian thaan) chief medical officer
Ensign Ramnaf Breg
(Arkenite female) helm officer
Ensign Kitazoanr
a zh’Vethris
(Andorian zhen) navigator
Ensign Antocadra sh’Thyfon
(Andorian shen) relief science and communications
officer
U.S.S. THELASA-VEI AGC-7-48
(Kumari-class, AG; complement 85)
Captain Menteshay th’Zaigrel
(Andorian thaan) commanding officer
U.S.S. FLABBJELLAH AGC-6-16
(Sevaijen-class, AG; complement 38)
Captain Zheusal zh’Ethar
(Andorian zhen) commanding officer
Chirurgeon Veneth Roos
(Andorian thaan) chief medical officer (deceased)
U.S.S. KINAPH AGC-6-34
(Sevaijen-class, AG; complement 38)
Captain Kulef nd’Orelag
(Arkenite male) commanding officer
U.S.S. TRENKANSHENT SH’LAVAN AGC-6-49
(Sevaijen-class, AG; complement 40)
Captain Trenev Sharn
(Andorian shen) commanding officer
U.S.S. ZABATHU AGC-11-09
(Ilthirin-class courier, AG; complement 10)
Commander Finirath ch’Mezret
(Andorian chan) commanding officer
U.S.S. TASHMAJI AGC-11-15
(Ilthirin-class courier, AG; complement 10)
Commander Chelienal sh’Regda
(Andorian shen) commanding officer
Acknowledgments
LESS THAN A WEEK into the writing of this novel, Leonard Nimoy died. There are few people who deserve more acknowledgment for their contributions to the Star Trek universe. Everything we do, even in series where Spock never appeared, owes enormously to Mr. Nimoy’s accomplishments. The sincerity and intelligence he brought to his performance helped make Star Trek the meaningful creation it became. For myself, I would not be the person I am today without the example set by Mr. Spock, as realized by Mr. Nimoy.
The technology I call the Ware was introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise: “Dead Stop,” written by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong. Abramson, also known as Akharin and (eventually) Flint, is from Star Trek “Requiem for Methuselah,” written by Jerome Bixby.