“I...
I have no idea... This can’t be true.”
“I
am afraid it is, Minister Tretyak.” Tarin straightened and looked the Talkhan
into his worried eye. “What you are seeing is a live transmission. Your
military forces are taking control of Talkha. You may not have known about it,
but it is still happening as we speak.”
Before
Tretyak had a chance to come to grips with the latest news, Keltak spoke up.
“Is there anything I can do, Captain?”
Tarin
was startled, but tried to keep a straight face. ‘Of
course, he is still an Alekian, placing a high value on order and rules. To him
a military coup must be the most abhorrent thing imaginable.’
“I
am afraid not. For now we must treat this as a purely internal Talkhan affair.
If that doesn’t change, there is little any of us can do aside from an
outright invasion of Talkha.”
Keltak
clacked his tongue four times in rapid succession in what Tarin hoped was his
equivalent of a nod. Before she had time to pay it any more attention Tretyak
had recovered his voice.
“I
need to speak to Bertram - Minister Novak. There has to be a reasonable
explanation for this.” He vaguely motioned towards the viewer.
“I
am afraid that will not be possible. We have tried to contact him, but have not
received any reply.”
Tretyak
rose and approached the viewer. “I have access to a com-frequency that is
reserved solely for high-priority government transmissions. It may still work.
If I may...” he gestured towards the keypad at the side of the monitor and
Tarin nodded her agreement.
“Be
my guest.” As Tretyak started to work on the controls Captain Veal used her
combadge to contact the bridge. “We are going to try to get through to
Minister Novak. Please monitor the call and record everything, should we be able
to make contact.”
*****
The
image on the conference room viewer was grainy and distorted, but it was enough
to get Minister Tretyak elated.
“Bertram.
Thank heavens I could reach you! What is going on down there?”
Novak
looked unconcerned. “There is not enough time to explain all the details, so
just don’t ask. Instead of answering all your questions I’d much rather talk
to Captain Veal. I trust she is there with you?”
“Yes,
I am,” Tarin said as she stepped into the camera’s field of view.
“Captain
Veal, how good to see you again.” Novak smiled and for a second Tarin thought
she saw something like genuine delight playing around his features.
“Minister
Novak.” She gave a courteous nod before she went on. “Until now I thought
this was all about something one of your university expeditions found on another
world, but this latest development is quite a surprise.”
“Very
good.” Bertram Novak almost clapped his hands, but then just stapled his
fingers and rested his chin on his folded hands. “So you discovered the
diversion I set up for my colleagues.”
“Diversion!
What are you talking about!” Tretyak cried out. “The ruins...”
“The
ruins are just that,” Novak cut him off. “Ancient walls, ancient writings,
nothing more. An archeologist would have a field day, but there is nothing of
real value there. You and the rest were just blind. You thought some outside
influence could save us all, but I know better. Any change has to come from the
inside, not from outside.”
Tarin
used the time it took Tretyak to recover from his shock to address Bertram
Novak. “Do you think you can get away with this?”
“Oh,
I don’t think so. I know it. Together with this transmission you will
receive a data package that contains an official declaration of the Talkhan
government, signed by the Minister of Sciences and myself. Given my current
position as Chairman of the Council we can together sign documents legally
binding for Talkha.”
When
Tarin Veal didn’t immediately reply Novak went on with his statement. “You
will find that our government requests the Valkyrie to leave our system
within the next six hours. We will notify you when the situation in Altassa has
calmed down sufficiently for my colleagues to beam down again. Until then you
should just sit this one out, Captain.”
“I
see.” Tarin twirled a strand of hair through her fingers for a moment, as she
thought things through. “What if Minister Tretyak asks me for my
assistance?”
“You
can’t interfere without an official request from my government. You have two
of our ministers on board your ship, but two isn’t enough to represent Talkha,
not unless the current Chairman of the Council is one of them.” Novak reached
for a control on his desk and leaned back into his seat. “Without me you will
need three of Talkha’s ministers to get the Federation involved and I assure
you that my colleagues will not be available in the foreseeable future. Goodbye,
Captain.”
The
screen went blank and all of Minister Tretyak’s frantic attempts to
re-establish the connection met with failure.
The
Talkhan slumped back in his chair, his face a twisted mask of anger and
disbelief.
Captain
Veal turned towards Tretyak and ignored the voices that started to fill the
conference room. “I suggest we relocate to the bridge. We will be able to
monitor things from their.”
*****
“Report,”
Tarin ordered as she stepped onto the bridge at the head of the Talkhan and
Alekian delegations.
Commander
Westmore looked over his shoulder. “I have informed our away team. They should
be on their way in a few minutes.”
“Good.”
Tarin walked down the ramp and sat down in the Valkyrie’s center seat.
“We will stay at yellow alert for now. Unless we are fired upon first we will
take no action whatsoever.”
“But
Captain, there must be something we can do!” Lieutenant Foster turned his
chair away from the helm controls and stared at Tarin. The frustration and anger
in his voice filled the bridge and the only thing that held Tarin back from
scolding the human for his lack of control was how strongly his reaction echoed
her own feelings.
Despite
her best efforts everything was going down. She had thought she had most of it
figured out, but she hadn’t. Novak had controlled everything from the start
and every time she had thought she had gained some new and important insight it
hadn’t been enough.
“Minister
Tretyak, you must know a lot of what lead Novak to stage a coup, even if you
were never part of it. Don’t you think it’s time you told us everything you
know?”
“Yes,
I think it is,” Tretyak slowly replied as he pointed at the XO’s seat to
Tarin’s right. “Would you mind?”
“Not
at all. Have a seat, please.”
Minister
Tretyak lowered himself into the chair and stared at the bridge floor as he
started on his recount of recent Talkhan events.
“A
while ago an expedition sponsored by our university returned with what we
thought was exciting news. I think the planet is listed in your starcharts as
Paxatia, but it doesn’t really matter. What they found were ancient ruins,
really ancient, T’kon in origin by all I know, which now seems pretty
little.”
Someone
on the bridge loudly whistled, but Tarin paid it no attention, even if it was
much like how she wanted to react. “Go on, please.”
“We
all thought it would be our salvation. The thing we needed to revitalize our
society. A source of new technology, new opportunities, so we were all more than
willing to go along with Minister Novak when he proposed to annex this world,
but do it in a way that would draw attention away from our real plans.”
“Revitalize
your society? I don’t understand.”
Tretyak
shot a quick glance at Commodore Keltak before he looked at Tarin Veal. “I
wouldn’t expect you to, but you do, don’t you, Captain?”
“I
think I do.” Tarin nodded as her eyes turned towards the viewscreen and the
well-coordinated display of Talkhan soldiers deploying around the seat of their
government.
*****
Tretyak’s
brows furrowed, but only for a moment. Veal knew, but the Alekian didn’t. He
turned his seat towards Keltak.
“It
all started with Minister Novak ordering a projection of our population growth
from the Ministry of Sciences. He wanted to get a good idea about our military
strength and needs ten or twenty years into the future, so he could plan ahead,
start well in advance to develop or procure the equipment we would need.”
Tretyak
drew a deep breath, but now there was no turning back.
“What that study discovered was... disconcerting, to say the least. For
the sake of completeness and out of curiosity our scientists went well beyond
what they were tasked to do and what they discovered was nothing less than a
breakdown of our whole society happening in three generations, four at the most.
It was the first long-term projection into our future ever undertaken and we
never expected the results it turned up, but we all knew we had to do something
about it.”
“Social
inertia meeting a growth in population figures that doesn’t correspond to your
society’s needs and a growing number of individuals turned loose from all
bonds of your civilization.”
“Yes,
Captain Veal, that’s exactly what will happen if we can’t change our whole
world. Talkhans can change – we can break with tradition when it becomes
necessary, but it takes time and a very good reason.” Tretyak sighed and shook
his head to himself. “We all considered ourselves lucky when our expedition
stumbled upon the T’kon ruins on Paxatia. We all thought that the influx of
new technology would be enough to spare us from the eventual decline of our
society. With new knowledge, new technologies to develop, we could create new
jobs, new tasks, steer our people into a direction that would give them new
purpose.”
Keltak
was still puzzled. “Couldn’t you just have told your people? If the
situation is as grave as you say, surly they would have understood the need for
change.”
“How
could we have done that? If we had revealed our knowledge the Council would have
needed to take control of everything. We would have been forced to decide
everyone’s work, set quotas for all kinds of jobs, force people into careers
they never wanted. Our people can change, but they need a direction, a goal. Oh,
we debated the issue for months, but we couldn’t just turn the Council into a
dictatorship of social engineers.”
Tarin
wasn’t so convinced that it would have been the only way, but there was
something else even more puzzling. “Minister Tretyak, why didn’t you just
wait? You had decades before the catastrophe would become unavoidable. Why the
sudden urgency?”
“You
know, I think we politicians are maybe the greatest and worst traditionalists on
Talkha. We always took pride in taking care of our people the best we could,
providing them with physical safety and emotional security. How could we subject
our people to a time of hardship if we could avoid it altogether? And,” he
added, “to be frank, I think we all just panicked. When I said our
scientist’s results were disconcerting it was quite an understatement. Based
on all our projections we are expecting a complete breakdown of our government
and social structures within the next hundred years. That was too much for most
of us to take.”
Tretyak
took a long deep breath. “In hindsight one might say we ran around like
headless chickens for months. When we heard the news from Paxatia we all thought
we had discovered the holy grail that would save us. To turn this chance into a
reality the Council approved every fund Novak requested.”
“And
all you did was fund his coup.” There was no reproach in Tarin’s voice, it
was just a statement of facts. ‘No,’ Tretyak realized, there was some
emotion in her voice, but if it was sympathy or sorrow he could not tell.
“Yes,
we did. And now it is too late to do anything about it. Without a third minister
approving any request for help from the Federation or Alek we can’t get you
involved. Not unless you are ready to invade Talkha in full force.”
Lieutenant
Foster swung his chair around again. “There may be a way, Captain.”
*****
“What’s
on your mind, Lieutenant Foster?”
“Well,
we may have no com link to Talkha, but there is still the LCARS connection.”
Tarin
smiled at the helmsman and nodded approvingly. “Very good. The data link we
established between Talkha and our computer core uses a different frequency than
our regular com traffic, so one does not interfere with the other.”
Captain
Veal rose from her seat and took two steps forward. “Moira, see if that
carrier wave is still working. Lieutenant Alvarez, should we get an official
request for assistance from the Talkhan government I want you to have a plan
ready to take Novak into custody.”
“We
could adjust our phasers to stun everyone down there, but with all those army
ships around I take it that’s not an option, Ma’am?”
“Correct.
We can use the ventral engineering array to support any landing operation with
stun fire, but that’s all I can offer you. It should be enough to temporarily
clear a landing zone, but how you get your people down there is up to you.”
Tarin hated to resort to force, but she saw no other way. Even if she had a
chance to talk to Novak again, it was unlikely at best, that she could talk him
out of a coup he was convinced would ensure his worlds future. “Moira?”
“Our
data-link is still open.”
“Good.”
Tarin took another step forward and stood behind the helm and operations
stations as she gave her orders. “Moira, patch our com-signal into the
data-feed”
*****
Karena
Basiri’s image on the Valkyrie’s viewer was surprisingly clear,
considering the improvised nature of the com-link.
“Minister
Tretyak! What is going on? Is it true that you have conspired with the
Federation against our own government?”
“Is
that what you have been told?”
“Yes,
it was announced on all news channels a few minutes ago, but I couldn’t
believe it. Minister Novak said you had tried to defy the Council, that you had
invited Starfleet to take control of our army, so they could freely trade with
Alek.”
“Do
you believe this, child?”
“No,
of course not. You would never do such a thing, but there were those images of
the Valkyrie and an Alekian cruiser orbiting side-by-side right above
Altassa. I know it’s all about diplomacy and negotiations, but most people
don’t. And now the news channels have gone dead and there are soldiers
everywhere in the city center.”
Minister
Tretyak stood up and squared his shoulders. Tarin Veal was amazed by the quiet
strength he projected, but there was too much on her mind to admire the vigor
the Talkhan had suddenly found in himself.
As
she half-listened to Tretyak talking, Tarin made her way to the tactical station
and exchanged a few hushed words with Lieutenant Alvarez.
“Listen
to me, Karena. We don’t have much time, so all I can tell you is that this is
all Novak’s doing. He is the one who betrayed us. I will explain everything to
you later, but now I need you to do something for our people.”
Basiri
looked doubtful, but she trusted her superior enough to hear him out. “What is
it, sir?”
“You
must go and find one of the other ministers, but not the Minister of Science. He
is in league with Novak. Once you have done that you must get in touch with us
using this frequency. We can’t do that from here. If we broadcast to every
computer terminal in Altassa, Novak would shut us off, so you have to do this
for us.”
“But...
but I can’t do this. The last thing the news announced was a general curfew,
effective immediately. And even if I could get to the government block, how
would I reach one of the Ministers?”
Before
Tretyak had a chance to think of a reply, Lieutenant Foster took the word.
“Listen, I know it sounds difficult, and it is, but you are an executive
assistant, aren’t you?”
Karena
replied with an involuntary half-smile as Foster remembered her correct job
title. Before she could ask Caleb Foster what that had to do with anything he
explained himself. “You get things done, you organize things. That must
include tours of your city for foreign dignitaries, right? All you need to do is
organize another tour, only this time you are the one who’s going to take
it.”
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12