CHAPTER TEN
“This can’t
be right.”
Robert
DeSoto examined the readings twice to make certain he wasn’t overreacting.
Numbers, though, didn’t lie. They simply were.
“Do
we have confirmation on these, Lieutenant T'Miir?”
The
USS Hood’s Vulcan science officer had
known her captain long enough not to take offense at his tone, or even his
seeming distrust of her observations. Indeed, she herself had been...
surprised... by the results.
“Aye,
sir. Anticipating your reaction, I double checked the data, and then ran a
level three diagnostic on the main sensor array.
“The
information is accurate.”
DeSoto
exhaled heavily, gave a contemplative grimace, and then announced, “This can’t
just be a new fleet deployment.”
T'Miir
turned to observe the main viewer; it was illogical to speculate on which of
the many distant points of light were Thallonian dreadnoughts, as opposed to
mere stellar phenomena. She permitted herself the small lapse, anyway.
“Indeed.
I have never seen the Thallonians mass ships in this manner, even for their
most... extravagant exercises.”
The
bridge crew of the Hood was a tightly
knit group; most of them had been together for more than seven years. Unlike
many commanding officers, Captain DeSoto was a friend to them all, an affable,
likeable fellow… who just happened to be in charge.
Thus,
they didn’t have to hang on his every word. They knew, even as he did, what his
next move would be.
“Contact
Starfleet Command, Lieutenant Masters.
“I
suddenly have the feeling that the Romulans may not be our only problem.”
The
Argus Array trained its proverbial
hundred eyes into the darkness.
She
had been at the heart of a controversial decision, twenty years past: whether
or not she should even be built.
The
resources that would be devoted to her construction, protested her detractors
at Starfleet Tactical, were best employed in building additional starships to
use against the suddenly aggressive Tholians.
Starfleet’s
primary mission is exploration, replied her supporters in the various science
divisions; we have the Tholians contained anyway, and the array will
demonstrate the commitment we have to the principles of exploration—even in the
face of conflict.
As
often happened in the Federation, the idealists had won out; and the array had
been built, tested and deployed in less than a year.
It
had turned out to be the right decision: The information she had since gathered
had paid for her construction a thousand times over; the advances in
astrometrics, stellar cartography, and cosmology alone had pushed the
Federation into a new era of scientific awareness and advancement.
And
if, despite the wishes and ideals of its builders, she was at times used in
less noble pursuits, was that not the price of knowledge?
So
it was that, on occasion, Argus would
turn one of her judicious eyes towards the stellar systems of the Cardassian
Union.
Just
for a peek, of course.
If
she had been sentient, the armada of ships she now saw massing there would
probably have caused that judicious eye to widen.
Just
a bit, of course.
Instead,
Argus simply relayed the data to her
creators, and let them decide what was to be done.
After
all, was that not the purpose of
knowledge?
According
to the treaty as written and recorded, the Sheliak Corporate was required to:
A. 1. a) 5) Display a portion of its battle fleet (‘a portion’
being defined for the purposes of this agreement as ‘a number of capital ships
no less than 40% of the total Sheliak strength in warship tonnage’ {‘capital ships’
being defined for the purposes of this agreement as ‘vessels possessing
firepower equaling or exceeding that of at least 30% of starship classes
currently deployed by the aforementioned United Federation of Planets’}) in a
show of force (‘show of force’ being defined for the purposes of this agreement
as ‘an assemblage of capital ships within the confines of the same sector’ {see
above}, in the three sectors adjoining its border with the United Federation of
Planets; for a period not to exceed nine Sheliak standard planetary rotations,
but to be no less than five Sheliak standard planetary rotations...
Despite the incompatibility of
languages between the Romulan Star Empire and the Sheliak Corporate, an
agreement had finally been reached.
And
the Sheliak always kept to their
agreements.